good evening. donald trump didn't talk publicly today. but instead took a few meetings in wafshington, all of this jus five days before the wisconsin primary. today trump met for about two ours with his top aides. after that he huddled with republican national committee chairman reince priebus.

this is all about trump's flip-flop. and we got information on how the race is shaping up in wisconsin. a new noetwork poll has trump leading. >> the best way for the republicans to win is if i win the nomination and go directly against whoever they happen to put up and for that reason i have signed the pledge. so i will be totally pledging my allegiance to the republican party and the conservative principles for which it stand and we will go out and we will fight hard and we will win.

>> that was september. the cnn town haul two days ago donald trump told me he's no longer abiding by that pledge. >> do you continue to abide by your pledge to support the republican nominee? >> no, i don't. >> the pledge likely came up during trump's meeting with reince priebus today. jim acosta joins me now. what are you learning about the meeting with the rnc. was this preplanned? what went on? >> anderson, the meeting didn't seem to go too badly. the rnc is fund-raising off of it with an e-mail to supporters that reads, regarding meeting you can open it up and click on where you want to donate some money. as for that meeting, it covered a range of topics, including the hot topic of delegates and what happens at the convention if donald trump does not reach that magic number of 1,237.

a spokesman put out this statement. it says the chairman and mr. trump talking about reince priebus, the chairman of the rnc, had a productive conversation about the race. the chairman is in constant contact with all of the candidates and their campaigns about the primaries, general election and convention. meeting and phone conversations with candidates and their campaigns are common and will increase as we get closer to november. no word on whether that gop loyalty pledge will make a comeback. one rnc official would only say they're confident the party will rally around their nominee to beat hillary clinton. if you consider what john kasich said today about trump not being prepared to be president, it sounds as though the ohio governor may never support trump as the nominee. >> it has been interestingly quiet from donald trump today when you consider the wisconsin primary with ted cruz pulling ahead of him now is just days away. >> that's right. if he wants to be the nominee, winning wisconsin would surely help. trump is trailing ted cruz here in the latest polls. you just mentioned one that came

ou and cruz is looking to exploit trump's big gender gap with women. heidi cruz and one of cruz's top surrogates, carly fiorina, they were campaigning aoss wisconsin with events geared toward women voters. if trump loses next week, goes on to colorado, a caucus state that does not play to his strengths. if he loses there, he'll look weakened heading into the next big prize which is his home state of new york. he's got a good lead there but that could be his firewall for this campaign next month. >> jim acosta, thanks. joining me, cnn's "inside politics'" john king, political commentator van jones, nia-malika henderson, kayleigh mcenany, who supports donald trump, and contributing editor amanda carpenter, former communications director for ted cruz, and "washington post" opinion columnist and former george w. bush speechwriter michael gerson.

these meetings, it gives the sense that trump is in some sort of damage control mode or just taking the foot off the gas for the day? >> no question for the first time in this race he's on defense and he's been on defense for a few days. it's very uncharacteristic. we were talking about this just before the show. in the past when donald trump has had a bad debate or headlines have not been trending his way, he's done something to change the conversation. he's been a master of changing the conversation since he entered the race. today uncharacteristically quiet. we're not panicking. we understand the polls in wisconsin. still have a few more days. we're ahead in new york and just trying -- he's in washington. we're getting our ducks in order. if we lose one, everybody loses one. we'll be okay. that's what they say. there's a sense among the other campaigns there could be this moment in the race. i'd caution how many times have we sat around these tables saying we're at the moment in the race when trump collapses. they have a big delegate lead. they say they understand internally their candidate has to get better at some things.

all of the campaigns need to study the rules. there really are no rules. they'll be rewritten on the fly at the convention. their sense is we're not panicking. we're fine. the other campaigns sense a moment. >> he's meeting with the national security team, whether you know that's in response to some of the comments he's made or part of the education process which all candidate goes through. >> and this is part of donald trump and we've seen flashes of this. him trying to essentially look like a regular presidential candidate, right? we've seen him give long interviews to "the washington post." gave a 100-minute phone interview with two reporters at "the new york times." some of those answers raised questions. some of the answers in the town halls about nuclear capabilities and nuclear proliferation raised questions. i do think, though, one of the core arguments of his campaign is that the smartest men and women in the room have gotten everything wrong up until now, right?

