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and that would be we're going to talk about the immigration fight and gop. newt gingrich offering another take on his position. we have a one-minute playback. using the classic peanuts characters. we're just a minute in, now changing everything. one retail expert predicts the 24 hours that started at 9:00 p.m. thursday will be the biggest in history. an estimated sales of $27 billion and mall after america said it saw its biggest crowds ever. many shoppers decided to skip the chaos and shop from home. analysts say youn line spending was way up yesterday. on thanksgiving, the sales jumped 39%, but black friday was violent for some. in arizona, a grandfather was left beaten and blod died after police grabbed the 54-year-old and threw him to the ground

after suspicion of shoplifting. one witness said the man put the game in his pants only while trying to protect his grandson from being trampled by that mob. let's go to john yang at new york's herald square where at least 10,000 people showed up for macy's midnight opening. what's the word on the success of black friday sales? >> not quite the crowds of yesterday, but still a steady stream of shoppers going in since they opened at about 7:00 a.m. the early numbers and these are early, show that there was about $27 billion of sales yesterday. that's up about 8% from the year before. and certainly the crowds were huge given the early hours, the extra shopping hours and extra discounts, but the question is what were they buying? were they buying the heavily discounted items or making other

purchases? we'll get those numbers, some numbers in on that tomorrow. get firmer numbers. but overall, the national retail federation is expecting about 152 million americans to be hitting the stores this weekend. that would be a record and of course, this is a very important time for retailers. they tend to do about a quarter of their entire year sales in november and december, so the coming four weeks will really tell us whether the stores will hit their projected sales or not. a good black friday, a good first weekend means that the stores generally will be confident they won't have to add any more sales they've than planned. they'll probably have to have extra discounting in order to get everything out the door by christmas time. >> there's a lot of people who are going to wait for those discounted. can we just talk about yesterday morning, i was broadcasting and word kept coming in, john, about

violence at particularly these walmart stores. i mean, what happened? are we going to have to rethink security? >> well, they've constantly rethinking security. remember a couple of years ago e a worker on long island was trampled to death at the beginning of the opening. this year, there were some scattered reports of violence ch the worst was in california. the parking lot rather of a walmart. a man was shot and critically wounded by an attempted robbery. wouldn't give up what he had just bought and then at a walmart in los angeles, a woman trying to get the upper hand in a scramble for some electronic goods by using pepper spray. she injured about 20 people, but this is something that they're constantly looking at. they want the crowds. they want the excitement, but they have to be worried about security as well. >> thank you so much. we appreciate that. so, are you shocked at the black

friday violence? you can talk to me on twitter. i'm going to be reading some of your tweets this morning. to politics now. after days of criticism, newt gingrich is defending his immigration policy, emphasizing he does not support amnesty. he spoke last night to his largest crowd yet in naples, florida. >> i am not -- i'm not for amnesty for anyone. i am not for citizenship for any people out here illegally, but i am perhaps the legality of those who -- that it will truly be tragic, trying to rip their family apart. >> michele bachmann spent friday meeting with supporters at the mall of america in minnesota. a group of occupy wall street protestors also showed up. officers prevented the protesters from beginning bringing in signs, but let them

in a room at one time to get their books autographed. the paper is set to make its endorsement this weekend. the leerd will announce which candidate it will ens doris in tomorrow's paper. the candidates have been busy meeting with the conservative leaning editorial board. the paper endorsed john mccain in the last election cycle. four candidates have events today. michele bachmann will told book signings well, also developing this morning, pakistan is taking bold action in response to claims that nato attacked one of its military check points, leaving at least two dozen soldiers dead and several others wounded. the country has blocked a nato supply root in afghanistan. pakistan says that attack was unprovoked, but nato officials say nato forces were fired on in the border region between pakistan and afghanistan. we have more on this story as we

get information as it unfolds. the three american students arrested in cairo are now out of egypt. the news comes as several hundred demonstrators left tahrir square this morning. what exactly did those demonstrators do and did they succeed? >> reporter: well, as we understand, obviously tahrir has been the center of the protest for the past several days. the symbolic heart of the protest, but down the road is the prime minister's office or the cabinet building and that's where some of the protesters tried to go to send a message. what they tried to do was prevent him from going into the building. now, according to the ministry of the interior, the incident that happened that led to a death was an accident. there was a military vehicle backing up, did not see him and

hit him. a different version, the security forces were attempting to leave the area, but all of this happening at some interesting developments here in egypt. >> but these monday elections, are they going to happen or be postponed? >> the military has come out and categoringly said they will happen. the military has extended the voting period. it will now take place over the course of two day, which means monday and tuesday and keep in mind, this is a very important development because over the course of the next several weeks, these elections, the first since mubarak was ousted, are going to take place over the course of several weeks. the first round in important cities like cairo and alexandria begins this monday and tuesday. they're expecting record turnouts. the protesters say they're going to the polls to make their voices heard loud and clear. >> many thanks for the live report.

the clock is ticking for protesters at occupy los angeles. the city is telling them to get out. hundreds of occupied the front laub of city hall for months but now, firnls say they need to clean the area. that is a message similar to the one that ended the occupation of zuccotti park here in new york. protesters in l.a. have jekted offers for alternative staging grounds. for more than three hours friday, water shot high above the rooftops in san francisco. this happened after a water main erupted creating that geyser that flooded a neighborhood. several hoechls were evacuated, but it's unclear what caused the break. snow isn't all that unusual this time of year in alaska, but a lot of it is. more than 30 inches has fallen in anchorage this month. bill karins has more now on the weather for the lower 48. good morning, bill. >> a great saturday morning to

you, alex and what a warm november we have been having. it continues this weekend. yesterday, we saw temperatures up in the 60s all the way up to boston. and it hasn't just been the east coast cht it's been much of the nation. this is the high temperature map and you can see we're as warm at the mid-50s in minneapolis. as we go to the end of november, just doesn't happen that often and it's still warm this morning, but what has changed is now there's cold air coming down from the north behind our storm system. temperatures in the last 24 hours have developed about 20 degrees. still warm from chicago to atlanta to new orleans. unusually mild air. a lot of warm air on the eastern sea board, but we have a slow moving storm system through the deep south, tennessee valley, up through the great lakes. on the eastern sea board, a fantastic saturday. near record highs in many areas. there is that heavy rain threat

over east texas, louisiana, up to chicago. cool air on the backside of that. much of the west coast looks good for sat, but rain will move into the pacific northwest late today and stick around seattle and eventually portland cht that storm system is going to continue to push up through the great lakes. heavy rain down through the deep south and ohio valley with one more warm, beautiful day on the east coast. i was looking at some of the numbers and crunching them. looks like this is going to be one of the armest novembers for many cities. >> thanks. the latest on the search for a missing mother of three. she vanished after she appeared on a "people's court" episode and this morning, her family says no one's being ruled out. newt gingrich and the response that ignited the the immigration showdown. plus, getting up way too early with willie geist. why he thinks washington lacks common sense. there's willie right there. ♪

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newt gingrich is setting the record straight on his immigration stance. some rivals have jumped on him accusing him of supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants, but last night, he defended his policy. joining us now, jackie kucinich. after saying that he was against amnesty, gingrich also said he's in favor of a certain path of legality to people whose ties are quote so deeply into

america, it would be tragic to try and rip their fami apart. so how unique is it really? >> you know, i don't think the problem is that gingrich's stance is unique. i don't think that's the problem. i think the fact that gop primary voters don't really like it is the problem. lots of republican politicians have gotten themselves not necessarily into trouble, but have had some issues with the immigration issue. look at john mccain. look at president bush couldn't get his immigration package passpass ed several years ago. and for certain people who look for r a more dare i say progressive view of the immigration issue. so it's not that it's unique. it's that gop primary voters don't agree. >> the latest national poll has newt gingrich and the gop lead. do you think his stance on immigration magt damage his front-runner status just like it did to rick perry or do you

think gingrich has done a better job of trying to explain where he stands? >> i think gingrich has done a better job of explaining where he stands. i don't think it's going to help him in some states like iowa. when rick perry said people who don't know what i'm talking about is heartless and he apologized. the way he presented it was confrontational. gingrich has done a better job, but i don't think it's going to be smooth sailing for him in iowa as it may have been before he said that. >> we're going to talk about the big old fail that happened last week as congress heads back to work monday. major super committee failure here. is there any con senn kus there where you are on the fallout and whether it might have been set up to fail? >> you know, i think the only consensus is that the super committee, who's to blame? tomorrow, there's two op-eds out in the "washington post" that the democrats and the republicans are going after each other saying it was their fault.

