it tends to get more active as you get into march and ails bart giving a news crew piece of her mind. colton harris moore sentenced to time in prison. punished for leading police on a two-yearlong man hunts and taunting investigator, leaving chalk outlines of his feet at crime scenes. his mom refuses to talk, but that didn't stop her from sending a message. >> you don't need to hit my camera. >> get away from me! >> we're in a public place. >> i don't care. get away from me. >> gregg: harris moore was sentenced to 6 1/2 years behind bars for his various crimes. >> heather: the son of a top u.s. official speaks out after he was barred from leaving egypt. sam lahood now saying that he may be facing some serious prison time. >> gregg: the president's campaign team may be planning on using mitt romney's wealth against him. will that be an effective

attack?

think there is some real question that american also have to look at. >> gregg: you know what, brad? two weeks ago, a majority of independents had a favorable view of mitt romney, then came the tax recent poll out of april. >> well, gregg, look, we've seen in a short week how mitt sleeve. he didn't inherit it. he created tens of thousands of jobs doing so.

i think if it came down to romney and obama, i think there is no question that the american people want to go with experience in business because we already have a failed record on the economy. we've president who promised that if his policies were followed, unemployment wouldn't reach above 8%. we know unemployment is almost double that in urban areas andiy i do think, though, that the through line that we're working class americans. i think he's going to have a real challenge even if he gets himself together. >> gregg: all right. brad, you've been following what's happening in ohio. you have a bit of breaking news to tell bus? >> i i do. i'm in cincinnati, ohio, in the northeast hamilton county. republicans had their annual pancake breakfast straw poll and this is the first kickoff of the election season here in ohio and i'm here to report to you that romney got 48% of the vote. santorum got 22%. newt got 24. and ron paul got 6. so a little good news out of ohio, battle ground state for romney today.

>> gregg: all right. brad, thank you for that. alexis, good to see you as well. appreciate both of you being here. >> thank you. >> heather: the cheering crowds at the republican presidential debates are getting plenty of attention. should they or should they not be allowed to root for their favorite candidate? mitt romney weighed in. next, media watchdog tells us what she thinks. >> this last one speaker gingrich said he didn't do so well 'cause the audience was so loud. the one before he said he didn't do so well because the audience was too quiet. this is like goldilocks, he's got to have it just right. when i debate the president, i'm not going to worry about the audience, i'm going to make sure we take down barak obama and take back the white house! let'st we know can do the job. new glidden duo paint plus primer. ♪ one coat does double duty. ♪

and fits our budget perfectly. so there's a brand-new room right where the old one used to be. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. new glidden duo paint plus primer only at the home depot and starting at only $24.97 a gallon. ♪[music plays] ♪[music plays] purina one beyond. food for your cat orog. it's got 10 speeds, my friend. ♪ is it fast? it's got a lightning bolt on it, doesn't it? ♪ is it fast? i don't even know if it's street-legal.

♪ is it safe? oh, yeah. it's a volkswagen. [ male announcer ] the security of a jetta. one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. ♪ got you in a stranglehold, baby ♪

>> gregg: it's bottom of the hour. time for the top of the news.

big welcome home celebration honoring iraq war veterans. st. louis hosting the nation's first parade since the last group left iraq in december. >> heather: police in the bahamas investigating a death on the carnival cruise ship. apparently a 26-year-old man from south carolina jumped from one deck to another on the carnival fantasy on friday. >> gregg: and afghanistan's president karzai is in great britain for talks with the prime minister, david cameron. the meeting coming one day after france announced it would withdraw troops a year earlier from the 2014 date agreed to by nato. >> heather: the son of a top u.s. official detaped in egypt is speaking out. sam lahood, the son of transportation secretary ray lahood, is banned from leaving the country and now he says he could face up to five years in prison. peter doocy has the story for us from washington. >> sam lahood says it's kind of scary to be facing charges in egypt working for an

