>> the golden globes are to the oscars what kim kardashian is to kate middleton actually. [laughter] >> he was funny last night. bill: he did a good job. his opening line was? so where were we? martha: last time he was trashing everybody in hollywood. bill: debate, 9:00 prime time. full reaction tomorrow. martha: happening now starts right now. jenna: a shake-up in the gop race for president. we're glad you're with us everybody this monday morning. i'm jenna lee. gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for jon scott. "happening now" moments away from jon huntsman's big announcement in south carolina. the former utah governor came in third in new hampshire after campaigning there for many months gets ready to bow out of the presidential race five days before the south carolina primary. jenna: huntsman is expected to endorse mitt romney for

the republican nomination. what factor that may be is yet to be determined. chief political correspondent carl cameron is live in myrtle beach, south carolina with nor. more. what led up to this point? >> reporter: obviously jon huntsman came in third in the new hampshire primary. that was disappointing. he put all his eggs in the new hampshire primary basket and they came out scrambled. there was hope in huntsman campaign although minimal there was fund-raising boost from the third place showing in new hampshire and it didn't materialize in south carolina. he came down here found himself squeezed out of the headlines, squeeze out of the race and squeezed out of the coverage and we'll hear him in a moment withdraw from the race. his father, jon huntsman senior is with him. was with him on primary night. there was expectation had huntsman done particularly well and gotten a boost there might have been money from the huntsman family fortune. it didn't materialize either.

mr. huntsman in five to 10 minutes will take to the podium, announce his with drawl from the campaign and announce his support behind mitt romney. huntsman's aides would argue that the former ambassador for the obama administration has 8% of the vote here in south carolina and can help mitt romney. the romney campaign is not expecting a 8 point bounce from his endorsement. he wasn't doing well in the polls and didn't have a lot of infrastructure. maybe there is momentum and help for mitt romney but whether it is helpful in the polls is question. 99% of the reporters here. not a heck of a lot of south carolinians that is what the trail looked like. huntsman put effort from the new hampshire primary but wasn't getting huge crowds. the crowds seem to two to rick santorum. you hear an awful lot of conservatives expressing some misgivings for newt gingrich's attack on mitt romney for his career

in bain at private equity and venture capitalism. a lot of questions whether or not rick santorum can coalesce conservatives around him based upon some other things the endorsement of 150 faith leaders who fathered over the weekend in texas. santorum has a big hill to climb. if romney wins in south carolina a 3-0 record heading into florida would be a huge piece of momentum. there is five days left with a third of the south carolina electorate likely to change its mind, martha. jenna: this is jenna. >> reporter: jenna, excuse me. >> we all look the same from the campaign trail i know. listen --. >> reporter: my bad. jenna: not at all. let me ask you about santorum and gingrich. they were guests on some of the big sunday shows. they were also asked whether or not they were committed to staying in the race and whether or not they would step back and let the conservative support go behind one of those candidates. if you look at perry, santorum and gingrich, they seem to be vying for that particular vote. do you expect any sort of

plate shift before the primary on saturday? do you expect anybody else to drop out or any other kind of moves we should watch going into the saturday primary? >> well, texas governor rick perry who announced his presidential campaign in south carolina contemporaneous with the ames straw poll last year in iowa find himself back in south carolina and on life-support. he almost dropped out of the race after iowa. then got back in but didn't go to new hampshire. came here to the palmetto state. the first in the south primary, dug in and hasn't got a lot of attention. if he comes in dead last what is now the top five could be very difficult for him to go forward. having said that the battle between gingrich and santorum is close one for second and possibility now for the ability to overtake romney although it seems somewhat small. pardon back of my head as we watch them get ready at the podium for mr. huntsman's appearance. rick santorum, the former

pennsylvania senator is going after mitt romney with the issues of the republican campaign. he is hitting him for what has been referred to as romney-care the health player plan with a mandate in massachusetts. he is hitting mitt romney as a massachusetts moderate. something newt gingrich initially hit mitt romney for aggressively but supplanted with criticisms of romney's history at bain capital and private equity. now challenging romney to release his tax returns, both of which were attacks on romney first initiated by the obama campaign and democrats. and you hear rick santorum aggressively embracing more direct hits on mitt romney for his record as a massachusetts moderate. that suggests mr. santorum could be getting real surging here amongst the conservatives in south carolina who ultimately prove decisive. having said that, here is something to watch, jenna. only robo calls happening in south carolina are from the room any campaign targeting conservatives asking for their support. mitt romney beginning

something familiar to folks who watch john mccain in 2008. trying to unify the conservative base of his party around his candidacy knowing many have trouble trusting him and his long-term viability for obama. they don't think he is conservative enough. romney is trying to win them over now. jenna: we're continuing to watch, carl. we'll watch for jon huntsman any moment now. thank you for that great run-down. we have to move on as well, gregg. we get more analysis exactly what this race is starting to look like. gregg: it is interesting how this thing may affect saturday's vote. for more on this announcement and whether it will have any effect at all let's bring if karl rove, former senior advisor to president george w. bush and a fox news contributor. i will apologize in advance, karl, if i have to interrupt you. i will keep an eye on the monitor. as soon as huntsman comes out we'll take that shot. latest "fox news poll" has huntsman dead last place. came out this morning. 5% nationally. exact same figure in

south carolina some it is fairly meager support he is expect tossing to romney. does this have any meaningful effect? >> not a lot of effect as you say. 5.3% of the vote in the "real clear politics" average. nate silver at "the new york times" blog, 538, had a pretty good interesting analysis. assume "real clear politics" average of south carolina polls is accurate. that huntsman has 5.3% of the vote. taking the second choice polls that have been around recently, they average about 32% of huntsman's supporters say their second choice is romney. which would mean if that is true, romney would pick up 1.8 of the 5.3 points. going from roughly 29.7 in the "real clear politics" average to about 31 and 1/2 percent. 24% are undecided who the second choice would be. likely not vote for anybody. 15% said they were ron paul. he would pick up .8 of a

percent. right now he is in third place slightly ahead of rick santorum in the "real clear politics" average. everyone else, perry, santorum and gingrich would split remaining 1.3 points out of the support huntsman has in south carolina. no not a lot of change. when you're in the things and measuring the difference between a single-digit victory for romney in south carolina and double-digit victory in south china it could -- south carolina, it could be important in that regard. gregg: when the gingrich campaign claims that huntsds man departure really helps newt gingrich -- hear is the quote. we're one step closer to a bold conservative winning gop nomination in reaction to huntsman dropping out s that just spin? >> that is just spin. if you look where huntsman's supporters came from, they came from new hampshire democrats and moderate-leaning republicans and moderate independents. i think it is unlikely that beginning riff will get the

lion's share of him -- gingrich. it is backed up by the data. this analysis by nate silver is pretty interesting analysis and well-done. we don't know exactly how much difference there is. there is clear difference between the second level support for romney and everybody else. gregg: you know, jon huntsman had some pretty harsh things to say in the last several weeks about the guy he is about to endorse here, saying for example, he has, romney has no core, which is the talking points from axelrod and plouffe on behalf of the president. now he will say, gee, let's vote for this guy, great guy. mitt romney is the one we should select. inconsistency and duplicity endemic in politics so this is to be expected? >> certainly what people who come in last in the primaries are, trailing the pack and are forced to with draw, they have a steady diet of it, particularly the uglier things they said the worst the diet is. that is what primaries are about.

