help for iran. and live in washington moments from now, trayvon martin's parents will be speaking out about the controversial news conference held by george zimmerman's former legal team. >> plus girl power. >> make sure they remember. >> young her row ins taking the reins. the run away success of hunger games" but not without some controversy. and the newly-crowned king of golf, an emotional moment for bubba watson as he poses for his victory tour with the people of "morning joe" and talks about his late father. >> to see my dad go to the masters, be cheerful of his son, the way he raised me, the way he raised me as a son, as a man, he probably could care less now about the golf. i know he's probably watching from heaven, but probably the man that's more important to him than the masters championship.

>> what a refreshing moment a sports hero. good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. after 32 state contests, 20 debates, $1890 million in candidate spending and $50 million more by super pacs, the republican presidential primary race is effectively over. but will rick santorum endorse mitts romney and urging his supporters to back romney? this morning on fox, romney was confident he will. >> i think senator santorum throughout the campaign has been speaking about issues that we care about very deeply. so we're on the same page on those issues and i think he'll see us all come together in a very powerful way. but the time for that will happen down the road as we spend more time together and hit the trail together. >> chris cillizza is managing editor of post politics.com and here in person. >> we made it. >> first of all, this is really the day. >> yes. >> it's over. the campaign is over all but you

know, aside from some unexpected event, mitt romney is the nominee. >> he is. >> what happens next? how does he bring the party together because of his infamously unenthusiastic about him. >> the wisdom would suggest mitt romney should do something to show conservatives he's one of them. i don't know that conservatives are ever going to believe he's one of them. i think what will mitt romney should do instead is what he started to do, focus on president obama. what we know in a choice between rick santorum and mitt romney, conservatives will take rick santorum. that was proven out through 30 plus states. in a choice between mitt romney and barack obama, my guess is conservatives will get excited enough about mitt romney to vote for him because they dislike president obama. 2004, democrats didn't love john kerry, he was not their heart choice but disliked george w. bush a lot more. john kerry lost that election so draw your own conclusions there.

i don't know what he means to the right, right now. i think he needs to hope conservatives do decide he's better than the alternative. >> take a look at what he's trying to do in terms of the woman, the gender gap. this is mitt romney today. he made the same pitch yesterday. >> he's lost 800,000 jobs during his presidency. do you know what percentage of those jobs lost were lost by women? over 92% of the jobs lost under this president were lost by women. his policies have been really a war on women. >> so he's concerned about that, 19-point gender gap. the 92% number has been disputed by everybody, by politifact, glenn kesler in the washington post, the fact checker. it's cherry picking numbers and establishing a phony base for the jobs number and for the employment number. just as obama is taking over. >> what they're trying to do,

it's not just his rhetoric, it's the visuals, too. an event yesterday in delaware in which he was surrounded by who? women. this is not by accident. the reality of politics at the presidential level is mitt romney is not going to win the women vote. he is going to lose, but he cannot lose it by 19 points and hope to win the election. the pushback i think is necessary as you point out. some holes have already been poked in it. what they have to hope, what the romney people have to hope is they can muddle it up enough that suburban independent women say, i just don't know the where to come down on this and they revert back to the economy where obama they believe obama has significant weakness. i think that's what they're trying to do. mitt romney will not win the women's vote in november 2012. if he does he's going to win the election by 10 points. >> more women vote than men. he can't survive this kind of gender gap. something has just come to our attention.

this is alan west in a town hall in florida. let's take a look at this. >> what percentage of this legislature do you think are carried carrying marxists? >> corporate -- >> i believe there's about 70, 80 to 81 members of the democratic party that are members of the communist party. >> he's suggesting that 80 or 81 members of the democrats in congress are members of the communist party. i mean, this is a tea party conservative. >> talk about a fact check. >> where does he pull this stuff out? >> one of the most amazing story lines i've had, i've been amazed at over the last two weeks is all these people including sarah palin alan west for vp. reason he won't be the vice president is right there. this is a beyond ludicrous claim

that regardless of your ideological leanings. >> how many pinocchios would the "washington post,." >> four is the most. you might have to create that's like a double -- this is west in a nutshell. it's why the people who love him are not a broad swathe of the american electorate. >> to be continued. chris, see you later. thank you so much. and when we look now at risk santorum's exit, mitt romney is trying to solidify his potential with party conservatives. for the first time, the romney campaign can focus exclusively on barbs coming from the white house instead of santorum's onslaughts against mitt romney. including these zingers. >> he is the worst republican in the country to put up against barack obama. >> and we will stay with what we have instead of taking a risk in what may be the etch a sketch candidate for the future.

