cnn suspends roland martin. you have to take martin at face value that his tweets were about soccer. he does make fun of soccer a lot. >> right. so you show a soccer player during the super bowl. i get it. >> in fact, he tweeted to pierce morgan who is a huge soccer fan, but he bet morgan would go to h and m and get beckham underwear. >> it is a soccer thing. and pierce morgan, why are we doing it to ourselves? >> is that long, national nightmare over? >> the last english person i respected was benny hill. the rest of these guys guys are wasting our time. >> greg, you said nobody can read your mind and that's what scares you about -- the stuff like what happened here. "the daily caller" makes a good point. he says, i think it is ridiculous to suspend martin, but maybe some goodwill come of it. maybe he will think twice before he complains of dog whistles. he sees how unfair it is when others complain what your motives are. >> in your face. i don't trust him because he has two first names, row -- roland and martin

suspended one of their political contributors his name is roland martin for making a series of off color tweets and here they are the first one is if a dude at your souple superbowl party is hyped about david back h. and m. underwear ad smack the issue out of him that is with the hash tag super bowl the next one ain't no real brother is going to buy some damn david beckham underwear also the super bowl hash tag and i think this is the one that started the most controversy who the hell was that new england patriot they just showed in a head to toe pink suit oh he made needs a visit from hash tag team whipped at ass. so there he was suspended this guy was suspended for these tweets but this is the same network that allowed one of their contributors to publicly condone peeing on the dead taliban i think we have that that clip can someone explain to me if there's supposed to be a scandal that someone pees on the corpse of a taliban fighter someone who was this is part of an organization murdered over three thousand americans. i drop trial and do it two that's me down short on time so the fir

networks saying in a statement roland martin's tweets were regrettable and offensive. language that demeans and is inconsistent with the values andcle tour of our organization and is not tolerated. should cnn have suspended him over those words? >> tough question. yeah, probably, because it has its own positioning that it needs to do with a larger community. it's not quite firing him, and it's not quite saying everything is just fine. we nabbed. it gives everybody a chance to step back and gives roland a chance to apologize and gives him a chance to meet with glad and other organizations and gives everybodying a chance to realize, you know what, tweets matter. >> they do matter, but my initial reaction is these were a couple of jokes, bad jokes, to be sure. cnn didn't say anything for two and a half days, but then what happened is the gay, ones racheted up the pressure. >> i think that he responded appropriately. it is a right. it is not a right. it is a privilege, not a right, to sit on television and to give your views and to talk to viewers and as soon as you crosse

someone getting suspended but the second case it seems it is possible that makes us well i mean roland martin is in a pretty small brotherhood of african-american journalists here in the united states i mean i know him a lot of people my friends know people line up on weird sides of this but the bottom line is this and this is this is just my theory roland martin was not hired by c.n.n. to make provide that of crazy comments dana loesch was people like erick erickson are i mean i know that sounds strange but hear me out they were hired to basically provide that kind of talk radio lunatic point of view especially with the marines peeing on the taliban and i spoken about this on r t before that kind of sensationalism and that kind of of news product dominates the airwaves united states and c.n.n. was just taking advantage of it when erik erikson talks about how it's great to see another hippie taste that wasn't what roland was doing he was at a super bowl party stupidly tweeting some fairly pigheaded comments because those comments go towards you know traditional cultural abuse even death of ga

. >> roland martin is back, as well. all right, take it down. here we go. let's get to our starting point this morning which is mitt romney. yesterday should have been the victory lap, the victory lap. >> but then you had to come in. >> i did nothing but ask a question and a follow up. here's what he said in my interview yesterday morning. >> i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs a repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich. they're doing just fine. i'm concerned about the heart of america, the 95% of americans who are struggling and i'll continue to take that message across the nation. >> i know i said last question, but i'm not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net and i think there are lots of poor americans who are struggling who would say, that sounds odd. can you explain that? >> well, you had to finish the sentence, soledad. i said, i'm nate concerned about the very poor that have a safety net, but if it has holes in it, i

. >> bill: personal story segment tonight, cnn commentator roland martin suspended for perceived antigay comments on twitter. the network saying martin's tweets were regrettable and offensive. he said, quote: if a dude at your super bowl party is behind about david beckham's h and m underwear ad smack the ish out of him, unquote. martin mocked somebody wearing a pink outfit in another tweet. now, this is ironic because martin himself often brands people as bigots on the air. glenn beck, rush limbaugh and me your humble correspondent among others. he has called organized religion desperately sexist and branded tea party leaders as stupid. karma may have caught up with martin. a gay rights group. is cnn right in taking glenn beck off air. >> more importantly he should be fired for what he said. what he said gives license for people to harm lgbt people. gay and lesbian people are twice as likely than african-americans and jews to be harmed in hate crimes. four times more likely than muslims and 14 times more likely than latinos. there is a huge problem. we see it both with bullying in schoo

did what happened to roland martin make you think about what you post? >> yeah. you know, i should make clear, one, that i'm not proud of the fact that i have tweeted that much and i'm ashamed that you have mentioned that. two, that many, many of those are retweets. so all i'm doing is seeing something and pushing the button, so it's not like i have actually written 17,000 tweets, although please don't do the math on how many i've actually done. three, what happened to roland, yes, he's a cautionary tale, as are many, many others. it seems like a friction-free, easy little push of the button, we often do it on our little phones, right? it doesn't even seem like much of a big deal. but if you have a significant following or even a following of certain folks, you can end up in a big bad jam in a hurry. >> well, do you like having that direct and unfiltered connection to people who follow you? is that part of the appeal or the seduction of twitter? >> yes. i mean, i do a combination of sort of i guess what jeff jarvis has called mind casting, which is i might see so

