cambell: i would say marco rubio at this point. marco rubio and ted cruz. john: i think marco rubio and then ted cruz. i agree. john: neither of them said donald trump. john: i still think it is possible. i'm not saying that it is impossible. cambell: very quickly, 30% of the country identifies as republican. what are his numbers? around 30%? that's 10% of the country. john: in national polls, you do hampshire,a, new etc. john: you almost got it done. campbell brown, john ralston, you are both excellent and fun to be with. thank you for being here. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ >> as long as they are listening to me and not listening to -- we'll be fine. >> are there issues you are talking about that you are getting more attention for? >> i do wish that. mark: which one? >> for a year i have been talking about taking the caliphate away from them because that is what gives them the ability to carry out their global jihad. finally, everybody is starting to talk about it. we've been talking about taking the oil away from them. people are starting to catch up on

marco rubio voted against it. senator cruz not only put it for, he supported it and cosponsored the bill. when it comes to national security, i think ted cruz has the edge in marco rubio. john: has you feel when you hear marco rubio hitting back against ted cruz on questions of foreign policy. they try to make and see my grandpa. >> this is pyramid distraction. marco rubio is part of the gang of eight who provided amnesty for millions of people that are here illegally without securing the southern border of the united states. the american people are aware that a marco rubio -- that is terrible for national security. marco rubio knows that. he knows will be an issue so he is trying to distract people. mark: why is an outcome of so far very much? that he was on the gang of eight? >> i've been talking about ever since the bill came up. it should be an issue and is a major problem for national security. marco rubio voted against one of the amendments of that bill that would have provided 750 miles of fence that was re

maybe marco rubio or maybe marco rubio and ted cruz. that would be the power of donald trump and ben carson and several others. that is not said and done. >> it is interesting. you heard ted cruz he is not the guy to have a beer with, but share a hash brownie with the moderators after the debate. that got a lot of laughs. trump, he to an extent, stayed above the fray or much of the fray last night. he sort of drifted back. willingly so. he undercut kasich and went after the moderators, but let everything else play out. >> i put donald trump in the winners category for that reason. we saw a different donald trump last night. for the first time in one of the republican debates, he was not doing personal attacks against other candidates. when he did go on the attack, it was only against john kasich. only after kasich launched at him. he did not respond on your hair likes like this. he said you worked at lehman brothers and called him out for the way that he was couching ohio's economic success. i thought we saw donald trump who came across

marco rubio in third. trump ahead by double digits in most national polling. including this one from monmouth university has trump at 41%, 27 points ahead of ted cruz. this was just one of many things that trump was bragging about at a raucous rally here in las vegas overnight. cnn's sara murray brings us the latest on that. >> reporter: good morning, john. hours before the cnn debate, campaigning here in las vegas, nevada, donald trump approached ted cruz with kid gloves. he could not help but mention a monmouth university poll has him ahead. 41%. >> i heard today when they announced the poll. 41 to 14. here is how they announced. cruz surging. so what i heard is, this was on television, cruz surging. i said that sounds bad to me. coming up, cruz surging. then they say the monmouth poll was just done. trump 41. cruz, 14. i said what's going on. >> reporter: and there have been sharper elbows with trump and cruz, trump brought none of that last night. we will have to see if that carries over to the deb

marco rubio is on the rise. we are moving into the stage of the race where the candidates are conscious of it. the person who benefits by ben carson going down in the race is ted cruz who doesn't have much room to grow outside of carson coming down. trump is effective when he's fighting from his right to his left against these establishment candidates. you will see him tonight. two big departures from republican orthodoxy will challenge interests and you will hear him challenge the free trade deals. most of the establishment republicans on the stage, ardent free traders. trump will dekraai the trade deals, talk about repealing nafta. marco rubio tonight is in the middle of the action. these previous debates he's been like a supporting actor. really strong performances, got people's attention. but he comes into this and some degree the star of show. once again jeb bush's campaign is telegraphed the punches they will throw at marco rubio. in debates, like in boxing, most knock outs come on the counter punch. you s

