Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Did Iran Shoot Down U.S. Drone?; Coming Home From Iraq; Payroll Tax Cut Compromise Plan; Sandusky's Media Strategy Examined; Visiting "The Donald"; Unemployment Benefits To Cut Off; FAA Administrator Charged With DUI; Another Round of Powerful Winds; Most Teens Aren't Sexting

Aired December 05, 2011 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get you up to speed.

Newt Gingrich surging in the polls, closing the gap in the race for the Republican nomination just a few weeks until Iowa. Right now, all eyes are on that state. The former House speaker is enjoying a new lead over his rivals. Look at this new NBC/Maris poll. The former House speaker leading now in Iowa with 26 percent. Mitt Romney is second with 18 percent. Ron Paul in third with 17 percent.

Newt Gingrich is hoping to solidify, get that mojo back, with a big endorsement back from none other than former Republican candidate Herman Cain. Cain bowed out of the race under this ethical cloud. That happened over the weekend, but he has not yet thrown his weight behind a candidate.

And Gingrich looking for help from Donald Trump. We're going to meet with that reality TV star later today.

Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid planning to roll out a compromise plan to extend now the payroll tax cuts. Now, that expires at the end of the month, and the Senate blocked the extension last week. Now, Democrats, Republicans, couldn't agree on a way to pay for this thing, so Senator Kent Conrad, he's not disclosing details, but is he calling Reid's plan a serious, credible way to try to move the ball forward.

An Occupy standoff has now led to 30 arrests right here in Washington. Some of the demonstrators, they were on top of this wooden structure you see here. This was built to hold meetings and to help them keep warm. Well, at one point last night, police forcibly removed them, tearing that structure down.

In Buffalo, New York, Occupy protesters, they've got a new home. It's kind of shaped like a dome. Our affiliate WIVB reports an anonymous donor gave it to them to protect them from the weather.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERT BROWN, OCCUPY BUFFALO: This is somebody who felt strongly about the movement and wanted to make sure that people stayed warm who were intending to stay here over the winter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, after months of bloody crackdowns against protesters, Syria now says it's going to let international observers in to the country to monitor what's happening there, but only if the Arab League agrees to drop the sanctions against Syria. The U.N. says more than 4,000 people have died in Syrian protests this year.

British judges ruled today that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can ask Britain's highest court to hear his case. Assange is fighting extradition to Sweden. That is where is charged with rape. Now, he denies the allegation, saying that this case against him is politically motivated because he revealed government secrets on his Web site.

Italy's new prime minister announcing a proposal to help save Italy. So, this country is facing a budget crisis that could impact the future of the euro. The new $41 billion package is going to include new taxes, spending cuts over a two-year period. It also increases the country's retirement age by a year and cuts into their pensions.

Highly classified U.S. intelligence could be in the hands of Iranians -- that's right -- if it is true that they shot down a secret U.S. drone flying in Iranian air space. Now, the Pentagon says the U.S. did lose a drone somewhere along the Afghanistan border with Iran, but U.S. officials are not saying what kind of drone this actually was.

Fran Townsend, she is CNN's national security contributor, a member of both the Department of Homeland Security and CIA External Advisory Boards.

That's a mouthful, Fran, there. Very qualified.

Give us a sense, Fran. What do we know about this drone? Why is it even important to us?

FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Suzanne, we know the U.S. was flying a surveillance reconnaissance drone along the Afghan/Iranian border, and we know that a drone last week was lost. That's pretty much what we know about the facts.

We're not sure -- it's not clear whether or not the drone Iran claims to have shot down is the U.S. drone. I think it's fair to say -- I'm very skeptical that the Iranians -- of the Iranian claim of having shot it down -- it is entirely possible that, with the technology by which this drone is operating, that, as the U.S. government has suggested, they just lost control of it, and so it landed inside Iran's border.

There's plenty of interest. Drones are critical to the U.S./NATO mission inside Afghanistan. They are especially important around all of the borders of Afghanistan. And so one can imagine in a very mountainous region losing the signal and losing control of the drone. We're not aware that this has ever happened before, but it certainly seems plausible.

