Transcripts For CNN American Morning 20111213

of us have been together. >> good to see you. >> as usual a busy, busy news morning. breaking news now. four soldiers are dead after two army choppers went down during a training exercise. it happened a joint base lewis-mcchord in washington state. crash investigators are trying to find out what went wrong right now. pliv on the pholive on the phon crash site. what do we know? >> i'm watching the lights of the recovery teams that have been looking throughout the night to go in the grim task of recovering those bodies of the four aviators that lost their lives. still don't know what went wrong. at about 11:00 p.m. eastern last nim, sometime after 11:00 p.m. two helicopters crashed killing everybody aboard both helicopters. these are small observation helicopters, ali. the eyes and ears of what's on the ground. flying maneuvers over a training area when this crash took place. it will probably be most of the day before they can take advantage of the daylight and recover the bodies and start the, really, arduous task, figure out happened here. this is such a busy base, ali, covering the largest final group of soldiers that is coming back from iraq. at the same time that there's a whole movement at this base to get soldiers to afghanistan on other deployments. this news is going to be affecting this base. >> keep your ears and eyes on what caused this crash. the espionage drone that went down is theirs. a request by president obama to return it. iran's military has been poring over the drone for intelligence data. president ahmadinejad considers it a gift. >> translator: the north americans at best have decided to give us a spy plane. apparently we have control of this plane. those who have been in control of this plane surely will analyze the plane's system. furthermore, the systems of iran are so advanced also, like the systems of this plane, and the unpiloted planes, we have made many advances, much progress, and now we have the spy plane. >> meantime, former vice president dick cheney is weighing in saying the president's response was a mistake. >> the right response to that would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it. you could do that from the air, do it with a quick air strike and in effect make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone. >> cheney says if iran sends it back at all it will be in pieces after getting all the intelligence they can out of it. jerry sandusky faces his accusers in court today. they'll describe abuse suffered years ate at the hands of the former penn state coach. the judge will decide whether there's enough evidence to try sandusky on more than 50 charges of molestation of little boys. outside the courthouse in pennsylvania, susan, how many victims do we expect in court today to take the stand? >> reporter: you know, carol, it's impossible to say at this time. we know that there are ten victims referred to in that grand jury report and the prosecutors are aware of at least eight of them. look, counting up the numbers, there could be perhaps three to five victims who are able to take the stand today. alleged victims, to tell their story, and this is going to be fascinating, because for the first time we will hear likely in excruciating detail exactly what they say happened to them, and as you indicated, they'll have to do this facing jerry sandusky for the very first time, but it's not necessary for the prosecutors necessarily to put all of the alleged victims on the stand. instead, they could also introduce their statements to police, for example. it's impossible to say how long this hearing will take. could be just today. could even last until tomorrow. >> so some of these alleged victims will take the stand and testify. will they be cross-examined, so to speak, by znl sandusky's attorneys? >> reporter: oh, absolutely. and also the first time they'll get a preview of what kind of evidence prosecutors say they have against jerry sandusky. so, yes. these alleged victims will face, likely, a tough cross-examination by sandusky's lawyer, but by court rules, they're not -- he is not allowed to try to impeach them at this stage of the proceeding. remember, the prosecutors only have to put on enough evidence to convince a judge that, one, that a crime occurred, and that, two, jerry sandusky may be the person responsible in order for a trial to take place. >> so bellefonte, pennsylvania, it's a tiny town. 6,200 people live in and suddenly it's this huge center of attention. how much reporters are there with you at the courthouse? >> reporter: well, hundreds of them. even at this early hour we're seeing people come in. this has been a huge disruption to this town. you can imagine. they've had to close off streets in order to accommodate all the extra parking that is necessary for all the reporters and journalists that have come to town, but they've done a very good job. everyone has been very welcoming so far, but we are hearing from some residents who are worried about the impression that the world might have about their town, even though it is just the courthouse that is home to this preliminary hearing, and possibly this trial as well. it's a beautiful town. it looks great at this hour, too, with all the twinkling lights out for the holiday. historic courthouse. and it is, as you said, going to be in the spotlight all day today. >> susan candiotti reporting live from pennsylvania this morning. thanks, susan. going to politics, three weeks to go before the iowa caucuses. numbers looking very good for newt gingrich. look at two brand new polls. gingrich opening up a five-point lead over mitt romney and ron paul according to the american research group. you can see ron paul and mitt romney tied there at 17%. gets better for gingrich in the latest university of iowa hawkeye poll. the former house speaker surging to a ten-point lead over romney and a 19-point cushion over ron paul. in this case, bachmann comes in next and the last poll was perry. gingrich is trying to build on his momentum by closing ranks with evangelical christians and has written a letter to a family leader, socially conservative group in iowa promising to defend and strengthen the family and uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity. gingrich has been married three times. gingrich hit the pause button in his rival with with mitt romney and turned on jon hutsman. right from the start, in a debate, things turned downright -- polite. i know. so weird. isn't it? jim acosta, that is kind of strange. they were just two guys chatting? >> reporte >> reporter: that's right. billed as gentleman's conversation. it actually said that on our press passes at the debate yesterday here in manchester, let's not kid ourselves. for newt gingrich these day, the real fight is with mitt romney. >> i agree with newt completely. >> i strongly concur with the governor. >> reporter: billed as a lincoln-douglass-style debate, more a lovefest, gingrich versus huntsman. so mild mannered it got mind numbing for one candidate's own family. >> i can see my daughter nodding off over there. >> she was nodding off. >> reporter: gingrich had time to add to his collection of provocative campaign moments on the subject of iran. >> i believe we cannot allow them to have a nuclear weapon. therefore, i believe we have to be for regime change. we are not going to tolerate an iranian nuclear weapon. >> reporter: huntsman would not go that far. >> i agree all options need to be on the table and they need to know in iran all options are on the table and zero -- >> reporter: gingrich saying the very survival depended on spoping nuclear ambitions. >> am i going to take the risk of presiding over the second se holocaust, which would mean the end of -- >> reporter: and that kind of talk why dick cheney fondly remembered newt gingrich as speaker. >> tenacious, kept it up and kept it up and kept it up. finally by '94, he's the newly elected speaker of the house of representatives with a republican majority. so i wouldn't underestimate him. >> reporter: the one-on-one debate was no match for the fight between gingrich and mitt romney who said the former speaker should give back some of the money he made with housing giant freddie mac. >> do you believe he should give that money back? >> i sure do. >> reporter: gingrich was ready, saying downsize as the head of a private investment firm. >> if governor romney would like to give back all the money he's earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees, then i would be glad to then listen to him. >> reporter: romney says thi battle for the nomination could go on for months and called gingrich the man to beat. >> is newt gingrich the front-runner in this race? >> he is right now. >> reporter: as for huntsman versus gingrich, he repeated this to president obama for their own style of lincoln-douglass debates. a wager that would not happen. >> i'll bet you $10,000 he doesn't show up. >> reporter: now, gingrich and huntsman have a mutual self-interest here in new hampshire. if they could somehow deny romney a victory in this state, they could give a serious blow to his campaign. he may be going negative with advertising against gingrich in the coming days adding, there's no whining in politics. >> will negative ads work in new hampshire? >> reporter: you know, that remains to be seen. i don't know if they will, because you have to go back to 200 and what happened here. you know, everybody talks about how mitt romney is the governor of a neighboring state harks a second home here in new hampshire. keep in mind, john mccain won this race in 2008. mitt romney went heavily negative against john mccain in that election, in that primary, and john mccain came out on top. so there is a risk involved there for mitt romney, negative in a heavy fashion. >> want to place a $10,000 bet with me? >> reporter: i'm not a betting man, carol, but -- how about a cup of coffee? >> you got it. jim acosta, you got. >> reporter: you're just out of touch, carol. >> i know! >> that's what it is. i'll bet him a cup of coffee, too. that's what i can afford. 12 minutes after the hour. also making news this morning, congress is scheduled to wrap up business for the year this morning and still no agreement on extending that pay roll tax cut. house republicans are scheduled to vote on their plan which also includes a provision for the keystone pipeline, something the democrats said it a non-starter. democrats want to pay for it with a millionaire's surtax. and taking the case involving arizona's controversial immigration law. federal court blocked key provisions of this law which allows police officers to check a person's immigration status during traffic stops. the obama administration says it is the federal government's job. the justices will hear on arizona appeal in april way ruling expected next summer. and new jersey governor jon corzine will testify about his bankrupt brokerage firm mf global and more than $1 million in customer money that remains missing. last week corzine denied knowing where the funds were and stopped short of taking responsibility for the firm's failure. >> there are farmers now having to delay their farm decisions because they don't have their money back because of this bankruptcy. >> some kind of big, inside the world of financing, a lot of farmers depend, ranchers, farmers, out real money. small farmers, though. >> and equipment dealers out real money because they're not getting commitments to buy new tractors for the spring. farmers are waiting to see if they'll get their money back. ramifications that go all the way from the top of corporate finance all the way down to the -- >> down the table. >> and are there companies that really do not know where a huge load of money went? >> back in 2001, all the corporate scandals, enron, worldcom and then disclosure a ceo has to sign off. they cannot say they don't know where it went. so we'd like to think that they can't not know. this kind of stuff is -- >> a run on this bank, what it looks like. a run, investors getting concerned how much exposure this company had, but if it was a run, very well could have been -- the investigation is looking into whether someone, someone, inside that company was quickly trying to move money around to stop the bleeding, and that's where it starts from there. >> we'll talk to michigan senator about this later on this morning. they're going to hold this testimony today and we'll see what happens. coming up ahead on "american morning," architects call it the cloud. many 9/11 families say this building design looks too much like the cloud of debris that erupted from the twin towers. we'll tell you the firm's response. iran delivered a defiant response following an appeal by president obama for tehran to return a u.s. spy drone that fell into their hands. >> i want my drone back! he's got billions and avery johnson, and nba owners, plan to take on vladimir putin and his political machine in russia. it's 15 minutes past the hour. 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( announcer ) fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself nonstop. american airlines. welcome back. it was one of the most shocking sights in modern times. 