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GOP Divided on Security, Foreign Policy; New Frontrunner Newt Gingrich and Immigration; Traveling for Thanksgiving; Jerry Sandusky Faces New Allegations; Big Banks to Undergo Stress Tests; Bloody Street Battles in Cairo; Paterno Battled PSU Disciplinarian; Duke Advances to Maui Finals; Ryan Braun Wins National League MVP

Aired November 23, 2011 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Alina, this is a shame. I see you on TV more than I see you in person these days, but it's good to see you, though.

CHO: I know what's up with that. We've got to fix that.

HOLMES: There's a problem and I'm glad you're feeling better there, Carol.

CHO: I'm coming down to you.

HOLMES: All right. We'll see you here.

COSTELLO: Hi, T.J., Happy Thanksgiving.

HOLMES: Happy Thanksgiving to you both. I'll talk to you both soon, I'm sure. But we are crossing the top of the hour here now.

Hello to you all. I am the aforementioned, T.J. Holmes, sitting in today for Kyra Phillips on this Thanksgiving eve. And whoa, we've got a show last night, didn't we?

The Republican presidential debate. It was number 11. Yes, there have been a number of these things, but you always learn something new, you always get something new out of these, and we certainly did last night.

You won't see another one of these for another two weeks. So we got quite a treat last night. We're going to break down what we saw in that showdown, which was over national security and foreign policy. And these candidates, yes, they're all in the same party. It is clear, though, they are not on the same page.

You see who's going to be joining me, our foreign affairs correspondent, she is Jill Dougherty. Always good to have her. And deputy political director Paul Steinhauser. He'll be telling us about the frontrunner, the new frontrunner Newt Gingrich may have hurt himself last night.

But we're going to start with a look at just how far apart the candidates are on the issues of Afghanistan, Pakistan, homeland security. And Jill is breaking that down for us in this report. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With eight Republicans on stage, President Barack Obama got a few knicks.

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you like what Barack Obama has done to our economy, you'll love what he's done to our national security.

DOUGHERTY: But these candidates had the knives out for each other.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are you suggesting, Governor, that we just take all our troops out next week? What's your proposal?

JON HUNTSMAN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Did you hear what I just said? I said we should draw down from 100,000. We don't need 100,000 troops.

DOUGHERTY: There was heated debate on whether the post-9/11 Patriot Act should be extended.

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All of us will be in danger for the rest of our lives. This is not going to end in the short run and we need to be prepared to protect ourselves.

REP. RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You can still provide security without sacrificing our Bill of Rights.

HUNTSMAN: I think we have to be very careful in protecting our individual liberties. We forget sometimes that we have a name brand in this world.

DOUGHERTY: Should specific ethnic or religious groups in America be profiled for a security screening?

WOLF BLITZER, MODERATOR: Who would be profiled?

SANTORUM: Obviously, Muslims would be -- would be someone you'd look at, absolutely. Those are the folks who are the radical Muslims and the people that are committing these crimes.

PAUL: That's digging a hole for ourselves. What if they look like Timothy McVeigh? You know, he was pretty tough criminal.

DOUGHERTY: In the midst of a heavy debate, a light moment.

BLITZER: Is it OK for Muslim Americans to get more intensive pat-downs or security when they go through airports than Christian Americans or Jewish Americans?

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, blitz, that's oversimplifying it. I happen to believe that if you allow our intelligence agencies to do their job, they can come up with an approach.

I'm sorry, blitz, I meant Wolf, OK?

(LAUGHTER)

CAIN: Blitz, Wolf.

DOUGHERTY: And what about aid to Pakistan?

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I also think that Pakistan is a nation that it's kind of like too nuclear to fail.

GOV. RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: Until Pakistan clearly shows that they have America's best interest in mind, I would not send them one penny. Period.

BACHMANN: With all due respect to the governor, I think that's highly naive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right, let me bring in Jill Dougherty. And for the viewers who don't know, we call him blitz all the time, so really no big deal to us, right, Jill.

DOUGHERTY: Yes, of course.

HOLMES: National security and foreign policy, people always want to pick a winner and a loser in this debate. Was it difficult to pick one out a winner last night?

