an interesting outcome. this may be good news. plus, a school district that pays struggling students to go to summer school. talk about outrage. we re going to chat about that this morning. we re going to begin with the olympics and the night that was filled with so much promise and ended in so much disappointment for the u.s. men s gymnastics team after finishing first in the trials, they entered the finals last night as favorites. but a fall on the floor, two costly errors in the pommel horse and a fall on the vault undid team usa. halfway through six rotations they were in last place. last. but they rallied at the last minute to finish in fifth place. better, but still not great. amanda davies joins us from london. they were talking so big going into the finals. what happened? i think the mood in london at the olympic park today probably reflects the mood of the u.s. men s gymnastics team. gray and gloomy is the best way to sum it up. they were hotly tipped for a
good evening, everyone. i m erin burnett. outfront tonight, the big scare. with just four days in the congress high tails it out of washingt washington, there was plenty of talk about the looming consequences of the looming fiscal cliff. we re talking about tax cuts expiring for everyone automatically, payroll taxes going up, emergency unemployment benefits ending and, of course, the $1.2 trillion in so-called sequestration cuts. about half of that sum is going to come from defense. the obligation of the commander in chief is to act like the commander in chief, and that would be to prevent these cuts, which in the words of his own secretary of defense, would devastate our national security. interesting, acting like a commander in chief, because a lot of the previous commanders in chief have done a lot more than barack obama may be about to do. we ve certainly been here before. former president ronald reagan during his second term cut defense spending by about 10%. the c
gains. they claim this video shows a police station they took over. cnn cannot independently verify the authenticity of this video, however. opening statements got under way today in the drew peterson trial. now, he is the former chicago area police officer accused of murdering his third wife, she was found dead in the bathtub in 2004. her death was treated as an accident. but peterson came under scrutiny when his fourth wife stacy disappeared. the trial is expected to last about a month. now to what is going on in the olympics. okay. we got a spoiler alert, though. so put your tv on mute if you don t want to know who the winner is. the u.s. women s gymnastics team now in first place in the finals after the first rotation. they just did the vault. now, if the u.s. wins, it is going to be their first team gold since 1996. we ll watch this one and keep you posted. now, in swimming, the women s 200 meter freestyle happens in about two hours. 17-year-old american missy frankl
syria now. i m not defending radical jihadists. nor am i naive to their intentions or beliefs. sitting members of congress, people in important positions of power, who are point fingers at individuals working in the government making allegations or spreading innuendo about them without any direct evidence. they re dragging people s names through the mud. these are the five members of congress who we re talking about. michele bachmann, thomas rooney and lynn west moreland. over the weekendhey got a new and powerful ally it seems, newt gingrich. he refers to congresswoman bachmann and the others as the national security five. he blames american elites for being blinded by political correctness. the level of self-deception necessary to misunderstand the muslim brotherhood, gingrich writes, verges on psychosis. asking difficult questions designed to make america safer. asking the difficult questions. remember that phrase. he says critics of the five represent the kind of willful
later in the broadcast, we re going to look at the role foreign jihadists are playing in syria right now. i m not defending radical islamists nor am i naive to their beliefs. but what i am talking about is people working in this government making allegations or spreading innuendos about them without any direct evidence. they re dragging people s names and reputations through the mud. here are the five people we are talking about, michele bachmann, trent franks and others. newt gingrich refers to the others as the national security five. he blames american elites for being blinded to the political threat. it verges on a psychosis. he goes on, the national security five are doing their duty and asking difficult questions designed to make america safer. we think you deserve a look at the people they ve been targeting and the tactics they ve been using. they ve named these two asking a federal inspectors general to investigate muslim brotherhood infiltration. on the right is moha