>> no, not in new york, in d.c. p. >> in a diner. it improves dramatically but no food. it begins this morning with a massacre in afghanistan apparently by an american soldier and this morning as well. the taliban is vowing revenge. the soldiers from the joint base in washington state here's how it went down. door to door he went yesterday morning in kandahar province opening fire, i'll killing at least 16 people while they slept, many children. president karzai said the dead include 9 children, 3 women. and after the attacks the soldier then returned to his base and surrendered. president obama today offering his condolences. karzai, however, is furious. is calling the killings intentional and, quote, acts of terror and unforgivable. sarah is live for news kabul, afghanistan, this morning. hey, good morning to you. what's the latest on this? >> good morn, soledad. i just saw pretty gruesome images in western afghanistan where this happened and there were some witnesses also talking saying that there was more than one soldier on the ground. there is a dispute at this point between what villages are saying and isep saying. look, this is the work of one soldier. there was no mission going on in the area. that soldier left his base. now, these villagers were apartment a kilometer to two kilometers away from the base and they said this happened sometime in the early morning hours of sunday, around 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning. but the scene there, a gruesome one. the pictures coming in to us just looked at, blood stained walls, blood stained floor, shell casings being picked up by investigators now and the bodies of children, women, and then that were piled into the back of p pickup trucks. the village is obviously very angry. many of them are shown crying, weeping, unable to speak. but some of them did speak out in the first thing they'd said is they were not, could not tolerate the american soldiers in their town anymore. that they were told by the americans that they could move back to their villages and be safe and now this has happened. soledad. >> thank you, sara. appreciate it. let's get right to gary, former marine lawyer who spent 26 years in the marine corps. he's teaching now at georgetown university. it's nice to see you. thanks for joining us. you heard sar a's report and i know that you have prosecuted cases just like this. what do you want to know from sort of the psychological profile, what stands out to you in this story, sir? >> i think we should remember first this is an event that could not be anticipated by his commanders. it's not something that could have been prevented by training. it's the criminality of a single individual. the one thing i would certainly want to know is what the state of his -- what his mental state was, was he suffering from some defect that prevented him from appreciating the wrongfulness of his abouts? in other words, was he not criminally responsibility, mentally responsible? we have to remember that he was on his fourth overseas tour. and we all heard about ptsd and what it can do in a combat zone over and over and over. that's not to excuse what is done and obviously that won't be any excuse to the afghan people. >> there were reports as sara was discussing that it could have been more than one soldier. some people felt like the amount of damage, of so great, it would hard to be one home, one home alone. 11 people, entire family, with the exception of one man away from home, completely wiped out. when you see the -- and hear about the extent of the destruction, does it strike you as too much for one individual to have done because that's obviously a point of debate at this point? >> no, i don't think it is too much for one individual given the firepower and the lethality of the munitions that we have in afghanistan. so i think this could have been done by a single individual and since we have of prehended one individual and there have been some accounts saying that he has admitted what he did, i doubt there are two individuals. but we have seen it before. we saw it at ft. bragg when we had the psychiatrist go around and kill any number of people. it is possible for one individual to have done this. >> this particular base has been the spot where other soldiers apparently have snapped for lack of a better word. isn't that correct? >> it is. we had the five individuals who were tried for what can only be termed killing just for killing. and then taking body parts as well. but they were not from the same unit, they were merely based in washington. i don't think that this indicates that there is some gang of criminals from that base. this is just unfortunate that it came from the same base, even more unfortunate that they're all americans. >> 12 suicides, i believe, at this base as well. that's the most some people have reported there and certainly the year before it was nine and the year before that nine suicides. that sounds very, very high to me. is it high and as you point out, you know, a base where a bunch of different kinds of groups are housed, could there be a correlati correlation in that, do you think? >> who knows. i think that it's unfortunate, obviously. but the high rate of suicide comports with the high operational tempo that our armed forces are undergoing in this war. we have kids going back over and over. two months ago one of our soldiers was killed on his seventh tour in combat zone. so we have -- we have seen in our combat forces suicide, high divorce rates, spousal abuse, alcohol abuse and so forth. this is all reflective of the heavy strain being put on our soldiers. again, it's no excuse for criminality and we certainly couldn't use this as an excuse for the afghan people but we have to remember that we have put a heavy strain on our combat troops. >> what we know about this soldier is sergeant, support staff working for the special forces who is in custody now and as you mentioned, three tours of duty, three in iraq. this is his fourth tour, first tour in afghanistan, has two kids, 38 years old, married, 11 years in the service. i believe, is this considered three now four tours considered to be an extraordinary number? is it considered to be a typical number? that in and of itself, that profile that i just laid out for you, is there smig unusual in that? >> no. it is not. that is fairly normal for individuals who have stayed in for more than their initial enlistment. what does stand out though is he is a staff cno, staff noncommissioned officer. he is to act on the governors of the behavior op subordinate troops. he is among those who is supposed to make sure that things like this don't happen, which, to me, indicates or suggests that he may have a mental problem. i mean, just going around and killing women and children unarmed, defenseless, is not the act that one usually associates with a normal mindset. >> we're going to be watching what the implications of this are. professor solis, thank you for being with us. we appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you. other stories making headlines, and carlos dias is back joining us. >> not to be confused but massacre in syria that just happened and, of course, not by americans but people going into work today might confuse the two, massacre by afghanistan soldier in afghanistan and now we have the same thing going on in syria but it's not americans. it's a massacre that has rocked syria, 45 women and children, slaughtered in the city of homs. rebels say government troops went house to house stabbing women and children and burning their bodies. syria's government is blaming the killings on armed terrorist groups. it fell just hours after kofi annan left syria. annan spent two days in talks with bashar als a satd, proposing an end in the violent crackdowns. american journalist marie colvin will be laid to rest in her hometown today. colvin was killed in a shelling attack in homs, syria, back in february. her private funeral will be held today in a catholic children on long island, new york. front-runner mitt romney will be campaigning in alabama and mississippi with comedian jeff foxworthy by his side. those two states host primaries today. meanwhile, rick santorum is sounding confident after conservatives helped him win n cans is on saturday. he is hoping the same thing happens in alabama and mississippi tomorrow. right now the latest cnn estimates have romney with 458 delegate, santorum with 203. newt gingrich has got 118. ron paul with 66. let's go to christine romans with a look at the business headlines. >> minding your business this morning, gas prices up three days in a row, again. the national average for a gallon of gas is now $3.80. that's according to aaa rising .9. five bucks is in sight for summer. at what point do you change your life significantly because of high gas prices? a new gallop poll found $5.35 is where you change your behavior. let's check