Transcripts For FBC Markets Now 20140109

Day has turned into a big, National Political scandal. Dagen there are emails and Text Messages that reveal exactly what went on. Youve been reciting the line of orange over again, time for some traffic problems in fort lee. Connell that was in the mail. In actual political scandal the implications for 2016. The presumption is he is considering to run for president joining us for little bit of that. Reporter buy it. And the number of questions we have to answer and we want answered, first off, was he that vindictive, did you really know for months of this was going on and whether or not something he played a role in our did he know shortly thereafter in the early part of september. The second part is if he did not know, why did the event of . This is a former u. S. Prosecutor , someone who is known for morning in the organization as a prosecutor. Out come when you have a major traffic jam over the course of four days on the major artery that takes people to and from your state why you did ask more questions as to what is after was going on of the George Washington bridge back in september. You talk about her dipped the deputy chief of staff. The allegations that the democrats have been making, this was politically motivated came to fruition yesterday when the mills came out emailing the Port Authority offered personal email address saying as you said, cause traffic problems. Now there is a link. How far does it go . When did he ever know, how much is in no, does he play a role and that . That still has to come out. Connell there are also legal questions. Since we are joined in studio pastor and answer some of those as we wait for the governor. He talked about these emails that have now become public. There are certainly political ramifications for the will, this is something that people will look at. The most obvious legal question is a generic catchall called malfeasance in office, official misconduct, basically doing something. When they wrote those statutes, the evil selfserving press was money, basically taking a bribe not to do your job or to do your job in a way that the bribe or wanted you to do. So would be the purpose here . Revenge. This would be a novel use of the statutes. It appears that the evidence is certainly there to do something with the element who is now escape me. Connell bridget and kelly. Right. His email is very eliminating. There is palpable harm caused to people. This is an area that the government of the stated in jersey is obliged to address, which is health and safety. They exacerbated health and safety concerns by making it impossible to drive automobiles on those roadways a reasonable time. Dagen can you think of any other instances in politics, and not just the jersey but other states are charges and been pursued. It happened recently in new jersey. That was the former mayor of newark sharp james was prosecuted and convicted of selling realestate, city realestate and receiving sexual favors from the realestate broker. It Chris Christie was a prosecur he was a u. S. Attorney. Fast it was his office that prosecuted. Sometimes prosecutors, and of no importance or 15 years, sometimes they get very creative it was interesting to see what he will do today. Will we see the usual bluster that is so popular in other parts of the cut sure we see a can trade a really messed up and i will clear this up . That is what is known for, that emotion. People and tell him one expected to come out firing and said it and have a thing to do with this if its a different tone, that it poses of the different. He has a serious look a problem that he has to resolve. He is 11 days shy of his inauguration for a second term which expects will be a spectacular celebration tremendous approval of the polls. Thats the kicker. Its like nixon and watergate. He clobbered mcgovern. The year of this nonsense and formerly burma right. He won 6040. People obviously were not thinking correctly. There was not even anything substantially to be gained. Connell he wanted to get back and a democratic mayor the would not really expects to help you out anyway. Like you said, a fine guy whos doing the right thing to protect the people of fort lee. Dagen we would not be covering this story ifs he was not on the national stage, not at least looking for potentially running for the highest office in the land. It would just be a new jersey story. Correct. And im sure they know for lee is the town where the bridge beats new jersey, the most highly trafficked entrance to a bridge anywhere in the United States of america. Connell here is governor christie. I come out here, to this office or have been many times the four. I come out here today to apologize to the people of new jersey. And apologize to the people of fort lee. Apologize to the members of the state legislature. I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team. There is no doubt in my mind that the conduct that they exhibited is completely unacceptable and showed a lack of respect for their appropriate role of government and for the people that were trusted to surf. Two pieces to what i what start brought today. The first is, i believe that all of the people who were affected by this conduct deserves this apology, and that is why i am giving it to them. I also need to need to apologize to them for my failure as the governor of the state to understand the true nature of this problem sooner than i did. But i believe that i have an understanding now of the true nature of the problem. And i have taken the following action as a result. This morning had terminated the employment of Richard Kelly effective immediately. I terminated her employment because she lied to me. I brought my senior staff together about four weeks ago, and that put all of them one simple challenge, if there is any information they you know about the decision to close these lanes in fort lee you have one hour to tell either my chief of staff or my chief counsel. I told them that in our was going to go out a press conference if no one gave me any information to the contrary was said that no one on my staff was involved in this matter. Over the course of the next hour cabinet charlie interviewed each member of my senior staff became mayor reported to me that they all reported that there was no information, other than what we already knew that had been testified to by senator breaux regarding this incident. Ive been questions kevin no doubt and showed me kenneth directly to the there the only to who report directly to me and theyve assured me that they had no affirmation that would change my ability to deal to say that no one in response to the question, on my staff was involved in this matter. That was obviously a lot. The emails i saw for the first time this the morning when they were broken in the believe the broken record story proves that that was a lot there is no justification for the behavior. There is no justification for ever lying to a governor or a person in authority. As a result, i have terminated her employment immediately this morning. Secondly, i have, and will continue to, starting yesterday, to once again now have personal call oneonone discussions myself with the remaining hours of my senior staff to determine if there is any other information that dagen not know and need to know in order to take appropriate action. I have not completed those interviews yet, but when i am if there is Additional Information that needs to be disclosed, i will do so. If there are additional actions that need to be taken with my senior staff i will do so. I will tell you, though, it has been ridden a lot of the last couple of days about what a tightknit staff i have and how closely everyone works together, and that is true. Endeavours is the time was u. S. Attorney i have engendered this sense and feeling among the people closest to me that we are a family and Work Together and tell each other the truth to support each other, need to be supportive, and we admonish each other and we need to be demolished. I am heartbroken that someone who i permitted to be in a circle of trust for the last five years of betrayed my trust. Would never for five weeks to go and 80 joke about these lane closures if i had ever had an inkling that anyone on my staff would have been so stupid but to be involved and then so deceitful as to just not disclose the information of their involvement to me when directly asked by their superior. And those questions were not asked by the way just wants. They were asked repeatedly. So i take this action today because it is my job. I am responsible for what happens. I am sad to report to the people of new jersey that we fell short we fall short of the expectations that we have created of the last four years for this type of excellence in government that they should expect from this office. But i have repeatedly said to them that while i promise them the best Governors Office i can give them, i could never promised them a perfect covers office. And so when i find those imperfections, those mistakes, those lines, my obligation as chief executive of this state is to act. And as to bridget and kelly bridget and kelly, have acted today. Secondly today, i was disturbed by the tone and behavior and attitude of callous indifference that was displayed in the emails by my former campaign manager. And reading that, it made me lose my confidence in his judgment, and you cannot have someone at the top