we have a very, very important issue here. why is that important? the primary here, the first in the nation is the window through which the american public begin to understand the candidates, who they are, what they stand for, and their vision for a better america. and you begin to jeopardize that process by other states like nevada most recently leap frogging in the process, making new hampshire virtually irrelevant as you move it forward. that's totally nonsense, we're going to stand with the people of new hampshire on this, we're going to speak out locally and vocally. we've chosen to boycott nevada, the caucus system. we know the people of nevada are experiencing high unemployment, high forecloesh you've rates, as of right now, we're standing with the people of new hampshire and boycotting not only the caucus but the debate tomorrow night. this is all about how candidates are introduced to the american people. and it's traditionally done through these early primary states and new hampshire has been critical for 100 years now. >> let me put it to you, though, jon huntsman. i've never seen any candidate who has better press or had more people say, he's a great guy, he'd be perfect. he's polling so low, why do you think that is, and what can you do about it? for many people, this is -- to use the gambling powers in vegas, your last throw of the dice, you're putting all the chips on new hampshire? >> piers, this is a vegas move, you put it rightly. but this is also where you up end the traditional wisdom of politics. i like where we're going in new hampshire. we're in low double-digits, this is exactly where we wan will to be. we want a steady gradual substantive rise. that's what the people of new hampshire demand. and whoever makes it through the new hampshire primary, always bursts upon the political stage with viability down market. keep your eyes focussed on new hampshire. this is where art fish yalety does not play well. you must have a message, you must be able to sell your vision for a better america. and the people either take it or they don't, and so far after 80 town hall meetings and house parties we've had in new hampshire, i can feel it on the streets, we're beginning to connect with the people here in ways i never would have imagined, stay tuned in new hampshire, the viability of new hampshire as the first primary state in america must remain a tradition about this is good for the people of new hampshire, good for candidates. a transparent process. but most importantly, it's good for the american people, we deserve it during what is likely to be the most important election cycle of my entire lifetime. >> very briefly, your father also jon huntsman, he used to work with mitt romney, had some pretty scathing words about him in the new york times yesterday. he said if you need to win that badly, you just do what you have to do to get a vote. reaction to your father's pretty strident comment there is. >> i love the man. he's a man of great wisdom and insight. i've rarely known him to be off the mark. i think on this issue, it's probably dead on the mark as well. >> well, it will be interesting to see what happens. thanks for joining me. >> you can see the debate tomorrow night. now to car racing. and the terrible tragic accident yesterday. that killed dan wheldon. proof of just how dangerous the sport is, this video will show you all you need to know. >> something happens in front of you, you can never have enough reaction time. it's impossible. you have no time to do anything. >> 15 cars in a terrible pileup there. all colliding, coming apart, catching fire, and costing dan wheldon his life. a two-time indianapolis 500 winner, 33 years old, he leaves a wife, and two young sons. one just 7 months old. joining me, mario andretti and tony canard who was in the race yesterday when disaster struck. >> thank you for joining me. i can imagine as a friend and colleague of dan wheltden, it's a difficult day for you, and everyone involved in this sport. mario, let me ask you, you've been in a race car, driven in all sorts of different types of races. what was your reaction when you saw what happened? it seemed even by racing standards to be a particularly horrific accident. >> yeah, obviously all you have to do is look at the replay as surreal, i had just come in, i was pretty much the first one to go to see the car at the start of the race. i was just getting out of my car and i was hearing a gasp from the crowd, and knowing that, you know, something was happening, obviously, and it kept on and on, it kept on so long. i knew that it was going to be a serious and with dan, the situation was very freakish thing where his car just flew right up into the catch fencing. the track is very well equipped with the safety walls all the way around. it's one of the few tracks that have safety walls all the way around. but he just missed the top of it. and just so unfortunate. >> and tony, let me bring you in. you were leading the race at the time. you knew dan very well as a friend and competitor. when did you realize just how bad this was? >> well, piers, when i was leading the race, obviously, like you said. and it goes yellow. my radio guy, my spotter said, it's yellow flag, crash in turn one. at this time i was in turn four. but being racing for a while, when i went through the wreck, which was probably 30 seconds later, i realized it was a mess. it looks like it was a war. pieces everywhere. i couldn't avoid not to get any pieces on my tires underneath my car. it was pieces of cars on fire, cars flipped. it was -- in 27 years of racing, i've never seen such a big mess like that. i was pretty touched by it. at this time i had to hold myself just because, obviously, i didn't know what happened. and i was leading the race. this is part of our job. i mean, we get exposed to those kind of things every weekend that we race. it's part of racing, but it's never nice to see something like that. >> and i've got to ask you, does this make you reassess your career as a driver? you're a father yourself. there hasn't been a fatality in a race like this in a number of years in america. and indeed in formula 1 which is the european equivalent in many ways there hasn't been one since ed serna's tragic death years ago. then you see something like this and just watching it, it seemed so awful, so kind of cataclysmic, that inevitably there are now questions about the safety of the sport and whether things