told me could cause the establishment to hit the panic button. within a moment marco rubio continues his bring your governor to workday, campaigning with nikki haley, and jeb bush continues bring your mother to workday, campaigning with barbara bush. that's happening now in south carolina. so important in the presidential race. ♪ >>> but in washington an important moment for the entire nation. justice antonin scalia lying in repose at the supreme court. right there an important congressman paying his respects. the supreme court is now open to the public. there are folks lined up there for just this type of moment. the republican congressman from california right there. we'll check in throughout the hour. this is a moment to say thank you to someone who served the country for so many decades. >>> first, let's go back to south carolina. our chief political correspondent, dana bash, live in myrtle beach where we'll see donald trump within the hour, and dana, within 24 hours we might have a great deal of clarity about this republican race. >> reporter: that's right, john. you said it.

out at marco rubio criticizing his level of experience and poor attendance record in the u.s. senate. from the rocket launch in north korea to so-called memorized speeches, here are some of the highlights from the republican debate. ♪ >> i'm curious why you didn't call ahead of time before sending out the messages. >> monday about 6:30 p.m., cnn reported that ben was not going from iowa to new hampshire or south carolina, he was taking a break. cnn reported. they didn't correct the story until 9:15 that night. >> the timeline indicates that initial tweet from cnn was followed by another one within one minute. everybody can see what happened, and you can make year own judgment. >> thank you. >> when you're president of the united states, governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great america is end doesn't solve one problem for one person. >> this notion that barack obama doesn't know what he's doing is not true -- >> there it is. there it is. the memorized 25-second speech. >> that's the -- >> it was reported just moments ago that the nor

in to marco rubio. >> rubio hasn't accomplished one thing in his entire career. he's not senate for five years and dount have any accomplishments inme accomplishments. . he gives the same 60 second canned answers. let's see if he can take the heat. >> that's some of the nicer stuff he had to say. >> any goodness. more on the republicans in just a moment. first with five days to go until the primary, hillary clinton and bernie sanders are facing voters for the first time since clinton's win in iowa, and nothing was off limits, it seems. clinton defended her wall street speaking fees and her vote for the iraq war. sanders defended his role as the head of the senate veteran's affairs committee, and both traded jabs on who is the true progressive. >> secretary clinton said some people call me, i'm paraphrasing, some people call me a moderate, and i proudly say that i am a moderate. that's what she said. all i said, you can't say you're a moderate one day and be a progressive the other day. >> i was amused he set himself up to be the gate keeper of who is a progressive. under the definit

watch the video. >> where did i support it? >> it wasn't just trump and cruz. rubio also called cruz a liar. phil mattingly is in south carolina for us. things got ugly last night. sounds like it really rattled and got the audience quite excited. >> yeah, absolutely. it was more brawl and less debate. we have been warning people the last five or six days to south carolina this was the place where the campaign was going to get ugly and that happened last night. you mentioned the crowd, a lot of booing and cheering. an active, involved crowd booing donald trump. the interesting thing is donald trump in every poll we have seen leading up to this point, leading by double-digits you saw ted cruz go after him in a sharp manner. part of that reason is when it comes to the south ted cruz is swin who needs to chop away at this lead for donald trump. another one marco rub yoerks i was at his event in south carolina the only people on the trail today in south carolina. marco rubio's people, feeling good about what happened last night and that's no small thing. if you remember what happened in new

, he's still up here at 28%. iowa does not seem to have hurt him. rubio is now solidly in second at 17%. iowa does seem to have helped him. look at this. ted cruz and john kasich tied down here at 13%. since yesterday, trump and cruz have both moved down just a tiny bit and kasich has moved up a tiny bit. our sampling error here is close to 6%. but want you to keep an eye on kasich. the reason to keep an eye on him, he has the lowest negative rating of all of those candidates. he may have the most room to maneuver. and keep this in mind, too. out of all the republicans up there in new hampshire, 30% say they are still decidig whom they're going to vote for. and 26% merely say they're leaning toward someone. only 45% are definitely decided. so that leaves a lot of wiggling room for all of these candidates to do something in the next couple of days. >> a lot of minds can change between now and the primary. what about the democrats? >> it's really a whopping number here. the democrats, 16% say they're still deciding. 20% leaning, but many, many more than the republicans, 64% say they are

misrepresent. this guy's just a plain liar. i felt better because marco rubio called him a liar the other night on stage. i said good, a politician called a politician. now i can actually call him a liar. let's go. go ahead. [ inaudible ] this is a different reason. this is for gitmo. and it's really originally for gitmo but you folks haven't asked that question yet because it's ridiculous they're moving people in that area and we're totally against it and if i win, we're moving them out and they shouldn't be closing gitmo, guantanamo bay, thoeey shouldn' be moving it in any way, shape or form, and they shouldn't be moving hardened criminals into this area. i will stop it. if i don't stop it in terms time, if i win, they're going back. i keep it open. yeah, i'd keep it open. that's right, i'd keep it open. we have to be very vigilant. we'll look at everybody's case certainly. and you don't want to have people that are innocent of something, suffering. but you have some very hardened people. you've let a lot of people go. he's letting them go one after the other. many are going back

