republican debate controversy. >> i have been interested in seeing some of the republican candidates who say they're so tough, they're going to stare down the chinese and the russians and somehow cnbc scares them. you got to be able to field difficult questions. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington with a super tuesday snapshot of where we stand. today a year from the presidential election, in our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll the big winner is ben carson, solidifying his front-runner status, enjoying a net favorable rating unlike the other top candidate, donald trump. hillary clinton on the democratic side is in the driver's seat, now enjoying a two to one lead over bernie sanders with general election voters still having a net negative impression of the democratic front-runner. let's get the latest from our team on the trail. chris jansing, katy tur, kasie

hunt and kristen welker. >> reporter: there's an old saying the only thing harder than getting on top is staying on top. that's the challenge for the carson campaign right now. they are not resting on their laurels. you heard what the candidate had to say. the only real numbers that count come next november. meantime, they are figuring out how to build on this momentum. it all started at places like this in tampa, florida at a bookstore. ben carson has been a popular author for a long time but now he's drawing 2,000, 3,000 people at some of these stops, sometimes three and four stops a day. people came here at 5:00 in the morning for a 2:30 book signing and then he will go on to lakeland, florida later today. we talked to some of the people on line, what is it that attracts you. interesting, a lot of them doctors and nurses so people also in the medical profession. young families, people who took the day off of work. in terms of what about carson in particular appeals to them, they love that he's the outsider and many of them also love the fact

that he's not donald trump. take a listen. >> very calm. he's not -- one of his big things is not politically correct. like we need to get rid of that. this is ruining so many things in this country these days. >> i believe in his principles. i believe in everything he stands for. i think he is the answer that this country really needs. >> reporter: these are the kind of people that are not just buying books, they are sending money and astonishing $10 million last month. they have a big ad buy in the first four states. now this morning his chief strategist tells me he's going to keep the ad buys going in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina and nevada through the election in those states. andrea? >> thanks to chris jansing. katy tur with donald trump, he's got a book. what does he have to say about ben carson and the polls? >> reporter: well, i spoke to people in line first off as chris just did, and they said

they liked ben carson's calm nature, that he's low-key. that's exactly what people here don't like about ben carson. they like it about donald trump. they like that [ inaudible ], they like that he gets in your face. donald trump just held a news conference downstairs talking about this book and talking about the polls and talking about his opponents. what i will say is that he once again glossed over the polls that he didn't like and said trying to boost up the polls that he does like, the polls in early states, unlike the new nbc national poll that has him in second place. he did also go after his opponents as he has in the past, but once again, this was a donald trump going after them more on substance and less on their personal qualities. he did say that jeb was low energy one more time. he did make a joke that he didn't want to do an impression of jeb because he can't fall asleep at a podium. but on the other hand, he said that marco rubio isn't showing up for votes. he said ben carson wants to cut medicare and that's what he

thinks is a terrible idea. that's why he will be a strong leader, because he can negotiate better deals for this country both internally and externally with foreign powers. this is a different donald trump. it's a much more substantial one. he released this book today, it's 169 pages. i goes over topics like the economy, foreign policy, education and energy as well as a paper he released over the weekend. will this more substantial donald trump work for him? we have to wait and see. so far he is still slipping in some major polls. >> speaking of slipping in major polls, kasie hunt up in new hampshire, how is the reset going? >> reporter: he will be spending about three full days here in new hampshire which tells you a little bit about where they're focusing that reboot. that's a lot of time for any candidate to spend in one place. he has a very intense schedule that's going to start out here with the scott brown no b.s. barbecue. we have seen former senator

scott brown drive by a couple times. he has a new pickup truck, a little less clanky than the old one. for bush, the challenge is really going to be can he or really, anyone in this establishment field, gain some of the momentum that currently has ben carson gathering 50% in the first and second choice in our new poll. so far, bush is presenting this as essentially letting jeb be jeb. he says he's going to stop listening to all of this advice that he's been getting about how he needs to be punchier and more aggressive on the debate stage and instead go back to himself. he talked about how abraham lincoln might not have been able to survive cable news pundits today and when he was asked yesterday about whether he would be rising in the polls his communications director tim miller tweeted to the political press, relax, it's going to take awhile for this reboot to take hold. bush said that kind of thing is my kryptonite, i don't want to deal with that at this point, i want to focus on substance. another tidbit for you, mitt romney will be holding a

