haley s poised to benefit e most from christie s absence in the race, with a vast majity of chrissy supporters, 65%, saying that haley is their second choice. notably, desantis is nobody second choice, when it comes to crazy supporters. make no mistake, trump has a commanding lead in the national polls. he remains the outright favorite for the republican nomination, but there are some factors that could work into kayleigh s favor that could give her a fighting chance as the race heads to her home state of south carolina in february. among those factors, lawsuits, criminal cases, outstanding constitutional questions, and erratic candidate with authoritarian tendencies who could end up in jail. a boost of momentum out of ottawa could help haley last long enough to be the candidate waiting in the wings, should something historic up and this race. joining me live from the ground in des moines, iowa, is nbc news correspondent, vaughn hillyard. also with us is henry cox, political columnist
you know, an upset. then we go to south carolina. and that s where she she was very, very popular there. she was. nice to see you again, my old. front thanks for joining us this morning, i appreciate. it ana marie cox is a columnist on the new republic. and receives von will be joining us again at the top of next hour. all right, coming up, you need to know the advice from counsel the head of the national constitution center, when the official start of the presidential contests in just two days away. the republican front runner is facing 91 criminal counts, claiming broad presidential immunity and there are looming questions about his eligibility to run for president. the singular jeff rosen joins me next to make sense of it all and to talk about his important new book, the pursuit of happiness, about how the famous phrase came to define the founding of this country. the u.s. has carried out another strike against iran -backed houthi rebels. now president biden is facing resi