foreign policy. it wasn t just the intelligence vote. he talks tough on some of these issues. for example, he s going to carpet bomb isis, but the only budget he s ever voted for in his time in the senate is a budget that cut defense spending, by more than barack obama poses we cut it. some of the isolationist policies, he seems to side with the isolationists. reporter: and chris christie will be back on the prime time debate stage tomorrow night having been relegated to the second tier in the last one. rand paul was in danger of that fate, but the organizers changed the rules to count local polls in iowa, new hampshire and south carolina and let him in as having raised over 3.5% of the vote here. for ted cruz not only is it the last debate of the year, it s the last debate of the holidays and now a sprint 5 days from now. in depth tonight on ted
to be front and center at tonight s republican presidential debate. joining me now to break down other issues to watch for at the showdown in las vegas, host and correspondent steve kornacki. steve? kate, obviously, we can expect national security as you say to be a major issue, major point of emphasis tonight, but also, the question is, how are the candidates going to use that issue and others to draw contrast, try to draw distinctions with each other? we thought we d give you a guide do a few things the look for. so on that issue of national security, one of the dynamics to look for this this debate tonight is between rubio and cruz. marco rubio in the campaign has tried to carve out the turf as far right as he can get and finds himself in competition with ted cruz and lately on the campaign trail been attacking ted cruz as too weak on national security. so here s a taste of what rubio s been saying about cruz and what to expect him to say tonight. on the case of senator cruz, my
basically the phone bill, not the content of your conversations, your e-mails, anything like, that just your phone bill. only 16 people in the u.s. government could look at it and only if they got a court order from a fisa court to look at those phone records. and they retain them for a significant period of time. under this new law, we are trusting the phone companies to hold those records and all of these phone companies have different period of times when they hold it. some will hold it for 18 months, some six months. in is a valuable tool. if you have identified someone as a potential terrorist or someone who carries out a terrorist activity, the ability to look at who they ve been calling and talking to is part of a larger puzzle that you can put together to see what network they ve been working with, who they ve been communicating with. we have lost that capacity in many cases. is this a commander-in-chief test for senator cruz? i believe it is for all the candidates. in the
to be president. why not? because i don t think he has the right temperament. i don t think he s got the right judgment. what s wrong with his temperament? look at the way he s dealt with the senate going in there like a frankly, like a little bit of a maniac. never going to get things done that way. trump is just the late toast take aim at cruz. here s marco rubio on meet the press criticizing cruz on the views of security. not just the intelligence vote. he talks tough on some of the issues, for example, carpet bomb isis, but the only budget he s ever voted for his time in the senate cut defense spending by more than barack obama proposing. each time he has to choose between strong national defense and the isolationist tend den sys, we seems to side with the
foreign policy. it wasn t just the intelligence vote. he talks tough on some of these issues. for example, he s going to carpet bomb isis, but the only budget he s ever voted for in his time in the senate is a budget that cut defense spending, by more than barack obama poses we cut it. some of the isolationist policies, he seems to side with the isolationists. reporter: and chris christie will be back on the prime time debate stage tomorrow night having been relegated to the second tier in the last one. rand paul was in danger of that fate, but the organizers changed the rules to count local polls in iowa, new hampshire and south carolina and let him in as having raised over 3.5% of the vote here. for ted cruz not only is it the last debate of the year, it s the last debate of the holidays and now a sprint 5 days from now. in depth tonight on ted