>> steve: the governor got those boots from rick perry! the story in the after the show show. log on right now. >> brian: buy, everybody. great weekend. bill: what a weekend it is bound to be. final debate before the south carolina primary starting off with fire last night a live look at charleston n a moment newt gingrich will be there only 24 hours away from the battle for the republican nomination. good morning on a friday, i'm bill hemmer. you look lovely. martha: happy friday to you. bill: how about that fire last night? martha: that was interesting. i'm martha maccallum. good morning, everybody. first question out of the debate since the republican debate and sparks flying and tense jaw by newt gingrich

after he fought back be being asked about claims by his second wife. here is what got it all started. >> i think the destructive, vicious, negative, nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern the country, harder for decent people to run for public office, i am appalled you would begin a presidential debate on a top pick like that. [cheers and applause] bill: he was prepared for that one. fox's political analyst juan wams williams watching last night. good morning to you. how did gingrich handle this? >> i think he handled it expertly. it wasn't so much dealing with the issue but dealing with the political consequences that might flow from maryann gingrich's interview. he said to the audience, i'm sick of the elites and sick of the media and you are too. we shouldn't let them control our campaign and the

audience roared as you just heard. bill: back up a little bit here. hear is the root of this issue. his ex-wife did an interview with brian ross at abc. this aired last night in prime time. play a clip of this. very specific question. here is gingrich, marianne beginning rich. >> i said newt, we've been married a long time. he said yes but you want me all to yourself. calista doesn't care what i do. >> what was he saying to you do you think? >> he was asking to have an open marriage and i refused. >> he wanted an open marriage? >> that i accept the fact that he has somebody else in his life. >> and you said? >> no. no. that is not a marriage. bill: unemployment in south carolina is almost 10%. how much do you think this matters in that state?

>> well, remember, what we're talking about with this contest on saturday, bill, is a lot of social conservatives, evangelicals. it is about 60% of the vote. and there has been an effort by gingrich to say he is the conservative in the race. rick santorum has been saying he is the conservative. santorum benefited from a big endorsement by a group of evangelicals last weekend. he is getting more of those. as you know yesterday, it was such a big news day, he also claimed victory in iowa. there is no evidence that santorum is gaining traction. and gingrich's effort here is try to insulate himself from losing social conservative support on the charge of hypocrisy. how can you, really claim to support family values and evangelicals and be our, you know, spear carrier, mr. hot rhetoric gingrich, attacking the left when you have these problems that are so large in your personal life?

that's the problem. we'll see how it plays out. bill: yes, we will. >> especially among women voters. >> very true. we'll debate that next hour. juan, do you see this as two-person race or three-person race in south carolina? >> you look at the polls it is clearly a two-person race with gingrich with tremendous momentum right now. romney came into this looking like the inevitable candidate has been stumbling recent days. did not have a great debate performance monday night on fox or last night. so things are getting interesting. bill: yeah they are. i can put money on that, right? thanks, juan. see you real soon. >> have a good day. martha: everyone of these states this is how it gets interesting at the very end. night newt took a hit from his rival rick santorum. he getted his rival's leadership back when speaker of the house. listen to this exchange. >> four years into his speakership he was thrown out by the conservatives. there was a coup against him in three. i served with him. i was there. i knew what the problems

were going on in the house of representatives and newt gingrich was leading there. it was an idea a minute. no discipline. no ability to be able to pull things together. bill: take that one, huh? we'll debate what, as juan mentioned here, allegations against gingrich. what it could mean for his campaign now. does hater to voters, specifically to women voters a terrific panel this morning. martha: let's go to italy where the rescuers have suspended the search for survivors again in this italian cruise disaster. the costa concordia is resting on a very precarious ledge in the sea. rough waters are coming in. that is threatening to push it over the that pesh of -- perch into the depth of thes ocean the we have first communications with the port authorities. they show he did not voluntarily reveal he hit anything at this point. listen. >> we have a blackout and

verifying conditions on board. yes, the passengers said you made them put on life jackets. this is correct? i repeat we are verifying the conditions of the blackout. martha: very cone fusing communications on this. greg burke is live in giglio, italy. there is the cruise ship over his shoulder at the scene of the accident. what is the very latest on what he was up to during all this? >> reporter: well, martha, they just keep digging into that. fortunately there is a lot of documentation. there is a lot of speculation and a lot of documentation why it took him so long, 73 minutes, to make that call to abandon the ship. calls in the meantime to the owners of the ship of the also the audio we heard saying there was only a blackout, not admitting anything more serious. questions why the ship ended up right where it is now. the other point also, questions about female friend at dinner with him. certainly, lots of everything, dpos sip swirling around there. that woman has been

interviewed by romanian television and romanian newspapers. she defended the captain saying he saved thousands of lives. that is certainly not the majority view around here. martha: that is her take. a report he ordered dinner after all this started too which is very odd. in terms of the ship and the rescue mission what are their biggest concerns right now, greg? >> reporter: well, biggest concern it does move more than slightly. right now they say it is moving a little bit. that is why they had to suspend at least temporarily the search. but it moves of off the ledge and goes down quite deeply, that would be a problem for a search for any bodies and also getting the fuel off that ship that would be dangerous. both more difficult to get it off. they're putting salvage machinery in place in order to start that should the weather remain well and the ship should remain stable. should it go down much deeper, completely submerged. that process is complicated and higher risk that the

fuel could dislodge when the ship hits down. these are pristine waters. i was speaking to one of the underwater divers. this is great place to go. this is one of more beautiful places in italy to do this and i hate doing this for this reason. martha: look at wonderful pictures of the divers. you see the costa concordia title on the side of the ship. greg, thank you very much. as we monitor all the developments from the italian coast we'll bring you the full story of the costa concordia disaster in a fox news reporting special hosted by geraldo rivera. tragedy at sea will air at 10:00 p.m. tomorrow night eastern. bill: tough news on the war in afghanistan. new details on a u.s. helicopter crash in that country. top defense officials say all six people on board were u.s. marines. the chopper accident happened thursday in the southern province of helmand they're kandahar. officials say there is no indication the helicopter was hit i about enemy fire.

martha: this is a big story. it is a kind of civil war that is happening right now on the internet. the hacker group that is known as anonymous, has taken down the justice department's website, if you can believe it. they're saying it is retaliation for the fbi closing down the file-sharing site. this is the 13th most visited site on the internet. it is megaup load.com. it is a huge website. 15 million hits a month. anonymous crashed other web sites in retaliation. universal music group and recording industry association and motion picture association of america. the justice department said the timing of the indictment they brought against megaupload has nothing to do with the battle of legislation on on-line piracy. we'll explain why this is such a big deal and fight on both sides. you have politicians like mash shablackburn and marco rubio who changed their tube

how they feel about this and a lot of big media companies are very much against the piracy. bill: a lot of folks going to corners to choose sides. martha: they sure are. bill: it is a business friday. mother nature making a bad situation even worse. a out of control brush fire threatening thousands of homes at the moment. we'll show you what is happening in a live report a matter of minutes away, martha. martha: the president may have rejected the keystone pipeline pipe project but opponents say this battle is far from over. bill: 24 hours until the south carolina showdown. where do the final four stand this morning? >> my dad, as you know, born in mexico, poor. didn't get a college degree. became head of a car company. i could have stayed in detroit like him and got pulled into the car company. i went off on my own. i didn't inherit money from my parents. what i have i earned. i worked hard the american way. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery?

