mark: i mark halperin. john: i am john heilemann. "with all due respect," we are deflategate,e, cover-up -- but coldplay? now you have gone too far. john: happy national cookie day, sports fans. a pair of tremendous interviews with front-runner donald trump and second-place runner ted cruz. first, a new national cnn poll shows mr. trump is becoming king trump should we talk about polls a lot on this show but this one is a doozy.

trumppth and breadth of support is greater than ever instantly stunning. we will give you a taste of what trump himself is saying about the pulpit here is -- about the poll. here's a snippet of his interview with mark this money. mark: what do you think of the numbers? mr. trump: well, i'm honored by the numbers did i see what is happening. we have to amend his response to what i'm saying, and i'm really honored. i'm not that surprised. when you look at the crowds i get, nobody has close to those grounds, including bernie sanders. the response has been really terrific. i was really happy about it. mark: one of the things that struck me in the remarks yesterday, talking about the crosstabs, some of the more impressive than the horse race. talk aboutwhen they the economy and when they talk about terrorism and when they

talk about the military, the really important facts of life in terms of the nation, and i was at numbers that were many, many times everybody else, and so i was very honored by that. i guess you would call acrosstab -- call that crosstabs, but the numbers were really amazing, i agree. john: we will have much more of the interview later in the show, but let's walk through those and donaldhat mark trump were talking about a second ago, three of them in particular. first off, first big number, 36, 36%. that is how many republican their topk trump as candidate for the republican nomination, more than double what any other kennedy currently has. 6%.nd big number is 46, 40 that is how many people said donald trump is the best candidate to handle islamic state. yes and even bigger lead there among his death he has an even bigger lead there among his --

he has an even bigger lead there among his republican rivals. third big number, 52 to 52% of people who said that donald trump has the best chance of winning the general election. that is the electability factor. he dominates all the other candidates when voters were asked who can handle the of beingilities commander-in-chief. i said before that these cross tabs recently stunning. what do you make of it? , it is an order of magnitude bigger than we have seen in most polls, and it is full is huge. if any other candidate had a like this, people would say the race is over. trump understand what this means. these are dominating numbers and other national polls bear this out, then this race might be over. john: i was asked by somebody earlier what the big take away was from and what i've been saying for couple months, donald trump is the most likely

republican nominee. if you look deeper into these crosstabs, it is impressive. there is one demographic were he doesn't, voters with college degrees. he leads fight double digits republicans, moderates, and conservatives. the only one who comes closest takers with the tea party. -- comes close is ted cruz with the tea party. this is a whopper of a poll for donald trump. mark: this was happening in a period when people thought he might decline, with national security and all the rest. on fighting national spirit, republican voters think -- on a national security, republican voters think trump is best. that the female shooter had placed her allegiance to the islamic state via facebook.

as for political applications, the reaction has been intense. ofublican president candidates have criticized president obama and other democrats for calling for sticker gun laws instead of focusing in many cases on terrorism. here are 2 such reactions, from chris christie in des moines, iowa, and marco rubio in new hampshire. governor christie: president and former secretary of state love to use euphemisms. they don't like to call things what they are. they are trying desperately to be politically correct and play to the united nations ground. they should be more worried about saying things that give full information to the market people and being short they take every step to protect security -- to the american people and being sure they take every step to protect security instead of worrying what the u.n. crowd thinks. senator rubio: all these doubts about what happened in california -- i don't want to hear anymore about gun control. they are still out there talking

about gun control measures, as if somehow terrorists care what our gun laws are. we need bomb control, because these people are building bombs. we need to terrorist control. this is what we should be focused on. mark: john thain that as more -- john, it's more details emerge in which of the candidates is making the toughest political play, speaking out against the violence and appealing to voters? john: if you want me to talk stickley politics, i will talk about chris christie. he is taking out the toughest position, and when our politics -- gripped by fear, the guy who sounds most like donald trump on terrorism is a smart play for chris christie. i don't know if it is the best play in the long run, but it is the best in the short run. mark: you cannot argue with the numbers in the polls, not just this week, but in general. long ago made a u.s.