fund-raiser for america rising, that opposition research group on the republican side, and i'm looking for -- from that to see how this bush/rubio feud continues to play out. we are hearing from some donors there that romney might be willing to say nice things about rubio. he has been supportive of rubio in the past. not an outright endorsement but poe tntentially a brewing probl for jeb bush. >> more brewing problems for jeb bush. just take a look at our correspondence on the road. we have the kristen welker as well in iowa. kristen? >> reporter: secretary clinton increasing her lead in the democratic primary against her top challenger, vermont senator bernie sanders. let's take a look at some more of those numbers which you first started to map out at the top of the show. she now leads sanders 62% to 31%. that's a greater increase than october, when she led him by 25 points, and she's starting to turn the page on the e-mail

controversy. 42% of americans now say it's an important factor, down from 47% in october. however, the benghazi issue still a big issue for her. 30% of americans say that yes, she has addressed this satisfactorily but 27% back in october say she's addressed this in a satisfactory way and only 38% say she hasn't. so this is still a big issue that continues to dog her. meanwhile, today, one of the big topics she's going to be talking about, gun safety. she's releasing a new ad that focuses on gun safety. just last night in chicago she met with some of the mothers and family members of those who had lost loved ones, sons, in interactions with police. this is clearly a key issue in this democratic primary. as you know the black lives matter movement has been very vocal, they have been protesting various events of secretary clinton as well as bernie sanders. she's going to focus on that today. one more point. she's campaigning here in an

area that heavily favors bernie sanders so she's trying to dip into some of that support. >> kristen welker. and the all female team covering the campaign trail for nbc and msnbc. thank you all so much. chuck todd, the outlier here as nbc news political director, moderator of "meet the press," host of "meet the press daily" here on msnbc. let's take a look at the polls, take a 30,000 foot look at the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. what are you seeing a year out about the state of the electorate and this evenly divided 44/43% democratic versus republican party identification? >> i think you have to look at, when you look at the direction of the country, we are in our twelfth straight year of nearly two-thirds of the country believing we are heading in the wrong direction, and when you look at the state of the economy, you know, it is less economic driven. that doesn't mean people don't feel insecure about the economy going forward, but it really to

me is about a political recession that we're in. i think you throw in -- i find when you look at carson, for instance, we asked republican primary voters what are the most important attributes for your next president, and for republican primary voters, the top two were honest and trustwort trustworthy. it was not experience or where they stand on the issues. to me, that then explains carson's lead a little bit. when you look at the voters that chris jansing has been talking to that have been waiting in line, the woman who said about the politically incorrect. he says it like it is. that's the honesty part. then of course, there's the trustworthy aspect. we were talking about this earlier this morning in one of our planning calls which is a doctor in general is somebody people personally trust. they trust their doctor. so he starts with some advantages that normal politicians don't have and i

think that's what is a part of his strength here. by the way, a lot of people are going to look back and say hey, this same poll four years ago had herman cain ahead, had rudy giuliani ahead. but here's the difference with ben carson. who is raising the most money? ben carson. he has the most raw donors on the republican side. who has the most interactions on social media? ben carson. who is leading in the polls? ben carson. he has depth and breadth. it's not just -- doesn't appear to be a bubble right now. could be in three months but right now, it looks pretty -- it looks like a pretty substantial way to call him a front-runner. >> when you look at those likability, those net positives in his polling, and you look at the flipside in hillary clinton's, that's the one warning sign for her, if she were to become the nominee. she's an overwhelming favorite among democrats but as a general election nominee she has a net negative. >> we carefully timed this poll

to be right before and right after her benghazi testimony. she improved among democrats and simultaneously got worse among independents. that's what -- that was the -- you're looking for a benghazi effect. here she strengthened her hold on the democratic nomination and at the same time, showed more vulnerability with the middle of the electorate. that to me only should add to the warning signs. on one hand, democrats are very comfortable with how she handledself and what she did but she had a long way to go with the middle of the electorate when it comes to honest and trustworthy. >> do you think she hurt herself by what she said was a joking reference to republicans being the enemy? >> she might have. i think it's been interesting that that's been what a lot of candidates have taken, have jumped on, including joe biden, former candidate, former potential candidate, he jumped on it. jeb bush has been using it, he used it with me in an interview, he's used it with others. you have seen other candidates. i don't know if it's hurt her yet. it could hurt her down the road in a general election.

