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Alleged Plot to Blow up Utah School; Could Ron Paul's Supporters be Won Over by Another Candidate?; Asteroid Gives Earth 'Close Shave'; Countdown To Florida Primary; X Games Snowmobile Crash

Aired January 27, 2012 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And as always, hello. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Top of the hour. Let's get you caught up on everything making news, "Rapid Fire." Let's go.

At least one of the Republican presidential candidates is campaigning outside of Florida today after last night's huge CNN Florida debate. Ron Paul speaks this hour to a town hall in Maine. We're going to dip into that live as soon as that happens.

Also, Newt Gingrich rallies with the Republican Jewish Coalition this afternoon. And Mitt Romney visits NASA's home in Cape Canaveral, Florida, later today. As for the fourth candidate we're following here, Rick Santorum, he has an appointment with Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM at 4:00. We'll be watching.

Also, President Obama wants more middle class families in places like Michigan to be able to send their kids to college. And he told a crowd in Ann Arbor today that he wants federal spending on Perkins loans to increase from $1 billion to $8 billion, among other things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are putting colleges on notice. You can't keep --

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: You can't assume that you'll just jack up tuition every single year. If you can't stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down.

We should push colleges to do better. We should hold them accountable if they don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And operators of that cruise ship that capsized off the coast of Italy are now offering money to passengers who survived that disaster. Each survivor could end up getting about $14,400. We're talking about 4,200 people on board the Costa Concordia. So far, 16 bodies have been recovered. Another 16 people remain missing today. And Apple under fire now after this new wave of investigations into conditions at the Chinese plant where some of the most popular gadgets are made. Here's one of the stats from a British report.

At one plant, Chinese workers clocked in 15-hour days and were paid a whopping $50 a month to make iPods. Apple says it will look into the allegations, but current and former employees tell "The New York Times" Apple ignored the poor working conditions in china just to meet all the demands.

Joshua Komisarjevsky, one of those two men behind that horrific home invasion in Connecticut from a couple of years ago, has now been sentenced to death. He and his accomplice, Steven Hayes, are to be executed by lethal injection for the 2007 killings of Jennifer Petit and her two young daughters. Dr. William Petit, the sole survivor of that horrific attack, left the courtroom before Komisarjevsky addressed the court. Petit's father spoke after the sentencing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL PETIT SR., FATHER OF DR. WILLIAM PETIT: We're happy and relieved that this day has come. Justice has been served, and we can now try to get on with our lives and hopefully build upon the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And great news for Ford. A near record year here. The automaker today reported net income topping $20 billion for 2011. It's the best annual earnings since 1988, and its second most profitable year in its 109-year history. Ford was the only U.S. automaker that did not take that government bailout.

And denials and lies from the maintenance man who murdered a 7-year- old girl. Just released video shows Ryan Brunn's polygraph test before his arrest for the murder of young Jorelys Rivera in suburban Atlanta. Brunn repeatedly says he didn't kill her, says he didn't dump her body in a trash compactor.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you participate in any way in causing the death of that girl?

RYAN BRUNN, ACCUSED OF MURDERING CHILD: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: He said no. Brunn pleaded guilty to murder last week, and then he hanged himself with a sweatshirt in his prison cell two days later.

Cocaine in the United Nations mailroom. Yes.

More than 35 pounds was found in hollowed-out books shipped from Mexico. The cocaine was in a bag that was made to look like a diplomatic pouch. New York police, they're all over this. They're investigating. No word yet as to who or how they got this in the pouch, and why there.

We are just a couple minutes in to two hours. Here's what else we have in store for you today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Police say two students wanted to attack their school Columbine-style. It was a plot months in the making. Now we're getting details on their whole escape plan and the one mistake that led police to their door.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

(voice-over): Chilling video of a killer denying a little girl's murder.

BRUNN: I've never been in trouble before.

BALDWIN: You'll hear what Ryan Brunn said during his polygraph.

A soldier dies in Afghanistan and then is buried next to his brother, who was also killed in action. Now a family is opening up about a mother losing two sons.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she said, "He's not going to die. He's not going to die."

BALDWIN: Plus, the show "Toddlers and Tiaras." The news, one of the little girl's mothers is suing the media for sexualizing her daughter. We're "On the Case."