attorney and in dealing with the fisa court and prosecuting terrorists. smarts now looking like a play, something voters are getting, that this guy has dealt with domestic terrorism, personally on a 9/11, but also as a u.s. attorney. john: the contrast between the pieces of video we showed with chris christie and marco rubio, i think rubio looked untethered in that video, and pursuing what i would like to call a false binary, the notion that you cannot be in favor of gun control and concerned about terrorists both is obviously silly. we have a busy weekend ahead. so many events in our huge panorama. on saturday there is another republican cattle call, this one with at least four republican candidates in cedar rapids, iowa. donald trump will be in the hawkeye state with two rallies that day. hillary clinton has a big week"iew on abc's "this

on sunday. first, a quick look back. donald trump had a good week. who else enters the aforementioned weekend on a high note? mark: ted cruz for sure, who i will have an interview with peter on the program. is also chris christie having a fantastic week, speaking with emotion and passion and focus. john: i definitely agree with all three you said having a good week. maybe more personally, hillary clinton is having a good week, too. who had a bad week? mark: jeb bush. he is performing well and speaking out clearly and is on the message he wants to be on, and his holdovers are horrible and his donors continue to be concerned, wondering what he can do to shake things up that he has not already tried. john: i told you a long time ago that i was dead, and he is dead. the other guy, bernie sanders. where is he? nowhere. more of whatup,

donald trump told me in that phone interview, and my conversation with ted cruz in iowa. we will be back.

cruz today senator ted took his campaign to the crossroads gun range. i sat down with senator cruz and asked him about all the buzz following his rise in iowa. welcome back to iowa. sen. cruz: thank you, mark, good to see you. mark: put aside your texas modesty and tell yo me about moving in the polls nationally. sen. cruz: i'm very encouraged. it is extraordinary. mark: are you a front runner now? sen. cruz: look, i think we are doing well, and what we are

seeing is conservatives uniting behind our campaign. beingwould likely end up one strong minor candidate and one strong conservative, and if conservatives unite, we will win . what i see happening every day both here in iowa and all over the country is conservatives coming together and coalescing behind -- mark: who are you still competing with to be that conservative candidate? sen. cruz: well, listen, that is a question the voters have to decide. if you look at the folks who have dropped out -- rick perry, scott walker, bobby jindal -- all good men, strong governors, they were competing for conservatives. mark: is donald trump in that lane or in a different lane? sen. cruz: wellsen. cruz:, listen, donald trump is one-of-a-kind by any measure, and the voters will decide who they want to support. we are entering the phase of the campaign -- the last several months, national polling, a lot of that is driven by name id and earned media. as we get into december and january and february, primary voters start examining the

candidates and look at our records. they start asking the hard questions -- who has done more than just talk the talk? who has walked the walk? the reason conservatives are uniting behind our campaign is that of all the republicans running, i'm the only one who has been a consistent conservative, a fiscal conservative, a social conservative, and national security conservative, and we are seeing that old reagan coalition coming back together. mark: horrible event in california and a lot of things i could ask you about. is of the alleged murderers an american citizen. should there be more surveillance of american citizens to stop these things are happening? sen. cruz: well, there should be more surveillance of terrorists -- mark: what american citizens -- sen. cruz: sure, any american citizen who is a terrorist. this is where the left, democrats, and the media get it wrong. what the democrats and the media

immediately say, we need more gun control, we have got to take guns away from law-abiding citizens. that is exactly backwards. we are not made safer by the federal government monitoring your cell phone, not made safer by lois lerner having access to your cell phone records, not made safer by the government disarming you. what the obama administration gets run over and over again is we need to target bad guys -- mark: but the only way to find that case is to do surveillance sometimes -- sen. cruz: that is not right -- mark: you cannot find that guys without casting someone about why the net. -- wide net. sen. cruz: sure you can. if you engage in the obama administration's orwellian doublespeak of not acknowledging radical terrorists. n, who carried out the horrific fort hood shooter's attack -- the obama administration knew he had communicated with anwar known radical

cleric, had asked him about the permissibility of waging jihad against fellow soldiers, and the administration did nothing and nidal hasan carried out a terrorist attack. that should never have happened. rnaev others in boston, we knew they were affiliated with radical terrorism, russia told us that. the fbi interviewed them. but then they dropped the ball. v brother tsarnae posted on youtube -- this did not take surveillance -- a call to jihad. the obama administration did not notice it and carried out -- and they carried out the bombing at the boston marathon. you look at these individuals in san bernardino. the man had traveled to saudi arabia, they had had multiple interactions with other people on the terror watch list. we know that the woman, it appears, was engaging in social media with isis terrorists pledging her allegiance to isis.

