>> gretchen: ever look at that and i'm actually holding on -- he made a web! look at that. that's so cool! i hope it doesn't bite. >> i hope so, too. i'm over here. >> steve: more in the after the show show. have a great weekend. we'll see you monday. now to "america's newsroom". it is friday and the political universe now focused on the great state of new hampshire. the favorite, mitt romney getting snubbed by his hometown newspaper. "the boston globe" looking past the former governor endorsing jon huntsman. what about that? mr. huntsman is coming up later. we'll talk more about that. i hope you're doing great where you are today. martha: i'm doing great in my chair. how are you doing there in your chair? bill: i'm fine. martha: i'm martha maccallum. mitt romney despite "the boston globe" situation he is crushing his competition in the granite state right now.

look at rcp average we like to call it. they put a bunch polls together. mitt romney, 40%. ron paul at second place but a distant second at 21%. gingrich and huntsman splitting 9%. bill: they had all the predictions for eye awe and what happened? -- iowa. all the candidates fanning out across the state before the first-in-the-nation primary. molly line is live in new hampshire. good morning, molly. >> reporter: good morning, bill. new hampshire voters can break late. that is something to always watch. they make up their own mind and. mitt romney has been leading consistently in the polls. a pretty commanding lead. he has been focusing on president obama here in the state speaking with people not so much going after his white house hopeful competitors. he traveled to south carolina yesterday. perhaps a sign he is feeling pretty confident here in new hampshire. he traveled down there with john mccain who won both

here in new hampshire and south carolina in the run-up to 2008. today, of course at a morning rally he is receiving the endorsement of south carolina governor nikki haley who already endorsed him. he will be back in the state later on today for a spaghetti dinner. he is making the round here in new hampshire. certainly not leaving the state for long in the quick visit to south carolina. rick santorum also here, holding town halls, shaking hand, retail politicking. moved up in the polls, the suffolk university poll has him third. so there is a little bit of flex in the race in some of the polls. much of his career he presented himself what he considers the consistent conservative. he hasn't backed down from any of his positions where it concerns social issues. that has caused a little bit of strife with some of the folks here in new hampshire. there is more libertarian crowd here in the state and mr. santorum was booed by a very small contingent from one crowd when he talked about his position on gay marriage. take a listen.

>> thank you for your time and attention, thanks. [booing] >> reporter:c the political process here in new hampshire is wide open. there arema a lot of people. they asked a lot of tough questions. things can be pretty interesting at some of these town halls. newt gingrich also holding town halls himself yesterday. he is willing to go before the naacp to talk about why african-americans should demand paychecks and not settle for food stamps. he has been very open about some of his issues and how he feels. this economy should be jump-started. how he feels about certain entitlement programs. jon huntsman as you mentioned earlier reseized endorsement of boston globe. "boston globe" is considered more liberal paper in boston as opposed to other paper in boston, "the boston herald.". this race is very much in

flux. bill: romney folks says the paper hasn't liked him for years. what about ron paul and rec perry? are they in new hampshire? >> reporter: we expect ron paul to arrive this afternoon. he has a big rally. he hasn't been here last couple days since the finish in iowa. he is rallying his supporters holding a town hall. rick perry is expected tomorrow for the two debates this weekend in new hampshire. he will held to south carolina saying the palmetto state is where they will be focusing. it will be interesting couple of days. everyone will be here over the weekend. so things are ramping up in these final days. bill: we'll need a flow chart to watch all of this. plenty to cover. thank you, molly line. martha: there is a bubbling story out of iowa. the chairman. iowa republican party says he has no reason to believe the outcome of the iowa caucuses change when that vote is finally certified a couple weeks from now. a ron paul supporter, here is where all this is coming from, reportedly claims

there was a mistake in his precinct that gave romney 20 more votes than he actually got. it was a two and 22 issue there. possibly this could be a big deal. romney only won by eight votes. the runner up rick santorum is basically shrugging off all of this. you know what? it was a tie. he thinks the whole thing was a wash. >> there was one county there was a 20 vote mistake in my favor but there was a 21 vote mistake in rome any's favor. it netted out to what i understand a one vote difference. there will be without question, given the lateness of the hour and the heckness with the numbers there will be changes. with eight votes or nine votes difference there may be some. but that doesn't really matter to me. this was a tie. martha: okay. so matt strawn, who is the iowa gop chair, he says out of the respect to the

candidates he will not respond to quote every rumor or innuendo and allegation. we'll count them up and let you know couple weeks how it all shakes out. kudos to rick santorum. pretty much a jump ball. bill: we'll be in florida at that point. martha: exactly. bill: meanwhile, former house speaker newt gingrich is focused on rebuilding his campaign. the georgia republican calling himself a true reagan conservative telling sean hannity there is no doubt that voters will pick him over the former governor from massachusetts, mitt romney. >> now you have had a series of attacks we will rebuild again. we'll rebuild like the tortoise. we'll rebuild steadily, happily, and postively. but i've always been very confident in this race, the state that produced michael dukakis, john kerry and mitt romney will not produce the republican nominee. that is just a fact. bill: that was from last night. he is talking again this morning. we'll talk to byron york more about that. gingrich does not believe

south carolina will go for romney. the former speaker enjoying a big lead in the average ever the polls in the palmetto state. martha: this whole thing could change moving south and mitt romney is hoping newt gingrich is wrong. while the other candidates are up in new hampshire, you saw them crisscrossing around the state today, mitt romney is not there. he has gone down to south carolina already. he is campaigning two weeks ahead of their rally. appearing with senator john mccain and south carolina governor nikki haley. but jon huntsman says he thinks skipping new hampshire may be a big mistake for mitt romney. listen to this. >> the people of new hampshire don't want a coronation, you know what he mean? they want people to earn the vote as opposed to sitting tonight down in south carolina. martha: romney nonetheless looking ahead to south carolina primary. it is on january the 21st, bill. it will be a very busy month. more on mitt romney's strategy when we talk to one of his supporters, former new hampshire governor

john sununu. bill: also coming up, jon huntsman is here live the former utah governor. we'll talk about that endorsement as well. martha: we'll have full coverage of the new hampshire primary. it all starts at 6:00 p.m. eastern on tuesday, january the 10th. bret baier and megyn kelly will lead the coverage live from manchester. we will look at the exit polls and the billboard and all of that stuff sunday night. bill: sunday night we have a special. tuesday night we have the whole shebang for you. maybe we'll go to 4:00 a.m. maybe not. martha: maybe not. bill: a late gift now for the american people. employers adding 200,000 jobs last month, sending the unemployment rate to 8.5%. that is the lowest level now in three years but it is still well above where we would like to be. martha: all right. let's check in with stuart varney what he thinks about this. he is the anchor of "varney & company" of course on the fox business network the stuart. that looks like a pretty

good number? >> yes it was. it was a solid report. i have three numbers. 200,000 new jobs. let's repeat that. that is solid report. it is more than expected. it is a pretty big number. not as many as we like but 200,000 is solid number. next number, 8.5%. that is the new and lower unemployment rate. that should give president obama a shot in the arm. he will be pleased to see the unemployment rate coming down. but the third number is this. 50,000, that is how much shrinkage there was again in the workforce. the workforce is still declining. that's why the unemployment rate came down a notch to 8.5%. overall, yes, it is a solid report. but we're nowhere near back to where we were in 2007 before the recession hit. that's where we are. martha: gotcha. so, stuart, essentially if those people decide to start looking for work again in the coming months, heading up to the november election, that could make an impact on this number as we head towards that day, right?

