love. vladimir putin is suggesting john mccain is nuts. mccain responds on twitter saying, dear vlad, was is something that i said? on this "american morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com and good morning to you. it is friday, december 16th. nine days left before christmas. can you believe it? >> have you finished your shopping? >> i have two gifts bought. >> and that means no. good morning, everybody. i am alina cho. welcome to "american morning." the last critical debate before the iowa caucus, the front-runner, newt gingrich playing defense on his conservative values and electability. mitt romney stood by his business background playing it safe and texas governor rick perry realizing it may be the fourth down threw this hail mary pass. >> there are a lot of folk whose said tim tebow wasn't going to be a good nfl quarterback. that looked print good. am i ready for the next level? let me tell you i hope i am the tim tebow of the iowa caucuses. >> best line of the night. jim acosta live in sioux city, iowa. i'll stop with the football references. good morning. how did last night go? >> reporter: sure. good morning. newt gingrich found out what it's like to be the front-runner heading into the final weeks before voting begins in these primaries. he was hit early and hard by his fellow candidates there on the stage. first among them was michele bachmann. she went right after newt gingrich pretty early on in the debate on the issue of freddie mac, and the fact that newt gingrich took a lot of money from the housing giant advising them just before the housing crisis last decade. here's how michele bachmann put it. >> i was trying to see these two entities put into bankruptcy, because they, frankly, need to go away, when the speaker had his hand out and was taking $1.6 million to influence senior republicans to keep the scam going in washington, d.c. that's absolutely wrong. >> the easiest answer is, that's just not true. what she just said is factually not true. i never lobbied under any circumstance. i never went in and suggested in any way that we do this. >> you don't need to be within the technical definition's being a lobbyist to still be influence peddling with senior republicans in washington, d.c. to get them to do your bidding. >> i only chose to work with people whose values i share and having people have a chance to buy a house is a value i believe still is important in america. >> reporter: that was a tough moment for newt gingrich, because, you know, to get up there onstage and say you share the values of fannie mae and freddie mac that did not go over well with conservatives. he was able to redeem himself over the course ever the evening, if you follow a lot of tweets from a lot of conservative acts vists. they liked the way newt gingrich performed later on in the debate. but mitt romney, he got very lucky last night, because his record of changing positions on issues that conservatives care about that was not really challenged that much during the course of the debate. he had scorched newt gingrich all this week on a variety of issues, but didn't do so last night, and so that kept newt gingrich off of his back, but at the very end of the debate, governor romney was challenged on his record by one of the moderators, and here's how that went. >> i do not believe in discriminating against people based upon their sexual orientation. some people are due. high a member of my administration, who was gay. i had the potential to fight for anti-discrimination in a way that would even better than senator kennedy as a democrat was expected to do so. at the same time, chris, in 1994 and throughout my career i've said i oppose same-sex marriage. marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman. >> he personally as governor issued gay marriage licenses. i don't think that is an accurate representation of his position of saying tolerance versus substantively going by the laws. i've had a consistent strong record of standing up for the values of this country. no discrimination. we're not talking about discrimination. we're talking about changing the basic values of our country. >> reporter: so that was a tough moment for mitt romney, but overall, a lot of folks who watched that debate last night felt that he really won this debate, because he came out of this unscathed while newt gingrich's chief rival here in iowa and new hampshire and south carolina really got dinged up last night, and we're actually at a steel factory here in sioux city where mitt romney will be later this morning. interesting that he'll be here, because this is a state he hasn't kpeeft competed that muc. he has a serious chance of winning this state, guys, and that would really shake up this race. >> 18 debates. 18 days until the iowa caucuses and 11 degrees where you're standing this morning. jim acosta, thank you very much. >> reporter: i can feel it. >> ear mufrs and the whole bit. thanks. plenty of attacks last night, all giving president obama ammo for the fall campaign. >> good morning, carol. >> we heard the back and forth between gingrich and bachmann over his work with freddie mac. how does gingrich get out of that one. was his answer satisfactory? >> probably not. not the most compelling debate. lower on energy. seemed perfunctory at time but reaffirmed the basic dynamic that governed this race all year. two central phenomena. one, mitt romney has not been able to expand his support beyond 25% or 30%. i don't see anything happened last night to help do that, and the other big thing no one has been able to lastingly gain support from the roughly two-thirds of the party that is skeptical of romney. you saw mitt romney facing challenges in holding that support. he had made progress in the last few weeks in polls, in sort of pulling that vote together, but the attacks on his work for freddie mac, i think, were pretty effective, and you kind of felt -- watching i felt i was watching rick perry dealing with the in-state tuition for illegal immigrants a few months ago. none of these consecutive