the truth about mitt romney's work at bain capital. does it add up? answers. and a midflight scare. u.s. fighter jets scrambled. a flight diverted en route from paris to charlotte. and could george zimmerman walk free? one expert says so, says there's no case. tonight he's "outfront" to make that case. good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, is mitt romney richard gere? i had a flashback to "singing women" when he takes julia roberts to dinner with the ceo of a company he's planning to buy out. >> if you were to get control, and i don't think you will, but if you did, what do you plan to do with the company? >> break it up and sell off the pieces. >> i'm sure you'll understand i'm not thrilled at the idea of your turning 40 years of my work into your garage sale. >> at the price i'm paying for this stock, mr. morris, you are going to be a very rich man. >> i'm rich enough. i just want to have my shipyard. >> julia roberts then says slippery little suckers. the image is the one president obama though is hoping sticks about mitt romney. here are clips from two ads supporting the president running right now. >> having a good paying job that you can support and raise a family on is hugely important. >> that stopped with the sale of the plant to bain capital. >> i thought that i was going to retire from there. i had about 2 1/2 years to go. i was suddenly 60 years old. i had no health care. >> those stories are wrenching, and they call into question mitt romney's claim that he created 100,000 jobs. >> in the business i had we invested in over 100 different businesses, and net net taking out the ones where we lost jobs and those that we added, those businesses have now added over 100,000 jobs. i have a record of learning how to create jobs. >> is the number real? okay. when pressed on whether that 100,000 job number included the number of jobs lost during his tenure, now, he said net net, okay? but here is how he responded. >> it includes the net of both. i'm a good enough numbers guy to make sure i got both sides of that. >> okay. the unfairly maligned mayor of newark, was saying when he appeared on "meet the press" sunday. >> i have to just say from a very personal level, i'm not about to sit here and indict private equity. to me we're getting to a ridiculous point in america. >> personal. maybe because booker was referring to newark-based thibault. it's america's oldest continually operating wallpaper company. riverside bought it in 2006 which saved the company from liquidation and he says created jobs. that's the image mitt romney wants voters to have. romney wants voters to see him as this richard gere, the one who builds companies. thanks to julia roberts' influence. >> mr. lewis and i are going to build ships together, great big ships. >> so which is the truth? ed conner is former manager director of bain capital and author of "unintended consequences" and john avlon joins me as well. i really love the richard gere thing. >> always a win. >> ed, let me start with you. you spent a long time at bain. you are an unapologetic defender of free market capitalism. obviously your book takes aim at that, but can you just answer the fundamental question here. mitt romney is trying to say he created jobs, but let's be clear here, his number one goal had nothing to do with creating jobs, right? >> i think that's a cartoonish portrayal of business. people want to pretend the only thing business is doing is working for investors but what's left out of that, the half truth is businesses are working for customers. customers decide what businesses are going to be successful, whether businesses grow or don't grow. in the end if you satisfy the customer, you will end up satisfying the investor. but you can't jump straight to the investor without first working for the customer. >> okay. all of that is true, but still the way you do that is try to come up with something people want. that's your goal. >> absolutely. >> as a private he can quit investor your goal is to do that and make money doing that. >> sure. jobs theoretically flow out of that but it's not definitional and it's not part of the evaluation process. >> i think they flow out of the success of that, let's put it that way. >> so overall though, 1% less -- the study we looked at which is not the only one out there, but shows they do net net slightly fewer jobs. >> if you look at the big picture, don't forget in the 1800s the ludites were breaking down the machines because they thought productivity was going to slow down employment. productivity gains have increased employment. if you compare the united states to europe and japan, we have added 40 million employees on a base of 100 million employees in the 1980s. europe and japan grew combined 20%, half the rate of the u.s. why is that? u.s. productivity has been higher and our employment growth has been faster. we put 20 million immigrants, the families, we gave them homes, gave their families jobs. we educated their children -- >> you're saying that's because we allow people to fire people, turnover quickly. it's free market capitalism -- >> it's because we make businesses stronger and can grow them faster. none of us investors are being successful if we don't make the businesses successful. >> john avlon, the problem in all of this for mitt romney is, and it seems to me why aren't they coming out with thibault. why did i find it? i can see why corey book mother is an ardent democrat and believed in president obama also has positive things to say about private equity. the two things are not mutually exclusive, right? >> they're not at all. especially if you're trying to turn around a city or state and you need investors in companies that are in danger of going bankrupt, especially if they have been struggling in your city for a long time. the point of this line of argument, the president is drawing a clear line in the sand saying this is what the election is going to be about. it isn't simply about trashing private equity, it's about appealing to middle class voters who have been feeling squeezed for decades. squeezed by big government and they see high finance coming in and possibly presep tating a massive economic downturn. it's about whether or not mitt romney as a