-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com did you hear that? monday. happy monday. good morning and welcome to "early start." . we're bringing you the news from a to z. the countdown is onto the primary in florida. mitt romney is getting some serious good news in the way of the polls. talk about breathing room. we'll get you those numbers a moment. all the while his number one opponent, not ron paul, not rick

santorum, it's gingrich calling him a bunch of "l" words. not the ones you see on tv. it's the liberal and liar. >> the pakistani doctor who helped track osama bin laden down. he could be tried for high treason. he's talking about bin laden saying someone in the government in pakistan must have known where he was hiding out. look out iran. a couple of guests are arriving in your fine country today. they are weapons inspectors of the iaea sort. they are looking for what you are up to. all of this while leon panetta has been warning that, you know what, iran might just have the bomb within a year. and it is occupy d.c.d day. the protesters are facing a deadline to get out today. very tense moments just blocks away from the white house. they do have a little something up their sleeve, the protesters do. all of it will unravel live. in the meantime we're still on

the tick tick talk to the primary. 26 hours if my math is right until the polls open in florida. it's looking real good for mitt romney right now. a whole bunch of rallies taking place over the weekend for both candidates. newt gingrich has been really trying to push the whole liberal label on to mitt romney. and mitt romney has been all over gingrich's, quote, failed leadership while he was in congress. >> how is that all working out? a new american research group poll shows romney with a double digit lead in florida. 43% to 32%. a new nbc news maris poll shows romney's lead is higher, 42% to 27%. the candidates are always sparring. they do agree on one thing, beat owing bomb ma. >> i think it's been a ground hog day presidency where he keeps saying the same thing again and again and again. we keep waking up and we have the same problems day after day

after day. >> if we're going to beat obama, he's going to have a billion dollars. almost all of it will be spent negatively because he doesn't have any positive record to run on. so, i mean, he's going from, yes, we can to why we couldn't as his theme. >> well, the delegate scoreboard so far after iowa, new hampshire, florida looks like this. they've gingrich has 23. romney is not far behind with 19. rick santorum has 13 and ron paul, not bad. not bad for ron paul picking up 3. did well in new hampshire. florida though is the big kahoona. it has 50 delegates. winner take all. the numbers could change greatly by the end of tomorrow. let's talk about that from some of the folks who know best. independent political analyst goldie tailor joining us.

matt keelan and democratic jamie harrison. goldie, i want to start with you to weigh in on mr. tom bro could have while he's not ang coring the news now is fee during heavily in an ad that mitt romney is playing against newt gingrich all about hissette things. let's have a listen. >> newt gingrich came to power after all preaching a higher standard. a man who brought down another speaker on ethics allegations. tonight he has on his own record the judgment of his peers, democratic and republican. by an overwhelming vote they found him guilty of ethics violations. >> to the ominous music as well back from the 1990s. goldie, that is not the kind of thing you want to hear if you're newt gingrich regardless if it was the '90s and he has all sorts of explanations. people love tom brokaw.

how is it playing? >> i think it's playing well. it is a winner take all but, two, as newt has risen on the debates, he's also fallen on the debates. three, mitt romney has spent an awful lot of money on television, nearly 5 to 1, mostly negative ads. it's working. in terms of tom brokaw, i wouldn't want to be put in that position. i think nbc in their family brands have fought against it in a good way. >> they don't like it. tom brokaw has actually been asking for the campaign to pull the ad. thus far to my knowledge, although it is only 5:05 in the east, it hasn't been pulled. let's move on to another media source, shall we? "the new yorker." it's the cover "the new yorker." . now they've got barack obama seemingly looking at the super bowl between newt and mitt and drinking his beer and holding his football.

this is a lot of fun and games, but the truth of the matter is, jamie, that this is kind of what the democrats are feeling right now, that it's just wonderful to watch this circular firing squad among the republicans, right? >> yeah. it's like wrestle mania. get your chips and drinks out. it's really amazing to see the barrage of attacks from the romney and gop establishment on newt gingrich. gingrich isn't being a shrinking violet. he came out very forcefully against mitt romney. called him an anti- -- a pro abortion, pro tax increase massachusetts moderate. it's really like world war iii in the republican party. >> talk about this. the republican strategy right now in terms of newt's -- or, rather, mitt's opponents has been to sort of paint him as this elitist, rich guy who, by the way, a lot of people in the field, a lot of people who have been polling have said, that ain't such a bad thing if he can

run a business that well, maybe he can run the country that well. the ""l.a. times"" has come out with something that was interesting is that business leaders haven't always made for good political leaders. when you're a business leader you don't have opposition to fight. there's got to be something to that. >> i think what romney's going to need to do is talk about being governor of massachusetts once he pivots to the general election. talk about how he was bipartisan, got things done with a democratic legislature up there. right now he's focused on how great of a businessman he is. if you talk to most people on wall street and across the country in business, he's one of the top ten american business men. >> i want you all to weigh in with one word, the word is either good, bad, doesn't make a difference. jeb bush has not endorsed anyone in florida. >> doesn't make a difference. >> matt? >> it's good. >> jaime. >> doesn't make a difference.

>> you are awesome. the producers are like, we love this panel. thanks, guys, very much. we're going to talk to you a little bit later on in this program. for the best political coverage on the entire television netscape tune in to what we have going on. at 6:30 eastern david vifter will join us. soledad o'brien, former presidential candidate herman cain is going to tell soledad why he decided to endorse newt gingrich this weekend and what a difference it will make. it is 5:08 in the east. we give you an early start to your day by alerting you to the news that's happening later. the stories that are developing now whampt will be the big story. andrew young, former aid to presidential candidate john edwards will be in court to answer contempt charges. young and his wife are accused of turning sealed documents over to federal prosecutors. those documents are part of a civil lawsuit filed against them

by edwards former miss stress for invasion of privacy. hunter is trying to reclaim personal items that she says belonged to her, including photographs and that alleged sex tape. john edwards, you'll recall, is charged with using campaign contributions to hide his affair with hunter. and the occupy protesters in washington, d.c., might not have such a nice wakeup call today. they could get the boot earlier than expected. they've only got until noon. if they're late sleepers, it means wake up and get out. they want to clear out the two sites near the white house where they've been camping. we're hearing police could start clearing out the camps in the next few hours. cnn has a crew there. we're going to keep our eye on it, make sure we know exactly what's going on, especially if any violence ensues. >> let's mind your business shall we. u.s. markets closing mixed on friday. the dow and s&p down and nasdaq up. let's bring in christine romans. >> happy monday.

