i'm zoraida sambolin. >> and seem d

i'm john berman. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. it's 5:00 a.m. in the east. we begin with the latest on the aftermath of the superstorm hurricane ire hurricane sandy. most buses are up and running again and they are free of charge. but most of lower manhattan still has no power and temperatures are dipping into the 30s and 40s. >> and there are no heartbreaking picture as long the jersey shore barrier islands. houses picked up, some just buried in the sand and governor chris christie who toured the destruction with president obama said some parts of the shore may never look the same again. >> the death toll reached 124 people with 56 in the united states. at least 28 in new york. and close to 5 million customers are still waiting for the power to come back on. >> cnn has the entire disaster zone covered this morning. our correspondents spanned out across lower manhattan and all up and down the jersey shore. >> first, the economic capital of our country is slowly getting back to normal this morning even while facing extreme damage.

>> good morning, zoraida.he mission is two-fold, to come and speak with the people who have lost someone or something in this storm. remember, of the 43 deaths across the city of new york, more than half of them on staten island. if they have not lost someone, they've likely lost something. much like the store behind me, completely decimated by the storm. he'll speak sw local officials about recovery and believe me, there's a lot of work to do. it seems like this sporadically across staten island. zoraida. >> i know you've spent a lot of time with the residents there, staten island. how are they reacting to the president's visit? >> not one person i've spoken with have said that the president should not come. they are also requesting mr. president, if you come, don't come with hugs and good words, come with something we can use. i spoke with a man, mike hoffman, yesterday. he's dispatching teams of volunteers. he says he wants specific things from the president. >> bittersweet. it's going to create a lot of tr

yes, the top tax rate, zoraida, as you know is 35%. but there are a lot of people who aren't paying anywhere near that. that's not their effective tax rate. so you tackle the overall tax system as a whole. some of the change comes out in the wash. there may be a way to bring in more tax dollars. it's certainly threading a needle. but that's kind of the idea here. not a lot of details yet. >> we're looking forward to that. so the president is going to make a statement today about his plan for the economy. how about the details there? do you know anything? >> i don't think in terms of what details will he lay out? i don't think we're going to get a lot of specifics? i don't think he'll be negotiating in public. but i think this is him setting the stage, talk about the economy, talking about what needs to be done to avoid the fiscal cliff and it's become all the more necessary to address that and a cbo report out yesterday says without dealing with it the economy goes back into recession. so he's going to kind of set the tone there and i

john berman along with zoraida sambolin.the top cnn trend on the internet this morning. actor morgan freeman, he's known for his distinctive voice, shaw shank redemption. now he's lending that voice to fight -- to the fight to legalize same-sex marriage across the u.s. freeman narrates a new 30-second ad produced by the human rights campaign. >> freedom, justice and human dignity have always guided our journey toward a more perfect union. now, across our country, we're standing together for the right of gay and lesbian americans to marry the person they love. and -- >> that voice. >> i could just listen. just play it. all right. 15 minutes past the hour. the rolling stones are back in business. the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band took the stage sunday at london's o-2 arena to make their 50th anniversary. >> they played more than two hours, proving they can still give an audience palestinianty of, yes, satisfaction. it was also a reunion of sorts, bounding bassist bill wyman and former guitarist mick taylor joined the ban

zoraida sambolin. >> i'm john berman.raeus resigned last week after admitting to the extramarital affair. the other woman paula broadwell wrote his biography. >> jill kelley has been a close friend of petraeus and his wife holly. kelley talked to an fbi friend launching an investigation between general petraeus and paula broadwell. now we are told kelley traded inappropriate e-mails from marine general john allen. he denies the extramarital affair with kelley and insists he dd nothing wrong. >> but the pentagon is investigating thousands of documents and e-mails between allen and kelley. it turns out both generals stepped in to help kelley's twin sister natalie in a custody fight. >> this is the a picture of petraeus with jill and natalie. they are twins, you can see that there, and here's what petraeus wrote to the court, quote, we have on many occasions observed natalie and her son, including when we hosted them and the kelley family for christmas dinner this past year. in each case we have seen a very loving relationsh

. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. one week since hurricane sandy and many victims saying they will get to the polls, come hell or high water. or in this case, both. but where will their polling places be? the scramble on the east coast ahead. >> this morning stephanie cutter from the obama campaign is going to be joining us, pennsylvania senator pat toomey is our guest, maryland congressman chris van hollen will be with us. arizona senator john mccain, the former white house press secretary bill burton and former treasury secretary larry summers all joining us this morning. and former mccain campaign adviser mark mckinney is with us. it's monday, november 5th, and a special edition of "starting point" live from the nation's capital begins right now. welcome, everybody. in 24 hours the campaign promises and those commercials finally stop and the american people will pick a president. this morning, a brand-new cnn/orc poll of likely voters have mitt romney and president obama in a dead heat, 49% apiece. both candidates

zoraida?d from general allen at all? >> only from what we've heard from the pentagon, from sources at the pentagon, who say he disputes any wrongdoing in this matter. >> all right. so yesterday we were talking about the importance of the time line. this is of the petraeus affair. adultery is a criminal act in the military. but officials say the relationship between petraeus and broadwell actually began after he retired. but what about allen? he is a current commander. he is married. if these e-mails reveal evidence of adultery could he face criminal charges, as well? >> if there was actual sex between a married officer and someone else then yes, it's possible. although i talked to a source earlier today who says he believes in this case, even if there was adultery, he's not saying there was, but he does not feel that there would be a criminal charges brought against general allen. >> all right. and we have another bizarre twist in this story. we know paula broadwell's home was searched. actual

let's get to zoraida.of the other stories making news. >> good morning to you, soledad. people living in coastal communities in new york and new jersey are bracing for another powerful storm. one week after the devastation from sandy. rob marciano is monitoring the situation, the track of the storm at the weather center in atlanta. rob, what can you tell us? >> right now it's impacting georgia, the squareas, southern tennessee and also florida. some heavy rain and thunderstorms with this, as well. pressing through orlando and tampa here in the next couple of hours. and then off to the east coast towards melbourne and cocoa beach. it should last two or three hours. so kind of work your voting around there. other swing states may be impacted by bad weather. rain mixed with snow across parts of wisconsin. other than that we're looking pretty good. so cal still warm. northeast clear but cool. should be dry for the most part there. all right this storm will cruise through florida over the next day or two, and t

i'm zoraida sambolin. >> i'm christine romans in for john berman.good plan in theory, america's u.n. ambassador susan rice asking for a face-to-face meeting with her harshest republican critics who threaten to block her nomination as secretary of state over her public comments in the aftermath of the benghazi attacks. but her meeting appears to have made things worse. dana bash from washington now with more. >> reporter: the way these grim-faced gop senators tell it, susan rice's attempt to calm their criticism backfired. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. >> i am more disturbed now than i was before. >> the information given to the american people was wrong. in fact, ambassador rice said today, absolutely, it was wrong. >> reporter: rice requested to meet with her chief republican critics, ordered to explain why five days after the september benghazi attack that killed four americans she went on sunday talk shows suggesting it was sparked by a spontaneous protest accompanied by acting ci

thanks zoraida. still ahead on "starting point," many of the roads to 270 electoral votes lead through the state of ohio. but what happens if pennsylvania is in play? can pennsylvania put mitt romney over the top if he loses ohio? christine romans is going to look at the map for us, that's coming up next. ♪ ♪ mom? dad? guys? [ engine turns over ] [ engine revs ] ♪ he'll be fine. [ male announcer ] more people are leaving bmw, mercedes and lexus for audi than ever before. take advantage of exceptional values during the season of audi event. >>> welcome back, everybody. we begin with a look at blue ash, ohio. that's where voters are lined up. polls in the buckeye state, they're going to be voting this morning in the buckeye state, of course, is a crucial battleground. opened at 6:30 this morning eastern time. christine's got a look at the electoral college and how we get to that magic number of 270. >> here's where it stands right now. you can see the dark red states, our projections are these are pret

