♪♪ good to be with you. i'm katy tur. with can nikki haley do it with 24 hours to go and ron desantis out of her way, her campaign says this is her moment, and new hampshire is her state to win. full of voters who want another option and as they call it, a new generation. >> nikki haley is clearly the one who has the best chance of defeating trump. i voted for him twice and i was just humiliated when i saw that the guy i voted for, the way he handled himself after he lost. >> i think she's a strong candidate, and also more moderate without being divisive. >> donald trump is a threat to

democracy. the only way you can stop him is by voting for nikki haley, as much as you might disagree with her. >> and while there might be many voters who agree with that sentiment, are there enough? and what happens now that donald trump can train the full force of his machine against her. attacks on stage and online and in ads, coupled with endorsements from one-time haley allies now turned rivals. haley has gotten sharper taking on trump's age and mental fitness. polls show trump handily is in the lead. if so, are there still enough people out there who think that their vote will actually make a difference. joining us at the big board, nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki, in manchester, new hampshire, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard, in franklin, nbc news correspondent ali vitali who just caught up with nikki haley a moment ago, and in hollis, nbc news correspondent garrett haake. all right, steve, have the numbers moved at all?

>> well, we do have a new poll, nbc 10 in boston, boston globe, suffolk university, they've been doing a tracking poll, every night a new readout, and this one taken last night in the wake of desantis exiting the race. they had had it at 19 points for trump the day before. he and haley ticked up a couple of points both. they still have it at 57 for trump, 38 for nikki haley. a bunch of different polls out there, but this is the basic dynamic you're seeing, a double-digit trump lead heading into tomorrow. when you look inside the poll this is really the dynamic to watch. it's the split between republicans and independents, remembering that independents do vote in republican primaries in new hampshire in large numbers. the last time around more than four in ten ballots cast in the 2016 republican primary in new hampshire were from independents. check out in this poll the chasm between these two groups. among republicans trump absolutely crushing nikki haley.

among independents, haley running up big numbers against trump. these are sub samples in a poll, there's a little bit of noise there. this is the basic dynamic we're seeing in every poll. haley with some kind of lead among independents, trump with a sizable lead among republicans. if nikki haley is going to be in contention at all tomorrow, she's got to drive this independent number up. she's got to drive it up even bigger. how big? the record in a modern republican primary in new hampshire for independent vote, john mccain in 2001, the independent vote over george w. bush by 42 points. i think something like that haley's going to have to get to offset what she's not getting with republicans. she can't get crushed by this much among republicans either. she's got to bring that number up some. the key for haley's campaign, independents, the higher that

number goes probably the better it is for nikki haley. again, she's hoping for a late, late movement there among those independents toward her to take a solid margin among independents and make it an absolute landslide margin. something like that could put her in the game against trump. even as you can see in this poll, even winning independents by this margin not getting it done right now. >> what's the turnout expected? >> that's interesting. put this in some historical context. this is historically the republican turnout in new hampshire. the high water mark, this is century 2016, the trump race in 2016, 285,000 turned out for it. now, the secretary of state in new hampshire has projected that 332,000 will turn out for this republican primary tomorrow. some people raise their eyes on

that number. we just saw in iowa the turnout for that caucus failed precipitously in 2024. weather probably a factor of that, also it seemed the nature of the race, fewer candidates, polls suggesting it wasn't that competitive might have also kept people at home in iowa. so to have two candidates on the ballot, trump with sizable leads in the polling, are we going to see a 50,000 voter increase in this primary election. i think if you're nikki haley, if there is, it probably means more independents turning out, that'd be good news for you. that would be a big jump from what already was a big jump last time out. >> all right, ali vitali, nikki haley has the stage right now or much of the stage. what's she telling people and what is she telling reporters like you when you catch up with her? >> i just spoke with former south carolina governor nikki haley here at a stop she was making in manchester, new hampshire, one of several we've seen her make today.

