mark: i am mark halperin. john: and i am john heilemann. with all due respect to donald trump as we head into this holiday, we were hoping for a quiet monday. ♪ john: mark: happy national cashew day, sports fans. on the show tonight, donald trump's flaps and bernie sanders slaps. but first, ben carson's gaffe. he is no longer sharing front runner status with the donald, who is way out ahead by a whopping margin, double digits all over the place.

according to the numbers from fox news, carson is down five points, and marco rubio and ted cruz closing fast, and carson's slump was even more significant than some polls. survey, carson has fallen all the way to third, with 19%. while ted cruz has cruised past him, up to 21%, and the cbs/yougov numbers has him in -- carson tied with senator cruz with 10%, and rubio with 13%. carson also saw his support fall. in south carolina. so, mark, which one of these strikes you as the most significant? mark: well, there are a lot of people in the establishment and media who just want to say that carson is done. i think that is premature. he could have a second act. but the big news here is trump.

trump is so far ahead that some of the people are saying, he is not coming back down to earth. we will have to beat him when -- after he beats early contests when one of us can get him one on one. john: let's just put up these numbers. key number here to i trump is doing well, and a point i'm -- why trump is doing well, and a point i'm going to make about carson, which is among republicans, terrorism in the wake of paris, that has shot up, and many are saying that terrorism is the main issue, with the economy lagging, 29%. donald trump's strongman persona is helping him a lot. i would say, there are those in the establishment who say that ben carson is dead, that i think his weakness on foreign policy has caught up with him, in the same way it is helping donald trump be strong. it is hurting ben carson. mark: international context,

even though it is not a national race, establishing primacy is key. looking at the polls, there is a bit of a checkerboard thing. there are places where cruz looks stronger, places where rubio looks stronger. in that contest, the trump alternative contests between those guys, might be the best thing in the -- biggest thing in the republican race with trump , way ahead, but more difficult for him to beat someone if it gets down to one on one. if it does. the aforementioned mr. trump is defending himself for multiple things, we could not fit all of them on the giant wall. saying heng heat for saw people in new jersey cheering after 9/11, despite an absence of evidence that happened. and him calling for surveillance of mosques in america and his support of waterboarding. openness aboutt

a federal registry for muslims. -- thereend, he also were some of his supporters that roughed up a black lats protester at one of his rallies, -- black lives matter protester at one of his rallies, and he tweeted some questionable data. this is not the first time mr. trump has been embroiled in something. is this just like other stuff he overcomes in the end? john: a couple things are clear. it is now clear that trump has clarified his position on the muslim registry, which he is not totally ruling it out. he says it is completely within the realm of the possible, and the second thing is the new bogus,story is totally he's either just making it up or he has fallen for internet rumors. to answer your question directly, mark, i do not think any one of these things is going to bring donald trump down, but i do think if anything ever does bring donald trump down, it would look like this, a bunch of things and not just one. it is not a silver bullet. it is a range of things, but this is the way it could happen.

mark: it is freaky friday. we have reversed roles, because i believe the registry could be the thing that eventually brings him down. it is so controversial, so out of step with what americans believe. if you take his words literally, he supporting it or not ruling it out. but this is the kind of thing -- when voters get serious, this could rule him out. i want to show you something else. john kasich and the super pac. there is a web video. it is intriguing. it is not a tbi. it is intriguing because it goes at the mockery of trump that a lot of people in the establishment think in the end will take him down. mr. trump: he was a war hero because he was captured. if ivanka was not my daughter, i would be dating her. i have always had a great relationship with the blacks.