this is one who doesn't have a core. he's been on both sides of almost every single issue in the past ten years. >> he presented the blueprint for obama care and vocced for exactly what obama care did. we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting. >> veteran republican strategist of john brabender was the top adviser to the santorum campaign abjoins us today. well, i know this has got to be a difficult time. you saw this coming, but take us behind the scenes. how did you and rick santorum come to the conclusion that you really couldn't go forward? >> well, in fairness, it was rick santorum and his wife karen played an important role. we started to have some discussions over the weekend and we were looking at really three main factors. one is we were looking at the math using old math, new math,

any math to see if there was a way we could get to 1144 to get the nomination. once texas sort of pulled back from winner take all, it could have been 155 dels in one night, we felt that was too big a climb. number two, we felt there was a strong appetite in the republican party to unite and start to make our case why barack obama has to be defeated and we felt that -- >> were you getting a lot of pressure? >> we probably got just as much pressure saying please do not get out but make sure the conservatives have a candidate and they were concerned mitt romney wasn't that candidate. however we felt that the reason that rick santorum got in this race from day one was to defeat barack obama since we couldn't get to 1144, we wanted to move to the next step to try to help that. third of all, santorum's daughter bella going into the hospital last -- >> how is she doing. >> much, much better. it was a very big scare. it was very serious but she is doing well now and she's an inspiration to everybody in that campaign. i think that hit home. rick said something to me a long

time ago where he said even if i'm elected president i'm never going to have a more important job than being a parent to my children. i think they felt there was a little girl back in virginia who needed him and now was the time he had to be there and he was going to be there. i think those farced into it. >> it was so noticeable that rick santorum never mentioned mitt romney. you would think when he's deciding to suspend his campaign that even if he isn't ready to endorse yet, he would mention the front-runner. it was so noticeable in its absence you have to wonder whether there's a lot of hard feelings. >> i think people are reading too much into that. i do think that will rick felt that he was talking to the millions of people that voted for him. let's not forget, he won more counties in the 30 some states than all the other candidates combined. it means had he support in the city, the rural, every place. i think he felt he was speaking to them and explaining to them why he had come to this decision and that he was not, however, giving up his voice or his passion for fighting for this

november. just in a different way. he did talk to mitt romney yesterday. they had a good conversation. they promised to meet to talk about everything from endorsements to how rick can help. i think rick will be very serious in helping mitt romney. >> is he going to endorse. >> i think they do want to talk about some things. >> what does rick santorum want? >> he has not asked for an endorsement yet. i think what mitt asked for in that meeting is we expect him to ask for his endorsement. rick will be a team player in this in the sense if he is going to help romney he wants to make sure romney has some say in how best to do that. health care is one of the discussions they have to have and other factors where they do have some disagreements. >> what are rick santorum's bottom line before he endorses? does he want a statement from mitt romney about the individual mandate in health care? what does he expect in this conversation. >> you can already see a lot of politics and anlises start

saying move to the middle now, mitt, you don't have to be that conservative anymore. rick feels he owes it to the conservative side of the party and the tea party to make sure that they are going to be represented, have a voice and that romney is going to live up to the values he talked about through the campaign. >> which specific issues? what are the touchstone issues? >> certainly repealing it obama care and replacing it with something that does not have a mandate will be very important. any future attempts at bailouts will be very important and the sincerity of doing something about the out of control debt and a time frame of doing it and making tough decisions to make sure we get rid of the debt and deficit to the level it is today. >> what will he do with his delegates? >> i don't know. i mean, we have not decided that. we're getting questions on that and is he interested in vice president. all these different things, which frankly. >> what about the vice presidency? >> none of these had any factor in whether he stayed in or got out of the race. when rick has said about vice president all along, he's going

