>> gretchen: coming up tomorrow on "fox & friends," rick santorum will be here, rick perry, jerry springer,. >> eric: and jessica alba. >> gretchen: i waited for that. >> brian: i wonder how she's looking? >> gretchen: good. log on for the after the show show. bye. breaking news right now and a fox news alert. there are major developments out of italy at this hour. the black box recordings are just into "america's newsroom" after this deadly cruise ship incident. this is live look of the ship off the coast of italy as the search for 29 continues. good morning, everybody. we start there. welcome to "america's newsroom". good morning, martha. martha: welcome, bill. i'm martha maccallum. on the tape you're about to hear with the captain speaking with a member of the italian port authority. listen closely. >> translator: this is captain scatino there are

people trapped own board. go on lifeboat on the bow of the ship on the side. there's a ladder. climb up the ladder and board the ship. get on board and report to me how many people there are. is that clear? i'm recording this conversation, captain scatino. let me tell you one thing. speak up. this ship at the moment. captain speak up, shield the microphone with your hand and speak louder, clear? at this moment the ship is tilted. i understand. people are coming down the ladder on the bow. go back in the opposite direction. get back on the ship and tell me how many people there are and what they have on board. clear? tell me if there are children, women, and what kind of help they will need. you tell me the number of each of these categories. is that clear? look, scatino perhaps you saved yourself from the sea but i will make you look very bad. i will make you pay for this, dammit. bill: just out now. greg burke is from italy's

west coast. what is the latest from the ship's captain, greg? >> reporter: bill, an amazing story. there have been a lot of story what is the captain was doing and how he reacted. we see now a lot of documentation as well. this conversation, main part of it, the captain appearing today, preliminary court hearing. a judge will have to decide if in fact he should be charged. he has been held. the possible charges, manslaughter, abandoning a ship and also causing a ship wreck. seems like it all happened because he wanted to go close to the island in order to blow the ship's whistle for a friend on it, essentially playing a game of chicken. as we say later, look like he acted like a chicken as well. bill? bill: the search for survivors or what may be left of the bodies that are now missing, how is that search proceeding, greg? >> reporter: well, bill, good news is, basically calm seas and a very good weather today but they do admit to us that time is running out

obviously with the air temperature and also the water temperature at this point. it is becoming more just, really, trying to find bodies. the numbers, as you said, 29 unaccounted for. although we got reports today there was also another body recovered. that would the bring it down to seven dead and 28. in any case that number of unaccounted for fluctuate ad bit which has been one of the problems. what we do know it was a harrowing ordeal for so many. >> the first floor was already underwater. the second floor you could see would be underwater. that is where our cabin was. >> i heard all the glasses in the bathroom falling on the floor cracking. >> everybody was running with the life jackets on. >> i knew i couldn't rely on costa, the crew, nobody else. we had to do it. that's what i told my mom. you have got to use those legs like you never used those legs before. >> for a while i thought we weren't going to make it.

>> reporter: well, bill, there you have it. there are basically 4,000 stories out there pretty similar to that. bill? bill: greg burke thank you, live near the scene there in italy. more on the calls, the black box recordings are now made public. we'll have that for you throughout the morning here. grabs you. martha: unbelievable. they're begging this man to get off the lifeboat and to get back onto the ship he is captain of. this man is the anti-captain sully of this situation. he went back on and, backed and forth on the plane until he made sure every single person was out. we're hearing accounts of 17-year-old girl whose aunt and mother, said we're going back to get our life jackets and, she never saw them again. this is a devastating tragedy. for this man to be caught on this tape, clearly this dispatcher wants to make sure that everybody knows he made every effort to get this man back onto the ship. it is unbelievable. meanwhile you've got these rescue workers conducting a controlled explosion

situation. blasting a hole in the side of the ship. listen to this. so the hole allows them to get inside the shipwreck. we're getting unbelievable pictures of them in there swiping around searching for possible survivors or victims. there are, as you know, sadly dozens of people missing there possibility that someone could be in some kind of air pocket in the ship. they're really trying to make every effort to make sure that is not the case. one italian official says he thinks there is some small glimmer of hope they may still find people. bill: so many ways a race against time. we have watched it with the rescuers. the navy divers have hoping to find those unaccounted for. these are new images of subha divers going inside the ship. italian officials concerned that ship tragedy could become an environmental disaster this week the worry, rougher seas could cause some half million gallons of fuel on board to leak and

damage sealife in the area there. martha: what are the chances that people still could be found alive? we'll be joined by fox military analyst and former navy captain chuck nash. we'll get more sound which we're still working on bringing in from unbelievable new audio recordings that deal with the captain. big story this morning. bill: here is another big story. it was a big night for the republicans in last night's fox news debate with five days to go before south carolina votes. we saw a lot of disagreement and lot of sharp jabs at president obama. here's sample. >> this country doesn't need another war. we need to quit the ones we're in. we need to save the money and bring our troops home. >> these people declared war on us. they killed americans. we go anywhere they are and we kill them. the right thing for -- [cheers and applause] the right thing for osama bin laden was a bullet in the head that he received. >> this administration doesn't agree with the catholic church on the issue of abortion.

if that is not a war on religion i don't know what it is. and this administration is out of control. >> the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by barack obama than any president in american history. [applause] martha: wow, there were real fireworks outside and mitt romney was perhaps the favorite target in last night's debate. look at this exchange with texas governor rick perry. >> my income tax have been out every year and newt, think you're going to let your income tax come out thursday. and mitt, we need for you to release your income tax so the people of this country can see how you made your money. [applause] >> i think i heard enough from folks, let's see your tax records. i have nothing in them to suggest there is any problem and i'm happy to do so. i sort of feel like we're showing a lot of exposure at this point and if i become our nominee, and what has happened in history people

have released them april of the coming year and that is probably what i do. martha: really interesting. so no time for any of these candidates to lick their wound and go over last night again. they're out there all over zigzaging north carolina. byron york choice me, chief political correspondent for the "washington examiner" and fox news contributor. byron, that was an interesting exchange over the tax returns. there is one moment mitt romney said there is lot of exposure hire. you get a sense he wants to feel like until the primary is over to deal with the issue and there is precedent for that in the past, right? >> there is. actually mitt romney has never released tax returns when he ran for the senate, when he ran for governor and when he ran for president in 2007. something he has not done. so if he were to do it, you remember last night he said he would probably do it. he didn't make any sort of firm commitment. if he did it would be absolutely unprecedented for mitt romney. you have to remember, for example in the democratic

primary last time around, barack obama released eight or ten years of his tax returns in march of 2008. so there is precedent for doing it and doing it pretty early. martha: how problematic is this issue for mitt romney? the assumption is that there's, a lot of capital gains. that the taxes that were paid on some of that money perhaps was paid at the levels that you see warren buffett do and those kind of things. that it will dredge up that conversation. that is based on some of the accounts i read about what people are expecting. we don't know what is in there yet. how problem mat lick -- problematic potentially? >> it could be but more so in the general election. newt gingrich has been talking about issue quietly for quite a while. i spoke with him about it in new hampshire. at the time he asked his accountants to pull his own tax record and prepare them for release which he says will happen on thursday. we do know romney with bain capital probably made most of his money in the form of capital gains which is taxed at a lower rate than wages.

