more now from julianna goldman in washington. >> reporter: on sunday, donald trump said even if he loses iowa, he won't drop out. >> there's no makes. i'm not leaving. >> you're going straight to the convention? >> all the way. >> reporter: that prospect has party leaders and even some voters grappling with a scenario where no establishment candidate emerges as the trump alternative. >> i do not believe that trump republican party as president. >> you'd be prepared to see hillary clinton in the white house? >> unfortunately. >> i've never heard that before. that's how much trump has penetrated and how people now think that he has a genuine shot at the nomination. >> reporter: republican pollster frank lutz along with google conducted a focus group of iowa republicans friday night. >> iowa voters have become so sophisticated they know the people they choose is not necessarily the people who the rest of america chooses. they think they're going to choose cruz. but they're starting to think that the rest of america may choose trump. >> reporter: according to the most recent poll of likely i

here's julianna goldman. >> as of now he's just a private citizen who owns a big company. >> reporter: with michael bloomberg exploring a third-party bid, presidential candidates dismissed what would be the latest curveball in the 2016 race. >> if that takes place, i am confident that we will win it. >> reporter: the former new york city mayor has told associates he wants to run as a centrist. if the election comes down to donald trump or ted cruz versus bernie sanders. >> well, i'm going to relieve him of that and get the nomination so he doesn't have to. >> reporter: trump encouraged his fellow new yorker to get in. >> then i'm going to have to deal against hillary if she doesn't go to jail or i'm going to have to deal against bernie. or somebody. or bloomberg comes in, which would be great. i'd love to have him come in because i love the competition. >> reporter: with the caucuses just eight days away candidates blanketed iowa where trump and battling for conservative voters. the republican front-runner attended church on sunday and continued to raise questions about cruz's eligibi

julianna goldman reports. >> the criminal complaints with one another and discuss traveling to syria to train and to fight. but there's no evidence that they intended or planned attacks in the u.s. and from c citol hill to the campaign trail the arrests are reigniting the political debate over whether the u.s. is doing enough to screen refugees from syria and iraq. omar al hardan was escorted into a texas courtroom friday facing charges he attempted to provide material support to isis. the 24-year-old iraqi refugee who lives in houston has been in the u.s. since 2009. hours later, in sacramento, aws al jayabb was inn court. investigators are calling him a foreign fighter. the 24-year-old came to the u.s. in 2012. investigators allege soon after he was communicating via social media with terrorist organizationk. jayab traveled to syria to fight with rebels opposing president assad. in march and april of 2013, he messages "i am coming to syria. that november, he flew from chicago to turkey and then to aleppo whe

as julianna goldman reports, that's about all the republican front-runners can agree upon these days. >> here we go. >> reporter: climbing out of a stuck elevator, ted cruz laughed off the possibility that a certain candidate is conspiring against him. >> who put donald trump in charge of the elevators? >> reporter: it was a brief moment of levity in the snow balling feud between the two leading candidates, donald trump, and ted cruz, that has turned nasty and personal. >> it seems donald has a lot of nervous energy. >> reporter: cruz seemed to be prompting the gop front-runner. trump raised questions about whether crudz's canadian birth disqualifies him from being president, and his dismissal of new york values. >> i think in terms of a commander in chief, we ought to have someone who is isn't springing out of bed to tweet in-- in a frantic response to the latest polls. >> ther a lot of people do not e ted to, put it mildly. >> reporter: in new hampshire, trump said he's getting under cruz's skin. >> as it turned out, you know, he finally went off the wagon a little bit and went a li

but as julianna goldman reports, defense secretary ashton carter is letting the general keep his four stars and pull pension. >> reporter: in a three-sentence all right sent to the leaders of the senate armed said an army review recommended no additional action and secretary carter considered this matter closed. the decision largely ends the saga surrounding the retired four-star general who last year admitted to giving his biographer and lover, paula broadwell, several notebooks he knew contained highly classified information and initially lying about it to f.b.i. >> i can only say again how let down. >> reporter: as carter weighed whether to demote david petreaus and reduce his military pension by $40,000 a year, a number of lawmakers in both parties came to his defense. in a letter earlier this month, senators john mccain and jack reed said petraeus apologized and shouldn't face additional punishment. the former c.i.a. director's fate also comes up on the campaign trail. >> if there's an effort to take a star away from general petraeus, and i as a member of the senate can push back

julianna goldman is in washington for us tonight. julianna, how real is this? >> reporter: well, jim, here's the thinking behind this. mike bloomberg feels this campaign has been dominated by the extremes in each party, and he wants to jump in if it looks like the election is going to come down to donald trump or ted cruz versus bernie sanders. he's not ruling out running against hillary clinton if she emerges from iowa and new it's an even less-likely scenario. bloomberg will do a round of polling after the new hampshire primary february 9, and from there, he's given himself a deadline for a final decision in early march. his advisers believe that would give him enough time to qualify as an independent and get on the ballot in all 50 states. the electoral map would be a huge challenge for him but one area where he is okay is on the money front. he's indicated he's prepared to spend at least $1 billion. >> axelrod: julianna goldman with a potential new wrinkle in the run for the white house. thank you. and still ahead, a basic question about storm preparation--

