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the first votes cast in the first in the nation primary. >> a two-person race, but for how much longer? >> we have to get out, we have to vote. this is the single biggest political movement in history. >> republicans coming together behind trump. >> what we're seeing is an audition for the vice presidency. this is like a giant version of "the apprentice." >> the retans to go negative is on purpose. >> i love the live free or die state but i want to make it a live free or die country and we are not going to stop until we do it. >> it does not look like the

path goes that much further past new hampshire. >> let the new hampshire voters turn out. if there would be a state where there would be an upset, it would be there. good morning from new hampshire. so glad you are with us, the nation's first presidential primary is now, it is 6:01 a.m. on the east coast, it is now officially under way. i am live at a diner in manchester, phil is in new york, kasie hunt is here with me. full team coverage. the first big round of polls just opened in the granite state, this could very well be nikki haley's last stand against donald trump during her final blitz across the state haley pushed back on the naysayers who have been suggesting that she give up and drop out. >> america doesn't do coronations. we believe in choices. we believe in democracy and we believe in freedom. let's show the country what we can do. >> those first ballots were cast

just after midnight in the tiny town of dixville notch and nikki haley won all six votes. >> one of the better traditions in politics. the big questions we are watching today, will nikki haley's big bet pay off? her campaign has focused heavily on new hampshire, a state where haley has the best chance at beating trump. the other looming and i would say biggest question right now, if trump wins tonight, is the gop race just over? will haley really stay in the race for the south carolina primary which is still a month away? also, have haley's attacks against trump been effective? in recent days we've seen her escalate her rhetoric, even questioning trump's mental fitness, she tells cnn she sees trump and biden as equally bad options. trump has been wracki i ing up endorsements on capitol hill. last night we saw trump bring his former opponents on stage in the ultimate show of force. >> if you want four more years of donald trump let me hear you

scream! if you want the race to be over tomorrow, let me hear you scream! >> all right. >> let's start with omar jimenez, live at a polling location that just opened. a number of folks here this morning. what are you seeing? what are you hearing? >> reporter: yeah, there is a line waiting for 6:00 a.m. eastern time in this polling location that officially opened. you can see them getting processed right now as they initially walk in here at this polling location in manchester. so once they go from this table here they will then essentially go to one more spot and then be ready to vote. you can see some folks already getting their votes under way. nice and early here in manchester. a long awaited opportunity after really what's been a year-long campaign in this particular state. the question now for someone like nikki haley, has she done enough to challenge the former

president? >> reporter: the new hampshire primary is officially under way with one lone republican rival remaining against donald trump. >> we've got a lot on the line here. >> reporter: nikki haley is making her final pitch to new hampshire voters, hoping to stop trump's march for the republican nomination. >> nikki? >> yes. >> will you marry me? >> are you going to vote for me? >> donald trump. >> oh, get out of here. >> reporter: overnight the first primary ballots were cast in dixville notch, providing a very early glimmer of hope for haley, who picked up all six votes in the small new hampshire town. trump for his part is trying to rally and consolidate republican support, holding his final campaign rally in the granite state flanked by former republican candidates offering their endorsement, including former republican candidate and

senator tim scott, who just announced his engagement. >> biggest story out there, he's engaged to be married. we never thought this was going to happen. what's going on? >> reporter: trump did target haley during his rally. >> the people behind nikki haley are pro-am nesty, pro china, pro open borders, pro war, pro deep state and pro biden. >> reporter: and haley is trying to make the case that both trump and biden are too old to effectively serve four more years. >> this really is an option, do you want more of the same -- >> no! >> we want nikki! >> -- or do you want to go forward? >> reporter: and saying she feels trump has mentally declined. >> the more you age it just does -- you have declined. >> reporter: the democrats are also heading to the polls today, congressman dean phillips has launched a long-shot campaign against president biden. phillips is hoping the fact