and so when he sort of meets with advisers, in some ways it undermines that argument in some ways. but it also, i think, gives a nod to the conventional trappings of a presidential campaign, which is to say you have to have these wise men. >> if i was donald trump, i'd feel pretty confident in sticking with what got me here in the first place. what got him here in the first place is donald trump. everything about him has worked for him, certainly among his supporters. it's turned other people obviously against him. do you start at a certain point trying to bring in other people, listen to other people? >> optically, he does. i do think -- i'm not one of the people who has been sitting up here saying donald trump is inches away from self-destructing. i've been saying, be very afraid if you don't like this guy. he's getting bigger, not smaller. but i do think something is different. this is the first time i've seen him dog piled from both sides. i've never seen the right wing

conservative movement, social conservatives come after him the way they did on this abortion gaffe. at the same time that hillary clinton is basically jumping up and down giggling about how badly he handled that. i haven't seen that before. i haven't seen this guy do so many flip-flops he could be an olympic gymnast on everything from nato to nukes to abortion. i think something happened this week that we may look back on and say was very significant. >> michael gerson, do you agree? >> i've talked to serious republican officials that say two or three weeks ago, he seemed to be on the verge of uniting the party, of solidifying his support. and then he's had just a terrible couple of weeks. and terrible in a certain way. many of these issues have concerned women and women's issues. and he is well behind in the polling when it comes to this. i think a lot of republicans are realizing this is a seriously flawed candidate with some of the highest, you know, negative

ratings of any recent candidate. and they are having buyer's remorse. >> are you concerned as a trump supporter? >> i'm not concerned. every time the media piles on donald trump he somehow emerges unscathed. some polls came out today, real clear politics, he's still over 50% in new york. that's huge. that would make that a winner take all state. >> just the media, or to michael's point, from conservatives and even on his abortion comments, there's been concern. >> sure. that was a stumble yesterday. no doubt. there have been stumbles along the way. that's because donald trump has given greater access to himself to the media than any other candidate. you saw hillary clinton make that comment early, long before the race began, about being dead broke when she got out of the white house and what did she do? she retracted from the national scene. ted cruz has not made himself as available as donald trump.

donald trump has put himself out there. we need to be careful. it hurts the american people when you don't have candidates out there. donald trump retracted. the american people benefit from having someone who provides access and isn't afraid to see chris matthews who is obviously ideologically opposite of donald trump. >> kayleigh makes a good point. you have to give credit to donald trump for going to an interview over at msnbc. maybe he was overconfident. i don't know what the calculation of it was. he does make himself more available. to "the new york times." i don't think any other candidate has given that lengthy of an interview focused on foreign policy. >> he makes himself very available to the media. what we're seeing is the weakness of his overall campaign. he's gotten far -- this far ahead because of the strength of his personality. right now the campaign needs to take control and guide him. i think that's was a miscalculation for him to go on chris matthews. someone at that campaign should have been able to tell him, a, this is a bad idea because there's not a lot of gop primary voters watching chris matthews and msnbc. if you are, recognize chris matthews is a catholic and is

likely to raise this issue days ahead of the primary where catholic voters are influential. someone should have warned trump about that. because donald trump, his whole candidacy is built on his personality and not a campaign operation, we're seeing these missteps on issue after issue. >> we have to take a quick break. much more ahead. the surprising ways he says nuclear weapons fit in. john kasich says trump is clearly not prepared to be commander in chief. talking tougher against trump and his opponents. i'll speak with governor kasich this hour. also i'll talk to glenn beck and trump's comments on abortion and the fact he's sticking by his campaign manager. more on that ahead.

