>> governor huckabee, athena jones from cnn. >> and why would cnn be here by the way?annot imagine. >> how are you? are you ready for the big event? >> well, we will be seeing in about a few hours. >> and what do you do to prepare? >> i don't watch any television and on gameday, i don't get my head cluttered up with the stuff that you say, and the pre-game analysis and focus on the game and not what people are saying it is going to be. >> and otherwise you will psyche yourself out, and what is the goal the night? >> to keep from having one of the moments that sends me back home with no place to go tomorrow. >> and so you don't want to mess up. and you think that you will be able to break through? >> well, it depends upon the time that you give me. and the people on the stage, and keep it fair and divide the time up equally and don't make it a one or two candidate show, then i have a real shot, and all of us have to be concerned that it is like the tv coverage has been like the past few weeks and so unbelievably centered on one candidate, and that is going to be hard fo

athena jones, we will come back to you when the live arrivals begin. and so we thought that it would be interesting that we went over the rules for the event tonight, because you have to. and the candidates will have one minute to answer the questions from the panel, and then 30 seconds to respond to the other candidates who talk about them, and they will not be allowed to speak out of turn. you know what that means, right? they will probably, and so that is a tough job for jake tap, and also going to have one note pad, one pen, and one glass of water, a and this is it. they may not have the cell phone or tablets and they can not bring any notes into the hall with them. and if you will remember the basketball ar rena where the fit debates took place, and yeah, this is not that at all. this is real pretty, folks. it is a converted airplane hangar at the reagan library, and it holds just 500 seats, and they are filled by guest, invited guests, and people invite ed invited by the republican national committee, and people invited by the reagan library staf

athena jones has more. >> reporter: good morning. days away from the debate at the ronald reagan library in simi valley. the stage is set. the podiums are up and the candidates are getting ready. one of the big themes has been the strength of outsider candidates like donald trump and ben carson and carly fiorina. fiorina is going to be the new addition to the primetime debate stage on wednesday night. she spoke about the outsider status and what she brings to the table. >> i have been in and around washington for a long time. i don't think it is a mystery. i think one the dirty secrets is professional politicians want everyone to think it is so hard to do what we do. nobody else can do it. it's hogwash. it is not so hard. most of the stuff takes common sense and good judgment. people are frustrated because they see no contend er contende actually heldoffice. >> remember, president obama has never held public office before. in terms of running things, he is lousy. >> reporter: guys, this is going to be a huge television audience and o

athena jones, thank you so much.redictions from a panel of political pros who we'll put on the spot. joining me, sarah murray, michael smerconish and gloria borger. so great to have all of you here. less than three hours out. beginning with you and some of your sourcing with the jeb bush campaign, how are they feeling going into tonight? >> well, i've been talking with a lot of sources in the jeb bush campaign. and the one word i would think of to describe what they want to do tonight is contrast. contrast themselves with donald trump as being a real conservative, a real reformer, somebody who has experience, somebody who knows how to get things done in politics, in the real world, and also one other huge contrast particularly here at the reagan library. somebody who is optimistic like ronald reagan compared to somebody who is not like donald trump. >> right. t. boone pickens sat in that seat and endorsed him. he said, brooke, he's walking in molasses. we're hoping for jeb bush's sake the molasses goes away. >> to si

athena jones is there live in simi valley, california, right now, and athena, take me on the tour andhe background behind the scenes, and in front of the scene, and all of the scenes that we will see tomorrow night. >> hi, ashleigh. well, take a look here at what the audience is going to be looking like. you are looking at fewer than 500 seats are going to be in the audience for this big debate tomorrow night. you can see the teams preparing, and doing the rehearsals all day, and it is a rather intimate setting here, and people invited by the reagan library, itself, ad the republican national committee, and few of the folks in the crowd are invitees of the campaign, but it is a much more intimate setting than we saw in the first debate in an arena where they play basketball, so thousands of people versus a few h hundred, and it could affect how the candidates interact with each other. and the podiums here set up, and the candidates are going to be a few inches from each other, andless than two feet. and shoulder to shoulder, and donald trump is center stage, because he is top of the p