to do whatever he he can to help house and senate and presidential candidates on the republican ticket this year and however he can help america, he's willing to do this year. those are all questions for mitt romfully. >> he would join a ticket if the romney folks decided they would help him get elected. lyndon johnson being chosen by jfk was about as unlikely as you can get considering the way they felt about each other. >> rick knows that a traditional vice presidential candidate is very good at someone who is reading talking points. rick santorum has never been somebody who particularly is the one reading from a teleprompter or talking points and oftentimes is willing to speak his mind. that is not always the attribute you're looking for from a vp candidate. >> the teleprompter jokes he made about romney are legend, as well. he has said pretty tough things about mitt romney. how does he take all that back? >> still his goal when you look

at romney versus obama, there's no comparison. end of the day, we are all family. end of the day we all stick together and get together. i think that you will see rick santorum doing that. he is very sincere when he says his real goal is to defeat barack obama. >> is his ultimate goal to run in 2016? >> i don't think he's looking at that. i think he's looking at short term how do we beat obama and beef up the counts in the house and take back the senate. those are probably even more important to him. >> what were the mistakes that were made? do you think it was a mistake to you know you can talk about jfk and the religious issue the way he did and to talk about wanting to vomit? i mean, some of the language he used along the way, did he make it harder for mitt romney to win because of the way he framed the women's issues? >> i would answer this a little bit different. there were all these candidates that eamericaned, bachmann, perry, newt gingrich, cain. you go on and on. but yet, only one really eamericaned as the counterpart

to romney to give him a serious threat. it happened to be somebody who had much less money and name identification than the other ones. it was the sincerity with which rick spoke which means sometimes you speak indirectly and the words you choose. but people saw a realness to him and believed he had the currently to say what he really thought. i think that's why he did do so well. 11 states isn't too bad to win. >> you should be congratulated and the speech in iowa, the speech yesterday, there were some great speeches from rick santorum when he spoke about his family and he touched a lot of people, and people wish him well. >> i think you'll be hearing a lot from him, believe me. >> thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. coming up, romney and the gender gap. can his wife help him with the problem? plus, final preparations under way in north korea despite increased warnings from the west. and hunger fever. a new era of girl power on the big screen. yan calendar, on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull

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in today's political briefing the gender gap. after a bruising primary campaign season that included a tax on birth control, how does mitt romney close the huge gender gap that exists between him and president obama? joining me is maggie haberman. thanks so much for joining us. romney already talking about it last night and again today. this is what he had to say earlier today. >> women in particular have been hurt by this president. they want someone who can get good jobs and get their kids to work. who was it dick armey said the american dream has to be redefined. it's no longer owning a home. it's owning a home where your kids are no longer living in it. >> he's thrown around a lot of statistics which have been under attack, 92% of those who have been laid off have been women.

maggie, is that going to be good enough in terms of talking about the economy and hoping i guess that women forget about this whole primary season debate over contraception? >> it will be good if they can make the statistic stand. as you said, this is a number under attack right now because it doesn't quite work. it sounds like it's coming from a mixed bag of figures. there is also some problems where the campaign held a conference call today top policy adviser was asked if the candidates support the lily ledbetter fair pay act, not exactly a household name but it is presumably something the campaign would have thought of. there was a delay and the adviser said we'll get back to you. his campaign later said he does support it. you'll see a lot of moments where the campaign is in transition from having to defend against santorum and deal with president obama one-on-one and the obama campaign is being relentless on this issue because they know it is much more a win are for them than mitt romney. >> the campaign says it's the economic issues that will draw people in. michael gerson, the former bush

white house speechwriter, george w. bush writer who is a columnist for the "washington post" had an op-ed that sort of expanded on this taking this em to task saying the composite republican candidate reflecting the party's ideological mean has been harsh on immigration, confrontational on social issues, confrontational on social issues. how many women find this appealing on e harmony? >> it's a broad range of issues that have according to michael gerson and according to polling that have raised concerns among women voters. >> i think that's right. the contraception issue as we saw did not play out particularly well for republicans. they found themselves playing defense on what was supposed to be an issue against obama care and against the president's health care plan. this has been a problem as well in terms of the primary and rick santorum who while he tried not engaging on social issues i think he tried more often than

