For the first him and his campaign, donald trump is under siege. In the past 24 hours he has benn four body blows from carson, Carly Fiorina, and jeb bush. Lets come from the religious angle, courtesy of dr. Carson. [bell] carson one of my favorite bible verses. Of theility and the fear lord are riches and honor in life. And thats a very big part of who i am. Humility and the fear of the lord. I dont get that impression with him. Maybe i am wrong. Faith was aer heard big thing until just recently, so i do not even know about what ben carson. All of a sudden he becomes this great religious figure. I saw him yesterday quoting something and he was quoting on humility, and it looks like he memorized it two minutes before he made the quote. Dont tell me about benca cars. His carson backed off comments and said he did not want to get into a gladiator fight with trump. That was just one front of the war on trump. On the second front is Carly Fiorina. It is all about how Rolling Stone quoted the donald. Look at that face. That . Anyone vote for can you imagine that is the face of our next president. She is a woman and im not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious . Turns out trump says he meant Carly Fiorinas personna. Fiorina i am not going to spend a single cycle figuring out what trump, but maybe im getting under his skin. John bobby jindal who fired off a series of tweets saying trump does not stand for anything except himself. That he is egomaniacal and a narcissist. All part of a speech that jindal gave at the National Press club. [bell] jindal i want to say what everybody is thinking about donald trump but afraid to say. The idea of the donald trump act is great. The reality, however, is absurd. Hes nonserious. He is a carnival act. He is shallow. He has no understanding of policy. He has no substance. He lacks the intellectual curiosity to even learn. Mean anything. Policy and ideals are not important. He is for donald. Donald trump is a narcissist and an egomaniac. Person that only a small needs to consummate tell us how strong and powerful they are. The real danger is that ironically donald trump could destroy americas chance to be great again. The jokes on us. He is laughing all the way to the bank or the polling station. Pt barnum was never more right than right now. John donald trump replied in a statement that treated jindal leica has been. He did not make the debate stage and therefore ive never met them. I only respond to people who register more than 1 in the polls. I never thought he had a chance and i have been proven right. Now, finally part four. Nn,ents ago, jeb bush on c reacting to jindals comment and reacting to trumps comment about Carly Fiorina. Mr. Bush i agree. Theink that mr. Trumpa as front runner needs to be treated like all candidates and needs to share what his experiences are his ideasident, what are, and so far, at least, he has not been serious about that. I do not see how over the long haul you can insult your way to the presidency and not the nomination, either. This disparaging of women is deeply troubling. It just doesnt make any sense to me. John so, mark, you are down there on washington, d. C. , watching all this unfolded. A votto scraps but never been under fire in quite this way. Talk about each of these and how they might he individually or collectively different. Lets start off with ben carson. Mark i disagree with the privacy is under siege. Although, each of these has a distinctive quality. On carson, right now, a lot of people and establishment are carsonal that trump and will end up as the nominee. These guys are one and two. Most of them are way ahead of everybody else. For once, trump is fighting with someone at his level. These issues of faither, if eventually carson and ted cruz dan convince voters in iowa an South Carolina that trump is not a man of faith, it will have power for them. John when i said under siege, all i really mean is the notion that trump is fighting a multifront war. He has not been taking this much incoming all at once. I think youre right about the carson. Carson, hes someone that a lot of republicans really like. And he comes a cross, even when he was attacking trump, he comes across as kind of mildmannered hes capable of acerbic credit. Getting into a fight over religion is dangerous territory for trump. One of the places where trump seems inauthentic is on religion. Lets talk about the Carly Fiorina thing, because i think this may be the one where he is in the most danger. Mark he is in the most danger on this one. There have been other instances where there have been questions about trumps attitudes towards women. You see leading republican voices, consultants, others speaking out about what he said. And it does make it possible iowa, this, in could create a huge gender gap that could be a problem down the road. John look, this is an issue where you have got, the Republican Party recognizes it has a problem with female voters to begin with. If trump gets cast as a misogynists by the women of the Republican Party, that will effectively foreclose the ability he would ever have to get the nomination. Im not saying he is there yet, but between this and the megyn kelly thing, he started to get close to that territory. So, lets talk about jindal and jeb. What you think about those two fights . Mark i think the jindal thing is going to be talked up an attemptas to save his campaign. He is doing better. It is going to be fascinating at the debate next week. A lot of times in politics, you see candidates fight in public and then they get to the debate and they are back in the green room and paling around. It is going to be fascinating to see with all these candidates, with the exception of carson. Jindal