>> it's zoraida here.t on the power being restored in lower manhattan and spots like hoboken, new jersey? >> yeah, you know, when we first talked a few days ago they said four days but it will come on sporadically. we haven't seen much of it come on with the exception of the freedom tower is lit up. i don't know if they've plugged into the battery park city grid or not. today or tomorrow they're saying lower manhattan. and then some of the outer boroughs and the western counties still as much as a week longer, and that's also included in new jersey. so, huge issues there, because especially in mid and high rise places where elderly people are 15, 20 stories, getting up and down stairs to get their supplies. and by the way, i haven't seen much in the way of food or water distribution sites like you normally would in a storm zone. and the city of new york finally announced today at 1:00 p.m. they're going to open up distributions centers across manhattan, queens and brooklyn and staten island, with some free

zoraida?y conservatives are reassessing and calling for change within the gop. >> reporter: yes, didn't take long. the election was over just one day when a bunch of top fiscal social conservatives as well as tea party activists and tea party leaders met here in washington at the national press club, had a news conference, were critical of both the romney campaign and of republican leaders in congress. take a listen. >> the battle to take over the republican party begins today and the failed republican leadership should resign. out of last night's disaster comes some good news, however. conservatives are saying never again are we going to nominate a big government establishment republican for president >> i think this is just the very beginning of where the republican party conservatives go from here, as they wake up from this very tough election. zoraida? >> what a dialogue happening. paul steinhauser live in washington, thank you. >>> and mitt romney might have suffered a tough loss, but at

>> all right, zoraida. thank you very much. i was in grant park four years ago with hundreds of thousands of people celebrating his victory then. there was more euphoria. last night there was more directed focus on the future, both from the crowd, as zoraida was saying, and from the president himself. that could be in large part because of the state of the economy, which voters said was the most important issue to them in the election. >> we asked people how the economy was important to them in the exit polls. the conventional wisdom had been this was the strong suit for mitt romney. i want to dig into the numbers. 38% of the people at the exit poll said unemployment was the most important issue to their family. look at this. president obama won this category, which is a surprise. six months ago a lot of people thought if you thought somebody was going to create jobs it was going to be the businessman, right? nationwide, who would be better to handle the economy for you? pretty much a draw. also your family's financial situatio

i'm christine romans. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. it is now 6:00 a.m. in the east.he hour with insults, finger pointing, it's in the fiscal cliff debacle. spending gets slashed. congress breaks for the holidays in 14 days. slash that number in where thi right now. the president pitching a plan that calls for $1.6 trillion in tax hikes, and $50 billion in infrastructure spending. he will travel to a manufacturing plant in pennsylvania today to sell that plan. republicans sure aren't buying it. listen to house speaker john boehner. >> despite the claims that the president supports a balanced approach, the democrats have yet to get serious about real spending cuts. >> you know democrats are getting right back. harry reid getting personal. >> i don't understand his brain, so you should ask him. >> athena jones is live from washington. where do we go from here? sainzs like the same old-same old. >> well, it certainly does. all that happy talk right after the election is gone right now. the big sticking point is something you've already mentioned, this whole idea of taxes

zoraida, thank you.orning, a senator from the state that could prove to be the most important state in this election. ohio senator rob portman is our guest. that's right after this. president obama: there's just no quit in america... and you're seeing that right now. over five million new jobs. exports up forty one percent. home values... rising. our auto industry... back. and our heroes are coming home. we're not there yet, but we've made real progress and the... last thing we should do is turn back now. here's my plan for the next four years: making education and training a national priority; building on our manufacturing boom; boosting american-made energy; reducing the deficits responsibly by cutting where... we can, and asking the wealthy to pay a little more. and ending the war in afghanistan, so we can... do some nation-building here at home. that's the right path. so read my plan, compare it to governor romney's... and decide which is better for you. it's an honor to be your president... and i'm

