>>r miss any of c-span's coverage, you confided any time at c-span.org. videos of key hearings, debates, and other events feature markers that guide you to newsworthy highlights. these markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on select this tool makes it easy to get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's points of interest. this week, watching c-span's campaign 2024 coverage as we are on the ground in new hampshire

and the final weeks of campaigning before the first in the nation primary. here the candidates closing arguments, watch voters meet the candidates, experience what it is like on the campaign trail. c-span now, our free mobile app. c-span, yourew of potics. we are joined by christian science monitor washington europe chief linda fellman to talk about new hampshire and iowa. welcome to the program. guest: hi, mimi. host: i want to ask you about new hampshire but let's start with iowa. what do you think of former president trump's victory there and the margin? guest: i was struck by the fact that the polls got it right. ally in this day and age when people don't answer their phones, polling can be very iffy

and way off but in this case, the polls had at that trump would come in over 50%. it's significant that nikki haley did not come in second. ron desantis put it all on the table in iowa and came only a distant third. new hampshire is make or break for him but honestly, it's looking very good for donald trump. we are kind of laughing in new hampshire that with nikki haley calling it a two-person race, i'm, a two-person race for second place? she doesn't want to acknowledge how far ahead trump is at this point. host: was it a surprise that nikki haley didn't do better in iowa? guest: maybe a little bit because she was showing progress and she's the one who had the buzz a month or two ago and she

was steadily gaining. ron desantis went to all 99 counties in iowa and nikki haley did not do that. she was focusing a lot of new hampshire and had made that comment about how iowa makes a mistake and new hampshire corrected. i think she was speaking tongue-in-cheek. this could be it. it really looks like trump has it in the bag but you never know with new hampshire. the republican primary here is always had a different result from n hampshirewhen it's an op, not an incumbent. this was breaking the mold but trump in some ways is a causation incumbent. host: let's talk about new hampshire. the primary will be on this

coming tuesday. what are you watching for this coming week? guest: just watching to see what the arguments are. can anything that changes the dynamic? you've got donald trump doing a lot of events. he was in court yesterday in the e. jean carroll case which you would think would be a distraction from campaigning in new hampshire but him facing legal challenges is part of his campaign. he is running from court -- from the courtroom. what kind of crowds do they draw? on tuesday night, i saw donald trump had a massive crowd in atkinson, new hampshire. night in brenton woods. she had a good crowd. it was a room but she packed the room with a couple of hundred people. i'm going to see desantis this

afternoon and we willnd of enth. i'm watching mainly for what independents are thinking. i talked to a lot of undeclared, in new hampshire, non-party affiliations. there were democrats in the room looking at nikki haley and independents as well as republicans. new hampshire is not having a serious primary here. joe biden decided the democratic primary process should start in south carolina. he has spurned new hampshire's are democrats are deciding, do they play in the republican primary which is a real primary job biden so he's not embarrassed by a week showing? they are having the primary your like it or not. host: if you would like to ask a about the 2024 republican primary for our guest, you can start giving us a

call. the lines are by party, democrats (202) 748-8000 republicans (202) 748-8001 and independents c-span.org (202) 748-8002. for new hampshire voters, that number is (202) 748-8003. you can use that same line to text us. can you talk a little about the difference between iowa voters and new hampshire voterspoliticr demographic? guest: the two states are similar in that they have very predominantly white populations. in some ways, and they are smaller states. iowa is much more conservative. it's a solid red state and its a

battleoui was looking at the registration numbers and the largest party in is actually undeclared. en you've got republicans and democrats evenly divided. i was very republican and a evangelical christian community which was part of who ron desantis was wooing. nikki is herself a person of faith but she didn't really play that card. she's playing more than new hampshire mainstream republican direction and new hampshire also has a strong libertarian bent whether it be the issue of guns, gun ownership and gun control. or abortion rights. the governor of new hampshire, chris sununu, is a moderate republican and endorsed nikki

halei would say he's fairly libl on abortion rights, very popular but he's retiring at the end of his term. that was a good kid for nikki haley. he didn't just endorse her, he's been going with her from event to event and he's a very dynamic speaker and he introduces her and sticks around and poses for pictures as does she. i wanted to show you since you mentioned the iowa voters, the hill has this article that says -- what do you make of that number? stunning. it really demonstrates how much that argument has penetrated

voters through whatever media they are watching and from donald trump directly. donald trump is focusing a serious part of his campaign on his assertions that the 2020 election was stolen and that he is trying to vindicate himself and by extension, he says i am yourtion meeting his supporters. i was talking to a trump supporter yesterday, a friend of a family member, a new hampshire republican and donald supporter and hep at the beginning of the cycle but with all of these legal cases against trump, he convinced him that the establishment is out to get donald trump and now he is a solid donald trump supporter.

