don't -- i can't keep up with the new 2012 whatever they are -- >> model. >> -- model. [ applause ] >> and then right at the end of the interview, the crew started breaking down the equipment, but not fully. the camera was still rolling and tori amos gave me advice. and you know what, this is a piece of advice that could apply to any of us. take a listen. >> as you get older -- >> i'm listening very intently. >> -- don't you capitulate into that thinking. just step into your grace. you know, the youngsters don't have what you bring which is an awareness, a knowledge. please, hold that head up high and just know you can't be 27 and be a great queen. >> advice from tori amos, ladies and gentlemen! i'm not exactly 27, i'm a little older than that, but step into your grief? who says that. tori amos does. as always, we'll put the tor tori amos music up. the brooke blog is cnn.com/brooke. top of the hour. now this. here we go, our two live from beautiful tampa, florida. the skyline over my shoulder. i'm brooke baldwin. day before the big republican primary here in florida. couple stories we're watching. first, newt gingrich says he is in it for the long haul. also the senate today taking up insider trading and occupy protesters scanned their ground. time to play reporter roulette. we want to go to joe johns who is not too far from me in tampa covering the newt gingrich campaign. as i understand, you just caught up with the candidate and one of his major supporters. what did they say? >> well, interesting, i just talked to him a little while ago, newt gingrich, and i got to tell you, brooke, the big question for the former speaker of the house is, what are you going to do once you get out of florida? there's been a lot of talk here on this day about how he didn't seem to have an answer as all the attacks of the romney campaign came from just a variety of sources, from television ads, from sort of a lackluster appearance in the debate, from a newspaper ad, from surrogates of mitt romney just showing up at media events. so when i spoke to newt gingrich a little while ago in tampa, i asked him, what do you do going forward? let's listen. if you didn't have an answer when the romney campaign sort of did the full court press, the carpet bombing. what's your answer going to be when you move from flor sflida? >> we're going to tell the truth much more explicitly and much more aggressively. flatly, the leading left wing billionaire in the world said to the europeans, look, romney and obama are the same people. >> the oth >> reporter: another big issue is that of surrogate. the romney campaign has so many different individuals who can go around and talk about their candidate, and newt gingrich not so much. herman cain, you remember him from not too long ago, he has now endorsed newt gingrich, and he says he is going to go out and make the case for newt gingrich when newt gingrich isn't there. so looking down the road, they hope it's going to be a little bit different. we'll see, brooke. >> yeah, by the looks of these last couple of polls with mitt romney in the lead by double digits. we'll have to see how, if at all, newt gingrich changes his message and his narrative moving forward. joe johns, i appreciate it, with me in tampa, florida. next on reporter roulette i want to take you to washington where we have senior correspondent dana bash standing by on capitol hill. the senate is considering this bill where it would make it illegal for staff to make insider trades. this is something we talk about on the show, but i think a lot of americans are actually sitting there thinking, hello, how is this not illegal already? >> exactly. and you talk to some members of congress, they will tell you they believe it actually is technically illegal already, but the problem is there is a perception that members of congress are exempt from this insider trading law. what this effectively is is trying to make sure members of congress who get information that is not available to the public because they're in hearings, because they get briefings and that they don't take that information and personally buy and sell stock for profit for themselves. i talked to someone who was involved in writing this legislation who said the issue really is that the fcc can really only prosecute people who have a duty to report or have a duty to not use this insider trading information, and it's not entirely clear in the law that members of congress have that duty. so this legislation will just make it abundantly clear, again, just to make it clear to the american people that congress isn't held to a different standard than anybody else. >> and this is something that we heard from president obama. he made this point as well during the state of the union, did he not? >> he did. he said, send this to me and i will sign it tomorrow. look, this is kind of a gimme when you talk about what congress can and can't do in an election year. in fact, scott brown, he is a republican senator from massachusetts, is in a tight reelection campaign to keep his seat. he actually mentioned this because he's a co-sponsor of the legislation and the senate, to the president during the state of the union. actually, after it. listen to what happened. >> i'm going to tell him to get it done. >> you hear scott brown saying to the president, i want you to get harry reid, the senate democratic leader, to get this on the floor soon, and the president saying, i'm going to get it done. that is absolute gold for someone like scott brown because he is running against a consumer advocate that's pretty well know known, elizabeth warren. they want their first legislation out of the gate, democrats and republicans, to show they get it. they're going to try to explain or prove that they are going to, again, be held to a different standard or the same standard that most people are. >> well, the president says we'll get it done. i just remember them doing their homework the last time and they couldn't get enough co-sponsors, so perhaps that will change. thank you so much. >> you think it will. reporter roulette, some tense moments between occupy protesters and washington, d.c. police. next on reporter roulette, we have brian todd in washington. brian, do me a favor. set the scene, tell me what's happening right now. >> well, brooke, it has been one of the most active days here. check out this statue here. this is james mcpherson, a civil war hero. they pulled a large tarp over