situation room." the news continues next on cnn. thanks for joining us. i'm gloria borger. john king is off tonight. president obama takes his lumps from an angry judge. the judge is offended at something the president said and has the power to give the white house a huge political headache. >> in the wake of the tornado nightmare, people around dallas are asking the same question amid all the destruction, how is it nobody was killed? >> in year 2012, on the eve of one of the world's most prestigious sports tournaments, why do the rules still say, for men only? and we begin with breaking news tonight. cnn just received the coroner's final report with new details about the death of singer,

whitney houston. cnn's entertainment reporter, kareen wynter, is at the los angeles county coroner's office. what are we learning about the sequence of events that led to whitney houston's death? >> well, gloria, i can tell you we know a whole lot more about what happened that day back in february the day before the grammy's when whitney houston was found dead in her hotel room in beverly hills. not just that but the detailed toxicology report just released. it is about 45 pages in length, quite extensive. we are still going through it. it outlines everything from whitney houston's autopsy to the medical examiner's findings through the different drug levels, mainly the cocaine levels. she died. that's one of the contributeding factors in her death. accidental drowning is what it was ruled. what i have been able it decipher so far, the timeline. what happened on that saturday. according to this report, whitney houston's assistant was with her in her hotel room on that saturday, february 11th.

she was complaining of a sore throat. she had had it for a couple of days. the assistant said, go ahead, take a bath. i will run out for a bit and i will be back to check up on you. according to this report, when the assistant returned to the room, she entered the hotel room and found whitney houston lying face down in the bathtub. the assistant called the bodyguard and pulled her out of the tub. that's a little bit of a timeline. some other key things i have been able to pull out of this. in reference of the cotan, there was a presence of a spoon with a white powdery substance. bottles of prescription drugs as well as loose tablets found in and around the room, drugs such as xanax, signs of small trauma on her body and finally at the north end of the bathroom, a baggy ripped open with powdery traces and a mirror are a base with powdery remnants on the bathroom counter. it gives you a little bit of

information as to the evidence found had her hotel room. they told me we are done with this case, case closed for us. the case isn't entirely closed. beverly hills police, the spotlight is now on them. they have to dem hetermine what happens from here. are there going to be criminal charges. they have said all along, no foul play suspected. nothing seems criminal. they still have to tie up their end of this investigation. we checked in with beverly hills p.d. you see how extensive this is. they are going through this, combing through it. we are expecting some sort of announcement and statement from them once they get to look through this. >> stay with us. thank you. i want to bring in our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, who joins us on the phone from new york. sanjay, from a medical perspective, is there a new headline here? >> you know, i don't think so. as careen mentioned, it is a pretty detailed report really

looking at all the things that go into an autopsy with regard to the cotan use and its contribution to what they are essentially saying was a cardiac event, describing what may have been a heart failure due to the cotan use, even a heart attack. that seems to be the same. they have very specific values now which is more important in terms of putting together a timeline that careen was starting to describe there. for example, gloria, talking not only about cocaine found in whitney houston's blood but also how much of the various breakdown products of cocaine were found there. it is only relevant, gloria. what i think they have talked about is the cause of death from a couple of weeks ago now. it does say look, this was not likely a one-time cocaine use. cocaine had been used over the

last several hours probably and that's what sort of led to the breakdown product values that are seen in the autopsy report. it is not different to your point than what we knew earlier. >> do we know whether she had a heart attack and then just sort of slipped under water in the tub or whether she drowned or does this make any of that clear? >> the cause of death they are still calling accidental drowning. these are hard things to talk about, gloria. the reason they know that is because if someone is, in fact, still alive when they go under the water, they will continue to breath and evidence of water from the tub will then be found in one's lungs. that's how they determine if someone had an accidental drowning. as far as whether it was a heart attack specifically brought on by the cocaine use or some sort of cardiac event, as they call

it, some sort of heart event, it is a little bit more difficult to determine than you might think when someone has a heart attack. there is evidence of heart muscle actually having died. you see evidence of that in someone's blood. if it occurs so quickly, sometimes, you know, it is harder to find. so what they are saying is that she is a woman that had a history of -- she had atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries, about 60% blockage. when someone takes cocaine, it can oftentimes cause spasm of the blood vessel and cause it to constrict even more. if you compound that with the already narrowed blood vessels, that can lead to an inadequate blood flow to the heart. a scientific description, gloria, essentially, trying to sum marchiarize what we are dri at.

