He was calibrating his words against the possibility that he might actually be the nominee. You have the two frontrunners in the race by the polls, donald trump and ted cruz, each largely repudiating the Foreign Policy of the last republican president , george w. Bush and both trump and cruz making a strong case against the interventionist Foreign Policy that defined bush. Being more assertive in their argument than those defending the intervention, marco rubio and jeb bush, primarily. John berman ended his piece with what is probably the biggest news. Donald trump, under intense questioning, on the stage, to me with several followups. He went to the spin room and said the same thing. Hes giving up the biggest leverage anybody has in this race right now and saying i will not run as a third party candidate. How big is that, maeve, and why do you think hes doing it . I think its huge. As we were talking about this morning, i dont know why he did that, giving up that leverage. But at the same time, you know, its donald trump. He could go back and what . And find wiggle room somewhere there. He was very declarative. I agree. He could find wiggle room someday. Youre moving into a political primary. Youre not a real republican or committed to the party. It takes away a line of attack for the others if he sticks with it over the next several weeks. Why would he leave . Hes winning handily in the Republican Party. Lets listen to that moment where he declared that again. I am totally committed to the Republican Party. I feel very honored to be the frontrunner and i think i do very well if im chosen, if im so fortunate to be chosen, i think ill do very well. He went farther than that. What was interesting there, hes saying im the frontrunner but there was a tiny dose, if you listen very carefully, of humility there. If im fortunate enough. Exactly. Honored. He for the first time, he may be feeling like this is actually possible and hes playing to the crowd here. Yes. Absolutely. The positions he put out there are still on the muslim ban, for example, where only jeb bush really challenged him. Rubio and cruz disagreed but after so much kind of understanding that it was hard to find the need until that haystack of disagreement, trump represents a large roll of the dice for the party based on the things he said and the coalition that might away against him. Last night he seem to be more calibra calibrated, less about the bo bombbast of the moment and how does this fit in with getting republicans comfortable with me actually being the nominee. Did christie borrow from the trump playbook by doing something the others dont do well. Rubio and cruz, a great battle of the minds. You see, this is the problem with how many angels on the head of a pin. The ability to connect to the mood as opposed to arguing the policy. Trump is genius at that. Christie tried to do it last night. Lets play you the moment just so you get the context. I want to talk to the audience at home for a second. If your eyes are glazing over like mine, this is what its like to be on the floor of the United States senate. Endless debates about how many angel are on the head of a pin by people who have never had to make a consequential decision. That is vintage christie. He cuts through it. He was able to connect in the same way as you were saying that donald trump has. Carly fiorina tried that a couple of times but was not as effective as christie in doing that. I thought christie did have a number of strong moments in the debate last night. There was a little bit of trumpism, almost, in some of his going after obamacare, the feckless weakling. Weakling, right. Does marco rubio understand the race that he is in . His principle focus is squeezing ted cruz on the right, carving into that support that cruz has on the right. Ultimately, the question is, if rubio cannot emerge in New Hampshire, does he emerge at any point to get to that point of worrying about ted cruz and he has jeb bush. All of a sudden jeb bush. And there was as john said before, there was no focus in that direction. As christie rises, rubio needs a Strong Performance in New Hampshire to emerge as this candidate. They believe the senator will ultimately consolidate behind them because there wont be anybody else. Maybe there will be somebody else if one of those others can rise in New Hampshire. Lets talk about lets just talk about jeb bush. That came up. There was a different tone from him. People said that he seemed feistier if thats the right word were more forceful. Lets watch the exchange between jeb bush and donald trump. This is a tough business to run for president. Youre a tough guy, jeb. I know. We need to have a leader that youre tough. Youre real tough. Youre never going to be president of the United States by insulting your way to the presidency. Im at 43, youre at 3. So far im doing better. Doesnt matter. So far im doing better. John . He took on donald trump and was there at the end of every one of the exchanges. Thats the first time youve seen that from jeb bush, really in an exchange with anybody, including marco rubio up to this point. For all the tough talk with donald trump, i dont think he hurt trump one bit. Trump, you can make a case that jeb bush helps donald trump because bush takes away from rubio in New Hampshire, christie in New Hampshire and levels and groups that field together there and trump stays right where he is. Trump is like, yeah, sure, bring it on, doesnt hurt me one bit. What is the big calculus at the end of the day . Once you approach super tuesday and you get tro decisional gops, were saying theyre some type of dinosaur theyre still a main part of the party. Within they have a moment, when they walk into whatever the voting contraption is, they say whos