plus, fear and anger in mississippi today. we told you yesterday about governor haley barbour using his pardon as a governor to be able to release convicted killers who were working at his home. we're going to hear from a man this morning shot in the head by one of these convicted killers. he went on to shoot his friend while she was holding her baby. and then there are i guess you could say a silver lining for pot smokers. a silver lining in our habit. we'll tell you the latest research about smoking pot, yes, right here. don't want to miss that. and then a shovel-ready project. 18 feet of snow in alaska. and no way to get out. "starting point" begins right now. welcome, everybody. as i mentioned we're at chez

bouchon. we move right to the cake in is actually what i like to have for breakfast. this is a pistachio cake. the owner, everybody calls him b but his name is robert. he makes this for his mom every year for her birthday. this is a green cake with slightly green icing. we're going to try that this morning. i like that, sugar to get us going. we're really talking this morning about a historic night in new hampshire. and yesterday we were talking about what was going to be a historic night and, of course, it happened as many people predicted. mitt romney is the first non-incumbent republican to win in iowa and then right in new hampshire. he did it very convincingly, with 95% of the votes counted, romney had 40%. ron paul had 23%. jon huntsman came in third at 7 17%. the rest of the field, gingrich with 10%, santorum with 9%, rick perry has had that 1% number really for the last week plus.

>> john conley of the 21st century. >> which is not the greatest tight to hold, i think. >> that's right. >> let get right to our panel. ron brownstein, cnn senior political. he is a former speech writer for president george w. bush. jamal simmons is national democratic editor for govote.com for atlanta. cnn's christine romans. she's got the exit polls for us this morning. let's get going. i'm going to start with you, christine, because you have the numbers. >> look at independents first. ron paul won this category no, surprise there. kind of surprising is that -- maybe not surprising to your political guests there. mitt floromney had 29% of the independent vote. how it plays out in south carolina will be a different story. huntsman got this one, people not satisfied the gop candidates. people were holding their nose for romney when you looked at

electability issues. huntsman edging out ron paul for those not satisfied with the candidates. looking at christian evangelical, romney beat out santorum in new hampshire and ron paul came in third there. huntsman came way down. and then i want to look at income real quickly and wrap it up. romney comes out for people with $50,000 to $100,000 a year and then paul comes in after that with $23,000. this is the exit polling. had a good turnout, too. a good turnout overall. but this demographic is very different from south carolina. >> it really is. if you look toward south carolina, completely difference story. let's start with maying a little bit of what governor romney said in his acceptance -- everybody did an acceptance speech. he was the real winner, though. so let's play his acceptance speech part of it first. >> we know that the future of this country is better than 8% or 9% of unemployment. it's better than $15 trillion in

debt. it's better than the misguided policies and broken promises of the last thee years and failed leadership of one man. the president has run out of ideas. now he's running out of excuses. sxwl >> he literally turned his attention to obama. >> he won despite very modest performances among key republican groups like evangelical christians and tea party supporters. he ran every group except for yun voters and independents me won convincing my among every group. the rest of the field fell in order. ron paul, second, candidate with a low ceiling blocking anyone else. and the big winner iowa, rick santorum, like many social conservatives before him came to new hampshire and spent a couple of days fighting about gay marriage and whether it would lead to polygamy and ended up 6% of the vote of non-evangelicals. jon huntsman, months and months of commit m of the state, won

10% of self-identified republicans. depending on voters at the periphery -- >> the question is where does he go. one of my favorite speeches was ron paul's speech because it was, i laughed out loud when i heard this. this was his thank you at the end of last night. let's listen. >> there was one of her acknowledgement i wanted to make. i wanted to thank the new leader for not -- for not endorsing me. how much steam, how much power does he roll out of a nfr win and into south carolina? sort of a good news/bad news story for him. >> it was a big night for ron paul so i think, you know, mitt romney had a good night. ron paul had a good night. the problem for ron paul, some of the states, going to south carolina, doesn't have the same libertarian, independent streak. particularly in south carolina, one of the states that sends a lot of people to the military. his chances on cutting back military spending are not going to go over so good down there.

>> independents are not moderates. independent part of the american electorate has grown over the past four or five years because of bleeding from the right wick of the republican party. jonathan raush, a writer for "national journal" called them debranded republicans. what you see are people angry at the republican party for not being conservative enough. >> people who are going to go and beat democrats. >> exactly. not reaching for barack obama. as mitt romney emerges as the choice of the party, there are people going to pull back to him because they are going to say -- they are the people who deslike barack obama the most. >> before we goat to thget to t let's bring in debbie. come to breakfast. we're going to throw a mike on you. have a piece of pie. it's quite delicious. as you're getting miked up i'm going to ask you this question because you had a tweet. i get that your gig is the spin. i totally 100% understand that.

but this was your tweet. romney's failure to perform better in #nhprimary. how can you say major setback when, really 40%, that was higher than many people predicted. showed the exit polls which showed him high in all the categories that many people thought he couldn't be strong. how is that a major setback? >> there was a pretty significant dropoff in the republican turnout. that's as a result of the voters in new hampshire, particularly on the republican side being pretty unenthusiastic about the entire field. i think mitt romney was at 39%. this is his home state. he's got a family home here. governor of the state next door. so to not crack 40% in a primary that you should have droves of republicans coming to the polls to vote for you, that's a problem. he's here as -- he came out of this primary now as a wounded candidate. >> barack obama, back in 2008, he got 36.6% of the vote.

he -- >> but he didn't live in the state next door and served as governor for four years. mitt romney has a family home here, was governor in the state next door for four years. basically been campaigning for president here for seven years and was not able to crack 40% of the vote. >> how bad is that going to be ultimately down the road? >> it's a dropoff in the turnout, soledad. there is really a lack of enthusiasm for mitt romney in particular, for the whole field. i mean, they should have been blowing the doors off the turnout. if their singular goal is to beat barack obama they should increase the turnout from the last primary. >> you're going no, no, no, no, no. >> no, that's completely wrong. given the mood of the republican party today, given how angry it is and how much to the right it has moved, a candidate here would have racked up a huge republican total, 60% of the vote, would have been unele unelectabunelec unelectable in the general election. all the rchbs that they have

been cooled for mitt romney would make him a formidable candidate. in this electorate seems as a bug. in the general electorate, the fact that he can do that, that would be a feature. he is somebody hugging the middle. that's going to be his benefit with the nation. >> he's going to flip from being for health care now against the health care plan for the primary and then back -- he has never disavowed the health care plan. >> can i go back and ask something else you said. >> sure. >> apart from the results what do you think democrats learned about romney as a candidate, particularly in the last few days as he came under heavier fire from other republicans? >> well, clearly that he won't shy away from demonstrating how dramatically out of touch he is with working families and middle class voters. to say -- and i know you're going to come back and say it was out of context. so say out loud that you enjoy firing people, no matter what -- >> it was out of context. he was talking about insurance

companies. i can get it. it was really, really not smart to say that when tapes are rooming and going to repeat it. >> any time an employment relationship comes to an end, it's never enjoyable. so for him to say that was demonstrative of how out of touch he is. like when he said corporations were people. like when he said that we should let the foreclosure crisis hit bottom and have investors come in and scoop up the properties and do nothing for people. >> all the gaffes, he is theoretically, he's a smart man, he's going to improve on his per r performance. you were calling it self-inflicted wounds. he got better in the debates as he went along. we have to say that he will get better. does that help the democrats that this is out this early or hurt the democrats? at some point do they talk and we talked about bain, we talked about bain six months ago, move on. >> what i think is that mitt romney has won a couple of bigi.