frankly over the course of the last few days, haley has been barn storming the state, really upping the cadence of her events and stopping into more local places like this one as she tries to press the flesh and make her case as it's now officially a two-person race. my question to her was since her campaign nor she herself are making the case that they are going to win here in new hampshire, probably for all the reasons steve just laid out. i asked her does second place not mean you lost when there are only two people left in this race? watch what she just told me. >> now that it's down to just you and trump, how is second place here not a loss if that's where you come on monday? >> you're looking at the fact you come off of iowa, and he got less than 1.5% of that entire state. that's not representative of the entire country. we've got to keep going. so now we're in new hampshire, our goal is to be stronger than we were in iowa, and then keep going to any sweet state of

south carolina. the focus is you just keep going and you keep building. let's keep in mind, we don't do coronations in this country. you got to do more than just 1.5% in one state and say it's his to have. no, it's not, 70% of americans don't want a trump/biden rematch. the majority of americans disprove of trump and biden. we want to go and give them what we know they want, which is a new generational conservative leader. it's time. the younger people want it, the suburban moms want to get wak into it. everybody wants to start seeing a country they can be proud of and they know is working for them. that's what i want to give them. >> reporter: so look, katy, she's saying there that just because trump won by 1.5% of the majority in iowa, haley's saying it's not fair to say all right, this is his nomination to take. she vowed to me not only would she go through new hampshire and south carolina, but also all the way through super tuesday, in haley's word she explained that strategic decision to me as saying that all voters should

have a chance to vote and that she wants to take this as far as she possibly can to give them an alternative, pointing out the fact, as your chiron at the bottom of the screen says, a large percentage of americans don't want to see a trump/biden rematch. that might be true with the electorate writ large, but when you look at the polling data, when you leek at the sense on the ground, the question i asked haley, it doesn't look like you're going to win in new hampshire, are you going to win in south carolina. she dodged on setting the expectation there that she would have to win in her home state. the point all of us think about is it's hard to win a nomination if you haven't won a state outright. i've had this conversation with many candidates over the course of the last several cycles and it's true. you have to win a state if you want to win the nomination. it's looking difficult for nikki haley to do that. she's promising she's going to keep pounding the pavement, not just here but way down the calendar too. >> you are at a don jr. event,

nikki haley although we kind of describe her as more moderate in the sense that new hampshire voters might be more into her than in other states, she is a very conservative person. she's a very conservative candidate, how is the trump campaign trying to distinguish trump from nikki haley in terms of policy and the ways in which donald trump would govern, or are they even attempting that? does it matter? >> reporter: absolutely. i think you see it in two big issues. first they're trying to distinguish themselves from her more traditional conservative, something like social security. you can hear the event getting started behind me, where nikki haley says conservative things that sound like paul ryan saying, yeah, we might have to raise the retirement age to keep social security solvent, donald trump says we're going to find it another way to do it. also on the world stage, this is probably the single biggest where donald trump has separated

himself from nikki haley and traditional republican, he says he's the only candidate who will keep folks out of world war iii and describes nikki haley as a neo con, too much of a hawk. what his policies are, it's ironic given the way she served as his u.n. ambassador back in the day, but they do try to create some of those contrasts. i don't know that we'll hear them necessarily from donald trump jr. here who tends to be more the red meat surrogate when he appears for his father's campaign, but you get some of that from donald trump on the stump, and certainly in their television advertisements, which have been blanking the air waves. >> don jr. has started speaking, vaughn, desantis backed off over the weekend. he dropped out of the race. this is after i mean hours really after he was saying he was going to keep on going, that this was a race he planned to be in for a long time. he was going after nikki haley for calling it a two-person race

