won. the year before, ball state. this coming year, it could be you. so log on before midnight tonight. >> brian: all right. make it a great day, everybody. stay tuned for the after the show show coming up in a matter of seconds. want to start with a fox news alert. guess who is back in the hot seat? the nation's top law enforcer, eric holder about to face questions in his own "fast and furious" matter. in 25 minutes the attorney general facing lawmakers what he knew about that gun running operation that started in arizona, stretched into mexico. that's where we start. i'm bill hemmer. a busy morning ahead for the next two hours. how are you doing? martha: good morning. i'm martha maccallum. it is a big day on capitol hill. eric holder is accused of misleading congress about when he learned about all the information that became a huge mess. bill: fast an furious is linked to violent crimes including the murder of u.s. border patrol agent brian

terry. william la jeunesse leads the coverage what do we expect, william? >> reporter: the attorney general will say he is against and never endorsed helping run guns to mexico. he will say his office has been fully cooperative. you will hear from congressman lamar smith, chairman. judiciary committee from texas, congressman issa from california, jason chaffetz and say that is not true. that attorney general eric holder has not been transparent or cooperative. in fact those e-mails we received on friday friday, that 1400 pages that dealt exclusively with production of one letter. leaders are saying they're not getting access to the line attorneys who ran the program and gang unit in washington that were aware of "wide receiver" and "fast and furious". we knew they were running guns in "wide receiver", if you will, and some are accused of not making the connection between these two operations were really associated.

basically about 500 guns have been recovered. we are not getting specifics about when and how, what crimes were used with those guns. you have the theatrics of it, bill and martha. eric holder has been through this before. he is pretty good at doing this. and yet you have you poke the tiger so many times you will get a swat. at times he is seen as arrogant or dismissive. you have theatrics as well as substance what will be happening. bill: some have called for holder to resign. we have calls for another top official at justice to resign. who is that, william? >> reporter: lanny breuer is head of the criminal division. some would argue he is the number two man at justice. he basically admitted he made mistakes in this that he knew of gun running in "wide receiver" but didn't bring it up even when the whistle-blowers came forward said it was happening he had a duty to say yeah, this is a problem and it should have been included in this letter that was written to

congress. yesterday charles grassley of iowa said, listen it is time for him to step down. not only did he not speak up but number two he misled congress about reviewing the letter. there is e-mail chain, four e-mails that went to lanny breuer he did not at mitt knowing about and for that reason charles grassley says he should go down. holder expressed confidence in him. that is the biggest issue here, bill, confidence and credibility of the attorney general's office. bill: thank you, william la jeunesse with that from l.a. martha with more here in new york. martha: we'll take a little look back how all this started. back in 2006, the atf created a program called project gunrunner. the whole mission was to try to stop the flow of weapons into mexico from the u.s. in 2009 agents allowed suspects to walk away with nearly 2000 weapons from the united states back into mexico and the whole reason for this was that they would track

those guns that they let so-called walk into mexico in order to find out who was running these big smuggling networks in the drug cartels. the operation was known as "fast and furious". what happened though was the atf lost track of 3/4 of the guns that were sold and last december it ended tragically for border patrol agent brian terry who was killed by suspected smugglers and at least two of the assault rifles that were found at that scene were traced back to the ones that were lost in the this misguided mission. bill: all that takes us to a few moments from now where iowa congressman steve king, a republican on the house judiciary committee. he will join us live to tell us what he wants to know today from eric holder. you can also watch the entire hearing. it will be streaming live at foxnews.com. we'll have headlines throughout the morning on that. steve king in minutes. martha: that is big news today and so is this. another very important hearing today on capitol hill. former new jersey governor,

u.s. senator, and major obama supporter jon corzine will be on capitol hill back there once again. he will testify, answer questions about how his firm lost more than a billion dollars in their clients money. boy, do those clients want that money back, folks. we hear he is not going to plead the fifth as was expected in this. stuart varney joins me now, anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. this is big trouble for mr. corzine, stuart, is it not? >> yes it is. it will be a real speckel. jon corzine already issued a 21-page statement he will read to the hearing in about a couple hours time. in that statement he says i apologize to all those affected and he says i simply do not know where the money is. he says he was stunned to learn it was missing. so he is going to avoid the public relations nightmare of pleading the fifth but will step right into legal jeopardy by answering questions.

i believe he is going to say very frequently, i simply don't recall. martha: that's what it sounds like. he says he has had limited knowledge in terms of the transactions. let's get to the basings of this, stuart for a moment. he made a huge bet for the firm on european debt. we all know european debt turned into an extremely bad investment and they lost a ton of money. that can happen with in the investment world. if you put your money with somebody, they make a bad bet and they lose it that is the risk you take when you enter into that kind of financial investment. where does the money get lost? how does that enter into all this? >> the allegation is as mf global, corzine's company was spiraling down, he used customers money illegally to prop up the firm. that would be illegal if those customers did not know that that money was being used for that purpose. that's the illegal allegation here. of course his judgement is also standing under, under pressure here.

why on earth would anybody back european bonds and hold onto those bonds over a very long period of time? that is his judgment that is at stake. it will be quite a spectacle. leading democrat, former senator, bundler for president obama he will be right there on the hot seat today. martha: potentially huge fall from grace for a man who has had very important positions in this country. thank you so much, stuart, for that. there is also information that john korz sign basically want to defend the investments from people in the firm that said this doesn't look a very good idea. he will have to answer how much he knew about this whole thing as well. hear is the background. ceo of mf global in 2010. that is his lowest profile job he had in recent history. he was the governor of new jersey recently, right before chris christie. he lost his bid for re-election to christie in 2009 in a very close race. now the tax foundation listed new jersey as the state with the worst business tax climate

throughout corzine's tenure. as governor he was also you may remember, u.s. senator. before that he was ceo of the massive investment bank that has been so much in the spotlight since the 2008 financial crisis, goldman sachs. he was there from '94 to 1999. bill: we'll watch the hearing as it gets underway. meantime new jersey governor chris christie lashing out at president obama. christie is backing mitt romney as you may recall. he is calling the president self-interested, timid politician. peter doocy is in washington watching this. what else is the governor saying? good morning, peter. >> reporter: good morning, bill. president obama has been it? the white house three full years and new jersey governor chris christie says he is late in the game to leadership. in the past america obama says says america needs to up our game. christie takes oaf phones to that.

