>> what we do know is that newt gingrich has been working on a new strategy with his staff, and that is a strategy that we're expecting. sources tell cnn to be more of a positive strategy. this may make you think that's quite a 180. as recently as last night, you heard him hammering on mitt romney, trying to tie him to the big banks, comparing him to president obama, perhaps one of the biggest insults here on the campaign trail for republicans. but sources tell cnn that newt gingrich has been meeting with his staff. what has he been doing? because we know he didn't have a lot on his public schedule today. that's what he's been up do. he will continue to meet with staff tomorrow and flesh out this new strategy going forward and a sign that he's going to come out tonight and continue to say that he's in this for the long haul, this strategy, a source tells cnn, is to move forward and continue to accumulate delegates all the way to the convention. so we are expecting newt gingrich. they're running on time, we know he's nearby this ballroom here at the venetian hotel. and we'll be looking how much of the strategy he unveils today. >> so he's going to be giving an opening statement and taking questions from reporters. breanna, you will be there, as well. even as we await newt gingrich and his news conference and potentially new elements of his strategy, there's still one caucus under way, the religious caucus. i take it it's getting pretty animated. tell our viewers what's going on. >> it sure is. as you mentioned, this caucus is for people like orthodox jews and seventh day adventists who for religious reasons couldn't take part early today. what's going on right now? people are allowed to speak for two minutes about the people they are speaking for. now we have people speaking for ron paul. you can hear right now they're asking if there's anyone else that wants to talk about ron paul? we've had some animated people expressing their support for ron paul. but it looks like we're done with the ron paul people and i guess romney is up next. wolf? >> and at some point they'll vote, they'll write their preferences on ballots or do they raise their hands? what's the procedure, paul? >> it's a ballot. this is just like the caucuses. those caucuses this morning, this is the final one. when we're all done, there will be ballots handed out and the people will vote and those will be tabulated and sent to the clark county republican party office and added to the final vote total. >> you know what i want to do? i want to listen in a little bit and get a little flavor of what's going on at this special caucus. this is a ron paul supporter, i suspect. >> the issue on foreign policy in general, i know some of us want to be somewhere and others just want to come home. but being all of the world costs money and we don't have any. i promise you we will have to come home very soon regardless of your stance, because we just don't have the money to support it. but i would rather do it on our own terms rather than because we're forced into bankruptcy five, ten, years, whatever it may be. a little bit about sound economics. it's really laughable that we just continue to spend all this money year after year, when we don't have any. everyone thinks that it's different than an individual. eventually this is going to catch up with us. government spending itself is a tax. it doesn't matter what any candidate tells you his minimum or maximum tax rate is, as the government spends money, you're being taxed whether through direct taxes or inflation. inflation will come, it has to come. it's just mathematics. lastly, on the gingrich thing, yes, those four years he was a speaker, the budget was balanced, and yet $1 trillion was added to the debt. that sounds like pretty typical washington -- >> time is up, sir. [ applause ] >> okay. anyone else? there was a gentleman here, this guy was -- and please, obviously i'm not trying to stop people from speaking, i just want to remind everybody, please, if you have -- if you're going to repeat something that has been said before, we're going to ask you to pass and let somebody else have an opportunity who has something different to say. go ahead. >> yes. first i want to say i'm voting for ron paul. i think all four gop candidates are incredible men and i'm very honored to be following all of them during the debates. what i've heard is people describe themselves to ronald reagan. and reagan did an interview with "reason" magazine in july 1975 and he -- he said that the heart of conservatism is libertarian itc libertarianism. i would like to see us get a sound dollar, and free trade. thank you. [ applause ] >> is there anybody who has something to add that was not said before? these two gentlemen had their hand up first and then you, sir. >> hello, everybody. first and foremost, i would like to thank you enough for caring enough to be here tonight. [ applause ] i work as a poker dealer and floor man, and i would like to let you know for those who do work for tips, ron paul continues tips to be a gift, not income, subject to taxation. also, ron paul is going to accept a salary of $39,660 a year. he's one of us, not one of them. thank you, everybody. >> this gentleman here. and back -- yep, that gentleman there. >> i'll make this real quick. when i came in, somebody interviewed me and when they asked if i was a paul supporter, i said i was. they said, that makes sense. the young people are behind paul. i would like to explain i'm a middle age man, facing retirement. i appreciate the statement about being young and i wanted to quickly say that ron paul in my opinion is not the young people's candidate, he's america's candidate. [ applause ] >> okay. anybody else who has somebody different to add? yes, ma'am. nathan, this lady up there. >> hi. i would like to speak on behalf of dr. ron paul. i believe he's the only candidate that would be good for the whole world, and not just europeans, not just south of the border, not just anyone, because he believes in peace and he puts the action to his words if you give him a chance. he understands the history of this country. he more reflects the ideals of this country. never mind that in this country there was slavery, wars that shouldn't have been started. whether he really loves israel in part or jewish people or muslims, it doesn't matter. in america, we can believe what we believe. but we need to leave each other alone and stay out of each other's bedrooms, stay out of each other's countries and telling other people in the world what to do. we need to have peace, trade freely and have sound money. another