i have always had a great relationship with the blacks. >> the blacks. donald trump i just do not : respect her as a journalist. you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. somebody is doing the raping, but who is doing the raping? how stupid are the people of iowa? ♪ mark: john, the reason i wanted people to see that is if he is going to be brought down, it will be him brought down by the establishment convincing the voters he just does not have the right temperament, the right tone to be the commander in chief, undermining his persona with mockery. john: this goes to the point i was trying to make at the outset, that it will not be the -- it will be the accumulation, not one thing. everything. the weight of it all. senseind the ad on in the

that, those are all things -- a greatest hits of controversy real. again, if you are betting on the notion that it is a cumulative effect, there is some sense in that kind of an approach. as he has been for weeks now marco rubio is a man on the , rise. his campaign is going on the air this week with his first tv ad, a 30-second spot, which will be seen nationally. the focus of that ad? that would be isis. a civilizational struggle between the values of freedom and liberty, and radical islamic terror. what happened in paris could happen here. there is no middle ground. these are not disgruntled or disempowered people. neither radical terrorists who want to kill us, because we let women drive and let girls go to school. i am marco rubio. i approved this message. there can be no negotiation. either they win, or we do.

john: you have the black backdrop, the somber music, it is ominous. it is a pretty striking ad. so why for this guy at this time? mark: well, even pre-paris, we knew that national security was an issue. marco rubio wants to be a security candidate. he needs to go right into convincing people, looking them in the eye saying, i am 42, but , i am ready to be commander in chief. maybe it is a little too somber, little too negative, but it is an ad he has to do and i think he's smart to lead with it because that's what he wants to be known as, a guy who is ready to do the job. john: chris matthews talked about an old political adage about hanging a lantern on your troubles. that is kind of what rubio is doing. it does highlight how young he looks. he does not emanate gravitas.

you are right in the sense that i would understand why he wants to take on this problem, but i'm not sure that ad 100% works. mark: well, he will not age all of a sudden, so he has to deal with what he's got. john: now we are going to the democratic side, and hillary clinton rolled out new proposals this weekend, and once again within hours, the bernie sanders campaign went right into attack mode. in a statement, it was called -- -- the spokesman says the plan was tentative have steps that sound like republican light. they have been knocking her for not going as far as they should. from health care to texas, to family leave. i have to ask you, we are feeling the burn, but is the burn landing and he blows? mark: my gut is that they are not. the clinton campaign is being very aggressive.

sanders is making some good points, but it is very hard with the steam she has built up for him to put a dent in it. i still think sanders has to do it and he can't wait for debates . he has to drive the message every day he wants to slow her down. john: there is a keyword. he has to drive the message. right now the sharpest attacks bernieing out of -- sanders is the only one who can be an effective messenger if you want to contrast to hillary clinton. he cannot delegate that to his campaign. i think the biggest weakness he has right now in terms of pursuing this strategy is it feels like he is outsourcing his criticism to his aides. mark: give credit to the clinton campaign. they understand how politics works. they are being very nimble about talking about tax cuts, trying to flank him, sometimes very effective, and again, he is behind. he needs to catch up. up next, paul ryan's capitol hill, and what our latest poll

says about the latest "star wars" film. we are back in 60 seconds. ♪

mark: president obama and secretary of state john kerry have both taken a lot about statements they have made. you statements they have made. this morning, john kerry said isis is not 10 feet tall. at his press conference over this weekend, the president continued to downplay their strength, calling them "killers , with good social media." president obama: we do not succumb to fear. that is the primary power that these terrorists have over us.

they cannot strike a mortal blow against the united states or against france or against a country like malaysia, but they can make people fearful, and that is understandable. mark: john, what gives? there has been all of this criticism of the president and the secretary of state, and yet, they continue to take the same tone and emphasis. why? the bpou remember during oil spill when president obama, i can start my, i can e-mail and feet, and p my emote, but that won't do anything to plug the hole. i think the president and the secretary look at the country and think it is dangerous for people to be panicking, and they are trying to adopt a hyper rational tone. what they are saying is true. every word that has come out of their mouth is pretty much

actually true. they do not went to stir up more frenzy. they are trying to calm people down. you may not like that, but that is what they are trying to do. mark: i am not sure what they are saying is true, but some are -- i have been struck since the first press conference, at how many democrats, including some who are typically supportive of the president, think this is all wrong. some have called this the worst moment of his presidency, and i do not get why they do not at dismissiveeak their attitude about isis and in some ways and optimism in others. john: it has not been perfect, by any means, but i am trying to see what they are doing and get inside their head because they are not dumb guys, but we will be talking with someone about this later, margaret. meanwhile, when things could not get worse in washington, they did not. it's only been three weeks since paul ryan has been voted speaker of the house, but he has already

