primaries, 6 p.m. eastern. hannity will have special coverage at 11 and greta at midnight. jenna: "america live" starts right now. megyn: fox news alert, voting is underway in new hampshire as we track a growing controversy on the campaign trail. a remark by mitt romney that his campaign says has been edited, altered and taken out of context by democrats and republicans alike. i'm megyn kelly, welcome to a special edition of "america live," live from manchester, new hampshire, on this primary day where the top story has become how the media, the democrats and even his republican rifles have jumped all over a half sentence uttered by the front runner. it came from a speech about why mitt romney does not like the president's health care overhaul, and here is some of that. >> i don't want people to be able to own insurance if they witch to and to pie it for themselves and perhaps keep it the rest of their life and to

choose among different policies offered from companies across the nation. i want individuals to have their own insurance. that means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. it also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. [laughter] if, you know, if somebody doesn't give me the good service i need, i want to say, you know, that i'm going to get somebody else to provide that service to me. and so that's one thing i'd change. megyn: watch what happens now as the democratic national committee and mitt romney's republican rivals pluck five words from those remarks and go on the attack. >> i like being able to fire people. >> the good news is, you're fired. >> you're fired. >> you're fired! >> you're fired. you're fired. >> i know why jobs come and why they go. >> you're fired. >> you're fired. >> i'm going to need your key. >> i know how jobs are lost. >> governor romney enjoys firing people.

i enjoy creating jobs. >> we think it's important to show that what his experience really is is dismantling companies, shipping jobs overseas, bankrupting companies deliberately and talking about how he enjoys firing people. megyn: one candidate, rick perry, has gone so far as to turn the comment into a cell phone ring tone. >> i like being able to fire people. i like being able to fire people. i like being able to fire people,. i like being able to fire people. megyn: you get the point. joining me now, chris stirewalt, fox news digital politics editor and host of "power play" on foxnews.com live. chris, any question it was taken out of context? [laughter] no question you get a chuckle out of it, but is it a laughing matter? >> well, it's not a laughing matter for mitt romney. they're saying mitt romney can't beat barack obama because the democrats are going to do this to him, and they'll be all over him with it.

the problem for these republicans is this, and as they try to make this electability argument, they may make their own party hate them just a little bit, and for newt gingrich and rick perry especially who are going hard after romney on the bain capital/creative destruction companies that didn't go the right way and where people lost jobs, it's a fine line to walk because while it's a popular argument that may appeal to voters here in new hampshire and may appeal to voters in south carolina, it's something that a party that likes capitalism a lot may resent. megyn: we used to have something you could object to, it was called improper impeachment when it's clear they didn't lie on this particular point. this seems like improper impeachment because mitt romney said something about firing insurance companies, and now it's been extrapolated into he just likes firing people. if it's not fair, if it's not a fair attack, does it reflect worse on the attacker? the dnc is one thing. huntsman, perry, you saw gingrich and santorum come out

today and say, no, no, this isn't fair. >> well, i like firing people line, the democrats and to a certain extent the republicans are trying to make this a seminal moment. we talked yesterday about those trigger moments before the new hampshire primary. hillary clinton's tears, other moments, they really wanted that to be this for this election. i think, fortunately, because of what you do, because of what we do on the internet, because of how it goes it doesn't stick. it doesn't stick a -- that way because an out of context line doesn't hold up. megyn: they want a debate. even mitt romney detractors want a debate, but i think most voters want a real debate, they don't want to argue over a strawman and we can spend the next day arguing over it and basing our vote on a false controversy. i mean, why would rick perry do this with the ring tone? why would jon huntsman do this? >> well, huntsman, his whole political life depends on what

happens today. if he does not shock the nation in new hampshire, so he's getting a little desperate. down in south carolina, though, rick perry, he's a little deerate too. he's focused on south carolina, has to, basically, win the south carolina primary to make this happen so people push it. for perry, it's also part of a populist message that he's trying to make that mitt rommy -- romney, he's using a phrase that romney was not ethical the way he conducted his business at bain capital because sometimes they made money when people lost their jobs, that he benefited by firing people. gingrich has made a similar argument, gingrich is staying away from the ring tone kind of antics, but they're making a similar argument. megyn: and i have an interview coming up shortly in which you'll see some of that. chris, thank you, sir. >> yes, ma'am. megyn: how is the romney camp handling this story? we will be joined by former governor of minnesota tim pawlenty. he's a supporter of mitt romney, and so we'll ask him. and newt gingrich, who once

promised to run a completely positive campaign, also ferociously attacking mitt romney over his business record at bain capital. you heard stirewalt mention it a moment ago. bain is the private equity firm that romney ran until the late 1990s. newt gingrich is accusing the front runner of looting companies and firing workers for his own gain. i interviewed newt last night and asked him this: let's talk about bain capital because you've been attacking mitt romney with respect to his history at bain. saying that it's akin to rich people looting a company. now, bain company bet on struggling companies, and apparently, they had a three to one success rate. how is that the same as looting a company? his answer coming up in ten minutes. plus, his response to being called, and i quote, an angry little attack muffin. [laughter] and i'll ask him point does -- blank, does he like mitt romney? wait until how you hear he

answers that. less than ten minutes away. well, voters in the new hampshire are making their way to the polls, but what's really on their minds? we're breaking it down with google, taking a look at what voters want to know and about which candidates. we're in new hampshire, john, what do we know? >> reporter: hey, megyn. google records or everything you put in terms of data, and we're finding out some interesting things about what voters in new hampshire are thinking about as they look at the candidates. abby is here to break it all down for us. we know it would have to be a very bad day for mitt romney not to do well. let's take a look at rick santorum and jon huntsman. what does the data tell us about what people are thinking in regards to those candidates? >> we wanted to look over the last week, a busy week, obviously. this is search interest in two of the candidates here, huntsman, santorum. iowa caucuses at the beginning going through to the two debates over the weekend. it's hour by hour. so if you see a peak, that's

daytime, and the valleys are at night here. the blue is santorum, and you'll see coming out of iowa a big bounce. but then it really tapers off towards the end of the week. >> reporter: in the meantime, huntsman is beginning to rise a little bit here. >> steadily growing. in new hampshire a steady interest building. >> reporter: after the abc debate in which people said huntsman did very well, look at this, a little uptick for santorum, and this is about 12 hours ago. >> we saw that for many of the candidates yesterday as we congresswoman down to the final hours -- as we come down to the final hours. >> reporter: how much interest has there been in terms of the interest shown before? >> we did this since the two debates here in new hampshire, and really the story is huntsman. he has increased over 200% in search interest since saturday and sunday. >> reporter: so as chris stirewalt was saying just a second ago, new hampshire really do or die jon huntsman. this is not an indication of how people are going to vote, sometimes people are look for

negative information as well as positive. but certainly an indication that huntsman has captured the attention of people here in new hampshire. we'll see how that translates into votes. megyn: and remember, folks, our special coverage starts tonight at 6 p.m. eastern time. bret baier, shepherd and then bret and i will anchor live coverage beginning at 8 p.m. eastern time moment to moment live from manchester right here on america's election headquarters only on fnc. don't miss a moment. well, newt gingrich hoping for a top four showing today, and i got a chance to sit down with him last night. peggy noonan came out with a piece this week and referred to you, and i quote, as an angry little attack muffin. your response to that, mr. speaker. my entire interview with the speaker is next. and there's another candidate we're not hearing about who needs to do well in new hampshire, president obama. questions now about whether he can win this state, one that his

campaign is calling as crucial as pennsylvania and ohio. to his re-election chances. and cracks in the wings of certain jumbo jets have engineers warning that airlines are gambling with people's lives. we'll tell you which planes are at risk and what's being done about it. >> we cannot continue to gamble with people's lives and allow those aircraft to fly around and hope that they make it into their yearly inspection. [ male announcer ] to the 5:00 a.m. scholar. the two trains and a bus rider. the "i'll sleep when it's done" academic. for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu.