reason he came to washington was because nixon deanchored the dollar from gold. he understands what really causes the booms and busts and what is stealing our old folk's money in their fixed savings account. he understands the economics. i'm sorry, newt is not a great historian. he's a revisionist. [ applause ] >> this young lady there standing up. >> hello, everybody. my name's cathy. i've been here in las vegas over 30 years. i work in the child care industry, and every day i look at these children and know that their futures are in trouble. and ron paul, i honestly feel in my heart and my soul, from making my own mind up and not watching the media where they've cut it and chopped it, i've looked at some of the debates and when they go on ron paul, the lighting is dimmer, sometimes they don't even allow him to talk, they don't even get him into the conversations. it's just hideous how the media has been handling this entire thing. ron paul is for the people. he is for our rights. he is for our freedom. i think that if we continue the way we are and vote for anybody else, i don't think half the people realize how many freedoms we have lost already and how many more we're going to lose. ron paul is for the people, and i really honestly believe that he will get something done. he will bring this country back to where it belongs, and vote for ron paul. and i also have to say about the government, my son was also in there doing the vaccinations. they were inoculating him with stuff, they wouldn't even tell him what it was, having to fill out forms twice a week telling them how he feels, not even giving him an option to opt out. something has to be done with the government and the way they're using our own men as guinea pigs. it has to stop. >> gentleman down here. and then in the back over there. >> i think we all know where ron paul stands on the fiscal policy, on foreign policy, on the federal government. but i would like to say when i think of the united states, i don't think of george bush. i i don't think of barack obama. when i ask my friends overseas what do they think when i say united states, that's what they say, barack obama, george bush. when i think of the united states, i think of idaho, florida, i think of arizona. i think you want a man who is a pro poement for state's rights and if nevada should be ruled by the people of nevada, then that's ron paul. i don't think that somebody in washington, d.c. should be telling people from arizona if their laws are right or wrong. i don't think that lawers from new york should be telling people in other states what they should be voting for. i think if you want nevada to make its own laws and stand by them and not have the federal government bring it down, i think that's ron paul. >> hi, my name is bill. we heard about speaker gingrich being a student of history. i think if we were all a student of history, we would realize that we are very quickly heading down the same road as the roman empire did. and i don't want to go down that road. i am sick, sick, sick of government spending, regulation, taxation, and really nonsense to support a few people. so that's why i'm supporting ron paul. thank you. [ applause ] >> the lady back up here. nathan, somebody give her a microphone. she's been waiting a bit. and again, i want to emphasize, if you -- please, if you have something that's been said before, please pass. >> i want to say first of all, the republican party is the party of the republic. it's the party of the people, and it's for the people. and it's the party that supports the constitution 1,000%, up like the people we have in government right now that need to get out of government. that's first and foremost. if we could vote for people that would serve in different positions in government, i think that would be great. if we could take the jobs that they would fill in the cabinet, i would vote for ron paul today to do our budget for us and get us out of this financial mess that we're in. but i don't think that ron paul is the guy to lead the whole country. he's the guy to lead us out of financial mess. he's not the guy to lead us out of the whole mess. [ applause ] >> this gentleman here. you need to speak from where you're at. >> thank you for allowing me to address you today. i want to bring up a couple brief points that i'm surprised have not been addressed. first of all, i want to say ron paul is truly the number one friend of israel and for israeli independence and the proof is in the pudding. in the early '80s when israel decided to bomb the iraqi nuclear facilities, the united states congress voted to condemn that action. almost unanimously. there was one lone no vote and there was dr. ron paul. [ applause ] not only did dr. paul vote against it, he stood on the floor of the house at that time, he stood on the floor and told the congress what they were doing was a shame, and that they should be ashamed of themselves for following a u.n. condemnation. ron paul is the number one consistent vote against the u.n., and the ever increasing role that international bodies are taking in our sovereignty and israeli sovereignty. and i want to address one point which i'm surprised has not been given on the floor tonight. ron paul is the only candidate, the only candidate with a plan. it's a plan to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget the first year. it would balance the budget by the third year and fix our fiscal mess. the plan does that without cutting a penny from seniors or veterans or national defense. not spending over $800 million a day in afghanistan to defend the border between afghanistan and pakistan while we let our boarders say as porous as swiss cheese. ron paul is truly a man of integrity and consistency and honesty. he has a record unparalleled in government and that record, a record which you can fully embrace the entire election cycle -- >> we're going to break away from this special caucus in las vegas. newt gingrich getting ready to hold his news conference. let's listen in. >> we thought on super bowl eve that instead of the standard rally we would share with you for a little while. let me just start and say, there's one story that came out today that i want to put to rest, hopefully for the next few months. i am a candidate for president of the united states. i will be a candidate for president of the united states. we will go to tampa. we have over 160,000 donors. 