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. ♪♪ this sunday, primary choices. >> we're focused on trump. that's the key. >> three days from now we're going to win new hampshire. >> the republican presidential

battle moves to new hampshire after former president donald trump's commanding win in iowa. >> who lost the house for us? who lost the senate? who lost the white house? donald trump, donald trump, donald trump. >> nikki haley escalates her attacks hoping to stop trump's momentum while ron desantis looks ahead to south carolina where the primary is still a month away. >> as your president, i will get the job done. >> nbc news' national political correspondent steve kornacki and chief political analyst chuck todd will preview this state of the race. my guests this morning, new hampshire's republican governor chris sununu and democratic senator maggie hass am. plus courtroom drama. donald trump urges the supreme court to keep his name on the primary ballot in colorado while also arguing he should get total immunity from prosecution. >> do you get just total freedom to do whatever you want? no. >> i've got so many court cases. i've been indicted more than alfonse capone. how will the form are

president's multiple trials impact his political standing? and endorsement power. >> south carolina senator tim scott snubs nikki haley by endorsing trump ahead of the new hampshire primary. >> we need a president who doesn't see black or white. >> joining me for insight and analysis are, nbc news correspondent dasha burns. jonathan martin of politico. former white house press secretary jen psaki. and lannie chen, a fellow at the hoover institution. welcome to sunday and a special edition of "meet the press." ♪♪ ♪ from nbc news in manchester, new hampshire, with the new hampshire presidential primary. this is a special edition of "meet the press" with kristen welker. >> good sunday morning from manchester, new hampshire, where just 48 hours from now republican voters will go to the polls to decide whether this primary race is in effect, over,

or whether nikki haley or ron desantis can deliver the kind of comeback this state has long been known for, with her political life on the line, haley is stepping up her attacks while president trump appeared to rule her out as a running mate. >> americans aren't stupid now of to just believe what he says. the reality is what lost the white house? donald trump, donald trump, donald trump. >> throughout there, donald trump is telling a whole lot of lies. when you're dealing with the pressures of a presidency we can't have someone else that we question whether they're mentally fit to do this. we can't. >> nicki haley is a disaster. she is not presidential timber. now when i say that that probably means that she's not going to be chosen as vice president. >> what you know about nikki haley is every liberal, biden supporter and never trumer is on

her side. >> now the haley campaign is lowering expectations saying she hopes to place a strong second place in what was once a must-win state for her as governor ron desantis hits single digits in new hampshire and moves resources to south carolina. >> what i want to do is be strong. we're not going to know what strong looks like until those numbers come in. >> when south carolina vote, i can promise you this, as a nominee we'll sweep the victory just like we did in florida. >> governor desantis had committed to appear on our broadcast, but pulled out of all of his scheduled sunday shows citing a scheduling conflict. the famously undeclared voters to give her momentum on tuesday. i am joined by national political correspondent steve kornacki to break it all down. what's the state of play 48 hours out? >> you mentioned in new

hampshire with the primaries, there's a reason it has happened in new hampshire. independent voters, they make up a huge share of the presidential primary electorate in new hampshire, more than any other state. how big? let's put numbers to right here. these are the past three competitive republican primaries in new hampshire. these are republican primaries, but look in 2016, more than four in ten voters in that republican primary was an independent. in 2012, 45%. in 2008, 37%. those are awful leigh big numbers for a primary and the rule in new hampshire has been you win the independent vote. donald trump did in 2016. mitt romney did in 2012. john mccain did in 2008 and you win new hampshire. so if there is going to be a surprise on tuesday night that would probably be haley more than desantis just based on the polling. haley would need independent

voters to come through for her and she would need them to come through for her big because if you just take a look at the latest polling we've seen out of new hampshire just this morning, a brand-new poll from the boston globe, nbc 10, suffolk, donald trump with a 19-point advantage over nikki haley in new hampshire in this poll. another recent poll in new hampshire, a 14-point lead for trump over haley. she is now 48 hour away facing what looks like a double-digit deficit in new hampshire, but those independents do loom as the wild card, because as you can see here in both of these polls haley is doing much better with the independent voters than overall. the formula for haley is two part here. number one, she won a big independent turnout. we showed you 45% in 2012. she won something along those lines in the republican primary on tuesday, but second of all, while she's doing well with