of your political operation he did not have confidence in. As a result, i have instructed bill to not place his name in nomination for state party chairman, and he will not be considered for state party chairman, and i have instructed him to withdraw his consultancy with the republican governors association. I cannot trust someones judgment i cannot ask others to do so, and i would not place them at the head of my political operations because of the lack of judgment that was shown in the emails that were revealed yesterday. That has also. There is ever dealt that there is no doubt that bill has been one of my closest advisers over the last five years, and so for that, too, i am sad today to have to take this action, but i also know that i have a job to do, and it is a job that i have as the people of new jersey to in trust me with. I can never allow personal feelings or longstanding relationships to get in the way of doing my job the way it is appropriate to do. What i dont want is for any of you to confuse live saying this morning. Ultimately i am a responsible for what happens on a mile watch , the given the bad, and when mistakes are made, then i have to own up to them and take the action that i believe is necessary in order to alleviate them. As i mentioned to you earlier, i spent all day yesterday in an to talking to folks in getting to the bottom of things. Another was much discussion yesterday about what was i doing. Well, let me tell you, i was born cited this to the morning. I was done with my work address to a morning and got a call from my Communications Director at about 850, at age 55 00 a. M. In forming a eight of the story that has just broken on the website which was the first on i knew about this, the first, had seen any of the documents that were revealed yesterday. And so for i came out and spoke to all of you i wanted to do the best that i could to try to get to the bottom of some of this so that when it came out i can answer questions as best i can and take appropriate action, if action was necessary. Theres no doubt for reading as the house yesterday in my mind that action was necessary and then i wanted to make sure that i spoke for those people who advise me to make sure if there is any other information they were aware of that i had it before i acted. Im going to continue this process. I could not keep all the news today. As i said, it was more information that i uncovered. I will act accordingly to in terms of releasing it to the public and taking whatever action, if any is to offer any other issues and also to then react to information coming from anywhere else give that there is an investigation. Later today will be going to fort lee, asked to meet with the mayor to apologize personally, facetoface and also to apologize to the people in their town. I think they need to see me do that for them and i intend to do that today. People of those communities were impacted in a completely and i am going to go and apologize for that. That the complete with this, this is not the town that i have said the last four years in this building. The environment i have worked so hard to achieve. We saw just a few months ago nfc of the course of the last four years, republicans and democrats working together, not without argument, government is never without argument, but ultimately coming to a resolution of so many issues in a bipartisan way and running a campaign that was exactly bipartisan. And so i maxed rivera extraordinarily disappointed. This is the exception, not the rule. I considered it over the last four years to be my job to be a governor of every new jersey, republican, democrat, independent or unaffiliated. They have worked with elected officials on both sides of the aisle, ones that i agree with and ones that i disagree with. The political overtones that were exhibited in those documents released yesterday in the conduct by those people is not acceptable. But people, i think, all across this state understand that human beings are not perfect and mistakes are made. I believe what they expect of me as the chief executive of this state is when that information comes into my possession that i consider it and then act as swiftly as possible to mediate whatever ill occurred. That is what i have done today. Actions have consequences. I am living up to that right now. One last thing just so were clear, i had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or execution, and im stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here regardless of what the facts ultimately uncovered. This was handled in a callous and indifferent way and it is not the way that this administration has conducted itself over the last four years and not the way it will conduct itself over the next four. Will do everything within my power to assure the people of new jersey that, and that they employ their willingness to consider my apology on behalf of this government. In the end and 65,000 people working for me every day. I cannot know what each one of them is doing every minute. That does not matter. And ultimately irresponsible for what they do. That is why i took this action. Governor, beyond the termination, what other steps, concrete steps for new jersey in the people of this country to change the perception of what has happened here, and will that include working cooperatively with the investigations that are now moving toward . And i apologize for that this morning, david. I was being led to believe my folks around me that there was no basis. And lets be fair. There have been times when there been investigations iran is to lead to nothing in the databases but i was wrong. And so now having been proven wrong, of course, we will work properly with the investigations and ongoing examinations of what mentioned. Going to talk to the individual people who work for me, not only to discover if there is any other information that we need, but also to ask them how this happened, how this occurred. I think no, listen, as i said before, i have had a tightknit group people who might trust implicitly. I had no reason to believe that there were not telling the truth it is heartbreaking to me that was not told the truth. They may very loyal guy. I expec return. Lying to me is not an exhibition of loyalty. And so, you know, i am going to look into this personally. What steps we take after that, if there are concrete steps beyond what i have done today we will announce and talk about them. If not then i will just take a listen, we have gone to the bottom of this and were going to move forward with a new team. A new team coming in. I will integrate in the next two weeks. There will be a lot of action. Kelly. [inaudible question] no. And not. And listen. Politics is not beanbags. Everyone in the country who engages in politics knows that. On the other hand, that is very, very different than saying that, you know, someone is a bully. I have very heated discussions and arguments with people in my own party and the other side of the aisle. I feel passionately about issues and dont hide my emotions from people. Im not a focus group tested to blow dry candid it or governor. Now, that has always made people, as you know, uneasy. Some people like that style and some people dont. Are you in to change your style in order to appeal to a broader audience, and i think i said no because i am oem. What i will tell you is the folks who have worked with me over a long time would, i believe, tell you that i am tough but have shown of the last four years that i am willing to compromise, work with others, and the campaign showed all of folks that came from the other side of the air to support us. If you are not willing to have relationships with those folks who would ever happen that way. I dont believe the body of work over the last four years displays that. Now, in this instance the language used and the conduct displayed in as emails is unacceptable to me. And will not tolerate. But the best that i can do is when i see stuff like that, ended. And know that will not satisfy everyone, but im not in the business of satisfying everybody. I am in the business of trying to satisfy the people who elected the governor. Michael. [inaudible question] there was no one above him in the campaign. He was the campaign manager. Quite close to you. But their role in the campaign was not the daytoday operation. He was essentially involved in fundraising. That was his main task. Mike was a general consultant. So the daytoday operation of the campaign [inaudible question] ive spoken to both of them. There were two of my discussions yesterday. There will work that way. So confident are you. [inaudible question] i am not going to i am smart enough now after this experience not to go out there and certify that unequivocally. I dont have any evidence before me as we speak that it would be on this incident, but i cannot tell you that i know that for sure as to every aspect of everything because now i have to be much more circumspect about that. Prior to yesterday i believed that if i look someone in the ag who i worked with and trusted and asked them, that i would get an honest answer. Maybe i was naive. But that is what i believe. Now i am going in digging in and asking more questions, but i cannot make our warranty. Now believe so. I wont of being wrong when i did that for which you. Follow up. [inaudible question] absolutely not. Nope. And i knew nothing about this. An montell is started to be reported