97% of whom have given less than $250. we have an obligation to them to stand up for their values, their concerns, and the reason they've gotten involved. we will leave on monday to go to denver. and then to minneapolis. then we'll go on to i think four cities in ohio and we will continue to campaign all the way to tampa. i think this week several things have clarified that are very helpful. unlike governor romney, i care deeply about helping the poorest americans. i believe that the declaration of independence's commitment that our creator endo youed us with the right to pursue happiness extending to the poorest of americans and one of the great challenges of conservatism is to turn the safety net into a trampoline to give people an opportunity to achieve real status, earning a living, having a decent future. is i'm not comfortable with simply allowing people to languish in the safety net and i think that's a very fundamental difference between the two of them. i believe that his proposal for indexing minimum wage is a bad idea, which will increase unemployment and every evidence that we have is it will increase unemployment. and if you're in nevada, which has some 32% teenage unemployment, in you're in a country which has 43% black teenage unemployment, maybe you shouldn't be suggesting a capricious increase on an automatic basis of a minimum wage that kills jobs and stops access for young people. there's some very big differences evolving in this campaign as we move forward. i also believe that the vast majority of republicans across the country are going to want an alternative to a massachusetts moderate who has in his career been pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase and who ranks third from the bottom in creating jobs in the four years he was governor. so i suspect this debate will continue for a long time. our commitment is to seek to find a series of victories by the end of the texas primary will leave us about a parody with governor romney and from that point forward to see if we can't actually win the nomination. tonight, he will do reasonably well. it is a very heavily mormon state, a state which he carried in 2008. i think that we have early returns. we don't know yet how it's going to end up. the last time around ron paul was in second place. any time we're in a caucus state, dr. paul has a substantial advantage. i think i will do better than john mccain did three years ago. we will get some delegates here. obviously we would like to get more. but we're very happy to be competing here and we're going to move on to compete first in maine, minnesota, colorado, early voting has already begun in ohio and arizona. and we'll be competing later this month in arizona and in michigan and we'll go on to super tuesday and then beyond that. so i wanted to set that so all of you could relax and we could -- what happens is every primary day or caucus day, the romney headquarters in boston sends out the rumor that they believe i will withdraw, which of course is their greatest fantasy. i'm not going to withdraw. i'm actually pretty happy with where we are, and i think the contrast between governor romney and me is going to get wider and wider and clearer and clearer over the next few weeks. soy look forward very much to opportunities to debate him. opportunities to draw the contrast and opportunities to compete for votes. i'll be glad to take your questions. [ applause ] [ inaudible ] >> did you miss me? >> we did. >> what kind of conversations took place and what are -- [ inaudible ] >> we got together for a practical reason. i was surprised by the degree to which the establishment has closed ranks and made quite clear that they're desperate over the prospect of a gingrich presidency. i was surprised by george soros, cheerfully explaining in davos that he was happy with either obama or romney, because it didn't make much difference in policy, it was just a change of personality. and i was surprised at "the new york times" article on the romney campaign's decision that they had to destroy newt gingrich. so we stopped and said all right, if this is the objective reality of the campaign, the entire establishment will be against us, the scale of wall street money will be amazing, and the campaign will be cased on things that aren't true. then how do you define the campaign for the average american so they get to choose do they want two george soros approved candidates in the general election or would they like a conservative versus one george soros approved candidate? we spent the last four days laying out a campaign for the next few months in which although we will be outspent, we think we can communicate through the clutter and think we'll be able to draw for the american people how big the difference is. reagan had this challenge with john conley. goldwater had this challenge with nelson rockefeller. we've had past republican campaigns which the establishment had massive financial advantages. reagan lost five straight primaries before he began winning in 1976. i'm comfortable when you come down to it, a pro abortion, pro gun control, pro tax increase george soros approved candidate of the establishment probably is not going to do very well. i'm happy to have that debate with governor romney and i will debate him one on one anywhere, any time that he's willing to stand up and explain his record without the kind of gimmicks he used in florida. >> you seem to be looking past -- >> right here. >> i'm sorry. >> everybody will get a chance. the super bowl is not until 3:29. >> there are reports that sheldon aidleson has been meeting with mitt romney and will help him financially. >> who? >> sheldon. >> i have no idea. >> would that bother you if he is -- >> first of all, i think what he's quoted with saying if i dropped out he would be willing to support governor romney. if the choice is obama or romney, then there's no choice. i think that's how sheldon feels. his primary driving force is the survival of the united states and israel in the face of an iranian nuclear weapon. compared to barack obama, virtually anybody is a better candidate. yes, ma'am? >> mr. speaker, you seem to be looking past the february states and aiming at super tuesday. how much of your focus is going to be on super tuesday states? you're spending a lot of time in ohio this week. can you lay out what the next month will mean in terms of a super tuesday strategy? >> well, one of the things, as you keep score, that you don't quite follow me on, i think we're a national system in terms of information flow. so i think if i'm on "hannity" or if i happen to be in associated press, or if i'm on one of the networks or "the new york times," that in fact it reaches the whole country. so i run a campaign which twice now has made me the front runner and i s