DOUGHERTY: Yes, you know, if there had been a real loser I think it would have been a lot easier. But there really wasn't. So you had to kind of get into what they were saying. And there was some really interesting moments.

You know, I mean, obviously, this is a debate about -- I should say an election about economics and the domestic situation. But everybody wants to make sure that, you know, the guy who -- or the woman who answers the phone call at 3:00 a.m., as Hillary Clinton used to say, is going to be the person who can make rational and good decisions.

And so you look at them and you try to figure out, is that correct? And you did see the people who have the most experience, let's say Huntsman up to the four doing what he expected that he would do because he knows his brief quite well.

You had Romney, you know, doing what also people expected. He's good on his feet, in that sense. And you had Newt Gingrich, who was very effective, as usual, because he is years and years of experience out there. Not only as a professor, but as a commentator. So, I don't think there are any terrible mistakes.

HOLMES: All right, Jill Dougherty for us. Always good to talk to you. Thanks so much. Let me switch over now to our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser in Washington for me.

Paul, everybody -- all eyes last night on Newt Gingrich. His first debate as a frontrunner. Could it now be his last because of something he said last night?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, that is the -- I guess the top topic this morning, at least here in political circles about Newt Gingrich and what he said on illegal immigration.

You know as Jill just mentioned, he had a very good debate right off the bat. Very forceful going after Ron Paul over the defense of the Patriot Act. It was a strong debate for Newt Gingrich until late in the debate when he may have gotten in some trouble over comments on illegal immigration. Take a listen to how it played out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: I don't see how the -- the party who says it's the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century. And I'm prepared for take the heat for saying, let's be humane in enforcing the law without giving them citizenship, but by finding a way to create legality.

ROMNEY: Amnesty is a magnet. What -- when we have had in the past, programs that have said that people who come here legally are going to get to stay legally for the rest of their life. That's going to only encourage more people to come here illegally.

The right course for our immigration system is to say we welcome people who want to come here legally. We're going to have a system that makes that easier and more transparent, but to make sure we're able to bring in the best and brightest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: Yes. So there was the moment right there and you heard Mitt Romney. The other frontrunner in this battle for the GOP nomination, the former Massachusetts governor pushing back against Gingrich.

Listen, it's a good argument that Gingrich is giving if you're running in a general election. But if you're trying to reach out to those core conservative voters in Iowa, in South Carolina and else where in the battle for the GOP nomination, it could be a problem.

Amnesty is a four-letter word for those -- a lot of those people. If you wanted more proof, take a look at this. Our brand-new CNN/ORC poll. And we asked, just this you can see the partisan divide here between Democrats, independents and especially Republicans when it comes to whether illegal immigration and taking illegal immigrants out of the country should be a top issue.

It is for Republicans, not nearly as much so for Democrats and independents -- TJ.?

HOLMES: Paul, last thing quickly for me. The day before Thanksgiving, are they taking a break from the campaign trail, all of them?

STEINHAUSER: Most of them except for Mitt Romney. He's going to be in Iowa today. He's getting a big endorsement from Senator John Thune from neighboring South Dakota. That could be very helpful and all comes, as Shannon Travis, our political reporter in Iowa reports, a meeting, a secret meeting on Monday night by social conservatives there looking to find a consensus candidate to take on Mitt Romney -- TJ.

HOLMES: Secret meetings. I'm sure Shannon is all over it, though.

Paul Steinhauser, thank you, as always.

Your next political update, folks, is in one hour. And for the latest political news, you know the spot, CNNPolitics.com.

But it's seven minutes past the hour now. Are you one of those about to hit the road? One of the -- what, 42 million or so about to hit the road ready for this long holiday weekend? AAA is predicting 42 million will either drive, fly or hop on a train this Thanksgiving.

Our George Howell is at Atlanta's airport. Certainly a busy place all year. Today, as well. But most people are hitting the road, right? So does the airport look pretty busy?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, 3.4 million people expected to travel by air and Atlanta being the busiest airport in the world for passenger and operation travel, you can imagine, TJ, what happens here in Atlanta will affect a lot of passengers, a lot of travelers throughout the country.

So what we've found inside and after each live update I run inside to make sure I have a good understanding of what's happening. We found that the lines are growing right now around the security checkpoints. Also finding longer lines as passengers check in for their flights.

