governor romney making comments in about two hours at a pipe fitting company in north carolina. jobs expected to be high on his agenda and president obama arrives later today in a pivotal swing state hammered by the recession. we're talking nevada. the president will deliver comments on the economy just hours from now. mr. obama is out west after a record-breaking fund-raiser last night at george clooney's los angeles mansion. that event on the heels of publicly announcing his support for same-sex marriage but it is a comment the president made at another fund-raiser in seattle that is raising eyebrows now. >> it was a house of cards and it collapsed in the most destructive, worst crisis that we've seen since the great depression. and sometimes people forget the magnitude of it. you know, and you saw some of that i think in the video that was shown. sometimes i forget. and the last six months of 2008, while we were campaigning nearly three million of our neighbors lost their jobs. 800,000. lost their jobs in the month that took office. and it was tough. jon: karl rove, former senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to president george w. bush. he joins us now. karl, if your former boss, the previous president, had said that he had forgotten about the recession, what would have been the reaction? >> all heck would have broken loose. look, it is interesting, president obama not only forgot the recession but apparently forgot if he said we passed his stimulus bill unemployment would top out by 8% at end of summer of 2009 and we would have 6% growth this year and 6% unemployment. he apparently also forgot that he played a role in bringing about the collapse by filibustering a bill in 2005 that would have reined in fannie mae and freddie mac potentially before they brought down the house of cards. jon: so why doesn't that get recognized? why doesn't it get covered? >> well look the media is compliant and they're on his side in this thing. they're willing to forgive this kind of stuff and pass it by. guess what? the american people aren't. gallop had an interesting poll out, jon. they said if mitt romney or barack obama get selected would they do a good job of handling the economy the next four years. romney, 61 said a good or very good job. 33 said poor or very poor. president obama, 52% good. and 4% poor and 22% said he would do a very poor job. one out of every five americans, better than one out of every five says you can't get him back in there because he will do a very poor job. equivalent number for romney, one out of every 10 americans would not do a good job. jon: your own numbers show the president is still over the 50% mark? >> well he for the coming year but he is underwater. that is to say below 50% on handling the economy and handling jobs and under 40 on issue of handling the deficit. and look, when you have 8%, 8.1% unemployment, the longest run of high unemployment since the great depression, the highest numbers for chronic unemployment. that is to say people unemployed for six months or more, when you have one out of every six americans unemployed, underemployed, working part-time, desperately looking for full-time work or so discouraged they dropped out of the workforce, that ain't good numbers. last month, 115,000 new jobs but 300,000 were so discouraged they dropped out of the workforce. that is not a good record getting ready to run for re-election, i want to get your take on the president's comments about gay marriage. we're led by comments coming out of the white house he wanted to announce approval sometime down the road he wasn't ready to do it yet. joe biden and arne duncan, education secretary sort of forced his hand. do you buy that. >> i do. they were very explicit the president in essence changed his mind and they would announce this closer to the convention in order to ring the greatest amount of political benefit out of this. biden got over tip of his skies as president said and arne duncan didn't didn't help. we don't know how much months ago he made it. biden went out and said what he did. monday white house press secretary reaffirming position of traditional marriage that really wasn't having decision to make a change. that really wasn't sustainable and they did it. remember, how political is this? he changed his mind but he was waiting until it was close to the conventions in order to ring the maximum amount of benefit out of it. this thing at the end will be a negative for the president. he gains in the gay community and among young voters but frankly opposing, don't ask, don't tell, refusing to defend defense of marriage act, everybody is sort of got the sense when he said i'm evolving in my position, that is sort of signal to people, give me flexibility after the election i will change. there is not much upside there. he will get money out of this. they made a big deal, in 90 minutes after he said they raised a million dollars and went out of their way to 1 out of four, 1 out of five bundlers is gay. these people will be energized. but there are 30 states, have defended traditional marriage. north carolina critical state, voted day before he made this announcement, 61-39 in favor of traditional marriage. >> you think net negative for the president? >> net negative. economy will dominate everything else but it will be a net negative. jon: we'll keep an eye on that of course. karl rove, good to have you on, thank you. >> thank you. jenna: tomorrow mitt romney is giving a commencement speech at the nation's largest evangelical university. the former governor of massachusetts is speaking at liberty university in begin ga and -- virginia, many evangelicals are planning to be there to support the presumptive republican nominee. john roberts live in atlanta with more on this. >> reporter: good morning, jenna. this will be huge venue for mitt romney. tens of thousands of christian conservatives will watch the address at stadium at liberty university and on television. it is an opportunity for him to reach out to evangelicals that he had a difficult time courting earlier in the primary campaign. pastor robert jeffords first baptist church much dallas was one of those evangelicals. mitt romney figured out calling mormonism a cult. he is now endorsing mitt romney. >> mom mon system a theological cult and i still hold to cult. i believe while there are vast theological differences there are same social values like sanctity of life and marriage and religious liberty. i think for those reasons christians can with a good conscience still vote for