out, worried this form of identity theft could spread quickly. bottom line is somebody calls you asking for your bank account information, your social security number, your personal information, do not give it to them over your cell phone. someone's trying to scam you. "american morning" continues right now. republicans clash. i'm carol costello live in las vegas. the wrch republican debate. mitt romney under fire. the tone downright nasty. winners and losers, straight ahead. we're adding up the price of the 9-9-9 plan. i'm ali velshi. it's a big idea, but does herman cain's tax proposal mean a dax break for millionaires and a tax hike for the middle class? lions and tigers and bears on the prowl. a dangerous situation. i'm christine romans. animal, wild animals, escape an ohio farm. kids told to stay home from school. the hunt is going on right now on this "american morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

good morning. it is wednesday, october 19th. welcome to "american morning." craziest story ever. this thing you just said about wild animals on the prowl. >> just spoke to an affiliate reporter in zanesville, ohio. there are some 24 animal, things like tigers, cheetahs, cougars, giraffe, on the loose right now in ohio. they've closed schools. they have highway signs saying, if you see wild animal, please, stay in your car and call 911. they found the owner of this wild animal preserve dead, a hole in the fengs ace and cages open. >> unbelievable situation. we're on top of it. a whole bunch of parents' worse nightmare. also that debate last night. a lot of fighting there. that's not a way to bring up your kids. >> carol costello, live from las

vegas. the good u.news, too late for t kill kiddies to watch that. >> 20 years aworked in that market near zanesville, ohio. the exotic animals laws were laxed way back then. i'll be interested to hear the rest of the story. but let's talk about the republican be debate, because it was quite nasty. the western republican debate is now in the books and what happened last night in vegas was very personal and at times downright nasty. you could tell from the start of the debate it would be differ. rick perry plunging in the polls, rolling the dice with a sharp attack against mitt romney. it got ugly and uncomfortable. perry pulling out all the stops and trying to deep six herman cain's 9-9-9 tax plan. jim acosta watched it all unfold. jim is here, and, wow. the crowd was really into it, though, i must say.

>> reporter: that's right. the wild western republican debate, i guess you could say. for weeks mitt romney has cruised through don't after debate. sort of letting rick perry and herman cain take all the abu, b abuse but that changed in last night's cnn debate. >> anderson -- would you please wait. >> reporter: a wild west shoot-out on the las vegas strip and a times felt like rick perry's last stand with an urgent strategy to take down mitt romney. >> you hired illegals, in your home, and you knew about it for a year, and the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you're strong on immigration is on its face the height of hypocrisy. >> reporter: romney wasn't laughing for long. >> are you just going to keep talking? >> a tough couple of debates for rick. >> reporter: civil discourse was out the window. this was the first gop debate to get personal. >> we hired a law company to mow

our lown, and they had illegal immigrants. so we're working there. you have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking and i suggest that if you want to become president of the united states you've got to let both people speak. >> reporter: the night was also romney's real test as the front-runner as think took aim at his health care plan. rick santorum pointed out some of his oh advisers helped plan obamacare. >> your plan was the basis for obamacare, your consultants help craft obamacare. >> reporter: at issue, newt gingrich says is the mandate. >> there's a lot of big government between hind romneycare, not as much as obamacare but a heck of a lot more than your campaign is admitting. >> romney responding we got the idea from gingrich. >> we got the idea from you. you did support an individual mandate. >> yeah, sure. >> reporter: herman cain found

himself on the defensive over his 9-9-9 plan. individual studies show the individual business, national and sales taxes all set at 9% would raise taxes on millions of americans. >> herman, i love you, brother, let me tell you something. you don't have to have a big analysis to figure this thing out. it's not going to fly. >> reporter: romney pointed out a new national sales tax would be combined with existing state sales taxes. >> will the people in nevada not have to pay nevada sales tax and in addition the 9% sales tax? >> governor romney, you're mixing apples and oranges. >> i've got to get a bushel basket with apples and oranges, because i've got to pay both taxes. >> reporter: lake imaking lemont of lemons. >> you get to answer like i want to. >> reporter: after the debate, a romney campaign adviser told me he thought rick perry's strategy was to "kill romney" instead,

perry killed himself. that may be richful thinking for the romney campaign. rick perry showed he's got some fight left in him. >> the interesting thing about herman cain during this debate, all contenders ganged up on him for the first ten minutes and then he faded from view. what do you suppose that was about? >> reporter: you know, herman cain, unlike many of the candidates, came into the spin room last night. weren't of the things reporters like about covering herman cain. he'll come in and face the questions. i don't know if you noticed, but i sort of stepped back to let these other guys go at each other. this was herman cain's strategy. said he a big target. it was his strategy to let that target go to somebody else, and it probably bought him a lot more time in this campaign, probably preserved his near front-runner status. >> exactly what he told supporters. i was in a roomful of his supporters, just sat back and let everything roll off me and everybody said, "yes we cain!

"yes, we cain!" >> reporter: it sounded like a knock-down fight. mitt romney waking up with bumps and bruises. >> i think so, too. i sat down with herman cain. we'll talk more about what he said, especially how to handle foreclosures in this country coming up a little later on "american morning." ali and christine, i really want to ask you about what herman cain told me about bank regulations, and why they -- why they are holding back, you know, people want to work with banks. >> yeah. >> to get out of bad mortgages -- i think -- >> your fans are here. >> hecklers over there. >> carol's groupies. they follow her. >> hey, we are in vegas and it's late. >> woke up 70 1/2 minutes ago. >> i don't care if they're drunk, just so they like me. i talked to cnn's john king right after last night's debate. let's go to that right now.

>> this is debate number -- >> eight. >> with, what? 12 more to go? >> at least. some of those 12 that are on the books will get cancelled, others added. i do think this was an interesting debate going forward. a big question, the conservative movement, would governor perry come positive play? whether you agree or not, he came feisty. you could see the animosity, tension between romney and perry. that's important as the debates continue, also if the bad blood between those two, they're the candidates with the most money, the most organization in all the key states. guess what? they're the candidates debating just when to go on television with the attack ads and just how nasty those ads will be. >> everybody thought the attacks would be aimed at herman cain. you're right, they aren't weren't. maybe the first ten minutes they were directed at herman cain. after that -- >> happiest man on this stage when the focus turned to perry-romney, the happiest guy

was herman cain. help was coming under attack. the 9-9-9 plan, having to e complain it. he defends his plan. growing criticism from groups on the left and right. all the numbers don't add up. herman cain says trust him nap will continue to be litigated. he still has explaining to do. >> the bickering between romney and perry. romney has a problem with likability. when he attacked rick perry, how do you think that affected his likability factor? >> a very, very important point. part of what people want to see in mitt romney is fight and spunk and energy and passion, and he did have that. he was also negative. usually that means your unlikable, unfave herbability, numb numbers go up. yes, governor romney wanted to join the anti-cain push a little bit, but it was clear, he wanted

to view gonvernor romney. perry thought it was necessary. >> do you think romney did not attack cain so much because he doesn't really figure cain will be a factor in the long run, or is it because he didn't want to attack cain, because herman cain is so likable? >> he is like al. herman cain came to mitt romney's defense before. romney wants to have more candidates in the race for a longer period of time, because it splits the vote on the right. he'd be happy if herman cain comes down a little. he doesn't want him to disappear. >> last question. did this debate change any voters' minds about who they're going to support? >> i don't think there was any huge fundamental change in the race tonight. the one change there was, though, is that perry finally had a debate from start to finish where he had the energy. a lot of people on the right were beginning to question that.

it's not just about, can he have the flrg fenergy for a debate i october, 20 11? republicans are thinking do i trust him to carry the argument against president obama? >> john king, thank you. like i said, i also had a chance to sit down with herman cain after last night's debate. we're going to talk about that. his 9-9-9 tax plan and, also, what he would do to help people who are under water on their mortgage. that's coming your way in the 7:00 eastern hour of "american morning." ali and christine? >> we look forward to that conversation as well. carol, we'll be back to you shortly. as carol pointed out, there were seven candidates onstage, eight candidates are vying for the republican nomination. jon huntsman skipped the debate entirely and spent the night in new hampshire instead directing his one-liners to a town hall full of voters. >> and then he'll probably have some people wander around after the show is over.

i mow my good friend herman cain will likely play the roulette wheel and focussed on getting that number on 9. 9. >> huntsman boycotted the nevada debate to protest the state moving up its caucus date to january 14th, which threatened new hampshire's long-standing first in the nation primary. not quite sure the affinity between jon huntsman and new hampshire. jon huntsman, great ideas he needs to break out. >> needs to break out. >> this is the stand he was taking. president obama, a third straight day on the road and pushing his jobs plan. speaking this morning in virginia. a southern state that could be critical to his re-election campaign, and on abc news, the president said he's frustrated the congressional republicans are adopting a, "no, we can't" approach to this jobs crisis. >> a little edge a tone of frustration. weren't of your friends told me

that you are deeply frustrated and worried about the economy. >> if you hear a sense of urgency in my voice, it's because these problems are solvable, but you don't get a sense that we're moving in washington with the sense of urgency that's required. >> republicans have dismissed this bus tour and claim the president's job plan is a rebate of what they called the failed 2009 economic stimulus. still to come on "american morning," herman cain has a plan to make things a lot simpler fo taxpayers, but it could end up costing you a lot more money. >> all right. back to this story in ohio that is just frightening and unbelievable. schools closed. people are told to stay inside their house or cars. lions, tiger, grizzlies, cheetahs, maybe even a giraffe, loose hiding in the woods. police forced to shoot their way into a farm after these animals broke free or were let go. spending the whole night hunting them down. one of the most bizarre stories

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that's personal pricing. we report on a lot of incredible stories around here, but this one, honestly, is one of the strangest. schools are close in and around zanesville, ohio. people are warned to stay inside as police hunt down dozens of safari animals. i mean, are they wild animals -- >> wild animal, many of them adults kept in a wild animal preserve and the owner of the preserve was found dead. many of the cages were opened, and there's a big hole cut in the outside fence. so he's in animals are somehow either released or escaped when the owner of this place died. mike mccarthy has the latest for us. >> reporter: lions and tigers and bears, oh, my, and oh, yes. they are all on the loose here in the county this morning. the sheriff saying this is not joke or laughing matter. the danger is still very real.

