unforced error, mitt romney supporter chris christie said enough already, release the tax returns. >> the fact is, let get all the facts out there. see what the tax returns say, and then, i think that everyone will know that the story is probably much to do about nothing, but that is how i conducted myself in public life and that is what i urge romney to do as well. >> newt gingrich is trying to seize the advantage. >> he will release 2010 tomorrow and then we will match romney and release 2011 when he does. >> is ka licallista newt's secr weapon? and holding court, taking to challenge of global cultural ambassador. good day, i'm live in washington. breaking news in our daily fix this afternoon, the obama administration will reject the

permit to build the keystone pipeline. the dowannouncement is expected be made at 3:00. chris, the white house has been caught between two competing sides, both supporters and environmentalist on one side and union on the other. congress got into it it was attached to the payroll tax extension. what is the fall out of this going to be? >> it's a bit implicacomplicate because as you point out, the labor unions are part of the democratic base, i'm interest issis ed -- interested to see how they cast it. it's not obvious, i think, what

the right cell is for them, trapped between a bit of a rock and a hard place republicans have come out and said, this is the president playing politics and he is courting his environmentalist base. it's impossible to get away from politics in even numbered year. i think they are trying get it out of the way. and they want to get it out of the way before the state of the union. it not a politically easy issue. >> they had a deadline attached to it. they had to make a decision in 30 days i think. >> yeah. >> the washington post, abc poll shows that there's a lot of head winds against the president. 52% saying he has not accomplished much or done very little, and 47% saying that he has accomplished a great deal. that is your poll, what do you think the importance is going

into the campaign year with these kinds of numbers? >> i feel in some ways it's the keystone pipeline all over again. there's an argument for the president and people that believe in it and an argument against him and people that believe against him. it's kind of the 50/50 presidency on almost every issue, job approval, re-elect n re-election, it's somewhere split, now on the economy, it's more negative, but overall, you know, you get somewhere between 45% and 50% saying they approve with him and the same saying they disapprove. we are fighting the next ten months over 8% to 10% of the electorate. >> now, briefly, mitt romney. we talked about unforced errors. he is so uncertain how to handle this tax issue, it was obvious

it was going to come up and as recently as the debate, we saw he did not know thousahow to ha it. he was not willing in new hampshire that he would release his taxes once becoming president. let's look at the interviews. >> can you commit that you would release your tax returns if elected president of the united states? >> you know, we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves, as to what i'll release when -- >> there's no law. there's tradition. >> i remember running against ted kennedy, he would not release his tax returns, and where yard to my tax returns, time will tell. i'm not planning today, but say never. >> and of course most recently he indicated in the debate and after the debate that he would release them in april. and newt said he will release his tomorrow. we will have to see what they

show. >> it's odd because what it looks like, and certainly in the interview, it looks like he is hiding. we know he is wealthy. we have known that from the beginning. most voters know. that the question is if he does indeed pay the 15% tax rate, it's a lot lower than people that make much less money than him, how does he sell it? it not easy politically. >> chris, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> stephanie cutter is joining us now, welcome back to washington from chicago. >> thank you. >> let's tausk about keystone briefly. i know you'll not preemt the announcement coming up. you could say it's a lose, lose p pr proposition, rejecting it instead of delaying it, he wanted to delay it until 2013. now he made a decision and he is

angering a whole group of his own supporters. >> andrea, i don't work for the administration, so i cannot talk about that decision. >> but you have to deal with the political fallout. >> a quick review of the facts. we were undertaking a review at the request of the state. that we were protecting the environment. >> of nebraska. >> of nebraska and we were doing it in the best way possible. that review was under way. republicans play politics by setting a deadline to finish the review in 60 day days, the stat department said it would take a year. it a serious review, the senate warned the republicans that if you require the 60 day review timeframe, we will not be able to complete it and it will be rejected. then warned. this was previewed during the payroll tax debate. >> in fact, my information, the best guidance that i have so far is that they are going to say,