Now, why is this important to us? What the reports are is that this stealth drone, which means there's two things that are important to it. One is, what is it that makes it stealth? If you lose it, your adversary then can reverse engineer and try to understand what the technology is that you used to make things stealth. Remember, the stealth technology was also used on the helicopter that did the Bin Laden raid, and so it's a tremendous value to our adversaries and our allies around the world.

The second piece is, what's the payload? That is, what is it inside the drone that it carries that allows the U.S. to get this sort of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance? And to the extent that the Iranians are able to recover the payload, they will learn something about how the U.S. uses these drones and what they're learning from them.

MALVEAUX: And we recently lost this helicopter in the Bin Laden raid. Is there a sense here that there is a risk that we are able to lose some of this high-valued technology?

TOWNSEND: Well, it's always a risk. It's usually planned for.

In the case of -- remember, in the case of the Bin Laden raid, the helicopter, they destroyed it. They couldn't get to the tail that they were unable to destroy, but what you try to do is make sure that you make it very difficult if somebody gets their hands on this to be able to understand its capability, its technology. But it's usually worth the risk. Usually, what you are getting, whether it's the Bin Laden raid helicopter, or it's this drone, it's worth that risk, because the value of the intelligence and support to the U.S. military that those technologies provide is worth risking losing them.

MALVEAUX: All right.

Fran Townsend.

Thank you very much, Fran. Appreciate it.

TOWNSEND: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Because we're talking about Fran Townsend about Iran, we want to mention that Fran, along with many other former national security officials from both sides of the aisle, and nearly 100 members of Congress, have publicly and privately worked to get the State Department to drop its terror designation as a prominent Iranian opposition group. That is the MEK. And that group operates principally out of Iran. The European Union did drop the terror designation a few years ago based on evidence provided that the MEK has renounced and ended its violence that included civilian targets in Iran.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MALVEAUX: All this week, CNN goes in-depth on the final hours of the Iraq war. Thousands of U.S. military men and women are home now to spend the holidays with their loved ones, and they're not going back to Iraq.

CNN's Chris Lawrence, he was at Fort Hood, Texas, over the weekend, when soldier and their families reunited.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dismissed!

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON (voice-over): At the first glimpse of her father in nearly a year, Alexandria Frey showed us just how fast a 14-year-old can move. She started high school while her dad was gone. Her mom had to do everything alone.

MICHELLE FREY, HUSBAND BACK FROM IRAQ: It has been a very long 10 months, but it's over.

LAWRENCE (on camera): Is there any way to describe what it feels like to have your dad back after so long?

ALEXANDRIA FREY, DAD BACK FROM IRAQ: He looks good.

LAWRENCE: What did you miss most about him?

A. FREY: He was more like my best friend.

LAWRENCE: Now you've got your best friend back?

A. FREY: Yes. I had more of a bond with him than anything, so, yes.

LAWRENCE: Enjoy your time.

(voice-over): The last few hours of waiting were the toughest. Then, the plane full of soldiers finally landed, and the troops got a welcome home fit for rock stars. Christmas wishes were answered. The fight in Iraq finished. For Sergeant Major Eric Frey, it's bittersweet.

SGT. MAJ. ERIC FREY, JUST BACK FROM IRAQ: In one sense, I feel happy that it's over with and that we're getting all of our troops out, then you kind of look back at the sacrifices that our soldiers have made, our family members have made.

LAWRENCE: Both in blood and money. At one point, the U.S. was spending $5,000 per second in Iraq. The war took nearly 4,500 American lives, and 32,000 troops came home wounded, but these are some of the last Americans to leave Iraq, and they won't be going back.

MAJ. MIKE IANNUCCULLI, U.S. ARMY: It's my third deployment, the first one with both of these guys. And it was a lot harder, but it just makes it that much sweeter coming home. (END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Chris, he's joining us from the Pentagon.

So, Chris, you've talked to a lot of these men and women. What does it mean for them to finally leave Iraq?

LAWRENCE: Suzanne, a lot of them felt honored to be some of the last to come out of Iraq. They felt like they were a part of something historic, especially, they said, to be able to wind down the war in Iraq with no casualties, to bring everybody back safely. And like I think the sergeant major mentioned, it was bittersweet in a way, because a lot of these men and women have lost friends along the way, fellow soldiers who were killed in Iraq, especially during some of the worst fighting in 2006, 2007, 2008. And so, a lot of their time was sort of reflecting back on those soldiers as well.