But you go inside, you talk to passengers, it's the common story about -- of course being frustrated with fees. Some people who might have been late for their flights. But you also find stories, especially from our military men and women who are coming in. We spoke to Jason Tinker who flew in from Iraq. Just listen to his story about coming home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. JASON TINKER, U.S. ARMY: When we walked down to the baggage claim, there was about 600 people just all of a sudden started whispering and clapping and it was amazing feeling. Amazing.

STEINHAUSER: And as far as being back, I mean, what's the first thing that you plan to do?

TINKER: Kiss my wife. I've been married to her for 20 years and I love her to death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: Jason, certainly excited rather about getting home to be home with family and you find many military men and women flying in to make connections in cities across the country or just come home right here to Atlanta -- TJ.

HOLMES: All right. George, thank you so much. We'll check in again.

I'm going to head over to Jacqui Jeras now.

And Jacqui, I should probably give you some more time to get yourself together. After hearing that, you know, you can't help but get chills.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know.

HOLMES: When you hear something like that. Been married for 20 something years, looking forward to coming home, kissing the wife.

JERAS: I love it. Absolutely. It's great to see families coming together. And hopefully you won't have too many troubles as you travel out there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

JERAS: But TJ, things look a little better as we head into tomorrow.

HOLMES: That's all we need to hear. All right.

JERAS: You can relax and eat tomorrow.

HOLMES: Jacqui, thank you. We'll talk to you again here shortly.

We're turning to -- 11 minutes past the hour here now. We're going to give you an update on that story out of Penn State. The child sex abuse scandal. Well, Jerry Sandusky, the man at the center of this, is now facing some new allegations.

Two new cases involving alleged victims who are still under the age of 18. We are going to be talking to the reporter who broke this story.

Also one university has now suspended its entire marching band. And police point to hazing in the drum major's death. The story when we come back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: About a quarter past the hour now. Give you a look at some of the news making headlines "Cross Country."

A Texas judge who's seen beating his daughter in that YouTube video said now been suspended. The official reason was not made public. You'll remember this video, though. The daughter posted it a few weeks ago. It was actually taken back in 2004.

Also, Florida, A&M University has suspended its marching band after the death of one of its members. Police say hazing may have been involved and they're investigating at least two other incidents. Hazing is a felony in Florida.

Also, the University of California system will pay the medical bills of 11 students pepper sprayed by a campus cop. This happened last weekend in Occupy protests at U.C.-Davis. The school was launching an independent investigation.

Pennsylvania authorities are investigating two new cases of alleged child abuse against Jerry Sandusky. The alleged victims are currently under the age of 18. If the allegations turn out to be true, these would be the first known cases involving current minors to become public since the former Penn State assistant coach's arrest.

Sara Ganim broke this story for "The Patriot-News." She joins me now.

We say the age is under 18, but do we have any idea how old these two are?

SARA GANIM, REPORTER, "THE PATRIOT-NEWS" (via telephone): No, we really don't. The other thing we don't know is when in the last 60 days these last two cases were open, because in Pennsylvania, the Children and Youth Service agency has 60 days to deem a case of child abuse brought to them, credible or not. And that determination hasn't been made yet.

So, we know that these allegations were brought forward in the last few days, but we don't know if it was after Jerry Sandusky was arrested earlier in November or if it was before that. And so, that's something that we're going to have to wait until these allegations -- these cases are closed to find out.

HOLMES: Do we know how and do we know who brought these cases to the attention of authorities?

GANIM: No, all we know is that they have to involve children who are currently still minors because in Pennsylvania, even if you're an adult who comes forward and alleges abuse that happened when you were a child, it's only a police matter unless you are still a child at the time that you come forward, and that's when Children and Youth Services would get involved. That's really our only indication at this point of what stage the investigation is.

HOLMES: Do we have any idea if these kids might have been connected to Second Mile, the charity that he ran?

GANIM: No, again, those are details that I'm sure if these allegations, these cases are deemed credible that they will come out. But there have been several people who have come forward since Jerry Sandusky was arrested earlier in November and said that they were also abused by the former football legend.

