washington interests to take a hike. >> breaking right now on andrea mitchell reports, now there are four. rick perry dropping out, today throwing his weight behind newt gingrich, who is now closing in on mitt romney in our brand-new nbc news/marist poll. with only five points now separating gingrich and romney in south carolina, could rick perry's departure put newt over the top? >> i was very honored and very humbled to have governor perry speak so well about endorsing me. >> and what is romney's reaction? remember, his relationship with perry has been noticeably frosty. >> he's a great conservative, a great man. he made a real contribution, he already has, to our fate and to our country. >> what do you make of him backing newt gingrich? >> and what about iowa? the final results are in. santorum picks up votes and gets

bragging right. the party declares him a winner, but it is not really official. we'll tell you why. and what do you get when you kill a python? president obama goes to disney world. while his re-election team fires off its first ad defending the attack on the solyndra deal that was gaining traction. >> secretive oil billionaires attacking president obama with ads fact checkers say are not tethered to the facts, while independent watchdogs call this president's record on ethics unprecedented, and america's clean energy industry 2.7 million jobs and expanding rapidly. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell, live in washington. so many moving parts on politics today. breaking news on our daily fix, less than 48 hours to go until south carolina begins to vote and what will be the impact of rick perry dropping out and endorsing newt gingrich? is this the stop-romney movement? nbc's ron mott is in bluffton, south carolina. a lot happening today. rick perry certainly did not have a whole lot of traction in south carolina, but what about the timing and his decision to drop out now before tonight's

debate? >> reporter: yeah, hey, there, andrea. good day to you. this is a big day for the gingrich campaign and perhaps even a bigger day for the gingrich family. we'll talk about the campaign first. as you know, governor perry has dropped out of the race and has endorsed newt gingrich for president here. those five or six percentage points that governor perry has been polling here in south carolina could very well, in fact, put newt gingrich over the top here in south carolina when the voters go to the polls on saturday. the speaker just wrapped up an event here. he has said he asked for and did get governor perry to head up a tenth amendment enforcement project, trying to return some of the states -- the power to the states from the federal government in washington, d.c. after the event was over, the speaker did address the media and a lot of the questions ran, andrea, to this interview, this potentially explosive interview that his second wife, marianne, has given to abc news in which she, apparently, says that the former speaker asked her to commit to an open marriage while the speaker apparently was involved in a relationship, an extramarital relationship with his now third wife, callista

gingrich. so a lot of people here who left, i heard people muttering about how inappropriate they thought the media were in asking questions about the speaker's personal relationships. we should point out that a gentleman during the question-and-answer portion of the event asked the speaker about should americans be concerned about his personal life. the speaker simply said, i've made mistakes in my life, just like a lot of people, and americans should take that for what it's worth to them. andrea, back to you. >> ron mott, what a day in politics. let's bring in now david gregory, moderator of "meet the press" and matt bai, chief correspondent for "the new york times." let's toalk about the gingrich situation. there's an interview by "the washington post" where marianne gingrich, the second of the wives of newt gingrich, the wife he had when he was speaker. asked, how could he ask me for a divorce on monday and within 48 hours give a speech on family values and talk about how people treat people. there is more on that.

let's take a look at a clip from the abc interview and newt gingrich following on "today" this morning rebutting it. >> i said to him, newt, we've been married a long time, and he said, yes, but you want me all to yourself. callista doesn't care what i do. >> what was he say to you, do you think? >> he was asking to have an open marriage. and i refused. >> i'm not going to say anything negative about marianne. my two daughters, kathy and jackie, have sent a letter to the president of abc news saying from a family perspective, they think this is totally wrong. they think abc should not air anything like this. and that intruding into family things that are a decade -- more than a decade old are simply wrong. >> now, we should point out that david and matt, before this all started breaking, newt gingrich's tracking was on the rise. the nbc/marist poll shows him

