inventory i needed. our amex helped us fill the orders. just like that. another step on the journey. will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com >> oh my god, if you like politics, it's so exciting to be in new hampshire. new hampshire is the greatest place to be in the world this time of the year in even numbered years di invisible by four. that said, every election year is different. quite a handful. this year, here's the weird thing, in nature and in news, it is very rare that some fairly static measure of how things are suddenly increases by a factor

of 50. something suddenly grows 50 times over. that is what has just happened this year in new hampshire politics. last year, by this time in the new hampshire, there have been roughly $2 million of political ads run in this discriminate. this time around, it's not $2 million. it's $100 million. bloomberg politics reports today ad spending in new hampshire this cycle so far is at roughly $100 million. 50 times than it was in 2012. that's not counting this week, wednesday, or tuesday. $100 million in this one state. part of the reason for that is there are more super packs this year. tv stations can charge more than the campaigns, for example, in one local newscast chris christy

campaigned reportedly charged $700 for their ad. in that same broadcast on that same day, they were charged $5,000 to run their ad. so that part of it. if you want to know how you get this thing not found in nature. how you got a 50fold increase in ad spending in one state, just in 2012. part of it is super packs and the fact that they have to spend more money on their ads. part is also some really, really, really rich super packs that are spending mo inso fast it's all a blur right now. there is one particular super pack that's spending money right now like it's on fire. i'll give you an example. on one local station, there is this one super pack that this past month that one super pack spent more than combined from both parties. you know it's the super pack

supporting this, jeb bush's campaign and the super packs supporting him. jeb has more money behind him than anyone and they are spending more money than anyone. particularly here in new hampshire but here in today's news are two really interesting signs that they might be sort of pulling the fire alarm or they might be moving into pull out all the stops now. the first sign that they are thinking this might be the new end, this is the new ad. ly show it to you in just a second. here's my reasoning, few are jeb bush, you probably thought you would end up running this ad sometime. i can't help but think the idea was to run this one last ad, last, really last, as in november. last as if oh my god there's nothing else we can try, let's try everything. they knew they'd have to do this at some point. i'm pretty sure they had no idea they'd have to run this ad now

before new hampshire. >> the first job as president is to protect america. our next president must be prepared to lead. i know jeb. i know his good heart and his strong backbone, jeb will unite our country. he knows how to bring the world together against terror. he knows when tough measures must be taken. experience and judgment count in the oval office. jeb bush is a leader, who will keep our country stave. >> jeb bush, right to rise usa is responsible for the content of this message. >> new super pack ad for george w. bush's younger brother. in case you didn't remember him that way. jeb bush's last band is him running as george w. bush's younger brother. all hands on deck, i guess. on the other sign that the fire alarm may have been pulled on jeb bush and people may have started moving towards their escape routes, is this reporting front politico.com, reporting

that the jeb bush super c started a big ad blitz in virginia, tennessee, oklahoma starting on monday. they have now pushed the start date for those ads to thursday and you know what they may be nothing at all. maybe a calendar change. it does have one important effect. switching the ads from monday to thursday conveniently gives the jeb bush super pac a chance to change without penalty and not waste their money up to wednesday of next week, which is the day after the new hampshire primary. so tear retically, if jeb bush, say, gets completely smoked in new hampshire on tuesday and quits the race on wednesday, his super pac because of this change, they can now can sell all those ad, get that money back, save that money they otherwise would have lost on a five-state ad blitz. as for why they would want to

save the money? i don't know, maybe it can be used for the jeb bush vice presidential campaign. maybe it's for marvin or neil, i don't know if there is another bush up quite away. so the jeb bush super pac appears to be readying the exit strategy. there are at least some signs of that. the ben carson campaign laid off 50 people t. carley fiorina campaign, what i can tell you is they have a really cute carley red rv, which i saw today in the flesh. i saw nit manchester, new hampshire. that's the picture i took with my phone. that's a sign she is still running. she at least has an rv. she is now definitively will be excluded from the next republican debate. she will not be at the kids' table for the debate because there is no kids' table this time. it will be seven republican candidates on stage and those

