a top the field but by a margin no one can remember. this is an unprecedented event and it shows how resilient, how determined, how committed, how strong this man is right now, donald trump. >> sean: i'll tell you, certainly a big night. it'll be interesting to watch second place, what that means. governor desantis also had a very good organization throughout iowa, went to all 99 counties. we'll see what happens as night unfolds. he is expected to speak sometime this evening. good to see you all. thank you. unfortunately that's all the time we have left. from des moines, iowa, thank you for being with us. please stay with the fox news channel for continuing coverage of the iowa caucuses, and don't forget to set your dvr so you never, ever, ever, ever miss an episode of "hannity." in the meantime, stay tuned. our coverage continues. brett and martha are taking over from here. have a great night. >> from the hawkeye state, the nation's first votes in the

coldest caucus on record. >> the battle begins in iowa and it begins right here. >> the march to the republican nomination is well underway. >> i always get to go out and make their voice heard. >> it's about the future of our party and of our country. >> that's get to work, let's rally, let's get it done. >> a front runner and former president with sky high expectations. >> 2024 is our final battle. >> a governor and former ambassador scrabbling for the silver metal, and a boost for new hampshire and beyond. >> i'm the only one running who can say that i have delivered on 100% of my promises. >> no one is going to outwork me in this race. no one is going to outsmart me in this race. >> and underdog campaigning on a hope and a prayer. >> we need fresh legs. somebody from the next generation to lead us to victory. >> it's a battle for momentum and the stakes could not be higher. our coverage of the iowa caucuses starts right now. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ >> bret: live from des moines, iowa, the results are coming in and the race for the g.o.p. nomination is coming into focus. good evening. i'm bret baier. >> martha: and on martha maccallum. welcome to our special coverage of the iowa caucuses. we begin with an update from the fox news decision desk. desantis and haley essentially tied at 10:00 p.m. eastern. >> bret: governor desantis is slightly over performing some of the preelection polling. this could be because of his turnout operation, extensive travel to 99 counties across iowa. the race for second place is too early to call, earlier fox news did project that former president donald trump will win the iowa caucuses. >> martha: our data shows him taking home a lion's share of the state's 40 delegates.

vivek ramaswamy is running further behind. >> bret: meanwhile, iowans are waiting to hear from their candidates at campaign headquarters. as they watch the returns and weigh their next steps on a night with so much on the line. >> now it comes down to this: all eyes are on iowa. >> i promise you this, i will get the job done. [applause] >> may our best days still yet be ahead of us. >> this is the beginning of something very important. it's the most important election in the history of our country. >> bret: team fox coverage, we have reporters at every major campaign headquarters. jacqui heinrich is at the white house but we begin with rich edson at the trump campaign headquarters here in des moines. hey, rich. >> good evening, bret. well, the trump campaign is not really giving too much guidance as to when we are going to hear from president trump tonight on his victory in the iowa caucuse. right now they are watching returns. they want to see how big his victory is.

they have all the interest in the world in running up the score here in a decisive result. they will wait and see as this unfolds right now. this is called pretty early in evening, and the campaign was very much watching the clock on this one. eight years ago, ted cruz nailed this state at about 9:30 in evening. it was more than two hours earlier tonight that we heard from fox news and the associated press and other media organizations that called this race from the former president. he was at a caucus site in nearby clive iowa, he gave a space in support of his candidacy for several minutes. didn't really talk too much about the other republican candidates here. he was really focused on president joe biden and what he hopes is going to be a general election here. when you look forward, what you are seeing from the trump campaign over the last few days is an attempt to try to tamp down expectations. the campaign really trying to do so. that's a difficult task to do

and you are leading in the polls like this and you have your candidate out saying that he is expecting a tremendous result. bret, martha? >> bret: rich, thank you. >> martha: now we go to the campaign headquarters for the haley campaign where aishah hasnie is standing by. hi, aishah. >> hi, guys. you can feel the energy in the air in these headquarters here. the chicken wings or outcome of the liquor is out. the folks behind me still have a long night ahead because the race is not over for them. they want to see where the former governor lands, in second place or third. they are watching you guys right now on the big screen to see what the results are. i want to add some color for bill hemmer's magic board. there are actually two caucus sites here in the same hotel that we are in, and we are told that there were a ton of people tonight that came and switched party affiliation. in one precinct, haley tied desantis, and in the other one, desantis was over haley.

of course trump won both of those precincts. this is polk county where haley had some of her strongest supporters. the haley camp has been smartly managing expectations, trying to temper them down. they have not been coming out saying they are going to get second place. she has never once said that. they think she's going to finish strong, whatever that means, that they already feel like she is strong in all of the three early states, and they feel very good because they will .2 where she was out in the polls a few months ago at 2%. look how far she's come, they would say. the big unknown tonight, guys, is how many independents and democrats came out tonight, switched their party at the site to vote for haley to try to undercut the former president tonight. guys? >> bret: aishah, thank you. bill hemmer is taking a look at the latest build count as it is still coming in at the billboard. >> bill: good evening. this battle for second place right now, the number hadn't changed since the last time i spoke with you guys about

20 minutes ago. we are still at 43% statewide, but this battle for second place is really something else. desantis with about a 1.3 percentage point lead over nikki haley. what do you think about nikki haley's strategy? how does ron desantis stay competitive with trump in the rural and lesser populated counties? and how does he take on nikki haley and some of the areas where she was targeting? to do that, i want to show you, eight years ago i think maybe the best example from eight years ago in 2016. take a look at this, marco rubio. the light blue. rubio outperformed. remember, the last poll before the caucus on a saturday night had rubio at 15%. he finished at 23%. eight points is a pretty fair job when you are pulling so many people across the state of iowa. but this is polk county, des moines, we are. story county to the north, the suburbs to the west, has a major

target for nikki haley tonight. and along the mississippi river in johnson county which i will get to in a minute. that was eight years ago. hang on to the counties i just mentioned. and let's come to today. if this sucker will take me back to the time machine. got it, okay. i'm going to poke around right now and we will find out together where the two are facing off right here between desantis and nikki haley. here is polk county, des moines. she's got about an eight or nine-point lead over desantis. let's go to dallas county. suburbs to the west of des moines. you can see it's about two and a half points for desantis over nikki haley. that's the kind of performance he wants in a county like dallas. a lot of suburbs. they are building an apple planned out there. there's a lot of growth right there on the west side of des moines, iowa. this is story county. they are counting slow, that or they've got a big caucus and they will give us a big dump at some point tonight.

but they only have 7% of the vote reporting. and nikki haley, based on that, has a comfortable 14 to 15-point lead. we see story county, iowa state, ames, iowa. we'll see how that goes throughout the night. pop over here to johnson county, the population ranked 4 of 99. a lot of folks live there. university of iowa. look at the contest, the haley campaign has to like this. this was a target area for them. she's got a 13 to 14-point lead over ron desantis. vote reporting just shy of 90%. pop up here to cedar rapids, this is linn county. the second most populated city in the state of iowa. population ranked 2 out of 99. look how close this is. it is six tenths of a point right now with a little less than half reporting. so that's going to be a good battle between the two of them. let's see if i can find something out here. okay, there it is.