we can't approve it because we don't have the information. we still need that extra time, so this is going back to basic principals of what they had said. >> i think the blame lays here with republicans. if they had not played politics with it and let the review continue on it course, then the pipeline could have been built. the president is following the law and putting a review in place, and unfortunately republicans got in the way and state department is making a decision. >> we talked just a moment ago about the divided nation, the washington post electorate, 48/48 disapproval, approval, which matches the poll, you have a lot of head winds. >> absolutely. the president has had head winds come engiing in three years ago because he was facing the greatest recession of our lifetime and he has been working since day one to get middle

class americans on their feet again and the economy rebuilt. it's not surprising the numbers are out today it reflects the partisan divide in the country. it's clear that we have our democratic base. the number that was most interesting to me, is that 55% of those polled believe that the number one economic issue we are facing today is economic inequality. i think that is worth discussion, particularly because mitt romney is now admits that he is paying 15% tax rate. and that is fine, he said is he is following the law. but the problem is that he doesn't want to pay more than that. he doesn't want to pay his share. he believes it's okay for the middle class to pay more than he does. that is the debate we will have and throughout the course of the next year if mitt romney is the next nominee. >> you are about to go up with

campaign ads, are you going after republicans generically or are you going to take on mitt romn romney? >> no decision has been made to go up with ads. rates were looked into. a decision will be made and we will see what it is. >> and the bain issue has been the bain of mitt romney's existence so far. it's clearly been a big problem for him with newt gang rich and the other republicans that were going after him on this. what about the washington post awarding you three pinocchios for the way you criticized him on bain. that you cannot have it both ways? >> i agree, and mitt romney cannot have it both ways. he is taking credit for jobs at companies that have grown since

he was long gone dp fr great ba. if are you taking your job creation experience and staking it on your time at bain, then you have to admit what it was. his partners were saying that their job was to create wealth not jobs. if you will talk about jobs created at places like staples, you have to talk about the consequen consequences, people fired and jobs shipped overseas. that is part of filing bankruptcy and shutting down the companies. that is in many ways many of the deals that mitt romney was involved in, that was how they created wealth. tell the whole story. every time he is asked about it, he said we are attacking free enterprise. we are not doing that, we are asking him for him to level with the american people about what

exactly his experience was and i don't see what is wrong with that. i see the debates that have been taking place in the republican field on bain is having consequences on romney. a ppp poll released yesterday, 57% of moderates -- >> we don't recognize them because they are polls taken online. but point taken. and what role is race playing in this election campaign. many viewers saw racial themes in tuesday night's south carolina debate on issues ranging from entitlement programs to newt gingrich's comments about the work ethic, as he put it, of poor people. he likened this approach to a modern day southern strategy. let me have you make your case. what did you see in the debate that you found to be the

southern strategy that harks back to the nixon years? >> i think that people, my age especially, remember what happened back in the '60s, when we saw a big shift of white democrats born to the republican party and black republicans coming to the democratic party. that happened starting around 1960 and continued through '64 and then in 1968, richard nixon put in place a southern strategy. and that southern strategy used a lot of phrases and code words and we all know that it was to use a method of generating a turnout in very conservative voters in the south.

and that kind of soldified things and now as president obama got elected president of the united states, and we saw all these new african american congress people coming in from those same states they have tried top reverse that, and it happened estimate i ha ed effece understand it and we are not going to stand for it. we are -- >> congressman? >> yes. >> forgive me for interrupting. what newt gingrich is saying, is that he is talking about helping young people get jobs that, what he is saying is basically benign, when you talk about janitorial jobs, that he was happy to have that kind of job and it's character building and puts money in their pockets. tell me what you think is wrong with the way he characterized

his outreach ors for young people? >> people growing up poor are not suffering from work ethic. i was poor, but i got up at 4:00 a.m. to deliver milk. i do not neat newt gingrich to tell me what it is to have a work ethic. esshe is, saying the poor peopln their schools should be the janitors in their schools so the other children that are not so poor can see them as their s servants. to talk about what his daughter did, she was never a janitor in her school, and that to me is a double standard and i understand what he is, saying and most african americans understand what he is saying, and we will not stand for it.

