des moines, iowa. this is the story this hour. former president trump just held a news conference in new york city. the closing arguments on the other side of this equation are still underway in this fraud trial. the former president saying again today that he s innocent. he s done nothing wrong. watch. so they have no case. it s a shame that a thing like this is able to happen. businesses leave new york. martha: hunter biden on the other coast of the country, we re waiting for his arrival in court in los angeles on tax charges. one day after causing chaos on capitol hill when he showed up unexpectedly at his contempt of congress hearing as if he was open to testifying and speaking at the hearing except when he didn t like the way things were going, he stormed out. matt whitaker is standing by here in iowa where he s born and raised in iowa. let s go to nate foy, our correspondent covering the trump trials and he s in new york city on the latest developments in that today
julie: we re on the homestretch, folks. the kickoff for the republican presidential nominating calendar, the iowa caucuses just three days away. eyes are on the candidates but also on the weather there. another major snowstorm is expected today. polar vortex expected to bring insanely freezing temps on caucus day. the contenders are looking to sway voters there way and convince them to even show up. i m julie banderas in for harris today. let s get into it. a new poll of likely iowa caucus goers showing former nikki haley pulling ahead in a battle for second before chris christie left the race. former president trump meantime standing at 54% support. haley at 20. desantis 13. vivek ramaswamy and chris christie with six and 2% respectively when the poll asked who voters preferred with chrissy out of the race, his two points going right into the haley column. a wall street journal piece with the headline haley/desantis food fight validates trump debate. they hammer each oth
trump happen preso thes to be the leadingndb candidate to get the gop nomination and be on top inen s the primaries when it s all said and done, making him joe biden primars and main oppo. is that the man that s goingide, to be charging the president, the foreign press, the united states? statis that the justice departme that he controls? yes, the justice department der s specifically accusing trump of violating the espionage act. congress passed the espionage act right around a few years before world one. again the law was meant to target spies who might turn against unit warti states during wartime. now, joe biden s justice department is trying to argue that whichreally trump is a spy, whe is really absurd. now, the president said as much he a over the weekend.fi he addressed the indictment against him in public forst tir the first time. the baseless indictment of bye biden depar administration s weaponized department of injustictme will o down as among the most horrific
bret: let s all have town hall. vivek is going to be on this show little bit later. beers and town hall. thanks, jesse. bret: good evening, welcome to des moines iowa, i m bret baier. five days away from the first in the nation iowa caucuses. tonight at 9:00 p.m., we will hold the third of this week s candidate town hall meetings right here and our guest tonight on this stage former president donald trump. we ll have more on that in just a moment. but, we are following two major stories at this hour. hunter biden makes a surprise appearance at the congressional hearing today up on capitol hill on whether he should be charged with contempt of congress. but we begin with a late afternoon surprise. this one in the 2024 campaign. republican presidential candidate chris christie is suspending his campaign and is dropping out of this race. christie making that announcement just minutes ago. you saw it live on the five. congressional correspondent aishah hasnie is here in de
republicans are branding his surprise appearance as a p.r. stunt. peter doocy asked the white house about this moments ago. the last time he was on the hill he said the president was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say. i did say that, and what i m saying today. president biden does not help him with his business deals but does help him skirt congressional subpoenas. that is not even true. that is a jump tha incredibly john: this hour has seven days, and that s an old canadian television show, and that s the way it feels this afternoon. sandra: sandra smith in new york, america reports hour two. any moment now the house oversight hearing, wow, did it have some fireworks. it is expected to resume as the committee considers a resolution on whether to move forward with contempt proceedings for hunter, adding another headache for the president s son as he is expected to appear in a los angeles courtroom on tax charges tomorrow. john: let s go