. >> thanks to robert downey jr, iowa debris and friday apologies to matt damon. nightline is next. thank you for watching. good night >> tonight, the iowa caucuses, former president donald trump's historic win. >> we want to thank the great people of iowa. >> thank you. we love you all. >> cruising to victory. despite his legal challenges, iowans braving brutally cold weather and snow to cast their votes in the coldest state caucus in history. we walk through broken glass to see trump, ron desantis and nikki haley rounding out the top three. do you want a new generation of conservative leadership?

>> we've got our ticket punched out of iowa, but do either of them stand a chance against trump? >> plus, as the gop field faces its first big test, we're with vice president kamala harris in the key state of south carolina. what she's saying about a possible rematch if it is donald trump, we beat him before and we'll beat him again. >> this special edition of nightline, your voice, your vote will be right back to give your teeth a dentist clean feeling. start with a round brush head. add power and you've got oral-b round cleans better by surrounding each tooth to remove 100% more plaque for a superior clean oral-b brush like a pro. so our throat got your tongue? >> mucinex insta sore throat medicated drops uniquely formulated for rapid relief that lasts and lasts. >> that's my baby. >> get mucinex insta

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thanks for joining us tonight. >> a sweeping, unprecedented victory in the iowa caucus for former president donald trump winning more than 50% of the vote. ron desantis defying expectations, edging out nikki haley for second and vivek ramaswamy now suspending his campaign. all this as the first official voting kicks off in the 2024 presidential primary. senior congressional correspondent rachel scott is at trump campaign headquarters in des moines. rachel >> juju a victory lap for the former president, who was the frontrunner in this race, who barely campaigned here in the final stretch, spending much more of his time in dc and new york courtroom. >> now, the projected winner of the iowa caucuses, the former president praising his rivals in a stark contrast to the criticism that he has lodged out there on the campaign trail. but make no mistake about it, his campaign wants to send a clear

message to this republican field that it needs to narrow. and they say that this nomination is trump's to take juju. >> thanks, rachel. we'll check back in with you about what the voters had to say tonight. but first, which johnson is at desantis headquarters in west des moines with juju, even though ron desantis is projected to come in second place here in the iowa caucuses. >> it felt like a victory party here at desantis headquarters, he came out here and spoke a short time ago, thanking his supporters for punching his ticket out of iowa. he said that his republican rivals threw everything at him, but he is still standing, and a lot of that has to do with his ground game here in iowa. he threw everything at this state, hoping to connect with the evangelical and traditional conservatives here. he racked up some key endorsements along the way. later on, he hops on a plane to south carolina to challenge nikki haley in her own state. then he's back to new hampshire for the primary. but he still has a difficult road ahead and a path towards that nomination.

donald trump still maintains a commanding lead in the polls, but the desantis campaign rolls on. juju. thank you, whit and eva pilgrim is at nikki haley's headquarters. >> eva juju nikki haley saying that this was the strong show of support that she needed here in iowa to propel her into new hampshire. >> despite that third place finish, she said that this was now a two man race between her and donald trump. now, as she heads into new hampshire, she is polling better there. she spent more time in the granite state. she has the support of a very popular governor, chris sununu, in that state. and they say her team says that they are within striking distance of donald trump. they are hopeful to have a strong showing of support, a better than strong showing of support in new hampshire to propel them into south carolina. juju >> thanks, eva. let's see what the candidates had to say at the end of what turned out to be an

historic caucus. here again, rachel scott, covering the one thing in iowa that's been as frozen as the temperatures is former president donald trump's commanding lead over his opponents. >> we want to thank the great people of iowa. >> thank you. we love you all. >> the former president blowing away the caucuses tonight with a historic margin. >> so we're going to put america first. we're going to make america great again. again iowa, we love you with an almost guaranteed result and little significance. >> after today. once again, the quadrennial question, why is this white hot center of the political universe focused on a small midwestern state? let's be honest, the weather has been overshadowing this contest for days now. roughly 200 million people across the country under alert tonight for bitter cold snow and ice. and at the nfl playoffs, buffalo bills fans digging out their team's snowy stands before kickoff, while

kansas city chiefs head coach andy reid's frozen mustache during another playoff game he broke the internet. are you concerned that the cold is going to impact turnout? >> no, i don't think so. >> i don't think so. >> we're iowans, we're used to it. we're tough. we walked through broke an glass to see trump. >> you would. yeah. >> and the caucus room too. >> yes. >> for months gop hopefuls have been crisscrossing the state, meeting voters at churches, diners, even frat house basements and college campuses. our best days are yet to come. >> thank you very much. god bless you. i appreciate it nearly 1000 events total. >> two of the contenders taking their ground game all the way. >> see it all blurs together when you do 99 counties in three months. >> we did every county in iowa at least twice. >> why have the iowa caucuses become such a launching pad for presidential races? well, it's the first time that we see americans make their voices heard about who they want to be.

