mitchell reports" -- we are live on the trail in new hampshire as bill clinton makes his first solo campaign stop for his wife's 2016 campaign. >> every presidential election, people run and believe it or not, it's kind of scary this year but believe it or not, most everybody actually tries to do what they say they're going to do when they're running. they're telling you what they believe and so you got to take them seriously. >> just 28 days before the voters get their turn. as donald trump releases his first tv ad today, taking direct aim at the democratic front-runner after trashing her husband. >> i know many of the people in the clinton campaign. the last person they want to run against is donald trump, believe me.

good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell live on the trail in nashua, new hampshire, for president clinton's first official public campaign event for his wife hillary. speaking moments ago, in a state that has been very good to the clintons. but vermont neighbor bernie sanders is proving to be a tougher than expected competitor this time around. donald trump has raised issues that neither bill or hillary clinton wants to confront. nbc's chuck todd took a look at president clinton's successes and failures as a campaign surrogate last time around. chuck joins me now. chuck, let's talk about bill clinton as a surrogate. is he a political asset or liability? >> look, he's clearly an asset, okay? let's not pretend. this is not -- i don't think

even when people thought he was a liability, i think in 2000, you can ask al gore and i think people realize he would have been more of an asset in certain places. i thought today, his best moments are what he can say about hillary clinton that she doesn't say about herself and others don't do for her. he adds that personal touch, talks about her in such a human way, it sort of breaks that veneer. that's where he's really strong and can be very good and he was so good for president obama back in 2012. now, the question is, does his presence bring up just sort of allude too much to the past, not the future. that's always a challenge here. it's always been a challenge for hillary clinton the presidential candidate, whether it was in '08 where obama turned the page and made anything clinton a liability because it was about the past. look, that's part of the challenge here. but i think for right now, where hillary clinton has some likability problems, that she's got to fix, i think bill clintons definitely an asset

particularly in a place like new hampshire. >> of course, donald trump has been going after both hillary and bill clinton. i caught up with bill clinton along the rope line. this is a very controlled event, i have to tell you. he's shaking hands now but just a few moments ago i had a brief moment climbing over some chairs in this community college gym trying to get to him. here's the way it went. >> hello, mr. president. how does it feel to be back in new hampshire which loves you? >> wonderful. i lo love this place. >> how do you feel about the kind of campaign donald trump is running, sir? >> the republicans will have to decide who they are going to be nominating. how i feel is only relevant when it comes to the economy. we are trying to win a primary. we have to do that first. >> reporter: i was wondering -- >> reporter: can hillary win this one? >> sure.

win here? sure. but it's going to be hard. >> reporter: what's your advise to her? >> i believe she has been here a lot, worked hard. that's all you can do. these people are really fair. no candidate who borders new hampshire has ever lost a primary here. but i think she can. they have been good to us and we worked hard. >> so chuck, you have been through this so many times. you know what it's like, trying to get something that you can use. saw a little bit of bill clinton there. he's -- he knows going up against a neighboring senator from vermont is going to be hard and new hampshire is the test for both bill and hillary clinton. it's where they turned their campaigns around, spinning a second place finish by bill clinton in '92 and winning for hillary clinton in '08. >> that's right. >> this is a big test for her. >> let me deconstruct this

moment watching you there. first of all, nobody does rope line like you do rope line. bill clinton's ear was so attuned to you. i thought you saw for a flash when you asked him the trump question, he had an answer that he knows, then he was reminded whatever it takes, don't create a story with trump today, mr. president. i'm sure that's the advice he got. he listened to that advice. by the way, did you notice you had the aide next to you who then quickly said thank you, thank you. that was the minute they heard trump. look, there was a strategic decision made by the clinton campaign today. whatever it takes, mr. president, do not try to engage donald trump. he'll engage you. don't engage back, do your best not to create that story. so that's number one. on the point on new hampshire, by the way, he is speaking of democratic primaries. we know that john mccain i think beat mitt romney there in '08, so on the republican side, that hasn't always been the case but i was going through my head, i believe he's right.

