and boston. phil bratton on u.s. home security. plus political words of wisdom from an unlikely source. the man who brought you this? >> tv guide gave us a word four years ago. could do 50 shows in the history of television. but we're the worth show, it's an absurd show. >> he's also a fairly good junky and a former mayor. his 2 and 20-year -- good evening, tonight the holy trinity of modern america, god, politics and daytime television. first the heart of the matter, president obama talking faith and politics. >> many my moments of prayer, i'm reminded that faith and values play an enormous role in motivating us to solve some of our most urgent problems and keeping us going when we suffer setbacks and opening our minds and our hearts to the needs of others. we can't leave our values at the door. if we leave our values at the door, we abandon much of the moral glue that has held our nation together for centuries. >> unusual religious candor there from the president. i want to ask rick santorum about it after news of a potential nuclear threat from iran. welcome senator. >> it's good to be back, piers, thank you. >> i want to ask you about your daughter bella, i know you broke away from the campaign after a scare with her, how is she doing? >> she came home from the hospital this morning and she's doing just terrific and i want to thank you and everybody out there for all their prayers, they truly made a difference and we feel very, very blessed to have her back in good health and we're -- i'm excited to get home to see her here in about -- unfortunately it won't be for another week, but i'm looking forward to getting home. >> a great pleasure meeting you and many of your extended family and i know how close you all are and how rough that must have been. let's move on to what i thought was the biggest news story of the stay, which is this extraordinary revelation from the defense secretary leon panetta, believing that israel could strike iran this spring. when you heard got this, what was your reaction? >> my reaction is, why are we letting israel alone to do something which is in our national security issue also? >> we heard from general clapper yesterday about the extensive planning that's taking place by iran. we have already seen one of the plans uncovered, at least the president says so, for trying to attack the saudi ambassador. the ieds, the improvised explosive devices that have been killed and maiming most of our men and women in uniform in iraq and afghanistan. manufactured in iran and as a matter of fact they learned and trained and funded by iran. this is how iran flexes its muscle. and for them to have a nuclear weapon, look at what they're doing now. i'm not even going to mention they're holding hostages on trumped up charjs. americans they're holding hostage right now. this will be a very dangerous one proxz mat to the united states, not just our allies. >> so if you were the president in the time sman we're looking at, the next three or four months, and you have the intelligence that suggested that iran was at the point of enriching uranium that they needed to get to a nuclear capacity here. and you heard that the americans were going to go in for strikes. >> the first ning i would be doing the giving a speech similar to reagan's evil empire speech. >> this is the time to rally not only the world, but the people of iran, against this radical thee thee yough chris si. we need to rally their own people just as ronald reagan did with the folks in the soviet union. we have an absolute, hardcore dedicated people in iran who actually like the united states, who actually oppose their regime and we have done nothing to encourage them. in fact we discouraged them three years ago during the green revolution, a year later we encouraged egypt and libya and others to do what is even more necessary in iran than it was in those countries. >> let's turn to the other big story of the day, which is president obama really playing the god card quite heavily. straying, some might say into your territory there. >> it was at a national prayer breakfast, but if you're going to come all religious, that's a good place to come all religious. but that was a little bit out of context to suggest somehow that the bible requires the government to take money from those who have succeeded is certainly not something that i think most people read as a requirement of the bible. the bottom line is here that the president is trying to wrap -- trying to find some rationale for his economic policy because it certainly isn't improving the economy, so maybe he's trying to find some religious rationale for doing what he's doing. >> let's take a little listen to what he did say today, because it was quite fascinating. >> i have fallen on my knees with great regularity since that moment, asking god for guidance, not just in my personal life and my christian walk, but in the values of this nation and the values that hold us together and keep us strong. >> there's no reason to disbelieve what the president is saying in at all. it just seems a bit odd that he's ramping up this religious talk at a time that the eselect -- >> i think this is more in response to a couple of things he's done recently, one, as you know, piers, with the catholic church, where he has him posed on catholic institutions a requirement that they offer things that are specifically against catholic teaching. and the catholic bishops just this weekend issued a letter in 140 diocese to be read at every single mass that said that they are not going to stand for this affront on liberty that the adprompblt -- the plan carried by every catholic