1,300 foot high twin towers coming down in a cloud of smoke and debris, why a group of dutch architects are getting blasted for planning a building that looks like this in south korea. >> whoa. >> the architects visualized puppy clouds in the skies, their words. too many people on the right, left and center in america are saying, this hits too close to home. there they are on the left side of the screen, compared to the scene -- >> why would they put the clouds down? >> i don't inside what that's about. >> the architects insist they didn't see the connection. nobody has ever done this and nobody in the room said, kind of looks like an explosion. the firm is apologizing for hurting anyone's feelings and will not alter the design. >> they're going to build the building or their design proposal? >> i think they're going to go ahead and build it. what a strange architectural building bip put the clouds down in the middle of the building? >> if you hadn't had exposure, a really tall building, up in the clouds. i don't know. >> maybe we're being too sensitive. something you don't hear every day. a story involving russian politics in new jersey. the billionaire owner -- he will run against vladimir putin for president in march. putin is presently the prime minister. tens of thousands protested accusing putin and his party of rigging parliamentary elections. so prokorov is russia's third richest man can afford to run and still have dough left over. >> actually, in his native russian, sounds an awful lot like billionaire, when you say his name. funny, the connection. rob marciano. >> at least he didn't challenge him to a game of basketball. maybe a bit of an advantage height-wise. good morning all three. a triple vision. it's been so long. >> nice to be back. >> good morning, guys. across the southwest, a storm still continues and now some of that moisture is moving to the plains. icy conditions across parts of nebraska and more rain across the midsouth where really they don't need anymore. incredible year for places like lieville, kentucky. spots in arizona seeing a decent amount of snowfall with this system, and it's slowly turning away from the northwest and rain in los angeles system a threat. the east coast, most spots east of the mississippi will be not only dry but more mild. temperatures for the most part will be over 40 degrees in many, many spots. los angeles, san diego, where you're going to see more in the way of showers and low clouds. some delays in. phoenix as well because of that storm and st. louis and miami might see some delays, most of which below an hour. temperatures mild. 4 42 in chicago, and further north, manchester, new hampshire, not weather related, interesting video. a sinkhole developed because of a water main break there, when all of this was breaking out, there was -- there was a woman in that car, and fell into the sinkhole and the sinkhole was filling up with water as this was going on. firefighters had a pretty harrowing time getting her out, but all is well and they even got her bags, she was shopping. >> i think of the road under me. silly to think of that particularly in new york. i think the road under me is solid. they've tarred over what was once a dirt road. nothing but space undernooth new manhattan, but whenever i see pictures like that, sometime'ses you remember, that road is just a little crust of tar. >> but a fair assumption that the road is going to hold. >> that's the assumption i like to make. >> the infrastructure is oh old underneath, and then the pipes go -- >> thank goodness for firefighters. >> good to see you. coming up, the emotional apologies of four cincinnati basketball players involved in this weekend's vicious on-court fight. did you see this? >> oh, yeah. >> weren't of the men breaking down in tears. we'll show it to you when we come back. good morning. welcome back. "minding your business" this morning, u.s. stock futures pointing higher this morning after concerns the euro won't do enough to address europe's financial problems. pushed the dow down yesterday. more than 162 points. the ratings agency moody's announced yesterday it will review ratings of all eu nations. the federal reserve will no doubt weigh the risk when it meets later today. most economists and analysts expect the central bank to hold off when it comes to a strategy to boost the economy. keep interest close to 0% as the fed forecast. and at&t putting its wireless carrier on hold. an antitrust suit it needs to win to keep the merger alive. justice department and zecco pose the deal saying it would leak to higher cell phone bills and less competition for you and me. and restarting production of its chevy cruze plant in ohio. the plant shut down yesterday after because of a supplier issue. the second best selling car in the american market. with unemployment ate 8.6%, american workers will go to great lengths to keep their jobs. according to a new survey by staffing company ranstad u.s. more that a quarter said they would work longer hour, give up their bonus and accept a reduction in benefits just to keep their job, though only 16% would accept a paycut in order to stay employed. speaking of working longer hour, several macy stores pulling all-nighters to finish holiday shopping. the retailer says 14 of its stores will stay open for 83 hours straight leading up to christmas eve. "american morning" will be right back after the break. the accused serial child molester jerry sandusky back in court today. this time sitting across from his accusers and the colleague who told the grand jury he saw what happened in that shower on this "american morning." good morning to you all. welcome back. it is 31 minutes after the hour. time for this morning's top stories -- four soldiers are dead after two army chappers went down during a chaining exercise. teams trying to recover the remains right now. the military stead happened on training grounds inside joint base lewis-mcchord in washington state. the commander of the base promising a thorough investigation. iran responding with defiance to president obama's request that iran give back a downed u.s. spy plane. iran's defense minister says the drone went down in iranian territory is now their property, and president ahmadinejad claims they've gathered enough intelligence to control the stealth aircraft. house speaker john boehner says there will be a vote in the house today on the republican version on a plan to extend the tax cut. including plans for a controversial oil pipeline from canada to texas. all right. the smale town of bellfont parks pa is the center of the news world today as jerry sandusky gets set to face accusers for the first time since abusing them as little boys. a crime reporter for the "patriot news" on top of the story from the very beginning, good morning, sara. >> reporter: good morning, ali. >> what are we expecting to happen today? we know a number of people have been subpoenaed. are they all testifying? >> reporter: that's unclear. we know a lot of them will be here. they could be called to testify. i know of several who have been subpoenaed, but, you know, it all kind of depends on how it's going. you know, as the prosecution's case begins, and who they feel they need to testify. they're not going to call more people than they have to, because this is not a trial. this is a bake hesic hearing to determine if they can get to a trial. the more they put on today, the defense, the reason they're going forward with this is to get information, to try and get to possibly two times where they can get these alleged victims on the stand telling their story and compare them to their grand jury testimony and try to pick it apart and say possibly you know, there were inconsistencies. so they're going to put in little as they have to, because, you know, that's better for their alleged victims and their witnesses. >> you're so clear on this. so let me understand this from an outsider's perspective for our viewers. there was a grand jury. there were charges brought forth by the attorney general. by the state's other than. why is this process required? haven't they already established they have enough to move forward on in terms of a trial? >> reporter: it's interesting, ali, because i have seen, you know, like in big drug investigations from the attorney general's office where they have kind of skipped this step, because there was a grand jury, but in pennsylvania, grand jury don't indict like you see on "law & order." grand jury create a presentment, and then it's the attorney general's decision whether or not to press charges. so this is -- this is a middle step, and it does seem, like you said, something they don't have to do, but, i mean, they are doing it in this case probably because the defense would have put up a big fight if they tried to waive it? >> that makes it a lot clearer. and mcqueary, a lot made about his story he gave a family friend, a doctor, being different from the one he gave in a written report. is he expected to testify? >> reporter: he could testify. you know i think one of the big questions here, surrounding mike mcqueary is, have they found that victim number two, from that 2002 report? at the time that jerry sandusky was charged prosecutors did not know who that child was. we don't know, though, if in the last six weeks they found him. especially with all the media coverage, that boy might have come forward, so he's going to testify. prosecutors probably don't have to put mike mcqueary on the stand. if he does, his testimony will be one of the most sought-after testimony today, because of all of the questions surrounding his story in the last couple of weeks. >> you keep pointing out prosecutors don't want to do more today than they need to because this is not a trial. they want to do as much as they have to do get this to move forward. a lot of media at, in this courthouse today. probably some jerry sandusky supporters as well? >> reporter: yeah. you know, i'm told that his wife is going to be here. his family is going to be here. his pastor of several years is going to be here. possibly members of the congregation from their church. i know that, you know, the courtroom has a lot of extra chairs that have been put in there for media, for the public who won the lottery and able to sit in the courtroom today, but there's also a sectioned off area for the jerry sandusky supporters. it's very interesting, i think, if you're outside of happy valley, outside of state college, jerry sandusky is, you know, almost like the most hated man in the world, but here in state college, if you go into coffee shops, and street corners, you hear a lot of people talk about, you know -- well, it's more of a balance, i think, of opinions here of him. >> sara, interestingly enough, the judge is going to allow you to tweet and text. we'll be hearing from you and other members of the media throughout the course ever the day. a crime reporter of the "patriot news "and a cnn contributor following story closely. thanks, sara. happening across the country, and earlier this morning it is happening in baltimore. police reportedly moved in to break up the occupy baltimore encampment. protesters have been camping out near the inner harbor for the last two months. according to cnn's affiliate wmar, things are reportedly peaceful but police are in full riot gear. across the country they're succeeding in shutting down operations at california's port of oakland overnight. protesters hope locking the docks will cut into the profits of the big corporations that run them. similar demonstrations happened in seattle, portland and houston. 20 arrests at houston the protests. and emotional cincinnati players involved in a brute's brawl. the nationally televised happened friday night between xavier. yancy gates who threw the punch that landed a xavier player on the floor with blood streaming from his eye broke down and apologized in front of the full city of cincinnati. >> not that type of person. a lot of people are calling me thug -- >> each school suspended four players. meantime, prosecutors are considering criminal charges. >> do we -- what started this? >> crosstown rivals. intense rivalry between these two teams for decades, and just got -- >> got too hot. trash talking before the game and continued trash talking and then it became violent like this. >> one of the coaches even said, we're talking about whether we're even going to continue with the team. whether i'm going to keep my job. weren't of the coaches was really, really upset about this. you recall, and these kids probably -- incredibly upset. i don't know their status with the school if they're going to investigate -- criminal investigation into assault. >> it wasn't like everybody walked away. >> embarrassing. i'm from ohio. stop it with the ohio stuff like this. >> okay. still to come, a new political party in america founded by a former mayor and we are about to witness a rags to riches rocky story, maybe, kinda, sorta. you're watching "american morning." fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink it is 42 minutes past the hoyer. welcome back. a new political party in america this morning. i'm not kidding. called the justice party, created by a man who says he's fed up with the president and the republican field so he's going to run for the white house as a third party candidate. rocky anderson is a former mayor of salt lake city and the founder of the gist is department and joins us live from washington this morning. good morning. >> good morning, carol. >> so i'm wondering how many people are in the justice party? >> well, we have people from all over the country, and the more they hear about it, the more they're signing up. i can't give you an exact number now, but it is catching unbelievable attention, because, i think, across the board, this isn't just people from one party or another being fed up, it's across the board. we're hearing from libertarians, republican, democrats, independents. people who have been looking for a political home, and who have had it with the two dominant parties that have brought us to the very sorry state we're at in this country, and they want to see not just a different party and different candidates, they want to see a change in what's become a very corrupt, diseased system. >> i do agree with you, that many americans feel exactly that way, but america and american politics never seem to have a viable third party candidate. why is that? >> i think that there's this fear of being a spoiler so that people end up voting for what they consider to be the lesser of two evils, rather than rising to the occasion. and i think that we have very unique circumstances now, and i think it's reflected by the occupy movement, reflected by the polls. 9% approval rating for our congress? the approval rating for our president is way down, and i think it's because he has lost his base. he has not delivered on -- almost anything that he promised us during what was weren't of the gre the -- one of the greatest campaigns we've ever seen, great public relations, but in terms of execution, this country's been very disappointed. >> as you know, it takes a lot of money to run for president of the united states, to run for congress, takes a lot of appearances like the one you're doing right now. so what makes you think you have a chance? >> you know, this is, again, a very unique time, because we've never had the technology, we've never had the social media before. we see nations engaging in revolutions now based on social media communication. there's been an enormous democratization in communications and in our ability to organize people at the grass roots, and it really is a new day in terms of bringing people together from the bottom up, and there's a real sense of -- of hope and expectation that we can get back the reins of our government and start making certain that our government and our elected officials serve the public interests rather than the narrow monied interests that have had such a corrupting -- >> your merge sounds great, i'm sure it sounds great to many people, but it's not a sexy message. seems the candidates who say the most extreme things grab these voters attention, at least the voters passionate about going to the polls, and they just -- they come in to vote and they kind of stay there? >> but it certainly resonates with people. the things we're talking about are majority issues, but the people of this country aren't seeing our congress or our president deliver. why did we see the economic meltdown? why did we see deregulation led to the catastrophic economic situation in this country? it's because of the corrupting influence of money in our system. president obama received more money from wall street than any other candidate's ever received. why do we not like the rest of the industrialized world? have a decent universal health care program in this country, where every citizen is entitled to essential health care services. we know it's because of the corrupting influence of money in our system. and why are we not providing the badly needed international leadership on climate change? same thing. the fossil fuel industry have a strangle hold on the white house and on congress. >> well, thank for joining us this morning. rocky anderson, we appreciate it. >> good to be with you. thank you very much. >> oh, yeah. still to come, mitt romney has one of the most detailed economic plans. we're talking 160 pichs. so this morning we're going to break that down and what this plan means for you and your taxes and your job. 27 minutes after the hour. i'm vicki black eye portrayed a princess in "disney on ice." i have a special relationship with the prince, he's my husband. it's great to skate with him. first of 5u, we're on the road and i have to trust the western holding me over their head. we are together literally 24 hours a day bp we skate together, live together, sightsee together, eat all our meals together. i like to set up picture frames and candles. we skype our friends and family at home and it keeps us in touch. i have a very well-organized suitcase. like a filing system. i can see every piece of clothing i have. the show itself keeps us in really good shape. for me, i like to yoga. a great exercise you can do wherever you are that keeps me in shape, mind, body and soul. thanks for coming along for the ride. 