we will see if it hurts with voters. >> thank you, athena. here is what we know about trump's tax plan. he revealed that his plan would mean zero taxes for some americans. >> there would be a large segment of our country that will have a zero rate. a zero rate. that's something i have not told anybody. people in the low income brackets that are supposed to be paying taxes. many of them don't anyway. >> you are talking about making them exempt. >> he would maintain tax revenue by raising taxes on some of the riche richest. he wants to eliminate the loopholes. trump plans to cut corporate taxes. he says that will prevent companies from moving overseas. he wants to bring back the money that companies are stashing overseas. >>> and hillary clinton's lead over bernie sanders is fast disappearing with joe biden in the race, clinton leads 42% to 35%. and she says her e-mail questions are a trip down memory lane. she compares that to the controversies that dogged the clintons in the white house in the '90s. >> it is like a drip, drip, drip. that is w

unfortunately, we have lost our sign signal, but athena is there, and we will hopefully go back to her if not this hour, but next hour to give you a little preview of the scene there in simi valley, but on more of what we can expect on wednesday night's debate, i want to bring in donna brazile and katy packer, former campaign manager of romney for the president. and katy, two days ahead of the second debate, and what are you looking for? >> well, i think that you are going to be seeing a lot more sparks flying at this debate than in the past. i like to say that campaigns matter, and in the early stage, it is all about the candidates, and what do they know about them, and what they see of them on the news. they know a lot about donald trump, but not much of the candidates, but it is to the point where the campaigns kick n and you will be seeing the candidates really testing donald tr trump on the record, and trying to find that sort of the achilles' heel to force him to react in a way that he does not want to react, and with will see more of that wednesday night. >> and i imagine, donna

athena, thanks very much. a lot is at stake as we said for several of the candidates gracing the stage tonight. let's talk debate strategy. with me here chief political analyst gloria borger, john king, david axelrod, cnn political commentator. former senior adviser to president obama. who has the most to lose tonight? >> i think there are people on the fringe of the stage. >> in both debates. >> governor christie, rand paul has a lot at stake and certainly in the first debate i call it the dead man walking debate. it's going to be very, very hard to play yourself on to the main stage in that first debate. there are people going to follow rick perry out of this race after this debate. >> before iowa even? >> i think so. because it's all about whether you can raise the money to continue. some of the candidates on the stage, governor bush and others, have ample resources to move on. and so there's a little less at stake although it's still a very important debate. >> john king, what do you expect? >> i'm most in

athena, i do want to start with you. you're out there where it's going to happen. it's a much smaller crowd as i understand it. so the energy is going to be different. but the preparation energy has really ramped up, yes? >> reporter: good morning, that's right. the crowd here will be about 500. no more than 500. that's very, very different than the stadium, the arena that the first debate was held in. this is going to be one of the biggest television audiences any of these candidates find themselves in front of. it's important to make an impression and also show some fire. there are going to be 11 candidates on this stage. not a whole lot of minutes per candidate. some of these candidates really haven't been getting any attention or a mention much in the media unless their name has come out of donald trump's mouth. they're going to be trying to show that they're there on the stage. you're going to have folks like jeb bush and ben carson who are going to be flanking donald trump at center stage, try to show that they're not the low energy candidates that donald tru

, and athena, start with "the new york times"/orc poll that shows that dr. ben carson is closing in on him? >> well, wolf, i doubt that donald trump himself would say that he is worried, but maybe he should be, if we look at the numbers there, because this poll shows donald trump up on the lead at 24%, but carson is close behind at 23%, and he has gained 17 points in the last month. he was at 6% a month ago, and in third place, you can see jeb bush is tied with mike huckabee and marco rubio, and look at the ground that jeb bush has lost, 7 points in the last month, and it is interesting that at the huge rally in dallas last night, trump was complaining loudly that ben carson is getting all of the attention for surging in the polls, but it is yet another poll that shows that he is surging. so that is the lay of the land heading into tomorrow night, wolf. >> and the story continues to be the strength of the so-called outsider candidates. how's the anti-establishment set in playing it out when it comes to both the democrats and the republicans? >> this is reall