it isn't just the idea of a rigged election in 2020. it's the larger scheme trump weather through a rigged election or through court cases. host: let's talk to some callare in philadelphia, deming red. caller: i just want to put it out there because there is two things gng city and you have tok at the dark money. dark money going through the streets. people talk conspiracies but all these criminals are comingit's e coming across the border and trump would not do anything. thank you. host: he mentioned the border. how much is that playing into

the primary race so far? guest: it is absolutely a huge issue. we are far fm this is a national issue and every night on fox news, uc the hordes crossing the border and the numbers are truly this doesn't suggest that some media are making things up. there really is a problem at the border. republicans argue it's an open border. our immigration system is certainly broken. the republican candidates are using that and it's on every republican candidate's and they are pushing that hard and that has penetrated. host: joseph is next, independent in floda yes, this primary is a

foregone conclusion as far as donald trump is going to win. the picture is that if you really analyze this, 50% of the republicans did not vote for him in iowa. people have to start to watch this. secondly, i live in florida and i can tell you there are major cracks in e wall of donald trump as far as i have friends or not going to vote for him particularly if he gets convicted. the combination of the 50% of people who will not vote for him plus the convictions he will get. he's got big problems. i don't understand why republicans are even looking at this guy. he's got no chance and he will not go to jail because he is going to plea deal. that will put him out of the picture. the republicans should really

t to look at who is their candidate. i don't have the answer. i do see this. it's serious stuff, thank you. host: what do you think, linda? guest: on the one it but on the other hand, he got 52% of the vote. if you consider him to be an incumbent which some people do, that's not great. an incumbent president running for usually faces no serious opposition. as with other elements of donald trump, he is unique. he isn't an incumbent and has major flaws in the eyes of many voters. he's facing serious competition even if they didn't do super well against him in iowa.

if he is convicted before election day, there are a significant number of voters will not vote for him, people who say they will vote for trump despite his legal challenges but if he's convicted, some will not vote for him. it's possible that these court casestil after the election. that may not happen in terms of conviction before election day. i don't know if i answered all the questions. host: let's go to alexander in virginia next, on the line for democrats. tina, are you there. caller: yes, i'm here. host: go ahead. jcaller: a lot of people are calling in saying that donald trump one but only 13% of ople voted because of the weather

conditions. his percentage is not very high soay donald trump is the winner, we really don't know who will be the winner. if i was there, i would not have voted for him, let me point that out. st: to be fair, you are a democrat. guest: right, this is a feature of all caucus contest which is that you haveng out. even though it was a small turnout in iowa, only 110,000 people, 15% of the republican electorate, you can almost give it as a real live opinion poll. a representative sample one might say would turn out for the caucus. the weather was terrible and it

was totally freezing. there was some thought the trump voters might not go because he seems to have it in the bag with the polling but on the other hand, you could say he has the most dedicated voters so they would be the most motivated to turn out. i get that those two categories may cancel each other out but we got the results we got. it's not a coincidence that the final result for iowa was similar to the final polling before the caucuses. host: jerry and broadway, virginia, republican. caller: good morning. the reason the democrats switched up their primaries is so the democratic voters could vote against donald trump and republic -- in republican primaries. the democrats never get tired of finding ways to cheat. host: what do you think, linda? guest: it's not cheating to do that.

in both states, you can change your registration however you want depending w in new hampshire, they are not -- they are having a primary but it's not serious. there are 24 candidates on the ballot but nobody is a real threat to biden. democrats in new hampshire is do i vote in this primary, the democratic primary anyway and there is an effort to get people to write in biden. according to the latest polling on that is that biden is doing well as a right in. or you can change your registration and vote in the republican primary. do you vote for trump because you think he might be the weakest nominee or are you nominee that he might win and

therefore you support nikki haley? at the event last night with nikki haley, there were people there who had voted for biden in the last election but came to hear nikki haley because they are thinking of ti on tuesday. a couple of them were biden voters but not super happy with him and his performance. everybody has their own reasons whether it's energy costs. i talked to one woman who was an assistanincipal and a high school. she's not happy with education. it's elements of the education system and slawe will have exito y people voted the way they did and what their affiliation is. if you are an undeclared voter in new hampshire, you can just show up at the polls and decide on the spot which party you want to vote with. '