organize candlelight vigils, they are the first ones to put out statement, first ones to hold interfaith dialogues. >> the best thing a muslim american could do is to be positive and contribute. >> i'm ali velshi. >> i'm david schuster in for ali velshi. "on target" tonight, why ted cruz could be the top republican can't against donald trump. showing off the softer side of a hard-nosed sport.

>> and an alternative to donald trump is now rising fast, as trump's proposed shutdown of muslims entering the united states, even former vice president dick cheney, one of america's most hawkish politicians says trump's proposal goes against everything we stand for. cue ted cruz. at a press conference yesterday, he said, i commend donald trump for standing up and focusing america's attention on the need to secure our borders. and listen to his soft tone about trump's plan to ban muslims. >> i disagree with that proposal. i like donald trump. a lot of our friends here have encouraged me to criticize and attack donald trump. i'm not interested in doing so but i believe we need a plan that is focused on the direct

threat and the threat we're facing is radical islamic terrorism. that's why i've introduced legislation focused on suspending for four years, putting on suspension a moratorium, where i.s.i.l. controls territory because that's the challenge we're facing. >> that's not exactly sharp criticism. keep in mind, crufers was ahead of trump 24% to 19. did the poll motivate trump to make his headline grabbing proposal about banning muslims? we should note that trump still is ten points ahead of cruz. but that suffolk university poll was taken and released before trump's statement about muslims. the big question whether trump

suffers or benefits from cruz's statements, can cruz capitalize on the outrage that trump ignited. we will look at how ted cruz is trying to walk that fine line in a moment. but no matter what happens, it is clear that ted cruz has taken control of a part of the electorate, a part that wants an outsider to replace president obama and not a long time member of the republican establishment. cruz's path has been as controversial as it has been intriguing. ted cruz entered the u.s. senate in 2013 at age 42 and announced his presidential bid earlier this year. >> i'm flouncing that i'm running for president of the united states. >> cruz is famous for his role in a government shutdown in

2013. where at one point he read from his daughter's nighttime book by dr. seuss. critics of senator cruz said his grandstanding accomplished absolutely nothing and cruz thrives on the controversy he attracts. >> neville chamberlain. >> to nazi apiecers. >> i suspect those same pundits who say it can't be done, if it had been in the 1940s we would have been listening to them and they would have made television. >> it infuriated many republicans, including john mccain.

>> short after he stopped down john boehner warned of false prophets. on face the nation. >> is ted cruz a false prophet? >> you pick any names out, i'll let you choose them. >> in those comments in august, boehner called senator cruz a jackass, but cruz takes his criticism from his peers as proof that he's different from the west. a stance he reiterated in a town hall meeting in iowa in october. >> when other candidates choose to throw rocks, when other candidates choose to go into the gutter and get personal and get nasty, i have not and will not respond in kind. >> controversy stoned cruz's background. he was born in canada, to an american mother and cuban

father. he had dual citizenship. but he said he would renounce his canadian citizenship. i said if that's right then sure. >> the media has taken his outsider stance and run with it. megan kelly threw one of the first punches back in 2013. >> what's it like to be one of the most hated men in america? >> and the hits keep on coming. the washington post says, a lot of people don't like ted cruz, how come that's with him? and how about this headline. >> there's nothing like the warm embrace of the plain stream media. >> cruz told megan kelly on fox that's exactly why he's special. >> if you are lookin looking foa

candidate embraced by the washington elite i ain't your guy. >> cruz's outsider status and his appeal to christian evangelicals, a majorities of the republicans who participate in these caucuses are evangelical. and rocket fuel that can take candidate deep into the nomination process. there is perhaps nobody in america who knows more about iowa politics than david gepson. he keeps tabs on the hawkeye state though he serves as the director of the paul simon center. what's going on with ted cruz in iowa? >> i think ted cruz is starting to hit the sweet spot. he's picking up support from ben carson's supporters who are evangelical and are leaving

carson because carson has not shown much fluency with foreign affairs issues at a time when that issue has come to the inform and i think senator cruz is also picking up support from donald trump tea party supporters, are concerned about trump's electability. so for now i think senator cruz is benefiting from that. that plus a lot of hard work, pretty good organization, he's got the resources he needs. but david, i think we need to be careful about one thing, 30% is pretty good but to call somebody front runners with that, 70% of likely republicans are someplace else, i think we ought to be a little cautious. >> fair point. but what does it say about the mood of iowa previously, ted cruz, donald trump, ben carson, they are all political

