Good morning. The president ial campaign with took a turn overnight, with donald trump raising questions about ben carson. Carson demanding an apologize and donald trump is standing by live to respond. And Bernie Sanders sparks the sharpest contrast with Hillary Clinton. Echoing the iowa speech that launched Barack Obamas launched Barack Obamas campaign eight years ago. Good morning, david. Good morning, george. Bernie sanders never mentioned her by name. As he ticked down the issues, the environment, the iraq war, samesex marriage, he made the case that his views havent changed with the polls, sharp elbows there just as clinton was beginning to breathe easy. Just 99 days until the Iowa Caucuses and Hillary Clinton is enjoying a comeback. Fans and supporters gathered early, serenaded by pop star katy perry, dressed like a patriotic superhero. Hillary clinton is the woman of the hour, but does she have the nomination locked down . Got a warm reception last night. Im not running for my husbands third term and im not running for Barack Obamas third term. Im running for my first term reporter but dont count your opponents out just yet. Everybody saying its all over d you not get the message . Vermont senator Bernie Sanders laughs off that suggestion. I think we are going to prove the pundits wrong again. I believe were going to make history one more time. Reporter hes now taking some of his sharpest shots yet at clinton. Calling her out for flipflopping on the president s new trade deal, for instance. Clinton had called it the Gold Standard, now, shes against it. That agreement is not now nor has it ever been the Gold Standard of trade agreements. I did not support it yesterday. I do not support it today. And i will not support it tomorrow. Reporter still, it caps off what may be clintons best week since she announced her candidacy. Not only did three potential rivals, including Vice President biden, clear out of her path, but she managed to hold her own at the benghazi hearing. Im sorry that it doesnt fit your narrative, congressman, i can only tell you what the facts were. Reporter but clintons worst enemy could still be herself, theres still that fbi investigation of her email server and the fact that shes a partisan lightning rod. Hillary clinton. Hillary clinton. Hillary clinton. Reporter her own remark calling republicans enemies prompted biden to chastised her. I dont consider republicans enemies, theyre friends. Reporter clinton still needs to prove that she can unite people. Her nomination is clearly hers to lose. The fact on the ground here is katy perry aside, Bernie Sanders is generating more excitement as measured by larger crowds and smaller donations. Hes a force to be reckoned with. Things also heating up on the republican side. Latest polls show ben carson taking the lead from donald trump, but trump is still nationwide. Hell join us live after this report from tom llamas. Reporter for the 3,000 who turned out to hear donald trump in florida saturday, a different message from the brash billionaire. Im number two. In iowa. I said i dont believe it. Reporter trump, who likes citing his lead in the polls, now raising questions about them. After two new polls show him slipping to second place in iowa and trump taking new shots at the man in the lead, ben carson. Carson is controlled by his past. Carson is lower energy than bush. Reporter but it was this comment referencing carsons religion. Im presbyterian, thats down the road, folks. I mean seventh day adventist. I dont know about. Reporter that has the former neurosurgeon calling for an apology. You know, a couple of months ago i said something that he took as an attack on his faith and i apologized for that. I hope he will have the same grace. Reporter the trump carson showdown one to watch. Another, can jeb bush make a comeback . The man who just months ago was the frontrunner, slashing his campaigns payroll by 40 on friday. We made an adjustment in our campaign. Thats what leaders do. Reporter and finally, are senator ted cruz and senator marco rubio set to rise . But senator ted cruz said he will not attack trump at the debate because hes admires how trump has framed this race. Trump still the clear frontrunner when it comes to National Polls. On the republican side. George . Tom, thanks very much. Lets bring in mr. Trump right now, thank you for joining us again this morning, mr. Trump. And lets begin with those comments about ben carsons religion, seventh day adventist, i dont know about that, what were you trying to say . Well, i dont i know nothing about it. Im a presbyterian. I said i dont know about it. I just really dont know about the seventh day adventist. I just you know, and thats what i said. Why raise it at all . Were you trying to send a dog whistle to them because ben carson is beating you among evangelicals in iowa . No, not at all. But, no, not at all. I just dont know about that particular religion. Back to my question, why raise it . Because i just said, i dont know about it. I said nothing about it. I would never say bad about any religion. I think you just had a quote on, i said exactly, i dont know about it, so, you know. Its not an insult. Ben carson has asked for an apology, will you give it to him . Well, i didnt say anything bad about it. I just dont know about it. I would certainly give an apology if i said anything bad about it. Youre not going to apologize to ben carson. Lets talk about some of the policy differences with mr. Carson now that youre the top two candidates on the republican side. He says your deportation claim is not practical. It could cause collapse of parts of the agricultural sector. Well, its totally practical and they can legally come in with work visas and other ways to come and solve agricultural problems if they have that. But, frankly, ben is extremely weak as you know on illegal immigration and we cant have that now, we have to have a country of borders. You cant be weak for immigration. Hes for amnesty and im for a very strong border. If we had strong borders, you might have the collapse, the big story a couple of days ago, the collapse and the attack of the World Trade Center. We have very weak rules on immigration and im for making them strong and solid like a country should have, and bens very weak on that subject. He says you havent spelled out how you can deport those undocumented aliens in the country right now, will you do that . Yes, and through very Good Management that will happen. People who have outstanding records will come back in. And theyll come back in legally, theyll come back in legally so we have the country. The bad ones, i have been so right on that subject and i think its one of the reasons im leading in virtual ly every National Poll and every state poll, frankly, including, by the way, some in iowa. But its one of the reasons is illegal immigration. Theyll come in legally. The ones that are bad, and we have some real bad ones in this country, theyre going to get out so fast your head will spin. On health care, ben carson has called for Health Savings accounts. He says that he wants to shift money from Health Spending to these accounts. He said under his plan, medicare probably wont be necessary. What do you think of that . I think its a very down the middle idea that works. One thing we have to do is repeal and replace obamacare, it is a disaster, peoples i dont know if you have been watching lately peoples premiums are going up 35 , 45 , 55 . Their deductibles are so high nobody is going to be able to use it. 5 billion website. That was really the beginning of the end, obamacare is a disaster. If you agree with this Health Savings accounts idea, do you agree with medicare wont be necessary . Well have to look at it. Health savings account is a very good idea. Its an idea whose probably time has come. Bottom line, is ben carson your number one challenger right now . In iowa, he is. Not everywhere else. Because everywhere else, all different people all over the lot. New hampshire is totally different. In new hampshire, i have a massive lead and we have different seconds. You look at different states, it seems to be a lot of different people. But certainly in iowa, he got a lot of pr by going a little bit ahead of me in iowa. But well see what happens. But well see what happens. Because i find it hard to believe, i was in iowa three days ago, we had such an unbelievable turnout i find it difficult to believe im in second place. Lets talk about jeb bush, as we know, he made severe cuts in his campaign and his budgets, he said yesterday, he doesnt want to sit around and see gridlock. Thats not my motivation. I got a lot of other cool things than sitting around, being miserable. Thats a joke. Elect trump if you want that. What do you think, elect trump . Well, all im saying is hes not going to get the job done. He doesnt have the temperament for it. I used the word energy and by the way, carson is a very low energy person, also. Hey, look, were being ripped off by the entire world. Our trade deals with china, with japan, with mexico, with everybody, we lose with every single thing, you need somebody thats done it before, somebody who has that real ability to bring our country back, to make our country rich again, and we can do that. And therefore, without the money, without the rich, we cant make it great again, george. Jeb bush doesnt have that. Its not for him. And i hate to see whats happening with him but his campaign is a disaster. Hes paid one person 1. 3 million, some finance director. 1. 3 million, thats almost more than i paid for my whole deal. When you look at what i have done, im number one in virtually every poll and i spent less money than any other candidate thats running. Are you going to have to start spending that money on ads in iowa . I dont mind doing that at all. By the way, ben carson, you know, ben is spending a lot of money on ads. His superpac is running iowa for him. Im asking everyone to disavow their superpacs. I dont want any money from anyone. Im selffunding my campaign. Ben is being led by his superpacs. Theyre doing a lot of the work for him, and thats not supposed to be happening. Thats not the way its supposed to work. There was a remarkable focus group run in indianapolis. Among republican voters, had some good things to say about you, but also you might be divisive. Hes going to offend everyone. Hes intolerant and has a lack of empathy. Calling everybody idiots theyll just get mad at them. Hes a hothead. He just he doesnt listen. Are you going to have to change your approach . Well, i dont think so. Because, you know, one by one theyre dropping out, i was against 16 other candidates and, you know, im being divisive right now because i want to win. I know how to win. Thats what i have to do. Ultimately, if i do win, im going to be a great unifier, for the country. The country right now is terribly divided by a president who doesnt know how to lead. And hes a very divisive person. I will be a great unifier. How are you going to be a unifier when you said yesterday the country is going to hell if Hillary Clinton gets elected . Well, i think thats true. I think that if Hillary Clinton gets elected the country will go further down. We owe 19 trillion, were the laughingstock all over the world. Our military doesnt perform because its not allowed to perform and its not in great shape as you know. All you have to do is speak to the