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what could only be described as a wild day for the 2024 presidential campaign. what was once a pretty crowded republican field, 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 was fair to say. because remember back in the spring when he kicked off his campaign with a glitchy twitter live stream, we all kind of remember that, it turns out things never went up from. there i know it may be hard to picture, especially tonight, before he entered the race, desantis was thought about as the next great hope of the republican party. he was the big story of the 2022 election on the republican side. and he was thought of as donald trump's biggest threat. but from messaging mistakes to money issues, his campaign quickly, and i mean, quite quickly fell apart. he was a bit of a paper tiger

candidate, meaning he was great on paper, a governor of florida, a lot of credentials. but the more people saw him, the less the seemed to like him. we may have hit this point a week ago, but desantis did pull off a distant second place finish last weekend iowa, a state where he put in the work, he really did, his campaign, 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 backers. 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 the six-week abortion ban and all of the times he went on anti vaccine screed's, 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 will try to trash you. you know what? you deserve a nominee that is going to put you first, not himself first. >> a little spicy, their governor. where was that guy for the last six months? he kind of just came out fighting recently. but much of 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 supported volunteer our time and donate their resources. we don't have a clear path to victory. accordingly, i am now today suspending my campaign. >> trump's appear 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 has 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. 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 nights primary in new hampshire and beyond? can nikki haley succeed where desantis and many others have failed? or is this just another step in the twice impeached four times indicted former president? for those questions, i want to bring in my all-star panel, people have been covering this race very closely, nbc news correspondent ali vitali and dasha burns, former rnc chairman and co-host of the weekend on msnbc michael steele, former republican congressman david jolly, and following the trump campaign, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard. vaughn, let me start with you. because you've been covering the trump campaign very closely. he had a few words to say about that tonight. tell us a little bit about that,

and what we heard from him about ron desantis and his stepping out today. >> we can say, that jen, donald trump's eagerness to bring republicans, one time republican rivals, back into the fold is 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 interesting donald trump, and donald trump intern embracing them. this go around was a little different tenor, not only from ron desantis announcing his endorsement to don trump on the day he drops out, but all 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 would like to take time to congratulate ron desantis and -- [applause] >> of course a really terrific person who have gotten to know, i've gotten to know his wife,

casey, for his campaign for president. he ran a really good campaign, i will tell you. it's not easy, they think it's easy doing this stuff? but 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 endorse me. so i appreciate it. >> [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 listen to a great many speeches of his where he says 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 an incredible election against joe biden. >> you don't typically hear

donald trump called donald -- ron desantis gracious. but very interesting to compile these endorsements and saying it seems inevitable. but hillier, thank you for joining, us i'm sure we'll talk to you very soon. i want to turn to my panel now, because there's just a lot to unpack about what exactly happened here. dasha, let me start with you because event, can bring the desantis campaign quite closely. and it's fair to say whatever people think of the politics, he started the campaign as the next great hope. he had a huge fundraising day on his first, a $8 million. there are people 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 reporting in the last story about him, but said he should've jumped in a lot sooner. >> into the race? >> into the race, into the race. but ultimately, vaughn described there, 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 missteps 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 is 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 her. but there is something valid there -- where if she 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 too. but michael, you are always straight talking for us here. i watched that video of ron desantis, and it felt strained, 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 two ways. he honored his word, i am endorsing the putative 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, regardless of how god awful you are as a candidate, it hurts. and there's a lot of pride to swallow there. 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 but a child of god, 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, bend the knee and kiss the ring, which he did today. the reality though, more broadly speaking, to both dasha and ali's incredible reporting, these ladies, you guys are yale-man out here covering the stuff, because it is all of the map. but the reality is simply this, and you both have made it, this was never anybody else's dance, race, or campaign but donald trump's. this is his party. this is his until it isn't. and he doesn't plan to not move off of it anytime soon. so all of the musing around this candidacy for both nikki haley and ron desantis was always a fantasy. it was a fantasy of the moneyed interests in the party.