what is he is in the midst of now an on slout of attack from rivals and democrats about his senior at bain. he has not come up with a compelling way to explain that part of his life. you know what, this reminds me of an awful lot of a ten-day period in 2004 when john kerry count come up with a way to respond to the swift vote attacks. >> if it happens now and eventually enif you muddle through it, that by the time -- september is a much worse time to be trying to figure that out. >> soledad, this election is going to be a dramatic contrast between mitt romney or whoever they end up nominating, if it's mitt romney, and president obama because mitt romney clearly is support v of making sure that keep the wind at the backs of people doing well, millionaires a billionaires. >> i hear the talking points. >> no, it's not talking points. it's reality in is a guy who has

consistently said we should extend the bush tax cuts as opposed to standing up and fighting for the middle class. >> i think more is going to come out. the answer is is that this is not the end of the day. >> just the beginning. >> the argument you can make in the republican primary is that the opponents are attack for enterprise, that's going to be election effective. it's going to need a more compelling way to explain. as i said yesterday, i think it is an absolute pivot point of this election. get to november and most americans believe improve the economy or -- >> lies and one-line answer. stop, stop. >> stop, stop, commercial break. i have lost control of my panel. nice to have you here. >> thank you. >> have pistachio cake. it's delicious. >> thank you so much. >> dig? >> you want to stay with cnn for the best political coverage on tv because we don't stop. tonight at 6:00 p.m., of course, john king will have a one-on-one with rick perry and 9:00 p.m. eastern time piers morgan with

newt gingrich. first, though, other news, christine romans is doing that duty for us with stock market news. >> good stuff there again today, soledad. nice to see you. good news in the stock market, growing optimism over the handling of europe's dent crisis. growth in the u.s. economy. both of those reasons push the dow to the highest level yesterday since july. you know, dow down 7% for the year. this morning, you know, a little bit of trepidation. fears about europe creeping back in. stock futures for the dow and nasdaq all trading lower ahead of the opening bell. ratings agency fitch warning, quote, cataclysmic collapse of the euro if the bank does not buy up more eurozone debt to stabilize that region. in just a few hours iranian president ahmadinejad arrives in cuba continuing a whirlwind tour of latin america. he is meeting with cuban president raul castro today and the trip is an effort to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties in the region.

a live report from havana coming up next hour. penn state losing another paterno. quarterback back's coach jay paterno resigned after 17 years on the job. his pfather was fired in the fallout from the jerry sandusky child sex abuse scandal. jay paterno's was expected. smoking pot is not hazardous to your health, at least not if you use it in moderation. the ruts of a 20-year study just p published found that occasional marijuana use doesn't do the kind of damage to your lungs that cigarettes do the fda scrambling this morning to test orange juice imported from brazil for traces of a chemical fun ji side that is not approved for use on oranges in the u.s. brazil is the world's largest provider of orange juice. it provides 10% of the u.s. supply. soledad? >> all right, christine. thank you for the update. "starting point" continues after

this short break. this is the governor pardoned nearly 200 people including 14 killers. of course victims' family members are devastated this morning. we're going to check in with jeff toobin and talk about how this could happen. mitt romney fresh off his big victory last night is going to join us in 15 minutes. some strong opposition faces him though with some new attack ads in south carolina. we'll talk about that and what his strategy is. and a town that's buried under 18 feet of snow but there's something critical they are lacking. you're watching "starting point." i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno. ♪ baby, baby, come along ♪ baby, baby, come along with me ♪

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for help getting the answers you need visit knowcrohns.com/tv and use the interactive discussion guide to speak with your gastroenterologist. welcome back, everybody. we're coming to you from chez bouchon from northemorning. beautiful shot from manchester, new hampshire. we're talking this morning about mississippi governor haley barbour. he just left office. right before he did he pardoned just about 200 criminals including a guy named david

gatlin. back in 1993 gatlin shot and killed his estranged wife. she was literally holding their baby when she was killed. her mother, the woman's mother was absolutely heartbroken. here's what she said. >> is governor barbour going to pardon us for our aches and pains and heartache that we have to suffer? >> jeff toobin is cnn's senior legal analyst and the huffington post, he wrote about haley barbour's pardon record in 2009. i should mention you are joining us, radly, by skype because your shot is not as good as jeff toobin's shot. jeff, we're going to start with you. explain to me the power that the governor has to basically pardon whoever he chooses to. where does that power come from? how does it work? >> it really goes back to before the american revolution in is the power of kings. this is a vestige of the absolute power that leaders used to have before we had our

american revolution. and this is one of the very few powers that is carried over almost entirely intact. there is no check on a governor or a president's power pardon. there is no check on -- there is no way to undo it. and it is an absolute power so that any governor can pardon someone and it's not just like their sentence has ended. it is like the conviction never took place. so anyone who receives a pardon can vote -- >> we have an executive order -- >> the executive order from the state of mississippi which we have here says that david gatlin has a full, complete, and unconditional pardon. so you were saying he can vote. does that mean he can bear arms. he basically has the rights of any other citizen, is that right? >> exactly. that's it. >> so, radly, i want to ask you a question about the history of

haley barbour in terms of pardoning. there was a point kind of early on where he wasn't pardoning anybody. what changed? >> well, just to add a little bit to mr. toobin's point. the founders intended to pardon power to be sort of a last check on injustice. in cases where somebody might have been wrongfully convicted or they were correctly convicted but their conviction was -- resulted in some sort of injustice, wrong application of the law or a harsh sentence. up until a couple years ago, basically one of his aides told me for an article i had written about a death penalty case down there that he wouldn't even read pardon petitions, that he was so against the pardon. and then the strange thing started happening a couple years ago where he was having these trustees working in the governor's mansion assigned tasks there, and, you know, he would get to know them and he started, you know, giving them pardons or commuting their sentences.

and the odd thing that think sort of all had in common is that they had all killed their wive or girlfriends. so here was this governor -- >> radley, let me stop you there for a second. in these cases there was no sense that maybe there was a flaw in their trial. there was no sense that, you know, maybe these guys didn't do it and pardoning them was the morally right thing to do, was there? >> yeah, i mean, from what i can tell. and i haven't reviewed obviously all of these 200 new pardons and actually a few of them that i have seen there are some case where's there are questions of guilt but there are a lot where there aren't. but particularly these pardons that he started with a couple years ago with these trust trees, yeah, there was no, you know, question of guilt. these are guys in some cases they pled guilty, in other cases it was very clear they had done it. and so it was a very sort of bizarre way to start using the pardon power. and, you know, it raised a lot of questions. i've written about a lot of cases in mississippi where there

are very troubling questions about guilt and certain of expert witness testimony and a lot of other problems with the justice system down there. so it's very sfrang that he would start using the pardon power in these cases where guilt wasn't even in question. >> let me ask jeff toobin our final question this morning. you say there's no way to undo them. what can the victims who are obviously daefs stated, the family members of the victims are obviously devastated. what recourse do they have? >> basically none. there is a remote possibility that the federal government could step in and prosecute these people for the same underlying facts or even people you may remember in the rodney king case after a state acquittal there was a federal prosecution. in certain cases the federal government has the power to prosecute without violating the double jeopardy rights of the defendant. but given how long ago some of these cases are and given the facts as i understand them, i don't see any federal crime.

