he's now pulling a distant third in new hampshire. we had on one of our republican analysts, susan del percio, she's got a lot of experience, and she said it would behoove him to suspend his campaign now if he has any sort of saw thought on 2028. if he went further into the losing category with new hampshire, it's a hard thing to bounce back from. why give americans that sort of perspective, as a loser twice, in really big events like this at the beginning of a presidential campaign season, and election year. my question to you, what does this tell you? you're talking about the lack of dei, that diversity there in florida, it is something that he stated in this policy to say >> i told you so. make america florida. it didn't i made it fly. so clear that i what do you say to this was on your show, news? on the show with joy. what he is selling to floridians doesn't work in

america. they spend millions of dollars in iowa trying to sell what they were selling in florida, this entire woke agenda. they are causing attacks on the lgbtq community. i make it clear that if governor desantis went across florida with this agenda, it will not work. i knew floridians would want to rejected. they rejected donald trump and they're going to do it again. they rejected ron desantis. i know that this was going to happen. i will tell you this, people are not buying what they are selling. people don't want what they are giving. people are looking for a party which is going to govern and move this country forward. they aren't looking for the division that republicans are moving at. i told you this. we just want that election in orlando. ron desantis won by a large margin. but they failed to realize is that people don't want what they are giving.

>> chevron jones, i want to thank you very much, particularly being here at this moment where we are talking about your governor and the suspension of his campaign. thank you so much. >> thank you. welcome to all of you to alex witt reports. we have this breaking news, the huge revelation that sources tell rhonda santas is ending his campaign for president. we're going to go right now to dasha burns in manchester who is tracking the campaign. tell us more. what have you been told specifically about this? >> well, look, florida governor ron desantis just tweeted moments ago saying, success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue which counts. that's a quote from winston churchill. alex, we talked earlier today wondering about what these last-minute moves were going from south carolina, making this last-minute pivot to new hampshire. here you have it, suspending his campaign which has been

fraught from the beginning, literally from the launch, if you recall that twitter spaces launch with elon musk, that was maher by technical glitches and failures. from the beginning, this guy who was supposed to be the next standard bearer for the republican party that so many looked to as the person who could potentially beat donald trump found himself in a race for second place with nikki haley. he's been saying for the last several weeks that he is in it for the long haulthat he was going to south carolina, but we've been talking about the realities of that, which is that you have to have the finances, the resources to do that and a pathway forward. in all of my conversations recently with him, with his team, they really struggle to articulate what that pathway was going to be, how he could make that case. here we are at the end of this saga. again, we had seen someone who

really struggled to find a message, to find a footing, to find a way to deal with former president trump. at the end of the day, former president trump define the florida governor ron desantis before florida governor ron desantis could define himself. today is a campaign which has come to an end before they could get to that promised land of south carolina that they were hoping for, alex. >> yeah, let me ask, you dasha, there have been those detractors who say that a lot of the reason ron desantis is now in this position of dropping out, he would have potentially finished a distant third in new hampshire. a lot of it has to do with his lack of ability to connect with voters. it's a personality problem. it's that and or strategic mistakes within his campaign. with your dealings following this campaign, what would you

chalk this up to overall? >> i do think it's a combination of factors, alex. from the start, there was always a role of leadership. they always put their trust in folks who are more loyal to them rather than people who had experience running presidential campaigns. i think they were hoping that the major victory that he had in 2022 in his reelect, that that was going to just carry them into this presidential race. running for governor and running for president are two very, very different things. they ran out of money. there was drama between the campaign and the super pac which constantly overshadowed any successes that they had. at the end of the day, you did have a candidate who struggled to humanize himself to the voters. only into the end, alex -- it's funny, i was commenting recently on the air that he had started to tell some personal stories. he started to actually become a

better candidate in these last couple of weeks, but it's too, little too late. to give them a little bit of credit, there are plenty of sources i talked to who also said that desantis could have run a perfect campaign. it still would not have mattered interest because of the dominance of former president trump that you saw in iowa that we potentially we'll see again here in new hampshire. the challenge for nikki haley -- i don't know if they are celebrating the drop out for haley in new hampshire, but what we've seen in the math, alex, is that the ballot share that desantis has will likely go to former president trump. the voter said haley is going for and the voters that desantis are going for a very different. the desantis voter base is much more likely to go for haley as opposed to trump. that could do something for trump in this new hampshire primary. the candidate had a hard time connecting.