and yet the federal government doesn't focus on the bad guys. instead, their energies they think the world would be better monitoring mark halperin's cell phone. i think that is backwards. we need to focus on the back ice rather than taking away the rights of law-abiding citizens. mark: more of my conversation with ted cruz a little later in the show. , former new york city police commissioner ray kelly.

has changedine every day since the san bernadino shooting earlier this

week, and here to drill down on the underlying issues is ray kelly. you know him as the former new york city police commissioner. he's the vice-chairman of the corporate investigations firm and the author of "vigilance." esther commissioner, thank you for joining us. ray: good to be here, john. john: there is a big controversy in our world, the media world, today, various media outlets they got into the apartment of the shooters. what do you think about that? ray: i checked with my would've taken more time -- i, quite rightly, would've taken more time. i'm surprised that the search took such a relatively short period of time. the things you want to do in daylight, you want to do for a of time.nt period so i was surprised that they sort of opened it up. to get intot want media chris's miggy because that

is not your specialty, but i wonder if you think that is a -- media criticism with you because that is not your specialty but i wonder if you think that is a failure on the part of the police apartment. ray: i don't blame the media. they will get it however they can. i don't know who authorize this, but i thought this was done in a very rapid manner, fashion. the fbi has been saying that they are investigating this as an act of terrorism. we have been waiting for this designation. what does it really mean? practically speaking, in terms of how the investigation gets carried out on of that designation? ray: that designation means it is now and if the i matter. they were clearly -- now an fbi matter. they were clearly on the scene, san bernardino please working with the sheriff. that means they have jurisdiction. i don't think it is that big a deal. it will be some form of terrorism with the fbi jurisdiction. john: applying to whether it is

to mr. terrorism or foreign terrorism, it basically becomes a federal matter. more resources, presumably, brought to bear. ray: well, more resources, but the fbi stands ready to add resources, ready to help. how this talked about shooting is similar to the shootings in paris a couple weeks ago, because long guns were used rather than handguns. what is the distinction there? why is it easier to get a hold of a rifle than a handgun? ray: historically, rifles are used for hunting, much more available, regulations are controlled -- much lower bar to cross. and a rifle is much more powerful. that is the weapon of choice. we saw in paris and other events, ak-47s used, the most ubiquitous weapon in the world. very simple, semiautomatic. , it mighte states

need a definition of assault weapons, but the actual mechanics of it are not affected by that designation. john: one thing people have noted this week is that typically after these incidents of mass shootings, we have had way too many, i believe this is the 352nd of the year, which is what staggering. ray: yeah. john: the gun sales go up after the shootings. after the colorado springs shooting, the fbi process 185,000 background checks, about 2 per second. what accounts for that? ray: people are concerned, people are afraid. you will continue to see them go up. now people have seen a terrorist act, a horrific one come outside a main city. there is always been used option on the part of a lot of people that new york is a target, washington is a target, maybe chicago is a target. now you see san bernadino, a city of little over 200,000 people, not exactly the crossroads of the world.

people are going to read that as sort of all bets are off, any area is vulnerable. what is the reaction? they will buy guns. john: if it is the case that fear is connected to the purchase of guns and fear is , gun safety measures are already incredibly hard to pass them as we have seen since sandy hook. if fears connected to gun sales and on sales go up because fear goes up and we live in a time of fear, doesn't that make it all the more difficult, even in a we are counterintuitive way, that people who support tougher city measures to get those on the books in this kind of climate? ray: oh, yeah, i think that is true. people in the middle of the country, west coast, sort of think that people are the problem, not guns. on the east coast it is guns are the problem, not people. 2 different schools of thought. you will see people who are for

