love that music. good morning, welcome to "early start." we're bringing you the news from a to z. it's 5:00 in the morning in the east. oh, what a night, shall we say. there's a lot to tell you about with regard to politics. a helicopter like this, a chinook, you've seen many of

them, has apparently crashed. six peace-keeping troops were aboard and have died and the taliban is claiming responsibility by sending a text message to cnn. >> and last night's debate. newt gingrich calls out the media, specifically john king, and he calls his ex-wife a liar. we're going to play all sorts of stuff for you this morning, get all sorts of answers and let people weigh in. >> talk about political heat. unbelievable stuff. and, also, and the story we've been watching, the italian cruise ship where the rescue operations have been on and off is teetering eight feet from an underwater ledge that could drop that ship 200 feet down. and rough weather is moving in, so this is a bad combination. the italian authorities are trying to stop any kind of environmental disaster because of the fuel that's on board. >> an anonymous strikes again. a notorious group is claiming responsibility for shutting down the internet -- or actually some

web sites. what could be the largest coordinated internet attack that has ever been launched. >> sorry about that. i want to get you up to speed on the breaking news because we've been sort of working the phones through our international offices to get information on that helicopter crash. the taliban claiming responsibility to cnf for a downed nato helicopter in afghanistan. six peace keeping forces were killed in this accident. >> it actually happen late yesterday. this is what a chinook helicopter looks like. we don't have that picture for you. there's a chinook helicopter, was in the area when that chopper crashed. the taliban is claiming responsibility in that text message to cnn. and this is the worst crash since last august which happened in eastern afghanistan. 30 soldiers were killed in that accident.

among those killed, 22 elite navy seal commandos. we have a live report headed your way at 5:30 eastern time. >> and a lot of other big news happening as well. what? 26 hours to go until voting begins in south carolina. and the presidential hopeful, newt gingrich is surging in the polls. the pun dents are crediting his performance during last night's gop debate. if you didn't see it, wow, wow. this was heat. and it all had to do with this. mare anne gingrich was his second wife. the opening question was to newt gingrich. it was about mary anne's interview on abc where she claims newt asked her for an open marriage with his mistress. and here is what his ex-wife, mary anne, told abc. >> it started with a phone call at my mother's house and he asked for a divorce. >> on the phone? >> on the phone. and he said i want a divorce.

i said is there somebody else? and it was quiet. and i knew. i found out during our conversations that it was occurring in my bedroom in our apartment in washington. and he always called me at night. he would always end with, "i love you. while she was there listening. >> right next to him? >> in my home. >> i said to him, newt, we've been married a long time. and he said, yes, but you want me all to yourself. calista doesn't care what i do. >> what was he saying to you? >> oh, he was asking to have an open marriage. and i refused. >> he wanted an open marriage? >> yeah, that i accept the fact that he has somebody else in his life. >> and you said? >> no. no. that is not a marriage.

>> well, this was grounds for some serious light and heat at the debate. newt gingrich flat out said what marianne said was false. and then he went further and he took on the media and slammed the media for running with that interview. >> your ex-wife gave an interview to abc news and another interview with the washington post and this story is kind of viral on the internet. in it, she says that you came to her in 1999 at a time when you were having an affair. she says you asked her, sir, to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> no, but i will. [ applause ] >> i think -- i think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office.

and i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. [ applause ] >> as you noted, mr. speaker, this story did not come from our network. as you know, it is the subject of the campaign. i get your point. >> john, it was repeated by your network. you chose to start the debate with it. doe don't try to blame somebody else. you and your staff chose to start the debate with it. this story is false. every personal friend i have who knew us says the story is false. we offered several of them to abc to prove it was false. they weren't interested. they would like to attack any republican. >> fascinating reaction from all of our political pun dants after the debate. our senior political activist who has seen a thing or two in politics called that a game changer for newt gingrich saying that this could be the moment that helps newt gingrich take south carolina tomorrow. >> speaker gingrich got a

standing ovation in this auditorium for saying it was basically a completely inappropriate question. >> and he also scored points in the monday night debate by attacking juan williams' questions. this is one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't. it is a story that is making the rounds in the campaign. is it an issue? i'm happy came up in the last 48 hours. of course not. is it an issue that voters in the state are talking about today? is it an issue that he several times before the debate talked about in a very calm manner? >> it is. >> he talked about it today earlier in a much different manner. but you knew -- i mean, how much of this was debate thee ach riks on his part? did you know he was going to have that response? >> i knew he was going to challenge the question. i don't read minds. i don't want to make a judgment about the speaker's response. i've been covering politics for 25 years. i understood if i asked the question he was not going to be happy with it and he was going to turn on me. again, you make the judgment call. is it an issue in the debate? might not be a great issue.

it might not be an issue we want to talk about, but it is a debate. it was my judgment. my decision and mine alone. let's deal with it up front. let's not try to sneak it into the middle of the debate. people at home agree or disagree with that. you make a decision, you ask a question. this is politics. he's trying to promote himself. of course he's going to attack us. we had a nice conversation afterwards. i've had a long relax ship with the speaker. >> panelists, what do you all think? >> let me just talk a minute. this is one of the most explicit moments we've seen in debate history. >> in debate history? >> it was one of the harshest attacks we've had on the press in a long, long time. as a political matter, i think gingrich saw a fast ball coming. for this audience, he smacked it right out of the park. i think there's a reasonable chance that he can win south carolina based on that answer. >> smacked it out of the park. that's big time.

here's what we can tell you. he's getting momentum. he's got it on his side going into the debate. the policy polling found numbers like these. 35% of republican voters in south carolina are backing newt gingrich. 29% are backing mitt romney. 15% come in both equally for ron paul and rick santorum. >> so we want to bring in our political panel, sheira, eric ericson, editor in chief, and maria cardona former senior advisor to hillary clinton. eric, i'm going start with you. that gingrich explosion, it was really powerful stuff. we've just rewatched it. and you saw what our senior political analyst said about the debate. that this could actually win him south carolina. do you think it will? >> yeah, you know, we've got some bananas and apples and oranges over there.

i think that's the fruit plate that newt gingrich sent. absolutely. that question, he did knock it out of the park. we knew it was coming. it was very interesting, after the debate, he went over to john king and thanked him for a great debate. of course he did. we just set him up nicely for tomorrow. and, you know, the question had to be asked, i'm glad john asked it first because it would have otherwise over shadowed everything in the debate. so, yeah, this question won newt gingrich the south carolina primary. >> so he was taking a lot of criticism, john king, that is, for asking this question first. you think that was a good idea? get it off the plate? >> oh, absolutely. everyone was waiting for the question. everyone knew it was coming. you might as well get it out of the way up front instead of being -- if he didn't ask it up front, cnn would be accused of dragging out the viewers until the very end in soap opera fashion. it needed to be asked. asked up front was the right place to ask it. >> sheira, let's go back to that poll. the new public policy poll. gingrich is ahead in that by six

points. that does not reflect the debate performance. he already had the momentum. do you agree that gingrich is going to take south carolina? >> i think -- well, i think he could, absolutely. there's no question about that. and this is a tracking poll, so we will get new numbers in 24 hours that will reflect his debate performance. i'm going to be particularly looking at the female voters of south carolina when these poll results come out. i'll be in just to see whether or not they have a visceral reaction to mariann's statement, whether or not they view her as a bitter ex-wife or whether they're relevant. but after last night's debate performance, i think men/women in south carolina, in general, are trending toward's newt's side. >> how do you think that's going to translate, particularly to that woman voter in south carolina? >> i think some women will look at marianne gingrich sitting there, obviously still very emotional about this and maybe even relate a little bit,

