many undecided voter, and those questions start tonight in just about 20 minutes. jeff zeleny, thanks very much. join alyssa farah griffin, scott jennings, and van jones. how big a problem can nikki haley s comments actually be? listen, she is actually not wrong. as the saying goes, iowa picks corn and new hampshire picks presidents. it hasn t been since 2000 that the republican candidate who won iowa went on to win with george w. bush. so in that regard she is correct. you don t want to insult your voters ahead of it. but she has always been playing for number two in iowa. she is playing for number one in new hampshire. and tonight i would argue the 11 days ahead is make or break for ron desantis. there is not a path for him if he doesn t overtomorrow expectations in iowa. what does that mean overperform expectations? i would say it s hard to stay. he has to beat nikki haley. even so, the money, the resources and the momentum is
head, and adjusting ever so slightly according to her political needs. and now she s getting called on it. so, she s going to have to be very careful about this because everybody knows the record that van cites here and everything that she said during this campaign. i think she s trying to make inroads with women. that s a core demographic she has an issue with. i think the issue of gun violence and the fact they might be a victim of school shooting resonates with the suburban moms we talk about. i wonder if that might be something she realizes to reach a core constituency, there may need to be movement beyond just addressing the mental health concerns. one of the things i think nikki haley has done a good job on look at something like abortion she s able to convey empathy while she s taking a fairly conservative position often. tonight would be a good chance for her to do that when this comes up. can she show that she can be that empathizer in chief even if she s firm on her p
you ve got to work with law enforcement, not against law enforcement, and you need to identify those individuals who should not have access. i can t imagine anything changing on their minds tonight. not fundamentally. i m sure they ll offer condolences and sympathies. i think it s a moment to show humanity and have a solemn presence on this. i do think, especially as a pivot toward the general might come for one of these candidates, getting around one of the 80% issues, like supporting red flag laws, is a good place to be. supporting background checks is where they can ultimately come out. that s the crazy thing. even after the massacre in our own state at mother emmanuel, nikki haley comes out and says she s against red flag laws, against expanding background checks. one of the worst shootings, a shooting that changed the trajectory of her career, where she did a lot of things right, she wouldn t go for expanded
breaking through. i don t give trump tremendous credit. he s not a remarkable salesman in this regard. those running against him didn t litigate the case of why those were legitimate in the course. i think it s interesting he s chosen to spend the day before the iowa caucuses in the hearing in washington over whether he has immunity or not. i do feel he s going to spend a lot of the campaign campaigning from courthouse steps because of what van said. you can t discount the fact that so much of this was a strategic argument. he can t win. maybe it s because of the legal issues. maybe it s because of something else. what s happened? all these national polls have come out showing trump winning, winning in swing states, beating joe biden nationally. and they re still making it today. only trump s going to lose, trump s going to lose. the republican voters don t believe that. they think vindication s at hand. i want to thank everybody. the back-to-back town halls with ron desantis and