all of these candidates gone out of the way in the debates any one of their intra-party competitors would be better than president obama. i suspect that is what he will base it on. gregg: senator lindsey graham, i will quote him, if for some reason romney is not delayed here in south carolina it is over. i hope the party rallies around him if he wins south carolina. do you buy that? >> i think it could conceivably be over. there is big contest at the end. month in florida. romney has wisely prepared himself for this. since the early december, romney has been running a lot of television in florida. in fact he will run, i think about five million dollars worth of television in florida by the end of this week and his opponents have run little to nothing. in fact only one who run anything of substance has been rick perry, who i suspect women be out of the race as of saturday night. so, you know, look, this contest will, 3 who have 0 is a strong start. particularly if he seements

it in florida with a big win it will linger on. congressman ron paul campaign is focused on electing delegates from caucus states in order to influence the plat form. he will go on for a little while beyond that. it will be hard for any candidate to stay in the race who doesn't have big wallet. gregg: karl rove, thank you for your insight. >> thank you, gregg. >> be sure to tune in tonight for the republican debate in south carolina on television and on the web. it begins at 9:00 eastern time. jenna: we'll look forward to that. meantime another big news item for us today. fox news alert on major developments this hour in that cruise ship disaster off the coast of italy. we have live pictures as the rescue continues. they're resuming search efforts as the death toll rises to six. we have 16 people reportedly missing. according to the associated press, two of those people are americans from minnesota. we're getting some preliminary names. barbara and jerry hyle of

minnesota according to ap some still in the missing category. there is a lot of chaos and a lot of confusion. more than 4,000 people were onboard when the huge ship ran aground late on friday. the cruise line blaming human error on the part of the captain, under arrest accused of manslaughter and abandoning ship. survivors are describing this terrifying ordeal. take a listen. >> i had my watch on and timing the rate of water coming up. we were estimating to what degree we thought we were and how long we thought until we have to get into the water. we had already judged where we would sit on the ship. >> that was before anymore lifeboats because, the previous one had got stuck to the side of the ship. we had to find our way around and it was, it was chaos. we had to go through center of the ship, which had been obliterated by, glass,

everything was everywhere. jenna: greg burke streaming live from italy's west coast with the very latest. greg? >> reporter: hi, jenna. as bad as this disaster was, many people really consider themselves lucky, the fact that the death toll is so low, six right now. it is not going to go above two dozen we do finally have the names or at least area where the americans are from, from the suburb of st. paul. there was talk of two americans. two americans are missing outside of st. paul, minnesota, a couple. it has been nearly three full days since this accident happened. you can see it just turned dark here. it happened about 9:30 at night on friday night when the ship ran into huge underwater rock formation. ripped 160 foot gash in the side of this monster ship. not a whole lot of hope although the rescuers are continuing despite cold water. they had problems today with the high tides. not exactly rough seas all

though weather has gotten worse. with the high tides the ship as big as it is moving a bit. that is bit of a problem for rescue work. with so many people on board, more than 4,000 you're getting a lot of harrowing looks. a lot of amateur video which shows total confusion on the night of the disaster. you know you want to see a movie like "titanic". you don't want to live through something like that. that is certainly something you see. finally with so many people on the ship you're getting a lot of amazing stories. perhaps the best one i heard was a peruvian woman in the lower cabin on the second floor. she saw the rock go through the ship into her cabin. she got away with three broken ribs, not too bad considering what happened. jenna. jenna: not too bad is all we can hope for. thanks so much. back to greg in italy as we hear more what happened here. terrifying new reports from passengers who survived this disaster, some of them a

british couple on the honeymoon were in the ship's theater enjoying a magic show on friday night before it crashed into a reef. they were among the last, final 100 people on board, spending chaotic hours clinging to the hull in the dark before climbing down a rope to safety. they are our guests. janice and ian, welcome you to the show. we're glad that you're okay. >> so our family. >> unbelievable. how do you feel being back in london and seeing some images that we put on the screen? >> relieved, happy, to be back thankful. thankful. jenna: i can even imagine, ian, what this was like. bring us to friday night. you're watching a magic show. huge theater. something that the ship advertises. then what? >> yes. we were up at the top and of course it goes right down to the lower levels. and the magician was in fact in the middle of an act getting somebody from the audience and he seemed to

disappear. there was nothing to do with magic. he had seen something at lower level, which caused a lot of people in that lower level to run out of the auditorium, lights went out. emergency lights went on. we sort, perhaps there is power out or something. on the system they said that there is a generator fault. no panic. we'll sort it out soon. well, then the boat started moving to one side. we thought, this is unusual. we heard a slight crunch as it were when the lights went out, but didn't really know much about it. we leisurely went back to our cabin, and you know, thought -- >> we were not panicking. jenna: sure. >> ships don't go down. this is 21st century? >> in fact i think when we went back to our cabin there were no lights, one emergency light. janice had cleverlyly chosen

11 days into our marriage and on her honeymoon, let's get something warm. whatever it is we'll stay outside the special deck, the master station as they call it. we took our passports and cash with us. jenna: good lesson to listen to your wife always, ian. if this doesn't prove it, nothing will. >> i have no problem. >> to be able to quote this. jenna: janice, when did you both realize that this is a lot more serious than we initially thought? >> we, there was a call to put on life jackets. still we were calm. i can't exactly remember, probably when the abandon ship announcement came. but i can't remember if that was before or after we got into a lifeboat, and then had to get out of the lifeboat because it couldn't drop because -- angle of the

ship. >> what happened was in the interrim while going down to the muster station --. jenna: ian and janice, do you mind. pardon me for one moment. i have to come back to you in one second. we have breaking news out of south carolina. we'll this is jon huntsman. we'll be back to janice and ian shortly. >> i'm up here with the greatest human being i have ever known, my wife mary kay who sustained us throughout this journey. i'm also up here with an interesting group of campaign activists called the john 2012 girls. i'm delighted to be with them. mary ann and abby and liddy. i'm also delighted to be joined by our daughter gracecy, dubbed our campaign senior foreign policy adviser. i want to compliment her on the excellent job she did. i'm here with my father. i want to express my love and appreciation to him.

son-in-law jeff livingston as well along with a terrific team. some supporters like the beloved iris campbell, former first lady of this great state is with us as is the attorney general, alan wilson and close personal friend of mind, mike campbell, who is here among others. we're honored and delighted to be in your presence. some of our great supporters. i would to make a few comments about the current state of the presidential race and then we'll let you go. now as candidates for our party's nomination our common goal is to restore bold and principled leadership to the white house. leadership that will reignite our economy and renew the american spirit. yet, rather than seeking to advance that common goal by speaking directly to voters about our ideas to rebuild america, this race has degenerated into an onslaught of negative and

personal attacks, not worthy of the american people. and not worthy of this critical time in our nation's history. this is the most important election of our lifetime. this country desperately needs to begin a journey that will allow us to create and courageously tackle our two most urgent deficits. one is an economic deficit. the other is a trust deficit. only bold ideas will get us to where we need to be. and this campaign needs to be driven by those ideas. at its core the republican party is a party of ideas. but the current toxic form of our political discourse does not help our cause. and it is just one of the many reasons why the american people have lost

