Transcripts For CNBC The Kudlow Report 20140111 : vimarsana.

CNBC The Kudlow Report January 11, 2014

That only 50 have actually paid. Team obama finally just fired the company that built the terrible healthcare. Gov website and Health Insurers now are petrified that they are going to lose their federal government bailout. All those stories and more coming up on the kudlow report beginning right now. Good evening, everyone. Im larry kudlow. This is the kudlow report. Were live here at 7 00 p. M. Easter eastern, 4 00 p. M. Pacific. New jersey lawmakers released thousands of documents. Cnbcs own eamon javers is joining us. A lot of this stuff has been subpoenaed over the last couple of months between folks in Chris Christies camp and the Port Authority. Were seeing emails from people who dont like each other very much to other people that they dont like very much but nothing so far here to contradict what Chris Christie said yesterday, which is that he had no idea that this all was going on. Let me give you a sense of the flavor of the emails. One of them in particular is from patrick hoyt, the head of the Port Authority. Hes a cuomo appointee emailing after the shutdown. He call it is a hasty and illadvised decision resulted in delays to emergency vehicles, had an adverse effect on the economy, on both new jersey and new york sides of the river. He said i will not allow delays and travel on yom kippur and i believe it violated federal and state laws. Also in there, layer year, is an email from a person complaining to the Port Authority saying, you know what, her husband just got a new job after being laid off work for over a year and he was 40 minutes late to his knew job. Shes very worried about him losing that job and complaining to the Port Authority that they are not taking this problem seriously enough and creating all of this traffic for people who are simply trying to get to work. A lot here to pour through but complaints and nastiness between these local officials in these emails. The Port Authority arguing as it has for many decades. Eamon, thank you. Appreciate it. Lets bring in our cnbc contributor, keith boykin is here and m. J. , senior political reporter, and talk radio host, Larry Oconnor joins us, i believe, for the first time. Hes editorinchief. Thank you. Appreciate it. I want to start with darryl. So far these documents, this is inside Port Authority stuff. Is that fair . This doesnt really reach into the Christie Administration, doesnt tell us anything about that onehour meeting where allegedly everyone said that everything was fine . Not yet. Theres been no smoking gun, as you said at the top. I think weve seen the headline documents. I think what we saw on wednesday were the main documents out of that thing that put this in the Christie Administration with Bridget Kelly but so far i havent heard of anything out there that would contradict anything that christie said in this press conference and anything else that would tie it to any other Administration People higher than the ones that have been implicated into it. Let me go to Larry Oconnor. I thought christie did a very good job, a very good and effective job yesterday but i dont think all of the buttonholes are closed yet. Okay . One of the issues that i want to ask about tonight, i want to begin with you, why do you suppose his two guys on the Port Authority, okay, wildstein and whatever the other guys name was, why do you think those two guys, who were appointed by christie, who have known christie for a long time, why is wildstein taking the fifth amendment before the new Jersey Assembly and why didnt Chris Christie call them when this whole thing began . Why . Thats one of the reasons why the media has continued to cover this the way they have. Christie should be an honorary kardashian at this point. Cynics will say it was plausible for denial. She lied to him. Not because of the traffic problem. Not because she did what she did. Just because she lied to him. Otherwise, he would have fired the people at the Port Authority, if he could. Beroni is the guys name i was trying to ig if out and wildstein. Chris christie associates, colleagues down through the years. They dont have the best of reputations, i might add, according to roger stones own website. He knows a thing or two about that. But are they covering up the debate inside the Port Authority or are they covering up conversations they may have had with governor christie and or Bridget Kelly . See, thats something i dont get. I dont think the public knows that yet either. I dont think christie in two hours yesterday answered that question. The first question i had was, what about wildstein and berroni. They resigned from their posts at the Port Authority. Why did they leave . What did he think they were leaving for in the midst of the scandal . Was there no reason for him to investigate and connect the dots and the idea that Bridget Kelly, this top aide to governor christie just on her own woke up one day and decided she was going to cause a traffic jam doesnt hold water. That is absolutely key and thats a major point. On the day after the news conference, we learned a lot about bridget anne kelly. Hardworking woman, mother of four. Very loyal. Loyal to christie. But someone who worked her way up from the bottom. She doesnt come in as a super big shot and so forth and so on. It just seems hard to understand, for me at least, that she would be the one to give the order and pull the trigger to cause the traffic jam in ft. Lee. Theres just something that doesnt