in on the markets now. u.s. stock futures pretty much trading flat ahead of the opening bell. now that greece's debt problem seems to be under control for the moment the key for stocks is the u.s. recovery. federal reserve meetsz tomorrow on that. the fed has pledged to keep interest rates near zero for a few more years. but critics say the fed needs to do something more to boost economic growth and the recovery is still too slow. job gains notwithstanding. carlos? >> christine, mississippi pardon case is now closed. five remaining inmates have been released after the state's supreme court upheld more than 200 pardons last week. those pardons issued by out going governor haley barbour. the high court ruling it's up to the governor to decide whether the constitution's requirements were met. and it's time to not work today's. fill out your brackets and then tear them up on thursday night. it's march madness. that's right. ncaa tournament has been set. we have kentucky, syracuse, north carolina, and michigan state earning the top seeds in the regions. kentucky is fae vored to go all the bway. madness begins tuesday night. >> you say that like a parts man, all the way! >> final four in new orleans this year. tournament starts on tuesday night, not on thursday, tuesday night. the first four now. 68 teams so there's 64. >> another good reason to go to new orleans. new orleans is hosting all kinds of sporting events. >> hold on. i'm thinking that soledad is going to pick kentucky to win it all. >> didn't you just say they're the favorites? yes, i am. >> i'm thinking it's going to be kentucky against north carolina in soledad's bracket. >> you're amazing. still ahead this morning on "starting point," israel's top spy has a warning against iran. has plans to attack, quote, the stupidist thing i've ever heard. there have been reports that she was battling some of her own problems, but is it too soon for bobbi kristina to be talking about all? we'll talk about. and our "get real," homeless people turned into hot spots at the south by southwest dpes val festival. questions and much more. we leave you with mark lamont hill's play list, john legend. each one gets better. you're watching "starting point." 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[ male announcer ] at&t introduces the samsung galaxy note. phone. tablet. both. ♪ phone. tablet. both. montgomery and abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. ♪ a lot of hope in our musical selection. it gets better, we're waiting on a sunny day. that was bruce springsteen "waiten on a sunny day." we are talking about this interview that happened over the weekend, the first interview with bobbi kristina. the first one certainly since we've heard about her -- since, of course, whitney houston died a month ago. bobbi kristina turned 19 a week ago and she spoke only to oprah winfrey on the own network. here's a chunk of it. >> i really wanted to say that she was something that she wasn't and this and that. i saw her hurt. i heard that, you know, i saw her cry, you know. i mean, and i held her through that. you know. we held each other through that. we have so many people saying so many other things. but they don't know who she really was. >> joining me this morning is clinical psychologist dr. jeffrey gardiere. nice to see you. >> good morning to your wonderful panel hering. >> thank you very much. there are so many questions they wanted asked and they weren't asked. very gentle interview with a young woman who is a teenager and at the same time i thought, wow, so soon after her mother died to be doing a television interview. >> i thought it was a little bit soon but she needs the catharsis, as we say the psychology. what better person than perhaps oprah who can be soothing and comforting and is a friend of the family. of course, you would -- you would have done a great job, too. >> no, no, i meant i would call oprah if i had an issue, too. but i guess i mean it's going to be televised. it's not just oprah and soothing and comforting because i would love to talk to her about all kinds of issues. it's more that you know this is a television event and that part of it, i thought, it was sort of soon. >> if you're going to come out so soon to do this, what better person than oprah because she will support you through that and we know that she is a family friend to bobbi kristina, was to whitney and their family and so on. so i think in some ways she really held her hand through that interview. it was really kind of a softball interview and that's okay, too. >> teenage girl who loved her mother. >> of course. of course. >> 19 years old. plus, we know that bobbi kristina, from what we've been told, she really is kind of a fragile person, allegedly may have had some substance accuse issues of her own. we don't know how much of that is true. but certainly this is a person who needed to talk about it and get her story out and do it in a friendly way. >> in that little clip it almost sounded like the roles were reversed, how many she had to comfort her mom to make her understand, you know, we know who the real you is and it's not other people. she talked to build up her self-esteem in a way. i thought that was kind of surprising, the teenager kind of mom being a parent to the mom. >> well, we see that all the time. we tall that a parentified child because obviously whitney had her substashs ance abuse issues. i'm not surprised at all in any way that bobbi kristina talked about how she was there for her mother and how she supported her through all of her issues. >> there have been reports that she's thinking about changing her name, bobbi kristina. >> yes, i think it's not so much because she has issues with her dad, and obviously she has. bobby brown is a very interesting person and i'll thought it was really great that they didn't slam him in that interview. they were very respectful. but at the same time, i think this young girl is so close to a mother, they were friends for one another, it really was a very intense one-on-one relationship, especially with the substance abuse issues. i'm not surprised at all that she wants to change her name to houston. >> yeah. >> interesting story. i felt so sorry for her. she's just a teenage girl. so see her on camera it was like, oh, you're just a little girl. >> this is a girl who has been hospitalized twice after the death of her mother. so i hope she's not by herself. i hope she is continued to be supported by family members because that's what she really needs right now. >> that's true. thank you. thanks for the analysis of it, jeff. still ahead this morning on "starting point," a comic-con tro controversy, some newspapers are yanking a doonesbury comic strip about abortion law. plus, if you look at this t-shirt, we're going to show you right here, it says, i'm clarence, a 4g hot spot. you can text the number on this man's shirt, pay him a fee and get speedy wi-fi. but these shirts being worn by homeless people at south by southwest is our "get real" this morning. we leave you with grover norquist's play list. deep purple, "smoke on the water." all right. we're back in a moment. when i grow up, 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. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. the priceline negotiator went down in that fiery bus crash. yes i was. we lost a beautiful man that day. but we gained the knowledge that priceline has thousands and thousands of hotels on sale every day. so i can choose the perfect one for me without bidding. is it hard for you to think back to that day? oh my, this one has an infinity pool. i love those they just... and then drop off, kinda like the negotiator. nice mellow way to start. welcome back, everybody. this is mark lamont hill's play list, the roots, "silent treatment." monday morning, i couldn't get it together. there is no blog today. couldn't do it. busy. time to "get real qult" this mo. this is a question about the line of being helpful and being hue muhumiliating. we were just in south texas and there were 13 men wearing these shrks t-shirts. i'm clarence, a 4g hot spot. they give a pay pal donation to that homeless man and then all of a sudden you get high speed internet access on your phone on ipad. mark is going like this, no, no, no. critic, not just you, are saying a campaign is disturbing. dehumanizing and it's offensive. the marketing company behind the plan is called bb-8, say not backing down. he says this, homeless hot spots, the worry is these people were suddenly just hardware, is a quote, but frankly i wouldn't have done this if i didn't believe otherwise. why do you think it's so offensive? i have my reasons. you tell me yours. >> it's exploiting poor people. there's this idea this this country that to help poor people we can shame them, get in a position to need help from anyone, it's okay to do it. >> what if i said they did this in conjunction with a