>> we need to up our game. i would respectfully suggest that this president has ever opportunity to up his game for three years and he has been on the bench, on the bench. >>. >> reporter: governor christie who endorsed romney ahead of the presidential primary spoke half an hour before the republican jewish coalition here in washington yesterday and he hit the president hard for something critics used to harp on during the '08 election, his job experience. >> we have in the white house a president who does not have the first idea of how to use executive leadership or i believe, any significant interest in learning any time soon. >> reporter: christie added that the president's lack of depth gives him a sickening feeling, bill. bill: governor christie recently called president obama a bystander. did he say anything like that again this time, peter? >> reporter: he did. he explicitly says he does

not apologize for calling the president a bystander and he thinks the president is out of touch. >> mr. president, we need a leader who will lead us to the moment, who will help define what the challenges of meeting the moment means and then not to be cautious and safe and sit back and wait for someone else to do the hard work but to get out of your chair and start doing the hard work yourself to make america a greater place [applause] >> reporter: on top of all that christie said president obama used chicago-style politics to jam his health care bill down the throats of the american people. bill, he did not mean chicago-style politics as a compliment. bill: i take it that way out of the cook county. peter doocy in washington. martha: not like the pizza, for example. christie keeping tough talk coming at a campaign event in iowa. watch this, folks. >> chris christie and mitt romney. >> are corporate watchers. >> oh, yeah.

martha: listen to that, heckling undercurrent there. the protesters were chanting people first and they were escorted out of there. they were sort of "occupy wall street" vain in what they were chanting. the governor says he is used to it. he suggests they should look in the mirror. >> you know what, we're used to dealing with jokers like this in new jersey all the time. don't you worry about it. they represent and anger in our country that barack obama has caused. their anger is rooted in the fact that they believed in this hope and change garbage that they were sold three years ago by this president. they believed this president when he said he was going to be a transformational figure in our country and so now they're angry but they're not mature enough to know they should be angry with themselves. so they're going to be angry with me or governor romney or some of you. martha: what an interesting role he has scene on in all

of this the governor went on to say that mitt romney is the only republican candidate that can defeat the president in his opinion. of course he is out there campaigning on behalf of mitt romney. bill: see how many of these issues come up a week from day. next thursday, december 15th on the calendar is our fox news republican presidential debate. s underway at 9:00 eastern time. 6:00 for those folks on the west coast. we'll have instant analysis during the debate and live chat with our fox news contributors. find at that foxnews.com/debate. coming up here in a matter of moments texas governor and presidential candidate, rick perry stops in. we'll talk about the hot new ad in iowa why he claims the administration is declaring war on religion. iowa caucus is in 26 days. martha: he doesn't pull any punches in that ad. bill: he does not. martha: that will be interesting to talk to him about. those are a few of the many stories we have for you this morning bill and i in

"america's newsroom." we have you new developments on the missing florida mother. we'll tell you what police have now found and why they think it may help them figure out what happened to michelle parker. bill: this project would create 20,000 jobs and limit our dependence on foreign oil? so why is the administration standing in the way? we'll tell but the warning in the white house just sent to republicans on that front. martha: boy, this is a story of the day, folks. newt gingrich not only leading in iowa, how the front runner is taking the top spot by large margins in many ofthe early primary states. >> i think the president has now spent three years proving that he kills jobs and energy. he kills jobs in manufacturing. he kills jobs in virtually every part of american life. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up! ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

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this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people came to louisiana... they came to see us in florida... make that alabama... make that miissippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose... and now is a great time to discover it. this year millions of people did. we set all kinds of records. next year we're out to do even better. so come on down to louisiana... florida... alabama... mississippi. we can't wait to see you. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. martha: take a look at the economy because we just got the brand new numbers on jobs. new application, people who walked in and filed for unemployment benefits in the past week, it is a pretty good number.

381,000 people walked into apply for the benefits for the very first time last week. that is the lowest number we've seen since late february. last month we did see a pop in retail hiring that may have contributed to that better than expected number. claims really need to be consistently below 375,000 to start to show that we are in a healthy economy. that number seems to be headed in that direction. it has not been in this healthy zone since july of 2008. so that is quite a long time ago. this year new weekly jobless claims averaged 412,000 but they have been heading in a previous direction. bill: come on, america. back to our top story right now. a live look, attorney general eric holder will testify only moments away in the "fast and furious" gun-running sting. one of the lawmakers questioning holder today is iowa congressman steve king, the republican from western iowa. my next guest and well company back to "america's newsroom". >> thanks for having me

back. bill: eric holder will say the actions are inexcusable. he will also argue that his department has been fully cooperative. do you agree on both counts? >> i can't agree on both counts and i think eric holr has yet to take responsibility for this and another thing he has not done yet is to tell us and especially under oath, what's the highest level approval or authorization came from his department in operation "fast and furious"? i want to know who that is? i want to know if eric holder held that individual responsible. we knowt this point no one has been fired or no one has been disciplined. we can't identify exactly who the players are. aside from the media that is the best information i have. i want to drill into that. bill: do you expect to get those answer today, sir? >> expect he has found a legal way to talk his way around the questions knows are coming and i think we'll have to probably interrupt him a few times or the clock will run out. i hate to be disrespectful to the attorney general and others that will ask very

pointed questions as well. bill: cbs news reports there are internal e-mails from the atf that show agent after this botched gun running scheme went the way it did, badly, that there were e-mails that argued back and forth to use this for controversial new rules about gun sales. which would seem to suggest an attack on the second amendment. are you aware of these reports? is there validity to them? >> well, i'm aware of the reports and i have not checked the validity but my sense is that there was a political agenda involved in this and i take it clear back to those days when we heard some of the top officials, including hillary clinton make the statement, this is my recollection, that 90% of the guns that were recovered in mexico came from the united states. we traced that back and found it wasn't true. it was 90% of the guns that were traceable came from the united states, a number most of the guns that are

recovered there don't have cereal numbers. there has been a political agenda, anti-second amendment political agenda along here for a long time and i think "fast and furious" was to some degree a component of that. not necessarily a strategy but something enabled by philosophy that we should shut down gun ownership in the united states. bill: can you prove that. >> i don't know that i can prove that. i have questions hopefully that will bring us closer to that. it is my sense. it is political sense being involved over debates in the second amendment and engaged for nine years in this congress and sitting on judiciary committee during that period of time and dealing with immigration issues at the same time. bill: someone will answer questions on "fast and furious" in their own right. steve king. >> thank you very much, bill. bill: 20 minutes past the hour. martha: also today a major clue found in the search for a mom who disappeared after a heated fight she was in on "the people's court". is this the break that her family has been praying for? >> i'm excited because, you

know, hopefully something will come of it. hopefully there is something at can be found off of it to help locate where she is or find out who did this and but then again i'm very sad because it wasn't, it was found somewhere where it wasn't supposed to be obviously.

martha: we've got some brand new information coming in on this case that we've been following for weeks. the florida police are now confirming they have found the cell phone of this missing florida mom, michelle parker disappeared three weeks ago. it was the same day that the episode appeared she had taped with her ex-husband in the people's court. david lee miller joining us live from new york city. you got your hands on a brand new press release from the police, david lee. what are they saying? >> reporter: that's right,

martha. this could be a very significant development the finding of this cell phone. the police released some new information and photographs of the found phone and photographs of michelle parker using the phone. the police in their one-page news release said they are confirming of recovery of michelle parker's missing cell phone. they go on to say they will not disclose the date or location where it was recovered. the phone was found in remarkably good condition and currently undergoing forensic testing in hopes it will lead to evidence or data that will assist in the investigation. just moments ago i talked to the family member, michelle parker's sister, who is encouraged by this news. this iphone is essentially a computer. we all know that. it contains a gps she is optimistic it could create a break. listen. martha: is she excited? >> reporter: we have -- >> i'm excited because, you know hopefully something will come of it. hopefully there is something

that can be found off of it to find where she is or find out who did this. again i'm very sad, it was found somewhere where it wasn't supposed to be obviously so i don't know w it got there and why it got there and that's, it's a lot of emotions. >> reporter: again, police are not saying where the phone was located but michelle parker's sister disappointed that it was obviously not found with her sister. she is still being sought. the search for her continues. martha: what a mystery. david lee, thank you very much. bill: the family is going through a lot down there too, you know? so so much attention nationally. 26 minutes past the hour. it might be the biggest breakthrough for breast cancer patients in a decade. our doctor is in the house with details on that. stay tuned for that. martha: presidential candidate rick perry says he is proud to be a christian and ready to take on quote, the war against religion he says in the united states. the texas governor will be here to talk about his very

interesting new ad. bill: also republicans argue it is the most shovel-ready project in the country. if jobs are the president's number one priority why is he blocking this one? >> the politics is delaying it past the election so the president doesn't have to choose between two friends, labor, who will be the folks that will build this, or environmentalists who are fighting to kill the pipeline. fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink

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bill: as we mentioned we're awaiting attorney general eric holder back in the hot seat testifying today about that botched "fast and furious" gun running program. many lawmakers already calling for holder's resignation. many want more information on what holder knew and when he knew it. maybe that get that today. "fast and furious" guns have been linked to violent crimes here in the u.s. including the murder of u.s. border patrol agent brian terry. our conversation with steve king moments ago there are big questions on the line during that hearing. martha: we'll get to live coverage when it is underway. a very important story today. a showdown over a massive oil pipeline project has intensified in a big way this week as president obama rebuffed an attempt by house republicans to marry that controversial project with the president's payroll tax cuts which we know he wants very much. the keystone pipeline would be privately-funded. that means no taxpayer cash. it would carry oil from canned all the way down to

the gulf coast giving us a massive new resource of energy in this country. 20,000 jobs would be created that is the low end estimate. republicans are asking why the president would not support that plan and the jobs that it promises? >> any effort to try to tie keystone to the payroll tax cut i will reject. so everybody should be on notice. >> here's the single-greatest shovel-ready project in america ready to go and for some reason he is suddenly not interested. martha: that is how it is shaping up. very controversial. the white house delayed an assessment of the environmental impact. they sort of pushed this decision past the election to 2013. joined by indiana governor mitch daniels who is pushing for this pipeline. governor, good morning. great to have you with us. welcome. >> thanks, martha. >> how does this all work out in your mind? because gop house members very much want to put this

together with the payroll tax cut plan. if they don't get the tax cut plan passed everybody's taxes are going up and that is something that neither side will benefit from? >> i applaud the effort that they're making. the president is holding all the high cards here. this, and i think he has made the most discouraging in an unbroken string of anti-growth, anti-jobs decisions. this issue is so important in its own right as you said, tens of thousands of the very middle class jobs the president pretends he is interested in, thrown away for no good, valid reason. but beyond that it is emblematic of an anti-growth mentality that has pervaded this administration from the beginning and very, very discouraging. he should be permanently disqualified from using the term middle class having made the call he has made against their, directly against their interests here. martha: so obviously it would create jobs.

it would also add energy resources to this country. so why is he sticking his neck out on this and going against it? is it simply to sort of you know, please environmentalists who are against this who probably, they will vote for him anyway, right? >> i can't psycho analyze the president on this thing. that is the, i guess logical supposition. a lot of people are making he is just kissing up to those who have very extreme environmental view. i don't even know what their game is. the canadians are going to use this great new technology which is one of the best breaks that our economy has had in a long time. sudden explosion of new opportunities in both oil and natural gas. and really the, something we should be rushing to take full advantage of and, again, here comes the president opting, as he always does, against jobs and against growth.

martha: so how do you think this is going to shake out politically though? because, you know, supporters of the program, republicans primarily, are saying we're going to put this in the package. john boehner with a small group of republicans behind closed doors yesterday said this will be in our package. harry reid says there is no way they will put this in that package. how will all this end up? >> this is not a partisan thing as i understand it. i'm not in congress but every account lists dozens and dozens of democrats who know this is good for america. you have an extreme anti-jobs, really o-poverty policy on this administration. senator reid's is required to front for it but not every democrat is. so maybe they can pass it. i think it is the one ray of hope we have right now before we see tens of thousands of jobs thrown away. you know, this oil is going to be produced. the only question is whether americans benefit from it or whether it goes to asia. martha: great point. governor daniels, it's a pleasure to have you with us

this morning. we hope you come back and see us again soon on a very important topic. have a great day. >> thanks very much. bill: let's go from indiana our nation's capitol right now. eric holder in is room with the house judiciary committee. this is a hearing about to get underway what eric holder knew and when he knew it with regard to operation "fast and furious". eric holder said the actions of the u.s. government are inexcusable allowing guns to walk from arizona into mexico. holder's going to argue he has been fully cooperative. we talked with steve king, the republican from iowa. he is on that judiciary committee a moment ago. he has plenty of answers and does expect to have multiple interruptions with the attorney general if he is not getting the answers that he is pursuing. one member of congress described this hearing as "fast and furious" in its own right given the questions and answers back and forth. william la jeunesse

reporting over the weekend about these internal e-mails with agents from the atf after the botched gun-running scheme was discovered and the border agent was killed, they talked about in e-mail form about controversial new rules regarding gun sales which would seem to suggest some sort of assault on the second amendment. we expect, according to congressman king, for that topic to come up as when this hearing gets underway. martha: one of the most interesting things here if he didn't know about it, is that evidence of incompetency? if he did know about it, then he misled on it what he knew and when. that is the biggest issue at the central point of all this. we expect eric holder to get very tough questions. bill: we've seen him in hearings before and it appears to be building to moments like these. some members of congress already suggested eric holder should resign. others are holding their fire, keeping their, keeping their powder dry at the moment on that call. we'll see whether or not that changes in the number

requesting resignation throughout the day, depending what holder says here. martha: charles grassley called for the resignation of the assistant attorney general lanny breuer as well as the numbers have gone into the 20, 30 something perhaps members of congress who said they would call for his resignation based on this. let's listen in. >> -- including questions about his previous testimony. while i am pleased to welcome back attorney general holder i am disappointed in the department's repeated refusal to cooperate with this committee's oversight requests. this lack of cooperation is evident in the department's handling of inquiries related to the bureau of alcohol, tobacco firearms and explosives operation "fast and furious" and the death of border patrol agent brian terry in december 2010. and inconsistent statements from department officials about who knew what and when have only raised more concerns. i'm also disappointed in how the department has responded to my oversight request

regarding justice kagan's involvement in health care legislation or related litigation while she served as united states solicitor general. despite claims from obama administration officials that then solicitor general kagan was walled off from discussions regarding the president's health care law, recently released e-mails indicate there may be more to the story. on march 21st, 2010, an e-mail from the deputy solicitor general forwarded to solicitor general kagan contained information about a meeting at the white house on the health care law and asked, i think you should go. no, i will regardless but feel this is litigation of singular importance. solicitor general kagan responded by asking him for his phone number. we also know from the e-mails that she personally supported the legislation's passage in a march 21st, 2010 exchange with the justice department colleague discussing the health care

legislation, ms. kagan ex-claims, i hear they have the votes, larry. simply amazing. these e-mails reveal inconsistencies with the administration's claims that then solicitor general kagan was walled off from the issue. to help clear up any confusion i wrote the justice department to get additional documents and conduct staff interviews. it took nearly four months before the department sent a one-page response that denied my request. the department did not assert any legal privilege over the requested information but simply refused to comply with the request. that is not a sufficient answer. health care legislation was passed by the senate on december 24th, 2009. on january 8, 2010, ms. kagan told the deputy solicitor general, that she definitely would like the office of the solicitor general to be involved in preparations to defend

against challenges to the pending health care proposals the. bill: we are underway in this hearing now. we're waiting for the relevant remarks from attorney general eric holder. so stay tuned for that. also as we wait on that we'll talk to a presidential hopeful who is very close to this topic himself based on his home state of texas. martha: indeed he is in the state of texas. he also has a serious message, rick perry does, for president obama. he will be joining us. we'll show you a really new controversial new ad he put out and ask him about that when he jos us live here in "america's newsroom" just a few minutes away. stay with us. bill: this day of sightseeing over the hoover dam ends with a horrifying helicopter crash. an update from the scene just east of las vegas. >> we have had emergency landing but i don't know the last time we had an aircraft crash of this nature in the park. ears? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert

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[ female announcer ] re pollution from power plants means more childhood asthma attacks. [ labored breathing ] there's technology that makes the air cleaner, but too many plants don't use it. we can't wait. epa must update power plant standards to protect our kid [ baby coughing ] bill: back to our hearing now on the hill. we're awaiting eric holder

to begin his testimony there. when that happens we'll bring that to you live. in the meantime republican presidential hopeful rick perry is live with me out of the charleston, south carolina. governor, welcome back to "america's newsroom.". >> thank you, bill. bill: thank you for your time this morning. on "fast and furious". you're a border governor yourself. you've already called for eric holder to step down, to resign from his position. what do you believe is the truth behind "fast and furious"? >> well, here's a greater problem for me is that earlier in the year you had president obama that came to el paso, texas and proclaimed that the border was safer than it had ever been before. then we found out, i knew that was not the truth for the last 10 years we've been dealing with the border and doing everything that we can as a state to secure it. sheriff arpaio and i were together just this last we can talk about the challenges that we face as border states and he as a sheriff, myself as a

governor, i put the texas ranger recon teams, the national guard. we surged our law enforcement, spent over $400 million of texas taxpayer money to try to secure sectors of that border. so the border is not safe and then we find out that we have an attorney general who's involved with the pure irresponsible act from my perspective of sending these weapons in with the idea that somehow or another that will help them break up these drug cartels. all they were doing was supplying weapons that now we know were used to kill one of our own law enforcement individuals. so, you know, resignation would be the lightest thing that i could think of. this president, the buck stops at the president's desk. he is the individual who is responsible and should know exactly what is going on that border. so either it is a gross act of irresponsibility to go to the border and say how safe

it is, or, there's gross incompetence from the standpoint knowing what your attorney general is doing. either way, unacceptable leadership. bill: all right. you were in south carolina. you know the caucus in iowa is in 26 days from today. you're on the air -- >> i will be there tonight. bill: you will later tonight in iowa? >> yes, sir. bill: you're on the air already, some would say a powerful ad that goes toward what you consider liberal attacks on religion in america. i want our viewers to watch a portion of that now. >> i'm not ashamed to admit that i'm a christian but you don't need to be in the pew every sunday to know there is something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate christmas and pray in school. as president i will end obama's war on religion. bill: what do you mean by that last phrase, obama's war on religion, governor? >> if you sit down with the bishops and archbishops of

catholic church they can give you very clear understanding of how this administration has gone after their charitable operations on whether it's trafficking in individuals or whether it's those hospitals and those clinics that choose not to do abortions because they have a conscious reason not to and it is their belief and faith not to give those aborings. so -- abortions. so there is a clear attack on the catholics in particular from that perspective but when you think about the left in general which the president obviously is a great part of, not allowing our kids to pray in school, not allowing to celebrate christmas, i mean the idea that the left continues to send the message of listen, we, our first amendment right is freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. and that's what the left has

tried to do is to force all of us who are people of faith to basically say, you can't be involved in the public arena. and that is just wrong. bill: critics would argue attack on gays in america and say you're pandering to conservatives whether in south carolina right now or iowa later tonight. what would you say to them, governor? >> i would say nothing's changed in my life. i've always been an individual of faith. i've been a person who stood up and said, listen, somebody's values are going to make the decisions in the public arena. the question is going to be who's values. i happen to think people of faith should be engaged daily in that debate, in that conversation so that the values that this country was founded upon, judeo-christian values are making the decisions in washington, d.c. that are impacting this country. bill: 30 seconds. lightning round. is the trump debate a good idea or not? >> well i'm going to be

right in the middle of a bus tour, so we're having that discussion right now whether or not. there is lots of debates. i understand why everybody is involved with it. bill: why is newt gingrich surging? >> well we've had a lot of surges. i think there has been four of us who led in the polls. wait a week. it is kind of like texas weather. wait a week, it will change. bill: we'll see whether or not it changes. if you could hit the restart button on your campaign, what would you change? >> well i think we have hit the restart button and you're going to see not only a very clear and concise policy, set of policies coming out that we've laid out over the last five weeks but the last 20 plus days in iowa are going to be very hard-hitting. we'll spend a lot of time in retail campaigning. bill: rick perry, we'll see you in iowa and along the way. >> thanks, bill. take care of yourself. godspeed. yes, sir. bill: martha. martha: exciting news today, breast cancer experts are

calling this one of the biggest advances in over a decade. what they are now saying about two new drugs that could help millions of women. stay tuned. that's coming up

martha: very exciting news today. researchers are saying that this could be the biggest breakthrough in breast cancer treatment in a decade. two new medications that are showing big promise for extending a patient's life. i'm happy to be joined by dr. richard fershein director of the center for comprehensive medicine in new york city. doctor, welcome. we don't have a lot of time so let's get right to it. what are the new drugs and who can they help? >> the drugs were recently tested. the first works by blocking

a specific rescepter in the body just as afinitor. it has been used in the past to treat organ transplant rejection. both medications are on the market. what we found they both significantly improved survival time in the most difficult to treat patients, those cancer patients with metastatic disease. martha: how readily available are these drugs? >> the great news both of these drugs are available and on the market. doctors can start using them right now in the case of the drug that is used with herceptin, these are drugs that actually block the her-2 receptor, these particular proteins are responsible for one in five metastatic, most aggressive forms of cancer. they're available right now. it actually works by improving the way the body handles these canners, blocks the angio genesis, the way body produces new blood vessels.

that stops the cancer in its track. the other drug blocks estrogen receptors. what the studies did take the two medications add them to currently available drugs on the market and found they work synergisticly by. martha: double-whammy. good news. doctor, thank you so much. patients and families cult your doctors whether these drugs are red dillry available. >> big story. one of the most important advances in the last 10 years. martha: wonderful news. doctor, great to have you with it today, thank you. >> thank you. bill: medicine is amazing. thank you, doctor. darrell issa is finished talking. he it was heated going back and forth. the hearing is underway on the hill. martha? martha: hear is the other top story. newt gingrich adding to a lead in many battleground states. mitt romney's camp trying to take him on. more on this very intense race coming up. we'll be right back.

like many chefs today, i feel the best approach to food is to keep it whole for better nutrition. and that's what they do with great grains cereal. see the seam on the wheat grain? same as on the flake. because great grains steams and bakes the actual whole grain. now check out the other guy's flake. hello, no seam. because it's more processed. now, which do you suppose has better nutrition for you? mmm. great grains. the whole whole grain cereal.

