that's why i'm giving a big tip of my hat to the tea party nation. on tuesday the four for-profit grass roots group e-mailed all 30,000 of its members asking them to take the following pledge. i, an american small-business owner, part of the class that produces the vast majority of real wealth-producing jobs in this country, hereby resolve that i will not hire a single person until this war against business and my country is stopped. (laughter) amen. folks, with americans hurting, something must be done. that that something, nothing. (laughter) but sad sadly, nothing may not be enough. to ensure obama's defeat i call on all americans, not only not to hire each other, but to actively drive the economy off a cliff where it will plunge down to the canyon floor of liberty. (laughter) they'll say oh but steven, this is my business. i want it to do well. and i may have to hire people. well, stop being so selfish. we're talking about the future of this country, success is not an option. americans have always achieved greatness by working together and now we

juddson phillips, founder of the tea party nation, joins us from nashville.oon. >> good afternoon, martin. >> to see you again will. >> shouldn't you be buying a new top hat and tail coat and preparing for the enthronement of mitt romney as the republican nomination for president? >> no. in a word, no. this word we keep hearing, mitt romney is the inevitable nominee. where is that coming from? that's coming from the romney campaign. if you look at the polls, ppp just came out with a poll. cain at 30%. romney at 22%. gingrich at 15% and the rest following on. 78% of the republican electorate doesn't like mitt romney and those are not very good number if you think he will be the nominee. >> but juddson, look at your tea party favorite. in your own words, rick perry is falling in the polls faster than an out of control nasa satellite. michele bachmann know her campaign is on life support. why have these candidates let you down so badly? what's their problem? >> i don't know. i'm not going to say they've let us down. >> you said that falling -- you say they're fa

everybody in cape actually in august in our opposite side of this let me let me finish with this the tea party nation activist author and business owner melissa brookstone wrote tea party members begging them fellow business people small business people around the country begging them not to hire anyone until president obama is out of office to hurt him in the two thousand and twelve election according to moody's the republican counterproposal this is moody's the rating service will quote likely push our economy back into recession i mean it is so obvious what the republicans are trying to do. is very good and we're just we're just we're just as a matter of fact last time we try to do something like this soon after i started the daily caller that the congress were going to try to pass a bill to add to hire teachers we called the daily caller a bunch of us. districts or we look into it and a lot of them are going to hire like psychologists because they didn't really need teachers and things like that i think i or thing was it's a joint is a series or incident as a series is not like the same teacher i

thank you so much for joining us tonight and you're right there in terms of that tea party nation story they want to make everybody suffer so a single party in a way in which you know tells you how much they're thinking about the greater good thanks so much. i don't go anywhere so a lot more to come tonight working for you tonight school time winner and our happy hour movie fans found their own occupy movement and south park takes a jab at the complex because. thanks. to the police the repetition of. what a protest nobody seems to know. but never appropriate to face but part of the argument that they're being overly dramatic. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then something else here sees some other part of it and realize that everything is ok if you don't i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. mr. all right it's time for tonight's tool time award and tonight it goes to national public radio for hurting the career of her radio host all in an attempt to quell a controversy that there was actually no controversy at all just fake outrage bein

right and i thank you so much for joining us tonight and you're right there in terms of that tea party nation story i want to make everybody suffer so a single party can weigh in which tells you how much they're thinking about the greater good thanks so much. and don't go anywhere there's still a lot more to come tonight working for you tonight school time when are and are happy hour movie fans found their own occupy movement to follow and south park takes attachment with people. it was the. so much not a lot of people at my area will stand the cold war in the first presently fifteen hundred occupy protests occurring in eighty two countries worldwide this is a global protest movement with staying power. more news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are only day. a very warm welcome to you this is your news today protesters on the. street they have. the decent chance to get a chance to try to get the status of the human experiment. with. weeks you will see this rap music in which it. was alleg

thank you so much for joining us tonight and you're right there in terms of that tea party nation story i want to make everybody suffer so a single party can weigh in which tells you how much they're thinking about the greater good thanks so much. and i'll go anywhere there's still a lot more to come typewritten for you tonight school time winner and in our happy hour movie fans their own occupy movement to follow and south park takes a half of the three people. thank you the police corruption i thank. protesting nobody seems to know. the number of pepper sprayed the face but a lot of the argument that they're being overly dramatic. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. think you understand it and then something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize that everything is ok. i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. mr. all right it's time for tonight's tool time award tonight it goes to national public radio for hurting the career of a radio host all in an attempt to quell a controversy said that there was actually no controversy at all just fake outrage being ped