homeless advocacy group called front steps and that all the money that someone donates to that particular homeless person goes to that specific person. it doesn't go to the marketing company, it doesn't go to fund anything other than that guy clarence. clar rehn's t-shirt says my name is clarence, i am from new orleans, i lost he home in katrina. most people at that festival would not interact with those people, might hand him a buck or two but for the most part would ignore him. does that information change your mind in any way? >> it interests me. it doesn't change my mind in any way. i still think there's something demoralizing in this t-shirt saying that i'm a hot spot and knowing he's homeless and probably this is the only way we can subsist for a while and sustain his life. i understand the person behind it wouldn't do it if they didn't think it was dehumanizing. >> if it was a teenager doing it as a job. i did stuff like this when i was a teenager and it was called work. and you got paid, not by a contribution but you got paid by the company that wanted to hand out fliers about their new restaurant. so why didn't they just pay them? >> there's a difference between that and what we see in this picture. >> would it be better if they paid him? would it be better if they paid the guy? >> that would be fine. right? we're advertising something. people wear t-shirts. >> i guess i meant do you think that the backlash would be less if they were paying him? >> no one would notice if it was just people doing it as job. >> if you were out of new york city you see people for check cashing places or other things where they dressed in diaper or wearing crazy outfits. i think, wow, these people are being humiliated for a small amount of money. we just can't. >> i agree. i think there is something that is standout neon signish about this that is different. >> interactive festival and the backlash certainly on twitter and elsewhere in south by southwest has been very -- >> advertising. >> advertising. yes, it's advertising. a new low, a new -- i don't know what you call it. >> and there you have to point. we're going to continue our conversation, of course, during our commercial breaks. if you want to join us head online. we record all the conversations that i go personally off the wall and then once i clean them up we post them to our blog at cnn.com/startingpoint. still ahead on "starting point," primary fight in the deep south. talking about grits and a little bit about grit, too, the two contests that are happening tomorrow. of course, alabama and mississippi. could they be game changers? how many times have we said game changing? i should get a dollar every time i say that. also, rick santorum is declaring war on teleprompters. we'll tell you why. and could gas prices sink the president's chances? new numbers out and very bad news for his campaign. we're going to leave you with carlos diaz' play list, run dmc "it's tricky." [ jane ] how did i get here? with determination. courage. and all the points i earned with my citi thankyou card. [ male announcer ] the citi thankyou card. redeem points for travel on any airline with no blackout dates. ♪ mark's going, this is not mine. this is not mine. >> not this one. >> this is ryan lizza's playist, beck, "e-pro." he will be back to breakdown the contests happening tomorrow. first, though, other stories making headlines. carlos is back with that. >> new israeli air strikes targeting palestinian militants in gaza. palestinian office shultz shuls saying three people were killed today including a teenager. three deaths have been reported since they began on friday. israel's minister of defense, the air strike says it's a response to barrage of rockets being fired from gaza into towns in southern israel. when it comes to israel's confrontation with iran, former head of them say they shouldn't rush to attack iran's nuclear facility. the mayor warns it could set off a regional war. on cbs' "60 minutes" he says there's still more time for diplomacy. >> you have said publicly that bombing iran now is the stupidest idea you've ever heard. that's a direct quote. >> attack on iran before you explore all other approaches is not the right way, how to do it. >> dagan says a nuclear armed iran is not an israeli problem, it's an international problem. when the comic strip meets the editorial page, the creator of doonsburgry defending his latest comic strip which takes on a texas law that requires women to undergo an ultrasound before getting an abortion. in the strip a woman visits an abortion clinic and she's placed in a shaming room. a male legislator also calls her a slut. some papers have pulled the comic for the six-day run. and some like the l.a. times moved the paper to the op-ed section. this may cost rick santorum the key on-camera vote. santorum is taking a stand on teleprompters at a campaign events in mississippi. santorum said he believes it should be illegal for presidential candidates to read off the teleprompter. we can still do it. he calls them digital mouth pooess for pollsters and speech writers. santorum's war on teleprompters is aimed at his rifrival mitt r and president obama. tiger woods came back, speed bump yesterday. former number one golfer was forced withdraw in miami yesterday after 11 holes. he was helped off of the course at doral on a golf cart. tiger says his injured achiachis tendon was hurting. the masters coming up in 3 1/2 weeks. we'll see if he's doing okay by then. quick check of the travel weather with meteorologist alexandra steele. >> if you're flying in and around the upper midwest, sped d burchs. severe storms possibly. maybe an isolated tornado. more hail and some very strong winds. pacific northwest, seating, portland, rain, snow, higher elevations could see one to four inches of rain and maybe one of two feet of snow. also some showers here in the southeast. so maybe a wet go. so hot spots if you're traveling. chicago, indy, detroit, upper midwest. especially late this afternoon and tonight. atlanta and port land, biggest story, carlos, the heat. 100 record highs over the weekend. temperatures 20 to 30 degrees above average for the next really couple of days. >> wow, it's the winter that never happened. >> that's right. >> exactly. it's unbelievable. finally, alexandra, what do barbara walters, condoleezza rice, lucille ball, and dakota fanning all have in common? they were all girl scouts. today is the 100 anniversary of the girl scouts. it was founded by juliette gordon low, to build girl's con fis dense and character and to make the world a better place. no mention of girl scout cookies. no, it is -- why want to know is when did dakota fanning have time to be a girl scout? she was an actress from birth. >> they have girl scout troops everywhere. even for girls whose moms are incarcerated. >> wow. >> it really is a pretty amazing organization that does a lot to help out girls wherever they are. i'm a big fan. i was never a girl scout though. i made it for a day and dropped out. >> did you really? >> you dropped out the first day. >> now i'm sddestined to failur. apparently all the women were girl scouts but not me. i wonder you can be an old girl scout. >> never too late. >> no, i think it is, actually. >> you sell enough cookies, soledad, you're back in good standing. >> i think not. i think the whole girl name gets you kicked out. >> people go back to college. >> you cannot reclaim the girlhood, is what i'm saying. let's talk politics, two key southern primaries tomorrow for the gop presidential candidates. there's alabama and there's mississippi. republican caucuses as well in american so molsomoa and hawaii. mitt romney took guam and virgin islands. when you count delegates it was pretty much a wash. here's a delegate stally. mitt romney has 458 bell gates. santorum has 203. gingrich has 118. ron paul is steady with 6 6 delegates. let's get right to it. let's look forward to what is going to happen when we go down south and also look a little bit back to kansas and wyoming. rick santorum really killed it in ckansas. 