defeat america is america. and the only people that can stop it are us. so i thank you for the enormous honor to have the chance to run for president of the united states again. i thank you your time. to listen to what i've had to say. to give it thought and consideration. i thank you for the opportunity to come into your homes, into your neighborhoods, into your schools, into your churches. and to be able to make the case for the kind of america that i hope we have. and i thank you most of all for your attendance at these events, and your questions, for continuing to renew my faith in america and americans. i love this country because my

heart is open to every american. and every person who cares about making this a better place. and so while i'm disappointed by the results of this election, i will never be disappointed by the opportunity and experience that i've had, and i promise you that in whatever way mary pat and i can figure out, we're going to continue to fight for you and for this country in a way that will make you proud that we met. because i'm proud because i am proud to have met all of you. through this process. thank you for coming tonight and thank you for all of your support. i appreciate it very much. [applause] ♪ announcer: and we are live in west des moines, iowa, waiting

for gop presidential candidate florida governor ron desantis, at a neat and great event here in the hawkeye state. it is the final days of campaigning before monday's caucus in iowa, which anecdotally is expected to be the coldest caucus day in the state ever recorded. expecting this to get underway shortly. you are watching live coverage on c-span. [background chatter]

>> welcome back. we are previewing bio caucuses set for monday with gail by carrier. with galen bacharier, a reporter with the des moines register. welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me. host: let's start with a review of how the iowa caucuses work and who can participate and what will be going on on monday. guest: the iowa caucuses, is the first state on the primary calendar for the republicans. republicans, this will be the first permit contest. candidates include former president trump, ron desantis, nikki haley. 7:00 p.m. monday night across the state, registered republicans will go to their decimated precinct -- designated precinct and submit their ballot

with their candidate of course -- candidate of choice. the end of the night monday, we will know how those results turn out and then the delegates are then assigned depending on a proportion of votes. is the first contest on the republican primary, under it it is a big deal for people involved. things are really revving up. host: how many delegates are up for grabs? guest: i believe it is an 80i-30's. i feel bad that i do not know -- in the high 30's, i feel bad that i do not know. host: the hill says trump eyes evangelical vote as key to iowa. all the polls are indicating he is considerably ahead in iowa and expected to carry that. what are your thoughts on the event are vote and where that is

going in iowa? guest: this historically has been an important base of voters for republicans to tap into. and influence over the policymaking and political discourse. we see a lot of courting of pastors, evangelical leaders of politicians who are in touch with the database. we have seen a couple of candidates make a run and tapping into that vote. this time around the candidate who is still in the race who has made any appeal to those votes is governor desantis. the cap endorsement of the ceo of the family leader which is the most prominent evangelical organization in the state. the pulling from us and abc news shows evangelical voters in iowa are still far and away supporters of donald trump. he remains the forefront candidate those voters are supporting and that in part

plays a role with how he is continuing to perform in bokos and expecting -- to perform in polls and expected to perform. host: if you have a question or comment, you could give us a call on our lines. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. you can also text and send us posts on social media. as far as the race for second place between ron desantis and nikki haley, what are you seeing? you mentioned the endorsements governor desantis has been getting. has that shown in people copes. -- in the polls? as the ground game indicate support for ron desantis? guest: the main problem for ron desantis is he has amassed the top political class support. the endorsements on paper that

you would like to have if you are campaigning here. he has governor kim reynolds, arguably the most powerful republican in the state who said she was going to stay neutral and ended up endorsing him and has been on the trail. he has a powerful evangelical voice. yes prominent radio personalities that are in touch with conservative voters. the base has not responded to him in the same way. in our polls, he has not seen much movement. he remained second place in our second poll. he has struggled to tap into that. his campaign has a super pac that has done a lot of the work for him. they have put in a lot of money and resources and volunteers. it has not necessarily shown out in the polls. when you look at the nikki haley, that is a campaign that has gotten be the last few weeks in terms of national attention

and in terms of the high-profile donors to look her way. we have seen polling indicated she has some momentum. while her own ground game was not as robust as the super pac and ron desantis organization had been touting, she has been endorsed by a network that does have the robust ground game and they have been doing some doorknocking for her. certainly that is a campaign that has ramped up. host: you seen any ship, people close in terms of the debate between desantis and nikki haley? guest: it might be too early to tell. we might get a couple of more polls before the end of the carcass. that was a big moment. the stakes are high for both of them. this really is the final push. i think you saw them going after each other pretty fervently,

calling each other lying and mealymouthed, touching a url for the website that tells each other's lies. it remains to be seen if either of them can show above that gap and start to separate themselves. be a simple copes that have -- we have seen polls that have hit the up desantis and second-place. it would be hard to tell which one of those is the case. host: we will start with gary in ohio, democrat. caller: good morning. i wanted to point out the fact that i hear a lot of ■vrepublicn callers call in with the very same sentence this week about biden crime family and how is

the -- and how he is the head of this crime syndicate or something. they also say when he is speaking he doesn't know where he is going and he does not know what he is speaking about. host: relating this back to the iowa caucuses? caller: i thought this was open for open forum -- open forum. i actually don't have anything to comment about that. host: we will go to judy, republican. caller: how are you doing? host: good. caller: i wanted to make sure i heard it right. on monday it starts at 7:00 p.m.

