ashleigh? >> so, our man at the u.n. is a woman at the u.n. and it's susan rice who has been big in the news lately with the controversy over what happened in benghazi but this was something different and she was very passionate when she spoke after that vote. characterize it for me. tell me what she said and why? >> yes. i've heard ambassador rice speak for four years here, and i guess i could just sense this was a more powerful and very stern in tone, though, she has spoken out, believe me, on libya, syria, and other things. she doesn't pull any punches, but she was the first to speak in reply to this historic vote from the u.s. chair inside the general assembly and she said, look, pushing a green button inside the general assembly hall is not going to achieve middle east peace, this resolution really does not create a reality of a state. there is no state for the palestinians on the ground. it's counterproductive, there will be more obstacles. i'm sure shue knew that many people would be wat

we continue right now with ashleigh banfield. >> nice to have you with us. it's 11:00 on the east coast and 8:00 on the west coast. the secret is out. multiple marriages may be on the line and a city that thought it couldn't be shocked, that would be washington, is near speechless over the petraeus affair. i said near speechless. lawmakers with oversight duties over national security, they are not speechless. they want to know why they didn't know the fbi had discovered the director of the cia was having a fling with his married biographer. he's on the left, she's on the right. and today we know the number two republican in the house, majority leader eric cantor, was tipped off to the matter late last month. but officially the white house itself was not told until last tuesday. election day. after the case had been closed. it's now been almost 72 hours since the whole world learned of the downfall of the rock star four-star general turned he is pea naj chief. the affair itself with a hard driving west point grad named paula broadwell, the fbi probe of it whi

>> absolutely, ashleigh. the headquarters are just one metric. and the real thing is that get out the vote effort. the last bus tour have been going to swing counties talking to the democrat and republican chairs. they are monitoring early voting in particular very intensely. they know which of their supporters have requested early ballots, trying to make sure the potential for what's called provisional ballots are as close as possible. there is a real focus. the phone calls, the door knocking, getting your vote out. this is all about ground game here in the battleground buckeye state. it is very tight, very intense. >> hold that thought on the provisional ballots in ohio. we're going to have a segment on that coming up. just the criticism that's going on in the legal fact going on with regard to the details, devil's always in the details, the details of that provisional ballot in ohio. maria, jump in if you will. i'm always fascinated by the last day of the election. today alone the president and mitt romney have a collective eight events in six

>> reporter: it has not been very easy at all ashleigh.bed up to the 14th floor to talk to mrs. doris hood. she has been here since the 28th and she walked down just once to vote. and then walked back up. she has no running water, she has no heat, no electricity, she has gas so she has her oven on and that's how she's keeping her apartment warm. we have spoken with people about the conditions inside the building and we saw it for ourselves. the smell is horrendous because the incinerator doesn't work and people don't want to walk to the incinerator because it's dark leave it in the hallway. there's trash in the stairwells. you can smell it when you walk in. do not walk in without a flashlight because you'll walk into walls. a woman says that she is fed up. >> the smell is horrendous. the staircase is dark. it's just scary. every day i think i'm coming down the step, i might see a dead body somewhere. it's horrendous. >> reporter: now, again, this is not just one building. it's an entire community. 600 people live in that building alone. th

>> well, you know, ashleigh, the captain took very good care of us.nk all of the passengers were very relieved to get off the ship. and to be on dry land again. we had some tumultuous waves. we were into 25 to 30-foot seas. and, you know, we were -- we left boston at the time when this frankenstorm came along and thought, wow, are we leaving. but we left, and the captain said we were going to head for bermuda. and we thought, wow. anyway, off we went. and very quickly, we were into major seas. and we did head for bermuda. we ended up going on a northern track to bermuda. we were not able to get in there which was very distressing for us. >> we're seeing a picture of you and graham, my stepdad. >> oh. >> and i know you guys are quite -- your sea farers. you do a lot of this. a lot of people who are on board might not have been so experienced. so how is everybody in terms of seasickness? because even in a boat that big, even in a ship that big, 35-foot seas can make people -- even hardy sea-farers sick. how were the passengers? >> well, i think a lot of

