god bless texas. reporter: cruz is on a mission to paint o rourke as a dangerous leftist. ready, one, two, three. reporter: and is fully embracing president trump, a strong economy and increased border security. even in this debate, escaping the shadow of trump was impossible. cruz was asked if he had lost his dignity by praising the president after trump insults his father and wife. i ve got a responsibility which is to fight for every person here and every person in this state. and so i have worked hand-in-hand with the president on substance, and we have delivered remarkable victories. listen, if the president attacks you personally, your wife, your father, how you respond is your business. but when the president attacks our institutions, this country allows a foreign power to invade our democracy, that is our business. we need a u.s. senator who will stand up to this president. reporter: some polls showed o rourke within striking distance of cruz. the latest poll from q
welcome back. president trump is vowing to eradicate a lingeri ining stenc the justice department. his promise coming just hours after we learned deputy attorney rosenstein in the days after comey s 2017 firing discussed wearing a wire to record conversations with the president. cnn sources also say rosenstein talked about recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment to remove trump from office. rosenstein has denied the reports. for more on the 25th amendment and how it work, we turn to cnn politics digital director zachary wolf in washington. good to see you. good to see you. well, you know, i guess the first thing we need to say is this is supremely unlikely because it would require a republican president s entire hand picked cabinet and then most of the republican congress to essentially turn against him. the 25th amendment was put in
op-ed, they discussed how the 25th amendment was discussed by some cabinet officials and now rozenstein. we have to keep coming back to it. just the mountain you d have to climb for this to happen if you can imagine, pence, who s never said a bad thing about trump, essentially saying he was unfit to be in office, and then sending that to the entire congress. where a super majority, 67, more than a filibuster proof majority, would have to agree and essentially kick trump out in order for pence to take hold. so it keeps coming back but it just seems so unlikely. underscores a collective body not necessarily in private. all right, zachary wolf, thanks so much. all right, coming up, we re following developments from washington where the clock is ticking towards the deadline set by senate republicans for brett kavanaugh s accuser to respond to their counteroffer on her potential testimony. as tensions escalate between the u.s. and iran, secretary of state mike pompeo lashing out
in new york on tuesday. here is what cruz said about trump and ben carson in an audio recording obtained by the times. the final two candidates i ll discuss are trump and ben carson. both of them i like and respect both donald and ben. i do not believe either of them will be our nominee. i don t believe either will be our president. you look at paris. you look at san bernardino it has given a seriousness to this race that people are looking for who is prepared to be a commander in chief? who understands the threats we face? who am i comfortable having their finger on the button? that s a question of strength but it is also a question of judgment. and i think that is a question that is a challenging question for both of them. only cruz would talk about people having a finger on the button. the cold war is over mr. cruz.
cruz has a 24-point advantage over trump in iowa among those who describe themselves as very conservative. evangelicals say they support cruz over trump. among those who say they are certain they will turn out the caucus cruz leads trump which means cruz supporters are more committed than trump supporters. according to wall street journal southern states half dozen hold their contest. i am joined by perry bacon and msnbc contributor sam stein. i put that on the table about canada because this guy made his living attacking obama for being born overseas. in the case of cruz he was. the polling you showed is a