flaring and deadly political upheaval. we re learning more about who these young men are and why their families are so frightened. i m wolf blitzer ayou re in th situation room. we re coming to you from washington s historic constitution hall, the scene of tonight s cnn republican presidential debate in which we ll focus on national security and foreign policy. in just under four hours, the candidates will walk on stage. it s been ten days since their last face-off an in that time, there have been some dramatic changes in the race. newt gingrich is now at the front of the pack according to our new poll. in this statistical dead heat with mitt romney. and while his new top tier status puts gingrich in the spotlight, romney is always getting a lot of attention for his first television campaign commercial. an ad that s misleading at best. democrats are calling it quote, dishonest. and deceitful. cnn s joe johns is working the story for us. what is this all about? this is a
nor easter out of the way, should have a pretty good day in new york city at 68. boston, sunshine, 65. cooler, the farther north you head, binghamton 59. burlington might have showers. the rainy area in the country, this isn t much, around san francisco and pulling towards salt lake city later today. should be a dry, warm day if phoenix 91. albuquerque, 76. the pacific northwest, 57, coolish in seattle, but it is october, after all. boise at 70 degrees. thanks so much. for the first time since the rescue a handful of the 33 miners in chile are talking now to the media. the group appears with medical staff at copiapo regional hospital where they were treated after being pulled from the mine. nbc s natalie nmorales joins us live. you appears on a talk show last night. the guys are expressing concern about wanting to get privacy back. reporter: yeah, they
a football. not quite these are from from the gulf? yes. they are safe to eat. i ll eat one. my gosh. aren t they fresh? thomas? you re making us jealous. i m from baltimore, i know their place. yeah. come on down to philly. if i could, i d get these up to the control room but i m stuck here. city of brother love, come on down. they ll be gone in no time. have fun down there. enjoy the shrimp. reporter: good weather for the phillies and giants across the street. phillies, of course, lost last night. they ll try to beat the giants. go, phils. we got the plug in. a programming note for everybody, watch football night in america at 7:00 eastern followed by sunday night football with the colts facing red skins, tonight on nbc. sure we got the mad men music going first. the mad men finale airs
we re noticing some of the video, many of the miners are not wearing sunglasses, several are wearing sunglasses. is that they re looking to be more private or is that out of concern for their eyesight is still affected by the daylight? reporter: yeah, some of they mentioned the lights and the sunlight still affects their eyes so they keep it with them at all times. they re still having some issues with that. but for the most part, you know, nighttime and when they re in darkness, they re fine to be without their sunglasses. but, yeah, interesting to see all of them, to see their eyes for the first time and see the expression and the emotion and the tears because we saw a lot of tears last night. these are guys who have been through a lot and they re very much affected by that. you can certainly tell that they re going to have a lot to deal with in the coming months. they ve been to hell and back, that s for sure. reporter: they surely have. police in washington state are in
the first ve first time since their rescue. a group held a news conference this weekend, their first since spending two months trapped underground. they also appeared on a talk show last night. nbc s natalie morales is live for us in chile. you also appeared on the talk show with the miners. what are they relegaling in the interviews, the details they haven t shared about that experience yet? reporter: well, you know, thomas, they have that pact where they say they re not going to talk about the most difficult moments. we did hear about those dark times. one of the miners said that he saw death. he felt like he was dying. other miners said all they had to drink during those first 17 days was the water that was basically tainted with machine oil. they said that the videos that they sent up to the surface, so that their families saw and that the whole world saw, were essentially not showing the full picture. it didn t really reveal the horror and the emotional trauma that they were goi