closing in at a big change after that debate when he performed so well in the debate monday night. we've got another debate coming tonight. in fact, i am told that mitt romney's internal tracking poll numbers showed him after the debate on the overnights behind for the first time. that's why they had that conference call. they started really being much more forceful and aggressive the next day. >> and i just think the big question tonight in this debate is does mitt romney go on the defensive, or does he try to sit on the ball, you know, as you do in football and run the ball and basically burn out the clock. >> with a five-point spread in the tracking? >> i think he's got to do something a little bit more offensive against gingrich in one of these debates. and he has yet to really do that. he has only been playing defense. this business with gingrich's personal problems and his ex-wife coming out there. you know, it's hard to say what kind of impact it has. a lot of people don't like gingrich. they look at his past baggage and they say, this could become a problem. it could be a distraction, or people may have the other reaction and say, look, this is old news. he's apologized for this. he's taken account of this.

we're not going to judge him on this. it's much more of a wild card. i think the bigger factor here is the fact that he's got a little momentum now. he's now got perry out of the race. he's got a real opportunity here in south carolina to say, no, i am the conservative alternative. >> matt bai, chuck todd asked newt gingrich in an interview, i guess a weaker or more ago in iowa, i think it was, about the marriages. this is the way he responded when asked about marianne gingrich. >> what's your relationship like with your ex-wives. >> with my first wife, we have a relationship because we share two daughters and two grandchildren. and i think it's very respectful on both sides. she has been a very good mother and a very good grandmother, and i'm very concerned for her as a person. and i've tried to deal, frankly, a lot of these personal questions without in any way intruding into her personal life. >> and your second wife? >> we don't have a relationship. >> so it's very clear, they knew this was coming. they knew she was talking to

people. and he's been bracing for this. the campaign's been bracing for it. of course, the timing, happening in south carolina, is not accidental. this is where the values voters and the evangelical movement and personal life would be at issue if it is anywhere. >> the timing's not accidental. and it makes me very uneasy. as david said, no one's voting for newt gingrich based on his stellar personal life. i don't know what the impact actually is. but i've been doing this a while. you guys have been doing this a while. i'm very dubious, personally, about the connection between one's private behavior and public character. i think the bar has to be pretty high to actually make a direct correlation. and given that and given the timing of this, i don't think it brings on honor on our profession or ignobles the debate at all. >> i think voters have the opposite reaction, other than saying, oh, geez, what a bad guy this is, they think, who does this? who comes out, an ex-wife, right before an important election. this is sort of the wrong thing. we've made a judgment about him. but there's another side to that coin. and i've talked to republican s

who say, look, if the reality is if he's the nominee, it's very difficult to make the fall election about barack obama when in many ways it could be about newt gingrich and his past, personal and public, when any republican wants to make it solely about obama's record. >> and john harwood has just joined us, chief washington correspondent for cnbc and down in south carolina. newt is supposed to release his tax returns today, and there's always been a lot of interest in newt gingrich's finances. we saw what happened just prior to your debate with the money that he made from freddie mac, which became so controversial. what are we expecting to see in these tax returns? and do you think that he will explain newt inc., as some have referred to it, because there were the 527s, the book, the foundation, all the other things that he has done. >> reporter: i think he'll be compelled to explain some of it, andrea, but i think the real purpose here is to put pressure on mitt romney, and we know that however affluent newt gingrich became after becoming speaker and earning all that money from fannie and freddie and getting

the big, fat line of credit at tiffany's, he's not nearly as rich as mitt romney. and he knows that and he knows that by calling attention to what mitt romney hasn't released, he can put a little more pressure on him leading up to south carolina and that vote on saturday, when a lot of events are going in newt gingrich's favor right now. >> and in fact, the release of his tax returns in putting the pressure on mitt romney is going to be a half hour before tonight's debate. so it's all calculated, smart politics on newt's part, but also after the evening newscast. because there's going to be a lot of scrutiny. there had been questions raised in the past. there had been published reports, questioning whether or not he used some of his expense money from some of the 527 or one of the 527s in particular for personal expenses and whether there was a mixing of those accounts. so depends on how much he actually discloses. john harwood, thank you very much. david gregory, we'll be seeing

you this weekend, of course, on "meet the press," if not sooner, and matt bai, thanks so much to you. >> thanks, andrea. and president obama hopes to boost florida's economy and make it the happiest place on earth, at least come election day. interior secretary ken zahlsala joining us from orlando. and python politics with john switser. is it fast?