going to beat hillary . That is why it was such an important performance from trump last night. In those moments of humility. Thats clearly what he was going for, the electability, argument, everyone can calm down. Im going to be an adult in the room. And you know, i think that it is going to be a fascinating dynamic to see what the voters do, all of the voters who will make up their muned in the final weekend from New Hampshire. The paradox as john said, though, as bush rises, ultima ultimately, if he does rise, if christie rises, you increase the challenges that that vote that youre describing will fragment in New Hampshire and youll have rubio, bush, kasich, chris, somewhere between 8 and 18 and donald trump at a relatively low number, 25, 26, 27 could win New Hampshire. Ted cruz seems to be on track to possibly winning iowa. You could have cruz, trump, cruz in South Carolina and then the establishment of the party really is, you know, kind of at whits end. Lets talk about how much time everyone got. Wolf blitzer did a good job of trying to arbitrate the time and the clock. Cruz dominated. He got 16 minutes. Followed by rubio. Thats pretty far behind. 2 30 behind rubio, trump, christie, carson who complained at one point that he was not being called upon. Jeb bush, not that much time. Rand paul, Carly Fiorina also had a harder time, john, in the past than getting words in edgewise and then john kasich. Bush making the most of his time, speaks to the point were hearing from the panel here, which is maybe he did make the most of his moment last night. Let me ask you something. When you get to the lower time allotments, you think thats also an indication of who really is slipping out of this top tier of candidates . Yes, absolutely. Someone like carson who you think that last night was bad for him last night . Oh, yeah. You think hes going to drop again . Hes had such a flame out over the last couple of weeks and months here. And he doesnt interject the way in an aggressive way the way the other candidates do. Thats really his loss. Fiorina tried it last night. Finally you werent allowed to. The extra two points cruz had were the two he was trying to talk over wolf which is not a good moment. As if anybody didnt know it, i called wolf blitzer the captain for good reason. He is no joke. Wolf told me to stand by once two years ago and im Still Standing by. Youre sitting by. John, maeve, thank you. Throughout the morning youll hear from the candidates about how they themselves believe they fared last night. Coming up in the next hour, jeb bush will join us live. Also in our 8 00 hour, well have Carly Fiorina here and Lindsey Graham. A lot to talk about. Lindsey graham, very strong in the first debate. Ill tell you what, donald trump lucky he wasnt on the stage last night because of what he was saying about the threat of the ban of all muslims. Trump, no question, tcoming in the frontrunner, goes out the frontrunner. How was his ratio of give to take in the debate last night . Maybe were seeing a new strategy. Well go through it. Why didnt ted cruz go after trump . We spoke to both candidates moments after the debate, chris did, well have their reactions for you, next. Have you ever thought, i could never do that . Have you ever thought. You just didnt have anything left in the tank . Well you do. Because the courage is already inside. 11,000 local activities right from our app. Its even harder to believe it took you this long to come here. Expedia. Technology that connects you to the people and places that matter. Rightabreva can heal itold sore, in as few as two and a half days when used at the first sign. Without it the virus spreads from cell to cell. 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I decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. The big surprise was were not german at all. 52 of my dna comes from scotland and ireland. So, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt. Ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. Get started for free at ancestry. Com. Donald trump, different on the stage in the debate last night. I would submit and different after the debate than ive seen him in the past. Comfortable. Confident, reserved. And he seemed to show that in the interview that we did with him right after the debate. You have to remember, theres no time to talk to the handlers. Theres no time to process. Because you descend. You just get right in there with your microphone. Im the reporter at his worst. Just when you dont want the person there. And to talk to him about the big news, youre really going to say you wont run as a third party candidate. What about ted cruz . He took a shot at you in private. Youre supposed to go after him. Thats what trump does. Not this time. Why . Here are the answers. The burden of being a frontrunner. As you say, you set the agenda on some big issues, certainly you brought immigration into the fore in a way it hadnt been before. You could argue you did that about how to deal with radical islamism. Youll be taking the heat when you set the agenda, arent you . I dont think there was ever a burden to be a frontrunner. Id like to have that burden for the rest of my life. Its a great honor, having the Center Podium is a great honor to me. I want to make sure we got something right. You were asked, will you promise to honor basically the pledge that youll stick with the party no matter what. You said yes. Look, number one im in first place, not by a little bit, by a lot. You saw the polls that came out today. Washington post, abc news, its been amaze. Monmouth came out with one that was 41 to 14 or 15. Number one, the im the frontrunner. Ive really gotten to respect so many of the people in the party that i didnt know on the other side. Id been