>> you know what made me happy, the idea that there could be a facebook ipo. >> there's been a lot of chatter. it's the holy grail of ipos. we won't know for sure until they file some documents with the sec. "the wall street journal" has been reporting the timing might be getting closer to being decided. we still don't know yet. ipo would be very interesting for facebook. also a tough week though for stocks probably this week. one of the reasons is you have stocks near the highest since april. last week was a tough week. you could use debt discussions going on with greece still. you have the first european union kind of big summit of the year and earnings. let's be careful of this week. it ends with the jobs report in the united states. a lot of things for stock investors this week that could be a little bit tough. >> you're watching florida. >> i want to talk about florida because tomorrow it's all about florida. you just heard one of your guests say that he might be one of the top ten business men in america, right? in florida that seems to be going over well, that and the

fact that they're spending an awful lot of money -- >> three to one. >> right. they're spending a lot of money. i was just in florida on friday. this whole idea of, you know, he's rich, that's a bad thing. it wasn't playing with the people i was talking to in north florida. one person said to me the american national pastime is buying lottery tijts. mitt romney is what we all want to be. this whole fight within the republicans about money is not something that resonates with them. >> it's the american dream for heavens sake. >> but it depends on where you are. in some places they're saying what about the 99 to 1. what about occupy. he is the representation of that. where i was in north florida that was not what they were saying. i want to talk a little bit about housing because in florida you have 9.9% unemployment rate. you have a housing market that's been cut in half from the prices since the peak. i was talking to a professor at the university of north floor darks real estate professor, guys, and he sees some signs of hope in all of these dire statistics. that might be playing out in the

primaries tomorrow. listen. >> i did a study going back to the '60s and times when it's this affordable, five years hence prices have usually gone up significantly. i don't know this is so unusual and so rare, but this is such a good sign that housing prices will go up in the future. >> there you go. finally i heard someone say that maybe housing prices could go up. they're cleaning out and that's such a cruel word to use, cleaning out a lot of these foreclosures. i'm not saying it's going to get better tomorrow. he's not saying it's going to get better tongue but we're bumping along the bottom. >> that's such a vague word though. everybody knows they will eventually go up. >> when you're talking about the politics of it, at some point this is all terrible, loud background noise for people going in there. it's been like this. in florida, they were the first to rise and the first to fall and fall in a big way. i was asking people when you go in and you're at the primary on

tuesday or when you're casting the ballot in the general election, what are you thinking and hoping for? you're talking about who's got the qualifications to lead the economy and grasp those little signs of hope and turn that into a real recovery. it's just interesting. the tone is so much different in florida than it was in iowa, and even in south carolina. that's what makes it so exciting talking about politics. >> the housing crisis is the worst there? >> it's horrible. >> the professor, when he was talking about this, was he referring to florida or -- >> florida only. >> we have nevada to come. that is a buktd of junk. >> in nevada i don't think anybody's going to be -- i'll try to find that one person who says that. >> guess who's going to nevada? >> are you going to nevada? >> no. no. >> thank you, christine. we appreciate it. it is 5:13 in the east. a warm end to january unless you are in alaska. >> which you're used to anyway if you're in alaska. rob marciano standing by with the good, the bad, the ugly.

>> hi. speaking of florida, we'll start you there. not the best days yesterday with fog and smoke creating a deadly accident along i-75. still a small smidgen of that from what i can find of i-75 clos closed. some of the state highways around the fire just south of gainesville closed before of smoke. right now temperatures in this area are pretty chilly. as you go up in the atmosphere they're warmer above than they are below. that is putting a lid, a cap on this smoke and keeping it close to the ground. we have dense smoke advisories and visibilities are low across parts of north florida. 32 degrees in gainesville. you go up 1,000 feet and the temperatures are 50 degrees. we have to burn through this inversion in order to get the atmosphere mixed up. chilly up to the north. couple of week clipper type systems bringing light showers. this shouldn't be that big of a deal. cool shot of air across the northeastern tier. for the most part, most of the

ufrmt s. is going to be above normal. this warmth will be pumping up east and north as we go along to the next couple of days. tomorrow looks to be fairly toasty. if you are traveling, new york, boston, detroit and miami are going to be the spots that see some delays. 40 degrees in new york. it will be warm joer tomorrow. guys, back up to you. >> 40 degrees is where we should be? >> that's interesting. i would have thought that was warmer. >> maybe a couple degrees warmer. >> you're so smart. >> thank you, rob. >> it is now 15 minutes past the hour so get up and at her. while you're busy in your room, we'll give you the top stories of the day. newt gingrich trying to channel good old ronald regan as he slips further and further behind mitt romney. sunshine state is holding that primary tomorrow. right now romney holds a double digit lead over newt gingrich. former house speaker telling florida voters he is the new

ronald regan person in the race. take a look at this video, folks. opposition groups blame government forces for more than 160 deaths. critics have slammed the arab league mission for doing little to stop the crackdown on protesters. >> then back here at home it always makes big headlines. sag awards. when they get all fancy, dress up and they get awards. it was a big night for ""the help"" the the screen actors guild awards. it won the top prize, best ensemble cast. two of its stargs were honored. >> i rarely watch movies. i need you to ask me about this one? >> have you seen this. >> yes, i have. >> viola davis, octave yeah spencer. very deserving if you haven't seen the movie, run, don't walk. it's terrific. on the tv side, they do the tv thing there too, "modern family" won for best comedy ensemble.

"board walk empire." >> 5:16. pakistani doctor who helped the u.s. track down osama bin laden could be tried for high treason. let's see what leon panetta says. >> also a little unusual, puppy snatching. weird video. they're caught on surveillance tape stealing that little bitty baby puppy. no, don't say it. the pet owner says police, call off the hounds. drop the charges. why? you're going to find out in our early read segment coming up next. ♪[music plays] ♪[music plays]

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it is 5:20in the morning in the east. we're getting an early read on your local news that is making national headlines. this morning we have papers from oak lapped and los angeles. we're going to begin in oakland, the "oakland tribune." the city is assessing damage from a weekend protest. more than 400 people were arrested. they broke into and vandalized city hall. despite the damage they say city hall will reopen this morning. the city says the protesters

broke windows, damaged architecture more than 100 years old. the protesters say that the actual aggression is -- they're blaming the police. they say they've become more aggressive so, in turn, they have to. >> i don't like flag burning. i know it's your first amendment right, but i don't like it. the "l.a. times," this is a weird story. see that girl? see that thing she's opening up? there's a chow puppy in there worth about 600 bucks. off she goes dog napping. taking a dog. the pet owner wanted the police to charge the dog napper. the dog napper decided to send the pet owner the pet store an apology note and the $600. that was just the penultimate response. they went one step further and they sent another apology and even more money to cover the taxes and the fees on that little puppy dog. very unusual.