candidates holding back. marco rubio attacking ted cruz and cruz targeting donald trump. trump lashing out at everyone. cruz, rubio and jeb bush and non-candidate george w. bush. the former president on the campaign trail in support of younger brother jeb. it was w's first time in full-on campaign mode since barack obama won in 2008. he returned trump's fire. and dana bash has the latest. >> reporter: miguel and alison, george w. bush back in the spotlight. he drew a big crowd for his brother and drew distinctions between his brother and trump. he did not mention his name, but described his persona that we have become used to see, the character that drawn so many supporters to him. the point that george w. bush was trying to make is america shouldn't go for somebody who preys on the fears and frustrations of americans. they should go for a strong and steady hand. somebody who is not necessarily the loudest person in the room. clearly describing his brother. >> the presidency is a serious job that requires sound judgment and good ideas. and there's no doubt in my mind that jeb bush has

to beat him is someone in a head-to-head competition like marco rubio but it's getting time to get concerned. >> i get so frustrated, don, with conversations like this. i hear two republicans saying how sad they are that donald trump could be the nominee, how somber they are. >> bakari is loving it. >> donald trump has riled up the establishment on both sides. he's riled up president obama, he's riling up the gop rino establishment, he's making -- >> wait, a second, donald trump is the guy who supported abortion, who supported single payor health care. so we're rinos? he's not a conservative by any -- >> he's someone who evolve just like ronald reagan. >> at the age of 70. at the age of 70 donald trump had this epiphany. >> it doesn't matter what age. >> matt, people can change. >> yes, i agree. >> i just want to jump in there, lauren. >> go ahead, lauren. >> i'm not saying that donald trump wouldn't be a fine republican nominee. i'm saying he's going to pose a problem with latinos. given the way he's been able to campaign, he might able to turn that around. but right now as it sta

not shown growth in the polls. >> marco rubio has done a pretty good job too. >> exactly. marco's enjoying the growth that ted cruz is not receiving. >> ted cruz may be having some problems with trump and with rubio, that's true, but he's not wrong in this case actually. trump when he says he's been pro-life for a long time, he means six months. he has not been pro-life for a long time. if you look at his record, he's been pro-choice. he's 69 years old. who changes there minds at 69 years old. >> the point is he says he's the world's greatest salesman, right? he sees an opening in the republican primary and he's changed all of his views to fit in with the republicans except on the iraq war, but he's changed a lot of views to fit in. i think it's a sale. >> do you think he regrets not running for the democratic nomination. >> there might be a couple who do. >> i'll ask you about the statements that the president made today. he signalled trump out. he was fairly dismissive of all the republican candidates, bult he focussed on trump, trump responded saying that's a big compliment. di

dismal finish in iowa. look for christie to again take swipes at marco rubio who enjoyed a surge in iowa. in the meantime the biggest brawlers are the two front runners with donald trump accusing trump-cruz of stealing votes in iowa and demanding a do over. >> oh that voter fraud. you know, these politicians are brutal. they are brutal. they are brutal. they are a bunch of dishonest cookies. i want to tell you. >> i wake up every day and laugh at the latest thing donald has tweeted. because he's losing it. >> cnn's dana bash live in mchsz new hampshire this morning. tell us more dana. >> it is kind of hard to imagine that these two men stood on a debate stage not that long ago and said how the other was so wonderful and so nice and now they are just kind of tearing each other to bits. and i guess that is what happens when we get where we are right now. and especially after trump-cruz beat donald trump in iowa. >> this guy ted cruz goes out. >> ted cruz unloelding on donald trump. >> he's beened a voting for full on -- donald has an interesting habit of when anyone actually points to his

before super tuesday. getting ready for round three. round one was the debate last night with rubio launching his first trump-style attack. today came a bunch of insults. >> a nervous basket case. here's a guy -- you ought to see him backstage. he was putting on makeup with a trowel. i don't want to say that. i will not say that he was trying to cover up his ears. >> what does donald do? he takes to twitter. i'll read some. you'll have fun. number one, here's the first one. lightweight marco rubio was working hard last night. this is true. the problem is, he is a "chocker." and once a "chocker" always a "choker" i guess is what he meant to spell. >> when they put marco on to refute president obama's speech, do you remember that catastrophe? and he's like this. and we will -- i need water. help me. >> next tweet, leet weight marco rubio looks like a little boy on stage. not presidential material. he meant to say lightweight but spelled it l-e-i-g-h-t. >> he's a choker and all of a sudden, he's being drained and goes like this. you remember? i said where is he? and then he comes back

support for his near et competitor, marco rubio. >> the question, now, is whether these polls have any influence or predict who will win in new hampshire. granite state voters are known for a tendency to decide late. i spoke with trent spinor, the executive editor of the "new hampshire union leader" newspaper. >> when you dig deeper into the numbers. more than 50% of people are decided. granite staters don't care what iowa did. they don't care about the polls. they want to meet the candidates themselves. marco rubio had a very tough debate. and i'm not sure he passed it. i had friends in the audience that said i'm trying to decide about trump or rubio they left that debate saying i have to see more people. and i think it's up for grabs here. >> we'll have more from trent next hour. >>> marco rubio says he's going to keep criticizing president obama. this follows saturday's rough debate. rubio was attacked by rivals over his level of experience. rubio repeatedly slammed barack obama's leadership. in what chris christie sacalled memorized 25-second speech. >> meanwhile, donald trump

marco rubio screamed liar, liar, liar, it makes you wonder how they would handle putin. >> reporter: it seeks to paint trump as a closet liberal. >> a candidate who has spent 60 years of his life being very pro-choice and defending partial birth abortion. >> reporter: echoed all over the air waves in a series of blunt ads, like this one obtained first by cnn which will debut tomorrow in south carolina. >> south carolina cannot trust donald trump. >> i'm very capable of changing to anything i want to change to. >> don't give him that chance. >> reporter: that nasty turn comes as the rhetoric from trump has been dialled up, centered on using an almost taboo four letter word in politics. >> liar. >> reporter: as his rivals punch right back, voters in south carolina are paying attention too. >> i don't understand the ufc attitude that he has as a candidate. it's unbecoming of the president. >> reporter: all of this escalated so quickly today between donald trump and ted cruz, really speaking to the urgency of the moment in this fierce battle they're waging out in the top tier right now.