so i think the short answer is that the victims' families basically have no recourse except going to the press and complaining. i think haley barbour who was once considered a possible presidential candidate is not going to be a possible presidential candidate anymore. >> jeff toobin and radley balco joining us. we're going to have a victim who survived a gunshot wound to the head and also the sister of one of the victims who was killed talking about what hey plan to do next. also ahead this morning, we are talking about this brutal hazie ining ritual. now some prosecutors are saying it was a hate crime. we're going to talk to the victim's family, mom and dad has hired an attorney and the attorney will join us live straight ahead. mitt romney, he is the vither, which means he's going to get more heat from his opponents. we'll talk to the governor about his southern strategy this morning. plus, snow in alaska. it's not a big story but what is missing in this town in alaska

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welcome back, everybody. it is time to get real this morning on "starting point." you know in alaska, of course, they sort of mock those of us in the northeast when we complain about six inches of snow or eight inches of snow or even ten inches of snow because that's not really a snow. it's only by air or water in winter.

national guard troops have been called in to dig people out of their homes. why? because they have 18 feet of snow. piles are 18 feet deep. why do they need the military to help dig them out? they have no more shovels left in that town. they had been wait for a shipment that didn't come in time. they got two more feet of snow overnight which means there's no way those shipments are coming in and the shovels they do have in the town have been snapping because there's so much snow and ice. so forget get real this morning. get help digging out for the folks who are in alaska. ahead this morning we're going to tuck talk to mitt romney live. he's facing a different kind of voter though in south carolina. we're going to talk about his challenge and the strategy. also, how many of us are binge drinking? the number was shocking, even thot researchers. we're going to talk about that straight ahead. don't get me. they're all like, "hey, brother, doesn't it bother you that no one notices you?" and i'm like, "doesn't it bother you you're not reliable?"

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rvenlgs welcome back, everybody. we're copping to y ing coming t morning from chez bouchon here from man cheschestemanchester, . of course, we're talking about what happened last night here in new hampshire. it's going go down in history, non-incumbent republican has never won iowa and then new hampshire and then it's on to south carolina where the polls show that mitt romney might be

ahead by double dinlg jimgitdig. governor romney joins us now. thanks for talking with us. last time we spoke to you in iowa you squeaked by but today you're celebrating quite a big win. in your comments to the crowd that had come to see and support you, you focused immediately on president obama. is that the strategy now, it's all about obama and you're not going to worry about the other republicans who are in the race with you? >> well, of course, i pay attention to the fact that there are plenty of other people who want the chance to go up against president obama. and i have a long way to go before i get the nomination, if i'm lucky enough to get it. but i really think we're best off focusing on the failures of this president and in my case i want to demonstrate that i have the capacity to make america once again a great place for opportunity, for rising incomes, for job growth. i think that's what people want to hear. they want to understand how we're going lead the country. that's what i'm going to be talking about. >> how much are you going to have to talk about abortion with newt gingrich running these new ads and he is mad and he is

funded and he has said he's comfortable in south carolina where he knows how to run a race there. he wants to focus on your record on abortion. are you worried about that? >> not worried in the slightest. like ronald reagan before me, many years ago i changed from being pro-choice to pro-life. i'm pleased with having been a pro-life governor. they have written a letters a the massachusetts governor. i know speaker gingrich is going to try and throw everything he can at me. he tried here in new hampshire. it didn't work. conservatives and evangelicals got behind me in record numbers. >> let's talk a little bit about bain capital. i know that's a question you've been answering a lot. but get the sense that it's not a conversation that's going to go away. i want to play a little bit of what rick perry, who came in with 1% of the vote so maybe he's not considered a big competitor about you. but this is what he said about you yesterday. >> there is a real difference between a venture capitalist and

a vulture capitalist. venture capitalists are good. they go in and inject their capital, they create jobs. bain capital, on the other hand, it appears to me were vulture capitalists all too often. i don't get confused for a minute that barack obama and his team wouldn't attack mitt romney on that during a general election if he makes it that way. so if nothing else, we're going doing mitt a favor by exposing him early on so he can figure out how to defend that or, more importantly, he's not the nominee to begin with. >> well, there's a lot to talk about right there. okay, he calls you a vulture capitalist. it's true that this conversation keeps coming back. you haven't really been able to clear the bain capital conversation off the table. so, one, are you a vulture capitalist? is this going to be a big challenge for you to con frant that label from governor perry and, number two, he says, but i'm doing him a favor by bringing it up now. is that true? >> actually it's been brought up

every time i've run, whether by senator o'brien that i won last time around four years ago it was brought up and everybody from the "new york times" to the "wall street journal" had taken a look and i understand that president obama is going to try and put free enterprise on trial. but, you know, rick perry and newt gingrich are going to be the witnesses for the prosecution. i'm not worried about that. they can take it as they like. but you saw last night that that approach didn't work very well for either rick perry or newt gingrich. and so we'll take it to the next level. they'll find new attacks. i think in the final analysis people want someone who can lead the country back to strength with good jobs and rising incomes and all these attacks i think will fall entirely flat as they did last night. >> debbie waser man-shultz is chair of the dnc. she was sitting down with us as a panel and we would love you, too. one of the things she said is

this was not a victory and we asked her to explain herself. this is what she said. >> i think mitt romney was at 39%. this is his home state. he's got a family home here. governor of the state next door. so to not crack 40% in a primary that you should have droves of republicans coming to the polls to vote for you, that's a problem. he's here as a -- he came out of this primary now as a wounded candidate. >> i get it. that her job, governor, is to spin, spin, spin, spin, spin. but doesn't she have a point about this is a place where you have lived and that number, while very good, is not 60% or 70%? >> you know, the president unopposed only got 80% last night. so, you know, i feel sorry for debbie wasserman shultz. she's got to stand up for the president's record. that is pretty bad. you've got almost 2 million people that have lost their jobs unthis president. median income that has dropped

10% over the last few years. 20 million people out of work or stopped looking for work. this is a -- this is a failed presidency. people know that. they're going to do their very best to attack whoever the republican party puts forward. but in the final analysis they can't defend their record and it's because of the president's failure that he's going to be replaced, at least in my view. >> governor mitt romney joining us this morning. nice to see, you sir. thanks for talking with us. congratulations on your win last night. time to get a look at the other top stories making news this morning. christine romans has that. >> today's decision day for joran van der sloot. in about 90 minutes he's expected to reveal awhere he wil plead guilty of a 2010 murder of a woman in lima. five days ago he asked for time to redplekt on his plea. in pakistan, the first u.s. drone strike since an attack mistakenly killed 24 pakistani soldiers in november. the latest strike killed at

least four suspected militants in the north waziristan border region near the afghan border. police say they have not found any new evidence that points to foul play in the 1981 bro drowning death of actress natalie wood. the l.a. county sheriff's office tells cnn is investigation is still not closed. occupy wall street protesters back in the park where it all began. police have taken down the barricades around new york city's park allowing people to return now. ability 200 folks are about overnight. the barriers were originally put in place in november after police evicted thousands who were camping out over night in the park. and binge drinking. more common than ever thought. a new cdc study shows that binge drinkers knock them back more than once a week. and get this, each of those bings averages eight thindrinks let's get the morning's travel forecast.

rob is out and jacqui jeras is in. >> you might want to be drinking coffee or hot chocolate this morning because it is bitterly cold. a return of winter across the upper midwest. and our other top weather story is an area of low pressure all across the southeast. very rainy and some very foggy conditions here. we've got showers and thunder showers. and automatll across the area f nashville and the atlanta area. ground stop now in effect in atlanta, hartsfield, jackson international airport due to the thunderstorms just until 7:45. 30-minute departure delays. as the storm system goes through the coast, the cold air moving back in. we're going see snow tomorrow in chicago. it could be heavy at times. get ready for those temperatures to be dropping. christine? >> we're ready, jacqui. mean tile, watching the dow. the dow rose to the highest level in july yesterday. 7% for the year now. this morning fears again about europe's debt crisis creeping back in. stock futures for the dow, the nsz, and the s&p 500 have all

turned lower ahead of the opening bell. and later today, the federal reserve is going to release something called the beige book report. that summarizes the economic outlooks for the 12 fed banks across the country that will give us a read on where the fed at least thinks the economy is going this year. soledad? >> all right, christine. thank you. we'll continue to watch that. still ahead this morning. robert champion, a famu band member who died in a brutal hazing ritual. we're going to talk to his family's lawyer today. the question now is was it a hate crime? that's straight ahead after this short break. stay with us.