understand, feel sorry for her. and if they have any kind of inkling of distrust of newt gingrich in their head already, i think it will grow because of this. i think if they're already trending against newt gingrich, thinking about not voting for him, it probably just pushed him over the edge in that direction. i think people who like newt gingrich and that first comment last night just made them love him even more. >> all right, maria, let's switch gears here. a moment the democrats must have loved last night. john king asked romney if he would follow in his father's example and release 12 years of his tax returns. let's listen to what he said and then we'll talk about it. >> when you release yours, will you follow your father's example? >> maybe. [ laughter ] >> you know, i don't know how many years i'll release. i'll take a look at what our documents are. and i'll release multiple years. i don't know how many years. but i'll be happy to do that. >> i think it was a washington post, maria, that called that a

flop on romney's behalf. the tax issue has been dragging him down. can he recover from that? >> well, i think if he would come out today or at least very soon to say that he's going to release not just this year's tax returns but multiple years before, he might be able to. but the washington post is right. i think that this has been one of the weakest issues for him. and last night's debate performance on this particular question was awful. and he has not been able to come up with a good answer on this. and it is something that is going to continue to come up. and the thing is that it's not enough for him, and, frankly, his father was the one who set the high bar: it's not enough for him to release this year's returns. why? because, clearly, he knows that he was running for president. he could accommodate those returns to make sure that they don't -- that they don't reflect anything that's untorn. he needs to release multiple past years to ensure to voters that there is nothing there to hide. the more that he hesitates on

doing that, the more that it seems in voter's minds that there is something in romney's investments, something within his billionaire status or almost billionaire status that there is something to hide there. and that is nongood for romney. the more he stretches it out, the worse it's going to be for him. >> all right, maria, thank you for joining us this morning. we're going to talk to you again, so standby. somebody did release their taxes, right? newt gingrich? >> during the debate? i was wondering how long they might have been strike that jazzing about that and actually deciding off the debate and said no, no, they're online. who better to talk to about taxes and all of those number crunching that finance lady. can i tell you something? >> yeah. >> i had no idea he made the kind of money he did or paid the amount of taxes. >> newt gingrich paid a lot in taxes. very strategic in this one coming upright after the first commercial break. let's talk about the money. newt gingrich, $3.1 million. that's how much -- almost 3.2

million he made in 2010. but look at his effective tax rate. almost 32%. he paid nearly a million in taxes. how does that stack up against other millionaires? it's more, folks. the average for millionaires between two and five million dollars a year paid 26% in taxes. we have to compare this to romney who has said we don't know, but his effective tax rate is about 15%. look at that, 80% of americans, according to the tax policy center, pay an effective tax rate of under 15%. so you look at this, this boeds well for newt gingrich on the front if you're going to compare taxes to taxes here. again, we don't have romney's forms. he says he's going to release in april. so we don't have the numbers to compare them to. >> i'm guessing that people who are watching right now if they're awake enough are going to say you can do what you want with your taxes. you can make them look any way you want, right? >> to an extent.

it depends on what you choose to write off and it depends on what you make off of capital gains. let's look at how newt gingrich made his money and his deductions in 2010. he made about $2.5 million from his businesses. what are those businesses? interestingly, we found out something called gingrich productions where he and his wife issue all of their books, et cetera. he gets paid a lot for speaking and consulting, rental property, stocks, bonds, et cetera. now, here's the thing. mitt romney makes almost all of his money off of capital gains. stocks, bonds, et cetera. it is law in this country that the max that those can be taxed at is 15%. you may not like that. he may come under fire for that, but that is the law in this country. if he is making more off of his investments than newt gingrich is, he is going to pay a different tax rate. we should look at how much romney paid in taxes, the full amount, not just a percent. he very well may have paid more money in taxes in 2010 than newt gingrich did. >> i would venture to say with

$200 million to his name, he very well may have. two very different scenes. thank you very much. >> so we want to bring our political panel back in. we have the political politics writer for roll call. eric ericson, and maria cardona. so we've talked about a lot of things. fidelity is here, we're talking about tax codes trying to break it all down. but i do want you all to chime in a little bit. we haven't yet seen romney's, but there's a lot of speculation about what we are going to see. how do you think that is going to weigh? let's start with you, eric. >> you know, i don't know how the comparison is going to play, frankly. it depends on what mitt romney's taxes say. the worst thing is the two little words that have been banning about this week and those are cayman islands. he's got an account in the cayman islands. people scratch their head over that.

they're used to the john grisham novels. he's paid his taxes on it. there's nothing illegal about it. but it's kind of hard to run a man of the people, main street campaign when you've got a cayman islands bank account. he's going to have to be able to overcome that. as maria said, he's having a real hard time talking about these issues. just from a historic perspective, his father set the modern trend for releasing tax returns. it's going to be striking if his son doesn't follow the man who started the trend of presidential candidates releasing income taxes. >> can you chime in on that? >> i think especially because romney has tolled his father as a great political influence. this is a guy who's talked about his dad a lot on the campaign trail. by not releasing his tax forms, he's doing a disservice. he talked last night about only wanting to release them in one fell swoop. multiple however many that is in april so general election voters

can have their turn and democratics can have their turn attacking them. especially because he's running for an office that has a heavy influence over tax reform itself. i personally think he'd be better off strategically to release them sooner than later. especially if the only thing that's going to be shown on them, and maybe this isn't the case, but the only thing we're going to see is that he's a really rich guy. >> i'm going to let you chime in here for a moment. we've got to go. >> so i think what it's going to continue, again, underscore in voter's minds, and he said this already, that if he pays at the 15% tax rate, that is going to basically say to voters, oh my god, he's a zillionaire and he pays less taxes than me. that is not an image that you want going into an election where lower middle income blue collar voters are going to be the ones who he has vote you need to win. >> standby, we're going to continue talking to you all

morning long. coming up at 7:00 a.m., he is going to sit down with former presidential candidate herman cain. >> make sure you stick around with us at cnn tomorrow night. it start it is live coverage of the south carolina primary. and you can bet it's going to be exciting. >> it's 19 minutes past the hour. still ahead, new video inside the italian cruise ship disaster that was shot right after that ship when it grounded. it was like a scene from the titanic. look at that. you're watching "early start." capital one's new cash rewards card

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hi, everybody. welcome back. some critical new developments this morning with that italian cruise ship disaster. we've got a live picture of the costa concordia. kind of looks the same, doesn't it? however, the search is suspended again because that ship is shifting. and the weather that is coming is not good. seas are turning rough and the authorities are really worried about an impending environmental disaster. that ship was three hours into its cruise, so it is full of fuel. right now, it is sitting in about 60 feet of water. take a look at that picture. that's really what's going on under water. it is freakish, isn't it? so it's kind of just teetering strangely on that reverse mountain.

