Presidential Candidates to Debate Foreign Policy; Gingrich Surges to Top; Fresh Clashes in Cairo; New Chaos in Cairo; Newt Gingrich's Presidential Bid
HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, a very even tempered mom there. Thanks to both of you. The Arab Spring has become an autumn of discontent and violence and bloodshed in Egypt. At least two dozen people have been killed in anti-government protests. Three Americans have been arrested, as well. We'll take you to Cairo live in a few minutes. How would a President Romney or Gingrich or Cain handle a situation like this? That is the kind of topic the Republican candidates will debate tonight. Its focus will be foreign policy and national security. CNN, the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute will bring it to you from Washington tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We're talking to our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser, Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence and Joe Johns who's at Constitution Hall where the debate will take place. Joe, let's start with you. Is the 11th big GOP presidential debate this year, what are the expectations? Who might benefit from a foreign policy question tonight and who might, you know, possibly be in trouble?</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, when you look at the range of all these Republican candidates who are going to be here at DAR Constitutional Hall, the first thing you can say is that there are at least three candidates who are expected to know this stuff cold. That would be the former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, the former ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, and the former member of the Senate Republican leadership Santorum -- Rick Santorum. You'll also have to look, of course, at Michele Bachmann who happens to be a current member of the House Intelligence Committee. She touts her foreign policy experience because she's on that committee, but you have to point out, as well, she's been a member of the House Intelligence Committee for just about 10 months. Appointed of January of this year. There will be some people will watch to see how they do because they don't have a lot of policy experience in this arena. That would include Herman Cain who is a businessman, former CEO of Godfather's Pizza with relatively limited experience on these matters. So watching these candidates very closely, Republicans have said again and again that they're opposed to many of President Obama's foreign policy measures and ideas. This debate will help us determine what these Republican candidates actually stand for affirmatively so a lot to watch here in Washington, D.C. -- Hala.</s>GORANI: All right. And we'll be watching. Let's go to CNN Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence. Of course, the relationship with Egypt in the news today, Chris, the relationship between the United States and Egypt is an important strategic one. American taxpayers send more than $1 billion a year to support the military in Egypt. And in a debate like tonight, that's going to come up as the situation a President Romney or Perry or Cain could face.</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's a great example, Hala, of an issue that wasn't debated during the last presidential election cycle that always seems to surprise presidents. You know, there are things that won't be debated tonight. National security issues that will come up during the next president's tenure. So tonight really is a chance to see how some of these men and Michele Bachmann would handle the role of commander in chief. What are their strategic interests, where they place the emphasis on. But it will also carry different weight for different candidates. Some of the candidates, such as a Herman Cain who's had a lot of trouble with some of the foreign policy answers, he needs to sort of show the voters that he can meet sort of a minimum standard for what America expects in a commander in chief. The frontrunners, people like governor -- former Governor Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich who sort of already passed that threshold. They will have to explain some of the nuance on their position on things like Egypt, on Libya, on bringing troops home from Afghanistan. That is what some of the questions will be directed at tonight.</s>GORANI: All right. And then the question will be, how important is it in the primary process for the Republicans. We're going to analyze that, as well, this hour. Chris Lawrence, thanks. We have new CNN GOP poll numbers out this morning out of our debate tonight showing Newt Gingrich surging. Deputy political director Paul Steinhauesr has the numbers, and what they mean. Paul, tell us about the latest figures, the polling numbers out today.</s>PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hala, our debate comes just six weeks until those first vote in the Iowa caucus. So the clock is definitely ticking. Take a look at these numbers. It's a whole new battle in this battle for the GOP nomination. There it is, our CNN/ORC poll. This is a national poll of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP. Twenty-four percent say they are choosing Newt Gingrich right now, the former House speaker, for the nomination with Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, at 20 percent. That four-point margin for Gingrich basically within a -- basically a tie within the sampling error. So you can say it's all not enough at the top. There's Herman Cain, a businessman, former Godfather's Pizza CEO, at 17 percent. His numbers have been slipping because of those allegations of sexual harassment. Rick Perry at 11 percent, the Texas governor, he has stumbled in some of the debates. Everybody else lower. So what explains Gingrich's rise? Take a look at the next poll number. And it really tells the story. He has shined in these debates. And you can see right here according to these numbers. Is he the most qualified? Thirty-six percent say yes, Gingrich, 20 percent Romney, everybody else last. Who has the best grasp of complex issues, 43 percent of Republicans say Newt Gingrich, 18 percent Romney, everybody else lower down. Same thing as when it comes to who's qualified to be the commander in chief, Newt Gingrich on top. His performance in the debates has really shine. One last thing, take a look at this number, Hala, six weeks to go. But you know what, a lot of Republicans are still up in the air. Sixty-seven percent say, you know, I may change my mind on which candidate I'm going to back when those primaries and caucuses start. So six weeks to go. These debates have been very influential. I think our debate tonight will be just as influential -- Hala.