and i think that jeb bush, it s one thing to be perceived as a moderate. you cannot be perceived as a moderate and a weakling. the other thing i ll say real quick, i think there s one thing to keep an eye on tonight that s really important, and that is that cnn is going to discourage people from cheering or applauding. and that is a very, very big difference from the fox news debate. if donald trump says something that s a zinger and it doesn t get an applause, it falls flat. that s a very good point. and actually, you answered a question i ve had in my head all day, wondering whether there would be audience participation. beth, i m going to give you the last question. and that is chris christie, this is a guy, as i ve said before, everyone thought was going to be the republican front-runner. he was the tell it like it is candidate. can he survive this debate without landing some kind of punch against donald trump or distinguishing himself from the
proposals, some i agree with, some i don t. you ve got two leading candidates on the republican side who have said that we should eliminate the carried interest loophole. so has trump actually pulled the gop to the left on the issue of tax reform? and do you think that he s made the party actually a little bit more populist overall? well, i don t think he s pulled the whole party to the left, and i think it s no accident that the first group or one of the first groups out of the box to attack trump is the club for growth whose main interest is in cutting taxes on the rich. i think he s caused the party real trouble on this issue, which is why the favorite person to quote on taxes among the democrats is going to be donald trump over the coming months. and there are few tax reform elements in jeb bush s program that otherwise cuts tax on the rich. but i think he speaks for a lot of working-class, lower middle-class republicans who never bought into the tax-cutting ideology in the sam
not the kids table but the big stage with 11 republicans who will be debating starting at 8:00 p.m. tonight, and it might end sometime today. we don t know. there s no end time. as we all know, the focus of the attention today is going to be donald trump. he is the front-runner and the real clear politics averages. he s at 30% in the polls. folks are going to be watching these two men here, ben carson who s been surging since his last debate performance in ohio last month. he is in the real clear politics averages at 20%. i should mention donald trump is at 27% and ben carson is at 23% in the new new york times /cbs news poll that came out yesterday. all eyes are also going to be on jeb bush. he is the personification of the establishment candidate, and he is way down. real clear politics averages has him polling averages has him at 7.8% support. the new york times poll has him at 6%. then when you look at new
preparing? joining us, our campaign inbeds, ali covers the trump campaign. alex jaffe covers the carson campaign. and jordan frazier who is following the bush campaign. thank you all three for joining us. ali, let s begin with you. it seems like donald trump has been uncharacteristically keeping a low profile today. what is he doing to prepare, if anything at all? donald trump has not really changed what he said in the first debate. he said he s been preparing for this his whole life. he does feel that same level of confidence. we talked to him in dallas, last night, and he said that he really does feel confident about it. there was some thought that maybe we would be seeing a more measured donald trump in an interview that was released earlier today with cbn. he said he was thinking about maybe tempering the way that he hits back at other candidates. but then again, he did also tweet about cnn just a little while ago. saying that they were, quote, milking the debate for almost three
jeb bush s super pac right to rise is out with a new hard-hitting ad disparaging donald trump and touting america s greatness. but there s one problem. politico notes that the stock footage used in the ad isn t from the united states. the american dream is dead. give me a break. my message will be an optimistic one. that beautiful meadow leading to a brighter path isn t from the american midwest or new england. it s from cornwall, england, and it s available for as little as $19 on shutter stock. even the part of his ad that declares america is great comes from outside america. those construction workers are actually from southeast asia. and rights to that stock video are sold for $35. a note of advice for right to rise, if you re going to make a