the republican party, former president trump took a break from courtum appearances to tak questions in a fox news town hall. in this n town hall he said absolutely nothing new. it was the same lies, same talking points, and essentially a rally with questions. let s be very clear, folks, the only normal aspect of tonight s debate was the presence of podiums. the candidates took the stage just after vocal trump critic, former new jersey governor chris christie suspended his campaign refusing to endorse any of his former opponents. in a normal world a re-election losing 91 felony counts facic, twice impeached front-runner who didn t show up to debate at anything would be a prime candidate prime target for any candidate hoping to take the lead, right? that s in normal times. but desantis and haley declined to focus on the elephant not in the room. instead they saved their most ruthless barbs for each other. we need to stand up for the people and not bow down to woke corporati
on that list. and voters in this notoriously independent state tell me they are just waiting for her to prove that she can do it. so can she? if you add chris christie s support to hers here in new hampshire, the math is close. we have the narrow paths you could follow out of the granite state with the atlantic s mark leibovich, but before she goes anywhere, she s got to make it through tonight s caucus where it is 0 degrees and getting colder. joining us now from des moines, iowa, is nbc news correspondent ali vitali, staff writer at the atlantic and msnbc political contributor, mark leibovich, and here on set with me is nbc news correspondent shaquille brewster. ali, i m so happy to see you inside on this very very cold day. tell me what nikki haley is doing in the last moments before this caucus tonight? she s making the rounds still, katy. on the campaign trail circuit. specifically in the area that sort of makes a doughnut around des moines. and that s because her focu
anyway, great to see you my friend. take care. good evening to you, and welcome to ayman tonight. debunking donald trump, his lies, and false equivalency s about the documents case. they have reached some insane levels. we re gonna help set the record straight. then, ethics outrage, new reporting on clarence thomas s problematic patterns of behavior. and a possible breakthrough in a senate committee s attempts to get answers. plus, democratic pushback. representatives judy chu, and ted lieu, shut down republican defenses of trump s actions. they re gonna join me live to talk about that and more. i m ayman mohyeldin, in new york, let s get started. tonight, we begin with a new move from the justice department and it s classified documents case against donald trump. in a motion filed late yesterday, special counsel jack smith requested a protective order that would bore trump and his legal team from publicly discussing sensitive material obtained during the trial s discovery pr
simone sanders-townsend, joined by my coherence, alicia menendez and michael steele. the clock just struck midnight a couple of hours ago. three republican candidates made their case why they should be the republican party s nominee in the 2024 presidential election. former south carolina governor nikki haley and florida governor ron desantis sparred in a debate hedrick university in des moines. meanwhile, the front runner of the republican party, former president donald trump, took a break from court appearances to take questions in a fox news town hall. in this town hall, he said absolutely nothing new. it was the same lies, same talking points and essentially a rally with questions. let me be clear, folks, the only normal aspect of tonight s debate was the presence of podiums. the candidates took the stage just after vocal trump critic, former new jersey governor chris christie, suspended his campaign, refusing to endorse any of his former opponents. in a normal world, a r
plus, democratic pushback. representatives judy chu, and ted lieu, shut down republican defenses of trump s actions. they re gonna join me live to talk about that and more. i m ayman mohyeldin, in new york, let s get started. tonight, we begin with a new move in the justice and it s classified documents case against donald trump in a motion filed yesterday at a detective order. this bar is trump s legal team from discussing sensitive material from the discovery process. the evidence includes information pertaining to ongoing investigations and warns that its disclosure could quote, compromise those investigations and identify uncharged individuals. smith s request for trump silence comes as no surprise, considering the fact that the ex president hasn t exactly kept a low profile post arraignment. just hours after he left the courthouse on tuesday, trump blasted the indictment as corrupt and cassatt as a part of a political pursuit designed to destroy him. really stands in