more republicans have quit the race than remain. today, john kasich and ted cruz and marco rubio and ben carson will be in south carolina. that is the scene of the next primary. following the big win in new hampshire, rivals have nine days to try to bring donald trump down. >> donald trump, who is an extraordinary politician, apparently, and great actor and enterta entertainer. it is entertaining until you get insulted. not if you are a disabled person. that is a sign of weakness or disparage women or hispanics. >> we cannot nominate a candidate who has the same health care plan of socialized medicine as bernie sanders. >> i think we need to remember that 75% of the voters yesterday chose -- oh, 65% chose someone other than donald trump. the question is how long will it take before we got a narrow enough field for that voter to consolidate. >> trump is the only major republican candidate not in south carolina today. he is headed it to louisiana for a rally in baton rouge. cnn's jim acosta is along for the ride. >> reporter: donald trump literally took a victory lap on the stage behin

presumably because of his appeal to independence but all beating her. kasich, rubio, trump, cruz beating hillary clinton if i switch slides and show you bernie sanders, the republican field against sanders, you'll see similar strength except with bernie sanders this far, t - criticism of the gop brand being harmed by your former employer, trump and yet the republican field looks strong. >> well, hillary clinton has got to have a certain sense of deja vu. she's losing to a 70-year-old socialist. she was the odds on favorite when she began and against barack obama eight years ago. she's clearly in deep trouble here and the republicans, all of them, have an excellent chance despite the fact some are more polarizing than others. >> everybody is voting. we want them to go exercise the franchise. let me word it this way, ellis. how strong a showing does jeb bush need to continue on? >> a whole lot better than he's showing up in the polls. i got to tell you of all of them, he's on life support. if she doesn't do better than all three of us expect, he's going to be out of the race quickl

place, marco rubio and ted cruz fighting out for second there, and in nevada, hillary clinton prevailed in the democrde democratic caucuses there. >> and another story coming out, former florida governor jeb bush who was once considered the frontrunner to win the nomination, decided to suspend his campaign as votes were coming in. and now ted cruz and marco rubio will be battling for second place, but tonight, the night belongs to the billionaire from new york, donald trump, and that is where we want to continue the coverage with cnn politics reporter jeremy diamond who is inside of the trump head kwa headquarters. and he says quickly, thank you, south carolina on to the next. what are you hearing from the trump campaign late this e evening? >> that is right, kate. donald trump tonight with a huge win in south carolina, and this is something that is going to allow him to go forward with the momentum here going into the next contest in the southern states. his campaign is sounding confident tonight, and the zsouh carolina top officials with the south carolina campaign said that

anybody else other than himself. the two candidates that are gifted speakers, marco rubio and ted cruz, have shown nothing in their pasts that would suggest they can make a tough decision. >> with the state's governor nikki haley by his side senator marco rubio is confident he can recover from his showing in new hampshire and win the gop nomination. >> i can't wait to be the nominee of this party because we're going to take conservatism to people who have not voted for us in a long time. >> ted cruz says he can relate to people of the palmetto state better than anyone else in the state. >> south carolina and texas, we've got a whole lot in common. >> meanwhile, the democrats are going head to head across the country. >> there's a caucus here in nevada. >> hillary clinton comes in with endorsements from south carolina congressman jim clyburn and the voice of morgan freeman. >> she understands that our country can't reach its potential unless we all do. >> but bernie sanders says it's not about the endorsements, it's about voter turn out. >> show the world that democracy is alive and wel

around no one is whispering, marco rubio calling cruz a liar, trump never at a loss of words defending his attack on rubio at saturday's debate. >> i was being hit and hit and hit and i was really happy with the way it came out. i mean, i had to be very tough because, you know, you got to do it. i'm being hit by rubio at the end because he said, oh, i agree with them. where did this guy come from? here's a guy, i watched him -- it's true. i mean, all of a sudden he's agreeing with jeb and i said, i said, van, i said, where did this guy come from? two weeks before at the other debate i watched him melt. he was melting. he was sweating. i thought he just got out of his swimming pool. >> donald trump in buford, south carolina, tonight. in a moment, new polling that to provide the first hint of how voters responded to his performance at that debate. >>> first, his ongoing battle with ted cruz. joining us from charleston is sunlen serfaty. the attacks from the republican candidates are coming from all sides. what's the latest? >> reporter: that's right. they really are, anderson. it was int