trust in their elected leaders. today i call on each campaign to cease attacking each other and instead talk directly to the american people about how our conservative ideas will create jobs, reduce our nation's debt, stablize energy prices, and provide a brighter future for our children and our grandchildren. let's invest our time and resources in building trust with the american people. and uniting them around a common purpose. three years ago the president promised to unite the american people. yet his desire to engage in class warfare for political gain has left us more divided than ever. this devisiveness is corrosive and does not

advance america's interests. this nation was built on unity and trust. trust in each other. trust in a revolution that gave birth to the freest and most prosperous nation the world has ever known. trust in our system of government. that sense of unity and trust has sustained us through world wars, and national tragedis. now, we need it to sustain us during this hour of need. ultimately this election is about more than the future of one campaign or one party. it is about the the future of our nation and for our nation to move forward together, with new leadership and unity, the republican party must first unite. we enter this race just six

months ago with the longest of long shots. my candidacy was staked on the simple principle of country first and driven by a refusal to pass down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less prosperous and less competitive than the one we inherited. today i am suspending my campaign for the presidency. i believe it is now time for our party to unite around the candidate best quipped to defeat barack obama. despite our differences, and the space between us, on some of the issues, i believe that candidate is governor mitt romney. as for the huntsman family, we step down with an even greater appreciation for american democracy which is fundamental to american

values. after all the town halls, and handshakes and meet-and-greets, we leave it in the hands of the people, and we respect the results. to our many staff, supporters, and volunteers, i offer my heart-felt thanks. today our campaign for the presidency ends but or campaign to build a better and more trustworthy america continues. we will continue to fight for a flatter, simpler tax code that helps unleash opportunity rather than stifle it. for an energy policy that ends the scourge of our addiction to foreign oil. for congressional term limits. for education reform that prepares our kids for the realities of the 21st century. for financial reform that breaks up too big to fail

banks and protects taxpayers from future bailouts and we will continue fighting to bring home our brave men and women from afghanistan and stop nation-building overseas and start rebuilding our own nation. for mary kay and our family these last six months have been an incredible and awe-inspiring journey. i have seen the very best of america. i've seen it in the spirit of our entrepreneurs, whose innovations continue to inspire and better the world. i've seen it in the courage of our veterans who i have met at vfw halls in communities all across this nation. i saw it in china, 10,000 miles away, meeting with dissidents who have been tortured and beaten but who drew strength from our nation's values, our

openness, our freedoms, our commitment to human rights. halfway around the world they could still see america's light. that is the power america still projects and i will never fighting for her and fighting to insure that america's light shines bright for generations and generations to come because in the end we must all come together as americans and must be reminded that the fight to preserve and enhance life, liberty, and happiness is what really sets us apart in this world and is worth our tireless efforts as citizens of this most extraordinary nation. thank you and may god bless america. thank you. [inaudible]

gregg: so jon huntsman, who had quite the rest may, businessman, diplomat, veteran of four presidential administrations, an expert on foreign policy and china, a guy who's resume' looked presidential never caught on. bring if karl rove once again, former senior advisor to president george w. bush and a fox news contributor. karl, as you pointed out, huntsman was getting 5.3% of the vote in south carolina but he is basically tied with another guy by the name of rick perry who has 5.7% polling average in south carolina. with huntsman's departure, might there be increasing pressure in the five days remaining before the primary there for perry to drop out and toss his support to either, newt gingrich or rick santorum? >> i doubt it. there's another set of numbers that need to come into play here. you're right, both of them were roughly equal in the polls but governor perry is spending a couple of hundred,000 dollars this week on

advertising in south carolina after spending cumulatively close to $2 million in advertising on south carolina. mr. huntsman's campaign was able to muster $36,000 for television advertising in south carolina. that was his first and only foray onto the airwaves. governor perry will carry this through to saturday. whether or not he has more money to try to contest 10 days in florida is up in the air. i doubt that he does. but will be there through saturday, no ifs, and or buts. gregg: karl rove, many thanks for sticking around. >> you bet. jenna: we'll pick up with our conversation with ian and janice dunoff. among the people on the italian cruise ship. thank you both for staying with us. we're getting life images. we barely make out the darkness in italy. ian, it is pitch black when trying to get off this switch friday night. when you heard abandon ship

you realized this was really serious. how did you get out of there? >> well, as i said the lifeboats didn't drop down because such an acute angle which seemed to get worse. when we got off the lifeboat and in fact we pushed against an inner wall, and the floor became the outside wall. there was in fact quite a problem getting up out onto the bow of the ship or, not the bow, the side of the ship. and that's when panic set in. until somebody rummaged around for an electrician as ladder that could get hundreds of people up onto the side of the ship so that, we stood a chance. if the ship went down, because that's what we thought would happen, and water would take over. once you're in that inner deck trying to escape, and, water came, you know, came in, you wouldn't stand a chance of actually getting out. so you're actually out on

the outside of the ship. at the top level, when there was, as it were, panic came in to get up on the ladder. it was a free-for-all. jenna: are people in the water at this point, ian? we have inside video. amateur video. are people trying to swim? people jumping into the water? what is going on? >> we don't know because we were on the other side of the ship. that looks as if it was a lower side of the ship. >> their level became right near the level f their level was near the water, some of them actually went into the water. only a few. but their lifeboats could get away. 13 lifeboats actually got away, i think mostly from the side nearest the water. the ones were up in the air -- we were rescued, eventually by a rope ladder on the exterior which hundreds of people had to go down gingerly, about five stories high which was, daunting prospect, believe

me in the dark. jenna: ian, janice, i only have a short moment. you're back home. have you heard from anybody from the cruise company? has anyone called to see if you're okay? >> no. jenna: nothing at all? >> no. jenna: what would you want at this point? >> sorry? jenna: what would you like? would you like apology, reimbursement? i don't know how anyone makes this up. >> well, i'm sure there are procedures to be introduced and we've, you know, contacted our insurers. all our lost clothes. but apart from that, i haven't heard from the company. but there are organizations here that are looking into that prospect because we in the u.k., most of the travel agents, have in fact, travel schemes that one goes on have in fact what, is special cover, an organization to look after their interest. >> ian and janice, we're glad you're okay.

we appreciate you taking time to share your story. it is an incredible one of the we'll check back and see if you heard from the company and see how you're doing. thank you both. congratulations on your wedding by the way. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. gregg: guess they will never forget that one, huh? wow! he used to run for yards and touchdowns. former nfl star craig james is running for u.s. senate. [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation, so i us my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond.