as per rants too be the tea party all hiv that been able to hold that because several have not seemed consistently conservative enough. those vulnerabilities were exposed for gingrich last night and we've seen it from a bunch of conservatives voices in the last week raising alarms about him as the right alternative to romney. >> the national journal came out against newt gingrich in a big way. >> national revunchiew. i'm sorry. and newt gingrich didn't go after romney last night, many attacks coming from the romney camp and gingrich admitted he got thrown by some of the romney attacks. listen to what he said last night. newt gingrich i mean. again, from fox news. >> i sometimes get accused of using languages too strong. so i've been standing here editing. i'm very concerned about not appearing to be zany. >> he tried to get over that -- mitt romney called him zany. which is a strange word to use anyway, but a perception a lot of republicans have of newt gingrich. >> right. two separate things here. first, as we talked about, gingrich's biggest problem in the race is doubts about his temperament and whether he's capable of being a candidate and certainly in effect the president and many of those doubts are deepest among the republicans who served with him as speaker. very effective at a guerrilla leader er ier in 1994. a lot more trouble as speaker of the house. those doubts could be a big part of his challenge. he's also making a very conscious decision last night, i thought, as mitt romney has been challenging his conservative credentials. in 1994 when newt gingrich was leading republicans back to their majority, promulgating with america, newt gingrich said he wouldn't sign it and distancing himself from the bush record. a comeback, mitt romney says he's an unreliable leader of the conservative cause. at the moment gingrich is saying i'm going to float above the fray and be the positive candidate. last night he needed a little more contrast, because he spent an awful lot of that first hour on the defensive about his conservative credentials, in particular, his consulting work with freddie mac. >> i don't know how i feel about endorsements, really, but this is an important one that came out. the south carolina governor will reportedly endorse mitt romney today. how big a deal is that? >> i think a medium deal. she's having her own problems with the party. endorsements in general are overrated but it reflects what we're talking about. the larger phenomenon. newt gingrich has done almost the impossible. made them feel they have to rally around mitt romney. they've had enormous doubts about. nicky haily is part of the general drum beat of the national review, the weekly standard, a series of members of congress. a lot of republicans are leery of gingrich's nominee, mostly unpredictable and vulnerable. she a strong favorite to win south carolina no matter what their governor says, though. >> and before you go, "the washington post" was complaining about the buzzer at last night's debate. so let's look at jon huntsman. running out of time. let's watch. >> when we're strong, we project values of goodness that transform and change people like no military can. 2 used to break my heart sitting in beijing, second largest embassy in the world. >> two dings in that one. governor perry -- >> i don't even know what that noise was. actually, "the washington post" had good suggestions to, you know -- for what to use instead of that. maybe jim morrison crooning "this is the end." my only friend, the end. >> a kindler, gentler debate. a kindler, gentler buzzer. >> after more than a dozen debates that perfunctory feel of last night, could have buzzed him earlier. didn't see the candidates were quite as engaged as earlier and obviously, coming into a lot of similar ground. one quick point the other thing that wasn't going to gingrich, again rick perry and michele bachmann did well. fragmented the conservative vote gingrich had been consolidating helps romney if gingrich is brought down to someone else wins the state. >> ron brownstein, thank you. good morning. >> never a dull moment. just hours to spare, looks like there may be a deal to avoid a government shutdown. this is the eighth time we have reached this threat just this year, but last night several democratic sources told cnn they have reached and agreement will fund the government through october of next year. both the house and senate are expected to vote on the deal later today. the politics are still holding up a number of other important issues including, of course, the pay roll tax cut, extending unemployment benefits and an increase to doctors who provide medical services. because of that debate, kocongrs is again working on this last-minute deal to avoid a partial government shutdown. from star quarterback to star witness. mike mcqueary expected to testify today against two of his former bosses at penn state. they are charged with perjury and failing to report suspected child abuse in the jerry sandusky case. susan candiotti live in harrisburg, pennsylvania this morning. so what can we expect in court today, susan? >> reporter: well, it's going to be a very important day for the state, because the state is expected to put on mike mcqueary as a key witness to try to prove these charges of perjury and failure to report a case of alleged child abuse against these two penn state officials. it's a very important part of this case, because the state is going to issue more or less a mini preview of what's to come. they have to prove to a judge there is enough evidence that a crime was committed through the testimony of mike mcqueary and some others. >> so, susan, how are they going to prove that? >> reporter: well, of course, his testimony will be very important, and we're going it hear from him, if he indeed takes the stand, for the first time some details other than a broad overview of what he told the grand jury. we are expected to hear what mike mcqueary said that he saw back in 2002 in a locker room at penn state when he testified that he