that's zoraida sambolin.e top cnn trends on the internet. >> this is something you should participate on. pants on fire, the annual world's biggest liar competition under way in england. >> let me get this straight. that would mean that you lied about your age to make yourself older. but why would any woman want to do that? >> i changed it so i could get married. >> and the truth shall set you free! >> so that was a clip from the movie "liar, liar" where jim carey played a lawyer, which is fitting. lawyers and politicians are banned from the competition for having a, quote, unfair advantage. each contestant is given up to five minutes to weave the best fib in the contest. >> how do you like that? all right. move over, people. "the onion" has named its sexiest man alive. drum roll, please. it's kim jong-un. he's officially been named the newspaper's sexiest man. you're looking at him side by side with channing tatum, who won the "people" magazine award. kim, with he is devastatingly handsome looks, round, boyi

john and zoraida are off.u're having a wonderful early thanksgiving morning. >>> and we are 16 hours into a delicate cease-fire in gaza and israel. so far, it is holdings. the bombings and blood she had ha have ended in gaza city. israel and that haas agreeing to stop all aggressions after eight days of carnage. secretary of state hillary clinton putting the deal in perspective. >> this is a critical moment for the region. egypt's new government is assuming the responsibility and leadership that has long made this country a cornerstone of regional stability and peace. >> let's go live now to fred pleitgen. he's in israel. fred, good morning to you. what's going on where you are? >> reporter: hi, alina. this morning, as you said, it's fairly quiet compared to the past couple of days. there have been, apparently, some smaller cease-fire violations, according to the israeli military. they said that overnight, some three rockets were fired out of gaza on to israeli territory. all of those rockets hit either in ope

john and zoraida have the day off. it is 5:00 a.m. let's get started. up first, more fallout from the sudden and shocking resignation of cia director david petraeus, because of an extramarital affair. there are new details, and new questions this morning, about an fbi investigation that led to his departure. the fbi uncovered evidence of an affair between petraeus and his biographer paula broadwell, after she allegedly sent harassing e-mails to another woman she jealously thought was too close to petraeus. new york congressman peter king says there are far more questions than answers. >> this seems to have been going on for several months. yet now it appears that they're saying that the fbi didn't realize until election day that general petraeus was involved. it just doesn't add up. and you've got this type of investigation, the fbi investigating e-mails, the e-mails leading to the cia director, and it's taking four months to find out that the cia director was involved. >> cnn's barbara starr is following this developing story, she's live at the pentago

statements because it's in the name of national security you can say i certainly have who can say i'm zoraida. going to say i'm sorry that the information that i have access to doesn't allow me to comment on there is there is no evidence that susan rice believes she was lying who wanted to say are so why doesn't she say hate this was august this is when i went on this during the thirty's you know you said that last week she never said he gives i said i told bogus narrative now she says that you know the director the cia said what she said was what we told her to co-host credit when he made a statement at the united nations that he later decided it wasn't accurate he publicly came forward and acknowledge that and corrected himself and the record she has yet to do that bush had an interest in the oval office weapons minister and when she did what she did it was politically opportune so you want to talk about politics guys or the citizens arrangement quite a lot it is only so have i so. what about making my point your attacks on clinton lisa rice were you trying to get this black woman here's th

i'm zoraida sambolin. >> we're not the winners. i'm christine romans.t half past the hour. there are about 33 days until the fiscal cliff, while politicians try to sell their plans, the first negotiations get underway today with tim geithner heading to capitol hill with separate meetings for congressional leaders. both the president and speaker boehner made optimistic predictions yesterday. >> my hope is to get this done before christmas. i'll go anywhere, i'll do whatever it takes to get this done. it's too important for washington to screw this up. >> i'm optimistic that we can continue to work together to avert this crisis and sooner rather than later. >> all right. a couple of optimists, but what will both sides give and what will it cost those politicians? erick erickson is of redstate.com. good morning. >> good morning. >> all right. so, congressman tom cole was on "ac 360" last night. he got criticism for saying he would accept compromise. here's what he said. >> i want to make all of them permanent, quite frankly. this is a debate about politica

