joining me is gloria borger. trump is doubling down, not apologizing for anything. he notes all of the supporters e he has. and i know you have a new poll that says a lot. >> that's ragt. e we just got a new poll out of "usa today." this basically confirms what we have seen before. which is that trump is in the lead at 27% of gop voters. you have cruz coming in second at 17%. rubio basically tied at 16%. then carson taking a tumble there at 10%. so this is what we have seen. going back to the summer, he has been dominating these polls. not only the national polls, but also the state to state polls as well.

we go to gloria borger and jim acosta at the white house. what do you believe that the president is going to try to get across? >> well, it is another way of him assuring the american people that he is on top of it in securing the homeland and taking the fight to isis, and you have heard it in several settings, the oval office, the pentagon, and at the national counter terrorism center yesterday. and this is a unique opportunity for the president to talk about what he feel s ths that the accomplishments were over the last year, and they want to talk about the climate deal inked in pari paris, and they want to talk about the iran nuclear deal, and the diplomatic relations opened up with cuba and tim -- the improving economy, but it is against that backdrop that the president has to address the climate of fear and concern out there in the american public about what is happening with the fight against isis, and there not a lot of confidence of the president's strategy for taking out the terror army, and growing concern whether or not the govern

gloria borger, ted cruz, as david said, up a little bit. marco rubio actually down a little bit since november and jeb bush down from 5% to 3%. this debate was supposed to be the place that jeb turned things around. he had the energetic performance, going toe to toe with donald trump. so it's not working as well as they hoped. >> this is not a national poll. and in taking on donald trump, he's trying to come in third. so he's narrowing his focus to that one state. and what they've done in the bush campaign is looked at the polling in new hampshire. they have to be in the top three. a person who appeals to the 25%, 26% of voters in new hampshire who don't like trump. they want the alternative to trump and so they want to be the serious candidate, they want to the presidential candidate and they can distinguish themselves, so they believe, from someone like a chris christie or a rubio or cruz, all of whom are ahead of them. >> it's interesting, because the shots at donald trump from jeb bush don't seem to be hurting donald trump according to

gloria borger, briana keelor and dana bash. dana, you have been out there on the ground. let's talk about iowa. i think one of the big questions is, can all these trump supporters who show up in the polls, will they actually go to caucus, which is, you know, it's not -- it's not as simple as just voting. >> not at all. it takes a lot of effort to go and caucus. i think about 130,000, maybe just little bit more. that's the universe of people we're talking about who generally go. what you just asked is really the $64,000 question because a lot of people who are telling pollsters like our polls and others that they like donald trump, that they are going to caucus for donald trump haven't been to the caucuses before and it's a cultural situation where you have to know what it's about and be willing to spend an entire evening there and raise your hand publicly and say you're for donald trump. those are a whole lot of ifs. is the passion there and is the organization there? >> it's about organization because it's also about the campaigns. now trump has been getting more organiz

let's turn to experts with me, along with chris cuomo, david act act axle rod, gloria borger, john king. david, what are you expecting tonight? >> clearly, national security has a risen to the top of the list of concerns and donald trump has surfed what is an environment of fear out there effectively. i think you'll see candidates trying to see muscularity on the issue and capture the moment, and then there will be subplots, rubio, cruz, how they interact, they've been sparring. how do cruz and trump react as cruz is moving up on trump and taking over the lead in iowa. i think the guy to watch in the debate is chris christie, moving uple will with his muscular talk on national security in new hampshire and is a threat to block center right candidates in new hampshire from doing what they need to do. >> good phrase that gloria borger's using, muscular talk, you've got this distinction between how you -- >> i am wondering what muscular talk is. >> i think the illusion is -- >> donald trump. >> i they're talking tough. the situation is soft, there's weakness, i am strength. when you get to

joe johns was in the oval office for that statement and joined by gloria borger. joe, first to you, you were in the room there. a somber president who said it could be terrorism. it's remarkable to hear a president say, possibly, but we don't know. >> right. i think there were duel track d tracks and what they did not know saying there might be mixed motives as to workplace and terrorism. so, that's something that we're going to be looking into, as well. and he said this is now an fbi investigation. not being controlled by the locals and then it turned to the policy issues. you didn't hear there at the very end i did ask the president whether this, this issue of guns in america is the most frustrating thing that he's had to deal with in his tenure as president. and he chose not to answer that question, but while he was talking there, he said we can't just leave this up to the professionals. we need to search ourselves and make it harder for people to get guns. so, the president of the united states during his years in office has given statements like this again an