seven will not include her. so that does not bode well for her in this race. the race has shrunk already on the republican side this week. they seem poised to shrink again very soon. now on the democratic side, these are getting super unpredictable. you know what tracking polls are? they are a different kind of poll altogether. tracking polls, what they do is they fool a group of people with a similar makeup of every single day. they keep polk them to see how their views change over time, day-by-day. so 7 news is doing a tracking pom in new hampshire. bernie sanders in that tracking pom, he was ahead in new hampshire by 31 points. he was 61 and hillary clinton was at 30. now the end of that same week, five days later, what, hillary

clinton cut that bernie sander's lead in half. bernie sanders is now at 55. hillary clinton is at 40. within a matter of days, she shrunk his lead in new hampshire. at least in this one tracking poll from 31 all the way down to 15 points. lest you think that helps you make sense of this race though tr this. there is also a new national poll out by quinnipiac university which shows they are campaigning every second of their lives, but nationwide, the new quinnipiac poll shows senator sanders is closer to senator clinton than he has ever been. in this new national pom, secretary clinton the at 44. bern boerne is at 42. the last time this same poll was conducted in december, senator clinton was leading him by 31 points. now she's leading by 2. senator sanders closed nationally at 2 points.

so after the democrats final new hampshire debate last night, which we will be talking about later on in the show. honestly, it is super exciting, unpredictable. a little weird. super sol tile. new hampshire is feeling just as unpredictable as iowa ended up being this past week. i had a chance to see republican events in new hampshire today. which is amazing for all different sorts of reasons, including me getting my first interview with new jersey governor chris christie. i have a person working five days a week. literally, i can see new jersey from my house. in order to interview the governor of new jersey, i had to go to new hampshire in a snowstorm. i did get it. we will have more on that later. one thing i did not respect in following republican candidates today in seeing all their bus and rvs and chasing down the candidates. it was so fun. the one thing i did not expect

on my journey on the republican trail was a pundit about the state of the democratic race. the relative strengths and weaknesses of bernie sanders and hillary clinton. in normal times, candidates go out of their way to leave the punditry to the pundits. they want to talk about whatever political enemy is attacking at that moment. candidates as a rule, they don't handicap their own races, other people's races. they don't particularly handicap other people's races in the other party. that's how it normally goes. except today, that is not at all what i found. >> what you do on tuesday is going to narrow this field. will you decide who the other 48 states gets to pick from. we started at 17. we're down to eight. will you probably get it down to three or four or five. and so you have a great responsibility for the rest of the country. choose wisely. choose wisely, because if you do, you know, we'll have some good options to run against

hillary clinton. we may actually have a chance to win. but you know they've already made their choice, believe me, bernie will win up here. if bernie can't beat hillary in iowa, we are nothing but white liberal people. he ain't winning any place else him i'm telling you right now. me may win on tuesday. you are getting hillary clinton bernie sanders may be minnesota, wisconsin, you know, a couple of those places bern benefit might win in those places, also places filled with really liberal white people. other than that, all these, you know it's true. right. i mean, come on, it's true. hillary clinton is going to win this nomination. so, okay, bernie can have some fun for a while. he got his own ice cream from ben and jerry. it's great. if nothing else comes out of this for bernie sanders, he got his own ice cream with ben and jerry's, it's like jimmy fallon. he's like a 74-year-old jewish

guy from brooklyn. he has his own ice cream from ben and jerry's. if he runs for president for no other reason, he got. that it's a good thing for him. as a republican, i know, we cannot get lucky enough that the democrats would actually nominate a 74-year-old socialist. question can't get that lucky. it can't possibly happen. we'll get hillary. so we better nominate someone that knows how to fight. >> that man is doing democratic party punditry as a part of his stump speech. his town hall schtick for voters in new hampshire. i didn't expect. that that was chrisso tee instratusham, new hampshire, doing a town hall. his 67th in the stated of new hampshire. chris christie and john kasich are the two candidates who have gone all in on new hampshire. they are both campaigning in the same way, both trying to cast themselves as the moderate republicans. they're not ashamed of even using the word moderate. i saw them both use it today.

