special one hour edition of face the nation, we are in miami and we are all about the florida primary and a campaign that is down and dirtier than ever. >> the message we should give mitt romney is we aren't that stupid and you aren't that clever. >> it has been a rough week for newt gingrich after acing the debates in south carolina. >> ladies and gentlemen, mitt romney. >> he found a revitalized mitt romney in florida. >> i am speaking to you today as if i am already the candidate for president for the republican party. >> gingrich did not take it quietly accusing romney of being too dishonest to be president. >> what kind of man would mislead just to win an election this man would. mitt romney. >> back and forth it went.

>> he was given the opportunity to lead our party. what happened four years later? well, he was fined for ethics violations. he ultimately had to resign in disgrace. >> and we will have the latest. we will hear from newt gingrich one time candidate michelle bachmann, republican party chair and his democratic counterpart, florida congresswoman debbie wassermann schultz, we will get a comment from donald trump. >> it is a very nasty. >> i have never seen anything like this. >> it is republican against republican and yet the level of hatred i guess you could say, there is no other word for it is unbelievable. >> we will hear from dave berry, the humorist, florida congressman mario by as and allen plus our own john dickerson and miami herald -- >> this is face the nation in florida.

captioning sponsored by cbs and now, from miami, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> good morning, again, and we begin with a little news today, donald trump told me last night that if republicans nominate a candidate who he thinks can't win he may run himself as an independent. >> our interview with him will come in a little while. first it is a big day here. the marathon got underway this morning, 25,000 people are running. and the miami herald poll is out this morning and says newt gingrich has lost the lead he once held in the polls here. mitt romney is now ahead by double digits. rick santorum and ron paul are far behind. >> last week we invited romney and gingrich for a one-on-one conversation on face the nation. romney wanted no part of that, but gingrich agreed and in an interview on his campaign bus, he told us why he now says romney is too dishonest to be

president. >> here is the interview. >> let me ask you this, i mean, are you worried about the law of unintended consequences? i think you have made mitt romney a pretty good debator he was not bad in these debates. >> he has gotten better because he has gotten a coach, the problem i think you will see in the next day or two it is really useful in a debate to use facts to win, and i think it is really dangerous in a debate to use nonfacts to win, because you win a tact tall victory but strategically you begin to destroy your own credibility. >> there were a couple of times during the last debate in florida where you seemed to just stop for a moment. >> i did. >> why was that? >> because what he was saying wasn't true. >> but i mean you are never at a loss for words. >> yes. i mean, look, when somebody says to you i have always voted for the republican when the opportunity existed, and larry saab toe tweets in a few minutes

that what mitt said wasn't true, that, in fact he could have voted for george h.w. bush or pat buchanan when he voted in the democratic primary for paul simon, lincoln once said if a man won't agree with two plus two equals four you will never win the argument because facts don't matter. >> rom my is the first candidate to have that description. >> you are running a tough ad that begins mike huckabee if a man is dishonest in getting a job he will be dishonest on the job. are you saying that mitt romney has a character flaw here, that he is just dishonest? >> you and i had this conversation before. >> yes, we have. >> there are a series of things that happened in the debate that are factually false, this is a smart man and as you point out he was well coached. he came into the debate prepared to say things that are false. i will let you decide whether that is clever or whether that is really bad. i think somebody running for

president has a unique requirement to be honest, because the only way you lead the american people is by having them believe in you and just take one example i gave you, it is a fact in 1992, he gave men to democrats for congress and voted in the democratic primary for paulson gas who was the most liberal candidate, he could have been said yeah i am in massachusetts, he could have admitted, this is why several times in the debate if you go back and look at it, i am standing there controlling myself because i didn't want to get into a running fight at that moment when i knew what he was saying was so false that the better way to handle it is get the data, lay it out and let people make a judgment on their own. i mean the election wasn't going to be the next morning. >> if you don't win florida, what happens? do you keep going? >> oh, sure. i think when you are ahead 52 to 39 why would you quit? but i think there is a high likelihood