averted a government shutdown and taking the lead on the , syrian refugee issue -- averting a government shutdown in taking the lead on the syrian refugee crisis. is this a honeymoon phase, our is this the new normal? mark: i don't want to curse him, but i think it is the new normal. he has got democrats respecting him and dealing with him. he is spending the kind of time to do the things you need to do to get people to at least feel they are invested in the process. while i don't know this will yield any huge accomplishment, it is changing the tone and having washington function better. and i think we can credit paul ryan for having thought through the job. john: we will have the answer this question. no doubt it is different. i do not know if it is the new normal, but the dynamics. the question is, will we be looking at another government shutdown threat? again in december. 1. talk starts again, what does ryan do? we will have an answer about a new normal or a honeymoon. we could be back to where we were before, but i hope not.

mark: i think he has a better chance than john boehner. democrats are more invested in his success in a way that they were not invested in boehner. ok, we talked about our latest bloomberg politics poll, but we saved a little nugget for now. we asked people to pick from a list of upcoming events and tell us which one they were looking most forward to, and the survey says, 28% of you are most excited about the super bowl. 20%, the iowa caucuses, more than the 19% who said "star wars," and then 9% say the ncaa march madness. john, i am wondering which event you are looking most forward to. i'm assuming you are surprised. i can only come up with one possible answer. i am a political guy, but it is all about "star wars" for me.

i swear, the only answer i can come up with is that the survey respondents are high, and high on some substance that if i could get a hold of it, i would. i can't understand it. you have to be nuts to looking forward to the caucuses more than both march madness and the "star wars" movie, that is crazy. mark: trump trumps "star wars." it's that simple. john: it's income pie has about. -- it's incomprehensible. do you have an explanation? mark: donald trump gets everyone excited, that's all i can think of. and mr. trump will tell you, people like him. john: which of those are you looking forward to? mark: "star wars." not even close. john: all right, as long as we agree on that. we will put hillary clinton campaign under the microscope, with one of the best democratic minds in the business. we will be right back. ♪

mark: our first guest and i is former white house communications director for barack obama and a top democratic strategists. anita dunn from what -- washington, welcome. anita: thank you for having me. mark: great for you to be here. hillary clinton, what does she have going for her, and what would worry you about the election? anita: i think in the last month, you have seen hillary clinton as a candidate who has really found her voice. i think if you watched the south carolina forum or her speech last week and her interviews, she is a candidate who is

increasingly sounding confident, and because she sounds confident, she sounds more presidential every day, and i think when you talk to people, there is no question about her qualifications, and what you are starting to see now is a candidate who is really communicating why she wants the job, so i think she seems more comfortable every day with the role of presidential candidate. mark: you did not cite her weaknesses. anita: you asked what i would worry about. mark: right. there are polls that show her behind or even with a lot of the republicans who are in their own contested contests, so do you think those polls are not accurate, or do you think she is behind republicans at this point? anita: i think one of the things i would not worry about if i were working for her campaign , with the general election polls taken in november 2015 for a general election in november 2016.

now, you still have a dual track process going on. you have hillary clinton and a referendum on her and, that's never a great situation. in the republican field, you have some candidates who are not as defined as she is and who have a very intense republican primary going on, with a lot of enthusiasm going on on that side for change, so right now, you have two different tracks, and pitting those against each other is not the same. at the end of the day, this election will be much different than in the past. they will be much different on economic and foreign policy. i do not worry as much about the polls. if i were with hillary clinton's campaign, i would worry about things i do not control, the economy. everything going on in the world . those are the kinds of things that particularly when you are running to follow a president,