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i'm here today because i want more tourists here tomorrow. i want america to be the top tourist destination in the world. >> florida, of course, is the next primary state, is critical in the general election, for sure. so it's no accident that that is where we find the president today, to announce a new visa program that the administration says will promote tourism from foreign visitors. interior secretary ken salazar is at the president with disney

world and joins me now. there we are, it's great to see you, mr. secretary. i wish we were at disney world. let's talk about the visa program, first of all, what was announced today. will it really make a difference in simplifying the applications for tourist visas from foreigners? >> absolutely, andrea. it is great to be here in disney world and this is exactly the kind of place where jobs are created through tourism and by simplifying the visa process and the other programs that the president announced today. we believe that additional jobs will be created here for the united states. our goal is simple. make it the top destination for tourists around the world and we'll create jobs by so doing. >> i wanted to ask you about the pipeline decision, as a member of the cabinet, this is the criticism of it from the speaker of the house, john boehner, yesterday. >> the president won't stand up to his political base, even in the name of creating american jobs. and now a candidate is going to have to look to other nations,

like china, to sell its oil reserves to. >> and you've got statements from some democratic senators, mark pryor, for instance, from arkansas, supports the project. he says, "i strongly disagree with president obama's decision to postpone the keystone pipeline project. this project will sustain and create jobs in the united states. i also believe that in this day and age, it can be done in a way that protects the environment." what do you say to mark pryor, to j to joe manchin from west virginia? >> andrea, i would say that the decision yesterday was not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline. the pipeline may very well be constructed. the decision yesterday was based on the coercion from the republicans and the house of representatives, where they essentially said that the decision had to be made in 60 days, where you have the republican governor of the state of nebraska and so many other people saying that you need to look at an alternative route.

these transnational pipelines, which are important for us, cannot -- the permits can not be judged and the decisions cannot be made in this kind of a timeline. so the 60-day timeline that was imposed was simply an arbitrary and capricious timeline, and if another application comes forward, then the judgments will be made on the merits. >> and before i let you go, i wanted to ask you about the washington monument, because we understand today that david rubenstein, very extraordinarily wealthy and philanthropic washingtonian has agreed to foot at least $7.5 million. will that mean that you'll be able to restore the monument that was damaged in the earthquake more quickly? >> it will. congress appropriated $7.5 million with reubenstein's very generous gift, we'll have the $50 million to be able to do the reconstruction and restoration work inside the monuments. we're very pleased and we'll be able to move forward. and again, there in the national

mall, you have about 31 million visitors. they're tourists, they come here to this country and they spend their money in virginia, in maryland, and so many other places. so, for us, in the interior, when we look at the president's directive to us, this is a very important initiative to help boost jobs in the country. >> secretary salazar, thanks so much for joining us, joining us on the visa proposal down in florida that the president has just announced. and here at the table now, joining me from montana is governor brian schweitzer. he supports the keystone project, approved of a pipeline construction in his own state. what say you about the pipeline? you have the closest connection to transcanada, the pipeline builder, and there's been a lot of environmental concerns and environmental health and safety concerns that were cited by the president, saying that he could not make a decision that quickly, because he did not know that the safety of the people along the route could be adequately -- >> well, normally states don't even ask for washington, d.c.'s ideas about pipelines.

