To get to this morning including the countdown to the first Republican Debate frontrunner donald trump will be center stage, is he ready . What is his strategy . Trump will be with us live momentarily but first, we start off with breaking news this piece of debris has been found near a fragment of a wing was found just days ago that piece is set to undergo analysis to see it from missing Malaysian Air flight 370. Lets bring in steve ganyard, many are wondering is this part of that plane . This these to go back for forensics testing. We need to continue to go deliberately slowly and make sure we look at these pieces by themselves and figure out if this is part of the airplane. If this turn turns out to be part of that plane will it help us pinpoint where that plane went down in. Not really because theyll go back and theyll do some forensics on the metal, it will tell us what happened at the end when this airplane hits the water, its not going to tell us where the pieces of that airplane is, off the coast of australia, where the real clues are. Thanks steve. Now to that possible bombshell in the 2016 race is joe biden about to jump in . Abcs cecilia vega with the new evidence, the answer may be yes. This morning, the strongest signs yet that joe biden might be ready to run. The Vice President s advisers telling abc news his Political Team has been ramping up in recent days entering what they call a more active phase. Hi how are you . Reporter in camp biden, there are discussions about fundraising and launching a Political Action committee, while the Vice President himself hasnt authorized any of these moves, one adviser tells abc news he believes biden is 90 in. Telling george back in january, joe saying that hes open for a run. I think theres i think theres wide open on both sides. Reporter and there could be an opportunity. Less than half of democratic frontrunner Hillary Clintons supporters described themselves as very enthusiastic about her candidacy. Now the the New York Times reporting that bidens son beau who died of cancer pressed his father to run and the vp has been Holding Meetings at home talking to Family Friends and donors about jumping in. One thing is certain, biden is not saying no. Happy new year. Reporter for this week, cecilia vega abc news new york. Thanks ececilia. But now to the republicans and the upcoming debate its the first big test for frontrunner donald trump, the stakes are in a word huge. Heres abcs tom llamas. Reporter s frontrunner trump not studying but spectating taking in a Golf Tournament in scotland. As far as the debates i am who i am. Im not a debater. Reporter the brash billionaire surprisingly down plague expectations. Maybe ill do terribly. Reporter who hell take on is still up in the air, only the top ten candidates in five of the most recent polls qualify. If a debate were today, some of the notable names would be left out of the main event. Rick perry and Rick Santorum. Candidates sharping their attack lines. If this deal goes through, the Obama Administration will become quite literally the worlds leading finesier of radical islamic terrorism. Reporter are they ready to tangle with trump whos surged to top of the poll by winning some passionate fans. Hes successful. I want to be a billionaire. Tell me what you think a Trump Presidency would look like sf. A presidency of hope. Reporter some analysts like Fivethirtyeight Nate silver says this might be as far as trump goes. Trump will tout his topline numbers and say, i have 20 of the base. But, in the end, 20 is not enough and when half of your own party dislikes you dont have very much room to grow from that 20 . Jon, one of trumps main talking points is hell win the presidency. Hell beat Hillary Clinton. Clinton has a doubledigit lead over trump. Thanks tom. Lets get straight to the gop frontrunner donald trump who joins us by the phone. Thank you for joining us thank you, jon. We have this news this morning that joe biden is looking into running, what is your assessment harder to beat than Hillary Clinton . I think its a real possibility, what she did was absolutely in my opinion illegal and i dont think shes going to be allowed to run if they have a prosecutor whos going to be honorable. If you look at general petraeus is nothing compared to what shes done. And his life is in ruins. What she did is far worse. I think she has a big problem with her emails. Biden could go in and do very well and maybe win. Lets get to your big moment you never debated before are you ready for this debate what would you consider a win . Well im not a debater, these politicianses i always say theyre all talk no action. I dont debate i have created tremendous jobs. I do a lot of things. My whole life is a debate in a way. Im not a debater and they are. But, with that being said i look forward to that. Who know. Reporter you havent been afraid to attack your opponents, are you going to be throwing punches . Every single attack you have been attacking every attack i made was a counterpunch. They attacked me first. The fact is i have been attacked pretty viciously by some of these guys. I have respect for some of the people on the stage. But i i have been attacked and i counterpunched. I didnt start the attacks. Some of the more recent ones jeb bush while you were in scotland dismissed your rise as a phenomenon. Rand paul said your surge in the poll is a temporary loss of sanity. Hes very weak on the military very weak on defense, probably hurt him very badly. I think hes a nice guy. I contributed to his cause as he goes around as a doctor and takes care of very seriously ill people and