there have been signed posted on the roadways here in the area warning drivers about these wild exotic animals on the loose and warning drivers to stay in their vehicles and call 911 if they see any of them. animals escaped by property owned by terry thompson last night, the cages left wide open. by whom appears to be undetermined. the sheriff is saying the death was not suspicious. officers had been out overnight using night vision as well as infrared technology to track everything from lions to bears, cheetahs, wolves and more. so far about 25 animals have been found, shot and killed, but the danger is still out there right now. >> we're still monitoring the area. we still have officers up at the house, and we are still seeing animals move at this point. >> nobody really knows what an animal out of a caged area would

do. >> reporter: that is the concern for homeowners here in the area and the concern is so grit by law enforcement that various schools here in the area have been closed, including zanesville high school for the day. the families are being warned to stay inside. keep their family safe, and if they say any of these animal, call police. reporting in muskegon county, back to you. >> such a mystery. unclear what exactly happened. the police or the sheriff's department really not sharing many details about the cause of death or the situation, circumstances of the death. >> right. saying not thought to be suspicious. >> another affiliate reporter said they were not ruling it one way or the other. >> one thing suspicious. the hole in the fence through which the animals got through. >> and many of the cages opened. and a hole in the fence. the whole thing crazy. >> if i were a reporter, and my blackberry went off, everybody come in, cover the story, i'd call in sick. standing throughout in the dark with wild animals roaming around? >> you like the tigers and shark

on wall street and can't handle the real ones. rob marciano at the extreme weather center. good morning, rob. >> out there with the wild animals. that's a story to tell. you've got snowstorms, severe weather across ohio. when you grow up, my school was cancelled a day because there was wild an ma'ams on the loose in my town. >> the other story is the laxed ohio laws. carol costello was staying, 20 years ago when she was near this market, very laxed laws. people can have preserves and all of these wild animals, non-native species. >> here in manhattan you can't keep tigers and lions. >> every now and then they find them up in the bronx and everything. >> they do. >> a scary situation, when you think about it. another situation scary across parts of south florida, three reports of possible tornados. certainly a lot of damage across this area. these pictures near plantation, florida, just to the north-northwest of that.

certainly looks like tornado damage. severe weather threat continues today, although the tornado watch in effect earlier has been allowed to expire. still, across the keys and across parts of south florida we continue to see the rainfall, heavy at times. guess what? making its way up through the del mar, the mid-atlantic, into the tri-state area of new york, new jersey and connecticut. some heavy, es specially across jersey. notice how far back to the west it goes. a bit of a mess. certainly if you're traveling today. already we've gone upwards of an hour delay at laguardia and the other new york metros see delays as well. twofold. this thing explodes as far as intensity and become as decent great lakes storm as we go through. the tropical connection. rainfall heavy at times, a dry spot across the i-95 corridor. the back side will be wet and windy at times. we'll see winds gust over 40, maybe even 50 miles an hour at times across chicago and in through detroit, and that means also cold air coming in behind

this. temperatures in the 20s and 30s tomorrow. for game one tonight, guys, temperatures not out of the 40s and blustery. world series, very fall-like. >> i love baseball games in the summer. i love sitting around at yankees stadium, but i think post-season game, world series, needs to be a little cold. good when it's cold. feels good. all bund manied up. >> especially when watching it from the comfort of your living room. >> if you're in zanesville, ohio, back to that story, a neighbor saying all night long she could hear a male lion roaring and she's got kids and always kind of afraid. a lion got loose in 2006, and, you know, kind of always been afraid of something ever happening, and this is their worst nightmare. hearing a male lion. probably not in the their cages. they're loose. >> kind of wonders what's going on. rob, catch up with you later, thanks, buddy. coming up on "american morning," the art of the political flip-flop. how mitt romney and herman cain

changed their tune on health carry and homeland security. and good news. social security benefits are going up. find out why? well, maybe you wouldn't notice the increase. hate to be the bearer of bad news on the one hand. on the other hand -- 22 minutes after the hour. (announcer) everything you need to stay balanced on long trips. residence inn.

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welcome back. "minding your business" this morning, reports that france and germany might expand the size of the big eurozone bailout. the big fund to bailout investors giving people something to cheer about today. the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 all rising late in the day yesterday. this morning stock futures for the dow and s&p 500 are up. nasdaq futures trading lower so far. a rarity for apple. the company missed analyst expectations for the first time since at least 2004. a record quarter. the tech giant made $6.6 billion in the first quarter. iphone seams slower than expected. people were waiting for the new iphone, apple says. today social security recipients are expected to learn

they're getting their first raise if two years. the cost of living boost kicks in next year and is expected to be about 3.5%, though you might not notice the increase because will could be a hike in medicare premiums. watching carefully to see how those balance out. bank of america is no longer the nation's biggest bank. it lost the title to jpmorgan chase. bank of america has been shutting branches and selling assets as a way to cut expenses. also this morning, the last of the big banks, morgan stanley, releases its quarterly earnings. catching a flight this holiday will cost more money. average airfare around thanksgiving up 6% this year. average price for a ticket during christmas, up 10%. one reason for the increase, more demand and fewer flights as the airlines try to make money. next year, it's going to cost you more to send a letter. the u.s. postal service announcing the cost for a stamp is going up a penny. so forever stamps will now cost 45 cents each. should bring in new revenue for

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30 minutes after the hour. welcome back to "american morning." here are the morning's top stories -- rick perry coming out swinging. >> to say the least. >> really. look at this. hands, pointing. at last night's western republican debate, getting down and dirty with mitt romney on the topic of immigration. look at these two. a heated somewhat uncomfortable exchange. herman cain also taking heat for his 9-9-9 tax plan. a plan opponents claim will raise taxes on the middle class. we'll talking about that later in the show. schools closed in muskegon, ohio. police hunt down dangerous animals let go from an exotic animal farm. the owner found dead, cages

open, animals gone. >> we hear noises every once in a while, and we're just trying to figure out what it was. it's not a domestic animal orring in like that. >> scary. you don't know where they're at. and if the cops can't catch them, they're going to be running wild, crazy. >> about two dozen on the loose right now. it's not clear yet how the own are died. police say as many as 48 animals escaped, and they've killed about half of them so far, but there are cats, big wolf it's, other wild animals hiding and on the loose. >> just saw a sad picture of a lion shot den. >> taking down some of these animals. hoping to send in experts with tranquilizer guns so they don't have to kill all of these animals. a massive general strike called by the country's two major unions that's crippled the country's private and public sectors. they plan to vote on new measures aimed at heading off a

default and an entire eurozone crisis. and welcome back to las vegas. the dictionary of flip-flop, a sudden change of directions policy, we're not accusing any of the republican presidential candidates of flip-flopping last night. we'll let you decide about that, but let's start with mitt romney. he can't distance himself from the health care plan implemented when governor of massachusetts. listen to how this health care position evolved from 2006 right up until last night. >> having 30 million people in this country without health insurance and having those people show up when they get sick and expect someone else to pay, that's a democrating approach. that's the wrong way. the republican approach is to say, you know what? everybody should have insurance. they should pay what they can afford to pay, if they need help. we'll there be to help them, but no more free ride. i went after that in massachusetts. was able to put in a plan that

helps get health premiums down and all citizens ensured. if we can do that nationally, we help the auto industry and the entire nati entire. >> determine what's right for those states. >> at the time i crafted the plant, is this something would you have the whole nation do, and i said, no. this is something crafted for massachusetts. would be wrong to adopt this as a nation. >> okay. that was mitt romney's position evolving over a five-year period. herman cain's position on negotiating with terrorists, a flip-flop? in an interview with cnn's wolf blitzer cain asked if he'd consider exchanging guantanamo bay for terrost of al qaeda. listen to what he said. >> could you see yourself at president authorizing that kind of transfer? >> i could see myself

authorizing that kind of transfer, but what i would do is i would make sure that i got all of the information, i got all of the input, considered al of the options and then the president has to be the president and make a just call. i can make that call if i had to. >> i believe in the philosophy of, we don't negotiate with terrorists. i think -- i've been saying, i would never agree to letting hostages in guantanamo bay go. no, that wasn't the intended at all. >> i said that i spoke in error. maybe i didn't understand the question. if i did say that, i would not do that, because i believe in the philosophy, we cannot negotiate with terrorists. >> i misspoke. i would not do that. simply would not do that. >> there you have it. with the rate of foreclosures seven times the national average, people in las vegas are, well, under water and demanded answers last night. two people in the crowd and had questions are here with us this morning. tracy smith and bill sudu,

welcome to both of you. thank you so much for getting up early. let's start with the contentions in of this debate. mitt romney and rick perry really got into it. how did that go over with you, tracy? >> i think i was a little tired of it after a while. enough was said about the employee that mitt romney apparently had hired, and i think we just wanted to hear more about the issues and give the candidates a chance to also talk about the issues instead of sparring back and forth between the two of them. >> some say that rick perry needed to do this. he needed to look aggressive and feisty, that he had life throughout the debate. how did rick perry come off in this fight between the two? >> i think he came off as apparent he was trying to get back some momentum and i don't think it played well with us in the audience. i think we were done with that topic. >> bill what do you think? >> i agree with tracy. i think this came in pretty down and dirty at some point in the point and tracy is absolutely right.

it was getting tiring to see those kinds of thing. we are talking about relations. so we need to concentrate on the issues which affect our economy, our well-being here and that's what we should have been hearing about. >> one of the substantive issues that came up with health care, that mitt romney's opponents called romneycare. you probably know that mitt romney has changed his tone a bit since 2006. do you believe him now that he'll repeal obamacare, and is that what you want? >> well, this would be sort of an indication for him, when he says going to appeal obamacare, he's, in fact, bringing his own plan chn is from massachusetts. in reality, objectively speaking it has not worked in massachusetts. so what we need, something that's substantial. we need something real. >> so just because mitt romney says, yes, i'll repeal

obamacare, does that say to you that he has a plan to reform health care in this country? >> that's the excellent question, carol. it's what's the place of this repeal? he has to talk all day about repealing, but what's the replace of it? that's what we need to find out. tracy, like so many in nevada, you are under water on your mortgage. did you hear anything during the debate last night that gave you hope you would get any hope at all from these candidates? >> on a personal level, no. but i didn't expect to, to be hon echt with you. i know the foreclosure rate in nevada is terrible, but it's not going to be a quick fix, and that's going to be tied clearly into the economy and changing that around. >> but a direct question was asked of these contenders, and none of them really gave an answer. did they? >> no. >> so what does that say about how you're going to vote next year? >> well -- i'm hoping that we

can get out of hot water here in nevada specifically, clearly. i think that the state needs to come up with some ideas, and then we'll have to see how ta goes, but -- it's not an easy answer. i will say that, and i don't think it's going to be a quick fix. so i certainly am not the one to come up with that solution. >> neither were they, apparently, on stage. okay. so a quick answer to this one. did the debate last night change your mind about any candidate jp have you completely decided? >> no, i have not completely decided, but i was really interested in hearing more from herman cain and i was really happy to see his performance last night. i was interested to see what mitt romney had to say and i was -- you know, i'm interested. i'm interested in learning more about those two in particular. >> and you told me before that rick perry's done, with you? >> in my opinion, yes. i'm a little over rick perry at this point, but as we discussed before, it's still a very fluid situation.

so we'll see what the next few months have. >> so, bill, did you make up your mind last night about which candidate you'd support? >> it's absolutely hard to do that. again, it comes back to the question of, where do the candidates really stand on talking about the real issues which are affecting our lives now? and 30 million people are suffering in this country, they're unemployed. and 50 million people do in the have any access to health care. so it's a terrible situation out in on the street. so we need to find a real solution. we need to get something substantive from these folks here. >> so more substantive answers and less bickers, perhaps? >> absolutely. >> tracy and bill, thank you so much for waking up early. we appreciate it. >> sure. still to come on "american morning" -- much more about that story out of ohio. we'll also talk about herman cain's 9-9-9 tax plan. sounds great. small numbers, easy to understand. what's not to like? how about higher taxes for a

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welcome back. herman cain's 9-9-9 plan has rocketed him to the top of the heap. last night the other candidates took their shots at that plan. the plan is simple. that's the whole point from herman cain's perspective. a 9% personal income tax, 9% corporate tax, 9% sales tax. the question, what does it mean to you and your taxes? this morning the first in-depth analysis of this plan, from the non-partisan tax policy center. they have gone through the number, and this is what they found. first the headline. 84% of all households would pay more under the 9-9-9 plan. federal income taxes, biggest by percentage hit lower income brackets because many are not paying federal income taxes now. there you go.

