he said it was newt gingrich. let's take a listen. >> as i have contemplated the future of this campaign, i have come to the conclusion that there is no viable path forward for me in this 2012 campaign. therefore, today, i am suspending my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich for president of the united states. >> so, rick perry putting his weight and his support, not a lot of numbers, not a lot of supporters out of south carolina, if you believe those polls, single digits, but perhaps a very critical group, evangelical christians. perhaps, he can persuade them to go to newt gingrich. another big political story today that we are following, and that was the reversal of the results out of the iowa caucuses. it was mitt romney who was believed to have won the iowa caucuses. well, now, today, iowa officials saying it was actually rick santorum. we'll see if that means he has more momentum leading into tonight's debate as well as the south carolina primary. that in two days, but the debate and cnn tonight. so, all thi

herman cain thinks that man is newt gingrich. >> speaker gingrich is a patriot, speaker gingrich is not afraid of bold ideas. >> cain and other conservatives say despite the decades in congress, his consultant work in d.c., he's more into change than candidate obama ever was. sarah palin put it this way on fox. >> we need somebody who's engaged in reform and isn't afraid to shake up that establishment. so if for no other reason, rage against the machine, vote for newt. annoy a liberal. vote newt. >> as politico contributor puts it, he, gingrich, has weird ideas. he's unpredictable. but conservative base figures, romney the establishment candidate, will do a modest job of reining in the budget, gingrich might just whack the thing until it begs for mercy and releases all its wasteful programs. how many times have you heard democrats wish hillary clinton had been elected president? could she, they wonder, as a washington insider, have more effectively dealt with a hostile congress? do we need an anti-establishment president? facebook.com/carolcnn. i'll read your comments later this hour. >

women went for newt gingrich. so we watch the women's vote here because there's some signs they're going for mitt romney. i also want to see the tea party really conservative vote. because mitt romney has to come out of here or come out of somewhere showing that he can attract those really very conservative votes, and this may be the place to do it. of course, key to this, obviously, in florida is the hispanic vote. we expect mitt romney to do very well there. i just think i would be looking at the conservative vote and the women vote. >> what about a refrain we've been hearing by newt gingrich, this we're going to get them, we're going to take it all the way to the convention. is that almost tea party-esque? >> yes, it absolutely s because that's the core of newt gingrich's support at this point. any campaign can run on fumes. and what we know now is that mitt romney -- i'm sorry -- that newt gingrich did raise about $5 million in the last quart-- $5, last quarter. he's got help. here's why i believe has fueled n

this is newt gingrich's strength. it's where he has pulled from and what has propelled him throughout most of this primary season. it has been his debate performances. i think there was a lot of pressure on mitt romney to put in a, quote, presidential kind of performance as well as a really strong performance because he didn't get that great a grade last time. it matters now. this is the last one before the south carolina primary. >> paul steinhauser, i'm hearing you might know when rick perry's announcement is going to happen, is that right? >> reporter: yeah. the perry campaign, which is still around for now, just put out a press release moments ago while you were talking to wolf, candy, roland. it's going to be at 11:00 eastern. only a few miles from here. just a few miles from here. steve rusk, he's making the move. we'll have the cameras there. >> once again, if you're just tuning in, here's the latest news. paul telling us 11:00 a.m. eastern time right here on cnn we are going to hear rick perry step up to the m

i want to talk about newt gingrich here, newt gingrich in florida. the super pack that supports him is airing another trailer for another anti-romney documentary. here's just a part of it. >> they never do any work for the government like medicare? >> we didn't do any work with the government. >> saw the title, "blood money." can you just explain to me what this documentary is about, what specifically they're going after romney on? >> yeah, it's a pretty brutal ad. the super pack that gingrich has -- excuse me, outside this campaign has have been running some very tough ads like that bain ad we saw in south carolina. this is basically about a medical aid in california romney served on the board of. they took over this company in 1989, and eventually this medical company had to pay $119 million in civil and criminal feels for fraudulently billing medicare. romney has never been accused of any wrongdoing here, but his company, bain capital, did make money when they sold off this company. so the argument from the newt gingrich super pack and now today f