and if it shifts to the right eight feet, if the seas start shifting it to the right, it's a 200 foot drop off. and guess what that means? yeah, it goes down and it's deep water. but the gas tanks that are on board can only withstand the pressure to 60 feet, where it's sitting now. if it goes down 200 feet, implosion. and there's 500,000 gallons of fuel that could spill into this pristine area. >> we have another big development this morning. a mystery woman emerges. 25-year-old dominica admits having dinner with the captain right before the ship ran aground. so from gigio island in italy, what is this woman saying? >> well, this really has sort of eclipsed the story in a lot of different ways. we've got the mystery woman from

muldova who was dining with the captain just hours before the ship hit the rocks and went down. investigators who are investigating this case identified her early on because with their initial interrogation, everyone on the bridge said oh, there was a blond, young woman. so they know the existence of her. and then some of the press came up with some pictures of her. there was a good picture of her dining with the captain and all of the italian press. now they've identified her. she gave an interview tuesday on tv in muldova. and she said the captain was a hero and that he handled everything bauflly and she was speaking highly of him. as investigators look into her into why she was there, she wasn't originally on the passenger list. that's one of the things that is obviously a big question. why was she there? she's not an authorized person up on the wrij. bridge but the cruise line

company says she used to work as a hostess on the ship. she has security clearance. but she wasn't on the passenger list, originally, and there was no cabin under her name. so the controversy is still swirling around. officials are saying oh, yes, in fact she was on the passenger list. so maybe they've corrected their passenger list. but investigators are wondering what she knows. >> i'm wondering about the timeline. what she says does not fit with the timeline that was given out, essentially, with those transcriptions from the port authority. the port authority talks to the captain and he's off the ship. her interview is saying oh, no, no, no, he never abandoned the ship with people on board. so i'm just sort of perplexed about it. >> that's right. and you know what, she gave an interview on tv in her home country. and when investigators talk to her, it will probably be a different line of questioning. i think the prosecutor has not

confirmed whether they will subpoena her and bring her back to italy and question her. but it seems very likely. her name is on the interrogation records right now. she's a known entity. but it would seem, and of course we don't know for sure, she'd be a likely person they'd want to talk to. >> dominica, is that the name that we're going to have on the radar now? my goodness. >> yeah, that's right. that's right. >> excellent, clent work. thanks very much. we're just going to keep a tab on that to make sure we find any other developments that come out of italy as it is a shifting story. >> and the rescue mission, as well. all right, still ahead, a possible change in the definition of autism. one expert says it could make the epidemic go away. senior medical correspondent elizabeth cowan is following this incredibly important story for us. we will be back with that and much more. than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first.

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30 minutes past the hour. time to check the top stories of the morning. >> the taliban is taking responsibility for the crash of a nato peace-keeping helicopter. nato officials say there was no enemy presence in the area. six members of the peace-keeping force on board that helicopter were killed. >> also, the remaining four republican presidential candidates are back on the stump in south carolina today after facing off in a real tough debate last night. defenders clashing on everything. and us, the media. newt gingrich claiming his second wife's stories that he

wanted an open marriage are lies. >> and four people associated with the popular media down load site megaupload were arrested. anonymous bragged about the attack on twitter. in the next hour, we'll hear from members of the group. >> and to that big story, six members of the nato peace keeping force killed overnight when their helicopter chinook crashed. and now the taliban conveniently claiming it was responsible for that. but do we know it's true? >> nick walsh is live and spends a lot of time there. i'm sure it's a big story there. what is the buzz? what do we know about this, first of all? who was on board? what kind of troops? and is it true that cnn really got a text message from the taliban? >> reporter: that's correct. the taliban claim they shot this helicopter down. there are a large number of u.s. marines active. i understand that the initial reports suggest the dead on board were american.

this helicopter, i understand, apparently experiencing some mechanical issues and performing a hard landing. very clear to contradict the taliban shot this helicopter down. the taliban have technical issues and suggesting they shot it down trying to evoke the whole issue of when the soviets were here. >> well, but they also do have some credibility. it feels strange to say that, but they do have some credibility in the august incident, which was one of the worst incidents -- well, it was the worst incident of the entire war, august 30th -- or rather august, and there were 30 american soldiers who were killed, including two navy seals. that helicopter was shot down in eastern afghanistan. and that was, as i recall, a taliban responsibility. and it proved to be true, no? >> it does appear, of course, and that previous instant was down to a taliban attack,

although it's obviously still under investigation. this was a chinook ch-53 helicopter regularly used by the u.s. marines. it's hard in an instance like this to work out what happened because the witnesses are injured or dead. we're left with a situation where two sides and a propaganda war here in afghanistan have very, very different takes on the situation. >> when you talk about the taliban, a lot of people in america think it's this sort of rag tag, if i may use that word, group of folks who fight out of kaefs. but the reality is they're very, very strategic with very small arms. it's not as though they have a ton of rpgs, antiaircraft al tir ri. they can do this with small arms, can't they? >> reporter: well, that is what they claim, absolutely. and they do have a lot of soviet legacy machine guns which can have a huge impact. this isn't really a very cohesive insurgeon si.

it's not like a corporation, for example, where the ceo tells everybody what to do. the leadership is said to be in pakistan and across the country. there are small groups, often 20, 30 insurgents who fight on their own, have their own local problems. but a foreign part of this broader insurgents kind of has a political loyalty. but something like this, taking helicopters down, does require a degree of training and precision, hence the reason why nato says this is entirely mechanical issues. >> nick peyton walsh, you just invoking that name, it reminds everybody that he's still out there. omar, the head of the taliban 12 years on the run. nick, thank you for all of that. >> i think it's remarkable that we received it in a text message. >> tells you the day we live in, doesn't it. >> it's 35 minutes passed the hour. crews battling a fast-moving wild fire. one person is dead, 20 homes have been damaged. take a look at that. at least 10,000 people have been

evacuated from their homes. it's a 12 mile stretch of a major highway that they had to close there. no containment yet. the governor has declared a state of emergency there. we also have no idea how this started. >> those winds. >> unreal. >> rob marciano is joining us now with the weekend travel forecast. it looks like the winds are kind of whipping in that area. >> guys, this is the second time this has happened. but this storm coming should at least bring them some rain. this is where it came from. check out some of the video coming from oregon. the valley near salem in albany, there's been some evacuations, even a couple of people have died because of the flooding there. a nasty, nasty event. on the radar we go with rainfall heading across parts of san francisco. and, finally, yes, potentially into reno. they desperately need the rain. another storm come sboog the pacific northwest tonight and another one behind that coming in on sunday.

so rivers already swollen. flooding is going to continue to be a huge, huge issue. look at the snowfall creeping into chicago. we've got some coming your way throughout the day today during the rush hour. that's going to snag some traffic. 3 to 7 inches expected. it's kind of a quick mover. but for this winter, it's pretty substantial. and then it's going to head towards the northeast. it's a quick pulse of moisture tonight. temperature, for the most part, cold enough for snow. 3-6 inches in the area of new york city expected tonight into tomorrow morning. so if you're traveling, that's going to be a problem. san francisco and in between, we'll see some air. 12 in min rap lis and 12 for new york city. that's cold enough for snow. sfwl when you say if you're traveling through chicago, i feel like i hear that more than any other city. >> oh, that's why, it hits home. >> thanks, rob. >> i'm still removing snow at my house in chicago. >> are you? >> yes.

>> that's just not fair. >> here is some really, really fascinating news that's coming out about a disease that has been somewhat plaguing parents. why have so many kids been diagnosed with autism? and a new suggestion that maybe we're getting it wrong and have to change the guidelines. we're going to sort it all out for you in a moment. you know, i have done something worthwhile. when i earned my doctorate through university of phoenix, that pride, that was on my face. i am jocelyn taylor, i am committed to making a difference in peoples lives and i am a phoenix. no, i wouldn't use that single miles credit card. nice ring. knock it off. ignore him. with the capital one venture card you earn... double miles on every purchase.