independents in these polls she has to do a lot better because when you talk about core republican voters all of the polls show they're disproportionately with trump. haley with the large independent voter population in new hampshire has the opportunity to counter trump's strength with core republicans, but she's going to have to drive up huge numbers among independents and bigger than you're seeing in this poll, the best a republican candidate has done in new hampshire with independent voters go back to 2000, john mccain. he was running against george w. bush. he won independents 61-19%. i mean, it may take something on that scale for nikki haley if she's going to catch donald trump here, but we mentioned the size of the independent vote again. the last time around it was 42% in new hampshire. to put this in further perspective, just monday night, last monday night in iowa, independents were just 16% of the caucus electorate. one of the huge differences between new hampshire and iowa. there are others, iowa, majority

evangelical on the republican side. only a quarter of the electorate. suburban voters basically double in new hampshire than they were in iowa and these were groups that haley did very well with in iowa and the demographic mix here and the ideological mix in new hampshire, much more favorable to haley. it just screams if she's going to get a win on the road and make this a race. where do things go from here? say if haley were to get a win in new hampshire and get a munch bunch of momentum and look at the makeup of south carolina. you get to 72% evangelical. you have fewer moderates than in new hampshire. far fewer independent voters that mix in south carolina looks more like iowa than it does like new hampshire. so that would be, we're jumping ahead here, but if haley can get a monster number from independents and poll the surprise new hampshire and she can extend the race to her home

state, but then she would have to do something in south carolina. so far we haven't seen her doing it. let's expand that appeal, beyond independents and beyond suburbanites and moderates and get to the core base of the republican party that likes donald trump and has been resistant to nikki haley so far. >> we will be watching those independent voters very closely, steve kornacki, fascinating stuff. thank you so much. >> you got it. >> and joining me now is the republican governor of new hampshire chris sununu, governor sununu, welcome back to "meet the press". >> thanks for having me on. >> there's momentum. >> there sure is. >> i want to talk to you and talk about the expectations game. when you first came out you endorsed nikki haley and you set the expectation pretty sky high. i want to play what you were saying about a month ago. >> if everyone who wants to vote and can vote, nikki doesn't just

win, she wins in a landslide. >> in new hampshire, i think she can win independent no question about it. >> and now you are saying a strong second place showing would be, quote, great. so what changed? >> it would be great. >> no, i think she still can win, no doubt about it. everything is nikki is trying to do is build on more momentum here. the fact that she's knocked all of the other candidates out. nobody thought that was possible, but she's really knocked everybody out and even ron, but he's not even in it and it's a haley-trump race. you want a one-on-one race going into super tuesday and super tuesday is when you have to start winning states and that's an amazing opportunity to turn those things around. >> you softened those expectations. you're saying she can win. does she have to win? is this make or break? >> she doesn't have to win. nobody goes from single digits in december to you have to win and that's a mead why expectation that's being set out

from. the fact that it can happen at all. trump said he'll run the table and win all 50 states. it's a done deal. it is not a done deal. she's challenging him here. she's won a lot before and people don't realize that south carolina isn't next week. it's three or four weeks away and nikki will have a lot of time to build on the momentum she's created. >> let's talk about momentum because, of course, as you know, south carolina, senator tim scott who nikki haley appointed has now endorsed donald trump. he's got momentum from that and momentum coming out of iowa, can nikki haley win her home state? >> tim scott doesn't matter. >> even if trump has a double-digit lead? >> of course. trump had a 35-point lead. there were polls that had them neck and neck. so you don't know what will happen. new hampshire always looks forward and we always want the next generation of leadership and the next big idea. we don't want iowa.