will the gop race, roland martin, go all the way to the convention? >> yes. recall signature here just three days ago. all i heard from the folks in the room was, mitt romney is in the driver's seat. everybody else is fallen back. oh, my goodness, the race is almost over. and i said things can change very quickly. so what's happening? here we talk about santorum possibly winning tonight, how that could change his campaign. we do not know what's going to happen. the voters have the final say so. this thing is going to keep going. there'll be more surprises and we'll be sitting here saying man how did that happen. will the race go all the way to the convention, donna? >> first of all i would love it to go all the way to the convention, wolf. there's nothing better that i enjoy doing than hanging out with ari and eric, of course. but on the other hand i do believe as a strategist that mitt romney, while he may lose a couple contests between now, super tuesday as well as between super tuesday and when new york and pennsylvania, there's no question that he'll prob

if you work for -- like roland martin. >> say you work for fox. >> have i to watch myself. >> like whatat are we saying right now. >> i had to leave the organization i belong to. i am kidding. i lost my train of thought. i think -- >> i think we are burying the lead. we are focusing on the comment and not the fact he has a twitter pick of a bel-biv-devo album. >> was there more than one bel-biv-devo album? what else do they have beside "poison." >> "poison retread,"" word to the mother." >> that's what tony just said. are you joking? >> i think it was awful. shouldn't mention that. >> i don't know anything about that artist. >> i know a little about biv. >> do you have a comment on the show? e mail us. to leave a vase mail call 212-462-5050. the half time report from tv's andy levy. >> tonight's half time report is sponsored by bartending. the practice of entertaining guests, clientele with liquor bottles. >>> let's see if we have got anything wrong so far. with that we go to tv's andy levy. >> can we show that video again? >> i think it is the bald one. i couldn't tell. as far as the g

we spent the weekend together, as i did with roland martin. >> yes, we did. >> doing election coverage this weekend. nice to have you guys. appreciate it. president obama's re-election hopes rests heavily on whether the voters agree the economy has improved. the president said even though it's still on the mend he has earned another four years in office. this is what he told nbc's matt lauer in a sit-down that aired right before the sulk. >> i deserve a second term but we're not done. we created 3.7 million jobs over the last 23 months. we've created the most jobs since 2005, the most manufacturing jobs since 1990. but we're not finished. and the key right now is just make sure that we don't start turning in a new direction that could throw that progress off. >> congressman bill florez is a republican from texas. he is live in washington, d.c. this morning. he is a member of the budget committee. nice to have you, sir. appreciate it. >> good morning. soledad. great to be with you. >> i'm going go out on a limb and say you disagree with the president that he deserves another four years?

coming up, we'll ask will cain and roland martin if they agree.d paint poisoning affects one million children today. if you're pregnant or have young children and your home was built before 1978, you could be at risk. learn how to protect your family. to find your home's danger zones, the health effects, or just to find help, log on to leadfreekids.org. >>> checking top stories, the u.s. has closed its embassy in syria and pulled out the last of its staff today. washington has syria has not adequately addressed security concerns. and the death toll is rising in pakistan. at least six people confirmed dead. possibly dozens of others trapped in this collapsed factory. a boiler explosion is being blamed. in italy, the captain of the costa concordia wants off house arrest. and this morning, he made that plea to a panel of judges. a move that is sure to outrage the families of those who were killed. >>> well, we know that president obama wants another four years in office. but does he deserve to be re-elected? he thinks so. >> i deserve a second term b

. >> roland martin, let me ask you about that. he was talking about the poor.state of nevada, you're talking about a state where homes are in foreclosure as a higher rate than most of the country. let me play a clip. >> sure. >> i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich. they are doing just fine. i'm concerned about the very heart of america. the 90, 95% of americans bho are struggling and i'll continue to take that message across the nation. >> i know i said last question but he said, i'm not going to care about the very poor because they have a safety net. there are americans who are poor and they are struggling who will say, that sounds odd. >> finish the sentence, soledad. i said i'm not concerned about the poor that have safety nets but if there are holes in them, i will repair them. >> they are hurting but a lot of people don't consider themselves to be poor. people who were retired, went there and had a second h

thank you, roland martin. our coverage continues right here on cnn as we continue to cover the nevada caucuses. >>> hello, everyone. i i'm done lemon. you're in the cnn newsroom. it's two in a row for mitt romney. the republican presidential hopeful tonight walked away with the nevada caucuses, a dominant showing in a crucial battleground state this fall. at a victory rally he was fired up by a very energetic crowd and he focused his remarks not on his challengers but president obama. take a listen. >> our mission is it to increase the freedom and opportunity for the american people, and our blueprint is the constitution of the united states. we're going to build an america where hope is a new job with a paycheck, not a faded word and an old bumper sticker. >> so it wasn't that big of a surprise. all along it was thought he would win nevada, but a much different mood and story at newt gingrich's headquarters. instead of a cheering crowd, it was a quiet room and a q and a with reporters. very unusual. brianna k

it's will cain and roland martin time.e have two topics they are going to love, mitt romney on the poor and donald trump on the presidential race. >> bring it. >> excuse me, roland? >> bring it. >> all right, will. yeah, exactly. will shakes his head. >> there you go. >> all right, guys. let's go ahead and start with romney's comment yesterday on cnn that he's, quote, not concerned about the very poor. everyone's been talking about that this morning, including you two. there's probably already a bumper sticker out there somewhere. soledad o'brien did challenge romney when he said that. of course, john stewart weighed in a little later. take a listen. >> you just said i'm not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net, and i think there are lots of very poor americans who are struggling who would say that sounds odd. can you explain that? >> tv news person just heard what candidate said and then stopped him and made him explain himself. like a flower blooming in the desert. quick. someone dig that up and g