former governor charlie crist. about the gop divide, why he went independent, and i'll ask him who gets his vote, coming up at 10:10 eastern. >>> don't forget cnn tonight, we are all watching the florida prima primary. we're kicking off our coverage with a special edition of "john king usa." >>> president obama opening up about drone strikes on al qaeda targets in pakistan, a topic that usually has the white house and other agencies biting their tongues, but not the case during the president's google-plus hangout. >> i think there's a perception that somehow we're just sending in a bunch of strikes willy nilly. this is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists who are trying to go in and harm americans, hit american facilities, american bases, and so on. it is important for everybody to understand this thing is kept on a very tight leash. >> barbara starr, what do you think? >> it was remark and about the candor. this is a subject, u.s. drone strikes in pakistan that has been a rea

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quote, mitt romney is no charlie crist.is a conservative and was one of the first national republican leaders to endorse me. he came to florida, campaigned hard for me, and made a real difference in my race. so it's tit for tat, marco. by the way do you think rubio has his eye on the vice presidency maybe? next up, vice president joe biden was asked today to weigh in on the newt/mitt battle and was reluctant to make a prediction. >> charlie, i couldn't figure out the democratic primary or i would have just joined the president early on. i'm not very good at this. the bottom line here is there is no fundamental difference between newt gingrich and governor romney on the things we care about, on the whole issue of how we deal with foreign policy, on how we deal with the domestic policy. this is a republican fight but substantively, i don't see any fundamental difference between the men. >> a long fight on the republican side by the way is good news for the obama/biden ticket. while millions watch the president's state of the

i think this is about the candidates. >> charlie crist, of course, the former governor of this state, the republican turned independent. worth noting that marco rubio quickly came out and defended mitt romney on this. as his own staff said, romney endorsed rubio before newt gingrich did. chuck? >> thank you, peter. let's go to ron mott he's in miami. we've had heard from speaker gingrich this morning on "today" but what's the focus today? does he have any romney attacks? is he doing health care like his super pac is? >> reporter: good morning, i think the focus at florida international university will be immigration. he has a latin-american policy speech he's set to deliver at 10:00, but just stepping back a bit, you know, the former speaker has been hatchering the president hard, as you know, calling him the most effective food stamp president in the country. he thought last night's speech was full of beautiful rhetoric, but off in terms of reality. i think last night we saw this debate will be framed on the tax reform issue. the newt gingrich, the mitt romney campaigns are both sayi

but it makes him pretty liberal in a republican primary, which probably explains why he hired charlie cristernor crist joins me now, now a registered independent, of course, famously so after 2010. governor crist, nice to see you, sir. >> good to see you, chuck. >> welcome back to florida. wish you were down here. >> i wish i was there, too, and florida's like five states. >> you are a floridian, aren't you? >> yeah, i am, and it's easier sometimes to do the work from here. now, four years ago, you were the reason, you put john mccain over the top, your machine, the state party, that helped put mccain over the top. as a political analyst, when you hear newt gingrich going after you and using you, an ideology, to go after romney, is that good republican primary politics? >> maybe it is. i really don't know. you know, i'm an independent now, so it's nice to be a spectator of all this. but i think it's pretty clear what probably will happen today in florida. as you mentioned in the lead, you know, a lot of the polling indicates that romney's doing very well in the sunshine state. that probably

it looks like speaker gingrich is going to be going after mitt romney's ties to charlie crist.t that event earlier this afternoon, newt gingrich actually went after governor romney's staff pointing out a few of them worked for charlie crist during that are 2010 midterm battle between charlie crist and marco rubio that got very ugly and personal. i asked marco rubio's staff earlier today, will he be endorsing anybody before tuesday's primary, the response no, they're staying neutral till the florida primary. >> jim acosta, thanks very much. republican senator rand paul of kentucky already is one of capitol hill's most vocal critics of the government airline operations. the senator had a run-in with the tsa today in nashville. dana bash, what happened. >>> according to senator paul, he was going through the scanner that anybody who travels has been through, the full body scanner. it went off. so the tsa said we want to give you a full body patdown. he said no. perhaps i'll go through the scanner again. they said no. he said maybe you can look at my leg. he pulled up his pant leg

former florida governor charlie crist was forced to grovel on youtube as part of a settlement over thedavid burns' song and his voice in my campaign advertisement without his permission was wrong and should not have occurred. >> reporter: and as for mitt romney and kid rock? ♪ you can let me down >> reporter: the romney campaign made sure to get mr. rock's okay before rocking out to "born free." ♪ i was born free >> reporter: because what kind of untamed stallion doesn't ask permission? i'm john berman for "nightline" in manchester, new hampshire. >> john berman and his unique take on the trail there. well, tomorrow night, here on abc, be sure to watch diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos moderate a presidential debate on the eve of the new hampshire primary. and on sunday morning, george returning to host abc's "this week." he'll bring you the whole picture on politics. thank you for watching