if your household income is less than $30,000, would you likely see an increase of this much on average. most people here will pay anywhere from $1,400 to $4,000 more in total federal income taxes. moving up the pay scale, $30,000 to $75,000. median, $49,909. right in the middle. most, not all, see an increase. pay $4,500 to $5,500 more. and making more, likely an increase, about $6,600. this is where it gets interested and a little complicated. when we jump up to $100,000 to $200,000 a year, according to the tax policy center, 65% of people would see an increase in federal income tax bill by this much. $6,6 h $6,600. but 35% of people in that range in this household income would see taxes decline. as you go up, people who make

$200,000 to half a million, split it up. 70% would see their tax bill decrease. decrease, and 30% would see an increase. you go up to half a million to a million dollars, the majority here, 88% of taxpayers in this category get a cut. a tax cut averaging about 70 grond and most millionaires, people making $1 million or more in household income, a huge tax cut. about $487,000. you can see, very different, as you go up the pay scale. 3 if you want more in detail go to taxpolicycenter.org and i'm going to tweet a link to this report to do the analysis yourself if you'd like. carol costello had a chance to sit down with herman cain after last night's debate. his 9-9-9 plan coming under fire. we're ask him to explain how it works and whether he'd be willing to be vice president if he doesn't get this nomination. watch that interview at 7:10 eastern right here on "american morning." ali? >> christine, a good

explanation. hope we do that lots, just to understand that. this morning's top story straight ahead including the actress suing a popular website for telling the truth about her age. and his voice is legend in las vegas. turns out wayne newton is also quite vocal on the subject of politics. carol goes one on one with mr. las vegas. it's 47 minutes after the hour. p for lunch plan, huh. nope, just having some tender chicken and some tasty noodles. let's see...south western vegetables...60 calories. ya' know those jeans look nice. they do? yup. so you were checking me out? yup. [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first.

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a 4 minutes whatever the hour. what you need to start your day -- rick perry firing at last night's republican presidential debate, a heated exchange with mitt romney. and herman cain taking criticism for his 9-9-9 tax plan claiming it will raise taxes on the middle class. and hunting down dangerous animals that broke out of a farm in ohio. as many as 40 animals escaped. they've killed about half and going after the rest with tranquilizer guns. in greece, government offices, small businesses, public services shutting down in what's being called the mother of all strikes. the massive protests come as parliament prepares to vote on sweeping new austerity measures to prevent a default. after a five-day break, testimony resumes in the monies sl manslaughter trial of michael jackson's jackson. conrad murray's defense is expected to begin friday. an an anonymous actress is

suing imdb and its parent company amazon for $1 million. shep claims offer for roles dropped after the internet posted her age. amazon hasn't responded. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" is back right after this.

welcome back to beautiful las vegas. as much a part of las vegas as the famous strip. entertainer wayne newton, mr. las vegas, sings here since 1959 and also has a voice in republican party politic.

just before last night's debate i sat down with wayne newton to talk about the gop race and what it's missing. >> i am truly afraid that the person has needs to lead this country has not yet debated, and i'm hopeful that i'm wrong. i would love to be wrong. >> so it's not mitt romney. >> well, i can't say that it's not. if he were the candidate, i would back him simply because i really believe that anybody is going to be better than what we have right now. >> so anybody but obama? >> anybody but obama. i believe he has an arrogance that's tough to get by, and i believe that he owes too many people too many favors. i'm praying for a savior. more than wishing. i'm praying for one. i'm afraid for them it's business as usual.

and the thing that concerns me about that tremendously is that they haven't realized that the left and the right and the center and the independents and the libertarians, everybody is sick of politics as usual. this country is still the best country and the best group of people on the face of the earth. >> including president obama? >> absolutely, but i wouldn't pick him to lead again. i think if he had been a little bit -- would have gotten him sooner. >> i did talk to wayne newton after the debate. he was more impressed with mitt romney. didn't make a final position on who he would support but said mitt romney showed leadership especially when people were ganging up on him during the debate. we saw pictures. after the interview, wayne

newton took me on a tour of his magnificent home. owns a 52-acre ranch right near the airport in las vegas. it's a wonderland. you can see the birds there. lots of exotic animal. no lions, tigers and the bears. don't worry. there are penguins, arabian horses and isn't that a beautiful sight? it's just gorgeous. he has peacocks all eve aover t property. 200 peacocks. lots of dogs and cats and eventually his property will be turned into an entertainment museum. those are wallabies if you're wandering. it will be open to the public, building a museum and all animals also on display so people can go in and see the animals and see the beauty of wayne newton's estate. >> did he say what poelts policies? he said he found the president arrogant. did he say what policies he didn't like? potential for higher taxes? under this president, wayne newton's taxes, no question,

lowered. the president cut those taxes last year, but he would like to raise taxes on rich people? >> at one point in the interview he said he's open to any idea, but he had a problem with president obama's leadership qualities. he said, yeah, president obama may have ideas, but he has failed to push those ideas through congress, even when congress was majority democratic. he wants someone who can get something done in washington, and he feels that's not president obama. >> it's an interesting point. i'll remind people are the thing republicans hate the most is the health care proposal, which actually did pass under a democratic-controlled congress. the biggest piece of legislation in the last 30 or 40 years was actually passed. you might not like it. the business about him not being able to pass something under a democratic congress, it flatout wrong. it did pass. we should remind people of that

when they say that. >> i actual will did, dut for wayne newton, it's anybody but obama. he says president obama has been bad for this country and, yes, president obama pushed through health care, but wayne newton hates that. to him, it's another facial. >> >> failure. >> interesting to see wayne newton. carol back with you shortly. thank you. much more coming up on this "american morning." fix it or find a new job, all right? i got it, i'm sorry. these people, huh? you know i've found that anger is the enemy of instruction. you don't know the egos that i have to deal with. you're probably right. thank you! whoever you are. i'm pretty sure that was phil jackson. he's quite famous... million championships... triangle offense innovator... [ male announcer ] the audi a8. named best large luxury sedan. nice wheels zen master. thank you...todd. ♪

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mitt, you loseallofyour standing from my perspective,

because you hired illegals. >> it's been a tough couple of debates for rick, and i understand that, so you're going to get -- you're going to get testy. >> i guess -- >> a nasty exchange between mitt romney and rick perry at last night's western republican debate. gops getting personal and a little ugly. we'll tally up the scorecard next. breaking news in ohio. lions and bears and tying wolves and cheetahs on the loose. schools are closed and a warning to stay indoors on this "american morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning. it is wednesday, october the 19th. welcome to a special split edition of "american morning," to suit our split personalities. i'm ali velshi in new york. >> i'm carol costello, perfect way to put it, ali.

the western republican debate in the books, what happens in vegas may not stay in vegas. you thought this debate would be different. things got personal and downright nasty. rick perry reeling in the polls and on the attack against mitt romney. got ugly and a little uncomfortable and may just set the tone for a dozen debates to come. jim acosta watched it all unfold and ip said it, a dozen debates to be fold and i wasn't lying about that. >> right. this was the hot ticket last night here in las vegas. this debate was personal, it was testy and may be a sign of things to come. >> mitt -- >> i'm speaking, i'm speaking. i'm speaking. you get 30 seconds. time tore you -- the way the rules work is i get 60 seconds. >> i know but the american people. >> and you get a chance to respond. right? >> reporter: a shoot-out on the vegas strip and at times sounded like rick perry's last stand with an urgent strategy to take down mitt romney. >> because you hired illegals in

your home and you knew about it for a year, and the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you're strong on immigration is on its face the height of hypocrisy. >> but romney wasn't laughing for long. >> are you just going to keep talking? a tough couple of debates for rick. >> reporter: civil discourse out the window. the first gop debate to get personal. >> we hired a lawn company to mow our lawn, and they had illegal immigrants working there. you have a problem with allowing so some someone to finish speaking. you've got to let both people speak if you want to become president. >> reporter: romney the real test as the front-runner at the candidates took aim at his health care plan in massachusetts. rick santorum pointed out some of romney's own advisers helped draft president obama's health care law. >> you just don't have credibility when it comes to repealing obamacare. your plan was the basis for

obamacare. your consultants helped consultants craft obamacare. >> reporter: at issue, the individual mandate in both romneycare and obamacare. >> a lot of big government behind romneycare, not as much as obama but a lot more than your campaign admitted. >> reporter: romney responded he got the idea from gingrich. rising republican star herman cain found himself on the defensive over his 9-9-9 plan. independent studies found the plan's individual business, national and local taxes would raise taxes on middle americans. >> it's not going to fly. >> reporter: romney pointed out a new national sales tax would be combined with existing state sales taxes. >> the people in nevada, will they not have to pay nevada sales tax and in addition pay the 9% tax? >> governor romney, you're doing the same thing they're doing. mixing apples an oranges.

>> i'm going to get a bushel basket with apples and oranges in it because i've got to pay both taxes. >> reporter: take a campaign full of lemons and make lemonade giving republicans a bitter taste of a more compactive campaign to come. >> you get to ask the questions but i get to answer like i want to. >> reporter: in the post-debate spin room, a senior adviser, a strategy to kill romney. in the end the adviser says perry just killed himself in that adviser's words. that might be wishful thinking on the part of the mitt romney campaign. rick perry showed he has a lot of fight left in him and i'm getting the feeling these two guys don't like each other. >> i think you're probably right about that. how do you think won last night's debate? >> i would give the night to mitt romney. in all of these debates, you know, he has sort of cruised through many of the debates. you know, while the other candidates took most of the abuse. rick perry, herman cain. this night was almost all about

mitt romney. it was a chance for the other candidates, like rick santorum, like rick perry, to really challenge romney not only on his record but on his past. whether or not he's hired illegal immigrants, and romney seemed to survive the night. despite all of those slings and arrow, and it almost tell the mike fight night here on the strip. we were just missing don king. these candidate got bumps and bruises out of this one. >> yes, they did. thanks to you, jim acosta. herman cain may be beali fe upstaged. afterwards i sat down with cain to talk more about the attacks against his 9-9-9 tax plan and how he would fix the home foreclosure crisis in america and whether he'd consider becoming vice president if he fails to win the nomination. here's my conversation with candidate cain. >> reporter: so everybody expects you to be the target of every attack tonight, and you were for about what, ten minutes? >> i was. >> reporter: how do you feel? >> i feel like -- it's quite an

honor to be beat up on, when you have a good idea, and you have a plan, and they really don't have a good plan. they've spent more time talking about what's wrong with my plan than they did talking about their plan. that suggests they don't have a real convincing plan. >> reporter: but when a non-partisan tax group says your plan will raise taxes for 94% of americans, and you say, well, they're just wrong, some people might say -- it doesn't compute. >> well, here's how i know they didn't even read our analysis. we have a provision in there, what we call head room, in that 9-9-9, for people that are on earned income tax credits, for cities we'll declare at opportunity zones. we have head room in there. several trillion dollar, by the way, see, if they had read the entire plan and read through our analysis they would have

