Santorum Sweeps Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Ashleigh Banfield.</s>ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Zoraida Sambolin. We are bringing you the news from A to Z. We are very happy that you're joining us. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East. So, let's get started here. A stunning sweep. Rick Santorum wins Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado. They're calling it a GOP stunner. He scores a triple win, a Santorum surge. Does it revive his campaign? And what kind of questions does this raise for Romney now?</s>BANFIELD: And while this was happening, overseas, an entirely different story. Syrians fighting for their lives, more killings, the numbers are escalating. President Bashar al-Assad refusing to cede power and now some surprising report about U.S.'s options.</s>SAMBOLIN: And chilling 911 calls from the case worker who dropped off those two little boys at their father's home before he blew up the house, killed his entire family, shedding new light on what happened moments right before that tragedy.</s>BANFIELD: And we go one on one this morning with Donald Trump. He is one of the wealthiest men in America. No one would dispute that. So, what does he think about Mitt Romney's tax rate and the whole idea of raising taxes on the wealthy. We're going to ask him about it and see what he has to say. You might be surprised.</s>SAMBOLIN: And up first here: Rick Santorum's Tuesday night trifecta. The former Pennsylvania senator turning the race for the Republican nomination on its ear. Missouri, the nonbinding primary, no delegates at stake there. Here are the results: Santorum, 55 percent, Romney, 25 percent, Paul, 12 percent. Gingrich, not even on the ballot there.</s>BANFIELD: And Minnesota, this is the state that he won handily back in 2008. This time not so much. The caucuses there had 37 delegates at stake. Santorum pulled off the win with 45 percent of the vote. Ron Paul came in second with 27 percent. And then came Mitt Romney, a distant third with 17 percent. Gingrich's very bad showing was 11. And if we move on to Colorado, look at it again -- the third checkmark in Colorado. Again, another win for Romney in '08, but not last night -- 33 delegates up for grabs. Rick Santorum again pulling this one off with 40 percent of the vote. Mitt Romney coming in behind at 35 percent of the vote. And Rick Santorum was suddenly sounding presidential.</s>RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ladies and gentlemen, I don't stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama.</s>BANFIELD: CNN's political editor Paul Steinhauser is live in Washington, D.C., to talk through all of this. You might say Romney might be suffering some welsh words this morning. Did anyone expect anything like these results?</s>PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Wow. That's what I'll start with, a big wow. This hat trick of victories, I know the other candidates are trying to play it down, but this is very surprising and a very, very big deal. Listen, any time you think you know what's going on in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, you don't. It changes. And last night's victories for Santorum are proof of that. You know what? He also used his victory speech in Missouri to say that it was more of a level playing field last night because a lot of money wasn't spent by any of the candidates. He also took some shots at Mitt Romney. Take a listen.</s>SANTORUM: Governor Romney's greatest attribute is, "Well, I've got the most money and the best organization." Well, he's not going to have the most money and the best organization in the fall, is he? No, we're going to have to have someone who has other attributes to commend himself to the people of America, someone who can get up and make sharp contrasts with President Obama, someone who can point to the failed record of this administration and say that Barack Obama needs to be replaced in the Oval Office.</s>STEINHAUSER: So what does Santorum do next? Well, Ashleigh, two-and-a-half hours from now, he's right here on CNN. But then he heads to Texas. Why Texas? Their primary isn't until April. We're talking fund-raising, Ashleigh. Now is the time for Santorum to capitalize and monopolize on his big victories and start raising some campaign cash, which probably will come a little bit easier. And in the next day on Thursday, he's Oklahoma. That's one of the Super Tuesday states -- Ashleigh.</s>BANFIELD: Well, in this effort to capitalize on the momentum, will he be trying to push this message that this was not only a validation for me but it was also a thumping non-confidence vote in Mitt Romney among the GOP?</s>STEINHAUSER: Exactly. And the other point he will make as well is that I am the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, not Newt Gingrich, somebody who did not perform very well at all. Also, we're going to look to see what Rick Santorum says at the Conservative Political Action Conference, that big meeting with three of the presidential candidates. Going to happen on Friday.</s>BANFIELD: You know, I've got to be honest with you, Paul, a lot of people make huge hay the morning after, and then it's on to the next state. And it's hard to know what race happened two to three weeks ago. But this is three. It's not that forgettable, is it?</s>STEINHAUSER: Not at all. Romney campaign is going to say, listen, Missouri, we didn't even campaign there. Minnesota, well, he did go to Minnesota. That was his first stop after Florida, after his big victory in Florida, and he came in third in Minnesota. That's got to hurt. And especially Colorado. He was there last night. He had a small crowd. Mitt Romney at his H.Q. Take a listen to what he said, though.</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This was a good night for Rick Santorum. I want to congratulate Senator Santorum. Wish him the very best. We'll keep on campaigning down the road. But I expect to become our nominee with your help.</s>STEINHAUSER: A top Romney adviser said they're going to pay more attention to Rick Santorum and try to paint him as the Washington insider they say he was in those years in the Senate. So, to Rick Santorum, I say watch out. We've seen the Romney campaign go after the Gingrich campaign. Santorum has had it pretty easy. I think that changes today, Ashleigh.</s>BANFIELD: All right. Paul Steinhauser, thanks very much for all of that. You know, it is very safe to say, Zoraida, I think that Donald Trump may not be all that impressed by Santorum's big win last night, because, of course, six days ago he endorsed Mitt Romney. It was a big affair in Las Vegas. I had a chance to sit down with the big man, Mr. Trump, yesterday, and we talked about the all important question about electability because that's such a huge issue in this election. Trump says Santorum flat out doesn't have it.