</s>GORANI: And you add the unsures, that's 73 percent all up in the air. Thanks very much, Paul Steinhauser, and to our team on the ground in Washington. And don't forget, of course, to watch our live coverage of tonight's Republican presidential debate. Wolf Blitzer questions the candidates on those national security topics. Tonight 8:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN. Well, we alluded to it at the top of the hour. Clashes in Cairo are getting uglier. Pro democracy activists are mounting a mass rally in Tahrir Square. It's the fourth day. Take a look at the images. Egyptian forces are using teargas. You see plumes of it there. Rubber bullets against protesters in the streets around the square. Meantime, thousands of people are joining what's being dubbed the million man sit-in. CNN's Ivan Watson is right in the middle of it.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: These are the frontlines of the running battles over here. The police have set up a barricade in this direction. The kids have been throwing rocks at them. The teargas is coming constantly. You can see the corrosive effects of it. Everybody showing these shells that they pick up and many of them claiming that they're made in the USA. In fact, this is made in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. Riot smoke. That has created a lot of anger against the U.S. right now. The crowd here angry, young, furious at the loss of life here over the course of the past three days, demanding that the Supreme Council, the Armed Forces Marshal Tantawi step down. The soldiers are around the corner here. Around the corner right here, the army has set up barricades along one road, but it's riot police that they're facing off against. If we turn in this direction, it's riot police down here. This is one pocket of turmoil in the center of the Egyptian capital, but it is throwing the entire country into a political crisis just days before elections are scheduled to be held and that's called into question whether those elections can be held at all. Ivan Watson, CNN, in Cairo.</s>GORANI: And Ivan joins us now live from Cairo with more on what's happening. It's the fourth day of protests. It was dubbed the million-man sit-in. How big is the crowd in Tahrir at this stage, Ivan?</s>WATSON: Well, judge it for yourself, Hala. We're going to pan out and show you the crowd as it has swelled throughout the day. Looking similar to what it looked like yesterday, though, far more tense in place now. We saw a sit-in overnight. People sleeping in the square and the clashes with the riot police are taking place just a few hundred yards up the roads from the square itself where the people are. There is the deafening sound of ambulances. We see a constant stream of wounded people being rushed out to hospitals. The latest figures, 29 people killed since the clashes first began on Saturday. Not only in Cairo, but also in the cities of Alexandria and Ismalia (ph), and of concern, as well, there is smoke rising from the area of the vegetable market just a few blocks away from Tahrir Square. Really, a snowballing political crisis here with the civilian government submitting its resignation and apparently the ruling military council still hasn't decided whether or not to accept that resignation up until now. And I need to remind you, elections, parliamentary elections, the first phase of them, are supposed to begin in just six days. And you're zooming in on what is one of the first aids centers, makeshift, first-aid clinics, where all the wounded people</s>GORANI: Well, it's still a very tense situation. Violence still unfolding as you've been describing there, Ivan. And these elections coming up. But the protesters in the square, are they concerned about elections or are they demanding nothing less than the removal, the departure of the military leadership there?</s>WATSON: Well, you know, I just heard thousands of voices chanting in unison a very similar chant to what we heard in January and February here. Instead of saying the people want the fall of the president, the former President Hosni Mubarak, now they're chanting, we want the fall of the marshal. That is Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the head of this military council that has effectively run Egypt ever since protests forced Mubarak out of power. Now if you go beyond these angry protests where there's so many young demonstrators, it's a much younger crowd than I saw, an angrier crowd than we saw in January and February. If you talked to political parties, many of them have mixed responses about whether or not the elections should take place. Whether or not the military council should immediately resign -- Hala.</s>GORANI: Right. Let me quickly now briefly ask you about these Americans? We saw images on television of three young Americans? There are some I.D. cards there, as well. What do we know about these young men and why they were arrested?</s>WATSON: Well, they were shown on state TV last night and judging by the I.D. cards that are shown, it looks like they're students at the American University of Cairo. One of them appears to have a driver's license from the state of Indiana. We've spoken with the prosecutor's office here and they say that these three Americans have been detained when they were caught throwing Molotov cocktails, petro bombs. We contacted the U.S. embassy here. They say they cannot comment on these reports until they first get a freedom of Information Act agreement signed by the people in question. And the U.S. embassy here says that they've seen -- received many more reports, aside from this one, of Americans currently in detention and they're trying to make sure whether or not these reports are credible or not. So we'll bring you an update as soon as we find out more about these three individuals -- Hala.</s>GORANI: All right. As we continue to watch these live images, remarkable images there from Tahrir Square. It really looks like February, January, February all over again. Thanks very much, Ivan Watson, we'll catch up with you a bit later. Coming up, the mob of teenagers caught on tape as they invade a Maryland convenience store. We'll tell you what they got away with, next. And the search for life beyond our own planet. There's growing evidence that says, yes, there is life out there. We'll explain just ahead.