their phones. any calls from lee? >> no. the thing that trips up most people that are running from the law is not having that discipline to talk to old friends or going back to places that they're familiar with. and as this case went on we realized that dorothy lee had that discipline. >> reporter: quick discovered that lee had inquired about a job in australia or south africa and that her mom owned a home in the central american country of belize. so he put tabs on flights to those countries. >> they turned up nothing. >> reporter: did you assume that maybe she had changed her identity? >> yes. like a new license, maybe a new passport. >> reporter: lee seemed to have vanished without a trace. but out of the blue, a message appeared. >> savanna and i belong together. and nobody besides god has the right to destroy that.

so after the kidnapping, relatives and associates received a letter and a videotape from dorothy lee. and it states, "to whom it may concern, i recently lost custody to my beautiful 9 1/2-month-old nursing baby. this happened because of a truly evil person, b. harris todd, and a totally corrupt family court system." >> reporter: now agent quick knew this child abduction was not a spur of the moment decision. lee had a well thought-out plan. >> i promise and swear on my life that i will continue to take care of my daughter. i will keep her safe. i will never allow anybody to >> i mean, that was an attempt to embarrass and destroy me. but it's not surprising. you know, she is building a case for whatever else, to justify what she did. i just hope you know that i love you. >> reporter: though he had

his own home video, a message to savanna. >> i just hope you're safe and clean and healthy out there wherever you are. >> reporter: it took a lot out of harris to shoot that video in savanna's room. >> every morning i would come in and wake her up, feed her, dress her, and we'd head off. and you know, i couldn't bear to see the crib empty. >> reporter: what kind of emotions did it stir up when you would see that crib? >> mostly tears. and it would just make me cry. so i left the -- i'd keep the door closed. when i walked down the hall, i'd just touch the door. that was about all i could do. >> reporter: but harris also began to take action. he wrote to john walsh of "america's most wanted" who recorded a public service announcement for him. >> i'm john walsh. 1-year-old savanna lee barnett is missing from isle of palms, south carolina.. >> reporter: and he appeared on

dedicated an entire segment to his case. >> i wake up now every morning with a broken heart. >> reporter: harris' tv appearances generated hundreds of leads. >> those leads came from everywhere, anywhere from california, georgia, alabama. we would follow those up and try to determine if that was dorothy lee or the child. nothing. nothing panned out. >> april 24th, 1996. you're gone two years now, which is unimaginable. i don't know how old you'll be when you see this, if you ever see this. i'll be here for you whenever you do come back. >> reporter: then finally, four years into his search, harris thought that moment had arrived. someone had seen a little blond-haired girl about 5 years old, walk into a grocery store

>> the woman who called in was there when the little girl's mother came to the door and said, "savanan, come on." you need to come home. >> reporter: coming up -- mexico? private detectives are on the case. >> the lady said that, yes, the lile girl comes in here by herself because her mother has bad headaches and doesn't come out sometimes for days. >> reporter: did that sound like lee to you? >> it did, yes. >> had mother and daughter been

when "dateline" continues. so this is where i keep all the files and notebooks that i've amassed over the years. i have got everything in here from maps and letters and copies of everything. >> reporter: are there a lot of dead ends here, too? >> oh, there are plenty of dead ends. >> reporter: but after four years of searching, harris todd thought he'd found his daughter in a small town in mexico. especially after a source gave a description of the girl's mother. >> the lady said that, yes, the little girl comes in here by

games or whatever because her mother has bad headaches and doesn't come out sometimes for days. >> reporter: did that sound like lee to you? >> it did, yes. mm-hmm.. >> reporter: harars hired private detectives to check out the lead. what was the report you got from the detectives? >> they found absolutely nothing. you know, they checked everything out. they went everywhere, and they never found the little girl, for that matter. >> reporter: perhaps lee and savanna had been there and left. or maybe it wasn't them at all. either way, it was another dead end. >> you run through the cycle of excitement and disappointment enough times and you just say, well, look, do you really want to put yourself through that again? because there's a wealth of pain associated with this, and i can only dip into it so often and survive. >> reporter: how much do you think you've spent on your