so-called third term peace of this, would be something i don't control but i would worry about. john: forget about head-to-head matchups, but she's already looking at the general election in terms of how she's running the campaign. if you were working for her, and you knew that there were a couple of things that potentially are -- our vulnerabilities. one is that her trustworthy numbers among americans are not that great, and another concern is whether she will be able to generate the requisite enthusiasm, among the coalition particularly among , millennial voters, young voters. -- bigger bit vulnerability, honest and trustworthy, or enthusiasm? anita: i think the enthusiasm pieces hard to generate when you control the white house already, because you don't get as strong of a change component. one thing that helps mitigate against that for hillary clinton

is the excitement around collecting a historic candidacy, the first woman to be elected if , she is the party nominee. i think that can help with the enthusiasm. trust and confidence is something you have to earn from the american people, and you earn it by the kind of campaign you run, the kind of priorities you choose, and they are kind of sizing you up every day and against your opponent, so i think the enthusiasm he's is is one at that is a challenged whenever you're fighting to hold onto something, as opposed to fighting to change something. if you look at her rhetoric over the last month, she has started using more change rhetoric than she had in the past, and she obviously is working to address those issues. john: maybe ask you about enthusiasm. he worked for barack obama and you are also a woman. do you think -- anita: that is undeniable. john: do you think the historic nature of her candidacy, will

she engender the enthusiasm among women that barack obama did among african-americans? anita: it's a great question. we don't know the answer to yet and we won't for a while. but i think that certainly, for a generation of women, hillary clinton's story and the things she is talking about really resonate, and the idea of having a woman in the white house is very exciting, so i think that is something we are not seeing a lot of right now because we are a year out, but, hopefully, women will get excited. i fully expect women will get excited. you are not going to see the same percentages that we saw in the african-american community for barack obama with women. but the same time, i think you will start to see real excitement, and you already do on the campaign trail. mark: less than a minute. one or two sentences. who will be republican nominee he, and why? anita: i don't know.

that's one sentence. mark: who are the three most likely right now? anita: you would have to go at the front runner, donald trump, who has shown an amazing ability to survive and even thrive, and , that is a scary stability, prospect for a lot of people, me included. obviously senator rubio is , gaining a lot of steam, and i think i would also have to put senator cruz in there, as well. mark: anita, thank you. we appreciate it. we will have you back again soon. up next, the outside group supporting senator ted cruz are sitting on tens of millions of dollars in cash. we will talk more about that, right after this. ♪ the only way to get better is to challenge yourself,

and that's what we're doing at xfinity. we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20.

it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. john: joining us is republican strategist kellyanne conway, now running one of the super pac's.

supporting ted cruz campaign to be given republican nominee. good to see you. kellyanne: thank you for having me, john. john: ted cruz is suddenly on the move in iowa. explain to me what you think is happening there. kellyanne: it is an outsider who knows his way around washington, d.c., and is trusted in the evangelical community. evangelical vote was down in the general election. 57% of the caucus voters were evangelical. that's a very strong community there. he has been in the churches. he has a great grassroots team. from the super pac side, we are trying to support what the senator is doing. john: the conventional wisdom right now is that, part of it is, in this moment, post-paris is that ben carson's foreign , policy weaknesses, shall we say, have cost him in an appreciable way in the past

week, and that is what we are seeing in addition to senator , cruz's strength. do you think that is basically right? kellyanne: i think that's part of it. a very smart person observed to me in september, when i said, people eventually will have to is to the picture, so and so my commander in chief, and that smart person said, well, ben carson's people can picture him that way. there's something to that. there's no question the tenor of the race has changed. i think with the demise, if you will, of the governor model. i said to myself, where does that come from? and i remembered the governors , made it up. washington experience, just a little bit of it, has somehow buoyed senators rubio and crews. -- cruz. that keeps you within the aura

of commander in chief. mark: the super pac's are organized in a different way, a cluster of differing groups doing different things largely , funded by different families or other donors. how is it working? what is the logic behind it? kellyanne: it's working very well. the logic behind it was you had different families and individuals who were in support of senator cruz and his aspiration to be the republican nominee of the united states. and they decided they would all be under the umbrella of keep the promise, but they would each have different numbers. if somebody has a priority on digital, somebody would have a priority on broadcast and digital. we coordinate constantly. we fly around to meet each other. we talked regularly. i think what we are trying to do, mark, is not be duplicative. find a lot of least, particularly in super packs, if you are not carried -- careful. my philosophy is that the fastest way to have a small

