From this traffic jam . Republicans, 202 5853881. Emocrats, 202 5853880. Ndependents, 202 5853882 new jersey residents, 202 585 3883. Let me begin with the front page of the New York Times. Christie faces scandal on traffic jam. Mystery of who closed two lanes on the George Washington bridge. It goes on to say this. That is in the New York Times this morning. Front page of the Washington Post also with the story. Lets show you what the governor on to say about this december 19. He had a press conference where he talked about it. [video clip] i . Why would why would i . I know you guys are upset with this. Obsessed with this. I am really not. It is not that big a deal. Just because the press writes that it, lets not pretend it is the gravity of the issue. Host this is the statement that he put out yesterday. We turned to all of you this morning to get your thoughts on this. Is there some political or other fallout for the new jersey governor . Bill in massachusetts. Republican. Caller good morning. There is a new jersey state democrat, shes a wants to float criminal charges against christie for a traffic jam. Does not lend well to mr. Obama and hillary because they are dealing with a benghazi situation where four people were murdered. Withare going to end up all kinds of associations with the obama and hillary this is pure craziness. Host bill . We lost him. Bill was referring to the state Senate Majority leader, gail collins. The Washington Post writes about her. There is a difference between a jersey attitude of being blunt and direct. This is in Gail Collins Oster fee piece in the Washington Post piece in the Washington Post. We want to get your thoughts on this story this morning. First, Michael Simons is joining us. Lets begin. We told our viewers about how this all started. Explain who the players are. The aides that are involved. Guest the aide at the center of the entire thing is a guy named david wildstein. He will testify via subpoena today. He was the editor of a political website in the state for years. He was the governors eyes and ears. Part of that appears to have been rather political and involved the closure of these lanes. Host are you referring to bill baroni . Guest yes. Host he too has lost his job. Guest yes. The governor says that was a planned thing. A lot of people are skeptical. Baroni is out. Wildstein has lost his job. Now that we know the direct involvement of one of his deputy chiefs of staff, the question is how many other people will wind up losing their positions over this . Statement,r issued a but did not take questions. He said that people would be held responsible. But no action has been taken yet. Kellyt and kelly anne is a longtime political person. Worked with Christies Office in 2010 when the governor took office. She is currently the deputy chief of staff there. Host does she still have her job . , 7 05 . What is it as far as this morning. A lot of people were surprised that she had her job by the end of yesterday. Office wants to do the entire response at once. It will suffer from the very act of delaying closure and being involved. The governor has said to reporters that he has asked his staff, does anybody know anything about this . So he made a statement publicly that he is confident publicly that nobody said anything. It is beyond the act itself. There is the act of making your boss look bad. I would be surprised if she survives. We will see how far up it goes beyond that. Host on your website, the headline is that christie was quoted as saying he was misled by his staff and deeply saddened by these emails. Do these emails indicate that the governor knew anything . Guest no. They do not. A democrat who runs the Assembly Transportation committee which is looking at the bridge closure said as much yesterday. The governor has said rather candidly and consistently that his office has nothing to do with this. That is certainly false at this point. Host he also said he would hold people accountable. You said you would be surprised if he did not let some stuff go. What have you heard about when and how and where he will make that type of announcement . Guest they have not said yet. They have been extraordinarily hunkered down since yesterday. I would imagine that it will happen by the end of this week. I cant imagine they would wanted to extend into next week. On tuesday, the governor will deliver the state of the state. To whatever extent they can attempt to move past this and use that as a recess. On the 21st is his inauguration for his second term. I think they want to set an agenda at that point. At this point, he very much needs a reset. Host what does he have planned for marking his inauguration and for the state of the state address . Inaugural is at ellis island. Largely in new jersey, although partially in new york. That is where the inaugural ball will be. They have not really said a lot about what he will be proposing. A lot of people believe he will return to an idea that he had once proposed of income tax cuts or perhaps property tax cuts delivered as income tax credit they have not said. They usually play it close to the vest. Different than most years. Host going back to the story. The emails made public yesterday and the governor having to respond. Who is defending the governor . Yesterday, really nobody. Office took until very late in the day to put out a statement that was just a couple sentences long. It said hen had nothing to do with it. It said he was surprised to learn about what came out yesterday and that there would be repercussions for it, but it did not outline any. They were not answering questions, they were not making folks available. They did not issue talking points to try to encourage people. They were very much back on their heels for the whole thing. Most republicans were pretty quiet about it. Nobody knows how far