speaker, speaker gingrich. we were just talking to him during the break, i think we can get him back on the line. he finishes at least second or third in both alabama and mississippi. and first mississippi, you can take a look at the results and you can see the battle there about 3,000 votes, less than 3,000 votes. and rick santorum is a surprise winner there after romney campaign spent a lot of money and organization on the ground in mississippi. newt gingrich said to be doing well on the ground. in alabama you can see that rick santorum is a big winner but there is still a battle for second place in alabama. and we're getting word that house speaker is still not up. there he is in alabama. there is rick santorum, too tight to call, second place. now as promised the former house speaker newt gingrich, mr. speaker thank you for being here, your reaction to tonight? >> senator santorum had a great night. he deserves credit. he worked hard and earned it. and you have to say i think frankly governor rom me for the

speaker, speaker gingrich. we were just talking to him during the break, i think we can get him back on the line. he finishes at least second or third in both alabama and mississippi. and first mississippi, you can take a look at the results and you can see the battle there about 3,000 votes, less than 3,000 votes. and rick santorum is a surprise winner there after romney campaign spent a lot of money and organization on the ground in mississippi. newt gingrich said to be doing well on the ground. in alabama you can see that rick santorum is a big winner but there is still a battle for second place in alabama. and we're getting word that house speaker is still not up. there he is in alabama. there is rick santorum, too tight to call, second place. now as promised the former house speaker newt gingrich, mr. speaker thank you for being here, your reaction to tonight? >> senator santorum had a great night. he deserves credit. he worked hard and earned it. and you have to say i think frankly governor rom me for the

he's 566 votes ahead of newt gingrich with 29% for gingrich, 28% for mitt romney. there's a real battle for second place under way. santorum is ahead with 34% right now, but it's a very small number in alabama. i'm sure rick santorum and his supporters would love to see him atop both these states when all the vote is tallied later tonight. let's go to john king. i know we will be studying these two states very closely. we have reporters standing by as well. if you take a look at these two states, mississippi and alabama right now, fiercely, fiercely tight. let's take a look at pascagoula in mississippi, birmingham in alabama. we have reporters in those two places. >> you watch the state start to fill in. right now, they're splitting it up. some counties for gingrich, some for romney, purple is santorum. this is a very important county for governor romney, winning by 51% of the vote. he needs to keep that margin. in the rural areas, santorum and gingrich, the split, if romney goes on to win either one of these states, this will be the story. you mentioned pascagoula

gingrich in there. but after that, he cannot do it without gingrich leaving the race. >> thank you, mark halperin, for that. if gingrich stays in and romney loses the states with the non-romney vote divided between gingrich and rick santorum, that is even worse for romney than to lose it to a solo candidate. >> and you know, romney to a southern state can't get above 28%, so obviously the two can mix up the vote, and one of them can win. >> msnbc's coverage of super tuesday continues just after this, and again though, the big news out of super tuesday out of this past hour is that the state of ohio is going to mitt romney after a very long night, and very closely fought race with rick santorum. stay with us. we will be right back.

speaker, speaker gingrich. we were just talking to him during the break, i think we can get him back on the line. he finishes at least second or third in both alabama and mississippi. and first mississippi, you can take a look at the results and you can see the battle there about 3,000 votes, less than 3,000 votes. and rick santorum is a surprise winner there after romney campaign spent a lot of money and organization on the ground in mississippi. newt gingrich said to be doing well on the ground. in alabama you can see that rick santorum is a big winner but there is still a battle for second place in alabama. and we're getting word that house speaker is still not up. there he is in alabama. there is rick santorum, too tight to call, second place. now as promised the former house speaker newt gingrich, mr. speaker thank you for being here, your reaction to tonight? >> senator santorum had a great night. he deserves credit. he worked hard and earned it. and you have to say i think frankly governor rom me for the

gingrich in there. but after that, he cannot do it without gingrich leaving the race. >> thank you, mark halperin, for that. if gingrich stays in and romney loses the states with the non-romney vote divided between gingrich and rick santorum, that is even worse for romney than to lose it to a solo candidate. >> and you know, romney to a southern state can't get above 28%, so obviously the two can mix up the vote, and one of them can win. >> msnbc's coverage of super tuesday continues just after this, and again though, the big news out of super tuesday out of this past hour is that the state of ohio is going to mitt romney after a very long night, and very closely fought race with rick santorum. stay with us. we will be right back.