portion, make a small portion, -- fortune is to have a large , one and waste some of it. we are trying to avoid that. one of the supertex has troops on the ground in iowa. the groundgoing to in south carolina. some are skeptical that super pac's can do the so-called ground game, field organizing and voter contact. what is your view of how valuable that is and how possible it is for a super pac to do that on behalf of a candidate? kellyanne: it's possible, and i actually think it is prudent. not the way the campaign can do it. super pac is not a campaign. the way we try to organize keep the promise is in many campaigns, is that we have invested in people as well as, , eventually, running broadcast and cable ads. there are many different ways to touch the voters. text messaging, phone banks, digital broadcast cable, but also organizing on the ground. organizing on the ground is very much in keeping with who senator cruz is. the only people angry at ted cruz when he shows up at an

event is the fire marshal, because the crowds spill over to the outside and we have to open the doors. there have been super pac's that have seemed to exist solely to run ad after ad. we are trying not to do that. i just read john kasich's super pac has run $5.4 million of ads in new hampshire and we are at 9%. ashley is at 9%. in newzero as -- ads hampshire and we are also at 9%. the intention was to have jeb bush for members move, just in the wrong direction. we are in it for the long haul. we know, as senator cruz says, that many conservative tea party evangelicals stayed home in the past because they felt uninspired. we want to do our part in changing that. john: i want to talk to you about the other two people, anita dunn who is just likely --

just on, set her likeliest nominees are ted cruz, donald trump, and marco rubio, in no particular order. one of the premises of the cruz approach, the two front runners, trump and carson, would fade away. we are seeing carson fade away now. we will see. trump not fading away at all. stronger than ever. is there a way for ted cruz to win even his bracket, let alone the nomination itself, unless something happens that we haven't seen so far with donald trump? and if so, what is that thing? kellyanne: i am much more realistic than other people who say "when carson and trump fade away." where after they are gone. when and how does that happen? we have had that conversation for five months. invalids in the polls is something to talk about. i read recently that the wealthy donor to maybe bush or somebody else said, sure, i support bush, but my gardener, nanny,

chauffeur, all these other people are supporting trump. we can't do anything until we have our own message out. i recognize that donald trump like hillary clinton, has 110% name id. senator cruz, a lot of voters have information under load on senator cruz. they don't know his american dream story that rivals marco rubio's story. they don't know his major impact on american jurisprudence when he argued successfully in front of the supreme court so many times and the impact that has had on our constitutional rights. what did ted cruz do before he went to the senate? in his 40's. he is not a political lifer. we want to do some of that background. i believe you said you could imagine a world where it was ted cruz and marco rubio -- kellyanne: in that order. john: it seems like you are

spending a lot of time on marco rubio, attacking him on immigration rubio attacking cruz , on surveillance. that battle is starting a little earlier than some people thought. just give me your theory of the case with ted cruz and marco rubio. kellyanne: the theory is that the republicans are going to benefit from this transformational, generational change that has always catapulted the democrat. the democratic party has been masterful at elevating and electing these young guys without a ton of experience, jfk, barack obama even jimmy , carter and we end up , nominating romney, mccain, dole, wonderful americans, i their public service, but that is not the model we are going for this time. you can see it is not working. these guys in the mid-40's with just a little bit of experience in washington represent a generational, transformational change. they also represent the future of the party, given that they are both hispanic. here is the other thing that is happening. we believe in super pac world that there are certain deal breakers for the voters, that they just may not be able to get past.