so the could reflect that, which of course is an issue that president obama has been talking about all the time. remember him saying that, you know, warren buffett's secretary shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than warren buffett does. martha: right. >> if romney's taxes come from capital gains, that is tailor-made issue for the president. martha: one that will not go away for mitt romney. we'll see how he handles it moving forward. byron, thank you from south caroline. >> thank you. bill: complete coverage of the first in the south primary this saturday, january 21. we'll have all the breaking developments out of the palmetto state. live coverage, 6:00. we'll roll through the night and see how close it is, won't we? martha: that's right. bill: here we go again. a new high stakeses showdown in washington. the debt debate returns. and ballooning federal debt this time. more than a trillion dollars. stuart varney, fox business network. his calculator doesn't go that high. good morning.

what is on tap this time, stuart? >> it is virtually automatic there will be extra trillion dollars worth of borrowing almost automatic but there will be debate in the house and that is going to focus attention on the debt all over again. remember, bill, we're just coming off those big downgrades in europe on friday which included france, losing its aaa rating. here we have a lot more borrowing still to come in america, following from downgrades over debt in europe. it means, bill, by election day, we will be $16 trillion in debt. that is by election day of this year. bill: just to be clear, this is going to happen? >> yes. bill: it was agreed to in august. it will take place. is there much of a debate to be shared now with the american public? >> the house will debate it and they will pass a motion of disapproval. that is all they're allowed to do. it then goes on. the president will sign it. we will be borrowing an extra 1.2 trillion dollars over next year or maybe 14 months. but we're going to borrow

it. it will go through. it is going to happen. 16 trillion total debt by election day up from 10.6 trillion when the president took office. bill: stuart, we're going to need a bigger calculator. >> yes we are. bill: see you 9:20 at fbn. >> we'll need a bigger boat and bigger calculator. brand new breaking details and sad news to report getting across the wires in that deadly cruise stint in italy. iran sparking heated exchange with rivals. how would they deal with iran. liz cheney will talk about that. bill: hundreds snowed in for a month finally breathing a sigh of relief. we'll explain why. that massive tanker is the best sight they have seen in some time. martha: who shined and who stood behind. former governor mike huckabee in three minutes in "america's newsroom" to tally up the votes. >> if attacks on me have been outrage just and

completely inaccurate and shown to be inaccurate. that is nature prove ses. i hope it ends. >> we have a long debate. jenna shared her recipe with sharon,

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martha: a fox news alert. we have brand new information on this italian cruise ship and sadly they have just recovered five more bodies. you can see the divers in the water on the left-hand side of your screen. this is like something out of a movie except it is not and it is a very tragic story. that is look what they're doing on the left-hand side with the divers. five more bodies now recovered. that brings the total to 11 dead right now. bill: we'll have headlines on that story throughout the morning. we'll get you back to italy in a moment. we get you back to the republican debate in south carolina. you saw it here only on the fox news channel. since ronald reagan no republican has won the nomination without first

winning in south carolina. that vote is on saturday. texas governor rick perry, his tactic, to win over voters, try to prove that he is the true washington outsider. >> this is great example of the insiders having a conversation up here. the fact of the matter is this. washington needs d.c., needs to leave the states alone and let the states decide these issues and don't do it from washington, d.c. [cheers and applause] that is what needs to happen. the state of texas is under assault by federal government. i'm saying also that south carolina is at war with this federal government with this administration. [cheers and applause] bill: mike huckabee is a former governor from arkansas and the host of "huckabee" on the fox news channel. good morning to you in columbia, south carolina. this mutt have been a trip down memory lane to you. you lost to mccain by only three points four years ago, governor. good morning. >> thanks for reminding me

of that, bill. thanks a lot. bill: we're between friends here. you say perry had a great night but too little, too late. how come? >> i think he did have a great night last night. i thought he had a great one saturday with our forum. he found his sea legs of late. the problem with all the preliminaries he wasn't really at top of his game. kind of like being in the miss america pageant. you lose all the preliminaries but on the night of the pageant you really look good but the problem the score something based on the preliminaries plus the pageant. his scores in the preliminaries will make it so i don't think he can recover. he is too far down. the race is between gingrich and santorum who will be alternative to romney. bill: you think newt gingrich had a terrific night last night. how come? >> night of his life. he was absolutely at top of his game. what he was doing last night, he wasn't attacking mitt romney. he was attacking the american system that is really oppressed a lot of people with joblessness and

hopelessness. he lifted their spirits. he talked about the value of things that americans care about. things like work. i thought it was a brilliant performance by gingrich last night. bill: what about mitt romney? you believe one of his roughest nights. explain that. >> everyone was piling on him. he certainly could have expected that. but he seemed to be a little rattled on several occasions and, it was not his best night. now he is at the top of the polls. he just has to keep from falling down but the tax issue, for example, where they hammered him about that. i think the answer he needs to give to not try to be defensive, simply say how many of these people in your room do your own taxes? not very many. how many understand the tax code. virtually none. if i release the taxes do you think you will understand me better? of course not. have you i made a lot of money. i made more money and saved more money that the federal government is broke. i won't steal anything because i have more money than the government. blow it off. it is a stupid thing. i did it for years release tax returns.

wish i hadn't. all it does provide fodder for opponents and the press to nitpick and find stuff. and legally you already have to release a financial statement of full disclosure. that should satisfy everybody. bill: you think he was off his game. is that because the topics were a bit different last night? >> no i think there were so many things coming at him and they were coming in such quick succession that he was having trouble fielding them. to use a phrase that he use ad few weeks ago, it was probably lucy and ethel at the chocolate factory. some things. everyone was targeting him as he should have expected because he is the prohibitive frontrunner. bill: let's out the five, ron paul you were not impressed? >> no. ron paul, i think if rick perry had his good game and newt gingrich had the night of his life, ron paul had the night of his life but it wasn't a good one of the his description of taliban being basically good ol' bunch of boys that we made mad. and that is it overstating it but that is absurd.

there is not an american alive and breathing who thinks the taliban are anything like us. and they're not. and i think he completely discredited his campaign. i know i will hear from a lot of his angry supporters i don't like ron paul. look a lot of things ron paul says are fine. if you look at back of can of insecticide, 98% inert ingredients but the other two percent that kills the bugs. in ron paul's case you could say a lot of things are good, 9% of the things he says but the other two percent that absolutely kills his credibility as a candidate. bill: governor, thank you for your time. rick santorum, by the way did he put himself in the top two based on last night? >> i thought he had a good night. he was good and aggressive and wasn't overly harsh. it will be interesting race between santorum and gingrich for second place to see who goes on to florida. bill: that is something to watch. governor, see you on saturday. five or five. well-done in 3 1/2 minutes. here is martha. martha: we have more breaking news on this cruise

ship incident. reports of divers finding more bodies in that ship. more on the brand new recordings. also we're about to play for you some of these recordings between the captain who they were urging to get back on the ship and help those people coming up. >> right away our bodies reacted quicker than our minds could to the serious sensation are fight or flight. >> kind of a collapse of emotion t was bitter because it happened but sweet to be home and relief. simply relief.