after iowa. does the ron desantis dropout change the environment? what are you hearing from voters? >> there's one gentleman i talked to last night who told me 48 hours prior he was at a ron desantis campaign event and that nikki haley was not the type of viable alternative who he was open to. so donald trump in a two-person race is all that he has left. this is the issue here is that the data just has not moved over the month thes. in a national poll in november, it showed that folks who said around the country ron desantis was their first choice, by a two to one margin, their second choice was donald trump versus nikki haley. that is the tough numbers that nikki haley is looking at here, and as steve laid out here, this is a republican primary and even if you look forward to like in south carolina where democrats and independents can take part in the republican primary, it's democrats that have focused heavily on south carolina as the

place where they want their democratic voters to go out and vote for joe biden. so the map just becomes extremely difficult for her and this is where we're on our way over to laconia for his 9:00 p.m. eastern rally tonight. for donald trump, it is just about not having a completely depressed turnout, and on the campaign stage last night, he told folks to look at it as if it is ties, and he wants a 30 to 40, 50 point win to make it clear this race is over and the attention of the resources in the republican party should go towards joe biden. and nikki haley announced her run for president 11 months ago now, donald trump 14 months ago. this is a primary that is not just a few months old but nearly a year old at this point, and ultimately tomorrow night will be a testament to what we have likely seen in the data. >> donald trump has gotten some endorsements over the weekend. he got nancy mace of south carolina who had worked closely with nikki haley. he got tim scott the senator from south carolina, who also

had worked closely with nikki haley as senator. interestingly, though, when desantis dropped out, the endorsement, describing it as tepid i think is generous. >> definitely, and donald trump or ron desantis even made a knock at donald trump in that four-minute video posted online yesterday that donald trump was the one who kept fauci around. clearly it's been a bitter year-long campaign against donald trump. donald trump not only called him bobblehead, he said he walked like a duck. he accused him of grooming high school girls when he was a teacher. he has been quite atrocious to ron desantis on a personal level saying he needed a personality transplant, and yet, there's a recognition that not only does he have to govern in the state of florida for three more years, but if he wants a political future beyond it likely will

have to run through the donald trump maga movement. as for nancy mace, somebody who in the aftermath of january 6th said that the republican party needed to rebuild and that donald trump should be held accountable for his actions around january 6th. notably i was at a campaign event last year with nancy mace when she was trying to hold onto her congressional seat after being challenged by a trump-backed republican. who was on the campaign trail with nancy mace, none other than south carolinian nikki haley who was campaigning and trying to help her. she narrowly won that race, but just look where nancy mace is again today, again, a recognition that the power in the republican party lies with donald trump, and nikki haley, she very much feels like she's on her own island at this point because you are not seeing any robust support coming out for her. instead the lieutenant governor from south carolina, the two u.s. senators from south carolina, now four members of congress from south carolina are

all backing donald trump's kand candidacy, and a contingency, they were all here in new hampshire drilling home the point here this weekend to new hampshire voters that they know nikki haley best, and they want donald trump to be the future of this republican party. >> i think nancy mace is so interesting saying donald trump should be held accountable, apparently that doesn't include holding him accountable for -- or doesn't include keeping him from being president again. it's okay to be a president again even though she thinks he should be held accountable for the insurrection at the capitol. it does make you also wonder what sort of conversations were being had behind scenes between donald trump's people, maybe donald trump himself, and nancy mace and tim scott and all those others. >> nancy mace's old campaign manager is now his south carolina state director, katy. what do voters hear when months of polling, a year of polling suggests the election is over before it begins? and past the primary, the biden campaign is rolling out its general election message, what they are warning on

abortion. plus, what happened in court today that delayed donald trump's testimony? we are back in 60 seconds. trump's testimony? we are back in 60 seconds.