saw a boy about 10 years old being allege -- allegedly being raped by jerry sandusky and furthermore, that he went on to tell coach joe paterno about it as well as these two penn state officials and yet nothing, apparently, was done. how will they go about doing it? in part, put on testimony that might include the testimony of joe paterno. now, because of the state of his health, he might not appear in person, but they would certainly enter into the record what joe paterno told the grand jury about what mcqueary told him. >> so will defense attorneys have a chance to cross-examine the witnesses? >> reporter: they certainly will, but are limited what they can ask these witnesses about. for example, they're not allowed to test someone's credibility at this stage in the proceeding, but if a judge is convinced that there is enough evidence to move forward to trial, then he will agree to do that, and agree that this should go forward to a trial stage. >> susan candiotti reporting live from harrisburg, pennsylvania this morning. thank you. 15 minutes past the hour. other top stories this morning -- army private bradley manning facing an arraignment at a base in maryland for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents that wound up being published on wikileaks. charged with 22 counts of violating military code ranging from threat of records to aiding the enemy. he could get the death penalty if found guilty. sentencing day for former baseball great barry bonds on his obstruction of justice conviction. jurors back in april found bonds was said to be evasive in his testimony to a federal grand jury investigating illegal steroid use by athletes. prosecutors want baseball's home run king to serve at least 15 months in prison. lawyers for bonds have asked the judge for probation. just ahead on "american morning," is iran more on the matrix than we thought? iran now planning to get hacked into one of the most high tech drones in the u.s. art arsenal and brought it down. had uns of students protesting florida governor rick scott angry over his comments on the recent hazing and fraud scandals. we'll show you how that went down just ahead. actor christian bale getting roughed up by chinese security at the home of a prominent human rights activist followed by a car chase. feels like it was right out of the movies. right? and we were along for the ride at 16 past the hour. 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[ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. what's that? big piece of potato. where they grow america's favorite wpotatoes. idaho, everyone knows idaho potatoes taste great. down just ahead. welcome back. author and essayist crist mer hitchens died after a long battle with cancer. a self-described militant pundit, he been a contributing editor to "vanity fair" for the past two decades. piers morgan he tweetd he was the greatest lit raye provocateur of my lifetime. he was 62 years old. an nfl play sir under arrest for trying to set up a drug ring. chicago bears wide receiver samuel herd caught in an underkouver sting five-month investigation that started when he was playing back for dallas. they met with an undercover agent at a restaurant in chicago where he allegedly tried to buy a quarter of a million dollars worth of cocaine. claimed he was already selling drugs in chicago and wanted to distribute even more. if convicted, he could spend 40 years in prison. the top secret u.s. drone that crashed in iran was luking for nuclear sites what a military official is admitting to cnn. up until now the u.s. story it was only keeping an eye on the u.s. border. so could the u.s. change its story how it went down? asked security chief of stat chad sweet whether iran has the technology to hack into something so sophisticated. >> i think the proof in the pudding will be in whether they put up or shut up. we'll see. secretary panetta stated clearly we'll continue to operate the program along the afghan/iranian border. so they'll have to be able to demonstrate they can rec pla kate this. >> iran claims it captured the drone by hacking into its gps systems but the u.s. insists it was a technical glitch on our end. still to come on "american morning," are the cell phone bans for drivers really effective? one insurance group says, no. we'll tell you why. an extensive background on jumping women on their looks. now howard stern is going to have -- have to look a little deeper. let's just say that. details of his new television gig. it's 22 minutes after the hour. we're back after this. ♪ i'm burning out this useless telephone ♪ ♪ my hair is gone ♪ cheap cologne ♪ motor home ♪ i'm the rocket man! 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"minding your business" this morning. stocks break a three-day losing streak thanks to upbeat reports on manufacturing. this morning u.s. stock futures are trading higher. the imf, christine lagarde said the european crisis is escalating and warned the current crisis cannot be resolved by one group of countries. and the current debt crisis in europe is taking a toll on the credit worthiness of at least six global banks. rating agency fitch just downgraded bank of america, goldman sachs and several other banks saying they are vulnerable to the economic and regulatory challenges currently facing the financial markets. morgan stanley is becoming the latest bank to slash its payroll. the investment giant announcing plans to cut 1,600 jobs. a little more than 2.5% of its work force. the cuts are need to offset revenue from investment banks and trading. pays to have the corner office. according to a new survey, ceos at america's top companies received a 35% jump pay last year. wondering who made out the biggest, best, biggest, the ceos in the health care industry. according to the insurance institute for highway safety those cell phone bans for drivers are useless. according to the institute's research, the bans resulted in future drivers using cell phones but not resolved in fewer crashes. 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