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rick perry on his way home and the dallas news blazing the headline because he's dropped out of the race. listen, this guy is beloved. this is the governor of texas. so i guess everybody wants to know what's next. is he going to run again? where is all of that money going to go? what went wrong? >> he has a lot of work to do as governor, right? >> yeah, a couple more years in his term. this will be a great story the watch in the future. >> all right, i love this story. kind of validates moms who choose day care. kids involved in high quality day care have long-lasting benefits. the study actually began in 19d 72. i love studies like this, when they go over a long period of time. it followed over a hundred kids from birth until their 30s. those kids were four times as likely to earn a college degree. also more likely to hold steady employment. so here's the deal. what's high-quality day care,

right? you have to define that. but the good news is because this worried me for low income families. we looked it up. if you have your high-quality day care in your particular state, they do have it for low-income families. you just have to do the research and look and make sure that it follows the degree of some standards. so you go and do your homework and make sure that it follows the standard. >> so i was mentioning after the beginning of the show, oh, good, so my guilt complex will be gone. a nano second you get some reprieve from the mommy guilt. >> it's a tough one. we're going to take a quick break and we'll be rieg back. es. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios.

we love the music around here. it's catch chi, right? it's 44 minutes passed the hour. pete is our stage hand here. time to check the stories making news this morning. the taliban is claiming responsibility for the crash of a nato peace-keeping helicopter. the group says that it shot down the chopper, even though nato officials say there was no enemy presence in the area when that crash occurred. six members of the peace-keeping force on that helicopter were killed. >> we're also following all of the big members online. one for the history books and maybe the record books, too. fierce, fierce is a good word for it. the exchanges among the

candidates, not amongst each other, but with the moderator. newt gingrich slamming the media for reporting his ex-wife's claim that is he wanted an open marriage. mitt romney also getting booed by people in the audience after he was challenged on whether he spit up those tax forms, your tax returns, a dozen year's worth like his father did. >> italian officials are trying to head off an environmental disaster this morning. the search for the victims has been suspended again because the ship actually is shifting. the weather is turning really rough in that area, as well. and the ship is situated just eight feet from a rock ledge. if it slips off of that ledge, it could plunge 200 feet down, maybe even more. and officials are fearing that that could cause the gas tanks to imploed, spending half a million gallons of fuel into the sea. if you remember, this accident happened right after they started sailing. so they're full, those fuel tanks are full. >> we're going to keep an eye on it so this story could change at any moment. talk about changes, huge.

really significant changes if you are concerned about your kids and where they might fit on any kind of autism spectrum or any kind of development spectrum for that matter. the new york times is saying that a panel of psychiatric experts is reassessing what the definition of autism is. and, actually, proposing changes that would make the definition a lot more narrow, sort of take away some of the criteria in order to diagnose things like asperger's and other things on the spectrum. if these, you know, things actually come into play, it could reduce the number of kids who are diagnosed with autism and those kinds of, like, issues. and i don't have to tell you. in the recent years, last couple of decades, nobody could figure out why the numbers are so high. >> no, it's actually one in every one hundred children. so many children could be denied health education and social services. this is what really concerns me. senior medical correspondent in atlanta, i'm having a real hard

time with this, that they could change the definition of autism and what happens to all of these kids who need these services? so can you help explain this? we actually said it would go away. it doesn't really make the spectrum disorders go away. >> right. let's talk a little bit because people would think how can you change the definition of a medical disorder. so let's talk about the nature of autism. autism is not like a broken arm. if you have a broken arm, you see it in an x-ray, it's a broken arm. autism, sometimes, is in the eye of the beholder and the beholder in this case would be the physician. so sometimes it's very clear when a child has autism. other times, it can get mushier and doctors might actually disagree and someone might say this child has autism where someone might say oh, you know what, this child has something, but i'm not really necessarily sure it would fit the definition of what i consider autism. so the american psychiatric association is looking at what is the definition of autism. and if they narrow that definition, some of the kids who have more mild forms of autism, say asperger's syndrome, might

not be considered on the autism spectrum anymore. and, as you said, those kids might lose access to services because, relatively speaking, there are quite a few services out there for kids with autism. some people would say what we need to do is improve our services in general and give services to all kids who need it, who cares what their diagnosis is. >> how likely is it that this will pass? parents would be in an uproar. some of them move from one state to another in order to get services for their children. >> that's right. i think this is going to be politically extremely sensitive. and over the next year or so, as they consider changing this definition, if parents go up in arms, i have seen parents change things. i have seen parents put a stop to this kind of a movement. and so i think it will be really interesting over the next year to see if parents, you know, really make themselves clear. hey, don't change the definition. i want my child to keep getting services. >> all right, elizabeth cowan, live in atlanta for us.

thank you for clearing that up. when we come back, reaction to the gop debate. did you watch it? we have all the highlights for you. can i call them highlights? >> they're highlights and low lights, depending on where you fall on the side of the debate. >> so amy cramer is going to join us to talk about that. >> look how mad he looks. wow, did you see that? aren't als made for people with diabetes. that's why there's new glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and they have 6 grams of sugars. with 15 grams of protein to help manage hunger... look who's getting smart about her weight. [ male announcer ] new glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. can you enjoy vegetables with new glucern sauceer smart. and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed.

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yeah, so let's get back to politics here. the remaining four presidential candidates squared off in a political debate. it was number 16 or 17? >> 16. >> so it's tough. really tense at times. at the start, gingrich came out swinging branding his wife a liar suggesting he wanted an open marriage, also slammed the media for covering the allegations. amy cramer, the chairwoman of the tea party express joins us now. nice to see you this morning. i'm going to pull a john king moment and i'm going to address the elephant in the room and start with that. his ex-wife, gingrich's exwooif, started an interview and i want your response to it. >> a destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to

attract decent people who run for public office. and i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. >> is it appalling? or will he take south carolina with that moment? >> you know, i mean, we're all human beings. none of us are perfect. and i think a lot of people put these candidates up on pedestals expecting them to be ferfect and we're simply not. but i'm not surprised newt came out swinging. you know, i don't know who watched the abc peace last night. i didn't. i want to hear about what his candidates are going to do to create jobs to get americans back to work, to create that environment to get americans back to work. and, so, i think that's what's on american's minds right now. and, you know, i could be wrong. and i didn't personally read it, but i think this stuff that came

out in this interview last night, what came out in the "esqui "esquire magazine" article a year ago, i think americans are focused on the economy. >> members of the tea party are known for being ultraconservative. so these allegations are pretty strong from his ex-wife, saying he wanted an open marriage. how are voters going to respond today? you don't think it will have an effect? >> look, the thing about a tea party movement is we're focused on the fiscal issues. that is getting the economy turned around. that's fiscal responsibility, you know, free markets and limited government. that's what we're focused on. we're not focused on the social issues or foreign policy. so at the end of the day, when people cast their votes, as individuals, we have to decide what's important. and i think most people are focused on, as i said, who is going to create that environment to put americans back to work and to turn this economy around because we are literally on a cliff about to go over.

i, personally, never thought in my lifetime that the united states of america would be on the verge of bankruptcy. and that's where we are. and, so, even with the social conservatives, i think that's what's on their mind right now. and i think that's what they're focused on. >> let's switch gears a little bit. i think it was yesterday that herman cain is going to drag the response on behalf of the te party. but we also know that the governor of indiana has the official response. how do you think that's going to be different? >> well, you know, we did it last year. congresswoman michelle bachmann did the official tea party response to the state of the union. we did that last year. and, look, you know, people think that we're an arm of the republican party. we're not. what we are focused on is fiscal responsibility. and there are people in the republican party that don't adhere to the principles that the tea party movement is based upon. herman cain is one of those people that stand on the same principles and value that is we

do. we're really excited to have him doing this. delivering the official tea party response to the state of the union. i think he's going to do a fantastic job. he's a businessman. he knows what it's about. we're really excited about this. >> all right, amy cramer, thanks for getting up nice and early with us this morning. we appreciate it. >> we're not leaving this story for long this morning, coming up at 7:00 a.m. eastern, she is going to sit down with herman cain and get his reaction to last night's debate. and be sure to join us tomorrow night at 7:00 eastern for live coverage of the south carolina primary. >> sure to be a lot of action there, we also want to get you caught up on headlines as we go into break. there has been an accident or has there been something that wasn't an accident? the chopper went down in afghanistan and six soldiers are dead. the taliban says we did it. but did they? you're watching "early start."