gingrich in there. but after that, he cannot do it without gingrich leaving the race. >> thank you, mark halperin, for that. if gingrich stays in and romney loses the states with the non-romney vote divided between gingrich and rick santorum, that is even worse for romney than to lose it to a solo candidate. >> and you know, romney to a southern state can't get above 28%, so obviously the two can mix up the vote, and one of them can win. >> msnbc's coverage of super tuesday continues just after this, and again though, the big news out of super tuesday out of this past hour is that the state of ohio is going to mitt romney after a very long night, and very closely fought race with rick santorum. stay with us. we will be right back.

this is bad night for gingrich. goods night for santorum but because it's bad for gingrich it's bad for mitt romney because it's likely to extend this season even if hit mitt romney ends up as a nominee. >> these were not must-win states but it's the turker t-- soft-pedaling his chances of winning in the deep south. how do you think this goes over with republican party leaders who are already concerned about his appeal to conservative and evangelical voter. are mississippi and alabama a writeoff? or is there disappointment in terms of his viability for this? >> there has to be disappointment, rachel. front runners aren't supposed to finish third. you can loose close prito prima the final analysis, he finished third in both states. and so, i think the republican establishment figures have that same sort of unease that they've had all along about romney as the eventual nominee. look, the republican candidate is going to carry alabama and mississippi. that's not the issue. but there is something of an issue in that it'

newt gingrich. that was a state he said he had to win to stay in this race. he's a congressman there, or former congressman. >> 36 percent after the hour now. announced the brand new delegate count. here's what here's what each racked up. romney 2 12ke8 gats. santorum 84. gingrich 42, ron paul scored 2 -- gingrich 72, ron paul 22. 6 of those came from alaska. >> the magic number to secure the nomination. 1144. mitt romney is in the lead with 415, san tore raum 176 newt gingrich 105 and ron paul at 47. >>> now it's time for us to take a look at who's talking. gasoline prices, they are rising and american individuals want some answers. fox's own ed henry tried to get answers from president obama and said this is what he got. >> the critics will say on capitol hill you want gas prices to go higher you have said before that will wean the american people on to renewable fuels. how do you respond to that? >> from a political perspective do you think the president of the united states going into reelection

this is bad night for gingrich. goods night for santorum but because it's bad for gingrich it's bad for mitt romney because it's likely to extend this season even if hit mitt romney ends up as a nominee. >> these were not must-win states but it's the -- he was soft-pedaling his chances of winning in the deep south. how do you think this goes over with republican party leaders who are already concerned about his appeal to conservative and evangelical voter. are mississippi and alabama a writeoff? or is there disappointment in terms of his viability for this? >> there has to be disappointment, rachel. front runners aren't supposed to finish third. you can loose to primary but in the final analysis, he finished third in both states. and so, i think the republican establishment figures have that same sort of unease that they've had all along about romney as the eventual nominee. look, the republican candidate is going to carry alabama and mississippi. that's not the issue. but there is something of an issue in that it's

gingrich's running mate. they chanted that at least. >> rick santorum showed enormous courage in iowa when had no money, nobody covered him and he kept campaigning. >> vp, vp. vp,vp. >> vp, vp newt gingrich basking this that idea. while newt gingrich used to enjoy sharing the ticket with rick santorum, mitt romney would not share his ticket with rick santorum. he was asked about potential running mate choses last night on the fox newschannel, here is what he said. >> do you think though the fact that people like sarah palin, just recently endorsed newt gingrich and other conservatives are still holding back on you that if you were to become the nominee of your party, circumstances you would almost have to put a conservative, a real i know you say you're conservative, to the right of you on your ticket. >> well, that would preclude rick santorum, because look at his record. i find it interesting he continues to describe himself as the real conservative. this is the guy who voted against right to work. this is

if gingrich gets out -- if gingrich gets out -- >> okay. >> if gingrich gets out with -- now, these went to santorum tonight. make these purple. do that. now we're going to move on. i'm going through these. if gingrich gets out, now santorum gets that. i've decide we're generous to santorum. that's our scenario. let's keep going move quickly. he gets louisiana. let's say santorum he's doing well in the midwest. we're going to give him wisconsin. all right? let's keep coming through. he wins pennsylvania. i'm going to generous. santorum. gingrich is now out of the race. you watch this delegate map. as santorum starts marching and wins all of these, okay? now look what's happening? he's getting closer. he's closing the gap. can we win all these? he would like the two-man race. that's how you catch mitt romney if santorum's not in the race. let's say santorum can get nebraska. again, gingrich is not in the race now. this is a two-way hypothetical scenario. keep coming. let's keep this here. he's winning in the south and border states. texas goes to santorum. uh-oh in team romney. they're se