he didn't, he couldn't quite help getting off on some tangents on this. i think the primary has had the effect of dragging the entire party to the right. this is not where mitt romney wants to be. i think some of mitt romney's problem is going to be recalibrating his own language. he talked about this last week, said that my wife reports to me about what the concerns of women voters are. i think at a certain point, ann romney can only get him so far. she's a terrific surrogate. at a certain point, the candidate has to try to bridge the gap himself. right now we are seeing more elements of how the campaign wants to show visual little that they are reaching out to women. it's going to take i think more than that. >> also, reince priebus, the republican national chairman was on with thomas roberts earlier today who gave him a chance to walk back his comment, the comment that was a facetious comment firing up the internet the other day. >> i think that -- >> the war on cat ter pillars

created lots of headlines. is that something you want to walk back or clarify right now? >> i'll double down on it. this war on women is a fiction that the democrats have created. >> so that's his basic point that it's a democratic talking point which it clearly is. quote war on women. i don't particularly like that phrase because it is a highly charged phrase. i'd rather talk about the issues one by one. but he's not going to apologize for what he said. >> in fairness to him, i'm going to go against what i think a lot of people have said. i thought that that statement was part of a hyper bol lick statement or the reaction was part of the hyper bollic response we've seen throughout the primary where people have seized on a gaffe. i don't think he was equating women to caterpillars. i agree with you the phrase war on women does have problems to it. i think unfortunately for the republicans, while i don't think the cater pillars thing was quite fair, it is now once again

the republicans playing defense on an area where they already have some problems. >> thank you very much, maggie habber man. still ahead the latest on the north korean rocket launch. the proposed launch and a programming note. don't miss ed schulze's exclusive interview with vice president joe biden tomorrow at 8:00 eastern only on msnbc. ♪ you make me happy when skies are gray ♪ [ female announcer ] you know exactly what it takes to make them feel better. ♪ you make me happy [ female announcer ] that's why you choose children's tylenol. the same brand your mom trusted for you when you were young. ♪ how much i love you [ humming ] [ female announcer ] children's tylenol, the #1 brand of pain and fever relief recommended by pediatricians and used by moms decade after decade. [ humming ]

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talk to your doctor today about androgel 1.62% so you can use less gel. log on now to androgeloffer.com and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news. iranian leaders say they are willing to offer new proposals at this weekend's nuclear talks. it's not clear if they'll meet the west's demands though and stop enriching uranium. william cohen is chairman and ceo of the cohen group and will be joining us momentarily. first, ayman mohyeldin is in cairo. let's talk about what is going on next door in syria. ayman. >> yeah, a lot of developments today particularly on the issue of the cease-fire, the u.n. brokered cease fire.

the syrian government has confirmed through its state media as well as through a letter to the men who brokered that deal, former can general kofi annan that as of 6:00 a.m. thursday morning, damascus time, they will cease all military activity inside syria. essentially promising to halt their end of the fighting tomorrow morning. part of that u.n. brokered cease fire. they are saying they are the right to defend themselves if attacked but for the most part promising to abide by the first step of that u.n.-brokered cease fire. at the same time, we are hearing from opposition sources, rebel fighters from the free syrian army that they too will abide by that cease fire deadline at 6:00 a.m. thursday. so there is some very little hope that in fact, tomorrow could bring the first day in a long time without any violence, but many people remain very pessimistic that it will actually hold or endure that test. andrea? >> ayman mohyeldin, thank you very much. former defense secretary william

cohen is chairman and ceo of the cohen group and joins us now from capitol hill. thanks so much for joining us. we've seen what's been going on in syria. one of the appeals kofi annan made was to iran to help use its considerable influence. it's been arming syria and supporting syria. at the same time we're going into talks this weekend where the u.s. and the other allies are going to be meeting for the first time in 14 months really with iran to talk about its nuclear program. what do you think of the negotiating position going in and the demand that they dismantle their underground nuclear facility? >> i think that's the first option to begin with. i think it has to go much further than dismantle that particular operation. they have enriched uranium to 20%. that simply has to disappear as well and be shifted over to an international group, either any of the permanent five plus one. they have to go much further than that if they're going to