cruz and marco rubio, simply could not be any higher. time running out for them to try to stop donald trump, and soon so will the delegate math. as for the backdrop, well, donald trump calling mitt romney the party's 2012 nominee a dope, his words, for questioning donald trump's taxes. you've got mexico's former president, vicente fox, saying his country will not pay for any effing wall, and those are his words, as well. you've got rubio and cruz, slamming trump in the news, which we broke first here on cnn, that the rubio campaign is preparing, perhaps, for a contested convention to stop either trump or cruz. it would be an understatement to say that there is a lot in play tonight and a lot at stake for the candidates on the stage tonight. right now, let's get our chief white house correspondent, jim acosta, who is down on the debate stage for -- jim, what are you hearing from the campaigns, what kind of strategies should we expect from the candidates tonight? >> anderson, this debate night is shaping up as operation take down donald trump. the gop establishment has heard the critici

tonight. marco rubio, ted cruz right now still at this moment battling it out for second place. it is close, it is tight. we are watching this. the night, though, belonged to the republican billionaire from new york, donald trump. that is where we begin. sara murray is live inside trump headquarters in spartanburg, south carolina. sara, a very big night for donald trump. bh what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, kate, there was already a celebratory feel here before the numbers came in, and when cnn finally called this for trump, the crowd went wild. listen to what he had to say to his supporters tonight. >> i love you all. again, south carolina, we will never forget you. we will never forget you. we will never, ever forget south carolina. we will never forget our great volunteers. we love our volunteers. we'll never forget all of the people that have helped us so much, my family. and folks, let's go, let's have a big win in nevada. let's have a big win at the s.e.c. let's put this thing away. >> reporter: you heard trump forecasting the calendar ahead. one thing he did not do in

jugular. >> i'll tell you what was good. even marco rubio said he's a liar. when a politician says another politician is a liar, i felt so good. >> here in south carolina these next 21 hours are going to decide a great deal. >> reporter: cruz trying to gain an trump and fend off marco rubio as he cast the florida senator as a shape shifter on immigration. >> marco rubio burned us once. he shouldn't get the chance to sell us out again. >> reporter: others are looking to land their closing arguments with a softer touch. both john kasich and jeb bush fighting to ensure their campaigns survive beyond south carolina. >> well, people thought we would get maybe two or three votes. i think we're going to do better than that. >> jeb has been a great son, great father, great husband, married well, and is one of my four favorite sons. [ laughter ] >> reporter: meanwhile, there's no sign that trump plans to water down his bombastic style. tonight trump is calling for a boycott on apple products until the tech company agrees to unlock an iphone that belonged to one of the san bernardino killers

the heart of what his opponents face. especially rubio and cruz. he won new hampshire. they said south carolina evangelicals would stop him. he won south carolina. they said he couldn't win caucuses, couldn't win latinos, couldn't handle marco rubio's ties. tonight, a closer look at the whole trump phenomenon. something we've never seen before as well as donald trump's own take on it and my conversation. we begin with phil mattingly covering the campaign. super tuesday now less than a week away. what is trump's strategy moving forward? >> well, anderson, it's make the south trump country. if you paid any attention to donald trump's campaign schedule over the left few months, he continued to sprinkle in trips down south. there's a reason. obviously, super tuesday. 25% of available delegates up for grabs. over the next week, donald trump turning that southern priority into overdrive. he's got visits to georgia, tennessee, alabama, oklahoma, arkansas, all states that vote on march 1st. all states that are crucial to donald trump closing whatever door that stills remains open to othe

rubio. rubio just won himself in new hampshire. turns it around, second in south carolina. he says that you know he didn't win it totally in south carolina despite endorsements from tim scott and governor nikki haley because of this. >> who do democrats fear most? i think everyone acknowledges that that's me mp that's why they spend to much time and money attacking me. >> i think it is interesting that there is this question of how do you win if you never win? if you never take a state marker. and always brides made and not the bride. >> yes. and marco rubio would consolidate support. and he can start winning. you won't win by just accumulating delegates by march 14th and not winning any of the winner takes all states by march 15th. if there is going to be a nontrump, that will have to happen yesterday. i mean, tomorrow. >> within a three-week stretch because anertia is taking over. and so yeah, this is an uphill battle for marco rubio for sure let alone for other candidates. truly, hard to imagine what it would take to derail the energy that trump has at this point. >> marco rubio

marco rubio. and it is pretty clear that they are kind of treading water. and that kind of statement from jeb bush is kind of shows where his mental state is, where his emotional state is never mind his political state that you'll be greeted with tonight. >> yeah. and we'll talk to him about all of that. he'll be here. donald trump and john kasich. joining us chief political analyst gloria borger, katon dawson, trump supporter and political commentator, david lord and david brody. katon, we've got to start with the pope. does it have an impact here in south carolina? >> as we says yesterday, if donald trump is not talking about illegal immigration, he's having a bad day. the pope got him back on message. and donald had a pretty good day. a couple hundred thousand catholics in south carolina out of 4.8 million people. i talked to two elected officials today, both roman catholic, and they weren't offended. they wouldn't challenge the pope but they were sort of in donald's corner. donald is back on message. >> because he's talking about illegal immigration. >> his opponents haven't take

to hold a lead over his nearest rival, ted cruz, with marco rubio a solid third. this will be the first test of the billionaire businessman's enormous appeal to a segment of the republican party on the trail. the big question, will these devoted fans follow through and become devoted voters? trump taking nothing for granted today, campaigning with former vice presidential nominee sarah palin in cedar rapids, iowa. earlier today i spoke with governor palin who said she is all in for trump and ready to go door to door. >> i've been knocking on doors for a couple of decades now with my start in politics, running for a city council seat, and that's how we would get elected. >> more of that interview coming up in just a few minutes. and in one of his last appeals to iowans, ted cruz today saying it's now down to a two-man race. >> this race right now, it's neck in neck. it's all about turnout. this race is a statistical tie between me and donald trump. it all comes down to turnout, who shows up tonight at 7:00 p.m. >> it's a cliche, but it's true. it all comes down to turnout. it is a