they are permitted by states. state by state by state. >> but this crossed a border, so it created a state department issue. >> so now what we're asking the state department to do, since it crosses a boundary, an international boundary is to give us a recommendation whether it's in the national security of the united states. but, unfortunately, montana permitted this. and of course, part of our permitting is people think this is just canadian oil, but montana and north dakota are the two cases that are increasing oil production in the entire country. we have inadequate pipeline capacity, so i negotiated directly with transcanada to build a $100 million on-ramp so montana oil can be pumped on to this pipeline and make it to market. >> so your oil and north dakota's oil is also going to be blocked from reaching those refineries in the gulf coast? >> that's exactly right. and so, what the state debate is tasked with doing is getting a complete application that says, here is the pipeline that is being proposed. but, unfortunately, in an

unprecedented way, nebraska, the governor of nebraska called a special session, changed the laws in nebraska so that transcanada no longer has a route, and there's been no permit granted in nebraska. in nebraska, they say it's going to be at least six months, maybe a year, before they can actually grant a permit. and yet, we're standing before the administration and saying to them, we have an inadequate application. it's not complete. we don't know where the route is. so we can't tell you how big the pipeline will be or where it's going to be delivered to. now we want you to give us approval. these jokers in congress that are trying to force the president to approve of an incomplete application are just making mischief. they're not helping to us develop energy. >> your bottom line is, you think the pipeline is a good project, but you think the president made the right decision because he doesn't have the data to make the decision. >> as chief executive of montana, if they ask me to approve of a pipeline with an incomplete application, i would have to reject it and i'm the biggest proponent of this pipeline in america. >> you think it's safe? >> of course it's safe. this is a pipeline that's been

designed in 2012 and built in 2012 and '13. we have 160,000 miles of pipelines all across the united states, most of them built decades ago. this is the safest pipeline ever proposed in the history of this country. >> governor schweitzer, thank you very much. >> good to be on. >> thanks for being with us. and rick perry's wild ride. the politico briefing next, right here on "andrea mitchell reports." [ female announcer ] goodnight gluttony, a farewell long awaited. goodnight, stuffy. goodnight, outdated. goodnight old luxury and all of your wares. goodnight bygones everywhere. [ engine turns over ] good morning, illumination. good morning, innovation. good morning unequaled inspiration. [ male announcer ] the audi a8, chosen by car & driver as the best luxury sedan in a recent comparison test.

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forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa. breaking news in our politico briefing today, the perry campaign has come to an end, but not the postmortem. so what went so terribly wrong, ron paul just weighed in from the campaign trail. >> i think there's more benefits than negatives. i don't see too much downside, because i don't think he had a large bloc. i don't think he can say, well, i'm taking all my bloc and sending them to one person or

another. i think it will be spread out, but i think i'll get a significant amount. it will certainly help me in texas. >> politico's roger simon joins me now. let's talk about rick perry. the whole campaign seemed to be, after the first couple of weeks, an oops moment. >> yeah. the perry campaign surged only before the candidate began campaigning. it seemed as if the more you actually saw of rick perry, the less well he did. he had that terrible brain freeze moment during one of the debates. i think probably the worst moment i've ever seen during a debate. he stubbed his toe on immigration, which forced him to go farther to the right on immigration. and even though we're in south carolina, a state that has a large evangelical christian population, and perry really was the last evangelical christian in the race, he just couldn't connect down here. >> in fact, that cnbc debate, the moment that you referred to, let's show that once again.

>> the third agency of government, i would do away, education, the -- >> commerce. >> commerce. and let's see -- i can't. the third one, i can't. sorry. oops. >> and then there was the reporting by jonathan martin and margy haber in politico that talked about the internal strife within the campaign. one quirz saying there's never been a more ineptly orchestrated, just unbelievably subpar campaign for president of the united states than this one. senior advisers fighting with each other. we've seen that before in campaigns, 1980, the reagan campaign, but they all came together by minnesota and the first lady stepped up and changes in all of the officials. we didn't see that kind of recalibration here. >> no. this happens, as you say, andrea, again and again. a public servant will get elected time after time as

governor. governor perry is the longest serving governor in texas history. or someone will be re-elected again and again to the senate or to the house. and then he decides, well, i've done this. i certainly can run a presidential campaign. but it's completely different. you're cut off from reality. you're in the bubble of the campaign. you have to make decisions from the road. you have to solve all the problems of the bickering of your staff. you have to make instantaneous decisions based on very little information. running for president sun like running for any other office. >> welcome to the nfl. thank you very much, roger simon. >> thank you, andrea. >> thanks. up next, santorum claiming victory in iowa. what does it mean for the romney campaign. plus, president obama's world. "time's" rick stengel has the exclusive interview. send me your thought on facebook and twitter @mitchellreports. this is "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery?

