0 it was, and i have been a republican when it was bad. >> he didn't get a nomination, but he did get a volkswagen nomination. >> everybody wins. >> jeanne moos, cnn. >> i will hit the grounds running, come out swinging and end up winning. >> new york. >> ac 360 starts right now. good evening, everyone, we have a big night ahead. starting with breaking news, a 360 exclusive, the mayor of hoboken, new jersey already accused new jersey governor chris christie withholding super storm sandy relief money. she's already taken fire for saying what she has. she talked to federal investigators over the weekend. now only on this program, the mayor reveals documents that she says help back up her case. in a moment, can you see for yourself, decide for yourself, first, how we got here. >> it's an ultimatum of epic political proportions. support our development project or lose critical hurricane relief funding. chris christie's lieutenant governor calls it false. >> being a sandy victim myself makes the mayors allegations particularly offensive to me. >> dawn zimmer described a scene to candy crowley right out of a movie. she was approached last may, threatened to withhold sandy money, unless the governor supported a plan in her town. >> she said this was a direct message from the governor. >> that is a direct tie to christie much more than any allegation in bridge gate. >> the governor's version of our conversation is not only false, but it is illogical, and does not with stand scrutiny when all of the facts are examined. >> a christie spokesman said, it's very clear partisan politics are at play here, as democratic players with the political axe to grind come out of the woodwork and try to get their faces on television. hoboken's mayor had publicly supported her republican governor in the past. zimmer provided private journal entries to cnn telling a different story. she also gave the u.s. attorney investigating how sandy funds were used. zimmer wrote at the time of christie, i thought he was something different. this week i found out he's cut from the same corrupt cloth i had been fighting for the last four years. being something different is christie's political calling card. sources who attended this past weekend. the way he's handled scandals so far, should make them more confident in him, not less. >> he said to those donors, if i ever put myself up for a national office, you and everyone have an absolute right to know how i deal with problems. lightning will strike. >> but he also privately announced he's putting any potential 2016 race for president on hold for a year. republican strategist anna navarro attended several florida events. >> talking to these billionaires, people who chris christie will need if he wants to run for president. what's your sense of how they feel about all this? >> i think chris christie has taken the initiative, putting 2016 on pause. i think this buys some time for other potential candidates who may be deciding what they do. and not be at risk of losing donors and activists that commit to christie. >> allegations along with the bridge scandal, reinforced the notion that political poison to chris christie, charge fair or not that he is a bully. in so far as the bridge story is concerned, the facts are yet from complete. dawn zimmer joins us with what could be new evidence. i appreciate you buying with us, mayor. you sent a letter to governor christie on april 23rds that you provided us, we're showing it on the screen. asking for funding for pumps, to help the flooding problem in hoboken, i want to read part of what you said, you said to the governor, just as shore towns are not being asked for development in exchange for protecting from future storms, the solution cannot be dependent on future development. this was sent before your meeting with the lieutenant governor, does this mean you felt pressure already about future development? >> various meetings that i had with our administration, i did feel that there was a lot of discussion about development. in those meetings, it was not a direct connection made, but there was pressure, and so, i do think that while -- i think what's interesting about what the lieutenant governor said today is, she says that my -- it's illogical what i said, and when you look at the documents, you look at the letters, that i've written, can you see that it wasn't illogical at all. it's actually a progression leading up to something where they wanted to send me, give me a very direct message, because they felt i wasn't getting the message clearly enough, so she was sent in. >> people close to the lieutenant governor, as you said, the lieutenant governor called the allegation complete. i want to read to you what a source close to the lieutenant governor said about your conversation. kim, meaning the lieutenant governor, she was talking about redevelopment and making investments in hoboken. she remembers zimmer pressing kim for more money. and she remembers pressure for aid for sandy. are you saying this letter disproves that? >> that's the first time i'm hearing that. i didn't realize that she -- she didn't actually say that directly today, but i mean this letter makes it clear that i was the one on april 23rd, sent them a letter, and very clearly said, you can't connect the two, and it's not fair to connect the two. and that was part of the conversation that we had. i said, you know, are you saying after she said to me, you know, that you have to move ahead with the rockefeller project, i said, is any other town being asked to do development in exchange for help with the flooding? and her answer was, well, the shore brings in $38 billion. so she was the one connecting -- she very clearly was connecting the development with the sandy aide in our conversation, and i made it clear -- it's eironic she's coming around saying that, when i sent a letter on april 23rd saying these two things are not connected and that's not fair. >> you're saying, you point blank said to her, is any other town being asked to link development to sandy aids. you made that linkage clear that was your interpretation of what she was say something. >> she did not dispute it. she restated the fact that, i know it's not fair, these things shouldn't be connected but they are. that's in the journal entry that i gave to -- >> you're saying, these shouldn't be connected but they are? >> yes. >> were those her words? >> that's what i recall, that's what i wrote at the time, i wrote the journal entry a few days after the meeting with her. >> also for the first time now, we're seeing another letter you sent that you provided us on may 8th to the governor saying you were stunned you weren't getting the funding requests. that's two days before you had the meeting with lieutenant governor. what is that second letter. what do you believe it shows. what do you believe it proves? >> back to her statement that it's all illogical, you look at all the events together, you can see it was a progression. it was a progression of pressure, and she was sent in to really make that final message to me on may 8th, there's a few important things that happened. on may 8th, there was a planning board decision, the planning board voted down the zoning that the rockefeller group wanted for their property. and on may 8th, we had severe flooding and the letter i sent to the governor showed pictures of the severe flooding we had again in hoboken. and i -- i -- on may 8th, i sent a letter saying, that these things cannot be -- that we really need the funding and that basically i had received my office had received notice that we were not going to believe receiving funding, i was writing saying, i hope this is not the final decision, we really need help. that happens on wednesday may 8th. the planning board meeting, the letter to the governor saying, please, we really need help, i'm hearing we're not going to get hazard mitigation funding. i hope that's not the case. >> do you believe the may 10th -- >> two days later, their office calls friday afternoon and says, we want to do a sandy business ehaven't on monday? i feel like 10:00 in the morning the timing seemed strange. we had already gone the opening for at least a month before, but certainly wanted to welcome her. >> her reason for coming down was specifically in response to this letter of may 8? >> i do. i do believe it. i believe it was related. i think that she -- that event was created so that she could come and have the opportunity to make air very clear message to me. >> you've done two interviews i believe this weekend. you hadn't mentioned these letters before, why now? >> these letters were provided. they were provided to msnbc, and i think steve may have brought them up in his show. >> conversation? >> yeah. there's a lot of information, there's a lot of documents, there's a lot of issues around the connection between the port authority and who funded the study, and the connection with david samson and wolf and samson, i know it's complicated for the public to understand, but you know, in -- really the bottom line is, that week, that week of may 8th, that day, there was some important things that happened. and right after that time frame, when i send this letter saying, i can't believe this is really true, we're not going to get hazard funding. when the planning board voted down the zoning that the rockefeller group wanted, well then in -- the governor's -- the lieutenant governor's office calls on monday, they come, and she delivers a very clear message, because i think they felt i wasn't getting the message clearly enough. and they wanted to make it clear to me. >> i want to talk specifically about what she said to you. we have to take a quick break, we're going to have more with the mayor of hoboken. tweet us using #ac 360. the threat to turn the winter olympic games into a blood bath in order to prevent one.