alley. >> thank you. busy morning for you. we'll pick it up from there. it is 9:00 a.m. in boulder, colorado, where just hours from now we'll kick off our coverage of tonight's cnbc presidential debate. it's also 11:00 here on wall street and "squawk alley" is live. carl quintanilla is out. john is live at wal-mart in san francisco fresh off oracle, and simon hobbs yet again.

simon, great to have you. john steinberg, ceo of the daily mail north america is here as well. we are going to get a walk-up to the debate in just a moment, but john steinberg, what are you watching tonight now with trump seeding the lead in the recent poll to ben carson? >> i'm really watching for the experience to see how twitter plays it with moments, and what snap chat does as well. for me it's always a question of what are the stand-out moments that get repeaed and recycled again and again, and that pushes the candidates even more into a soundbyte state of mind because they know they get that extra play. >> interesting to hear carl say he will not be tweeting and moderating for once. >> fair enough. i mean, it's -- yes.

>> i'm waiting for a guy. i don't have any idea outside of -- such an important evening now for jeb bush. this is the guy that we all thought in all the political pundits thought would be in the lead at this point in the race. instead his campaign has had problem after problem after problem. his super pac has spent a lot of money on television ads. not been able to really move the needle at all on television advertising. you get the sense that they're scratching their heads and say we don't understand what et cetera going on here with the rise of trump and the rise of carson. all of these outsiders. you saw that frustration sort of erupt on stage with jeb bush over the weekend. he expressed his problems with this campaign and what he might otherwise be spending his time on. take a listen to the soundbyte

from last weekend. >> elect trump if you want that. >> boy, that is not a guy who is happy with where he sits. & happy where w where this campaign is going. the negative tone overall of donald trump campaigning calling jeb bush a low energy candidate to his face on some occasions. jeb bush arriving here in colorado going out for a hike. he tweeted some pictures of himself out hiking the mountains here near boulder, colorado. hiking with some veterans out there. trying to clear his mind it makes a big difference when you are in this campaign bubble. we're going to see tonight how jeb bush handle on this very, very important night for him. >> i'm fascinated. it will be described as make or break. he could withdraw quite early. how long is the game that the

bush family will be willing to play? presumably seeing it from their perspective, subjectively, one of these two frontrunners could easily burn themselves out. carson or trump or if trump falls behind in the polls, trump has said he might quick the race. presumably the bush family game is longer, which is why they were cutting back the salaries. have i misinterpreted that? >> yeah. no, absolutely. cutting back on salaries and spend issing all about getting your burn rate down and making sure that you're in this for the long haul. they have to make sure the people writing the checks to finance this campaign are comfortable that the campaign has a path to the victory here, and that they're organizing their forces in an appropriate way to respond to this campaign cycle that they didn't really expect. the challenge is to keep those checks running -- coming in and making sure that the people who are writing them are happy about where the campaign is. >> yeah. the cbs-"new york times" poll,

seven out of ten respondents said they haven't made up their mind who they're going to vote for. tonight will be crucial in informing the electorate. we'll catch up with you later on. i know we're going to hear a lot more from you throughout the day as we await that presidential candidate debate. the gop debate. coverage begins at 5:00 p.m. eastern time from boulder, colorado. john steinberg, spencer, the ceo of zillow yesterday pointed out that capturing the millenial vote here is so crucial and that trump and bernie sanders from the democratic side of the aisle have actually been able to relay to the my millenials by being direct. they want aught entrift and directness. how can other candidates capture that? >> that is the overused word in millenial marketing is authentic. it's why they like rainy video and periscope. they don't want to see pandering to the odd wrens. trump does that because he says whatever he wants or pretends to say whatever he wants.