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including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as $129 a year. for an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. megyn: and now my one-on-one with newt gingrich. the presidential candidate has recently unleashed a string of attacks painting his biggest rival, mitt romney, as a ruthless wall street home wrecker. newt claims romney exploited companies when chief of bain capital and fired workers to make millions. we asked him why he's taking this approach. listen. mr. speaker, thank you so much for sitting down with us.

>> it's great to be with you. megyn: okay, let's talk about bain capital because you've been attacking mitt romney with respect to his history at bain saying it's akin to rich people luting a company. bain bet on struggling companies and, apparently, they had a three to one success rate. how is that the same as looting a company? >> well, i think romney's going to have to hold a press conference at some point and explain all this. let me give you an example from "the wall street journal" yesterday. there was a company that they invested $30 million in. they then took $180 million out, and a couple years later it was bankrupted. now, that's six to one. if they'd only taken, say, 120 million out, the company might have survived. and i think -- they have a real fiduciary responsibility. you know, real capitalism, not just financiers running around getting rich -- real capitalism impries there's some -- implies there's some partnership between capitalism and labor to develop better futures futures and somee

joint effort ought to produce a better future for everybody. i don't attack guys who do their best and happen to fail, but i do think if somebody goes in and the rich guy takes all the money and the poor guy gets all the unemployment, there's something wrong with that picture. again, if they make an investment, the investment doesn't work out and they take a bath, as long as they're suffering along with the workers, that's just free enterprise. and i think we have to be honest with this. one of the reasons people who like free enterprise do not like wall street is they see very rich financiers who rig the game so the taxpayer loses, the worker loses, and somehow the rich guy does okay. megyn: but it sounds like an argument about fairness. >> it is. it's a pop list argument. megyn: but isn't our financial system, isn't our free enterprise system set up to speak to profits, not so much fairness? >> it's set up for winners and losers, that's totally fair. i don't expect the super bowl rings to be given to the worst team. that's fair. i am for winners and losers in a

free enterprise system. but at the same time, i think that there has to be some sense of everybody's in the same boat. and i think, again, as i said, he's going to have to explain why would bain have taken $180 million out of a company and then have it go bankrupt? and to what extent did they have some obligation to the workers? remember, there were a lot of people who made that $180 million. it wasn't just dix rich guys at the -- six rich guys at the top, and yet somehow they walked off from their fiduciary obligation to the people who had made the money for them. >> the club for growth has cite sized various candidates for various things, some of your adversaries on various issues, but they came out against you on this and called your criticism of romney on the bain issue disgusting and said newt gingrich should apologize for his attacks on free markets, and he should apologize to governor romney. >> i didn't attack free markets. i attacked a particular style of

behavior which i would think the club for growth would want to be very careful about not defending. if we identify capitalism with rich guys looting companies, we're going to have a hard time protecting it. i am totally committed to capitalism, i am totally committed to main street, i am totally committed to people's right to start companies, i'm committed to their right to fail. but i think it has to be fair, it has to be out in the open. this is why you have this underlying anger about the financial class. because people look over and they go, wait a second, how come i lost my mortgage, and you stayed a millionaire? how come i lost all my savings, and you stayed a millionaire? megyn: how do you get people to invest in venture capital firms or private equity firms if rules were you're going to run this firm, and it's not just for the benefit of the shareholders, you also have to protect jobs, protect the workers, isn't it about making money for better or worse in this american society? it is about making money. and what else should he have

done? should he have watched out for the workers and for the people for whom he was supposed to be making money? >> if you make an investment and the investment general win fails and you take part of the loss so you and the borkers are there together -- workers are there together the day it closes and all of you did the best you could and you failed, that's free enterprise. but if you somehow buy something, you make sure you take all the money out of it and then you leave nothing behind for the people who originally made it exist, i think that's not a style of capitalism we want to favor. megyn: let me ask you about the democratic attacks on mitt romney on this because the dnc put out an ad that looks very much like your attack on mitt romney on this, and now some are saying gingrich doesn't sound like a conservative because he's on the same side as the dnc on this issue. >> i think conservatives who believe in free enterprise, conservatives who believe in the work ethic, conservatives who want small business to succeed will all find what i'm saying right. and i think you have to look at the specific companies we're

talking about, and you have to ask yourself a very tough-minded question: is it fair to have a system, is it right, is it the kind of country you want to live in to have a system where somebody can come in, take over your company, take out all the cash and leave behind a wreck? and they go off to a country club having a great time and you go off to the unemployment line? now, this is not anti-capitalist. i'm not for socialism. i'm not for government stopping risk taking. but i'm for some sense of fairness that the entrepreneur and the worker have a joint investment in something succeeding. megyn: any idea how you would enforce that? >> i think you enforce it partly in the court of public opinion, partly through transparency. that's why i think governor romney's going to have to sit down and say, he's going to have a press conference and say here's why we took six times our investment, $180 million, and then the company went broke. was there really nothing they could have done for those workers? i mean -- megyn: now, there's a company called forceman lit and company,

and it has a similar business model to bain company, bain capital. you invested in it, you were on their advisory board. the question is, if you find the business model so problematic, why would you be affiliated with -- >> teddy forceman who passed away recently was totally different from that. teddy forceman took over a company, he made it bigger, he made it better. when he took over gulf stream, gulfstream was on the verge of going bankrupt, and forceman went back to his partners, and he said i believe in this company so much i'm going to raise another billion dollars, i'm going to gamble everything i've ever earned, i'm going to personally go to savannah, and i'm going to make gulfstream successful. megyn: didn't bain do that with respect to some companies? >> to some. and some they took the money and work. megyn: did forceman have a 100% batting average? >> it's teddy forceman who coined the phrase barbarians at the gate. forceman believed you should

very carefully go in and do heferg you can to -- everything you can to help a company succeed, and he had a pretty darn high batting average of success. be his commitment was to try to get the company to succeed, not just to skim off the money and leave. megyn: and that is not all we asked speaker gingrich. what does he think about his latest nickname bestowed by a major conservative columnist? peggy noonan came out with a piece this week and referred to you, and i quote, as an angry little attack muffin. your response to that, mr. speaker. what did he have to say? the rest of my one-on-one interview with the presidential candidate is three minutes away. and have you ever seen a 3-year-old lion tamer? the amazing video of what this lion did and how this little girl handled it when the two came face to face. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle -- 8% every 10 years. wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss

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megyn: well, newt gingrich giving as good as he gets on the campaign trail, and observers are starting to notice his promise to run a positive campaign is history. peggy noonan of "the wall street journal" called newt gingrich an angry little attack muffin for the way he's been taking on mitt romney. i asked the former speaker about that and more. take a listen. let's talk about the campaign thus far. peggy noonan came out with a piece this week and referred to you, and i quote, as an angry little attack muffin. your response to that, mr. speaker. >> i think anybody who would call me little is so sweet that it's very hard for me to be upset. [laughter] i've had a permanent challenge with my weight, and i just want to tell peggy how much i appreciate that thought. megyn: how about the angry part? >> i'm not angry.

megyn: romney's said it, some other folks have said it. why do they think you're so angry? >> because they can't figure out any other explanation. i have been active thinking about, work anything and studying politics since i was 15. that's 53 years. i ran twice and lost. i helped develop a republican majority. i've been in fights with presidents, including in my own party, about raising taxes. i don't worry about this stuff. this is a business. i'm quite happy doing what i'm doing. but i think people who have never done it at a serious level can't imagine somebody who just calmly and methodically duds what he thinks is right, and you know, and keeps moving forward. there's nothing i'm doing that has any anger attached to it. i'm angry at barack obama, i'm angry at the left. i think that we have a genuine problem in this country, and i think they're making it worse. but these personality things, i think there's some desire to create drama where there isn't. megyn: do you like mitt romney?