>> that is right, ashleigh. what we are seeing today is two closing arguments and the real contrast in the race unfolding out at the events. president obama was talking about the jobs report that came out earlier this morning and describing that as what he called real progress, and in a few moments you will hear the gop nominee mitt romney come out to talk about what he wants to deliver for the country, and he is call ing thing that a real c. h is not only the closing argument that we will be hearing this morning, ashleigh, but we will hear mitt romney talk about the jobs report and he released a statement earlier in the morning, as you know, and described the jobs report as proof that the economy is at a standstill, and he has released xerp excerpts from the speech he will be delivering and he expects to say that the words are cheap, and the record is real, and we will hear words like that from mitt romney. as we mentioned wisconsin is the home state of his running mate paul ryan -- >> let me jump in, jim, beca

"cnn newsroom" continues with ashleigh banfield. >>> hello, everyone. i am ashleigh banfield. it is 11:00 on the east coast and 8:00 on the west coast and it is 6 p.m. in jerusalem where air raid sirens have been blaring within the past hour. jerusalem, not tel aviv. authorities are reporting that hamas rockets hit outside of that city. this is huge. it is the first time since 1970 that rockets have been fired at jerusalem. this new escalation, that's according to the newspaper in israel, but this new escalation comes after a failed cease-fire between the israelis and the palestinians earlier today. israel had said that it held off the bombing for two hours because egypt's prime minister was inside gaza meeting with hamas leaders and the palestinians for their part are denying that. they're disputing it. this week's fighting we know this has left more than 200 people injured. three israeli soldiers are dead, there are reports of civilian israelis dead as well and 24 palestinians killed in gaza and israel is amassing tanks near the border with gaza and called up 16,000 army res

so take me to the speaker's remarks. >> reporter: hi, ashleigh. what we're likely to hear from speaker boehner, what we've been hearing, not just the last few days, but several months, more than a year, as you guys just talked about. we know what the sticking points are. one of the major ones is whether to raise taxes for the wealthy. this is something the president ran on. speaker boehner spoke with abc. let's listen to what he had to say about that interview. >> raising tax rates is unacceptable. and, frankly, it couldn't even pass the house. putti putting increased revenues on the table, but through reforming our tax code. and i would do that if the president were serious about solving our spending problem, and trying to secure our entitlement programs. >> reporter: so there you have it. he said raising tax rates is unacceptable. this is really the new slash old mantra. he says, again, revenues are on the table, but they have to come from the right place, which means tax reform and not raising rates on higher earners, so we're likely to hear mo

ashleigh? >> yeah. i don't like to hear that more people buy. i like the high jackpot but it takes my chanceasway of winning. by the way, real quickly have you been seeing a lot of people walking in there buying lots of tickets, more commonly for office pools than just for their own wallets? >> reporter: you know what? for the megamillions, which i watched closely in march, i saw a lot more office pool buying. today i'm not seeing that. i'm seeing everybody for himself. i see everybody saying they're buying tickets for themselves. but they are talking about being more charitable if they win, giving their winnings to family members. oops. helping family members out. also giving to charities. so they are talking about, you know, maybe winning it themselves. >> don't tell me that was people fighting in line. don't tell me that was just two people going at it to get a better spot in line. >> nothing that interesting going on here. no, no. >> okay. did you get in on our office pool, kosic? >> reporter: no i didn't but if i win i'll share. okay? you h

they are freezing basically, ashleigh. >> it's unbelievable. and to see that just off to your left there's a relief center that ended up getting hit with this kind of weather. it's remarkable. stand by the you will for a moment. i want to get over to karen maginnis in our extreme weather center to try to get a picture of where we're at. i got to show you something. i don't think you've seen this yet, karen. this is the picture i snapped out of the airplane of my window last night as i was landing at laguardia airport. 6:00 at night, which was really in the thick part of the nor'easter. that's the jet way filled with snow. and it took more than a dozen attempts for that jet way to make it to our airplane because it was blowing so hard in the wind. took 40 minutes to get off the plane because they couldn't get that jet way up to the airplane. i didn't feel the winds this morning. i just saw buckets of snow. >> yeah. and, ashleigh, those winds were blowing between 50 and 60 miles an hour. visibility was greatly reduced. we were looking at some pre