And frightening moments during an X Games stunt. Wait until you hear what happened after this crash. I'll speak with the daredevil, live.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: If -- and this is an "if" here -- if it had succeeded, it could have been even deadlier than Columbine, this alleged plot to blow up a high school in Utah, with two students at the center of this whole thing. Take a look here.

This is the older suspect. This is 18-year-old Dallin Morgan. Police aren't naming the other suspect simply because he's only 16.

But these two teens are accused of conspiring to set off a bomb during school assembly there in Roy, Utah. And police say they had this elaborate plan, complete with maps of the school, marking cameras, blind spots. Obviously, investigators are taking this very, very seriously.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHIEF GREG WHINHAM, ROY, UTAH, POLICE: This was not idle chatter, and that was early on recognized, that there was significant thought, there was significant purpose, and there had been some preplanning and training to the extent of, how do I fly a plane that I want to steal?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You hear that, fly a plane? You heard the chief right.

The suspects were allegedly thinking about stealing a plane to then make a getaway. In fact, the younger one had spent hundreds of hours with this online flight simulator. This, of course, according to police.

But the whole thing started to unravel when a fellow student came forward with several alarming text messages allegedly sent by the younger of the two, the 16-year-old, indicating an attack was imminent. Here's just one sample text: "I've just been kind of planning my get back at the world thing, and I figured if you had anyone you wanted revenge on, I could see if I had anything planned."

One of those texts. We've got more for you throughout the next two hours, but I want to bring in our own Thelma Gutierrez, following the story for us today.

Thelma, first things first. Where are these two teenagers now?

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, the 18-year-old, Dallin Morgan, is out on bail right now. The 16-year-old is still in detention. Lots of questions being asked at this moment, Brooke.

You had gotten to the point about what could have possibly possessed these people to have wanted to carry out such a thing. And that is what the police chief is looking at right now.

BALDWIN: So, so far, are police saying anything as far as a motive goes, or nothing yet?

GUTIERREZ: You know, Brooke, you alluded to one of the texts. And in it, one of them -- the 16-year-old tells another 16-year-old student, "I've been just kind of planning to get back at the world, and I figured if I had anyone you wanted to get revenge on, I could see if I have anything planned."

Besides that, I mean, it's not well written, but besides that, he also says to that student -- he says, "If I tell you not to go to school one day, make damn sure you and your brother are not there." So, was it a question of revenge? That is what he's alluding to. That's what that 16-year-old is alluding to in that text message.

BALDWIN: And again, the 16-year-old, the one who's doing the texting, apparently, one more text from the 16-year-old. "I just don't care. I'm pretty much a lying, cheating manipulator with everyone except seven people. Everyone else is just at peace."

You know, a lot of the reporting, Thelma, makes it seem kind of like he, the 16-year-old, is the mastermind here. Does it appear that way to you?

GUTIERREZ: Yes. As a matter of fact, Brooke, just a short time ago I talked to the Roy Police Department. And the police chief had said that that's exactly the sense that they're getting.

After all, this was a person who other kids at school had said would be the next Einstein. He was very smart. This is somebody who had knowledge of building a pipe bomb, somebody who had plotted out this entire thing, according to police.

And I thought what was really interesting about this, Brooke, is that the 16-year-old, according to the police chief, actually went to Columbine High School in Denver back in December. He met with the principal there. He flew in one day, took a limo, met with that principal, interviewed him, he said, for a school newspaper, and then flew back to Utah that very same day.

BALDWIN: So, clearly, there is some sort of fascination, at least with this 16-year-old, and what happened in columbine, the fact that he went to talk to this principal. But to take it a step further, Thelma, this 16-year-old, I guess, sort of wanted to emulate that plot, but he thought he could have done better.

GUTIERREZ: You know what, Brooke? That's what the police chief said.

He said he wanted to one-up the people in Columbine, thought that he was much smarter, and was actually offended that they had only carried out, according to the police chief, one percent of their plan. He said that he felt that he was smart enough to be far more effective.

BALDWIN: It is tragic that someone so bright would take it this way, apparently.

Thelma Gutierrez, thank you.

We're not finished with this story here. We're going to delve much deeper into the psychology here behind a plot like this one with Peter Langman. He wrote a book. It's called "Why Kids Kill: Inside the Mind of School Shooters."

That conversation is coming up next hour. Please stay tuned for that.