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topping the headlines right now on "andrea mitchell reports," italian police have now released the names of four victims who died after the "costa concordia" cruise ship ground off the tuscan coast earlier this week. rescue teams are looking for 21 people who are still missing. meanwhile, the captain who's under house arrest and facing manslaughter charges, is claiming he, quote, tripped and fell off the boat and did not abandon ship. fell off the boat and just luckily into a lifeboat. rupert murdoch's british newspaper company is settling cases with dozens of high-profile victims of its phone hacking scandal. the company is being sued by 60 people and is agreeing to paid actor jude law nearly $200,000. the governor of washington state has declared a state of emergency today after a major ice storm left at least one person dead. roads are treacherous and tens of thousands are without power today. freezing rain caused the seattle airport to shut down.

the national weather service is warning that structures could collapse under the weight of the ice. this just one day after the state was hit with a major snowstorm. syria's government forces have now pulled back from a b besieged town near damascus. at least nine people have now been killed by government security forces. all of this as arab league monitors are leaving today, a mission that failed to stop the bloodshed by assad's regime. on sunday, the arab league foreign ministers are going to meet to discuss their next steps. nbc's ayman mujahideen is on the phone from damascus. what have you seen there? >> reporter: that really depends on who you speak here, both interior and outside. activists and those who have been participating in the demonstrations against the government of president bashar al assad will tell you at arab

league provided diplomatic cover. they cite numbers at 600 people have been killed since they began their work here in syria. but people inside syria, those are supporting the regime will tell you that it's evidence of foreign pins that are trying to destabilize syria. they look at country's roles like qatar and others and they say this is evidence of powers going on inside syria. >> ayman, you know the region so well. the fact that qatar, is emir is now saying that they would be willing to intervene does show a coalescing of arab world opinion against bashir al assad. >> reporter: well, there's no doubt about that. that the arab world has taken some strong measures, really unprecedented. you know, this is the first time the arab league has sent a fact-finding medication of this sort into a country. that is one, two, the sanctioning being imposed on

syria including the economic sanctions have really started to take a toll on the syrian government and the people here if financial transactions, limited. imports and exports have affected the unemployment market here. so there's no dough that the arab league that the arab league has been the forefront of this, if you will, action against the arab league, but many people feel that is not sufficient, because it has not slowed down the pace of the killing. now they want the arab league to refer the nation to the security council, and many are afraid that doing so could pave the way for international intervention, like we saw in libya and that is something that angers a lot of arabs all across the arab world. >> aymandamascus, be safe. in the new "time" magazine, president obama takes on critics of his foreign policy. richard stengel brings us to this exclusively. thank you so much, rick. this is a very interesting interview, because it shows for

the first time that i've noticed, he actually responds to some of the critics, to mitt romney in particular on foreign policy. >> yes, he's very aware, andrea, that there's a plsresidential campaign going on. he's just dipping his toe, he's not jumping in. but basically one of the thrusts of the story, which is by fareed zakaria, is this in many ways, the president has taken foreign policy off the table. traditionally, this was a very ripe area for republicans to attack democrats. that democrats were weak on defense. that they were isolationists, that they weren't engaged with the world. in many ways, obama's foreign policy, which fareed describes as efficient, refocusing on america's core competencies, has actually taken foreign policy off the table for republicans. >> in fact, when he talks about mitt romney, he says, i think mr. romney and the rest of the republican field are going to be playing to their base until the primary season is over. once it is, we'll have a serious debate about foreign policy. he has been beaten up quite a bit on foreign policy in the debates. but as democrats seem to feel,

it's not going to really gain any traction, given the foreign policy successes, at least so far, they have been able to pull out of iraq and, of course, the death of bin laden. >> yes. and the two places where, as we know, i think he would be most vulnerable against foreign policy is iran and israel. and those are the two places where the republicans have attacked him. you know, republicans are making a play for jewish voters. they're suggesting that obama hasn't been staunchly supportive of israel. and they also say that, you know, that he hasn't been so staunchly aggressive and strong vis-a-vis iran. he defends himself in the case of iran, at great length, and a lot of even republican foreign policy mavens believe he actually has been strong on iran as well. >> interesting, also, the insight into ft.'s thinking, to the criticism of why he doesn't do better with congress and why he doesn't mix and mingle more. and he tells fareed, the fact is, i've got a 13-year-old and a