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martha: retailers across the country are coming up with a new way for you to shop, sounds pretty good. how does it work. anna couple ma is checking it out.

chichi is at the javits center. how does this work? >> reporter: retailers get interactive and going high-tech and adding a little bit of humor to lure in consumers. kraft foods teamed up with intel for the jell-o sensation free snack machine. it will scan your face to see if you're over the age of 16. the reason behind that, these pudding snacks are touted as adult-only. not because there is alcohol in them or something like that. because more adult flavors. lemon meringue pie. french silk. if you're under the age of 16 you will not get one. if you're over, out will pop the pudding. very cool, right? marketers says this is great way to reach the target audience and a little bit of fun too. >> we really think this is the future of engaging consumers with products and sampling more easily. ultimately for us as a company, hopefully it drives incremental interest and ultimately purchase.

>> reporter: yeah. martha, some people think it is a little too big brother ish but on the other hand, other people are saying it is not as big of a deal because they don't take anybody's exact identity and dpend other and approximate -- gender and problem mat age. it is free. martha: you are over 16 i assume? >> reporter: yes, yes. martha: no easting pudding for those under 16-year-olds. anna, thank you very much. bill: most days i act 15 though. republican candidates, went at it last night during our fox news debate. this one of the last meetings they will have before south carolina votes on saturday. national security, a major topic last night. liz cheney is here to react to that. >> this idea that we can't debate foreign policy, that all we have to do is start another war? i mean it is warmongering. building up nor father war against iran and people

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bill: wisconsin's republican governor scott walker and he is in for a new fight. this time it is for his job. opponents of the governor submitting recall petitions today. you might remember that he made national headlines last year when wisconsin challenged some of the unions in wisconsin. mike tobin in a frozen madison, this morning. mike, do they anticipate getting enough signatures for this recall petition? >> reporter: more than enough, bill.

some 540,000 signatures are required to get governor scott walker on the ballot. if you want an estimate by weight. i heard an estimate about a ton of signatures will arrive here at government accountability board. somewhere upwards of 800,000 signatures just to get governor scott walker back on the ballot. that will allow for a lot of signatures to be invalidated and still have enough to force another election in gubernatorial race here. on top of that you have a lot of other republicans, lieutenant governor, rebecca clay fish and four republican state senators are operating under the idea enough signatures will be turned in, enough signatures will be val tated and they will be forced back on ballot, bill. bill: when will he have an opponent? when would wisconsin go to the polls to vote on this? >> reporter: you know, the statutes in terms of recall elections were never really designed to handle this kind of volume. so the government accountability board is asking for more time, about 90 days to validate all of the signatures. now on top of that you have to anticipate that there will be legal challenges

because there is so much emotion in this battle. so you're probably looking at an election, recall election in the middle of summer. what is interesting about that is, it pushes it just months away from the scheduled november election. so the only thing certain out here, bill, is a lot of voter fatigue. bill: a lot of national headlines going back to wisconsin along the way. mike, thank you. i'm sure you will take it right through for us. might be tobin in madison. martha: snow there in madison, wisconsin. let's head down to south carolina where rick perry right now is doing an event, town hall in merit tell's inlet, along the coast outside of the myrtle beach area. last night, boy, there was an explosive debate on america's foreign policy including how far our military should go to keep us safe from terror. candidates ron paul and newt gingrich clashing at that fox news presidential debate over the killing of osama bin laden. watch this. >> once they waited 10 years, i don't see any reason why

they couldn't have done it like they did africa lead sheikh mohammad. that would have been a more proper way. now if somebody has a, somebody in this country, say a chinese dissident comes over here we wouldn't endorse the idea, they can come over here and bomb us, do whatever. >> bin laden plotted deliberately bombing american embassies, bombing the uss cole and killing 3100 americans in his only regret was he didn't kill more. now, he is not a chinese dissident. [applause] you know the analogy that congressman paul used was utterly irrational. martha: very feisty back and forth last night. liz cheney joins me right now, a fox news contributor. good morning, liz. >> hi, martha. good to be with you. martha: what did you make of that exchange? >> i thought obviously newt had it exactly right. i thought congressman paul was completely nonsensical and really irresponsible.

i think what we saw last night why he will never be the republican nominee for president. martha: we did hear a lot more last night in this debate on issues like iran and afghanistan and iraq. there has been so much focus on the domestic economy which is clearly issue number one. what did you think sort of how the candidates came down? who seemed particularly strong to you especially if we end up having to deal with with iran in a meaningful way through the course of this year as many think we will? >> i thought everybody on the stage with the exception of ron paul handled these issues very well last night. it is only because the economy is so bad you haven't seen more coverage of these national security issues. i was glad to see that last night. you've got a situation where this president in office now, with his defense cuts that he has been propose something on the brink of doing to the u.s. military what our enemies have been unable to do and that is completely diminish our fighting capacity. you have a situation where iran by the accounts of many

experts is somewhere between six months and potentially a year to having highly-enriched uranium to 90% which is what they need for a sophisticated weapon. you have iraq falling apart. you have us pulling our troops out of afghanistan too quick lift all the while that is going on, president obama seems to want to pretend we're at peace and we have a peace dividend and we can cut deeply into our military. frankly i thought ron paul sounded an awful lot like barack obama last night. martha: we'll listen to one more piece of ron paul sound here. let's hear that. >> my point is, if another country does to us what we do others we're not going to like it very much. so i would say that maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in foreign policy don't do to other nations what we don't want happening to us. this idea that we can't debate foreign policy. that all we have to do is start another war? i mean, it is warmongering.

they're building up for another war against iran and people can't wait to get into another war. this country doesn't need another war. we need to quit the ones we're in and we need to he have is a the money and bring our troops home. martha: you could hear very mixed reaction. there was booing at beginning of that. there was cheering him on at the other end of this response. you can fast forward and see in the general election this will be big topic of conversation. you stated your feelings on this. >> right. martha: a lot of people would like to see us completely out of afghanistan, who think this is a lost cause. this will be one of the major topics in the general election. >> as it should be, martha, absolutely. it is completely the case people are war-weary but at the same time, i think we've all got to realize that the sacrifices that have been made in terms of the gains that we were able to secure in iraq, in the bush administration, the gains that the commanders on the ground have secured in the southern part of afghanistan, those gains are at risk now. i was particularly struck to

hear congressman paul express such complete moral equivalence as though there is really no difference between the united states united states and our enemies. for goodness sakes, we've been fighting against a president in office now who believes that. and i think that it is just the height of irresponsibility and, you know, really jaw-dropping frankly to hear a republican candidate for president espouse the notion that there is no difference between america and al qaeda, america and our enemies. i think we need a candidate on our side who understands america is the greatest nation that has ever existed and that while surely you can always find the cuts to be had in the military, that the american military is the greatest force for good the world has ever known. martha: you make a great point. in talking about the distraction that the economy is. clearly a major focus for a very good reason but the losses of some gains made in iraq and in southern afghanistan as you point out could erupt into a situation

that will pull people's focus away for a moment in a frightening way perhaps. >> well, and frankly we've got to make sure that the people who attacked us on 9/11 and other terrorists wish us ill are not in the position to re-establish a foothold either in iraq or afghanistan. so it is the case we've been there now for 10 years that we have fought hard. we have made gains but we certainly can't watch the gains slip away in a way that makes the united states less safe. martha: very important issue. liz cheney, thank you so much. great to see you. >> thank you, martha. good to be with you. bill: good debate last night, huh? martha: very. bill: one last crack at each other before the big vote on saturday. i thought what huckabee said 20 minutes ago whether you have effective debate in closing days or whether or not it is too late and you missed the opportunity. martha: we'll see. some of these guys fare very well in the south carolina primary are you could open the door for some who may think it is too late. bill: 10% unemployment in

south carolina. 10% unemployment in florida which is the next stop at the end of this month. a massive search. we have dramatic new developments on the hiker stranded in a mountain wilderness. boy, does he have a story to tell. martha: wait until you hear the next stages of this tape we've been working on this morning. we'll play it moments from now. it is the captain of the italian cruise liner as he is being practically begged and berated to get back on his ownership and help the people who are in the process of going down. >> couldn't even run their boats. that is part of the reason we had to get off a boat because they didn't know how to run it. >> changes in the way cruise lines are run. safety procedures. >> and training of the crews. training of the crews. they were totally incompetent. >> five 1/2 hour grueling experience. we faced death four times. ♪