in the party, but ive been a contributor, a fair haired boy. Now all of a sudden ive been a little bit different. I have a lot of respect for a lost the people on the stage. I just decided i didnt know that question was going to be asked. When they ask it, i decided to say, yes, im a republican. Im going to be a republican. Im not going to be doing a third party. No matter what . No matter what. Look not no matter what. No matter what. Look, its like a boxer. The only way you win a home decision is if you have to knock them out. If i get the votes, nobody can do anything. If i get the delegates, nobody can do anything. Im leading in a lot of states. Ppg just came out, im leading in iowa now. Its on my shoulders. I hope i get the votes. I will be trying very hard. I will make our country great again. What if you have some delegates with be not enough, it goes to convention and you feel they want to box you out. Im going to try to do is the oldfashioned way. Fox came out with a poll, i beat Hillary Clinton head on. There are a couple others that say that. I havent really gone after her yet. Theres 15 people here. Ive been focused here as you may have noticed. When i focus on hillary, i think shes going to fall. When she does as poor a job if shes allowed to run. I dont even know shell be allowed to run. Why wouldnt she be allowed to run. What she did with the emails is a big problem for her, however, she probably will be protected because shes a democrat in a democratic administration. On the assumption that shes allowed to run, i think i will beat her soundly. I hope. If i do, we will make this country so great again and well have such great spirit and happiness and were just going to have victories we dont have victories anymore. In my closing statement i said we dont win anymore. Thats the case, chris. Our country doesnt win. We done the win with isis. We dont win with health care. We dont win with anything. We done the win with trade. China is eating our lunch. Japan is eating our lunch. Vietnam, eating our lunch. Theyre just taking our money out of our pocket. If i win, all of that is going to change. Youve got to see the two big weapons that he uses. The one is what you saw him do with hillary. Is she going to be allowed to run. I dont know where hes going with that. It shows he ran overreach to make a point. Thats his specialty. Thats why its shocking that hes giving up the leverage about the third party. I wasnt being a nudge. I heard what he said. I wanted to see what the wiggle room was. He tried to trip you up with the double negative. Not no matter what. Does that mean yes or no. Its not like a gotcha moment. You wanted to clarify what was happening. Thats a big deal. That is a big headline. Your energy was a big deal. In the past he seemed fatigued after the debates. He also, his tone what have we seen in the past . You go at donald trump, youre going to get it back. You bring the noise, you get the funk. Thats how it is. Not last night. Specifically with ted cruz. I was talking it up before. I thought i wonder what donald trump will say about what he said about him in front of fundraisers. But as they went through the issues, the opportunities were there and trump didnt go after ted cruz. Now, how did cruz see that . How did he see his night . He spoke to jake tapper right afterwards. Heres what he said. Let me ask you a question about immigration where you went after marco rubio very strongly. Yes. What would you do with the 11 million or however many are in this country illegally . Donald trump says deport them all. I dont know what you would do with them. What ive said, ive laid out a detailed 11page immigration plan. Id enforce the law. Existing law provides what you do. Start by securing the borders. If you have a sinking ship, the first thing you do is fill the hole so you dont have people coming back in. The second thing you do is start deporting illegal, criminal illegal aliens. People who have broken the law beyond just immigration. In 2013 the Obama Administration released 104,000 criminal illegal aliens. You begin enforcing the law. If someone is apprehended crossing illegal, if someone is apprehended by i. C. E. , you deport them. Which i would note is what every other country on earth does. A majority of the Republican Voters out there, according to at least one or two polls ive seen support Donald Trumps proposal, disagree with you. People are reacting to the orwellian double speak from barack obama and Hillary Clinton. When you have the Democratic Party refusing to utter the words radical islamic you know why theyre doing that. National Security Experts say if you do that you feed into the propaganda. Theyre doing it because of political correctness. They dont want to identify what it is were fighting. Its having consequences because were not stopping the bad guys. You look at the female jihadist in San Bernardino. She posted on facebook years ago calling for jihad, yet, dhs when processing her fiance visa didnt look at social media. They have a policy in place not to look at social media which is public, looking to see what she has said publicly to the world because they think it would be inappropriate. Political correctness doesnt make any sense when we are fighting how is that political corr t correctness and not just privacy issues . The message she wrote was under a pseudonym and in a private message. If were not capable of understanding urdo we we dont have access to facebook private messages. This wasnt posted on her page. This was a private message. We should be focusing on radical islamic terrorism. Nidal hasan. He was in touch with al awlaki. Apparently because it was politically incorrect and as a result, nidal hasan murdered 14 innocent souls. And this is the consistent p