but friends don't have to be. when you're connected, you're not alone. we are going to pause for a minute to chat a little bit with

stephanie murray of the messenger to discuss particularly when it comes to the 2024 presidential election. good morning. >> thanks so much for having me. thank you for coming on with me this morning. republicans running for the white house in 2024 all came to des moines iowa over the weekend on friday for the family leadership summitt which is a bg kind of conservative evangelical call for these fake blick and candidates to get in front of anna evangelical audience to try to woo a them. it was one of the first kind of major candidate gatheringse of the 2024 primary to happen so far. they talked about all sorts of things from abortion to the war

in ukraine and other conservative issues. >> icm article you wrote going into the weekend where you talk about the former president donald trump criticizing the governor of florida for the states six week abortion ban but he defended it. can you tell us how particularly this issue what faultlines we see the different candidates dividing or is it trump versus everyone else? >> it's interesting to watch as the primary develops. after we followed roe v wade that guaranteed the right to an abortion, republicans are still figuring out how far to take any sort of national abortion restriction that they want to put forward or bring up in the primary. you had candidates like the six week abortion ban in florida at this conference i was at, the

republican governor of iowa came on stage in the middle of the day and signed an abortion ban for her state something that is already facing legal challenges in the previous version of that law was knocked out in court so he was asked if he would put the van in place nationally. he didn't go that far. he stepped right up to the line saying he wanted to signle pro-life legislation but he didn't go as far as to commit. other candidates that are pretty antiabortion and people like the former vice president mike pence and former arkansas governor, they both raised band that's happening but they suggested that the place to find more national consensus might be the 15 week band and i think the reason they are saying that is because it bears that out a little bit more.

it showed an overwhelming majority of american adults i think something close to 75% support abortion being allowed up to six weeks but later in a pregnancy it does dwindle a little bit. former president trump didn't come to that event and he's faced some criticism from his opponents but he was also kind of able to avoid being pinned down on this issue with the way that others who were there applauding the band being signed and that is something that we have seen over the last few months with support for restrictions that haven't really saidow how far he would go or anything like that. it is much different than how these candidates or whoever the winner of the primary will have toar talk about it in a general election. >> another thing that happened in this family leadership

conference in iowa tucker carlson was able to question a lot of the candidates and he really pushed them on some of these issues. let's watch, this is the former vice president mike pence who was interviewed. this is a portion where they talk about the attack on the capital on january 6th. >> they were american citizens and they were really mad because d they thought of the election s unfair and i wonder why more time hasn't been spent by either party reassuring americans that they are real, that all votes are counted, the electronic voting machines which no one seemed to trust ten years ago now are infallible and why the mail-in voting is a good thing like why doesn't anybody try to reassure the public the mechanics of voting are legit? >> as i said in my communication to congress and i said many

times since there were irregularities. there were about a half a dozen states that changed the rules in the name of covid, and that undermined public confidence in the outcome. at the end of the day we brought more than m-16 lawsuits engaged in recounts and when states ultimately certified and courts upheld the changes in virtually every instance and ultimately we were able to determine that the changes, there is no evidence to the changes that would change theec outcome in any way. i knew my duty was clear that day, but as i have said before, president trump's words that they were reckless. i believe whatever hisha intentions in that moment it in danger to me, my family,

everyone that was at the capitol that day. i believe history will hold him accountable for that just as the law will hold anybody that engaged in acts of violence. >> how was vice president trump and vice president mike pence, how was that received and overall there was a lot of discussion how he represents kind of the ultra conservative basese in ways that left the candidates trying to figure out ways to answer his question without having answers that could hurt them in the long run. can you talk a little bit about that? >> this is the challenge for the republicans running against former president donald trump. he is somebody that has a lot of t supporters in the base. his day is on the party haven't left him from the attack on the

capital on january 6th to his multiple indictment, but i think they are in a situation where they are trying to run against him and draw a contrast without alienating his base and that's wha' you saw there with former vice president mike pence. it's a challenge to not alienate the base and it's not insult trump that has been the challenge and i think the other challenge that happened is tucker carlson was representing this kind of conservative piece of the party. he was often getting more applause than the actual candidates were. hutchison was asked about this after the segment with tucker carlson that got pretty intense over things like transgendered affirming care for kids where

the covid vaccine and his quote was sometimes you get applause and sometimes you don't. i was on the stage to try to bring some people over to me and i hope that is what i did. but this is the challenge especially when former president trump wasn't at this event and may not be on the debate stage. we are kind of waiting to see them draw the contrast especially when he is the front runner in the national poll in the primary. but it is a difficult needle to thread and we have seen almost all the candidates have challenges with that. >> one last question. the group no labels which is considering supporting a third-party candidate if trump and/or their party nominees, there's an event later today featuring west virginia senator joe manchin who we know is a

democrat. can you tell us a little bit about what you know is going to happen today and is it speculation that he might be the snow label candidate in the fall? >> the appearance has democrats really worried. i think thenc concern is if he d have a third-party run for president he would ask to hand the victory to trump or whoever trump or whoeverthe republican . that is far down the road and far down thed line but the appearance in new hampshire is certainly soaking up speculation. he hasn't committed to what he's going to do with any regard, and the places that he's appearing in new hampshire is somewhere where the presidential candidates go. he's going to visit to get into politics and that is kind of the bread and butter where you go and talk to people if you're thinking about running for

president. so, certainly no coincidence that he's going there. it's an interesting thing. it's something the democrats will be watching very, very closely. >> thank you for joining us this morning. >> it's my pleasure. thanks for having me. >> again that is stephanie murray political reporter at the messenger.