10-year-old daughter, so, no, michelle and i don't do the social seen, because as busy as we are, we have a limited amount of time and we want to be good parents at a time that's vitally important for our kids. and he goes on to say, my suspicion is this whole critique is due to the fact that i don't go to a lot of washington parties, as a consequence, the washington press corps doesn't feel like i'm in the mix enough with them. so they think i must be cold and aloof. the fact is, there are facts here. i talk to senators, members of congress all the time, and they feel that this congressional relations operation from this white house is more like jimmy carter's than more recent white houses in that there's nobody who is actually reaching out, that even the joe biden operation doesn't reach out to well-known former democratic colleagues, to say nothing of the republicans. >> yes, and as you know, and he wouldn't describe himself this way either. he's not a back-slapper. he's not a lyndon johnson who's going to corral members of congress in the hallway and

twist their arms. he has been a little bit more removed. i think the appointment of a new chief of staff is part of the reason that he's trying to reach out a little bit more. but, again, it isn't that kind of old-fashioned, back-room maneuvering. and i think all presidents seem to think that the white house press corps wants them to go out and party more, and when they don't, they're considered aloof. i remember jimmy carter had that criticism, even bill clinton had that criticism. george bush 43 had that criticism held against him. and i think the president is blaming us for describing him as aloof. when it comes to hearing longtime democratic supporters that they come to the white house and they're shocked that he doesn't mix and mingle, they want to be, you know, stroked a little bit. that's their take, not our take. >> yes. >> i wanted to ask you quickly about rick perry, though. the fact is that this was the most extraordinary rise and fall of a political candidate that i think i've seen in recent years. >> you know, it's funny. i was just -- before i came on, i was watching the clips from

governor perry and it's interesting. this almost always happens when somebody drops out. you look with them at new eyes and think, actually, he was pretty good, after all. he was a happy worrier. he was good humored about what he did. obviously, lemade a bunch of gaffes and mistakes, but you could argue, and particularly on the republican side, you almost always have to do it once before you're successful the second or third time. and maybe this was governor perry's maiden run and we'll see him again four years from now. >> i don't know. they were some incredible gaffes. but you're right about him being the happy warrior. and he had all the ingredients, you would have thought he would have succeeded, but when it came to the substance, there were those moments where he like herman cain and some of the other people in the field this year just didn't seem to know what they were talking about. and in tough times, people want answers. rick stengel -- >> and substance matters, which is good for all of us. >> exactly. exactly. and especially you guys at "time" magazine, the new cover, the obama portrait, thank you very much. >> thanks, andrea. and new numbers from the nbc

news/marist poll showing mitt romney appearing to be losing ground with conservatives instead of winning them over. the poll shows that while romney trailed newt gingrich by 5% on monday, by tuesday after that 16%. romney's trouble with conservatives is the subject of the cover story in the new "national journal," entitled "romney the follower." ron fournier, editor in chief, joins me now. ron, in fact, as i was say earlier to david gregory and matt bai, my information today is that from inside the rony camp, their numbers were even worse. they showed that mitt romney had fallen behind gingrich after that poll, and that's why in the overnight tracking, they were so worried going into what they then did on tuesday and wednesday. >> yeah. there's no doubt that he had a bad week in new hampshire with a lot of gaffes, a really bad week so far this week. the debate was really miserable for him and a big, big boost for newt gingrich. but you know what, it's -- we're in an interesting time right now. we also had the news today that

