of the troops carrying it out. [ speaking foreign language ] >> syrian troops, they're apparently taking aim on the people of homs. looking at this video one day after the syrian ambassador to the united nations said there's no armed conflict in syria. you can hear one of the men saying over the radio, the situation is good. as with almost all of the video coming out of syria, cnn cannot independently confirm what it appears to show. much more on the video and the story it tells ahead. the arrest, court appearance, and charges against a 29-year-old man accused of planning a suicide bombing at the united states capital. jeffrey toobin joins us to talk about that along with tom fuentes with new details just b those. what have you lurjed about the suspect and his alleged plot? >> the details we're getting this man, this suspect identified as a 29-year-old moroccan national seem to escalate during the points in the operation when he was working with people he thought were al qaeda operatives but were really five and other law enforcement undercover agents. one of the most extraordinary details we got was when he seemed to change his plans from first wanting to allegedly bomb a restaurant in washington, d.c. to possibly wanting to hit a military installation to mid-january amending the plans to wanting to detonate a suicide bomb in the capitol or on the grounds of the capitol, possibly in the visitor's center. >> stay with us because a sting operation netted the guy, and often cases raise questions of entrapment. we'll bring in jeffrey toobin and tom fuentes. tom, the complaints is a tip led to the fbi work. how do they taerm this one warrants serious attention? >> that's right. they get thousands and begin to look at every single one to see if there's any credibility or any possibility of truth in it. and fortunately, they weed out 99.99% of those reports as being unfounded or made up by somebody to get somebody else in trouble. so when they get into an area where the subject, where it takes on credibility, where they start to believe this guy really means it, he's going to try to do something, he's looking for someone to help him assemble an explosive or obtain the fire arms, provide the assistance he needs to carry it out, that's when it takes on the much more serious aspects of the investigation. >> and tom, you have great sources in the bureau. are they convinced this is a lone wolf and there's nobody out there who is part of the operation? >> yes, and that's something that is a key factor for them to determine when to take the case down, when to allow the subject to finally be arrested. assuming that they have all of the evidence they're going to need to convict him and have him sentenced to life in prison and make sure there isn't some unidentified subject out in the world that may be part of this thing that didn't get arrested. >> and jeffrey, anytime you have an operation like this, undercover fbi agents, allegedly trying to help the person, entrapment will be raised as an issue. how will that come up? >> it's important to remember, entrapment is often tried, rarely successful. it's a very difficult defense to persuade a jury. jurors don't like it. they feel often it's a last refuge of someone caught red-handed. so most of the time, it doesn't work. what is interesting about this case is that it appears that he was dealing only with people under government control. according to the complaint, there was u sef, who was apparently a law enforcement officer who hussein, who was cooperating with law enforcement. this does seem to be something that was set up by the government, but the key issue with entrapment is always predisposition. is someone predisposed to commit the crime? and if the allegations and the complaint are true, this guy was really initiating here. he was asking for bigger explosives. he was considering different sites. again, this is only an accusation, but based on what i have seen, entrapment is going to be a difficult defense to raise. >> let's stay on this a second because this is one of several cases post 9/11 where we have seen the fbi identify a suspect or suspects and infiltrate and work with them. a similar case like this, how is this evolving, the law enforcement role? >> law enforcement has decided after 9/11, there's no such thing as taking a case not seriously. they are taking everything seriously. they're pushing every case, and sometimes jurors have been somewhat reluctant. the miami case, there were convictions, but not on the big charges. upstate new york, some of the cases were not -- as they played out, they didn't turn into as big a case as they turned out to be. but none of these people walk out the door. and this case, where you have an actual test explosion, that's going to be incredibly incriminating here. that is well beyond just talk. the defenses that have worked is this is just a bunch of people talking, but if you have people going to a test explosion, that's a damaging piece of evidence if it pay pans out. >> why the capitol and why today? >> well, john, it seemed to indicate every step of the way this was an escalation. he came under the radar a year ago in january of 2011 when he was espousing extremist fews and intelligence sources got winld of this and notified the fbi and other enforcement agencies, then they started to monitor him. this escalated in december when they started working him undercover, and it escalated from there where he wanted to bomb a restaurant to wanting to baumg bomb a military installation and then the capitol. why today? that's not really been made clear in any of the documents or with the officials we talked to u but it did escalate to the point where he now was a ready and willing suicide bomber inside the united states. >> and tom fuentes, this is the third lone wolf arrested in the year for planning to hit targets in the d.c. area. what does it tell you? >> they're incapable of doing it themselves, and that's the basic vulnerability they have. they reach out to try to get somebody who knows something more about explosives or fire arms hoar can get the equipment they need or provide some type of logistical support. that's where the breakdown is, the old story of how many people can keep a secret, one can, two can't. as soon as they reach out, that creates the opportunity for law enforcement to be notified and infiltrate into the plan. >> the fbi is better at this they than used to be. they know how to do this and they have enormous sources, and this arrest should be a source of comfort to people, not alarm. >> that's an important point. thanks for your help, and let us know what you think, we're on facebook and google plus, add us to your circle. and up next, rick santorum's billionaire backer makes a tasteless joke about birth control, rick santorum attacks the media and levels serious charges. and later, saying good-bye to whitney houston. a live report from the church where music royalty is galtherring and we'll hear from a pastor who was whitney's friend from the highs and lows. >> you were there for her wedding and you're there for her coming home in a celebration of her life this weekend. how do you even go about writing the words that you're going to say? do you know what you're going to say? >> well, it's about praying and, you know, folk will talk about doing the eulogy, my job is not that of a eulogist. in technical term, my job is a homilist. 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[ male announcer ] another reason more people stay with state farm. get to a better state. ♪ keeping them honest. politicians belly aching about the tough and not so tough questions they face. complaining about double standards and gotcha questions. working the media instead of making the play. the latest member is rick santorum, asked about a billionaire supporters controversial remarks on birth control, these remarks. >> i get such a chuckle when these things come up. here we have millions of our fellow americans unemployed, jihadist camps set up in latin america, which rick is warning about, and people are so preoccupied with sex. it says something about our culture. we need a massive therapy session to concentrate on what the real issues are. and the contraceptive thing, it's so inexpensive. back in my day, we used aspirin, the girls put it between their legs and it wasn't that expensive where. >> that's foster friesz talking with andrea mitchell. he apologized today. before listening to santorum's reaction, mr. friesz is a backer, he's given thousands of dollars to the super pac. that's why hae was asked about his supporter's gaffe. >> when you quote a supporter of mine and i'm responsible for that, that's gotcha. >> nobody said you were responsible. they said how would you characterize it and what would you have said to it? not that you're responsible. it's to understand how you differ from what this person said. >> so i'm not going to have to respond to every supporter who says something now, i'm going to have to respond to them. this is what you guys do. you don't do it with president obama. in fact, with president obama, what you did was defend eed him against someone he sat in a church for for 20 years and defended him, he can't believe what he listened to for 20 years. that's a double standard. this is what you're pulling off. i'm going to call you on it. >> later, he went further, saying, quote, reporters sa s s there and say nothing white president obama sits in a church with a guy who was a racist, and somehow or other, foster friesz is just who i am. this is just crap. he's making two claims, double standard and gotcha journalist. the first claim doesn't stand up to the facts. the gotcha claim, that's more subjective. you can decide what is fair game and what is not. the candidates sure spend plenty of time complanling about it. >> this isn't playing gotcha and complaining about it. >> there are so journalists who only play gotcha journalism. >> we can sit here and you know, play i gaumpa questions. >> gotcha kind of questions. >> i'm ready for the gotcha questions. >> it's a gotcha question. >> gotcha questions. >> gotcha questions. >> i wish you would put aside the gotcha questions. >> keeping ourselves honest, we tried hard to find examples of democrats making gotcha complaints. barney frank saying gotcha this, gotcha that, gotcha journalism and gotcha politics. as for the other complaint of a double standard that reporters sat there and said nothing, unquote, about obama's former controversial pastor, judge for yourself. >> a new kroenchs on the campaign trail. a new one, at issue, barack obama's pastor, and the fiery remarks he's made. >> now barack obama is being questioned about questionable remarks once made by his pastor. >> barack obama on the offensive, explaining his views on the race. >> if you knew, why would it take you more