we will win florida because when people understand how many times last night he said things that weren't true, his credibility is going to be just frankly collapse. >> i want to thank you. >> thank you. >> newt gingrich on his campaign bus when he said we are ahead 52 to 40 something he was talking about some national polls, he was actually behind about ten points in the new miami herald poll that is out here today. michele bachmann, who dropped out of the race after iowa is with us here today to give us some thoughts on how she thinks the thing is going. ms. bachmann, newt gingrich is making a very serious charge. he says that mitt romney is just too dishonest to be president. do you think he is too dishonest to be president? >> well, i am not going to weigh in on the veracity of any of the candidates or on the particular charges. that will be for the voters to decide and they will clearly decide here in florida on tuesday, but i think we are seeing intensifying occurring

from both sides. this is going to continue throughout tuesday, but i think tuesday's results will be very significant across the nation and then of course from there then we will move into a lot of the caucus states. it is not over, but, again, this is just the opening salvo of the depth and intensity of what we will see going forward. once president obama embraces our nominee then we will never have seen anything like what is coming. >> well, i mean, but do you think that mitt romney is not a person of integrity? because that's what he says. >> i am not going to weigh in on that. that is between those candidate. i am not going to weigh in on that. that will be for the voters but again we are seeing an intensifying of what both candidates are saying and the voters will make their decision. >> but you won't say if he is a man of integrity? >> well, i have always believed the best about other people and of course i as described the very best motives for all of our candidates. i am on board the team, put it that way, no matter who our

nominee will be i am on the team because i intend to make sure that barack obama is a one term president and whoever our nominee is i am for them. >> are you -- we had heard early in the week that you were getting ready to endorse someone. are you going to endorse someone? >> i reserve the right to endorse someone, but at this point i haven't made a decision about endorsing any one of the candidates. we are still involved in the process, and i really, truly, bob, want to be a unifying person in this party. i want to be a part of bringing in disaffected the democrats, independents because we have a very good message come november, we need to be victorious, that is where my heart is. >> let me read something to you. sarah palin weighed in yesterday on facebook, in a very tough statement she had strong words for what she calls the republican establishment. she says, this isn't about gingrich versus romney, it is about the republican establishment against the tea party, and she says, gop cannibals are attacking gingrich.

where do you come down? are you an establishment republican or a tea party republican? >> well, i am the head of the tea party caucus. >> i know you are. >> in washington, d.c. so that is a voice that i think is very important to hear, and the tea party is very strong across the country. a lot of people say where is the tea party? they are not strong. the tea party is evident every time you see a debate on television. >> do you think that is where florida is? is it tea party versus the establishment or -- >> it is all of the above, because the tea party is really infused the lifeblood in the republican party. they are very important part of our party because their number one issue is the spending and the debt. that's what the faye party cares about and they are reacting against the incredible increase in regulation with obama care, they oppose obama care and the out of control spending and the debt accumulation, that is the tea party and you see the evidence of the tea party in every single debate. they had pushed this debate and framed the debate because their concerns are the one that the candidates are trying to give

voice to. >> do you think mitt romney is conservative enough to get tea party voters? >> i truly believe that we will see a coming together of all factions of our party, the tea party ininsurgents as well as the establishment, we are going to come together and we will unify, we are in the normal rough and tumble of any campaign. i know, i understand. i have been on the receiving end of a lot of these kind of hits that come from other candidate. this is normal. this is what we expect is going to happen. but we will unify and we will amalgamate and have a great mental when it comes to november. >> congresswoman i know you decided to run for reelection in your congressional district. >> i have. >> we wish you the best and also thank you for coming down and speaking with us. >> i am glad to. thank you. >> those noises you here are the helicopterers are out covering the marathon that is going on as we speak. yesterday we sat down with donald trump at his resort in palm beach, maro lago, is he

still thinking of running for president? well, listen to what he says? >> well i am thinking about it, we will see what happens. this is a very critical time for this country. the country is going to hell in a hand basket, what is going on is unbelievable. >> so if you ran, would you try to get into the republican race or would you run as an independent. >> it would have to be as an independent, i would be precluded and, you know, sadly i am precluded from running now because of the show, if i didn't have the show i probably would have just kept going because i was doing well and leading in the polls. >> what is going on now that you don't like about this race? what would cause you to do this? >> well, first of all, it is a very nasty race, i have never seen anything like this. it is republican against republican, and yet the level of hatred, i guess you could say there is no other word for it is unbelievable. and the question is are they hurting themselves? are they hurting the party? are they hurting the republicans and are they hurting their chances of winning an election against barack obama? and probably the answer is yes, other than there

is a possibility that with all of the press, all of the media attention and, you know, keep going, going, going, somebody is going to emerge and maybe they are going to emerge much stronger so we will have to see. only time will tell, but it is very possible that they are hurting themselves. >> well, there you have it, well we are going get the reaction to that when we go up to washington now to hear from the chairman of the republican party, mr. chairman, thank you for coming and just to add on to that, i want to show you the cover of newsweek magazine today. they show romney and newt gingrich together there as roman warriors. is that what this has come down to? >> no, bob. >> let me just say first, do you think -- are those real body, downing? i mean, have you ever seen newt gingrich without his shirt? >> for the record, no.