>>>>kay, julianna goldman. >>> a tornado hit cape coral, florida, last night. nobody was hurt but there was severe damage to one neighborhood. at one point 10,000 people were without power. the storm was an ef-2 with winds up to 135 miles an hour. >>> the united states sent a b-52 bomber on a low-level flight over south korea today. the show of force was s sd to be in response to north korea's nuclear test last week. the american bomber was escorted by fighter jets from south korea. been a series of disappearances in hong kong. five employees of a store that chinese government. today, thousands of protesters turned outo demand answers. seth doaneneeports. >> reporter: protesters carried signs reading "lead li wo, tomorrow you and me." li disappeared, days later reportedly sent a letter suggesting he was in mainland china assisting with an investigation.n. li was the fifth person tied to missing. >> this book shop specializes in stories that could never be on sale in mainland china criticizing the communist party and the rulers. protesters worry chinese governme

more now from julianna goldman in washington. >> on sunday, donald trump said even if he loses iowa, he won't drop out. leaving. i'm going all the way. >> reporter: that prospect has party leaders and even some voters grappling with an scenario where no establishment candidate emerges as a party alternative. >> i do not believe that trump would put a good face on the republican party as president. >> so you would be prepared to see hillary clinton in the white house. >> unfortunately. >> have i never heard that before. penetrated and how people now think that he has a real shot, a genuine shot at the nomination. >> reporter: republican poll ster frank luntz along with goggle conducted a focus group of iowa republicans friday night. >> iowa voters have become so sophisticated that they know that the people that they choose is not necessarily the people who the rest of america chooses. they think they're going to choose cruz. but they're starting to think that the rest of america may choose trump. >> reporter: according to the most recent poll of likely iowa caucus goers, cruz and trum

here's julianna goldman. >> as of now he's just a private citizen who owns a big company. >> reporter: with michael bloomberg exploring a third-party bid, presidential candidates dismissed what would be the latest curveball in the 2016 race. confident that we will win it. >> reporter: the former new york city mayor has told associates he wants to run as a centrist. if the election comes down to donald trump or ted cruz versus bernie sanders. >> well, i'm going to relieve him of that and get the nomination so he doesn't have to. >> reporter: trump encouraged his fellow new yorker to get in. >> then i'm going to have to deal against hillary if she doesn't go to jail or i'm going to have to deal against bernie. or somebody. or bloomberg comes in, which would be great. i'd love to have him come in because i love the competition. >> reporter: with the caucuses just eight days away candidates blanketed iowa where trump and texas senator ted cruz are battling for conservative voters. the republican front-runner attended church on sunday and continued to raise questions about cruz's eligibili

and jeff, ted cruz leads clinton still beats the texas senator. >> glor: okay, julianna goldman. a tornado hit cape coral, florida, last night. nobody was hurt but there was severe damage to one neighborhood. at one point 10,000 people were without power. the storm was an ef-2 with winds up to 135 miles an hour. the united states sent a b-52 bomber on a low-level flight over south korea today. the show of force was said to be in response to north korea's new clear-- last week. the american bomber was escorted by fighter jets from south korea. since october there have been a series of disappearances in hong kong. five employees of a store that sells books critical of the chien ease government. today thousands of protestors concerned out to demand answers. seth doane reports. >> protestors carried signs reading today lee bo, towm and me. lee disappeared december 30th. a letter which suggested he was in mainland china, assisting with an investigation. lee was the fifth person tied to causeway bay books to go missing. >> this book shop specializes in the stories that could never be o

didn't exactly hurt his poll numbers. >> nair: julianna goldman, thank you. just over a week before the iowa caucuses a cbs battleground tracker poll shows donald trump has regained his lead over ted cruz in iowa and now has a five point lead. here with more on the presidential race is elections director anthony salvanto. so anthony, what is behind trump's surge? >> he's made gains with key groups in iowa, evangelicals, tea party voters and added that to his existing support which he has retained over this campaign better than any other candidate. his voters tell us they want two things. shake up the system and fix the economy. and then almost 80% of iowans say they feel like trump just gets it, understands how they feel. that may be the kind of emotional connection that explains why the recent attacks on him just aren't working. >> reporter: well, the emotions and numbers are two very different things. when you look at those numbers in the mols, do you see anything that could derail him? >> turnout is always a question. his voters do say though that they're