lee zeldin shockingly attacked at a campaign rally by a man who tried to stab him, and the very brief stint in custody for the man arrested has zeldin and others sounding off. proceeding with caution. could the optimism in one american city inspire us all to think big and more positively about our inflated economy right now? welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we re going to start with our politics lead and a clear sign from the january 6th house committee they believe it is time for attorney general merrick garland to charge donald trump with a crime. this morning, republican congressman adam kinzinger from illinois, one of the republicans on the committee, told cnn that the timeline laid out by the committee is not just damning of the president but leaves trump with clear criminal culpability. we have proven different components of a criminal case against donald trump or people around him in every hearing. and i think taken in totality, this represents the greates
that he treated justin trudeau over the weekend and whether you are talking about north korea or the iran nuclear deal or the paris climate accord, all of the decisions have been governed by the idea he is projecting toughness where his predecessors have failed but what he s doing is dramatically reshaping america s standing on the global stage and our relationship with key allies. and he said talk to north korea and see what happens an don t wait five years on germany and france and they ve been ripping us off for years an he said that in 1999. as dana said rightly, those are things he could have said yesterday and he s not wrong about them. we did tolerate a lot out of north korea that we probably shouldn t have and we probably should have done a better job to get to the point where they didn t have the capability that they have right now. so we ll see how it goes. i think he has done a fairly good job of keeping expectations low for the result of this summit. and i think we all
john fugelson and john cain. a lot to talk about this morning. that was in unison, i like it. we ll ask the congresswoman about it. this morning mitt romney turning his full attention to the general election after sweeping yesterday s gop primaries in connecticut, delaware, new york, pennsylvania and rhode island. a better america begins tonight. tonight is the start of a new campaign to unite every american who knows in their heart that we can do better. the last few years have been the best that barack obama can do. but it s not the best america can do. tonight is the beginning of the end of the disappointments of the obama year. but romney hasn t quite clinched the number of nominations just yet. right now he has 764 of the 1,144 needed. newt gingrich 141 and ron paul 75. romney supporter congresswoman mary bono mach. nice to see you this morning. you, too. rick santorum was holding on for a long time and the cultural conservative kind of vote for so long now and h
where a few of them that you see here and a few you don t may soon become the front-runner. after tomorrow night that could change. some of these boxes may soon be empty. politico s roger simon said the best, iowa caucuses don t pick winners, they pick losers. they could continue on from here even if they don t place well. a loser here could take new hampshire, someone could win south carolina or another win florida. it s been that kind of campaign. the polls here reflect it. take a look. the des moines register. mitt romney and ron paul in a statistical tie. rick santorum close behind. michele bachmann in single digits tonight. this one showing romney out in front. paul, santorum and gingrich essentially tied for second place. it won t be dull and every move matters. at this stage in the race there s no room for error. a wide open race. people have been watching the debates, and they re looking for the perfect candidate. mitt romney leading in the national polls all but
less than one year ago on this american morning. captions by vitac www.vitac.com good morning. it s friday, december 23rd. i m deb feyerick an with alina cho on this american morning. good morning to all of you out in. so glad you re with us. up first, an early christmas present for 160 million americans. the house is expected to vote today on extending the payroll tax cut that divided washington for weeks. house republicans caved yesterday after a lot of arm-twisting by president obama who stead was the disgust of the american people that broke the log jam. boehner saying his side still wants a one-year extension but saw the political reality. we have fought the good fight. i talked to a number of members over the past 24 hours who believe that, hey, we don t like this two-month extension, we don t like this reporting problem in the senate bill, and if you can get this fixed, why not why not do the right thing for the american people, even though it s not e