it was their fault. >> really, you think? >> that's so unusual, i know, it's hard to wrap your mind around. the only consensus is that there is no consensus. that word and super committee don't really go together. >> let's look quickly at what comes up between now and the end of the year. there's still going to be fighting between the president and congress. they're going to be squaring off over jobs and debt. congress passed a bill keeping the federal government funded through the 16th, so -- past that point. there's the payroll tax cuts for 2011 set to expire january 1st if congress doesn't act. how does this play out? do you think we're going to make any progress? >> they have to do something or the government's going to shut down before christmas. not to mention all the people that are affect ed by the way roll tax hike. if that isn't extended. i think i read yesterday, $400

billion tax package that we could be looking at trying pass at the end of this year, so it's going to be a nasty december in congress. that is for sure. and you know, republicans are going to want any of these -- any of these tax holidays, they're going to want to off set that with something. we're going to be looking at a lot of the same fights that we've been seeing all year long. >> i'm looking at december 16th, it's a friday. are we going to be keeping the lights on later than usual in prime time. >> it seems like it's been like that for the last couple of years. you're looking at your plane tickets saying, well, can i stay, can i go. they usually take it right up to the wire and there's nothing in this current congress that makes me believe it will not go down to the wire again. tomorrow on "meet the press," more on the budget fight. david gregory will speak to

chuck schumer and grover norquist and what should happen next. how to avoid the rush this weekend, but first, the most searched items on price grabber black friday. topping that list, 11 inch televisions followed by the play station slim console. that is followed by the x-box 460. then rebel black slr digital camera kit and the ipod touch fourth generation media player. you got that? yeah. small businesses in austin texas are thinking local. mason arnold runs greenway which distributes produce from green gate forms and baked goods from that city's little blue stem. they're championing the buy local movement and helping the

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♪ let's go ♪ ♪ ♪ come with me, let's go ♪ ♪ come with me, let's go ♪ ♪ cruise like a norwegian ♪ more than a third of americans are traveling, now, the roadways and airways are filling up as folks make their

way back home. what can you expect? joining me now is jose miller, good morning to you. >> good morning. so, the busiest travel day of the year, that has come and gone before thanksgiving, but we got a busy 48 hours here. >> today is a huge day for travels returning home. form, even more so. so, we're saying travelers leave early in the morning or late at night, off peak hours. about 61% of travelers say that's when they're leaving and don't forget that stop-go traffic uses more gas, so that's money saving and time saving. can you tell me when off peak is? when you consider the numbers of people traveling, i'm thinking peak is going to be larger than normal. >> if you're a parent, maybe leave an extra hour to get out the door. sometimes that's tricky, but consider not only where you're coming from and to, but in between there's a lot of traffic and you want to avoid big city

rush hours. late in the day tomorrow is going to be a big one. >> how about the outlook in terms of the numbers of people that travel this particular thanksgiving and where we're going to be for the holiday season coming up? does that look like a lot of people are going to be on the roads? >> it does. this thanksgiving versus last thanksgiving, travel is up and the same goes for december. if you expect long delays and don't encounter them, you'll be delighted. >> and you talk bd about saving money with the gas, but gas is more expensive this year than last year. about air fares? >> air fares are up, but gas has been on the decline the last six months so that helps a lot. >> do you think holiday travel gas will be less than now? >> it looks like it's on a decline, so fingers crossed. >> be a nice little holiday gift. that would be good. good to see you. thank you. safe travels. for 28 years, families have

been tuning in to watch a charlie brown thanksgiving, but leave it to jimmy kimmel to leave a new take on the classic. >> mitt, you hired illegals in your home and you knew about it for a year and the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you're strong on immigration is on its face, the height of hi pock rasy. >> rick, i don't think i've ever hired an illegal in my life. >> i'll tell you what the facts are, you have -- i'm speaking. i'm speaking. >> you get 30 seconds. the way the rules work is that i get 60 seconds and you get 30 seconds to respond, right? >> would you please wait? are you just going to keep talking? >> 9-9-9. ♪

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you're a fresh swiffersnapper! welcome back. half past the hour. here are your fast five headlines. all three american students have been leased and left egypt. an attorney for one says the three caught separate flights early today. they were accused of throwing fire bombs at security forces. the nba and its players have reached a tentative deal to end the lockout. both sides hope to begin the delayed season on christmas day. no word from authorities on yesterday's search of the home of syracuse's coach. he's on administrative leave after two boys accused him of molesting them 25 years ago. the safety of the lithium battery is now under

investigation. the prop comes after one battery caught fire in crash testing and another starting giving off smoke. and customers are finding savings at the gas pump. the national average dropped to $3.30 a gallon. retailers across the country are tallying up receipt, police departments are investigating several incidents. fights, shootings and a pepper stray attack. kristen dahlgren has the latest. >> reporter: on youtube, pictures of the quest for door busters again turning dangerous. in california, a woman pepper strayed fellow walmart shoppers to get at an x-box. >> kids are on the floor. >> reporter: 20 were injured and police spent the day looking for the suspect. at a walmart in northern california, one man is in

critical condition after a shooting. an apparent attempted robbery of his bargains. at a south carolina walmart, one woman was hospitalized after another attempted robbery. >> heard gun shots, about five of them. >> reporter: in new york, two women were taken away by an ambulance over a scuffle over cell phones. >> next thing i know, they cut the thing and there's 200 people on top of my mom. >> reporter: they said overall, it's been a very safe event, but added they are always looking at how to do things better. pepper spray was used in a north carolina walmart, this time by score security. in florence, alabama, police used a stun gun on an unruly customer. while in buckeye, questions about excessive force on an eldly man suspected of shopt lifting, leaving many to wonder

whether the battle for bargains is worth the cost. a shocking development in the disappearance of american robin gardener in ruby. a judge has ruled her travel companion will be b released from prison no later than tuesday. a prosecutor in aruba says he's appealed the judge's decision. he says gardener was swept out to sea while. and the former assistant football coach, only 3% had a positive opinion of him. meanwhile, joe paterno is viewed favorably by 51% surveyed, but 45% agreed with the decision to fire him. let's go to pakistan on the developing story from overnight. pakistan is accusing nato helicopters of firing on an army check point and killing some two

dozen soldiers. following the incident, pakistan closed a border to supply its troops in neighboring afghanistan. until recently, p.j. was the spokesman. good morning. >> morning, alex. >> nay thouto says it is aware incident, it is investigating closing the border cuts to afghanistan. give me your read on this situation. >> it's being investigated. my strong suspicious is it will be a case of mistaken identity. the border, very rug ed. i strongly suspect that nato forces just mistook the pakistani check point for taliban who also operate in the area. >> well, they say it was retaliatory, that they were responding to small arms fire. i mean, that doesn't seem out of the question. >> and this has happened before. had an incident in september, 2009, pakistan also closed the

check border, the border that is critical to resupply forces. this is something that's going to require a great deal of dialogue between pakistan and the united states the next few days. >> because it would seem that the relationship between the u.s. and pakistan is getting worse and if so, what are the complications from that? ramifications? >> well, yeah, it's really gone downhill since the bin laden raid this year. just this week, the pakistani ambassador to the united states resigned because of some of the fallout. of that. it is a relationship that is very complex, very important. it's got all kinds of stress in it already. >> pakistan was a big topic at this week's republican presidential debate on foreign policy and here's what two of the candidates had to say about it. >> they've showed us time after time that they can't be trusted and until pakistan clearly shows

that they have america's best interest in mind, i would not send them one penny. >> with all due respect to the governor, i think that's high lie nieve. because we have to recognize what's happening on the ground. these are nuclear weapons all across this nation and potentially al-qaeda could get ahold of these weapons. >> p.j., does the u.s. need to keep paying pakistan? >> we don't pay pakistan to do our bidding. our to agree with us as rick p perry suggested. we pay pakistan because it is a strategic country. we have two baskets of assistance. one military. we're trying to build the capability of the pakistan military to be able to deal with extremists within its borders which threaten pakistan as well as the united states. pakistan has always had a very, very weak civilian government, so we're also providing assistance on the civilian side to try to build institutions of pakistani government so it can have effective control over it country and its military.

>> do you think there's anything to suggest that we should look at the amount of money we're paying them? perhaps adjust that or the criteria by which we decide what we should pay? >> i think what pakistan looking for is a long-term relationship and this is where we really have to despite our concerns, we have to have a steadfast relationship continued to work it through. for example, right now, you know, public opinion polls regard the united states in the single digits, think about how americans today think about congress. that's how pakistanis think about the united states. we turned our back on pakistan 20 years ago in the aftermath of the fall of the soviet union and in the region came significant threats including the 9/11 plot. pakistan was one of the inventors of the taliban. i think we have to look here long-term and that requires us to think about supporting pakistan because it's a very important country to our national security. >> is pakistan the first place

where nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists? >> pakistan has nuclear weapons. the administration has said it's satisfied with pakistan's security measures. i wor worry a lot about not so much the weapon itself as the technology and know how. there's a net work that was shut down a few years ago and through the network, you had the proliferation of nuclear know how, nuclear stuff, to north korea, iran, other places. so, if pakistani policy turns more veer lent, i would worry about that support. >> okay, excellent discussion. time for office politics and this week, we took our cameras into the office of willie geist, host of "way too early" and co-host of "morning joe." i started off asking willie how he gets up so early every day.

look at what time you have to wake up for "way too early"? >> wake up at 3:30. and i go to bed, i -- i wake up at 3:30. i try to go to bed at 9:00, but it's always 10:00. i've got a 4-year-old daughter. my mission every night is to stay up later than my 4-year-old and that's a source of a lot of pride for me. li lucy, you going to bed? i'm still awake and then i pass out as soon as she closes her door. i'm home in the afternoon and i have time with my kids at this young age that i think a lot of dads have never had. you're at the office all day, i see them. waking up early is hard, but a lot of people wake up early and a lot of people have harder jobs that i do. >> you are so positive though and you're funny. do you wake up funny?