the nominees of their respective parties. and because it's the first, that's really why. why so many presidential candidates spend so much time and effort and money here. but historically , the winner has often failed to go on to clinch the gop nomination. >> i love iowa a whole lot. >> game on. god bless the great state of iowa and how good is iowa in picking the eventual nominee? >> it's not great when you look at the republican side and they've been doing this contest since 1976, they have only one time chosen the nominee who became the president of the united states when it came to the contested caucus, one time. one time, it was george w bush in 2000. tonight's caucuses held on martin luther king jr. s national holiday and a state whose demographics reflect the republican party, but not the country as a whole, according to the latest census data, nearly 90% of iowans are white. just over 4% are black, and nearly 7% hispanic or latino. nationwide,

more than 70% of all americans are white. more than 13% are black, and around 19% are hispanic or latino. when we look at gop primary voters at large, they are generally whiter, older, and more evangelical than the general electorate of this country. yet incredible focus on this outlier every four years. what is at stake? what happens here could determine if donors have confidence in them. if supporters continue to have confidence in them, or may switch to another candidate that they believe actually has a viable path to the nomination. and so there's a lot at stake for each and every one of these candidates. that's not named donald trump. thank you. meanwhile, vice president kamala harris was enthusiastic about another battle with the former president. we've beat them before, and we'll beat him again while laughing off criticism. i do want to ask you one more question about nikki haley. >> since we're in her home state, you know, she's made you a frequent target. she says she is really running against you. she's argued that you're a drag

on the ticket. what do you say to her? >> listen, let's see what iowa says to her back in iowa. >> i love to be able to caucus together with my family and see my kids, um, take a part in something that is the grassroots of what makes america great. life long hawkeye and republican tiffany winning has made caucus night something of a family tradition in perry. >> we have negative five with a wind chill of -14, but here we go anyway. >> four of her five sons accompanied mom and dad to caucus, including first timer caleb. >> this is where the metal meets the road. i think it's important for other first time caucus goers to be able to experience once the power of your your voice and your opinion under god, the crew united in their sense of duty. >> but divided on their vote. >> my husband and one of my sons will be caucusing for trump and then i have other kiddos with myself caucusing for ron desantis.

>> and then i have other kiddos caucusing for nikki haley. >> we first met tiffany at the iowa state fair last summer, where it was about 100 degrees warmer and more than a dozen contenders were introducing themselves. probably trump is the most appealing at this time. >> desantis is also so i've done a lot of research on him as well. and then another gentleman that i can't pronounce, his last name, tiffany's caucus pick, came in second tonight. >> in spite of all of that, that they threw at us every everyone against us, we've got our ticket punched out of iowa for nikki haley coming in third. >> do you want a new generation of conservative leadership? >> but like most other republicans, the whiny family remains committed to their party no matter who the candidate is. >> when november comes, we will choose who's on the republican ballot. >> and here by my side on this iowa caucus night is rick klein. my friend and abc news political

director. and this is pretty much the big board story of the night, right? yeah. awash in the color purple. yeah. >> donald trump has absolutely romped through the state of iowa, winning by about 30 points. vivek ramaswamy leaving the campaign. that's probably good news for donald trump. and i'm struck by just the depth and the breadth of the victory tonight. he's winning just about everywhere. you've got the rural corners of the state north and northwest iowa, the evangelical communities, and even in the most populous cities and towns, these are college towns. some of them, donald trump may be a little bit closer to some. some of his rivals, and the only one that even looks close right now is johnson county. that's a university of iowa is. and that's a virtual tie with nikki haley. so if you're trump and you're the trump campaign, you're trying to make the point that, you know what? he's actually the consensus choice of all sorts of republicans. you can see that in the iowa map tonight because iowa has a lot of different places and all of them are trump country tonight. and this resounding victory in many ways comes from the enthusiasm index that you've talked about, that these maga supporters showed up in force.

yeah, this was really striking from the des moines register poll right before the caucuses, 88% of trump supporters in their poll said that they were enthusiastic about voting for him. contrast that with nikki haley only about 39. that's a huge she underperformed a little bit. this is why, because especially in a caucus, you need people who are excited or enthusiastic that are motivated to do it. and in a night like this, the turnout was a bit lower than people thought, probably because of the weather. but that helped trump because his people were willing to do whatever it took. it was a little different for desantis, and especially for haley. >> and in the 30s we have left. where do we go next to new hampshire? >> yeah, it's all in on new hampshire. and we're hearing from the major candidates that they are going to continue at least those top two. and this is what's interesting is that going into the contest, forget 30 points, we're talking about 13. this is the 538 polling average. and of course chris christie has left the race. vivek ramaswamy has left the race. so there's some room for some changes over the next week. >> so much information to pack in. rick klein, thank you so much and we will be right back with our powerhouse political roundtable. stay with us. >> did you know there's a way to

