live cerage of the primaries and caucuses beginning at 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow evening right here on cnn. till then, thanks very much for joining us. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." situation room." the news continues next on cnn. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> i'm john king. tonight, the obama administration warns cairo a 308-year alliance could collapse if egypt keeps its pledge to prosecute 19 americas working for pro advocate groups. >> mitt romney's sudden attacks problem the next 24 hours are perhaps the most critical of rick santorum's campaign. tonight's truth explores two spots with a michigan twist that added politics to the traditional super bowl add debate. >> presidential politics in a moment. up first, mounting outrage in washington with egypts defiant

promise to prosecute 19 americans. the white house today threatened to cut off billions in u.s. aid if they put 19 u.s. citizens on trial. those citizens include the son of transportation secretary ray lahood. their alleged crime? channeling money and offering support to human rights groups. in colorado this afternoon, the crisis was newt gingrich's first point of attack. >> this reminds me exactly of jimmy carter and the iranian hostage. we now have the obama hostage crisis to resemble the carter crisis. >> chris lawrence is working his sources tonight. what are they saying at the pentagon and the white house about threats to cut off funding for egypt? >> i spoke with a junior defense official who says he thinks the u.s. has to keep sending military aid to egypt. he said look, no matter what sort of government emerges from the upcoming elections, the egyptian military is going to still be a pillar of that country. he thinks the u.s. has to have a relationship with that military.

look, egypt was the first arab nation to buy american f-16s. the u.s. has given up over $1 billion a year to the military. the militaries have trained together. so the official pentagon line is this -- the relationship is strong. we've just got to push through this crisis. but privately, the official tells me there has been some frustration that after all these years of building the partnership, the pentagon hasn't been able to be exert as much influence as it would like on this current situation. >> okay. chris as it plays out, i suspect there will be quite a bit of outrage from the american people and it would all depend what happens to the accused americans. what is going to happen to them still in egypt? >> some of them, john, are out of egypt and branded as mutual fibs by the egyptian authorities. because the u.s. doesn't recognize the prosecution as valid, they're probably going to be okay, not going to be sent back to egypt. the issue is these remaining americans.

some have already taken sanctuary at the embassy. and today, the state department put out a public plea saying look, any remaining americans come to the embassy. meet with your lawyers, get some space and prepare for what might be coming. but now the obama administration through the white house spokesman jay carney has said look, we've told egypt there could be repercussions for this continued prosecution. but some congressmen as you mention want there to be more action above just the threats. they all, about 41 republicans and democrats, signed off on this letter to secretaries panetta, clinton, and egyptian's military leader to say look, we want to cut all funding off until these prosecutions are dropped against these american aid workers. yuan? >> dicey situation, chris lawrence live at the pentagon. thank you. also overseas, an important milestone today amid the chaos in syria. the united states announced it's pulling out its remaining staff.

ar wal damon is monitoring the situation from bay ru, lebanon. >> reporter: john, the u.s. has been concerned about security around the embassy for quite some time especially following is the attacks in damascus that happened in december and january. believed to be attributed to a group that is loosely linked to al qaeda. they had been asking the syrian government for additional security because the embassy is in a fairly exposed and vulnerable place. that did not material lisz. hence, the u.s.'s decision to shut its embassy down out of concern for its employees' security. this has been brought about because of the security vacuum that has been created by the ongoing violence and the syrian uprising. in fact, the violence over weekend reached unprecedent levels especially focused around that flash pointent city of homs that has been the epicenter of on going clashes between government forces and the free syrian army. that is the opposition fighting. activists have been imploring

the international community for help saying a massacre is taking place. heart breaking footage showed no one seemed to have been spared the violence. adults and children wounded. there are clips of little girls, one clip in particular where a girl has been bandaged and asking the assad government she and loved ones have been targeted. there is also horrific footage of a boy who had his jaw completely shot off and yet another that lost one of his legs. activists are saying the longer the international community fails to unite, the more culpable nations are also when it comes to the blood shed inside syria. >> arwa dame on reporting from bay ru. let's get perspective from former ambassador nicholas burns who teaches at harvard. first to the showdown with egypt, 19 americans they're threatening to prosecute. what does it tell you the military government refuses to back down who's calling the shots and the politics of egypt