>> yes. there are millions of people who dropped out of the workforce. if they decide to come back into the workforce, then the unemployment rate will go right back up again. that is the way it works statistically. martha: let's hope that we continue to add people to the workforce as we saw in that month of december. that was a good report, stuart. thank you very much. the stuart varney coming up just a little while from now on fbn. bill: all right we'll have more on this in a moment. steve forbes is here live a little later this hour. we'll get him to react. we'll see what business in america is looking like. martha: we're pretty busy this morning. we're hopping aren't we, bill hemmer? bill: we are. martha: we have a lot more stories in the hopper coming up on "america's newsroom." a community is mourning the loss of one of their finest. details on a shootout that took the live after utah police officer. a sad story. bill: natalie holloway murder suspect, juror ren van der sloot is in court for the murder of another woman. how will this go? martha: in politics, newt

gingrich is set to take the stage at a town hall in new hampshire this morning. the former speaker is looking strong right now in south carolina, folks. long haul this race is. we're heading into the weekend with two, two count them, debates saturday night and sunday morning before we go to the polls in new hampshire will that play to that man's strength? >> no president has put more people on food stamps than obama. this is not an attack. this is a fact. it is not negative. it is a fact. i would like to be the best paycheck for americans as president. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements.

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martha: just a heartbreaking scene in utah as people gather to remember a fallen officer. jared fran cone died yesterday in the that injured five of his colleagues. we told you about this in "america's newsroom." they were trying to serve a search warrant in a drug investigation. the fallen officer's brother sharing the memories with the crowd. >> he was an awesome brother. he was an awesome man. i can share stories all night long about him. they decided to give him a call and told him and i got the relay from dad. went on from there. i know that my brother is here watching over, over all of us tonight.

and i just want him to know how much we love him and appreciate everything that he's done for us. martha: boy, what a strong young man and how great that he was able to stand up there and share that because clearly he was under a huge emotional strain having lost his brother. he also asked for continued prayers of the other officers. even for the family of the suspect. he said continue to pray for him as well. he was also injured in that shootout, the suspect was. bill: tough, tough story out of utah. we were watching that yesterday morning. now back to 2012. newt gingrich putting up a big fight despite his low 9% of support in new hampshire, the former house speaker is doing well in south carolina. "real clear politics" average shows him with 35% of the vote in south carolina. more than 14 points over his nearest rival mitt romney. byron york, chief political correspondent, "washington examiner", fox news contributor. byron, good morning to you. >> good morning, bill.

bill: i want to play for you what newt gingrich said on abc two hours ago. i listen to how sharp he is now drawing the line between him and mitt romney. >> he has got to get a majority somewhere. i don't think he get a majority. we'll gradually coalesce. one of us will emerge as the conservative all alternative. that conservative alternative will beat romney. as people look at his record and imagine him debating obama, obama will laugh at him. bill: that is a sharper tact than he has taken to this point. will it work? >> well, gingrich has got to try it because he boxed himself in iowa by pledging to run a positive campaign. meanwhile a pro-romney super pac beating him up every day in radio and television ads and gingrich's support fell considerably. from the very beginning of this race there was a theory of the race it was a two-candidate race. there was mitt romney on one side and anti-romney on the other side. the problem was there were

five or six candidates competing to be the anti-romney and they all beat up on each other. a couple days ago, seems like a light bulb went off in everybody's head and wait a minute, we need to attack mitt romney instead. if voters want an alternative to romney they need a candidate who can make the best case against romney. in new hampshire and south carolina the fellow candidates going after romney not only debates, we haven't had a debate since the fox debate in sioux city on december fifth then the. there is one on saturday. bill: one on saturday night and one on sunday morning this weekend. gingrich showed a lot of strength in those debates. that where he picked up momentum. >> that's right. bill: what he said in an ad this week he called mitt romney timid. he told bloomberg, we're going to have a great time with romney in new hampshire? he will win probably but it will be much more interesting than he wants. i take it that's a reference to the debates this weekend, is it not? >> oh it absolutely is.

that is where gingrich made all his points in the debates. it has been almost a month since we had one. so he hasn't had a forum to really shine. his new ad attacking romney is pretty, it is pretty tame. it is not a vicious, underhanded attack. it is saying that mitt romney's economic plan has been criticized as being timid and not enough, not strong enough. and that gingrich's is strong enough. it is perfectly fair attacked a. bill: regardless what happens on tuesday in new hampshire, do you get the impression that south carolina changes everything again? because there are dynamic that state that are different than we haven't seen yet. unemployment is at 10%. been that way for three years. the tea party movement in south carolina is probably the strongest state movement in the country. >> well the south is the republican party's rock solid base. south carolina is the first in the south primary. you have to play well there. i do actually have some new news for you. scott rasmussen came out with a new poll in south carolina showing mitt romney ahead and rick

santorum very close to him and newt gingrich has fallen considerably since the last time. so you're kind of seeing effects in south carolina of what we saw in iowa. what is going to happen is, there will be 10 days between the new hampshire primary on the 10th and the south carolina primary on the 21st, 11 days. so you're going to have a lot of time to campaign down there. the candidates are going to be going at it really hard down there. bill: it is hotter in south carolina for a lot of reasons. >> in every way. bill: byron, thanks. see you soon. >> thank you, bill. bill: fox news will be in south carolina only days before the primary. january 16th, 9:00 eastern time in prime time. your only place to watch the debate before the palmetto state votes. is it will be a good ol' good one. martha: like a game every day. bill: i like it that way. martha: i like it that way too. keeps things interesting. mitt romney taking fire as you just saw. you guys were talking about this in a perfect way days ahead of this new hampshire primary. why jon huntsman is saying

that romney is not earning his votes anymore in the granite state. of course jon huntsman is trying to do just that. the former new hampshire governor and romney supporter, john sununu will real act to all this he is a big player. bill: interesting to hear from him. new fees from your atm might be heading to a bank near you. but will savings at the machine cost you somewhere else? money. ♪

bill: new hampshire, four days away. most republican candidates campaigning in the granite state and some voters there say they're still trying to make up their mind.

have a listen. >> i don't think there is decision yet. >> i think mitt romney will win but i don't think by the 20 or 30 points he has right now. bill: we'll find out late on tuesday night we do believe, right? we saw a similar storyline in iowa who said they didn't know who they were going to caucus for. martha: i don't think people pay all that much attention until right before. this is significant moment we're watching in new hampshire. how about this one? we talked about this before the break. free atms, right? how angry when you have to punch in to pay extra three dollars to get my own money? there is a new plan to install thousands of no-fee cash machines in one city nationwide is the plan. but the free service could cut into the bank's profit of course. will they figure out a way to get it from you some other way? anna corman is live in new york city to us about the free machines. good morning to you, anna. >> reporter: great to be with you guys. one new york company plans to roll out thousands much free atms in grocery stores,

gas stations and street corners across the country. instead of having to pay a few bucks to take out cash you watch a advertisement, you guessed it right? they have seen success at a local music venue and bar and plans to expand by year's end. the company will start in big cities and work its way into suburban communities. in order to saturate the market with free atms, advertisers with deep pockets are needed to pay for maintenance and up keep for those machines. >> we had advertisers from all over the world, all differ types of businesses from mom and pop type business and small businesses and national advertisers and national brands. >> reporter: you know the company says they think they really have edge over pop-ups and billboards because they have such a captive audience. users will stand there and watch the advertisement while getting out their cash. on the flipside if somebody feels bombarded for the ads, don't want to watch you can opt out and pay a fee instead. martha: get your money out of that little machine or you don't. so i think people will

figure out maybe they will watch the ads. how is the market reacting so far to this, anna? >> reporter: so far not a whole lot is going on. we've talked to a financial research firm expert from bankrate.com. she says more likely independent cash businesses and banks may end up following suit and drop their fees all together as well. but if that happens, she warns the banks will have to make up for the lost revenue and find it somewhere. >> i definitely think banks will start finding other ways to charge customers. might be new fees. maintenance fee for your checking account and debit card usage fee but they're not going to take a loss in revenue. >> reporter: you're not going to be charged by the company while getting cash out you could on the other hand still be charged by your bank on the back end. martha: get you one way or another. welcome to new york, anna. bill: welcome to the fox family. sometimes you get it twice at atm. bank. martha: to get your own money.