>> i don't have any personal opinion about mitt romney. megyn: you seem like you don't like him. >> no, you know, i don't know him as a person. we haven't hung out together. he's a competitor. he's playing the game the way his consultants have told him he ought to play it. megyn: so far in these polls, obviously, you finished fourth, you finished fifth in iowa. you finished fifth in iowa, you're in fourth or fifth in most polls here in new hampshire, south carolina's next, polling a little better there. what's the plan for victory at this point? >> i hope to win south carolina. remember that six months ago i was dead, and all sorts of people including folk folks on fox said so. then i was not dead. then i was the front runner. then i got hit with 45% of all the ads in iowa attacked me and we, frankly, suffered under that scale of attack. now i'm on the way back, and i think everybody here in new hampshire thinks the message of

direct, clear contrast is working. and i think by the time we get to south glen on wednesday morning, we'll be doing just fine, and my goal is to win south carolina, period, outright. megyn: what's your goal in new hampshire? >> to do well enough, which i think we already or have, frankly. you look at the size of our crowds, the level of news coverage, we're doing just fine. my real goal was to make sure that romney did not win here by a big enough margin to develop real momentum. if suffolk university poll's right, he's lost ten points in eight days. if that turns out to be true tomorrow, and he had all day today to keep losing because that was last night's poll. if he's lost even more ground by tomorrow night, this will be -- this is his third best state after utah and massachusetts. if he can't get more than a third of the republicans here after five years of campaigning, buying a house in the state, doing everything he could, i think it's going to be very hard to figure out a path for him to get to the nomination. megyn: last question. whoever gets the nomination, if

it's not you, will you help them with debate prep? [laughter] >> if they ask me, sure. i'd be glad to. megyn: even romney? >> oh, of course. look, mitt's not my opponent. my only point is barack obama. mitt's my competitor. we're shoving each other to see who gets to play, but i'd be honored to help him if he asked me to with debate prep. megyn: mr. speaker, thank you so much. all the best. how about that? if you'd like to watch that interview again, you can find it on the "america live" home page at foxnews.com/"america live", and there you can get additional analysis, commentary, and you can track the new hampshire primary results in realtime right down to the individual counties. all that and more at foxnews.com. well, there is another candidate in new hampshire not getting too much attention recently, but the rnc, republican national committee, has not forgotten about him. >> we've been asked to pause for a reality check. we've been warned existence

offering false hope. false hope. false hope. >> you know what i see in washington still to this day? >> more of the same. >> the same old, same old. >> yeah. maybe a little worse. megyn: well, the obama campaign has designated new hampshire as a must-win state. what do new hampshire voters think of him? that's next. and also after the break, a call to ground the world's largest jumbo jets because of cracks in the wings. but the airlines flying those jets disagree. plus, a 73-year-old grandma strapped with a bomb, forced to rob a bank. her husband held hostage. now a manhunt is underway. wake up!

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megyn: a new warning about the world's largest commercial jets. cracks have been found in the wings of airbus a380s superjumbos owned by singapore airlines and quantas, now some engineers are calling on the airlines to ground these planes immediately. trace has more from the west coast newsroom. >> reporter: nobody is disputing the cracks were found but now if you're about to get on one of these jets, these a380s, you have conflicting information because you have engineers saying these things should be grounded and the airlines mainly quantas and singapore saying airbus, the maker of these things, saying no, the planes are absolutely safe. let me show what you we're talking about. we're talking about hairline cracks in something, megyn, called the wing ribs, they look like swiss cheese metal

parts, they're actually inside the wing. again, the hairline cracks are about half an inch long, there are dozens of the wing ribs inside the skin of the wing. they give the wing stability and strength. now, clearly, a small hairline crack is not going to cause the wing to fall off. the fear here is that smaller cracks lead to bigger cracks and when you're going 500 plus miles per hour with all that weight, that could pose a potential problem. these are the biggest passenger planes in the world. listen now to what the australian engineers are recommending: >> you can't continue to gamble with peoples' lives and allow these aircraft to fly around and hope they might make it until the yearly inspection. >> reporter: airbus has also released a statement and i'm quoting here, we have traced the origin of these hairline cracks and developed an inspection and repair procedure which can be done during routine maintenance. that's the key phrase there. not saying ground these

things, they're saying during the general maintenance, you can find and fix these. there are now 67 of these planes in the world flying, none of them for u.s. airlines but some 238 are about to come on line in the next couple of years megyn. megyn: trace, thank you. well, well, all eyes are on the gop candidates today. it is important to note that president obama's reelection team now claims to have more campaign offices in new hampshire than the entire gop field combined. that may be in part because his approval ratings are under water in the granite state when it comes to handling his job and especially your jobs, meaning the economy. here's part of a new ad just released by the rnc. >> we've been asked to pause for a reality check, we've been warned -- >> you know what i see in washington still to this day? the same o, same o, bickering. >> more bitterness, more

division, and every cycle gets worse. >> unemployment is still not as low as you all predicted it would be when president obama first came in. megyn: joining me now, democrat strattist christopher han and former aide to senator chuck schumer and fox news contributor, chris plantt. sorry we have your standard introductions and they decided to change them up this week. let me start with you chris han, president obama has seven i think campaign offices, the campaign says it's more than all the rnc, the republican candidates, combined. they say that this is a must win state for president obama. only have four electorical votes. but apparently the obama campaign is concerned about new hampshire because his approval ratings are so low here. how important is this state to president obama's reelection? >> i think it's an important state. listen, there's only going to be 11 # or 12 states in play and this is one of them.

he needs to be in there, working, on the ground, he he's no have people there, he's going to have to obviously make visit toss new hampshire. i think new hampshire is going to come around to president obama and i think the reason is y. you look at that ad, you watch that ad and compare president obama to the field of republican candidates, and it's just day and night. when you look at a guy like mitt romney who is looking like more and more he's going to be the likely gop nominee, he's a guy that changes his position more than the karma sutra, and a man who really has no convictions. i look to my man chris platt who is a dedicated conservative who believes in what he says and i find it hard to believe he's going to be excited about a mitt romney republican nominee. megyn: he's gotten karma sutra into the political debate! i just want you to know, not only do they have all the campaign offices here, but they say they're paid staff in new hampshire since april has grown to around 20 people, the volunteers in

new hampshire have held more than 500 training phone banks and neighborhood canvasses over the last eight months, the latest nbc maris poll shows there are only 40 percent of voters that approve of president obama. is he in trouble here chris? >> i'm not sure what the poll numbers are out of new hampshire specifically, but i'll take your word for it, and i assume that he's in trouble in new hampshire, because he's in trouble everywhere. you know, u.s. news and world report, i'll leave the karma sutra stuff and the clinton references, politics and what they're doing in the rest of the country, i'll leave that out of it, but u.s. news and world report has a new survey out today, they asked americans what is the most frightening, the scariest news event that you fear the most for 2012, chris, note the results, and the resounding answer was barack obama getting reelected. that was the number one. >> 30 percent of americans are insane! 33 percent of americans are -- and 60 percent of