MALVEAUX: What's next for these men and women when they come back home?

LAWRENCE: You know, I talked to a lot of them. Some of them -- right now, they're all in reintegration training, getting acclimated, re-acclimated to being back in the civilian world. Some of them are already angling for an Afghanistan deployment in 2013. They want to re-deploy again while that war is still going on.

Others are looking forward to getting out of the military. They've done a lot of deployments over the past six, seven years. But the economy is so bad right now, a few have mentioned that they may end up just re-enlisting for another four years and waiting it out to see if perhaps the job market is a little bit better a few years down the road.

MALVEAUX: Wow. Amazing choices, tough choices that they have to make as well.

Thank you, Chris. Appreciate that.

LAWRENCE: You're welcome.

MALVEAUX: Extending the payroll tax cuts. So, Democrats say they've actually got a compromise that is now in the works. Are Republicans in a buying mood? We'll see.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Just 26 days to go. We're not talking about a Christmas countdown. You might think so though, but this is actually the time that is left until American workers will see a tax increase. Congress says they can avoid it by extending the payroll tax cut into 2012.

Karina Huber, she's at the New York Stock Exchange to kind of break this down.

So, Karina, we expect Senate Democrats are going to float a new compromise today. They say that their proposal can actually pay for the cost of the extension, which has been one of the sticking points. If there is no extension here, what does this mean in terms of the cost to folks who are working?

KARINA HUBER, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK, Suzanne.

Well, if we're talking about the average worker, we are talking about $1,000 a year. Here's the deal.

The payroll tax will return to 6.2 percent of income in January if Congress doesn't extend it. Right now we pay 4.2 percent, which is a reduced rate.

If you take a look at the screen, you can see what that two-point increase means for you. So, ,if you're somebody who makes $35,000 a year, we're talking about an extra $700 will be taken out of your pay. If you earn $50,000, we're talking about $1,000 taken out for you. And at $2,000 per year if you make $110,000.

So, the bottom line is, there will be less money in your pocket, which means less money to spend. But then again, opponents say the payroll tax does fund Social Security -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Paint the big picture for us, how important it is to the overall economy.

HUBER: Well, I mean, I guess the question is, has it really made a difference, seeing that reduced rate? And this is a tricky question to answer because we can't point to anything specific to show that it has had an impact. But the purpose of the tax cut was to boost the economy.

Now, the reality is that economic growth slowed this year compared to 2010. Proponents say that it did make an impact, it softened the blow, and by not extending it, that could hurt the recovery next year. But critics counter. They say most people take that extra money, don't actually spend it, but put it into bank accounts, they're saving that money. So they say it doesn't help the economy.

So it's really hard to say for sure right now, but many politicians, particularly Democrats, want to extend it. We are also hearing from Republicans that they might be amenable to extending it as well. Most believe it will pass, and sometime before that deadline -- Suzanne.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(NEWSBREAK)

MALVEAUX: So, 'tis the season to spend, but there are a lot of ways to do it without getting stuck in a deep financial crisis.

Christine Romans explains in this edition of "Smart is the New Rich."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The debt danger signs are flashing everywhere -- in Europe, in Washington, and in our own bank accounts, where incomes are falling and Americans are dipping into saving to pay the bills. Yet, everywhere, you're being encouraged to spend money, lots of money, for the holidays.

The National Retail Federation says you'll spend probably $704. But where is all that money coming from, and have we learned nothing?

RICK NEWMAN, "U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT": You see these numbers about how much money people are spending for the holidays, and it reminds you back when people suddenly had expensive cars in their driveways, boats, fancy vacations. You wondered, like, how are they affording all this?

(LAUGHTER)

NEWMAN: And we seem to be back into that situation. I mean, the fundamental situation here is that real income, after inflation, has been flat for the last year, or maybe even down a tiny little bit.

ROMANS: That means you have to be very careful about putting new debt on your credit cards.

People say they want to be good spenders. Forty-two percent plan to spend less this year than last. That's according to a new bankrate.com poll. But the road to debt is paved with good holiday intentions.

