bear." my only goal this week, month, and year is to ensure you're able to accomplish that. >> so you're taking my children then? i can't turn it on in front of them. >> they're talking to me in my ear right now. >> when you go to bed at the same time as your children, there is no time to enjoy things like "the bear". >> we'll figure it out. >> thank you for baby-sitting. >> "cnn this morning" continues right now. good tuesday morning, even, i'm phil mattingly, poppy harlow in new york. kasie hunt is in new hampshire, it's heading there after donald trump seize add landslide victory in the iowa caucuses making it clear he still has an iron grip on the republican party. trump dominated the competition, logging 51% of the vote at last count. ron desantis edged out nikki haley for a distant second place. now, trump swept 98 of the 99 counties in iowa, all except for one where haley is currently leading by a single vote.

>> trump pulled off the huge win, even though he spent little time relatively speaking campaigning on the ground in iowa when you compare it to his rivals. here's how many public events each one of them had. 308 for ramaswamy who's out, and 22 for trump. haley and desantis are vowing to turn the tide in new hampshire, but in his victory speech, trump acted like this thing was already over. >> yeah, i want to congratulation ron and nikki for having the good -- a good time together. we're all having a good time together. and i think they both actually did very well. >> you helped us get a ticket punched out of the hawkeye state, and i guarantee you this, i will not let you down. >> our campaign is the last best hope of stopping the trump/biden nightmare. i love you, iowa, but we're on to new hampshire!

>> we have team coverage this morning from iowa to new hampshire, let's start right here with phil at the magic wall looking at the numbers from last night. the margin of victory was pretty unprecedented, right? >> if you want to get a sense of things, look at the map. 98 of 99 counties were won by trump. the one county nikki haley is durntl currently ahead, iowa city suburbs. this is the supposed to be the type of county where nikki haley was supposed to make some inroads with trump. that underscore what is we saw, and that is the republican party is still donald trump's party. maybe there's some questions heading into the iowa caucuses whether or not that was the case. the polling seemed to say otherwise. republican leaders throughout the federal and state ranks seemed to say otherwise. now iowa is also saying otherwise. if you want to know why you say that, you can flip back to 2016 and see how donald trump actually did in the state of iowa. he lost it. he lost it by about 3 points to

at the sc ted cruz. everywhere you see yellow are places ted cruz won. donald trump had problems with evangelicals, he had problems in the suburbs. flip back to 2024, that was not the case at all. in fact, if you want to see where trump under performs his 2016 results, you'll see no color whatsoever. he over performed 2016 in every single one of iowa's 99 counties. what does that tell you when you look at the map? when you look at the entrance polls, there's interesting things to poll away from it. one obviously donald trump was dominant in this race. what was most interesting is if you pull out where he sits in the party. is trump fit for the presidency even if he's convicted of a crime? this is not just trump supporters. this is the iowa caucus entrance polls for republicans. 65% say even if trump is convicted of a crime, he is still fit for the presidency. what about whether or not people identify as part of the maga movement. obviously a significant number of donald trump's supporters,

78% say they do, but also 11% of desantis supporters. 3% of haley's supporters. the maga movement, whether you like it or not, is still central and core to the republican party. now, you can talk about how this is just iowa. new hampshire might be different, south carolina could be different as well. but the reality right now, even as we head into new hampshire where nikki haley is looking like she has some opportunity based on recent polls. when you look at this app and you look at the polling and you look at where republican leaders and officials have been over the course of the last several months, it's donald trump's party, and he is right now at least on the path to be the republican nominee, poppy. >> no question about it at all, phil. thank you very much. and nikki haley really happy to get to new hampshire this morning after being handed a third place finish in iowa, she told her supporters her campaign is still ramping up. listen. >> when you look at how we're doing in new hampshire, in south

carolina and beyond, i can safely say tonight iowa made this republican primary a two-person races. [ cheers and applause ] >> she means her and trump, even though desantis topped her. today all three of the top candidates will be campaigning in new hampshire where polls again showed trump as the front runner, but nikki haley has carved out a double-digit lead there over desantis. the candidates are also bracing for more brutal weather, although not as cold, as parts of the states are under advisories for snow and slick conditions. kasie hunt in manchester where you are warm, i know. >> er, warmer. >> the emphasis on er. >> it was so interesting to hear the way nikki haley spoke last night, essentially cutting ron desantis out of all of this. he has a much steeper hill to climb in new hampshire. you ran into her team at the airport last night. how good are they feeling?

