deliberative, stealth, careful, he chooses his words so carefully. he s conciliatory. for donald trump you ve got a, you know, we re going to bomb the hell out of him type of attitude. it s seven years of a guy who talks and talk and talks very mildly and doesn t do anything. donald trump was begat by barack obama. glass you are here. thank you. thank you. yes, something of a bit of a anna navarro and jeffrey lord. an what has been critical of donald trump for most of this campaign so they came together, took some of the heat out of the discussions they ve had in the past. so maybe that s a sign of things to come. we will have a lot more from las vegas as we continue to look ahead to the republican debate on tuesday. it will be right here on cnn. but first, there s no doubt each candidate, john, will have
reporter: a campaign like no other with a front-runner like no other, a new poll like no other. for the first time donald trump breaks 40% in a national poll for month mouth university. 27 points ahead of his closest rival. it is also the first poll taken since this controversial proposal. donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shut down of muslims entering the united states. reporter: a notion that will be tested in the last republican debate of the year. the first debate since the terror attacks in paris and san bernardino. how crazy are we allowing ourselves to be subject to this kind of terror? reporter: trump finds himself center take at the cnn debate with the new next door neighbor, ted cruz who surged into second place in national polling and is running out in front or close in iowa. god bless the great state of iowa. reporter: until now, trump and cruz have remained friendly
reporter: cruz also has a history of making jarring remarks. once saying that accepteding obamacare was akin to apiecing the nazis during world war ii. we saw in britain, chamberlain who told the british people accept the nazis and in america there were troyse voices that listened to that. reporter: and taking a flip approach to a question about contracepti contraception. last i checked we don t have a rubber shortage in america. reporter: neither of these candidates are strangers to sparring with their republican establishment. but tonight at a campaign event in las vegas it was clear that donald trump had no interest in sparring with ted cruz. he pointed out he s far ahead in nationwide polls. he called ted cruz a good guy. sara murray, cnn, las vegas, nevada. let s head back to isha in los angeles. one thing about this debate coming up, interesting to see if that bromance which has been going on between donald trump
calling him weak on national security. each time he s had to choose between strong national defense and some of the isolationist tendencies in american politics. john berman, cnn, las vegas. throughout this gop primary there has been lot of talk about a civil war within the republican party, the insiders versus the outsiders. donald trump versus pretty much everybody else. for more on that i m joined by two cnn political comment rate ta taters. jeffrey, who is i think it s fair to say is a donald trump supporter. what about the civil war? will we see that play out tomorrow night on the debate stage? there are different faction tons republican party. and wide spectrum on a number of issues, whether it s national supreme court by. whether it s foreign policy. it runs the gamut of where republicans stand right now. one of the big challenges that
reporter: donald trump still on top but tonight a new pecking order in the republican race. a new lineup on the debate stage. ted cruz suddenly gaining ground nationally and in the key state of iowa. even overtaking trump by 10 percentage points. the front-runners will be standing next to each other tonight night. the first time they ve come face to face since the personal attacks started. trump giving cnn state of the union a preview. because i m more capable. because i have a much better temperament. because i actually get along with people much better than he does. reporter: he took it one step further on fox news sunday. when you look at the way he s dealt with the senate where he goes in there like, frankly, like a little bit of a maniac, you re never going to get things done that way. reporter: that generated a most unusual response from cruz, responding on twitter with a 1980s flashback to flash dance. in honor of my friend donald trump and good hearted maniacs every