biden won't appear on the ballot could help his chances. >> i respect the man, but joe biden is not able to beat donald trump in the next election. >> reporter: the new hampshire attorney general is also investigating a fake robocall that appears to use an ai voice resembling biden's urging voters to stay home. >> it's important that you save your vote for the november election. voting this tuesday only enables the republicans in their quest to elect donald trump again. >> reporter: it's unclear who is behind the call. biden's campaign responded to it, writing, spreading disinformation to suppress voting and deliberately undermine free and fair elections will not stand. and as i mentioned, the polls opened just a few minutes ago, you can see folks who have finished voting making their way back out with their "i just voted" stickers. one of them, we have my man norm here, how are you doing? >> doing well. >> reporter: you are up and early, why did you want to come

here? >> i figured there would be a big line, might as well, get here, get it over, get out, go to breakfast. >> reporter: there we go. go to breakfast. if you don't mind, who did you vote for, why? you've obviously been seeing a lot of campaign stuff over the last year here in new hampshire. >> well, we both voted for trump and give him a chance to finish what he started. >> reporter: was there -- obviously it came down to trump and nikki haley in the end. what didn't you like about nikki haley that made you go with trump? >> not that we didn't like her, we've been a trump supporter, weren't too happy with how he behaved, which seems like he might have changed that a little bit. so we figured give him another chance. he can only go for four anyway. >> reporter: you weren't too happy with how he behaved -- >> sometimes you behave like a child, you know? but, then, again, we didn't hire him to be a personality, we hired him to get a job done. >> reporter: and how do you think he changed, you know, from, as you say, behaving like

a child? >> well, i think he's trying to contain himself now instead of the name calling and the belittling stuff. but as long as he -- which he did in his first term -- was he did what he said he was going to do. if he does it again we will be in good shape. >> reporter: he has called nikki haley a few names, i will point that out, but just the last thing i will ask before i let you go is walk me through did you vote for him in 2016? 2020? how has your support for him maybe changed over the years and why did you feel so confident this time? >> well, it really hasn't changed the support for him, just haven't found anyone we think is going to do the job. we looked at -- we would have liked desantis, but as they're saying now it just wasn't his time i don't think, you know, and, who knows, maybe -- maybe he will be a vp pick and he will be able to get eight years out of it. >> reporter: if desantis was still in the race would you have voted for him? >> probably.

>> reporter: all right. norm, thank you so much. i appreciate you. >> have a good day. >> reporter: one of the first in line to vote here in manchester already did what he needed to do, a process long awaited here in this state. obviously it's just one person, but it gives you a little bit of insight to folks here who may be leaning toward the former president and some of why. >> you know, omar, that was a really illuminating interview that you just did. thank you very much for that. let's bring kasie in. trump sounded childish before but he thinks that he can contain himself now. what did you make of what we just heard from that voter? >> i mean, honestly, it is an encapsulation of all of the phenomenon that explain why donald trump is where he is because he's got that core group of maga supporters, he talks to them a lot on truth social where we should note there is an awful lot of name calling and other things that norm, our voter

here, doesn't see. which tells you that donald trump knows what audience he is talking to when he is doing that. but for the ones that if donald trump is going to be president again, the people that are going to put him over the edge will be voters like the one that we just heard from who basically say, well, there are things about him that i don't like, but i'm willing to overlook it because i like what he did policy-wise. we didn't get a chance to talk to him about biden and what he would do in a general election, but for voters who would consider, it doesn't sound like norm ever considered to vote for joe biden but for swing voters in independent states that's going to be the distinction. it is very interesting to me and i think telling for all of us that a lot of what we notice and what we focus on in terms of how trump conducts himself, it just doesn't break through with a lot of these voters. >> it was also notable that he said it's not that i don't like nikki haley, but let's just let trump finish what he started. >> let's give him another chance. if we are going to get president trump for the second time that's going to be the narrative we will hear. >> going to be the norms.