but, no. look, this is a primary, and i think primaries are tough, and, you know, you are in florida, their governor came through a really tough primary. my governor came through a tough primary, he won. you are going to have debbie wassermann shums in a few minutes, she led the hillary clinton charge against barack obama and called him a hypocrite from the very beginning. look, i think primaries work. i think they make candidates stronger and i think if you look at american history, you will see that usually winners come out of very tough primaries and they make these candidates stronger, tougher and battle-tested and i think it is great that everyone is talking about the republicans right now. >> but donald trump, he is kind of worried about it. you heard what he just said. he said, you know, he thinks they are cannibalizing each other. do you think that is going to all come out okay? >> now, the history shows, bob, that tough primaries and a little bit of drama are a good

thing of the challenging party. hillary clinton, barack obama, you know, they killed each other through june and guess what? he won pretty easily. i think the evidence is there. i think it is good for america, and in the end, in a few months, this is all going to be ancient history and we are going to talk about our own little campaign schettino which is president obama who is abandoning the ship here in the united states and is more interesting in campaigning than doing his job as president. >> what did you just say, what did you call president obama? >> i called him captain schettino, you know, the captain that fled the ship in italy. that is our own president who is fleeing the american people and not doing his job and running around the country and campaigning. >> you made me think of it with the ships behind you, bob. >> i see what you are saying. but what you are saying is, you think that somehow this is going to strengthen the party? it is not going to hurt it in any way

don't you think that you run the risk of seeing some of these things that republicans are saying about each other showing up in barack obama's campaign ads? >> listen, hillary clinton had a famous ad she used against barack obama, the 3 am call, you may remember that and that was the ad that hillary clinton put up who do you want to answer the phone at 3:00 a.m., devastating ad against 3:00 a.m., we tried to use it against barack obama, it didn't work. in the end it is going to be a referendum on barack obama. did he fulfill the promises that he made to the american people? did he live uh up to the standards that barack obama set for himself on employment, jobs, the debt, the deficit? the answer to all of those questions is, no it has been a miserable failure and that is going to be what this election is about, and i think that as a referendum on this president and where we are in this country he loses every day of the week and twice on sunday. >> you saw sarah palin's

facebook posting where she says this is not gingrich versus romney, it is the republican establishment versus the tea party. is that how you see it? >> i don't -- i don't see it that way, but i do think that she taps into a good point, which is that people are angry. they are angry with washington, they are angry in many ways with both parties, and that we know we have to get serious about our debt and our deficits in this country, and, you know, when paul ryan and the republicans come out with an entitlement reform package that actually puts something adult on the table to talk about it he get vilified, i think people are frustrated and upset and they want a president and leader that makes promises and keeps promises. that is what america is hungry for here today. >> do you think mitt romney is an honorable man? newt gingrich is throwing some pretty heavy charges at him saying he is too dishonest to be president. >> well, when hillary clinton called barack obama a hypocrite and when obama said that hillary clinton didn't have the moral

fine tore lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier you see what happens, hillary is now the secretary of state and barack obama is the president. i think primaries are tough, and do i believe that as much as possible our candidates should follow reagan's 11th commandment, absolutely, but i know in the end our party is going to come together, we are going to get serious about defeating barack obama, and we are going to work on saving america and making him a one term president. that is what this is all amount. >> well, i do want to give you an opportunity to say he is a man of integrity if you would like to say that. >> of course, of course i think he is a man of integrity, i think all of our candidates are men of integrity and i think in the en, though, we have got a president who has to do a better job at keeping the promises he makes to the american people, i mean that is where the evidence is. the proof is in the pulling there, he made the promises and he is the one that didn't keep them and that is what this election is going to be about. >> all right, mr. chairman. well we want to thank you for

being with us this morning, and giving us your decide of it, we are going to be back in one minute when we will hear from the chairman of the democratic party.