i want to go back and double-check '84 and '76. but essentially, he's right and look, all the local polls have shown he actually, sanders is ahead right now. so it's not as if he's throwing something out there that seems crazy. that's what the polls are saying right now. but here's what this means, andrea. i can tell you what the clinton campaign is thinking. if they can sweep iowa and new hampshire, they can save millions of primary dollars and start focusing on the general election. they lose one or both of these two early states, that's three more months that they are going to have to beat back bernie sanders. that's $30 million, $40 million, $50 million down the primary drain that prevents you from finding out if georgia's a swing state, arizona's a swing state, doing what you need to do to win florida, which is an impossible task sometimes. so that's what winning iowa and new hampshire means for hillary clinton. >> indeed. hillary clinton talking about sort of the political

thoroughbreds that we see here, this was hillary clinton last night against a heckler who happened to be a republican state lawmaker who brought up bill clinton's past, the woman issue, as trump had prompted hecklers to do and this is the way she handled that last night here. >> this man right there -- here we go. right there. you are very rude and i'm not going to ever call on you. go ahead, sir. >> so hillary clinton really knows how to handle this stuff when it comes to her, in a

frndfrn friendly crowd from a heckler. how she will handle it in future debates is another question. finally, bernie sanders' fund-raising, only $4 million behind hillary clinton in primary dollars. she raised more money because she also raised general election money but that's a really good showing for the vermont senator. >> it sure is. this means he's got the resources to build the formidable organization you need in iowa. look, i believe this primary campaign is about iowa on the democratic side, not about new hampshire. because i think if clinton can hang on and win in iowa, she is ahead, i think new hampshire takes care of itself. it takes some of the energy out of sanders, the idea that oh, maybe he can't win and democrats may quote unquote, come home to hillary. if sanders wants to make himself more of a threat to her, it has to, for him, has to start in iowa. then it makes the new hampshire victory mean something. otherwise, it's only about the home state business. but immediately it's like with barack obama, frankly, winning that first time gave credence to

the idea he could win and that started to puncture the balloon. this is for her, to me iowa is the game here both for sanders and for her. >> chuck todd, no better way to start it off than chuck todd, host of "meet the press." thank you so much. >> great job on the rope line, andrea. >> well, that's all because of the camera crews and the producers here who make it all happen. thank you, chuck. now a big start to the new year in the middle east. it isn't a good one. saudi arabia and iran, two power players on opposite sides of the sunni/shia divide rivals in the region have severed diplomatic ties and continuing to exchange heated rhetoric. all this, the result of saudi arabia's execution of a prominent shiite cleric despite protests from the u.s. in advance, escalating tensions between sunnis and shiites throughout the muslim world. this is a very serious deal. nbc foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin joins me from new

york. right now when you look at the map of the middle east, we see not only conflagrations, potential conflagrations and real ones in yemen already, potential in bahrain and elsewhere, but also real threat to any hope of the saudis and iran working together with john kerry on the syrian peace talks only a few weeks from now. >> reporter: absolutely. if you were to take a look at the map of the middle east and look at key flash points and the countries that are really engulfed in turmoil, syria, yemen and iraq, in all three of those countries, you have on one side saudi arabia and its allies, on the other iran and its allies. you would not be able to solve any of those ongoing conflicts, any of those ongoing problems, without cooperation from these two heavyweights. that's certainly something the united states has learned over five years of a stalemate inside syria. so part of the u.s.' push over the past several months has been to try to get in addition to russia, in addition to representatives from the

opposition inside syria, to get iran and saudi arabia to sit around the table to say okay, where are the areas that we can all agree on and right now, there's not going to be a lot of areas to agree on, because these two countries are not even going to be talking to each other after severing ties just in the past 24 hours or so. but it's not just inside syria. as i was saying, it's also going to spill over into countries like yemen, where saudi arabia is engaged in a war with the backing of the united states against houthi rebels which are once again backed by iran. andrea? >> ayman mohyeldin. richard hass joins me from the council on foreign relations. where is the u.s. influence here? john kerry is about to launch these peace talks on syria. we have just sold all this military equipment to saudi arabia. we pleaded with them not to execute this cleric and they completely ignored the pleas from the white house and state department. >> well, as you are suggesting, we don't have an awful lot of influence. i think the saudis made a strategic decision several years ago that they are going to chart

their own course. they were upset over how the united states reacted in egypt to mubarak's weakness. they are obviously more than upset over what the united states said it would do, and then didn't do in syria and the saudis essentially said they have to take matters into their own hand. they ignored us on the execution of sheikh nimr and my hunch is they will largely pay little heed to our preferences. they simply think the stakes that they have are much greater than the stakes that we have. >> the saudis announced big domestic budget cuts, hampered by low oil prices. how much will this distract from their domestic concerns? >> it's possibly related to that and it's also a preemptive move on their part. they want to show to their own people how tough they are against the shia. i think they overreacted in this case, to say the least, about this cleric. i think it's also a way of

