he arrived with a swagger fresh off his impressive south carolina victory but what a difference nine days have made for newt gingrich in florida. on this, the eve of the state's closely-watched primary, gingrich is facing an all-out assault from mitt romney formidable operation in florida. joe johns is seeing it first hand and he had a one-on-one interview with newt gingrich earlier in the day and we'll see that at the bottom of the hour. mean time, joe, 15 hours until the polls open. what's the latest? >> well, wolf, it has been a very hectic 24 hours for the gingrich campaign and a very different picture of the races starting to emerge since gingrich took the palmetto state by storm. this was a far cry from his big chilling in south carolina where former georgia congressman, newt gingrich, got the favorite "son of the south" treatment. in florida his campaign came under attack from every direction imaginable. starting with a massive television advertising campaign that gingrich referred to in military terms. >> he has a basic policy of carpet bombing his opponent. he doesn't try to build up mitt romney he just tries to tear down whoever he's running against. >> and the ads were only the beginning. the surrogates starting to show up at gingrich events responding to his speeches almost many real time. >> they've gone to the point where the former speak's secretary had no position but to confront him, taking the attention off of the focus of the event which was the speech. >> goich is more qualified and that's why you're following him instead of romney? >> absolutely no. i'm going to offer a little perspective. >> on why you think -- >> why i think mitt romney should be the president of the united states. >> all right. >> there was seemingly no place for the gingrich campaign to run or hide from the onslaught and they didn't seem to have an effective way to defend themselves. when gingrich showed up to speak at this well-attended event on sunday and the sprawling retirement community known at "the villages." they reprinted a letter from bob dole endorsing romney in the community newspaper. even the pro-super pac could him him that much. rick tyler a gingrich supporter said they couldn't compete with the money. >> my understanding is they spent $15 million, their super pac, which i lovingly refer to as "destroy our future." and we've sent about $6 million so we can't match them dollar-for-dollar but i think this is really a grassroots campaign. >> gingrich said he plans to stay in the race all the way to the convention and in an interview he described a campaign going forward that sharply characterizes mitt romney. >> we're going to tell the truth, much more explicitly and much more aggressively. i don't believe the republican party will nominate a liberal. >> the romney organization flake frankly has been working on florida at other states as well and now the gingrich camp has to show how they will compete. >> and the crowds are impressive at the gingrich events in florida? >> there have been a lot of crowds that have been very impressive especial hi at the villages yesterday on sunday. but we've also seen some smaller crowds. we saw a very smaud crowd at a church setting in the orlando area. so i it sort of varies. very different i would say from south carolina where it seemed like everywhere he went the crowds grew and grew as you got closer to the primary, wolf. >> only a fewer hours left to go. thank you very much, joe. mitt romney appears to be taking some pleasure from newt gingrich's position and he says the former speaker is quote, fla flailing. listen to this. >> this sure is fun. what a day this is. with a turnout like this i'm beginning we feel we might win tomorrow. what do you think? gosh, you know, i know the speaker's not real happy, speaker gingrich. he's not feeling very excited these days. it's sad. he's been flailing around a bit trying to go after me for one thing or the other and you watch it and smhake your head. it's painfully revealing to watch but i think the reason he suspect doing so well is because of the last two debates. don't you think? >> a lot more presidential politics coming up including joe johns one-on-one interview with newt gingrich only a few minutes away. and stay with us tomorrow for complete coverage of the florida primary right here in the situation room continuing "john king usa." and at 7:00 p.m. eastern, i'll join cooper anderson and we're following a potentialously explosive situation in washington, d.c. where occupy protesters are vowing to stay their ground as police try to disband their camp. the next few hours could be the most intense. brian todd has been there all day watching what's going on. what's the latest, brian? >> wolf this has been one of the most active and contentious periods since the occupiersed here in october. look behind me and you've got the statue of james macpherson here. they pulled a huge tarp over it stamped with protest sayings and everything here. what's going on is the police say they may move in here soon to crackdown on what they call "campers." they want people to remove bedding and personal items. anything that's a sign that people are going to stay operate here but as you can see, the protesters are really not moving and they have vowed to stay here so we could have some confrontation here in the next few hours. again, the police have come through here and done a walk-through to check out some of these encampments to see if people are actually going to be sleeping. people have removed some of their bedding and we've been told by the police there have been some compliance so they don't expect mass arrests and they'll only target certain people in violation. but if it gets contentious and if a lot of people stay and are determined to sleep here, there could be some trouble. against the back trop of more tension in recent hours between the protesters and police. [ chanting ] a massive tarp stamped with protest messages is pulled over the statue of civil war hero, james macpherson. these occupy d.c. protesters have been here since october expressing sustained anger over what they believe is an out of