this is ridiculous. please do me a favor. let me win iowa. i refuse to say get your asses in gear. i will not say that. now, if i lose iowa, i will lever speak to you people again. oh, let s go to boulder, colorado, where debate preps are under way. with me is cnn political director and m.j. lee cc politics reporter. david, you re wondering what a second place trump would look like. now we know. my question to you is, how far is he going to go tonight on that stage? reporter: well, listen, obviously being on stage with the other candidates is different than being in front of all your supporters. i mean, that was an unbelievable approach last night that he gave, sort of begging people to get with the program and get his poll numbers up. but he clearly is coming into this debate very differently than he went into the last two, brook. so i do think we re going to see a different calculus on his part. he also thinks the economy, that being the central issue of this deba debate, is his
i m sure he wants to draw sharp contrast with his closest competitor, the guy now in number one, ben carson. how, m.j., i know you just published an article on cnn talking about how he will be forced to change his tactics in the debate, trump. how do you think he ll do it? reporter: well, i mean, the question is, can donald trump handle being not in first place anymore, as david just said? i think the question also is, is he going to take on ben carson in a way that he hasn t in the past debates? trump has really enjoyed going after some of the other candida4) éju+$u)s& be on stage tonight, jeb bush, marco rube crow. but has really steered clear of ben carson whose personality is ûvex yo get from donald trump. trump has gone there. he has raised questions about ben carson s religion. he has said that ben carson is too low energy to be commander in chief. this is something that i think we might start to see tonight. although i would point out, brooke, this isn t a no-risk
brooke, also this is coming right in the middle of a very heated republican presidential campaign. swre a debate tonight. these things are linked, tied together. so the fortunes of the republicans winning the white house are connected to this vote. so a new moment. we ll see if it s the same old day for republicans here in washington. matt lewis of the daily caller is still with me. how do we know it s not the same old day to jeff zeleny s point. when will we know? what will be the litmus test, i suppose, whether or not congressman soon to be speaker ryan will be able to corral that massive spectrum that make up the republicans there in the u.s. house of representatives? reporter: well, i think we ll know in short order. look, something paul ryan said in that very brief statement that i think is important, he talked about being an alternati alternative. that s different than being an opposition party. he wants to be an alternative. that means paul ryan wants to put forward a cons
we re expecting to hear from him shortly, brooke. i am sure there is a position ready to role. we ll take it. obviously we ll hear from the now speaker of the house. lit me just ask you this. do you have any color from behind the scenes or what s been happening there today? reporter: sure. a lot of members i was struck by, brooke, bringing their families in. young children were in the room when the voting was going on. paul ryan is a very popular member of the house of representatives, really on both sides of the aisle. republican and democrat. of course he came into the national spotlight when he was mitt romney s running mate in 2012. he was the vice presidential candidate. consequent consequently, the only person who s been 0 on a presidential ticket to serve as speaker of the house. the color of the room as we talk to people going into the room, they say they are ready to try to show they can govern. they say they want to show that they can be functional. the first test really
understand that the alternative, of course, is to see an opportunity for democrats to try to demagogue or divide the process. so i think that you ll see republicans come together. it won t certainly be a unanimous vote, but i think he will prevail handily tomorrow. reporter: but paul ryan said he would only do this job if he had the support of the full republican conference. do you think he actually has that? i do. i think that we all understand the moment in this country. we understand that we have a president that holds himself unconstrained to the strugs to the truth of his own words and we have been stalemated here primarily by democrats in the senate that won t allow bills to come to the floor in the senate. the house has passed almost every bill that the republican base wanted us to pass only to see it not even debated in the senate. that s the reason for the dissention in this house and consequently we need a communicator like paul ryan that can properly delineate that to th