a new front in the battle for the republican presidential nomination, nevada, which holds its caucuses this coming saturday. mitt romney is there along with newt gingrich and ron paul. instead of relishing his victory, a huge victory in the florida primary last night, romney and his team are now in full damage control mode after something romney said right here on cnn. our senior congressional correspondent dana bash is in las vegas with us. she's watching what's going on. what's going on with mitt romney, dana? >> reporter: well, wolf, i think we've auld had something like this happen to us. you say something, it doesn't quite come out like you mean it, but when you're the front-runner in a presidential campaign, you can't afford to be the one who trips yourself up. making the morning show rounds, mitt romney inadvertently handed opponents an eight-word give on cnn -- >> i'm not concerned about the very poor -- >> reporter: to be clear that made for a bumper sticker line was only part of what romney told soledad o'brien. here is the full context. >> 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. eye concerned about the heart of america, the 95%, 99% of americans that are struggling. i'll continue to that mistake. >> reporter: the problem is that context feeds too the rich guy narrative woven by competitors and democrats. on the blogosphere, conservatives cringed and the obama campaign quickly com piped a list of quotes, "the daily standard" calling it the most stunningly stupid remark. "the national review" asked what is wrong with this guy? and rush limbaugh said he comes across as the prototypical rich republican. cnn has told the romney camp recognized right away they had a potential problem on their hands, what they call a pro-middle class message would be what one adviser called could be lost and distorted by opponents. he even tried to clean it up. >> you've got to take the whole sentence and then change it just a bit, it sounds very different. my focus, my concern, my energy will be devoted to helping -- we have a safety net for the poor in the condition and if there are holes in it, i will work to repair that. >> reporter: mull pat strategist is say they worry, because this isn't the first verbal gaffe of this kind, easily taken out of context. remember this? >> i like being able to fire people. >> reporter: you may have noticed in that piece mitt romney when he was speaking had a big of a sparkle in his hair. it wasn't a new kind of product, wolf. it was because he was glitter-bombed in and out once, but twice while speaking in minnesota, just a short while ago. and he basically made -- he had an event that many, many people have had before him, and he tried to make light of it. take a listen. >> there's the guy. wave your hand over here. there he goes. hi there. how are you? hi there. how are you? good to see you. there we go. oh, i've got glitter in my hair. that's not all that's in my hair. i glue it on every morning, whether i need to or not. >> reporter: but in all seriousness back to the remark mitt romney made this morning, wolf, i've talked to several republicans, those who support mitt romney -- verbal gaffe, and one republican who is advising the romney campaign said they definitely are going to have to work harder on his focus, which is helping middle-class americans in context. the good news is he's on his way to nevada. and this is a good territory for him. this is a high mormon population, which should give him a good -- four and he did pretty well in this state. >> some views probably don't know what glitter-bomb means. explaining it to us. >> reporter: basically it's what we seed happening across the country, many times as part of the occupy movement. in this particular case, it was occupy minneapolis that did it. i have seen it with rick santorum and other candidates, that people glet close enough to the candidate, to the person they are tried to make their message about, and they throw glitter. and this one obviously got pretty close, not once, but twice to mitt romney. >> it's an act of protest, obviously. dana in las vegas. let's get more on what's going on in the republican race for the white house. our chief political correspondent candy crowley is joining us. she's the host of "state of the union" which airs sunday mornings. he's coming off a huge win, trying to keep expectation, i assume, down a bit. what does he need to do in the next few weeks? >> well, first of all, he needs to stop saying things that might trip him up. he doesn't need a day when he's explaining perfectly explicable, but awkwardly phrased message. so he needs to not trip himself up. but he also needs to do a bit of what he did in his speech last night in florida, which is go after president obama as hard as he can. we saw that romney had a resurgence in florida from those two debates when he showed some muscle. when he went after gingrich, went after the president, but at the same time he has to still keep newt gingrich's driving -- driving newt gingrich's positives down and his negatives up. so there's a time and a place for everything. last night they clearly thought here's a big nationwide audience. we'll go after the president, show that mitt romney can go toe to toe with the president. when we look at those polls, you know what we see electability. that's a primary concern of a lot of these republicans, and it's where mitt romney scores best. he needs to underscore that as much as he can. >> newt gingrich, let's talk about him for a second. he says he's staying in until the end if necessary. how does he plan on trying to turn this around following the huge setback he suffered in florida? >> look. he has to first of all keep some of those rich friends who are willing to put money into the outside grupsz so they can help on the air waves. it only gets more expensive as we go on. at the same time there's this big sort of lull in there. we've had debate after debate and debate, which is what fueled the gingrich campaign when it was low on money. there isn't a debate now until the 22nd of february. somehow newt gingrich needs to get on the air. can