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
newt gingrich takes south carolina. we proved here in south carolina that people power with the right ideas beats big money, and with your help, we re going to prove it again in florida. the former house speaker says he may not have the money, but he can take on mitt romney. we ll take you live to south carolina for the post-primary analysis. despite false reports swirling on social media, former penn state coach joe paterno is alive, but in serious condition. students lit candles in his support. we will take you live to penn state. and search and rescue teams continue working on the italian cruise ship this morning. they stopped briefly overnight for safety issues. we ve got the latest in the investigation. plus, new audiotape from the ship s captain. hello, and good morning to everybody. we start with the runaway victory for newt gingrich. in the south carolina republican primary. look at the numbers. it was a double digit win for the former house speaker. easily be
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
good morning, everybody. i m gary tuchman. newt gingrich is celebrating a big win in south carolina. the biggest thing i take from the campaign in south carolina is that it is very humbling and very sobering to have so many people who so deeply want their country to get back on the right track. speaking of the right track, mitt romney is hoping to find it in florida. we ll get voter reactions from the next big campaign contest about what happened in south carolina. despite some immediate ra reports to the contrary, joe paterno is alive but in serious condition this morning. we ll get an update from state college, pennsylvania. we start with what was a runaway victory for newt gingrich in the south carolina republican presidential primary. look at these numbers. it was a double digit win. 12 percentage points for the former house speaker. easily beating mitt romney. rick santorum came in third place. ron paul in fourth. now, check out this cnn exit poll. there were man
i did catch up with somebody a few moments ago and they were watching the returns come in on the gingrich bus. i asked were they elated, were they exciting, doing touchdown dances? the answer is no, they were very humbled by the results down here in south carolina. and anderson, i think what happened here is that conservatives in this state, republicans in the state said they couldn t care less about newt gingrich s personal life. what they did care about was a candidate taking it to the establishment, taking it to the republican establishment, not only around the country but here in social. it was the governor of this state who was on the mitt romney team, not on the newt gingrich team. he was going after the media, which we talked about again and again, and conservatives like that, as well. but it was interesting to listen to newt gingrich s victory speech here tonight, because it wasn t so much about his rival. we heard him go on and on about mitt romney on the campaign t