they were never the base interest of the party. they were never peeling off donald trump voters. and that was 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. >> that's a tough one. so, we do fortunately have a resident floridian with us with david jolly here. and david, i've heard this, these amazing legacy and reporting, working their tails off with us for the last couple of days as well, and it's been reported to that desantis is say that trump supporters are telling him, you should run in 2028. do you think that's part of his calculus? i ask this because he's not exactly a great candidate, i think it's fair to say. do you think this is -- what he's thinking and why he dropped out now before the new hampshire? >> i think part of his calculus for dropping out today, he was at risk of losing his 2028 viability. but i would suggest that's not really there either.

and look, i think in many ways the story of ron desantis is one of the most epic failures in presidential political campaigns, at least in modern history. consider he had the hottest hand in politics just one year ago. a 19-point win for the governorship over charlie chris, shattering all of florida's previous records for a gubernatorial win in a swing state. about $150 million in commitments. he was leading donald trump in the early polls. rupert murdoch deemed him the future. so he had everything. but what ended up happening is he overplayed's confidence in his arrogance, coming out of florida with his perfect politics and its culture wars. so i think all three, ali, gotcha, michael, he also ran on the reality that he is contesting donald trump and the party didn't want to move on from donald trump. and in many ways, we might remember this entire primary, all the candidates, as the primary that never was. because once donald trump said

to maga i'm your guy again, we agreed, he was their guy again. and i think the telling thing here is i think this entire race is now over. i mean, obviously we're watching nikki haley, the numbers aren't great. but where ron desantis was 42 points in new hampshire, 52 behind in south carolina, 65 behind in nevada, nikki haley herself as 40 points behind in the head to head in her home state. and so the tell is that this is over is i think ron desantis has position himself as the off ramp. he was what mark voters would have wanted if they don't want trump. nikki haley has positioned herself as the alternative. and they definitely don't want an alternative. it might be good enough to possibly win new hampshire. but it's not good enough to go past new hampshire. >> we do have to sneak in a very quick break. but we are just getting started nitric our special coverage of the new hampshire primary. lots and lots more to come over the next two hours here in manchester, including a lot of the things her panels have

already talked about, the future, what's up with trump, what happens with haley, we'll talk about all of it. we'll be right back. we'll be right back.

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 ron desantis. and 13% picked nikki haley. of that 18% that picked ron desantis as their first choice, 48% said donald trump would be their second choice. while 20% picked nikki haley as the second choice. joining me to help break down what exactly i just walked through, what it means, and where the supporters go is nbc

news senior political editor, mark murray. mark, this is a question, the question my friends are asking me over text, ron desantis drops out, he doesn't have a huge amount of support in new hampshire, but where those supporters go, where do they go after new hampshire to? >> that national poll from november was a good hint. i think there is a big caveat with those numbers. we're talking about a small sample size, 18% of ron desantis voters. there could be a high 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 aren't necessarily the nikki haley voters that have tended to be more 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 post 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.

those undeclared voters is the biggest share of voters here in new hampshire, they can 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. and they still make up a larger share of the overall electorate here in new hampshire, or at least we think they will, according to a lot of the polls. >> so a bit of a mixed bag. and ali, you've been covering the haley campaign a lot. there are people who i think our haley supporters freaking out a little bit. they think that desantis supporters will all go to. trump they want all go to trump, some will go to haley, not zero. how do they feel about this indictment and what it means for them? >> i've heard both sides of this today, from sources who are both freaking out in a positive, right freaking out in a negative way. i think from a numbers perspective, for all the reasons that mark lays out, okay, haley maybe picks up a third on a good day of these desantis supporters. trump gets the rest. we are really only top five or

