. happening now. there s majora breaking news out there for the republican presidential nomination. a source now tells cnn that chris christie is dropping out of the race. we are standing by to hear directly from him live this hour in new hampshire. we will bring that to you as soon as it begins and all this comes as the final republican debate before the iowa caucuses are now just a few hours away right here on cnn. nikki haley and ron desantis preparing to face off tonight as both candidates make their closing pitch to try to naur row t narrow the gap with donald trump. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. this is cnn breaking news. let s get straight to the breaking news and the race of the republican nomination. he s got details on the major developments that are unfolding. exactly, omar, what are we expected to hear directly from chris christie in the coming minutes? yeah, wol
in new hampshire, at least, as we see in the polling, but ron desantis has been courting a lot of the trump wing of the party even as he s trying to be a trump alternative throughout this race looking to peel away some of the former president s support, andy is it s hard to court the chief trump antagonist and maintain the support for trump s universe and it may put desantis in a bit of a bind andwell see if it comes up on the debate take and i m sure these candidates given the position they have in the race, wolf, far behind the dominant front-runner are going to welcome anybody s support to the effort at this stage of the game and that includes chris christie and their supporters and how will they approach that if not in the debate stable and the days ahead. it will be interesting to watch. jeff, you re there in iowa, so does this announcement in the