under the mattress argument is growing in momentum. bill: breaking this morning on heels of a presidential end-run on congress. we're getting about a lawsuit in the works. details on that. martha: republican battle for new hampshire, boy is this getting interesting, folks. a former governor of that state, john sununu, you know his name well. he will join us in "america's newsroom" with his take what is really going to happen in new hampshire. [ male announcer ] say goodbye to "ho-hum," 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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bill: we're keeping a close eye on couple things happening in new hampshire. rick santorum set to speak at a town hall event. he is in wyndham, new hampshire. that crowd waiting for the senator to arrive.

we'll tell you what happens from that event and what he has to say. jon huntsman is popping up now, talking in concord, new hampshire this after an endorsement out after newspaper in boston that is somewhat i influential in northeast. romney said you can have it. the newspaper hasn't liked me in years. you can have it. this is what he said to the folks in new hampshire why he wants their vote tuesday. >> we have a creative class in the this country. the finest innovators, free thinkers and entrepreneurs. and they are our engines of growth in this nation. right now they're sitting on their hands. bill: that's what he said this hour. next hour, he will talk with us here live in "america's newsroom." don't mission that -- miss that coming up here. martha: the clays are coming out in new hampshire as jon huntsman launched new attacks at mitt romney four days before the primary. here is more of that. listen. >> the establishment is teeing up as mr. romney the

choice for the republican party. and i say, the people of new hampshire will not be told for whom to vote. the people of new hampshire don't want a coronation. you know what i mean? they want people to earn the vote as opposed to sitting tonight down in south carolina so certain of a victory. martha: they have it. we're very pleased in "america's newsroom" to be joined by former new hampshire governor john sununu and former white house chief of staff. he is a romney supporter. good to have you here this morning. >> it is good to be here. before we get started and i was listening and caught something on my earpiece where mr. gingrich was claiming that governor romney funded abortions through his legislation. he is wrong. it is dishonest for him to say that. decision was the 1981 massachusetts supreme court decision and a 1997 massachusetts supreme court decision, well before mitt romney became governor. but mr. gingrich has a little difficulty with the truth. martha: interesting. well, i would imagine that

discussion, that back and forth, we may hear that in the debate this weekend, do you think? >> i don't think mr. gingrich has the guts to say it to governor romney's face. martha: really? all right. so talk to me a little bit, you heard john hnts man saying that the people of new hampshire don't believe in coronation and mitt romney should not be in south carolina campaigning. he should be in new hampshire. >> poor jon huntsman got stuck with another democratic endorsement out of the boston globe. that is the democratic organ in the northeast. jon huntsman still can't decide which primary he ought to be in. what we have here is really a very important race that new hampshire will decide on. and governor romney is working hard here. he was here yesterday morning. he will be back this afternoon. and will be here through the primary. the fact is is that new hampshire notoriously makes up their mind late and the governor understands that and thenb schedule of events

he has will continue to put him in front-9 so the voters of new hampshire who have gotten to know him quite well over the past year will continue to reaffirm their support of him. martha: i want to clearly this debate, it looks like it could get very heated over the weekend. as you say, folks in new hampshire often change their minds at the last minute. newt gingrich and others are counting on just that. here's another piece of what newt gingrich had to say that may be a preview what we might hear this weekend. listen to that, if you will. thanks. >> in the end governor romney will not be able to hide behind negative ads. people well will actually look at his record. they realize he raised taxes as governor. they realize he appointed liberal judges from were pro-abortion. he wrote taxpayer abortions into romney-care. all these things will add up and people will go oh, yes, that is not somebody i want to be republican nominee. martha: your reaction, sir? >> i think people will listen to what mr. gingrich has said, say, there is not

a bit of truth in that. oh, yes, i'm not going to pay any attention to mr. gingrich. i talked about the abortions being the result of the massachusetts supreme court decisions well before the governor came in. the governor cut taxes in massachusetts 19 times. he cut spending when there was a $3 billion deficit. and created a surplus. that is a very conservative thing to do. the judges in massachusetts are in fact appointed by the executive council in massachusetts. all a governor can do is present a broad list. they can do whatever they want. mr. gingrich continues to be dishonest in his presentations. he is upset of course at some of the negative advertising that the independent groups have thrown at him. but the reason it had such tremendous effect is all the things they talked about in their negative advertising, are based on truth and truth is what bites into anybody's lead. martha: before i let you go, sir, i want to get your thoughts on rick santorum as

well. he is pounding pavement in new hampshire, coming off a very strong performance in iowa. will he resonate to some extent that may not be reflected in the polls right now with folks in new hampshire? >> rick santorum is a good man. he is a good conservative but the fact is that when he got to congress, got to the senate, he let the disease of legislative bodies take him over. he fell in love with pork. he fell in love with earmarks. that's why it is always better to let a former governor be the president of the united states. governors have a tendency to want to cut. those that come out of the senate and legislative process love to expand government. go ahead. martha: that is interesting point. jon huntsman, who we will speak to in a little while, jon huntsman will say you're completely wrong about him in terms how he should be characterized. he did a lot of cutting. "wall street journal" has called him the most conservative candidate out there. >> yeah, unfortunately jon huntsman has these fawning letters which he expresses

his tremendous admiration for president obama. jon huntsman --. martha: that doesn't change his record in utah, sir? >> but it changes where he is coming from. the last thing in the world you want is an obama-lover running against president obama in this election. martha: we thank you for your candidness. good to have you here, mr. sununu. >> thank you. martha: great to see you. we'll see how it all plays out in your great state of new hampshire. >> thank you. bill: we'll cover that live of course on primary night. on sunday night we have a special 8:00 eastern time. but on tuesday night, january 10th, live on the air, only on fox news channel starting here 6:00 p.m. eastern time. nobody thought what happened in iowa and on tuesday night. so it is anybody's guess. martha: you have the debates sandwiched between now and then. rick santorum and newt gingrich determined to make a difference in new hampshire over the weekend. it will get quite interesting. how about the new unemployment numbers we saw this morning?

hitting news a little while ago. steve forbes will analyze this. the health of our economy and how strong these numbers really are. bill: meet a young journalist asking the candidates a probing question. who is your favorite superhero? their answers will surprise you. the reporter is here with his own story that he found. ♪ welcome idaho,

