and president obama makes some high school students cry. this hour, the inspiring against the odds story that brought the commander in chief to their school. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." first this hour, the shrimping republican presidential field. we've seen prominent contenders opt out of the 2012 race in recent weeks, including former arkansas governor mike huckabee. say so long to the prospect with the biggest name, deepest pockets, and most outrageous remarks. that would be none other than donald trump. he announces an event to report the tv series, celebrity apprentice. >> after getting so many called from bob and from steve and everybody, i've decided that we are going to continue onward well "celebrity apprentice." we're going to continue making lots and lots of money for charity. i will not be running for president as much as i'd like to and i want to thank everybody very much. thank you very much. it's been a great season. thank you. >> let's bring in joe johns who is here with more. what led up to his decision? the only thing that i was surprised, joe, is the way he announced it, i thought after the last episode he didn't waste any time. he did it today. >> that's for sure. and some are saying it was about the ratings. political analysts and others are saying in hindsight it's just not that surprising that he dropped out though he shows in the poll if he got in the race, some are concerned that he will make republicans look extreme, especially considering how he handled the so-called birther issue. >> donald trump, back in february, speaking to a major gathering of conservatives. >> while i am not at this time a candidate for presidency, i will decide by june whether or not i will become one. and i will tell you the reason that i'm thinking about it is that the united states has become a whipping post for the rest of the world. >> his last-minute appearance at the conservative political action conference kicked off his latest flirtation with running for the white house. a few weeks later, this. >> i want him to show his birth certificate. there is something on that birth certificate that he doesn't like. >> the billionaire businessman, real estate mogul and real estate tv star makes headlines by questioning whether president obama was born in the u.s., reigniting a birther controversy which had been simmering since he ran for the white house four years ago. >> i would say very simply, why doesn't he show his birth certificate? why has he spent over $2 million in legal fees to keep this quiet and to keep this silent? >> reporter: just a few weeks later, the president asked the state of hawaii to release his long form birth certificate. whether or not pressure from trump was behind his decision, he took credit. >> i'm very proud of myself because i've accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish. >> the next day, speaking to a republican women's group in las vegas, trump uses profanities to make his point. >> we're going to tax you 25%. >> to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald. that's because he can finally get focussed to focusing on the issues that matter. like did we fake the moon landing? what really happened in rosswell? >> since then, we have seen it drop and the negative rise and national poll. wolf f. one more thing. trump goes out with bravado saying that he is convinced if he ran he would have run the republican nomination and the general election. >> lots of bravado. thank you very much. joe johns, let's dig deeper with trump out of the running in 2012 getting closer. look for the gop presidential race to get more serious. let's bring in our senior political analyst gloria borger. why did he decide not to run? >> because he actually wasn't going to win the presidency, nor was he going to win the republican nomination. i talk to people who saw his internal polling and his internal polling really started going south, wolf, after this whole birther issue and the president came out, showed his birth certificate and the more people saw of donald trump as a presidential candidate, the less they decided they wanted him to be president. he had a 64% unfavorable rating. that's pretty hard if you actually are going to win a nomination for the presidency, much less the presidency. i spoke to one republican who said, let's chalk this up as one of the more bizarre vinettes in american history. >> he did get some traction, though, in those polls when he asked likely republican voters who they like for the nomination. >> and that really tells you what kind of a vacuum there is in the republican field. he appealed immediately to a constituency in the republican party that does not like barack obama. with the birther issue, he had that ready made constituency. but republicans started to get worried, wolf, that the more traction he got, the more he was hijacking the conversation and made the republican party seem like it was very much out of the mainstream and so there were a lot of relief actually when he announced that he wasn't going to run. most republicans i spoke with always assumed this was about ratings. this wasn't about the president. >> earlier years about running he decided not to run either. >> when mike huckabee announced on saturday night that he wasn't going to run, he heard from republican candidates praising him because he has a constituency that they want to grab, particularly in iowa that has the evangelical christians. take a look at this poll. we asked republicans what their choice for the nominee was with trump and huckabee gone. you'll see mitt romney is atop 23, 17%, gingrich at 13% and then paul at 12% and bachmann at 7%. >> you have the income coming in, they like it. >> one would argue, trump is making more money as a result of this. >> he's making a ton of money. >> yeah. >> thanks very much. now, a sensational sexual assault, a case made even more sensational because of the defendant. he's the head of the international monetary fund and he's one of the most important players in the world of international finance. right now dominique strauss-kahn is behind bars in new york charged with sexually assaulting a hotel maid. richard roth has more on the arraignment and the bail that was denied. what's the latest? >> reporter: the latest is that dominique strauss-kahn is headed to an isolation cell. le have no contact with