not even possible. >> maeve threw water on me. >> i will go with maeve on this one more than you.ue is bush is more right than trump. trump wanted casinos in florida. bush did not. trump donated to bush. the bottom line is in the exchange, trump just brushed it off. sorry, little man. we will move on from the discussion. even when jeb is right. and carson. he wasn't part of the debate. he really wasn't. he did not breakthrough. he wasn't in the first debate either. his poll numbers shot up. >> thank you, guys. great analysis. >> i thought that was personal when you said little man. >> it was. >> a lot of back stabbing during the three hours. it was sweeter than sour. what do we see with truth and twisting that truth. fact checking. coming up. "same day" continuing. wher been d, dropped and driven. it's perceptive enough to detect other vehicles on the road. it's been shaken, rattled and pummeled. it's innovative enough to brake by itself, park itself and help you steer. it's been in the rain... the cold... and dragged through the mud. introducing the all-new mercedes-benz gle. it'

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

let's bring in cnn national political reporter maeve reston. "l.a. times" assistant managing editor for politics, christina bellantoni and ron brownstein as well. maeve, you are close toast me. i begin with you. he had a pocket of decenters against him. tonight he has to feel as though he's more on defense than offense. what do you think the dynamic is, how does it set up. >> he's been trooing to set up that dynamic that everyone is going to come after him. >> he's the victim. >> he's the visiting. right. that always works. he said he will nicer to the other candidates. certainly he's been aggressive out on the trail. and it will be interesting to see how someone like ben carson comes back at him and tries to differentiate himself, especially after that little thing we saw last week where ben carson initially went after trump on faith and then kind of backed off. it wilin trefting to watch the dynamics tonight. >> there's an interesting tight rope. on the one hand, clearly you have to take some of the sunshine off donald trump sooner or later if you'

maeve, we saw your tweet. you think we need big boots to go there?california weather. it is a torrential downpour at the moment. >> your suggestion is that the -- >> good for the drought, right. >> the oncoming debate, i believe this is your suggestion, tell me if i'm wrong, the consequences are so huge, it's changed the weather in california? >> a low pressure system. >> exactly. >> that's how big it is. >> do you agree? >> biblical. wait for the ratings. >> do you agree with the fire and brimstone, cats and dogs, do you believe the stakes are real and if so, for who and how? >> the stakes are unquestionably real. jeb bush needs to come out of this debate and show voters as well as his donors that he has got some fire to go up against donald trump, that he is not a wimp, not someone who can't take on donald trump how's he going to take on vladimir putin? he needs to be someone who conveys strength and passion and can get to it and can show he can stand up to the sky. he's got lines that he's been rehearsing. the question is does he deploy them or as

maeve, tell us what you think the next headline is. is it how low everybody else who was supposed to be winning is? >> yes, it's a little -- almost like people are dropping off the stage already, right? i think what we're seeing, there's a lot of enthusiasm actually out here in california of all places for ben carson last week, carson more directly took on trump for the first time, questioning the authenticity of his faith, walking that back a little bit. clearly, karsen is getting a lot of attention out there. particularly among voters who are uneasy with trump's past positions, clearly his economic positions. we're expecting to see a big ad buy going up today and this week, taking on trump directly on some of those issues. we may see carson just begin to eclipse trump a little bit, at least for a while. and the other contenders are just going to have to have their moment on wednesday night to see if they can shake this race up a little bit. >> dr. carson, maeve, also showing an ability to learn from the past, right? he took his hits

to discuss it, our national reporter maeve reston and jeff zeleny and also gloria borger. and really, jeb bush's numbers have been dropping in the last month or so, and he has a lot at stake tomorrow night? >> certainly. the donors and the allies are looking to see are from him that he can channel the kind of anger and frustration that voters are feeling right now in the way that trump has been doing that in the last couple of weeks. obviously, jeb has been dealing with the incoming fire from trump calling him the low energy ka candidate, and the boring candidate, and jeb has to get out there, and he has been throwing the punches, but he has to get out there to show that he can take on trump, and excite the voters and come back from this slide in the polls that we have seen which is really amazing from the candidate that we all thought would be the front-runner with $100 million. >> and gloria, he has a super pac that supports him with over $100 million, and maeve as you say, they just came out with a new ad that supports him by his super pac. >> he took on the unions and