because what's interesting here, we asked this question. do you want a candidate who will work for uncompromise or do you want somebody who stands on their principles. by a 2-1 margin, democrats prefer a compromiser. by 2-1, republicans prefer somebody that stands on their principles. >> that's a big -- >> how about that. >> that's not a good morning for wh what's going to happen on the hill. much more to come on "meet the press daily" at 5:00. thank you. up next, feeling the burn. bernie sanders reacting to hillary's big jump in the polls. our conversation today. you're watching a special super tuesday edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we live in a world of mobile technology, but it is not the device that is mobile, it is you. real madrid have about 450 million fans. we're trying to give them all the feeling of being at the stadium. the microsoft cloud gives us the scalability

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bernie sanders is on a plane right now but just before he went to the airport i spoke with the vermont senator about his strategy to try to defeat a surging hillary clinton. thank you very much, senator. good to be with you. we are one year out from election day and our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll does show that hillary clinton has nationally opened up a larger lead, 2-1 over you. what is going wrong in your perspective in the campaign? >> well, i don't think it's a question of things going wrong. when we started this campaign, we were at 3% or 4% in the polls. since that point, we have done extremely well in many states around this country. we have more individual campaign contributors than any campaign in the history of the united states up until this point. we are bringing out huge crowds. we are exciting a whole lot of people. look, we are taking on the political establishment, we are taking on the economic establishment, we started as an underdog, we are still an underdog. but the kind of enthusiasm that

we are generating tells me that at the end of the day, we are going to win this election. >> there are indications in the poll that people don't think her private server or her e-mails are a problem. are you sorry now that you basically took her off the hook, gave her a pass on that in the debate? >> no. i am not sorry at all. as you have heard me say many times, andrea, i think that what campaigns are about and very often don't happen, is to discuss the major issues facing our country. you know, the e-mail situation with secretary clinton, that is under investigation. there's a process going on. let it go on. i want to discuss why the middle class of this country is disappearing, why we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality, why we have a campaign finance system which is corrupt which allows billionaires to buy elections and why we are not effectively dealing with the global crisis of climate change and why we have more people in jail than any other country on earth.

those are the issues that we have got to be talking about. the american people are hurting. they want solutions to their problems. let hillary clinton's e-mails, let them go through that process. i want to focus on the real issues. >> and in terms of the real issues, there are indications that you're drawing sharper comparisons with her certainly on the campaign trail, have i heard you, and you have been pointing out where you think she is wrong and where you think you're right. you are also releasing ads for the first time today. tell me about these ads because they seem to try to portray a sort of warm and fuzzy bernie sanders, family life, we saw you out there with your grandchildren wonderfully on halloween trick or treating. is this a chance or an opportunity do you think to try to offset what some have said is the cranky bernie sanders that some have noticed or at least have described you as? >> well, andrea, like every

grandparent in the country, i'm enormously proud of my seven beautiful grandchildren. yeah, i do show them off. they are beautiful kids. but what the ad is also about is suggesting that we have enormous crises facing this system, this country today, and that we need leadership which is prepared to take on the wealthy and the powerful to transform america in a very fundamental way. when we talk about the campaign, as i understand it, secretary clinton has spent $8 million on campaign ads already. we haven't spent a nickel. today is literally our first day up. but we are going to stay up and we are going to run i think intelligent ads which tell the american people what my agenda is about, what my history is about, and who i am as a person. >> she has an ad out today not coincidentally, i don't think, timed to the release of your ads and hers is about gun laws. let's watch a clip of it. >> this epidemic of gun violence

knows no boundaries between 88 and 92 people a day are killed by guns. we are better than this. we need to close the loopholes and support universal background checks. how many people have to die before we actually act? >> you have said that you come from vermont and that you are in favor of reasonable gun laws, but that you have reflected the people of your state. are you out of tune with democratic primary voters on this? >> no. no. what i have said, in fact what secretary clinton has just said is absolutely right. that's my views. that's how i voted. i voted to close the gun show loophole which is an outrageous mechanism by which people are getting guns who should not have guns. obviously i believe in a strong instant background check and i want to see it expanded. i have voted to ban assault weapons in this country and in fact, i took on the gun lobby in