And, so, I think that, you know, we have to remember that there was a three-year grand jury investigation to get to the eight victims that we know of. These people will probably have to be vetted by police, interviewed and go before a grand jury and testify. And then when more charges are filed, we'll have a better idea of how many credible victims there are.

HOLMES: Last thing here, Sara, explain to us the significance and where this case -- this entire whole scandal might go given that -- I mean, some of the other victims are older, but what does this mean now, that we're seeing two alleged victims that we don't know the ages, but what is the relevance now if we have two coming forward who are now under 18?

GANIM: Well, I think the importance here is that they are still children and I think that takes on, you know, a little bit more of -- well, you know, it raises more of the questions, I think, that people have been asking about why Jerry Sandusky wasn't arrested immediately in 2009 when the allegation was brought forward. Instead, investigators went with a different tactic and that was a three-year grand jury investigation and, you know, they did a lot of work in those three years. And it's understandable that an investigation of that magnitude with eight victims would take three years.

But the governor has been getting a lot of questions about why he went that route. It's important because he was actually the attorney general when this case started, didn't become governor until about halfway through. So, he's been getting a lot of questions about that and that's something that he hasn't really -- his answer the whole time has been, you know, can't talk about it because it's a grand jury investigation. So, we don't really know the answer to that.

HOLMES: Sara Ganim, again, broke the story with "The Patriot- News" -- thank you for spending time with us.

And a new report also saying that Joe Paterno fought with the university's former disciplinary officer over punishments for the football players. Could be talking to the reporter who broke that story for "The Wall Street Journal" a little later in the hour.

But at 19 minutes past the hour right now, some of the most compelling images from the worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement did not come from network television cameras. Up next, we take you behind the scenes inside the Occupy media headquarters where the history is being recorded.

Also, the bloody battles playing out in the streets of Cairo, again. Protesters and police clash for a fifth day. We're getting the latest from our Ivan Watson.

Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WATSON: Twenty-two minutes past the hour now.

Scenes from the recent New York Zuccotti Park conviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters has been some of the most traumatic video we have seen from the movement. Network cameras were banned from the incident. It didn't stop the group's own guerilla team from streaming images live on the Internet.

Our Poppy Harlow takes you inside the control room of the Occupy movement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our mission is to tell stories that won't get told if we're not there to tell them. I think you experienced some of that this week where if you're not embedded in an activity, you cannot get that story out.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When our cameras were blocked from filming the eviction of Zuccotti Park, these guys were live-streaming it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we do is we eliminate the area where no one reports anything, where the police can push somebody back, the press back.

HARLOW: In this cramped tiny room in Lower Manhattan sits the unofficial media headquarters for the Occupy movement, with a mission as spontaneous as the protests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I'm doing is grabbing content and transferring instantaneously so people can also witness it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're dealing, basically, with 2,000 to 30,000 people launching at a time. We monitor live feeds from all over the world and we picked what is the most interesting in a given time and put it on the air and do a split screen with Greece, L.A., or, you know, two places that are having activity with the same time.

HARLOW (on camera): So, it's not just Occupy Wall Street, it's Occupy movements around the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're working closely with occupations around the world and around the country to teach them how to do this.

HARLOW: How important was that flux for you guys to have the ability to live stream the eviction?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was the main reason that we were live streaming in the first place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was the night of the eviction, that's coming off a laptop and a web cam.

HARLOW (voice-over): Eventually that night, Lorenzo says he was arrested. Here's some of footage live streamed during the eviction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, it's really important because every occupation can basically show their story to the world and show what is happening.

HARLOW (on camera): Do you think that what you stream here this video that you collect is going to be an important part of history?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is history. I mean, I don't see anything in my lifetime that rivals it.

HARLOW: Does this show us that you don't need a space apart. You don't all need to be there to occupy. You're occupying from here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I think that could be the next level of occupation. I personally think that we can't occupy the hearts and mind of people much easier than occupying a park.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. And Poppy Harlow is with me now from New York.

Who are these guys? How do they get the time to do this? Do they need funding to do this?

HARLOW: It's a great question. So, all the funding, T.J., they tell me comes from donations. No big corporate donations, obviously, no big donors. Just little donations here and there.

The guy with the dreadlocks, Flox (ph), he's been doing this, he told me, for a decade. He calls himself a video-journalist going to different revolutions and movements around the world and documenting them.

