even if you vote and then pass away, it s worth it. i know it s cold, but we need you out there. i know it s going to get even colder and we re in. we re showing up. in nbc s news partnership with the des moines register poll, donald trump has an unprecedented lead of nearly 30 points. never before seen such a big lead in this caucus. with all eyes on the battle for second place, nikki haley has moved ahead of ron desantis for the first time in the poll, but she may have peaked too soon. more on that in a moment. we ll have a full breakdown in moments and talk to the governor of new hampshire. rnor of new hampshire good day, everyone. it s here. it s the first voting day of the 2024 election. i m andrea mitchell in washington. this martin luther king day is also caucus day in iowa. the first of the nation presidential nominating contest of 2024. more than 1600 hall rs gearing up through iowa s 99 counties. there s no early voting, no mail-in ballots so it s all about
Caucus contests are always about enthusiasm in the first place. Theres not any early voting. Theres not vote by mail. You have to show up at caucus time to participate and so enthusiasm means so much. So, yes, our Poll Shows that donald trump supporters have the most enthusiasm. 49 are extremely enthusiastic about him. Then behind that, that is Ron Desantis with 23 of his supporters then well below that is Nikki Haley at just 9 . So when were talking about the race for second place between Nikki Haley and desantis with haley slightly ahead of desantis, those numbers could make that race for second place even closer than our Poll Shows. Charlie, what explains the gap between those saying haley is their first Choice Candidate but when you dig down in the
obama had over her when she conceded in 2008. the idea that the dnc can rig a contest, frankly, is laughable. the caucus contests within the larger primer are the the contests that are run by the party. the primary elections are run by secretaries of state. bernie sanders won overwhelmingly those caucuses. if we look at what the party managed in this process, bernie sanders won those contests and we won only three of them and we bearable won iowa. there s no evidence to back this up. i understand it s convenient and people want to be angry at what s going. back with the panel now. what do you make of it? i covered hillary in the campaign and this is an issue that has dogged her for a long time. you kind of have to separate a couple things here. there s this document that donna brazile referenced which is not as she characterized it.
hillary clinton won this primary with almost 4 million votes. that s a bigger lead than barack obama had over her when she lost and conceded in 2008. the idea that the dnc could rig a contest, frankly, is laughable. and here s the last thing i ll say. the caucus contests within the larger primary are the contests that are run by the party. the primary elections are run by secretaries of state. those contests, the caucuses that were run by the party, bernie sanders won overwhelmingly. so if we look at what the party actually managed in this process, bernie sanders won this contest. i think we only one three of them and barely won iowa. so evidence to back it up. it s convenient. people want to be angry what s going on. back now with the panel. what do you make of this? i think i covered hillary in the campaign and this is an issue that has doinggged her fo
mark you ve been delving into this as well as kelly. what do you see as the new hillary clinton approach? how different is this going to be? the last time she did start online she went out to early states but this is going to be a different kind of hillary campaign. i think one of the biggest differences we re going to see is an attitude on not taking anything for granted at all. andrea, you look back at one of the biggest fundamental mistakes, they wanted to ignore the caucus contest and said it s really where the primaries matter and didn t realize there were a lot of delegates you could cap by winning caucus contests and then able to rack up tons of delegates and ended up having more on super tuesday because he paid more attention to the caucus contest. the vibe you re getting from clinton world, they want to take everything seriously. they are not going to let their guard down. have the perception that they