is responding. we ll take you live to afghanistan. also, no holds bard in south carolina. the candidates unleashing brutal attacks trying to stop mitt romney from steam rolling straight to the nomination. will it work? newt gingrich who said, i m not going to go negative. here s what he said. this is going to be armageddon. they will come in here with everything they ve got, every surrogate, every ad, every negative attack. wait, wait, what happened to the i m not going to go negative? that s ridiculous. i will not go negative until now when i go negative. we ll talk about that. plus, the story of a florida gator quarterback who is not named tim tebow that everybody loves. starting point begins right now. welcome barx, everybody. here inside tick talk diner in new york, lower part of midtown. the delicacy here is this dish. loet me move my coffee out of the way. this is a diner delicacy everywhere. giant waffle covered in fruit and then smothered in whipped cream, a
all right. first, though, big news today. the trial of the accused underwear bomber begins this morning with earnest with opens statements at the federal courthouse in droit. umar farouk abdulmutallab is charged with trying to blow up a flight on christmas day 2009 with a bomb hidden in his underwear. the defendant is acting as his own attorney. cnn s deb feyerick in live in detroit, where you were the night this all developed and christmas day 2009. deb, what is the situation? reporter: well, ali, christine and carol, we can tell you that he is facing eight charges today. it carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. the charges against him, attempted murder, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and also conspiracy toy commit terrorism. the nigerian grat witt student turned accused suits bomber is acteding as his own attorney and umar farouk abdulmutallab shown he is defind. during jury selection he invoked his meant, jihad mentor, recently killed in an air