do we still have sarah murray there? sarah, i want to speak to what bob beckel said that some of the people who support some of the people justice believe president obama is the devil and that's in bob's words. when you are at these events with donald trump, are people saying these sorts of things about the president? >> i mean there certainly is a strong animosity toward obama for many people who come to these events. for most people they feel they can't trust obama because of his policies. very few come up to you and say they don't think they can trust president obama because they don't believe he was born here or because they believe he's a muslim. for the most part they don't terrorist him on foreign policy, that he kept with his campaign promises. i spoke to a number who are democrats and are still deciding whether to support donald trump or hillary clinton. i don't want to paint everybody who supports donald trump as people who have this personal animosity toward barack obama. clearly we heard from one of them toni

sarah murray is at the event and joins us now. sarah, i'm kind of amazed that the first guy who stands up sames that the problem in this country is muslims and donald trump doesn't say anything about that to him. did anybody bat an eye at that? >> reporter: it really is incredible, not only saying the problem in america is muslims and president obama is a muslim, which of course, is not true and, you know, i think we're now starting to get our first taste how donald trump responds to awkward questions prfrom voters. if you're a traditional presidential candidate and used to town halls, you get questions like this along the way and have to be prepared to deflect them in one way or another. the interesting thing that donald trump is getting criticism for is he didn't really rebut that at all. >> it's not about deflecting. if you're an actual leader and want to lead people in this country and want to be president to all the people in this country, including the muslim population in this country, you don't just pander to every loud mou

cnn sarah murray was there. she has the very latest. sarah. >> reporter: good morning, christine and john, donald trump did his version of the debate back here on board the uss iowa in los angeles, delivering a speech billed as a national security address. it was very light on specifics. >> the problem we have is that the leaders of mexico, japan, carolina and every other country that we do business with, they're smarter, more countrying, sharper than our leade leaders. i love free trade t. concept is great. but you need smart people. i have the smartest people in this country lined up. i know the smartest. >> reporter: donald trump still managing to pick up the endorsements of the veterans group that hosted this speech for him. during the speech, he promised to reform the va system and will make it stronger and promises to secure the u.s. border with mexico. >> the drug come ining the money goes out daily. i saw it. i was on the border. i was there. we saw it. everybody sees it every day. we have the kind of people that can do somethin

cnn's sarah murray was there. she has the latest. sarah. >> reporter: good morning, donald trump did his version of debated here aboard the uss iowa in los angeles last night in a speech billed as a debate but it lacked on specifics. >> the problem is japan and china every other countries we do business with, they're smarter, more countrying, sharper than our leaders. i love free trade the concept is great. but you need smart people. i have the smartest people in this country lined up. i know the smartest. >> reporter: donald trump still managing to pick up the endorsement of the veterans group that hosted this event. during his speech, he promised he would reform the va system. he said he would make the u.s. military system even stronger and promises to cure the u.s. border with mexico. >> the drug come in, the money goes out daily. i saw it. because i was on the border. i was there. and we saw it and everybody sees it every day and which have the kind of people that can do something about it but we have no leadership. none, none wha

sarah murray joins us. we heard the question about the guy who said we have a problem in this country referring to muslims, not muslim radicals will you muslims. how did the crowd react? >> it was interesting because donald trump didn't react. trump looked taken aback. the premise of it, she moved on and noviceble reaction from the crowd and push back. we tried to catch up with donald trump of the event to ask him to elaborate and ask if he really agreed with the premise of that question and did not answer cnn's questions but will be back on the campaign trail tomorrow and i cannot imagine this is the last time he'll be asked to expand on what he thought of the question and whether he agrees with the premise. >> yeah, i would be very surprising if he doesn't come out quickly on twitter or something and say look, you know, i think american muslims are, you know, great. the problem is radical. what else does the voters want to know from trump tonight? >> the interesting thing is donald trump don't do events l

