rick santorum winning iowa, rick perry getting out of the gop race. stay with cnn.ll be right back after a quick break. with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwide. so when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. because personal service starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our support teams are nearby, ready to help. it's no wonder so many investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. >>> two big news stories breaking this hour right here in the "cnn newsroom." we'll start with rick perry, expected to announce he is jumping out of the gop race. that's going to happen about an hour and ten minutes, 11:00 a.m. eastern time. jim acosta is actually traveling with the romney camp. jim, any reaction? i know it's happening fast. any reaction from the camp? >> reporter: not yet, kyra, but you have to think there's going to be some worry setting in over at the romney camp because of what's happening this morning. i mean, perry dropping out right now obviously is going to help newt ging

is rick perry. that was that ad. there's the issue of rick santorum not just defending torture but saying john mccain was only against torture because john mccain doesn't understand it. mr. santorum saying, "he doesn't understand how enhanced interrogation works. i mean, you break somebody, and after they're broken they become cooperative." rick santorum understands. that john mccain, what's he ever done to -- yeah. there's also the time rick santorum said president obama being in favor of abortion rights was, "almost remarkable for a black man." oh. rick santorum also thinks states should be allowed to ban birth control. as president he would annul all existing same-sex marriages in the country. how is that for small government? his position if we only banned abortion, then we could afford social security? that baffled even the usually unflappable greta van susteren at fox news. >> what happened, there was a caller that called into a radio station up in lavonia -- excuse me, new hampshire. and they

rick santorum, 24,134.ming in third with 79% of the precincts reporting, 21%, he's got 21,000 votes. newt gingrich is a distant fourth, only 13%, only 13,000 votes. rick perry, about 10%, 10,000 votes. michele bachmann, 5%, about 5,000 votes. jon huntsman at 1% of the votes. let's go to erick and gloria. what's going on over here? you're looking closely at these numbers. santorum was ahead, now slightly, slightly, mitt romney ahead. >> we've been looking as it's flip-flopped around, and each of the leaders and why. now let's look at mitt romney and where his strength is coming from. two things we want to hone in on. we asked people, what's the most important candidate quality, can defeat obama. 31% of the caucusgoers told us that was the most important thing. true conservative, 25%. i'm going to tell you right now, those voters went overwhelmingly for ron paul. strong moral character, a quarter of voters said that was most important. and i'll tell you right now, that went overwhelmingly for rick santorum. t

rick? >> rick: very interesting. julie banderas, thanks. >> sure. >> arthel: paying final respects to a trail blazer, etta james remembered at a service in southern california. hundreds attending the funeral for the grammy award winning singer, james was eulogized as a woman who broke down cultural barriers to create her own style. she passed away on january 20 from leukemia, days before her 74th birthday. >> rick: i loved her. i know you did, too. >> arthel: of course i did. >> rick: she's great. there will be a key voting bloc for the race to the white house, especially in the next primary. so who is winning and who is losing the latino vote? >> arthel: horrifying storms tearing across the south this week. a couple of lives even lost. ahead, how states can better prepare their citizens for the worst case scenario. >> she seen two funnel clouds. there was several houses that you already heard that were totally demolished. one couple was at home and no one understands how they got out alive ok! who gets occasional co

we begin with rick santorum. momentum is with the pennsylvania senator and he is sticking to his conservative guns. candidate santorum this afternoon. >> i would suggest if you look at the history of republican nominees, that moderate voters, moderate candidates who were there to appeal to more moderates ended up losing. >> but is that tough enough? listen to what congressman ron paul had to say about santorum earlier to cnn's dana bash. >> why would not he be a good republican nominee? >> he is very liberal. >> santorum is liberal? >> have you looked at his record? >> uh-huh. >> go look at his record. >> cnn political correspondent jim acosta is in boone, iowa. he spent the day with jim santorum. i understand he got some interesting last-minute help. >> reporter: that's right. don't tell jim bob dug per rick santorum is too liberal. the reality show tv show star, he is the star of the reality tv show 19 kids and counting. he backed mike huckabee. he's been in support of the former pennsylvania senator. you won't

expect to hear that more from rick santorum and more tomorrow. we're waiting for rick perry.hould mitt romney release tax returns now instead of waiting until april? with the latest nudge from alexis christoforous taoerbgs from chris christie and what that means. martha: the tennis meltdown that has everybody talking. we'll show you. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fru and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. >> this is a great example of the insiders that are having a krufrpgs here. an conversation up here. the fact much the matter here is washington d.c. needs to leave the states alone and let the states decide these issues. bill: many argued that was rick perry best performance after getting a slow start in the debates we've watched for the past three months. what we wanted to show you is what's happened so far in the month of january and where the race has gone. on the touch screen billboard behind us we'll take you back to iowa, right, first yea week of the year. michelle ba

