[Ashleigh Banfield, Cnn Anchor:] A very good morning to you, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Ashleigh Banfield.
[Zoraida Sambolin, Cnn Anchor:] I'm Zoraida Sambolin. We are bringing you the news from A to Z. It's 6:00 a.m. in the east. So let's get started here.
[Banfield:] It is final few days before the big showdown in Florida and the fireworks were on last night at the debate. CNN debate things got real heated. It is a very tight race. So which one of these four scored the knockout. We'll tell you.
[Sambolin:] There is new outrage in Mississippi. The governor files for 10 pardoned criminals including the four murderers in there. Well, they have gone suddenly missing. How convenient, strange, or accidental? Not sure which.
[Banfield:] Or all of the above. And talk about being a top banana, John Goodman running the hot streak everybody.
[Sambolin:] A kumquat.
[Banfield:] A top kumquat. You know, it's just Friday. It's the Friday word of the day, what do you know? He's in two movies that are nominated for best picture. How would you like to be in two movies nominated best picture? He's going to stop by and talk to us about that.
[Sambolin:] He's actually in London. Here's a video that you've got to see. A snowmobiler falls 120 feet at the ice games. We're showing it to you so you know that he's OK. Wait until you hear what he did right after that crash. EARLY START starts right now.
[Banfield:] I still can't breathe because it looks like he lands right on his head. Spoiler alert, he's OK otherwise we wouldn't be having this much fun. All right, so up first, the GOP debate last night. How much fun can you have watching TV, folks? If you're watching that a lot, the fighting started from the get go. Everything from immigration, Mexican border, moon colonies. It was CNN's big Florida debate last night. It's just four days to go before until they go to the polls and actually vote in that primary. And you know what? These two are in dead even heat. So, right of the bat, they went at each other. Romney responding to Gingrich's claim that he is the most anti-immigration candidate.
[Mitt Romney , Presidential Candidate:] I'm not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. My wife's father was born in Wales. They came to this country. The idea that I'm anti-immigrant is repulsive. Don't use a term like that. You can say we disagree on certain policies. But to say that enforcing the U.S. law to protect our borders, to welcome people here legally, to expand legal immigration as I approve that that is somehow anti-immigrant is simply the kind of over the top rhetoric that is characterized American politics too long. I'm glad that Marco Rubio called you out on it. I'm glad you withdrew it. I think you should apologize for it and I think recognize that having differences of opinions on issues does not justify labelling people with highly charged epitaphs.
[Sambolin:] So live in Jacksonville, CNN political editor, Paul Steinhauser. That was pretty rapid fire and you wrote to me, Romney had game.
[Paul Steinhauser, Cnn Political Editor:] Yes, Romney definitely brought his game last night. Listen, Zoraida, he had a good debate on Monday, but this I think was maybe his strongest debate of all 19 maybe. I don't know that's that far to reach there. And you know that? In the spin room afterwards, of course they're going to say great things about their candidate, but the Romney camp, the top advisers were really, really happy. Here's an interesting moment. Wolf Blitzer, the moderator, our Wolf Blitzer, you know, "THE SITUATION ROOM." You've seen that show. Romney was able to respond pretty quickly. Yes, it was about this ad that during the immigration debate Romney didn't know anything about. It was a Romney ad in which the Romney campaign calls Gingrich uses Gingrich language as calling maybe Spanish a ghetto language. Take a listen how it played out. Romney really responded well.
[Wolf Blitzer, Host, Cnn's "the Situation Room":] We just double- checked. It was one of your ads. It's running here in Florida, on the radio and at the end you say I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this ad, so it is here.
[Romney:] Let me ask you a question. Let me let me ask the speaker a question. Did you say what the ad says or not, I don't know?
[Gingrich:] It's taken totally out of context.
[Romney:] He said it.
[Gingrich:] No, I did not say it about Spanish. I said in general about all languages we are better for children to learn English in general, period.
[Steinhauser:] You know that could have been a tough moment for Romney, but he was able to turn the tables. Zoraida, you know, listen, Latinos, Hispanics so crucial here in Florida. About one out of every 10 Republican voters are Latinos and Hispanics. If it's a close contest, they could be the determining factor.