newsroom continues right now with ashleigh banfield. >> hi, everybody. it's 11:00 on the east coast and 8:00 a.m. on the west coast. here's some phrases for you. high wind, wet snow, travel snarled, power lost. any other time here in the northeast we might just call that november, but coming just a week and a half after super storm sandy, this garden variety nor'easter is just wrong and it is cruel, you might say. and here is how some new yorkers would actually like to say something on television, this sucks. it just does. 60-mile-an-hour wind gusts? that's the kind of wind that knocks out power to tens of thousands of homes. people who probably already went without power for a week. businesses, also, that hadn't lost it during sandy or had just gotten it back, out again. storm surges threatening the water front areas and parts of connecticut that today have more than a foot of snow. cnn's deb feyerick is in the community of gerrittson beach in brooklyn. how the do things look there now, deb? >> reporter: you know, they don't look that great, actually, a

ashleigh?nick, just before my next question, a little bit of breaking news i want to get to our viewers. we're getting reports the road to the damascus international airport has been shut down because of clashes and military operations on the outskirts of the airport and on the outskirts of that major city. i'm also hearing that cell phone outages and the internet has been now blocked in syria, which means communications for so many are now down and syria has been now shut oh of essentially from the rest of the world. you know, that sounds awfully foreboding. but at the same time, we're coming up in a few months on two years since all of this began. why am i only hearing about internet blackouts now? this would seem like a very big tactic for the government to use much earlier on before we started seeing all those horrors. >> reporter: i mean, today that is, to be honest, some quite substantial news. weeks of rebel successes but the calculation made by the government, if it is the government sh

ashleigh banfield is live in miami. she's in front of a line of people. wow, a long line of people waiting to cast ballots there. >> ahappen. john berman, do you think this is a lot of people behind me? walk with me, my friend. let's take a little look lee-do. this started well before 5:00 a.m. it has grown to over 300 people. loopsydo around and back up this way and now come with me to the polling station. as i tell you the story of a number of people in this line, who, in florida, made the attempt to vote early. some of them, many of them, in fact, i spoke to personally, they went and they voted, they waited two hours in line, and abandoned. said i just couldn't be done. and then they went back and tried again to vote the next day. waited two hours in line. and that didn't work. so they're back again today, and one woman who was at the front of the line at 5:00 this morning said she was prepared to wait at least two more hours. the polls just opened. so my assumption is she's just gone in. come on through here and i w

i'm ashleigh banfield. it's 11:00 on the east coast, 8:00 a.m. on the west coast. talk about bombshells. this hour in gaza and parts of israel, the shells, the death, and the fear is very real. in just moments, i'm going to speak with israel's defense chief, ehud barak about these scenes and the wider implications and benghazi and beyond. political fallout from a deadly attack on americans in libya. three hearings today on capitol hill. but the star witness comes tomorrow. and that is one four-star general named david petraeus. two and a half weeks after sandy, president obama prepares to see the on going misery in parts of new york city. we are live in staten island this hour. >>> but we begin with general petraeus. no longer the top most of the echelons of national security. but not consigned to oblivion either not by any stretch. we've got two signature pieces of reporting this hour. "time" magazine is reporting that petraeus's biographer turned mistress once toyed with entering politics. she reportedly told acquaintances backing in jul that will gop "money men"

ashleigh, absolutely.ernor scott agrees with and believes in what the republican party political strategists, what the legislative leaders have done with the elections law -- >> was he in on any of the meetings? >> no. he wasn't. we didn't reeally know governor scott at that time. he wasn't on our radar screen. >> aim glad to talk to you. i'm very, very disappointed that this conversation would go on without one screaming from a mountaintop, stop, it's bad and un-american. thank you, i do appreciate you, mr. greer, for coming on and talking. >> thank you. >>> i do have to say that we certainly reached out again and we've been doing this for many days to governor scott's office on this story. he certainly had a chance to read this. it's a florida newspaper, his state. and so in deference here, governor scott's office sent us this, very kind. a statement here to cnn. it says this, "governor scott is focused on how florida can run fair elections where all eligible voters can participate. and he has said we mu