Meantime, now this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, MODERATOR: Imagine you're in the Oval Office, you speak to Raul Castro. What would you say to him?

REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I would ask him what he called about. You know?

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul -- I don't know if you watched, I hope you did -- he was full of one-liners at last night's debate. The crowd seemed to love him, lots of laughs.

Coming up next -- by the way, these are live pictures of Ron Paul speaking. He is already in Maine, getting ready for the caucus. We'll listen to a little bit of it.

Shall we listen right now?

After the break. After the break, much more. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Before we talk a little about our own debate in Jacksonville last night, just want to dip in and eavesdrop just a little bit on Ron Paul. He is speaking there in Maine. He's ready for the Maine caucuses, which of course comes after Florida, talking about shrinking government, talking about civil liberties, less money on defense.

Let's just listen for a moment.

(BEGIN LIVE SPEECH)

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

PAUL: It is major. We're not getting out of this mess. The jobs aren't available and people are deeply concerned.

Fortunately, though, it isn't like we haven't done anything new. If we just followed our traditions, the understanding of the rule of law protecting liberty, protecting property rights, protecting civil liberties, we're not -- our government is not doing a very good job in protecting our civil liberties.

If you look at what's happening today -- and I am amazed how many people are aware of it, because I think everybody is lackadaisical -- but just take, for instance, the National Defense Authorization Act and what was in that bill, which should have never occurred, and we really need to repeal that portion that allows the U.S. Army, the military, to arrest American citizens, and be held without trial indefinitely. This is what happens.

(APPLAUSE)

(END LIVE SPEECH)

BALDWIN: The Republican presidential debate, as I mentioned a moment ago, last night had certainly its share of favorable and memorable moments, but one candidate's answers stood out to us. This man, Ron Paul, he is certainly always one to speak his mind, so we just strung a few of these sound bites together for you, his answers, starting off with his response to Wolf Blitzer asking about his age -- he's 76 -- and if he'd be willing to release his medical records.

Here you go. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Are you prepared to release your medical records so voters out there know what your health is?

PAUL: Obviously, because it's about one page, if even that long. But I'm willing to challenge any of these gentlemen up here to a 25-mile bike ride any time of the day in the heat of Texas.

(APPLAUSE)

BLITZER: Imagine you're in the Oval Office. You speak to Raul Castro. What would you say to him?

PAUL: Well, I'd ask him what he called about. You know?

BLITZER: It seems that they both acknowledge they both made money from Fannie and Freddie. Should they return that money?

PAUL: That subject really doesn't interest me a whole lot.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: There are few prominent Republicans who think Ron Paul could be president, but even some people who support his rivals are recognizing the value of Paul's candidacy. Case in point, Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric. He is a Romney supporter, but here's what he said today, just this morning, on CNN's "STARTING POINT."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK WELCH, FMR. CEO & CHAIRMAN, GENERAL ELECTRIC: Ron Paul is going to exit left on this stage sometime down the road before August, or in August, and the GOP doesn't want to lose those wonderful voters that he's brought on board. So how well they treat Ron Paul going forward is a very big deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Coming up now, I want to bring in our CNN political reporter, Peter Hamby, there in Jacksonville, the day after the debate.

And Peter, Jack Welch makes a point. Ron Paul's supporters, they're so, so loyal. Could they though be won over by someone else?

PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Jack Welch is really nice, by the way. He said nice things about Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman throughout this race. He loves all the Republican candidates, it seems like.

But, look, Ron Paul is in a delegate chase at this point. As you saw, he's in Maine. There's 24 delegates at stake there in the caucuses on February 4th.

Their end game is to kind of get to the convention, and maybe not win the nomination at a brokered convention, but sort of get in the platform committee, possibly get Ron Paul a big national speech. And if the Republican establishment and whoever the Republican nominee is doesn't make nice or make amends with these Ron Paul supporters who make up between 10 and 13 percent of the Republican vote, that could hurt them around the margins if they antagonize him come next November, because this is going to be a close race no matter what.

People say it's going to come down to a few states, as it always does. Welch is exactly right. There is no point in antagonizing these voters.

BALDWIN: But what about this -- I mean, it's Ron Paul's supporters that could mean he could stay in this race indefinitely. I mean, could that be an option?