tea party federation told us there are at least 5,000 tea party groups. there is no national umbrella group and no one manifesto. case in point, michele bachmann. one tea party support group called on her to quit the presidential race today. the other tea partiers have endorsed her. minnesota congresswoman responded to the call for her to quit on the situation room earlier with wolf. >> it certainly isn't a blow to my campaign because i've had nonstop support coming out of the woodwork from tea partiers all across the country. >> so lots of groups, lots and lots and lots, which means a lot of fighting. but when you add up the numbers, the bottom line is power. the tea party is half the republican party. joining us to talk about it tonight, sal russo from the tea party express. we appreciate your taking the time to be with us. >> glad to be here. >> so what is your view of this -- the breaks that are happening within the tea party, which i know is a broad definition. but you have one group calling for michele bachmann to step down, others supporting her. do you support her? >>

tea party federation told us there are at least 5,000 tea party groups. there is no national umbrella group and there is no one manifesto. case in point, michele bachmann. one tea party support group called on her to quit the presidential race today. the other tea partiers have endorsed her. minnesota congresswoman responded to the call for her to quit on "the situation room" earlier with wolf. >> it certainly isn't a blow to my campaign because i've had nonstop support coming out of the woodwork from tea partiers all across the country. >> so lots of groups, lots and lots and lots, which means a lot of fighting. but when you add up the numbers, the bottom line is power. the tea party is half the republican party. joining us to talk about it tonight, sal russo from the tea party express. sal, thanks very much for being with us. we appreciate your taking the time. >> glad to be here. >> so what is your view of this -- the breaks that are happening within the tea party, which i know is a broad definition. but you have one group calling for michele bachmann to step down, others

that that kind of philosophy and you know that there have been some stories out there about the tea party nation trying to convince business is just not to hire anybody so the economy can get even worse just so obama doesn't get reelected you know you start thinking about these things as do you want to get as bad as it possibly can just because you have these political convictions and you don't want this guy to win again you know despite what it might mean for the rest of the country i don't think that but i don't know but i don't think that's like the overwhelming desire among tea party people i don't think they wake up in the morning like how can we make this worse it is how can we have our values expressed turns out their values are expressed in a way to basically stop stand before governments and yell stop for the moment which is on satisfying for a lot of people for reasons that are kind of understandable but that's that's kind of what is happening here the parties are going to have to change the way that they respond to their own constituencies because both of them essentially when they're

we are no longer the tea party nation. we're no longer a tea party world. reminded of something that in -- on the eve of the run up to the war in iraq, there was a sense of the other superpower. millions of people in this country and around the world saying they wanted a different world. and occupy wall street across this country, across the world captured the imagination. and in coalition with other groups, it is super charging. what you know, what you think has been happening in this last year from madison to ohio to washington to spain, we're seeing a world that understands there is a real deficit is not with the austerity class is telling us. it's a democracy deficit. it's a deficit of jobs. it's a deficit of dignity for working people and it's a deficit when 99% of the people in this world in this country are not getting what they rightly work for and need. >> it's been a month. how long will it go? is this going to go through the election? is this going to go until there's real change? dl are things coming up. >> absolutely. >> you've got the tax issu

for occupy wall street is surging support for the tea party is already so shouldn't the tea partiers just jump on the wagon with the rest of the nation as one tea party enthuses that exact question. you need to know this occupy oakland demonstrator an iraq war veteran scott olsen still in the hospital in stable condition with a fractured skull after being hit the head of the tear gas canister canister during tuesday night's police assault on occupy oakland in solidarity the movement returned to the streets last night and this time the police left their military tactics at home and investigation has been launched by the oakland police department to determine if the police action used on tuesday that left one man fighting for his life was too excessive in the aftermath of this week's violence oakland mary jeanne on has changed her tune after initially praising the police's crackdown on occupy oakland on monday night where kwan threw her support behind the ninety nine percent movement in a statement released last night reading we support the goals of the occupy wall street movement if i levels of unemployment and we have high levels of