former head of bain capital can connect with those folks who have been struggling since way before this recession began. >> whether he can become that second richard gere. >> they want to make it an argument about employers versus employees. and they think that's a winning strategy, but the truth is these commercials vilify all of business because there's not really a difference between what private equity is doing and what business is doing generally. they have to deliver more and more value to customers and they do have to do it at lower and lower costs and 24e6 to do it more successfully than competitors. are there tough decision that is have to be made along the way? there are tough decisions that have to be made. >> but, look, when mitt romney says he's not running on his record as governor of massachusetts, he's running on his record at bain. therefore, the obama campaign accepting that term of the debate and saying let's take a closer look. saying it's tantamount to a general attack on free markets doesn't hold up. it just doesn't hold up because all free market -- free enterprise doesn't amount to private equity they're different sides of the equation. there's manufacturing, there's the fact that when private equity comes in, they try to take care of debt and take care of efficiencies. in the short run it may cost a few jobs. >> if you step back and look at the big picture, bain invested in 350 companies. a small minority of those companies were unsuccessful. the rest of them through two and a half times faster than the s&p 500. created close to $100 billion of increased revenues in the companies. so are they cherry picking off examples of difficult situations where we weren't successful? yeah, they're picking off examples where businesses aren't successful as if businesses could be successful without also having some failures along the way. it's a cartoonish portrayal of business. it's actually very anti-business. it goes way beyond lbos. what they're doing right now is test marketing commercials for later in the campaign season to see what's effective. >> it seems to me from a political point of view the romney campaign should fight back by finding other examples because it is on the table and did he make it the center so he has to defend the roshd and make the case. >> that's right. the strongest argument he can make is, look, i'm a problem solver, i'm a turn around expert. i take companies and turn them into competitors again like i will for the american economy. that's the best argument he can make. >> are you going to vote for mitt romney? >> i think everybody knows i'm a major contributor to mitt so yes. >> sometimes people make an argument but their heart is in a different place. thanks very much to both of you. appreciate it. ahead, new warning signs for president obama. we have a brand new poll. and then this, so you text a friend who's driving. your friend gets into an accident, and you could get sued. this could be a major turning point. there's a case going on right now. and a new and alarming warning about what could happen to the economy if the do-nothing congress continues to do nothing. e you still sleeping? 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ our second story "outfront." two major polls showing a tight race for the white house. nbc/"wall street journal" has the president up by one point outside the margin of error, but the true story lies under the surface where we find warning signs for both candidates. oh, and we did find them. ryan joins me here and jamal simmons joins me from washington. i wanted to lay out for each of you, first, the warning signs for president obama. talk about those, and then we'll get to mitt. warning sign number one, 30% of people polled say they are not as well off as when the president took office. that is on par with bush 41 at 42%. the gender gap is narrowing. president obama is now up 7% among women compared to last month when he was up 19% and in 2008 he won them by 13%. and the third problem, it's a statistical tie on who handles the economy better. 46% obama, 47% romney. jamal, let me start there. considering mitt romney is trying to run as a business guy it would seem this is a good thing for the president but you're not so sure? >> i don't think so. i think the president has been more ahead of mitt romney on this question. ultimately it's going to be an election on the economy and which one they trust most to handle the economy and all the issues they face, so that 46/47 number is a little troubling. the one piece of good news here is it's may and not october, and so he's got a lot of time to fix that and get that number up a little bit. >> ryan, i want to ask you about the gender gap narrowing. now, the president gave a commencement address at barnard, a women's college. he did the abc show "the view" with all women. he was sitting sandwiched between the lovely ladies. his proxies including nancy pelosi have been talking for months about a republican war on women. if all of that was working, you would think this gap would be getting wider, not narrower. >> i think that's absolutely right, and i also think republicans just have a structural advantage among men that democrats have to overcome by having a fairly wide gender gap with women and that's just not happening now so that really is a concern. another concern in that "washington post"/abc poll is that that poll sampled democrats way more heavily than republicans in a way that might not pan out come election day and let's not forget, it's a poll of registered voters rather than likely voters. republicans tend to be older, more reliable voters when crunch time comes. that's another thing that might be a liability. some of those older married women, might wind out turning up for mitt romney where as younger single women if they're disappointed by the economy, they might not turn out. >> i think ryan is right that he has to be a little nervous about how the poll is conducted, but also remember it's not just younger single women. it's also older divorced women who are part of that democratic coalition. >> let me get to the warning signs for mitt romney. number one, among people who say the economy is not so good, they vote for president obama 58% over romney 36%. obviously not a good thing for mitt romney. enthusiasm gap, a quarter of romney voters are not enthusiastic. only 9% of obama voters say the same thing. and when asked the question, who better understands economic problems people are having? 