>> mitt romney. >> i voted for mitt romney. >> tonight my choice is rick santorum. >> rick santorum.> the biggest thing he is lektability. that is between santorum and mitt romney. i chose romney at the very end. >> what do you like about romney? >> i like the lektability. >> governor romney can raise $3 billion. i think he can match obama dollar for dollar. i believe he can definitely defeat mr. obama. >> what is it about mitt romney that attracted you? >> i think like his family values. i just feel like maybe he could be the one to beat obama. he might be the best at get along in washington. >> and he's the guy who can win? that seems to be the overarching argument tonight, right? >> right. >> if santorum come out and be the nominee, do you think he can beat president obama? >> i think. so. >> and santorum won in precinct two. >> i could live with rick santorum. >> do you believe he can defeat president obama? >> i hope he can. yes. yeah, i do. he is one of america's choices and his ideals and his beliefs. >> and is rick santorum a candidate you're happy with, somebody you can live

rick santorum. rick santorum. rick santorum. rick santorum. rick santorum. ron paul. rick santorum. michele bachmann. newt gingrich. rick perry. mitt romney. rick santorum. rick santorum. newt gingrich. mitt romney. mitt romney. rick santorum. rick santorum in one spot. mitt romney second, paul and newt gingrich tied in third. it appears that the first count. rick santorum, first, mitt romney, second, paul and newt gingrich tied for third. i will announce the total study audience and a make the official tabulation to des moines. just again so that we have the ascent of mr. freeman, the sheriff, the observers, our president secretary -- >> [inaudible] >> sure, that would be fine. rick santorum, 41, mitt romney, 32, ron paul and newt gingrich at 13, bachmann, seven, perry, six, huntsman, one. rick santorum winds, mitt romney, second, paul and newt gingrich third. i will have use i met with the secretary and announce the results to the caucus and we will make the call to des moines. we will go ahead and announce these. [inaudible] >> may be that we could do it this time, sheriff, why d

and it looks like rick santorum

but i clearly like rick santorum a lot and i think rick santorum will tell you he likes me a lot. we are personally very good friends and have known each other for many, many years. in fact it goes back 20 plus years. >> back in april, you had said the citizens united case and the work that david bossi did there is an extraordinarily important case and landmark. obviously you were the victim of one would argue the unintended consequences of citizens united. any second thoughts? >> no. no, i'm not the victim of that. i'm the victim of one personal person, mitt romney, whose staff decided to run a deliberately negative and dishonest campaign. that's the fact. remember the swift vote model existed in 527s long before citizens united. and in fact this particular approach i think has nothing to do with the citizens united case, it has to do with a bunch of millionaires getting together to run a negative campaign and governor romney refusing to call them off and refusing to be hahn bes it. >> all right. >> so i think this is a matter of political responsibility. >> speaker newt gingrich

i don't think rick perry would endorse mitt romney, i think woe go with santorum. >> rick perry, like every other professional politician will only endorse the person who he thinks is going to win and will wait as long as he possibly can in making that calculation and try to do it right before all the rest of the world knows that this is the guy who is going to win. so, you know, and also, i don't think there is such a thing as a rick perry follower. i think his endorsement doesn't get you any of those 10%, tough go get those 10% as a candidate. >> i think a substantial amount of those 10% are anti-romney voters. >> sure. yeah. >> i think no matter what perry would do, many of them if not most works go to whoever the strongest anti-romney candidate s i can't see people that would go to rick perry or any of the others because they didn't want to go with willard turn around and say we will go with willard now. i mean, if there is a guy with a pulse, santorum or any of them, i think that the majority of them would go with them h >> i will say, my gut check here it is impossible for know

the problem here with gingrich is some social conservatives who like rick perry, like rick santorum, are doubtful about newt gingrich, but the idea of believes in redemption that gingrich said i now ma made a mistake, is the most powerful message that gingrich has to try to rally the conservatives. what perry did is advance that narrative. >> when we look at what happened here what is the chances newt gingrich will walk away as a winner. what does it mean as we ramp up to what's going to happen to the voting in south carolina on saturday? >> thomas, our new nbc poll in south carolina shows newt gingrich within striking distance, particularly after monday night's republican debate. of course there's another debate tonight, but there has been some movement on monday, you end up newt gingrich trailing mitt romney by 15 points, on tuesday it was five points but making up a lot of ground on that tuesday. thomas, i was also struck. nondid rick perry say there needs to be a replacement for president obama in the white house, but it tees to be done with a conservative, somebody who actually