>> a detailed report. thanks so much for being with us. turning now to politics, the president has another fight on his hands today. he is getting backed into a corner by, of all people, a judge, who took offense at something the president said monday while defending the health care reform law. >> i'm confident that the supreme court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected congress. i just remind conservative commentators that for years, what we have heard is the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activist. >> well, those comments didn't exactly sit well with the federal appeals court judge who ordered the obama justice department to explain just what the administration thinks the federal courts can and cannot do

when it comes to health care reform and ruling on it. this judge is clearly angry. listen to this. >> i would like to have from you by noon on thursday, that's about 48 hours from now, a letter stating what is the position of the attorney general and the department of justice. in regard to the recent statements by the president, stating specifically and in detail in reference to those statements what the authority is of the federal courts in this regard in terms of judicial review. >> at the white house today, the president's top spokesman was not surprisingly bombarded with questions and spent at least half an hour playing defense. cnn's chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin was there. jess, it was really a heated briefing at the white house today. jay carney, the president's spokesman did not admit at all that the president had

overstepped, right? >> that's right. he made no such admission, gloria. he was -- the president said specifically on the president's words that it would be unprecedented for the court to overturn a law passed by a democratically elected congress. since 1803, the supreme court has been empowered to do exactly that. conservative commentators and this lower court has suggested that it was bullying by the president to suggest otherwise. today, carne did a little fancy footwork saying what the president really meant was that it would be unprecedented for the court to overturn any law related to commerce and the economy. so he was sort of reframing the president's original remarks, which is what the president also did when he updated his remarks in his comments yesterday but, again, this is a little bit of parsing and what's really going on here is exactly that, sort of

walking back and reframing, adding more nuance to the original comments by the president, which were a little bit messy, gloria. >> in the position when you are the spokesman to walk back something the president said, right? thanks so much. and joining me now, jay seculo, chief counsel for the american law and justice and jeffrey toobin, cnn's legal political analyst. jeff, will et me start with you. did the president make a mistake in seeming to warn the court that it had better leave health care reform alone? >> that's not what he said. he said he thought the law was constitutional and he is, among other things, a citizen of the united states with first amendment rights. >> he is not just an average citizen. >> of course, he is not what he said was, i think the law is constitutional. which he is perfectly entitled to say. most people who know the law

agree with him. i just think it was entirely appropriate for what he said. >> jay? >> gloria, i disagree with my friend, jeff, in this context. number one, it wasn't just saying the law was unconstitutional. the president of the united states said nine unelected judges were making this decision and it would be an act of judicial active sicism if they to strike the law unconstitutional. yeah, talking about the train wreck and the airplane wreck, i think what they did this week was complicate the wreck even more and continued that especially as they got to a situation where the president was trying to backtrack on what he said. i don't think that sits well with courts. >> first of all, i give the supreme court a lot more credit than thinking they are deciding their case based on what barack obama says in the rose garden. they are nine unelected justices. >> they are all unelected. >> that's a factual statement. marbury versus madison said that

courts have rights to declare laws unconstitutional. that's clearly correct. nothing he said would conflict with it. >> he said it would be an act of judicial activism. that's when the court creates a law or right that doesn't exist. how is it judicial if five justices decide this law is unconstitutional. i am with you. when they get back there, they may vote. we don't know how it will go. five justices strike it down as united states constitutional. are you going to say it is an act of judicial activism? >> mine may be different than yours when the judicial branch overturns the will of the people as reflected in the acts of their elected representatives. it may be good or bad but that's judicial activism. >> let's take a step back for a moment. isn't the basic problem here that people now believe that the court is political? we did a cnn poll about half of the public thinks that the court