other inmates. it's an astonishing turn of events for this financial bigwig that the leader of the international monetary fund is now going to be spending his days behind bars. >> dominique strauss-kahn. >> dominique strauss-kahn entered a criminal court facing sexual assault charges looking haggard after more than a day in police custody. one of the most powerful titans spent the night in a prison cell after authorities did a forensic examination of him, looking for scratch marks and physical evidence after a hotel maid's shocking allegations. in addition, he underwent a humiliating so-called perp walk publicly handcuffed. he was charged with several counts of sexual assault, including attempted rape and section assume abuse. the alleged attack was on a 32-year-old black woman, reported leanne african immigrant. the prosecution said he shut the door and prevented the woman from leaving, grabbed her chest without consent, attempted to remove her panty hose and forcibly grabbed her between her legs. bail should not be granted because he could leave the country and never return. >> the defendant has additional motivation to flee. we also know that the defendant has the personal, political, and financial resources. >> reporter: they say that kahn called the hotel asking for his phone to be delivered to new york proving that he wasn't fleeing. he could stay with his daughter in new york. >> the defendant is a well-known, well-respected international person. he is also probably the most easily identified individual in the world today as a result of the publicity that has been generated in the last 72 hours. >> reporter: the judge said the law applies to strauss-kahn as it does to any other defendant and said that he was about to board a plane. >> we are disappointed. he is still presumed independno. i would ask all of you to presume the presumption of innocence so we can get a fair trial. >> reporter: prosecutors say they believe strauss-kahn engaged in previous acts. he will appear in court on may 20th while the case goes to a grand jury. among the six counts against him followed by the new york prosecutors, the next one could be a term up to 25 years in jail and quite an iron thry. he could not himself get bailed out of the new york criminal justice system here. >> do we know that forensic examination of him, did they find scratch marks or any evidence ever a fight along those lines? >> no evidence, no indication given to the authorities. he will appear before a grand jury before his appearance back here on friday. >> thank you for reporting for us. before he was arrested, many people thousand that dominique strauss-kahn had a huge future in his homeland of france. jim bitterman, how is this playing in france right now? >> well, i think people are stup fied. the pictures of the perp walk of dominique strauss-kahn being walked with two policemen in and out of the courthouse is amazing because just 72 hours ago, most people expected this man to be the next president of france and here he is in handcuffs and going to and from a jail cell. it really was an amazing site. and over the socialist party headquarters, there were even tears as people were trying to figure out how to react to this. basically, it's taken away their leading candidate, the man that they thought and hope would succeed nicolas sarcozy. >> are folks in france taking him seriously that he was set up bizarre cozy or a political enemy? >> well, you know, the fun three thing is, he himself started the conspiracy theories a few weeks ago. he said, you know, people are going to go after me because of my affiliations would women and try to get a woman to hang out in the parking lot and say that i had sexual relations with her or something like that. he even suggested that kind of thing could happen. so i think there's a willingness here to believe that it's impossible that this man could have been guilty of the kinds of things that he's accused of. on the other hand, when we heard the court presentation today, it was pretty dramatic and people's minds might be changing there. i don't think there's a real serious conspiracy theory. i think it's starting to fade now. >> so can we assume that sarkozy has an easier path to get himself elected? a socialist as well, sarkozy back and forth still has an uphill battle and may help him somewhat but not a whole lot. most of the voters that would have voted for strauss-kahn will go alone with some going to the center and possibly a few to the right. sar cozy is not likely to be watched. >> jim, thank you very much. a new olive branch from pakistan to the united states. it's the tail of the chop thear the u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s left behind on bin laden's compound. will it help repair relations between the two countries and why presidential candidate newt gingrich being accused of playing racial politics against president obama. i was driving in northern california. my son was asleep. i really didn't see it coming. i didn't realize i was drifting into the other lane. 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[ pigeons ] heyyy! hooo!!! washington's troubled finances. jack cafferty is here. jack? >> reporter: the $4.3 trillion debt ceiling was hit today. tim geithner as so informed the congress, it's no surprise. lawmakers don't appear to be any closer to an agreement on raising the limit further. the u.s. government relies on the debt ceiling to tell it how much money it can borrow. we spend an average of $118 billion a month more than we take in. geithner says he can keep things going until early august and says all bets are off. congress has to agree on raising the debt ceiling by then or we're in big trouble. the united states could default on its debt obligations and that in turn could have devastating effects on our still shaky economy and actually royal markets around the world. a lot of republicans and some democrats are refusing to vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling without a promise to make meaningful spending cuts. while critics have warned against tieing those issues together, lawmakers are more concerned about all of this talk about debt ceiling and deficit reduction is likely to play out with the voters. some republicans think if they vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling further, voters, especially those and the highly vocal, newly powerful and conservative tea party will see a fiscally irresponsible. a new gallup poll shows that 47% of americans are opposed to raising the debt sealing. 