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jenna: welcome back, everyone. we are america's election headquarters and one of the races we're watching for the senate is a seat being

vacated by retiring kay bailey hutchison from texas. she has been a senator for 20 years. there is quite a battle for the gop nomination there. the reason the battle is so important, whoever the republican nominee is likely to win the seat which texas is reliably red state. among those trying to get the job, a familiar to face. joining for his first live national interview on the topic, craig james, former nfl player, announcer for espn and now a republican candidate for the senate. so, craig, why the switch and why now? >> well, good morning, jenna. you know, i've many times been in front of people but as a football player and as broadcaster. i'm proud of those accomplishments. jenna, over the next few months i will get out share with people texas who i come from and what i am and i believe n you will hear three things coming from. god is god, family is family and the constitution is the constitution. jenna, when people heard the message over the last few weeks when we started this

campaign that i came an apartment background. i read eviction notice on apartment doors. had to learn tough lessons on the little boy. eight mayonnaise-only sandwiches. america gave me a chance to work my way out. i want to preserve that country. i want to get back to the principles of the constitution and greatness of this country. jenna: so that being said, what is your number one priority? if you make it to the senate and big game to say in washington, d.c., what the is number one priority at top of your list you want to bring change to? >> with head down and full passion get government to understand and respect and adhere to the constitution. it is the greatest instrument this country ever had. 8,000 words or less. it is our playbook tore how we're supposed to act and treat each earth. it also the way to the government is supposed to look at rules they abide by. when i get there i will not conform and be part of a congenial men and women's club. i'm going up to rob rock the

boat and get the skunks out of the bushes and get those folks to understand the constitution is important to you and me, your kids and my kids and people walking the streets. jenna: can you be more specific who the skunks are? i'm sure they would like to snow. >> all the people spending our taxpayers dollars and she shouldn't be i it is all the wasteful spending. when we pull out our checkbooks i'm confident we're at least balancing them. to my mind they're not agreeing to balance budget amendment is mind-boggling. we have to get rid of wasteful redundant spending before we correct the problems in this country. jenna: what background do you bring to the table that your even points don't have that makes you more equipped to examine the issues? >> when i come from on real street you had to work hard to get out of the apartment complexes. i watched my mother's work ethic. i had to have a passion to

become a top level football player in the nfl i had to have the same level to become a top broadcaster over 20 years. i had to have passion to be successful businessman for 30 years. for 30 years i've started jobs and created jobs. when people talk to me about uncertainty and what it does to businesses i feel it. i lived in the economy. i had to sign the front of checks. i had to make decisions for men and women who worked for me to keep their jobs. when i come, when i come, what i believe different about me the passion and the real street perspective that our country needs right now. jenna: craig, good to talk to you about all. i have a quick final question for you. new england patriots, are they going all the way? >> i understand you went to college in california area so i bet you're a 49'ers fan. my pate treats are going to -- patriots are going to beat you. >> we'll see what happens. we'll bring you back. maybe a little wager on that. we'll talk to you as you go more through the race.

it is a challenging one in texas, craig. look forward to having you back. thanks very much for coming on. we'll talk to you soon. craig james. >> thanks for having me, jenna. gregg: big developments out of south caroline. jon huntsman just now ending his white house bid endorsing mitt romney. while the rest of the gop presidential hopefuls beer gear up for tonight's big date for the faceoff. five days before the first in the south primary the candidates are candidate -- campaigning very hard in the palmetto state. john roberts live in myrtle beach, south carolina, jon? >> reporter: good morning, gregg. over 30% of the south carolina republican voters say they haven't yet made up their minds. i spent the afternoon at the sand sculpture across from the street from the convention center. they have charactertures of

all the candidates. they will talk about lot of people what the main issues were. what would make up their mind. a lot told me they want to hear about the economy. help for small business. the address the housing crisis. listen to what kristin hook told me she wants to hear. >> we want someone who can win. we also want somebody that will get something done. that will not do business as usual. not polarize but actually bring people together. >> reporter: she is looking for somebody who seeks deeds as well as actions. one of the other big questions in south carolina how are tea party voters going to go? they also have a convention going on today, down the beach from where we are. i talked to a few folks. they will not hold a straw poll or looking to coalesce to support any particular candidate. there is lot of support for newt gingrich who many tea party leaders believe will fire up the tea party. they don't believe mitt romney can do that.

listen to what tim told me in a conversation. what do you say of the idea if mitt romney is the nominee tea party members will stay home? >> i do not agree to that they will get behind the republican candidate, begrudgingly initially but election day they will behind him. >> reporter: he wouldn't be happy about a romney win but he is district captain and mobilize his forces to get out there on election day. i ran into a few mitt romney supporters at tea party convention. we're quieter than most because we don't want our friend to get on our support with romney. they feel he will do pretty well among tea party supporters saturday night. gregg: john roberts. thank you. jenna: we'll turn our gaze overseas. al qaeda is on the doorstep of the capital of yemen. the latest on the terror group. what they're doing next in a live report. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

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mitt romney victory in south carolina. the latest "real clear politics" average romney holds eight point lead over second place newt gingrich. jon huntsman had just over 5% of the support. he is endorsing mitt romney after bowing out of the race. how much will huntsman departure, if any, help the romney campaign? jennifer donahue, public policy fellow at the eisenhower institute at gettysburg college. and robert bera a reporter with the post and the courier. jennifer, is this a zero net gain and loss because jon huntsman's endorsement only represents 5% of the vote there if that? >> well, that 5% could be significant especially when you look below what romney's doing into gingrich, santorum and paul site. i think if romney can pick up that 5% and maybe get some of the tea party vote you talked about earlier he could be in a good position. the bottom line, huntsman didn't have the resources for the air war this has become.

he was a ground player play aground war on the field and there just wasn't the money. his father didn't come through with the money for him to compete. we're looking at a romney race on the one hand and below that, a santorum-gingrich race for second. gregg: robert, our white house correspondent ed henry reminds us huntsman at one point in time referred to president obama, as quote a remarkable leader. he refered to mitt romney as a perfectly lubricated weather vane. i think he also said he had no core, suddenly endorsing romney how great he is. what does that mean to south carolinians? >> well i think small port huntsman had here i think will transfer over. unlike iowa, jon huntsman did campaign in south carolina and did have a small following and i think they will heed his advice to back mitt romney despite those past differences. gregg: jennifer, want to talk to you about what

happened over the weekend. rick santorum received a supermajority among a leadership group meeting in texas of evangelicals. 60% describe themselves as evangelicals there in south carolina in the last election, 2008. so how much does this help rick santorum and equally important, how much might it hurt newt gingrich and or rick perry? >> that's a great question. if santorum had taken his near-victory in iowa, skipped new hampshire and gone straight to south carolina, with the money he was raising a million dollars a day i think he would have really had a ground game in south carolina. gingrich came down with a head of steam, scorched earth strategy, and wants to, they would split up 30% of the vote which is what roughly romney had. they're basically canceling each other out. with santorum getting the endorsement from the

christian groups he really could have traction. gingrich is the elephant in the room. he is the 800 point gorilla and making it difficult for santorum to become the alternative to romney. gregg: robert we were following those conservative christian leaders. it went to three ballots. a bunch of them suddenly decided you know what? we're not going not with newt gingrich and to rick santorum. they changed their support to santorum. does that mean defeating president obama may be more important to them and others than their core principles? >> i would almost say perhaps the opposite is true in that, i think they were backing senator santorum who many see as perhaps not as strong a candidate against obama, at least as far as the conventional wisdom goes. so, remains to be seen how those that texas group will reverberate around south carolina. i agree with what jennifer said. had senator santorum come

here directly from new hampshire he may be in a little better shape today. gregg: those leaders switched from gingrich to santorum because they thought santorum had a better chance beating president obama. robert, thanks for being with you us. general, good to see you. thanks to you both. fox news is where you need to be for complete election coverage. we'll have live coverage saturday as they tally the votes in south carolina. tune in 6:00 p.m. eastern time. jenna: one small town in our country. nem -- nome, alaska cut from the rest frd would. how wake up!

