good morning, everyone, so glad you re with us, i m poppy harlow with phil mattingly in new york. will he or won t he? we are about to find out whether donald trump will take the stand to testify in the e. jean carol defamation trial. the former president is expected in court in a couple of hours. nikki haley in her home state fighting for a path forward, questioning trump s fitness for office and issuing him a challenge he s not likely to accept. leaders in qatar blasting benjamin netanyahu, accusing the israeli prime minister of disrupting peace talks, the latest recording that triggered the fire storm. donald trump going scorched earth on nikki haley as their rivalry really escalates, while president biden looks ahead to a likely rematch with trump this morning. trump is accusing to campaign from the courtroom, once again. a couple of hours from now, he ll be in the defamation trial, here in new york city. he could potentially take the stand. a jury is weighing h
first votes. a key poll shows donald trump far ahead in iowa, with just hours before the kickoff to the 2024 primary race. one candidate jumped in with sky high expectations, now he s feegtsing for his political life. now is our time. will his iowa focus pay off? candidate governor ron desantis joins me next. and tundra on the trail. caucusgoers and candidates brave subzero temperatures in the coldest iowa contest ever. i worry about that. wear layers. mthey can throw a blizzard a us, and we ll have a fight. who will have the advantage in turnout? plus, rough waters. an escalation in the middle east to now a key senator is the to press joe biden on the u.s. role there. is biden s stance widening the rift on the left? the united states is deeply complicit. bernie sanders joins me exclusively. hello. i m jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is frozen. tomorrow is one of the single most consequential days in this year s calendar, t
tonight s special coverage. i m rachel maddow here at the and messam busy mothership with my colleagues joy, read and lawrence o donnell, and gems, aki and all remember. great to have you all. here our friends chris hayes and stephanie ruhle will be joining us later. it is going to be fun. we are less than a week out from the republican presidential caucuses in iowa, last i when public debate is underway tonight with oddly, a sort of random selection of two of the remaining five people for presidential candidates taking part in that debate. if you can, right now, name all five remaining republican presidential candidates off the top of your head without looking anything up, congratulations. also two of them are debating, tonight nikki haley and ron desantis. also tonight, two miles away from that final hour debate, fox news conducted a live town hall with the front running republican candidate who of course has refused to participate in any debates at all of this year, but
the republican president of caucuses in iowa. the candidates are making closing arguments this weekend, donald trump is still the overwhelming favorite to win on that day, ron desantis and nikki haley are in a tight battle for second place. the candidate squaring off wednesday in their final vote making is the case for why they should be the trump alternative. i don t have vengeance or vendettas or take things personally. for me it is about no drama, no whining, getting results, and getting them done. i don t think donald trump is the right president to go forward. it s time for new generational leader who will make america proud again. i appreciated what donald trump did but he said he was going to have a wall and have mexico pay for it, he said he was going to drain the swamp, he did not deliver that. he said he will hold hillary accountable and let her off the hook. he said he was going to laminate the debt and added $7.8 trillion to the debt. we need to get this stuff