thank you. phil? >> get it over with early and go to breakfast is the energy i want to take for the remainder of this election season. that is elite right there. guys, a lot of things we want to get into. kasie has pointed out and covered it closely, back in 2016 new hampshire was not only the first primary that donald trump won but also the first primary where you saw the reach was wider in the republican party than i think a lot of people expected. let's start with where omar is, where he interviewed that voter. this is a map of 2024, you will see one place is filled in, dixville notch, nikki haley won all six votes there, not really predictive of what's coming but a good start to the day for nikki haley. back in 2016 if you go into new hampshire where omar is right now this is a place donald trump won 36% of the vote, close to where he ended up overall in the state. manchester is the biggest population center in the state. if donald trump can roll up big wins in the big population centers in new hampshire, in the townships and counties throughout the state that bodes well for him. that's what he did in 2016. when you look at what he did in

2016 this is a state where john kasich took up residence over the course of several months, so did chris christie. john kasich won several townships, the areas that nikki haley will be targeting without any question at all, higher educated townships, suburban townships, areas where there is a population that matches the demographic lens that nikki haley has been targeting over the course of the last several months but also a place where donald trump even if you pull up where the suburbs are, donald trump almost swept the suburbs in the southeastern part of the state. if you push out into the rural areas, donald trump crushed these rural areas as well. in the places where donald trump lost, if you want to look at the population centers, pull it out a little bit and you will see where the bigger bubbles r that's where more people are. the places where he lost, not really that sizable and that underscores his dominance in the state in 2016 when it was a much more even race than it appears to be right now. what does that mean going forward? the amount of money that nikki haley has spent up to this point, ad spending, everybody

you talk to when you are in new hampshire talks about the fact they've been blitzed over the last several months. nikki haley $29 million between her campaign and the super pac. almost double what trump has spent. they have made clear, this is the race, the state, the primary for them to make their move. that will all be determined later tonight. the big question right now when you look at the polling in terms of where things stand, historically it's actually really interesting, the biggest margins of victory over the course of the last several cycles in the republican party, reagan 27% in 1980, mccain 18%, romney 16%, trump in 2016 is fourth, right now is looks like he could surpass what he did in 2016, could go even further. if he tops 50% and surpasses some of these numbers by all accounts when you talk to republican officials the race is probably over and that's exactly what haley is trying to prevent over the course of the next several hours. joining us to discuss how this all might turn out, the vice chair of the new hampshire gop.

all right. you're looking at live pictures, this is a polling site in bedford, new hampshire, 6:17 a.m. here and voters are there and the voting -- well, some. it will get more full soon, right, kasie? >> i mean, it's very early.

>> joining us now is the vice chair of new hampshire's republican party ryan terrell. he has not endorsed either of the republican candidates in the primary given his position. we really appreciate you being with us here. talk to us about what you're expecting today in the state. >> i expect a high turnout, people are excited about a primary, you know, the republicans are the only primary that kind of has a lot of momentum with the candidates coming here and people are fired up to vote for the candidate that they want to see lead the republican ticket. so i think you will see 325,000, something close to that, at least turning out and like we all talk about in new hampshire, that independent vote is going to be very important to see how they wind up voting. >> ryan, what is your sense of what nikki haley would have to do today? i want to show you governor sununu was on with her colleague anderson cooper last night talking about expectations for her. take a look at what he had to say. >> do you believe ambassador haley needs to win tomorrow? >> no, new hampshire has never been a must win for haley, if anything it's a must win for

trump. >> do you think it's must win here for her to have a future in the presidential primary? >> it's hard to tell what wins are a must win. we can't tell the future, there has certainly been a lot of political things that have changed over history, but i think it's a huge indicator of how successful the campaign can be. new hampshire is a primary state for a reason, we have a retail politic that's steeped in tradition so candidates gets a lot of one-on-one and when a candidate wins new hampshire it really makes the nation understand that they fine tuned their candidate and understand the voting block. i think it sends an important message to win new hampshire for whatever candidate wins the state. >> you talked about independents or undeclared voters that can participate. they can go for a republican candidate, democratic candidate. donald trump has incorrectly, falsely been saying democrats are going to help nikki haley. a democrat cannot -- a registered democrat cannot vote in the republican primary here, but i do wonder how much sway