iowa had, 56,000 people voted for trump. 56,000 people out of 3 million. that will dictate the republican choice for president? i don't think so. you have to let this play out. >> you say new hampshire is not break or break, if haley can't win in her home state can she continue in this race? what's her path? >> that's a month away. to be honest, not even looking at that. right now i'm looking at the next 72 hours and we're going like gang busters and she's criss-crossing the state and hitting every voter and no one else is doing that. she's the only one campaigning the right way. trump flies in and it wasn't that big of a rally. he had to curtain off half of the stadium so it didn't look empty and then flies out of here. >> just to put a fine point, if she doesn't win south carolina, is she going to look at the campaign. >> i think every state you look at your campaign. it's a month away. everyone is focused on trying to get out the vote, the more people that vote the better

chance she has of winning and they're predicting a record turnout. >> let's talk about what nikki haily is saying and she's stepped up her rhetoric against former president trump who seemed at a rally to confuse nikki haley with the former house speaker nancy pelosi. i want to get your reaction. >> by the way, they never brought the crowd on january 6th. nikki haley -- nikki haley, do you know they destroyed all of the information and deleted and destroyed all of it because of lots of things. like, nikki haley is in charge of security. we offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, national guard -- whatever they want -- >> setting a side that everything he said was factually incorrect. >> setting that aside. >> she wasn't at the capitol and nikki haley says this is yet another moment that raises more questions about whether trump is

mentally fit to serve. do you think donald trump is mentally fit --? either one get off the teleprompter they can barely make a cogent point. >> is trump mentally fit? you're saying he is not? >> not at this moment. the point is you have two 80-year-olds fighting this thing out. that is not what america wants. this is not the donald trump, the destructor of 2016. the guy has lost his fast ball. that's a great example of it. we always want that next generation. neither of these guys represent the next generation. >> as you probably heard this week, donald trump argued that a president has to have, quote, total i minity from prosecution even for things that cross the line including as his lawyers argued in court recently for killing political rivals. this is what he said at a rally in new hampshire last night about that. >> you're going to have to give the president, you're going to

have to allow a president, any president to have immunity so that that president can act and do what he feels and what his group of advisors feel is the absolute right thing otherwise you'll have presidents that are totally impotent and we've had enough of them already. we've had enough of them already so having immunity is so important, and i hope the supreme court has the courage to do that. >> do you agree? should a president have total e munity for things that cross the line. >> he was dead serious. he wasn't making one of his ridiculous jokes. he was dead serious. i don't care what party you're from, everybody should be concerned with that mentality going into the white house. >> you are saying if he is the nominee that you're going to support him. >> i'm hoping that it's obviously nikki haley. this how bad joe biden is. six months ago, trump couldn't

beat biden. inflation is crushing middle and low-income families across this country. we are weak on the international stage, we haven't secured our border and democrats have agreed that he's been completely incompetent and not on the ball there, so this is where we've come where joe biden is so bad that even folks would get behind donald trump. >> yet you're saying that the comments from donald trump, everyone should be worried about that. you have said earlier that trump's rhetoric and actions contributed to the january 6th insurrection. how can you support someone who contributed to the insurrection. >> no one's really thinking about the general election right now. if you have to beat donald trump don't wait for some external factor or court case to take over. whether you're undeclared republican getting the vote out, that's democracy. >> despite his comments and despite his comments on immunity and insurrection, you would still vote for donald trump in a

general election? >>,a cording to america this is how incompetent he's been. the guy can barely get off the stage. everyone is scared of a president kamala harris. >> do you believe that former president trump would follow the constitution if he were re-elected to a second term. my sense is if they were in a second term, but not a whole lot is going to happen? >> do you think he would follow the constitution? >> i would hope so. >> you're not confident. >> i would say that of any president. >> i would hope joe biden would, any of them would, yeah. >> governor sununu, very quickly, before i let you go. are you confident there will be record turnout? >> we'll get flurries, and it doesn't push us back. 38 degrees, the more that come out the better chance we have at beating him at the ballot box. the voters will decide. not the media and not chris

sununu. >> thank you so much for joining us. great to see you. we really appreciate it. new hampshire secretary of state is predicting 88,000 democrats, after the nation was stripped of the first in the nation status. president joe biden will not be one of them. >> i'm not happy about it. i think that as a new hampshire resident, disregarding essentially our primary because it's written in state law was not i good look. >> it was very disappointing. extremely disappointing that he wasn't on the ballot. >> i will probably never understand or agree with the ruling of the dnc, but we are where we are. we are first in the nation. >> joining me now is new hampshire democratic senator maggie hassan. senator hassan, welcome to "meet the press."