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[ male announcer ] crystal clear fender premium audio. one of many premium features available on the all-new volkswagen passat. the 2012 motor trend car of the year. ♪ and i think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ it's 50 minutes after the hour. what you need to know to start your day- four soldiers are dead after two army choppers went down during a training exercise in washington state. the military is promising a thorough investigation. property of iran. the government says a u.s. spy drone that went down in iranian territory now belongs to them. it comes after president obama made a formal request for iran to return the stealth aircraft. jerry sandusky faces accusers in court today. as many as six men are expected to describe the alleged sexual abuse they siff suffer years ag little boys under the hands of the penn state coach. and personal fidelity if elected president, the former house speaker making a promise in a letter written to the family leader conservative group in iowa. and modern war fair three is now the fastest selling form ever entertainment of all-time. the war game shot past a billion dollars in sales in 16 days. one day quicker than the movie "avatar ". wow. news you needed to start your day. "american morning" is back right after this. welcome back. we've been telling you the financial and economic plans of all the major candidates. today, mitt romney a former governor, successful and rich businessman. credentials are what attracts wall street money plus worth $202 million and his economic policy plan is by far the most detailed of all the candidates. 160 pages long, 50 proposals and 10 actions for day one of his presidency. should he get there's. romney would cut corporate income tax to 25%. slash government spending regulation federal programs. a lot like the other candidates in that regard. he would repeal president obama's health care reform and the dodd frank banking rules. he would expand international trade policies and drill for more oil here at home. on to taxes. no mention of a flat tax in romney's plan. instead he want to keep individual taxes as they are now, but eliminate taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains for low and middle income families and also wants to scrap the estate tax. end that. romney also wants to make it easier for foreigners with advanced degrees in math, science and engineering to come to work in the u.s. that includes raising the visa caps for people who are highly skilled workers and giving many permanent residency. and increase retraining programs for people already here who are jobless. jobless americans with the help of the states and private sector. now, specials to his plan, something we haven't seen, no new regulations that cost money to businesses pap net balance here. the cost of any new government rules or standards from day one to have to be offset by savings elsewhere. no business, no small business, no big business, ali and carol works have to have new costs from regulation. he says treat every regulation basically like a balanced budget. there you go. mitt romney has the biggest sort of the most detailed plan out there, and that's where it stands. >> and it cover, a lot of area. the visa business, something we talked about a lot. we know we have a shortage of trained workers in certain areas, but this business about capital gains and earned -- interest earned, tax credit for low and middle income american, capital gain are not a problem with many low and middle income americans. >> and something critics may immediately point out. something else, all of this sort of tax experts, trying to score all of these different plans but there isn't even a general election here yet. so a lot of this stuff is flat form sort of white paper kind of stuff. i'll tell you, mitt romney is the most detailed. the "wall street journal" endorsed jon huntsman plan, frankly, and ing newt gingrich, plan, offering huge tax cuts, would actually cause the federal deficit to go up by a trillion drawers. trying to get a handle what they all propose. >> and newt gingrich's tax plan is coming under increased scrutiny. the non-partisan policy ran the numbers and the verdict, lead to huge deficits to give the wealthiest american as gigantic tax break. according to the analysis, the plan would reduce government revenue by a staggering $1.3 trillion or 35% by 2015. that's the first year the plan would be fumy implemented. also, the tax rate for americans with more than $1 million in net income fall to 11.9% saving those individuals $613,000. >> it's interesting that for a lot of libertarians and some conservatives the idea it will bring government revenues down by so much is music to their ears but we still actually have a government that has to pay for this. so it's a -- a complicated -- >> congress has to approve thing, too. so while some tax experts have been alarmed by the idea of 2015, balance the budget, do all this. >> congress will get down to it, do you think? >> talk about gigantic cuts and what was it, the tax analysis said that you can't implement that many cuts. >> right. >> you just can't, or the government just would not work. >> right. that doesn't necessarily move everybody, as we've seen. right? >> the tea party, that's exactly what they -- >> that's a point. a point is not letting the government work the way it always has. >> lots of time to discuss this for many, many more months. taking a quick break on "american morning." a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. breaking news. four soldiers dead after two army choppers crash during a training exercise. and end to the silence. jerry sandusky facing accusers today. the men set it describe painful memories how the ex-penn state coach allegedly abused them as children. going public for the first time. finders keepers. new overnight, iran commenting on a u.s. drone that literally fell into its hands. they're not just hunting for terrorists anymore. the first u.s. citizen reportedly arrested with help from a predator drone on this "american morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good tuesday morning. december the 13th. it's chilly up here in new york. welcome to "american morning." great to be with you both after so long. >> reunited. >> i know. >> so much news -- >> continues to be busy. we're not easing into this. >> no, we're not. we have breaking news to tell you about this morning. four soldier ares dead after a training exercise. in happened at lewis-mcchord base in washington state. investigators are trying to figure out what went wrong this morning. live near the crash site, any new information yet? >> reporter: yes. we've been watching ambulances come this morning, part of this ongoing recovery effort that's been going on all night long since these two healths crashed killing both crews onboard a total of four army aviators died in this crash. the scene just over my shoulder. very dark here. very early morning. crews have been working all night long to recover these individuals' bodies and determine what went wrong. these are helicopters that are supposed to provide eyes and ears for soldiers on the ground. a very active training field, do a lot of night training, working on night vision, those kinds of things. should have been by the book scenario. something went terribly blong. investigators just don't know what went wrong yet. >> thanks. also new, iran claiming overship of a drone that went down earlier in mot. in a defiant statement, saying the stealth plane is now an iranian asset. the aircraft that fell into their hands, said president ahmadinejad, is a gift. >> translator: the north americans at best have decided to give us this spy plane. currently we have control of this plane. those who have have been in control of this plane surely will analyze the plane's system. furthermore, the systems of iran are so advanced also, like the systems of this plane and the unpiloted planes we have made many add vnss, much progress and now we have this spy plane. >> president obama asked iran to return the downed plane. last night on cnn's "outfront" dick cheney, former vice president, told erin burnett the president's response was a mistake. >> the right response to that, go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it. you could do that from the air. could you do that with a quick air strike, and in effect make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone. >> cheney says if iran sends it back at all it will be in pieces after getting all of the intelligence they can out of it. >> some people would say that's tantamount to an act of war. >> considered and rejected by the white house and pentagon. >> the way dick cheney describes it, sounds simple. >> that would be an air strike in iran, something they decided they were not going to do. >> no. another big piece of news here in the united states, jerry sandusky will face his accusers in court today. as many as six men may describe the alleged sexual abuse they suffered for years at the hands of the former penn state coach. the judge will decide whether there's enough evidence to try sandusky on more than 50 charges related to the molestation ever little boys. susan candiotti is live outside the courthouse, which is going to be very busy in bellefonte, pennsylvania. good morning, susan. there are six alleged victims subpoenaed. do we know whether they're all take the stand today? >> reporter: we don't, but we'll find out in about an hour and a half. that is when the preliminary hearing is scheduled to get under way. i've spoken with the lawyers for some of the alleged victims. we know of at least three that said they are prepared to be here and for their clients to take the stand. this is going to be excruciating for them. remember, they have to describe in intimate detail about what they said happened to them at the hands of jerry sandusky. he has said that he has denied all of these charges, but some of these alleged victims don't have to appear in person. prosecutors could introduce at this particular stage of the process simply the statements that they made, the written statements that they made to authorities during the course of this investigation, ali. so we'll have to see, but it will be gripping, to say the least. also, weren't of the key witnesses, mike mcqueary. this is one of the people, as we know, assistant coach of psu currently on leave, said he witness add boy allegedly being sodomized by jerry sandusky in ta shower. we heard differing accounts. so we may be hearing from his firsthand. >> very good. susan, i spend a lot of time in pennsylvania, as you know. i don't know much about bellefonte. give me a sense of what it's like. a small town, and suddenly it's the center of media attention. >> reporter: right. i also used to live in this particular area. it is a lovely small town. population only about 6,000 or so, and they are overwhelmed by the huge media presence here. even before dawn and starting even yesterday, live satellite trucks were taking over the streets. they were moved into place. they had to close down some streets to accommodate all the hundreds of journalists that are here this day to cover this very important hearing. many people here very friendly towards the news media, helping them out. some have expressed concern about the kind of image this might project, possibly, to some people who are watching from the outside, but they know how important this hearing is in the sandusky case. back to tu, ali. >> susan, thank have. susan candiotti in bellefonte, pennsylvania. we'll cover that story closely. and cnn legal contributor paul cowen. you've been following the story. tell me about this hearing. how unusual is the hearing and how unusual for the victims to face-off with sandusky in court? this isn't the trial. 