nobody is touching trump. >> where does he go after new hampshire? let's face it. how does he play? >> trump is tough to beat. >> all right. thank you, all. what a first day of 2016. we'll have to do more of this and we'll do it tomorrow. more "mpt daily." with all due respect, it starts right now. their guests include governor chris christie. with all due respect to america's pundits in 2015, better luck this year. >> those people think trump is going to flame out or drop out? >> he is going to flame out quickly. >> this is the beginning of the end for donald trump. >> beginning of the end of donald trump. >> beginning of the end for donald trump. >> i will eat my right hand if donald trump is the republican nominee.

happy 2016. a countdown to the new year is finally over. countdown to iowa and beyond is begun. we'll spare you the countdown clocks this evening, but they are coming soon. you can expect major speeches, any blitz of attack debates and campaign surprises before the iowa caucuses on february 1. which candidate has the strongest closing argument? in the republican race we saw three top candidates make their bid today. donald trump with the first tv ad running in iowa and new hampshire. >> i'm donald trump and i approve this message. >> the politicians can pretend it's something else. donald trump calls it radical islamic terrorism. that's yes is calling for a temporary shutdown of muslims entering the united states until we can figure out what's going on. cut the head off isis. he'll stop illegal immigration building a wall on the southern border that mexico will pay for.

>> we will make america great again. >> in new hampshire, two top candidates, chris christie and marco rubio put forward their own closing cases. >> i'm ready to unite our party. i'm ready to fight for our principles. i'm more ready than anyone in this race to protect the lives and security of the american people. i've won in one of the toughest places in america to win. i know better than anyone how to prosecute the case against hillary clinton. >> we need a commander in chief with a record of leadership and judgment. of all the candidates running, i annal the only one that has that record. >> we will have governor christie joining us in a few minutes here. which three closing argument is the strongest? what else do you see in the republican closing argument category? >> it's only the first day of the new year officially for work. this is the easiest question this year. trump is the strongest closing argument.

it's the strongest closing argument because it's the most consistent. he's had two phases to the campaign. one, i'm going to stop illegal immigration and two, i'm going to crush muslim immigration. he's taken a lot of heat and says i'm not backing down. i'm riding the horse all the way to the nomination. >> they strike emotional chords. >> just to be clear, it's a campaign totally based on fear. it's a strong campaign. >> effective argument that appeals to a lot of people. yes. the christie closing argument which he's been honing the last couple of weeks is also very strong. he takes all of his strengths, all his appeal to bring the republican party together, and argues that he's the one who can do it. and he does it with emotion. >> here is my problem with the christie closing argument.

the core is we need a green-up who can unite the party. it just isn't in tune with what the republican electorate has demonstrated in the course of a year that it wants, which is not grown-up or unity. >> there is no closing argument that will work for any establishment candidate. this is a cruz/trump race, you're right. between bush, christie, rubio and kasich, right now christie has the broadest argument to play in the state is a good argument for new hampshire. >> all right. the new year brought about juicy stuff which we mean a daisy chain of hostile political attacks. today ted cruz got the negative ad treatment in iowa courtesy of undercard stand-by rick santorum. >> i luke green eggs and ham. >> ted cruz is wonderful at reading children's fairytales on the senate floor. rick santorum spent his time in the senate a little differently. he wants someone to read a hell

of a bedtime story, head cruz is your guy. if you want somebody to defend america and defeat isis, rick santorum is your president because serious times need serious people. >> that was number one. we saw super pac supporting ted cruz with its own negative spot. this one directed at marco rubio. >> i know i have a debate, but i've got to get this fantasy football thing right. okay? >> okay. now the third and final of this little daisy chain which is the rubio's super pac ad. guess who it is targeting in its new attack ad just out?