>> i do. i wake up funny. and i stand, i do a little stand up act for my wife at 4:00. >> i'm sure she thinks that's four. what's the deal, why do girls always go to the bathroom together all the time and then she blows me out of the room. no, i wake up staggering around. i literally dress in the dark. >> i can tell. >> really? >> moving on. >> you're so cruel. dressing the dark. one time, grab the suit in the dark, put on the suit. thought it was the dark blue suit. i walk out, get in the elevator, go downstairs and i'm wearing a tuxedo. should i just go black tie this morning? i didn't. i went back upstairs to change. >> that would have been funny. it's all right. i'm looking at the place from which you sit every morning where you get this great political landscape playing out in front of you and look, you're

down the middle kind of guy. i don't want you to put yourself in a left or right corner, but how do you assess where the american people are right now? >> i feel like from my point of view, people who are my age, my generation, are more independent than people before us were and i think that's truly where i fall. i'm not a republican or democrat. i'm an independent. i think i have some sort of an obligation to represent that point of view, which is our show is very inside the beltway. joe knows more about the political process than anyone i've ever met and that's a huge asset. he can tell you what's going to happen next because he's been there. i don't have that experience, which i think is an ad to the show, where i sit from the outside. i don't spend much time in washington and i any about things in a more practical way, the way my wife would think about it or my friends who live in tennessee or georgia, where i went to college. i ask myself, what would they be

wondering about this conversation. it does get in the weeds a little bit. >> you're like the common sense guy. >> i guess so. i live in manhattan. i'm not like every man u.s.a., but i think there's an important role for somebody who's not in the thick of it and hasn't been there before to ask the common sense kind of questions. >> but do you think that is what is lacking in politics? that especially right now, a year ahead of a political election of huge significance, there's a lack of common sense out there? people are just playing party to party? >> yeah, look at the supercommittee. that's a perfect example of you sit from the outside and go, what the hell is wrong with these people. we even called it a super committee. this was going to go through, get something through, then they say we couldn't do it. that to me is is a classic example of if you're in washington, you could justify it a little bit. if you live in the real world,

what the hell are these guys doing. >> more of my interview with willie geist later in the show, including his dreams of becoming a professional athlete. catch him an 5:30 a.m. it is a big box office bust that's costing a lot of jobs since happy feet 2 has only brought in about $30 million since last weekend, the digital production company is now laying off up to 700 employees. the estimated budget for the film was $140 million. [ male announcer ] take the fixodent

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nasa's preparing to launch the atlas five rocket this morning and send it to mars. when it lands eight and a half months from now, it will spend

two years looking for evidence of life. the window opens at 10:02. let's take a look at the weather in florida around around the country. back to bill karins. good morning. >> that's a long flight to mars. eight months? >> eight and a half. not fun. >> it's the half. i can do the eighth month, just the half's pushing it. hope you had a wonderful holiday. in the middle of our holiday weekend. we've had great weather for the eastern seaboard, but now a lot of it is coming to an end. from east texas to louisiana, arkansas to missouri is getting drenched and our friends in illinois are starting to watch the rain coming down. not a lot of snow, but the storm in the middle of the country trks a slow moving one and is going to soak areas of tennessee, kentucky, down to mississippi and alabama throughout the weekend. dallas, you're okay. ft. worth is all right, but rain

is moving into the houston area. all of east texas. shreveport, your next. chicago, not a lot of wet weather yet, but it's going to be lighter for you. chicago, tomorrow, temperatures get cold enough we'll see snow flakes. when we speak about warm novembers, this is going to be one of the warmest on record for areas like new york city, boston. today, record highs possible near 68 degrees in central park. that's ridiculous. 79 in florida is pretty nice, too, and our friends on the west coast are doing okay, but in seattle, you're going to see a better chance of rain and colder temperatures on sunday. it looks like a washout sunday in kentucky and tennessee. can you believe it was a month ago just about we saw the big snowstorm and we haven't even seen temperatures below freezing since then. >> that was so freaky. >> who knows when the next one

will be on its way. a desperate search is underway in orlando this weekend for any sign of a missing mother of three. police and volunteers are looking for clues into the disappearance of michelle parker, who vanished last week after her pretaped appearance on "the people's court" aired. >> reporter: over the long holiday weekend, the search continues around orlando as police and volunteers look for any sign of 33-year-old michelle parker, who vanished late last week. volunteers also targeted black friday shopper, handing out flie fliers, urging anyone with information to contact authorities. >> everybody who's been helping, it's so important because there's tho way we could have covered the ground we've covered this this amount of time. >> reporter: family, friends and supporters have also raised their reward offer to $50,000 for parker's safe return. >> there's no number you can put on my daughter's life, but that just might spark somebody to say

i'm going to help this family. >> reporter: parker disappeared november 17th. the same day her pretaped appearance on "the people's court" tv show court" appeared . they argued over the cost of an engagement ring. >> smith is the father of two of her children. police say smith is not a suspect. a day after parker's disappearance, her hummer was found across town with decals from her business removed from the windows. >> police right now are on a three-track investigation. track number one is that the victim disappeared of her own volition. track number two, she's a suspect of somebody she knew, or track number three, a and relatives also say it is highly unlikely she would run away and abandon her children and point to this voice mail parker left

her father a day before she disappeared. >> hi, dad. call me when um, you have lunch or at the end of your day. >> the search and the investigation continues with no sign yet, at least publicly, of any progress. mark potter, nbc news, miami. in a moment, it's a key block voters in a ballot for the white house but which party is likely to win them over. first, let me remind you, something out of the jetson's, and the latest stunt had him flaing alongside a pair of jets. they flew in summation for a while. they eventually released his parachute and he glided back to mother earth. cool, huh? the johnsons, right? yeah.

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newt gingrich dropped a political bombshell this week on his party when during the last debate it's said that the gop should take a human approach to illegal immigration. let's take a listen. >> i don't think we're going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out. i don't know how the party who says it's a party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter of a century and i'm prepared to take the heat for saying, let's be human and enforce the law by finding leg finding legality. >> joining me now is danny. good morning. >> good morning. >> we talked about gingrich who said he was not going to support amnesty. do you see treating people humanly, as opposed to giving them amnesty?

>> no. i think amnesty which we saw in '86 is letting people off scotch free without any kind of a penalty for having done something wrong, that is not what newt is talking about. that's not what any of us are talking about. we need to reform the immigration system. we need to have the folks step up, go through at background check, pay a fine, but through a litany of process cease before they can become legal to remain in the united states. and i think the stance that newt took, which was a thoughtful approach, that citizenship should be into the light of day. >> so are you, in that assessment of newt gingrich, in the majority of the party? and i guess my question is to those gop primary voters, fired up about all of this, are they going to fire up the explanation and his comments might hurt him in iowa? >> he might take a bit of a hit in iowa. but the folks that vote in primaries are primarily more fired up about the economy and

the state of unemployment and where our nation is heading from oh foreign policy perspective. i think immigration reform is one of those hot-button issues and that something ought to be done about it. i think newt demonstrated a thoughtful and reasonable approach and he will take a hit by those most ardently against the immigration reform. >> typically the gop uses harsh language when it comes to people opposed to in-state tuition rates don't have a heart. could this tone be a way to bring hispanic voters to the gop candidates? >> tone matters. and it's hard to be able to quantify but it's different from the policy. from the policy perspective,

you've got a lot of leading republicans at the level that you're able to thread the needle and bring it to the big vehiclesi issue and it's turned a lot of voters off. frankly, as a concerned american, as a proud patriotic veteran, as a lifelong republican, i get concerned when there's a voting bloc among hispanics that is more inclined to be family oriented, more inclined to be faith-based and more probably willing to vote for republicans. they are earn can krned about the tone and that hurts them as a party particularly when we see a community that is 15% of the population today but 30% within the next 50 years. >> okay. danny, thank you very much. we're going to have to keep an eye on things with regard to mars. if you didn't know, everyone, we're keeping our eye on cape

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[ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. it is just about 10:02 a.m. right now, prescisely that as w look at cape canaveral. a rocket is set to launch for mars. take a listen. we have mission control. let's take a listen.