americans have -- declare him not winning. >> no, 16 -- 16 percent fear him not winning, less than half the number, 33 percent -- the scariest thing they can think of is barack obama winning reelection. if you know the study, you know that people 65 and older, a full-of those voters, were very -- ary vee -- very reliable voting bloc, saying that's what they fear the most, the three is the ayatollah and radical muslims getting nuclear weapons. >> people only have ridiculous things to fear, they must be on the right track. megyn: it doesn't help the democratic party to mock the poll. the question is whether or not president obama needs to worry about new hampshire and apparently they have four or five paths to victory and new hampshire is in four out of the five. they really want to win the electoral votes and this state is so heavily independent and when you break it down outside independent, it's more republican than democratig and independent voters are hardening against the

democrats. >> megyn, i've worked on a lot of presidential campaigns in new hampshire, i will tell you this, new hampshire is a state that can be won on the ground. so the president is putting together a massive field operation in new hampshire. think about new hampshire, the population of new hampshire is smaller than some counties here in new york. and it's a population, it's got four electoral votes, they're going to win it on the ground and the president has a lot of resources there. i don't think the republicans will match it. remember they have a hard time finding real volunteers. they pay a lot of volunteers but have a hard time finding real volunteers. when you got a guy like mitt romney, top of the ticket, a guy who has less conviction than the o.j. jury, i think you're going to have a real problem finding -- >> megyn: do you work on these before you come on? that's actually quite clever. i want to point out to viewers that it does, according to ray sullivan who chairs the new hampshire democrats, he does say their plan is to rely on massive voter contact, door knocking, media hits, friend

to friend persuasion. that's the route they're going to go. we'll see how it pans out. chris and chris, thank you very much. >> thanks for having us. >> thank you very much. megyn: mitt romney yesterday used more than 120 words to explain why he did not like the president's health care plan but democrats have picked one half of one sentence to portray the governor as heartless and ruthless. is that fair? we report, you decide, after the break. there's another american icon, about to get squashed? a classic cupcake company, in big trouble, it appears. next. ♪ ♪ baby, baby, come along ♪ baby, baby, come along with me ♪ [ air horn blows ] ♪ i love you and i need you ♪ just to hug and squeeze you ♪ baby, why can't you see?

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the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption.

okay... is this where we're at now, we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's rth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one. hey, i love your cereal there-- it's got that sweet honey taste. buno way it's calories, right? no way. lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one. megyn: well, mitt romney is being hounded by four little words, i like firing people. that's all you hear on tv, that 102nd sound bite.

but it's their anyone mentions the context of the remark. we're going to play it for you again in its entirety. listen here: >> i want people to be able to own their own insurance, if they wish to, and to buy it for themselves and perhaps keep it the rest of their lives and choose among different polices offered from companies across the nation, i want individuals to have their own insurance, that means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy, it also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. i like being able to fire people that provide services to me, if someone doesn't give me the good service they need i want to say that i'm going to go get somebody else to provide that service to me, so that's one thing i'd change. megyn: joining me now, tim pawlenty, former presidential candidate and former governor of minnesota, a mitt romney supporter. thank you for being here. >> my pleasure, thank you for having me. megyn: they are going after him on this, a dnc ad has been cut, jon huntsman came out, rick perry has made it

a ring tone, i like firing people. fair? >> it's completely inaccurate. i was at that speech yesterday morning, i was sitting in the front row, he got asked a question about how he would fix health care and as you fairly did, you played the whole answer and the whole answer is clearly about mitt romney talking about the importance of people being able to fire their insurance company, so they can have choice and competition in the health insurance market. and to distort that and contort that into saying he wants to fire people in a broader context, inaccurate, unfair, really disappoint thank others are trying to exploit it out of context. megyn: newt gingrich came out and said no, you know, it was taken out of context, but let me tell you, that's why we can't have him as the nominee, he's going to go out there -- can you imagine what barack obama would do with a comment like that, you need somebody like me, a good debater who's careful with language to be the nominee. >> the facts matter and the truth is, the people can see the truth, and it reveals what the situation is and for newt gingrich to be

attacking myth rom not on these issues but other issues, all these candidates have baggage or flaw, mit romney has been the most steady, most knowledgable and capable and importantly the most electable candidate and the polls show that. megyn: he's now taking it on bain capital. we played my interview with newt gingrich moments ago, he just hit it time and time and time again. i want to play you one sound bite where he went off mitt on bain. take a listen: >> but i'm for some sen of fairness that the entrepreneur and the worker have a joint investment in something succeeding. >> any idea how you would enforce that? >> i think you enforce it partly in the court of public opinion, partly through transparency. that's why i think governor romney is going to have to have a press conference and say here's why we took six times our investment. $180 million, and then the company went broke. was there really nothing they could have done for those workers? i mean -- >> megyn: and so you hear

him talking about fairness and how mitt romney essentially was a corporate raider, is what he's arguing, that there was a way of getting money for the investmentors of bain capital and preserving jobs. >> well, really disappointing that the former speaker would make this line of attack, for a number of reasons. number one, if you look at the record of bain -- of mitt romney and bain capital, he added jobs on a total basis, on a whole basis, not a job subtraction. were some of the companies unsuccessful, of course. but one of the things they did was buy struggling companies, try to keep them in business. did some fail, yes, but overall, it was a job add, not a job subtraction in total. number two, this is the democrats art, they have newt gingrich sitting there, making barack obama's argument, attacking private enterprise is disappoint to go say the least and the cherry on top of this from a hypocrisy standpoint, news report that gingrich worked for a leverage buy out firm and was a consultant. megyn: he said there was different, about supporting and building companies. >> what a wrong.

mig i you don't buy that. >> no. >> megyn: should mitt romney have the broad shoulders he said he has in response to these fires, i like firing people being taken out of context, the bain capital stuff, because newt gingrich is a fan of pointing out that one of the ads against him supported by the romney add got four pinocchios by "the washington post" and was said to be untruthful. does it happen on both sides? >> look, if you want to be president of the united states and run the gauntlet, be the nominee, a successful candidate and successful president you're going to have to take hits and keep going but they have to be fair and accurate and to take that context, the tape you played earlier and say that was mitt romney saying he wanted to fire individuals and it was clearly about trying to introduce choice in the health insurance market, it's just untrue. and we can't have presidential campaigns based on untrue claims. and that's what you're seeing play out. it will get corrected. the american people aren't stupid. megyn: governor pawlenty, thank you. >> megyn, my pleasure. megyn: coming up police in arkansas escort a 73-year-old grandma after

her failed attempt to rob a bank but the heist was not her idea. how she got caught up in a crazed situation, next. for you today ? we gave peopleight off the street a script >>

megyn: an arkansas grandmother is the victim of a crazed hostage situation, held at gunpoint, forced to rob a bank after having a bomb strapped to her ankle. now police are on the hunt for the man responsible. trace gallagher has more. trace. >> reporter: 73-year-old betty davis, meggen, says man was at her door claiming he was injured so she opened the door to help him, he jumped her with a gun, tied her up with duct tape and tied an explosive device or what he said was an explosive device around her ankle, her husband who had gob to get coffee came home a short time later, the gunman grabbed him, tied him

up on duct tape, right? here's the woman's daughter: >> we got no reason to doubt her story at this point. all the pieces are falling together. it seems like it might possibly be a genuine deal. but obviously time will tell. >> reporter: that's the wrong sound bite. the daughter will go on earlier and say she said her mother was told by the gunman that he would not detonate this, thato if she did what he told her. here is now, she went to the bank and apparently, the wife drove her own car and the gunman drove the husband's car to the bank, instead of going inside and robbing the bank, she went in, told them the entire story. they, then, called the police. police arrived on scene, the bomb squad came out, took off the so-called explosive. they are now testing it to see if, in fact, it was an explosive. here listen, if we have it, to the daughter of the woman: >> he just wanted money, and so he held a gun out and made her go with him to the

bank. he showed her the detonator. >> now, keep in mind that they found the gunman nowhere. they're now looking at surveillance tape, stphraoeut and they also found the grandfather's truck, about 3 miles away. it was abandoned. they're hoping to mix surveillance tape to see if they can get an i.d. of the suspect, because the grandmother and grandfather simply could not get a good i.d. of him at all, megyn. bizarre story. megyn: wow! trace, thank you. the revolving door at white house swings again, chief of staff william daley is on his way out as the president heads into a critical phase of his reelection campaign. what does this mean? karl rove has thoughts. he joins us just ahead. and, the late president ronald reagan used to call it the 11th amendmentment, thousand shalt not speak ill of any fellow republican so, why is the campaign trail turn sog pwhr-y? michael reagan with his take and how his father would have dealt with all this.

