Good morning, everyone. Im tamron hall. We begin with the latest on the campaign trail. With 11 days to go until the first votes, ted cruz is rolling out a new line of attacks against donald trump after bob dole signaled he would prefer trump, cruz is now painting donald trump as the establishment candidate. Right now the washington establishment is abandoning marco rubio. Theyve made the assessment that marco cant win this race. And the washington establishment is rushing over to support donald trump. Were seeing that happen every day, and mr. Trump is welcoming the support of the washington establishment. And mr. Trumps pitch to the washington establishment is hes a deal maker. And trump is not letting up on cruz. Hes continuing to hammer him over his financial history, now even accusing him of being, quote, worse than hillary. Goldman sachs owns him. Remember that, folks. They own him. And what he did was wrong. Because he didnt want you to know that hes dealing with banks. Then he said with the loans, oh, i didnt know that. Smart guy. He doesnt know that . Yeah. Thats worse than hillary when you think about it. Now, donald trump will be in las vegas today after spending part of yesterday on the trail with sarah palin. Now, her appearance at his rally in oklahoma is raising a lot of eyebrows after she linked her sons Domestic Violence arrest to ptsd and president obama. My son, like so many others, they come back a bit different. They come back hardened. They come back wondering if there is that respect for what it is that their fellow soldiers and airmen and every other member of the military so sacrificially have given to this country. It starts from the top. The question, though, that comes from our own president where they have to look at him and wonder, do you know what we go through . And donald trump is defending palins remarks, saying it was his suggestion. Nbcs katy tur joins me live from las vegas where trump will hold a rally this afternoon. Its interesting, sarah palin did not show up in iowa. She was in oklahoma where she made the comments about her sons Domestic Violence arrest. You have some wondering if Donald Trumps secret weapon may be, in fact, more of a problem if hes now focused on explaining comments that she made in day one of her being on the trail with him. Reporter it should come as no surprise that sarah palin is drumming up controversy. Thats what shes been doing now for the last eight years. Its no surprise that shes going to come out and Say Something that a lot of people are going to think is just not tactful in any way, and shes getting a lot of heat for this comment right now, linking her sons ptsd to president obama. Wall rieckhoff of the veterans of iraq and afghanistan is saying that this is just ridiculo ridiculous. You cant politicize something thats a serious issue. You have other veterans coming out saying how dare she make it look like were ticking time bombs. She is definitely getting a lot of heat for this. This is precisely what she and donald trump and frankly what a lot of other republicans have been doing now for the past six, seven months. They have been demonizing the ones on the trail at least demonizing president obama in any way they can, and theyre going to take every opportunity they can to do this. This is the sort of thing that does appeal to the very conservative base, when ive talked to them out on the road, on the trail. And ive asked them if theyve agreed with absolutely anything that president obama has done in the last seven years, anything that at all that they like. The vast majority say they do not believe that he has done anything good. That hes taken this country in the wrong direction. During the state of the union, i asked if there was anything that he could say that would change their minds about president obama. And the overwhelming response was resign. So this should come as no surprise that theyre trying to hit him and paint him as paint him in a negative light in any way they can. But i think some are surprised, looking at that rally yesterday, and some of the postinterviews with people who attended, a few of them willing to say that they were there for trump, but they were not fans of sarah palin. And when you think about tulsa, oklahoma, a few years ago, that would have been fertilefans of. Reporter certainly its really interesting. We havent done a lot of polling on sarah palins appeal in the recent years. In the last polling that we did or anyone really did on sarah palins favorability was back in 2013. And that was she was still doing pretty well out there with the republican base. Now, remember, shes been up and down a lot in the past eight years. She was a contributor for fox news for a while, but she lost that gig. Now she works at oan network. She does still have a base of people and 6 million followers on social media. About 6 million followers on social media who say they really like her and they trust her and believe in her. But we were getting some people even at the endorsement rally in iowa that told us that they didnt really know that she would make a difference, that shes lost her luster, that shes had her time, that theyre really coming out to see donald trump. So how this plays