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martha: boy, this is a real mystery. police in los angeles are searching for more human remains in a secluded area popular with hikers. it is right near the world famous hollywood sign on the side of that hill there. police are working to identify a severed head along with other body parts that were found by hikers in that area. the investigators can only describe the victims so far as a man between the ages of 40 and 60. they say they have no motive for this murder, no arrests yet. a lot of questions to be answered in that one. bill: crazy deal, huh? american landmark. 14 minutes past. what is going to happen in south carolina is anybody's guess. martha and i will be here at 4:00 with a big show tomorrow afternoon. we'll take you through prime time into the evening in south carolina as it votes. the economy, it's going to be an issue. how big of an issue? on our map here, economic landscape the deeper red more trouble you're in. if you're green you're okay. how is south carolina doing at the moment. unemployment rate statewide, 9.9%. that is an absolute stunner.

well above the national average. look to see the economy, the issue of jobs, again will a big deal for south carolinians when they vote. result-wise what can we learn from four years ago? on the map of south carolina, one of the things that gets loss in this whole analysis from four years ago, mccain beat huckabee by three points. but look at fred thompson. no one talks about him. 16% of the vote. he picked up almost 70,000 votes and finished in third place. huckabee would argue thompson stole a lot of votes away from him. how do you break down the state? three different regions. evangelicals in the north. huckabee did very well. so too did fred thompson taking away some of huckabee's state. fiscal conservatives in the center part of the state where the capital is. coastline you have veterans and transplants from the northeast. moderate republicans and conservatives in the coastal counties. charleston county is a place

where john mccain did very well. he easily won this county, 44% of the vote, defeating romney and huckabee and thompson with 15,000 votes. a lot of votes to be mined down in that area. a very critical part of the state is northern part of the state. they call it up state. here in greenville county, look what huckabee did here. so many votes to be mined here. 16,000 votes for huk we. 15,000 for mccain, thompson at 12,400. that are some of the things we'll watch as we go throughout the day. we want to bring in the south carolina republican chairman. good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: so many events of thursday play out today. perry drops out. gingrich gets slammed by his ex-wife. you have the debate last night. how do the events work into tomorrow's vote do you brief, chad? >> bill, great to be with you. there is no question here we are again in the south carolina primary. seems like the rough-and-tumble world of politics is so prevalent

here. you see the dynamics changing. i've been saying last 10 days, it is new hampshire, don't listen to the national narrative. this is a wide-open race. anything can happen. i had a00 much somebody would drop out early. i didn't know who it would be specifically or who they might endorse. we've seen it play out. i think right now the interesting thing to watch you pointed out the up state. watch the votes in greenville, spartanburg, those two counties make up almost 17% of the republican primary vote. watch the first district along the coast and third district where a lot of republican votes are. bill: is that charleston or is that, is that charleston -- >> i would like to see how the grassroots organizations that have been built translate into votes on saturday. bill: i hope you can hear me okay. i didn't mean to interrupt you. is that charleston or myrtle beach you're talking about the along the coast? >> charleston and myrtle beach where tim scott represents there are lot of retirees and a lot of

transplants there. those numbers are interesting to watch along with the up state. bill: how would you rate the level of enthuse alf for the current field in your state? >> i think it is high, bill. i've been to a little bit of everybody's events in the past 10 days and stayed in the back of the room. there have been hundreds of people coming out. that is helped by we had five candidates crisscrossing the state. six at first. there are a lot of events in a lot of little towns. we've had a chance to see hundreds of people come out in big venues and pack rooms all across the state of the south carolina. it has been high on the enthusiasm level. bill: who do you believe has spoken to the number one issue in south carolina today? and what would you say that issue is? >> we can't escape it. we're all talking about jobs and economy as you mentioned before. the obama administration has done things here that are government intervention at its highest level. to think the nlrb would intervene in the boeing situation and try to stop south carolinians from

having jobs. voter i.d. law, immigration law. we're not just seeing spending, deficits and obamacare that hurt jobs and the economy. we're seeing real overt government intervention in our state like we've really not had before. bill: you has have, many would argue the advent of the tea party that many would argue came out, was born out of south carolina's congressional makeup. so that's something we have to keep an eye on too, chad. thank you for your time. >> yes, sir. thank you, bill. bill: chad connelly, runs the republican party down there in south carolina. you as well. martha. >> fox news is americas's election headquarters. you know that, right? full coverage of the south carolina primary all day long with bret baier and megyn kelly. that kicks off 6:00 p.m. eastern. we have you covered all over south carolina. bill: look forward to spending time with you. i hope your husband is cool with that. martha: operation "fast and furious", a federal official was questioned on this and he is choosing to stay silent.

what does know about the botched gun program that he is not saying? bill: also mysterious illness hitting a small town. we'll talk to doctors treating a group of young girls with the same bizarre symptoms. >> i'm talking about something that just comes on within a couple of weeks and these kids are just totally normal and then next thing you know they're going, blahh and their arms are swinging and they can't control themselves. you know when i grow up, i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i want to fix up old houses. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. i want to fall in love again. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. g this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday.

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bill: talk about stuck in a moment, huh? an suv managing to shut down the subway system in san francisco. a suspected drunk driver driving his car onto the tracks. he got stuck about half a mile inside the tunnel. it triggered commuter chaos, keeping thousands from getting to work there. spokesman for the subway system describes what happened here. it is a mess. >> it was about two city

blocks. so he did get in there a very long way. a lot farther then he should have. a lot of people question how this could happen. we'll certainly do an investigation working with with the police department to find out exactly what did. bill: stupid driver, i think that is your answer, right? transit workers pushed car off the tracks, letting service resume two ours later that is hard to do, huh? martha: that would be hard to repeat. indiana is about to pass right to work legislation. that measure would ban contracts to force workers who do not want to join unions to pay the union dues anyway. a ploy by indiana democrats is putting votes in limbo. mike tobin will answer all the questions. he is live above my head in indianapolis. hi, mike. >> reporter: hi, martha. indiana house democrats got a break from the a county judge who blocked a $1,000 a day fine was slapped on them showing up. their presence would guarantee passage of governor mitch daniels

controversial right to work legislation. >> we do not have a quorum for conduct of business. >> reporter: this time indiana, democrats in the minority left house chambers locking up the process because of a bill they feel. unions applied pressure. >> we have a very loud minority here that is shouting, intimidating and just trying to stop elect officials from doing job they were elect to do. >> reporter: democrats object to governor mitch daniels right to work legislation which would make union membership and dues optional for private sector jobs in the hoosier state. democrats propose taking it to a referendum. the referendum was found to be unconstitutional. now democrats say they won't return until a reworded compromise is ready. >> if they agree it is constitutional and the vote is up or down for whether the people can decide the issue, or not. >> reporter: the house speaker calls union pressure mob-ocracy.