19% are in favor of it. significantly, more than a third say they don't know enough about the topic to say one way or the other. should the congress vote to increase the nation's debt ceiling? go to cnn.com/cafferty file and post your comment on my blog. >> very good question, jack, thank you. senator john kerry says there's no need for the united states to apologize to pakistan for a successful raid that killed osama bin laden. kerry said it's critical to mend strained ties. can washington hit the reset button with pakistan? our foreign affairs correspondent, jill dougherty, is joining us live. jill? >> reporter: now that the world's most famous or infamous terrorist has been found in your country, it can't be business as usual. and the pakistanis are angry that they consider that raid on osama bin laden's compound as a violation of their sovereignties. so what is plan b for this relationship? a first step in the u.s. and pakistan trying to clear up their relationship. pakistan tries to give up the u.s. military helicopter in the operation to kill osama bin laden. u.s. government sources tell cnn tough conversations with senior pakistani officials. >> my goal has been to talk with the leaders here about how to manage this critical relationship more effectively. about how to open up the opportunities to put this relationship back on track. >> reporter: sources familiar with kerry's decision said that he told pakistanis that the $1.5 billion a year for five years, aid that he co-sponsored, is on the line, unless islamabad comes clean on who knew what and when about how they managed to hide in pakistan. they are committed to more cooperation on joint anti-terror operations and intelligence sharing. but a senior pakistani official says his government is asking 350 out of 400 u.s. military trainers in pakistan to leave the country. and u.s. doubts about pakistan's commitment to fighting terrorism fester. >> pakistan has become a collective safe haven for terrorists and terrorists leaders. >> but what can that president do to really pull this back and mover it forward because you can't go backwards? >> there's no silver bullet. >> reporter: pakistan says that the relationship can be saved but the administration should focus more on helping pakistan officials and their weak government rather that beefing up the military. >> education, health, power, fran structure so that they can have electricity, water, these are the things that people want and that they complain about and that the government has failed to provide them in pakistan. >> reporter: so experts, what they are really sayinging, is that by helping the civilian government would give it more clout and also help the pakistanis to put more pressure on their own military to fight terrorism without obsessing about that perceived threat from india and then finally, wolf, the state department is confirming that secretary clinton is going to be going to pakistan and her mission is to have indepth talks about the future of the relationship with the united states. >> she's not going to go at the end of this month, though, as originally, tentatively planned. she's going to delay that trip for the time being and send a deputy, if you will. >> right. we don't know exactly when it will be and you are right that they put it off. obviously when you bring in the secretary of state you want to make sure that you have everything ready. ne and that's why officials are going to pavement way. tensions mounting along israel's border. now both the u.s. and israelis are both pointing the finger at the middle east leader. stand by. and we know big leaders who will not be running for presidential election, like donald trump and mike huckabee. who stands to gain with them out? ♪ [ male announcer ] in 2011, at&t is at work, building up our wireless network all across america. we're adding new cell sites... increasing network capacity, and investing billions of dollars to improve your wireless network experience. from a single phone call to the most advanced data download, we're covering more people in more places than ever before in an effort to give you the best network possible. at&t. rethink possible. you can wipe two big names off the list for republican presidential candidates. mike huckabee and donald trump saying that they won't run. what does this mean for the white house? the democratic strategist, donna brazile and the republican strategist mare reis here. among the field out there, who wins by these two guys' decision to stay in television and not run for the white house. >> well, the whole field wins for the trump departure because he was sucking things out of the air but huckabee is likeable, had a great capacity for articulating complex ideas and made everybody play up. so we'll -- sorry, donald, you're fired and we're happy about that. but we're going to miss huckabee. what it will mean strategically and mitt could run up the middle or they could go around santorum or pawlenty. it's too early to tell the consequences of huckabee's departure. >> donna, who do you think wins among the republicans and who loses? >> well, right now none of the above is still the most exciting of all of the republicans because they only look good in comparison to each other. but i think in the interim you'll see some pressure put on sarah palin to perhaps toss our hat in the ring at some point. michele bachmann is a tea party, social conservative. but i agree with mary. mitt romney may be able to use this as an opportunity to really grab ahold of the fewer moderates and the republican party. but the feel field is wide open and there's a lot of void out there. >> with sarah palin, mary, i've always suspected and correct me if i'm wrong, she loves the money she's making right now, she loves doing television and giving speeches. you don't think she's going to run. you think she's going to stay on the outside just like huckabee and trump, right? >> well, i have and continue to take sarah palin at her word, which was, is, that she wants to make an impact. it's irrefutable that she's making an impact through her various media adventures. if she can continue to could that she's checked her own box. i don't know that s