discovered that rather than saying it's going to raise taxes or not generate enough revenue. that's simply not the case. i'm going to throw it back to them in the future. show me your analysis that proves that my plan won't work. >> reporter: in the next debate, you're going on the attack? >> i'm going on the attack. >> reporter: you're ready to do that. >> yes, i am. >> reporter: really, you've been the nice guy through all this. >> yes. >> reporter: the likable guy. >> i've been trying. but they're getting on my last nerve. >> reporter: can we talk about -- there was a person who stood up and asked about the foreclosure crisis. >> yes. >> reporter: and none of of you seemed to really give an answer to that. i mean, if i'm in a home and i'm being foreclosed on and i have a job, how would you help me? >> the way i would help you is to get government off the backs of the banks. that's one of the reasons we have the problems. many of the banks can't do some of the things that they would want to do to help folks. >> reporter: like -- >> like restrictions of fdic in

terms of wa kind of portfolio they must have and this sort of thing. a lot of the problem has to do we regulations or the threat of new regulations coming out of washington, d.c. >> reporter: but most people say when they're in trouble with their mortgage, that their bank refuses to even talk to them. >> well -- >> reporter: should a bank negotiate with someone? >> yes. a bank should negotiate. >> reporter: does the government have a role in, perhaps, forcing that bank in some way to sit down and negotiate with homeowners? >> i know people don't like this, but, no. because then you distort the free market system. i would encourage -- here's how you encourage banks. remove the barriers that are keeping them from doing business the way they would want to. most bankers would want to renegotiate with people on their mortgage, but i'm telling you, that there are restrictions that are more government-driven that's keeping them -- i've had

banks tell me this. they didn't give me a list of the things that can be done. they want to help people. they really do. it's a threat of government regulation, the threat of the frank-dodd bill and rolling that out. >> reporter: because they're being threatened with more government regulations is weren't of the reasons they're not sitting downed and negotiating with people? >> yes. >> reporter: really? >> because they have maintained their portfolio at a certain level or they get shut down by the fdic. the number of banks shut down in the last year, beat the number that was shut down the year before. why? because of fdic rules, some of them are so scared that they're going to step outside of a rule and be shut down that they just don't get as creative as they could get. >> reporter: could you consider being someone's vice president? >> i'm in it to win it. becoming president of the united states of america. >> reporter: somewhere down the line, if mitt romney came to you and said, i think we'd be a great team -- >> it would depend upon who it is, and it would depend upon the

understanding that we could reach about how they saw my role. i'm not saying no, but it's not an automatic yes. >> thank you so much. i so appreciate it. thank you. >> a pleasure. thank you so much. >> i think, ali and christine, that was herman cain's seventh interview of the night besides the debate. he's getting himself in front of a camera as much as he can. perhaps -- i know he said he was really -- you know, beat up during the debate, but really he was only beat up during the first ten minutes and then he sort of faded from view. a lot of people are wondering why. that herman cain just chose to fade from view and sat back and watched the show. oh maybe mitt romney doesn't really consider herman cain a threat, and he concentrated on rick perry. >> interesting to see, maybe he's managing the overexposure. we like the fact herman cain who does say some controversial things comes out and is prepared to answer questions and take

part in these thingance but some criticism that herman cain is out there a lot. let someone else ride it out and see if he can maintain his lead. great conversation. thank you for that. >> thanks. ohio. >> you don't want to give your dog a walk if you live around zanesville, ohio. a big game hunt. not game. a game hunt. schools are closed after, listen to this, bears, lions, tigers, cheetahs and wolves and other exotic animals somehow got off a farm. the other than of the farm found dead. cages opened, animals gone. the sheriff just gave our affiliate an update. listen. >> we can confirm, 33, the number, a vague number until we get into the daylight hours and get everything accounted for. >> reporter: can you tell whauts has been killed ate this point? what you're looking for out there? >> all i can confirm on the property there were leopards, lions and tigers. mountain lions, if that's a different species of cat. wolves as well as black bears

and grizzly bears. >> have you heard of other sightings? >> grizzly bears. >> unbelievable. >> the sheriff saying that they have not yet sent officers on foot in the woods yet, because, you to e, quite frankly, they don't know what they're dealing with. it got dark. some of the animals they shot and killed were still in the premises but out of their cages. >> yep. >> at 7:30 eastern we'll talk to wildlife expert hannah of the late-night scene, known for his work at the zoo in columbus. >> a well-known zoo. called if experts like jack hanna who can help. we've had conflicting reports whether the death of this guy that owned the farm was suspicious or not, because in connection with that, not just that he was dead, it's who let the animals out? >> and was the ex-tr perimeter left open? one report, actually a hole cut in the fence. it's unclear. a mysterious situation. >> and then a question of,

they've had to kill a lot of animals, but tranquilizing them, trying to tranquilize them now. >> a little chaotic in the moments after. getting dark. it happened late afternoon. started to get dark. they had to secure the premises, but there's a very sad and terrifying picture on the a.p. of a lion, a dead lion. huge dead lion. the sheriff deputies had to take some of the animals down. they're still on the loose. and wall street star power. actor alec baldwin teat tweeted spent hours. and issued a summons for blocking pedestrian traffic. looking at live picture, outside the greek parliament. biggest strikes greece has seen so far. keep that in perspective. we've seen very, very big strikes in greece. parliament prepares to vote form on sweeping new austerity

measures. further austerity measures designed to stave all a possible financial disaster across europe. we'll keep a close eye on that. still to come this morning, president obama slamming what he calls the, "no, we can't" message in washington. talk about his new message as he wraps up that three-day bus tour. ford fusion has now been named the most dependable midsize car by jd power and associates. we go to kimberly. any thoughts on this news? i have no idea what's goin on. we are out. what was that? they told me it's the most dependable midsize sedan and they ran back into their little box.

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"american morning." we are live in las vegas on the morning after the western republican presidential debate, an event that resembled a heavyweight brawl, really. rick perry the underdog, impresser, trying to land a haymaker, and mitt romney a counterpunch and herman cain avoiding big blows and still standing at the bell. bring in political columnist from the "daily beast" and senior political an legitimate and editorial director of the

national journal. welcome to you both. >> good morning. >> good morning, or -- >> whatever it is right now. >> whatever twilight hour it is. >> the most fun in vegas. isn't it? yes, indeedy. talk about the contentions in of th -- contentionness of this debate. >> mitt romney was rattled last night. moments he was trying to interject might have heard him. fellow candidates have to understand. that said, last night, the best debate we've seen because of the fight. the brawl of the exhibition. intense, personal at times. policy substance behind it at times, too, but a great debate. >> so who came out the winner between mitt romney and rick perry? >> well, i think that we will probably look back on this debate as the beginning of perry's recovery of reestablishing himself as a principle conservative alternative to mitt romney. not sure anyone one, for perry, much stronger than it had been. this debate underscored why the

race remains volatile and fluid. why no one has been able to consolidate the right against romney and why romney faces dits in expanding beyond the support he has. >> much of the fight over mitt romney hiring this illegal to do his lawn work back in, what, 2006 or 2007? let's listen to a bit of the argument between the two over that issue. >> and -- >> rick, i'm speaking -- i'm speaking. >> the newspaper -- it's time for you -- >> you get 30 seconds. this is the way the rules work here is i get 60 seconds. >> no, but the american people want the truth. >> you get 30 seconds to respond. anderson -- >> up say you knew you had -- >> would you, please, wait? are you just going to keep talking? are you going to let me finish what i was saying. look, rick -- >> i was -- >> it's been a tough couple of debates for rick, and i understand that, so you're going to get -- you're going to get testy. >> i thought they were going to break out in fisticuffs, right?

let's just settle this illegal immigrant question, and mitt romney's lawn before we get into this. something that came out in the "boston globe" in 2006. ship say it's a cheap shot, old eschew. why did rick perry even bring it up? what's the truth behind it? >> he's trying to raise doubts about romney's credibility. similar to what rick santorum said about health care, by the way. that romney does not have the credibility to run against obama because of his own record in massachusetts. that's the core argument holding conservatives back whether you can trust mitt romney. the story was, the "boston globe" reported he had a lawn care company using illegal immigrants. he said he dealt with the problem. continued to use the company. a year later still using illegal immigrants and then he cut them off at that point. don't forget, perry also raised a policy issue noting romney had spoken favorably about the ted kennedy bill for illegal immigrants, got support in 2006, 22 republican senators. a lot of what's happening in

this race is the goal line has moved in the republican party and a lot of candidates are feeling exposed for positions they took in an earlier period when somewhat more tolerance. >> the topic of illegal immigration. they're talking about it in the state of nevada, where it does matter. what matters more to people here is the massive foreclosure rate and also the massive number of unempl unemployed. do people really care about this when you get down to it? >> the republican base, especially the tea party, republican base and in a border state like nevada. a border governor like rick perry got a lot of authority. not like he's getting a lot of respect on the same stage last night. the real issue, the time is almost 14%. foreclosure rates through the roof. you saw the candidates retreat to the bumper sticker. michele bachmann gave a long answer about foreclosures, how she could relate to people as a mother but didn't offer a shred

of a real solution. that's the problem with these debates. give herman cain credit for putting forward a plan in 9-9-9. too often, response to every policy question. >> you bring that up, after the debate i interviewed herman cain, what would you do? force the banks to negotiate with people? to help them get out of these bad mortgages? he said, no. it's the regulations causing all the problems. >> you saw michele bachmann in an earlier debate blame the 1970s, requiring banks to lend in low-income areas. the silence deafening. as jim said, a reminder of a relatively narrow debate so far. so far republicans speaking to primary voters saying the answer to every problem is rolling back government, and when you get to specifics on things like housing, beyond that, there's little. romney said yesterday we need to let the market hit bottom, not try to stop foreclosures. the only way the market will eventually clear.

there are actually more detailed proposals from some republican economists about how to deal with this. none of the candidates felt the need to go into that detail. >> thank you so much for getting up early. actually, you both probably stayed up. thank you so much. i appreciate it. some nasty weather moving through the midwest and the northeast. rob marciano's forecast is coming your way next. starting my progresso soup for lunch plan, huh. nope, just having some tender chicken and some tasty noodles. let's see...south western vegetables...60 calories. ya' know those jeans look nice. they do? yup. so you were checking me out? yup. [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less.