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martha: great story for you this morning. a missing hiker is found

alive. 66 years old. this man is. he disappeared on saturday. there were rescue crews that found him in an icy remote area of mount rainier in washington state. it took them nine hours to pull him out of the rugged terrain. he was leading a group of snowshoe hikers on the southwest point of that mountain. that is when he fell down the side after steep slope. bill: we've got brand new recordings right now just into "america's newsroom." this is what you're about to hear the exchange between the captain of the cruise ship and italian dispatcher on land with the port authority. the first voice you will hear is the dispatcher. then the pilot responds. it runs about 35 seconds. listen. >> translator: captain, please, there is no please about it. go back on board. assure me you're going back on board. i'm in the lifeboat under the ship. i haven't gone anywhere, i'm here. what are you doing? i'm coordinating. what are you coordinating

there. get on board the ship and coordinate the rescue on board. are you refusing? no, i'm not refusing. are you refusing to go on board? tell me the reason you're not going. i am not going because another lifeboat has stopped. get on board. this is order. you need to continue rescue. you called evacuation. now i am in charge. bill: goes on from there. you will hear more in a moment. captain chuck nash, a former navy captain and military analyst. good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: make sense of this. what is the captain doing? >> he abandoned his ship in a time of distress and it is all recorded on tape. this is after he intentionally hazarded the vessel it appears because from the crew statements and black box of the ship's recorder he was steaming directly at the island and with the up tension of making a very sharp turn to throw a wake up, evidently, his, he had a friend who was a retired italian admiral,

who was living on the island and he wanted to, even the shipping, the company that owns the ship has said that he was trying to make a bow to the people of the village. bill: from what i read, it is almost tradition on this cruise liner to do it on this island. apparently there are a lot of relationships between those that work on the ship and those that live here. more to the point, why did leave the ship? >> that, they're going to have to pull out of him, if he will admit it but, it is just unconscionable. you know, one of the things, when you're operating within the confines of normal operating procedures for just about any profession, be it the medical profession, aviation or maritime, as long as you stay within those operating procedures there are laws that have been on the books for a long time that will protect you in the case of an accident. but if you step outside those normal operating procedures, you are now

subject to civil penalties, criminal penalties because you, it is reckless endangerment. i think that is what is going to come to play here. and you add to that fact then he then abandons the ship. this is just a mess. bill: yeah. you almost wonder if he was covering something else up, something that has not been reported? we don't have facts on that, but it makes you wonder, does it not? >> it is hard to tell. there were passengers that according to press reports said they saw him at the bar drinking before this as well. so, you know, how much, what those reports are. the italian authorities, very much like any aircraft mishap as soon as there is a problem, as soon as they do they pick up the air traffic controllers and arrest them. same thing with the captain. he is under arrest not just because he abandoned the ship. there is mishap. there it is. they will take him into

custody until they clear it up. they will not mess around with this guy. bill: as you watch the live image from italy, these are crews still working from that ship. bill: my understanding that the routes are programmed especially with technology these days and navigational tools and gps, they're programmed into the ship. if there is any deviation of course the alarms go off. the alarms can be disabled, if, the ship's course is altered manually. if you reprogram it. >> well, the autopilot concept of this is one thing. i can tell you that the shipping company, the cruise ship company, would never have allowed that to occur because their lawyers would have told them you're being an idiot. you can't do that. that is hazarding a vessel which is beyond the pale. so this guy had to be doing this manually because there is no way such a program would have been allowed by

the company as routine way of doing business. their legal exposure would be horrendous as you will see in this case. bill: what they might be doing right now, these crewmembers here, is cutting more of these small openings inside the bottom of the ship to get act below. >> it has been 96 hours. the real problem is, you have people who could be trapped down there. they're still alive at 96 hours but the problem is hypothermia. you will have people who are cold. there is absolutely no heat in that ship. they may have a little bit of light if they're wearing lifejacket and lifejacket has battery powered signal light on it. pretty soon that starts to run out. your mind starts playing games on you and you lose will to live. bill: it is 57 degrees in that water. seems extremely cold this time of year however i'm not there. captain, thank you for your time. i really appreciate your expertise. you were a terrific guest for us to have on. the for viewers, hemme

hemmer@foxnews.com or @billhemmer on twitter. we're taking questions anytime you are ready. martha: horrible story. all right, well, coming up we have this for you. he is a first-time congressman. he is a pea taert favorite. why -- tea party favorite. why is his support wanted by all the candidates in the south carolina primary? that is coming up. bill: you're a police officer, right? why refusing to respond to some 911 calls. there is explanation. you will hear it why. >> the police department won't be responding on this alarm. unverified. you have no audio or visual on this?

bill: seven minutes before the hour right now. new reports the u.s. border patrol is planning to overhaul the policy dealing with illegals caught crossing the border. authorities want tougher

penalties and the ability to prosecute some of them. police are searching for animate that the drove away from pennsylvania jail in a stolen car. his criminal history includes receiving stolen property, and surprise, burglary. americans love their vino. new report says we drank more wine than any other country last year. equivalent of 3.7 billion bottles. martha: we did not. you mean everybody. bill: everybody. red, red wine. neil diamond. how many of those --. martha: we're number one in that now. bill: we're number one. martha: exactly. all right. we talked about this on the way out. if your home alarm sounds you expect the police to come running right? but the police in san jose, california, are raising the bar pretty high whether or not they're going to show up and check out what may have happened. claudia cowan looking at this from san francisco today. claudia, why did san jose decide to ignore most burglar alarms?

>> reporter: martha, police say most of those alarms are false. responding to everyone is costly waste of time and resources. san jose, california, joining a growing number of cities going to verified response, meaning they won't respond to most burglar alarms unless a break-in verified by witness or surveillance system or some kind of evidence of a crime or kicked in door or broken glass. last year there were more than 12,000 burglar alarms in san jose. 98% of the them were bogus, costing about $600,000 in staffing and tying up officers who could have been out on other calls. and out of those 12,000 calls, martha, there were just two arrests. officials say they have tried fining repeated alarm trippers but that hasn't helped. by ignoring unverified alarms, san jose's 1100 officers will be able to protect the city's one million residents. martha: wow! what is the reaction? i would imagine some people are pretty opposed to this

idea? >> reporter: verified response not going over well with many in the alarm industry, no surprise there. they contend the policy amounts to rolling out welcome mat to would-be robbers. other critics worry property owners will be forced to investigate their own alarms or no witness or obvious crime scene. >> you could have people are going to increase their weapons. they respond to their own alarm systems or end up suffering larger losses. >> reporter: but statistics may provide some measure of comfort. martha in other cities where police ignore most burglar alarms, for instance, las vegas and salt lake city, authorities say there is been no evidence home robberies have gone up. san jose obviously hoping to the trend the same way. back to you. martha: very interesting, claudia. thank you. bill: 10 insurance mounting between the u.s. and iran. why experts say the chances of a military conflict are higher than ever. we'll explain. martha: just four days before voters head to the

polls in south carolina. live on the trail three minutes away. >> hear is the real issue for us as republicans. we can not fire our nominee in september. we need to know now. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. y, i'm really glad we took this last minute trip me too. you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? fret not ma'lady. i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute.

