Carly fiorina. Now, according to the first South Carolina republican polls since the New Hampshire primary, New Hampshire winner donald trump is maintaining a strong lead with 36 in South Carolina. Ted cruz is polling at 20 , followed by rubio, bush and ben carson. John kasich is last with 9 . Will tonights debate be a game changer . Joining us now to discuss this is nbcs holly jackson. What more you can tell us about how the candidates are prepping for tonights debate. Theres a lot going on. Not as much going on here behind me in greenville as it sounds like its going on behind new columbia. I wish i was with you right now. Thats where the fun crowd is. We expect things to get crazier here tonight as the candidates start rolling in and getting ready for the debate. Lets run through what everybody has at stake. Donald trump and ted cruz looking like theyre going to face off. Theyre already looking ready to rumble. Particularly after the last couple of debates where we saw the two of them get into it. Trump one of the front runners in South Carolina, so is cruz. Both aiming for the evangelical population. Expect the two of them to mix it up. Trump already called cruz a liar on twitter. Hes hit him for his canadian birth, threatening to sue. Cruz has dismissed that. I talk to the senator yesterday, he basically said theres a torrent of insults coming from Donald Trumps mouth. He wont engage on personality but he will engage on policy. So look for that tonight. You have marco rubio who needs a bounce back after that widely panned some called it disastrous debate performance last go around. Christie taking him out there. Christie no longer in this, but rubio is. Im being told by his campaign hes eager for tonight. Hes ready to take on those attacks rather than necessarily pivot to hit president obama which is what got him into hot water last time. Jeb bush is looking for some bunches tonight. Looking to land them, hoping South Carolina is the place he makes his comeback. John kasich hoping to keep up the momentum he came with off of that second place finish in New Hampshire. Hes staying positive. Somebody else we may not see attack is dr. Ben carson. Hes the sixth person rounding out this republican field in South Carolina. His campaign feels this is a state that could be big for him. A lot at stake for these candidates tonight, joy, as we look ahead to number seven now, the debate between these republican rivals, the smallest one yet. Six people on this stage. So it will be interesting to see the dynamic and how each gets after each other. No kids table debate. Im disappointed. I missed that debate. I miss Lindsey Graham. Do you really . I dont know. I do. I do. I do. Thank you, hallie. Joining me now in columbia South Carolina are jeremy borden, South Carolina freelance journalist. Matt moore, chairman of the South CarolinaRepublican Party and republican strategist joel sawyer. So we are here in the first debate after marco rubios some would say robotic performance in the previous debate. Lets play a bit of what he had to say at the concession speech. I was in the room listening to him. He got a lot of robust applause. Take a listen. I can just tell you i know many people are disappointed. Im disappointed with tonight. I want you to understand something i want you to understand something, our disappointment tonight is not on you. Its on me. Its on me. I did not i did not do well on saturday night. So listen to this, that will never happen again. That will never happen again. Joel, youre the strategist on the set here. If you are rubios advisers what does he need to do tonight to bounce back from that . Its become a meme. Its hit social media and hurt him on a national level. The interesting thing about rubio, he was the consensus, most consistently strong debater up until the most recent debate. He has to come back and bring the same game he brought in the first few debates when he was consistently the strongest. He has to come out strong, not only take it to the president and Hillary Clinton, but his other opponents on stage. For the Republican Party, ill come to you on this, joel, you had more turnout in the first two contests in iowa and New Hampshire than the democrats did. You had more excitement around the Republican Partys process. But youve also not had one candidate sort of stand out as being both the alternative to donald trump and somebody who seems like they could take him on. Rubio was that guy, now hes not that guy. Theres a primary within a primary here. I often point out that South Carolina is about twice as big as New Hampshire and iowa combined in terms of the republican electorate. Theres a lot at stake tonight. I think people around the state, ive been around the state every corner this week. I heard from a lot of people that senator rubio is addressing this so directly is a good thing. They like it. That directness, honesty in politics pays off. Who is covering this, jeremy . I heard a lot of ads on tv. A lot of antirubio ads. Give us a lay of the land for what we should look for in South Carolina . Youre asking about the debate and rubios performance. I feel like for the socalled establishment guys it goes beyond just whether they perform well at the debate. Do they actually start speaking