because he thinks he's perfect. he just thinks he's honest, and they have a lot in common when it comes to national security. >> i'm going to vote for marco rubio. and i'll tell you why. patrick: we are one month away from the primaries in iowa, and congressman trey gowdy is making his choice very clear. >> he's conservative. he's good on the issues that i care most about, which is national security and public safety. he has a quality that i do not have. tim scott has it. ronald reagan had it. but he can present our message in a wholeful, aspirational, yet principled way. patrick: rubio has made a name for himself when it comes to national security, but the sitting senator has also come under fire for being absent from capitol hill at times. >ays after the paris attacks, senators came together for a top-secret breifing on the terrorst threat. marco rubio was missing. >> when i hear marco talk, and he's talked the same way for the last five years about military and defense matters, he supports a strong, robust

the world is safer when we have that. patrick: on immigration, rubio was one of eight senators who once teamed up with president obama for a comprehensive immigration reform bill. >> yeah, i didn't support the gang of eight. and i've had a lot of conversations with senator rubio about it, back then and now. i view it as a sign of leadership that you're able to say, you know what? maybe i was wrong. patrick: donald trump once hinted at gowdy being his attorney general if elected, but that tune has since changed. he tweeted, quote, "i hope @tgowdysc does better for rubio than he did at the #benghazi hearings, which were a total disaster for republicans & america." and quote. of course, trump continues to lead the polls, and gowdy says he knows why. >> people are madder than, i won't say it. they're just really mad. they're mad at people in my line of work. and, no offense, they're madadt people in your line of work. patrick: of course, the congressman is a big clemson fan. he told me he and his wife

but jokingly said, god told him to watch the game instead. but he told me his wife didn't get that same message. gabrielle: patrick, thank you very much. in 30 minutes extra officers , will be hitting the road. and they'll be there through the weekend. and new year's eve celebrations aren't the only reason why. the "sober or slammer" campaign is underway in south carolina right now, and this weekend is a bit unusual for law enforcement. with the orange bowl watch parties leading into new year's eve parties, officers are expecting to stay busy. their hope is that people will get a designated driver, or just stay home to celebrate. this year, 946 people have died on south carolina roads. >> when you start think about that, you start thinking, 946 lives. that's the size of an average high school in south carolina. that's how many lives we've lost on our roadways this year. gabrielle: the extra officers on the roads will also be looking for speeding, seat belt use, and distracted driving. nigel: open table has named an upstate restaurant the best overall in south carolina.

one. chef and partner jason clark says he's impressed that his restaurant ranked with some of the top charleston restaurants. open table ranked bin 112 number one a neighborhood gem. on this last day of 2015, we're taking a look back at some of the biggest local stories of the year. gabrielle: the stories everyone was talking about, the ones that made us smile, and the ones that made us cry. first, to charleston. in june, 9 people were shot and killed by a stranger during an evening bible study at the emanuel ame church. police say the accused shooter, dylann roof, sat with the group for an hour before opening fire and spewing racial hatred. in court, some of the family members of the victims told roof they forgave him. >> you took something really precious away from me. i will never talk to her ever again.

again. but i forgive you, and have mercy on your soul. gabrielle: dylann roof's trial has been set for next summer. he could face the death penalty. the shooting shined a new light on the confederate flag's place on the statehouse grounds in columbia. after the tragedy in charleston, the call to take down the flag became a battle cry. >> i cannot believe that we do not have the heart, in this body, to do something meaningful, such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on friday. gabrielle: governor nikki haley signed a bill to it bring down. history was made in july, as thousands of people gathered outside of the statehouse to watch the flag come down. this october, tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes.

families, who lost everything. parts of the midlands and low country were hit especially hard, where the powerful water gutted businesses and took out roads. the cleanup in some places may take years. many sports fans had much to smile about this year. happening right now, the top-ranked and undefeated clemson tigers are playing oklahoma in the capital one orange bowl. they are one win away from college football's national championship game. and it's been a great year to be a carolina panthers fan. the panthers are 14-1 entering the final weekend of the regular season. they play tampa bay on sunday. and we wrap up our look back with a birthday surprise that made all of us smile. >> john? john! john: how you doing, big guy? happy birthday, man. >> thank you. gabrielle: earlier this month, john cessarich surprised cori parham on his 16th birthday. cori is a special needs student

he told us he is john's biggest fan. nigel: what a year. gabrielle: so sweet. we want to thank all of you for being a part of our wyff 4 family in 2015. happy new year to you! nigel: coming up, tracking president obama over the years. hear from the white house photographer, as he shares glimpses into the white house. gabrielle: and, happy new year, the early edition. how these kids are ringing in the new year.

lineup. gabrielle: if a picture is worth a thousand words, white house photographer pete souza churns out about 2 million words a day. nigel: he is responsible for capturing pivotal events in history, and more personal moments during obama's presidency. nbc's ron allen has more. ron: they are unique behind-the-scenes close-up images of a president. many, never seen publicly until now. serious matters in the white house. a first daughter drops by the oval office. the president, with an aide's twin sons. the year and gallery of the photographer, there with mr. obama day in and day out from the start. giving nbc news a first look.