1988 and lost an election perhaps for that reason. the difference perhaps that i have with the secretary on that is that i believe we need a consensus, there is a consensus in this country which does a number of things. it just does that. it says that we have got to strengthen the instant background check. i think most americans believe that criminals or people who have mental issues should not be owning guns and i think we have to do what the gun show loophole, we have to deal with the straw man exception now which allows people to legally buy guns and you know, i need to deal also, by the way, with making mental health treatment available to people who are in crisis situations. something that does not exist right now. so i believe that we have to bring people together to address this crisis of massacres and people getting killed every day with guns. >> why do you think that the people in our poll, 84% versus

12%, think that hillary clinton is the most likely nominee? >> well, because i think she is ahead in the polls because i think she is much better known than i am. but i think if you also ask the people out in this country, i'm sure your polling does it, do they think we need fundamental changes in our campaign finance system so that the very wealthy will not continue to contribute to super pacs. how do they feel about super pacs? and the fact that secretary clinton among almost all other candidates has a super pac? where money is coming into that pac from millionaires and billionaires. how do they feel about the fact that 58% of all new income in america is going to the top 1%? do they think that the wealthiest people in this country should start paying their fair share of taxes? well, i have been pretty strong on that. i have listed a number of very specific proposals as to how we

do away with corporate loopholes, how we ask the wealthiest people on wall street to start paying their fair share of taxes. so my point is, on issue after issue, i think once we get it out to the american people, they will see that on issue after issue, i am the candidate that is representing most effectively the middle class and working families of this country. >> let me ask you a final question about a republican, marco rubio. he has said that he hates being in the senate, he missed 42% of his votes since declaring his candidacy. you have missed by our count only 4% of your votes. what is it about being in the senate, you are in the minority, he's in the majority, what is it you find fulfilling and why do you keep showing up for work? >> well, that's kind of what i'm paid to do. my job is what i'm paid to do right now is to represent the people of the state of vermont in the united states senate. that's what i do. i will miss votes but i'm trying to miss as few as i possibly

can. i am extraordinarily proud to represent my great state in the senate. we are working very hard on a number of issues. while it is difficult and very time-consuming to be a full-time candidate and a full-time senator, that is at the moment what i'm trying to do. >> well, good luck out there on the campaign trail. i don't want you to miss your plane because i know you are heading back for some votes. thank you very much. great to be with you. only 14 months left in office, what does president obama think about the people running to succeed him? the exclusive interview with nbc's lester holt coming up next. beyond natural grain free pet food

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>> i have been interested in seeing some of the republican candidates who say they're so tough, they're going to stare down the chinese and the russians and somehow cnbc scares them. you got to be able to field difficult questions and that's what citizens should expect, and if people are paying attention, i think they're going to make a good decision. >> lester holt anchor of "nbc nightly news" joins me. thank you for taking time to be with us. your impressions of the president and how much he is paying attention to this race? >> that was part of our second conversation, our more informal chat just about the race in general. i asked him at one point to speak not as a democrat or politician but as a second term president, and he did talk about, of course, what you need to know when you get in that office and the note that you're not going to get everything 100% everything, the importance of compromise but ultimately the

conversation led in that partisan direction. he made the point that right now on the republican side, you're hearing a lot of the debate, lot of the conversation is being driven in his words by the disgruntled or suspicious of the washington electorate but he believes that people will become focused and that they need to really demand answers, specifics, from the candidates. >> we have a little bit more of what he had to say about the election before we talk about the criminal justice system which i know was the main purpose of his trip. this is president obama on the candidates. >> i think the problem with election season is sometimes folks want to devote a lot more time to sloganeering and stirring folks up emotionally but they're not spending enough time really trying to explain to the mannamerican people what exy are you trying to do. >> there are so many reasons for what we have seen this season