makes political decisions. maybe this goes back to bush versus gore. isn't the problem that they don't think the court is above politics anymore? >> you know what i would describe the people's attitude, correct. it is a political body. it does respond to politics. i don't see any problem with recognizing the reality of what's going on here. >> jeff, here is the problem. your definition of judicial activism, if the court rules in a way you don't like, they are judicial activists. that's not the way it works. if a court declares a law unconstitutional and five justices decides that's the way it is going to be, you may not like the opinion, you may think it is wrong, that's not what judicial activism is. the big mistake was the president of the united states was the one that pol it sized this in front of two foreign dignitaries, lecturing the supreme court of the united states saying judicial activists. does he have the right to say

what he wants, yes but there are consequences to the statement. >> my bugaboo is that huge pieces of legislation should not be passed along party lines as health care reform was. it is not my original thought. it is senator daniel patrick monahan's thought. isn't that part of the problem? no matter what happens now, it is going to be suspect because it is regarded as partisan legislation. >> the president made the statement that when he made the statement about the unelected judges, he said this was passed with wide support, which is not actually correct. it was not wide support. it barely got through, literally by a vote. i think we have to respect the institution of the supreme court. elections have consequences. the president gets to nominate the justices to the supreme court of the united states. that's the way the constitution is set up for good reason. >> and jeff will say it is judicial activism. we will have to have this debate gern. thanks so much to both of you. some of rick santorum's

friends are saying, maybe it is time to get out and get ready for 2016. you will hear the candidate's answer. later, wild tornadoes this destructive didn't kill anyone. all right, let's decide what to

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now to the wild race for president, never mind the calendar and delegate, game on for mitt romney and obama in what looks like a brutal fight for the white house. the president took the first shots. today, romney hit back and hard. >> he wants us to reelect him so we can find out what he can actually do. with all the challenges the nation faces, this is not the time for president obama's hide-and-seek campaign. >> now, cnn's dana bash was there. pretty tough words. it really was a different mitt romney, gloria. the candidate we saw for months and months tried tying himself into a pretzel trying to convince voters he was conservative. he was gone. written in a big way for him to look and sound like the party's

nominee. he gave us a peek you heard in the sound bite against the strategy of the president going into the fall. specifically, the president doesn't stand for anything. his ideas are flexible. he is out of touch. does that sound familiar? >> it sounds a little familiar. they are each calling each other out of touch. >> he was also very specific in criticizing the president on entitlements of all things. a republican bragging that he has a plan on social security and medicare. >> exactly. the point he is making is that the president isn't giving specifics. he has got to then follow up with specifics and that is what he did. he was talking about the fact that he wants to raise the retirement age for medicare recipients and get people with higher incomes to have fewer benefits. he also hit the president on what he isn't proposing. take a listen. >> i would be willing to consider the president's plan. but he doesn't have one. that's right. three-and-a-half years later, he

has failed to enact or even propose a serious plan to solve the intelment crisis. >> he also even made fun of him self saying that people are amused by the fact that he has a 59-point economic plan. at least i have a plan. he said, give me a break, we have some plans they are just philosophically different. >> he was surprisingly specific and out front on some controversial things. >> despite going 0 for 3 in tuesday's presidential primaries. rick santorum turned up in the home state insisting he is still a viable candidate. he turned aside speculation he is getting advice to drop out now and wait his turn until 2016. >> next time, you haven't talked to my wife have ousually. >> for all intents and purposes, next time around. >> you didn't hear what i said. you haven't talked to my wife

about next time. >> there isn't going to be a next time. >> the last thing we are thinking about is next time. >> john brayben, a senior adviser to the santorum campaign is with us now. thanks for being with us tonight. i have to be blunt tonight. you took a very big shellacking last night. lots of republicans coming out and saying, it is time for rick santorum to consider giving it up. listen to what john mccain said and you will respond on the other side. >> mitt romney has already pivoted to the general election campaign that whether rick san forum stays in or not, it is now base xli irrelevant and mitt has a lot of ground to make up. it has been a very nasty primary. it was unfavorables are high. i am confident he will do very well but the fact is that every day that goes by without being in the general election campaign mode is a day lost. >> so what's your response.