HAMBY: Yes, it certainly could. I mean, there are primaries and caucuses all the way through June, so he could stay in as long as he wants. They are peppered with caucuses here and there.

Ron Paul is the only candidate other than Mitt Romney who made the ballot in Virginia on March 6th. Remember, all the other Republican candidates didn't make all those really intense qualifying deadlines.

So, yes, he is organized, he is ready to go in all of these states, and he's basically given up Florida because he knows he can't win here, it's a winner-take-all state. And again, he's really focusing on those caucus states like Colorado, Nevada, Maine, where he can get his real devoted supporters out to the polls. It's easier to win a caucus with a loyal, devoted fan base than it is in a big primary state when you need to run a bunch of TV ads and have big get-out-the- vote operations instead of just having kind of like a word of mouth, Facebook, grassroots, phone sort of organization -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: And again, that's why we're seeing him again, live pictures of Congressman Paul speaking in Maine today.

Let's move on, Peter Hamby. I want to talk about Newt Gingrich here.

And Newt Gingrich in Florida. The super PAC that supports him is airing another trailer for another anti-Romney documentary. Here's just a part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They never do any work with any company which did any work with the government like Medicare, Medicaid?

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We didn't do any work with the government.

TEXT: "Illegal activity." "Romney supervised." Guilty of massive Medicare fraud. Blood money. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You saw the title, "Blood Money."

Can you just explain to me what this documentary is about, and what specifically they're going after Romney on?

HAMBY: Yes, it's a pretty brutal ad. And the super PAC that Gingrich has -- or, excuse me, that outside of his campaign has have been running some very tough ads like that Bain Capital ad we saw in South Carolina.

This is basically about a medical company in Massachusetts that Romney served on the board of directors for when he worked at Bain Capital. They took over this company back in 1989, and eventually this medical company had to pay $119 million in civil and criminal fees for fraudulently billing Medicare.

Romney has never been accused of any wrongdoing here, but his company, Bain Capital, did make money when they sold off this company. So the argument here from the Newt Gingrich super PAC and now today from the Democratic Party is that Mitt Romney profited off the backs of people who were harmed by this company.

It sort of plays into that narrative they're trying to build that he's this corporate raider making money off the backs of regular working class Americans, Brooke. So that ad, that trailer goes up today in Florida. And again, it's supposed to tease to a Web site where there is going to be a longer, sort of documentary about this medical company in Massachusetts.

BALDWIN: All right. Well, we'll see, I guess, on Tuesday how these ads and these narratives sort of resonate with the Florida voters.

Tuesday primary, tell me quickly here, Peter, how are the candidates spending these final days?

HAMBY: The final days are really going to be focused around the Tampa-Orlando area. It's called the I-4 Corridor, Republican-rich area, heavy votes, lots and lots of Republican voters.

And on Monday, because it is such a huge state, both candidates, Romney and Gingrich, are going to do fly-arounds and try to hit every sort of major media market here in their last effort to get out the vote -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Peter Hamby, thank you so much.

We're taking the show on the road Tampa, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It should be exciting.

Thank you, sir.

Now to space. An asteroid the size of a city bus zoomed by Earth today. Coming up next, the track of the big flying rock. Plus, spectacular views. Have you seen these pictures? We'll show them to you of the Northern Lights -- here they are -- that caused them to appear, how this happened.

And Lego man in space. Chad Myers is going to get all space geeky with me, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: OK. No one got hurt, but have you heard about this asteroid today? It got a little too close for comfort.

Chad Myers, as I understand it, though, it's already zoomed on past. So any bit of danger is over.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Correct. It was only the size of a bus.

BALDWIN: Only? Hello?

MYERS: That's pretty big for your head. I know.

Flying over though. And as an asteroid, it would have literally broken up in space as it came through the atmosphere.

So that's why NASA and NOAA and all of them said there really would be no danger even if it came through. It would take something significantly bigger than that.

Let me take you over here. Yes, let me take you over here real quick.

BALDWIN: OK.

MYERS: And I'll show you kind of what happened and then I'll come right back, because I know we have three stories to do.

BALDWIN: Walk on over there, Chad Myers.

MYERS: I'm going to walk on. Walk with me. Walk this way.

Here is the -- right there, that's the big circle of Earth. Earth would be right there.

