Trump has cruz losing in other ways in a weird attempt to counter the fact that cruz was born in canada sp not a naturally born citizen cruz now attacks trump for being from new york. Believe it or not questionable to people of iowa who liked being talked down to this way as people fearful of the big bad metropolis. The new numbers show where the republican race does stand. Donald trump has increased his lead. One third of republicans back trump up six points since last month since december. His best showing so far in the nbc survey. Ted cruz is second with one in five republicans. He is down a bit. Here is another new reality. The number of republicans who can say they see themselves Backing Trump in the end has shot up. 65 about two thirds say they can back trump if it comes to that. That is compared to 32 who said the same thing in june. Nbc katy tur and Hallie Jackson join me now. You are in it from square one from day one. This acceptability and maybe not something you can read on the trail because you are with the true believeers but it is kind of impressive that two thirds of the Republican Party says they can back trump if it comes to it. Reporter this was inevitable. In the beginning days he was seen as somebody who was a bit of a side show and people didnt think they could support him. As it has gone on and gotten a ground swell of support as he has gotten more head lines and people found it more acceptable to like him in their social circles it is inevitable that acceptance level would rise. We are seeing that among gop insiders seeing trump as more of an inevitability now and trying to rally behind him. Not all of them. We had the nikki haley rebuttal to the president who was a rebuttal to donald trump. There is a faction of the Republican Party not behind him. This is something that was going to be inevitable. The higher his poll numbers go the more people are going to end up liking him because they see him as maybe the only option out there right now. Ted cruz has used Donald Trumps hometown of new york as an attack. It was a hell of lot of people who love the city and love it since 9 11. Lets watch. Donald comes from new york and embodies new york values. Listen, the donald seems to be rattled. As a life long new yorker what do you mean . Ill tell you the rest of the country knows exactly what new york values are. I dont like that conversation. Trump responded in an interview with Bloomberg Politics. I embrace in new york we took a big hit with the world trade center. Worst attack ever in the United States. Worst than pearl harbor because they attacked civilians, people having breakfast. If you would have been there and if you would have lived through that like i did with new york people, the way they handled that attack was one of the most incredible. People want to knock new york. They shouldnt be doing it because of a massive population there. New york is an amazing place with amazing people. Let me go to Hallie Jackson. Why would anybody attack the town so nice they named it twice . New york, new york, the major city in the country, chief Financial Center of the country. No one knows that better than donald trump who has been up there at the old till looking for money himself raising money from Goldman Sachs. Why is he knocks the hand that feeds him in. It appears to be apparently a values issue. It is this idea that folks from new york arent the same as folks from iowa and New Hampshire, a campaign aid. New york is great, the center of the news media, where the Entertainment Industry is based pointing out that folks who live in parts of the country that arent urban centers may have a perception of new york that is different than the perception that some of us might have. You see the stupidity to that line. The people who grew up in new york in the boroughs, brooklyn known as the borough of churches it is religious. The big shots move to manhattan because they are famous. New york isnt the show business crowd that shows up, the Beautiful People with bold print names. It is 99. 9 of people who are new yorkers. You know new york and because you live in new york. Why is he assuming the people in iowa not know anything . That is an insult to them. Its a strategy apparently that cruz believes may help him with the people who he needs to propel him to victory in a place like iowa. Can i jump in here . Is he running for president of the United States except for new york state . Im not sure this line of attack is going to work supporters. Yes he is rich. Yes he is brash. Yes he is sometimes politically incorrect. He doesnt always say the right thing. He is from new york and he owned these things. That has resonated with a lot of his supporters because they dont see him as being insincere. They dont see him as playing a part as many other politicians do. A lot of people are supporting trump who see him as somebody who is insincere. This is also his greatest weakness. Trump is alienating a lot of people in this country, not necessarily the Republican Base who likes him. Others think he is divisive and sowing the seed of discord and making other countries question his ability to lead. The uk is going to