joining us now, director of the university of virginia's center for politics and editor in chief of sabado's crystal ball. how static is this race? >> well, it's -- if you're judging by the polls, it's more static than most, but one advantage, maybe the only advantage of being old is having the memory, i hope, of way back and polls have been pretty consistently wrong in terms of the actual margin by the winner. they often pick the winner, that is the person who's well ahead as donald trump is now is likely to win, just as the others who were ahead in polling were likely to win, but it's been

static and yet it hasn't. so many things have happened, so many things could have changed the results had they gone in another direction, so we'll see. we're still nine months away from the general. i don't know how much it matters except in terms of the nomination. >> let me ask you just to focus on the primary and polling right now because i've been thinking about this all weekend. it's been bothering me. i wonder how much of this is due to polling out there and saying for a year that donald trump has a rock solid lead. he's got a hard hold over all of these republican voters. he's not going anywhere. does that deincentivize people to participate, when you look at the numbers of who caucused in iowa, nikki haley mentioned this, less than 1.5% of people in iowa caucus. that's almost nobody choosing

who they want to be the general election nominee. then you have new hampshire, 300,000 would be a great turnout, a massive great turnout. that's still, you know, a third of the registered voters in new hampshire. it's not that many people, and if it's just donald trump going on, that means only a few hundred thousand people will have chosen the nominee for the republican party. is that a problem? >> well, you'd like to see everybody participate, but we've said that for decades, and they all still don't participate. it's an individual choice and a free system like the one we have. in iowa, i think too much is made of the small turnout there. that was much more the weather than the media. but in new hampshire, let's go ahead and blame you, if you want to take the blame, i'll be happy to throw it to you. >> i'm wondering if all the polling says, hey, this race is over before it begins. don't bother turning out? >> it does say that but new

hampshireites over the years have been perfectly willing to duoout and prove the polling on sometimes they don't change the identity of the winner, but i can think of many occasions where the results have been quite different than say the polling average right before election day. new hampshireites are very independents as are iowans. they highly prize their first place in the process. obviously they're not first place anymore for the democrats, but this year for the republicans they are as they have traditionally been in new hampshire's case for many decades, in iowa's case since the 1970s. and because of that, they're going to make up their own minds. they're going to listen to the polls, and they're going to say, well, the polls have been wrong a lot. on that they're right. they have been wrong a lot. >> new hampshire is fiercely independent, undeclared as they like to say, and they have gone rogue and picked people and

pushed them past new hampshire, bill clinton, john mccain getting the nomination. do you see this as changing anything. if nikki haley is able to pull it off in new hampshire, do you see that as changing the race going forward? is it possible to change the race going forward? >> sure, it allows her to go to south carolina and potentially lose there. i hate to be so blunt about it, but it will be not a small miracle, it will be a pocketful of miracles or a very big miracle if somehow she's able to take the nomination away from donald trump, but if she does well in new hampshire, she has every right to say, hey, you pollsters stick it where the sun don't shine. those of you in the media stop giving us so much polling data, interview more people in the state. and look, again, going back to 2000, there are many examples we can cite going back to 1968, in

2000 i can remember myself virtually all analysts were saying right before the new hampshire primary that george w. bush who won a solid victory in iowa was going to sweep in new hampshire and that would be the end of the race. and not only did mccain win, he won in a landslide that absolutely nobody predicted. now, it didn't last long. it ended in south carolina. mcwent down there, went with george w. bush. the point is we think we know. what we really don't know for sure, i think we have an idea of what's going to happen. we do not know the specifics. we don't know the margin, and we always have to be open to the idea of an upset. >> what got donald trump over the finish line in south carolina was absolutely dragging george bush and dragging the war in iraq and blaming him for those mistakes in the middle east. larry sabato, thank you for joining us, always appreciate

your expertise and insight. >> thank you, katy. coming up, vice president kamala harris gets a new high profile and high stakes assignment. and what delayed donald trump's defamation testimony today? don't go anywhere. p's defamatioy today? don't go anywhere. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. ask about nurtec odt. students... students of any age, from anywhere. using our technology to power different ways of learning. so when minds grow, opportunities follow. ♪ there's nothing better than a subway series footlong. except when you add on an all new footlong sidekick. we're talking a $2 footlong churro. $3 footlong pretzel and a five dollar footlong cookie. every epic footlong deserves the perfect sidekick. order one with your favorite subway series sub today. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours.

for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn.

