the core philosophy that they're expressing is the same. the contrast in visions between where i want to take the country and where they say they want to take the country is going to be stark. >> well, just as stark, two new nbc polls out this morning that show surging front-runner newt gingrich is solidifying his lead over romney "nightly news" in two key states. gingrich has a 20--point lead in south carolina up 35 points from a month ago. in florida gingrich leading romney by 15 points. but with that big lead, gingrich becomes a bigger target. we saw it at the debate over the weekend. i'm joined by rich gailen, the former communications director for speaker gingrich. it's been a while. how are you doing? >> good. >> i'm well. you know newt gingrich very well. is he emboldened by these new

numbers, fighting mode, arrogant? what do you think all this success has brought newt in his head? >> i suspect all of those may be true, depending upon the time of the day and where he is. so would anybody if they had those kinds of leads in all of these polls. keep in mind -- i don't have a favorite in the race, so i'm just try to kind of analyze it as i go. at the end of october, about six weeks ago, which is about how far out we are from some of the later january primaries, the leader was herman cain. he's gone. so these things tend to change fairly quickly, as you pointed out. >> but would you say, for example, that you think something could happen to him the way it happened to herman cain? let me read what peggy noonan wrote and has been quoted a lot recently about gingrich. he is a human hand grenade who walks around with his hand on the pin, says "watch this!" is that the newt you know?

>> absolutely. i think the republican base is angry, and they finally looks like they're settling on the angriest candidate they can find. none of that is bad news for the gingrich campaign. it may be bad news in the general. we'll see how that turns out, but we'll be a lot smarter three weeks from wednesday after the iowa caucuses. the big question and dan and elisa were talking about it on the previous program is whether or not organization trumps momentum. it has been -- it's always been the theory in iowa and any caucus state that organization, organization, organization. newt doesn't have an organization. he didn't have any money until a week ago. we'll see whether or not that holding true three weeks from tomorrow. >> well, i mean, he has honestly raised a lot of money recently. obviously, he's not in the same stratosphere as his main

challenger. what do you think about that? do you think that eventually the fact mitt romney has been at this so long, his organizations are up and running in all these states could be the difference? >> that will be the test. the rules -- the rna rules, republican rules this cycle are that no caucus or primary prior to april 1st can be anything but proportional. no winner-take-all, and after april 1st, it's up to the states. so are, so aren't. even through super tuesday on may 6th, we'll be looking for proportional results, and that means that the -- you would think that the candidate with the best, the wider, the deepest organization would be better positioned for the long haul. again, we're in a new era, according to newt, an era of twitter and talk radio and cable news and how many facebook fans

you've got. we'll see whether or not those do, in fact, trump having offices and people on the ground. >> this has been a fascinating campaign, and boy, it looks like it will get more so. >> and it hasn't started yet. >> you're right about that, too. rich galen, great to see you. thank you so much. let many me bring in "new york times" columnist adam and ron. thank for being here. let's start with one of the big moments from saturday's debate. this was mitt romney's $10,000 wager. >> i'm hearing you say all the right things, but i read your first book and it said in there that your mandate in massachusetts, which should be the model for the country. i know it came out of the reprint of the book, but i'm just saying, you were for individual mandates, my friend. >> you know what? you've raised that before, rick. you're still wrong. >> it was true there. it's true now. >> rick, i'll tell you what.

10,000 bucks? $10,000 bet? >> i'm not in the betting business. >> okay. >> oh, boy. charles, he's trying to show the american people, look, i'm not this guy who, you know, dropped into these companies and fired a lot of people. i'm just like you. we've been going around the country talking a lot about his missionary work and that kind of stuff. >> and eating at subway. come on, seriously. i mean, it's so wrong on so many levels. first of all, it's childish prank. the idea of -- >> you want to bet? >> i double-dare you. instead of going to the page number is chapter so-and-so. i lay out this plan in this way, or you are wrong because you read it that way. you read that book and you know that's part of the attack. you should have a comeback thaen more grown and mature than i'll bet you. secondly, it is as most people