they accuse democrats taking taxpayer ball and going home when things don't go their way. >> they were elected to enact or block laws as appropriate for the people of indiana. >> reporter: labor unions are threatening to make their presence known as the most sacred of american events. [shouting] >> occupy super bowl. >> reporter: you heard that right. they'rep right. they're chanting occupy super bowl. they think making presence known at the big game would take their concerns over right to work legislation to the biggest audience possible. martha? martha: that depends how good the game is, how much attention they get right, mike? mike tobin in indianapolis. bill: will be a great location for the big game. indianapolis is well-trained for all of this stuff. experience they have there. fire crews battling massive flames as the fires force thousands of people out of their homes. check that out. man, you do not want to get in the way of that with the wind blowing? live on the latest on this. also?

martha: fiery situation. how did the frontrunner mitt romney fair last night as the jabs were coming at him? a fair and balanced debate on that next. >> if there is anything in there that would help us lose the election we should know it before the nomination. if there is nothing in there, if there is nothing in there why not release it? that is a very simple model. n 2? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. and hello to "whoa, yum." use campbell's cream of chicken soup to make easy enchiladas, cheesy chicken & rice, and other chicken dishes that are oh...so...whoa. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

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these deadly wildfires sweeping through reno, nevada. those flames are destroying homes and forcing thousands out of their neighborhoods. it is not over yet. claudia cowan watches that from our west coast bureau. sound lying the winds are a big problem here too, claudia. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, bill. this brush fire probably felt more like a hurricane if you were in reno with 80 mile-per-hour wind ripping through a six square mile area in a matter of hours destroying more than 20 homes and forcing thousands of people to flee. check out this video from last night several hours after the fire began at around noon. by nightfall flames had reached the city's southern outskirts and could be seen from reno's downtown casino district about 10 miles away. more than 10,000 people were told to evacuate including virginia kealie. >> i was, i was very, very nervous. i was, i was a basket case, but they calmed me down. of course my husband is a big help too. he calmed me down a lot.

and now our couple of our neighbors are here. so we're being able to talk with each other and just, kind of feel a little better about the situation. >> reporter: 2000 residents are still out of their homes at this hour, part of a major highway remains closed because with all the heavy smoke drivers simply can not see and the governor has declared a state of emergency. fire officials also saying one person has died but they are not providing more details at this time. nearly 300 firefighters are on it. they did manage to save about 1,000 structures last night. bill, no word just yet what sparked this fire. bill: what is the expectation today? do you have a forecast, claudia? >> reporter: rain is on tap for today, turning to snow later. that should help the crews who have the fire 50% contained. high winds are expected to continue. it has been very, very dry in the reno area. if they get a lot of rain flash floods could be a problem along with those very high winds. so still a very dicey

situation in the reno area. bill, we'll keep an eye on it throughout the day. bill: they could use the moisture, that's for sure. thank you, claudia cowan. martha: so the republican presidential candidates hitting the road. they have got one more day before the very important first in the south primary. boy, this is getting interesting, folks. last night the front-runners, gingrich and romney faced off over romney's business past. watch. >> i do think government can kill jobs and i do think government can create the environment where entrepreneurs create jobs. the truth is, you did very well under the rules that we created to make it easier for entrepreneurs to go out and do things. you would have been much poorer if jimmy carter had remained president. >> mr. speaker, you were speaker four years. >> right. >> i was in business 25 years. >> right. >> so you're not getting credit for my 25 years, number one. number two, i don't recall a single day saying thank heavens, washington is there

for me. martha: that was interesting moment last night. let's bring in brad blakeman former deputy assistant to president george w. bush. byron york from the "washington examiner" and fox news contributor. welcome. byron, we'll start with you. how do you think newt did? we'll focus a bit on him and on newt gingrich as well. how did he fare? >> that was one of his strongest moments. though and the speaker really didn't disagree with each other, gingrich spoke during his time in office the american people created x-million jobs. romney's other strong moment when he defended his own success. he said look, i didn't inherit money from my parents. what i have i haven't earned. i will not apologize for being a success. that thing goes over very well with republican audiences. martha: that is interesting the moment byron is talking about brad. at beginning of that answer, mitt romney said i don't know how many years of my

tax returns i will divulge. i'm working on that. boos from the crowd. they don't like that answer. they're tired of hearing he is not sure when or how many years he will put out. then he went into the part byron is talking about. i earned this money on my own. my parents didn't give it to me. that got huge applause. looks like there is just moments of unevenness in that performance. >> there is. he should have known after the monday performance this was going to come back and he wasn't as decisive as he should have been knowing this question was going to be asked and big supporters like governor christie are urging him to release his tax returns. what he should have had was a complete answer, not only am i not going to apologize for success and i believe americans want a successful president who knows, who they can count on to fix this economy, he should have said, by the way i will release my 2010 tax returns in two weeks. when the 2011 tax returns are ready i will release those too. he was indecisive on taxes and very good on his

business acumen. martha: past 24 hours, a real huge change in the dynamic from the mitt romney folks. they went to a possible sweep of first three states, iowa new hampshire, south carolina that would give them a big head of steam going into florida. now they're looking at situation where rick santorum won in iowa, he won new hampshire but may lose south carolina to newt gingrich. you have to wonder what is going on behind the doors at the romney meeting today? >> well, romney was looking to go 3-0 as you suggested. now he worried about being 1-2. clearly the winner of the south carolina primary could possibly change the course of this republican race. if it is romney and there's a very real chance that he could win, the polls appear to be virtual tie between romney and newt gingrich at this point, he does go into florida pretty strong. if he loses this whole era of invincibility that had been around mitt romney as winner of iowa for a i will while, new hampshire and south carolina just goes away. martha: that is very

precious real estate to have that kind of momentum that doesn't seem to be there right now. let's look at south carolina polls byron was referring to. newt gingrich gained 11 or 12% in this "rasmussen poll" just over past couple days. they have got him at 33 versus romney's 31. we'll show you the rcp average that sort of bundles together a number of them. that one is very tight as well, brad. you know, you've got sarah palin rooting for newt gingrich. he said if i were a south carolina voter, she was very specific, i would vote just to keep this thing going. how strong momentum to vote for newt to keep this thing going to want him as nominee for the first choice? >> this will be a barn burner tomorrow in south carolina. it remains to be seen locally. this is localized event with open primary. democrats and independents could vote too. there could be mischief. if the newt gingrich bombshell of wife number two is playing in south carolina

like it has been playing national that could do tremendous damage because god may forgive him but voters of south carolina were not. martha: they were standing on their feet applauding him last night when it came to the issue. seems he handled that masterfully. doesn't look like there is whole lot of new information. could be a barn-burner. we're excited to be part of it tomorrow night. byron, thank you so much. brad, great to see you as always. stay tuned for south carolina. bill: sometimes we get surprises. we'll see if tomorrow is one of them. there is more fallout on the decision to block the keystone oil pipeline. the plan's backers getting ready for a new fight saying thousands of jobs are at stake. we have a guy in a moment who is none too happy about it. martha: cracking down on bar by? where police are closing down toy stores because of the popular barbie doll. who knew? bill: call ken. ♪ [ degeneres ] what's more beautiful than a covergirl? two covergirls.