maybe it was the campaign manager, stepian, maybe he pulled the trigger on that. But it doesnt make sense to me that she would do it and i think thats a missing link in this story. I agree. As a former staffer to senator rick santorum, one of the things that i think happened is, a, there was a culture in that office where the deputy chief of staff was enempowered to do these types of things, in other words, be the hatchet woman or was told to do this thing. That was such a big thing to do. I dont know why she would do that if she was not, a, empowered to do that and, b, told to do that. She is telling people, look, i was thrown under the bus here. Darryl, can you confirm that what bob traynham just said . Is she telling friends that she was thrown under the bus and do you brief that this kelly was the one who pulled the trigger and gave the order . Your sources are better than mine because i cannot confirm that she is saying that she was thrown under the bus. But absolutely not. Theres a hole in the emails. You have the august email where she says, time for some traffic problems. Wildsteins only response is got it. So where is the explanation of what traffic problems means. Wildstein seems to indicate that he knows what she means. So either this was in place ahead of time and she was given the go order or there had to have been a substantive conversation about what traffic problems means. A month later we have backup problems on the George Washington bridge. Let me ask my question again. Okay. This thing breaks out in september. Three, four days, big front page news. Everybody has gone bonkers other this thing the the governor is a pretty savvy guy. Why doesnt he pick up the phone and call his two guys or one of his two guys. . Hes known them for a while. What is the darryl, what is the buzz in new jersey political circles about an obvious question that if im asking it, all of you smart reporters are asking it . Whats the buzz on that . Its skepticism. He came out yesterday and unequivocally said he didnt know any of this was going on. This happened around him and didnt know it was happening. But when you go back to the questions that at the time this happened and then later during press conferences he was glib about it and then when bill berroni testified that this was all about a traffic study, we all asked, have you asked for the traffic study . Have you gone and taken that step . No, i believe bill. I have no reason not to believe bill. So im taking his word that it was a traffic study and that, to me, didnt really make sense. You know, this thing is falling apart and you dont take the next step to say, all right, where is this thing . Produce it. I dont know. Im not making judgments. Im just asking the questions, right . Im being a correspondent here. I dont know. Why are they being so petty. Who is they . Why did bridget anne write that email . Whats the point of causing traffic problems in ft. Lee . Because they can. This is about the abuse of power. The teachable moment is the more power we give to the government, the more it will be abused. This sort of thing happens in chicago, it happens in new york and new jersey and suddenly reporters are acting like casa blanca. As a former staffer, for someone to be empowered to do Something Like that, thats a big, big deal. I remember a long time ago when i worked for Michael Dukakis in 1988, the very first day when i let him, he fired me and brought me into his office because he was a micromanager. For everybody he hired, he brought me to the office and said never write anything down on paper that you dont want to see in the boston globe. Thats politics 101. The people writing this down is really arrogant and petty and i dont understand why they would even bother to put this in an email. Because clearly if youre that naive or that arrogant to put that in writing and to ask for Something Like that, theres a culture there. You dont just do that. Jeff connor, part of the story of the onehour meeting that christie had a month ago with the senior staff where he asked them all if they knew anything about this and they all said no, but part of that story that i think i learned today i wasnt sure i learned it yesterday he walked out of the meeting but his general counsel interviewed individuals in the meeting. Now, joe, heres the question. Why didnt the general counsel operating on behalf of the administration ask for emails, a full accounting of emails from the various senior staff people who were in that meeting . To me, that would be almost automatic. You know, on wall street and in financial prosecutions and so forth, whenever there is a hunt, they immediately go for the emails joe. Why do you think, Larry Oconnor, that they didnt do that this time . Again, because i think they really didnt want to know the answer to the question. Listen, this stinks to high heaven. It really does. The only way that Chris Christie is clean on this is that there isnt a paper trail. You dont buy christie, right . I believe what christie has said. He didnt know. They kept a cushion around him. They kept a bubble of deny yeah built around him. The same thing happened with lois lerner and the irs. The primary difference is that theres nobody in the white house who has been connected ar even if they did t. They didnt write an email that would orchestrate this thing. Thats just so dumb. I remember having a conversation with larry a few months ago when the irs scandal first broke and we were talking about the idea that the president would actually sit in the meeting with the