committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the president of united states of south carolina. >> finally, i'm feeling excited about this. race, we get to weigh in and what it all means for the republicans and that, of course, hear about this? the conductor of the philharmonic, cell phone rings in the middle of a performance and you know what he did? he stops the orchestra. i am cheering for him. we agree with this. i love this man. we're going to talk about that and much, much more as we begin qu "starting point" right now. okay back. we are back once again inside the tick took diner as ashleigh and zoraida told you about. they were stosz tossing to me. making our tour through diners. i'm going to need to run through the gym after this segment. today start with the oatmeal. i'm having oatmeal. will is having oatmeal. you're having eggs and english muffin. you're having fruit. wow. >> we started the week last week with like piles of deep fried foods. moved into healthier options. this we're going to dig in today because new york city diners are known for the massive cakes and pies. they gave us one. this is a cheesecake strawberry something or another. we're going to cut that up this morning. we might as well go straight for the dessert. the top story we're looking at this morning is what's happening in the state of oklahoma because they are reacting today's to this pardoned story out of mississippi which has become very controversial. in oklahoma they're proposing a new law that would strip the governor there of power to release people. the attorney general is now in mississippi is now threatening a nationwide manhunt because they're trying to track down the killers who have been released. listen. >> we will catch them. it's just a matter of time. >> do you know where they are? >> no. >> no? >> we know where their family, fwheer contact with their family, local law enforcement. there's a search going on out there for them. we'll lay hands on them at some point. >> that's not exactly heartwarming to think of it that way. let's get to our panel. jeff toobin is back, legal analyst, specialist at cnn. we have will cain with me. i'm slowing down. meyer is a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. and joining us new today is you' julie, civic leader in new york city. it's nice to have all of you. the four guys, the killers who have been released. they now wanted to basically have an injunction so they would be returned to prison. the problem is they can't give them the papers to serve them the injunction. >> they can't find them. >> mississippi has this very odd provision in its constitution which says no pardon can be effective unless 30 days before the application for the pardon notice of the application has been published in the local newspaper. the jackson clarion ledger, the big paper down there, reported today that none of the four murderers who are the focus of this investigation, the people who are -- who had been working there had done the paperwork. >> the release was illegal. >> right. the pardon almost looks certain to be revoked but no one know where's these guys are. >> they can't revoke the pardon until they officially serve them the papers? >> correct. it's not until january 23rd that the court is formally going to hear the issue. so these four people are kind of in this weird legal limbo. they dead receive a pardon. they did get released from custody as a result. but it appears almost certain that that pardon will be revoked. thinking about it from their perspective, you might want to get in the wind. the you're serving a life sentence, you know your pardon is going to be revoked -- >> for haley barbour who is such a conservative republican, former governor, such a strict constructionist in terms of the constitution, the fact that he actually didn't follow the state constitutional requirement here with the 30-day notice period is ironic. >> it goes back to the whole motivation behind it. >> why, why would haley barbour do this? i can't find a legitimate reason. >> i think it's personal. here's a guy. he lived with these people. they were trustees, which is the term for prisoners who worked with him in the governor's mansion. he seems to have taken a shine to them. this is actually a tradition in mississippi where policer ins work in the governor's mansion. big privilege. he liked them. and i am certain that he did not think that the reaction would be this. >> i think we need to look at the purpose of the pardon. the purpose of the pardon is to get someone wrongfully committed or mitigating circumstance or whether there was just some other issue such as this person's rehabilitated himself. they've gotten an associate's degree in prison or they've done something beneficial. so this is his motivation behind the party, which he hasn't explained yet. >> one of these guys was turned down for parole just days before he was given the freedom completely. now, here's what the attorney general in mississippi had to say. listen. >> i worked all day yesterday trying to find a method to give the court authority to issue a warrant for their arrest to put out an apb on it. unfortunately at this point we have not found any law to support that. they have a legal document saying they're free to go. >> so he says he would like to be in a position to arrest them but he is not really in that position yet. is there anything indication -- he frames it as a manhunt. is there any indication that they are there on the lamb versus they just haven't reported to something that they haven't been told? >> there is because when the irch junction was issued right after the pardon was issued, the court said these people who have been have been released need to report every day to the authorities. they're not going to go back to prison. they are to report. they apparently have not been reporting to the authorities. that suggest that they are not -- >> because they're fools. >> pretty clear there's not going to be a pardon under the new governor. >> pardon and clemency is such an important part of our american system. >> he has said something. he released a statement -- >> he's been very quiet in terms of his motivation and constitution of requirement. >> many of these pardons to be quite legitimate, appear to be people who were