they both talk about the benefits of compromise and working with democrats, both trying to seem as reasonable as possible and talk about other republicans as unreasonable. they're both campaigning exactly the same way, talking about their experience as governor, governing and how practical they are, how you have to do the hard work in the trenches with the real people on the other side, get things done. they are tactic ally approaching not only, they're both approaching new hampshire in the same way, strategically, attacking the way they are doing it. they are doing dozens and dozens of town halls in the state. neither are leaving the state. >> that i have been here for the duration. they were both here the day after iowa. john kasich was here the day of iowa. chris christie did his 67th. john kasich his 98th. i went to this morning. later today, his 99th and 100th. seeing these two guys on paper, similar guys with similar

strategies through very similar means. and it turns out, when you see them in person, it's very easy to see in person why they are getting totally dissimilar outcomes. it's very easy to see why one of them is a contender and could conceivably win in new hampshire on tuesday, or at least place in the top thread and the other one looks like that's a pipe dream. on paper they're exactly the same. in person, no way. and that story is next. ♪ ♪ (vo) making the most out of every mile. that's why i got a subaru impreza. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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in case you haven't noticed, we moved to new hampshirech. and we picked up a bar in the process. it turns out we will be staying for the duration. honey, this is my way of telling you i need to be back in new hampshire for monday night's show. tuesday is primary night. brian williams and i will be anchoring msnbc's new hampshire coverage from new hampshire, minus the bar, along with chris

mathews starting at 6:00 p.m. on primary night. that's tuesday. we will be doing our show on monday night. we're not leaving. there is no reason to leave. where else would you like to be? all questions coming up tonight at 10:00 eastern. we will be reairing the democratic cad debates. if you missed it. no excuses. it's on after this hour tonight.

. some of the famously exciting things about new hampshire, is not only does everybody in the state get to meet all of the candidates, more than once if you want to, new hampshire voters also like to be unpollable. they like to make up their mind

at the last minute. in this frenzy of campaigning you are seeing all over the state of new hampshire right now, that's for a reason, there is a reason there is so much campaigning, because new hampshire voters are hearing architects that sway them right now. that's not bugging the system here. >> that is a feature. that's how they do it here. to a person. >> that is what i found from every single voter i talked to today, democrats and republicans, even the ones that clearly knew who they liked and didn't like. nobody i talked to today told me they were 100% decided. are you undecided? >> a little undecided. i certainly enjoyed this today. >> reporter: who else are you thinking about? zblul after them, really. >> reporter: so are you john kasich supporters already? are you thinking about him? >> very close to it. >> reporter: really, a little undecided. >> i will go see chris christie tonight. >> reporter: you like rubio you

think kasich has more of what it takes, is that fair? >> i think so, yeah. >> reporter: what about trump? >> i think he's great, because i'm so tired of politicians, it's refreshing to hear somebody think and not care about what he evidence. >> reporter: you might vote for him? >> i don't know if i'll go that far, but i definitely say -- but i really have enjoyed him being in the race. >> reporter: when do you think you will make up your mind? >> probably the day before. >> reporter: on the drive to the polling place. >> i can walk across the street to it. >> reporter: good. >> i was with a good friend of mine who was argue knolly going to vote for rand paul. now she said, i don't know what i'm going to do tuesday. i think there is at love ous. >> reporter: who is on your short list in. >> i like jeb bush, chris christie, john kasich. >> reporter: are you leaning towards any one of them? those three '. >> i will look at the three of them over the next couple days and i'll decide. >> reporter: it's friday rnths will you vote on tuesday.

when will you know? >> tuesday. >> in my case probably tuesday. >> we're fine t. country, we got problems, wages, you know, not enough jobs, the college debt, all these things, health care all these things we talk about, whatever, wall street, whatever, okay, all these things are things that need to be fixed. and they're really not that ha ready to fix. so we can't keep drifting, drifting, drifting. and i'll tell you. i i think the basic strength of our country is good. let's talk about the stockmarket. oh my god, the market is up. it's up and down, now it's react not to basics, but things they see, it's almost like the media and the 24 hour news cycle, oh my god around you know hand the that's until tomorrow and then they're oh my god again. that's like the market. that's why there is so much volatility. what i can tell you in my

opinion is the basics of our economy is very strong. if you get into the market, you are diversified, you wait, you will always go up. >> how do you see -- the world in a global sense that there is more stability? it's a tinder box right now and obama has made it -- >> well, you know, a tinder box. yeah. what i would, look i served for european years on the defense committee and i was in the pentagon after 9-11, i remember when there were, you know, 15,000 nuclear warheads aimed at us. i remember as a kid height income a cloak room in 1962 when we thought we were going to war swoefts. so keep it oul all if perspective. >> reporter: so this is john kasich's 98th town hall in new hampshire. he will have two more today. he will get to 100 today. atkinson country club.

