reporter: and, look, amy klobuchar obviously pretty willing to just go full bore even though getting very little sleep. we ve seen her out here even on the campaign trail after that l.a. debate. one thing that struck me as i talked to her about what the best case scenario here in a state like iowa. conventional thinking tells you three tickets out of this state. amy klobuchar telling me, though, with a field this big, anywhere in the top is good. of course, you look at what iowa can do for candidates like klobuchar who aren t polling very highly nationally. it can be a springboard heading into states like new hampshire, nevada, south carolina after it. it s an important state, because it sets the tone for the rest of the primary cycle. all of these 2020 candidates very aware of the role iowa plays here. trying to make it to as many of those counties, 99 counties as they could in the hawkeye state. thank you, ali vitali. and coming up, an imminent threat in north consumer
found they weren t missing biden s word on the debate stage last night. we ll see if what happened last night on the debate stage translates into enthusiasm down on the ground, which these candidates that aren t polling really well, they need to excite voters when the pollsters give them a call. guys, thank you very much. senator tammy duckworth says the president s decisions around turkey and syria show its quote incompetence has fatal consequences. she ll join me coming up. first another man is in custody in the campaign finance investigation involving rudy guiliani s associates. where does that leave rudy guiliani? where does that leave rudy guiliani
cover and in a year nobody will remember he ran for president. let me bring in our senior political writer and analyst to talk about how we ended up from there to here. and it s interesting the current political race is exactly where we were at when trump jumped in. so what did the polls say then about trump? they said that he had no chance in heck. i remember writing so many articles i i wish i could change. he was 2% in the national average at this point in his campaign. he was able to win the nomination and started with the escalator ride down. so you re saying there s a chance. for a lot of the democrats that aren t polling well now. i would not close my eyes and ears to the the possibility. donald trump is not the only one that started off low and was able to win the nomination. jimmy carter did the same thing. so in his early days, it s not
to get that as well. i feel good about how the rnc handled this on behalf of the candidates and we ll have a great debate on cnbc. the last debate was three hours long. almost all the viewers stayed. isn t it good for viewers, voters to have longer debates, not shorter? i think it s a formula. it s not just a question of timing. it s how many candidates are on stage. in the case of the reagan library it s what people don t see necessarily off camera is the room was rather hot. the candidates it was late in the evening. it was a west coast debate. it s not just, you can t say this is the time that makes sense. each debate has to get negotiated in itself. it s a balancing act between interest of all the people involved. last question. i heard the candidates aren t
bush and says cut the top rate to 28%, no, he won t be delivering on that. if he says keep the top rate at 35%, 40%, it s possible he will be putting out a tax plan that is very different from what other republicans have proposed in that it focuses on the middle-class not the upper class. olivia, we don t want to forget about rick perry despite this maybe being the last day we ll talk about him because yesterday he suspended his campaign. what impact do you think that might have on the gop field and who do you think is likely to drop out next? i think george pataki or lindsey graham are probably most likely to drop out next, the candidates who aren t polling very well, polling within the margin of error. perry was obviously trying to get by run tong fumes of the super pacs that were supporting him but it wasn t enough. there wasn t enough interest in his campaign. a lot of it has to do with his dismal 2012 performance but also with the polls. they really did have a big