>> now breaking sound barrier. >> pretty cool, right? guess where that is going again. to mars. it's the launch of a vehicle called the curiosity. that is about a $2.5 billion nuclear powered rover. it's going to hit the ground on mars but not for some 8 1/2 months. they are trying to determine whether or not mars either has been or would be able to sustain life. it is incredibly complex. very, very advanced in its technology. and we're going to get with nbc jay's jarvey who will get to a camera and tell us all about "curiosity" and what they are actually trying to gain from all of this knowledge. also this morning, welcome to "weekends with alex witt" and i am alex witt. escalated tensions out of pakistan. they claim that nato fire is to

blame for the death of some military soldiers and as a response they have blocked a and live in kabul is atia. what can you tell us? nothing is getting through, right? >> reporter: good moorrning, al. they say that u.s. helicopters came into their area about a mile and a half from the afghan border, targeted two of their checkpoints, and killed at least 26 of their soldiers, their service members, their men in uniform. they are still investigating the incident and the exact location where it may have happened. they said that this border area is very hard to define with afghanistan and pakistan and at

least with the naked eye. they said that they are investigating what may have happened. whatever happened, they say it was in full cooperation with the pakistani military as well as the pakistani border authorities. officials say that in fact isn't true, that it was an indiscriminate cross-border attack, a violation of their sovereignty, and it's increased the tensions between the u.s. and pakistan and the nato forces and pakistan so far has responded by shutting down a border crossing that supplies about 30% of the nonlethal weapons that nato needs. it's a lifeline for the nato forces here in afghanistan stuck in a land lock country. now those trucks are stopped on both sides of the border and many are afraid that insurgents are going to use this to attack these trucks packed on the pakistan side as well as the afghanistan side to the border. alex? >> can you categorize how tense this is diplomatically?

>> reporter: oh, it's a very tense situation, as i mentioned. it's already been tense between the u.s. and pakistan government, the militaries as well. this is the second major attack in pakistani, or major incident in pakistani land. the first one we saw in may when the u.s. special forces came in and killed osama bin laden. the pakistanis were upset because they were not given the heads up that the u.s. forces were coming in to capture osama bin laden. now you have another incident where they came into their country, they safe it's a violation of their sovereignty and they killed 26 of their service members. they have summoned the u.s. ambassador to pakistan and they mentioned that they said that this is a violation of their sovereignty and could have a

severe impact on the relationship that has been tense already but kind of a necessary evil for all of the parties involved. alex? >> all right. nbc's atia, thank you so much from kabul. calling for the restoration of civilian rule in egypt. protesters attempted to prevent the nully appointed prime minister from taking office. post parliament tree elections have been scheduled for monday. gingrich on the defers. protesters confront bachmann. those are the top political headlines for you.

>> citizenship for any people that got here but i am prepared for the legality for those that find themselves deeply to america and truly be tragic to -- >> meanwhile, michele bachmann was at the book signing at the mall of america and met with a handful of occupy wall street protesters and visit with the congresswoman if they brought her book, which they did. one gop candidate is expected to get a boost tomorrow. the new hampshire union leader will reveal its choice in tomorrow's paper. the union endorsed john mccain yesterday. the new york times takes a closer look at rick perry's air force career who flew cargo planes out of abilene, texas.

jon huntsman and rick santorum and joining us to break this down, mark murray. good saturday morning to you. i worked yesterday. it feels like a sunday. good morning. >> good morning, am elects. >> so we heard from newt gingrich saying that he is not for amnesty for anyone. has he explained his immigration stance enough that it's not going to turn away supporters? >> well, he started with the modification of what he ended up saying at the debate last week on tuesday night that got him in a little bit of a trouble. as you heard what he said, he's not for amnesty but he's for a path of legality and by that he meant on meaning that anyone who is an illegal immigrant would need to go back to their home country aapply for a way to get residency in this country. the problem for newt gingrich is that there is not a lot of knew wants, particularly in a

republican primary when it comes to the topic of illegal immigration. either you are tough or you aren't. there isn't ap candidate in the republican primary, mitt romney back in 2006, 2007 was talking about residency and citizenship for illegal immigrants. he's against that now. but he was talking about it back in 2006 and 2007. rick pair via little. >> there's this in washington post article, mark, that says that the bipartisan group, american's elect, raised $22 million and likely to place a third presidential candidate on the ballot in every state next year. so far, they have nine states and those slots would include florida,. michigan, nevada, and ohio. is this realistic, a third party candidate? >> i think it is. if you take a poll, a third of

the country says that they are not happy with the republican party or the democratic party that he seems to be a ground for a third party to go out there. the question is, what kind of support will we see? a ralph nader type of support where in 2004, 2008 he got 4, 5% of the national vote or on a ross perot level? i will tell you this, it's really interesting, the americans registered at 501 c-4. while they raised $22 million or more, we don't know who is giving this group money for ballots. they don't have to disclose their donors and they haven't disclosed who has actually donated this $22 million. that's an interesting sidebar to this organization. >> yeah. there's been a the lo of talk about mitt romney upping his game in iowa. he was just back there this week, of course. mark, what do you make of romney's chances in that state? >> this is the last piece of the puzzle. the iowa caucus is a little bit

more than a month away, alex. and mitt romney's decision on if he ends up playing could end up deciding whether he wins this thing pretty early. we're talking about the republican nomination or this is a very long nominating fight. if mitt romney goes in, plays, runs tv ads and ends up winning iowa, for all intense and purposes, winning iowa, he would enup being the republican nominee. but if he goes into iowa, tries to win it like we saw hillary clinton do in 2008, loses to either herman cain, ron paul, newt gingrich, he could potentially go back to new hampshire and win that but that almost gauarantees a long republican primary fight. his decision on how much he fights and whether he wins or loses is going to be an interesting question that we're all going to be analyzing up until the iowa caucus on january 23rd. >> i kind of wonder how you're going to be looking at this on the first note.

it will keep you hopping. thanks. >> thanks, alex. owners and players have reached a tentative deal to end the nba lockout. the two sides met for 15 hours on friday and shook hands on the proposed new contract. however, the tentative agreement still needs to be approved by both the players and team's owners. the numbers from black friday are continuing to trickle in. one retail expert predicts it will be the biggest in retail history. sales estimated at $27 billion. many shoppers decided to skip all of the chaos and shop online. spending was 20% higher online than last year. john yang is joining me from harold's square. are people still out there in full force today? >> reporter: alex, the foot traffic here at broadway and 34th street and sixth avenue really has picked up. there is quite a bit of people moving around here, not only

macy's but the other stores, the retail stores in the area. as you say that the preliminary numbers from black friday are good and there are now estimating that about 152 million americans will be out shopping this year. i'm sorry. this weekend. that will be a record turnout for black friday weekend and it's not just people coming out. you mentioned the increase of online shopping on black friday. on thanksgiving day, online shopping was up 39% over last year. so people adjusting their turkey in front of their computers and doing a little shopping. this is an important time for retailers, they do as much as 25% of their entire year's business in the november and december and a good black friday weekend means that they can go ahead with their original plan, not have any additional discounts, additional sales through this holiday season a bad black friday and they might have to add additional sales to

get investor out the door by christmastime. so things are picking up down here and around the country, alex. >> all right. john yang, thank you for braving it outside of macy's. next, how the business weekend is focused on small business right here on "weekends with alex witt." in louisiana. they came to see us in florida... nice try, they came to hang out with us in alabama... once folks heard mississippi had the welcome sign out, they couldn't wait to get here. this year was great but next year's gonna be even better. and anyone who knows the gulf knows that winter is primetime fun time. the sun's out and the water's beautiful. you can go deep sea fishing for amberjack, grouper and mackerel. our golf courses are open. our bed and breakfast have special rates. and migrating waterfowl from all over make this a bird watcher's paradise. so if you missed it earlier this year, come on down. if you've already been here come on back... to mississippi... florida...

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it's a big weekend for big buys. black friday, did it actually pay off? tvs were a big item but were they ready for the best buy? and how did this affect small businesses? good morning, vera gibbons. we had a lot of stores opening up earlier. did it work? >> it could be a report day with

sales of $30 million. despite the initial grumblings, 61% of black friday shoppers started their shopping on thanksgiving day. bigger price incentives meant longer lines, younger shoppers armed with their iphones and blackberries. >> tv sales were huge but will prices get lower after the holidays? >> probably not. a 32-inch a couple years ago was between 6, $700, last year, more like $400 and now in the $200 price range. this is the lowest level we've actually seen. so unlike last year when analysts were saying waiting by the tv later, they are not saying that this year because of supply and demand, supply is limited and there are not a lot of tvs sitting around in the warehouse. and if we see the kind of demand that we see sitting around, if you have your heart set on a

specific set. >> i cannot imagine the $200, 32-inch, even larger, those aren't going to hang around much longer. >> no. people waited all night for those at best buy. >> yeah. >> what is small business saturday about? it's today and when you finish watching "weekends with alex witt," you can go outside. >> right. this was a program started by american express. the idea is to support your local community and small businesses. they are going to offer shoppers all sorts of incentives to bring in traffic. it's a good day to honor small businesses. they get lost in the holiday shuffle between black friday and cyber monday. very difficult for them to compete with a big box chain, the walmarts and targets. it's the growth engine of the economy responsible for creating two out of three jobs here in the u.s. so i'd say, think big and shop small. >> sounds like good advice. vera gibbons, thank you.

