we have david chalian. trump's recent comments just then about carly fiorina, you know, particularly going after her for job cuts at hp, hewlett-packard, which she left a number of years ago, it's a double-edge sword of business experience, that it can help you but also hurt you. i'm wondering if that's what we're seeing here. >> even if she has no relationship with hp, when they are in the news about job layoffs, donald trump uses it to his advantage. back to the mitt romney example, we saw that there as well when there were negative stories about the investment firm, we -- whether or not he had anything to do with those specific projects at baen, he gets tagged with it. it's specific to people running in politics, they are never able to shed that. >> jeff zeleny reported earlier in the forecast, tom foreman, rather, has skeletons in his corporate closet. that came up in the debate last night. there were these efforts to build a casino in florida and denied it on stage. he faces the same weakness, does he

maeve reston and david chalian, thank you for joining me. and tomorrow, we will have all of the bugaboos fixed, and so stick with us for the latest on the race for the white house. >>> the two candidates and not just one up into the double digits in the polls. two candidates with almost nothing in common except for one little thing, and it is making a huge difference. find out next. when you have a migraine, you'll reach for anything to make the pain go away. truth is, most pain relievers don't work like excedrin migraine. it relieves my pain starting in 30 minutes. that's fast! plus, sensitivity to light and sound. excedrin migraine. wow, that was fast. >>> aside from the fact that they are co-favorites at a least for now anyway in the gop presidential contest, donald trump and ben carson may have one thing in common, in a large field, dominated by senators and governors and former senators and governors, mr. trump and dr. carson are relative neophytes and neither has held any public office, and the same goes for carly fiorina. and so does

but we are here with david chalian. we are looking ahead to a big week.events between ted cruz and donald trump and hillary clinton. >> exactly. hillary clinton said today, when you turn the corner after labor day, it's a new phase of the campaign. that is very true. people are starting to tune in. next week we will see the issue of iran split down the middle. hillary will give a speech next wednesday supporting president o obama's work. donald trump and ted cruz, perhaps a ticket, will be together in strong opposition to this iran deal appearing at a rally that ted cruz organized. that will be a day where contrasts will be clear. >> ted cruz knows if he has organize a rally, the guy to get coverage is donald trump. >> it's the week of late night. >> that's part of the new phase. opportunity to introduce yourself to americans in a new way as people are focusing on the campaign. >> right. it's a way to appear spontaneous and full of humor without actually being spontaneous. because the truth about these shows is that the staff goes in and plans exactly wha

david chalian is inside the debate halls where fiorina is heading. vid, show us what the stage looks like. >> anderson, as you know, you're going to be able to feel the tension tonight. it's palpable. look at those podiums. they're so close together. what i'm fascinated by and what i'm going to be watching for tonight is to see how body language will sort of impact the debate itself. as you can see we've sort of put the candidates out in an array based on their polling. donald trump is center stage. he is at the top of the heap. and then it fans out from there as you go down the polls to the sides. so you've got chris christie and rand paul, the two lowest polling candidates in this tier at opposite ends of the stage. they also have no love loss for each other, so there's a lot of distance for them to sort of trade barbs at. unfortunately if you're looking for the jeb bush-donald trump death match, i'm curious to see how the candidates handle it. the psychology of standing next to someone may make it more difficult to bring the fight to them. the phys

david chalian, cnn's political director, also my friend. let me tell you about the polls. you did not know, donald trump leading in all the polls. >> that's what i really love about you. how you do the breaking news. you give us the stuff we have not heard about. >> trump at 32%. carson surging, is the word we like to use, into second place at 19%. everyone else either back or way, way back at this point. single digits for so many of the candidates we thought would be serious, serious players. i want to talk about the other guys in a second, but let's start with donald trump. he's running a nontraditional campaign. >> to say the least. >> we don't know how a guy like donald trump prepared for a debate like this, but what do you think he needs to do, if he has a goal for wednesday night, what's the goal? >> to protect the lead. that is frankly the goal. he has the most to lose here because he's coming in with the most support. so he needs to be prepared for all the attacks coming his way. i think we're going to see a lot more of that than we did back in cleveland at the fir

also here, david chalian, cnn's political director. to start with you on the subject of carly fiorina because you have faced off with carly before. you have been on cable tv, you had to debate her before. she's good. >> she is unbelievably good. cnn used to put me and three other people against her, and she would just mow us down. she is an unstoppable force of nature. donald trump has never been on stage with someone like her. i think people are underestimating this. she is -- first of all, you have two business people. they know how to get their point made. they do not back down. i guarantee you the moment of this debate is going to be, if donald trump turns to her and says anything, it is going to be a thermonuclear event. carly fiorina is not to be messed with. >> they have been skirmishing. they have been doing shadow boxing before getting on stage together. >> she has shown reserve in responding to donald trump. in fact, some of the other candidates had a harsher reaction to trump's "rolling stone" interview, trump talking about

i want to hear from an expert, cnn's political director, david ch chalian is joining me live on the set. they went all in but there was so much more that developed in the last 24 hours. he had very pointed words about carly fiorina, very personal, very offensive, and yet instead of doubling down -- he doubles down on the stuff where he pisses people off and he backed away tried to couch it. i'm surprised he doesn't double down on what he says. he gets around it. >> he contextualizes it as he sees fit, trying to put his spin on it. he told "rolling stone" magazine about carly fiorina's face, and is that a face that could be president. look at that face. >> who is going to vote for that face? >> this morning he said, i wasn't talking about her physical looks but her persona. >> this is crap because every time he has said something offensive, yeah, i said it. that's my thing. i say what i mean. i'm not like other politicians. when it comes to women like megyn kelly or carly fiorina he does dance around it and becomes like every politician out there with double speak. >> i don't know if it'