extra gun control having a more difficult time in moving that agenda forward. john: and i think for many people, especially people who support various forms of gun migration that is the overwhelming majority of people in the country -- at least tougher background checks -- there is a natural inclination to assume that in the wake of one of these shootings, that that should drive the political mandate for more gun control or morgan safety legislation. in fact, exactly the opposite is what you are saying. ray: in sandy hook, we thought significant legislation would come forward. now, here in new york state, were quite likely, governor cuomo and the state legislature put in some a very stringent regulations, but gun sales, for people who have a legitimate right to have a gun, those sales went up. afterone of the things this week when president obama was hesitant at first to declare this an act of terrorism, and we don't have the facts and we will wait until the facts are income he got pummeled by some

republican candidates, including chris christie, who said he is hands, this isis political practice, i knew it was terrorism early on. do you understand why president wants tomeasured and not jump on that bandwagon, not to get in front of the facts? would you have more sympathy for those who look at this thing and say that is terrorism, let us call it what it is out of the gate? ray: when you are in office, you have a particular responsibility not to say things that are inflammatory, certainly prematurely. i can understand waiting more for the facts when you are the president. terrorism right away to me but i am not the president. i can say that, i am not in government. when you are in government, you have a higher responsibility, certainly the president does, to be sure of what you say. john: let me ask you about the issue that has been in our news this week, the shooting of this african-american teenager in chicago. it didn't happen this week but

we saw the video this week. mayor rahm emanuel fire the police chief but that has not satisfied everyone. what is your take on the fact that they waited so long to release the video and it has been a year since the shooting took place and we finally found out all the facts? ray:ray: first, let me say that gary mccarthy worked for me and is a top five professional and did a great job at the nypd and ark and job in new as far as i know in chicago. the mayor had to do something and unfortunately, gary was the second of the lamb. an investigation has to be done, if it hasn't been done already, about the actions in the burger king, currently took out about an hour of the videotape -- apparently took out about an hour of videotape. it is an inordinately long period of time. john: let me ask you one last question. after the san bernadino

shooting, donald trump, republican front-runner i a long point tweeted "go police." -- helpful come on helpful that helpful, unhelpful? ray: well, donald trump has been supportive of law enforcement and the military and has been very generous as far as his charitable activities in law enforcement circles. he has been a cheerleader for a long time. john: ray kelly, thank you very much. great to have him here again. the book is "vigilance." more from our cruz and trump interviews coming up.

--n: and now mark: and now for part two of my conversation earlier today in iowa with senator ted cruz.

i asked about policy differences between himself and marco. i know you said you don't want to pick fights between i want to askut you to compare yourself not on personality, personal things, but on substance. how would you characterize the foreign policy difference, philosophy, record between you and senator rubio, who is been outspoken criticizing your record a national severity and foreign policy? sen. cruz: well, it is kind of amusing, super pac supporting marco rubio is spending money here in iowa on nasty personal attack ads. they are trying to suggest quite literally that i am in some ways responsible for the paris terror attacks, which is silly and i think iowa voters are laughing -- mark: how would you say here is philosophy on foreign policy and a national security and here is the rubio one? sen. cruz: i described the

spectrum of republican foreign policy -- on one side, rand paul, on the other side, lindsey graham and marco rubio. i think my views are the closest to ronald reagan's. what should we be doing? number one, we should always be a clarion voice for freedom like reagan was. mark: senator rubio would say he his as well. sen. cruz: here's the difference. reagan said the touchstone for foreign policy is a vital national security interests. we should focus on defeating our enemies, not on getting involved in foreign civil wars where we don't have a stake in the fight. for example, libya. in 2009, barack obama and hillary clinton led nato in toppling the market off in a libya. senator rubio emphatically supported clinton. addafit ofqd man

was a bad man, but he had voluntarily handed over his nuclear program and was actively cooperating and going after radical islamic terrorism that he views them as a threat to his regime, he was captured, handing them over to america. what happened? obama and hillary and senator qaddafi, andpled libya was handed over to radical islamic terrorists. it is much, much more dangerous for u.s. national security. mark: in your view, the rubio worldview is like the clinton-obama worldview, go in and make changes. cruz he was more cautious. sen. cruz: it is two things. one is an over eagerness for military adventurism. every problem is send in the marines. america historically has been reluctant to send our sons and