>> i spent everything i had and everything i could borrow. graham sturgiss, my attorney, told me that i better quit spending enough money or there wouldn't be anything for her to come back to. >> reporter: fbi agent chris quick knew the chance savanna would come back was getting smaller and smaller. you were kind of grasping for straws. >> to some extent, you're right. >> reporter: must have felt cold? >> oh yeah, definitely. definitely. after the three or four years, it's considered a cold case. >> reporter: harris tried to move on. tried to fill that gaping hole in his life. one thing that helped, he said, was his niece, who was just three years younger than savanna. >> i spent an awful lot of time with her. i mean, from a very early age.e. i did homework with her every day. would walk her to school, pick her up from school. >> reporter: did you think to yourself i should have been doing this with my daughter? >> yeah, i thought about it. you know, when you go see your child in the thanksgiving play,

christmas pageant. well, i was watching my niece instead of my daughter. but i was thinking about my daughter at that time. >> reporter: time marched on. harris continued working as a financial adviser at merrill lynch. he had a few relationships, but he never remarried. after ten years the fbi assigned a new agent, ed klimas, to the case, but nothing new turned up. >> i believe that the chances of success for this case were probably very slim at that point. that they had disappeared to a foreign country that we would never be able to locate them. >> reporter: about the only thing that changed were the images on the missing persons posters. from the baby harris had loved to a computer simulated image of a teen he barely recognized. >> if i die before i wake from this nightmare -- >> reporter: he'd stopped filming his messages to savanna long ago, but he wrote one last poem.

across the fields. watch the end of the long driveway. someday my daughter will be there asking for me. >> reporter: had you given up? >> no, but one has to face reality. i mean you just say, well, look, here it is. she's 16. she's 17. she's 18. and you don't know where she is. so -- >> reporter: perhaps the only sign that harris had not abandoned all hope was savanna's room. it stood just as she had left it almost 18 years before. then you get an e-mail totally out of the blue. >> i did. >> reporter: what did it say? >> it said essentially, i have information about your daughter. but again i learned to temper r expectations over the years. because the well had long since gone dry. so all of a sudden the bucket goes down again and this time it

it. coming up -- >> were you just floored? >> completely floored. >> that mysterious e-mail. turns out someone else had been doing some detective work, too. >> they tracked you down. >> they told me, we feel like

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alalst 18 years had goneney since harris had seen his daughter savanna. e-mail that arrived in the`early morning hours of november 27th, 2011. a single line that said "i'd like to speak with you with regards to your daughter." was there that little bit of hope? >> oh sure. there always is. real?

>> reporter: the e-mail was from a couple living in a beachchown the sunshine coast of they claimed to have known lee and savanna for more than 12 years. harris immediately wrote back. >> do you have any pictures? anything that you could send me to corroborate this? it's a horrible thing to have to admit that i have no idea what my daughter would look like at this age. >> reporter: but you would know whatatour ex-wife would look like?? >> i would. >> reporter: the photo arrived a couple of days later. and there was no doubt. that was his ex-wife, dorothy lee barnett. and there on the opposite side stood a tall girl, nearly a woman. would that be savanna on the left? hi, harris, the couple wrote. that beautiful girl on the left is indeed your daughter, savannah. were yououust floored? >> completely flooood. you know, how wonderful is it to have a picture of your grown daughter, to just see, you know,

big smile, and i could recognize my smile in her smile. >> reporter: i would just be staring at that photo constantly. >> i was at a loss for a while. i had to refrain from looking at it very much, because it was just too much after all these years. >> reporter: the couple told harris they had met his ex-wife and daughter in 1999. they knew them as alex and samantha. lee was married to a south african named juan geldenhuys with whom she had a son. although lee never spoke about her past, the couple had long suspected that savanna was not juan's biological daughter. what did the couple tell you about how they had discovered this secret? >> you know, i think it was a gradl process on their part. >> reporter: the couple told harris lee and her husband divorced in 2008 and that recently they themselves had had a falling out with her. they had always wanted to know more about their friend's mysterious past so they decided to do some investigating of