[Sambolin:] You know, we talk about immigration a lot and whether or not that's really important issue. It's number six on the agenda for Latinos according to the Pew Hispanic Research. But when you talk about the language and the language you speak at home, that maybe a bigger issue so we'll see how that plays out. We appreciate you having you there. Thank you so much. At 7:00 a.m. Eastern, on "STARTING POINT" with Soledad O'Brien, Republican Congressman David Rivera, the only Latino member of Congress in Florida who is endorsing Newt Gingrich. Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lihtinen of Florida, foreign policy adviser to the Romney presidential campaign will join Soledad. Join Wolf, Erin, Anderson, Candy and John for live coverage of the Florida primary Tuesday night at 6:00 Eastern right here on
[Cnn. Banfield:] We're keeping a pretty close eye on this story out of Mississippi, the developments here now with those convicted killers who were pardoned by that state's Governor Haley Barbour on his way out of office. Well, he may be out of office, but he may have still some more explaining to do about what is going on. The files on these four killers and a couple other ex-cons just happen to be missing now. The state attorney general says they were supposed to be turned over by the governor's office, but they're not. Of course, this is an issue because the state A.G. wants to take this whole issue to task and maybe reverse all these decisions. Our CNN's Ed Lavandera is on the phone now from Tupelo, Mississippi. All right, Ed, how important are these files to start with, and then I'll get you to weigh in on where the heck they are?
[Ed Lavandera, Cnn Correspondent:] Right, what I think the state attorney general's office was hoping for is that there some sort of explanation or a smoking gun in there that might explain how these pardons came to be. There are 10 files out of 203 files that they say were missing, weren't turned over when they were subpoenaed by the AG's office. The governor's office had filed in a brief in court we read the explanation was that these files included four of the murderers' files that these guys were the ones we've been focusing so much on, worked as trustees on the governor's mansion grounds. The governor's office said, look, they weren't necessarily filed. There weren't any pardoned files that we kept on these guys and to quote the court filings, they were living files. These were people that they saw up close every day for a year and that spoke much more clearly and loudly than any pardon files.
[Banfield:] Let me go back and for the on that, Ed. They may go back and forth on whether there were or not files that existed on these pardons and on their behavior. What could be in those files that could make a difference because the AG says he wants to fight these pardons, take it to court, may be find a loophole that they announced that they were being pardoned in the newspaper? Can't you just go ahead in that case without these files?
[Lavandera:] I think that's exactly watts going to end up happening here. This is all pointing towards next week when everyone ends up back to court in front of the judge who will decide whether or not these pardons will stand. Everyone here fully expects and all this will eventually, regardless of which way the judge rules. All of this will somehow end up before the Supreme Court here in the state of Mississippi. I think people here anticipating regardless of what's in his files, it's going to take several more weeks to resolve.
[Banfield:] So listen, normally these files contain things like letters of support. Things that would help parole officers decide on paroles or perhaps even pardons. Back-up documents to tell us what kind of guy this is that we're about to let go. Is there some suggestion other than from the AG who is a Democratic, Haley Barbour is a Republican and they not get on. Is there any suggestion that these files are missing because there might have been something might be in them to suggest that these people who were let go should never have been let go?
[Lavandera:] Exactly, some information that perhaps Haley Barbour went against the recommendations of the parole board. If there were files that said, look, under no circumstances should these guys have been pardoned. Obviously that would be and Haley Barbour had the right or the prerogative to do that if he wanted to. As former governor, the pardon power gives the governor the ability to do, but it would definitely be one of those situations that would leave even more people scratching their heads. If Haley Barbour was told in these file or somewhere along the line, don't pardon these guys no matter what you do, be aware of that and Haley Barbour went against that, yes, that would be one of those situation where's people would look at it and continue to scratch their heads even more as to why he reached this decision.
[Banfield:] Or, Ed, could be one of those legacy breakers. Who is to say. Ed Lavandera, great work. Thanks very much for that from Mississippi. See you.
[Sambolin:] It's 6:09 in the east. Still to come, Poppy Harlow talks to AOL CEO, Tim Armstrong. She is live at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
[Banfield:] Make no mistake. It's no vacation for her.
[Sambolin:] Maybe she got a little skiing in, maybe.
[Banfield:] It may be beautiful, but she's hard at work breaking news for us. And you know who else is breaking news for us is our friend, Soledad O'Brien. She's talking to Mark Kelly, the husband of Gabrielle Giffords about Gabrielle's recovery and the possible return down the road to public service.
[Sambolin:] But first, rob has the quick check of today's travel forecast. Hi, Rob.
[Rob Marciano, Ams Meteorologist:] Good morning, guys. The severe weather from yesterday is rolling into Florida. No severe right now, but could be later on today. Some of the rains stretching into Tampa, Fort Myers maybe getting to the space coast as well and this is stretching up across the east coast into the northeast where some of it is turning into the wintry precip. Northern New England could see a few inches of wet snow with some ice up there especially near the Canadian border, four to eight inches in parts. There's your storm number one getting out of here. Major cities stay warm. Next system coming into Chicago. This one will have snow with it. It will bring some cold air for a couple of days until we warm up yet again. Speaking of warm or at least windy, temperatures are going to be a little bit warmer than normal. But the winds are going to be kicking up across Southern California. Santa Anas the next several days. That's a quick check on weather. EARLY START is coming right back.