>> thanks congressman. >> thank you. >> and up next, your first look at the democrats 2012 hit list. the 36 races they think they can win to take back the house. steve israel coming up. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ♪ get outta the car. get outta the car. ♪ are you ok? the... get in the car. get in the car! [ male announcer ] the epa estimated 42 mpg highway chevy cruze eco. from spending time together, to spending your lives together, chevy runs deep.

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democrats have a hill to klein, they need to take over 25 seats in order to regain control over the house of representatives. there was a list of 36 districts that were released as tarlgets for them. we have steve israel to discuss that strategy. not an easy climb but you are looking at seats where they have

flipped the last time and also those that have been close, that you have tried repeatedly to gain, what makes you think you can do it this time, especially, congressman, with 84% of people saying they hate congress, how do you persuade people to go with the democrats? >> reporter: it's tr-- it's tru that they could be angry. republican congress has been against middle class tax cuts and been presiding of the taking down of the the middle class, voters are smart, they will hold the republican congress accountable for those wrong priorities and bad choices -- >> last year, congressman, haven't voters, in most cases

blamed both parties, pretty even handedly for the mess that has be been congress? >> voters only have to go back a week when we said we want a full year extension of the payroll tax cut and the republicans said know. all they have to do is go back and look at their republican member of congress to see how they voted. did they support the middle class and seniors? democrats have been standing up for the middle class and at every step willing to put them as a priority. we have a red to blue group, 36 democratic candidates throughout the country, they are problem solvers. we have a nasa astronaut, we have the first african american woman police chief in orlando,

florida who brought crime down 40%, they are problem solvers, and people are thirsty for a congress that will focus on solving the problems of the middle class. >> you have the challenge of the campaign ahead of you, thank you so muc so much.

while president obamas has been focusing on his own campai campai campaign fundraising there's been a problem at the super pac level. the spaurupporters have not bee cheering and running to put up their money, but david axelrod signaled that they may have to change course to avoid being out gunned from mitt romney. >> they have half a billion dollars from groups that can contribute unlimited amounts of

money. that is concerning to me. >> we have the politico briefing, glenn, first of all, we know there's supposed to be an arm's length distance, no communicating. we have seen colbert and is stewart make that point repeatedly. the fact is that bill burton is a well known and good friend of everyone in the media who have been covering him as well as the white house raising money for its campaign som, so what is th problem? >> the main problem is that the president himself, hates the idea of super pacs and have spent years rallying against the system. if you talk about it long enough people start to believe you.

>> he can rail against it, glenn, but there would not be a super pac supporting barack obama if he did not bless in some way. is it an inside outside game? >> on one level it is and one it's not. the thing for his base was sort of clean hands politics. it's not just a matter of the president's virtue, it's a matter of the president's brand, axelrod has been intune what can damage the president's reputation if he dives down into the pit with romney. mitt romney's pac going after newt gingrich in iowa and knee capping him has change today dynamic and which i can is concerned about it right now. >> and chicago is concerned

about it right now. moments ago newt gingrich responded to the personal property's decision to reject the keystone pipeline. >> obama's decision is stupid on three grounds, no better word for it. these people are so out of touch with re with reality it's as if they were governoring mars. stupidity number one, we need the jobs. >> ahead, inside syria, and nba legend, first interview after being named cultural ambassador for the state department. this i. who has a million things to pick up each month on top of her prescriptions. thankfully, her walgreens pharmacist recommended a 3-month supply. now, mary gets 3 refills in one