but it is different. we are seeing much less specific policy prescriptions and much more of the attacks and counter attacks. >> i think that was his point. he called it silly season. we have heard that from him before certainly in the last election that a lot of things are said that are obviously trying to drive the conversation. but i put the question to him quite pointedly, is it a different environment than the one you recall when you were running, and some of this certainly is to be expected but he pointed out there are some things that seem to be driving a bit more divisiveness, a bit more anger, if you will. his point is that as people become more involved in this process, as we round the corner, there's more engagement in the political discussion, that people will begin to focus and start to demand specifics of their candidates. >> and lester, i was really struck as you asked him questions about criminal justice reform and the disparity in the

way african-americans and other minorities are treated by our criminal justice system, this seemed to really engage him. i would like to play a little bit of that. >> as you approach this area of criminal justice reform, is this in your mind your defining moment that would seal the legacy of what we would expect from the first african-american president? >> you know, this is something that's important to me. one of the things that i have consistently said as president is that i'm the president of all people. i am very proud that my presidency can help to galvanize and mobilize america on behalf of issues of racial disparity and racial justice. >> i asked that question in the context of as he has spoken out about criminal justice reform, he always comes around to the fact, he says that black men and boys, hispanic men and boys, are

often treated unfairly within the criminal justice system. i asked him to be more specific about that, whether it was the point of contact with police or whether it was in the court system. he believed on all levels and he pointed to plenty of studies that point that out. that's the context that i asked that, that this is while a larger criminal justice reform issue, it is also a racial issue. >> and it's clearly something that he intends to keep focusing on after he leaves office as well. >> yeah. >> thank you so much, lester. you can see the rest of lester's exclusive interview with president obama tonight on "nbc nightly news." donald trump taking on the fed and the white house at the same time. more ahead here on this special super tuesday edition of "andrea mitchell reports." at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like shopping hungry equals overshopping.

our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows donald trump has fallen behind

ben carson. doesn't seem to have slowed trump down today. >> i'm way up in florida over everybody but marco is a sitting senator and he doesn't show up for the people of florida. look at marco's stance on illegal immigration. it's really trouble for him. i don't see how he can win. all you have to do is look at his credit card. i mean, he is a disaster with his credit cards. he certainly lives above his means. there's no question about that. >> joining me now for our daily fix, chris cillizza, msnbc contributor, co-founder of the "the washington post" fix blog and "usa today" washington bureau chief susan page. welcome, both. susan, was trump unleashed all over marco rubio and jeb bush. >> is there any other kind? >> interesting who he sees as his rival. he clearly targeted marco rubio who is not really at the top of the polls now but is rising fast and many people identified as a likely establishment alternative to ben carson or donald trump. you see him really focusing all

the fire he can on marco rubio including his tendency to sweat. i have never heard a candidate talk so much about another candidate's perspiration. >> i guess if rubio had not won the paul singer hedge fund primary, maybe donald trump would not have gone after him. >> so this is the one thing i will say about trump that i'm not sure it's a good quality, but it works in politics. which is he is very good at identifying the thing that can really rub you the wrong way or bother you, or maybe tap into a little bit of what people might think about you. so the low energy thing has quite clearly hurt jeb bush. i think it bothers jeb bush personally but it also sort of gets to like does jeb bush really want to do this. i think what he's doing here is sort of trying out a bunch of different things which is kind of what he does. he tries the credit card, doesn't show up for work, lives above his means. i think he tries those things out and sort of focus groups them with the crowd, then he just goes with the one that works the best. i gi him some credit. i would dismiss it except that

the jeb bush one quite clearly worked at some level. >> jeb bush was just i think in south carolina responding in kind. >> -- to allow for income to grow in the middle class and allow people to be lifted out of poverty. i'm excited about the prospect of being president of the united states. i wake up each day with energy and joy in my heart. >> energy. >> energy and joy in his heart. >> okay. there's the problem at some level. i'm not suggesting donald trump be a better president, jeb bush would be a better president but in terms of presentation and performance, i know jeb doesn't want to focus on but it's a big part of this, donald trump's presentation is more engaging. when you say things like i wake up with energy and passion every morning, that's like saying when somebody tells a joke, hey, that's funny rather than laughing. it's not the same thing. >> the other thing trump did today which he apparently did with you in an interview awhile back also, he just jumped all over the federal reserve and janet yellen and came up with this conspiracy theory about

