your call this morning. we will pause for a minute to chat a little bit with stephanie murray of the messenger to discuss not just the week ahead in politics but particularly when it comes to the 2024 presidential election. good morning. guest: thank you so much for having me. host: thank you for coming on with us this morning. let's talk about this weekend that just past. there was a lot of campaigning

going on. what were you focused on this weekend when it comes to the 2020 guest: four election? guest:republicans running for the white house in 2024 all came to des moines, iowa over the weekend or in friday for the family leadership summit which is a big, conservative evangelical cattle call for these republican candidates to get in front of the evangelical audience and try to woo them. it was one of the first major candidate gatherings of the 2020 for primary to happen in iowa so far. they talked about all sorts of things from abortion to the war in ukraine and other conservative issues. host: i see an article you wrote going into the weekend where you talked about former president donald trump criticizing ron desantis, the governor of florida, for their six week abortion ban in florida. desantis defended it.

can you tell us how this abortion issue, what faultlines we see the different republican candidates dividing or is it trump versus everyone else? guest: it's an interesting issue to watch as the primary develops. after the fall of roe v. wade last year, republicans are still figuring out how far to take any sort of national abortion decisions they want to put forward or bring up in the republican primary. you have ron desantis who signed a six week abortion ban in florida a few months ago at the conference in iowa as the republican governor of iowa came on stage in the middle of the day and signed a six week abortion ban for her state, something that is facing legal challenges in a previous version of that law. it was knocked down in court. ron desantis was asked if he would go as far as putting a six week abortion ban in place nationally. he didn't go that far.

he stepped up to the line and said he wants to sign a pro-life legislation but he didn't say he would go as far as to commit to a six week band. other candidates there who are pretty antiabortion like former vice president mike pence, former arkansas governor asa hutchinson both praised the six week abortion band that's happening in iowa but they suggested the place to sign more national consensus might be at this six week ban. the polling bears that out and that's why they are saying it. the last poll i saw showed an overwhelming majority of american adults, something close to 75%, support abortion being allowed at six weeks but not later into a pregnancy. the support dwindles a little bit after that. former president trump did not come to the event in iowa. he faced some criticism from him to put just from his opponents

are not being there but he was able to avoid being pinned down on the abortion issue the way others who were there, plotting the ban being signed were happening and that's something we've seen with trump over the last few months. he has voiced support for new abortion assertions but has not said how far he would go or anything like that. part of that is because talking about abortion in a primaries different than how these candidates, whoever the winner is of the republican primary, will have to talk about it a general election. host: another thing that happened during this family leadership conference in iowa is that tucker carlsen was able to question a lot of these candidates. he really pushed them on some of these conservative issues. let's watch the former vice president mike pence who was interviewed by tucker carlsen. this is the portion where they talked about the attack on the

capital on january 6. [video clip] >> they were american citizens and most of them didn't commit acts of violence and they were mad because they thought the election is unfair and i wonder why more time was not spent by either party reassuring americans that our elections are real, that all votes are counted and the electronic voting machines which no one seemed to trust 10 years ago are now infallible and why mail-in voting is a good thing. why doesn't anybody try to reassure the public the mechanics of voting are legit? do you think the last election was fair? >> as i said an january 6 in my communications to the congress and i've said many times since, there were irregularities in the 2020 election, there is no question. there were about half a dozen states that changed the rules of elections in the name of covid. that undermined public confidence in the outcome of our elections. at the end of the day, we

brought more than 60 lawsuits in states engaged in recount. when states ultimately certified and courts upheld those changes in virtually every instance, and ultimately, we were able to determine that the changes, there is no evidence the changes will change the outcome of the election in any way, my duty was clear that day. candidly, as i've said before, president trump words that they were reckless. i believe whatever his intentions in that moment endangered me and my family and everyone at the capitol that day. i believe history will hold him accountable for that. just as the law will hold everyone that engage in active violence. host: how was vice president pence, how was that received an

overall, there was a lot of discussion about tucker carlsen and how he represents the ultraconservative base in ways that left the candidates trying to figure out ways to answer his questions without having answers that could hurt them in the long run? can you talk a little bit about that. guest: this is the challenge for republicans running against former president donald trump. he is somebody who has a lot of support in the base. his base in the party has not left him from the attack on the capital in to his multiple indictments. i think they are in this situation where they are trying to run against him and draw contrast without alienating his base and that's what you saw there with former vice president mike pence suggesting there were irregularities in the 2020 election, something that others

have widespread evidence to back up. it's a challenge to not alienate the base and not insult trump. that has been their challenge and i think the other challenge that happened in iowa friday was that tucker carlsen representing this very conservative piece of the party, he was often getting more applause than the actual candidates were on stage. asa hutchinson was asked about this after his segment with tucker carlsen that got pretty tense over things like transgender, firming care for kids or the covid vaccine. his quote to reporters was sometimes you get applause and sometimes you don't. i was on stage to try to bring some people over to me that's what i hope i did. but this is the challenge especially when former president trump was not at the event and he says he may not be on the debate stage in august next month. we are kind of waiting to see

these candidates draw bigger contrast to the former president especially when he is far and away the front runner in national polls in this primary. it's a difficult needle to thread and i think we've seen almost all of the candidates have challenges with that. host: before i let you go, one last question, the group no labels which is considering supporting a third-party candidate, if trump and biden are there party nominees, there is an event later today featuring west virginia senator joe manchin who we know is a democrat. can you tell us a little about what you know about what will happen today and is it fueling speculation that joe manchin might be this no labels candidate in the fall? guest: joe manchin will appear in new hatcher later today and has democrats really worried. the concern is that if joe

manchin mounted a third-party run for president, he would act as a spoiler or president joe biden and hand the victory to trump or whoever the republican nominee is. that's far down the road and far down the line but it appears that new hampshire is certainly stoking that expectation. joe manchin is not committed to what he will do in 2024 in any regard. the place he is appearing in new hampshire is somewhere where presidential candidates go. he's going to the new hampshire institute of politics and that's kind of the bread-and-butter spot where you go and talk to people in new hampshire if you are thinking about running for president. certainly, it's no coincidence he's going there. it's interesting the speculation that democrats will be watching closely. host: thank you so much for joining us this morning. guest: my pleasure, thanks for having me. host: 202020 presidential n

and recent incidents of cocaine being found in the white house. >> you are the only person