he s been previewing the last four days about the potential confrontation there and how ted cruz reacts to it i think is going to be really interesting. i think it will dictate a lot of what happens in the debate. can he come across as authentic and funny when you know trump is going to be funny and always has a good way of engaging opponents. in national security context i think marco rubio at this point has proven the most versatile on the stage. clearly has a lot of depth to it and probably wants to get into the details of that throughout. the problem that i see on this stage tonight and what makes this debate so significant is that as you see all of the different republican candidates try to match and actually outdo trump with rhetoric. in fact marco rubio wants to not only close mosques. he wants to close caves and diners now. we ve seen now in three national polls this week is totally out of touch with mainstream
event. athena jones, thanks so much. so the stage is set, the anticipation building. donald trump ready to rumble. and maybe he ought to be. ted cruz questions his judgment. marco rubio says he s not qualified to be president. and my guests join me. welcome both of you. thank you. so trump launched a preemptive strike by citing his poll numbers. but i don t see ted cruz eager for a fight with trump. do you kaylee? no i don t. ted cruz has played this so wisely. look at all of the candidates who are have been on trump s heels and me smacked them all down very successfully. and they all to some degree fought back. and donald trump is going to have a very hard time attacking
closest competition ted cruz at 15%. marco rubio and ben carson are tied for third. the lead also comes after trump s anti muslim rhetoric. he gained six percentage points between october and november. the picture isn t so rosie for donald trump though. with me now is director of the . donald trump has 38% support. dig a little deeper and there are problems, for example. 69% national say they would feel anxious if trump were elected president while 29% would feel comfortable. one of the things we ve been seeing with donald trump throughout can campaign is he s been leading in polls but also among republicans as the candidate they would be least likely to vote for under any
rhetoric on muslims. they have already gone on the record that trump has been unhinged on this policy. and in many cases they are viewing it as unconstitutional. so i believe you could see a bit of these other candidates piling on trump. the problem is when you are looking at these poll number, republican, is close to 59% support this man. so this is going to be an interesting and important conversation to have this evening. because obviously it is a very divisive policy nationally. although for the most part you are talking that over majority of republicans support it. let me just run this by you. mercedes mentioned that washington post answer news poll. 60% agree with trump s ban on muslims. so wouldn t it be dicey for other candidates to come out strongly against that ban even though they may even though they may not support the ban? carol, no doubt about it.
commands support from 38% of the gp leading voters. ted cruz has serged to second nearly doubling his numbers from last month. trump says make no mistake, everybody is gunning him. they are all coming after me. this is like crazy. who s going to attack trump first? will it be this one? you know he s taken down seven so far. you know if you look, so far everyone with s attacked me has gone down the tubes so that s good. s all right let s take you center stage and show you around the venue for tonight. athena jones is in vegas. good morning carol. just a few hours from now nine candidates will take the stage for the last gop showdown of the year. you can see donald trump will be here at center stage. he ll be flanked by ben carson and ted cruz. and cnn east wolf blitzer will be standing here at the