faces. freedom. they are two foreign aid workers, one of them american, and they've been held for three months by pirates in somalia. they are free. we'll tell you how and how the rescue went down. and did you watch the state of the union address? president obama's challenging republicans to get on board or get out of his way. he says preserving the american dream is the defining issue of our time. we have lots of highlights, lots of reaction. our panelists are going to weigh in. >> don't know if you're having a green apple for breakfast this morning, but i'll tell you what, the soon to be biggest technology firm in the world is feasting on green apples. apple just reporting historic profits. i know we say that sometimes, but wait until you hear how much that company made. >> it's probably known because we're contributing to it. ashleigh, did i tell you that plasma particles are hurdling toward us, how would you feel about that? >> i'd say aurora borealis. >> and what if i told you they're full of radiation? >> i'd say head for the hills. >> and if i told you delta airlines has cancelled flights because of this. >> i'd be concerned about those pictures. first breaking news this morning. two aid workers kidnapped in somalia three months ago are now free. one, as ashleigh said, is an american, 32-year-old jessica buchanan. nbc is reporting that two teams of navy s.e.a.l.s stormed the compound by helicopter. there was a lot of gunfire, but the hostages, we understand, are okay, relatively in good condition is what they're saying. cnn is working to confirm this report. >> just remarkable reports coming out of there about the pitched battle, in fact, zoraida. with the navy s.e.a.l.s operation, according to the news, doing what they did. we have our correspondent in johannesburg, south africa. get me up to speed on this operation. all of this is a big surprise to us. many of us didn't even know this american was being held, and now we're hearing that, in fact, the locals okayed this raid. >> reporter: exactly. it seems like there was a lot of support for this american intervention, we're now being told by the danish rescue council. i just got off the phone, ashleigh, with the general secretary of the danish rescue council. this is the ngo that these two were working for in central somalia. of course, they were kidnapped in central somalia in october and held. the danish rescue council has refused to pay any ransom for these two, and now we're hearing that tuesday evening an american intervention resulted in these two being rescued. we understand that there was gunfire, that nine people were killed. we don't know how many were pirates, and five were taken prisoner. of course, cnn bureaus across the world are working to confirm details of the story. it's still breaking news. details coming in thick and fast but still many of them very sketchy, ashleigh. >> keep an eye on that. we'll continue to tap in throughout the program to find out more about it. at least jessica buchanan, the american who i didn't think many knew was missing -- and sometimes that's what families do, keep things very, very quiet, perhaps hoping they can work it out. great news for those families overseas and here. if you were up late last night -- >> i watched it in the morning. >> we go to bed very early, folks. lots of people didn't go to bed. they watched the reviving the american dream speech. at least that's what president obama was calling it, saying the defining issue of our time is, in fact, that. last night, this could be, folks, his final state of the union address if the republicans have their way. basically, here's how it cracked down. cracking down on china, playing by the rules. that's what the president was asking about. challenging the republicans also to end their obstructionist ways. and he called for a 30% tax on the very wealthy, the millionaires among us. and the overriding theme, if there was one, though, perhaps restoring fairness. >> let's never forget, millions of americans who play by the rules and work hard every day deserve a government and financial system that do the same. it's time to apply the same rules from top to bottom -- no bailouts, no handouts and no cop-outs. an america built to last insists on responsibility for everybody. >> so much to talk about. live from washington we have white house correspondent breanna keilar and correspondent kate bolduan. first, an issue that would affect every working american, payroll taxes. listen to this. >> right now our most immediate priority is stopping the tax hike on 160 million working americans while the recovery is still fragile. so let's agree right here, right now, no side issues, no drama. pass the payroll tax cut without delay. >> there's been lots of drama, no agreement. the white house is picking up right where we left off last month. what's different this time? >> zoraida, that sounds familiar. not a whole lot is different at this point. last month, of course, the white house and democrats really seized a victory over the payroll tax cut battle, and i think the white house is expecting, right now with both sides being far apart, that this could be a bit of a 2.0. the bottom line here is that that might allow president obama to paint republicans as obstructionist, sort of run against a do nothing congress. but the big challenge that he's facing is that unemployment number. 