lee had once mentioned that she had a home in belize. armed with that, savanna's birth date and other tidbits of information they had picked up over the years, they searched the internet and discovered lee's secret. they're real detectives. >> i think so. >> reporter: they figured it out. they tracked you down. >> and then, essentially knowing the wrath that they would face if my ex-wife ever found out that they did it, they went ahead anyway. they told me, we feel like you have a right to know your daughter. >> reporter: harris gave the couple's informamaon to fbi agent ed klimas. and now that they knew lee's alias, the fbi was finally able to figure out how she had left the u.s. without being detected. she had set her abduction plan in motion by getting a fake birth certificate about two months before taking savanna. >> dorothy lee barnett goes to become fictitious person named

she went to texas to obtain a texas driver's license, then used the information from that to obtain a united states passport. what we learned was she had left the united states, went to malaysia, and then from malaysia went to south africa where she met geldenhuys. from there in 1999, she moved to botswana. in 2003, she moved up to new zealand. and then after a couple of years she moved to australia. >> reporter: an 18-year-old mystery solved. in the movies, on tv, they find the person and they rush out to make the arrest. story's over. did that happen in this case? >> no. we had to get the state department involved. department of justice involved. and we had to get a provisional arrest warrant that the australians would accept because we have to abide by their laws. >> reporter: harris wanted to fly to australia right away, but

bureaucracy take its course. harris had waited 18 years. he figured he could wait a bit more. i think some people, though, may say that a real father would have gotten on that plane the moment he found out about where his daughter was. >> if i'd showed up in australia without any backup and run io my ewife or my daughter, i would have had no legal backing at that point. >> they could have caused, you know, an altercation. he could have been in trouble with the local authorities. alexandria and samantha geldenhuys could have fled. and then we'd be back to square one. >> reporter: a year passed. then almost two. that was too much even for a patient man like harris. he bought his plane tickets and told the fbi he was goinno matter what. you weren't going to wait any more. >> i wasn't going to wait. and it just so happened that suddenly the paperwork went from the bottom of the stack to the top. >> reporter: harris'

law enforcement's hand. on november 4th, 2013, two days before he landed in australia. lee was finally arrested. >> she didn't appear surprised. she was very cordial. and she seemed to be very calm. so she expressed a willingness to talk to us. >> reporter: lee also asked if she could make a phone call to savanna. coming up -- >> i couldn't fathom what was going on. >> an astonishing moment of truth for savanna. >> the first thing that popped into my head, does that mean that my dad n't my dad? >> and her father. >> i kept thinking i'll get to see her. >> when "dateline" continues. affordable renters insurance. with great coverage it protects my personal belongings should they get damaged, stolen or destroyed. [doorbell] uh, excuse me. delivery. he lo mein,

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if you're the band europe, you love a final countdown. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. when australian police and the fbi showed up at lee's doorstep she didn't seem surprised. but her 20-year-old daughter was about to receive the shock of her life. >> i couldn't fathom what was going on. it happened so fast that, you know, it keeps replaying in my mind. >> reporter: savanna, or samantha, as she knew herself, was away at college en her boyfriend brad handed r the phone and said her mom was on the line. she talked about that moment of

network. >> and brad said, she's crying. and it's not like mom to cry. she's a very strong woman. so she said, look, i'm being arrested. and of course, i went, oh my goodness, you know? i'd never expect out of anyone in the world my mom would have done anything. it was a brief conversation about how she was married d previously in america and she conceived me with him, and then somethg became unsafe, and she just took me and ran. so the first thing that popped into my head, i said, does that mean dad isn't my dad? >> reporter: as far back as savanna could remember, juan geldenhuys had always been by her side. she believed he was her biological dad, something lee kept reinforcing. >> mom would relay things, you know? like, you sleep like your dad. or youounow, you look like your so i've always grown u uwith thth. >> reporter: but tragedy struck divorced from lee, fell sick with cancer. the man savanna thought was her dad died just a week before lee was arrested.

hard, but it was inevitable. but i'm happy because the last words i said to him was i love you and the same with him. >> reporter: savanna said she had barely begun to mourn her father's death when the news came that she was someone else's daughter. >> i've never heard harris todd. i've never heard savanna. i found out that i was biologically related to him, and he'd been helping the authorities to find my mom and i. >> reporter: imagine finding out that your mom was an international fugitive wanted by the fbi. imagine realizing that you were living a life you were not meant to live. and savanna said it was a good life. >> i gw up in mainly cape town, south africa. and that was just great. we used to go down to a beach in cape town and just spend family. mom's very into going to the beach and having fun there. >> reporter: she remembered going to game reserves in botswana and competing in swim races in new zealala. >> i hadad lot of friends.