nonviolent, who had already served their sentences. you make a fair point here. most governors issue too few part dons. a lot of people are not a threat to anybody. we over-incars rate a lot in this country. but these four seem to be terrible, terrible candidates and that's going to -- as we see it in oklahoma, maybe going to start to destroy the whole system. >> we've got to take a short break. when we come back, later in the next hour, we're going to talk to two women who were released from prison. they were not pardoned. i did their story not too long ago. and in this case, their case was sort of fraught with kind of potential misconduct, very unclear if they were actually guilty of the charges. they would have been good candidates for a pardon. as you can imagine, they are furious. we're going to talk with them straight ahead. first, though, a look at some of the other stories making news this morning. christine romans has those for us. good morning. >> good morning to you. the marine corps this morning has identified two of the four marines captured on video appearing to be urinating on enemy kornss. the identities of those men not being released to the public right now. defense secretary leon panetta says he's deeply troubled. barbara starr is following the ongoing investigation. good morning, barbara. >> good morning, christine. indeed the marines now tell us that they have interviewed two of the men that they did idea fay. they have spoken to them. they are not in confinement. they've been returned to dut thank you but interviewed by investigators. in in addition, they expect to identify very shortly perhaps as soon as today all of those in the video. marine corps is a small place. people will recognize them in that video. the investigation continues, christine. >> barbara starr at the pentagon. tanks. tensions rise in between the u.s. and iran. "the new york times" reports the obama administration has warned iranian leaders through back channels that blocking access in the persian gulf would trigger a u.s. response. defense secretary leon panetta says that would cross the line. >> we cannot allow them to develop a nuclear weapon. that's a red line. number two, we cannot tolerate iran blocking the staraits of hormuz, and that's a red line. >> despite the words of warning from the u.s., iran has reportedly agreed to host a team of high-level u.n. nuclear inspectors later this month. in just a few hours joran van der sloot will learn how many years he will spend in a peruvian prison. earlier this week he needed guilty of killing 21-year-old in steffph stephy florez in 2010. van der sloot is still the prime suspect in holloway's death. conservative christian leaders two-day meeting in texas trying to rally behind a gop candidate which who is not mitt romney. next hour, tony perkins, he will be at that meeting. wild weather in north carolina. a tornado that struck the western part of the state, damaged dozens of buildings and left 15 people injured but that state is not the only one dealing with severe weather. snow pounding the nation's mid section in the first major storm of the winter. nearly a foot of snow fell in the chicago area. about 500 flights at chicago airports canceled. u.s. markets closed higher yesterday. this morning stock futures for the dow, nasdaq, s&p 500, all of them trading lower ahead of the opening bell. this just in, jpmorgan chase says it aerntd a quarterly profit of $3.7 billion, it sees signs of improvement in loan demand and credit quality. first read of how well the wall street banks are doing. the u.s. economy may be healing but the big banks are suffering from exposure to europe ears debt crisis, banking problems and lawsuits stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis. >> thanks, christine. story to tell you about. you guys seen this picture of the absolute chaos as apple released the iphone 4s in china today? they actually had to close the flagship store in beijing after people went completely insane. look at this. it was -- i don't think we ever use the word riot. but stan was there. running with security guards earlier today. stan, what exactly happened? >> crazy is the word that comes to mind when you look at those images. here's what happened. people spent the night camping out outside the store. jub zero, freezing temperatures. waiting for the store to open at 7:00 a.m. when they could get their hands on the iphone 4s. this was meant to be the official release. the police got concerned about the numbers of and what might happen when the door open. they told the store not to open 3e7 when they that was announced, people started pelting the store with eggs. security from apple came out to move people back. they were physically attacked. they chased the security down to an alley. more punches were thrown at them. police came in and dragged people away from there as well. at the end of the day, apple has had to suspend the sale of any of these iphone 4s right across china. you can only now buy it online. it's going to stay that way. not just because the stock itself will be running dangerously low, but because the situation itself would be so dangerous they worried about security. soledad? sx >> i'm told that these particular apple stores in china, shanghai and beijing, generate more revenue than any other stores in the world. is that right? >> reporter: absolutely. people here are apple crazy. they are not just want every single latest gadget, they want the latest of the latest. whenever you walk into these stores they are absolutely jam packed. any time of day or not. before this all happened today, people were chanting "we love apple," telling us how much they missed steve jobs and how much they love the apple product. that very quickly turned. soledad, really interesting here. it's not just about the iphone. what we're getting here is a snapshot of this seeming anger that's bubbling underneath the surface here in china. every now and again it flares. whether it's angry about rising inflation, taxes, unemployment, traffic, pollution. when people get a chance to vent, you often see signs like this. at the end of the day people were saying to us saying this is what happens in china. the police turn on their own people. to the just about the iphone but about something also much, much deeper