for senator rubio, that is clearly the fact that he dropped his bags down when he got to the senate, crossed the hallway, and started doing deals with chuck schumer. a great interview to the new york times where he set the facts are the facts, and rubio fought really hard and senator cruz is also -- always against it. mark: we are between reporting periods. how much money are the cruz super pac's sitting on in the banks? kellyanne: we have ample but not unlimited resources. i keep -- i keep the promise i , plan to spend every penny of it. mark: is it more than $60 million? kellyanne: no comment. mark: i had to try. john: "ample but not unlimited." i'm going to use that line in other contexts as we move forward. kellyanne conway, thank you for being here. we will have you back soon. next, why you should not be surprised by what president

obama has been saying about isis since the paris attacks. ♪

>> this crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while. states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil. either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. mark: that was, of course, president george w. bush, talking tough about taking on terrorism. here, how president obama's

rhetoric has differed. this is our white house correspondent joining us from the washington bureau margaret , talev. we are surprised. explain what you think president obama and john kerry are trying to demonstrate in their rhetoric since paris. margaret: president obama is obviously not trying to complete ly undo everything he said for the last seven years when he talked about his approach to terror and foreign policy. he has, for seven years, gone out of his way not to set this up as a contest, not to say that they are axes of evil. in recent weeks and days, certainly, he has really been under pressure to show that he is not just sort of completely underestimating the threat or not taking it seriously enough or not doing enough. you hear him say things like "isis is evil," but not that isis is part of some evil conspiracy.

you hear him saying things much more akin to "nothing to fear but fear itself." then things like we have to throw everything at it right now. i think he has been seeking for years and continuing now to avoid the sort of frenzy that could precede a rush to war, to avoid another major commitment of u.s. ground troops, but when you see brussels shut down for three or four days and francois hollande coming to the united states to try to, you know, sort of show the world that the effort is being taken seriously. president obama understands that there is an imperative to do something a little bit different, but he is having a little trouble figuring out what. john: for the critics, the notion is, he is badly out of touch with where the american people and western europe is in terms of their anxiety right now. is there any sense you get from

the white house that they need to recalibrate, to some extent, maybe give a speech to the nation? talk to people, obviously there's a lot of fear mongering around. there is a lot of genuine and reasonable anxiety about where we stand right now. margaret: sure. i think they didn't completely understand how the syrian refugee program would be perceived here. this has been an education for the white house. and the fact that it has flipped across partisan lines. democrats are worried about it also, as are independents. you are beginning to see a little bit of a recalibration, but it is not substance as much as it is rhetoric. emphasizing on things like blogs, and twitter and social media. the obama administration itself has fought to be pioneers of using social media. you are beginning to see more on twitter and more on the white house postings, an effort to say, "look what we are doing to fight isis." here is a video of

josh earnest from the podium. here is what president obama says, or lisa, the counterterrorism expert, blogging about what the administration is doing against isis. fundamentally, what it boils down to, unless there is an about-face in policy president , obama is resistant to committing ground troops, resistant to no-fly zones. thinks that the idea of sending 10,000 troops in is not going to solve anything. he has been very aggressive about pushing back on this. how do you resist all these things? and how do you say, has he -- as he essentially has, several times i'm going to stay the , course, without looking like you are dense and you are not hearing people's fears and frustrations? that has been very difficult to calibrate. you have to acknowledge what people are afraid of, without promising more, just as he is saying he is not willing to do more. mark: have you picked up what we

have heard from capitol hill inside the white house and from , outside advisors, that, while the president wants to be consistent and doesn't want tens of thousands of american troops, that his tone and even his willingness to engage with new ideas is not matched in the mood of the country and the world in of paris?f -- wake margaret: you are seeing some of that, but i do think you see a subtle recognition by the white house of this. when the french president comes to visit tomorrow, there originally was not going to be a news conference. now there is going to be a news conference. there is a recognition that they need to have the president out there and talking, almost daily reshaping the language. recognizing people's concerns about the issue, and recognition that, if he doesn't acknowledge that in his public remarks, he is just going to get hammered for it. when you are the leader of the free world or the leader of any country, there is always this balancing act between doing what you think is right, but representing the people that you represent also.