under attack here tonight. already on the campaign trail this week we've seen jeb bush, marco rubio, and ted cruz find opportunities to go after trump. trump himself has talked about running a more positive campaign. but he's still talking about ted cruz's canadian birthplace. he's even suggested he may have to sue cruz over that issue. on the campaign trail, we've definitely seen trump and cruz find opportunities to criticize each other. but for some reason, which they get on the debate stage, they generally play nice. but perhaps that changes tonight. because there is so much at stake here in south carolina, the vote of course just one week away, and most polls show that trump and cruz are running first and second here in south carolina. so fredericka, yeah, there's a good chance that tonight the gloves will come off between these two guys. >> thanks so much, ryan nobles there in greenville. >>> let's talk about what more we might be able to expect from tonight's republican debate in south carolina with two republican strategists, and a donald trump supporter. good to see both of

rally in manchester where donald trump actually went after marco rubio. here's what he had to say. >> i'm standing at the debate. i'm watching marco sweating like a dog on my right. marco was having a hard time. he's a nice guy. again and again. after three times, i have a very good memory. after three times, i said wait. he said that three minutes ago. then i said, wait. he said that two minutes ago. the same thing. so after the fifth time, i said what the hell's going on. >> reporter: and the closing argument for trump is what it has been all along. he is hitting the audience with what he said all the time. the wall on the border and scrap obamacare and iran nuclear deal. john and christine. >> jim for us covering donald trump. what about the democratic side? bernie sanders way out in front in the latest cnn/wmur poll. he is at 61% to clinton's 35%. bernie sanders is predicting a very, very good night. now the clinton campaign has a new problem. trying to explain away a politico report that hillary and bill clinton are upset with the quality of the campaign operation and plannin

republican candidates will participate. marco rubio, ben carson, ted cruz all appearing on wednesday night and on thursday, donald trump, jeb bush and john kasich will be appearing. it will take place live at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. >>> the town halls will give south carolina voters an opportunity to question the candidates directly. of course, the passing of this u.s. supreme court justice scalia will also be addressed during that time. the republican presidential town halls on wednesday and thursday at 8:00 p.m. eastern time right here on cnn. urns on my watch! try alka-seltzer heartburn reliefchews. they work fast and don't taste chalky. mmm...amazing. i have heartburn. alka-seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. this is not a job for me, thbeing a part of helping thpeople in need is who i am. working at brookdale for me is not just a job, it's a life for me. i love it. i formed many connections with the residents. i feel like i am part of their family and they're part of mine. if you can get up in the morning, ya know, shake the dust and go up there and make somebody ha

pitch battle for second place. just a few minutes ago marco rubio pulled ahead, more than 500 votes, 580 votes right now ahead of ted cruz with 74% of the precincts. and we're counting this all night. it could change again. for these guys, second place matters. don't forget, when you claim second, you claim the biggest victory ever. ben carson and john kasich back in single digits. the biggest news is donald trump. he leads in all counties. hugely popular among voters who say they're angry at the federal government and more voters angry in nevada than we've seen before. they want the next pretty to be an outsider, not someone experienced in politic. hi crushes it there too. in his victory speech, donald trump was ecstatic about his win. listen. >> we won the evangelicals, we won with young, we won with old, we won with highly educated, we won with poorly educated. i love the poorly educated. we' with the smartest people, the most loyal people. you know what i i'm happy about? i've been saying it for a long time. 46% with hispanics. number 1 with hispanics. i'm really happy about tha

issue down. >>> turning to another contentious battle. tonight, ben carson, ted cruz and marco rubio will answer tough questions from south carolina voters at the first of two back-to-back cnn town hall events. we'll take you on the campaign trail before saturday's next big primary. i'm here to get the lady of the house back on her feet. and give her the strength and energy to stay healthy. who's with me?! yay! the complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. ensure. take life in! whose long dayis sheldon setting up the news starts with minor arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. absolutely ageless® night cream aveeno® with active naturals® blackberry complex ... ... a whole new way to keep skin looking younger longer ... ... starting tonight. part of the new absolutely ageless collection from aveeno® after a dvt blood clot.mind when i got out of the hospital what about my family? my l

cruz campaign get nasty with a lot of the other campaigns. if you vote for rubio, it's am nest where i. you vote for donald trump, it's obama care. it was senator cruz who supported tpa for the obama trade. built a pass that includes amnesty, and also includes hits on health care, raising costs and drug prices. >> that's the whole bill as to why he was support it and he did it to kill the bill, and that whole -- >> this is completely different. >> what is donald trump's strategy today? all right. we see him at a rally. what are you doing in these final hours to get people to show up tonight? or is this just a game of you have done everything you can, and now you are waiting? >> well, we definitely have the call center full, and everybody is making phone calls, making sure they know when to go to caucus, if they need training tips, we have it on-line at donaldjtrump.com. the last minute knocks on the doors. we're out there being a resource for the voters. there are a lot of first time caucus goers who are very excited about cabbingusing for trump. i got to tell you, we are so pr

rubio, john kasich and chris christie combined. >> new hampshire is a very different beat than iowa. independents can participate in the gop primary here. there are far lessee advantage elcals living in new hampshire. this is going to be an wrup hill climb for ted cruz, and kwet going forward is can he use his momentum out of iowa to become the clear leading anti-establishment candidate here? ashleigh. >> okay. m. j., thank you for that. >>> florida senator marco rubio finishing a very strong third place in iowa. beating fairly low expectations there. the next state for new hampshire. primary again just a week from today. it's not a lot of time. when you are on the ground and trying to skip between all those places you need to be, cnn senior political reporter is trying to keep up. he is following senator rubio in manchester, new hampshire, today. they were pretty excited and pretty surprised, just elated over the showing last night. today first stop was gma. >> they've not decided who their candidate is heading into the new hampshire primary next week, and already his super pact co

