Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20120124 : vimarsan

CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 January 24, 2012



lead evaporating in florida and gone nationwide. it shows a virtual romney-gingrich dead heat, a sharp change this last week before the south carolina blowout victory. those numbers could and certainly will change. for now, the trend is so worrying to romney forces, they're doing what they rarely do, taking the challenger, not through super pacs but directly. >> while florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, newt gingrich cashed in. gingrich was paid over $1.6 million by the scandal ridden agency that helped create the crisis. >> that new ad was straight from the romney campaign, this earlier today was straight from the stump. >> i'm calling on speaker gingrich to do two things, release all the work product associated with his work at freddie mac and return the funds he made from freddie mac. i wouldn't have normally suggested that other than he was the one that said if you made money on this failed model you ought to return that money. >> within hours of that, the gingrich people released the 2006 contract. you'll recall he's struggled in the past to explain the work he did for frederickady mac and reconcile what appears to be beltway insider buck raking with his anti-beltway establishment campaign. is the what he said in november. >> i have never done any lobbying. every contract was written during the period i was out of the office and specifically said i would do know lobbying and offered advice as historian when they said we are now making loans to people with no credit history and have no record of paying back anything, that's what the government wants to do. i said to them at the time, this is a bubble, this is insane, this is impossible. tonight, one year of the contract is out. gloria borger has the late details on it. the contract doesn't really tell us much of anything. a one line description of gingrich's job to provide quote consulting and related services. seems to be that's not really much of any kind of description. >> it's a little vague. the contract is with the gingrich group, not with newt gingrich himself. that exhibit 2, as it's called, about what he was supposed to do for freddie mac is vague. it seems to me when you have a one sentence agreement for $300,000 a year contract seems to me he was probably hired to be some kind of senior counselor, to be available when they needed him, to offer advice, perhaps. but it's very unclear and in washington, lots of agencies, lots of firms, businesses hire people who were once very powerful in congress to kind of be available to them, if you will, for strategic advice. the question i have, what kind of strategic advice was he giving. we heard him in the clip you played. there's also a quote from him on freddie mac's website from 2007, in which he says, that i'd be very careful about changing the model for freddie mac and fannie mae. he's been a little inconsistent. i think this still leaves the opening for the romney campaign to go after him and say, exactly what did you do for freddie mac? >> also, earlier this month, the gingrich campaign said freddie mac wouldn't let them release the contract, then freddie mac said, no, go right ahead, no problem with that. we're not blocking the release of the contract. now, the gingrich campaign is once again saying that they can't release any more information of this because of freddie mac. >> right. i spoke with a spokeswoman for the gingrich group. i pressed her on whether they had press ed freddie mac to release more information, and she wouldn't characterize it one way or another. she did say to me the reason we only have one year, by the way, of a consulting relationship that went on for about six years, is that they can't find some of the other contracts because they changed management at the gingrich group, but she did a say these are self-renewing contracts and they're pretty standard. but how hard gingrich pushed to release what the romney campaign wants, internal communication and more than this, we don't know. she did point out, however, they're governed by non-disclosure agreements they did sign with attorneys. >> gloria, appreciate the reporting. lots of talk about the contract and money and new polling, especially indications of another gingrich primary victory next tuesday. let's talk to democratic strategist james carville and republican strategist, bay buchanan, who is advising the romney campaign and david webb, founder of tea party 365 and host of the david web show on sirius radio. what do you make of this contract, james? >> i have a very simple solution. write a letter to freddie mac saying release everything, contracts, memos, all the work i d did. the taxpayers have bailed this company out for a gazillion dollars. he's running for president of the united states. if romney had any kind of campaign, he'd be on that, like we say in louisiana, gravy on rice. >> does any ambiguity of what his services are, does that raise any questions for you or is that standard? >> you know this company paid him over 1$1.5 million, you kno there's contracts, memos, meetings. this company was bailed out by the u.s. taxpayer. how simple can it be for him to write a letter saying, i released myself from any non-disclosure agreement and i want you to make all this public. due that and you see everything. you just have to do that one simple thing this is a taxpayer propped up entity here. anything object non-disclosure agreement, you can get rid of as easy as you signed it. >> bay, your candidate has freddie mac issues of his own. he earned money with them in the second half of 2007. >> made with whom? >> freddie mac. his -- he's the one. mitt romney had no difficult explaining how he made his money. i'm sure if somebody were to ask him what was the contract with bain in that year. in fairness, i do believe he was gone from bain in 2007. fair enough, ask him what he did and he will tell you. he's been talking about what he did in the firm and different companies and how some succeeded and some didn't. he's been completely forthright. james is absolutely correct. is the an important issue. we need to know what newt did. he's been evading that question continually. changes it. first hired as an historian for goodness sakes. when nobody bought that line, he was moving it a little bit. if i was paid $25,000 a month, i'd be able to tell you why i was being paid. >> is this a big deal? >> yes, it is, as far as transparency. we've