at the moment? >> john, he think this is the most serious crisis between egypt and the united states in well over 30 years. this tells i think me and you that the egyptian military is using the united states as a scapegoat for their own internal domestic reasons as they consider this very difficult question, do they hand off power to the islamists who just won the egyptian elections. there's a lot at stake for the united states. egypt is the cornerstone of our policy in the middle east. the egyptian/israeli peace treaty are the other cornerstone. so if we don't i have an functioning relationship with egypt, we have to have a rethink of our entire strategy in the middle east. obviously the administration is trying to weigh these alternatives. we cannot allow innocent americans to be put on trial. that is outrageous and the congress won't allow it and i'm sure the president won't either. on the other hand, if we withdraw all military aid at this point, we there be reduce our influence, whatever is left, with the egyptian government.

a very tough choice for the president. >> a tough choice, nick, in a campaign environment where you heard speaker gingrich on the republican campaign trail saying this is like carter's hostage crisis. now it's different. in tehran, they took u.s. citizens hostage. if it's playing out in the political atmosphere like this does that make a difference when you're making decisions at the white house? >> i think it will. i think speaker gingrich's comments were ludicrous. there's absolutely no connection with what happened 32 years ago in tehran. i also think we haven't seen the end of this. obviously, what the administration will try to do is find someone, a retired american general, someone who has a relationship with the marshal tuntowi to try to defuse the crisis and try to work ought an arrangement behind the scenes where the americans can be left to go free and hopefully, some of these international institutions and american ngos will be able to continue to work in egypt. but at this point, it's eight

very tough battle. >> and let's move to syria now. we are russia and china blocking a resolution the arab league wanted to have the u.n. security council call on president assad to step down. very tough language from secretary clinton and ambassador rice at the united nations about china and russia. sounded very much like the george w. bush administration before the war saying this is proof the security council doesn't work in today's world. the president and his team, do them have any good options here? >> the opposites are tough as well, john. the actions of the russians and chinese hit a new low of cynicism. they are allowing the assad government to go to battle with its own people. the resolution that was going to be voted upon in new york was a very moderate resolution. the united states can no longer depend on the security council because russia and china will block any reasonable resolution. we've got to do what the administration is doing, turn our attention to work with turkey, with saudi arabia and with the arab league. we have a good collection of

partners there, all three of them have influence, all three of them are going to support the syrian opposition, and put additional pressure on the of syrian government. i think that's the next step for the united states. >> the president of the united states saying it's a matter of if, not when he steps down. ambassador burns, thank you, sir. >> thank you. shifting now to presidential politics, today nevada's republican party certified mitt romney's biggest win so far in the 2012 campaign. remember the caucuses were on saturday. he got 50% of the vote now. this afternoon in colorado, governor romney mocking one of president obama's answers in his pre-super bowl interview. >> he. >> he said he deserves a second term. no, mr. president. you do not deserve a second term. >> today also brought a very important shift in the romney campaign strategy. in colorado, minnesota and missouri the romney turned its focus to rick santorum labeling the former senator from pennsylvania part of the big spending establishment in

congress. national political correspondent jim acosta in golden, colorado tonight. what's the thinking between shifting from weeks of focusing on gingrich to now focusing on santorum? >> it's funny because if you listen to mitt today, he did not talk about rick santorum on the campaign trail but his campaign was thinking about the former pennsylvania senator. it was hard to count the number of e-mails from the romney campaign designed to attack senator santorum's record on spending, ear parks and so for the. santorum fired right back and basically spent the day firing off a barrage of attacks at the romney campaign and the former pass mass governor's health care plan which he said positions mitt romney as uniquely unqualified to take on the president in health care reform in the fall campaign. >> just at an event with newt gingrich. he had kind words for senator santorum. some sort of white flag on the former speaker's part? >> well, maybe a white flag here in colorado and in minnesota for

these tuesday caucuses. newt gingrich is going to be spending tuesday night in ohio. people might say why ohio? gingrich says he's going to be paying attention to those early voters in ohio the way he didn't do that in florida. he said about rick santorum that he thinks that rick santorum will have a pretty good day tomorrow here in the minnesota and colorado caucuses, which is an indication that perhaps some of these campaigns might be starting to think that will rick santorum could pull off a victory in one of these states. right after that the of gingrich avai avail ended, i said do you think you could pull off a victory in one of these states. did he say that he thinks mitt romney will again underperform. that is a message than senator santorum was also trying to get out today, that mitt romney in a lot of these races has underperformed versus where he was in 2008. santorum says that's a key weakness on romney's part.

