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new hampshire. on what could only be described as a wild day for the 2024 presidential campaign. what once was a pretty clap -- only a couple of months ago, is now down to a two-person race, as of today. after florida governor ron desantis dropped out and endorsed donald trump, immediately basically, just hours ago. now this was a rocky road for desantis from the very beginning, i think it is fair to say. because remember back in the spring, when he kicked off his campaign with a glitchy quid twitter live screen. we all remember that. it turns out things never really went up from there. i know it may be hard to picture, especially tonight, before he entered the race, desantis was thought of as the next great hope of the republican party. he was the biggest story of the 2022 election on the republican

side, and he was thought of as donald trump's biggest threat. but for messaging, for messaging mistakes to money issues, his campaign quickly, and i mean quite quickly, fell apart. he was a bit of what i would call a paper tiger candidate, meaning basically sure, he was great on paper, he was a governor of florida, he had a lot of credentials. but the more people saw of him, the less they seemed to like him. we may have hit this point a week ago, but desantis did pull off a distant second place finish last week in iowa a state where he put in the work, he really did his campaign, did he visited all 99 counties, and he still finished nearly 30 points behind donald trump. he hung in there, he still hung in there a little bit longer, even with no real plans to compete in new hampshire, and a dwindling set of financial resources or backwards. we will definitely be talking about that tonight. after hesitating to go after trump for months, even going to the right of him at times, like say the time he signed a

six-week abortion ban, and all of the times he went on anti vaccine screens. in the closing days of the race, he did start jabbing at the former president, a little bit. >> you can be the most worthless republican in america, but if you kiss the ring, he will say you are wonderful. you can be the strongest, most dynamic, successful republican and conservative in america. but if you don't kiss that ring, he'll try to trash you. you know what, you deserve a nominee that's going to put you first, not himself i. >> and a little spicy there, governor. where was that guy for the last six months? he just kind of came out fighting recently. but much like the rest of the campaign, the strategy was a bit of a false start. and this is what we saw today, just one week later. >> i can't ask our supporters to volunteer our time and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to

victory. accordingly, i am today suspending my campaign. trump is superior to the current incumbent, joe biden. that is clear. i signed a pledge to support the republican nominee, and i will honor that pledge. he gets my endorsement, because we can't go back to the old republican guard of yesteryear. >> so, there you have it. ron desantis dropping out, and basically kissing the ring, i would say. but that wasn't exactly a passionate ringing endorsement, i also think it's fair to say. the question really now, is what comes next? how does this impact tuesday night's primary in new hampshire and beyond? could nikki haley succeed where desantis and many many others have failed? or is this just another step in the coronation of the twice impeached four times indicted former president? for those questions, i want to bring my all-star panel, people who have been covering this race very closely. nbc news correspondent ali -- and -- . former rnc chairman and co-host of the week and on msnbc michael steele. former republican congressman

david jolly. and following the trump campaign, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard. so vaughn, let us start with you, because you have been covering the trump campaign very closely. he had a few words to say about that tonight, tell us a little bit about that, what we heard from him about ron desantis and his stepping out today? >> we could say that, jen, donald trump's eagerness to bring the republicans, one time republican rivals back into the fold, it's a little quicker this time around than eight years ago. of course, it took the likes of marco rubio and ted cruz a great many months to come around, to ultimately endorsing donald trump. and donald trump in return embracing them. this go around, it's a little different tenor, not only from ron desantis announcing his endorsement of donald trump the day he drops a, but also donald trump just hours later, on this stage in rochester new hampshire, striking a much different tenor about the florida governor he has ridiculed for the better part of the last year. take a listen.