touch corporate, financial and political elite. but the national park service has been pressured by some in congress and the d.c. government to crackdown. so park service police have moved open campers getting protesters to remove bedding and personal items so they don't stay overnight. so far, no mass arrests but most protesters vow to stay. and tension the building. evidence to when a police news conference was interrupted. >> it's our goal that we can have everybody exercise the first amendment rights but they also must be able to do so in a manner that's healthy and safe within this environment. >> so if you don't comply you get tazed? >> i'm pretty sure we do because it happened yesterday. do we get tazed? >> we're looking for compliance. >> the protester was talking about an incident on sunday night when police used a taser on a decembmonstrator. the man went from tent to tent removing notices from the park service but the park service haven't commented. officers heard loudly about their tactics later. this protester is kind of taunting the park police here and the police kind of standing at the ready possibly to move in. a couple protestingeers are stag here and kind of taunting them so tensions are rising. i asked protester emily margaret about what prompted the police to tighten up. >> local businessmen have complained about sanitation and petty crime and their they're fed up with it. >> i would say they're way worse crimes going on in this city than what's going on here. there are issues here but, you know, that's what happens in our society. it's like a my cosm of our society. >> this is their time if not now, when. let's go to pakistan where the government is deciding how to punish a man who is said to have helped the cia find osama bin laden. the pakistani physician collected dna from residents of bin laden's comment which the cia used to verify bin laden was there. the doctor may be charged by the pakistani government with treason. the defense secretary, leon panetta who oversaw the raid ben l bin laden's -- >> i'm very concerned with what the pakistanis did with this individual. this individual, in fact, helped provide intelligence on -- that was very helpful with regard to this operation. and he was not in any way treasonist towards pakistan or doing anything that would have undermined pakistan. as a matter of fact, if pakistan's -- and i've always said this -- pakistan and the united states have a common cause here against terrorism. >> let's bring in our national security contributor, fran townsend, a member of cia and homeland security, external advisory boards. based on your experience at the white house, you worked there during the bush administration, some sources are now suggesting that secretary panetta may have revealed, confirmed a confidential source, namely this physician. is this a potential problem? >> wolf, what we don't know is what -- why leon panetta, formerly the cia director, would have confirmed this. whether or not there was a reason for it. in other words, to the extent that leon panetta confirms a source, it will put pressure on pakistan. pakistan has complained since the raid that that was a violation of their sovereignty and this is just an extension of that. the use of a potential source inside pakistan without the pakistani's knowledge. but what makes it odd is normally these are the sorts of disagreements between services, intelligence services best handled quietly, whether that's directly between somebody like the cia and isi. or with a third country that can negotiate for the resolution. so we don't know whether or not leon panetta made a conscious decision and that that information has been declassified for him to reveal it or whether, frankly, this was a misstep. >> because this physician is facing potentially treason charges and he could face the death penalty in pakistan for asissing the united states, namely, a foreign intelligence service, the cia, in helping the united states find bin laden and i assume the pakistanis are arguing -- you can't just help any foreign intelligence service, whether friend or foe? >> that's right. but if you play out the current path that the pakistanis are on and i think leon panetta makes this point well. this is not in their interest to ultimately pursue this to a trial and potential imprisonment or death penalty. after all, while they may disagree with how the u.s. government went about gathering the intelligence or executing the raid, in the end, the outcome was a shared goal between the us and pakistan and what they need to do like we have with so many other disputes with our pakistani allies is work through this and understand future rules of engagement. >> i assume the pakistanis understand. maybe they don't care but i aaassume they understand as seen here in the united states, this physician is a hero. he helped the u.s. find and kill bin laden who committed all these acts of atrocity and now they want to try him for treason? this country receives billions of dollars of u.s. saw substance. do they not care about this overall u.s./pakistani relationship and the enormous assistance the united states provides pakistan? >> i think they care tremendously about it. you make the point, it's a tremendous amount of military aid we provide. but there's a sense of pride and that's at the crux of the sovereignty argument and frankly, the aid is being based on certain cooperations and conditions and they resent that. this is their way of pushing back on the u.s. sort of applying conditions to the cooperation and the relationship. what they want to talk about is the violation of their sovereignty on november 26th killing -- raid that resulted in the deaths of pakistanis. they're talking about the things they're upset about and what they're looking to do is push back u.s. criticism right now. >> uls/pakistani relations going down, down, down, not good for either country, fran. thank you very much. the white house is fed up and says now republicans are simply way out of bounds. >> if you are so desperate for attention that you make an analogy that michael -- inappropriate, you know, you've probably gone too far. >> we'll show you what the president's press secretary is drawing a line in the sand about. and one-on-one with newt gingrich. he speaks to our own joe johns about the relentless romney assault he faces. >> and the extreme measure syrian protesters have to take as they risk their lives to speak out against the regime. and she suggested i try boost complete nutritional drink to help get the nutrition i was missing. now i drink it every day and i love the great taste. 