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welcome back to "starting point". the parents of robert champion, he is the famu band member who died in the alleged hazing incident, say, yeah, their son was gay but they don't think that played a part in his brutal beating death back in november. christopher chestnut is representing robert champion's parents. he joins us from orlando, florida, this morning. thank you for talking with us. i know you've been conducting, along with family, of course,

your own investigation. what are you learning so far? >> thus far we've learned that indeed there was incident of hazing on november 19th. there were about 30 students on the charter bus that the charter bus on was, it was running, the air conditioner was on. there were more than one -- that more than one person was hazed that evening. >> so robert's parents have said, yeah, our son is gay but they don't think that that's connected to the homicide. they say, in fact, it was the hazing that is what caused the homicide, not the fact that their son was gay. is it possible that his sex with orientation made him a target, do you think? >> you know, it may or may not have been a target. what we found that is inconsistent with the motive of those who perpetrated this crime upon robert, this is a crime of hazing, not of hate. there is a long-standing, decade long history of hazing at this institution and the band. so this is yet another smoke screen, soledad. it's a very insensitive, it's

incomprehensible, really that ti the institution would take this such a stance. they're trying to throw this on the students. they say it's a hate crime and the school will say there's no way to know that the students would have punished him because he was gay. it's not right. it's unamerican. >> i was going to ask you, the former band director, julian white, let go and put on administrative leave, actually said this. it was less about hazing and more about battling him because he was gay. i was going to ask you, the motivation you think is to move the focus off the responsibility of the school or even the band director? >> it is. it is. and you know, soledad, in 2012, in america, whether you're gay or lesbian, black or white, blond or brunet, if you're qualified, you're qualified. robert champion was qualified. this is a case of hazing. and for the school to use this as a smoke screen to assign robert champion as scarlet letter because he was gay is just incomprehensible. it's infuriating. i feel really bad for the family

for having to endure this. >> so others, though, who were on that bus say there were other people who were hazed, too, but it seemed like robert was getting pummeled more than any other people, singled out because it was more brutal for him. why? >> what we've learned is that robert was the poster child of hazing -- of anti-hazing. so robert threatened the very institution of hazing. so there's institution of culture of hazing and basically you have to subject yourself to this hazing to be successful in the band. well, robert, rose from the bottom of the ranks to the top of the ranks of drum major and never agreed to it. so he threatened his success threatened the institution of the band and we think part of the predominant motivation was retaliatory. >> you're sueing the bus company, which is where this hazing took place. and my understanding is that people in the band who are being hazed kind of had to make their way from the back of the bus to the front of the bus to see if they could get through without being beaten up.

what grounds are you suing the bus company on? >> we have a lot of questions about the bus company. well, we have no liability, we did everything we could to protect this. that's not true. you know, we want to know how did the students get on the bus. how did they start a charter bus. this is isn't a chevrolet malibu. how did they get the air conditioner on. why were they on the bus so long unsupervised that they were able to perpetrate multiple incidents of hazing. there are a lot of questions surrounding the bus. we spoke with people as far back from 2007. we know it happened in 2007, 20 2008, 2009, 2010, 20 11 robert champion was killed. we feel like they're partially responsible for his death. >> gosh, we have to imagine the family members that you represent want some of those answers to such a sad and terrible story. christopher chestnut is the attorney for family members. thank you for talking with us. we appreciate it. straight ahead this morning we're going go back to our panel talking about voters, who did they end up going with?

we've been talking to the locals here. last night was a moment of truth. continue that conversation. and then look towards south carolina. is mitt romney a shoo-in or is there anyone who can stop him? plus, an immigrant helps police solve a murder and now he faces deportation and he says possibly death if he's sent back. we'll tell you his story.

welcome back, everybody. you know new hampshire voters have a reputation for being fiercely independent. there's the reason the state

motto is live free or die. these guys at the table are reasons why you haven't been able to hear me over the show. they are so loud as they've been debating politics. we've talked to them yesterday. we want to follow up. dick, you're an independent voter. >> right. >> you were thinking about -- you weren't sure going in. >> that's right. >> ended up voting for huntsman. >> why? >> i thought he did a nice job during the campaign. of course, when you're looking at the different aspects of the campaign, there's five or six different things. nobody's going to have everything exactly the way you want it. he's the one that i kind of liked. >> kurt, you're an independent as well. >> absolutely. >> you were leaning towards rick perry. were you the 1%? >> yeah, but i didn't vote for him. >> you weren't part of that 1% vote he got yesterday. >> no. >> who did you end up going with. >> ron paul. he's so radical, maybe if he doesn't win, at least some of the things he brings out will be brought in the forefront to

anyone that runs for president. let's make some drastic changes, which i think he can do. >> you made this. can we get a shot of this? this is an on/off switch. bucky was the talker. if you go along. >> put that switch on bucky. that was really made foray scott. he's not here. >> i'm taking his place this morning. >> you're an independent. >> yes. >> you had voted. >> i voted yesterday morning before i even got here. i voted for huntsman. >> why? >> well, again, you know, he did a good job in this state. i like his flat tax. i like the way he talks and how he wants to bring this country forward, you know? he's there, you know? and i think that with a little push he'll do well around the united states. >> excuse me people at the end. we're on live tv right now. give me a moment. they're chitchatting in the middle of my interview. george, i can barely reach down there. independent also? >> yes. >> who did you end up voting for. >> i started as a romney

supporter. i had a text at 3 in the morning thursday night which woke me up. he went by. and i went to the polls thinking about voting for santorum. walked in and voted for huntsman. >> so this is really a huntsman table here overwhelmingly, and yet your guy while he did better than many thought he might do is still in third place. a low third. >> i think mrs. huntsman had a lot to do with that yesterday. >> she was here working it. oh, she was charming the crowd. >> she did very well. very nice family. super nice people. they were sincere. the daughters were sincere. you know this is all a revenue generator. >> what do you mean? >> all of this that's going on here. it's a revenue generator because what's happening is the democratic camp is taking notes. >> are you independents who would potentially go to the democratic side? >> no. >> no. >> not this time around because

no one wants -- a lot of people just don't like what obama did. there are people at this table who are strong, strong obama supporters, you know, but he has not done the job i was looking for. i know my friend said that he saved the country financially, but i really don't think that covers him. >> so huntsman is probably, i think there's reason to say he will not be the candidate going into the general election. it looks like at this point at least it would be mitt romney. would you support mitt romney with all the energy and fervor against barack obama. >> we'll have to stand behind our -- well, my second choice was romney because he's a new england son so i like that part of it. i'd like to have somebody from our end of the woods here that's going to be president. >> all right. thank you, gentlemen. you're so quiet and calm. these guys have been doing nothing but making noise like this during our show. >> not really. >> well, you know. you're not micced.

i can't reach you down there. >> now you're talking? >> we've got to take a short break. hang on. we'll continue our conversation in the commercial break. when we come back we'll talk about governor mitt romney and the rest of the field as they make their way to south carolina. what is the southern strategy? that's when "starting point" comes back. gner ] there's a lot of beautiful makeup out there. but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena® healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics. hi. looking good! you've lost some weight. thanks! you noticed! you know these clothes are too big now, so i'm donating them. not going back there again. good for you! how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. whole grain? whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't... multigrain cheerios has five whole grains and 110 lightly sweetened calories per serving... more grains. less you!

