edwards. the trial itself was no less tabloid about funneling cash from a 92-year-old heiress to edwards' pregnant mistress rielle hunter during the 2008 presidential primary. the jury did not believe this violated campaign finance law and could not decide on the rest of it. the judge declared a mistrial. >> i wanted to say first, thank you for the jurors and their incredibly hard work. and their diligence. they took their job very, very seriously. all i can say is thank goodness we live in a country that has the kind of system that we have. >> well, that system in all likelihood won't try him again. we'll talk to jeffrey toobin about the reasons why. first, though, i want to play you more of john edwards' news conference which quickly turned into incredible television. watch. >> while i do not believe i did anything illegal or ever thought i was doing anything illegal, i did an awful, awful lot that was wrong. . and there is no one else responsible for my sins. none of the people who came to court and testified are responsible. nobody working for the government is responsible. i am responsible. and if i want to find the person who should be held accountable for my sins, honestly, i don't have to go any further than the mirror. it is me, and me alone. i also want to say a word about my own children. kate, who all of you have seen has been here every single day. she has been here no matter what. no matter how awful and painful a lot of the evidence was for her. evidence about her dad. evidence about her mom, who she loves so, so dearly. but she never once flinched. she said, dad, i love you, i'll be there for you no matter what. and i'm so proud to have her with me through all this process. and finally, emma who turned 14 recently, and jack who just turned 12 who i take care of every day and i've not been able to see them quite as much, but i see him in the morning, i get their breakfast ready, get them off to school, and then we get home at night and we all eat supper together. and i love them both so dearly. and they're such an important part of every day of my life. and then finally, my precious quinn. who i love more than any of you could ever imagine. and i am so close to and so, so grateful for. >> that was john edwards outside the courthouse this afternoon. joining us now, two people covering the trial from the beginning, joe johns and diane diamond a reporter for "newsweek." her latest headline "why johnny walked on a mistrial," and jeff toobin. is it possible the justice department could refile charges? >> absolutely? >> it's likely? >> well, it's possible. they have the legal right to say tomorrow we are going to retry him on the last -- on those five counts. i think it's unlikely. i think cooler heads will prevail. this was a very marginal case to start with. very unusual use of the campaign finance laws. they had their shot -- >> you say marginal -- because -- >> because it was not a conventional crime. there has never been a justice department prosecution for similar activity. you know, the deterrent effect of this case is negbecause the facts are so odd. and in a world where the supreme court is essentially deregulating american campaigns, the idea they would try to put john edwards in prison again after failing so dramatically and spending so much time and so much money, i just think it's time to close the shop. >> the fact the jury couldn't reach a verdict on five of six counts. how often does this happen? >> it happens quite frequently, but i will tell you that the interesting thing and jeff just hinted at it or actually said it was when they brought this case, it was a precitizens united world. now you've got a situation and i don't know what the split was but i'm sure somebody on this panel will. but i can't imagine if they found him guilty on the one count. frankly that count was ridiculous to begin with that the split wasn't in favor of not guilty. and i can't imagine that in a post citizens united world, where basically money equals speech, corporations are persons that you're going to try to put a person and speech for taking money. it makes no sense. this thing was started, also, not so much by the department of justice, but by politically motivated u.s. attorney who went on and brought these charges and thought he was going to climb on to john edwards' back and make some fame and a name for himself. this was politically motivated to begin with. it's legally suspect to begin with. the charges themselves were ridiculous. the fact that the jury could not convict him i think speaks volumes about it. this is federal court where they brag they get 98% or 99% guilty either pleas or convictions. i think this tells you all you need to know about the strength of this case. >> joe, there's been so many who wonder whether the jury could separate, you know, the obvious facts in which john edwards has done some lousy things, you know, to his family, to his supporters, and the lies he's told and whether or not he broke the law in the way the state was alleging. clearly the jury, you know, at least some on the jury were able to separate maybe his personal behavior from whether or not his criminal behavior. >> reporter: that absolutely seems to be the case. and it also seems the case that this jury really realizes how tough this thing was on the facts and the law. and this is a very polarized state for a lot of reasons. when they were first put up there, it was hard to see how they were going to reach any other decision but a mistrial. they come from far and wide diverse and socioeconomic places here in the state. that was the first thing. the body language only got worse. you saw certain people just exhausted and drooping. and then there was a question of teams, whether they'd formed two different teams that say yay team and nay team. and the judge actually twice instructed them not to do that, not to form groups. so it looks like it was a high hurdle for this jury to climb and we saw what the result was. >> and diane, there was a moment that the defense, when the prosecution first rested their case that john edwards turned to his lawyer and said something along the lines of is that all they got? clearly he seemed confident at the point when the prosecution rested their case. >> yeah, i remember that very well. i wrote about it in the "daily beast." he turned to his attorney and said that's their case? i thought it seemed a little cocky at the time. i think what's not being said here tonight, anderson. john edwards did not walk away not guilty, he walked away not guilty on one count, and it was the least of the counts. but