cruz saying trump's threat stems from a cruz tv ad. the ad uses comments trump made to nbc back in 1999 when he said, he was, quote, very pro choice. ted cruz's message to trump, sue me. >> donald's lawyer sent our campaign a cease and desist letter. and this letter, i will say, having practiced law for many, many years, this letter is one of the most remarkable letters i've ever read. mr. trump's lawyers contend that that advertisement you just saw is, quote, material -- is an attempt to materially mislead the public. and indeed provides more detail. he says that this attack ad, is what he calls it, is, quote, not only completely disingenuous, but replete with lies, false, defamatory and destructive statements and down right fabrications. mr. trump's lawyer's letter goes on to say, the ad, quote, blatantly misrepresents to the public that mr. trump is pro choice. and nothing could be further from the truth. and the letter concludes, by threatening if we will not pull down the ad, that mr. trump will seek immediate legal action to prev

both against cruz.'t being thrown by rubio to trump for instance. >> that's word used to be a redline. people used to not call each other liars so frequently. i wonder if cruz has made a bigger deal by firing his staffer and turning this into a much bigger -- much longer story. if they had just dismissed this and if tyler had apologized, i think it would have gone away. he's turning this into a two-day story by giving the death penalty for this. similar to what he did with that actress. the soft core porn actress who was in a cruz ad and they pulled down the ad and turned it into a bigger story than it had to be. i think it was a mistake. i think tyler could have survived this. >> on the democratic side, how big a win is south carolina? if bernie sanders can narrow the margin, can he claim some sort of a moral victory or -- >> he can claim a case to keep going. there's expectations for south carolina. john is right. it is not at all the same sort on the republican side where you have one person way ahea

has a strength there and cruz is very likely to get about 60% to 70% of the delegates in texas and cruz wants to -- trump will cut into that in any way he can. >> yeah. >> over to katy tur who was in the room, katy tur obviously covers the trump campaign for us, was in the room when donald trump just came out. katy, what can you tell us about the folks you've been talking to tonight, folks that have been your traveling partners for months now? >> reporter: these folks were as excited as we've seen them. donald trump's rallies in the more southern states and certainly here in nevada have been very boisterous events and this tonight did not disappoint that. they were extremely excited when it was announced donald trump would probably, was projected to win this state. when he took the stage, very loud cheers. very loud cheers for the idea of a wall. even louder cheers when he said that mexico would pay for that wall. border issues certainly play really well here in nevada. i want to point out a couple of things he said on stage. it's really important to note that when he was talking about

cruz campaigns. it's super pacs. it's something they can't necessarily control. they are making the argument that some of the stuff is coming from other campaigns. >> trying to make cruz look bad. trying to make it look like issues from the cruz campaign. >> reverse psychology. >> the idea you would put out a hit on yourself. that would make ted cruz look worse than you. i realize we're playing chess and they are playing checkers. >> you got to wonder what's it going to do with voters. you look at his favorability rating, they were sinking before this stuff started happening. you have to wonder when ted cruz has the perception he's unlikable when you have this line of attack that is how he's going after cruz. before he saw different things. with bush it was low energy. with ted cruz he's a liar and he's using that word repeatedly. >> in terms of the theory of the case with ted cruz, when i looked at the exit poll numbers, i thought this was a big problem. this isn't just coming in a close third. this

senator cruz: thank you for being here. >> look at the crowds. cruz: thank you. sen. cruz: thank you very much. god bless you. thank you very much. we are doing it together. [indiscernible chatter] >> how are you? [laughter] sen. cruz: thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. sen. cruz: thank you very much for today. let's get bruce to do this. >> that is a great shot. >> it is. >> thank you. [indiscernible] >> i wanted to ask you, what would you do if [indiscernible] they reduced jobs and they are -- [indiscernible] think the focus needs to be on clean air and clean water. everybody should be able to drink clean water and brief clean air. i think it should be a fair level playing field i don't think we should have the federal government taking winners and [indiscernibleng ] -- i think it should be all of the above and let the market play forward. >> thank you. thank you, sir. sen. cruz: how are you doing, sir? >> i have one question for you could you please -- [insert numeral] please. thank you very much. sen. cruz: thank you very much. i appreciate you being here