LYNETTE KHALFANI-COX, FOUNDER, ASKTHEMONEYCOACH.COM: It's a lot of data to show that there's a disconnect between what people say they're going to do and what they actually do. Even when people say, I intend to pay off my credit card balances, for instance, they typically don't pay them off. That's why we have about 15 million people right now, in 2011, who haven't paid off their holiday shopping bills from 2010.

ROMANS: Don't be that person. A few smart things to consider before you spend a dime.

If you can't afford it, put it down. Really think about your purchase and whether you need it.

How do you know whether you need it? Make a budget. It sounds so simple, but make a budget and make a list.

Think about what you want to buy and why, and stick to it. You are smarter than the retail tricks. Stay to the list.

Also, use technology. Comparison shop online. Use coupon codes when you can, and never buy into this hype that these are the lowest prices you'll see all season. There are always lower prices and more sales ahead.

And take a timeout. If you see something not on your list you want to buy, wait 48 hours and go back later. You would be surprised how often the urge fades with time.

And let's say your little cost center, your little kid's crying for that sold-out LeapPad on the hottest toys list. A little advice from toy expert Jim Silver. Shop in person on Fridays from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the toy store. That's when toy stores restock for the weekend. That's when you have the best chance of finding that hot toy that no one else can.

For this week's "Smart is the New Rich," I'm Christine Romans in New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Jerry Sandusky defends himself before the nation -- again. We're going to dissect his interview with "The New York Times" and find out why some people say that the long-time Penn State assistant coach needs to clam up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: So, new developments in the Penn State child molestation case. For the second time since his arrest, Jerry Sandusky gave a national interview -- that happened over the weekend -- and lawyers for the alleged victims, they are reacting harshly. They say that Sandusky is trying to manipulate public opinion and it is not working.

Here's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In an interview videotaped by "The New York Times," Jerry Sandusky not only repeats his denials of wrongdoing, he tells the paper, youngsters in his Second Mile program "might say I was a father figure," a father figure who stands accused of 40 counts of raping and molesting young boys.

A few weeks ago, NBC's Bob Costas asked Sandusky whether he is sexually attracted to young boys.

JERRY SANDUSKY, ALLEGED CHILD SEX ABUSER: Am I sexually attracted to underage boys?

BOB COSTAS, NBC NEWS: Yes.

SANDUSKY: Sexually attracted? You know, I enjoy young people.

CANDIOTTI: The former coach tells "The New York Times" at first he wondered what to make of the question. Then in an intriguing exchange, an uncomfortable Sandusky tries to explain his answer. Off camera, you'll hear the voice of Sandusky's lawyer prompting his client.

SANDUSKY: If I say, no, I'm not attracted to boys, that's not the truth because I'm attracted to young people, boys, girls -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, but not sexually. You're attracted because you enjoy spending time.

SANDUSKY: Right. I enjoy. That's what I was trying to say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He answered that.

SANDUSKY: I enjoy spending time with young people. I enjoy spending time with people. I mean, my two favorite groups are the elderly and the young.

CANDIOTTI: An attorney who represents victim number 6 named in the grand jury report, the boy whose mother came forward in 1998 saying Sandusky had showered with her son and hugged him naked from behind says the accused coach's latest explanations are hard to watch.

HOWARD JANET, ATTORNEY FOR ALLEGED VICTIM: His answer was really no different, frankly, than the answer that he gave before. And the sad part from his perspective, if we want to look at it from that perspective, that his lawyer had to intervene and give him some advice as how to answer that question. He won't have that luxury in a courtroom.

CANDIOTTI: Sandusky admits that after he was banned from taking young people on to Penn State's main campus, following a 2002 allegation that he raped a boy in a locker room, he still had access.

Sandusky told the paper, then-athletic director Tim Curley never took away his keys. "I still have my keys," Sandusky said. "And I still went in there and worked out."