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martha: big fox news debate last night with today's to go until the first in the south primary. the five remaining candidates out there trying to use this opportunity to court the all important conservative voters in south carolina. brand-new hour of "america's newsroom" starts right now. i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. hot morning so far and the hot topic, one of the favorite topics last night appeared to be mitt romney. he took it from all sides. these are some of the highlights from last evening on fox. >> i think latino voters like all voters in this count traoer interested in americtraoer interested in america being an

opportune nation. the president looks across the count throw and says, it could be worse. i can't believe that. the american people look out and say it's got to be better. my income tax have been out every year. newt, i which you'll let your income tax come out thursday. and mitt we need to have you release your income tax so the people of this country can see how you made your money. >> they determined if americans do three things they can avoid poverty, three things, work, graduate from high school, and get married before you have children. >> there was one ad that we used against senator santorum. i only had one problem witness i continue get in all the things i wanted to say in one minute. [applause] >> new york city pays their janitors an absurd amount of money because of the union. you could take one janitor and higher 30-some kids to work in

the school for the price of one janitor, they would be much less likely to drop out, have money in their pocket, they'd learn to show up for work, they could do light janitorial duty. they could work in the cafeteria, front office, library, they'd be getting money which is a good thing if you're poor. martha: joined now by chief political carl cameron who is traveling from first he will beach. he's got his seatbelt on we are happy to see to columbia right now. that got a standing ovation last night. what is happening today? >> reporter: we are heading down the stromthurmon highway. mitt romney is going to be wrapping up an event shortly. in the early event the massachusetts exgovernor and undefeated frontrunner made absolutely no mention of last night's debate which is probably of the measure of the beating that he took from some of his rivals. romney had some awkward answers and struggled with some of the

things his rivals were tossing at him. he was forced to explain his record at bain capital. his various flip-flops on social issues and as we heard in the sound by the earlie sound byte earlier he said he may release his tax returns come april when he says traditionally that's when likely nominees have coughed up the record. not a great night for mitt romney. the big question is whether or not newt gingrich or rick santorum did enough damage to slow his momentum here. gingrich had a very strong night and it's been noted repeatedly that he came up with a standing ovation last night for his performance. now the battle is really between rick santorum and newt gingrich, they are both going at each other very, very hard trying to disqualify each other as the romney alternative. martha. martha: did they go anywhere in that distance last night to do that? did newt gingrich move himself up? what is the feeling on the ground there, or sapb

santorum. it was a strong performance for both of them. it was a strong performance by rick perry but he's dead last in the polls and may not have a lot of time to capitalize on it. gingrich has now said that there is no way that rick santorum who lost his re-election as a pennsylvania senator can beat mitt romney for the nomination. santorum conversely says, there is no way that newt gingrich can actually go up against barack obama and be a successful republican nominee because he's not a consistent enough conservative. those two, gingrich and santorum battling the other may yet divide the party for someone who could beat mitt romney. martha: good to see you. bill: they got passed in the slow lane. that is not supposed to happen right there. martha: a lot of people passed them. when you're doing all that you've got to go slowly i guess. bill: from iowa republicans hoping to finish certifying caucus results today, and it

could be done by the afternoon, or by the end of the week. more than 1700 precincts held their caucus just about three weeks ago, sources telling fox that about 200 of the precincts still have not been entirely processed. which can make a big difference in the end. mitt romney appeared to scratch out an eight-vote victory or santorum. we'll see if santorum can leapfrog in the final tally with leapfrog from second into first place. martha: the polls show that mitt romney is pulling away in the next election battle, which of course is going to be florida. the former governor of massachusetts is showing a commanding 4 2%, look at that lead, he has 42%. gingrich in the next spot at 25%. as late as november he was ahead by 1 19%. for so long mitt romney was in the 25% range in so many places. we see a big difference in that, pulling ahead very significantly. those are the latest american

research survey. the "real clear politics" average puts things a little bit closer but a sidable margin for romney in the state of florida. as we've been seeing we see the numbers shifting quite a bit. bill: a few influential conservatives in the state to keep and eye on it, freshman congressman tim scott who what's elected in 2010 with the support of the tea party. he is my guest in his home state. good morning to you. thank you for your time. >> thank you, good to be with you. bill: you have not gone public with an endorsement. is that difficult to decide or are you just holding your cards. >> i'd like to say that i'm just holding my cards but the truth of the matter is i'm still an undecided voter here in south carolina. it is that difficult. we have a lot of good guys running for president right now. i'm hoping to pick one between now and the next couple of days. it has been more difficult than i thought. gingrich's performance last night was superb, it was biting

at times, he did a very good job. he's wrestling with santorum. you find yourself in a very tough position, which i think only helps mitt romney. bill: that could be, speak of mitt romney, jim demint influential tea party member, up in greenville, south carolina, that is where he is from. he endorsed mitt romney. headed his campaign in that state in 2008. are you going to follow demint's lead. >> i can't say that i will. demint of course is the king maker in south carolina without any question, but i think this year he is staying on the side lines. he says he is going try the process of making a decision himself. i'm in the same position as well. i'm going through the process. i'm going through the process of elimination. ivy limb natured a couple of candidates but there are still two or three that are vying for my vote and trying to pay attention to what they are saying, and also how well they would do against barack obama in debates and how long they would

do in the swing states in order to get the presidency back in the republican hands. bill: that's your priority. you're looking for somebody to represent your values and somebody who can win in the general election. but on sunday you said on nbc that if romney wins your state saturday the game is over. you still think that now? >> yeah, absolutely. i think when you look at the numbers that are coming out of florida what 42% rate right now for romney, he finds himself in a very strong position leaving south carolina for a couple of reasons. one is that people want to go with the perceived winner. and right now the perception is that romney will be 3-0 heading into florida, ten days to raise money, ten days to spend time in the state. newt and whoever else could finish second would find themselves in a very tough position going into florida. it would be romney's to win, and i don't see how he loses it unless he, himself, hurts himself. bill: your state can play a major role in this.

