Now. Welcome to the lead. Im john berman in for jake tapper today. We are live at the Ronald Reagan president ial library in simi valley, california. We are a tick under 22 hours now from the big show, the cnn debate, the one debate to rule them all, this could reset the 2016 race. The message today for all the republican contenders walking the political wire goes Something Like this. You come at the king, you best not miss. Because so far everyone who has come at donald trump has missed and seen their fortunes flounder. A new abc news the Washington Post poll puts donald trump well out on top in the republican field. And those candidates brave enough to go blowtoblow with the queens native, voters treating them like hot garbage. Jeb bush with his worst showing yet. Hes at 8 . Scott walker at 2 . And rick perry, the longest serving governor in Texas History who thumped trump as a cancer on conservative. In the ruckus rumble for the republican nomination, there is donald trump and then there is everyone else. Donald trump reporter a new abc news the Washington Post poll shows trump with a healthy 13point lead over dr. Ben carson. But carson has a healthy lead over the rest of them. Less healthy, jeb bush, polling peek id down at 8 . Tough going into wednesdays cnn debate where critics say a Strong Performance is crucial after they consider a lackluster job in the first debate. Maybe the bars even higher for me. Thats fine. Its not just good news in the National Polls for trump, but New Hampshire too. The latest Monmouth University poll gives him an 11point edge there with carson gaining ground in second. Trump will bring his polls and hump to dallas tonight, a rally just two days before the big debate. Its not all rosy for trump. One poll shows 70 of latinos find trump insulting or offensive. And 65 say hes hurting the gops image. Trump recently told cnn he is actually on his best behavior. Im trying to be nice. Reporter but Carly Fiorinas backers beg to differ. Her super pac released this Campaign Video after trump criticized fiorinas face to rolling stone. This is the face of the 61yearold woman i am proud of every year and every wrinkle. This is everything thats wrong. Reporter Trumps Campaign manager told me the problem in politics is not criticizing a womans face, but a video defending that face. Its wrong for a group to say, hey, were women, look at our faces. We support Carly Fiorina. Its not the message im talking about. Its the fact these super pacs are out there, they have huge amounts of money being funneled into them so they can go out and attack candidates or give any message they want. Reporter dont expect any apology from donald trump, not based on what he told jimmy fallon. When you were little donny trump, did you ever apologize . This was not supposed to be the question. I will apologize some time hopefully in the distant future if im ever wrong. So one race has been settled today, the Celebrity Apprentice primary. Nbc announced celebrity turned politician turned celebrity, arnold schwarzenegger, he will take over as host of Celebrity Apprentice. No hard feelings from donald trump who tweeted a congratulations note saying hell be great. So on to the actual president ial race. I want to turn to the man running right behind donald trump in the polls. Joining me right now from washington, d. C. , republican president ial candidate dr. Ben carson. Dr. Carson, thank you so much for being with us today. And i say this half in jest based on what donald trump said. But hows your energy . Actually, i feel pretty good. No problems. I bet you feel pretty good. All alone at number two in the polls right now. Pretty much very far ahead of the rest of the field besides donald trump. The same poll that shows you running second right now, it says americans believe that politicians cannot be trusted. Why should Americans Trust you . Well, i would say they should look at my life. Look at what ive devoted my life to. Taking care of people. Taking care of children. Trying to ensure their futures. You know, starting scholarship programs, being out in the community and helping people. Thats what im about. And thats the reason that, you know, ive accepted this challenge. So donald trump said over the weekend that everybody who attacks me is doomed. In this debate here at the Reagan Library you will be standing right next to him. What are your intentions at this debate toward donald trump . Well, my intentions are to talk about my programs, the things that i would like to try to do in conjunction with my fellow americans to get america back on the right track. Im not particularly interested in any person particularly attacking them. I think we have much Better Things to do than that. So you actually apologized over the weekend for comments you made about Donald Trumps faith. You said you didnt know if he had the same types of convictions you did. Im wondering why you made that apology, especially given that thats a subject that does matter to some voters in some places especially with a place like iowa with a large evangelical voting base . Because it wasnt meant as an attack. I was primarily talking about me and whats important to me and there were those who took it and revved it into a big deal. And obviously it was interpreted that way after mr. Trump heard it. But that simply wasnt my intention. So thats why. Do you think a candidates Faith Matters . Do you think voters should look at candidates and wonder how strong is their faith, how true