the face from the republican party? i don t believe there s pitfalls in a general election like that. what you re seeing how does he fight that image, though? take a look at the american people. they have a 9% approval rating of congress right now. ted cruz has exposed both sides of the aisle. the reason mr. trump is leading in the polls, why is bernie sandsers doing so well? they re tired of politics as usual. i think what cruz offers is this will not be about politics as usual, but i know what i m doing. a lot of people like to say they re the smartest guy in the room. i think ted cruz might be the smartest guy in the room. bob, thank you for your time. appreciate it. brooke, thank you. tonight s debate will be the first republican face-off since the terror attacks in paris and the massacre just recently in san bernardino. national security and the fight against isis certain to be front and center, but my next guest is calling out the republican field and donald trump i
mixed. four black women, three black men, three white women, two white men and the charges, quite frankly, brooke, are difficult charges to grapple with. we re talking about involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment, misconduct in office. those are very difficult charges, i think, to prove for this prosecution. and because of the climate in baltimore, i suspect that this is going to be a very hard case for them to decide. now, judge williams did the right thing, though, by telling them go back in, deliberate again. that is typically called an allen charge, which is a charge that judges read to the jury explaining to them that they need to go back, try again, open up their minds to other points of views. but the bottom line is if after this charge this allen charge they go back in and still can t reach a unanimous verdict, and
candidate. he s a full spectrum conservative, so a lot of different factions of the party are rallying around him. also he s run a very smart campaign. he has built an incredible infrastructure that s allowed him to manage momentum. i see this as a slow build. i this see these numbers going away at all. i only see these numbers growing. what one thing specifically has he done? i think being a consistent conservative. and one who has a very disciplined message. people, they trust him. they don t see him doing something that would be out of character. so, therefore, i think people the more they see him, the more they like him. the key thing about those polls, brooke, is he s either one or two with 51% of the voters. and in a caucus, that is a great place to be. thinking ahead to tonight, and he s standing for the first time next to the front-runner, next to mr. trump himself, the big question as we ve been talking about this bromance of weeks and months past, does cruz
is stoking so much of this. ambassador daniel benjamin, thank you for your perspective, i appreciate it. thanks very much. you can see the fifth republican presidential debate right here on cnn moderated by wolf blitzer. the first debate starts at 6:00 eastern tonight only here on cnn. as we re watching and waiting for more of these candidates to live here at the venetian hotel before they take a tour around the stage, did you know that tonight is not the only debate this week? we will talk about the democrats who will debate this coming saturday ahead. also much more on our breaking news, as we mentioned a moment ago, threats against two of the nation s biggest school systems in both los angeles and new york city. we are now hearing those threats originated from the same source. we ll have a live report for you from los angeles coming up in just a moment. you re watching cnn. i m brooke bald wip. baldwin.
brooke, this is just it depends on what kind of candidate you are, how important this moment is for you. are you the kind of person who wants to be on that stage and see where the facebook questions are going to be, who wants to look at the lights that are going to cut you off at the end or are you a candidate like donald trump. he didn t come here to do his own walk-through, he sent his stachlt he s the kind of guy that likes to roll in kind of at the last minute and just sort of take that flow with him to the debate stage and not spend a lot of extra time hanging around. we know donald trump has other plans today. he s meeting with the mega gop donor, sheldon adelson so he s doing his own debate prep while the other candidates do their walk-throughs, brooke. all right. the theme of the debate tonight is national security. that will be front and center. and so we ll watch for that and talk to some folks who are getting seated, what they re looking for ahead of tonight. but specifi