in the papers. But even then i was told it was a traffic study. This senator testified that it was a traffic study. There still may have been at traffic study and now has political overtones to it as well. Were going to find out, but i dont know. This and other private presented all types of animation that seems to evidence a chavis steady. I believe that anyone would not be telling the truth about that. I am not finished yet. The fact is regardless of all that you know, it is clear now that in the minds of some people there were political overtones or political side deals which is unacceptable. So whether it was or not, i dont know. It appears that there was one. But regardless of whether it was or was not, thel whooh i don th i have gotten o the angry stage yet but i am sure i will get there. I am stunned. What does it make me ask about me . It makes me ask about me what did i do wrong to have these folks think it was okay to lie to me . There is a lot of soulsearching that goes with this. When you are a leader of an organization and i have had this happen before where i had folks not tell me the truth about something not since i have been governor but in previous leadership positions, you always wonder what you get to do differently end i have had a lot of sleep the last two night and in doing a lot of soulsearching. I am sick over is is. I have worked for the last 12 years in public life developing a reputation for honesty and directness and blunt talk, one that i think is well deserved. But when Something Like this happens it is appropriate for you to question yourself and certainly i am and i am certain soulsearching. What i want the people of new jersey to know is this is the exception, not the rule and they have seen that with the way i worked and what i have done. I dont want to fall into the trap of saying this one incident happened, there for the one incident defined the whole thing, it does not just like one employee who has lied doesnt determine the character of all the other employees are around you and so i dont want to overreact to that but if you are asking me over the last 48 hours or 36 hours i have done some soulsearching you have got to have it. The mayor of jersey city was quoted as saying the day he voted democrat commack as many as ten appointments between state officials and jersey city officials how would you explain that in the context of what you know now that some of your staff did . I dont know. That is the first answer i will give you but what i will also say, mayor phillips has a lot of disagreements from lots of people, there is going to be back and forth, meetings canceled, public disagreement but the fact of the matter is we continue to work with jersey city since he has been mayor. We approved 119 million in financing for project in jersey city. With mayor philip and his staff on blue acre issues to buy out prop. Affected by sandy so we continue to work, specific meetings o what is going on, certainly i will look into all of those things but the fact is what mayor filipinos is we agree from a policy perspective we will work for him. When we disagree we will express those disagreements and sometimes that will mean friction, he is suing the local Port Authority. There are lots of back and forth that happens in these things. I will look at all this stuff but in the end high at times have been angry with the mayor and disagreed i have, but i spoke at his swearingin and his invitation. Political relationships go up and down as you know. Sometimes strange bedfellows, sometimes expected ones and they move. I am sure there is movement in those relationships over time but not anything i can explain. With a specific question. I heard you learned something new about the situation, will universal apology in the press club . Sure. Most of view, i hope, are citizens of new jersey. We dont need to point them out but of course it does. As i came out here, something that was not true, unwittingly, something that wasnt true. What you have seen about me over the last four years in my dealings with you, as i deal with you directly, i say exactly what i think and i think over time i have developed a reputation for telling you the truth as i see it. There could be disagreements but the truth as i see it, would i include the press corps . Of course i would. Most, many if not most of view rely upon State Government to be honest and trustworthy as well and in this instance my government fell short and i take responsibility for that. Wondering whats that you use, why would they develop that explanation . I have not had any conversation with Richard Kelly since the email came out so she was not given the opportunity to explain to me why she lied because it was obvious that she dad did. Im not interested in the explanation at the moment. General staff put out a statement yesterday that she had no knowledge of this. One of my interviews, i am convinced that he has no knowledge of this, that this was executed at the operational level and never brought to the attention of the board of commissioners until the chairman wrote his email or executive director wrote his email to the board of commissioners so i sat and met with two hours with mr. Samson, general samson, and i am confident that he had no knowledge of this based on our conversation and his review of his informations all as he said yesterday he is angered by this and upset about it and he is going to cooperate with the investigation that is ongoing and discussion at the Port Authority about what can be done in the future t stop such conduct. You mentioned earlier the question you are asking, are you also asking the question, how did i conduct myself beginning with lending folks and stuff like this, not a criticism but the decisions that were made were closer through your administration or campaign that allows you to think it is copay against these. I know who i am. I am not that person. It is easy for people to be characterized in public life based upon their personality. I have a very direct blunt personality and i understand why some people would characterize that especially people dont like you as bullying but it is not that and i know that about myself. I am more focused on why the truth wasnt told to me. In politics that person there, also i just did. I am sorry for that and i would never have made that joke if i knew the facts that came forward to me today. I felt it was absurd and we had nothing to do with it. That is why. And obviously the email evidence that the callous indifference to the result of that, that is what i have apologized for and i do apologize for it and i intend to apologize to the major today. I will try to get a meeting with him this afternoon. The emails the mayor of your campaign. I read that. I didnt read that that way at all. And that was a reference to a traffic study that candidly i knew nothing about and i recognize that the email said something about the governor supported it or endorsed it. I have to believe that was the Governors Office generically. As i stand here today i dont know anything about a traffic study in springfield. And what about the other thing . Absolutely not. It is just not the way it operates. We build relationships over four years with folks trying to be helpful to every town we could be helpful with appropriately. So no nothing like that was ever soulsearching, i wonder if you are soulsearching about the kinds of people who run the campaign or the Republican Party, to apparently give the record also called the mayor of fort lee a racially insensitive name. It was a mistake. Soulsearching is complete on that part of it. It was a mistake. Obviously. It was a mistake. Listen. The fact is mistakes were made and i am responsible for those mistakes and obviously try every chance i can to hire the very best people and i think the history of this administration and shows the we have hired outstanding people with great ethical standards who have done their jobs extraordinarily well. In the government of 65,000 people there are going to be times when mistakes are made. Mistakes were made and i remediator those mistakes by the actions i have taken. I am in a constant state of trying to figure out who are the best people for individual jobs who will makk me proud to have put them there . That is nothing new. But there are times when people you put in those positions make mistakes, they disappoint you, you lose your confidence in them or they lie to you and when you find that out the test of leadership is what do you do . I found this out at 8 50 yesterday morning. By 9 00 this morning Bridget Kelly was fired. By 7 00 yesterday evening, bill was asked to leave my organization. That is pretty swift action for a days work and that is the way i will continue to conduct myself if there is any other information surrounding this that comes up or anything different that comes up over the next four years. How much is known about doing i can differentiate. Between people who have served me well and havent. Of course there is always going to be some after Something Like this where you have been lied to. There is going to be some crisis in confidence. There always will be. Anybody tells you differently is not telling you the truth. They say this happened to you, or you wont secondguess yourself at all, you than you are stupid. Of course i have second guessed myself and gone through my head on some of this stuff and in the future i will try to be even more