sanders has that element as well. he has this very -- i think it's up to the other candidates to figure out how to do that without appearing as a schtick. >> a lot of memorable moments to come tonight. our own carl quintanilla, becky quick, and john harwood will be moderating tonight's republican presidential debate. that all starts at 5:00 p.m. our josh lipton spoke to -- joins them in san francisco with more. josh. >> well, kayla, there is no better market on earth. that is what apple ceo tim cook told me about the opportunity he sees in china. what about the economic slowdown there and how it could impact apple's business after all? that was a big worry heading

into this report. cook says what slowdown? >> if i were to shut off my web and shut off the tv and just look at how many customers are coming in our stores regardless of whether they're buying, how many people are coming on-line, and in addition looking at our sales trend, i wouldn't know there was any -- there was any economic issue at all in china? >> in fact, apple just reported that revenue in greater china surged nearly 100% to $12.5 billion. cook saying that the iphone 6 was the best selling smartphone in china. the iphone 6 plus was the third best seller. it isn't just hardware. app store revenue in china jumped nearly 130%. of course, the big question for apple investors, can apple grow iphone units in the quarters ahead? cook saying the company will.

he told me that the android switcher rate is at the highest apple has ever seen, and that 70% of iphone users are still using the 5s or older models and that, of course, implies a lot of potential upgrade head room. just as interesting as what was not brought up on the call, analysts did not ask about the ipad. we know that product does remain under pressure, though. it's also a much smaller part of apple's story. now representing less than 10% of sales. kayla, back to you. >> down 20% year-over-year. i think as the days go by, josh, people will start paying more attention to that. we will see. josh lipton, our thanks as always out in san francisco. john fort, i know that you were on this conference call last night. you were paying close attention as always to what apple does. how much did the android switching benefit the iphone market overall and the upgrade market? how many quarters do you think that can last for if as tim cook told josh, android switchers are at their highest rate ever. >> well, it could potentially

last for quite a while, kayla, and, first of all, i'm glad it looks like i'm not going to be eating carl quintanilla's tie because tim cook said to expect iphone units in had the holiday quarter to be higher than a year before, but i think there are a couple of trends that aren't getting a lot of attention that are very important. that switcher rate is one that potentially compressed upgrade cycle because of the iphone upgrade program and some of the upgrade programs that carriers have and paying for your phone in monthly installments. we could see people buying phones more often. even if the general growth in the smartphone market isn't that high, if you get people to upgrade more often, there's benefit there. also, we could see and are beginning to see higher average selling prices because people are migrating to higher-end models. whether that's the 6s plus or opting for more memory, and then there's this issue of reselling old phones. a couple of conversations with apple insiders indicated to me that part of the goal of this

iphone upgrade program is to get those old phones in house. there are markets like china and some other emerging growth markets where if they can resell phones that they've essentially sold before, that's going to lower their cost on that phone and allow them to address a market segment that wants a lower cost phone while not sacrificing apple's profit. these are all going to be i think important trends to watch in 2016. >> but to be clear, john, at the heart of what's what is going on here is a fear that the iphone is going to stop growing in sales. it goes x growth like the ipad did. just to spell it out to people. although -- i should explain the bet that you made with carl. you were going to eat his tie if, in fact, there were negative sales or less iphones sold in the last quarter of this year. the holiday quarter. that may not happen, but still, we have no idea. the swrir is out. we're not being told by apple what will happen in the first calendar quarter of next year. it may still go x growth in

inverted commerce. >> oh, absolutely. i think that's because apple doesn't know what's going to happen in that quarter, but there are a number of other things that they're working on that are promising for them. thief got 25 stores now in china. back in mid 2013 they had 11 stores. their goal is to have 40. they had stalled their store growth for a while, but angela coming on board seems to have amped that back up when they have more stores in their growth markets. they've got more chinese employees. i think that helps them with the government in general and helps make their growth more productable. >> i want to point to three growth areas as well too. cook points out a $25 billion enterprise business. he points out that the other category, the other category which has watches is up 61% to $3 billion. finally, he says we want to have the same innovation in the living room that we have in ios. those are three areas. simon, you are right. if the phones go x growth, people will freak out, but there are things they're working on that are showing promise. >> this is very important for the viewer. if it's all about the iphone.