6%. though it's such a small number, the margin of error point you make is so predictably imported. it's one that my sources, freaking, out regardless of how they are, they are both saying, at the end of the day, it's just not that big of a percentage of the vote here. for them, the reason that they're feeling good is because they have been trying to push this narrative of it being a two person race, pretending that ron desantis is not still in it after iowa. they were fined to continue pretending, this is exactly what they wanted. now is it a case of be careful what you wish for? guess we are going to see. but it's never good to be the person who is the only one in trump's line of fire. haley, as we talked about before, benefited from the fact 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 all know, when trump voters, trump supporters within his ranks. coming out thewere promising that this was effectively going to be a bloodbath. not only is it going to be a bloodbath, but after they leave new hampshire, it's a bloodbath on her home turf, and that's

really tough. >> trump has left a lot of courses in his wake. we can count the body. and that was a concern of -- >> of candidates. >> that was a concern of the desantis team from the start when he started coming after him so hard. there were people saying early on,, hate things are not looking good for, you get out now, preserve your political future. now my concern is for nikki haley. >> yeah, syrian. we have much more to get to. mark murray, thank you for stopping. by i love diving into the numbers, it's important to focus on that. the rest of the game is sticking around. coming up, with ron desantis out and endorsing donald, trump republican party is starting to coalesce around the four times indicted front runner. we'll talk about what that means coming up, next. ng up, next. shipstation saves us so much time it makes it really easy and seamless pick an order print everything you need slap the label on ito the box and it's ready to go our cost for shipping, were cut in half just like that go to shipstation/tv and get 2 months free ♪ ♪ ♪

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. for 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. so what does he do for two years as a lame duck?

yes a little -- line. so he will still be a powerful governor. but can he wait two years and run in 20? eight i don't think so. ask mike huckabee in jeb bush of that turnout for them, running once they left the governor's mansion. i think in his spouses, case could end up with a fox show and start outside ron. but while the car is this. he could come home and primary rick scott this year for the u.s. senate race, and he would beat rick scott. and the two of them hit each other. the animosity is real. instead of rick scott and marco rubio and donald trump over ron desantis, i imagine ron and casey desantis are still fatigued for the presidential trail they will not do that. but vanity is a powerful drug. and he has until, i believe, may or june to actually qualify for the u.s. senate race. maybe pulls the trigger and does that. >> and we may see ron desantis on the trail again. michael, what were you going to add there? >> real quick, what i love about what david just said is imagine that happening now,

senator ron desantis said it perfectly, as an incumbent u.s. senator to run for senate two years late. >> oh boy, that is a lot to really digest. a lot to digest. we do have to sneak in a very quick break again, but everyone is sticking around still. coming up with just days to go before the new hampshire primary, nikki haley opens up a new line of attack against donald trump, openly questioning his mental fitness for office. we're back after a quick break. a quick break

the ron desantis dropout an endorsement of donald trump caps off what has been a pretty interesting weekend here in new hampshire. it all began with donald trump confused nikki haley with nancy pelosi in an extended fact free rant about january 6th. >> they never -- the crowd on january 6th. you know, nikki haley, nikki haley, -- you know they destroyed all the information, all the evidence, everything, the league and destroyed all of it, all of it, because of lots of things. like nikki haley is in charge of security. we all figured 10,000 people, soldiers, national guard soldiers -- whatever they want, they turned it down. they don't want to talk about that. >> there's some pretty obvious confusion going on there, and a lot of repeating nikki haley, nikki haley. but he gave nikki haley basically an opening. and she started directly questioning trumps mental fitness on campaign events

yesterday. >> last night, trump is at a rally, and he's going on and on, mentioning me multiple times as why i didn't take security during the capitol riots. why i didn't handled january 6th better. i wasn't even in d.c. on january 6th. i wasn't in office then they're saying he got confused, that he was talking about something else, nancy pelosi, he mentioned me multiple times in that scenario. the concern i have is i'm not saying anything derogatory, but when your 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 lande 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 acleawa 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.