. >> and athena is now going to join us. are trump and carson's remarks likely to hurt them in the contest? >> well, it is a good question, and probably not, and it say tt because part of the voters for them agree with them, and for instance, trump who came under fire for not correcting a man who said that president obama is a muslim, and the recent cnn/orc poll shows that 43% of republicans believe that president obama is muslim, and 54% of trump supporters think that. so some of the things that trump has said are in line with our polling numbers, and also, if you look at the gallup poll from earlier in the summer, it shoedd that 45% of the republicans said they could vote for a muslim for president. and so, while some of the statements and sentiments may be stunning to a lot of people, there are also a lot of people who feel that trump and carson are speaking the truth, and those are the folks who are backing the two candidates, so we will have to see if they lose support, but my guess is if they do, it is not because of t

our athena jones joins me now live from iowa city with the latest on this.ut on the campaign trail in iowa city covering krm carly fiorina. so how are, overall, republican presidential candidates reacting to boehner's news? >> reporter: well, the candidates are reacting largely positively. everyone that i've heard from speak has said good things about the fact that speaker boehner is stepping down. i have been following carly fiorina around iowa for the past couple of days. take a listen to how she responded to the news of boehner's resignation yesterday, followed by donald trump and also senator ted cruz. take a listen. >> every leader has a season. and i appreciate mr. boehner's leadership and i think he is doing the right thing stepping aside now. >> i think it's time. i mean, it's really time for him. he's -- a lot of problems. we got to get the country going. and i think it really is time. >> yesterday, john boehner was speaker of the house. y'all come to town and somehow that changes. my only request is, can you come more often? >> reporter: so you hea

let's go to athena jones. she is in the debate hall. it is almost time for the big walk-throughs, athena, for these campaigns. >> reporter: that's right, john. they're going to be coming in the next couple of hours. they'll be arriving. they'll be able to walk through this debate hall, check out the podiums, get the lay of the land, learn where the moderators will be and that sort of thing. let me show you this debate hall. we can't show it off enough. this is air force one. this is the air force one that president ronald reagan flew in. that is going to be the backdrop for these candidates at this debate tonight. cnn crews have spent weeks building this stage. this was not here, this whole platfo platform. we are three stories high because they wanted to be able to showcase this plane in the backdrop for tonight. walking over here a little ways, you can begin to see the podiums, these clear podiums laid out. you can tell here that the candidates are only going to be a few inches apart. less than two feet apart. they are just waiting th

. >> cnn's athee athena jones joins us. good morning. >> good morning carol, this is where all the action is going to go down in a few hours. you just heard trump mentioning some other poll out of hn hp hn. i want to talk about a poll out today. brand new from new hampshire from wbur. it shows donald trump is still out on top at 22%. ben coarsarson is four points bd at 18%. and carly fiorina is the other so called outsider candidate, the non politician in third place at 11%. everyone else is in single digits. jeb bush, john kasich you can see tied at 9%. this is an important state, new hampshire, for both of those candidates and that is the backdrop tonight. we've been talking a lot about donald trump. we know he'll be a focus or a target tonight. and he's really as we've seen in the last months he's really torn up the usual playbook when it comes to campaigning and also when it comes to preparing if are big nights like tonight. and in a few hours we'll have a chance to see if that unusual approach continues to pay off for

this is athena athena is victoria's mother. gets along great with her foster family and loves attention. all she needs now is a forever home. if you're interested in any of the dogs you met today visit the diamonds in the we'll feature your stories on up coming "shelter me rescue of the week" segments. with >> sky6 live hd taking a live look for us from our temple university camera at the tennis courts at temple. we have a couple of people down here on the bottom right hand corner playing tennis, a perfect day to get outside. the 5th annual pottstown pet fair is at memorial park it's open to the public it's the largest free pet fair in the state. it's mission is to find forever homes for local rescue organizations. it's happening until 3:00 p.m. >>> you know fall is almost here when the scarecrows come out to play. peddlers village welcome also the new season taking part in the always fun scarecrow competition. there's a pumpkin pie eating contest happening all weekend from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. >> in "healthcheck" start to f

what is the latest, athena?n. >> reporter: just hours away from the cnn gop debate, the front-runner, shrugging off mounting attacks from his rivals. >> i hear they're all going after me. whatever. whatever. >> reporter: donald trump boasting about his 13-point lead to a crowd of 18,000. >> we are killing it. >> reporter: and none of his competitors were off limits. >> carly is giving me a little bit of a hard time even though her poll numbers are horrible. ben carson, he's in second place, jeb bush, governor of florida, a sitting senator in florida. marco rubio. and the poll comes out the other day, trump is leading in florida. >> reporter: again, striking a heavy on style, light on substance approach, the billionaire candidate neglected to talk policy monday night. instead claiming success with women voters. >> i'm surging with women. i have such respect for women. >> reporter: though he also highlighted his controversial comments about fox news anchor megyn kelly. >> we're going to have so many victories that