you think those undeclareds are going to have for nikki haley. >> sure. >> that's what she needs, a lot of them. >> she needs a lot of undeclared voters and nikki has certainly been trying to get the undeclared vote quite active. i know her campaign has been targeting the independent or undeclared voter. you are correct where the cutoff that allows democrat voters to switch over and vote different parties is in october. you are correct that only undeclared voters can participate and jump over if they want to participate in a republican primary. i think nikki haley needs as many voters as she possibly can that aren't already ascribed to trump to come out and show out for her to get a victory today because there is a huge momentum around trump, just in my vice chair role participating in the primary events, trump has a huge name recognition and a lot of voters are really excited to vote for him a second time. in fact, some voters will be voting for him for the first time this election season. so i think nikki haley is going to need every vote she possibly can get from somebody who isn't already sold on trump. >> ryan, let me ask you, this is

also a very hotly contested general election state, new hampshire, and one of the things that president biden is going to have to do if he wants to retain the white house is keep together the coalition that put him there and that includes they would say black voters, brown voters, women voters. he's shown -- young voters. he's shown erosion in all of those groups. i'm curious from your perspective black voters in particular, black men, why are tle abandoning biden? why are they so trad in donald trump? >> i don't speak for every black man across the country. >> i'm not asking you to. >> i can give an experience that black and minority voters often have overlapping interest as every other voter. i will tell you particularly they are not necessarily happy about what's happening with the illegal immigration crisis that's affecting a lot of cities across the country and also they are not really too happy about some of the social issues that are coming from the democrat party. so you have a voting bloc with high north and spanish speaking voters that are quite socially conservative. so now they are butting with

almost an identity crisis in that they've maybe voted democrat for a while but now with the illegal migrant crisis happening and a few other social factors it's making them start to look at other candidates to be considered. we are in a tough economic environment, i think we know that the economy was better over the four years with trump so now voters are really kind of starting to ask am i going to cross over and make a different decision this time? and that particularly has shown among minority communities. >> it's a really interesting point and a great question, right, that is the question in a general. thank you. >> thank you. >> thanks, everyone. >> phil? up next, a cnn exclusive, israel's spy chief offering hamas leaders a chance to get out of gaza. why he is floating t the idea n. that's's next.

well, this morning the israeli government says 21 idf soldiers were killed in southern gaza during a military operation in khan yunis. 20 hostages were said to the held in the tunnels in the area. it's the biggest single israeli loss during combat since the war began and a warning, these next images are graphic. palestinians say israel is targeting and battering hospital sites in these same areas.

nearly all of gaza's population a two-month-long pause in fighting as part of a broader hostage negotiation deal. that comes from those familiar with the talks who talked with alex marquardt who joins us live from washington, d.c. let's start with this proposal. it was stunning on its face when i read your reporting. what would it entail? >> reporter: it is an extraordinary proposal. essentially if it were to happen it would be incredible to think that this would be a hamas's top leaders in gaza, the orchestraters of the deadliest day in israeli history leaving gaza, essentially being allowed to walk away. now, the way that israel sees this is that if they were to leave gaza, it would weaken hamas in gaza and essentially it would draw these leaders of hamas out of the tunnels

allowing israel to then target them elsewhere. we do know that israel plans to mount a global operation against hamas leaders around the world, but, phil, i think what this proposal really highlights is that after four months of war israel has failed to capture or kill any of the most senior leaders of hamas in gaza, among them yahya sinwar who is the top hamas official in gaza, mohammed daif the leader of the military arm. we also know by israel's only estimates 70% of hamas's fighting force remains on the battlefield. i was told that this was raised, this proposal was raised by the head of israeli intelligence last month in a meeting in warsaw with the cia director bill burns and the qatari prime minister. a few weeks later earlier this month the qatari prime minister met with antony blinken the secretary of state and he told blinken that this proposal will never happen.