satisfy the united states and the international community that they're really going to reach an agreement which takes them off the path of developing a nuclear weapon. i think they have been on that path. they continue to pursue that path and you're going to have to have some pretty serious rejections in order to satisfy anyone that they're serious about it. >> at the same time, we understand that president ahmadinejad is no longer the power brokers. i think ultimately the decisions have always been with the ayatollah who is the supreme leader and decides what happens with the nuclear program. there is no sign iran is going to concede. are we headed to a military confrontation or is this going to be a protracted, prolonged negotiation? >> well it can't be too long a negotiation. i think president obama has stated he wants to see some steps taken and immediate steps taken because the window is closing if not for us then certainly for the state of israel. israel has a much shorter window they're looking through in terms

of whether or not they can afford to wait until iran goes that final step to develop that nuclear weapon capability. so i think we're looking for something rather immediate in terms of substantive steps that were taken. it's not going to be in two or three weeks but something that really signifies the iranians are serious about reaching agreement. absent that, the military option starts to move closer to the center of the table. i think china plays a key role and the chinese have to communicate to iran they are serious, not only rhetorically that they don't want to see iran develop a nuclear capability but prepared to back it up with the sanctions that the rest of the international community, especially the europeans, the french, the english, the germans, and the united states are prepared to implement. so the hopefully, they will get that message and be satisfied that they can develop a nuclear power capability be for peaceful purposes as they declare and make it very clear to the world

they're not going to pursue the other path of weapons. it's up to them. but china has a key role to play and i hope they will. >> i want to pursue that more with you. if you can hang with us for a moment, right now we've got go to some breaking news live right now in washington. the parents of the slain florida teen trayvon martin along with the reverend al sharpton holding a press conference about the case involving george zimmerman and the lawyers who quit his case. >> tried to stop the rush to judgment that will mr. zimmerman apparently made on the night of february 26th. let us remember and a lot of the media in many ways distort this. trayvon martin committed no crime. he had no weapon and he had every legal right to be where he was. the rush to judgment was those that moved against him, said he was suspicious, and took his life. so to lecture us about rushing

to judgment, we're a victim of a rush to judgment in this case. let's be real clear on that. now, the other thing that i wants us to be very clear this family has said from the beginning and we then came in early have said and i repeat, we do not condone or support in any way any acts or language of violence. trayvon martin's name must not be tarnished by those that are either for or against us with any reckless behavior even verbally. it is imperative that we make it clear this family has denounced anything other than nonviolent and peaceful protests. we are not in the business of

revenge. we're in the business of justice. and anyone that operates in any other spirit is not operating in the spirit set by this family from day one, when i sat with them and attorney crump and attorney parks, i've been very moved and impressed by the dignity and integrity that these parents have demonstrated. not a word of rancor, even in private. so yes, there are many that get emotional, there are many that get involved. but they should not take it upon themselves to disparage the name of trayvon in the name of their anger. yes, we are all angry, but you can't be more upset than his parents and if they can operate with dignity, then all of us must operate in dignity. [ applause ] we must make the justice system

work. otherwise, this movement is for nothing. to go outside of the justice system is to achieve nothing. what we want is to make sure that the justice system is corrected and works. anything short of that is short of the goals and the principles that were outlined. so i want us to be real clear. it it is also, again, at our convention, our quest is on probable cause the immediate arrest of mr. zimmerman. when you heard his lawyers yesterday or his ex-lawyers or his ex-legal advisers say themselves that they don't know where he is, it is unheard of for someone to kill an unarmed innocent man and walk out of the

police station and now we are told 43 days later that they can't even reach him, his own lawyers. so there's no officer of the court, no lawyer responsible for him, no one to reach him. this family has their child that has been killed for no reason, no wrong. and we don't know where he is. he should be apprehended immediately. he should have been held that night. [ applause ] can you imagine if this had been in another community, this is unheard of. and we feel it should be corrected. the attorney general spoke here this morning about the federal investigation. we are waiting to see what the state prosecutor does. we are, again, clearly involved in this for an issue of justice. lastly, i want us to be very clear, this is not anti-anybody.

