like people with liver disse... or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. simple blood tests will check for liver problems. tell your doctor about other medicines you're taking. or if you have muscle pain or weakness. that could be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. is your cholesterol where your doctor wants? ask your doctor if crestor is right for you. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. . good morning. i'm chris jansing. it's all newt gingrich right now. all the weight of the nomination. gingrich is hitting the airwaves for the first time today. this one minute ad will run on cable and broadcast networks in iowa with less than 30 days now until the caucuses. a new nbc news maris poll shows gingrich leading the poll, beating mitt romney by eight points.

chicago tribune columnist clarence page at msnbc analyst richard wolf join us this morning. good morning gentlemen. >> good morning. let me pull you a clip from this new ad. >> some people say the america we know and love is a thing of the past. i don't believe that. because working together, i know we can rebuild america. we can revive our economy and create jobs. >> clarence, not the fiery bombastic newt gingrich but the warm and fuzzy one. what do you think about this? >> this is nice newt. we'll see a lot of nice newt versus naughty newt in the next few weeks. he can really turn on the charm when he wants to. his problem has always been maintaining discipline. he just can't stop talking. he's a great policy -- that's why journalists love to talk to him. it always makes headlines. not always the headline he wants. but he's definitely the front-runner and he's formidable. >> it's interesting.

he's going to meet today with donald trump. he's in new york. newt gingrich is, richard. i don't know who talks more. that should be an interesting conversation. our new poll shows a trump endorsement hurts more than it would help. here's what he said about that on the "today" show today. >> i want a great candidate, a candidate that is going to beat president obama. it's very important, it's vital for this country. i would certainly think about running as a -- >> what about the donald trump factor in all of this, richard? >> well, he's a clown, to be fair. honest and direct. he is -- he's turning with this debate that he's going to quote-unquote moderate. he's turning this into more of a game show than it is. >> a couple of them have said they won't show. definitely, you think mitt romney will show? >> i think if gingrich is meeting with him today, it's going to be hard for him to say no to the debate, especially given that donald trump is not

afraid of unloading on these people. look what he said about ron paul who decided it was in fact a joke to show up to this kind of thing. if gingrich turns up, romney has no choice there. there is a question about yes, you can reach maybe those crowd that trump appeals to. it's a chunk of the electorate in this primary phase. but what does that do to the general election phase you hope you get if you want to be the nominee. >> clarence,you're talking about him being the front-runner. michele bachmann, rick santorum starting to attack newt gingrich. here's senator tom coburn's criticism. >> there's a lot of candidates out therement i'm not inclined to be a supporter of newt gingrich's after serving under him and experienced personally his leadership. there's all types of leaders, leaders that instill confidence, leaders that are somewhat abrupt and brisk. leaders that have one standard for the people they're leading

and a different standard for themselves. i just found his leadership lacking. >> you know, i think obviously there are no shortage of critics of newt gingrich. i'm just wondering now shall clarence, if you think mitt romney is going to have to really switch gears here and focus on gingrich instead of the president. >> well, i think he will. tom coburn, i think, perhaps inadvertently helped gingrich by denouncing his leadership in congress. i did a sunday column about how the tea party is betraying their own ideals by supporting gingrich he's the quintessential insider lobbyist, et cetera, all the things that they campaign against. now, they've been through so many other front-runners, they've forgotten why they opposed gingrich in the first place. one thing trumps everything else with gingrich. he is a forceful debater. they think he can go out there and spank obama on national tv and that has the appeal that overrides all the other concerns

about gingrich on the right. i think that's his biggest strength right now. >> richard, is there anybody else who can move o into this race? there's buzz about huntsman. not among the electorate, unfortunately, but certainly among talking heads. >> yeah. i think it's too late, frankly. i would expect ron paul to run a strong second place in iowa. he's got a ground game. he's got a committed core. but this is a two-man race at this point. you know, it's going to be hard even for newt to screw it up at this point. it's not the newness of newt by the way. clarence is right, it's the oldness of him. he combines old pop lichl with having been there before. the more the media says this guy cannot do it, he's going to implode, the stronger he will get. that confirms that he's still an outsider even though we know he's been here for four decades. >> richard wolf, clarence page, thanks for being here. >> thanks, chris. it's not just the nbc polls showing the gingrich surge. the des moines register poll