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it rooks like looks like a beautiful day. it's a wonderful restaurant. i started with the cake. i figured why bother to waste time with breakfast food. welcome back everybody. you're watching "starting point" with our panel. we're talking about governor mitt romney. he does something that few republicans have done before, which is to sweep iowa and then sweep new hampshire. he told me the president is going to remain his focus as he moves on. take a listen. >> i really think we're best off focusing on the failures of this president. in my case i want to demonstrate that i have the capacity to make america once again a great place for opportunity, for rising incomes, for job growth. i think that's what people want to hear. also a cuban american congresswoman is calling it a tour of tyrants. cozying up to dictators right next door to america.

today it is pastor brothers. we'll bring you a report from had a van in a. he came to the united states on a valid visa. he became an informant to help police solve a murder. why is this man being deported? we'll explain his case to you. plus a big day on wall street yesterday. christine romans has an update for us about what is expected today. "starting point" begins right now. welcome back, everybody. as we continue our conversations we're focused on mitt romney this morning as a big winner. kind of a squeaker. new hampshire he had a big one. he's moving on to south carolina now. it was impressive. if you look at the numbers, mitt romney with 95% of the precincts reporting -- wards i should say reporting, 40% to him. ron paul with 23%. it was jon huntsman who came in with 17%. primary day is not very far away as we forget about new

hampshire. let's move on to south carolina. >> yes. >> it's so yesterday. you guys show those numbers again. we have peter ham by. ron brown steen is back with us. candy crowley has joined us. she's cnn's chief political correspondent. john king is with us from a distance. i think he's in d.c. this morning. then we have christine romans joining us as well. john is in atlanta this morning. look at those numbers. this is what south carolina looks like as we look ahead. peter hamby, romney -- hello, try it again. romney, 37%. santorum right behind him little bit of a distance at 19%. newt gingrich at 18%. tell me how this race looks from where you are this morning. >> reporter: last night's results, soledad, from a south carolina perspective at least, i have to question why jon huntsman is going to compete

aggressively here. mitt romney is completely sucking up that side of the primary, that political space. huntsman said last night people in south carolina shall concerned about electability. if you talk to voters here, electability is a huge concern, that's why romney is winning, quite frankly, when you talk to voters. just anecdotally even if they don't love mitt romney, grudge beginningly they acknowledge he's the best guy to beat barack obama. people here don't know who jon huntsman is. he hasn't been on tv here. mitt romney is on television running lots of tv ads. he's been campaigning here for five years. it's going to be tough for jon huntsman to survive. the other thing i would note, when you look at the conservative side, rick santorum is the guy who is having a lot of evangelical voters coalesce behind him. there's been a lot of frustration with gingrich since i've been down here in the last week or so. santorum came down here to campaign.

he took a break from new hampshire. newt gingrich hasn't been here since ohio. i think santorum has a leg up when you look at the conservative side of the republican field, soledad. >> peter, thank you. let's turn to john king in atlanta. it was interesting to hear rick santorum say it is now a one-on-one man race, me versus room any. i was like, really? romney did well with evangelicals, really well, i think. >> you have a very different race now in south carolina. there's a diversity. everyone says why do iowa and new hampshire go first, south carolina the republican electorate is white. there is more diversity. you go along the coast than you do have in the bible belt, the greenville area. peter makes a point, have you santorum, perry, gingrich, huntsman, ron paul, all of them claiming they're the best alternative to romney. in a crowded field romney benefits. soledad, we'll have testing time for mitt romney. you're going to have not only

his record at bain capital. they're going o come after him on same-sex marriage. they'll come after him on taxes and spending. they'll try to call him a liberal in south carolina and for the next ten days, forgive the cliche, they'll throw the kitchen sink and counter at mitt romney and find out what he's made of. >> john king saying it gets harder from here. >> well, it does because there's not many chances left to get at him. it was interesting to me last night that all of the folks that you talked to in the romney camp used one word, unity. they're already in the, okay, let's all get together now and -- >> behind me. >> exactly. behind romney obviously. this is their last best chance. let me tell you, there are people who were down there most of them knowing they're not going to beat romney. the answer to huntsman is there's always another election. this guy is the youngest guy in the race. republicans have a way of

rewarding folks who have already done it before. there's good reasons for huntsman to be out. >> there's another answer for huntsman. south carolina is the crucible in republican politics. it has been the decider. it's picked the winner. right now the dynamic that's set up is three candidates, gingrich, santorum, perry dividing the more conservative elements. romney has a free hand with the coastal more moderate vote jeers. that's the formula that allowed john mccain to win. if huntsman can peel away part of that base, that will help. the problem is a third place finish in new hampshire in which you won only 10% of self-identified republicans doesn't give him enough of a lift to carve away what romney needs in his base to get to a plurality victory. >> let's talk a little bit about super pac money. i know christine romans who is back at cnn in new york. christine, what are you looking at? >> let's go forward to south carolina if you will. this is the candidate directed

ad spending in south carolina. that's a gingrich romney story. those are the can datsz spending the most time on the air with the tv adds. when you add in the super pac money, this is perry territory. his supporters are hoping that south carolina is going to be his place. if you take a look at florida moving even one step further, this is the super pac money and candidate money, that's all romney. he's the one with the money and the backing to be able to be thinking two states ahead. there's already an awful lot of activity for romney moving ahead to florida. south carolina that's super pacs supporting perry really, really active now. >> so, david, when you see the governor putting money, as christine just pointed out, into florida, it's because it's a very different race in florida. much more diverse. >> tv war in florida. >> expensive tv war. >> vast state. population disstrinted over a huge area, very big population.

you can't do retail politics. you have to be on tv. that's the point at which we're going to discover that everybody else in this race has run out of gas. >> just about money? >> well, the problem is you're trailing and you have very little money. something that will give you a boost and change the dynamic. they're not getting that. not only does mitt romney win iowa, new hampshire. the order of the rest of the candidates fails to elevate one of the clear candidates except for ron paul who has a ceiling. >> that really was the subtext from the off lead from last night. no number two came out. >> i know. the battle for number two. >> it was a battle for number four. that's not really a great place to spring off of to go into south carolina. >> is it done? is it over? >> absent some big change in the dynamic in south carolina, it's hard to see how this goes on as a real race past that unless somebody can figure out how to get -- >> ron paul will go on. >> in some ways it was interesting to hear him sound

very conciliatory towards governor romney. why are you bashing him on what bain did? that's the role of that job and that company. this is about private enterprise, capitalism, free markets. >> another thing that's very important, never forget that the ron paul campaign is basically a direct mail effort. so he has had a huge addition to his mailing list. these are now more republicans -- >> it's about power. maybe not his power, but certainly rand paul's power, right? >> i would never underestimate money as a factor. >> in politics, what? money as a factor in politics? i'm stunned. >> ron paul is not that interested. >> he's never accomplished anything. he's never done anything. what he has done is raise enormous amounts of money. it has been a very important family business. now he has a new mailing list that is a lot more republican oriented. he has to be careful not to alienate them by reminding them he's not fundamentally committed

to the party. >> there is a meeting in texas. there is only one way to extend the race is if the right consol low dates enough to deny the victory to romney. conservatively, historically it's favored the other candidates. that is do or die. >> john king, is there any indication that in fact that could happen? are there any signs that people are going to coal less around another candidate in south carolina at this point? >> at the moment the evidence and answer is no to that question because you have a crowded field. you have perry and gingrich and santorum and huntsman. hunts man would be more to the left of mitt romney, the others to the right of mitt romney fracturing the vote much like mike huckabee and johnson. it's hard to stop momentum. he has momentum. history tells you that a decent chunk of undecided voters pick the guy they think is going to win. this morning if you're waking up in south carolina, mitt romney is the guy you think is going to win. the other candidates have to stop that. here's the question. candy makes an important point, the history of the republican party is pick the guy you know. pick the guy who's been there.