pointed out at this point, it's so out of touch to go with $10,000 instead of 10 bucks or maybe i'll bet you a cup of coffee or something else. no one has that kind of money to play around with. i was saying on twitter, i will bet you $10,000 that most people in america have never bet $10,000. people don't do that. >> most people in america don't have $10,000. let's start with that. i have to say, ron, if you were listening to rich and he was talking about maybe the republicans are looking for somebody who's angry, i wonder if they're looking, too, for somebody with thick skin? this is really the first time i think in a debate we saw romney stumble and people say he has trouble with these kinds of things. he's thin-skinned. you cannot say that about newt gingrich. he loves it to fight back. >> yeah. the big gaffe overshadows the fact he happened to be right. when you're on the side of the angels in a debate, don't say something that overshad he does

the fact you're right. it reminds me what hillary clinton was going through in 2007 against barack obama. her big debate flub at about this time in the cycle over licenses for illegal immigrants. that's when the party israeled maybe she wasn't the right person. you kind of wonder if we have aa romney and hillary and gingrich and barack obama kind of symmetry lines up here. >> i guess that would mean, charles, that newt gingrich is barack obama? >> i don't know if i'd go quite that far. i think what starts to happen as people start being forced to make a decision. right now people are to the point where you have to make a call. for a long time people have been able to stand back, the number of people undecided, who had the candidates that they endorse was very large and even among those who had they said they may be open to changing their mind. now they have to choose. what people do have to choose,

people start to pay attention to things that are not necessarily so issue-based. we expect a candidate to be able to be articulate. we expect them to be able to say what's on their mind. you actually believe it. it should come out of your mouth as soon as somebody asks you the question. the idea newt is never fluster order lost for a comment even if he says something that's kind of extraordinary and crazy, he's never lost for a thought. that impresses people a lot, because they see a person who could go toe to toe with barack obama and have things come out of his mouth that is part of what they believe. >> it is interesting to me, i have to say, ron, when you look behind the poll numbers in south carolina and florida, it's not just that newt opened uple huge leads and gained 30-plus points in both states. he's getting a lot of support, the key part of his support from the tea party, from conservatives from a guy who if you look at a lot of the issues isn't that far off the mark from mitt romney.

so do you think charles is right, these other things, more intangible things take over in the closing days, weeks before the iowa caucuses and the new hampshire primary? >> sure. going back to what rich said, so far the performance ft in the debate is more important than the organization on the ground. so fa far your ability to reflect the anger of the republican electorate is much more important than your experience or what the establishment thinks you can do. the one thing for mitt romney, if you look underneath those polls, he's the second choice awful the gingrich voters. if gingrich flames out like cain and bashman dchmann and trump a did, he is still standing there. >> this is fun. on their website intrade.com gives romney a 43% chance of winning the nomination, gingrich

just under 38%. what do you think the chances are right now? >> i think it's 70/30 romney. >> really? >> i'm still on the romney side, too. one thing that you have to keep in mind is how many enemies gingrich has on the right. what's happening even among tea party supporters is that the people who have been able to galvanize tea party support so far also hate his guts. glenn beck this weekend said that newt gingrich was the only candidate among these candidates he could never vote for. romney is calling in ann coulter in part of his advertising as one of the his surrogates. there's a lot of people on the right, people who have been part of both the establishment and the tea party movement, who really don't like this guy. i don't see how long that he can survive that coming at him from both directions. >> thank you so much, charles,

ron, gentlemen. it's good to see you bright and early. we have breaking news to tell you about. a hot button issue in this presidential campaign, which is immigration. the supreme court has just agreed to hear the controversy over arizona's tough new laws to curb illegal immigration. it will affect a lot of enforcement plans in other states, and we'll get a lot more from pete williams coming up a bit later in this hour. in the meanwhile president obama and speaker boehner agree that they both want the payroll tax cuts to continue, but the battle lines are drawn over how to do it. "the washington post" ezra kline will join me to talk about what it means for 160 million americans whose paychecks hang in the balance. busy day at the white house for the president as he welcomes iraqi prime minister al maliki for extended talks about u.s. troop withdrawal and the future of our relationship with iraq. they will hold a press conference in little over an hour. we will have that for you live. a 14-year-old filipino american held hostage for five

months has now been reunited with his mother, who was also captured but released in october. kevin was vacationing in the philippines when he was taken by a group believed to have ties to al qaeda. the virginia native got away by telling his captors he needed to take a bath in a stream. then he broke off in a run and followed that river to freedom. good for him. and...an apology c. this is ridiculous. yeah, and it's got apps. nice. it's got vudu, twitter, facebook. no honey, not facebook. ♪ honey, you think my sweater's horrendous? cats don't skate. i think it kicks butt. [ male announcer ] get low prices on the gifts they love, like lg tvs with the latest technology. and get free shipping to your store or home. save money. live better. walmart.