we are going to bring you back in a couple of days. i want to talk about the headlines and the tea party once being hot, now being cooled down. as you well know that's what's being written i want to get your views on that next time. tim scott, thank you for your time. >> they are hotter than ever. thank you. bill: to be continued now. south carolina primary is saturday. extensive coverage right here. realtime results, analysis for you right here on the fox news channel. you're going to be doing the -- martha: exit polls. bill: and i will be doing the. martha: billboards. everybody got that clear, squared away? i'll be over there, you'll be over here. it will be a great night, we are looking forward to it. the battle to extend payroll tax cuts is back on capitol hill, wong returning to washington facing a fight over how to pay for that much beleaguered and discussed tax break of the previous session. kelly wright is joining me live in washington. we'll see congress fighting over this payroll tax issue to be sure. >> undoubtedly we will. if you recall how they left washington before the holidays

many of the house republicans were tphoft good christmas cheer, they were down right angry with speaker john boehner and senate republicans about the deal of the tax cuts. it turned out to be a big victory for president obama. some tea party republicans are still smart tpr-g that. smarting from that. we could see a big fight erupt over these and other issues this session. those grievances will be discussed during a house g.o.p. retreat in baltimore later this week, martha. martha: all of this plays into the election. as we head closer to november republicans and those conservatives who fought it a bit are not going to want to be put into that sort of pigeonhole of denying tax cuts, right. >> you've got that right. it's tough to do in an election year and no member of congress wants to be responsible for that. election-year politics always have some impact on decisions that congress makes. and it's already making its way into this new session of

congress. for example during the holiday break president obama announced that he would actually bypass lawmakersee kwaeugt them t lawmakers equating them to being a do nothing congress. democrats and republicans widen the divide. harry reid called this obstruction on steroids. >> the only way we can rebuild america toys work together. the goal of the republicans in the senate should not be to defeat obama. the goal should be to work together to improve our country. >> i find it so disingenuous that the president is going to run against congress for re-election, does that include the senate which is controlled by his own party? how can you have it both ways? you can blame the congress for doing nothing but half a congress is run by your own party who, what, passed two of our bills in 12 months? >> it's going to be tough, mart that, back to you. martha: kelly, thank you very much.

bill: are we closer to a military conflict with iran than we have ever been before? why some experts say we should be concerned, and senior military analysts, what he th- they saying? we'll check in on that. martha: the city of nome alaska has been cut off by a thick sheath of ice. that very same ice is getting them what they need. bill: what is it no place like nome? martha: springer right. bill: at the moment in south carolina everyone is courting one man's vote. we will talk to him live and see if he's ready to make his own call. >> i said cut the taxes and cut the regulations which will increase the jobs and people will have the income to come n. i don't think it is the government's responsibility. look, we've already seen that with freddie and fannie, we don't need the federal government in the housing market any more. they need to be out.

bill: more breaking news out of italy. throughout the morning now we have been listening to to is the equivalent of a 911 call. in a moment here you'll hear the third clip we now have our hands-on. skatino is the captain on this recording. the first voice you hear is from the emergency dispatcher. roll this. >> go, call me when you are on board. my air rescue team is there. he is at the bow, get going. there are already corpses skatino. how many dead are there. >> i don't know, one i'm a waiver, one i've heard of. you need to be telling me this. christ. >> you're aware it's today, we cannot see anything. >> what do you want to go back home skatino. get on the bow of the ship and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what do they need, now. bill: so far as we can tell the captain never went back to that ship. he went into that small little

port area and that was the end of it. this is while some 4,000 people were struggling to get off, that is a live picture right now as the rescue crews, they are digging holes into the side of the hull and looking for what could be a small, small chance of the survivors some four-days later. martha: the biggest complaint from the survivors is nobody on the crew knew how to work the equipment or let the boats down for them to get into. that continues to be one of the major complaints they had. perhaps could he have been helpful in that regard. the chance for a military conflict between the united states and iran, we're told by many is now higher than ever. that is coming from several veteran military analysts on this. tensions are mounting or the islamic republicans nuclear program. a form intelligence officer for the secretary of defense, mike, good to have you here this morning. >> morning, martha. martha: there are folks out there that believe that iran may

become and even hotter issue than the economy when we get closer to the presidential election. do you believe this is a significant year in our relationship with stphepl. >> i thin them? >> i think it's a sreu a pivotal year. it is so important to us now because of the amount of oil that flows through there. martha: you have the former marine who has been sentenced to death in iran, i believe we have a require of him, amir hakmeti. you have the issues over the strait of hormuz, where they told us we continue bring our aircraft carrier tpwhabg there. where do you think this is heading next. >> i think you'll see a massive escalation of tensions. we haven't been clear about our policy. secretary of defense panetta says we have two red lines, they

won't be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons, and the strait of hormuz we want a free flow of oil. iran can use its influence in iraq to affect the flow of oil by messing with their infrastructure for petroleum. they can threaten our ships in a variety of ways, using land mines or clogging up, interfering with the flow of things. i used to run a team that was doing counter smuggling when sad am hussein was running oil through that area in the persian gulf there. very small, very narrow waterways, the iranians, you know, they have small boats, they are not particularly effective. if they are willing to combine them with the use of terrorist type tactics they can cause a lot of problems. martha: indeed they can. when you look at the lay of the land and the possibility of nuclear capability, and as you point out leon pan net t leon

panetta said those are the two lines that can't be kroesd. crossed. you're saying it's too specific in terms of what the red flags are. but then you also said that you don't think the u.s. policy has been clear enough. >> right, that is the point is we have specific red lines, but what we have is rhetoric without the ability to carry out the red lines, right? for example the defense budget has been up in the air for the last year, we everee been operating on continuing resolutions. what you see is the domestic uncertainty that we have in the u.s. mapped up against the domestic uncertainty in iran in terms of how that regime will stay in power. we have uncertainty and domestic needs to both countries and that's what creates the ambiguities and tensions and frankly the likelihood of conflict is very high because nobody is really sure what is going to happen. we have the se sequestration which is supposed to cut $50 billion out of the defense budget each year. my firm hess out with the dod

budget in the defense world and it's hard to tell right now, we say one thing but we are not matching it with the resources. martha: that is a frightening scenario. mike barrett, thank you very much. good to talk to you today. bill: 20 minutes past the hour. search teams are in the water looking for survivors after the deadly italian cruise ship accident. an american couple still mission. we will hear from their friends and family and learn a little bit about them too in a moment. martha: some good news for folks snowed in for a month, how the town is digging out of this mess. what a story this is. we'll be right back. >> we don't have to worry about heating fuel and gas, this is the first time ever we see something like this. you know, so even this little you know, so even this little town is making history. going t.

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martha: and american couple is still mission after the cruise ship crash off the coast of italy. friends and family calling them church going, salt of the earth kind of people. jerry and barbara heil than their names. they are from minnesota. they haven't been seen or heard from since that ship hit a rock and capsized. >> still hopeful that there is still some hope for them. >> whatever happened, you know, that is for somebody else to figure out. our job is just to pray for their recovery. martha: they have four children and grandchildren as well, i believe. they say that their parents were looking forward to this trip for a longtime, because they spent most of their money sending their children to school and now they were enjoying their retirement and out there seeing the world. we wish the best for them. there is still some glimmer of hope that they may find some people there, let's hope they are alive. bill: help arriving for the frozen city of nome, alaska. a russian tanker off loading more than a million gallons of fuel to the city that's been buried under ten feet of snow. dan springer is watching the

story out of our northwest bureau. dan, how are they doing? >> reporter: i tell you what the good people of nome are saying, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow, bill. 1.3million gallons started flowing yesterday at 5:00 local time, just before the sun went down in alaska, and it's been going ever since. they have two basically two hoses caring diesel fuel, the other carrying gasoline running side-by-side over 500 yards of ice then looking that up to a pipeline which is carrying the fuel to storage tanks in nome. without this delivery the city of nome would have been completely out of fuel by march or april and would have been forced to fly in gas and eating oil until the ice breaks up some time in late june or early july costing residents 9, 10 bucks a gallon for gasoline. it has been a long journey for this russian ice tanker, 5,000 miles, it started in russia in mid december, loaded diesel fuel in south korea then continued to dutch harbor where