Today, a bus-size asteroid had this planetary right around there, and the two of them, where we are right there, that was the X marks the spot, and that was only 17,000 miles away -- 37,000 miles away from us right here as it passed on by. Now, this thing is going to be out there a long time, and the Earth is going to keep going around and around and around, so we could encounter this again.

BALDWIN: We could. I mean, I feel like we were talking about a bus- size asteroid a couple months ago. So this happens all the time.

MYERS: Oh, these happen all the time. Sure.

BALDWIN: Speaking of celestial phenomena, let's talk about this. Zoom out. OK. Let's take a look at the sky above northern Sweden.

MYERS: Oh, yes.

BALDWIN: This is Abisko National Park, latitude 68 degrees north. That's pretty far up there.

How does this happen?

MYERS: Beautiful northern lights.

The interaction, the magnetosphere, the ionosphere, the plasma coming in, the coronal mass ejection we had -- we even had some color as far south as Marquette, Michigan, with this. And literally, just one hour and two minutes ago, there was another big solar flare that came out of that same sun spot.

This is an X-2 class flare, significantly bigger than the one we had. The good news is this X Class flare that just came out is not facing the Earth, it's pointed away. But there still could be more radiation in the atmosphere. We still could be seeing this solar flare, these big things, these green skies, red skies at night --

BALDWIN: Does it really look green, or is that just because of some sort of infrared camera?

MYERS: Green is a very common color. When it turns red, that's a very uncommon color.

BALDWIN: Wow.

MYERS: This one was a green one. Every picture I've seen so far has been green.

BALDWIN: OK.

And we had to get this other story in. I love that these two guys sent Lego man --

MYERS: I think this is fabulous.

BALDWIN: -- up into the stratosphere. Here he is. What is he doing and how did they do this? They're like, what, $400 or so?

MYERS: They bought a weather balloon.

BALDWIN: OK.

MYERS: It went up 80,000 feet. A parachute was there. The balloon popped. It was 75 miles away. How did they find it? They had a GPS phone attached to this guy, and when it landed, they drove back to it and found all the parts.

And now they have 97 minutes of video of this thing going all the way up into the stratosphere. You can see the black sky. I'm thinking like the guy from virgin. What's his name, Branson? Richard Branson has to be interested in this. BALDWIN: I love that story. One of my favorites of the day. Chad Myers, thank you so much.

And now to the race for the White House. We are now four days here from the Florida primary. We're going to go live to Florida with the big debate moderator moderators, did a fantastic job last night, Wolf Blitzer talking to me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We're here to talk to the man, Wolf Blitzer. Of course, I know you watched our GOP debate last night, I know I did, and was tweeting up a storm the whole two hours. You know, Wolf was right there in the middle.

He was their moderator, Wolf Blitzer. Kudos to you, really, really excellent job last night and I just want to cover two things. But first, I want you to just give me your bottom line impression. You were there on stage. What was your impression of what happened in Jacksonville?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Over those two hours, Brooke, I thought that Mitt Romney did an excellent job. I thought Ron Paul, you know, from his perspective, very strong, very funny.

A lot of people saw a little different side of Ron Paul. This was probably Rick Santorum's best debate that he's done so far. It may be a little too late in Florida for him to go very far. The numbers here in Florida don't seem to show that he's getting much, although I suspect he'll get a little surge over the next few days before Tuesday's primary.

He's going to be spending 24 hours away going back home to Pittsburgh doing a couple of fundraisers, dealing with his tax returns and stuff like that. I'm not sure that's necessarily the smartest thing. he hasn't really spent any money advertising here in Florida.

So for all practical purposes, he doesn't expect to win the winner take all state. It was not the best performance for Newt Gingrich. I thought after Monday night's debate he was really going to come out swinging.

When attacked, he'd attacked right back. He held back, I'm not sure why, but it didn't seem to be his best performance. It wasn't the Newt Gingrich that all we know on a lot of these debate performances.

BALDWIN: You pointed out, you know, we're in the middle of this Florida primary campaign. There have been some heated debates surrounding immigration. I think that's what your second question just about the top including this ad.

This is a radio ad. This is in Spanish. You have to follow the subtitles here, just a note to our viewers, and listen for the word ghetto. OK, so that's just some of the background. You had quite the revealing exchange with Governor Romney last night. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not looking for a colony on the moon. I think the cost of that would be in the hundreds of billions, if not trillions. I would rather focus on housing here in the U.S.