woodbury county, far west, evangelicals, along the missouri river. vivek ramaswamy is popping in here. not a lot to talk about only because it is 2%. overall, 39, 8, and 6. we do see green in the far western part of the state. watch this and we will see how it goes. 1.3 separates both of them. as of right now, little bit past -- what is it? it's 9:00 local, right? 10:00 back home? >> bret: 10:09 east coast time. let's check in with our panel. it's interesting for the call, brit. a number of networks including fox making that call. we have the associated press, we have the fox news voter analysis along with the associated press, this rolling poll of caucus-goers, as well as the raw total of votes coming in. once that was overwhelming on the analysis of that, we could

make the call. in the caucuses, when the doors closed for the caucuses, that is when the official time is to be able to characterize the race. so that is how that develops that early. again, there's a lot of controversy around it because people were inside and obviously had their phones. but that is how the rules go for iowa. >> brit: the reason why people worry about calling these races too soon is that, in some places, people haven't voted. that makes a lot of sense in a general election, where people walk in and cast their ballot and leaves. then they decide to not even bother. but we are talking here about people who come out on a cold night together at a caucus site, the doors are closed, and nobody can get in, so the opportunity to vote remains. it's hard to believe very many people would say, oh, my goodness, the race has been called, i'm going home. i don't think so. the impact of it seems that the premise is doubtful. >> bret: and what is your overall impression of the night and the big win?

we don't know how big, but it's going to be significant. >> brit: let's not forget that second-place has led to a lot of people winning the nomination in iowa. he finished second in iowa, it's worth something. there's a lot of places it wouldn't be, and in the coming races in the future it won't be as much. but out here, you win second, you survive and go on, who knows? you might win the nomination. a number of second place finishers have. >> martha: george w. bush, dana, the only republican to win here and the nomination and the presidency, so it's actually quite rare to win in iowa and go on to the presidency. >> dana: interesting in that case, he won in iowa, they go to new hampshire and got trounced. so it was a race in south carolina. i don't necessarily think that's going to happen this time around. i understand the frustration of people on the voting thing. perhaps the rules need to be changed and that is something they can continue for next time around. but actually don't think the result was going to be that different. president trump had this commanding and enduring lead for

so long, but you do have to think about how iowa as a state has been doing. they have a very popular governor. the economy is pretty good. the ag sector doing very well. of course, that's important here. the unemployment rate, very low. there are concerns as you look at the voter analysis on the national level and they worry about the country as a whole. that's very much top of mind for people. immigration has shot up to number one issue in the last six months. it was the economy for a long time. it's not that people are so worried about the economy, but the immigration issue has taken over that. i'm curious what the democrats are thinking today. if you are in the biden white house in the campaign and listening to some of these voters that our reporters are talking to you, very interesting, very thoughtful, very wise, but they are worried about the direction of the country and they will have a fight on their hands. >> bret: harold, for a somewhat conservative voter, donald trump wins exponentially. nikki haley does better with somewhat conservative voters. but the same lane for ron desantis is the same lane

that form president trump is in, and look at this, he's getting trounced. >> harold: this is a good night for donald trump, needless to say. you think about it in two parts, one, he had a better organized campaign this time then he had in times before. you hear it and see it on the ground, the demographics of how he performs shows that. and a set of pointed attacks in the last week or two from desantis and haley, they went after him more so than they have gone after him at any other time during the campaign. not only was he able to withstand it, he was able to overcome it in a big way. the last time -- the biggest margin of victory for republicans was 1988. dole beat robertson and robertson and george hw but she went on to be president, beaten by 13 points. it hard to imagine -- and we are talking about this earlier -- there's not a lot of time between now and new hampshire. can someone develop momentum between now and there? as we were upstairs having dinner, you are saying, i'm not sure. especially when a person you've

got to overcome his donald trump. if he's able to take this momentum and compete if not win in new hampshire, they are setting ourselves up for the largest general election campaign the nation has ever seen, and to dana's point, people think our politics, border, schools, our workplaces, places of worship are broken, and they want to see someone who can fix it. not to be a savior, the figure out how to fix it. that's going to be the person that wins the presidency. >> bret: and the legal troubles for the former president have only supercharged is based on the voters here in iowa. brit, really quickly. >> brit: it kind of remains to be seen whether there's a conviction on one of these counts. i don't want to forge any guesses as to what it might be. it's not entirely clear whether that will continue the momentum or arrested. that is something we have to watch with this whole season. we will be covering campaigns and trials. >> bret: yes, we will. together. it's a pivotal night in iowa. we are waiting to hear from the candidates, including the former president. he is scheduled to speak i

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♪ ♪ >> martha: it's a big night as we kick off the 2024 nomination process for the g.o.p. former president donald trump, we expect him to speak to his supporters in about 11 minutes or so from now on what is projected to be a very dominating night for him here in iowa, in this first presidential contest. meanwhile, fox news voter analysis revealing why iowans broke so strongly for the former president. sandra smith has a dig into some of these really fascinating voter responses. sandra, tell us what you're finding. >> sandra: hi, martha. hey, bret. interesting data points we want to highlight here. the iowa caucuses clearly showing a good night for former president donald trump. with our voter analysis election survey, we've been talking to nearly 1500 likely iowa republican caucus-goers, so we are going to dive into the data.

what we are learning was behind trump's victory there. let's start by looking at the groups were trump did best. what we do know from this data is that two-thirds of iowa republicans describe themselves as maga supporters, and among those maga supporters, three quarters of them said they went for trump. he also did especially well among those without a college degree, rural republicans, white evangelicals, and you look at these numbers, about six in ten of all those groups go for donald trump. and, take a look, he got more than half of the under 30 crowd. so this is just some of what we are learning from some of these data points tonight. among the top issues, really important to highlight this. while the economy is a huge top national concern, immigration topped the list for biggest concerns among iowa republicans. beat out the economy, but with immigration such an important issue, who do immigration voters support?

we dig into the numbers and we see two-thirds supported donald trump in iowa. the others, far behind. another key question we asked voters on the ground in iowa is when did most of these caucus-goers decide who they were going to support? time of decision, a key data point to watch here. more than four in ten have said that they knew all along who they are going to come out and caucus for. and over eight in ten of them go for donald trump, but among those who decided over just the past month, four in ten of those support nikki haley. and one more thing, this is obviously something key for voters there on the ground in iowa and something we should watch as the primaries go on. eight in ten say it was very important for the republican nominee to be able to win in the general election. these voters, over half of them go for donald trump. that's what we have for you right now. we will have much more for you as the night goes on. bret and martha, back to you.

>> martha: thanks, sandra. >> bret: former president donald trump's projected win in iowa teeing up a battle for second between nikki haley and ron desantis. bill melugin is at the dissent's campaign headquarters with the latest. good evening, bill. >> bill: bret, good evening to you. the venue starting to fill up with ron desantis supporters as they stream in from their night of caucusing. many of them, we have been watching them on their smartphones endlessly refreshing the results, trying to see who's going to come out on top between nikki haley and governor ron desantis. they are essentially neck and neck right now. they've been neck and neck all night. i just talked to the campaign a short time ago and they told me it's too early to feel when we other. they did tell me they had representatives at all 1700 precincts tonight. they call them caucus captains. they say they have one at every single precinct in iowa tonight and they are confident they've got their message across to iowa voters.