daughters into harm's way. two it is systematically, failing to appreciate that when you topple a stable government and don't have a good alternative, creating chaos for radical islamic terrorists to step in is dangerous. in syria, but hillary and senator rubio are making the same mistake. just like they did in libya, they attracted top a -- trying to topple assad. assad is a bad man, terrible human rights record. but if the obama administration succeeds in toppling assad, isis will take over syria and that hurts national security interests and what we are to be doing instead is defeating isis. senator rubio went on tv and basically suggested that anyone who doesn't think we should get in the middle east civil wars is somehow an isolationist. that is his standard attack. either you have to invade everywhere or you are an isolationist. what baloney.

what we should be doing is utterly destroying isis, because they have declared war on us. what we should be doing is making clear that under no circumstances will i ran be -- will iran be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. why? that is about to our national severity. that is what the obama foreign policy fails to do, understand what is and isn't a threat to national security. mark: you reaffirmed that america is at war since the shooting. what is the argument to vote against the defense authorization bill as you have consistently done? shouldn't you fund troops and not make a point? sen. cruz: of course you should fund the troops -- mark: you keep voting against them. sen. cruz: i serve on the senate armed services committee, i introduced an amended has to do -- mark: you voted against them. sen. cruz: the reason is when i represented my promise to the people that i would not vote for a defense authorization bill as long as the statute supported by john mccain and lindsey graham has the power for the federal government to intimately

detain national -- indefinite detain -- mark: but you're still not funding our troops in a time of war -- sen. cruz: your misunderstanding, it is not funding -- mark: a step along the way to funding that is vital if we fund them eventually. your critics say that at a time of war you are making political points. sen. cruz: no, number one, i'm to theg a promise i made voters commend it was a time when the media thought it was a good thing when politicians honor their promises. people support my campaign because they look at me and say ted is doing what he said he would do. second, there is an easy fix to this. my friend senator mike lee has introduced you after your an amendment that would make very clear that the federal government doesn't have the power to arrest you without any due process and hold us indefinitely without any charges against us.

and yes, the republican establishment won't allow a vote on that. i told the voters of texas that i wouldn't support a bill until the rights of law-abiding citizens and that is a promise i will keep. mark: yesterday at the republican jewish coalition you were asked how can some one who is pro-choice win their support, and you give an answer about the base of the republican party. i was confused by the answer. there are two groups you don't have much support from right now, pro-choice americans, and people who favor gun control laws to regulate guns. cruz,ate cruz, president how do you reach out to those groups and say that despite our differences, you should support me? sen. cruz: i understand that the media is confused by the argument because the media buys into the argument fo of the washington establishment that the way to it is to run to the middle and sound like democrats -- not mark: i understand -- sen. cruz: you may not like the

answer -- mark: you are going down the same path you went yesterday. sen. cruz: no, every election cycle the media says the republican who is most electable is the one who sounds like the democrats. when we nominate that person, what happens is the democrat wins and the media says go with the real thing. your strategy, you just said -- mark: i'm not asking about winning. you want to be president of everybody -- sen. cruz: that is what the rjc said -- mark: i am -- sen. cruz: you can ask your questions and i will answer them. mark: i'm asking you, forget what the question was yesterday. there are a lot of pro-choice americans and you would like your support. there are people who favor religion of guns. you would -- regulation of guns. you will like their support, right? i'm not saying your strategy is to abandon your principles and say that sen. cruz: mark, the way we win

-- mark: i'm asking about bringing the country together. sen. cruz: you are allowed to ask questions, not to answer your questions. mark: how would president cruz unite the country, including the people who disagree with you on abortion and gun control? sen. cruz: you stand for shared values that matter. i'm running on bringing back jobs and growth and opportunity. you do that through tax reform and migratory reform. i'm running on -- regulatory reform. i'm running on different now constitutional rights, and restoring leadership in the world. every one of those issues is not issue.w, 51% wedge those bring us together. folks in the media -- you said that no one is pro-choice supports you -- mark: i didn't say that. sen. cruz: it is interesting, the data from back you up on that.