thank you for being here. >> thank you for the whole team. >> we are glad to be here in this baffle state. let me ask you about the stakes of the new hampshire primary, if trump wins on tuesday night is the primary effectively over? will the general election have begun in your eyes? >> well, what we're seeing on the ground in new hampshire right now is the passion and commitment to democracy which is one of the hallmarks of our state. even no the dnc made a terrible decision we see a strong decision for a write-in joe biden campaign because joe biden has done what independent voters in new hampshire have asked which is worked across the aisle to deliver important bipartisan results for the people of our country. >> i want to delve into the democratic happenings? just a moment, but to this point what you're watching for on the republican side. if trump wins, is this primary over, are you running against trump in the general election. from everything we're seeing,

but i think people need to be really clear here regardless of which republican wins the nomination, whether it is haley, desantis or trump. they are all committed to rolling this country backwards, to undermining democracy. you look at president trump who advocates violence and he did it in new hampshire calling opponents vermin. he encouraged violence on january 6th, he's an election denier and appointing supreme court justices for america's women and yet nikki haley says she's voting for him. ron desantis says she's voting for him. so what we have is a group of republicans who are all aligned with donald trump, would all undermine our democracy and ignore the rule of law. >> let's talk about what is ng on the democratic side. you said it was a mistake to allow south carolina to be the first primary and something the

dnc president biden opted for. now president biden is not on the ballot and 21 others are and there is a write-in campaign. his primary challenger dean philips said this about him on saturday. takes a look. >> i can't believe it, but the president of the united states is not on the ballot. so if you're not going to be on the ballot, if he wrote you off, why would you write him in? >> does dean philips have a point? what's your response? >> first of all, i love our friends in south carolina and it's also been very important that we have an early primary window that reflects the primary geographically of our country, but here's what's unique about new hampshire. we have a governing system, the largest state legislature in the country, highly citizen-driven and citizen-led volunteer governance and that is why we passed a law that said we would

go first because we were the first state to actually have citizens directly choose their presidential nominees back in 1952. so all of that is why we offer something unique. our capacity to vet candidates and to give them a wide range of experiences in a small state. it's an equalizer. now -- >> dean phillips is making it though. >> what you are seeing is a huge energy. we know what's at stake. we know that another trump presidency undermines the rule of law and our democracy and rolls back rights and we know what president biden's record is. we've had bipartisan accomplishments whether it's getting veterans and the critical health care they need. whether it's the infrastructure law or whether it's investing in american manufacturing and keeping our country safe. at the end of the day, that's what the choice is and what new hampshire democrats know and a

writing campaign. >> dean philips is calling president biden a threat to democracy because of his age noting that he's struggling against trump in the polls. do you think that president biden is the strongest and best candidate to take on former president trump if he is the nominee? >> look, what i would say to anybody who likes dean philips, this is what the stakes are in this election. another trump precedence will undermine our democracy. he is telling us that he doesn't believe in the rule of law. he believes he is above the rule of law. he is telling us that he would tell us he would erode individual rights and joe biden has the record of accomplishment. >> is he the strongest candidate to take on trump if he's the nominee? >> look, we will be talking about his record. we have more work to do --? that's not a yes, senator, respectfully. >> i think president biden has the strongest record to run on that we've seen in a very long time in this country.

i think there is a lot of anxiety in this country about prices. that's why we need to continue the work that we've done, but in addition to doing the bipartisan work, president biden and democrats is standing up to lower prescription drug prices and we are lowering energy costs. at the end of the day this is about a president with a bipartisan track record, putting politics aside and doesn't care what people say about him and his age and he's getting the work done with a bipartisan coalition. that's what the people of new hampshire always tell me they want. >> senator, let me ask you a big issue that is looming over the 2024 race and it's a big topic on capitol hill, the issue of the border. president biden said just this week that the border hasn't been secure in ten years. do you agree with him? >> the border is in crisis -- >> is it secure? >> i have long been saying we need to improve security.