it's different from john kasich. everybody else on the republican side is around the country saying it's on the collapse, it's on the verge of armageddon. the country is okay t. fundamental apples in this country are okay. he was asked by voters concerned about unrest and basically threats from abroad. he rejected the tinderbox in the northeast and north africa. i remember the cold war. it's all in perspective. i think the word moderate is a difficult world at this point. but he's preventing a moderate view in terms of where the country is. the same things are okay at this point in the campaign from all the other republican candidates

sometimes from the democrat's side. >> we really did have to brave the weather to get to that john kasich event today. i'm so glad i went and i got to see it. i kept wondering about what it was that kept working for him in new hampshire. he does seem to be doing a lot of the same things, talking the same way, presenting himself, as a lot of the other candidates who are fought getting anywhere in this state at all. i had wondered before i got here, maybe it was the john kasich super pac ads, maybe the ads were the secret to his success. there are really $100 of ads so far this year literally. i don't think anybody will tell you any one candidate's ads will change the course of the race. there is too big of a stream of advertising. i don't think that's it. look at the latest polling out today in new hampshire this is in the nbc-wall street marist

poll. here in new hampshire, it feels the reason he is in double digits behind marco rubio and ted cruz. it feels because of how wale real and reasonable seeming and relatable seeming he is at the events he is doing in personal across the state. john kasich is not doing a performance like some of these guys r. he's listening to people in the room, asking them questions, drawing them out engaging why they are there. i saw him do it. he is not oprah, he is crusty and curmudgeonly in his personality f. some voters are looking for authenticity, as a political consumer, observer, who has been up to new hampshire for a lot of different primaries

and seen a lot of these events. i can see how new hampshire voters see authenticity in john kasich up here in new hampshire. i can see that when he's in those rooms. now, in contrast, that's next. ugh! heartburn! no one burns on my watch!

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when you're on hold, your business is on hold. that's why comcast business doesn't leave you there. when you call, a small business expert will answer you in about 30 seconds. no annoying hold music. just a real person, real fast. whenever you need them. so your business can get back to business. sounds like my ride's ready. don't get stuck on hold. reach an expert fast. comcast business. built for business. >> so we just finished up to chris christie town hall in stratham, new hampshire. it's cool. it's such a big employer. it's such a cool headquarters.

they apparently have lots and lots of candidates in and out of here all the time. it's cool to be here. nice to be inside because of the snowstorm. but watching chris christie immediately after watching john kasich it is super interesting, because both of those guys, more than anybody else, christie and kasich worked their hearts out in new hampshire even to theic collusion of working out in iowa. they gave up on iowa to go all in on new hampshire. they're both new hampshire kind of candidate. they're both what you'd expect new hampshire to go for if they expect to type this year. seeing kasich and christie, i feel like i get why, at least the polls say, the strategy is working for kasich. it is fought working for christie. they are given you a similar message in terms of being willing to work across the aisle. to having a more moderate approach that is attractive to new hampshire voters being good at governance, they have dig

barack barack, don't spend all their time doing that, on the substance, they're similar. on the sometime, kasich is incredibly engaged one on one with people in a way that engages them not only with whatever it is he is saying, whatever it is they are saying. he responds to them individually. he is personable. he seems grouchy in a likable way the same way christie is likable. he gets asked questions and does speeches thereafter, literally speech length rifts on whatever he thinks is either important, funny or important about the point. the lack of engagement from christie, him performing while the audience isn't getting it was a surprise to me. i don't know if it just doesn't work in new hampshire and it works at home or if it's seeing him next to kasich. that was a surprise. one benefit of seeing the chris christie event and john kasich event back-to-back today was able see that key difference between them in terms of how well they are checking with

people in these rooms. but they're talking to all over new hampshire. john caseing i think moved every single person who i saw in that room with him. the chris christie crowd had people walking out. the other unexpected and freaking awesome reason, it was great specifically to make it to that chris christie town hall delayed because of the weather and all the things, the other reason it was worth going. this is a part of our drive today, that for how many years now, has it been time for some traffic problems in fort lee on the rachel maddow show. we frequently even in the new jersey press get blamed, sometimes credited, mostly blamed, for having brought that story to a national audience. they made it into a national scandal that affected chris christie's standing on the national stage. not just bridgegate, though, there are a lot of things about governor christie we have spent a lot of time covering over a

lot of years on this show and, boy, have i asked for a lot of interviews with governor christie. we have never even gotten a no from them. they give us nothing. i think when a phone call arrives on the cell phone of anyone that lives near christie, they see the digits from our office, it's like ignore, ignore. i have never been able to get him anywhere near him. today i finally got my interview with christie. that's next. stay with us. >> will you go see christie? >> yes, i will see him. >> reporter: have you ever seen him before? >> no. >> reporter: i'd like to see him. i'd like to interview him. >> that will be the end of the world before that hams.