competing with isis. the saudis want to demonstrate that they are pure and that they still represent the real islam and that isis doesn't. and they also don't mind any opportunity to do something that will alienate the iranians for a host of reasons. but i think a lot of this is to do with saudi domestic policy. the problem is you and ayman were saying, it's just not going to stay there. i could actually imagine a racheting up of the proxy war between saudi arabia and iran so not just places like yemen or syria, where it's already going fairly full bore. conceivably bahrain and one day conceivably in saudi arabia itself. that's my real concern, whether saudi arabia is increasingly, its own future is going to come into question here. >> it's got a big shiite minority population in the oil areas, in fact, of saudi arabia. what about iran, the fact that iran let protesters get into the saudi embassy in tehran on

saturday, they torched the place? how volatile is the situation in iran? >> i found that really instructive in that once again, a crowd got out of hand, it wasn't because the iranian authorities were unable to control them. they were unwilling to control them. the president, mr. rouhani, tweeted and publicly said this was bad for iran's image and was wrong and people would be brought to justice but i found this entire thing instructive first about saudi arabia for the reasons we were just saying, where their calculations are, then about iran. iran still is not a normal country with a normal government that has consolidated political power. rather, in iran you continue to have multiple centers of power and authority. it's one of the reminders about why it's so difficult to do business with iran. we have got now two countries, saudi arabia and iran, who are leading their visions of the middle east and neither one is a normal, strong country and

again, it's one of the many reasons why this is going to be such a difficult situation for the united states down the road. >> richard hass, thanks so much as always. good to see you. coming up here, the candidates are all over early voting states today. this is claira. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for her she's agreed to give it up. that's today? we'll be with her all day to see how it goes. after the deliveries, i was ok. now the ciabatta is done and the pain is starting again. more pills? seriously? seriously. all these stops to take more pills can be a pain. can i get my aleve back? for my pain, i want my aleve. get all day minor arthritis pain relief with an easy open cap.

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not only is hillary clinton incompetent but she has lied. while she was leading the families of the fallen to believe the attack in benghazi happened because of a youtube video, we now know she was

admitting in private e-mails that it was indeed the result of terrorism. she lied to our faces. >> today, presidential candidates are holding 28 separate events with only 28 days remaining until the iowa caucuses. let's turn to our reporters on the campaign trail. nbc's katy tur in massachusetts ahead of a trump campaign event there not that far from where we are today. and nbc's kristen welker is in nashua with me, covering bill and hillary clinton along the road. first to you, katy, what about the republicans and the trump effect? with trump now putting his first campaign ads up, he saved a whole lot of money. this is the first time he's had to spend any money on television ads and as he points out, he doesn't really have to. >> reporter: he doesn't really have to, he says, because he's still getting a ton of national air time. he's released this ad on his website as of now. the campaign says it will start airing in iowa and new hampshire as of tomorrow, but nbc news cannot confirm that the money has gone to any of the tv

stations where these ads would be airing. so it's still not clear where exactly the ad buys are going although that could of course come through later in the day. donald trump is spending as he said $2 million per week on these ads, about a million in iowa, about a million in new hampshire and the ad's about 30 seconds long. it encapsulates his campaign pretty neatly. everything he has been saying on the campaign trail attacking isis, cutting them off at the head, stopping radical islamic terrorism, stopping illegal immigration, building a wall and he does this not only by inciting fear but doing it in the very trump way, the way that he's been honing all this time by making it very colloquial saying we need to figure out what's going on and that's why we need a muslim ban. this ad is very along the lines of what he's been doing so far, whether or not it will help raise him up in the polls in iowa, we will have to wait and see. so far, he is doing, still doing quite well in new hampshire. >> and thank you, katy.