helps them out. I have made a lot of contributions. Im surprised to hear him to say that. I would say i was little surprise to hear rand say that. But if he feels thats okay with me. You have been very harsh on your assessment of jeb bush specially, you wrote in your book the america we deserve, of jeb bush hes exactly the kind of political leader this country need now and will very much need in the future hes bright tough and principled. Not just jeb bush. Of Hillary Clinton you said just in 2012 shes a terrific woman, works hard and she does a good job. George pa tacki, the most underrated guy in american politics. Now, you have declared Hillary Clinton the worst secretary of state ever. You said rick perry is too dumb maybe to be in the debate. Its a very simple answer to that i was a businessman all my life i made a tremendous fortune. I head to deal with politicians. Im not going to say bad things about people because i needed their support to get projects done. I mean youre not going say horrible things and go in a year later, and say, listen can i have your support on this business. I contributed to people because i was a smart businessman, i built a tremendous company and i did that based on relationships. Now im no longer a businessman. Im someone who wants to make the country great. The tone is too weak. I understand what jeb is saying. Hillary used the exact same word the tone of trump. Theyre beheading our people theyre beheading christians opponents isnt beheading anyone. The tone has to be tougher. If were going to stop isis clean up the border and stop whats happening at the border which is a disaster which i was very proud to brought up. Now, everyones apologizing to me now that they see that im right. We need a strong tone and we need tremendous enthusiasm and as you understand jeb doesnt have that strong tone and he doesnt have that level of enthusiasm that you need to make our country great again. As a businessman, i support everyone. So let me ask you about something you tweeted last year you said of barack obama, sadly because president obama has done such a poor job as president , you wont see another black president for generations, what did you mean by that in. I think hes been a very poor president , i think he has done a very poor job as president , we have 18 trillion right now in debt and going up rapidly. But what did you mean wait a minute we dont have victories anymore. China is killing us on trade. Mexico is killing us at the border and killing us at trade. You look at whats going on with japan, you look at whats going on with vietnam, you look at saudi arabia makes a 1 billion a day we defend them. Why do you say we wont see another black president for generations in. I think he has set a very poor standard a very low bar and i think its a shame for the africanAmerican People. By the way, he has done nothing for africanamericans, if you look at whats gone on with their income level, their youth, i thought he would be a great cheerleader for this country. I thought he would do a fabulous job for the africanamerican citizens for this country, he has done nothing. Theyre worse now than just about ever excuse me they have problems now, in terms of unemployment numbers, look at their unemployment numbers. Here you have a black president whos done very poorly for the africanamericans of this country. I think that i will win the africanamerican vote and the hispanic vote. If you see the recent polls that have come out, jon, youll see that because im leading in the hispanic vote. I want to go through a lightninground questions. Supreme court, whos your model of Supreme Court nomination. I have number of people that i like when it comes to the Supreme Court, high intellect and very conservative. I would like high intellect and very conservative. Would President Trump authorize waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques . I would be very strong. When people are chopping off other peoples heads and were worried about waterboarding, i have no doubt that that works. Bring back waterboarding . Such a big subject. I havent heard that word in a long time. Okay i want to get a sense what a trump cabinet looks like secretary of state . I think its far too early to put names out. Im looking at the field. Tremendous people we could put in. Somebody whos very strong and very smart. And very energetic. Running mates . Sarah palin said nice things about her, would you consider her . The answer is you know i like sarah palin a lot, i think palin has gotten some unfair press. But i would pick someone who would be a terrific who would be a good president in case something happened there are many, many people out there that i think would be very good. Last question Reince Priebus said take a pledge not to run as thirdparty candidate. Im leading in every poll in some cases by a tremendous margin. People who know me arent surprised. If im treated fairly by ly bily by the Republican Party i would no interest in doing that. If im not treated fairly by the Republican Party, i very well might consider that i would certainly not give that up. Okay donald trump, thank you for joining us. Thank you very much. 17 republican candidates are trying to get on that debate stage this week, one is Rick Santorum he won the Iowa Caucuses last time. He was the runnerup to mitt romney, senator santorum joins me now. You just heard from trump, hes emphatically not ruling out a thirdparty run . Well you know im not concerned about that the Republican Party is going to treat every candidate fairly they have rules and theyre going to live by those rules, donald trump