debate a petition to ban him from the country. Is he the best leader for america . That is debated. His supporters like all of that about him that he is unapologetic for who he is. He is also a new yorker and talks like a new yorker. Thank you. This is interesting and it is getting better. In her state of the union the response governor nikki haley recognizes donald trump as one of the angriest members of the party. A large part of the campaign has been to exploit the anger in the country. Anger is real and legitimate. Here is the man himself. Right now the state of our union is a mess. We cant beat isis. Our military is falling back. A dollar buys a nickels worth. Shop keepers keep a gun under the counter. Im running because we are not going to have a country soon. We dont have borders. We dont have law and order. Our country is going to hell. We know things are bad, worse than bad. They are crazy like everything is going crazy so we dont go on anymore. If i go to the doctor and have to wait like nine minutes i go crazy. I dont know what to do about the depression or the inflation and the russians and the street. All i know is you have to get mad. Im very angry because i hate what is happening to our country. I am angry. Im very angry. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it and stick your head out and yell im as mad as hell and im not going to take this anymore i dont like this mic. Whoever the hell bought this mic system dont [ bleep ] to put it in. This mic is terrible. Stupid mic keeps popping. Do you hear that, george. Dont pay him. Dont pay him. Those scenes were the work of peter finch the actor and brilliant screen writer. A great preview of what television has been like all these years. Former chairman of the Republican National committee. And rick tyler is spokesman for ted cruz. Are you part of the i hate new york crowd . I love new york. What happened to new york state of mind . I thought we liked that . No one said they were bad values, just different values. Pullback time. Youre pulling back. You said it is not a statement of bad values to say he has new york values. You said that. They are different values. Steve king or peter king. In texas we can have open carry. You cant have a weapon in new york city. You would be arrested. New york sends liberals to congress, texas sends conservatives. How many hours of desperate struggle and spin led to were not knocking this guy for having new york values . Is this separate but equal . I think separate but equal wont win here. I dont think you can argue different values. Are you saying your values are the same as our values. What does ted cruz mean when he attacks new york values . He didnt attack them. He said they were different than iowa values. Are you disputing that . I think they are different. Look at the Voter Registration compared to new york. They dont send republicans. They send liberals. Who is running for the president of iowa . President of the United States new york is part of the United States isnt it . New york values are different than most of the rest of the country. Not all but most of them. Different than the rest of the country. Its not just new york and iowa, the entire United States has different values than the city of new york. How about the state of new york . Lets go through the policy. Can you carry a weapon openly in new york . You cant. I want to go to mike. Michael, this likes like the city mouse being attacked by the country mouse. This is worst than high school. What do they mean by new york values . Was it about ethnicity, pushiness . Loudness . Chris, its not about any of that. This is ted cruz speaking to a particular constituency and this idea that their values are different from yours. And that is the difference that he wanted to contrast with donald trump. Which trump value is different than cruzs value . Chris, it is a lot about what rick has said. Those things that impact people every day. Its their outlook on the world, h how they see problem solving. There are differences. What cruz i believe was trying to do there in a very real political sense was to draw that stark contrast between a donald trump who is an east coast new york republican from a ted cruz who is a southwest texas you guys agree so much it is driving me crazy. Chris, you want us to Say Something that doesnt exist. Lets go to particulars. Is there a difference in new york and iowa in how to fight isis . Explain the relevance to the campaign issues. What is the difference between new york values and iowa values . Different cases. How about putting out a fire somewhere . The entire city of new york on how they address isis . You brought it up. Im saying it is different. Everybody in america would agree new york values are not the same as our values. Let me give you an example. Every morning show you turn on where does it come from . New york city. When was the last time we did the cool hunting gear for the hunting season . That is important to a lot of americans. New york city doesnt cover that. There are a lot of issues. They used to make fun of Country Music and now have it on because of ratings. There are taste differences but that