>> we are inside the sands convention center in las vegas. seven gop contenders wrapping up their debate moments ago, the tone this time, contention, personal at times, especially between herman cain and other candidates on tax, you might have seen, talking about already. there was also the explosive encounter between a very aggressive rick perry and counter punching rick perry over illegal immigration. our panel has plenty to talk b before bring them back in i want to bring in key moments about the debate, began with an all-out assault on herman cain's 9-99-9 plan. we will talk to him in a moment let's take a look. >> herman, i love you, brother, but you don't need to have a big analysis to figure this thing out. go to new hampshire where they don't have a sales tax and you're fixing to give them one. they're not interested in 9-9-9. >> herman, are you saying the state sales tax will go away? >> you're mixing apples and oranges? you will pay the state sales tax, no matter what whether you throw out the existing code and you put in our plan, you are still going to pay that. that's apples and oranges. >> and i'm going to be getting a bushel basket that has apples and oranges in it because i've got to pay both taxes and the people in nevada don't want to pay both taxes. >> governor romney, you don't have credibility when it comes to obama care. >> each chance i've had to talk about obama care, i've made it very clear and also in my book. at the time i crafted the plan in the last campaign i was asked is this something you would have the whole nation do, and i said no. this is something that was crafted for massachusetts. it would be wrong to adopt this for a nation. >> that's not what you -- that's in your book -- >> guys. >> you took it out of your book. let's be honest. >> i tell you what? why don't you let me speak. rick, you had your chance. let me speak. >> you're out of time. you're out of time. >> and those people that hire illegals ought to be penalized. mitt, you lose all of your standing from my perspective because you hired illegals in your home and you knew about it for a year. and the idea that you stand here before us and talk about that you're strong on immigration is on its face the height of hypocrisy. >> i don't think that i've ever hired an illegal in my life. so i'm looking forward to finding your facts on that. rick, again. >> you have the -- >> i'm speaking. i'm speaking. i'm speaking. i'm speaking. >> it is time -- >> you get 30 seconds. this is the way the rules work here is i get 60 seconds and then you get 30 second to respond. >> you say that you knew. >> anderson -- would you please wait? are you going to keep talking or let me finish what i have to say? look, rick -- >> so tough to follow the rules. >> this is a tough couple of debates for rick, and i understand that. so, you're going to get testy. you have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking. and i suggest that if you want to become president of the united states, you have to let both people speak. so first, let me speak. >> and this is one night when i hope what happens in vegas doesn't stay in vegas. >> joined now by herman cain, who has found himself soaring in the polls. congratulations on that how did you feel about tonight? >> i felt good about it. i believe that the questions that i got, i was able to get a very specific answer and i he will felt real good about it in terms of how i responded. it was a little frustrating at first, because i was getting attacked so much on our plan, the 9-9-9 plan and i really didn't feel as if i had ample enough time to counter some of it, but i know we had to move on. >> what do you say to conservatives and a variety of conservative publications, grover norquist, among others, who are saying this 9-9-9 plan, the more you look at it is going to raise tax on middle class voters and lower income people? >> as i say they haven't read our complete analysis. >> they say they have done the analysis. >> no, they have not done the analysis. look, we had fiscal associates analyze this whole thing and -- from a static standpoint and a dynamic standpoint. we provide all the analysis, all the tables and go through it, they will see our assumptions. what some of the organizations are doing they making their own assumption which is do not agree with our assumptions so this is why i make my appeal to the american people. sit down and do your own 9-9-9 math and see how it affect yours family relative to the taxes you paid paid last year. >> i want to show vires some of the exchanges you had with governor romney on 9-9-9. let's watch. >> herman, are you saying the state sales tax will go away? >> no that is apples. >> governor romney was right? >> no a mixing apples and oranges. >> will people in nevada have to pay in addition the 9% tax? >> doing the same thing they are doing, mixing apples and oranges. no no, no. going to pay the state sales tax no matter. what whether you throw out the existing you code and you nut our plan, you still going to pay that. that's alps and oranges. >> fine. and i'm going to be getting a bushelle basket that has apples and oranges in it because i have to pay both tax and them nevada don't want to pay both taxes. >> everybody on the stage saying this would result in more taxes, a number of americans, 47% of americans who don't pay taxes right now you don't earn enough, in many cases to pay tax they would pay taxes under your plan. >> no, for two reasons, prices would go down. we take the embedded -- we take the embedded taxes out of the cost of goods and services in that first nine, because businesses are able to deduct those purchases made from u.s. companies and what will happen is competition will drive document prices and as a result, people won't be paying any more. secondly, because of