it is . Well, everybody operates on the basis of faith. It may not be faith in god. It may be faith in themselves or some other entity. But there is no one whose demeanor and relationships with others is not dictated by their faith. You said you disagree with donald trump on immigration policy. You questioned his notion that you could go roundup 11 millionplus undocumented immigrants. Is there another policy area where you differ from donald trump . I think thats the primary area. And were probably not actually that far away even on that issue because the key thing is you have to seal the border. And almost nothing else after that matters. If you can get that border sealed, and we have the ability to do that, but as a nation we dont have the will to do it. And that can be changed pretty quickly. And a lot of things will get better at that point. You know, he suggested that he wants to get some money from the Hedge Fund Guys in terms of taxation. Would you be in favor of changing the rules so hedge fund managerstaxes . Well, im in favor of a taxation system that is fair for everybody. So thats why i like a proportional system. I want to get rid of deductions, loopholes, the irs, all the things that really make it into a very complex situation. And make it very easy. I want to create a situation that encourages entrepreneurial risk taking and capital investment. So, dr. Carson, you indicated that heading into the first debate you had some jitters. Ive been on the debate stage here. And the audience is going to be just a few feet away from where youre standing. Youre going to be standing right in front of the plane that Ronald Reagan use as air force one. Any nerves heading into this event wednesday night . I dont think so. You know, ive spoken there in that venue fore. And its actually a very comfortable place with good acoustics. And you feel right there with the audience. You dont feel removed from them. I think it will be very pleasant. Its a great venue. Its a beautiful setting. So, dr. Carson, on the campaign trail in iowa recently you praised italy for having the courage to raise the retirement age for their version of Social Security and to cut Retirement Benefits by 40 . Do you favor doing the same thing to Social Security in the United States . I think the solutions here might be different because problems are a little bit different. But the key in italy was on the same trajectory as greece heading off the fiscal cliff. And they had the courage to make some changes. They had a large fiscal gap. And now theyve set themselves on the pathway to longterm prosperity. Greece has not. In the longer one waits to correct that kind of situation the more draconian measures have to be. We also have an extremely large fiscal gap which is getting larger. And unless we begin to react to it soon, we will be in a great deal of trouble. Does that require the courage as you say then to raise the retirement age . It requires the courage to do what is better for us now. One of the things that will be necessary is gradually raising the retirement age for people who are under the age of 55. But were looking at a number of different ways obviously to save Social Security right now scheduled to run out of money in 2033. We really dont want that to happen. What about cutting benefits for people with big incomes . Guys like just for instance donald trump . I would love for people to voluntarily opt out of it. That would be very nice indeed. Voluntarily opt out . Or should there be means testing . Should you say after 500,000 of income you shouldnt get Social Security . If people have earned something, im a little reticent to just take it from them. I would prefer that they would as a contribution to their nation if they really dont need it, make a sacrifice for someone else. I think theres plenty of precedence for that type of attitude in america. Are you giving back . Are you willing to give back right now . Your Social Security benefits that youll earn and will you call on the other members of this president ial field to donate back their Social Security wages . Not only would i be delighted to give it back, but for many, many years i have been giving a lot of money trying to better our country, trying to give scholarships to children, putting in reading rooms, trying to change the trajectory of their lives. And i will continue to do that. And you are wellknown for helping a lot of kids and your work in that area. I want to talk about the syrian refugee crisis right now. You are a man of faith, a man of faith pope francis has called on people around the world particularly in europe to open their hearts, and in some cases open their homes. Do you think that the United States needs to be willing to let more of these refugees into this country . I believe we should encourage the various countries in that region. You know, turkey, the arabian peninsula, to take those refugees in. And we should be willing to perhaps help them financially and with some expertise. But the fact of the matter is we dont know who those people are. And the majority of them are young males. And they could easily be people who are being infiltrated by terrorists and recognize that once you bring them in then youve got to bring other members of the family in. So youre multiplying that number substantially. We this is not something that we can necessarily afford to do in terms of exposing our population to that kind of risk right now. Doesnt charity require though some kind of assistance . And isnt there some kind of screening policy in place where you could do background checks and make sure they arent some kind of threat . Ive seen pictures of a lot of families, a lot of kids, a lot of women and a lot of young men who just want a better life. Well, how did that screening process work for the tsarnaev brothers . Not so well, did it . That was 2002. Doesnt matter when it is. We have the same screening process now. But they became radicalized in the United States. Unless we improved it very, very substantially to the point where we could virtually guarantee that we were not importing terrorists, it seems to me like an inappropriate thing to do at this stage. When in fact it was 11 years. When we have countries over there who are refusing to take in refugees. It doesnt make any sense to me that we should have to do it and theyre not taking in refugees from their own area. Why should we have to do it . Well, i think the idea would be we do it in conjunction with perhaps a consultation with these other countries would be some sort of Global Worldwide effort. And just to the tsarnaev thing, they came to the country in 2002, it was 11 years after that were the horrible Boston Marathon attacks. I am from boston, but by all accounts they became radicalized in the United States. Should there be processes for people already here . Well, the point being we dont have a very good way to screen people who may have a proclivity for the development of radicalization. So why do we want to expose our population to that if we dont have to . And when we can encourage and support others in doing that, which is more appropriate. That proclivity, just to finish up, is that proclivity just being a muslim . I think that proclivity has to do with something that should be studied in more detail. My point is we need to be very, very careful. We need to understand these things very significantly before we begin bringing in people. I will tell you that if i was isis, i were the global jihadist and i knew the United States was about to take in 10,000 or 65,000 or 100,000 people from my region, i would infiltrate them with my people. Dr. Ben carson, thank you so much for being with us. I wish you luck here wednesday night. I know youve been here before. It is such a beautiful setting. And it looks great right now. Thank you. Good to see you, sir. So as the republican candidates study and they practice and they look forward to wednesday nights debate, new numbers seem to further prove that theres been a Momentum Shift on the democratic side. Hillary clinton losing her grip on the solid lead she once held. Is there anything she can do now to turn the tide . Thats next. Big day . Ah, the usual. Moved some new cars. Hauled a bunch of steel. Kept the supermarket shelves stocked. Made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. Whats up for the next shift . Ah, nothing much. Just keeping the lights on. laugh nice. Doing the big things that move an economy. See you tomorrow, mac. See you tomorrow, sam. Just another day at norfolk southern. Technology empowers us it pushes us to go further. Special olympics has almost five million athletes in 170 countries. The microsoft cloud allows us to immediately be able to access information, wherever we are. 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Official mortgage sponsor of the pga tour. Welcome back to the lead. We are back live from the Ronald Reagan president ial library in beautiful simi valley, california. We are counting down to the cnn Republican Debate. And theres new polling out today that reinforces the fact that newcomers are making the most noise and making the old guard sweat. Want to talk about that. Everything political, everything debate oriented with our political commentators, also here cnn anchor michael smir connish. Start with the i can make other references there. Look, donald trump and ben carson, the latest poll right now they have over 50 of the vote together. Anna navarro, you support jeb bush, youre friends with marco rubio. How can these guys sell themselves as outsiders in this environment . Theyve got to sell themselves as seasoned politicians who know the issues, who have the capability to lead, who have governed in the case of the governors, but they also have to acknowledge the message that is being sent, i think, through these polls. That people are sick of politics as usual. They need to prove that they will not be politics as usual. That it will not be more washington dysfunction. That they will be able to get things done in washington. And they have a hurdle to cross because i think theres a lot of cynicism and frustration in the american people. We see the polls, 9 , 10 approval for congress. Everybodys upset at things. So they got to get some optimism, but they got to acknowledge this and respond to it. Dan, youve worked elections before. If its a mad as hell election and im not going to take it anymore, how do these guys breakthrough . I think anas exactly right. They cannot sell themselves something theyre not. Jeb bush cannot be the outsider, john kasich cant be the outsider, but they have to acknowledge what theyre feeling and show how their record makes them the person best to enact the change they want. Everything said about jeb bush and marco rubio is true of hillary clinton. She has to understand what is driving the Bernie Sanders surge and see how she can incorporate that and respond to it in her campaign. So another outsider, michael, in this