</s>DONALD TRUMP, CHAIRMAN & PRES., THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Rick Santorum was a sitting senator who in re-election lost by 19 points -- to my knowledge, the most in the history of this country for a sitting senator to lose by 19 points. It's unheard of. Then he goes out and says, oh, OK, I just lost by the biggest margin in history. Now I'm going to run for president. Tell me, how does that work? That's like me saying, I just failed a test. Now I'm going to apply for admission to the Wharton School of Finance, OK? He just failed a test. Now, he's going to run for president. So, I don't get Rick Santorum. I don't get that whole thing.</s>SAMBOLIN: You were talking about that endorsement he made of Mitt Romney. What was the outcome of that endorsement?</s>BANFIELD: There was a bit of blow-back from it. There was a poll down in ABC News/"Washington Post" that said, actually, 31 percent of respondents said it would make him less likely to actually vote for his candidate. But I asked Donald Trump about that, and he dismissed it. He said it's foolish. It's ridiculous.</s>SAMBOLIN: All right. A lot more to come on that. We'll see about Santorum's surge, won't it?</s>BANFIELD: Well, indeed. Yes, what a story.</s>SAMBOLIN: All right. And you can keep on CNN now to November for the best political coverage in television. At 7:30 Eastern on "STARTING POINT" this morning, Soledad O'Brien goes one on one with Rick Santorum. So, we are minding your business news this morning. Wall Street shaking off fears about Greece yesterday by the end of trading. The Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P; 500 all closing higher. In fact, that close is the highest yesterday since May of 2008.</s>BANFIELD: Christine Romans is here minding your business. The stocks high and all the rest. But still, Greece comes back to bite us. Why?</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It really does because we got to get this resolved. And it's one of those things there's not an easy, short resolution, quick resolution of it. So, Greece is going to be a drag. But you look at May 2008, why is that important? May 2008, that means that the Dow at least is at the highest, trading at the highest level since before this president was in office. So, it's one of those things politically at least is in the president's favor. But now at least you have a stock market that has recovered. I want to look at the Dow and S&P; are up 60 percent over the past three years. And I'm not giving credit or blame to anyone politically. I'm just saying that stocks have recovered here. But have they recovered and everyone is feeling it? That's the big question here. It's what I've been calling a two-speed recovery going on because you have stocks that are doing better, you have unemployment down, 8.3 percent is the unemployment rate. But we heard from Ben Bernanke, the Fed chief, yesterday, who said be careful about being too optimistic about the jobs numbers. He says we are still a very long way from a normally operating labor market. Too many workers have been left behind. Too many have dropped out of the labor market. Too many, Ben Bernanke has said, are working part time but they're capable of working and want to work full-time. Companies are recovering -- this is the Fed chief's words and this what the data are showing -- companies are recovering, the housing market isn't. And that's most likely to affect middle class people who are really trying to figure out, are they going to benefit from a growing economy? Maybe they're not exposed to the stock market anymore. They got blown out three years ago. That happened to a lot of people. They're still exposed to jobs and housing. Those are the two things they feel the most. So, a two-speed recovery. You look at data getting better on almost all fronts. It's really benefiting people who have money. It's benefiting companies. Even Ben Bernanke yesterday saying, we've got a long way to go in the labor market. That's what most of us feel.</s>BANFIELD: And most of the GOP say as well.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: Thanks, Christine. Appreciate it.</s>ROMANS: You're welcome.</s>SAMBOLIN: It is nine minutes past the hour. Every morning, we give you an EARLY START to your day by alerting you to news and stories that are just developing now, but they will be the big story. You saw it first here. He was brutally beaten apparently for wearing skinny jeans and for being gay. Today, that man, 20-year-old Brandon White, is set to speak out this morning. Before we show you any of this video, though, we want to give you a chance to turn away. If your children are up at this hour, get them out of the room because it is quite shocking to see. This is the video. It is posted online under the headline "dead wrong." Man wearing skinny jeans gets sucker attacked. And G's throw a tire on him for being gay. He was attacked last month outside of an Atlanta convenience store. Brandon White will speak out this morning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The FBI and local police are still looking for his attackers there.</s>BANFIELD: It's hard to watch that. More airline passengers are about to get in the fast lane at airport security checkpoints. Later this morning, TSA administrator John Pistole is rolling out the pre-check program. This is going to happen in airports in Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, New York's JFK International. And if you want to get involved, a couple of things you've got to do. You have to volunteer personal information. You also have to agree to a background check. But in return, those travelers who are vetted for this are allowed to wear their shoes and their belts and even their coats. But maybe more importantly, bypass long security lines.</s>SAMBOLIN: Yippee.</s>BANFIELD: I know.</s>SAMBOLIN: And it's been one of the warmest winters on record, right? But today, rain and snow are moving into the Northeast. Up to four inches expected in parts of Pennsylvania, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City could all see light snow this morning before it mixes with rain a little later today. Rob Marciano is on that. He'll bring us more details later. And still ahead on</s>EARLY START: the 911 calls released in that family tragedy in Washington state. Josh Powell, his two young sons, well, he blew everybody up in that house fire.</s>BANFIELD: And a vacation to forget for cruise ship passengers, not one, but two outbreaks of norovirus on board. We'll get to the bottom of it. Find out how this happened.</s>SAMBOLIN: And a Susan G. Komen executive quits. More questions about the charity's short-lived decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood. You're watching EARLY START.