whose turn is it? it was bob dole's turn, john mccain's turn. the tea party especially, they were the big party in 2010. will this election be decided by the part of the republican party that was the force in 2010 or is this 1996 and 2008 all over again? if it is, mitt romney wins. >> we're going to continue our conversation. i have to take a short commercial break. i don't want to leave without showing what ron brownstein has for breakfast. stay with me for a moment. and it is covered in some clearly. >> candy apple. i thought i was getting out easy. >> i went for the cake. i bet my cake is healthier than your smoothered in sugar oatmeal this morning. we have to take a short break. you want to stay with cnn for the best political coverage on tv. straight ahead we'll keep talking about it, tonight at 6 p.m., john king one on one with

rick perry. piers will talk with newt gingrich. soledad, an iranian nuclear scientist killed in an attack in tehran. government officials say a magnetic bomb was planted on his car. it's the latest in a series of attacks targeting scientists working on their nuclear program. this morning dive teams in waterville main will search ayla reynolds. police say they do suspect foul play in that case. and core dove varks alaska, can't catch a break. a tiny fishing village getting a foot of fresh snow. that's on top of the 18 feet of snow that's already fallen there that we told you about yesterday. to top it off, they've also run out of shovels. the town has placed an order for more. in the meantime nearly 60 national guard troops have been called in to help. the dow rose to its highest level since july yesterday. growing optimism about the u.s.

economy playing a part there. fears are creeping back n. stock figures for the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 are slightly lower. the u.s. economy will be back in the spotlight later today when the federal reserve releases the beige book. soledad? christine, thanks a lot. iran's president is making his way to cuba today. he is meeting with the castro brothers after he toured latin america and stood side by side with hugo chavez in venezuela. we have an update. patrick, what's going on today? >> reporter: good morning. iranian president should be landing here in the airport just in about two hours, soledad. as you mentioned, he's meeting with both raoul and fidel cast throw today. we should see some images which

sometimes we've seen him publicly. then he'll be giving a keynote speech, we don't know the subject, at the university of havannah. this is taking place in a quick 20 hour visit. he'll go on to ecuador. you wouldn't think cuba and iran have much in common. both are struggling under the united states economic sanctions. cuba has announced plans to begin drilling for oil off the coast in the straits of florida. they're hoping in the next few years to begin exploring 5 billion, with a "b" barrels of oil. >> patrick with an upkate of what's happening today. thank you. still to come this morning on "starting point," a police informant in new jersey is now facing deportation even though he helped police solve a very big daze case and he's saying he's going to be killed if he's forced to go back to lebanon. we'll update you on his story when we talk to his fiance. plus a mississippi governor

on his way out of office has pardoned 200 rapists and murderers on his way out of office. we'll talk to randy wallace. plus there's a big study on pot smoking and it might surprise you what they found. you're watching "starting point" with soledad o'brien. we're back after this short break.

welcome back, everybody. we start this block with a cnn exclusive. a lebanese immigrant who helped police solve a murder case in new jersey is now facing deportation. his name is charbel. he missed a court date for his pending asylum case while he was helping authorities. he's in jail. he's awaiting deportation. his fiance is veronica garcia. thanks for talking with us. i appreciate it. we know that he is in custody now. what are they telling you about what could happen with his deportation? when could he be deported? >> he could be deported today.

supposedly he had a deportation order for today, but we don't know what's going to happen. >> he must be very, very -- go ahead. >> charlie is my fiance. charlie was born in lebanon and left lebanon when he was 5. was raised in germany. he came here to the u.s. and now he has a deportation order because he missed the court. as you can see, charlie has done, you know, hard work with the community. he did hard work with law enforcement. >> let's talk about that law enforcement case, veronica. the case dates back to 1999. there was a guy named mikele abulue who drowned. his drowning was ruled accidentally until charlie came forward with some information. can you tell me more about that case? >> i don't know too much about the case. i know he was involved and he helped solve the problem and not

only that problem, he did other cases also. >> he has said, charlie has said that he's afraid for his life if he is deported back to lebanon. he worries about being killed. why? >> why? because he doesn't know anything about lebanon. he left lebanon when he was 5. he was raised in germany like i said before. he doesn't know anything about his country. what they doing is an injustice for him. it's unfair what they're doing to him. >> well, we're going to take a short break, very ron anything kampt i want you to stick around. i want to talk about what you are doing in order to try to get some attention to his case and what you think your next step could be before or to interrupt and intervene for the deportation. we'll take a commercial break. as your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ deep breath] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth!

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welcome back to "starting point." we begin with a cnn exclusive. we've been talking with veronica garcia. her fiance is a police informant. he's a lebanese sit at this sen. he's facing deportation. his name is charbel. he could be deported as early as today. veronica, charlie, as you call him, has actually gotten written support from some of the law enforcement agencies that he has helped in the past. he also is married to an american. he's in the process of getting a divorce. you're his fiance. you're an american. how come it's not as simple as you two get married, now he can be an american citizen? >> yes. i am waiting for him to get divorced. he will be divorced any time and

hopefully i will marry him. i did open a petition, changed that, and i have everybody's support all over the country. charlie has over 7,000 people voted in his favor, on his behalf. and it's a great thing that i d you know? because i'm getting everybody's support. i want everybody to know, people going through the same situation that i am, that they should go to change.org and they will help you. >> how are you holding up? i know, as you say, his deportation could potentially be right around the corner. you're trying to do all you can with this petition on line. i think it's 7,000 people have written in to support him? >> yes. >> how are you doing? emotionally how are you doing? >> emotionally, i could be good and then i could break down. but i have a lot of faith in god

that everything's going to work. >> veronica garcia who is hoping to see if she can intervene in her fiance's deportation hearing. thank you for talking with us this morning. i know this is a tough time. this is a sad case. when you talk about these immigration stories. they're very complicated. obviously we've only covered the tip of the iceberg, but it is a really complicated case. the local officials when this happened i think in the state of new jersey, all wrote on his behalf and said he was someone who was very instrumental and helpful in this case. i'm surprised why they would be so aggressive about deporting him. >> especially since we're seeing an easing up of some enforcement of the the president issued an executive order last summer saying, listen, back burner if there's not a felony involved here. if these are peaceable people, that's not where we want to spend our time. it doesn't seem to fit in with that. >> the immigration issue is one

that looks so different from the ground level than from 30,000 feet. public attitudes might be something. when you get down to the individual cases, very different. >> i think with this case most of it we don't know. people don't usually confide in me about murders. if you're hanging around with people who have committed murders, you may have some other things on your record. that may be the thing that the judge is reacting to. there's a lot more i would like to see reported about this case before i made up my mind about what the truth was. >> very complicated. thank you for talking with us. ahead on "starting point" this morning. going to talk about this case. it has many people in mississippi that are outraged. haley barbour has pardoned nearly 200 convicts and that includes more than a dozen killers. we'll talk to a man who was shot by one of the freed criminals. he is furious. in today's reveal mitt romney is the first non-incumbent to win iowa and new hampshire. who was the other republican to