ashleigh banfield in miami. hi, ashleigh. >> reporter: hi, suzanne. about 200 people. the people here in front of the line have been waiting about 2 1/2 hours. there were people here at 4:00 in the morning, if you can believe it, suzanne. you can see how the line snakes even farther. i'm only show iing you half of , suzanne. this is about -- it's a little tough to see them in there. we have to stay 100 feet out. show that white line. that white string is to show how far away we need to stay if you are from the media or if you are from any campaigns. you can see all those campaign signs. look at all the things they have been sending out to people in line. the most important thing, though, suzanne, this. this is the sample. it's supposed to show everybody in line how much reading they're going to have to do when they get in there. it is a very long balanlot. it takes at least -- between 10 and 20 minutes to actually do your vote. god luck, everybody. enjoy! there you go. 2 1/2 hours and they're already in now. >> at least they got time in line to peruse that thing. to ra

enjoy, ashleigh. thank you very much. interesting. long lines in miami.dent obama referred to that in his victory speech. he said we've got to do something about that. it was a laugh line in his speech. there was some seriousness in it, too. we saw problems in voting all over the place. >> i was an elections lawyer for a number of years. as we have gotten -- >> you were? >> i was. as we've gotten more technologically adept at doing electrics, we've made them a lot more complicated. the problem we have in this nation -- it is a real national crisis. we have a lot of senior citizens who run the polls, volunteer for 100 bucks. they're retiring. people aren't stepping up to do it. it puts a bigger burden on a smaller pool of workers and the system is breaking down electronically because they bought all these things after 2000. the machines are getting old, software isn't kept up-to-date, people still don't know how to use them. >> first of all, we have really 50 state situations. you have the different counties. there's no consistent standard. ana n aavaro, i

ashleigh, let's go to you. you're learning that broward county's rejected hundreds of absentee ballots? >> reporter: yes. >> tell me about that. >> reporter: i'm going to get to that in a moment. a little bit of breaking news. it is warm in florida. these lines are long. in the sun it can be up to 80 degrees. a woman passed out from the heat waiting in line. the point -- right there. that point in the line is about the one-hour 15 to 1 1/2 mark. treated by three members of the miami-dade fire rescue. couldn't be a luckier polling place because come over here and take a look where we are, brooke. the fire rescue station is the polling place. they literally had to run over a hundred feet to help treat her. listen, it's not an easy thing. >> thank goodness. >> reporter: right. it's not an easy thing. some people have taken upwards of four hours to get their vote cast. how long have you been waiting? >> 2 1/2 hours. >> reporter: 25 minutes away? >> 25 minutes away. then get to go to work. >> reporter: did you try t

. >> i'm natalie allen in for ashleigh beenfielas ashleigh banfield. it is 6 p.m. in gaza where a cease-fire that the world is demanding seems out of reach. this is day six of an onslaught that's killed 100 people. but look at myanmar, decades of repression give way to unimagined reforms and today a historic visit. >>> and new york marks another post-sandy milestone. the longest under river car tunnel in north america reopens. >>> but we begin this very busy hour with the rockets still flying out of hamas-controlled gaza and the israeli missiles, jets, and bombs flying into it. within the past couple of hours, israeli forces hit a media complex in gaza city for the second time in two days. over six days of the conflict, all too reminiscent of the ground war in 2008. at least 97 palestinians and 3 israelis have been killed. neither side knows when, where, or how the other will strike, and that leads to heart-stopping moments like this one live on cnn last hour with our frederik pleitgen. >> reporter: this town is actually a very interesting one because it is directl

the problem, ashleigh, is it was enacted in 1986. >> we didn't even carry cell phones with us at thatoutdated. why is that relevant? it's relevant because of this. if are you transmitting emails, there's a level of protection. if those emails that are stored on a server and they're there for six months, they're deemed abandoned, and as a result of that, the government without a warrant can now say, look, this person is a subject of an investigation. >> 6-month-old emails are fair game? >> they're fair game. they're deemed abandoned under that outdated law. as a result, the government can go to the server and say there's no search warrant no, anything. in t needs to be updated. >> this is the same state to state? >> yes. it's a federal act. it's a federal act. >> if you got emails six months old, don't think they're private. >> anything we transmit, anything we send or anything we receive, it's fair game. you know it's out there. >> to a certain extent. let me just characterize this because as i understand it, you are a lawyer here, dude. as i understand it, a magistrate of some kind o