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the republican presidential field is waiting for the endorsement from influential iowa congressman steve king, but he's not quite ready yet. >> i have to come to a conviction, just like these candidates come to a conviction to run for president, i need to come to a conviction to get fully behind a single candidate. so that's what's holding me back. i hope to get there. >> mitt romney has secured a major endorsement in new

hampshire from manchester's mayor. four years ago he endorsed john mccain over romney. the obama administration's fight against a state law targeting illegal immigration heading to the high court today. arizona is asking justices to allow the state to enforce tough measures blocked by lower courts. as we heard and we'll get morcoming up, they have agreed to look at that. christmas came early in washington. the first family taking part in the 30th annual christmas in washington event, a fund-raiser for the children's national hospital. new signs that the last-minute scramble on the payroll tax cut could turn into a standoff. the house is expected to vote in week on a gop plan to extend the tax break for working americans, but the measure is tied to other issues including construction of an oil pipeline from canada to the gulf of mexico called the keystone project. the stakes are so high speaker boehner delivered the republican weekly radio address himself, something he rarely does.

>> unfortunately, the president wants to put off the decision on the keystone project until after next year's election. not only that, he now says that he'll reject the house's jobs bill if it includes support for this project. now, this is no time for the same old my way or the highway thee tricks. >> ezra kline is the columnist for "the washington post" and bloomberg, and i'm old enough i say radio address because that's what it used to be. now we actually get to see them talking. what are the expectations for this week's vote? >> i don't think the expectation is that this keystone deal will be the final deal. lindsey graham said this weekend it wouldn't be, but it's important to back up and say we're dealing with two separate things. on the one hand we have the payroll tax cut. there's one that the republicans are pushing. the other one that the obama administration wants which senate democrats want which is a big expansion.

on the other side there's this question of how do you pay for it if and what do you have to give away to get it? republicans want to pay for it by cutting government spending and getting this big oil pipeline. democrats want to pay for it by taxing the rich. >> let's talk about the political calculation of this, then, and now that you've laid out where the two sides are. what's the calculation for republicans, what is it for democrats? >> republicans a few weeks ago made the calculation they could not be against a payroll tax cut under any circumstances. >> some of the rank and file seriously are. >> some of the rank and file are, but the republican leadership has been very straightforward on this. mitch mcconnell says he has a majority for it and john boehner pushes on the house floor. so if they want approximate if anything happens with the payroll tax cut it's because the president wouldn't come to a deal among things like the keystone pipeline. they don't want to be seen as against it. democrats think it's great for politicians to push for a tax cut to show reps are unwilling

to cut taxes for the middle class at the coast of raising them for the rich. the keystone pipeline is odd here. i don't think anybody knows how to plan. it's an open question whether or not most people in the country know this was a compromise on the floor of the house of representatives. >> all of this playing into that larger narrative that we've been hearing from the president that he is this crusader for the middle class. it was interesting last night when steve kroft was interviewing him. he talked to him a little bit about first he seemed to be trying to compromise and now he's taken a sufficienter stance. let me play a little bit of that for you. >> we can't have an honest conversation about the greatest income inequality since the 1920s, and we can't have an honest conversation about the irresponsibility that resulted in the worst financial crisis since the great depression without somebody saying that somehow we're being divisive. now, we're being honest. >> where's the president in all of this? >> the president is right there. the white house feels they've figured out a strategy now.

they spent the first year after the election trying to compromise with republicans. that didn't work. they hoped approximate if republicans had noted their compromises they would get credit from the public by compromising and that didn't work. they're going to push this payroll tax cut and the inequality arguments, arguments it's hard for the republicans to embrace or be on the other side of. this is not the white house we saw a year ago. it's more of a white house that looks to draw these divisions sharply. >> it is interesting, isn't it, that newt gingrich that loves to be confrontational is leading on the republican side, that the white house has decided the thing for the president to do is be confrontational. more in the future. to be continued. ezra, always great to see you. thank you. we have the breaking news from the security. let's go to people williams live at the supreme court. what can you tell us? >> reporter: this is a blockbuster term.