the campaign was full of process errors throughout. ultimately, this would have been a very different primary race to cover, alex, had it not been for former president trump's presence here. >> i'm curious, dasha, has anyone handed you anything that tells you that he's going to make a statement at a certain point to appear in front of cameras? the big question will be, despite everything that donald trump has said about him, will he then come out and offer a warm, vociferous endorsement of donald trump? if he does, what does that by him? >> that is the million dollar question. will he endorsed? if he does, is he going to try to consolidate for hailie? is he going to go for former president trump? i'm just getting word for my producer he endorsed -- he just endorsed former president trump. i am breaking this news to you right on the air, alex. this is a surprise if you have

heard desantis talk about the former president. he's said over and over again that former president trump expects you to kiss the ring. he was going after iowa governor kim reynolds. she endorsed him. every time he has gone after desantis for being disloyal, he said he refuses to kissing the ring the way that others do. there you have it. he is now falling in line with the man who is now the leader of the republican party that none of the voters that i've talked to really seem able to let go of. 51% in iowa, right? the majority of voters in iowa. we will see what happens here in new hampshire. it doesn't seem that primary voters are interested in a trump alternative. >> i am just getting word that he plans some sort of an event at five pm eastern. that will be approximately two hours from now. we will take a listen then. i'm sure he will make it

official in his own words. dasha, stand by and don't go anywhere. we're going to go to someone else who's going to watch this very closely. and then there were two with this breaking news. what does this mean for the nikki haley campaign? i know that you are at the event in seabrook, new hampshire. what's the reaction? boy, there are a lot of cameras behind, you by the way! she must be talking about this. >> a lot of cameras behind us, but no, this is the basic coverage for the event. the event is kicking off right now. you're watching a lot of cameras move closer to the candidate so they can try to ask the question that all of us are waiting to ask, which is, what is your reaction to the fact that ron desantis will be leaving this? race for nikki haley, this is something which gives her what she has been asking for. they have gotten it on paper. desantis is throwing his support behind trump. i imagine that we are going to hear something from haley which

sounds pretty similar to what we heard when tim scott endorsed trump just a few years ago. they are referencing the fact that she's the only woman running in this republican primary. it's a shot at the so-called boys club that she at times has felt is keeping her out of the top echelons of politics. the clear answer to why these candidates might be falling in line here is because coming home to maga this both the smart politics move in the short term as it seems that trump is wrapping up this primary himself, but for a lot of these candidates, they are very young. tim scott, ron desantis, even someone like nikki haley, they have long political runways ahead of them. it could be a moment for ron desantis who, dasha is right, he's not someone who comes in cases the rainy. there is a great reason for him to do that. i've been talking to my -- he may not have done his last presidential run here in 2024.

this could be a face saving move as he tries to move forward into whatever the next chapter of his political career is. we are seeing nikki haley continue with this rally, not hearing anything out of the corner of my year right now. one of the other things, if we want to listen, and we can. >> [applause] >> there were a lot of fellas. all the fellas are out except for this one. this comes down to what you want. do you want something new? do you want to go back to a country where they decide who is a good person, who is a bad person, who is the right person, who is the wrong person? do you want to come together as americans and say, you know what? we're going to get inflation

down and get our comedy -- or going to go back to the basics in education. we're going to secure our former -- >> [inaudible] >> [applause] >> we're going to bring law and order back to this country and we are going to have a strong america that we can all be proud of. that is our goal. that is what we are doing. we have two days until new hampshire goes to the polls. we are going to make sure that we fight all the way until the last second. what the people of new hampshire should know is when we win, the presidency in this country, i'm going to do everything i can to prove to you that you made the right decision. for now, i will leave you with this. may the best woman when! >> [applause] >> okay, allie. you have the phrase that she has coined -- all the fellows are out except for this one.

that's back to the line that she has been giving throughout the campaign. give me a sense, though, if it is down to just these two, where do you think the desantis voters go? are they definitely going to go to team trump? i ask specifically about new hampshire where you are. it's a notoriously independent state. with just two to choose from, is there a chance of this bolsters in the granite state? >> look, this is a tough state because of the independents street, but also a tough state because of the polling. when you have this many independents who may or may not play in a republican primary, it makes it hard to forecast who could be coming out. yes, the trend lines show the former president donald trump is leading the pack overall, especially among registered republicans. for haley, what makes it such fertile ground is the way that more independent voters can actually play here. they might not be as wedded to the maga faithful ideology as

some trump voters who we often talk to. because this desantis news had really been percolating and we had all been reporting on it for most of the afternoon, i was able to ask some of my haley world sources if they thought there was a clear shift based on desantis dropping out here. with that benefit trump? wouldn't benefit them? i think the smart money might say, and i know that we were talking about this earlier, that the desantis vote, however small the percentage, here goes immediately to trump. i don't think that's true. the haley folks feel like they did not see an immediate shift in who was choosing haley second amongst desantis voters. they didn't see that go to trump. anecdotally on the ground, voters who i have met who are coming to haley events and aren't decided, i want to make sure i'm voting for someone who is not trump. they're not trump part is what could earn her some of those desantis voters in the end here. >> okay, ali, standby.