former florida governor charlie crist talked to chris matthews about the political polls reflecting the negative tone of the campaign commercials and the impact of all the money being spent on political acts. >> i think the old expression is that money is the mother's milk of politics. certainly that's been the case this week. to the romney campaign's credit, they've raised an enormous sum of money before i think the spending is about four to one compared to gingrich. that's hard to overcome and it's making an impact here just like it did in iowa for the speaker. and it's having a profound impact in florida. it's like a circled firing squad, if you will. and i know other republicans have talked about the challenge and the difficulty this could present to the nominee facing president obama who doesn't have this will kind of back and forth going on. there are some that argue that maybe it's healthy because you get more of the republican message out, but it's got to have a detrimental effect and i think the negatives that are building up both for gingrich and romney are being shown in the

and in backing marco rubio, which drove charlie crist, the former governor out of the republican party. there is an element there and gingrich has been able to consolidate some of that in florida. how strong that will be when they vote on tuesday, we don't know. but there is a definitely split. somewhere, i remember around christmastime when newt gingrich was coming up in iowa, the establishment had an earlier sort of pile on because i wrote about it. it seem told work because his numbers did plummet. it seems like you have a paradox between people on the republican primary saying they don't like the establishment. at the same time when the establishment says these things, eventually it brings a weight on gingrich's shoulders and brings him down. >> a lot of this last year what we've focused on is the lack of love for mitt romney among a lot of conservatives in the party. that's been supplanted at this point by the fear of newt gingrich. in iowa he was done in by a tremendous volume of negative advertising aired mostly by the super pack that's backing governor romney. a similar kind of

charlie crist made a surprise endorsement of john mccain.used his campaign operation to help john mccain, to win that and come back from the dead. and then go on to the gop nomination here in florida. conversely here in 2012, our governor is very unpopular. the latest approval rating has and that 43%, disapproval at 47%. gov. scott without endorsing a candidate, he is generally supportive of rick perry. now that governor perry, who he considered a friend, is out of the race, he has sat on the sidelines. he is putting his head down and going to work for him. his battle is to win over florida voters for a potential reelection in 2014. it is unclear how much his endorsement, how much weight it would carry. an interesting story here as well, herman cain really launched on the national scene in part every he won a straw poll in september unexpectedly. it forced voters across the country to take a look at herman cain. it launched into the next level. an endorsement from cane for gingrich could help in florida. what is strange about what happened l

charlie crist made a surprise endorsement of john mccain. he used his campaign operation to help john mccain, to win that and come back from the dead. and then go on to the gop nomination here in florida. conversely here in 2012, our governor is very unpopular. the latest approval rating has and that 43%, disapproval at 47%. gov. scott without endorsing a candidate, he is generally supportive of rick perry. now that governor perry, who he considered a friend, is out of the race, he has sat on the sidelines. he is putting his head down and going to work for him. his battle is to win over florida voters for a potential reelection in 2014. it is unclear how much his endorsement, how much weight it would carry. an interesting story here as well, herman cain really launched on the national scene in part every he won a straw poll in september unexpectedly. it forced voters across the country to take a look at herman cain. it launched into the next level. an endorsement from cane for gingrich could help in florida. what is strange about what happen

in 2008, our then current governor, charlie crist chose to endorse at the last minute. that helped senator mccain. he was popular before he switched parties and was defeat bide rubio for the seasonate seat. it did anger and alienate a lot of republicans, the last minute endorsement. they respect the process and the voters and feel it should play out. they feel like the candidates have to earn this. endorsements at that level perhaps send the wrong signal from the perspective. they need to work hard and earn the votes. i don't think that precludes either fromnd

in 2010, you had that vicious primary between charlie crist and marko rubio. rubio won that.manager is running the state of florida for newt gingrich this time around. in addition, newt gingrich just got an endorsement from a major republican hispanic group. that could be a significant factor, as well. so with this tiebreaking role florida can play, some of them could be playing in newt gingrich's favor, even though mitt romney has the money and poll advantage going into tonight. >> david, what are you deflect on as you look back on tonight? >> one is a conversation with newt gingrich way back weeks before iowa. he said i'm going to have an onslaught of negative things that come at me. if i can survive it, i can turn this into a two-man race and i can win a two-man race and this's be he's done. he's emerged now. one thing romney didn't want to do is have conservatives start to coalesce around one candidate. the other thing that is striking about this is that in the age of the internet, this new technology, how much this race is turning to old technology, television. we've alw