we have repeatedly heard desantis say, "we are going to do well tonight." we asked them, what does that mean? they haven't answered this question directly. you get the sense that they want and need a strong second-place finish here in iowa behind donald trump. the reason being, they went all in on the hawkeye state. they visited all 99 counties, they got the endorsement of the popular republican governor here in iowa, and they knock on nearly a million doors in the state. right now we are waiting for these results to come in, neck and neck with nikki haley for the second place spot. we will send it back to you. >> bret: bill, thank you. >> martha: let's bring in our panel, kellyanne conway and karl rove joining us. karl, just your overall take as you look at the night so far. >> karl: first of all, it looks like we will have a very big turnout. i've been watching "the new york times." when we had like 42,000 votes, that would be 38% of the turn out. we are now at a grand total of about 74,000, and they are saying that's only 32% of the turnout, meaning we beat the

previous record in 2016 of 180,000. >> bret: which is pretty amazing in this cold. >> karl: the second thing is, the battle for second place is seesawing back and forth. "the new york times" keeps doing this arrow pointing one way or the other, and early on in evening it was nikki haley, then it switched to ron desantis, and 2 minutes ago it went back. >> bret: you are like brit hume now. are you going to go with the betting app pretty soon? >> karl: "the new york times" is interesting because they're trying to forecast what is left out there, and you can probably get our man hemmer at the board to show you. if you look at it, the vote right now is heavily to the east, and a large part of the west, particularly the northwest part of the state, which is evangelical, is not in yet, and would suggest that donald trump's number is going to continue to grow. >> bret: so, kellyanne, if the nikki haley campaign really needs to get urban centers, suburban communities, iowa city,

university of iowa, those precincts, to turn out, there is anecdotal evidence that they really try to get independents and democrats to register as her republicans to be part of this caucus. we don't know what that number is, but she's clearly out-performing in that moderate group. >> kellyanne: chewer, and under-forming among republicans and the so-called maga group, noncollege educated evangelicals. this is no way to win a republican nomination. it's clever, and she's the one who said, "i've got to go to new hampshire so they can correct what iowa does." i guess she'll be there tomorrow. i give nikki haley and ron desantis there due. they go against the behemoth here, donald trump, and they are carving a different niche is. but i think sandra smith's data just told the tale. if immigration is the number one issue eight years after donald trump came to iowa and was called every name in the book for elevating the issue of

immigration and border security, and now it's the number one issue, followed closely by the economy, two of the twin pillars that voters think donald trump can solve again because he did at the first time, i have to ask, in all seriousness: what was the purpose of this exercise if you are ron desantis and nikki haley connect but particularly desantis. i think he's been a great governor of florida but he's basically been a resident of iowa. they put everything here. his campaign and super pac have spent nine figures. we spent nine figures against hillary clinton in the general election. they have spent nine figures. yes, if he comes in second or third, it's still a very distant last, and i don't think you'll dominate in any one big group. it shows you the people who didn't run this time, a lot of senators and people like mike pompeo, they did the wise thing. because you can be there supporting the party, helping these down ballot candidates, helping the eventual nominee, and wait until 2028. >> martha: karl? >> karl: i think it's good we have a contest here and we have

future contests as republicans. everyone gets to either be a better candidate or worse candidate, and if president trump is going to be the nominee, better he go through a contest or he's challenged then to be given a free ride to the nomination. he'll be better for it. incidentally, how unproductive are things? "the new york times" now says that 84,000 votes represents three quarters of what is likely to come in, which would project a 120,000 turnout. we are in unknown territory. >> martha: we are waiting for president trump to give a speech and we will cut to that as soon as it happens. but, karl, you think about all the time he spent here, and then you look at some of the voter analysis, which says the people who voted for president trump had known all along that this was the way they were going to go. that's got to be a little heartbreaking for people who have trying to convince them to go with another person. >> karl: think about, though, what we are saying. the selection of the republican

nomination should be decided by the people of one state -- >> martha: absolutely not, talking about tonight and the amount of money that's been spent. >> karl: think about it, the contenders for second place have nearly lived here, and the former president has had, what, 22 events? granted, he's a former president, everybody knows him, he was in and out of the state, it was a battleground state in 2016 and 2020. again, i repeat, i think it's better for the party to have a challenge to the former president than for us to skate into it. look at his comments tonight, his comments tonight where the tone of the front runner who is trying to unite the party. "i'm honored, gratified, i ran against terrific opponents." there is not a mention of birdbrain or "desanctimonious." >> bret: lastly, the number one issue according to our voter

analysis is immigration above economy and jobs. in the former president is 63% of that group to 17 and 13 for nikki haley and ron desantis. that is staggering. >> it is staggering but it is donald trump who elevated at issue. it was mired in the low digits when he first started talking about it. instead of going with the polls and saying i'm only going to talk about the issues that are already high in the polls, he made it part of the conversation that people felt about the angst that our manufacturing was being shipped overseas, our jobs are being shipped overseas. the american worker was getting screwed, that we don't know who lives here. and now you fast-forward, joe biden's america, he won't call it the southern border situation crisis. his homeland secretary mallorca 's won't do it. i think the big loser tonight and the reason there is the organization around donald trump also is because of joe biden. people are looking at how we

wispy joe biden is and they want strength sturdiness. the big winners tonight are donald trump and ron desantis' consultants, even those who were already fired. >> bret: karl, let's say it it finishes really tight and there is such a big difference, is there any balance possible for second place? >> karl: it depends on how it's received in new hampshire and how the press coverage's. my sense is, if it's a tight race for number two, they are going to go to new hampshire and see if there is someone who emerges as the alternative to trump. new hampshire will be far more conducive to haley that it is to desantis. even the desantis people have a knowledge that. >> martha: he's going to south carolina first and new hampshire, at least. we will see if that plan still sticks. we are going to squeeze in a quick break because we do think we are going to hear from for president trump in a few minutes. there's a little bit of a delay,

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>> bret: welcome back to des moines. how are the caucus-goers reacting to all of this? pete hegseth is at a caucus site in iowa city that was packed earlier. good evening. >> so great to see you. what a beautiful thing it was to be behind the scenes here at herbert hoover elementary school in iowa city, iowa. about 70 voters came in the, 150 eligible in the area, and when they walked in, guys, you think of all the money spent, all the phone calls and ads and direct mail, you see some of the speeches now, that's desantis supporters speaking on behalf of desantis. that's the surrogate for nikki haley making the case to the voters in the district. they are given a 1 inch by 2-inch slip of purple paper. after the speeches are given, that was vivek's surrogate speaking on behalf of vivek ramaswamy, and a trump surrogate, as well. they write the name of the candidate they prefer on a small

slip of paper and put in a brown paper bag that is passed along those chairs like church pews, and ultimately of the pieces paper added up, transparent for everyone to see, the campaigns are watching. they dropped them into piles, and in this particular precinct in iowa city, it was nikki haley 26 votes, donald trump 25. vivek ramaswamy, 10, 16 for desantis. it will renew your faith in the american people that our system invests the power in humble folks who come out on a cold night in iowa in january to decide the leader of the free world. it was cool to watch and great to see the results quickly, which the republican party delivered here in iowa. >> bret: paper ballots work. pete, thanks. >> you into three different precinct nearby. right? >> laura: i was at 36th, 39th, and 37's, and nikki haley won

all of them by significant margins. des moines is more uppercrust, wealthier. it was interesting to talk to people and talk to the temporary caucus chair. a lot of party business to do after the caucuses. but she said it was interesting because it was a big line to get in, and as they were processing people, they realized that approximately half of the people coming in were democrats. so they had to go through the process, not a very long process of switching party registration for the night, and then they have to then switch back if they want to vote democrat ultimately in the election. but about half of the caucus-goers were democrats, and it's kind of a social occasion. people would come and sit and bring their kids, and we heard a number of speakers, but nikki haley did well in all of these precincts. but when you look at the numbers that are coming in so far, i think the story line tonight is, with all of the money, with all of the media support, with all

of the huge blanketing of social media, the fact that donald trump did -- i know you guys are analyzing the numbers, it looks like you did exceedingly well. it's a moment for i think a lot of these candidates to decide what role they want to have in the republican party going forward. and i'm not here to tell anyone to drop out, i think that the wrong thing to do, but at some point you have to sort of ask yourself, is this a moment that bush had with reagan in 1980 where he had to decide, we don't agree on most issues, but i want to have a future in this party and i might even want to be on his ticket? what is my role in the future republican party? this is a populist party, there's no doubt about it in my point of view, and we will see new hampshire. but there was a lot of money spent, i guess nikki haley did okay. but donald trump coming to this haze of media coverage against him is pretty stunning. >> bret: and he'll have the

