forgetting, a lot of democrats thought that was a low blow, castro going after biden on age. he might have punched himself out a little bit by going too hard after the former vice president. he s raising the money off that moment saying this is what it will take. this is the kind of fight he wants to bring to donald trump. we ll see when the next round of polling comings out whether or not it was effective. garrett haake, thank you so much. also when we get the numbers for how much money comes in, you can try to fundraise off of it. whether you get money is another thing. let s bring in former becoming spokesperson, cornell belcher, and president of brilliant corners research, also an msnbc political analyst and zarein nah m a maxwell, msnbc political analyst. we saw a kind of interesting thing with your old boss, barack obama last night. these candidates, at least some of them did kind of a 180, all
i think the obamacare worked. we all owe a huge debt to president trump who fundamentally transformed health care in america. what i favor is something that what barack obama wanted to do from the very beginning, and that is a public option. i want to give credit first to barack obama for really bringing us this far. of course, we owe a debt of gratitude to president barack obama. i m fulfilling the legacy of barack obama, and you re not. i stand with barack obama all eight years, good, bad and indifferent. that s where i stand. let s go right to msnbc road warrior garrett haake who is live in houston for us, probably on no sleep. big night, garrett. all of the top polling candidates on stage for the first time. what stood out to you? reporter: hey, chris. you did have the three front-runners largely turning in strong performances, well-received performances. joe biden not afraid to mix it up with the other candidates.
continue to be asked a number of times because he largely alone among the major candidates has said he can come out and he can somehow get republicans to be willing to work with democrats again on some of these major issues. he talks about the relationship he s had in the past with mitch mcconnell. he talks about this idea once donald trump is not the president, things might change and a lot of democrats i talked to just don t believe that. jonathan, what s the right answer? if you want to get the nomination, if you want to get elected, is it i can work with republicans or resist at all costs? i think the right answer is probably what most politicians do, which is to say both things and try to target the message to different audiences at the same time. i don t think you can win saying you will never work with anybody and at the same time you have to try to increase your base and so that s what they all try to do. you can see them all do it. say both things and then let down one.
treated with respect because people don t respect him. the gloves are clearly off. were they ever on? president trump and democratic front-runner joe biden attacking one another at dueling appearances in iowa, all but ignoring the other 2020 democratic contenders. joining our conversation, nbc news white house correspondent peter alexander, msnbc road warrior garrett haake in iowa, and nbc news national political reporter, my friend, jonathan allen. garrett, how is the biden camp feeling this morning after that showdown in iowa? yes, stephanie, for the biden campaign it is the democratic primary right now, they proved they can get in donald trump s head the execution of a plan in which they laid out part of the speech early in the morning, 12 hours before the former vice president was set to give it. the president responded. the vice president and president went back and forth on this all day long and they were able to look much bigger, standing head