we'll get the latest from athena jones. good morning, athena. >> reporter: good morning. campaign season has been at what point will what trump said hurt him with voters. we'll see if we get an answer to that soon. the other question they have been asking is whether trump and carson who hold the top two spots will begin to attack each other. now we have an answer to that question, and it was carson who threw the first punch. this morning the donald still sitting high atop the pack. in the new cnn/rnc poll, they say trump is most

athena jones has more from washington. >> reporter: good morning. today is a day that donald trump says he will unveil his tax plan. he will call for middle class tax cuts and tax hikes for hedge fund managers. the fund is long on policy and very specific. this is coming as a new nbc/wall street journal poll shows trump is still leading the gop pack. carson is right up there with him. this poll is proof the debates matter. look at carly fiorina. she is tied with marco rubio at 11%. they were both seen as standouts in the debates and rewarded for performance in the polls. they both made big gains, especially fiorina. the rest of the gop field, including jeb bush is languishing in single digits. ben carson is still facing questions about muslims being fit to serve as president. >> you are a member of the church with a lot of misinformation about. the seventh day adventist church. you are african-american. you know what it is like to have people make false assumptions about you. you are doing the same thing. >> in which way? >> you assume muslim-americ

than you, athena, and what a great assignment. i am live in new york, and joining me is the columnist for the daily beast and the our columnist for the washington post, and ladies, i love the faces here. >> thank you. >> and in the end, sally, you will be looking at the faces, and jeb bush is going to be flanked instead of by scott walker on one side and ben carson and weigh n and terry, i want to start with you, and on the optics of ben carson beside you instead of on the way left side. >> well, p ben carson cannot complain that he is not getting enough time or, hey, i am still here which is one of the gesture s that he made in the last debate, because he did not talk much, and it does not change that there are 11 candidates and we only have a little bit of time. but the fact that donald trump and ben carson is leading so far a head is fascinating, because it is that people are attracted to the fact that -- >> outsiders. >> right. but ben carson and donald trump are polar opposites in the approach, and yes, outsiders, and people

athena jones joins us. it's all about the outsiders. >> that was one of my favorite books growing up. that has been the theme of this election season so far, the strength of these outsider candidates. and this new poll from abc, we can put this up on the screen, includes new, interesting numbers on that. shows the preference for an anti-establishment candidate among republicans and democrats, you can see there that among republicans, 60% prefer an outsider candidate. that's a big difference from the democrats. and it helps explain why donald trump and ben carson, the top two folks now in the polls, are doing so well. >> if you add up their support, it's over 50%. so, over 50% of republican primary voters say they want the outsider. whether it be c. thomas howell or ralph maccio or donald trump. the reagan presidential library, setting for the second debate right here on cnn. this is a different feel from the first debate. the first debate was in cleveland, where they played basketball. where lebron james pl

athena, it's getting excited in there. >> it is. good morning, alisyn. a few hours. this is a huge opportunity for these kanes to make an impression. donald trump has torn up the rule book, not when it just comes to cam paning but also when it comes to preparing for a big night like this. in a few hours we'll have a chance to see if his

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but athena, fiorina praised what they called a grass roots effort for change.alking about? >> that's right. well, fiorina's campaign and himself a lot of supporters have been pushing for cnn to be more inclusive. obviously in the end cnn decided that it made sense because you have to look at fiorina surging after that first debate. she's talking about celebrating being on the main stage now. well, that first debate at the beginning of august she was in the so-called happy hour debate, some people called it the kiddy table debate. but a lot of people felt like she won that debate. she really stood out. she wasn't afraid to throw some punches. she impressed a lot of people. so ever since, she's been rising in the poll z. before that debate, she was around 1%. now she's hovering around 5%. clearly in the top ten. and so she and her supporters were really pushing cnn pushing the republican national committee who also has something to do with this to support a change that would allow her to be on that main stage. and so now it looks like she will be. of course i thi

