News, Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register, joyann read of msmsc and david brody of christian broadcasting netwo rubio, paul, sander caucus. Welcome to sunday and a special edition of meet the prere. From des moines, iowa, this is a special edition of meet the pres with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Theyre here. The iowa ku kuscaucuses. It all happens tomorrow night. Were here in des moines at the west end architectural salalge, a cocoee shop that also sells ustom and vintage furniture. And of course the candidates are here, all here, all over iowa selling themselves. In fact, on this last fullay befofe the caucuses, the 13 candidates campaigning in iowa are holding 1338 events making lastminute pitching hoping iowa will become the first step on the road to nomination. We couldnt be more excited or stay tuned for our Christmas Eve of politics. We start with the latest bloomberg poll. Put it up on the screen on the republican side, trump with a fivepoint lead over ted cruz, marcoubio in third at 15 and ben carson still in double digits at 10 with rand paul at 5. And the democratic race its Hillary Clinton continuing to hold a nor row threepoint lead over Bernie Sanders 4542. We got a lot to get to this morning. The latest developments in the hillary inton email story, Bernie Sanders will join us later. Marco rubiooand rand paul are standing here at west end salvage, but we begin with senator ted cruz from texas by his own admission needs a win here in iowa to keep the trump campaignrom being in his word, unstoppable unstoppable. Senator cruz, welcome back to meet the press. Chuck, good morning. Good to be with you. Your campaign i take it doesnt believe the des moines rester poll. You believe youre aheaea what i i found was interesting if you add up the other candidates that are going after evangelical voters, ben carson, Mike Huckabee, rick santorum, theyre youll be the runaway winner here. Is ben carson going to cost you iowa . Listen, at the end of the day this race was always going to come down to do conservatives unite. Ten months ago you and i visited right a a the outset. If youd told me ten months ago that the day before the Iowa Caucuses we would be in a statistical tie for first place, i would have been thrilled and asasnished. And we are thrilled and astonished. The question is going to come 36 hours from now, do conservatives come together . In past cycles what washington has always waed is to splinter and divideconservatates. If t tt happens little bit. Im always worried about it. The only way i know how to run theres the only joke, two ways to run, scared and unopposed. The only way i know how to run is scared. Anddere going to run hard every minute. You know, tomorrow were going to complete the full grass. We will have been to all 99 counties in iowa. We are campaigning one a aer the ototer asking for the votes of the men and women of iowa and ground game. You believe if trump wins here hes unstoppable . Not necessily well, youaid it. Our friend caught you on tape there. Actually, what i said he could be. That iowa his winning here would give him momentum. No doubt abo it. Hes in a strong position in New Hampshire. And the people iowa if they want a strong principled conservative, the people of iowa can impact that powerfuy 36 hours from now. Monday night at 7 00 p. M. And, you know, i think the stakes are too high to get this wrong. You know, the most common sentiment you hear from people is theyre frustrated with washington. Theyre frurad w wth they say one thing and do another. We cant get burned again. And that frustration, the reason that i see conservatives uniting behind our campaign is theyre llking for a consistent conservative, someone they can trust to be a fiscal conservative, a social conservative and a National Security conservative. At the beginning of this month you led in the polls. Sometimes viciously, okay, on various things. And it seemed to work. The reason trumps ahead is his attacks on you. Are you tough ough to tata a puncnc oh, listen, anyone that has millions of tens of millions of dollars of attack ads run against them is going to have an impact. Will you be able to survive a race with Hillary Clinton . Absolutely. Its going to be tough. This is just two weeks. Listen, the fact theyre all shooting at me six weeks ago everyone shooting at trump. Now all the republican candidates are shooting at me. That rereects a c cnge in this race. And ill note, donald, youre right, six weeks ago donald thought i was terrific, i was praises. Then his pollllumbers s srted dropping. Our numbers started surging. And suddenly he began blasting me, not on policy, not on substance but on personal insults and attacks. And, chuck, my approach consistently both before and after he started doing that is not to respond in kind. I think the people of iowa deserve better than insults. So my focus is policy and will be a consistent proven conservative. Why did you suddenly stop going after trump on paid ads and going after in your campaign attack marco rubio . How c ccerned are you aboutut senator rubio catching you here in iowa . Listen, we are drawing contrast, both trump and marco are attacking me. Theyre attacking me with all their might. And were drawing contrast. And the contrasts are clear. The contntasts by the way are substantive and policy based. A vote for marco rubio is a vote for amnesty. A vote for donald trump is a vote for obamamare. If you look at their positions, marco rubio right now is a president ial candidate is advocating amnesty, advocating citizenship for 12 Million People here illegally. And donald trump right now as a candidate is advocating fullon expanding obamacare to make it socialized medicine. Donald trump and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have the identical popotionon health care, which is they want to put the government in charge of you and your doctor. If im elected there will be no amnesty, we will secure the border. If im elected we will repeal every word of obamacare. So that gives a clear and simple choice for the voters. Lets talk about two issues here that seem to be potentially tripping you up here in iowa. One is ethanol. You are have come out against these subsidies. Youve called it a grave ri train. A lot of iowans including the republican governororoesnt like it. Im going to put these numbers, isnt it understandable why iowans like these subsidies. Ethanol and biodiesel support more than 46,000 jobs, geneneted 2. 