she's thanked them for making her a better candidate. we're going to fight to win this nomination. we're going to fight to get elected president of the united states. we think iowa obviously is the starting gun of that, but we've got a big country. we're going to compete everywhere, and we're going to win the delegates to secure the nomination. then we're going to go out to november. >> appreciate your time, john. we know you have a busy day. i'll let you go. thank you so much for joining us live. appreciate it. thank you, everyone, for watching. i'm going to turn things over to wolf blitzer right now. >> hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's noon in des moines, iowa. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington d.c. 8:00 p.m. in jerusalem. wrer are you watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. >> we start in iowa where voters are just hours away from casting the fist votes in the presidential election. the candidates are making a

final push across the state right now with each one trying to get in the last word in their own way. >> hello, iowa. it's great to be here. he will be unbelievable. >> i will always seek to make you proud, that you will always be proud of the fact that you caucused for me. >> i hope you will go. i hope you will stand up for me. i hope you will fight for me. >> together we will win the iowa caucuses. we will win the nomination, and we will win the general election. we will defeat hillary clinton. >> this is a campaign of the people by the people and for the people. >> voter turnout will be the telling statistic today with gatherings in more than 1,600 locations for each party across the state. there's democrats and republicans making the choice. the first choice but not the last word. on the republican side, the

leader of the polls heading into today was donald trump. trump admits that today is the big poll, though, and it's ab event during the last hour where he encouraged his supporters to make their voices heard. >> because they all say that more people to go out, the better we're going to do, and i don't say me. i say we. it is we. it's a movement. it's we. so you've got to go out. i kid when i say if are you in bed, if you are sick and you can't walk, if the doctor says you cannot leave, i don't care. get out of bed and come. you got to do it. >> all right. swrim accosta. expectation is pretty high. how confident are they that donald trump will win tonight? >> well, if i would call it cautious confidence. you know, it is caulk where yous day for donald trump, and the question of the day is, you know, can the phenomenon on the republican side of the equation here actually deliver?

you know, he can pack an auditorium. he didn't do it here today in later waterloo, but typically he can pack a basketball arena full of shouting and screaming supporters. the question, though, is whether or not do they actually show up and vote. do they show up on caucus night, and that's the answer we're finally going to get here tonight, and you can hear just a little bit of doubt inside the mind of donald trump here in waterloo? he said win, lose, or draw. i love you iowa, no matter what. it's sort of an echo of what he said earlier this morning that he was a little bit nervous. he said that on one of the talk shows. over the weekend he was needling iowans at just about every stop saying on the republican side you haven't picksed a winner, an eventual president in 16 years. clearly everything that trump is investing in this campaign, he wants to see that manifest itself in a big victory here tonight. i talked to cory, the campaign manager for donald trump. when i asked him, are you feeling confident, he said check in with me at 10:00 foent tonight. they're not predicting victory at this point. what they are doing is they are

trying to concentrate on two things. christian conservatives. that's why you saw donald trump campaigning with jerry falwell jr. the son of the famous televangelist all weekend long. he has sarah palin with him in cedar rapids later on this afternoon. and they're also focused on organization. getting out the vote, gotv. that is why you heard at this event before donald trump took the stage the wife of donald trump's iowa campaign guru explaining to people here how to caucus. that they have to show up, making sure they're registered as republicans, that -- and telling them, you know, it's a secret ballot. you don't have to worry about standing in front of your neighbors and showing your support like they have to do on the democratic side. that is a -- that reveals, wolf, that basically a lot of new people are coming into the process for donald trump, and the question becomes do they show up tonight? do they show up and caucus? that is how the trump campaign is going to live or die later on tonight here in these iowa caucuses. >> trump keeps saying he is

happy that the snow expected in iowa is not going to start until after midnight. maybe later tonight. that's good potentially for a bigger turnout. swrim, thanks very much. donald trump and ted cruz, they traded spots in the iowa polls over the past several weeks. they have also traded lots of insults in recent days out there on the campaign trail, but how effective will those attacks be? we're going to find out later on tonight where we get all the results from wat away caucuses, but joining us now from des moines is bob vaneder plat, the executive president of the family leader organization, influential voice among evangelicals in iowa. he is a key supporter of ted cruz right now. what's your anticipation? who wins tonight, bob? >> i'm not ready to make predictions. i've been around this caucus process way too many times. it's all going to turn out on turnout. we're feeling good about the turnout mechanisms. we think we're going to have a strong night. i think iowa is effectively doing its job.