we are getting desantis's statement. he posted this on x, everybody. we are listening to part of it. let's play that from the control booth. >> we have prayed and deliberated on the way forward. if they are or anything i could do to produce a favorable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, i would do it. i can't ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to victory. accordingly, i am spending my campaign today. >> okay, there you have it. it's definitely official. ali, there have been folks who have suggested that he will keep an eye on 2028. ali has runaway. she's trying to get more -- >> i'm here, i'm here. [laughter] >> okay, my question is, now that you have him out and nikki haley in, just two of them, what do you think the chances

are that donald trump is looking at this like, i could potentially unify mayer publican party if i picked her to be my vp. i know she has set countless times, i am not playing for a second, but is this something you have heard any sort of whisper campaign that she might consider in this particular circumstance? >> so, i'm going to tell you just from watching her and then what we have actually heard her say. we heard her say just two days ago to a group of diners new hampshire that she is not going to be vice president, that that is off the table. fine. from watching her, i also think that this is a woman who has never been running for vice president. the way that she has been running has been strategic. they've had a plan from the outside of it. the people who are really talking about haley on the vp list, the people who are stoking that fire have been the vivek ramaswamy campaign, the ron desantis campaign, and many

of her rivals. i think there is something that is slightly gendered about that. we look at the fact that it's usually women and women of color who voters tend to look at and say, well, maybe not yet. at the same time, she is someone who has such a high political resume, so much experience on the foreign policy front, and she could bring in more voters. it will be someone who can unify the party for trump. at the same time, i don't think that that is why she ran the race. >> yeah, okay, you stand by, my friend. dasha, we are going to go back to you with the desantis campaign. give me anything more you are officially hearing from the folks there. what is the word? how much level of disappointed -- war -- there was some handwriting on the wall. f disapp>> i can tell you that e event that was supposed to happen today in manchester, new hampshire at 5:00 has been canceled. desantis was actually not in the state right now. he's back home in florida.

any official word, speaking to the press, anything on camera that we might see for him will come from his home in florida. i'm confirming that that is in tallahassee but i believe he's in the capital. that's where his family flew off to after iowa. i am getting word from one of my sources that the decision was made this afternoon. deliberations were clearly happening up until the last minute. from watching from the outside, we are watching these moves being made. he pulled out of appearances this morning. we don't have reporting as to why, but it certainly lead to some speculation. the move to leave south carolina and add these new hampshire events, none of which are happening now, by the way, they all raise a lot of eyebrows and a lot of

questions. there was a feeling of uneasiness. there was a feeling of a little bit of depletion. the air seemed to have come out of this campaign over the last few days. in my last interview with him, coming right off of iowa, one of the anecdotes that he shared with me as he was trying to celebrate a second place finish there, he said that, you know what? i'm going to vote for him this time and i'm going to vote for you next time. in hindsight, looking back at that conversation, i wonder if that was him laying the groundwork to potentially look towards the future in 2028 or beyond, kind of knowing that the writing was on the wall. this is someone who is a fighter. knowing him over the course of this campaign, i can bet you that he did not want to let go of this race until he absolutely have to. we are going to dig in on that reporting to know, to try to

find out what exactly led to this decision, led to this decision coming right now at this moment. certainly, a surprising and given all the twists and terms over the last several hours despite, not a surprise that this happened, but how and when and where it took some of us by surprise. >> yeah, dasha, i'm going to ask you to stand by as well as we bring in susan del percio. susan, you were on this broadcast less than two hours ago. you go, crystal ball girl! you said this was going to happen. you said that he had more reason to drop out now before even a vote could be cast in new hampshire so that you would not have too much of a looser identification if he has any hope of going for the 2028 presidential election campaign than. you were right!

all the handwriting is on the wall. you were right. >> well, we know that rhonda santas is nothing but, if not nothing but ambitious, that he does have a long road, a long way ahead of him if he wants to try this again. i also hear that his donors completely dried up on him. that was one thing that was really holding the campaign back. i know that tim scotts endorsement of donald trump, the center from south carolina, was a big deal, but the other thing that happened that same day is that donald trump brought up a bunch of south carolina in legislation, including the lieutenant governor. there was no way that desantis could make a move in south carolina. a little bit of self preservation, it's a smart political move. it's interesting that he chose not to go to new hampshire and endorsed donald trump, but i think that these are very hard

decisions to make for a candidate. dropping out is a very big deal. this has been a toll on him and his family. i do think they made the right decision. >> yeah, so, let me ask you what i was talking about with both eiley and dasha. given the split in the republican party, though certainly overwhelmingly in favor of donald trump right now, would it be a wise move for donald trump to try to bring in nikki haley, have some conversations as his vice presidential candidate? with only two candidates left, you think that would unify the party. she has said multiple times, i'm not playing for second. we even heard donald trump say yesterday, musing, i don't think i would put nikki haley in the vp candidacy position. he didn't shut the door on it. given the fact that you have

seen what is coming, would it be smart of donald trump to pick her? >> i never looked at donald trump and said, will he make the smart decision? what i do is, what is the decision that best fits his ego? nikki haley does not match that. nikki haley is too strong, to independent, to able to think for herself, and willing to give her own opinion. even when she was in the trump administration, she went a little bit against donald trump from time to time. i don't see him wanting to have someone of nikki haley's strength on the ticket with him. he would much rather have someone who is unknown, kind of like how mike pence, was kind of someone who's known within the conservative background, but it's not known to the general public, but can make him look good. i will go back to my prediction of alabama's katie britt. >> yeah, that's an interesting one that you brought up earlier as well.

stefanik's name has been coming out a heck of a lot lately given her performances on the campaign trail and endorsing and encouraging voters to vote for donald trump. please stay where you are. we're going to go down to vaughn hillyard. he's been following the trump campaign. let's get to any reaction thus far from the trump campaign to having rhonda santa's drop out. >> so far, no word from donald trump himself and his senior advisor jason miller just stepped out of the campaign headquarters in manchester and told our embed jake trailer that he will let trumpy the first to respond and comment on rhonda scent is dropping out. these are conversations where i had asked a senior adviser just about 24 hours ago about whether they would, given -- to drop out and instead of all them dropping the bomb on the campaigns allowing those to to

be brought back into the fold. the senior adviser told me that we will let the chips fall where they may. donald trump, i am told, had been furious with ron desantis, particularly over the loyalty and the fact that he felt like he had propelled ron desantis to the florida governorship in the first place in terms of political and national relevance. he believed that ron desantis should have dropped out long ago. that is what reality is. we are here in july of 2024. i think that is the question mark. does donald trump try to welcome him back in? last night on the stage, he was explicit in saying that he doesn't even talk about ron desanctimonious, the name he gave, him anymore because he doesn't find him relevant. does donald trump feel like it is worth his while? on the other hand, he said on the campaign stage last night that it was time for the

republican party to come together. these are the realities that we, frankly, have washed before play out. we are watching that now. to what extent does donald trump feel like he owes that loyalty or that bear hugging return to these folks? can he go forward? if donald trump's party -- they betrayed him in the past. that's what we are looking at in the days ahead. >> let me ask you, shaq, i've just gotten word that you have some reactions. given the back and forth between donald trump, it gets nasty. do you think donald trump would welcome him as a surrogate? is there someone that would trust him to go out on the campaign trail? we are watching closely in the media. voters listen as well. would ron desantis make a

viable campaign surrogate for donald trump? >> he absolutely would, alex. i don't know if that means donald trump wants to have him out there. this takes him back to -- when he stood on the convention stage in cleveland and was heckled and booed off of the stage. this is a republican electorate and a republican party. they are extremely loyal to donald trump. they feel like ron desantis and nikki haley have all but betrayed the republican party by fracturing its resources and trying to undercut the man who many have called the greatest president of their lifetimes if not ever. donald trump has other loyalists like kari lake and marjorie taylor greene.

they've stepped in as the role of maga celebrities. it's a question of whether donald trump feels like he has such a grip on the republican party today when he really needed to bring in some of those people. there is a serious conversation about whether he needs to give any fuel to ron desantis. should he send a message to the rest of the republican party? if any of you ever crossed me, it's not as easy as coming back as one rhonda santas was hiring the staff. if anyone goes to work for ron desantis, they're never going to be welcome to work for the trump campaign or the trump white house. there will be consequences later. >> okay, as i promised, guys, we're going to go to shaq brewster right now. he is in manchester. give us a sense of the sentiment. shaq, no, no, no. we need you back in front of

the camera. i'm just curious, if you are still with us, what the -- >> i'm back with you now. >> okay, good, good. our director is going to keep. you tell me, let me look at my phone, about 30 minutes ago, what's been the reaction? what are you hearing if anything? >> well, i haven't heard any reaction from a voters just yet in response to this news. the past couple of days i've been crisscrossing the state, going to places that donald trump did extremely well in, going to towns in which he did not do as well when he got that win back in 2016. frankly, one name that did not come up much inorganic conversations with ron desantis. many people saw this already as fundamentally a two-person race between nikki haley and donald trump. when i asked about desantis, especially among those who said that they are backing donald trump, you didn't hear much

love for the florida governor. that was not with everyone. you would hear that with the vast majority of people that i was talking .to listen to some f those exchanges just to give you a sense of why ron desantis did not see new hampshire as a place where he was going to have much success. >> i probably would've voted for ron desantis, but i don't know, he fell off like a few things he said about trump supporters and stuff. i didn't like the kind of -- turned me off. >> i like trump's policies, beliefs. desantis has all of those without the rough edges. >> i don't think desantis has what it takes, i think when he started his campaign he went in

for two weeks and got really nervous and scared and backed away. >> reporter: it was desantis who if you look at it a year ago, he looked to be an extremely strong candidate. he looked like a real threat to former president donald trump when he was coming to these events. he had big events, he would have the big crowd. once he launched his campaign and those attack started to ramp up for former president donald trump, you saw his numbers slide, you saw his support slide. and that led to that feeling that you heard among donald trump's former supporters that i've been meeting across the state that seem to have stuck and really didn't give desantis an opportunity as we get closer to the actual election day. >> okay. thank you for that. back to you, susan del percio. the general consensus among this conversation we've been having is ron desantis may not be the best, most effective surrogate for donald trump out on the campaign trail.

just give me a view of what desantis does now. how does he resurrect prospects for his future on a national scale? yes, he has his job in florida. he can go back to tallahassee and pick right up where he left off. he can start tomorrow, he can do that. but tell me what he needs to do to keep himself in the public eye for 2028, should he decide to go there. >> well, i think he has to change his press strategy. as we, know one of the things desantis had a big trouble with is dealing with media, because he lived in a media bubble. he refused to speak to any outlet unless it was fox news, for a while. he even did press conferences with only fox news. i think, hopefully, for the state of florida, you will see a change in their communication strategy. my guess is it is within about a year or so, he will announce a pact with some agenda that

keeps him out there, perhaps a book. he will basically, like you said, alex, do his job in florida but raise his head wherever he can think he can make a real difference. but i don't think you will see him, i agree with everyone else. you won't see him out on the campaign trail. he wasn't mr. personality when he asked people to support him. i can't imagine what he would possibly do for donald trump. >> give me a sense of how you think the haley campaign goes forward, ali vitali is at that really loud event right now. once we get her back, up we will talk with her about. that what does the campaign do now to harness this, susan, and use it to their advantage, to her advantage? how much does it matter, the distance between a potential donald trump win in new hampshire, if there are only two people? if there's only two people who are in south carolina, the state where she was a former governor, does this help booster her there at all?

>> it all depends what happens tuesday night in new hampshire for nikki haley. she had a lot of momentum going into iowa, because she was doing so well in new hampshire, ironically. usually, it is the other way around. but once she didn't come in second in iowa, it kind of took some of the wind out of her sales going into new hampshire. >> yeah, but let me ask you about that for a second, susan. let me ask you, though. ron desantis had a really well organized ground game. he went to all 99 counties in the state of iowa. he spent a lot of time there. the fact that he came out, what was, it ultimately about two points ahead with regard to how much he lead nikki haley -- i mean, you can kind of see that to him because of his ground game and then her lack of support. does that make sense to you at all? >> you are absolutely right, alex. the point was, if she could beat iran the santas, then

everything would explode for her. her momentum would get huge going into new hampshire, where it was already building, although no survey had her ahead of donald trump. it looked like maybe she could start pulling away in those eight days between iowa and new hampshire. unfortunately for the haley campaign, we have seen her in a double digit separation with donald trump. if she doesn't finish within -- i actually believe she has to win new hampshire to have a viable path. but at the very least, she has to come in with four or five points. otherwise, i don't see what her path forward is, i don't see where the donors come in. and especially since it doesn't look good for her in south carolina. then what does she win? if she is going after that moderates independent vote, after south carolina, it is super tuesday. the rest of the states look more like south carolina and iowa than it does new hampshire. >> let me ask, you if you were

advising her campaign right, now you say this is good for her in south carolina. again, that is a state you would think she might have a built in support network, right? a popularity there. she left as a popular governor in south carolina before taking on the position as donald trump's ambassador to the united nations during his candidacy, during his presidency. if she doesn't think she is going to win or do really well in south carolina, should she drop out before that, to preserve any future she has on a national scale? >> absolutely. and it would be wise for her to do that sooner rather than later. as i mentioned a couple hours ago, she will win the primary in nevada, except she won't win any delegates with it. let her take the time. she will have to reinvent herself. the big thing i'm looking at nikki haley's i'm wondering

what she will do about supporting donald trump. she has finally come out and attacked him a bit, but will she flat out endorse him, for example, the for south carolina? will she fall in line. i don't know. i hope not. >> what would it say if she did, though? how many politicians have we seen now taking a knee, fealty to donald trump despite him saying horrific things about them, undermining them, you know, anything from their mental acumen to ability to win the race or anything more terrible than that. i just wonder, if she does decide to endorse him, is that for political preservation? but is it a smart thing, given the kind of campaign that she has run against him? >> she has run a campaign that she could actually talk yourself into an endorsement, given the fact that she wasn't aggressive enough against trump on the onset.

but i don't know what is in store for her politically. i don't see the same kind of future as i see for ron desantis for a nikki haley. the question is, does nikki haley want to throw her integrity away for really nothing from donald trump, just to endorse. i don't see any benefit, because she won't be running for office anytime soon. >> okay. standby, please, susan del percio. we will have more on the. for all of you, again, ron desantis about 40 minutes ago or so made it official, he has dropped out of the presidential campaign. he did so with a statement posted on x. he did have a five pm press conference or statement of sorts to be scheduled. we thought it might be in new hampshire. it turns out we've been told by -- he's on the ground in florida, we are not sure specifically, where very likely in the capital. let's take a listen to what he put out there a short while ago

on x, making his campaign withdrawal official. there it is. >> the decline of this nation requires leadership that delivers big results for the people we are elected to serve. i have a record of leading with conviction, championing an agenda marked by bold colors, delivering on my promises, and defeating the people who are responsible for our nations decline. that is the type of leadership we need for all of america. over the past many months, casey and i have traveled across the country to deliver a message of hope, that decline is a choice and we can, in fact, 68 again as a nation. nobody works harder, and we left it al out on the field. our second place finish in iowa, we played and deliberated on the way forward. if there was anything i could do to produce a favorable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, i would do it. but i can't ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources. we don't have a clear path to

victory. accordingly, i am today suspending my campaign. i am proud to have delivered on 100% of my promises. i will not stop now. it is clear to me that a majority of republican primary voters want to give donald trump another chance. they watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance, and they see democrats using lost to this day to attack. him i've had disagreement with donald trump, such as on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of anthony fauci, trump is superior to the current incumbent, joe biden. that is clear. >> okay. i'm joined now by matt dixon. matt was joining us earlier to talk about all the campaigns for florida. he's got a great new book that's out, and it's talking about the relationship between donald trump and ron desantis. matt, as i bring you, in your reaction to this? i know you are joining us on the phone, asked people can see on the screen there. your reaction to this. did you think the timing was

what you expected for ron desantis to drop out? >> i think an important framework to look through for this is post iowa, as they've put their entire focus on the coordination into iowa, and then a 30 point loss they had. -- south carolina but a finance team that became clear they weren't going to be able to really scrape together enough money to get there. they started meeting as i understand it, last night, to -- today, we obviously saw that was the case. >> it's really all about the money at this point, right? you think maybe emotionally he might have wanted to go on. roll the dice with new hampshire, focus on south carolina. but if your campaign is dried up, you don't have any shot at picking up any sort of viable percentage of voters. >> yeah, money is the way for politics. it should be noted, desantis had more than he needed, and it comes a bit prior in his campaign.

it's not the entire driving factor. he ran, i think many of your guests have touched on a broad campaign at times. the money at one point was not a. problem he still couldn't get past the trump hurdle. you are not going to get past that hurdle with no money. that's kind of where they are today. >> okay. matt dixon, thank you so much for funding. and i know you've been on the road covering things. i appreciate the conversation earlier, and again, your book is swamp monsters. people can dive into that if they want to get more about the inner workings of florida politics, particularly those between donald trump and ron desantis. right, now we've got a big group. we can talk further about ron desantis dropping out about 45 minutes ago from the presidential campaign. ali, and asha, don calloway, susan del percio, thank you, don, for also coming back. i think your screen is frozen, but i hope that you are able to hear me, at least. let's go to you, dasha. it is the end of the line for ron desantis. you are standing in a place that probably expected to have a lot more activity because he

was headed to new hampshire today, at least that was the word. do you know if the plane that he was traveling on ever actually made it towards new hampshire, or was it at some, point given his decision to citing we are turning around and heading south to florida? you are the one who confirmed things on the ground in florida now. >> i don't know the details of where the plane did or didn't go or was deliberately from, when i know is that he is in florida right, now but just before we learned that, literally just hours before he dropped out, we knew he had an event tonight at five pm. he never backed down. the super pac supporting him noticed -- notified us of multiple events in new hampshire for tomorrow. so that's what all of us were scrambling, about trying to figure out exactly what was going on. and of course, then the news broke. we helped to break it here on nbc news on your show, alex.

now the question is, to what extent does donald -- desantis go up and support former president trump? does former president trump want that given this bitter feud between the two of them that has played out over the course of the last year? i have heard in rally after rally, interview after interview desantis say donald trump expects you to kiss the ring and if you don't you are shot out. i would never do that. well, here we have him doing just that. but i think he saw what we've all seen with the massive victory trump hadn't iowa and what he is on track to have here in new hampshire, the this attempt to have an alternative in the republican primary just wasn't working out. of course, nikki haley is still hoping that will potentially work out for her. but certainly, desantis, is this campaign that was seen at

the beginning of all of this, alex, as the potential best shot to knock out trump, never manifested in the way anyone thought it would. this is a campaign that sort of failed to launch, if i could use a quote from one of our sources that wasn't our headline, taking a deep dive on the campaign this morning. you know, from a poor launch full of glitches to a campaign that ran out of money in the summer. i'm not surprised to hear from matt dixon that it was finances that was one of the big strains on why they couldn't make it to south carolina. you know, you can want to fight nikki haley there all you want, but if you don't have the resources and you can't put fuel in the plane, then you cannot get to your campaign stops and you don't have a campaign. if that's where you are, at at some point you just have to call it. >> yeah. which he definitely did. let's move to you, ali.