is not values. There is a difference between there is a difference between new york media covering the birther issue. Nobody in iowa asks about that. Very clever. You are in retreat. Its a knock on new york. Its a knock on trump. I love new york. By the way, i talk for everybody watching knowing you are hiding. Thank you. Coming up michae you are defending him and you shouldnt be. More on the Republican Debate. One establishment candidate is this really coming down to two guys we have been talking about . Trump and cruz. Plus bernie has momentum. The burn is working. Hillary is on the attack. There is a lot of noise whether Elizabeth Warren might endorse either of these candidates, maybe hillary. That would make a lot of difference. The field is shrinking. Seven candidates are going to the big stage. Only three took part in the happy hour debate. Rand paul wasnt among them. He refused to sit at the little kids table. We will give him the big table tonight. And finally the hosts with all due respect join us tonight. After the debate back to msnbc. Two hour edition of hardball with highlights, analysis of the 2016 race coming up here. Watch us at 11 00 on to 1 00 a. M. Eastern. This is hardball, place for politics. 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When you want to knock new york you got to go through me. Welcome back to hardball, a hot one brewing. Trump throwing down the gauntlet after cruz took a shot at his new york values. That is not the only fight going. Time is running out for the partys establishment wing to take out the hell raisers. Robert Costa National political reporter, dina bash National Press secatory and Michele Bachmann. How do you see this race . Do you think it has come down to trump and cruz or is there a lot of real potential among what we call the establishment candidates . Certainly isnt over by a long shot. I think it is safe to say that donald trump occupied the lead position for a long, long time and only managed to increase market share. After the last debate you saw ted cruz move up and i think that again tonight could be a breakout moment for almost anyone on that stage but in particular i would say those in third, fourth, fifth place have a real chance to move up. I think debates are very important and i think we could see movement after tonight. What is your candidates plan . Can you give us a tease as to what he is planning to do to get back to the race . Absolutely. Thank you for having me and dr. Carson recognizes that this is a chance for him to share his vision with the American People. He will be i think a more asserted dr. Carson. He is a statesman, not a showman. You wont see wise cracks. You will see wisdom. Dr. Carson is prepared to be more assertive and share his vision. What do you mean by more assertive . You obviously worked with him. He is very liklikable. They are very impressed with his credentials. He has done nothing wrong but failed to light up the charts. What does he do. One thing on the trail the crowds are enthusiast skiastic enjoy him. If there is an opportunity for him to interject or to share his vision hell do it. Soft spokenness does not mean he is strong. You will see he said he has more pep in his step. You will see a more assertive dr. Carson. Do you think he will talk faster . I dont know if he will talk faster. When he has the opportunity to talk we know he will say things that resonate with the American People. Let me go to robert costa. You have been covering top front runners. Are they going to hold the lead throughout the next its like two prize fighters, chris. Eyeing each other in the ring. Talking to people close to cruz and close to trump. They come to the fight ready to engage and the question looming over cruz is how does he handle if trump brings up his canadian birth. If trump brings up the Goldman Sachs story and the cruz loan. This is hovering over. Cruz is under a test tonight, probably the biggest test so far in the campaign. Why doesnt he just ask cruz, youre a constitutional lawyer, what do you think the Founding Fathers had in mind when they said only naturalborn americans could be eligible for the presidency. What could the phrase mean naturalborn american mean other than born here . Based on my reporting, cruz wont get into the semantics. How about the right to bear arms. Thats semantic and the conservatives love those phrases. Im talking politics. Im serious, conservatives believe in literal interpretation of the constitution. You cant believe in that and then say not on this, baby. This is inconvenient. Naturalborn, were not going to use that against our guy, because hes the most rightwing guy out there. Those are issues that people are talking about within the beltway. But my hope and i think dr. Carson hopes tonight on the debate stage were not talking about those kinds of things. Dr. Carson and im sure the other candidates want to use this time to talk about the real issues facing the American People and more than anything, thats what we should be using the time for. Thats the argument there. But do you think the debate moderators are not going to bring up and ted cruz is not going to be confronted with