>> rachel, rachel, how are you? >> nice to see you, governor. >> reporter: good to see you. i came all the way here to get you. >> you bite the crap out of me for years, you expect me to voluntarily come on your program. >> reporter: you love the back and forth. >> with a lot of people. not with you. what do you have today? >> reporter: i'm not trying to beat the difference out of you. what's the different questions in a new jersey town haul and a new hampshire town hall. >> in new jersey, it's state based. here it's a different set. in new jersey, you are talking pensions and talking about law enforcement and you are talking

k to 12 education in a much more granular way than you are in a national form. there are differences, like, listen, let's try the difference between iowa, new hampshire and new jersey. i have to give you a range. so, iowans are very laid back. iowans sit there with their arms folded across their chest most of the time, barely kind of nod at you. you don't get any feed feedp mary pat, i say we sit if iowa town halls, i couldn't tell you whether i was doing well, or more involved. in new hampshire, more motive. more reaction and very, very good questions. these are people who really read up on the issues. they really understand what's going on and they don't ask you like the level one question. they ask you the level two question, which is interesting. new jerseyans, i never have to wonder how i'm doing. i know immediately when i walk in the room. new jerseyans are more emotive than the folks in new hampshire

and are very emotive in the midst of answers, like new hampshire folks won't interrupt except with laughter. new jersey folks will interrupt you in the middle of the answerch that's crap, oh, hey, thank you. you know, so it's a range, the difference between the three are the range of emotions and i think of the differences in those states and their cull cures and so when you are a politician, you don't change, because few change, people note it. what you do is you just understand and not be acted by it as much. so i'll i'm not nearly as affected if someone yelled at me as if iowa. >> nobody yells at you in new hampshire and new jersey u iowa. everybody likes is the fight. >> i've had a few if new hampshire, a few people have come at me a little bit. i had one the other day, i came back at him. but, yeah, the fight, well, i don't know that the people like the fight. remember there is 134 town halls as governor. most of them are relatively

sedate affairs. post-are like what you saw here. but when you are in the new york media market, right, you have one of those moments, you have a sit down and shut up moment. a you are a liar, no, you are a liar moment. it gets played over and over again, that's the entertaining stuff. like answering a thoughtful question with a thoughtful answer usually doesn't make programs like yours or others, i'm not talking right or left. people are trying to find something that will entertain folks and put it on. i've never had a problem with that. i usually get fairly entertaining one way or another. >> you think the fights play outside new jersey, there is some question maybe your style is a new jersey style, that combativeness entertaining on the east caste may fought play everywhere? >> then how do you, explain trump? what you have said about me over the years in terms of things that have come out of my mouth, they're a fraction. i never said i could shoot

somebody in the middle of fifth avenue and could not lose a voter. i never said ban all muslims from the united states. you know, and this is a guy who if you read the polls is ahead in the polls, not only in new hampshire, but he's ahead much more nationally even than he is in this particular state. so i don't think that's it. i think you all owe me in that regard. i spent my time going all around the entire country being asked by people to come and raise money for them. they don't invite people who somebody don't like. hey, you hate christie, why don't you come to see him? you know, that's not the way it works. so i think that folks have always misunderstood that part of it. i've always felt like i am who i am. i'm some people's cup of tea. others i won't be. i never found that to be regional. i found that to be more philosophically based. do they agree with my philosophy and what i've done or there is

always some sort of kind of ethnicity thing to it, too. ? what do you mean? >> listen, my point is that like for some folks, if you're a northeastern person who seems the least bit ethnic in any kind-of-ethnicity, they always think you can't be conservative. right. you have to overcome that. whether it's me or rudy guiliani or george pataki, whoever it is, they will think, even though you may have governed conservatively, yeah, but he's from there so he can't possibly be a real conservative. no, listen, whatever trump's problems are, they're trump's problems. trump is a donald as i've known, i said to you guys, i have known him a long time. he is a unique physical publicly well before he ran for president. so whatever donald problems and assets are donald's problems and assets, i don't think they apply in the same way to the restf us involved in politics, it's much