that's what i've heard from international and american officials saying that this is a nonstarter. that sinwar, deif and others would rather go down fighting against their sworn enemy. it's remarkable that israel would propose this at all. >> also a window into the pressures domestic and international the prime minister is facing at this moment in time. alex, great reporting. thanks so much. let's head back to poppy and kasie in manchester, new hampshire. >> thank you, phil. great reporting by the way from alex there. we will be joined next by democratic presidential candidate dean phillips. we will talk about his bid to try to shake things up in new hampshirire and the push bacacks gegetting fromom some in h his party.

i'm only doing this to defeat donald trump. nobody seems to want to do that in the democratic party right now other than me because joe biden can't is my proposition because the data says he can't. no one in the country right now cares, in fact, most of the people in the country are going to the trump rally right now because he's listening to them. no one is asking about this stuff. i'm just frustrated. i hope you understand why i'm getting tired of it. you're doing your jobs but you are not asking the questions that americans give a [ bleep ] ab about. >> fired up, congressman dean phillips, one of the few democrats hoping to derail president biden's reelection

campaign in the name of ee feegt donald trump. so a he is facing an uphill battle is an understatement. >> president biden's name won't even appear on the ballot in the new hampshire primary due to a squabl between state and national democrats and yet new cnn polling shows 63% of new hampshire democrats plan to write in biden's name compared to 10% who plan to vote for phillips. but fill flips did secure an endorsement overnight that could help boost his prospects? the new hampshire union leader editorial board writing, quote, for anyone who supports joe biden for his policies but would prefer a president born during the vietnam war rather than world war ii they will not be disappointed with dean phillips. >> and dean phillips joins us now. >> top of the morning. good to be with you guys. >> the union leader historically a conservative publication here in the state did endorse you here at the 11th hour but the democrats that you know and who perhaps once loved you back in

washington are not very happy with what you've been doing here, partly because you've been very aggressive in criticizing the president. my question here, you're sitting at 10% in the polls, do you have any regrets about how this has gone? >> my only regret is that thigh pa -- my party doesn't want to wake up from this delusion. i have a conviction that joe biden is going to lose and if anybody looks at the data objectively he's going to and someone had to do it and i'm saddened that there is this culture of cowardice, silence, and people sitting in line waiting for their turn at a time where we need to meet the moment. no, i'm not surprised, it hasn't been nearly as horrifying because the fact is the pain i'm feeling by my party isn't close to what people are feeling all around this country. >> i mean, with all due respect, chris sununu we played him earlier in the show basically saying that trump is going to lose and that's why they shouldn't nominate trump, they should nominate nikki haley, that's kind of the opposite of what you're saying.

>> i mean, i think it would take -- it would take a really unusual look at these numbers and, look, the governor is not a bad guy. he knows trump is going to win, he's trying to his best to prevent that. i respect that. the writing is on the wall. if nikki haley is in this race a few weeks from now i would be really surprised and that's the truth. we have a two-party system that is literally working against vote ergs and voters who don't want to show up and vote in primaries and get frustrated by the choices we have in november that's part of the problem. we have a crisis of participation. i went to a donald trump rally a couple nights ago, never been to one, i had an event across the street, i saw the line of people waiting in the cold for hours and i thought what the heck. i'm going to be a leader who invites people, doesn't condemn them, met probably 50 trump people waiting in line. every single one of them, thoughtful, hospitable, friendly. all of them so frustrated that they feel nobody is listening to them but donald trump. a diverse crowd, people who had never been to a trump event before. my party is completely