will not be in the main debate. Will they pal around with trump or will this public animus, public disapproval extend to how they treat him on the debate stage but also off. John i have been predicting i thought next week is going to be a fireworks display. Today makes it think it even more so. Im curious your im edging in direction on that today. John do you think jeb is happy to have all this company in attacking trump, 40 think he preferred to be the 00 or do you think he preferred to be alone . Mark is it smart to be the one to take on trump . I think the Bush Campaign felt they had to do what they were doing. You see people like scott walker, marco rubio, john kasich staying out of this. At this point, there is strength in numbers for most of these campaigns to be a voice to rally the party against him. Even though right now you could argue that trumps being big is helping people like jeb bush, helping ben carson. John i got to think that jeb is happier to not be the lone voice. Lets move on. As promise we will get to biden, bernie and some other stuff after this word from our sponsors. And this point every republican president ial candidate is dealing with the donald. One of them scott walker has been the most trumped today. In the runup to the second republican debate, Walkers Campaign is trying to convince the chattering class that he is far from dead despite his falling poll numbers and a serious unsteady walkers statements that have shaken his supporters. Today Eureka College in illinois, walker claims he is so big, so disruptive that you reaker call hima a w of havoc. Havocor walker to wreak on washington we need to have a leader who has been tested. Mark so, john, this is a part of walker having a serious offense before the debate to reframe, recast and restart the campaign do you think they have a solid plan . John i think they have a comeback plan. And the notion of trying to make specific promises like repealing obamacare, tearing up the iran deal. He has got a plan. Im not sure that it is a serious comeback plan in the sense he has fallen so far, it will be hard given all the other noise, it will be hard for him to claw himself back to the position he was in a few months ago. Mark scott walker, like Hillary Clinton, has a bigger problem with elites than he does with voters to get the problem with voters he has dropped in a lot of polls, including in iowa. He still has a chance to come back but todays performance didnt do much to convince etc. , he has to rest that up. The debate is massively important for him. John everybody has a lot at stake in this debate next week. I cannot think of a person who has more at stake than scott walker. I cannot imagine he is not going to join the chorus now and try to take on donald trump directly on that stage when we get out there to california next wednesday. All right. Keeps us waiting like the worlds most stubborn jackinthebox, he arrives in gotham sitting with some niceties. A new poll Shows Hillary clinton with a lower number than Bernie Sanders in iowa. The beats numbers are also pretty good even though hes not formal in the race. Arounden is here paling with all kinds of liberals. Is this acquainted in or is the Vice President trying to stir the pot . Mark he has been moving around a lot of places. Doing everything he can to keep the options open. The personal is going to trump any of these political considerations, but make no is formidable because he is has vast National Political experience. Coming into new york, doing colbert, hanging out with the governor, this guy can do a lot of stuff and he can do it with a better touch that Hillary Clinton. John i think there is something about, he has been storing the pot, stirring the pot, but there is something about the vividness of the incursion on her home turf. Standing up there with cuomo. All these people. This is seen as Hillary Clintons home and base. Be traipsing around at this moment when he supposed to be deciding about whether he will take her on, it seems like political theater at a high level to me. Mark the more he plays on a major league stage, the more he is that guy the party would say if Hillary Clinton falters over emails, he is the person the party would say we have a major league guy. We can plug him in. Nothing more majorly than coming all ofam city, colbert, these platforms that, again, not everybody in the world can do. Joe biden can do them. John would be funny if bill de blasio endorsed him. That would be great. We will be back with two of the smartest people in the whole wide political world after this. P a lot of movement in the numbers today. No, i am not talking about the stock market. A financial joke for our friends in the building. I am talking about the political polls. We have our pollster anne felzer and our recommendation expert Mad Scientist sasha. We will talk about some polls. Start in republican side. Tell us about what this big poll tells us. Ise it tells us trump marching forward. Every time the pundits say, it shows him winning by a bigger margin. Iss up, carson is up, bush down. Mark between trump and carson, number one and number two, trump leads across the board with every demographic and type of group, but what can you say about where carson is closer to trump on gender or Age Education . Is there an area where carson is competing more trump . Ann women used to be carsons core. Trump now has an 11 point lead among women. So, hes making up that distance. Trump is doing better with College Graduates than he used t o. Those numbers of increase. Carson continues to be the core republican, the core conservative, but he does not win. You are Donald Trump Campaign and looking at this numbers and trying to translate that into tactical