as we mentioned, donald trump met with his national security advisers in washington. that meeting lasted two hours. they didn't take questions after. certainly no shortage of issues to discuss. just in the past few days, donald trump said he wouldn't rule out using nuclear weapons in europe. he might support japan and south korea developing their own nuclear weapons, and that's just what he said recently. trump has a long history of expressing unconventional opinions about security issues. here's a compilation. >> would i approve waterboarding? you bet your ass i would. >> i would take away the oil. bomb the hell out of those oil fields. i wouldn't send many troops because you won't need them by the time i got finished. i'd bomb the hell out of the oil fields. i'd get exxon and these great

oil companies to go back in. they rebuild them. >> you go in and say we have to have our hostages back. they say no way. you say, bye-bye, everybody. then you go out and double and triple up in the sanctions and you'll get a call in 24 hours, you've got your hostages. >> nato is obsolete. >> what's a sovereign nation? you think iraq is a sovereign nation? >> yeah. >> i don't think so. iraq essentially doesn't exist. >> it's been a policy to prevent japan from getting a nuclear policy. >> maybe it's going to have to be time to change. >> if you say to japan, yes, it's okay, south korea, it's okay, and saudi arabia wants

them, too. >> can i be honest with you? it's going to happen anyway. >> a fox business poll has trump trailing ted cruz in wisconsin. back wither panel. you can look at that and add up these unconventional statements. it is that unconventional thinking which is part of the appeal. it's the non-washington speak, the kind of non-necessarily doctrine approach to foreign policy or any policy. >> a little more elite opinion, but elite opinion is pretty concerned. in the content of these interviews, his main point is that our allies are freeloaders. and need to pay their fair share. you know, the trump doctrine here is really that america should act like a mob boss demanding money from allies. >> protection money. >> it's an absurd centerpiece for a foreign policy. and he -- so he disses our allies and has praised putin in the past, which is really our rival. it's a foreign policy that doesn't understand who our friends are and who our enemies are. >> i'd argue the trump doctrine is america first. for the last two decades, this is why his policies sound so outlandish and people laugh at them, by the way. for the last two decades it hasn't been america first. for the last two decades it's

been other countries first. we're going to go in and topple dictators and be the world's police. for the first time you have someone saying what happens if seoul, south korea is hit or tokyo is hit? everyone is looking to the united states to defend those countries. perhaps it's time we look at the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and say is this something to put on the table to talk about and think about? >> does it concern you as a supporter of trump that he seems to look -- i think it was the times that pointed it out. he seems to look through the lens of the world -- look at the world through the lens of a businessman and everything is about deals. that, you know, the deal for nato isn't right. it's not structured right. the deal for protecting japan and south korea isn't right and he can make better deals. do you believe it's necessarily true that making a business deal is essentially a deal on

international relations with multiple governments involved? >> it's certainly a component. if you look at nato and funding, they contribute 73% of the budget. back in -- ten years ago, there was a rule put in place that every country in nato needs to contribute 2%. do you know how many countries of the 30 something countries in nato who have reached that goal? four. that's ridiculous that four countries are paying 2%. one of those is the united states. we need a little business negotiations in our foreign policy. >> do you buy that? >> listen. there is some room for reasonableness in some of the points trump raises like saying, nato probably could be re-evaluated. there could be some reallocation of resources. there's a reasonable discussion to be had. but to say nato is obsolete while nato headquarters, city of brussels, has been bombed by terrorists shows no amount of care, context for what the situation needs. that's what's worrisome about trump. he goes into these bombastic statements. has no room for the delicate nature of these events. >> and it's interesting, too, because you are now hearing --

you mentioned elite opinion. you have barron's which is very concerned about a trump presidency's effect on the markets. if you have a president this erratic, how are the markets going to perform? one of the top ten threats to world peace and stability would be a trump presidency. so you are -- i am perfectly willing to have our allies do more than they have done. but to create a situation where the allies don't know where they stand creates instability across the world. just now as a candidate he's causing this stuff. for me he's the ceo. when you are the ceo, your people work for you. when you are the president, you work for the people. it's a very different thing, okay? when you are the president of the united states, you have so many checks and balances that this idea of diplomacy is not politically correct to be able to not offend the people you have to work with here and around the world. that's called being a political