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a very good morning to you. it is 6:00 in the east. that means it's a very "early start." i'm ashleigh banfield. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. we are happy you're with us this

morning. let's get started here. newt gingrich in rare form. clashing with his three rivals and even our very own moderator, cnn's moderator john king. the fiery highlights are headed your way. >> she's not kidding. fiery highlights. we're watch og news developing. a nato chopper down in southern afghanistan. six peacekeepers apparently are killed and a taliban sent a text message to cnn is claiming responsibility for this. but is it true? and that italy ship disaster. the search for survivors has been suspended again because of rough weather is causing the ship to shift. if it keeps moving, they're fearing an environmental disaster there. and you've probably heard of this notorious group called anonymous. anonymous is like a web club, internet club, now targeting the fbi and justice department. this could be the largest coordinated sbrt attack ever. you won't believe how the government responded and what that's causing anonymous to say

and do. is all right. so we have hit the home stretch in south carolina. the polls open in 25 hours. newt gingrich hoping to pick up new no momentum. he said he wanted an open marriage to his second wife. here's what she told abc news. >> i found out during our conversations that it was occurring in my bedroom in our apartment in washington. and he always called me at night. he would always ended with i love you while she was there listening. >> right next to him. >> in my home. >> john king kicked off last night's debate by asking about that interview. as you'll see, gingrich appeared visibly angry that he was being asked about the claims. >> your ex-wife gave an interview to abc news and another interview at "the washington post" and this story has now gone viral on the internet. in it she said you came to her in 1999 at a time you were

having an affair. she says you askered her to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> no, but i will. i think -- i think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern to country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. and i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. the story is false. every personal friend who i had during that period said it was false. we offered several to abc to prove it was false. they weren't interested because they would like to at income any republican. >> that response earned gingrich a standing ovation. he's now lead in south carolina

according to public policy polling. 35% back the former house speaker. 9% support romney. paul steinhauser live in charleston, south carolina. paul, i know that you watched it. we heard how gingrich insulted. the media. let's hear what john king said about his thought process behind that first question. >> my judgment, my decision, and mine alone. if we're going to deal with it, deal with it up front. let's not try to sneak it into the middle of the debate. at home you agree or disagree with that. you make a decision, ask the question and this is politics. >> this is one of the most explosive moments we've seen in debate mks. >> debate history. >> debate history. it was also one of the harshest attacks we've had on the press that i can remember in a long, long time. very personal in the beginning. as political matter i think gingrich saw a fast ball coming and rerd to this audience, he smacked it right out of the park. i think there's a reasonable

chance that he could win south carolina based on that answer. >> that person that we were just listening to was cnn's senior political analyst david ger beg gin here. the question here is, is gergen right? >> since this cycle began, gingrich's debate is one of his strong suits and up with of the major staples of him is going after the mainstream media. we saw it on monday night after everybody said he had a strong debate as well. this made his finest moment when it takes on taking on the media. yes, it was a major story yesterday. it's going to be a major story today and probably through tomorrow. i think it was the right decision to go to this right off the bat. for gingrich, yes, he had a fine moment, strong debates, no doubt about it another strong debate for newt gingrich. the story line out there about his ex-wife, that could be troublesome for them straight up through the primary on saturday.

>> when will we see pollingwise whether or not that worked? >> we may not. listen, most -- i think we're going to find out on saturday night when we see the results from south carolina. >> all right. so short-term newt might get a boost from his answer. long-term, it might be a problem for women voters, specifically in south carolina. how do you think that women voters are going to respond to this concept of an open marriage? >> i don't think he can play very well. we saw it from our own cnn/time or poll this week, when you break down numbers, men and women, newt gingrich does better with men than down here in south carolina. iss issue, his answer, yes, throwing red meat to the audience. overall this could be a tough issue with newt gingrich and female voters here in south carolina and across the country. >> paul, hang tight there. we're going to bring you back in a minute here. we're going to bring in our panelist first. >> i think it would be great at

this juncture since cnn has been under the radar for that choice at this question is to bring in eric erickson because eric erickson, i am here to tell you that i recorded the exact time of day at 5:09 a.m. when you were speaking with my colleague zoraida, you said, i'm glad he asked that question first. and i did not expect you of all people to say that. i didn't expect you were going to actually agree that john king's question was appropriate first because it sort of felt you would come after king, too. >> you know, i absolutely think it needed to be asked. everyone knew it was a question that needed to be asked. it would have been a question that hung over the entire debate had it not been asked. cnn and john would have been attacked had he not the asked first. he might as well go on and get it out of the way, give gingrich his moment to answer. the key tr that john did good with is when you ask a question like that you can't put him on a

one-minute time line you've got to let him answer the question. he filibustered but you can't give him a minute to answer and say, time's up. john did it the same way. >> i'm a big fan of john king. not just because i work here. i've been working here for two decades. he said, this is my decision and my decision alone. there is something i want to get to the heart of with you and that is much of mary ann gingrich's interview was not seen at the time of this debate. it was not aired until "nightline" last night, 11:35 on abc. i'm not so sure how many of the people who were standing with that standing ovation knew the fwravity of what mary ann gingrich said. i just want to play a quick piece of what she told abc's brian ross on "nightline" last night. have a look. >> i said to him, we've been married a long time. and he said, yes, but you want me all to yourself.

calista doesn't care what i do. >> what was he saying to you, do you think? >> he was asking to have an open marriage. i refused. >> erick erickson, when i heard that my stomach turned. newt gingrich said these are lies. every time newt gingrich is on the stump from now to the next 26 hours and calista is beside him, people if they now know the story knows she was cheating with him for six years while he was married to mariann and she was a congressional aide. is she a liability on the stump at this point? >> she could be. and it depends on how gingrich does this. for perspective you've got to remember it was marianne who broke up the first marriage. you get attacked for saying that but legitimate question. when people look at that and say we've got one woman who broke up the first marriage upset with the third woman. yeah, this is a problem for

gingrich long term. my wife knows newt gingrich's first wife. she was her elementary schoolteacher. she really has a problem with this issue. and i think she speaks for a lot of women when she has a huge problem with newt gingrich and getting beyond this. for men, i don't know that lths as much of a hang-up but more women turn out to vote. that's a problem for newt gingrich. >> i'm glad you said that because i have numbers in front of me. his favibility among women, 54%. romney's favorite -- excuse me. unfave reporteribility. gingrich's unfavibility, 54%. i'm curious if those numbers are going to shift going into south carolina. that's a big question. south care carolina an women, do we suggest that they don't care? i'm going ask my next panel but before i do, let me ask you about a curious tweet i saw you sending out. it said with regard to another big part of the story yesterday,

