an hour ago. we reached out to your campaign, and they said you would not release your tax returns. why? >> i haven't thought it through. i don't have an intention to do it. i would be embarrassed to put my financial statement against their income because i don't want to be embarrassed. >> back in 1967, your father set a groundbreaking standard in american politics, he released his tax returns. he released them not for one year but for 12 years. will you follow your father's example? >> maybe. i don't know how many years i'll release. i'll take a look at what our documents are. and i'll release them, multiple years, i don't know how many years, but i'll be happy to dathat. let me tell you, i know there are some who are anxious to see if they can't make it more difficult for a campaign to be difficult. i'm not going to apologize for being successful. and i want to make sure that i beat president obama. and every time we release things drip by drip, the democrats go out with another array of attacks. as has been done in the past, if i'm a nominee, i'll put them out at one time so we have one discussion. i pay all full taxes, i'm honest in my dealings with people, my taxes are carefully managed, and i pay a lot of taxes. i have been very successful, and when i have our taxes ready for this year, i'm release them. >> people in south carolina have to decide, but if there's anything in there that is going to help us lose the election, we should know it before the election. if there's nothing in there, why not release them? >> governor romney tells a very nice story about what his plan is now. it wasn't in his plan when was he in position to do a plan, when he was governor of mass s massachuset massachusetts, he put up romney care, a government run health care system that was the basis of obama care, and it's been an abjeblth failure, and he's stood by it. >> so much of what the senator said was wrong. first, the system in my state is not a government-run system. is it perfect, absolutely not. >> what he said was that he thought i would have a hard time debating barack obama over health care. i would be quite happy to have a three-hour lincoln douglas style debate with barack obama. i would like him to use a tell promper, i'll rely on knowledge. we'll do fine. >> and i'm joined by former house speaker newt gingrich. how do you think it went for you? >> it was a terrific debate for all of us. the audience was appreciative. i did a great job. it was direct, tough. you could see the differences. i felt good about it. i wanted to keep it at a big level, stay on big themes and really talk about what america needs to do. >> senator santorum said he's more stable. that you say things, you don't quo what you're going to say, and he's more reliable, you're too risky. that's his message. >> everybody has a message. i was speaker of the house for four years, we balanced the budget for four years. we reformed welfare. have been a senior teacher in the military for 24 years, wrote 24 books, i know what stability is. we need aggressive leadership to change washington, and that's what i'm going to offer. if you want an aggressive leader, i have the strength to do it. >> you released your tax returns during the debate. what do you make of governor romney's decision of when to release them? >> he has to make his own decision, but the voters have to make their decision. you don't want to end up in september with something boiling up, and then it's too late. we owe it to the people of south carolina. we got it out as quickly as we could. we promised it a couple days ago. i think he would be well advised to put it out tomorrow. i don't know how he's going to get through florida. in either case, there's nothing in there, and why isn't he releasing it, or he's going to go against barack obama and doesn't he owe it to the voters. >> if you don't come in first place in south carolina, you're still in this? >> karl rove had an impact on me because he said if you add up the conservative candidates that are going to be a majority over romney by a big margin, two of the candidates dropped out this week, you get down to a conservative versus a moderate or liberal, and i think the moderate has a hard time of winning the race. i hope to win saturday. the most recent polls are very encouraging. we have lot of momentum, general livingston just endorsed me, sheriff mets just endorsed me. we have a lot of momentum going. we can win on saturday. if we do, it's a whole new ball game in florida. i think there's no possibility that romney will get a big enough vote to be bigger than santorum and me combined. >> romney has spent a lot of money in florida. >> he does. >> what is your campaign like in florida? >> first of all, we have the -- the campaign manager from marco rubio is now running our campaign. he's a terrific leader. my daughter lives in key biscayne, we went down there for a day and a half. a terrific response from the hispanic community. great response in orlando. we have 5,000 or 6,000 volunteers. there's no question governor romney will have the most money. he's the wall street candidate, so he's always going to come in earlier. he came here with a lot more money. but we made adjustments after iowa, and i think we're in a position where we understand how to deal directly with governor romney's style of his campaign. he can outspend us two or three to one, and that's not enough, he would have to be six or eight to one to have an effect. >> thank you for your time. let's go to gloria borger with rick santorum. >> i am, anderson, and senator santorum, this is the toughest, i think i have ever heard you, in any of these debates. you did not leave anything in the locker room, particularly when it comes to your former colleague, newt gingrich, and you said it's worrisome, there's this worrisome moment that something is going to pop. with newt gingrich. what do you mean by that? >> look, i love newt. he's been a great intellectual leader. but the difference between being an idea guy is to be glib in debate and somebody who is going to be a steady hand, a disciplined campaigner, somebody who is going to go out and make president obama the issue instead of being the uncertainty of you being the issue in the campaign because of things you say today that may not necessarily be consistent with what you said the day before or the next day, and the other thing is, as i said before, we're looking for someone who can beat the chief