>> absolutely. >> the bulk of profits and revenue. these are interesting, but they're sidebars. that's why the stock isn't rising. >> they're 10% businesses. they're close to 10% each of those two lines. ipad and other categories as well. >> other was described by andrew sorkin yesterday as pocket lint, adding to the lexicon. >> don't forget the mack. the mack had a record quarter in a september quarter. 5.7 million units. that's $7 billion in revenue nearly. that is important. >> there was another company reporting earnings after the bell. of course, that was twitter. check out shares of twitter. getting hit even though revenue and earnings topped estimates. a lot of today's losses, though, probably can be attributed to stalling user growth. ceo jack dorsey said the company has simplified its road map around a few big bets across the platform like twitter, periscope, vine. he says this represents the largest opportunity for growth. the stock down 8% after being

down in the realm of 12%. john steinberg, after hours. does this just prove how tough it is to be a network when you are not the leading network, the network effect of only having 300. >> that was taken for granted, and we have good revenue numbers. now we don't even have good revenue numbers. it's taken down dramatically by almost $40 million, $50 million. bob peck does a nice analysis. they show for the first time the revenue coming off site. that way you'll be able to deduce the growth of the on site. last quarter it grew 50%. this quarter 42%. with next quarter's forecast, only 30% revenue. >> the core is slowing. the core revenue is slowing. yes, absolutely. >> john fort, steifle upgrades the stock saying the worse the quarters are now, the easier the comps are next year. it seems like a little bit of a backward way to be thinking about a company that's publicly traded. >> especially given the pessimism that you see around apple, right? here's a company that's growing now. says they're going to grow next

quarter. people are worried about next year. maybe they won't grow. twitter is actually very close to that position of going negative. they're actually racheting down the revenue guidance based on where people want it. there are, i guess, reasons that you could be optimistic, but, look, they tried to take everybody's eye off that monthly active user, that mau bar a couple of quarters back. now it's very clear. that's where it needs to be because unless they can grow that core metric, revenue is going to be a dangerous weapon. >> can i just ask john a quick question. john, you live in a different ecosystem from the rest of us. is the belief still there in twitter? >> i think that -- i think there's a tremendous amount of negativity. i think people are concerned for two reasons to kind of either short it at this point. one is with dorsey giving back the stock now, it's basically not going to be taken out. if it was going to be taken out, why would he be given back all that stock as well? the other thing is people think he is a project genius. what if he does come out of a rabbit out of the hat? >> next year. >> at some point, right? at some point. >> certainly this is not the end of the twitter discussion.

we're going to continue to watch it. we're going to continue to use it even as the company still tries to get its mojo back. john fort, we'll check in from one market a little later on. john steinberg, great to have you, as always. coming up, jeb bush continuing to struggle in the polls. we'll ask former senator kay bailey hutchin son if tonight is really make or break for the former governor of florida. plus, strong quarter for mondelez. the ceo irene rosenfeld will join us with a cnbc exclusive. and someone who helped launch the original mack computer. more squawk alley when we return. moves the world forward. invest with those who see the world as unstoppable. who have the curiosity to look beyond the expected and the conviction to be in it for the long term. oppenheimerfunds believes that's the right way to invest... ...in this big, bold, beautiful world.

mondelez meeting on both the top and the bottom line. our own sarah eisen joins us now with a special guest. >> i'm happy to welcome ceo much mondelez irene rosenfeld to the set of cnbc. thanks for making time on a busy morning. >> i'm happy to be here. >> talk about what drove better results, especially on profitability. it seems to be the story yet again is aggressive cost cuts. >> another solid quarter for us, as you said, on both the top and bottom line, and a key driver of that was the aggressive focus we've had on cost savings. both in overhead as well as in supply chain, and that together has allowed us to then drop some of this to the bottom line and expand income margins and to invest in marketing support which then has backstopped our

franchise and helps us to start making improvements in our market shares. overall we're executing well and it was a strong quarter. >> clearly investors are pleased. the stock is up 30%. one of the best consumer staples out there this year. you have set a target for yourself. the 15% to 16% operating margin for 2016. how do you plan to get there? what is the next round of expense reduction look like? >> well, actually, i think it's very much the same playbook and we confirmed our guidance that we will deliver from the 15 to 16 range next year. it's more of the same in terms of continued focus on our overhead costs. we're going to start to see some of the supply chain investments that we've made around the world start to kick in. that together with net productivity will continue to fuel our gross margins sfshgs we'll also making some additional moves in overhead in terms of creating a shared services capability, which will be an additional source of overhead savings. the net of that is the -- pretty