leader. he has not met that test yet. >> it does -- it is a role where words matter. where tone matters. where markets hang on every word the president says. where governments around the world, you know, read with a magnifying glass everything that the president says. >> sure, and strength. that's what we need. words do matter. there's a reluctance on the part of our president to say isis is a problem that is a radical islam problem. >> but nothing gives you pause about donald trump and his use of words or speaking without sufficient presidential level of forethought? >> i think he does speak with forethought. i read that "new york times" interview and saw novel proposals i haven't seen from anyone. i do think it's time to look at the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and at least consider and talk about if the world has changed. it's time for that. i saw novel proposals. it's easy to laugh and be simplistic and generalize. also look at what he's saying and discuss it and say is this rational or not.

my interview with governor kasich just ahead. he spent the day ramping up his attacks against donald trump. is he sorry he didn't get tougher sooner? we'll talk to him. wrely on the us postal service? because when they ship with us, their business becomes our business. that's why we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. here, there, everywhere. united states postal service priority: you

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governor john kasich has had some tougher words for donald trump over the last 24 hours or so. i talked to governor kasich just before we went on air. in a statement released before dawn today, the campaign of the front-runner donald trump said the past 24 hours revealed in the clearest -- from the kasich campaign, the clearest way that trump is not prepared to be president. governor kasich kept up the drum beat all day long. here's what he said in new york. governor, seems like you've been ratcheting up your criticism of donald trump, perhaps even more so today. a, do you regret not doing it sooner? you were reticent to throw elbow

s early on. would it have been more effective? >> frankly in the third debate, i really went after trump on the issue of immigration, deporting people, things like that. so i decided today, i got five things he talked about. the abortion controversy, using nukes in the middle east, in europe, get rid of the geneva convention, getting rid of nato and having a supreme court justice who is going to investigate hillary's e-mails. i don't even know what he's talking about there. you get to the point where you want to say something and speak out and be clear. but this isn't where i'm going to live. i'm going to live just like we did at the town hall, that we did in wisconsin, which i thought was very successful and letting people know who i am, what my thoughts are. i've been a reformer providing income security, better wages, taking care, making sure we can have the american dream so our children can do well. >> i want to get your reaction to a comment generating controversy, something you said to msnbc about infant mortality rates. i want to play the clip and have you explain what you were saying. >> the issue of infant mortality is a tough one. we have taken that on, and one

of the toughest areas to take on is in the minority community. and the community itself is going to have to have a better partnership to begin to solve that problem of infant mortality in the minority community because we're making gains in the majority community. >> i saw some criticism online. people -- some thought you were blaming the minority community for infant mortality rates. planned parenthood said that kasich slashed a program that specifically helped prevent infant mortality. >> first of all, anderson, i expanded medicaid and over 3,000 people now -- women now have health care who didn't before. secondly, my point is we have attacked aggressively the issue of infant mortality. and we've tried to bring all the community partners together. and we have had success in the majority community, but we have not had the success that i would like to see in the minority community. and we all have to redouble our efforts. we have to convince people who could be at risk that they need

to go and seek treatment so they have healthy babies. anybody who is distorting those comments, if i said something they didn't like, i apologize for that, but i don't think -- my whole purpose here is to make sure that we are able to win the battle against infant mortality. i'm not blaming anybody. i'm just saying we need to redouble our efforts so we get the leadership to make sure that we're putting women in a place where they can have these healthy babies. >> you basically staked your candidacy on a contested convention. what do you make of the fact that trump was in washington meeting with the rnc talking about delegate math and convention rules and some say he may be rescinding his pledge to support whoever the nominee ends up being? >> you know, a couple of things, ted cruz needs about 90% of the delegates going forward to win. that's just not going to happen. and trump needs about 60%. and that's not going to happen either. look, when delegates go to a

convention, and i've been at conventions, they get to be very serious about two things. one, who can win in the fall? i'm the only one that consistently beats hillary clinton. and delegates feel the weight of decision on their shoulders. and they begin to think about who actually could run the country. who has the experience? who has the vision? who has had success in the past? >> obviously, by law, your campaign can't coordinate with any superpacs supporting you. i want to get your reaction to a superpac that's being run criticizing ted cruz. >> lied about ben carson. lies about being the best for the gop even though polls show he can't even beat hillary clinton. >> obviously again not put out by your campaign. put out by a superpac. do you believe ted cruz is dishonest? >> you know, anderson, i hate to say this. i had a hard time hearing that. but i need to look at it. i know that when there was some things put out by the superpac