>> thank you. last night in naples, florida, he said it's not amnesty for everyone and he offered his solution to the immigration debate. at the same time, he's taking aim at rival's mitt romney's record. he tweeted, here's a trip down memory lane. what's your take on illegal immigration? i oppose it. >> my own view is, consistent with what you saw, people that come here illegally and in the country, the 12 million or so illegally, should be able to sign up for permanent residency or citizenship. >> joining me now is joe watkins who is also a white house aide for george h.w. bush and peter finn, an advisor to al gore. good morning. >> good morning. >> all right. i'll go with joe first. is newt gingrich explaining his

stance enough ala rick perry? >> i think he is. if people continue to underestimate newt, they will be surprised. that's the reason he's done so very well. he's very thoughtful and thought out all of his positions and he's not just a knee-jerk anything. he's clearly thought about legality for people that have been here for a long period of time. he was smart to come back and push back and say, i'm not talking about amnesty, citizenship, i'm talking about legality and people who fit a certain category, have been here for a long time. >> how does this play out, peter, for the democrats and play for the president in his re-election bid? >> policy-wise, al electric, anything that moves us to a solution is obviously a good thing. i think it is sort of interesting, though, that the republican party has been so

anti-immigrants and it has cost them hob yously across this country politically and the interesting thing, though, as joe points out about newt gingrich, he's been fairly consistent about this, alex. he voted for simpson which many of his republican colleagues call amnesty. he says that there should be a path for these people. this is not a position that a lot of republicans who are going to caucuses in iowa take in new hampshire, south carolina, or china. >> are they with newt gingrich at all on this or which factions of the party a do you think would be turned off? >> i think they would say, this makes sense. you can't quick 12 mill kbreen people out of the country. if you can find legality for those that have been here norfo

long time under certain circumstances. but at the same time there are plenty of republicans, many who tend to be conservatives, who would say that under no circumstances should somebody allowed to come here under an illegal status and supported on "meet the press" and then turns around and goes after gingrich in the debate. and, again, another case of mitt romney flip-flopping and the question is, who has the momentum here on this issue? is it the mitt romney position as he's changed it or is it the newt gingrich position? and if more republicans come aboard and say we're going to have reform, but i urge people to read newt gingrich's ten points, alex, because he's kind of weird in that as he can be.

he counts for half of the homeland security -- >> it's okay to give them a bre break. >> he wants half to go down to the border and then says we're going to review each of the 12 million cases of people in the united states. how many years does he have? >> that makes sense. he's talking about legality. >> i understand, joe. but you've got to have a policy. you can't review every one of 12 million cases and you can't pass laws like they did in alabama. >> interesting fodder, guys. you know what that means? we've got to go. what could be the surprise tech hit for the season? you're watching "weekends with alex witt." do your lashes want volume or length?

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." right now an unmanned rocket is headed to mars. jay is joining me. it was an exciting thing to

watch 30 minutes ago, that liftoff. >> it sure was, alex. it's been a perfect flight so far. there will be a final burn for the second stage of the rocket that will put it on its trajectory to mars t will spend the next 8 1/2 months going to mars, reaching it on august 6th next year, landing 3:00 at local time in the afternoon. that will be a wintry day in mars, 32 degrees, and it will be dropping off the car-sized surveyor with six wheels on it. the reason they want to go there, alex, is because this is an old lake that will have layers of clay there that they can look for mike kroebs in and it's 96-miles wide and this six-wheeled vehicle will trek all around the crater and look for signs of life in the past and if you are able to have life there in the future. the reason is simple.

mars is the second safest place for humans in this solar system. >> it's so cool. it's like a high-tech science fiction movie and we're thinking about life on mars. very quickly, there is a device ta extends out like an arm and pulls samples. is that how they are going to be able to analyze things? >> there is a laser on the end of it, being able to break up rocks and whether or not microbers are there. it is fantastic if it all works. it's the greatest crime project -- science project. i'll say it right. give me a break. it's my birthday. i'm 78 years old today, alex. >> it is? >> yes, i am. 78 years old today. it's a science lab and it's terrific. it's probably the greatest space science adventure we've had to date. >> all right. it's called the kwr curiosity." big hug and kiss. happy birthday.

thank you so much. >> thank you, dear. it's game day for penn state today. they are playing their last game in wisconsin today. jay gray is on the penn state campus for us. good morning, jay. what's the latest on the ground there? >> reporter: good morning, alex. well, a lot of the people here in state college will be paying attention to that game and investigators will be looking into jerry sandusky, the former coach. two more accusers, accusers under the age of 18. as we talk about one of those, apparently a member of his own family. sandusky says he will vigorously defend what he calls false allegations and says none of this is true and they can't wait for their day in court. now the next step would be charges in this case. we're still aways away from that. if there are new charges, jerry sandusky will no longer be

staying in his home, but that he would move into a jail cell until the trial. and his first hearing is coming up on the 13th. >> a lot of questions are coming up about the penn state trustees and also the governor? >> reporter: yeah, no question about that. tom corbett at the time was the attorney general so he knew as much about anyone as the grand jury investigation going on and also happened to be a member of the penn state board of trustees and during that time, several strus fees told us he never said anything about the investigation. his argument is he didn't want to tip his hand or let anyone hinder that investigation but a lot of experts have said that he had the ability to at least tell that board, look into jerry sandusky. he didn't have to talk about what the grand jury was doing but he could have told the board members, hey, take a closer look at the coach here, the former coach who still has an office on this campus. he did not do that. there are even some who believe that he may have been incumbent

to do that, that the law requires him to take a look. so a lot of people are upset about that because if he had perhaps it would have saved some of these victims. >> all right. we'll get some more info later this hour. thank you so much. the president's re-election campaign has begun in earnest. this is the nbc news 2012 battle ground election. in fact, the country is evenly split. the key is the toss ups. 147 electoral votes. the candidate who snags the majority of those votes will take the white house. david, good morning to you. as we talk about this study and the economic condition does not. so explain that. >> sure. we've all heard and likely to

vote for him, he still has a chance to vote. >> you break it into three. minorities, white college-educated voters and the working class. this describes the group that way. you say that he and win all of the money out there that still might be up for grabs. >> sure. it's not his money. it stands to reason that 99% are most of the voters. you have more minority voters entering the electorate. he can still lose some white college educated and working white voters and still end up winning the election. >> but you say it's going to come down to 12 states and these are all states in which president obama won the first time around. which are the most critical

right now? >> it's hard to say which ones in particular he could lose or win. but there is a various formula that he can put through to the magic number. >> and let's talk about that. do you first of all think it would be possible that he would win all 12 and put together the smaller ones, not necessarily the four that you -- i mean, i don't know the math here. if he doesn't win those four, let's say, that are up for grabs, could he put together those eight and put him ahead? >> mathematically he could. it's hard to imagine a veteran that would lose all of those states but win all of the other ones. he's likely to do poorly in other states. >> okay. the better strategy, might that be to aggressively concentrate on just a few of the big ones? and, look, you can only do so much. is that what you think would be a good strategy?

>> yeah, we may see that later on in the campaign. it's in triage mode. what the republican nominee will be and his position will be and then they can target where they can cut their losses. >> what do you think is the greatest vulnerability? >> i think it's the economy. >> do you have a sense of what it needs to get to for, say, the unemployment factor? he has to reach a certain level and if he doesn't get there, he doesn't get re-elected. does that still stand true? >> i think it's a combination of making sure that the economy doesn't get worse. if it's improving at all, that will help. dpenlding on who his opponent is and if they can keep the money coming in. >> okay. david, thank you for joining us. congress comes back to work on monday. what lies ahead in washington after the failure of the supercommittee. that is coming your way ten minutes from now. there are a lot of movies out there. the ones to see and the ones to avoid. a look at the top toys to avoid this holiday season. the top search black friday

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>> bye. off to the conference. >> all right. we're going to get the details from the entertainment reporter. good morning. good morning. >> how about this one? >> this is absolutely a must-see. >> oh, good. >> "the muppets" have been off the screen for so many years. there's a whole general railings generation who don't know who the puppets are. if you have kids, will you probably love it. this was co-written for jason seagull. it's funny and nostalgic. you will walk out of this movie with a smile on your face. the puppets are in danger of being torn down and try to save the studios. >> that's good. >> there are a lot of family movies out this weekend. there's hugo and arthur

christmas. >> that's good to know. another film and release, my week with marilyn, let's watch a clip of that. >> okay. >> gentlemen, it is my special pleasure to introduce a woman who clearly needs no introduction. a very great actress on her first trip to london. >> is it true that you wear nothing in bed but perfume? >> i sleep in nothing but yardley's lavender. >> so what do you think? >> this is a definite must-see for michelle woman yems performance alone. critics are saying that if it's good, it's not great. we are watching next year's oscar front-runner here. she really embodies all of the different aspects of marilyn monroe. >> imagine taking that role on. that would have to be very challenging. >> terrifying. this could have certainly easily have gone the other way and she

could have bombed in this performance. she threw herself into it and embodies that vulnerability and sexiness and duality of wanting to be in the public eye. >> in keeping with the movie theme this weekend, the new "twilight" movie, what seizures is it causing in people who go to see it? >> this might be a must avoid for people who have underlying medical conditions. two men experienced seizures during bella's very violent birth scene and according to experts it may be because of the flashing white, black, and red imagery can conjure of photo epilepsy. >> oh, come on. i don't buy that for a second. all right. what about the other film getting some buzz, "the artist." >> it's not going to be a huge mega blockbuster. it's in black and white and

completely silent but it's generating huge oscar buzz for best picture and for best actor. that's kind of cool. >> yeah, that's very, very cool. >> it's a must-see for me. we'll see. thank you so much. >> thank you. let's take the time now for a quick rundown for today's number ones. there's the forbes list of magazine, places where you have to be in the highest near miami where the highest tax breaker pulls in a cool million dollars less and mt. vernon, new york, and atherton, california, $1.9 million average rounds out the top five. now for the truth about facebook members, they really like "playboy." the magazine is the most popular

magazine on the social network. "playboy" has more than 5.5 million likes. if you're being looking for the best place to check out christmas lights, yahoo! says that you better check out the big apple. it's only going to get better this coming wednesday. that, my friend, is a quick look at weekends with alex witt. we're america's natural gas and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us.