generals, its probably in the worst shape its been in 50 years. Our country is in serious trouble. We make deals for bergdahl and the iran pact. No, our country is in bad shape. And if we have hillary it will just get worse. Finally, jeb bushs adviser is said hes going to position himself who can fix a broken washington and focus on National Security, are you ready for that and what is your debate sttegy . I think thats excellent to focus on. Dont forget, in my book writtenn 2000, i was one that predicted Osama Bin Laden was trouble and you better do something about him. Guess what, 19 months later, he knocked down the World Trade Center and killed thousands of americans. I put it in a book. A couple of your competitors said, whoa, trump actually mentioned Osama Bin Laden and we better do something about him or were going to have problems. That was before the World Trade Center came down. I know much more about this stuff than bush and everybody else running. Believe me. Donald trump, thanks very much for your time this morning. Thank you very much, george. Up next, the chair of Hillary Clintons campaign is standing by live to respond to donald trump. Plus, dramatic new video inside that Deadly Special operations rescue in iraq, the First American killed in combat operations against isis. Announcer this week with George Stephanopoulos brought to you by egglands best. Chair of Hillary Clintons campaign is standing by live, john podesta up next. You want to have a mess of a country, you want to have nothing but problems, you want to have a country thats going to go to hell, you have hillary elected president , youre going to have a country thats going to hell. Ill tell you right now. Donald trump in jacksonville yesterday. Im joined now by john podesta, chair of Hillary Clintons campaign, welcome to this week. You just saw donald trump double down that comment. John, your response. Look, trump makes your head spin and i think that, if he is a person who thinks he can actually lead this country, its just shocking that what he says, what he said about ben carson, what he said on your show this morning about deciding today that he needs to repeal medicare. Every day is a new day with him. He just hurls insults across the board. How do you explain in some of these National Polls hes ahead of her . Well, look, we feel very good where the campaign is today. In most of the National Polls were ahead of him and i think that the we feel very good of where we are today in terms of winning the nomination. And i think, kind of moving forward, if hes to nominee of the Republican Party, thats a matchup works very well for us. Shes out listening to the American People, offering Real Solutions and hes out, you know, hurling insults. And like i said, i think people find him entertaining, not me so much. Bernie sanders last night stepping it up against Hillary Clinton, pointing out those five issues where he suggested that shes shifted and he has always been strong. The message is pretty convicting. Line of attack worked for barack obama. Would it work now . I dont think so. I think that hillary has been consistent in the fight shes fought during her entire career. She started right out of law school fighting for women, fighting for children. Fighting to make the country a better place and thats what shes doing. Shes out listening to people, talking to them about the problems that keep them up at night and shes providing affirmative solutions. I think shes looking to the future. I think her speech last night really put forward a positive vision of where the country can be and i think shes got the experience and shes got the mettle obviously to fight those fights on behalf of the middleclass americans. I think Bernie Sanders had a course correction in the jj dinner from one in which he said hes not going to go negative to focusing his fire on her. You know, you have had a good run in this campaign, but David Axelrod and others have observed that Hillary Clinton seems to be better when her back is up against the wall. Does he have a point . I think that what shes demonstrated is that she has the grit and the determination to go out and fight for the nomination, fight for every vote and shell be doing that. I think theres no chance that she will, you know, rest on one or two good appearances. Shes oubs obviously in my view, she won the democratic debate. She had a tremendous performance and endured 11 hours before the socalled Benghazi Committee, but thats, you know, last night, i think, she did an outstanding dinner in iowa. Were out there fighting for every vote. Building a Strong Organization across the country. And i think, if anything, from her experience in 2007 and 2008, you got to keep your nose to the grindstone every day, fight for every vote, tell people what you want to do for them. She did get good reviews generally for those 11 hours in front of the benghazi hearings. Several members of committee have raised questions about the new emails. That email listen to hugh hewitt and carly frina right now. Do you think Chelsea Clinton is cleared to receive that information on an ongoing terrorist attack . Well, thats a really interesting question. I doubt it. I doubt it. Is there a difference between that and what David Petraeus did with his author girlfriend . I would say probably not. What is your answer to that . Well, i think theres a massive difference between those two things. And i think weve said this. Look, theyll pick at this between now and next november, i suspect, trying to pull a thread here and there. Thats what that committee, really 5 million taxpayer funded Opposition Research operation was doing. She answered the questions. As she noted, she made a mistake, it