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megyn: fox news alert, some new hampshire polls start closing in just five hours, and the counting begins as a brutal battle gets bloody between gop candidates. brand new hour of "america live," i'm megyn kelly live in manchester, new hampshire. the rest of the republican field opens fire on mitt romney. breaking ronald reagan's famous 11th commandment, thou shalt not speak ill of your fellow republicans. >> romney's economic plan? timid. parts of it virtually identical to obama's failed policy. timid won't create jobs and certainly won't defeat barack obama. newt gingrich's bold leadership balanced the budget, reformed welfare, helped create millions

of new jobs. one serial hypocrite exposed. >> he went the other way when he got paid to go the other way. >> now another has emerged. rick santorum, a corporate lobbyist and washington politician. a record of betrayal. >> the fox guarding the henhouse is like asking congress to fix washington. bad idea. congressmen get paid $174,000 a year, we get the bill. megyn: michael reagan is a political consultant and chairman of the reagan group. michael, it's getting particularly ugly between newt gingrich and mitt romney, but has anybody violated the commandment? >> oh, i think everybody's kind of violated the commandment. next week in south carolina it's going to get even worse because it's an art form down there in south carolina. you know, what i worry about is giving fodder to the democrats and, you know, barack obama to use in the general election. however, like mitt romney says, if you can't stand the heat here, you'd better get out of the kitchen because it's going

to come fast and furious at you in the general election. so it's interesting to know that some of these people actually probably eat dinner together, have cocktails together, they probably eat lunch together, but the ads seem like they hate each other when, indeed, they are friends. megyn: what did your dad mean? >> well, i think my dad meant he didn't like the personal attacks, where it really got personal. he didn't think politics should be personal, where you're attacking someone personally. you attack them on the issues, that was fine, but if you go into the area of personal attacks, those are things that really come back and bite you because, ultimately, you're going to have to work with those people at some point down the line in government or in private life, whatever it might be. you know, he never attacked george h.w. bush personally, he talked about his issues issues t have you. ultimately, he could choose him to be the vice president of the united states of america. so, you know, you might remember that out of this group, remember, one of them may end up being the vice president of the united states. don't so turn off his

constituency that, in fact, that group doesn't show up to vote for you on election day or, in fact, you know, not support the vice presidential nominee who might come from this group. megyn: how do you think he would feel about these super pac ads? we've devoted time today to discussing some attacks on mitt romney that were, you know, arguably taken out of context, on, you know, he likes firing people, and then newt gingrich attacking him on bain capital and whether that's accurate or not. but, you know, newt gingrich often points out that he was the subject of a super pac ad funded by supporters of mitt romney that got four pinocchios from "the washington post," four, basically, you know, don't believe this ad, it's full of untruth, and that ad was all over the airwaves in iowa. i saw it myself several times. and it created an impression about newt gingrich that according to "the washington post" is just false. >> yeah. it's interesting when you think about that, that when all these ads are being run against newt

gingrich, $10 million worth of ads there in iowa, it was okay. newt gingrich takes out an ad against mitt romney, all of a sudden he's the mean newt gingrich. why is newt gingrich mean and everybody else is just playing above, above board? i find that a little bit hypocritical. the other side of the coin is we conservatives always are yelling at the new york times, washington post for misquoting us, taking us out of context. and what happened in the last 24 hour is the the republicans and the democrats took mitt romney out of context when it came to fire, the word fire people which had to do with health care are now using that in their own ads against mitt romney. so, you know, if you're going to act like a democrat, be a democrat, but don't be a republican and use their lines against one of our own. megyn: michael reagan, thank you, sir. all the best. >> thank you. megyn: well, the votes are in, at least for new hampshire's early bird district. voters in the down of dicksville notch, population about 75, heading to the polls just after

midnight keeping with their tradition of being the first ballots cast in this primary. but at last count only nine people actually voted. president obama got his expected votes from democrats, three. actually, i think there were two democrats and one independent or a republican voted for him. jon huntsman got a whopping two votes tying him for first with the front runner, mitt romney. ron paul was right behind with one vote, that's also a tie with newt gingrich. neck and neck. nine people going out in dicksville notch to cast their ballots. keep it here for first in the nation coverage of the new hampshire primary, 6 p.m. eastern. bret baier will have special report, shepherd will be live at 7, and bret and i are return at 8 p.m. eastern to anchor our wall to wall cover an of all these debates -- coverage of all these debates. you will hear it first right here on fnc. fox news alert now, the u.s.

coast guard coming to the rescue of an iranian-flagged ship in distress in the persian gulf. u.s. sailors pulling six iranians out of the boat, one of them treated for severe burns. less than a week ago, the uss stennis rescued iranian fishermen held hostage by somalian pirates. just as we were awaiting our first thank you card, we swoop in for yet another rescue, and i'm sure this card will be stuck in the mail as well. [laughter] >> reporter: that's right. in fact, fox was the first to obtain these photos of the u.s. coast guard cutter as it rescued that iranian cargo ship at 3 a.m. this morning. in fact, what's interesting is the boat was about 50 miles off the coast of iraq, it was taking on water. it was having engine trouble. one of the six iranian mariners rescued by the u.s. coast guard reportedly said that without their help, they would be dead. their american rescuers travel

with food certified according to muslim tradition. they fed the rain koreans, treated one for burns and then transferred them to the iranian coast guard. it's the second rescue, as you mention, by a u.s. military vessel since the iranians threatened to close the strait of hormuz and not allow another aircraft carrier to pass through the oil transit point. >> if you ask me what keeps me awake at night, it's the strait of hormuz and the business going on in the arabian gulf. >> the chief of u.s. naval operations spoke this morning just days after the uss stennis, the aircraft carrier group, rescued the 13 iranian fishermen who were being held by pirates in the persian gulf. a pr coup for the u.s. navy and coast guard in the wake of rising tensions and threats from the iranian military, a time of great brinksmanship in the middle east. this photo shows one of the rescued iranians wearing a u.s. navy baseball cap thanking his

rescuers. the admiral was asked by fox news this morning when he spoke whether he was concerned that the focus, the president's new strategy to focus on asia was taking their eye off the ball in the middle east. he said, no, what keeps me up at night is the trait of hormuz. megyn? megyn: jennifer, thank you. well, startling new numbers today on one of the leading preventable causes of death in america. the centers for disease control reporting that more than 38 million americans indulge in binge drinking. making it a far bigger problem than previously thought. elizabeth friend live on that in atlanta. hey, elizabeth. >> reporter: hi, megyn, you're right, binge drinking a much bigger problem than health officials originally thought because according to the centers for disease control, one in six american adults are binge drinking four times a month. so about weekly. and that's, like you said, 38 million americans. so what constitutes a binge? well, for women it's more or four drinks in one instance, and