president obama and the fed and the recent decision not to raise rates which was a close call in anybody's estimation. here's what he had to say. >> the question is should the fed raise rates. they are not raising them because obama has asked them not to raise them. in my opinion he wants to get out of office because we are in a bubble and when those rates are raised, a lot of bad things are going to happen, or potentially going to happen, and in my opinion, janet yellen is highly political and she's not raising rates for a very specific reason, because obama told her not to. >> i mean, where do you even begin? >> well, obama would be pleased to know he has this kind of control over the federal reserve. that would be news to him. in the interview we had with him he made a similar point, saying janet yellen is very political, she's trying to protect president obama and the democratic nominee, whoever that is, and hurt the republicans by not raising interest rates,

raising them later at a time when a republican is in charge. >> susan page, conspiracy theories abound. >> it's interesting every day. >> chris cillizza, great to see you in person. stay tuned for a lot more coming up. up next, a check-up for obamacare with the health and human services secretary. so what's your news? i got a job! i'll be programming at ge. oh i got a job too, at zazzies.

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uninsured. that number has been reduced by 17.6 million in the country and we want to make sure that we keep reducing that number. right now, open enrollment and the marketplace, an important part of that. we think there are about 10.5 million folks who are still out there who are eligible and that's who we are hoping to reach during this open enro enrollme enrollment. >> your message to them is first of all, the computer glitches have been fixed, that it's not that difficult, but what about the premium costs? >> affordability is a very important part of our messaging. as one talks about the premium costs, understanding that financial assistance is available. eight out of ten americans who are in the marketplace receive that financial assistance. we know that for folks in the marketplace right now, seven in ten of those can come back and shop and find a plan with that financial assistance for $75 or less a month in premium payments. >> the "new york times" had a fascinating map that shows where

the uninsured are and if you look at the map, it's the lower part of the country, the south, and part of the southwest. it's really a division horizontally across this country. >> we know and that's one of the things this year we are doing, we are working harder and trying to work smarter, targeting making sure we know where those folks are. we have five key cities and areas that we're focused on, houston, dallas, miami, northern new jersey and chicago. >> now, you have some legal challenges still ahead. the supreme court is not out of this picture because there is a challenge. the little sisters of the poor against you, by name, challenging the health care law and the pope himself giving some weight to that by stopping and visiting with them when he was here in washington, to show and signal their support for the challenge to the features of the health care law, which do permit coverage for contraception and

other things that are opposed by the church. >> so with regard to the issue, what we want to do is make sure we are respecting people's religious beliefs and at the same time, making sure that women have the health care and preventive care that they want and need. we think we have put together an approach that works to do that. so that certain entities don't need to do that. so we believe we are meeting that both in terms of respecting religious beliefs as well as providing health care and as it goes through the courts, i think we believe we are in a position where we are meeting the test. >> now, in this political season, you also have the candidates. let me show you a little bit off of "meet the press" where ben carson, a doctor, a neurologist, pediatric neurologist who does not get involved with care for women's reproductive systems, but this was his response to chuck todd on roe v wade. >> ultimately i would love to

see it overturned. >> that means all abortions illegal or is there still an exception you would have? >> i'm a reasonable person. and if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, i'll listen. >> so he says that life begins with conception, no exceptions for the life of the mother unless someone can persuade him and no exceptions for rape and incest. >> you know, the law of the land, this is an emotional issue, an important issue to many people, but the law of the land is that this can occur and can occur in safe ways. and i think that's an important thing to preserve this as a choice between a woman and her own physicians as she makes those choices herself. >> many people thought it was settled law. we are going back to the early 1970s. >> that's correct. >> is it surprising to you that this is still being debated as

hotly in the 2016 presidential race? >> you know, what i would love to see is us focus on the issues of women's health disparities and the issues that are in front of us today. so many people don't know that the number one killer for women is heart disease. that's something we can do so many things about. so what i would love to see the time and attention focused on is issues like that, where we know we can work on either through getting women coverage or getting them the knowledge of how they can do things, whether that's the abcs, aspirin, blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking cessation, those are the kinds of things where i think we as a need cation can work on ou health together. >> if you had one or two things to say to americans about how to get healthier, would it be diet and exercise? sleep? what are the things that concern you most? >> so i would start with the coverage and the issue that we are focused on here with this open enrollment is making sure that as many americans as possible have access to health