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jenna: right now al qaeda militants in yemen dealing a big blow to that country's weak central government

seizing control of a key town just 100 miles from the capital. yemeni officials reporting that military positions there were simply overrun. we have greg palkot live in london who spent a great deal of time in yemen. greg, tell us a little about the latest here and what is going on in this country. >> reporter: our contacts in yemen tell us basically that town of radda has fallen to al qaeda militants. six government offices and prison commandeered by the militants. crucial for a couple reasons. first the proximity of this town not just to the yemeni capital of sanaa but major transit routs but spreading geographic control of parts of yemen by the al qaeda in arabian peninsula chapter. they're running several towns in the country as well as presence in other provinces. this despite by u.s. and yemeni forces to battle the

al qaeda unit including killing last year of the u.s. born cleric al-awlaki. jenna: we know he was an ally of the united states. he was injured in a bombing. whether or not he is it still the president or not is still the question. how does this all tie in to the turmoil surrounding his position or his post? >> reporter: exactly. all feeds into the same thing, jenna. we've been hearing for the last year that salah could be on his way out there have been protests against him and his government for that entire time but he is still there there are indications again from my contacts in yemen he might be allowing al qaeda to make hay in several areas of yemen to try to show, hey, if you lose me, you will have chaos in this country, as a wedge to try to maintain power. what we know for sure, jenna, is that the turmoil in this country, the vacuum, the power vacuum is being taken advantage of by not just

al qaeda but separatist units and also by tribal chieftains. this is a country of strategic, critical importance to the united states and that whole region. that is the horn of africa. that is very important area for us, jenna. jenna: all important points for us, greg. thank you very much, greg burke in london. gregg: still ahead new information what is being called italy's titanic. survivors now describing the chaos of the cruise ship disaster. we'll have the very latest coming up in a live report. >> people were lined up in the hallway with kids and people crying and scrolling. and, we were trying to get a hold of somebody. fiber-optic alley we started to leave because the boat was tilting more. no one was telling us what to do. great guest experience. that makes my day.

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this monday morning, everybody, i'm jenna lee. gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in nor jon scottment former utah governor jon huntsman dropping out of the race and towing his support behind mitt romney. jenna: making it official he calls for a campaign of bold ideas to unite the american people and calling on the g.o.p. candidates to end the negative attacks against their fellow republicans. >> today i call on each campaign to cease attacking each other and instead talk directly to the american people about how our conservative ideas will create jobs, reduce our nation's debt, stabilize energy prices, and provide a brighter future for our children and our grandchildren. jenna: bret baier is anchor of special report and -- how do i say it monitoring? >> reporter: moderating. jenna: is that the word i'm looking for? i hope you can fine your words

better than me. i'm sure your monitoring it closely. what are you going to do with all the questions you had for huntsman? it's only a couple of hours before the debate. do they get recycled back into the bin or what? >> reporter: i tell you what we had some really good ones. i don't know if governor huntsman heard about the questions and maybe that is what precipitated the drop out or -- no, there were some really good questions for governor huntsman and we are going to take some of them and put them into different folks, and ask benefit different types of questions to different candidates. this debate, by the way, jenna, we are going to spend some more time in the substance, the answers no longer a minute, they are a minute 30, and we'll have also interest tere action with twitter, people tweeting in suggestion questions. jenna: that will be great to have a little more time to dig into some of these big issues. where do you think the focus goes now that you don't have huntsman on the stage in does the focus go to perry, for example to handle soft questions as the person on kind of the

bottom of the polls? >> reporter: we'll split it as evenly as we can do it. this is my fifth debate, we've done a pretty good job, knock on wood, making sure people have time and the number of questions. obviously the back and forths we'll have to monitor and see who is saying what about whom, and you get 30 seconds to respond if your name is mentioned. i do think it's a different dynamic here, not because it's in south carolina. governor huntsman was only polling about 5, 6%. but it was another person who was coming after mitt romney pretty forcefully on the trail, and now that is not the case. so we have a different environment, one less podium up on the stage, and we are adjusting accordingly. jenna: as the monitor and mod raeur moderator, let me talk to you about the fox news polls. they continue to show with mitt romney and the president obama in a head-to-head match up and

it looks like a statistical dead heat when you look at these two together. the polls show the vote for romney is a vote against the president not necessarily for romney's policies, himself, or as far as what he stands for. what do you think that means for the g.o.p.? what is the take away on something like that? >> reporter: well, it means that independents are a vulnerability for president obama at this point according to the polls. there will be a real effort to go after independents. what this bain attack about governor romney's time at bain capital has done, which is surprising, is it has consolidated, according to many analysts conservatives behind governor romney, which really many people didn't think was going to be possible. it appears that is what is happening. now there is a focus on independents. it will be interesting to see if campaign if in fact he gains ahead in steam and wins in south carolina or florida if in fact

the campaign of governor romney tries to attract those eupbzs whic independents who are dissatisfied with president obama. jenna: if you again look at the polls it does show that the independents are dissatisfied with the president, 62% disappointed or angry with the current administration. these are folks that don't have an attachment to one political party or another. >> reporter: right. the trick is to keep the base fired up, engaged, energized, but not -- and not lose them but also attract independents. arguably many people look back at john mccain and say he did not really do that effectively after he clinched the nomination. the time before the convention. and it was a different environment, the economic situation was different, but his appeal to independents seemed to turn off conservatives. weather governor romney, if in fact he gets that far, can do that, we'll see.

obviously there are other candidates on the stage, jenna that want to prevent from that happening. rick santorum needs a big night tonight to try and coalesce conservatives. newt gingrich has had off and on support here depending on the polls you look at and they will really make their stand here in south carolina, as will governor perry. jenna: tonight is the night to do that, we'll be watching very closely. >> reporter: i should point out one more thing. jenna: please do. >> reporter: congressman paul has been a constant factor in awful these polls. and he's got an amazing amount of support. even in a place like south carolina, where some people didn't think he could get a lot of support, he is a factor here, and we'll see that on the stage tonight as well. jenna: where do you think that support is coming from? is it coming from the tea party in south carolina? is it coming from independents? is it coming from the young voters as we've seen in places like new hampshire? what does it seem like on the ground? >> reporter: in south carolina it's only republicans, but this message about domestic -- miss domestic message on cutting a

trillion dollars in the first year and about his concern about the federal reserve is resonating here in this state, at least according to most polls you look at. he could be a real factor not only here but down the road. jenna: good to point out. thanks for getting that in, we appreciate it. it adds more context to our conversation throughout the day today. we'll see you tonight. thank you very much. the five remaining republican candidates will face off in first he will beach, south carolina. fox news channel, the "wall street journal" debate teaming up here. it's going to be a big night. 9:00pm eastern time. gregg: he's right about ron paul. "real clear politics" average, 15% for ron paul. seems to be rising. the u.s. and israel putting plans or large-scale war games on hold. they were set for april. the decision comes as tensions between the international community and iran are mounting over teheran's nuclear program.