much in a cycle here. we're continuing to drive down costs within our control. we're making investments then with some of the cost savings behind our core franchises and key markets, and then the net is that i think we're one of the companies best positioned to be able to deliver growth on both the top and the bottom line. >> what's not in your control right now is international economic weakness. the strength of the u.s. dollar. you have the distinction of being one of the most internationally exposed companies in the food industry. do you have any visibility on when emerging markets, which i think are 40% of your business, are going to turn around? >> well, there's no question the emerging markets demand is somewhat weaker this year than it was earlier. even from a year ago. we are continuing to invest in the face of the slowdown because we want to make sure we're well positioned as those markets recover. there's no question that we've been able to adapt our operating model to manage those markets as we've we see the volatility and move our money to places that we

can get the best returns. >> do you think we've seen the worst of it economically in places like china and brazil? >> hard to say. i would say that our business in china, russia, and brazil have held up really remarkably well in the face of some of the macroeconomic conditions, and it comes from our focus on what we can control. we're driving our franchises, we're making sure we continue to support our brands. we're pricing aggressively in response to the significant devaluation, but that -- that model really does well, and i think will play well in the future. >> irene, i haven't spoken to you since activist investor bill ackman came into the stock in a big way, $5.5 billion investment. have you had any discussions with him? what does he want? >> well, we've had some discussions, just as i do with all of our shareholders, and we've exchanged views on the

business. i remain quite confident in our long-term strategy sxsz targets. i think we will continue to manage our playbook. it would be inappropriate to speculate on the long-term goals, but i think in the near term we've delivered very sizable returns to shareholders, and i think we're well positioned to continue to do so. >> is it a friendly conversation, or is there something that he is asking for that doesn't fit into your playbook? >> well, i wouldn't -- it would be inappropriate to talk about conversation with him and other shareholders. i'm quite comfortable that our relationship with all of our key investors is very strong. we continue to have ongoing dialogue. as i said, we've been performing quite well. we've delivered solid shareholder returns. our dividends -- we took a dividend increase just a little while ago, and we're continuing to do what we need to to execute in this very challenging

environment. >> we are hosting the republican debate tonight in boulder, colorado. donald trump, i think he has a misconception that they're no longer made in the united states for oreo's. do you have anything to say to donald trump ahead of the debate tonight tonight? >> i think get your facts straight. there's no question we are producing some oreo's in mexico. it is a global brand. we continue to make -- have a sizable amount of our production in the u.s., and, in fact we've made a significant $170 million investment in capitalism of some of our key facilities in virginia and naperville, illinois. i think he has to get his facts straight. we are very confident that we will continue to support oreo and it will continue to be grow over 20% this quarter. >> oreo thins are doing well. irene rosenfeld, ceo of

mondelez. next well, head to capitol hill for the latest on that two-year budget deal. we should have a vote today and, of course, a new speaker of the house tomorrow. "squawk on the street" will be right back. you can't predict... the market. but at t. rowe price, we can help guide your investments through good times and bad. for over 75 years, our clients have relied on us to bring our best thinking to their investments so in a variety of market conditions... you can feel confident... ...in our experience. call a t. rowe price retirement specialist or your advisor ...to see how we can help make the most of your retirement savings. t. rowe price. invest with confidence.