>> i like to take time to congratulate ron desantis, and of course a really terrific person. i've gotten to know his wife casey for having read a great campaign for president. and he ran a really good campaign, i will tell you. it's not easy. they think it's easy doing this stuff right? it's not easy. but as you know, he left the campaign trail today at three pm, and in so doing, he was very gracious, and he endorsed me. so i appreciated. [applause] >> jen, politics for donald trump is perhaps the most transparently transactional, more so than any other politician i think in modern american history. before donald trump, he spent the better part of the last year, i've been following him around on the campaign trail. i listened to a great many speeches of his, in which he has said that ron desantis needs a personality transplant, that he wanted to cut social security and medicare, that he is a disciple of paul ryan.

so for him to go up on the stage here today with a clear recognition that he needs to unite this republican party, in order to mount a credible general election run against joe biden. >> you don't typically hear donald trump call ron desantis gracious, so that kind of stuck out to me. but very interesting to watch him compile these endorsements, and try to make it see inevitable. fun halyard, i know you have a lot of -- so thank you so much for joining, us and i'm sure -- i want to turn to my panel now, because there's just a lot to unpack about what exactly happened here. -- let me start with you, because you have been covering the desantis campaign quite closely. i think it is fair to say, whatever people think of his politics, he started the campaign as kind of the next great hope. he had a feud -- $8 million in the first day. there were people in the republican party who are quite excited about him. what happened here? >> a lot happened. the biggest thing that happened is donald trump. i mean, trump defined him before he could define himself. there were a lot of people, as

we were reporting this last story about him, that said he should have jumped in a lot sooner. >> into the? race >> -- into the race, into the race. but all timidly, -- he described their. he was taking punch after punch after punch from former president trump, and he never quite found his footing. how do you deal with that? because he was campaigning, trying to chip away at trump's base. and so he was scared of alienating them. but at the same time, there were a lot of folks who said he should have come out swinging. because what do his voters respect more than anything? why do they love donald trump so much? because he is a fighter, and that is what people were looking for in him. and toward the end here, you said it yourself, he started to sharpen his tone, he started to sharpen his message. there were people who are coming to me saying, where was the guy that we have seen over the last couple of months? where was he early on in this race? >> right, where was that guy. and i read his sunday show transcripts, and he basically said if trump was the nominee, biden would be leading him in

swing states. i mean, imagine if he had said that, it's a little bit, not something you should be saying as a candidate, but it was interesting. let me talk to you, because nikki haley has run a different strategy. she is very carefully, i would say, hitting trump on the margins, on things like debt, a huge issue here in new hampshire. she has been very specific about what she has targeted him. she also hasn't come out swinging, but she did better than desantis, clearly. so how has her strategy been different? >> the fact that he was taking all of the fire for the first year, effectively, of the campaign. she started her campaign well before ron desantis did, and sort of quietly built the plane, and then was able to take off with it. i think for desantis, as he was trying to launch, he was building the plane, and trump was also throwing bombs at him. that is certainly not the way you build a plan that is going to fly, at least for a very long distance. and so i think the fact that ron desantis was out there taking the arrows, while haley was trying to create her own

definition of herself, that helps. but i also think that the reality for this field, and this has been true before the candidates even officially jumped in, is the fact that this is a party that still wants trump. on the hill when i'm with lawmakers, he is the person who sets the tone, he is the person who creates the guardrails of what their ideology, to the extent that exists, looks like. i think the reality for all of these candidates is, they don't want to admit that voters just want trump, and none of them are trump. >> right, and at the end of the day, look, desantis was the guy that was supposed to be the alternative. everyone was looking at him as the one that could potentially beat trump. and people said to me, even if it weren't for all of these mistakes and miss steps that the campaign made along the way, even if he had ran occur -- the fact that you had donald trump there, from the outset, as the guy that he had to beat. it was an almost impossible feat. and what we saw in iowa, 51%, the majority of voters saying this is who we want.

and desantis. >> including -- >> right, and desantis, he tried to make the play, he tried to be trumpy, but without the chaos. and no one bought it. and now, nikki haley's left as the only alternative. and the majority of her coalition, they are not the hard-core republican primary voters, they are moderates, and this is the criticism that desantis has levied against. but there is something valid there -- where if he goes into south carolina, a state like that and other southern states and other really hard-core republican states, she is really going to struggle with the base of the republican party. >> and i want to bring in michael steele next, and david to. but michael, you are always straight talking for us here. i watched that video of ron desantis, and it felt strange, a little bit like he was under duress. and he basically said the bare minimum, i am going to abide by my commitment and my pledge to endorse the nominee. he is better than joe biden. it wasn't exactly a rousing