MARCI HAMILTON, ATTORNEY FOR ALLEGED VICTIM NO. 6: Any argument that these men now are making any of this up is really weak. And if that is all that he has in terms of his defense, he is going to have really rough going in the courts.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): Sandusky again denies that then-head coach Joe Paterno ever mentioned anything to him about the 2002 shower allegation. Sandusky faces a preliminary hearing in a couple of weeks. Among the expected witnesses, at least one of his accusers.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: So, Jerry Sandusky's choice of words, particularly when he says he's attracted to children, has his attorney jumping now into the interview, but it's the attorney, after all, who agrees to let Sandusky talk publicly about all of this.

I want to bring in our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, who is joining us via Skype.

So, first of all, Jeff, does it seem odd to you that Sandusky struggles to explain his feelings about children? JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I mean, the whole situation is so odd. And the fact that he is giving interviews. I mean, criminal defendants, as a rule, don't give interviews.

I think Sandusky's demonstrating why that's a good idea not to give interviews. I thought this one, the one with Joe Thomas of the "Times," was better for Sandusky than the real disaster with Bob Costas a couple weeks ago.

But still, how he explains his relationship with children is, to use a legal term, very creepy.

MALVEAUX,: A legal term. Jeff, hearing his attorney chime in on that tape to clarify what he means by attracted to children. How damaging do you think that is if this actually goes to court and folks listen to this explanation?

TOOBIN: Well, I mean compared to the rest of the case, it's not all that damaging, presumably based on the grand jury report you'll have six kids saying he raped me. I mean, that's a heck of a lot more damaging than a lawyer interjecting a word here or there.

But I think it underlines the problem that Sandusky has, is explaining the nature of his relationships. Obviously, Sandusky says there was no sex involved, but there was, even by Sandusky's own admission, a kind of closeness that I think most jurors would regard as suspicious, to say the least.

And it is a lot easier to prove actual sexual contact if you already have a questionable relationship with children in the first place.

MALVEAUX: Jeff, you mentioned the fact that it was rather bizarre that his lawyer is allowing him to talk like this, to give these kinds of interviews. What do you think is behind that strategy?

TOOBIN: Well, I think -- and this is something that I know defense lawyers deal with all the time. Is that when you have a high- profile case, the clients says, look, no one is out there telling my side of the story.

No one -- I'm just being deluged with this terrible publicity and I'm innocent, so let me tell my story. It often comes from the client, not the lawyers. Now it is usually the lawyer's job to say, look, we'll get our chance in the courtroom, wait, take your time, this publicity generally doesn't matter much.

And it is true. The publicity tends not to matter six months, a year from now when the trial comes, but it is often the clients who are very demanding about getting their story out. It is the lawyer's job to say, look, not now.

MALVEAUX: I assume that, Jeff, once this stuff is out in the public domain, you can't put it back in the box, right? I mean all of this could be used in court against him. TOOBIN: Absolutely. I mean, these tapes, the Judge Thomas interview and the "Times," the Bob Costas interview, they can be played. They are evidence. And given -- I don't know what the prosecution's strategy will be down the line, but they are generating material that can be used for the defense -- obviously -- by the prosecution. Obviously, the defense feels that they're trying to change public perceptions in such a way that the jury pool will be more sympathetic to him. That calculation seems misguided to me, but we'll see when the trial comes.

MALVEAUX: All right, Jeffrey Toobin. Thanks, Jeff.

Some of the Republican candidates have been making some pretty big claims on the campaign trail. We've put those claims to the test in today's "truth-o-meter."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: It's almost becoming a tradition. If you are a Republican running for office, you paid a visit to the Donald. Donald Trump, of course, Newt Gingrich is meeting with the reality TV star, businessman, right now.

He's not alone. Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, they all spent time with Trump over the last couple months or so, but others not so much. Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, they say they have no interest in meeting Trump.

In a Fox News interview today, Huntsman went so far as to say I'm not going to kiss his ring and I'm not going to kiss any other part of his anatomy. As for Trump, he still is not ruling out a run himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REAL ESTATE MOGUL: The date is December 27th. I am looking to endorse somebody after that debate. I'm not looking at anything. Now if the wrong person gets in that's different, but I'm not looking for the wrong person. I don't think the wrong person --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We're hearing a lot of claims from Republican candidates while they are on the trail. We're going to get your vote. It's got us wondering what's really true, what's not.

Joining us, someone who can answer that for us, Angie Holan with the St. Petersburg Times and politifact is putting the comments to the test in the truth-o-meter.