kristen welker, so trump is taking on bill clinton, taking on hillary clinton and attacking hillary clinton for connection to barack obama. it's sort of a trifecta. >> reporter: you are absolutely right, andrea. the response from the clinton campaign has been very strategic. she is answering some of his criticism on issues like isis. you heard her say yesterday that the republican candidates want to blame her and the former president for just about everything but they are not engaging on the issues of trump slamming former president bill clinton on his sexual transgressions. i thought what was interesting today in listening to former president clinton talk, he sort of gave this very robust defense of secretary clinton's record, why he believes she would be the best qualified to be president and then he took some not so subtle swipes at the republican field, saying that america is a place that welcomes all people. that clearly a direct response to donald trump, who has called for banning all muslims from

entering the united states. i think this is the strategy that you can see moving forward. i'm told by clinton campaign aides that former president bill clinton will be a frequent presence on the trail. more to come. >> they are not intimidated one bit, as least not publicly. thanks to kristen welker. she is now heading to iowa to catch up with hillary clinton there. we are everywhere today. thank you. michael steele, msnbc political analyst, former republican chairman, joins me now. michael, you have been watching this very closely. >> yes. >> have you ever now reconciled yourself to donald trump at least maintaining his front-runner status or does he still have some issues with ted cruz now coming up and leading the way in some polls in iowa and potential challengers in new hampshire as well? >> well, he's a potential challenger, no doubt about that, but i have been reconciled to donald trump's position in this campaign for quite some time, probably within the first 30 or

so days when i realized and spoke to the fact that it didn't seem that anyone had a way to inoculate themselves against what trump was doing. and more importantly, to eclipse that, to sort of create their own brand, if you will, in this sort of reality television political cycle that sort of offset what trump was saying and doing, and to really not so much compete against him, you know, for hot rhetoric against hot rhetoric, but to come to the table with something else a little bit different that would grab the attention of the base. that hasn't happened, andrea. here we are less than 30 days out from the first vote being cast. donald trump still holds court in new hampshire, nationally he still holds strong. cruz has been the only one who seems to have crept up alongside of him largely by not taking him on, and will likely reap some benefit from that. whether he wins iowa remains to be seen. he's leading now. but we will see how this plays

out over the next few weeks. i think the debate in a week or so is going to be where the elbows sharpen and you see a little bit more of a bloodletting there amongst the candidates because they know two weeks later, voters will be voting. >> you've got kasich and chris christie and jeb bush, of course, way behind all really needing a lifeline here in new hampshire. what about donald trump's tactic of going after bill clinton? do you think it could backfire? >> it won't backfire in a republican primary, i can assure you of that. this is the conundrum the party finds itself in. this is the closest we have had to a national primary ever, where we have used national polls and what people are thinking across the country versus what the people are thinking in the first four primary states, to sort of dictate the terms of engagement in this campaign. that being said, it makes it much more tricky for the

national party and the eventual nominee, whether it's trump or anyone else, to sort of carve out a different message that's closer to what the party has been talking about in terms of its autopsy report from a few years ago reaching out and broadening the base of the party. that has not been the message that's come out of this primary so far. so it creates a unique challenge going forward because the way this primary's played itself out for whomever the nominee will be and guys like kasich and bush and rubio and others will have a steep challenge ahead of them to try to carve that space out, if trump is not the nominee. >> michael steele, who has seen it before but never like this. >> never like this. >> thank you so much. still to come, an armed takeover at a free-throw line wild life refuge in oregon. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports."

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we're actually not demanding anything other than basically the government to adhere to the constitution, about defending the people and giving them access and availability to their land and resources. >> ammon bundy is the leader of an armed insurrection group who took over a building in oregon. it has become a huge issue on the campaign trail as well today. >> every one of us has a constitutional right to protest, to speak our minds. but we don't have a constitutional right to use force and violence and to threaten force and violence on others. and so it is our hope that the protesters there will stand down

peaceably, there will not be a violent confrontation. our prayers are certainly with those in law enforcement that are risking their lives right now, that they be safe. >> msnbc's scott cohn joins me from princeton, oregon with details. scott, what is -- how is the standoff playing out? i know they have a lot of federal and local law enforcement and state officials there as well. >> reporter: well, you know, for all the talk of an armed insurrection it is relatively quiet. there is a growing presence of not only potential protesters or people here in support but also media, but no presence of law enforcement that we can see as all of this sort of plays out and people kind of get a sense of where they are going to be and how this is going to last. the fbi has said that it is working with local authorities toward a peaceful solution, whatever that will entail. meantime, the protesters say they are not threatening any sort of violence unless violence is done to them, but they say