so the store owner then accepted the apology and asked the police to drop the charges. puppy is safe. all is good. very weird. >> very odd. how often does that happen, right? >> i don't know. kinder, gentler crooks? word of the day by the way, ting. >> what is your word of the day? >> penultimate. you have to check our tweets to find out what the word of the day is every day. >> all right. >> little insider thing. >> it is 5:22 now. senior pakistani officials are telling cnn that the government has not yet decided whether to try a doctor who helped track down osama bin laden. defense secretary panetta talking about the raid on cbs "60 minutes." he believes some pakistani officials must have known where bin laden was hiding. he talked about the pakistani doctor who is now in prison. >> i'm very concerned about what

the pakistanis did with this individual. this was an individual who, in fact, helped provide intelligence on -- that was very helpful with regards to this operation and he was not in any way treasonous towards pakistan. he was not in any way doing anything that would have undermined pakistan. as a matter of fact, if pakistan -- i've always said this. they have a common cause here against terrorism. >> cnn's reza is live in pakistan. he has been charged with high treason and is in custody? >> reporter: he has yet to be charged with high treason. a commission here in pakistan that has been charged with investigating the raid on the bin laden compound has recommended for him to be charged with treason, but this doctor has become another bone

of contention between pakistan and the u.s. there are many. u.s. officials say he's a good guy. pakistani authorities say he's a bad guy. so far they've treated him as a suspected criminal. his name is shaquil faridi. he played a key role in the operation. it's not necessarily clear what role he played and why he was so important. what we do know is that he tried to set up a fake vak sin nation campaign in the town where bin laden was hiding. the plan was for nurses to get into the compound, extract blood from the bin laden kids in order to verify his identity. the plan did not work. it failed. even so pakistani authorities were not happy. they arrested him. again, late last year a commission charged with investigating the raid on the bin laden compound recommended that he be tried for treason. he's been in jail for about eight months and his name surfaced again over the weekend

when defense secretary leon panetta called for his release but there's absolutely no indication that he's going to be released any time soon. it's now up to the federal government to decide whether to try him. it's not clear when they'll make that decision. >> if he is charged with the crime, what's the punishment for the crime? >> reporter: the punishment is death. it's the death sentence, but i think when you talk to analysts here, they don't believe that a trial is actually going to take place. i think when you look at the overall picture, this raid on the bin laden compound really highlighted the very real differences between pakistan and the u.s., this very volatile relationship. on paper as defense secretary leon panetta said. they were partners to capture osama bin laden. despite what the perception may be in the u.s. and the west, the overwhelming majority of

pakistanis were happy to see him killed. they did not support al qaeda and its cause. what they also didn't support and they still don't support is u.s. foreign policy. the perception in this region is that the u.s. takes too many unilateral actions, occupies countries, violates nation's sovereignti sovereignties. they didn't like this action where they took unilateral decision without informing pakistan. they're trying to ease the criticism by going after people who helped the c.i.a. one of them was this doctor. >> live in islamabad for us. >> still to come on early start at 26 minutes past five. there is a pivotal vote coming tomorrow. loads of delegates in that state. romney is surging. can he be stopped? gingrich hopes so. we'll find out more about what the strategies are. you're watching "early start." they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly

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welcome back to "early start." you department get the pipg memo this morning? we did. i'm ashleigh banfield. >> coral, right? >> i don't know. it depends on your tv. if you have an hd tv we look like the bobsy twins. mitt romney, widening that lead with just a day to go before the florida primary. he's got an 11 point cushion over newt gingrich in a new american research group poll. and, by the way, that lead stretches to 15 points if you're looking at the nbc news maris poll that came out recently. gingrich is picking up an endorsement though from former

presidential candidate herman cain. that happened over the weekend. listen to this. a guilty verdict in the canadian honor murders file. three members of a family convicted of killing four female relatives whose bodies were recovered in a canal. 58-year-old mohammed shaf yeah, his wife toob ba, and his son hamed sentenced to prison for 25 years. the clock is ticking for all of those occupy protesters who are camping out in the nation's capitol. park police said you have until noon today to pack up your gear and clear out of the two camps near the white house or you're going to be arrested. we are hearing this morning that the police might get an earlier start, actually. start arresting them earlier than noon. protesters have been put on notice by the way. last week they were told they could no longer camp overnight at those sites. >> that's an interesting idea of how we're going to deal with

that. it's just one day left before the critical florida primary and newt gingrich and mitt romney are spending a lot of time dwelling on the past. gingrich is trying to position himself as a loyal reagan foot soldier. romney reminding everyone over and over about what he calls gingrich's failures as house speaker. let's chat about this. from cnn center in atlanta independent political analyst goldie tailor. matt keel lan and democratic strategies jaime harrison. >> matt, we'll begin with you. let's listen to the endorsement from herman cain and we'll talk about it. >> i also know that speaker gingrich is running for president and going through this sausage grinder, i know what this sausage grinder is all about. i know that he's going through this sausage grinder because he

cares about the future of the united states of america. >> he had endorsed the people before. now he's talking about a sausage grinder. good for gingrich or bad? >> i think it helps a little bit, but the person that gingrich really needs to endorse him, zarida, is rick santorum. as long as rick santorum is still in the race, it's going to be hard for gingrich to get into the 40s where you're seeing romney down in florida. he's going to have trouble putting to the the coalition that he needs. >> but rick santorum obviously still in. folks say he's staying in for the long haul. >> i think he will stay in for the long haul. that's going to divide the electorate. that plays right into romney's hands. >> jaime might have picked up cain. three polls say he's trailing romney. he is lashing out at romney putting the gloves back on. let's listen to this and talk about it. >> i am standing next to a guy who is the most blatantly dishonest answers i can remember in any presidential race in my

lifetime. >> he was well coached. he came into the debate prepared to say things that are false. >> people say he uses his viciousness to get ahead, but it also makes him a dangerous candidate. if you divide the party but the public still wants you, you win, right? but could not caring about his party work in his favor or disfavor? good strategy, bad strategy, jaime. >> it's mixed. the battle shows sort of the schizophrenia in the republican party. it's a battle right now for the heart and the soul of the party. you have the tea party activists on the gingrich side and you have the republican establishment on mitt romney's side. so it's hard right now to see how the republicans get back together at the convention later this fall. >> but how do you think it'll affect gingrich with his party? he's notoriously unpopular.

>> yeah. he's very unpoor pew lar with the establishment republicans, the ones -- the boehners and delays and the folks here in washington, but i don't think he's very unpopular as it relates to the tea party activists. as you can see lately sarah palin has bins been incrementally moving forward towards an endorsement. with herman cain who was also a darling of the tea party, you know, i think gingrich has strong support in some aspects of the republican party right now. >> all right. goldie, let's talk about paul and santorum. they're both doing poorly in florida. very little chance to win there, of course. paul said that he's actually going to focus elsewhere. santorum is focusing on his little girl for now. he's going to look ahead. let's look ahead beyond florida. where do these two candidates stand? >> well, i think the pathway to victory for them has narrowed down to nonexistent. i think matt's right that santorum's possibility of -- the

possibility of endorsing somebody like newt gingrich is probably the only path he has to viability in terms of a political career going forward. so i think he's right about that. in terms of ron paul, you know, his political life may lie in an independent campaign later on, which polls show could be very, very helpful to republicans. so i think ron paul continues to grow his coalition across the country he has very passionate supporters and backers. that's his next show if he decides to make it. >> matt, jaime, goldie, we'll see you shortly. for the best political coverage keep it right here on cnn. 6:30 eastern david vitter joins us live to discuss the race. then at 7:00 a.m. eastern on "starting point" herman cain tells soledad o'brien why he decided to endorse newt gingrich this weekend. and a real important united

nations nuclear team, the iaea, you heard a lot about them. they are headed to iran. they want to know what that country's up to. if the nuclear program there really is innocuous for like medicine and all of that stuff or, instead, if it's for what the americans think it's all about, and that is weaponizing. we're going to talk about that. you're watching "early start." they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] new glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. but not your wrinkles? neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. its retinol formula visibly reduces wrinkles in just one week. why wait if you don't have to. neutrogena®. why wait if you don't have to. homicide of young people in america has an impact on all of us. how can we save these young people's lives? as a police chief i have an opportunity to affect what happens in a major city.