sweet ending to that. >> zoraida sambolin, exclusive first look in the media. thanks so much. all right, 14 minutes after the hour. and literally laughing in the white house negotiator's face. so is there any hope of a compromise over the fiscal cliff. we're talking to the newly re-elected minority whip steny hoyer coming up next. ♪ well, it's that time of year again. you know, picture-taking season. and with photo stream, you can share all the photos you want, with just the people you want. it's as easy as pie. mmmm..pie. [ female announcer ] holiday cookies are a big job. everything has to be just right. perfection is in the details. ♪ get to holiday fun faster with pillsbury cookie dough. >>> 17 minutes past the hour here on a friday. well, the white house plan to avoid the fiscal cliff to congressional leaders, and republicans, laughed in their faces. literally in the case of mitch mcconnell. >> the plan calls for $1.6 trillion in new tax revenues, $400 billion in cuts to medicare and other entitlements, $50 billion for a new stimulus, and republicans really didn't like th

i'm joined now by my early start co anchor zoraida sambolin live this morning from a chicago diner. >ng to you. i was at a viewing party last night and there was so much excitement for president obama until, on our air, the numbers in florida flipped and everybody got freaked out. so i found a couple of people and georgia n particular, to my left. 67 years old, you were there last night at mccormick place. and you actually were volunteering, also. you have been up 24 hours with all the excitement. tell me about it. >> well, it started by volunteering in wisconsin on monday. i went canvassing for obama there and then went yesterday for the party at mccormick place from beginning till end. and just came right here for breakfast, right from there. >> you are 67 years old and i asked you why you voted for obama and did it affect the downturn of the economy? and you say, yes, you did, but you still voted for him. >> i feel that he pulled us back from the brink of disaster. and it would be totally unrealistic to think that he could solve all the problems he was given in this historic period

i'm brooke baldwin in for zoraida. >> i'm christine roman in for john berman.f past the hour. >>> all right. breaking news this morning. a bus explosion in tel aviv to tell you about. we have been telling you all night about rising tensions and more fighting in the area, but now here in tel aviv israeli police officials tell us there's a bus explosion. we know there are injuries. there are ten injured. you're looking at pictures here of the scene. these are live pictures, actually, of the scene where this bus has now -- it is in the street. we know there are ten injured. breaking the calm, clearly, of a very tense tel aviv over the past few days. i want to get quickly to fred flankin in israel. what can you tell us about the most recent explosion? >> reporter: yeah, christine, we are still trying to get information on what exactly happened in the bus in downtown tel aviv. we know it was on a road that is in central tel aviv. there are casualties and there are at least ten people who were injured. the earliest reports that we are getting, and this is from variou

zoraida sambolin has the day off, god bless her.s 30 minutes after the hour. >> and we do begin with that breaking news in the gaza/israel conflict. new reports of violence this morning. it happened in gaza near the israel border. according to hamas security forces, about 700 people were participating in an anti-israel protest that approached the border. hamas claims israeli forces fired at the protests killing at least one palestinian man, and wounding 19 others. >> we'll be watching that, of course, as the day goes on. meanwhile our other big story with thanksgiving now in the books we turn to that post turkey day tradition, black friday. big retailers from coast to coast opened their doors even earlier this year on thanksgiving night and holiday shoppers are off and running. we are all over this story. we're live in the front lines this morning. george howell at a best buy store in atlanta, stacey cohan is at a mall in arlington, virginia. george, let's start with you. when i last spoke to you you found some incredible deals for

zoraida sambolin has the day off. up first the deadliest day of violence yet in gaza.ivilians, four of them children. the conflict between hamas and israel threatening to escalate out of control. representatives of the two sides are in egypt for cease-fire talks. but they are not talking directly to each other. hamas making a public demand for a truce. fredrick plight begin live from israel. good morning, israel doesn't seem to be giving in on its side either saying that gaza needs to stop the attacks first as a negotiating starting point. what's the latest? >> certainly the attacks don't seem to be stopping. i'm quite close to the gaza stripe and just in the past couple of hours we've had two rocket alarms go off in the city. that is a signal for us to then take cover. if you're not in the vicinity of any buildings to hit the deck. also in other israeli towns throughout the area, there have been some rockets picked off by missile interceptor systems. so it does not look as though the violence is abating. one thing i will say, throughout the night it seems as though it