newt gingrich's second wife says that he wanted to have an open marriage after 18 years together. that's not going to play very well, i wouldn't think, in south carolina. >> mitt romney is showing a little bit more aggressiveness. this is an exchange that just happened within the hour on the rope line down in south carolina and charleston outside his headquarters. >> what will you do to support the 99%, seeing as how you are part of the 1%? >> let me tell you something, america is a great nation because we're a united nation, and those who are trying to divide the nation, as you're trying to do here, and as our president's doing are hurting this country seriously. the right course for america is not to divide america, and try and divide us between one and another, it's to come together as a nation. and if you've got a better model, if you think china's better or russia's better or cuba's better or north korea's better, i'm glad to hear more about it. -- america's right and you're wrong. >> well, that seemed to be romney taking advantage of an opportunity, because it seemed to be an occupy or some other protester accusing him of being

part of the 1%, which he certainly is, according to financial disclosures, but more broadly, he took that on and reframed it and showed an aggressiveness, it looked, with all due respect, almost reaganesque, going after a protester and making it his case. >> you say "reframing," i say he built a strawman. that protester didn't say he thought that cuba and russia had a better economic system, what he said is that romney is part of the 1%, which is true, and romney talked about, you know, politics that divide. well, the fact is that it isn't the politics that are dividing us. we are divided. there is a huge gap and a growing gap between the very rich and the middle class and the poor. and he played into the anxiety. and by the way, that's an anxiety shared by blue-collar republicans and blue-collar democrats, including in places like south carolina. this could affect him when he says things like, oh, those speaking fees i got, it wasn't a lot of money. well, it was $300,000. and that's a lot of money to most americans. that's the kind of thing that

shows that he's a little bit tone deaf. he might have sounded reaganesque to you on that rope line, but more often than not, he's a lot more clumsy than ronald reagan ever was. >> well, just saying that i think that they are trying to reinvigorate that part of him, because they know that he has been tone deaf, as you point out in the "national journal" cover stoi story. >> you're right about that. >> thanks, ron. the results are now in from iowa. we'll be talking to matt strawn next here on "andrea mitchell reports." who is the "your business" entrepreneur of the week? b.j. foreman took over her family's centuries-old cincinnati business boras litman jewelers. she moved it away from diamonds and gold to offer more unique rings, pendants, and necklaces. she scaled down, moved to a smaller space and became more web centric. a smaller operation led to more sparkling profits. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings on msnbc. i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe

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hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. coming up on news nation at 2:00 p.m. eastern time, i'll talk with the conservative radio talk show host from iowa who's actually credited with helping to defeat mitt romney back in 2004. we'll get his reaction to the stunning new news that santorum actually has more votes in iowa than romney this time around. what he thinks this could mean for romney and his battle to win over conservatives in south carolina. plus, rick perry drops out. newt gingrich's ex-wife speaks out. and could this be the worst week of romney's political career so far? we'll unveil a list of things that happened in just the past few days that romney's camp probably wishes they could change. and did you know there's a parade planned in honor of iraq war vets? well, we're spreading the war. it is the first and only one planned for our nation's hero. i'll talk with the man behind this grassroots effort to make it happen. and it looked like mitt

romney could become the first non-incumbent republican to go three for three in the early state contest. not so fast. today new certified totals from the iowa caucuses reveal rick santorum finished ahead of romney by 34 votes. moments ago, santorum declared victory. >> there have been two primaries held now. we've won one. with a big win today in iowa, that's finally been certified. i think it's important to understand not only did we win the certified votes, but if you'd add all the other votes, we would win by more. >> but there are still eight missing precincts that are not going to be counted. matt strawn has just wrapped up a news conference announcing the results. matt, great to see you. thanks so much. there's been a lot of confusion. nbc was not moments ago offic l officially declaring santorum a winner, because without those eight precincts, we'll never know. but it did affect, potentially, the whole sort of cycle in this

