she talked about oh, he mentioned and the whole thing playing up the women's card very, very strongly. if she's going to play that game and he's going to be out there campaigning, then he's certainly fair game. i think everybody agrees with me on that. this is a person who, you know, he's going to be out and i like the fact that he's campaigning for her. he failed in 2008. he failed really badly. he frankly did a very poor job at campaigning, if you want to know the truth. perhaps he'll do well or perhaps he'll do poorly. but if she's going to play the woman card, it's all fair game. >> joining us with reaction from "the new york times," charlie hurt and fox news ebony williams. >> there is some pushback on this trump offensive saying, look, what fault of it is hillary clinton that her husband cheated on her? but it goes much further than that because hillary was part of the political operation that went out of its way to attempt to smear and destroy the reputations of bill clinton's accusers? >> yeah. and to me, you know, that's the heart of this charge about sexism and stuff. the clintons, you know, are trying to accuse donald trump of being sexist because of the words he uses and things like that, but, of course, his record shows that he has a record of hiring women and putting them in powerful positions. and yeah, he does use some coarse language, language that shocks people but nothing like what bill clinton did to people that worked for him, young people that worked for him that weren't much older than his daughter. and, of course, as you mentioned, hillary clinton was -- her entire career as first lady before that was dedicated to covering for him, covering for this horrible behavior and doing everything she could to discredit the women, the very strong women who came forward despite the intense pressure not to, who came forward and said, hey, there's something wrong with this guy. this guy did this to me. she led the charge in destroying those people and their characters. >> eboni, what do you think? a smart play for trump? >> it's fair game certainly. in the law we saw when you introduce something into evidence it becomes fair game. you opened the door for it. the moment hillary clinton brought hillary clinton out on the campaign trail to bolster her, she can't rightfully benefit from the added component of bill clinton and not reap the consequence, too. trump's right about that. but it's interesting because bill clinton remains incredibly popular, incredibly bolstering of enthusiasm for much of the traditional democratic base. that's the thing that hillary clinton, despite her best efforts, still has not been able to tap into, that enthusiasm and that rigor. so i don't know if it's the best choice of trump's part to wake that sleeping giant. i said let hillary be effective, be boring, unstimulated by her base all by herself. >> i don't think she'll have much of a problem being boring on her own. part of the problem with bill clinton campaigning for her is you see this contrast between this really extraordinary, extraordinarily talented politician, the most natural skilled politician of his generation, and hillary who is just not that good at this. she's sort of a grind. and when bill is out there in 2008 working it hard for hillary clinton, none of his political skills transferred to her when she was trying very hard and ultimately unsuccessfully to beat a much more natural campaigner named barack obama. >> just as the extraordinary coalition and diverse coalition that barack obama has put together in 2008 in that sterling campaign and then kept together pretty well in 2012, just like that new coalition is going to be directly transferable to hillary clinton this year, nor is the extraordinary talents and gifts for politicking that president obama had. and as brilliant a politician as he was in 2008, there were a lot of stories back then about how she -- how he really in a lot of ways sabotaged her campaign in 2008 and people have wondered about it. and the single-best explanation i've ever heard given for why he would have done it is that he knew that if his wife became the first female president in history, that that would be such a big deal, the only thing that would be remembered about bill clinton would have been all of his antics in the white house and the blue dress and the monica lewinsky. >> do you think that's true, eboni? this is a scary thought. if hillary clinton becomes president she'll be on our currency one day. it will be a very big deal. bill clinton will just be remembered as this transitional figure. >> that's interesting. charlie makes an interesting point. i think that argument gives bill clinton too much credit, actually. what we saw in 2008 was the clintons both just totally missing the ball, miscalculating, some of the most key points of that demographic, that broad coalition that barack obama tapped into, i'm talking about people of color, i'm talking about college students and young people. they really took that demographic for granted. they had a very entitled attitude going after that and thinking that it was going to be rightfully theirs because it had been in the past. people didn't respond well to that. they saw backlash around t. people were accusing the clintons of kind of being racially insensitive and saying barack obama, you kind of stay in his place. it went very badly for them. a very bad political misstep more than i think a sabotage. >> charlie, let's take a look really quickly because we're talking about clinton and trump and rasmussen has a new poll that we'll get up on the screen about a perspective general election matchup between trump and clinton that is basically tied. to most political observers that would be shocking but not necessarily to you. >> well, no, because, i mean, the guy has really tapped into something and it's not just angry white people. it's a far larger, broader cross section of voters. i think that we might find that it could very well make up a lot of democrats and independents, but if indeed he is able to get these new voters to the polls the way barack obama did in 2008, it could be a real deal. going back to this, i totally agree with what eboni was just saying about that. that is obviously the reason that they totally whiffed it in 2008. but my point is the bill clinton of 1992 never would have misread that and made those grave mistakes that they made. >> i agree with that point. >> address that poll. >> yes. >> when you look at that poll, does that speak to clinton's weakness, trump's strength or both? >> i think