newt gingrich. his only win was in his home state of georgia, as we mentioned. that led to some choice words from gingrich to the presumed g.o.p. frontrunner, mitt romney. we go live to atlanta with with that. what did he say, jonathan? >> reporter: yeah. he had definitely harsh words towards the presumed frontrunner. it's hard to be on top. this was a good night for mitt romney, who is the projected winner the at least five states. speaking in boston, earlier, rom nerks rather than criticizing the other candidates, congratulated his opponents on their hard-fought victories and reserved attacks for the obama administration. listen. >> 24 million americans are still struggling for work. they are high-fiving each other this the west wing. but 8% unemployment is not the best america can do. ewe it's just the best this administration can do. >> when i am president, this american economy will not be lagging behind, it will be leading as the world as it has and as it should and as it will do in the future

newt gingrich. his only win was in his home state of georgia, as we mentioned. that led to some choice words from gingrich to the presumed g.o.p. frontrunner, mitt romney. we go live to atlanta with with that. what did he say, jonathan? >> reporter: yeah. he had definitely harsh words towards the presumed frontrunner. it's hard to be on top. this was a good night for mitt romney, who is the projected winner the at least five states. speaking in boston, earlier, rom nerks rather than criticizing the other candidates, congratulated his opponents on their hard-fought victories and reserved attacks for the obama administration. listen. >> 24 million americans are still struggling for work. they are high-fiving each other this the west wing. but 8% unemployment is not the best america can do. ewe it's just the best this administration can do. >> when i am president, this american economy will not be lagging behind, it will be leading as the world as it has and as it should and as it will do in the future

gingrich in there. but after that, he cannot do it without gingrich leaving the race. >> thank you, mark halperin, for that. it's going to be the thing to watch. if gingrich stays in and romney loses the states with the non-romney vote divided between gingrich and rick santorum, that is even worse for romney than to lose it to a solo candidate. >> i think that really makes sense. >> and you know, romney to a southern state can't get above 28%, so obviously the two can mix up the vote, and one of them can win. >> msnbc's coverage of super tuesday continues just after this, and again though, the big news out of super tuesday out of this past hour is that the state of ohio is going to mitt romney after a very long night, and very closely fought race with rick santorum. stay with us. we will be right back.

gingrich means it. now, this may also be an appropriate time to take a step back and concede one of mr. gingrich's points tonight, which is that everybody's been wrong so far about the race to pick a republican nominee for president. i mean, the media, self included, really has been wrong all along about who was going to show strength and who was going to be viable. it's not just the media. it's also some of the insiders who have been really, really, really wrong about this race. for example, this guy's a real insider. >> we're going to win this thing with all of our passion and strength. >> that was mitt romney in marion, iowa, before the iowa caucuses, predicting that he would win iowa. mr. romney, of course, lost iowa to rick santorum. now, this was mitt romney's campaign saying in a web ad that south carolina would pick a president in the south carolina republican primary. south carolina actually picked newt gingrich who may or may not be a president one day, but despite what mr. romney's campaign s

they went to newt gingrich. and for the voters that say having the right experience is the most important thing to them in terms of their top quality he got 60% of those as well. in fact, he won every single characteristic across the board except those who said that strong moral character was what guided their vote. those folks went for santorum. so, let's take a look at mitt romney's lead as you said, shep, not able to call vermont yet which is somewhat surprising at this point in the evening. vermont, of course, is next door to his home state of massachusetts. and here is what it looks like in vermont. totally different picture in terms of electorate there. voters less conservative. they are more moderate. lot more independents getting into the mix in this election as well tonight. the number of very conservative voters is less than half of what we see in other states. numbers shape up when you look at them versus ohio, georgia, and tennessee tonight. so, very small number of that group. so those vermont voter