234is is to determine if there will be a trial? >> no, not a trial bought very, very unusual hearing and i think a gut-wrenching day for those in court watching this and even people at home listening to the details. >> could this go on past a day? >> could go on, could be today, could go into tomorrow. a lot of jurisdictions something like this would go on for over a week. we're talking about potentially eight to ten victims testifying. we're talking about other witness whose could be testifying, but this is called a preliminary hearing. most states in the united states don't even conduct these things a anymore. what it is, basically the judge is taking a snapshot of the case. just looking for a bare outline of testimony to democrat if there's enough evidence to send it on for a full jury trial, but you will get a very good snapshot because you're going to see most of the victims tell their story. they'll be subjected to cross-examination. a limited cross. they can't be attacked about their credibility or whether they have criminal convictions and things like that, but they will be questioned about their story and whether the story is true or not. so i think we're going to get a really good picture as to what's actually involved in this case today. >> you told us yesterday, they just need one credible witness. one credible story there to move this thing forward? >> well, they do for each of the counts, because, remember, in are ten victims in the case. there are 50 counts that are being charged. each victim's case has to be proved at this hearing. not beyond a reasonable doubt, but just a presentation of evidence so that they can say to the judge, all right, as to victim number one, we have enough to go forward, judge. all ten cases will have to be proved in that way, which is why i'm saying, it really is -- it's a mini trial. it's a mini look at all of the allegations. >> so we know some people have been subpoenaed including mike mcqueary. we don't know if he'll actually appear or say anything. what's the difference between being subpoenaed or being called at this preliminary hearing? >> there's the subpoena forces the witness to come in to court, and it doesn't guarantee that he'll testify. >> he'll have to be in today? >> yes, he would have to be there today or may not be sitting in the courtroom in a side room, kept someplace and prosecutors can decide whether to put him on the witness stand or not. >> a town of 6,1 -- 6,200, journalists inside covering it. what's it going to be like for these i kuzers and the accused? >> a very, very trying experience for them, because most of the accusers in the case have really -- they've never publicly told their story. they're people who have -- this has been a hidden part of their life for so many years and now they're going to be on a witness stand under oath, reliving what undoubtedly would have been a horrible, horrible experience, if true. so it's going to be a real traumatic day for the accusers in the case and for anybody waur watching the testimony as well. >> a central figure in the case, neither the accuser or accused. it is mike mcquichy, te cqueary. the coach that saw something in the locker room. are there differing versions of what he saw there. in the end, is it what he says under oath in front of this judge has tha will be the most important version of events or has all of this kind of undermined this case? >> all of it's going to come into play, because -- and he's important in two respects. one of the victims in this case, that his testimony will be key testimony corroborating that victim's claims against sandusky. so very, very important. but when he is cross-examined, mcqueary, on the stand, if he has told multiple versions of what he saw going on in that shower room it will be used to attack his credibility at the time of trial, and this will be yet another version that he will be testifying about. hopefully prosecutors are talking to him and hoping that his version is consistent with what he told the grand jury. because his testimony today also impacts on the friday hearing about the two administrators who were charged with perjury. >> right. the thing about the different versions of his story is each of them are a snapshot, from a different person, you know, something that happened nine years ago. we're going to get a fuller picture, i think. until now we haven't really seen the full pick kpler. >> absolutely. i think if mcqueary testifies, one of the most interesting moments in this hearing, but you know something? he may not testify, just because he's subpoenaed, prosecutors may say, we have enough to go forward. remember, they just -- >> they don't want to show everything. >> oh, no. bare bones case. keep as much out as possible. i'm not so sure he will testify. >> paul cowen, thank you so much. ali, carol? >> thanks, christine. with three weeks to go before the iowa caucuses newt gingrich is sitting pretty in the hawkeye state, a five-point lead over mitt romney and ron paul according to the american research group. gets better. the latest university of iowa hawk eye poll, former house speaker surge foging to a ten-p lead over romney, and nine points over paul. and closing rarngs ranks with conservative, written a letter to the leader of a social group in iowa promising to strengthen the family and uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity. gingrich has been married three times. >> that could hurt this. >> it's -- the circumstances under which one of his marriages ended. as a result of him having an affair with somebody else. to whom he's now married. >> see if the letter works. 12 past the hour. also making news, congress is scheduled to wrap up business for the year this friday and still no agreement on extending the pay roll tax even though both parties insist they want to pass it. house republicans scheduled to vot on their plan today including a pipeline provision. something democrats call a non-starter. democrats want to pay for the pay roll extension with a millionaire surtax. leading republicans say that's a non-starter. senator and new jersey governor jon corzine will once again testify about his bankrupt brokerage firm mf global and the more than $1 billion in customer money that remains missing. remember, last week corzine denies where the funds were and stopped short of taking responsibility for the firm's failure. we will speak to the chairman of the committee to which he's testifying today, the agriculture committee, the senate agriculture committee, michigan senator debbie stabenow. we'll do that in about an hour. >> ranchers waiting for their money. a falutin problem. and a spy drone used by police flight your backyard. boy, is that causing concerns about privacy. and he's got billions and the endorsement of the next head coach avery johnson. an nba owner's plan to take on vladimir putin and his political regime in russia. live in moscow this morning. it's 13 minutes past the hour. ♪ sen♪ co-signed her credit card - "buy books, not beer!" ♪ ♪ut the second at she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for the whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ b her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪ and who ordered the yummy cereal? 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[ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. welcome back. u.s. spy drones are typically deployed on the battlefield a world away, but local police here at home are now using them for surveillance to track down criminal suspects. and that's raising some constitutional red flags. cnn's casey wian has the story. >> reporter: customs and border protection uses eight unmanned military aircraft to patrol the united states borders with mexico and canada as well as the southern coastline looking for drug and immigrant smugglers. also deploying the drones to help local authorities manage natural disasters like these floods in north dakota. what's largely unknown before a los angeles times report over the weekend is that local police have been using the drones to conduct surveillance flights and arrest criminal suspects. it happened recently in north dakota where a local sheriff arrested members of a family involved in a dispute over cattle, and in an alleged armed confrontation with sheriff's deputies. former california congresswoman jane harmon served on the house homeland security intelligence subcommittee and says the drones could allow police to violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches. >> this is beyond the mandate that congress gave the border patrol to use drones along our border. we're talking about drones used over american cities or in rural areas over the homes of law abiding americans potentially. >> harman says they need to debate the appropriateness of drones used for domestic surveillance she says was never discussed. eight sections of u.s. law cited and given the authority to use drones in support of local police. the agency also says the sensors and camaras are similar to those used by fixed wing aircraft and helicopters supporting local law enforcement for years. the main difference, the drones can stay airborne up to 20 years. casey wian, cnn, los angeles. very interesting story. >> what's the difference between a helicopter and drone, if it's the same tech nothing? >> it's unmanned. >> looking for people. >> when they capture, you don't have people with it. that's about it. canada's not likely to capture a u.s. drone in the way that iran did. >> and give it back if they did. >> even if america didn't ask for it. you dropped this on our border. here you go. and 20 after the hour. rob marciano. he does not use drones. >> we're not making light. >> i think -- does anybody disagree? if an american drone landed in canada, canada would give it back? >> i think it's a -- >> my canadians friends, pick it up, cool. model airplane. give it a go. >> you're right. >> i wish they had criminals in canada. >> we give those back to america, too. go ahead. >> appreciate it. mild temperatures in toronto this morning. >> very good. >> depths around the freezing mark, but other spots, you have to really dig to see temperatures below freezing east of the mississippi. 31 in d.c. 33 degrees in new york city and temperature on the rebound throughout the day today, but you go west to denver and even los angeles where it's 51 degrees. been kind of cool and at times stormy. last couple of days, where all the action is on the radar. what it looked like yesterday outside los angeles. higher elevations. told you about winter storm warnings. snow levels at times 3,000 feet and above 5,000, 6 to 12 inches of snow in spots. seeing a slow-moving storm inject into the plains. as it does, more snow for parts of new mexico and snow in ice for western parts of nebraska and kansas. there's your mess east of the mississippi. it's pretty quiet as mentioned. temperatures rebounding. storm track really today and for the next really couple of weeks is in this direction. that means that the eastern third of the country will remain relatively mild maybe as long as right through christmas. we'll see how that pans out. that's where the pattern is stopping pup all the way up the canadian border i. love you, rob marciano. >> perfect, my friend. good to see you. >> thank you. selfish of me. wasn't it? >> all good. weather's all local. just want it to be nice where you are. >> it's selfish. i admit it. one-on-one against jon huntsman pap debate or a lovefest? we'll have the highlights ahead. the polite highlights. >> yes. [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation, so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. welcome back. "minding your business" this morning, u.s. stock futures trading higher this morning. concerns the eurozone deal won't do enough to address the real financial problems while they push the dow down yesterday more than 162 points. ratings agency moody's announced yesterday it will review rating of all eu nations. the federal reserve will weigh the risks from europe when it meets later today expecting the central bank to hold off boosting the economy and the fed will keep interest rates close to 0%. amazon promising a kindle fire software update fixing a number of nagging complaints from users nap update is available in the next couple of weeks. amazon says it will improve performance the devices lack of privacy and the responsiveness of the touch screen. ready for around the clock shopping? macy's announcing 14 of its stores will stay open for 83 hours straight leading up to christmas eve. another 27 stores will stay open until 2:00 a.m. on the three nights prior to the december 24th. and during these tough times, holiday tipping can be a touchy subject. according to a recent survey by bank rate dotcom, 70% of americans still plan to tip those who helped them all year long. 16% will tip less because money is tight. ford's iconic truck the f-150 named motor trend's truck of the year. the magazine said the truck excels when it comes to engineering, design, efficiency, sachty, value and performance. the fourth time the f-150 has won the award. "american morning" right back after this break. ♪ i'm burning out this useless telephone ♪ ♪ my hair is gone ♪ cheap cologne ♪ motor home ♪ i'm the rocket man! [ both ] ♪ rocket man ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone? ahh. 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>> reporter: that's right. they were calling it a lincoln-douglass-style debate, really it was a conversation. that's how they billed it on the press credentials they handed out to reporters. that's exactly what it was. you know, newt gingrich and jon huntsman spent about an hour and a half talking about the issues not really debating the issues. the real fight for newt gingrich these days is with mitt romney. >> i agree with newt completely. >> i strongly concur with the governor. >> reporter: billed as a linc n lincoln-douglass-style debate, gingrich versus huntsman was a love fest. so mild mannered it got mind numbing for one candidate's own family. >> i can see my daughter nodding off. >> nodding off. >> reporter: still, gingrich had time to add to his direction of provocative campaign moments on the subject of iran. >> i believe we cannot allow a nuclear weapon. therefore i believe we have to be for regime change. we are not going to tolerate an iranian nuclear weapon. >> huntsman wouldn't go that r far. >> i would have to agree all options need to be on the table and they need to know all options are on the table in iran and there is zero am biguity on what we are prepared to do. >> am i going to take the risk for presiding over the second holocaust, which would mean for all practical practices virtually the end of judaism. >> reporter: that kind of rhetoric might explain why former vice president dick cheney finally remembered newt gingrich's time as speaker in an interview with cnn's erin burnett. >> kept it up, kept it up, by '94, the newly elected speaker with the republican majority. so i wouldn't underestimate him. >> reporter: the one-on-one debate was no match for the fight between gingrich and mitt romney who said the former speaker should give back some of the money he made advising housing giant freddie mac. >> should we give that money back? >> i sure do. >> reporter: gingrich was ready for that saying romney should try compensating people in a downsize. >> if governor romney would give back the money from bankrupt companies and laying off employees over his years, then i would be glad to listen to him. >> reporter: romney told politico the battle could go on for months and called gingrich the man to beat. >> is newt gingrich the front-runner in this race? >> he is right now. >> reporter: as for huntsman versus gingrich, the former speaker repeated his charge to president obama for their own series of lincoln-douglass debates. a wager it would never happen. >> i'll bet you $10,000 he doesn't show up. >> reporter: and at an event last night, newt gingrich challenged mitt romney to a positive campaign in these final weeks before the iowa caucuses in new hampshire primary. it is not likely that mitt romney will take him up on that offer. he hinted at one of his oh events yesterday he will go negative with advertising in the coming weeks saying there is no whining in politics. ali? >> thanks very much for that coverage. talk to you soon. jim acosta in new hampshire. three weeks to go before the iowa caucuses. gingrich is, of course, the clear front-runner in the hawk eye state opening up a a double-digit lead over mitt romney in one poll but not the support of everyone. conservative talk show host offering newt gingrich $1 million to drop out of the race. and tea party supporters glenn beck went one farther suggesting the only reason anyone would vote for gingrich over obama is because of the color of his skin. joining me to talk more about that, of course, the polls too, cnn political analyst ron brown from washington. >> good morning, carol. >> it's vicious. michael savidge comes out, 9 million listener, conservatives really like his radio show. offering newt gingrich $1 million to drop out because he says newt gingrich is not a real conservative. >> four years ago most of the conservative talk community, united against john mccain and he won the republican presidential nomination. what you saw from michael savidge, what you hear from glenn beck reflects it's anxiety of a lot of conservatives who don't feel they can truly trust romney or gingrich on their issues, but those are the guys in saercenter stage right now a for mother republican voters at the moment they seem to be acceptable alternatives. gingrich, of course, is consolidating a lot of support on the right, despite the criticism from those, the people uphold the flag at the vanguard. so i don't think they're in a position now to have influence on the race. as for the million dollar offer running for president, if he doesn't win, worth a lot more than that for newt gingrich. >> we have breaking news, ron. stick right there. we're going to christine romans for a second. stay there. we're watching live pictures, seeing sandusky's arrive until court. waiting for these pictures. the pool feed coming from -- is this tape or is this live? looks like it's live. live pictures. this is sandusky, arriving at the courthouse where he'll face his preliminary hearing we've been telling you about. some places, you do this preliminary hearing anymore. clearly -- >> the grand jury doesn't indict. they've got to figure that out. this is going to be a bare bones presentation from the prosecution, and the defense will have a chance to do limited cross of whoever they decide to bring. we're expecting to see -- >> put on the stand, right. >> put on the stand. expecting to see some of the accusers. sandusky will be there. we know mike mcqueary, that assistant football coach, subpoenaed. we don't know whether he will testify or not. again, this is a town right here where this courthouse is, of 6,200 people. 