that supports newt gingrich. a so-called super pac and the anti-romney commercials like this one which targets romney's career as an investor with bain capital. >> mitt romney became ceo of bain capital. >> they don't care who i am. >> he's for small businesses. no, he isn't. he's not. >> his record is hard game and so are republicans just like that one. ed he is spin know za joining us today from austin, texas. lenny, i'll start with you here. $3 million. they sent a million so far that will buy a lot of ads. is this gingrich's last stand, do you think? >> it has to be newt gingrich's last stand. he's a guy of the south. he's a conservative and has had success as a leader from the 1990s. if he doesn't remind people about the good things of his campaign and remind people about the romney possibility, he's going to be out of it by the time he gets through florida. this is it. he has to have some state before we go into super tuesday. >> you know, these attacks by the gop, they really sound a lot like the same atta

gingrich wants to move on and focus on the issues. but if he doesn't back up his claims, it's just name calling. and that's tonight's "no talking points." >>> up next on cnn, a symbolic landmark that was a tornado tha month moshgs last year comes down. >>> police in alabama believe more than one person is responsible for the deaths of five people at a home in birmingham. officers discovered the bodies early sunday as they were responding to a report of a robbery in progress. police do not believe the killings were random. >>> new developments in the case of a missing girl in maine. police say test results show that blood found in the home of little ala reynolds does belong to the 20-month-old girl. she was reported missing on december 17th. police say there's no evidence of the girl was abducted and they have cast doubt on stories told by three adults including her dad who were in the home when ala disappeared. >>> it's been eight months since a tornado slammed joplin, month moshgs killing 161 people. a hospital was heavily damaged an

newt gingrich on the defensive. ron paul seemed indifferent. >> that subject really doesn't interest me a whole lot. >> wolf blitzer was the moderator of that cnn florida republican debate and he'll join us next. i'm good about washing my face. but sometimes i wonder... what's left behind? [ female announcer ] purifying facial cleanser from neutrogena® naturals. developed with dermatologists... it's clinically proven to remove 99% of dirt and toxins and purify pores. and with natural willowbark it contains no dyes, parabens or harsh sulfates. dirt and toxins do a vanishing act and my skin feels pure and healthy. [ female announcer ] purifying facial cleanser from neutrogena naturals. >>> all right, we continue to delve into the issues on the presidential campaign. every sunday we're spending this hour in the "cnn newsroom" to allow you to hear from the conternd co contenders as they spell out their ideas for the future of the united states. mitt romney took newt gingrich head on at the cnn debate last week. they we

you agree gingrich did himself good last night? >> gingrich won the debate in the opening moments. i must say that i thought it was a misstep for john king who is a fair and seasoned and balanced reporter to make that the first question of the debate because it enabled gingrich to take that big swing and they are more interested in reviving the allegations of personal and sexual impropriety in his past versus the serious problems facing the country. i think that everything that happened after that, even when mitt romney stumbled about his tax return. >> there's a question of timing. what do you make of it? you have the abc interview with marianne coming out just two days before the primary. >> well, first of all, what marianne gingrich had to say in this abc news interview with brian ross, he will be appearing with me on "reliable sources" to talk about the timing of the story was not new. she has talked about the open marriage allegation and the way in which her ex-husband told her she wanted a divorce. but she had never said it in front of a television camera. now, it feels to me

newt gingrich learned manage last night. if you have a witness, turn that into a strength and he did that last night. romney is more separate and detached from where people are. he was called a continue man and that gets at what you start to feel about mitt romney, that there's nothing inside him guiding him. >> crystal, you get the last word. >> i think romney or gingrich can beat president barack obama because president barack obama is probably one of the -- he's the most flawed candidate that -- in the 2012 race and what democrats really fear is gingrich gets the nomination. he will vericiat -- newt gingrich is grandiose. he worked with bill clinton. he balanced a budget. he brought republicans back in power after 40 years in siberia. and he reformed welfare. with newt gingrich, you know what you're getting. he's not afraid of the tough questions. he will hit obama head on and that's what democrats are most afraid of. romney is going to really pull this off, if he sales into the nomination, he's going to have to get a lot