- i got the cabin for three days. it's gonna be sweet! for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. what? i'm 12 hours short. - have a fun weekend. - ♪ unnecessary action hero! unnecessary. ♪ - was that necessary? - no. neither is a blown weekend. with paycom, employees do their own payroll so you can fix problems before they become problems. - hmm! get paycom and make the unnecessary, unnecessary.

- see you down the line.

breaking news in a 5-4 decision, the supreme court says it will allow border patrol agents to remove razor wire installed by the state of texas at the u.s./mexico border.

the emergency request filed by the biden administration argued that texas was preventing border patrol from carrying out their duties. again, breaking news. and 51 years ago today speaking of the supreme court, nine justices legalized abortion with roe v. wade. a year and a half ago, a whole new set of nine justices overturned it. today with ten months until the 2024 election, president biden and vice president kamala harris are telling americans their vote can restore reproductive freedom. both by reminding them that presidents nominate judges and warning them that more reproductive choices could be taken away. >> as we face this crisis, as we are clear eyed about the harm, let us also understand who is

responsible. the former president hand picked three are supreme court justices because he intended for them to overturn roe. he intended for them to take your freedoms. and it is a decision he brags about. >> joining us now nbc news washington correspondent yamiche alcindor. it's good to have you. this is a high profile and, again, high stakes assignment for vice president kamala harris. abortion is cited as the number one issue for a lot of voters, and the number one issue for democrats going into 2024 in their hopes to keep donald trump out of the white house. >> reporter: that's right, and vice president kamala harris came here to waukesha county, wisconsin, a deeply red county that former president trump won twice to really send home the message that abortion rights will be a top priority for the

biden harris campaign. she talked specifically about women and said there were a number of women in this country whose lives are being put in danger because roe was overturned. i talked to one woman who she said was forced to have an abortion because her baby that she had at 19 1/2 weeks, her doctors told her that the baby would not live past birth. take a listen to what she told me. >> i think historically democrats haven't done a good job of highlighting all the nuances, our story being one of them. this is the nuance, and we can't allow republicans to simplify this really complex issue. >> so that mother is a mother of two who said that she only could have her second child because she had that abortion and was

able to preserve her ability to have children. now, vice president harris told other stories of women like that. she also said that democrats are hoping to capitalize on the momentum they have going, of course, after all the different issues we've seen go around the nation where voters in states as red as kentucky and other places like michigan have voted to continue to expand access to abortion after the overturning of roe v. wade. the vice president being very clear her and the president are going to make this a top priority. >> what you mean is she had to have an abortion because her baby wasn't viable. the word force is catching me. can you explain that? >> she said that she felt like she was put in a position where she would either have to carry a child that would die after they were born or she could be in a position where she would terminate her pregnancy. forced in the fact she wanted to have this baby. she felt like this was a baby they wanted, but she felt forced into this position to have an

abortion because the baby would not live. they also felt rushed because in wisconsin it's only 20 weeks is the cutoff for weeks, and she was 19 1/2 weeks pregnant. she had, she told me, katy wuchb way to make the decision. it wasn't really a decision that she had. it was a decision that in some ways was made for her. she had another child named isaac who is 5, so she felt like she was lucky in that she was able to have more children. >> yamiche alcindor, thank you very much. joining us now law professor at the university of california davis and author of "dollars for life. mary zeigler. when democrats go out there and warn voters to participate, part of the warning is presidents choose judges. they nominate judges. they have that ability, that power. they also say, hey, listen, there are consequences beyond what these judges ruled in the summer of 2022. it's not just that abortion was taken away, made a state's

right. it's that there are other rights that could be taken away too, and they allude to comments that clarence thomas made. can you explain that? >> sure, so when the supreme court overturned roe, clarence thomas suggested that the reasoning the court used to end the right to choose abortion would logically apply to eliminate other rights like the right to use contraception. the court's reasoning to be clear essentially was that the only rights that exist under the constitution, if they're not spelled out in the constitution's text, the only 14th amendment rights are rights that are deeply rooted in tradition. that history and tradition does not and cannot change. the rights we have are the right wes had in 1868, which was at a time when states in the federal government were beginning to criminalize contraception. it was at a time when sodomy laws were being applied more directly to punish queer people and same-sex intimacy, so this is precisely the moment you would want to be looking at to