discovered while out there on the trail is how different each member of the tea party is and how resistant the tea party is to having a nationalt's hard to tell, but the tea party members that care about social issues tend to really like her. she's a values candidate. >> it's a large group, the one we're talking about here, we should note. >> yes. >> thanks, appreciate you. >> nice to see you. >>> meanwhile, herman cain meeting with folks in alabama today. a rally going on right now in talladega, and the west alabama straw poll is this weekend. andrew raferty joining me now. what's cain's focus as he meets with voters? >> reporter: the cain train behind me, as they call it. and throughout alabama today and also in texas where we heard a couple days ago from herman cain, a subtle shift in his message. before when he was campaigning throughout the month of september, we heard it was 9-9-9. now he's focusing on foreign policy, criticizing the president from withdrawing troops by the end of the year and being critical of foreign policy, so you're hearing more focus on ideas and issues that aren't involving the 9-9-9 plan. >> andre

it's largely because there are 50 billion tea party groups in the country all vying to be the national. each of them has a different candidate that they like. as long as there's no consensus there, it's mitt romney's race to lose. >> but let me say to that point, there is no establishment message. there -- >> right. >> there may be an established candidate at the end. this is anti-establishment, anti-washington, stop spending, start working year. so it doesn't matter who the messenger is. the message is not chachanging. >> thanks very much. just ahead, the attorney general says he only learned about a botched atf operation fast and furious a few weeks before lawmakers asked him about it. keeping them honest. we have memos that say otherwise. we have tough questions for the congressman behind the investigation. >>> also ahead, the michael jackson death trial. the doctor on trial, conrad murray, his girlfriends taking the stand today, including the one that received cartons of the drug that killed michael jackson. ♪ medicine that can't wait legal briefs there by eight, ♪ ♪ that's logisti

it is largely because there are 50 billion tea party groups in the country all vying to be the national party. and each of them has a different candidate that they like. as long as there's no consensus there, it's mitt romney's race to lose. >> but let me say to that point there is no establishment message. >> right. >> there might be an establishment candidate at the end, but this is an anti-establishment, anti-washington, stop spending, start working year. so it doesn't matter who the messenger is. the message is not changing. that dynamic hasn't changed. >> mary matalin, gloria borger, thanks very much, erick erickson. i want to take you to live pictures right now. amanda knox, her plane has landed in seattle at the tacoma airport. british airways flight 49. amanda knox we saw her changing planes earlier in london. again, we anticipate a press conference, as drew griffin was reporting, she obviously has to clear customs. not sure if she'll get a special whisk through customs but there's a press conference at the airport scheduled where we'll hear from members of the family, her legal

party. just ahead on "news nation." >>> thank you, tamron. one may only look at the teae the discontent spreading through the american public. >o of "time" represents, no matter how you cliche it, the author behind the story spent 19 days on the road gathering the thoughts of average americans and joins us now. joe, i know you do this every ÷ debrief after you do this. so you come back, occupy wall street is there and you've got the tea party movement. i'm going to give you two poll numbers out there, 74% say wrong track. 82% say the government up hegty and needs major reforms. what did you find? >> "time" found 81% wrong track. but at the same time we found 89% thought that politicians in washington should compromise to find solutions and support for the tea party was at 11%. it is always an -- americans are so cool. they are really wonderful. and what i found was that they were kind of mystified about how the tea party was able to get this big mega phone and influence the public debate in washington, influence the agenda in washington when most of the people i talked t

> there's a big difference between covering something and promote it. >> april 15th as tea parties sweep the nation on tax day. we are there with total, fair and balanced network coverage. live. >> this administration has changed the direction of the economy toward more government and less private enter prize. that's what's happened and that's what these people are protesting. and there's nothing wrong with that. it is not a sham. and it is not a fraud. it is now my great duty to promote the tea parties, here we go. >> pleasure talking to you. >> for brian to call the tea party a organic movement when his own network relentlessly promoted it is unbalanced "psychotalk." >>> up next, the protests are spreading from wall street across the country and support is growing, with everyone from labor leaders to congress joining the fight. and later, we will hear from some folks to out here tonight, fighti fighting for the 99%. stay with us. we're on the move. ♪ and we don't want anything, ever, to slow us down. so it's surprising that most women aren't getting enough calcium. but thankfully, with over 25 gr