but maeve is totally right about ben carson.of the silent contender for the gop lead right now, and nobody's really talking about what is his surge about? what is this about? and what's happened is he has silently codified the evangelical base in the republican party. ted cruz, huckabee and santorum should all be terrified that carson has come out of nowhere and supplanted them as the contender. >> and it's good you brought up evangelical because donald trump -- one second, maeve. donald trump was on the christian broadcasting network for an interview. and mr. brody was interviewing mr. trump. i love david brody. he's awesome. and mr. trump said, "he's going to tone it down just a little bit. he could tone it down." and he says, quote, i dealt with the very tough hombres and people and i've come out on top, and i can understand the evangelicals to a certain extent by saying well, maybe he's not as nice as we want him to be, but they also want to see the country be great. so he's starting to get it, right, maeve? >> well, i don't

and let me come back to it in a second but maeve, it's pretty stunning. he has 20% here and he's not even in the race. >> right. we've seen those numbers grow over time and i think a lot of people in the democratic party are looking at those numbers and particularly in the head-to-head matchups and saying that maybe he could be -- they want somebody who is straight talk and not scripted and that's been one of biden's biggest problems. they think biden could be a good force in the race against trump, for example. there are a lot of people not as enchanted with hillary clinton anymore. but at the same time, i agree with you, brooke. i think he really did sound generally torn last night and that certainly is what we've been hearing from people close to him. that he is genuinely torn about running and very well could decide no. >> let me come back to joe biden but you mentioned hillary clinton so let me ask you about that, maeve. when you must hillary clinton in a hypothetical head to head against republicans, her lead is vanishing. that's a big deal. >> that

maeve, this one, even if you accept david's premise trump wasn't bad, it was more of a carly fiorinae. >> i thought trump was actually pretty flat for the second half of the debate. he got his zingers in the first hour and then seemed to lose energy, in his own words, right? i think what was so interesting is that fiorina had a great debate. jeb had some strong moments. and a lot of the times, what was so fascinating, is they were keying off insults donald trump had hurled weeks ago and finally got their lines down on that front. i think it gave voters a lot to consider. and i think that many voters are waiting to hear a little bit more from donald trump on the policy front. he keeps saying, couple weeks, couple weeks. it's coming. my policies are coming. but so far that hasn't hurt him in the polls. we'll see whether that changes after last night. >> another person everyone is talking about, your man, lindsey graham in the undercard debate saying he absolutely shined. you're the man who helped prep him. let's listen to one of his highlight moments from last night. i want to get your

let's talk about them with maeve reston and washington correspondent jeff zeleny.that. was that effective saying you guys are too childish? do people want to see them engage with one another? >> i thought it was effective. i think was one of chris christie's better moments. people sitting at home aren't all that sympathetic to the donald trump and carly fiorina back and forth. it was the side of chris christie the bully we like to see. kind of a nice bully who is sticking up for the kid. >> construction worker. >> the construction worker. >> and speaking of those fights, trump came right out of the box and did what we were told he would not do, which was just go straight at somebody gratuito gratuitously, let's take a look. >> i think really there's a sophomore quality that is entertaining about mr. trump. but i am worried i'm very concerned about having him in charge of the nuclear weapons. i think his response, his visceral response to attack people on their appearance, short, tall, fat, ugly, iness, that happened in junior high. would we not all be worried to ha

maeve, you've followed her for years. >> for a long time. she's just an incredibly disciplined candidate, very substantive. and what she is so artful at is the little jab with the smile, the soft touch, doesn't come off as too hostile. yeah, we've seen her do that a couple of times. >> no sledgehammer. >> on the campaign trail, and it's very effective. you know, it does sort of bring voters in and say oh, well, she's got it. and she's been showing that with hillary clinton, too, going up against hillary clinton. so i think we really will see some surprises. obviously, she has to come back against trump on that face comment tonight. and i'm sure that she's got lots of lines in her back pocket on that. >> to your point, it also helps that she also has an outsider status as well. trump, the contrast he wants to draw with all of these other candidates is career politician. that's a very hard -- you can't make that case against carly fiorina. >> new hampshire poll. >> right, that's exactly the point. here we go again. here we go again. i think, y