rean palmettrina ninan live. >> reporter: they said it was because of budget concerns, but it's likely it's because of concerns that it could be used at the right time threatening a possible attack at the right time. the last time u.s. and israel had a joint training exercise was back in 2009. we are talking about 3,000 u.s. troops flying over here, coming over here to israel with all the american military hardware to go with it to practice defending israel against military strikes. so are israel and the u.s. on the same page about iran? while there are reports the u.s. is worried israel will conduct a unilateral strike, it's really

hard to know for sure. the israeli defense minister said 2012 will be a very crucial year, that they've got to deal with the iran issue during this year, and that the time is running out. it's really hard to imagine, though, that israel would launch a unilateral attack without the help of the u.s. keep in mind, israel receives $3 billion in aid for military spending from the u.s. every year. gregg: they've got that joint aero-missile defense system which is critical in that region. thank you very much. we'll have later on this later on in the hour with wahlid ferris. we'll get his perspective as they send martin dempsey to the middle east. jenna: finally relief for the iced in ask town of nome. a russian tanker carrying much-needed fuel has arrived. it was moored less than a half a

mile from the port and has finally made its way through the icy water. dan springer from our seattle bureau has been talking to us over the last couple of days. where do we stand today? >> reporter: you're a california girl, it's hard to imagine. the extreme cold is helping this operation now. it's allowing the water around the oil tanker to refreeze allowing hopefully, eventually the off-loading of 1.3 million-gallons of fuel on board the tanker which is escorted by the heli, the only ice breaker in the whole u.s. coast guard fleet arrived in nome saturday complete ago 5,000-mile journey, the last several houp several miles through ice 2 feet stick. they will run a four inch hose from the ship to a tank on hand. if all goes well it will take about 34 to 68 hours to deliver all the fuel. this operation has never happened before, officials are

wary of a spill or something else going wrong. >> all the equipment is in place to carry those tactics out, training has been done, all the man power is in place to make sure that if something did go wrong we could respond to it. >> it's not over until the tank eris out out of the ice and heads back to russia and heli is safely back in seattle and all the product is off-loaded. >> reporter: a violent storm pounded the bearing sea in early november preventing the normal fall delivery of fuel. it's left the city of 3500 people running on fumes. the local native corporation has been out of diesel fuel and low on gasoline and home heating oil. if the mission fails oil will have to be flown in on dc-9's costing residents up to $10 a gallon because of the cold they go through about 3 million-gallons a year. the russian oil tanker, which is the only ice breaker of its kind in the world is delivering this

now, and, again, hopefully they'll be able to get that ice thick enough around it so they'll be able to off-load all the fuel. it could be a couple of days before all the fuel is off and in the tanks in tpho*ebg, jenna. jenna nome, jenna. jenna: we have nothing to complain about, nothing close to that at all. thank you very much. gregg: a scramble for srur jiversurvivors after a residential place collapses. more and dozen bodies recovered. jenna: chaos on board an italian cruise ship that ran aground. this video is incredible. why the company that owns the ship could be facing major financial trouble. >> the rescue was awful. i mean it was very, very disorganized. we had not had our mustard check, we did not know where to go. when we got to the side of the boat to board the rescue boats,

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jenna: here some of the stories we are following for you today. the death toll rising after a five-story building collapses in beirut. rescuers say most of the victims are foreigners and that more victims could be under the rubble you're seeing on your screen here. no word on the cause as of yet. in the meantime 150 firefighters at the scene of an inferno south of los angeles, a massive fire tearing through a conoco-phillips oil-office building, probably caused by a partial roof collapse, that's what they think. no reports of any injuries right now. the first family remembering dr. martin luther king jr. with a day of service. they are helping to build some bookshelves for the library. the president says there is no

better way to celebrate dr. king's life than to spend the day helping others. gregg: the parent company of the cruise ship that ran aground in italy now bracing for a long and very costly road ahead with rescue crews still searching the costa condoria stocks here taking a huge hit with a potential slew of lawsuits waiting in the wings. this wouldn't be the company's first brush with the law. miami defense attorney michael winkleman has firsthand experience. you have sued this company costa before. where did these current and pending and imminent lawsuits take place, in the united states? the parent company is incorporated here in the u.s. their corporate offices are in flashes or does it get filed in italy? >> it's a good question. just to be clear, gregg i am a plaintiff's lawyer, not a defense lawyer. i exclusively represent crew ship passengers or workers who get hurt in suing the cruise lines.

to answer your question, strictly my firm has had many cases against costa cruises both in the united states and in italy. the most important document in this kind of a tragedy is the cruise ticket contract. when you go on a cruise that is a minding contract. here it says you have to sue in genoa italy. even though they are incorporated here, they enforce and require the suit to be brought in italy. gregg: if you file in genoa, italy are there limitations on the amount you can recover if you're injured or killed? >> sure. unfortunately as to both there are. there is something called the athens convention that the cruise line puts in the ticket contract that basically says that if you get hurt, regardless of how badly you're hurt it limits your damages to $75,000 which is roughly 75,000 which is an extremely limited amount, and in terms of deaths, if you were to file a lawsuit in the united states then you would fall under the death in the high seas act

which is a very harsh remedial statute which limits your damages to the money that you provide to dependent beneficiaries. most cruise passengers are elderly and don't have dependent beneficiaries, and therefore their cases are significantly limited in value under that act. gregg: a lot of the victims and their families would say this is a paltry sum for these valued lives. is there any way to get around the limitation stph-s. limitation? >> absolutely. good lawyers will work to fight and get around them. because it's buried in the ticket contract it's interesting to note that either the u.s. or italy have ratified that. it becomes an argument of whether or not it was reasonable to have this passenger, this u.s. passenger be subject to this tiny little fine print buried in a contract, and the judge is ultimately the one who tests it for fundamental fairness. i would argue that there is nothing fundamentally fair about

letting a multibillion-dollar corporation off the hook to such a tune. it's not just injury claims but property claims which i think will be one of the most abundant claims across the board. gregg: michael, wouldn't you argue that these are contracts of adhesion? there was no opportunity here for any of the ticket buyers to negotiate the terms. >> absolutely. it's absolutely a contract of add hearings but there is united states supreme court precedent right on point saying these types of tickets are valid. any time you buy anything online, any time a consumer cliques on something saying i agree to the terms and conditions nobody reads them. i'm a lawyer, i don't even read them. corp. raeugts -gs are allowed to put in things that are so ridiculous i think it's only left to the courts to say, to draw the line what is reasonable and unreasonable. gregg, absolutely i would argue it's unreasonable, a hundred percent unreasonable. gregg: what about another legal doctoring called res ipsa

loquitur, so the plaintiffs don't even have to pursue the negligence, it's automatically assumed. >> sure, i think that is a good point. i'm not sure that that strictly applies. here even costa is basically coming out and admitting that their captain was at fault. in terms of liability there are some issues that passengers face but i do think that all the passengers that were wronged here have a strong right to recovery. this is a very clear case of negligence, even teetering on gross negligence against this cruise line. whether it's in italy or in the united states the passengers will be able to make a recovery for personal injury well as well as medical costs. gregg: thank you for being here. >> a pleasure to be here. jenna: more to that story. what do they do with the ship next? we swr a lot o have a lot of questions we have to get answers for you on. as tensions increase over iran's nuclear program america's top military commander heads to israel for talks.