ashleigh banfield, i'll be watching.uch. >> thank you. >>> nearly half a million people in new york still without power more than a week after sandy hit. the state's governor is fed up, calling out the power companies. [ "odd couple" theme plays ] humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? >>> 45 minutes past the hour. good morning and happy friday. i'm carol costello. some new video of the pakistani teenager, malala, one month after her attempted assassination. her father says she's been inspired and humbled by the thousands of cards and messages and gifts she's received. she was shot in the head and neck after speaking out against the taliban. >>> the road to recovery slow after 600,000 people still without power, 11 days

ashleigh banfield has been with the voters in miami. how long are the lines right now?ter: they're starting to pick up a little bit. take a look down the street past the romney campaign workers, and they're starting to pick up again, because people are getting out of work early and coming down. but it hasn't been any less than two hours from start to finish, to line up, snake your way down the street, all the way back up the street. come with me. in the meantime, for starters, 40% of the registered 12 million voters here in florida voted early. that's the good news. the bad news is 700 of the ballots in one of the counties was thrown out. they weren't signed, which is unfortunate. how long have you been waiting? >> about an hour. >> reporter: which isn't too bad. we should tell you that a lot of people have been telling me that çñ tried to get an absentee ballot, that they called, and just couldn't get one. so they've shown up today and another thing is some of the lines we've been showing you today caught the attention of the romney campaign. i met one attorney for the

i'm in for ashleigh banfield. happy thanksgiving to all. quiet, calm and day of celebration. israel and gaza a cease-fire still holding. one side claiming victory. here in the states the annual macy's thanksgiving day parade kicks off. we'll take you there. >>> they risked their lives defending our freedom. they are sending messages to their loved ones here at home. >> hi, paula. i can't wait to see you. >> thank you for your support. >> shout out to my wife and my two sons. happy thanksgiving and go falcons. >> thanks so much for joining us. a lot of people in the middle east are separating now but for different reason. >> the cease-fire sendi ining eh days of fighting. the truce is now nearly 24 hours old and appears to be holding. hamas has declared a public holiday to mark what its leeades are calling a victory. the man being parade r for making it happen is morsi. let's begin with you. what is happening or not happening now? >> reporter: it's such a difference to what we were going through just 24 hours ago when the streets were completely deserted. we were seeing out go

ashleigh banfield is in miami. she joins us now.ou've been at the polling place since around 5:00 a.m. how long is the wait for people? >> reporter: well, let's say i've been here since 4:00 a.m. that extra hour matters. an sextra hour matters for thes people. some people have been waiting for four hours before they finish voting. you can see some of the romney/ryan campaign workers over here, if you swing over here, they're fine where they are. if they cross this line and go into that grassy area, that's within the 100 feet. they can't go in there. and we can't either. so let me take you on a tour of the line, so you see how much longer the folks have to wait until they get to cast their ballot. let me tell you, in the meantime, these lines that we have been showing you on tv all day, on cnn, cut the interest of the romney campaign. a lawyer for the romney campaign showed up several hours ago and a poll watcher for the romney campaign showed up a few hours ago as well. they were concerned about how long it is taking. this is a pred

we're joined by ashleigh banfield in miami. good morning. >> the last republican president to actually take the white house without taking florida was warren harding back in '24. i suppose there's a first time to change that trend. john, 829 precincts in miami-dade and i'm just at one of them. i'm here two hours early. it's dark, it's lovely out. take a look behind me, though. are you ready for this? two hours until the polls open and we've already got a line of several people. i had a quick chat with some of them, john. already some of these people have waited in early voting lines for six hours. so they are very keen to get going. i want to show you quickly as i give you stats on some of the early voting by the way. we have 11.4 million registered voters in florida. we have 4.46 who early voted. take a peek beyond me. i counted 26 of the voting booths ready to get set up when the election officials get ready to go. and 12-page ballot. 12 pages. you know how long that takes? that's why there's likely to be very long lines toda

