Former Defense Secretary Criticizes President Obama; Chris Christie Under Fire
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: I don't know about you, but I'm picturing this like Tony Soprano kind of thing. Lovely bridge you got here. It would be a shame if anything happened to it. I'm Jake Tapper. This is THE LEAD. The politics lead. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, he denied causing gridlock on the world's busiest bridge out of political revenge, but now today texts and e-mails show the scandal is a lot closer to the man in the driver's seat of Jersey politics than we knew. What will he do? And what's the fallout for this would-be presidential hopeful? The sports lead. It was a bombshell report you saw right here on THE LEAD, colleges that make millions off their sports programs giving passing grades to athletes who couldn't even read their commitment letters. Now our guest this hour, former NBA star Isiah Zeke Thomas, says black student athletes in particular are getting the shaft. And the money lead. The ad says sprinkle some of this on your food and lose 30 pounds just like that. But you're telling me it's not true? The government nailing so-called weight loss companies for false advertising. Are you using any of their products to keep that New Year's resolution? Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We will begin with the politics lead. Some pundits say that how Governor Chris Christie responds to this crisis today could determine whether or not he has a chance of being president. It all has to do with accusations of a political vendetta. Of particular alarm for Christie supporter, this direct quote from one of his top aides to an executive at the Port Authority -- quote -- "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." That and other e-mails and texts obtained by CNN appear to tie Christie's administration to lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, the busiest bridge in the world, which connects Fort Lee, New Jersey, to New York City. The September closures were blamed for days of massive traffic jams in Fort Lee. Let's say you're making your last-chance power drive on the Jersey Turnpike. Maybe you got a school bus full of screaming kids or you're driving an ambulance and you run into an epic traffic jam created, as the e-mail suggests, not because of a traffic study, but out of political spite. Critics have said this was all retaliation against the mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, A Democrat who did not endorse Christie's election bid. Christie has denied this. Earlier today after the e-mails came out, however, the governor canceled his only public event of the day where many had hoped he would explain these e-mails and texts. All the claims against his office were merely allegations until today.</s>TAPPER (voice-over): Traffic in New Jersey is rough on any given day, but it's a local story. Today, however, Garden State Gridlock is meriting national attention. CNN has obtained seemingly damning e-mails and text messages from top aides to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, ones that seem to undermine his and his administration's previous explanations that there was nothing political in the closure of lanes on a major bridge in September 2013, closures that wreaked traffic havoc, hurting one particular town with a Democratic mayor, a mayor who had refused to endorse Christie, a Republican, for reelection.</s>JOHN WISNIEWSKI (D), NEW JERSEY STATE SENATOR: What we have seen today is a sad day for New Jersey. The documents that have been published are both shocking and outrageous.</s>TAPPER: New Jersey Democrats came out swinging this afternoon over what is now being called Bridge-gate. From September 9 through 14, 2013, the George Washington Bridge connecting New York to New Jersey had three lanes closed without warning, causing major delays in Fort Lee. Democrats cried vendetta, but there was no evidence to back up that charge. And Christie scoffed at the notion of traffic as political retribution.</s>GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I actually was the guy working the cones out there. You really are not serious with that question.</s>TAPPER: Instead, New Jersey officials claimed that it had been a traffic study commissioned by the Port Authority.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do you think they did it?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not aware of any traffic study. I don't know why it was done.</s>TAPPER: But that story unraveled when Port Authority officials were subpoenaed by the state assembly last month.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it directly violated our agency's primary responsibility to protect our customers and personnel.</s>TAPPER: CNN today obtained texts and e-mails that seemed to suggest the logjam may have, indeed, been caused by political retribution. Nearly a month before the bridge lane closures, Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, e-mailed David Wildstein, one of Christie's top appointees at the Port Authority. "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," she wrote. "Got it," he said. After Fort Lee was brought to a halt by the bridge lane closures, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich called the Port Authority to no avail. Kelly e-mailed Wildstein to ask the if anyone had called the mayor back. The response was this: "Radio silence. His name comes right after Mayor Fulop." That's Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, a Democrat who also didn't endorse Christie and who has since suggested that refusal came with a price, meetings canceled, legislation scrubbed.</s>TAPPER: I want to read perhaps the most damning exchange in a text message obtained by CNN. Sokolich, the mayor of Fort Lee, reached out to Wildstein saying: "Presently, we have four very busy traffic lanes merging into one only tollbooth. The bigger problem is getting kids to school. Help, please. It's maddening" -- unquote. Wildstein forwarded the plea to someone whose name has been redacted in these e-mails and texts. "Is it wrong that I'm smiling?" the person asks. "No," Wildstein responds. "I feel badly about the kids," the unknown person writes, "I guess." The response, Wildstein, "They are the children of Buono voters." Now, that's a reference to Barbara Buono, Christie's then Democratic opponent in the gubernatorial election that the governor won handily in November. The incoming speaker of the New Jersey State Assembly released a statement. Let me read part of it -- quote -- "Upon becoming assembly speaker next week, I plan to seek counsel and guidance from legal experts on how best to proceed, but I fully expect this investigation to continue into the next legislative session." Joining me now is the man leading that investigation, Assembly Deputy Speaker and Transportation Public Works and Independent Authorities Committee Chair John Wisniewski. Assemblyman Wisniewski, thanks for being here. Christie's opponent, Barbara Buono, has reacted to the story, telling Salon.com that -- quote -- "There's not even a scintilla of doubt that Christie is behind this." But beyond the suspicions, do you have any evidence that Christie had anything to do with this or even knew about it?