plunge. the dow slid 251 point, today. there s only one other day this year that it has been worse. people are afraid. they re afraid of the blood gushing out of europe s veins. they re afraid of the blood draining out of jobs here in the united states. ultimately, they re most afraid that congress is too cold-blooded to do anything about it. to make a deal that could instill confidence again in the greatest economy on earth. yes, that is, still, by leap, bounds, everything, everybody, the united states of america. instead, by the end of the day, the credit rating agency moody s downgraded america s five biggest banks. specifically blaming fear about stability in the global financial system. that means it s going to cost those banks more to operate. that means they have less money to lend to all the borrowers in this country. about the only person feeling good today, billionaire larry ellison. it s good when you got $36 billion and buying an entire island in hawaii is pocket
point, partisan politics and a sitting u.s. attorney general cot in the cross fire. eric holder is in copenhagen this morning. yesterday a house committee voted to recommend citing him for contempt of congress for not turning over documents from that botched fast and furious gun operation. you will remember that program allowed guns to end up in the hands of mexican drug cartels and is connected to the death of at least one u.s. law enforcement officer. those documents are now off limits to republicans and everybody else because the president has invoked executive privilege to keep them under wraps. it brings us to joe jons live from washington, d.c. this morning. good morning. good morning, soledad, the contempt issue moves to the full house of representatives as early as neck week. holder is the first obama administration official to be held in contempt by congressional committee. the point man on all of this for the republicans, of course, is chairman darrell issa. he ta
you re in the situation room. their voters no candidate can afford to ignore any longer. and both mitt romney and president obama are reaching out to latinos this week with speeches to a national conference being held near orlando. the president addresses the group tomorrow. mitt romney spoke today. but the presumptive republican nominee has the greater challenge. a gallop poll shows mr. obama with a strong lead among hispanic registered voters. 66% to romney s 24%. but the president s advantage all but disappears in the battleground state of florida where the conference is being held. romney s trailing there by only four points according to a university poll. cnn national political correspondent, jim acosta s on the scene for us right outside orr lan toe. jim, romney spoke about immigration today. how did it go? reporter: wolf, a senior romney advisor told me that today s speech was more about laying out broad principles than specific policy proposals. that left some i
that is, not until people started dying. the only way you re going to find those guns in mexico is where? at crime scenes. at the death, at the site of somebody who s dead. at a gun battle between the police and the bad guys in which either the bad guy was killed and his gun was left at the scene or used during the commission of a crime in which the gun was left behind. that makes no sense to me. between reasonable men within the law enforcement community, no, there is no reasonable explanation to let these guns walk. two of those guns made their way back north to the scene where border agent brian terry was shot dead a year and a half ago. he just finished buying christmas presents for his family. two months later, atf agent sopada was killed in mexico by a batch of ten firearm as sold in a part of fast and furious. but the big headlines today were in washington, d.c. after initially cooperating with the house oversight committee, which is investigating fast and fu
that if we take the right policy steps, if we re doing the right thing, then the politics will follow. and my mind hasn t changed on that. jeff mason, reuters. where s jeff? right here. thank you, sir. my question is about syria. did president putin of russia indicate any desire on russia s part for assad to step down or to leave power? and did you make any tangible progress in your meetings with him or with chinese president hu in finding a way to stop the bloodshed there? thank you. well, these were major topics of conversations in both meetings. and anybody who s seen scenes of what s happening in syria i think recognizes that the violence is completely out of hand, that civilians are being targeted, and that assad has lost legitimacy. and, you know, when you massacre your own citizens in the ways that we ve seen, it is impossible to conceive of a orderly political transition that leaves assad in power. now, that doesn t mean that that process of political transition i