when we come back, jeb bush versus marco rubio. more on the sunshine showdown, after these words from our sponsors. ♪ mark: everybody has seen the clip of jeb bush trying to slam marco rubio on the attendance record. and then getting slammed back five times as hard. that wasn't the only problem last night. not the only thing that made his night so atrocious. even worse than that, the mets. let's take a look. jeb bush the biggest tax : increase happened under the obama ministration. you find a democrat for cutting spending, i will give them a warm kiss. i'm 7-0 in my fantasy football league. they cannot regulate themselves, the nfl needs to look at moving away from them a little bit. and there should be some regulation. i have no clue whether the federal government is the proper place. my instinct is to say, hell no. just about everything for the e federal government. >> are we talking about getting the government involved in fantasy football? chris christie we have $19 : trillion in debt, people out of work, isis and al qaeda att

senator marco rubio launching his campaign. complicating an already crowded republican primary race as hillary clinton finishes her road trip to iowa ready to begin her low key listening tour. we are breaking down all of the developments. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. it is tuesday, april 14th. 5:00 a.m. in the east. happening this morning do you have your gps tracker? hillary clinton made it to iowa. she has been driving there on a 1,000 mile road trip. she went to a chipotle in ohio where she was not recognized. hillary clinton, former first lady and secretary of state. how can you not recognize her? nevertheless she is on the way to iowa. that is her at a gas station the other day. she is just like all of us. at least that is what her campaign wants you to believe. it is a far cry from her first race eight years ago. jeff zeleny has latest on that. jeff. >> reporter: good morning. hillary clinton is holding the first official stop of her presidential campaign today in iowa. don't look fo

is marco rubio now the front runner? mark: he is not that he has put himself in a position to be the establishment choice. he will raise more money. will he catch on with voters? you wrote that his poll numbers will go up, but let's see if it goes up in a sustained way. but states will he win? john: when we did our focus groups, voters who are impressed with his performance in simi valley. his numbers did not move much but this moment is going to get 100 times more attention. everybody has seen it. i think his poll numbers are going to go up and he was already on her role going into it. i don't necessarily think he will be the nominee, i think donald trump is more likely, that he is in the best position to consolidate the establishment vote. mark: when he was criticized for his spending habits, which is one of his vulnerabilities, he likened it to a criticism in the media. he is going to go to the conservative base and say this is just the left wing media. he has inoculated himself against these attacks. john: very smart

marco rubio trying to seize his moment. >> he sure is. he has had promise for so long ever political insider, always the assumption he would be real contender in the end but his -- now is the moment that that might actually change let's see where his numbers are this week in the polling obviously his money is about to change he got big endorsement from bob singer, a new yorker hedge funder will bring some money with him along the way. rubio how has an opportunity and question is, can he seize it. what is so fascinating about this race, john, as you know, assumptions have been incorrect along the way. ben carson still in denial, donald trump doesn't seem to be going away. why all this sort of insider class that rub having his moment. actual voters still seem to be very fond of the outsiders. >> dickerson: that's right. paul singer, a big deal? >> yeah, it's a big deal. the big fish who hasn't been caught yet. although he's leaning rubio. >> dickerson: you can give a lot of money. >> you can give huge sums of money. allison is army of one,

one was the drama between jeb bush and marco rubio. they each stuck to what they wanted to talk, vis-a-vis policy, vis-a-vis their proels and their plans and actually pretended like the other wasn't even on the stage, john, christine. >> all right, thank you, helping us break down the winners and losers at this hour. jeremy dime, your headline. >> reporter: yes, well, marco wub rubio once again, takinging the cake it seems. i think he was a bit of a maestro last night hitting every note that he needed to. almost every candidate had a good moment last night you had marco rubio, of course, donald trump doing what he did the last time around, which was really sticking to putting forward a more reserved that said, showing a little more presidential side. you had ted cruz also once again with a strong night. and jeb bush, you know, interestingly, all eyes were on jeb bush last night after he had a really tough performance in the cnbc debate. he did better. he improved for sure. but i think he was still probably upstaged by most of the other