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good morning, to you. it is 5:40 in the east. time to check stories making news this morning. mitt romney holding a double digit lead. the sunshine state's primary gets underway tomorrow. romney is continuing his assault on gingrich's record as speaker of the house referring to him over and over as a failed leader. and in the crime department police find the blood of missing maine toddler ayla reynolds in the home where she disappeared.

investigators are saying the tests determined that not all of the blood found was hers, but they did find an amount that they quote was more than a small cut would produce. police say they do not believe that they're getting the complete story from the adults who said they last saw ayla alive. they say her father, aunt, and the father's girlfriend have not passed what's quoting to be the straight-face test. witnesses say the crash site looked like a war zone. interstate 75 near gainesville florida has been reopened this morning just about 24 hours after a series of chain reaction crashes in which ten people were killed, another 18 injured. the visibility on the stretch of the highway was virtually zero because of heavy smoke and fog from a brush fire. officials say may have been intentionally set. a dense smoke advisory is still in effect in that area this morning. some people say it's kind of like looking for a needle in a

haystack. nuclear weapons inside of iran, but it's something that weapons inspectors are right now about to tackle. big problem and barbara starr is at the pentagon. barbara, the last time you and i talked about this topic i think it might have been somewhere around 2003 when the iaea was busy in iraq. the track record didn't turn out to be too terrific. do we have any indication things are going to be different this time around? >> reporter: well, you know, this time around a senior delegation of inspectors from the international atomic energy agency is now on the ground for the next couple of days inside iran trying to get access to facilities, documents, anything they can to take that firsthand look at what iran is up to with its nuclear program. in fact, is it a military program aimed at trying to develop nuclear weapons? that's what the united states and the western allies believe is going on. iran has denied it. this time the inspectors have come with a lot of heft, a lot of muscle with them.

some very senior officials and they are going going to do everything they can in the next couple of days to get some answer zblers you and i know well that heft and muscle is all relative. after all, it is the united nations. i always wonder just what kind of teeth do they really have when they're up against that kind of a regime? >> reporter: well, what's happening now, of course, as you know, the european union is moving ahead with its sanctions to band iranian oil. what they're trying to do is use that economic muscle against iran to make it so unpalatable for them to economically go forward with this nuclear program with sanction after sanction after sanction, economic, financial, commercial, that it will force iran's hand economically. i've got to tell you, there's a lot of skeptics, a lot of people who say iran will just go ahead with whatever the regime wants in its nuclear program. >> yeah. >> reporter: the hope is by the european allies, by the united states that they can use these

sanctions to force iran to give up any nuclear weapons intentions. defense secretary leon panetta says if iran really put its mind to it they could have a nuclear weapon the beginning of -- nuclear weapon within a year. it would take them about two to three years after that to be able to deliver it, if you will, put it on a missile. >> i hate to bring iraq back up again but i interveed terry kaziz before the invasion in 2003. i remember him saying very clearly the united weapons inspectors are in the bag of the united nations. madeline al bright could get some bugs into the united nations office in iraq. don't you think the iranians think the same thing? >> reporter: i don't think there is any word. the most polite word would be skeptical about europe's intentions. they believe it. when that u.s. drone went down

that was one of the clearest indications that the u.s., indeed, does have an espionage program against iran perhaps. there has been a lot of discussion that one of the big weapons has been a cyber attack against iran's nuclear program using a computer worm virus to try and slow them down. no proof the u.s. is behind it. no proof israel is behind the killing of iranian scientists, but it's all pretty tantalizing. >> the iaea has three whole days for this mission. we'll be talking more about it, barbara. >> reporter: sure. >> thanks. it is 5:45. ahead on "early start." front page faces. this morning we have tom mikens. he's going to tell us why women could determine the winner of tomorrow's florida primary. you are watching "early start." thanks for being with us.

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good morning to you. floridians head to the polls tomorrow in a primary race that could prove pivotal in a battle for the gop nomination. >> boy, i'll say. 50 delegates. ouch. newt gingrich picked up a good endorsement from herman cain over the weekend. remains to be seen if that will be good or bad for him. the former speaker is definitely having some trouble. his poll numbers are ticking away, sliding. he's trying to position himself as the true conservative, but four out of five top florida newspapers have, instead, endorsed his competitor, mitt romney. in our front page faces segment where we like to get you the face behind all of that ink from tampa, tim nickens is the editor for the largest paper, "tampa bay times." thanks so much for he cbeing wi us. your paper is endorsing mitt

romney. what do you suppose that the "tampa tribune" knows that you don't know? >> i'm not sure they know anything that we don't know. i think we've recommended the candidate that's best suited for the republicans and best positioned to take on president obama in the fall. >> but you know how readers are. they sort of wonder, well, why one paper one way and three or four others the other way. they get mixed up. is there something to "the tribune"? is it a farther leaning right paper? why would they have chosen newt gingrich in a state where y'all know what the issues are? >> well, there's not much difference really between the candidates on the issues. i think it comes down more to personality this time. so different newspapers are going to make different zblumts okay. let's go over some numbers here. there have been some poll numbers that have been coming out over the weekend. they're quite telling. many of these polls were taken before the cnn debate on thursday. here's how the numbers shake out if this were just a choice for

floridians for the gop nomination. look, mitt romney has a huge lead over newt gingrich, but where it gets interesting is if you break it down, tim, into men and women, i have no idea that there was this much of a difference. the men in a vote come ahead at 38% over 35% romney over gingrich, but look at the women. you break it down into the women and it's unbelievable, 46% of women gop voters favor romney over 27% over newt gingrich. do you have any insight as to why that might be in your state? >> well, i suspect that is because gingrich has a little by the of a harder edge, a little more aggressive. there's been a lot of news about his three marriages in the media here in florida, and romney is a little bit softer and has a

better image in that regard. >> but what's interesting is i had a feeling you were going to say that. i had a feeling you were going to bring up the whole marriage baggage and cheating on wife number one and cheating on wife number two with wife number three who worked for him for six years, however, this is where it gets weird. that did not seem to do anything to him in south carolina and he took that state. who i different are you than south carolina? >> well, we're actually a lot different. i think we're a lot more moderate than south carolina in one respect. i don't think we really focus as much on social issues in florida as they do in south carolina. >> and just lastly the hispanic vote. i want to show a quick board of numbers here among hispanic gop voters romney comes ahead of newt gingrich 52 to 28. a lot of people are saying it's silly to say republican hispanic voters have any other interests in mind than anybody else which is money, money, money and the economy. >> that is true to a large

extent, particularly in florida where the unemployment rate's higher than it is in the nation. so it's jobs, jobs, jobs in florida. >> you are great to wake up so early and be on the air at 5:52 eastern time in florida and look so alive and well and awake. i sure appreciate your time, tim. thank you. >> thank you. it is 5:52 in the east. still ahead, the new england patriots chad ochocinco trumps brady with a super bowl gift for his teammates. we're going to tell you. you're watching "early start." o, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first. get more whole grain than any other ingredient... just look for the white check.