one of the amazing things about the coalition coming together, we are uniting conservatives to be sure. if you look at the ideological breadth, the reagan coalition -- in 2012 when iran for senate, i was the only candidate in the country who was endorsed by both rick santorum and ron paul. that is about as far a spectrum on the ideological spectrum as you can have. and we had armies of evangelicals, conservatives, libertarians, armies of tea party folks, many of whom don't agree on everything. they have issues they disagree on. but the reason we have people supporting this campaign is the obama-clinton agenda is a manifest failure. there are a lot of americans who would like to see economic growth. they would like to see the children have a brighter future. they would like for us to stop bankrupting our kids and grandkids. they would like for u protect the constitutional rights and i have a record of fighting for those principles,

which is why we are seeing such a diverse and strong coalition. mark: you have become the humor candidate and pop-culture candidate. crystal commented -- you are a big " princess bride" fan -- about you storming the white house. sen. cruz: i was astonished when they brought him out on late-night television and what would he say to me and he said "have fun storming the white house." that was really quite nice. looking at billy crystal, what struck me, what i would say is "you look mahvelous. it is better to look good that you feel good." mark: he would like that. thank you, and enjoy the rest of your day. our thanks to senator ted cruz. when we come back to my phone call with donald trump.

i spoke i mentioned, with donald trump on the phone earlier today. we talked about the polls, that new cnn poll, and his confidence heading to february 1 in iowa. when i interviewed your competitors and supporters they say it is still early and iowa is far away. you said in the past you could lose your lead. do you think there is time to lose your lead? mr. trump: look, i think we are doing great, i take nothing for granted, i am going against people who have been doing this all their lives. , i'minding my own campaign not taking millions of dollars from lobbyists and special interests and donors that are going to totally control. every one of these guys is controlled by the people that give them the money. you look at some of these pacs,

it is a disgrace what is going on. thatsing my own money and is one of the reasons, one of the smaller reasons, but that is probably why i am so far in the lead. becausevery concerned, in june, i took the lead, and i've pretty much had the lead right -- i mean, carson had one little tiny moment, but that was only on one or two polls because the rest of the polls were my way. fromlly had to the lead the beginning, and any the enemy wants to say something negative, they say "well, we think you will fail," this and that, because it is so far away from the election. now we are 60 days away from the election. it is going to be very interesting to see what happens. we are looking forward to new hampshire, and we are winning in iowa in the polls and we are

winning in new hampshire and south carolina and nevada and we are winning in the sec could i don't think there's any place where not winning, national and state. pak: too late for summary to -- somebody to pass you? mr. trump: look, i don't want to get into that. i only want to speak positively, but i have a big advantage over everybody. the only does advantage and maybe it is one of my bigger advantages, i've been a politician for five months of my life, and i don't want to be a politician. i know too much about politicians so i don't want to be one. but i've been doing this for a five-month period, whereas these people have been doing it all their lives. i securely have a very big lead and a tremendous group of people who have an amazing amount of loyalty to me, the people who are supporting me, and that is another thing that comes out loud and clear in the polls. the people who are supporting trump are really loyal to trump. whereas you see what happened to

ben carson comorbid dropped off so quickly. it was amazing, that fall, and you look at bush's fall. bush went down to three, and that is really low. i think it is going to be an impossible situation for him. i'm honored by what has happened, and i've enjoyed the process. mark: you look at the cnn poll, do you see anybody else looks strong to you now? mr. trump: no, i don't. i think they are all nice people. i have developed some good friendships -- not all, but i've developed some good friendships could but i don't see anybody who looks strong. mark: when you look at the latest in permission about the alleged shooters in california, what are your thoughts, what the motivation might have been? mr. trump: well, think it is a disgrace. more of the same, and a president who doesn't want to talk about it, doesn't want to use the words, the term, that everybody knows is out there, and he doesn't want to even discuss it.