it speaks to both. i'm not shocked by it at all, i agree with charlie. i think on the gop side, trump is probably best suited to run head-to-head with hillary clinton. i think he can have some cross-aisle appeal in a way that people who never voted for a republican in their life including my own mother will consider voting for donald trump because they believe that he understands the problem. that's kind of the first step here where we are now in today's society and political climate. they feel he's not been a part of these historical problems politically speaking. he's clearly a washington outsider. those problems don't surprise me. the left will be very, very afraid to run against trump head-to-head. >> i got about a minute left. who among the other candidates is the most serious threat to donald trump at the moment in your estimation? >> obviously, ted cruz in iowa, you know, could possibly create a real problem for donald trump. because if he does manage to win iowa and iowa is always a giant asterisk in any of these things, it could still sort of create some turbulence for donald trump that he hadn't experienced before. he's never been behind really before ever since he's gotten into this. and then, you know, whoever it is that is -- right now chris christie whoever does well in new hampshire does the same thing. quite frankly, after you get past new hampshire, donald trump, when you look at the state by state polls, he continues to look very, very good. >> charlie, we got to get out of here. thanks so much to both of you. happy new year. see you next time. coming up, the 2016 candidates are preparing for the final push before the iowa caucuses. ed henley will have a full report and al jazeera appears o be back tracking after linking peyton manning to performance-enhancing drug. we'll have reaction with brian kilmeade and lou holtz. ♪ the lexus december to remember sales event is here. lease the 2015 gs350 with complimentary navigation system for these terms. see your lexus dealer. carnie wilson. thank you. can you hold on? ♪ hold on for one more day really? hey, i know there's pain. why do you lock yourself up in these chains? ♪ this would be so easy if you had progressive. our mobile app would let you file a claim and help you find one of our service centers where we manage the entire repair process. things will go your way if you hold on. [ sighs ] someday somebody's gonna make you wanna turn around and say goodbye. ♪ say goodbye no, you just made it weird. ok, wehere's dad. mom. the twins. aunt alice... you didn't tell me aunt alice was coming. of course. don't forget grandpa. can the test drive be over now? maybe just head back to the dealership? don't you want to meet my family? yep, totally. it's practically yours, but we still need your signature. the volkswagen sign then drive event. zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first months payment on a new jetta and other select models. this is a fox news alert. i'm kelly wright in washington. good evening. here's what's happening. the republican field of candidates for president is now down to 12. just a short time ago former new york governor george pataki officially ended his bid for the white house in a tv announcement broadcast in iowa, new hampshire and south carolina. pataki joined the race back in may, but his campaign never caught fire. his poll numbers hovered just under 1%. he also had a difficult time raising money for his campaign. pataki's decision coming a month before the first primary in iowa. also in the news, word out of southern california tonight, three earthquakes have rattled the los angeles area. the initial shaker, the stronger of the three with a magnitude of 4.7 was centered near san bernardino just northeast of l.a. no reports of damage or injuries. i'm kelly wright. now back to "hannity." ♪ welcome back to "hannity." with the iowa caucuses just 33 days away bs candidates on both sides of the aisle are pounding the campaign trail. joining me with a full report from washington is ed henry. >> good to see you, rich. what we really saw today was the battle for the anti-trump establishment lane of the republican party intensify as chris christie and jeb bush launch sharp attacks on senator marco rubio. he responded in iowa by rolling out an important endorsement, the former rock star, the benghazi house committey chairman ben gowdy. they say they've got a whole bunch of other endorsements. they've got polls in iowa and nationally showing rubio in third place behind donald trump, who you've just been talking about, and senator ted cruz. and with rubio sort of filling up that space there in third place, that's why you see all of these other candidates today slamming him for missing votes in the senate. chris christie at a campaign stop in iowa ripping into rubio by saying, dude, show up to work. if you don't like it, quit. while the super-pac supporting jeb bush again went after his former protege. they now have an ad buy charging rubio was fund-raising instead of attending some important hearings and briefings on the hill. watch this. >> days after the paris attacks, senators came together for a top secret briefing on the terrorist threat. marco rubio was missing. fund-raising in california instead. two weeks later terrorists struck again in san bernardino. and where was marco? fund-raising again in new orleans. over the last three years, rubio has missed important national security hearings and missed more total votes than any other senator. politics first, that's the rubio way. >> chris christie has spent a lot of time away from new jersey while he's been campaigning. while rubio notes that the senator received a high level briefing after the paris attacks. rubio spokesman adding it's sad to see jeb's joyful campaign reduced to such intellectual dishonesty. the sparring frees up donald trump to focus on the general election. doubling it down on his attacks on both hillary and bill clinton. and there's a new element now, fox's own howard kurtz reporting that donald trump as early as next week as the new year starts is going to start spending up to $2 million a week for several weeks on his first tv ad buy. so think about that. donald trump has been dominating the republican polls without, as you know, rich, spending very much money at all. all of a sudden this big tv ad buy, that could really swamp his competitors at a critical time right before iowa and the new hampshire race. >> ed, thank you very much. joining us now with reaction, vice president at wpa research, lisa boothe. and fox news