say that none of those rights really exist. so that's a possibility we have to be aware of. >> okay, so let me ask you because we haven't spoken in a few months now. what's been going on on the abortion issue? how potent is it still among the electorate? >> it's very potent. we've seen this being a major driver of interesting younger voters and women voters. i think what remains with the biden campaign is to translate what obviously is a lot of energy into votes for biden. i think part of what remains for the campaign to do is to explain not just that this is a vote to push donald trump for the demise of roe v. wade, but that donald trump in a second term would do a lot to make abortion less accessible in the united states than it already is. >> and then this idea that donald trump the other day, donald trump came out the other day and stated that he was responsible for the overturning of the roe v. wade. he took credit for it. speaking to conservative voters. do those words when he says it,

does it matter to hear him say that directly? do voters listen? do they hear it? >> i think they do. i mean, i think, again, the challenge for biden is really going to be does trump want to do anything more or can trump do anything more? and the answer to both of those questions, i think, is likely to be yes in part because trump has laid out plans for a kind of vengeful and muscular executive branch that can do a lot on its own. the fda doesn't need congress to act. hhs can override the scientists at fda as we learned, i think fears about that during the first trump administration and covid. there's the idea that the trump doj can revive 19th century laws to start prosecuting people in blue states. these are proposals being outlined by people in trump's orbit. i think the only thing that remains for voters is to see how much is on the line. the energy issue around the abortion issue is already there. >> mary, thank you very much for joining us. still ahead, what a divorce

battle has to do with donald trump's alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election in georgia. first, though, what matters anymore? anything? ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. there's nothing better than a subway series footlong. except when you add an all new footlong sidekick. like the philly with a new $2 footlong churro. sometimes the sidekick is the main event. you would say that. every epic footlong deserves the perfect sidekick. new herbal essences sulfate free. packed with pure aloe and camellia flower oil your hair will love. and none of the things it won't. hair that feels deeply nourished, soft and lightweight. new herbal essences.

not just any whiteboard... ...katie porter's whiteboard is one way she's: [news anchor] ...often seen grilling top executives of banks, big pharma, even top administration officials. katie porter. never taken corporate pac money - never will. leading the fight to ban congressional stock trading. and the only democrat who opposed wasteful “earmarks” that fund politicians' pet projects. katie porter. focused on your challenges - from lowering housing costs to fighting climate change. shake up the senate - with democrat katie porter. i'm katie porter and i approve this message. donald trump's second defamation trial is on hold after a juror called out sick with possible covid. trump was in court this morning as the judge made the decision to recess. once the trial resumes, trump's

lawyers say he plans on testifying, which could be as soon as tomorrow, also known as primary day in new hampshire. joining us no republican strategist mike murphy. mike has served as an advisory to bush, romney, and mccain, their presidential elections. the tease for this block was does anything matter anymore? and i'm fearing the answer might be no, but you tell me if i'm wrong. donald trump testifying potentially tomorrow, i'm going to link it to the court case, on primary day. i matter? >> well, yes, it matters in the big picture of the general election. here in new hampshire among the republican faithful it doesn't matter too much because trump, like he does with everybody, has made it political, which makes it tribal, which means the charges are all trumped up. it's the sneaky democratic trick. the republican voters here are sticking with trump, and i think that will be true in other primaries. the general election voters on the other hand, another ton of baggage on donald trump as he heads into the general election. >> let me push back on that