>> fascinating game of chess under way. the republican candidates for president. jim, thank you. when we come back, senator santorum will join us in just a minute. must he get a win tomorrow to prove he's the best alternative tore mitt romney? he'll be with us in just a minute. weight loss programs can be expensive. so to save some money, i just got the popular girls from the local middle school to follow me around. ew. seriously? so gross. ew. seriously? that is so gross. ew. seriously? dude that is so totally gross. so gross...i know. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

rick santorum won the first contest of the 212 presidential sweepstakes but he's fared poorly in the six states since iowa. insisting is he is the better conservative alternative to the mitt romney. tomorrow night might be his last best cannes. while no delegates are pleeld at stake, all three states offer senator and santorum to prove his argument. let's just get straight to the that question. is the next 24 hours, are they the most critical in your campaign as you try to bring in more money to prove your point? >> well, actually, we are bringing a lot more money. we've done very, very well over the last couple weeks. and our campaign feels great. as you saw, some national polls have us running ahead of the field in head to head match-ups against barack obama. one poll we're the only one that

defeats barack obama. i think people are beginning to realize that the contrast between obama and romney is not going to work for us and that we need somebody who can make barack obama the issue in the campaign. not the irresponsible policies of our nominee. >> but do you need a win to problem the point i was on tv when we were counting the votes in nevada saying my patriots are going to win the super bowl. tonight i'm congratulating the new york giants. at some point do you need a win to prove your point that you're the strongest? >> i think we need to win in the sense that we need to perform very well. i think we're going to run ahead of speaker gingrich. at least obviously missouri is not on the ballot. we feel very comfortable we can run ahead of him in one and maybe both the other states. even potentially win one of those states. so yeah, you know, winning would be great. but doing well and showing that we're strong, we still have a strong base of support out there is going to be good enough for us. >> you've been making the case

that governor romney would be a disaster to send into the fall campaign if conservatives want to make the case you have to repeal president obama's health care law. here's a little earlier today. >> how are we going to fix this problem? there's twos weighs. governor romney has chosen one path. along with president obama. and that is, he believes that government should control everything. >> now, political fact checking groups have said government doesn't control everything in the massachusetts plan. if you go back to 1994 and you read the allentown paper the morning call it says santorum and watkins, your opponent, would both require individuals to buy health insurance rather than forcing employers to pay for employee benefits. in 1994, senator, were you for an individual mandate? >> that's flat out wrong. what they got confused was that i was for a plan that phil gramm

that said if a employer provided health insurance, that they would have to offer a medical savings account that were now called health savings account program. and they simply got it wrong. i don't think you'll find anywhere else i advocated. in 1994 during the campaign, you'll find that i made the whole point that i was against government mandated health care. i ran against harris wofford, the author of hillary care. one reporter misunderstood what one bill was about. >> the romney campaign is clearly worried about you and put in a conference call today including the minnesota governor tim pawlenty trying to peel away your tea party support by raising your support of earmarks in congress. governor pawlenty said id "the he wants minnesota conservatives to believe he's as conservative as they are but he's not." you responded. let's listen. >> i understand that governor romney is having a little fun time attacking me on earmarks.

and i just want to say that for the record, as you know, governor romney was an advocate of earmarks, number one. number two, this is typical romney. >> as you know, tea party voters care a lot about earmarks. are you making the case they shouldn't vote for you or governor romney because you both supported earmarks? >> jim demint, a favorite of the tea party supported ear marks at the same time i did. just like i did, i've now opposed earmarks because they were abused. but during the time i was supporting them, so was jim demint and just about every other member of congress. it was abused and should be banned. i'm taking the position of banning them. at the time i was supporting them, so was governor romney and just about everybody else. and you know, that was something that i think we all saw the error of our ways and have changed our position. >> senator, let's end with setting your standard for tomorrow night. do you believe in your heart you

can wip at least one of these states tomorrow, maybe more? >> i think we can doing very well there, yeah, i think we certainly have a chance of winning one or more of those states tomorrow. but you know, a strong showing is a strong showing. we're very encouraged that we're going to have a strong showing in all three states and we'll go from there. >> very jealous of senator rick santorum tonight. he found the in golden, colorado. we'll talk later down the road and see how things work in out in missouri, and minnesota. iran says it has proof the united states is trying to corrupt its children. so get this it's banning the simpsons. plus, another 33 deaths reported just today in europe's coldest winter in decades. have i got a surprise for you! [ barks ]