what is next in the showdown with iran? is there even one coming? our mideast analyst weighs in next. a demand for an unusual kind of meat is on the rise. we'll explain coming up. ♪ home, home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play, where seldom is heard. ♪ ♪ elationship

between israel and the united states with political ramifications of course. it has to be a very clear message, jenna, that the united states and israel both should coordinate strategi strategically not just with

themselves but in the region with iran can extension to make sure two things, that iran will not able to obtain the nuclear bomb. all of that should be details of discussions between the united states and israel. jenna: who else in the region do you think really presents the opportunity for us to maybe not be allies with or work with against iran? >> actually, in the gulf as we all know, with the strait of hormuz crisis we realize that the iranians have not threatened just us or the international life line into the world economy, but the saudis, the iranians are (traiting eastern saudi arabia trying to establish terror krefls. they are threatening bahrain and the united emirates. we have allies in the american world in the gulf with whom we should coordinate but that should not stop us from coordinating with the rest of the international community, that is to make sure that the

europeans are putting those anxiouses, that the israelis are coordinating with us. there should be an international coalition to stop the iranian aggression in the region. jenna: why do you think we don't have that right now? >> because we have different measurements. one of the most important components of countering iran is working with its opposition, as we've done with egypt, and taoupbt u.n. inisia. the administration at that time for reasons that we don't understand still said we are not going to immediate he will in this. that would have been the opportunity to weaken the iranian regime. jenna: is that opportunity gone? >> i think it's still around. there will be another round of elections in iran soon in few months and really this is the opening for the administration, and for american leaders and congress to come together and help the iranian opposition to shake off the foundation of that regime. jenna: it's a good reminder, that election is in march, it's

a spring election before our elections in november, at the year where there is change in iran as well. what does this look like when we say we as a congress, as an administration need to be more aggressive in some of these policies, what would that actually look like? >> well it would look like the president addressing congress and then making sure that he has the backing of the majority, that this should be off the table of bickering, and then there should be a united states unified position on two things, number one, no nuclear weapon for iran, number two, partnering clearly with the iranian opposition and number three having a goal and that goal should be the removal of that regime, i mean very clearly. jenna: it will be interesting to see in the state of the union which is coming newspaper a short amounup in a short amount of time, ten days or so if the president mentions that. we have a big debate tonight, every time we have a debate in the last couple of weeks we've seen iran come up as a topic by some of the candidates. speaking to us as voters what we should be demanding of our next

commander-in-chief. what policies do we want to see as the american public. >> this is an opportunity for them to speak to the candidates and ask them very clear question, what is your actual program with regards stopping that nuke, what is your strategy with regard the opposition in iran, what is your real position with regard israel and will you be working with the arobjec arab allies all the way to make sure the u.s. interests are defended in the region. jenna: thank you so much. a story obviously that will continue to have a lot of attention on it. we look forward to talking to you about it again, sir. thank you. >> thank you. gregg: it's crunch time as the candidates gear up for the south carolina primary this weekend, on saturday, a live update on the campaign. of course tonight's big debate on fox in myrtle beach. ♪ nothing could be finer than to be in carolina in the morning.

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gregg: welcome back. the republican presidential candidates are tkpwatd erring for tonight's fox news debate in south carolina and campaigning hard. just ahead of the first southern primary on saturday. chief political correspondent carl cameron live in myrtle

beach, south carolina. carl, what is the practical effect if one can discern it of huntsman's departure today? >> reporter: well, it's a little bit hard to tkpwaupblg gauge. he was polling low and even behind a comedian steve colbert. mr. huntsman has very influential south carolina supporters, not the least of which the wife of carol campbell the former governor. they are conservatives with influence. while mr. huntsman's endorsement may not necessarily lend a great deal of boost to mitt romney, if south carolina supporters were to join him that would be a big deal. huntsman says he's out and throwing his support behind mitt romney. >> today, i am suspending my campaign for the presidency. i believe it is now time for our party to unite around the candidate best equipped to

defeat barack obama. despite our differences, and the space between us on some of the issues i believe that candidate is governor mitt romney. >> reporter: huntsman went onto make a request that he knows will never be realized, he suggested that the republican candidates stop attacking one another personally attacking their character and integrity and suggested that the body politics has been tox tpaoeud by all these attack ads. he knows full well that those ads aren't going to come down but it doesn't hurt to ask. gregg: we've got a bit of news crossing the wires and it relates to the primary immediately after south carolina. i wonder if i can get you to react to this. these are numbers in florida, and just out from an arg poll and it has romney jumping into a wide lead in the florida republican primary, with 42% followed by newt gingrich with 25%, rick santorum at 9, ron paul at 8%.

what do you make of that? >> reporter: well, it's one of many polls that have shown romney with a bit of an advantage in florida. the range changes on the poll and depending on when it was taken. here is what has happened in florida. before the iowa caucuses the proromney super pak went on the air with proromney ads in the sunshine state and they ran basically in the seven major media markets of the state. there is one in tallahassee around the state capitol, three sort of media markets that comprise the i-four corridor that goes across the florida peninsula and then there are the three markets that make up south florida. broward county, miami-dade and palm beach county. all of the tv markets have been blanketed with proromney super pak ads. romney went on tv in florida on ads on his behalf between the iowa and new hampshire contest. romney is the only candidate aggressively on the air with major buys in florida. he's the only candidate with the

money and organization to have already begun building his infrastructure there, and he is recognizing and has already begun the process of trying to coalesce conservative support around him. romney campaign is fully a which are that there are conservatives who still have deep misgivings about them. many of them support rick santorum, many newt gingrich, some support rick perry. huntsman is out of race. romney is calling here with robo calls in south carolina and building his fire wall in florida he's trying to build the image of inevitability, a ju a jugarknot that is not stoppable. the ads have been on the air so many weeks unanswered by most of his rivals. gregg: as lindsey graham says, romney wins there, it should be over.

carl cameron. thank you very much. tonight's presidential debate will be right here on the fox news channel. live in myrtle beach, the debate gets underway beginning at 9:00pm eastern. jenna: a fair & balanced look at one big issue in the campaign that will probably come up tonight during the debate. mitt romney under attack by some of his republican rivals over his work at bain capital. what is bain capital? what does it actually do? chief washington correspondent james rosen has the task of being that fair & balanced truth provider when it comes to this story. james. >> reporter: that's what my business cards actually say. jenna: that is a good one. take it away. >> reporter: well good afternoon. bain capital, plain and simple is a privately-owned investment firm this boston that employs 900 people worldwide. it handles public and private equity deals. that means it buys existing companies and tries to increase their profits and market shares. it also handles venture capital deals, that means investing in promising start ups. since 1984 bain has made private equity investments in more than

240 companies and by its own estimate it now manages $66 billion in assets. after working for bain's predecessor firm romney became the very first ceo of bain capital and stayed there about 15 years. under his guidance a 37 million-dollar investment fund returned 200 million into vesters. and as late as 2006 romney himself was still earning 15 million dollars a year from his successful affiliation with bain. they say bain's reputation in the field is impeccable. >> they manage $66 billion, and a lot of that money is public pension funds, you know, the pension funds for retired police officers, and they have done a very fine job of managing this capital, and so if you're one of those people, then you're glad that mitt romney worked for bain capital and did a good job. >> reporter: when he ran against

senator edward kennedy in 1994 romney claimed to have help create between 10 and 17,000 jobs. those claims were essentially verified by both of boston's major newspapers at the time one of which endorsed ted kennedy and it said, quote the review of romney's business dealings offers support albeit with some tkwaul tpaoeu indications for the cornerstone of his campaign, his role in the creation of more than 10,000 jobs, the boston globe wrote at that time. now, however, romney speaks about having helped to create 100,000 jobs, he arrives at that figure by tallying all the jobs added by firms that romney worked with while he was at bin that were success pull firms, also including the jobs that those firms have added since romney himself left bain 13 years ago. got to pay attention to the numbers, jenna. jenna: more fact-checking ahead. the big story this week is attorney mitt romney will release his income tax returns. we are going to get those from the president and gingrich. he hasn't said if he's going to do that yet. >> reporter: he's keeping his options open there. jenna: interesting. james, thank you.