forgot rick perry. then we went to rick santorum.ill they actually -- will rick santorum now stay on top or will he just be a fleeting moment at the top? >> right. when you go -- >> from the papers today in philadelphia, some of the people in the philadelphia daily news who don't like him on the editorial page already vetting him and that's something that hasn't really happened to rick santorum because he was the last person to surge. now, this morning, as people wake up and he's got 25% of the vote, they're going to go through his record and start talking and it will begin with how he lost his re-election by 18 points. >> right. let's talk about what the democrats are going. the president of the united states is being ignored because there's no one to fight against and therefore, yesterday, he did a web conference where he had some questions and talked about iowa and all his accomplishments and his -- and another one of his minions, you want to hear that right now? let's hear a little bit from the president. >> because of those cauc

but the story is rick santorum. you think to where he was 2 weeks ago and where he was six months ago. i remember being in the fox green room with him, talking to him as he laid out to me his strategy for being a serious candidate. i will admit, i didn't take him very seriously. it was an awkward exchange where i was looking at him, thinking, you are crazy. that doesn't make any sense at all. and he looked at me in that reading my reaction and said, i am not crazy. that's not crazy. it turns out, he was right. that's not crazy. >> 2 1/2 weeks ago in the green room in washington. he was saying how he was upset that more news operations, including ours, didn't give him enough credit for what he was doing in iowa and despite the fact he was so low in the polls that he wasn't getting the time and the focus on what he was seeing anecdoteally on the ground. i said with time and performance, i am sure it's going to change. soon after that, the des moines register poll comes out, before this week, he outperforms that poll b

but the story is rick santorum.ou think to where he was 2 weeks ago and where he was six months ago. i remember being in the fox green room with him, talking to him as he laid out to me his strategy for being a serious candidate. i will admit, i didn't take him very seriously. it was an awkward exchange where i was looking at him, thinking, you are crazy. that doesn't make any sense at all. and he looked at me in that reading my reaction and said, i am not crazy. that's not crazy. it turns out, he was right. that's not crazy. >> 2 1/2 weeks ago in the green room in washington. he was saying how he was upset that more news operations, including ours, didn't give him enough credit for what he was doing in iowa and despite the fact he was so low in the polls that he wasn't getting the time and the focus on what he was seeing anecdoteally on the ground. i said with time and performance, i am sure it's going to change. soon after that, the des moines register poll comes out, before this week, he outperforms that poll by,

rick santorum, more than 100 days.o he did not put all of his time and all of his money into this state. whether he can get away with it, i don't know. because he made a huge push toward the end of this and they sounded very confident. but either way they look at it, they don't believe that rick santorum has the wherewithal to go the distance. that he just doesn't have the infrastructure out there and available to him to make this a winning race through 50 states. so they feel pretty good, regardless of who goes up or down in that first and second slot. >> candy, was gingrich's speech carried in that room ? and if so, i'm wondering what the reaction of it was? very clearly, there was a level of anger towards romney -- >> reporter: oh, a level of it? yeah. yeah lots of ohhs, things like that while they were listening. i thought it was pretty clear, listening very closely to newt gingrich that the strategy for him going forward is, he basically embraced rick santorum, we're friends, our families are friends. and he calle

rick? >> rick: casey steegel live, in l.a., thanks. >> coming up, mitt romney winning hearts and minds among republicans, gaining approval across the political spectrum in the g.o.p., what it means for the rest of the candidates as they duke it out, and we are keeping up with the developing -- developments on the story out of italy, bringing you the latest on the search for survivors. from the cruise ship accident. >> kathy! kathy! kathy! >> steve! >> steve! >> i can't each realize this is actually happening now. it will hit me later. all of our stuff is on it but we are off of it, and, there are still people on there. [ male announcer ] is zero worth nothing? ♪ imagine zero pollutants in our environment. or zero dependency on forei oil. ♪ this is why we at nissan built a car inspired by zero. because zo is worth everything. the zero gas, 100% electric nissan leaf. innovation for the planet. innovation for all. your doctor will say get smart about your weight. i tried weight loss plans... b