there are whites, blacks, latinos, asians that have marched with us, that stand with us. we are not running a hate campaign. this is a love campaign. we love our children. we love trayvon. we are not even anti-zimmerman. we're anti-those that feel they can break the law and not have to stand before the bar of justice. so this is not about we are after zimmerman. we're after justice. and we're for trayvon. this is a love campaign. don't distort to pursue justice for an unarmed man who died for no reason is not hate, is love. only those that don't want to stand for justice confuse love with hate. we are here because we love justice. and we love victims of injustice. and that's what trayvon martin

is. i give you now the attorney for the family, attorney ben crump. >> good morning. i come here with trayvon's parents sybrina fulton and tracie martin who you're going to hear from as well as attorney parks and attorney -- reverend bryant. and then we will take a few questions. i wanted to first say, echo reverend sharpton. we've got a lot of calls from government officials about when the special prosecutor makes her decision that we want to make sure that everything remains peaceful and responsible and

that nothing gets out of hand. so i want to say at the very beginning before we say anything, we want all the world, we're asking everybody who really cares about justice for trayvon martin to follow the example of sabriybrina fulton a tracie martin, his mother and father and remain in. peaceful and having faith in our system and being prayerful that everything is going to work out regardless of the great length of time that it has taken. they are such a good example of keeping your composure and it's one of those things nobody, as reverend sharpton said, nobody can be hurting more than them. nobody can be more outraged than

them and if they can continue to carry themselves in a dignified manner, we all should. and that's what we're praying for and begging for and imploring everybody to do especially in light of the special prosecutor's announcement that she is going to render her decision very shortly. >> and you can see the attorney for trayvon martin's parents calling for a peaceful reaction no matter what the decision is which is supposed to come as he put it shortly from the special prosecutor in florida. and we are still rejoined now by william cohen, the former defense secretary. i wanted to talk to you about some intriguing comments by hillary clinton secretary of state was delivering the fer rest stall lecture at annapolis last night at the naval academy and talked more expan sibly about the night bin laden was killed and the

seal team success in that is navy operation. let's watch a lit of that. >> i think you could tell from the -- i wasn't even aware people were taking pictures. the white house photographer obviously was, but it was just, you were just so concentrating on what you could see and you could hear. we could see or hear nothing when they went into the house. there was nos communication or feedback coming. and then we got the word that they thought they had killed bin laden. but think about what they had to do because it was imperative that we take the body. all of this is happening, you know the body's going out, the women and children are coming in. the reserve helicopters is on its way but it's not there yet. you know, there was a lot of breath holding. >> she was describing the tension. she was asked about it because it was clearly one of those moments. you've been in similar moments in the situation room and in other plays at the pentagon as

defense secretary. what did we learn from that and what do we know going forward about how decisions are made at the highest level. >> i think we learned two things. number one the extraordinary capability of our special forces. the men and women who serve in the special forces are just extraordinarily courageous, competent and skillful and patriotic. number one their courage in carrying out the mission. i think we have to give the president, president obama really a congratulations on having made the decision. it was a tough decision to make and i would extend this to secretary panetta because most of the individuals around his national security team had recommended not to take -- undertake ta mission. it was too dangerous and frankly, the president's, his credibility was on the line on this. and it could have very well impacted his future as far as running for re-election. so i think he gets credit for having ordered the mission and our military gets great credit

for having carried it out in the way they did. so these decisions are tough. that's what the commander in chief is charged with doing, making tough decisions. i give both secretary panetta and the president credit for having done that. i'm not sure they'll be lasting impact as a result of going into the campaign saying that's yed's news. it was an important moment in our history and i think that the administration can take great satisfaction that they were willing to make that call and did and had the benefit of having the greatest military in the world serving them. >> there's a lot of talk about hillary clinton as a potential candidate in 2016 and being equipped to be commander in chief. we all remember the 2008 campaign, the 3:00 in the morning phone call during the primary campaign against barack obama. certainly he would argue, the white house would argue he has proved his mettle. what about her and seeing her in a new light as she becomes increasingly popular?