endorsement. i guess my question is, does it matter? is there enough of a ron desantis following that trump needs? or what matters about this endorsement to you? >> the only thing that really matters is that it feeds trump 's ego. and it sets ron desantis up in -- he honored his word, i am endorsing the -- nominee of the party. and number two, it sets him up for 2028. he doesn't want to burn that bridge, he wants to stay seemingly in the good graces of the republican base, such as it exists. and so, he tried to square it as much as he could. losing, stepping out of a campaign that you put a lot of time and effort into, forgot lists of how god awful you are as a candidate, it hurts. and there's a lot of pride to swallow their. and there's a lot of pride that really comes back hard, when

you hear the guy that you are endorsing, who has been criticizing you for the past six, seven, eight months, calling you everything -- saying you know what, i really like his wife, she is really nice. >> it's a little weird. >> a little weird, it doesn't feel good. you know, it just doesn't feel good. and yet, he has got to sit there and take it. he has to bend the ring, then the knee and kiss the ring, which he did today. the reality though, more broadly speaking, to both -- and alleys incredible reporting. these ladies, you guys are, -- covering this stuff. because it is all of -- the but the reality is very simply this, and you both agree that this was never anybody else's dance, race, or campaign, but donald trump's. this is his party, it is his until it isn't. and he doesn't plan to move off

of it any time soon. so all of the musing around his candidacy for both nikki, and ron desantis was always a fantasy. it was a fantasy of the moneyed interests in the party, they were never the base interests of the party, they were never peeling off donald trump voters. and that wasn't happening, no matter how much they liked him. i've talked to enough of them to know, yeah i like ron, but i'm for trump. there is nowhere to go in that conversation after that. not >> i >> that's a tough one. we do have our resident floridian with us, david jolly here. i heard this, these amazing ladies have been working their tails off, they've been talking as well. it's been reported that desantis is saying that trump le pen supporters are telling him i should run in 2028. do you think it's part of his

calculus, he's not exactly a great candidate, it's fair to say. do you think this is what he's thinking and why he dropped out now before new hampshire? >> part of his calculus for dropping out, he is at risk of losing his 2028 viability. i suggest that that's not really there either. in many ways, the story of rhonda santos is one of the most epic failures in presidential political campaigns. at least in modern history, considering he had the hottest hand in politics just one year ago. a 19-point win for the governorship over charlie crist, shattering florida's previous record for gubernatorial win in a swing state, 150 -- -- leading donald trump in early polls, rupert murdoch deemed him the future. he had everything but what ended up happening is he overplayed his confidence, his arrogance coming out of florida with his covid politics, this

culture war. as all three, hallie, dasha, and michael have pointed out, he ran into the reality that he was contesting donald trump and the party did not want to move on from donald trump. in many ways we remember this entire primary, all the candidates as the primary that never was. once donald trump said to maga, amir guy again, they agreed he was their guy again. the telling thing here is we'll, this entire -- we watch nikki haley, the numbers aren't great. where ron desantis was 43 -- 52 behind in south carolina, 65 behind in a battle, nick haley is 40 points behind and i had to had in her home state. where the talent is that this is over, ron desantis positioned himself as the off ramp. he was what maga voters would've wanted if they didn't have we'll trump. nikki haley possession to us off as the alternative, they

definitely don't want an alternative. it may be good we'll enough to win new hampshire, but it's not good enough to go past the picture. >> we need to sneak in a quick break, we're getting started tonight during our special coverage of the new hampshire primary. lots more to come over the next two hours here in manchester. including things are panels have talked about, the future what's up with trump, what happens for we'll haley, or talk about all of that and be right back. we'll we'll

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to kids faces every day. will today be the day you send your love to the rescue? please call or go online right now to give if operators are busy please wait patiently or go to loveshriners.org right way. welcome back to our special coverage from manchester, new hampshire. we just got a big jolt on the republican side with ron desantis dropping out today. the big question, is where will his supporters go. the answer is not so obvious but there may be some hints. back in november, nbc news national poll asked republican voters to rank their first and second choices. when it came to their first choice, 58% said they support donald trump.