welcome back. six hours, 32 minutes, 58 seconds away from cnbc's republican presidential debate in boulder, colorado. of course, moderated by carl quintanilla, john harwood, and becky quick. make sure you tune in. coverage starts at 5:00. >> yes, indeed, and goes on late into the night. many of the republican hopefuls for the 2016 presidential race gather for our debate in colorado, there's still plenty of action for those in office back in washington. hampton pearson is live with the latest. hampton, two things clearly to watch. one is the vote on this deal, the budget deal, today, and then

presumably paul ryan becomes the house speaker tomorrow. correct? >> ewe got that right. all eyes on the house of representatives for, as you were just talking about, the vote in the two-year budget deal, and also on paul ryan and the house republicans who will hold closed-door meetings where it's expected to hold a vote to name him as the next speaker of the house. now ryan has been keeping quiet about the speaker's race, but more vocal on the budget deal. he says he opposes the process, but will support the end product. >> i'm reserving judgment on this agreement because i, quite frankly, haven't seen it yet. i want to see what it looks like on paper. about the process i can say this. i think this process -- this is not the way to do the people's business. under new management, we are not going to do the people's business this way. >> the vote on the budget deal is not expected until late this afternoon at the earliest. it's a two-year agreement. runs about 144 pages. avoids a government shutdown and possible debt limit fault. there will be more spending on

defense and domestic programs and there will be no big spike in medicare premiums for some 15 million americans. now, the house freedom caucus, however, is opposing the deal calling it a budget buster that does nothing to avert the looming crisis over social security funding. meanwhile, the democratic leader in the house nancy pelosi says house democrats will provide enough votes to pass the budget and debt limit extension. kayla. >> hampton pearson in washington. hampton, thanks. when we come back, what millenials in silicon valley want to hear from the top candidates in tonight's republican presidential debate. we'll talk to a top organization backed by big names like mark zuckerberg and bill gates on the other side of this short break.

. good morning, everyone. i'm sue herrera, and here is your cnbc news update at this hour. nbc news reporting that the white sheriff's deputy who was caught on video flip aing black high school student out of the classroom chair in columbia, south carolina, will be fired. the announcement is expected at a news conference at noon. activist investor carl icahn is urging aig to split up into smaller companies, saying the insurance provider is too big to succeed. icahn says he has a large stake in the company, but was not any more specific. the stock is up about 3% on that news.

mexican prosecutors say they have carried out search warrants in three states and seized 11 small planes in the search for escaped drug lord joaquin elchappo guzman. earlier they said they located him in a mountainous area and wounded him as he escaped from their raid. reporters getting a sneak peek at the 44th tokyo car show. nissan unveiling a self-driving concept car featuring a screen that takes the place of a steering wheel. toyota showing off the next generation of hydrogen fuel cell technology. mazda, hyping its latest sports car. we will see. should be fun. all right. that's the cnbc news update this hour. back to "squawk alley" and kayla. >> a screen for the steering wheel. sounds a little distracting. >> i think it's -- yeah. i'm not sure if i would feel comfortable with that. i'm a creature of habit. i need the steering wheel. anyway -- >> likewise. sue herrera. our thanks to you. >> thank you. founded by tech leaders like mark zuckerberg, bill gates, and rob conway, former.u.s. is on a

mission to mobilize the tech community in a bid for immigration reform. let's talk to that organization ahead of tonight's debate. todd schulte. the tech industry has been notoriously vocal or at least before other industries. what issues are front and center for you and for forward going into tonight's debate? >> we are focussing solely on immigration reform, and we have three things we're looking for. first and foremost, we believe immigration reform should fix our broken immigration system. it would make sense for the tech community, and other industries like manufacturing. second, we should have sensible border solutions, and the third is we believe there should be a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented workers in this country. >> i'm -- it's the gop debate. i just -- i wonder how you

dovetail in that. the breakthrough candidate is obviously donald trump. the reason that he broke through is because he started saying some things about immigration that many people clearly felt, and it struck a cord with them, and they felt they haven't had an outlet for that before, and there's a huge emotional response. you see now donald trump rising high in the polls because of other reasons, and now obviously carson is challenging him. how do you pull this back from your perspective? how do you avoid just occupying some kind of intellectual high ground some of little relevance to this debate? >> so, you raise a great point. while i do like occupation an intellectual high ground, the fact is politically, any candidate who is does not firnlly reject mass deportation is not going to be successful at the end of the day, and whether that is in a republican primary or certainly in a general election, just look at the state of colorado, for example. in the last 12 years you've seen the asian-american population in