51-21%. here's what he said after that primary. >> someone outspent 10-1 has all the establishment behind him, has all this, quote, wind at his back, yet he can't close the deal. >> is that -- i mean, i think a lot of people say that's true. others say, listen, it's all about delegate count. which is it? >> i don't think he has all the establishment behind him. i think that's one of the interesting dynamics in this race is romney has not a chully been able to solidify the united front of the republican establishment and, specifically, religious conservatives who by any definition in the republican establishment have to be part of that. and this primary is basically the same story in state after state. the demographics are very clear. romney is winning, more educa d educated, wealthier voters by big margins. santorum is evangelicals, low income voters. and i don't really see any reason to think that's going to change as we go through the next state. it's been pretty consistent right through. >> so then if this continues to be a dogfight and we see the demographic shifts, sustain themselves in the exact same way. doesn't this deenergize republican base by the time you get to a general election because nobody will be satisfied with romney or if santorum wins, nobody will be satisfied? >> that is the big question of this race. and, you know, i don't think it's settled. on the one hand you could argue that barack obama is the great uniter and, you know, just because a party is evenly divided does not mean it's deeply divided and these divisions over class and religion will melt away once romney who is still likely to be the nominee wraps it up. on the other hand, there's some evidence from the last round of exit polling that romney voters and santorum voters just don't like the other guy. now, we don't know how serious that is. i tend to think -- i tend to be more towards the previous view, that this is -- that the party will come together. but we're starting to see some evidence that some of santorum's voters are saying they don't want romney and won't vote for him. >> when mark was asking his question, grover was shaking hid haes no. why? >> one of the reasons this has been so interesting, you started with ten guys. unlike taft, eisenhower, reagan, bush, goldwater, rockefeller, there isn't some ideological divide among the ten republicans running, now four running for president. they're all running as reagan republicans, which is why the electorate could flip from one to the other have a serial monogyny thing going on, all like rick perry, all like herman cain and go back and forth. because they're so similar on the central issues. none want to raise your taxes, spend less, less regulation, and don't want to raise taxes and don't want to do obama care. it's so similar that it's easy for people to jump back and forth and easy to pull back together. >> grover, two things you're missing. why they may be a same page, ideologically deep trust of mitt romney, they may like what he says but deep trust they don't believe he will do what he says. other divide here i think is the around the socially and cultural issues, particularly religious. evangelicals are skeptical of him on faith issues. whether or not it's fair is irrelevant. they may stay home. that's what would depress the republican base and could cause president obama to easily win the re-election. >> lindsey graham is not endorsing but he said this over the weekend. listen. >> mathematically, this thing is about over but emotionally it's not. i think everybody believes if i could just get a one-on-one with romney i could win this thing. but if romney does well wednesday, the mississippi or alabama, and wins illinois, then i think it's virtually impossible for this thing to continue much beyond early may. but there's a ways to go yet. it's romney's to lose. >> what does that mean, emotionally it's not over. and really what does that mean for november? >> well, maybe he means a lot of voters are not voting for romney just aren't ready to get on board. i think li lindsey graham is right is what will break this base open is santorum op romney or gingrich can win somewhere not expected. you have these two coalitions. if romney can go down to mississippi and alabama and expand his coalition and do well and win one of those states that makes it very difficult for the other guys to stick around. but it's theoretically possible for santorum, if gingrich is out of the race, it's theoretically possible for santorum to build a lead, not likely, but what he can do is he can prevent romney from getting a mar jority. >> every single thing that ryan has said today is, this but this and this but this. we appreciate it, ryan. thank you for your music today. very good. we approve. >> last time you said it was too sleepy. >> i know. yes. yes. it's fine now. you can come back any time you want. >> i'm bringing metallica next time. >> i love it. still ahead on "starting point," gas price pressure in addition to all the other political stories and you probably felt the pinch on this. gas prices is going to go up. we'll discuss that, straight ahead. congressman who is heading to the side of the father of two who is facing deportation. we're going to talk to congressman luis gutierrez, leader on u.s. immigration policy. getting ryan lizza one more play list number before he departs. it's spoon, "i turn my camera on." 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[ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are to have nine 2012 iihs top safety picks. so we're celebrating with our "safety in numbers" event. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $219 a month. grover norquist, you're so cool. booker t and the mgs, "green onions." >> it's our poll music. >> i like it. they're probably great discussions behind what's going to be the music for the phone calls at americans for tax reform. everybody has to boogie down with that. let's talk about gas prices this morning. looks like they could be hurting president obama's re-election. disapproval rating is on record high, despite the recent job growth of which showed a gain of 227,000 jobs last month. "washington post"/abc poll reveals 50% of americans disprove of the way the president is doing his job over all. 59% disapprove of his handling of the economy. 55% disapprove of the handling of the rising gas price issue. new national average for a gallon of gas is $3.80 a gallon. it's interesting a at time when the economy appears to be doing better and the job numbers last week, gas prices could kill him in the white house in re-election chances. >> the white house is not doing welcoming out of previous recoveries, the gas prices hurt because he and chu and his other guys who do energy, have stated this is their goal, they wanted higher gas prices and higher energy prices to force people to change their behavior. so closing down pipelines, not letting drilling offshore. the president has done a series of things which give you higher gas prices. we can't turn around and say i was trying to avoid this. he's been doing things to do this. >> closing down the pipeline has not translated into the fact that i paid $3.87 at the pump. >> when you open up new drilling places in louisiana or in alaska, it has an effect on people's view of whether they're getting price gouged. >> psychological. >> that's important. i think the obama administration pushed that point forward. even if we began offshore drilling, the effects would be long determine and decrease prices at the pump by a few cents. the issue here has very little to do with president obama's response to gas or to energy. i think it's something he has to deal with though certainly because voters don't wear about the nuance of this. they care about the -- >> energy production on federal land is down. on private land, state land, it's up. when he's in charge of it, it's gone down. when other people are in charge of it, it's gone up. that is his job. >> i understand what you're saying but i also think that what you're saying is absolutely right. i think this is a gut reaction issue for voters. i think that they can see all the other eindicators but this s a fragile rebuild for the president right now as he heads toward october, heads toward november. there are elements of gatz prices out of his control. there are some in his control. i don't know how well he's going to be able to separate that out for voter it is they feel they are paying more, there's going to be anger and they are going to take it out on the incumbent. they just are. >> absolutely. >> what do you think is the long-term strategy if, many people have said on either side of the aisle, the president himself, the white house does not control gas prices today? what's the strategy? for good and for bad, and yet everyone will believe that the president controls gas prices and will blame him for it and re-election efforts -- >> articulate with the voters. he said i inherited this mess. >> that story is not going to work. you can't say i inherited gas prices. >> bush had gas prices at $4 pr gas prices. we have short memories. >> you can't kill keystone and said i had nothing to do with it. >> these prices have doubled since he came in. the recovery is weak. it's not being driven by demand increases. this is a real problem. again, he's made decisions which didn't allow you to drill more. he gave a speech that supplied us free economics. drilling more won't give you lower prices. >> we're going to continue this conversation to the commercial break. we'll break up the group. still ahead, starting point, father of two is in an immigration battle and it's a case that could put president obama's deportation policy into focus for 2012. we'll be joined by luis gutierrez next. and some of the dumbest people are members of congress. that's what speaker boehner says. you have to listen to that we'll be back in just a moment. of general mills big g cereal,x 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. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. a traffic stop threatens to rip a family apart and heats up the immigration debate. the guy at the middle of this is 27 years old. he was pulled over for speeding in the state of south carolina under new south carolina immigration law the officer detained him after learning he did not have a driver's license. now sanchez faces deportation. he has been in the country for 13 years. father of two children that are both u.s. citizen. the illinois democratic congressman luis gutierrez is backing sanchez taking up his fight traveling to northern california for a hearing tomorrow. he joins us this morning. nice to see you, sir, thank you for talking to us. you're a congressman from illinois. why are you involved in a case that really takes place in south carolina? >> because it affects the policy nationally. i have in my own district thousands of families that wake up each day to work really hard and our system is broken. i have soldiers that have been ordered to go to afghanistan who live in my congressional district whose wives are under order of deportation. it's a national policy, soledad. i think when i look at the case, it's going to be in charlotte, north carolina. that's where the immigration hearing is going to take place. i'll have religious leaders, family, friends, community leaders stand up for him because as you suggested earlier the obama administration says we want to make a change. we want to shift. we want to shift our focus to violent criminals, to gang bangers, to drug dealers, rapists, murderers and not people like this man who came here when he was 15 years old. >> no one is arguing the point that he ran a red light. he was speeding when he ran that red light when they stopped him, it turned out he didn't have a driver's license. plenty of people would say -- and he's not in the country with documents, all those things, he should be gone. >> well, he didn't run a red light. he was given a ticket for one thing and that was driving without a driver's license and he was pulled over as he was pulling into the home that he owns. here's somebody undocumented coming to this country with two american citizen children. as we try to use resources to go against people that do harm, that's what we should do. tomorrow we have this wonderful opportunity to see a young man who came here when he was 15, eligible under dream act standards, who came here when he was 15 and now has two american citizen children. i want to share this. there are 5 million american citizen children whose parents are undocumented in this country. we need to have a policy that allows american citizen children to have parents to raise them. >> what do you think the chances are that he's going to be able to stay and what do you think the implications are because i know eventually what you're trying to do is target the obama administration's deportation policy. >> well, what we want to do is the deportation policy clearly enunciated by this administration in august of last year said if you have american citizen children and you haven't violated any -- you haven't committed any felonies which clearly sanchez has not, he was immediately outside his trailer park home in south carolina, he's not a violent criminal. we should allow him to raise his children and if you follow the policies as set out by the administration, otherwise what you're saying is undocumented workers in this country under the new policy and under the new guidelines for driving without a driver's license is equal to selling drugs, is equal to murder and mayhem. >> what do you think your chances are as you know the administration has deported more than a million immigrants. >> here's what we're going to do. we're going to take the document issued by homeland security and we're going to challenge them to do the right thing. when we sat down with the president, i think it is really clear that he wants to distinguish between those in this country causing harm and those that are kind of trapped in a broken immigration system attempting to raise their american citizen children and to have a viable future here in this country. >> congressman luis gutierrez, chairman of the immigration task force. we'll follow this case to see what happens to him and if he is actually at the end allowed to stay in the country or is deported. a starting point, u.s. soldiers and citizens on alert overseas for revenge attacks after it appears one soldier has gone on a bloody rampage in afghanistan. we'll talk to jim frederick of "time" magazine who wrote about how to stop soldiers from becoming murderers and then the people behind the viral kony 2012 videotape expect to release another video today responding to critics who question the group's management and motives. we're back in just a moment. 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[ male announcer ] help your family stay afloat at aflac.com. plegh! at aflac.com. ♪ ♪ one, two, three, four ♪ you say ♪ flip it over and replay ♪ we'll make everything okay ♪ walk together the right way ♪ do, do, do, do good morning. our starting point this morning, a u.s. soldier targeting women and children as they slept in an afghan village and now the taliban is vowing revenge. what made this soldier snap? we'll take a look at that this morning. it's sort of like "the daily show" of iran reaching millions of iranians inside and outside the country despite the fact that iran has banned the show. we'll tell you about the man behind the show fighting to end internet censorship. go ahead and skip college. it's not worth your time and now headed to college to be a professor. his classes are jammed. it's monday, march 12th. "starting point" begins right now. welcome back. you're listening to kindred "far away." also on our panel this morning, a political reporter for politico. mark is a professor at columbia university rejoining our panel and we have the president for tax reform also has a book. i love when you bring the book out to set. it's got a long title. "the debacle, obama's war on job and growth and what we can do now to regain our future." it's a great book. we had you on a few weeks ago when we were in a diner in d.c. together. now in the studio. we're talking our top story about this attack in afghanistan. it's just about 3:30 in the afternoon in afghanistan. it's where american leaders are trying to calm the outrage after a massacre by what seems to be just one american soldier. the taliban is already vowing revenge. the killings took place early yesterday morning in kandahar. the suspect is a sergeant in his mid 30s served several tours of duty in iraq but his first deployment to afghanistan. apparently, allegedly, he shot and killed nine children, three women and four men before he returned to his base and surrendered. president obama has called the afghan president, hamid karzai offering his condolences but karzai says the killings were acts of terror and unforgivable. let's get to barbara starr live at the pentagon this morning. >> reporter: good morning. tough business. right now what we can tell you is the full investigation is under way. the criminal investigative command have special agents on the ground at the scene starting to conduct the investigation. these are some of the most highly trained military investigators. the suspect remains in afghanistan. they are not saying where he is due to safety concerns. they are not saying if and when they will bring him back to the united states. they are also telling us officially they will not release his name unless charges are brought against him. that could be sometime off but of course we're all endeavoring to learn more about this man and what made him do this. he walked away from his base in the early morning hours, conducting this crime by all accounts, and then simply walked back in. soledad? >> i'm sure as details come out in this case it will be shocking. what we know is already surprising. barbara starr at the pentagon for us this morning. thank you, barbara. let's get to jim frederick, international editor at "time" magazine. in your book, you examine the 101st airborne division and you talked about what really made some of these service men snap for lack of a better word. when you hear this case, what do you start thinking about? >> well, actually i start thinking about a couple things. first and foremost is leadership. how is a single sergeant able to just walk away from a base and return back a couple minutes or a couple of hours later. there are supposed to be processes in place where this is not allowed to happen. it's inconceivable that a soldier could just walk off of a base. first thing is