you do that on local tv, but he also needs to penetrate to a broader audience as he moves state after state after state. the thing is what gets him on the most is when he makes those really aggressive statements that then his opponents say, see, he's unstable? he has to find that sweet spot where he's aggressively pursuing mitt romney, so he can take advantage of some free media. he has resources, but he does not have the resources of mitt romney. >> certainly doesn't. ron paul and rick santorum, both told me last night they're in this under the end, they're staying in, not going anywhere. what is the latest on that front? >> well, both of them i think everybody's signaled what they're trying to do here, what rick santorum wants to do is to be standing there when newt gingrich implodes. he wants to be the conservative alternative to newt gingrich without the baggage. so you see him now in his ads out west going after newt gingrich, as not a conservative, trying to, again, sort of go at his nearest opponent, which is newt gingrich. ron paul, you know, pretty much wolf, ron paul will have the wherewithal to go all the way to the convention. whether he believes in his heart whether he can turn this into a nomination win, i suspect he doesn't, but he does know there are places he can win. i asked him last sunday where do you think he'll have a breakthrough moment? he said, maybe maine. he needs to one one, but that doesn't mean he can't go all the way to the convention. beer in this place where we're -- they apportion out these delegates, not as much winner take all as it was in florida, so paul can continue to pick up these delegates and have some real power when he gets to the convention if he wants. >> which he wants to do. thanks very much. the nevada caucus is this saturday. the main caucuses wind up a week from saturday. let's go to jack cafferty right now. he's got "the cafferty file." three marriages and two divorces later, it turns out that newt gingrich might have a real problem with women. go figure. as part of the beating he took in florida last night, gingrich was abandoned in large part by women voters. exit polls in the sunshine state showed romney got 52% of republican women voters, compared to only 28% for gingrich. that's a 24-point difference. it was also a big turnaround from south carolina, where gingrich won the women's vote. florida exit polls also showed that romney led gingrich among married women by more than 20 points, but among male voters gingrich only trailed romney by five points. appears to be a bit of a gender gap, doesn't it? no secret he's been saddled with this personal baggage. he's been quick to own up to it. he says he's done things in the past he regrets, it's all in the past now. he talks about making peace with god and likes to describe himself these days as a 68-year-old grandfather, but at the end of the day maybe women voters can't make peace with an adulterer who left his first wife who was being treated for cancer, then left his second wife who is fighting multiple sclr rods for his third wife. hi second ex-wife told abc news he had asked her for an open marriage, but in the end south carolina voters brushed it off. but now that the women in florida have spoken out loud and clear, it remains to be seen if women in the rest of the country are going to give newt gingrich a pass. here's the question -- does newt gingrich have a problem with women. post a comment on our blog or go to our post on "the situation room's" facebook page. wolf? >> jack, thank you. meanwhile, a new plan to help with the housing crisis across the country. details of what president obama wants to do to help millions and millions with their mortgages. also why some u.s. catholic church leaders are outraged at the president. will their anger cost him cast lick votes. look who is bursting into song on the campaign trail again? ♪ america ♪ america ♪ got shed his grace on thee [ female announcer ] if whole grain isn't the first ingredient in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first. get more whole grain than any other ingredient... just look for the white check. home mortgage rates are at historic lows right now, but millions simply can't refinance, because they owe more than their homes are worth. president obama says he wants to change that. >> there are actions we can take right now for new york city who have been responsible, done the right thing and making their payments on time. >> let's get details from ali velshi. what is the president now proposing, and can it really make a difference? >> here's the thing. you would think people who have had trouble with their mortgages, the one great thing about the economic environment now is mortgage rates are as low as anybody can ever remember them being, but those very people who need that break the most have not been able to take advantage of it, because if you are under water in your house, mean your house is worth more than -- you owe more than your house is worth, you haven't been able to take advantage of it. the president is proposing a plan that goes further than the previous two plans than the last three years. this one allows people with mortgages not held by fannie or freddie, but just by a private bank to be refinanced, even if you're under water and allows people to go down from rates that might be above 6% down to this prevailing rate of about 4.25%. so the average saving would be $200, $300 a month, about $3,000 a year and would costs the banks $5 to $10 billion. that's the tricky part. the white house wants this plan to go through, it has to be passed by congress, but they've got to get the money from somewhere. president obama sort of suggested a tax on banks, a levy, very small one that would help play. he wants banks to take a haircut, write down some of the loans so if you're over by 40% in your mover, maybe you're only over by 20%, it makes it manageable. it goes further than the previous plans, this is the latest in a series of plans that he's championed. none of them really has worked all that great so far, so a lot of skeptics are saying why should this one be any