ron paul is ahead with 24%. 148 votes ahead of rick santorum with 23%. 4,292 for rick santorum.o at 23%, just below rick santorum is mitt romney with 4,183 votes. newt gingrich is distant 13%. 2400 votes or so. rick perry only 10%, 1800 votes. michele bachmann a disappointing 6% withh1,000 votes. only 126 votes for jon huntsman. he didn't even campaign in iowa. 15% of the caucus precincts have reported right now. soledad o'brien is in clive outside of des moines. they're counting votes over there, soledad. >> yeah, there are two precincts that they're counting votes for here in clive. over here i'm looking at precinct two votes being counted. they're starting to sort them. so first they've got to divide them by candidate. after that they count those piles. once they count them for the first time, they'll switch, count those piles for the second time to make sure they're getting a consistent number. after that they'll start writing on a white board. they're going to write on the white board who has done, who has done well. there are speakers here talking as well. i'm going to let

rick perry, oops. a couple too many oops moments for rick perry.st not ready for primetime in presidential politics. here comes rick santorum who had no oops moments and there wasn't much fire fired at him. here rick santorum doing develop with evangelicals. >> all right. you mentioned it's the authenticity, no measurable mistakes. he captured a portion of what you call the teavangelicals. leave it to you to name a new party. >> yeah. leave it to me to come up with a piffy phrase there, kyra. look, the teavangelicals, what are they? these are evangelicals who very much support the tea party and its agenda. it's really that simple. there he is a big crossover in this country. what we saw, as you saw in that previous segment with some of those evangelical numbers, rick santorum did very well with that crowd and, yes, ron paul did very well with that crowd too. tea party, ron paul works he know all about that. he's also appealing to evangelicals for a myriad of different reasons which is probably another segment on your show. the point is that these t

rick santorum, 25%. mitt romney, 25%. ron paul, 21%, newt gingrich, 13%, rick perry at 10% who again we just heard is reassessing his campaign and heading home to texas and michele bachmann placing sixth at 5%, michele bachmann not announcing tonight that she would be suspending or reassessing or doing anything else with her campaign except heading on to the next contest. listening to rick perry there tonight, i'm not sure 50s a foregone conclusion that he would be reassessing his campaign and heading back to texas if he -- if he placed at this -- placed this far down in the standings, but it was not a surprise. the question is what the implications are of this with rick perry out does anything else move. >> well, something has to move. he has votes that have to move but i think more interestingly, the money, there is a lot of rick perry money out there and he has the capacity to raise a lot. a lot of fund-raiser interest. where do those people go, those that wanted to pump money into rick perry go. >> it's an open questi

number three is rick perry, number four is michele bachmann, number five is rick santorum. this is not iowa. this is everybody in the twitterverse. but ron paul winning not only in the top tier of our entrance polls but also in the social media world. >> ron paul has had a very strong online presence for this entire campaign. >> that's right. >> a lot of young followers are very active on twitter. >> that's right. >> and facebook and the like. our coverage continues. we'll take a short break of the caucuses getting under way now across iowa. more than 1700 precincts, 1774 voting under way in a number of places. we'll bring you all the results. there is a platform built for the purpose of driving innovation. one that's transforming how companies from every industry-- and of every size-- are doing business. a platform built for now. and for what's next. this...is the cisco intelligent network. cisco. [♪...] >> announcer: with nothing but his computer, an identity thief is able to use your information to open a bank account... in order to make your money his money. [whoosh, cl

rick perry behind at 10%.ance between them but we only have 27% reporting now. bachmann is in sixth with just 6% of the vote at this hour. >>> coming up now, our panel. more with our expert panel. it's neck and neck. it literally seems to be too close to call among the leaders. every time we look back there is a different person on the top three. in any event, when it winds up if romney coming comes in third, is it a big story? >> part of the problem romney didn't play it very well. they started in the last couple weeks. we're definitely going to win. once you out there saying you can win, you have various expectations. couple weeks ago, mitt romney is not doing that well in iowa. they raised the expectations a little bit. it's not going to kill him. he will do very well in new hampshire. he is going to be okay. look, when you have three top people splitting the votes, what that says you don't have a person that people are really rallying around which isn't great for the republican field. >> brett: bill, you h

rick perry is still out there. rick perry is still out there. >> what about that, bill?> there's a lot of money in texas still there for rick perry. though he was terrible in the debates, he was very smart about how he spent his money. he ended his campaign in iowa as the candidate who had the highest favorables in the whole state. people may have made up their mind about rick perry. what he's probably doing is standing by hoping that rick santorum falls apart like every other front-runner has done in the republican field. you know, as long as he's in, he's a factor, that's not helping rick santorum. >> isn't this great for the obama team to see the fighting going on on the right? >> mitt romney will still probably be the nominee. he's way out there on the ryan budget which is going to be a problem for him with seniors and others. where he's gone on immigration is irreparable with the hispanic community. >> great to have you with us. jonathan alter, joy-ann reid, bill burton. >>> the remaining candidates will debate this weekend. we'll see a united effort to attack romne

what is rick santorum's appeal?he choir together, after church services rick would knock on doors after church and be at it seven days a week. all along rick's approach was talk policy and bring people together. he talked about freedom but tied that with personal responsibility. the district that he ran in, which is now the district i have, the 18th district appealed to blue color voters, reagan democrats, and he had to do that by pulling people together. i expect that he has the same tenacity and relentless necessary in iowa. going everywhere and talking to as many people as he could about the issues and being positive about america and that's where you see his message coming through. bill: this is a guy who ran for the senate in pennsylvania and lost in his home state. how did he come back from that? >> pennsylvania lost five congressional seats that year, lost the governor's race that year by record proportions. it really was a year that was a low point for republicans really across america. what rick did over ti

rick santorum is 4%. mitt romney is over 40 -- >> he'll be well into the high double digits by the morning. but the question is: how much he gets there? and as i said, he will be challenged -- he doesn't have the resources. but he is a new face. three weeks ago, two -- three weeks ago, newt gingrich was at 38%. as i have said to you before, we have this huge group of very -- people looking for something and they keep landing somewhere. they just landed -- rick santorum's lucky, they landed on him last. but he will have a tough problem. this is a man who lost a senate race by more than almost any incumbent in history in a re-election. it's going to have a hard argument on the winning. he's very sincere. but the social issue problem, we'll see how it works. i don't think in a general election, he has a prayer. the question is whether voters will see that -- >> but he has pointed out several times. i asked him about this earlier this week on my afternoon show. he has pointed out that even though he is defini

rick? >> rick: thanks. and quick alert now.e on a story we told you about at the top of the show. there were two people injured when a package bomb explode the. lafayette, colorado. the weather not great. the bolder county bomb squad is securing this vehicle that you see in the picture there. once it's secured, then they can start their investigation. police just talking to reporters a couple of minutes ago. they say that the explosion happened a few minutes before 1:00 p.m. local time. sorry for the jitteriness of this camera. we're not controlling it for you. two victims. they were transport to do a local hospital with burns. we don't know their condition, but a half dozen homes in that neighborhood have been evacuated. the bomb squad now trying to confirm that there is no secondary device inside that car. that's why they're being very careful as they search it. as get more information, we'll pass it along. >>> other news and parents and educators fight ago judge's ruling that an arizona school district's mexican american stu

to rick santorum.his has been a great victory for him and his effort. he's worked very hard in iowa. we also feel it's been a great victory for us here. and ron paul as well. ron paul's had a great night. this has been terrific. i think it's great that here in the heartland of america, that a campaign begins, all three of us will be campaigning very hard to make sure we restore the heart and soul of the entire nation. and thank you, iowa, for the great send-off you're giving to us and to the others in this campaign. look, this is a -- this is a campaign night where america wins. we're going to change the white house and get america back on track. >> romney making it very clear he's looking forward now, moving on to new hampshire next, his own backyard. obviously former governor of massachusetts, he's got a summer home in new hampshire. there are going to be questions tomorrow about mitt romney, getting the number that he did here in iowa. not all that different from what you saw here four years ago as

any chance that rick perry takes any votes away from rick santorum?ck perry spent more money in iowa than any other candidate. that's crazy. not a lot to show for it. but he's betting all he has to do is make it to south carolina where he's supposed to have his big, you know, deb you tatant b his debut. if he spends money, he's got a lot of it. >> if i had to bet, though, more of this fake currency, if there's one candidate likely to drop out -- not likely but most mrausly going to drop out, i would say it's rick perry. >> before south carolina? why? >> it's a longshot scene air yoe -- >> and return the $15 million. >> two reasons. one, he's the only one between gingrich, bachmann and perry he's only one running what i call a serious president. gingrich ran for brand-building potential. bachmann ran to get her name out there. if perry falls flat on his face, and santorum gets 30% and gingrich goes to th9% additio-- >> perry would be a fool to drop out before south carolina. >> he says he wants a third place finish. what if he's fifth or worse? >> i th