for men it's about five drinks. >> binge drinking is a huge problem. actually, it may be worse than alcoholism. it's been really underappreciated because people don't realize that if they drink a lot at a particular time, that that may actually be worse over a long period of time. cdc's estimating 88,000 deaths per year from binge drinking. >> reporter: now, the cdc says about $220 billion in 2006 were spent on damage costs, so what's the profile of a binge drinker? according to the cdc, most binge drinkingers are between the ages of 18-34, more men than women, but what's interesting is that the profile says there's a spike in binge drinkers in adults who are older than 65 years old, and we also know the average binge drinker makes more than $75,000 a, -- a year. binge drinking is a behavior where alcoholism is a chronic disease. megyn? megyn: elizabeth, how are they

dying? >> reporter: well, as far as alcoholism, liver, cancer, a lot of diseases from chronic alcoholism. megyn? megyn: and that relates to the binge drinkers as well? it's liver and kidney problems? >> reporter: they do say it's liver and kidney problems. now binge drinking, like i said, is more of a behavior issue. what they're saying is people who do binge drink can lead to alcoholism, and that's where people are dying of cancer. megyn? megyn: elizabeth, thank you. well, we are awaiting a ruling from the u.s. supreme court on just how far unions can go to collect emergency dues for political activism. a case that could effect workplaces across the country. plus, north american ski resorts cannot buy a snowstorm right now, but one town in alaska has so much snow, they just called in the national guard. and the president's right-hand man, chief of staff bill daley, is out. what a major white house shakeup means less than a year before

election day. karl rove has some interesting thoughts on this. he's here live next. >> last week my chief of staff, bill daley, informed me that after spending time reflecting with his family over the hold cays -- holidays, he decided it was time to leave washington and return to our beloved hometown of chicago.

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>> oh, to be a twinkie, to be america's favorite snack cake, but then it gets a little lonely at the top, and so hostess introduces new fruit and cream twinkies. ♪ megyn: who doesn't love twinkies? there's an old urban legend out there that twinkies, those delicious tubes of cake and cream, never expire. it's not true, actually, and the shelf life for the company that makes them may also be limited, apparently. hostess brands, the makers of 2006 twinkies and -- twinkies and wonder bread is preparing to

file for chapter 11. the company's reportedly facing a major money crunch of more than $800 million. i remember going to that that's in the -- nana's in the summer, and she would fill us full of twinkies, and i came home one summer, and my family looked at me and said, oh, boy. [laughter] had a little too much fun at nana's, didn't you? eastman kodak is fighting to stay out of bankruptcy, we told you about this earlier last week. the company announced today a major restructuring to focus more on digital products. the imaging giant, which once dominated photography, has not had a profitable year since '07 and has warned that it could return out of money this year. how times change. and speaking of change, a major shakeup at the white house right out of the gate on the road to november. bill daley is no longer the president's chief of staff. he's been replaced by the white house office of management and budget director. political analysts say it's a

bad sign to be making changes to the administration, especially in a position like chief of staff less than a year before election day. so what's really going on here? karl rove is a former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to president george w. bush, and he's a fox news contributor. that's the question, karl, what's really happening? >> well, this is unusual because president obama named, in naming bill daley as chief of staff on february 6th said that he was going to be outreach to business, that he was going to help relationship with congress, there was an intimation that this was going to be part of a bipartisan effort on the part of president obama and, yes, about a year later we have bill daley exiting and exiting quickly and unceremoniously. i think it's a combination of several things. first of all, it turned out to be a bad fit because the white house didn't want a chief of staff, they wanted somebody who would actually let the political people, david plouffe and david axlerod absent in chicago,

continue to run things. and they didn't want outreach to business because that would mean a change in policy, and they didn't really want to work with republicans in congress, and daley didn't get along particularly well with some of the leading democrats because he did want to work with republicans in congress. so this is a bad move. we're now on the fourth chief of staff in, essentially, three years, and you're entering an election year. now, they have brought in a technician. they took the director of the office and management of budget, jack lew, and moved him over. but to me this says that the head of the white house staff are the political people, namely david plouffe and to a lesser extent valerie jarrett. but this was a bad fit right from the start. to me, there was a mystifying moment. president obama named him, and shortly thereafter the white house put out a very odd news release, and it caught my eye at the time that it came out. it made a list of all of the other west wing appointments, deputy chiefs of staff and so forth, and at the end of the release bill daley basically

says i look forward to clarifying with you in the weeks ahead your roles and responsibilities. and that, to me, was a really interesting moment. yeah, there it is. effective collaboration requires a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities so we can each hold each other accountable for the duties we've undertaken, and in the coming todays i hope to clarify further the roles each of our offices needs to play. well, this grabbed my attention at the time that it came out, so i did a little sleuthing and found out the following. typically, the chief of staff is allowed to bring in his chief deputy, the deputy chief of staff for policy, who runs the white house policy shop. in this instance, daley was not allowed to bring in anybody. the president already made a decision as to who all the players were going to be in the west wing, the chief of staff was essentially without any control or authority over them, and after a nurple of months he was allowed to bring in one person as a substantive assistant as the counselor to the chief of staff. that's not a good sign. it meant he wasn't in charge right from the get go.

megyn: but why? thai saying now his departure means we're going to see a more aggressive white house in going after republics, less cooperation -- if there could be any less cooperation between democrats and republicans on both ends -- what is the point of appointing a guy who would just be a figurehead who would be par r power -- powerless and leave within a year? >> let's not claim this white house has been consistent on what they want to do. you're right. they now want to have an aggressive, all-out, complete year devoted to politics, but there was some sentiment last year that we ought to play like they were serious about policy. david plouffe is actually in control of the west wing, in my opinion. he ran the president's campaign, and he's masterminding the campaign from the white house. this is not a good sign for our country. we wasted 2011 with the administration spending all of its time on politics and none on real policy, and now we have an administration clearly intent on

dub it is to their political advantage to not have things happen so they can blame the house republicans for the inability to get things done. megyn: can't let you go without asking you about the top political headlines today as the voters go to the polls in new hampshire, karl, and mitt romney takes the most serious fire he has seen, arguably, since the beginning of this campaign from his rivals. newt gingrich going after him on bain capital and some job losses as a result of companies that it took over, and rick perry and jon huntsman going after him for this comment about how he likes firing people which was in the context of wanting to be able to fire insurance companies who don't get the job done for him. your thoughts. >> look, if it was a close, close race, that is to say if there were a couple of thousand votes between the top and, you know, between romney and whoever is second, this could have an impact. but i think his margin's going to be wide enough to take care of these things. it's important to keep in mind this: voters tend to discount last minute charges.

the comment that he made about firing people, you know, when he was talking about firing people who provide services that he would buy is problematic if you only see the one, the five words. if you see it more broadly, he can probably survive that with some ease. the bain capital things, the attacks by gingrich are, frankly, likely to result in bad things for anybody associated with them. for newt the advantage is that thus far it doesn't look like people associate the attack on bain capital with him because republicans are going to look at this and say, what, you're attacking a guy for being a practicing free market businessman? what's wrong that? but it is an punt for romney because this attack was coming if he were to be the nominee from president obama, and he'd better get his act together in responding to it now so he can diminish this issue if he is to become the nominee. megyn: karl, i've got to run --

>> i want to know why nana had such antagonism toward your parents that she fed you those twinkies. megyn: it was love of twinkies! we'll leave it at that. we'll be right back. s rider. the "i'll sleep when it's done" academic. for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu.