tea party supporters. that's good in an eight-candidate field. on the other side of the party, he's stuck. in your national polling, he's never been able to get above 18% among people who call themselves tea party supporters. that is probably slightly more than half of the party. you may be in a situation where there is not an affirmative majority of the party that wants to nominate romney at any point, certainly not today. that doesn't mean he can't win. if that majority cannot coalesce behind one single candidate, he in effect could become a plurality nominee because those opposed to him never truly unit behind one alternative. today, santorum gets another endorsement, herman cain is doing very well. there's a lot of sense rick perry may be ready for a second act among some of those voters as he starts to advertise on tv. romney is in a good side. >> ron brownstein, i know you're going to be hanging out with us throughout the hour. we're going to talk about other points of view of the candidates as it pertains to the economy and potentially doing away with, at least we know one candidate wants to do away

tea party group. cain's call for national sales tax on top of the local and national sales taxes troubles conservatives. the influential president says 9-9-9 is catchy, but it won't work, won't pass and could lead to higher taxes. >> if you have with the incomes tax one needle in your arm drawing blood why would you take three needles to stick them in on the promise they'll only take as much as they used to take? the danger is they drain you three times as fast. >> reporter: mississippi governor haley barbour seriously considered a run of his own and said if the election were today his wife would probably vote for cain. by contrast, texas governor rick perry's wife said every time she hears 9-9 of 49 she wants to call 911. carl cameron. fox news. >> bret: to talk more is economist art laffer, former advisor to president ronald reagan and joins us from new york. thank you for being here. >> it's a pleasure. >> bret: are you a supporter of 9-9-9? >> i think 9-9-9 is a wonderful plan. a lot of candidates have good plan for tax reform but i love the 9-9-9 plan and i think it's a great first step. >> bret:

tea party. the tea party deliberately has not had a national leader.s now free to basically take that role. they would certainly welcome her in many places and she can be a strong voice and can help motivate them to get out and do the things they did in 2010. >> well, it's going to be interesting, though, to see just how she contributes to the debate. she says she's unshackled. she's been critical of some of those republican presidential candidates already. by "unshackled," does that mean she can come out and criticize mitt romney who could wind up to be the nominee and transfer make the base less enthusiastic about him? does she come out and start saying nice things about rick perry, for example, who's challenging mitt romney? so she's got to decide exactly how involved in this primary process she's going to get. >> yeah. >> because she can still pull some strings. >> gloria, appreciate it. ed rollins, dana, peter, gloria thanks very much. >>> the antiwall street protest swelled to thousands. the union pledged their support to the movement. the protes

tea party love. but so far they have not supported him. it's been kind of anybody but mitt romney for the tea party. with us, the nationalon, good of to have you with us. i know you've been looking at all the fine print in every poll out there. the recent cnn polls in early states and have an inside track on tea party support. you stay race has become two races on parallel tracks. what do you mean? >> i can take your blazing saddle reference and raise you back to dr. strangelove. you had to go back to 1964 to see a republican race that has been as volatile a race before the vote. six different candidates have led. back to barry goldwater and nelson rockefeller. and one of the reasons the race is so volatile, it is clearly evolving along two separate tracks. in your cnn polling, about half the party identifies as supporters of the tea party. the other half of the republican electorate say they are neutral or opposed to the tea party. and they are moving in very different ways. the nontea party side of the party. they are moving pretty steadily toward mitt romney. he was at 16 to 18% in your polling in sxaug accept. 24% in

tea party. the tea party deliberately has not had a national leader.role. they would certainly welcome her in many places and she can be a strong voice and can help motivate them to get out and do the things they did in 2010. >> well, it's going to be interesting, though, to see just how she contributes to the debate. she says that she's unshackled. she's been critical of some of those republican presidential candidates already. by "unshackled," does that mean she can come out and criticize mitt romney who could wind up to be the nominee and therefore make the base less enthusiastic about him? does she come out and start saying nice things about rick perry, for example, who's challenging mitt romney? so she's got to decide exactly how involved in this primary process she's going to get. >> yeah. >> because she can still pull some strings. >> gloria, appreciate it. ed rollins, dana, peter, ari, thanks very much. >>> the anti-wall street protest in downtown manhattan swelled to thousands today after local unions pledged their support to the pledgie in fl