200 credential journalists even more than that. >> you see the security presence there. some sense the prosecution doesn't want to do more than it has to do get the environment, to go forward with the trial. they don't want to put all their fire power, everything they've got, on the stand today. >> right. six to eight alleged victims will testify in this proceeding today and how will they get them into the courthouse? i'm sure they don't want to be on camera. i'm sure most reporters will turn cameras away, photographers, but you never know. >> they are, because these are alleged sex crimes, they are, i think, no mat are what they're age, they are -- matter what age they are they're granted anonymity. they will go before the state, state their case and have a chance to defend. >> the jump is letting report-- sleting reporters tweet and text. they'll let them mow whknow wha can and cannot say. >> we don't know what the situation is, security, a back door, take something witnesses in or not. we will pop back into this as soon as we have more to tell you about the arrival of the principal actors in the case. >> good. >> back to ron brownstein? take a break? we'll get to ron's in a second. we also want -- >> also something we need to tell you about. >> do the headlines. the other news we're following. four soldiers dead after two army helicopters went down during a training exercise. it happened on training grounds inside joint base lewis-mcchord in washington state. not clear whether they collided or went down separately. the commander of the base is promising a thorough investigation is. weighing in over arizona the controversial immigration law targeting illegals.justices agr appeal. a provision giving police broad powers to check someone's immigration status. arizona became a model for similar laws in other states. another hazing example. three band member charged with hazing and beating a freshman with a metal ruler. the aemged victim featured a cracked femur and blood clots, three weeks before the suspected hazing death of drummer. the cases are not related. bringing ron brownstein back, talking about newt gingrich the lead in the polls and conservatives comes out and viciously slamming newt gingrich. we'll do that right after a break. stick around. i'm kind of a fixture in different parts of town... some folks call me a rock star, some call me the mayor... and i love it. and, i make everybody happy. i keep my business insurance with the hartford because... they came through for me once, and i know they've got my back. for whatever challenges come your way... the hartford is here to back you up. helping you move ahead... with confidence. meet some of our small business customers at: thehartford.com/business i don't think about the unknown... i just rock n' roll. back to ron brownstein, our cnn senior political analyst talking about newt gingrich's lead in the polls oe s over mit romney and voices highly critical. we mentioned michael savidge, conservative radio show host, 9 million listeners. would pay $1 million if newt gingrich would drop out of the race. glenn beck, listen to what he had to say. >> a big government progressive or a big government pregive in p b. one in obama, one in "nancy grace." ask this, tea party is it about obama's race? that's what it appears to be. against him but for this guy -- what difference does that mean? it must be about race. >> in essence what he's saying is newt gingrich and barack obama are the same person except one it white, one is black. if you vote for newt gingrich you're pretty much a racist. >> one wants a flat tax and estate tax, a voluntary partial privatization of social security endorsing the paul ryan plan and by the way led the republicans in the first majority in the house in 40 years in 1994. you know, that kind of portrait simply isn't plausible, that they are kind of clones. you've got a branch of the republican party that views pretty much anyone who is short of complete ideological views of the world as a swish or a rhino as they like to say. one thing is true. gingrich has been ideologically mobile in his life. taken different positions on different issues but what is a strong point of defense for him against a tax like that is his record of kind of unwavering partisanship. not a fiscal conservative but consistently a republican wearier. talking about democrats and vitriolic language. it's lard to make the case he has not been kind of a soldier in republican causes in five different decades now. >> but if conservatives especially tea party conservatives decide this primary race in the republican field and these prestigious, or these very influential voices are speaking out viciously against newt gingrich, won't at some point it begin to make a difference? >> i think we'll see. in 2008, it didn't make a huge difference. although john mccain certainly didn't do as well with conservatives as more moderates of the republican party. republican parties shows split almost exactly even been pe those that identify with the tea party and those who don't. gingrich is consolidating tea party conservatives as well as evangelical christians and competitive in the center of the party. dividing that vote pretty evenly with mitt romney. he's not a one-trick pony in this race the way, for example, herman cain or michele bachmann were earlier drawing only from one side of the party. he can actually give away a little of that conservative support and not be totally decimated by it because he's not solely dependent on it. >> mitt romney's campaign sent out an e-mail this morning blasting newt gingrich saying he should return all of the money he made at freddie mac. reiterating that, that newt gingrich collected that money, that freddie mac was in danger of busting the economy. >> right, right. well, you know, yesterday in terms of the general election, if it's mitt romney or newt gingrich as the nominee a black monday for the republicans, because each man went out and identified himself with a principle democratic portrait of the other. you know, romney portraying gingrich as a washington insider who profited on his connections. gingrich portraying romney as a court raider who got rich throwing people out of work nap is the center of the democrats will paint in either general election. they each provided a lot of sound bites that are going to appear in democratic ads in the fall. can you guarantee that. >> oh, yeah. a final note about these polls. >> yes. >> hard for me to believe that they're accurate, because they've been kind of wrong so many times. isn't it hard to predict right now because of the volatility? >> well, yeah. >> in the republican field? >> sure. also a caucus is harder to poll than a primary. you have a general picture. you usually don't rely on any one poll, look at overall picture. they tell you gingrich is ahead in south carolina, iowa and florida, appealing to conservative voters and romney and paul ten points behind him in iowa. there is a consistent portrait. the bigger point is there is volatility, absolutely right. >> i just remember back in 2008, the polls always seemed to be wrong, and it was because, you know, maybe politics is different at this particular time in history? >> well, people are getting so mit much information so fast. the election is -- the idea hermetically sealed islands, making distinct opinions is of the past. everyone is affected by the same national media and judgment. a poll out today, national journal congressional budget poll looking at the verdict this year in congress, and it is at least as negative it was before the 2006 landslides. transcends ideology, partisanship and these currents are moving across the entire electorate. in that sense running for president always was a referendum in the country. now a national phenomenon more than it used to be. >> ron brownstein, thanks for joining us and waiting around. appreciate it. >> thank you, carol. back to bellefonte, pennsylvania. we have live pictures. this is not jerry sandusky arriving, but i don't know who's getting out of that truck. no. that's not jerry sandusky either. we are awaiting the arrival of jerry sandusky and the other people's identity, we don't know. maybe some of the people testifying. lawyers, their lawyer, his lawyers. there is going to be a hearing under way today. called a presentment, where they will determine whether there is enough evidence to go forward with the trial pup can see a lot of security outside that courthouse in the town of bellefonte, about 6,200 people's in that town. >> supporters of jerry sandusky will be there. and susan candiotti and sara ganim reporting his church congregation, and area set aside for supporters of jerry jerry sandusky and his wife are expected to be there. mike mcqueary the assistant coach who witnessed something in 2002 in the locker room there, in the shower room there, he has been subpoenaed but we don't know if he'll be called by the judge to testify. >> just fascinating that jerry sandusky's attorney says there will be no plea deal. that's why this is going on today. >> he says a no plea deal would be short enough for jerry sandusky and anything would be a life sentence for him. they'll take their chances. >> we'll monitor this and come back if and when events warrant. also want to talk to you today about "romans' numeral." $10.07. maybe the bet that mitt romney wishes he had wagered yesterday. >> 7 cents. >> $10.07. it's 51 minutes past the hour. (rambling phone conversation) when an investment lacks discipline, it's never this obvious. introducing investment discipline etfs from russell. visit russelletfs.com r a prospectus, containing the investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other information. read and consider it carefully before investing. breaking news now. we have just seen jerry sandusky walking into the courthouse in bellefonte, pennsylvania, where there is a presentment hearing. normally when you have a grand jury they present an indictment and that is how you go forward with a case or some sort of complaint. in pennsylvania, there's an extra step that a lot of states have done away with which is done a presentment where they bring everybody together and some of the alleged victims and mike mcqueary who was the assistant coach at one point and they will be testifying and they'll determine whether there is enough to go forward on a trial with. >> he just arrived. we saw his attorney just rush under to the courthouse. a lot of cars coming. susan canduato has a photo of how many people there waiting for this event. a preliminary hearing. this will be the judge deciding if there is enough here to move on with all of these counts and essentially decide if there will be a trial. this is not the trial, but the preliminary hearing to decide if there will be. >> of course, it will be quite emotional inside that courthouse because six to eight of the alleged victims will testify. and tell the people listening in the courtroom exactly what they alleged jerry sandusky did to them all those years ago. have we seen him yet? >> they're cutting the tape right now. we just saw his attorney go in about three minutes ago. he must have been right before his attorney. it's interesting, carol, the defense won't be able to ask questions about the credibility of those witnesses. they will not be able to, they will be able to talk about their claims but very careful what they do and the prosecution is also going to want to be careful about how much they show because this is not the trial. >> they want enough to convince this judge that this should go to trial. for a lot of people watching this unfold through the media. isn't this obvious there is enough to go to trial? but there is a legal process that has to take place and a judge has to say so. in theory, no one has said so. here is what it looked like when jerry sandusky walked into court flanked by his lawyers and his wife. there is some chance, no one has said it is likely, but some chance a judge could say, there isn't enough. it isn't a given it goes to trial. but there was a discussion about a plea deal. >> there was a discussion about a plea deal, but jerry sandusky's attorney says, no, no plea deal. we'll take our chances in court because any kind of plea deal, he's 67 years old. the plea deal, what -- >> wasn't two or three years. >> it's likely jerry sandusky would have died in prison and that's what the attorney wants to avoid. they're going to take their chances with the trial. >> they could split it up and that is possible and that would drag it out and the judge would make that decision. >> it could take more than a day. it depends on what the prosecution wants to do there. really three or four minutes ago there's jerry sandusky and his wife surrounded by sheriff deputies and his attorney is right behind coming into that court for that preliminary hearing today. still to come, newt gingrich surging to the lead in iowa in two new polls. can he sustain the momentum? we'll talk about newt gingrich and the caucus coming up in just a month in iowa. the employee of the month isss... the new spark card from capital one. spark miles gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles... so we really had to up our