outsiders. >> that's correct. the base, it's not time to be part of the political establishment. at some point some candidate had to unify that and it looks like senator cruz has done that and is doing that and in fact continues then he's on a good track to win. >> now does the million dollar question that a lot of people have, donald trump's comments about muslims and banning them from the united states does that help or hurt donald trump in a place like iowa? >> i think it hurts him. i mean it's roundly denounced by all republicans except ted cruz. and republican caucus goers they are pretty conservative pretty activist, but they also want a winner, somebody they can see in the white house. so the collective, the cumulative effect of donald trump's comments they're entertaining, there are a lot of people that agree with them. but they also agree that the

purpose of the exercise is to elect a president of the united states. and there are a lot of republicans who say they absolutely couldn't vote for him, they are starting to move to other candidates and on balance this latest episode does hurt. >> if donald trump looks up, this is hypothetical, this is ted cruz making inroads to me in iowa, what i need to do is reenergize the hard core, he may have misunderstood the iowa republican electorate. >> well he certainly -- i think in going that far with it and the push back that he's getting nationally from other republicans, i think there will be a lot of iowa republicans who will say you know we agree with him, we got to get tougher but that's just too much. and it starts to make you unacceptable to independents and centrists. i do think activist republicans

they are very conservative no question about it but they are also interested in winning an election. >> we mentioned in our setup piece all the controversy that ted cruz has generated in the past couple of years. do those continu controw those ? >> does that fear exist in your estimation in iowa right now? >> i think it's true all across america and it's a wakeup call, even before those attacks most,

a plurality of iowa was saying we think national security is the most important issue in this campaign. it sort of shifted from the economic focus of the last eight years. with the most recent events it confirms the fears that activist republicans that the obama administration has left the country vulnerable and they want somebody who is tough and plausible in trying to respond to that. >> and given those fears how does it translate in terms of the politics of iowa and the political opportunities and where the line might be. >> well, it's a game of turnout on caucus night and candidates are identifying their support. i think you're also going to see a rallying around marco rubio, he'll get some of these people who are leaving ben carson and may be leaving donald trump. but david remember a caucus, the dynamic that occurs on caucus

night. it's a meeting with your neighbors. people get together and they talk politics. they go in having preferences, but they are quite willing to change. those polls say people are very persuadable. you won't see that unfold until neighbors start talking to neighbors on caucus night. >> thank you for coming on al jazeera america, we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up more on the politics t of fear. what makes the average american so easy to scare these days. and later, a blizzard of bears on ice.

>> whenever innocent people are targeted for violence in the name of ideology, the way they were in san bernardino last week, americans want to know if more attacks are coming. it was no different in 9/11 but the for now is more pronounced. first we are heading into annal election season and many americans are eager to demonstrate their national security credentials in the face of such violence. what we get from donald trump and ted cruz and others seems to be so much more. michael shure is in los angeles. ted cruz has been the softest in

condemning donald trump. his voice was let's keep all the muslim and iraqi refugees out of the country for three years. that seemed severe now it seems moderate. >> ed the cruz has a little bit of strategy as you alluded to in your question behind this. the idea if donald trump were not to make it and his voters there are a ton of them now the people that support him would have to go elsewhere, ted cruz wants them to come to him. so there's a play here for those voters. you can't embrace right now 100% of what donald trump is doing if you are competing against him, and on a debate stage next week you have to address that. >> speaking of softer there's a discussion that are going tharnd americanaroundthat americans wer after 9/11.

it suggests that americans are more fearful now than they were after 9/11. do you buy it? >> i don't buy it for a second. i think fear is something that's always worked in american politics. it's not new today, not new to i.s.i.s, it wasn't new on 9/11. red scare in the '50s, that's the words they used, it mixes well, candidates who want to scare a sometimes an ignorant, sometimes an informed public do it by running on fear. it's happened. look david, some of the political ads, lyndon johnson's innocent girl picking a daisy and then nuclear explosion. willie horton is the politics of fear too. the news cycle and the news of the day has contributed so much to the political conversation

and that's why we're hearing it now. >> are the cable news networks and some of the media to a large being sense to blame, because people dune in and they want some reassurance that something is being done or the media is keeping track of things? >> yeah, well i'd go against my earlier argument of saying that it's been around forever. because cable news and the 24 hour news cycle has not been around forever. if i said they were solely to blame they are not, they oar contributing factor. they give people the forum to go out and say these things on radio addresses and on campaign stumps for newspapers, at the same time, there are more vehicles to spread that fear. you talk about 9/11 afterwards they went into iraq. there were a number of americans, a good number of americans, a majority of americans that thought that saddam hussein was behind 9/11. there are a good number of