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officially out of the race and nikki haley about to make her last day, and all the likelihood, here in new hampshire, a trump biden rematch is starting to look more and more likely by the hour. and that might be exactly with the biden campaign wants. joining me now is democratic congressman ro khanna of california. so first of all we were talking about all of this just a couple of hours ago. but a lot happened this afternoon, including one of the remaining candidates dropping

out. so makes it all feel a little closer to the general election. so let me start with where i ended their. does the biden campaign, when they prefer to this be over sooner rather than later to get this all going in a race against trump? >> look, i've been saying that president biden needs to be our nominee from the beginning, because i always assumed donald trump would be the republican nominee. those of us in congress, this comes as no surprise, it's his party, it's his party in congress. he was going to be the nominee. and i think the president finally is going to draw a contrast on two areas. one is patriotism. president biden served on the city council, he served on the senate, he served as vice president, president, he believes in democracy in the democratic process. you have trump destroying institutions and having no regard for the constitution. and the second is on the economy. he is going to talk about bringing manufacturing jobs back, helping the working class,

trump did all the tax cuts. it's time he draws all the contrast, we have not been able to do it until there was a nominee. >> it may be very soon time to draw the contrast. now you've been working your tail off this weekend around cold new hampshire as part of the write in campaign effort. so as you look ahead to tuesday, lots of eyes on the republican primary contest. but what does success look like there for the president? >> it hasn't been me, it's been the people in new hampshire. they've been 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 a war in ukraine, a complex situation, joe biden is the person. and i know he's going to, when i think it's going to be a strong win. >> so 50% plus one is good? >> a win is a win. a writing campaign is hard. you have 20 some candidates, you have to write in the presidents name. and the fact that he is going to be able to do that and win while not being on the ballot, that is extraordinary. and it should show, you know this, jen, people of underestimated joe biden. i underestimated him when i was bernese co-chair. but when it comes to election day somehow he manages to do well and when.

you're seeing that in new hampshire. not as much enthusiasm nine months ago, as we get closer to the election, this tremendous enthusiasm, i think it will show. >> he's actually doing better here against trump then a number of other swing states, which is interesting, benefiting from the trump attacked. this is the time of year where things happen. so this is a weird thing, because today congressman -- is running, it is on the ballot, went to a trump event, greeted supporters, inside this. he basically said i'm being treated with more kindness and friendliness then hospitality and this line at a donald trump rally in new hampshire than i have been by democratic elected officials in the state of new hampshire, which is all you might need to know. he has endorsed medicare for all, supported most democratic positions. what do you make of that? what's happening here? >> i think he's probably just frustrated that the campaign is not going anywhere. look, i know dean still, 20 comes to, congress we treat him with respect, where friendly, he hasn't been ostracized. i've talked to a lot of

democratic officials in new hampshire. they say he has every right to run. here's what people don't like, why are you attacking president biden on his age or talking poll numbers? talk about your ideas for the country, have a positive vision. so to the extent he's gotten pushback, it's not because he's running, because people say run ideas campaign. but people respect his right to run and i hope he will rally behind the president. the irony is you've got desantis rallying behind trump. it would be nice if after president biden when, dean folds gets behind the president. >> a lot of people say it's a lot of process in policy, a lot of people want to hear policy ideas. he also said he's open to running on the no labels ticket. and i ask about this not necessarily because of dean phillips saying that, but as we do get closer to a general election, this is a potential threat. i no labels ticket, a third party ticket, how concerned are you about that having an impact in helping elect donald trump. >> i'm concerned. look, dick gephardt was in my office last week, patriotic, personalities ed roe,

ordinarily i would have no party with a third party candidate, it's a democracy, it's great. but 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 election. why do you want to be part of that? so my question to dean phillips is do you really think you're going to get elected president on a third party? it's absolutely impossible mathematically, so why are you doing this? do you really want donald trump to win. what's the justification? >> a big thank you to you for doing double duty today. i really appreciate it. while you're still around the state with the people of new hampshire, getting out the vote for the write-in campaigns, thank you so much for joining us twice today, i really appreciate it. we have another hour of breaking news coverage. coming up, live from new hampshire, ron desantis is is out, nikki haley is making one last push, and we've got the perfect people to break it all down. so we will be right back after a very quick break.

it's been a wild cycle. after florida governor ron desantis, once the next great hope of the party not too long ago, won by 19 points in his own state. but he suspended his