and 2000 a day, probably a quarter of a million a year. somewhere in that range. ron: over seven years? >> over seven years. a lot of pictures. ron: his mission is to document history. president obama and theheirst family greeting pope francis, a handshake with castro, a smile after the iran nuclear deal. mr. obama there at vice president -- vice president biden's son's funeral. >> he is a human being. i try to show his personality. there are a lot of pictures with kids in my gallery. he loves babies. ron: that is the national security's -- advisor's daughter. >> have you ever seen a president in an elephant suit?

ron: it reveals the obama administration's wide open door policy for chi>> they are children of working moms. he knows the sacrifice they make in terms of being at work a lot. ron: the gallery has 100 11 pictures. what is his favorite? >> my favorite picture will hopefully be the one i make later today, or tomorrow. that is what keeps you going, trying to get a good picture tomorrow. ron: ron allen, nbc news, with the president in honolulu. nigel: coming up, apple is being sued for a recent software upgrade, how it's affecting some of the i-phones gabrielle: and, president obama and jerry seinfeld, meeting together in a car to get coffee. but what are they talking about? chris: take a look at the temperature change of the past 24 hours. we are the same temperature as yesterday, but look towards the west. colder air lurks.

a small plane crashed near a missouri high school last nigel: a small plane crashed near a missouri high school last night. witnesses say they saw the plane flying low, and heard engine trouble. the couple was able to call 911 after the crash. firefighters cut off the roof of

police describe the woman's injuries as minor. her husband suffered moderate injuries. >> it's really hard to see up there. there's no lighting, and we can see marks where they hit the ground and it looks like the fence probably caught them. and brought them to an abrupt stop. nigel: investigators do not know where the couple was traveling. gabrielle: california fire crews worked through the night , battling this massive fire. they say the building has been vacant for more than a decade. it was slated to be demolished, then rebuilt. firefighters couldn't enter the building because it was too dangerous. the cause remains under investigation. nigel: wildfires continue to burn out of control in two australian southern states today. according to local media, at least 15 homes in this area are under threat. 120 firefighters have been deployed. a wind changed today turned the fire away from populated areas, and the number of people were allowed return home. >> at the end of the day, as long we don't lose lives, the

it would be a shame, because i love this community, but i would just rebuild, and it will be fine. nigel: meanwhile, a wildfire which destroyed 116 homes in the great ocean road area of australia and caused the evacuation of 100 people. gabrielle: areas england and scotland were battered by storm frank yesterday. it caused severe flooding, and left thousands without power. this video was taken by a cnn drawn that flew over the area. more heavy rain is expected of us northern england today. nigel: the mother of the so-called "affluenza teen," ethan couch, is back in the u.s this morning. u.s. marshals escorted tonya couch out of mexico yesterday afternoon. they flew to los angeles. meantime, 18-year-old ethan is being taken to larger immigration facilities in mexico city. he will remain there during a judge's temporary injunction that has delayed his deportation back to the u.s. gabrielle: two days before their bowl game, tcu's quarterback has

playing. trevone boykin was taken into custody early this morning, after a fight at a san antonio bar. according to police, boykin hit a police officer responding to the fight. police say he was being heckled about football before he threw punches. police are not sure if he intended to hit an officer or a else was the intended target. boykin is in town for saturday's alamo bowl against the oren ducks. nigel: apple is facing a class action lawsuit over its latest software upgrade. according to the lawsuit, the tech giant's ios 9 software update made iphone 4s phones slow, buggy, and subject to crashes. apple promoted ios 9 as being compatible with the iphone 4s, and would make the phones faster and more responsive. the suit is seeking $5 million in damages. apple has not commented. gabrielle: a man in mississippi is being charged with damaging horse statues at an upscale shopping center. he says god d ld him to. police say 30-year-old charles

the shopping center at least three times. police say they found clothes from this -- hooves from the ststues in his backyard. branch faces two counts of felony malicious mischief. >> now, your live super doppler 4 hd forecast. chris: take a look at this time lapse from our champion hills club skycam in hendersonville. the clouds are moving very fast. that shows you something is going on. look at the sun going down, with a few high, thin clouds moving across the area. eventually, we will dry out and clear out and cool down. in the mountains, more sunshine tomorrow than the upstate. all of us will stay dry and it will be significantly cooled or. we started off at 60 today. 50 the low in asheville. of year.

unusually warm. 67 in greenville, 63 and spartanburg, 65 in anderson, 56 in asheville. his will be getting colder. thanks to the cold front finally moving out of our area, we can say goodbye to the rain. the clouds will linger. for the fifit time in a while, the live super doppler is dry. we saw a little bit of rain fall today across the upstate, mainly early this morning. 14 one hundredths of an inch in greenville, 15 one hundredths of an inch in spartanburg. overnight, temperatures are going to be cooling. you can see the cooler temperatures diving down the mountains. the valleys will see them first. the 60's will turn into 40's in the upstate. lows tonight will be the coldest in two weeks. 46 in spartanburg, 47 in anderson, 45 in greenville, around freezing for downtown asheville. tomorrow, clouds in place.