unregistered nongovernmental organization and the transportation secretary's son now says that he might be stuck in egypt for a long time. >> if it does go to trial and the trial could last up to one year in a case that's as wide ranged as this one is, but the penalty for that is six months to five years in jail. so these are very serious charges. >> republican congressman frank wolp has been calling for the u.s. to halt aid to egypt because he says they are not laying the ground work for a freer society which congress said they had to do in their most recent appropriations bill. wolf says he's recent actions by the egyptian government are a clear violation of the conditions that congress laid out and as such, should have a direct bearing on aid to egypt until the situation is rectified. further, if similar assaults on religious freedom occur in the future, aid should be indefinitely halted. egypt's military alone gets $1.3 billion a year from the

u.s. and the state department said yesterday they've been put on notice. >> those are decisions that are going to have to be made later on in the winter and spring. it's certainly something that we have been calling to the egyptian government's attention. >> we have learned that a group of high powered lobbyists here in dc have ended a four-year relationship with the egyptian government. heather. >> heather: thank you, peter doocy, reporting from washington. thanks. >> gregg: he seemed quiet at political debates. this week on monday, in fact, nbc asked a florida audience to refrain from saying anything as republican candidates duked it out on stage. newt gingrich says in the future, he won't even participate in debates where the audience is banned from speaking. good idea to have the audience cheering and clapping and participating or not? liz is an author, journalist and fox news contributor here with

her commentary. liz, what do you think? >> good afternoon, gregg. i think why not? i mean, these debates have gotten really interesting, and it's a momentous chance for the electorate to get a look at these people and see how fast they are on their feet. what it has finally resulted in, however, the controversy and what newt gingrich is talk being is it's become really a fight between cable news and network television. let me read you a quote from the "new york times." cntwork executives from fox and cnn argue that regardless of the occasionally unruly crowds, their presidential debates are civic exercises intend to do help educate and inform voters. but they also see the debate's value is television production. active, engaged crowds are fun to watchment people who sit on their hands are not. that was written by jeremy peters. there is all this talk about a

lincoln-douglas debate. those debates were very boring and given the shrinking of the attention span that we have today, i mean, we just can't do that. the audience should be able to react and i think gingrich is right when he invokes the first amendment. >> gregg: let me play devil's advocate because i read the same article and let me quote from that same article in which the author posed the following question. we'll put it up on the screen. does the roar of an exercise crowd distract from the real weighty task at hand selecting the best candidate for president by encouraging candidates to play for applause lines? look, shouldn't the candidate, lays, be judged on his views and his proposed policies, not on his ability to pander to a debate audience with applause lines? >> of course. but i would put it this way: if you're decrying the aspect of this -- is it any worse than watching these overpaid super

anchors emote and play devil's advocate and act like it's their running politics in this country? i don't think they should run politics in this country. i think it should get back with the people have something to say. god knows the government has taken so much away from us anyhow. so why not be able to react to debate? it is part entertainment. but it's also a wonderful education for voters. >> gregg: i wonder if newt gingrich is trying to have it both ways, after the debate on monday, he complained because the audience didn't participate. fast forward to thursday where the audience does participate and he complained about that one, saying they sort of threw him off his stride and claimed romney had packed the audience and he offered no evidence of that. the republican party, which issued the tickets, denies it. so that sort of invites the question, i wonder whether, liz, the audience didn't react to newt gingrich so favorably on

thursday because maybe gingrich just didn't do that well. >> well, i think -- that's a separate issue, i think. i don't think it should be mixed up to the whole idea of whether or not as to who is going to control these debates. as you probably know, but for the benefit of our audience, the presidential debate commission which controls these things doesn't really have a heck of a lot to say now because there are often debates given between community group, et cetera, when the presidential debates come along for the general election, this is going to be a lot different. this is going to be 90 minutes. >> gregg: they don't allow audience participation. they never have and they confirmed to reporters this week they're not going to do it this time around. so when gingrich says i'm not going to participate -- >> would who are these people? why should they have the last word? what is the presidential commission on debates? what are their politics? why should they have the last word? i ask you. >> gregg: don't you think that a

raucous audience exerts undue influence, overshadowing very serious and important subjects? >> i would -- my reply that often and usually more than not reflects the exact feelings of the people in their living rooms. >> gregg: yeah. let me ask you one more question. i got 30 seconds left, chris wallace, our colleague here at fox, said that 19 debates is, quote, ridiculous and insane. does he have a point? >> well, he's probably unhappy 'cause he doesn't anchor all of them. >> gregg: no, in fact,