he called your candidate irrelevant. >> look, i have a great deal of respect for senator mccain, a great american and also a moderate. i am sure he gravitates towards a moderate like mitt romney. based on the presidential race of four years ago, we saw that didn't go real well. i'm not sure senator mccain is the right one to be putting out political advice. i think you have to remember one other thing. rick santorum with half the state's voting has won 11 of them. in delegates, two others that he tied, michigan and alaska. we only have played half the game. if everybody was saying this about mitt romney caring so much about beating barack obama, why didn't he spend his 55 million in superpac money attacking obama instead of fellow republicans. >> just by saying these things, aren't you hurting mitt romney if he looks like he is going to be the nominee? doesn't that bother you that you might be hurting the republican chances? >> when he was spending $20

million in negative ads, he was also hurting us. we are all republicans. whoever is going to be the nominee, we are going to rally together behind. one thing i will say about barack obama, he is a great unifier. he will unify his entire opposition in november and i believe republicans will win. >> i want to read to you something that a friend of senator santorum's said. republican state sen for jake corpsman, in pennsylvania, he said of santorum, he is a real list. he doesn't have his head in the clouds. he won't stay in it to prove a point. if it gets to the point where he doesn't think he will be the nominee, he will get out. are you hearing that message from friends? >> well, no. we are hearing that message in our own heads. he believed that barack obama had to be beat.

the best too do it is a conservative. who didn't agree with the bailouts and didn't agree with cap and trade. we have these big differences. clearly, we think we offer a strong contrast. >> if you were to lose pennsylvania in the popular vote or the delegate count, is that the moment? >> we need pennsylvania, it is critical for us, no doubt about it. it is our home state. mitt romney had all his home states. we have pennsylvania. we also have to win some of the states in may that do line up. >> you have to get to may. >> absolutely. pennsylvania has to give us that momentum. i think that if we can win pennsylvania, we will get a lot of momentum going into may. if we win texas with its delegates, you have a different ball game. >> if you don't win pennsylvania, you will drop out? >> i am not going to go that

far. i think it is critical for us and either nominee to win pennsylvania and texas. >> do you think you are living in an alternate universe here, that everybody is talking about mitt romney and barack obama and you are still talking about rick santorum? >> well, you know,here is what i do know. i know that rick santorum offers a much better contrast with barack obama. i do know this ace well. rick santorum has won more than twice as many counties. he can't win in the south. i think he brings along blue collar voters, rural voters, southern voters. in that way, he becomes a much better matchup with barack obama. if conservatives are serious about this, it is time for people like newt gingrich to unite behind santorum and take gingrichs delegates and put behind him and get a real conservative as our nominee. >> we will see you in pennsylvania, i bet. >> looking forward to, gloria, take care. >> thanks a lot.

how can one of the most prestigious golf clubs in the world get away with this policy of no women allowed. even if she is a ceo. also the kick off of what you might call, the keith olbermann apology tour. stay with us.

welcome back. here is kate bolduan with the latest news you need to know right now. hello, everyone. headlines to catch you up on. the man accused of orchestrating

the 9/11 terrorist attacks will face the death penalty charges. khalid shaikh mohammed and four others will be arraigned at naval station guantanamo bay. president obama stopped charges filed in 2008 while trying to close the detention center and move the case to a federal court in new york. five former new orleans police officers were sentenced today to between six and 65 years in prison for shooting an unarmed civilians after hurricane katrina. the ex-officers were convicted for multiple civil rights violations, including killing two victims on the bridge after the 2005 hurricane. a judge says he hopes it will give the victims' families peace and closure. check out the frightening pictures. a 65-foot yacht was engulfed in flames off of malibu, california. the coast guard put out the fire. investigators say there is still

no word on what started the blaze. an expensive one at that. keith olbermann told "david letterman" that he takes the blame for his public ousting as a current tv host. i screwed up really big on this. let's just start there. >> all right. >> i thought we could do this. it is my fault that it didn't succeed in the sense that i didn't think the whole thing through. >> olbermann's apology lost steam a little bit, though, when he compared himself to a $10 million chandelier without a house. it is the liberal host's second abrupt termination in the past 15 months. i am sheer we will hear very soon where he will be ending up. >> i am sort of stumped on the $10 million chandelier part. >> when it takes you a long time to explain your analogy after your analogy, you might have lost them. >> a little tough on that one.