newt gingrich's ex-wife. here's conan's take. >> newt gingrich's second wife said, newt wanted to have an open marriage. yeah. i think it might be true. because at the last debate, newt turned down the lights and said, hey, fellow, let's just all be president. >> all right. seriously now. do you think the story which he says is false by the way will hurt gingrich in any way? maria. >> well, it's certainly not going to help him. and i think it all depends on what voters think when they go into the booth in south carolina tomorrow. and mainly i think he's got an issue clearly with women going into this. he was already at probably half the favor ability that he was with men. and then also depends on whether these women think that this is old news, that it's just baggage, that the media is regurgitating. he answered the first question from john king last night brilliantly and he really played to the crowd with that one. so we'll see what this means going into south carolina tomorrow. >> chris moody. >> the last t

there's gingrich now at 40%. romney at 26%. this is among people likely to vote right now in today's primary in south carolina. look at that earlier in the week. basically dead even. now, gary, this is probably the final poll. it's already primary day. people are voting and this is just one poll, so, you know, the polls may differ. all of the polls, and there have been a lot, indicate gingrich surge and romney's lead evaporating. >> gingrich's lead is weaker when it comes to fee mamale vot >> reporter: we saw the story line from the debate the other night, his ex-wife marian saying he asked for an open marriage. loot ak this on the poll numbers. it goes against the other polls. right here among women and men, look at that, gingrich's support among men, 38%, women, 42%. so at least from this one poll it indicates he's doing well with female voters likely to partake in today's primary. >> the numbers are stunning. you're an expert, so i'm going to ask you this expert question. if gingrich wins in south carolina, and we didn't exp

newt gingrich has five, and gri gingrich has some ground to make up. mitt romney has roughly a ten-point lead depending on which poll you're looking at. that's not good news for newt gingrich who was hoping for some big momentum after that florida primary. part of the reason why is the romney campaign has really gone after newt gingrich with a sort of scorched earth strategy, the ads have been tough, the rhetoric also has been tough. listen to what romney has had to say about gingrich's time as an adviser for freddie mac and all that money he made from the mortgage giant, and he has not let go of that issue the entire time he's been down here in florida. >> people recognize the policies that got us into this mess included the fact that we had something called freddie mac and fannie mae and they were guaranteed mortgages where they knew people couldn't possibly pay it back. a huge bubble erupted, people got hurt by it, and the fact that somebody is running for president at the time that was going on, $1.6 billion, that just irks people, and i think that

is going to go out and make the case for newt gingrich when newt gingrich isn't there. so looking down the road, they hope it's going to be a little bit different. we'll see, brooke. >> yeah, by the looks of these last couple of polls with mitt romney in the lead by double digits. we'll have to see how, if at all, newt gingrich changes his message and his narrative moving forward. joe johns, i appreciate it, with me in tampa, florida. next on reporter roulette i want to take you to washington where we have senior correspondent dana bash standing by on capitol hill. the senate is considering this bill where it would make it illegal for staff to make insider trades. this is something we talk about on the show, but i think a lot of americans are actually sitting there thinking, hello, how is this not illegal already? >> exactly. and you talk to some members of congress, they will tell you they believe it actually is technically illegal already, but the problem is there is a perception that members of congress are exempt from this insider trading law. what this effectively

to him, newt gingrich directly. we stau a little bit of that tonight in his speech. what they're going to talk about is the fact that newt gingrich is a lobbyist and somebody who lobbied as they say for freddie mac. when you look at the value of housing and how it's declined in the state of florida, they oar going to have after him on that. they're going to say he's out of touch with the republican party, that he called the republican budget right wing social engineering. something that almost every house republican voted for. so they're going to also say that he's unreliable, that he's erratic. that you need somebody who is steadier at the helm and who can be depended upon to beat barack obama, because in the end, it's going to be a race about who is best able to beat the president of the united states and romney has to show in these debates coming up, including the one with wolf on thursday, that he can take it to barack obama and go the long haul with him. and win for the republican party. that's what they want.

