looked in the first 77 days of his presidency. and of course the two big issues that are on the table are the economy and national security. but the national security focus, the president actually said earlier when he was flying down here to florida on thursday afternoon, he said, look, we need to talk about north korea. so the north korea threat there is front and center on this agenda at this meeting later today here. but the whole, you know, backdrop cloud of syria over that certainly is interesting. because, don, it s important to put in context. i mean this has just happened in the course of really 48 hours or se. it was really less than three days ago when the president said that s not our fight in syria. and thursday he addressed the nation and said, look, this is national vital interest. everything we gleaned from this that he was moved by those pictures and he indeed thought
obviously, this highlights the concerns over national security right now that are pervasive in this country. that will be the focus here in las vegas tonight at the final republican debate of 2015. a brand-new national poll shows donald trump with his biggest lead yet in this race. he is at 38% in the abc news/washington post poll. ted cruz way, way back at 15%. that s nearly double his number from last month. an important note as the candidates prepare for this national security focus debate tonight, this was a poll conducted after the terror attack in san bernardino and also after donald trump laid out his controversial proposal to ban all muslims from entering the united states. let s get much more on what the polls could mean tonight. let s bring in cnn national political reporter maeve reston for much more on this. you see the polls, donald trump still holding, continuing to dominate the field. but this is a very different looking field than even the last debate. cruz surging he
second choice it was ted cruz and a lot of them want a trump/cruz or a cruz/trump ticket. and that was not the case a month or two ago. there was not that buzz so cruz is gaining mind share among republican primary voters. carson is losing it i think partly because of the questions about his foreign policy acumen and the events overseas. people don t see him as tough enough. they like he s a healer. they like he s a uniter but he doesn t have that machismo that trump has. tomorrow, bulk data collection of the nsa ends. it totally ends. it s totally changed. ted cruz is on one side of the issue, marco rubio on the other. marco rubio supporters, the super pac, 501(c)(4) have hit cruz on this. is cruz vulnerable? yes, he is. and the debate on the 15th in which i m a panelist, that will come up. if i have any hope to turn that towards a national security focus, that s a major deal. the french were not able to follow up, with the best
or nothing but if they had a second choice it was ted cruz and a lot of them want a trump/cruz or a cruz/trump ticket. and that was not the case a month or two ago. there was not that buzz so cruz is gaining mind share among republican primary voters. carson is losing it i think partly because of the questions about his foreign policy acumen and the events overseas. people don t see him as tough enough. they like he s a healer. they like he s a uniter but he doesn t have that machismo that trump has. tomorrow, bulk data collection of the nsa ends. it totally ends. it s totally changed. ted cruz is on one side of the issue, marco rubio on the other. marco rubio supporters, the super pac, 501(c)(4) have hit cruz on this. is cruz vulnerable? yes, he is. and the debate on the 15th in which i m a panelist, that will come up. if i have any hope to turn that towards a national security focus, that s a major deal. the french were not able to follow up, with the best
month or two ago. there was not that buzz so cruz is gaining mind share among republican primary voters. carson is losing it i think partly because of the questions about his foreign policy acumen and the events overseas. people don t see him as tough enough. they like he s a healer. they like he s a uniter but he doesn t have that machismo that trump has. and that cruz has to some extent. tomorrow, bulk data collection of the nsa ends. it totally ends. it s totally changed. ted cruz is on one side of the issue, marco rubio on the other. marco rubio supporters, the super pac, 501(c)(4) have hit cruz on this. is cruz vulnerable? yes, he is. and the debate on the 15th in which i m a panelist, that will come up. if i have any hope to turn that towards a national security focus, that is a major deal. the french were not able to follow up, with the best homeland security in europe, were not able to follow the terrorists who attacked paris and the collection of metadata will matter.