. >> what happened to newt gingrich last night? >> newt gingrich vowing to roll on to tampa. >> i emphasize going to tampa. >> newt vowed to take his fight to tampa in he made it clear he is not getting out. >> gingrich is in this thing until the end. >> what state do you think you can win. >> i don't know yet. >> newt gingrich is swimming in a sea of delusion. >> it is hard for us to get inside of the great man's mind. >> newt craves attention as many of us politics do. >> why is this guy in the race. >> he will have to say more outrageous things to draw attention to himself. >> newt wants to go to the convention come hell or high water. [ laughter ] >> republican voters can't seem to decide who the republican nominee for president should be, so that, of course, leaves republicans wondering, who does god want? after watching romney finish in third, erick erickson wris it is almost like god himself is toying with romney. maybe it is because the romney camp said it would take an act of god for santorum or gingrich to win. god seems

newt gingrich and ron paul rounding out the 4. keep in mind these are fluid numbers right now because some of these guys have won some states tonight and some of the delegate awards are proportional. we have to figure it out district by district. 1144 delegates are needed to secure the republic nomination. >> bret: these are projections. this is the associated press projection as well. that's what we use. we will be changing throughout the night. team fox coverage now. our team of reporters are spread across the country. mike emanuel live in nashville at a primary party there. john roberts in atlanta with the gingrich campaign. steve brown in steubenville, ohio with the santorum campaign. and chief political correspondent carl cammeron is live in boston with the romney campaign. carl, everyone said ohio is going to be very close. it looks like it is. what can you tell us? >> well, the romney campaign is very confident tonight. they are in boston for the big celebration. the crowd has been here for a couple of hours and they are pr

one for gingrich and one outstanding. strong night for mitt romney, who had wanted most to win ohio and does so. it is a imel whether, rust-belt state, adjacent to rick santorum's pennsylvania. not a home state for mitt romney. so tonight's victory gives him an opportunity to say that he can connect with blue-collar voters. ats one point, the romney campaign was pointing out with voters who made under $50,000, romney was exceedingly expect eggs and was leading santorum at one point with that block of ohio voters. romney has a big head of steam now, winning half of tonight's contests in the wake of five consecutive wins in the last five contests. romney has big momentum. so now, the battle moves on. when it does, it goes into southern states where romney is not said to be strong, alabama, mississippi and kansas, followed by alabama and mississippi on tuesday. there, watch for romney to thoroughly encourage a blood bath between santorrum and gingrich there. will be increased pressure by newt gingrich to get out of the race.

>> do you think gingrich should drop out, senator? do you think speaker gingrich should drop out? >> not going to give an answer to that. >> it would be great if everyone dropped out. >> clearly, you would have won by a wider margin. >> i appreciate it. you have to play with the cards you got. >> so there you go, you hear rick santorum say you have to play with the cards you're dealt. but clearly, this is a delegate situation for the santorum campaign. earlier, he was on the glenn beck radio show. that was a moment where he said it would beat great for speaking gingrich to get out of the race, and i asked one of his spokes pm people, do you think gingrich should get out of the race, shenentially said absolutely and said later on this evening, you know, we're not formally calling on gingrich to get out of the race. no question about it, head nothing to the next contests, it would be a big help to the campaign, and you know, just to tell you how they're not taking anything for granted from this point forward, they're getting on a plane at 1:00 in the morning to head to puerto rico i

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newt gingrich wins in georgia. we will take a look at the map and show you what is going on right now. you see it. wins for mitt romney in vermont and virginia, and you see the win for newt gingrich in georgia. we are waiting for ohio. the polls in ohio have closed, but we have not been able to make a projection. we have other states closing at the top of the the hour at 8:00 massachusetts closing, and oklahoma closes, and tennessee closes. that is right at the top of the hour. we will see if we can make any projections in those three states, but it is a significant development and a win is a win. mitt romney has two wins tonight so far tonight. so it is a significant development. it was fully expected, but anderson cooper, i expect that the mitt romney is excited to win those states. >> well, a win is a win. and for you guys, what is important, ohio? >> ohio and delegate count though, because you can't separate the two. if you are inside of a presidential campaign at this point, you are looking more at the total d

if newt gingrich were to lose mississippi and alabama. it would be awfully difficult for him to say is he a viable candidate going forward. and watch for santorum supporters to turn up the heat on him to get out. shep? >> shepard: you know they would. general roberts live tonight in lafayette, louisiana is it possible mitt romney could have a successful night in the southern states? let's ask this man, veteran g.o.p. political consultant ed rollins, a former member of the reagan administration. he ran the campaigns the president presidential candidates fox news contributor. >> my pleasure. >> shepard: the highlight would be tonight? >> we watched that jet pack. romney jet packed as a yankee into the deep south and did very, very well. talking cheesy grist and trying to say y'all. i was embarrassed for him. >> he may come out with the delegates and may have a win. if he has a win he is on his way. santorum and gingrich are splitting that vote as people have annualized here until one of them gets out it's going to be hard to stop romney. >>