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it's not caused by a heart valve problem. he was taking warfarin, but i've put him on pradaxa instead. in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mgs reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin without the need for regular blood tests. i sure was glad to hear that. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or bloodthinners, or if you have kidney problems, especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval, as stopping may increase your stroke ri. other side effects include indigestio stomach pain, upset, or burning. pradaxa is progress. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk of stroke with pradaxa.

martha: take a look at some stories developing in "america's newsroom" right now. a u.s. drone strike in pakistan killing a top al qaeda operative. he was reportedly planning a new attack against the west. a world war ii hero laid to rest at arlington national cemetery. lieutenant colonel luke weather died at the age of 90. he was one of the tuskegee airmen, chronicled in the new movie, "red tails". a storm moving through the pacific northwest causes massive flooding around portland. one child is dead and his mother is missing. tragic circumstances in portland. bill: you knew it would come eventually during this season. there is new fallout over the administration decision to strike down the keystone oil pipeline. proponents say the battle is just begun. they vow to push for the

pipe hine that would -- pipeline that would run from canada to the gulf of mexico. this is reaction from canada. its natural resources minister is none too happy. >> this project would create thousands upon thoses of jobs both in the united states and canada. and would contribute energy security in the united states. we continue to believe this project is in the best interests of both countries. bill: that is from canada. my next guest has made quite clear he is not happy with this decision. jack girard, president of the american pet trot july -- petroleum institute. good morning. >> good morning, bill. bill: you president said you put us in a box. you made us crunch the time frame. you're not giving us a fair shake to get the studies done. what do you make of that defense. >> that is lame excuse. what i mean by that the keystone pipeline has been under review over three years. during that three-year window it had two

comprehensive environmental reviews, both which concluded it poses no significant impact to the environment. so after three years of review for the president to say, gee, i don't have enough time, how much time does he need? you think after three years an opportunity to create 20,000 new american jobs which happens to be the largest shovel-ready project in america today, that should have been a no-brainer as canadian prime minister harper said. this is not a tough choice. all we need is the political will to do the right thing by the american people. bill: did you think, jack, with environmentalists on one side and unions fighting on the other side, did you think you would get an okay on this? >> well the final decision by the president is shocking to us. i know it is shocking too much of his organized labor constituency. we worked very closely with 15 labor unions who are very anxious to have these jobs. this project, the keystone xl pipeline, has a project labor agreement which means,

everyone much those jobs goes to organized labor, which is the president's constituency. so i, you know, we are all amazed at the outcome or the digs the president's made. bill: you think you had a shot given all the politics that have many of argued surround this issue? here is what we understand. the cost is about $13 million. it would have created a lot of jobs, a lot of crude oil, moving about 1600 miles. employment front some argue 20,000 jobs in the u.s. some estimates say it would have been that high. now we're hearing that the issue is not over. that it could be revived and very soon, within a few weeks. do you see that possibility? >> well, i think the issue will not go away because this decision is so fundamentally counter to what the american people believe. the number one issue in the u.s. today is job creation. there's a bipartisan move afoot on congress to go after this, to say we're going to make this right. this pipeline is in the

national interests. the canadians get it. we should understand it as well. unfortunately the president is appealing or fallen victim to a small, extreme group of individuals, which are articulating a view not in the national interests. bill: two more points to get to. do you agree with those who believe that the longer this lingers, the greater issue becomes for republicans on the right who are pushing it? because there's a real good possibility, you get around the memorial weekend, gas prices shoot back up again, if this matter is not resolved you've got something to talk billion? >> i think there's clearly political consequences to this decision. would be unfortunate thing, bill, here was an opportunity for the president to have his action match his rhetoric. to actually say this has bipartisan support. let's show some leadership. the president's decision was a clear abdization of leadership on his part. he could have brought republicans and democrats together and said let's do what is in the best

interests of the country. let's create jobs and more become more energy secure and refused to do it. bill: how do you think the candidates are approaching it? here is what peggy noonan writes in the "wall street journal" part of her piece. republicans are distracted by their own dramas they did not in together protest as they should have. keystone happened while they were busy look like the keystone cops. is she onto something? >> i would note last night mitt romney in the presidential debate brought this up as a key matter. i think off the times those doing questioning avoid energy issue because a lot of their messages are consistent. they're trying to find areas where they don't agree. but i think everybody understands for the president to deny the largest shovel-ready project in the country today calls into question just how serious he is about job creation. bill: jack, thank you for your time today. we're going to watch this and see whether or not it has legs in the come weeks

or months. jagger regard there. go to foxnews.com /americasnewsroom. that is the homepage. there is bya box. leave your question about this or jobs or economy. shoot me a e-mail at hemmer@foxnews.com and twitter. @billhemmer. we'll see where it goes. martha? martha: we're talking about this one this morning. it is a battle over the internet pitting entertainment giants against the wild west of the internet. harry reid is bringing this to a screeching halt today. it is big. bill: a mystery illness from high school girls at one school. they ruled out what they do not have. but what do they have? the doctors treating them are here to explain it all in minutes. >> we can't accept that because the symptoms do not coincide with conversion disorder. and even if it was conversion disorder, and that was the symptoms of it, we don't know what caused

it. why are we getting 12, 14, 16 girls all sick that go to leroy high school? that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

bill: here's a new one out of iran. this time the regime is taking on barbie. there are reports police in tehran shut down dozens of toy

of their arms are swinging they can't control themselves. >> if my daughter had a diagnosis and i would as a parent i would tell you that i'm not a doctor, i don't care about hipaa. i care about getting these kids better. >> this is not the only type of issue that occurred in the nation. there have been out breaks of different behaviors. this is not unique to leroy, to western new york. >> i don't know that i necessarily believe that and i think i'd like to see the next step taken and have the cdc come in and do a little investigating. martha: very odd. this whole situation. joined by jennifer, dr. jennifer mcvagu a pediatric knew roll exist treating left very much of -- 11 of these patients and the vice president of the institute and they're treating these girls.