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super bowl in his 11 year career. tom brady gave them a gift, uggs. >> they're not cheap. >> they thanked him for the awesome present. >> i hope they did. do you know how pathetic i am? i use the ear phones from jetblue. i keep using them every time. i throw them back in my purse, bring them back. i think only one side works. >> that's not pathetic, it's practical. >> ahead on "early start" we have a couple of things for you. leon panetta speaking out about the raid that killed osama bin laden. he tells us what he thinks pakistan knew or didn't know about his hiding place and he's talking serious numbers, too. 8 foot, 10 foot, 12 foot walls. what does that say? you're watching "early start." time you've called... no, it's fine, my family has free unlimited mobile-to-any-mobile minutes.

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morning to you. it is 6:00 in the morning on the east coast. and it's an "early start." i'm ashleigh banfield. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. we are bringing you the news from a to z. last full day in florida for these guys to get out there and stomp for their votes. gingrich is losing ground and resorting to name calling, calling romney a liberal and liar. rick santorum planning to be back on the campaign trail after a real tough weekend. in the hospital with his little baby daughter but said she has had a miraculous turn around. defense secretary leon panetta is speaking out on pakistan and bin laden saying someone in the government must have known where he was hiding out. cnn's national security analyst, peter bergen, on that. and we are watching the occupiers, especially in d.c., because they're facing a deadline of about 12:00 noon to

pack up those tents and tarps and get on out of there. now we're expecting some tense moments could be earlier. it's all just happening blocks away from the white house. we will see what happens as they close in on the occupieroccupie on the eve of the florida primary mitt romney is on a roll here. gingrich and romney calm training hard. gingrich is trying to portray romney as a liberal. . >> new american research group poll has mitt romney ahead 43% to 32% for newt gingrich. and, by the way, that lead, if you look at the nbc news/marist poll, romney is over gingrich even wider. candidates at this point just keep clawing away at each other. >> if you've ever tried to hire someone for a job you look at not just what they say but also

what they've done and what their record is and his record was one of failed leadership. we don't need someone who can speak well perhaps or who can say the things we agree with but does not have the experience of being an effective leader. >> i am, in fact, the legitimate heir of the reagan movement, not some liberal from massachusetts. >> the delegates scoreboard so far after iowa, new hampshire, and south carolina, gingrich 23, romney 19, santorum, 23, paul 3. 50 delegates are up for grabs tomorrow. let's talk about the vote there from cnn center in atlanta, independent political analyst goldie taylor and from washington republican strategist matt keelen and democratic strategist jamie harrison. jamie, we're going to start with you. >> sounds good. >> everybody is looking to marco rubio for the endorsement there. he is a tea party darling. he is latino. latino vote in florida is very

important. he says though he is not going to endorse a candidate but it does not stop the candidates from praising him. let's listen to this and then talk about it. >> i actually thought about marco rubio in a slightly more dignified and central role than being in the cabinet. >> obviously you're saying marco rubio is an impressive guy. >> marco rube yorubio, terrific hispanic-american. >> they say he would not help with florida's latinos. only 43% is likely to vote if rubio is vice president and that support is mostly from foreign born cubans. how much can even an association with rubio help? >> i don't think he can help very much, you know. senator rubio is a darling of the republican party at the moment. but you know, the big thing is he can't cover the anti-immigrant stances of some of the republicans right now.

what you hear coming out of arizona can governor brewer, steve king out of iowa, you know, those are very anti-immigrant, anti-hispanic sentiments. and i don't think senator rubio, even if he is their vice presidential nominee, will be able to cover that. >> all right. matt, mitt romney is definitely still a participating to rubio, none the less. and it could help him get the tea party electorate that he doesn't have but he also needs those really important dependents. according to the latest wall street/nbc poll, 42% still has an a. negative opinion of romney. that's just an increase of two months ago. more independents have a negative opinion of him. how does he get that vote back? >> he needs to get beyond the primary and into the general election. it's really hurt him with

independents. he needs to start squaring off solely against president obama and not have the distraction of gingrich and santorum and paul until that time i think you're going to see his numbers dwind with independents. hopefully for romney he has a lot of time before picking up the nomination and going to the convention to go back to the middle and talk to the independents and democrats, as well. >> all right. goldie, let's talk about another person who has not endorsed. governor jeb bush, right? at one point he was actually being called to enter the race. he says that he's already voted absentee but he won't say who he's voted for, that he's really unhappy about the rhetoric in this race as it relates particularly to immigration. and you know romney has been courting him heavily. do you think if he doesn't endorse it's going to hurt? >> no, i don't think -- i don't think it's going to help or hurt. i mean, jeb bush was one of those republicans that, you know, we tried to recruit to get

into the republican primary very early on. but he said then, just as he's saying now, that the rhetoric was just not the kind that he wanted to stomach this year. so i think he's right. the longer this primary goes on, the more to the right we tilt, the more out of the american mainstream we tilt, and more difficult it's going to be for candidates to come back to center. candidates like mitt romney who at one point was very, very appealing to independents and now you see the displeasure with him has risen economically. the same is through with newt gingrich. this race this fall is almost wholly dependent upon the ability to track independents to your side. and these republicans, at least this cast of republicans, haven't been able to do that. i think jeb bush's nonendorsement has certainly been a part of that. >> jamie, matt, goldie, thank you for joining us. for the best political coverage on television keep it here on cnn. 6:30 eastern, david vitter joins us live to talk about the gop

race. 7:00 a.m. eastern on "starting point" herman cain tells her why he decided to endorse newt gingrich this past weekend. rick santorum is ready to hit the campaign again, not in florida. he is headed instead to missouri, minnesota, colorado and nef nef, all those next contests. says he'll visit those states today and tomorrow. and this weekend he spent actually most of yesterday, part of saturday as well, with his 3-year-old daughter bella at her bedside at a pennsylvania hospital. she's got pneumonia in both lungs. his holdest daughter elizabeth filled in for her dad in florida. >> dad wishes he could be here with all of you today. i'm talking to you. it's just so encouraging to see all of you here. but my dad today is exercising his most important role, being a dad. >> while elizabeth didn't talk a lot about bella we are being

told her condition is really improving. she's not out of the woods yet, but rick santorum is headed back to the trail and he says it's a miraculous recovery and thanking everyone for their prayers as well. 6:08 in the east. defense secretary leon panetta talking to "60 minutes" about the bin laden raid in pakistan. he sees no evidence to support it but he believes someone in government must have known where bin laden was hiding. he also says pakistani doctor who helped the u.s. track bin laden is now in prison and that he could be charged with high treason. >> i'm very concerned about -- about what the pakistanis did with this individual. this was an individual who, in fact, helped provide intelligence on -- that was very helpful with regards to this operation. and he was not in any way treasonist towards pakistan. he was not in any way doing anything that would have

undermined pakistan. matter of fact, if pakistan's -- and i've always said this. pakistan and the united states have a common cause here against terrorists. >> pakistani officials tell cnn they haven't decided whether to try the doctor for high treason. i'm very jealous of scott trying to fly this that command center of panetta. peter bergen is someone who interviewed bin laden. we'll talk to him about 6:50 eastern. deadline is fast approaching for the folks who are occupying near the white house in d.c. they're being told pack up your camps by noon today or you may end up going to jail instead. we're going to talk live to a protester hanging out there since october. and rob marciano hanging out in atlanta. good morning to you. >> hi, zoraida.

hi, ashleigh. looking at problems across northern florida again today after that deadly accident yesterday. still smoke in the area. i-75 in around around the gainesville area showing a fair amount of fog yesterday. more so just smoke today. temperatures are chilly actually right around the freezing mark. the problem is you go up 1,000 feet or so. temperatures are much warmer than that. that's putting a lid on the atmosphere. temperatures across much of the u.s. will be warm over the next couple of days. new york, boston, chicago, detroit, miami, you will have problems because of wind. couple of weak systems across the system with snow showers but again, the warming trend will ensue in full force tomorrow. great check on weather. "early start" is coming right back. u are a business pro. lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go.