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martha: let's show you what is some of developing right now here in "america's newsroom" a deadly explosion ripping through a crowded bus in syria's capital. at least 10 people were killed. dozens were wounded. state media is calling this a terrorist attack, more what we've seen on the ground in syria sadly. we're waiting to confirm that appointment, that story. pope benedict xvi has named 22 new key advisors. among them new york archbishop, former ash much bishop he will be the cardinal timothy dolan is what he will be now. baltimore's former bishop, edward o'brianen will be a new cardinal. this is huge news in the united states. >> surf is up in hawaii. looking at the biggest waves in the season. look at these monsters, 40 feet high, hemmer as i told

you in my next life. professional surfer. bill: 40 feet high. that is four stories. martha: oh, my gosh. how cool is that. bill: can you handle that? martha: in my next life. bill: you can handle that kind of wave. martha: i will be coming back as a new person. one who is not afraid of 40 feet waves. bill: send us the video. that will be something to put on tv. back to the economy right now. 200,000 jobs added last month. that pushes the unemployment rate down to 8.5%. that is the lowest level now we've seen in about three years. does it signal the economy is bumping its way back? steve forbes, chairman, editor of chief of forbes media. good morning to you. happy friday. >> good to see you,. bill:. bill: what do you make of that number? >> we've had a pretty good number since labor day. it is recovery from the slowdown earlier this year from the japanese earthquake and other factors like the debt ceiling crisis. however going into the new year we'll have some drags

again. incomes are not growing very much. europe is going into recession. developing countries are starting to slow down. the fourth quarter, i think bill, we'll get 3.5, 4% growth. i think in the first quarter it will start to taper off. bill: 3 1/2, 4% would be good especially after what we've been seeing but your remarks are tempered. are you suggesting that the numbers we're watching today are only temporary? >> i think we'll continue to add jobs but, as the year wears on, not nearly at the pace. i think unemployment will in the next few months start to inch much up again both from people coming into the labor force and the economy not quite having the head of steam it had in the fourth quarter. bill: do you awith those that say the real unemployment rate is almost 16%? >> well, yes. you've also had to --. bill: sorry, steve. what is ha based on? >> what it is based on, people have part-time jobs that want full-time jobs. and so, that number takes up to the 15, 16% area.

you also have the factor that about 3 to 4 million people have entered the labor force since the financial crisis but not really have searched for jobs. so the number of people in the labor force has been stagnant for three years even though the working age3w population has grownn÷ 3.5 million. bill: what are your ideas to get us going again? john boehner came out with a statement an hour ago. i will tell you what he said in a moment but i want to get your thoughts first. >> very simple. stop trashing the dollar. we'll very need much a stable dollar as the european crisis worsens. simplifying the tax code. stop the binge spending and something that won't happen until next year, repeal obamacare. bill: if you get a republican in the white house and things go that way. john boehner came out. he said both parties must come together more to address the uncertainty that small businesses face. you had this big tax fight right before christmas. that is going to come up

again either later this month or the month of february. what is boehner refering to, steve? >> i think removing some of the regulatory uncertainty. peeling back obamacare. what we know from the white house. what i hope john boehner learned by by now, president obama does not want to deal. he wants to run against the republicans. he wants to run at least half of congress. so he not going to reach a real deal on entitlement reforms, reducing huge burdens of obamacare, dodd-frank, in terms of financial regulations which are crushing small banks. none of that is going to change until we get a mandate this november. bill: boehner argues the house already passed 30 jobs bills. they're sitting on the senate side and have been for some time. >> he can continue to pass them, embarass the senate and show the american people the republicans have some good ideas. the white house is the problem, not the house of representatives. bill: you have endorsed rick perry, the texas governor. he struggled out of iowa. all indications are he is struggling in new hampshire.

who knows what comes on tuesday. who knows what comes in south carolina after that. what does he bring to an american economy to get the ideas passed that you propose? >> well, he is making a stand in south carolina but i love his flat tax idea. i've been advocating that for 15 years. reining in spending. he is very good on regulations, reining in regulations. he has done that in texas. he brings very real reaganesque pro-growth policies to the table. i hope he will find a receptive audience in south carolina and be the alternative to governor romney. bill: you say he hopes are or you hope rather. do you think he can? >> the answer is yes. it is a very volatile electorate. we've seen it leading up to iowa where every month we have a new candidate surging. starting to see it in polls in new hampshire itself. romney will win but i don't think he will get anywhere's near 50 or 45%. in south carolina you will have a real donnybrook. so people are still looking. bill: steve forbes live here

in new york, from "forbes" media. shoot me an e-mail or follow me on twitter@bill hemmer or bya. ask anything you want of steve forbes or sqon huntsman coming up in 45 minutes. martha: he is coming up a strong win, second place finish in a very tight race in iowa. now what happened. he raked in a ton of campaign cash. what will he do with it? how will he spend that money coming up. >> someone needs to stand up and say, enough, mr. president. you're not the emperor. [applause] [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation, so i us my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪

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bill: new this morning, several crash victims are talking about a massive pileup, nearly 50 injured, several in critical condition today.

drivers say smoke from a nearby wildfire combined with morning fog created near zero visibility, causing potentially deadly conditions there in texas. >> we heard the crash in the back. so we stay in the car because it was pretty bad. >> it was clear back down. all of sudden you come to a wall. >> in front of me, next thing we saw was a car with brake lights on. we couldn't do nothing but hit him. >> if there had been emergency vehicle with the smoke before the lights on or something to warn you like they do sometimes, but it hit pretty quick. it was pretty fast. bill: almost helpless, huh? port arthur, texas, near houston. dozens of vehicles involved in that. thankfully no one died. the highway has since reopened as of this morning. martha: as we've been telling you, president obama today is visiting the new

financial protection bureau. that is the new agency that was created to protect us from financial agencies and the wrath we saw in 2008 and then he appointed, the president did, richard cordray the chief of that agency and that appointment has sparked a huge controversy this week and a newly filed lawsuit today is claiming that president obama violated the constitution by not seeking congressional approval for that appointment. cordray speaking here about his new post. >> i tend to assume that people are always trying to do what they think is right. we may disagree at times what that is. so i'm going to work forward and build that relationship with congress. martha: so jay sekulow, chief counsel for the american center of law and justice. welcome. always good to have you with us. >> thanks for having me, martha. martha: tell us about the lawsuit you filed against the administration. >> we haven't filed it yet. we're looking at all the options. we're not going to be the only one by the way. looks like there will be three or four. here is what it is. there are two provisions in constitution at play. article i which is

congressional authority which sets their own recess schedule. article ii which is presidential authority. congress isn't in recess. what you have is a situation where presidents can make recess appointments when the congress is in recess. martha: right. >> that's not the case here. what is making it even i think, martha really more complicated the nominees for the national labor relation board were just made towards the end of december. so they haven't even had time for hearings. this is usurp of congressional authority and power grab by the administration frankly i don't think we've seen in our constitutional history. this was brazen and bold move by the president. martha: it is really interesting, jay, the more you dig into this the more it appears there is an issue here. the senate was in sort of pro-forma session, which basically means, somebody puts their foot inside the door, we're here, technically we're here while they're not doing any business and this whole way of doing that was used a lot during the bush administration and

apparently president obama was in favor of it then? >> right. in fact president obama was one of the architects in 2006 of putting in this pro-forma plan so congress could not get into a recess situation. let me take it a step further by the way. the democrats keep talking about, this is just pro-forma. you know that tax payroll ex-10 shun they all debated last month? that was done during a pro-forma session. this argument they have nothing is actually happening, a, false, and b, this is the democrats own technique. they set the precedence for this.

