reported he would waive a hearing to put accusers on the stand to tell stories about the alleged abuse. not long ago one released an emotional statement saying in part "i can't believe they put us through this until the last second only to waive the hearing. i will still stand my ground, testify, and speak the truth." sandusky's defense lawyer called it a "tactical decision " and said his client's accusers of motivated by money. they called sandusky a coward. he talked to reporters after leaving the courtroom and compared his legal fight to a football game. >> we are putting together the best possible defense we can do. state course and fight for four quarters. we will await the opportunity to present our side. >> craig melvin joins us lich from pennsylvania. you could hear the attorney in the background said they were not able to present their side of the story. what would have prevented that? >> this was a last minute call we are told. yesterday he had a conversation with prosecutors and prosecutors said they would not raise sandusky's $250,000 bail. they also said they would essentially fight them tooth and nail if he tried to question the credibility of any of the witnesses and there were 11 witnesses going to be called. late last night he and the new cocouncil he hired and jerry sandusky decided they would not have today's preliminary hearing. a number of victim his planned to be here. several were in a holding room this morning and at the last minute, it was all called off. the whole thing spanned three minutes. you mentioned one of the victims. i talked to the attorney, a victim via telephone. he said his victim was relieved. he is 24 years old and did not look forward to going into the stomach-churning details and the 23-page grand jury report. he did not want to have to go into that in court that. did not happen. also happened today, jerry sandusky waived the arraignment, that january 11th arraignment. he will not appear there as well. he entered the not guilty plea and will question the jury trial. all of that taking about three minutes. >> craig melvin for us. let's bring in radio talk show host michael smerconish. joining us by phone, prosecutor and candidate for pennsylvania attorney, thank you both. let me start with you on this development. three minutes and this could have been a dramatic hearing. what do you make of the move? >> i prosecuted hundreds of child sexual assault cases and about half waived their preliminary hearing, but it's significant for the prosecution because it's the defense saying prosecution, had you put on all your witnesses and your testimony, we agree that you would have been able to meet your burden of proof and the case would have proceeded to trial. basically the defense is saying we are sparing everyone the agony of putting the witnesses on and agreeing that the common wealth would have met their burden. it's significant to the common wealth as well as victims in the case. >> let me ask you about sandusky's attorney saying he would not be able to adequately challenge alleged victims he chaim claims are motivated by money. >> that's completely untrue. he would have had a chance to adequately challenge them. that was the time and place for him to do that. i believe that's a very thinly vailed argument. what it was is they knew they wouldn't be able to be successful in getting the case dismiss. >> before we bring in michael, is there any possibility that somewhere behind the scenes, people are talking about a plea deal? >> yes, that is say possibility. they could have waived their preliminary hearing and anticipation of a plea deal or anticipation of anything regarding bail. i seriously doubt the prosecutors would have touched the bail or even gone forth and made any sort of agreement with regard to bail. it is possible that it could be a plea deal in the works. >> thank you. let me bring in michael smerconish. i want the emotion here. you have jerry sandusky comparing this to a football game. that's all this man has known. this speaks to how big of a player penn state and the football program remains in the investigation in this case. >> it is their right to waive the preliminary hearing. i don't like the way this was carried out. the 10 alleged victims of jerry sandusky did go to bed last night believing they were going to have to wake up and walk into the courtroom with 200 people, 100 media and tell the stories. it was an insettling night and they could have spared weeks of anguish that has gone into that and i can't help but note the attorney takes attorney to address the media and makes sure their side of the story is told. what iing is is that this could have been averted and the victims alleged could have been spared preparing for a hearing that they knew would never take place. >> you make a great point about the people who say they were sexually assault and what their feelings must have been overnight. in reality jerry san dusky and his attorney -- i don't want to say don't care, but the priority does not rest in the hands of the victims. it's all about jerry sandusky. they had him speak to the cameras, trying to build a better reputation f he can, for the public. >> i feel like the process was used. i may as well call it out. they gave something up in the process and i think you asked an insightful question when you raised the prospect of a plea deal. what was left on the table today was the defense lawyer's opportunity to hear from the witnesses and assess their story. he could not have attacked their credibility, but he would have been able to lock them into a restation and chronology of the facts and use that information to prepare for next summer or next fall's trial. the fact that he didn't raises the question as to whether something is going on behind closed doors. >> makes you wonder. michael, thank you. we'll talk to you tomorrow. >> partial results from a brand-new news "wall street journal" poll show a majority of likely republican primary voters do not believe the gop field of presidential candidates is strong. the results released an hour ago, 21% say the 21 field to challenge president obama is strong, meaning it is better than other years. 51% say the field is average. 