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reminiscent of that. there was a tornado watch out for parts of florida earlier, discontinued. the tropical moisture continues to stream in across the keys and south florida tapping into ina storm system. these two will merge as we go throughout the day. if you're traveling today, new york metro, chicago sees the brunt of it likely over an hour delay in those spots. here's your gulf moisture connection. there's your low coming out of the midwest. they combine for heavy rain, maybe a dry spot later this afternoon across the i-95, but back behind this thing, decent amount of rain and cold air and wind. winds gufrtdi ingusting at time. big waves across parts of the great lakes as well. not the best of baseball weather. going to be chilly. temperatures not out of the 40s tonight. game weren't of the world series and windy. northwest winds blowing hard out to right field. temperatures, 10 to 20, some

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and welcome back to las vegas where everyone is buzzing about how nasty things got last night at the western republican debate. mitt romney refusing to back down when rick perry came out slinging. got a little ugly at times uncomfortable to watch these two candidates getting so angry at one another and so personal. my next guest says the point, to kill romney but that may have

backfired on the texas governor. the senior campaign adviser, eric, welcome. thank you for getting up early. appreciate it. >> sure. >> did mitt romney expect rick perry to pile on as he did last night? >> you know, rick perry reminds me of an athlete who's had some bad games and then goes into the next contest to pick a fight. that is never a crowd pleaser, and i think you saw in the audience's reaction. they booed rick perry several times. whenever he wants to make a negative attack against mitt romney or a cheap shot, registered disapproval and audience reaction speaks for itself. >> how do you think rick perry came off? >> unpresidential. look, people have a real sense with these republican primary debates that they may, in fact, be selecting, looking at the next president of the united states. they want a leader who has an uplifting vision. mitt romney went into this debate with a strategy to talk about the high unemployment in

nevada. 13.4%. the epicenter of the housing foreclosure crisis. mitt talked about his plan to get the economy moving. rick perry's plan, drill for more oil. look, we need to drill for more oil but doing that alone is not going to rescue this state or this economy. >> a lot of the information between the two was sort of, some might say, wasted on this illegal immigration thing that happened supposedly back in 2006 with mitt romney hiring a landscaping company that had illegal immigrants working for it. supposedly he knew about it for a year and didn't do anything for a year. can you set the record straight? what exactly happened? >> an old story. time and time again, been through it. mitt romney hired a legitimate company to take care of his lawn. they, in turn, hired illegal immigrants. when mitt romney found out about it, he told them to correct the problem. had they didn't correct it, he fired the company. that's not new. what was new is the information that mitt romney put on the table last night with respect to illegal immigration in texas.

it has increased 60%. this is according to the department of homeland security over the last ten years of the perry governorship. furthermore, according to the center for immigration studies of the new jobs created in texas over the last three years, 40% have gn to illegal immigrants. if anybody has an illegal immigration problem it's not mitt romney, it's rick perry. >> going back to mitt romney's policy to stop illegal immigration what exactly is it? >> every action he took at governor, designed to deter illegal immigration. he vetoed an in-state tuition bill for illegal immigrants. rick perry signed one for texas. mitt romney authorized his state troopers to detain people base and their immigration status. mitt romney ooh -- rick perry opposed this. the reason there's an illegal explosion in texas because rick perry adopted policies that encourage that illegal immigration, specifically opposed a border fence and

signed in-state tuition, acts as a magnet to bring people across that border. >> eric, thanks for being with us this morning. appreciate it. i think we have jack hanna, i'm sure you've heard about the wild animals escaped in ohio? >> sounds crazier than last night's debate? >> crazy and quite likely dangerous. back to new york and christine and ali. >> thanks, carol. schools closed in muskegon, ohio. hunting dangerous animals that somehow got out of an exotic animal farm. >> a mystery how this happened. hue are you going to call? how about the legendary jungle jack hanna, director emeritus of the zoo and aquarium next door in columbus. thank you for being with usi know you're there in a bit of rain. they called you in. you know this area well. tell me what you know about what has happened so far, how many -- animals?

how many they got? >> i'm here at state college. about 31 animals down. three cats i don't know what they are. getting ready to go up in 30 minutes, daylight, assess the situation. if there's no human life -- people have to understand something, everyone. human life comes first. we're trying our best to make sure no one is hurt doing this. the animals, the question is, why didn't they tranquilize? you can't tranquilize him as night. a shot, popped. they settle in, hunker down, go to sleep. we can't find them in the dark. what it ho be done had to be done. even a bear came after one of the officers trying to get out of a car. what happened with that, no one loves animals more than me, but human life comes first and we're concentrating, got my veterinarians behind me. assessing no human life in danger. we'll tranquilize the animals, making room to take them to the zoo, primates, a leopard or two

up there. about eight animals we'll try to locate today. >>s christine here. there are some animals still on the prem sis of the preserve, but tell us what's the situation. the preserve was left open? one report, there was actually a hole in one of the fences. how many animals are outside the preserve? how many are inside, or do we just don't know yet? >> right now we don't know, but there are, as i said, three cats, we think, up there inside still. there were enclosures cut open. the perimeter is down, some of it. some animals were outside the 40 acres. that's the one put down. other animals, whether they that, don't know. usually when it's raining, they're hunkered down. they're captive. some might not leave the area, that's where they're fed. what we're hoping. in the rain, more than likely they're not running around going further. the rain is in our favor and theirs as well because hiding.

this eight or nine unaccounted for. >> you know the facility from which the animals escaped. >> never been there but saw the sheriff's report. must be 20, 30 citings against him. some for animal cruelty, some for an ma'am animals getting l. under the governor, prior to cover casey, signed a bill. fine to sign it. but who's going to take care of it? hoop going to employ the people to inspect this area? the governor got in touch with me, two weeks after elected forming a committee how we stop these people having animals that shouldn't have them. sorry to say, our bill was not quite done yet, and now i'm sure it's going to be put on the top burner. i'm not the governor, but we have to do something to stop the source of these animals. it's not this man. where's he getting the animals from? where do drugs come from? where do the drugs come from? if i take every bone in my body, to stop these, stop the source

in ohio, then stop where these people are getting these anim animals. ohio has laxed laws. it's got to stop. >> do you know why, terry thompson, the man that owned this place, why did he have the animals? a tourist attraction? runningfor his own -- what was the purpose are ale of these animals here in ohio? >> my understanding is he had them for his own, i guess his own collection. that's all any of us can understand. i've never seen the place. i heard about it three years ago. my people went up to look about it. couldn't do one thing. he had a permit. against the law to take somebody's stuff if he has had legally. couldn't have done that. wish we could have, but we didn't and look what we have here? now we're start shutting these things down. breeders in ohio might be, reputable, privately, and theme people who really believe, have the proper enclosures, this bill has to be signed the correct way to shut the people down like this man collecting everything. you can't do that. >> jack, one last question.

up say there might be eight more animals out there. do you know what kind? are they dangerous and what should people do if they come across them? >> when you see, if it's a bear, a cat, cougar, lion, tiger, whatever it might be, leopard, do not run. first thing. i have a place in montana, hike with the grizzlies. when you come across an animal, yell, scream. 95%, an animal will run. do not run from the animal pap no-no. the animal doesn't look as you as a human. let's go get it. do not run. get inside your house and call the police we'll get out and take care of it. >> stay in your house or car. the reason the sheriffs went out there, reports along i-70 people were seeing wolves along the highway, and then -- do you have any information, sheriff tell you any information what happened? foul play here? what do they think? did somebody let the animals go or was this a crazy error? >> not heard anything on the

highway, no. i did 70, signs on the interstate saying, exotic animals loose. call 911. that's on both interstates telling people, they're our best person to tell us what's happening. no. not heard of any animals on the interstate. >> all right. >> jack good to see you, as always. thanks for getting with us on short notice. director emeritus of the columbus zoo, out there helping authorities out now that the sun is up. this clarifies a question we had. why they weren't tranquilizing the animals put down overnight. >> they would still run away and hide. >> now they'll try to tranquilize. eight animals unaccounted for and they're going after them. >> receiving reports of animals. went to check out an obvious source what the animals could be and found the owner dead. still, we don't know the source of all of that, what happened. was he killed by animals? how did they get out? what exactly happened? we'll continue to follow it and get to the bottom of that. still to come, a no holds barred slug fest.

fact checking what the candidates said at the rufr and tumble republican debate. true, half true or pants or on fire? my favorite. herman cain talking about a battle with colon cancer and how it influenced his decision to run. 42 minutes after the hour. ♪ more and more folks are trying out snapshot from progressive. a totally different way to save on car insurance. the better you drive, the more you can save. no wonder snapshot's catching on. plug into the savings you deserve, with snapshot from progressive.

were back. the liveliest of the republican debates yet. the las vegas slug fest seen here on cnn would have been right at home on the boxing channel. beyond the verbal fisticuffs do the candidates have their facts

straight? the editor of politifact joins us from washington. welcome to the program. >> good morning. >> let's start first about the, this sort of debate -- listen first to the sound bite of immigrants in texas. tell me if this is right or not. >> california and florida over the last ten years they've had no increase in illegal immigration. texas has had 60% in illegal immigrants in texas. >> so -- what's the verdict? >> half true on our truthometer. the numbers are pretty much right, but where we think that romney is significantly exaggerating is by blaming perry for this. governors really don't have much role in immigration. perry has actually tried to help the federal government, but it's the federal government that has, that is responsible for policing illegal immigration. half true ton that one. >> listen to this next clip and then you tell me where this one ranks. >> it is a jobs plan. it is revenue neutral.

it does not raise taxes on those that are making the least. >> all right. so that's herman cain defending his 9-9-9 tax plan, as everyone's been trying to attack it. what's the verdict? >> a false. there was a report out just yesterday from the tax policy center, a very -- a very well-respected group that analyzed king's plan, and they found just the opposite is true. actually, the people at the bottom of the income would actually pay considerably more, and it's cllly t lactually the millionaires who get the biggest break. smk like half a million for millionaires. false for that one. >> last hour we broke that down. some point out with a pay roll tax cut of 7.5%, workers would see an immediate raise of 7%. figure it out. people who aren't working, low income that don't have income would not see that cut. so that's where it starts to get sticky. take the third one. this fact check on rick santorum, attacked mitt romney for his massachusetts health

care plan. let's listen. >> this is something crafted for massachusetts. would be wrong to adopt this as a nation. >> it's not what you said -- >> you're shaking your head. >> that's not what you said. it was in your book it should be for everything. >> took it out of your book. >> you took it out of your book. >> so did he take it out of his book? take it out of his book when it became clear this could be an issue? >> we rated santorum's claim mostly false. this has been a popular attack line on romney, the claim is that he had said it was, it should be adopted by the nation and then took that out of his book, but that's not really what he said in the original edition. when you look at the hard cover edition as we did. romney actually was talking about state choice. that states should have the opportunity to choose to do things like massachusetts did. so santorum earns a mostly false for that one. >> and showing hard cover and paperback version. hard cover said we can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country and done without letting government take

over health care. paperback, done without government taking over health care. that's what santorum was hitting him on. let me talk a little about this romney controversy, back from 2006, about hiring a landscaping firm that hired illegal immigrants to do the work. this is something that is retread from the last go-around for romney but came up again last night. let's listen. >> rick, i don't think i've ever hired an illegal in my life, and so i'm afraid -- i'm looking forward to finding your facts on that. >> all right. so has he ever hired an illegal in his life? technically? >> we rated that mostly false. the reality is, he hired a landscape firm that did, and i think as his campaign spokesman noted in the earlier segment, he became aware of that. he asked them to stop it. when they didn't, he then fired them. still, he was hiring a firm that did employ illegals. so we rated it mostly false on

the truthometer. >> again, coming up again, thought he put that to rest, there it is again in the debate. as always -- finish your thought. >> yeah. we fact checked this back in 2007. so this is definitely a rerun. >> so you blew the dust off the page, took another look at it and came up with the same conclusion. bill, thanks. >> thanks for having me. >> love plitofact. >> i do, too. coming up, herman cain says he almost wasn't there to see the 2012 race that he's a big part of. the candidate battled stage 4 colon cancer. stage 4, and beat it. how rare is that and how could it influence his campaign? dr. sanjay gupta in the house for this conversation. when we come back, it is 49 minutes after the hour. but did you know they're good for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry

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all right. he's the pizza man with the 9-9-9 plan, but there is something you don't know about herman cain. he survived stage 4 colon cancer that spread to his liver. it was part of the reason why he decided to run for president. dr. sanjay gupta joins us now from atlanta. good morning, sanjay. always a pleasure to see you. if i heard somebody had stage 4

colon cancer, i get the sense that they are in grave danger of not surviving. how common is it and what is the survival rate? >> the odds were clearly not on your side, ali. without treatment, this is a tough cancer certainly to beat. survival rates really in the single digits. what they mean by stage 4 colon ca cancer, in his case, it was in his colon and also spread to his liver. also started back in 2006. couple important points he got chemotherapy pretty quickly. he was treated quickly at md anderson and also had surgery to remove the cancer both out of his colon and his liver. they thought this was a resectable tumor. that changes the odds a lot in his favor. despite all the treatment that he's been through and despite how the odds were stacked against him in the beginning. listen to what he had to say about this whole process. >> i have my five-year check-up

from my oncologist and the special blood test they do if you're a cancer patient and i got a clean bill of health five years, totally cancer free and that's after only having a 30% chance of survival. that's an ah-ha moment. >> so, ali, that five-year mark important for, obviously, herman cain. we talked to his doctors, as well, about this. five years at this point no evidence of disease, no evidence of cancer in his body and they're saying he's cancer free. they're not saying it is a cure, but cancer free. >> we talk about it five-year survival rates without a recurrence of cancer. how do you prevent and detect colon cancer? >> well, this is one of those cancers that we had a lot of discussions about screening tests. this is one of the screening tests people seem to agree on. first of all, just in terms of prevention in the first place. a high fiber diet in the first place, less fat and a lot of things you and i talked about

over the years. aspirin, an aspirin a day, some evidence to show that that can decrease your chance of developing colon cancer, but screenings, ali, starting around age 50. really seem to be a key and seem to help and more than 100,000 cases of colon cancer detected every year but the numbers in terms of people dying from it are coming down in results of that early screening. >> as far as tests for things go feels invasive for men who typically don't like going to doctors in the first place, but it's becoming more acceptable. a lot of celebrities and a lot of people going out there, publicizing their colon cancer screenings and it tends to make it, you know, make people feel more like they should do it. >> yeah, look, ivent gone through it myself yet. i have a birthday coming up, i'm in my early 40s. at 50 you get medications that make you pretty sedate and make you forget everything that is about to happen to you. it is invasive, tough thing to think about, but a lot of people don't have a recollection of the

experience. >> you sent me some food to be a little healthier, i'll never get to as healthy as you are. >> that's why i'm here, ali, try to keep you as healthy as possible. coming up next hour, a lot more on this wild animal hunt in ohio. boy, for parent, it's the worst nightmare, wild animals on the loose in ohio. schools are closed and people are told to stay inside. lions, tigers, cheetahs on the streets and highways. police forced to shoot their way into a farm. we'll tell you how it is going when we come back. it's 55 minutes after the hour. capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody...

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it is jumongy on the streets of ohio. animals break out from an exotic animal farm. >> what a story. frightening moments aboard a southwest airlines flight. the plane forced to make an emergency landing because of a screaming passenger the crew feared would try to break into the cockpit. republicans clash. i'm carol costello live in las vegas. the western republican debate his target mitt romney. the tone down right nasty. we'll look at the scorecards on this "american morning."

all right. good morning, it is wednesday, october 19th. we just spoke with jack hanna who said if you live in ohio and see a leopard, a bear, a lion, a cub or a cheetah, don't run. this is advice for people who live around columbus. >> if i saw a lion coming, i might run. >> make a lot of noise and make yourself very big and quickly try to get into the house. he's not saying stay there and face it down. >> one of the craziest stories we ever covered. bunch of wild animals on the loose in ohio. we're not talking about the debate last night. carol is in las vegas covering that. although it got a little wild for a few minutes, carol. >> it did get a little wild. but i think we should talk about what is happening in ohio. we'll get to the debate in a little bit, but i'll throw it back to you guys. >> schools are closed and people are on lock down this morning. it's around zanesville, ohio.

they're being warned to stay inside as they hunt down exotic animals after the owner of an exotic animal farm died. >> there were grizzly bears and black bears there. there were cheetahs, there were lions and there were tigers. >> possibly a giraffe. >> as i released earlier, there have been giraffes and camels at this place before in the past. these are wild animals. wild animals that you would see on tv in africa. >> i'm less concerned about the camel and more concerned about a very unhappy grizzly bear. these are adults we're told and they have lived in captivity their whole life. they're probably disconcerted and probably very hungry, at least two dozen animals were shot and killed. a few minutes ago we spoke to legendary wildlife expert jack hanna. they called him from nearby

columbus zoo to help out. about 30 animals were down and 8 animals on the loose and police were about to go after three big cats. here's our conversation with him. >> people have to understand something, everyone. human life comes first. we're trying our best to make sure no one is doing this. why didn't the sheriff tranquilize them last night? it was dark. you cannot tranquilize the animal at dark. they go, they settle in and they hunker down and go to sleep and can't find them in the dark. even a bear came after one of the officers last night as he was trying to get out of the car. no one loves animals more than me, but human life has to come first and we're concentrating today. i have veterinarians behind me and at that point we'll tranquilize the animals and making room at the columbus zoo and we have primates and a leopard or two up there we understand, still. we don't know, eight animals unaccounted for that we're going

to try to locate today. >> all right, so, that looks like a conversation that's going on live that we're not hearing the other side of. i just want to get some clarity. >> no, that was the tape you couldn't hear our question. >> you couldn't hear our side. i heard somebody saying that was live. >> no, that's tape. that's him talking to us earlier. >> that is our conversation with him. >> you couldn't hear what the next question was. >> within five or six years we'll have the technology to get you both sides of the conversation. right now, though, joining us on the phone is kim hambel. she is on the phone with us. kim, thank you for being with us. >> good morning. >> kim, what's the situation as you know it right now? >> as of right now, as of 7:30

a.m. we set deputies to do a search and recover. we think we still have 14 to 15 animals unaccounted for. we're going to see what we had last night and confirm everything. >> kim, can you tell me how these animals got loose. >> we're not sure right now. we received the call last night when deputies first arrived. all the gates were open and the fence that surrounds the property wasn't high enough or sturdy enough to contain thel. we're not sure if someone let them out. >> the owner was there on the premsis outside and deceased. do you know anything about what happened to him? >> no, we sent the body to the coroner for an autopsy. >> any outward signs of foul play or suspicious? it just seems so odd. the whole scenario seems so odd. >> right, we're not really sure what happened to the body and that's why it was sent to the coroner's office. >> do you have any sense of who

might have been responsible for letting these animals out? we're going to assume, of course, that close to 40 animals did not let themselves out. >> nuthing is being released at this time on that. >> what is your prognosis for the remaining animals? how dangerous are they and what is your sense now that the sun is up as to how quickly you can gather them? >> well, i mean, we're still concerned about what animals are still out and what we're doing accountability right now. we're still, everybody up in the area doing stuff and that's why we have the surrounding property closed. we do not want people going outside. >> we can hear radio traffic behind you. we want to apologize. kim, i wanted to ask you, you know, you know that this facility is in the neighborhood. we know that in ohio, if you have a permit, you can have these sorts of animals for your

own personal pleasure. it certainly gives law enforcement a major, major headache when something goes wrong. have you ever had to deal with something like this before? >> not this large, no. we're very familiar since 2005 we have been out there 16 times for animals on large and 8 calls for complaints and also three calls for the animal cruelty. we're familiar with the prope y property. >> and the owner of the property is now dead. i read somewhere, can you tell me anything about his legal background? has he been in trouble or charged or has he in been in trouble for any of these instances? >> we had some charges on him before, yes. >> kim hambel, thank you for joining us. director of operations from the muskigee. what have you lurnd in teare

past three hours about this game hunt going on basically in the suburbs of ohio. >> one good thing is that they have daylight. the daylight is an important factor of this to get a better visual of what they're looking for because kind of scary being out in the dark. your visibility about 50 yards and you don't know what may have come up upon you. we're talking about 10, maybe a dozen animals they're still looking for. dangerous and aggressive animals that came off of this farm. right now a number of aofficials are here assessing the situation and go back to that property and try to figure out what more they need to do in terms of tracking them down. you may have mentioned throughout the morning the columbus zoo is here assisting. maybe they can provide some kind of assistance in terms of tranquilizing some of these animals instead of technically putting them down. that was the big thing early on when they arrived on the property there. they literally had to go in there and put these animals down with the fear that that may be dangerous and the fear that they may charge at these officers.

right now reassessing the whole plan right now and trying to get a plan on this whole thing and bring all these animals back into custody, of sorts. >> you know, they don't know what happened to the owner. they found him on the premsis outside dead. the gates were open and many of the animals out of the cages and they're working under the susumption that someone let them out. >> it's entirely hard to believe this isn't suspicious. the whole thing is suspicious. >> yeah. and i think it's almost fair to say that, you know, they, obviously, want to gather all their ducks in a row here before releasing any type of information about exactly what happened at that site. again, the autopsy is taking place on terry thompson. we have heard some speculation about things that we don't want to give out until we get true confirmation. it seems somebody opened up these gates. who was planning to make this happen in the first place and, again, are there other people who are involved with it. those are some of the questions

we still need to answer. >> who was terry thompson? he was a guy had several run ins with the sheriffs. they said so over the years and an awful lot of animals. but this wasn't a tourist location, this was his farm and he collected these animals. >> he collected them and he also rescued them, too. so, there was a heart behind the man, but, unfortunately, though, they had run ins with him, as you heard from the sheriff department. he was also in jail on weapons charges. they found weapons at the property where he was at, so, it's been a difficult situation dealing with him because so many calls going in and out of this property here. people concerned about the well being of these animals and, of course, the possibility that these animals may escape, which they now have and really turned this town upside down in terms of trying to deal with it. again, was somebody going after terry thompson? did terry thompson act on his own? those are the questions that we still have to get answers with and it's clear that the sheriff's department is not ready at all yet to release that

information. >> in all the news i've covered in the years. this one definitely ranks up there as one of the weirdest. let's hope they get the animals that are still out there and hopefully do it without killing the rest of the animals. let's head back to carol costello in las vegas. 20 years ago these lax laws for owning these kind of exotic animals have been on the books for years, haven't they, carol? >> 20 years ago i worked at the very station that tino is working for right now and i remember reporting story about lax exotic animal laws. i don't know what laws they have in place now, obviously, but it was a problem then. i'm not surprised to hear this sort of thing has happened in ohio. just really scary and i hope they round up those animals soon. >> safely for everyone, including the animals. >> welcome back to las vegas. the morning after here. one thing is certain after last night's debate, it was so nasty,

wasn't it? the race for the gop nomination just got down right personal. three topics dominated the event. illegal immigration, taxes and health care and things sure got hot in a hurry. herman cain's 9-9-9 tax plan coming under attack right out of the box and then things got ugly when mitt romney and rick perry squared off. listen. >> mitt, you lose all of your standing from my perspective because you hired illegals in your home and you knew about it for a year and the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you're strong on immigration is on the height of hypocrisy. >> rick, i don't think i ever hired an illegal in my life. i'm afraid, i'm looking forward to finding your facts on that. >> i'll tell you what the facts are. you had -- >> i'm speaking. i'm speaking. you get 30 seconds and this is

the way the rules work here is that i get 60 seconds and you get 30 seconds to respond, right? anderson -- >> they say you knew you had illegals working -- >> are you just going to keep talking or let me finish with what i have to say? look, rick, i thought -- >> this has been a tough couple debates for rick. >> i understand that. you're going to get testy. but let's let, i'll tell you what. let me take my time and then you can take your time. all right. >> have at it. >> my time is this, which is i have, in my state, when i was governor, i took the action of empowering our state police to enforce immigration laws. when you were governor, you said, i don't want to build a fence. you put in place a magnet to draw inillegals into the state which was giving $100,000 of tuition credit to illegals that come into this country and then you have states, you have states, the big states of

illegal immigrants are california and florida. over the last ten years, they had no increase in illegal immigration. texas has had 60% increase in illegal immigrants in texas. if there's someone who has a record, as governor with regards to illegal immigration that doesn't stand up to muster is you. not me. >> i'm telling you what, it was something. you saw shots of the audience there, some people's mouths were hanging open. that's how contentious it got at times. in a few minutes, we'll get more post-debate reaction from amy tarkanian chairperson from the nevada republican party. if one candidate looked more presidential than any other. i'll throw it back to new york and ali and christine. >> thanks, carol. right now massive strikes on the streets of athens and turning a little violent. police fighting back protesters with tear gas. this is very big and some violence around the fringes here. >> some reports this is the biggest yet.