careful but heres what i know about human beings. I have hired a lot of them in my time as u. S. Attorney, as governor, and as a hiring attorney in private practice law firm. Sometimes despite the best background checks, despite the best interviews, the best instincts, sometimes people start off as the good hire and because of circumstances in their life they change. You cant prevent everything but the test of leadership is when you find it out, what do you do . And i am saddeneddto have to do this. It is difficult personally to do but it is my job and i have taken an oath and i will execute my job. What about the other i am sorry. In terms of madison to be able to get a handle on the action, what happened . Was there a chance transact . Some sort of vendetta towards the Port Authority and revelations seriously . A few things. First off, to my knowledge and i think the mayor said this last night. I have no knowledge of him being asked for an endorsement. He may have been but he was never asked by need. But he said last night on television he doesnt recall ever being asked for an endorsement. That is why this made no sense to me. Y would you execute a vendetta against somebody who you didnt even give a chance to say no to . Put aside the fact that you shouldnt do that at all but then if he never asked for an endorsement why you met him that he didnt give you one. None of it made any sense to me. That is the first point. I dont and again, i dont know whether this was a traffic study that than morphed into a political vendetta, or a political vendetta that morph into a traffic study. I have seen in the legislature the statistics and other things about the traffic study so i know there is information. I dont know what it is. We find out over time. That is in the minds of the people who were doing it and that is what i based my decisions on at the time with the testimony people gave. Lastly listen. I dont know exactly what you are referencing but i think you are talking about the memo that was leaked . Is that what you are talking about . To improve our policy, it seems the emails, the traffic issue arose, mistakes were made, a story in one of the newspapers claim things are over the story and so while he says i dont need that, something on the lines of the new york side and working with that. I asked general staff about this, something to that affect. I dont remember exactly what it was. He said he had absolutely no idea what we were referring to and the only communication he had at that time was his concern about fellow commissioners, internal Port Authority documents being leaked and that is not appropriate for folks to be leaking internal documents but he has no recollection yesterday of any conversation that referenced the gist of what you said in the email. That is not going on . Not that i am aware of or out of the normal. Lets remember something too. This is a bistate agency with significant tension all the time. No tension between Governor Cuomo and i. We get along quite well and when issues arise to our level we are always able to resolve them but there is tension and always has been between new york and new jersey on the allocation of resources, let me be clear, there are some battles that go on that have happened in every administration over the course of my memory. But we cant connect that, that is the ongoing nature of that agency. I think of most state agencies although the Port Authority of new york and new jersey because the resources are greater and demands are greater it is even more so nothing i know of that specific but i want to make clear to people that this there is tension that goes on between the employees of these agencies. Not every one of those issues of tension factor of race to my level and Governor Cuomos level. The good news for the people of new york and new jerseys when those issues have been raised in the last three years to my level and Governor Cuomos level we have always between the two of us amicably resolved and been able to move on and sometimes that is the role governors have to play in that agency. What about the action of the agency, whether or not there is a concern, concerned whether or not the change in traffic . I will follow. I dont know what makes of legitimate traffic study. It is not my area of expertise. And so i wouldnt have a nose for that. I dont know what makes a legitimate traffic study. I have been told sometimes they are done live and sometimes by computer model. I heard that from professionals who testify for the Port Authority but you have to go to them to know what a traffic study is. I wouldnt know a traffic study if i tripped over it. You said sometimes ratings have important elements to complains that this is asking too many questions. That is an old story, Governor Cuomo is not. And testify before this that i have no idea but clearly there is a difference of opinion between senator breaux knee and had boyd about the existence of a traffic study and there seems to me to be evidence that he showed on statistics and maps about traffic studies. This could go back to the nuance of what constitutes a traffic study arguing about some specifics and nuances that i am not familiar with but i certainly would not ask him to perjure himself. I am telling you what i was told and what we saw before the legislature but i certainly wouldnt accuse him of perjuring himself. Not on the road. And any way after reading everything yesterday i dont know but what i am telling you is that is what i was told, he seemed to display evidence of that bed because of the tenor of these emails and Text Messages, all of this is stuff that i am not going to war and the because i dont know given this back and forth. Senator brownie is a respectable guy, he served in this building for a long time. I have known him for a long time. When he made his testimony i would have no reason to believe he wasnt telling the truth but obviously from reading his emails yesterday there was other stuff going on i havent been informed about. You ever i never called him personally but his position continues to be that there was a traffic study and he had a disagreement with pat boyd about that. They had this agreement. That was pretty clear and i didnt think he would change his mind because he expressed those concerns in earlier written documents he had put after the press. And asking yesterday what was going on . I had no conversation. What happened here . Listen, i had earlier conversations with bill conlan as i expressed to you at the time, bill told me he knew nothing about this. Certainly the emails yesterday, well after the fact, that is not the basis upon which i made my decision on bill. My decision on bill was made based on the fact of the tone, the tenor and the conduct that was evident in those emails. I lost confidence in his judgment and that is why i made the decision. Brian . No secret the Republican Party and coming out on the sixteenth, do you see what has happened here playing into your Decision Making process of the next year or two . I have no idea what the Decision Making process would look like at this point. As i have said many times before and i know that everybody in the political me and the political chattering class wants to start the 2016 race and universities cant help themselves but do polls that meaningless. Three years away from any election and you cant help but put them in the air and talk about them. My job is to be governor of new jersey and i will say what i have said before. I am enormously flattered that folks would talk about me in my party as someone who they think could be a candidate for president but i am absolutely nowhere near beginnings that consideration process. I havent even been sworn in for my second term yet. I have worked to do here and that is my focus. My focus is on the people of new jersey and the jobs they gave me so all those considerations are the kind of hysteria that goes around this because everybody in that world gets preoccupied with that job. I am not preoccupied with that job. I am preoccupied with this one and as you can tell i have plenty to do. Not like i have spare time. You are rolling your eyes and looking very disgruntled that i havent called one you. I have known brian loggers and you. You talk about this, can you elaborate on your feelings about this, any information you garnered, wanting to show emotion on the time . I am sad. That is the predominant emotion iright now, sadness that i was betrayed by a member of my staff, sadness that i had people like interested with important jobs who acted completely inappropriately, sad is that that would the people of new jersey to have less confidence in the people that i selected, the motion i have been displaying in private is sad. As i said earlier i think in the answer to your question i dont know what the stages of grief are in exact order but i know a anger gets there at some point. I am sure i will have that too but right now i am sad. Let me just clear something up about my childhood friend david whilesteen, i met him in 1977 in high school. He is a year older than me. David and i were not friends in high school. We were not even acquaintances in high school. I had a high school in livingston, a three Year High School that had 1800 students in a three Year High School in the late 70s, i met david in a time came for Governor Campaign in 1977. The was of use volunteer and so was i. After that time i completely lost touch