maeve, what do you think about this strategy?presidential candidate at the same time what's going on here? >> well i think that these issues are things that really will gallivanvanize evangelical voters potentially. so they want to keep them in the conversation going forward. we have seen over the last couple of days for example, a really interesting fight developing between ben carson and donald trump over evangelical voters. so obviously they're incredibly important in iowa. and we'll have to see who comes out on top. cruz has been there for a long time. talking to these voters and galvanizing them. and he may in the end be able to pull off some kind of a win in iowa. >> and brianna, the other big news today is that the former texas governor rick perry has chosen to suspend his campaign his race for the white house. why do this only a few days before the second republican presidential debate? >> it really is curious, wolf. because here's this opportunity for him to be visible. even if he's not on the main stage, which he is not

. >> maev eche, thank you. joining us, anna navaro, ken kuchinelli, former attorney general of virginia, and matt ki kibby, and a pro super pac. nothing that he has said so far has seemed to hurt him. is this any different? >> well i think this is his strategy. every so many days he comes up with a new outrageous comment. today the comment du jour, car y fiorina's face. just repeat the cycle over and over again. frankly, got to tell you, anderson. as i was listening to the report. it's kind of sad the way things are going in the state of the gop campaign right now. we are having attacks on face and faith. so viewers don't get confused. trump attacking fiorina's face. carson is attacking trump's faith. and you know, come on, guys. where are the policy issues? where is the meat? where are the proposals? where is the agenda. >> i am going to read the tweet. wow, i am ahead of the field with evangelicals. so proud of this and every other group. and ben carson just took a swipe at me. imagine more to come. ken, do y

cnn's maeve reston discovered there are establishment types out there preparing a big attack on donald trump after we get through the labor day weekend. they're trying to figure out who it is going to come from and how it is going to work. basically i thought, what in the world are these people thinking? when you look at these fog yerz, when you add up donald trump and ben carson and ted cruz and carly fiorina, you are over 50%. in one case in one of the polls close to 65%. so this is like pouring gasoline on this. this -- this would be a huge mistake. >> amanda, at what point do maybe push back on jeff's point. at what point do the other candidates have to start pushing back on donald trump? they have to do something if they want to stay in it a awe those that went hard on donald trump, it backfired. rick perry, rand paul, the wrong move. we had a conflict in the republican party, grassroots and establishment. this is continuing to play out. until the typical establishment like candidates learn that they need to pay attention to the fears and concerns and hopes and dreams that grassro

maeve asserted herself and took a question and did another question. >> i just want to say i'm going to go rogue here. i was actually the on the stage with you. i watched what you had to deal with. and you were letting the candidates debate as we had discussed beforehand. and the reason why you kept going to the candidates who were trying to get in is because most of them were trying aggressively to get in. >> oh, exactly. >> and they got it. like, oh, this is how this is going to go. if i want to get in i got to actually assert myself. so you allowed them to speak. >> you had half a dozen candidates who felt urgency to do just that last night because in the first of the night they all felt they were too sleepy, too reluctant. so they came in and wanted to really go out there and butt in line. >> stop it. stop it. doing a good imitation. thank you so much. really appreciate it. thank you. donald trump sat at the top of the polls going into last night's debate, but what about now? from foreign policy to immigration, did he say enough to maintain his front runner status? is it now time

. >> with me now cnn national political reporter maeve reston and david gergen.m on the phone? he's calling in. the first question to you, what was the response to carly fiorina like inside the debate room? >> well, incredibly intimate setting, as you know. she really owned that stage last night. this was a forum that was built just for her kind of talent. she gave polished answers, she really gave it to donald trump. that moment you just showed was clearly the moment of the debate. the facial control, you know, she listened to donald trump's response was really quite extraordinary. so, certainly she's the candidate that everyone's talking about today. this opens a big opportunity for her here. she's been doing a lot of the spade work in the early states like new hampshire and i'm sure we will see a strong surge for her in the polls. >> actually, i like the look on donald trump's face the most because he clearly looked uncomfortable. >> well, like she kind of got the better of him, right? it was giving her a little credit there. and then i'm not sure his comeback