the question of whether or not whether hes eligible to run for president. Thats a central question are you eligible to run for president . How could there be something more important to talk about, dana . I dont think people arent concerned about it i think most americans are concerned about how will ted cruz and ben carson and others keep more money in their pockets at night. Congressman batchmann, this issue is a strange one. I listen to this lawyer from widener college, im hearing people say, naturalborn means naturalborn, born here. No think ted cruz is afraid of this question at all. He is a constitutional scholar and hell stand up and give the answer this is something that would come up any time someone is born out of the country just like john mccain was born out of the country. Think that the voters deserve an answer. I dont think hes a frayfraid at all. Again i would agree with dr. Carsons press person. That what were going to hear about tonight these candidates want to give an answer to the state of the union address. There are a lot of people not real happy with the state of the union address. Think youre going to hear these candidates give their own form of the state of union. The other thing i think youre going to hear a lot about is this huge issue that happened this week with iran. Taking these ten u. S. Soldiers hostage and the other thing i think youre going to hear is gitmo. Youre going to hear a lot about gitmo. We just had ten terrorists released from gitmo to oman, ten yemeni terrorists that were released. That will be an issue. And the big question in everyones heart is this will president obama give the land at gitmo to the communists in cuba . Will he give it to them . Because if he gives it to them, you might as well consider that hes giving it to either the iranians, the russians or the chinese. And we could have in our own back yard, 90 miles from cuba, a malevolent force. Much more ahead on this Republican Debate night. Its going to a hot one. Think theyre going to talk about eligibility under the constitution, because its a great trump card. Still ahead, we talk to two candidates running for president , this is hardball, the place for plings. Politics. Listen up im here to get the lady of the house back on her feet. And give her the strength and energy to stay healthy. Whos with me . yay the complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure. With 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. Ensure. Take life in does printing from your tablet give you a jolt of confidence . Then you might be gearcentric. Right now, all hp ink is buy one get one 50 off office depot officemax. Gear up for great. Have my stomach feeling all knotted up. Ive tried laxatives. But my symptoms keep returning. My constipation feels like a pile of bricks. That keeps coming back. 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My plan, break up the big banks, close the tax loopholes. And make them pay their fair share. Will they like me . No. Will they begin to play by the rules if im president . You Better Believe it. Hillary clinton responded to that tv ad tonight when she spoke to msnbcs Rachel Maddow. Senator sanders has said repeatedly, he doesnt engage in negative attacks, i take him at his word on anything personal. We dont do that in our side of the debate you know. We engage on substantive differences and we have some and hes been pointing out what he believes to be differences. For quite some time now. From his point of view. So i have been pointing out what differences are. Because i think the voters expect us to have something of a spirited debate. Well you can see more of that interview tonight on the Rachel Maddow show. Nationally. Clinton still far outpaces sanders has the edge with voters under 45. And among men, while clinton firmly has the advantage with women, of all ages basically all taken together. Joining me now is nbc News White House correspondent my friend, Kristen Welker and democratic strategist, steve mcmahon. This is a tricky situation. I want to start with you about Hillary Clinton. Because clearly, sanders is to the left of Hillary Clinton. Hillary clinton somewhere centerleft on some issues, she may be further left and others, further right, like on war, shes more hawkish. How does she attack a portion of the party she needs to win the general election . Its interesting. What shes doing is on guns shes attacking him from the left and on health care shes attacking him from the left. And shes putting him to the right on guns and too far left on health care. Is there such a thing as too far left . I dont think there is, its kind of a misguided attack because Bernie Sanders wants a singlepayer system, which is what most liberals want. From the time that president obama took office, we heard the pound on the constituency on the Progressive Side. Wanted a singlepayer. I think Bernie Sanders is in a good position in that conversation. The bottom line is Hillary Clinton is running a general Election Campaign even today. She moves as far left as she needs to to check Bernie Sanders but shes not going to go any further left than she has to. Bernie sanders is just