terms of voters go up 2.5 times. the idea that we are going to elect someone as president who supports rounding up 12 million people, that's not going to happen. >> let me put it around the other way. are you suggesting that the illegal immigrants in this country be granted some sort of citizenship. doesn't that cut right to the heart of the gop in republican-controlled areas who are terrified that these illegal immigrants will get the vote and they'll go democrat. isn't that one of the major s skisms that runs through the whole debate. >> i think it's important to understand the constituencies. obviously there are a number of things these candidates have tapped into. you might get 30% of a republican primary electorate, but let's just talk about what's in immigration reform for undocumented immigrants. if we're successful at passing a bill three, four years from now, you are looking at people having

permanent status in 2030, 2032 here. the idea that this is proposed as amnesty, that sounds good and it goes great in a tv ad. it couldn't be farther from the truth, though, in terms of the actual policy, and that's really important. >> todd, are you reshaping at all your messaging around immigration given what you are seeing happening in the lead-up to the republican primaries, or are you just going to say, hey, that segment of the electorate that feels so strongly against the position that we take and the way that we've articulated in the past, we're just willing to count them out, and if you are changing it, how are you change it? >> so we're definitely not counting anybody out. i want to be clear on that. we have changed our message. again, there's this really interesting and absurd and awful thing, but an interesting thing right now, which is for the first time you have somebody who is embracing this mass deportation agenda here. it's up to us and how we frame this as the astronomical cost of rounding up, you know, 12

million people or you can pass immigration reform, which adds $1 trillion to the economy. this is a huge boon to these family as well. yeah, we definitely are -- we are definitely talking about this in a different way, and it's really important that people understand here this isn't just good policy in the abstract. this is policy versus the astronomical cost of what's being proposed. we're very adaptive to that. >> no doubt, tonight's conversation will also include the sharing economy, small business creation, tax treatment as well. all important issues for silicon valley. of course, immigration, todd, at the top of the list. we appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you so much. exciting to see you all tonight on the debate. >> todd schulte from forward.u.s. coverage of cnbc's republican debate starts at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. moderated by carl quintanilla, john harwood, and becky quick. don't miss it. up next on the program, apple still seeing a nice gain after reporting strong earnings after the bell. we'll get more on the quarter from someone who worked directly

for steve jobs in the launch. we'll be right back.

tonight is the night we are just more than six hours away from tonight's cnbc republican presidential debate festivities in boulder, colorado. the line-up is set. the stage is built. our moderators are there. make sure you tune in.

simon. apple. the iphone 6 and the 6 plus for strong quarterly earnings. the company saw more than 48 million phones, 48 million phones, in the fourth quarter, and sales in china nearly doubled despite a slowdown elsewhere. with tablet sales down, can apple maintain growth with the iphone alone? andy cunningham is the co-founder of the cunningham collective and a former p.r. rep for steve jobs. he was -- or she was one of his right-hand personnel and also helped launch the first mac. it's great to have you on the net world war i. welcome back. >> thanks. great to be here. >> the business performing at an astounding level of velocity. its growth is extraordinary. do you feel that message is getting through to people? >> i think so. it is a great quarter for apple. apple is a great company. people have an emotional connection to their apple products, and i think that's what makes it a magical company still. >> when you look at, for

example, the watch and the launch and the straps and the way they positioned that, do you see them trying to change the way the people broadly think about apple overall, an appeal to the luxury good sector it a greater extent? is more going on than we might imagine here? >> no, i actually think that the watch is an accessory to the iphone, and it's a vehicle to make the iphone more sticky with its customers. it has to be stylish, but i still think it's part of the iphone ecosystem. >> certainly the phone is the center of the universe for apple, and they're certainly putting up the numbers to not distract us away from the iphone. more than 60% of revenues. apple still wants to be a company that does a lot of business in the enterprise. $25 billion of sales to the enterprise, and doing deals with cisco and ibm. how should we be measuring the success of things like that that are somewhat foreign to the way that companies ethos operated before tim cook? >> well, i think the strategy