and that was rick perry stepping aside. one day i hope to tell the story of what happened these last three days. but not now. and, you know, what a difference 24 hours can make. weren't we talking yesterday at this time about you asking him to step aside? >> right. you know, for the past three days i have been more in-depth seeing the dysfunction behind the scenes on the perry campaign, the competing camps, the desire to get him to do the right thing, to realize they weren't going to win south carolina, what to do about it. it was a fascinating experience to kind of be dragged into that. now is not the time to focus in on something like that. at some point it's just a fascinating story. >> it is, indeed. you are part of it officially. erick erickson, thank you forgetting up early. i want to bring in other panelists to weigh in on this. sarah is the writer, m, maria

cardona, and paul steinhauser, one of our own. i can see you listening. i think i bore him, quite frankly, at this point. all right, maria, let me start with you. i was sort of edging towards this with erick and i want to go fully at it with you. women in south carolina, i'm looking at this. media versus the mistress. who are they going to hate more when they go to the polls? are they going to hate us for asking that question and thinking it's appalling like newt said or hating the mistress for doing this for six years with a married man while she was working for him in the government? >> that is a great question, ashleigh. i think it's going to have a lot to do with how much they knew about this story to begin with. because one of the things that you can say about newt gingrich is that this kind of baggage, this personal baggage is baggage that he has been carrying for years. we've all heard about it. we've all heard the stories. every time that he has talked about perhaps run for president, we've heard the stories. but i think that you never hear

it the same if you watched the interview last night it's not the same as just having heard it. >> you are right. i tell you what, i've heard it a lot and read the magazine articles. i don't think i ever heard about the wife sharing thing, that she's in bed with him while he says i love you honey and the mistress is behide side him. keepy to me. gingrich said she's are lies. we do have to give him that because nobody knows what happens in people's bedrooms. let me move on. shera,because we're talking at the reaction and the cheering and standing "o" that newt got for that i would be remiss to say that there were also boos in the audience but it wasn't for mr. gingrich. it was for mitt romney. and it was because of this. let me play the question from john king about taxes for mitt romney and ask you something on the other side. >> when you release yours will you follow your father's example? >> maybe. you know, i don't know how many years i'll release. i'll take a look at the -- what

our documents are. i'll release multiple years. i don't know how many years. but i'll be happy to do that. >> that was kind of uncomfortable. referring to the 12 years of taxes that george romney, i think it was 1968, released when he ran. and it was unprecedented. so that's uncomfortable to see booing in a debate when off the top of the debate your opponent got a standing "o." how much is that going to play? how damning is this tax story or was it completely overshadowed by the sex? >> it was not completely overshadowed. i think it was one of the big moments for romney during the debate but on the whole debate performance was even. it wasn't his best night. it wasn't the worst night. if you look at the ray mitt romney answers the questions he is so uncomfortable. it's cringe worthy. you grit your teeth and say,

okay, when is this going to end. then he goes and laughs at himself? what is that about? >> reminds me of -- laughing. >> yes. >> quickly for a minute. >> so awkward. >> i want to jump in with paul. sum this up for me quickly. what is this going to mean for the stump today? are we going to move on from this or is this going to chew around all day? >> this question mark is still going to be there. he didn't do what he needed to do last night on taxes. another highlight, rick santorum had a strong performance some people say his best performance. we saw him in the spinner after the debate. very happy we went on the attack. repeatedly through the debate. will it be enough though? he trails pretty far in the polls here. we'll find out saturday. >> three smart people. paul and maria and shira. not only smarts but your ability to wake up at 4:00 in the morning. we're not going to love this story long. "starting point" with soledad o'brien has lots of good stuff.

she's going to sit down with herman cain. stay tuned for that. and, of course, for the big vote. south carolina's primary live 7:00 eastern right here saturday night on cnn. it's going to be some pretty good stuff. it's 15 minutes past the hour here. deadly tragedy to report this morning for nato peacekeepers in afghanistan. a helicopter crashed in the eastern part of the country in helmand province. a place american troops know well. six peacekeepers were killed there. barbara starr is working live from washington. good morning, barbara. what details can you share with us this morning. >> as you say, this is helmand province. this is an area where it is mainly u.s. marines serving. they are not yet saying the fatalities were marines but there are growing indications of marines being there indeed. of course, six families now get that dreaded knock at the door. the taliban as you might expect very quickly claiming

responsibility. in fact, e-mailing our own producer in afghanistan that they shot the helicopter down. but the nato force coming back very strongly and saying there were no indications of enemy fire in the area. they believe it was some sort of mechanical issue that brought the helicopter down, zoraida. >> i believe it was specifically a text message that we received from the taliban. is that unusual or is this just a sign of the times? >> not that unusual these days. taliban are pretty communication savvy. they message out very frequently and they make a lot of statementses after every attack or after almost every situation in afghanistan claiming responsibility for it. it may be taliban sometime. sometimes it's other factions in afghanistan that claim responsibility. this time, however, nato says they are very certain that they believe at this point there will be an investigation but they believe it was a mechanical failure that brought this

helicopter down. and, of course, other sad news from afghanistan, four french peacekeepers shot by an afghan policeman. that country in mourning for its loss. there was also a massive attack in kandahar yesterday, afghan civilians killed. so while politics is front and center in the united states, understandably, the war in afghanistan goes on. zoraida? >> suicide bombers. barbara starr, thank you for joining us this morning with an update. we appreciate it. >> sure. it is 17 minutes past the hour. minding our business now, u.s. markets closed higher yesterday. the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 gained less than 1%. cnn's money's poppy harlow is here. let's talk about google dropping overnight, the stock. >> the arrows were all popping up. >> google came out with their earnings but this company made a lot $10 billion in three months. they missed the street's expectations. it didn't make as much as people thought they would per share. two things at lay here.

clicks with going up by 34% but the amount they make per click is going down by 8%. also, this is the upside to this story in my opinion. more hiring in the quarterly brought on 4% more staff. they said to us a year ago, 2011 is going to be our biggest hiring year ever. they invested $50 million in infrastructure. no apologies from google. they said we're going to continue to spend a lot of money. interesting twist to the story that i read in these earnings. google plus, the social network they're trying to compete with facebook. since they launched in june they have 90 million users. since june. >> holy cow. >> you may think 90 million, facebook has 800 million. that is a lot of users since june. larry page, the ceo and cofounder said 60% of those folks engage daily on google plus 80% weekly. >> i heard this weird thing. for what it's worth, i remember years ago -- couple years ago, somebody saying, oh, yeah, facebook is way cooler than myspace but now i heard somebody say -- like a younger person say

the same thing about google plus. google plus is way cooler than facebook. >> we'll see if it catches on. very hard to catch up to facebook at this point. here's what google is doing. they have tied their social network to their search. around they're optimizing it socially. that has brought huge anti-competition issues to the forefront. facing a lot of legal pressure on that one. that is interesting. it's changed the way the company works. >> people's home page. >> when i saw it first i was shocked to see some of my personal pictures on my google search. but this is changing the game for dpooggoogle. shares are down 8% ahead of the open. >> we'll keep an eye on it. poppy, great. still to come, keeping an eye on italy, the italian cruise ship. the captain, unbelievable. across the board vilified internationally except in one place. you might not be surprised when you find out where he's got a lot of support.

online activist, anonymous launch a major revenge attack. shut down the fbi and justice deposition website for the anti. piracy crack down. we're heal from anonymous members. when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday.