</s>WISNIEWSKI: Well, this is an administration that runs a very tight ship, and there are almost no decisions that are made of any consequence that do not run directly through the front office. No one there is known for having their own portfolio or being a free agent. So it's really hard to imagine how an e-mail could come from the governor's deputy chief of staff saying it's time for traffic problems and not have the administration involved in this. I mean, this governor said at a press conference, I'm not involved in traffic studies, yet there's an e-mail from one of his aides saying the governor himself approved the traffic study in another town. And so we see this as a hands-on governor who's involved in a lot of events that go on in his administration. They all have accountability to the front office. It's really hard to imagine how this doesn't go higher.</s>TAPPER: OK. So the answer is, no, there isn't any direct evidence, but you strongly suspect there is based on how Governor Christie works.</s>WISNIEWSKI: Correct.</s>WISNIEWSKI: I don't have an e-mail that has -- right. I don't have an e-mail with the governor's name on it, but I find it hard to believe that this administration wasn't directly involved in orchestrating this.</s>TAPPER: You're holding a hearing tomorrow. David Wildstein, who had been a political appointee to the Port Authority by Christie, he resigned in early December after this crisis, scandal, controversy, whatever you want to call it, started coming out in the press. He is expected to testify. What answers are you hoping to get from Wildstein tomorrow?</s>WISNIEWSKI: You know, very simply, this e-mail comes out of nowhere, August 13. What happened before then? Was there a meeting? Who did you meet with? What was the discussion and rationale for creating traffic problems in Fort Lee? Who else in the administration where or the campaign was involved? We have seen lots of names that are connected to the administration in the e-mails. We have seen the name of the governor's chief press spokesperson, Michael Drewniak. We have seen the name of Maria Comella. We have seen the name of his chief counsel, Charlie McKenna. We clearly know at least in terms of cleaning up after this event took place, lots of people in his administration, in his front office, were involved in this. And we need to ask the questions about who else was involved, what did they know, and how did this start.</s>TAPPER: For people who are not familiar with the scandal, and obviously Governor Christie, one of the reasons we're even doing this right now is because he's potentially going to run for president in 2016. Traffic may not seem like that big a deal to people given the kind of political scandals that we see all over the country. Certainly, New Jersey is not a place for the faint of heart. Why is this important?</s>WISNIEWSKI: Well, it's not about the traffic. The traffic was the consequence. But it really is about an abuse of power. It's about an administration that does not take no for an answer, an administration that feels very comfortable in exacting political retribution. And we have seen here two very high-placed officials in the Christie administration abusing the authority that they were given to wreak havoc in a municipality, make children late for school, delay a police response to a missing child, delay a heart attack response. That's not the kind of leadership that New Jersey needs and it's certainly not the kind of leadership the nation needs.</s>TAPPER: We haven't heard today from Governor Chris Christie. We have been calling and e-mailing them all day. They canceled an event that was set for today. I want to play something he said back in December when asked about your investigation.</s>QUESTION: To what extent do you think there is partisan political gamesmanship being played here?</s>CHRISTIE: Well, I mean, inside the Statehouse, there's no doubt that there is. I think, in the end, what it will be shown to be is just rank speculation from folks who want to play political games.</s>TAPPER: Now, Assemblyman, you're a Democrat. The two of you do not have a friendly relationship. Back in 2012, he criticized your connections to some political action committees. He said -- quote -- "I hope that Assemblyman Wisniewski is not using his power as the chairman of the committee to punish the Port Authority for not helping his political donors." Can you see how some people might look at this and say this seems like a politically motivated investigation of a politically motivated act?</s>WISNIEWSKI: Well, let's look at the documents. The documents speak for themselves. There's no governmental reason for Bridget Kelly to send an e-mail to David Wildstein saying there's time for traffic. There's no political -- or there's governmental reason for there to be an e-mail mocking the children being late for school. This clearly was a political operation using governmental resources. And it was done to exact retribution against the mayor of Fort Lee. For what purpose, we don't know, for not endorsing the governor, for not getting involved otherwise with the governor. But there's no valid reason for this to have happened. There's no record, and we have seen thousands of pages of document -- there's no records that would suggest that there was a valid government reason. We see lots of communications about political retribution. We see lots of communication mocking the consequences of what this operation did. And we see lots of communications in a desperate attempt to try to justify what happened. And so, you know, whatever the origins of the investigation, the facts speak for themselves. The governor's people got caught red-handed doing something they shouldn't do, inflicting retribution on a community that had no reason to expect it, and certainly did not deserve it. And now they are trying to find any reason to blame somebody else for this.</s>TAPPER: Assembly John Wisniewski, thank you so much for your time. We look forward to the hearing tomorrow. And, of course, we have an open invitation to Governor Christie or any of his representatives to come on THE LEAD and talk about this, give the other side of the story, as always. Coming up this hour</s>THE LEAD: Our CNN investigation this week uncovered the shocking number of college athletes who are reading at elementary school levels. That prompted former NBA star Isiah Thomas to reach out to us and say, hey, there's even more to it than that. Isiah Thomas will join me next. Later, former Defense Secretary Bob Gates didn't just take shots at President Obama in his new book. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden took some hits too. How might that play out if they battle each other in 2016?