we have a supreme court that agreed to take up the health care law. now the court has agreed to decide whether arizona's tough immigration law is constitutional and how the court decides that question is going to determine how other states including alabama, which has an even stricter law, how those states can proceed. an interesting note from the order list this morning. this case will be heard by only eight of the nine justices because kagan has taken herself off this case obviously because of her work as solicitor-general in the obama administration before she came to the supreme court. so only eight justices will hear this case. that does change the math here a little bit. a 4-4 vote would mean that the federal government's position prevails and the arizona law, portions of it would be struck down. it's a huge end to the supreme court. they will hear the arguments on the health care law in late march. no briefing schedule set for the arizona law, but it's a big term. "30 rock" star alec baldwin

made a surprise getz appearance on "saturday night live." there he is playing an american airlines pilot and apologizing to himself for getting kicked off the plane last week while playing what he calls a word game for smart people. >> captain rogers, what's your take on the events last wednesday? >> it was awful, seth, which is why it was very important for me to come here tonight. on behalf of everyone at american airlines issue an apology to mr. alec baldwin. >> alec, are you sure this is the right way to handle this? >> yeah, keep going, keep going. with olay challenge that. new regenerist wrinkle revolution... relaxes the look of wrinkles instantly, and the look of deep wrinkles in 14 days. ready, set, smooth... regenerist. from olay. it's 4g, so you can do more faster. so, kathryn, post more youtube videos of your baby acting adorable. baby. on it. matt, ignore me and keep updating your fantasy team.

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the economy may still be hurting, but whether all is said and done today may just be the busiest shopping day over. cnbc's brian shackman is at the fedex hub in the bronx. i guess fedex alone may handle more than 17 million packages today? >> reporter: it's unbelievable

the numbers, chris. the busiest day of the year, december 12th. in 2007 they handled 11.5 million packages on december 12th and today it's 17 million. that's twice the average daily volume, and it's no different at ups. we visited their hub in louisville, kentucky. they do 120 million packages during the holiday season. they hire 55,000 workers. their peak day is december 22nd. it's incredible. they have 400 flights a day during peak season. we went to both hubs, and you see all the labels of the different companies and one absolutely stood out because it was everywhere, and that was amazon. >> yeah. i'm not surprised by that. >> 20% to 40% of volume here depending on the day is all amazon. >> hundreds of thousands of am sdplon packages every day? >> come rights through this building. >> reporter: chris, it's fascinating. in those sorting facilities they're so automated that this

package is touched twice throughout the whole process. they take it out of the containers, and then it goes through at ups 155 miles of conveyor belts and then it's loaded into the plane. technology to handle all this volume is just amazing. >> i've never heard that before. brian, thank you. "occupy wall street" protesters are con traiting their efforts for the west coast this morning at the port of long beach. they hope to interrupt business. they're calling today "occupy the ports," a day without goldman sachs. we'll have those details next. u] we never forget the nearly 12 million cancer survivors in america today... and the countless lives lost. we owe it to them to protect funding for cancer research, prevention and access to care. congress, make cancer a priority and give millions of americans what they need most.

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this is meteorologist mike seidel. chris januasing and company returns in a moex. savannah and jacksonville down so far this year. we've had a severe drought in this area. over the weekend anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of rain.

now we shift all the way over to the west coast, and another storm coming in. very heavy rains into orange county, l.a. county, some of the mountains of southern california will pick up 1 to 2 feet of snow. we have localized flash flood problems here as the rain coming in today and obviously issues for the morning rush hour. here it is. snow through the southwest, southern california to the four corners. flagstaff, 1 to 2 feet of snow between now and wednesday. one of those ski resorts will get pretty hard, tell lieu ride. we'll have icing and freezing rain tomorrow night and wednesday morning and watch the bridges and overpasses around des moines and minneapolis. more sunshine for most of the east coast except the southeast. it will be another seasonably chilly day in new york, philadelphia and boston. cooler than we've seen recently. as this storm comes out and heading up the midwest, it will bring the warm air up the east coast and warmer temperatures for the middle part of the week. we're in a completely opposite