warm up that much. we are onlyy talking about a spread of nine degrees drop the day tomorrow. highs will be below average. temperatures around 50 across the upstate. this is the 4:00 p.m. shot of temperatures. colder air surging into the mountains. the highs for ashevivie and hendersonville willunchtime as cold air surges in with the next system. nationally, a lot of clouds across the south. we have the rain from the frontal boundary finally starting to move. we have the class of cold air. say goodbye to it. it is hanging around savannah, charleston, orlando, but it is about to move out to sea. we will see cold air. overnight, saturday, starting the day in the 30's, warming into the upper 40's and around 50. sunday, cool, topping out in the upper 40's. sunday night, another cold air

the 20's and warm into the 50's each day. the cold air lurks around. look at what is building a to ththnorthwest. colder air. i think that is the pattern in january and february, cold air moving into the area. that will set us up for an interesting two months. we look for the upper level patterns to talk about the future forecast. the upper level patterns stays pretty calm. we will see the jet stream up towards the north, sending and little shots of cold air. i am watching this low-pressure system towards alaska. this is next thursday. by the time this gets to us, it would be sometime in the next 14 days. we would have time to track it. this would be another big shot of cold air as we approroh 14 days from now. we will continue to watch that. the four-day plus, clouds tomorrow, high 54 in the upstate, 44 in the mountains.

in the upstate through the nas we head into the mountains, colder than average. look for lower 40's with temperatures at night in the 20's. a long stretch of cold, dry air sets up across the area. nigel: the president tried out comedy on a popular web series wednesday night, it was the season opener of comedian jerry seinfeld's "comedians in cars getting coffee." here's a look at it. >> we're just going to run out for coffee. >> sir, that's not possible. >> i do this little show. comedians in cars getting coffee. >> you are a comedian in a car with the president, going nowhere. . >> yes, sir. nigel: the two eventually ended up back inside the white house for coffee, where the president makes a pitch for his health care plan. gabrielle: an eight-year-old japanese shiba inu has been a famous dog on instagram for several years. in fact, this dog has been bringing a smile to the faces of his more than two million online followers every day. the dog lives in tokyo with his owner, who says he was more

dog's popularity took off. his appeal is worldwide, with followers in the u.s., brazil, thailand, china, and taipei. nigel: an amazing sight captured by the hubble space telescope. nasa released this photo of two galaxies merging into one. research determined that it's actually two galaxies that collided, and are now becoming a single structure. eventually, the new galaxy will become stable. all of this is located about 230 million light years from earth, in the hercules constellation. gabrielle: carolina panthers quarterback cam newton, now a father. he tweeted last night that he and his longtime girlfriend had a son last week. newton says he kept the news quiet, because he didn't want to distract his team. the new dad will try to lead carolina to the number one seed in the nfc, with a win sunday against tampa bay. nigel: ringing in the new year doesn't have to mean staying up

not everyone will be awake-- at nigel: not everyone will be awake at midnight tonight, so some celebrated early.

in on the fun. aly: rolling coconuts, playing with black eyed peas, even strapping on skates. whether it's a new year's tradition or not, aly: how fun is it to wear pj's today? >> very fun, because i look like minion. aly: some know their eyes will be closed when the bell drops. are you going to stay up til midnight? you are? are your parents lettingngou stay up til midnight? >> probably. aly: so are you going to stay up til midnight tonight? >> no, my parents wont let me. aly: these folks are making the most of their last day in 2015. can you show me how your noisemaker makes noise? and, while some haven't thought ahead to their resolution for next year, >> i don't really know yet. aly: some of the ladies already have it figured out. what's your goal for next year? do you have a goal? >> to be nicer to my brother. aly: do you have a resolution for next year? >> be nicer to my brother.

greenville. nigel: thanks for joining us at 5:00. news 4 at 6:00 with michael and gabrielle starts now. >> live, local, breaking news. this is wyff news 4 at 6:00 in high definition. gabrielle: an upstate police officer is back to work, after a violent attack left her with a concussion and bruising around the neck. tonight the one thing that may , have saved her life. >> a lot of people are going to be celebrating. a lot of people are going to be partying a lot this weekend. michael: between the bowl game and the new year, a busy night for law enforcement. they are on a missfirst, the football game. brad fralick with clemson at the orange bowl. gabrielle: he's live in miami gardens, florida, right outside sun life stadium. brad, the tigers and sooners are at halftime?

a few seconds ago, oklahoma has a 17-16 lead at halftime. but what a first half. this is the kind of football game you want to see and a college football playoff semifinal. oklahoma scored first. samaje perine went in for a touchdown. oklahoma scored first. clemson came back, he -- a huge punt from crist -- that christian wilkins caught that led to a clemson touchdown. dabo swinney said at the half before he walked into the locker room that he was not happy with last touchdown drive that oklahoma had. they scored in about a minute. they went up 17-16. before that, 16-10 clemson lead. greg huegel has had three few -- field goals. the dabo swinney says they have to be better in the red zone, scoring touchdowns and not field goals if they want to win.

when this ends.