it loaded up with gasoline. safety has always been a concern from the beginning with the off-loading of this fuel. the coast guard required a spill plan to be put in place and the workers are walking the length of those two hoses every 30 minutes checking for leaks, bill, to make sure that this is a safe operation. it could take anywhere between 36 hours to five days to off-load 1.3 million gallons of fuel. and then the job is to get the ice broken up and get those tankers and the ice breaker back out of the harbor of nome. bill: what a huge challenge this is. if the folks of nome need it, you know they are hanging tougher winter. what a story this is. dan springer, thank you live in seattle. martha: a voter fraud trial going on right now is a story that we've been following and eric shawn is live with the developments on that outside of the courthouse. that is coming up. bill: what a is a couple trillion among friends. the debate over raising the nation's debt kraoeulgs goin

ceiling is going higher. >> rick is right. i know it's popular to say, we can do this and it's not going to cost anything. it's going to are tough to get our federal spending from the current 25 of the gdp, down to 20, down to 18% which has been our history. cutting back is going to have to happen. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm.

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martha: a big voter fraud trial is underway right now, two former lawmakers accused of

trying to steal an election in upstate new york, where they are no strange tore this kind of thing in the past, facing charges of stuffing the ballot box with phony absentee ballots in an election that took place three years ago. eric has been covering this. the trial is finally underway. >> reporter: shocking allegations of voter fraud. so far eight democrats have been implicated. four have been found guilty and the first two go on trial today in this case. they are the democratic elections commissioner that is still in office, and former troy city councilman. they are allegedly part of a democratic political scheme here to make absentee ballots that happened during the working families primary in 2009, that is the property a koerb kwraeuted with acorn. stunned voters took us their ballots were forged and counted as real votes. the councilman said he didn't do

it. did you do anything wrong? >> no, no. >> reporter: did you forge any absentee ballot stph-s. >> no i did not. >> reporter: did you steal an election or try to steal one. >> you asked me that before, i told you know. >> reporter: the prosecutor took dna samples from members of the city council. they say voter fraud is an acceptable way of winning elections here. they said this is an on going scheme and appears on both sides of the aisle. it's a huge conspiracy who nonpolitical persons is really a normal political tactic. an attorney says there was an election to steal the election but he said his client wasn't a part of it. >> i would say jackels prey on the weakest member of the heard. that's what happened here, it's awful, despicable, terrible. >> reporter: one county councilman is expected to go to jail for six months.

porto ran as the people's candidate and was defeated. martha: thank you very much, eric shawn in troy, new york. bill: renewing the battle over raising the debt kraoeg, the house iceiling, the house is back, the senate will come back next week. we have two guests. obama is requesting 1.2 trillion which was agreed to by congress last august, by the way. this deal will get us through the election of 2012, which means it does not come up again before november. andrea, question, how do republicans handle this in an election year? >> there is a lot of pessimism on the republican side because of this deal that they struck as you pointed out, bill last august. this is their last chance to make a stand in their minds against the president. how they are going to handle it this week is they will have a symbolic vote on the floor expressing disappointment with

raising the debt ceiling and more spending. i don't buy this bill, i don't like this at all. bill: you don't buy what? >> it's a dog and pony show. it's republicans standing up voicing outrage over something they should have fought back in august. house republicans dropped the ball on that super committee deal. they had an opportunity to really put democrats in a corner and push for big cuts and they didn't do it. now you have the president is going to put a budget forward, finally, in the next couple of weeks, bill, i think now republicans have to put forth and alternative and they've got to argue for more cuts even though they are unlikely to get them. this symbolic stuff, it's sickening. they've got to stop that. bill: are you take that republicans have lost this debate already? or are you suggesting a strategy where they can regain their footing. >> i don't see how they can regain their footing, they have to put out their claim that they are for lower spending.

a lot of the tea party who elect a majority of the members in the u.s. they feel like republicans dropped the ball on this and didn't push for bigger kits. i don't see how they get more with a democratic senate and white house, at least they have to push for more so republicans can get a republican senate in the white house. bill: let me get doug in here. you believe the president will be more confrontational this time than last year, how come in. >> oh, yeah. i think andrea's comments were right and candid. the president looked weak last summer. the deal was a net looser for both sides, and while the president may have won the recent extension of the payroll tax the debt ceiling extension was a debacle. what the white house has seen is that if they stand up to congress, call it a do-nothing congress, say that they are inflexible, they can win, which is why the president is going to put forward his budget and challenge them to come forward with either their own or to support elements of his plan. bottom line, the president can't

get reelected on his own bill, he needs as david axelrod has said repeatedly, a confrontation and a contrast with the republicans in congress, and if it be mitt romney, mitt romney. that's why i think the democrats, and president obama will be increasingly confrontational, take advantage of the weakness that andrea spoke of, and try to create an image with the american people of the president doing the people's business. bill: two numbers to both of you, congress disapproval rating 84%. >> that was really -- bill: i think that is higher than it was i think last year. >> it's been 81. bill: also gallop is saying that romney, obama, head-to-head when it comes to the economy. romney is at 48, obama is at 39. >> right. bill: if he's going to do anything on this issue he has to capitalize, doug or romney is going to rub his face in it. >> that is precisely my point. the president needs an economic agenda. and while andrea is absolutely

right the republicans have looked bad, the president doesn't have an agenda of his own, but the reason why he's going to put forward a budget and challenge the republicans is you go with the weakist link. that is the republican congress. and if they are at 13 and mitt romney is at 48 you go after the republicans in congress not a popular president. >> doug is absolutely right. that's why the democrats are not going to cooperate with republicans. they are not going to try and come to terms with any more spending cuts even though its the right thing to do. republicans have an opportunity, as i mentioned, to put forth a budget of their own. they actually have economic plans, where as this president doesn't. the only thing the president has offered is a two-month payroll cut extension. republicans have a series of bills they've put forth in the house, bill they have to hammer this president on his failure on the economy and bringing down the president. they've got to counter punch here. no more doing and pony shows or phony fights. bill: go grab the leash and the choke chain and we'll see where

it gets us. we'll see you at 5:00. >> thank you very much. martha: maybe they are planning a trip to outer space, perhaps. if you were planning one you might have to takeout some travel insurance, or you should have already because the flight has been delayed indefinitely. we'll talk to a former astronaut with the surprising reason why. bill: he's the senior senator from south carolina dash not him, but lindsey graham. what he says about the best man for the white house could have a major influence on what happens on saturday. we're going to talk to senator graham, live, do not miss that. >> 25 people out of work, or stopped looking for work, or can't get permanent employment, or they only have part time jobs, and so these families are in tough times. and this is not just a statistic, this is real people, facing real tough times. -three.