different. >> that was governor chris christie today. see, governor, we can have an interesting conversation you and i. i come to cover you as a politician, not to bury you as some saturday of cartoonish villain. we can do this again sometime. that went find fine. even if i asked you hard questions, it would have been fine, come on, come on. governor christie is at a crucial moment here in new hampshire. this is literally the weekend he needs to be piquing. instead he appears to be headed in a new direction t. new wall street marist poll shows governor christie at 4%, that's down from last month when he was at 7%. everybody thought maybe double digits were in sight for him. double digits are not in sight for him. at least not yet. he thinks new hampshire voters will winnow the republican field down to three, four, maybe five republican candidates.

right now in the latest polk, governor christie, himself, is not poming in the top five. he's number six and honestly, you can see how hard it's working. he is doing everything he can here in new hampshire. he is using all of his considerable charm and political talent. he has giant full schedules. he is doing everything he can. governor christie today described his plans to go home after tuesday to go back to new jersey tuesday night. he will spend a couple days in new jersey at home before he goes on to south carolina. realistic ally, though, it remains to be seen if there is a south carolina in christie's future unless he has a late turn around in his fortunes here. new jersey, you may be getting your governor back. very excited. >> i got to make me way through the snow, so it will take me a little longer. good to see you, rachel. want to get their hands on.

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of the republican race during the iowa caucuses monday night. he did not. it has become a legitimate scandal in the republican race, though, that ted cruz' campaign said that he did. the first thing they knew is about these tweets from ted cruz' endorsing, republican steve king as the iowa caucuses were getting under way monday night. steve king did this carson looks like he's out. iowans need to move out. the tweets we found out about first. then we found out about this e-mail under the official ted cruz logo. it also went out monday, ben carson taking time off from the campaign trail, please inform any carson caucus-goers of this news, urge them to caucus for ted cruz. we learned from ben carson, himself, at least according to him, when his wife showed up monday night to make a pitch for her husband. a ted cruz supporter had spoken first. that ted cruz speaker told that

precinct ben carson was dropping out of the race. so ben carson supporters should feel free to support other people. ben carson's on wife had to tell that precinct that night, no, no, no my husband is not running, he is dropping out. after all that, he heard ted cruz apologize saying this was not a planned dirty organized trip. it was a regrettable mistake, he said it's a staff error, his political team forwarded the leading news story to his supporters, subsequently the campaign said he was not suspending his campaign and the cruz team did not forward that statement to supporters as well, according to ted cruz, quote, that was a mistake. now we know it was not just a mistake, it was not just some forgetful staffers forgetting to loop back around to that story, forgetting to dot the is and cross the ts on this, now it appears to have been a dirty trick turned out on a fairly wide and deliberate scale on the whole apparatus of the ted cruz

campaign in iowa. now the right and left side published what appear to be phone bank style calls from the ted cruz campaign on caucus night literally spreading this lie across the state of iowa about ben carson, spreading the lie that dr. carson was dropping out of the race so carson supporters should feel free to defect to another candidate, preferably ted cruz. . this is going to be an entry in the textbook, where they teach bad kids what good grades, the dark art of political dirty tricks. this is nasty.

this is a nasty dirty trick from ted cruz. he got caught dead to right. because he said cruz, he doesn't have a friend in the world in the republican political circles. he has got caught. and the question is is this going down in history as dirty tricks as usual? there seems to be a legitimate endsness from ted cruz and the people he is running against on the republican side. particularly on this thing that he told supporters ben carson was out of the race. wow, the republicans seemed mad at him about this. what is the best context understanding whether something like this could hurt ted cruz or whether this will be seen as politics as usual. i know exactly who to ask that question. question. that's next.