irs commissioner and plan this all out, which was the accusation. Thats not how scandals happen. This one didnt work that way either. Larry is asking why didnt Chris Christie make the call and make the questions and direct these things . Same thing. Its the same thing. But there was a high level efficient in his inner office, deputy chief of staff. Thats what is so remarkable about this story and so different from all of those other stories. And i just dont believe she pulled the trigger. Darryl, ill ask you to end this up. It looks to me like theres a developing consensus of political wisdom that if the emails and documents and whatever is coming out of this assembly and so forth, if theres no smoking gun, then governor christie is off the hook. Do you believe that . Off the hook is a strong word. Yes. I dont think this ends him. If theres a firewall and weve seen everything weve seen, that doesnt end Chris Christie. If it takes him into another step of his administration and hits the general counsel, thats a different story. But if weve seen what were going to see, i think eventually this goes away. But it does underscore the bullying issue. Sure. It adds to that narrative. No question about that. It underscores that narrative. Kellyanne conway said last night in response to my question that governor christie had a burning bush moment, that he is a changed man, that hes now calmer, more humble, and more contrite and that this is going to be the new Chris Christie. He had a burning bush come to jesus moment, Larry Oconnor. I want you to end this on a come to jesus moment. What is your take . Theres no come to jesus take here. If thats true, his political career is really dead. Because what we like about this guy is the bully. Listen, thats the concern. Is that the bully thing is going to stick with him and you just heard it on the panel and the media and democrats are going to use that word against him. This confirms that perception. We believe this is in the hands of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Larry, thank you, bob traynham, you are all terrific particular for your insight. When will the government harassments of the big banks shakedown end . I say never. They are like public utilities. They are defenseless against the governments assault. Now estimated at 50 billion. What about the disappointing jobs report . Why would 91 million americans drop out of the labor force . Elaine cho and Jack Bernstein are going to debate that in a few minutes and dont forget, free market capitalism is the best way to prosperity, but you have to work. Im looking for the 91 million. Maybe well find them. Well be right back. Pundits are saying that this could heard his 2016 president ial campaign. Now that christie is denying anything, he sounds even more president ial. Thats what president s do. They deny everything. Im so sorry i was late getting out here. Apparently i pissed off Chris Christie and he popped the tires on my city bike. She keeps you on your toes. You wouldnt have it any other way. But your erectile dysfunction it could be a question of blood flow. Cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be Ready Anytime the moments right. You can be more confident in your ability to be ready. And the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. Side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. 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Now it seems like the banks are defenseless and the government will have their way with them. Whats your take on this . I dont think theres much that the banks can do. They would like to fight. In many cases they believe they clearly have the better side of the argument but just cant afford to take on the government. Theres way too much at stake and the government has too much control over them and their future activities. Its just not feasible and economically start for the banks to fight the government. They might as well pay what the government is asking for. Put it behind you. Thats what they are doing right now. Josh, you disagree with that . Well, i agree that they have little choice but to move forward. And i think bill didnt answer and i think rightly so whether the banks actually violated and gave reason for the fines and penalties. At the end of the day, if you recognize that the financial crisis cost the economy 14 twril trillion, 50 billion doesnt seem like much at 165 per person. Obviously they didnt have everything to do with the crisis but they certainly had a part. What about government regulations . What about your own book . What about fannie and freddie . You wrote about this at great length. Absolutely. Youre right. We were on this set talking about it. You look at these numbers. I looked at the jpmorgan numbers. There was 11 billion or 13 billion. This is the stuff that is going to bailout homeowners mortgage. This is going to bailout groups like acorn. They dont call themselves a. C. O. R. N. Now but they are Community Organizers. Its totally political and regulatory and a government takeover. If you go to the question where the money is going, i would say that that does raise questions. At the end of the day, investors were the party who were hurt most by violations in mortgage origination, securitization yet received very little where homeowners were not harmed by the securitization problems. They were harmed in other ways and in some ways caused their own harm. But how that money is allocated, i do recognize, is problematic. Larry, le

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