So let's start with this one, Angie. This is Newt Gingrich, he says people can use food stamps for anything including go to Hawaii, and even millionaires can qualify. What do you make of that statement?

ANGIE HOLAN, POLITIFACT.COM: We gave this one a pants on fire. The key about the food stamp program is that it's means tested. So if you are a millionaire, you cannot qualify for food stamps. Then there are rules that limit food stamps to buying food.

Now you can, if you get food stamps in Florida and you want to spend them in Georgia, can you do that, but all the rules say food only. So pants on fire.

MALVEAUX: Pants on fire. Wow, OK. Let's talk about another candidate, Mitt Romney. He said Newt Gingrich's immigration plan offers a new doorway to amnesty. What do we make of that?

HOLAN: You know, we rated this one mostly true. There are disagreements about what does the word "amnesty" means. Newt Gingrich said in the debate he envisions boards that would look at illegal immigrants on an individual basis.

And he says if they had ties to work, family and church, they could be allowed to stay. So it's a much stricter standard than the landmark 1986 law that offered amnesty, but still we rated it mostly true.

MALVEAUX: And Joe Biden, Vice President Joe Biden, made a surprise trip to Iraq last week and he said about the progress there, he says the violence is down to an all-time low since the start of the war. Is that true?

HOLAN: Our report concluded mostly true. We went over a number of different statistics about what's going on in Iraq. We looked at troop casualties. We looked at the number of wounded troops. We looked at civilian deaths in Iraq.

All those numbers have been going down. Now there are a few numbers that are creeping up, such as insurgency attacks, but overall, it is a picture of less violence so we rated that statement mostly true.

MALVEAUX: All right, Angie Holan, thank you for keeping them honest.

Coming up at 1:45 p.m. Eastern, Newt Gingrich has a press conference. He is expected to speak about his meeting with Donald Trump among some other things. We'll bring that to you live right here on CNN.

For nearly 2 million Americans currently receiving unemployment benefits, they're going to lose coverage this January if Congress does not extend the program. So residents of those states, what could they lose out the most?

Coming in at number three -- New York State, 126,000 New Yorkers would lose their benefits come January. The next most impacted, Floridians, 131,000 would lose out if a benefits package is not extended. Find out which state would hurt most of all in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: What state will lose out the most in unemployment benefits aren't extended come this January? The answer -- California, 305,000 to 400,000 Californians will lose their unemployment benefits.

Getting some breaking news in here. Want to give you the latest here. This is the administrator of the FAA charged with DUI, just getting this from the city of Fairfax.

Police have charged the administrator ever the Federal Aviation Administration with driving while intoxicated. This statement saying that Jerome Randolph Babbitt, 55 been was arrested on Saturday.

It was about 10:30 in the evening when an officer on patrol observed a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the road. They pulled him over. After it was determined that he was under the influence of alcohol, Babbitt was transported to the adult detention center where a judge issued a warrant for driving while intoxicated.

He has been placed on a personal recognizance bond. That again, the administrator of the FAA, Babbitt, arrested for driving while intoxicated.

Politicians constantly talking about something, some of the things they say may have you doing a double-take. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: One of the advantages to me of not running for office is, I don't even have to pretend to try to be nice to people I don't like. Now some of you may not think I've been good at it, but I've been trying.

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tracking 24 million packages at no extra cost while they move. Over here you have the federal government, which cannot find 11 million illegal aliens while they're sitting still. So one of my proposals is that we mail a package to every person who's here illegally.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D), WEST VIRGINIA: This esteemed body's approval rating's at 9 percent. And I'm having a hard time finding the 9 percent. But it seems to me that the only thing that we're working hard on is whether we can get the approval rating to zero.

JON HUNTSMAN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If I don't get your vote, I want a fee for services rendered, because no other candidate -- no other candidate has marketed the state of New Hampshire more than I have.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I made a joke. I'm sorry that there's at least one of my colleagues that can't take a joke. And so I apologize if I offended him and hope that some day he will have a sense of humor.

REP. CHARLES RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: Recently we talked about "in God we trust." The question is whether God's going to continue to trust us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, where's Bill Clinton?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's in the driveway (INAUDIBLE).