it's going to winnow the field after tonight. i say let the caucus process begin. let the voters make their voice be known and see who comes out of this. >> your candidate, ted cruz, he is really going after donald trump, marco rubio, for that matter as well. he said marco rubio is for amnesty, for illegal immigrants in the united states. he says donald trump is for obama care to which, listen to what donald trump said about ted cruz on one of the talk shows this week. >> ted cruz is the total liar. i am so against obama care. i've been saying it for two years in my speeches. i'm going to repeal and replace obama care. i don't even know where he gets this, but he is a liar. >> he calls your candidate ted cruz a liar. what's your response to this? >> well, that's donald trump. if you don't agree with him or if you point out his past or his record or his speech where he says he is for universal health care. he is for socialized medicine, single payer health care, but if you say that you're a liar.

he will attack you. that's what he does. he can't debate on the policy, but he just wants to go after the attack. ted cruz is right. he points out there's a real difference between ted cruz and donald trump when it comes to health care. there's a real difference between ted cruz and marco rubio when it comes to illegal immigration and amnesty. ted cruz is a principled conservative pro-family conservative in this race. he has been consistent in his convictions. not the road to des moines conversion convictions. >> why do you think jerry falwell jr., the president of liberty university in virginia has endorsed donald trump? >> well, that's a great question for jerry falwell from what i understand when he was with donald trump to some of the events in iowa this past weekend. he said i'm not endorsing donald trump because of his faith. i'm endorsing donald trump because of his business. it's really a disconnect for us with people of faith because we believe our faith impacts everything that we do. we're just a little bit confused by jerry falwell, but the people

in iowa are not going to be voting for jerry falwell and his values. they're going to be voting on ted cruz and donald trump in regards to who is the most consistent conservative in this race, and that's why i think ted cruz is going to have a very good night tonight. >> bob vanitier plat, ted cruz supporter. thank you very much, bob, for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. four years ago rick santorum was celebrating a surprising win in the iowa caucuses, although it wasn't an official win for several days afterwards. he edged out eventually mitt romney for the victory in the first contest of this republican race for the presidency, republican presidential hopeful rick santorum is joining us now live from des moines. i remember that night that it looked like at the end of the night they were officially saying you lost, what, by 10 or 12 votes, if that. eventually -- >> eight. >> i knew it was something tiny like that. eventually they said, you know, rick saar ton up really won. do you think if you would have just looking back for a moment, if they would have announced you were the winner that night, things might have turned out

differently between you and mitt romn romney? >> the fact is eight hours after the announcement that romney had won by eight votes, the press basically stopped covering the race -- me in the race because romney was going to go ahead and win new hampshire, and so the narrative that was being spun was he won iowa, he won new hampshire, and anybody that wins iowa and new hampshire, wins the nomination. we didn't get declared the winner until almost three weeks later. that put us behind. look, here's the thing. we didn't get declared the winner until three weeks later, and we came back and won ten more states because we went out there and said we're the conservative who can get things done in washington, who can deliver for the conservative cause, and that attracted a lot of votes. we ran out of time and romney had more money, but if we had a couple of good breaks along the way, i think we would have been the nominee, and i think i would be standing here with air force one parked out at the des moines airport. >> yeah. would have, could have, should have. all that. what about the best realistic case for you tonight?

what do you think that's going to be? >> well, we have to have a strong showing here. i mean, we have to come out of the pack. there's a pack of folks in single digits, and i would like to see a strong showing. i think coming out of iowa, i hi there's a lot of kwfshs who will be looking for an alternative to the folks that have coalesced. >> ted cruz was given five people could have gone through, and he fumbled the ball the whole way, and he is not getting it into the end zone. given all the money and support and the people that have backed him, i mean, this -- he should be doing victory laps around the state of iowa right now, and he has been fumbling all the way to the goal line. i think foerlgs are going to take a look at what happened here in iowa and say we need someone, number one, who actually is a conviction conservative, somebody who hasn't changed his opinion on a bunch of issues, and i think someone who actually isn't going to go to washington and make the claim that the reason i can get things done is because

everybody, republicans, democrats, liberals, conservative, hate me. i don't know how you think you can actually accomplish anything with any group of people if everybody, even people who agree with you, hate you. people don't hate me. people on the other side of the aisle when i worked in the senate, they didn't like me because of the positions i had, but they didn't hate me. they were willing to work with me. we need someone who can actually work with people, both republicans and democrats, and get conservative things done for this country. that's why the people of iowa voted for me last time. you know when i say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. don't fri try somebody that's been fumbling the ball all over the place, who complains about being attacked. focus on someone who has been through the war, stood tall, and darn near crossed the finish line with a win against the establishment. >> what do you think about donald trump? >> look, i use this example iowa state here. i'm going to use iowa examples. iowa state football team isn't particularly good. i always say i'm a penn state guy, and our basketball team stinks.