shows newt gingrich ahead of ron paul and mitt romney. there you see what was referenced. that was before herman cain dropped out. we have a political columnist here from the des moines register. >> good morning, chris. iowa is a tricky state because having a good organization is so important. but can the momentum that newt gingrich obviously has now override that? >> well, i think that momentum is important and gingrich is getting hot at the right time. it was four years ago in in poll at this time in the des moines register poll that mike huckabee took the lead over mitt romney. the timing of this is important. having said that, however, you really do have lift with your campaign to get people out on caucus night. newt gingrich had his campaign in iowa implode over the summer. he is really scrambling to rebuild that to have enough of an organization so that -- a

foot of snow on the ground on january 3rd, he can still get his people out to the caucuses. >> do you think we'll see more of him? he's scheduled to go that way friday. >> i believe mitt romney will put out a serious effort in iowa. he has polling now, had direct mail in iowa. he's making his -- his campaign is making phone calls. he's sending out surrogates, including chris christie coming out. i expect he'll be put a serious effort in iowa. he does have a mature campaign organization. so he absolutely can perform better than his poll is showing right now. >> speaking of the polling, the conventional wisdom has been that a lot of herman cain's support will go, in fact, to newt gingrich. what do you think? what kind of voters in iowa were going for cain and so what does that tell us about where they might switch to? >> well, i think that a cain had support from tea party. they liked the idea of him being an outsider and a businessman.

but our poll, the des moines register's poll showed that newt gingrich was a strong second choice for a lot of herman cain voters. he is getting -- newt gingrich is getting a lot of tea party support. so he draws from a quite a broad spectrum of the republican caucus-goers. >> it is that fun time we have every four careers in iowa. kathy, thank you so much. >> thanks, chris. disgraced penn state assistant coach jerry sandusky gives yet another interview talking about the abuse allegations against him. why does his attorney let him keep talking? more on that in ten minutes. iran claims to have shut down a spy plane along the eastern border. the u.s. says they could be referring to a reconnaissance aircraft that crashed last week. they weren't sure where it crashed. we'll get a complete report from

jim mick la chef ski in the next half hour. they were ordered to go following a nato attack that killed 24 pakistani soldiers. tensions since then have been very high. pakistan's prime minister today says his country wants to rebuild ties with the united states. did you see these pictures? a standoff between protesters and u.s. parks police ended last night when officers used a cherry picker to remove half a dozen protoprotesters from the roof of a shack. 31 people were arrested after they refused to dismantle the unfinished structure which had gone up overnight on saturday. my doctor told me calcium is best absorbed in small continuous amounts.

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. vice president joe biden told greece's leaders the u.s. is "standing with you in solidarity." the new government is dealing with huge financial issues and right now they're still working out a second bailout from other yur neon countries. biden met and had lunch with the prime minister. he'll meet with others from the coalition government. treasury secretary tim geithner will be travel to skrerm any, france and italy for talks with top officials. the dnc is hitting mitt romney with another slap and a new label. career politician. the change we need, mitt romney for senate. >> i am a candidate for the governorship of the commonwealth of massachusetts. >> i declare my intention to run for the president of the united

states. >> obama senior campaign adviser david axelrod has a new name for newt gingrich. the. >> i was -- he talked about bringing the country together to solve problems. you're talking about the godfather of gridlock here. two decades ago, he invented the tactics that have become commonplace. >> and the white house is trying to pressure senate republicans to get behind the president's choice to head a new consumer agency. the full senate is expected to vote on thursday. richard -- he's the former ohio attorney general to head the consumer financial protection bureau. republicans could block the vote because they want the agency's powers curtailed. what a big night at the kennedy center for the annual honors gala. one of the real moments for smokey robinson singing sweet caroline and caroline kennedy got up and joined in.