>> chris christie. one high tax common core liberal energy-loving obamacare medicaid expanding president is enough. >> there will be a lot of campaigns and a lot of pacs with a lot of paid media. that should amount to your classic circular firing squad. mark, what do you think these three examples tell us about the carnage to come? >> everybody is going to go after each other. you'll see particularly cruz and rubio. there were a few negative ads late in the year. everybody said after new year's they would start. they started in vengeance today. they are going to keep going. the key is, you've got to have your candidate reenforce the message and the surrogates reenforce the message of the ads. ads are going to be too much clutter. >> your friend and mine wrote about this circular firing squad

element. all these guys not shooting up at the front-runner, but shooting around at each other. the question of the consequences when you get into these situations, who hits who, who mistakenly fires and hits somebody they didn't mean to hit? that's going to be the big story over the next month, especially if everyone continues to think it's not in their interest in the short term to go after trump. >> i keep saying chris christie is the best brawler in american politics. it's going to be interesting now that rubio is coming after him. he's somewhat holding back. he's going to come back with a vengeance. will be fascinating to see how rubio takes a punch. >> it is a laundry list. >> there are a couple of them. >> the kitchen sink plus the greatest hits album rolled into one. it's all in those two ads. we'll see more of it. >> he's already started to respond. tonight, donald trump is in

massachusetts for a rally. lowell is the setting for that classic martk wahlberg film "th fighter." a couple of candidates are not eager to pick a fight with the front-runner. here is ted cruz with nbc's hallie jackson in iowa today. politicians behave a certain way when they're panicking and they engage in personal attacks. that's human nature. i understand that. i'm not going to get drawn into that muck. i'm going to keep the focus on the issues that matter. >> so cruz calls trump a politician who is panicking but doesn't name him in a big way. one of those who is beginning to set his eyes on the front-runner seems to be chris christie who took a couple of apparent swipes at trump today in new hampshire. >> there are many republican voters supporting what the media

likes to call protest candidates like donald trump, ted cruz or ben carson. showtime is over, everybody. we are not electing an entertainer in chief. showmanship is fun, but it's not the kind of leadership that will truly change america. if we are going to turn our frustration and ang were our d.c. insiders, the politicians of yesterday and carnival barkers of today into something that actually will change american lives for the better, we must election someone who has been tested. >> we'll ask christie about that carnival barker line in a little bit. he flicked at trump, cruz flicked at trump. in the end, given that everybody is firing in different directions, not directly at trump, who is the most likely to take on trump? will they be effective? >> most likely obviously is christie. he is doing it in a not so subtle way. my question is when he starts to take the gloves off and tries to hit trump hard.

trump is not afraid of christie at all for some of the reasons we referred to, thinks he is super vulnerable. i think the person with the most interesting line of attack on trump is cruz who played rope-a-dope. if cruz comes firing against trump, trump hasn't found a way to go back at cruz. >> cruz in iowa and christie in new hampshire are the most likely. no one has taken on trump. they are the two. cruz has the resources and good political skills. christie because he is such a great brawler. th >> in iowa, ted cruz gets slammed for saying one thing in front of manhattan donors and another in front of iowa vulnerables. ted cruz' bond with them is real. donald trump played the evangelical card, but it's the one place where trump comes across most like a phony. no one believes donald trump is

evangelical in his heart or a god-fearing fellow. cruz could take trump out on that score. >> cruz has enough vote in iowa if he consolidates what he currently has. >> doesn't have to. might feel the need to. >> you saw that in the body language there. if trump comes at him, he may play defense. >> that's what i'm saying. >> bill clinton is back on the campaign trail. our conversation with governor chris christie after this quick 60-second break. you show up. you stay up. you listen. you laugh. you worry. you do whatever it takes to take care of your family. and when it's time to plan for your family's future, we're here for you. we're legalzoom, and for over 10 years we've helped families just like yours with wills and living trusts. so when you're ready, start with us. doing the right thing has never been easier. legalzoom. legal help is here.

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so far, the new year is looking like the old year. the big story that ended 2015, the clintons versus donald trump is not going anywhere. this morning on cnn, trump was as scathing as ever about bill clinton's history with the fairer sex saying it was fair game after hillary accused trump of sexism. >> she was talking about she

used the word "sexist." she was using very derogatory terms. how the hell can she do that when she's got one of the great women abusers of all time sitting at her house? i don't care about monica lewinsky other than i think hillary was an enabler and a lot of things happened that were obviously very seedy. >> new hampshire where the after mentioned bill clinton gave a newsless speech on behave of his wife, he said this when andrea mitchell asked about trump's campaign. >> how do you feel about the kind of campaign donald trump is running, sir? >> the republicans will decide who is going to be nominated. we are trying to win a primary. we've got to do that first. >> the clinton campaign in recent days has sworn that it would not back down in the face