18% picked rhonda santas. and 13% picked nikki haley. of that 18% that picked ron desantis as their first joints, 48% said donald trump would be their second choice. well 20% picked nikki haley as the second choice. joining me to help break down what exactly i just walk through, what it means, and where the supporters go is nbc news senior political editor, mark marie. mark, this is a question, the question my friends are asking me overtaxed, ron desantis drops out, he doesn't have a huge amount of support in new hampshire, but where those supporters go, or do they go after new hampshire? >> that national poll from november was a good head. i think there is a big caveat with those numbers. we're talking about a small sample size, 18 burson of rhonda santas voters. there could be a higher margin of error. we say that the national polls and even the state polls that we see in new hampshire, more

of desantis voters go their second choice, it goes to donald trump more than nikki haley. we extrapolate that out to a contest here in new hampshire for example, donald trump is above 50% according to the suffolk tracking poll. he's right at 50% according to cnn. if he is getting those desantis voters close to 2 to 1 margin, you think that that would help donald trump. again, we need to see how the race plays out on tuesday and beyond, to do more extrapolating. but also, john, it's importing to note, it's not a surprise that desantis voters go to haley because they're occupying the same lay of the conservative republicans, and the argument that desantis and -- he wasn't conservative enough on abortion, he didn't get the wall done. those are necessarily the nikki haley voters that have tended to be more about moderate republican and fully anti trump

wing of the republican party. >> new hampshire, is a good environment for nikki haley, the states after this become a bit harder, a bit more of the ron desantis trump voters posts new hampshire. >> the reason new hampshire is different than the other states going into south carolina, and super tuesday, is the huge number of independent undeclared voters. there wasn't a clarified or, is the biggest share of voters here in new hampshire, they have a republican ballot, a democratic ballot, and nikki haley has done well but here's one other thing. before desantis dropping of, yes, nikki haley has done well with new hampshire's independent voters, but donald trump has done better with republican voters. they still make up a larger share of the overall electorate here in new hampshire at least we think they well according to the polls. >> it's a mixed bag, you've been covering the haley campaign, there are people who are supporters freaking out, they think the wrong desantis supporters will go to trump,

they won't all go to trump. after they -- what is a mean for them? >> both sides of this today from sources who are freaking out in a positive way and freaking out in a negative way. from a numbers perspective, for the reasons that mark lays out, maybe halle picks up a third on a good day of the supporters, trump gets the rest, we're only talking about five or 6% though. it's such a small number the margin of error point you make is critically important, my sources are freaking out regardless of what they are. they're both saying at the end of the day it's not that big of a percentage of the vote here. for them, the reason they're feeling good is because they've been trying to push this narrative of it being a tour person race, for attending ron desantis isn't in it after iowa, they were fine to continue pretending with this gives them exactly what they wanted, is it a case of be careful what you wish for, guess we'll see, but it's never good to be a person who is the only one in trump's line of fire. haley as we talked about, that

if it had from the fact that that line of fire went a bunch of different places. now there's only one place for it to go and there is a lot of ferocity as we know when trump voters, supporters within his ranks coming out of iowa they were promising it was gonna be a bloodbath, not only a bloodbath but after they leave new hampshire a bloodbath on our home turf, it's really tough. >> trump has left corpses in his wake. the bodies, and was a concern of candidates, it was a concern from desantis team from the start when he came out after him, people were saying early on, this is not gonna be good for, you preserve your political future, it may be a concern for nikki haley. >> we have much more to get to, mark marie, thank you for stopping by, we love to dive into the numbers, it's important to focus on. that the rest of the gang is sticking around. coming up with ron desantis out, endorsing donald trump republican party is starting to coalesce around the four-time indicted front théus runner. we'll talk about what that means coming up, next.