>> reporter: well, poppy, you know, as we were talking about this earlier, i felt like they were grimly determined. there's an airport where charter pl planes would fly out of des moines. you bump into everybody, and it was really telling to me that she was the only candidate there along with a handful of us reporters who were going. ron desantis going on to south carolina, donald trump going to new york to attend the latest one of his many trials. it really says a lot about how nikki haley is focusing here and also about all the additional dynamics of the race. we are here at a hallowed stop on the new hampshire primary campaign trail. behind me there are bulletin boards covered with bumper stickers from the various campaigns. i came here with mitt romney in 2011 when he was running for president. we're starting to get breakfast service underway. some of these new hampshire voters trickling in. and some of the big questions

here, what are those especially undeclared new hampshire voters going to do here? they can vote in the republican primary, and indications seem to be that they would be open to voting for nikki haley. two, what does ron desantis do? do his donors keep writing checks that allow him to stay in the race? and three, how does nikki haley handle the question of donald trump, and we got some interesting clues from her speech last night as well as from a new ad. take a look first at what she had to say, how she described the looming potential general election as she heads into new hampshire. take a look. >> trump and biden both lack a vision for our country's future because both are consumed by the past, by investigations, by vend vendettas, by grievances. our campaign is the last best hope of stopping the trump/biden nightmare. >> reporter: the trump/biden nightmare. that's much more specific

language than she's used in the past. she's backing it up with money. there's a new ad on the air waves here that hammers this message home. watch. >> the two most disliked politicians in america, trump and biden, both are consumed by chaos. negativity, and grievances of the past. the better choice for a better america, nikki haley. >> fascinating messaging here, interesting to me that they waited until after iowa to do this. retrospectively, i wonder if they're not going to wish that they did it sooner because it is true that all of our polling shows people want different choices than donald trump and joe biden, but after iowa last night, it seems like we are on a firmer track than ever for that to be what happens, and nikki haley is finally trying to take advantage of that. >> yeah, is it too late? it's a great question. thank you. >> joining us with more analysis, anna navarro, cnn

political commentator, adam kinz kinzinger, former biden white house communications director, kate benningfield, and former adviser to president obama, david axelrod. i know there's a lot of talk about splits between the obama and biden folks, but kate was helping axe straighten his tie during the break. i saw a unity moment. >> absolutely. >> you bring people together much like donald trump last night in iowa. >> yes, absolutely. absolutely. you know, watching you do that board and looking at the red state of iowa, it looked like a maga hat, and that was sort of emblematic of where the republican party is. the cohort, if you look at all the cross tabs, the cohort that was most striking that the president, former president trump has the most sway with are this group called republicans, and that's pretty handy -- >> deep in the cross tax. that's a handy thing to have when you're running for the party's nomination.

nikki haley and the reason she is looking forward to new hampshire is she does better with independent voters, with some democrats who want to influence the republican primary. you can't win the nomination that way, and so improbable as it seems, a guy who has -- who's under four indictments, 91 counts, who presided over the insurrection that we saw on january 6th seems well on his way to the nomination. >> and go ahead -- >> it is disheartening because as a republican to watch, axe is right. it's trump's party now. there's no -- but the thing that really stands out to me, it's like if i had a time machine, cnn had some numbers that showed of the people that believe the election was legitimate, which it was, by wait, it was about a 30, 30, 30 split between desantis, trump and haley. of those who think it was stolen, it was like trump by a mile.

trump only got like 9% of people that thought it was legitimate. if actual leaders could actually convince people the election was legitimate, which it was, would that have made a difference where we are today. that is showing me what the importance of leadership is. when donald trump said it was stolen and every other second tier influencer in the gop says, yeah, it was stolen, you're now convincing the party that he's a victim. if they'd have taken a stand and said, no, it wasn't stolen. >> what's the point of at this point crying over spilled milk. we are where we are. if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bicycle. it didn't happen. she didn't stand up -- >> i've always said that. >> it's actually a spanish saying. look, i think it's depressing. it's a grim day for people like you and me, and i think it should be a wake-up call for republicans who don't want trump, for center leaning