. >> cnn's sarah murray was in the room for that. she joins me now. sarah, i'm interested to what the reaction was. what was that moment like? >> well, don, this is the rub with town halls. you don't get to pick the questions and the campaign confirmed they didn't screen them. sometimes you get awkward questions like this one. it was very quiet in the room. donald trump did not refute the premise of the question. he just kind of went on and addressed the training camp issue. the rest of the audience didn't respond. everyone moved on to additional questions. cnn's dana bash spoke with trump's campaign manager who said that he didn't hear the part about obama being a muslim . he only heard the part about the training camp, and that's what he is responding to. but if you see the video there, you kind of see donald trump interject at first when the man says muslims and the problem is muslims and obama is a muslim. you can see trump being taken aback like, really, this is the first question? it's kind of hard to understand how he could not have heard that p

let's go to our political reporter sarah murray that begins coverage in greenville south carolina whereald trump was supposed to join his rivals at a conservative q a forum. sarah, what's the latest with donald trump? >> reporter: well like you said donald trump cancelling his appearance here at the last minute. now, this is not a candidate who tends to back down from a fight but a number of folks here in south carolina think that's exactly what trump is doing, backing out to avoid questions over the firestorm he set off last night. donald trump cancelling a campaign appearance at the last minute today as he's under fire for this exchange last night in new hampshire. >> we have a problem in this country, it's called muslims. we know our current president is one. >> right. >> you know he's not even an american. >> we need this question the first question -- >> but anyway we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. >> uh-huh. >> that's my question when can we get rid of them? >> we're going to be looking at a lot of different things and a lot of people are saying that and p

let me if to our cnn political reporter sarah murray who is there now as well. trump. what did he tell you? >> reporter: yeah, i did just speak with donald trump, and i did not ask him about iran but i asked him about another crisis that the entire world is dealing with right now and that's this influx of syrian refugees, and i asked him after we've seen he's heartbreaking gripping images what he thought america's role should in helping these refugees. here's what he had to say. >> i think we should help, but i think we have to be very careful because frankly we have very big problems. we're not going to have a country if we don't start getting start. we can't help everybody throughout the world. europe should help, russia, china, big beneficiary, they are not doing anything. the gulf states are doing nothing, whether it's saudi arabia, qatar, any of the gulf states, they are doing nothing. they should all help. >> reporter: and it's interesting, brooke, you hear him there basically saying the u.s. can't be everyone's savior, that these other countries need to s

the spokeswoman of the tea party leader form and joe is a columnist for "the new york times" and sarah murray a political reporter. sarah, what are tax experts saying about donald trump's tax plan? >> they are saying in many ways it's a traditional republican plan. it does simple fy the tax code shrinks from seven rates to four but are saying this is a big cut for the wealthiest americans, and donald trump does that by reducing the top tax rate from 40% to 25% but also does that in a potentially more interesting and a little bit trickier way, which is that business tax cutter racu ccu cut erin was talking about. if you're a wealthy individual and say look, i'm going to go into business for myself and start l.l.c. you could pay a 15% tax rate rather than 25% tax rate. in that sense, it could be a bigger cut for wealthy individuals than we were talking about earlier today, don. >> joe, here is what donald trump says. he says under his tax plan, the economy will take off like a rocket. what are your thoughts? >> first of all, it won't. second of all, we're going to triple the deficit because he

sarah murray is at the uss iowa for us tonight. a very high profile event on the eve of this debate, how did it go for donald trump? >> reporter: you know, donald trump was definitely rallying the crowd here on the uss iowa. there was a little awkwardness a few hundred feet away. there were some vocal protesters saying donald trump is a racist. can you hear that aboard the ship. a stark contrast. this is more than a national security speech. we did not hear a lot of specification. the crowd liked how he would reform the va. he had a strong military if he were president he talked a lot about immigration, which a number of people do view as a security issue f. you board that ship and you walked away with a very favorable impression even though it was light on specifics. >> reporter: sarah, what can you tell about the event? it's a joint campaign and fundraiser for a vets group, right? one vet group? >> reporter: yeah, the vote strong for america held the event. the chairman endorsed donald trump while aboard the vote. he said they do