i want to game out tonight's debate with three people who have seen a lot of the events, gloria borger, cnn chief national correspondent, john king and cnn senior political commentator david axelrod. david, let me start with you. you went through so many of these when you were adviser to then-senator barack obama. >> pleasure to be an observer. >> much more pleasant. and barack obama had a mixed record in debates. pretty good but hillary clinton probably bested him a few times. >> i think so. >> what would you tell the front-runner here, donald trump, if you were advising him? you have a good relationship with him. he's given money to the foundation that you work for, that you've started. what would your advice to him be? >> well, other than -- i think a difficult candidate to prepare for a debate. i'd suspect he goes with his instincts. the truth is, he hasn't done particularly well in the debates, he hasn't gained from the debates. but i don't think he's a guy who's going to change things up. you know, i think my main instruction would be, don't go after people gratuitously, don't sh

gloria borger and jake tapper and also cnn political commentators amanda carpenter, s.e. cupp. jeffrey was a political director in the reagan white house. s.e. a conservative columnist. appreciate you all being with us. gloria, let's start with you. did you hear anything tonight that changes anything for the four men that were just on stage? >> i don't think it changes anything. but what i heard tonight was an emotional lindsey graham. somebody who said i've been talking about these issues this entire campaign and now the campaign is kind of caught up with me. and here i am at this undercard debate, right? >> and it was a gloomy debate. it was reflected the fear and anxiety in this country. post-paris and san bernardino. and the most memorable line to me was lindsey graham saying i blame obama for isil, not bush. i miss george w. bush. >> lindsey graham also having some very tough words for donald trump on his pledge to ban muslims, at least temporarily from entering the united states. >> he apologized to the muslim world on behalf of america for donald trump. something that i'v

gloria borger will be there. thank you very much.up next, where are the arab countries, where are our allies in the middle east in this war against isis? why leaders who have the terror group in their backyard are not doing more. stay with us. ♪ hi, tom. how's the college visit? does it make the short list? yeah, i'm afraid so. it's okay. this is what we've been planning for. knowing our clients personally is why edward jones is the big company that doesn't act that way. >>> one year ago they declared it their war. key arab nations led by jordan joining the u.s.-led coalition in the fight against isis and going after the terrorists pounding them with air strikes. now in the wake of the paris massacre, attack in california, pressure certainly mounting on arab states to once again step up those air strikes. joining me now again cnn intelligence analyst former cia operative bob baer. "new york times" reports last month the saudi air force has not flown a mission against isis targets since september. jordan reportedly hasn't flown one si

jim sciutto and gloria borger here in washington and barbara starr at the pentagon. chris, will the president's words surrounding president putin resonate with the president of france? >> that's a really good question. i mean, there's no doubt that president hollande is asking for a very ambitious move of progress in terms of the coalition. as president obama laid out, the russian president just isn't there. he said in no really vague way he didn't expect any quick change vis-a-vis russian support of the syrian regime. if that is the case, it will not be a possibility for russia to join the coalition in a full way. the question is can you find strategic common points? that's been complicated of what just happened with turkey and now word that russia has put the surface-to-air missiles in place. obviously president hollande is reflecting the domestic situation here. this is very much a place on edge, a lot of work yet to be done in terms of understanding the attacks of a couple weeks ago and how to make this a safer environment, carol. >> we know the president talked

back with the panel, jeffrey lord and van jones, and gloria borger, jeff, do you see this going all the way to the convention? come march, we'll know more things. >> everything i thought i knew about politics just went out the window. you know, iowa is not new hampshire. so you're seeing the candidates now start to gel to where they believe their strengths are. chris christie is a national security guy and doing a platform that is pretty significant in new hampshire on that. it helped if you read the endorsement there, it was huge. by the way, they will endorse every day and say something good about him every day. his numbers are on the way up. that first round, by the way, people who do well in iowa tend not to do well in new hampshire. i think you're seeing that in all the polling right now. i think there will be less seats at the table. the big super tuesday day is where it really saturdays to matter. >> and with this one angle, mike roger's hair is looking strangely like donald trump's. >> for that kind of money, i would have this kind of hair -- >> gloria, what do you expect tomorr

i want to get more now with cnn chief political analyst gloria borger and cnn political commentator davidrrespondent jeff zeleney. ted cruz is surging in the polls and we look at iowa and he's doing very well and this is very key. people want to know are we going to see a ted cruz/donald trump showdown and yet at the same time sometimes donald trump disappears in the background here? >> for as much as we've talked about this ted cruz and donald trump showdown, i think it's not as likely to happen on stage as it is sort of a before and after. the reality is if you look at donald trump has performed throughout all the debates. he's very confident and self-assures and he is fine being in the background just a little bit because substance is not his strength always necessarily and i think that, you know, there's no reason for him to stick his neck out there and the question is if ted cruz is asked will you say in public what we've heard you say privately. what does he say to that? so i think, that you know, trump is no shrinking violet but he does not need to pick any fights or engage any fig