independents and right leaning independents, and frankly, for democrats who have been fretting and wringing their hands, and clutching their pearls for the last year. the last thing between donald trump and the presidency, the name is joe biden, and so i think it's time for people to really wake up and this depression, this fear, this anger, this outrage, this aghastment that i feel today at watching the results, channel that into figuring out how we stop donald trump from ever being president again. >> kate wants rebuttal. >> i think we shouldn't lose sight of the fact this is a weakness for trump in the general election. it is hard for people who care about democracy, it's hard to look at donald trump romping through iowa last night and feel okay that he's, you know, back on the national scene and he's presumably going to be the republican nominee, but you know, for the slice of voters

who are ultimately going to decide this election, we've seen time and again, they actually reject his, you know, politics of retribution. they reject the idea that the 2020 election, they reject the big lie. there's a huge audience for this within the republican primary electorate that's obviously upsetting. but you know, for people who are listening and hopefully are not totally abandoning hope, this is not -- the republicans are now putting forward their most damaged potential nominee. >> last night he left the politics of retribution behind. he came souout and he sounded l barney the dinosaur, right? he loved everyone. he wasn't calling him ron desanctimonious, he wasn't calling nikki haley bird brain. he was all of a sudden giving them compliments. it was an interesting -- >> but how long is it going to last? one. and two, how many times have we seen that? we could go back through clips of the last four years and pick out moments. >> there was a strategic purpose for it, right?

he just wanted to signal, this is over. everybody get on board. >> exactly. >> this is not like a concession speech. >> when j.b. pritzker, the governor of illinois, there was -- i was doing the cnn thing yesterday, and there was some comment where he said it doesn't matter if, you know, trump or haley or whatever, they're all maga. like that is a way that you are going to as democrats push aside people that you need to vote for joe biden is when people like j.b. pritzker says they're all just maga, like that to me is not how you put together a winning -- >> it's a good thing that we have j.b. pritzker joining us in about an hour. >> that's incredible. you're way ahead of the game. >> tend to be on this program. >> look, the thing that i would look at if i were the biden campaign is that third of people who say, no, the election was legitimate, yes, i think the president -- that president trump would be unfit if he were convicted of a crime. among that group, there are people who would -- who might

consider voting for biden, but i don't consider myself a pearl clutcher. i consider myself a realist. >> good, because i don't think pearls would look very good on you, particularly not with that outfit. >> i certainly wouldn't wear them here. but he needs, the president and his campaign need to get into gear, and they need a message, and they need a message that is -- that takes in not just democracy, but the day-to-day concerns that people have, and they need to prosecute it every single day through every single surrogate. that's what winning campaigns do. so the people who have to sort of get in gear are not those who have concerns about what might happen in november, but the campaign itself, and there are signs that that's beginning to happen. it has to happen faster because the threat is clear, and if there's one thing that the trump -- that the biden campaign should be happy about is it's very clear now what the race is.

there's no ambiguity. it's going to be biden versus trump, so begin to draw those parallels, not just on democracy but on issues that are important day-to-day in people's lives. >> if you look at the measures of enthusiasm available to us right now, look at what the biden campaign raised in q4. they raised a significant amount of money, they raised a lot of money from smaller donors. there are signs that people are motivated by i would argue by the biden agenda, but also because the race is coming into focus, because we know where this is going to be a question of kind of our fundamental existential do we care about democracy. is democracy going to survive i. absolutely agree the message has to be broader than that, but i don't think we should underestimate what we saw from voters in 2022 and 2023. they believe that a threat to democracy -- they reject a threat to democracy, and that is motivating for people. >> i'm not suggesting he doesn't have talking points in his record that will support a

message, but just let's all be aware and trump proved it again yesterday, he is not a normal candidate, and he is a pretty formidable candidate, and now this is he's on the ballot. >> one of my issues is that even democrats have been fretting over biden's age, and you know, i look at this as a republican and i'm just puzzled by it because i look at donald trump and walking around in iowa, he looked like he was in his last breath a couple of times. he says crazy things, when he's not talking about magnets, he's talking about windmills. yesterday he said he won iowa twice, he didn't. he lost in 2016. when joe biden says that, even democrats want to put him in an old folks' home and out to pasture. no republican is saying -- well, except for nikki haley, donald trump is decrepe dekrepd, old. >> it's an obstacle that has to be overcome.