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welcome back. here's kate bolduan with the latest news right now. happy monday. >> happy monday, john. again, is it something i said? you never show up to see me. good evening, everyone. flying air france this week just got a little dicey. airline officials say a vik will force it to cancel nearly half its long hall flights tomorrow and a quarter of shelded flights play not get off the ground either. you might not want to fly to

europe they' europe. poland record breaking cold bottoming out at 35 below zero. other countries report the heaviest snow in half a century. cold weather is blamed for at least 300 deaths across europe. and apparently, 60 years on the throne is nothing. no big deal to britain's queen elizabeth. she marked today's anniversary by sticking to her routine duties like visiting a nursery school. it is a big deal for her subjects. today's band serenade, a little taste of it there, is only a taste of this innings to come. there will be four days of celebrations in june when the weather is a little bit better. and iranians today held up homer and bart simpson as more proof of how the u.s. is corrupting iran's youth. the government official in charge of the intellectual development of children, yes, they have one of those, says simpson character dolls are joining barbie on the list of banned western toys. if homer and bart are on that list, john, i don't even know

what they think about like "south park" or some of the other characters. >> doh, don't go there. no, no, yeah, no. no -- family friendly hour. we're not doing south park right here. >> i promise. >> poor bart and homer. still ahead here, verizon and redbox setting their sights on netfl netflix. >> plus, new details on that horrific murder/suicide in washington state. the very latest next. people with a machine.

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welcome back. in this half hour, a chinese factory worker exposes brutal conditions inside a factory that makes's some of apple's most popular gadgets including the ipad. also the truth about two super bowl ads. one has critics crying racism. plus, your tax dollars spent on casinos, strippers. up first, this half hour a father commits the unimaginable. investigators say josh powell drenched his home with ten gallons of gas with his two little boys be an powell inside. he was a suspect in his wife's disappearance. powell was adamant he was innocent. listen to what he told "good morning america" last august. >> i would never hurt her. i would never hurt my boys. i would never hurt anyone.

>> the haunting words there. and now we know an empty promise. dan sigh upon has the details. >> neighbor dale walden knew it was bad. >> i was in my living room just watching the pregame. and there was a big explosion. it shook the house. >> outside a house completely engulfed in flames. >> i just knew that if there was anyone in there, they didn't survive. you could tell that instantly from what we saw. >> reporter: and inside, a troubled father with his two young sons. 5-year-old bray deny and 7-year-old charlie. >> this is all on him. he set this up. he did it. he is the one who started the fire. >> police believe this was a murder/suicide. josh powell was a person of interest in the investigation into his wife's disappearance. she varnished in utah in 2009. her body has never been found. authorities there were still working to connect him to the case. a month after she varnished, powell move the kids to washington. >> first the wife, the mother of

those two boys. and then him and his two sons. you know, it's one thing to have him get charged or not charged and deal with it, but it's evil. >> powell was involved in a bitter dispute with his wife's family and denied custody of his children last week just before the blast, a caseworker brought the children to the house. the department of social and health services says it was part of an ongoing court ordered visitation schedule. and the caseworker is suffering from grave emotional trauma as a result of the horrific event. >> she was dropping the children off for a visitation with their dad. then he got them into the house and slammed the door into her face and she couldn't get in and was trying to call 911 when the explosion occurred. >> powell's attorney said he received an e-mail sent just before the explosion that read "i'm sorry, good-bye." >> i think this is his admission of guilt. and he just couldn't handle it anymore. >> in her first interview, susan

powell's sister told hln's nancy grace that the boys had started talking about their mother's disappearance. >> denise, what were they beginning to say about the night your sister went missing? >> from what i gather from my parents talking to me is they said that mom went to go look for crystals, and she -- she went into a mine to look for crystals and she never came out. and i've heard them, they pointed to a picture of a woman and pointed to her chest and said mommy owie. >> powell lost custody of the children after his father who lived in the same house was charged with possessing child pornography. in court documents filed last week, powell insisted he had proved his fitness as a stable and loving parent. john? >> ed troyer is the spokesman for the sheriff's department.