ted cruz: thank you. ♪ ted cruz: thank you very much. >> thank you. ♪ ♪ ♪ ted cruz: thank you so muchd bless you. >> thank you so much. ♪ [inaudible] ♪ >> thank you so much. ted cruz: thank you. ♪ >> i just want to tell you i am very impressed. i am telling everybody. humbled. i am very what is your name? >> skylar. >> come on. niece. my go on the other side. ok. then i can be here behind skylar. weight -- wait, wait. get it with my camera too. ted cruz: thank you very much. thank you for your good questions. >> can i get a picture from a dad? thank you, sir. >> thank you so much. glad i could make it. ♪ thank you very much. ♪ ted cruz: good to see you again. thank you for being here. [inaudible] ted cruz: i gave it to my team. i do not know where it is. ♪ wrote to the white house coverage continues wednesday in new hampshire. at 4:00 eastern, john kasich speech to the new hampshire business form. at 6:00, we join jeb bush for a town hall in laconia. at 6:30, chris christie holds a town hall meeting in milford on c-span2. c-span's road to the white house in new hampshire. issue i'm in

but ted cruz, ted cruz is ahead 28 to 24%. on the democratic side, look how close it is. 51%. 81% of the expected vote in right now on the democratic side. very, very close between hillary clinton and bernie sanders we don't know the outcome of that. it's looking good for ted cruz. donald trump and marco rubio battling it out right now. let's go over to john king. have you to give him some credit, he's doing weapon. >> you see this 99%. you may think the vote is all counted. we never know how many people are going to turn out. we're over 155,000 people and still votes to count. we're up to 93% in polk county. marco rubio winning polk county. that's a big deal. ted cruz is holding his lead. marco rubio is making a run at second place right now. you watch this play out. can he get there? let's see. you come out here. 99% of the vote. trump is winning you see how those margins play out. you're looking around to see what's left out there. less than half of the vote counted out here. mitt romney territory four years ago. let's watc

then cruz slammed

cruz has a harder edge. which i think means that in a general election you're going to have a hard "timer time. >> i have to go but i want you to weigh in on what we saw on the democratic side. >> i take the view that a win is a win is a win. especially if hillary clinton, who had been humiliated eight years ago, doesn't lose if it's by a whisker, if you win, it's really different from having collapsed in the face of a socialist eight years after her humiliation in l.a. she's going to win in new hampshire and hanging over her is this uncertainty about what's happening in the fbi investigation. which i think really hurts her. they worry about a shoe dropping and having no alternative if they nominate her. i this that i is hurting her as well. given that, she needed a win and got the wine well, it's too cles to call, officially. >> well, assuming, look. if she loses, then it is a defeat for her, she's slightly ahead. >> she is. having some of the other networks calling it on their projections. >> they have. fo

he's a little behind in texas with cruz. cruz has a healthy lead in texas. we can assume, let's assume, although we have a few days. let's assume that cruz wins his home state. trump's ahead everywhere else. you have to change -- it's not just about winning -- look, for survival purposes, for fund-raising purposes, cruz needs to win a state, kasich needs to win ohio if he waits that long. that's for fund-raising and survival purposes. but to change the fundamental dynamic of the race, they need something much bigger than that, which is why if you're going to find an achilles heel in donald trump, if he has one, that stage tonight is the best opportunity before a boat load of states vote. >> and yet, every debate in which candidates have said, if he has a bad debate, perhaps that will be a stumble. have been if he's had a debate that hasn't been his best, it hasn't seemed to matter. >> his supporters are solid. if you look at all of our exit polls, they decided a long time ago, they're with him. no matter what. what's interesting is, the late deciders tend to

rubio 25, cruz 20 percentage-wise.e'll be watching this all evening long. >> the other important part of the nbc call tonight is that in the race for second place, marco rubio is leading ted cruz. don't extrapolate too much from the numbers that you're seeing there on your screen. because as you see in the upper left hand corner, it's only 6% in. but again, the nbc characterization is that rubio is leading cruz for second. but that second place call has not yet been made. let's go to howie jackson now who's been traveling with the ted cruz campaign. and she's at cruz campaign hq here in las vegas. halle, i heard you say earlier the cruz campaign was hoping for a top three finish tonight here in nevada. which is not very ambitious. they're just trying to beat john kasich and ben carson. looks like they will probably do that. we'll see. what's the mood there at cruz campaign? what are you hearing from them? >> reporter: it's still pretty low-key at the campaign event here. but i heard from a spokesperson they feel like t

we give ted cruz texas here.tes, the rubio people -- this is it hypothetical, the rubio people say they'll win minnesota. let's give it to them. even that if rubio wins that donald trump starting to pull away. so you look at the end of the night, maybe a couple much other states, but this is the state of the republican race right now. donald trump has won three of the first four states. in any past campaign people are saying that's unstoppable. if you have a continued race like tonight, nobody goes after trump, the trump campaign feels strongly that maybe they'll lose texas on super tuesday, they're going to compete, but maybe they'll lose texas, but they believe by next tuesday night we're going to be talking about a big donald trump lead in the delegate. >>> all right. john king on cnn a little earlier. don't go away. we will hear from cnn's political panel next about what they think the future holds for donald trump, marco rubio and ted cruz. our live coverage of the nevada caucuses continues in just a moment.

ted cruz is huddled with staff. we know he was eating with his staff earlier tonight, but of course nerve racking finish yet to be announced tonight. >> will relevaall right. let's check in with john king at at magic wall. i suppose you'll be able to tell me how donald trump pulled this off. >> can i ask you a question, do you remember who came in second in the daytona 500? never mind. let's look very early results so far and obviously clark county if you were with us the other day with the democrats it's more than 7 on -- 70% of the population, washington county in the western part of the state, trump at 34 there. it's the second largest county. if you look at the results this is the western part of the state. this is where you would expect ted cruz if he is getting your traditional evangelical voter, you would expect votes here, but right now it's filling in all donald trump. we watched this in south carolina and we saw it in new hampshire, 42, 23, 22 so like the other night it looks like this where we will be spe

-- well, what dramaticd cruz. >> we are not a campaign that is going to question the faith of another candidate. even if it was true, our campaign should not have sent it. that's why i've asked for rick tyler's resignation, because the standard of conduct in this campaign have been made absolutely clear for every member of the campaign. and i understand that marco's campaign team believed it's politically advantageous to distract the topic from his own record, and they have a long record they've earned in south carolina of engaging in this kind of trickery and impugning the integrity of the opponents to distract the attention. we're going to stay focused on issues and substance and record, because i think that's what the mesh people want. i think that's what they deserve. and that's what they're going to get. this campaign is about turning the country around, bringing back jobs and economic growth and protecting the constitutional rights. >> did you -- have you didn't -- [inaudible question] >> did you speak with

cruz called trump a liar and rubio a liar. rubio call cruz a liar and rubio call cruz crude. exit poll in south carolina believe trump is the main instigator. when asked who ran the most unfair campaign in the state, trump topped cruz. not surprisingly almost all the trump supporters we talked to after the south carolina win want trump to be trump. >> i don't have a problem with somebody saying somebody is stupid. >> does it bother you when he says ted cruz is the biggest liar or negative things about the pope. >> i was there. i witnessed it. he absolutely was lying. >> reporter: what about the pope? >> the pope swung first and everybody knows that donald is going to deliver the knockout punch. >> ted cruz! >> reporter: meanwhile many of ted cruz's supporters at this las vegas rally complain about donald trump's behavior. >> trump is a schoolyard bully who is spoiled. >> reporter: they say cruz is just defending himself when he delivers his own attacks. >> i believe it's important he defends himself. i don't know how much energy he has to put in it. true ted cruz supporters a

senator cruz: thank you for being here. >> look at the crowds. cruz: thank you.thank you very much. god bless you. thank you very much. we are doing it together. [indiscernible chatter] >> how are you? [laughter] sen. cruz: thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. sen. cruz: thank you very much for today. let's get bruce to do this. >> that is a great shot. >> it is. >> thank you. [indiscernible] >> i wanted to ask you, what would you do if [indiscernible] they reduced jobs and they are -- [indiscernible] think the focus needs to be on clean air and clean water. everybody should be able to drink clean water and brief clean air. i think it should be a fair level playing field i don't think we should have the federal government taking winners and [indiscernibleng ] -- i think it should be all of the above and let the market play forward. >> thank you. thank you, sir. sen. cruz: how are you doing, sir? >> i have one question for you could you please -- [insert numeral] please. thank you very much. sen. cruz: thank you very much. i appreciate you being here. thank you.

cruz has a harder edge. which i think means that in a general election you're going to have a hard "timer time. >> i have to go but i want you to weigh in on what we saw on the democratic side. >> i take the view that a win is a win is a win. especially if hillary clinton, who had been humiliated eight years ago, doesn't lose if it's by a whisker, if you win, it's really different from having collapsed in the face of a socialist eight years after her humiliation in l.a. she's going to win in new hampshire and hanging over her is this uncertainty about what's happening in the fbi investigation. which i think really hurts her. they worry about a shoe dropping and having no alternative if they nominate her. i this that i is hurting her as well. given that, she needed a win and got the wine well, it's too cles to call, officially. >> well, assuming, look. if she loses, then it is a defeat for her, she's slightly ahead. >> she is. having some of the other networks calling it on their projections. >> they have. fo

victory for ted cruz.d trump as marco rubio soars to a strong third place. >> our next guest says a few surprises prove this race is far from over. here to explain, national political reporter, real clear politics, caitlyn dewey burns. thanks for joining us again. >> good morning. >> out of the numbers, what surprises you the most? >> well, i think rubio's showing in iowa is the big story coming out of this caucus. in addition to ted cruz taking the lead here. if you look at the numbers, marco rubio and donald trump collected the same number of delegates, seven delegates each. and ted cruz got eight. that's a big story. it gives marco rubio momentum heading into new hampshire, a state that he has to do well in. and is in a competitive race there. >> even going into iowa, a lot of analysts said it was about that momentum that you mentioned. but you know, how long can candidates who didn't place in the top three stay in the race, and what can we expect? >> i think several candidates who weren't really compet

ted cruz, 27%. if those hold, that is the second state in a row where he's losing evangelicals, ted cruz is, to donald trump. >> let's go further. south carolina was the state where ted cruz was supposed to have a big victory, command evangelicals and project his strength into super tuesday where there is going to be a huge population of evangelicals, better than half in more than half of the states. for donald trump to have pulled off two in a row is a very, very important statement. it says that evangelicals are not single issue voters. they're american voters who want a winner and someone strong. by a 2-1 margin, it looks like they're picking trump over cruz. >> carl, thank you. >> just looking at the polls here is another one for you. satisfied, but not enthusiastic. and that enthusiastic. and among g.o.p. voters in nevada, one is enthusiastic. >> oh. >> one. >> it's that bud light guy. >> we're just getting started here. people in nevada wrap up caucuses. we'll see another record turn out, or w

ted cruz. the voter who is say they are interested in voter who are as hell. the story lines are playing out very much. >> they reflect and these are actual votes right now with 32% of the votes. a lot more of the vote in on the democratic side. the south carolina senator will endorse marco rubio. that's a big deal. we saw a similar thing happening with barack obama in 2008 getting more endorsements and brings the total from senators from four on to five. it's a big deal. it underscores the idea that he is the establishment candidate and the face of the new republican party. he got about a 70 or 80% approval rating. this will be a big deal for him. >> the other side of the senator from south carolina. >> i don't know that there is any surprise. frankly he is performing where they said he would perform. to hear the analysis is to say wow, rubio is having a hell of a night. the way it helps them is going into new hampshire where tonight he is having an event. john kasich is having an event and th

a really bad couple of days for ted cruz. >> okay. let's talk more about cruz and donald trump.ot off a few tweets and he is still a bit miffed. he felt he was burned. he tweeted, ted cruz should be disqualified in iowa. rnc and republican leadership probably won't let this happen. sad. >> he was holding the threat of a third party run over their heads. does he not 92 he had any more as they do this or hold that over their heads? >> i think it is important for him to press ted cruz on these issues. as matt just pointed out, this is something we've seen happen repeatedly. from the push-pulls to the voter violation form to the odd reporting of ben carson dropping out. it is lying and distortion. and i think donald trump hammering this message home along with marco rubio about these shady tactics help them. look, ted cruz underperformed in south carolina. you have to ask yourself why? his policies didn't change, his message didn't change. what changed was the narrative of his campaign, lying and doing these dirty tricks. i think he has to keep driving this point home until ted cruz

than ted cruz was. and we see this evening that the percentage of voters in the south carolina republican party calling themselves born-again or evangelical, was higher than we have seen in recent years, 73%, and it looked as though many of them were going for donald trump. >> yeah. and i think, you know, this is ted cruz was hitting donald trump on that tremendously. i was with cruz in south carolina where he took on donald trump because trump was threatening to sue him over an ad that he ran, which used trump's own words in which he said in 1999 to tim russert that he was very pro choice. remember that? and cruz was just hammering away at trump. with evangelical voters. saying, look, he's not what you think he is. he doesn't share you're values. he was quote, once, very pro choice. this is something you need to pay attention to. and the question we'll be looking at tonight is whether cruz made enough in roads here with this huge number of evangelical voters to catapult himself to number two and how cl

i work for ted cruz. i've heard that speech from ted cruz probably a million times.e have had in trying to beat trump is they haven't changed their language and tactics. i'm not saying adopt to his tone and don't act kind, what i'm saying is stop using labels that people don't care about anymore, stop saying evangelical and i'm the most conservative guy. go straight to the issues. >> so many candidates -- >> let's play some of trump's victory speech tonight where some of the things he said about maybe not going on much longer. listen to this. >> we're going to do very well in ohio. we're beating the governor. that's good. that's always nice to be beating the governor. and michigan, the whole thing. it's going to be an amazing two months. we might not even need the two months, folks, to be honest, right. >> do you think he's right about that. >> he makes a viable point. you are know you are winning when the other candidates are losing in their home states. when you are beating john kasich in ohio by five points and beating marco rubio in florida by 20 points when you

i think cruz made a mistake here. he acted defensive and why can't this woman star in an ad that has absolutely no -- nothing to do with sex or anything in her past? i think it is completely ridiculous. >> maggie, let me ask you because in terms of senator cruz's voting base, particularly in south carolina, heavy reliance on evangelicals, i can imagine his thinking. do you think this was a mistake, or makes sense in terms of who he is aiming for, particularly in the next primary i think he is worried about having every evangelical voter possible. donald trump is leading in every poll handedly in some of them. he needs a perfect storm of votes. i think that what was in his mind when he did that. the language is absolute on certain topics and being a purist in the eyes of evangelical voters is one of them. i agree i think it made it a bigger story. i don't think we would have been talking about it if he had not pulled the ad. as always happens with donald trump, he senses weakness and moves in for the kill. what's what

so rubio could gain more in the polls than cruz even though cruz won. then we go to south carolina. this is fargspartially winner t all. we're talking about 50 delegates. so as many as you could have won in iowa and new hampshire, and you can get them all at once in south carolina. that's huge. >> so you mentioned rubio. he said he was going to head straight to new hampshire as soon as everything was over. so candidates are going to jump ahead to south carolina probably, right? >> rubio has an advantage there. he just got endorsed by tim scott who's a huge favorite. rubio had a great night, not only did he win, he outperformed the polls by 6%. >> let's move on. over in nevada, when republicans go to their primary in south carolina, democrats go to nevada. let's talk about that. >> bernie sanders, because he has a weird youth appeal, i think bernie has a shot there. >> you say there are some other states that are going to be very key overall in this election process. talk about those. >> march 1st we have super tuesday. those are all done by proportion. virginia, because it's a swing

cruz saying trump's threat stems from a cruz tv ad.ses comments trump made to nbc back in 1999 when he said, he was, quote, very pro ce

cruz is satisfying the desires of the cruz voters.think that rubio satisfies the desires of the rubio voters. we'll see in the next week or so. maybe there isn't a case. >> sam stein. >> rubio's strategy was to win one of the early races. it was called the three, two, one strategy. if that didn't work his advisers floated the idea that nevada -- he spent time in las vegas, that nevada would be a fire wall for him. it doesn't look like it will be. but to answer joe's question it's sham, the horse that finished second to secretary why the. a 3-year-old. i believe it was 1973. i didn't google that or anything. >> shut up, sam. you so googled that! you so googled that! >> all right. >> i'll just say, i'm sorry. you play to win. >> yes. >> you play to win. and if a guy is about to beat you -- i mean, i know people hate -- hate me telling stories about when i ran. i will tell you, i'm going to tell the story. it was like the primary was like a month away. i was like 30 points down. i hated asking people for money, and i said, i'm either goi

>> cruz was born in canada.a question of whether he's eligible to run for president of the united states. trump would like a judge to make a decision. >> what about marco rubio was my question? >> yeah, i haven't looked at the issue to be candid with you. i don't think mr. trump has looked at the issue. it's something we'll have to look into. >> i appreciate your time tonight, sir. >> such a pleasure. thank you. >>> outfront next, bernie sanders rallying supporters right now. are his attacks tonight on hillary clinton too little too late? plus, clinton is way ahead in so-called super delegates even though the votes are just starting to trickle in. how is that possible? will they win the race for her? yay! the complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. ensure. take life in! then your eyes may see it, differently.ave allergies. only flonase is approved to relieve both your itchy, watery eyes and congestion. no other nasal allergy spray can say that. c

he will have lost to cruz. and i think it gets at the central trump purpose. >> and it's what he tells his audiences every night. if i don't win it's a waste of time. >> you'll come to me and say president trump, can we stop winning for a while? >> you'll get so sick of winning you'll be bored. >> that said, because donald trump is becoming a more and more conventional candidate with each passing day, he did do some work over the last 48 hours, 72 hours. in which he did tamp down exceptions in iowa. he's got his usual bluster but he said it would be nice to win, i would like to win, we might not win, i hope we win. he wasn't saying i definitely will. >> where would trump be tonight if he didn't come on as strong as he did in the last three weeks on iowa, challenging cruz on everything, from how he financed his senate campaign with wall street loans, challenging cruz's citizenship? he couldn't have hit cruz harder. where would he be? would he be finishing after rubio if he didn't do that big run against cruz? >>

most will go to cruz, i hope.apologized to ben carson and today tried to downplay it. >> passing on a true and accurate news story, it is in fact something that voters found relevant. and i would -- listen, there is a reason why the media is chattering about this. because the media wants to stir up a fight between ben carson and me. >> reporter: trump's twitter tirade against cruz is a stark contrast than the new more subdued tone. >> i'm just trying to be a little bit more understated and statesman-like. some people like that, some people don't. >> reporter: meanwhile on the ground in new hampshire, the fight is intensifying within the establishment lane. >> marco rubio came in third place in a caucus state, and we're all supposed to bow out? that is just absolutely absurd. >> reporter: with marco rubio the new target number one. >> i hear marco rubio is here. heck, man, he does like one event a day, you never see him and he doesn't answer any questions. >> reporter: and the republican field got a little smaller

it's ted cruz's campaign. everything that comes from it is a direct reflection of him and his leadership on the campaign. he says inform caucus goers of this news. the news was inaccurate. why doesn't he say i'm sorry it shouldn't have never been sent. he's blaming it on cnn's reporting. why not just a pure apology? >> erin, the report that was read at the beginning of this segment of tonight's forecast was a fairly lengthy report. we live in a 140 character world where tweets are going out. there's a tweet going on out be cnn. there's a screen shot by cnn. you're minutes before the iowa caucuses. if a candidate says he's not going to new hampshire or south carolina, that is big news. so campaigns are hyper active. again i believe ted cruz has taken responsibility for this. i think the reason it remains a story today is because donald trump lost the iowa kcaucuses. i used to coach. they blame it on other people. i think american people are going to have a higher standard than that. >> bob, thank you very much.

candidate running. >> i think ted cruz is a rock star. >> ted cruz is like the conservative consciousnessn a senate that is callous. how about talking about the substantive issues? [applause] ♪ [applause] ♪ [applause] me where i come from. ♪ ted cruz: god bless the great state of new hampshire. [applause] ted cruz: what a victory last night. [applause] two nights ago, i was watching tv and the stations with every pundit, and they said no way can ted cruz win this. it is impossible. the race is done. night, the men and women of iowa sent notice across this country, that this election is not going to be decided by the media. [applause] election isat this not going to be decided by the lobbyists and the washington cartel. [applause] ted cruz: that it is going to be decided by the grassroots, the men and women here in this room, be decided by the men and women across this country who take so seriously the responsibility. one of the things heidi and i have grown to love about hampshire, so love about iowa is both states take your responsibility seriously. y'all treat politics in new hampshire

was not a natural fit for ted cruz.e's looking at march 1st through march 15th where we have all of these southern states at play. his home state of texas right now he's up ahead in the polls. he can stay in the race. he's got the money to stay in the race. he's looking for stronger finishes in the southern states. trump is dominating cruz's base with evangelical christians. cruz has to figure out a way to broaden his coalition. it will be a three man race at least through march 15th. >> trump winning the evangelical vote. in nevada winning the hispanic vote by 48 percent. it is this going to continue for months to come? >> by the numbers it is overall ready. the rest of the candidates are throwing rocks at the train. nothing you can do about it. everybody is trying to figure out what to do. donald continues to role. at the end of the day we get through march and march 15th like ted cruz wins texas but donald trump also wins much of the other states. rubio will give a lot of the money that bush is getting in some of the

he's at the ted cruz rally in las vegas.know there are a whole bunch of issues swirling around, what are the people in the crowd talking about? >> reporter: well, they're waiting to hear from senator cruz who is, right now, not in the room yet. he's being, he'll be here shortly, but he is supposed to address the media about this latest controversy over charges of dirty tricks by the rubio campaign, as you said, liz. the cruz campaign distributed a video that was posted by a student newspaper yesterday that it said showed rubio dismissing the bible when he walked into a hotel lobby in south carolina and saw cruz's father and a staffer reading it together. rubio's comments, according to the subtitles of the to video, say that rubio told them, quote: got a good book there, not many answers in it. rubio's campaign tweeted out immediately that the comments were incorrect and that the actual comment was got a good book there, all of the answers are in it. a cruz spokesman apologized for the original posting and subtitle saying tha

she covers the cruz campaign.allie, are we right to connect these two things, senator rubio earlier calling for something to happen and for accountability? >> yeah, just joining on the phones. i missed the beginning portion of what you're talking about here. we just walked out of a media meeting with ted cruz where he asked for rick tyler's resignation. this was in response to that video tweeted out. tyler issued a facebook apology for essentially passing on this false news report, but cruz said just moments ago that was -- i'm paraphrasing here -- not enough for him. he said he asked for tyler's resignation today. he talked a little bit about the grave he error in judgment. cruz battled here in las vegas that he wants to make sure to be running a campaign that is above the personal attacks. that is something he's been talking about for weeks, and it's something that appears to be coming to fruition today. >> and as you say, this comes, hallie, after marco rubio just a few hours ago -- i'm trying to pull up the qu

not consolidaing around cruz. personal reasons, candidates don't like cruz, the way he's run his campaign. also there's discomfort among some conservatives about cruz. you'd think at this point santorum on the hard right would be getting behind cruz, but he's not. >> one of the reasons senator rand paul may have jumped now is because it looked like he wasn't going to make the debate this weekend. there was also no kids table at that debate. carly fiorina is appealing to be let into that debate. it looks like she and jim gilmore are the only remaining candidates who will be excluded from the stage. >> that would be quite a debate. >> i would actually -- the nice thing about going to that one is they'd probably let you on the stage with them just to flush it out. but for carly fiorina, i mean, is this do or die for her, she needs to get into that debate? >> it's hard to see a path for carly fiorina at this point. she doesn't have a base in new hampshire of any significance and this is a state where you think she'd b

but ted cruz, 21.2%. 27,205 for rubio. 26,701 for cruz. so there is a fierce fight under way right now. and look at this, john kasich, the ohio governor, he's in fourth place right now. he's ahead of jeb bush. ben carson is in sixth place. but john kasich has now moved up to fourth place, just ahead of jeb bush. so this is a fierce battle under way for second place. but donald trump. donald trump is the big winner in south carolina. and no one can take that away from him right now. jake. >> wolf, if these numbers hold up, this is a rough result for jeb bush. i have to say. coming in fifth, and let's turn to our analyst table here, coming in fifth behind john kasich. this might not be the end result. if he actually ends up coming in fifth behind john kasich, who barely competed in south carolina, and jeb bush put a lot into south carolina, it's tough to make the argument that this is a campaign that should continue. >> it is, as john was just saying. look, i think he needed to break into the double digits here. i think it's going to be a ve

that is because rubio's votes, mostly like go to cruz, and cruz voters most likely go to trump.ben carson is just a spoiler taking 6% or 7% of the vote. he serves no purpose. he should get out. >> how about kasich? >> he is a problem for rubio, that is for sure. but until this comes down to a two-person race, i think that is the only way to beat trump. trump will have a lot of money spent against him. cruz has a chance to win his home state. it doesn't look like rubio has a chance to win his home state. and if he can't, close to 60% of the delegates getting out, it could be too late. >> looking at all of these stepped up attacks, what states are trump vulnerable in. >> rubio is, he will do better in the northern states. not as well in the southern states. so massachusetts, vermont, michigan, and cruz will do better in the southern states. but again, look at this -- if this race is not settled down to two people pretty soon, it will be hard to stop donald trump. and the problem with rubio now too is that he is attacking trump, not on substantive issues, but calling each other lia

cruz latched on to that. scenes you are showing of ted cruz that is a rural nevada city but considered rural nevada. he is making his play. people forget we are in will have only 60% of registered republicans are in las vegas. you have 40% of the vote and probably more in this caucus. cruz knows that. the people running the campaign knows that. the public lands issue can help them. >> the other thing that definitely is true is he voices the frustration that the marco rubio, ted cruz campaign feel about the attention that donald trump has gotten and they want to make this about the media, media paying too much attention but as john just pointed out it is hard to ignore somebody who is winning and who is getting thousands of people every night at a rally. >> the media is always the bad guy. we are covering and everyone wants to blame the media. his base doesn't trust the media so it is easy way to connect and say the media is not giving me time and they are focussed on donald trump. >> trump is clearly relishin

and ed rosen in the cruz. and all throw in colombia, south carolina and it is also a big day for the democrats, hillary clinton pulling off a victory in nevada earlier today. >> ed henrow and mike emmanuel at the clinton. and back in the studio. bill hemmer braking down the county data. martha is in the exit polls in south carolina. >> reporter: it is looking like a three- way race for first place in south carolina. donald trump, ted cruz and marco rubio. south carolina voters are divide on whether they want a candidate with political experience or an outsider. and those who want experience are going to marco rubio. and ted cruz gets 34 percent of those. it is a good night for donald trump. he gets 60 percent of that vote. it looks tight among the top three because voters are split of what they want. winning in november is the most important thing. rub grow gets that group at 49 percent. and cruz at 21. and trump down to 18 percent. and so if elect ability is on their minds they are not going for donald trump.

you are ted cruz supporter. this liar narrative that's been surrounding his campaign seems to be echoing louder and louder. will this firing help mitigate that or will it make it worse? >> ted cruz stood up for his principles, and i commend his decision. even though rick tyler was not responsible for the leaks early on in the -- during the iowa campaign, he understands as a professional that the buck stops here and ted cruz stepped up to the line and did what a leader does. he made a tough decision. he is going to run a principle campaign and not going to cross the line and falsely could you say another candidate of something that he did not do. and he's not going to question someone's faith. let me tell you that i was national coach for john mccain and for governor rick perry. and within the cruz camp, i have never seen such a cohesive group. they have weekly bible studies, the campaign manager, one of the most principled man i have ever met. look at james, for example, part of the tactics are saying he said th

apparently it was cruz himself. the cruz campaign said it was all cruz, that's it just came to him.istie, likewise, tried to coin a name for rival marco rubio whom christie accuses of being scripted and controlled by handlers. >> he reminds me of the boy in the bubble. >> let's get the boy in the bubble out of the boy in the bubble. >> this comes from christie, aka, the bubble. >> did donald trump throw a tantrum? >> he said you had a trumpertantrum. have you heard that? >> i haven't actually. i love that phrase. >> you need to trademark that. >> i am going to trademark that. >> and if you ever feel a trump inspired tantrum coming on, don't blow your top. blow a trumpet at the top of the donald. a swedish ad agency created this for fun. how do you say trumpertantrum in swedish? jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> thanks for joining us. "ac 360" starts right now. >>> good evening from manchester, new hampshire, the granite state, site of the first presidential primary of the 2016 campaign. just five days away. the candidates had multiple events scheduled as they try to reach out to as man

senator cruz is it.you want to see power devo e devolved out of washington, d.c., these governors empowered to do the things they know they can do and respecting the tenth amendment, then ted cruz without a doubt is the individual on the stage that can do that. has the commitment, has the intellect, and has the know-how to make it happen. >> when you were governor, you welcomed then president vicente fox to the governor's mansion. the former president said something today that some people think is going to be mana for trump. here's how he said it. >> i'm not going to pay for that [ bleep ] wall. he should pay for it. >> the thing that makes me chuckle about that is he accepted the premise, as if it is going to be there, who is going to pay for it. >> i sethe border can be secure. it doesn't take a physical wall. it takes a virtual wall. that's with technology and boots on the ground. the issue is not whether there's going to be a wall. it's going to be what kind of a wall. are we going to be successful i

in terms of cruz and rubio, what is cruz's path to victory?ould it be better for rubio if ted cruz stays in the race? al: i think it is a little different. they both want to stay in for a while if you want to beat trump. cruz's path to victory is harder than rubio's. he has to win texas big. he has to take home about 100 delegates which means if you get more than 50%, you take all the delegates. he has to win over 50% and over a dozen delegates. marco rubio has to finish second and maybe beat trump in one or two and come out of super tuesday about even with trump. tall order. mark: i agree. the way he does that is to use the targeted data operation this campaign has, more sophisticated than others to figure out where he can win delegates district by district throughout the south. he has invested a lot in the south. i think he needs to come out of super tuesday where people are no longer saying he's a dead man walking. third person often left out of the narrative but he should not be is ohio governor john kasich. he did not compete much in neva

cruz at 56%.ing out for ted cruz and you look at that evangelical number you wonder if that's coming from the western part of the state. >> perhaps so. the other number is if you look at the numbers s oon the scree may be a little different now, 28 cruz, 25 trump. rubio all the way up at 22 having been down in the polls at 15 at least. conservative voters. fully 84% of iowa republican voters consider themselves conservatives and how did they break? they broke 28% for cruz. 24% for trump. and 22% for rubio. almost perfectly paralleling the state of the race as we see it now telling you about conservative support and the extent to which it mirrors exactly what we're seeing. >> updated now i think the latest sweep is 30% of the conservatives went for cruz. 22% went for rubio. 23% for trump. >> i have sweep four. >> this is sweep six. cruz gotten 30% of the conservatives. >> and -- and he's ahead. >> right. >> right? telling you the importance of that vote. >> you look at the issue by issue breakdown,

tell me about ted cruz. tell me, what is going on with ted cruz?en a lot reporting on, tracking. what is going on with that guy? eliana: i think he is in a difficult position because he is being hammered from above and below. he is hammered by donald trump, who has not stopped calling him a liar, and hammered from below by marco rubio. i think his message is getting a little bit drowned out because he has a bad habit of not being able to let anybody else have the last word so his message is getting a little bit overshadowed by his attempts to respond to the attacks on him by trump. he held a press conference today responding. and i think he is not quite getting his message out. he is getting caught up in responding and being on defense. john: i noticed today he started talking about donald trump sued him or filed a suit against him for maybe not being able to run for president because of canadian origins and that he would be guilty of filing a frivolous lawsuit and that anyone who signed on would be sanctioned by the court. and i thought, man, what

ted cruz has the finances.nd the delegate strategy that dana was just talking about to go forward for quite some time. what i think tonight are showing us -- talking about marco rubio benefitting from jeb bush voters, even though he didn't have a ton of them, he still had some level of support. this now indicates to me that this race is going all the way through march, at least, if not into april. because there is no reason, if we keep seeing results like this, that this three-man race, and we'll see how john kasich sort of makes his presence known as the fourth man in the race. if this three-man race keeps splitting up all the delegates are awarded proportionally right now. not until march 15th do we get to win or take all. so as everything is awarded proportionally, this goes on for quite some time. >> mark preston, you broet the story about jeb bush suspending or dropping out of the race. it looks like the republican committee is gearing up for an extended run, even more republican debates at the end of marc