imperatives on the ground in iowa, what you thinking right now . Sasha i wonder whether you need a ground game. The assumption is that trump needs to spend the fall developing a traditional looking campaign with the Field Organization that will identify his voters and mobilize them on caucus day. The nature of his coalition that varied, makes it difficult to use the statistical tools the campaigns want to predict their supporters. And that is what you want, w hich doors to knock on. The statistical as abuse of a carson supporter are looking far easier to define than trumps. On, thereths go will be a huge risk for trump is people who look like supported in september were treated by Trumps Campaign on caucus day. The even want to bother with the ground game. Or is this National Media persuasion strategy enough to carry him through . Mark i want to ask you one more thing about this national poll. We have three big candidates, trump and caron, Bernie Sanders who are trying to bring a lot of new people into the race. Polling will be a challenge are we pulling the right people. What does this poll say about enthusiasm for trump and enthusiasm for carson . Ann enthusiasm for republicans is waxing, enthusiasm for democrats general is waning. Trump has a very high number saying that they feel enthusiasticif if he were to become the nominee. Half as many saying they would be upset. Carson, his numbers are more tilted toward the positive. Haveush is not somebody we been talking about. He has more people saying it would be angry if he turned out to be the nominee than saying that they would be enthusiastic about. Mark i think they are not angry but frownuy faced. Ann upset. John sad face. You are an iowa expert. There is a quinnipiac poll focusing on iowa. Ann they included joe biden and when he has included he is sapping the strength all of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders has a one point lead. You take them out of the equation, and she is holding onto a threepoint lead. His being in the mix right now is bothering Hillary Clinton a little bit more than Bernie Sanders. Mark in this poll and in the iowa poll, sanders is gainingg. What can you tells about why sanders has moved into a tie with clinton in this poll . Threee wins two out of people under age 35. Those are likely to include a lot of people who have never caucused before. The other thing you see is people right now are not focused on who can win in the general election. They are focused on who aligns with my values . Thats why Bernie Sanders is doing better. If it were the reverse, people were caring about who wins, Hillary Clinton mighty polling stronger might be polling stronger. Mark statistical pie with sanders and clinton in iowa. More disturbing picture for Hillary Clinton much more optimistic for Bernie Sanders. Again, in terms of if you are in iowa right now, what does philly clinton have to focus on Hillary Clinton have to focus on and what does Bernie Sanders have to focus on . Sasha the burden is more on sanders. It is a challenge for campaigns if you have people that have never caucused before. Both campaigns are working off a list that they acquired from the state party. That is your core source of information. That is the starting point for all of your field programs. So, if you are building your support and showing up in polls with in frequent voters, youre starting with a huge informational disadvantage. The other challenge we see for sanders is unlike and the Republican Caucus where its one eote, one man, one person, onve vote across the state, democrats see their delegates allocated by precinct. Sandersght imagine does, if you have support that is concentrated in College Towns and parts of cities where white liberals are, there is not a huge advantage of running up the score in those places. He could have ordered percent of the vote, but he could find that is disadvantageous geographically. Something the Obama Campaign did in 2008, they got College Votes to college kids to vote where they left. There is only so much you can do if you find your supporters are in iowa city or aimes. That will be a challenge for sanders as he tries to diversify his base of support. Mark and a lot of the candidates in iowa were down the polls on the public and side and are saying, look at our favorability. The Rubio Campaign or the walker campaign. Is that something they can cling to and say, People Like Us in iowa . A good you do not have likability factor, youre going to be in trouble. The fact that there are several candidates with very high likability factors, they have to y into out how to parla actual votes. Why choose this person that you are not is ginned up about even though you like them. There is a difference between who do you date and who do you marry. Right now there are a lot of people you would date. [laughter] john in another episode we will have sasha discuss that. He knows more about that than anyone. Thanks for being here. We will be right back. Mark we are always live on the internet 24 7. This program airs twice a day, 5 00 p. M. And 8 00 p. M. Eastern. John sometimes it is also on 11 00 p. M. All day long, day and night. We will see you back here tomorrow, i hope. Until tomorrow, i say for both of us, sayonara. 5 00 p. M. And 8 00 p. M. Alix we are moments away from the closing bell. Im alix steel. Joe and im joe weisenthal. [closing bell ringing] alix u. S. Stocks closing higher today, rebounding from a selloff yesterday, but well off the highs of the session. Joe but the question is, whatd you miss . Ripples before the storm. Choppy markets today as all awaits the looming fed decision. U. S. Stocks rise and we take a look at hard numbers. Alix and the doomsayer our interview with an economist to