of trump's attacks. so the question i have is what do you make of president clinton's uncharacteristic restraint today his first time back on the campaign trail? >> i think trump has to escalate for them to hit back, as much as they want to establish this notion they would fight back. this is not, as i said the end of last year, this is not the fight the clintons want to have. so i think they will try to find other ways to criticize trump but not engage on this you saw bill clinton do that today. >> i said this morning on tv i thought a lot of the issues around bill clinton and women were priced into the stock, people know about them, a number of people approached me and said a lot of younger voters who barely remember impeachment and don't remember the panoply of other problems, bill clinton is a huge asset to hillary clinton's campaign, but a free radical. you never know what might strike

a chord. i agree this is where they would like to settle for peace. we'll see. >> it's in trump's interest to keep it up. trump doesn't fight with symmetry. if they attack him on the economy -- the clintons have to face a choice as the republican have. if you want to fight with donald trump you fight by trump's rules, not your own rules. >> yeah. it's all good in the context still in the nomination fight. question is what happens after that. the obama administration is dealing with three big challenges. the president's executive orders on gun control. which is most likely to become a presidential campaign issue? >> if we continue to have mass shootings at the rate we had them in 2016, i think the gun

issue -- if barack obama decides this is what he is going to do in 2016, this is his last act in politics and push this, this could be a central issue going forward. >> i think it would be a huge general election issue. >> that's what i'm talking about. >> saudi, arabia versus iran could break out in a big way. you have people who will want to say anything iran does is bad. the relationship with saudi arabia is fraught. some republicans will say this is a quagmire we don't want to be involved in this fight. this is so unpredictable. it's going to test people's abilities to be agile. i think americans are going to say who can speak to the complexity of all the facets of saudi arabia versus iran? >> the thing is it exposes some of the cleavages in terms of republican foreign policy. both sides are -- there is no

hero in this story, no villain. >> you have to keep up with fast-moving developments. not one republican established him or herself as a dominant figure on foreign policy. >> i guarantee we won't be arguing about that issue in a general election. when we come back, good night who has the granite state talking, chris christie joins us judge just a few moments. it took joel silverman years to become a master dog trainer. but only a few commands to master depositing checks at chase atms. technology designed for you. so you can easily master the way you bank. does a freshly printed fill you with optimism? then you might be gearcentric.

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our first guest tonight is coming via satellite from manchester, new hampshire, from the health and garden inn as opposed to the garden state. governor chris christie from new jersey. thanks for making time for us off the campaign trail. happy new year. >> thank you. >> saudi arabia, the conflict of saudi arabia and iran is much in the news. i want to ask you about saudi arabia which is a big topic for any president. how would you evaluate their human rights record over the last five years? >> listen, i think their human rights record leaves something to be desired. the fact is we have to work with them and other ail yeas of ours to continue to express our concerns about things that happen in their country regarding human rights. it should not be the dominant factor. we have larger issues to deal

with saudi arabia. the war in yemen, how that is going to impact their ability to help in the face against isis. how we deal with syrian refugees and other issues including their breaking off diplomatic ties with iran. all those things are going to be factor the next president has to take into consideration as we continue to try to improve and enhance our relationship with the saudi government. >> what are the specific practices of the saudi government you would characterize that way? >> i think generally what we find is that the treatment of women is not exactly what we would say here in the you'd is what's acceptable. there are other examples, as well. there is no reason to go through that laundry list today. we need to work with our friends to make sure that we are trying to have a positive influence on their human rights record inside their own country while not letting that dominate the geopolitical relationship we need to have with the saudi

government. >> governor, you like a lot of your republican rivals are a relatively large critic of the iranian regime, the current one. do you feel sympathy for the iranian cause in this instance? >> no i don't. >> you think -- one would think given the executions -- given the nature of the crime you would at least have some sympathy with the iranians on the basis of the fact the crime itself seems egregious? >> i have no sympathy for the iranians. if you were elected president, would you rip up the nuclear deal your first day in office or something else? >> i think that by the time i get to office in january 2017, as evidenced by the ballistic missile test already, that agreement will be violated multiple times and won't be worth the paper it's written on any way and we have to start off. >> governor, let me ask you.

