Email story do to Hillary Clintons chances . I never sent or received any email marked classified. Can Bernie Sanders pull the upset and end the idea that her nomination is inevitable. Theyre going to throw everything they have at us. Sanders joins us this morning. Im chuck todd in des moines, iowa. Joining me here for insight and analysis are tom brokaw of nbc news, Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register, joyann read of msnbc and david brody of christian broadcasting network. Cruz, rubio, paul, sanders, the candidates are all here. Were going to do our own caucus. Welcome to sunday and a special edition of meet the press. From des moines, iowa, this is a special edition of meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Theyre here. The iowa ku kus caucuses. It all happens tomorrow night. West end architectural salvage, a coffee shop that also sells custom and vintage furniture. And of course the candidates are here, all here, all over iowa in fact, on this last full day before the caucuses, the 13 candidates campaigning in iowa are holding 13 38 events making lastminute pitching hoping iowa will become the first step on the road to nomination. We couldnt be more excited or heavily caffeinated. Stay tuned for our Christmas Eve of politics. We start with the latest bloomberg poll. Put it up on the screen on the republican side, trump with a fivepoint lead over ted cruz, marco rubio in third at 15 and ben carson still in double 5. And the democratic race its Hillary Clinton continuing to hold a nor row threepoint lead over Bernie Sanders 4542. We got a lot to get to this morning. The latest developments in the Hillary Clinton email story, later. Marco rubio and rand paul are standing here at west end salvage, but we begin with his own admission needs a win here in iowa to keep the Trump Campaign from being in his word, unstoppable unstoppable. Senator cruz, welcome back to meet the press. Chuck, good morning. Good to be with you. Your campaign i take it doesnt believe the Des Moines Register poll. You believe youre ahead. What i found was interesting if you add up the other candidates that are going after evangelical voters, ben carson, Mike Huckabee, rick santorum, theyre 14 if you add it to the 23 youll be the runaway winner here. Is ben carson going to cost you iowa . Listen, at the end of the day this race was always going to come down to do conservatives unite. Ten months ago you and i visited right at the outset. If youd told me ten months ago that the day before the Iowa Caucuses we would be in a statistical tie for first place, i would have been thrilled and astonished. And we are thrilled and astonished. The question is going to come 36 hours from now, do conservatives come together . In past cycles what washington has always wanted is to splinter and divide conservatives. If that happens youre worried about that a little bit. The only way i know how to run theres the only joke, two ways to run, scared and unopposed. The only way i know how to run is scared. And were going to run hard every minute. You know, tomorrow were going to complete the full grass. We will have been to all 99 counties in iowa. We are campaigning one after the other asking for the votes of the men and women of iowa and focusing on the grass roots and ground game. You believe if trump wins here hes unstoppable . Not necessarily well, you said it. Our friend caught you on tape there. Actually, what i said he could be. That iowa his winning here would give him momentum. No doubt about it. Hes in a strong position in New Hampshire. And the people of iowa if they want a strong principled conservative, the people of iowa can impact that powerfully 36 hours from now. Monday night at 7 00 p. M. And, you know, i think the stakes are too high to get this wrong. You know, the most common sentiment you hear from people is theyre frustrated with theyre frustrated with politicians. They say one thing and do another. We cant get burned again. And that frustration, the reason that i see conservatives uniting behind our campaign is theyre looking for a consistent conservative, someone they can trust to be a fiscal conservative, a social conservative and a National Security conservative. At the beginning of this month you led in the polls. Donald trump went after you, sometimes viciously, okay, on various things. And it seemed to work. The reason trumps ahead is his attacks on you. Punch . Oh, listen, anyone that has millions of tens of millions of dollars of attack ads run against them is going to have an impact. Will you be able to survive a race with Hillary Clinton . Absolutely. Its going to be tough. This is just two weeks. Listen, the fact theyre all shooting at me six weeks ago everyone shooting at trump. Now all the republican candidates are shooting at me. Race. And ill note, donald, youre right, six weeks ago donald his friend, he was singing my praises. Then his poll numbers started dropping. Our numbers started surging. And suddenly he began blasting me, not on policy, not on substance but on personal insults and attacks. And, chuck, my approach consistently both before and after he started doing that is not to respond in kind. I think the people of iowa deserve better than insults. So my focus is policy and substance and record and who will be a consistent proven conservative. Why did you suddenly stop going after trump on paid ads and going after in your campaign attack marco rubio . How concerned are you about senator rubio catching you here in iowa . Listen, we are drawing contrast, both trump and marco are attacking me. Theyre attacking me with all their might. And were drawing contrast. And the contrasts are clear. The contrasts by the way are substantive and policy based. A vote for marco rubio is a vote for amnesty. A vote for donald trump is a vote for obamacare. If you look at their positions, marco rubio right now is a advocating amnesty, advocating