martha: fox news alert, some fireworks as america's chief law enforcer is in the process of getting grilled right now on capitol hill. attorney general eric holder testifying before the house judiciary committee. lawmakers demanding answers on the botched gun running sting known as fast and furious. as calls for eric holder's resignation are growing louder by the name. i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer, good morning, everybody. a scathing from republicans, lamar smith, darrell issa moments ago about what the attorney general knew and when over a gun running sting gone haywire. >> i'm pleased to welcome back eric holder. i am disappointed in the

department's repeated refusal to cooperate with this committee's oversight request. this lack of cooperation is evident in the department's handling of inquiries related to alcohol, tobacco and explosives, operation fast and furious and the death of border patrol agent brian terry in december, 2010. any consistent statements from department officials about who knew what and when have only raised more concerns. >> mr. attorney general i respect the fact that you said in the senate that you gave truthful testimony, but i would like to hear when a few days becomes a few weeks or a few weeks becomes a few months, are we to have the confidence that the president he says he has in you and the many people up and down the chain of command at justice who saw this program, this operation, and let it happen? martha: that is only the beginning, folks. this is ongoing. rich lowrey joins me, editor of

the national review. what do you make of this so far? >> i think eric holder is in trouble. i think the administration would be very reluctant to let him go. he's close friends with the president. just the way this feels to me, martha, i think someone is going to have to go and the guy who seems most likely to be on the chopping block is the top deputy lanny brewers who has his fingerprints over this letter that was sent to congress in february that dishonestly -- give a dishonest account of what this program was, and brewer now says he didn't have anything to do with that letter, at least he doesn't remember having anything to do with that letter, but there are emails apparently that show that he signed off on that letter. i think that the play here is to sacrifice some under lings and see if holder can survive. martha: william la jeunesse who has been reporting on this from the beginning pieced together the denials of every person along the way who has been testifying at these hearings who

said i didn't know about it, i didn't read that memo, i know this may be surprising but i never saw that letter. at some point, rich, it feels like somebody has to clarify -- the question either they are incompetent and stuff is flying out of the department of justice and the people who are supposed to be running the place don't know what is going on or they are not telling the truth. >> a bunch of people are caught in this classic scandal bind which is, you're either dishonest because you knew about it and you're not being forthcoming about it with congress or you're incompetent because you didn't know. we have a lot of people making the incompetent defense. the key thing, the media refers to this as botched. it was fundamentally misconceived from the beginning. there was no way for it to work. they had no method of keeping track of these guns, they were just going to let them go across the border. martha: as opposed to what would have been a successful gun-running operation it really wasn't a possibility. rich, thank you so much. we're going to keep watching

this throughout the hour. bill: a little background now on this operation fast and furious. 1400 guns were sold to smugglers en route in mexico. only 370 have been recovered. that is a rate of about 26%. many of those weapons have been linked to violent crimes, including at least three here on american soil. that program led to the ouster of ken melson former director of the department of alcohol, tobacco and firearm arms after he called the program, quote, a disaster. we are watching the monitor, there are headlines. you can also watch it live streaming on foxnews.com. martha: that's mr. holder. >> they have been leaders in developing in eufpl phra meanting effective crime prevention strategies. they have worked closely with the department in advancing critical efforts to reverse the alarming rise in law enforcement

fatalities in recent years. the work that we do along the southwest border is influenced by the efforts they have undertaken in their own cities. in the cities that they serve, and in communities across the country this work is a priority. and in our ongoing efforts to protect the american people, and our brave law enforcement personnel a critical area of focus will continue to be our battle against gun violence on the southwest border. in recent years the department has devoted significant resources to this fight, and specifically to addressing the unacceptable rate of illegal firearms trafficking from the united states to mexico. unfortunately in the pursuit of that laudable goal unacceptable tactics were adopted as part of operation fast and furious. now as i have repeatedly stated, allowing guns to walk, whether in this administration or the prior one is wholly unacceptable. the use of this misguided tactic is unexcusable and it must never happen again.

soon after learning about the allegations raised by atf agents involved with fast and furious i took action designed to insure accountability. in february i asked the department's acting inspector general to investigate the matter, and in early march i ordered that a directive be sent to law enforcement agents and prosecutors prohibiting such tactics. more recently the new acting director of a t*rbg atf todd jones implemented reforms to keep this from happening in the future. although the department has taken steps to insure that such tactics are never used again it is an unfortunate reality that we will continue to feel the effects of this flawed operation for years to come. guns lost during this operation will continue to show up at crime scenes on both sides of the border. as we work to identify where errors occurred and to insure that these mistakes never happen again we must not lose sight of

the critical challenge that this flawed operation has highlighted and that is the battle to stop the flow of guns to mexico. of the nearly 94,000 guns that have been recovered and traced in mexico in the last five years more than 64,000 were sourced to the united states. during this time the trafficking of firearms across our southwest border has contributed to approximately 40,000 deaths in mexico. now the reforms that we have undertaken do not make any of the losses of life more bearable for grieving tragedies. these do portray in very stark terms the very difficult challenges that law enforcement agencies confront every day in working to disrupt illegal firearms transfers. operation fast and furious appears to have been a deeply flawed effort to respond to these very challenges. as we work to avoid future losses and further mistakes it is unfortunate that some have used inflammatory and inappropriate rhetoric about one

particular tragedy that occurred near the southwest border in an effort to score political points. u.s. customs and protection agent brian terry was violently murdered in arizona. we all should feel horrible about his death. we are dedicated to pursuing justice on his behalf. the department is working to answer questions that the terry family has raises, including whether and how firearms connected to fast and furious end up with mexican drug cartels. in her independent review i expect the department's acting inspector general to answer these questions. i understand that congress also wants answers. the justice department employees have been working tirelessly to identify, locate and provide relevant information to this committee and to the two other committees that are investigating fast and furious all while preserving the integrity of our ongoing criminal investigations and

prosecutions. the department has been fully cooperative and responsive in it's dealings with congress. i have answered questions in the house, and senate on four occasions concerning this matter. to date we have provided almost 5,000 pages of documents for congressional investigators to review. we have scheduled numerous witness interviews and testified at public hearings, and just last week we provided an unprecedented access to internal deliberative documents to explain how inaccurate information was initially con veined to congress. these documents demonstrate that justice department personnel relied on information provided by supervisors from the components in the best position to know the relevant facts. we now know that some information provided by those supervisors was inaccurate. i understand that in subsequent interviews with congressional investigators these supervisors have stated that they did not know at the time that information provided in a letter to congressional leaders earlier

this year was inaccurate. the documents produced to date also belie the remarkable notion that this operation was conceived by department leaders as some have claimed. it is my underanding that department leaders were not informed about the inappropriate tactics employed in this operation a until they were made public. what is clear is that disrupting the dangerous flow of firearms along the southwest border, and putting an end to the violence that has claimed far too many lives is and will continue to be a top priority for this department of justice. this year alone we have led successful investigation into the murders of united states citizens in mexico, created new cartel targeting prosecutorial units and secured the extradition of more than one hundred defendants wanted bayou nighted states law enforcement, including the former head of the tijuana cartel. we also built crime-fighting

capacity on both sides of the border by developing new procedures for using evidence gathered in mexico to prosecute gun traffickers in u.s. courts, by training thousands of mexican prosecutors and investigators, while successfully fighting to enhance sentencing guidelines for convicting traffickers and pursuing coordinated multidistrict investigations of gun trafficking rings. now despite this progress we have more to do. each of us has a duty to act and to rise above partisan divisions and politically motivated, gotcha games. the american people deserve better. it is time for a new dialogue about these important issues, one that is respectful, responsible and factual. this will require us to apply the lessons that we've learned from law enforcement officers, like the ones who sit behind me today who protect public safety and our national security every day. not only did atf acts bring the