it's not where it needs to be. >> so it's not secure? >> it's not as secure it needs to be, to be sure. >> given that, should president biden strike a deal with republicans even if it means giving up some of what democrats want on the issue of asylum and parole. >> we have been urging the republican colleagues for the last couple of months to struck a bipart san deal on the border and the democrats in the last congress increased our investment in border security. we need them to come to the table and get this done. >> finally, is president biden going to win the write-in campaign? >> write-in campaigns are tough, but we are feeling good. >> is that a yes? >> i think that is very likely, but write-in campaigns are tough and it's very important for democrats and independents given the stakes in this election to go to the polls on tuesday, go

down the list, fill in the circle for write-in and write in joe biden's name because this is a president who has gotten bipartisan results and knows there'smore work to do and knows what to do. >> senator hassan, great to see you in person. really appreciate it and when we come back, chuck todd is here with a preview of what to watch in the pri (fisher investments) at fisher investments we may look like other money managers, but we're different. (other money manager) how so? (fisher investments) we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in our client'' best interest. (fisher investments) so we don't sell any commission-based products. (other money manager) then how do you make money? (fisher investments) we have a simple management fee, structured so we do better when our clients do better. (other money manager) your clients really come first then, huh? (fisher investments) yes. we make them a top priority, by getting to know their finances, family, health, lifestyle and more. (other money manager) wow, maybe we are different. (fisher investments) at fisher investments, we're clearly different. for moderate to severe crohn's disease skyrizi is the first il-23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. serious allergic reactions

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welcome back. for more on what to watch here in the final 48 hours and on tuesday night i am joined by my colleague nbc news chief political analyst chuck todd. chuck, great to see you again here in new hampshire. >> it's good to be here. we're searching for the energy though, geez. >> you don't feel it on the ground? >> you don't. this is unlike any competitive new hampshire primary we've had certainly since i've been doing this professionally. >> i want to talk about the past

and the present. to set it up, i want to remind folks, new hampshire is the place for comebacks. let's remind everyone what that looks like. >> new hampshire tonight has made bill clinton the comeback kid. [ cheering ] >> tonight, we sure showed them what a comeback looks like. >> i have so many opportunities from this country. i just don't want to see us fall backwards. >> it's very likable. i agree with that. >> i don't think i'm that bad. >> you're likable enough, hillary. [ laughter ] >> i appreciate that. >> let's give america the kind of comeback that new hampshire has just given me. [ cheering ] >> so, chuck, a little trip down memory lane. >> yeah. >> that was then, this now. you are saying the enthusiasm feels different, but you've been saying a whole lot else feels different. >> if your last name is clinton or mccain maybe we should plan

on a comeback here. it's interesting to talk about those moments. a lot of those big comeback moments happened at rallies and debates in the final week of the campaign. >> right. >> and governor haley made the decision to cancel any debates only if donald trump showed up, and i understand the rational at the moment that she made that decision, but she really took away potential opportunities for her to make a last-minute case to these undeclared voters. look, this is the last best chance she has to create the conditions that maybe trump is vulnerable. he's got to lose somewhere. this was the best possible place you can knock him down and so to not have these debates even if they were just with desantis, to miss out on these opportunities. i am shocked she is not trying to do every show that is available to her. she's not campaigning to win. she seems to be campaigning to protect something and i don't know what that is right now. >> it is so fascinating that you raise that point because her

supporters have said they're disappointed. >> they're begging her. >> they're begging her to do more and they're begging her to get tougher against trump. >> we saw her rhetoric questioning whether he's mentally fit to serve, but it will all come down to those independent voters and we saw steve kornacki lay out the fact and it's quite narrow. she had a pretty nice lead with the independent voters and not anymore. the gap has closed and she's neck and neck with trump on independent voters. take us inside the numbers. what would she need to do? >> she needs a high turnout. 300,000 voters showing up. she needs the ratio of republican to independent to be in the 55-45 range and when it starts to creep over 60 and it starts to creep 65-35 those are numbers she can't win. one of the conclusions and i want to be careful here. it was one state and we had bad whether, but if the electorate