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

if you are joining our special coverage in new hampshire, ron desantis is out of the presidential race. in an awkward and stilted video it's fair to say, -- the florida governor said, we don't have a clear path to victory. r once, we agree. he also endorsed donald trump and desantis's endorsement is the latest in what's been a steady coalescing of the party among the front runner. marco rubio, ted cruz, and tim scott fell into line. scott was a big part of a big group of south carolina lawmakers who flank trump onstage an event last night. a big show of force from elected leaders from nikki haley's own mistake. earlier tonight, steve dads went so far as to column a non presumptive nominee. and he urged republican tonight around. dasha burns, ali vitali are

here on the table. michael stephen -- and michael, let's start with you. you and i talked about the different vibes of donald trump. he seems to be in a temporary behaved mode, it's safe to say, where he's talking about people as gracious, he's thanking their spouses, it's awkward. but he's basically trying to lure people together. how much does that matter at this point in terms of the inevitability, and bringing the primary to an end? >> the inevitability is inevitable. it's a foregone conclusion, and he will be the nominee of the party. i think congressman daines and others got that right. the question then becomes, from 16 and 20, how much has trump learned in the art of baking the cake inside the party. in other words, it's one thing to get the ingredients together,

it's different once you start to mix them and create something that will give you what you need to be successful in the fall. he knows regardless of all the bravado, he's gonna have his hands full with president biden going into the fall. he's gonna need a strong coalition within the party, you'll need those disaffected republicans from ron desantis and others, to come to the table for him. you'll see a bit of that, you will use the trials of that work in his favor as far as his thinking goes, that helps off unmanned and season, flavor the batter that he's trying to create inside the party. it will all sort of paid an election result for ham in november. the problem is, donald trump, at any given turn's mouth, his abrasiveness, all of that will work against him.

and that's the trick that the party is gonna have to figure out, once they coalesce behind him, have to keep him out of his own way. >> i don't know about that batter, my grandmother said that you get more with honey than vinegar. i feel he put vinegar in the batter. that aside, david, president biden campaign is supposed to lift people. up but ron desantis is not that old, as we were talking about earlier, he may want to run again. some of these endorsements feel embarrassing to him in florida. how does he rebuild that, what does he do over the next year, two years to rebuild his reputation essentially? >> yeah, craig lushton,, look i would say as a floridian, the -- he's now coming home to florida, we enjoyed him being away in iowa. but consider the grip he held on florida politics was a real and israel, he remains a powerful politician in florida

today. what's different though is the florida republican legislature, the super majority legislature, was in lockstep with him until now. he's gonna come home to a somewhat hostile republican legislature who's overrun desantis. his arrogance, his anger affects republicans as much as it does democrats. what is he do for two years as a -- and still be a powerful governor. but can he wait two years and run in 28? i don't think, cell ask mike huckabee and jeb bush -- i think his spouse casey could end up with a falk show and start to help shine ron. but the wildcard is this, you could come home and primary rick scott this year for the u.s. senate race, and the two of them hate each other, the animosity is real. -- they endorsed donald trump over ron desantis, i imagine ron is

so fatigue from the presidential trail that they won't do that. vanities a powerful drug, he has until may or june to qualify for the u.s. senate race. maybe he pulls the trigger and as that. >> ron desantis again on the trail again. michael, what do you can add? they're >> real quick, what i love about what david just said, imagine that happening now, senator desantis is set up perfectly as an incumbent u.s. senator to run for president two years later. >> oh my god. oh boy. that is a lot to digest. you gave us a lot to digest. we need to sneak in a break. everyone is sticking around. coming up with days to go before the primary, nikki haley opens up a new line of attack against donald trump, questioning his mental fitness for office. we're back after a quick break.

♪ ♪ ♪ the wrong desantis dropout an endorsement of donald trump

caps of what's been a pretty interesting weekend here in new hampshire. it all began with donald trump confused nikki haley with nancy pelosi at an extended factory arrived about january six. >> they never report the crowd on january six, nikki haley, nikki haley, you know, do you know they destroy all of the information, the, evidence everything, deleted and destroyed, all of it, 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, they turned it down, they don't want to talk about it. >> there's some pretty obvious confusion going on there, a lot of repeating nikki haley, nikki haley. but he gave nikki haley basically an opening, she started directly questioning trump's mental fitness at events yesterday. >> last night, trump sent a raleigh and he's going on and