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a just-released report from 1991 says that president ronald reagan was not liable in the iran contraarms deal. now one of the prosecutors reached that conclusion, that president reagan could not be prosecuted because he had been told that the gop would be legal but mr. reagan had been brief about the deal back in 1985 or 1986. now, the prosecutor decided that reagan's vice president, george bush, was also not liable. congress gets back to work on monday after the

supercommittee super failure to cut the deficits. so now what? the national debt clock keeps ticking higher and the u.s. is more than $15 trillion in debt and for congress there are more battles ahead just to keep the lights on in washington. joining me right now is m mia maginnis and we're so glad to have you back. i told you last weekend that we would be coming at you again. thanks for coming back. >> yeah, thank you. >> with all of these trillions of dollars of debt, what can lawmakers do? >> well, what they can't do is come back to washington and wait for the next year. because the time line was that if the supercommittee did not come up with anything, when you're facing a crisis, they have to keep moving on a reduction plan and get in place as quickly as possible. >> to give you a perspective on how close to the edge that we have come here to disaster, are

we right there in the press si miss or are we on our way back. >> well, the tipping point and when would it come, there's no way to look at it. all you have to do is look at what is going on in europe, look at the fact that the economic stability from having a debt plan in place and know that we are just flirting with disaster by continuing to delay and delay and the reason we're delaying, it's all politics. it's not a single economic reason to not put a plan in place quickly. >> now, even if the supercommittee had been able to come to that proposal by lawmakers, i know you had supported this as well, to get that $4 trillion in cuts done, even if that had happened, being $15 trillion in debt right now, what would that have done long term? >> well, and don't forget we're also slated to add another $9 trillion in debt over the next ten years. so reducing it by $4 trillion, which is the big argument that

we've been making, doesn't bring us back to balance. it puts us on a path to stabilize the debt and we could make a difference to fix social security and with something completely different, like health care, we're going to have to go back and back. >> i'm curious, cutting this debt, is it like people carrying a huge balance on their credit cards and pay the minimum and they keep current and keeps them out of fiscal trouble. i mean, is that what we're doing right now? is there something that we can see that will challenge that and threaten it? >> the riskier thing is that we are now where our interest payments are growing faster than the economy. and we're there. so if you're keeping pace where your income is growing as fast as your credit card debt, you can scale along. hopefully you are spending that money on investment and the government is consuming so much

of it, we're not helping to grow the economy. >> even if we dot the i's, cross the t's, how long does it take for you to get comfortable with where we would be? >> we're facing these challenges, economic growth and debt. you need to do it in a way that helps grow the economy and go back every couple years and make sure that you're on track. the bottom line s. we don't even have a balanced budget. which is something that we all want to have for over a decade. we're going to have to constantly be vigilant, keep it on track, and do more as the political system let's us make more of the difficult choices. it's not going to be a short-term thing here. >> but when you look at the process and remain on the right track, you have it going on on capitol hill right now. for the process to be successful? >> you build in rules ahead of time. if it gets off track, you have triggers and automatic changes and cap health care costs so

they can't grow much more beyond the economy than they have in the past. you put these automatic changes in it because the one thing that we've seen is the politicians don't really love making these hard choices so we should sort of get a plan in place and keep it there automatically as much as possible because we can't go through what we've been going through for the last few years as much as we need to and there's going to be constant pressure so the budget stays under control. >> with all of the advising that you do, do you go to bed frustrated every night? >> i have more anxiety than i used to. the encouraging part is there there are new efforts that are bipartisan and i haven't seen that in years. there's 45 members in the senate, 100 in the house and they are working together and there is momentum behind the issue. while i might not sleep that

well, there is hope that i didn't see couple years ago and with the country now more focused on this issue, we'll see progress in the coming months, fingers crossed. >> maya, many thanks. >> thank you. black friday the day after. did the early morning shopping really bring in more customers? and why this is this man on a milk carton? this is part two of my conversation with billy geist for "office politics." i wish my patients could see what i see. ♪ that over time, having high cholesterol plus diabetes... or high blood pressure... or family history of early heart disease... can put them at increased risk for plaque buildup. and they'd see that it's more important to get their cholesterol where their doctor wants. and why for these patients, when diet and exercise alone aren't enough, i prescribe crestor. adding crestor lowers bad cholesterol by up to 52%. and is also proven to slow plaque buildup. [ female announcer ] crestor is not right for everyone.

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good morning. welcome to "weekends with alex witt" where it's just past 11:00 a.m. here in the east and 8:00 in the west. we begin with the numbers streaming in from the black friday blitz. the 24 hours that started at 9:00 p.m. thursday will be the biggest in retail history with sales at $27 billion. mall of america saw the biggest crowd yesterday with at least 15,000 people waiting for the midnight opening. of course, many shoppers, since i have to skip all of that chaos. online spending was way up. 24% higher than last year. on thanksgiving, online sales jumped 39%. however, black friday was violent for some. in arizona, a grandfather was left beaten and bloodied after police took the 54-year-old to the ground for suspicion of shoplifting. police say as security guards saw the man put the man under his shirt at a walmart in buckeye. one man said he put it in his pants only while trying to

protect his grandson from being trampled. let's go live to john yang where at least 12,000 people showed up for the macy's midnight opening. john, as you take a look at all of the shoppers when they were leaving macy's, do they have a lot of packages in their arms today? >> they are indeed. it's not the crowd of 10,000 but the traffic has picked up on sixth avenue. it is a very nice day, a very mild day. overall they expect 152 million americans to hit the stores and malls this weekend. that would be a record. we have one of them here. debbie was is here. she has five bags. >> five bags. >> reporter: how has it been today? >> it's been great. it's a beautiful day to be in the city. >> reporter: do you usually come out on your first thanksgiving weekend? >> yes, it's a tradition.

>> reporter: how much of your shopping did you get done today? >> about half. >> reporter: when do you think you'll be done? >> in a week. >> reporter: a lot of people will be jealous about that fact. >> i like to be done. >> reporter: are you planning to spend more or less this year than before? >> about the same as last year, yeah. about the same. i cut coupons, look for deals. macy's had good deals. >> and it's obanly 11:00 here i new york and you've already done half your shopping? >> yep. >> reporter: alex? >> i'll tell you, i am so jealous of debbie because i'm so far away from that for sure. can i ask you real quick, john, about the prospect of security in the wake of all of that violence that happened in those walmart stores with thefts outside? >> reporter: yeah, i think it's sort of a balance.

they want the crowds, they want the excitement to generate the excitement about the day ahead, but when you have that and there was a man shot outside of a walmart in an attempted robbery and then in los angeles, a woman who wanted to get an upper hand in a scramble for electronic woods pepper spray injured about 20 people and it will go on for next year. the students left cairo today. they were in cairo and one of them says he will not be going back. new developments in egypt one

demonstrator is dead after hundreds fled to tahrir square. we're going to get a live report there in cairo as soon as we can. diplomatic tensions are flaring again and nato officials are investigating. good morning, colonel jack. >> good morning, alex. >> how likely is it that this attack was not provoked?

>> well, my understanding is that it's possible that the afghan forces were in actual contact with the pakistani forces and in the middle of a fire fight. so this kind of stuff happens from time to time. i've seen it myself and a lot of other people that have been in combat. sometimes we fire on our own forces because we can't identify each other properly. in this case, the terrain is such that it's very difficult to identi identify who's on the other side. if they are shooting at you, the rules of engagement call for you to fire back. they've done it before. they may keep it closed longer. why is that important?

we get the large majority of our supplies into afghanistan through pakistan. the longer they close the border, the more difficult it is. and on top of all that, the strained relationships between afghanistan and pakistan, and just yesterday, the day before this incident happened, general john allen of the united states was going to have a big impact. >> okay. the days of criticism from the rivals newt gingrich emphasizing that he does not support amnesty. gingrich spoke with his largest crowd on the campaign trail in naples, florida.

let's take a listen. >> i am not for amnesty for anyone and i am not for citizenship for any people who got here illegally but for the legality for those who are deeply rooted in america that it would be tragic. >> a group of occupy wall street protesters showed up to meet the congresswoman and and they got the autographs to boot. new hampshire's most influential paper is set to make the gop in tomorrow's paper. they have been very busy meeting with the conservative leaning editorial board and endorsed john mccain in the last election cycle. four candidates have events scheduled for today. michele bachmann is going to hold book signs and jon huntsman

and rick santorum have signing in new hampshire. an impressive liftoff today. earlier, i talked with nbc jay barbery about the mission. >> it will be going into this crater called gail. the reason they want to go there is because this is an old lakebed and they will have layers of clay there and they will have microbes in there and this six-wheel vehicle will trek around et crater and look for signs of life in the past.