>> reporter: thank you. gregg: james has a new make name, he's a truther now. jenna: i like that, that is a good one for james. gregg: newt gingrich is calling off the attack dogs, asking independents super paks who support him to correct the record in their ads when it comes to mitt romney. could those attacks on romney actually be backfiring? >> when you have a super pak anyone can blindly put a check into it and you can fund a campaign commercial, put your message out and stay alive. my . ♪ is it fast? it's got a lightning bolt on it, doesn't it? ♪ is it fast? i don't even know if it's street-legal. ♪ is it safe? [ male announcer ] the security of a jetta. one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. ♪ got you in a stranglehold, baby ♪

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when even the firefighters have to get out, they depend on the t-pass iii communicator. and packed inside every t-pass... is the only battery they trust: duracell. trusted everywhere. gregg: newt gingrich getting some boos from the audience during this weekend's huckabee forum over an attack against mitt romney. >> governor romney ran saying he created a hundred thousand jobs in the private sector -- >> mr. speaker we said we will not allow any -- >> okay. let me answer this is question. let me say it differently. >> okay. gregg: gingrich has been under fire not only for his own comments but for neglect any of

attack ads sponsored by a pronewt gingrich super pak. jemu green joins us and jim pinkerton is a writer and editor. both are fox news contributors. let me stop with you, jem, what is your reaction to that, are these attack ads and direct attacks from the candidates, are they hurting mitt romney or in the case of newt gingrich hurting him? >> i think that they are clearly going to end up hurting newt gingrich, but it's also coupled with the $11 million in negative ads that is being spent in south carolina, but it's also the conservative commentators, who are coming after newt gingrich in a bare-nuclear eld brawl. we saw som bare-knuckled brawl. back in december you had rush limbaugh defending speaker gingrich but as soon as gingrich

and governor perry in a sense lifted the veil, removed the curtain from the rigged economic system that a lot of conservative commentators don't want a light to be shined on that's when they come at 4 him him a lot more aggressively. gregg: i talked with mark sanford. he says there is significant blow back here. i'm going to play a clip. here is he asked about the impact on newt gingrich. take a listen. >> yeah, but i think, frankly in a negative way i think his rise in the polls has been despite those super-pak ads against vulture capitalism, et cetera. you know, i think, you know, he's certainly being talked about, and maybe that has helped him. gregg: vulture capitalism has been used by rick perry to describe mitt romney. who is getting hurt here? >> negative ads have a strange way of affecting both the person

receiving the add and the person putting out the ad and that is both romney and gingrich, it's possible to see them both being damaged, which is to say that there is a term in sort of game theory called the happy third. somebody else who is watching two people duke it out is a natural beneficiary of that. i think gingrich has been hurt by running his ads, he's got even attacked for it, but i also think that there is blood in the water on romney, in terms of all the stuff, and meanwhile santorum, and paul are sitting there waiting to see if they have a chance now in south carolina. gregg: jemu, three major newspapers all examined in pronewt gingrich super-pak ad against romney and they concluded that it was riddled with distortions and inaccuracies if not out-right lied. does that get conveyed to the voters of south carolina? do they even know that? do they care if they learn it? >> the angry little attack muffin as peggy noonan put it in

the "wall street journal" has now shifted his messages to make sure that he is asking for those ads to be corrected. but facebook and phreut ta could hpolitico did their poll that they are running, and 43% said that romney's record at bain is going to make a difference. this is resonating with republican voters, and i think, again, the bigger impact is the republican establishment coming after him no hold barred. gregg: jim "the washington post" found that three of the four case studies depict ned this bain film against romney didn't involve romney at all while he was at bain, and some of these people who were in the film have come forward and said, you know what, when romney was in charge we got a 30% raise. we weren' were criticizing the company that years later had bought our particular company

and sold it and relost our jobs because of them. that is pretty severe misrepresentation, isn't it? >> yeah, where newt says, okay take the ads down, of course they don't go down. and by the way, the same thing is going on with romney. even as we talk about gingrich's negative ads romney is busy, through his quote unquote independent pac is busy machine gunning santorum. in other words, the challenge here is to do the negative ads, but do it in a way that is independent of your campaign. romney has been able to pull that off. he's running negative against everybody else and staying positive himself. newt, however has got even tangled up in his own allegedly independent super pac and it's hurting him because the negativity is drifting back onto him where it's not drifting back onto romney. gregg: thank you both for being with us. jenna. jenna: we'll continue to watch that going into the debate tonight. one of the things we are watching closely is gas prices always, and they are on the rise again. are rising tensions with iran to blame? lou dobbs will weigh in on

that. also buffalo meat, look at those burgers, look pretty good right about now. gregg: oh, yeah. jenna: apparently buffalo meat is making its way back to the dinner table. we'll tell you why. gregg: however had it? jenna: it's delicious. gregg: i love it. jenna: next. ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fru and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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>> reporter: two americans are missing from a shipwreck in italy. we'll talk about the night nare on board. we'll explain why tonight's debate is the most critical for rick santorum, and the conflict with iran seems to get worse by the day. what does israel now want the u.s. to do? all that when i see you in seven minutes on "america live." jenna: in the meantime buffalo meat is making a come back. we like this. right? sorry, vegetarians, gregg and i are for the good old bison.

it tried to make a come back in the 90s but it didn't really catch on. now there is another effort to bring it back to the american kitchen table. alicia acuna is live from henderson, colorado with more on this. >> reporter: we are at the rocky mountain natural meats processing center. the majority of what they package here is bison. they have been busier than ever because consumers can't seem to get enough. it's what is making its way back to tables across america, bison. at the buffalo restaurant and bar in colorado the lean red meat becomes so popular -- >> the market has had trouble keeping up with the demand. >> we basically lead them with this truck. >> reporter: boyd myers has been a bison rancher for ten years. >> in the last two we've seen a pretty good jump, in some cases market doubling. >> reporter: huge profits are driving mier and others like him to increase herd numbers but

bison take longer to grow than could yous and are more expensive. after a bison boom and bust in the early 90s, this type of ranching became rare. now with healthier consumer appetites supplies are tight and prices rising. >> we don't really see beef as something we are trying to compete with. we feel like we have our own market that we are trying to expand. >> reporter: there is plenty of room, bison farmers produce less than 1% of what the beef industry does. rocky mountain natural meats is the largest bison processor in the country, even exporting to europe. >> some people will go, you know, we are afraid to eat it because it's going to taste funny, or weird, and then they are happily surprised. >> it's good. it doesn't taste any different than beef. >> it tastes a little bit leaner. >> reporter: and it cost more than beef, jenna, but folks who like it say it's worth the price. jenna: that will be interesting to watch that market, thank you. gregg: one time ted turner had the largest bison herd in

america. he may still have it. i think he had i looked it up quickly 50,000. jenna: 50,000? gregg: yeah. jenna: wow. it's beautiful to see the animals roaming on the prairie. gregg: you can get some of it as ted's montana grill i believe. sometimes there is really no place by hope. we have an update from arizona as one hundred weary warriors get a heart-warming welcome home from afghanistan. wanna know the difference between a trader and an elite trader?

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gregg: and finally for us, time was standing still as some weary warriors got the welcome home they'd long been waiting for. 100 national guard or soldiers sharing smiles, tears and lots of hugs with loved ones in arizona after spending nearly a year in afghanistan. a big thanks to all the men and women in alpha 422 for their service. and welcome home. jenna: never get tired of those pictures at all. we do welcome them home and say thank you to the families as well. gregg: absolutely.