for apple has always been to get into the enterprise through the way people want to interact with their devices, and so they are continuing on that march. they've been doing it for over 20 years, and they'll keep doing it. people love the products, and so they'll keep using them inside the enterprise or out. >> andy, it seems to me that for a long time until probably about four, five years ago apple operated as this perennial underdog. it was part of its image. maybe even part of its culture. now what people don't believe is that it can maintain this position at the top of the heap. is there something interesting here how apple might reposition itself now that it can no longer legitimately claim to be the underdog in just about anything? >> i think it's been a long time since apple has been the underdog. i think what it is now is it's a company that is so attractive to people who own the products that you have this connection with the apple products that you just don't want to give up. so i don't think they talk about

being an underdog anymore. i think now they talk about the greatness of their products and how people are connected to them. the trick for apple is they have to come up with another one of those emotional connection products next time around. >> speaking of emotional connections, what did you think of the steve jobs movie? you were played, of course -- you were in that. sarah snook playing the character there. what did you think of the movie overall before perhaps we get to the portrayal of steve himself? >> sure. i actually really look the movie a lot. i thought it was an excellent character study of a complex person. it took his emotional range all the way from rage on the one side to tenderness and friendship on the other. i thought it did a great job of capturing steve's entire -- if you will. >> a number of people have been quite critical in saying this isn't the steve that i knew. notably senior executives within

apple. >> yes, but they didn't work with steve in the 1980s. he was different. he grew up. he became a ceo. he became more mature. he probably is very different or was very different when tim cook started to work with him, but back in the 1980s when we all worked with him and when that movie takes place that was the steve that we knew. >> okay. sadly, we're rapidly running out of time. it's kind of the deal with cable television. you are hosting a panel on monday, though, with a powerful woman, for want of a better expression, in the -- just tell us about the panel that you are hosting, if you would, on monday, and what you hope to get out of it. >> sure. i'm hosting a panel with some of the women who worked with steve back in the day. joanna hoffman being one of them. she's played by kate winslet in the movie. barbara is another, and susan barnes is another. these are all women who worked with him in the 1980s at apple ask then also at next. it's going to be a forum all

around, women and how powerful women can make a difference in the technology industry. >> why -- i mean, obviously these are your friends, these are your former colleagues, but what uniquely do you think they'll bring to the table on monday? >> i think what we'll talk about is how women can be successful in a largely male dominated industry, and these women were and we can help women today be successful in technology as well. >> it's a huge debate at the moment. andy cunningham, thank you for your time. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. great to be here. >> up next, is tonight's republican debate a make or break moment for former florida governor jeb bush? we'll ask one of his supporters, former texas senator kay bailey hutchison. all that when "squawk alley" returns.

stakes are high as the republican presidential candidates prepare for the big debate tonight just hours away in boulder, colorado. let's bring in former senator and cnbc contributor kay bailey hutchison who is backing former florida governor jeb bush this cycle. senator, it's great to have you this morning. i'm interested in your support of bush even though it's ted cruz who succeeded you in the senate. why? >> well, i do support jeb bush, but i also support others. i'm not involved in the campaign at all, but what i'm looking for is someone with experience and someone who can bring back our

leadership in the world. somebody who knows that you have to work with the people who are elected in the congress, and those are the things that i think we've been missing under president obama, and i think we need a change from that. we need somebody who understands the overregulation of business in this country and its affect on our economy and job creation. that's where i am. >> except the american people don't seem to be very much favoring the establishment from washington in this election. jeb bush has said he would be willing to lose the primary in order to win the swren election. how does that strategy play out, and how is that realistic in this election? >> i think it's the understatement of the year that people are not looking for establishment candidates. i am hoping that once the theater of the primary sort of takes a back seat and we start

looking at the -- what we really need to do to straighten government out and get america's role in the world back and then i think that's going to mean people will look for experience, and i think that there are several candidates in our primary who have vast successful experience working with legislators, working in congress. congress is a fact of life. you can't as the president ignore congress and expect to move your agenda forward, and we need a lot more regulatory reform, social security reform. we need to go for a balanced budget, and restore our place in the world. we're not going to do it if we don't have someone with experience. >> i guess that ben carson, though, continues to rise in the polls as things stand at the moment, despite you wanting somebody with the experience to work in congress. that is explicitly not what the electorate seem to be offering