he has to play by our rule book. the rule book is the united states constitution. that has been shredded here. there are specific provisions in the constitution at play. there is a clash now between the executive and the legislative branch of government. that will be resolved in the courts. martha, at the end of the day the president set up his own constitutional crisis. he may have had political reasons for doing it but i think he will pay the consequences. martha: what is essentially behind some of the dissatisfaction with the creation of this agency is that people, feel that it is going to be anti-business. i would just point out, we looked this up this morning. this is brand new government agency. they employ 700 people already at this agency. >> and u.s. chambers of commerce, u.s. chamber of commerce is very much opposed to this as a lot of

business interests. frankly i think it will not just be the chamber, the american people realizing what happened to the constitution here. martha: jay, thank you so much. always good to hear from you. >> you too. bill: like a startup. martha: 700 people employed. you have 3846 people at last count at the sec. and we all know what a great job they did of alerting the american public to the problems that were happening in the financial industry in 2008. now you have a brand new agency that has 700 employees. they're just getting off the ground. bill: startups usually have seven people. martha: yeah. bill: seven years ago he was named a suspect in the disappearance of natalie holloway. joran van der sloot, facing trial, trial for the murder of a different woman. details next. martha: jon huntsman says he is david taking on go lie act in -- goliath in new hampshire. he is live with us in minutes. >> i'm guessing politics is done the old-fashioned way in this state. you have to be seen, you have to be heard, you have to be felt. so we'll put it to the test

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president obama, apparently. watch. >> the fact that he made a lot of promises. he was going to repair the nation, remember? and repair the world. there is a big gap between what he promised and what he delivered. what we've seen over the last three years is a failed presidency. i don't think he's a bad guy, i just think he's way over his head. >> if we had 4% unemployment, a balanced budget, safety in the middle east i won't be running. i've already done this. i was speaker of the house, we had a wonderful time. >> first to lead, second be bold, don't settle for what isn't sufficient to do the job. pick who you believe is the right person to take on that challenge to defeat barack oba obama. yes, but not with a hollow victory. >> i also know that i've got to earn your vote because when you ask someone for a vote you're asking for their trust. martha: very interesting, isn't

it? those are the voices of these g.o.p. nominee wannabes, and they are really working hard in new hampshire right now. that's how we are getting started in this new hour of "america's newsroom." glad to have you with us, i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer good morning to you. mitt romney is poised to be if he wins on tuesday the first weapon to win iowa and new hampshire in an open election year. martha: that would be quite something. carl cameron is live at the famous red arrow diner where he grew up in manchester, new hampshire. carl, how are you doing? what is the mood out there today. >> reporter: i'm pretty bumped, martha. the caucuses started slow and they record to life in the last couple of days. it feels like the same thing is beginning to happen here in new hampshire. the red arrow diner has a long and storied history. it's packed with folks this morning, the walls still lined with pictures that go back with

decades of candidates. interesting, you know, nobody really wants to talk to us accept for a kids from st. jo's prep and their professor that has been coming here for the last four cycles. all the booths are actual granite staters and the folks at the counter i went through and talked to all of them and i said, hey are you undecide. all the people who are independent *p independents and republicans said yes. when i asked them if they wanted to go on tv and talk about it they all said know. that is exactly what one would expect. they are getting skwreupb gined up. rick santorum crowds are growi growing. with four days left the first in the nation primary vote rom nice still a favorite but his lead is shrinking. this is likely to come right

down to the end. polls always close in the granite state, undecideds don't make up their mind until the last minute. we have two debates to watch. it could be a break out opportunity to further close in on mitt romney and threaten his front-runner status n. a campaig. in a campaign that has lacked a certain amount of enthusiasm because of not finding an alternative to romney or get behind romney. 41% of the people in this state are independent voters. republicans are 30% and squeak out democrats eight 29%. it is as volatile as it can get anywhere on the political map in the country and the red arrow diner should be the center of the universe. martha: you've got to love the new englander, they are not wearing it on their sleeve and i thank you very much, carl. >> reporter: they don't want to

talk about how they are undecided. they will make up their minds when they get in the booth. martha: i totally get it. what do you think about the fact that romney has a huge lead an is down in south carolina right now and does that leave a huge opening for sapbt. >> reporter: i lead for rick santorum. >> reporter: a lot of times in fact almost always new hampshire does something different than iowa, that is why if romney were to win here it would be historic. no challenger candidate has ever won iowa and h-pl happen. ther new hampshire. ronald reagan won iowa and new hampshire back-to-back but he was sitting in office the second time he won. romney's absence here makes him vulnerable to criticism. he can't respond himself in person. ads and radio interviews and tv appearances don't cut it in the granite state, people want to shake their hand and sniff around the candidate a little bit. rom no's absence is an issue.

rick santorum is a little more liberal than much of new hampshire, he's getting aoupbl huge crowds. conservatives are flocking to him in an interesting way. the boston globe, the liberal newspaper from down in massachusetts is backing jon huntsman. rick santorum and romney are going head-to-head and the voters will have the final say not the media. martha: thank you so much from the red arrow diner, a storied place in new hampshire, carl cameron, we'll see you soon. bill: carl, thanks. how does the state of new hampshire compare to the rest of the country? in new hampshire 5.6 unemployed rate well below the national average at 8.5, with a median age of 41. folks in new hampshire are a little older, a little grayer. average household income north of $60,000 a year, new hampshire is a good ten thousand dollars

mourn the natural average, a snapshot there. martha: rick santorum's campaign getting a big bounce after his close second-place finish in the iowa caucuses of course, he raised $2 million. we heard about the first million yesterday but that money is coming in very quickly for him over 48 hours. he's taking that money and making a big ad buy in south carolina we're hearing. bill: also while he may be raising more money rick santorum got a chilly reception from a crowd of college students getting booed after defending his position on gay marriage. some of the students gallon edging his beliefs that marriage should be between a machine and a woman. here is the beginning of that exchange. >> are we saying that every one should have the right to marry? >> yes. >> every. okay. so anyone can marry anybody else. >> yeah. >> okay. so anybody can marry anybody else. so anybody can marry several people? >> no. >> wait a minute, woe, woe, woe

stop. bill: it did not end there. the rest of the exchange comes up in a few moments on our program. in sandusky's strong and conservative values help or hurt him in the state of new hampshire. martha: some people said he walked right into that on purpose and wanted to make sha statement. in the meantime ron paul boasts he gets more campaign dollars from military members than any other republican canned day one enthusiastic soldier could be in some hot water. the army is investigating whether a corporal violated any rules after the army reservist took a stage at a paul rally in iowa praising the candidate's foreign policy. military rules bar troops from participating in a partisan political event in uniform. bill: the chairman of the iowa republican party now responding to reports that the vote count from the caucuses tuesday might be wrong, saying he doesn't have any reason to believe the final results will change the outcome. mitt romney beat rick santorum

razor-thin charge inch only eight votes wednesday morning. a ron paul supporter said he miss taken lee gave romney 20 votes more than he actually received. peter doocy is on it. >> reporter: this man said he helped count votes on tuesday and in the process he kept a tally on a yellow piece of paper. his records show two votes for romney at this site. the iowa g.o.p.'s official tally online shows 22 votes for romney there. that is a 20-vote discrepancy in a caucus that was decided by only eight. but the runner-up, rick santorum is down-playing this development for now. >> they will be certifying them, there was one county where there was a 20-vote mistake in my

favor but there was a 21 vote mistake in romney's favor. it actually netted out to what i understand is a one-vote difference. this doesn't really matter to me. this was a tie. >> reporter: republican officials tell us that the man making these accusations is not a county or a precinct chair so he wouldn't have access to the information he's basing his claims on. and the chairman of the state's g.o.p. says out of respect to the candidates involved party officials will not respond to every rumor allegation or in ooh endo. they have been in contact with the county republican officials tonight and do not have any reason to believe the final certified results of the county will change the outcome of tuesday's vote. they don't think rick santorum is going to be able to claim victory here and it doesn't look like that is the man making the allegations wants any way. as you said, bill he wants ron paul to win. bill: it was a stunner when it came out last night. peter thank you. we'll follow it and see where it

leads if anywhere. martha. martha: this is getting a lot of attention, president obama's new plan for america's armed forces could become a big, political issue. moving forward in 2012, what a leaner military really means for the november elections. bill: also, he was accused of killing natalee holloway in aruba seven years ago now he's facing charges on murder trial in a different country. are the wheels of justice now turning for joran van der sloot? martha: they tried to buy beer but they didn't look 21 and the poor clerk picked the wrong day to ask for id. >> and then the clerk confronted them and said, hey it's not happening, you're not hold enough to buy this. so he kind of pulls the beer away. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery?