biggest spread for any republican. >> laura: this is unbelievable. and how many indictments? indictment after indictment after indictment, and the people are saying, we are not comp complying. >> the overwhelming number in our data say they believe they are politically motivated. and also that they wanted to support someone who represented substantial change. overall change, some of them, very big numbers. so i find that part of this analysis really interesting, and i heard it a lot out on the campaign trail, as well. people saying we are tired of this, the drain the swamp kind of mentality in iowa right now. >> laura: when you talk to republican voters -- i had a chance to talk to a lot of them tonight. and the ones who are fed up with everything, they feel like in the last three years they've walked through the fire. you and i were talking about this earlier. i'm getting hammered here, i'm getting hammered there, i don't know what my kids are going to

do. they can't get a job or the job is and what they want, and they're frustrated. and they feel like, to them it's kind of a protest vote, and they don't feel like people are listening to them on these big issues. i think these results tonight should be a moment of sobriety for the other republicans to say, we might have our big disagreements and they could be personal and nasty, but if we want to have a role in this republican party as bush had to decide in 1980 and ended up being an unbelievable role, i bet he really take a moment to think this through. >> martha: you're talking about how she's pulling all these voters from the middle, and democrats, we know suburban women are obviously a big factor in some of the swing states. is that what you're saying? >> laura: i'm saying they should think to themselves, what is my future and the party? i'm not sure what makes sense for trump. but if they want to have a future in the party, will they

be known as someone who helped joe biden win the nomination? if, at the end of all this, these are the republicans known as candidates who helped joe biden win the nomination, there's no future in the party for them. >> bret: it's fascinating and we will see the enemy becomes. the fox news decision desk, governor ron desantis now has a slight edge in the race for second place. that's developing. bill hemmer is looking at all of this at the billboard as we are getting more race numbers coming in from all these different counties. are you there? >> bill: ed sheeran. just framing this sucker up over here. boom, there we are. did you get that? we are looking at a story developing here. we can't say it yet, because it is not fact, that what is developing right now in this trump romp -- now he's at 51%. we talked about the 50% all

night. you are just shy of the total estimated vote throughout the entire state. there was just a large dump that came in from story county, just north of us here in des moines. i'm going to show you this, guys, because i would say that it is ames, iowa. nikki haley campaign there a lot, and donald trump with 96% of the vote, almost 34%. why is that important? it's important because nikki haley has the lead throughout the entire evening until just about a few moments ago and all these ballots came in here. i'm painting a picture, this is not a conclusion. i want to take you to the counties where nikki haley had the best opportunity or even maybe ron desantis. polk county, des moines, that's a ten-point lead for donald trump. this is dallas county, suburbs, a comfortable lead for donald trump. i told you about story county. out here in linn county,

two-thirds of the vote in, and down here in johnson county where nikki haley really had the best chance to win it county, she is now trailing him by about three points, two and half points. what am i suggesting here? i am suggesting, as of now, donald trump may win all 99 counties tonight. and we are going to watch that over the next hour. >> martha: wow. it would be a very good night for the trump campaign. thank you, bill. we are getting ready to hear from the former president momentarily. >> bret: he's getting ready to come out on stage, we are told imminent, about to address the reporters in iowa. we'll bring it to you live as it happens in des moines. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ >> bret: welcome back to des moines. we are looking live at the trump campaign headquarters in des moines. we are waiting for the former president to come out. our rich edson is there, with the anticipation for the winner of the iowa caucus to address the support is there. rich? >> good evening, bret. former president trump is expected to come out any minute here. they were really hoping to run

up the score in this state. it looks like they might be able to do that, at least show up in the caucus results what they had been seeing in the polls. as a way to say, the polls you are seeing here in the polls are seeing around the country that you have been seeing for the last several months, that this is the real deal. now the rubber has hit the road and have a situation where people show up and vote and they've supported former president trump, perhaps more than 50%. so they been watching that developed throughout the evening here. the crowd has slowly been filtering in. it sounds like we might be getting something soon here. >> bret: let's listen in and see the winner of the iowa caucuses, former president donald j. trump, arrive at his headquarters here in des moines. ♪ i'm proud to be american, where at least i know i'm free ♪ ♪ and i won't forget the men who died and give that right timmy ♪ ♪ an end i gladly stand up next

to you and defend her still today ♪ ♪ 'cause there ain't no doubt i love this land ♪ ♪ god bless the usa ♪ ♪ from the lakes of minnesota ♪ ♪ to the hills of tennessee ♪ ♪ across the plains of texas ♪ ♪ from sea to shining sea ♪ ♪ from detroit down to houston ♪ ♪ and new york to l.a. ♪ ♪ where there is pride in every american heart ♪ ♪ and it's time we stand and s say ♪ ♪ that i am proud to an ame american ♪ ♪ where at least i know i'm f free ♪

♪ and i won't forget the men who died ♪ ♪ who gave that right to me ♪ ♪ and i'd gladly stand up next to you ♪ ♪ and defend her still today ♪ ♪ 'cause there ain't no doubt i love this land ♪ ♪ god bless the usa ♪ ♪ and i'm proud to be an american ♪ ♪ where at least i know i'm f free ♪ ♪ and i won't forget the men who died ♪ ♪ who gave that right to me ♪ ♪ and i'd gladly stand up next to you ♪ ♪ and defend her still today ♪ ♪ 'cause there ain't no doubt i love this land ♪ ♪ god bless the usa ♪

[applause] [crowd chanting "trump"] >> well, i want to thank everybody. this has been some period of time, and most importantly, we want to thank the great people of iowa. thank you. we love you all. [applause] what a turn out, what a crowd, and i really think this is time now for everybody, our country, to come together. we want to come together, whether it's a 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, and straighten out all the death and destruction we are witnessing. it's practically never been like this. it is so important, and i want to make that a very big part of our message. we are going to come together. it's going to happen soon, too.

it's going to happen soon. [applause] i want to thank some of the great people, we have so many senators -- if i go through every name, will be here all night and everybody's going to get angry at me. but the senators, the congressman from washington, they came down from all different states. i want to thank you very much. i want to congratulate ron and nikki for having a good time together. we are all having a good time together. and i think they both actually did very well, i do. they both did very well. we don't even know what the outcome of second-place is. i see carrie lake. congratulations. i spotted her, had to announce because she's terrific. a great senator, i predict, right? going to be a great senator. and i wanted to congratulate vivek, because he did a hell of

the job. he came from zero and he's got a big percent, probably 8%, almost 8%. and that's an amazing job. they all did. they are very smart people, very capable people. i think most importantly i want to thank my incredible wife, the first lady. i will say former, and maybe future. [applause] but more important than melania, i want to thank her incredible, beautiful mother who passed away a few days ago, and she's way up there looking down and she is so proud of us. i just wanted to say to amalija, you are one of the most special people i've ever known, and that was a tough period of time for the family. she's amazing. she was amazing. i just wanted to thank her for what she's done for our family, and her husband, who is home right now and very lonely. he's a lonely man, that he's going to be okay, viktor.