there has been a lot of discussion. we are discussing guns in the context of president obama's executive actions that seem to be on deck. i want to ask about your record on assault weapons. you described it in the past as having evolved over time. can you explain that evolution and how that took place? >> sure. original positions i took back well over 20 years ago have been influenced greatly by my time as a prosecutor. during that time when i became focused on was dealing with criminals with guns and making sure we spent the focus of our effort on getting criminals off the street who are using guns. we use that effectively when i was u.s. attorney with the felons and possession law to be able to take criminals off the street for minimum sentences of at least five years on a first offense. those are things we need to focus on to lower violence across our suburban areas in

this country. we don't need to worry about creating new laws. that's how it evolved over time. very influenced by my time as a prosecutor. >> in 2009 you told sean hannity you were moderate to left on gun control measures. is that still true? >> i don't think it is. at the time, i don't know who i was comparing myself to. the fact is my record in new jersey is very clear. since i've been governor of new jersey, i vetoed the 50 caliber rifle ban, vetoed the reduction of magazine limits from 15 to 10, a statewide registration system and pardoned six out of state folks arrested in new jersey for having legally owned a hand gun someplace else and having carried it through new jersey. i think that's wrong and i pardoned those people. my record on the gun issue in new jersey during my time as governor has been very clear right from the beginning, first one of those pardonings

happening in 2010. it's something i've been firm on since i was governor. >> before the veto, your office put out a press release that touted new jersey's record on gun control and promoted banning the future sales of a specific type of assault rifle. how does that square with your general posture on the issue? >> it absolutely squares with it. the fact is i've taken steps i think are necessary to protect second amendment rights in new jersey as merrimented by the legislature. and also make sure the public safety of the people in new jersey are protected. >> governor, another topic in the news, protesters armed in oregon who have taken this compound government building. what would your message to those individuals be today? >> listen, there has to be a peaceful resolution to this issue. the fact is the balance you try to reach in situations like this, whether you're in law enforcement or the governor of a

state is to let folks know the law has to be followed. you also want to try to do so without the loss of any life. there should be intense discussions and negotiations and listening amongst both sides of this dispute right now. that's what i try to do as governor. i think that's what most responsible people would try to do, as well. they have to know in the end, the law need to be respected and enforced. >> governor, thanks. we'll be back with more with governor christie after this. fact.

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we are back with governor

chris christie of new jersey who is up in manchester, new hampshire, right now speaking of new hampshire, you're not doing too bad up there in the polls these days. let me ask you this question as you run for the republican nomination. if you can come up with -- name an issue for us where you are out of step with the conservative base of the republican party. >> i don't think i am out of step with conservative base of the republican party. >> on not one issue. i'm asking you -- >> i don't know what you're looking for here, but no, i'm not going to go through a laundry list of things you might think or someone else might think i'm out of step with the base of the republican party. i'm a conservative republican. i'm been a conservative republican my whole life. i don't feel out of step. >> governor, i guess the way i framed the question is this, if you look back on past presidential nominees of both parties, whether it's barack obama, george w. bush, in each

instance in some point in their campaign, there was an issue where they challenged the orthodoxy in their party, even though they were largy in step with their party's base. i'm curious if there is an issue where you feel the conservative base is wrong and you not feel out of step but would like to say, i'm in line with the party on most things but i think the base is simply wrong and taking an unorthodox position? >> i don't know. you are looking for some sister soldier moment which are manufactured and political things. i tried to lead the way in new jersey against all orthodoxy republican and democrat on the issue of drug addiction. the fact is we do not any longer need to be jailing first-time, nonviolent, non-dealing drug offenders. we don't do that in new jersey. we send them to mandatory drug treatment. we need to get away from incarceration as the solution for nonviolent, nondealing drug

offenders. i've been a solid strong voice on that. i think that both democrats and republicans have disagreed with me at times on this. we need to put families back together. we need to make society more productive. getting people treatment for addiction, which i believe is a disease. a disease that needs to be treated. it's something i stepped out front on in my time as governor as continue to push for and enhance during my term as governor. >> the first lady of new jersey has campaigned actively in new hampshire and elsewhere for you, putting her out in the public eye. i wonder what you think the standard should be for scrutiny of the positions, the financial relationships, the public statements of spouses in this race? >> my wife is a big girl. she understands that part of the package being here in public life is she is going to be asked questions and subject to scrutiny. that's why during my entire time as governor, we released our tax