sarah murray has been following all this and is here to give us a look. >> the battle is growing evenore heated today, with the candidates taking to social media to do some good old fashioned mudslinging. >> waiting. >> floundering in the polls, jeb bush firing off his harshest attack so far, using donald trump's own words against him in this youtube video. >> my views are a little different than if i lived in iowa. >> partial birth apportion. >> i'm very pro choice. >> targeting trump on the campaign trail. >> you look at his record of what he believes, he supports democrats. this is not a guy who is a conservative, using his own words is not a mischaracterization, they came out of his own mouth. >> so much for the low energy candidate. >> jeb bush is a low energy person. for him to get things done is hard. he's very low energy. >> bush trying to show he has a sharp edge. retaliating against trump for an on slaught of attacks via instagram, the latest showing bush complimenting democratic front-runner hillary clinton. >> we recognize the commitment of someone who has devoted her life

let's go to our political reporter sarah murray. she has more on the front runner's strategy. what are you hearing, sarah? >> sure. well, i'm in the area where candidates are arriving. governor pataki showed up just behind me. these are the trailers where they'll wait for the debate. we are still waiting on donald trump. he was supposed to do a walk through, but turns out one of his aides is doing that before. so yet again donald trump shedding the trappings of a traditional candidate not doing this debate walk-through. look, we're at a really interesting point for the donald trump candidacy. it seems to be setting in to him that this is real. he's really running for president. and there's a lot at stake. and i think tonight he's going to try to walk this line of appearing more presidential, of being a little bit more disciplined and sort of teasing some of these policy specifics while still being himself. you know, there's a certain trump flare, trump straight talk that has gotten him as high as he is in the polls. and he still wants to be true to that while also making people

sarah murray is in dallas and joins us now. to see that large of a crowd as we said, at least 18,000 people, what were you hearing from people you were talking to there? got the biggest applause lines? >> reporter: you know, before the event started i talked to a number of people and this one word kept coming up, immigration and donald trump gave them exactly what they wanted tonight. he said we need to put an end to illegal immigration, when which got him a standing ovation here and he said he would put an end to sanctuary cities, cities where undocumented immigrants can run through. this was a huge, huge applause line for this crowd here in dallas. this is a very red state. a lot of very conservative republicans and border state and this is exactly what a lot of people wanted to hear from donald trump tonight. >> did people talk about the debate? did trump talk about the debate tonight? >> reporter: you know, when you hear him talk about the debate and sort of expectations, management going in he says look, i know everyone is

cnn's sarah murray with more on that. >> reporter: good morning, john and christine.ming off on the republican side. candidates are trading insults as donald trump dominates the republican field. the cnn/orc poll shows trump ahead with 32% support among republican voters. a wide lead over ben carson at 19% support. gaining momentum. both candidates far ahead of jeb bush who comes in at 9%. the tenor of the campaign changed. trump insulting carly fiorina about her looks. >> you want to take this back about carly fiorina? >> many of the comments are made as an entertainer because i did "the apprentice." i decided not to do it again because i wanted to run for president. some comments are made as an entertainer. everybody said as an entertainer, it is a much different ball game. >> reporter: ben carson insulted donald trump about his faith. jindal called trump a carnival act and egomaniac. >> we have a man with no ideology or intellectual curiosity. he is only for himself. he said his favorite book is the bible. he could not name one verse. this is a complete narcissist.

he took questions from the press including our very own sarah murray, who was in the room, joins us liveeporter: well, sure. i think it was interesting to see donald trump come out and say, he's not a populist, this is just a common sense approach. like you were saying, this is a tax plan that offers a little something for everyone. lower rates across the board. but that's something that will help middle class families as well as he admits the wealthy. what i thought was very interesting is i asked donald trump what this would do to his effective tax rate and he sort of dodged the question. he wouldn't say what his tax rate is now. he wouldn't say whether his tab would go up or down despite earlier saying this would cost him a fortune. so, i think it is an open question, whether this is the kind of plan that will actually make wealthy individuals pay more. that was sort of the one of the teases he put out weeks ago saying, it will help middle class families and kind of hit the rich and ask them to pony up a little bit more, john. >> all right, sara. sa sara murray live at trump tower, lo

sarah murray is "outfront" where fiorina will be speaking. what are we expecting her to do tonight?o respond to trump or take the high road? what do we think? >> reporter: well, i think that's an open question. this forum allows the candidates to be questioned by a panel and a lot of this stuff is pretty wonky policy questions. it's a very conservative group and they are digging in on the policy issues and trying to discern how someone like carly fiorina is different from the nine candidates contrast herself with donald trump. we're going to have to wait and see. i will say, i was talking to folks who worked for her super pac earlier and they were saying since the debate the phones have been ringing off the hurricane with asking carly to appear at their events. it's clear, like you mentioned, her star power is on the rise and we'll have to see how she tries to capitalize on that. jim? >> thanks so much to sara murray. "outfront," ben ferguson, a former apprentice contestant and talk show radio host dan moss. those are the same kind of opponents that used those attacks and that can r