great people, great parents to all of us, really. great parents, but also to barron. boy, did she take care of barron. that's how he got so tall, he only ate her food. [laughter] and i want to thank my family generally. they have worked so hard and they have taken so much abuse for being good people. eric and don, and -- [applause] they really did. these two have been working so hard. and they have another job, also, so they have to do it all, but they've been working so hard, and i know that ivanka's home and tiffany is home watching, and barron is watching. good ol' barron. i said you're going to be a basketball player, "i like soccer, actually." at your height, i like basketball better, but sometimes you can't talk them into everything. he's a special boy. both family is just incredible,

and my sister, elizabeth, who is just the biggest fan. she's an incredible person and always supportive. we always love elizabeth so much. we also have a woman who took a big chance. in most states we have the support of everybody. the congress, the senators, we had marco rubio, we had scott, probably 50-55% of the senators, and now they're all calling to say we want to endorse you, sir. i said, "oh, great." same thing with the congress, men and women. tremendous, much more than anybody, probably, has ever had in this position. and we love them all. they're great. they really trying to do a great job for our country. but one woman in iowa who really stepped up was your attorney general. she really stepped up. where is she?

brenna. >> thank you. glad to do it. we need you. >> she stepped up. she's going to be our governor someday, i predict, so we will see. [applause] will be watching, but she really did. she broke away from the pack and she had tremendous courage, and it wasn't easy. in some states it's easy, in other it's a little more difficult. believe had the support of the people of iowa which has been incredible. another man, who is actually the first person to endorse me in the entire country, he's a state senator. he looks like he's the most handsome guy, brad zaun. you made it! he had to drive from his caucus location. you made it. i call him the marlboro man. [applause] do you want to say something cannot come on, go up and say something. >> well, i'll tell you, i had to do a tv interview bragging about

you. the reason why i was late was because of i'm honored to be the first person in the united states to endorse this guy. the next president, the 47th president of the united states donald j. trump. [cheers and applause] >> when he says endorse we're really talk ing about 2015. endorsed me long before i knew i was going to run. i said who is this man in iowa, a senator, state senator. gad looking guy too. you can pay him, give him a lot of money. mr. chairman, i want to thank you for being here. comes all the way from missouri. not all that far. can't drive an electric car that far though. thank you, i appreciate it.

the group of people is emblematic of the people we have. we have had such a great team. we were looking really well in 2016. just to go back to the senator, he was saying, i said who is that guy, brad is his name. he keeps endorsing me. i didn't know i was running. he endorsed me four months before i knew i was riding. four months before the escalade drive with the first lady. i said who is brad. he's the one. we have people so incredible. your republican party chairman bobby kaufman and his son. a brilliant guy. he worked with us. i will tell you that is a family of real professionals. matt whitaker, the very talented and very good attorney general. where is matt. he's around here someplace.

he has been with us all the way. we have a man who was very impressive. i say there is nothing wrong with it. he's so solid and good. he didn't catch on. sometimes being a little con controversial is good. he's so perfect. he broke his leg during the campaign, not so good. stood out a little bit. doug from north dakota, the gongoneggovernor. he supported me twice alright on the other side. he was outstanding. the traction is not always easy. you need controversy for traction this. guy is so solid. no controversy. one of the best governors in our country. i hope to call on him to be part of the administration, a very

important piece of the administration. also just to conclude with this, the entire trump team. that includes my two boys who are really here all the time, whenever we needed them. whenever we needed them. they are great. he ceric and donald trump. look at these people, susie i have to say and chris, chris. they want no accolades. they just want a victory and to make america great again. they don't want to be speaking. they don't want to have pictures. they just want to do their job. i want to thank you, very much. jason, everybody. you're fantastic, what a job you have done. we are going to come together. we're going to drill, drill baby drill right away. we're going to seal up the border. because right now we have a

invasion, we have an invasion of millions and millions of people at that are coming into our country. i can't imagine why they think it's a good thing. it's a very bad thing. think it's a group of people number larger than new york state. we can't have that. we can't have that. it's not sustainable as a country. it's horrible. they're co coming from prisons d jails. they're coming from all over. they're coming from countries most people have never heard of. they're coming from mental insurance substitutions and insane a sigh hruplz emptying into our country. terrorists, many terrorists are coming in. there were no terrorists in 2019. i say there has to be some. they have none. then as soon as this group took over they have hundreds and hundreds of terrorists coming, known terrorists. some of them really bad.

many of them came in and nobody knows where they are. this is not a good thing. and we're going to deport, we're going to have a deportation level that we haven't seen in this country for a long time. since dwight eisenhower, actually. i don't want to be overly rough on the president. but i have to say that he is the worst president that we have had in the history of our country. he's destroying our country. and you know my wife attended the funeral two months ago of rosaline carter. and it was beautiful. jimmy carter was there. i thought to myself, jimmy carter is happy now. because he will go down as being a brilliant president by comparison to joe biden. he will be a brilliant president. he will be known as brilliant by

comparison. so we have to stop the invasion. we have to bring down our energy. we have, i say all the time we have more liquid gold under our feet than any other nation anywhere in the world. and we have to stop the crime. we have to help rebuild our cities. we have to rebuild the capitol washington dc. i was there on one of the biden indictment trials this. is the only person that's happened before. i go to courthouses because of biden. they're using that for election interference. it's things like election. i don't know if you know, they did polls tonight on the election of 2020. do you believe it was honest or not? 82%, 82% said it was not. we can't have that, chairman. we can't have that.

we can't have a situation like that. [ applause ] >> one day, one day, elections -- we have election that's last for -- days. if you need more time take as much as want. some many bad things happen. we have to get rid of mail-in ballots. when you do you have crooked elections. we will rescue our economy. there was never a greater economy, and now we don't. when you look at what has happened with inflation. inflation is destroying. they call it a country killer. going back hundreds of years. countries with big inflation are dead. they become stkaed countries. we have to stop that, immediately. we want peace through strength. russia would of never attacked ukraine works of never done it putin and i get along tkpwaoeupb.

we get along well. that's a good thing not a bad thing. the fake news, which i -- if the fake news would be real and honest news 90% of our problems in this country would be solved. they would be solved. [cheers and applause] >> so, russia would of never attacked. israel would of never been attacked. the ukraine situation is so horrible. the israeli situation is so horrible. what has happened. we are going to get them selfed. we will get them selfed fast. i said, ukraine i know president fewer tin well and sa linsky ze. it would have never happened. far greater than people understand. the numbers are far greater than anyone would think possible. you will find that out in the years to come when they knock down the massive buildings in

ukraine and you see, they announced two people slightly wounded. no many people were killed, many people were killed. we will get it stopped. it's so sad it never should have started. people killed. a culture destroyed. you can never replace thousand-year-old buildings with the most beautiful golden domes and churches, he everything all rubble now. so sad. it never would of happened. likewise israel would of never been attacked it all comes from iran. we would of had a deal with iran very quickly had the election, by the way we got -- i say we because it's all we. we got more votes than any sitting president in the history of our president but they say we lost by a whisker. okay. regardless, regardless of that we are going to do incredible things and we're not going to let china do what they would

like to do. i get along great with him also president che. he's a strong ledder. we will get things solid. the ukraine war solved. the israeli situation solved. if you think back to that, iran was broke. i said to everybody country, anyone doing business with iran, buys oil with iran, they were broke, we won't let do you business in the united states. that's the way it is. they did very little business. sold almost no oil. nobody wanted to do that. it's a big penalty. what happened is they had no money to give to hamas and to give to hezbollah. in fact there were a lot of stories at the time. they had no money for terror. for four years we had no terror. we had the teraband. the trump teraband. we don't want people in our

country blowing up our shopping centers, thank you, very much. we want a country of law and order. we will rebuild the capitol of our county, washington dc. scrub those beautiful marble columns and get the s wastickers off then, get the graffiti off them, clean the streets, rebuild the streets. we won't have rusted medians in the middle following down where foreign dignitaries come and look. we won't be riding on top of garbage like i did a month ago, riding on top of garbage. we will rebuild our beautiful washington dc. we will take control of it we will make unbelievably harsh penalties for people who go around shooting. last week they shot three people. every night something happens. it's so sad. likewise we are going to rebuild our cities and work with the democrats to do it i would be

glad too work with the people in new york, chicago, la. we will rebuild our cities, make them safe. give our police officers immunity so every time they do something they don't get sued and stopped. we will end crime in our cities. [ applause ] >> in iowa you don't know what that means this. is a different place. you don't know about crime. you don't know about getting mugged, getting whacked, getting throne into subways. we are going to come down very hard on criminals and stop crime in america. so, i want to finish by just saying this has been a incredible experience. the people -- this is the third time we have won this. is the biggest win. the biggest. [ applause ] >> they said, well if you win by 12% that's a big win, hard to do.