-- we talked about a bloodbath a lot yesterday. you heard this meme, a bloodbath between marco rubio and jeb bush for the establishment lane. this is going to be a bloodbath between ted cruz and donald trump in south carolina and then extending through the southern states where you have the s.e.c. primary on march 1st. because it's evangelicals they're fighting over. and the largest block of the evangelicals, they're going for, ashleigh, is blue collar evangelicals. trump won them in new hampshire. trump won in iowa. >> so they're not a monolithic block any more? >> nor have they ever been. you have collegeated and noncollege educated. 37 noncollege educated, 28% college educated. that's who they're voting for. that is the block of voters both of them need to win. >> the issue for, obviously, every one of the candidates who has dropped out, except for ben carson. i'm still curious about ben carson and i'll ask in a minute. is money. you run out of money, and you run out of people who back you. and now there is that establishment money and establishment support that seems to be up for

. senator marco rubio offered praise, but donald trump fired insults, blaming the former president for the u.s. not being prepared for the 9/11 attacks and for the war in iraq. that didn't stop trump, listen to this. >> i am sick and tired of him going after my family. my dad is the greatest man alive in my mind. and while, while donald trump was building a reality tv show, my brother was building a security pratapparatuses to kee safe. and i'm proud of what he did. and he's had the gal -- >> the world trade center came down. >> don't go after my brother for that. >> joining us now from manchester, new hampshire, he was the former white house chief of staff under president george w. bush, he's now the president of the franklin pierce university, andy karr, thanks very much for joining us. i want to get your reaction to the trump attacks that we heard saturday night at that debate. he said, basically said that 9/11, you can blame president bush because there were warnings, he didn't do anything about it, to prevent 9/11 from happening. what's your reaction to that? >> oh, that denies the re

so close in the latest polls. equally as important to watch is the battle for third. if marco rubio is able to close the gap and make a strong showing, that can go a long way to alter the race and change the dynamic going forward. >> you haven't had a winner in iowa in 16 years. we're going to have a winner, you better believe it. >> republicans in iowa are waking up to the final pitches from 12 gop hopefuls. >> i'm going to ask everyone here to vote for me 10 times. stkph the candidates in red spreading across the hawk eye state, arming themselves with humor. donald trump is only five points head of senator ted cruz in the most recent poll. the front-runner is feeling the heat. continuing to suggest cruz has it in with big banks. >> he forgot to mention he has borrowed amount of money from goldman sachs at almost no interest and citi bank. >> conservative celebrities to back. >> all you ladies, that would be a duck call. let's try one more time to get trump. let's call donald duck to come and meet with cruz to degate. >> to glenn beck voting iowans not to vote for trump. >> for my

long, even marco rubio got into it. he's been taking a kid glove approach with donald trump. donald trump did not really talk about his gop opponents at this event, save a couple of lines for jeb bush. but donald trump always goes after jeb bush. he spent some time sounding like a general election candidate. he was projecting he could win states like new york and michigan in a general election campaign and went after hillary clinton as somebody who could not beat bernie sanders at one point trump called sanders a, quote, wacky socialist guy. so donald was certainly sounding confident tonight. >> and how confident is he in his ground game? he talked about how after iowa he learned a lot about ground games in iowa and, obviously, it benefited him in new hampshire. how confident are they in south carolina? >> they are very confident in south carolina. you'll recall last friday when donald trump was snowed in in new york and couldn't travel up to new hampshire and everybody was saying this was a massive blunder for trump. he came down to south carolina that day, continuing with the stra

his big win in south carolina. on to nevada as marco rubio and ted cruz battle for second. >>> hillary clinton reasserting herself in nevada, but today it is south carolina. the new moves for clinton and bernie sanders ahead. >>> new questions about the horrifying weekend killing spree in kalamazoo. did this uber driver pick up passengers between killing? good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. it is monday, february 22nd. and donald trump riding high in the big win in the south carolina primary. turning to super tuesday on march 1st. trump has donors, pundits and candidates grasping for ways to stop him. based on a rally last night, trump is sticking to the strategy that brought him huge success. we have cnn's jeremy diamond with one of those super states. georgia. >> reporter: good morning. fresh off the victory in south carolina, donald trump rolled in atlanta on sunday with momentum on his back. the crowd responded in kind as he hit his key notes. donald trump did not really bring in his current rivals, marco rubio and ted cruz, who came in