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the attacks on anti-government protesters. and for the first times, a powerful gulf leader threatens to intervene, saying he will deploy troops if the attacks don't stop. we have damon on the phone, you were detained and taken to the police station and they made you erase some of your tape. as i understand it, it's tape showing long lines for gas. are they that sensitive about sanctions working? >> reporter: well, on one hand the government here certainly the minister of information has been very keane on showing that it's ordinary syrians that are suffering because of the sanctions, and that the sanctions have been taking a toll on the daily lives on

ordinary syrians' daily lives. that has reflected with unemployment, and factories shutting down, it's difficult to get any kind of currency on the country. on one side they wanted to show the situation for the people but when it went to go out, it turned out to be a different story. the security forces prevented us from showing it. and it was erased. >> how much freedom do you have there? this is an unusual trip, we have not been able to get behind the scenes in syria, how much freedom do you have to shoot anything else after this experience you have already had with your tape being taken from you or you being told that you had to erase your tape? >> reporter: the situation has been restrictive for a journalist, there has been 120 delegations of journalists that

have been allowed in since december, so they will say that they have been opening up to foreign media. the arab observer mission, one of the mandates was to allow foreign journalists into the country, so they are feeling they are up holding that. as far as what is happening to ground, the journalists have been escorted to various sites. from one city or another. there's no doubt that there are limitations on the freedom of journalists to move, when they say you can move freely, you are often asked to sign a waiver that says it's not up to the syrian government to ensure your safety which is intimidating. >> it's a dangerous situation indeed. what is your ability to even talk to people on the street, to

every day syrian s or are you prevented from having contact with average people? >> well, when you are out in the street with the minders, there's no doubt there's limitations and not necessarilily imposed by the minder itself, people anticipate that there's a government official with you and perhaps those around you within the area you are in. there's no doubt that people here exercise a degree of self sen censorship, but people in close quarters will take a greater deal of liberty expressing their viewpoints of what is happening. it's all about the sensitivity of the situation that you find yourself speaking to ordinary citizens. >> please be careful there, and on that front, it was told to parliament that there's evidence that iran is supplying weapons

to the syrian security forces in the crack down on the protesters. president obama of course is walking a fine line with iran, trying to use economic pressure to inflict just enough pain to derail their nuclear program but not trigger a crisis, we have our white house correspondent. you recently covered the state department with me. long time traveling come ppartn around the world. how is the government going to balance this, the treasury department is trying get china and others in line, and resistance from china, to squeeze the financial flow just enough but not trigger a global energy crisis that could derail the economic recovery? >> it's a sensitive task. the president wants to inflict

enough pain on the iranians that they change their direction. that is not an easy task. he has to worry particularly in an election year, that if he constricts supply of oil and drives up oil prices it could hurt him. he is not helped by republican candidates, led by mitt romney are already accusing him of being weak on iran. if there was a president romney, he is, saying that he would use military force. this ises the li-- this is the line the president is walking. >> and now he has the keystone pipeline problem, he will have them saying you are not helping us become energy independent, it would bring down the oil from

canada to the refineries. >> indeed, and the argument is if you are going to cut off one of the world's major oil exporters, you have to make sure there's enough supply online and one of the ways to do that, at least down the road is to approve the keystone pipeline. so this is a decision that has a domestic economic jobs component but to some extent, a foreign policy national security component as well. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> and kareem abdul jabbar is an nba ledgend. now he is a ambassador for the united states, it was made official this morning at the state department. >> we are thrilled that you have agreed to do this. um you'll be going brazil in the coming months. and what a wonderful way to talk to young people and have a great

story that you not only tell but are a great example of from harlem to the nba and all the work you do to give back, we think it's terrific. >> with me now, new cultural ambassad ambassador, kareem abdul jabbar. secretary hillary clinton is not much taller than i am. what do you see your role as cultural ambassador? >> i would like to see that my country is portrayed in accurate fashion and the best way to do that is for ordinary americans to go out and people people in the world and let them know what american is for real. >> when you first agreed to do this, i know you are going to brazil first, what sectors are you, are you reaching out to youth, are you trying to portray america as it is and let people