think we more than doubled it, tripled it maybe. they sid will never get over 50. i left and we were at 54. i don't know what will happen with it i said what's about the highest. 40, maybe 40, 41. then i looked up. it was very interesting. i didn't know they called it early. i thought they called it at about 10:00 o'clock. my impression. see this gentleman, he's built like a wall. i love this guy. he's been at 150 rallies probably, right. he has the most beautiful outfit i have ever seen. all beautiful brick. will you come up here, just come up here. come on. it's so nice to see. [cheers and applause] >> come on up here. he's emblematic of what we did. we built over 5 500 miles of al. we were going to add 200 miles.

we had the safest border in the history of the country. now we have the worst border in the history of the world. nice to see you. take care of yourself. i love that out fit. i love him. that's great. we love it. that's a hot selling jacket by the way. that represents what we did. we have mexico giving up 27,000 soldiers free. we had remain in mexico. we had catch and release in mexico. we did a job. the safest boarder in our history. the greatest economy in our history. we were a great nation three years ago. now we're a nation in decline. we are going to turn it around so fast it will happen so fast. we're going to drill. we have great wealth. we will drill and that money to lower your taxes further. we gave you the biggest tax cut

in history. we will lower them and pay off national debt. it's about time. it's about time. it's now off to new hampshire. great place. we won it last time. we won it both times. we love it. the people are great. the truth is the people in our country are great, they're all great. we love iowa. they are all great. they only want to see one thing. they want our country to come back. they're embarrassed by what is going on. our country is laughed at all over the world, they're laughing at us. they want our country to come back. they want america, they want our country to be great again. maga, make america great again. america first, america first is a very important part of

america. we are going to put america first. make america great again. iowa, we love you. you just go out and buy larger tractors and more land. don't worry about it. to all of the people standing behind me and all of the people in this room, so many great politicians and great dignitaries and friends, i want to thank you all this. is a very special night this. is the first, because the big night is going to be in november when we take back our country and truly we do make our country great again. thank you, very much, everybody. great honor. thank you, very much. thank you. >> bret: former president donald trump with his victory speech. he could win all 99 counties in the state of washington. for the iowa caucus. a big lead there. now we can make another call. the fox news decision deck can predict ron desantos will take

second place. he will trail trump by a significant margin there. coming in second may give his campaign a much needed boost now. >> called the silver metal out of iowa. ron desantos has that ahead by about 2% points. there is a big coming in here. we expect to hear from governor ron desantos shortly. nikki haley in third and she is expected to speak in a couple of minutes. ramaswamy in fourth. all top four candidates will receive some delicates. far and away the largest will go to the former president donald trump. he just gave a very calm, forceful measured speech. let's bring in our panel. great to have all of you with us. you know we're seeing, i think this is the same don algd trumpe

saw at the town hall, bret. it feels like he's changing his tone a bit. we don't know how long that lasts. the last few days he thanked everyone. no nasty names. says he wants to bring the party together. >> it's a big win. looks like he was over 50%, the measuring point we all talked about. i guess desantis who really did bet the ranch on iowa, coming in second allows him to survive another day and have as they say a ticket to new hampshire. he doesn't have a lot going in new hampshire he didn't work the state. think it's how much second place will be worth this year is in question. a big disappointment for nikki haley. he surged ahead here in this

poll and it will be she under performed. and ramaswamy will go everywhere he's worth millions of dollars but he's not getting anywhere. >> we will see. we will hear about his future plans. >> you know you will. >> you know we will. da na, the former president saying ron and nikki are very good people. no nick names used. they had a wonderful time together. i want to congratulate them. >> dana: he says we're all having a great time here together. >> bret: $25,000,000.30 million on attack ads against each other and few against the former president. this win is exponential. if he wins 99 counties. >> dana: it's a big deal. i believe there are reports that

ramaswamy will announce he's leaving the race. >> bret: means another 7 points for former president trump. >> dana: president trump was gracious to the competitors who he had called bird brain. he also talked about the future. he's pivoting to the general, already tonight. he's ex i'lled about what he will do. ramaswamy speaking there. we figure where this is going. nikki haley is going to new hampshire. ron desantos will go to south carolina first. >> that's right. >> dana: he will leap frog and then new hampshire after that. i think he definitely has wind at his back to say everybody who wanted me out and threw it at me, i withstood this. the poll is pretty accurate. 48, 20, 20. >> we will listen in to

ramaswamy who came in tourgt tonight. >> -- not just to the democrats but our own side. not just to other campaigns and other candidates but to ours. i will stick to the truth tonight. the first hard truth. this one is hard for me, i have to admit this. we have looked at it every which way. think it is true that we did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to deliver tonight. think that is just a hard fact that we have to accept as a campaign. the question then is what do we do that is right for our country. so we actually didn't make this contingency plan before. everyone told us too. we said, no. we talked about it tonight and took time in our apt in des moines before coming here to make hard choices.

i wanted to make a couple of announcements tonight to get the business out of the way. then i want to tell you where we're going. as of this moment we are going to suspend this presidential campaign. this is going to have to be, there is no path for me to be the next president. absent things we don't want to see happen in this country. think that i am very worried for our country. i think we are skating on thin ice as a nation. we have done everything in our part to make and done every one of us in this room have done our part to save this country. i'm so proud of you all lifting us up. we're a campaign founded on the truth. that's why we made the decision today. i'm also making the decision that has to be an america first candidate in that white house.

as i said since the beginning. there are two america first candidates in the race. earlier tonight i called donald trump to tell him, congratulate him on his victory. now going forward he will have my full endorsement for the presidency. think we're going to do the right thing for this country. i will ask you to follow me in taking our america first movement to the next level. >> bret: suspending his campaign to formally endorse donald trump. a lot of developments. former president trump over 50%. could win all 99 counties at the end of the night. governor desantis coming in second. his campaign saying he is standing and earned a ticket out of washington. it's a long campaign ahead. the stakes are too high for the

nation. we won't back down. we are back with the panel. harold, what about governor desantis and nikki haley. she is well positioned in new hampshire. what about the sate of the second state race going forward. >> you think about the political and financial markets. in politics you don't drop out because you lose. you drop out because you can't raise money. you have desantis and haley, they're for mid i believe. iit looks like desantis is for for mid i believe here. haley is more substantial in new hampshire. who ever is in front of the other in the money raising piece will have an easier time getting to south carolina. donald trump enjoys many endorsements in south carolina. that's nikki haley home state. everything said is right. the measure and tone.

i was shocked how measured he was. he talked about ramaswamy like he knew what would happen. nikki and ron he called them by their first names. he touched on three issues promment. the border, ukraine, israel and our standing with china. if you agree with him or not, i table quarrel with some of what he said, he was measured and presidential today. >> let's go to governor desantis and listen to his speech tonight. second place in iowa. >> we love you too. they threw everything but the kitchen sink at us. they spent almost $50 million attacking us. no one has faced that much just through iowa. they, the media was against us. they were writing our obituary months ago.