because when you're talking about voters in new hampshire, you've got a lot of undeclared voters that are going to come in, and if he wins, it will be the undeclared voters, the not, you know, tried and true republican voters, at least aren't willing to say that, that put him over the top. what does that tell us about the general election? >> well, i think what you're probably seeing, this primary has a lot of undeclared voters in it, it's a little bit unique that way. they generally make up 40 to 45% of the electorate. unless turnout is a new territory here and very different, i think trump will win the republicans here who are most important in most primaries by double-digits, and he'll break the independents even, maybe lose them by eight or nine points, maybe win them by a couple. for him with the independent vote say to even do better than 40% here is from my anti-trump point of view a sad sign of his durability. nikki haley's whole chance will be to run up her numbers with independent voters and hold her

own with republicans, which is where my guess is she'll fall short. i don't think he's in danger from this legal stuff in the nomination process, but you know, it's going to be quite a general election because joe biden's got weak numbers, the country at least as of today wants to fire him, but general election voters don't like donald trump at all. they threw him out of office last time. so you know, it's still a problem for trump. i don't think -- i think they do matter. they apparently don't matter in republican primaries. >> the question is who's the voter that did not vote for him, anyone who watches this show will have heard me say this, but who's the voter who did not vote for him in 2020 that's going to vote for him again in 2024, and what is the issue that that hinges on? do you have an idea of that person? >> yeah, if i had to guess, if the election were tomorrow, it would be people who are dissatisfied with joe biden and the economy and worried about his age. i mean, the scariest number in all the polling -- >> donald trump's not much younger. >> no, no, i agree. look, there's reality and there's perception, and as you

know in politics, perception can become reality. right now when you ask people about biden don't like him, you ask people about trump, who's better at running the economy, trump beats biden by 20 points. that's deadly for biden. whether it's crazy or not is another debate f. they perceive it to be true, they vote it to be true. >> you're saying the economy is a big issue for democrat. what about abortion? we just talked to yamiche alcindor about abortion and kamala harris coming out and trying to bang that drum. is that going to be critical? >> yes, i mean, i think that democrats have the advantage there. the republican party keeps wanting to play the 40% hand. democrats have the 60% hand there. they would love to make the campaign about abortion rights every single day. we know from the history of presidential races, though, it's hard not to make the economy number one. so the democrats are trying mightily to prosecute an issue they make traction on, but, you know, that economic perception

on a president doesn't change, it's going to be a very competitive election, even if donald trump is the nominee. >> you talk about the court cases and donald trump making them political and it becoming tribal. i went down memory lane today. i was watching garrett haake live at a trump event, and i saw the veteran chair for trump in 2016 and somebody said hillary clinton deserves to be tried for treason, convicted of treason and put in front of a firing squad. it was a big to do at the time, and i talked to them about it at the republican convention, and he stood firm and he told me that because she put soldiers' lives at risk, that's why she would deserve this. fast forward four years later, and we have these images, we'll put them up on the screen, donald trump with the classified documents at his house at mar-a-lago on the floor there in a bathroom, on a stage, hopefully we have those images

as well. clearly not being cautious with government secrets, with classified documents, the very thing that this man was so upset with hillary clinton doing. even when there's images of this, why doesn't it not matter if donald trump does it? >> well, it does matter. it matters a lot, but in the world of voters, voters are so cynical now, even in both parties, that they think, oh, you know, everybody does it. everybody is bad, trumped up charges. that's on the liberal network. they make it all up. i got to check with fox for the truth. we're in a fun house mirror situation. we're through the looking glass where what's true is maybe, and so it's worked our election process. and because people are most focused on the tribal right at getting rid of biden on the left on throwing trump in jail, i think they have a better case,

it's gummed up the election. st there are very few open minded people anymore, it's paralyzed our politics. captain depressing live from new hampshire. >> listen, now is the time to talk about it. mike, thank you very much. >> there's time to change it. >> i hope you stay warm out there. we'll have that discussion on another date. coming up, the idf says it found evidence of hostages in the tunnels under khan yunis. and what does donald trump have to do with a divorce case in georgia? we'll be right back. a divorce ce in georgia we'll be right back. so we're back with tide, and the clothes are clean again. do 3x the laundry and get a tide clean. it's got to be tide.