where they attacked marco rubio, i demanded they take the ad off the air. i don't understand what this ad is, but i will look at it. but what i will tell you is the cruz campaign is spending $500,000 to $800,000 against me in wisconsin, distorting my record. i'm a little disturbed by when i heard the use of the word lie over and over. if i can't tell my superpac what to do, but i can have some serious comments about it, and i will look at this. >> governor kasich, thank you for your time. >> anderson, thank you. just a quick note. we also invited donald trump and ted cruz to come on. the invitation still stands. coming up, i'll talk to glenn beck. how serious is donald trump's problem with women voters. is it big enough to actually harm his campaign? john king breaks it down. about 30 minutes from now the premiere of the cnn original series "the eighties." if you're going to make a statement...

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>> it was a period of time in my

>> the only person who has ever won against donald trump was carly fiorina. she was perceived at somebody that -- it seemed wrong to did that. i think it's wrong to do what he's doing to megyn kelly, but megyn kelly at least has her own forum and she's not a wimp, she can stand up for herself. but when he struck out at heidi cruz, it was reminiscent of what he did to carly fiorina, totally out of bounds. then you have this battery charge that he is defending. you have him going after the reporter, the female reporter. then you have the abortion and women should go to jail. he's already at 73% unfavorable rating for women. he might be the only candidate in history to go to zero unfavorable rating with women. >> the fact that trump yesterday in the span of a couple of hours

managed to alienate those who oppose abortion rates and trying to plablame the whole thing on chris matthews, some kind of gotcha moment. do you agree with that kind of thing? the counter is that a candidate for president of the united states ought to be able to answer question. >> that's the thing, he didn't know what the nuclear triad. i said today he's welcome on my show. i've got about five questions that would shut his career down. people aren't asking him the right questions, i think, the presidential questions, questions that the president needs to know. and you can see the narrowness of his knowledge and the depth or lack of depth of his

knowledge when chris matthews was asking him that question on abortion, he -- watch that videotape. it's fascinating to watch. he's talking to chris, he tries to turn it around on chris, tries to accuse chris of being a zealot because he doesn't want to answer. when chris won't let up and say what is it, should women be punished? he looks off and says, "um, yes, they should be." he's deciding in that moment. he's not prepared to be the president of the united states >>states. >> i would be remiss if i didn't ask you at least one of your five questions. >> i will if i'm sure he wouldn't come on the show. i'll e-mail them to you, anderson. >> all right. i talked to governor kasich and he really pushes back on this idea that he is somehow a

spoiler for ted cruz. he said there's virtually no way cruz could get the needed number of delegates so why wouldn't he stay in if it's going to go to a contested convention anyway? >> he's delusional. i don't have anything bad to say about john kasich. i like the tone he's been conducting himself with. he's not the guy i would vote for, but he's delusional. there is no math and no way that he's going to get to the convention. i mean, anderson, think of this. they go to the convention and let's say donald trump and ted cruz -- let's say ted cruz is even just one delegate ahead of donald trump or donald trump is one delegate ahead of ted cruz. if it's not one of those two, if they reach down, way down in the field to a guy that either wasn't voted on at all or somebody that was voted and wasn't one of those two, the gop

will implode. who's going to go out and vote for some guy that nobody -- we had the choice to vote for john kasich, we said no. >> so you don't even buy the idea that a paul ryan or somebody who didn't actually run would step in or could step in? >> oh, no. i think you would set the country on fire. i can't think of the person that the american people would feel comfortable if it not one of the two front-runners. if donald trump has 1,237, he's got to be the guy. i'll never vote for him and i will never, ever -- i mean, that's the end of the gop. but if he has the 1,237, he has to win the nomination. if he's 100 away from that, it's got to be one of the top front-runners. you can't do that.