i was educated. i had dancing. did piano. i had a mom. i had a dad. i had a brother. i had a house. and i was given everything they possibly could afford. it was just -- it was normal. it was so normal. >> reporter: so normal. and, as savanna now discovered, so different from the chaos of her first year as a baby back in charleston. she scoured the internet for articles written in the u.s. about the life she never knew. read about the custody battle. about how harris and others described her mom as mentally ill and violent. >> i've never, ever seen anything like that in my entire life. she's not got a mental illness. she's not violent. you know, unless she did this whole 180 and changed her entire attitude, then that's not who she is. >> repororr: so who was the mother that t vanna knew? >> the most important thing i think is her compassion and the

everyone. everything i am is because of the support, love and nurturing that i have had. >> reporter: she was afraid, she said, that with the revelation her mother was a fugitive, lee's australian friends would abandon her, but they did not. >> everyone stepped up and they said, what can we do, you know? i had about 20 people living at the house trying to help me with everything. and you know? so it really, really shows that everything that she's given to them, they're giving back to he >> reporter: word of lee's capture had reached charleston. savanna was flooded with supportive e-mails and phone calls from lee's former friends and from family. she had often wondered about her relatives in the united states, like her grandmother and her uncle. now suddenly she was meeting them for what seemed like the very first time. >> beautiful house and my beautiful granddaughter. >> hello. >> oh my goodness. looks like her mommy did. >> reporter: now, the biggest reunion of all seemed like it

lee was in an australian jail fighting extradition back to the u.s., and the man she wanted to keep away from savanna all those years was just a few miles away asking to meet his long-lost dadahter. >> the fbi interviewed my daughter, and they informed her of me. i was told that she was looking forward to meeting me. >> reporter: but savanna's priority was to get her mom out of jail, not meet the man who helped put her behind bars. >> so i slept on it for a couple of nightht and i created an e-mail. and i just said i appreciate everything, but right now i can't evenit down to eat, you know? so i appreciate him coming over. but i'm sorry, you know. that's pretty much what it was. >> reporter: there would be no emotional meeting between father and daughter, at least not in australia. if harris was disappointed, he didn't show it.

s emotions at bay. was it heartbreaking for you that you went all the way over there and she wasn't ready to see you? >> no. >> reporter: but we're talking about your daughter and seeing your daughter and hugging her and telling her, i'm your dad. >> yeah. well, i didn't give up on that. i was there for about a month. and it wasast until the third week that i finally realized that that just wasn't going to happen. >> reporter: so harris flew home, wondering if he'd ever see his daughter. after nine months in an australian jail, lee was extradited and flown back to charleston to face three federal counts of international parental kidnapping and passport fraud. and hot on her heels was savanna, returning to the city of her birth. going home to defend the mother who raised her and perhaps to meet the father she never knew. >> emotionally, i think that

i'm ready. coming up -- at last. >> i need to see for my own eyes what kind of person he is. >> a moment 20 years in the making. >> when she came to o e door, i held my hand out. i didn't know whether she wawaed

in december 2014, savanna, with her boyfriend along for support, returned to charleston for the first time in 20 years. she came for her mother, who was behind bars facing kidnapping charges and a prison sentence. >> for 20 years, all of america's been like she's crazy. or she's stolen a kid and no one knew whether i was safe or not. so first off, me coming back happy, healthy and grounded would have to raise some questions, you know? >> reporter: samantha has gone on record as saying she never saw anything wrong with her mom. she had a loving childhood. great relationship.