part of it is newt gingrich's fall. we heard him say on occasions comparing himself to reagen and margaret thatcher i done foe that goes over with well people in iowa the definition of iowa, nice, down to earth, midst western folks. if you look at the poll numbers as to who is identified as being kind of like regular iowans here it's rick santorum and i think he's been able to benefit from that. you know, by going to all of these towns, going to all 99 counties, doing 360 town halls. he's been able to connect with people on the ground here in iowa, throughout the course of this campaign. and i think that's paying off for him. newt gingrich, who also spent a lot of time here, packed a lot of people into town halls in recent weeks, we were in iowa a few weeks ago following from town hall to town hall, and he was packing, at the height, poll numbers were strong, he was leading in the state he was packing people into town halls. something happened to newt gingrich between three weeks ago and when this poll was starting to b

to newt gingrich. this race, bottom line, in south carolina is really heating up. four candidates left. let's not forget ron paul. it's going to be a lively debate and it's going to be a fascinating primary on saturday. >> yeah. wolf, let's talk about rick perry and his endorsement of newt gingrich. how much do you think that is worth to newt gingrich? >> i think that's going to help newt gingrich. newt gingrich not only wanted rick perry to drop out, he'd like santorum to drop out. when i asked santorum about that, he thought that was the height of arrogance and got visibly angry that newt gingrich would even raise that possibility the fact that he did better than gingrich in new hampshire. but i think it will help wind up helping gingrich a bit if it's a really close race and the polls show it's tightening over these past few days. if it's close between gingrich and romney as the polls seem to suggest, whatever amount of support that rick perry is dropping out would presumably help. so i think it cou

but among the larger groups, gingrich, gingrich and gingrich. you just go across, he keeps winning. here's one more. men and woman, it was evenly split. some thought there would be a gender gap. there was no gender gap. gingrich 38%, romney, 29%. he won among women. he won even more convincingly among men. and the question, you can see here this is newt gingrich. that is a picture of a thumping. look at 2008 when john mccain barley carried the state. he won 33% to 30% over mike huckabee. you see a split, the conservatives up here, the more moderate to conservative voters in this part of the state. tonight, newt gingrich winning convincingly. the question is, can he take the demographic support among tea party voters, and evangelicals and bring it into a much more different state here. this is mccain the lighter red, romney is the darker red. mike huckabee the yellow. that's four years ago. romney got 31% last time but mccain won the state. that was it. much more diverse place. again, a lot of lessons. you can discount because of the size of the gingrich victory or say governor romne

what if it's gingrich? >> i think gingrich would give obama a much larger margin for error where if you have a recession, then gingrich probably is a good enough politician to win under those conditions. if you had what the forecast says, slow growth, better, not great, i think gingrich's personal unfavorables are very high would be enough to make his job very challenging. >> mr. numbers man, nate silver, we'll see what ends up panning out. i hope you join us tonight watching the debate. five days out from the florida primary, cnn and the republican party of florida teaming up to host the next presidential debate in jacksonville. it's going to be huge, tonight, 8:00 eastern. join me in tweeting, #cnn elections. now this. just in here. shocking new video into cnn involving the man accused of shooting at the pentagon some damning evidence coming out in court in actual video of this man that he shot of himself actually the night of the shooting. brian todd joins me live from washington. what do you know? >> re

if gingrich wins here his shot looks more attractive. >> gingrich has not won a race. if he does well and clinches south carolina or comes in a strong second, does this offer assurances that this primary season will be elongated a bit. some thought after florida the nomination would be clinched by january 31st. >> first of all, you often say watch what they do not what they say. the fact that mitt romney confirmed two debates for next week indicates that he's not confident about the results tonight. early they are week they thought they might be able to deliver a knock out blow in florida and basically at that point say we're turning our attention to president obama. i think if gingrich doesn't win in south carolina, it is difficult to mount a full scale campaign. he would argue even if he doesn't win if the combined vote for him and santorum exceeds romney it is well for him to consolidate that vote. he has limited resources and without the boost from south carolina it's hard for me to see how he gets past romney in florida. if he does get a boost out of here, does wi