like every other candidate will rise and fall. Okay lets get to you, right now, it looks like youre not going to be on that debate stage, youre not in the top ten, youre quite a ways out, what do you say about these debate rules that can leave you, the runnerup last time out of the first debate . Yeah theyre pretty arbitrary. A poll recently they asked iowa caucus goers, 80 could name three running. I was at 1 in the nation poll polls four years ago. I won the iowa caucus. In fact, i won the Iowa Caucuses that i won, i was 2 in the national polls. National polls mean nothing. Its an arbitrary figure. Unfortunately the networks and the rnc have gone along with this. The ability to influence whos in the top ten by the amount of coverage they get, the amount of advertising dollars. Folks who have advertised on fox and fox business in order to drive their numbers up. Im here in iowa right now, i was in New Hampshire the South Carolina people are concerned that the media, we are going to decide who the top candidates are, no to the people of iowa not the people of New Hampshire. To be clear this is the chairman of the Republican Party, this is the rnc who have signed up on these criteria. Youre being frozen out of this first debate. I have said it from day one. Well look heres what i know four years ago, there was a straw poll i finished fourth. Way down in the pack. The two people the person who finished first, didnt win a gate, a few days later, was at the to which polls in august he didnt win a delegate. Im not worried about whats happening higher in august whether its a debate or the like. Im looking for the opportunity for every candidate in this race be heard on a national stage, they deserve it these are really good qualified men and women. I guarantee you someone in that first debate is going to be someone whos going to get a lot of delegates come next year and it will be another incident where the rnc and the National Media missed it. Okay i want to ask you about your status you mentioned the national polls, lets look at the position in eye ya where you won, you were atless than 1 in iowa where did all of your support go . Number one, theyre not talking about caucus goers. Number two, again, when i talked to folks, i spent several days most of the people i talked to are undecided. Actually were getting a fair amount of support, lot of folks are undecided. Im on their list. The folks that are doing well, not surprisingly are getting most media attention. So, i again, im not concerned about what happens now, im going to go out i have been to 60 counties in iowa youll continue as we are, getting our caucus captains and come february when it matters, not august, come february well be there, well surprise people again and theyll scratch their head and say, geez why did we mess up this summer and not recognize all candidates can bring something to the table should be in this game in. No doubt youll hit all 90 of those counties. Coming up the roundtable on the big trumps debate moment. And well talk to jack hannah over the growing uproar over the cecil the lion by the american dentist. This week with George Stephanopoulos is brought to you by md anderson cancer center. What do you got to offer us today . Balance transfer thats my game bank you never heard of, thats my name haa thank you. Uh, next. Watch me make your interest rate. Disappear. Theres gotta be a better way to find the right card. Whatever kind youre searching for, creditcards. 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Now, growing debate over trophy hunting sparked by that american dentist who allegedly killed the famous lion cecil after luring him out of a National Park in zimbabwe overnight, new questions about the fate of cecils companion. First, the latest from abcs alex perez. Reporter this morning, were learning that jericho the lion is still alive seen in a photo taken this morning after conflicting reports of his death saturday but the outrage over the death of his companion cecil is growing. The hunting of all lionses, leopards is suspended. Meanwhile, still no public sighting of minnesota dentist dr. Palmer who admitted to shooting cecil this month. Zimbabwean authorities are demanding his return. Were looking forward for his extradition. Reporter all of this hurting a spotlight on an alreadyheated debate on trophy hunting. Ban trophy hunting imports. We should really shame these people, this is not acceptable behavior in this day and age. Reporter but hunting advocates say its a critical way to pay for conservation efforts. For this week, alex perez, abc news chicago. And jack hanna joins us now from montana, hes director emeritus of the columbus zoo. Mr. Hanna thank you for joining us. So i got to ask you, what was your reaction when you first heard the news about cecil . Well you can imagine, working with animals for almost 40 years now, the thing is people have to understand that, 1947 when i was born there were about 450,000 lions. In the mid 750s, about 100,000. Today there are less than 30,000. When i first started filming there were lions everywhere. Obviously today their numbers have dropped. As far as what happened, real quickly, four things here i wasnt there, you werent there. Number one, this animal was habit habituates that means the researchers studying the animal from the distance. That lion knew that for 15 years or right. When you go up on this animal, it number two is all of a sudden you go through and you drag a car cas to the hunting side that was proven that they drug the car cas. Now, someone said that the man might not have seen the scar on the lion. I wa