to the issues that donald trump is frankly speaking better to . You have towns and matt knows this you have towns in South Carolina that are, you know, even though the Unemployment Rate across the board is fairly low, these towns are totally desolate. Even in the upstate like lawrence, where it used to be a big mill town. They never recovered. Donald trump, even though people can criticize him for being craig, sort of vaguely angry, to me hes at least understanding that theyre angry. Yeah. I wonder whether the establishment guys, including rubio and bush start to theyll have do it in their own way. They cant do it like donald trump. You know, its not who they are. Because who can. Nobody can. Right. Do they actually start to speak to those real issues . So i think it goes beyond just do you have a good performance. Do you have a good line here or there. Can they really pivot on the campaign and Start Talking about the issues that people actually care about . First of all, we should look at the polls. When i got out of the airport and drove by the hotel, all i saw were trump signs. A lot of trump signage. When you talk about the issues, you talk about the economy, but what about immigration . We came into this race thinking immigration is what was driving trump voters. But are republicans in this state, is that a primary concern to them. Its one of them. South carolina is a diverse state. Its a state with a lot of cutting edge manufacturing, making airplanes, cars, also a lot of social conservatives, evangelicals who are not all the same. Voters who are focused on the military. Gigantic military installations in South Carolina, a lot of retirees. Its immigration, also related to the economy, to the broader issue of governments role and the scope of government in peoples lives and National Security. Can we put that poll number back up . The Republican Party matt is talking about the diversity of issues that are important, jeremy is talking about we have to talk about the economy. Donald trump is still the person that is consolidating not a majority, but a plurality of Republican Voters. How panicked is the establishment of the party on that. I feel like immigration and the economy are linked. Because you see your own status diminished right now, in terms of in these communities in South Carolina, youre angry at something. And i know that like the Republican Party, the establishment man over here doesnt like to they dont like to link those two. Its a tough issue to explain to people. And the fact is the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party really, this issue has not been dealt with. I think thats something that is driving a lot of the anger. Theyre linked in that way. How does the party address it in a way that then doesnt turn off latinos down the road, come off as being ethnic in a negative way . Thats a manger challenge. The Republican Party, i think, is no offense, is a little bit addicted to this drug of winning now rather than winning 5, 10, 20 years from now. If we talk in such a way to give voice to an angry, older, whither crowd that is that is upset about immigration policy and talk about it in a way that appeals to their fears, well have trouble 20 years from now. And, you know, donald trump has talked about it in a way that appeals to that segment of the population. Its interesting because it mirrors the way the south is trying to reboot itself in terms of its own grappling with things. Dont go anywhere. Theres so much more to talk about here from columbia, South Carolina. Now the crowd can weigh back in. Well be right back. [car driving] [engine revving] [car engine] [car speeding away] [car engine]. One of many pieces in my life. So when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my longterm control medicine, i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment. Oncedaily breo prevents asthma symptoms. 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Do they want someone telling us right now that any given position he might change tomorrow if the political winds shift . Or do the people of South Carolina want a consistent conservative . A fiscal conservative, a social conservative, a National Security conservative who has been the same yesterday, today and tomorrow . Thats why conservatives are uniting behind our campaign. That was senator ted cruz in greenville, South Carolina yesterday speaking to reporters about why conservatives should support him over donald trump. Joining me now from greenville is gabe gutierrez. Were looking at a battle between trump and cruz. We figure it will probably get ugly tonight at the debate what are we expecting to hear . Good morning. South carolina obviously a rough and tumble state. This battle between ted cruz and donald trump is getting nastier. Remember a few weeks ago even when there was this unspoken truce between donald trump and ted cruz, at least they werent going after each other in debates, back slapping each other on the debate stage, that has obviously changed. Now theres a fierce battle for first place here in South Carolina. Donald trump going after ted cruz yesterday threatening to sue him. The republican frontrunner is threatening to sue another candidate over not being a natural born citizen if, donald trump