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>> zblfs a voicemail left by someone with the ted cruz campaign in iowa, right at the start of the iowa caucuses on monday night. ben carson was not dropping out of the race, in fact, but the cruz campaign apparently engaged in a big effort to get word out to precincts ben carson was leaving the race. he wasn't leaving the race.

the question is, is this dirty tricks as usual or is the worse than the kind of stuff we have seen in the past. fortunately, i have here in this bar with me the perfect person to ask about this. joining me is political correspondent steve kornacki. thank you. >> good to be here. >> you are a good person of good tricks. >> is that a good thing? >> you have anecdotes as your pal. it is a dirty trick what ted cruz did in iowa to ben carson. i have been struck how mad the other republican candidates and campaigns are about it. there is legitimate anger about it. people are not faking it. is that because people don't like ted cruz or is this in the grand scheme of things more beyond the pail of your political heartthrob? >> i think the standard i use in judging durty tricks is the primary of 2000, george w. bush, john mccain this underhanded behind the scenes stuff taking place to undermine john mccain from bush-aligned people.

>> he was secretly driven crazy and brain washed, he had a black child that he didn't own up to, yes. >> to me that's the all time worse i can think of at the presidential level. i saw lot worse in new jersey. at the presidential level, that itself worst. i wouldn't put this in that league a. lot of reaction has cruz a has the target having won iowa. b. republicans don't like the guy, they're looking for an excuse to go after him. >> if you are generally liked, seen as a popular guy, if you have exchanged favors with people or exchanged pleasantries with people, sometimes people, a, be more forgiving about awe did, they're more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt. they also back up. nobody is backing him up. nobody is throwing him a lifeline on this at all. does that tend to affect whether or not something like this sticks as a legitimately bad act? >> here's where i think it sticks, ben carson a agrieved by this, genuinely offended. the carson campaign was not and

is not good. it doesn't look like ben carson has much of a chance in this thing. when that initial report cable out on cnn to sung maybe he's going to florida, people are speculating he is getting out of the race, it seemed plausible. here's the thing, from all we can tell, this has fired up ben carson. he is so angry at ted cruz, he wants to stay in now t. whole reason this was a thing the cruz campaign was doing is ben carson getting 5, 10% of the vote was a threat to ted cruz in iowa, his margins were so small. >> goes for the votes he needs specifically. >> every vote for carson is potentially a vote taken from cruz, so if carson now stays in this thing to south carolina, south carolina is the next key state for ted cruz, ben carson gets 6% in south carolina. >> it's not enough to make him a contender but maybe rob ted cruz, fascinating. >> this is the model for ted cruz, mike huckabee couldn't do and rick santorum couldn't do, you parlay in south carolina.

in particular, story with huck a buy is he was so close to beating john mccain, he was undercut by fred thompson, he stayed in the race. >> not a contender, just enough to gut the other guy. >> exactly. >> that is the threat of ted carson. if this keeps ben carson in the game a few weeks locker than he was going to be. >> because of sheer anger, sheer disgust. >> i'm going to show that guy. >> people wonder why we love politics, then stuff like this happens, it's shakespeare. steve kornacki, i'm sorry are you fought wearing your university of new hampshire sweatshirt. we will see about getting you one. we have more from new hampshire. stay with us, we are live from manchester. we'll be right back. in new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today. all across the state the economy is growing, with creative new business incentives, the lowest taxes in decades,

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hour, we reported on jeb bush's older brother, former george w. bush in a super pac ad for jeb bush him. this is like a closing argument. last possible thing you can do kind of ad. we all kind of few at some point jeb bush would have to call in this favor from his older brother. we did not know we would be calming it in this soon. again, at the beginning of this show, we few that commercial was set to start running today in the great state of south carolina. now we have an update, straight from the reporter. alex eisenstadt. he reports that commercial, the george w. bush ad, will be airing during the super bowl. because why not? jeb bush's campaign has more money behind it than anyone, they are spending more money than anyone. how better to truly blow torch a pile of money than expanding your george w. bush is my brother ad to include the super

bowl. wow! there you have it. somebody's media buyer is getting a rolls royce next year. >> that does it for us tonight. we will see you again monday from new hampshire. "weekends with alex witt" starts now. >> good morning, everyone, i'm ales whit in new york at msnbc headquarters the place for politics. countdown to new hampshire. some in the gop fighting for tear political lives as the campaign gets nastier. the big question today, who will take the granite state and how many will survive? in the battle of democrats, key questions arise for both candidates. who has the momentum heading into tuesday's big vote? here's what they're all saying. >> hillary clinton does not want to face me in an election, but i can't wait to face her or bernie, for that matter. >> marco rubio has been a politician since he was 26-years-old. his whole life has been around his own ambitions