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temperatures. remember that temperature as we bring you this next story. national park service has an ultimatum for the occupy d.c. protester, quit your camping or go to jail the. >> the demonstrators have been camped out since october. if they are not out by noon today they will face arrests. we're watching for my movement between police proond testers before that time. dramatic video of police tazing a protester yesterday. take a look at this. >> why are you coming at me? ploes. get away from me. i have done nothing wrong. i have done nothing wrong. i have done nothing wrong. i have done nothing wrong! i have done nothing wrong! oh! >> that protester was reportedly tearing down fliers that were announcing today eats deadline.

he has been charged with disorderly conduct. with us right now is an occupy protester camped outside mcpherson park since object 5th. can you tell us anything about that tazed man? did you witness that? >> i was there to witness, yeah. what happened was the park police was coming through issuer their third notices that we needed to no longer be camping, that they would be enforce that law. he was very upset about that. he lives here. he began telling them that this was not fair and he began taking down the signs that they were posting. he had walked all of the way across from the park. they followed him and began to arrest him. once they were trying to detain him they then tazed him, which was done very unnecessarunneces. >> do you know anything about him? has he returned, is he okay? >> he is okay. so when they were taking him over to the cop car he was demanding an ambulance. he then ended up laying down on the ground and we're t not sure

what was happening but he was convulsing a little bit. but they took him to the hospital and they said that he was okay. he then spent the night in jail and his arraignment is today. >> sarah, the clock is ticking here on the ultimatum. and i was reading that fellow protesters are going to try to play games all night as a loophole in the no camping law. do you know anything about that? >> yeah. so they're not actually trying to clear us out of the park. the park service who has jurisdiction over our park says that we are allowed to be here under our first amendment right to hold a 24-hour vigil. so they're allowing tents as long as there's no camping material or anything of that sort. so one new orleans one is allowed to be sleeping. so they're going to come in at noon they say to enforce the no camping law. so they'ring looking for bedding material, food preparation, and people sleeping. >> and you have been camping out since october, we understand. and we just bumped in with a shot over there, 35 degrees.

are you getting some support from the locals in the area? >> yeah, we do have a lot of support from locals in the area. we get no donations of blankets and warm coats and everything like that. almost on a daily basis. so all of us who are staying out here are very well equipped to stay warm throughout the night. >> and what are you planning to do when and if they come and start arresting people? >> so all of us here at mcpherson square, we are planning to remain here and await their arrival on or around 12:00. we'll begin gathering probably in the center of the square to come together as one and show that we are the citizens here in the center are the ones fighting for our democracy saying that corporations are people and money is free speech which doesn't make sense to us so we're going to make sure we're there to meet the park police. >> if you are arrested, forced to leave, do you think you will go back or do you think this will be a blow to your move snmt. >> sorry. what was that? >> if you're forced to leave,

you're arrested, do you think you will come back or will this be a blow to the movement there at that particular park? >> i don't think this will be a blow to our movement. i think they are trying to make it as hard as possible for us to remain in the park. but the park is just one of our tactics. we're ok pig space on k street, in between k street where the lobbyist and money are fleeing into the white house, a block away from us. also near the capitol. it's definitely a strategic tactic that we're using and we're doing the fight to defend our right to be there. but it's definitely whatever happen, we're not going away. >> sara shaw, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you. and still ahead at 19 minutes past 6:00, we're going to talk about medicare and the housing bust and all those issues that are near and dear to florida floridians. but are the politicians doing honest promise or pandering for votes? you're watching "early start."

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at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. we are minding your business, this morning as we like to do regularly. the u.s. markets closed kind of mixed on friday. the nasdaq was up half a percent. dow and s&p though down less than 1%. never know what to say about those ups and downs arrows and what they really mean. >> i like to look at a week by week, frankly. last week was one of the first weeks in a while that it took a step back. so near the highs of l.a. april this week could be a tough week, a lot going on with the jobs

report. don't get too wrapped up in the day to day. >> i wish we had the cameras rolling a while ago. the mortgage crisis in florida. >> i was in jacksonville last week. i don't know how there's anyway someone goes to vote on tuesday and doesn't have the foreclosure rice sis, the housing crisis, the jobs crisis first in mind. every neighbor had has evidence of this. if you're in your house and paying your bills next door to you is sm who isn't. you've got somebody who your home value is down, cut in half in somepla places. it was pretty much cut in half. worse in some parts of the florida. interesting. as floridians are trying to pay their bills they're being rained down by money. romney ads, $6.9 million alone in florida, including the super pac and campaign. interesting dichotomy in florida where all of this money is coming into florida right now but the story in florida is about how there's not much money. >> annoyed by that fact. tons of million os of dollars in

advertising and people finding a place to live. >> he's doing better now in florida because his business acumen is something that people are saying, look, maybe he's the guy that can fix this. i want to show you fik churs of scott nicholas in florida. going door to door knocking on houses. busy real estate agent in florida. busy because he's checking to see if somebody lives in these houses. we'll have left. or people have left and now someone has moved in and isn't renting. the banks are just getting a sense of which houses they own, want to know if anybody is in there so they can sell it. good sign. starting to see more short sales, better for the community because it means that somebody is probably living in the house and taking care of it, mowing the lawn. >> remind me of a short sell. >> you're living in the house and tell the bank, look, i'm not -- i'm underwater. this house is never going to be wot -- the bank is negotiating with you for selling it for less than you pay for it. kills your credit. all of this kills your credit but most of these people are not

going to be buying a house in the near term future. i hear academics and experts down there saying the worse is behind them but when you talk to people who live in florida they don't say that. they are probably fighting with a bank right now trying to figure out how to stay in their house or how behind they are. it's just been a real mess. i haven't heard from people that they're very confident about the housing rescue plans. >> no, it's awful. but you were saying earlier there was somebody who thought that maybe there was a trend for this to turn around. seeing that perhaps they are headed in the right direction. >> all the seeds are there. you have for went buyers from china, brazil, coming in paying cash for houses. you are seeing cash sales. you've got mortgage rates that are so low, 3.24%. if you can refinance, you know, you've got -- >> why bother with cash? why wouldn't they keep their money and invest it still? >> other parts of the world have lots of dough. lots of cash. they see sal in these houses. if you don't have a job you have

a mortgage cries i. >> nice you were there talking to people face to face. >> they were thoughtful about what they were doing to do on tuesday. they are really engaged in the primary. i thought that was interesting. >> christine romans, thank you very much. 6:26 in the east. here to come on "early start," was the stimulus package money well spent? i bet christine has a lot to say about that. new book breaks down how it was passed and how stem louse dollars were handed out. the author is going to talk to soledad o'brien. the primary is tomorrow but can newt gingrich regain his momentum? we're going to talk to louisiana republican senator david vitter who may have some thoughts about this candidate. and other issues in this race. he's life with us. and you're watching "early start." ♪