on. >> well, there's a saying. we don't know who discovered water, but we're certain it wasn't a fish. and a lot of times you can be raised in an environment and not necessarily know what it was untiyou happen to get outside of that environment and look back in. >> reporter: savanna returned home to a big welcome as lee's old friends gathered around to see her baby daughter all grown up now. to pattytyoth, lee's close friend who had held savanna the minute she was born, and patty's daughters who would have been her friends. and to charleston, the beautiful city that could have been savanna's home if life hadn't taken such a turn that

charleston jail where her mom was awaiting trial. >> we don't know what's going to happen. i'm looking forward to going to trial, to be honest. >> i think we're going to give it all we got and that's all we can really say, right? >> it is. that's it. >> so we can only hope. >> and she said to me, i've done this all for you and i've succeeded, you know. she doesn't care what happens s her. >> reporter: lee's defense foror what she did had not changed from the allegations she had made 20 years before, namely that harris had abused savanna that time when she picked her up with the bloody nose. lead prosecutor nathan williams said he re-investigated the incident but, like the original inquiry, found no evidence to support lee's charge. >> the first doctor said there was s problem with it, thth didn't think a second opinioio was needed. the defendant in this case got a second opinion from their pediatrician, who said the same thing. that she was looking for an answer that wasn't there.

williams' investigation revealed that lee had started to plan her escape even before she accused harris of harming baby savanna. >> we know contemporaneously, with this allegation of abuse that was unfounded, she was also getting false documents, false driver's licenses, false passports and setting the table to flee the country with her child. to try to rationalize it and claim that it was based on something that isn't true, to me, is a clear indication of guilt. >> reporter: "dateline" asked lee for an interview, but she declined. in the end, she pleaded guilty to all the charges against her. savanna spoke at the sentencing. she began by giving her name. >> i didn't know which one to give. so i gave all of them. and i said, samantha mulga geldenhuys. i said savanna lee barnett, savanna catherine todd. and i spoke the truth.

i remember saying that she gave me every opportunity. and she's given me the most incredible life. >> reporter: the judge sentenced lee to 21 months in prison. what did you think should be the punishment for lee? >> over a third of my life was essentially taken from me. the most important thing in my life. even if my daughter disagrees with it, i think her mother deserved to spend more time in jail for what she did. if for nothing else than a warning to anynyther abductive parent. >> reporter: there's been a lot of claims of revenge, that you put on this facade of trying to find your daughter when it was really about finding lee and making sure she paid. >> no. i'm not seeking revenge, not seeking revenge. all i wanted was my daughter, that's all. i love my daughter. and unfortunately, my ex-wife took her. and it's not revenge to want my daughter back. >> reporter: the daughter harris

charleston for several weeks. seemingly meeting everyone who had played a role in her past except him. but then a little after christmas 2014, he got the e-mail he'd been longing for. savanna wanted to meet. just one rule, she said. no talk about her mother or the case. and no photos. >> i'm not going to be ditching my mom by any means. but i wouldn't expect them to ever see each other again. but i need to have a mature, adult relationship and see for my own -- in my own eyes, and gauge myself what kind of person he is. >> reporter: harris happily agreed, and a few days later, hehe they were, father and daughter face-to-face on the doorstep of the house that once was savanna's home. >> when she came to the door, i didn't know whether she wanted

but -- so i held my hand out. and she said, no, i want a hug. >> reporter: that must have felt so good when she said that. >> oh, shoot, felt great. >> reporter: harris led savanna to what was once her bedroomom th its little wooden crib and babybyoys. a place where time had stood still until now. >> to be honest, i was trying to make sure that i didn't fall apart. i didn't want to just stand there and cry or anything like that. here's a daughter who remembers nothing about her father. here's a father who remembers everything about his daughter and has longed for her for years and years. well, it's very hard to put those two things together. it's -- >> reporter: it's like two different worlds coming together. >> right. you know, life is not like a hallmark movie. >> it was natural. no, there was no uncomfortable. there was no awkwardness. i think that i'm a natural-born speaker. and it seemed to be that he is

i learned very much a lot about him and my family on his side. and yeah, it was very pleasant. >> reporter: lee was released from prison in may and has to spend two years of probation in the charleston area. she'll have to build a new life in the u.s. as a convicted felon. she may never be allowed back into australia. but savanna returned there, to the place she calls home, to continue her college studies. since her visit she has not been in touch with her father. but if there is anything that harris has learned in the last 20 years, it is that there is always hope. >> you know, my daughter's her own person now. she can make her own decisions. and whether my daughter wants to contact me or not, she knows where i am. and she knows i want to hear from her, whatever happens.