5 billion for iowan households, a state with unemployment under 4 . This is an important part of their economy. Absolutely. And, listen, my view on e eergy we should pursue all of the above. We ought to be pursuing every energy source. Youll be hurting their economy. But with no mdates and sub di u si subsidies. The people attacking me are his son is a lobbyist who makes ndreds of thhsands on lobbyiyi ethanol. His family keep iowa focused on the ethanol mandate because it keeps ia dment dependent onnwashington. Means every year they have to go back to washington and maintain the mandate, lobbyists get paid, politicians get paid. No subsidies for oil and gas, no subsidies for anybody. But the other piece thats very important and resonating is im going to also tear down the epas ethanol blend wall, which means make it legal to sell midlevel blendnd of ethanol. And that in turn can expand ethanol share of the marketplace by 60 but not based on mandates and subsidies based on the free market. Its so clear you spent a lot of time in iowa look at you talking about midlevel fuel sales. At the end of the day, how does this not hurt the iowa economy . Tts what governor bra the economy. This aually would expand the iowa economy. Right now ethanol is banging into the rfs. Its essentially the blend wall is a cap. As people in iowa knownprv as ive traveled around and do town halls, ethanols not expanding its market share because the epa is preventing it from doing it. By the way, no other candidate has pledged to remove the blend wall. No other candidate is focusing on the future for ethanol. And you know someone who joined me on my bus tour across the state, fellow named dave vandergrind, he built more than half the ethanol plants in the state of iowa. Hes the one who estimates you could see a 60 market increase. You know whos hurt by my plan . The lobbyists in washington and the people who are helped are iowa farmers and jobs here in the state of iowa. One final question, you talk about Ronald Reagan a ot. You taa about you want to sort of have a presidency like his. He famously had a terrific relationship with democrat tip oneil oneil. He got stuff done. Are you and nancy pelosi going to be able to get stuff done . Absolutely. In my entire time of the senate ive treated every member of the senate with civility and respect. I dont think Mitch Mcconnell would say that. As others attack me, i dont respond in kind. When donald trump calls me a canadian anchor baby, i dont respond with an yun insult. In fact, ill sing donalds praises. I like donald. I think hes bold and brash. I think hes been too willing to get a deal and grow government and support cronyism, but thats a policy digs tings. At the end of the day why was reagan able to change the country . Because he built a grassroots movementnthat reagan revolutioned that turned this country around. Thats what were doing. Weve got 12,000 volunteers in iowa and its all about turnout. If conservatives want a principled c cservative to nott get burned again, they need to come out monday night 7 00 p. M. Im going to leave it there. Senator cruz, you have to finish the full grassley. My next guestlorida senator marco rubio under campaign in recent days. In fact, take a look at this ad they put out on rubios immigration stance. I am not and i will never support, never have and never will support any to grant blanket legalization amnesty. Marco rubio was prt of the gang of eight trying to secure amnesty. One of the architects of the plan senator marco rue yoebbio. It was marco rubio a m mber of that wasnt. And senator marco rubio joins me now. The press. Thana you. You just had a nice friendly hug with senator cruz ere. Thats not such a fraendiendly ad here. Of eight. Actually no, no, let me amnesty . Define amnesty . The ad is deceitful, actually talks about cap and trade, it stops my statement right when i start explaining that im against cap and trade and big the gang of eight s aill that was thats not that was dealt with three years ago as an effort to fix our Immigration Laws. It was the best that could be done in a senate controlled by harry reid at the time. The hope was that t e house would take ititp and make it better, but it was a way to start that. In the absence of progress thats how barack obama has now forced on america not one but two unconstitutional executive orders thateek to actually legalize people here with no enforcement. Now, thats not the way were going to do it when im president. When im president , when im the nominee, were going to keep our majority in the house and senate and were goingo passirst and foremost Immigration Laws that secure our border. And until that is in place, were not going to be able do anything else. Thats the lesson of the last ten years. The American People we do not have the Political Support to do it all at once. They do not trust the federal government to enforce Immigration Law and as a result the key that unlocks the door to make progress on illegal immigration is to bring illegal immigration under control first. And we will do that when im ive had a lot of republicans in iowa that ive talked to who really like you and thenhey say why w wt he repudiate the gang of eight . Thats not how were going to do it when im president. Thats not going to be the law that well pa do you regret ever being involved . Look, i tried fix a problem. This is a real