. look what happened. you saw ted cruz, beating donald chump. and marco rubio. perhaps the biggest surprise of the night, though, is just how much we saw the rubio surge play out. he's headed to new hampshire. all eyes turn to new hampshire. a lot to get through. >> we want to bring in chris moody. he's in des moines. let's start with this bizarreo world we are in, at 2:00 a.m. on the east coast, the democratic race, is it over? explain what's happening right now. >> you wouldn't have asked for a more exciting night in iowa, on the democratic side and the republican side. request if you talked to someone several months ago, she would have said, this is hillary clinton's year. she will run away with it. maybe she will get attention from other candidates but not much competition. that's not the case here in iowa. bernie sanders virtually tied with her tonight. surprising, not a lot of people that were watching this close recently. but certainly, a couple of months ago. after the caucus results were rolling in, all of the candidates gave speeches. let's listen to what bernie sanders h

with marco rubio. look, hillary clinton's got to begin the rest of the race now. her whole argument is that, well, iowa and new hampshire, they are whiter states, more liberal states. the electorate becomes literally more colorful. it opens up for the democratic party. she's got to change her argument about not only taking down sanders and his policies, but also the rational for her connect to a wider part of the electorate, younger voters. she's got to change the way she's making her pitch. it is not working so well so far. >> i think we got a tell from the clinton campaign that she will change her pitch, or at least come out with something very direct. she was off the trail yesterday which is unusual in this calendar. with everything so closely tied. what do you think she'll do differently tonight? >> i think she's prepping extensively which is why she wasn't on the trail. i think she'll focus on issues like the flint, michigan crisis lead poisoning. you'll see her be a champion for people who don't have a voice. she started doing that in her concession speech in new hampshire. sh

and how well that might chip into trump's lead or rubio. right now i'm looking at jeb bush and kasich who have done well in new hampshire, and chris christie has held numerous town hall meetings where he's trying to get out the vote. all three of those gentlemen have led a new hampshire style campaign. we'll see if it pays off. >> a lot of people don't believe the polls this time around because sometimes the polls have been wrong, quite frankly. let's focus on john kasich for a second. he's the one everyone is keeping an eye on. he's the one who many say would actually win new hampshire. >> you know, it's funny you mention that. i was talking earlier. he speaks with a message that resonates with new hampshire voters. and i'm not even talking about the substance. it's almost the way he delivers it. it's the style kind of like the blunt john kasich style that may turn off some voters, but some people in new hampshire are used to that, especially among our presidential candidates. >> you should say blunt in a certain way because donald trump is also blunt. they are opposites in ma

? >>> senator marco rubio taking his new big-time endorsement out for a spin today as he responds to another trick, he says, by the ted cruz campaign. what did rubio tell me about this terrible photo shop? >>> plus, it's nuclear, unpredictable and unstable and now intelligence officials are warning that north korea is plotting terrorist attacks. >>> good afternoon, everyone, welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. it feels like every day i come to you and say you thought the race for president was crazy, wait until you hear what just happened today, and today is no exception. today i bring you a war of words between the republican front-runner and his holiness, the pope. our politics lead today. his holiness versus his trumpiness. pope francis suggesting that donald trump is not christian because trump wants to build a wall to keep undocumented immigrants out of the united states. trump called the pope's remarks disgraceful. let's go right to cnn chief political correspondent dana bash in south carolina where republican voters head to the polls in just two days. dana, donald trump a

florida senator, marco rubio, seemed to have a full head of steam. then after his debate performance over the weekend, critics, late-night comedians among others began saying it was more like a head full of malfunctioning circuit boards. the question now can he prove the critics were wrong with a strong showing once again. manu raju is with the rubio campaign. how confident is rubio's camp feeling as we head into the last couple of hours of voting? >> reporter: i can tell you they're confident they'll end up in the top tier of candidates but not as confident as they were coming out of iowa that they would have been perhaps number two right behind donald trump and it's longerly because of this relentless media coverage after that debate performance in which marco rubio repeated the same line repeatedly going after barack obama and his critics said, look, this is a candidate who will fall under the spotlight. that's something that has potentially tripped up marco rubio heading into the final days. now, i can tell you that the rubio campaign no matter what happens here still feels prett

, tomorrow night, dr. carson, rubio, cruz. thursday, kasich, bush, trump. 8:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow and thursday. i hope you join us. that does it for us. i'll see you again at 11:00 p.m. edition tonight. "cnn tonight" with don lemon starts now. >>> the president versus the republican front-runner. this time it's getting personal. this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. president barack obama takes aim at the candidate nobody thought would get this close to the white house. >> i continue to believe mr. trump will not be president. and the reason is because i have a lot of faith in the american people. and i think they recognize that being president is a serious job. it's not hosting a talk show or a reality show. >> donald j. trump giving as good as he got tonight. >> you're lucky i didn't run last time when romney ran because you would have been a one-term president. that was my statement to him. >>> meanwhile, hillary clinton with a commanding 18-point lead in south carolina and making her pitch to voters in harlem. >> we continue to ask black people to vote for us. we cannot minimi

and already there are indications this could get heated very fast. marco rubio and donald trump telling each other they can come against each other. >> i have done totally prepared. >> the gop frontrunner set to face-off with his four remaining rivals tonight in the last debate before super tuesday. >> so far everybody that attacked me has gone down. >> donald trump has already doubled the number of delegates than his closest competitors, marco rubio and ted cruz combined. >> trump notably absent from the town hall from megyn kelly. >> we're the only campaign in a position to beat him on super tuesday and win the nomination. >> a majority of republican voters are now supporting donald trump, and once this race begins to narrow a little bit you will see more of the support consolidating. >> and donald trump warns about a bombshell coming in his tax records. >> i have a very complex system of taxes, but we'll make a determination over the next couple of month. >> i will release the remainder of what we have, and i released the five years. >> i will release them, not very complicat