with david. We didnt travel within circles in high school. I was the Vice President , i dont know what david was doing, reacquainted years later in 2000 when he was helping bob frank with his Senate Campaign against jon corzine, we went 20 years without seeing each other and in the years we didnt see each other we passed in the hallways. I want to clears that up. It doesnt make a difference except some of the stories have an emotional relationship and closeness between me and david that doesnt exist. I know david, i knew that bill burrell anyone to do hired david to come to the Port Authority and i gave him permission but that was builts higher. The asked for permission and i gave my permission for him to hire david and lets be clear about the relationship. How do i feel about david now . Listen. What i read yesterday makes me angry. That is the one bit of a anger i felt. That language and that callous indifference in those emails from david are over the top outrageous. Should never have been written or bettered by someone in a position of responsibility and those sentiments. That is how i feel about it and that is the opportunity to further expand on my relationship. Why not and that i havent spoken to them since i discovered the emails but i spoke to them before and. And brigitte clearly did not tell me the truth. What bill told me at the time is not contradicted by the emails, but the emails and color and character of the emails have led me to conclude that i dont have confidence in his judgment and i asked him to move on and he has. I dont want to get in the middle of that. Said pretty clearly yesterday he intends to ask Bridget Kelly to testify and it would not be appropriate to get in the middle of that. There would be other allegations about those. As to those two folks who live may determinations regarding their future to move on and talk to other folks in my employ. There are other names in your answer. Are you confident . I believe that i have spoken to every one who was mentioned in the emails except Charlie Mckenna who is away at a family funeral and i am confident based on my conversations with them that they had no prior knowledge or examples of this situation. If that is your characterization, not mine, there is nobody on my staff who had any knowledge of this issue until after the issue was already done. Followup in the back. It is awful. I have seen conflicting reports what the cause of death was but it doesnt matter. It is awful to here. Again, listen. All i can do is apologize for the conduct of people who worked for me. I cant do anything else. I cant reverse time. If i could, believe me, i would but i can only apologize. That is all i can do and theres nothing else you can do. On the lines of doing the job as governor that you focused on in new jersey, a lot of people are upset about this. The first couple years you were governor you traveled all over the state but any thought of doing Something Like that again . Clearly we will do is town halls in the second term. We suspended town halls during the campaign because of our concern that folks may raise the issue in the midst of a campaign blurring the line between what would be a town hall, what would be a Campaign Event and during the campaign we made the determination we werent going to do town Hall Meetings as the campaign heated up to avoid that concern and i certainly had no plans to do it during the transition but we certainly intend to do town Hall Meetings in the second term and hopefully as many as we did in the first term. Town hall setting and process, and the fact is, david, i dont believe i have lost the trust of the people of new jersey. I think the people of new jersey are looking to see when mistakes are made, how their leader is going to react and i believe when they see me take the action i am taking today that mistakes were made, the governor had nothing to do with that, take responsibility for it and he made the decisions that need to be made and continue to make those decisions if necessary going forward. You think everything he knows . That is between david and his attorney, represented by counsel. I would love to hear the whole story from my own purposes but i cant advise them what to do. Some one represented by counsel will make his own judgment. I said i would like to hear the story but i dont want to be in the position of instructing someone to do something because they are represented by counsel. He and his lawyer will determine what is in their best interests. Certainly hearing the story would be good for everybody. Who initiated this . I dont know. Up to this point in time, the emails released yesterday it was a senators testimony that mr. Wildsteen initiated it with his approval. I dont know. Given some of the emails i saw yesterday, played a major role in it, the initiation, testified, time will tell but clearly there was knowledge of this action, whatever it was, prior to the beginning, with Bridget Kelly and that was something after the question of you weeks ago was not the case, what we were told after repeated questioning, all the people around here and i was lied to and for that, she is terminated. Hundreds if not thousands, failed to get the truth from them . Liz embarrassed and humiliated governor Chris Christie talking about the scandal that has rocked his second term, Cheryl Casone along with dennis kneale. And fascinating commentary from trenton, new jersey, the governor firing his deputy chief of staff, and political, punishing political enemies. And also fired another key member of the administration, Bridget Kelly will be travelling to new jersey to apologize. And standing by in washington, many areas, and he is rumored to be a leading candidate for 2016 for the republican president ial nomination. There are a couple leadership pressure is going on in washington, not sure how many folks are watching this, this is Chris Christie and whether or not he will be the republican nominee in 2016 and when you look at what the critics are saying this entire episode reinforces the fact that Chris Christie is the boule, vindictive and someone who is not above this. When you see what this could mean for the future it is 2014. We have two more years. It depends on how this pays out. He says he had no knowledge, acted quickly. If it turns out through the investigations and the u. S. Attorneys office and the state of new jersey is investigating this so state Assembly Going on in new jersey, that is how it could play out and if things are the way they are right now he could move beyond this in the next couple years. There are republicans rallying around him, one being michael gramm, republican congressman from new york state saying he acted quickly on president obama and the Health Care Debacle so this is showing Chris Christie taking control and getting to the bottom of this and acting quickly. When it comes to 2016 which is two years away. Back to you. Dennis wall street is watching and waiting in, Charlie Gasparino joins us with more and the governor seemed to be enjoying his moment in the controversial spotlight. The network should essentially charged him for a campaign commercial. That was the longest diatribe after an hour he has answered every question, nothing more to cover but it kept going on and on. I am debating whether he did a good job or didnt do a good job by keeping it going so long. Chris christie enjoyed tremendous support on wall street, his chief fundraiser, home depot founder, i made not exactly a great sampling but i called three or four or five people up, it was easy, less than an hour and no waiver unless this is a 10 tempest in a teapot unless he lied. If he didnt live the thing is done. This is a bunch of lowlevel aides that did something bad and really stupid and have been fired. They think he went on too long and should get off stage. After a while you just literally heard the same thing every if he has one problem politically it is probably his weight, this is a visual medium. He has to go out and present himself and that is an issue and the other problem is he is verbose and i am telling you you could not have a press conference like that. Having seen politicians in trouble give press conferences, and the racine someone take questions from the press, have you been looking at soulsearching, what about the other people you do business within the administration and he stood and and finance speaks in a blunt style not well managed by anything at all. Not necessarily a good thing. I would say imagemakers make a difference. If i was an image of the maker of would tell him to get to the point faster. There was the point where he was going on and on, enough. We understand. Theres something called you protest too much, the shakespearean saying. You dont want to make a mountain out of a molehill or a relative molehill out of a mountain. This isnt a good thing. Unless i am missing something, where is his culpability. Cheryl following another big story we want to get to. We will have and this is breaking news from fox business, he is paying back all the money. They are in a battle right now with jordan guilford for him to repay the money, he hasnt repaid the money he owes his victims, it is 110 million and by the way he has an come close to that. They are calling him a liar. We will get to that later today. Is there a pretty director in the movie that plays the guy you are having on . I havent seen the movie and wont see it. The fbi