they even called the election before people even got a chance to vote. but they were just so excited about the fact that they were predicting that we wouldn't be able to get our ticket punched here out of washington. i can tell you because of your support in spite of all of that that they threw at us, everyone against us we have our ticket punched out of iowa. [cheers and applause] >> and what i learned by going around iowa is that this country has a basic decency. we have hard working people, god fearing people, patriotic people. you don't see it every day because of the nonsense of the media and socioial media and the other stuff. people have hope for this

country's hope and future. that's what we represent. we represent a chance to reverse the madness we have seen in this country, reverse the decline in the country. give a birth of freedom and restoration of sanity. that is what we're going to do. so we have our marching orders. our marching orders is to do all we can to keep the sacred fire of liberty. the same fire burg in philadelphia in 1776. the same sacred fire of liberty burg at gettysburg when our first republican president, abraham lincoln preached freedom. the same fire on the beaches of normandie in 1944 to free the world. the same sacred fire of liberty

at the berlin wall at n.1987 when ronald reagan told gorbachev to tear down this wall this. is our sacred fire of liberty. don't run away from the responsibility. we welcome this responsibility. we thank you for your effort. we thank you for your support. you held us get a ticket punched out of the hawk eye state. we have a lot of work to do. i can tell you this as the next president of the united states i will get the job done for this country. i am not -- i am not going to make any excuses and i guarantee you this. i will not let you down. thank you all. god bless you. thank you, so much. appreciate you.

>> bret: governor ron desantos with a speech about number. two he came in second. he's saying the campaign lives on. will go onto first to south carolina tomorrow. then tomorrow night to new hampshire. he will take part in a town hall we're told. saying this is just the beginning for this. quickly with the panel, your thoughts on governor desantis -p' speech pretty short and his bounce out of here. >> high at flowing with the rhetoric about the civil war, beaches of normandie. a guy get 20g % betting his campaign on the iowa caucus. he does get to fight another day. >> it's interesting, dana, nikki haley made the argument it was her and trump. she tried to close ron desantos out of the equation.

she lost that argument. ron desantos is still in the race. 30 points behind trump in iowa. >> dana: she said she expect *f expected a two-person race. when i listened to ron desantos now he sounded almost happen tee and enjoying himself a little bit. you don't see that a lot in him. what he said to all of the people, i see you, thank you. he says he won't let them down. >> bret: he has a heavy list in new hampshire. may have more roads in south carolina. the former president is in the poll for both states. >> no doubt. >> if you're donald trump you don't get a one-on-one. now you have two tickets punched out of here. i thought, would i agree with brit. he went on and on about things. maybe he earned that right

coming in second tonight. >> dana: there is a week between now and new hampshire. ron desantos walks out of here and able to sort of fight a little bit in new hampshire. one of the biggest issues with him though is finding a way to relate to people. think they have done a lot of rejiggering in their campaign. they expect it did to be stronger than it is. >> that's true, martha. and the bandwagon runs for trump. big win under these circumstances. he looks inevitable. that's what his campaign hoped for. other candidates fund raising pprospects are diminished. the fact of the matter is the wrepublican voters are determind to renominate donald trump. >> bret: you look at congressional and capitol hill,

the endorsements. senator marco rubio. it will be fascinating to see. bill has the adding and subtracting how this came together. look at that state, one color. >> exactly right about that, bret. want to point out one thing here, poking around this. is an estimated number. the estimated number of voters in the caucus of iowa. not even a hundred. there are reasons, there would be more precincts. that's because of this county here, johnson county. look how close this is. okay. right now donald trump beats nikki haley by 8 votes from johnson county. if this holds up the map stays

red. if not there will be an orange dot here on the east side of the state of iowa. we will wait on that. it's 8 points. now i want to take down memory lane, if i could. i want to get it set up, stand by. a week from norm we will be in new hampshire. this was new hampshire eight years ago in 2016. donald trump won every county. all ten in new hampshire. it was red. i really think looking back to the memory banks that was one of the times we thought this campaign is for real with a shot. see where it goes. new hampshire was the turning point for a lot of people. to think trump is here, take him seriously. john kasich, doubles up. ted cruz. rubio and chris christie in the race at that time. anyone else. then to the presidential race.

donald trump won new hampshire with the republican primary race. he lost at the state level. hillary clinton nosed him out. then in 2020, a very different story. donald trump back for reelections. joe biden beats him by about 7 points, 60,000 votes. we will back into primary mode, 2016 and see where donald trump was then and where his campaign is now after this most impressive performance in the hawkeye state tonight. >> bret: good job at the board, bill. thank you. >> we understand nikki haley is on the stage with her speech. >> when you go through something like this, you can't do it unless you have a faith. and god as is so good. [cheers and applause] >> and i want to say to my husband who is deployed.

who i know may or may not be watching this right now. michael, i love you. [cheers and applause] >> and what keeps me going is i know we sleep under the same stars. so, i want to say to rena, josh and nalin, i'm so proud of you. [cheers and applause] >> the best job i will always have is being your mom. i want to thank my parents who are at home every day they remind us how blessed we were to live in america. i want to thank my sweet brother who came out here and was caucusing for me. a good dessert storm veteran. i want to thank my other sibling. michael's parents, phil and

carroll haley. you can't do this without the strength of your family. i want to congratulate president trump on his win tonight. we have had an amazing eleven months here in the hawk eye state. [cheers and applause] >> i came to w iowa early and often. i kept coming back. even though the cold weather is brutal. but the kindness of iowaians will never be lost on me. you're faithful, patriotic and hard working americans. i will forever be grateful for the time that we had. [cheers and applause] >> at one point in this campaign there were fourteen of us running. i was at 2% in the polls. but tonight iowa did what iowa

always does so well. the pundits will analyze the results from every angle. we get that. if you look at how we're doing in new hampshire, in south carolina and beyond -- [cheers and applause] >> -- i can safely say tonight iowa made this republican primary a two-person race. [cheers and applause] >> tonight, tonight i will be back in the great state of new hampshire. and the question before americans is now very clear.

do you want more of the same? or do you want a new again genen of conservative leadership? [cheers and applause] >> i have spoken a lot of hard truths to america. and here is another one. i voted for donald trump twice. i was proud to serve in his administration. but when i say more of the same, you know what i'm talking about. it's both donald trump and joe

biden. they have more in common than you think. 70% of americans don't want another trump/biden rematch. [cheers and applause] >> a majority disprove of both of them. trump and biden are both about 80 years old. trump and biden both put our country trillions of dollars deeper in debt and our kids will never forgive them for it. [cheers and applause] >> trump and biden both lack a vision for our country's future. because both are consumed by the past. bin investigations. by vendettas.

by grievances. america deserves better. [cheers and applause] >> we deserve a new direction under new conservative leadership. we deserve a president who will focus on the needs of our people, not on themselves. a president who will rebuild our economy, close our border, and stand up to our enemies. most importantly we deserve a president who will stop ourself loathing and did i streugs and ,

and make america strong and proud. [cheers and applause] >> our campaign is the last best hope of stopping the trump/biden nightmare. but it's more than that. republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. that is nothing to be proud of. we should want to earn the support of the majority of americans. >> all the evidence says if it's a trump/biden rematch it will be another toss up election. it could go aoeg either way. we could have more disputes over

election interference and joe biden could win again with kamala harris waiting in the wings. lord help us if that happens. then look at what happens when i go head to head against biden. [cheers and applause] >> we win in a landslide it's not even close. that means no recounts. no lawsuits. and no doubts. it means no more chuck schumer leading the senate. no more endless votes for house speaker because we will have a

huge house majority. we will term limit the do-nothing washington politicians. we will rebuild our economy and secure our border, no more excuses. and make no mistake, we will restore our national pride. we are blessed to live in america. it's time that we remember that. and as we head to new hampshire i have one more thing to say -- [cheers and applause] >> -- underestimate me, because that's always fun. [cheers and applause]