leadership and then the second thing is the obvious, you know, adverse effects that do come about from repeated tour of duty after tour of duty after tour of duty. the literature is very clear that there are negative implications for prolonged combat and nothing can absolve this soldier from committing the act that he committed but there are supposed to be processes and combat psychologists in place to get soldiers who are at risk to civilians out of the theater of command like that. >> you did many, many interviews in iraq because your book was based around what was happening in iraq. this obviously is afghanistan. you had a lot of questions about the psychology of why. in the book you described a unit that was undermanned, lots of casualties, lots of stress. they started to hate the people, the very people they were supposed to be protecting. what role did that play in what happened in the case that you wrote about and where do you see potentially sort of correlations to what we are just beginning to hear about out of afghanistan? >> the correlations are very distinct. i think the biggest problem that you have when you see atrocities committed by u.s. service members is with when there's adver adversial relationship. there were practices where the main thrust of the military was to protect and to keep the people safe from insurgents in iraq. part of what you have seen over the past couple of months in afghanistan is a real deterioration of the mission there. this is coming after the koran burning incident and this is really a worse case scenario. the last thing the administration needs right now because what you see is when the people and the military see each other as enemies, you are ripe for occasions to happen like this. >> so what else do you want to hear about this guy? there's very little that we know. 38 years old. two kids. four tours. three of them in iraq. this is his first tour in afghanistan. he's married apparently. beyond that not a lot that we know. what else would you like to know first and foremost? >> well, first and foremost i want to know everything about him and his psychology. i want to know everything about his tour of duty. the second thing i want to know is where was his platoon sergeant? where was his platoon leader? where was his squad leader? is he a squad leader? the u.s. army is set up so they don't like to maneuver in anything less than a squad which is 10 or 11 men if it can help it. the entire army is set up so that a soldier is never supposed to be alone. usually that's for the soldier's own health and welfare to protect the soldier but things like this are not supposed to happen because a soldier is not supposed to go out alone. where is the rest of his unit and how did he get out of the base? >> so many more details. those details are just coming to us. thank you for joining us this morning. we appreciate your time. other stories making headlines this morning. >> we start with a different massacre that happened in syria rocked by this vicious massacre. 45 women and children slaughtered in the city of homs. rebels say government troops went house to house stabbing women and children and then burning their bodies. syria's government is blaming the killings on armed terrorists groups. the tragedy fell just hours after former u.n. secretary-general kofi annan left syria and spent two days in talks with syria's president bashar al assad proposing an end to violent crackdowns. invisible children, the group behind kony 2012 video exploding on the web with close to 73 million views is expected to release another video today. this one to answer critics who question the group's management and motives. the video is posted to bring attention to atrocities committed by joseph kony. one of kony's victims said the video turned him into a celebrity in the u.s. the race for the republican nomination shifts to the deep south today. mitt romney will be campaigning in alabama and mississippi with comedian jeff foxworthy by his side. those two states host primaries tomorrow. rick santorum is sounding confident after conservative voters delivered him a win in kansas on saturday. he's hoping the same thing happens in alabama and mississippi tomorrow. right now here's the latest cnn estimate. romney with 458 delegates. santorum with 203. newt gingrich as 118 delegates. ron paul with 66. all right. fill out your brackets today and then tear them up on thursday night. it's march madness. the selections have been made. the ncaa tournament is set. kentucky, syracuse, north carolina, michigan state, all earning top seeds in their regions. kentucky is the favorite to go all the way. number one seed in the tournament. madness begins on tuesday night in dayton, ohio. not on thursday. you have to get your brackets in early at work. final four is in new orleans this year. soledad? >> all right. rip them up because everything will change. i love the come from behind stories. the gonzagas. >> you picked them to go far this year. >> i cursed them. >> the coach from gonzaga is about to call me saying don't pick me please. still ahead on "starting point," a billionaire investor who paid kids to drop out of college and start a business and who also is called college a waste of time and money is now teaching at stanford. we'll tell you why. also they call "the daily show" of iran. creator says he can't be censored. he's fighting back. we'll leave you with maggie's play list. who is this? >> i'm not going to attempt to pronounce the last name. >> we call him iz on the set. "somewhere over the rainbow." listen. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. call now for our free guide and tips on planning for your retirement this tax season. >> that's not "starting point." that's what some people call "the daily show" of iran. outlawed in iran but people pick it up on illegal satellites and they also download it illegally online. there's a longer clip that's translated. the emotion out of it is clear enough. listen to this. the co-creator and also executive producer joins us from south by southwest festival in austin, texas, which is where we were on friday. nice to see you. thanks for having us. tell me what the clip was about. i know even jon stewart of "the daily show" says your version is hilarious. what was that clip about? >> good morning. thanks for having me. basically this is a typical show for us. every week we just collect all of the crazy stuff that the government talks about and airs on their state media and we basically just kind of air the clip and then just add a couple bridges to it and we put it together and show the craziness and hypocrisy within the government when it comes to everything. >> your show launched in 2009 before the iranian elections. you used to work as a war correspondent for voice of america. why do you think your show has been so incredibly popular? >> it's extremely popular simply because humor is really one way -- comedy is really one way to fight oppressive regimes and tyrant governments like iran. we've seen it work in the west with shows like "the daily show" and if it works here, it should work in the east. humor tends to disarm people and when you take away the threatening attitude of words like war and hawkish hosts that we have in many shows, when you put that aside and make fun of yourself, people become more receptive to the information that you are giving them and they get to enjoy it and also it makes them think about the issue that you are talking about and bringing up. >> you're banned in iran but many people find you by illegal downloads or illegal satellite dishes. you have a new campaign which is why you're at south by southwest. tell me about this campaign and why you're doing it. >> the campaign is a global art project actually. it's about internet censorship around the world. there are some advocacy groups out there providing a lot of information and they are very active about this but no one has ever done anything like this as an art project. we got help to design the art work for us to create this little box telling the world that you can't censor me. we're still watching you. and internet freedom is our right. every person's right to have. the whole world is seeing each other and watching each other but what we saw in 2009 with arab spring and projects like 2012, this is all because of the internet. it empowers people to organize and make a big difference around the world and it makes people connect and understand what's going on and no government should ever be allowed to take that away from us and that's what we're trying to do. we're trying to raise awareness and take awareness into action, policy changes, corporate responsibility and that kind of stuff. that's how this is all about. we created the website. it's called weapons of mouse destruction.org. >> people can check out the show online as well. nice to see you. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. i appreciate it. still ahead this morning, a superstar investor offering students to drop out of cash is now a professor at stanford university. we'll talk about what's changed his mind. you're watching "starting point." we're back in just a moment. ness grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ ♪ >> that's estelle featuring rick ross. i like that. i like that. >> i'm going to loan you my ipod. >> that would be nice. >> i can totally see that. silicon valley superstar says he thinks college is a waste of time and money. that's what he has said. now teaching a course at stanford university. he graduated from stanford with two degrees and went on to found paypal. he argues that young people should skip college, which leaves them with crushing debt and instead start their own companies. in fact, he was even at one point offering $100,000 to young entrepreneurs if they dropped out of school to pursue their dreams. thiel says he wants to reach out to people in different spaces and he says if i do my job right, this is the last class you will ever have to take. i think it's interesting. it does seem to undermine this whole theory. >> it's a big hustle. >> he doesn't need a hustle. he's a zillion aare. >> for some people it's a waste of time before you go to do something else. for others it's been useful. i guess his point is for some people just go do what you want to do. >> wouldn't it be great to learn from a guy who has done it and then you could if you were the kind of person who could drop out of school and not pay tuition and instead funnel that into a business. >> it's such bad advice. >> we thought you were just on the panel. it's all coming very clear. >> i need a job. >> 700,000 professors in this country. >> it beats working. >> the problem is i have 30 students who may drop out in a semester in a year at every college i ever taught at. 29 end up waiting tables. one is successful. >> people have an idea that they can turn realistically into a business. not talking about people saying i can't afford school anymore so i'll drop out and get a job. >> i'm not talking about people with financial problems. i am talking about people that say i have this great thing and it's not a good idea. >> still ahead on "starting point," the house speaker boehner says some of the dumbest people in america are members of congress. that's not all he said. we'll let you know. controversy over critical race theory was reignited. we'll take a closer look at racism and the law straight ahead. a flight from dallas to chicago, did you hear this story? starts off perfectly fine. that shrieking is the flight attendant. she starts saying i'm not responsible for this plane crashing. several times. my gosh. it's the video that's terrible. the story is unbelievable. we'll talk this morning to a guy who helped hold down, pin down, the flight attendant on this flight that was heading to chicago. you're watching "starting point" where we have to take a break. we're back in just a moment. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. ah, welcome to hotels.com. i get it...guys weekend. yeah! if you're looking for a place to get together, you came to the right place. because here at hotels.com, we're only about hotels. yeah! yeah! noooo. yeah! finding you the perfect place is all we do. welcome to hotels.com fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink this is arcade fire ready to start but no one is taking credit for it. we'll assign it to ryan. stories making headlines this morning. let's get to carlos diaz for those. >> the house to house shooting spree took place early sunday morning in the kandahar province. u.s. military officials say that one american soldier is responsible. the taliban releasing a statement calling the attack the work of "sick minded american savages" who committed a "blood soaked and inhumane crime." are high gas prices hurting president obama? the new national average for a gallon of regular has risen to $3.80 a gallon. president obama's disapproval rating is rising too. a new "the washington post"/abc poll shows that 50% disapprove of the job and 59% of his handling of the economy and 65% disapprove of the handling of the rising gas prices. john boehner says he has to be a big brother, a father and a disciplinarian and dean of students when dealing with the members of the house of representatives. the speaker making headlines with an interview he gave to "the wall street journal." here's some of what he said about his colleagues in the house. "we've got 435 members. it's just a slice of america. it really is. we've got some of the smartest people in the country who serve here and some of the dumbest. we've got some of the best people you would ever meet and some of the raunchiest. we've got them all." aparentsly it's like where you work. everyone is different. >> i'm in charge of all of these crazy children. thank you. appreciate that. last week we had a lot of feedback on a debate we had about critical race theory. it was brought back into the spotlight, the academic theory that nobody was talking about, brought into the spotlight by joe who was on our show talking about what he called a bombshell, a video released by the website. the video shows a hug between harvard law school student barack obama and professor derrick bell. one of the founders of critical race theory. on this show he implied or nearly said that bell was a radical because he helped develop his theory. we got into debate about what critical race theory is. that's a complete misreading. i'll let you continue. that's a complete misreading of critical race theory. that's an actual theory. you could google it. that's not correct. >> in what way is it a critical misreading? explain to your readers what critical race theory is. >> i'm going to ask you to continue on. i'll point out that is inaccurate. tell me what the bombshell is. >> you made a claim that my characterization of critical race theory as opposite of martin luther king is inaccurate. you tell your viewers that. >> critical race theory looks into the intersection of race and politics and the law. as a legal academic who would study this and write about this, he would advance the theory about what exactly happened when the law was examined in terms of racial politics. there's no white supremacy in that. it's a theory. academic theory and one of the leading academics at harvard law school part of that conversation so that's a short definition of it. >> i'm glad we got you saying that on tape because that's a complete misrepresentation. critical race theory is all about white supremacy holding that civil rights laws are ineffective and racial inqual y inequality is impossible. >> it started there and went downhill from there. let's bring in a professor of law. you wrote the book. i am going to have you walk us through the whole conversation. give us a one-on-one in terms of understanding. what is critical race theory? >> critical race theory seeks to explain judicial decisions by asking the question what does race have to do with it? it's that simple and that straightforward. there's no hidden conspiracy theory behind it. it looks at race in america. we know through our history that race has had a lot to do with judicial decisions and statutes. >> when we had that conversation, which you were just listening to, and it went on and on and on for at least ten minutes, one of the things you heard mr. pollak say that it's about white supremacy. you teach this theory. you have written a book about it. is it about that? >> it's not about white supremacy. i think of the ku klux klan. critical race theory is the opposite of that. i have no idea what he was talking about. >> when you look at wikipedia entries and did you know from the time we've done that back and forth to today, the wikipedia entry has been changed 82 times. i haven't touched wikipedia entry. i have other stuff to do. are you surprised that there is this parsing of the wikipedia? is it a theory that's so nuance that there are various interpretations of it? >> i would say there are various interpretations to this extent. there are lots of critical race theorists at different ends of the spectrum. if you got five of us in a room, we might get into a fight about what critical race theory was but no one would say it's about white supremacy. we agree on that. >> he said the theory holds that civil rights movement was a sham and in one of the conversations we had we talked about how bell was criticized by some black leaders and critical of them. would he have said that civil rights movement was a sham or that brown versus board of ed was a sham? >> he has been critical of civil rights cases like brown vs. board of education. the solution did not get the children what the children needed. perhaps the lawyers in the cases didn't spend enough time talking to the parents. professor bell's argument is, you