been asking that from the tea party movement. what speaker gingrich should do is what james suggested, write that letter releasing them from the nda. as to the romney issue, the difference is private capital versus public money. this institution has been bailed out with over $160 billion. there has been no accountability. too much failure. the housing crisis, one of the big problems we have now. i think it's fair if we're going to elect a president, on this one, i pick transparency over party, over candidate, it all needs to be out there. >> james, i want to read to you something that steve schmidt said. steve schmidt, one of mccain's top advisor in 2008. if newt gingrich is able to win the florida primary, you will see a panic and meltdown of the republican establishment that is beyond my ability to articulate in the english language. >> you know, i know steve well. he came from my class in tulane and a pretty blunt guy. you will. if romney doesn't win florida, there will be enormous pressure on him to get out. these guys are not going to let this thing go to newt gingrich, i can tell you. i can assure you that conference calls are being arranged, memos being exchanged and somebody has a plan b going here. romney better -- he's go the to show these people something here tonight on our network thursday night, he's going to be in real trouble. >> bay, i know you think mitt romney's resources and infrastructure will give him the advantage in florida. he's had the same advantage in south carolina along with a lead in the pollsened he still lost. >> south carolina was extraordinarily unusual. i was down there. the week before, things were going crazy. the majority of people made up their mind within the last two days, enormous sympathy, emotions going, people teed off at the media and bought the accusation that the media was outrageous and despicable. all this came into play. it was always a tough state for mitt. we knew iowa and south carolina were two tough ones. i can understand what happened in south carolina. very unusual. in florida, we have a little more time, be very aggressive. you put newt on the spot day in and day out, let's get him on the defense. we took the spotlight off newt, anderson. we beat him so badly in iowa and new hampshire, we took the spotlight off of him. we got to go back on, pressure him. in the past, he's not done well when the light of day is showing. we'll see what he does now. >> his big backer, adelson, is now going to pony up another $5 million for his super pac. that money was used to great effect in south carolina that was used to buy a lot of ads that hammered mitt romney. do you think it will help in florida? >> he has to compete in major markets. there are 10 markets in florida. he needs this money. the super infrastructure argume argument -- the danger for romney, he's been in this state for months and done a very good job organizing is newt can capture those votes from the message. he's tied himself to marco rubio. he's got an extensive outreach to a lot of conservatives in the state. and romney has to step up his game. romney has to now capture the first thing that any politician has to do, anderson, they have to get you to want to listen to them and pay attention. romney has been running a national strategy, now, he's got to think about a primary strategy, go to florida strong. that $5 million can make a difference. romney has to step up his game to make a real difference and expand his lead. >> do you think he can? does he have the fire newt gingrich has? also, working in his benefit is 30% of this early vote, almost 30% of the early vote is already in. >> romney's problem is he's terrible on his feet. he can't carry off an attack. he answers the wrong kind of question. he talkss about $372 being pockt change. i never thought i would say this in my life. i agree with everything the tea party gentleman said. i thought his analysis was on point and cogent. romney people should be listening to it. the problem they have is they have everything but a candidate that's good on his feet. maybe he can -- maybe he can game up and maybe he can play tonight and maybe he can play thursday night. he's got to be a lot better than he's been. he has not been very good and he's not been very good at attacking and he's not very good at warding off attacks. >> anderson, in fairness to mitt romney, he won most of these debates. he's extremely good, extraordinarily knowledgeable. >> you're saying mitt romney won has to debates? >> in most of them. didn't win the last one. in fairness, the last one was about five minutes. did extraordinarily well in the rest. he did extraordinarily well and so did santorum but everybody focused on the first five minutes. that's all that it took and newt had that thing -- in fairness, i agree he needs to be tougher. >> in answer to releasing the tax question, i think that came way after the first five minutes. >> you are right. you're absolutely right. >> that didn't help him, anderson. winning the debate is a subjective assessment. that really doesn't carry, has gingrich performed well and john king should be getting christmas gifts from newt for the rest of his life for that. what matters in the long run is the debate at the polls. in south carolina, where i talked to a lot of voters, i was down there also, they made their decision going into the polls, but they made it on that visceral gut reaction. who they felt could bloody president obama's nose, when in the long run, we have to look at the general election, find a candidate that can actually step out there, challenge and get conservatives and independents who will decide this election. >> we have to leave it there. i don't know if you want to record the point where james carville said he agreed with you? >> i think we should make a copy of it. >> if you want to play it on your radio show or not, i don't know if it will work for you or against you. >> got to call them like you see them. >> phone in twitter at anderson cooper. i'll be tweeting tonight. just reached 2 million followers. and the keys tonight. and millions and millions of dollars being pumped into shadowy super pacs, writing big checks for big results. the question is, who if any is regulating them. congresswoman gabrielle g e giffor giffords, we have watched her make incredible progress. now, we'll talk to isha. >> in the southeast, people are trying to salvage what they can after a powerful storm system did tremendous damage and how they are coping when "360" continues. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. here you go. driver's license. past five years' tax returns. high school report cards. and i'm gonna need to see a receipt for that watch you're wearing. you know, you really should provide us with a checklist of documents we're gonna need up front. who do you think i am? quicken loans? at quicken loans, we provide a checklist of the mortgage documents you'll need up front. it helps keep you in the know every step of the way. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. one week and one day from now, newt gingrich could do to romney what he did in south carolina. this res changes so quickly a week and a day might as well be a decade. how do you win florida and does a victory in south carolina help? john king break ess it down. >> anderson, we know newt gingrich won in south carolina despite being out-spent by romney. dark, the romney spending and super pac spending? . gingrich wins big and that isn't stopping the effort in florida from going up with tv ads. see romney campaign ads. is the just campaign spending. let's bring in the pro romney super pac, restore our future. a lot of ads in this part of the state. why does that matter? restore our future, mostly negative ads on newt gingrich. this is a heavily conservative part of the state. the further south you go, the further north you get. bordering florida and alabama, a lot of evangelical voters and tea party voters and pro romney pack going after them. a lot of spending in jacksonville. why? a big military community, important base for the conservative party and i-4 corridor, more moderate voters critical to the romney campaign. is the naples market, retirees and military community very important. no spending as yet down in here. miami, cuban american population, a lot of radio targeting them. more expensive market and to the north, more spending. the circles may be confusing. i'll go back to 2008. orange is mike huckabee, social conservatives. is the mccain-romney battle. a lot of spending, romney campaign getting a head start. we do know the gingrich campaign is about to buy ads. senator santorum saying he might not spend money for tv in florida and might wait down the road. >> clearly florida is a big media market, spending big money. for the first time in a presidential campaign, that means super pacs writing huge checks paying for attack ads. "keeping them honest," who controls these super pacs? who can regulate them and make them tell the truth? drew griffin reports. >> reporter: what has more baggage than the airlines? rick santorum, washington insider, big spender. >> they've been called the cancer of american politics, body of a broken and corrupt system. super pacs. if there is one man largely to blame for their rise in electoral power, it is james bopp. >> i think we have made significant progress to the effect of the first amendment. >> reporter: to bopp, it means free speech in politics, no limits. since there are limits on what individuals and corporations can give directly to a candidate, bopp joined a group called citizens united that took the fight for unlimited spending for a candidate all the way to the supreme court. advocacy groups that make up their own ads, make their own media purchases, free to take as much money from any as they want. the supreme court agreed, no limits. bopp calls it free speech. >> this is a government, of, by and for the people. not of, by and for the candidates or the news media, or the government. >> reporter: in fact, any government can't do anything about it. how can that be? we went to the federal elections commission, the place where candidates finances are closely scrutinized, commissioner donald mcgann admits super pacs can do just about anything they want. >> control is impossible because courts have already said that they're legal. so there's not much that the government can do to reign them in, so to speak. >> if you were running for president, the most money i could give you would be $2500 for the primaries and another $2500 for the general election. a total of $5,000. but if you had a super pac supporting you, why, i could give your super pac literally millions and millions of dollars. i don't, but the retired investment fund president may not have a billion but has lots and lots of millions and been giving freely to the super pac to the man he wants to be president. rick santorum. >> game on! >> how much? >> well, i -- it's like, i got to keep that from my wife. she could kill me if she really found out. i want to keep that under the radar. it will be reported eventually. i just believe in santorum and believe in what he can do for the country. >> reporter: under the super pac rules, the santorum supporting red, white and blue funds will eventually tell us how much friess donated. on the day we hit mim, she was offering another half million dollar if sportsman across the nation would match him. >> bang, a million dollar hits. >> reporter: it's the campaign influence that makes paul ryan of the campaign legal center cringe. >> these understandings that it's potentially corrupting, these super pacs put us back to the watergate era for potential for corruption. >> reporter: friess thinks they're not needed and would like to give his money right to santorum himself and let everyone know it. even james b oropp admits we'd better off without a super pac. >> you can't vote for or against a super pac and can vote for a candidate. it would be better if this money went to candidates from an accountability standpoint. the voter could decide. >> reporter: the complaints revolves around what ifs, not what actually happened. paul ryan is convinced what's about to happen is a wave of political corruption. >> reporter: have you direct knowledge of corruption or anticipating that zplchlkts. >> no. i'm anticipating it. >> reporter: super pacs can be penalized if they fail to report in time or fail to coordinate with a candidate but investigations are rare and finds minuscule. don mcgann says if you don't like the rules, it's easy to find the people that wrote them. >> i would say, go seat the folks in the white dome, your elected representatives and complain to them whether the penalties are high enough, not the fec. >> reporter: atlanta. >> it's one of the reports cnn is releasing this week, in-depth look at politics. tomorrow is the state "state of union" address. special coverage on this program starting at 8:00 eastern time and the president's speech at 9:00, republican response followed by 360 wrap-up and analysis at midnig

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