owned hospital has to provide the morning half bill, something that is specifically against the teachings of the church and the obama administration says you must offer it or you will be penalized for doing so. this is something that he's crossed the line and this may be an attempt to show that he is a believer too. the other thing was a supreme court decision, it was a 9-0 supreme court decision where the court actually said that the catholic church had to hire women priests or they were going is to be dpis christmas naturing. maybe the president's trying to backtrack a little bit by using softer words, but his actions are very hostile to faith. >> he doesn't go to church much himself. are you cynical when you hear that, people say i'm on my knees every morning, but i don't go to church. >> everybody practices their faith in a way that is comfortable for them. i need to go to church. i need to go to mass, i need to receive the holy communion. i this a very, very important part of me and it sustains me other people have other ways of expressing their religious believes. i think another thing that was real important in this administration is they have started to talk a little bit about freedom of religion. instead of talking about freedom of religion, it's freedom of worship. religion is something you practice in fact every day in your public and private life. and so i think there were some grave concerns about the actions of this administration and maybe the president is trying to temper that with this kind of rhetoric that we saw this morning. >> let's move on to mitt romney's -- over the poor yesterday, because whatever way you try to spin it, it sounded like a very callous remark. let's play the clip and get your reaction. >> i'm in this race because i care about americans, i'm not concerned about the very poor, we have a safety net there, if it needs repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine. i'm concerned about the very heart of america, the 90% 95% of americans that are struggling. >> he said it was a mistake, but actually it seemed a very measured statement. he seemed to be saying that poor people aren't americans. >> i have read it two or three times and i have read his explanation after soledad interrupted him and he said no, i care about the -- this is occupy wall street kind of talk. i care about the 95%. the president cares about everybody and the ideaa somehow or good that the economy is disproportionately affecting folks in the middle and not the very poor? what country does he live in? the very poor very always the ones that bear the brunt when the country is struggling. that's why i'm working on supply side economics for the working man. we need to provide an economic platform that provides opportunity for everyone, the very moore to rise in society. that's why when i was in the senate i worked on welfare reform and i worked on anti-poverty programs and to try to great energy zones for the private sector so the poor could work in those neighbor hoods. i tried to get private sector money into those poor neighborhood. and to suggest that you don't care about them as long as they have some safety net is something that i reject out right. this is not the republican party i belong to. >> probably wasn't the best of timing, the person that raced to his rescue today was a man worth $3 billion, donald trump. how did you feel when you saw the trumpster giving his endorsement. >> i'm glad he gave it to him, not me. i know he did it for one reason. he does it for -- donald trump does everything for one reason that it benefits donald trump. i don't know what donald trump gets out of that. but i certainly don't anticipate any benefit to governor romney, the people of nevada, the people of this country are going to decide who's the best person to run the country at a critical time and i hope you'll see that we're that best person to take on barack obama and win this election. >> a quick reaction to obama, you're trading around 111%, so work in progress. what are your expectations in nevada? >> this is the place mitt romney got 51% of the vote four years ago and has been working here and spending money here and obviously we're here now, we're working, we're in northern nevada tonight, i was in southern nevada earlier in the day, i have been spending days out here, i'll be in missouri tomorrow, i'll be in colorado, minnesota. those are the next four states up. and i'll be working all those states. piers, we're in for the long haul, we're going to have good days, we're going to have bad days, but we're going to be in there plugging every day too let folks know that mitt rom fwney newt gingrich on not the choice. >> well, best of luck. finally one word answer, giants or patriots. >> neither. i don't -- i can't root for either one of those teams, i'm a steeler fan and i'm ambivalent. >> i'm with you. i think this is one of your teams, if it's not one of your teams, you should keep well away from it. thank you for your time. >> you bet. coming up next, a man who's seen his share of over the top behavior. jerry springer is here live and unleashed. vacations are always wasn'ta good ideaa ♪ priceline negoti - - no time. out quickly. you're miles from your 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[ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. you may be surprised to learn my next guest's words on politics. to cut through all this craziness, jerry springer show, for 20 years. he's also former mayor of the city of cincinnati. and jerry joins me. welcome back. >> it's great to be back. >> send your tweets to @piersmorgan. but you can't tweet jerry