it was a key question today. the secretary of homeland security, the department which oversees the secret service was in the hot seat on capitol hill. >> to your knowledge, is this the first time something like this has happened? >> there was nothing in the record to suggest that this would happen. >> and in fact, it said one agent that wasn't implicated in the matter but talked to the post off the record said, quote, of course this has happened before. this is not the first time. another agent said, and i quote, you take a bunch of guys out of the country and a lot of women showering them with attention, bad things are bound to happen. now agents who did not want to be identified told "the washington post" that an a 2009 visit to overseas, they went out to clubs and the reaction by the leadership speaks for itself. now, ronald kessler is the reporter who first broke this story on the prostitution scandal in colombia two weeks ago. he told us today this is a symptom of larger problems in the secret service. it's a culture of winking and nodding and cutting corners. significant allegation. and kessler tells us that director mark sullivan is not the only one to blame and that according to the agents that he talks to, this culture endangers the president. for now the white house and secretary napolitano are standing by their man and the agency. >> director sullivan has the president's and my full confidence as this investigation proceeds. the investigation will be complete and thorough and we will leave no stone unturned. >> senator chuck grassley is the top republican on the hearing and he was in the hearing with napolitano today and he's calling for an outside investigation to determine if any white house staff members were involved in the scandal in colombia. good to see you. i know you have been critical of the investigations that we have seen so far. what questions do you have that are not getting answered? >> well, right now, none of this stuff is given to us. we told it's been investigated. there's no problem with the people in the white house. we're told that -- so that needs to be clarified. the inspector general, is he doing his own investigation or is he just overlooking and kind of reviewing what the director sullivan is doing? and then we have the incident that was -- that came to our attention today where some top people on the armed services committee asked to be briefed on how the -- it's being handled within the defense department and the vice chairman of the joint chief of staff couldn't answer their questions. what's the big mystery? we ought to get this out in the open and protection of the president ought to be a top priority. >> as you know, sir, we have learned the identity of one of the alleged prostitutes. diana suarez. some of the viewers may be familiar of the pictures with her. her in a bikini. a 24-year-old single mother who studies english. i know you did a radio interview yesterday in which you said that the prostitutes could have been russian spies. who knows who's using prostitutes, the russians are famous for getting information out of us. do you think they could have been spies for russia or were you making a rhetorical point? >> a rhetorical point because that's what the russians did during the cold war and they still may be doing it today. but it was very much a tool that they used and of course i was just saying with that history, we've got to be very, very certain that things like this aren't happening again in our national security being compromised in some way that we don't even know about. and that's what -- that gets back to what was already discussed in your program. is this part of the culture of the secret service, et cetera, or is this just 22 people or maybe 12 people in the secret service that just screwed up once? >> right. >> and if it's part of the culture, we've got to get to the bottom of that. >> and senator, greg stokes is one of the agents allegedly involved. he was in the k-9 unit. apparently he's been in touch with the oversight and reform committee and speculation is he wants to testify. do you plan to have him testify at a hearing you're able to hold and would you offer him immunity so he can speak more freely? >> if i were in control of the senate judiciary committee i'd be having a hearing on that. it's up to senator leahy whether or not he decides to call a hearing and subpoena and give that sort of protection you're talking about. senator leahy and i have been talking at the staff level about what ought to be done, but there's no conclusions at this point. >> all right. well, senator grassley, thank you very much. now let's go to fran town send. george with bush's adviser. you heard -- it was on the same lines of the senator there, saying that the briefs sent were woefully unable to answer the questions about what happened in cartegena. what's happening here? >> it's pretty clear that the secret service while senator grassley isn't satisfied with the answers he's gotten a lot more information on the secret service investigation as it's gone along, as has judiciary. i mean, mark sullivan has spent a lot of time on capitol hill and as a result of that, you don't hear many calls for sullivan to resign because he's handled it pretty well. they made a mistake, one, they waited to start the briefings. this incident happened almost two weeks ago. two, they were unprepared. i find it surprising because you know i sit on the cia's external advisory board. and when leon panetta was the director of the cia, he rebuilt the relationship with capitol hill because i have heard him speak many times about the need for transparency with your oversight committee. >> right. >> he's out of the country right now. when they went up to capitol hill. i suspect when he gets back, he will have to personally address the deficiency and deal with this. that's right. >> what do you think about what senator grassley is saying? i know he said he was making a rhetorical point but it seems to be more than that. pro prostitutes has been used throughout human history as spies and agents. it could have been the case in cartegena