good afternoon, everybody. i m martha maccallum. the story is here in new hampshire. just a few hours from the polls closing in the first in the nation primary. it s an exciting day here. i have to tell you. donald trump looking for a decisive night here in new hampshire. will he get it? former governor, nikki haley looking to pull it off. she s looking to pull it off with the undeclared voters. i m voting for nikki haley. nikki haley. we need fresh blood in our government. can i ask you, if you re undeclared, republicans, registered? undeclared. undeclared. martha: interesting, right? so lara trump is here with her take from the trump camp. she will be us with just a moment. pete hegseth, brit hume, kellyanne conway are here with us. first to bill hemmer at the billboard we call it here in the granite state. need more than an hour. all of those talkers. martha: tell us what we need to know. we re going to unveil for this for you. we re about five hours
this is it, the official kickoff for the 2024 battle for the white house, and one state has the first shot at shaping the race. it s decision time in the bitter cold heartland. iowa has a huge, huge role to play here. this starts here. there is no way iowa is voting against trump. the first votes in a presidential contest that is testing american democracy in extraordinary ways. are you ready? will the former president and unprecedented legal peril get one step closer to a white house comeback? 2024 is our final battle. it s iowa s choice. tonight, after months of anticipation, the republican race gets real. donald trump aiming to drive home his dominance over his gop rivals. we got to be sure that we put this thing away. ron desantis and nikki haley. our best days are yet to come. engaging in a heated showdown to be the top alternative to trump. nikki haley is running on her donors issues. i m the only one running on your issues. he is going to
welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. happy friday, everybody. i m christine romans. we begin at the far north end of the texas panhandle. tornado on the ground. national weather service confirming a tornado strike in perr perryton texas. the fire chief confirming at least three deaths and damage to at least 200 homes. there were collapsed lungs, head injuries and broken bones. cleanup is already under way. congressman ronny jackson is asking people in the area to help any way they can. want to bring in derek van dam in the cnn weather center. this was just one of seven tornados reported thursday along with nearly 200 storms. are we looking at anything like this for today? up fortunately we have another active day ahead of us. the tornados in texas absolutely devastating to see. let s focus on the more immediate threat, what is happening now. we have severe thunderstorm watches stretching from texas through louisiana and the gulf coast. there
the strength to win. martha: so he s on the ground in crucial battlegrounds next week. iowa, new hampshire and south carolina. we have all the angles covered this hour. lara trump is here and chris coons is here, the national co chain for president biden s campaign and a panel of gop voters to respond. first, our presidential politics panel up top for their fresh reaction to this. salina, columnist from the washington examiner and mike huckabee, former presidential candidate and ken cuccinelli, a former dhs official under trump but now he s the founder of the never back down pac supporting ron desantis. so ken, let s start with you. a lot of reaction today. a couple of different ways that people are looking at this. some are saying it was a missed opportunity and a glitch. others saying they re impressed by the number of people trying to get on to twitter. do you wish you did this differently? in the super pac, we don t get to describe that. the breaking of twitter, as
get this, 240 of those were minors. some as young as 12 years old. researchers highlighted improvements two took their own life and eleven considered suicide. this was a tax payer funded study. it was widely embraced this improved their mental health. republicans in the house and senate express grave concerns and demand answers writing this in a letter to the nih. rather than shutting the research down. researchers published saying the study was a success. the law makers are also questioning the so called success. the experiment had no control group. why wouldn t it have that? that s par for the course for an experiment. law makers say four of researchers involved were out outspoken advocates. north carolina senator is accusing nih for acting on political motivations. the attacks payer expense. 240 of them were minors at young as 12 years old. we think this is absolutely tragic. first of all taxpayer expense. second at the expense of minors. researchers are justifying ane