. >> sarah murray is "outfront" tonight with more. >> reporter: floundering in the polls, jeb bush firingest attack so far. using donald trump's own words against him in this youtube video. >> my views are a little different than if i lived in iowa. >> partial birth abortion. >> i'm very pro-choice. >> in an interview tonight with cnn, trump dismissing that attack. >> one other thing i'll say because he mentions the fact i was at one point a democrat. in new york city, everybody was a democrat, whoever wins the democrat primary is automatically, that's, you know, there was almost no election because the republicans hardly exist in new york city. >> reporter: but bush isn't limiting attacks to the web and taking it to the campaign trail. >> if you look at his record of what he believes, he accept ports democrats. using his own words is not a mischaracterizati mischaracterization. >> reporter: so much for the the low-energy candidate. >> jeb bush is a low-energy person. for him to get things done is hard. he's very low energy. >> reporter: bush trying to show he has a sharp edge. retaliatin

cnn's sarah murray is there. she joins us with the latest. what are we expecting from this speech tonight? what's the topic? >> reporter: well, i think the big question tonight is whether donald trump is going to offer more specifics in his national security address. you know, he's here, he's been brought here by a veterans group that said they really want someone who is strong on the military, strong on foreign policy. they want to hear someone talk about handling sequestration cuts and getting more money for defense. i think donald trump tends to say he'll do great things for the military, he tends to say he'll do great things for veterans. he doesn't offer a lot of meat on the bones of how he'll do that. we'll be looking for those policies a little bit tonight, anderson. >> you've been talking to some of the voters who are there. why have they come? what did they want to hear? >> reporter: well, a lot of them want to see donald trump up close. you can see the "uss iowa" behind me it's an amazing venue for something like this. a number have

sarah murray is joining us with details. sarah, what is trump calling for in terms of income tax?iled the policy, he was selling it as a huge cut for the middle class and will they do stand to benefit, it may be america's richest families that may stand to gain the most. >> these numbers are really spectacular. >> reporter: tonight, donald trump delivering more policy propels, unveiling a plan that slashes taxes for the wealthy. but this still looks like a big tax cut even for those at the temperature -- >> this is actually a tax reduction, big tax reduction including for the upper income. >> reporter: under trump's plan, individuals earning less than $25,000 and married couples earning less than $50,000 would pay nothing. new trump also gives the wealthiest americans like himself, a huge tax break cutting the rate from nearly 40% to just 25%. the billionaire real estate mogul refusing to share his current tax rate but says he strives to keep it down. >> i fight like hell to pay as little as possible? i'm not a politician. i fight like hell always because it's an expense. >> repor

for more on this, let's bring in sarah murray. >> as the rest of republicans struggle to regain their donald trump continuing his attacks against jeb bush. >> he's a low energy kind of guy. >> predicting the latest jabs won't stick. >> he's probably now going to stop, because it seems to be backfiring. >> this is not a guy who is a conservative. >> reporter: bush going after the front-runner again today, poston an online quiz, saying trump supports tax hikes and single-payer health care, even needling him for being a germ ophobe. >> i think donald trump is really a fake conservative. once we will find out his positions, i think they will be fleeing with their hair on fire, saying my goodness, he's not really what he said he was. >> and fighting to regain momentum. >> i used to run track, and to me the only time it was important when you were ahead was when cross the finish line. i plan to be ahead. >> a new worst/abc news poll, showing warning signs for both bush and trump, just 37% of americans have a favorable view of trump, while 38% view bush favorably. despite trump's promise to