megyn: well, a small alaska town calling in the national guard to help dig out from more than 18 feet of snow. several buildings in cordova are severely damaged, six homes are under heavy stress and could collapse. folks are using skis and snowshoes to get down to the street. even longtime residents say they have never seen snow like this before. >> apocalypse. >> this roof's leaking inside right now, and if we wait too much longer, you know, a lot of businesses have already, you know, started to cave in. shoveling and not much fun

anymore. >> i'm, actually, really excited. i'm excited to be doing what we're supposed to be doing and to be helping people. megyn: the national guard says their snow-clearing mission could last two weeks. wow. some stunning similarities in two different states as two different women vanish in almost identical circumstances. stacy english of missouri and phoenix colden of georgia both disappeared a little more than a week apart. both of their cars were found abandoned and running on the same day the women were reported missing. and according to the local police, the similarities do not end there. trace gallagher has more. >> these women live 500 miles apart, and police in both cases have no clue as to how they went missing, right? but listen to this, 23-year-old phoenix colden who disappeared in st. louis on december 18th. her car was found abandoned, it was running, the driver's door was open, there was no sign of

force. jump ahead nine days, 36-year-old stacy english disappears in atlanta, her car also abandoned, found running, no sign of force. and the last man to see english alive was from st. louis where the first woman disappeared. that man has now been questioned three separate times, and the police say that he is not right now a suspect. but now police in both cities are comparing notes even though they do not believe there is a link here, and police in both cities are now coming under fire because neither one of them linked the abandoned cars with the missing women and the families of both of those women say that cost them precious time. and right now there is no evidence in either case, megyn, of foul play. right now these are both just missing persons report, but very odd similarities into how they went missing. megyn? megyn: trace, thank you. we are awaiting a ruling from the supreme court that

could have a big impact on the future of workers' rights. the justices are evaluating how far unions can go in collecting money for their political activities. we will have a live report. and newt gingrich rips mitt romney's record at bain capital, the investment company romney used to run, releasing a 20-minute video -- it wasn't him, but it was a group that supports him. but will this backfire? >> mitt romney became ceo of bain capital the day the company was formed. his mission? to reap massive rewards for himself and his investors. >> mitt romney and them guys, they don't care who -- wake up!

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megyn: we are awaiting the supreme court's ruling on a case evaluating how far unions can go in clerking money for their political activities. the justices are weighing a case of one union not just charging its members, but also hitting the paychecks of some nonmembers without giving them a chance to object. the case could have a big impact on workplaces across america. shannon bream has an update live outside of the u.s. supreme court. hey, shannon. >> reporter: this case comes from california where if you're a state worker, you've got two choices; join the union and pay your deuce, or don't join the union and still bay your dues as what's called a nonmember. the union has to give you special notice if they want to use your dues for political act difficults so you can -- activities. well, the plaintiffs in this case say they never got that very specific notice, they've sued all the way to the supreme court saying that their first

amendment right not to be aligned with political speech that they disagree with was violated. attorney william young argued the case on their behalf today. >> these employees were in the dark about this assessment when they were given the opportunity to object and were never given a new opportunity to object when the union knew it was going to take this money for a political campaign. >> reporter: the union argued to the justices today it did eventually work things out with those employees and did give some of them refunds, but a number of justices questioned why the union should be able to force state employees who don't agree with the political goals to give them an interest-free loan that lasted for several years. as you know, megyn, this court is famously protective of the first amendment, you think back to the west borrow baptist church, so the plaintiffs with that in mind and what they heard of the arguments today, they say they're guardedly optimistic their first amendment lights in this union case will be protected as well. megyn: shannon, thank you.

well, a pro-newt gingrich super pac declaring all-out war on front runner mitt romney releasing a 20-minute film attacking the former massachusetts governor for his time at the helm of private equity firm bain capital calling romney a, quote, corporate raider, among other things. so will this backfire for speaker gingrich? take a listen. >> mitt romney became ceo of bain capital the day the company was formed. his in addition to reap massive rewards for and his investors. >> mitt romney and them guys, they don't care who i am. >> he's for small businesses, no, he isn't. he's not. >> you're going to be on the hit list, do you know that? >> romney took foreign seed money from latin america and began a pattern exploiting dozens of businesses. megyn: joining me now for a fair and balanced debate, daily beast columnist kirsten powers and stephen hayes, senior writer for the weekly standard. also a fox news contributor.

so, is it fair and irrespective of whether it's fair, will it backfire? >> um, i don't know that it's fair. we haven't seen the whole thing. certainly, the excerpts we've seen paint a dark picture of mitt romney engaged in what many of us like to think of as capitalism. this is what happens in a capitalistic economy. i think there's a lot we don't know about what happened at bain to make the kind of judgments that seem to be made in this film. will it be effective? i think it could be. you're talking about a film that's been replayed or a trailer that's been replayed again and again and again that's trying to paint this picture of mitt romney as somebody who's greedy, exploitive, somebody who wants to take advantage of blue collar workers, the very people who are likely independent voters, likely to change the course of this election at a time when we're heading into the polls here. then we've got south carolina, then we've got florida. so i think it could be effective. megyn: when i talked to newt gingrich last night, i said you keep mentioning it wasn't fair, but isn't, you know, private equity is an american free

enterprise about making a profit. >> right. megyn: he said, look, this is a populist message, and i'm sticking to it. >> well, i thought your interview with him is great, and if he talked like that more, i think he probably would be doing better because he didn't seem angry, i think he had a very persuasive message which was, essentially, yes, he believes in capitalism, but he doesn't believe in going in and raiding companieses and taking all the money and leaving people sort of to fend for themselves, that there is an idea that we are all sort of in this together and sort of a patriotic message. um, whether it helps gingrich, it's hard to say because i think gingrich has sort of hurt himself in a lot of different ways. it's probably going to hurt romney, though, that's the thing. the question is who benefits from it. the person with the real populist message in the primary, of course, is rick santorum. so i think that it's not clear that gingrich is even trying to help himself. it seems more that he's trying to hurt romney. megyn: but doesn't -- maybe it'll hurt romney because it'll

stick, but we're getting e-mails from folks who are saying that has actually put me over the top against newt gingrich because he sounds like somebody who's big government, you know, against free enterprise, it's not fair for corporations to make a profit. they think that's a democratic message, not a republican message. >> well, it is. i mean, look at the way that he's made these arguments. again, i agree with kirsten. you made the best possible argument you can make in what i think is a bad position he made to you. but he hasn't always been that careful, and i don't think there's necessarily a strategic outcome that newt gingrich is pointing to with these ads. he would argue this is not me, this is my super pac, i'm not actually directing this. it's not meant to benefit me. mitt romney and his super pac did this to me in iowa, i'm going to do this to him in south carolina. megyn: his super pac is behind the ad, but rick perry came out and said, i quote, there's something wrong when getting inherently rich and sticking it

to someone else is how you do about business. is it surprising to hear this from the republican candidates, you know, on a message like this about free enterprise and capitalism and free markets and all that? i mean, to hear these republicans going after each other. >> no. sure, this is the obama strategy, this is what the dnc has been doing to mitt romney. but there's been a lot of things like this. newt gingrich complaining he was sort of swift boated or romney boated. well, most republicans think that the swift boats for veterans was a good thing, so there's a lot of strange messages. and, you know, again, rick perry is sort of flail ago little bit. but i'm interestinged to see -- interested to see, are there primary voters who this resonates with? when you have high unemployment, is there a part of a person, even someone who believes in the free market, and says this is kind of unseemly? megyn: to what extent did mitt romney put himself in this position? it's one thing to talk about your record as the governor of massachusetts, but he also refers to his years at bain

capital and the companies they invested in, to some extent, did produce jobs, staples and dominoes and so on, but then that gets people looking at all of bain's record. and then you start to calculate, well, how many firms went away because of bain interfering? did he make this fair game? >> sure, on two different levels. one, he invited the criticism, he's campaigning on bain. he seems to suggest, look, because i've done as well as identify done in the -- i've done in the private sector at a time the country needs somebody like that -- megyn: because he could have come out and said it was a private equity firm, our goal was to make money, not save jobs. >> right. i think the kind of attacks he's launched previously. he suggested that rick perry wanted to do away with social security. he's taken some shots that have been questionable against president obama, taking his words out of context so that i think republican primary voters, members of the media aren't going to be particularly sympathetic to mitt romney when he says, gosh, my words have been so taken out of context, you're mischaracterizing what