and everything is tallied by the end of the night. is that the actual voting in iowa? if so, is this all in person would they have mail in ballots? guest: everything is in person in the iowa caucuses. the state republican party really touts this. everyone gets there at 7:00 p.m., they receive a paper ballot, they writes down their choice and submit it. the carcass is in charge of every precinct. they tallied the results, do it in front of the room, all the campaigns have a representative. the republican party is very adamant that this is a transparent process. there is no way for this to be messed with in any real way. those are sent to the republican party.

this is a party run system. this is not like a primary election where the state is handling this, this is run by the republican party of iowa. the central party will receive all those results and that is how those are calculated. the aim is for them to have them by the end of the night monday or in some occurrences with weather and whatever else, it could be early tuesday. that is the timeline we are looking at. host: speaking of the weather, how is it going out there and could that have any impact on turnout? guest: absolutely. we are getting the snow in iowa that people were wondering was. we got it just in time for the caucuses. there is expectation -- we talked to the chair of the iowa republican party this week. he had been talking about potentially record turnout. it seems like maybe that will

not be the case. he is still looking for robust turnout. we are looking at record low temperatures but looking at snow piling up to the weekend. i have no doubt there are folks who might be encouraged to stay home. all of these campaigns per measures in place to get folks in the polls. something like that is always a factor. i think it is hard to say how about with specific impact the results. host: michael in idaho, independent line. caller: this is michael. host: go ahead. caller: okay. the thing out to say is -- the thing i wanted to say is, don't always believe with the iowa caucuses. no matter how nasty the weather, don't believe all of the garbage

all these candidates are telling you. please research your facts. thank you. host: let's talk to al in battle creek, michigan. good morning. caller: i wanted to ask about two things. election fraud, what are the mechanics? do people physically go to the site and vote on a paper ballot? is there id, do you have to present id? do you have to be a member of the republican party? i am really worried about fraud. the second question i would have would be, what is a good turnout for an iowa caucus? is it one million or half a million? guest: to your first point, yes.

this is designed -- these are paper ballots. when you come to your site, you need to check in with the precinct, you need to be a registered republican. you will have a site assigned to you. you show up, get your ballot, you cast your ballot, you write in whoever your candidate is, you turn it in to the captain and they will the others and send that to the central party. the party is adamant that this is a transparent process. all of this is done in person, no mail in component. the fact that democrats here in iowa were discussing a potential mail in plan with the subject of a lot of debate and frustration about keeping iowa first in the nation. that is a whole series of events. this is an impersonal process

designed to be transparent so that everyone at the caucuses site can see what is happening. as far as turnout goes, the record republican caucus turnout was in 2016. i wrote about this a couple of disco. about 186,000 people showed up. when you look at the entire population, the people who are going to caucus our people who are fairly dial into the political process, following an election this far out from the november general contest. this is not necessarily indicative of the entire iowa publishing. -- i will population. certainly enough people show up to get a sense of what that looks like. host: will in wisconsin, democrat. good morning. caller: i have a question about

evangelical vote in iowa. it is beyond robust for a man who has certainly lived in life doing the exact opposite of what they value. can you explain the angle of that? guest: absolutely. the evangelical support is something that has been noted by a lot of people. there is not a decisive answer yet. that is a complicated answer. a lot of this comes down to what the end of the day what they want our policy results, folks who their top issue is abortion. they are antiabortion and what they see in the trump administration is he put the

justices in that ended up overturning roe v. wade. folks opposed to running against trump, their hope is that that support is a partnership that is convenient instead of diehard loyalty and they're hoping folks are willing to back off and support someone like ron desantis. you talk to supporters and they will say even to supporters supported trump because he promised policy results they liked. folks like bob vander platt who endorsed desantis will say trump is not the right person to lead evangelical voters in the right direction. he is not good for the party. definitely a couple different schools of thought. that is something we try to report a lot and something a lot of folks and journalists report

on. host: jerry is in brooklyn, arkansas. caller: how are you doing today? host: good. caller: thank you for trying to be honest and open with your reporting. it is a pleasure that we are able to do that in the u.s. it is storming here so if i get disconnected, i apologize. i want to say thank you because sometimes you don't get that. thank you, too, ma'am. i think it is games. if people will get out and vote with what their gut tells them, i think we will get the president we deserve. stop playing childish games and vote with your gut. i just want to see thank you again and have a great day. host: david in new york, democrat line. are you there? go right ahead. caller: i always just to hear

donald trump say things are rigged, but what i am saying is this whole primary thing looks great because -- without having to debate anyone. how are the voters voting properly when he never got challenged by anyone and purposely did this to keep chris christie from questioning him and putting it to him and his behavior as president and the insurrection and thinks having to do with classified documents -- things having to do with classified documents and his indictment? it is the first time in history i have seen it, they allowed a candidate just because he was leaving -- leaving in the polls

not to participate in the process. the whole thing seems to berate. -- seems to be rigged. you don't get to see him, who he truly is. i believe chris christie would cause it to unravel because he would not let up and you would have seen donald trump for the schizophrenic he is. host: go ahead. guest: one thing important to advise -- to emphasize was his decision to not engage in debates was his campaign's decision. a lot of people would have liked him to show up. to have a front runner to not show up is not helpful for voters. they like to see how he matches up to the people hunting him. his