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results or just rhetoric. californians deserve a senator who is going to deliver for them every day and not just talk a good game. adam schiff. he held a dangerous president accountable. he also helped lower drug costs, bring good jobs back home, and build affordable housing. now he's running for the senate. our economy, our democracy, our planet. this is why we fight. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message.

and welcome back! >> we're joined now by our powerhouse political contributor , former rnc chair reince priebus and former dnc chair donna brazile. thank you both for joining us from d.c. >> you bet. thank you. >> well, ryan, let me start with you. it's clearly a blowout victory for donald trump. and you've said that he's basically running as an incumbent. and so much of maga showed up tonight. and yet nikki haley a little bit underperformed. is it too early to say that the nomination is trump's to lose? >> well i mean it is trump's to lose. clearly there's a big night for him. he got over 50% of the vote. largest victory in

the history of iowa caucuses is he's going to make the case now to the party. and anyone listening, look, why are we wasting our money? do we really need to do this moving forward? you could hear it in his speech tonight, especially right off the bat talking about coming together, coming, meeting his opponents. i mean, going out of his way in a very trump way of trying to show that he can kind of get above the fray and say, come on, the other piece of this is if ron desantis doesn't get out, i mean, he lost by over 30 points in a state that he said he was going to win. if he doesn't get out, you know, because he does have a political future. and dragging this out probably isn't helpful to him if he doesn't, that's obviously going to help donald trump as well, because he splits up the opposition and makes it even harder for anyone to take him out. and any future state. >> so donna trump has called desantis maga lite. he called haley maga. not at all. did the

maga alternatives give iowans reason to vote for them? no i don't think so. >> look, the few candidates that remain in the contest over the last couple of months focused on each other. >> they were always within the margin. donald trump has been a huge force and republican politics and the fact that the maga base, uh, turned out they were very enthusiastic about standing by donald trump. to me, i believe it's a clear opportunity now for 1 or 2 candidates to probably emerge after, uh, tonight and perhaps go on to new hampshire and put a little dent in donald trump's armor. after all, new hampshire voters in joy, uh, you know, putting a stamp of their own on this, on this contest. but tonight, donald trump showed that once again, he dominates the republican party. it's no longer the party of reagan, no longer the party of lincoln. it is the maga party. now >> and ryan's ron literally was

all in in iowa, making more campaign stops there than trump and haley combined do. either of them have a case to make to donors or voters for going forward? >> well, i mean, it depends on what their tactics are. i mean, if they want to, you know, especially desantis, if he wants to keep that sort of maga piece to his life going on, he's got to be careful how far he drags this out and, donna, if you're the biden-harris camp, what do you make of tonight's landslide? >> would they prefer a trump rematch anyways? and how do they get the democrats to be as excited for joe biden as clearly maga was for trump tonight? that is clearly one huge takeaway tonight. >> although turnout was down. and of course the weather probably dampened a lot of people from coming out. it's clear to me that the trump campaign has learned a major lesson from their 2016 loss in the iowa caucuses. they reached

the voters they needed to reach, and they were able to bring them to the caucus. so team biden get on the ground, get out there, talk to people where they live, where they work, where they pray, and where they play. the other, uh, message, i would think tonight is sent to the biden campaign and hopefully to america itself is that, you know , the vast majority of maga voters don't believe joe biden, who won by more than 7 million votes. he won the electoral college. they still believe in the big lie. that is something that we have to focus on, and we're going to have to leave it there tonight. >> but that is a big exclamation point, donna. thank you, reince, as well. and we will be right back with a final thought on this mlk day type two diabetes. >> discover the ozempic tri-zone oh oh oh ozempic i got the power of three. >> i lowered my a-1c cb risk and lost some weight in studies. >> the majority of people reached an a-1c under seven and

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is, however deep the angry feelings are in the violent explosions are, i can still sing we shall overcome, we shall overcome, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. it does indeed. that's nightline. you can watch all of our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you rit back here tomorrow. thanks for staying up with us. good night. america. >> impact. >> juicy, juicy. drama >> news. celebrity politics. we got the lemons. >> we got entertainment. this is. yay! >> an antisemite. >> i've never talked about this with anyone. >> and we take a long look in the mirror. >> come on, doctor, i was like, hey, when can i come in to take this out? >> this is the most dangerous operation in america right now. >> investigative reports. >> the fact that there's a

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