it is 6:23 on the east. new this morning, u.s. government websites now back online after facing a major attack from online activist group anonymous. they lashed out after the department of justice busted the down leading site megaless upload. they arrested four people including the site's founder, anonymous retaliated by shutting down the doj and fbi websites and sites for major entertainment companies. here with the latest is amber lion. she spoke exclusively with members of anonymous. what did they tell you? >> they said that yesterday the shut down was the straw that broke the camel's back. we have seen a number of them all week, legislation sopa. they said after the website was shut down almost immediately anon started gathering in online chat rooms discussing what they were going to do and they began as a distributed denial of

service attack against these u.s. government websites. that's a type of attack where so many computers flud a website with so much traffic that it causes it to shut down. i spoke with some of these anons watching this operation. it was called op mega upload. they're watching it very closely. and here's what they had to say. so anonymous sees the shut down of mega upload as a type of internet seven censorship? >> yes. it's a violation of freedom of speech. they are independent from any government and they regard the government enter feeing of the free load of government as stepping outside their jurisdiction. >> how long did it take the government's website to go down? >> i would give it sent or eight minutes, not even. >> seven or eight minutes. >> i would say seven minutes. >> what are the thoughts within anonymous that it was that easy

to take down the department of justice's website? >> with enough power and with enough manpower you can take down pretty much anything. >> it's basically the power of absolutely massive group of people coming together. they're not happy. and this wouldn't be possible with one or two people, you know? it's one of those things which is very general in the expression of how many people are angry. >> those anons were covering up their faces because they wanted to conceal their identities, obviously there. on the other side of things, the department of justice says that this site was allowing the illegal upload of copyrighted material costing the industry somewhere near half a billion dollars a yearer. and but you talk to anons and they believe this was some type of internet censorship. zoraida? >> they have that kind of collective effort that they can do this, a twitter account that's affiliated with the group said that fbi.gov is next to go down. did they talk about that, what

was next? >> well, they were able to take down fbi.gov for a brief period of time yesterday. there's still traffic going online saying anons are targeting more websites today. we'll be monitoring that all day on cnn. >> amber lyon, thank you so much. how about these descriptions. he's a family man and he's a very good neighbor. do you think i'm talking about the cruise ship captain? >> i know that you are. >> i am. >> a lot of people find that remarkable. >> because he's the most vilified man almost globally at this point. find out who is calling him all these great things in a moment. we're live. ♪[music plays] ♪[music plays] when you're responsible for this much of the team...

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when our stage manager is dancing it must mean it's 6:30

and closer to his friday. that's all i'm saying. welcome back to "early start." i'm ashleigh banfield. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. still ahead at this hour, a republican we debate unlike any other. could newt gingrich's anger be the ticket to victory in south carolina? you know that mystery woman, she's mystery woman no more. in fact, in woman is standing behind the captain of the costa concordia. originally she was looked at as the woman who was just dining with him when the ship was going down but she's saying, uh-uh, he is not a coward, he is a lifesaver and we all have it wrong. 6:30 in the east. time to check the stories making news this morning. newt gingrich coming out guns blazing in last night oat gop debate in south carolina. his second wife claims he asked her for a open marriage a lie and angrily scolded john king for bringing up the subject at the beginning of the debate. also making news, a crash overnight. the taliban claiming that it

shot down a nato helicopter. the crash happened in southern afghanistan in helmand province late yesterday and six nato peacekeepers who were on board are not dead. nato official insisting there was no nato presence in that area when nato was shot down. no argument on whether the taliban did it or did not do it. stiff winds pushing an out of control wildfire toward the city limits. 10,000 people have been evacuated. the fire has destroyed 20 homes. it's being blamed for one death. there is some rain headed to that area. so hopefully they'll get some sort of reprieve fight that fire. we have some brand new video that's in to cnn. it is shot from the deck of a costa concordia. that's, of course, that doomed passenger liner. take a look at this. let's just listen for a bit. steve, steve, kathy! >> i'm watching it for the first time with you, folks, but i don't know if you feel the chills. that is just awful to hear

passengers calling out for their family and friends, panicking and trying to get into life boats, seeing them wear that life jackets not knowing whether the ship was going to sink or not. chaotic and now we know we have a death toll and we also have at least two dozen people unaccounted for. the ship's chef is now report that the captain was actually ordering dessert and sipping drinks as the boat -- as the ship was going down. he may just be one of the most vilified people, almost a global animal if you read the headlines around the world. guess what, in his home down, not the same at all. he's getting a lot of support. dan rivers, cnn poernt is on the line from giglio, italy. when i heard there was graffiti on the outside of his home, the first thought was that it was anger and that's not the case. is it? >> no. i mean, i think the people in his hometown are maintaining he is a hero because simply after

this accident happened he steered this ship towards the shore which may sound crazy but it was basically sinking. and they maintained that had he not done that, the ship would have sunk to the bottom of the sea here and, you know, thousands of people's lives would have been i'm perilled. that's obviously completely at odds with the other side of the coin which paints him as reckless, fool-hearted captain intent on show boating, going way too close to the giglio island, resulting in a collision with the rock and abandoning his ship before his passengers were safe. and k0according to that cook th you mentioned, a filipino cook, his testimony suggesting that the captain schettino was ordering dinner after the collision. here's what the cook said. >> the captain insisted on

having a meal around 10:30. he arrived with a woman who i didn't recognize. i did wonder, though, what the captain was doing, why was he tell there. anyway, we gave him his drink. after that he was also still waiting for the dessert to be served to the woman he was with. >> reporter: the woman has mentioned there appears to be this mwoman 25 years old who isa costa employee but she wasn't actually working on this leg of the voyage. she bought her own ticket to continue on having finished her duties on the previous leg to spend time with her colleagues and friends. now, she's come out and started speaking as well. here's what she is saying about the captain's actions. >> translator: i've heard in rush media that the captain left the ship first or among the first, but this is not true. i'm a witness. i don't know if i'm invited to testify in the court or not but as a witness, i can say that i left the deck at 23:50 following

the order from the captain telling me to go to the third deck and get into a life boat that could take more people. >> reporter: so that is contradicting the picture we've been building up from those radio intercepts that are being leaked between the captain and the port authority, suggest that the captain was not on board at that point, that he was in a life raft off the ship and you heard a few days ago the port authority repeatedly and angrily ordering the captain to get back on ship and ensure his passengers were safe. >> i wouldn't be doing my job if i didn't ask you about the weather and i know that's odd but since there is supposed to be bad weather coming, the ship behind you is only a couple of feet from literally an underwater cliff that's upwards of 200, perhaps more, 200 feet deep. that is awful. what is the status of the weather and what are they saying right now as it's daylight where you are? >> reporter: well, the bad

weather that was forecast today, if you can see, let me step out of the way and o. so you can see what's going on. it's calm out there at the moment. having said that, there are no divers on board because they're still detecting movement of this ship. apparently it's moved ability 1 1/2 meters. so what's that, about a yard and a half in your money. and that is the big problem. if it keeps shifting like that towards that underwater cliff you're talking about that's going to be a real issue because she may topple into much deeper waters and that could cause the fuel tanks to rupture. they are very concerned about what's going to happen to the ship. thankfully at the moment the storm that was forecast hasn't turned up. >> good news. >> yeah, and clearly they are concerned. dan rivers, thanks very much. keep an yeye oint. up next, who won the debate? we're going to talk to brett o'donnell, chief strategist for michele bachmann's presidential campaign. you're watching "early start." ♪ there's a place i dream about ♪