race, because the shape of the race changed by santorum not coming out of there as the declared winner. romney being the declared winner before and going into new hampshire with more of a head of steam. >> well, andrea, i think as you remember, in the wee hours of january 4th, when we announced the unofficial results, i explained that we had a two-week certification process by which all the volunteer-led precincts had to submit their, essentially their verified paperwork as to the official vote totals in those districts, in those precincts, and the deadline for those was last wednesday night. and we received and were able to verify and certify 1,766 of the 1,774 precincts across the state, and that's where you saw rick santorum come out on top by a 34-vote margin. and largely what we found out, like any race this close, we went through the certification process, at one of the volunteer call centers, where we were taking incoming calls on caucus night. we had a volunteer that entered a 54 for a romney vote count in

fayette county, where it should have been a 4, and another one where 44 was entered, where it should have been a 4. so you saw a 90-vote swing in one county. but during the two-week process, just like during caucus night, it was back and forth all the way. and i think both governor romney and senator santorum served themselves very well here in iowa. and as we see going forward, the only four candidates left in the race are your top four finishers from the iowa caucuses. >> sort of a nightmare revisits of the chads, the hanging chads. what do you think of perry dropping out today, matt? >> you know, it's interesting, he never really got wind under his sails here in iowa. obviously, he decided not to participate and announced his run for the presidency in south carolina the same day that we were hosting our straw poll in ames. and from what i heard from republican activists around the state, they windshield he would have gotten here a little earlier, spent a little more time investing in some of the retail campaigning that rick santorum did so much of. and the other thing, there really wasn't quite sure what the message was of his campaign.

whether it was of a job-creating governor in texas, whether it was a reformer from outside of washington, or as we saw very light in the caucus process, he was very much running as a, you know, as a christian politician trying to appeal to the large evangelical electorate here in iowa. so i don't think he was ever quite -- his candidacy was ever quite defined here in electorat. it doesn't surprise me to see today's announcement. >> matt, thanks so much. what political stories will be making headlines, that's next.

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? great to see you, ann. we have one remaining debate and four candidates. without rick perry, who shows up tonight in terms of does romney show up aggressive. does he sit on his lead?

does gingrich go after romney? what do you see as the dynamic? >> all of the above, i would expect. there were four. we have been seeing the debates shrink. that means more air time for each of them. there's no question that taxes will still be a subject and not tax policy, but whether mitt romney will release his before april. he's come under a lot of heat for that. he say he's going to wait until april. newt gingrich will release his tax return sometime today. that will only increase the pressure on romney. i think we can expect to see the candidates mix it up. newt gingrich has seen some momentum in south carolina. rick santorum has seen some momentum of his own in south carolina. also with the news he got more votes than we thought he did in io iowa. all of them have a reason to be aggressive toward romney.

>> there's mitch daniels, not a candidate, but he will be the republican responder to the president's state of the union speech. that tells you they are in a non-gingrich mode. >> they want to stay far from that until there's a nominee. that a good reminder there's another candidate, barack obama. >> they also don't want to put up a senator to respond because we know what their approval ratings are like. thank you. that does it for us for in edition of "andrea mitchell reports." the show is on the road to charleston, south carolina. don't miss msnbc special coverage. we'll be here at 1:00 eastern. my colleague tamron hall as a

look at "news nation." i'll talk with a conservative radio talk show host about the stunning news that rick santorum has more votes than mitt romney in iowa. what does that mean for romney and his relationship with conservatives he needs. rick perry drops out. newt gingrich's ex-wife speaks out. could this be the worst week of romney's political career so far? we'll unveil a list of things that happens that romney's camp probably wishes they could change. honoring our heroes. first and only parade to honor iraq war vets in the u.s. i'll talk with the man behind this effort. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ?

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ask if nexium is right for you. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. and i'm a master roaster at starbucks coffee. brian hayes. i'm a master roaster at starbucks coffee. sitting right here we have 40 years of roast experience. how can we use that and do more with it? new starbucks blonde roast was created to increase the offerings that we can give to our customers. [ anderson ] we decided that we would take our experience and apply it to the lighter, mellower, more subtle side of the bean. it's for the person who always wished that starbucks had a roast like this. [ hayes ] they're gonna love it. i mean, it's a fantastic blend. i'm tamron hall. call it turmoil thursday. the "news nation" is following break news in the race for the republican presidential nomination. yes, we start with rick's retreat. he not only calls it quits, on his way