game. with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has never been more rewarding. coming through! [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? facing his accusers. jerry sandusky arriving in court in just one half hour he'll be right across from the men who say he sexually abused them as children. i'm carol costello. three weeks to go before the iowa caucuses and newt gingrich is leading the pack. how is he pulling it off? mitt romney doesn't get it, but rudy giuliani and dick cheney do. iran's defiant response to president obama. the u.s. spy drone that went down in iranian territory belongs to them on this "american morning." good morning, everyone. it's tuesday, tuesday december 13th. welcome back to "american morning." >> how many days until christmas? >> i thought you were going to say, how many days to the iowa primary. >> christmas over the caucus any day. >> all right, the story we're following just moments ago, you saw it here. former penn state coach jerry sandusky arrived at court where he is likely to face his accusers at this morning's preliminary hearing. the judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to try sandusky on 52 charges related to the molestation of little boys. sandusky acknowledged showering and "horsing around" with the boys. he says he has an attraction to children, but it's not sexual in nature. this hearing will not be televised but reporters in there, including our own, will be able to text and tweet updates from inside the courtroom. as i said, it will get under way in half an hour. turning now to politics with three weeks to go before the iowa caucuses. newt gingrich is going gangbusters. look at this brand-new poll from the american research group. gingrich leading in the hawkeye state. and the former house speaker starting to gather the support of his party's heavyweights. both publicly acknowledging that gingrich has a lot going for him right now. >> he was persistent and he was tenacious and he kept it up and kept it up and kept it up and finally by '94 he's the newly elected speaker of the house of representatives with the republican majority. i wouldn't underestimate him. >> my gut tells me right now, as i look at it, that gingrich might actually be the stronger candidate because i think he can make a broader connection than mitt romney. as i said, to the reagan democrat democrats where you won't have this barrier of possible elitism that i think obama could exploit pretty effectively. >> governor romney has almost a perfect record for a person to be running right now. you know, experience in government, experience in business nrxunderstands the economy, but there's something missing. there's some sort of a personal connection that doesn't get made that the other candidates probably do a better job at. >> giuliani and cheney sang his praises. the former speaker's success in his politico interview. >> newt gingrich the frontrunner in this race? >> yes, right now. >> why is that? >> got me. i watched over the last year and you've seen various people go from very high numbers to low numbers and back down. >> why is it we always do those interviews in diners. anyway, newt gingrich -- >> i wondered the same thing. >> or barbershops. >> an election year diners always get cameras in them. he turned his focus to rival jon huntsman yesterday. the two candidates engaging in a one-on-one debate in new hampshire and right from the start, things turned downright civilized. jim acosta is not in a diner yet. he is in manchester, new hampshire, this morning. jim, you were at the debate. what is the take away? >> hey, we get hungry out here, guys. that's a good reason to hold interviews in diners. let's just get that out of the way. this was billed as a lincoln/douglas debate and it was really more of a love fest, i have to say. these candidates, i don't think they disagreed once in the entire 90-minute exchange and got so mild mannered that one of jon huntsman's daughters was nodding off during the debate. he actually talked about that. newt gingrich tried to help him out and say, at least she was nodding off when i was speaking. this was a good nature discussion and went on for a good 90 minutes and then afterwards jon huntsman was so pleased i would consider newt gingrich a running mate, should i get the nomination. let's face it, the real fight for newt gingrich these days is mitt romney. last night at a late event for the former speaker he issued a challenge to the former massachusetts governor saying, basically, we should have a positive campaign. let's cut out these attacks. it is not likely he is going to get that agreed to by mitt romney because mitt romney had his own event yesterday and he suggested that he may be hitting the former speaker pretty hard with some negative advertising soon. and basically told reporters, told the crowd there yesterday that there is no whining in politics. christine? >> can gingrich win the new hampshire primary? i mean, this is actually where huntsman has been putting all the focus on there, but can gingrich win that? >> you know, he looks pretty good in the polls right now. he's catching up with mitt romney in this state. jon huntsman, that's a tough one for him. but newt gingrich does have a chance here. i talked to one of his campaign spokesman yesterday who said that newt gingrich is going to get a straight talk express-type bus out here on the campaign trail in the final weeks before the voting begins in iowa and new hampshire and that is right out of the john mccain playbook. keep in mind, john mccain was not favored to win new hampshire back in 2008, mitt romney was. former governor of a neighboring state. he has a home here in new hampshire, a second home here in new hampshire. mitt romney was the odds on favorite and then john mccain won the new hampshire primary. if that were to happen. if newt gingrich were to knock off mitt romney here in new hampshire, it would be very difficult for mitt romney to hang on in this race and the romney campaign is well aware of that and that's why they're going to hit newt gingrich hard and that's why you're starting to see mitt romney come up in the polls in iowa. they'd like to ride that momentum into new hampshire. very interesting to watch, christine. >> i bet it will be. thanks so much, jim acosta. >> best answer to that diner questions i ever heard. reporters get hungry, so do the politicians. any republican candidate who takes newt gin gingrich rightly, don't. on cnn's "aaron burnett out front" last night he warned that the other gop candidates not to underestimate the former house speaker and he claims president obama should consider switching running mates in 2012, if he wants to be re-elected. >> and the advice i'd give barack obama today is take a look at it. there are a lot of good people out there and it's not personal. you go out and find the best candidate you can to run and maybe if you go through that process, he'd up with joe biden. on the other hand, there are people like hillary clinton, for example, be your first woman vice president that might have a certain appeal. >> has she done well over the last few years in her job? >> i think there's a general view that she's probably the best they've got. >> it is seven minutes past the hour. time to look at other stories we're following this morning. two soldiers are dead after two army choppers went down during a training exercise. recovery teams on the scene right now. military says it happened on training grounds inside lewis mccord in washington state. still not clear why these copters collided or went down separately. the commander of the base is promising a thorough investigation. the supreme court has decided to hear arizona's appeal of its immigration law. blocked key provisions of the law, most notably one that allows police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop or arrest. the obama administration says enforcing immigration laws is the federal government's job. they will hear arguments in april. a ruling is expected next summer and that will be the heart of election season. so, you could imagine this will continue as an election hot potato. up next, former new jersey governor, former senator jon corzine is back on capitol hill for what is expected to be another grilling over the collapse of mf global. we'll speak to chairman of the senate agriculture committee. iran delivers a defiant response following an appeal by president obama for tehran to turn over that drone. and a proposed building design in south korea is drawing fire for evoking memories of 9/11. what the architects are saying about it. it's nine minutes after the hour. 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[ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. some folks call me a rock star, some call me the mayor... and i love it. and, i make everybody happy. i keep my business insurance with the hartford because... they came through for me once, and i know they've got my back. for whatever challenges come your way... the hartford is here to back you up. helping you move ahead... with confidence. meet some of our small business customers at: thehartford.com/business i don't think about the unknown... i just rock n' roll. everyone believes in keeping their promises once a year. but we believe in helping people take steps to keep them every single day. that's why every day we help people across the country get into their first homes. prepare for a comfortable retirement and protect the people and things that matter most. at genworth we believe every day is the right day to take a step toward tomorrow. it is 12 minutes past the hour. the u.s. wants it back, but iran says a drone that went down in iranian territory belongs to them now. in the process, tehran defying a formal request from president obama. >> with respect to the drone inside of iran, i'm not going to comment on intelligence matters that are classified. as has already been indicated, we have asked for it back. we'll see how the iranians respond. >> translator: the north americans at best have decided to give us a spy plane. currently we have control of this plane. those who have been in control of this plane surely will analyze the plane's system. furthermore, the systems of iran are so advance also like the systems of this plane we have made many advances, now we have the spy plane. >> in the meantime, former vice president dick cheney is weighing in. he says the obama administration is wasting its time asking iran to return the drone. on cnn's "erin burnett outfront dick cheney said the response was weak. >> immediately go down and destroy it. you can do that from the air or do that with a quick air strike and, in effect, make it impossible from them to benefit having captured that drone. >> cheney says if iran sends it back at all, it will be in little tiny pieces after getting all the intelligence they can out of it. today former new jersey senator and former governor jon corzine will, once again, testify before lawmakers about mf global's rapid collapse. you'll recall this happened at the end of october. it is the eighth largest bankruptcy in u.s. history. >> he was running the company. >> here's something you may know about its failure. it is having a big effect on farmers and ranchers in the midwest. >> something closely tied to their money and a number had accounts with mf global. that means that farmers, ranchers, grain elevators, they use those accounts to buy and sell future contracts to lock in prices for hogs, corn, soybeans. >> the best example our viewers may realize are airlines that hedge oil. hedge it going up and down. >> you can see the futures and options. and they secured in the price of their commodity. so, in the cash market. if the price of the corn falls, it's okay because they sold futures at a higher price at the mercantile exchange. now these are the accounts of these farmers and more than a billion dollars in missing client funds and a lot of farmers having to put off buying seed or commitments to early discounts for seed, land and equipment. joining us now, debbie stabenow and chairman of the agriculture committee. this is a commodities derivatives firm. these farmers are hopping mad because they thought they did business like they did business since the '70s and they thought they were protected but suddenly their money is frozen. what will happen to get all this money back for the farmers? >> well, good morning. first of all, let me congratulate both of you. it is a complicated subject and you did a great job of explaining it. thank you for doing that. in fact, we'll have three groups of folks and the very first group are the farmers and ranchers and a grain elevator from michigan and operator because he's in a situation that you just described. they use, there's 126 firms like mf global and folks basically set up accounts there to be able to do business, be able to hedge their risk and these accounts right now segregated customer funds are supposed to be kept separate from what the company does in terms of their own investments and so on. somehow, we have upwards of $1.2 billion in customer funds unaccounted for. so, number one question that i have is, where is the money? and why don't they know? it's been six weeks. this isn't the dark ages. they are supposed to report on a daily basis. we have computers. so, where is the money? we have also the trustee coming in who's been put in charge of making sure customers get back their money. right now they're at about 70% in guarantee of their money coming back and then we want to know, obviously, from mf global executives. we have three, the former cfo and coo and then we want to hear from the regulators, what happened. >> they had a bunch of regulators. i can't underscore the point enough because it sounds like a big wall street story. some of these farmers and ranchers who you'll be talking to and you're doing something very unusual today. you're talking to them before you talk to the more senior people. >> like jon corzine. >> christine started her career covering commodities. some of these are not big, rich farmers. these might be family farms. >> they might not be able to buy a truck right now. they might not be able to do that until they can figure out where their money is coming from. >> you're absolutely right. i spoke to one person in michigan who lost $17,000 and another person who lost $30,000. now, in the general scheme of wall street and millions of dollars may not sound like a lot, but to them, it is a big deal. the difference between being able to buy the truck that they need and do the work that they need. i also have people in michigan and one person i talked to who is out $300,000 in his business. so, that's a really big deal for him. so, that's our focus and that's why i've asked the customers to speak first. >> you know, how many regulators did mf global have? a lot of different regulators, right? >> the first line of defense is the self-regulatory agency and, in this case, it is the chicago mercantile exchange. they will be with us today and then, of course, above them, the cftc we have spoken once to the chairman and we have more questions. >> there's