let's go to sarah murray, she's in a room overlooking the debate hall where the candidates will the gather. sarah? >> yeah, right now on my left there is room with the four candidates who will participate in the first debate. they are sitting in there chatting probably trying not to let nerves show. any minute someone will come to escort them behind me and they will head to the debate stage. we're waiting on the arrival of donald trump who will take center stage in the later debate. the challenge for him is it seems like in recent weeks it's come to him that this is real. he's really a presidential candidate and talking about toning it down, trying to be a little nicer. when he gets to the debate stage, it will be a challenge to do that, tease policy specifics but maintain the flair, maintain the straight talk that's gotten him as high as he is. we'll have to see how donald trump navigates that line tonight. >> sarah, thanks very much. all of donald trump's rivals will be trying to make a big enough impression tonight to attract voters, donors to keep their campaigns alive. our senior wash

joining me, sarah murray, michael smerconish and gloria borger. so great to have all of you here.e hours out. beginning with you and some of your sourcing with the jeb bush campaign, how are they feeling going into tonight? >> well, i've been talking with a lot of sources in the jeb bush campaign. and the one word i would think of to describe what they want to do tonight is contrast. contrast themselves with donald trump as being a real conservative, a real reformer, somebody who has experience, somebody who knows how to get things done in politics, in the real world, and also one other huge contrast particularly here at the reagan library. somebody who is optimistic like ronald reagan compared to somebody who is not like donald trump. >> right. t. boone pickens sat in that seat and endorsed him. he said, brooke, he's walking in molasses. we're hoping for jeb bush's sake the molasses goes away. >> to simplify, donald trump would be the imposter on the stage and not the real conservative. >> speaking of donald trump, you have been following his every move recently, and it's interes

. >> cnn's sarah murray is live in our washington bureau following all of the developments for us. >>sh to get donald trump to take the loyalty pledge. sources say they suspect he will probably go through with it, but we won't know for sure until he takes the stage for his press conference today at 2:00 p.m. let's get a little dose of what we might expect. by day's end republican national committee chair might have an answer. will he or won't he rule out a third party bid? in nashville recently, trump explaining why he'd prefer to run as a republican. >> that would certainly be the best path to victory and we're going to make a decision very soon and i think a lot of people are going to be very happy. >> reporter: an apparent attempt to neutralize trump's attempts to run as an independent. it's a pledge trump rebuffed during the first debate. >> you're not going to make the pledge? >> i will not make the pledge at this time. >> reporter: now the rnc wants it in writing, asking trump to sign an agreement stating he will not seek to accept the nomination of any other party if he fails t

joining us sarah murray, she was at trump's campaign keeevent on wednesday. and errol lewis. let's bring up the quinnipiac poll. it's fresh out this hour. these are the first post debate numbers. donald trump was at 28% in august. after the debate, 25. meanwhile, every one of his rivals, ben carson, carly fiorina, jeb bush and marco rubio have risen since the debate. tell us what you see, errol? >> well, what i see, what some strategists have told us from the beginning, donald trump has a high floor but low ceiling. 7 out of 10 republicans tell the pollsters they don't want donald trump. they're starting to look around and shop. some are going to fiorina, and some to rubio. it's not that trump is doing worse but trump is not doing better. i think that's an important distinction to make. he's got to figure out how to broaden his base. yes, he has a base. yes, he has an important base. and usual control with the debate right now, but that's going to have less luster on it every single day between now and then. >> sarah, you saw things on the campaign trail yesterday, particular

. >>> sarah palin joins ted cruz and donald trump in a rally even though the agreement today seems pretty much a done deal. joining us now, senior political editor mark murraybout this hearing focused on planned parenthood. we've covered these videos. planned parenthood say it's edited and does not properly convey what's happening there, but regardless, they're talking about a shutdown. >> at least 25 republicans have sent house speaker john boehner a letter saying they will not support any effort to fund the government after september 30th unless planned parenthood is defunded. it's important to note that any of the money planned parenthood end up getting is for abortions or planned parent practices. nevertheless, if these 28 republicans end up shutting out john boehner, that wipes out his functioning majority with republicans and essentially is a potential replay of what we end up seeing in 2013 with the government shutdown over the health care law. >> let me play a little more of hillary clinton's apology. she apparently said a similar thing that will air on the ellen degeneres show on thursday, but we'll play what she said yesterday. >> i should have us