pattern in last winter when we had all the snow and cold weather. we don't see any changes in sight and no big blockbuster snowstorms in the next week on to ten days at least east of the rockies. >> that's okay with me and all the people that haven't finished their christmas shopping. thank you so much. >> sure. here's a look at other stories people are talking about right now. a florida man was picking up his son when he was shot by his mother-in-law and he caught it all on his iphone. following a messy divorce he scheduled visitation. his ex-mother-in-law wasn't happy about it and reportedly shot him three times. >> what, are you crazy? no. you shot me! >> get off me. >> i can't believe you [ bleep ] shot me. >> get off me! >> the man drove away and called 911, showed the recording to police, who then arrested the 66-year-old woman. "occupy" protesters in the west coast are gathering in a massive effort to shut down

ports from anchorage to san diego. they're protesting exploitation of port workers, their unions say they're distancing themselves from the efforts. "occupy" groups in seattle, tacoma and vancouver plan blockades. more than two decade afs the u.s. forced him from power, manuel noriega arrived in pan a panama. he's already done time in florida and france. lowe's home improvement is under fire today after pulling its commercials approximate from the tlc show "all american muslim." a christian group threatened to boycott the store if they didn't pull the ads. lowe's apologized for making people unhappy on sunday but did not say approximate if it would reinstate the ads. san francisco is the first u.s. city to top the $10 minimum wage mark. it's a 32-cent hike, but for a lot of workers it's a psychological boost it to help

them on a daily basis. by law san francisco is required to increase the minimum wage every year using a formula tied to inflation. lindsay lohan's hawaiian holiday ruined after she got in some trouble again. this time she was the victim. we'll explain what happened when we go down to the wire in 20. they're going after the president's work on israel. some republicans say he's been weak. newt gingrich is one of them. democrats are now fighting back, including a new facebook ad from the obama campaign. richard lui is here with more on that. >> there's an online battle growing on the president's israel efforts, and that's where his election campaign is putting some money. there's a new facebook ad countering want statements. when you click on that ad, you get a petition. stand against zeroing out aid to israel. pointing to mitt romney, rick perry and newt gingrich.

all attacked obama's record on israel last week. democrats have been fighting back since, given the president's national security successes like killing osama bin laden and trying to counter the idea that the gop is gaining with jewish voters. at this weekend's debate, gingrich defended his comment that palestinians were invented. >> is what i said factually correct? yes. is it historically true? yes. it's time for somebody to stand up and say enough lying about the middle east. >> romney had a mixed response to gingrich's stance. >> less regulation and an american energy plan and actually be -- >> that i think was a mistake on the speaker's part. >> paul pushed to change the focus. take a listen. >> i don't agree with that, and that's just stirring up trouble. i believe in a non-intervention foreign policy.

under t >> from israel the infrastructure minister said gingrich is right, there's never been a palestinian state while the palestinian spokesperson calls it right. >> the president in the meantime meeting with iraqi prime minister al maliki in washington. right now as the last remaining u.s. troops in iraq are preparing to come home. >> right now we're on schedule to make it out of here before christmas. >> the u.s. handed over a big military base in the south to iraqi forces in a ceremony yesterday. another milestone allowing troops to leave the country. the next phase of relations between the u.s. and iraq remain unclear. i'm joined now by the first veteran of the iraq war to serve in congress, former democratic congressman patrick murphy of pennsylvania. good to see you. good morning. >> great to be with you again. >> there are 170,000 troops in iraq during the peak of the war

in 2007. what are your emotions when you see this video and see this war drawing to a close? >> i just have a great sense of pride for our men and women who served in iraq when it was really tough. i know all those troops will be home by christmas, and that's a great thing for their families and most importantly for our country. i served in iraq in 2003-2004 with the 82nd airborne division. i know it was very tough, but our troops did the best job they could under really, really tough circumstances. i just pray for the 4400 families that unfortunately gave the ultimate sacrifice for their sons and daughters. >> you make a very good point about the lives that were lost and how much was lost in terms of the human toll. how much was gained, do you think? are you concerned that with u.s. troops gone that a lot of the advances that have been made will be lost? >> well, no. i mean, listen, our troops did the best job they could.

