this is it, the official kickoff for the 2024 battle for the white house, and one state has the first shot at shaping the race. it s decision time in the bitter cold heartland. iowa has a huge, huge role to play here. this starts here. there is no way iowa is voting against trump. the first votes in a presidential contest that is testing american democracy in extraordinary ways. are you ready? will the former president and unprecedented legal peril get one step closer to a white house comeback? 2024 is our final battle. it s iowa s choice. tonight, after months of anticipation, the republican race gets real. donald trump aiming to drive home his dominance over his gop rivals. we got to be sure that we put this thing away. ron desantis and nikki haley. our best days are yet to come. engaging in a heated showdown to be the top alternative to trump. nikki haley is running on her donors issues. i m the only one running on your issues. he is going to
presidential election. the first american election with a front-runner indicted for conspiring to steal the last one. dividing his time between the campaign trail and the courtroom. i think he s got a lot going on. i think the d.c. circuit will rule against him. in the frigid cold. the coldest in modern history. temperatures so low, they bring new meaning to the term negative campaigning. republicans in iowa will make their choice. donald trump is a threat to democracy. tonight, special election coverage, with joy reid, chris hayes, alex wagner, ari melber, jen psaki, lawrence o donnell, stephanie ruhle, plus campaign experts and steve kornacki with results and analysis at the big board. once every four years the big one. msnbc s special coverage of the iowa republican caucus, the start of the 2024 presidential election, is right now. and here we go. ready or not. time to stop worrying about it. time to start actually doing it. good evening. i m rachel mad
welcome to inside politics live from iowa. here we go. the first vote of the 2024 presidential election are tonight. after months of rallying, tens of millions in campaign ads, voters will finally have their say. and in the last few hours, candidates are scrambling to reach as many of those voters as possible. you have to get it done quickly. we have to set the stage. think of the fact that you might be making history in this moment. we are the nation s best days actually still be ahead of us. here in iowa, you have the ability to change the trajectory of american politics. tonight will come down to the one word we use each and every election day turnout. who can get the most voters out. the record-breaking cold weather here in iowa will make that even harder than ever before. take a look at the scene outside right now. subzero temperatures, dangerous conditions complicating travel to the caucus sites. 1,657 separate caucus sites across the state. it is a crucia
piece of stripe gum. the situation room with wolf blitzer starts right now. see you tomorrow. happening now, breaking news. closing arguments just wrapped up in donald trump s new york civil fraud trial. the former president taking his campaign to the courtroom, launching into a rambling speech before being cut off by the judge who urged trump s attorneys to control their client. plus, we re now in the final stretch before iowa decides with the first in the nation caucuses just four days away. nikki haley and ron desantis trying to capitalize on last night s heated cnn debate and close the gap with republican front-runner donald trump. a key haley supporter, new hampshire governor chris sununu joins me live this hour. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world, i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. announcer: this is cnn breaking news. and let s get straight to the breaking news. donald trump s new york civil fraud trial comes to
Though. Theres something i want to show you that really blew my mind, dana. I think youll appreciate this, too. Lets look at these two northwestern counties right here. Well dig in to lyon county, which is very evangelical. Donald trump didnt even finish in the top three in 2016. It was ted cruz, march coMarco Rubio. Sioux county, ben carson, Donald Trump not among the top three in these heavily evangelical counties. That is not what we expect this time. The Des Moines register poll has Donald Trump with the majority of evangelical support. So, that could look very different. While we have 2016 up here, let me give you one more comparison here. Nikki haley is running a campaign i think Jeff Zeleny said this a little like the Marco Rubio model. Its hard to tell because Rubio And Trump are both red. You can see Marco Rubio won in Des Moines, In Ames where Iowa State University is, iowa city,