agent as opposed to the u. S. Attorney. We will have the guy that put him away who agrees with me, and by the way based on what the u. S. Attorneys office is telling dennis i am finishing based on that and straight ahead the earnings season after the bell but could be the start of a bumpy ride for the Fourth Quarter Earnings Report and what is bugging me, the socalled war on poverty and what a costly wrongheaded telluride has been. [ male announcer ] e new new york is open. Open to innovation. Open to ambition. Open to boldids. Thats why n york has a new plan dozens of tax free zones all across the state. Move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years. Were new york. If theres something that creates more jobs, and ows more businesses. Were open to it. Start a taxfree business at startupny. Com. In the markets. In trenton, new jersey, Chris Christies press conference that the dow down 35. Lets bring in Nicole Petallides from the stock exchange. Rollercoaster ride for stocks, jobless claims in a 5 week low. Nicole the action we have seen over the last trading week or so as traders were watching Chris Christie and most of them seem to like him and seemed positive about what he has spoken about in the last hour or so, 47 points to the downside, and back and forth action since the first trading day since the second of january we have been down, and, down every day alternating. You have a lot of names hitting highs like amazon, bowling, facebook, citigroup, las vegas to name a few, lot of airline doing well. Big picture jobless claims, adp numbers a prelude into tomorrow, see what happens tomorrow, the monthly jobs report. Cheryl you heard her say it, fewer than expected people filing for Unemployment Benefits last week but were seeing them late off. This is key in the month of december, less level in 13 years, lets bring in joni ruby, nice to see you. The wedding pictures were beautiful. What is tomorrow going to look like . What is monster worldwide saying . There are some questions about this report. Indefinitely are. It will be a positive report tomorrow. Expectations are it will be 200,000 jobs, may be some upside in that number as well. Cheryl the estimates we will get on this, 196,000 nonfarm payroll. The Unemployment Rate is 7 . Do you agree with the National Average . Unemployment rate will probably remain about the same. It could take slightly down. I wouldnt be surprised if we saw it kick slightly down but not a big change in that number. Other numbers i would definitely look at are the revisions. Did a revised october and november which has been happening the last couple reports we have gotten. And positive revisions which have told a better story and certainly we are seeing a better job, outlook and picture. Our clients at monster worldwide, we are seeing they are optimistic about hiring, they are looking forward into 2014. Cheryl the First Quarter. That is what you are seeing. They are more confident. So many factors of employers being cautious to add to their permanent payrolls so we are starting to see a little more optimism and looking to make some additional hires. Cheryl we see claims going down. We have seen that go down, nice to see but the Labour Participation rate remains stubbornly high. Do you think that is going to be a sea change in the report we get in the morning initially . I am hoping we see that number move in a positive direction. We need to see more people feeling confident about the actual job market that they start participating in looking for work, finding work, being more aggressive with their job search, and we are seeing more opportunities, it does depend on what skill, what type of position, geography plays a factor, all those things going to the equations but starting to see that number moving in the right direction. Cheryl thank you for being so patient with us. Absolutely. Dennis Dennis Rodman apologizes for comments made during his north address in north korea. Eyewall apologize for Charlie Gasparino for the hard red we did. Elizabeth warren introduces the truth in settlement act making agency settlements more transparent so congress can second guess them. Peter barnes this hour and heres how currencies are faring or not. So ally bank has a raise your rate cd that wothats correct. A rate. Cause im really nervous about getting trapped. Whys that . Uh, mark . Go get help i have my reasons. Look, you dont have to feel trapped with our raise your rate cd. If our rate on this cd goes up, yours can too. Oh that sounds nice. Dont feel trapped with the ally raise your rate cd. Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. Theres nothing like being your own boss and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. Fedex one rate. Really makes my life easier. Maybe a promotion is in order. Good news. I got a new title. And a raise . Management couldnt make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. Dennis its another david versus goliath battle when the government takes on one mom and her booming business. One year ago the department of labor targeted Arkansas Business owner for her use of volunteers at consignment sales events in her home state. The feds say these workers are fulltime employees and must be paid minimum wage. With the support of army of moms, she filed back. Filed a lawsuit against the government saying her volunteers are just that. She joins us now. Thanks for being with us. Your problem started started wie Arkansas State regulators. We think these are fulltime employees. You made one tiny change and you started calling volunteers consigners and you were fined. The feds picked up the ball. What happened next . Well in january of 2013, dennis, they audited us and in may they told us that our cooperative effort with our consigning volunteers, our moms and our customers, they told us that our cooperative effort with them is out of compliance with the fair labor standards act. They also made an arbitrary decision that our consigning volunteers need to be classified as employees. We disagreed with their position. We believe we are in compliance and we believe the law is on our side. How many of these volunteers do you have working for you . We have a couple hundred of our consigners who choose to volunteer. It is their choice and, they use their market power to create this financially, financial benefit for them. They want to sell. Theyre secondhand Childrens Clothing and toys. And so they create this Marketplace Experience that is financially beneficial to them. Dennis the great thing you have moms who have clothes for 2yearold, who is 3 or 4, outgrown them and take the clothes and almost swap them for new sizes. Sounds like a really good business. Were a lot of your volunteers complaining to the Labor Department saying were being mistreated . Where did this complaint originate . No. From what we understand there have been no complaints. Were not really sure where it started. Our moms love what we do. We have a incredible support across arkansas and across the country. There are thousands of consignment events similar to mind across the country. Families love them, dennis. Much families come to depend on them as a really a way of life. The economy is tight. This is a way for families to recycle their used childrens things. Dennis is there a chance the Labor Department could expand this crackdown on you individually to the entire consignment industry and have you started lining up other consignment folks to come in on your case with you, your lawsuit . We are working on that but you know what you said is correct. The fight is big which is why we are partnering with cause of action. Theyre a Government Accountability group to file this lawsuit. We know the stakes are high. Were here to fight, not only to protect our company but to protect the rights of moms, to use their personal time for their benefit. And the consignment industry as well as Small Business owners like me who find themselves in a position where the government has come in and done an overreach and overregulation. And so were very appreciate tiff to the cause of action for coming alongside us to file this lawsuit. Dennis we appreciate your joining us today. That is an interesting story. Best of luck to you. Rhea reiner. Thank you. Cheryl it is being called cheese apocalypse. Kraft food shortage leaving people hungry. Jeff flock will go on the hunt for americas favorite cheese product. Where is it . Dennis wwe tagteaming with the a network for a deal ahead. That is ahead in media minute. Dennis stocks now every 15 minutes. Lets head to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and Nicole Petallides. What you got . Back and forth action. Nasdaq hit a record high since 2000. We have names on the move including yum brands which was cut by morgan stanley. Concerns about the china growth story that it is problematic for yum brands. And cut buffalo wild wings. Both fastfood chains are to the downside. Taco bell, kfc. Well look at other names. Ford raised its dividend by 25 . Alan mulally stays on board so that is a big deal. Bad bath beyond, tough numbers, cutting outlook. Stock is down 14 . A Liver Disease drug so that one is soaring. Intercept. New highs for facebook and visa. Back to you. Dennis thank you, nicole. Cheryl Elizabeth Warren and tom coburn introducing Bipartisan Legislation calling for more clarity in financial settlement deals that Government Agencies make. Peter barnes is standing by with