citizenship for 12 Million People here illegally. And donald trump right now as a candidate is advocating fullon expanding obamacare to make it socialized medicine. Donald trump and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have the identical position on health care, which is they want to put the government in charge of you and your doctor. Now, my views are polar opposite opposites of both of those. If im elected there will be no amnesty, we will secure the border. If im elected we will repeal every word of obamacare. So that gives a clear and simple choice for the voters. Lets talk about two issues here that seem to be potentially tripping you up here in iowa. One is ethanol. You are have come out against these subsidies. Youve called it a grave ri train. A lot of iowans including the republican governor doesnt like it. Im going to put these numbers, isnt it understandable why iowans like these subsidies. Ethanol and biodiesel support more than 46,000 jobs, generated 2. 5 billion for iowan unemployment under 4 . This is an important part of their economy. Absolutely. And, listen, my view on energy we should pursue all of the above. We ought to be pursuing every energy source. Youll be hurting their economy. But with no mandates and sub di u si subsidies. The people attacking me are lobbyists and democrats. His son is a lobbyist who makes hundreds of thousands on lobbying ethanol. His family makes a ton of money. The lobbyists very much want to keep iowa focused on the ethanol mandate because it keeps iowa dment dependent on washington. Means every year they have to go back to washington and maintain the mandate, lobbyists get paid, politicians get paid. No subsidies for oil and gas, no subsidies for anybody. But the other piece thats very important and resonating is im going to also tear down the epas ethanol blend wall, which means make it legal to sell midlevel blends of ethanol. Ethanol share of the marketplace by 60 but not based on mandates market. Its so clear you spent a lot of time in iowa look at you talking about midlevel fuel sales. At the end of the day, how does this not hurt the iowa economy . Thats what governor branstad is saying. A vote for you is going to hurt the economy. But, chuck, the point i made this actually would expand the iowa economy. Right now ethanol is banging into the rfs. Its essentially the blend wall is a cap. As people in iowa knownprv as ive traveled around and do town halls, ethanols not expanding its market share because the epa is preventing it from doing it. By the way, no other candidate has pledged to remove the blend wall. No other candidate is focusing on the future for ethanol. And you know someone who joined me on my bus tour across the state, fellow named dave vandergrind, he built more than half the ethanol plants in the state of iowa. Hes the one who estimates you you know whos hurt by my plan . The lobbyists in washington and the people who are helped are iowa farmers and jobs here in the state of iowa. One final question, you talk about Ronald Reagan a lot. You talk about you want to sort of have a presidency like his. He famously had a terrific oneil oneil. He got stuff done. Are you and nancy pelosi going to be able to get stuff done . How . In my entire time of the senate ive treated every member of the senate with civility and respect. I dont think Mitch Mcconnell would say that. As others attack me, i dont respond in kind. When donald trump calls me a respond with an yun insult. In fact, ill sing donalds praises. I like donald. I think hes bold and brash. I think hes been too willing to get a deal and grow government and support cronyism, but thats a policy digs tings. At the end of the day why was because he built a Grassroots Movement that reagan revolutioned that turned this thats what were doing. Weve got 12,000 volunteers in iowa and its all about turnout. If conservatives want a principled conservative to not get burned again, they need to come out monday night 7 00 p. M. Im going to leave it there. Senator cruz, you have to finish the full grassley. My next guest florida senator marco rubio under sustained attack from the Cruz Campaign in recent days. In fact, take a look at this ad they put out on rubios immigration stance. I am not and i will never support, never have and never will support any to grant blanket legalization amnesty. Marco rubio was part of the amnesty. One of the architects of the plan senator marco rue yoeb bio. It was marco rubio a member of the gang of eight and ted cruz that wasnt. And senator marco rubio joins me now. The press. Thank you. You just had a nice friendly hug with senator cruz there. Thats not such a fraend iendly ad here. It goes to the issue of the gang of eight. Actually no, no, let me can you explain the issue of amnesty . Define amnesty . The ad is deceitful, actually talks about cap and trade, it stops my statement right when i start explaining that im against cap and trade and Big Government mandates. The gang of eight was a bill that was thats not that was dealt with three years ago as an effort to fix our immigration laws. It was the best that could be done in a senate controlled by harry reid at the time. The hope was that the house would take it up and make it better, but it was a way to start that. In the absence of progress thats how barack obama has now forced on america not one but two unconstitutional executive orders that seek to actually legalize people here with no enforcement. Now, thats not the way were going to do it when im president. When im president , when im the nominee, were going to keep our majority in the house and senate and were going to pass first that secure our border. And until that is in place, were not going to be able to do anything else. Thats the lesson of the last ten years. The American People we do not have the Political Support to do it all at once. They do not trust the federal government to