>> it will touch down in august of next year. snow is not that unusual this time of year in august but a lot of snow is. more than 30 inches of snow has fallen in anchorage this month and that's the third snowiest month in alaska's history. bill care rekarins has the weat the lower 48. >> what a warm november we've been having. incredible warmth and it continues this weekend. yesterday we saw temperatures in the 60s all the way up to boston. it had been ridiculously warm. it hasn't just been the east coast. it's been much of the nation. this is the high-temperature map. you can see we're as warm as the mid-50s. it just doesn't happen that often. it's still very warm. but what has changed, there's cold air coming down from the north behind our storm system. temperatures in the last 24 hours have dropped about 20 degrees throughout the inner mountain west, including the

denver area. still very warm from chicago to nevada to new orleans. the weekend weather pattern sets up like this. warm air on the eastern seaboard and a slow moving system through the deep south, tennessee valley, up through the great lakes. that's where it's going to be rainy and cool. on the eastern seaboard, a fantastic saturday. near record highs, if not record highs. there's the heavy rain threat over areas of east texas, louisiana, up to chicago, cooler air on the backside of that. rain will move into the pacific northwest late today. that will stick around for your sunday, up around seattle and eventually down to portland. and that storm system in the middle of the country will continue to push-up through the great lakes. heavy rain through the deep south and ohio valley with one warm day on the east coast. alex, i was looking at some of the numbers and crunching them. this is going to be one of the warmest novembers for many cities, especially on the east coast. back to you. >> okay. bill karins, we'll take it. thanks so much. four years later, how does a

key state about barack obama feel about him now? plus, fact or fiction, taxes? are we being misled about who pays what? and willie geist will talk about a hall of famer from yesteryear. i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough. ♪ [ spa lady ] i started enbrel. it's clinically proven to provide clearer skin.

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president obama is wrapping up in the key battle ground states. vice president joe biden's mission is to target ohio, pennsylvania, and florida, where he's already made several stops this year. joining me now is former governor ed rendell and political analyst. good morning to you. hope you had a good thanksgiving. >> i did.

hope you did too, alex. >> thank you very much. according to a new poll, president obama is going to have a tough time in 2012 in florida, oh high ohio, and pennsylvania. what do you think that the vice president can bring to those states that the president cannot? >> well, he can bring the economic message. if those voters listen to the economic message and put side by side republican votes in the congress and what the republican candidates are saying, versus what the president and democrats are saying, we win the day. but the vice president i think is the most effective spokesman for that type of divide. >> as the president in '08 have republican governors and the downed economy, how much do you think he can depend on these

battlegrounds? what do you think it's going to take to make it into this corner? >> well, i think they can actually help the president. there's been such feedback or kickback on i think they have energized the working class movements in a way that we couldn't have ever done it ourselves. >> in this new report, they say that the president had a tough time in '08 with that white working class vote. he lost a lot of those votes. do you think it's possible for the president to win the election without winning pennsylvania? >> it's very hard. he would have to win other states and there are places in

because of hispanic vote, states like arizona. i think that state is winnable this time. but, of course, if it's newt gingrich, i think we carried pennsylvania fairly easily. >> and if it's not newt gingrich, let's say it's mitt romney. >> if it's mitt romney, he plays well in the philadelphia suburbs so mitt romney would be much tougher. i'm still holding out for michele bachmann. >> so what is your role going to be in all of this? what can do you to help the president? >> well, i'm limited because of my work with msnbc.

i'll make our files and stuff available but i'm a little limited this year in what i can do. but, again, nobody votes for the president of the united states. what he brings is the organization, and we don't have that in and the one thing that the polls don't show, alex, is how good the campaigns they run. i don't mean just the president's performance but how good they are at putting offices all over the state, how good they are in val havegalvanizingr the state. they are the best. that's a factor that the polls aren't pig picking up. >> okay. that could be pivotal and crucial to his re-election. when you talk about pennsylvania and joe biden going there with

greater frequency, doesn't the president himself, won't that help his cause? isn't it he popular in that state? >> easy norm mousily popular. he came in two times since october before the 2004 election and turned out better in philadelphia and also pulled joe sestak, our senate candidate in over pat toomey because of the unexpected turnout in philadelphia. the president still can galvanize the base. he's still very effective and he hasn't hit full campaign mode. i would say he's at 80%. he's awfully good when he hits 100% campaign mode. >> lots of things to consider. thanks so much, ed rendell. >> my pleasure, alex. coming up, why is this guy on a milk carton? it's msnbc's willie geist. don't miss part two of "office politics." a new tool discovered to

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last year black friday and cyber monday accounted for $1 billion and that's expected to rise to $1.2 billion this year. here to navigate the web is financial analyst vera gibbons. good morning. >> good morning, alex. >> it's a huge day. even in this economy. i think the deals are too good for people to pass up. they are going to be doing the online shopping and overall for november and december sales are expected to come in and $37.6 billion, up over 15% than last

year. >> what kind of deals? >> all over the place. primarily the electronics, flat screens, laptops, tablets on sale. toshiba has one for $299. >> are you ahead of the game if you use a smartphone for an app to do all of this? >> you need a smartphone. it's come to this. more people are using flare smartphones. millions used them on black friday. millions more on cyber monday. 60 million people combined to find the best deals. they sort of not only find the best deals, you can see the pictures of the products, do comparison shopping, and 21 million consumers buying right from their smartphone. that's the wave of the future. >> i've got to get with it. >> you don't have an iphone? >> i do, but whatever.

i'll tell you about it later. i've got to get the apps. >> yes, do you. coming up, taxes are the topic in today's fact or fiction. whose paying what? you're watching "weekends with alex witt." impact by shopping l impact by shopping l on small business saturday. one purchase. one purchase is all it takes. so, pick your favorite local business... and join the movement. i pledge to shop small at big top candy shop. allen's boots... at juno baby store. make the pledge to shop small. please. shop small on small business saturday. ♪ i think i'm falling ♪ i think i'm falling [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ for you [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. take an extra 10 percent off storewide now through sunday. align can help. only align has bifantis,

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♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪ v.o.: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com the penn state lions are getting ready for their final football games and meanwhile, new developments on jerry sandusky along penn state. jay, good morning. what is there for you this morning? >> good morning again, alex. we've seen jerry sandusky on thanksgiving day and then later in the day, the first time that we have seen sandusky with his wife since allegations came out, new allegations that he potentially abused members of their family. that's a significant siting there. two new victims have come forward, both still under.

>> can you get a sense of public opinion there, has it changed from the offset, anger, denial, what? >> i think so. it's what you would expect to see, alex. 80% in a recent poll have said that they are just appalled at what happened to jerry sandusky. it's the lowest rating ever in the history of the group that takes this poll. >> jay gray, many thanks there for penn state campus. let's go from there to politics. the former speaker of the house is signing a book signing in the city of napless and alex is joining us on the phone. good morning to you. >> hi, alex. how are you? >> i'm well. hope you are, too. do you get a sense of momentum? how was he received? >> yes, it was definitely by

between 1,000 people and having to listen to him, he was very well received. he talked a lot about immigration, which he had been criticized the last few days about and they said that they have to wait and see. >> do you sense this immigration question has damaged the campaign at all? >> you know, we still have to wait and see. iowa is still a few weeks away. they believe that newt is going to get past the immigration stance and they are glad that he is the way he is. >> there from naples, florida, thank you. following the supercommittee's ability to come to an agreement, texas brings us to our questions for today's

edition of fact or fiction. joining me from washington, good morning to you, david. >> good morning again, alex and comparing to two things, the world average, if you take all of the taxes, paid to the insurance, compare them against other countries, the u.s. is the lowest among developing country, one in every four and denmark, as high as 50%. and then if you compare the u.s. taxes now to where they have been historically, lower than almost any year in a recent memory, the tax -- the income tax has been around for 100 years and half that time, the tax rate has been higher than it

is now for the tax runners. >> let's go to the few corporations that pay the 35% and corporate tax rates and very, very few companies pay that amount and oversimplify a little bit, and to drive the corporate down for their one industry and year after year they succeed. and what ends up happening, the average of 25 million% in taxes, newer industries, like the tech industry, and the financial services industry which has been in a boom pay lower than that. it's all over the map. and a few pay the 35% rate and some pay nothing at all. >> fact or fiction, the poorest

pay no taxes. >> that is a fiction. that is a fiction. conservatives point out that in fact as many as half of americans in the last year paid no income taxes. no traditional irs income taxes. but let's remember that 9% were unemployed. some were elderly and disabled and almost all the rest of them pay those payroll tax deductions that we see on our paychecks that come out for medicare and social security that the president and congress will be ex for another yr. >> the rich pay their fair share. i know where that is. >> well, i guess you have to label that one fiction. historically the top 1% of americans and they say in fact they pay a quarter of the taxes but make 40% of the money.

that much is true. but like we were talking about a minute ago, the rich have an enormous deduction. they can deduct their capital gains deductions and they have a better job with their accountants and lobbyists keeping their tax rate low. >> and there doesn't seem to be any legislation anywhere along the way soon that would change this? >> i don't think that's going to be happening until a year from now. i think we're looking ahead now to the next really big tax debate will probably be in the little space between the next election and november 2012 probably a huge tax cuts on the richest people but until then and we've all been benefiting

from to the extent of $100,000 a year. >> now to willie geist, who is co-host of "morning joe." take a listen. >> i know you're a huge sports fan. i want to get to the penn state story. it's the one that keeps on growing. do you think that penn state's football program enjoys more immediate punishment or do you think that for the sake of those players the innocent victims, if you will, that things are going about in be a appropriate way? >> i feel bad for all of the players. their dream growing up, the kids in the state of california, was to play for penn state university. they did it. they got there, worked their whole life, they are playing, 100,000 people watching. they have nothing to do with this. >> uh-huh.