Lorenzo, the younger guy you saw, he's actually he has his masters in English. He's from North Dakota. He found his way to New York in July and he said he haphazardly fell into this movement.

But, you know, it's interesting. They're monitoring streams from dozens of occupations all the time around the clock, around the world, and then deciding what to put up on that Web site live so you can see it -- T.J.

HOLMES: A good look behind it scenes of how they do what they do. Poppy Harlow, good to se you, as always.

We're getting close to the bottom of the hour. We'll stay in New York now. We're going to head over to the New York Stock Exchange where Alison Kosik is hanging out there today.

And, Alison, a lot of people stressed out these days given the economic situation, given the holidays coming up. But the markets, the banks, they need stress tests, as well.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. So, what is going to be happening, T.J., is that the Federal Reserve is going to be putting the nation's biggest banks under some big stress tests. The goal with all of this is to make sure that the banks are able to hold up under a few hypothetical scenarios of very, very stressful situations, like let's say there's a stock market crash or unemployment rate at 13 percent or there's a declining economic growth.

So, what has to happen is that the banks have to show that they've got enough money to keep lending if those events happen to play out. Now, a similar situation happened two years ago where banks went through stress tests but only 19 banks did it. Now, 31 have to be put to the test and getting more stringent because there are some new Wall Street regulations in effect and essentially, T.J., an effort to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when liquidity issues became a big problem during the recession and during the whole financial crisis -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Alison Kosik, thank you. I think we're going to be checking in with you again next hour. So, we will see you then.

And to our viewers coming up, we're going to be fact-checking the GOP debate from last night, a lot of attacks and accusations and things being thrown around. So, we're going to be checking them out, including one of Mitt Romney's attacks on President Obama.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: I'll give you a look here at the bottom of the hour some of stories making headlines.

Actor George Clooney could be called a witness in the trial of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi is accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute. A lawyer says Clooney will be called because he attended parties at Berlusconi's home.

Also today, the great American getaway. AAA predicting more than 42 million people will travel for this Thanksgiving holiday.

Also, Republicans battled it out last night over national security. In our CNN debate, Newt Gingrich's immigration comment raised a lot of eyebrows, raised a lot of questions now among fellow conservatives. He called for something of a limited amnesty for long- time illegal immigrants.

Well, despite a deal by Egypt's military leader to move up, a return to civilian rule, there's been no let up in the bloody street battles in Cairo.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

HOLMES: Protesters choking on tear gas coming under fire for a fifth straight day. The official death toll now has risen to 32. Video you're seeing here was taken by our crew there, including our Ivan Watson.

He is now on the line with us from Cairo.

Ivan, tell us where you are and what you're seeing.

I'm told we just lost our Ivan Watson.

The pictures we are seeing here are live pictures from the square. Again, these protests -- these clashes, we can call them now, for the past five days.

The military rule there, a lot of the citizens who are out there saying they are protesting against Hosni Mubarak. Military said they were going to be that caretaker government until elections take place, which is a couple weeks from now. But now, many of them unhappy with what the military rule was doing.

There have been some concessions made by those military rulers, but it doesn't appear those were enough to stop a lot of these demonstrations and a lot of the protests we have been seeing. Again, the word we can give you, at least 30 people reportedly killed.

Again, our Ivan Watson is down there. We'll try to get him back on the line and get him back up and give us an update of what he is seeing down in the square.

Coming up next the Canadian rock band, Nickelback is going after its critics this morning.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS0

HOLMES: Yes, they're using humor against people who want only American groups at tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day NFL game in Detroit.

Also, be sure to join us for a new show. It's happening on Sundays with the good doctor. Going to profile exceptional people from around the world who try to crack open the way we think. That's our Dr. Sanjay Gupta, each week lead viewers on journey to meet the army of groundbreakers who are changing global society.

Watch "THE NEXT LIST" every Sunday 2:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Thirty-seven minutes past the hour.

We're going to get back to our Ivan Watson who was in Cairo, where we have been watching a fifth day now of protests and demonstrations in Tahrir Square.

Ivan, I think you're back with us now. Explain to me exactly where you are and what you're seeing.