♪ sweet caroline >> that song was named for her. they were all honored at that star studded event. the dnc is fighting a republican assault on voters rights. dozens of states have enacted tougher voter i.d. laws and democrats are concerned that it could discourage people from going to the polls. especially poor blacks, latinos and seniors. now, let's take a look because there are actually eight states where they have -- with the national conference of state legislatureses considering strict photo i.d. laws. there you see them there. most of those are expected to take effect before the 2012 elections. then you have seven states requiring a voter to show i.d. when they go to the polls. key state of florida included. let's take a look at the nonphoto i.d. states. they do require citizens to show

some kind of i.d. when they vote. 16 states have a law you can say bring your utility bill or a bank statement instead of a more traditional i.d. as proof that you're a registered voterment finally the states with no voter i.d. law, those are in black. those include california and new york. although, those aren't ones that are battleground states for sure. i'm joined by the director of voter protection for the dnc. good morning, will. how are you? >> good morning, chris. thank you for having me. >> debbie wasserman schultz called this the literacy test. why? do you agree? >> i think what we're seeing, chris, is the first time in nearly half a century that laws are being passed that make it more difficult, make it harder for people to vote. we've not seen this in a very long time. we oppose these laws. we've seen it in the form of photo i.d. laws, which you just

talked about. but we've also seen it in the form of laws that make it more difficult for people to register to vote and make it more difficult for people to vote early in their states. so across the country, especially in many of the battleground states, we're seeing law after law making it much more difficult for people to get to the polling place and cast a ballot. >> do you believe the republicans are behind this and why? >> there's no question they're behind it. just look at the republicans' statements on this. point in case is mitch mcconnell who has said that his primary objective is to see president obama as a one-term president. but republican after republican have said that they prefer to have fewer people voting. that they benefit from that. so what we're doing right now is we've just released a new report in response to this and people can go to www.protecting the vote.org. you can see that report. you can see what's happening in your state.

you can see the evidence on who is behind it. then you can figure out what you need to do to ensure that you're able to go and cast the ballot next year. >> republican congressman steve king said, i'm quoting him "i think there's too much focus on getting people to the polls as many times as possible and not enough on the legitimate vote." voter fraud? >> there's simply no evidence of it. i mean, if you look at what the bush justice department, which made this a priority, they spent some five years investigating it and could only come up with a scant evidence of any fraud whatsoever, much of which was not voter impersonation fraud. mind you, the photo i.d. laws would do nothing about the registration fraud that republicans have talked about or do nothing about other kinds of things that have been identified here. and so we're passing laws, republicans have passed laws

that don't quite fit the problem that they seek to address. >> well, let's go over the numbers again just to be clear. democrats again say 25% of african-americans and 19% of latinos do not have some form of government issued identification, even before these new laws. what do we know about the effects of this on people being able to go to the polls and vote? >> certainly. and those numbers, mind you, i believe are from the brennan center of justice. nonpartisan organization that put out a study on this. and it's looking at the people who have laws -- who have i.d. that would fit the definition of the new laws. so, you know, a story just came out of a woman in 84-year-old woman in wisconsin who has been voting for decade after decade, in fact a local elected official there who was born at home and

so doesn't have a birth certificate and can't get the i.d. she would need in wisconsin. we saw a similar story, 96-year-old dorothy cooper in chattanooga, tennessee, whose birth certificate didn't match her marriage license and so they wouldn't issue her an i.d. to be able to vote. and then in the state of florida, where they've cut early vote, they cut out the sunday just before the election. that, by no coincidence, is the day when the largest proportion of african-americans and latinos vote during the early vote process. so, again, these are laws that have huge ramifications for all voters. and so, again, folks can go to protecting the vote.org and they can see all the information that we have, we've been collecting on this and how they can rentalster and vote. >> all right. will crossly, thank you so much for coming on. >> thank you, chris. the three money managers who

won the $254 million powerball jackpot, they're making good on their promise. the trio set up a charitable organization with their winnings. the first donation, a million dollars to five groups that support veterans and military members who recently returned from deployments. what do you think about their donation? tweet us at jansing co. time for the entrepreneur of the week. rachel weeks. ceo of apparel company schoolhouse was manufacturing her products in -- weeks plans to continue to expand her business locally. committed to creating products made in the usa. for more, watch "your business" on msnbc. do you have an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem? are you taking warfarin to reduce your risk of stroke caused by a clot?

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lugging around a hot water extraction unit can be a rush! that's why i'm carpet for life. but if things get out of hand, there's no shame in calling us. ♪call 1-800-steemer. another explosive interview with jerry sandusky where he denies he sexually abused children but confirms many of the events laid out in charges against him, leading to questions of why someone in serious legal jeopardy, 40 counts of sex abuse just keeps talkingment here's one of the things he said that has everybody talking. >> if i say no, i'm not attracted to boys, that's not the truth because i'm attracted to young people, boys, girls.