because he's not on twitter. on the back of what we have just been listening to, kevin gold said, whatever happened in american politics to the separation of church and state. because when you hear the president suddenly getting incredibly religious very surprising. >> there was an explanation thater year they have the annual affairs breakfast. that is an event that just happens to be scheduled on this day. every president goss to the national prayer breakfast and everybody talks aboutary personal relationship with god, that is fine, no one says a president can't be religious. i have great respect for rick santorum, i don't believe in his politics, but he's obviously a man of great faith. the only thing i would have said in listening to this interview, instead of raising questions about obama, why not simply say, god bless him, this is his faith, he said some nice things about his religion. why does everything have to be pretty cool. forget it, he believes in god. >> i like him personally, but i find that he's of all the candidates i have least in common with in terms of his views. yet i have a grudging respect and admiration for his consistency. >> i do too. >> romney has flip-flopped so many times, you don't know where he stands. at least with santorum you know what you're going to get. he doesn't change on his key issues. >> i will say of the republican candidates running, he's the most authentic and that is exactly drew. he could be the last man standing simply because if romney keeps saying the stuff that he's saying, you know, i don't -- >> i believe rick santorum is 2003 -- it's not a mistake, it seemed to my about a very specific way of phrasing something. i'm going after middle america and he expanded it to eliminate anybody who is poor, almost suggesting they weren't even americans. >> that's what he said, now that part could have a slip, because if you really ask him, he would say yes, they're american. but people of lower income are not on romney's radar screen, i don't mean that he hates them. he doesn't go to bid ed at nigh and say what can i do to hurt them. he doesn't even think about it. it's not part of his world view, they're not on his radar screen, he doesn't relate to them. that's why he says i bet you $10,000, i mean all of these things he's saying, and you wonder, why is he running for president? in other words he could be a wonderful person, bright and all that, lovely family man, smart and all that, but i don't sense any passion, when he says i'm running for the soul of america. what soul? i don't think -- you don't sense that he feels oh, my gosh, americans are suffering, let's stop everything else. >> let me ask you, as a confirmed democrat, do you feel that barack obama understands what his vision for the soul of america is? because my slight quibble with him in the first term that he's had, and if he gets another term, i'm interested to see what he does about this. i'm not sure what his mission statement is, other than what he perceives as the damage left to him by the republicans. what is the obama mantra. >> i don't think it's a bruumpe sticker. so i don't think it's one slogan. remember, he hasn't started really campaigning, he has republican primaries, everything you see in the polls is based on every single day in the last six months. but basically his message is that free enterprise is great and we have to support it, but we can't do it alone, there are in this world going to be people left out of the free enterprise system because they're unemployed, they don't have a good enough education, so at some point, government services are needed, government employment is needed. we have to recognize that no longer in this world is it possible for free enterprise to employ everybody. because the whole purpose of the free enterprise of any business is to make a profit. and in order to make a profit, you have to cut expenses. so every business, every single company every three months looks at how can they cut expenses. if possible you replace a person with a computer. you go too the airport and you don't even need the ticket agent to check in anymore. >> isn't it a more fundamental problem, if you look at america's most successful company apple. apple employees, three times as many people in china as it does in america. >> exactly, yeah. >> and a lot of them are on terrible wages, terrible conditions, we have been reading all about this in the press in the last week, there seems to be no sense at apple of a national responsibility. my argument is this, i don't can't -- we're employing a million people. why don't we just bring back 10% of his. because i reckon the american people will respond incredibly favorably to that gesture and go and buy enough apple products. >> this is why if you were american i would vote for you for president. but here's the problem, the business -- they are in business to make a profit and because that's their sole goal to make a profit, any time they can replace a person with a computer, they'll do that. if they have to have a person, they'll hire someone overseas because that person is cheaper. there's another problem with that. it would be great if they would hire just americans. but what they will tell you in return is they need 10,000 engineers at a certain level of education and they're not finding enough engineers. >> hold that thought. i want to discuss education. and also other ways that we can keep america great. because you and i can fix this. >> we'll run together. america needs a british president. whoa! golly, that is deep snow! yeah, can you get me out of it? 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