moderate state and higher turn out so it is not just activists and here the more moderate candidates are doing better. trump is still leading but the more moderates are better. so rubio if you put the moderate more mainstream vote together they . the early states with the different electorates are the places to focus your attention. not the national polls. interesting. so might some in the republican party hope some of those lesser candidates will drop out so that support will coalesce around would have been those more mainstream candidates? yeah. i think that what we re seeing here in this campaign is a race somewhat like the 1996 primary, where republicans were quite unhappy and they didn t really like bob dole as their
take the initiative. that is what we need today. and both those candidates fit that bill. tonight is the first for the gop contenders since the paris and san bernardino terror attacks and comes about a week after trump called for a ban on muslims entering the u.s. the debate will keep national security at the forefront. the vast majority of people that are trying to come are people that we just don t have information on. this is a issue that you have to be right 100%. and marco rubio is another candidate to keep an eye on tonight. he s performed well in past debates and his team is hoping for another strong night tonight. their view going into tonight is why try to fix what isn t broken. when it comes to trump and cruz, the question isn t so much whether trump will try to hit cruz but whether and how cruz will hit back. and i should mention carol t security sweeps are just now beginning in and around this theater. so it is just one more sign we are getting closer to the main
keep america safe from terrorism. john berman reporting live for us. thanks much. donald trump will be center stage. his star billing the latest gift of his hefty poll numbers. today trump has even more to crow about. cnn s athena jones is also in los angeles. she has more on that. good morning. good morning, carol. you re talking about a new poll from abc news and the washington post. this is just the latest national poll to show trump with a big lead over his nearest rivals. i should mention this poll was conducted after he made that controversial proposal to ban all muslims from entering the u.s. if we put those numbers up on the screen, you can see trump in the lead there at 38%. 23 points over second place ted cruz. ben carson, marco rubio ditied 12%. these strong numbers nationally mean trump will be a target on this stage behind me tonight. he knows that. take a listen to him talking