none other than than senator Elizabeth Warren. Peter, take it away. Cheryl, thank you. Were with senator Elizabeth Warren to talk about the new legislation she announced yesterday with senator tom coburn. This is the truth in settlement act. What is the problem with all these settlement that is weve been seeing and reading about . And what would your legislation do . So, you may remember last year, i really kind of raised a fuss along with some other people why these agencies didnt take more of the big banks and other Financial Institutions to trial when they thought they had done something wrong. The response of the agencies was, hey, were doing settlements and settlements are a great deal for the american taxpayer. So, if its a great deal for the american taxpayer, then why is it they dont want to give us if you information about what the settlement is . What this law would require, the one ive just cosponsored with senator coburn, it would require the agencies to have to post online, heres what the settlement is. Gift details of the settlement. So the American People can look at it and say, yeah, that looks like a good deal or not. It also requires the companies to have to post information. It is just transparency, good government. At love this is, has to do with these, for example, deferred prosecution agreements. Youre concerned about those. Where, and also, about potential credits against some of these settlements and penalty that is weve seen in some of these, in some of these settlements. In fact, let me give you an example of that. You remember the whole business about the Mortgage Servicing fraud that all came out . Well one big settlement that got announced in that was for 8. 5 billion. Great headline, right . It turns out that about 5. 2 billion of that were credits. Now, Pay Attention here. On the credits it turned out that what one of banks could do or any of the banks could do, they could give, lets say a 10,000 credit against half a Million Dollars mortgage. So how much credit would they get, if they gave 10,000 . Obviously not 10,000. Youre right. They got credit then for the whole half a million. So they werent even giving anything up. So that settlement with the big headline, as much as 60 of that recovery that they were telling the taxpayers they were going to get, they werent going to get. We need to make them tell. Now this week we also got a settlement from jpmorgan on the madoff scandal. About 2 billion. And, it turns out as there is no credit, this is in fact a penalty. So there is no Tax Deduction for it. Now is that moving in the right direction . Is that the kind of thing youre trying to get to the bottom of . You bet it is moving in the right direction. This one makes it public. Says right up front they will not be able to get a Tax Deduction for this, because this is another one of the ways they have been hiding the real Economic Impact of these settlements, giving a big number. But then the company got a Tax Deduction for it. So it turned out taxpayers were picking up part of the ticket. This particular settlement they moved into the right direction. We want to make sure were pushing all the agencies to move in that direction. While i have you, last week, last month, rather when you were up in boston you were asked if you were going to run for president. Right. And you said no. Why not . And is the rest of the field potentially hillary clinton, for example, progressive enough for you . Your supporters think that perhaps not. Look i am the senator from massachusetts and im working my heart out every single day to be the best senator i can. There is so much work to be done right here in the United States senate. Work like the kind were doing today on transparency and settlements. Moving the bank regulators. But more work, work on student loans. Work on retirement crisis. Im right here doing the i was elected to do and i will keep on doing it. You told voters you plan to stay through the end of your term as senator which is 2019 . Im working, im working to stay in here. Senator warren. Thanks for joining us on fox business. The chairman, dennis, back to you. Cheryl petering very much. Thanks to senator warren for first on fox business interview. Thank you, peter. Dennis is cable about to get body slammed by pro wrestling. Wwe is launching its own network but sidestepping cable to set up directly on internet. Wwe Network Launch as november 2 this all the fake soup plexes and sleeper holds and figure four leg locks usually only on cable. It will cost subscribers 10 bucks a month t will be available on wwe website on apple, android, kindle, playstation, xbox. This is one the first bigname webonly nets to bypass cable entirely. It will not be the last. Yahoo , what is really ceo marisa mayer, maven in Search Technology having yahoo produce three new half hour comedies. Adweek reports, why order shows from disney or fox or warner the experts when you can do it yourself. Yahoo , youre no netflix. Yahoo is curator of other content. It wants to be produce tv shows seen only at yahoo website . This ought to be fun to watch. Cheryl the state of alaska possibly following in washington and colorados footsteps. How and when alaska could become the third state to legalize recreational marijuana. That is coming up in the west coast minute. Dennis gold losing its luster. Bank of america joining the growing chorus against the precious metal. Phil flynn has the latest from the cme. Male announcer ] once, there was a man who found a magic seashell. It told him what was happening on the tradg floor in real time. The shell brought him great fame. But then, one day, he noticed that everybody could have a magic seashell. [ indistinct talking ] [ male announcer ] right there in their Trading Platform. [ indistinct talking continues ] [ male announcer ] so the magic shell went back to being a. Shell. Get live squawks right in your Trading Platform with think or swim from td ameritrade. Of the dusty basement at 06 35th street the old dining table at 25th and hoffman. And the little room above the strip mall f roble avenue. This magic momt it is the story of where every great idea begins. And of those o believed they had the power to do more. Dell is honored to be part of some of the worldgreat stories. That began much the same w ours did. In a little dorm room 2713. This magic moment [ male announcer ] wt kind of energy is so abundant, it can help provide the power for all th natural gas. More than ever before, americas electricity is generated by it. Exnmobil uses advanced visualization and Drilling Technologies to produce natural gas. Powering our lives. While reducing emissions by up to 60 . Energy lives here im tracy byrnes with your fox business brief. Mortgage rates have leveled off. According to freddie mac the average rate for a 30year fixed mortgage fell to 4. 51 last week. That is down from the previous weeks 4. 53 . Now the average 15year fixed up slightly to 3. 56 . Ford raise its First Quarter dividend by 25 , 12 1 2 cents a share, up from 10 cents a share in previous quarters. Now the automaker announced record sales . Thailand, vietnam and asia up 7 yearoveryear as well. The. Planned merger between on myp con and french based publicis has approval of e. U. Trust regulators. The 35 billion doll deal would create the biggest advertising agency. Wpp is the current one now. Latest from fox business, giving you the power to prosper. Cheryl alcoa kicking off the new earnings season after the bell and record 94 Companies Issuing negative preannouncemnts has investors strapping themselves in frankly what could be a bumpy ride this season. We have january any chief investment strategist, mark lou sheenchy. You say luschini. You say despite all the negative warnings it could be a good quarter. How do you figure. You mentioned amount of preannouncements biased negative so far yet the market hasnt really reacted negatively to it. Of course so far earlier this year, conditions have been a little weaker than momentum coming out of the end of 2013 but thats a little bit natural after the 30 plus percent return. Cheryl mark, we know how it works every quarter. Companies come out, preannounce. All analysts lower estimates, oh look, they beat the estimates. Shocking there, right . Isnt that what were seeing again for this quarter . It happens almost every time. I think earnings on balance will be up probably midsingle digits, which is okay, who not terrific. Important to watch what management says about 2014 because the fact is earnings estimates for the balance of this year show about a 10 yearoveryear increase in Earnings Growth and obviously that has got to be driven by more than just extrapolating costs from companies at this juncture. It is more about Revenue Growth and thats going to be driven by Economic Growth faster than what were seeing today so i want to hear what companies are saying about the optimism they have for those Economic Conditions to support better and faster earnings activity. Cheryl thats a really good point. We have seen improvement not just the estimates for upcoming gdp but for the Fourth Quarter but also the third quarter. Earnings per share growth in 2014, where are you at right now . What do you think well actually get for the entire year . Because a lot of our viewers and investors are trying to make moves for the year. They will not invest quarter by quarter. They make it for entire year of 2014. What do you say . 