but it was the post 9/11 world that primarily shaped kris christie's world as a prosecutor and candidate. in a department of justice report that essentially ran down his entire time in office christie wrote about two important national cases in the post 9/11 era that ended up in his lap. one, the case of emmitt lakhani, a british citizen ultimately convicted and sentenced to nearly 50 years behind bars. the other, a plot to attack soldiers at new jersey's fort dix that ultimately landed six men in prison, four of them serving life sentences. 2009 christie used his hard-nosed persona as a hammer in his bid to unseat an incumbent democratic governor in new jersey, john khorasan. >> in my seven years as united states attorney, i never shied away from the tough decisions. as governor, i won't shy away from the tough decisions either. believe me, i know how to hold people accountable. >> and if you've spent any time listening to kris christie run for president, the story of his time as u.s. attorney starts to sound awfully familiar. >> i'm the only one who battled terrorism as a post 9/11 fed

p>> kris christy endorsed donald ptrull p. p>> who is the best person to pstop hillary clinton from ever pgetting inside the white house pagain. phad is the best person to do pthat. p>> reporter: ted cruz found out pabout the endorsement during a pcampaign shot in nashville pclearly stunned. p>> this decision is going to be pmade by the voters on super ptuesday. p>> what we are dealing with phere, my friends, is a con partist. p>> reporter: marco rubio has pbeen attacking trump since pthursday night's debate. pbut the billionaire businessman pfired back. p>> once a joker, always a joker. pit never, ever changes. p>> reporter: the republicans phave their sights set on super ptuesday, but the democratic pthrough the south carolina rimary first. p>> i'm just going to work as phard as i can. p>> reporter: hillary clinton is pexpected to easily win the state pon saturday and she's already pcampaigning in georgia where pearly voting for tuesday has pbegun. p>> super tuesday, the primary phere in georgia will be so pconsequential. p>

for all of the precincts to report and it will be later tonight or perhaps early tomorrow that kri christy will decide if he continues his pursuit of a gop presidential nomination. and o you like being picture perfect. you should want your banking to be too. stop into td bank and we'll help set you up with picture perfect banking. new customers, open a checking and savings account and you can get a polaroid cube+ >> >>> welcome back to manchester, news station's live coverage of a first in nation primary. thanks for joining everybody i'm kim khazei. great to be with i'm adam williams we're live m man chest area voters send a strong message to a candidates and res country watch it didn't take along for trump to be declared winner. seconds after polls close, and nbc news called race for trump. of republican field you can see some surprises. ohio governor john kasich in second with 16 percent right now. big winner from iowa senator ted cruz in third place with 12 percent. you heard from him moments ago former florida governor jeb bush marco rubio are right behind cruise with about 11 and 10 p

. >> chris kris-- chris christi got four. in the town of mills field, cruz won the republican ballot with 9 votes. clinton votes to sander's one. if 100% of voters turn out, the town can make a difference in the tallies. they have more symbolic importance. >> it's a celebration of democracy. >> they do offer one positive for winning candidates for most of the day. they're ahead in officially tallied results. i'm kim hutchingson reporting. >> most polls opened until 7:00. there's 20 communities across the state which leaves the polls open until 8:00 at night. >>>le people are dead and dozens injured after a head-on train crash near the australia border. crews were on the scene when the trains collided. officials say the impact of the collision left train carriages fused together and some cars are still derailed. ambulances are being used to get the 100 to 150 people injured to hospitals. >>> the planned parenthood facility in colorado springs is set to reopen its doors. this after three people were killed on thanksgiving. rick

kris christie with nbc's kelly o'donnell. >> he kind of reminds me of the boy in the bubble. you know, he never answers questions. he is always very controlled. the boy in the bubble has to get out of the bubble if you want to be president of the united states. >> reporter: rubio's rebuttal with gabe gutierrez. >> i think it's been a tough couple of days and they're not doing well. some people react badly to adversity. >> reporter: the state's wild card, john kasich rising to second place in many polls, now vying for a breakout moment. >> my tone is different. it's a tone of inclusiveness. it's a tone of helping people to get up. >> reporter: the bottom line is you're not going negative against your opponents because you think that's not the right tone for the party? >> reporte . >> well, it's not just not the right tone for the party, it's not the right tone for me. >> reporter: senator rand paul has suspended his campaign we've learned this morning. he's dropping out of the race after a fifth place finish in iowa. in the state he's polling roughly 2 or 3%. aids tell us paul