on a mentioning me many khoury times, as to why i didn't take security during the capitol riots. why didn't i handled january six better. i wasn't even in d.c. on january six. i wasn't in office than. they're saying he got confused, that he was talking about something else, nancy pelosi, he mentioned me multiple times and that's the barrio. but concern i have is that, i'm not saying anything derogatory but 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. [applause] >> ali vitali, dasha burns, michael steele, and david jolly are back with me. michael, why did she pick this, i have my theories on this, it eludes to him being old, she's

young, next generation, but we're a couple days out from the primary. she hasn't hit back on a lot of things, why this? >> she wanted to try and set up this nexus, this narrative between donald trump and joe biden, they're both old man, they're both having cognitive issues, et cetera, et cetera. it just fell flat, when you start apologizing before you do the job, the jab isn't as effective, i'm sorry i'm about to hit you, i don't mean to be derogatory, i'm not trying to be derogatory, but all smack you, okay, go ahead. it makes no sense. and it speaks volumes to why this campaign has turned out the way it has. none of them except for chris christie, and asa hutchinson,

or even close to trying to land a punch, in a competitive race for the nomination, everybody else wanted to swallow him, all kinds of nice verbiage and the like, the reality is he kept smacking them. and they never responded, but it's a time to was her thing coming out of iowa where she started, while, you know i'm running against donald trump and joe biden, they are one in the same. and everybody kind of yawn. because, okay, they are not. >> to michaels point, you both have covered so many nikki haley of outs, she's a good speaker, a good debater. she does this wind up in her speech, she says donald trump does not tell the truth, i'm going to tell you. truth and you're like, great, what's gonna happen and she basically says, chaos follows

him. >> it's still an equivocation. i've been to dozens of haley events over the year that i covered her. and even the criticisms are couched, it's really stunning to watch, when you listen the way that michael says, it explains why we ended up in this place. she was able to say the quiet part out loud. i would say, i have trouble keeping track of who speaker these days when i have my had on, i don't know maybe donald trump got lost in the speakers race. i don't know how you mix up nancy pelosi and nikki haley. >> something we were talking about during the break, it was sexism, the gendered nature of running for office, you heard me talking about, it she is a woman of color in a republican field, it needs to weigh on you, you both have covered. dasha, let me ask you, how does that weigh on her she seems to waver between girl power, as she did in the statement responding to the desantis dropping, out she said may the

best women win, other times he says it doesn't matter, how does the campaign grapple at this? it >> isn't a party that responds well to girl power, 02 powerful people of color, right, when you're talking directly about the social issues, it simply does not resonate, it's not something that the base wants to hear. you need to walk around it in these delicate ways,, ali you've mentioned you've entered this closely, i'm curious to hear your take on how she's been able to tiptoe around, this this people in the republican party, the voters i've talked to don't want to be preach to about gender or about race, it's why i think she struggled to talk about both. >> obviously this is the place that my brain goes, first because of writing a book haley, has a fascinating way of dealing with gender, on the one hand, she's playing up femininity, wearing shirts that say she who dares when, messages about kicking back in

heels she has this line about fellas attacking here is a clear way of saying, there's a boys club that's intact, that she is on the outside, when you look at these endorsements, tim scott coming to donald trump, all the delegation members coming to trump. marco rubio coming to trump. ron desantis coming to trump. when she says the fellas, what she's saying is the boys don't want me to have this but i'm here anyway. which is not allowed to say, because she's a republican woman running in a field, they're doing this to me because i'm a woman, donald trump is bringing claims against me because i'm a woman of color, republican voters an expert after experts say, this data after data point that i found while i was writing my book pointed this out as well. grassroots republican voters hate anything that reeks of gender identity politics. it means she's in a box to the way that she can talk about it, she needs to make sure she saying, i know i look different, i sound different, everyone has eyes, they can see that. but that's not the reason why

you vote for me it's all merit, which of course it is. >> she'd write a great book about that if she averaged. it don't know if she. well we need to take a break, michael steele who's been up since the crack of dawn today, he hosted a morning show, i want to thank you for sticking with us tonight. the rest of the gang will be back in a few minutes. but first, -- in manchester, i'll ask you about a possible trump rematch that could start earlier and in a couple weeks. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. ask about nurtec odt.