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): We're about a block and a half from the Interior Ministry which the demonstrators have declared as their target for days now. The fighting, the street battle seems to have come to a momentary halt. The riot police have pulled back some.

The place looks like very much like a war zone. There's rubble everywhere. Tear gas still hanging in the air.

And the kids -- because this is mostly a youth protest revolt -- they are lined up against the phalanx of helmeted soldiers who are protecting the Interior Ministry, the access way to that, and they're calling for a fight, they're chanting "thugs, thugs" at the soldiers who are so far restraining themselves.

Every person I talked to here on the protesters' side of this line expect that there will be more fighting tonight. They say they do not trust the Egyptian authorities. They want the soldiers to go back to the barracks to end military rule, and many of them say they're just getting ready for another round of street battles -- T.J.

HOLMES: It doesn't sound like from your reporting there, Ivan, that most folks there are please would some of the concessions and the deal that's been made with the military leaders.

WATSON: No, not at all. And, in fact, moments after the ruling general, Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, announced that presidential elections would be pushed up to this summer, the crowd in Tahrir Square, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands, they chanted "get out". They were curious.

And that anger continues today and what you see are thousands of young Egyptians, mostly men, who are feeling empowered and they're furious at the authorities and showing it any way possible. Right now, they're pounding on the metal doors of the shops in the area, which are all closed, and chanting and feeling very strong and defiant against the government.

HOLMES: All right, Ivan Watson for us there in Cairo -- we'll check in, again. Thank you so much.

Forty minutes past the hour now.

Still ahead, a new report saying that Joe Paterno, not only fought with Penn State's disciplinary officer about his players, but the coach actually tried to keep their crimes under wraps. We're talking with the reporter who broke that story.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Forty-three minutes past the hour.

And it came down to reality TV star, former talk show host and an injured gulf war vet, one of them is this morning's new "Dancing with the Stars" champ.

"Showbiz Tonight's" A.J. Hammer is here with all the detail.

This is what people were waiting for. So, it didn't disappoint, did it?

A.J. HAMMER, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" HOST: Well, no, it didn't disappoint at all. And as I predicted, T.J., J.R. Martinez took home that marble trophy last night. Not like I'm the great wise man or anything, I was not alone in my prediction. Really, from the very beginning, his talent and his story made him the favorite for most of America. Of course, J.R. is an Iraq war veteran. He was wounded so badly back in 2003 he's needed more than 30 surgeries to repair the burns he suffered over 40 percent of his body.

And now look at the guy. He's a soap opera star and the winner of "Dancing with the Stars."

And "Showbiz Tonight" caught up with J.R. after the show last night. And he talked about how he approached the competition in exactly the same way that he approaches his life. Watch what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.R. MARTINEZ, WINNER, "DANCING WITH THE STARS": You have to be willing to step up to the challenge. You have to maintain a positive attitude. Be patient, and just fight.

And understand and believe that if you do those things, good things will come to you. And one day, you, too, will hold your own personal trophy.

So, I think that's the biggest thing we have been able to prove this whole 10-week, you know, journey that we've been on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: Could not be happier for J.R.

And, T.J., while I was pulling for Ricki Lake, I know -- I know she is cheering very loudly for J.R. today.

HOLMES: You can't help it. This is a nice story, nice ending, and so many reality shows and competition and whatnot, this one everybody onboard with.

I got one more story. Tell me, what is the -- who has a problem with Nickelback?

HAMMER: Well, what's happened is there was a little complaint some time ago because there were critics who were saying that Nickelback should not be playing a Thanksgiving Day game, the half- time show for the Detroit Lions, Thanksgiving in America.

So the band is having a little fun with their critics after these objections surfaced with a petition online. And they put a little skit together for the folks at Funny or Die and you'll see this thing, a record label executive wants them to be more representative of the Motor City. Watch what they did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This whole Nickelback thing, it's not working. Let's give Motor City that Motown sound that they love. You're no longer Nickelback. Now you're the four nickels. OK, we'll put you guys in matching suits to do synchronize dancing --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not a good idea. That's a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) horrible idea. You're a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) moron.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's why you're the brains of the group.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the brains of the group.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not anymore. Now you get a deal got it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: It's pretty funny. Now, the online petition did get some attention when it first started. Currently it has around 55,000 signatures from people who say oh no the Canadian band shouldn't playing a Thanksgiving game in America, but I don't really think, T.J., anybody expected the band to be replaced and now they're just poking fun at the critics.