>> sexually? >> i enjoy -- that's what i was trying to say. i enjoy spending time with young people. i enjoy spending time with people. >> michael is our investigative correspondent. the question, why do his lawyers let him keep talking? >> reporter: well, that's a very good question, chris. this is one of the strangest legal theories -- strategies anybody has seen. it's the legal equivalent of a hail mary pass on the part of his lawyers. sandusky's lawyer said he gave the interview to see the positive aspects of his life. but he said a lot of things in there that could get him into further legal trouble. in fact, one of the more interesting parts of the interview, not on video, but audio, but he talks about and confirms that he reached out to

two of the alleged victims last summer after the grand jury investigation had been widely reported here, and this led one of those alleged victims, the lawyer for one of the alleged victims to raise some serious questions about what was going on. why sandusky would be inviting his client to dinner at that point. i think we have some sound. let's listen to what he had to say. >> one of the questions it raised in my mind, was this an effort on his part to tamper with witnesses? was it or wasn't it? they inquired if he wobbling to wear a wire. >> reporter: that's pretty significant. i mean, here the alleged victim of jerry sandusky gets this dinner invitation. he goes running to the police, tells them about it. they want him to wear a wire, go to the dinner, wear a wire. what happened is, we understand from the lawyer, that the

alleged victim balked. he was afraid something would go wrong. he did go to the dinner and reported back to the police without the wire. what's significant here is he is now prepared to testify, along with other alleged victims at this upcoming preliminary hearing next week in sandusky's case. i should point out, sandusky lawyer says nothing improper took place at this dinner. that it was totally social and pleasant in nature. that's sandusky's lawyers' account. >> i suppose you would also ask the question, if somebody has allegedly been sexually abused, you're going to ask them to go and sit and have a nice social dinner with the person who was the predator, the alleged predator? it just -- there's a lot of things about this case, as you say, from him continuing to talk to charges of witness tampering that are a little bit beyond the pale. i think you're going to be busy

there michael. thank you so much. >> reporter: thank you, chris. a capitol hill battle leading up to the holidays. could a gift of compromise, compromise be in the works when it comes to the payroll tax cut? progresso. it fits!

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this is meteorologist mike seidel. welcome back to jansing and company. snowflakes in dallas, north and west of town. we had an inch in weiss county. it's a cold, cloudy, damp day in dallas right now. upper 30s are the temperatures. we have a slow moving cold front. this front is going to take its time getting to the east coast. back in here along the front, a lot of watches and warnings because of the possibility of flooding. even snow in northwest arkansas. we show you the temperatures right now. it's down to 4 in denver. a cold morning after weekend snow. there's your 50 in corpus christi. very warm along the eastern

seaboard. we're looking for highs in 62 in new york city. 60 in boston. a complete turn around from what we saw in time last year. the rain, again, it's going to take another six to 12 hours to get it to the eastern seaboard. wet weather tomorrow. delays at newark, laguardia. not because of rain but because of fog and low ceilings. chris, back to you. >> it's unbelievable. it's december. one of the writers got back from los angeles and said it was a lot nicer here than it was there. go figure. >> they had the santa ana winds last week and a little bit of that today. winds may gust 45 to 50 miles per hour. not as dangerous and wicked as last week. but it's a wild december. east coast, many cities in the top five or six warmest novembers on record. now we go into december, it will get chillier the end of the week in the northeast, but right now, enjoy the 60-degree december weather in the big apple. >> i'm not complaining, believe me. mike, thank you. here's a look at other stories people are talking about right now.