>> how do you overcome? >> it the guy running against him is 1-0 against him. for whatever it's worth. also chris sununu and kim reynolds saying they would vote for donald trump, even though they've endorsed other people tells you everything you need to know. david . trump expected to be back here in new york. he's going to be in a courtroom today. a jury set to determine how much he will have to pay in damages for defaming e. jean carroll. and brutal weather across the country creating massive headaches for travelers, how the freezing temperatures could impact you. that's next.

pictures right now of cities, airports in the northeast where snow is falling this morning. some cities will see about an inch or more of snowfall for the first time in almost two years. this is a polar blast is bringing bitterly cold temperatures to so much of the united states today, more than 120 million people this morning under severe windchill alerts.

>> the winter storm driving an inch of snow breaking an almost two-year long snow drought. lucy kafanov joins us live from denver international airport. denver -- lucy, one of those mornings. how much is the weather impacting travel based on where you are? >> yeah, well, welcome to the new climate change normal. good morning, it is not a fun time to travel. all across the country thousands of flights have been delayed or canceled due to snow, ice, as well as bone chilling temperatures. the winter weather causing consecutive days of headaches for travelers, flight cancellations peaking on monday according to flight aware with more than 3,200 flights canceled. today so far that number over 1,200 and climbing. united and southwest topping a list of the most affected airlines here at denver international airport as well as nationwide. the most affected airports, chicago o'hare, houston, bush international, and also nashville. that wintry mix expected to continue from texas to the lower

mississippi valley into parts of the tennessee valley. national weather service warning folks if you have to travel, have a cold survival kit if you must travel. some parts of colorado got over four feet of snow over this martin luther king jr. holiday weekend, and many of the travelers who spent that time on the slopes actually got trapped here in colorado temporarily as highways were closed. there was even a mini avalanche that impacted some of that travel. we saw lows of negative 16 degrees here in denver yesterday, thankfully the temperatures are warming up for us. unfortunately, that brutal and prolonged arctic blast continuing to bring cold temperatures all across the country, especially the northeast, nearly 80% of the u.s. expecting to see below freezing temperatures. more than 100 million people are under windchill alerts, and also the pacific northwest just recovered from that terrible storm now also under an ice weather alert, guys. so if you have to travel, definitely check with your airline, check the roads, and if you don't have to travel, that's probably for the best.

>> yeah. important note, lucy kafanov, thank you. ahead our coverage for the race for the white house continues. it is now heading from iowa east to new hampshire. is there reason to believe next week's primary will be any different than we saw last night? >> and we're going to dig deeper into the iowa results, the reaction to trump's commanding win from the people endorsing hihim. that's's next.

in order for small businesses to thrive, they need to be smart, efficient, savvy. making the most of every opportunity. that's why comcast business is introducing the small business bonus. for a limited time you can get up to $1000 prepaid card with qualifying internet. yup, $1000. so switch to business internet from the company with the largest fastest reliable network. give your business a head start in 2024 with this great offer. plus, ask how to get up to $1000 prepaid card with qualifying internet.

welcome back. so right now the annual world economic forum is happening in da dabo switzerland, they mix to discuss the biggest issues facing the global economy. richard quest is always there. he joins us live after speaking with bank of america's ceo brian moynihan about how he sees the economy right now, also navigating global headwinds. let's take a listen to that. >> how concerned are you at the prospect of a second trump presidency? or maybe you're not concerned at all. >> as i tell people, we've been around since 1784. that election in 1800 they made a great show about it called hamilton and stuff. a company's job is to be ready for everything. no matter which administration, the prior trump, the current biden administration wins, we'll be ready to go. >> the question that effvery ce wants to be asked, that is the question they want to answer,

richard. but seriously, what did he tell you about this economy? is it shaky? is it not? what does he see? >> no, he was extremely bullish. in fact, i asked him about his yellow tie. he said, well, the sun is shining, and to be sure, this year may not be as good as people hoped, although previously things have always been better than we'd expected, and then he went into the detail of why he says the u.s. economy remains robust, and if you will, is going to do well. >> last year this time when i was on with you, we had a recession predictor. that kept pushing out. what's that attributed to? >> in the u.s., it's attributable to the u.s. consumer. we have people who are making money, are employed, unemployment's very low. they're getting paid more. inflation is still tough on a lot of them, you can't discount that. but on the other hand, the stock market being up. they're make ing a lot more mon.