HOLMES: That's fun, that's good stuff. Now, I mean, I hope they don't expect them to get booed or anything, do we? Is that a possibility?

HAMMER: You know, who knows. That certainly is a possibility. I would like to believe, it's Thanksgiving in America.

HOLMES: Yes.

HAMMER: We can celebrate with our brethren to the north can't we?

HOLMES: Yes absolutely well said A.J. Hammer. Thank you so much and to our folks, we're going to see A.J. again here in a little bit because next hour we're going to be examining where Jimi Hendrix stands on the list of greatest guitarists ever.

Yes, we will have that answer or A.J. will have that answer when he comes back. Again, he'll have more business headlines next hour.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, 11 minutes until the top of the hour.

I'll give you news making headlines cross country.

A Wisconsin mayor is threatening to sue his Twitter impersonator. The account is actually run by a teenager. Yes, he's threatening the kid and the kid is talking about challenging the mayor in an election. The kid says his tweets are satire, but he also doesn't plan to stop.

And a Colorado soldier gives a -- oh, these just never get old, do they. Look at that? Game of Thanksgiving Day surprise, they're his kids. He returned early from Afghanistan and just surprised them. Just flat out shocked them, showed up at the school on parents' day. I just love seeing those.

Also, an Illinois teacher is now on leave for allegedly boosting dozens of her students' grades, most of those students are football players. Her husband happens to be the varsity football coach. I'm sure it's all just a coincidence.

Now, the Penn State sex abuse scandal has not only cost legendary Coach Joe Paterno his job but has also shown a harsh light on the school's respected football program. Now a new report in the "Wall Street Journal" suggests Paterno wanted to be judge and jury over student athlete misconduct, setting up battles with the university's former disciplinary officer.

Reed Albergotti, wrote the story for the "Wall Street Journal" joins me now from New York. If you read this story, Reed and I have, the one you wrote, and you know a big part of the story with Sandusky is that maybe Paterno tried to hide things. Keep him under wrap.

Well, going by your story, this seems to be a pattern for Paterno when it comes to that program?

REED ALBERGOTTI, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yes, T.J., we looked at some e-mails that definitely do suggest that when it came to the code of conduct at Penn State -- now every university has a code of conduct that students are supposed to follow -- Joe Paterno wanted to, you know, the rest of the students at Penn State followed the code of conduct and Joe Paterno wanted the football players to follow a different code of conduct. His code of conduct.

And when they violated the rules either on campus or off campus, you know, breaking the law, being arrested, he wanted to be responsible for punishing those players. And in one e-mail in 2005, suggests that he also wanted to keep that under wraps. He didn't want the public to find out about the transgressions of his football players.

HOLMES: Did he win most of those battles?

ALBERGOTTI: Yes. It looks like he did. I mean, there was a constant back and forth between Paterno and the vice president of student affairs Vicky Triponey (ph) at the time. It looks like the football players were given more lenient punishments than they otherwise would have been given had they been subject to the same code of conduct that the rest of the students on campus were.

HOLMES: Does this go in stark contrast to the impression that so many of us in this country have had about how that program and how he specifically ran what we all thought was a really clean program?

ALBERGOTTI: Yes. I mean, obviously, there was an image that Penn State, you know, ran a program that was cleaner than every other campus in the country. I mean, the students had a higher graduation rate. You know, they followed the rules. Paterno would discipline them even more harshly than they would have been disciplined otherwise. These e-mails and our reporting suggest that that's really not the case.

HOLMES: And that disciplinary officer, she ended up leaving the school. Did she say she left specifically over these head-to-heads, and again reading your article, it sounds like they knocked heads all the time to the point even that he wanted her fired?

HOLMES: Yes, look, she didn't go -- at the time when she resigned, she said that she had philosophical differences. She didn't go into any more detail than that. Looking at these e-mails it certainly suggest that right after a big fight that she had with Paterno in 2007, over a campus brawl that broke out between football players and other students. Things just went downhill for her from there, and she did resign. So it does looks like that had something to do with it.