gingrich is way behind. newt gingrich wasn't chasing last night, he wasn't depressed or dejected, newt gingrich was defiant. >> because this is proportional representation we'll leave alabama and mississippi with substantial number of delegates, increasing our total going toward tampa. i emphasized going to tampa because one of the things proved is that the elite media's effort to convince the nation that mitt romney is inevitable just collapsed. >> watching that clips it appears newt gingrich and i are wearing the same tie. on the subject of campaign's collapsing, this is a picture of calista gingrich introducing her husband in rosemont, illinois. you can see the tie now. i was racking my brain, wondering what does this speech remind me of, what is this like? i knew somewhere in the deep reaches of part of my brain that makes everything in pop culture metaphor, there is a perfect thing that newt gingrich and his campaign has become. but i couldn't quite place it. i couldn't get there, who is newt gingrich t

gingrich is basically finished. romney has got a serious problem because the one thing that i think rachel referred to, the overreach by newt gingrich in saying he and santorum together has all these delegates, the fact is that overwhelming majority of people voted against romney. and if you combine that gingrich vote and most of it would fall into santorum, this spells a slow walk toward the end of mitt romney if it keeps going this way. if he pulls out illinois, you're looking at a serious shot at a brokered convention. >> rachel, what is romney's best strategy right now? i mean, he goes home tonight with his tail between his legs. he's going to have both these candidates saying, you can't win in the south, and that is going to be a big issue with a lot of southern conservatives because they want a winner. you saw the polling today. they want somebody that can beat president obama. where does romney go from here other than wall street? >> romney goes to his phone and fwoez to the "a" section in the contacts list a

but gingrich faltered, santorum faltering today. i think at the end of the day, what we have to start doing is creating a little love fest here. there is a lot of bitterness as you see by ron paul and others and we've got to sort of bring this party back together to be strong in the fall. so the quicker romney gets this thing over, the better for all of us. >> bret: ed, you look at newt gingrich and you praised some of his past efforts, especially in south carolina and all that went down there. he's looking at georgia. he weapons big in georgia. let's see he does, and according to the polls, it's a double digit lead. is there a way to mount some ininsurgent candidacy? >> the problem is none of them have put an organization together. both gingrich and santorum have had opportunities. they've both led at different points in time. but they're running on the super pac money and the super pac money can give you television, but it can't give you the ground game and it can't give you the resource to be in multiple states. we're no longer o

newt gingrich wasn't on the ballot. even though gingrich will be on the ballot for the caucus, i don't think mitt romney is going to do incredibly well. it goes back to santorum. i take that back to prop-c. people in missouri don't like mandated health care. we saw that with prop-c. >> that means, amy, that this could go on and on and on. we still have a lot of big states. texas, california, new york. this could go as the democrats had that experience four years ago, all the way through june. >> absolutely. i remember it well. i remember the arguments there being that similar to sort of carol's arguments. if winning this state is really meaningful in the general election. winning california, is that meaningful for the republicans since it's likely california will go for the democrat? looking at what mitt romney needs to do to move forward to gain some momentum, carol and i were talking before the show and it's kind of he just needs to relax and just be himself and to embrace the person that we're trying to get to know.

the destruction of newt gingrich for those fans of the destruction of newt gingrich. [ coughs ] what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop. give me your war face! are you still sleeping?aaah! just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. >>> welcome back to "hardball." as the republican primary race heads south to alabama, mississippi next week, actually, it's already there, rick santorum argues the only thing between him and the white house, catch the phrasing, the only thing between him and the white house is newt gingrich. take a listen. >> if you go out and deliver a conservative victory for us on tuesday, this race will become a two-person race, and when it becomes a two-person race for the republican nomination, the conservative will win that nomination. and when a conservative wins the nomination, we will defeat ba

gingrich? >> well, it's kind of one of those things. what does newt exactly bring to the table, right? his many endorsements? his many financial backers? what exactly -- >> he brings the much coveted herman cain endorse many. the sarah palin endorsement. what does he have to offer mitt romney? and for romney, he is not convinced that he is not better off having newt in the race, dividing up the conservative vote. that's out very well for him. >> i'm wondering whether he said, stay in, stay in. even though you've run out of money. >> i wonder if what newt gingrich offers is convention peace. can you imagine, you're the presumptive nominee and you go into tampa not knowing whether you're actually going to leave tampa as the nominee? and newt gingrich as we all know has the capacity for mischief. >> he's crazy enough to do it. >> but joe, even his friends are calling for him to throw in the towel including casino big shot who has already wasted over $16 million on newt. listen to this. >> it appears as though he is at the end of his line.