a ceo, a ceo who is very savvy. former ceo now jon corzine who has been a senator and a governor and who has also run a very well-regarded or not well-regarded depending on what time of crisis. what are you going to ask him? how much responsible responsibility does he bear for not knowing where this money is? >> i think as any ceo of any company bears responsibility. certainly, he signs a form saying he has internal controls in place. he and the cfo as every company does under sarbanes oxley. we have got internal controls in place and we've got a handle on this. so, what happened? and, again, it's been six weeks. what happened? what were the internal controls? what's happening in terms of the audits. what should be happening? i not only have questions for the company, but the regulators, as well. what ought to be happening right now? because this is about, you know, the company can risk whatever they want in their own money. this is about customer's money, which is supposed to be separ e separate. >> that's why it sends chills up our spine. it takes you back to 2001 and 2008 where we think we have all these regulators and everything is in place. how do these things still happen? as you said very clearly, we have computers and we have software that can track all this stuff. how does a billion dollars or more go missing? >> another irony in all of this, too, a lot of farmers and ranchers and grain elevators who were hedging their risk. they were trying to take risk out of their equation so they knew exactly what their costs would be so that they could produce food and produce, you know, cattle. >> that's such a good point. that's a really, really good point. >> it was risk taking that means they don't have any money. i know they released some of their money and most of them got most of their money back, is that true? >> they've gotten, they're on schedule to get 70%. about 71%, according to the trustee. so, that's the next question. and then, you know, the cftc did change the rules in my judgment way too late and now companies can't actually use customer for sovereign debt. >> senator debbie stabenow, thank you for joining us. chairman of the senate agriculture committee and senator for michigan. wow, let's head to atlanta now and check in with rob marciano. any travel delays this morning? >> travel delays in baltimore and a few in philadelphia. patchy areas of fog and the other issue is out west. here's video out of california, just north of los angeles outside there. up in the mountains above 3,000, 4,000 feet and snow on the roadways and we had it pile up and cool showers down across the lower elevations. here are some of the rainfall or snowfall totals across parts of arizona. we'll see higher amounts today and, matter of fact, the snow will drive all the way down into mexico. winter storm warnings posted for new mexico and parts of southern colorado, as well. 8 to 16 snow expected in some of these higher elevations and then the moisture stretching into the central plains. we have pockets of cool air and maybe freezing rain. but plain rain in st. louis areas of tennessee and ohio valley. temperatures rebounding nicely after a chilly start to the day. 50 degrees expected in new york city and 64 degrees in atlanta and a lot of the east coast will see clear skies, as will the west coast later on tonight. that is good news if you're going to go outside and watch the meteor showers after midnight. going to have a fullish moon so that will dampen some of the bright meteors. go outside and look up and dress warm. maybe on your way into work tomorrow morning, guys, would be good to see it? >> you can see it in the eastern half or everywhere? >> if there's clear skies, just look up. typically they emanate from the giminad. >> all we can see is the next building. >> i would be afraid to go in central park at that time. >> don't look anybody in the eye. >> good to see you. newt gingrich admitting to past mistakes and even admitting personal infidelitinfidelity. we'll speak with a top evangelical leader ahead. 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[ timer dings ] got to go. priority mail flat rate shipping at usps.com. a simpler way to ship. u.s. stock futures are higher this morning, concerns that the euro zone deal won't do enough to address europe's real financial problems, slow goeth pushed the dow down yesterday more than 162 points. federal reserve no doubt weighing that risk coming from europe when it meets later today. most analysts expect the central bank to hold off when it comes to announcing any new big strategy to boost the american economy. economists, of course, forecast the fed will keep interest rates close to 0% because the fed itself has said it will until the year 2013. at&t putting its t-mobile merger on old. postpone an anti-trust lawsuit that it needed to win in order to keep the merger alive. the justice department and fcc opposed that deal saying that deal, if it happened, would lead to higher cell phone bills and higher competition. in just a few minutes we'll find out how strong retail sales were with all that holiday hype going on. we'll get you those numbers as soon as they're available. up next, tragic training exercise and two army choppers go down killing four u.s. soldiers. we're live near the crash site with the latest. 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[ male announcer ] crystal clear fender premium audio. one of many premium features available on the all-new volkswagen passat. the 2012 motor trend car of the year. ♪ and i think it's gonna be a long, long time ♪ >> survived the towers and this actually looks like the explosion of the towers. architects under fire. their design for two new skyscrapers bringing back painful memories for 9/11 survivors. we'll tell you about it on this "american morning." welldom back. almost 32 minutes past the hour. time for the morning's top stories. new video of jerry sandusky arriving in court. the pretrial hearing getting under way right now on several of his accusers are expected to testify. the judge will decide if there is enough evidence to try him on more than 50 charges related to the most lestation of children. earlier paul callan told us what to expect. >> most of the victims tell their story and subjected to cross-examination. it's a limited cross. they can't be attacked, for instance, about their credibility whether they have criminal convictions and things like that, but they will be questioned about their story and whether the story is true or not. i think we'll get a good picture of what is actually involved in this case today. >> or not because jerry sandusky, we are just learning, waived his right in court to a preliminary hearing. >> which means that this hearing that will take place will not happen. he will go straight to trial. we don't know what straight to trial means. >> which many analysts say it is a smart move because you don't want to lay out your case in court and is it necessary to hear from these six to eight victims to testify in open court with reporters all over the world. probably, maybe, paul callan would know better than i. >> according to the people that are there, the judge did ask sandusky in doing so, does he understand that he's waiving certain rights. in pennsylvania, ask you a right to this preliminary hearing and as we discussed earlier, some chance, remote it might be, the judge determined there wasn't enough to go to trial with. >> six to eight witnesses. >> all of the prehearing analysis of what to expect today, what to expect today, i didn't hear anybody say you waive this right to this preliminary hearing, which may be another crazy like a fox move from his attorney to kind of -- >> or just a crazy move because a lot of people have accused his attorney. >> susan candiotti we have her live on the phone right now. susan, you were live inside the courtroom, went went down? >> not inside the courtroom, just out. we're hearing from all our staff that is inside the courtroom. this is amazing news. certainly, it was always a possibility that something like this could happen, but who would have thought that jerry sandusky now is waiving his right to a preliminary hearing. certainly from his perspective, this means that he will not be able to listen nor will his defense attorney to what these alleged victims to to say about him and they're very serious and intimate, embarrassing details what they would have to talk about on the witness stand. but it would have given a preview to the defense, which is very important. a minute preview of what to expect at a trial by bypassing this stage prosecutors are no longer required to present minimal evidence before this judge to prove that there is a crime that has taken place and that jerry sandusky might have committed these alleged crimes. a lot of people coming out of the courthouse at this time because this was a packed courtroom with attorneys and reporters and other observers to see exactly this kind of testimony they were expecting to hear. first-hand information finally beyond the grand jury report about these allegations. so, that means the next step is for the judge to set a trial date. go straight to that. there would first be a formal arraignment, at which time jerry sandusky would be entering his formal plea to these charges. that has yet to take place. normally that is done by a defendant in person, however. so, right now we have a lot of people with surprise look on their face, no kidding, because everyone had been expecting so much more from today's testimony. >> i'm just curious, did all six or maybe it was eight alleged victims show up for this hearing? >> well, remember, there are ten alleged victims that were named that were outlined in the grand jury report. to the best of our knowledge, prosecutors had identified at least eight of the ten victims. not sure about the other two who have been discussed. >> he's leaving the courthouse. >> susan, i want to tell you, we're looking at pictures of the other side of the courthouse. jerry sandusky in front of the courthouse. is he walking towards reporters. he's saying something. >> let's listen. >> stay the course and fight for four quarters. we'll wait for the opportunity to present our side. >> we couldn't do that today. >> tell me why -- >> i'll come back and answer your questions. >> mr. sandusky, are you looking forward to facing your accusers? >> that sounded like jason carroll's voice to me, one of our correspondents. so, maybe susan candiotti, this is the back of the courtroom because they had heavy security here so jerry sandusky could enter the courthouse safely. i believe susan candiotti is in front of the courthouse. they didn't feel like they should tip their hand in this hearing today, this presentation. they're going to wait to do that when they get to the court trial, which we assume could begin -- well, surely next year. >> where does he go now, susan? >> where do we go from here? >> where does jerry sandusky go from here? >> well, impossible to -- i don't know if he's going back home, of course, again. he is wearing an ankle bracelet. house arrest at this time. not many places he can go. obviously, to and from court. the next time we expect to hear him and see him back in court anyway is for him to, sorry, that he would be allowed to come here back to the courthouse in order to enter his plea. sorry, getting two things at once here. but it's not totally unexpected. this actually had been flagged to some observers that this might happen, but certainly to the vast majority of people and certainly the prosecutors, they came here fully prepared to put a number of witnesses on the stand. an announcement is about to -- sorry, matter of fact, jason carroll is joining us now. jason, i'll have you share the mike with me right now. jason, you were inside the courthouse, of course. tell us how he looked and what it was like in the courtroom when this announcement was made. >> he looked nervous and earlier when i reached out to his attorney joe amendola he made clear that him and his wife, dottie, were nervous. he spoke with his attorney very briefly and his family, his son, john, his wife, dottie, seated in the front row. when he sat down, he looked at them. he smiled and things seemed to be very comfortable for a man facing such serious allegations. just as the proceeding got under way, joe amendola calls for a side bar. >> we want to listen to who is speaking right now. >> will not be cross examined at this time. as a result of the waiver, the current bail conditions will remain as they are. that is, the defendant remains on house arrest with electronic monitoring with the strict prohibitions with regard to his conduct and contact with any minors, victims or witnesses in the case. this development, we believe, provides maximum protection to most importantly the victims in this case. it avoids their having to testify for a second time. they will, of course, testify at trial in the case. and it will allow us to promptly advance the prosecution in this case to a just conclusion. any questions? well, the witnesses stood ready to testify today. but they will not have to testify. >> i would say based on some of the talk being made by defense counselor over the last weeks, their decision, i would say, is surprising based on that. however, based on our readiness, the strength of the case, i'm not that surprised. >> scheduled to testify -- >> there were about 11 witnesses ready to testify. i can't tell you exactly how many were going to be called. i ess it depended on how it was going to go. if you look at the presentments, you can pretty much figure out the lineup of witnesses pretty easily. i haven't spoken to the victims, but, you know, you have to show and understand that you can't forget the victims in this case. and you want to have some feelings of compassion for the hurt that they have and, you know, i think i would imagine that they would be somewhat relieved not having to go out and testify and be cross examined. no discussions regarding a plea bargain. well, it helps the prosecution in a lot of ways. and, frankly, in addition to the technical prosecution of case, again, i want to emphasize what it would mean for the victims in terms of not creating a second record because one will already exist from the grand jury proceeding and not having to go through the pain and suffering that's brought by a case like this i think is an important factor to consider. >> waited until the last minute. could have done this a week ago. >> we don't get disappointed over things like that. i mean, we're ready for anything. we're ready to proceed. if he changes his mind at the last minute, that's his peraugative. he has rights. he's giving up rights. we're not giving up anything. i would imagine that he would have, yes. >> and the 11 witnesses, how many were victims? >> i'm not going to get how many victims and how many weren't victims. >> this hearing with, were they concerned, nervous, set? >> i think it's a natural human reaction to be, you know, somewhat nervous about a proceeding getting this kind of attention and a proceeding involving the underlying facts