video statement online today saying she has to focus on her recovery. i don t remember much from that horrible day, but i will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice. thank you for your prayers and for giving me time to recover. i have more work to do on my recovery. so to do what is best for arizona, i will step down this week. i m getting better. let s bring in cnn s athena jones from washington. what kind of reaction are we receiving? the reaction has been swift here on capitol hill from both sides of the aisle. democratic leader nancy pelosi said i join all my colleagues in congress in thanking gabby for the honor of calling her colleague and wishing gabby and mark great success and happiness. and house speaker john boehner said in his statement, i salute congresswoman giffords for her service and for the courage and perseverance she s shown in the face of tragedy. she will be missed. we also saw a statement from representative steny hoyer saying i
welcome to our special election edition of ac 360. south carolina voters put their stamp on the race for the white house. newt gingrich seizes the lead as the campaign heads for florida. newt gingrich is south carolina s choice. it s a major blow to mitt romney s campaign. this is a hard fight because there s so much worth fighting for. four republicans went into this southern brawl. who will be left standing as the contest moves to florida? the votes are in. south carolina has spoken. and the biggest battleground yet is still ahead. rick santorum at 17%. ron paul at 13%. all the candidates say they are moving forward to florida. we have reporters stationed throughout south carolina as we have for the last several weeks. let s start off with gingrich headquarters. there are still a lot of folks there, romney headquarters looks like a ghostown. does the candidate move to florida tomorrow? reporter: you know, we re still waiting to hear about his travel plans. it s
investigation. we begin with the gabby giffords announcement. giffords released a video statement online just hours ago saying she has to focus on her recovery. i don t remember much from that horrible day, but i will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice. thank you for your prayers and for giving me time to recover. i have more work to do on my recovery. so to do what is best for arizona, i will step down this week. i m getting better. let s bring in athena jones in washington. so, athena, what kind of reaction is pouring in? well, we re getting a lot of reaction there was a lot of love and support shown to congresswoman giffords after the shooting last year. you remember in august when she returned to the house chamber to vote on the debt ceiling bill, she got a standing ovation from her colleagues. so today we have seen reactions from both sides of the oil. democratic leader nancy pelosi released a statement saying in part, i join all my colleagu
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tommy s country ham house in greenville, south carolina. they ll both be there at the same time. as a matter of fact, mitt romney showed up. he showed up early, which is kind of interesting. we ll take you there. plus, a lot of people are dealing with rough weather today. meteorologist reynolds rolf will show you. from the cnn center in atlanta, georgia, this is cnn saturday morning. i m gary tuchman. for three hours and counting that is how long south carolinaens have been voting. in between are these three members of our cnn team. our don lemon is talking to voters in lexington. paul steinhauser is watching the candidates from columbia. schon na sheppard is watching the action. she s been watching newt gingrich for a long time. he s one of the two front-runner s at the ham house. it sounds funny. how did they end up going to the same restaurant in the same state at the same time? reporter: you know, gary, the candidates are saying it was purely a coincidence that th