they are prepared to be here literally for years if they have to be. >> and of course, ammon bundy is the son of cliven bundy who was involved in the nevada standoff years ago so they have a history here. do you assume there are back channel negotiations going on? >> reporter: there's no indication that there are any sort of back channel negotiations going on but absolutely, there's a history here and really, the protesters seem to look at this not so much as a case involving the two ranchers who are expected to report to prison today, but more about this overall issue of federal control of public lands. that issue has been going on for years and of course, cliven bundy brought it to prominence in 2014 with the standoff in nevada. he still owes the federal government $1 million in grazing fees he has not yet paid. essentially, emerged victorious in that standoff in that he hasn't had to pay that and the

feds basically backed off. we'll see how things play out here in oregon. >> thanks to you, scott cohn, for all of that. coming up, taking action. president obama preparing to take action on gun control. will congress stop him? and we are watching the markets right now. the dow started on of the year a bumpy ride, down 400 points today. its worst opening since 1932. the markets are being weighed down by renewed concerns about global economic slowdown and of course, the increased tensions in the middle east. any time you have saudi arabia involved with iran, not a good thing. ♪ ♪ ♪ why fit in when you were born to stand out.

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to folks out there whose diabetic nerve pain... shoots and burns its way into your day, i hear you. to everyone with this pain that makes ordinary tasks extraordinarily painful, i hear you. make sure your doctor hears you too! i hear you because i was there when my dad suffered with diabetic nerve pain. if you have diabetes and burning, shooting pain in your feet or hands, don't suffer in silence! step on up and ask your doctor about diabetic nerve pain. tell 'em cedric sent you. welcome back. president obama starts his last year in office today by taking on gun control opponents with executive actions to strengthen background checks at gun shows. donald trump is already

campaigning against whatever president obama does. >> pretty soon you won't be able to get guns. it's another step in the way of not getting guns. i want to see what he says, i want to see why he couldn't get this approved by congress. why isn't he getting the republicans and democrats together and doing something instead of -- he keeps signing executive orders. >> executive orders are controversial with republican members of congress as well. i'm joined by connecticut senator chris murphy, fierce advocate for gun laws, especially after the tragedy in newtown, connecticut. thanks very much for being with us. what about the legal challenges that you would expect to whatever the president does after his meeting with the attorney general loretta lynch today? >> we don't know what the president's going to do. i'm going to be at the white house later today to talk with the president about the final stages of constructing this executive action, but my belief is that he is well within his powers, the executive, to simply put some parameters around existing law.

right now, existing law says that anyone who is engaged in the business of selling firearms has to conduct a background check. well, the business of selling firearms has changed over the last 20 years. you now have individuals going to gun shows selling firearms on the internet who might not have a bricks and mortar store but are essentially in the business of selling firearms just at trade shows and online. what i have asked the president to do along with many of my colleagues is to simply clarify for high volume sellers at places like gun shows, when do you actually have to get a background check for your customers and when you don't and when do you not. that is simply a clarification of existing law. i think if he does take that route of providing clarification, he will be on firm legal ground. >> senator, for you and certainly for the newtown families and others who have been struck by gun tragedies in the last few years, how frustrating is it that joe biden, barack obama have not been able to accomplish any of their goals in controlling guns?

>> it's mortifying for families in connecticut, especially in and around sandy hook. we just passed the three-year anniversary and i don't think there's anyone in that town who, if you told them on the day of the murder of those 20 kids that three years later, congress would have done nothing to try to end this slaughter, they wouldn't have believed it. so i think the president has tried over and over again to work with congress to get something done. he has the ability to simply clarify an existing law to make sure that more sales go through background checks and of course, he's lining up with where 80% to 90% of the american people are. everybody agrees that you should just at the very least prove that you are not a criminal before you buy a gun. listen, background checks wouldn't have saved the lives of those kids in sandy hook, but those families are dedicated to trying to save other lives in places like chicago or bridgeport or new york, and this executive action if he goes through with it will lead to less slaughter in the streets of america.

>> do you think that there are going to be legal challenge after legal challenge? how stymied is he likely to be in this final year in office? >> i think there will be legal challenges. i don't think they will stand up. i'm sure that my republican colleagues in the house and senate will try to block his executive action. they will not succeed. they won't get the votes in the senate and even if they did, the president would veto it. i think it's dangerous ground for republicans. i understand in the republican presidential primary, being against background checks may be politically advantageous, but in a general election context when 90% of americans in poll after poll say that they want more background checks to cover gun sales, i think it's a losing proposition for republicans. so there will be legal challenges, there will be political challenges but this is good policy for the president but it's also good politics for anybody that's going to get behind it. >> senator chris murphy, thanks so much for joining us today. >> thanks, andrea. and the comeback kid. bill clinton back in new hampshire where it all began.