. >> hey, everyone, i'm john berman in for ashleigh banfield. it's 11:00 on the east coast, 8:00 on the west. >>> so if you were a key decision maker in a company that faced a $5 billion hit in a little over a month, you probably wouldn't take ten days off for thanksgiving. but that's how congress rolls. and now with just 36 days remaining to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, senators are coming back to work. the house returns tomorrow. the white house is working both sides of the beltway to maintain bush-era tax rates for the poor and middle class, while letting those lower rates expire for higher earners. this morning, the white house put out numbers claiming if we fall off the cliff, consumers will be spending less money next year. how much less, exactly? $200 billion in fiscal 2013 alone. that would be a huge, huge hit on retailers. now, tax hikes are the biggest part, but not the only part of the fiscal cliff. seeing it as a fiscal cliff, the new year will also bring more than $100 billion in spending cuts, if -- if congress and the preside

and finally, there's actress and kentucky native ashleigh judd. she's getting some buzz about the possibility she may try to run for mitch mcconnell's senate seat in 2014. judd said it was a little early to discuss 2014 but she hasn't ruled it out. she lives in the state of tennessee and chatter for her run for tennessee governor. >>> president obama will make history next week. three-day trip to ashah. the president will visit myanmar, the u.s. government refers to it as burma, cambodia, becoming the first u.s. president to do so. while in myanmar, he will meet with the country's president and the nobel peace prize winner chi who are both driving the country's emergence from decades of military rule. >>> the senate intelligence committee hearings chaired by dianne feinstein announced the witnesses for a closed hearing on the benghazi attack is set to take place next tuesday. david petraeus and the director of national intelligence and james clapper who will join others in testifying about the attacks that killed ambassador chris stevens and addre

i'm in for ashleigh banfield today. we are so glad you're with us today. and let's get started. first up, we just can't call it the petraeus scandal anymore. today, the u.s. general in charge of allied troops in afghanistan, the top commander john allen is himself the subject of a pentagon investigation of allegedly inappropriate communications with jill kelley. yes, that jill kelley, we're talking about the same tampa housewife whom david petraeus' then mistress paula broadwell apparently saw as a rival. a whole new chapter in a saga that since last friday has been one bombshell after another. and so far, all of them have something to do with kelley. she's a volunteer military liaison at the air force base, home of the u.s. central command in tampa, florida. kelley complained to the fbi last spring when paula broadwell was having an affair with petraeus allegedly harassed her with jealous e-mails. petraeus admitted the affair with broadwell but denies any elicit contact with kelley. so does general allen who was scheduled for a senate confirmation hearing this very week to beco

cnn "newsroom" continues right now with ashleigh banfield. >> thanks so much, carol.on the east coast, 8:00 a.m. on the west coast. no matter how nasty, no matter how grueling or toxic or personal a presidential campaign can be, when it's over, it is supposed to be over. winner and loser shake hands for the good of the country, right? maybe just sit a few feet apart, anyway, and make some awkward small talk. remember this moment, president elect obama and john mccain just a couple weeks after the '08 election?

"newsroom" continues after a break with ashleigh banfield. [ female announcer ] today, jason is hereose in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pills for all day pain relief. try aleve d for strong, all day long sinus and headache relief.

we'll get to petraeus and the scandal, but we saw my colleague ashleigh banfield, actually, interviewing the israeli defense minister ehud barack. they talked about the possibility of air raids taking place in televeef at this moment. when you see what is taking place between gaza and the israelis and the level of tension and now escalation how concerned are you? >> terribly concerned. this could be a full-fledged war. we saw tanks over at the golan heights. very commanding view, as you know, if you have walked that terrain and have any appreciation for the folds in that terrain, the vulnerability of israel, and how they were able to sur vif as a nation over the course of those two wars back in 1967 and then 1973. it's quite amazing that they're back there, but they're still armed. israel certainly is a nation under arms. all citizens are committed to service of some sort. the relationship with hamas is extremely difficult. it's an incredibly jammed piece of terrain. many folks are living in there. obviously, there is a view of inadequacies in terms of support that exists in gaza, and th