running to get the nomination. Hes not even thinking about the general. Its called november doesnt count. Kristen, it looks to me, im looking at the ad buys, theyre not just play together bernie people on winning in iowa and winning in New Hampshire. Theyre talking about winning in nevada now. It looks like theyre trying to run the table so she either, shes not going to quit. But to cause some sort of panic, i guess. Theyre trying to have a plan b and a plan c. Ive been stumping with her in a lot of the southern states. The super tuesday states. Nevada as you point out, she wants to make sure she has a firewall in case she loses New Hampshire. Which theyre bracing themselves that could happen. In case she loses iowa as well. Which is a possibility if you look at the polls. We have to cut it short. We have a candidate coming on right now, Kristen Welker and steve mcmahon, im sure well have you back on around midnight. Lets back down to the republicans running for president , theyre in South Carolina for their sixth debate. One of the candidates who wrapped up the undercard debate is former hewlettpackard ceo, Carly Fiorina who joins pea now. Miss fiorina thank you so much for joining us. I dont think weve ever met. Yes, we have. Where have we met . Tell me where . We met in someones home in a Cocktail Party in washington, d. C. As a matter of fact. Oh, my god. Thats right. Go ahead. I served with your wife on the board of fords theater. Thats a good cause. Let me ask you about your chart. About unlike another woman in this race, i actually love spending time with my husband. Which is the other woman in the race . Oh come on, chris, you know. Who . Hillary clinton. Well why would you talk about another she is the other person in the race. She is the other person in the race. Well, look, chris, Hillary Clinton is, you know, rolling out her husband to campaign for her. But she is also talking about her Husbands Administration as an example of democrat policies and how successful theyve been. So i think its pretty clear that bill clinton is fair game. Do you think all marriages are, i notice you picked one out. Have you studied the movements of other married couples and seen how often they spend time together or not . Why this couple . Because shes running for president , chris, hello. I mean among the other candidates. The candidates and their spouses, have you checked all their relationships to see their travel movements and schedules . No, absolutely not. You see theres only, theres only two women running for president , theres only two women running for president , im one and mrs. Clinton is the other. So there are only two men who are potentially going to be first dude or whatever were going to call them. My husband and her husband. Thats it. Thats all there is. Okay, let me ask you this, because everybody does it to me, im going to ask you it to you. I think its relevant whether somebody under the constitution is eligible to run for president. Someone like Michele Bachmann just told me lets talk about the important things. I will say. Well constitutional eligibility would be pretty central. Whats the centerty to you of the relate between Hillary Clinton and Bill Champion is to who should be the next president. I think everything about all our lives is relevant. You know why . Because you cannot lead unless people trust you. They cannot trust you unless they know you. And thats why ive been open about all aspects of my life. Whether its the tragic death of our daughter, laurie or the fact that i was fired at hewlettpackard and why. People cannot trust you if they do not know you. And mrs. Clintons biggest problem, is that people do not trust her, and theres so much evidence as to why they dont. I mean we have run out of gates to explain all the scandals that have dogged bill and Hillary Clinton. The Clinton Global Initiative is like a ponzi scheme to buy influence to this government. And bill and Hillary Clinton sit on top of it. The truth is, mrs. Clinton has escaped prosecution more times than el chapo. Maybe sean penn is standing by waiting to interview her. Trust, trust is central to leadership. And she does not have the trust of the American People. But shes on her way to become the democrat nominee. Ill let just like when people say i dont like new york values, but wont tell me what they mean. Let me ask you this, do you think the clintons have a real marriage . Theyve been married for a very long time. Theyve been married for a very long time. Its a real marriage . Theyve been married for a very long time. Its a real marriage, youll say that . Theyve been married for a long time. . Why are you hiding from an answer . Im not. Im answering your question. You brought up this very unpleasant subject. There are so many other things we could talk about. Like the fact that mrs. Clinton wants to go, mrs. Clinton wants to go to the white house. Shes qualified for the big house. She should be prosecuted. She has not been prosecuted for things that took a great warrior out of office, david petraeus. So lets talk about that, chris. Lets talk about how amazing it is, that this woman who cannot be trusted, who should