you just can't do that. >> glenn, always good to talk to you. >> up next, donald trump's unfavorable ratings among women was an issue even before the trouble with his campaign manager. that's coming up after this. (engine winding up)

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donald trump may not agree but it's been a tough week for him and could hurt his chances with women voters. in the last 48 hours the republican front-runner has faced criticism for refusing to fire his campaign manager after the incident with a female reporter in florida. he's also backtracked after his controversial comments about abortion. a majority of female voters had a negative view about donald trump. john king is back with a look by the numbers. >> very important point. those other controversies, corey lewandowski being charged. those all came after our poll was taken. more than 7 in 10 women have an unfavorable opinion of donald trump. even among republican women, 39% of republican women have an unfavorable opinion of donald trump. how does that matter? remember that number, 39%. this next contest is in the state of wisconsin.

let's look how that number has changed. 39% of republican women have an unfavorable opinion. in the short term donald trump has to worry about that number. he can deal with 73% if he's the republican nominee. why does that matter? next week in wisconsin, we assume about half, a little less than half of the electorate will be women. republican primary voters. 2012 exit polls. then in new york, pennsylvania, connecticut, we use maryland as an example, about 49%. in the short term, this is a problem. this is not a silver lining. in the short term maybe slightly less of a problem because a majority in republican primaries, the majority tends to be men. i'm not saying it's a blessing for donald trump, those poll numbers are bad, but in the short term it's a problem. in the long run, it's a nightmare. i'm going to switch maps and go to 2012 and to the presidential election. remember, president obama wins an electoral college landslide over mitt romney.

let's go back to the 2000 map. remember, let me bring this number back up. 73% of all registered voters women. view donald trump unfavorably. how does this guy become president when in these battleground states in 2012, 52% of the voters in ohio in the general election were women. 56% in north carolina. 55% in florida. 53% in virginia. 51 and 51. these are seven of the biggest battleground states in a presidential election. a clear majority of the electorate will be women. more than 7 in 10 view him negatively. >> is there a way to compare this to romney, to mccain? >> that's where it gets so damning. look at these numbers. unfavorable view among registered women voters. this is from our poll closest to the 2012 election and the 2008 election. 44% mccain viewed unfavorably. mitt romney, slight majority. 51%. look at that number. astronomically when it comes to mccain.

up 22 points over romney, right? that's how women view them unfavorabl obama won both elections in electoral college landslides. mccain got 43%. romney got 44% of the woman vote. a huge gender gap in both of those. if donald trump is viewed unfavorably by 73%, it's a safe bet that number would be worse than those. and if it's worse, it's just impossible. it's impossible. donald trump has time to change that number. if he doesn't, it's impossible seeing him winning a general election. john king, thanks very much. conservative radio air waves in wisconsin are crackling. the phones lighting up with strong opinions about trump's abortion comments and more. randi kaye takes a look at that. >> morning, this is a frustrating part of this whole trump candidacy because he's a loose canon. >> reporter: it's 7:00 a.m. in milwaukee, wisconsin, and

conservative radio host jay weber is fielding calls about republican front-runner donald trump's latest gaffe. >> once again, you have to ask, what's is donald trump talking about? >> suggesting women who have abortions should be punished criminally. a position he later reversed. >> good morning. i think trump is going -- he's going from the crazy uncle to the drunk uncle. >> reporter: jay, too, is no fan of donald trump. >> he's flailing more and more than he ever has. you get more and more ridiculous statements coming out of his mouth. >> reporter: you have called donald trump an embarrassment. a crackpot. a cry baby, a giant fraud. a narcissist. a liar. a blowhard. i could go on. but i get the feeling you really don't like this guy. >> i don't care for the man, no. >> reporter: nor do many of his listeners. >> he's a left wing new york liberal who has no bold ideas. will do nothing bold. and he maintains the status