BLITZER: You've had an ad running saying that Speaker Gingrich calls Spanish, quote, "The language of the ghetto." What do you mean by that?

ROMNEY: I haven't seen the ad so I'm sorry, I don't get to see all the TV ads. I doubt that's my ad, but we'll take a look and find out. There are a bunch of ads out there that are being organized by other people.

BLITZER: We did double check just now, Governor, that ad that we talked where I quoted you as saying that Speaker Gingrich calls Spanish the language of the ghetto.

We just double checked, it is one of your ads. It's running here in Florida. And on the radio and at the end you say, I'm mitt Romney and I approve this ad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Obviously, our folks right there double checked it. It was his ad. You came back to him with that. Here's my question, is it not a practice of all these different candidates to review and approve the ads that go out under their names?

BLITZER: There are so many ads that go out. You know, he should have known better and I think he'll acknowledge that if he does have a radio ad, even if it's in Spanish, even if he says I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message in Spanish, he should know it's his ad.

That was a mistake on his part. He eventually recovered from that mistake by suggesting the ad was true, that at some point, Newt Gingrich did say Spanish was the language of the ghetto. Now we fact checked that as well.

Newt Gingrich didn't exactly say Spanish was the language of the ghetto. He said all the foreign languages, when people come to the United States, they should learn English, deal in English and not deal with the language of the ghetto.

He's referring to a hundred languages that people spoke when they came here. They can keep those languages, but he did make that reference to language of the ghetto. Not necessarily the Spanish, although that was the implication of what was he had said earlier. So it's a little more complicated than the surface would suggest.

BALDWIN: A lot of talk about immigration also because it's Florida. A lot of talk about space earlier in the week in Coco, Florida. Newt Gingrich talked about his idea of colonizing the moon. You know, Mr. Ideas here. Not a lot of takers though when you're asking about that on stage. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: I'm not looking for a colony on the moon. I think the cost of that would be in the hundreds of billions, if not trillions, I would rather be rebuilding housing here in the U.S.

RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think we should go to the moon. I think maybe we should send some politicians up there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: There he is with another one-liner. You know they used to call Jerry Brown Governor Moonbeam. Does this Gingrich notion of colonizing the moon maybe opening him up to a little bit of ridicule, Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, I'm sure it has, although he stands by it because I even asked him at the debate you were watching, Brooke. I asked him, I said, it's not only colonizing the moon, establishing a permanent base or colony on the moon that you would like to achieve by your second term if you're elected president, you also went a step further and said once there are 13,000 American citizens living on that permanent base or colony, they could apply for statehood.

And a lot of people are ridiculing that and he's getting a little grief, but he's not backing away from it. He said, you know, you have to have bold, grand visions, grandiose schemes, if you don't, if you will.

If you don't, China or some other country will take advantage and do exactly that. So he's holding firm even in the face of what you correctly pointed out was ridicule, not only from his Republican challengers, but from some other folks out there.

BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, thank you. I want to keep talking about this notion of space and some news just in off the campaign trails specifically on Mitt Romney who is scheduled to appear in Cape Canavaral, Florida in just a couple hours.

He's just been endorsed in an open letter. I want to bring in our go-to guy on everything space, John Zarrella covering the space program for years and years. The people endorsing him from what I understand, John, these are heavy hitters in the realm of space.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they really are, pretty influential. You know, to pick up on what you and Wolf were discussing, a lot of these folks inside the space program have been saying to me at least if you believe in what Newt Gingrich said or not about colonizing the moon. He got the conversation about space exploration going, and it really has become sort of a pivotal issue, at least being talked about here in Florida. This open letter we received just a little bit ago from the Romney campaign. It is a letter written in support of Mitt Romney.

It is signed by, and I'll give you a few of the names. Gene Cernan, the last man on the moon, Bob Crippen, who was the pilot of the first space shuttle program and was director of the space shuttle program for a while.

Michael Griffin, the former NASA administrator and several other heavy hitters both in the commercial space industry and the private space industry. The letter says this in part, and it is a real shot at the administration as well.

Quote, "We have watched with dismay as President Obama dismantled the structure that was guiding both the government and commercial space sectors while providing no purpose or vision or mission."