a mormon like mitt romney. >> reporter: like many other evangelical leaders pastor jeffords says that evangelicals know they're electing a president, they're not appointing a pastor to their church, jenna. jenna: interesting to see that turn though as you mentioned john. there was a lot of questions and doubts whether this group could accept a mormon. in general as we look nationwide does it looks like mitt romney can win over resistant evangelicals and how does he do that? >> reporter: that remains to be seen. it appears at tomorrow's commencement address he will not mention his mormon faith but will illuminate and talk about a lot of values he shares with evan gels calls. this is excerpt from tomorrow's speech. the best cultural assets are values as basic as personal responsibilities the dignity of hard work and above all the commitments of family and take those away and take them for granted and so many things can go wrong in a life. jonathan fallwelling son of legendary jerry fallwell. romney says will need to work hard to win them over all the way up until november. >> to be honest with you i don't think one speech will make that change or make that difference. i think what he needs to do is he need to continue to speak up for the values that are important for people of faith. >> reporter: at this point it looks like romney does have the support of religious conservatives. "gallup poll" taken a couple weeks ago shows him leading president obama 54 to 37% among very religious individuals. moderately religious, nonreligious the numbers flip the other way. the big question is while they appear to support him will they get out to the polls in november? pastor jeffords says romney could win primary and nomination without support of evangelicals but can't win the election without them. jenna: thank you very much. john roberts in atlanta today. jon: there are new concerns that terrorist groups may be exploding the chaos in syria. no one claimed responsibility for yesterday's deadly bombings in damascus, but an al qaeda-inspired group claimed responsibility for past explosions and the head of syria's main opposition group says there is a strong relationship between al qaeda and the regime. leland vittert is live from jerusalem with more on that. leland. >> reporter: hi, jon. western intelligence agencies are now saying they're pretty convinced as well that al qaeda is playing a roll there inside syria. yesterday's bombing case in point. it was sophisticated, good intelligence, belle planned, lots of explosives. just take a look at the aftermath there in damascus. you had bomb one go off. a small bomb drew people in. then bomb two. much like the al qaeda in iraq attacks. obviously syrian government for a long time saying foreign, quote, terrorists are responsible for these attacks. these latest bombings certainly give the syrian government more pretext to go in and try and continue their offensive against the syrian people. it also gives the syrian allies a huge leg up there in the united nations and other places to try to defend the role that the syrian government is playing right now. we did find this on the web. it is a screen grab from a jihadi video put up by a group called the al nurra brigade, al qaeda inspired or syndicate. on this their leader, saying bashar, president of syria, we are coming for you. this new wrinkle definitely complicates things a lot. obviously you have the opposition groups in syria. you had the syrian government. now all of sudden you have al qaeda mixing things up. this new revelation brings to light a important political question that the united states and its allies will have to look at going forward because you run the risk of syria becoming another iraq but this time without any u.s. military presence it has the ability to export its terror and its other kinds of militant expertise. in that case, john, it may be a situation where it is easier or better to keep president assad in power to keep syria from becoming another yemen. jon, back to you. jon: it's a mess. leland vittert, thank you. jenna: certainly a big controversy in washington whether the east coast should have its own missile defense sites to protect against a potential strike by iran or north korea or anyone else. how vulnerable are we really? jon: also a terrifying ordeal for two girls is over now. police rescue them from a fugitive accused of killing their mother and older sister. we'll tell how how this long manhunt ended. >> a newspaper reporter fired from her job because she worked as an exotic dancer on the side. she is suing for gender discrimination. our legal panel weighs in. settt or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. jenna: welcome back, everyone. right now there's a growing controversy in washington over whether the united states should add missile defense sites along the east coast. some lawmakers are concern iran or north korea could develop missiles capable of reaching that part of the country. because of that the house armed services committee this week passed an amendment authorizing $100 million to do first an environmental survey and look at potential interceptor sites along the east coast the pentagon did not request this and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff says this. >> in my military judgment the program of record for ballistic missile defense for the homeland as we have submitted it is adequate and sufficient to the task and that's a suite of ground-based and sea-based interceptors. so i don't see a need beyond what we submitted in the last budget. jenna: the west coast already has interceptor sites in california and alaska, off hawaii. the u.s. military just test ad new more sensitive interceptor missile and it was a success. we're joined by lt. general trey obering, former director of missile defense agency with office of secretary of defense. nice to have you with us today. >> nice to be with you. jenna: a big question there how vulnerable are we really? if there was a missile headed toward new york city would we be able to intercept it? >> jenna, let me make clear we have right now the ability to protect the entire united states with interceptors we deployed to alaska and california. with the radar system we activated from alaska to england and united kingdom as well as deployed radar we have in turkey. i think what the conversation is about though is the original plan with respect to the deployment of missile defense elements into europe under the previous administration had us locating ground-based interceptors in