he was not found innocent. he wasn't even found not guilty of those charges, but he does get to go home and go on with his life. and it was an unprecedented case. and i think the justice department will think long and hard about bringing a case like this gagain, especially with th recent supreme court decisions. >> what a weird case this was. almost none of the protagonists testified. the two people who gave the money, bunny mellon is 101 years old, fred marin, he died unexpectedly. rielle hunter did not testify, elizabeth edwards, john edwards -- the only person who was really intimately involved in this was andrew young who is kind of the bag man. and i just think it's weird to expect the jury to convict when they're not hearing the full story. >> mark, how tough is it when you have a client who has done some, you know, shady behavior and trying to get the jury to separate what you may think of him personally from the charges? >> well, i think it makes a difference if you've got -- and i've argued this for year. it depends if your client is infamous or famous. john edwards was famous before he became infamous. you get some degree a presumption of innocence when you are somebody -- remember, this was at one time a golden boy out of that state. so i think there was, you know, joe had said, it was a polarized jury, it's a polarized state. i expect this case was lost in jury selection for the prosecution as most cases that high-profile cases are. i don't see how they can ever get over that in a case like this where at the end of the day, the prosecution's chief witness is somebody who took most of the money and built a house. and that's -- that's the case and you've got to say why are we here for 6 to 8 weeks on this kind of nonsense. >> just what he showed with his lies is even when he was confessing, when he was giving that confessional interview to b bob woodruff at abc, he was still lying. he was still lying about a child he had had. >> and that interview is why he couldn't testify in this trial. >> if you had to pick one moment from the trial to basically sum up the whole thing, what was the moment? >> it was when john edwards today got up from the defense table having heard the jury's verdict, having heard the judge say mistrial on all the other counts and he turned to his family and he grasp both of his parents in his arms in a double hug and said into his mother's ear, i was standing right there. he said, see, i told you everything would be okay. i think from the very beginning he went in there very confident. he did begin to look haggard at the end of the trial, but every defendant does. i think he had exuded a certain confidence that bled into that jury, so to speak, and they just said we believe him more than we believe andrew young. period. end of story. >> made millions and millions of dollars reading juries. >> thank you very much. a lot more happening today. including both presidential campaigns trading economic attacks on the other side, mitt romney outside a bankrupt company the obama administration backed. the obama campaign in boston in a state that mitt romney obviously ran. who made the case? what was the case they were making? we'll talk to duvall patrick and mitt romney supporter newt gingrich. in raw politics tonight, both presidential campaigns in opposite ends of the country today looking for perfect back drop to attack each other's record. david axelrod was slamming mitt romney's record as governor in massachusetts. >> a recent poll showed governor romney trailing badly here in his home state. a harsh -- these may be the only voters right here for mitt romney in massachusetts. it's a harsh judgment from the people who have come to know him best. >> axelrod cited slow job growth, declining wages and growing debt while mr. romney was governor and the campaign launched a new four-minute video hitting many of those same points. as to the truth behind those claims, the massachusetts economy did do poorly while romney was governor. though the unemployment rate went down and romney had a democratic legislature to contend with. it's open to debate, we'll talk to his successor, deval patrick, in a moment. we'll also speak to newt gingrich who is now supporting mr. romney who is in freemont, california, who was at solyndra, at a company who got federally backed loans and then went belly up. >> two years ago, president obama was here to tout this building and this company as his success. you can see it's a symbol of something very different today. it's a symbol not of success but of failure. >> again, just as with governor romney's economic record in office, how much -- open to debate, we'll open that debate tonight with governor deval patrick. thank you for being with us. >> thank you very having me. >> there were more jobs at the end of mitt romney's term than when he got there. down to 4.7%. why isn't that a record to run on? >> that is a record to run on. but it's not a record to win on. we were 47th in job creation out of 50 states when governor romney was in office. we were at a time of strong economic growth in the country and we were trailing the country at the same time, he left a structural deficit, although he told me and told the public that he was leaving a surplus and the size of the state workforce grew. he cut education, the largest single per pupil cut in education in america when he was here. i think all of those are relevant when you compare them in particular to a governor -- excuse me a president who has not followed the trend as romney did but bucked the trend and turned around job loss and added some 4 million private sector jobs in the last two years. >> as governor mitt romney, basically had the same job pattern as the president, the economy was in bad shape when he began. the state was bleeding jobs early in the term. he made up ground as the economy recovered and nationally the economy was recovering as well. unemployment was at about 4.7%, he also had democratic legislature to deal with and he had to balance the budget every year. >> and every one of us has to balance the budget every year. i have to balance the budget as well. but we have been investing in education, infrastructure, the very strategy that the president is supporting nationally. and our unemployment rate is well below the national average and going down and we're growing jobs faster than most other states. at the time that governor romney was in office, and he's always been a gentleman to me. i want to add -- i want to say that. this is not about a personal attack. it is though about a record of job creation and fixing things, which is actually just not born out by our experience here in massachusetts. >> you have also said that some of the attacks on bain capital have been distorted, some of the way that bain capital as been portrayed has been distorted, how so? >> i don't think bain is a bad company. i don't think that private equity has an inappropriate role in the private economy. the question is what was governor romney's record when he was at bain? he created -- >> the campaign has had people coming forward saying this is vulture capitalism. that some of the commercials -- >> you haven't heard -- anderson, you haven't heard that from me. i spent most of my life in the private sector, i respect bain and i respect bain's role. but i do think it's a perfectly appropriate question to ask, what has mitt romney's record been in job creation in the private and the public sector because that's something that he's touting as a part of his his case. he's created a lot of wealth and i respect him for that. but his job creation record is just not as strong as he is holding it out to be. and you compare that to a president who has bent the curve, who has been against the trend and turned around national job growth and job loss into job growth. that is about governing for the long-term, not reaping benefits for the short-term and that's exactly the kind of leadership we need in this country in my view. >> in this new obama campaign n the web ad, we see massachusetts residents complaining about the fees. calling them in effect a tax increase. you have been there many years. many of the fees are in place. some have been raised by you. have you been making a real push to get rid of them? >> no, in some cases we have not. and the point is not that the fees are necessarily bad. but the point is we believe in investing in our future here in massachusetts, in this administration. and being candid with the public about that as opposed to what governor romney did when he was here and when he talks about on the -- and what he talks about on the campaign trail. he said he didn't raise tax, but in fact he did raise the gas tax and he raised everything else that wasn't a tax. it was about the kind of financial engineering to make the books look good without being candid with people. about what our challenges were and what the -- what kinds of services they wanted from government. it's an integrity question. not just a policy question. >> governor deval patrick, appreciate your time tonight. thank you. thank you. i want to turn to a romney oent and opponent and current romney surrogate, speaker newt gingrich. thanks for being with us. you heard governor patrick talk about mitt romney's record. 47th in nation overall, but when mitt romney left office that's obviously not a great number. how -- why if mitt romney knows how to create jobs was he not able to create more jobs as governor of massachusetts? >> well, start with the point you made. they were at 4.7% unemployment. if we were at 4.7% unemployment right now, 5.5 million americans would be at work who under obama's policies are currently unemployed. so i think it's pretty hard for the obama team to make the case that romney did a worse job in massachusetts. he clearly had a lower unemployment level and i think that that's a fair part of this debate. but i think it also goes deeper. you just saw governor romney out at solyndra. i mean, if obama wants to get into a debate about investments and the choices between private sector investment and bureaucratic investment, solyndra is almost a case study in why you don't want bureaucrats investing your tax money because they don't do a good job of it. i think it's very important to recognize how many of obama's so-called investments in the the last three years are going broke or losing money and all across the whole zone for example where he was going to get us a million electric cars a year. they're like at 5% of the amount despite having invested billions and billions of what is the taxpayers money. in the private sector if you invest money it's your money. if you invest in if public sector it's taxpayer money. that's a very big difference. >> and in the past he invested in the alternative energies in other companies. >> i think there's a difference between having a tax credit for wind or solar or a breakthrough kind of car like the volt, there's a difference between having a tax credit and having bureaucrats handing out hundreds of millions of dollars -- a solar company went broke under obama that had a $3.1 billion guarantee. that's just one company. so i think it's very important to recognize you had an effort on the part of the administration to rush into doing a lot of things, to get them done through the bureaucracy. the bureaucracy didn't have the skill, it didn't have the knowledge. it wasn't able to pull it off. i think you'll so a wreckage both in terms of people lose their jobs. look at solyndra, people were unemployed and then economically. >> there was a support under the bush administration for the solyndra deal. this was not something that the obama administration created. >> no, but it's something that obama focused on and claimed credit for and he pointed to when he was at the plant as a shining example of his model. that shining example is now broke. i think that tells people a lot. look, i'm not going to say that throwing away taxpayer money is peculiarly a democratic behavior or that it didn't happen in the bush administration. i am going to say that there have been some painful lessons learned and that having somebody who's good at managing capital and who understands the private sector may be a lot better than having somebody who's largely good teaching classes trying to preside over the economy. >> i want to ask you about a charge in the latest romney ad in talking about the stimulus. the ad says and i'm quoting the inspector general said contracts were steered to friends and family. talking about the solyndra deal. that's not factually correct though. he said his office was investigating whether the stimulus contracts had been steered to friends and family. so far there's not any confirmed cases at all. independent investigators have only found evidence that 1/1,000th stimulus money has been lost to fraud. darrell issa said is there criminal activity? perhaps not. is there political influence? perhaps not. how can romney make the claims about friends and family? >> if they're technically wrong, they should change the ad. i think it's to our advantage. we can win this election so handily by sticking to the facts. and the case against obama is so decisive.