he joins us live with the latest on the investigation. let me just start with any new details, evidence uncovered. what is the very latest? >> well, the very latest is we have confirmed that multiple e-mails went out not just to one lawyer but some e-mails went out to family members, his pastor and he also went and got ten gallons of gas in two five-gallon gas cannes. we confirmed there were accelerants used in the fire. between that knowingly that the accelerants were there and the fire was intentionally lit and the e-mails out 0 multiple people saying good-bye or giving directions what to do, i believe this was intentional. two counts of murder and then suicide. >> a murder/suicide there. anything this those e-mails and the recovered evidence that gives you firm proof he had anything to do with his wife's disappearance, or is that still theory. >> none of that information is

in there. so far, none of that information about susan is in there, no indication of any type of activity with her or any complicit with her. he's also not talking about anything else other than just this incident in those e-mails. we haven't found anything else that shows us otherwise. these e-mails weren't sent out days in advance. it appears they were all sent out just minutes before it happened. so it was very calculated, very planned. he had also gone and given away some books and toys to local charities and dropped them off at a store. so he was making arrangements to leave this place so he had some knowledge of what he was going to do. >> and any sense from the investigation from the e-mails or from anything else, sir, as to why? what was the trigger? what sent him over the edge like this? >> nope, there was nothing in there, no explanation. i mean, as much as it hurts us out here and as close as we are with the kids and family, we wished there were be some type of reasoning. but there just isn't one he

didn't give us any indication why he did it other than one short comment about he was sorry and good-bye. other than that, there wasn't much more information. >> and the caseworker when the caseworker gave the kids to him and he slammed the door, was there any indication then, was it just viewed as rude behavior or any indication something like this was about to happen? >> well, she thought there was a problem. she immediately called 911. called her boss. pounded on the door, tried to call josh. once she smelled the gas and the fire lit, it went up really fast. she ran to the neighbor's and got help. we got here, she did what she could. she's traumatized. we got her husband and family to come get her and are still working with her. we believe this whole thing happened within about three minutes from the time she got here with the kids. she's been here before with the kids. this is a routine deal for her to supervise the visits. we believe this was planned. he locked her out and started

the fire within three minutes. >> if he is believes to be the lone suspect in his wife's disappearance but you say no other new evidence collected at the scene or in those e-mails, will that case ever be definitively solved, in your view? >> well, we still have some -- we're still going to go through more stuff in this residence. west valley police are coming out. we'll be working with them and we're still collecting evidence and still at the autopsies, still working. any evidence we do collect, we'll see if it helps them in their case. right now at this point we have the two the dead kiran and susan missing for all intents and purposes. she's deceased, as well. we're acting that way and assuming that she's dead because he's a suspect that killed her. what we're going to do is keep working to try and get some justice for them, try and find out maybe where she's at. anything we can do to help west valley we'll continue to do. hopefully there will be more resolution. >> ed troyer, really appreciate your time and help tonight with

the this the difficult case. take care, sir. >> thank you. who would want a job like this unbarely long and unpredict khabibulin hours no, wages, no talking and no chance to see the fruits of your labor. that's the story cnn learned from a worker at a factor where thousands of workers make the parts for apple's ipad. apple put out a statement saying we insist that our suppliers treat workers with dignity and respect and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever apple products are made. cnn's stan gront wrote the story and joins us from live from beijing. you met with one of the factory workers. what else did he say about the conditions inside the plant? >> reporter: you know, john before we get to the that, it's even difficult to find anyone to speak. we spoke to people outside the gates, many of them ran away from us. there was very heavy security around the foxconn complex we went through. we found one worker 18 years old, she was walking to work. she agreed to us.

what she said was that she feels like she is an animal, to use her words. she says she does not but sleep, eat and work at foxconn. it is her entire life. others also complain of the same circumstances. there is a saying at foxconn that women work like men, men work like machines or to put it another way that women work like men and men work like animals. even if you do complain, are you simply told if you don't like it, you can leave because there are many, many thousands of others willing to stand in line and take their place at foxconn. as you pointed out there, foxconn and apple have both defended the situation and say the working conditions are good, comply with chinese law. they say that it is better than most factories in china. but we keep hearing these persistent complaints from workers and even a couplia years ago when nearly 20 people committed suicide because of working conditions. john? >> and stan, can companies like microsoft and apple put enough pressure on the chinese government to improve