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bill: asking for an id, never hurt so bad. two thugs unloading on a convenience store clerk in california. police say they tried to buy beer. when the guy behind the counts questioned one of them about their age they went after him, and boy did they ever go after him. a good samaritan came over to help and he took a beating also. the suspects, said to be 17 and age 20, the clerk's recovering and the good samaritan before officers arrived. woe. martha: president obama's new defense strategy may be the next political football in the race for 2012. that plan includes billions in

military cuts, about 486 billion, as well as fewer troops on the ground as a result of it. here is what the president had to say about all this yesterday. >> we've succeeded in defending our nation, taking the fight to our enemies, reducing the number of americans in harm's way and we've restored america's global leadership. this success has brought our nation once more to a moment of transition. even as our troops continue to fight in afghanistan, the tide of war is receding. martha: joined by terry holt a former national spokesman for the bush-cheney campaign, a form senior adviser to the rnc and doug schoen is a former pollster for president clinton and a fox news contributor. gentlemen, welcome. good to have you both here today. >> thanks, martha. martha: obviously this is a huge issue and something that has been considered at the pentagon since way back to the donald rumsfeld days before september 11th when there was talk of making a leaner fighting force for the united states

military. terry does this help or hurt the president politically do you think going into 2012? >> let's see, wreck the economy, gut the military, that sounds like an agenda for success in the next election to me. look, i mean i'm for cutting government spending and waste. i think a lot of people understand that there is waste at the pentagon, the pre curement procesprocurement process is really messed up. we are talk about a very dangerous world we live n. the military provides the security for this country so we can remain strong and grow our economy. it's an integral part of what makes america's great. a couple of statistics, there are 7.6 million federal workers in this government. nobody is talking about cutting them. there are 50,000 people -- martha: a good point. >> there are 50,000 people that work at the transportation security administration and those folks are mostly responsible for fist being my grandmother, and my kid at the airport. i think that our priorities are

pretty messed up. martha: it's certainly a valid point to bring that into this discussion u know, if you're going to cut the military do you need to take a serious skap h scalpel to some of these federal agencies. the president is in a pretty strong position at the moment when it comes in national security. he's leveraging that strength it seems to do something that had been discussed in the prior administration i would point out. >> i would agree with that martha, look i think terry is right that we need a broad-based approach to not only cutting the budget but to entitlement reform and reducing the size of the military. short term, martha i believe we are in a better position internationally than we were a couple of years ago, but the long-term problems that terry sites regretfully are bi-partisan problems. we don't have a stabilized iraq. afghanistan is not on a path to peace. we hope that negotiations work.

and the iranian situation and indeed the whole middle east is a powder keg. we don't know what the details of these cuts are and i think the devil is really in the details. martha: you make a great point, doug. one of the main issues here is backing off of a defense strategy that always allowed us to be prepared to fight two wars at the same time. >> correct. martha: donald rumsfeld wanted to back off of that strategy and then look what happened. 9/11, and we found ourselves trying to deny safe-havens in iraq and afghanistan at the same time, a very important mission many people would say. but, terry one of the things that really interests me is this whole air-seare battle initiative at the pentagon ain't turns our attention to china basically and prepares us for the likelihood that we may find ourselves at least trying to strengthen our position, because they certainly are building their military in china isn't that a wise and forward-looking way to approach this? >> they are quickly going from a third world capability to a

first world super power status. the pacific ocean is a great lake for them. they dominate the region already, and if you talk to military experts about that region of the world, we haven't seriously really thought through our strategy in the pacific since the 50s. so i recognize that from a military and a strategic standpoint we have a lot of work to do, but, you know, in "the washington post" this morning i still read that, the last paragraph in that story about this basically is giving the administration a free pass, there was one paragraph about how we really needed to cut the benefits, and to cut the pay of our military service personnel. i just think that is plain wrong. if we are going to balance the budget on the backs of the men and women in uniform defending this country then something is tr truly throng with this administration's priority. martha: it's really an important issue. we hope everybody looks into it closely.

it will play into 2012 in terms of what we need to be doing. have a good weekend, gentlemen. bill: we'll take you live to lima, peru, joran van der sloot is now in court, see in the center of your screen, facing charges of murder seven years after he was the prime suspect in the disappearance of teenager natalee holloway. a live report on his trial only three minutes away. martha: jon huntsman chose to skip iowa. he put all of his chips in new hampshire. he has campaigned there nonstop since june, and his big moment is fast arrival. he will join us here in "america's newsroom" minutes away. you don't want to miss this. we'll be right back. >> i'm the under tkaufplg underdog. i'm working and earning your support. i have one request for you. i want your sroefplt i learned when vote. i learned when i ran for governor if i don't ask for your

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martha: we are learning more about a horrific hockey beat down that was caught on camera we showed a little bit of this to you yesterday. you can see the two philadelphia flyer fans beating a ranger fan sense lee i senseless in this video. you can see the person down on the ground getting beaten. this is after the big hockey winter classic that everybody was looking forward to so much. there is the person on the ground in the middle of that melee. police are saying that it began when a flyer fan paid a homeless plan to spray the new york fan w-s his squir with his skirt bottle triggering this fight. it landed anee wack war ve iraq

war vet in the hospital. if you know anybody who is involved in this please reach out and help find them. bill: breaking news. i want to show you a live look inside of a courtroom in lima, m ma roo, that is joran van der sloot arriving in court moments ago wearing a kevlar bulletproof vest. he was the prime suspect in natalee holloway's disappearance in a different country, in aruba. steve harrigan watching and listening. how strong is the case against him? >> reporter: the case is very strong. we could see joran van der sloot plead guilty as a matter of fact and hope for a more lenient sentence. we are watching live pictures of the 24-year-old dutchman inside that tiny peru van court. it's a adjacent to the cell where he's been held for the last year and a half. it was in may of last year when he murdered 21-year-old stephany

flores. there is a much stronger case than the disappearance of natalee holloway. there is a body. flores was beaten to death inside a hotel room. there is video surveillance of joran van der sloot and flores together entering a here tell room and only joran van der sloot leaving the hotel room and finally in this case there is a confession. [speakin[speaking spanish] >> reporter: that question, you murdered stephany flores, he said yes. his attorney says his spanish was not good enough to have the confession stick. he could be facing 30 years to life in prison, bill. bill: there are connections, as we remember or certain ties between this murder and the murder of natalee holloway seven years ago. what are those, steve? >> reporter: some unusual, even

eerie ties between the two. flores was murdered on the same date exactly five years to the day when natalee holloway the alabama teenager who was last seen with joran van der sloot did disappear on the island of aruba. also, joran van der sloot went to peru with money that he extorted from the holloway family e. claimed to sr-pblg of where her body was. he used $25,000 from the family to head to a former tournament in peru. finally joran van der sloot said he did murder flores, he said he was enraged when he found she was on his computer looking at files that connected him to the holloway case. now we are seeing the 24-year-old dutchman on trial for another murder. could he be facing 30 years to life in jail. bill: steve harrigan watching that out of miami. martha: the feds are looking to crackdown on truckers and emission standards and it has sparked an ethic legal battle

and questions about regulations over business. bill: he's running behind in the polling, can he make it up with only four days to go? jon huntsman picked up a major endorsement. the romney team says he can have it. what does huntsman say? he'll join us live right after the break, moments away. >> the first is an economic deficit, it's called $15 trillion in debt. i say, how did we get to this point? 80, 90% debt to gdp. folks this isn't a debt problem, this is a national security crisis. or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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martha: rick santorum defending his believes on gay marriage to a crowd of new hampshire college students. it got pretty interesting. presidential candidates have been crisscrossing the granite state four days before the nation's first primary.