the new goods/used good rules, if you spend -- buy used goods, you don't pay taxes on it because it has been paid. everything gets taxed once. this had is why most people will actually see a tax decrease if they go through the math. >> earlier in the day, talking to my colleague, wolf blitzer, you did suggest that you would be willing to possibly enter taint idea of exchanging one american soldier for everybody currently held in had guantanamo if al qaeda were demanding that, holding one american soldier for years. >> if i said that i spoke in error. maybe i didn't understand the question. if i did say that i would not do that, because i believe in a philosophy we cannot negotiate with terrorists. >> i want to play for our viewers the soundbite that you said. >> and i still can't hear it. >> imagine if you were president, we are almost out of time, and there were one american soldier who had been held for years and the demand was al qaeda or some other terrorist group, you got to free everyone at guilt mow bay, several hundred prison excould you see yourself as president authorizing that kind of transfer? >> could i see myself authorizing that kind of transfer but what i would do is i would make sure that i got all of the information, i got all of the input, considered all of the options and then, the president has tonight president and make a judgment call. i can make that call if i had to. >> make that call if i had to. >> i misspoke. because i didn't, you know, movinging so fast, i misspoke. i would not do that i simply would not do that. >> bottom line, you are saying that would be -- >> that would be negotiating with terrorists. >> you think israel maez a mistake in exchanging -- they got home this prisoner, gilad shalid, held five years for hamas, exchanged 1,000 palestinian prisoners for that controversial in israel. do you think they made the right move? >> here is how i was misspeaking about our situation, i said prime minister benjamin netanyahu had a lot of things to consider in order to make that decision. what i'm saying is i can't say he did the right thing or the wrong thing just looking at the based on the numbers. that is the point i was trying tomakers i probably misspoke when i went from that situation over to this had situation. you got to have all the facts. >> you're -- your -- had this juggernaut. you're now -- no one probably predicted yorkts know if you predicted this early on when you started running that you would be up in the poll there is with mitt romney, do you have the campaign staff you need? >> yes. >> a lot of folks have been saying, you are doing a big book tour. you don't have campaign staff. you only have you know, a few people here and there new hampshire, iowa. are you hiring people now? >> let me correct a few misperceptions. first of all, we sld staff in new hampshire, south carolina, florida, iowa, several of the states. >> how many people do you have in new hampshire? >> a staff of about three people in new hampshire and process of adding more people in new hampshire. the other thing is we are raising money, we got money to stay in this race. people are saying we broke now. about this book tour, we had six days carved to out where we combined signing books for the book -- release of the book and mixture of campaign events. i didn't do a month-long book tour. we did six days and half the events were signing books and the other half of the events were camp events. the other thing is we are hiring people now. we are hiring people for our corporate office in all of the states, we are ramping up. the good news is, plenty of good people out there and we are adding them very rapidly. >> you are in this to win it? >> in it to win it. >> thank you, sir. a lot of well wishers here that want to talk to you. >> appreciate t enjoy t. >> thank you h big hour ahead with the panel and more. let us know what you think, we are phone on facebook, follow mony twitter at anderson cooper. also the show most electric moments of the night, mitt romney, rick perry trading blows over illegal immigration, governor perry personal i am atlanta times, our coverage of the western republican presidential debate continues. be right back. 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>> rick, i don't think that i've ever hired an illegal in my life. and so, i'm looking forward to finding your facts on that. rick, again. >> you have the -- >> rick, i'm speaking. i'm speaking. i'm speaking. i'm speaking. i'm speaking. >> it is time -- >> you get 30 seconds. this is the way the rules work here is i get 60 seconds and then you get 30 seconds to respond. >> you say that you knew -- >> anderson? would you please wait? are you going to keep talking or let me finish what i have to say? look, rick -- so tough to follow the rules. this has been a tough couple of debates for rick, and i understand that. so you're going to get testy. but let's let -- i'll tell you what. let me take my time, and then you can take your time. >> have at it. >> all right. my time is this, which is i have in my state, when i was governor, i took the action of empowering our state police to enforce immigration laws. when you were governor, you said, i don't want to build a fence. you put in place a magnet to draw illegals to the state, which is giving $100,000 of tuition credit to illegals that come into this country and then you have states -- the big states of illegal immigrants are california and florida. over the last ten years, they've had no increase in illegal immigration. texas has had 60% increase in illegal immigrants in texas. if there's someone who has a record as governor with regards to illegal immigration that doesn't stand up to muster, it's you, not me. >> one of several very contentious moments, a fascinating night tonight. our panel is here to weigh in erin burnett, ago other of "erren burnett out front," ari fleisher, david gergen, gloria borger, john king, host of "john king, usa," contributor dana lash, co-organizer of the st. louis tea party coalition join us via satellite. john what did you make of it? had you talked to governor romney, governor perry right afterwards, was it as personal as it seemed on the stage? >> yes but they both say no. they talked to each briefly, asked what was that about? i got very general answers but governor perry said, thought it went very well tonight, add lot of fun. said what about the bad blood with romney, pull his wife over and have you met my wife? he introduce node anita perry. did he not want to talk about t. >> romney said this is a good one, this is really -- well -- >> and then i asked governor romney about it as he was walking off exstayed comes with the ter attorney general i get it i'm fine with t i had a lot of fun tonight. i said you two had the death glare. ann romney, his wife interjected, you mean the animosity. she brought that word up. i said do you think this will continue? governor romney shrugged and said, we will see. those are the two guys, yes, herman cain is a phenomenon and we need to talk about him tonight, romney and perry are the two guys have the struck struck, the resources, the campaign team to keep them ghgt long hauchl you see them go to a new level tonight. we will watch how this place out you watch morning after if they have any remorse about being so personal and the a mossity, could you see it in their eyes anderson, see it on their eyes on television, people at home saw this they both have tens of millions of dollars, raise tense millions more, choose come soon to a tv ad war near you that is the big question tonight. >> there is a problem though in this, and it is why people like herman cain, herman cain got attacked for his 9-9-9 plan, but he was pretty amiable in his responses. there wasn't this kind of animosity. i think rick perry came tonight for a knife five. he knew toad do it. he knew he had to attack mitt romney. did he it. i think the result of this, overall is going to be to keep the undecideds undecided. this didn't really settle anything tonight. think just really keeps this race interesting. >> but the other thing though was that it was very from mitt romney's point of view, people thought the attention would be on herman cain and romney would go after cain. in fact, romney shaved heavy fire power for perry and became clear he does not take cain that seriously in the long run. he thinks per vity opposition and went after him. >> the first ten minutes was about herman cain's 9-9-9 plan. >> faded off. the other thing iscy think an audience watching that clip you just showed would say, i'm not sure i want either one of those guys in the white house. >> that's right. the appeal. >> you know about that. >> i think we are all focused on the wrong thing here, frankly. i survived bush/mccain fights of 2000, didn't care for each other. the voters don't pay atention there is an might whether they like each other they apay tention to whether they like candidate or not. each has different strengths there. nothing changed fundamentally tonight this is still a perry/romney race, as john said, and because romney is really up to his game so well. perry is not a good debator but you don't win elections on debates alone. and cain remains the one who could step in if perry stumbles as theanti-romney. i don't see anything really change in that dynamic. >> ari fleisher, are you holding onto an apple and an orange? >> anderson -- >> i'm hungry. >> here is an an apple and an orange, i'm a tax wonk and i loft debate about taxes, i want to hear more policy debates about taxes. >> romney stuffed him on that stuffed perry -- cain on. >> that get him on it. he said do you -- do you add it on to -- do you add it on top of a state sales tax? >> but you are also hearing from cain get rid of the current code and that's what people are responding to also. so this is -- if you are going to have a huge change like this on taxes -- >> tax on top of a tax also. >> they do but it is both. >> i think it is the time he uses when he talk bus the way we currently pay for things, there is something to that that he needs to explain, the burden is on him to explain. said i'm ready to sell it to the american people, he needs to do that, to see whether it can hold up. it isn't really additive, but what the real number is isn't quite clear. apples and oranges, you are right, didn't make that case. >> many, many conservatives come forward in the last couple of days and said these -- the taxes are going to go up if you're on the lower end of the economic scale if you are even in the middle class. >>s that's right. herman cain's 9-9-9 plan is actually a tax plan that will raise taxes on the middle class and force people who are currently paying lower taxes to pay more taxes because the sales taxes are very regressive form of tax. but what we didn't hear tonight in a state that has many unemployed americans, many homes in foreclosure is a plan to grow the economy. tonight, we heard, you know, once again, the two front runners talk about their differences on immigration, on a host of other i shall wise really didn't get down to how they will grow the economy. maybe they will save that for last. >> i want to bring in dana lash, how often something played it the hall is different how it appears on tv are. i have no idea how this appeared on tv. as you watched it, what did you you think? >> i think there was good vetting of this plan it is a very complex plan. i mean, 9-9-9, an easy sound bite, a lot of questions. people asked about the poe thoechx to create a value-add tax a point rick santorum made to the debate, adding another tax scream stream on