Source: Trump To Endorse Romney; Romney's "Very Poor" Choice Of Words; Obama At National Prayer Breakfast; U.S. Shift In Afghan Combat Mission; American Airlines Plan: Cut 13,000 Jobs; Egypt's Soccer Riot Fuels Concerns; Activists: 70 Killed Across Syria; New Face Of The Working Poor
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get straight to Mark Preston. It's the top of the hour, and we're talking presidential politics and a possible endorsement coming from Donald Trump. Mark, what are you hearing?</s>MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, you know, just in the last 12 hours, there's been a lot of talk that Donald Trump would endorse Newt Gingrich today in just a couple of hours in Las Vegas. However, CNN has learned the endorsement is going to be going to Mitt Romney, a big endorsement for Mitt Romney, just two days before the Nevada caucuses. Not a big surprise though, Kyra. They do have a lot in common. They're both businessmen. They both have done very well in the private sector, and in the last couple of weeks, we've seen Mitt Romney turn a leaf. He's become very, very aggressive in these debates and on the campaign trail, and as our viewers will recall Donald Trump said that he wanted to endorse a fighter. So in just a couple of hours Donald Trump will be in Las Vegas. His endorsement will go to Mitt Romney -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, Mitt Romney also fighting a little bit, trying to, I guess, carry out some serious damage control, and it all came from these comments that he said about the poor. Take a listen.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: To myself, if I'm willing to give something --</s>PHILLIPS: Sorry about that, Mark. We actually went to the president of the United States at the prayer breakfast. Quite a different scenario than what I actually wanted to ask you about. Looks like we've got Mitt Romney cued up now. Let's take a look.</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm in this race because I care about Americans. I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. Thanks, guys.</s>PHILLIPS: All right, so instead of locking down this big lead in Nevada, you know, he's defending a poor choice of words. So taking that into account and now you're getting the word that Donald Trump is going to come out and endorse him. He's also in a state where there are a lot of Mormons that are backing him. What is the overall impact here as we head into the Nevada caucus?</s>PRESTON: Well, you know, it's been a roller coaster ride for Mitt Romney. He has had some very high highs and some lows and, of course, that's exactly what we saw yesterday when he made that comment about the poor. We should put it in context though. It's not as if Mitt Romney was saying I don't care about the poor, but words are very powerful, and they can be taken out of context. And quite frankly perception is reality. So when he says something like that, somebody who has done very well, is a millionaire many times over, to come out and say something along those lines, it is very, very hurtful to him. Now what he was saying in those comments, Kyra, is in fact that the poor have a safety net. And he is very, very concerned about the middle class and, of course, we've heard a lot about the middle class on the campaign trail both from Republicans and Democrats. However, he has said something that I'm sure he wishes he has taken back. However, heading into Saturday, he will have this big endorsement today from Donald Trump, but heading into Saturday, he's expected to win the Nevada caucuses. As you said, there are a high percentage of Mormons who vote in the Republican Nevada caucuses, and that's going to be a big boon for him. If he were to win the Nevada caucuses on Saturday as we expect. That would be two wins in a row and we have yet to see that in this contest -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: And we saw obviously the president pop up just a second ago. Last hour, we were watching or listening to his speech at the 60th U.S. National Prayer Breakfast there at the Washington Hilton. We were paying attention to this for a number of reasons. One being, you know, there's tremendous amount of influential GOP voters that attend that breakfast. He really didn't say anything controversial. I know a lot of people were looking to see what he was going to say about health care in particular.</s>PRESTON: Yes, you know in, fact, if we can roll that tape, if we have a second here, there was an interesting moment that came out of that talk at the prayer breakfast. Let's just take a quick listen.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I think to myself if I'm willing to give something up as somebody who has been extraordinarily blessed, give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy. I actually think that's going to make economic sense. But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus' teaching that from to whom much is given, much shall be required. It mirrors the Islamic belief, that those who have been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others.</s>PRESTON: And there you have President Obama just moments ago talking to the prayer breakfast. To the take away from that sound bite, Kyra, two things that really stood out, one, he emphasized that he is a Christian. There is still doubt out there amongst Americans, amongst some Americans that he is not Christian and he emphasized that in that speech. He also married faith and public policy together, and he said that people need to take care of each other, two important things as we head into the November election -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Mark, thanks so much. CNN's Saturday it's Nevada's turn to weigh in on the Republican nominee. Coverage begins at 6:00 Eastern with a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. And then of course, CNN will have live coverage of the caucus results so join us for all that live coverage on CNN. And it could be the beginning of the end of our 10-year war in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says there's a new goal, end combat next year and switch the role of U.S. and NATO troops from fighting to training. As expected, presidential candidates already weighing in. Here's Mitt Romney.</s>ROMNEY: Why in the world do you go to the people that you're fighting with and tell them the day you're pulling out your troops? It makes absolutely no sense. His naivety is putting in jeopardy the mission of the United States of America and our commitments to freedom.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. That's not all. The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee calls the shift premature. Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon. So Barbara, let's go and start with the 89,000 American troops there on the ground in Afghanistan. Let's talk about the impact on them.