here. >> it is quite a hot mess. stan grant for us this morning. thank you, stan. nice to talk to you. still to come this morning, we're going to talk about this book called "the obamas." the first lady made it clear that she is not happy. we're going to talk to the saw thor jodi kantor ahead. here's a terrible story. in cincinnati a landlord puts a sign up at her pool whites only after a teenage girls decides to take a dip in the pool. lives in the housing development. we will find out what happens in that story. very sad, depressing story for me. and stephen colbert injecting life into the presidential race because he is, as he is explo s exploring a bid. unfortunately the law may not be with him on this. we're going to tell you sadly why stephen colbert may not be the next president of the united states. when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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[ male announcer ] get the venture card at capitalone.com and earn double miles on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? cover for me. i have an audition. good morning. welcome back. you're watching "starting point" coming to your live from the tick took diner here in lower midtown manhattan. it's a combination of folks who are out of towners and locals who have breakfast here poop we're going to have a chance to chat with them during the show. this morning we're talking about the south carolina primary. looking in that direction because, of course, that's going to happen one week from tomorrow. gop is asking candidates to stop attacking each other and maybe focus on president obama. we're going to get right back to our panel. we added josh who is an editor at bloomberg business week and also former "times" deputy editing manager. and will cain is with us, selma and julie. so let's begin with this sort of layoff each other thing. you're actually seeing, will, pressure from some donors that they think is just getting so ugly, infighting among the candidates. >> it's funny we've all kind of made nonfy for newt gingrich for speaking weeks about how can you go negative and now he is going negative. the terms negative is over used because what happened in iowa apparently completely ticked off newt gingrich. was an attack on his record. he's voted for this, he stood for this. now it's happening in south carolina. coming from newt, attacking mitt romney on such a personal level. that's going to turn off donors. it's going to turn off people who might endorse you. i think it's going to turn off voters. talking about what he's done with his dog. these comments -- >> it starts -- ad that he speak french. >> h is what i would call circling the drain. >> reporter: massachusetts monitor mitt romney will say anything to win, anything. and just like john kerry -- he speaks french, too. >> bonjour. >> reporter: but he's still a massachusetts moderate. and a massachusetts moderate the k. n cannot beat barack obama. >> he will do anything to win, including speaking french, if that's what it takes. >> that's newt deng gricgingric way. >> it speaks to the desperation of the gop. the fact that they have to launch these ads attacking each other rather than talking about real solutions. >> oh, julie. >> no t. fact that senate republicans killed obama's jobs bill. we're not really seeing ideas soming out of the gop. >> the personal ads are not a concern. personal ads happens in politics. it's financial. >> it turns people off. >> the reason it's a big deal. the reason why they want to call off the dog and is attacking romney for is about his experience. basically that's the tenor of the republican party, free enterprise. >> it doesn't make sense. republican party supports freedom. >> it's a little person. >> it's about the noets notion that the tenet of the party itself is under attack which makes it much easier for may, june, and july for obama to say it's not just us. >> laying the foundation. >> the line of argument against mitt romney against bain. newt gingrich, they were populous. they were never principle conservatives. they were simply trying to get your vote. tell you what you want to hear. >> trying to tap into the anger, i think, and the energy that's happened in the country right now where people are hurting. here's what i think would have been helpful. stephen colbert, as you know, has jumped into the race and it's all sort of a joke. i was thinking, would have made the campaign trail so much bet bett better. >> higher in south carolina than jon huntsman. that is a real poll. it again, speaks to the divisions in the gop primary field. they don't have one candidate people are excited about. >> i think it does. but i think it also speaks to the blandness of the number of the gop primary candidates, that people are not excited about it. we saw turnout lower in iowa and new hampshire. >> it makes the joke funny, roit, is that i've stephen colbert could jump in and people might go, wow, that might be an improvement in some ways. >> compassion here, what would they say -- >> listen to his announcements. >> i am proud to announce that i am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the president of the united states of south carolina. now, clearly, my fellow south kacarolin carolinacs see meed a a viable alternative. >> i'm not alone. i would vote for him. injecting a little fun into this race which seems like mitt romney has a serious lead and everybody else is doing this infighting with relatively -- like why is rick perry still in the race? >> did i'm not just say that yesterday? that he needs the come to jesus talk? >> strategic reason, right? >> doing well in the south. his donors are defecting because he's been attacking romney on the bain issue. >> he's not polling well in the south. why is he staying in the south? >> south carolina, it's all about south carolina. >> and florida. >> and florida. >> i think he can do well in south carolina. once he finds out that's untrue, he will be gone. >> they don't run on strategy. they run on motivation. tell of the people around you are saying, we can do this. >> the numbers say different. rick perry -- >> the idea is, you know, it is -- >> you don't live in a bubble when you can turn on the news every morning and see what your numbers are like. >> the presidency is the ultimate