it is insane, what he is doing. insane. it is interesting, because every time there is a horrible act, and this is a shame in many respects, but from the standpoint of what happens, every time a really bad act takes place, like paris -- it happened with paris, it happens up -- my cold and was go might pull numbers go up. look, i'm going to be tough, going to be strong, and people can't get away with the kind of stuff they are getting away with no. we have to be smart, have to haveborders, have to restricted military, take care of our vets. -- a strengthened military, take care of our vets. so many things have to be done. we have a president was richly incompetent. mark: do you think a commander chief needs to be cautious? mr. trump: i think a commander-in-chief has to be very cautious. i think the commander-in-chief has to say at than what our president is saying. when he sends 50 young people

over to fight, he should be telling it and saying it in a news conference. he says it in a news conference, "i'm sending 50 people over to afghanistan, i'm sending them over to syria, i'm sending them -- and by the way, he tried not to be specific as to where they are going, but he is sending them over to iraq. you don't say you are sending people over there because the other side is now looking -- they have targets on the back. why does he have to say -- general macarthur would not be talking, ok? general george patton would not be talking could every time he sends summary of recent "i'm sending 50 people to iraq" or wherever he wants to say, syria. you don't say this could you be quiet. it is like when he ended the war, he took everybody outcome he announced a date, i guarantee to date, so the enemy just sat back and they couldn't believe it. we got out, and now look what happened. it is a total disaster.

and by the way, iran will be areng over iraq, and they very rich because he gave them $150 billion, which you should never done -- which he should have never done in a million years. he has been a catastrophic president for us and the man doesn't have a clue. mark: ted cruz is arguing that if you remove someone like that, iraq, it creates instability that is bad for the united states. mr. trump: yeah, well i've been saying for months and i was the first to say it -- isis is sad is a assad and as bad guy but we are backing rebels who are probably worse than he is. i spoke to a general who said we have no idea who are the people. we are giving hundreds of million dollars in guns and ammunition and also the things to rebels and they are fighting assad. pressure is for -- pressure is assad, iran is for

is for assad. many different factions. these ofbably saying the dumbest human beings i've ever seen, the dundas -- dumbest leadership. is a bad guy, the rebels will probably turn out to be worse. if you look at libya and iraq to every time we get rid of one of these people, it turns into total deadline -- bedlam. the most important from my standpoint is to really do a and youn isis, cannot do that if you are focusing on assad -- i assume that rubio feels different league but he is wrong, and lindsey graham is wrong, too. he wants to send hundreds of people over there and start world war iii. he doesn't know what he is doing and that is probably h twice he has 1%. one of the things i've learned doing this is the public is really, really smart.

when lindsey graham talks about how he is this great leader and knows more, he doesn't know anything, because his concept would be a total catastrophe. don't forget, i'm the one who has been telling you for three ands, knocked out the oil, they kept saying wrong, wrong. they should have been in use go. for a decade, my book -- osama bin laden will come back and do damage. he did come back two years later and knocked down the world trade center. great crediten from that, including from your friend joe scarborough. "wait a minute, donald trump said this about osama bin laden." mark: what do you think the state of the economy is right now? mr. trump: i think it is terrible. numbers, their phony put their years ago to make the

politicians look good. we have millions and millions of people unemployed. if those numbers were real, i would not be having the response i am now. all that being said, since paris, as you know, my toxin speeches have changed the -- talks and speeches have changed. i'm much more focused on security. by the way, the polls are saying i am the best at security. mark: our thanks to donald trump for his time, and we will be right back.

john: hey, mark, you have had a

busy day in iowa, talking to donald trump and ted cruz. chris christie spoke this morning. how is that? an incredible talk that was emotional and passionate about terrorism and a 9/11 and leadership. not a lot of specifics, but watch chris christie, he is hitting his stride. the raised performance level is going to matter a lot. john: we are always live 20 47 on bloombergpolitics.com. mike bloomberg and john mickle thwait will talk about the impact of climate change on the markets. until lexie, sayonara.

emily: i'm emily chang, and you are watching "bloomberg west." the fbi is officially investigating the california mass shooting as an act of terrorism. investigators say syed farook adopted radical islamic views and was in touch with people in california who were being monitored. an official said his wife lets allegiance to islamic state. she reportedly posted a pledge to the group on facebook, then deleting it before the attack. a california landlord invited reporters inside the house rented by the attackers. authorities say they stockpiled pipe bombs and over 4500 rounds of ammunition in the home. president obama has signed a five-year, $305 billion highway funding bill, being called the longest term highway plan passed by congress in two decades. it will also revise the export-import bank.