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, this is a good piece of news for them. They can see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel about when they are going to be coming home, but also, let's have a reality check here. NATO had already decided and the U.S. is part of NATO that troops, foreign troops would be out of Afghanistan by 2014. Nobody is saying that they are pulling the troops out all that early. This will be a phased situation where you will begin to see the shift next year towards ending combat. That's what Panetta is talking about, that sometime towards the middle of next year until the end of the year, you're going to see more training of Afghan forces, less combat. You'll reach that tipping point and eventually sometime before that 2014 when everybody leaves, you will see the end of combat. Is there a hard date on the calendar? Not yet. But that's not to say that Romney doesn't have a point that a lot of other people are raising, which is even talking about this is giving the Taliban some sense of just how long they have to wait for the U.S. to go home, and will they simply sit back and wait out the U.S.? That's one of the key questions -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: OK. Barbara Starr, we'll follow it. Appreciate it so much, and tonight at 6:00 former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is going to share his thoughts with John King on the announcement the U.S. forces will end their combat role in Afghanistan next year, CNN tonight, 6:00 Eastern. Thirteen thousand jobs are on the line at American Airlines now, and it's trying to reshape itself while in bankruptcy. CNN's new aviation and regulation correspondent, is joining us now from Washington. Lizzie, welcome aboard. And let's go ahead and take a look at the jobs that are on the chopping block. We put together the numbers here, 4,600 maintenance operation workers, 4,000 ground workers, 2,300 flight attendants and 400 pilots. What does this mean for travelers like you and me and everybody else?</s>LIZZIE O'LEARY, CNN AVIATION AND REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly means that immediately there's some nervousness about flying American. There probably shouldn't be. This is a long-term process. Remember, American is now going through what the other big airlines have already gone through. Essentially, they have the leverage of being in bankruptcy to say, OK, unions. Remember, these are union jobs. You must now be forced to negotiate with us because we have the idea of a bankruptcy court behind us. So what it means for travelers is eventually could you see some routes be reduced. You could see some planes basically gotten rid of. That's something that American has always said they wanted. The maintenance things, that's something you zoomed in on. American has actually done in-house maintenance. It's the only major airline that was still doing that. They are going to stop doing that some ways. That may mean we see fewer union workers doing maintenance. It may we see fewer workers in America doing maintenance or you see workers kind of moved around to states that have looser union rules. That's certainly something the airline would like to see because for them it's cheaper -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: And there's this huge fight brewing over who may end up having to pay American Airlines the pensions as well, right?</s>O'LEARY: Yes, because we're not just talking about the jobs they are cutting now, but people who for years were sort of contributing to their pensions and expecting that would pay out. American wants to get rid of those in bankruptcy. They're running into a fight with the federal government that says if you try to do that, American, we'll do the federal equivalent of repossessing your home. They went out and said, all right, we've got our eyes on 76 pieces of Americans' property. That means planes, building, even some in Latin America that if American doesn't make good on those obligations, the U.S. government will essentially foreclose on their stuff.</s>PHILLIPS: Lizzie, we will follow how this makes an impact on all of us and, of course, the other airlines as well. Thank you so much. Well, politics or just passionate soccer fans? We're talking about that deadly riot at a soccer game in Egypt. At least 79 people were killed in the deadliest violence since the government was toppled one year ago. CNN national correspondent, Ben Wedeman in Cairo joining us by phone. So Ben, you've been there on the streets. What's going on?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): There are thousands of people, tens of thousands of people, who have come out on to the streets into Tahrir Square and around and in front of the headquarters of the football team that was from Cairo that was involved in this violence in Port Said yesterday, And is the case, what started as a football incident quickly becomes a political demonstration. These tens of thousands of people are demanding that the military, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the military body that took over from Hosni Mubarak a year ago step down and hand over power to civilians. What, you know, they are blaming the military for failing to provide proper security, not just at the Port Said football match, but also in the country in general. We've seen a dramatic decline in law and order over the last year. And many of the people in the streets believe or say or claim that the military is intentionally allowing the country slowly into anarchy simply to justify the conditioning --</s>PHILLIPS: And you can hear from Ben Wedeman there the thousands of people he says they're still on the streets. We are going to monitor what's happening there through Ben as he calls in. And it's the same concern in Syria where opposition activists there say that 70 people were killed yesterday and today, state-run media is reporting five military officers and a soldier there were killed in battles that they are calling are among armed terrorist groups. Now this video reportedly shows the Free Syria Army taking over a small neighborhood and raising the rebel flag. You can see shelling in residential areas in this video from the city and then in other home video that we've received, you can see protesters here singing anti-government songs, dancing and mocking President Assad. Now, it's important to note that CNN can't confirm the authenticity of these videos or reports because access to the country is limited. You know, we've been following the Arab spring, what had happened in Egypt, seeing what happened to the fallout of the soccer game. Now we're monitoring what's happening in Syria trying to get the truth out of there through people that are sending in video like this. As you know, the U.N. still debating on how to draft this resolution calling for President Assad's ouster. We're following everything in the Middle East for you this morning. Guns bought illegally ending up in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. That was the controversial government sting called "Operation Fast and Furious." Well, this hour, the attorney general has answers.