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now. it might take up to four weeks to remove the fuel off the coast of italy from that cruise ship off italy's tuscany coast. the first priority is to try to find more than two dozen people who remain missing. five bodies recovered today, a total of eleven accounted for there. wikipedia is going dark. the online information site will black out the english version of its website on wednesday, it's protesting antipiracy legislation that is before congress. bad weather causing some problems for people across parts of the northeast today, a mix of snow and some sleet creating to dangerous conditions on the roads this morning. winter is here. rolling in in a big way, too. >> i'm saying also that south carolina is at war with this federal government and with this administration. [applause] [cheering] >> when you look at what this justice department has done, not only have they taken them to

task on sroerter id but on their immigration law and the most egregious thing is this national labors relations board where they come into a right to work state and tell the state of south carolina, we are not going to let a private company come in here. [applause] martha: big response tore that last night. that of course is presidential candidate rick perry at the debate last night. you could also see nikki haley the governor of south carolina in the background there. that particular sound playing very well with that mostly conservative audience in there last night. the senior senator from south carolina lindsey graham joins us now. he is on both the budget and armed services committee. good morning, senator great to have you here. >> good morning. martha: what did you think of the debate last night. martha: i loved it. i thought the fox crew did the great job. the best debate is watching a football team, a wrestling match and a good debate over conservatism.

rick perry knocked it out of the park with his answer there gee sure did. he got a huge response from the crowd in the audience. did we look at the poll yesterday in south carolina where mitt romney has really been trending ahead in south carolina? what was your feel last night being in the room there, is that shifting at all? >> well, i think there was some -- newt did very well last night. you know, primaries are about a contest between the heart and the head. i think governor romney has done a good job convincing people he's intellectually gifted, he's got a good background. he's got to do a better job of winning people's heart. rick santorum and newt did very well last night and i think you'll have a very competitive race. the 10th amendment did well. progrowth amendment did well, the 2nd amendment all of them embraced good conservative philosophy. the question is who can go in and take the argument and beat obama. and i don't know who is going to win yet. it's wide open down there. martha: you just said something,

senator that fascinates me that mitt romney is having a hard time winning over the people's hearts in south carolina. your friend john mccain won over their hearts last time around. why do you think that is? >> i think mitt is a really good man, i like him a lot, i think he's very electable. i think he's just being a little bit who he is, but, you know, what newt did last night is he made people imagine him on the stage with obama, making a good argument, a very passionate argument for the conservative cause, and it's not about -- we are not looking at who is the most conservative down here, we want a conservative candidate, we want to match up conservatism and elect built, and what newt has got to do and rick has got to do is they really won our hearts in many ways, they have to convince us that they can beat president obama, and i thought the debate last night was the best of them all. you got a glimpse into who these guys really were and from a national security perspective i hope people in the country

understand that we are ronald reagan republicans in south carolina, we believe in peace through strength, and we are not isolationists and that with us a good night for national security from a lindsey graham point of view. martha: and perhaps a bad night for ron paul seems to be where you're head wed that statement. >> i like ron paul. he's right about the fed, he's wrong about foreign policy. and our party last night adopted the ronald reagan peace through strength model and that was pleasing to me. i can't tell you who is going to win south carolina. i can tell you this. it is wide open. martha: really? i mean that is not what the polls are saying. >> yes. martha: you're feel is this is anybody's game in terms of newt gingrich you're talking about did very well last night and also santorum. you think they have the spot at the number one shot in south carolina? >> absolutely. and mitt didn't hurt himself last night, he did very well, but newt did the one thing he had to do last night, remind us all why we like him, and rick reminded us why we respect him,

and mitt did a very competent job. but if newt and rick continue to perform thursday like they did monday, and governor perry it was his best performance by far, this is going to be a nailbiter. martha: before i let you go i want to get to the question of heart and the heart of south carolina, and what you see as mitt romney's inability to connect with the people there. he's out there trying to do that on the ground today. what would you tell him to do? >> talk a little more about his missionary work, talk a little bit about, you know, just basically running companies, and trying to create jobs, and when you're asked about, you know, people losing their jobs and just say, listen without bain capital all these companies were going to fail. we gave them the best chance we could, and it's hard-breaking when it doesn't work, but i was in a business that saved a lot of jobs, we provided financing that they weren't going to get otherwise, and i thought last night he did a great job on

national security, and if i were mitt romney i would be talking more about the commander-in-chief job and talk about defeating radical islam and just kind of let his hair down a little bit, for lack of a better way of saying it. he's a good man, and there is a heart there. martha: senator, you certainly know how to connect with the people in south carolina, you've been doing it for many years. and we thank you so much. >> we understand each other. martha: interesting advice for the candidates and you make it sound like a very interesting race in south carolina. we're going to see. we'll see how it goes. >> thank you. bill: he's from maconey county. really great discussion there too. you think about what south carolina contributes to the national debate about, you know, the economy, and the tea party, unemployment, and jobs and national security with all the military down there, saturday is going to be interesting. martha: they've got a lot of work to do and they've got until saturday, not on tuesday this week. they got a little extension. bill: four days and counting.

gregg jarrett is standing by right now. "happening now" is coming up. how are you doing. >> i'm looking forward to the billboard on saturday when the polls close. sparks were tpwhraoeulg, or they were last night at the debate, a few days before the critical primary in south carolina saturday. we have terrific analysis, john roberts, brit hume, chris stirewalt, carl cameron all will be with us. plus the growing tension with iran, you're not going to believe their latest provocation. are the winds of war blink to blow? we'll ask ambassador john bolt tonight. and the latest on the cruise ship disaster in italy, the shocking emergency calls as the death toll climbs, all of that coming up on "happening now" about ten minutes from now. bill: thank you for that. and speaking of italy we're going to get you back there in a moment as well. the search crews you see the pictures now live. right about dusk now off the west coast of italy looking for survivors. what new audio recordings from the apartment ti captain are telling us about what happened that night 10:00, local time.

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nasa does not like this. the first test flight of a privately built space ship has been delayed. unmanned dragon space capsule sent to launch february 7th. it won't happen. tom jones a former astronaut, fox news contribute err. contributor. he wrote the book skywalker. what happened. >> nasa wants to be assured that all the safety measures are in place to prevent any damage to the space station or its crew. they have to prove that case before it is launched. bill: you make the point this was not unexpected? so you were anticipating this? >> i was. when you set a launch data

couple of months off and then you're flying the first trip of this out mated spacecraft to carry cargo commercially to the station there are bound to be teething pains. i thought they would have some slips, potentially a few days or a week, this one could go to april. bill: once you retire the shuttle program, what are you going to use to get your supplies back up to the international space station? there was so much riding on this flight, tom, this is a critical one. does this concern you? >> it does, because the space shuttle was retired with the promise that these commercial firms would come rapidly along and fill in the supply-line gaps that we had with the shuttle retirement. this delay calls into question, you know, the technical competence of the company. we will give them the benefit of the doubt that they will solve the problems and launch. nasa's strategy for getting the supply line back in order is in

question if they fail to launch this or there is a failure. the consequences of a failure would be very damaging. bill: great point, tom, thank you. we'll speak again, okay. tom joins in washington today. martha. martha: in italy there is just a few minutes of daylight left and the dive teams are headed back into that ship wrecked cruise off the coast of italy. five more bodies found this morning. we are hearing from the captain in the moments after the crash. we've heard these videos for the very first time.

when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we knew it would take time, but we were determined to see it through. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf

have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home. 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.

bill: kind of a funny birthday. she would like it that way. betty white turns 90 today. look at that little burst of sunshine, huh? she is is terrific. every time she stops by here at fox, she is always got the one-liner. martha: she is amazing. look at stuff she is doing at age of 90. "saturday night live.". golden globes.