or not, but that's not the point. if this is more common in the agency it could be happening and it could be threatening the president. >> absolutely. >> is that too paranoid? >> no, no. it's a worthwhile point. look, and they get trained. erin, the thing about this that's so astounding, the agents are trained in counterintelligence, to look for people who are trying to approach them for that reason. so they know better than this. they know better than to put themselves in a vulnerable position like that which is what makes it so astounding. look, you have a large number of agents for a short period of time on the ground caught up in this. it's a natural question, is it a cultural problem? first, we have to understand this incident and then you need to take it further and say is it a broader problem? i suspect that mark sullivan is committed to doing that. >> well, fran townsend, thank you very much. the secret service investigation broadens and continues. next a student in iowa was raped and held captive and her silence was being bought. and the wooing of mitt romney begins. who wants to be the running mate. look at who's saying the most no no no. and the latest on madeleine mccann. are we closer to finding that missing british girl? 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[ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! wait! your boa. what's in your wallet? so las vegas sands reported revenue of $2.8 billion after the markets closed and it was an industry wide record and the name is las vegas sands but the story is not about vegas anymore, it's about asia. that's our number tonight. 87. that's the percent of las vegas sands earnings that came from macaw and singapore. asia is the be all and end all for casino operators right now. sands just opened it's fourth casino in macaw, the only place in china where gambling is legal. people just get off the planes, the boats and ferries and go in and gamble. it's crazy. the hotel in singapore, the occupancy rate is over 98%. it's a stunning place to visit. in case you might have heard a lot about las vegas sands recently, it's not anything to do with casinos, it's because of who runs the company. sheldon adelson. the billionaire that donated all that money to newt gingrich. we'll have much more on newt coming up. but now a story some are calling an extreme example of culture shock. police say 21-year-old penn tang, a chinese national and former student at the university of iowa sexually assaulted a woman who was showing him an apartment to sublet. before he was arrested, he tried to cover his tracks and bribe his victim. you may say really? that's ridiculous. here's the thing. in china, a bribe is not so uncommon. in fact it's how business gets done a lot of the time. tang's parents even flew to the united states from china and tried to buy the victim's silence. well, tonight tang is behind bars for first-degree kidnapping and bribery. our jim spellman is in iowa city, he's been looking into this story. jim, it sounds like what may be normal in china is going to be very bizarre in iowa. tell us a little bit more about this strange case. >> reporter: sure, erin. this woman wanted to sublet her apartment. instead of using craigslist or something like that, she used a chinese language website. it's very common here for the chinese students to deal amongst themselves, one apartment one student to the next. this man, tang, shows up. instead of wanting to sublet the apartment, he comes with handcuffs, forces her into her bedroom, stuffs a towel into her mouth and sexually assaults her. not only that, he wants to record the moment to be able to influence her from going to the police. take a listen. >> took photographs? >> yeah. he ended up taking photographs of her in compromising positions under the premise that if she made a report to the police department, that he would put those out on the internet. >> reporter: and so what he wanted to do, erin, is take advantage of this trust that exists amongst these students from china here in iowa city. he knew that everybody knows each other in this community and he felt that maybe he could shame her into not going to the police. >> that is just -- it's unbelievable just to even hear that, but i know his parents, beyond just himself, his parents got involved, flew to the united states, tried to bribe her as well. where are they? are they going to be prosecuted? >> reporter: sure. well, listen, i think any parent can understand wanting to come and help their child. instead of using their money to hire an attorney perhaps, they were prepared to pay this woman off, to try to influence her to not go to the police. initially police charged them with witness tampering. they have since dropped the charges against them but charged tang himself with witness tampering because inside jail he's been contacting a friend, trying to get that friend to go to her and convince her to change her story, telling him promise her anything. so police have added witness tampering as well as the kidnapping charge to tang. >> wow, thank you very much, jim spellman. this is a bizarre tale. with all the talk on how business gets done in china and corruption and we heard about the businessman that got murdered, it's a very strange story indeed right here in the united states. did marco rubio make his case to be mitt romney's number two? he may have done so just by saying it's the case that he doth protest too much. and should we be allowed to bring weapons on planes? a former head of the tsa outfront to say yes. >> announcer: with nothing but his computer, an identity thief is able to use your information to open a bank account in order to make your money his money. 