is going to be really interesting. It might come off as a better endorsement on paper than in real life. Which when you look at the new polls, as i mentioned, showing that cruz and trump are deadlocked, you have now this factor of bob dole. In a new interview with the new york times, he said the gop would suffer cataclysmic and wholesale loss ies if cruz is t nominee. As i mentioned, ted cruz now turning that into an argument of donald trump being the establishment candidate. Reporter yeah, which is really interesting because i dont think anybody could really argue before ted cruz started arguing that donald trump was in any way the establishment candidate. But i think this is a really good example of everybody you meet on the way up, you meet on the way back down. And ted cruz has made no friends in congress. Hes not well liked by anybody out there. So when it comes to a battle between him and donald trump, i think the establishment is starting to see that trump is the lesser evil right now. So theyre going to start backing him in a way that theyre not necessarily going to back ted cruz. Remember donald trump is a builder. He has had to deal with politicians his entire career. Hes had to figure out ways to get things done. And so even though there is a lot of dislike of donald trump within the establishment, dislike of his politics, dislike of his rhetoric, dislike of the way hes been going about things, there is a sense that he does, at some level, understand how government works. And he will be somebody that will get in and get jobs done. But make no mistake, bob dole is not a fan of donald trump either. He is in the squarely in the jeb bush camp. And a lot of other establishment figures are squarely in other camps as well. So donald trump is now looking inevitable. Its like the stages of grief. First there was anger. Then there was disbelief. And now theres acceptance. Thats what we keep hearing. Thank you very much, katy. Lets turn the wheel now to the democratic race. Hillary clinton making several stops in iowa today, looking to avoid a twostate sweep by Bernie Sanders in iowa and New Hampshire. The two candidates making a final push ahead of the iowa caucuses, each releasing new ads this week across that state. The first lady who helped get health care for 8 million kids. The senator who helped a city rise again. The secretary of state who stood up for america and stared down hostile leaders around the world is the one candidate for president who has everything it takes to do every part of the job. Ive got some real estate here in my bag counting on the new jersey turnpike theyve all come to root for america now, the Clinton Campaign is also going all in on its new strategy, painting sanders as an unelectable socialist with no chance in a general election. A view voiced by powerful clinton surrogates like missouri senator claire mccaskill. I think it would be absolutely impossible for a selfdeclared socialist to win in a state like missouri. And youve got to win states like missouri if youre going to win the presidency. States like indiana, states like ohio, states like pennsylvania. While clinton blitzes iowa today, Bernie Sanders will be in New Hampshire. A recent poll has him with a 27point lead, raising the possibility of that sweep thats been discussed. Let me bring in my colleague, Andrea Mitchell. Shes in iowa with the Clinton Campaign. Andrea, lets talk about the socialist strategy, labeling Bernie Sanders with the title that hes embraced. How is this possibly going to be effective for clinton . Reporter well, it could backfire in iowa. It could be effective later when they get to the march 1st primaries, the super tuesday primaries. But in iowa, according to a Des Moines Register poll among likely democratic caucusgoers, 43 of those people describe themselves as socialists. Only 38 describe themselves as capitalists. So iowa is, on the democratic side, a much more liberal state. Its the state that catapulted in that first iowa caucus, jimmy carter into the white house. And thats, you know, what theyre up against here. Shes got to get past iowa and New Hampshire to get to South Carolina and to keep on going. And her frontrunner status is really being challenged, at least if all of these polls are accurate. For you, both campaigns, tamron, are telling me that they really dont believe that 27point lead in New Hampshire. But we also know that iowa heavily influences the results in iowa, heavily influences what happens in New Hampshire. Sometimes New Hampshire decides, well, were going to show those people in iowa that we can make our own choices. But there are times when that iowa effect will certainly influence South Carolina and all of the primaries to come. And theres also a report that bill clinton, on a recent Conference Call with campaign leaders, was very exercised that Bernie Sanders has more paid staffers and is better organized in the march 1st super tuesday primary states than even Hillary Clinton for all of her advanced time and her money and organization and frontrunner status. Now, were here at Simpson College in iowa, small college. This is going to be a small gathering. But it is part of her attempt to make inroads with Younger Voters who are certainly right now in Bernie Sanders camp. Andrea mitchell live for us in iowa. Thank you very much, andrea. I know youll have much more in your hour after this. Meanwhile, this saturday, iowas influential newspaper the Des Moines Register will issue endorsements in both races. Now, those endorsements will come just over a week before the caucuses, february 1st. You know that by now. Joining me now is Political Columnist kathy obradovich. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. I know you dont participate in the endorsement process, but you can talk about the influence of your paper. I want to talk about the relationship between your paper and donald trump and even yourself after a pretty highly reported awkward moment where donald trump wanted you to be removed from a rally. Yeah. So donald trump got upset with the Des Moines Register endorsement or not an endorsement, but an antiendorsement from the Editorial Board back in july after Donald Trumps much publicized spat about john mccain and talking about political or prisoners of war. And the register Editorial Board said at that point that he should drop out of the race. Well, the Donald Trump Campaign then said that the Des Moines Register reporters should drop out of his campaign events. And he did not his campaign didnt issue credentials for us to cover those. He wasnt actually kicking us out, and weve been covering those events as members of the public. You know, its been fine. And ive interviewed donald trump one on one since then. But, you know, its probably safe to say that this Editorial Board, im not going to make many predictions, but i can predict theyre probably not going to endorse donald trump. It would be incredible to say someone should drop out of the race and then a few months later go back and endorse that individual. As we know, the rules have been thrown out the window with this campaign. Looking back, though, in 2008 the paper endorsed john mccain and Hillary Clinton, although mike huckabee, barack obama went on to win. 2012, the paper endorsed mitt romney, senator rick santorum, of course, won the caucuses by a slim margin there. Lets talk about the record. We say its influential. When you look at winners and losers, does the register still carry the clout with these voters who seem so different and so passionate as it relates to the outsider these days . You know, i think that endorsements are influential only sometimes. So, for example, i think in 2004, the Des Moines Register endorsed john mccain before the caucuses. And in fact, he did very well. Maybe even a little better than expected. And there have been times, i think, when the registers endorsement has generated a lot of discussion. But perhaps wasnt necessarily with the people who were going to vote for that candidate. For example, the mitt romney endorsement in the general election in 2012, you know, that was highly controversial. It was a lot of discussion about that endorsement. But didnt necessarily win the it didnt at all win the state for mitt romney. Right. So, you know, i think that this is more about, you know, generating discussion, giving readers, you know, something of an idea where the registers Editorial Board and this is, you know, five people, you know, thinking after indepth interviews with these candidates. With that said, is the headline here, it is probably a safe bet to say that the Des Moines Register will not endorse donald trump . That is my prediction. Its probably the only one im willing to make. All right. Thank you so much for your time. We greatly appreciate it, kathie. Thank you. Thank you. Developing news now, blizzard watches are posted along the east coast as the region prepares for a major snowstorm. How will d. C. Handle what could be one of its worst storms ever after less than an inch crippled that city . And we have new comments now from the mayor of washington, d. C. , apologizing for what happens yesterday. And well help you understand all that satellite radar stuff youre looking at. Newly released emails from the Michigan Governors Office saw how flints contaminated water was not their problem. This as there are calls for more emails to be released. To truly feel healthy on the outside you have to feel healthy. At your core. 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We should have been out earlier with more resources. And now washington is preparing for nearly twofoot insta snowfall starting tomorrow. Luke russert is standing by near capitol hill. Actually, i dont know where you are. A salt barn, im told now. What we know is political careers from d. C. To chicago have been ruined over not handling snow properly. Reporter that is true, tamron. I will say, though, there is a long and sad history here being a lifelong resident of the city, not being able to handle snow well. And that really is emblematic of the region, in general. Last night, horrific commutes. People who would ordinarily take a half hour to get from work to d. C. And maryland and virginia, five, six, seven hours are what we heard. Mayor bowser apologizing for that, as you mentioned, also declaring a state of emergency ahead of the blizzard thats supposed to hit on saturday. And you have to understand, th