8.5% in december, expected to remain high in the election. and so you heard him last night seizing on the modest improvements that the economy has made, saying that a lot more has to be done, putting out some provisions to create more jobs. but the fact is a lot of them, republicans, have already said they're opposed to, and a lot of them republicans are likely to oppose. that's why you're hearing this message about fairness that the white house is confident will resonate right up until the election, especially when it comes to taxes. polls show that it has, especially that sort of line that he drew in the sand, saying that, if you make $1 million or more, you should be paying at least 30% in taxes. who does that draw a contrast with for president obama? of course, mitt romney, who the white house is still expecting to be his opponent, who's paying 14% in taxes, zoraida. >> brianna keilar live in washington for us. thank you. >> the president was walking a pretty fine line last night, promising to fight obstruction with action, yet leaving the door open for compromise. have a listen. >> with or without this congress, i will keep taking actions that help the economy grow. but i can do a whole lot more with your help because, when we act together, there's nothing the united states of america can't achieve. >> our congressional correspondent kate bolduan is live in washington, d.c. kate, that sure sounded nice. you and i have been having this conversation for several days now, if not weeks, that the president will likely attack the do nothing congress, as he calls it, on the campaign trail in the general election. >> reporter: that's absolutely right. it seems that theme will continue, and it's something the republicans absolutely have been pouncing on, all day yesterday especially leading up to the president's speech last night. look, from the perspective of congress, this was a speech that democrats loved. a lot of statements put out afterwards of democrats applauding the president of laying out a blueprint for economic success in this country, but this is a speech that republicans did not like. we could go even stronger and probably basically hate it. republicans really were bashing the president all day, even before he took to the mikes, ashleigh, really dismissing the speech, saying it's purely political, purely a campaign speech. and what they heard in his words during the time he was at the microphone probably did not make them any happier, especially the part about raising taxes on the healthy. that's something that republicans fought against for a significant portion of last year. they'll continue fighting. and republicans were telling me yesterday, as the president is calling for fairness, they say it's a code word for class warfare. the president is trying to divide rather than unite. bottom line, it doesn't look like the president and even republicans have said we're ready to work with the other side, but they're pointing the finger at the other side, saying it's the other guy that's holding up the process essentially. >> if there was any moment of bipartisanship, maybe it was the gabby giffords moment, the arizona congresswoman, expected to resign from congress today. this was magic. look at this moment where she's hugging the president. >> seems to be dancing, right? >> oh, man. sorry i'm lingering on this. i'm lingering on it, kate, because it really is an emotional time. i know it's critical. the state of the union is a critical time, the policy issues that are laid out, but these are the things that people really remember. also, a stark and honestly fabulous reminder of what -- where priorities should be. both sides are so partisan right now and really -- and the president has laid a lot of his central themes on blaming congress and blaming congressional republicans for kind of holding up the process, but this was a real reminder of kind of where everyone should be focused or where congress and the administration could be. a rare moment of bipartisanship, a very sweet moment. she's sitting with two members of the arizona delegation, a republican and a democrat, and gabby giffords is a democrat. so part of the bipartisan seating plan that we've seen that started in the last state of the union. but a great reminder and a fabulous picture. of course, everyone wishes her well. she is expected to be on the house floor today and is expected to submit her resignation. >> makes me wonder, if she returns to politics, how many republicans would vote for her. thanks for doing that great work and getting up early, kate bolduan. thank you. it's hard to criticize the state of the union address when the central theme of the speech is fair play, right? but not everyone's buying what the president was selling last night. from little rock, arkansas, we have our panelist alice stork from our communications director for michele bachmann. from washington, political roll call writer. and cnn political contributor sharon rosen. in the last poll, only 35% of americans approved of how obama handled the economy. the big focus of the speech was on that, 46%, according to "the washington post," was focused on that. listen to what was said, and then we'll talk about it. >> we can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of americans barely get by. or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a shot and everyone gets their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. >> so the president drawing a sharp contrast with republicans here, but you've got to be careful to not have an overdone campaign speech. do you think he was walking a fine line here? >> absolutely, he was doing a fine line there and even crossed over the fine line on the campaign speech. i think in terms of the content, dealing with the economy, the president's rhetoric was very populist, more so than we've ever heard him before, especially after he started going through the names of several states where he wanted to improve economic activity, including ohio, cleveland, pittsburgh, pennsylvania, my hometown. these are obviously swing states and states hard hit by the economy. >> hillary, i know you're dying to weigh in here. last night famously obama said no bailouts, no handouts, no copouts. he talked about taking the money we're saving on the war in iraq and using it on the foreclosure crisis, an investigation into wall street headed by new york state's attorney general, eric snyderman, not a popular guy on wall street. do you think he was trying to rally the base? do you think independents are waking up excited this morning? >> yes, because i don't think this was -- you know, home foreclosures is not a partisan issue. republicans, democrats, and independents are feeling their home under water and banks on wall street not only refusing to partake of refinancing, but still fighting the consumer protection finance board to make sure that consumers get a fair deal from their bank. i think the president's focus on financial institutions doing the right thing by their borrowers, doing the right thing by consumers, and needing strong watchdogs, i