marco rubio lo dijo muy bien: "si quieres una voz para el siglo xxi, es marco rubio". y hay una nueva juventud que-- no solamente hispana, pero ideas frescas para nuestro paÍs, y esa es la diferencia con los demÓcratas. >> con mucho respeto, la comunidad hispana no se va a dejar llevar por discursos bonitos. marco rubio-- >> se dejÓ por obama. >> representa un movimiento que estÁ en contra de la reforma inmigratoria. si la polÍtica de marco rubio estuviese en el lugar hoy, sus padres nunca hubieran llegado a cuba. y es mÁs, ni siquiera serÍa senador. >> mira, philip, Él fue uno de los senadores clave para promover la reforma inmigratoria. la reforma inmigratoria, todo el mundo estÁ a favor de una reforma inmigratoria, no la que tÚ quieres, y no solamente la quieren los izquierdistas. pero marco rubio tanto como el partido republicano estÁn sumamente comprometidos a una reforma inmigratoria, como lo estoy yo. >> la mayorÍa del pueblo americano apoya la reforma inmigratoria de esta administraciÓn-- >> ¿todo el mundo? >> por eso en el 2002 votaron por el pre

senator, marco rubio. [applause] [applause] [applause] ♪ >> not only am i ill, the senator from florida has been a less well. count the number of times he coughs and i cough. [laughter] i'm supposed to do the jokes are. -- here. part of what's going to make this special come every speaker will begin with a question from the audience. i want the cameras to turn on you while. -- you all. how many of you are better off today than your parents were when they were your age? raise your hands. almost everybody. be honest with me. how many of you truly believe that your children will be better off than you when they get to be your age? almost no hands are up. we've lost faith in the future. the most optimistic people are first-generation t immigrants. you were put through the ringer for over a year. what did you learn from that experience and what advice would you give them now? >> the american people believe in immigration and want it to work for america. i don't think we can make any progress until we bring il

let's get marco rubio nominated as kirsten powers just said in your earlier spot, marco rubio is the republican candidate that hillary clinton fears the most. stuart: he is, don't mean to be pejorative here, is he young and a little green for the presidency at this point in had his career? >> no, i don't think so. we've seen that on these debates. look who brings the most substance to the debates. it is marco rubio. he brings tremendous experience. marco rubio also understands the challenges of working families in this country. his dad was a bartender. his mom was a hotel maid and also worked third shift at kmart to make ends meet. marco and his wife have four children the they are not wealthy people. he didn't inherit a bunch of money. he understands challenges of working families in america. stuart: that is when he came alive in the last debate talking about his own not privileged background. interesting stuff, senator. steve daines, republican montana. i know you will watch carefully tonight and so will we. thanks very much, senator. appreciate it. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: mo

but not marco rubio. just like everyone else who's a senator today, marco rubio had to spend years begging for money, massive amounts of money, tens of millions of dollars to then finance a grueling campaign, and in his case, a grueling campaign in a very large state. >> god bless you, thank you and god bless america. thank you very much. thank you. thank you. >> why did he do all that? just for that? that lekd bask in the applause of his campaign victory speech? we now know that marco rubio did not spend years begging people for money to fund his senate campaign so he could get washington and do the work that he loves, representing the 20 million people of the state of florida. he doesn't love that work. he just told us that today. but he had already made that very clear, just made it really clear how much he doesn't love that work, because he is the united states senator with the worst attendance record in the united states senate. >> 29% of the time over last year you were not in attendance when votes

marco rubio has caught up to him. they are competing for the same space, the establishment candidate in the race. governor kasich as well. competing for a lot of the same money and a lot of florida donors friends with both of them going to jeb first but they are saying come on, governor, you're the front-runner and show us the fight to be in this. he's had to make the rubio is obama argument, why do we want to send another freshman senator to washington. he's not ready to be president. that could be a stronger argument. republicans have argued for the past seven years that obama wasn't ready for the job. rubio's attendance issue may well be a factor in the campaign but in the debate tonight game, set, match. >> and i want to bring in jeffrey lord, trump supporter and a former ted cruz contributor and writer. >> could somebody please just get me that tequila. >> and donna brazile. >> i'm going to give her the marijuana. >> ana, you can't dodge it any longer. how do you think your guy did tonight? >> i think the mets ar