and in this case, the people have really, american people across partisan aisles, have really been pushing him, if he is really interested in targeting isis, he needs to do -- be explaining in a different way. john: i want to play for you a soundbite of the press conference in turkey. people seized on various things from his press conference in turkey. there were a couple things in his answers that i think did not get the attention that they may be deserved and work in a different mode. let me play that and get your reaction. pres. obama: the muslim community has to think about how we make sure that children are not being infected with this twisted notion that somehow they can kill innocent people and that that is justified by religion. and to some degree, that is something that has to come from within the muslim community itself, and i think there have been times where there has not been enough pushback against extremism.

it has been pushed back. there are some who say, well, we don't believe in violence, but are not as willing to challenge some of the extremist thoughts or rationales for why muslims feel oppressed, and i think those ideas have to be challenged. mark: that's not the first time we have heard the president say such things, talking relatively tough toward the muslim world. he did that at the yuan last year. is the white house, and the president, are they frustrated about those kind of comments don't get more attention, especially from conservatives, who repeatedly like to hear that kind of message coming from him? margaret: the conservative frustration has much more to do with his disinterest in engaging militarily than it does in

whether or not he is having tough talk with muslim americans about what they can do in terms of u.s. strategy. approach is informed by a graphically on two terms. growing upexperience for some time in indonesia, and is the way he talked about growing up african-american in the united states, and these cultural interfaces. this is really heartfelt on his part. i don't think it is strategic, so much as it is his opinion. john: thank you, margaret. day at theascinating white house smile. we look far to seeing what happens at the press conference. up next, a donald trump fact check unlike any you have ever seen. ♪

over the past few months, americans have been students of trying to decipher the connections between donald trump's mind and his math. among the idiosyncrasies is one that involves former u.s. army general ray odierno. trump doesn't know how to say the last name. that hasn't stopped him from saying it again and again. >> general odierno is worried about the deep cuts to the army. donald trump: i watched the general the other time. there was a general, i will use his name. just the other day, general -- when general odierno left -- leaving, -- i watch the other day, he's leaving. couple ofal left, a

weeks ago i saw that he is leaving. >> general odierno. mr. trump: general odierno said on television that we are the worst prepared we've ever been in our nation, our military. john: oh-dee-air-no. repeat after me. we will be right back. ♪

john: i woke up this morning and realized that we only have a three-day workweek this week, which is a delight for me. a little more tough for the politicians and the people who work for them. what's the challenge involved to try to get your political message out?

and the stuff they are trying to get done just a few days before people go for the holidays. mark: congress is away, but the president is having a big press conference tomorrow with the president of france. the isis matter will be front and center. but for the presidential candidates, this is what they will have to get used to. we take this into next year and then iowa. they will have to deal with holidays, getting their message out even while people are celebrating holidays. this is the first test run of this. it will be an interesting one. this john: they change this time is we have gotten used to the iowa caucuses coming right after new year's. this year, we have a full month of i think things are going to january. go into a deep freeze for december. january is going to be a crazy month as we head toward those first votes. mark: we are live all the time on our website, bloombergpolitics.com. check out our campaign tracker with the latest on the 2016 race. john: tomorrow, our data guru will join us to talk about his

forthcoming story about a new kind of weird profiling technique they use in new hampshire. i can't wait for that story. mark will be back in new york city. that would make me happy on a lot of levels. until then, for me and mark, i say sayonara. ♪

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rishad: it is tuesday. it is the 24th of november. i'm rishaad salamat, and you are watching "trending business." this is what we are watching. we've got metal fatigue. retail stocks, declines across the region, with copper and nickel near their lowest in years. miners are down for a third straight day. jim rogers is a well-known commodity trader. he says it's time to take a wider view. in awagen has a solution

story about emissions-cheating software, the chief executive says they need more silicon valley. follow me on twitter. i am @rishaadtv. the trading day commencing in jakarta. investor sentiment pretty negative. here is david. what is worth watching when watching the jakarta markets are the indonesian markets, commodity-related down about 0.6%, led by declines we saw in brazil. i think the ruble took a hit. the loonie to a lesser extent. i will get to that in just a moment. that is how asia looks. that's the equity market for you. the miners, down about 0.5%. aussie miners. looking at the gold-mining stocks in hong kong, over in