returns and released seven years of tax returns before i became governor. now you've got 12 years of tax returns out there on myself and my wife and what it shows is that my wife, every one of those 12 years made more money than me. she is ready to be scrutinized about outearning her husband every year 12 years in a row. >> i want to make it not about your wife but general sense of spouses. donald trump has been critical of bill clinton. i wonder if you think any spouse or spouse's campaigning is fair game. is there a different line you think society and the media should draw, politicians should draw for each other? >> i think you have to judge that individual by individual and circumstance by circumstance. from my perspective, i think that's got to be judged on a case by case basis. i can only speak from our perspective. we've been used to getting scrutiny. mary pat has been used to

getting scrutiny from the media, new york, new jersey, philadelphia area. we'll be used to getting scrutiny as our role enhances here to become the republican nominee. >> is the line of criticism and personal nature of what donald trump is saying about president clinton's past now, is that as far as you're concerned fair game? is that the thing you might bring up in the context of running against hillary clinton? >> i think there are so many other problems currently existing in our country and opportunities for her to take advantage of. i don't know relitigating bill clinton's personal life that that is the most productive expenditure of time for the american people and moving our country forward. that would not be something i'm all that interested in. every candidate's got to make their own judgment and be ready for the scrutiny that comes back at them for the judgments they make. >> let me ask you about the speech you made in new hampshire. there was one phrase that jumped

off the page, carnival barkers. the carnival barkers of today. what was in your head when those words came out of your mouth? who were you thinking of? >> i'm thinking of a number of people both who are running for president and who are commenting on this race for president as members of congress and others who only care more about telling people what they think they want to hear rather than what they need to know. >> why don't you tell me who it is. >> a number of people could fit. >> who are you thinking? >> you want me to name names? if i wanted to name names i would have. >> i'm giving you a chance to elaborate. tell it like it is right here. >> i did. i told it like it was today in the speech. i think anybody who has any trouble understanding that is someone who hasn't been object serving the race closely. >> it's being reported by national review, marco rubio is going to go on with two ads

against you in new hampshire starting tomorrow. what do you make of that development and of the coming negative ads presumably against you and others in this fight in the last month? >> i guess -- i wonder what happened to the marco who so indignantly looked at jeb bush and said, i guess someone must have convinced you going negative against me helps you. i guess that same person must have convinced margo going negative against chris christie is what he needs to do. listen, i stand by my record as governor of new jersey. it's a good one. we just had the greatest private sector job growth here new jersey has had in 15 years. we cut unemployment in half. this is really important. if senator rubio would show up for work every once in a while. he's got one job, to cast votes in the united states senate.

if he thinks that is a worthless job which he said before, he should resign it. if he doesn't, he should show up and vote. i work every day for the people of new jersey as governor. happy to have this conversation. >> want to be clear, it's the super pac not the campaign itself. that distinction will not mean much to some people. >> of course. >> governor christie, thank you. >> all right. nor to me, quite frankly. >> chris christie up in manchester. thanks from both of us. when we come back, we are spicing things up. cajun style. ♪ if you're looking to save money on your medicare part d prescriptions, walgreens says, carpe med diem. seize the day to get more out of life and medicare part d. just switch to walgreens for savings that'll be the highlight of your day. now preview the cost of your copay before you fill. you can even get one-dollar copays on select plans.

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due to your first accident. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. it's fair to say none of us have seen a candidate like donald j. trump. most remarkable is trump is impervious to any fallout after he says things any other candidate said anything like them would be toast. last year the stalwarts of american punditry predicted that trump's candidacy would unravel, but it didn't. don't take our word for it, take a listen. >> they're bringing drugs. they're bringing crime. they're rapists. and some, i assume, are good people. >> donald trump isn't afraid to speak his mind, but this time it could cost him. >> most people think trump will flame out or drop out.