is a sign of his insecurities. marco rubio is saying he can't explain trump's vulgarities to his kids. so far we have not heard coarse language from donald trump here at this rally in tampa, but he is letting loose and going off on jeb bush as you may hear now, talking about all the money that jeb bush raised during his campaign, how much he spent and how it is not amounting to much in the polls. we will see if he brings up ted cruz and the feud they are having but so far he hasn't done it yet. he is dogging it now actually. >> you hear the boos in the background. listen to what he had to say. >> okay. >> evangelicals in the united states. i won in new hampshire. i won with the evangelicals, we won. so find out. yesterday, i just heard, we always talk about china and the president of china, our trading partner, our wonderful partner. they copy the f-35 plane. right? you know about that? you hear about that? you can't tell the difference. they copied our plane and they did more than that. i guarantee you they have everything they need right down to the most complicated mathematical sol

under pressure? i would note when both marco rubio and donald trump just scream liar, liar, liar, it makes you wonder how they would deal handling with putin. >> reporter: it comes in response to cruz's closing message in south carolina, that at core seeks to paint trump has a closet liberal. >> who spent his lie being pro-choice and supporting partial birth abortion is not a candidate you can trust. >> reporter: echoed all over the airwaves in a series of blunt ads, like this one obtained first by cnn, which will debut tomorrow in south carolina. >> south carolina cannot trust donald trump. >> i'm very capable of changing to anything i want to change to. >> don't give him that chance. >> reporter: the sharpe, nasty turn comes as the rhetoric from trump has been dialed up. >> they lied. centered on using an almost taboo four-letter word in politics, the "l" word. >> you're the single worst liar. >> to me it's no good. >> reporter: as his rivals punch right back, voters in south carolina are paying attention, too. >> i don't understand, i guess, the ufc attitude he has an a candidate.

. >> there's another question. scorching criticism at last night's debate slowed marco rubio's post-iowa momentum. >> when you're president of the united states, when you're governor of a state, the 30-second speech where you talk about how great america is at the end of it doesn't solve one problem for one person. >> and on the democratic side, will hillary clinton feel the burn or mount a late comeback as she did here in 2008? >> i want to take on the issues that are really tugging at people's lives. that are making it so difficult for so many to get on with their lives. >> with us this morning to share their reporting and insights, jonathan martin and maggie haberman. brand-new numbers. with two days until new hampshire votes, look at the numbers. donald trump leading the republican field with 33%. marco rubio at second at 16%. ted cruz is third at 14%. john kasich fourth at 11%. in the bottom of the pack, jeb bush fifth. carly fiorina is next at sixth. chris christie seventh at 4%. ben carson eighth at 2%. the trend is often as important as the numbers in these tracking polls. so let

rubio faltering, you know, you see christie getting out of the race, fiorina getting out of the race, well, who do you have left? you have john kasich maybe but he's seen as maybe too moderate in a lot of these states. what seemed at one point to be impossible now seems at least plausible, that jeb bush actually could get a second wind. >> it actually does. i'm wondering, you talk about this near death experience, does it stick? we're heading into south carolina and potentially beyond. the pressure then gets to him. what do you think? >> well, the pressure got to him early on. i think he was tested. think about it, he was really only ton l only the obliterated by trump and he has become the anti-trump. think about it, trump got what, 35% of the vote in new hampshire. that means a lot of republicans are still not ready to go with trump so he can potentially solidify that piece of the electorate and as you noted, you know, the bushes aren't as strong in south carolina in particular, and he's got a ton of money still. so he can potentially be viable elsewhere in the country, but of cour

supporters not as sick of winning as he promised they would be. and rubio makes it sound like he won the most important bronze metal ever. jim acosta joins us now. jim, the candidates are everywhere this morning. >> reporter: that's right. and all morning long we were wondering when is donald trump going to speak? he's been quiet since his concession speech last night congratulating cruz for his victory in the iowa caucuses. it had been about 14 hours since his last tweet. donald trump campaigns a lot on twitter. guess what. he just sent out his first tweet since last night. let's put it on the skprecreens. he says my experience in iowa was a great one. all the experts said i couldn't do well there and ended up in second place. nice. and this coming from a candidate who was all but predicting victory heading into the iowa caucuses. so now he has a struggle on his hands. he has to do what has to be done in order to win the new hampshire primary. you know, we were thinking yesterday and in the days heading up to the iowa if trump wins in iowa and new hampshire, it would be hard to stop

statement. >> can't wait to watch that. republicans down to five candidates. rubio and cruz battling. who will will become top rival into tomorrow's nevada caucuses. where will jeb bush supporters and backers go now? the last showdown take place thursday night at a cnn debate in houston. we have complete coverage. chris frates is live in las vegas. what's the latest, chris? >> reporter: hey, good morning from sin city, alisyn. the top three finishers in south carolina bringing their message to voters here in nevada. ted cruz arguing he's the only true conservative in the race. marco rubio saying he's the only candidate to unite republicans to defeat democrats in november. a reorder republican field barn storming ahead of the nevada caucuses. >> it is crunch time. we have to go out and vote. >> reporter: trump is looking to build on his momentum after back-to-back victories, with his sights set on super tuesday. >> we are going one after another. are we going to win georgia >> reporter: stirring up controversy by retweeting this message claiming both cruz and rubio are ineligible to b