truly is being reshaped the way trump has reshaped it there are not enough republicans left for haley anymore. the republicans that were anti-trump that were available to ted cruz and marco rubio and john kasich in 2016, i don't know that they're voting in republican primaries anymore. that might be the biggest sort of change in the electorate that we've seen over the last eight years. >> well, you take me to your article because you talk about how trump has basically changed the republican party in his own image. >> he's redefined words like conservative. >> whatever he's for is considered conservative. whatever the definition was in 2014 no longer applies and that's important, as well. >> this is what you write, chuck. you write, quote, if what you saw in iowa is what the gop electorate is going to look like nationally in 2024, and i haven't seen any evidence to the contrary, then the answer is clear. the republican party is trump's party and any challenge to it has come -- has to come from a

new party on the outside as opposed to within. it has to come from outside. it can't happen from the inside. >> this is what liz cheney is trying to figure out. what's the last role to play to fix the conservative movement and to reenergize the conservative movement outside of trump? can you do it within the party? no. he's remade this party right now. another nomination makes it very difficult. so i think if you're liz cheney and you're trying to change the party and change the movement, i don't know that you can do it from the inside. we'll find out if we keep going. once again, we only had one state, but wow, that was a much different electorate than even what iowa looked like. >> it sure is. when you look at evangelical voters which you break down in this piece, as well. if you look at what happened between iowa and new hampshire, one the big pieces of news was tim scott endorsing president trump. i typically wouldn't ask you about an endorsement, about you

this endorsement is significant for the timing and the optics of it. what it implies. >> tim scott became a u.s. senator because nikki haley appointed then congressman tim scott and granted there was a lot of support for him and conservative winds were blowing in that moment. look, this is an indictment on the campaign that governor haley has run. she, you know, she didn't call up tim scott right away after he dropped out. whatever is going on, her south carolina politics is not great. is that her fault? is that trump outwitting her? is that lindsay graham outwitting here? we can dive deep, but at the end of the day she's not got good south carolina politics in her favor right now and she's not gone to win the nomination if she can't win south carolina. >> bottom line, it all comes down to south carolina. thank you so much. great to see you. we'll see you, of course, on

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welcome back. the panel is here. jonathan martin, politics bureau chief and senior political columnist for politico. nbc news correspondent, dasha burns. former white house press secretary jen psaki host of "inside with jen psaki" and lannie chen, a fellow at the hoover institution at stanford university. thanks to all of you for being here in new hampshire on this weekend ahead of the primary. great to see all of you. dasha, i want to start with you. you've been covering the desantis campaign as we said at the top of the show. he was scheduleded to appear and he is not due to a scheduling conflict, you have a deep dive due to what's happening in the campaign. a source calls it a total failure to launch. what did you learn? >> over the course of covering this campaign there are many stories that kind of explain why he failed to really get off the ground in the way that a lot of people expected him to, but one

of the stories that came us to in the final days of the iowa caucus and it has to do with a puzzle. stay with me here. multiple staffers from the headquarters of the desantis iowa operation, their field operation run by never back down reached out to me and my producer abby brooks and said that the ceo and chairman of that organization was spending a significant amount of time in those final critical days working on a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. now, some of those staffers were so confused and found it so absurd that one of them actually took a photo of it and shared it with us and the frustration was described to me is staffers are putting their dedication and devotion into electing desantis and they come in and the chairman of the organization is sitting there working on a puzzle for hours. in a comment to nbc news scott wagner, the gentleman in the picture there tells us it was an office puzzle. he said it was there when they

arrived and it became a sense of pride for team members and everyone chipped in a few minutes to get it done and noted his pride of the team. note, kristen, the fact that in those critical, final days one of the top people that was trying to get desantis elected and trying to get a win in iowa was spending time working on something unrelated to the caucuses is emblematic of the mismanagement and the wasted efforts that a lot of the sources we talked to for this piece say plagued the team and the desantis employ qaa camp from the very beginning. >> not ideal. not ideal? because optics matter and dasha has this deep dive into that. >> with the photo. >> yeah. >> where is the desantis campaign on this sunday? >> he is a zombie candidate at this point. he's still in the race and he's not really still in the race, okay? i think there's a bit of self-pity going on here. all of us on this panel understand how these candidates operate. he said i busted my behind for a