>> flame out quickly. >> trump isn't paying the price in the polls. >> donald trump is a top contender for the presidential -- republican presidential nomination. >> he is a war hero because he was captured. i like people that weren't captured. hate to tell you. >> has the donald trump schtick run its course? with these comments about john mccain, it might have. >> i don't think this is the end, i think and this may be wishful thinking, the beginning of the end. >> i think this is the beginning of the end for donald trump. >> beginning of the end of donald trump. >> i will eat my right hand if donald trump is the republican nominee. >> here we go. a new ppp poll conducted after his remarks about mccain still show him in first place with 19%. >> there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. >> red state organizers said this is the beginning of the end of trump's campaign. >> i think this could be the beginning of the end for donald trump.

>> i think this is the beginning of the end for donald trump. >> two new polls out today have donald trump in the lead of the gop pac even after his recent controversial comments about fox news anchor megyn kelly. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. >> many people think this controversy could be the last straw for donald trump. >> i think this is the beginning of the end. >> new evidence today trump's recent comments about muslims aren't keeping his popularity from rising. >> donald trump is not going to be our president. he will probably flame out probably in the next three to next months. >> i don't think we'll talk about donald trump in six months like a meteorite. >> i think he is a roman candle destined to burn out. >> i think donald trump will flame out soon. >> every time people predict the demise of donald trump, he gets stronger. >> every time we try to predict

it's happened, we are wrong. >> i'm done predicting. >> whenever he goes over the line, he recovers from it. >> the latest round of nonsense was going to hurt his candidacy, stop saying that. you are going to be wrong. >> i was wrong. >> i'm doubling down on my demise theory. i think he's going to collapse. sitting taking the oval office come january 1st and i'll still be predicting a demise. >> on behalf of ourselves and our colleagues, we promise to do better this year. coming up -- james carville and mary matalin. "hi this is conor. sorry i missed you. i'm either away from my desk or on another call. please leave a message and i'll get back to you just as soon as i'm available. thank you for patience at this busy time." join princess cruises for stargazing with discovery at sea.

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what better way to start the new year with two of our best friends television and

otherwise, lover of the clintons james carville and republican strategist and someone maybe not quite as fond of the clintons mary matalin. thank you for joining us from the big easy. >> happy new year, boys. >> glad to see you side by side. want to get right into the race. mary, start with you about the republican race. who would you say is the front-runner or the front runners for the presidential nomination now? >> well, is that a trick question? >> no. straight forward. >> trump is the front-runner, but we have events in front of us, cruz will probably win iowa. the contest is for who comes in second in iowa and new hampshire. it will test our organizations. everybody is going to test their organizations as you just noted. you all have been wrong the whole year. >> what's the universe of people who can be tomorrow nated at this point? >> well, i would say conventional wisdom is trump is too hot and cruz is too cold and rubio is goldilocks, but again,

conventional wisdom has been crazy. i'm not writing jeb off yet or christie off yet. we'll let this thing unfold. >> james, you've been a rubio man for much of this cycle. is he in your mind the front-runner? >> cruz, i thought, said about a year ago thought he was the most talented politician i've seen in a while. rubio just seemed to everybody like he was going to do it. rubio is like brazil. they say it's the nation of the future and always will be. it seems like that about rubio. he's the candidate of the future and always will be. he has to get in the present pretty soon. >> james, we just showed as you noted a bunch of our fellow pundits getting it wrong last year. let me ask you this. if you had to stipulate a theory right now as to what would bring down trump, what would it be? >> well, it's going to be a surprise.

whatever it is because everything in this cycle so far has been a surprise. i don't know. i was in mississippi, i have a place on the mississippi gulf coast. i drove by the trump rally in biloxi and it was late morning, early afternoon and there were a gazillion people there. maybe 15,000 people in the arena. those 20,000 people are going to vote or do something. not just curiosity. i think the assumption is going to be he is going to come down, but so far it won't. people say if he loses iowa, which he probably will, will that pierce is cloak of invincibility or something? i don't know. his supporters are dog gone deep. >> mary, you are a great student of greek mythology and politicians' weakness. if there is an achilles' heel to donald trump, what is it? >> he doesn't have one. he can take himself out or what

surprises me are two things of the cycle. how everybody was surprised by him. it's not like mainstream conservatives have not been voicing their preference loudly. they are not the silent majority. they're the screaming majority since 2009. we have more seats since we had since the civil war. that it manifested in trump is not -- that is a manifestation. my second surprise is none of these other candidates however many are left, only one really truly understood this trump phenomenon and that was cruz. if there is an achilles' heel, it's somebody who gets trump. i tell how is not going to get him is bill clinton. that guy is catnip for the press but catnip for bill clinton. you watch what happens to clinton, his response mode when trump takes him on. >> let me put think the way about the cycle.