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>> in a big way. >> penalty box. >> so from the start the former house speaker came out swinging, branning his ex-wife a lie or. also, he slammed the media for covering the allegations. joining me now, brett o'donnell, chief strategist for michele bachmann's presidential campaign. thanks for being with thus morning. >> good to be with you. >> "the washington post" said the first five minutes of the debate were newt's finest hour in the race. do you agree with that? >> pretty much. i mean, i think that, you know, from a debating stand point last night, newt has made a living of bashing the media and really grandstanding on that issue. and last night was no different. he used that -- i'm sure that he knew the question was coming. and i'm pretty sure that he's probably grateful it came as the very first question because it gave him a chance to cast the issue aside and use the media as a whipping post to diffuse the

issue and distract from the issue itself. now, whether or not that will be able to serve him well going forward on the actual substance of the charge remains to be seen. we'll see how particularly women voters in south carolina and florida respond to the actual substance. but in the debate last night he was able to distract from it by using the media. and john king in particular, to distract from the issue. >> yeah, we've been discuss that all morning long, whether that will affect him with women voters in south carolina. his first question was about his ex-wife giving an interview with abc and say what you just mentioned, the open marriage. let's listen to newt's response. i want to ask you a very specific question about that. >> sure. >> destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. and i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a

topic like that. >> so you just said that he anticipated that question. it sounds like he was really well prepared for that. is that something of a gift for him or did somebody prep him for this? you're a debate prepster. how do you handle a situation like that? >> certainly you would prepare for that question because it dominated the news all day yesterday besides rick perry getting out of the race. and so i'm sure that either newt or his advisers thought very carefully. and my guess is that behind the scenes newt wouldn't say he was appalled by the question. my guess is he was probably thrilled by it because it gave him a chance from the onset of the debate to diffuse the question, to move it to the media, and to move it to a different topic. and so it gave him a chance to sort of refocus. and in debates, when you've got a weakness, the ability to move off of that weakness and into

your strength and newt's strength throughout these debates has been attacking the media, is something that gives you the chance to refocus the issue and distract it from the substance. >> all right. so let's stay there because mitt romney had a really awkward moment yesterday. i want you to listen to this and then we'll talk about it. >> when you release yours, will you follow your father's example? >> maybe. you know, i don't know how many years i'll release. i'll take a look at what our documents are. and i'll release multiple years. i don't know how many years. but i'll be happy to do that. >> romney had to have known that that was going to be a topic in the debate again last night. why was he not well prepared to answer that? >> you know, i'm not sure that -- i'm sure that they saw this question coming. but sometimes it seems to me

that governor romney litigates answers and tries to dance around things to get to a precise answer in his mind. earlier in that exchange he had been on message. i'll release the returns. i will release them in april. but then once john king drilled down on the issue, it seemed as though he was trying to litigate through the issue to get to, you know, how many years returns and be overly precise. you know, he actually had a pretty good moment in that exchange when he talked about how he had earned his own living and that he didn't inherit things from -- he had the right message but he ghost got off the message when he was asked about whether or not he would follow his father's example. i'm sure in his mind he was sorting through, okay, am i going to release 12 years, do i say i'm going to release 12 years? i think he got off the general message of the answer, which is

to, you know, i will release the tax returns. >> brett o'donnell, chief strategist, michele bachmann's presidential campaign. thank you for joining us. we also want to get you out wall street in nevada because there are some wildfires that are raging. the pictures show the winds and the smoke. look at that. find out just what implications these flames have for the homes nearby and how many are already lost. this is an rc robotic claw.

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it is 48 minutes past 6:00 on the east and one of the top stories is a loco,that's for you my friend. >> i give her a word of the day to use for the day. >> isn't it fitting when you talk about the 16th presidential debate. it was crazy. in the books, history books and record books. fierce exchange among the candidates. newt gingrich slamming the media for reporting his ex-wife's claims saying they wanted an open marriage and they're a lie. mitt romney being booed in the audience after being challenged about releasing his tax returns, a a. dozen years like his dad did when his dad ran for

president. >> the taliban is taking responsibility for the crash of a helicopter that went down in southern afghanistan late yesterday. six nato peacekeeperser on board. they were killed. the taliban insisting it shot down the chopper. nato official says there was no enemy presence in that area when that helicopter crashed. >> soledad has been follow that and all the news as well. she's got great bookings for "starting point" coming up next. hey, soledad. >> good morning. it was so interesting to be in that crowd last night at the debate. to see exactly where people were booing loudly and to see where people were cheeri ining loudly well. got lots to talk about. we're going to talk to the rnc chairman to handicap what goes on tomorrow when the actual primary takes place. and then talk to republican congressman tim scott from south carolina. we'll see if he's finally ready to endorse somebody. he said he would. and then we are joined by herman cain. just promised he's going to stick around for the whole first hour to chat about what happened

last night, what happens ahead in south carolina and looking further ahead, what happens in florida. all that around much more this morning when "starting point" gets under way.

welcome back. it is almost 7:00. happening right now in the east today, wildfire still burning out of control near reno, nevada. one person has died there. at least 20 homes have been destroyed. look at this, folks. nearly ten square miles have burned. >> 10,000 people have been asked to leave their homes, evacuated. the governor declared a state of emergency will. the national guard troops are expected to be coming on to those front lines to battle the flames. the smoke, look at that wind.

remarkable pictures. >> so rob marciano is standing by in atlanta. how is the weather affecting the firefighter ing there, rob? >> two stories here. first of all, guys, the winds have picked up are in advance of a storm now arriving there which will bring a little bit more in the way of humidity, and maybe rainfall. we're going to get help from mother nature. it's coming from this place nor. tremendous amount of rainfall. we talked about the ice and snow in seattle which is just beginning to warm up this morning. the rainfall in oregon, especially in the central valley as been deadly. a couple of deaths here because of cars being swept away by the flood waters. most of the rivers, the smaller ones have crested. there are more storms on the way. this weekend with more rainfall and expect more flooding across western oregon. here's the rain across san francisco. you've been dry. tahoe, raining at lake level but snowing in trucky. cold air will be moving in. you will see snow finally in tahoe and surrounding sierra, nevadas. this will have wind and rain

with it. tomorrow, another system coming in on sunday with more rain next week flooding issues will prevail. snow coming in from the weren't storms and into chicago. snow will arrive around lunch type or so. accumulation is expected, yes, probably a good three, maybe up to seven i believe inches across the chicagoland area. this will stream south along i-80 and cleveland. yes, tonight into the northeast, temperatures are just cold enough for snow. three to six inches expected along the tri-state area of new york city. if you're traveling through chicago, obviously going to be an issue. if you're going to work, maybe you want to leave a couple hours early, clear it with the boss, though, right, zoraida, clear it with the boss before you want -- >> stay home. >> three to seven inches maybe isn't such a big deal. >> i know. actually it looks nice sometimes, right? >> yeah. >> thank you. so, what do president obama and al green have in common? they can sing. >> can he sing? >> good question. that man right there tried his

hat at singing. and after the break, trust me, you have got to hear it. i'm robert shapiro.

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named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. ♪ got you in a stranglehold, baby ♪ president obama singing. >> at the apollo theater, fund-raisers all over new york but this one might be the biggest headline. singing al green. have a listen. >> and then to know that reverend al green was here -- ♪ i am so in love with you

>> i am i pressed. >> yes. >> whoa! >> he can serenade. we have bill clinton on the saxophone and now we have president obama singing al green. that did al green proud, i think. all right. on that note, let's say good morning to soledad o'brien. >> did you hear that? >> hey, ladies. good morning. good morning. you can serenade me. go ahead. >> you don't want to hear us at 6:58 in the morning eastern, girl. >> president obama sounds much better. >> oh, my goodness. all right, everybody. welcome. we're coming to you live this morning. "starting point" is in charleston, south carolina. once again at the berry patch cafe. here's where we're starting. and there's lots to talk about. newt gingrich is gaining moment momentum. he is rising in the polls. many people are saying what happened last night, his performance at the debate was a game