delusional right now and somebody had to wake us up and if that's my job, so be it. >> you would rather, though, have biden in the white house again than trump in the white house? >> of course. absolutely. >> so do you think that this bid, what you've done, has made president biden stronger? because that was one of your goals, if it's not going to be you, make him stronger, have you succeeded in that? >> if he would come out and debate and maybe meet voters and actually start showing up. i'm trying to extend an invitation to the president to get in the game because if you want to be the president again the only way to even possibly win is to get out here. listen to voters. >> do you think your effort made him stronger or weaker? >> if i did nothing, if nobody entered this race, we've turned -- the democrats here, poppy, have turned over hundreds of hours of prime time tv to the gop, cnn, you guys, doing one-hour town halls with every single gop candidate. every bit of coverage the gop because they have a competitive race. if democrats had a competitive race right now, which i'm trying to create, we would have energy. if you had been to my events the

last three days you would see young people carrying signs, we're trying to get something doing. the president is doing nothing and if he's not going to debate, not going to answer questions how many interviews has he done? he's not doing town halls, he's not showing up. i'm trying to do him a favor to show up. if he does and does really well in the primaries and suddenly his numbers rise and he can beat donald trump, my goodness, i would get behind i'm in a heartbeat but get in the game. >> here is what ro khanna said about you. he doesn't take issue with what you're doing but how you're doing it. here is his criticism. >> i don't agree that you should challenge the president but if you are going to do it, run on your vision. run on your ideas, run on what you want to do for the nation. the attacks on president biden, on someone who has dedicated his whole life to public service. >> i'm so glad ro gave me this chance. i've been talking about my agenda this whole time, nobody

is covering it. i'm going -- >> jake asked you last night -- >> and i told jake. >> kasie has interviewed -- >> and i told jake last night if you had listened. >> i watched the whole thing. >> american dream accounts, thousand dollar accounts to start raises the quality of opportunity, we need medicare for all, a national health insurance program, we need to build 7 million houses in this country, we need education for all that doesn't burden people with debt. cost and chaos is whaegs on people's mind, social security i know how to fix. i will have a bipartisan cabinet a youth council. i will completely change leadership in this country. i would love it if people would ask about what's actually my propositions and what's on people's minds. all the press wants to talk about is things like this. by the way, what ro just said, we shouldn't challenge the incumbent, that is the nonsense that democrats a fall into time and time again. thank gosh in 2008 a young unknown senator had the audacity

to challenge the coronated candidate and he won, barack obama. >> right. so that's the thing, you are -- you are running against president biden and it hasn't caught on. what are you going to do if you don't hit -- i mean, 20% in new hampshire, are you going to keep going? you said you were going to drop out on march 5 the last time i talked to you. >> i'm recognizing there is an immense need to keep this challenge going and i will continue it. tonight i know your poll has me at 7, another one has me at 32. ten weeks ago nobody knew me, we were at 0% and in ten weeks with a ragtag startup little operation spending almost no money with very few people i think we will be in the 20s today and if we're better than that that's awesome. that's not the story. joe biden should be at 80% even with a write in. super pac got every member of the cabinet coming out, people like ro khanna, my colleagues. bill clinton achieved 84% here, barack obama 81%. joe biden is the incumbent,

everybody knows him, if he is a strong candidate he should get in that range but he's probably going to be way below that and i want to wake people up and that's my job. >> in that great interview kasie did with you a couple months ago you said to her i could win this, i intend to win this, talking about new hampshire or you said i could open the door for others who might be better positioned. >> still true. >> that still a goal to open the door for others? >> absolutely. >> if so, who? >> i've been trying this i hope you know since i called on the president to pass the torch, he didn't. i spent months literally calling other candidate who are better known than i because i know in this game you have to be well-known, it helps the cause. >> that's why i'm wondering who. >> gretchen whitmer, j.b. pritzker, gavin newsom, vice president harris. where are you? this is the practice of democracy that i really am trying to impress upon democrats that we should not have a coronation, we should have a competition and i hope you're telling people also the truth that my party is suppressing voters here. you know this i hope. >> you're talking about the dnc letter. >> the dnc sent a letter to the