executive officer, the commander in chief of the country. that means someone who can execute a plan. he was giving a leadership position in congress, and in three years, conservatives tried to throw him out, and in four years they did. when i was in congress, i was a conservative voice, i made things happen. i pushed the agenda, fought for the tough things and stood up for the things i believed in. that's a fundamental difference in effectiveness in doing a leadership that a president is required to do. >> do you think gingrich would be erratic as a president? as president of the united states? >> you saw the romney commercial on the air right now, and he interviewed the folks who had to work with him. he is a brilliant man, and he's constantly coming up with a lot of ideas. the problem is, he constantly comes up with a lot of ideas and he's not focused to be able to execute the ideas and surround himself with people disciplined to do that. that's why what happened happened in the house of representatives. that's why there was this revolution within the ranks from conservatives against newt. >> and do you think that mitt romney, even though he challenged newt gingrich tonight and said don't challenge my integrity on the issue of abortion, for example, do you think mitt romney could be trusted to be reliable? >> the problem with governor romney is not just the abortion issue. there's a pattern of a whole series of issues where romney was on one side, and when it became advantageous, he went to the other side. >> people are allowed to change their opinions and convictions. >> absolutely. i'm not questions his convictions on abortion. if that was the only thing he changed his mind on, that would be easy to understand, but we have a whole laundry list of things that governor romney has taken one position on in one race and another position in another race, depending on who he was running against. that leads to uncertainty and a lack of clear contrast between what we need in a presidential candidate, someone who has strong, bold convictions, the courage of the convictions to fight and lose the race because you stood up for what you believe in. i hear that from people, have you been willing to lose to do what is right? i have. i will do my best to bring the american people together and do big things. that's my objective. >> thanks so much for coming to us after the debate. we appreciate it. back to you. >> we have a full political panel to put things in perspective tonight. we'll focus through until the 11:00 hour. also rick perry's departure from the race and his endorsement of newt gingrich. we'll be right back. there is a platform built for the purpose of driving innovation. one that's transforming how companies from every industry-- and of every size-- are doing business. a platform built for now. and for what's next. this...is the cisco intelligent network. cisco. 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. ♪[music plays] when you're responsible for this much of the team... you need a car you can count on. ♪[music plays] we're back, south carolina's north charston call seem after a debate on a momentum political debate in the polls. one candidate's departure, allegations from another candidate's wife, and john king who moderated the debate, david gergen, ari fleischer, donna brazile, and gloria borger, and eric erickson, who i believe is in the audience. i got to start with the start of this debate, john king, you asked the question when has been in all of the headlines all over statements made by newt gingrich's ex-wife. he blasted you, blasted the media. did ultimately answer the question. i want to play what he actually said. >> the story is false. every personal friend i have who knew us in that period said it was false, we offered them to abc to prove that the story was false. they weren't interested because they want to attack any republican, they attacked the governor, me, they'll get around to senator santorum and congressman paul. >> speaker gingrich got a standing ovation in the auditorium for saying it was a completely inappropriate question. >> and he also scored points in the monday night debate by attacking the questions. i had a question with the speaker after he moderated the debates. this is a damned if you do, damned if you don't. it's a story making the rounds in the campaign. it's an issue that came up in the last 48 hours? of course not. is it an issue that volters are talking about, that he talked about in a very calm manner? >> he said it today earlier in a much different manner. you knew -- how much of this was debate theatrics on his part, do you know he was going to have this response? >> i knew he was going to challenge the question. i don't want to challenge the speaker's response. i have been covering policy for 25 years. i understood if i asked the question, he was not going to be happy and was going to turn on me. you make a judgment call, is it an issue in the debate? it's not a great issue, but it's an issue in the debate. candidates were talking about it, voters in the state. my judgment, my decision, and mine alone. we're going to deal with it, let's deal with it up front, not sneak it into the middle of the debate, and people at home agree or disagree. you make the decision, ask the question, and this is politics. he's trying to promote himself, he's going to attack. i don't take it personally. i had a long relationship with the speaker, we don't always get along, but i get how the business works. >> what do you think? >> it's one of the most explosive moments we have seen in debate history. >> history? >> also one of the harshest attacks on the press i can remember in a long, long time. very personal in the beginning. as a political matter, i think gingrich sought a fastball coming, and he smacked it out of the park. it was a reasonable chance, talking to the people here, that he could win south carolina based on the answer. >> heard a lot of people online saying that. >> as a journalistic matter, john had a duty to ask the question. it was the elephant in the room. after all, his wife is accusing him of hypocrisy, being a man of family values who had a private life that was in conflict with what he was preaching, and a man who went after bill clinton on similar issues. for a lot of voters, there is hypocrisy in there. and john king is known by most people here as one of the most serious people in country. he did the right thing. >> anderson, there's