i could've waited to tell my doctor my heart was racing just making spaghetti... but i didn't wait. i could've delayed telling my doctor i was short of breath just reading a book... but i didn't wait. they told their doctors. and found out they had... atrial fibrillation. a condition which makes it about five times more likely to have a stroke. if you have one or more of these symptoms irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue or lightheadedness, contact your doctor. this is no time to wait.

ah, these bills are crazy. she

has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. you founded your kayak company because you love the ocean- not spreadsheets. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire what is cirkul? cirkul is the fuel you need to take flight. cirkul is the energy that gets you to the next level. cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul.com.

headlines i did not expect to see coming this year, what does a divorce battle have to do with donald trump's alleged attempt to overturn the election in georgia? according to one of the codefendants in the rico case, everything. joinings us now is nbc news correspondent blayne alexander. explain this to us, please. >> reporter: there's a lot to explain. so you talked about that codefendant, that's michael roman. he's alleging that fani willis and the special prosecutor in the trump case are having a romantic relationship, but more importantly, that she's financially benefitting from that relationship. saying that wade used money he earned from the da's office to take the two on vacations. ha that brings us to today. now it's overflowed into nathan wade's divorce proceedings. fani willis has been asked to testify in that.

she is fighting that subpoena saying it's nothing more than an attempt to harass her. i asked the attorney for the estranged wife. here's what she told me. >> how do you respond to allegations this is just harassment because of her position? >> it wouldn't matter who she is and what position she holds. if she's having an affair with my client's husband and he's spending my client's money on that relationship, i'm going to find out about it. and it has nothing to do, in my view, with her being the district attorney of fulton county. >> this entire thing is into two different jurisdictions. but that in fulton county, the judge has set a hearing date of february 15th to hear those initial allegations. she does plan to respond in writing to these allegations.

>> blayne alexander, thank you. what raf sanchez saw when they uncovered a tunnel. tu nurtec odt may help. it's the only medication that can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine attacks. treat and prevent, all in one. don't take if allergic to nurtec. allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. relief is possible. talk to a doctor about nurtec odt. it's odd how in an instant things can transform. slipping out of balance into freefall. (the stock market is now down 23%). this is happening people. where there are so few certainties... (laughing) look around you. you deserve to know. as we navigate a future unknown. i'm glad i found stability amidst it all.

gold. standing the test of time. rsv can severely affect the lungs and lower airways. but i'm protected with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd, and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. i chose arexvy.

rsv? make it arexvy.

here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy

by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. hostage families stormed the parliament disrupting a committee session that bps bn and his government do more to get their loved ones home. over the weekend the idf led them on a tour of the massive tunnel complex where israel found evidence of cells where the hostages were kept. raf sanchez was there. >> reporter: at the end of this

tunnel, there is no light. just minute after minute of darkness. this tunnel just goes on and on and on. every deeper beneath gaza, the air hot and thick. as you come to the end of this tunnel, you reach this. israel says it's a dungeon where some of its hostages were held by hamas. five cells with caged doors that lock from the outside. there is a sink, a shower and a toilet. there's no running water. it's not clear when the last time water worked in here. israel says hostages were held here for weeks. >> what evidence do you have that hostages were kept here? >> we have testimonies of hostages that verified this compound. we found hair and other dna. >> you found hair and dna from the hostages here? >> reporter: they also say they found these pictures drawn in the darkness by 5 emilia before

she was released after 49 days. since october 7th, israeli troops haves rescued only one hostage alive. more than 130 are still in captivity. a fact that weighs heavily here. >> we're really trying to find them. >> reporter: the tunnels lie below the city. much of it destroyed by israeli airstrikes. this is all that's left of the home that took a man 13 years to build. everything is erased, even memories. we can't get anything out, he says. so much suffering, above and below ground. >> "deadline: white house" starts right now. hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in washington. i'm michael steele. how exactly do you run against