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>> reporter: yeah. he initially gave more to democrats than republicans. over the years, he had added up money to hillary clinton and john kerry and the like, almost to $600,000. then in 2011, he shifted more money over to the republican side. they caught up and then surpassed that number with donations over the years, bob dole and phil graham and rudy giulia giuliani. thats a lot of money going out into the campaign on both sides, more the republican side now, but plenty to go around. >> a lot ...

Not only retaliating but he is vengeful. theres hate in there that he has to go out and hit somebody if he is challenged. thats not what americans normally rally to in a president. he will get -- he will continue to have some support. i think you will see the conservative activists peel off. we are likely to see women begin to peel off or at least go the other way. not just on the way he answered but the general tone of his remarks. i think you are going to see other conservatives who -- the fox...

Republican independent leaning republicans. when you cant show me a state that more than 20% of the republicans vote in the primaries in the presidential election. theres no effort to get to the real voters who will be the participants, the base of the republican party. when you look at those surveys and several of the iowa surveys that have come out that look at the caucus goers, trump is not doing that well. he is doing better with the broader spectrum of voters. he does as well with moderate ...

You have to also have a great deal of moments to stand out. how do you distinguish yourself? i think thats where he needs to work on that. >> to that point, anna, bill crystal, we know him well, he called the performance lackluster and said bush doesnt have that fire in the belly, is how crystal described it. that seems to be a common complaint about bush. are we going to see a change in him? are we going to see fire in the belly is that going to happen after this debate? >> well, let me just sa...

Not having security be the first priority when we invaded, it was a mistake. i wouldnt have gone in. >> a couple things on that. first of all, just in terms of the substance of what he said, he has made it clear its not easy for him to throw his family under the bus and iraq -- it doesnt get bigger when it comes to his brother. in terms of style, there he seemed a little bit -- a little bit unsure of himself. in other parts where he was talking about things that his -- his comfort zone, like edu...

The opposite. all the press said he got stronger as the night went on. i thought that was interesting is we had several goals. we saw him as presidential. we saw him as very articulate in terms of what he was saying out there. he had probably one of the best punch lines of the night when talking about hillary clintons e-mails. >> thats true. >> almost all of the articles going into the debate was a question mark of how he would do on the florida national defense issues. he knocked every one of t...

Simple question. >> is there anyone on stage -- can i see hands -- who is unwilling tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the republican party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against that person? mr. trump. >> reporter: settle in and watch. this is no ordinary campaign. donald trump showed one thing at the first gop debate, he is here to stay. republicans, like it or not, must now decide how to deal with him and his veiled threat to run ace third party candidate...

Money to the foundation or donated to his wifes senate campaign. >> reporter: it was marco rubio who urged republicans to choose a candidate who can take on the real opponent. >> how is hillary clinton going to lecture me about living paycheck to paycheck? how is she going to lecture me about student loans? i owed over $100,000 four years ago. >> reporter: the republicans i talked to today in the early voting states iowa, new hampshire and south carolina, including several who were open to suppo...