>> so much to talk about, athena. thanks so much. let's bring back jeff zeleny as well as "time" political reporter zeke miller. and errol lewis as well. let's start with scott walker's rise and fall. he was a formidable candidate. he was, i believe, leading tin january. he was up at 16% in january. you see it slowly decline until this month he's a hash tag. errol, his pac had $20 million two months ago? >> yes. >> what becomes of all of those supporters and the money? >> the money was largely spent which is part of the problem. he had a very top heavy organization. i think they had maybe a little too much enthusiasm, maybe not enough in the way of smarts as far as how to husband that money. they were getting ready to run a 50-state campaign. they staffed up beyond any rational kind of reality on the ground and then a poor debate performance. if you look at what happened in the polls, right after the first debate it fell off a cliff, his support. you know, you really can't blame anybody except a candidate whose message didn't take, w

we'll get the latest from athena jones. good morning, athena. >> reporter: good morning. the big question of the campaign season has been at what point will what trump said hurt him with voters. we'll see if we get an answer to that soon. the other question they have been asking is whether trump and carson who hold the top two spots will begin to attack each other. now we have an answer to that question, and it was carson who threw the first punch. this morning the donald still sitting high atop the pack. in the new cnn/rnc poll, they say trump is most likely to win the republican nomination. but in an interesting twist, more voters would be satisfied in retired brain surgeon ben carson actually wins the nomination over trump. carson leading by 9%. the mild-mannered candidate surprising some by taking a jab at the gop frontrunner wednesday. going after trump's faith. >> by humility and the fear of the the lord are riches and honor and life. and that's a very big part of who i am. i don't get that impression with him. maybe i'm wrong. >> reporter: to which trump shot back

athena jones begins coverage at this hour? >> reporter: good morning.on top for iowa republicans. trump there at 27%. carson, right behind him, an outsider candidate, never been elected to public office. both of them up since july. there you see scott walker. this is bad news for him, his lead has evaporated. he has fallen 15 points in iowa since june. here is another important number from that poll. look at how many people say they would definitely not support trump or jeb bush, for that matter. take a look here. that number is 25% for trump. bush is right behind him at 23%. take a look all the way to the bottom of the list. ben carson is down there at 3%. only 3% of folks saying they would not support him. very good news for ben carson. lastly, when you look at the favoribility numbers for the two top, ben carson leads trump on that point by nearly 20 points. take a look. 79% for carson compared to 60% for trump. that number for trump is high. his unfavorable numbers are much, much higher than carson's at 35%. this is the state of play as we head into

athena, it's getting excited in there. >> it is. good morning, alisyn. this is where it's going to go down in a few hours. this is a huge opportunity for these kanes to make an impression. donald trump has torn up the rule book, not when it just comes to cam paning but also when it comes to preparing for a big night like this. in a few hours we'll have a chance to see if his unconventional approach works well for him. >> debate day is here. in just hours, gop presidential hopefuls will be facing off inside the reagan presidential library. >> i don't know how you can prepare for something. i hear everybody's coming after me. >> while some lower tier candidates are gearing up -- >> i'm going to mix it up because i like to rumble. >> i read up on current issues. >> reporter: the front-runner was busy soaking up the spotlight. donald trump, as always, doing things his own way. >> mr. donald j. trump! >> reporter: he was on the campaign trail on the eve of the debate. making an appeal to veterans aboard the "uss iowa." a historic world war ii battleship. >> i

thank you, athena jones, reporting live.e make or break a candidate, namely donald trump? >> doubtful. i think as far as breaking him, because the people who are supporting him are not supporting him because he had a great debate performance. they're supporting him for other reasons. those reasons have to do with their anger at the establishment, the economic conditions in the country, a sense that foreign policy is drifting, immigration policy is in shambles. none of that is going to change based on wednesday. he don't think it's going to be the catastrophic disaster his opponents keep hoping for. >> which candidates do you think have to turn in a great performance to break through the noise? >> anybody in the single digits is really going to have to step and up and really do something to get themselves noted. one of the things they have to do is try and steer things away from putdowns and insults and entertainment, where trump will reign supreme and get it more into policy, where certainly some of the governors and, indeed

. >> cnn's athena jones joining us from the site of cnn's debate in simil simi valley, california.re's going to be this really big group at the end of the day of candidates on the stage together. what are your hearing about preparations? >> good morning. a lot of these candidates are going to have to figure out how they're going to make any impression on that debate stage. many of these candidates are only going to get a few minutes to talk. marco rubio was asked about this and he said he learned that a minute goes by very, very quickly. scott walker felt in the first debate he had a polite, mid western, nice guy approach. he said he is going to try to be more aggressive. they've got to leave an impression. a lot of these candidates aren't getting a lot of mention in the media unless their name has come out of donald trump's mouth. this is their opportunity to appear in front of the largest audience many of these candidates are going to have. the last debate had 24 million people. that's a huge television audience for them. one other thing marco rubio said was, you know, they answe

. >>> first to cnn's athena jones, live in washington for us. good morning. >> good morning, carol. those comments from carson, and also comments trump made, have argued a lot of people. carson's clarification of his comments haven't helped. the question is whether this will hurt him or trump in the polls. >> i would not advocate that we put a muslim in charge of this nation. >> reporter: this shocking statement by dr. ben carson under a spotlight this morning in the republican presidential race. on "meet the press" sunday, carson said a muslim president should not be in the oval office, and that a president's faith should matter to voters. >> if it's inconsistent with the values and principles of america, then of course it should matter. >> reporter: later, when donald trump was asked about the possibility of a muslim president, he said -- >> some people said it already happened. >> reporter: a reference to president barack obama. trump later adding -- >> he said he is a christian. i'm willing to take him at his word for that. >> reporter: carson is doubling down on his controversi

>> athena, thank you very much. >>> we have a great guest for you right now.the candidates from his time in congress and he also knows what it's like to be anti-establishment before it was so cool like it is now. former republican senator from oklahoma, tom coburn. >> pleasure. >> it is not new for you to hear about going after the culture going on in d.c., trying to change from within. what do you think of the tone of the gop side of the race right now? >> one, chris, i haven't watched it very much. i think we're way too early for me. >> is it just the timing or is there another aspect that turns you off? >> i think it's way too early for us. if you look historically, people that are ahead this time usually aren't ahead when we get down in spring of next week. so to me, it's early. i think what you ought to do, why you see some out there like carson and trump and others, is the reason. they have votes is because they're appearing authentic. and you know, that's the real deal. it's not about knowing everything. it's about what do you feel, how do you feel abou

why are you there, athena? >> good morning, chris.e big night will take place a couple nights away from now. we are all counting down in simi valley. that new national poll out from the "washington post" and abc news shows that donald trump is still in the lead and he's posting his biggest number yet. take a look at that poll. we can put it up on the screen. you see trump is leading with 33%. ben carson in second place is 13 points behind him. the rest of the field is in the single digits with jeb bush, 25 points behind the leader. one more thing i want to mention about that poll is that scott walker has lost the most ground since july. he's not even up on the screen there in the top five. he was in second place in this same poll at 13%. he's now down to just 2%. meanwhile, a new cnn/orc poll shows that several issues have risen in importance since the last presidential election cycle. those issues are gun control, abortion and illegal immigration. and that shift could certainly shape voters' choice for their party's nominee in both p

let's begin our team coverage with athena jones. she is >> reporter: good morning. carson's comments angered a lot of people. the question now is whether these comments will hurt either candidate in the polls. this as yet another outsider candidate is surging. >> i would not advocate that we put a muslim in charge of this nation. >> reporter: this shocking statement by dr. ben carson under a spotlight this morning in the republican presidential race. on nbc's "meet the press" sunday, carson said a muslim president should not be in the oval office. and that a president's faith should matter to voters. >> if it's inconsistent with the values and principles of america, then of course it should matter. >> reporter: later, when donald trump was asked about the possibility of a muslim president, he said -- >> some people have said it already happened. >> reporter: a rens to president barack obama. trump later adding. >> he said he was a christian and is a christian. i'm willing to take him at his word. >> reporter: carson is doubling down on his controversial comments in

let's go live to washington and bring in cnn's athena jones. what's the latest?ump is not backing down, not apologizing on any way. on cbs last night he was asked again about that man at his town hall who said the president was a muslim, that america has a muslim problem and who advocated getting rid of muslims. trump said the man's question didn't necessarily mean he was a bigot. take a listen to what else he had to say. >> i don't have to defend president obama. he's not going to defend me. i love the muslims. i have many, many friends. i can say there are no problems with the muslims. there's no terrorism, no anything. they didn't knock down the world trade center. to the best of my knowledge, the people who knocked down the world trade center, they didn't fly back to sweden. >> trump is standing his ground there. a lot of his supporters agree with what he's saying. meanwhile, ben carson who said sunday he wouldn't advocate having a muslim in the white house is now shifting his position. take a listen. >> i said that anybody who embraces our american values an