problem. Where are we today . We are worse off today than we were five years ago. We have more Illegal Immigrants here. We have two unconstitutional executive orders on amnesty. I went to washington to fix a problem. Immigration is a serious problem. It impacts my state and the state that i live in. We are impacted by illegal immigration in a dratic way. This issue has to be dealt with. Each year it gets harder to solve, more difficult to solve, but it is now clear more than ever before that you are not going to be able to do anything on immigration until you first bring illegal immigration under control and prove it to people. Not just pass a law that says it and thats how were going to do it when im president. You have eluded to the fact that majority isot yet sort of where you might be on what to do do you think this is whats holding your campaign back . That the difference between third and second or third and first for you is your immigration position . No, look,e had 11 people running for president that are running competitive campaigns. 11 people on the ground in iowa spending money, campaigning, working hard themselves to gain voters. So a lot of this is segmented right now. Ted cruzzs clearlylyhe frontrunner in iowa. He has 10,000 volunteers, spent millions of dollars here, got every endorsement he wanted. So we always knew that going in, but we feel really good about the proroess were m ming here. We have taken on more negative attacks than every other candidate combined. Jeb bushs soupuper pac basically spent a third of its money attacking me and yet we keep growing and feel positive about it. We feel positive about what its going to mean monday night in iowa and New Hampshire. You brought up the cap and trade issue. Ill play the fulluote of w wat you said. Florida should position itself for what i believe is inevitable and that is a federal cap and trade program. Can to be an early funds and help influence what that cap and trade looks like at the federal level. So im in favor of giving the department of Environmental Protection a mandate that they go out and design a cap and trade or a Carbon Tax Program and bring it back to the legislature for ratification some time in the next two years. All right. We gave you full context there. No, you didint. Theres more after thatt clip. Well explain. No it does come across as youre saying its inevitable so florida has to prepare. But what you just played is not tt full clip. Right after that i said im not in favor of implementing it. Im in favor of them bringing it back to the legislature. I do not spport Big Government mandates. The context of that that was in 2006 and 07 when the leading candidates for president were john mccain, barack obama, Hillary Clinton. All three supported cap and trade. And i was the speaker of the house and i said there is a chance that the federal government will pass cap and trade. M not in favor of it. But if they do, we have to be prepared to comply with that requirement even if we dont like it. And i dont want it to cost the state of florida money to hve the democrats knew that position. When charily christ proposed cap and trade, i was the first person to speak out of it in a full oped in the miami herald. Right after that theres even more. This gets at what sort of i think is the challenge for all of the candidates on both sides is youre basically saying, look, you got to sometimes govern with what you have, not with what you want. Right. But the voters they want more than that. The voters seem angry. Theyre not satisfied w wth this idea that, you know, youre doing the you got to work with what you have in washington, not with what you want. You know, i dont think thats true. I think voters understand to solve problems its going to take the ability to work with people you dont agree with on a bunch of other issues i think people understand my Higher Education ideas, i think Student Loan Debt in america is aauge problblm. Were not going to have free college, but i think theres a bipartisan way to work on helping with student loan. Thats why i work with mark warner on it and worked with wther people on this sort of issue. Going to a aee on. Repealing obamacare, thats why we have elections. So i think if theres a chance to Work Together and you dont have to betray your principles, you Work Together. But there are issues where you cant do at. Thats why we haa elections and debate and all those sorts of things in america. Why are you the personally most popular republican candidate, pretty much here, you and ben carson here neck and neck, bututoverall nationally you have the highest favorable rating. Why arent you higher . Again, i think it goes back to the fact there are now 11 people running for president of the United States, running competitive campaigns. I mean, these are not thirdrate candidates. These are formerors, ceos people. And former senator rick sasaorum. And theyre campapaning hard. So youve got the voters have a lotd of choices. I think once the race narrows i feel pretty good about our prospects. Thats the question a lot of your donors, where do you im runninin for p pesident of the United States. But you need to win eventually. We will. Having more delegates than anybody else u anyone else and more than half the delegates. Im confidentntere going to achieve that. I dont think youre going to really get clarity on this race until the race narrows a little bit. Whats a good night for you tomorrow . We want many votes we can. Wfeel real positive about what its going to leadto. That expectationon game for us we always knew we were an underdog in iowa. Other people have a lot more people on the ground here, they spent more money, but were im excited about it. Senator rubio, be safe on the trail. Hampshire as well. When we come back, are iowa 74yearold socialisis whos not even a registered memberf the Democratic Party . Were about to find out. Senator Bernie Sanders joins me in a moment. W