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i'm ashleigh banfield. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. thank you for joining us. mitt romney lengthening his leap with just one day to go before the florida primary. we have 11-point push over newt gingrich. that's a new american research group poll and 15-point margin in the latest nbc news marist poll. they are cracking down on occupy d.c. campers. the proes thors are supposed to clear out their camping gear. it's two blocks away from where the white house is. if they're not cleaned out by noon, they're going to be forced out by the police, arrested. we're watching for any movements by police this morning. they are enforcing the ban on sleeping and eating and that kind of thing. all the things that campers would do in the park. some demonstrators say they're not going anywhere. they're going to stay in the park without sleeping as long as they knchts big night for "the help" but the screen actors guild awards, including te ting prize, best ensemble cast.

it was great. on the tv shied "modern family" won and hbo's "boardwalk empire." on the eve of the florida primary mitt romney and newt gingrich are really ripping apart each other's resumes. gingrich is painting romney as a pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase liberal. romney is ramping up his attack on gingrich's failed leadership as speaker. that might be resonating in florida where they have a whole lot of issues to chew on down there. romney has double digit leads now in two different polls in that state. vitter is kind enough to join us live to talk about this and other politics at play. real quickly weigh in on this race. i might as well just ask you right off the bat, senator, are you endorsing anybody? >> i'm not. i think i'm like a typical republican voter still looking at the candidates very, very

carefully and still seeing how the race is ultimately going to develop. >> are you leaning? >> it's had such wild swings and so many debates that it's hard to predict. >> you're not leaning one way? >> i'm personally closest, personally as well as the issues probably the rick santorum. but, of course, he's not a leading candidate in terms of one or two right now. we'll see if this changes. >> a lot of people saying isn't this rick santorum's last stand if he doesn't muster much in florida? it's a winner take allstate. >> i don't think it has to be but clearly if he performs poorly here it's going to be a setback. >> i think jack welch considers ron paul should get out of the race all together, do you feel that way? >> i don't think there's any chance ron paul is going to do that. he colorly has the attitude and the wherewithal in terms of organization. he doesn't need a whole lot of money to go probably to the convention. i think we have to count on that. >> senators, let's talk business here. you're part of a group of 44

sponsors putting forth a bill about the keystone pipeline this week. hoping to push that forward and perhaps tying it to the payroll tax cut extension issue. while you're doing that you've got to know that it doesn't have a lot of chance in the senate and the president has already talked about a veto on that issue. is this the kind of thing that gets you numbers like this when congress -- when people are asked about congress and how they approve of them the numbers are abysmal. here it is right here. 11% of americans polled approve of you and your folks in congress and what you're doing. does this bill that you're about to sponsor on the pipeline, do you think that's going to do much to help that? >> i'm not sure who my folks are in congress but we're introducing -- >> all of you. republicans a i like. these are equal opportunity offenders. >> all right. we're introducing a stand-alone bill. . i have no idea if it's going to be todd in any way to the payroll tax cut, number one. we're doing it to create jobs and good energy for our country.

and i think americans when they look at the issue, absolutely agree with that in huge numbers. it's very important for the country and it's a no brainer for most people. it's 20,000 immediate jobs. it's a lot of oil from canada every day. 700,000 barrels. that's the amount we get from venezuela. we can turn them away completely. we could lessen by that amount what we need to get from the middle east. >> many opponents i'll just say on their behalf, sir, they would say all sorts of issues haven't been hashed out, environmental issues, et cetera, so clearly there's a fight on both sides of this pipeline. >> they will say that. there is no substance there. the only real issue is in nebraska and nebraskans have figured out how to solve that with the incorporated in the both our legislation and the attempts we've been making over the last month or so. >> so that's really solved. that's a non-issue. >> i'm going to do a right turn here. i know you're a professional

politician and go on tv a lot and i know coming on tv with me today you had to know this question was coming. it's awkward for me to even ask it but i gotta and i i think you know where i'm going with this. >> i don't but go ahead. >> here i go. newt gingrich has been suffering some heat over his cheating on his first wife, cheating on his second wife with his third wife. and you have also suffered heat in your political career as well admitting to having made call fos a alleged prostitution operation. you did very well when you ran for re-election in 2010. in fact, if i look at the numbers i think you trounced your opponent. you seemed to have handled that baggage well. i want you to weigh in on newt gingrich and what it's like for a politician having serious baggage trying to be elected. >> the good news is in america it's not up to cnn it's up to american people and up to voters. that was the case in my election in 2010. that's going to be the case in

this presidential election. i think the voters are going to look carefully at all sorts of issues. but my guess is what concerns them now is this horrible, horrible economy and their future and their struggles around the kitchen table. >> well, i appreciate that you say it's not up to cnn, but i like to say we're the messenger here sand one of the messages that you gave was this quotation about your incident and you said this was a very serious sin in my past for which i am, of course, completely responsible. and that's why i bring it to you, not so that cnn can dictate how voter will vote but so that we can take your message, including that one, which was kind of a embarrassing thing to admit to as newt gingrich has had to admit to embarrassing things and have voters take those messages. >> you're personally in my opinion doing an ad cane. >> i'm not trying to outdo anybody and i said you beat your op point nent by 19 points which

is a pretty nice thing to say. what i'm asking you is, can you compare the difficulties that you struggled with to a what newt gingrich is struggling with? >> i can't. >> and that's that. >> again, i think the great news is in america is it's going to be up to the voters. and the voters are looking at a lot of issues. they're looking at the backgrounds of all of the candidates. but i think ultimately what they're most concerned about is they try to figure out how to pay their monthly bills, is this horrible economy, how we come out of it. again, that's going to be for them to decide. >> i appreciate greatly, not only you getting up early and coming in to speak to me but also equating you with john king because i think he's pretty great. >> thank you. go for it. >> talk to you again soon, i hope. for the best political coverage on television, despite what the senator thinks, you can keep it right here on cnn at 7:40 a.m. eastern, "starting point." herman cain tells soledad o'brien why he decided to endorse newt gingrich this weekend. and still to come on "early

start," the verdict in canada's honor murders case. the judge's harsh words for the killers there. we have a live interview coming up. you are watching "early start." the employee of the month is... spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? this guy's amazing.