of this case. however, they've shown great strength and they were more than ready to be ready to tell their story and be cross examined. >> what is your name? >> mark costzone. first name mark. no discussion or plea bargain. >> three more, guys. >> thank you very much. have a good day. >> all right, so, we were listening to one of the prosecutors who made some very interesting comments. first of all, no plea bargain discussion which he heard from jerry sandusky's lawyers. he says this is very helpful to the prosecution. paul callan has rejoined us. what does that mean when he says it is helpful to the prosecution that jerry sandusky has waived his preliminary hearing which means he will go to trial. >> what it does is give the defense a very clear snapshot and picture of what the case is going to be. in this particular case, prosecutors, of course, are going to be very, very happy that they don't have to put their victims through the turmoil of testifying. and being under oath. so, it's, it's a big advantage for the prosecution. >> pictures of him leaving the court there. >> couldn't they have waived this preliminary hearing without physically being in the courtro courtroom? >> it looked to me like a last-minute decision for the defense to wait. >> this is the attorney from victim one. i want to listen in to hear what he has to say. >> it was, obviously, it became known as to the prosecution that defense would waive the preliminary hearing. and, so, he was not brought to the courthouse. sorry. i ew when everybody else knew. i was sitting in the courtroom and heard the waiver. >> defense council decided to waive this hearing? >> i have no idea. i really don't know. i hope it's an indicator that a plea deal is down the road. but i don't know. i have no knowledge that that's the case. >> your reaction to this news, sir? >> yes, i have not spoken to my client. so, i don't know what his reaction is, but i know him. and i know how stressful this day he expected this day would be. i can imagine this is terrific for my client, as well as all of the other victims who now do not have to relive the horrors they experienced up on the witness stands and they have achieved the same result as they would have had they had to testify. >> would you think your client would like to have information and avoid pain of a trial? >> no, i think it would -- i think he certainly would like justice served in a way that is least stressful for my client. and that means not having to testify. if a plea deal is struck in such a way that justice is served and we all view whatever the sentence is as a fair sentence, then i believe that would be optimal for victim one. michael boni. thank you. >> all right. you said it, paul, that this may pave the way for a plea deal. you heard victim attorney number one say that. is it likely it will happen? >> highly suggestive it will. how unusual it is for a defense attorney to give up his attorney to cross examine the alleged victims in the case. find out what the prosecutor's case is. if you're going to trial in a case, as a defense attorney, this is a golden opportunity to have a look at the case and see where you stand. so, if really would be very, very unusual for an attorney bound and determined to try his case in front of a jury to waive this opportunity. >> but this defense attorney has done some, i don't know, for lack of a better term, whacky things before. did he have a plea deal in mind the whole way through? did he really mean he was going to trial? suddenly we're going to go to this preliminary hearing, but on the day it is to happen, oh, we just changed our minds. >> his approach, carol, unorthodox from the start. he consented to press interviews with his client, usually defense attorneys don't allow their clients to speak to the press. i think something else is going on here. i think that there was sort of a, he was afraid of a lynch mob mentality if this thing went through. we were talking earlier this morning about how graphic the testimony would be and how gut wrenching to hear these people talk about the abuse. that may have created a public atmosphere that would make it impossible to negotiate a plea. this may be part of the defense thinking. >> we heard from michael boni that victim one wasn't even brought to the courthouse once this became clear that he was waiving his right to a preliminary trial. those victims, that victim, at least, was not even brought to the courtroom. so, at least for now, that has been delayed. that wrenching testimony has been delayed. i want to bring in jason carroll, i know he's there with susan candiotti at the courthouse. jason, susan, bring us up to speed on what's happening there. >> well, let me just tell you what happened in the courthouse, first. i thought that was really interesting. as things got under way, jerry sandusky walked into the courtroom and he appeared to be somewhat nervous when he first walked in. when he sat down, he looked over at his family, his wife, dottie was there and also his son. he smiled. perhaps that was some indication that things were not going to go as planned. and then short lly thereafter, susan, that's when his attorney, joe amendola, called for a sidebar. shortly thereafter we heard that this preliminary hearing was not going to happen. shortly after this proceeding ended, jerry sandusky himself left the courthouse, the back of the courthouse and spoke very briefly to reporters out there and said, "i look forward to facing my accusers." and i believe we do have some of that sound now. so, let's roll that so you can hear exactly what jerry had to say in his own words. >> stay the course and fight for four quarters. we'll wait for the opportunity to present our side. >> we couldn't do that today. >> why? tell me why you couldn't do it today? >> i'll come back and answer your questions. mr. sandusky, are you looking forward to facing your accusers, sir? >> you know, jason, what was that moment like in the courtroom when that announcement was made? >> you know, there were audible gasps. in the middle of the courtroom on one side members of the public and on the other side members of jerry sandusky supporters. there were audible gasps and then furious clicking as people were texting and tweeting and writing e-mails about this most recent development. now that jerry sandusky has decided not to have this preliminary hearing, his bail conditions would be what they were before, meaning he is under house arrest and no contact with any victims or any unsupervised visits with minors. one other point i brought up, you mentioned earlier and talking about this possible idea of some sort of a plea agreement that might be discussed. well, sunday night i spoke to joe amendola and i specifically asked him. this was sunday night. any discussions about some sort of a plea arrangement, plea deal and he said, no, not at this point. at least in his eyes that any sort of plea agreement would essentially be a life sentence if it was ten years or something for jerry sandusky. >> certainly so many observers have said, joe amendola's defense so far has been unorthodox to say the least. this is one more example of it. what else is interesting to note is what so many of the lawyers who represent these alleged victims at the point that they've been making and that is certainly a tremendous relief for these alleged victims. i communicated with one of the lawyers just before the hearing was supposed to begin and i learned that alleged victim number four was to be the first to take the witness stand. this is someone who had allegedly gone to a few bowl games with jerry sandusky and allegedly sexually abused by him and he was ready to go, as were so many others. imagine the immense relief on their part because they were mentally prepared to go forward with this. they had been prepped thoroughly by the prosecutors in this case and then to stand in front of the courtroom and talk about it. >> suzen and jason, hang on a second. i want to ask paul callan something. this is an orthodox step. this would have gone and been an indictment and gone to trial. does this, on the face of it, change jerry sandusky's chances, whatever they were, one way or the other. given this was an extraneous thing today anyway. >> i think he's given up a big opportunity to find out how strong the case against him was. let's face it. if there are ten alleged victims here and five of them got on stands and had problems rect lecting what happened and where and when it happened and he would have come out of the hearing knowing there was only five viable claims against him. this is something most people don't know about the criminal justice system. they're done in total seekerancy. defendants do not receive statements given by witnesses until the time of trial or very close to the time of trial. a lot of times you're going in blind and in a case where you can spend life in prison. that's why doing this preliminary hearing is very important if you intended to go to trial. amendola is always doing unorthodox things. >> he told the cameras, i'll be right back, guys. i'll be back and explain it all to you. >> let me throw out an incredibly bizarre ploy. maybe, if jerry sandusky attorney's wants a plea deal and because the victims, to spare the victims this pain, maybe by going through all these weird mecnuizations that the plea deal will somehow be a better deal for jerry sandusky. >> undoubtedly, if they're thinking plea, that's on the table because they're going to go to the prosecutors now and say, hey, we knew the victims were facing this trauma and we waived the hearing. you have to offer us something for that. but, what is the prosecutor going to do in this case? he has ten victims, ten alleged victims and all children. how much can he offer sandusky? a very substantial jail sentence. the public in pennsylvania would be furious if they let this guy walk. >> let's go there to jason and susan in bellefonte. town of 6,200 people and sarah from "the patriot" said it is not as clear in happy valley and the areas around penn state that jerry sandusky is public enemy number one. >> well, i do believe there are a number of people here who do believe that something happened with jerry sandusky. look, having said that, ali, in the courtroom today you had several members of jerry sandusky's church who were here supporting him. joe amendola telling me he oftentimes drives around and gets a thumb up. on the flipside of that, susan knows there has been threats made against jerry sandusky and rocks thrown at his home. so, definitely deep feelings on both sides, both sides of this story. >> in fact, even death threats made against mike mcqueary, who is one of the important witnesses in this case. i spent a lot of time talking this morni ing talking to some the locals around and they're flabbergasted by the amount of attention this received nationwide but they certainly understand given the reputation of penn state university and given the reputation of this very well-known retired coach jerry sandusky and given the shocking nature of the allegations against him. that is why this has garnered so much attention in this town. they're willing to put up with it. they get how important this is. >> one more other point, ali. i know so much has been said about this particular move today. legally was it the right thing to do today? i think from joe amendola's move, he feels so much has already been said in terms of allegations that jerry really feels like at this point jerry sandusky is a man who feels like he's under a rock and he has to get out from under it. imagine what would have happened if all of these alleged victims would have come forward and testified. all of that would have been out in the press today. that would been the headline and that's all people would have heard. in some ways by postponing some of that testimony, perhaps it gives joe amendola and his client an opportunity to postpone it. >> thanks, guys. you know, i want to ask paul callan something -- thanks, guys. i know you will keep following it. others feel like we've only heard from jerry sandusky. we haven't heard these kids in their own words except for that initial grand jury summary. >> that's right. i think, though, this idea that he's going to be spared public humiliation by waiving the hearing is going to turn out to be a big mistake. instead of having a splash over the next two days and a lot of stories this week and then the thing fading for a while, now you're going to have a series of long, slow leaks from all ten victims and their attorneys as they step forward and say, this is what happened to my client. this is what happened to my client. so, i think there's going to be a lot of pain for sandusky as we go down the road. the second thing that i think is very interesting and we have to look to see. will they fast track this case to trial? why can't the judge to say, do you want to waive the preliminary hearing, i will give you a trial date in a month and a half. we're done. >> when does a judge decide that? now they left, how does a judge decide when this starts? >> the defense would have the right to file motions in the case to suppress various items of evidence. for instance, a search warrant and things were recovered. so, there are a whole series of motions that will have to be heard by the court. but the court could fast track it and the court could move this case to trial much more quickly than it would have moved with a preliminary hearing. >> who would have wanted that more? i mean they seem to have some sort of plan, right? >> i really don't know. in the rare cases that i've seen in the past where a defense attorney has waived a preliminary hearing, it's usually an attempt to ambush the prosecutor and move to trial quickly because the prosecutor is not ready. you've got a lot of victims in this case, a lot of potential witnesses in this case. so, this could be a ploy to ambush and move quickly, if amendola has thought out a strategy in this as opposed that he's just winging it. >> he said he would go back to the camera. i mean, maybe he'll lay this out and explain all of this. >> if this was a well-considered strategy. if i were the defense attorney and decided i was going to waive the hearing. do i want to have hundreds of people in court. >> the country's media. >> all the media is there to trash my client for a full day and then i'm going to walk in and say i waived the preliminary hearing. i would have sent a letter to the judge a week in advance and avoid all the public. >> you heard jerry sandusky stand there and talk to reporters as he entered the courtroom. >> he said something, carol, that was absolutely false. we'll present our side of the case in the future. in theory, he could have presented his side of the case at this preliminary hearing. no defense attorney would put his client on the stand, but he could have testified, he could have called witnesses and he could have cross examined. if he felt this is a weak case, we could have defeated this case he could have demonstrated that in a pennsylvania courtroom. >>ets let's bring youp

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