cnn's athena jones is in washington with a closer look at that.l. that was a tough ad from donald trump, a short video on instagram. it's one of his favorite social media sites to use, but jeb bush is firing back. let's go ahead and play that and then talk about it on the other side. >> i lived in new york city and manhattan all my life, okay, so, you know, my views are a little bit different than if i lived in iowa. >> partial birth abortion. >> i'm very pro-choice. i am pro-choice in every respect and as far as it goes. >> as far as single payer, it works in canada, it works incredibly well in scotland. the fact is that 25% for high-income people, it should be raised substantially. >> so there you have governor bush trying to make the point that donald trump is not a true conservative. bush says that he is a proven conservative and once more people get to know the kinds of things that trump has said in the past, the kinds of views he's espoused, he will begin to see a drop in his support. it's been a slow ramp up to see bush really respond to tr

let's begin our team coverage with athena jones. she is >> reporter: good morning.f people. the question now is whether these comments will hurt either candidate in the polls. this as yet another outsider candidate is surging. >> i would not advocate that we put a muslim in charge of this nation. >> reporter: this shocking statement by dr. ben carson under a spotlight this morning in the republican presidential race. on nbc's "meet the press" sunday, carson said a muslim president should not be in the oval office. and that a president's faith should matter

athena jones is live in washington. >> reporter: good morning, the stage is set for cnn's republicandates on the prime time stage and where they will be standing. you have in order, rand paul, mike huckabee, marco rubio, ted cruz, ben carson, donald trump, jeb bush, scott walker, carly fiorina, john kasich and chris christie. trump is getting center stage because he's the front-runner. fiorina surged to the polls afte

athena jones, show us around the debate stage.interesting setup. >> reporter: it is, john. i've been calling this the coolest debate set ever. i bet a lot of our viewers will agree. take a look over here. this is air force one. it is the air force one that president ronald reagan flew on. cnn has built this entire platform, this entire stage. it's three stories high. crews have spent weeks doing steve overmyer they can showcase that plane. that plane will be behind the candidates providing the background during the debate. if you sweep over here you can see that it's a pretty intimate setup here. fewer than 500 people are going to be in this audience. you can see people are still working. i like to say the t in television newsstands for team. we have teams working here. they've been practicing all day. but 500 people in this audience is very, very different from the first debate where there were thousands of people. this is much more intimate. and so that could certainly shape how the candidates interact with each other, how much

. >> athena jones joins me now. sort of easy to see what donald trump wants to do. he wants to keep on winning. whatever he's been doing, keep on doing it. but what about the other ten people who will be on stage with him? >> well, of course, john, this is a huge audience. so it's a huge opportunity. the first debate, there were 24 million people watching it. that is more than double the populations of the four first states to vote. early next year. so there's a big opportunity here. these candidates want to show some fire. they want to have a memorable moment that hopefully boosts them in the polls. you heard from scott walker saying he's going to be more aggressive. >> no midwestern nice. >> not polite. trump is going to be flanked by jeb bush and ben carson sharing cnter stage. he's called both of them low energy. they're going to want to bring fire and show they're not low energy. marco rubio, rand paul, folks who are going to try to not stand by if they're not being questioned. chris christie said he's not going to sit sile wantly if he's not getting the questi

dan stecich is director of economic research at athena private wealth. he joins me from the cme in chicago. dan, what do you think gold is telling us in the trade today? >> i think mentioned a few times on earlier programs that the fed probably won't go tomorrow. you will see a little bit of a jump. look at gold relative to where it has been. near the lows of past couple months. a little pop of $15, $17 doesn't say a whole lot. other than uncertainty out in the market. melissa: crude oil, finally got inventory data showing big decline in production. expecting this to happen, prices were so low. you had to think people were backing away from pulling it out of the ground. what do you think we'll see from here? >> crude oil is finally doing what it is supposed to do. letting supply an demand determine where price should be. supply fell a little bit. demand hasn't changed. because of that you saw increase in price. going down the pike a little bit, couple years from now, if demand starts picking up, prices start going up, the suppliers that have stopped prod