It goes on to say, "Restoring the U.S. space program to greatness will require the leadership, management skill and commitment to American exceptionalism possessed by one candidate only in this race, Mitt Romney."

And I also just got off the phone with Al Warden who was the command module pilot of Apollo 15, and he said, you know what? He said, a lot of guys are missing the point here. You can't go to the moon without developing technology, you can't go into space.

What kind of motivation do kids have without the space program? And I think that in many ways, Newt Gingrich has said that on the trail.

So we have really gotten now to where we're seeing the space program being put front and center, you know, which, as you and I both know, has largely suffered really deep budget cuts and has been ignored.

BALDWIN: Yes, I'm glad the question was certainly raised during the debate last night. It was interesting to hear all four responses. It's a huge endorsement for Mitt Romney. John Zarrella, I appreciate you popping in front of the camera and giving us that news. That was significant.

Also here, three men fighting in the United States military, three men not only brothers in service, brothers in real life, but one of the brothers was killed in action back in 2009 and now their mother has to bury a second son.

All the while, a third son continues to serve his country in the Marine Corps. Coming up next, we're going to hear from a widow about her late husband and the strength of this entire family. Don't miss this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You know, for some folks, it's easy to forget that we are at war in Afghanistan, but not for the Wise family in Little Rock, Arkansas. Today, the family buried Army Ranger Benjamin Wise next to his Brother Jeremy. Take a look at this.

This is a family photo of his two brothers that's been in the uniform, Jeremy, a former Navy SEAL working as a security contractor who was killed in Afghanistan in 2009.

Ben died just this past Sunday in Germany from wounds he, too, received in Afghanistan. We wanted to play this story. This is from Andy Fox of our Virginia Beach affiliate, WABY speaking with Jeremy's widow, Dana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lots of prayers and hope.

ANDY FOX, WABY (voice-over): You cannot expect more from an American family than what the Wise family has already given.

DANA WISE, JEREMY WISE'S WIDOW: What can you say to someone who has already lost two boys? There are really no words. I don't know that she even has words.

FOX: Dana Wise knows all about lost words. Her husband, Jeremy, a former Navy SEAL, killed two years ago in Afghanistan.

WISE: Their family is so close. Even Jeremy would talk with the family every day. There would be at least two members. Gene and Mary or he would be on the phone with Heather, their sister, Ben and Beau, just laughing and loving. And they're just so much a part of their lives even though they were all over the country.

FOX: A close family so you can imagine the heart break when word came January 10th that brother Ben, a U.S. Army Green Brigade was struck down by six bullets in Afghanistan. Dana called her mother-in-law, Mary.

WISE: She was just so heartbroken. You know, we had prayed and she said, he's not going to die. He's not going to die.

FOX: But five days later, Ben did die. Mother Mary has now lost two sons.

WISE: She's always been so supportive, and it's hard to believe, actually, that anger doesn't reside in her heart, just sadness. It's taken this kind of sacrifice.

FOX: Here's Dana, her husband Jeremy on the left and Ben on the right. Three brothers, Ben and Jeremy on the right, and a third brother, Beau on the left, he's in the Marine Corps.

The Wise family benefit fund has set up this tribute internet site for Ben's family, his wife Tracy. It reads, it takes two men to make one brother. Here you can see pictures of this American family, Ben with his parents, proud parents.

WISE: She wants this country to know who these men were and how wonderful they were, and appeal to the American heart just on this was my loss but your gain. I know that she is -- her hope lies that they're together now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Fans of the NBC Comedy "The Office" know, actor, Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute, but unlike his character on the show, Wilson is committed to helping others.

In fact, in 2007, you saw a story about one of our own CNN Heroes and everyday person out changing the world. He was so moved by that he decide to do lend a hand, and still, five years later, he's involved and inspired. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAINN WILSON, ACTOR: I was literally sitting in my trailer at "The Office," and I was looking at the CNN web site and they had the CNN Heroes, I think it was in the first year.

I saw this story on this guy, Aaron Jackson. This is a young kid from Florida, worked on a golf course. Really didn't have much direction in his life.

Then he went traveling in the third world and he saw poverty and he decided to just devote his life to making the world a better place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today, we dewormed estimated maybe a little over 100 people.