we heard from nikki haley earlier, when she was saying all the fellows but one have dropped out of the race. what more can you tell us about not only what she was saying but the reaction? >> not a shocking refrain. i think we were able to predict she would say something to the effect of the fellas and nikki haley. it's a regular way of reminding that not only is she the trump alternative in this race, but she is the only woman who is running in this field of what once was over a dozen candidates, and has now been whittled down to just two major candidates vying for the nomination. she promised here speaking to supporters that she would fight until the last second, effectively saying that she's going to plan to stay in this race. you've got to imagine it is difficult, though. over the course of the last few days, we have seen the trump campaign sort of troll nikki haley by bringing in a slate of south carolina legislators, many of them previously endorsed trump, but they were able to add a sort of cherry on top of the trolling sunday with

the endorsement of south carolina senator tim scott, someone who once shared the run in this field in 2024 with haley, with trump, with desantis, and now came out and endorsed donald trump. it's notable because haley is the person, when she was governor in 2012, who elevated tim scott to that senate seat in the first place. of course, he has won reelection since then on his own merit, but that is something the haley campaign has been clearly dealing with as it happens in realtime. the fact that desantis is endorsing trump is not exactly shocking to them. i don't think the haley team ever thought that in the wake of a desantis drop he would come to her eighth. they've certainly not been friendly on the campaign trail. the last debate we saw in this primary was haileybury as desantis duking it out with multiple lines of what we call oppo research. all of the dirt they could find to lob at their arrival. no love lost between those two camps, and certainly i'm seeing some stark reaction of haley

allies on social media and other platforms as they see ron desantis leave this race. i think the thing right now that i'm thinking about, we listen to these candidates all the time and of course you can think about things they say often and then see them in a new light now. nikki haley often tells voters out here on the campaign trail, don't complain about who you get in the general election. if you don't play in this primary. i think the question here that all of us are seeing the answer to is republicans are making their choice. they are not going to be unhappy with who they get because they want donald trump once again. despite the strongman rhetoric that von has reported offers, along the spite the fact that he has changed this party and unmoored it from its traditional values. i've covered him from the very start, in 2015, all the way through. now this party has been to his. will the fact that nikki haley is the last person standing, challenging him for that provides another way forward. i'm not sure the republican voters want to take it. >> that's an interesting

assessment. thanks for that. let's move to you, don calloway, right now. does this into anything good for democrats? having ron desantis and drop out. or is this purely about consolidation within the republican party, which would not be good for democrats? >> i'm not really sure what it means for democrats right now. but i don't see it providing a huge boost to joe biden and kamala harris and democratic hopes down the ticket, because at the end of the day, i think we are all kind of resigned to the reality that it's going to be donald trump. nikki haley being the last person standing, you do see some sentiment in new hampshire about this idea of some moral center not wanting to be with donald trump. but it's too little too late. they created donald trump, like ali said, since 2015. they supported him, we were all kind of has democrats, not only democrats, but as americans, hoping that at some point the adult in the proverbial collective american room would step up and say, we can't have

this. we haven't seen that. like we talked about earlier today, the senator from south carolina stepping up for donald trump and endorsing, him the speaker of the house, the letter in senate endorsing trump. you are starting to see senate leadership, leadership, potential leadership of the republican party congealing around donald trump. it may be because they don't see a path to beat him. obviously, ron desantis did not represent that. but it's also not clear nikki haley is going to produce a real electable alternative when you're talking about the republican primary. i actually think she's probably best suited to beat joe biden. i don't want to see her as a nominee, but you have to get through the gauntlet of the crazies, which is the republican primary. it's not clear anybody other than donald trump can do. that this has been his party for nine years now, and the republicans are having to deal with the reality of what that looks like. deal with the reality of what tha>> . thanks for that. standby, my friend. let's move back to you, van, as you are cruising there in the

new hampshire roadways. with donald trump, how do you expect him to react when he finally does put out a statement? you mentioned he hadn't officially done so, jason miller and his campaign, senior campaign director had said we will let him speak for this and his reaction to rhonda scent is coming out. we expect him to speak immediately but soon. what do you expect to hear from him? >> i would expect to hear a candidate boast about his position in this republican primary. just yesterday on the campaign stage he said he doesn't need to talk about rhonda santa's anymore because he thinks he's gone and a relevant to this campaign. you could say donald trump was all but right here. when you look at new hampshire polling where he stood five or 6%, he's not wrong here up in the state of new hampshire. for donald trump here to speak to at least point she was just making a few moments ago, we

both covered the republican primary eight years ago. there is this conversation repeatedly taking place, if only he was a two man race. donald trump versus alternative. donald trump versus -- versus ted cruz. it never got to that point. there is this idea that if in fact all the support consolidated around one alternative, somehow donald trump would be knocked off the pedal still as a nominee. to problems with that. number one, there is coalescing around donald trump. not only doug burgum endorsing donald trump, but tim scott, ron desantis not endorsing the trump alternative. the hard reality is that over the course of the last three years, there has continued to be evidence that republican electorate want but trump or either the trump backed candidate. last year, i covered so many primaries between trump-backed candidates and other challengers. whether it be kari lake, the

primary race, or doug mastriano in pennsylvania, tim michaels in wisconsin, dickson in michigan, every one of those trump-backed candidates came out unsuccessful because the republican primary electorate wanted in the maga candidates. that is a reality that now on tuesday we are all going to watch play out in realtime. here in the state of new hampshire, in an actual matchup for the first time, a one-on-one matchup between donald trump and somebody else, the republican primary electorate is going to have the chance to make that decision. if in fact they side with donald trump, it is then going to be up to the folks in nevada and the folks in south carolina to again have the chance to go in a different direction. right now, this is exactly what donald trump wanted in order to prove to the republican we at large that he is the one voters want. >> yeah, thanks for that, vaughn. i know you will stay with us as you are on the.