there you see live shots, look at that, of riot police moving into that crowd right now. let's go live to our diana magna who is standing by in athens following this. you have followed a number of these. give us some sense of how this is different and whether it's bigger and what's happening on the streets behind you. >> hi, ali. it's always so difficult to gauge the numbers. i would say the turn out here has really been very large. i was here in may 2010, when the first bailout was struck and in june when the second bailout was struck and certainly compared to the turnout in june, this is significant. the organizers say 120,000 people on the streets of athens, as you say, as you can see from those live pictures as you can hear from behind me, there is a degree of violence which is basically concentrated in the square right beside the parliament building. this kind of violence we've seen at these protests before and certainly in june this year, it was violence on a grand scale

across this square, which went on for hours and hours and hours. what you see is protesters, people dressed generally in sort of black were prepared to fight against the riot police and throwing rocks, sticks, the police responding with stun grenades and these flash bangs that make the loud noise you just heard behind me and then firing tear gas into the crowd. so, we've seen the start of this about an hour ago at the first bangs, really, echoing around this square and from past experience, i would imagine, ali, that is going to go on for quite a while to come. this is the first day of a two-day strike, ali. >> diana, is there some sense what parliament is going to do, what they're going to pass. these further austerity measures that are absolutely necessary for greece to continue to get the funding, the emergency funding it needs and to stave off other problems in euro. is it clear that is going to go

through or could this amount of protesting actually change things? >> well, the expectation is that this will go through really because the government doesn't have any other choice and because the opposition really expect that. it will be quite a small majority that they'll have, but it is expected to pass. nevertheless, people down on the street say irrespective of these new round of austerity measures go through, we'll resist it until the last. how far do you push the people before they break? really since the last time i was here, you are beginning to see a slight, sort of rift in the fabric of society and that there is garbage piling up on the streets now because the municipal workers are refusing to work. there is, there are sit-ins in the government ministries and in public buildings. you know, people taking their decision to work or not work really into their own hands.

so, even the mns minister has been complaining that he can't even access his finance ministry to discuss the country's financial affairs with officials. so, you are beginning to see cracks in this society and how socially acceptable will increase astaiusterity be to th people. they say it's not any more, but still facts to come, especially within the public sector. i think from what you hear on the workers on the street, the rich stay rich and we're not seeing real steps being taken against corruption or against tax evaders while we, the poor workers, are being squeezed out of existence, ali. >> when you look at the pictures on the streets and how rank and file people are because when a government makes promises or at least there are assumptions about a standard of living and then reality changes and you've lived beyond your means for so long and you have to change those assumptions of what the standard of living will be for your people, people don't like it. that's why sovereign debt crises

and the whole debt situation around the world is so important for lots of different governments, not just what is happening in greece. greece is the extreme example, i think. this is essentially what it is. a country that has been living beyond its means for a very long time, diana. now, they have to get back to live within their means and it's going to hurt for a lot of people. >> exactly. it's going to hurt. it's going to mean the social benefits that they have become used to. the generous pension systems they became used to are going to change. many people aren't prepared for those changes right now. as you say, with the changing democratic not just in greece, but across europe with the fact that there are bloated public sectors in many of these countries and the fact that people have gotten used to a certain standard of living. a horrific jolt people will have to adjust to that with the horrific economic conditions in europe so difficult as they are going forward. >> you're seeing more of those flash bangs that she's talking

about. i don't know if you saw any tear gas up to you but the violence does look to be intensifying. from our shot it seems to be in a concentrated corner of the square. we'll keep a very, very close eye on that, along with diana. our cameras there and our people are there and definitely things heating up in athens. he was screaming obscenities and the crew feared high would make a run towards the cockpit. a frightening emergency landing. it's 19 minutes after the hour. [ male announcer ] it's true...

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a scare in the air for people aboard a southwest flight from los angeles to kansas city. the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in amarillo, texas, because of an unruly passenger. other people on the plane say he was loud and frightening. >> going on about god is going to be killing everybody.

>> at one point he stepped out in the cabin of the plane and shouted loud enough for everybody to hear that he was not afraid to die. >> the passenger was identified as 29-year-old ali reza. he is facing charges of interfering with the flight crew. right over to carol costello now in las vegas. good morning, again, carol. >> good morning, christine and ali. welcome back to las vegas. in 13 months we might look back due to rick perry's decision to attack mitt romney affect his campaign. herman cain who somehow managed to stay above the fray or did he? our next guest is amy tarcani and she chairs the republican party. let's talk about the first part of the debate. everyone piled on herman cain for his 9-9-9 plan. a lot of people in nevada are in

economic distress. did his explanation of 9-9-9 resonate? did people understand his plan now? >> it was cute, i think he was trying his best, but the many people that i spoke with are still kind of lost. so, i don't think it was too clear. >> he was trying to say that it would not raise taxes on middle class americans and most economic experts say it actually would. did he convince people that it would not? >> no. no, not the people i spoke with. they still have questions. it seems too convoluted. >> do they still like herman cain, though? >> he has a high likability factor. because he is a regular, regular person, so to speak, he's a small business owner and just like he said last night, he's actually, you know, sweep the floors. a lot of people can relate to that. >> but maybe not elect him president of the united states. >> well, i think people are tired of politicians. so, that's something that goes

really strong for him. >> okay, let's talk about rick perry because he came out and attacked mitt romney and he did not stop the entire night long. how did that go over? >> it did not go over well. i think he lost a lot of points last night by doing that. a lot of people sitting by me would just hope he would calm down. he seemed very agitated. >> at some points it almost looked like these two men were going to become -- >> well, i'm glad they didn't. but yeah, he definitely seemed like he was ready for a fight. he knew he had to climeb the ladder and that he struggled in the past debates. i think he knew he was going to have to make a big move and, unfortuna unfortunately, from the people that i have spoken to, once again, they did not find that positive. >> was it he was too argument positive what was it that bothered people the most? >> it wasn't necessarily

substance but too argumentive. you do not need to have a hot head, so to speak. >> let's talk about economic plans for all the other candidates besides herman cain. did any candidate in your mind have the answer to making nevada's foreclosure problem or unemployment problem? >> i don't think one candidate really focused on that. i think they all touched on it briefly, but didn't really speak to nevada. they spoke to the nation and just gave, you know, brief summaries, but it wasn't necessarily specifically how they're going to help nevada and we are the number one in the nation when it comes to foreclosures. so, that was something that i think we were all waiting for. >> i think that romney said that he would just let the market bottom out and there was nothing really he could do to help people and the free market would take care of it. i interviewed herman cain afterwards and asked him if the government should maybe put pressure on the banks to maybe sit down and negotiate with people who had mortgages and

were under water and herman cain said, no, i don't think that's the rule of government. >> i think nevadans are tired of rhetoric and they want results. whatever the plan is going to be, we need to have the plan now. you know, when my husband ran for u.s. senate, he talked about streamline refinancing and that may be another way to look at so that we can refinance our homes at the lowest rate. >> when candidates talk about personal responsibility and they talk about letting the market right itself and no specific plan to help people out of bad mortgages. what does that say to voters? >> doesn't say much. we need specifics. we need them now. >> but we have 12 more debates, you know. >> i know. >> i wonder if at some point people will just become debate weary. >> i mean, do you think so? >> i think so. i mean, it's important to hear what they each have to say, what they can each bring to the table, but i think we have a pretty good idea at this point on what you're going to be our top tier contenders, if you

will. >> who are they, quickly. >> well, for me, personally, i felt last night it was mitt romney, newt gingrich, herman cain and ron paul. those were the top four. >> thank you for joining us this morning, we appreciate it. still ahead, we will break down rick perry's debate performance last night with his communications director ray sullivan. we'll ask him your questions, amy. was rick perry presidential last night? we'll get the answers, next. we'll also have more on this. wild lions and grizzly bears on the loose in ohio. schools are closed. we have an update for you next.

top stories. schools are closed as police hunt down grizzly bears and other dangerous animals that somehow got out of an exotic animal farm in ohio. the owner of the farm was found dead. >> we can confirm 30, 35 number right now. very vague number until we get in at daylight hours and get everything accounted for. >> can you tell us what animals you're looking for? >> all i can confirm is that on the property there were leopards, lions and tigers, mountain lions, if that's a different specie of cat, wolves, as well as black bears and grizzly bears. >> jack hanna telling us eight of those animals are still on the loose and police were getting ready to go after three big cats when we spoke to him. the sheriff also saying police had to shoot their way into the farm last night to get to the body of the owner, the deceased owner that was outside there. it's not clear what happened to him quite yet, but the sheriff's office telling us they haven't

ruled anything out here. >> now that the sun is up, hopefully they'll capture those eight more animals without having to kill them. live pictures from athens, greece. shut down tight by a general strike to protest belt tightening. following weeks of strikes. the greek parliament is going to vote tomorrow on new austerity measures that include tax hikes, pay cuts and job loss. >> live pictures of zuccotti park that's where the wall street protesters have been camping out for 30 days now. baldwin's support came the same night that author and activist naomi wolf was arrested. she issued a summons for blocking pedestrian traffic. all right, president obama is on the road. he's pushing his stalled jobs plan for a third straight day. speaking this morning in virginia, a state that could be critical to his re-election campaign. >> rick perry coming out swinging last night at the

western republican debate getting into a nasty exchange with mitt romney on immigration. herman cain also taking heat from his opponents for his 9-9-9 tax plan, a plan critics claim will raise taxes on the middle class. >> these two guys really going at it last night. >> they sure were. >> let's head back to carol costello in las vegas. for people saying a lot of republican debates so early in the game, this one definitely provided some viewing. >> yes, and some people believe this was a turning point, especially for candidates rick perry and mitt romney. let's talk about rick perry because he's taking a beating from conservatives for defending in-state tuition programs for children of illegal immigrants in texas. listen to his tone last month as opposed to last night. >> say that we should not educate schichildren who have c into our state for no other reason than they have been