state, the new hampshire democrats, saying that this is meaningless, despite having a massive write-in operation. it precipitated a letter from the secretary of state here to the democratic national committee last week, a cease and desist for the unlawful suppression of voters. there is a lot going on here that nobody is really aware of and i'm trying to call attention to the truth. i wish other candidates were participating. that call is still wide open. the water is warm. >> you mentioned vice president harris. she has come in for considerable criticism from republicans and has been listed by privately some democrats worry about her being the second half of the ticket. i mean, do you think that kamala harris would be qualified to be commander in chief? >> i think she should enter the race and be assessed. >> do you think she's qualified? >> it's not my place. every experience i have had with the vice president has been i think quite impressive, but that's the whole point. what the president is doing right now is what democrats have done for generations, they stick around too long, don't give

space and stage and platform to candidates. the vice president is k. not even introduce herself on that stage. glavine newsom, pritzker, gretchen whitmer, all these next-generation democrats are being suppressed by people who simply -- >> harris lost to biden once already. >> my point is this, that we should be having a competition. let americans decide if she is the right person or not or he or she or me. that's the whole point. i'm trying to change this delusional process that will probably almost certainly have us lose again if biden is on the top of the ticket. >> i want the detailed plan of how you're going to fix social security, but quickly before we go -- >> ten seconds. >> kasie's good question, how long are you in this? >> as long as it takes to get a head to head matchup with donald trump that demonstrates where i'm at vis-a-vis joe biden. i'm just introducing myself. >> months. >> it will take months. >> how many millions of dollars are you willing to put in? >> we're going to do what it takes. >> you said two.

>> now we are up to five. this is the most important philanthropic pursuit of my life. my dad died in vietnam, one of one million americans who have done this. when i went to vietnam last year i recognized that when people are willing to give their lives to defend freedom and democracy, why are so few politicians willing to do something to do the same thing and that's part of what i'm trying to do. i know i'm a long shot. i think i'm going to do a lot better than your poll. how about a nickel? >> come on tomorrow morning. >> i'd love to do better. the point is this, i'm trying to shake it up. we need to -- donald trump is going to win, joe biden is a fine man, but he's going to lose and most democrats including ro khanna know that. he wants to run for approximately in 2028. >> back to you tomorrow. social security. on a serious note, thank you to your father for his service. the greatest sacrifice and thank you. >> thanks for what you do, too. appreciate you. >> phil? president biden and vice president harris not in new

hampshire but they are on the campaign trail together today. laser focused on one issue they believe could swing the november election. that's ahead.

we've been a trump sup supporter, weren't too happy with how he behaved, seemed like he might have changed that a little bit. so we figured, give him another chance. he can only go for four anyway. >> reporter: you weren't too happy with how he behaved -- >> sometimes you behave like a child and, you know -- but then again, we didn't hire him to be a personality, we hired him to get a job done. >> reporter: and how do you think he changed, you know, from, as you say, behaving like a child? >> well, i think he's trying to contain himself now.

>> reporter: did you feel particularly strong about a candidate? >> absolutely. >> reporter: who did you vote for this time? >> donald trump. >> reporter: why did you feel this time that he was the one? >> because my life -- i think everybody's life was a lot easier, better, economically, everything, just, you know, i feel like this is the obama administration all over again. you're looking at live pictures of new hampshire as voters head to the polls. you just heard from two of those voters talking to our colleague omar who has been at the polling stations, been talking to voters. i want to bring in cnn political commentators errol louis and jeff duncan and lee carter. lee, i want to start with you because there are feel who have watch that and their heads will explode and i don't say that in a condescending or mocking manner. i say that because you have talked about things like we just heard repeatedly that you have seen in the numbers over and over and over again over the course of the last several months that really explain what we just heard. how so? >> so there's, i think, two