first of all, for folks at home, we don't have video what this is like to capture. what are these girls experiencing? what are the symptoms, doctor? >> most of the girls presented with motor ticks we call them or involuntary movements of the upper extremities, the head, the arm. vocalizations. they have also had episodes of syncope or passing out and some nonepileptic seizures. martha: how violent are the movements? is it a little tick or head thing or big? >> they run the gamut. some have very subtle movements. others have been self-injurious. martha: self-injurious, wow! what are you seeing? what are you witnessing? >> we're seeing young ladies have real symptoms. devastating not only patients but families in the community. i think we also not just movement disorders but a constellation of multitude of symptoms. not just passing out but

possible seizure-like activity. they're also suffering from pain. many are having migraine-like headaches. we see a multitude of symptoms which are difficult to explain with one neurological disorder. that is the difficulty that patients and families have had in accepting the diagnosis. martha: so, you know, you're calling this mass hysteria because you have ruled out what kinds of things that lead that and happening to a group and how that is? >> i actually, we're not really referring to it as mass hysteria. martha: okay. >> because it is older term. we're usually talking about mass psychogenic illness. his tear yeah -- hysteria connotes --. martha: hysterical. >> what the interesting part is yes, it is happening to all the individuals at the sam point in time but there have been several episodes in history that have been recorded. one in israel. martha: why would, why would a group, why would they all,

and you have ruled out sort of, have you ruled out environmental factors? >> yes, we have. the state department in new york state did a commendable job coming in. in fact they requested we step back from the whole situation and let them do their due diligence reviewing everything. they have. the reports have come out. dr. young from the state health department has been in contact with us regularly on daily basis. martha: that is how you're left with this diagnosis. quickly, how do you treat it? are the girls getting better? >> yes that is what i want to express. the majority of girls i'm taking care of are getting better. martha: how do you treat them? >> you can treat them with psychologic counseling. we find the stressor that initiated kind of thing and focus on that and what is going on with that. also medications, antidepressants. muscle relaxants. martha: very strange and interesting i'm sure from a

medical perspective for you to observe this we wish the girls well. a bizarre situation and scary no doubt for them and their families. thank you for shedding light on it today. >> we want to reassure

martha: that was something, the republican field making the later debate a bar knuckle brawl the day before what could be a big turning point. another hour of america live. i'm martha maccallum. bill: they slammed president obama, they slammed the democrats, and slammed each other. >> i'd probably be embarrassed

to put my taxes against their income. i don't have a greater income. >> i know the democrats want to go after the fact that i've been successful. i'm not going to apologize for being successful. >> newt is a friend, i love him but at times he's got that sort of worrisome moment that something is going to pop. >> i think grandiose thoughts, this is a grandiose country and we need big leadership to take on big projects. martha: they were laying it all out there last night, very interesting back and forth. one thing you can say for ron paul he's got a good sense of humor. carl cameron joins us from the southern republican leadership conference in charleston, south carolina. newt changed his plans a little bit we are hearing this morning. what is that about, carl?

>> reporter: listen, he's not going to show up here to the southern republican leadership conference because the crowd was kind of small, he's canceled his appearance here. we'll hear from ron paul in a minute. notwithstanding the size of the crowd here, which is for the entire event not just newt gingrich. there is serious newtmentom. mitt romney had a tough debate last night. gingrich is very much poised to pull off an upset. last night in his debate performance he went after the media, and attacked the questions about some of the remarks of his ex-wife, and hit it out of the park, according to the vast number of south carolina citizens who watched it and are talking about it, listen. >> i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. [applause]

>> every person in here knows personal pain. every person in here has had someone close to them go through painful things. to take then ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything i can imagine. [applause] >> reporter: yesterday newt gingrich got a big vote of confidence with the endorsement of rick perry. the redeem the vote organization is going to drop 1.4 million emails across south carolina to conservative values voters to promote the gingrich candidacy. this is the same group that did that for rick santorum in what he pulled off to be a win in iowa. martha: he pi hit it out of the park last night.

what are they saying about mitt romney and his performance out there today, carl? >> reporter: the south carolina primary always comes down to a combination o of electabilty. he is under scrutiny because of his business records. when he was talking about his tax returns last night he appeared to stumble, and the audience appeared frustrated that is electability and character. >> i don't know how many years i'll release. i'll take a look at what the documents are. i'll release multiple years, i don't know how many years, but i'll be happy to do that. >> reporter: left in the race ron paul who is making his remarks this morning and is running in third place. rick santorum desperately needs to not end up in fourth.

the ron paul rick santorum battle for third maybe the big part of tomorrow's story. martha: four of still standing on the stage there. it's getting rile interesting. we'll be khafpg th watching the coverage the next 24 hours. bill: the pre polling has been shifting. newt gingrich has a slight lead over mitt romney. it may be the voters that have not made up their minds. john roberts is watching that. how are the undecideds? >> reporter: i talked to a lot of them this morning and they basically thought that newt gingrich had written the epitaph to this campaign. they say, wow, newt gingrich is back and they ar and he is surging in the polls and they are taking a very close look at him. all you have to do is look at the polls to see how volatile that is.

you might want to know about gingrich's ex-wife. i talked to someone about, here is what he told me. >> if this came out ten years ago and we found all this out, yeah i think it would. today he learned from it, he explained his position on it. he's finding forgiveness in the lord and tried to do right by family values, you know, everybody may makes mistakes. >> reporter: they are saying that it's no big deal was it happened so many years ago. bill: what about the undecideds that you talked about feeling about the general election or the field they are watching now, john. >> reporter: they are finding this a very difficult election to make up their minds. it doesn't matter what candidate they lean too, whether it be mitt romney, newt gingrich, rick santorum. i talked to congressman tim

davis who said that he does not know and probably will not know up until the time that he pushes the button who to vote for. then i aub talked as well with jeanine schmidt. she thought she had her mind phaeupd. >> reporter: how will you be confident. >> i was headed to the polls to cast an absentee ballot because i was going to be down here on saturday. i couldn't do it, i couldn't do it. >> reporter: another woman said she was going to vote for newt gingrich. she feels there is a likelihood that he could possibly implode. she too is undecided. martha: mitt romney picked up another key endorsement. he got bob mcdonald who had been on the fence for a while. he's chairman of the republican governor's association. he says he believes mitt romney

is the best candidate to beat president obama, take a look. >> there are only a couple of issues, job creation, and getting the crushing debt under control and three is leadership. this is clear hraoet bes clearly the best candidate for the cause. i'll delighted to enforce him. martha: he'll appear with mitt romney in south carolina. bill: the vote on saturday will be the second earlier primary in south carolina history. the earliest happened to be in 2008 by the way. the vote was on january 19 then, it's january 21 now. any registered voter is allowed to participate. independents and democrats can vote saturday. interesting to note here since 1980, every winner of a south carolina primary has gone onto win the republican nomination. keep that in mind. be sure to check out the fox news channel, complete coverage. martha and i -- martha: that's an interesting about it of trivia. bill: we'll set the table for.