it's an iraqi problem and iraqi solution. we have put so much effort for the last almost ten years to train up the iraqi forces, but it's up to the iraqis to stand up for their country, to come together, the sunnis and the shia to come. we're going to keep about 40,000 of our troops in that region. we'll be there to aid them, but it's up to them in their own country to stand up for their security. it must be an iraqi solution, not an american one. >> you are in a unique position to have seen this both from being on the ground as a member of the armed services but also being on the legislative side as a member of congress. looking ahead, what do you think can and should happen? obviously not just the withdrawal from iraq but the drawing down in afghanistan and all the budget concerns there and how much the pentagon budget can be cut? what do you say going forward? >> my wife, children and i live in bucks county, pennsylvania.

i know most folks across pennsylvania agree with me. we have spent so much of our resources the last ten years in war in iraq and afghanistan. the fact is this. just the iraqi war itself has cost the american taxpayer almost $3 trillion. again, chris, as i mentioned, the 4400 lives, the 32,000 wounded, but a lot of folks are saying they get it. barack obama when he ran for president and when he was president was very clear with the american people. he said, i'm going to bring the troops home from iraq and refocus on bringing bin laden to justice. a man, a criminal, a terrorist who murdered 3,000 innocent americans including my best friend's girlfriend and her father in the world trade center. we brought him to justice. we wiped out almost half of the top levels of al qaeda. we're now training up the afghan forces to bring our troops home and the drawdown is happening in

afghanistan. that is important so we can refocus on jobs here at home and making sure we move our country forward. >> iraq war veteran and former congressman, patrick murphy. happy holidays. >> thanks, chris. merry christmas. websites with the new adult triple x domain name are available for the first time. you might be surprised who is registers for these new sites. colleges and universities. mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. huh? >> that's exactly what i said when i first heard about this, chris. universities are buying these dot xxx website sites. beginning ten months ago they gave them the opportunity to pass $200 for this address for a onetime blocking charge. we saw the university of kansas as one of the first on to purchase the rights to several addresses including kansas.xxx

and jayhawks.xxx. when the public sale began, the college bought more totally two dozen now. there are a lot of other colleges acquiring the addresses as a defensive move which precludes anybody else from use their name in a bad way. there's penn state, pittsburgh and indiana doing it right now. >> smart move. i don't know approximate if you were watching early. you saw brian shackman is out because today is the biggest shipping day for fedex. the numbers boggle the mind, and probably part of the reason is the new numbers you have for online shopping. >> that's right. u.s. online sales in the holiday season to date because we're far from done are up 15% to $24.5 billion. that's according to come store. we went through black friday and cyber monday. today is the heaviest tweak of the season for online retailers. today is green monday, and all we need now is for the strength to continue. back to you. >> mandy, always good to see

you. happy monday. >> you, too. not so happy monday for hollywood. disappointing weekend. it was the second worst weekend of the year. new year's eve took first place with 13.7 million, far below estimates for a film with a megaensemble cast, although the reviews were brutal. "the sitter" earned 10 million, lower than any other move with joe na hill. breaking dawn had 8 million and the muppets and arthur christmas round out the top five. ♪

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superhero of the gop? a bruising debate did nothing to slow his momentum. could a $10,000 bet sink the romney campaign? his team is in serious damage control mode as he gets hit from the right and left. today begins a critical week in the penn state sex abuse scandal. jerry sandusky will make accusers in court tomorrow for a preliminary hearing. tim curley and gary schultz are due in court. the prosecution may not have an easy road ahead. >> jerry sandusky spent the weekend underhouse arrest meeting with his lawyer and preparing for tomorrow's gramtic confrontation with his accusers. prosecutors will lay out new details from their case calling some of the alleged victims on it to testify in public for the first time. in an interview with nbc news, sandusky's lawyer suggests the alleged victims may be working together and may be motivated by money. >> at least one of the accusers,

that's all the accuser and his family are talking about, what they're going to do with all the money they get. >> the new allegations drew an outraged reaction sunday from the lawyer of one of the alleged victims. >> the idea that these people are coming forward with a financial incentive is ridiculous. >> prosecutors may have a new problem. over the weekend reports surf e surfaced that statements make by key witness is called i a grand jury report, mcqueary alleges he saw sandusky sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in the penn state locker room in 2002. but nbc news has confirmed a report in the patriot news that another witness, dr. jonathan drainoff, a mcqueary family friends said mcqueary said he heard sex sounds in the shower. he asked him three separate times that night whether he saw any sexual activity. ea said no. chris, mcqueary is a central