to go after marco rubio when they could partner up? >> i trust joy lot but i got to tell you he is telling you a line here a little bit. jenna: better not be. >> would be thrilled to run against the bushes. if it is a backer is looking election which is rare in life, the clintons but these people look back on the clinton years better than the bush years. they are rushing that with the clintons would hate to run against marco rubio. i look at what jeb bush is saying right now, this is not the guy, education and former in florida was upbeat, this is anything but a joyful and joyous campaign. when he talked to you yesterday and said we are not on life support, that is a joke. he didn't smile, he didn't laugh about it. this is a campaign that is by rubbing downward. he is seeing someone he groomed in florida surpassing him. it is hard to watch. jenna: what the you think about marco rubio's side of the equation as we finish up? despite marco rubio coming out and trying to be above the fray, if there is one catch phrase that has been repeate

marco rubio attacked us, rush limbaugh came to our defense. i think that is why marco did not mention our name. he is hurting himself by attacking us with false accusations on immigration. the conservative movement, including those on talk radio, have come to our defense and rally behind us -- rallied behind us. millions of people did not call congress to stop the gang of eight bill because they did not understand what was going on. they understood it was an amnesty bill. it was ted cruz that exposed it as an amnesty bill. that is why millions called the house members. that is why speaker boehner would not raise it. does member sickly -- said please don't do this to me. john: thank you for taking the time to bash marco rubio on our air. next, we will contemplate the donald trump conundrum with eliana johnson when we come back in city seconds -- 60 seconds. ♪ werk: eliana johnson says -- are about to find out. the washington editor of the national review joins us from our d.c. bureau. who do you think is currently winning and may be more impo

marco rubio's finances, marco rubio's credit card spending was called a disaster. marco rubio has been fighting back against donald trump and that did not slow any last night when marco rubio appeared with sean hannity. >> i am not sure someone like donald trump who has taken four companies into bankruptcy should be lecturing anyone about finances. >> reporter: not long after that donald trump took to twitter and unleashed several tweets, here was just one of them, quote, marco rubio couldn't even respond properly to president obama's state of the union speech without pouring sweat and chugging water. he joked. the also said he wouldn't trust marco rubio to run one of his smaller companies. they will be standing next to we did tonight on that 9:00 stage. dagen: keeping a card catalog of every snafu marco rubio has made, how far back in history do you have to go for that one? outside the theater in milwaukee, staying on the campaign trail, ben carson speaking with maria bartiroma yesterday. what he had to say about a recent allegations that he never met with general

>> marco antonio rubio. will he make his marco or end up like starko? has he jumped at the sharko? get ready, goal. -- get ready go. rubio said he wants to make america better. just how does he plan to do it. >> we must change the decisions we are making by changing the people who are making them. [applause] marco rubio: that is why tonight for inspired by the promise of our future, i announced my candidacy for the president of the united states. >> all lowercase logo how did he do. >> unfortunate is it evokes memories of the ill-fated state other union response, he did good. he did well. a very good speaker. it was not his best speech. he was not at the top of his game. he is a better speaker than a lot of people. he stuck to the biography and do not lay out much policy. kind of a reformed conservative. we'll talk about that more and told his story. solid b+. >> it was a better speech than written. he started off nervous bring it is more than good enough to continue the momentum as a guy who is having the best 2015 on the republican candidates. scott walker has taken a fuse steps

but when it comes to marco rubio, one thing missing was the drama between jeb bush and marco rubio. we didn't see them go after one another. they each stuck to what they wanted to talk about. vis-a-vis their policies, their proposals and plans, actually pretended like the other wasn't even on the stage. john, christine. >> all right, dana bash in milwaukee. let's talk about who came out on top. who did what they needed to do. joining us, jeremy diamond, live in our walk bureau. i want to start at the top of the polls. ben carson has been lead, he's out front there, but on stage, heats perfectly happy to take a back seat. he had one moment that got a round of applause, definitely sort of addressed the media questions about comments he's made about his own past. we'll listen to that. >> well, first of all, thank you for not asking me what i said in the 10th grade. i appreciate that. [ applause ] >> but. >> i'll forget that follow-up this. >> the fact of the matter is, you know, we should vet all candidates. i have no problem with being vetted. but i do have a problem is being lied abo