HOLMES: All right, it's a really good read, in the "Wall Street Journal". Again, the author of that article, the reporter is right here with me. Reed Albergotti, thank you so much. I encourage folks to check it out. Thank you so much.

ALBERGOTTI: Thanks, T.J.

HOLMES: All right, let's "Fast Forward" a bit shall we to what will be making news a little later today.

At 10:30 Eastern time this morning, President Obama will do the tradition -- pardon the turkey. The National Thanksgiving Turkey, a 45-pound bird named Liberty. We'll have some of that for you coming up.

Also, 1:00 Eastern Time, NASA will give a preview of the next Mars Science Mission, the Curiosity Rover is scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas rocket Saturday.

Also 3:00 Eastern, crowds will gather in New York to watch the inflation of the giant balloons that will be used in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

But we are watching a number of developments in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. Our correspondents are out there. Let's check in first with Jill Dougherty.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm Jill Dougherty in Washington. And are they ready for the proverbial 3:00 a.m. phone call? At the CNN debate Americans got a chance to see the Republican candidates as potential commanders-in-chief. And I'll have more about that at the top of the hour.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm George Howell at the world's busiest airport here in Atlanta, Georgia, where we are seeing lighter traffic than normal. But don't get it wrong there's still plenty, plenty of people. Crowds are building. We will have a live update for you here at the top of the hour.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Lothian at the White House. They did not commit any crimes but they could have faced the death penalty, that is until today, when they will receive presidential pardons. A lot more on that at the top of the hour.

HOLMES: Great tease there, Dan.

Jill, George, see you all here at the top of the next hour.

Also next hour, saved by the skin of its teeth. Congress votes to fund NASA's billion-dollar telescope project. The details on the mission and the money.

Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, it's as big a part of the Thanksgiving tradition as the turkey. Football.

JEFF FISCHEL, HLN SPORTS: Yes.

HOLMES: We got it good. Jeff Fischel here with us sharing some sports. But we got a good day tomorrow.

FISCHEL: Yes. Three big games tomorrow and, of course, not only is there football when you think of Thanksgiving. Lots of hoops; it's a hoops junkie's feast. The best hoops right now, the hula hoops. It's the Maui Invitational, Thanksgiving in Hawaii, yes thank you.

Duke and Michigan; that's Duke's freshman phenom, Austin Rivers and the foul. Of course, he's the progeny of Celtics coach, Doc Rivers. Progeny -- kid, that's your SAT word of the day. Seth Curry for three. Duke wins 71-63.

The Blue Devils face Kansas in the Maui Invitational Final.

It's time to beat the clock. Coastal Carolina with the ball down one to Clemson in the final seconds. Chris Gradnigo (ph) The miss, follows his own miss and gets it. Is it in time? Yes. Huge upset win for Coastal Carolina. There it is again. 60-59.

Baseball now, Milwaukee's Brewers outfield Ryan Braun capped off a super season by winning the National League Most Valuable Player. Braun led the league in slogging and led the Brewers to their first division title in nearly 30 years. Braun is the first Jewish player to be MVP since Sandy Koufax in 1963. The Dodgers Matt Kemp who almost won the triple crown finished second. I say Kemp probably should have been (INAUDIBLE).

Check out where the racing fan goes to get the perfect shot at the Baja 1000. Check this out. He's in the ditch.

HOLMES: Oh, stop it.

FISCHEL: And fortunately, yes, he gets cleared by inches. The Baja 1000, one of the only races where spectators and photographers pretty much can go wherever they want. I don't know why you'd want to go there.

HOLMES: That's just a spectator. That's not a professional.

FISCHEL: Yes. Just wanted to go out and --

HOLMES: Are you kidding me? And this ends well?

FISCHEL: He's fine. You know.

HOLMES: I'm not --

FISCHEL: There you see, he's walking away, fine. He's explaining himself, see it makes sense. No. It doesn't make sense.

HOLMES: A lot of good stuff has been going on. Don't even mention the NBA. Don't even -- not even thinking about it.

FISCHEL: Isn't it interesting? People's lives go on and -- sports fans don't even think about it.

HOLMES: Good job -- Jeff.

FISCHEL: Hope the players and owners figure it out quick. Right?

HOLMES: Yes. Thank you. And good to see you.