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tough. this is a contact sport. they are both saying things that bring out their best and expose their opponent's weaknesses. what rur voters are responding to is mitt romney's message across every demographic sector within the republican base and they believe he can beat barack obama. that's what it is about leadership, spending and jobs. they are buying what mitt romney is talking about. >> let me bring congressman watson your response to the romney attack. >> chris, i was there. he paid a $300,000 reimbursement fee to the ethics committee for having to investigate one charge out of 84 that he filed bad information on. he reimbursed them. it wasn't a fine. he didn't resign out of disgrace. >> you could have run for speaker.
motivate the american public to make changes that are necessary. it's not necessarily a ceo type of position. secondly governor romney even more than speaker gingrich doesn't create the contrast we need to beat barack obama. we give away the healthcare issue if mitt romney is the nominee. we give away cap and trade. we give away the wall street all of these big government interventions into the private sector you would think a ceo businessman would oppose it to the level that they are. he's sided with big government not with business. again he undermines his own credibility. >> i have a couple more issues i want to get into with you. a couple of issues into the news this week that became political. first of all the susan g. komen race for the cure foundation first cut off funding for planned parenthood which is the nation's biggest abortion provider and reversed that position. your reaction, sir? >> well, look, they are a private organization.
november. >> chris: congressman, newt gingrich keeps escalating his rhetoric and his attacks against mitt romney. and let's put some of these up on the screen. he has been calling governor romney is a proabortion, progun control, protax increase liberal. last week, he started calling him obama-like and little food stamp as opposed to obama who is big food stamp. isn't that over the top? >> george soros who is a pretty famous liberal supporter in the country says there isn't any difference between or there is not much difference between president obama and governor romney and at the same time chris, i have encouraged people to take a look at where the candidates stood on issues when they had a vote or when they influenced public policy. speaker gingrich was balancing the budget, giving tax relief, paying down the public debt and
concerned about the very poor and the weird press conference with donald trump and didn't actually feel like a great week for romney. in the back drop what really happened is we had the jobs numbers come out. the whole general election picture has been shifting and so even as you get the sense that romney is really, you know, consolidating his support you don't feel like republicans feel all that great about him or about his chances against obama. >> chris: liz cheney, let's talk now not about romney but about gingrich and santorum who are kind of holding on for their lives right now. we heard santorum and as bill mentioned really counting on a strong showing in colorado, minnesota and missouri on tuesday. gingrich seems to be really hoping and holding on for super tuesday, ten states including a couple of -- a few you southern states including his home state of georgia. what do you think of their strategy? what do you think of their chances? >> i think that both of them have adopted pretty much the only strategy that is available to each of them. and i think it is too soon to
possible running mate for mitt romney should romney win the nomination and unlike a number of the possible candidates to be vice president you aren't being coy about it. you say you would be interested. >> chris, what i said was i think anybody who got a call from their nominee and said hey, you can help the country and help your ticket would you you join, of course, you would consider that. listen, i got the best job in the world being governor of virginia. big things doing this session and i will let everybody else talk about that and we'll see what happens. >> chris: let me just ask you briefly and i know you are not auditioning for the job. why would bob mcdonald be a plus for a republican national ticket? >> again, i'm not interviewing and waiting for the phone to ring. i want to help mitt romney because i believe our country is in trouble and we have crushing debt and deficits and no plans for jobs and energy. that is why i'm behind mitt romney. people say it is a swing state.
january because they were good. the economy created 243,000 new jobs. the unemployment rate dropped for the fifth straight month to 8.3% which is the lowest in three years. and that raises the question, juan, if that were to continue is it going to be hard for any republican to run against barack obama? >> i think it is very hard if the economic numbers continue to get better and these were as you said, chris, these are terrific numbers. no getting away from that. liz's point sounds and i think governor romney's point sounds a little bit like cheering for bad news because of the political hope that this would give you a base to beat barack obama. but you if you look at things like consumer confidence, the fact that employers are hiring, tonight when you watch the super bowl you will see a ton of ads from the car companies. these people believe that things are getting better. and in a sense that is very, very good news for president obama. >> chris: well, okay, liz, make the case that even if unemployment continues to go
are tough. this is a contact sport. they are both saying things that bring out their best and expos their opponents weaknesses but the bottom line is chris what the voters are responding to is mitt romney's message across every demographic sector within the republican base and they believe that they he can beat a barack obama and that is what the rest of the race is about. leadership and spending and about jobs and they are buying what mitt romney is talking about. >> chris: let me bring congressman watts in. your response to the romney attacks against gingrich? >> to say he resigned in disgrace. chris, i was there. he paid a $300,000 reimburstment fee to the ethics committee for having to investigate one charge out of 84 that he filed bad information on. he reimbursed them. it wasn't a fine. he didn't resign out of disgrace. and, you know, talking about -- >> chris: he was forced out in '98. >> he could have run for speaker.
conservatives. despite the rhetoric he is appealing to a broad section of the conservative base. >> chris: let me intercorrupt for one second and i will give you a chance to respond in a second. i think you will admit mitt romney has made a series of gaffes on the campaign trail especially on the issue of whether or not he is in touch with most americans. let's take a look at some of those. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. i get speakers fees from time to time but not very much. i like to be able to fire people that provide services to me. >> chris: won't democrats hammer mitt romney over those kinds of statements? >> you know, chris, i have been in office 21 years. i made my share, too. i bet j.w. probabl j.c. probabs well. he was talking about programs
tries to motivate the public to make changes that are necessary. it is not exactly a c.e.o. position. governor romney doesn't create the contrast that we need to beat barack obama. we give away the healthcare issue if mitt romney is the nominee. we give away cap and trade. we give away the wall street bailouts. all of these big government interventions into the private sector where you would think a c.e.o. businessman would oppose government intervention at the ob trucive level that they are. he sided with big government not with business and he undermines his own credibility. >> chris: a couple more issues i want to get into with you. a couple of health issues got into the news and became political. first of all, the susan g. komen race for the cure foundation first cut off funding for planned parenthood and then reversed the decision. your reaction, sir? >> they are a private
basically a beauty contest, doesn't choose any delegates. honestly, is tuesday make or break for you, sir? >> no, not at all. again, i think we will show improvement. this race is a long, long way from being over. we believe that if you look at the national polls, our numbers are moving up continually. as mentioned in your intro, we are the only candidate right now according to at least the rasmussen poll that defeats barack obama. everybody else is behind. in fact, newt gingrich is way behind. i think this race as people start seeing mitt romney doing well and gingrich really not up to the task with the money and the resources and the organization that he had and particularly in florida, they are looking for somebody else who can take on mitt romney and more importantly and this is the important thing, take on barack obama. it is not about who can win the primary. who can win the general election. florida z and nevada the results down as far as participation is concerned.