road let's go to tom nichols right. now tom, we were going to talk about a bunch of, things but this is pretty good to be talking about. big news there. i know you write for the atlantic. i'm going to ask, what do you think this does to the anti trump movement? and the dropping out of rhonda santas, does it help coalesce? does it fracture? away from trump and allow more support for nikki haley, for those who really don't want donald trump? or is someone who is seen as a trump two point oh with ron desantis? >> but one thing it does is show the anti trump movement within the republican party is a pretty small room. i think it actually undercuts the arguments and that as vaughn was just saying that if only, but for the crowded field, the anti trump sentiment within the republican party would bubble to the top. that is simply not the case. i think the anti trump

republicans have to really think now about as many of us did a lot earlier than this, is the republican party merely an extension of donald trump? i think after today, especially with that kind of cringey endorsement that desantis gave in that about four and a half minute video he released, that really just was a complete white flag. it is the most recent white flag. in a series of them for weeks now. i'm sure there are -- they are not controlling this nomination, that's for sure. >> yeah, but, tom and david, i will get you in one second, you mentioned the white flag being offered up by ron desantis. is that a minute for nikki haley at some point as well? anybody up against donald trump, given his lock on the republican party, do they have any choice but to offer up a white flag? >> they have no choice. they have plenty of choices, but not if they want to keep

their viability in places like florida, upstate new york, the, south other places where people like tim scott like their jobs, they want to go back to work. they like being in washington. they will not antagonize donald trump's base. there are plenty of alternatives if these people have the courage to take them. if we will indulge in wish casting or how this actually turned into a normal political race, nikki haley winds new hampshire, she wins her home state of south carolina, and suddenly this is a stark -- it is the two person race, right? it is the stark choice. the polling suggests that eventually she is going to hoist that white flag as well. you know, we will get that kind of i support the nominee stuff going on, even if the nominee is donald trump. >> yeah. david jolly, former republican

congressman from florida, florida's got the big conversation right now given everything. how much were you surprised by this happening today, when you spoke with me a couple hours, a couple and a half hours ago, you predicted this might happen. but today? >> yeah, today was the day, i believe the last 24 hours we're showing all the signals that the florida governor's advisers were counseling him, now is the time to dropout. you have to consider the context of this. this is probably the biggest collapse of a presidential campaign in modern political history, if not all of american history. he was coming off a rushing victory of 19 points in the swing state of florida, had upwards of 100 $50 million, it was polling ahead of the former president in donald trump, and rupert murdoch used a new york post cover to call him the future. ron desantis had everything going for him. he started the presidential primary campaign on third base and stole second. he found himself on the eve of

the new hampshire primary 43 points behind in the granite state. 52 points behind in south carolina, and 65 points behind in nevada. in the withdrawal of vivek ramaswamy, it was clear voters were turning to ron desantis. he was at risk of becoming the gap fly in this primary. what we saw was a candidate, and this is where i think his advisors started to work on him in the last 24 hours. ron desantis was not about to lose 20, four he was at risk of losing 2028. he was at risk of losing in the party. what doesn't surprise me about the endorsement of donald trump is this. not just that he is falling in line with moscow. to be honest, he never really tried to contest donald trump. he tried to run adjacent to donald trump. it was donald trump that started knocking wrong desantis early. but i think the reason you see this alliance with donald trump is back home in florida, iran desantis has nowhere to go. if he doesn't challenge rick scott, the sitting u.s. senator

in a primary this year, he becomes the lame duck governor. in 26, he was out of office. if he has any aspirations in 28, you have to look at what happened to bush and huckabee after they left the governor's mansion. you have to -- perhaps there's a place in the governor's mansion to get him back to washington, or perhaps the wild card. if he does primary rick scott in the u.s. senate primary campaign this year, that would give him somewhere to go. scott and desantis haiti cha. they're the animosity is clear. ron desantis is returning to a hostile republican legislature, he is kind of tired of the florida governor's arrogance and anger. a historic collapse of his presidential campaign. nowhere to go. today was the day, otherwise he is looking at another week to four weeks of a public political beating of his campaign. >> listen, david, can you give me a sense of who you think might be donald trump's vp pick? again, we have less than a minute until the top of the

hour. >> he likes sycophants. you have to look at stefanik, kari lake, perhaps, sarah huckabee sanders, but don't look at the -- someone like tucker carlson who shovels in xenophobic in a way that people lap up on the republican side. >> okay, tom nichols, you've got a shot of this question. who do you think? >> she is working hard for. it i'm probably less -- with donald, trump you can ever predict, a little less inclined than david to think of an outside shot, because there is a republican that will put some pressure not to pick tv stars. but anything can happen. >> okay, susan, give me your one name again, and i will get the dawn real quick. we are just out of time, guys. >> jt, brit senator from alabama. she brings a little bipartisanship, she's a woman, she is conservative. >> last one to you. who do you think?