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oh, that's a lot more. oh yeah, i'm all about more, teddy brosevelt. geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more. if you of give it to me i won't be like george bush. i will never forget who gave me a second chance and i will be there for you until the last dog dies. >> bill clinton, 1992, before one of the most consequential second place finishes of modern presidential primaries, the first step on bill clinton's road to his election victory eight months later. joining me now for our daily fix, chris cillizza, msnbc contributor, founder of the "washington post" fix blog, and mark halperin, managing editor of bloomberg politics. we were there back then and here today. he was back at it and it was classic bill clinton. the policy wonk playing to new

hampshire concerns, heroin, drug addiction, concerns about the economy and this is his closing argument for hillary clinton in this first appearance by bill clinton, solo appearance for her in this 2016 campaign. >> i do not believe in my lifetime anybody has run for this job at a moment of great importance who was better qualified by knowledge, experience and temperament to do what needs to be done now to restore prosperity, to deal with these human issues, to make us as safe as possible. >> so mark halperin, bill clinton back in front of a new hampshire audience. deja vu all over again as yogi would have said. >> well, this is a guy who even rusty and warming up and i think we recognize he wasn't at his absolute best today as he gets used to the campaign trail, he

is still a very formidable force for her. a lot of the questions about whether he overshadows her or about any controversies within the democratic electorate are largely put aside and as a fund-raiser and surrogate, both bill and chelsea clinton over the next couple weeks i think are going to be powerful forces within the democratic electorate. >> chris cillizza, what about donald trump taking on bill clinton and raising all the issues of his past infidelities and trying to make that a campaign issue against his wife? does that work? >> well, you know, mark laid out rightly the benefits of having bill clinton on your side. wasn't perfect today, but he's still a really gifted communicator and i think he sells her prime selling point, which is resume. this is someone who has been through a lot of different jobs at very high levels quite well. but you don't get one without the other. that's in some ways the story of the clintons, both for good and for bad. so going about it the way donald

trump has maybe a little much for some people, but i do think sort of bill clinton's presence, bill clinton is in totality part of the calculation. i don't think it's the main calculation. i think hillary clinton is the main calculation. but who he is, what he represents to people will be part of that. i still think it nets out as a positive for her campaign, but i don't think bringing up bill clinton's past crosses any sort of line by donald trump. >> donald trump was back on the air today proving again that he doesn't really need paid campaign ads. this was donald trump taking on both clintons on cnn. >> to use the word sexist, i'm sexist, she was using very sort of derogatory terms. i said how the hell can she do that when she's got one of the great women abusers of all time sitting at her house waiting for her to come home.

>> mark halperin, you know, where does this end with donald trump versus bill clinton? you saw it today, bill clinton studiously avoiding rising to the bait. >> well, even though secretary clinton's campaign suggested she would not back down against attacks from donald trump, they have largely stood pat on a previous statement about the fact that they wouldn't back down and they don't want to engage. i don't think the clintons want this period of the campaign to be about a big fight with donald trump over bill clinton's past. they are willing to fight with trump on other issues, but you don't get to set the terms when you fight with donald trump. he's the master at setting the terms. i think in the short term, the clintons are going to hope donald trump turns his attention elsewhere because as i said, i just don't think that's what they want this day of the campaign to be about. they want to energize voters in an optimistic way, not fighting with donald trump about this. they may not have a choice. they may not be able to turn the other cheek forever but for today, at least, bill clinton executed what seems to be their current posture which is do not

engage on this stuff for the foreseeable future. >> chris cillizza, how vulnerable is hillary clinton on foreign policy right now as you know donald trump's first campaign ad targets her and barack obama for all the problems isis and everything else he says they created in the middle east. >> this is one area where donald trump sort of his vision of what a general election campaign would look like isn't all that different from what sort of the establishment republican campaign would be, which is marco rubio, say marco rubio is the nominee or ted cruz, they would run a campaign trying to link barack obama and hillary clinton as obama's third term on foreign policy and domestic policy, on things that are unpopular with the american public. so in that space, if trump goes on to do things some of the other candidates wouldn't do, in that space this is the idea this is not barack obama's problem, this is a team effort.