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[ applause ] [ male announcer ] go online to reach every home, every address, every time with every door direct mail. at bank of america, we're lending and investing in communities across the country. from helping to revitalize a neighborhood in brooklyn... financing industries that are creating jobs in boston... providing funding for the expansion of a local business serving a diverse seattle community... and lending to ensure a north texas hospital continues to deliver quality care. because the more we can do in local neighborhoods and communities, the more we can help make opportunity possible. florida senator and gop darling marco rubio talked to russia, syria and kony 2012 in a speech that looked like a vp tryout. he has repeatedly denied he'll join mitt romney on the ticket but of course so has, well, pretty much anybody else considered to be on the ticket but not all have been as convincing. >> anybody that asks me to help the party or help the ticket in some way so we can get mitt romney elected, i'm willing to consider doing. >> well, i would consider it, but i doubt i'll get a call. >> what do you think about running for vice president with this guy? >> you know, i'm happy representing these folks in ohio. >> if i wanted to be president or vice president so badly, i would have run for president. i don't so i didn't. >> i think i would demand reconsideration and send mr. romney a list of people i think could suit better. >> i know people keep asking but my answer hasn't changed. >> still under no circumstances. >> yeah, i'm not going to be the vice president. >> all right. when it comes to the veep stakes, it seems a safe assumption is that no means maybe. i mean remember this? >> vice president? >> no. no. i promise, no. >> you know what? see here's the thing, joe biden. you can't promise. you can say no, never. but you can't promise. i mean -- all right, john avlon is here and reihan salam is here. good to see all of you. john, this is a case of sort of like oh, no, no, no, no, no. yes. >> you just turned them all into mary pickford or something. look, the secret is never as popular as the sought and all these folks know that. if you're lobbying for vp, you're not going to get the gig. all those people that were put up there -- >> this is like they're playing hard to get? >> pretty much, yes. high school rules still apply, even at presidential level politics. it's sad but true. look, all those folks will be on the short list, you know. i think chris christie and bobby jindal, but we're going to spend a lot of time playing this parlor game. it has less to do with the substantive debate of the presidency but it's an important first decision. >> don't knock the parlor game, john. i love it. >> chris christie was an adamant no and now seems to be sort of a no but yes. >> also i've got to say i know john doesn't agree with me on this, but if you say christie versus rubio to me, i think it's a no-brainer that christie would be a stronger add to a republican ticket because a lot of people talk about latino voters. but a really key constituency are affluent voters. if you look at colorado, there are over 30% of the electorate. that was true in 2008. if you look at virginia, over 30% of the electorate. pennsylvania, they're right around 30%. less so in ohio, less so in florida. but this is a key swing constituency that obama won big in 2008 and bush won big in 2004. >> i want to get jamal to weigh in but john, first, we have sort of stopped talking about the issue that marco rubio is not -- cuban and latino is not the same thing. the thing that they're all going to flock and vote for him is at best simplistic. >> it is simplistic because it is a very diverse community. but the symbolism of having a hispanic on the ticket, adding youth and diversity to the ticket even if it's a cuban american instead of a mexican american, that could still be a game-changer. and it does move certain states in play. i think it would cause a reassessment and the republican party and mitt romney in particular has a lot of ground to make it when it comes to a latino gap and youth gap. that's why rubio gave a very responsible, mature, thoughtful speech today on foreign policy at brookings. >> jamal, who's better for the president to be put on this? i would imagine he doesn't want marco rubio on this ticket at all. >> i think the president and his team thinks they can take whoever gets put up against him. i don't know if they spent that much time thinking about it. to get to john's point, i think you can get youth and diversity with somebody and i'm going to crib this from somebody like david frum, but you can get youth and diversity from somebody like the governor of louisiana, bobby jindal, because i think he's also a tested person, politician. he's been out there for a long time. conservatives like him a lot. all those things may matter for that. but it's interesting, when you think about the vice presidency -- the vice presidential nomination, you know why everybody is running from this, because if you want to be president it's the worst job to get. think about dan quayle, jack kemp, sarah palin, you can go down the list, dick cheney, how many of those guys became president. >> can i just say what i would like to watch just as a bystander. forget politics. but joe biden and chris christie. >> oh yeah. >> fun debate. >> that would be amazing. >> some youth and diversity. >> that would have to go on late-night television, in fact. >> elderly voters turn out, affluent voters turn out and those are voters that republicans need. they need to excite them. they need to turn them out in very large numbers. if you can run up the margins there, though, that actually can make a big difference. i definitely get the idea that you want to improve your margins with latinos but they're going to respond to an effective economic message. >> newt, what's going on. he's out but he's not out. >> he just wants one more day all to himself. he wants that news cycle to bask in. this was always a bucket list presidential run. it just did a lot better than he ever dreamed. so one more day, one more negotiation where it's all newt all the time. >> i'm going to play one more sound bite of marco rubio because i just have to. people make fun of people for prompters, but everybody learns the hard way. here it is. >> a world where more people are free to grow their economies, free to pursue their dreams, free to become prosperous. i left my last page of the speech