marco rubio. he had a good night. he took an attack from jeb bush and turned it around. he took the criticism from the sun sentinel. let's listen about how he defended and turned around that criticism from the media to his benefit. >> i read that editorial today with great amusement. it is evidence of the bias that exists in the american media today. >> let me answer your question. back in 2004, one of my predecessors ran for president. missing over 30% of his votes. i don't recall people asking for his resignation. john kerry ran for president missing close to 60% of his votes. i don't recall. the sun sentinel endorsed him. obama missed 60% of his votes. the same newspaper endorsed him. this is a double standard that exists between mainstream media. >> and marco rubio making the most of that moment. >> was there a candidate last night who did not go after the mainstream media or moderators? it seems like all of them had their turn. it is something that will play well with that audience. rubio has

now candidates train eyes on marco rubio. the immigration discussion and how he has so far avoided moments of tension. welcome back to "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. 31 minutes past the hour. plenty of tension here. breaking news. a new military offensive launched against isis. kurdish peshmerga forces aimed to recapture the town of sinjar. it is being called operation free sinjar. the mountain is a key link between who halves of the isis so-called self described caliphate. the city of mosul and the lands isis holds in syria. senior correspondent nick paton walsh joins us by phone outside sinjar. this is a new strategy here. what's the latest? >> reporter: at this stage, we are hear extraordinary blasts in the last 20 minutes. the direction of the town of sinjar is creating a strain. this is the main route. now, there appears to have been some advantage here. we cannot say exactly where we are because of the conditions as we agreed to be with the peshmerga forces as they advance. we have seen intense

what do you know about marco rubio? >> i like his background and i just like the way he looks and i saw him on television last night and i thought, he is talking good stuff. mark: you have a little bit of a crush on marco rubio? >> i do. i think the kids call it crunching. >> he is the american dream. he built himself up and he is a self-made man. i think he still gives credit to his parents and stuff, but that's what we look for in the united states. mark: some republicans say he looks like the future but the last time we voted for somebody in their first term in the senate we got barack obama, and he was not experienced enough to be president. does it bother anybody in the room that marco rubio has only been in washington for a few years and hasn't even finished one term in the senate? does that bother anyone? >> i don't think obama's problem is his lack of experience, it is his lack of integrity and his pushing things through that has nothing to do with lack of experience, it is a character issue. >> i second that. >

i went for marco rubio. he was able to relate things in personal terms that would connect with the voter. he was a great communicator in that. as far as the loser, mr. trump, you are definitely getting fired when it comes to economic issues. your challenge by a hack serious debate moderator about your tax plan and all you can say is larry culto likes it like a child. you are not ready for prime time. what do you think in terms of immigration? >> immigration is a very complex issue. john kasich waudz the only candidate who really pointed that out. no matter where you stand you need to be able to approach it from a realistic and pragmatic view. adds for a loser jeb bush, he abandoned his core immigration just so he could try to get something going in the polls. >> winner or loser on immigration? >> i agree with kasich. he explains it pretty detailed. the only person who has experience with immigration at a federal level is marco rubio. he played a cheap trick yesterday saying this waiting period he spoke of co

marco rubio handled himself well. i don't i don't agree with him but he knows his national security issues very well. everybody responds to having a stronger america and cutting defense is against for the most part republican values. >> i agree with nomiki. he had a firm grasp of the issues. he faced the foreign policy in reality in the exchange with rand paul. marco rubio recognized that and stated that. >> his stance has not changed. >> immigration, winner? >> immigration winner. >> kasich. so many faces. >> kasich. the interesting thing about kasich is he is very reasonable. he can take an issue that may be controversial and he can talk about it whether he's talking about the economy something that a unpopular. he's able to rebut donald trump. >> do you think he sounded reasonable? that's the opposite of what a lot of people are saying. a lot are saying he was boisterous and he came off as argumentative and mean. >> he also explained controversial policies from the economy to battling it out with donald trump. he w

marco rubio's speech 9 1/2. >> what? >> i laughed, i cried, i saw the coming of a new age. >> 9 1/2? >> he said it was the greatest speech he's ever said. that jesus would have been -- >> stop. >> -- better served to have marco deliver the beatitude. >> willie did you tweet about it? >> i didn't. i'll tell you what i did. this is not a political statement whatsoever, but i saw the picture of hillary at chip chipotle and took the family to chipotle. that's because i love it. it's not a support, saw the burrito bowl and i went. >> willie geist -- >> did you wear sunglasses. >> i did not wear sunglasses. the burrito bowl looked too good and i went and got one. >> of course you picked up 15 pounds. >> now, i knew it when we were going there, i knew it. >> no you didn't. you told me to go there every day. you said this is good this is healthy. 1200 calories for one of those. >> you get one and you cut it in half and it's for two people. and then it's perfectly fine. >> what about the bowl? the tortilla makes me feel better ab