a short-term issue here which is that i do think that newt gingrich's answer, attacking john, attacking the media played well in the room. it might play well in south carolina, but there's a longer term issue and that's with women voters. he said his wife, the story is false. newt gingrich polls in this state twice as well with men as he does with women. i think in the long-term, say if he wins soug carolina, goes on to do well and continues, this could become an issue for women voters, obviously. >> i think it's not the elephant in the room. the elephant in the room is the economy. it's the same in the room as out of the room, stepping from economy, jobs. i think that's why the audience reacted to the first question off the bat. it's something that has to be aired. and newt did knock it out of the pa park, but what negloria said, s has a point. and even though people booed, it's about electability, and this is one of the factors that plays into it. >> rick santorum raised another question about is he too risky? he says things that are unpredictable. >> the question is he wasn't the only impossible candidate. mitt romney had an opportunity to finally answer questionles about the economy, about bain capital, about job reaction, and his own tax returns, and he decided to pivot by basically saying i don't want to release my taxes because the democrats might speak through it. i also felt that mitt romney wasn't clear. >> i was interested when john followed up on the ex-wife question and gingrich's response. santorum did try to say that it was a valid thing for people to think about. very interesting to see mitt romney's response, which played well in this crowd, which was let's move on. that's not what we should be talking about. >> when a room boos like that, you know it's time to move on. >> right. >> i wondered if that was going to be romney's response prior to the entire audience standing up and cheering. >> later on in the debate, it was interesting because romney challenged newt for challenging his integrity on the question of the abortion issue. so it was as if romney was giving it to him in a funny way. but not directly on the wife. >> are we all agreeing that it was the right question to ask and it had to be asked. >> of course. >> i don't -- i think there's a prioritization to the federal issues in a presidential campaign, and it is an issue. >> although, those are things that have been talked about. it's new, it's in the news, it's timely. >> look, this is a debatable question. everything we do in our lives is debatable. we're in the public. some people at home are outraged, we accept that when we take the jobs. it was the newest thing in the debate, something people were talking about. the lead of many news casters across the country, better or worse, and many people at home think for the worse, and i respect that. my opinion is this was dominating the campaign. let's deal with it first. if it's not an issue, we'll move on. i understand and respect those who disagree. we had conversation, and it was my judgment. let's deal with it. >> here is the bigger issue. it dominated the campaign today. true, but it dominated the political. and this is the separation between the people in the country and a lot of us who breathe this every day. the company doesn't care about what dominates today. >> the gingrich campaign put out a statement last night from his daughters. he talked about this earlier in the day. we had a conversation about this. again, i respect people who disagree. i have been at this for 26 years. you know me, you know me, democrat and republican, we don't always agree. you have kicked me from time to time, but i have tried in the 26 years to be fair, and including gingrich, with controversial times in his life, he knows that. we had a conversation after that. i understand how the process works. >> i would argue that newt would have responded that way whether it was the first question or the fifth question. >> at this moment t would be a losing issue for the republicans if he becomes a nominee. >> it's interesting, if he wins south carolina, it keeps the race going. >> and we're going to talk about that. we're going to lack at other key moments in the fascinating debate. another moment when senator santorum challenged gingrich's ability to focus on any one problem long enough to solve it. we'll be right back. >> announcer: with nothing but his computer, an identity thief is able to use your information to open a bank account... in order to make your money his money. [whoosh, clang] you need lifelock-- the only identity protection company that now monitors bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock-- relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. welcome back to this special edition of "360." less than 36 hours before south carolina's primary. so many questions with allf othe candidates. we're here with our panel. also, eric erickson is here. eric, you weren't part of the previous conversation. your thoughts on tonight's debate. >> i was really surprised how forceful gingrich -- i guess i shouldn't have been. he was forceful in the beginning. he locked in all of the momentum of monday's debate with that first question. there are two questions that have been in the news all week. the one was his marriage. the other was romney's taxzs. romney flailed around tonight. he knew the attack was coming. newt gingrich knew the attack was coming and made it an attack on the media, had the crowd applauding, they booed romney on the tax issue. >> do you think that open, the fiery moment in the debate, maybe won it for gingrich in south carolina? >> every candidate had good points tonight. there were good peaks and good valleys for all of the candidates. rick santorum probably gave out the best attack on gingrich. it's the one every behind the scenes had been whispering around, but gingrich had a good comeback and closed well on romney ffs taxes. all people are going to talk about is taxes, immigration, and gingrich's open, and that's all going to benefit him. >> the question was about gingrich's stability or riskiness. let's play that. >> grandiosity has never been a problem with newt gingrich. he handles it very, very well. that's one of the issues here, folks. a month ago, he was saying, oh, it's inevitable i'm going to win the election and i'm destined to do it. i don't want a nominee where i have to worry about what he's going to say next. and that