insurance so that they can do both that preventive care and take care of themselves when things go wrong. i think both those issues you are focused on, diet and exercise, and i recently did a blog on sleep and the importance of sleep, as that combination of things that can make a difference in terms of prevention or when you do have something that goes wrong, getting you better. >> i have to read that blog and try to take it to heart. in my business, sleep is not really very often in the cards. thank you very much. great to see you again. >> thank you so much for having me. today is super tuesday, one year until election day. but only three months until the iowa caucuses. what are voters saying out there? >> you have any idea what state gets to vote first when it comes to picking a president? >> i have to be honest with you, i do not. >> i thought it was iowa. >> you are right. don't doubt yourself. how come iowa gets to go first? >> i have no idea, to be honest. >> you want to know? >> i would love to. can a business have a mind?

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less than three months until the iowa caucuses so what are iowans thinking as candidates keep trooping through their state? we are talk ting to iowa voters. >> dr. ben carson. >> would you let any presidential candidate take a ride in this car? >> probably ben carson. >> reporter: would you let fiorina in this car? >> sure. >> reporter: who you going to vote for? >> bernie sanders. >> reporter: what issues is he talking about that you care about? >> i like the fact he hasn't been bought. >> reporter: not a lot of big money behind him. >> exactly. it's organically grown. >> reporter: what are you talking about, really? >> seriously. >> reporter: what are the issues you want to hear candidates talk about? >> education would be the big thing. >> abortion. gun rights. >> trying to get the economy stable and on track. >> reporter: what if hillary really wanted a ride? >> she would have to walk behind us.

>> joining me now is msnbc's jac jacob. you have tough customers there. >> reporter: they wouldn't give hillary a ride? i would give anybody a ride in my car. >> so what -- >> we hear a lot about issues across the board, the bloomberg politics des moines register poll of course lays it out for everybody. top three for republicans and democrats. i want to tell but that one. the deficit, defense and taxes for republicans were the top issues according to that poll. for democrats, energy, income inequality and infrastructure but surprisingly, it was quite different from the responses we heard when we were out yesterday. abortion, education, civil rights, terrorism and surprisingly, no immigration. >> well, that is interesting because that is what republicans have certainly been making such a cause in iowa, not just this cycle but other cycles.

do the reactions you're getting reflect the polling we have where ben carson has just surged ahead of the other candidates? >> reporter: there's no doubt about it. a lot of ben carson answers yesterday and a lot of hillary clinton answers yesterday as well. of course, in our polling, hillary has jumped out on the national level to a 2-1 margin over bernie sanders and that's exactly what people were saying to us, although i got to give some credit to bernie supporters. there are were quite a bit of them in des moines, perhaps unsurprisingly. >> as we all know from the iowa caucuses, it is really about organization and who turns out on a cold night. that remains to be seen. so it's still an open question as to who is going to win there. what about the evangelical vote in iowa, on the republican side that's always been a big factor. >> reporter: yeah. obviously, i got answers from some folks, i didn't poll them on whether or not they were evangelical voters. the conservative issues were important and frankly, there was

one woman in front of a lunch restaurant yesterday who said to me abortion and guns were her two most important issues. that would be in line. >> thanks so much. out there in iowa. that does it for us, this special super tuesday edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember to follow the show online, on facebook and on twitter. "msnbc live" with thomas roberts is up next.

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hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. what do you do when you're slipping in the polls and you have a new book to sell? if you're donald trump you come out swinging against your toughest opponents a year out from the presidential election and four days from hosting "snl." the one-time gop front-runner has lost his lead but not his zingers. his favorite target today, marco rubio.

>> marco is overrated. marco doesn't show up to the united states senate. look at marco's stance on illegal immigration. it's really trouble for him. he is a disaster with his credit cards. he has a very bad record of finances if you look at what happened with his houses, with his, you know, he certainly lives above his means, there's no question about that. >> trump also took a few shots at the new front-runner in our poll, dr. ben carson, but not too many. donald trump comes in second to the doctor in this poll. this is the second major national poll in a week with this result. the first since the most recent debate and trump says what the polls indicate is that more candidates need to exit the race. >> do i think it's time to have some of the other republican candidates drop out? yes. there are too many people. well, i don't want to get personal but you can look at the poll numbers. >> trump also refocused his gaze on one of his favorite targets, jeb bush. here's what trump said when

as