americans now that think syrians bombed paris. none of those things ended up to be true. >> what is it in the american spine that seems to be missing now, that there is a certain amount of toughness, but people on the left say you know what, america should be tougher than this, to fall for this kind of fear. >> it was the history of diplomacy, diplomacy is not the tough way around things. on so when you look at the iran nuclear deal, that's a recent example of diplomacy, they got something through dploams. whether or not it works, there was a way through diplomacy. we are going to have to go after them in ways other than being diplomatic. it really is a matter of perspective because toughness as you know in an intellectual an historical way comes from actually getting results. if you got results from

diplomacy that's because you were tough in diplomacy across the table. the people demand you're tough in other ways. but in the middle of a presidential election the people the voters on one side these are primary elections you're hearing much more from republicans because there are many more of them their constituents their supporters want to hear about a different kind of toughness so i think that's why it's coming out sort before a little more emphasis now in this race. >> and michael do you have a sense of allow this cuts in a general election, competing interest between toughness and diplomacy and being rational, how does that play? >> it will be interesting it will be a matter of who the candidates are, a matter of how things stand in the news cycle. a year away. what you are going to see though as we get to the general election, whoever the nominee is softening their stance to make people think they're not too hawkish because americans on the whole don't want to hear too

much about hawkishness all the time but they want to be sincere and strong. i'm escaping an answer here because it's hard to know who the candidate is, if it's donald trump, this conversation will continue for quite a while. >> i know you're a hockey fan. have you ever thrown anything on the ice because you are mad at the referees or the players? >> not in my life. i threw a hat on the ice. yes, i did throw a hat on the ice. >> that's a perfect tease. michael shure, thank you. as michael shure knows, sports fans who throw things at the players, those sports fans get ejected. coming up, we take you to cangd, canada, for one night only, throwing stuffed animals is encouraged.

>> i feel like we're making an impact. >> let's do it. >> techknow - where technology meets humanity. then.

>> "america tonight" right after toorgts a"on target" at 9:30 ea. in the midst of so much attention on terror attacks fear and political coalition, w coale want to move away from the worst to the best. calgary hit men hosts an annual teddy bear toss.

fans are encouraged to come to the game with toy stuffed animals and when the hit men score the first goal, the fans hit the ice with all kinds of furry toy, look at that video, this is the annual event this week. fans tossed an estimated 29,000 stuffed animals onto the rink. fans throw so many teddies, 300,000 over two decades by last count that they have taken to call the teefn event the avalanf fur. they are donated to 50 local charities in need during the christmas holiday season. joining us to discuss this the is larry matheson, the ceo of ronald mcdonald house.

mr. matheson you've been to one of these games, what's it like when these teddy bears shower down on the ice? >> it's just electric. all the fans are encouraged to bring teddy bears and you can't wait for that first goal. like the anticipation is amazing and when that first goal comes the crowd just goes nuts. it's just unbelievable. >> and in the video, the players seem to enjoy it just muche as s the fans. >> it's the greatest game for the hitmen and the fans. for charities that are there and all the fans. >> now it takes a while to clean up all the bears, that's part of the festivities. the game essentially stops for what, 45 minutes or an hour as long as it takes to clean this all up? >> as long as it takes to get those bears off the ice and bagged so they can go out to all

the charity recipients. 50 in all. >> tell us how your particular organization, ronald mcdonald house, uses the bears and takes to the organization. what happens to them? >> we'll have about 23 families in the house so that will be 23 sick kids but as well over the christmas season their siblings will be here as well. so all of the kids in the house whether they're a sick child or a family member will get one of the bears and we usually have a couple hold over in case somebody has to get aged back into the calgary area. >> the people at the ronald mcdonald house are they as eager as the participants, given that they may know that they may get one of these bears thrown on the ice? do they watch the game? >> yeah, this year we had -- every year we always have volunteers, couple families, and probably at least one of our staff go down to the game. and then later, our staff help with the collection to bring

them here to the house. so the families know they're coming and some of them have actually seen them thrown on the ice. >> do you have any idea how this happened many years ago? away what started this? >> well, you know, i think it was a replica of what happened at another team's venue. and i know we being the recipient for over a decade, so every year, something that we do look forward to. >> and again, i mean to exciting for everybody involved and everybody who participates. what does it do to the sense of community there in canada when this event is approaching and when it happens? >> well, for weeks beforehand there's bridge banners announcing the date of the game when it's coming. so it does have a little bit of electricity through the city for a couple of weeks up to the event. and now it's been going for so many years, ca calgaryians know

what the teddy bear toss means in a very important season. >> mr. mateson thanks for explaining this. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> that is our show today, i'm david schuster in for ali velshi. thanks for joining us. the news continues here on al jazeera america. >> on "america tonight," an officer, a gunshot, another teen shot and killed. >> there was no reason to have pulled the trigger on my nephew and shoot him in the back of the head. no reason for that. >> "america tonight's" sarah hoye and another search for justice against the law. thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. this year it's become a center