things that are really important to remember, number one, most people feel worse off today than they did when joe biden took office and most people say that they felt better under donald trump and that's on both sides of the aisle. so that's number one that he has going for him. the second thing is more than 60%, some polls have over 70% of voters are looking for a fighter, saying that the system seems like it's unfairly working for some than others, only 4% believe that the political system is working for them. so they're looking for a fighter. donald trump represents to them a fighter. no one else does. so when you see these people who are feeling like things are worse, they feel like the system is not working for them, they're feeling like they're getting left behind, feel like they're being judged, talked down to, donald trump is the one for them. and it shouldn't be surprising to anyone. the other thing that i think is fascinating is if you look at biden and trump voters from 2020, only 79% of voters that voted for joe biden in 2020 are likely to vote for him again while 90% of trump voters are

likely to vote for him again and 5% of joe biden voters are more likely to vote for donald trump today. so the math isn't looking good for joe biden right now and we're not even, you know, all the way to a general election right now, but it's really fascinating to see the enthusiasm. >> this is, by the way, this is where nikki haley's comments about chaos trails him and we don't want chaos. if you remember that voter who thinks that the system is working against you, that washington has ignored you and wall street has swindled you and hollywood is laughing at you, you want chaos, you want something to shake up the whole system. that was always from 2015 on that was the donald trump appeal and i think we're seeing it play out in new hampshire and throughout the republican primary. >> i think one of the challenges has been that the -- ron desantis, nikki haley, chris christie did to the best of his ability, didn't call donald trump for what he was and that was a fake republican. he failed as a republican, right? there's selective memory amongst the base right now. donald trump is it not actually build the ball, didn't get

mexico to pay for the 20 miles of it. he stashed $8 trillion worth of additional debt, fumbled the ball on covid. these were things that they tried to play cute and i think now we're having to play a catchup game and the base has selective memory. the only thing keeping donald trump alive in my opinion or so strong amongst the other contenders is that joe biden is doing that bad. if there was actually a threat to the white house and if joe biden was actually polling up or even with donald trump, i think there would be a melting of support for donald trump. >> yes, but also i think donald trump realizes that he's playing into a very emotional voter. we're not rational beings who are occasionally emotional, we're emotional beings who are occasional rational. everyone is trying to give rational arguments and that's not what's winning. >> the irony to some degree is if you go back to when trump left office the economy was on the brink of a depression, people were in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century and i don't think anybody feels great and yet everybody blacks out 2020 which makes it

interesting as you see biden and harris campaigning together today, talking about the issue the democrats see as the kind of the kill shot for them in a general election, this was what the vice president said in an exclusive interview with laura coates last night. >> we are here in january and i'm going to tell you in these intervening months between now and the election, i am going to do exactly what i'm doing here in wisconsin which is traveling the country to remind people of not only what is at stake and the harm that is occurring every day, so many women silently suffering, but also remind them of the connection between their vote and an outcome that puts back in place the protections of roe. >> so a message from somebody who fights for them, who is able to create some type of blackout of the worst year that we have had as a country and really like to have effectively versus that policy. >> i mean, look, there's policy and there's a ton of history

just in the last couple of years that abortion motivates the democratic base, pulls over some independents, gets suburban women and so forth and so on. you have to talk about the economy. i was leafing through the paper, i think it was page 9, oh, by the way, the biden administration got $5 billion worth of additional loan forgiveness for something like 73,000 americans. i'm thinking that would be a pretty good thing to talk about if you really want to get people's attention. i mean, i understand the abortion issue, it moves people, it's real, it's a substantive difference they're going to campaign on t but if they forget about the economy even as they've tried to sort of make strides that they can take credit for i think they will have a real problem. >> i'm sure it will come back. >> joe biden has a chance to win, kamala harris has got to pick up her game. she has to figure out a way to a improve her approval ratings and dive back into immigration and she's got to be a viable option because quite honestly in this world we have a 78-year-old running against an 82-year-old. >> she will be a focal point, it

will be interesting to see how that continues to develop. lee carter, jeff, errol, thanks, appreciate it. up next, we will head back out to poppy in manchester, new hampshire, as primary voting in parts of the state gets under way this hour. this is "cnn this morning" special l live covererage of thw hampmpshire primimary.

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