>> i love you, iowa. but we're onto new hampshire. [cheers and applause] >> thank you. [cheers and applause] >> now i have some people i need to thank. right here in iowa we have so many great supporters. i only have time -- >> bret: former south carolina governor, former embassador to the united nations. nikki haley saying she is on tonight to new hampshire. flying directly there, she says, to continue her battle there. she says she has never lost a race. she never plays for second. here in iowa she came in third

behind governor ron desantos and a long way behind former president donald trump. >> we heard former president donald trump talk ing about people coming together and it will happen soon ron and nikki. nikki haley is running against him and on her way to new hampshire tonight. i'm out of here iowa, i'm on my way to new hampshire. i couldn't help but think her saying the other day corrects what happens in iowa she will see if that happens. we have a great group to get to. katie, let me start with you. your reaction as we see nikki and ron hanging in there and heading to new hampshire and south carolina. >> i didn't expect either to drop out tonight. we have to be realistic looking at the numbers. caucuses are difficult to gauge with polling. polling was spot on with the

lead of donald trump. he's on his way to win 99 count he's. new hampshire there are poles of nikki haley striking with donald trump. ron desantos is going to south carolina for an event and then to new hampshire. he's down by significant numbers. if you add tonight desantis and haley to get they're under trump then points. >> bret: you add ramaswamy to trump -- >> they spent a hundred million dollars here in iowa, republicans. joe biden raked in a hundred million dollars the last quarter and not campaigning. the question is how expensive will his participation trophy be. >> bret: jess darks what do you think? >> i am thinking it's what the expectation is and the tkpwraoeu you want to run against.

a key plank of joe biden's platform is i beat donald trump in 2020. i have seen democrats over performing since then on the ballot referendums and special elections. the white house is tweet ago way. they are happy to see donald trump on the other side of this. i would be remiss if i didn't acknowledge how historic this is above 50 and 99 count he's. two things i'm paying particular attention. two winning the affluent suburbs that was rubio ground in 2016. he has upped his share of college educated voters. that's the crux of the biden win in 2020. getting the white suburban women going to college. is this the change nation wide? i don't know we're talking about a hundred thousand people. it's meaningful.

>> it looks like turn out is lower than expected. the cold did have an impact. 100-120,000. no records broken today and the weather looks to be the biggest impact, trey. what's your take? >> iowaians are smart. >> frost bite byte in five minutes. >> it's a unqualified victory for president trump. he won maga voters, mod rates and church folk. it's unqualified. ses had a hothe speech is conciy speech. he's fully capable of acting that way. doesn't always do it publicly. it sounded like someone who knows he will be the nominee and trying to appeal to people.

more so in the past. >> bret: we saw that in the town hall as well. mark, on the coverage tonight one network chose not to take the remarks live. they said they wouldn't. the other network cutaway. ninety nine counties a win. people have voted in washington. >> some people are in denial. the other networks this. is the first chance, if you think about the last two years. the first, the second impeach impeachment. 91 years. this is the first time the trump supporters had a chance to step up and express solidarity with donald trump. that's what they did in iowa. it's historic for donald trump. keep in mind it's a hundred thousand people. the over under is 150 ,000. we're going to be under.

they spent a $120 million in add. another hundred million -- that's 2.23 million per voter. >> unbelievable. >> bret: i will take -- >> it's a country of 323 million people. let's see what happens in new hampshire. this isn't over yet. >> can i add about the conciliatory tone. it was notable. he's not going to new hampshire tomorrow. he's going back to new york to a court room and a trial. plenty of people are pay ago tension to his demeanor in the court room and his press conferences. whether that confirms what we have known the last few years. we will look at this speech, he had a nice night. this is the guy he really is. >> bret: we shall see. we shall see. stand by, panel f you will. we will be back with our continuing coverage of the iowa

caucus in des moines.

♪ ♪ >> martha: let's get some final thoughts from kellyanne conway, karl rove, and juan williams. let me start with you. >> kellyanne: i think the big inflection point is when donald trump went to east palestine, ohio. it showed how he won the first time around. he connects with people, he goes when they are in pain. it took a while for pete buttigieg and joe biden to get there, if at all. desantis didn't go. it seemed maybe trivial at the time, but since that moment, he has just been projecting strength and seriousness and purpose. i like how unifying he was and how gracious he was to his opponents. i think the big question for ron desantis is, what is your next big play? he doesn't have momentum, but he does have a ticket out of iowa. i think it paid off that he

overtook haley. bottom line, in this business, you are either winning or you are whining, and that's a big question for these candidates moving forward. which one he going to be? >> bret: winning or whining? juan, what do you think? >> juan: i don't think there's anyway to cut this but to say that donald trump had a big night. i was saying all along, if he can get to 50 and desantis is in second, that's a winning night for donald trump. when you look at the map, for all the talk about divisions within the party, it's almost every group, demographic, segmentwise, college-educated, noncollege-educated, he prevailed tonight. i don't know if that's true across the country but this is donald trump's night. >> martha: karl? >> karl: little decisions make big impact. the decision to up the ground game of the donald trump campaign, to hire the regional direction out of missouri and put him to work, and then backing it up with an elaborate organization built around the

rallies, it probably made the difference between 51% and something less than 50%, as did probably decision to nuke vivek at the end. kept him above 50, which was absolutely critical. i also thought it was ironic, ron desantis came in second place how? by having a ground game put together by a super pac whose leadership he recently dismissed. but both of those things had a big impact on the outcome of this election. >> bret: ron desantis went to 99 counties, every county, and he lost. 99 counties. >> kellyanne: he put all in in iowa. but at the end you can see the deflation. he was always flanked by the same two members of congress, and i think he's been complaining a little too much paid my point about whining or weaning, everybody saw him as a big winner out of florida, rightfully so, but you can't complete about fox news coverage, the polls are wrong, he had some comment yesterday also that you have to protect

strength i will say something about joe biden, he could not face down rfk jr., cornel west, and some of these others and have a night like donald trump had tonight. he's in big trouble in his own party and i think trump is our best bet to flip the senate and sweep some of these house members. >> martha: what are the questions is how long these candidates stay in there. you had the former president tonight, very victorious, juan, talking about everyone coming together. how much muscle does he use to potentially make that happen? and the question of whether or not there's a third party that is running in this race. nikki haley pointed out, trump and biden is not what people want. that's going to raise some questions. >> juan: one thing we learned out of iowa tonight, the alternative to donald trump is nikki haley. desantis finished second but almost as an imitation, a trump without the baggage candidate. nikki haley is actually supported by people who say they wouldn't vote for donald trump. does she have a chance?

when i ask people about south carolina, they said donald trump is right now in a commanding situation, and that is true across the country. >> bret: karl, very quickly, is there still this part of the republican party that is, we need something in case of emergency to break glass and have a backup? >> karl: i think we'll see in new hampshire. new hampshire is a different place than iowa and i suspect a little more friendly to the arguments that are being made by nikki haley and ron desantis. that's why we have elections and why we have a primary contest, so we can play this out. >> bret: thank you all, and thank you for joining us. it's been a big night. we will see you next week in new hampshire. >> martha: it's been a big week. we look forward to coverage next week in new hampshire. that is our iowa caucus evening. we thank you very much for being with us. coming up next, stay tuned for more coverage of this election with "fox news @ night," trace gallagher. >> bret: good night, everybody. >> martha: good night, everybody. ♪