cnns athena jones with more. make sense of it for us. what was jeb trying to do and what was trump trying to do? >> good morning. well, it seems like they are trying to appeal to a way that is to a larger crowd. it was unexpected from trump. he's holding a rally with another republican candidate here at the capitol. meanwhile, jeb bush is trying to show off his funny side as the post labor day debate push gets into full swing. >> governor jeb bush. >> he made his debut on the late show with stephen colbert. >> what ways do you politically differ from your brother, george? >> i'm obviously younger, much better looking. >> reporter: he touted forte, the budget. >> he should have brought the hammer down on the republicans when they were spending too much. they call me veto coroloni in florida. >> reporter: he is set to unveil his tax reform plan, laying out details in a new op-ed in the wall street journal with 4% economic growth. trump releasing another slam ad on instagram on tuesday, doubling down on attacks that jeb bush is low energy.

and also we have one from chris, apollo and athena. snuggling with me before bed. oh, those are cute. i'm lika small boxer. ring. you don't expect much... and then, wham! i hit 'em with huge creamy goodness! alright round two! bring it, girlfriend! rich, creamy, 100% natural cheese. mini babybel. snack a little bigger. >>> creative solutions for drunk driving, one of the things trending on our social media pages. >> that's right a texas state university student has been driving around campus in a small pink plastic car. she was recently arrested for a dwi, so her dad took away her keys. she then went on craig's list and bought a battery powered barbie jeep. now that's how she's getting around school. her sister said that she's a diva, she doesn't walk, she doesn't sweat. she's not going to ride a bike. >>> fred, barney, wilma, and you. really? >> well over in california the well known in from stone house is on the market. the 2370 square foot home sits on a hilltop just outside san francisco. the 39 year old three bedroom two bathroom home is listed at $4.2 million

athena jones is at the reagan presidential library along with jeff zeleny.t you both sitting -- awesome. you look awake. i know you had a long night. thank you for being with me this morning. jeff, i'll start with you. winners and losers. >> good morning, carol. i mean, the morning after the debate, i can tell you if one stock that's rising in the big republican field, it would be the stock of carly fiorina. it was the first time she was on the big debate stage, the prime time debate stage. and she made the most of this opportunity. of course, she was introducing herself to a wide audience. people who aren't that familiar with her background, did not perhaps even know she was running for president. she took every moment of that advantage. and she really decided to go after donald trump. they had a really interesting exchange on their business background, on bankruptcies, on her experience as a ceo. let's take a listen to that. >> i led hewlett-packard through a very difficult time. the worst technology recession in 25 years. >> she can't run any of my compan

let's begin with my colleague in california athena jones, who is inside the debate hall where they are still building, still working, still laying down carpet. we'll get to a behind-the-scenes look in a moment. trump is still leading, setting the tone for the race also makes him a target. this is the kind of man who is like, bring it. >> that's right, donald trump says my life has been preparation for a debate, so i'm going to guess he's ready. he knows he's going to be a main target. perhaps more than he was in the first debate because in the first debate e you hadn't seen all these polls that have come out whether they have been national polls or state by state polls showing him with a solid lead. he's also attacked a bunch of rivals. so he knows he's going to be under fire on wednesday night and i'm going to guess he's ready to attack back. >> we'll talk about how others choose to counter. punch in a moment. i want to show everyone where you are. for folks to fully appreciate, cnn has entirely built this it set, built this stage and these candidates will be flanked by president reag

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athena jones is following it all for us, live from washington. good morning. >> good morning, john. after months of taking hits from trump, bush is trying to show fire. he's using social media, one of trump's favorite means of communication to strike back. meanwhile, the hits from trump keep coming. >> jeb is paying for the ads by the lobbyists, special interests and donors. >> donald trump not holding back on anything or anyone, including jeb bush. >> he's getting all this money from people that are lobbyists and, you know, a tough group of people. i know all of them. they wanted to do something and they should do something. he's got to fight back. he's down in the polls. >> hitting him on fund raising strength and poor poll position. the former florida governor has long been a top target. bush firing back in front of the cameras. >> this is not a guy who is a conservative. using his own words is not a mischaracterization. it came out of his mouth. >> and online. >> i have lived in new york and manhatt manhattan. my views are different than if i lived in iowa. >> reporter: taking a