brought there by no fault of their own. i don't think you have a heart. >> well, i probably chose a poorer word to explain that. for people who don't want their state to be giving tuition to illegal aliens, illegal immigrants in this country, that's their call. and i respect that. and i was, you know, i was probably a bit overpassionate about using that word and it was inappropriate. >> those people who hire illegals ought to be penalized and, mitt, you lose all of your standing, from my perspeckivtiv because you hired illegals in your home and you knew about it for a year. the idea that you stand here before us and talk about the fact that you're strong on immigration is the hith of hypocrisy. >> we winced a more energized rick perry in last night's

debate. the romney camps in perry's goal was -- rick perry's communication director ray sulliv sullivan. thank you for getting up early. did you sleep at all last night? >> a little bit. it's vegas, after all. have way more fun in the wee hours of the morning. let's talk about the debate and specifically rick perry's stand on the children of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition. has he changed his tune about that? does he change his mind about putting that in place. >> fighting illegal immigration and putting $400 million in state money on border security, sending the texas range tlrz and vetoing bills that would allow drivers to get -- >> about the in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants, has he changed his tune? does he regret doing that in the state of tex sns. >> in-state tuition for those who live in the state for three years. get admitted to a texas school,

they get to pay tuition, just like any other texas res dbt does. in the case of the folks you are talking about, they need to work on their citizenship. this is a in-state tuition for texas residents and they pay the texas resident rate because they are texas residents. that's what our legislature put in place. >> rick perry came out swinging against mitt romney for an old charge, some say. 2006 talking about hiring this landscaping company to do lawn work, the landscaping company employed illegal immigrants and mitt romney didn't fire that company right away. some people say that was a cheap shot on rick perry's part. >> december 4th, 2007, "boston globe" headline. lawn work at romney's house still done by illegal immigrants. the day after he was demagoguing this issue at a debate in the 2007 cycle, illegal immigrants got out of their car, went to his house, cleaned up leaves on his lawn and his tennis court and this is the type of guy that we're dealing with who can make

these charges against others and, yet, doing the exact same thing that he's accusing others of doing. >> some say it happened such a long time ago, why bring it up? it's past, it's over, it's done. >> the bill we were talking about was passed in 2001. this is a guy who has a problem to hold himself accountable. falsehoods about this issue and having illegal immigrants work to clean off his tennis court. last night he claimed that he didn't do it, but then when he found out about it, he got, this is just somebody who spins around with the wind. >> rick perry was very compat battive last night. i talked with many people in the audience and they say he was a little too aggressive. he didn't appear too aggressive. in your mind, how did rick perry come off last night? >> he came off with someone who was passionate about his position and passionate about his record. we did talk last night about creating jobs.

the governor put out a $1.2 million, i'm sorry, 1.2 million job plan in pittsburgh last friday. that's what we want to be talking about. he's going to certainly aggressively defend his record and talk about what we did in texas to secure that. >> did you plan to come out and aggressively attack mitt romney? was that the goal last night? >> the goal was talk about the president's conservative record. when you have a candidate who has demagogued and told falsehoods about an issue, then you find out that he, himself, hired illegals, that magnet to bring the folks into the country, it's pretty outrageous. someone needed to stand up and say, this is someone who is not always in line with the facts. >> last question for you. some of the audience were bothered that rick perry referred to herman cain as a brother. they said that really wasn't presidential. was that a mistake? >> no, in fact, it governor referred to mitt romney by that term, too. he is a friendly fellow.

he uses that kind of language and he views all those folks on stage as colleagues, fellow republicans and he speaks accordingly. >> thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. let's head back to new york and ali and christine. >> so far this morning you had the fireworks in las vegas and this crazy situation in ohio, but i have to tell you, it hasn't been enough for your senses. i have something coming up for you that you are going to love. we have in the house, she's part joan of ark and part scarlet o'hara. political activist, socialite extraordinary you know her, you watched "charlie wilson's war" and you saw julia roberts portray this woman. her amazing life story and politics when we come back. it's 39 minutes after the hour. ♪

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welcome back. joann herring has lived the equivalent of ten lives. a texas socialite, a tv host, revolutionary and i mean that in the literal sense. she has lived big enough for the silver screen where she was portrayed by julia roberts in the movie "charlie wilson's war." >> so sorry for keeping you waiting. >> it's no problem, joanna. >> it is a pleasure meeting you. it's a wonderful party. >> why don't you give us a few moments. >> if you could ask someone for a martina very dry. >> i am the congressman's -- >> now, joanna is far more polite than that, but her life

is, in fact, no less exciting and fully chronicled in her new book called "diplomacy and diamonds." what a pleasure to see you, as always. when you first saw the script and then saw the movie. you were a little troubled by the portrayal of you. can you imagine someone comes in your house and you order them to get you a martini when southern style would be, come on in, honey, let me get you a drink. instead of the movie i ordered a martini and took charlie up to a hot tub. >> it is a great book because it straddles this life of a socialite and this life of a revolutionary. if you saw "charlie wilson's war" you'd understand it. give me some sense. it was back in 1980 that you first got involved with afghanistan. what happened? how did you end up being involved with afghanistan? >> in the land where many woman

didn't even sit down together i became the adviser to the president of pakistan. he told me about the russian invasion, but america wouldn't believe it. that's how i got involved in it. i looked at a map and i saw there was afghanistan and pakistan, but there was nothing there, but there were the streets and through that 80% of the world's oil passed and that would impact the american economy. so, i was fighting for my country. >> so, you fought for those who haven't read the book or "charlie wilson's war" and haven't seen the movie. you convinced charlie wilson, your friend, to try to get money to support the people who were fighting the soviets. what were then the soviets in afghanistan. >> we also got saudi arabians to pay for half of that war and half of desert storm. so, this was very important. >> what do you think all these years later when you look at afghanistan, a problem still unsolved. >> it is the same today. today we're not fighting the

russians, we're fighting terrorists. and we have to stop them, but, fortunately, ali, we've got a solution. what we have to do, the afghans have had 30 years of war. we have to provide them food, water, education, health care and jobs all at the same time. then they have the strength to stand up and fight their own battles. and we can bring our troops home. >> you're not just saying that. you have a plan, you are working on a plan the marshal plan for afghanistan where you are actually providing food -- >> right now. we're doing it right now. it's a model village and we have congressional committee going to look at it. and hopefully if they see that it's working, which, statistically, it's been proved it will, even though this is the first time. then we'll get some money. >> and it's education for girls and providing they're growing soybeans and trying to get them off the poppies and trying to do that. let's talk a little bit about your very, very exciting life.

the book is called diplomacy and diamonds. you bought a cheap watch once in your travels in dubai and then you went to the uk. what happened? >> i had the great privilege of going to the opening of parliament. just as the queen was passing by in her robes and, of course, all the lords and ladies were there and their tiaras, suddenly, home on the range began to play. i was horrified. everybody was horrified. they're looking around, how could this possibly happen? great balls of fire, it was me. it was the watch. and it had no buttons and i couldn't turn it off. that's crisis management and that's what the book is about. >> no kidding. you have had, i mean, the book talks about, i don't know how you describe them. i don't think you like them described as flings, but you certainly had dates with the most eligible men in the world. movie stars, princes, royalty, presidents, everybody. >> what do you do when one puts a hand on your thigh at dinner? read the book. >> there's a tease.

let's talk a little bit about what you're doing now. you've got this book out. what is the next chapter for you? i told people sort of a little bit that you were a tv show. you had a tv show at a time when a lot of woman didn't host tv shows. >> that's right. there were no women and the men didn't want me. and i was terrible. i said, well, what are you going to do? i thought, well, what do you like to do? i thought, i like to learn. so, maybe the other people would. we became the sixth highest rated daytime show in the united states because i listen. i tried this on ronald reagan and at the end of the dinner he said, you are a great conversationalist, but you didn't say a word. you see in texas, we have a saying that is, i never learn nothing while i was talking. >> you have on the book you have endorsements from george bush 41

and the musharraf, the former president of pakistan and even one from charlie wilson. tell me about your relationship with charlie. shrouded in mystery. from the movie, it looks like a very definite romance. >> it was, charlie asked me to marry him, ultimately. charlie was very different from what people sort of think about him. he, at first, he was brilliant, but he was very romantic. one night we were at dinner and charlie excused himself and came back with a contents of a whole flo flower shop and put them all around the table. at the same time, vernon jordan was playing footsie with an english lady, you know, as in lord and lady. it was a very interesting evening. >> you thought tom hanks portrayed charlie very well in the movie. >> brilliantly. in fact, i saw them on the hill and i thought it was charlie and i said, isn't that charlie? they said, no, no, that's tom.

he had even mastered his walk and the way he stood. tom is brilliant. >> you had a relationship with them and julia roberts. >> both were wonderful to meet because, at first, you see, i was about as welcomed in hollywood as the underwear bomber because i was a conservative christian republican. they think that we're about as interesting as the aflac duck. >> a conservative christian republican that is in the news a lot today. rick perry. rick perry is not as familiar to the entire country as some of these candidates are. others give more interviews and i spoke to him last week, as you know, but you've spoken to rick since he's been in the race. tell me what you know rick perry to be? >> well, he's a man that is not afraid to take a stand. and maybe that's pretty important right now. he doesn't mind standing by what he believes and when you look at the record, texas has provided more jobs in the last four years, 40% of all the jobs that have been made and more than

california's lost. so, you know, do you want a socialist state like california or maybe a free enterprise, maybe one like texas. look at the record. you know, don't speak of love, show me. >> is that an endorsement of rick perry? >> yes. >> very good. joanne, a great, great read. you're a living american legend and it's great to see you here. >> thank you, ali. >> author of "diplomacy and diamonds." founder of the marshal plan and charities and it's worth reading a lot more about her. our morning headline are coming up next. it's 51 minutes after the hour.

it's 54 minutes after the hour. here are your morning headlines. schools are closed as police hunt down grizzly bears, lions and cheetahs and some other dangerous animals that got out of an exotic animal farm in ohio. there's a police update scheduled for 10:00 a.m. eastern. right now live pictures from athens, greece, where police are using tear gas to fight back thousands of protesters. the crowds are angry over tomorrow's vote over new austerity measures that include new tax hikes, pay cuts and job losses.

markets open in less than 45 minutes. right now u.s. stock futers are mixed. last hour morgan stanley the second largest u.s. investment bank reported a net income of $2.2 billion in the third quarter. president obama is in northern virginia for the third day of his bus tour and pressuring congress to pass his jobs plan piece by teepiece. he'll speak this morning about the importance of hiring american veterans. politics getting a little nasty. rick perry coming up swinging at last night's western republican debate. getting into a heated exchange with mitt romney. herman cain under fire for his tax plan. game one of the world series tonight in st. louis. the texas rangers against the cardinals. the rangers are looking for their first world title. the cards going for number 11. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" is back after the break. ♪ a couple years of up all night ♪

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what a perfect song. welcome back to "american morning." we are live in las vegas on the morning after the western republican debate. after seven rather low-key events we saw a big change in debate number 8. the race for the republican nomination turning decidedly nasty last noit. blasting his position on immigration, the former massachusetts governor showing more passion than usual returning the fire with herman cain staying largely above the fray and promising to go on the attack in the next debate, in case you're wondering, that's scheduled for november 9th at oakland university in rochester, michigan. do you guys realize there could be 12 more debates. 12 more debates. >> i love it. >> if