should be drastically changed. what do you think about that and your own participation in such a sport now? >> as far as safety, you said it. i think we're getting better every time. the track is very well equipped. racing, it's dangerous. it's been like that for a hundred years. and to me, the day that i start thinking that this is too dangerous i think will be time to stop. i lost one of my best friends yesterday, and i know it's going to be very hard to forget. i don't think i will. it will be really hard to swallow. i will remember him every time. but as a race car driver, this is one of the things that you have to have, you have to think that it's never going to happen to you and you got to keep going. if it ever crossed my mind that this is too dangerous, i should actually go do something else -- and right now if dan wheldon was here and i was going to announce that i was going to retire, he'd be the first to call my team owner and to take my job. i'll try to honor him as best we can on the racetrack. >> mario, you've lost friends to racing. you've seen the devastating impact this can have. you've also heard the debate about racing generally for the last four or five decades. does anything change because of what happened yesterday? >> well, i don't think so. and i think we have to realize that the bodies have been very responsible in dealing with the safety, as tony said, of the cars and the racetracks. i think it's a testament to drivers coming out of the car, you know, unscathed through, you know, horrible accidents. unfortunately, we're not totally -- you know, it's never going to be 100% safe, but we're not 100% safe just by going to work every day, you know, or flying somewhere. so there's always the spectrum, the freakish situation. but on the plus side is that the sport with every incident will analyze every aspect of it as to, you know, what can we do better, what can we do different. this is not something that you forget and go on to the next -- you know, to the next race and then don't do anything about it. it's going to be very well investigated by all of us. all of us will have an opinion about it. and maybe some things will have to be done differently, but again, everyone is very responsible, and i must say again that looking at the amount of exposure that we have, week in and week out, and the amount of -- thousands and thousands of miles that have been run on the track, racing and testing, i think we're really proud of our safety record. again, you know, i wish we could be 100% shield from danger, but nothing is in life. and when you lose somebody that's really close to home like we do, it hits you in a very special way. you know, but again, you know, dan was a racer. and if he -- you know, if he -- >> he was. mario, i'm sore to have to jump in. we have to leave it there. everybody who does the sport knows the dangers. it is thankfully not very often that we have to deal with this kind of tragedy. dan was a hero. a remarkable sportsman. his legacy should be of his fantastic legacy, not anything that happened yesterday. our thoughts to all his friends and to his wife and two young sons. when we come back, emotional interview with sitcom star kelsey grammer. what he really thinks of his ex-wife and how he's found love again. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." 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[♪...] >> announcer: now get a $250 airfare credit, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. certain restrictions apply. kelsey grammer is one of the most talked about, one of the most famous, one of the most beloved faces in american television history. he joins me now. you are, aren't you? you've been part of the american television consciousness for so long. you must walk around the street and everyone goes hey, kelsey. everyone must think they know you. >> well, those things do happen. those events do take place. sometimes it's hey, frasier, but more often than not, it's hey, kelsey. >> do you like the kind of mass attention you still get? or i've done it, i just want to just go and -- >> it's always pleasant. it's always flatter. it's always meant in an optimistic kind of affectionate way. so i take it that way and return the compliment actually. >> you enjoy the status of television icon? >> sure. i've be a fool to say i didn't. >> i would. let's be honest with you. odd thing about you -- and i mean this in the best sense -- i don't think i've ever had an american television star sit here who openly admits to being a republican. >> oh, well, you know. >> you're that guy. >> i'm that guy. >> i think musicians -- i don't think i've ever had a tv person. normally the world of television is just infused with liberals. and most movie star, i'd say. >> i think you're right about that. i'm a bit of a rebel. i don't tend to warm too well to people that tell me how i'm supposed to think. so my life in hollywood, i'm afraid i was destined to be a republican. >> how does it go down with all your famous friends? is it lonely out there? >> pretty lonely, but they seem to tolerate me somehow, because i can at least state myself eloquently and without -- without actually kind of assuming the veneer of what they assume is what a republican is some kind of nasty, strange villain that, you know, should be vilified and hated. >> it's obvious that has become the way republicanism is now perceived in this country. you know, you are either extremely with them, with all that appears to entail, or you're completely against them. but they're very divisive. to say you're a republican now divides people immediately. you go back 30 years, it wasn't like that. >> the tone of political assessment has changed. honestly, the battle for the hearts and the minds of the american people has taken on a bit more of a violent and narrow approach. i mean, you have to actually make sure that nobody swallows anything of what you are in order to ensure that you get their vote. so it's very easy to understand why you'd want to make somebody hateful. >> are you sympathetic to the tea party element of the republicans? or is that a step too far? >> i'm sympathetic to some of the principles, but i'm not sure that the tea party has behavioral problems other than the ones that have been identified by people who are inimical to them. i'm not sure i would say anything that they object to, i've just been told they're lunatics. >> nothing they say be objectable to