also, cnn's chief political analyst gloria borger.ruz and rubio now basically consider each other to be their main rival? not necessarily donald trump? >> you think? you know, they are fighting right now not only for the nomination but for the future of the republican party here. that's what we see playing out. this is a fight over national security policy. it's a fight over immigration. it's a fight over how much you spend on defense. and these two men are attacking each other because they differ in huge ways. and each of them wants to inherit trump's voters and supporters. but cruz is going right at rubio by using -- you heard him use that word amnesty, wolf, on immigration. and when you use that word to republican primary voters, it's a complete red flag. and rubio is going back at him and saying, wait a minute, you have flip-flopped your position. because back in 2013, you said something very different about legalization for illegal immigrants. this is going to go back and forth and back and forth to get those primary voters. >> t

joining me, john spicer, and cnn chief political analyst gloria borger, and host of cnn, smirconish. is white iexciting. it is a snooze-fest on the other side, we are poised to head into 2016. this is the final debate of this year and i think 2016 will kick off with a bang. >> but is it good for the gop? there is a lot of attention being paid to the fighting between your candidates. >> great, look at the number of people who are excited about the candidate and are saying i'm with this person and with this person and will tune in. i think this vision for america will turn out. i'm scared. i think that america's security is at stake and i think one of the republicans are the best choice. it's our party that the intensity is with, not theirs. they have made up their mind with hillary clinton because she is untrustworthy -- >> how long do you see this going, gloria -- >> behind closed doors, there are a lot of republicans who don't seem as excited as you are. and they're like we don't want to get to a brokered convention and have that potential problem. so aren't you nervous about that.

and let's bring in our political analysts gloria borger and sam, and what do you gather from this pollthe third national poll in a row that we have seen donald trump with a commanding lead. if you look at the sup pores, they are not going anywhere. and 46% of the trump supporters say that their mind is made up and two months before the voting, and they won't go anywhere and that is much higher than any other candidate, and the supporters are sticky and the controversial is what is the media focuses on does not impact where the people go. >> and the more the republican plishment complains about trum arep, and the more the media complains about trump, the more the supporters are loyal to him. as you point out, cruz' sup poerters and rubio's, and only one quarter of them will stick with the candidate through thick and thin and with trump, half of them. >> he has loyal supporters out there, and jeb bush, his numbers are collapsing right now? >> it is unbelievable. a year ago, i sat here and said to you that a couple of months before the vote jeb bush would be down to 5%, you would have tho

. >> joining me now from washington is chief cnn analyst gloria borger and political reporter knee nia-malika hender. and this is a response from a wide array of the spectrum, and so at this moment, does donald trump pose any threat from the past contre ver shall statements that the he has made? >> well, it is deja vu, and it is ritual for him to say something controversial and predictions to be said about his demise coming up, but again, he still seems to be rising in the polls or stay put in the command or something like one-third of the republican parties' voters, and there with josh earnest, he is making a point that i think that you will hear from a lot of democrats this idea that people like paul ryan and dick cheney and people like jeb bush are condemning donald trump on the one hand, but they also seem to suggest that if he is ended up to be the nominee, they would ultimately support him, which is also a point that bill kros tall who is a prominent conservative wri writer made as well, so the white house is doing some work for the democratic party there today with josh earnest's state

gloria borger and john king with us and of course chris cuomo, as well. i want to take a look at something donald trump tweeted earlier today. he said i'm at the trump international hotel getting ready waiting for the debate. look forward. hope i get treated fairly. he's also been going after fox news all day. >> he's very delicate. i mean i've never heard a candidate talk about being treated with respect. >> i think he's setting up a dynamic where it's him against the establishment. and if he see as coalescenye, he will take the side of the anti-establishment. he's trying to hold that ground. >> but i don't know what being treated fairly means. i mean, he's -- >> that means when he gets to be the nominee. >> he's threatened to leave the party and run as an independent if not treated fairly. does that mean he shouldn't be challenged on the debate stage by the contenders or cnn? >> we not answer to the question. the answer is he's setting up his expectations for tonight. he has not shown as brightly on the debate stage. and so he's setting it up. >> plus h