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[ male announcer ] another reason more people stay with state farm. get to a better state. ♪ a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪ here's jack with the cafferty file. >> president obama proposed 30% tax on millionaires would be a tiny drop in the bucket when it comes to solving this country's deepening financial crisis. the white house isn't too interested in talking about the impact of the so-called "buffett rule." and here's why. tax experts suggest the additional tax on the wealthy would raise about $40 billion a year in revenue. that's less that 1% of what the government spent in 2011. $40 billion is nothing compared to the more than $1 trillion annual deficits the obama administration is running or the national debt, which now exceeds $15 trillion. republicans say the plan's nothing more than a political charade. one congressman told politico the president wants to quote, pit one group against another so he can raise more money to spend on a bloated government, unquote. in his state of the union address, president obama suggested it comes down to tax cuts for the wealthiest or investments in everything else. funding for education, medical research, the military. president obama senior strategist, david axelrod said on "meet the press" yesterday in order to solve the deficit quote everyone will have to give a little and that includes people at the top. what about cutting the size of government? what about cutting spending? meanwhile, a new gallup poll shows americans are divide on whether the economic is unfair. 49% agree with the president and say it's unfair. 45% say it's fair. however, a majority, 62%, say the economic system is fair to them personally. and that could make president obama's re-election strategy of giving everyone a fair shake a tough sell if most americans think the economic system is fair to them. here's the question -- is a 30% tax on millionaires a good idea? go to cnn.com/cafferty file and post comment on my blog or go to our post on our situation room's facebook page, wolf? thank you very much. it's a mission that's designed to help americans buy homes but now there are reports that the mortgage giant freddie mac owned by taxpayers, has actually been bedding billions and billions of dollars, get this, against american homeowners. against american homeowners. cnn lisa sylvester is looking into this story for us. what's going on here? >> reporter: freddie mac is a quasi government agency and chartered by congress and its whole goal is to expand opportunities for home ownership but it had to be bailed out along with fannie mae by some $100 billion. it is allowed, however, to do wall street trades which is significant because these represent home mortgages. your mortgage, my mortgage, they all get bundled together and they are sold as securities on wall street. now, what online magazine and npr news found is that what freddie mac is doing is taking a portion of these mortgaged securities, the interest portion and they have essentially been purchasing them to the tune of $3.4 billion! the reason why that's significant is the higher your interest rate is, the more money that freddie mac gets. at the same time, freddie mac has been tightening the rules on who is allowed to refinance out of high-interest loans. >> the crux of the story is that at the same time they're crucial gate death keeper about house, finance, who can get a home loan and who can get a refinancing in this country and they made it harder to get those so they had a financial incentive that was against homeowners being able to refinance and simultaneously made it harder for people to refinance. >> so what does freddie mac say? we asked them and they gave us a statement essentially saying side of freddie mac setting rules on refinancing is separate from the side and fault in trading. they said, quote, freddie mac employees that purchase and sell financial instruments are walled off from other freddie mac personnel. freddie mac also pointed out its record of helping homeowners saying, quote, during the first three quarters of 2011 we refinanced more than 170 billion mortgages helping nearly 835,000 borrowers. but this is still going to raise a lot of questions, particularly is there a conflict of interest at freddie mac? >> lisa, thank you. one-on-one with newt gingrich. he's hammering away at mitt romney and these, the final hours before the florida primary. >> i don't believe the republican party is going to nominate a lib wal who is pro abortion, pro-tax increase and pro-gay rights. and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i want to fix up old houses. 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[ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. we're less than 15 hours away from the polls opening in florida in the florida republican primary and the battle between mitt romney and newt gingrich is very personal. gingrich is facing a relentless assault by the the romney campaign but he's fighting back and hammering away at romney's conservative credentials. gingrich went one-on-one a little while ago with cnn's joe johns. >> it's been said that you sort of -- and you tell me whether this is true -- that you didn't have an answer when the romney campaign sort of dud the full-court press, the carpet bombing. what's your answer going to be when you move from florida to some of these other states? >> we'll tell the truth much more explicitly and much more aggressively. george sorrows said it, there's no difference between romney and obama. he doesn't care which one wins. gingrich is different. here you have the leading left wing billio