conditions? is there proof they're trying to constantly apply that pressure? >> reporter: well, apple says that it carries out orders. it continues to order at foxconn factories. considering there are around a million workers for foxconn inside china, 700,000 of those are devoted towards apple products, ultimate think that apple could bring a lot of muscle to bear. it says when it carries out the orders, it does find problems, it finds discrepancies but it's not going to work with companies that don't respect their employees. it says it respects the rights of all workers in its worldwide chain. all i can doing is refer to the complaints of disgruntled workers like the one i spoke to. she said if apple does care, she's not seeing any of that care. she plans to leave soon. of course, that's the word of one worker, it is repeated by many others. also repeated by workers rights groups who talk about mill taistic conditions, conditions where people can't speak on the factory floor. as we've said before, conditions

that have driven people to suicide. foxconn though defends itself and says it complies with chinese law. as i said before, john, in a country as big as this where a factory job has been a way out of poverty for everybody that leaves, there are thousands waiting to take their place. >> stan grant live for us in beijing tonight. thanks so much. just ahead, tonight's truth about two super bowl ads getting slammed. one is racist, the other is misleading. plus, movie buffs may soon have an alternative to netflix online and in the mail. ♪ [ male announcer ] offering four distinct driving modes and lexus' dynamic handling, the next generation of lexus will not be contained. the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. ♪ so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories.

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it's a time tested truth in the advertising business. if your new ad is all the buzz the morning after, it's a smashing success. it's a tough competition the monday after the super bowl. two ads with a political twist and a twist are all the ranl today. clint eastwood starred in one. >> it's halftime in america, too. people are out of work and they're hurting and they're all wondering wa they're going to do to make a comeback. and we're all scared because this isn't a game. >> an actress speaking broken english in the other. >> thank you, michigan senator debbie spend it now. debbie spends so much american money, you borrow more and more from us. >> some conservatives are outraged at the eastwood ad paid for by chrysler and the argument on the right goes something like this chrysler paid for it and got taxpayer money and the bailout so taxpayers are

indirectly helping to foot an estimated $14 million ad buy that some on the right interpret as a call to give president obama four more years. >> this country can't be knocked out with one punch. we get right back up again and when we do, the world's going to hear the roar of our engines. yeah, it's halftime, america. and our second half's about to begin. >> legitimate complaints or a stretch? well, we all know politics is in the eye of the beholder. in the second ad aired only in michigan, debbie spend it now is the knocking name republican pete hoke strag rebatedly gives debbie stabenow. the ad is power full but some also say this is racist. >> you borrow more and more from us. your economy get very week. ours get very good. we take your jobs, thank you, debbie spend it now. >> hoekstra says any charges of race-baiting are off base. >> no, i'm not apologizing for

the ad. i said if someone believes that we were insensitive, i'm sorry to them but no, i'm not apologizing for this ad at all. i think it clearly drives the message the problem is american public policy, american domestic policy. the problem here is not anything that the chinese are doing at all. >> now, truth is, team hoekstra could have made just that same point with a chinese actress who is spoke perfect english. is this outrage warranted or is the monday after buzz proof both hoke tra and klyce remember ads are hits? >> ralph reid is the chairman of the faith coalition. and the chairman of the tea party express. was clint eastwood there? he said he was just doing that for chrysler. did you see the double and triple meaning in that ad? >> chrysler got the bailout money and now doing this ad that we get back up. it was president obama with matt

lauer saying he deserved a second term. i mean, a lot of people have a problem with it. >> it's a private company spending its money. it's paid back all or most of the taxpayer money. are we try too hard to connect politics to this. >> probably. they had what, eminem last year and decide clint eastwood this year? both ads are basically rorschach tests. people will look at the same ad and see different things. i saw the ad as a celebration of the american spirit. not a celebration of bailouts or subsidizing failure but the fact that companies not just like chrysler but also ford which didn't take a dime in federal money got off their knees and the economy turned around, not because of anything barack obama did. i'll say this about the hoke strag add. debbie stab knbe know has been the senate and the senate under democratic leadership has been unable to perform even the most rudimentary legislative