his statue. you can see his head poking out. they've done a lot of dancing and chanting here. the police have not moved in yet, but they said they will do that if they don't get compliance with an ordinance that they're trying to enforce, and that is an ordinance against camping out here. the national park service has been under pressure from the d.c. government and from some members of congress to start enforcing that ordinance, and what they want to do, as we walk over here, we'll show you some of the tents. they want to get people to remove bedding, some personal items, anything indicating they're going to be staying all night. police have said they have had compliance in this. they haven't had to move in and take down tents or anything like that, they haven't had to make any mass arrests yet, but they are threatening to target some people if they keep those items here and do not comply with it. so we're waiting to see if that happens. again, there have been some minor confrontations with police, basically protesters just kind of yelling at them and the police not doing anything yet. but come nightfall if people come back here and try to sleep here, brooke, you might see some trouble and you might see some arrests. >> brian, what about this video? it surfaced on youtube about this occupy protester being hazed. what do you know about that? >> that happened on sunday night. one of the protesters went around taking down letters that the park service had posted. when he did that, the park service police moved in. he said he had done nothing wrong but there was a confrontation and they put taser on him. we hear he's in custody, we don't know if he's charged with anything yet, but he is in custody. that boiled into today when people contacted the police. >> just a couple blocks from the white house. brian, thank you. that's your reporter roulette here on this monday. coming up next, tragedy on the highway. we are now learning what caused a series of deadly crashes, and i'll be speaking live with one survivor who says it felt like the world was ending. look at this. also this. >> my body is sore. sometimes it feels like needles and i'm twitching so much. >> nobody can figure out why a dozen teenagers all from the same school suddenly began twitching. dr. drew skroinz me live with new developments in this medical mystery and new fallout today in the racial profile case in connecticut involving several police officers. stay right there. live show, tampa, florida. so what do you think? basic. at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. and now you're about to see it, rapid fire. beginning with this canadian family here convicted of murdering four family members to uphold the family honor plans to appeal. a judge sentenced them to a life in prison, chance for parole after 20 years. in 2009 he killed his daughters for being too westernized and his first wife. a draft resolution calling for assad to leave a midst the crackdown on protesters there. youtube video shows the bombardment of a neighborhood in homes today. we have to point out cnn cannot affirmatively point out video in the shot, but there has been a crackdown there since march. a senior u.s. official tells cnn that jessica buchanan, who was held by somali kidnappers for three months, is now on a commercial flight all the way back home to the u.s. from italy. another u.s. hostage was rescued last week by special forces. the police chief in new haven, connecticut is retiring. federal authorities arrested four officers under chief gallow for unrest on the latino community. but he made a comment about this situation. >> what are you doing for the latino community today? >> i might have tacos when i go home. i'm not quite sure yet. >> since saying that, the mayor has apologized. the chief of police officially leaves february 3rd. interstate 75 in central florida is back open after smoke smokey conditions made it near impossible to see, and ten crash people were killed as a result of crashes. steven is on the phone with me. i first want to ask how are you physically? i understand you had some stitches, scratched up a bit? >> caller: yeah. right now physically i'm just a little sore and i've got some stitches in my leg. other than that, i'm doing pretty good. >> steven, as we look at the aftermath of this wreckage here. set the scene for me. i understand you were on your way back to gainesville, you're in the passenger seat of a car, traffic is at a total standstill. how bad was the smoke at the time? >> oh, the smoke was very thick. you couldn't see anything. i think i heard it best when i heard if you put your hand in front of you, you wouldn't be able to see it. you were completely blinded out there. you couldn't see a thing. >> wow, you couldn't see your hand in front of you let alone drif. you end up talking to a driver nearby and then, wham. >> my friend james, he was the driver. he was talking to them and i tried to get involved in conversation. once he leaned over, we all went into the back of the semi truck. >> right in front of your very eyes. what happened to your car, what happened to you? were you able to help at all or did you feel entirely helpless. . we were, you know, kind of jolted out of the way a little bit to one outside and we were able to get back into the car & just like -- not really sit back but try to keep ourselves in shape. >> just looking at these pieces of mangled metal. i can't imagine having sat there and witnessed these crashes having right in front of your eyes. we wish you the best and haeal quickly. it is a state that could go either way in november, a state that could decide an election. right here, we're in florida. it is coming down to the wire. voters will decide which republican is best suited to take on president obama come november. join me next, the man who knows these voters very well. bill mccullough tells me why he supports newt gingrich, next. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. i spoke last hour with a woman by the name of andrea sol. she's a press secretary for the romney campaign, and now i want to bring in from orlando former congressman and state attorney general bill mccullum. he is touring the primary here in florida. thanks for coming o. >> glad to be with you. >> we had heard newt gingrich is saying things against him. let's hear romney talk about newt gingrich. >> in 1994, he came in and after four years, he had to resign in disgrace. and he did not serve our party -- by the way, at the time he had left the speakership, his approval rating was 18%. it did not work out so well. >> question to you, bill mccullum. you were there when newt gingrich served as speaker. what did mitt romney just say that was false? >> well, he said that the speaker resigned in disgrace, and he said things that just weren't true when i was there. the problem is romney wants to deflect from the real issues of the campaign, his own record in michigan and so on. i believe he's not as conservative as newt on some issues, so he's attacking him on a personal basis. i served with newt gingrich. i was there in leadership with him in the 1980s. i was there for his election in 1994 and was in his district as much as he was campaigning. i tell you we would not have won in 1994 without him and his vision, we would not have won welfare reform and the balanced budget without newt gingrich, he was the force, and when he won, he was attacked by his opponent in 1994 with 84 ethics charges which all were found to not be true. newt gingrich took a reprimand to get rid of it after three years because it wasn't ethically balanced, equal number of republicans to democrats, and it was beginning to fester, so he said, i'll take a reprimand for a very minor count. that's one that said my counsel didn't record things when he was supposed to -- >> let me interrupt. you said he didn't resign in disgrace. how would characterize his departure. >> after all the ethics were off the table and it was resolved, he concluded that it wasn't fair for him to continue after we didn't succeed as we should have in the 1994 election. he would have won again, i'm confident. the majority would have liked him to stay. someone like bob dole whom i respect a lot. bob is this steady as you go guy, and he doesn't like the shake it up method of gingrich, which is what we need right now. we need a bold plan for reducing the taxes and getting the economy going again. that shake-up that newt has is what we need. >> i know the gingrich folks are complaining about romney's truthfulness, but a partial observer might say the gingrich campaign left south carolina with a huge jolt of momentum, that was a huge, huge win for them, but now it's flat out getting hustled and outplayed here in florida. what do you say to that? >> first of all, we were 4-1 to a bunch of attack ads, several more that aren't true, but we're doing rather well right now. romney was up 25 points a couple weeks ago, then gingrich was up, then romney went up 8 or 10 points, maybe 10. the poll that i saw last night said that romney was only up 5 points and that we're gaining momentum after cain endorsed. so with perry and cain and michael reagan going around the state today with newt, because newt is the reining republican legacy in this race. i think we have a good chance of winning tomorrow, i think it will be a very close race, we may very well prevail because people are beginning to take notice to the fact that it is newt gingrich who is stronger on these issues who could better beat obama. mitt romney's romneycare is very similar to obamacare, and i don't know how he takes on the president like we can do. >> you looked at the last couple polls, mitt romney subpoena by double digits but it's 14, 15%, one out of four voters undecided. ron paul is running last, and we know he's certainly tending to family issues. and rick santorum is taking care of his little daughter bella. do you think rick santorum will drop out? >> i think newt gingrich will go on to become the winning party whether he wins in tampa or not. we'll wait and see on that score, but regardless, after tomorrow, logicthere will still- >> but what about rick santorum? that was the question. >> rick santorum is a factor in this race. if he weren't in it, we would clearly be beating romney right now. i don't believe rick is a player for the long haul at all. i don't know how long he stays in it. he's a friend, i know him well. but i think a vote for rick is one that's wasted at this point. when we get that clear choice, and we're beginning to get a race between two people, and thaib what the voters of florida are looking for tomorrow, we'll certainly get it the next couple of elections. then we may have super tuesday with a very high percentage of delegates being chosen that day, and george is one of them with 50 delegates. there are a number of other favorable states to the gingrich campaign coming up after florida. >> senator mccollum, i appreciate it, live in orlando. that's where the gingrich headquarters will be tomorrow night and where you are hoping to have a victory party. coming up next, is mitt romney reaching deep into his playbook way before he plans to just to beat the guy we were just talking about, to beat newt gingrich? and is gingrich actually making romney more electable to conservatives? we answer that question when we come back live from florida. 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. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa. when we were determined to see it through. here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs. bp findings supports independent scientists studying the gulf's environment. thousands of environmental samples have been tested and all beaches and waters are open. and the tourists are back. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. back here live from tampa, florida. why are we in florida? no, it's not just because of this beautiful backdrop, it's because florida's republican primary is tomorrow. i want to show you yet another poll here. this one shows mitt romney with a double digit lead over newt gingrich. take a look at the numbers. romney 43%, gingrich 29. ron paul, rick santorum sharing 11%. i want to bring in gloria borger, our chief political analyst. we talk about south carolina, blew the doors off there, comes into florida, loses somewhat. >> mitt romney sort of came out the other end like superman. he's gone on the attack and we really haven't seen that before. he spent four times as much money in the state as newt gingrich. so i think what the romney campaign has been trying to do, and they've done very effectively, is when you talk about the campaign, they said newt gingrich has a long buy biograp biography. people don't know about it because it happened in the '90s. what they've been trying to do is fill in the blanks about newt gingrich as speaker, newt gingrich when he left the