of "dateline." i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. this sunday morning, donald trump's call to temporarily ban muslimimfrom entering the country may have thrillll his supporters but it's disgust it had establishment. >> you really have no choice. it's so out of control. it's so terrible. >> why republicans fear a ticket headed by trump is a ticket headed for disaster. plus, could we be looking at a contested convention? our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll on the republican race shows a serious three-way contest developing with new signs that ted cruz and marco rubio are on the move. rubio joins me exclusively. also, a global deal on climate change. i'll talk to secretary of state john kerry about the agreement in paris and about fears of homegrown terror.

for insight and analysis are veteran journalist and author of a new book about cyber terrorism, ted koppel. helene cooper of the "new york times." molly ball of the "atlantic" and jerry seib of the "wall street journal." welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." good sunday morning. 50 days until voters start expressing their opinion. we have two new polls on the republican race fororpresident. according to what may be developing into a three-man race, let's get to these numbers. donald trump is back on top in our new national nbc news/"wall street journal" po sitting at 27%. up four points since late october, the highest number he's had in our poll so far. ted cruz is surging, now in second, sitting at 22, more than double where he was in october. marco rubio also on the rise. and look at old ben carson, the one-time leader. believe it or not, he led in the

he's dropped dramatically to 11%. here's the rest of the candidates who picked up at least 1% in our poll. jeb bush still stuck in single digits. then this bombshell out of iowa. cruise surging into the lead with 31%, a 21-point gain since october. trump is holding steady at 21% followed by carsoso who, hehe, too h h crashed.d. 's down 15 points since october. then rubio and bush. so what we think we're seeing that's emerging here is perhaps a three-way race with trump and cruz representing the insurgents at the republican gate and marco rubio counting on becoming the candidate of the faction he needs but is reluctant to acknowledge, the republican establishment. i caught up with senator rubio in greenville, south carolina and i i asked him if donald trump had been good for the republican party and rubio's candidacy. >> obviously i don't agree with everything he says. there's a lot we have a diference of opinion on but we can't ignore he's touched on

if you look at the statement he is made this week, obviously i think he made them to recapture the limelight after having lost it and i do think we lost some of the focus on the attacks in san bernardino o d focused on a plan that isn't a plan and is never goioi to happen. but he is reminding us in that process that people are really upset and scared. they're worried. and i think the president made things worst with his speech, not better. that's what he''s focused in on. >> you call the comments offensive and outlandish. that's different than the tone you took with me right now. >> it's offensive and outlandish for example that it's not going to happen,n,umber one, i violates the things we think about in our country. but also the practical reality. that in order for us to eididentify homegrown violent extremism, we'll need the cooperation of muslim communities in this country. they may be the first ones to see it. they're the ones that will see radicalization happening at a mosque or in the community or even among their own family members so -- and the other smart there's a narrative that

that this is a war between muslims and the rest of the world and that sort of victimization narrative is something we shouldn't contribute to. on the other hand we have to acknowledge that there is a radical element in islam, jihadism, that needs to be called by name and needs to be confronted. >> about three months ago you were asked whether donald trump was qualified to be president and you said so far you hadn't heard anything to make him qualified but give it time. where have you in heard today. >> the most important thing for a president is to be commander in chief and that means having an understanding of the complex issue on foreign policy. foreign policy presents with us hard choice, not black or white choices. often times choices are down to two less than ideal outcomes but you have to choose which is the best for the country. i personally believe he continues to struggle to articulate that. >> so that makes him unqualified? >> well, obviously ihink i'm the most qualified. that's why i'm running. >> is he qualified at all? >> i have very strong reservations about what he's expressed about his understanding on these critical

hasa another month before the iowa caucus. >> do you think in a month he can learn? >> he's not alone. i think others in the field have confused us as well in terms of where they stand on these issues. >> you just said that the president's speech made it wowoe. if you were president in a moment like that, what would you have done? what would you have said? >> well, first i would have acknowledged why people are concerned and i w@uld have acknowledged that -- >> he acknowledged it. >> beyond just acknowledging it in the way he did. i would have said, look, i know people, i personally know people that have told me they're not taking trip this is new year's because of they're afraid of what they're reading in the press, people in have always taken a tress. perhaps it's s ecdotealanecdotal. we can defeat them. what we're doing now is not enough. and i honestly believe we need more air strikes, you can't defeat them from the air. you must do two additional things we are not doing now. number one is put together a global coalition on the ground made up primarily of arab