want cuts and they're and they'd like to see the cap lifted they want a national health care program sixty seventy percent of tea party years would like it you know of a single payer national health care program you guys know these numbers they would they want the right to unionize they want i mean you know just the score stuff they want the banks held accountable and for example ronald reagan put a banks years in prison prosecuted sixteen hundred people in the us and as went down three years after they were deregulate the four years five years after the banks get the regulated they go down and george bush says we're not going to put him in jail we're going to be a well known the common thread the common thread between these two movements is frustration you're absolutely right on that point but when it comes to the way that they actually view the rich or the one percent of the occupy wall street movement this is not some sort of tea party doesn't create distance between themselves and these individuals they say look we're all americans and actually they'd like to be in the position that these so-called one percent are

tea party bigotry. jenny beth martin is co-founder of the nation's largest tea party group. the tea party patriots. having an african-american with so much tea party support is another example that the tea party movement is not racivity. it shows that we're looking at the issues and we're not looking at skin color. yet questions regarding cain's skin color will likely continue. as many people celebrate martin luther king at this weekend's dedication of his washington memorial, herman cain has his own take on the dream. >> i have achieved all of my american dreams, and then some, because of the great nation, the united states of america! what's there to be angry about? >> reporter: shannon travis, cnn, washington. >> herman cain is hot, hot, hot, so is his 999 tax plan. leave it to david letterman to kind of complicate things. >> we have put together for you an educational video. get to know the 999 plan. here, watch this. >> the 999 plan takes the complex issue of taxing americans fairly and makes it simple. u.s. citizens under the age of 9 pay a 9% flat tax while citizens older than 9 but younger

national federation of republican women's meeting in kansas city saturday. about 500 attendees voting he won the straw poll with 48%. rick perry was distant second at 14. then at a tea party outside chicago cain won the second straw poll with 77% of the vote from 700 tea party supporters. >> it took a few passing of patrons to start the nation and it will take a few passionate patriots to save the nation>> reporter: on sunday he went after perry for not acting sooner in removing a racially offensive name on a rock outside a hunting came his family leased. the perry campaign says it was painted over in the 1980s. >> it was painted over but how long ago was it painted over? and>> reporter: and then governor christie a maybe and he has to decide very soon. >> we would be glad to have him cop and play. >> reporter: he will join afield the target of a attack by president obama saturday night for collectively not defending a gay soldier when he was booed at the last gop debate. >> you intend to circumvent the congress for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military. >> you want to be commander in chief? you can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the

national campaign on them. as she put it, i don't need a title to make a difference. so now the question, who will court the tea party vote, or who will the tea party throw support toward. her popularity had been sinking in the poles polls. she had not laid the groundwork for a national campaign, so will it help romney, perry, her main cain, who has been moving up in the polls? at the same time time, we learned that marco rubio, the florida senator, decided he will not be a vice presidential candidate. asked about that at a forum yesterday, rubio initially said i'm not going to be the nominee. then he said, probably would turn down the opportunity and then he said he would definitely turn it down. lynn? >> tracie potts in washington, thank you. here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. it was a rough way to start the morning for houston light rail commuters. a metro train crashed into a dump truck causing passengers to be thrown from their seats. over a dozen riders and the truck driver were treated at area hospitals. >>> a marine towing company came to the rescue of a boater in the waters of

tea party bigotry. jenny beth martin is co-founder of the nation's largest tea party group, the tea party patriots.hink having an african-american with so much tea party support is another example that the tea party movement is not racist. it shows that we're looking at the issues and we're not looking at skin color. yet questions regarding cain's skin color will likely continue. as many people celebrate martin luther king jr. at this weekend's dedication of his washington memorial, herman cain has his own take on the dream. >> i have achieved all of my american dreams and then some because of the great nation, the united states of america. what's there to be angry about? >> reporter: shannon travis, cnn, washington. >>> don't forget next tuesday night live on cnn the republican candidates for president will gather in las vegas to debate and the western republican presidential debate will air right here on cnn at 8:00 eastern. >>> coming up, a marine gives his life to save his buddy's. but his medal of honor is denied. i'll talk to a congressman who is fighting for him and all our other warriors. t