enforce immigration laws. And as a result the key that unlocks the door to make progress on illegal immigration is to bring illegal immigration under control first. And we will do that when im president. Ive had a lot of republicans in iowa that ive talked to who really like you and then they say why wont he repudiate the gang of eight . Thats not how were going to do it when im president. Thats not going to be the law that well pass do you regret ever being involved . Look, i tried to fix a problem. This is a real problem. Where are we today . We are worse off today than we were five years ago. We have more Illegal Immigrants here. We have two unconstitutional executive orders on amnesty. I went to washington to fix a problem. Immigration is a serious problem. It impacts my state and the state that i live in. We are impacted by illegal this issue has to be dealt with. Each year it gets harder to solve, more difficult to solve, but it is now clear more than ever before that you are not going to be able to do anything on immigration until you first bring illegal immigration under control and prove it to people. Not just pass a law that says it and thats how were going to do it when im president. You have eluded to the fact that majority is not yet sort of where you might be on what to do for instance with the undocumented. Do you think this is whats holding your campaign back . That the difference between third and second or third and first for you is your immigration position . No, look, we had 11 people running for president that are running competitive campaigns. 11 people on the ground in iowa spending money, campaigning, working hard themselves to gain voters. So a lot of this is segmented right now. Ted cruz is clearly the frontrunner in iowa. He has 10,000 volunteers, spent millions of dollars here, got every endorsement he wanted. So we always knew that going in, but we feel really good about the progress were making here. We have taken on more negative attacks than every other candidate combined. Uper pac basically spent a third of its money attacking me and yet we keep growing and feel positive about it. We feel positive about what its going to mean monday night in iowa and New Hampshire. You brought up the cap and trade issue. Ill play the full quote of what you said. Florida should position itself for what i believe is inevitable and that is a federal cap and trade program. Florida should doeverything it can to be an early come plier so it can access early compliance funds and help influence what that cap and trade looks like at the federal level. So im in favor of giving the department of Environmental Protection a mandate that they go out and design a cap and trade or a Carbon Tax Program and bring it back to the legislature for ratification some time in the next two years. All right. We gave you full context there. No, you didnt. Theres more after that clip. Well explain. No it does come across as youre saying its inevitable so florida has to prepare. But what you just played is not the full clip. Right after that i said im not in favor of implementing it. Im in favor of them bringing it i do not support Big Government mandates. The context of that that was in 2006 and 07 when the leading candidates for president were john mccain, barack obama, Hillary Clinton. All three supported cap and trade. And i was the speaker of the house and i said there is a chance that the federal government will pass cap and trade. Im not in favor of it. But if they do, we have to be prepared to comply with that requirement even if we dont like it. And i dont want it to cost the state of florida money to have to comply. Everyone knew it. The democrats knew that position. When charily christ proposed cap and trade, i was the first person to speak out of it in a full oped in the miami herald. Right after that theres even more. This gets at what sort of i think is the challenge for all of the candidates on both sides is youre basically saying, look, you got to sometimes govern with what you have, not with what you want. Right. But the voters they want more than that. The voters seem angry. Theyre not satisfied with this idea that, you know, youre doing the you got to work with what you have in washington, not with what you want. Thats true. I think voters understand to solve problems its going to take the ability to work with people you dont agree with on a bunch of other issues. I think people understand my Student Loan Debt in america is a huge problem. Were not going to have free college, but i think theres a bipartisan way to work on helping with student loan. Thats why i work with mark warner on it and worked with issue. There are issues that were not going to agree on. Repealing obamacare, thats why we have elections. So i think if theres a chance to Work Together and you dont you Work Together. But there are issues where you cant do that. Thats why we have elections and debate and all those sorts of things in america. Why are you the personally most popular republican candidate, pretty much here, you and ben carson here neck and neck, but overall nationally you have the highest favorable rating. Why arent you higher . Again, i think it goes back to the fact there are now 11 people running for president of the United States, running competitive campaigns. I mean, these are not thirdrate candidates. Of major companies, serious people. And former senator rick santorum. And theyre campaigning hard. So youve got the voters have a lotd of choices. I think once the race narrows i feel pretty good about our prospects. Thats the question a lot of your donors, where do you im running for president of the United States. But you need to win eventually. We will. Heres how we win, we win by having more delegates than anybody else u anyone else and more than half the delegates. Im confident were going to achieve that. I dont think youre going to really get clarity on this race