>> the totality of what he's been talking about is so much more optimistic than anything we've seen elsewhere from other people, and the big issue, of course, is ai. artificial intelligence. everybody -- there is an orgy of ai going up on the promenade at the moment. everybody's talking ai this, ai that, and so i asked brian moynihan what is it about ai and how is boa doing ai? but where do you think we are between that? >> i think we're here because it has such unusual promise. >> yes. >> in that -- and so unprepared, not in a negative sense that we don't understand what it can do yet. >> and so there you have it, ready for ai c, which is the co question that we're asking. you can see by now we've got lots of answers, we're getting

more and more, the president of the european commission, the bank of america ceo, the head of nato, and you've always got to be careful with this thing that people don't gravitate too much in the middle. now they're gravitating that we are as a society dangerously unprepared. and i will allow both you and your good colleagues, where would you go on this, poppy and phil? where would you go? you can direct me left or right on this point. >> you first. >> i'll answer your question, did you bring that on the plane with you? or how did you -- the white board, is that -- how did you have that with you? >> secrets. >> i knew it. i can never get anything past you. i'm leaning towards your left, richard, further towards your left. >> okay. okay. shout stop. >> closer to the dangerously unprepared, maybe a little bit

closer. we'll go right there. right there. that's great. you're still going. okay. >> poppy. >> i'm further, i'm further to the left. beyond phil, beyond brian moy moynihan. i'm thinking about that warning we got yesterday from the imf, richard, about how many jobs are going to be dramatically changed because of ai. but at the same time, i'm really optimistic about what it could do in the right hands handled the right way. i miss you and your wife in the mountains in davos, richard quest, thank you. >> perfect. thank you. >> thank you, richard. >> fascinating and fun as he always is. >> i love that he just had a random white board. of course he does. we are going to dig deep into yesterday's results in iowa. we are going to zero in on where the candidates did well and what this could mean for new hampshire coming up. plus, how the biden team is framing trump's historic win in iowa and what it couould tell u about t the generaral electiono. that's's ahead.

this is time now for everybody, our country to come together. we want to come together whether it's republican or democrat or liberal or conservative, it would be so nice if we could come together and straighten out the world and straighten out the problems. we're going to come together. it's going to happen soon too. it's going to happen soon. >> it was, at least for a moment, a striking conciliatory tone from the former president calling for unity after a decisive victory in iowa last night. meanwhile, ron desantis barely eked out a second place finish ahead of nikki haley, even after a huge amount of resources into iowa. joining us republican congressman from florida, mike

walz. he has endorsed donald trump for president. do you think at this point that every other republican who's in the race should get out? >> well, it was certainly a historic decisive victory, and i got to tell you, it was cold. and the caucus site where i spoke still the organizers were telling me that they were surprised at how many people came out. look, i think it is crystal clear. president trump is going to be the nominee. the sooner we get to that realization in the other campaigns, the better. and then we can start drawing those contrasts with what the economy looked like under president trump, with how it is now, what the border looked like then, how it is now. with the world situation, with the world on fire right now, just a few years ago we've gone from abraham accords and middle east peace to multiple wars across the middle east and in europe. so yeah, we're ready to get to

that contrast sooner than later. >> nikki haley, who's, you know, made new hampshire which is next up the center piece for her campaign, putting out a new ad this morning saying, look, nobody wants a rematch. if you look at the polls, most americans don't want to see a replay of 2020. what do you say to that? >> well, i got to say, the republican party has made it clear -- and i think is going to continue to make it clear -- that president trump is the leader of the party, and that we want to get back to his policies that work, and that were working for the country and frankly were working for the world. and i think, you know, the premise that his opponents have been testing is, you know, you liked a lot of the america first policies whether it was record low unemployment, inflation down, the border under control, crime on decline, the pivot on china. but can you get all of that

without him, and i've argued that you don't great spacex without elon musk. you don't get apple without steve jobs, and you don't get those policies that many leaders in the republican party say we want to emulate, get back to, and build on without the guy who had the vision and actually executed and put him in place. >> right. >> look, i understand what some polls say. but you couldn't get a more clear signal of momentum than you got last night with a historic win in iowa. >> now, the numbers are very clear, at least in the state of iowa, the downside risk, though, that you heard some candidates lay out, ron desantis in particular is that he also could be convicted over the course of -- with the 91 criminal charges that he faces. if the former president is convicted, will you support him no matter what? >> look, with what we've seen getting laid out with these bogus, ridiculous case in new york, with what we're seeing now with the total conflict of