think that's going to resonate everywhere. >> president obama did not talk about romney directly, but he set up a sharp contrast there. he says he wants all millionaires to pay at least 30% in taxes. romney's returns, we now know, about 15% in taxes there. was president obama there choosing his opponent? >> no doubt, zoraida. he clearly was not focusing on the issues that people are concerned with, which is jobs and the economy, and he's it urning this into a class warfare argument. this was clearly a campaign speech. the two big issues he has hung his hat on, obama care and the stimulus, he didn't even reference last night. also, two other big issues that are earmarks of his campaign -- the unemployment rate, gdp, and the outlandish debt -- those weren't discussed because he wants to focus on what he calls, and the democrats will go forward calling class warfare. acan ttacking people who work h the job creators of this country. his plan to tax millionaires, 30%, that's going to do very little to cut down the debt and deficit. we don't need to tax more. we need to spend less. that's the way we get out of this economic mess that president obama has gotten us into. it's not about taxing the wealthy. it's about spending less and allowing people that create jobs to invest in their businesses, create more jobs, put more people back to work. that will turn our economy around. >> it's really important, though, that we not think of the president's economic plan as a tax plan. that's what the republicans have done for years. they've always said, just lower taxes, and the economy will get better. we saw in the bush years that was not the case. central to the president's economic plan to get this country moving again is education, investment in education, give our workers skills to get jobs that actually do exist, investment in new energy, investment in manufacturing. those are the things that republicans have deinvested in, have ignored, all in favor of just a tax plan. the president is saying, look, all of these things are going to go together to create an economic plan. we're not just going to go back to past policies that only focus on tax cuts. >> taxes are front and center right now. we're actually going to talk to a tax expert about that 30% a little later in the show. in the meantime, thank you for joining us this morning. we'll see you again later. and you can keep it on cnn for the best political coverage on television. on cnn "starting point," soledad o'brien gets reaction from the state of the union address when she goes one on one with republican steny hoyer and jeb hensarling. the s&p in the red yesterday, and the nasdaq up just a wee bit. i don't think anyone is going to remember anything about this day other than the bigger news, bigger market news. >> apple, is that what we're talking about? >> apple. a blowout quarter for apple. i've been covering corporate earnings for a long time, not to sound like an old lady, but i have never seen a tech quarter like this. this is a company that today, when it opens for trading, could actually be the largest publicly traded company in the world. it will surpass exxon mobil. for the i phoniphones, 411,000 s a day in the quarter. they sold 181,000 ipads every day in the fourth quarter. christmas came for apple. i mean, people ran out and bought these things. >> we saw those pictures coming in from china. >> people really wanting this product. >> unbelievable. >> its sales up 73% from a year ago. wouldn't you love an investment or your business go up 73% in one quarter? there is no recession in apple land, and these numbers show that apple has had just a phenomenal, phenomenal quarter. >> did we know -- i mean, it was good. did we know it was this good? >> we knew it was going to be good. the company had been guiding, look, they're selling a lot of these products. if you anecdotally look around you, people got the first ipad and second ipad, and they're talking about there being a third ipad in march. people are frugal in this country because they're burned by the recession, but people are focused on their frugality. in tech, people are willing to spend money, they really are. you see it in the kinds of tech they're buying. this is putting apple in sales neck and neck with hewlett-packard for the biggest tech company in the world. apple is bigger than the size of greece. and apple has almost $100 billion in cash. apple has more cash than most companies have in the entire value of their company. it's just got money in the bank. we all can't wait to see what it does with that money. the company, tim cook, the new ceo, saying things were very, very good. we'll see how well the stock does today. it was up after hours about 7%. >> keep an eye on that. and also apple makes great pies. that's all i'm saying. the new america. >> there's nothing more american than apple pie. >> i'm going to go back to my canadian. >> these products are made in china. >> there's that. >> i want to go back to my canadian roots. i grew up watching the northern lights all the time. totally normal for me. >> do you love this story? >> look at this. it's not raining men, it's raining radiation. i know it's an awful 0 thing to say, but, man, does it make for a pretty picture. look at the solar flares. there's the northern lights. it's something i've seen on a regular basis. >> isn't it beautiful? >> this is the strongest one, by the way, since 2003. of course, it does make the stunning light show. this light show all the way -- it can be seen as far as norway. it is a bit freakish in terms of just the bombardment because it can send waves of energy all the way to earth, and it can also impact our satellite transmissions, which is not good, have an effect on power grids, and some of the flights earlier. >> rerouted their flights. >> over the north pole. >> specifically. >> it's pretty, but that's the headline. >> it affects astronauts the most, i hear. >> oh. >> yes. that's who's most affected by it. >> fascinating. still ahead, four east haven, connecticut police officers arrested for allegedly terrorizing latinos in the city. this is an incredible story. you will not believe the mayor's reaction to the arrest. 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