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Yes, you can go out there all by yourself, man.

KERMIT THE FROG: Hey, do you mind, Michelle, if I read along, too?

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: Do you know this story?

KERMIT THE FROG: I do. It's one of my favorites of all time. I particularly like the part about "no creature was stirring."

OBAMA: Yes.

KERMIT THE FROG: That never happens when you spend Christmas with the Muppets.

OBAMA: I understand.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Coming up, 1:45 p.m. Eastern, Newt Gingrich. He has a press conference and he's expected to speak about his meeting with Donald Trump, among other things. We're going to bring that to you live right here on CNN.

So, it's Christmastime. You think Santa Claus has a pretty high approval rating, right? Well, meet the NFL quarterback in Wisconsin that is more popular than Santa Claus.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right, NFL season heating up. It was a close call for the Green Bay's attempt at history, but Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers led a last-second drive to set up the game-winning field goal. The Packers beat the Giants 38-35 and improved to 12 wins, no losses. Only one team in NFL history has ever gone undefeated. And Rodgers' play hasn't gone unnoticed in Wisconsin. You've got to check this out. This survey by Public Policy Polling. Eighty-nine percent of people in Wisconsin have a favorable view of the Packers' quarterback. That ranks him higher than George Washington and Santa Claus. Just a couple of people in the survey ranked higher than Rodgers. They are Abraham Lincoln and Jesus.

All right, many expect the Packers to make the Super Bowl, and now we know who's going to be singing during the halftime of the big game -- Madonna. Yes, she's going to take center stage with Cirque du Soleil performers. The game is on in Indianapolis on February 5th. I bet you a lot of folks are going to watch that.

Yet again, southern California bracing for powerful and dangerous Santa Ana winds. In the past week, Santa winds, they have caused considerable damage. We're talking about toppling trees and power polls. Today there is another round of this. I want to bring in Jacqui Jeras to talk a little bit about -- what are we talking about when we say these winds, how strong they are?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, the winds today are not what they were, you know, the middle of last week. So these are a little bit better, but they're still strong enough that they're going to cause some tree damage and potentially more power outages.

This is the range that we've been seeing since last night. Somewhere between 30 and 50 miles per hour. But as we head into the late hours tonight and into tomorrow morning, we think those winds are going to intensify again and we could be looking at gusts exceeding 60 miles per hour.

Things will look better by Wednesday in southern California, but this is just another powerful blast of winter weather that's been pushing the area and really bringing those winds sloping down those mountains, accelerating them and causing all of that damage.

Now, in addition to that, we're also seeing snowy weather across parts of New Mexico, in particularly getting hit very hard, there you can see some video from early this morning. The winds -- you know, the snowfall hasn't been all that bad in Albuquerque itself. Just a couple of inches. But look how the wind is blowing all of that snow across the street and just making things very, very icy.

A live picture of Albuquerque right now where the temperature is 20 degrees, but those winds making it feel like 5 above. So this is really the first big blast of winter for you in Albuquerque. But north of there, certainly has seen plenty of snow so far this season. And there you can see the winter storm warnings estimating somewhere between eight and 12 inches in the high country before all is said and done.

Now that big high is finally going to push out our rainmaker here across the Ohio Valley and down towards the Mississippi Valley. We've had flood problems over the last number of days, all weekend long. It's still a slow mover. Eventually it's going to be making the East Coast by tomorrow. But be aware that those rivers are going to stay very swollen in the upcoming weeks ahead.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, thanks, Jacqui.

I want you to check out this picture here. This is an unbelievable scene out of Japan here. I mean you're talking about this car pile-up. And the cars, too. I mean you're talking about eight Ferraris, three Mercedes, a Lamborghini that all crashed on this expressway in Japan. There were a couple Toyotas as well. This was like 14 cars involved in this thing.

JERAS: Wow.

MALVEAUX: Fortunately, Jacqui -- JERAS: They were all going to an auto show, right? Because you would never see that many Ferraris at one time, would you, normally?

MALVEAUX: I wouldn't think so really. But, you know, who knows. Maybe it's just, you know, a lot of people got a nice ride there. But, fortunately, there were -- 10 folks, they were injured, but not major injuries.