interest in possibly corruption in georgia, we could go down the list. these cases people see right through them. this is a weaponization of our justice department. and it only bolstered support for president trump. his numbers have only increased so not only would i support him, i think you're going to see the american people support him. >> you mentioned the fulton county d.a. case, also the new york case. you didn't mention the special counsel's case as both jack smith including election interference and the classified documents, do you think those are in the same lane? >> oh, yeah, i mean, look, when we're starting to parse between legal theories, between the espionage act, between the presidential records act, when you have over 80 cases according to the national archives of senators, members of congress, in every presidential office holder in the last several

decades have had instances where they had disputes with classified documents, where they sent them back and forth. i think the american people see all that. are we really going to take the leader of a party, of an opposition party off the ballot and out of action when he's been voted in, when the american people clearly want him back in over these kind of -- over these kind of kdisputes? look, that i in my view scary for our democracy, when you have the party in power and its justice department going after its chief political opponent, i've served in places as a green beret around the world, when that happens. i never expected to see it here. >> given your service and when you've served, if you'd taken documents and put them in a bathroom in a large box that were considered top secret, you would also probably be in trouble. can i ask you -- >> fair enough, but i wasn't the president of the united states governed by a lot of case law. >> i understand on that one.

>> so i don't think that's -- i don't think that's quite the same analogy. >> well, i mean -- >> fair enough, if we want to go down that road, we can talk about boxes sitting in a garage admittedly completely unguarded. we can talk about as a member of congress, they take every document when you walk out of the scif, and now you have years and years, how did they get there? on amtrak? so there's a lot to look into. >> look, i understand. and i would say congressman and i think i'm being entirely fair when i say this, there is a special counsel looking into that as well. when it is announced i think the analog in terms of the types of classified documents that were contained and where they were contained, i don't know if there's a lot of precedent for that. to your point t is a president, and we're going to have to wait and see. on the political side of things, almost the entire republican delegation got behind the former president. ron desantis is the governor of

florida, had a huge re-election victory. what is your message to him right now in particular given the fact that he's still in this race heading into new hampshire? >> i'll get to that. i just want to say one more thing on those cases. i think this is a critical point. i didn't hear about that anywhere in iowa. i don't hear about it back home in florida. what i hear about are kitchen table issues and what president trump has cast a vision going forward. he's not looking back in the past. so we're just not hearing that at all from anybody i'm talking to. governor desantis has been a fantastic governor. i don't think we would have gotten through covid the way florida did without his leadership. what i'm hearing from folks on the ground is, you know, they just don't understand why he didn't wait. he's a young guy that's very bright. it's going to be an open presidential seat in '28 and a lot of people are shaking their heads. eas he's got a lot of great work to do as governor.

>> always appreciate your time, thank you. >> thank you. and today at noon on "inside politics" be sure to watch dana bash's sit-down interview with nikki haley and chris sununu. >> that was fascinating, thank you for that. coming up, evangelical voters helped make donald trump's landslide victory in iowa possible. they were a big part of it. we're going to take a closer look at their influence in the caucuses and the power they hold as this race moves forward.

donald trump notching big gains with evangelical voters in iowa last night. cnn's entrance poll data showed trump won 53% of iowa voters who identify as white born again or evangelical christians. this time around he won about a quarter of them eight years ago. with us tim alberta, the author of an incredibly revealing new book "the kingdom power and glory: american evangelicals in an age of extremism." you know this topic and can help us understand what happened last night. trump did not say nice things about evangelicals uas you repot instead 2016, not nice things at all, but you say he has a mercenary-like relationship with them. why did we see that last night? what happened? >> yeah, i mean, poppy, look, eight years ago what you would hear from republican voters,

particularly in the early stages of the primary, when you would talk to evangelical leaders, they were very cool towards donald trump, very suspicious of donald trump, and the numbers bore that out. in iowa, which ted cruz won in 2016, donald trump won 22% of the evangelical vote. his strength there actually was with people who self-identified as not being born again or evangelical christians. trump actually carried those voters in iowa, but he lost by a significant margin among evangelical voters, and i think that in iowa, that result eight years ago was pretty well representative of where the evangelical movement was in the early phases of the republican primary, but then as the race wore on and as eventually trump overtook cruz and the others and it became clear he was going to be the nominee of the republican