kurdish areas and even with christstns but isis needs to be feeted on the ground and rejected ideologically by sunni arab themselves. it will require embedding alongside them special operators from the u.s. and other international partners. and we need to start cross messaging these people, countermessaging, propaganda has played a war in every conflict. i think this is critical. isis is portraying themselvlv that has traordinary caliphaha, that life is glorious under isis rule, nothing can be further from the truth. so we need to invest more time, for example, explaining to people what happens to non-iraqis that join isis. they're treated as cannon fodder. >> everything you just outlined, though, the administration would argue they're -- that's all part of their strategy. sounds like you basically agree with the president's strategy, you just might implement some part of it differently. >> maybe rhetorically some of it is but most of it is not. >> they have a propaganda program that frankly outsiders have said hasn't worked and maybe government can't be behind it.

>> do you think government can do -- >> i don't think a couple twitter posts from the state department is a true anti- -- >> would you model after radio -- >> well, absolutely but it would require us to work with muslim communities around the world that are not islamists to counter message to young people, to counter message to them about why this is not true islam as these muslim leaders argue and, in fact, what life under isis control is like. much more widespread than what we're doing now. on the ground i do not believe the president is doing what i'm outlining. >> your campaign has been critical of one of your rivals, senator ted cruz for his vote on the usa freedom act and senator mike lee, somebody you have a tax plan with, you guysysre allies on a lot of things, he kas said that your rhetoric has been not based in fact. and that it's not true what you've been saying that somehow federal officials can't track -- use the usa freedom act, use the court to track the phone numbers.

is wrong but others that argue thatatre wrongng we had a program that alwed us to collect the phone records. basically the phone bill, not the content of your conversations, your e-mails, anything like, that just your phone bill. only 16 people in the u.s. government could look at it and only if they got a court order from a fisa court to look at those phone records. and they retain them for a significant period of time. under this new law, we are trusting the phone companies to hold thosos records anan all of these phhe companies have different p piod of times whenn they hold it. some will hold it for 18 months, some six months. in is a valuable tool. if you have intified someone as a potential terrorist or someone who carries out a terrorist activity, the ability to look at who they've been calling and talking to is part of a larger puzzle that you can put together to see what network they've been working with, who they've been communicating with. we have lost that capacici in many ses. >> is this a commander-in-chieie test f f senator cruz? >> i believe it is for all the candidates. in the case of senator cruz my

intelligence vote. he talks tough on these issues, for example he's going to carpet bomb isis. but the only budget he's ever voted for in his time in the senate is a budget that cut defense spending by more than barack obama proposes we cut it. he voted against the defense authorization act every year it cacae up. and that is the bill -- and i assume he voted against it he would veto it as president -- that's the bill that funds our troops and the ierm dome for israel. so my point is each time he's had to choose between strong national defense and some of the isolationist tendencies in american politics he sides with the isolationists. this is an important issue to have a debate over. it's not personal. >> there's been some questions on some of your -- even your supporters and people that are pulling for you that say where's rubio going to win? he's not playing to win iowa. he's not playing to win new hampshire. some point, you know, d/nald tmp aside, you have to win if you're going to win the nomination. >> look, we'll all be judged at the end of the race. at the end of the race things don't work out we'll be subject to criticism.

are counted. i feel confident in our plan. >> are you trying to win iowa? everywhere we campaign. i'm not running for second or third place in any state in this country. >> you're trying to win iowa? we can. i always go for first place, it doesn't always work out this way. in many elections strong a strong second place is viewed at first place. second or third. >> you are viewed as the establishment candidate. how do you feel? >> it is ewed as a slight. >> is it an attack? >> it reflects my history. i wouldn't be here if the establishment didn't want me. i have consistently voted against some people who you would identify as the establishment are for. when i chose to get into this race i had people come forward and tell me i shouldn't run, it wasn't my turn. by the way, if i was the establishment f forite i would have raised m mre than $6$6 million in the last quarter. that all being said, the truth