thanks a lot, kate. we will see you later it. up next, we are going ahead to texas to assess the damage from the devastating tornadoes. we are going to share a survivor story with you. it was a very close call. [ male announcer ] this is genco services -- mcallen, texas. in here, heavy rental equipment in the middle of nowhere,

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this half hour, violent texas homs devastated neighborhoods. happily and miraculously, it seems everyone survived.

we are asking how. mitt romney and president obama slinging insults and only 216 days to election day. in case you are counting, this slugfest is on. what will it take to see a woman wearing a green masters jacket. tonight, a mounting pressure over a male only policy at a prestige just golf club. more than 600 homs were damaged or destroyed in those raging texas tornadoes. some of them were utterly flattened. there is nothing left but piles of wood and tons of trash. rescuers are still searching to make sure no one is trapped. thankfully, no deaths have been reported so far. still, there were lots of close calls. ed lauvendar spoke to one woman who said her toddler grandson

was almost swept away by a twitter. >> i saw the tornado coming across this field. >> reporter: sherry was looking out her bedroom window when she first saw the vicious tornado gaining steam and advancing headed in this direction right at her. she was home along with her 19-month-old grandson and two other children. she was babysitting. she rushed them into the bathroom. she could feel her grandson getting ribbed from her arms. >> the wind pretty much took him for a second and i grabbed him back, to keep the wind. >> did you feel like he was getting sucked out of the house? >> yes, right out of my arms. i grabbed him back and put him back to my chest. i didn't know if he was okay or not. >> where did you say the bathtub was? >> reporter: sherry's home exploded all around her. now, she can't even find the bathtub that protected her. >> underneath the tool box. >> reporter: how did you get out of there? >> a man helped me. i asked him. i said, i was screaming, because i couldn't get out.

i had my grandson in my hands and looking for the others. just scratches, a little knot. >> reporter: they all walked away with only a few bruises and scratches. only the grand baby's house was salvaged. from here, the tornado continued shredding its way through this neighborhood. from this vantage point, you can see the trail of mangled debris left in its path. what strikes you as you walk around this neighborhood in forney texas is the inses saint sound of home alarms still blaring. the intruder here was a fierce and powerful twister. >> incredibly, no one was killed in the outbreak. the wave of storms left behind unforgettable images capturing the tornado's furry. watch this video shot seconds before the tornado swooped out of the sky into this neighborhood in arlington, texas. listen to the wind, the howling.

>> reporter: mike chambers had to run inside and saw what the tornado did to a neighbor's house right across the street. gloria, the day after these wicked storms, it has been a beautiful day. the cleanup process begins here. you can see what is left of this home. you go down here along the line. about two houses down from here, half the house, the kitchen and the living room blown off the foundation as well. this is a neighborhood that took a strong direct hit from this tornado that came through here in the town of forney, texas. many people still grateful that they are able to live and talk about it. gloria. >> ed, thanks so much. cnn meteorologist chad myers

is standing by. we just saw ed standing in one of the worst hit areas, forney, as he mentioned. show us what this neighborhood looked like before and what it looks like now. >> gloria, this was a well-built neighborhood, well-built structures, many of them had brick facades obviously on top of the wooden structure itself. this is the neighborhood. there is the school that didn't get hit as the tornado went right through the neighborhood. that home right there doesn't even exist anymore. here is what it looked like before. these are all bing maps, maps you can look at at home. this is obviously before the grass was planted in many of the areas. that's the house that ed was standing right by. that house literally doesn't exist anymore. it is just about gone. it continued to go on through here, right through the neighborhood. you can see these are two, three-story structures. all the way back, there must be 5,000 square foot homs in the neighborhood, obviously very well built. let me show you now from the

aerial view what this neighborhood looks like as this now looks like an f-3 tornado that rolled right over the well-built structures. most of them do not have the top floor on anymore. every single one has some type of wall still standing on the lower level. that's where people survive. that's why we tell you, get to the lowest level, do not stay up on top. on the second floor. get to the lowest level. get to the basement if you have one. all these houses are on slabs. there are no basements here at all. the slabs, if you get down to the lowest level away from the windows is the best thing to do. people have asked me all day long, how did no one die in this tornado? my only answer. i got this from my producer, sean, was from what he could tell or see, no mobile home parks were hit by these tornadoes, because if a 1