i've done here. he's the one that said politics ain't bean bag. if it's too -- hot in the kitchen -- nobody's going to cry tears for romney. megyn: he hasn't been -- >> if i was mitt romney, i'd be very concerned about this movie, attack ad. it's very damning, it's sort of dark, and like i said, at a time when people -- you know, south carolina, high unemployment rate, people don't have a problem with the free market or making money, but i do think people find it unseemly to see somebody who's just sort of enriching themselves at what seems like the expense of other people. so, you know, i think that they have to be very concerned right now. megyn: we'll see. they said it usually gets ugly before south carolina, not before new hampshire. they were wrong. [laughter] all right, panel, see you guys tonight. and keep it right here, folks, for our special coverage of the

new hampshire primary. it all starts at 6 p.m. eastern. bret baier and i will be anchoring live coverage from manchester, only on the fox news channel. you'll see more of kirsten, steve and others, and don't forget to check us out online, log on to fox foxnews.com/elect. foxnews.com is your front row seat to politics. well, she graduated from law school and then became a college professor, but when she applies for a job at her alma mater in the law school, they said, no. and she says it is all because of her conservative ideology. wait until you hear her evidence of that and what an appeals court has just found in kelly's court. plus a3-year-old girl, a 500-pound lion and three inches of glass between them. guess who flinches first? this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. r science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers.

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iowa law school class of 1993, fast forward 13 years when she applies for a teaching job at her alma mater. but wagner doesn't get it, apparently, because of her politics. she would have been just the third conservative faculty member at the school, but the associate dean said in the letter or, quote, some people may be opposed to teresa's serving in any role in part because they so despise her politics and especially her activism about it. now she is suing in the eighth circuit court of appeals, and the way has been paved for it to proceed. arthur die call the la and doug byrnes, all right, bias, she ghost ahead and files this lawsuit saying you can't deny me employment at a law school because of my politics, because you are all democrats and i'm a republican. is she right, doug? >> well, actually, first of all, as you pointed out, megyn, and you're right, there's only 3 out

of 50 professors are republican, number one. number two, she was one of three final candidates for the job, and one of those was deemed unsuccessful in the record, and yet she got the job over this particular professor. the other point i want to make is that she mentioned in a pre-interview before she sort of went before the board that she got a job from a particular law school which is conservative, and the person at the school said don't mention that during your interview. so the point is there's a number of facts in the record that, in my opinion, give her some viability. but, look, it's a close call. megyn: arthur, it's illegal to discriminate in hiring practices against gays, against blacks, against women, against people who are over 40. is it illegal to discriminate against people who are conservatives? >> no, it's not, and that's not really how the court found this. they found it was a violation of her first amendment rights. >> right. >> that's what it was. so -- because when i first read this -- megyn: it's just a different way of saying what i said. >> well, it is and it isn't because what you said if it was just purely conservative, i

could say, well, it's because they're against bold people, right? they're not -- megyn: but if you went out and became an activist about your baldness, you were out there doing commercials, you know, what are they called? hair club for men. >> yeah, right, i excuse that, by the way, for the record. [laughter] it would infringe on my first amendment rights to be out there for bald people, so that's where they're coming down. what was stupid was the dean apparently at one point said she didn't get the job because of her politics. that was dumb. i don't even know why politics is involved in the hiring process of law professors. you should be talking about contracts and property law, not conservativism or liberal itch. megyn: that would be in the column of bad facts if you're trying to defend the university on this one, doug. [laughter] but, listen, is it -- let me ask you this, is in the place to have this resolved? because i don't think this is so unusual at any college faculty to have all of them, 47 out of 50, be democrats or liberals. and so do we really want the courts involved in resolving

this kind of thing, doug? >> a lot of professors are agreeing with you, and i read a lot of stuff where they said, you know, even if she's right, the courts aren't the correct forum, and i think that's a good argument. let me tell you one other thing guys i think you guys would find interesting. one professor steps forward, and it turn out he clerked for justice blackman when roe v. wade was issued in 1973, and this woman's been involved in a lot of pro-life -- it's another interesting fact. >> do we want the courts telling whether it's a law school or a supermarket you've got to hire this one, you can't hire that one, to a agree we do. but how far down are we going to go in people's individual rights and needs to tell somebody, well, you don't have enough, whatever, siciliano americans on your faculty, so you have to hire -- megyn: who does, who does, really, at the end of the day?

we have groups of people who are called protected classes, and i mentioned a couple a moment ago. and conservatives usually argue against expanding that list. and liberals tend to want it expanded. wouldn't that be ironic? >> that's a great point. megyn: if liberal law professors wound up getting sued because they want expansive, you know, litigation. >> the biggest irony in the whole case, you're exactly right, i forgot to mention that, is that the whole liberal doctrine is in favor of the employee against the el employer, and -- employer, and now not in my backyard. >> that is, actually, that's a great point. that is the irony of this case. i don't think the courts should be -- i think the courts should be less involved in our lives, and this is a perfect example. now courts, now justices are going to be telling what law schools, what professors they have to hire? i think that's just the wrong forum for this. megyn: bell, and even if you -- you're a conservative or a liberal and you're going to apply at a job of which the people are the opposite, you

might not be as vocal as this woman is, but they knew, for example, she had worked for the family research council, they knew just from her resumé, they thought, what her politics were. and then you get boo a dangerous territory. people make -- making assumptions based on your resumé. feels like middle school all over again. >> i was just going to say, that's life. megyn: right? people make assumptions about you, and they don't know the truth. >> and you're going to get positive and negative reactions and let the chips fall where they may, and you have to live with the consequences of your choices. megyn: yeah. arthur, doug, thank you so much. >> good luck tonight, megyn. megyn: thank you, buddy. why this maryland man told investigators he wanted to join an al-qaeda-linked group and die with a gun in his hand. when you have diabetes...

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megyn: a rather brave little girl stares down a massive lion as it appears to try to attack her at wellington zoo in new zealand. watch this. >> oh, my god. [laughter] [inaudible conversations] megyn: wow. you can see 3-year-old sophia walker barely flinch when the lion seems to pounce, just centimeters of glass separating them. sophia's father says she's always had a quiet confidence with animals. a zookeeper says the lion saw sophia as the perfect size for food, and he is known for having a bit of a temper. well, a former u.s. soldier facing terror charges. craig backsham of maryland

reportedly charged with trying to join the al-qaeda-backed group al-shabab. he was ready to die for the cause. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge live in washington with more. >> reporter: well, megyn f the allegations are true, it's another example of what i call al-qaeda 2.0 or the new generation of digital jihadists. according to the indictment, he's accused of traveling overseas to join the al-qaeda affiliate in somalia known as al-shabab. and having been trained by the army, what we know from the criminal complaint as well is that he understood the importance of ip addresses and how they can be used by the government to track people overseas. now, the criminal complaint reads in part if you can put it up just for a moment, there we are: >> reporter: what's important here is that we heard from congressional investigators at

the end of last year about this new generation and the use of the internet. here's that exchange with chairman king. >> secretary stockton, we're in open session, so i'm not going to ask for precise numbers, but are there cases within the military right now involving perspective jihadists and terrorists that you are aware of or monitoring? >> i welcome the opportunity to answer that question in closed session. >> reporter: what's so striking about this case, megyn, according to the documents is baxam was only flagged by kenyan authorities once he got near the somali border, and they contacted the fbi in this case. megyn: catherine herridge, thank you so much. we'll be right back, don't go away. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement

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