at least a dozen people were injured when thousands of fans rushed the field following the big 12 championship game between oklahoma and oklahoma state. two people had to be airlifted to a hospital. one man knocked unconscious after falling 15 feet on to concrete. the victims are listed in stable condition now. oklahoma state scored the big upset. as police continue their search for missing florida mother michelle parker, disturbing new details are emerging about her ex-fiance and the only suspect. court records show the couple had a history of domestic violence and dale smith served jail time for domestic abuse and drug charges while married to his ex-wife. he does deny any involvement in parker's disappearance. country singer mindy mccready is in court today. after u.s. marshals found them hiding in arkansas over the weekend in the closet of a home. the child was reported missing after 36-year-old mccready took him from her father's house last

week. the singer has had a public battle with drug addiction, lost custody of her son to her mother gail back in 2007. the so-called geezer bandit may have struck again in california. police are investigating a weekend bank robbery captured in the security camera videos. investigators say the man ran out and dropped the cash after a dye pack exploded. he might have slipped up reportedly leaving a small address book behind. the geezer bandit is suspected of robbing more than a dozen banks in california. and black friday and cyber monday apparently have not drained on-line shoppers' drive. last week alone, shoppers spent $6 billion on-line. that is a new record. cyber monday turned out to be the biggest on-line shopping day in history. sales reaching a $1.25 billion. ferraris, mercedes, lamborghinis, oh, my. what happened to mees cars? we'll explain when we go down to the wire in 20.

whatever happened, it wasn't good, right? newt gingrich is rolling out the new blooup for his campaign in new york today. the presidential hopeful will push the new theme of rebuilding the america we love. vowing a 50-state strategy. his first test will be iowa where he's surging in the polls. that's where nbc news campaign alex mow joins me from. an adviser for gingrich's operation said to the new york times that they're basically flying by the seat of their pants. tell me what their operation in iowa looks like right now. >> that's right, chris. one adviser is reported to have said that. however, the campaign on the ground here is really confident that while they might not be off to the traditional start, starting a little late, opening their first headquarters in iowa last week, they're confident that they'll be able to do well on january 3rd in the caucuses. they rolled out, as you said, the first tv ad in the state and this is the first in a series that we'll see over the next

couple of weeks. they've raised at least $5 million which a lot of people expect that number to be much higher. they're not letting that card be shown. they've had six staffers hired in iowa in the past couple of weeks. i'm hearing that one additional staffer will be picked up this week from herman cain's campaign. >> it looks like voters are going over from cain as well. i'm wondering in your conversations, alex, with voters there and with gingrich ahead by eight in the latest iowa polls, what they're saying. what is it about newt that's caught their attention right now? >> he was very well-received the past couple of days. he was here last week and spoke at a very popular 400-plus person dinner in polk county, the large he's county in iowa. they are confident that he can continue and he has that washington experience from a few years back. but they're wondering if he can stay disciplined in the last four weeks going into the caucus. a lot of herman cain supporters are looking for a place toing and the gingrich campaign is

hoping to pick them up. alex moe, thank you so much. >> thanks. president obama meantime is going to the map for the payroll tax cut. in the critical week for congress, obama will deliver a major economic address tomorrow. part of his plan to step up the pressure to renew the tax cut set to expire on january 1st. nbc news correspondent kelly o'donnell joins me now. kelly, good morning to you. senate majority leader harry reid expected to unveil a plan on the tax cut. >> we know that it's not fully formed yet, chris. senator reid will have a conference call in a couple of hours to talk about the broad outline of what he's looking to do. it would extend the payroll tax cut and expand it to 3.1%. it's just 2% this year. there would be some elements taken from the super committee, ways to try to pay for that. things like selling off some government property. things that might appeal to republicans. it would still likely include some sort of sur fax on high

earners and -- surtax on high earners. that would not appeal to republicans. it's not really a full compromise because we don't know of any republican support on board yet. but it is another start. it's also another opportunity for democrats, especially in the senate, to make a political play that they are working on this to try to provide broader tax relief, especially to the middle class in the new year. so what we expect to see is a lot of sort of the point taking this week where republicans and democrats will outline some of their differences. we don't expect this this is going to move quickly this week but it is an important step trying to rejigger the formula to extend the payroll tax. the spt fully on board and many believe that however the compromise is ultimately reached, they'll get there, but we don't have all the details of how they'll get there just yet. >> the devil in the details, kelly. thank you so much. to talk more about that, let's go to wall street journal senior economic writer steve moore. good morning, steve.

