and then i actually worked for her in 2000 when she ran for the senate and saw her debate there. she is a first-rate debater. a very clear thinker. she is experienced. she has been on this track before. she is very serious about policy. i think she will do very well in the candidate debate. we have seen before she knows how to testify before congress. i don t think she is intimidated by that at all. and she has a chance to actually advance her cause in these events in october. but she will certainly be under pressure to do so. all right, david axelrod, thank you so much for your experience and your insight on this. as we discussed, another reminder right now. a debate right here on cnn, the first chance to see all the democratic contenders on the same stage at the same time. anderson cooper will be the moderator, las vegas, nevada. tuesday october 13th, right here on cnn. another reminder, joe biden by the way has been invited to attend. he has until the last minute to
it s impossible. it s a heartbreak because there are topics that you really want to get to. a few things get in the way of that. one is one of the things we did was we tried to get the candidate debate. so we would have people go back and forth, bring somebody else in and that meant the questions necessarily got cut. two, sometimes whether or not a question made the cut, it didn t really it wasn t a a reflection of the topic. like you know i care a lot about veterans issues. and cnn covers black lives matter and issues having to do with law enforcement a great deal as well. neither of those were in the debate. and it was heartbreaking on one level because you want to bring up topics that are important. another level, i don t know how
john king has go out. he joins us now. so who is in, john? anderson, donald trump, the man in the middle driving the republican race. 11 candidates on stage for the debate. a week away. new face carly fiorina, the slingshot candidate from the early, single candidate lesser candidate debate. she will join. the man in the middle will be donald trump. dr. ben carson. jeb bush next to him. ted cruz and scott walker. texas senator, wisconsin governor. carly fiorina business woman. marco rubio the senator. governor huckabee, governor paul. governor kasich and chris christie. why? if you take a look at our late numbers releasing to day. look at that. the first time donald trump above 30%. he is far and away now the national front-runner in the race. ben carson, 19. jeb bush, 9%. scott walker, 5%. look at the lineup for the primetime debate. 11 candidates. donald trump still the front-runner in the middle.
are lobbing to have like a debate tournament. heats. back to back debates featuring random pools of candidates. now, if it s 21 candidates, that could mean like three debates with seven candidates each. randomly assigned. does raise other questions if the number goes up to 24, do you do six heats of four or two heats of 12 or three heats of eight. what if it s a prime number. it is three heats of seven, how does that work in the nitty gritty? do you run them all through in one night and do a seven candidate debate and a seven-candidate debate, seven candidate debate. does it go fire drill style where everybody changes podiums and they stay on the same set? once you get tired, you get to pull in another candidate to replace you. once you get picked to be in a certain debate, can you swap and arrange a trade with somebody in another heat. say you re scott walker and don t want to go up against the group with donald trump in it.
introducing the first phone built for android 4.0. only at verizon. i m bret baier in washington. the big story here today is the republican presidential campaign following last night s fox news candidate debate in south carolina. tonight on special report, we ll tell you what the candidates are doing out on the trail today. just four days ahead of the south carolina primary. carl cameron is following that story. john robert roberts will show ue highlights from monday evening s event. front runner mitt romney took criticism and the four others battled to carry the mantle to saturday s primary. we will get analysis from brit hume. president obama met with the