Are closest to trump. so, he s riding behind donald trump. he doesn t want a conflict with trump. he wants to take trump support. hoping trump destroys himself. so far no evidence, at least if you believe the polls, that trump has destroyed himself. look at iowa, for instance, i think you re starting to see the shift. it not just cruz is up in the polls. it was an interesting new york times piece a couple of days ago showing trump s organization in iowa may be weak, they may not be able to get people out to caucuses. i think from cruz s point of view they are beginning to start to make their move. jeb bush spoke out about donald trump s comments today in new hampshire. let me play a clip for you. she s great at being the victim, the whole victimology status, this is what she loves doing. trump is not going to be president because he says these things, it turns people off. i mean, for crying out loud, two days before christmas. lighten up, man. hillary clinton likes being a
Describe her loss to barack obama back in 2008. tonight, clinton is suggesting trump is a bully, her word, but she s refusing to respond directly to his new attacks. we have our correspondent, analysts and newsmakers, they re standing by to cover all the news that s breaking right now including a leading member of the house homeland security committee, the former cia officer, congressman will hurd. first let s go to our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. barbara, what are you learning about u.s. special operations forces on the ground right now in syria? reporter: good evening, wolf. at this hour, we are confirming, we have been told by a u.s. official a small number of u.s. special operations forces on the ground in northern syria. they are there to help anti-isis forces get more experience and to advise them on how to battle isis in that very fraught area. but all of this happening, wolf, as there is a very strategic battle under way across the border in iraq.
Debate which clinton was late returning from the commercial break sorry. reporter: apparently because nature was calling, that clearly grossed trump out. i know where she went. it s disgusting. i don t want to talk about it. no, it s too disgusting. don t say it. it s disgusting. let s not we want to be very, very straight up, okay? but i thought wasn t that a weird deal? we re ready to start. we re looking they gave her every benefit of the doubt because, you know, it s a,bc, ad they practically owns abc. reporter: to add to the bizarre nature of all that, hillary clinton s campaign responded with a response prefaced by saying they would not respond. a spokeswoman saying we are not responding to trump, but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should. you are looking at somebody
Rhetoric. we shouldn t let anybody bully his way into the presidency. reporter: her campaign tweeting, quote, we are not responding to trump but everyone who understands humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should. as trump focuses his fire on clinton, ted cruz, meanwhile, steadily chipping away at his dominance. energy we re sending is incredible. reporter: trump is still on top, his lead over ted cruz has shrunk. a new national poll showing cruz has gained eight points in the past four weeks and within striking distance of trump, behind by four percentage points. meaning two are now the clear front-runn front-runners, significantly ahead of the rest of the field. i think it could easily end up being a two-man race between donald trump and me. and i think that presents a good choice to the american people. reporter: beneath the surface, more red flags for trump, the same polls showing 50% of voters say they would be
Embarrassed to have trump as president. ted cruz today here in tennessee would not take the bait and respond to trump s rhetoric against hillary clinton. cruz saying he will let donald trump speak for himself. thanks very much. joining us now, in the situation room, our cnn political commentator, atlantic media contributing editor, peter beinert, s.e. cupp. cruz says he s going to let trump speak for himself. in the past trump said they have similar views. why isn t cruz calling trump out in his effort to distance himself. he s clearly moving up to number two. because the people who like cruz also like donald trump. and cruz s strategy is that, as trump destroys himself, those trump supporters will go to cruz because cruz is the candidate sucking up to trump the most. and also adopting policies that