witness in in case on two fronts. he's the only known eyewitness to seeing sandusky sexually abuses a child, and he's critical to the charges against athletic trektor curley and vice president schultz charged with perjury in a separate case. these new questions about mcqueary's account is giving rise to statements from the lawyers for curley and schultz who say based on this alone the charges against their clients should be dismissed. >> we shall see. let me bring in defense attorney and former prosecutor karen de soto. what about that rationale? >> i don't think that's a good ra rationale. >> at the end of the date you have ten witnesses. whether mcqueary heard or saw the sexual abuse, it corroborates the ten stories. >> from the alleged victims that come face to face for the first

time tomorrow in court with jerry sandusky. what will you be looking for? >> the reason you do a preliminary hearing really sun like a civil case, this is your first opportunity as a criminal defense attorney to go on what we kale a fishing expedition. you see how the victims present themselves. you get to ask questions. you get to see the entire prosecutor's case. this is a big, big-time for the defense attorney to put his case together now. >> this is one of of only two states, connecticut is the other one, they don't go before the a grand jury but before a judge. is that going to make much of a difference? >> it makes a huge difference. a judge will weigh more effectively evidence because we have the saying with a grand jury you can indict a ham sandwich. it's tougher when you're before a judge. as a prosecutor, you don't want to give your case away but you'll put enough in to get through the probable cause threshold. >> a lot of people questioned the defense lawyer's strategy when we saw jerry sandusky

giving an interview to bob costas on nbc, long interview to "the new york times." would you expect that to come up at this point? >> well, you know, everyone keeps on saying why would you have him testimonfy? it doesn't make sense unless he's try to poke enough holes to make a plea bargain. maybe that's the strategy. i can't think of a situation where you put this client and say all the statements that haunt him when he has to testify or doesn't testify in court during a criminal prosecution. >> how long will this take before we get a ruling, and where do we go from here. >> that depends on the prosecutor and how many witnesses. they won't put all ten witnesses on. you cherry pick two or three. it's up to the judge when they say enough is enough. you have enough for probable cause. go ahead. go forward with your case. >> karen de soto, thanks so much. tomorrow is going fob a very interesting day. of course, we'll cover it all for you right here on msnbc. he's been called the chosen one, and god's quarterback.

today tim tebow and his denver broncos are are celebrating their fourth come from behind win in a row. some say it's divine intervention. tebow is known for his outward christian beliefs. today's tweet of the day comes from sports writer brandt jams. someone needs to tell tim tebow world hunger and cancer are ahead by 13, and there's only three minutes left. that would be the ultimate comeback. we know a place where tossing and turning

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hottest woman ever, lohan robbed and stant at that's in speedos. let's go down to the wire. who would you label as the hottest woman of all time? men's health magazine says it is jennifer aniston. the others say funny is sexy and her down-to-earth persona makes her seem attainable. not on that list, lindsay lohan.

the fallen starlet had her 5,000 chanel purse stolen at a hawaiian house part over the weekend. it was recovered with passport and documents but not the ten grand in cash she was carrying. low man might want to keep chewing gum in that purse. according to a new study student who is chew gum did better on tests. researchers say even minor physical activity boosts brain performance. if you thought the house down the street had a lot of christmas lights. check this out in croatia. 1.2 million lights, and they're linked together with more than 3 miles of cord buried undergro d underground. >> check out this traffic cop in the philippines spreading his cheer. he came up with the idea when he noticed that several drivers were ignoring his commands. now you can't miss him. what's the holiday season without the santa speedo run in

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just call him newt skywalker. he's proving the force is still with him as his poll numbers surge and his republican rivals fail to take him down in the latest debate, but can he take on president obama? mitt romney slammed from the left and right over his proposed $10,000 wager with rick perry. has he lost any chance of convincing voters that he feels their pain? and ending the war in iraq. president obama and iraqi prime minister nouri al maliki will hold a joint news conference this hour to discuss the next steps as the final u.s. troops prepare to withdw