and he maintains the status quo quo as barack obama has set it. >> reporter: trump's latest comments have jay once again questioning trump's readiness to lead. is this a rookie mistake this close to the primary? >> it is a rookie mistake. i don't think there's any excuse for it this deep into the campaign. >> reporter: it could hurt his standing in the polls. one released wednesday shows trump trailing cruz by 10 points. but trump does have support here. about 30 miles from jay weber's radio studio is the small village of thiensville, wisconsin, home to one of the few elected officials who has publicly endorsed trump. >> in this case, he's the best

candidate on the republican side. >> reporter: the board of trustees president van mobley likes trump's business background. >> he's shown an ability to get things done and is an entrepreneur over time on a shoestring budget. i think that's something the american people need. >> reporter: but that's not enough to sway jay weber or most of his callers. >> you are still not even sure if you would vote for him if he was the nominee. >> no, i'm waffling back and forth. >> reporter: waffling and watching the delegate count ever so closely. >> randi joins me from milwaukee. we just talked about the polling with women. how does the radio host there think trump's comments will play with women? >> not very well, anderson. he also doesn't think he can do much worse with women than he's already doing. if you look at that latest cnn poll. among all women, a 74% unfavorability rating. among republican voters, a 39% unfavorability rating. the numbers tell the real story. he's also very concerned about donald trump being able to unify the country. as jay weber says for the last eight or nine months he's been beating up on minority groups, women, people in washington. he doesn't think all of a sudden people are going to turn around and start supporting him. he really is concerned this whole comment and this whole issue having to do with abortion and women has really divided the republican party more than ever and that's only going to help the democrats. >> randi, thanks.

we're just moments away from the cnn original series "the eighties." the decade transformed television with "dallas" and "family ties" and the launch of several cable channels, including cnn. we're going to look more at the effect of that in "the eighties," when we continue. oh remotes, you've had it tough.

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let's go back in time. the new seven-part series "the eighties" debuts here on cnn. it's amazing to look back at that decade. each thursday night you'll see the events and people that shaped the decade. tonight's premiere focuses on the defining moments in '80s television. "who shot j.r., the place where everybody knows your name and the start of cnn. here's a sneak peek on that topic. >> a special segment tonight, the network news. the first in a two-part series on the profound changes taking place in television news. changes being brought about by business and competition and technology.

>> there were a variety of reasons people who worked at the broadcast networks were freaked out in 1980s. one of them was cnn. and the rise of cable. another was being taken over by foreign entities in corporate america. >> joining me is cnn media analyst bill carter, when leno went early and television went crazy. bill, there was a time when the big three networks were the only games in town in terms of national news. that changed in the '80s because of cnn. did anyone expect cnn to last? >> no. there was a lot of disdain. who are these upstarts? they are mainly local anchors they stuck on the air. they don't have serious reporters. they don't have quality journalism. and they kind of thought it was going to be like a flash in the pan kind of thing where somebody got a lot of attention for it but it really didn't last. i think you can go through the history of america or any other country about institutions that's get engrained and think they can't lose their status. and it does happen. >> i remember talking to a cameraman who was one of the first cameramen at cnn.

still is at cnn today saying, other network cameramen used to make fun saying, chicken noodle news. >> that was the name. chicken noodle network. chicken noodle news. it wasn't fantastic news for a while, but what it had from the beginning was the possibility to cover things immediately as they were happening. you didn't have to wait until 6:00 to find out what was going on in the world. that was a sea change big time. >> also interesting how people look back and say there was a golden age of news back when there were three broadcast networks. >> right. >> news back then was, i think, in some cases like 15 minutes long. >> it started out. the network newscast was 15 minutes long. and it was a big moment when they went to 30 minutes. but, you know, it was still very packaged. they didn't have much live coverage at all. it was very limited news. you did get informed, and they were quality journalists, no question about it, but it was not comprehensive at all. >> bill carter, thanks very

much. >> of course. any time. "the eighties" starts right now. it's a time of enormous turmoil. >> '60s are over. >> here's michael at the foul line. good! >> we intend to cover all the news all the time. we won't be signing off until the world ends. >> isn't that special. >> any tool for human expression will bring out both the best and worst in us. and television has been that. >> they don't pay me enough to deal with animals like this. >> people are no longer embarrasses to admit they watch television. >> we have seen the news, and it is us. ♪