we have the pregame before the kickoff at 4:00. we go from 4 to 6 and megyn and brett take over after that. martha: there is another thing we want to get to right now a new altercation over the government's botched gun running string, fast and furious. this is patrick cunningham. he is the chief in arizona. he's taken the fifth on this issue. doug mcwell way is looking into why that may be from washington for us. good morning, doug. >> reporter: good morning, this marks the first breach really in the government's defense of itself in the gun running scanned he will. cunningham, the second highest ranking u.s. attorney in arizona says he is the victim of a conflict between two branches of government and will not be compelled to be a witness against himself which could be used by a grand jury or special prosecutor to even tkaoeugt hi

eveeven diet him. he says the department of justiceee figureses have reported to the committee that my client relayed inaccurate information to the department on which it supplied in preparing its initial response to congress. if as you claim department officials have blamed my client they with blamed him unfair lease, unquote. kung hapb was ordered to appear before chairman darrell issa and the oversight committee regarding his role regarding the operation that send 2,00 sent 2,000 guns to the cartel. issa wrote to cunningham, quoting, yesterday you canceled your interview scheduled with the committee. the committee has made every effort to accommodate your sudden withdrawal without any explanation. it's unfortunate. it has also delayed the

committee's ability to uncover the truth about this reckless program, issa said officials told the committee that kung hap cunningham relayed inaccurate information to the department. it sound like they are lawyering up themselves. bill: the fight over copyright and material on the internet. the dramatic move from harry reid, what this battle is all about and how it could affect you in a moment. martha: what is at stake for mitt romney tomorrow in south carolina? could be this a game-changing day? bill: sounds like a book, huh? plus there is a reason you stick to the trails when you're hike being in the great outdoors. one guy decided to stray a little bit and that was a bad idea. >> when i got up to the top i waited about five or ten minutes and when i didn't hear from him i are th started to make my way back down, i saw him signature at the bottom of the rocks. he was gushing blood from his

elbows and his knees. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

bill: it was a tricky rescue operation on a mountain side in phoenix. check this out here. that is where you do not want to be. a 22-year-old hiker did not stick on the trail and this is what happened. he took a bad still down the mountain. it took firefighters and a helicopter to bring him back to safety. >> if he didn't land where he did he would have kept on going and been hurt a lot worse. >> if you don't stay on the trails and you try to blaze your own path, that's just not how you do it. bill: lucky young man expected to be okay in phoenix, arizona. martha: new developments in the battle over how to protect intellectual property in the internet age, huge issue. now harry reid said he will postpone the vote on antipiracy legislation after a slew of

protests from the ann community, anonline community. all four ever the presidential candidates said the proposal could have a dangerous impact. >> to preemptive lee have the government censoring the internet strikes me as exactly the wrong thing to do. >> it would be a potentially depressing impact on one of the fastest. >> i will not agree with everybody up there that there isn't something that can and should be done to protect the intellectual rights of people. martha: there you go. i'm bringing in eric bolling now, the anchor of follow the money, and the cohost of the 5. it's good to see you. this is an issue that has been going on for a longtime. you have ways to log on and get movies before they are even in

the movie theater. some people say it should all be open and free to everyone. others say, this is our sweat and blood, our work, you go to work every day and get paid for what you do, why shouldn't we get paid for our intellectual property? why should it be free. huge debate. >> huge debate. it's kind of the content providers, the movie houses, studios, the record labels, the u.s. chamber of commerce, they are trying to protect the intellectual property. there is a lot of piracy going on, 10s of billions of daughter of theftheft going on. they want to make it very strict. the piracy is a problem, but maybe this law, the one meharry reid is proposing in the senate, another one flying through the house, not only have the department of justice investigate and shut down sites

that illegally pirate content but go after the sites that direct you to those sites and some would say that takes the law a bit too far. martha: you have the battle going on between silicon valley and hollywood and the large media groups, rupert murdoch has talked about he's very much in favor of protect bein protecting the intellectual property that is created by these hard-working and creative people out here. why you say, this may be why harry reid doesn't want this vote to go forward right now because maybe the bill needs to be reworked. >> i think it does need to be reworked. initially it will be movie studios. that group came out and said we need the law intact the way harry reid proposed it. they said maybe they need to pinpoint the actual pirates. i'm driving my son to school today and i said what do you think of this sopa bill. martha: my kids too.

>> he said there are millions and millions of signatures against it i. said you love the rap star and the mikes, these guys don't. he said there are a lot of sites that would be shut down that kids go to. martha: they have please vote now. to them it's well i won't be able to get the stuff for free any more. >> maybe there is a way, martha to really for the doj to go after the pirating sites without maybe attack being the news and the bloggers that send you to those sites. martha: thanks a lot. good to see you. we'll see you on the 5. you can catcher i can on the fox news network. follow the money is on 10:00pm eastern monday, tuesday, wednesdays and friday. thursday, not so much. he has another show he does on thursday night. we'll talk about that later. bill: mitt romney says he will release some of the tax returns perhaps in april. that caused some boos last night in south carolina. former new hampshire governor

john senunu is here live he is a romney supports. he will react to that. martha: a vicious attack at a jewelry store caught on video, and for what. wait until you see what the gunman got away with? >> he get me here. i fall down here, then he hit me in my head. i fall down. it's too scary. [ female announcer ] can only a prestige cream give you effective anti-aging results? challenge that with regenerist micro-sculpting cream. it hydrates better than creams costing as much as $500. 82% of luxury brand users agree it feels as luxurious as prestige. olay regenerist.

martha: we are 23 minutes past the hour right now. widespread power outages in washington state. a massive winter storm dragging down power lines there. more than 280,000 customers in the dark, and nobody likes that, right? and penn state university's board of trustees meet tpoerg the first time since the news of a campus sex-abuse scandal. some critics of blasting the board for their decision to fire

head coach paterno. police in chili opening up the water cannons on protestors. they are demanding more public funding for education. bill: hrel low, 23 minutes pas hello, 23 past the hour. 110 children diagnosed within the autism spectrum. it is four to five more times likely in boils tha boils and girls. marc siegl is here with us, a memorandummer of our fox news a team. i want to get to the guidelines in a moment. it's critical to point out that the numbers of those diagnosed with autism starting in 1980 have skyrocketed, have they not? >> reporter: we are talking about bill a million kids right

now with that diagnosis. close to one in a hundred in several places, and three to four times boys than girls. a doctor at yale looked at a big autism study from 1993 and concluded that based on more strict guidelines that actually 75% of the kids that supposedly have this diagnosis may not really have it. i'll tell you why that is important, bill, because once a kid gets a diagnosis of autism or a asperger's where they can community but not socially and they have that stigma they may not be able to out grow it. kids are changing on a dime. what a kid was like yesterday they are not like tomorrow. i had that with my own kids. i can't even recognize them when they get older. bill: critics have argued the criteria for doe fining this is too vague in in what way. >> reporter: in medical diagnosis we say six out of 12. if you have six out of 12 you

have it. that is too vague. it needs to be a very strict diagnosis of a kid that cannot communicate properly, has severe socialization limitation, doesn't have proper emotional range, and also has repedestrian todarepetitive dehaeufr. they do the same thing over and over again and have a sensory problem. that is more stricter and more co concrete and that's what they are changing it to. bill: if you change the definition what happens to the diagnosis and treatment do you believe. >> reporter: critics are saying, and this is big news today, critics are saying, woe, what about the services we're used to seeing here $3.2 million worth of services per year are going to be cut, probably a lot more than that. in other words, people that are used to getting support services are going to have them taken away, but my question is, did they really need it in the first place or is it just a way for a school to get money from the state? bill: i would imagine this could

cause confusion for parents. >> reporter: this is going to cause a big outcry. but i believe strongly you're better off not having your child diagnosed with something they don't really v real have. they can change their way in a very negative way. bill: what do you mean in a negative way. >> reporter: if you think your children have this you look at the moon a certain way, the support services look at the moon in a certain way. what if they don't need to be in those schools. i think we need to step back and say, a child is a moving target, they are changing all the time, maybe these criteria problems were applied too strongly. maybe we have an autistic epidemic is we diagnosis it too often. martha: the explosion may have come with the very first

question right out of the debate. how will it play with american women coast t coast to coast, we'll talk to that. bill: they roughed up the clerk and ran off without the loot. jewelry heist in paradise. ever met a smart criminal? martha: huh-uh. quickly scans the market for new trading ideas. got it? get it. good. introducing new etrade pro elite. and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole gin oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios.