different? >> in the past they passed programs -- one was the home affordable mortgage program, it was designed to help about 4 million people, probably helped about 910,000 people. that was in february of 2009. the next month, march of 2009 they introduced h.a.r.p., the home affordable refinance programs, ended up helping less than a million, but the argument the government puts forward, before those plans, the banks were not doing anything on their own to refinance mortgages. they didn't have the staff or the systems. they caused them to refinance more homes on their own outside the programs, so the numbers aren't as dismal. but the idea is this one spreads to more people, more people should qualify for it, and those savings of about $3,000 a year the hope is the people are not paying that money to the mortgages, but paying it toward the economy, spending it, maybe even creating jobs. that would be a big still his if you gave every family that much money. not only will more people qualify, but they'll constitutionally end up stimulating the economy in the process. wolf? >> and american airlines announcing plans to cut 13,000 jobs. what's going on? >> it's huge. american airlines declared bankruptcy in november, went into bankruptcy protection. that allows them the ability to restructure certain contracts. they are going out there telling staff they cannot continue unless they are able to cut a lot of jobs. most are maintenance jobs. the other thing is they want to pass on the responsibility for their underfunded pension to the government, the government which does take over unfunded pensions from companies that go bankrupt has said american hasn't provided us enough information to show us they have to do this. they're still talking to the unions, but 13,000 jobs it looks like they want to cut. wolf? >> all right, ali, thanks very much. you may expect rowdy behavior at sporting events, but what happened today in a soccer stadium in egypt is certainly unlike anything we have seen before. we're going to have the story from that soccer stadium coming up. the catholic church is not happy with president obama now. we'll tell you why. new information is coming in. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." white meat chicken. the way i always made it for you. one more thing.... those pj's you like, i bought you five new pairs. love you. did you see the hockey game last night? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. when we were determined to see it through. here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs. bp findings supports independent scientists studying the gulf's environment. thousands of environmental samples have been tested and all beaches and waters are open. and the tourists are back. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. not quite knowing what the next phase was going to be, you know, because you been, you know, this is what you had been doing. you know, working, working, working, working, working, working. and now you're talking about, well you know, i won't be, and i get the chance to spend more time with my wife and my kids. it's my world. that's my world. ♪ i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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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. lisa sylvester is monitoring other top stories, including one of the worst sporting event tragedies of all time. lisa, what happened? >> that's right, wolf. at least 73 people are dead, at least 1,000 injured from a soccer riot in egypt. it occurred in the northern is it city of port sigh yield. and we'll have more details at the top of the next hour. important news for women on birth control. pfizer is recalling a million packs of birth control pills after sdovg that some of them contain the wrong amount the ingredients. the tablets also may be out of the sequence, which needs to be corrected for the pills to be effective. they are all marketed by akromac pharmaceuticals. and the first annual profits since 2005. 6 the company says it earns $183 million last year, a gain of over $800 million from the previous year. >> good news on that front. thank you, lisa. mitt romney's campaign is reeling is bit from an unfortunate remark he made on the poor this morning on cnn. but it's a series of gaffes. we'll talk about that in our "strategy session." th covergirl. our biggest brush meets our fiberstretch formula for a blast of volume and length. lashblast fusion. from easy, breezy, beautiful covergirl. my sunglasses. people say i'm forgetful. ( car honking ) maybe that's why we go to so many memorable places. the subaru outback. love the road you're on. 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? ♪ when bp made a commitment so, wto the gulf,? we knew it would take time, but we were determined to see it through. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home. i'm wolf blitzer. here are some of the stories we're working on for next hour. mitt romney heads to minnesota, home of congresswoman michele bachmann. will she endorse him or someone else? the former presidential candidate will join us live. planned parenthood loses funding, was political pressure a factor? stay tuned for the answer. and a new tape reveals the chaos following the president's death. the gut-wrenching audio is coming up. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." w50e6g9 some breaking news that we're working on. apparently the end of the u.s./nato combat mission in afghanistan, a decade-long war that's cost the u.s. dearly in blood and treasure, now the obama administration making a major decision to step up the end of what's called combat operation in afghanistan. let's go to barbara starr. the u.s. is supposed to have major combat operations in afghanistan through the end of 2014, another three years, but they're no saying it's going to stop a year and a half early. what's going on? >> defense secretary leon panetta arriving in a nato meeting this evening, told reporters the decision is now u.s. and nato combat operations? afghanistan will start wrapping up mid 2013, next year, and be wrapped