says, ted cruz doesnt stop running negative ads against him. As you heard in that sound bite ted cruz saying hes the consistent conservative and donald trump is not fit to be president. Hes running a series of negative ads not just against donald trump but also against other candidates in this race. One of them against marco rubio backfired when it turns out that one of the actresses in that ad had previously starred in adult films. The Ted Cruz Campaign saying the company that made the ad did not vet this particular actress. They said they would not have hired her if they knew her filmography. She did speak to cnn after the ad was pulled. Heres what she had to say. This is politics as usual. I it was done in a snap moment. Someone has to make a decision. I have no ill will against ted cruz. He has a job do im a middle class working girl. I had a job to do. Bizarre race now in South Carolina. In a state that is used to it. Here at the debate tonight, we dont only expect to see trump and ted cruz go at it, but a high stakes battle between marco rubio and jeb bush. The stakes are very high for them. Marco rubio trying to bounce back from the fifth place finish in New Hampshire. And jeb bush trying to reinvigorate his campaign. His brother, george w. Bush planning on starting to campaign for him on monday. Two battles here, trump versus cruz, marco rubio versus jeb bush, and john kasich trying to stay above the fray. Joy, back to you. Gabe, thank you very much. Appreciate that from greenville, South Carolina. I feel like well wake up tomorrow morning and find out weve all been in a Cohen Brothers movie, and thats whats happening here. I feel the subtext of the ted cruz and trump bromance is going after ted cruz on that vague foreignness what do you think about that . In South Carolina, the people in office now, lets not forget two years ago in South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham was part of the gang of eight and won an overwhelming election victory here in South Carolina. If youre a member of the establishment, republican, democrat, anyone in between, the solution is not to do nothing on immigration. We all agree. But i think where the rubber meets the road here for cruz and trump is not only the rhetoric but the different types of policies theyre proposing. Havent you just literally performed the thing that is angering white working middle class voters. The logic is for Immigration Reform. The rationale thing is for immigration form. Implying if youre not for it, youre not rational. The fact that there are 12 Million People here illegally is already de facto amnesty. How do you do it then, joel . From a messaging standpoint, the party is now essentially running against Immigration Reform, but then trying to substitute marco rubio as a potential nominee. You would that even work . I think the big thing we have to do is choose the words we use more carefully. The most toxic thing in this country in probably the last decade was the word amnesty. If you look at these bills, its anything but amnesty. Its penalties. Its, you know, in some cases, not gaining full citizenship. Not being able to vote. So the idea that were just going to wave a flag and if youre here, cool, youre a citizen. Go vote. Thats what amnesty is. Nobody proposed amnesty. I think we have to take a step back, we have to be careful about the words we use, and i think that it is irresponsible to a degree for some politicians to be hitting each other on the idea that one supported amnesty and the other did. But the last politician in the Republican Party to propose amnesty was Ronald Reagan who did outright amnesty and is a secular saint in the Republican Party. Yeah. Now he is. The answer is yes. The fact is the Republican Party i wonder, too whether marco rubio running away from that bill will prove to be a crucial mistake. Just because, you know, if he had defined it and if people the Republican Party was basically behind that bill, ted cruz was basically in the beginning behind that bill. If they had they had done all these focus groups after losing last time, right . How do we win . How do we win next time . So we have to take on immigration. They go and take on immigration. As soon as primary politics gets involved, they run as fast as they can towards the right and dont try to stand their ground and say this is the right thing to do. People see that. You know, i dont know whether the majority of republicans maybe they would have taken it out on them. You cant go down one road and run back to the beginning and say, well, i promise well do better next time. Right. I think people see through that. Thats why i think were seeing so many confusing sort of contradicting things. You know, ultimately the republicans and you can blame it on democrats, too. For the republican electorate, they have not gotten the job done. They send the majority to washington to do something. As soon as things got hot, they ran away from it people see through that. Thats part of what were seeing in this election. I think trump is helping us see through it because hes punching holes in some of the things youre talking about. When we come back, we want go around to some of the candidates who have not gotten as much attention. Jeb bush is bringing in