have been prosecuted by now, has just raked in more money than any single candidate. Lets talk about that. And what that says about the Democrat Party and what that says about peoples desire to keep the political establishment in place. Shes inside that establishment. And people like donald trump are outside that establishment. She rakes in millions, sitting inside government. Selling access and influence. And donald trump rakes in billions, buying people like Hillary Clinton. Let us talk about that. Until we are willing to challenge the establishment of both parties, we will never take our country back and crony capitalism will continue to explode and shes right at the center of it. Thank you, Carly Fiorina. Still ahead this hour, rand paul could have taken part in tonights undercard debate. Instead he wants to take his message directly to the people is that a winning move in iowa or New Hampshire to skip out . Senator paul is going to be here to explain why hes not showing tonight. Youre watching hardball. I earn unlimited 2 cash back on everything i buy for my studio. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Thats huge for my bottom line. 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Howard, theres talk among our producers that maybe rand paul, not rand paul that ted cruz will fight tonight, that hell want to fight for the first time. No more sheepishness. I think he has to. I think trump has challenged him. Its a question of manhood, which i think is texas values here. Well manhood is a good point. Not that i believe in macho. You notice how rick tower pulled back. Im not saying theres anything wrong with new york, its just different. He goes into these taste bud issues. Its a shot at new york city. Its a dog whistle politics through a fog horn. Thats saying all those people up there they like chuck schumer, gay marriage, et cetera. Peter king versus, you know the other king. Peter king versus steve king, i would go with peter king in five seconds, thats my view. I thought trumps answer was to mention 9 11, was a very smart patriotic answer. And i think hell save the Goldman Sachs references for later on. You didnt mind coming up here for the money. That is what they all go. They dont come to washington for the money. You see them on the shuttle. They love to talk about flying tlup to get some money. How theyre so opposed to Bank Bailouts and taking on wall street and thats whos lining their pockets. I think cruz and trump are definitely going to go at it. It will be interesting to sew how cruz fares. Well have to see. And the canadian birther issue is catching some force. So how is cruz going to handle that. He was born up there. He was born in canada. Natural born canadian. Canadian, what are canadian values . Thank you, guys, more time, weve got all night tonight. This is going to be a big night. The first debate of the year for the republicans, Howard Fineman, alise jordan. Were coming back with senator rand paul himself. Coming here, he wont sit at the little kids table, but hell sit at ours. If youre looking to save money on your Medicare Part d prescriptions, walgreens says, carpe med diem. 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Senator paul, wu one of the weaknesses of tonights early debate and it will be probably the weakness of the later debate is the theres no one to question the interventionist regime change mentality of some of the people in your party. When you read the paper. You think that people wanted to go into a shooting war with iran. They want a iran over this thing. Your thoughts . You know what i think is important is we have a real spirited discussion in the Republican Party and frankly in the Democrat Party about whether or not our intervention in the middle east has been a good idea or a bad idea, because frankly, not only is it republicans, but even Hillary Clinton has been very much for regime change in libya, thinking that we would be safer, but i think when weve got gadhafi is gone, what you wound up with was, i think, chaos, rise of radical islam and now a failed state in libya and a third of libya pledged allegiance to isis. Im worried about the same people liked doing that to gadhafi want to do it to assad in syria. I dont think its a good idea. I went to a Student Group this morning, quite thoughtful came up and asked about the libertarian thinking. Without you in the race or the debate, whos going to represent libertarian thinking in the republican world . You know, i dont think there is anyone else in the race when you talk about collecting phone records, even some who might be more conservative like cruz say they want to collect more of your cell phone records, hes supported reform because hes for collecting 100 of the cell phone records. Hes now switched his position on snowden. He thought snowden did a service to the country, but now saying snowden is a traitor, and really, i think, theres a lot of issues like that where were going to have to question and those who lean libertarian, really is ted cruz the authentic messenger or somebody who wants to have it both ways on too many issues. Do you think there are Big Government conservatives, in