as a penn state basketball guy, i like to clean house. i'm sure iowa state football fans would like to clean house. what if you -- and they want someone who is going to, you know, get in there and clean house. okay. let's put a nuclear physicist in charge of the iowa state football team. who is he going to have to hire in order to run a team? he has to hire all these people who know about football, and that's what we call in washington the establishment. you bring in someone who doesn't know anything, then you are going to get a whole bunch of people who do know who are going to be influencing him. i bet iowa state would rather hire nick saban or irving meyer, hire someone who has a game plan and very important, has a track record of winning. the top two candidates in this race have no track record of ever accomplishing anything in washington d.c. if you want someone who does, iowans have a hands to break the mold here today and tell the national media that it's not down to two people before we have even voted. >> rick santorum, good luck tonight.

thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you, my friend. appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, the republican national committee will certainly be watching tonight's results very closely. i'll speak live this hour with the republican national committee chairman. we'll talk about his expectations for it tonight. also on the democratic side, new york city mayor bill diblasio is out there on the campaign trail in iowa right now campaigning for hillary clinton. there he is. you are looking at live pictures. we're going to speak with the mayor when we come back. in new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today.

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that just tastes better. with more vitamins. and less saturated fat. only eggland's best. better taste. better nutrition. better eggs. we actually have knocked on 125,000 doors this weekend, so there's just a lot of excitement and energy, and i'm urging everybody to come out and caucus tonight to be part of this unique american process. i hope they'll come out and caucus for me. >> one of the people knocking on doors for hillary clinton is the mayor of new york. bill diblasio has been going through iowa urging people to

caucus for hillary clinton. he is joining us live now from iowa city. thank you very much for joining us. why are you going door to door campaigning for hillary clinton on this day of the iowa caucuses? is. >> wolf, this is how it works in iowa. it's all about direct contact with people, convincing them how important it is to caucus, convincing them how important it is to support hillary clinton. i come out here with a team of volunteers from new york city. we've knocked on 1,800 doors since friday. our whole team. we're very, very proud of that because in iowa more than i think in any other state it is about having the one-on-one conversation, and really convincing people caucuses isn't easy, wolf. you know it. it's a real commitment of time. two hours, three hours on a winter night. it means making sure that you can accommodate in your schedule and people have to be highly moeshated to go and to participate energetically because a lot of caucuses come town to just a vote or two, and you need people to feel solid

for your candidate. we've been focussing on energizing people. i talked to lots of hillary volunteers, too, from iowa and all over the country, and going to different staging areas pumping them up, telling them how much each individual voter matters, and iowans know that they get to decide a lot of what the future shape of the country will be tonight. they take it very, very seriously. to all the iowans who are listening, please, you know, the country is depending on you. get out there and caucus tonight. >> when you hear, mayor, some democratic caucus goers saying they have reservations about hillary clinton, what are those reservations and what do you a to rebut? >> what i'm hearing is, actually, a lot of respect for all three democratic candidates. i'm going to answer your question, but i do want to tell you the number one thing i'm hearing is an appreciation of how serious and respectful the democratic debate has been, that the three candidates have not spent a lot of time being negative and have really focused on issues and really focused on the fight against income inequality, which is what i

think the people iowa are so concerned about. how do we create a fairer economy for all? how do we restore the middle class? that's what the democratic debate has been about. it's such intense contrast. that's why i hear the most. i do hear people trying to grapple with what's the best way forward? what's the best way to make change? iowa, you know, elects very -- we need change urgently, and, therefore, we need someone who can do it right now or has the skills, has the understanding of how to make that change right now. hillary clinton has the experience, the capacity. talk about being able to hit the ground running as president of the united states. no one has been more prepared, and her agenda, her platform, is all about fighting income equality. higher taxes on the wealthy. higher wages and benefits. more support for working families like paid sick leave, paid family leave, that's resonating, i think strongly with iowa voters. >> you are well plugged in, and we spoke about this the last time we spoke as well about your

predecessor, michael bloomberg. a lot of buzz out there that he is seriously thinking of throwing his hat into the presidential ring as the third party independent candidate. what are you hearing? are you plugged in in new york city. >> look, i would say, again, i have a lot of respect for michael bloomberg, and obviously i have some real disagreements, but i think that that mood in the country right now, i refer to it certainly from the conversations i'm having with iowans, it's kitchen table issues, economic issues on their minds, social security, college debt, the cost of health care, wage levels, benefits. that's what's on people's minds. when you think about a prospective bloomberg candidacy, i say the people of the united states will not choose a billionaire to fix problems that have largely been created by billionaires. there's just intense frustration, and, by the way, you see it on the republican side too. intense frustration about how unfair our economy is and what's happening in the middle class, and i think people want a candidate who is going to do something very different. my candidate, hillary clinton, i know will, but it's hard to

belief you can say a billionaire like bloomberg or a trump for that matter is going to be an agent of greater economic fairness. >> what the people of new york city picked a billionaire twice to be mayor of new york city, right? >> people in new york city chose him as mayor, and did he some very good things for new york, and i would argue there are some things that he did wrong, and some things he missed, like i think he missed opportunities regularly to address income inequality. i think it's a very different reality when you think about the whole country what people want right now. with hillary we have certainly a candidate with all the experience you could ask for and a progressive agenda on those economic issues. i don't know what any of the other competitors have that can compare with that, and i don't know where a third party candidate fits when a candidate like hillary clinton is in the race, and, again, very much believe she'll win the democratic nomination. a lot of respect for bernie. a lot of respect for martin o'malley. they're both saying important things, but i don't see space for a third party candidate when you have a hillary clinton at

the top of the democratic ticket. >> all right. we're going leave it on that note. good luck out there in iowa. we'll check back with you the next several days. thank you very much. >> thanks so much, wolf. >> just ahead, bernie sanders has energized a lot of younger voters out there. he has encouraged them to show up at the iowa caucuses tonight, but will they show up when the votes count? tonight we'll is bernie sanders' campaign manager to talk about that and more when we come back. man (sternly): where do you think you're going? mr. mucus: to work, with you. it's taco tuesday. man: you're not coming.

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we will win tonight if the voter turnout is high. [ cheering ] we will struggle tonight if the voter turnout is low. that's the fact. what is our job today? it's to make sure that we have

the highest voter turnout possible. that happens, we win. let's go get 'em. thank you, all. >> all right. you just heard there senator bernie sanders saying turnout will be a major factor in tonight's iowa caucuses. back in 2004 turnout for the democrats was about 124,000 people. if it's similar this year, that favors potentially hillary clinton. 2008 turnout was much, much bigger. about 239,000 turned out. similar result this year by all accounts would favor bernie sanders. swref jeff weaver, senator sapped sanders' campaign manager, is joining us. how many people do you expect to show up? >> it's hard to tell. i don't think we'll hit the numbers of 2008, but i do think that we will be much, much higher than what we saw in 2004 and what we need to do is push that high enough so that we get senator sanders' voters out in the caucus. look, it's very, very close out

here. all the internal data, all the external data, all of it shows it's right down to the wire. it's a really -- it is a deadlock, a tie, and people have to know here in iowa that one person coming out to caucus in a caucus can make the difference in this race. >> nuances is very important. it's very close. bernie sanders has certainly energized a lot of younger voters, college age voters, for example, but this year the students are back on campus instead of home or winter break leak they were back in 2008 when then senator barack obama won the iowa caucus. are you concerned that these younger voters will be concentrated in a few college towns rather than spread out across the state? >> well, people who live out here in iowa know that there are many, many small colleges spread all over the state in iowa. they also have a very, very large community college system, which is also spread across the state. we've made a big outreach to high school seniors out here in iowa if you are going to be 18 by the general election, even though you are 17 now, you are

eligible to caucus and so we have made a major outreach to high school seniors to get them to come out as well. obviously they're geographically disbursed. we think we have enough voters to win who support senator sanders. that we have enough voters in all the right places to win. it's just a question of getting folks out. >> was it a mistake -- you can be honest -- that the senator avoided -- >> only by -- >> the entire hillary clinton e-mail controversy, the investigation by the fbi saying leave it alone, we're not going to talk about it because a lot of the pundits are saying if he would have gone after her on that, maybe he would be even better than he already is. >> with all due respect, i -- we try not to run our campaign based on what the pundits say. i don't think we would be tied if we did. in terms of the emails, you know, he has been clear since that first democratic debate that cnn held. his conversation with chris cuomo afterwards. look, it's an issue. it is a legal process in place. it will go where it goes.

let's not politicize it, and let's talk to voters about the bread and butter, kitchen table issues that are important to them and their families. things like health care, college education, wages, jobs. i mean, these are the things that people are concerned about in iowa and frairpgly all over the country. you know, the e-mail thing will go where it goes, right? there's no way to influence it. the obama administration is looking into it, and whatever the conclusion is what the conclusion is. >> have you guys -- when you say you guys, i mean you and the clinton campaign, worked out all the details of the remaining democratic presidential debates? i think there's supposed to be one maybe thursday night, as early as thursday night in new hampshire. is that a done deal? >> i would not describe it as a done deal, wolf. there are still some details to be worked out with respect to the three debates that would follow that that we asked for in exchange for the secretary getting the debates she wanted next week in new hampshire. we're still working it out. one of the sticking points is we like to have one of those debates. the second one of those three in new york. there seems to be some reluctance from the clinton campaign to have a debate in new

york. not quite sure why seeing's she was a senator from new york. the first debate is going to be in flint, michigan. we believe that it should be held actually before the michigan primary as opposed to after the michigan primary, which is what the clinton campaign had proposed. if we can get those two issues wrapped up and make sure we're in flint, michigan, before the primary and we can be sure that we have the second debate in new york state prior to the new york primary, then i think we can put this whole thing to rest and meet in new hampshire. look, as i said before, this is a favor to the clinton campaign to do this debate on thursday. it is outside the normal setup structure that the clinton campaign endorsed. even when it was, you know -- we abided by even when it disadvantaged us in the fall. they wanted to change to it. we've agreed to that provided that there are these additional debates. the ball is really in the clinton campaign's court. all they have to do is say march 6, flint, michigan, and then we'll do a debate in new york, preferably new york city prior

to the new york primary the week before. if they say that, we're good to go and will be there in new hampshire. we're not going to let the clinton campaign determine when and where we have debates. this is going to be something that the campaigns work out. >> if hillary clinton's campaign agrees, has debbie wasserman-schultz and the democratic committee authorize the the additional debates? >> thets not clear to me. the msnbc debate was put on the table without dnc sanction initially, so i'm want sure that that's really the controlling factor at this point. >> okay. jeff weaver, good luck to you. give our best to the senator as well. we'll be watching the content tonight and what happens on all of this. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. thank you. >> when iowa ends tonight, by the way, the race moves to new hampshire, cnn will have a very special event in new hampshire. this wednesday night, wednesday night, all three democratic presidential candidates, hillary clinton, bernie sanders, martin o'malley, they will take part in a presidential town hall in new

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morning. we're fwog take back our country. this is where we start. this is day one. we're going to take back our country. >> he has defied a lot of conventional wisdom and tapped into voter anger and left many pundits scratching their heads. now donald trump faces a moment of truth when the first votes are cast in the 2016 presidential race tonight. the final polls before tonight's iowa caucuses show trump maintaining his position as the front runner. sam is his trump's national campaign co-chairman and policy advisor. he is joining us from des moines. what do you think? are you expecting a win in iowa tonight? >> oh, i think we're going to win. i think it's going to be a good turnout. the weather is perfect, as you can see. you know, no matter what happens, people turn out on caucus night, and i think we're going to have a big turnout. if we have a big turnout, i think the trump campaign is going to have a very successful evening. >> a lot of the pundits think cruz has a better so-called

ground game to bring out his supporters than donald trump says. you say what? >> well, i think a lot of it is it depends on your perception. you know, if you say something often enough and people pick up on it, then maybe that's what people think is ground troops. i think the ground truth will be figured out tonight after the votes are counted, and we'll see what kind of ground game anybody has. you know, i think at the end of the day, wolf, people still have to go out and fill out the cards and still have to make the contacts, we have to make the phone calls. we have our caucus captains. we get the people to stand up and speak. all of that is the same. it's just a matter of us finishing the job and as the old sports metaphor goes, we're not going to leave anything on the bench. >> cruz says a vote for donald trump is a vote for obama care, to which donald trump says cruz is a liar. he says he has wanted to repeal and replace obama care for the last two years. what do you say as somebody who is out there in iowa right now? how much of that cruz statement against donald trump resonates?

>> well, i don't know that that is really the top of everybody's list. i think obama care is an important thing. mr. trump has been very clear his position on this. he wants to cover as many people as possible, but this is -- but obama care has to be repealed, and it has to be replaced with market driven systems. that's what he said all along. wron where senator cruz is coming up with this. the things at the top of the list for everybody out here certainly is the economy, national security, immigration, tax reform, trade reform. a lot of these issues that are still up here on the front burner, and i think we'll get to some of these other things as time goes on. obama care is a real issue, of course, because it impacts people's pocket books. right now i think everybody is concerned about national security, the economy, and let's get to the economy back on track so we can do the rest of the things we need to do. >> when donald trump calls ted cruz a liar, what is he specifically referring to? >> you'll have to talk to mr. trump about that. i don't speak for mr. trump on

those issues. i'm here to represent the campaign. i'm here to represent the policy positions that we have, and i'm here to help get out the vote. when mr. trump speaks about certain things, i leave that to mr. trump. >> what's your biggest fear tonight? >> i think the blizzard getting here six hours early, that would bother me a lot. i think that would be a biggy. i do think that -- i think one of the things that as a people not taken seriously getting to the caucus locations early. once are you in line, if you are in line at 7:00, you get in. if you are not in line at 7:00, you're not going to get in, and that's a real issue because i expect we're going to have a bumper crop of folks show up tonight. we may have a historic number in the republican side, and i think this is really to our benefit. the more people that show up, the better off we are. >> donald trump's decision to skip the republican debate last week, did it help or hurt his campaign? >> i don't think it hurt it.

i think we're in good shape. we had a lot of people here, as you know. if you look at the polls, we have support for mr. trump that's galvanized. we have very few people who are weak-kneed about their support for mr. trump, and i think we're going to find out that again tonight by 10:00 central we're going to know a lot more about the mood of the country. i think this is really the most important issue. the mood of the country is something that a lot of people, the media, the establishment, a lot of people across the board inside the beltway have really turned their back on the american people and i think the american people have finally reached a breaking point, and they're looking for somebody who can be their champion. i think donald trump fits that bill better than anybody, and i think we're fwog start to see that manifestation tonight. >> sam, national co-chair for the trump campaign. sam, thanks for joining us. >> wolf, thanks so much. great to talk to you. >> thank you. up next, voter turnout. just how important will it be for donald trump and his gop rivals? we're going to speak with a

chairman of the republican national committee as the clock continues to wind down for the iowa caucuses. there you see him. he is in iowa. he is standing by live. he is actually -- i'm caridee. i've had moderate to severe plaque psoriasis most of my life. but that hasn't stopped me from modeling. my doctor told me about stelara® it helps keep my skin clearer. with only 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses... ...stelara® helps me be in season. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and increase your risk of infections. some serious infections require hospitalization. before starting stelara® your doctor should test for tuberculosis. stelara® may increase your risk of cancer.

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>> thank you so much. good work. thank you, guys, for your support. >> i'm really grateful for you guys. >> marco rubio, you just saw him thanking his supporters. the presidential candidates making their final pitches, thanking their supporters in iowa just a few hours before the very first votes are cast in this, the 2016 presidential election campaign here in the united states. on the republican side it's been somewhat of a two-man race. at least recently between the

frontrunner donald trump and senator ted cruz. senator marco rubio, at least according to awful the polls, running third. joining us now at the republican national committee. do you have any insight into voter turnout. that could determine whether trump brings in a lot more republicans, newer republicans to support him, or cruz gets his way. what are you hearing? >> obviously, you're going to have higher turnout. that's obviously what everyone wants to try to figure out. every campaign is looking at their data. trying to figure out what those numbers look like. you know, they're not -- we don't have a couple people running so obviously everyone has their pockets of support. and their job now is to go through their list, go through e-mails and phone contacts and data they've mined over the last

year and then figure out how to get all those people to vote. naturally, you would guess the turnout would be pretty high but again, who are those folks, what is it all about. >> there are three tickets out of iowa, the top three candidates will move on to new hampshire and then south carolina. you still buy that or are there more tickets out of iowa now? >> you know what, you don't know. what i try to explain to people, at some point, it's not going to be today, it's not going to be after new hampshire, but at some point, people are going to start looking at delegates and start to figure out what the delegate count is. for all the viewers, the delegates of the republican national committee decide who the nominee is. these primaries. influence the delegates on how they're going to vote on the floor of a convention. when we get into a march 1st super tuesday and you have 16,