150-mile-an-hour wind hits a mobile home, it won't stand up. >> and maybe a few miracles to boot. to find out how you can help those affected by the texas tornadoes, go to cnn/impact and there you will find the organizations and ways you can help those in need. that's cnn.com/impact. today could have been the okay that the augusta national golf course made history by admitting its first female member. well, it didn't happen. instead, the chairman of the club that hosts america's most prestigious golf tournament avoided the issue. here is what he had to say about admitting the female ceo of ibm, a chief sponsor. >> well, as has been the case, mike, whenever that question is asked, all issues of membership are now and have been historically subject to private deliberations of the members. that statement remains accurate

and remains my statement. >> well, that is not much of an answer. i spoke just a little while ago to christine brennan, sports columnist for "usa today." why are we even having this conversation about whether a golf club will admit women, particularly the ceo of a major corporation? >> that's a great question. it is something that, as i said when i first asked the question in '99, i figured in a couple years, they would have a woman member. it really is mind-boggling considering the man we are talking about here billy payne, before he became chairman of augusta national, he ran the olympics. those in 1996 are known as the women's olympics. on his watch, women's soccer, swimming, basketball, some great strides for women in sports. billy is proud of that. i have known him for 25 years.

he is a sound of music fan. we have talked about that. he seems like the modern guy. he puts on a green jacket and he is somebody that i have no idea who he is. >> isn't this now a little easier for them than it was nine years ago because ginnir rometi is not making a big stink about it. does this in a way make it easier for them to change the way they have operated? >> gloria, you are absolutely right. ginni is one of their own. she is the ceo of ibm. she is one of them. this is not a journalist asking a question and billy can swat it away like he did today. this is not martha burke, a determined outsider with who was completely right. this is not causing trouble from the outside of the gates. this is one of them. jenny r

jenny rometty is the ceo. why wouldn't you want to have the ceo of ibm to be a member of your club. these guys want to keep these antiquated views? it will lessen the value of their club if they keep this going. >> we are going to have to watch for the ultimate fashion statement which will be whether she shows up in a green jacket one of these days. >> that's exactly right, thanks, gloria. coming up with the republican race for the nomination still going on, mitt romney turns his fire on president obama and what he calls his hide-and-seek campaign. after losing 24 contests, is rick santorum considering bowing out. stay with us. well, online dating services can get kind of expensive.

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you are looking at live pictures in mitt romney's rally. earlier today, romney fired back at the president saying that obama was hiding his true agenda from the american public. >> he wants us to reelect him so we can find out what he wille actually do. with all the challenges the nation faces, this is not the time for president obama's hide-and-seek campaign. joining us to discuss this bruising preview of the general general election and more,

deputy "time" bureau chief michael crowley, maria cardona and romney adviser kevin madden. thanks to all of you for being here. i'll get right to you, kevin, on this. so what's with the hide and seek? this is a theme that seems to be emerging. what does he mean by that? >> well, look, the country faces great challenge, whether it's spending and deficit that we've seen pile up under the president's leadership. and we've also seen a number of issues related to the economy that the president has now led on, namely entitlement reform. republicans are putting out very specific ideas about their vision for the future and what it would do to put the country on track and the president hasn't stepped up to the plate and hasn't worked with democrats or republicans on capitol hill to confront these big challenges. that's going to be one of the big choices voters face in november. >> that's what was so interesting to me about his speech today and i'll give this to you, marie avmt he was very specific on what he would do on