>> good morning, chris. >> you know all the plans out there. let's talk about what some democrats have hinted. they'd like to use savings from winding down wars. is that a viable solution? >> well, it's pretty iffy whether we'll get those savings, chris. i think republicans would probably reject that. we don't know what's going to happen in afghanistan and iraq. the one thing that kelly was just reporting that i know is a political nonstarter is this idea of an income tax surcharge on people in the highest income tax bracket. we had a vote thursday or friday in the senate, it went down in flames. doi believe we'll get this payroll tax cut extended for a year, but it's not going to be paid for with higher taxes. this idea that kelly was talking about, about using some of the savings that were identified by the super committee, that sounds like a pretty good idea to me. i think you could get a bipartisan consensus for that. >> is your sense that there has to be a bipartisan consensus?

as you well know, over the last several days, we have heard, tl a lot of rank and file who have concerns about the idea, period. not about how to pay for it, but whether it should even happen. >> that's right. >> of course, the trouble that the republican leadership sees is how do you make the arguments, the average american family who will see a thousand dollars less next year, if they don't he can tend this, that this is a good idea? >> chris, you're exactly right. the republicans are very divided on this. not just on how to pay for it but more importantly, whether it's a good idea. remember, we put in place this cut in january of this year. we've had it now for over ten months. so far the jobs impact has been minimal. in fact, i've been surprised. i thought there would be more of a bounce in jobs than we did yet. a lot of republicans are saying wait a minute, should we extend the policy that hasn't worked very well? don't forget, ultimately this money, payroll tax money comes out of the social security

account. a lot of seniors are wondering, is it a good idea to raise it. >> senator tom coburn was talking earlier about paying for this extension. let me play it for you. >> we are in very serious trouble. we continue to kick the can down the road. we lack the backbone and courage in washington to make the hard choices now. nobody is making hard choices now. what they're doing is promising the benefit and no pain now. it always comes later. >> what do you see happening? draw on your years of experience. are they going to get this deal done? >> they are going to get the deal done. i predict it will be a one-year extension if for no other reason, next year is an election year. nobody wants to be looking at a tax increase in election year. tom coburn really put his finger on the problem. at least where republicans and conservatives are. republicans are -- i'm talking about republican voters, not

republicans in congress. are more and more frustrated that republicans who came into congress promising these cuts really haven't made them. that's going to be -- coburn has a message that some of the republican candidates should be talking about. about downsizing government, paying for things by reducing government agencies, not raising taxes. >> there's a lot of talk about it. it always turns out to be a lot harder to do. steve moore, always good to see you. thank you. >> see you, chris. say goodbye to next day snail mail. the postal service is announcing unprecedented cuts to first class mail eliminating the chance for letters to arrive the next day. we have more with what's moving your money. you heard me talking to steve about hard choices. >> it is a very tough choice. you know what, the u.s. postal service, chris, is facing bankruptcy. they have no choice at this stage. so, yes, they are pushing ahead with the cuts to first dlas mail. next mail will slow delivery. i believe the first time in 40

years, it's going to eliminate the chance for letters to arrive the next day. what are they looking for? apparently an estimated $3 billion in reductions. they have to do this. it's a wide ranging effort by the postal service to quickly trim their costs. at the moment, they're not getting any help from congress. they have to do it alone. short term, the gain could be good financially. long-term, chris, you know what, it's going to push more communication on to the internet. whether or not in the long-term it will help them out is the biggest question. >> let me ask you about gas prices because we're heading into the travel season, obviously. somebody went across the board here. $2.99 for gas. what's going on? >> yeah. going forward, what we've got right in terms of crude prices. we're sitting at $102 a barrel. that is naturally going to trickle down to gas prices as well. we're moving higher in erms it of crude oil right now because testify risk assets moving to

the upside. we had a huge week last week. biggest percentage gain since march 2009. today, again, we have good gains at least at the start of the week and that's thanks to europe. because you have presidents sarkozy and chancellor merkel, they met in paris. they proposed an agreement between the two countries being sent to e.u. officials. the hope is we're making progress in europe. we have to wait and see what the rest of the week brings and whether or not it's as big of a week as last week. back to you. >> thank you so much. always good to see you, mandy. >> we're getting new video in. newt gingrich arriving here in new york city. oh, my gosh. the crowd. he's meeting with donald trump. all the reporters, all the cameras. gingrich, so far the only candidate by the way, who has officially confirmed he will participate in the debate being moderated by the donald. this afternoon, gingrich will hold a news conference after the big meeting. there he goes into trump tower. .