>> that said, the scoop should take the action. if they don't, the ncaa should step in and take severe action against the program. i think it should be self-imposed. i think penn state should say, we're going to walk away from football for one year, we're going to figure out what happened, get out there and conduct this investigation that we're doing right now and figure out exactly what happened. you have to send a message and show that these kids who were allegedly sexually assaulted are bigger than the football program. that's how they got there in the first place. it was bigger than everyone else. they need to show that football has been knocked down a notch and it's the school and that's some coming from someone who loves football. >> in kuls in keeping up with your love of sports u. you were captain of your football team. >> i was. >> you're a tall guy, athletics

physique. >> playing pro sports? >> yeah, every day. >> you still do? >> oh, yeah. >> did i ever think about it? that's all i thought about until -- i think when i got to college. >> which one? basketball or college? >> probable. probable. i got to college, i played -- so i played high school football and basketball. i could have played at smaller schools, i was going to play football and basketball davidson. that was my other choice. and i ended up going to vanderbuilt. it's a good school in the ss.e.c. and all of a sudden the buses come in and the guys from alabama start getting off the buses and next guys from florida get off the bus. you know what, i think i'm going to go to the party for a night and hang out for a couple of years. i walked on basketball and practiced with the team for one year and didn't do it after that. but, yeah, of course i would have loved to play sports but my

physical attributes didn't allow for it. a step slow. >> look at this. what is this? you and mike barnicle. >> i went on vacation for one week, god forbid, and a staff member made a milk carton wondering where i was. one week. mike barnicle. he's my crazy, crazy crank key uncle. >> what is that picture all about? >> so this is my great grabbed father, captain of the detroit red wings, two times stanley cup winner and member of the hockey hall of fame. the great thing about this add is he was a spokesman for camel cigarettes. this is a professional athlete. the front man. in this ad, if you look closely, he's got the camel in his left hand and cheeseburger in the right hand. this is not a parity.

this was the ad. one of the great professional athletes of his time in the 1930s smoking and eating a cheeseburger. and i think some of the science hadn't gotten caught up on cigarettes because they are good for you after a meal. how little we knew then. smoking cigs and eating cheeseburgers. >> look at that. did you capture the look of the bourbon? he went to school in tennessee. you can watch willie geist on way too early every morning at 5:30 a.m. as well as on "morning joe" every morning at 6:00. the failures and frustrations of washington. why is there such a disconnect between congress and middle america? congratulations.

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it's time now for the big three. supercommittee super failure, immigration, who's right, and mayhem at the mall. joining me now is joy-ann reed and christina from roll call. good morning to the three of you. thank you for joining us. >> good morning. >> christina, congress comes back on monday after the supercommittee failure and the inability to come up with $1.2 tril kr trillion in budgets cuts. do you think congress has lost all credibility with mainstream america? >> of course. this was created in one of the darkest political areas of congress when the debt ceiling

deal blew up. it was a chance for congress and so much hope here. unfortunately, i was the skeptic from the very beginning on this. you looked at the people that the members of congress and leadership appointed to the supercommittee. they were entitled to that when it came to the democrats. it never had a chance. the fact that this was a country that lost so much hope with its leadership to begin with because of the standing of when the debt ceiling negotiations blew up, this was the worst of all things. >> and you're weighing in on the same question as well. do you think it was failure from the start? >> well, i don't think that there was ever much chance to succeed. it's an accurate reflection of the distance between the parties. apparently the democrats were

insisting that there be $1 trillion in tax increases and that's one of the things that's going to be the subject of the next election. >> joy-ann, give me an idea anecdotally, what do you hear from your friends, this frustration with middle america? are people just giving up? >> you know, it's funny. most of the people i know are kind of glad that the supercommittee failed. the idea of the small committee doing the work of congress rather than congress doing it themselves struck a lot of people that i know, at least democratic, and i think he is right. cutting spending is very unpopular, even in this tough economic climate and republicans are not willing to allow the more popular option that i know, which is raising taxes on the rich. and if the republicans will not allow a dime of tax increases on the wealthy, this is never going to work. >> i think actually the

republicans were willing to have some net tax increases, willing to cut back on tax breaks that disproportionately the wealthy and if you have any entitlement reform, you have to have much bigger tax increases. >> they were not willing to raise tax rates on the rich. cutting back on some loopholes is what they were talking about. they were talking bin creasing revenue through growth. but saying that we're going to go back to the clinton tax rate was a nonstarter with republicans. >> why should that be the line in the sand? if you're getting more money from people, it's not just from growth. it's getting tax breaks from people that they benefit from. >> it's the line in the sand because that's the way that they were written and the democrats want to go and follow the law. >> but there's something that we're for getting to talk about here. the whole committee was formed -- this was a must-do

committee. this committee had to come up with a deal before thanksgiving and congress had to vote on it before november 23rd or else everything else was going to fall apart. there were several days where they didn't even talk at all. they never treated it as seriously as it was. >> newt gingrich is defending his comments about how the gop should be working and treating illegal immigrants for a long time. the comments might hurt gingrich within his own party but is he now more appealing to moderates and independents with this line? >> well, i think it is pretty hard to see that if this becomes a gingrich versus romney primary, winning on the strength of moderates and independents. i think that conservatives, the base of the republican party are capable of seeing that almost all of these candidates are not going to say, let's deport

everybody no matter how long they have been here, no matter what ties to the community that they have had. the more polar line to the attack is this idea that they are going community boards deci who stays and goes is classic gingrich. it's half baked and would not work in practice. >> joanne, i want to talk about black friday with you. the stores opening earlier and earlier every year. you're a mom with your kids. you want to have a nice thanksgiving traditional holiday. now you have 9:00 p.m. thanksgiving night with the stores opening. analysts think the late-night openings might be here to stay. what does this say? as well as the chaos at these stores about us as a society and are we so greedy that we have to pepper spray the other shoppers out there to try to get the good deal? >> yeah and in a recession. i think it's gaudy and horrible and says something not good about our society that people are more concerned with the shopping aspect of the coming season than the things about

being with family. if you're getting up at midnight and leaving your house on thanksgiving to shop for a xbox and pepper spraying the competition, it's consumerism on an ugly scale. and in a recession, this is not what people should be doing. what happened to saving your money? >> is there a political way that people -- would there be a political benefit, could we just return to the tradition of one day off from the stores and sit with your family and bring some discussion with the families? >> there was a story yesterday about this issue that congress wants to promote shopping with small businesses during the holidays. i prefer to stay away from the mall because it's ridiculous. but there's a lot that people can do. >> sit tight, everyone. straight ahead, the big three is going to rate the week. everyone have their new blackberry from at&t?

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back again with my panel again to rate this week. so joe ann, who had the best week and who had the worst and why? >> because of all the chaos in congress with the super committee and between that and sort of the continued weirdness with republican candidates, i have to give it to barack obama just for being out of it and being out of the fray he had a good week. the worst week would have to go to newt gingrich. his message is very confused on immigration and this second class citizen for immigration thing not good. >> ramesh, best and worst week? >> i disagree. i agree that some of the problems could come back to haunt gingrich, but right now he's had a good debate. he gave romney the first debate that romney didn't clearly win.

i give gingrich the best week and romney the worst. >> how about, christina, your thoughts? >> i think michele bachmann had a good week. she did well in the debate. she released a new book this week. who knows what's going to happen, but she's still staying in this, even though she has less money. so that's something to throw out there. and the worst week, this is obviously congress. and really they haven't been paying the consequences. they're not holding town halls, they're not hearing that much from their constituents and the failure is everybody's. >> so if you look at it that way, 535 people had the worst week? >> exactly. >> okay. doing the math there. thank you so much. you guys have a great week. thanks so much. and that's a wrap on this edition of "weekends with alex witt." i'll see you tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern.

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