inappropriate and misguided tactics of fast and furious to light they also sounded the alarm for more effective laws to combat gun trafficking and improve subject safety. atf agents who testified this summer explained that the agency's ability to stem the flow from the united states into mexico suffers from a lack of effective enforcement tools. one critical first step should be for congress to provide atf with the tools and the authorities that it needs. unfortunately earlier this year the majority of house members voted to keep law enforcement in the dark, when individuals approached multiple semi-automatic rifles, like ak47s in gun shops in southwest border states. we hope that we can work together to provide law enforcement agents with the tools that they desperately need to protect the count throw and to insure their own safety. and for their sake we cannot afford to allow the tragic

mistakes of operation fast and furious to become a political sideshow or a series of media opportunities. instead we must move forward and resubmit ourselves to our shared public safety obligations. i am willing to work with you in this effort. i look forward to your questions. >> thank you mr. attorney general. other members are going to ask you about fast and furious, so i'm going to pick a different subject and ask you about the extent of justice sayin justice kagan's involvement with the healthcare legislation. my first question is this. to your knowledge did then solicitor kagan ever give advice or express an opinion on legal or constitutional issues involving the healthcare legislation? >> i do not believe so. in fact as i testified in the senate last month, i guess, we took steps to physically exclude or have her removed when conversations occurred. >> what month did that take place? when did you start excluding her

from those types of meetings? >> i'm not sure when that started, but my memory is that whenever we had conversations about the healthcare bill, then solicitor general kagan was not present. >> and the reason for excluding her is because of her possible consideration for the supreme court. >> i think that's right. we understood that with us a possibility. >> she testified that she first became aware of that possibility that she might be considered in early march. so you would not have excluded her prior to early march. >> well, again, i don't know exactly when these events occurred, but i do feel comfortable in saying that in terms of conversations that occurred in my conference room about the healthcare legislation -- >> right, right, but would you have had any reason to exclude her, any reason to wall her off in the words that you were told by a deputy, prior to the time that she was considered for the supreme court? >> i can tell you that with regard to, as i said, the conversations that occurred in

my conference room about the healthcare bill i did not remember her being present for any of them. >> would you be able to check your records to find out when the date would have been when you started telling her that she should excuse or recuse herself from those discussions. >> we will attempt to do that. i'm not sure that information exists any place. but i'll provide that to you. >> would you have a record of the meetings that she attended. >> would i have a record? >> if you went back and looked at your schedule i assume that would be on your schedule. >> the schedule of what is our 9:15 list are people that are expected to be there. i don't know that we keep track of who actually is there. >> i don't believe you would have any reason to exclude her before she was being considered for the supreme court vacancy. as i mentioned in my opening statement she would actually have a duty to be involved in conversations regarding the healthcare bill. let me go to another question. this goes to some of the

correspondence that i've written you asking you for documents and to be allowed to interview both present and former staff members. is the department asserting a legal privilege in refusing to comply with my request for those documents and those interviews by then solicitor general's kagan's involvement with the healthcare legislation? your letter to me did not assert any legal privilege. >> the department has documents relaying to this matter and they are available to members of the committee. the documents that we have released are consistent -- >> i'm not asking you about the documents. are you asserting a legal privilege, is that why you are refusing to give me those documents. >> it is our view in trying to determine the answers to the questions that you have with regard to recusal questions, those are questions best brought by those who are involved in the context of the litigation. >> you are not asserting any legal privilege?

>> there are it seems to be separation of powers concerns given the fact that members of congress are amicus in the ongoing legislation. so i would have concerns there with regard to a separation of powers. >> what would be the legal privilege you're asserting if you assert one then? >> all i'm saying is with regard to the information that is requested it has been -- >> okay again you're not asserting a legal privilege. is there any reason therefore why i should not get the documents or be able to interview the individuals i requested to interview? >> as i have said, the federal law provides for the resolution of these recusal questions and each justice has to make those kinds of determinations. >> i'm not talking about recusal questions or what a supreme court justice might or might not do. i'm talking about my request for documents. i can't imagine any good reason why you would withhold them unless you were assert a legal privilege and then we coul could discuss a leg privilege.

>> the documents have been released that have been filed. >> the documents that i requested may or may not have been released. that's what i'm trying to find out, what other documents might exist. we requested to interview two individuals and you have not agreed to let us interview those individual. if you're not asserting a legal privilege then i'll move forward with scheduling those interviews and look forward to the documents. >> we've not expressed i guess at this point a legal privilege. what we have expressed as i indicated before constitutional concerns about the nature of your request. >> concerns don't rise to the level of a legal privilege. we all have concerns about a lot of subjects. i've expressed some of my today. if you're not going to assert a legal privilege then i don't see any reason why i shouldn't get those documents and conduct those interviews. thank you for that. the gentleman from michigan mr. connors is recognized for his question. >> thank you mr. chairman. you've got here chief ralph

godby, lots of other police chiefs and law enforcement people behind you. would you tell us how -- bill: we are going to continue watching this for morehead lines. part of the reason why that last question-and-answer is so relevant is because what the supreme court is now doing with the healthcare legislation they put it on a fast track. there is a debate whether or not kagan should recuse herself based on the work she did within the administration. lamar smith was trying to get the attorney general on record for what he knew when and based on the timeline when kagan was either involved in negotiations on the legal end for the government and when she was extracted from those conversations back and forth. that's what that was all about. in the meantime we are waiting for darrell issa and some others to start talking to fast and furious. you heard what holder said. he talked about the death of brian terry as being related to inflammatory rhetoric to score political points. that will raise the ire of

republicans on the committee for sure. when that starts we are going to get you back to that hearing on the hill. martha: he also talked about contacting terry's family which was a point that darrell issa brought up with him contentious lee in the last round, did you ever called them, or contact ebgd the terry family an said no. he said in his opening statement he indeed contacted them. we'll find out when that occurred. the tea party seems to have a been donned one of their own. only one member has endorsed michelle bachmann. half a dozen others are backing romney. what is going on here with the tea party movement and are they losing steam? bill: the pentagon under fire for failing to designate attacks on u.s. military bases as acts of terrorism. another stunning hearing on the hill, listen. >> my faith in government has diminished. perpetrators speak freely using