functions charged under the constitution. for her to vote repeatedly for -- >> hoekstra doesn't have ralph reed in his hat. we are talking about his ad which means it's powerful. >> i've gotten used to democrats screaming racism. when herman cain, a black man who grew up in a separated america said that he agreed with newt gingrich that barack obama was a food stamp president, suddenly black democratic activists were calling him either a racist or an uncle tom. you expect people these days to yell uno after they've thrown down the race card. it was a bad commercial. it wasn't a racist commercial. clint eastwood, good for chrysler but you could have added thanks american taxpayers for saving us. >> the ford ad when ford did their real people coming in and they do this ad talking about, you know, their cars. >> the guy attacked for participating in the ad. >> they pulled the ad immediately. it's a double standard. >> you guys stay put. we'll quickly set the is taken for tomorrow night. the interesting part is we've

got three states voting. no delegates will be awarded tomorrow. it doesn't work that way. colorado caucuses, there are 33 delegates at stake eventually in colorado all four republican candidates on the ballot there. up in minnesota, gingrich, paul, romney and santorum. 37 dels ultimately at stake. tomorrow only at stake. in missouri, speaker gingrich is hazed out because he's not on the ball hot. the biggest prize. they're not awarded in this primary. there are caucuses later to do that. we start this process tomorrow and rick santorum has been saying the race is going to come to me. does he have a have a win tomorrow to go to tea party voters around the country? and say abandon nooult, come to me? >> i think he needs a win. i don't know that it's two wins, but all of these candidates still have support across the board and tomorrow is important because of the three states but if you look back to the past

races over the past couple three weeks, every one of them other than ron paul has won in a state and they've won with tea party support. it shows the movement's still divided. at this point, it's anyone's race. we know governor romney has done well, but is anyone's race. >> santorum's out there making the case. picking up important tours. working really hard with limited resources. what's the impact of his effort plus the fallout from nevada where speaker gingrich gave this press conference and said he's in through march. a lot of people were sort of questioning the tone. >> john, look, we all know that the presidential nominating process is not a sprint. multiple caucuses and primaries. all the way to june before the numerical number is reached because of the change in republican party rules. so, in a sense, in that sense, in a purely narrow sense, this

is going to go on a long time. what's interesting for romney is he's playing three dimensional chess. primarily facing santorum in the heartland and midwest where there are more catholic voters. >> a win? >> could be. we have a ppp poll that has him ahead of romney. there's a strong pro family grass roots -- >> you can't play in what comes next and march the boom month. >> you've got to have money coming in, but there's an antipathy to romney. that keeps gingrich and santorum alive. press conference on sunday sounds like it's his strategy. at the same time, you've got to forgive americans for being cynical. we're putting a lot of stock in

places like missouri tomorrow. didn't want to spend money where you win nothing. >> beauty and momentum. >> yes. >> all the reason the senate's so important. >> we'll continue that. erin burnett "outfront" coming up. you're covering the situation across the middle east. what's ahead? >> that's right. some reports coming in just a few moments ago, actually as i look down, that iran is moving more uranium enrichment underground. reports coming out of the middle east tonight. also, former cia agent telling "outfront" that iran is soon in the process right now of learning from china how to assemble intercontinental ballistic missiles from iran. this is all part of the rising rhetoric that is leading america to have some tough decisions to make. all that coming up, top of the hour. plus, an absolutely amazing and shocking statistic about how

much of the stuff that you buy is made in america. as opposed to made in china and probably not what you expected. >> i'm guessing it's not going to be that made in the u.s.a. encouraging, but we'll see. still to come, welfare recipients using their benefits at strip clubs, casinos. plus, the ad we all missed except one small town in nebraska. details next.

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welcome back. here's kate bolduan. >> good evening. the competition in the digital movie subscription world just got a little tougher. verizon and red box are teaming up pitting their venture against netflix. they plan to launch next we're, but are only saying they'll offer subscription services and more on your smart phone, tablets and tvs. and your tax dollars being spent at strip clubs? good question. a bill that would ban welfare spending from strip bars and casinos, it passed the house last week. meant to target a welfare program known as temporary

assistance for needy families and i bet i know what you were doing last night. a little football? you and about 111 million viewers tuned in, making last night's game the most watched super bowl in history. but all that celebrating may have caught up with you at work today. a survey published by the pittsburgh "post gazette" found employers lost $170 million in quote unquote unproductive wages last year, the day after the super bowl. that's a lot of money, but i think i know why. >> i'm grumpy after the super bowl, but i'm here being productive. my guys lost. i'm almost ready for a cold one. unless you live in nebraska, north platt, nebraska, you probably missed this ad with will ferrell.