barack obama, hillary clinton and heck, they will probably throw bill clinton in there, too, that's what's responsible here. that is actually a very mainstream republican argument. you have heard reince priebus, chairman of the republican national committee making that very argument over and over and over again over the last year. >> chris cillizza, mark halperin, thank you both so very much. make sure to tune in to "hardball" on msnbc tomorrow night when chris matthews hosts hillary clinton for the presidential candidate's first national television interview of 2016. that's 7:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. what do the voters think? half of the americans are angrier than they were a year ago. some surprising results in our new survey. i take prilosec otc each morning

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you're looking at live pictures of davenport, iowa. hillary clinton will be campaigning shortly in the hawk eye state while her husband continues to make his pitch in new hampshire. he has one or two more stops planned today. a poll found that voters across america are feeling increasingly angry and pessimistic as they look to the year to come. nearly half of all americans, 49%, are angrier than they were a year ago. that is according to our new online poll. msnbc's jacob soberoff has been talking to voters and joins me from los angeles. tell us what you found out. >> it's been hard to avoid this talk of anger out on the campaign trail and it is not just talk. our new nbc news/esquire survey monkey poll confirms that us americans are angrier than they

used to be. that's why i went to iowa to figure out what is fueling this all. take a look. we know americans are angry but what are they so angry about? that's why we came here to council bluffs, iowa to this donald trump rally to ask these folks. what makes you angry? >> pretty much everything. >> reporter: everything makes you angry? >> the abortion issue. >> a lot of social issues. >> they want to take everybody's gun rights away. >> reporter: that makes you angry? >> yes, it does. >> reporter: what makes you angry? >> all of the lies that we have been told in this country for years. i believe everything donald trump says is what we believe in. >> reporter: what makes you angry? >> obama. >> reporter: what is it about obama? >> he's not doing -- he's just chilling out. >> reporter: are you more upset than you used to be? >> i'm boiling. you watch the tv and something else is screwed up. >> reporter: how do you cool off? >> just keep watching tv. >> reporter: in case something else good comes on? >> exactly. >> reporter: you are selling trump merchandise. what gets you angry? >> you said what gets me angry? >> reporter: yeah.

>> right now, somebody with a microphone in my face. >> reporter: from one end of the political spectrum to the other, what are bernie sanders' supporters angry about? >> integrity of the leaders and not just in the white house but in the congress. >> reporter: congress got you fired up right now? >> yes. i don't like either side. they aren't taking care of our country. >> reporter: how does that make you feel? >> not very happy. >> reporter: what makes you angry? >> i think when you look college system and how expensive it is to go to college. >> our middle class. our health insurance. schools. it's all out of control. >> reporter: gets you pretty fired up? >> i get really annoyed. yeah. >> oh, my gosh. where do you start? >> i don't like the way they are talking about immigration. about building a wall around this country. this is ridiculous. >> reporter: what gets you that fired up? >> the misinformation about the democrats wanting to take guns away from people. >> reporter: makes you upset? >> very mad. very mad. >> reporter: i don't want to be -- >> no, no. >> reporter: i better get out of here.

at these events, the anger is palpable. at the bernie sanders he mentioned justifiable anger of americans and i kid you not, at the donald trump ally, there was a p.a. announcement made not to harm attendees. last hour i heard president clinton talk about quote i am a happy grandpa, not mad at anyone. maybe a campaign strategy to de-escalate this and differentiate hillary. >> interestingly, women, white women are angrier than men. that goes against some of the preconceived notions. really interesting survey. thanks for your report. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports" from the trail from nashua, new hampshire. follow the show online on facebook and twitter. my colleague thomas roberts is up next with "msnbc live." marie callender knows that a fresh-cooked meal

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hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. it's a very busy day on the campaign trail. the iowa caucuses are four weeks away from today. a week after that, the new hampshire primary. many of the major candidates are out campaigning in those two states, iowa and new hampshire. 28 events in all. we start with hillary and bill clinton both out campaigning today. on the left-hand side of the screen you can see a live picture of a hillary clinton event in iowa. on the right-hand side of your screen, there's bill clinton in new hampshire, just a short time ago. it was his formal debut for the campaign, working solo. shortly after that speech, nbc news' andrea mitchell caught up with the former president and asked him about the political tactics of donald trump. take a listen. >> reporter: how do you feel about the kind of campaign donald trump is running, sir? >> the rub