>> schieffer:. >> well ahead of the democratic party also happens to be a florida congresswoman, debbie wassermann schultz whose district is just to the north of here. >> yes. >> top of florida. >> >> schieffer: thank you very much, this thing has really gotten nasty, this republican primary. are you enjoying it? >> well, as a representative of the state of florida and someone who represents millions of senior citizens and struggling homeowners who are really hoping to be able to remain in their homes, what i am not enjoying is seeing this extreme republican field led by mitt romney that thinks that we should don't anything to help homeowners remain in their homes, when it comes to seniors, had a proposal

he supports that would end medicare as we know it. is, mitt romney in particular sat on the board possess a corporation, bain corporation that at the time got the largest medicare fraud fine in history, and we already have experience, bob, in florida, our governor was the ceo of a company that at the time -- and since has had the largest medicare fraud fine in history, when you elect someone like that who thinks it is okay to take advantage of senior citizens, then we see how it works out, our governor is the least popular in the country, he has presided over massive budget cuts in education and healthcare and really taken our state a turn for the worst, i think that is what mitt romney would do for the country. >> you have a very popular senator down here, marco rubio, i beg your pardon and a lot of talk he will wind up on the republican ticket. >> , if he does do you think that means the republicans will carry florida. >> i don't. and i think that because whoever the republicans nominate, but

particularly if it is mitt romney, i think that mitt romney is so out of step with the priorities of floridians, i stood in line behind senior citizens in my district who had to leave one or two of their prescriptions at the counter because of the doughnut hole in the prescription drug program. mitt romney would repeal the affordable care act, any of the republicans would, and that would mean we would reopen the doughnut hole and seniors would have less affordable prescription drugs again, on immigration, mitt romney thinks undocumented immigrants should line up and leave the country and so whatever marco rubio as nice a guy as he is, he won't be able to salvage the really extreme positions that mitt romney and the rest of the republican field have, since they are dramatically out of step with the thoughts of floridians. >> >> schieffer: this new miami herald poll shows this morning with ahead to head contest that

right now mitt romney would beat barack obama. do you think that is right? >> well, no, i don't. actually, there is a variety of polls, there are other -- another poll that has president obama beating mitt romney and the entire field, some by more than others, and that is because if you just look at the contracts from this week, president obama began this week with a state of the union talking about his priorities, the importance of focusing on creating jobs here in america, talking about making sure that we can have a tax policy that gives everybody an opportunity to succeed. the republican field led by mitt romney, mitt romney benefits from the tax loopholes that exist in the tax code today, and he wants them to continue. what is the dramatic contrast, barack obama is fighting for the middle class and working families and the tax code that makes it possible for everyone to be successful, mitt romney and the rest of the republican field thinks we should extend tax breaks for the wealthiest, most fortunate americans so they can do better. >> schieffer: let me ask you this. donald trump told me last night that if the republicans wind up

mom neigh somebody who he thinks can't be obama that he is thinking about running himself as an independent. what do you think that would go to the race? >> well, i think just the fact he says that is emblematic of the unacceptability of the entire republican field. i mean, we have seen the race unfold on the other side with each of them out trying to right wing each other, it has been pretty remarkable and as a result of how extreme they have been, you have seen mitt romney's numbers with moderates and independents across the country crater because he is so out of step with what middle americans want, a tax code that is fair, making sure we have a job creation focus that stand up to the middle class and working families. making sure that small business owners have tax breaks rather than corporations who already are doing well. we need to make sure we balance the scales and give everbody a fair shot. >> schieffer: all right, debbie wassermann schultz, who

has the democratic take on all of this and we will be back in just a minute. this portion of face the nation is sponsored by ing.

>> schieffer: it is always great to come to florida, but florida is the quintessential swing state. it is always close here. florida is a microcosm of the

country as a hole, people say it is more like the rest of the country than any other single state. always important, but this year more important than ever, because it is growing fast and will have 29 elect federal votes in the 2012 election. that is two more than the last time. so the story of florida in this campaign is just beginning. we will be right back.

.. >> schieffer: and some of our stations will be leaving us now for the rest of you stay tuned for more face the nation, where we will have more of our interview with donald trump and some predictions from the top political types in florida about what is going to happen tuesday. we will also have humorist and miami resident dave barry, a lot more to come. we will be right back.