and marco rubio unique lie brings that. interestly enough about marco, the more people hear him, the more they like him. that's why they are going up in the polls right now with marco rubio's numbers. because he's had a chance to cut through the multiple candidates on that stage. when people hear marco rubio, they detect personal genuineness, his sincerity, his command of the issues and his passion for american exceptionalism in this country as well as understanding the plight of working families in this country. >> and finally, senator, do you think he needs to answer the questions about the credit card, the republican party credit card that he apparently acknowledges there was some confusion with his personal charges? >> well, this is the example of the attacks against marco now that he's rising in the polls. that was litigated in the 2010 election. he answered it in his book and has been very forthcoming. he'll release more of the records to ensure that the american people can see what's happened there. but he paid for h

marco rubio says, i'm marco rubio and i support this message. >> you can imagine bush sitting there and watching that. >> one of the dangers when you see the bush super pac strategist talking about willing to spend $20 million against marco rubio to make him look back. when you talk to jeb bush, donors and insiders who aren't on the campaign, some of them will tell you that their next choice is marco rubio. so you risk alienating these people, who, like you, but also like marco rubio. and aren't looking at it as a him versus you. so that's very dangerous, that sort of gingrich scorched earth policy that he had with mitt romney, between jeb and marco rubio. >> and lauren, it's interesting, i'm trying to think, if that's the decision that bush and his team make, that they want to go after marco rubio, how that enjoy after him is what i'm trying to figure it out. how do they make it work. it wouldn't be that marco rubio isn't enough on abortion, it would be that he's too conservative. i'm trying to imagine an attack like that in the republican primary, how that would work. >> i think j

the other person's marco rubio. as much as he is not engaged in heavy contact with anybody at this point, is he a potential player, in your view? john: in his profile on paper, rubio has always looked like a potentially strong republican nominee. but you look at donald trump and marco rubio, try to put them in a ring together and say who is going to win that fight, it's hard for me to muster the conviction to say marco rubio going to win that battle. mark: when trump has said outrageous things and rubio has been asked about it, he laughs it off in a way that seems genuine. others try to laugh it off but it looks like acting. the staff said laugh it off. rubio actually laughs it off. i think there is a potential strength there. if the establishment turns to him i think he may not be rattled and may be able to make light of donald trump as a genuine player. john: all of these people are trying to appear like the candidate of strength on foreign policy. to republican voters by that? i just don't know if that's a sell h

can he still use this line about marco rubio? sure. last night marco rubio did a pretty darn good job of diffusing that. if jeb bush isn't able to do that during a debate when most people are watching as much as that pains me to say because they are awesome but the bigger forums is where it is time to perform and jeb bush hasn't been able to do that. >> watching that happen last night marco rubio when initially asked he invokes john kerry, barack obama, bernie sanders saying they all missed votes. this is media ganging up on me because i'm a republican. if you are jeb bush it seems like an opening obama missed votes, sanders missed votes but we are republicans, we are better than that. he went down a completely different road. it raised the question to me is he up to it in general the task, challenge of standing on stage and being on his feet. >> he had a reasonable line saying look, this newspaper calling for you to resign endorsed you. it wasn't that the material he had been given was so bad but his delivery was bad. i think the ques

marco rubio is one of them. that is where trump decided to hit him the hardest on questions about finances from way back when marco rubio was in the statehouse with the credit card he used. >> marco rubio has a disaster on his finances. he has a disaster on his credit cards. when you check his credit cards, take a look at what he's done with the republican party when he had access. what he had to put back in and whether or not something should have happened. >> reporter: as for rubio, he insists this is a non issue. he will release the credit card statements from back when he was in the statehouse to prove he did not use the republican party's credit card or money. he paid everything that he spent on his personal expenses himself. he had this to say to me in response to donald trump. >> that's donald being donald. whenever there is a bad poll, he gets weird. he doesn't know what he is talking about. this was an american express card. if there were personal expenses, i paid them directly to american express. >> r