entitlement programs and also hit the president pretty hard on entitlements. take a listen. >> how in the world can you be running for president -- can you be president as well and not have put forward a plan to make sure that medicare and social security are solvent? >> there is no plan from this white house on making medicare and social security solvent, is there? >> actually, the president already talked about how you do medicare, and it's actually done through health care reform. he saved billions of dollars on medicare. he has actually put forth a plan several times, state of the union, in his budget, that balances the budget, not on the backs of working class families and middle class families the way that mitt romney's plan does and puts investments where we need them to be in order to continue to create jobs and continue on the path of economic growth that this president started, thanks to the recession that he was handed that, frankly, the policies that mitt romney wants to embrace were responsible for that recession in the first place. so i think he's in a good place with voters.

>> yeah, and i think that it's true that the president hasn't -- there's not kind of a nice published thick plan that there is the budget but some of the details on entitlements the president has not committed to paper. what the white house would say and it's a reasonable answer is he really did try to work with republicans on capitol hill. they tried to have a grand bargain. it seems like john boehner could not deliver the tea party. it's not as though the president has sat back an thrown his hands up in the air. he has made a good faith effort. i think kevin would quibble with some of the details but i think he has. on health care, what happened when he tried to control health care cost? death panels. romney said in a recent interview, if you get too specific, you get distorted, so it's tricky. >> they are hitting the democrats for cutting medicare. >> so we have the hide and seek campai campaign. now both sides are accusing each other of being out of touch. just listen to this quickly and

we'll get your view on that. >> we have to win here and we plan on winning here. you know, as i said last night, the people in pennsylvania know me. you know, all of the -- all of the negative attacks are, i think, going to fall on a lot of deaf ears here. we have a strong base of support here. we're going to work very, very hard. >> okay, that's not our sound bite about out of touch, but it was rick santorum saying that he's going to stay in the race. >> which is somewhat out of touch, arguably. >> i'll let michael make that argument. >> that's a good segue but i want to get back to the out of touch thing for a moment. so you have somebody who says his wife drives a couple of cadillacs calling the president out of touch because he flies around on air force one with, quote, true believers. can we call it a draw here or not? >> look, i think you're talking about small things, anecdotes versus very big things. the challenge that this white

house has and this president has is taking a message to the american public that says over 8% unemployment is the new normal and we're going to kind of plod along at 2% to 3% growth and that is the best america can do. and i think that sets up very perfectly for governor romney to come in and say, look, the american economy is not living up to its full potential. this president will tell you it is. i have a vision, i have a plan forward that's going to put the country back on track economically and deliver more economic growth. that's the voice that's going to be before voters. >> we are running out of time. very quick, very quick. >> if mitt romney's only criticism is out of touch, it's like i'm rubber, you're glue, and it's not credible. >> that is small and it's going to be a very big debate. >> the president was arguing that the economy could be worse now. romney has the burden of saying it could be better. i think it's a hard argument for romney to make. >> not with an aspirational american public. >> last word. we'll have to bring you guys

back, sorry about that. coming up, skreemcreams of as officers pepper spray student protesters in california. what happened in the moments leading up to this ugly scene. stay with us. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. ♪

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see life in the best light. [music] transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it's meant to be seen. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses. here's kate with the latest news you need to know right now. >> hello again, everyone. just in to bring this to you, the jetblue pilot who had to be restrained by passengers because he was ranting about a bomb may not be mentally competent to stand trial. a hearing for clayton osbon is

postponed until next week while he undergoes psychiatric evaluation. in other headlines, dozens of california college students were doused with pepper spray while protesting a plan that would quadruple tuition for some classes. this was the scene outside a poured of trustees meeting at santa monica college. three students were sent to the hospital but the school says it needs the money because of a very big state budget crunch. investigators at the centers for disease control and prevention are looking into the source of a salmonella outbreak. more than 90 people have gotten sick in dozens of states since late january. the cdc says victims have reported eating sushi and similar foods before becoming ill. i always like to say so sorry if you're in the middle of dinner, everyone. >> i know, an i love sushi. >> well, just be careful. >> i will. i promise you i will. and that's all from us tonight. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. historyls