poland that were not only capable of defending europe but were also helping to provide redundant coverage of united states. with the change in the architecture roleout with the current administration for europe that protending that would be provided redundantly europe is delayed until 2020, 2021. there is a growing concern having this redundant coverage to protect the u.s. from an iranian missile before the 2015 --. jenna: almost like a second layer, if you well? >> we will. jenna: just in your opinion getting back to that point, we saw the president in discussions with russian officials about again what it will look like in europe and it's seen that the president pulling back on those sites in poland is a nod towards the russians and that is a little controversial. do you think we're unnecessarily vulnerable if we don't have that second layer in pole lan and we're not equipped to put those sites there? >> first of all i believe that again, we have the protection that we, that we do have protection today against a long-range missile but i do believe it would add flexibility and more capability to be able to handle those long range threats. i think having the ability to reach out sooner than we would normally from an intercept in alaska i think is something that would be very beneficial in terms of military perspective. jenna: okay, so that is in europe. this money we're talking about today would go toward the east coast and missile defense sites and could potentially be there. some suggest we really need those sites on the east coast. others suggest this is a political maneuver by mostly the gop in an election year. what do you think the motivation truly is for this conversation and is it a conversation in a time of as you taert that we need to have? >> well, i said i think the motivation primarily when we changed the gameplan for europe we lost the ability to, that redundant ability to protect the united states against a long range threat until well beyond 2020. i think the best of the motivation their concern that the long range threat from iran may emerge prior to that, 2015. they want to have some additional protection for that threat before the 2021 time frame. jenna: you're confident with the first layer of protection we at this time? >> i am. jenna: that is a big headline for us today. a lot of different dynamics at play, general. nice to have you. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. jon: a millionaire polo tie con convicted in a deadly drunk driving crash. john goodman set to hear his sentence. one juror's actions could mean goodman will walk out of court a free man. a live report. could a tough economy put some of america's favorite snacks in jeopardy? we'll explain. 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[ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8. t new v8 v-fusion plus energy. but centurylink is committed to being a different kind of communications company by continuing to help you do more and focus on the things that matter to you. jon: today is sentencing day for millionaire polo tycoon john goodman. he faces up to 30 years in prison for the drunks driving crash that killed 23-year-old scott wilson. but goodman also might walk out of court a free man because of alleged jury misconduct. goodman made headlines by legally adopting his girlfriend there on the left in an apparent bid to protect at least part of his wealth after the accident. but before goodman learns his fate today the judge wants to talk to juror dennis demartin about something he wrote in his self-published book. phil keating is live in west palm beach, florida. what is this juror accused of doing, phil? >> reporter: jon, he is accused of blatantly disregarding and ignoring the judge's directive to all of the jurors, that no personal experiments could be conducted outside of that courtroom or the deliberations room. the juror, dennis demartin, released a book last week, 36 pages long, called, believing in the truth. in it he writes these excerpts. quote at 9 p.m. i had vodka and ton nick another at 9:30 and 10:00 p.m.. i started to walk to the clubhouse two streets over in our complex. i walked around for a short time and decided to go back home. i was confused. when the alarm went off the next morning i got up and felt relieved. the question in my mind the night before was answered to me. that being, that john goodman was too drunk to drive the night of the fatal accident. goodman of course, bac, blood-alcohol content was .237 taken by police several hours after the accident. and last monday the judge specifically asked this juror if there was any presumption of guilt by any of them going into the deliberations room and this juror, demartin said he had open mind going into the room and voted for not guilty the first time around. so the judge this afternoon this afternoon must decide which version is more true. what he saidast week in court or what he wrote in the book. jon? jon: so there is the possibility of a mistrial here i guess if the judge does not declare a mistrial, goodman gets sentenced today? >> reporter: right if the judge disregards whatever his questions and answers are in the courtroom today with this juror, then we move right immediately to the sentencing phase. the sentencing guidelines have goodman being sentenced anywhere between 11 years and 30 years. the prosecution is arguing, suggesting to the judge that goodman get 20 years. that being for dui with failure to render aid in the death of a young man, scott wilson, who was simply driving home on a cross street in palm beach county when he was t-boned by goodman who was speeding and ran a stop sign. according to the prosecutors, there are arguing for this 20-year sentence describing goodman, founder of the international polo club in wellington, in palm beach county, self-serving, self-ish, totally unconcerned about the life of the man who then drowned in a canal. jon: phil keating reporting live for us. what a case. thank you, phil. jenna: more on that as we get it. meantime we have major new developments of two young girls taken by a fugitive suspect of the of killing their mother and their sister. how their ordeal ended. we have a live report. most don't end this way. but they found the little girls. jon: good news in an awful story. brand new polls are out about what americans think about the president's economic achievements. is president obama connecting with voters on this important issue in this election year? we'll have a fair and balanced debate ahead. while some fiber ads use sup