>> i think secretary clinton has demonstrated throughout her career she is a very, very capable individual. i have no doubt if she chose to run at some future point in time she would be a formidable campaign. she's quite capable of carrying out the duties of the office of the president. obviously she would generate a lot of opposition on the republican side, but i think that there's no question that she is entitled to enjoy the great celebrityhood she enjoys in terms of how she's carried out her responsibilities. as first lady as a united states senator and now as secretary of state. so she will be a formidable candidate if she should ever decide to run. >> bill cohen, thank you. thanks for sticking with us today. and there is a hunger for women heroes. and the hunger games opened to record-breaking crowds in late march. no surprise to fans of this trilogy that has topped every best seller list since it was first published. written for young adults but with a wide appeal to adults as

well, the book centers on a tough but vulnerable 16-year-old her row in katnikatniss everdee in a post-war society. >> we could do it you know, take off living in the woods. >> they'd catch up. >> maybe not. >> we wouldn't make it five mile miles. >> welcome, welcome. the time has come to select one courageous young man and woman for the honor of representing district 12 in the 74th annual hunger games. >> your name's only been in there once. they're not going to pick you. >> primrose everdeen. >> prim! i volunteer!

i volunteer as tribute. >> the young her row ingoes on to fight in a violent and cruel battle. author suzanne collins is famously shy about going on camera. we are fortunate to have her editor here. her editor at scholastic. thank you very much for joining us. there are controversial issues here, the violence in this. how do you address that and what is the thinking behind the book and the books and the success of course, of the movie? >> the violence exists as a critique of violence. when the premise was first given to us of kids killing kids we were naturally concerned. because she was a best selling author and we knew she would deal with it responsibly, we knew that the violence in the books and then the movie really was meaningful, that it exists as a critique of warren an a critique of violence in general. so it seemed to fit really nicely. >> and we talking about vi lechbt scenes. we're talking about children

fighting and killing children. here's another clip from the movie. >> so you're here to make me look pretty? >> here to help you make an impression. >> and soy it was decreed that each year, the 12 districts shall offer up in tribute one yong man and woman between the ages of 12 and 18 to be trained in the art of survival and to be prepared to fight to the death. >> this is the time to show them everything. make sure they remember you. >> do you have concerns about that, about the violencen? do you think that kids take this in as science fiction, as something that's more fantasy than real? >> well, i think, i mean the great thing about the books and the mean is the violence exists within a context, that it is not desensitized violence. there are consequences to the

violence. i think within the context of the story, the kids understand how horrible it is and they learn from that. >> and what about the gender issue? because weigh talk about a gender wars to use a term that has become now so polittle sized. but all of the gender arguments i should say in this political campaign, we have a woman secretary of state, we had a very controversial woman vice president candidate. is this the time where you saw that there would be a hunger to have a woman hero? a heroine for young woman to look up to. >> katniss almost transsens her jernds. being a girl in the arena is the least of her concerns. she just wants to survive. i think we've seen female fans certainly see her as a hero. but also male fans as well and that it sort of is a great equalizer that really katniss above being female or male is

really human. that makes her all the more relatable. >> what does your research tell you about the way boys and girls are respondsing to the peeb? >> it's been amazing. once we set up our facebook fan page, we were amazed by the number of boys and men that were going on it as well as girls and women. it was a cross age, cross gender phenomenon. and again, what we've seen anecdotally and just from looking at the boards and looking at all the comments is that they are really engaged in the survival story and the choices that katniss has to make and they internalize that deeply. >> have you had the experience? i think you have had the experience, have you not where some schools are restricting access to these books? >> we've been clear that the books are appropriate for ages 12 and above. and certainly there are kids younger than 12 who want to read them. schools are careful about making sure the books only gets in the hands of the kids who can understand the context of the violence and won't be too scared

by it. >> what's next for the series. >> reporter: is there a book in progress? is she writing another one to this what, right now it's a trilogy but is she continuing? foo when we put the final book in the hunger games" everybody said are you sure it is the final book? it is the final book. suzanne has many, many more ideas and finally is having after the movie hubbub dies down the quiet to work on those ideas which is what we want. >> how is she dealing with the celebrity? >> she is amazed at the fan base and that there are so many readers. i think again, the third book mocking jay came out she did a tour. even that was incredible to see the outporing of people, teenagers and adults who the book was meaningful for. of course, that's only grown with the release of the movie. >> congratulations on the success. >> thank you. >> how muchmovie. >> congratulations on the success. how much money have you made so far or has the movie made? >> still counting. >> still counting the money.