know that their fears about america are not justified, is it the people to people concept? >> the people to people concept is the thing that works i think. people understand when somebody is trying pull their leg and when they are not. when you get an opportunity to meet people, ordinary citizens face to face and tell them what life is like about here, they will get an accurate picture and then they can make their own decisions about whether or not they, how they feel about america. >> i know, athletics is an obvious way that you can reach out to people, you'll do a basketball tournament in brazil, that is one of the things you'll do, what other ways can you relatity yo-- relate your experience and the way you rose from a challenged childhood? >> the u.s. is trying to cooperate with governments in terms of education, because education is the key to the

whole world's future, it revolves on how well we can educate the next generation coming up. that is always a common ground that we can all relate to, and by what the american government is trying do in helping the brazilian government, the cooperation there just gives us good will and understanding of who we are. >> i know you've shared with me that you have also faced health challenges but you are doing well, you are a cancer survivor? >> yes, i have chronic leukemia, and i am managing it and doing what the doctors tell me to do to continue to live my life in the same way i did before i was diagnosed. >> you are an author, and i have here your new book, "what color is my world" the lost history of

african american inventors, this is coming out soon? >> in the next couple of weeks, it will be on amazon, walmart, target, a number of other places. and it kind of fills in the gaps in our history books. i remember when i was a kid, the only things in our history books, the only things that black americans were associated with had to do with the issue of slavery and civil rights and there's more than that, this is my attempt to give a more balanced picture of what black americans have experienced here. >> "what are color is my world" it's beautifully done and thank you so much for this. >> i hope you enjoy it. >> "the lost history of african american inventors" it's a part of history that children need to

understand better. and we now call you ambassador. >> yeah, i'm going have to get used to that. >> it's a very cool title. thank you very much. great pleasure to meets yo you. the woman behind the man.lawy . someday, but not today mr. intern. today, your boss needs her caffeine. the boss that calls you nick. your name is nate. but you'll do whatever it takes to impress. you'll bring her the all-natural sugar in the raw and the all natural, zero calorie sweetener stevia in the raw. now run along and learn lots. like how she doesn't drink coffee, just tea. it's only natural. >> my name is jane and i've got osteoporosis. but i'm an on-the-go woman; i've been active all my life. that's why i'm excited about reclast. it's the once-a-year i.v. osteoporosis treatment. reclast helps to restrengthen my

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today my journey continues across the golden state, where everyone has been unbelievably nice. mornin'. i guess i'm helping them save hundreds on car insurance. it probably also doesn't hurt that i'm a world-famous advertising icon.

cheers! i mean, who wouldn't want a piece of that? geico. ah... fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent oh dear... or more on car insurance. hi everyone, coming up on "news nation" we are following breaking news on the keystone pipeline, you may have heard that the president took a stand and rejected the pipeline, we are waiting for the official announcement. but in the meantime, speaker boehner said the president is about to destroy 10s of thousands of jobs and this fight is not over, and the live streaming review of what more than one million signatures to recall governor scott walker. i'll talk to the democratic party as they are counting those

signatures. maybe it was bound to happen, a celebrity chef slamming paula, deen. callista has been on stage at all campaign p eveevents. she was addressing voters directly in campaign issues. >> it's my prayer that america remains an exceptional nation. >> will their past, and her role in his campaign hurt his bid.

-- the piece titled "the good wife" aerial, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> callista plays an important role, she is involved with the video, the foundation and the movies and his faith, because he converted to catholicism after becoming involved with callista, so, she is really so critical to his campaign. and in your observation and your reporting, what is her real impact on the campaign? >> reporter: well according to the people that worked for her before is that she cheewields a of power. several of the former staffers said, he essentially viewed the trip that they quit because of, that it would end his marriage if he did not go.

she is not vocal,ly to reportert have a sense of who she is. >> at the same time we always hear about staff versus staff friction and some of that is sour grapes by people, who you know, as gingrich described it, didn't like the way he and she ran it. but there was the tiffany bill, so there were expenses that were concern by staff members. >> sure, there's always problem by the staff and spouse. but i think, you know, it's common all of us blame our spouses sometimes, for stuff we don't want to do. it easier to say, oh, my spouse doesn't want that to happen than to admit that you don't want to do the things that you need to do to run for president. i think there's some of that.