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hi everybody. i'm thomas roberts in the next hour of msnbc, the herman cain train derails. now that he's out, will he throw his weight behind newt gingrich? a key endorsement this week. why the vote of african-americans, the hispanics, young and elderly voters is being jeopardized. the reverend a.m. sharpton joins me with an eye opening report. jerry sandusky gives another dam nick interview with his lawyers blessing. thanks, thomas. new tensions between the u.s. and iran over reports that iran may have its hands-on a u.s. surveillance plane. iran says they shot it down along the eastern border. the u.s. denies the claim. nbc's jim miklaszewski is live at the pentagon this morning. mick, what do they say happened to this drone? >> reporter: there was a drone flying in western afghanistan along the iran border. and that kmonders on the ground,

those remote control pilots, suddenly lost all control of the aircraft, which then disappeared. which indicates it could have just veered off into iran perhaps and eventually as it ran out of fuel, crashed. but all of this is pretty much a mystery. iran claims it shot down this unmanned drone. they claim it was an rq 170. a super secret stealth drone used by the u.s. for example in the operation that killed osama bin laden in pakistan. but they offered no photographic evidence that they've actually recovered an rq 170. in the meantime, the u.s. will only say that they lost a drone. won't say what kind. and there are also some questions being raised about if this were an rq 170 mission, they would have been tasked for a specific operation. what along the border would have been so specific that would have required that kind of really

high tech technology. so it's going to be some time before we get this all sorted out. again, the only thing that the u.s. will confirm is that they lost a drone. but they insist that they did not have one shot down by the iranians or anybody else, chris. >> but if it was a 170, mick, how concerning is that given that this is elite tech following? >> reporter: that's right. there would be concern if this were an rq 170. the iranians could get the audio sensors, perhaps the stealth technology. they may be able to reverse engineer it to produce some of those devices and/or technology themselves. but there's no evidence that they have one in their hands. >> jim miklaszewski, thanks, mick. how could you forget this name. christine o'donnell, 2010 candidate from the state of delaware. is she trying to make a comeback? today's tweet of the day is from

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good morning. welcome to morning joe. madonna, tiger wins and april $4 million crash. let's go down to the wire. the material girl will add a notch to her storied career. the super bowl halftime show. madonna will perform with cirque du soleil in indianapolis. that game on february 5th. for the first time since 2009, tiger woods won a tournament. the chevron world challenge. a tournament he shaeshd to benefit his charity. the golf great hasn't won since thanksgiving of 2009. that car accident that spiralled into a scandal of extramarital affairs. speaking of crashes, you've got to see this one. eight fer rar is, three

mercedes, a lamborghini and two toyotas worth about 4 million bucks. they were turned into scrap metal after colliding on a japanese highway. they were headed to a car show. ten drivers were hurt, though none seriously. a former miss usa is facing dui charges. she was arrested in a detroit suburb early saturday morning. she apologized in a statement. the 26-year-old was the first arabic woman crowned miss usa in 2010. santa may live in the north pole, but that doesn't mean he doesn't like to go for a swim once in a while. he's greeting visitors at the new jersey aquarium. kids can tell santa their christmas wish and watch him go for a dive. >> all this boy wanted was for his dad to come home from afghanistan. >> who is that? >> there's daddy. >> go give daddy a big hug and kiss.

[ applause ] now, that's a merry christmas. by the way, sergeant john was in afghanistan for his fifth tour of duty. our thanks to him for his service and his family as well. they're going to have a great holiday. that wraps up this hour of jansing & co. thomas roberts is up next. i'll see you back here tomorrow. that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. rx plan gives you the lowest plan premium in the country... so you can focus on what really matters. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. most powerful trading app ? total access - to everything. from idea to research to trade. including financials, indicators and real-time streaming quotes.

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and it holds all day. ♪ take the fixodent 12 hour hold challenge. guaranteed, or your money back. ♪ and for guaranteed freshness try fixodent cleanser, plus scope ingredients. newt gingrich on a roll. meeting with donald trump and airing his first tv ads in iowa. where he's streaking ahead in the polls. can it last? now that herman cain is out, will he urge his followers to get behind newt gingrich? a key endorsement this week. the republican party, is trying to suppress the vote of african-american, hispanics and others across the area. reverend al sharpton joins us with a new report. jerry sandusky gives an incriminating