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j welcome back, everybody. you're watching "starting point" with soledad o'brien. i'm soledad o'brien. i like the way that works. we're in new hampshire this morning. that's the inside of this really wonderful cafe. we have been eating breakfast this morning. we're talking about outrage in mississippi. that is because of the outgoing governor, haley barbour, has pardoned 200 people including some people who were killers. we'll talk with some family members of victims who are outraged today. and then breathe easy if you're a pot smoker. good news for pot smokers. that's rare for us. elizabeth cohen has a result of a 20-year study that focuses on people who smoke pot. first though how's that for a tease, christine. first. before we get to the pot story,

we'll look at some of the other stories that you are following for us. that's what we call a hook, right into the news headlines. can't wait for that with elizabeth later. joran van der sloot returns to court in peru to face a murder charge. he's accused of killing stephany flores in a lima hotel in 2010. he's expected to enter a plea after requesting more time to reflect on his decision. hazing or hate crime? the parents of robert champion, the florida a&m band moment who was allegedly hazed to death, they revealed their son was gay. they don't think it had anything to do with his death. they told soledad they believe the motive is clear. >> this is a crime of hazing, not of hate. there is a long-standing decade long history of hazing at this institution in the band. so this is yet another smoke screen, soledad. it's a very insensitive. it's incomprehensible really that the institution would take

such a stance, but what they're trying to do is throw this on the students. this is a hate crime, then the students are responsible and the school will say there's no way we would have known that they would punish him because he's gay, and that's just not right. and a double barrel surprise for two maryland teenagers yesterday. first, it was their mom returning home early from afghanistan. and if that wasn't enough, the two girls were each presented with a $20,000 college scholarship courtesy of kfc. somewhere the colonel is smiling this morning. >> the dow rose to its highest level since july yesterday. growing optimism about the u.s. economy there. this morning fears about the u.s. debt crisis crept back in. fitch put out a warning about the cataclysmic collapse of the euro if the european central bank does not buy up more eurozone debt to stabilize the region. all of the markets are trading lower ahead of the opening bell. 33 minutes past the hour.

let's get the morning's travel forecast. jacqui jeras is in the chair at the map because rob is out. >> hey, christine. two areas of concern today. we're tracking a storm system here across the southeast bringing in some very soggy conditions. then a cold front dropping through the upper midwest. this is a true arctic cold front dropping those temperatures and bringing snow to place that is have had very little all winter long. the travel delays have been kind of spotty this morning. we've had a few in atlanta as well as into baltimore. no delays but do expect them on and off throughout the day with the low clouds and rain showers. isolated thunderstorms. the storm will be moving up the coast and make its way into the northeast tonight. then that cold air is going to follow behind it enhancing with that moisture from the great lakes. we could see some significant totals in places like chicago and over towards milwaukee. high temperatures today, cooler than yesterday. minneapolis had a record high of 52. today 32.

tomorrow 17. might be more like 15. enjoy the mild weather while it lasts even though you have the rain to go along with. those big changes finally it feels like winter is arriving. soledad? jacqui jeras. thank you. thank you for your nice e-mail this morning. she says she is a fan of the show. appreciate that. let's get back to our panel because of course our top story this morning is mitt romney and his big win. he squeaked by in iowa. here in new hampshire he had a very sizeable win. throw up those numbers. you can see he was leading the polls at 40% for mitt romney. ron paul right behind him with 23%. it was jon huntsman coming in at 17% which may not be enough to really launch his campaign as everybody heads to south carolina. >> not only was it not a strong overall number, it's okay, kind of middling. the composition has to be worrisome. he depended on voters at the periphery, independents. people who described themselves as strong tea party opponents. among actual self-identified republicans he won 10% of the

vote. that's not much of a foundation with which to go forward. >> when we go to south carolina next, the last hope of all the anti-romney people is that they can consolidate around a conservative alternative. here's the problem, the conservative infrastructure in south carolina, the important conservative leaders in the state, the people who delivered the state for george bush in 2000, locked in early for rick perry. they all endorsed him. rick perry is not a factor. those people are now immobilized. they can't now say i've changed my mind i'm going with santorum, gingrich, with the infrastructure off to the sidelines unable to help the other not mitt, that field will continue to fracture and those will be distributed. romney will emerge as he has done throughout this as the one man against the field. >> we spoke to governor romney earlier on "starting point." here's what he told us about the path ahead for him. >> i understand that president obama is going to try and put free enterprise on trial, but

rick perry and newt gingrich are going to be the witnesses for the prosecution. i'm not worried about that. they can take it as they'd like. you saw last night that that approach didn't work very well for either rick perry or newt gingrich so we'll take it to the next level. they'll find new attacks. >> does he seem so not worried? >> honestly, let's look at who came to his defense. rich limbaugh, club for growth. various folks that weren't out there supporting mitt romney came out and said what is newt gingrich doing? so i don't think he actually should be worried now. i think the other thing that is helpful to romney, first of all, i'm not sure kwl it took them so long to get on this although they could have been subtler about this, is it draws the data for september. he has until september and primetime to kind of figure it out. >> figure out the mistakes. >> how to frame this as they say. >> when you have a question you can't answer, pose another question.

if the race is about who cares about people like you, romney may have a challenge. if the race is about management of the economy, he has a strike. >> this will be time to hone the message. we'll take a short break. when we come back we'll have a conversation with a number of families who are now outraged about what former mississippi barber has done with this. we'll continue with the story. you've heard us talking about it all morning. he's granted a pardon to nearly 200 criminals. that number, 200 plus, includes 14 convicted murderers, some of whom he worked with at the governor's mansion. one of the men who was released is a guy named david gatlin. he was working as a trustee at the governor's mansion. he had been denied parole just a couple weeks earlier. randy walker who was shot by david gatlin and tiffany ellis brewer whose sister was killed by david gatlin join us now. they are furious. randy and tiffany, i appreciate you talking with us. randy, i'll start with you. david gatlin shot you in the

head and he shot your friend who is tiffany's sister and killed her. she was holding her baby is what we understand what happened. how did they notify you that he was going to be pardoned by the governor of the state? >> well, on friday before the notification i had gotten a letter from mississippi department of corrections, the parole board, and they said that they had denied him parole and that he would be looked at again in october of 2012 so i kind of breathed a sigh of relief that i'd have 9, 10 more months of pretty much safety. saturday morning i got up and went to work at about 10 clock i got a phone call that said he had been released with a full and unconditional pardon and that he was -- his release time was -- they wouldn't tell me when he would be released or what day.