i spoke to him about newt gingrich's fiery week and his convincing south carolina win. >> newt gingrich has the momentum. there is an old song, hearts can inspire other hearts with their fire. gingrich has the fire as we mentioned on your program earlier. those who don't like him and the democrats who say will inspire. he caught fire and if he can get that going in florida, we will have a real race for the republican nomination if they go deep into the spring and possibly to the republican convention with someone such as jeb bush. florida is not south carolina as we know. it's a bigger and more diverse state. mid-romney has the advantage for one thing. don't forget a fairly high percentage of the votes in the florida primary have been cast absentee before the race. in florida, he would be favored in florida, but not nearly as favored had he won south care lane. i do think it's still mitt romney's nomination to lose for the b gop, but could lose it because newt who can be ownerry when he chooses to do so. >> mr. rather, i want to play some of that. i'm glad you talked about that. he had

newt gingrich is talking right now. he took off before gingrich arrived and then not missing a beat, the former speaker walked inside this restaurant and said, here's mitt, i was hoping for a little debate. game man "showbiz flashpoint" going on here at the ham house this morning. >> jim, that's really disappointing. was looking forward to them being in the restaurant at the same time. we talked to the restaurant owner who said he arranged it so they could both be in there with their supporters. i guess that really is gamesman ship, isn't it? >> i guess so. they know it maggy go well for them so why make things even more, complicated, when it comes to the objects and the images, but voters at home are saying come in, do the event, get out early and let gingrich have his moment. they're still voting. we'll have to wait and see what happens tonight. you know, voters were pressing the romney people inside earlier thi this morning as to why they were showing up early and they wouldn't answer the question. you know, you sort

in the case of speaker gingrich, speaker gingrich isn't afraid to be bold with some of his solutions, but sometimes he's been accused of being a bit extreme. so it will depend on how they hone their message when they get into the general election. i said that i would be a better candidate and a better president because of all of my business experience. romney has some. newt, the thing that i like about newt, yes, he's a career politician, but he got out of politics for a while so his head could clear. i think that's a positive. >> but you definitely said, look, it's a business person that should lead this country. i, herman cain, have that background. we know romney's business background. if you had to choose today, is romney the one that convinces you he's the one that can lead this country? >> the american people are going to choose. when i said that a businessman could lead this country, yes, but also you've got to be able to win in the general election. electability is still a big factor. i wouldn't say that the only requirement is someone who's a businessman, but i'm just simply

that doesn't mean hi can't keep going. >> crystal, gingrich is your guy, you're a del great for gingrich we recently saw some backing from some pretty good folks there, including herman cain, sarah palin. is that going to be enough to make a difference? >> i mean, you know, it's never over in politics, so it won't be over under the last vote is counted, but we do have to consaid that romney has ran a great negative campaign. it looks like he'll -- money matters in florida. you know, romney has outspent newt $15 million to $3 million, i think. but i think the key is what would romney be without the soldiers of the establishment bashing newt. i think it's sleazy that romney is having his congressional surrogates crash newt events to bad mouth the candidates. at the end of the day, even if romney wins florida, there's a lot of delegates i play, and the real question is, why can't romney stand on his own two feet as a conservative candidate? it seems every other way we have george willed or somebody with this this establishment props up the candidate, and i think at the be problematic. >> lo

>> it is going to be interesting for gingrich. i feel like he went a very aggressive and in some ways lean kind of track with south carolina, which worked great for south carolina. i could see why he would go that way with it. he really tapped into people's frustration with the media, hit the race angle really hard in a way that worked great in this particular race but resonated differently depending which audience you're dealing with nationally. in florida, with the way gingrich is, i see him in some cases continuing to hit hard because he likes at plau s the line with the audience. will that be at the expense of independents? >> so, ann na marie, do you loot this week where newt gingrich has the upper hand or the advantage because not only is he coming off a south carolina win, but there are two debates and he rebels and relishes in the debates and he has a chance to appeal to floridians or nevadaens in a very big way on that stage. >> he excels in the debates. he soared this past week in south carolina after his debate performa