27% say it's weak. deputy political director joins us live from washington. the question is, this is the cards they have been dealt and the lineup. does this mean an independent candidate can come in and maybe woo these dissatisfied gop voters out there? >> i think it depends on who the republican nominee is. i don't think we will get an answer to that over five or six months. we see overall a majority say it's average. it's important to note this may not be the best field, but it's interesting to note in 2008 they end up losing the white house. they had a good roster of sandidates. some of the biggest stars in the republican party. this time around, the field has been reduced to mitt romney and newt gingrich. maybe somebody else might be able to pop. those are the top two. the thing noting while there may not be a lot of enthusiasm, this is a nomination worth having that one of the people would have a shot against president obama. >> i hate to interrupt, but i have about four people in my ear saying we are confirming donald trump is out and not going to moderate that debate december 27th. what do we make of this? >> it shouldn't be a surprise. many candidates including mitt romney decided they were not going to participate in this debate that included rick perry, michele bachmann, newt gingrich and rick santorum are the two that said they were going to. >> 'tis tate. when so many said no, it made sense that this would not happen. we just really have three weeks to go until iowa. the debate season is almost done and time to start voting. >> that's one way to look at it. you have two candidates that would be participating. donald trump chooses to see it differently. this is what he said is behind his decision. the party of candidates are concerned that sometime after the final episode of the apprentice when they are no longer applicable to me as an independent and unless i agree not to run as an independent, they will not agree to attend or be part of the debate scheduled for december 27th. he goes on to say i would like to thank newt gingrich and rick santorum to immediately accept after being a part of the debate, i believe this would not only have been the most watched debate and the most substantive and entering debate. that is the statement from donald trump. he is not seeing it as two people, but feels he intimidated the rest of them. >> there you go. there was a curious factor instead of a news person like we have seen in the other 12 that will soon be 13 republican debates. it is true. donald trump will not take out his consideration and possibly running as independent sometime later in 2012. why would someone if you are mitt romney or rick perry want to be running against you as a third party. that's his opinion and the other was there were a lot of republican who is thought that participating in the debate was toxic with the birtherism. >> thank you. let me bring in author and political analyst and a contributor to the grio.com. you heard it there. a couple of headlines. donald trump not moderating this debate. he said the american people are embarrassed by the gridlock taking place. i must leave all my options open. above all else, we must make america great again. what do you make of this? >> not very much. i will tell you why. when trump emerged as a possibility only in his mind, i knew then it was two things. ego, dilutional and a big, big publicity move on the part of donald trump. not a serious contender. put nothing on the ground and has really noplace in the gop. it wasn't going anywhere. as far as the debate goes, when every one of the main gop contenders with the exception of mitt romney said no and republican national committee behind closed doors essentially said if you go with trump, you will risk support and money, the dye was cast. no independent either. >> let me talk about this new poll where the majority at least in this poll described the presidential candidate as the gop as either weak or average. what does that say other than what's obvious? >> it's been said all along. the party base is now satisfied. what we are seeing now is a new poll. remember all along the polls have been consistent on one thing. they are not happy with the pack of contenders out of there. >> we have that flavor of the month and we have the same tone with the other than mitt romney candidates that have been popular. with that said, speaking of other than mitt romney, we have this article that talks about the south is up for grabs and haley barber said we are more split up regarding who to select. he said i do not think there is a favorite son of the south in this primary and goes on to say governor perry looks strong down early on and that's not opened back up and he believes that somehow the governor can make a come back there. >> i don't agree with that. haley barber, that's him talking. obviously he is a force, but not a decision maker in terms of what will happen at the end. rick perry was a flavor of the month. he had a chance and blew it. we are still looking at two candidates. romney and gingrich. even there i think we are still looking at romney. the key ingredient is organization, money, and a network on the ground. here's a question. does gingrich with his popularity in the polls have any of these three things? remember something else. baggage is a big thing that gingrich has to deal with and other things. the general election shows romney will do far better than anyone else against obama head to head. >> thank you. complete results of the nbc poll tonight on nightly news with brian williams. right now the house of representatives is considering a proposed plan to extent the tax cut for 160 million working americans. several hours of debate the house will vote on the measure and it is expected to pass. but president obama is threatening to veto the plan if it also passes the senate which is unlikely. that is because of how it is paid for and what else it contains. democrats are accusing the republicans of playing politics. >> sadly mr. speaker, we are here once again with my republican colleagues who are trying to go through this tax extender's legislation providing mere crumbs for working people. >> capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell joins us live. what's the latest? >> this is very heated today and tied up with something that is really sort of unrelated, but part of this real back and forth between the white house and capitol hill. there is an end of year spending bill that needs to be passed so that the government can keep running beyond the 16th. there republican who is say the deal was done between democrats and republicans to call for about $1 trillion in spending. the white house is wanting to hold off because of this payroll tax cut, wanting that to be done first. there is a lot of jockeying between the white house, capitol hill and the parties over what should happen next. speaker boehner was talking about the gop version of a payroll tax extension and speak optimistically earlier today. . >> it will passing r passing with a bipartisan vote and once they have done it, we will consider how to move forward. the house will work its will today. >> the white house is saying that the president will veto the house version and that presents a problem. where can they go and how would they negotiate a solution. many tell us they expect it to get done and there is a lot of fighting and not a lot of resolving going on. we will see the result about 5:00. >> where have we heard that before? thank you, kelly. up next the look at a military chopper crash that killed four soldiers. plus -- >> everyone looked at me after they said it and didn't think anything of it. >> a high school basketball player tries to stop a racist tradition that her teammates took part in before every basketball game and she ended up getting suspend. we will talk with her live. a new push to ban drivers from using cell phones after a teenager was involved in a deadly pile up after she sent and received 11 text messages in 11 minutes. join our conversation online and find our twitter page at "news nation." this is ridiculous. yeah, and it's got apps. nice. it's got vudu, twitter, facebook. no honey, not facebook. ♪ honey, you think my sweater's horrendous? cats don't skate. i think it kicks butt. 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