2014 consensus estimates are 20 for s p 500 companies. On balance that puts market a little over 15 times forward earnings. That may end up being not overly ambitious given the fact our base case holds we think were seeing synchronized Global Economic expansion which the u. S. Is poised to accelerate, europe coming online with improving growth, japan is growing nicely and we think the slowdown in china is over and as a consequence it may be a fertile climate to see that kind of Earnings Growth. Cheryl do you think it is emerging market story or u. S. Based story . If you look what is coming out of the washington the news there will be all about the debt ceiling fight. Well be at the situation again. Well be talking about monetary policy. We have janet yellen coming in. Well be watching the fed. All of that could be that one reason that investors need to selloff. Maybe thats not a bad thing. Maybe a little correction isnt a bad thing or at least a pullback. Well all of those and probably more are good reasons for a selloff. The fact we have gone as long as we have without a more substantive correction than weve seen in 2013 is highly unusual so i would fully be prepared for one and welcome one because think it would restore valuations for more comfortable level than where were at. I think it is developed country phenomenon that investors will want to participate in. U. S. , europe, even japan and less so in emerging markets which is highly nuanced story given the withdrawal of the liquidity the fed and european banks are often times loners to emerging market companies. Cheryl i wonder what myself what the sector surprise will be. Maybe it will be the banks, who knows. Mark luschini. Good to see you. Thank you. You the same. Dennis gold losing more of its luster, bank of America Merrill lynch joining the ranks drastically slashing the 2014 outlook on the metals price. Lets go to the trading pits on the cme and phil flynn. Phil . You know today both gold and silver have been higher despite this call. Theyre slashing gold to 1150dollars an ounce. That is down 11 from the previous call. Theyre slashing silver whopping 21 to 11. 30. What is interesting if you read the meat of this call from bank of America Merrill lynch theyre giving themselves an out. One of the things that throws gold prices lower this year was investment demand. Theyre saying if that goes away, if investors stop selling we could stablize about where we are now. At 1200 an ounce. Theyre also kind of interesting saying that were already seeing some signs of reef balancing in the market where people are moving away from stocks back into gold. They dont expect that to continue but they said if it does, maybe gold has hit a bottom but really talking out of both sides of their mouth but the main call is lower. Dennis thank you very much, phil flynn. Cheryl time for your west coast minute. The famous las vegas sign thats featured in film and Television Shows that welcomes visitors to sin city, if youve seen it is powered now by solar energy. The project was the brainchild of green chips and Clean Energy Project with backing from several Nevada Energy companies. The sign has been in place since 1959. It has been featured in dozen of movies and tv shows throughout the years. California exports hit prerecession levels. Businesses shipped 15. 2 billion worth of merchandise, that is a gain of 14 from the year prior. Californias export number is double the National Average. A lot of computers theyre exporting. Wouldnt be the west coast minute without a marijuana story. A group in alaska turned in more than enough ballots to put legalized pot on august ballot for voter approval. 40,000 signatures were collected, 30,000 more than they needed. Voters approved medical marijuana in 1998 by 15 margin. That is your west coast minute. Dennis velveeta shortage is threatening football parties across the nation as fans gear up for the super bowl. Jeff flock is on the case hoping to help you avoid a potential dip crisis. [ male announcer ] this m has an Accomplished Research and Analytical Group at his disposal. But even more pressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. Morning. Morning. Thanks for meeting so early. Oh, its not a big deal at all. Come on in. [ male announcer ] its how edward jones makes sense of investing. Open to innovation. Open to ambition. Open to boldids. Thats why n york has a new plan dozens of tax free zones all across the state. Move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years. Were new york. If theres something that creates more jobs, and ows more businesses. Were open to it. Start a taxfree business at startupny. Com. Cheryl some are calling it a cheese apocalypse or the Great National meltdown, get it . Fear and chaos of velveeta shortage throughout the nation. We need the dip during football season. We sent jeff flock to do the story. Of course. Where is the velveeta . Were dying. Would you like the 2 . Would you like the original velveeta . Would you like the sharp cheddar velveeta . Twopound brick, maybe or one pound . Cheesepocalypse. Craft is the biggest Cheese Company in the history of civilization. What is about the shortage thing, really running out of cheese . Look at kraft spokesman. Look at words very carefully, jody moore, the kraft spokesman, it is possible in some velveeta locations they dont have it. The fact we really havent heard much about from consumers. Got us thinking, we love the stories and talk about a cheesepocalypse. Maybe that is not so. Look at the advertising age story that started whole thing, ad age, even in first comment, somebody said, quote, seems like a good marketing plan, taking something that people want and saying that they cant get it . Yeah. Someone didnt hit their numbers last year. And by the way, velveeta available not only on the shelf, you dont have to rerefrigerate it. This is in the dairy case. This is, you know how many bricks can i get you here . This place is packed with velveeta. Well be combing chicago supermarkets though today to see if we can find any truly out of. We report. You decide. Cheryl hall european, that is what i request jalapeno, that is what i request. Spicy. Okay. Cheryl look at his face. She is serious. Dennis picking up the pieces, new jersey governor Chris Christie taking action in unfolding traffic scandal. Straight ahead, howard kurtz on what it could mean for his political aspirations. Keeping private message private. On snapchat, how confide can protect your texts. That is coming up next hour of markets now. Maybe more things about velveeta were hoping. Welco back. How is everything . Theres nothing like being your own boss and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. Fedex one rate. Really makes my life easier. Maybe a promotion is in order. Good news. I got a new title. And a raise . Management couldnt make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. Simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. My dad has aor afib. Brillation, he has the most common kind. Its not caused by a heart valve problem. Dad, it says your afib puts you at 5 times greater risk of a stroke. Thats why i take my warfarin every day. But it looks like maybe we should ask your doctor about pradaxa. In a clinical trial, pradaxa® Dabigatran Etexilate mesylate . Was proven superior to warfarin at reducing the risk of stroke. And unlike warfarin, with no regular blood tests or dietary restrictions. Hey thanks for calling my doctor. Sure. Pradaxa is not for people with artificial heart valves. Dont stop taking pradaxa without talking to your doctor. Stopping increases ask your doctor if you need to stop pradaxa before surgery or a medical or dental procedure. Pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. Dont take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding or have had a heart valve replaced. Seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if youre 75 or older, have a bleeding condition or stomach ulcer, take aspirin, nsaids, or blood thinners. Or if you have kidney problems, especially if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctors about all medicines you take. Pradaxa side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. If you or someone you love has afib not caused by a heart valve problem. Ask your doctor about reducing the risk of stke with pradaxa. Cheryl classic songs and the classics can. The worlds busiest bridge at the center of the storm. Adam new jersey governor Chris Christie apologized and fired his top aide following revelations as staffer created traffic jams as political retribution. Lori fox news analyst and immediate post howard kurtz joins us in a moment to talk about what this means for the governors chances of a president ial run in 2016. Adam if theres one thing we learned from recent scandals it is that your messages are not safe. The cofounders of a new apps being snapped that for the Corner Office on find embedded encoded Text Messages. Lori Jordan Belfort is in the cross hairs of the Justice Department this time over repaving victims of the pennystock scam. Adam Charlie Gasparinos interview with the man who prosecuted him. And in the the real life wolf of wall street. Lori lets get an update on the market. Fox in the red ahead of tomorrows allimportant jobs report. Let head back to the floor, check in with Nicole Petallides. Nicole just happened to glance up because you have the backandforth action that has