year, you know. i worked hard in iowa and boy, i came in second there, not her. why should i have to get out when she was the one in third in iowa and i was in second? she should quit and not me. there's a sort of stages of grief for candidates and he's got really nowhere to go and he's trying to play this day by day. there's no press for him in south carolina. turn the plane around and go back to new hampshire for the final 48 hours, but to what end? what's he going to get vote wise? not a lot. probably six or seven points at the very point. >> i've never done a jigsaw puzzle on a campaign. i've done three presidential campaigns? i've never done one either. >> i think to echo what jonathan was saying and the commander in chief and leader of the free world it's very hard to get to the point to drop out. for desantis, he is young and he has alluded to this possibility that people who are trump supporters are telling him they want him to run in 2028, dasha

can tell us if that's actually true. >> he said that to me in an interview, the first interview he did after iowa was with us and he gave me an anecdote where a voter came up to me and said i'm voting for trump, but i'll vote for you next time. >> get out gracefully. we can discuss on this panel is he a 2028 good candidate for the republicans? i don't think a lot of people would say yes. he's young and he could have a political future? what is most striking to me is how different of a republican party it is in this 2024 new hampshire primary as the 2012 when i was up here a lot for mitt romney. >> the stone age. >> some would say better times, but i do think it reflects the fact that you have these candidates who can be tremendously impactful in ron desantis and nikki haley and yet they have the issues, but the party has changed. it's donald trump's party now. >> i want to talk about donald

trump as it relates to nikki haley. both are sharpening their attacks, but wooe seen these attacks from trump attacking nikki haley's race, elthis inity and mocking her birthday and spreading false birther conspiracies wondering if she's eligible to run and of course, she is. lannie, does this resonate and does it backfire? >> it resonates with some people. to the point of the republican party being different, the base of the republican party that donald trump needs to be the nominee there is some responsiveness clearly, otherwise he wouldn't be doing it. you can make arguments about this is just who he is, it's a political calculation at some level and it's a political calculation that this is how you appeal to the voters that you need and by the way, it seems to have worked in iowa and it may work in new hampshire. >> wow can't teach an old dog new tricks and donald trump is a bit of an old dog and he's used this playbook before. >> yes, he has. against obama. >> i remember that well. it took us a moment to realize

we had to fight back on that. we actually shared the birth certificates in the press briefing room. he also did it to ted cruz. he's doing this because he's made a bet politically that it works that a good base of the party responds to this. >> it appeals to republican hard core, this is new hampshire and you'll hear it a thousand times and a thousand more times in the next few days and the key block here is the unaffiliated voters and trump having a senior moment and the other night confusing her and pelosi and trump saying last night, you know what? america could use a strong man and by the way, the president should be above the law. if you combine those four things to put those things in the new hampshire basket. it shows up and pulls either party's ballot every four years. they'll come to vote against trump for nikki haley. >> at the same time, neither of these other candidates found their footing when it came to donald trump. >> and how to attack it.

>> multiple sources i talked to, out of the gate he fumbled when he talked about stormy daniels and i don't know what it's like to have an affair with a porn star and walked it back and never quite found his way back and wound up pushing to the right of trump which one source said in some ways when he tried to go to the right of trump he undermined his own electability argument especially with the abortion. >> not a new problem. >> the moderates were the voters for the taking. such great points and fireworks in this panel, but we have another panel. we'll have much more. voters in new hampshire have helped deliver some remarkable helped deliver some remarkable campaign comebacks as we were

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welcome back. new hampshire has always liked an underdog. after being written off after a fourth-place finish in iowa, arizona senator john mccain

joined "meet the press" days before the new hampshire primary in 2008 and talked about granite state voters. >> so these last 24 hours, 48 hours and a lot of voters in new hampshire, we all know, make up their minds in the last few hours or even when they go into the ballot booth. so we've still got a lot of work to do and here in new hampshire, people frankly don't mind it if you disagree with them as long as they think you're telling them the truth and that's the beauty of the town hall meeting here. we had our 100th town hall meeting there in peterboro and it was well attended and we had some very spirited exchanges. i think that's what the people of new hampshire want. >> well, as you may remember mccain pulled off an improbable comeback in new hampshire and went on to win the republican nomination. when we come back, president biden's ne is notam o (vo) in the next 30 seconds, 250 couples will need to make room for a nursery. (man) ah ha! (vo) 26 people will go all-in.