JERAS: Not seriously.

MALVEAUX: So they walked away.

JERAS: Just their hearts broken after they lost all that money in those cars, right?

MALVEAUX: Hearts broken, exactly.

JERAS: Ouch.

MALVEAUX: Like, how much does something like that cost?

JERAS: Oh, my gosh. We could (INAUDIBLE) with that.

MALVEAUX: I can't even imagine.

JERAS: That's a lot of money. Millions of dollars, I'm sure.

MALVEAUX: Yes. Yes. Millions and millions of dollars. Those are some sweet cars and they look kind of nice, but now they're all banged up. Oh, well.

JERAS: It's a shame.

MALVEAUX: You know, OK. I'll see you, Jacqui.

JERAS: OK.

MALVEAUX: So, we've heard a lot about bad behavior from teenagers, especially when it comes to sexting. But are they getting a bum rap? New research says, not so fast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Getting some breaking news here. We understand that President Obama's going to be making a statement at 1:30, in about a half-hour or so, in the briefing room at the White House, regarding state of the economy, as well as taxes. This comes at a time when Democrats and Republicans are trying to find some sort of compromise, if you will, over the tax cut extensions. It also comes at a time when members of Congress are looking to go home. And so we'll see if he's going to be pushing them forward just a little bit on that very important issue.

So, once again, we are awaiting President Obama, that's in about a half hour or so, he's going to be making a statement in the briefing room. And, of course, we're going to bring that to you live. Well, it is called sexting, when people send sexual photos, text messages. Some studies have shown that it is now popular among teenagers. Well, now there is a new study that says only one in 10 pre-teen or teens have been involved with sexting photos. I want to bring in our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, to explain all of this.

So, help us understand this. Do we think earlier studies were exaggerated or have we found something new here?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Suzanne, it's really hard to tell. This study looked at kids between the ages of 10 and 17. A lot of the other studies were looking at kids, let's say, between 13 and 17. So you're going to find lower numbers in this study because it included the younger children.

But having said that, this study found that 10 percent of the kids between the ages of 10 to 17 that they looked at were sending sexual images on their cell phone, either sending them, receiving them, or were depicted in them. So that means one out of 10 kids involved in sexting, that's still a pretty high number.

MALVEAUX: Yes. And, obviously, it's risky behavior. What can happen to some of these kids who actually get caught up in this stuff?

COHEN: Right. Now it's interesting. Most of the time, nothing happens to these kids, because most of the time a picture doesn't even stay on the cell phone or maybe gets sent to one other person. Most of the time they aren't widely distributed. But if they do get widely distributed, and law enforcement folks get wind of it, the child really can get arrested. It is illegal to be sending pictures of minors, especially if you're sending them to other minors. So kids don't always realize that what they're doing can get them into big trouble.

MALVEAUX: So if you're a parent, how do you prevent this from happening with your teenager?

COHEN: First of all, accept the fact that your child may think that this is no big deal. So, you know, you take a picture -- a sexually explicit picture of your girlfriend and send it to a friend of yours. Big deal. That's how some young men are going to think. So the first thing you need to do is talk to your kids about sexting, explain why, even if it doesn't look so sexual to them, it really is. The second thing you need to do is you need to look at your kids' texts. They're kids. You're the parents. You can look at their texts. Go to cnn.com/empoweredpatient to find other tips for talking to your kids about sexting.

MALVEAUX: All right, Elizabeth, thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

MALVEAUX: The postal service announced first class mail, which usually arrives next day, may take up to three days now. This is a move in an effort to cut costs as the postal service is trying to fight off bankruptcy. So we asked you if this is going to impact you. Well, Kristin Bruce says, "knew this was coming for a while. It is what it is. Better planning for my deliveries or pay FedEx or other carriers for the service."

Nicole Rhode says, "it will definitely. Being a college student myself, books are not cheap. I often depend on such services as Amazon to deliver them. I'm not pleased with the news."

Jennifer Wood says, "ugh. From the wife of a mail carrier of 20- plus years."

Stay with us. In the 1:00 hour, Drew Griffin is going to talk live with the postmaster general about those latest changes. And Drew's taking over right now from Studio 7 in Atlanta.

Hey, Drew.