news, helene cooper of the "new york times," amy walter of the cook political report, and michael gerson of the "washington post." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >>> good sunday morning, i'm andrea mitchell in for chuck todd who is taking a well-deserved holiday break. 12 months ago, most political pundits would have laughed in your face if you suggested that by the end of the year donald trump would have a commanding lead in the race for the republican nomination and bernie sanders would be giving hillary clinton a run for her money on the democratic side. but 2015 has been a year when conventional wisdom was turned on its head. the big question for 2016 is whether the old order can reassert itself. in a moment, i'll be joined by bernie sanders. but this christmas week, there wasn't any peace and good will from trump as he used a vulgar term to refer to hillary clinton's 2008 defeat to barack obama. and kricriticized her for takin bathroom break during last week's democratic debate. >> she got schlonged. i know where she went. it's disgusting, i don't want to talk about it. >

news, helene cooper, amy walter editor of the cook political report and michael gerson, a former chief speech writer for george w. bush and "washington post" columnist now. welcome all. amy walter, first to you. schultz on that. but what about donald trump going after hillary clinton? going after bill clinton? does this work for him? >> well, it has thus far. look, i think donald trump has done something unique in this campaign which is he has understood the republican electorate better than any of the republican candidates going there and he's understood the media environment in which he can make these pronouncements. the problem for donald trump, though, is for as well as he is doing currently on the republican side, he continues to make himself less electable in the general election. you look at where his negatives are, they're higher than hillary clinton's. if you look at the matchups between donald trump and hunkillary clinton in a general election, he's the only candidate losing to hillary clinton in some cases by more than ten points. so for as much as this is getting him the at

helene cooper of the "new york times." molly ball of the "atlantic" and jerry seib of the "wall street journal." welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> good sunday morning. expressing their opinion. we have two new polls on the republican race for president. according to what may be developing into a three-man race, let's get to these numbers. donald trump is back on top in our new national nbc news/"wall street journal" poll sitting at 27%. up four points since late october, the highest number he's had in our poll so far. ted cruz is surging, now in second, sitting at 22, more than double where he was in october. marco rubio also on the rise. and look at old ben carson, the one-time leader. believe it or not, he led in the last nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. 11%. here's the rest of the candidates who picked up at least 1% in our poll. jeb bush still stuck in single digits. then this bombshell out of iowa. cruise surging into the lead with 31%, a 21-point gain since october. trump is holding steady at 21% foll

then helene cooper, pentagon correspondent for the "new york times," molly boll of the "atlantic" and jerry seib who is the bureau chief. jerry, let me start with you, trump, trump, trump, trump. but -- >> you were talking about fear and loathing. here's the number in our poll that has republican establishment people in fear and loathing mode. 59% of the people that we surveyed have a negative view of donald trump. 47% have a very negative view of donald trump. so that's -- those are tough numbers in a general election. that's the specter they worry however, having said that, you know, there is no sign that the block of people within the republican electorate who support donald trump are going anywhere. there's been no erosion. not since june, really, has there been any question who was the leading candidate in the republican party. and these are new voters. will they be republican primary voters? we'll find out. >> molly, what's been interesting here is the -- people will look at these polls today and say trump's falling. no, trump's increased his support. not only here, it's -- ther

news, helene cooper of the "new york times," amy walter of the cook political report, and michael gerson post." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >>> good sunday morning, i'm andrea mitchell in for chuck todd who is taking a well-deserved holiday break. 12 months ago, most political pundits would have laughed in your face if you suggested that by the end of the year donald trump would have a commanding lead in the race for the republican nomination and bernie sanders would be giving hillary clinton a run for her money on the democratic side. but 2015 has been a year when conventional wisdom was turned on its head. the big question for 2016 is whether the old order can reassert itself. in a moment, i'll be joined by bernie sanders. but this christmas week, there wasn't any peace and good will from trump as he used a vulgar term to refer to hillary clinton's 2008 defeat to barack obama. and kricriticized her for takin bathroom break during last week's democratic debate. >> she got schlonged. i know where she went. it's disgusting, i don't want to talk about it. >> clinton hit back,

news, helene cooper of the "new york times," amy walter of the cook political report, and michael gerson of the "washington post." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >>> good sunday morning, i'm andrea mitchell in for chuck todd who is taking a well-deserved holiday break. 12 months ago, most political pundits would have laughed in your face if you suggested that by the end of the year donald trump would have a commanding lead in the race for the republican nomination and bernie sanders would be giving hillary clinton a run for her money on the democratic side. but 2015 has been a year when conventional wisdom was turned on its head. the big question for 2016 is whether the old order can in a moment, i'll be joined by

news, helene cooper of the "new york times," amy walter of the cook political report, and michael gerson of the "washington post." welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >>> good sunday morning, i'm andrea mitchell in for chuck todd who is taking a well-deserved holiday break. 12 months ago, most political pundits would have laughed in your face if you suggested that by the end of the year donald trump would have a commanding lead in the race for the

helene cooper of the "new york times."d jerry seib of the "wall street journal." welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> good sunday morning. 50 days until voters start expressing their opinion. we have two new polls on the republican race for president. according to what may be developing into a three-man race, let's get to these numbers. donald trump is back on top in our new national nbc news/"wall street journal" poll sitting at 27%. up four points since late october, the highest number he's had in our poll so far. ted cruz is surging, now in second, sitting at 22, more than double where he was in october. marco rubio also on the rise. and look at old ben carson, the one-time leader. believe it or not, he led in the last nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. he's dropped dramatically to 11%. here's the rest of the candidates who picked up at least 1% in our poll. jeb bush still stuck in single digits. then this bombshell out of iowa. cruise surging into the lead with 31%, a 21-point gain since october. trump is ho

let me first say i'm not helene cooper. pentagon correspondent for "the new york times," so she's busy covering the strikes in syria. i took off the scarf so maybe you wouldn't notice. but i'm back. and with the pleasure of being here with lonnie bunch, who is directing the newest museum in washington, and the only new one on the mall, and the architecture, the building itself is spectacular. congratulations on that. >> thank you. >> because you had a lot of people. it wasn't easy getting to this point. i mean, there are a lot of people who didn't want the museum, they didn't want it on the mall, they said it could never be done. you were lured here from chicago where you were perfectly happy, in 2005. tell me about your happiness since, being here, fighting to get that job done. >> at 8:00 a.m., i have the best job in america. at 2:00 a.m., it's the dumbest thing i never did in my life. in some ways chicago nurtured my soul, because there are few african-americans who get to run major museums. but being here nurtured the s

then we'll hear from helene cooper. from cbs, margaret brennan will join the group.and from the "washington post," missy ryan. i'll also let you know today getting under way over on c-span two germany's ambassador on how countries are dealing with syrian refugees speaking live from the group new america in washington, d.c. and the defense minister of britain is in washington, d.c. today to meet with u.s. defense secretary ashton carter. they plan to talk to reporters after their meeting at about 3:15 p.m. eastern time. we'll bring you live coverage of their press conference. and tonight will be live for republican presidential candidate donald trump at the iowa state fairgrounds live on c-span and that will be at 7:30. again, trying to get you back here to the war and diplomacy conversation happening in washington, d.c. >>> looks like we are not able to get back to that discussion. but we'll try to have it later in our program if we can record it and get it back up on our web site. in the meantime, we'll look back at a conversation we had with former transportation s