gloria borger, thank you. >> sure.rin. >>> and "outfront" next, jeanne moos with the one thing donald trump doesn't do well. hide how he's feeling. jusdoes that mean they have toer grow apart from their friends, or from the things they love to do? with right at home, it doesn't. right at home's professional team thoughtfully selects caregivers to help with personal care, housekeeping, meals, and most of all, staying engaged in life. oh, thank you, thank you. you're welcome. are you ready to go? oh, i sure am. we can provide the right care, right at home. you want i fix this mess? a mess? i don't think -- what's that? snapshot from progressive. plug it in, and you can save on car insurance based on your good driving. you sell to me? no, it's free. you want to try? i try this if you try... not this. okay. da! >>> more than 18 million people watched last night's gop debate. and while some candidates tried to keep a poker face, donald trump did the opposite. here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: i swore i wouldn't do another "f

let me bring in our chief political analyst gloria borger and kathy lynn taylor the founder of the policyle. gloria, let me begin with you. right out of the gate, donald trump was taking on jeb bush. what did he say? he said, jeb, you know, low energy. and we were talking about the sparring back and forth. i'm curious if everyone on that stage last night, jeb bush was really the only one -- rand paul -- who really directly took jabs at mr. trump. >> right. look, it doesn't really pay off for people or it hasn't so far. i think jeb bush is a calculated risk for him to do this. i think it's something he feels very truongly about. i think he clearly feels that trump is not a serious candidate for the presidency, as he said last night. and called his ideas crazy. but i do think it's a calculated risk because all of those candidates who have taken on trump frontally have declined in the polls. so it's not -- it's really not easy. however, bush is going for a very different segment of the republican primary electorate, and i think in taking on bush he believes politically that perhaps he could

. >> let's bring in our chief national correspondent john king and chief political analyst gloria borger. the road blocks for the president, though, given some of the criticism he has received and it's been enormous, are pretty significant tonight. >> sure. i think he's got a skeptical public right now. i mean, as our poll shows -- by the way, our poll was taken before the events in san bernardino. i think if you looked at our poll today, it would be worse for the president i would presume. but 68% say we're not -- the u.s. military response to isis has not been aggressive enough. and i think the problem for the president is that, perhaps, his national security team did not know of any credible threats and that frightens people more because if they didn't know, the question is, why didn't they know, and what can you do about this do-it-yourself jihadis that we're seeing right now who are inspired by what they read on the internet or something far, far away who are living currently in this country? people don't see it, and that's the question, that's the question the american people want

. >> gloria borger, the president said there's no evidence, at least not yet, that what happened in san bernardino over the past few days was directed or part of any broader conspiracy, but he did say as jake just said it was an act of terrorism. >> he did say that, and also, you know, to echo jake, i've never heard this language from the president before. he said these are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death. he challenged congress not only on assault weapons but vote for the use of force against isis. he pledged we will destroy. wasn't degrading -- >> he didn't say ultimately destroy, he said we will destroy. >> we will destroy isil. talked about steps he would take about reviewing the visa waiver program, make it harder for terrorists to use technology to their advantage. and, again, challenging congress not only on the assault weapon issue, but also on vote to authorize the use of force against isil because we're going to need -- we're going to need the money. >> and he repeated a call that he did yesterday, if you're on the no-fly list, you shouldn't be able to go out and bu

and gloria borger. there is so much to digest. but let's just start with a key moment. >> jeb bush saying that donald trump is not going to -- i think that jeb bush turned in a strong performance. there were a number of strong performances on the stage. jeb had a good night. >> i think it may be wishful thinking but a lot of republican strategists think he will be at the top of the polls now but when iowa votes the race will change and a lot of republicans think it's going to come down to a cruz-rubio race. if it does and even if it doesn't we saw the beginning of some deep-seeded animosity between them. rubio scored points for his votes to curtail surveillance and cruz put rubio on his heels on the immigration debate. and he tried to explain it's different now. you can't sell what he tried to sell then to the republican base where rubio was on immigration was a bad place. the bad blood between those two bubbled up tonight. >> they are anticipating a showdown between the two of them. it is up to the republican voters. but we saw s

joining me is gloria borger. trump is doubling down, not apologizing for anything.of the supporters e he has. and i know you have a new poll that says a lot. >> that's ragt. e we just got a new poll out of "usa today." this basically confirms what we have seen before. which is that trump is in the lead at 27% of gop voters. you have cruz coming in second at 17%. rubio basically tied at 16%. then carson taking a tumble there at 10%. so this is what we have seen. going back to the summer, he has been dominating these polls. not only the national polls, but also the state to state polls as well. >> i just want to read. we just got a tweet from donald trump that came in. it says, let me read it here. a new poll indicates that 68% of my supporters would vote for me if i departed the gop and ran as an din independent. gloria? >> well, that's not so vailed threat. i think donald trump has been under a huge amount of criticism today from the leaders of his own party, the people he's running against in his own party and i think this is his way of saying it. he's always said