know, maybe if we had gotten fully funded separate but equal that might have been a better alternate ive to what we have today. >> we can see the clear foot parent of critical race theory all over the obama administration because this theory was really a conversation that they are trying to connect it to president obama's embrace of bell who was one of the founders of the theory. goes on to say president obama obviously believes the system is unjust upholding racism and upholding racism and requiring community organizing to change it in earth shaking ways. do you see a footprint of crt all over the obama administration which we are several years in now. >> no. i see no footprints. i see no vapors. i see none of critical race theory in president obama either his writings or what he's actually done in office. i am dumb struck by that statement. >> what do you think is going on here? the conversation -- i know you read the transcript. i think we have it online for anyone that missed it can go on. what is going on? it got very heated. >> i believe what's going on is the person that was on your show wasn't going to be persuaded by the facts. he was going to make his own facts up. when he makes statements like that, there's no evidence in support of it. he talks if i recall the attorney generals office doing something but it wasn't anything specific. i look at this as a smear tactic. >> bell died last year. i think he was in his early 80s. i never knew the guy. i just read his book. i thought it was a good book. what do you think he would think of all this? would he turn over in his grave right now or not care? >> i think he would be laughing right now for a number of reasons. one of which is this is just sill silly. second of which, he would say, wow, critical race theory has gone mainstream. they're talking about us. for all of his life people didn't talk about critical race theory. got rest his soul. he's passed on. we're now talking about critical race theory and bell being the founder. >> he's not on the receiving end of the crazy tweets that i've been getting about critical race theory as well. >> i'm sure not. >> thank you for joining us this morning. we certainly appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> critical race theory 101. stop tweeting me. we have moved on, people. still ahead on "starting poin"," as the cost of higher education sky rockets, students and parents questioning the value of it all. a flight attendant's breakdown caught on tape. we're going to crash. we're going to crash. they haven't left the ground yet thank god. we'll talk to one passenger who helped restrain the flight attendant on the plane. we'll be back in a moment. 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[ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. that's good for our country's energy security hohow w arare e yoyou? wewe'r're e gogoining g toto h e inintetervrvieiew.w. jojohnhn, , jijillll.....m.mr. whwhatat's's i it t lilikeke d e fufusisionon h hybybri? yoyou u cacan n rereadad e evet isis o opeperaratitingng b by ya bubuttttonon.. itit's's l likike e drdrivivin. whwhatat w wououldld b be e thtg fofor r yoyou u toto g gi? ththe e mimileles s peper r gag. whwhenen y youou'r're e ususeder cacar r upup o oncnce e a, ththenen s sududdedenlnly y one weweekeks,s, bebelilieveve e meme i it'tg didiffffererenencece g go. welcome back. there was a terrifying scene caught on tape that started as this daily flight from dallas-ft. worth to chicago until this started happening. listen. okay. so obviously this is taken off someone's camera phone. the screaming that you're hearing is the flight attendant. she screams something that sounds like "get off the plane." she went to talk to 9/11. i'm not responsible for this plane crashing. see the guy in the white baseball cap. he has a blue jacket on as well. he is with the flight attendant helping her into a seat and physically restraining her. that's our guest. connor ford. he joins us from chicago. thanks for talking to us. you got to start at the beginning for me. the plane was just taxiing off and they were beginning to do those announcements. what happened? is that the first sign you figured something was really wrong? >> the first thing when we noticed it seemed that nobody was in control. the flight attendant kept coming over saying something was really wrong. you would hear from other flight attendants that the plane was fine. we're going to continue to go. and as we kept on going and going toward to take off is when the flight attendant said the plane was going to crash. that's when i saw the pushing up front and that's when i knew i could help out and make my way to the front. >> i'll stop you there. all that conversation was happening on the intercom. there was nothing when you boarded the flight that made you think anything was weird? >> nothing that i saw or heard from passengers until later on. >> she starts shrieking bloody murder. you are in the 23rd row, right? what did you do? >> yes. i stood up once i saw that they were pushing up front and i had to -- i was in a window seat. i made my way past a couple people and made my way up front and restrained her and then held her down with a few other passengers and members of the crew of the plane. >> you guys had not taken off yet. the plane was not in the air. what were people on the plane doing when that back and forth was happening and she starts screaming about 9/11 and get off the plane, get off the plane, were passengers completely freaking out? >> not really. they weren't all freaking out. some were upset you could tell. mostly it was confusion wondering what was happening. why wasn't anybody taking control i would say would be the overall feeling of the plane at that time. >> what made you hop up and decide to help? you're in the 23rd row. there are 22 rows in front of you. what was the thing that made you say i have to put an end to this. >> i was as confused as everybody else. i realized that nobody was in control. you know, when i saw that the aisle was clear. i thought i could help out and do something and there was nobody in between me and the flight attendant so i just made a move and was glad that i could help the situation. >> there are reports that two other flight attendants were injured by this flight attendant. what kind of injuries did you see them get? >> the flight attendants were helping hold her down. i didn't see any injuries. not saying anything about that. they were helping. the police did come on and were handcuffing and bringing her out. it was really packed up there in first class. you know, something could have happened. >> there are reports that she sort of snapped mentally. some reports say she was manic depressive and off her medications. nothing has been confirmed at this point yet. that flight, i'm sure, did not take off. you guys went back to the gate and then what? >> we did. we went back to the gate and that's when we were holding her down. she just wasn't well. one of the things she did say is that she worked on the airlines for over 20 years. i'm sure she was just having a really bad day. it sounded like she was off her meds. so i'm glad we could get her some help and thank god we didn't take off. >> my goodness. yes. connor ford, a passenger that helped pin down that flight attendant. a sad story on all fronts. thank you for talking to us. we appreciate your insight on that. the best part of any great meal? delicious gourmet gravy. and she agrees. with fancy feast gravy lovers, your cat can enjoy the delicious, satisfying taste of gourmet gravy every day. fancy feast. the best ingredient is love. ♪ >> just the norm here. that's how we roll. that's marc lamont hill's playlist. time for end point. who wants to go first. grover, you're a visitor to the set. you go first. >> primaries, delegates are interesting. watch gas prices if you want to know what happens in the election. >> i think you're right about that. if gas prices go up, up, up, huge problem. bigger problem than even who is the candidate on the opposing side for the obama administration. good point. >> if rick santorum is the candidate, gas prices could be $10 a gallon and i'm sure obama will still be president. >> i don't know. >> you know what i'm saying. my final point is about bobbie christina. you see people mocking her and her family and her situation. i was a little disappointed to see her doing a national television interview so quickly but excited to see her stand up for her mother. >> she's a teenage girl. >> let's surround her with love instead of criticism. >> southern primaries tomorrow will do little to clarify this already complicated race. i cannot get that flight attendant's shrieking out of my head. >> that was horrific. as much as i have flown recently, i got to tell you that's above and beyond what anybody would expect on a flight. i wonder how often flight attendants -- you see people get