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that let us fix, make, and do more, that just makes the stories even better. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get this glacier bay vanity for the new lower price of just 39 bucks. when i'm on the night shift. when they have more energy than i do. when i don't feel like working out. when there isn't enough of me to go around. ♪ when i have school. and work. every morning. it's faster and easier than coffee. every afternoon when that 2:30 feeling hits. -every day. -every day. every day is a 5-hour energy day. [ male announcer ] 5-hour energy. every day. martha: some business off the top here. before we were doing headlines and we had a picture with the

candidates with the wronglier third as we call it, the wrong description that of picture underneath. so we apologize for that. but now back to south carolina where all the action is playing out, folks. newt gingrich hosting a town hall right now down there. we'll take you to that, get you a live shot when that comes up. he spent a bit of time on the hot seat last night in the debate. let's take a look at that. >> four years into his speakership he was thrown out by the conservatives, there was a cue against him in 3. i served with him, i was there, i knew what the problems were going on in the house of representatives, and newt gingrich was leading it. it was an idea a minute, no discipline, no ability to be able to pull things together. martha: ouch. let's chat about this now with rob livingston former republican congressman from louisiana and a gingrich supporter, sir, welcome. good morning to you. good to have you here today. >> thank you, good to be with you. martha: he has said that a lot. it was an idea a minute, there

was no discipline. he brought up the ethics violations against the former speak of the house. i'm about to talk to john senunu, he's barking up this tree as well that the ethic violations are far more important than the other things that came up last night. >> the ethics violation were nothing but a slap on the wrist that were brought about by retribution of the people in the democratic control of the congress. they were furious when they found out that newt gingrich had taken off the -- we've got a little problem here. martha: take a moment and put that -- can you hear me okay, sir? >> yeah, i've got it i apologize. martha: no problem. >> they were very upset when newt took on jim wright as speaker of the house. the democrats filed like 3 or

400 ethics violations and they were hyperbole. martha: he paid i think $300,000 in finest in those ethics violations did he not? >> yeah i think -- i'm not sure but it dealt with a book where he took an advanced fee and subsequently hillary clinton incendiar ended up getting millions of dollars and nobody did anything about it when she was in office. martha: the thing that may be more significant in the long run than that, and i know there will be more talk about ethics violation is the questions about erratic behavior. it's a label put on newt gingrich by many of the people who used to work with him. peter king who worked with him when he was speaker of the house says they tonight want him to be president because of the erratic behavior. what do you say about that? >> i heard this criticism from

people supporting other candidates. i think it's excessive and goes way beyond the facts. there is one thing i do, and that is gingrich. i served from the time he came to congress in 1978 to the time we both left in 1999. i was with him when he was the visionary that brought about the take over of the house after 40 years of democrat rule and we ended up getting a republican majority in the house of representatives. he became speaker, i became chairman of the appropriations committee. i worked very closely with him day in and day out. did people not like his management style some times, absolutely, there was criticism. when he was speaker we cut spending, eliminated programs, we cut taxes, we brought in welfare reform, we balanced the budget. there haven't been accomplishments in a four-year period even though we had a very popular democratic president in bill clinton we haven't had a

report of accomplishment like that frankly in the last two or three generation. in those years, those were good years and that's because of newt gingrich. martha: well put. bob livingston who speaks on newt gingrich's behalf, he is a supporter, we thank you very much for being here today. bill: he was also asked last night about allegations from the second wife mary ann. she claims he wanted an open marriage while having an a fair with calista. >> the story is falls, every personal friend i had that knew news that period said it was falls. we offered several of them to abc to prove they were falls. they weren't interested. they want to attack any republican. they are attack the governor, attacking me, i'm sure they'll get around to ron paul, and rick santorum. i'm tired of the media attacking us by attacking in the public. bill: how will will this issue

play with women. we have mary kay ham and gemu green. what do you think of this. >> i think he got lemons and made them into lemonade and threw them at john king. it was a skillful move. in the short term he played upon the only thing that can override ideological issues of candidates, which is a unified dislike for mainstream media. i think he did that skillfully. i'm not convinced that that necessarily means that a lot of women voters, conservative winner voters are going to rally to him. he's certainly showing a forceful presence in debate.

it will continue to work for him throughout. i do think some women -- conservative women are going to say, this is just another iky factor in the data i'm been gathering about newt and i'm not going to go there. others will say you attacked him i'm going to rally toward him. bill: you're calling him ninja newt. >> yes. bill: you argued that it could help him. >> the reality is in the republican primary is mostly made up of male voters that's why it's okay for speaker gingrich to be cold, cal losed, come bass tiff. she's are things that are probably more appealing to men. in the general election if he were to at whatever possibility he has to become the nominee, it's going to be really hard for

him to, you know, connect with the women voters that have been aeu lee eve alien natured a hreurbgs enated. they are going to go up against president obama who one with the largest number of women voters ever recorded. it will be hard for them to switch from appealing the 12th man in the audience that has been rooting on this type of very combative, very callous, cold arguments he's making. bill: the polling shows that women have left barack obama's camp too which is causing some concern there at the white house. but to jemu's point m. k., does he need to be careful here? >> yeah i think he does for a general election. in south carolina about half the voters were made up of women last night. of it wasn't hugely outnumbered by men. that's why he should be careful. i don't want to necessarily say

this is going to make lemonade for him all around. in 2010 you saw a lot of shift, republicans overall won women, pretty big victory for them. they need to be careful in talking to the independent women, suburban women voters. what that sometimes takes is the softer touch and not the several mistressess that could be a problem. you need to learn to talk about that sensitively, or you can be the guy who doesn't have that going, like mitt romney. bill: he has his answers down, don't you. >> you see him rallied on by what is a fridge crowd. i think the open marriage thing is damaging enough. at the end of the day when woman look at whoever this candidate will be in the general election it's going to be, can they trust them, the hypocrisy, that is

going to play harder i think for any of these candidates. bill: thanks to both of you ladies. >> making a strong argument doesn't automatically make you callous, you can do that against barack obama and do it smartly. >> eyes style is cold and combative. bill: thank you, ladies, 20 minutes before the hour. martha: presidential candidate mitt romney fighting to detphreubgt repeated attacks from his rivals on his personal finances. >> i know if i'm the nominee the president is going to want to insist that i show what my income was this last year and so forth. i know that's what is going to come. every time the democrats are out there trying their very best to attack people because they've been successful, and euf been successful. martha: we will talk to a very outspoken mitt romney supporter who says it's time for newt gingrich he believes to reveal information about his past as house speaker. bill: tragedy strikes in the sports world. have you heard about the young

ski pin pioneer dying? her story is next. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