kri r. chris christie for inexperience and repeated memorized lines. experience to be presidentst united states and make she's >> i think the it experience is not just what did you but how it worked out under chris christie's governorship of new jersey, they've been downgraded nine times in their credit rating. >> that's what washington, d.c. does, drive by with incomplete information and then the memorized 25-second speech. >> your state got hit by a massive snowstorm two weeks ago. you didn't want to go back. this notion that barack obama doesn't know what he's doing is not true. >> there it is. there it s the memorize 25 second speech. >> donald trump defended his support for eminent domain and jeb bush called him out for how he's used it. >> they all want the keystone pipeline. the he could keystone pipeline woet ithout eminent domain won't go 20 feet. >> he tried tie the property of an elderly woman on the strip of las vegas. an elderly woman. >> let me talk, quiet. >> a lot of times -- force. >> eminent dough nan is unpopular in new hampshire. there is a project proposed years to bring co

. >> kris: campaigning with christie. the big fight is in texas where senator ted cruz makes a stand. >> pick a side, and i'll tell you this. when it comes to picking a side, i picked a side and stand against washington and with the american people. >> kris: on paper cruz and rubio can beat trump. their war is nuclear. >> a con artist will never get control of the party. >> i actually thought that ted cruz was a liar, but rubio is worse. >> hillary clinton jumped in. >> we don't need to make america great. america hasn't stopped being great. >> don't build walls she said but break down barriers. hillary clinton along with bill clintons have events across massachusetts over the next two days prepping for super tuesday. they hope to win the bay state on super tuesday. >>> we're following more news today. state police responding to this deadly crash on 495. police say a pickup truck and car collided head-on near exit 10. the driver of the car was killed in the crash. two people were rushed to the hospital in rhode island. no

i'm steve handlesman, nbc news, columbia, south carolina. >> kris: receive mentioned the endorsement yesterday by chris christie. massachusetts governor charlie baker is responding to christie's endorsement of donald he supported christie for president, but now baker says his support for trump doesn't mean he supports trump as well. >> as i said before, i don't anticipate voting for donald trump. >> kris: in the meantime, donald trump hopes this surprising endorsement gives him an edge as the gop presidential candidates prep for the big super tuesday. >>> new in morning the irs says that cyber attacks on the agency may have been seven times larger than initially reported. a new government review found that hackers potentially accessed more than 700,000 taxpayer accounts last february. the agency says the hackers may have stolen social security numbers and birth dates from people. it says it will be sending out mailings to those 700,000 or so monday. >>> still ahead, stay with us. a small product packing a big and potentially dangerous punch. now fire crews are issues a warning after an e-cigarette explodes. >>>

kris about this. the stuff about the credit cards, you know, his youth, his inexperience, nothing stuck. and i would think that's what chris christie is so frustrated about it. >> he doesn't have to interact with the press as much. is it true he has a press person standing next to him and he entertains specific reporters. >> that's true. there is an order to these press conferences. it makes it seem very staged and controlled. >> it is. it makes it seem. that's what it is. >> they don't put him out in front of reporters as much as say jeb bush or chris christie does. there -- these are only so useful. he's such a disciplined politician and he'll answer what he wants to answer. >> recording device, the following announcement has been prerecorded. any way -- you don't agree. >> i think donald trump is the same way, though. he says the same thing over and over again. he says it in a loser way, because he seems like he's off-the-cuff. he said the same thing in his stump speech. his press conferences also, he has the same formula answer to answer questions. >> it seems more robotic way. >> who did so well monday night, marco. >> he acti

kris? >> reporter: i think it will be critical. look at people like bush, christie and kasich.ially from the donor class. it will be fascinating. i'll see you on the ground in new hampshire. >> see you in a short while and we will be in new hampshire live tomorrow. meanwhile, that does it for the coverage of the aftershocks of iowa this hour. meanwhile, andrea mitchell is up next. at ally bank, no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like bill splitting equals nitpicking. but i only had a salad. it was a buffalo chicken salad. salad. prge! a manufacturer. well that's why i dug this out for you. it's your grandpappy's hammer and he would have wanted you to have it. it meant a lot to him... yes, ge makes powerful machines. but i'll be writing the code that will allow those machines to share information with each other. i'll be changing the way the world works. (interrupting) you can't pick it up, can you? go ahead. he can't lift the hammer. it's okay though! you're going to change the world. this is lloyd. to prove to you that the better choice for him is aleve. he's