gingrich has fallen, though, 13%. those negative ads that have been playing here have been digging into gingrich. another sign of why his numbers have been dropping, kyra. >> and, you know, as we have been talking about all morning, not everyone has made up their mind. >> yeah. one day to go. can you believe it? take a look at another number here from the poll that really illustrates that. 41% say, you know, i'm backing this guy or that woman. but i could be persuaded tomorrow night to change my mind at the caucus. and at the bottom there, kyra, 7% still haven't even decided on a candidate. >> there's a lot of peer pressure that happensa the these caucuses as we will know. who do the insiders like? >> i'm glad you ask, because we have this. it's called the cnn insider's poll. we questioned 74 republican insiders here in iowa. and look, who will finish first? well, the insiders here in iowa, the political experts on the political side, overwhelmingly, 2/3 say mitt romney. and i know you had those live pictures. he is a

how is newt gingrich responding? take a listen to what he said on the sunday talk shows. >> so you end up with a guy who's i think a very good salesman, very much wants to sell, but he has a really weak product. and so i think he's been dancing on eggs trying to figure out how to find a version of romney that will work. >> yeah. if you didn't catch that, he is talking about mitt romney there. listen, kyra, newt gingrich is riding some big momentum now coming out of south florida -- or out of south carolina and his big victory there. just in that 24 hours after that victory saturday night, his campaign says they raised $1 million in a money bomb. and they are going to need that in florida. that's an expensive state to run in, all of those big markets like miami, orlando, and tampa. the campaign also says that 500 people said they would volunteer just in the first 24 hours after the big primary win in south carolina. kyra, for gingrich, he says he'll give a big speech a day this week, and of course you have two debates

. >> palin stopped short of endorsing gingrich outright. on a side note, gingrich said he paid 31% of his taxes last year in contrast to romney who paid closer to 15%. we'll talk about that in just a few moments from now. >>> it's a dark day for the internet, parts of it any way. as you may have noticed, wikepedia and other hugely popular websites have self-imposed 24-hour blackouts. content providers say virtual pirates are costing them actually billions but the silicon valley says that it would kill the web as we know it. >> in the worst versionses of the bill, wikepedia would be defined as a search engine and we would not be able to link to something like the description of what pira bay is. >> full disclose sers, time-warner, supports the anti--piracy legislation. >>> in hollywood, a bizarre discovery. two women found a human head while hiking under the hollywood sign. the head belongs to a man, possibly in his 40s. they are searching the area for the body. >>> it is snowing heavily in seattle. this is the downtown area where you can't

that would be santorum, gingrich, and perry. it's important for rick santorum to at least show something here in the state, although he's been trying to lower his expectations, suzanne. as you know, he came out of iowa with so much momentum, has been able to build on his numbers, but just really hasn't been able to capitalize, at least so far. suzanne? >> all right. it's all about the expectations game. thank you, joe. we'll be keeping a close eye on it. >>> here's your chance to talk back on the big story of the day. we're talking about the new hampshire primary, of course. there are more than 312 million people, right, in the united states? well, in new hampshire and iowa, even if you add up the registered republicans that voted, it would only be 1% of the total u.s. population. and yet these two early contests get a ton of attention, play a huge role in whittling down the list of those who get a shot at becoming the next president. as comedian andy burrowitz put it in a recent tweet, "the last time so few people decided a pre

lis tas business sick who later became callista gingrich, the current wife of newt gingrich. that's kind of, if you will a mess. they're in damage control. two of the adult daughters of newt gingrich actually put out a statement talking about the fact that any divorce is a tragedy, a personal tragedy in other words. the implication beinging that abc ought to leave it alone though they never actually said that. so at a media availability down in beaufort, south carolina, i asked newt gingrich about these new revelations and listen to his response. >> look, i'm not going to say anything about marianne. my two daughters have already written to abc complaining about this as tawdry and inappropriate. both of my daughters are prepared to speak on the record with any of you who would like to talk to them. several other people who knew the situation are prepared to speak on the record. i'm not getting involved. >> reporter: so the question, of course, is how is all of this going to play out in the election and we'll probably know that on saturday. brooke? back to you. >> we will see