it goes. Host is there more to come . That there isated an investigation in new jersey. Are there more investigations to come . Guest the Inspector General of the Port Authority of new York New Jersey is looking at it. The u. S. Senate Transportation Committee has expressed interest in using this incident as a reason to look at the entire structure of the Port Authority, which is pretty unique. Authority has a budget that is larger than 26 states. Ands a huge entity incredibly important on both sides of the hudson river. The u. S. Senate would look at that. Host let me just jump in. The Senate Committee led by senator jay rockefeller, a democrat from west virginia. The legislative session ends next week. They have had subpoena powers. They were looking at Port Authority toll increases it gave them subpoena powers, which they used to look at the bridge. Losure situation that authority expires next week. Given what was revealed yesterday, it will almost certainly be renewed for the following session. They are going to wind up calling in a bunch of different people to testify, both from the government side and from the Governors Campaign side. Manager in 2009 and ,013, his deputy chief of staff the state chair of the Republican Party. The adviser for helping decide on expenditures for this years election. Host the governor planning many stops around the country as the new head of the republican governors association. M to followto app. Co their reporting. Thank you for your time. Guest i appreciate it. Host david is in new jersey. A democrat. Caller good morning. It is a sad day for new jersey. Ultimately, we will get through this. What we have to recognize is what was done was unconscionable, unacceptable besides the fact that he has already dashed his hopes for the presidency he can forget about that and what he can focus on is being the best governor possible. I dont even know if that is possible. Unfortunately, he is a bully and now he has been exposed for what he truly is. Now he has proven that he knew what was going on he absolutely knew what was going on. Host he says he did not know what was going on. Caller i would say this to you. His toptier staff. His closest staff. He knew what was going on because he ordered it. And hopefully now he will have to pay for that. I think new jersey ends should expect them to step down. I dont feel that he can be trusted. Let me Say Something else. This is something we need to talk about on cspan. Lot of racism that is going on in this country right now because we have a lot of black president. Nobody wants to call it for what it is. They call it politics, they called a lot of things. Call a thing anything. Host where you going with this . Caller i am saying to people that the way the president is treated is racist. And we need to call a thing anything. A thing. It needs to be said. Host let me go back to the governor. Did you vote for him . Caller absolutely not. Host lets go to bonnie and yukon, oklahoma. Republican. Gates book cannot yesterday. Obama is in trouble. Came out yesterday. Obama is in trouble. They are trying to take pressure off obama. Kristi was the only one christie was the only one. They want to take the heat off of obama and Hillary Clinton. She has too much baggage herself. Chris christie is a good man. Scandalsas so many that i dont think that people really know. [indiscernible] obama has had some pretty bad scandals. He had people that would take care of justice. Think that Chris Christie could still run for president in 2016 . Caller oh sure. He doesnt have any baggage like obama and hillary do. Politico with the headline that Rush Limbaugh saying yesterday that the Chris Christie robert gates distraction the Chris Christie story is convenient and distracts from the memoir being put out by the former defense secretary robert gates. Many copies were leaked to reporters yesterday. The white house had to respond yesterday to the criticism of the president and the criticism of joe biden and of Hillary Clinton. We will give you a chance to weigh in on that as well in our last hour here of the washington journal. Lets go to david in michigan. Democrat. Caller thank you very much for taking my call. As far as the subject goes, the governor knows everything that is going on with the state. Othericans throw each under the bus, but lets face it, he knows what is going on in his state. He knows everything that is going on. Maybe he could blame obamacare. Everybodyike he blames obamacare for everything. Becauset is unraveling republicans are nothing but dirty, rotten liars. Thank you. Host republican in hillsborough, new jersey. Thomas. I was a lowlevel intern for the Governors Campaign. Just watching all the coverage over the past couple of days, i am very disappointed. I still want to give the governor the benefit of the doubt, but it is very disconcerting to me and i am very upset because i worked tirelessly. I did doortodoor. I made phone calls. I did countless hours. I will wait and watch the hearings today. We will see how things go. I am upset. I actually got a photo with him for the end of the campaign. Toward the end of the campaign. That was one of the things i wanted. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt however. Confidence is the word i would use. He should have known about it. Not have hired people who would have done this to him. Host if the governor were to come out and face reporters, what do you want to hear from him . Caller i want to hear someone who will take responsibility. As a jersey conservative, i liked his style. I still do like his style of being honest. I want to come out and face the facts. Come out ahead of it. I am surprised he did not fire bridget anne kelly. Just come out in front of it and get things done in that regard. Host do you think this hurts his chances in 2016 if you were to run . Caller i think it does. To be honest with you, i am wouldntive, so i support anyone else were you to win in the primary. I am disappointed. I worked so hard and i had this great respect. And i still do, but it is lessening as time goes by. I am only 20, but i worked extremely hard for his campaign. I am kind of disappointed. Host let me get your reaction to what Rush Limbaugh had to say. As saying that the point of the story is that christie will do pay back. Caller my reaction. I do listen to rush. I did not hear that yesterday. Would bey reaction that i would be in somewhat agreement. If it comes out that he knew something about it, it seems to me that he is always out in the front of a lot of things. I am surprised that he canceled something yesterday. Host he had a press event. Caller it was somewhat surprising to me. I would be in somewhat agreement with what rush said. I would not go as far. It orknew something about it went up even higher in his staff in his office, then we got a real problem. Host the Washington Post reports that his response was uncharacteristically slow yesterday. He waited eight hours before issuing a brief statement. Democrats picking up on this. The head of the Democratic National committee, a democrat from florida, tweeted this out. Lets go to ross in louisiana. Democratic caller. Democrat. Caller good morning. Happy new year to you. Matter that this traffic jam did occur. Howells you something about the republicans deny knowing anything about anything. I am listening to some of your collars come in and they want to play this up as this is some kind of scheme attack that the democrats have whipped up. Not,er he knew about it or i dont know. To me, it seemed like this is another one of the republican posterity tricks. That is all i have to say. Host republican color. New hampshire. Caller yes indeed. Too much of a good thing. Here is todays of it and here is what happens after two days. A million pissed off jews are going to stand for governor with that kind of traffic jam . Woah lets move on. Delores. Caller i believe that governor christie knew what was happening and it is just another republican being a bully. He is not the only bully. I believe the members of congress, especially the tea party and the leader of the house, are bullies. They are all against poor people. Chris christie is just one of them. That is what i have to say. Meadville, pennsylvania. Republican color caller. I would like to say that christie probably needs to go. He probably knew about this. I realize that this is municipal politics at its dirtiest. Ce between whaten he did and what obama did during the government shutdown. It put people at risk. If people needed to get to the hospital, the traffic jam literally probably put their lives in danger. The same thing with the park service shut down of the memorials and washington d. C. It is all part and parcel. Host we will keep taking your thoughts here and whether or not there is fallout from this bridge traffic jam story that we are learning more about. Yesterday, emails contributing it to it becoming a lead story this morning. The New York Times has this story. Two House Democrats say they will retire. Retirenounced lance to plans to retire. After 18 years in congress, mr. Mcintyre said he is ready for a new chapter in his life. Two more retirements. Also, sticking with congress this week, the senate cleared a hurdle on monday to go ahead and consider extending Unemployment Benefits for those longterm unemployed for three months. Harry reid tweeted this out yesterday about the debate over whether or not they should be paid for it. In order to have a pay for, he wants to have a longer than three months. The usa today reports in an interview with president obamas top advisor that the white house is open to talks on the jobless plan. Offsets if it includes a longer extension on employment benefits. The aid that was interviewed by aboutday did not comment robert gates memoir and his criticism of the administration. We will be taking that up in our last hour of the washington journal. You will have an opportunity to on that. Our thoughts looking to the state of the Union Address, the aide said that obama would vouch for his authority to get things done in the year ahead even if Congressional Republicans lock is legislative ambitions. His legislative ambitions. Lets go back to your phone calls. Your thoughts on the story developing out of new jersey. Mark, a democratic caller. Did you vote for the governor . Caller good morning. I am personally a far less wingnut. Having said that, i think it is absolutely possible that the governor did not know this. Hasppears that the governor this Army Surrounding him of people that will do anything to spread the bulliness around. If that is the case, what does people are willing to fall on their swords to please the governor . Awayok the security detail from one of our governors because of something that he said. It goes back to when he was a u. S. Attorney. I dont necessarily think anything that is going to happen to him because there is this culture in new jersey that people admire this. They want somebody like this. Host does he go too far . , wead one quote saying that like this, but there is a line. Caller well, yeah. Its a matter of threatening public safety. But i think it depends on the news cycle. Something big could happen tomorrow at the other end of it and totally draw attention away from it. That is the way americans tend to operate. Host we are just learning now a Chris Christie is having press conference at 11 00 a. M. This morning. More to come on that. 11 00 a. M. This morning. New jersey governor Chris Christie will be giving a press conference about the situation. David in illinois. Republican. Caller hi. I happen to particularly like governor christie. I just noticed in the me