contributors julie roginsky and jedediah bila. >> hi, rich. >> let me start with you because jeb bush has been sitting -- or at least his people, sitting on this death star of a super pac that's run a bunch of ads trying to boost him, which hasn't worked so far. now they're hitting trump, now they're hitting rubio. they're going to hit some more people i'm sure coming very soon. is this desperation or is this just smart hardball politics? >> it is desperation. and if you look at the ads specifically targeting marco rubio, it's incredibly tone deaf. right now there's a desire for republican voterses for an outsider. voters are concerned -- they don't feel safe right now with the terrorist attacks in san bernardino with the terrorist attacks in paris. we have the lowest work force rate since the 1970s. people care about jobs and the economy. they care about feeling safe. they don't care about rubio's voting attendance. >> the ad makes it seem as though as long as senators are attending their committee hearings, america is completely safe. and the terrorists will never hit us. >> well, as somebody who works in the senate, i'm very happy to hear that people actually care about what happens there, but the reality is it doesn't really matter all that much. for somebody like chris christie to come after marco rubio is the height of hypocrisy. he is not even a new jersey resident any more. he's been gone for more than half the year campaigning god knows where. and for him to hit marco rubio is preposterous. i'm not a rubio supporter, but have a little shame. >> the thing about rubio, he's actually leaving the senate. you know, it's not as though he wants to stay there and attend all his committey hearings. >> he's won and done. there are probably issues you can go after rubio on on issues and policy, attendance to me is such a silly thing to go after. there are plenty other issues if you want to get into that lane and take over from rubio in that conservative moderate lane. >> if you squint just right, at the polls and you look at bush, you can see how his competition in new hampshire, three out of four out of second place. what's your read on his political health? >> the desperation from jeb bush, it's alarming. some of the worst ads that i've seen have come from either pacs supporting him or directly from him. i mean, just terrible, terrible stuff. it's really funny because he was so supportive of marco rubio just a few years back. they were so tight. this is what americans can't stand about politics. now he's criticizing marco left and right. weren't you telling us how great this guy was a couple of years ago? what made you change your mind? because politically that's what he has to do. he needs to rely be the kind of candidate that can step on the debate stage and inspire confidence. he looks angry, not confident. he looks like the donald trump and every other candidate on the stage takes the mike away from him easily and makes him look nervous like he's not the man fit for the job. that's the issue. instead of picking on rubio's voting record, he should be concerned for himself. >> another thing that strikes me about this ad, i think marco rubio has the most natural predators of anyone in this field. trump hates him on immigration, cruz hates him because he's potential competition for the conservative vote. jeb, christie and kasich are competing with him in new hampshire for the non-trump, non-cruz vote. everyone has a reason to be after marco rubio. >> well, they do. and exactly, those are the things they should be hitting marco rubo on. hit him on immigration. don't hit him on his voting record. john mccain missed more than half of his senate votes when he was running for president. back to jeb bush and the desperation factor, look at him trying to take on donald trump by challenging him to a one on one debate. not only is it desperate, but so uncharacteristic for jeb bush to be trying to play this mr. tough guy kind of role. just not believable right now. >> julie, donald trump doesn't need any of our advice. he's doing fine. he's the front-runner in all the national poll. what advice would you give to the other candidates to either try to get around trump or just beat him? >> well, i'm going to give some advice to the democrats, some of these guys, listen up, republicans, if i were in iowa, if i were ted cruz, he's got to win iowa, he's got to spend his money on get out the vote efforts. >> and he appears to have really done that. >> appears to have done that for trump, he has a lot of support. but they're not people who traditionally caucus. in new hampshire if i were trump i'd go negative against christie and howard kurtz referred to that he's going to spend on ads, he's got to make sure that neither of them emerge. because if trump loses iowa and trump loses new hampshire, the aura of being the winner which is exactly what he's been running on all these years -- or all these months, excuse me, is going to be gone. if i were in his shoes, go negative on the two of them in new hampshire. >> 45 seconds left. but this seems like the one of the fee trump is going to sink theories. it hasn't been tested yet. what happens if he loses an early state or two? >> people look at iowa all the time. i'm not sure that's going to make a huge difference for him. it really depends on how the voters feel, on how much you have a split. his major issue is going to be ted cruz. i think conservatives are sort of watching both of them. but with donald trump, i ultimately think it's going to be whether or not people believe that he's a guy that they know what he's going to do when he gets into office. it's going to be a matter of confidence, this is what he stands for, i'm confident that when he gets this job, these are the policies he'll enact. if they don't feel ultimately confident in that, they'll shift to cruz and establishment voters will shift to rubio and we'll see where it lands. >> thanks so much, guys. i really enjoyed it. i'm not sure jeb bush enjoyed what any of you had to say. >> probably not. after creating a media firestorm by attempting to link nfl star quarterback peyton manning to performance-enhancing drugs,al jazeera appears to be back pedaling. later a muslim aclu official says it's not her job to condemn radical islam. we'll have reaction, all that and more as "hannity" continues. after christmas clearance sale. with the north face fleece for under $90. big savings on carhartt. plus savings up to 50% storewide. going on now at bass pro shops. 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