the same thing in florida, charlie crist went up against arubio. he had all the money in the world. he's a great senator from the state of florida. same with governor rick scott. the media wants to push a narrative it's romney, romney, romney. we are not going to accept that. we are going to show we are engaged and paying attention and we are going to have an impact in presidential politics. this is the first time in the history of politics we have an opportunity to change the government and that's what we are going to do. we are not going to let all the work we did for 2010 and we know we have one time to repeal obama care. we are not going to let it go out the window and allow everybody to hand us what they want to. we are engaged in this, we are going to pay attention. >> amy, nice to see you this morning. >> thank you. >>> a historic win for romney in new hampshire going two for two. how this could be like no other before it. >>> tim tebow bringing magic to the denver broncos. will he bring it to a republican candidate? this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now

his name was charlie crist. he ran for the senate and was defeated by a tea party candidate. and rick scott won the republican nomination for governor. so this is a good sign for newt gingrich. >> what kind of a party, republican party is it in florida? a right wing party, center party? more conservative. it has moved to the right. >> i think it has. i think it's more center right than anything else. i think certainly marco rubio was elected to the united states senate based not only on conservative support but by the support of independents and democrats. i take one exception with what steve said. i do agree that should speaker gingrich win in florida that would cause a lot of heartburn for the republican establishment. if you look at the latest polls, governor romney is up. i think governor romney has the organization, the momentum to win in florida. >> okay. >> but that would position him very well for the remaining contest. >> the only question i want to know is, is the party moving to the right down there enough to actually win it for newt? and if the party has moved tha

essentially they defended romney against newt gingrich's characterization he has the same team that ran charlie crist's campaign for governor. he had to become an independent because he was going to be defeated on his own ballot. so they have done some things that are supportive of him but i think quite frankly that what you have here in florida as you have all over the country is this very deep divide within the republican party, between the establishment and the insurgent tea party forces and marco rubio is the tea party's guy. the last thing he wants to do is get in the middle of this fight. >> karen tumulty national political correspondent for the washington post, enjoy the last few days in florida i have a feeling it will get more fun and not less. >> thanks a lot. >>> appreciate it. >>> hey, great news, turns out there is a crack in the dam, in terms of prominent elected republicans refusing to come on this show. i think we have a line on a good one. the way we got a line on a good one is very, very strange. i'll explain that in a second. >>> this is as close as i'll get to interviewing liz and d

is someone who is elevated by the tea party and his primary challenge to the sitting governor charlie cristthe senate nomination. he may feel a little closer to romney personally, but his base is probably more enthusiastic about gingrich. those kinds of calculations always often inhibit elected officials from putting their chips down and emphatically with one side or the other. >> what is the strategy here? how do the candidates try appeal to such a broad range of views? romney spoke about self-deportation versus gingrich who, you're right, in your latest article, you know, had more flexible and lenient approach to immigration and then saw the sparring that we all witnessed thursday night during the debate. how do all four differ? >> the politics of immigration in florida, particularly in a republican primary, are different than they are anywhere else in the country, as i write, as you note, on ournationaljournal.com. a majority, probably two-thirds of that were cuban-americans. cuban-americans are not affected by illegal immigration because they benefit from what is called the wet foot/dry

. >> we discovered last night that mitt romney has picked up charlie crist's campaign team.hought that sort of told you everything you needed to know about this primary. romney has a new debate coach whose specialty is to say as many untrue things as fast as you can. >> i don't just read anything in the prompter without questioning it. i did want to question it. i have allen grayson and bob mckeown, former republican congressman from ohio who also is a newt gingrich supporter. again, gentlemen, thanks for being here. congressman mccune, i'll start with you. we saw less newt the attack dog last night, a more toned down candidate, but this morning back to the nasty newt ways. what is the strategy here and do you think because you're backing him, is it going to work in florida? >> well, i think that newt is known for his ideas, balancing the budget, welfare reform, et cetera, that's his basic thrust. on occasion he picks up the support of fred temperature thompson and others. he's basically focused on making chain knowing he can do it because he's proven to be an effective lead

in 2010, you had that vicious primary between charlie crist and marko rubio. rubio won that.ut that is that rubio's campaign manager is running the state of florida for newt gingrich this time around. in addition, newt gingrich just got an endorsement from a major republican hispanic group. that could be a significant factor, as well. so with this tiebreaking role florida can play, some of them could be playing in newt gingrich's favor, even though mitt romney has the money and poll advantage going into tonight. >> david, as you look back on tonight, what do you reflect on? >> one is a conversation with newt gingrich way back weeks before iowa. he said i'm going to have an onslaught of negative things that come at me. if i can survive it, i can turn this into a two-man race and i can win a two-man race and low and behold, that's what he's done. he's emerged now. one thing romney didn't want to do is have conservatives start to coalesce around one candidate. they now have a situation where they're running essentially one candidate. it's turned the race upside down. the other t