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chris rejoins us now and we were talking about what's coming up in the next 24 hours. expecting momentarily to hear from trayvon martin's parents with reverend al sharpton here in washington and they are expecting some kind of announcement from the prosecutor. >> just an amazing story. the resignation of zimmerman's legal team, no one knows where zimmerman is, the story gets stranger and stranger and raises more and more questions. hopefully we'll start getting more answers rather than more questions raised. maybe that's what happens. >> as the legal correspondent pointed out with brian williams last night, it was a very unusual appearance by those attorneys. they could have done a written statement, but here comes trayvon martin's mother and mother and father speaking. >> i would like to thank you all for coming out because you could have been doing something else, but you felt that it was important to be here and i would

like to say thank you. for the last 44 days it has been a nightmare. this is coming from a mother's perspective. i have been up and down as if i was on a roller coaster, but i know beyond a shadow of a doubt that justice will be served. i can't really say where i would be without the law team that we have, parks and crump, and also in natalie jackson's absence we're just grateful for them because they gave us direction when we had done. we didn't know what our next steps were. they gave us the right advice and it is how we get to this point. thank you.

>> good afternoon. first of all i would like to start by saying thanks to reverend sharpton, to our law team, parks and crump, ms. jackson, to all of the supporters who have been supporting us from day one and as a parent that loses a child is very tough to maintain your sanity, but i told myself the second day that trayvon was dead that i find it within myself to do right by him, to make sure that his name wouldn't be -- his death wouldn't be in vain. i can recall calling attorney crump and pleading my case to i am had. attorney crump told me not to worry about it, that they were going to arrest him. 44 days later, george zimmerman

is still walking free. it is 44 days later, and my son is in a mosoleum. as father is hurts but i promised myself i will stand strong for my family and stand strong for everyone in support of us and most of all i will stand tall for trayvon to make sure his name lives on. a lot of people are really learning to cope with our situation because they figure their child could have been trayvon. just so happened that reverend sharpton told me one day that we would be amazed at the people that the support of the people of new york when we walked outside. ever since that day the support that we have been getting has

just been a crutch for us to lean on and just to look into the eyes of the people and union square and touch hands with them and hug them, from that moment on i knew that this fight wouldn't be an easy fight and that we had the fight for all the trayvons that were out there that hadn't been heard of. still today with the events that have been occurring, even after all of this is over, i vow to trayvon that i will not stop pushing to try to get laws rectified and try to get some kind of conclusion and understanding within our community that we need to be more positive, more assertive, and just to teach our kids

conflict and resolution, how to resolve certain situations without being confrontational. once again, from the bottom of my heart, from our families, we just like to say thank you to all of our supporters and like to say thank you to reverend al, reverend bryant, the law team, and everyone that supported us. thank you. >> thank you very much. my name is darrell parks. you know, part of this mission that we have had here for trayvon is his legacy will be that we as a country have to address racial profiling and stereotyp stereotypes. >> that's right. >> now, i am very honored to be a part of the legal team representing this family and i also serve as president of -- >> we're listening to another

attorney representing trayvon martin's family. you heard from his mother as well as his father, and the head of the national action network, reverend al sharpton. we know the family plans to speak again at 5 p.m. eastern. we're waiting for more information on the second news conference. a lot of moving parse in this story as trayvon martin's matter point out it has been 44 days since his son lost his life. we're waiting to hear from the special prosecutor who late yesterday indicated she would make an announcement within 72 hours. the clock is ticking. let me go to carey sanders that joins us live from sanford. the family plans to hold another news conference later this evening. what have we heard if anything from the special prosecutor's office? >> well, we have only heard what you know, which is that 72 hours started ticking yesterday, and there is an air of anticipation and perhaps a noticeable coincidence of the plan