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welcome back. the panel is still here. we talked about the republicans. let's talk about the democrats now and jen, i will start with you on that. i thought it was interesting when i was interviewing senator hassan. she didn't say yes, we're confident we'll win this amp

campaign. it's hard. can it hurt president biden optically that they moved it up in the map. >> there are expect eggs and there are no delegates and they're not in the general though we could be soon and that could be a headache if not longer if he didn't do okay. how do you define okay? it's all about expectation. write-in campaigns have been hard and they've been done by candidates on both sides of the aisle. what i will say that's interesting about the dynamic ands part of it is the demographics in the state and these races are neck and neck and biden is behind a number of swing states and not in new hampshire. he is ahead of trump in new hampshire. demographics are good for him and he's likely benefiting from the republican primary being run here and the attack ads against trump here because it's reminding people of what's at stake. >> lannie, what about that and how closely are republicans

watching and potentially, what do they do to capitalize? >> biden is running a little bit of a rose garden-stale campaign. the fact that he didn't appear on the ballot and he hasn't been out there more. for republicans, it plays to form, and the challenge, ultimately, i think this will ultimately come down to what the economy looks like and whether they get something done on immigration and the economic indicators tend to lag so the fact that the economy's improving may end up benefiting the president when we get to the fall, but those are ultimately going to be the biggest factors and they always have been, but i think joe biden has to get out there more. >> the biggest challenge for the biden campaign right now is there are a surprising number of people who think biden is the nominee. >> the biden campaign. >> they decide. this is counterintuitive to what normally happens? normally you want the republicans to fight it out and spend money. they feel that is the best contrast. >> joe biden will be the

nominee. >> it's the great irony of our time. every democrat in the country and for those that aren't democrats do believe that donald trump is a threat to american democracy, from a raw, political standpoint, though is like doing a rain dance every day hoping that donald trump is the nominee because they know that he is a better candidate for the general than nikki haley would be and he'll be fascinating to watch this unfold and how aggressive is the biden campaign. go to south carolina, do they try turn out those independents in south carolina to keep them out of the republican primary and that will be fascinating. >> it will be fascinating and it's the issue of democracy, jonathan, it is the economy, as well and senator bernie sanders had this warning for president biden and this is in a recent article and bernie sanders and the leading progressive politician has issued a stark warning to joe biden at the start of the presidential election year, be more aggressive with struggling

voters or risk handing over the white house to the demagogue donald trump. i know you've been talking to voters in erie, pennsylvania, who have echoed that. >> huge, huge warning signs for the biden campaign there. look, the economy, by all accounts, you can look at the data. it's doing well and i posed this to voters when i was talking to them there. i said, look, wages are going up. unemployment is down, the stock market's doing well, but how do you feel about the economy? no one, no one i talked to gave me a positive answer, and they are frustrated, both democrats and republicans, and i'm not talking about hard core trump republicans. they feel that the biden administration touting how good the economy is when they don't feel it is out of touch and they feel kind of slapped in the face a little bit. if you don't acknowledge people's feelings, that's not how you get that. >> that's the direction that a lot of campaigns are asking for. >> i think you would agree with

this is how you make people feel and not data and not on spreadsheets and so this is where the contrast point with trump, they think will be helpful to them. we will see because it is about i am fighting for you, he is not fighting for you. it's not about the data numbers because people don't want to be told about what they feel about the economy. >> i have a prominent democrat very close to joe biden, we have to get the populism, trump is a tool of wall street and we have to hit them head-on. the big business crowds will never like joe biden. they'll never be for us and we have to go back to populism and this is hard for folks to accept, but the populism attack is more effective than the january 6th line of attack and the american democracy, guess what? they voted for joe biden as a result. populism is the key. >> it's where the american electorate is. they want a fighter and they want someone who can speak to those issues particularly on the economy. ? fantastic panel, thank you all so much. before we go, do not miss our

special coverage of the new hampshire primary tuesday night beginning at 6:00 p.m. eastern on nbc news now and peacock and that is all for today. thank you so much for watching. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

♪ desantis drops out. there is one less republican in the race for the white house. governor