and then monday i got an automated call from a system that said he had been released on sunday. so i was notified that he was out of jail more than 24 hours after he was actually let go. >> so as somebody who gatlin tried to kill, he shot you in the head, are you nervous that he might try to come back and try again frankly? >> well, you know, yeah, it's a concern. i feel like my safety is in jeopardy. candy's family, the ellis's, i feel like they're all in jeopardy. i'm married and have a family again and my family i feel the safety for them is an issue. anybody that might be with me at the time that he decides to do something would be in jeopardy. so, yeah. i feel like we are in jail now

and david is out of jail. we will forever be looking over our shoulder wondering if today is the day that david decided that he was going to finish what he started. >> and you mentioned, randy, i'll put this question to tiffany whose sister was shot and killed by david gatlin. you mentioned of course there's this non-conditional release. that means there's no conditions. he can go out and purchase a gun if he wants to, is that right? >> right. that's it. >> so are you just furious? what are you going to do? >> there's nothing we can do at this point except try our best to get something changed for murderers, trustees at the governor's mansion for one man not to be able to release a murderer back into our society or anybody who commits a violent

crime because there are so many families out there that are in danger, especially with the people he has pardoned since. you know, david gatlin was pardoned. i'm sure that they feel basically the same way as randy and i do. we're both fearful for our lives, our families' lives, and we will live with this for the rest of our lives. >> he killed your sister, tiffany, while she was holding her baby -- their baby, a six-month-old who they eventually found her body with the baby right there. >> actually, he was six weeks old. >> did the governor say why -- oh, i'm so sore rimpt he was six weeks old. have you asked the governor, what possibly was the motivation for doing this? because it seems he's not answering media questions about it. what has he told you? >> we have actually tried to

contact the governor, and he will not respond to any of us. he will not comment on anything. we have no answers as to why he has done this. i would like to think he did not have all of the facts of the case. if he did have all the facts, apparently we haven't had a really goodman for our governor. >> randy walker and tiffany ellis brewer talking with us this morning. appreciate your time. our condolences of course to your family. this is just terrible news for you guys. appreciate it. ahead this morning we'll bring you up to speed on a new study coming out about what occasional pot smoking does to your lungs. we'll reveal how rare mitt romney's run through iowa and then new hampshire really is. stay with us. [ monica ] i'm away on a movie shoot

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welcome back, everybody. you're watching "starting point" this morning. this is what it looks like on the inside of the restaurant which is where we have set up camp for the third day in a row. we're very grateful that they are hosting us.

medical report to tell you about this morning. it turns out pot doesn't harm your lungs, in moderation. all medical studies say in moderation. it's a 20-year study that shows smoking marijuana doesn't do the same kind of damage that smoking tobacco does. elizabeth cohen joins us from atlanta. it feels to me that we always say in moderation when we talk about these stories. tell me about the study and what in moderation means. >> that is the key question. they followed 5,000 people and found that when they smoked at low levels it actually possibly might have helped their lungs. moderate levels didn't seem to matter. high levels that did, indeed, seem to do some damage to their lungs. let's take a look at those levels. two to three times a month would be considered low. that's where it might possibly have helped. once a week over a period of decades, once a week over a period of decades didn't seem to hurt or help necessarily. what was considered high, what was considered damaging was daily pot smoking for more than

seven years. >> so they weren't looking at -- they were looking at damage to the lungs. they weren't looking at cancer. >> right. >> they weren't looking at other things as well in the study, is that right? >> exactly. we've noticed, soledad, this is the number one story on cnn.com written by my colleague i'm shocked. >> right. exactly. >> stunned. stunned here. >> because everyone's so excited that -- >> candy's been googling it all morning. >> but what i want to say is people shouldn't get too excited about this because as you pointed out, all they looked at was lung function. other studies have shown that people who smoke pot have cognitive problems more likely, more likely to have memory problems, more likely to develop psychoses. your lungs might be okay but you might be psychotic. >> it was interesting seeing this report. >> keep that in mind. >> it is one of those either/or. seriously, it's interesting to see that they thought there

might be something in the smoking of pot that actually could be beneficial to your lungs, like protect you against the chemical compound, right, of marijuana, isn't that right? something tobacco doesn't do. >> what's interesting is these low levels might help your lungs. it's not because of the chemical in marijuana necessarily, it's because you're doing such deep inhalations and exhalations. i hate to compare it to yoga but it's a little bit of the same thing. these folks are inhailing deeply and exhailing. >> seems to help you. >> that helps the lungs. >> they couldn't necessarily remember anything. >> we need to go out on a limb here and say we're not comparing this to yoga. disclaimer. this is not like yoga. not. not like yoga. not like yoga at all. >> i appreciate that. >> the other health risk, how much of your life you end up watching "south park." there's a whole other set of risks. >> it's all circled. elizabeth cohen updating us on

this story, we're laughing. this is the number one story on cnn.com, is that right? >> yes. >> it says something about our viewership, doesn't it? >> 118-34. >> it's the demographic. elizabeth, thank you. we're circling the drain. still ahead this morning we'll do our reveal. the last republican to do as well as mitt romney right after this. stay with us. you're giving me the silent treatment? ummm, yeah. jen, this is like the eighth time you've called... no, it's fine, my family has free unlimited mobile-to-any-mobile minutes from at&t. so i can call all i want. i don't think you understand how the silent treatment works. hello? [ male announcer ] buy unlimited messaging and get free unlimited calling to any u.s. mobile on any network. at&t.

welcome back, everybody. time now for the reveal we've been talking this morning about how republican presidential candidate mitt romney made history last night. he is the first non-incumbent to win both the iowa caucus and the new hampshire primary. do you know who the only other republican to take both races is? first don't answer, my panel. little background. iowa, new hampshire have been the one-two punch since 1972 which is when iowa moved its caucus to january. including 19726789 that's a total of 11 elections. in that time only one other republican besides mitt romney has won both races. so who is it? drum roll please. >> gerald ford.

>> reagan and h.w. bush won them both. >> certainly ford did in '76. >> bush lost in 94. >> our panel does not know. back in 1976 ford took iowa new hampshire unlike romney. he was the incumbent. you don't see a sitting president challenged. ronald regan was going for the republican nomination. if you know history he lost to ford. >> heck of a race. >> you can say hell. >> reagan tried to name richard schweiger to bring over people. gerald ford stuck it out and lost to jimmy carter in november. >> the rest is history. >> and the rest is history. people made such a big deal of this sort of historic moment, but i think ultimately the squeak by and then the big win -- >> this about this historic

moment. how often would the romney family have won? think if george romney won and not richard nixon. they must have thought about all of that. we could have had a president romney in 1968. >> but then you wouldn't have any conversations about all the investment banking, venture capital dollars. >> or might have made less. >> might have made less because bain capital did well. >> we'll talk about our end point, what we take away from this moment and not just the food and the calories. the thought full ideas. that's straight ahead right after our break. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation.

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our end point now because we have reached the end of our morning. mercifully, i think in some cases. candy, what do you want totart with? >> you have to start with 40% from mitt romney. this wasn't just, hey, we won new hampshire. it was the depth of that win and it was the breadth of that win. it was through a lot of demographics. this is a huge win. if he's not unstoppable, we used to call him the weak front-runner. he's no longer the weak front-runner. he is the front-runner. they need to stop him in south carolina. it's hard to find out who would do that. >> from the political press core, iowa and new hampshire

like brig ga doon. having been through another cycle, you have to tip your hat at the seriousness with which most people in both states take this unique and privileged role they have in winnowing out the presidential field for the rest of us. it's great to be in both states again. we'll see you in 2016. >> one more thing, the high owe motion the conservatives brought to this have failed to show high discipline. in south carolina they will not consolidate. too many are locked up with rick perry who can't go anywhere. romney may well be a weak front-runner but his opponents weaker. >> i feel like we've talked enough about politics as we head to south carolina. my end point is i want to reiterate, smoking pot is nothing like yoga at all even though both involve deep breathing. please, let that be your take away for the morning. it is now time for "cnn newsroom." fredricka whitfield is here. >> your punc two wagts of the >> your punc two wagts of the day, soledad. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com