rick santorum was eventually at the end when he turned to walk off and leave that's when they started to boo at this event after being challenged on his convictions regard marriage. thehe says children benefit when the union is between a machine and woman in his opinion. watch this. >> are we saying that everyone should have the right to marry? >> yes. >> every. okay. so, anyone can marry anybody else. >> yeah. >> okay. so anybody can marry anybody else. so anybody can marry several people. >> no. >> wait a minute, woe, woe, woe, stop, when we deny children that birthright then i think, again, we can argue differently, i think we are harming children, we are harming society, and we are not promoting what is best. [applause] >> okay. martha: he got some applause when he made that point. we have a reporter with new hampshire's concord monster. trisha good to hav monitor.

do you think he did himself some good with this back and forth or not? >> i think it's interesting. i saw him at an earlier event in the day where the back and forth with voters was really helpful. he really dove into topics, he talked about taxes and social security and voters really seemed to respond well to that. at the later event, though, i think the younger audience really didn't agree with his opinions. he tried to engage them. but i think that the voters i talked to afterwards, the young voters didn't really feel like he was understanding where they were coming from. they felt like he didn't understand their audience, and it will be interesting to see. that was the first time that gay marriage has come up in new hampshire. it will be really interesting to see how difference audiences play on that topic with santorum. martha: no matter how you come down on that topic you have to give him i guess some credit for sticking to his convictions and that is something he seems to be getting credit for with voters in terms of his genuineness on the trail out there.

you say some fascinating things, you know, people are very, despite these polls, according to you undecided in new hampshire. >> it's been interesting to see that new hampshire people are very proud of getting to get out there and talk to the candidates themselves, but i think that people have been looking more to the national polls than maybe they had in years past, because beating obama is such a large priority for these voters here. they say that number one. they've been looking to the national polls and pundits trying to get an answer on who is going to be able to do that. they haven't got even that answer. one voter said she is putting on the blinders, ready to go back and do what she knows how to do in new hampshire which is vet the candidates herself. she was at a rick santorum event yesterday, she saw jon huntsman. romney, and she was hoping to see newt gingrich before tuesday rolls around. they haven't really got even down to it themselves. they are telling me they are putting off their decision until

later than they might have done in the past. martha: it's fascinating what you're saying. in terms of mitt romney, does it hurt him that he's taking a couple of days in south carolina with the folks in new hampshire, do you think? >> mitt romney know him pretty well. they refer to him as the neighbor, he had the house up the road from us. people here know him fairly well. i think what is interesting is that while he's not here candidates like rick santorum who voters don't know as well are getting an opportunity to go into their town halls and go into topics with them. people know romney fairly well at this point. i don't know if being in south carolina is really going to hurt him. martha: how much emphasis do people put on the debates over the weekend in terms of their decision-making process. >> i've heard from quite a few voters that that will probably be where the final decision will be made. with the holidays, they say their decision is put off so late they are forced to look at all the debates. the candidates are here, they are scattered around the state.

it's not a big state but we can't see every single one of them. the new hampshire debates will be very important in this decision-making process. martha: we are about to talk to jon huntsman who has put all of his chips in the new hampshire basket. how is it looking opening the ground for him based on his reporting. >> huntsman is interesting. he has been here just going so tpard at these events. hard at these events. he asked specifically for votes. he says i know from being a governor if i don't ask for your vote you won't give it to me. he describes it as a vote of trust for people to be willing to support him and people are leaving those events learning more about him. they are very impressed with his foreign policy experience. but, again, people are putting off their decision so late that i think they are just adding him to their short list at this point. i haven't left events with them with people really saying, yes i'm on his bandwagon at this point because he asked for my vote. they are giving him a strong look. martha: new hampshire folks very open to hearing all of the candidates even at this late

hour and putting a lot of emphasis on their decision on these debates over the weekend. trisha, thank you so much. great to talk to you today, thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me, thanks. bill: you know, tougher emission standards, it's not just cars that are forced to change in america, so too do the big trucks on the road. some in that industry are not happy about it saying it could put many companies out of business. claudia could you even has a loocowen has a look at this. >> reporter: the government is regulating big rigs and tractor trailers in much the same way it's held carmakers to ridge rust fuel efficiency standards for decades. some truckers say the regulations will drive them right out of business . circumventing congress the environmental agency is ordering heavy trucks to reduce gas emissions by 20% and overhaul engine design by 2014. operators will need to spend thousands on new rigs.

the american trucking association is on board. >> the federal government did a really fine job with working collaboratively with all the partners in this to come up what we think is a reasonable and fair rule. >> reporter: but smaller owner operators like robert say the rules will be devastating. >> with the cost of the new equipment that they are requiring, and the oversight of the government in every part of my business i can't afford to be in business. >> reporter: in a federal lawsuit he claims the epa never submitted the regulations to a blue ribbon panel called the science advisory board as is required by law. >> the government complies with the law just like the rest of us do. and when epa violates the law, like it did here we are going to hold their feet to the fire. >> reporter: the epa argues it posted all relevant information online. critics say that is not good enough and contends the rules are less about clean air, more about pushing smaller operators out of the way. >> this is using the government to be the bully pulpit to put me out of of business so they can

take over more market share. >> reporter: while the legal fight unfolds consumers could be hit hardest through higher prices for goods delivered by fewer trucks. bill: it could come from somewhere. thank you. martha: we've been promising it to you all hour, and jon huntsman is coming up next. he has a very short window now to make his closing argument. we'll see how he does. bill: if you were a superhero who would you be? the candidates face one of the more clever questions on the trail from a nine-year-old boy. he's here live with his pops today. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up! ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

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martha: it's 40 minutes past the hour right now and the cia and the department of defense are launching and investigation into whether the obama administration released highly classified information on the killing of osama bin laden to hollywood filmmakers for a movie that they are working on. the white house is denying those claims. and british police say that it could take another three days to identify a woman whose remains were found on queen elizabeth's estate over the christmas holidays. detectives say today the decomposition has made a profile even more difficult than they thought. ms global's appointed bankruptcy

trusty is declining to turn over some documents to federal investigators. he is citing attorney-client privilege in this case. federal authorities are trying to find out to what happened to an estimated $1.2 billion that went missing from the customer funds at john corzine's firm. >> listen, any endorsement by a respected outfit like the boston globe is a big deal. we have republicans, we have independents, we have democrats showing up at our events, and i say you need them all in order to win and be successful. we have a message that is attracting a cross section of people. >> do you think the paper is a little too moderate or liberal? >> i don't care at all. >> do you think you're getting a fair shake by the new hampshire voters at this point. >> we'll know soon enough. everywhere i go i think i'm getting a pretty fair shake

absolutely. bill: jon huntsman getting a headline in the northeast with the boston globe endorsing him four days before the primary, that paper writing with a wrong record is governor of utah and u.s. ambassador to china arguably the most important overseas diplomatic post. huntsman's credentials match anyone in the feed. he would be the best candidate to seize this moment in g.o.p. history and the best prepared to be president. jon huntsman is my guest live out of new hampshire. how are you doing, governor, thank you for coming back here. >> bill, i am excited, and alive, and enthusiastic to be on the campaign trail here in new hampshire. this is a major event in the life of our nation from a political standpoint. we've got days to go and we are feeling good. bill: i think a lot of people would argue you're right about that in terms of the direction of the country. the romney team says you can have thaeupb forcement. it's a liberal newspaper, they haven't liked romney in years.