it's such an odd cycle, a man that bankrupt four companies is attacking a man who balanced fewer. >> nice one. >> this country owes bill clinton a tremendous debt of gratitude. they know he is a president that balanced budgets and trump is a man who bankrupt companies. check it out. it's a fact. >> can you clarify what you were saying about trump and bill clinton? i didn't get your point. >> because kicking off the new year where the h-bomb is going to put out her husband, right? no one has been able to withstand trump's barbs and everyone thinks they are strong enough to combat him. the only guy who didn't take the bait is ted cruz. >> you are saying if bill clinton takes trump on he'll lose? >> i'm saying it's going to be one more great, funny stage thing to watch.

no one can resist him. >> let's go through the list of people who took on bill clinton, newt gingrich, livingson, denny hastert? they didn't do too well. >> have us back after he takes him on. >> bankrupted four companies taking on the most fiscally responsible president. >> got it. >> let me ask you on the democratic side, what do you think the odds are you've got casinos in orioles, what are the odds bernie sanders wins iowa and new hampshire? >> not impossible. he is putting 100 other people. >> put numbers on it. >> 43.258%. >> are you kidding around? >> i think there's a chance. i don't think it's a 50% chance. he's got a lot of people. i'll say this. hillary and her campaign, they

take nothing for granted. they are running a really good campaign and will be there plugging away, but bernie will be plugging away, too. >> yes but she is to this campaign as he said about george h.w. bush in 1992. she could dress up like catwoman and start herself on fire but she will still be a boring candidate. something else could happen in the democratic field. >> she might be boring, but she didn't bankrupt any companies. >> let me ask you this question going back to the early topic when talking about trump and bill clinton. in 2008 when hillary clinton ran for the democratic nomination and barely lost to barack obama, was bill clinton a net liability or net asset to his wife? >> i think you could look at it one or two ways. this time he will be a net liable. if anything, he is more popular. he is going to be good request.

but it's her campaign. he is a surrogate. he is the best surrogate there is. >> you meant net asset, i assume? >> is that way said? >> you did. >> i meant net asset. >> he told the truth. he told the truth. >> 2008 with one cycle she came very, very close. she obviously is going to win in 2016. it's never easy in politic. it's not going to be easy for anybody. >> you don't want america rising to use that clip or the rnc of you saying he is going to be a net liability? you meant net asset. 2008 was he a net asset or necessary liability? >> i think mixed but more asset side. >> that was a semi honest answer from james. >> no. it was freudian. sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. >> you think he will be a liability to her in this

campaign? that sounds like what you're saying. >> do you think that? >> mary. >> no. yes for all the reasons. it's her campaign. for the things what i just said. he can't get over not -- he will not be able to resist trump. trump is going to attack him. also it's going to be the stage for undermining hillary's base of support which is women. she made a very chutzpah mistake -- she brought this on herself. we knew she would play the woman card. no one anticipated she would play the abused woman card. >> what is it about bill clinton's presidency that most get to republicans, the peace or prosperity? one ticks them off and i can't figure out which one it is. the fact we were making money and no one was getting killed. >> mary will pond their original

line she never heard before. happy new year to you both. we hope to have you back in 2016. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ why fit in when you were born to stand out. the 2016 nissan altima has arrived. ♪ across america, people like badominique wilkins...er ...are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes... ...with non-insulin victoza®. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar. but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza®. he said victoza® works differently than pills. and comes in a pen. victoza® is proven to lower blood sugar and a1c.

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in new hampshire and ted cruz. if you watch in washington, d.c., listen on bloomberg 91.1 fm. till tomorrow, sayanara. it's 2016 and "hardball" has come to iowa and to hillary clinton. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in des moines where a pitched battle is on right now between the two party front runners, hillary clinton and donald trump. clinton accuses trump of a penchant for sexism. trump says this makes bill clinton fair game. all this is preview to my sitdown interview tomorrow night with secretary clinton. her first of 2016. the iowa caucuses are now exactly four weeks away and the