when we get this done can you go out there and bring it home? tomorrow night we caucus and win the primary and we win the general. bill: the stage is set. first votes in the 2024 election will be tallied hours from now. tonight in iowa voters get their first verdict on the republican presidential field when they go to caucus. we ve waited a long time for this one, right? it s finally here. w welcome to a frigid iowa. i m bill hemmer. great to kick it off with you. all right. let s go. dana: i m dana perino and this is america s newsroom. it s cold outside, warm inside. the iowans are saying what are you complaining about? we ll be fine. if they re not worried maybe we shouldn t be worried for voter turnout. the coldest in history, frigid weather and a wild card that could maybe have a major impact on turnout. the candidates will make their final pitches today across the state to deliver last-minute bids to win over voters. all pockets of the hawkeye state could hold
Haley. Governor desantis is the most proven candidate. I trust what he says. You cant get past trumps experience. A huge Learning Curve for anybody else. I waited. Thats the mission of the West Side Conservative Group allows iowa republicans to shake hands with local lawmakers and talk politics and hear directly from the president ial candidates. Two of the Club Leaders are with us now. Gentlemen, good morning to both of you. You guys meet 20 minutes northwest corner of des moines. Thank you for being here. Has every candidate come to your event in this current campaign . I believe all except one. Dana which one . We shouldnt probably put the onus on her but nikki haley. We would have loved to have had
Putting tariffs in place in order to give him more negotiating power, he sent them directly to the farmers. But i think more broadly, dana, you know, those running against President Trump are testing a premise that you can get all the policies that he brought in place without the man, without a leader. Ive told group after group thats kind of like saying you get spacex without e lon. You dont get the America First Policies that everybody loved and get back to without the leader of the movement. I think you will see an overwhelming victory tonight. Bill he has a Track Record because he is a former president. Governor desantis has a Track Record, too. The governor of your home state. Why not support him . Well, because i think he has been a great governor, governor desantis. We need to get back to someone who can hit the Ground Running as President Trump did. Thats everything from the Abraham Accords to the border to the economy to record low
Unemployment across every dem graphic to Veterans Reform to justice reform. The list is phenomenal despite everything thrown at him. I was just talking to my driver on the way this morning after a very delayed flight and he was lamenting that everybody else, why didnt they wait . Why didnt they wait until 2028 . We have a great republican bench but this is president trumps time. He will hit the ground running. I think well see a great win. Dana the key to winning in iowa is a Strategy And Ground game. Ron desantis has worked with the consultants who got Ted Cruz over the Finish Line in 2016. Listen to this, he says to the des moines register, if that gets up to 30 plus he will have a great night along evangelicals forties he will get second place. Evangelical voters, that definition changed over time but an important block here. You think about the successes of
Horse and all this how do you see these two men go at it again for a second time . One of the things we want to see sooner than later is to shift to biden and to truly begin laying out that contrast. Lets get through this primary process but i think you will see a consolidation pretty eye quickly who we know will be the nominee, president trump, number one. Number two it is different in 2020 and years past. We were talking theoretically this is what america would look like under progressive rule. Now americans have felt it. Less safe at home and abroad. Dipping into their 401k and purchasing less from monthtomonth. Now its not just kind of this dont take it from me or dont take it from president trump. We can point to the disaster that is bidenomics and we can point to the world on fire. I cant tell you how many people i talk to, bill, can we survive another five years of this