what do you make of that? >> listen they are going to endorse a republican, they are a respected outfit, say what you will. i went into see the editorial board. they knew of high record, i'm pro-life, always have been unlike governor romney. second amendment always have been, unlike governor romney. largest tax cut in my state. healthcare reform without a mandate. they looked what they heard and saw and they understand the vision that i'm bringing around for america about nailing the economic deficit and the trust deficit the two big issues of our time. they decided to endorse me and i say that is good. bill: i'll let you clear your throat in a moment and give you a chance to talk from manchester. you had a great record as governor of utah. you cue rated jobs, your record was outstanding. why did you feel the need to accept stimulus dollars if you were doing so well in utah? >> every single governor accepted stimulus dollars.

i think mark sanford was the only governor to speak out against it. when i talked about stimulus dollars my recommendation early on was basically to say anything that goes towards stimulus should consist of a major big tax cut. that's what i wanted to see done. that wasn't done in full. i thought that was a mistake. but we give to washington, and when washington was giving back you want to make sure that what your state is contributing to the coffers also is able to be reinvested back in your state. every other governor was doing it, every state accepted it. bill: and to endorse your own conservative credentials, why didn't you say, hey, we are doing all right, we don't need your money. we are going to go our own way? >> because we pay to washington, bill as taxpayers we lost a whole lot of money to washington. during a time of economic collapse, when we were trying to pay the bills and cover our needs, and every governor was having the same conversation.

my first comment was, if you're going to give stimulus then you ought to make it a major business tax cut. we ought to be able to get the machinery of business going, that is the first thing we ought to do. has he what i thoughthat's what i thought was most important at the time. the stimulus was springed to every state. you use it at jew dish alley as possible. i put it toward infrastructure which employed a lot of people and built out our state which was the fastest growing nation in the time. bill: we'll you in a debate saturday night and on sunday morning. you've adopted the rick santorum strategy there in new hampshire. you've spent by far and away the most time of any candidate, like rick santorum did in iowa. i imagine you have a minimal expec expectation despite what the polls say at the moment. if you average all the polls together they have around 10%. what would be your minimal expectation on tuesday,

governor? >> bill, we have to beat market expectations. you and the rest of the pundit class will set expectations for us going into the vote. we have to be able to clear that hurdle. in other words we have to be able to wake up on the 11th and say we did better than what the market expectations were. bill: would that be third place? would that be second-place? what would that be? >> you can't quantify it because we come from very last lace. bill: what are you looking for? >> i'm looking to beat market expectations, i'm looking to see a smile on the face of my wife the morning i wake up. we went from last place to third place in most of the polls yesterday. all we have to do is beat market expectations. that is what is needed to keep a campaign live and well. bill: if you don't meet whatever that market expectation is, is your campaign over? >> we don't even think in those terms, bill. when you're in the middle of battle and you're having a wonderful events that are packed with people and a lot of energy and enthusiasm all you do is

look forward to tuesday, and you live with whatever the implications are. we're a free society, this is a great system of electing officials. you make your case u make your arguments, you work your tail off as we have more than anybody else in this state, and you let the people decide. bill: thank you for being patient. we were trying to get the sound link up for a half hour. we have a picture of you meeting a goat in new hampshire. all right now this goat apparently has the name of isaac. what was going on here. >> i was working to win over isaac endorsement. he's a rather iconic figure in new hampshire. the first time i saw isaac he took a chunk out of my knee, he bit me and i got a christmas card from isaac who said sorry about the knee. in dover i saw him again an was wearing huntsman stickers all over his body and i say, only in new hampshire would you encounter this kind of

situation. bill: we'll see whether or not that nibble is a good karma for you. thank you. martha: let's she what jon scott has cooking for "happening now" today. jon: good morning. new unemployment numbers out today. they show an improving jobs peufrplt th picture. the question is can it last, and what does it mean for your wait. an all-star economic panel weighs in. new endorsement from several prominent newspapers in the presidential race, we'll get into more of that. brand-new polling as we took towards tuesday in new hampshire's primary. the tension of iran continues to raefpt up. they announce new war games as leaders there ring alarm bells about the growing threat. that is ahead in "happening now." martha: we look forward to that. in the meantime, rick santorum opted for family man, mr. incredible, so which superhero -- i think mrs. incredible looks like

mrs. santorum and i mean that in the nicest way. what other superheros did the other candidates say they would be most like. meet the little boy who scored the scoop with all the big candidates. bill: what superhero would you be, bill? i love to eat. i love hanging out with my friends.

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bill: okay, america, someone has stepped up unafraid to ask the top unexpected question on the campaign trail and that someone is nine years old. ari garnick, which superhero would you like to be the most? that was his question. here is jon huntsman's answer.

>> if i were a superhero i think i would be spider-man, because the idea that you can swing from building to building in any town, and save people who are in need, that would be a really awesome thing. and i used to watch spiderman when i was a kid. batman is pretty good too, but spider-man is awesome. bill: he was an absolute gentleman to him. he and his dad are here to tell us who they chose. good morning to you guys. how are you. >> good, how are you? bill: ari how did you come up with this idea. >> my dad and i really liked super heroes. my dad wanted to find some way to teach me about politics so we came up with this. bill: what did you learn? >> i learned about their personalities in a way. bill: how so? >> ron paul seems to be more interested in getting onto adults. herman cain seems friendly ish

and everybody else seemed very nice. bill: can i tell the audience who they picked. rick santorum picked the father figure in the incredible. ron paul walked away, he didn't answer your question. he wanted to talk more to adults. herman cain heubgd superman, so too did romney, perry and newt gingrich. what did you think about those answers? >> i understand he's kind of a powerhouse and a good symbol of the country. they could think about it a bit more. bill: why is that? >> i mean, he's probably one of the first things that pops into your head. i'm surprised that no one picked captain america, he's more an obvious choice. bill: especially when they are running for president for crying out loud. that is an easy one, captain

america. >> we had found out that superman actually renounced his u.s. citizenship, something we found out online and that's really disgusting to us, so, yeah, captain america. bill: i've got you. that is something i did not know. how, darren, how did your son do? >> i was incredibly impressed, because he was at like a rick perry house party where it was wall to wall people and all the media was watching him and he handled himself like a pro. i'd be nervous standing in front of the class. he did amazing. bill: hey, darren thank you for your time, you're raising a good young man there. ari thanks and good luck to you okay. >> thank you. bill: ari who would you choose? >> um, i would choose plastic man, because i really like his stretching abilities, he can really stretch himself into the shape of anything. bill: he's got skills. thanks, ari, good luck to you. we'll see you down the road. martha: notice, nobody picked batman who lives in a cave, a rich man who lives in a kaeufplt cave.

i think he happens to be one of the most interesting. we'll see. okay we'll be right back, stay with us. e -- there's no charge for the bag. thanks. i know a quiet little place where we can get some work done. there's a three-prong plug. i have club passes. [ male announcer ] now there's a mileage card that offers special perks on united, like a free checked bag, united club passes, and priority boarding. thanks. ♪ okay. what's your secret? ♪ [ male announcer ] the new united mileageplus explorer card. get it and you're in.

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