at the moment, and i wonder how the gop or the bush family reacts to that. how do you get hold of the situation? and is the agenda that you are putting forward, where the american people appear to be or at least those who are angry in the primary that more is not done in congress to stop obama legislation? >> yes. i understand the anger. absolutely. people are furious. they are scared of where our country is going, and i think what we must put forward, all of the candidates in the primary, but certainly the ones who have had the experience in knowing they can't say my way or the highway. they have to look for what is going to change the course of america right now, which is what is scaring people, and then address those issues in a comprehensive way. the theater of a primary is exciting and certainly allows the outlet for people to say

we're mad and we're not going to take it anymore, but i think you've got to then come forward with real plans to address the issues that are holding our country back right now. >> so, senator, swron here in san francisco with a question for you. you've run successful campaigns before, obviously. if you were preparing for this debate tonight as a more experienced candidate who the leaders are going to cast as an out of touch establishment candidate, how do you approach it? do you go on the attack? do you ask specific questions? do you more aggressively challenge your rivals that you might have in previous debates? >> yes. i think we need to stop talking about the peripheral issues, attacking each other on little stuff. i think we should -- if i were running, i would say here's my five-point plan to get america back on course. it would be to work toward a balanced budget. reform social security so it's there for people.

restore our standing as leaders in the world by keeping our promises and also following through if we make threats. by making sure that obama care goes out the window and is replaced with something that gives better health care to more people at an affordable price. i think these are the things that we ought to be focussing on and we ought to be talking about the issues that people care about. their pocket books. they're not getting jobs. if they have jobs, they're part-time jobs. they're not full jobs. we want people to be able to work to support their families and that means you take the regulatory harassment off our businesses so they can grow and prosper, and you bring back the american exceptionalism. i think that that is what republicans offer, but we've got to get to the point of now saying here's what we're going to do for the american people. >> well, there will be equal parts pomp and substance hopefully tonight. senator, we appreciate you

giving your opinion this morning. >> well, thank you, cnbc, for doing the debate. i hope it's a good one. >> we do as well. thank you so much. senator kay bailey hutchison. of course, the moment is almost here. coverage of cnbc's republican presidential debate starts tonight at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. make sure you tune in for everything under the sun, everything in the economy that touches the economy, simon, we're told will be on the table. >> more immediately, twitter shares are still down today. what's ahead for investors? that's next on "squawk alley." premium like clockwork. month after month. year after year. then one night, you hydroplane into a ditch. yeah... surprise... your insurance company tells you to pay up again. why pay for insurance if you have to pay even more for using it? if you have liberty mutual deductible fund™, you could pay no deductible at all. sign up to immediately lower your deductible by $100. and keep lowering it $100 annually, until it's gone.

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in just a matter of hours we will kick off the festivities for cnbc's republican presidential debate in boulder, colorado. moderated by carl can't knee wra and along -- john harwood and becky quick. make sure you tune in. twitter shares are still plummeting on those disappointing earnings, and weak guidance. john, twitter will certainly light up tonight once the candidates take the stage. are these events enough to give it even a temporary lift? >> it will probably get a temporary lift, kayla, and let's keep in mind it's just barely dipped below 30.

it was well below 30 before. jack dorsey is focused on getting internally the employees kinzazed and engaged. it's going take some quarters probably for that to show up on the top and bottom line. >> all right. john, thanks so much. simon, thanks for being here. with the dow and the s&p eyeing their first gain in three sessions, let's send it over to "fast money halftime report" and scott. ♪ all right. thanks so much. welcome to the halftime show. let's meet our starting line-up for today. steven weiss is here along with josh brown and john and pete. our game plan looks like this. the apple aftermath. fresh off the company's latest earnings report. the analysts who just upgraded the stock is with us live. _#buy. that's the surprise call from one man on the street today. why scott debit changed his mind on twitter. even as the stock sell-off continues. we begin, though, with the battle of boulder.