let's dig deeper with sara murray, brianna keilar and chief political analyst gloria borger.at trump is judged by a different standard because he's an entertainer. >> i don't think that's it. i think this is about republican primary voters. republican primary voters are mad at the so-called establishment which would be elected officials. republican elected officials. they are mad at the media. don't like the media. and so donald trump gets a bit of a pass where other entertainers or politicians would not. i think that's what we're seeing going on. if he attacks somebody, it's okay because he is different. he's not one of them. he's sort of the ultimate outsider. >> sara, you've been on the road covering trump now for a while. do voters seem to have any concerns about some of the assertions he's made? >> i think, if anything, when you present voters with any sign that donald trump might be telling the truth, they would rather blame the media than blame donald trump and i think a perfect example of this is in the 9/11 comments. voters will say, looking i saw someone here or we

i have gloria borger commentator amanda carpenter and cnn political commentator van jones, former adviserthe obama administration. so awesome to be here with all of you. i'm curious to see from all of you, when we see this national poll trump is above. the 40% mark. this is after he said what he did about banning muzslims in the country. your response? >> it's terrifying. as a democrat, you say good. because it shows the republican party is really chasing itself off a cliff when it comes to the fear monger.ing. but as an american i feel terrible that someone could accuse a whole group of people and say you're not fit to come into the united states and benefit from it. that's scary to me. >> with trump, the broader the stage, the better he seems to do. the narrower the stage now, we see these polls in iowa. for example, suddenly he's got somebody either beating him or right on his rear. so this is the challenge for donald trump, which is he may have this broad appeal on the republican party, but can he bring those people who have not been involved in the political process before and those

let's bring in three members of cnn's political team, our chief political analyst gloria borger, chiefspondent dan dana bash and republican strategist kevin madden. dana, 57% of adults, all americans, oppose this proposal according to this new poll. but among republican primary voters we just heard sara report there's an even split 38% favor, 39% oppose. they sort of highlight the tight rope the rest of the republican presidential candidates are walking right now. >> it does. and i think it's noteworthy that that 38% almost mirrors where trump is standing in iowa, new hampshire, nationally among republicans. it's no accident. these are the republican voters, or those who say they're going to vote in republican caucuses who like to hear this kind of thing. now, as we've discussed, if it were a two-person race for the republican nomination, trump would lose. but the reason trump is doing so well is because 38% or 32 or 33 depending on what poll you're looking at, is so much more support than anybody else is getting. in fact, you know, if you just look back at our poll a couple days ago f

. >> i want to bring in gloria borger and the washington correspondent for the new yorker magazine. each other, gloria, instead of going after the frontrunner, donald trump? >> because they figure that at some point one of them is going to get trump supporters. they're in the same lane. and they believe that one has to knock the other one out. and so it's kind of like mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the most conservative of us all. that's what the fight is about over immigration. the word "amnesty" when cruz uses that word against rubio, that's a buzz word for conservatives. and they're opposed to amnesty. and, you know, rubio has tried to muddy the waters a little bit when it comes to where cruz is. but it's very difficult for him to do that. i think this is a big hurdle for him with conservative voters. >> ryan, cruz clearly needs trump's supporters but rubio is running in what some call the more establishment lane of the republican party. does he also need trump's supporters? >> yeah. look, there are probably four big groups in the republican electorate. you want to draw a bit

i want to bring in sarah murray and chief political analyst gloria borger in the new cnn poll, trumpmong caucus goers dana reported. what is driving this impressive lead? >> donald trump is driving this impressive lead. what you saw today from him, i believe, is going to appeal to his base and i wouldn't be surprised despite his statement that it increases his pole numbers with evangelicals in iowa. donald trump knows how to drive the conversation, wolf. i think his supporters see somebody who is steadfast, stands for something they like, anti obama, no political correctness, he does very well on foreign policy, on dealing with isis and dealing with the economy and we saw he found a way to separate himself from the rest of the republican field and what are they talking about today? donald trump. >> and he's beeniing criticized >> but they are talking about him. >> sarah, you spent a lot of time covering the trump campaign. how is this likely to play on the conversations you had with trump supporters? >> the reality is when you go to a lot of states, there is a lot of fear and suspici