welcome back to "early start." it is 6:42 in the east. >> and guilty verdict in the canadian honor murders trial, three members of a family of afghan immigrants have been convicted. they killed four female relatives. their bodies found in an ontario canal. paula newton is live from kingston, ontario. if you could just first start by giving us background on this case for those of us unfamiliar

with it. >> incredible story. it's still sinking in here. these were three teenage girls and the woman they called auntie, farther's first wife ina polygamist marriage. immigrants from canada. they somehow ended up in a open canal drowned in seven feet of water. the prosecution proved in this case that one family car rammed the other. post there, father, son killed those sisters. and rona amare, the first wife in this polygamist marriage, the reason, an honor murder here, basically that the teenagers were rebellious, unruly, not adhering to very strict rules of the family. the construction of this whole thing were incriminating wire conversations. the judge after this verdict did not hold back. he said, it is difficult to conceive of a more heinous, more

despicab despicable, more honorless crime. and, in fact, these three defendants were sentenced to 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole. and the entire case really, one of these things where people were dipping into the details. when we had the verdict yesterday, many, many people going online listening in and trying trying to figure out exactly what were the details. >> i was reading here that honor killings actually are -- i'm not going to call them common but a lot more than i suspected. 5,000 honor killings every year, according to the united nations. have you seen any other cases like this? >> absolutely, zoraida. just from my time in covering these stories in britain. the british police estimate that at least a third of them but perhaps three times as many go unreported. so you can imagine that there are these mainly young women completely help unless their own homes, stories of girls being

kidnapped, taken back to certain countries because they were being disobedient. social services is at a loss. culturally they don't really know what to do and many times they don't have the information they need. what they're looking for in many of these communities is more of an early warning system so that these honor crimes don't happen. >> such a tragedy. thank you for that information. it is 45 minutes now past 6:00 on the east coast. soledad o'brien is live with us now. take a look at what's coming ahead on "starting point." >> hey, ladies. this morning we're talking to former gop candidate herman cain. he endorsed newt gingrich over the weekend. but didn't he endorse the american people? we're going to talk to him about his second endorsement this morning. also, wei we'll chat with investigative reporter, author of "money well spent?" . it's a story of the truth behind where that trillion dollar stimulus went.

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48 minutes past the hour. it's time to check the stories making news this morning. mitt romney is stretching his

lead over newt gingrich with one day to go before the florida primary. he's opened up a double digit margin in two new polls. gingrich maintaining the nomination will be his because the republican party will never select a pro-abortion-pro-gun control, pro-tax increase liberal from massachusetts. also making news, very disturbing story in maine. police are tl finding the blood of missing toddler. 1-year-old ayla reynolds. they found the blood in the home she vanished and the amount was, quote, more than a small cut would produce. she's been missing since december 17th. police are growing frustrate with the three adults with ayla the night she disappeared. her father, aunt, and father's girlfriend have not passed the, quote, straight faced test. andrew young will be back in court to face con temp charges. young and his wife are accused of giving investigators sealed documents from a civil suit filed by edwards' former mistress hunter.

hunter is suing the couple for invasion of privacy to reclaim personal photographs and alleged sex tape. if you were watching "60 minutes" like millions and millions people did last night, you saw the defense secretary leon panetta talking about that raid on osama bin laden. and saying, you know, while we don't have 100% definitive proof, we still kind of have an idea that someone somewhere amongst the pakistani officials must have known where bin laden was hiding. >> don't forget, this compound had 18 footwalls around it, 12 footwa foot walls in om areas. you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, what the hell is going on there? >> strong words from the defense secretary. and swroin us now is peter bergen, cnn's national security analyst who facilitated the 1997 interview with bin laden. i'm glad you're here on this morning because the pentagon is reiterating exactly what the defense secretary said in the

interview. we do not have the definitive proof, it's just a gut feeling. so why bother? why bother saying these kinds of things when the rhetoric between these two nations right now is so heated? >> i think leon panetta and the interview was careful to say this was his personal opinion that they must have known that bin laden was living in this compound. the fact is that the united states has recovered millions of document trs fr that compound. they've all been translated and sifted through. if there was a real smoking gun pointing to official pakistani complicity, even the delicate state of play between the two countries, we would have found out about it by now. and officials that i've sewn to say that there isn't any smoking gun in these documents. now, you know, that said, it is a very large compound. it is in the middle of an important pakistani military city, less than a mile from pakistan's largest military academy. as secretary panetta said last

night, pakistani military helicopters were flying over this compound. and so it's a legitimate question to ask. in my opinion osama bin laden was extremely paranoid, secr secretive and he wasn't telling people who lived in his own compound. they weren't even sure who he was. the idea that he would be telling a lot of strangers that he was seems implausible to me. >> let's move on to the issue of the doctor in pakistan who apparently con dub ducted some tests to rye to gain dna from children and other members inside that compound to help the americans link osama bin laden to that compound. he has been arrested and he is facing treason charges there. not yet but he could. and the defense secretary spoke to that issue. i'm just curious whether you did he did more harm than good suggest that the pakistanis better l better layoff that doctor. >> you can read it both ways,

ashleigh. he essentially admitted that the doctor was on the cia payroll. on the other hand, the pakist i pakistanis already know that. and by making it a public matter he may have increased pressure on the pakistanis to release that guy. the united states prosecutes spies from even friendly powers. think of jonathan pollard, the american spy for israel. so pakistan would not be the first country in the world to take dim view of somebody's spying for a foreign power, even a friendly one, ashleigh. >> and things are just so ugly between us. i hear the rhetoric. seems to increase week by week. this is nuclear nation. this is nation we depend upon to deal with what wee deal with on the other front in afghanistan. what on earth, peter, in your opinion, can america do right now or needs to do or does it need to do to try to a peace the pakistanis? what do they want? >> well, appease is not the right verb but certainly the relationship as you pointed out is bad.

90% of pakistanis have a favorable view of the united states. one thing you do hear often, ashleigh, is pakistani textiles is a very important part of their economy of taxed at very high rates by the united states compared to other countries. and it will be the single most thing to get us the most credit in pakistan but good luck with that in congress. >> one last question. panetta was the budget director in clinton and now a big budget problem with military. do you think he will do a good job or something our enemies will seize upon and say this is your achille's heel now? >> there are no doubt that everybody is going to have to give some blood at this particular bank, ashleigh. the defense department and other departments are going to be cut, so, you know, he's the perfect man for the job, as you know. he was the budget director under clinton. i think he'll -- i think he will be careful about what he -- what cuts he makes. he says so in the skt minutes"

interview. he's not going to make the same mistakes in the past. i think the defense department knows what's coming and they have a plan. >> it is always a joy to speak with you. you with one of the bright u.s. bulbs out there. thank you, peter bergen. peter brooks, the former deputy assistant of secretary of defense. we're going to talk about, on vausely u.s.-pakistan relations and whether our officials might be talking too much right now. ahead, herman cain talks about joining forces with stephen colbert and endorsing newt gingrich. you're watching "early start." people with a machine. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally.

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it is thend of "early start." i'm ashleigh banfield. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. soledad o'brien is next. good morning to you. >> good morning to both of you. weekend is over. we are starting monday. and our "starting point" this morning issing looking at mitt romney who is on a roll in the state of florida. double digit leads in two new polls. the question, of course, is what is happening with the women? is it the women in those polls swinging the sunshine state in we'll look at that in morning. plus, leon panetta talking about that raid that killed osama bin laden. if question today is, what did pakistan know? >> it was the largest compound in the area, so you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, what the hell is going on there? >> and tensions are rising in d.c. there's a deadline looming for occupy wall street protesters. they have been ordered to leave by noon