unify the party. the republican party cannot be elected unless it is together, working together in the same direction and that alone is not enough. we can't win without unifying our party but we can't just win by unifying our party. we must also attract new people to our cause and we do that not by changing our principles but by applying our principles of limited government,ree enterprise and strong national defense to the hopes and dreams of concerns of everyday americans some of whom have not heard from republicans in a long time. >> are you going to work to overturn same-sex marriage? >> i disagree with it on constitutional zblound are you going to overturn it? >> if you want to change the definition of marriage, you need to go to state legislatures and get them to change it. states have always defined marriage. thaha's why some peopleleget mamaried in las vegas b b an elvis impersonator and in florida you have to wait a couple days. every state has different marriage laws but i do not believe the court system is the right way to do it because i don't believe -- >> it's done now. are you going to work to overturn it?

it. >> you can do a constitutional amendment. >> that would be conceding that the current constitution is somehow wrong and needs to be fixed. i don't think the current constitution gives theheederal government the power t t regulate marriage. that belongs at the state and local level. and that's why if you want to change the definition of marriage, which is what this argue system about, it's not about discriminaion, it's about the definition of a specific traditionl and age-old institution, that definitional change, if you want to change it, you have a right to petition your state legislature and your elected representatives to do it. what is wrong is that the supreme court has found this hidden constitutional delight 200 years of jurisprudence had not discovered and overturned the will of voters in florida where over 60% passed a constitutional amendment that defined marriage in the state constitution as the union of one man and one woman. >> so are you accepting the idea of same-sex marriage? >> well, it's current law. i don't believe any case law is settled law. any future supreme court can change it and ultimately i will

that will interpret the constitution as originally constructed. you can see the cot people are and extented version of my sit down including health care, he's getting credit for from the right from helping to undo a big portion of obamacare. and the question of whether he's putting florida special interests ahead of his conservative principles on the issue of big sugar. that's on meetthepressnbc.com. when we come back, fear and loathing on the campaign trail. why so many in the republican party fear [ male announcer ] whether it takes 200,000 parts, 800,000 hours of supercomputing time, 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. ether it's building the world's most advanced satellitit the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. at boeing, one thing never changes.

those new glasses? they are. do i look smarter? yeah, a little. you're making money now, are you investing? well, i've been doing some research. let me introduce you to our broker. how much does he charge? i don't know. okay. uh, do you get yr fees back if you're not happy? (dad laughs) wow, you're laughing. that's not the way the world works. well, the world's changing. are you asking enough questions about the way your wealth is managed? wealth management, at charles schwab. asasey bryant, you are a ateacher of small children. that's right. i have read it is the hardest job in the world. that's why i'm here. can you... i can offer advice from the accumulated knowledge of other educators... that's wonderful but... i can tailor a curriculum for each student by cross-referencing aptitude, development, geography... sorry to interrupt. but i just have one question: how do i keep them quiet? (pause) watsts?

there's a truisim in american politics -- democrats fall in love, republblans fall in line. so weehought. not this year. the opposite has happened. democrats are falling in line with their established candidate, hillary clinton, while it's republicans, like a rebellious teenager, smitten with the bad boy on the motorbike in donald trump. and the parents -- in this case the republican establishment -- are taking a dim view of that relationship, terrify add trump nomination would wipe out republicans up and down the ballot. >> it's no longer a silent majority, it a test noisy majority. >> as donald trump weathers yet another storm of his own making -- >> are you ra >> i am the least racist person you have ever met. i am the least racist person.

is grappling with how to keep the nomination away from trump without alienating his supporters. the party's leaders in washington rushed to condemn donald trump's plan to ban muslim immigration. >> this is not conserveatismconservatism. what was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for. >> that would be completely values. >> the root of the panic? that trump at the top of the ticket will mean a wipeout down the ballot, losing the senate for republicans and even putting the house in jeopardy. but while trump's 2016 rivals warned republicans he is unelectable -- >> if he continues to do what he's doing he's destroying the party, it will be a generation before we can overcome this. maybe never. >> all this helps is hillary clinton for sure. >> those establishment rivals are mired in single digits and trump's latest comments don't appear to have damaged his standing among certain republican primary voters. >> who's cutting off people's

who's bombing airplanes?