48% to the president, 40% to mitt romney. enthusiasm gap, this is obviously hugely significant for mitt romney. a quarter of the people who say they'll vote for him aren't enthusiastic. they might not even turn out. >> absolutely. i think that's a huge issue. i would actually throw out that the number about who understands your economic problems ask a really, really big one. mccain got blown away on that number in 2008. if you don't believe a candidate understands where you're coming from economically, you're not going to support that candidate. >> jamal, there's some good news in the economy here though for president obama. >> absolutely. and i think ryan is right about that number. this goes back to that issue of trust. the president has been to be able to convince people, mitt romney may have done some things on business but can you count on him to understand you and who you are and what you need? if he can get people to buy that he's the one to trust, they will be okay. >> thanks to both of you. "outfront" next, texting a friend who is driving to meet you. well, you could get sued. and an american bound flight diverted. fighter jets scrambled for a us airways plane. a passenger comes "outfront" ahead. what makes a sleep number store different? you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. if you want a soft bed you can lie on one of those." we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. welcome to the sleep number memorial day sale. where you can celebrate our 25-year commitment to a single mission: better sleep for both of you. never tried this before. this is your body there. you can see a little more pressure in the hips. take it up one notch. oh gosh, yes. when you're playing around with that remote, you get that moment where you go, "oh yeah" oh, yeah! ... and it's perfect. they had no idea that when they came to a sleep number store, we were going to diagnose their problems and help them sleep better. and right now, you can save 40% on our innovative sleep number silver edition bed-for a limited time. once you experience it, there's no going back. wow. hurry in to the sleep number memorial day sale between now and june 3rd. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. our third story "outfront," the texting while driving case that could be a game-changer for the whole country. a new jersey judge is expected to decide this week whether a woman who sent text messages to her boyfriend who she knew was driving at the time can be sued for contributing to the crash while he texted her back. the two motorcyclists that he hit in that crash each lost a leg. now, texting while driving is illegal in 34 states, including new jersey. and people who text while driving are 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash according to a virginia tech study. deborah feyerick spoke to the victims of the crash and she's "outfront" with the story. >> reporter: the accident happened in new jersey along this winding country road. motorcycle buffs david and linda kubert were out for a sunday drive. >> went around a curve, and i saw a pickup truck coming right for us with -- i saw the young man with his elbows steering, his head down, and he was texting. next thing i know, he hit us. >> reporter: both david and his wife lost a leg in the head-on collision. cell phone records show the driver, 19-year-old kyle best, was texting a girlfriend shannon, virtually at the moment of impact. in a potentially precedent-setting case, the kuberts are suing them both saying the girl knew her friend was likely driving home since they texted each other almost every day. >> if shannon knew that kyle best was leaving work, and i believe she did, and she was texting him, then i believe she's just as responsible. >> reporter: although not physically in the car, the kuberts lawyer say her texting put her in the car electronically. >> it is as if you are putting your hands over the eyes of the driver, preventing that driver from seeing ahead of him. >> reporter: kyle best pleaded guilty to careless driving, failure to stay in the lane, and improper use of a cell phone. the couple is suing for an unspecified amount in damages. during a deposition, she testified in her words she may have known her friend was driving but her lawyer argues the suit should be dismissed because a message sender has no way to control when, where, or how a message receiver asks after the message is transmitted. david lost not only his leg but his job and insurance after the crash. >> it could have been prevented. it was not an accident. >> reporter: a judge is set to rule friday on whether they can move forward and sue both texters. >> deb is with me here now. this is an incredible story. what is the reason they decided to do this, to go ahead and sue both the man who was driving and the woman texting him? >> in part it is an issue of money, unspecified damages. the bigger issue is they say the woman who texted knew that the guy was in the car, and by doing so she willingly was a participant to the distraction. i think it's really to send a message to teens and to people texting out there that if you know you are sending a text to somebody who is driving, there are consequences, and that is fundamentally what is the heart of their message. >> our paul callahan was saying this is something that there could be a precedent for this sort of thing in terms of if you sell alcohol to a minor and they then drive and someone is hurt or killed, you can be sued as the person who sold the alcohol or a parent who a party is in your home, you can be sued >> think about how many accidents there are every year because people are texting. if you're going to send one, you will maybe think twice. that's part of the psychology behind that. >> i think people who text while driving should go to jail, ten years minimum and i'm only partially kidding. still "outfront," the do-nothing congress a frightening warning about what could happen to the u.s. economy if congress files t