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martha: get ready for numbers that are sure to have the romney camp a bit concerned this morning. newt gingrich has taken a commanding lead in three out of four of the first key primary states, folks. these are the new cnn time polls. take a lock at them in iowa the former speaker leads mitt romney by 13%. rick perry is in third place with 17%. look at that leap, a huge gap opening up between gingrich and romney. romney of course had made really iowa a lesser priority. take a look at florida, where romney had a lead, and where his campaign has expected to finish

first, gingrich now at 48%, practically doubling the showing for mitt romney there. south carolina take a look at this one, perry at one point was very strong in south carolina. look at how things are shaping up right now. 43% in south carolina say they are going for newt gingrich and that's where mitt romney is in second-place. here is new hampshire where mitt romney has put all of his eggs in the basket of really having a very good finish here. getting a little tighter down to single digits now in terms of the spread between romney and gingrich there. ed rawlings joins me now. campaign manager to ronald reagan's campaign. a fox news contributor and an expert on all of these things. >> this is amazing. martha: it's incredible. romney's camp apparently they are having a conference call this morning, everybody getting on the phone. they have to be worried at this point. >> they have to be really worried. the one indicative is the florida poll. florida is a media state, it's

not about organization or anything else. it's how the impression that people are getting across the country. it's like california, the two big media states. i'd be very concerned that across the country, particularly in florida that he has a lead. in other states he doesn't have an organization and attacks have not come forward. the other thing i'd be concerned about is new hampshire is a state that sweufts. people pay close attention to it the last week, ten days i've seen in my 40 years new hampshire shift many occasion in the last few days. if gingrich wins iowa, and he goes into that state with momentum he possibly could win it. martha: when you look at the huge turns we've had in this thing where cain was ahead and perry was ahead. gingrich feels different, he's had much more of a commanding lead. >> he's the anti-romney candidate. the christian coalition that

couldn't find the candidate before i think settled on him. the big attack is going to come from the mainstream media, and democrats and his opponents. a lot of people don't know what he was and where he was -- martha: they will know in the next few weeks. you said he's going to face a nuclear war. >> i'm a big newt friend and ally. i watched him, he's tough, he will not crawl under the bed when the attacks come. it's coming. he's not going to get a free ride here. the romney people have a lot of money and resources. martha: what advice would you give to them? they are having to meeting today, clearly they have to really change this is game plan. >> his game plan to date is to run against the president. he pretends like he's the presumptive winner and he's not. he has to show the differences, both on policy and what they have done in their past. martha: i want to play a sound byte. this is chris christie. >> do i look like somebody's

vice president? you know i -- i have to tell you, i kind of find it hard to believe that somebody would look at me and go, yeah, yeah, that's the guy i want standing behind me nodding my head for the next eight years. i don't think governor romney will ask me. i think there are others who might be better suited for the job than i am. i've also made it very clear to him that i love the job i'm in. i won't say absolutely not, because in the end i think it's impolite, you know, running for president is my decision, becoming vice president is just one person's decision, and i think it's impolite to say no to something that hasn't been offered. martha: he's always polite, chris christie, he could never be impolite when he came to that. >> he could be tough and aggressive and a real asset. no one has turned down the president, the only one who did it was ronald reagan in 1996. he's on the short list. rubio and others may be also

there. nobody knows what happens until you get the nomination. martha: that package, whoever pairs up may be very influential to people's vote and how they like a team. it will be interesting to see how it pans out. thank you. >> my pleasure, take care. martha: lots of fun stuff to talk about. bill:ed was just talking about the romney team likely being rather nervous about the poll numbers on newt gingrich. we'll talk to mitt romney's press secretary and get reaction on that. nasa showing off some incredible video, but look very closely here. what is that in the middle? is that a ufo, or is our imagination running a bit wild? >> it's a ufo. bill: i'm with you. martha: yeah.

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martha: fox news alert, it's shaping up to be a really big moment, another one on capitol hill. john corzine a former senator himself will soon be on the hot seat over one of the biggest corporate meltdowns ever, the more than $1.2 billion of client money that seems to have gone pouff, vanished into thin air. listen to this. >> there are now reports that as much as $1.2 billion may have disappeared. dozens of my constituents have been left not only without their property, but also without answers about why and how this happened.

martha: james rosen joins me now. james, what is the latest on this. >> reporter: martha, today's hearing of this house ago culture committee will mark the first time that john corzine has spoken publicly since the collapse of mf global and his resignation from the company three days later. in his opening statement, obtained in advance by fox news, corzine has yet to testify. he will say the plight of mf customers, investors and employees more and thousand of whom are unemployed weighs on his mind every hour of every day. corzine will also testify that his involvement in the firm's accounting operations was, quote, limited and he will explain y. he approved the firm's heavy bet on european sovereign debt even as the debt crisis overseas appeared to intensify. corzine assumed leadership of mf global back in march 2010. he will note in his opening staoeuplt that the firm had lost money for five consecutive quarters preceding his arrival.

because of the mysterious disappearance of $1.2 billion in funds corzine will testify and i quote. i simply do not know where the money is or why the accounts have not been reconciled to dates. he will also say i do not know which accounts were reconciled or whether the reconciled accounts were or were not subject to the segregation rules. this is subject to seven federal investigations, including one by the department of justice, the various lawsuits against the firm and corzine are being consolidated. published reports say clients will get back at least two-thirds of their assets starting in two week's time, martha. bill: a lot of money. mitt romney is going on the attack as his toughest opponent opens up a commanding double digit lead in several battleground states. have you seen these numbers. newt gingrich leading romney in

florida 35 to 22%. in pennsylvania gingrich leads romney by 14 points, 31-17. also from the battleground state of ohio beginning rufp u 31-7. >> i think people understand i'm a man of steadiness and constance see. i've been married to the same woman for 25 -- skus me i'll get in trouble for 42 years. i've been in the same whoeufp my whole life. andrea saul's mitt romney's press secretary. how are you doing. >> good, thank you. bill: why is newt gingrich gaining in the polls on your man. >> these polls go up and down.

there is still a lot of game to be played. we're in it for the long haul. we'll be ready in iowa and onto new hampshire and each state after that. we are building the organization that it takes, and as we saw with the ad we're putting out governor romney's message of who he is, what values are important to him, his faith, his country, his family. bill: would you say that ad is a direct assault on newt gingrich? >> no -- bill: in the end he says mitt romney has been married 42 years, has the same faith all his life. gingrich has been married three times. he was a recent convert to catholicism, before that he was a baptist. do you accept that claim or deny that. >> absolutely not. we ran ads like this last campaign. every presidential campaign runs positive ads talking about their candidate, who he is off the campaign trail. as you can see that response was taken from a debate weeks ago

when there were even different leads in the polls, absolutely not. bill: i accept that all as being true. you put out a release an hour ago, with friends like newt who needs the left. you're setting up distinses between romney and gingrich, you won't deny that will you? >> absolutely. to that point we will draw contrasts with speaker gingrich. we talked about how when the conservative kog needed him most with paul ryan's budget he pulled the rug out from paul ryan. when we needed republican leaders to step up governor romney praised paul ryan's plan, he put forth his own immediate care plan but he provided the leadership in talking about paul ryan rather than going out and providing ammo to the democrats to attack republicans, which is what speaker gingrich did. bill: i apologize for the interruption, i want to get to this last item here. you're fighting a two-front war

at the moment. you've got newt gingrich on one flange and barack obama on the other. here is what mitt romney said just yesterday in washington. >> american prosperity is fully dependent upon having an opportunity society. i don't think president obama understands that. i don't think he understands -- [applause] >> i don't think i understands why our economy is the most successful in the world. i don't think he understands america. he is -- [applause] bill: pick up on that last remark. i don't think he understands america. >> as governor romney talked about, you know, this election is about a big choice here, and that is the difference between president obama's america and his vision which is an entitlement country, which are hand outs, are what it's based on and governor romney's vision which is providing the incentives, providing the atmosphere so that we can be prosperous again.

you know, under barack obama's america more people than ever before go to sleep at night without a job, go to sleep at night facing foreclosure on their homes, go to sleep on food stamps. and mitt romney's running so he can put americans back to work. he can get this country going again, and do a turn around like he has so many times before in the real world economy, in his private sector and nonprofit experience. bill: before you get to president obama you have to go through newt gingrich because the polling right now suggests otherwise now on these battleground states. andrea thank you for coming back. andrea saul out of boston today. we'll speak again, okay. >> have a good afternoon. bill: you as well. next thursday, a week from today, the next fox news republican presidential debate gets underway in iowa, 9:00 on the east coast. 6:00 on the west coast. you as a viewer have access to instant analysis during the debate. live chats with our fox news contributors at

foxnews.com/debate. that is the website you need to know come next thursday. martha: it will be an exciting night. bill: yes it is especially way these numbers are going. hang on. martha: we have a follow-up to a story we brought you the other day about a little boy, remember this one, he was suspended from school for calling his teacher cute. now somebody else is being forced to leave the school permanently. we're going to tell you what happened, very interesting follow in that one. bill: a cute young man, right. the defense department officials like even the fort hood shooting to workplace violence. that is not sitting well with the father of a victim of homegrown terrorism. >> by not being open, transparent, and despite promises to do so to this administration's shame two soldiers have been abandoned on the battlefield in the advancement of a political agenda.