them. >> lower taxes are a good idea. always have. so that's what i know they talk about. >> are you as violently opposed to, say, gay marriage as so many of the tea party candidates? >> i don't think the tea party is -- >> most of them are, yeah. >> against. >> against gay marriage. >> then i wouldn't sign on to that. >> so there are issues there that you wouldn't agree with. >> absolutely, yeah. >> because you played a famous gay character. >> i'm afraid so. >> you'd be banning yourself? >> no, i've always believed -- i guess i'm more libertarian in that way. i think marriage is between two people that love each other. if you find a church that you want to get married in, go ahead. >> we'll talk to your expertise in marriage later. if only you'd married a good british girl earlier, all this do have been saved. >> exactly. >> as you say, people i guess see you as a comic actor. you were born in the virgin island, you grew up in florida, at 18 you leave the family in florida and go to new york, the juilliard school. very prestigious. you did do the hard yards of theatrical training to be a serious actor. >> for a couple of year, then they kicked me out. >> who was your inspiration then. >> oh, gosh, laurence olivier and gregory peck, jimmy stewart, john wayne. >> the greats. >> the greats. >> did you ever imagine at that stage when you were at the juilliard, you were looking around all these talented people, presumably, did you ever imagine in your wildest dreams or maybe nightmares the level of fame that you would one day get through acting? >> no. it's funny. there was something -- i did believe that i was going to be successful as an actor. and i did realize that if you're successful as an actor, it might come along with fringe benefits, i guess, or peripheral anxieties. >> stage acting is kind of great because you go out every night and you get instant reaction from an audience. it's normally pretty good. a good play or whatever it may be, a good musical, they're cheering you, and you go off and feel fantastic. the worst thing about television is the terrible wait. i've made shows and they take months to make. then there's thistarible buildup. in the back of your mind all you're thinking is this could tank, and then what? >> well, i've had that experience, too. >> "frasier" like "cheers" they were phenomenal shows, popular, global shows. when you first started making them, did you get an inkling early on, this is going to be huge, it's going to change my life, or did it just happen? >> well, i'll tell you a story that david hyde pierce has repeated. after we shot the pilot, we got a standing ovation and everything went away. and we all felt pretty good about it. he said he said to me, so what do you think? what does this mean? and i said, for you? it means you're going to buy a really nice house. and then he said, well, what does it mean for you? it means i'm probably going to buy a couple. you do have a sense -- you know when you know. you can tell. and there's a beauty about releasing it to the public to just saying, okay, here it is. love it or hate it. we did our best. and you know, honestly, that's all i've done my whole life in my career, is just done my best. sometimes it fell short. and sometimes i've been really happy with it. >> let's take another break. i don't want to take you out of this utopian thing. >> that's all right. >> i want to go back to some of the slightly darker times and see where you've come from. endless shrimp is our most popular promotion at red lobster. there's so many choices. the guests love it. [ male announcer ] it's endless shrimp today at red lobster. as much as you like any way you like, like new sweet and spicy shrimp, all for $15.99. my name is angela trapp, and i sea food differently. my name is angela trapp, fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink my special guest kelsey grammer. when i researched your life for this interview, i could almost at times barely believe what i was reading about the stuff that's happened to you, the really bad stuff. most people go through life and they have a bit of trauma along the way. i apologize in advance for going through this in almost like a list form, but when i read that your parents divorced when you were 2, your father who you had barely seen since then was shot and killed. in 1975 your younger sister karen was abducted, raped and murdered, she was 18. in 1980 your younger twin half-brothers died in a scuba diving accident. in 2001 kroor cles friend producer of "frasier" died in the 9/11 attacks. i got to the end of this and i didn't know, to be honest with you, how you had even come through that. i don't know how any human being comes through that kind of thing. i mean, put it in some kind of overall context for me, to be hit by so much tragedy. >> well, we touched on it a little bit before, though i was being general. and one that's really important is my granddad died, too, when is was 12. he raised me. that was the -- that was the big impact until my sister was killed, of course. that one just seemed like an absurd topping on the situation that i thought was just impossible. and it was that incident that sort of propelled me into a -- at least a phase. i mean, i lost faith. when i was a boy -- it's sort of like that old walt whitman poem about everything a boy saw he became. i had a love affair with the universe. with a blade of grass, with a rising sun, went surfing, i used to surf all the time when i was a kid. my life was a joy. it was a joyful experience. it was full of sort of affirmation and encouragement, and i loved being alive. and i was consciously in love with being alive. and then these deaths took place. you know, these deaths occurred. and when i lost gordon i went very quiet for a long time. that's my granddad. and i didn't really speak to anybody for a couple of months. >> he'd been the father figure. >> he was my father, yeah, basically. and when i finally sat one night -- this is in ft. lauderdale where we had moved. and i got this overwhelming sense that i was just going to be alone for the rest of my life. which made me kind of sad. and when i was 18, i packed it all up and went to julliard to find my fortune, whatever. but it was that year, two years later, actually, when karen was killed, that, you know, sent me into kind of a tailspin. and it was a horrible nightmare for her. i mean, it was. the three young men that abducted her, raped her repeatedly, sa