17 states going, you all aren't going to sit around and say, well, what happened to tennessee, what about mississippi, what about alabama, you're going to say "what's the delegate count." starts, i think it's going to be sort of a little bit of a slower roll through the month of march. >> for those candidates who are still left standing. i assume you agree that after iowa -- >> that's right, that's right. >> -- -- there will probably be a few of these candidates who drop out, suspend their campaign after new hampshire, maybe some more maybe after south carolina. these things are going to go relatively quickly. eventually, they'll be a much smaller republican field, right? >> yes, you would think so. because there's just not enough hard cash to go around. i'm not trying to suggest it's something the candidates might not like to hear, but the truth is, when you need hard fac money, meaning, you know, the individual personal donations, in order to pay for a campaign,

there's only so far you can go without having significant success along the way. so these early test dates are a big part of that winnowing the field time frame. then once we get into march, that's when 60% of all the delegates are going to be awarded. so february's about 5%. march is about 60%, but then you balance all of that with exactly what you've indicated which is, you know, do you have the sustainability to get through the month of february. that's where this stuff starts separate folks. >> from the standpoint of the republican party, reince, you're the chairman, is it smart to have iowa first, new hampshire second, or you think it's time to rethink how the republican party nominates someone to be their candidate? >> well, even rethinking this every four years for 30 years, wolf, and, you know, you're hitting on one of the great

debates of our convention every year. i know it's maybe bore to a lot of people but the rules of how the primary process take place is always subject to a huge debate. i've always said there's no sacred place in our party. the early states, the carveouts, this is a conversation that will take place. i'm not breaking any news here. it happens every four years. people are going to evaluate it. whether or not more tweaks knee to take place to the scheduling and the calendar. we're happy with where we're at. we've never had i think a better national party prepared for victory before. and the first time in the history of our party, at least as long as people around here remember, the states are in compliance. we feel good about what's on the calendar. >> after romney lost almost four years ago, you did that famous postmortem to come up with new ideas. are you implementing the recommendations? >> yeah, we're emsplitting all of them.

we have two less weeks of present portionality. when you have a lot of candidates, it's tougher as far as the distribution of delegates. under the old rules when mitt romney ran, the entire month of march, it was mandated that all the delegates proproportionately. now starting on march 15th, the states have the option of going winner take all. so the whole breakdown comes to about 55% of the states are proportional. 45% are either hybrid or winner take all. so we think these are significant changes. and we have no violating states jumping the calendar like they did four years ago when florida jumped in january and everything sort of avalanched earlier. so the calendar itself i think is in much better shape. >> reince priebus, thank you very much for joining us.

we'll be reporting live in iowa all day. our special coverage at 4:00 p.m. eastern. i'll be anchoring all night as the results come in. sarah palin, a vocal donald trump supporter, now taking aim at his closest gop rival ted cruz. you're going to hear why she said she's concerned about the texas senator's tactics. mucinex fast max. it's the same difference. this one is max strength and fights mucus. mucinex fast max. the only cold and flu liquid gel that's max-strength and fights mucus. let's end this.

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> during an interview with jake tapper, sarah palin's daughter blasted a mailer sent out by cruz's campaign. >> what i've been concerned about is what the cruz campaign has done to previous voters, potential voters, who weren't able to make it to a process. >> you mean that literature, the voter -- >> then they were ashamed, they and their neighbors being sent a report card saying, you know,

you got an "f" because you didn't do what we think should have been done. that to me is reflective of politicians thinking they know best or they know your life so they can make decisions for you. that's what i've been concerned about with this whole caucus process. >> you can see the rest of the interview with sarah palin later today 4:00 p.m. eastern on "the lead" with jake tapper. thanks for watching. the news continues next on cnn. here we go, top of the hour. so great to be with you on this monday. i'm brooke baldwin. today is the day. this is a state where a winter blizzard is in the forecast, yes, and a political earthquake may just be on the horizon. we will see if upstart republican front-runner donald trump will live up to the