amy: let's talk about marco rubio. you wrote an extensive piece in politico, "prodigal son: marco rubio's complicated cuban legacy." tell us who he is and does your version differ from what he says? up inl, marco rubio grew cuban miami. again, he also had a contested family narrative. both men have been challenged in the media about the veracity of their accounts because, of course, both men want to be known as families of anti-castro , anti-castro cubans, which is the leading demographic traditionally in south florida. and for many years, marco rubio said his family came to america to flee castro. but in fact, his parents actually came in may of 1956. it is true they were fleeing the tyrants, but the tyrant they were fleeing in 1956 could not have been fidel castro. it would be batista. in fact, in 1959 after the rebels did take control, rubio's beloved grandfather went back to cuba, lived and worked in cuba for a government ministry for one or two years and his mother went back on four different occasions. and then t

marco rubio story was on the front page. we remember it happened to al gore when he moved his campaign down to tennessee. john kerry had to shake up his campaign in 2006. >> ronald reagan fired his campaign manager on the day of the 1980 new hampshire primary. >> i think this is a way to try to attack jeb bush who one of his things is being a governor and executive. >> jeb bush insider told me what happened here is because he's a bush and was expected to raise a lot of money, the media inflated expectations saying jeb bush would be a dominant front runner and blow everyone out of the water and when that didn't happen, the same media criticized the campaign for not meeting expectations set by the press. your thoughts? >> i think the point is the environment is completely different from jeb bush as it with a for his brother when he ran. in '99, george w. had 114 house republicans supporting and publicly his campaign. jeb bush has no public support from any house republican. >> understood. he doesn't have that but do you find s

marco rubio. a lot of people in the mainstream saying this is marco rubio's race. long term, you will see marco rubio emerge. he has had strong debate performances, but he hasn't seen the type of bump that we have seen from ted cruz or ben carson or carly fiorina. he hasn't had the spotlight surge. >> they want to be the tortoire toys tortoise. they try to bring the structure in key states. they thought their biggest problem would be jeb bush. that is not the biggest problem. that is not the biggest problem. the question is can marco rubio get enough momentum to come out of iowa because we don't think he will win it. what can he do in south carolina and nevada? >> cruz/rubio, chris christie/rubio. those four guys going after each other could be the drama. mark preston, i'm excited to share this with you. >> thanks, john. >> the action begins here at 6:00 p.m. inside the venetian theater. the undercard debate. four candidates. 8:30 p.m. eastern, the primetime debate. the main stage debate. donald trump front and center. ted cruz next to him for the first time. what

we will be back in 60 seconds. ♪ mark: marco rubio -- john: marco rubio has gone to the darling front runner and many in the establishment -- he departed the theater last although wered, did glimpse a few of the ways his rivals may try to gun him down in the future. let's start with ted cruz, who mentioned rubio's name, and was clearly thinking of him on immigration. >> the democrats are laughing, because if republicans joined democrats as the party of amnesty, we will lose. [cheering] know, i understand that when the mainstream media covers immigration, it doesn't see it as an economic issue, but i can tell you, for millions of americans at home watching this, it is a very personal economic issue. i will say that the politics of it will be very different if a bunch of lawyers are bankers were crossing the rio grande. john: two biggest questions right now -- how vulnerable is rubio, who will come after rubio, and how well he defended himself. he will take it from all 5 -- democrats will say he flip-flopped. the republicans will say he was always for conference of reform. how vulnerabl

marco rubio, he's done a retreat on immigration. he sometimes gives good speeches, sometimes he looks thirsty. so i don't think he's a slam dunk candidate. and right now he's trying to deal to the younger voters, but he's against doing anything about global warming, he's against abortion even with exceptions. he's against gay rights and gay marriage. so he's out of step there. and he's probably going to be the guy looking ahead on foreign policy and he's one of the few people out there who is defending a 50-year-old policy in terms of the cuban embargo that makes him look like he's in the 1960s. so i think despite the fact that he's young and good looking and has some degree of charisma, he's not necessarily a strong candidate on other fronts. >> and howard dean, marco rubio left the campaign trail today to go back to his day job as a senator and in the foreign relations committee, he basically caved to president obama. he dropped a provision. he was trying to insert a provision into this bill on the iran sanctions saying that the l