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bill: we were watching that holder hearing. tpher a break right now. when there are headlines we will

pass them to you. in the meantime the north carolina principal who suspended a nine-year-old boy for calling his teacher cute is now getting the boot himself a school board forcing a 44-year education veteran to retire. after this controversy grabbed national headlines. the school is also apologizing to the boy and to his mother. the principal blaming politics for his dismissal, telling local media he could understand being written up for a suspension but not for losing his job. martha: let's get you back to capitol hill on this story, because lawmakers are blasting the obama administration for what they say is bowing to political correctness for the way it classified home-grown terror attacks like the 2009 fort hood shootings. nadal hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder during a hearing on muslim radicalization yesterday several lawmakers brought up a

department of defense letter from october which explains, quote, take a look at this wording closely, how the department is dealing with the threat of violent islamist extremism in the context of a broader threat of work-place violence. that got a lot of people sort of revved up in this debate. republican congressman joe walsh joins me now, he's on the homeland security committee. congressman welcome, good to have you here. >> good to be with you both. martha: the suggestion from that letter when you look at cases like nadal hasan, you know, whose business card basically described him as an islamic extremist in this case, and also the case in arkansas of the soldier who was killed in sort of a drive by attack by someone who had been training as a terrorist in yemen, both of those are falling under this broader category the dod says of work-place violence. >> martha i know there is a lot going on on capitol hill right now. holder is up here testifying,

corzine is testifying, but this is one of those issues that slipped below the radar and it shouldn't. this administration refuses to acknowledge and identify the threat from homegrown radical islam. i mean this is fairly outrageous that they would describe fort hood as workplace violence. this is political correctness runamuck. this is what the administration has been doing for a long, longtime. i give my chairman of the homeland security committee, peter king, a lot of credit, because he held this first hearing, boy, six, seven, eight months ago, and he caught a lot of gruff for it, and he went right at, and we're not afraid to go at political correctness. martha: i think the department of defense would say maybe this is being misinterpreted, in terms of the way they say this. they are saying how the department is dealing with the threat of violent islamist

extremism. so they are taking that head on in the context of a broader threat of workplace violence. so what you don't like i guess is that it goes under this larger umbrella. they are putting it in the workplace violence category and looking at that specific element rather than putting it in the terrorism box, right? >> martha, it's its own threat and it's a huge threat. home-grown tere rims, the radicalization of american muslims here is a huge threat. it's a huge threat on our homeland, and it's a huge threat against our military, and the fact that this administration wants to sort of umbrella it in this general nebulous threat of workplace violence clearly is an effort to not identify the threat because of political correctness. they are so afraid of calling it what it is. and i'm telling you, this is going to continue to bite us. and i think congress is going to continue to hold hearings on

this direct threat. martha: congressman thank you. we have the video from mr. long who made an impassioned plea for his son who was killed at a recuting station. he feels it's all being put in the wrong light. >> absolutely. martha: in its investigation. joe walsh, congressman, thank you very much. bill: 11 points before the 11am hour. that means jenna lee is coming up. how are you doing? you're in washington today, what's happening. >> reporter: good to see you. we will be following all the big events on capitol hill. we have two major hearings underway. you have the attorney general taking a lot of heat for the fast and furious gun running scandal. we have that. even in you have the former new jersey governor and ceo of the bankrupt mf global investment firm getting grilled for what happened to more and billion dollars of customers money. could a brand-new republican candidate enter the race at this late date?

larry sabato will be with us and we'll be talking about that in the next hour. bill: he would know. jenna: he would if anyone. bill: nasa is showing off an incredible image, but look closely here. what is it? we're about to find out. and a life or death decision for a 66-year-old woman. what do you do when this happe happens? >> he's banging on the window? okay, okay. >> i've got a gun. i'm going to get my gun out. >> ma'am, what are you arming yourself with? >> oh, god i just bought it. it's a .38. .

martha: how about this. a california woman forced to make a life or death decision, shooting and killing a man who was breaking into her home.

66 years old, her name is donna hopper, she was alone in the house when it happened around 4:00am on october the 21st. listen to this 911 call. >> he's coming in. he's coming in. >> is he coming into the house. >> yes. i got him. >> you shot him again? >> yes. >> or you shot at him. >> no i shot him. he's coming through the window. i shot three shots, oh my god, he's on the ground. he's on the ground. >> in the spare bedroom. >> yes i'm standing in the front and i see lights. oh. >> can you walk to the front door? >> yes. oh, god, i hope it's not somebody i know. >> donna, stop it, stop it [crying] martha: terribly upset, she is mrs. hopper and she's been

cleared of any wrongdoing in that shooting. she said she had just bought that gun, it was a .38, she bought it for that purpose and she used it. bill: it is gripping to hear all of that. we are wondering what is that deep in space p? nasa releasing this image. ufo hunters think they are onto something. are you watching this now? tom jones former astronaut, fox news contributor author of sky walking an astronaut's memoir. we are going to put that image back on the screen here. you've watched it closely. you've been in space, what is it? >> it's great that nasa has the stereo satellites watching the sun. what turned up in this image from them is a blight flair behind the planet mercury as this giant solar blast on december 1st. it looks like according to the ufo con conspirac conspiracy that this is a blast from the sun.

it's nothing more than an imaging art fact. bill: i'm watching this white orb to the left and you're watching the planet behind it. >> the orb is the planet mercury. behind it on the screen is a flair that occurs. you're seeing a view from the other stereo satellite now the flair is on the outside of mercury's orbit. we know since it appears in different locations it's an art fact of the image processing so we can see this blast that occurs from the sun. bill: you're just bursting our bubble, aren't you tom. >> it's not that i don't think there is life out there. the milky way is probably teaming with life. i don't think there are any giant space ships hiding out near mercury. these giant solar flares there was one back in 1859 that had auroa northern lights over -ts caribbean. people could read newspapers from these solar lights. bill: we're disappointed then, we are disappointed now.

let's take a quick break. martha: we'll be right back. i joined the navy when i was nineteen. i spent four years in the military and i served a tour in iraq. all the skills that i learned in the military are very transferable into the corporate and real world. chase hired me to be a personal banker. the 100,000 jobs mission has definitely helped me get my foot in the door. chase is giving opportunities to vets who don't think that there's any opportunity out there. chase and these other companies are getting a great deal when they hire veterans. chase is proud to help 100,000 veterans find jobs at home. ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.