other words, they want big military, they want a big involvement in the world, and that means having to pay for it and raise taxes to do it. No way around it, whether youre Bernie Sanders or anybody, everybody talks about saving money, you got to change policy to save money. You cant do the same stuff or more of the same stuff and have Less Government and less spending and less taxes. The biggest clamor for more spending in washington comes from the right that wants more military spending, but the only way they can get the military spending is if they give the left spending for domestic programs. So we really end up with both and we end up borrowing a Million Dollars a minute and i think the deficit is out of control. But i dont blame it on one party. I think theres blame to go around to both parties. I think youre right. I think from the Progressive Side they gave the military more money. Mark halperin and john coming here. 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Someone who knows that the right office gear helps you do great things. And theres one place that has it all. Office depot officemax. Gear up for great. Were back and gearing up for tonights big showdown in South Carolina. Donald trump, ted cruz and the rest of the republican field go to war. Joined now by my new colleagues, mark, my tough question to you, then to john. Whose names going to be in the headline tomorrow morning major papers after tonight. Whose name in the headline . I think ted cruz. Hes going to be both under the microscope tonight, as well as tries to play defense by playing offense and taking off not just after trump, necessarily, but after some of the others, as well. John, name in the headline . I think thats right, ted cruz, but i think it could very much equal with donald trump. I think you could see a real knockdown dragout between the two tonight, chris. Mark, how do you assess this new york thing as the counterpunch to the birtherism question, saying he made it sound like a difference in taste buds or something. Its a shot at new york and i dont know what it means anymore. I dont know exactly what it means. What do you think hes getting at for the iowa voters . I think hes playing the notion of east coast liberal elite, you know, look, you see this all the time from the other campaigns, here and around the country, which is what is going on that our partys frontrunner was a liberal democrat just a few years ago on a number of issues, close to nancy pelosi, close to Hillary Clinton, and i think the best shorthand from cruzs point of view right now is new york city. Trumps answer to us in the interview we did last night, defending new york, invoking 9 11, one of the best moments hes had in his campaign, i think, and cruz will back off, particularly between princeton and harvard, hes got a fair amount of east coast on his resume, as well. Let me ask you, john look, i think most people watching tonight will not have heard that brilliant retort from donald trump so far. We always make the mistake thinking everybodys heard what we heard. If you dont watch everything, you know, the average person watching tonight for the first time you could hear trump give that for nokz, which is going to blow the seats out. Yeah, i think thats right. I think theres a chance trump will bring it up if cruz doesnt use the new york line against him, theres a chance trump will bring it up unprompted so he could make that defense to new york. One other thing, i think also doesnt just an east coast elite, also says secular, not evangelical, says not a man of faith. I think theres cruz believes that trump i think cruz believes trump is a phoney on the question of his godliness and thats an advantage for cruz. I think thats part of what cruz is trying to say, secular liberal from new york city, and i think trump would love, love, love to have that fight where he could cloak himself in 9 11 and new york and hit back. Just keep showing pictures of peter king. That will scare them. Anyway, thank you so much, peter king, mark, john, good to have you as my leadin every night. Catch mark and johns show, and please do, with all due respect week day nights at 6 00 eastern here on msnbc. Thats hardball for tonight. Thanks for being with us. Join us at 11 00 eastern for two hours of highlights and analysis. Always fun after these debates. We have fun because we go at it. All in with chris hayes starts right now. Tonight on all in stupid mike keeps popping. The next big thing is here. Donald trumps new attack. I know nothing about it, but i hear its a very big thing. Tonight, new polling sends chills down republicans spines as talk of a brokered convention heats up. Then, the republican birther fight and the democratic congressman threatening to sue. Plus, the single biggest endorsement since kennedy backed obama tonight as democrats push to pick who should win the Elizabeth Warren primary. And first the president challenged the nra youd think theyd be prepared to have a debate with the president. Today, a response. Ill meet you for a oneonone onehour debate. But should the president accept . All in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes