we have spoken to the iava. we have spoken to wounded warriors as well as vote vets. none of them say they are directly involved with the fund-raiser tonight. there are a number of veterans organizations out there but so far we have not been able to find any that say that they are a part of this event. that foundation, the donald trump foundation, has given to veterans groups in the past. there is some precedent here. but it is not clear who exactly will get the money. we have asked the campaign directly to tell us who this is. a couple times, actually. and so far they are staying mum on it right now. >> katie remind me, there is an issue last fall where he raised money for a veteran's group and you dug into that? >> yeah, last september he had a fund-raiser for veterans on uss iowa, battle ship in long beach, california. that was for veterans for a strong america. it turns out the irs revoked its charitable status and the veterans for strong america according to tax records was just one man who was not actually a veteran. we asked the campaign at the time where that money went to -- how much they raised, frankly, number one, and where the money was going to. they did not respond to that. we asked, what about this group veterans for a strong america and the issues they have had. they said they are not aware of any issues. i followed up with them today to find out if they ever followed up with this group, veterans for a strong america to find out where the money they raised was going to and they said they would like to clarify with just what happened but so far haven't told me exactly what happened. i think we are are getting word they will tell us maybe later at the front raiser tonight. questions about that and questions about who will get the money at the fund-raiser he is having and where are the contributions he is taking through his website will ultimately end pup. >> and trump said a couple candidates said they called and asked if they could come. huckabee and santorum will be attending. >> people like santorum and huckabee who are not necessarily getting a lot of attention on the undercard debate stage to go and participate in this donald trump event because that is getting a ton of attention and will probably air on the various competing networks. so for them to show up they will get more tv time than they would normally be getting. benefits them. unclear if any of them will be doing anything after that potentially endorsing donald trump if they do not win iowa. we are going to have to wait and see for that but so far all we have heard and confirmed is rick santorum and rick huckabee and potentially carly fiorina. >> katy tur at the site of trump's event. and ted cruz looking to leapfrog tonight in iowa, wants a one on one debate challenge with trump. and he was asked about it last night. >> time will tell. if he respects the voters of iowa then he will accept the invitation. that's not a clael. that's a town hall. with 800 iowa residents taking questions from the men and women of iowa. i think any candidate who wants it earn the votes of the men and women of the state has to show the respect and humility to sub yourselves to the voters to answer your questions. donald and i are tied right now. the election is 119 hours away. i believe the men and women of iowa deserve to see a direct discussion between the two leading candidates. i'm going to be there. >> and halle jackson joins me from des moines. that's saturday night he is talking about doing this other event. but tonight, let's focus on that first. with trump not showing up, where does that put ted cruz on that stage tonight? >> sent are stage, kate, potentially, and probably with a target on his back for the rest of the candidates. that's something the campaign is prepared for. that is not a surprise given that cruz would take the position of front-runner if trump doesn't show up. everybody else come at cruz. particularly somebody like marco rubio. we have seen the two of them go at it on the debate stage before. so it is possible that will happen again. i'm told the senator, senator cruz is prepared for that and is set to set the record straight in the words of a campaign aide who i spoke with earlier today. the senator resting and focused and getting ready for tonight as are the rest of the candidates in the field as we countdown to this debate. cruz, you know, talking about donald trump ruled out the snap chat vgeo filter, trying to get that, donald duck, where is that ducking donald going. you saw for example chris christie react to this. the idea that trump wouldn't be on the stage. christie pointing to his own what you might call journey from the main stage demoted to undercard stage and back up on the main stage. so christie pointed out, hey, you got to show up. that's part of being commander-in-chief. using this to pivot and hit trump and portray himself as someone willing it stand up on the debate stage. rubio had a response. he called it a side show. theatrics. i was at a rubio event last night where he repeated that to a crowd. a predebate rally for rubio. he pushed the message that is his closing argument in iowa, which he is the person who can reunite the republican party and go after the democratic nominee who he believes will be hillary clinton. he is out with a new ad today talking about this. take a look. >> america is exceptional. every generation before us met the great challenges of their time. but after seven long years of this president, we feel our country slipping away. this election is about defeating hillary clinton and about saving what makes america unique. i'm marco rubio. i approve of this message, and i'm asking for your vote so we can leave our children what our parents left us. the single greatest nation in all mankind. >> so given there ad that's out, i wouldn't necessarily be surprised to see marco rubio at some point tonight look past his rivals on stage and instead look over to the democrats and particular hillary clinton and in talking about why he could be the one to beat her electability has become part of his closing argument as we head into the last what, 90-something hours before the caucus, kate? >> and back to saturday night one more time as we make our weekend plans, should we be prepared -- >> what weekend plans? >> yeah. for you, what weekend plans. should we be ready for a mano y mano with cruz versus trump? >> in this universe, i would be stunned to see donald trump come to this event. first of all, the logistics of it, where cruz is in one part of the state and where trump has something in the opposite end of the state, the boots on the ground, that would be tough. there is no incentive for trump to come. why would he face off against ted cruz who has gotten in punches at debates in the past, a seasoned debater, national champion in college when it comes to debating. but cruz doesn't need trump to show up. he got his point out. he got a message. he has this new line of attack he can keep talking about whether trump shows up or not. >> halle jackson, following all of that. thanks very much. just in time for tonight's debate, brand new numbers out of early voting states. trump still leading the pack. big in new hampshire and south carolina. sudden surge propelled him ahead of an until recently pesky ted cruz to dig deeper into the poll numbers. nbc host and political correspondent steve kornacki is here, and i mean pesky in the best way. >> when you hear, turnout is going to be key, usually that's one of the meaningless empty things that gets thrown out there. but this time, that cliche is absolutely true in both races. let me show you what i mean when we look at numbers here as we look to iowa. first of all, this is on the republican side. this is what turnout has looked like the last three times they had republican caucuses. how many people are showing up? now that was the highest turnout ever on the republican side in 2012, but here is the thing. polsters are saying they expect it'll be higher. whatever the number is, it will be higher. probably substantially higher than in 2012 on the republican side. there's that much interest. but the request question is, how high? because take a look at this. three different models here. they took a poll a couple days ago in iowa. remember, 120,000. that's the baseline right now. if you have 130,000, little bit above that. basically a tie here between donald trump and ted cruz. now if you good higher, 170,000 and by wait, monmouth says based on their estimates they think it'll be about 170,000. trump opens up a lead. more voters, casual voters, that don't usually participate, that's favorable it trump. then what about this? what if we have explosive through the roof never before seen turnout, 200,000 people will look at that. trump suddenly crushing cruz 32-21. you go from tie to seven-point lead to 11-point trump lead. that's all based on turnout. the higher the turnout the better the news for trump. look at the democratic side. past turnout numbers. obviously everybody remembers 2008, barack obama, hillary clinton, through the roof. nobody thinks it's going to be anywhere approaching that on the democratic side. they think it'll be substantially lower this time around but look at this. still have a similar story. if it is about 110,000, and again this is what monmouth who took this poll is projecting. they think about 110,000. hillary clinton has 5-point lead over sanders. 150,000, now three-point race. through the roof, 200,000, now we basically have a dead even race. 5 points hillary. 3 points hillary. 1 point hillary. not quite as dramatic on the democratic side, but the higher turnout, the better sanders chances are. >> i was just looking at the weather forecast for monday, just because, partly cloudy, high of 38 degrees. cold. >> balmy for iowa. >> but not like a terrible snowstorm. we will see what happens. thanks so much. will trump's debate boycott have any impact on his presidential aspirations? joining me now is john feary. nice to see you. how are you? >> i'm great. >> have you a new piece this which you argue donald trump's decision to skip the fox debate and avoid tough questions from megyn kelly will prove to be his undoing. that's my hope and my prediction. really? >> it is important to be predictions out there, even if they prove to be false. i think trump is making a huge mistake by boycotting the election. i think the medial make a big mistake if they cover his counter demonstration. i think it is bad for democracy. it is a circus but the circus will be with donald trump as major clown. i think that's a problem for him going down the road. if you look at this, he doesn't even know who to give the money to for veterans. no veteran's organization wants the money. i think this whole thing is problematic for trump. if he is the only one not on stage, you can believe every other candidate will enjoy taking him down a couple notches. >> but do his supporters really care he is taking on fox news? they might see it as a positive. >> they might. but i don't think so. he has a lot of fans out there. a lot of fans are not traditional republicans. a lot are independent, some are democrats, they are all over the place. if you have a solid two hours of every candidate talking about trump's record or nonrecord o are changing record and he is not there to put the -- the one thing about donald trump, not just the art of the deal with trump, also the art of the come back. he's been spectacular at putting his opponents down when they attack him. he is not going to be there when he is being attacked and i this i that will be a problem for him. >> when we asked before the show who you are supporting right now, it has become a common answer, anyone but cruz. why is donald trump more than ted cruz? >> well, i will take anyone else. i love rubio, bush, kasich. can i go down the line. christie would be great. anybody but those two. trump is very hard for me to take. but cruz is even harder to take because i think he has been such a disaster for the republican party. and attacking the party throughout his tenure in the senate. >> because he is such a tea partier? >> that has nothing to do with the tea party. everything to do with the fact he attacks his own party. he seems to get special pleasure by attacking the republican party. how cool to have someone like that as nominee? i just don't think it is acceptable. >> so do you see any opening for an establishment candidate at this point as you map it out, john? >> i think that rubio is placing third in all these things. i think bush could be a flight to safety when things get really rough. i don't believe in the polls it'll be trump. we will see how the turnout is. i believe in the sanity of most voters and i don't think that the same person will want donald trump as our president. >> can i ask you one quick question? what would you ask at the debate tonight if you get a chance? >> well, i ask a lot of different questions. one question that comes to my mind is what's your money on globalization? has it help had the american people or hurt the american people? if it hurt them, what do you do? will you raise tariffs like we did in the 1930s? are you making it harder for immigrants like we did in the '30s and lead us to immigration? it lifted people out of poverty and helped people in a lot of different ways. >> thanks to see you. >> thanks. >> democrats hitting the trail hard amid new polling showing kint clinton and sanders neck and neck in iowa. this as bernie sanders releases medical records. what they show us, up next. can a business have a mind? a subconscious. a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit? can a business have a soul? can a business be...alive? on top of your health?ay ahh... ahh... cigna customers have plan choices and tools to take control. so they're more engaged, with fewer high health risks and lower medical costs. take control of your health at cigna dot com slash take control. her long day as anne. hair stylist starts with shoulder pain when... hey joanne, want to trade the all day relief of 2 aleve with 6 tylenol? give up my 2 aleve for 6 tylenol? 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millions in campaign contributions and speaking feees. our econo my works for wall street because it is rigged by wall street. >> alex start with that ad. pretty clearly going after clinton. any reaction from the clinton camp? >> no reaction yet kate but stay tuneed. typically the clinton campaign is very sensitive about what they view as negative ads from sanders. his campaign put up an ad with a similar message about wall street and corrupting influence in wall street. they held a conference call with senior officials and reporters where they condemn ads. saying they were disappointed in sanders because he vowed to never run a negative ad against her but this comes down to what you define as a negative ad. it doesn't mention clinton as you said. certainly a negative ad against goldman sachs but goldman sachs is not running for president and it seems aimed at reaching people who have been conditioned to know that clinton has taken speaking fee answers donations from goldman sachs. so the clinton campaign has a risk in amplifying that if they say too much. >> what do we know? >> they promised that they would put out the records before the iowa caucuses so we are just under the wire here. you know, they've said this is a fair issue. he is 74 years old. he seems to have a lot of energy on the stump but they want to know what's fair. the letter which comes from the doctor who has work et with bernie sanders for 26 years says he is over all in very good health but it does note he has been treated for several diseases including gout, cholesterol issues, thyroid issues, and takes medication for an anti-inflammatory but over all is in good health. >> what about the democratic campaigns and their spat about debates. this morning jeff weaver, campaign manager for bernie sanders had this to say on morning joe. >> all through the fall senator sanders called for more debates. o'malley calling for debates. clinton's campaign seemed to be very happy about how many debates we were having. but the dynamics in this race changed. suddenly they want a new debate. we won't engage in a process where the only time we scheduled debates is when the clinton campaign feels they are under pressure and need to have another debate. >> where are we at in terms of debates? this is about an off the books debate next week? >> right kate. dnc officially sanctioned six debates for the entire primary and that did not include one between iowa and new hampshire. there is an effort to get a new debate slotted in there and what's interesting is a little bit of role reversal here. typically front runners don't like debates. they like to keep the status quo as much as possible and hillary clinton is front-runner overall. but in new hampshire a very different story. bernie sanders according to our new nbc news marist poll, up 19 points, 58-39 over hillary clinton. so he is clearly the front-runner there in new hampshire and he is now the one who is less inclined to have a debate and that's what jeff weaver was referring to about the dynamic of the race changing. clinton campaign says they are on board. martin o'malley's campaign says they are on board. dnc not on brd for the moment but about f sanders signs on that could change things. >> let's get into this more, spat over debates on the democratic side. i want to bring in chief legal correspondent are correspondent, ari melber. >> now why is this so difficult to add another debate? >> the politics are that people have different end games here. what is interesting is that elections are run by the government. primaries are run by the parties. this comes back it rules, not laws, but party rules and the dnc set up some said too favorably to clinton but set up these rules to have a certain number of debates and rules have consequences because the dnc is in charge. we talked about this yesterday with trump and rnc. but dnc said if you break this, have an extra debate, if multiple candidates get up together, then they don't abide by this, they exclusively sanctioned debates, violation penalty is ban on the remainder of process. ie, you get chucked from every other debate. big punishment. there is february 11 in milwaukee and march 8 in miami. >> would you like to chairman -- the chair of the democratic national committee debbie wasman to approve and chair the debate next week? >> i would like the chairman of party and the campaigns to agree that we can debate in new hampshire next week. that is what i'm hoping will happen. >> so you hear it there. what she want is to have the extra debate but they can't do it on the fly without the dnc unless they get basically disqualified. i will mention as chris matthews did, full disclosure, msnbc is one of the potential media sponsors as all news organizations everyone getting their turn more or less but it goes beyond what the media wants. it goes to something about setting rules that are hard to live by and that is why so many people are critical of both political parties. they set this up a certain way at a certain time and it is under strain because people don't think it is working that well. >> i'm sure the regular viewers are thinking why can't they just talk to each other? why can't they just have debates whoever they want? doesn't seem like it would be that hard. >> i get it. >> according to the latest nbc wall street journal marist poll bernie sanders has null 66% support of voters, compared to 30% for hillary clinton. and so here to explain part of what might be attracting the younger voters to sanders, msnbc technology correspondent olivia stearns, he is using screens. >> he is. >> in a way that i, honestly, as an older person did not completely understand until explained it to me. >> to do this report i had to find someone under 30 to show me how snap chat works. sanders is very active on snap chat. he has an ad campaign on snap chat using geo filters. it is a filter or image you can place on top of your video if you're under a certain location. say you are 20-year-old attending a bernie sanders rally in iowa what you can do is take the video and put the sort of filter over it that is feel the burn and send it out to your friends. this is hugely popular. even though the video goes away in 24 hours, this is bernie's message today. iowa, are you ready to feel the burn? pretty cool. this is where the young people are. senator ted cruz also caught on this past fall. he had his own similar snap chat campaign advertising with these geo filters. but today's, kate, is just brilliant. >> where is ducking donald? >> where is ducking donald with the bouffant. >> and younger people are passing around this -- >> snap chat has a hundred million users, 18 to 24-year-olds. that's who bernie sanders wants is those first-time caucusgoers. >> thank you so much. thanks for explaining that to me. senator sanders so close. we know from colleagues steve kornacki that a big part of the strategy to win is younger voters. potential first-time caucusgoers who he needs to turn out monday night and so where do you go it find young people these days? snap chat as we have just said hottest social media platform among ma lineillennials. when we come back, more on the big race on monday. rnments s being hacked, emails compromised, and intellectual property being stolen. that is cyber-crime, and it affects each and every one of us. microsoft created the digital crimes unit to investigate and fight cyber crime. we use the microsoft cloud to visualize information, so we can track down the criminals. using our advanced analytics tools, analysis that used to take days to run, we can now see in real time. and we're building what we learn back into the cloud to make people and organizations safer. when it comes to the cloud, trust and security are paramount. our passion is making life tougher for cyber criminals, and making it safer for you and your customers. i built my business with passion. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet? 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(applause) four days away from iowa caucuses. hillary clinton and bernie sanders are in a tight race. but in new hampshire sanders is leading clinton 57% to 38%. and in south carolina, it's another story. clinton has a commanding 37-point lead over sanders in that state. let me bring in beth, senior editor here at msnbc.com. beth, good to see you as always. past several months we have seen sanders gain ground on clinton in iowa and new hampshire, obviously. way ahead. can he make any headway in south carolina? what's it going to take? >> yeah. right now as you said, polling is showing him way behind. it is very heavily african-american group of voters in south carolina. he doesn't have a natural connection to african-american voters because he represents vermont and probably the whitest state in the united states. he has spoken repeatedly about this and he has been asked about this a lot. in the last debate he said when black voters get to know me they will support me. he talks, as you know, so much about inequality and feels that message is very sail yent for black voters. clintons have had a good relationship, both hillary and bill, with black voters. it is strong. it'll be hard to break that. >> washington post, have to ask you, editorial board today took sanders to task. headline the piece that came out on the web last night, berndy sanders fiction-filled campaign. part of it reads mr. sanders is not a brave truth teller. he is a politician selling his own brand of fiction to a slice of the country that eagerly wants it buy it. does that matter to the sanders supporters? they are probably not reading the washington post editorial. >> no, and sanders supporters probably don't care. it is the undecided voters in iowa. nobody want an editorial slashing at them that way and i'm sure the sanders campaign isn't happy about that. it pretty much echos her message, hillary clinton's message, against sanders. that he has these utopian ideas -- >> yeah where, pie in the sky. >> that he couldn't fulfill in washington. but he could easily say, i'm the anti-establishment candidate in this race and the washington post is an establishment media organization. >> sanders has been asked a lot about going negative and whether he would go negative on hillary clinton in these final days leading up to the caucus. casey hunt caught up with him today and asked him about going negative. >> are you going to run a negative ad against hillary clinton? >> no. >> what's the difference between a negative ad and contrast ad? >> depends if you are telling the truth. hillary clinton is running an ad that i'm attacking planned parenthood. i have a 100% voting record with planned parenthood. i think they are an excellent organization. >> so we showed a new ad from sanders where he talks, he doesn't mention clinton by name but he talks wall street, wall street, wall street. >> oh, it is funny to hear him saying it is not negative, it is contrast. that line has been used by politicians forever. so he not making new ground there. it isn't really a negative ad because he does not mention her name. it is very mild by negative ad standards. on the other hand, it is perfectly clear who he is talking about and in question that money in politics is motivating issue on both democratic and republican side. >> coming up, an update we brought you a few weeks ago. the zika virus is spreading in the americas. world health organization today sounding the alarm saying this could become an international emergency. what you need to know, coming up next. ♪ ♪ (cell phone rings) where are you? 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>> i think what the experts are expecting is that we are going to be seeing cases that are being sort of brought into our country by travellers and because we have the mosquito that actually transmits this virus, it's the vector for it, the '80s agipti, it is in our country, gulf coast, southeast, lower california, that all it takes is for one of those mosquitos to bite an infected person, and then it will infect somebody else and that. but remember, it's not as contagious as a respiratory born virus, like influenza or measles or something. we are still talking about small numbers. most importantly kate, is that the criteria that the elements, things that are needed to sort of really encourage the virus, here, mosquito growth, i should say, doesn't exist so much in our country as it does in crowded tropical places. >> brazil. >> exactly. people need to remember that. we have air conditioning, screens. little different than some places we have seen on the film. p. >> if you're bitten, if anyone is bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus, what happens? if you're not pregnant, what happens? >> according to the cdc, roughly 80% infected with zika will be completely asymptomatic. >> no symptoms at all? >> so then it seems, why are we even talking about it? ? in those that get sick, fever, joint pain, rash, conjunctivitis, red eye. there was a release last week about a parasitic muscle illness associated with a number of infection answers associated also with zika. that's the one thing that most of us who are not pregnant would be thinking about. but of course, the real danger is this association which is for now just an association with microcephaly, which as we saw, is devastating. >> the babies we just saw in the piece, the small heads. last quickly, last piece of advice, if you're pregnant, just don't go to the countries? >> if you're pregnant, don't go. if you're planning on becoming pregnant and you do need to travel to one of those ier areas, do prmosquito protection protocol. follow, follow, follow. when you get back, wait a week and follow instructions. >> what does it mean for the rest of the gop standing in the spotlight? 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[so i use quickbooks and run mye entire business from the cloud. i keep an eye on sales and expenses from anywhere. even down here in the dark i can still see we're having a great month. and celebrate accordingly. i run on quickbooks.that's how i own it. 80% but up to 90% fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. let's do more. add one a day women's 50+ complete multivitamin. with vitamin d and calcium to help support bone health. one a day. with the iowa caucuses on monday, donald trump is once again leading the polls in the hawkeye state. but he has even more commanding leads in new hampshire and south carolina. those of course, the next two primaries on the calendar and it is causing real soul-searching among the gop establishment. joining me now council to mitt romney's presidential campaign and msnbc political analyst ben ginsburg is with us. nice to see you. >> nice to see you. >> let's start with your piece that you just wrote in "politico." you predict an even longer gop primary race. you say 19 weeks? >> well, there are 19 weeks of voting. if the candidates come out of the early four states, four states in february, and sort of muddled position, with different results, then because of changes to the calendar process, it's going to take maybe each of those 19 weeks to sort this out. >> has to all play out. that's a long time. there's a piece in the "new york times" this morning, ross has a piece asking why isn't marco rubio winning? we've been talking about trump so much, i want to talk about rubio. he concludes in this election many republican voters seem to be looking for richard nixon. hard man for hard times you might say which isn't a slogan that fits the boyish first term senator. agree, disagree? >> it may be that marco rubio is the candidate for his times to take over the establishment lane of the republican primary. he's got a lot of tools that he can put to his advantage. >> that sounds like you're a little bit of a fan. >> i am a fan. i'm a fan of all of the candidates. love them all. >> you're not taking sides. in terms of those, if we look at polls now, in single digits, which reason marco rubio, in third in iowa, but behind him, lots of single digits, what needs to happen? do we need a winning in your opinion of the gop field? do some need to drop out? or is there a still a path for each and every one of them? >> there's not a path for each and every win. there a trump lane. a cruz lane. and historically an establishment lane. that's a crowded lane. rubio, christie, kasich, bush. that's where the widowing will take place. but unless there is a real surprise in either iowa or new hampshire, it is hard it see the path. >> is it time right few nor someone to drop or not yet? >> no, candidates never drop until there are votes and they always stay in at least one set of primaries the day. ben ginsburg, thanks so much. straight ahead, donald trump says he's skipping the debate because fox news host megyn kelly will be there. cal perry is on deck with how the two haven't always been at odds. to prove to you that the better choice for him is aleve. he's agreed to give it up. ok, but i have 30 acres to cover by sundown. we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. yeah, i was ok, but after lunch my knee started hurting again so... more pills. yep... another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? for my pain... i want my aleve. get all day minor arthritis pain relief with an easy open cap. thcompetition, it's protecting buscustomer trust.not every day you read headlines about governments and businesses being hacked, emails compromised, and intellectual property being stolen. that is cyber-crime, and it affects each and every one of us. microsoft created the digital crimes unit to investigate and fight cyber crime. we use the microsoft cloud to visualize information, so we can track down the criminals. using our advanced analytics tools, analysis that used to take days to run, we can now see in real time. and we're building what we learn back into the cloud to make people and organizations safer. when it comes to the cloud, trust and security are paramount. our passion is making life tougher for cyber criminals, and making it safer for you and your customers. . we're hours away from the last gop debate before monday's iowa caucus and the current republican front-runner, as you may have herd heard, donald trump, still plans on not attending. the reason to skip it a feud with fox news host megyn kelly. but their relationship was not always so heated. for more, over to msnbc senior editor for video and digital content cal perry. this is interesting. >> i've been waiting all day for this moment. all right. so december 2011, megyn kelly and donald trump are doing an interview and what comes up? debate moderation. take a listen. >> do you really think you're a better moderator than i am? >> no, i could never beat you. that wouldn't be close. no contest. you have done a great job, i mean it. >> if we had video of them pawing at each other's hair. >> no. >> wait. here it comes. what's the deal with the hair? >> i don't -- tell me, is it that bad? >> i didn't say bad. i said, what's the deal? >> i don't know, i get killed on the hair. >> come here. it's not that -- i comb it back. >> there's no receding hairline. >> it's a tiny, tiny receding. >> looks good. >> i am getting older. >> what year? 2011. so tonight, we're all going to be waiting to see of course what's the counterprogramming? that's funny. i love playing that clip. but this serious. this guy has thrown out the play book and tonight i think it's going to be interesting and we'll hear what was the ratings game? did it draw viewers away from fox? did they go elsewhere? did they watch his event? he's not messing around. >> to be clear, he's timed it to start exactly the sam time as the debate starts on fox. >> he will kick his thing off at 9:00 p.m. the time he was supposed to be at podium for fox. i drew viewers away from fox, that's why i'm the man. cal perry, thanks so much. top of the hour, back to des moines, the site of tonight's gop face-off without that front-runner. will trump's absence work against him or for him? 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[dog bark] trust me, we're dealing with a higher intelligence here. ♪ the all-new audi q7 is here. ♪ i'm kate snow. we start this hour with the final republican debate before the iowa caucuses, which if you haven't heard, are just four days away now. donald trump is not going to the debate. inste instead, holding an event to benefit veterans at the same exact time. ted cruz doesn't want to let the front-runner off that easy. he has challenged trump to a separate one-on-one debate. other candidates are taking a different approach to trump's event. two republicans, at least everybody now confirming they will stop by the trump event. we've got it covered for you. chris jansing, takaty tur, chuc todd to break down the information. tonight's main event, with or without donald trump. the last republican debate before caucusgoers make final decisions monday. chris jansing joins me now. chris, set up what it's going to look like without the big elephant in the room. >> that's the big question, right? you can feel the tension. i've been talking to several of the republican campaigns, they tell me it's hard to overstate the importance of this. this was always going to be an important debate. but on the day when you have the new nbc news poll showing donald trump solidifying his lead here and in new hampshire and in south carolina, he's not there to be the target, right. >> so what's going to happen? everybody i've talked to, again, has said, so very important to see how this all plays out. let's start with, first of all, how many people are going to be watching this debate? as you know, these have set records. that will not be the case tonight, likely, as just a few miles down the road donald trump will be holding his own event which will get air time on other networks besides fox. who is going after whom? we have seen this jockeying for position. one word i hear from the campaigns about what they're looking to accomplish tonight or what they're going to look for, it's about margins, how far will the second place be? how far will third place be? whether or not somebody makes a surprise move. right now in all of those polls, what we're seeing is what we've seen for a little while, of course, trump, cruz, and rubio. i just talked to the head of ben carson's campaign, it wasn't so long ago he was the leader here, and i said, what are you looking for? he said that are two alpha males cruz and rubio why everybody else going after them as well. >> it was hillary clinton at the last debate who was the biggest punching bag. do you think it's donald trump tonight? >> that's the question i've been asking everyone and i get a shrug of the shoulders. he might be an obvious target but again, he's not -- he's not going to be losing this. so really the question is, where do you you get poll position? do you get yourself in a situation where people take you seriously as you move forward. to do that, they've got to strategize. for example, one of the things we've been watching is both ted cruz and jeb bush going after marco rubio. we have -- rather, rubio and bush going after ted cruz who is now solidly in second place. both running ads against him. we've seen ted cruz adding some conversation about him into his speech. so, look, there's going to be a lot of back and forth here. but at least early indications that i'm getting, as i've talked to some campaigns is, they're not sure it's all about trump. he'll take some hits about not being there. but they're looking to go after the guy that they think they need to knock out for them to move up in the polls. >> chris jansing, in iowa, thanks so much for setting that all up. while the other top gop candidates are battling on stage, donald trump has his own agenda, while the fox debate is happening in downtown des moines, that donald trump event that we mentioned supposed to take place at drake university. an eight-minute drive from where the rest of the gop will be. katy tur has. covering donald trump for us. you're going to make that trip later. proximity, the timing, none of this is a coincidence? >> i wouldn't say it was. the event starts 8:00 eastern. donald trump is not supposed to, we're being told by the campaign, take the stage until 9:00. of course that is when this debate is supposed to be happening. but there is a lot of caginess about exactly what is going to be going on on the stage and the timing of it all. and they, as you pointed out, are very close to the debate center. donald trump had security, secret service and they do a sweep before each of their events. the reason that would make it easier for her to get into the event from the drake event secret service for the ben carson campaign has gotten in here and done a complete sweep. both are within the bubble. he would be able to get in here, much more easily and quicker than anybody else could have done, say somebody like ted cruz or marco rubio who doesn't -- neither of which have secret service details. also, i'm told by those familiar with the setup, it would take 20 minutes to rejigger the stage, put the podium back in and set up for lighting. i would not count it out that donald trump is not going to make a late appearance at this debate, make a big entrance, grand entrance, if you will, late to the party, make a scene. but so far, the campaign is standing by their word that they are going to be having this fund-raiser at drake university, competing with the debate. >> talking about a fund-raiser to benefit veterans. as far as i understand, money so far is going 0 donald trump's foundation, right? >> yeah. it's going at moment to donald trump's foundation. they set up a website. put in your credit card income, donate, $50,100, $200, d$500, some history of giving money to veterans organizations. we've asked the campaign who this money will be benefiting at the moment and they have not responded to us. we've also reached out to a number of veterans groups including wounded warriors, iava, vote vets and nobody has said they are involved in the fund-raiser. in fact good vets say they are not involved and they don't necessarily want donald trump's money. of course there are dozens upon dozens of veterans organizations out there. it's not for sure that nobody will be involved. but so far we have asked the campaign multiple times for clarity and they have given it to us which we think is odd considering if you're raising money for somebody, wouldn't you want everyone to know who exactly you're raising money for especially nose giving those donations. >> joining me from the site of tonight's debate in des moines, moderator and manager editor of nbc news's "meet the press," chuck todd. your jute sioutside. >> not quite at debate side yet. >> trump's absence, i'll ask one question. if he's not there, what does it mean for the rest of the field? is it good for them. do they get more space, air time? >> it's possible. it may end up benefiting trump more than anybody else. if tonight is a pile-on ted cruz, look, you can sort of -- after five minutes, you know, you're going to get worn out of taking shots at trump and look, everybody has their own agenda. i think chris jansing laid it out very well, every candidate has their own rational of how they're going to get into the top tier. and there's somebody standing in their way. cruz is standing in the way of rubio. rubio's standing in the way of jeb bush. jeb bush is -- and rubio are standing in the way of chris christie and john kasich. i think it's possible it becomes very sort of circular in the attacks. you're trump, that's what you want. you're above the fray, you're not in it. many times in the debates he disappears for chunks of time. he stays out of the fray unless fully engaged. so, at this point, it's funny that you know people are wondering, could he do a grand entrance late? why would he? at this point he's better off staying away. >> and let's talk about our new poll, chuck. this is the new nbc news/"wall street journal"/marist poll. marco rubio -- trump gets attention because he's gained eight points but marco rubio picked up ground, right. he's at 18% in iowa. what does he need to do tonight and moving forward? any way, third place inevitable for him? >> well, it looks like it's inevitable. he's been sitting in third place for a while on that front. compared to when you look at other people competing for the third place spot, rubio's organization is probably more sophisticated than bush, than christie, than kasich. so, this butch in his poll numbers, comes at the exact time that my colleague reported about all of this financial slashing that the rubio campaign had to do. they've had to pull ads ut of iowa, pull spending from new hampshire, pull spending from south carolina. so rubio's in a desperate situation here. he needs momentum out of iowa to send a message to big donors that he's still in this thing, that they should rally around him. i think that gives him -- i think what he needs to do tonight, he's everybody's second choice and not enough people's first choice. i think he needs to figure out, frankly, stop trying to be in the establishment lane, if we're going to play this game. he needs to figure out how to get into cruz's kitchen and take votes away from cruz. he's got to make more of a conservative case and get trust with conservative voters who believe rubio is it, that this ad campaign that bush and cruz have had against him have raised questions about how much of a consistent conservative is marco rubio. he needs to clean that up probably more than -- clean up that part of his campaign and his appeal more than anything else tonight. >> chuck, last quick question. if you were moderating tonight, what subject would you bring up? what question? >> oh, geez. >> what do you want to hear more about? >> no, you know, you say this -- i think it's immigration. it is what animates this party, it is what's dividing them. i don't think you can spend enough time on immigration because, ultimately that is the issue that voters, republican primary voters that's the issue they care the most about. they say national security. what makes them make a decision, kate? what makes them like cruz and not rubio? what makes them like rubio whoever it is. immigration. i think i'd like to see more in the weeds on this, what do you do? instead of hearing about the wall and this and that. that's what republican primary voters, i think, want to understand better, what really is your position on immigration. >> all right. chuck todd, watching it from des moines. thanks so much. great to see you. >> you got it. turning to democrats now, bernie sanders took some time out of his campaign schedule this morning to sit down for breakfast with the bloomberg politics team. joining me now from des moines are two gentlemen at the table, hosts of bloomberg politics "with all due respect" which airs 6:00 eastern time, a couple hours from now. give me headline out of bernie sanders and breakfast and did he drink decaf or regular coffee? >> i'm not sure senator sanders ate very much at all. he spoke at great length with great passion. i -- he was vintage bernie performance. one of the great things about bernie sanders as a candidate, consistency. he joked about it, some people criticize for him saying same things for 30 years. many people consider that a strength of his, as a candidate. he exhibited it all morning long all critiques he's making of the oligarchy, income inequality. he was fired up. >> you had to ask about the washington on ed, a scathing right about bernie sanders, say that it's fantasy, all of his policies. mark, did you ask him? >> he was asked. he was asked about it. he was scathing in return, criticizing "the post" for not accepting the basic premise what he's trying to effectuate is a political revolution. they cite sized him for not being detailed enough in his policies, for not being pragmatic enough. sanders says that's establishment thinking on "the post's" part, he's willing to dream big to effect the change that he consider of a fantasy. >> and with the polls so close -- >> the reason i deferred to john, i wasn't at the breakfast. i had a bacon and ham sandwich to go. i was off seeing bill clinton doing an event. >> i'm sorry. i thought you were both there. >> i took my breakfast to go, i had to drive two hours to go to waverly to see the spouse of the candidate. >> were you -- >> i talked to him on the rope line. he thought for a minute and said, both. and then i discovered something as he was leaving, michael huly, a legendary democratic operative, one of the most talented and influential people, came here to help john kerry win caucuses in 2004, worked with michael dukakis, he's traveling with bill clinton today. i talked to president clinton about that and he was happy to have michael by his side. michael suggesting that he's here to travel with bill clinton. but it does show all hands on deck thing going on here. a lot of clinton people including michael huly in eiowa and throughout the weekend to fight gent bernie sanders. >> michael, suffice to say, many consider him the kaiser of american politics. that's saying it all. >> we were showing bill clinton earlier, he was wearing an american flag, mark, on a sweater. was he wearing that when you saw him? >> he is wearing a sweater. when he walked in the room, waver is a couple of hours from here. excited to see a former president a lot were super excited to see a former president wearing that sweater. >> we'll have to get a shot where you can see the front. >> dressing casual. >> he has been dressing casual. >> it's quite something. >> i've been asking everybody today, if you could ask a question of the republicans tonight, i'll put this to each of you, what subject do you want to hear covered? >> well, look, this close to the caucuses politics matters a lot. substance still matters. policy matters. on the policy side i'm interested in people's plans for deficit reduction. it been one of the most underdiscussed topics on the nomination fight. political side, the question for everybody on the stage who is not ted cruz is, explain to the party why they should vote for you that you can fight with and potentially defeat ted cruz and donald trump. i think everybody else in the stage politically has to make that case or it's meaningless. they can have all of 0 the policies in the world but cruz and trump are so far ahead. >> kate, i'd like to ask them all, why it is they think donald trump is consistently and with apparent -- so much apparent ease able to outsmart them at every turn in this race. >> not sure they'd like that question but we'll take it. great to see you. >> i would be -- trying to be controversial, what can i say? >> see you at 6:00. that's every week night. "with all due respect" here on msnbc. joining me now with more on tonight's debate, someone who knows a thing or two about debates himself, former governor of minnesota, former presidential candidate, tim pawlenty with is us. >> glad to be with you. >> let me have you handicap of what you make of donald trump's actions today, he's probably not going to be there, maybe make a last minute appearance. what do you make of this? >> i don't think he's going to make a last minute appearance. he's put his stake in the ground. i think he should be at the debate. it disrespectful to the process and people of iowa to not be there. in that regard it's a mistake. whether it will hurt him in the polls or not, i doubt it. >> how do you handicap, without him on the stage, with the rest of the field up there, going into monday, four days from now, what are you thinking? do you think, is there room for somebody to shine tonight who hasn't gotten enough attention so far? >> absolutely. i would say this, something unexpected will happen during the iowa caucuses, i doubt it's going according to script, a one-two finish between trump and cruz is not interesting in inc. chaing narrative. if rubio were to move up into the second spot that would be a water shed moment. solid, close third place finish by rubio or somebody like him would be significant. in terms of the debate tonight, there's an opportunity for somebody to step up and become the next big force in this conversation and it's anybody's -- the person most capable and likable and has the most hybrid potential in terms of conservatives, so-called establishment and general communications is marco rubio. >> switching to the democratic race, if i may, for a second, i'd like to play a new ad we've been showing from bernie sanders. then we'll talk. >> goldman sachs, settled with authorities for their part in the crisis that put 7 million out of work and millions out of their homes. how does wall street get away with it? millions in campaign contributions and speaking fees. our economy works for wall street because it's rigged by wall street. >> you work for the financial services roundtable. is that a fair attack from bernie sanders? >> well, i think the 2080 financial crisis was damaging to the economy, very damaging to people all across the country. and there were a lot of unfortunate decisions made not just by wall street but the u.s. government and lots of other institutions across this country. absolutely there's a lot of blame to go around for that. the important part is to make sure it never happens again and also make sure we have an economy that's growing where investment is taking place and good jobs are being provided. if you think of socialist is going to do that, vote for bernie sanders. but i don't think that history shows that's the case. >> let me ask you, i've been asking all of our guests, if you could be a moderate tonight at gop debate, what would you ask about? >> i think there's funny ones but these times are serious. i would ask this, get away from the rhetoric, give us one specific tactic, most important tactic, in your mind, as potential future commander in chief you would use day one, priority one, to defeat isis. what specific tactic would you invoke? >> governor tim pawlenty, former governor of minnesota. cruz campaign up with a new ad in iowa targeting rubio on immigration. details next. you think you're doing all you can for your heart health, ...but 9 out of 10 americans... ...aren't getting enough important omega-3s. bayer pro ultra omega-3 can help, with two times the concentration of omega-3s than the leading brand. love your heart ... with bayer pro ultra omega-3. iall across the state belthe economy is growing,day. with creative new business incentives, and the lowest taxes in decades, attracting the talent and companies of tomorrow. like in the hudson valley, with world class biotech. and on long island, where great universities are creating next generation technologies. let us help grow your company's tomorrow, today at business.ny.gov text mom. i'll be right back. be good. boys have been really good today. send. let's get mark his own cell phone. nice. send. brad could use a new bike. send. [siri:] message. you decide. they're your kids. why are you guys texting grandma? it was him. it was him. keep your family connected. app-connect. on the newly redesigned passat. from volkswagen. as wave been talking about donald trump, there's ted cruz to talk about. solidly in second place, bea hind trump. his supporters are amplifying the texas senator's calls for a cruz versus trump one-on-one debate. msnbc host and political correspondent steve kornacki is here with more about that. he wants this to happen saturday night? >> calling for a one-on-one debate with donald trump. doesn't look like too much interest from the trump campaign. at the same time cruz focusing attacks on donald trump, he's interesting today, having a bit of a strategic shift. he's keeping an eye on trump, who he is chasing for first place in iowa. like talking about before, marco rubio is starting to creep up in these polls out there in iowa. newest poll today, 18% for rubio, seven points behind cruz. cruz seven points behind trump. cruz is as close to third in iowa as first place. whether you have from the cruz campaign, one, incorporating rubio into his speech, attacking donald trump, including marco rubio in the stump speech. also today, without alerting the media, without drawing too much attention to it, the cruz campaign put. an ad attacking marco rubio on immigration saying he betrayed our trust. i think we have a clip of that. >> i will never support, never have, never will support any effort to grant blanket legalization amnesty. >> so it's interesting here, kate, obviously ted cruz wants to win iowa, wants to overtake donald trump. it would be disappointing not to do that. could be more than disappointing. could be very severe consequences. if he were to get caught by a streaking marco rubio here, that could be a bigger problem for him. >> if we had to predict tonight, i bet we see something, one question about that issue. >> oh, yeah. >> rubio and cruz. >> fireworks tonight, rubio versus cruz, what to keep an eye on. bernie sanders and hillary clinton both holding dueling iowa campaign events. just about an hour's drive from each other. both focused on turnout. who has more at stake? so i'm going to take this opportunity to go off script. so if i wanna go to jersey and check out shotsy tuccerelli's portfolio, what's it to you? or i'm a scottish mason whose assets are made of stone like me heart. papa! you're no son of mine! or perhaps it's time to seize the day. don't just see opportunity, seize it! 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he's not going to be sanctioned, he can show up at the next debate fine. >> all the rnc rules do, ben ginsburg, counselor to folks, he said, he's made the point, look, there isn't any real sanction that the party can institute over these kind of issues. the only thing we've seen on the sanction side is that when there was talk about some of the candidates, including trump potentially, not supporting the nominee, they were going to get into him on the ballots, right. >> another place where the rules hit state law. parties are here setting basic parameters, let everybody in if they poll enough, let the news organization set the criteria, if you rotate news organizations. trump could skip tonight and join other debates. fox news did want to lure him back. it doesn't look like that's going to happen. >> ari melber, thanks for following all of that. what the democrats are doing today. bernie sanders, hillary clinton, and bill clinton all in the hawkeye state seeking to round up votes ahead of monday's caucuses. it comes as our new nbc/"wall street journal"/marist poll shows clinton holding on to narrow 3% lead over bernie sanders in iowa, within the margin of air air. joining me from iowa, kristen welker following the clinton campaign. good to see you. bernie sanders kind of upping is attacks or rhetoric against hillary clinton. this was him last night, what he had to say. >> i am delighted to be here with you tonight in mason city. my opponent is not in iowa tonight. she is raising money from a philadelphia investment firm. frankly, i would rather be here with you. >> kristin, any response from the clinton campaign? >> reporter: well, they're pushing back against that characterization, kate. as you can imagine, pointing out the fact that secretary clinton was campaigning here in iowa earlier in the day, and former president bill clinton campaigning here yesterday as well. she did leave for a brief time to go to philadelphia. they've released this picture of secretary clinton meeting with 50 ministers and faith leaders, african-american ministers and faith leaders all around the country in philadelphia, saying they talked about a host of issues, everything from the economy to health care to the crisis in flint. so that's their pushback and secretary clinton has a number of events today, two today, bill clinton four today. the stakes couldn't be higher. that is clear. if secretary clinton wins iowa, it would allow her to solidify her status as front-runner. if bernie sanders wins, it puts him on the map in terms of 0 being a real contender in this race. we had a chance to visit their war rooms here in iowa. bernie sanders in des moines, secretary clinton has an office here in newton, one of the many that she has across the state. here, what some organizationers and volunteers told us. tell me why you're volunteering for hillary clinton. >> she won me over at the benghazi hearings, 11 hours, phenomenal. i thought she held herself up, took good control of the situation. she never lost her temper, which i would have lost my temper, and she can talk to the world leaders. you know, she can develop a relationship. she's done it as secretary of state. >> reporter: you feel like she has the experience. >> no doubt. >> reporter: who when you look at polls, do you get nervous? >> i'm nervous for hillary but that gives me the more reason to be out there for her on that date. >> we also talked to some of bernie sanders' supporters. some of them young, college students, who say that this is a revolution and they want to be a part of it. take a listen to what one of bernie sanders supporters told us yesterday. >> rooting for the underdog but rooting for the underdog that i believe has a strong chance that brings people out. i haven't seen this excitement in for -- so long. there's got to be something about this crazy old guy, right? and i think it's -- i really think it's his authenticity and integrity, he's been on the same track for how long? he doesn't really gravitate away from it. i think that's really what you want in a candidate. >> reporter: kate, it's become a bit of a cliche, but what happens on monday will all be about turnout. if you look at the polls, bernie sanders has a substantial lead when it comes to younger voters, voters under 44. secretary clinton has a big lead among women. some of the voters in the older age groups. if you see a big turnout among younger voters it could mean a big win for bernie sanders. so that's going to be the big question mark. that's what we will be watching. i can tell you their ground games are in full force, reaching out to people throughout the state, urging them to get out and caucus on monday. they're doing that by knocking on doors and on social media, and it all comes down to monday. kate? >> sure does. kristen welker, thanks so much. expecting to hear from bernie sanders any moment now. he's holding a rally with susan sarandon, it comes amid a new campaign spat over the debate schedule that we talked about between the candidates. hillary clinton's campaign lobbying for a debate in new hampshire next week sponsored by nbc news. today the sanders campaign pushing back. joining me now, kasie hunt who caught up with senator sanders earlier today. what did he have to say? >> reporter: kate, good afternoon. i just spoke also with bernie sanders' campaign manager, jeff weaver, a little bit about the statement that the hillary clinton campaign put out this afternoon suggesting that they would be open to a longer debate calendar. we had been talking specifically about a proposed debate in new hampshire but before the new hampshire primary. bernie sanders had said that he would do that only if they extend to three for debates through march, april, and may, and those debates be held in prime time, not on holiday weekends. the sanders campaign, at this point, says they're looking for more clarity as to what the clinton campaign is offering, as far as extending this debate calendar. i caught up with the senator himself earlier today and asked him about whether or not opposing additional debates could backfire on him. why won't you commit to doing a debate in new hampshire when the clinton campaign says they want to do one? >> the clinton campaign does not run the world and it's not my job to do what the clinton campaign simply wants me to do. here's the irony. three, four months ago the clinton campaign did not want more debates. in fact rules from the dnc were written without any input from me at all. and many observers think that they were written to benefit the clinton campaign. if she's prepared to agree to more debates later on, we'll do it. >> reporter: you don't think it could backfire if. >> that suddenly hillary clinton says i want to debate in there's a rule, dnc established rules, we're obeying the rules. i didn't write the rules. now she wants to change the rules? >> reporter: nof course the sanders campaign feeling that the dnc was working secretly with the hillary clinton campaign on this debate schedule or at least that the democratic national committee was doing what they believed would benefit her having these debates, many on weekends, not in the prime hours of the evening. of course, it seems that, to a certain extent, the rules have flipped on hillary clinton. now it seems as though her campaign privately thinks that she's benefiting from being up on stage with bernie sanders. but i will say, when you talk to him about his own debate perf m performances often the next day, hillary clinton standing next to bernie sanders, many pundits and others who are analyzing it say, hillary clinton performed better. i think that there's a feeling among sanders supporters, and from sanders himtself that the people he's energizing the debates for him are a chance for him to listen directly to him and it's benefiting him with the grassroots supporters. >> kasie hunt. a virus that has spread across south and central america is now sparking major concern here in the states. coming up, what you need to do about the zika virus, how it is spread. ibs-d. you know the symptoms when they start. abdominal pain. urgent diarrhea. now there's prescription xifaxan. xifaxan is a new ibs-d treatment that helps relieve your diarrhea and abdominal pain symptoms. and xifaxan works differently. it's a prescription antibiotic that acts mainly in the digestive tract. do not use xifaxan if you have a history of sensitivity to rifaximin, rifamycin antibiotic agents, or any components of xifaxan. tell your doctor right away if your diarrhea worsens while taking xifaxan, as this may be a sign of a serious or even fatal condition. tell your doctor if you have liver disease or are taking other medications, because these may increase the amount of xifaxan in your body. tell your doctor if you are pregnant, plan on becoming pregnant, or are nursing. the most common side effects are nausea and an increase in liver enzymes. if you think you have ibs with diarrhea, talk to your doctor about new xifaxan. ...to cook healthy meals... yet up to 90% fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. let's do more... ...add one a day men's 50+. complete with key nutrients we may need. plus it helps support healthy blood pressure with vitamin d and magnesium. ♪ beth, i hear you calling.♪.s ♪ but i can't come home right now... ♪ ♪ me and the boys are playing.♪. ♪ ... all nig♪t text beth, what can i do... [siri:] message. pick up milk. oh, right. milk. introducing the newly redesigned passat. from volkswagen. when you're on hold, your business is on hold. that's why comcast business doesn't leave you there. when you call, a small business expert will answer you in about 30 seconds. no annoying hold music. just a real person, real fast. whenever you need them. so your business can get back to business. sounds like my ride's ready. don't get stuck on hold. reach an expert fast. comcast business. built for business. the world health organization has called for an emergency meeting on monday to decide if the spread of the zika virus should be classified as an international health mj sip the zika virus transmitted through mosquitoes suspected of causing birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and deformed brains. tom costello has been following this closely and he's here with more. i've been talking to experts on this, the top people at nih, top people of the cdc as well as top research institutions in texas, arizona. kate, here's where we stand now. as it relates to what's happening south of our border, 4200 cases now in brazil, a baby with microcephaly and believe we'll have 3 million to 4 million people infected with zika virus in the southern hemisphere this year alone, most in brazil. however, what is going to happen in the news most of the experts here in the united states do not think that we're going to have big influx of these mosquitoes south of the border and into the united states. and there's a number of reasons for that. number one, we don't have the kind of deep poverty that you see out of brazil. in other words, stagnant water, trash piled up, people living on top of each other like in the barrios outside rio, we don't have that. second, we have good mosquito control efforts in place. they've been very effective in keeping dengue fever, for example, at low levels already. cold weather prevents the mosquitoes from moving too far north. and a variety of other reasons they don't think that we're going to be seeing a mass problem in the united states. but they are taking it seriously. today they actually put out the call for researchers around the country to join the effort, this is quite interesting, asking for public researchers in government, also at academic institutions, also working for pharmaceutical companies to join the effort in the fight against zika. at the earliest they don't think we'll have a working vaccine for several years. they hope to have a first-stage clinical trial this year but not a rollout for years down the road. so, they believe it's a top priority. and the last point i would make is while we have 31 cases of zika in the united states, all people who contracted it abroad, came back to the united states, they note that for 80% of us, if we were to get mosquito bite and get the zika virus, we probably wouldn't even know it. and those who do get it are, for the most part, experiencing symptoms of a mild flu and it passes within a week. it's really about pregnant women, as we've said so many times, who are bitten by a mosquito, who have the zika virus, that's the concern because they believe there is a causal connection to microcephaly. >> costello, thank you. dr. emmanuel, chair of health policy for the university of pennsylvania. nice to see you. >> nice to be back. >> the world health organization says it's spreading, this virus is spreading ex-pleasively, their term, in the americas. we heard tom costello say he's talked to experts in the states who aren't worried this would become a pandemic. what's your view? >> it is unlikely to become a pandemic, and the mosquito that carries this virus is pretty much limited to the southern states around the gulf from texas through louisiana, mississippi, alabama, georgia, florida. it doesn't really go much further north. so it's a limited geographic spread. nonetheless, there are millions of people around the americas infected and that does create a problem. i would also idea that, while microcephaly, the small size of a newborn infant is the major worry, there is another outcome where the virus seems to induce an immune response that affects the spinal cord of the disease that can temporarily paralyze someone and cause problems. they saw an increase in that disease in the french poll lynn neeza. there are neurological problems separate from just the small brain. >> and to be clear, that problem could happen to anyone, not just pregnant women? >> right. not just pregnant women. it's a problem that can seem to afflict everyone. it is rare, and as your correspondent noted, you know, the vast majority of people who get infected don't even know it, really have no symptoms. >> in terms of how, i don't know, how concerned we should all be, especially if you're a pregnant woman, there's enough to worry about all with prenatal care and now hearing watch out for mosquitoes, it can be scary. what's your best advice? >> i think people should be calm and put the risks in context. so if you're an average citizen, your risk of something serious happening besides zika virus, road accident or some other problem is higher than having a problem from the zika virus. that's important. on the public health standpoint, i do think this is a serious concern and we really do need to recognize that in the past few years between ebola, zika virus, the worry that is present in the public health community about influenza pandemic, we do have concern about infectious diseases and we need to take them, the diseases that seem to company out of the blue, more seriously and really do a better job -- not a better job, but beef up our efforts of monitoring for these infectious diseases. we sort of cut back our support of that and i think the cdc does need to be -- have its resources bosted for monitoring potential infectious diseases. >> when we had the ebola crisis we monitored people at airports from west africa. would you suggest we start watching folks -- >> that's not going to work here. first of all, most people have no symptoms, asking them about symptoms isn't going to be helpful for the vast majority of people, and again, vast majority of people, there's no serious consequence for them. so that's not going to be a very effective technique. plus, it's not communitiny kaable person to person or doesn't appear to be. so the worry that we have with the ebola isn't presence with this virus. >> any treatment, is there any vaccine? >> as you heard in your report, no vaccine, no candidate vaccine. we've got a long research and development process to go through. the minimum time i've heard is three years and that sounds to me pretty overly optimistic. >> thanks for your time. >> thank you. >> here's kate rogers with the cnbc market wrap. >> markets closing higher today, the dow up 125 points, the s&p gaining 10, the nasdaq rising 39 points. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ (is committed to truth on thee plabel.d when we say real meat is the first ingredient, it is number one. and we leave out corn, wheat and soy. learn more at beyondpetfood.com made a simple tripvere chto the grocery storeis anything but simple. so finally, i had an important conversation with my dermatologist about humira. he explained that humira works inside my body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to my symptoms. in clinical trials, most adults saw 75% skin clearance. and the majority were clear or almost clear in just 4 months. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. ask your dermatologist about humira. because with humira clearer skin is possible. yothat's lactaid®.k! right. 100% real milk, just without the lactose. so, no discomfort? exactly. try some... mmm, it is real milk. lactaid®. 100% real milk. no discomfort. to help pay for her kids' ice time. before earning 1% cash back everywhere, every time. and 2% back at the grocery store. even before she got 3% back on gas, all with no hoops to jump through. katie used her bankamericard cash rewards credit card to stay warm and toasty during the heat of competition. that's the comfort of rewarding connections. apply online or at a bank of america near you. you might be happy to know, now that you've put out your medical report, your doctor's given you the marks of good health, doctors who have looked that the report say you are a remarkably fit 74-year-old. >> i know, i am. you know what i'm thinking of doing? >> not with me. not with me. >> a tough decision. do i get involved in senior boxing? challenge, go for the light heavyweight -- light heavyweight or run for president? i decided to run for president. >> bernie sanders having fun, sparring with nbc's andrea mitchell hours after his medical report was released giving him a pretty clean bill of health. in a letter sent out by the campaign today, his doctor of 26 years said, the senator is, quote, in overall very good health, and for a closer look at what those medical records show, joined by our own doctor, natalie azar, medical contributor. they all put out their medical records so we can see what it looks like. br breakdown of stats, blood pressure, 136/81, cholesterol, 196, pulse 72. >> total cholesterol, fantastic, want it below 200. pulse excellent. the blood pressure's a one-time reading. you weren't blood pressure to be 120/80. >> little high? >> the first number, a little high. it's in the prehypertension stage, it's not quite hypertension. but that's easily treatable with a medicine. he's a very healthy person. >> seems like it. treated for a few things. mentioned issues that he's had with cholesterol, mentioned esophageal reflux, lumbar strain. >> right. >> things that are typical for someone his age? >> typical for someone who is 30. i was impressed by his list. i was. he has no history -- think about it, cardiovascular disease is one we worry about. sounds like he has, you know, he doesn't have familiarle hyper lipidimia. he's not on any cholesterol medici medicine. that means good genetics. he could be treated for blood pressure if needed. he's on thiyroid medicine and intermittently treated for gout. it good. >> lester holt had a chance to talk. he asked about his age. he talked about his health. >> thank god i am in good health. and as a former long distance runner, i was a pretty good milder in high school, did running in college, and my endurance is strong. >> so again, he's got the endurance and you need endurance on the campaign trail. its a slog out there. >> you do. think about where he is in his life, kate. there are things he can't change right now. he can't change the fact that he's a man, he can't change family history and his age. all of the other things that we call modifiable, if he can keep exercising, continues to not smoke, if he watches his health and numbers and whatnot, he could theoretically be, you know, younger than a 60year-old or 55-year-old who has a worst gene pool, let's say, and worse lifestyle behavior. i really have to reiterate, he's healthier than a lot of my patients. >> 74, if elected, he would be 75 on inauguration day. >> yeah. >> making him the country's oldest president. could be interesting. >> we'll see. >> thanks for breaking that down. i'm kate snow. "mtp daily" begins right now. >> if it's thursday, it's the last republican debate before iowa and it's hours from now. we already know that donald trump thinks he's the winner by not being there. you know what? he may be right depending how things go tonight. because the question is, who has more to lose at this debate? marco rubio or ted cruz? this is "mtp daily" live from des moines. we start right now. >> good evening. welcome to "mtp daily."

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