the standout is marco rubio. i don't think we can sort of overstate how important this night was for marco rubio. i think it could be a potential dynamic shift in the race in that establishment wing where it's really been a battle between jeb bush and marco rubio. delivering a body blow to him at a very precarious time in his campaign. and rubio comes out shining. you could just see the establishment that's been worried about jeb bush just starting to gravitate towards rubio. >> do you think this is going to be the new tactic, take on the media? it started with dobd trump. it started to work where he said people are taking him out of context. he started going after the media and then ben carson started to do it. do you think that's gong to be the tactic? tonight, everyone at the debate, the entire campaign started with donald trump. do you think that's going to be the go-to tactic? >> i don't think there's any question. look, americans' trust in the media is reaching all-time lows. certainly conservative swrus on

marco rubio comes off as a happy warrior. you know, he made a joke about his book and how it's on sale as a paperback. he made reference to his mother and how he's against anything that harms his mother. i think that gave people a lightness about him and a positive feeling as opposed to some of the other candidates who are more like skulls. >> why is cruz somebody to watch going forward? >> watch ted cruz. ted cruz has been shrewd in his strategy. he's deliberately contrasting himself in a subtle way with the marco rubio, the happy warrior. he's trying to channel conservative anger. he's being very specific in trying to tag evangelical voter, tea party voters. he feels they are up for grabs. that's why you see him rising in the polls. you may end up in the end with a race that pits cruz against more of a marco rubio candidate who is more of the kind of big tent person. >> exactly. we are seeing that marco rubio and cruz are the two candidates with a plan going forward. they have an idea of who they want to appeal to and how t

he thinks it could come down to he and marco rubio. he is telegraphing a few lines of attack that he is ready to wage against marco rubio in the debate on tuesday night. this potentially sets up a battle between the two. john and christine. >>> jeb bush taking on marco rubio as he campaigns in iowa. he renewed his earlier criticism of the poor attendance record in the senate. bush calling himself a better bet than the first term florida senator. >> are we going to nominate someone who has a proven conservative record? 32 years in business and eight years as governor? >> big chunk of the republican field in iowa campaigning today. donald trump, carly fiorina and chris christie and rand paul have events in the hawkeye states. >>> 46-year-old linwood lambert died in custody steps from the entrance from the emergency room in the hospital. lambert never got the help he needed on the morning he died. now the video surfaced as his family heads to court today seeking a $25 million judgment against police in south boston, virginia. let's get mo

>> yes i'm talking about marco rubio. look a guy who says -- who represents the state of florida, who lives in south florida, can see the flooding that occurs on ocean drive when there is a huge amount of rain to continue to be a climate change denier is not fresh and new. he's more of the same and to add insult to injury to have walked away from his own comprehensive immigration reform -- >> do you think that will affect him? >> i absolutely do. >> within the republican party, but as a mainstream candidate on immigration? >> just because he is hispanic does not mean he automatically earns the votes of hispanic voters across the country. jose, the last time i checked there's a little pressure on the president of the united states. if marco rubio couldn't even hack the pressure from the right wing tea party extremists have he embraced and authored and helped push through comprehensive immigration reform in the senate a little pressure on him and he folded like a house of cards, how will he hack the presidency? >> debbie wa

i ask you can marco rubio's will continue or will donald trump attack and slow marco rubio's to roll? >> i don't see trump's at tax making a huge dent in marco rubio's poll numbers. this is a national poll, that is not how we elect or nominate presidential nominees, you go through iowa and new hampshire and look at those polls, marco rubio's favorability is higher, he is the second choice of a lot of voters, it is a different ball game. it is a feeling with evangelical voters in iowa and women voters especially in new hampshire. arthel: you get the final word, donald trump starts his first radio ad campaign in new hampshire, iowa and south carolina, one version, trump speaking, the other version is a female voice. to try to get more support from females, going ahead to you. >> i think so. i agree that the most likely nominee in my opinion is marco rubio but i would not be so quick to say trump has a feeling anywhere yet. he is the master brand, he reinvents himself and some how reverses his negative numbers as he did from when he began the campaign to now. i wouldn't throw that possib