>> the other time it came up was when the evangelical leaders met last week and the majority of them endorsed rick santorum rather than newt gingrich as the conservative alternative to mitt romney. james dobson said something and has issued a statement about it. he said is something apparently in the meetings about newt gingrich's marriage and affairs, just as it's common knowledge that he has been married 3 times, it's known that callista gingrich was his mistress for years. that was hardly new news. it was just a statement of fact. is this still something that is of concern in the evangelical community or just to the leaders? because conservative voters seem to be rallying behind gingrich. there's evidence that he is doing well and he has been the debate, the king of the debates.

>> absolutely. the king of the debates. there's no question he would be doing better with evangelical voters had he not had three marriages. and i think did have an affair callista gingrich for six years while he was still married to his second wife mary ann. ca lis tas gingrich testified to this in their divorce proceedings. and i think that you know, the penny nance, head of the concerned women for america said to me my thought about it when i first heard about him running for president was the third wife doesn't get to be the first lady. evangelicals are torn about this issue because a major of tenet is forgiveness and there needs to be room for remorse and forgiveness. i think the fact that she's not speaking all and that gingrich, he acts like he's speaking about this a lot, but i feel like it's been very thin, the extent to which he said i've made mistakes in the past. i think one pastor in dallas

suggested to me that a real conversation about this ideally if she took place in it would go a lot further with these voters to give them some sort of comfort this the just isn't politically expedant, that he has had a major change of thought on all these matters. >> interesting stuff. thank you, ariel levy from the new yorker. what political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back.

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and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? chriscy little za joins us again. we're looking at south carolina and some polls in the next 24 hours. nbc news mayor rift coming out tomorrow. >> i am eagerly waiting those numbers, andrea, like i do all nbc polls. look, we know, i've talked to a few campaigns. we know that newt gingrich has gotten a little bit of a bump off of his performance in the

debate earlier this week. we've got another debate tomorrow. i'm interested to see how close it gingrich to romney? is romney above 30, at 30, is he still the front-runner and where is santorum. gingrich and santorum, if they split that the vote, mitt romney might shoot up the middle. so many great story lines. i am a little bit too excited. >> okay. and we'll be sharing all of that with you tomorrow. thanks so much, chris. that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. join us tomorrow for those polls, plus the new york "time" magazine's matt bayh's on the tea party's not very civil war. tamron hall has a look what's next on news nation. >> coming up as promised, we are following breaking news regarding the keystone pipeline. the latest words from the administration. and as expected, the big pushback from republicans, including house speaker john boehner who is bound to fight over this pipeline saying it's not over. where does it go from here?

for the first time ever, wisconsin, they really are busy. these are workers reviewing over a million signatures on a petition to recall governor scott walker. i'm going to talk with the communications director in wisconsin for the democratic party. how are things going? they say they've got more than they need. we'll find out how the count is going. the heat is on. a celebrity feud after a popular chef slams paula deen regarding her announcement she has diabetes and is a spokesman now for a diabetes drug. ♪ is it fast? it's got a lightning bolt on it, doesn't it? ♪ is it fast? i don't even know if it's street-legal. ♪ is it safe? oh, yeah. it's a volkswagen. [ male announcer ] the security of a jetta. one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. ♪ got you in a stranglehold, baby ♪

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right now on "news nation," mitt romney's 15% problem. >> this is -- this is a problem on a lot of levels. >> even romney supporters now say it is time for him to release his tax returns. >> you should put them out. you put them out sooner rather than later. and from bain to the tax issue, is team romney falling flat when it comes to mitt's money? and leave it to newt