party, you would hear this language around, well, it's a binary choice. donald trump is the lesser of two evils. you know, we have to -- we have told our nose and vote for this guy to keep hillary clinton out of the white house. that seems like a lifetime ago because obviously what we saw in iowa last night was not a lesser of two evils situation. it is not a binary choice situation. donald trump winning 53% of all evangelical voters is just -- i mean, it's stunning, poppy. >> it is. >> i think it does speak to -- it speaks to the evolution in this relationship from the lesser of two evils to really being the champion of a movement. >> for sure. tim, listen to this from yesterday. we had pastor deceron, a pastor in ottumwa, iowa, and here's how he explained his support for trump. >> none of these candidates could be a sunday school teacher in my church, so they're not on

the same page, and i don't hold any of them as a specific role model for family or our congregation. and none of them meet that bar to me biblically. i would love to see him become and grow more of a conscience in a lot of areas but i think he has a proven track record of being a good president, especially on abortion. >> that pastor, many evangelicals know exactly who trump is and they wouldn't want him teaching sunday school to their kids. but still 100% behind him. >> yeah, well, and listen, i guess that's a more defensible position, e intellectually honest position than you hear from other evangelical leaders who will tell you that they believe that trump is actually -- has become born again himself and that he's actually an agent of the almighty and that he's, you know, really in his personal private life quite pious.

i mean, you do have a large number of these voters, poppy, who would say exactly what that pastor said a moment ago. which is that they've made a cold, calculating decision here. they believe on a policy basis, he is able to deliver for them and has a track record that no other republican candidate can match up to. what they're not necessarily willing or able to answer is this basic question of, you know, does someone's values, someone like donald trump, his values in talking about humans made in the image of god, talking about them as vermin or talking about immigrants poisoning the blood of our nation, someone who traffics in violent and often xenophobic and racist rhetoric. does that person's, just their core values, does it align with some of your basic practicing beliefs as a follower of jesus christ, aside from any policy proposals that he may adhere to. >> for people who haven't read

your book, all your reporting on evangelicals, you're also the son of an evangelical pastor, so you are steeped in this. i want to ask you about nikki haley before we go. you wrote sort of the profile on her in 2021, the title was nikki haley's time for choosing, and in it, you said she doesn't know which nikki haley is going to be on the ballot. do we know which nikki haley is on the ballot now? because just last night she started grouping trump and biden together after refusing to go after biden after trump up until now. who is the nikki haley now? >> you know, poppy, she doesn't know. we don't know. i mean, look, when nikki haley had her sort of now famous or infamous civil war moment not long ago where she, you know, couldn't speak to slavery being the cause of the civil war, when she was asked that question, i think that was a pretty good

window into, you know, nikki haley's inability to just decide once and for all that she was going to run and let the chips fall where they may being an authentic version of herself. nikki haley grew up in south carolina and has a lot of racial scar tissue. she knows what started the civil war, and she has very strong opinions about donald trump and his sort of hateful, again, xenophobic, racist rhetoric over the years. she knows who he is, and we know that because she's spoken to it, both publicly and privately, and yet, when it comes time to run against him, she's -- all she can muster up is, well, chaos follows donald trump for better or worgse. that's what she says. so it's just -- it's almost -- it's just pathetic to watch her campaign play out the way that it has because if you're going to lose, at least lose saying what you believe and telling voters who it is that you really are and why you're different from the front runner, the favorite to be the nominee of

your party, but she's not willing to do that, and i'm not sure whether it's because she thinks she has a chance to be his vice president or not, but it's just been sort of a shell of a campaign in many ways. >> i'd urge people to go back, you spent months with her reporting that out to read it, i'm sure she'll address this with dana bash in her interview at noon eastern time. thanks very much for joining us this morning. >> thanks, poppy. later today, investigators in the gilgo beach murders expected to announce a significant development in the case. we're going to be live in long island with more details.

good morning, everyone. so glad you're with us. big morning after the iowa caucuses. i'm poppy harlow with phil mattingly, and y