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with ron desantis officially out of the race, and nikki haley about to make her last stand in all likelihood in new hampshire. a trump biden rematch is starting to look more and more likely by the hour. and that would be exactly what the campaign -- joining me now, is them -- of california. first of, while we were talking about all of this a couple of hours ago, a lot happened this afternoon including one of the remaining candidates dropping out. it makes it feel a bit closer to the general election. let me start about where i ended. does the biden campaign, would they preferred for this to be over sooner than later to get this going, and a race against trump? >> i have been saying that president biden needs to be our nominee from the beginning, i assume donald trump will be the republican nominee, those of us that converts it comes as no surprise that it's his party, his party in congress. he was gonna be the nominee, the president finally is getting to draw a contrast into

areas, one, a patriotism, president biden served in the citizen counsel, the senate, he served as vice president, as president he believes in democracy and the democratic process. and trump destroys institutions, and has no regard for the constitution. and the second, the economy, he's gonna be talk about bringing manufacturing jobs -- helping the working class. trump did tax cuts, it's time that he draws contrast and we weren't able to do it until he had a nominee. >> it may be time to draw a contrast. you've been working your tail off as part of the write in campaign effort. as you look ahead to tuesday, lots of eyes on the primary contest, what a success look like for the president? >> it hasn't been me, it's been the people in new hampshire, they are so extraordinary, they organized organically, it did not come from the biden campaign, they said this is our responsibility to elect someone when we have war in ukraine, a complex situation, joe biden is a person, i know he'll win and it will be a strong, when --

>> 50% plus one is good? >> a win is a win, writing and campaigning is hard, you have to -- and the fact that he's gonna be able to do that and when we'll not being on the ballot, it's extraordinary. it should show that people have underestimated joe biden, i underestimated him when i was bernie's co-chair. when it comes to election day, somehow he manages to do well and when, you're seeing that in new hampshire and it wasn't that much enthusiasm nine months ago as we get close to the election, there is enthusiasm it will show on tuesday. >> he's doing bedding here against trump than a number of other swing states which is interesting, benefiting from the trump attacks. this is the time a year where weird things happen, it's a weird thing, today congressman tim phelps, who's running and on the ballot, he went to a trump event, greeted supporters and said this, he said, i've been treated with more kindness and hospitality in this line --

that i have been by democratic elected officials in the state of new hampshire. it might be what you need to know. he's endorsed medicare for all, supported democratic positions, what do you make of that, what's happening here? i >> think he's probably frustrated with the campaign that it's not going anywhere. when it comes to congress, we treat him with respect, or friendly, he hasn't been ostracized. i've talked to democratic officials in new hampshire, they say he has every right to run. here is what people don't like, why are you attacking president biden on his age, talking about poll numbers, talk about your ideas for the country, having positive vision. to the extent he's gotten pushback it's not because he's running, it's because people say, run and ideas campaign but people respect his right to run, i hope to rally behind the president. the irony is, you have desantis rallying behind trump, it would be nice if after president biden wins, folks get behind the president. >> people say, there's a

process and policy and people hear this, he said he's open to running on the no labels ticket. i asked, is not necessarily because of dean phillips, as we do get closer to a general election, it's a potential threat, there are no labels to, get a third party ticket, how concerned are you about that having an impact to elect donald trump? >> -- two days ago, he lost his wife, he's in his 80s, patriotic person. he said, i have no problem with third party candidates it's a democracy, it's great, we have an existential challenge and we've done the polling, a third party candidate is one of the only ways that joe biden loses the reelection. why do you want to be part of that, my question to dean phillips would be, do you really think you're gonna get elected president on a third party, it's impossible mathematically, why are you big thank you to doing this? do you you for doing really want donald double duty today, trump to win. i really appreciated. while you are still around the state with the people of new

hampshire, getting out the vote for the writing campaigns thanks for joining me night twice today. i really appreciate it. we have another hour breaking news coverage, coming up, live from new hampshire, ron desantis is out, nikki haley is making one last push. we've got the perfect people to break it all down. so we'll be right back, after a very quick break. very quick break

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