an year to disassociate yourself. >> do you think reverend wright lovesmeric as well as you do. >> have you heard the comments? >> no, i didn't. >> how many times did you go to church a month. >> most people would be saying, why not just leave the church. >> you said black people shouldn't say god bless america but god damn america. why have you been listening to the pastor and close to him for nearly 20 years? >> that's a small sampling of a lot of coverage. according to the nonpartisan pew research center said the wright obouma story made up 40% of political coverage. the next biggest story at that time was the gasoline tax at 7 pr7%. let's bring in mary matalin and ron brownsteen. santorum turning this on the media, is this how a front runner handles tough question? >> gueye know, as well as anybody, there's a lot of juice in the republican primary for attacking the media. they're the conservative base of the republican party. it's not new. a long standing way is suspicious of the main stream media and believes they don't get a fair shake from them. there's some opportunity there, but we have reached a point in the republican race where this is secondary and not as combustible as it was in south carolina with newt gingrich. we're down to a real choice between mitt romney and rick santorum, and it's going to be much more tan jenjal than it was earlier in the campaign. >> if a major supporter says something outrageous, is it out of the realm to ask the candidate, what do you think of this? >> no, and i think santorum's frustration is he's right on the precipice of consolidating the not-romney vote, and he's up in michigan, he's more significantly, he's up in ohio, and he's rightly frustrated by it, and ron is right that it leverages a pre-existing opinion of conservatives that there is a double standard. yes, he should have been asked. yes, he did distance, not just distance, it was despicable. mr. friess was a lovely man who said a stupid thing. can know a lot of men who say a lot of stupid things about women, and ron is right, this isn't going to turn a lot of votes, and no voter is otherwise going to not vote for santorum because of his reaction to the supporter. >> let's get to the issues where they might vote for him. mary mentioned michigan and ohio. he's been doing better with white collar voters, santorum with blue collar voters. does he have the appeal sore is there a town downside? >> the actual polls we have seen in the five states where we have seen them, there's a class skew with romney support. he's a class candidate for the upscale voters, better educated voters. less religious voters. santorum, we impute, a blue collar appeal. we thing it should be there because he has a blue collar, he grew up in a western pennsylvania town, he talks about rebuilding manufacturing. but so far, in fact, john, he has not run better down scale than upscale, he hasn't run better among noncollege than college or less affluent or affluent. not only michigan, but ohio, 10 tenl, and oklahoma are places where that part of the republican party are the dominant part of the electoral. if he can win in michigan, he'll get a lot of momentum going into those places and an opportunity to change the dynamic of the race in a significant way. >> what happens, if you look at the polls, he's leading in michigan. that's where romney was born, where his dad was ceo and governor. what happens in the republican party? >> well, ron, and he wrote a really good piece on this today, he's exactly right. there's no, so far, electoral evidence of his attracting these voters, these downscale voters, if you will, or religious voters, but in michigan, he is culturally more like michigan than romney is. you and i worked there, mccome county is the original reagan democrats, santorum, sorry. it would be like, i mean, it is losing, romney would be losing his home state. then you go to ohio. and he got a really significant endorsement today, santorum, from senator, former senator ag dewine, a switch from romney. these are the swing states. romney doesn't get any credit for winning states we're not going to win in the general, and that is where he's winning. but that's where -- ohio and michigan is where this race is going to be won or lost and other states, obviously, but if santorum can do that, ron is right again, big shift. >> ron -- >> go ahead. >> one of the reasons barack obama was nominated in 2008 was because of the comp scissiositi the electorate changed. it's in the republican electorate. there are lot more of the populous blue collar voters than there used to be. the voters drawn to romney are less dominant than they once were. santorum can plabt the flag and fill the vacuum that romney's difficulty with the voters creates. there are a lot of states where that's a big portion, if not a majority portion of the republican electorate. >> the midwestern industrial states and small rural states as well. ron and mary, thanks for your time tonight. >> still ahead here, saying good-bye to whitney houston. family and friends will gather tomorrow for her funeral. among them, music royalty. also, remembering anthony shadid, one of the premier journalists of his generation. he died doing what he did so well and so bravely. plus, new video. you won't want to miss this. appears to show the syrian military firing on homs. it's an angle we don't often see. 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