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bill: sad story here, a young champion and trailblazer in winter sports has tkaoeufpltd sarah burke died nine days after a training accident. she is a four-time x games winner. she crashed in utah. doctors put her into a coma trying to save her life. as a result of a nasty fall she suffered devastating damage to her brain. she was the favorite to win a gold medal in the upcoming winter olympics in the year 2014. martha: let's go back to election politics now for a moment. we're awaiting a jobs speech from presidential candidate mitt romney in south carolina right now. his rivals have been hammering him for saying that he will not release his tax returns, or he'll release some years, and they probably will come in april. now he says that he does not want to give president obama

really any early ammunition. here is what he said earlier. >> let me tell you, i know there are some who are very anxious to see if they can't make it more difficult for a campaign to be successful. i know the democrats want to go after the fact that i've been successful. i'm not going to apologize for being successful. [applause] >> and i'm not -- martha: that part got a lot of cheers from the crowd. they booed when he said he wasn't sure how many years he would release or exactly when that was going to happen, that didn't go over quite as well. we welcome back to the program this morning, former senator john senunu campaigning with mitt romney in south carolina. welcome, good morning to you. >> it's good to be here. by the way, i was there last night, the booing came from two guys in the ron paul cheering section who stood up ready to boo even before he answered the question. because he had an orchestrated response doesn't mean that was the crowd. let's go. martha: that may be the case.

>> not may be the case, that was the case. martha: okay. well that's the case, listen, the fact is that this morning a lot of people looked at the debate and said that they were surprised, frankly that he didn't have a more solid answer on the tax return issue and they blamed in part the people who are counseling him, the folks working on the campaign. they said he should have come in there with a very solid proud answer about his work, and when he's going to release them and just sort of take the air out of that balloon. >> let's look at what happened last night. there were four people on the stage. ron paul said he's not going to release his tax returns. rick santorum said he's not going to release him until he finishes, that is obviously going to be in april. newt gingrich released one year and mitt romney says when he finishes he'll release this year and previous years. which one of the four candidates committed to more transparency? rom rofplt i. don't understand why you don't understand the words behind the answer. martha: here is what i'm hearing from a lot of folks who are looking at it. they are saying, why doesn't he get this off the table?

governor christie has said that. just release -- >> he will. martha: it makes people start to wonder. is there something that he's worried about in there? >> people should be wondering about what you had in the last segment and that is newt gingrich's ethics problems. contrary to what mr. livingston said three out of four on that ethics committee voted against mr. gingrich. the issues were so bad that his own leadership kicked heupbl out of the leadership. it is important to note that nancy pelosi was one of the members of that group that has all those records and files, and whatever nancy pelosi knows barack obama knows. so newt gingrich ought to rehraoets tha rerelease that now so at least the republican voters will know that nancy pelosi and barack obama know. you don't want an october side. martha: both sides saying that they are worried that there might be something in somebody's past that will cause a problem in the general election.

we have heard from governor senunu. we heard earlier from mr. living son. martha: thank you, you're not going to be surprised that mitt romney is rich, are you. martha: no, sir, everybody knows that. good to have you here today. bill: headline there. jon scott is coming up in a couple of minutes with a couple of headlines of his own. how are you doing on a friday. jon: doing well and it is a friday, bill. thank you very much. peace talks with the taliban really? the government that we've been fighting to depose for ten years in afghanistan? jenna will talk with senator lindsey graham about that possibility. also, the media have been watching the gop candidates very closely, but are they giving president obama a pass in the meantime? we'll debate that with our news watch panel. the youth vote, might they go for a very different candidate this year than the last time around? we'll talk to someone who says it's possible. and look skyward, cranes being

led to a new breeding ground by a team of volunteers, and wait until you see the get ups they wear. that is coming up next "happening now." bill: thank you. we'll see you then, all right. nasa revealing a glimpse of the future, staging a virtual spacewalk on the surface of an astroid. how do you make that happen, huh? they are testing the latest prototype and we were there to see it all.

martha: a manhunt is underway in paradise, a violent armed robbery caught on tape in

hawaii. honolulu police looking for this gunman. the suspect in the blue shirt was seen chasing the jewelry store owner, hitting him over the head. the suspect toppled over the display case but ended up not getting anything when he left. a huge failure all around. bill: sure was. nasa giving us a peak into the future of space expiration. scientists are creating this virtual mission to an astroid. they want to land on an astroid. kris gutierrez has the story. chris, how does it look, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, bill, back behind me i want to show you something live. this is astronaut al drew and he's taking part in a simulation that shows the rocket chair. this is a back-pack type seat that he would be sitting on if he were in an astroid. and he's collecting soil samples. this machine is actually hovering, it's tough to see, it's hovering around the floor here at the johnson space center. i want to swing around and give you an idea of the type of

vehicle that our astronauts could be using. this is the next seb, or space exploration vehicles. our astronauts have not ventured past low earth orbit since 1972 and that was with the apollo 17, the lunar mission. what they are doing here is they've peeled back the floor here, this is a rubber math to protect the air-bearing flow. it's a reverse air hockey table. this seb behind me is actually pushing the air in the force down and it allows it to whoever around the johnson space center to test the equipment. this is what one astronaut told me, listen here. >> if we are going to break back out and explore the rest of the solar system, the astroids and to marchs, we need the ability to do more than leave a few flags around. >> reporter: gene cernan was the last man to walk on the moon. he says my iphone has more

technology in it than the entire capsule. not any more. this is groundbreaking stuff happening right now. bill: i'd like to hear that comment from gene cernan. that is terrific. martha: we are watching the developments off the italian coast. we will bring you the full story of the costa condoria in a fox news reporting special hosted by geraldo rivera. tragedy at sea and when a tragedy that situation is, and so much mystery surrounding really wand in the firs what happened in the first place. 10:00, h geraldo live on "happening now" when we come back.

the folks at smart balance.

the folks at smart balance. i remember the day my doctor told me i have an irregular heartbeat, and that it put me at 5-times greater risk of a stroke. i worried about my wife, and my family. bill has the mos common type of atrial fiillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. he was taking warfarin, but i've put him on pradaxa instead. in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mgs reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin without the need for regular blood tests. i sure was glad to hear that. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate

medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or bloodthinners, or if you have kidney problems, especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval, as stopping may increase your stroke ri. other side effects include indigestio stomach pain, upset, or burning. pradaxa is progress. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk of stroke with pradaxa. >> to know that reverend al greene was here. [applause]