WILSON: It's been great to be able to help out Aaron Jackson by doing fundraisers. I've gotten introduced to people to help raise money and help his organization really get moving.

He's the amazing guy doing all the really hard work. Give him the cash and just let him go do what he does best. They have four or five orphanages in Haiti, and I also went out when they distributed the deworming medication out in the rural villages and towns.

You're distributing food, aid all around the country. Some of the kids can be, you know, eating their cereal, but if it's so full of worms, they're unable to digest it so the food is a waste.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you see a kid that's highly anemic, not alert at all, and once you rid them of worms, they come back to life. That's what's so amazing, you see this immediate impact.

Since we started this in 2007, we actually raised enough money, with Rainn's help, to deworm every child in Haiti, all 3.2 million kids. WILSON: Anyone can be a hero. It's just takes a little bit of work. If there's one thing I could take away from my experience with CNN Heroes, is that these stories are incredibly inspiring. They inspire me to step up my game and try to do more to help the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Did you hear that? They raised enough money to deworm every child in Haiti. Here's what you need to know. One way you can help us is by telling us about someone making a big difference in your community. It's very easy. Just go to cnnheroes.com and nominate a 2012 CNN Hero.

Have you seen this video? Look at this guy? He's on a snowmobile and now he's off. Ouch, right? We couldn't help imagine it. The guy who fell, alive, walked off, win a gold medal. His name is Colten Moore. We're going to get him up live for you. Ask him some questions after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Have you seen this? Watch.

You can hear the announcer's reaction. We're reacting here in the studio. Watch him again, boom. And while you're watching, let me tell you this, the guy on that snowmobile, Colton Moore, he got up. He walked away.

This is Winter X-games, Aspen, Colorado. There he is, hands in the sky. How is he today? Let's ask. Colten is on the phone with me from Aspen, and first off, ouch. How bad -- how hard was that hit, Colton?

COLTEN MOORE, X GAMES SNOWMOBILER (via telephone): It was really rough. I mean, I know it is snow, but with those landings, they're packed in really hard. So flying 100 feet through the air and landing with nothing but yourself, it's a pretty rough hit. I was just happy I could get up and keep going.

BALDWIN: We were talking on the commercial break, I asked you if it was powder and you said, I wish, that's packed snow. I want to ask you, though, what exactly happened?

This was your second run since heat one of the elimination round. Everything was going smoothly and then what happened with the snowmobile?

MOORE: Basically, I just wanted to go out there and put in a really big run, and went for that trick and was going to throw it as big as I possibly could and ended up throwing it a little too big.

Normally you, like, float back and grab the seat. Well, when I jumped off, I jumped off too hard. Completely missed the seat and then I just got to try to fly for a little bit.

BALDWIN: So as you're flying and miss the seat, you duck, you flip, and some of this -- I don't know, it probably was just like less than even a second. Did it feel like an eternity? How did you know how to tuck, how to roll like you did?

MOORE: Definitely, flying through the air without your sled it feels like a long time. And I just knew I was coming in head first, and it's way better if you can get your head out of the way, so last second I was able to tuck and land on my back and ended up turning out pretty good for me.

BALDWIN: Ultimately pretty good for you. You won. Let's roll your successful jumps. We're not seeing you wiping out every time when we roll the video. In fact, you're competing against your brother Caleb. You finish. I'm told there is a Tebow somewhere in here. How sweet was the victory?

MOORE: It's great. The third year here, you know, I haven't had a medal yet. Then coming in this year, I knew I had a good chance for it, and I just got done throwing a solid, clean run, and I knew I had put in a good run. Just nothing better than to go out there and celebrate, give grace and throw a little Tebow.

BALDWIN: Final question, 30 seconds. I did some homework on you. You and your brother are from Crom, Texas. Is there enough snow in Texas to learn how to do this on a snowmobile?

MOORE: Definitely not. We're lucky to get snow once a year. This year we couldn't find snow anywhere. We had to go to upper Michigan to get some snow, and there still wasn't any up there.

But a lot of the time, we'll ride our quads and practice on that, and then we have a way to set up the snowmobiles to ride in Texas. I mean, we can make it happen.

BALDWIN: All right, Colten Moore, I'm glad you're a OK. Protect that head, if not, Sanjay Gupta is going to find you because we have got a big documentary coming up on Sunday.

Colten, thank you so much.