new jersey governor chris christie. [ applause ] i think that s my favorites one we ve seen so far. i feel like yelling at a teacher. joining me, steve kornacki, host of up here on msnbc and resident expert on all things new jersey. so much to parse here. a, it s weird to declare at your high school. then there s the connection which is something you would imagine he wants to distance himself from as much as possible, but that seemed incidental today. in a way, it s where it started. it sort of explains why he s doing there with the political world telling him you re not going win, the bridge thing is destroyed. you have no chance, why are you going forward with this? this is the textbook imadministration of illustration, of he s had his eyes this moment, this opportunity his whole life. starting in high school he was a student politician moved up through the county rank in new jersey. he caught a lot of breaks along the way but always was eyeing, you know how
the culture wars should treat the losers. if i become president, i just want to remind people that please don t complain if i were to put a nativity scene out during christmas. all in starts right now. good evening from new york. i m chris hayes. four years after the donor class was begging him to run for president against barack obama, less than two years after he won reelection by a landslide in his home state, new jersey governor chris christie officially entered the 2016 race today at what may be the low point of his entire political career. announcing his run before a friendly crowd at his high school alma mater, where the former class president claims he ran in different circles than classmate david wildstein, the one-time appointee indicted in the bridgegate scandal. christie tried to position himself as a straight-talking outsider with crossover appeal. i am not running for president of the united states as a surrogate for being elected prom king of america.
christmas. all in starts right now. good evening from new york. four years after the donor class came out, less than two years everyone real ledge that he officially entered the 2016 race today. what may be the low point of his entire political career. announcing before a family crowd at his high school alma mater, where the former class presidents claim he went into different directions as david while steve, he is a straight talking outsider. i am not running for president as a surrogate for eating a like did prompt king of america. i am not looking to be the most popular guy who looks in your eyes every day and tries to figure out what you want to hear, say it and turn around and say something else. when i stand up on a stage like this in front of all of you, there is one thing you will know for sure, i mean what i say and i say what i mean, and that s what america needs right now. but the former front-runner has a long way to go to recover the stature and support.
charleston. hundreds of people lining up early this morning to honor and remember pastor clementa pinckney. president obama will arrive later this afternoon to deliver the eulogy. south carolina s former lawsuit governor glen mcconnell now supporting removing the confederate flag from the state house where pastor pinckney s body was on public view earlier this week. that is a significant move since back in 2010 mcconnell posed for pictures wearing a confederate army uniform with two black people dressed as dlaifsslaves. we can only assume mcconnell re regrets these pictures as well. but today about honoring clementa pinckney. reporter: thousands of people are filing into td arena.
as of last week, americans for prosperity, a group funded in part by the koch brothers spent over $16 million on ads going after democratic senate candidates. overall, they ve spent more than $30 million already in at least 8 states. for little perspective on what that money buys, take a look at the number of tv spots afp has aired versus the pro-democrat senate majority pac. more than twice as much. and yet a majority of americans still have never heard of the koch brothers. an additional 11% have no opinion on them. harry reid has been trying to change that, and last night, he appeared to score a victory on that front courtesy of the wall street journal which published an op-ped from charles koch defending himself as a man who has devoted most of my life to understanding the principles that enable people to improve their lives. meanwhile, charles koch claims he s been attacked and maligned for business efforts by collectivists. a term he mentioned at least four times in t