Live Breaking News & Updates on Home state here february 24th
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it's also a conservative state. and as we've seen, almost half of nikki haley's supporters are democrats and independents that are not going to come out in a republican primary. ron desantis has the proven credentials as a conservative, and he is the only candidate that can unify the party of both trump supporters and people that would like to go a different direction, move forward, and fix this country for once and for all. >> james uthmeier, let's stay in close touch. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. i appreciate it. >> this important note to our viewers, tomorrow night i'll be moderating a cnn town hall with ron desantis live from new hampshire. that will start at 9:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow night. and coming up, trump may be marching towards victory in iowa, but what about his support nationwide? john king is standing by at the magic wall for us. plus, ron desantis really stepping up his attacks on trump today. listen. >> but if you don't kiss that ring, then he'll try to trash
development. he hemorrhaged support in that department. they went to ron desantis for a little while but now they have come back. >> there is an interesting reason for that. that is because of the indictments. after so many years of being told that institutions are corrupt, there is a sense that the institutions that are indicting donald trump for 91 felonies are also corrupt. it has changed the minds of some college-educated voters to say okay, we are going to give donald trump a shot because he is being victimized by these corrupt institutions. these are voters that he did not have that he has now. one other thing i would like to say about donald trump which is so fascinating to me. ron desantis has gone to every county in the state. nikki haley is out there 10
to bed and so on. but getting back to a few moments ago, yes, we talked about how the court cases helped solidify the republican party behind him. also at the same time, we have to get what wolf was saying before the commercial break. why did it take ron desantis so long? i was there in 2012 when rick santorum came out of nowhere and won the caucus. those candidates were going at each other tooth and nail. it did not happen this time around. it was weird. desantis and nikki haley went after each other, sniped at each other the other night the cnn debate. trump got none of it. >> the enemy of my enemy. is my friend. that's not the way it was. all stay with me. we're about 90 minutes away from the start of the iowa caucuses. so what exactly will be taking place tonight? we'll go through the details. a special report is next. plus, after tonight, on to new hampshire that is where nikki haley has the endorsement of the state's popular republican governor chris sununu. so what isis he heararing abouo haleley's chanceces tonight?t? he'll bebe ourur guest.
been traversing the state. she continued to do that today. one of the interesting things about nikki haley is her husband is deployed overseas. he is in the south carolina national guard. while she is here preparing with her daughter and her son, she is not here with michael. she has not been able to speak to him today. listen to how she described that. >> he is in the middle of a lot of stuff. as you know the world is on fire. he has not had access to communication for a few days. >> even today? >> no. our hope is that we are going to hear from him. i pray that he comes home to us safely. i know he is part of me and i am proud of him. >> we know as jessica was saying earlier that nikki haley and ron desantis are really battling it out in iowa for
given the money wall street supporters have pumped into the state. >> i notice governor desantis will take an unconventional path after iowa, planning to hit governor haley's home state of south carolina instead of straight to new hampshire. the next primary state, as all of us know. why is that? what message are you trying to send there? >> yeah, we're going to hit south carolina en route to new hampshire. you know, we're certainly not skipping new hampshire. the governor's message of freedom and liberty resonates very, very well in that state. but south carolina has a lot of similarities to iowa. there is a strong faith and family presence. the governor does very, very well there. we've got crowds exceeding capacity at our event space. we've got a strong ground game there. we believe our message is going to resonate very, very well. and, you know, nikki haley, you got to win your home state if you're going win the nomination. i don't think that's going to happen. and unfortunately, that's going to be the end of the road for her.
are they all wrong, do you think? >> the polls have been consistently and notoriously wrong in predicting the outcomes in iowa. the voters know that here. they're dismissing the polls. it's hard to poll the caucus state, with so few people voting, especially in conditions like this. the voters are going to go and make the decisions tonight. all of you at home, it's not the polls that pick presidents, it's not the media that picks presidents, it's you, your voice. and we believe the voters, they want to look forward. they want a president who is a proven winter and results oriented. and that's ron desantis. he is the only one who has delivered on every single one of his promises, from school choice to tax relief for families, keeping the state open during covid. there is a reason why florida is number one destination for new movers these days. it's a free state, and if he could take that to the white house he could turn the country around. >> we know desantis' campaign
campaign tonight. jessica, as we mentioned, we're waiting on those very first entrance polls set to come out of iowa. what will the desantis team be looking for? >> well, wolf, they're certainly looking to see just how turnout will shape up tonight, and if the weather and how the weather might impact that. as one adviser was saying to me, will it be geographical? will it be the fact that people in rural areas can't get out on the roads? will it be age-related? older people, might they not want to get out in the cold? they just don't know that. is a big x factor tonight. but what i'm also told is desantis really spent this day feeling what i'm told is relaxed, ready to roll, ready to go, very loose, that he feels good and optimistic about going in to tonight. they're also relying on this extensive ground game that has been touted for months now, put together by the super pac aligned with desantis, never back down. they told me they knocked on some 947 doors across the state.
desantis to try and become the one who is competing with former president trump throughout the rest of the republican primary. now one of the things that haley's camp felt was important today was the fact that she got out, and she actually saw voters here in iowa. in a number of events across the state, all within driving distance to des moines, of course, because the weather has been so awful over the last few days, they didn't want to get stuck in another part of the state. but one of the things that surprised me when i was at those events earlier today is that there were a number of undecided voters who were in the audience. they were listening to nikki haley. some of them are looking at new hampshire. they see she has momentum there. that's one of the reasons they're thinking about supporting her here, because it could boost her into new hampshire in a really formidable way. but not all iowans feel that way, of course. some said that iowans make their own decisions, and nikki haley telling them over the course of the last few days that iowa is going to set the tone for the republican primary.
have there? >> wolf, he has had a tremendous grip on this republican party. but tonight will be the first time that voters have a chance to weigh in and decide whether they would like him to be essentially have a rematch with president joe biden. of course iowa is the beginning of the road. the question is by the end of this evening, will it be the end of the road for some candidates? there is no doubt that the trump organization has been preparing for this evening for months and months. they have built a significant ground organization. i have seen it. i've been inside their headquarters. it is dramatically different than it was in 2016 when many of their supporters admitted not exactly knowing what an iowa caucus was. now they do know that. they have precinct captains in all of the 1,657 precincts spread out across the state. of course, the other campaigns are also working extensively on the ground. let's think of history here. the trump campaign has been trying to manage its expectations. they are expecting to win. virtually every republican here also expects trump to win, but
typically, there are speeches given on representatives from the various candidates who say vote for this person, vote for that person. then people vote in secret on paper ballots. the gop rules say you have to be a republican or registered republican to take part in this, even though you can register at the site if you want to tonight. but this is very much a party activity. not a state activity. now, what happens afterward? usually somebody gets a majority. that person is declared more or less the winner in the state. but this is not a winner take all proposition. it is proportional. so when you look at the 40 iowa delegates they're competing for tonight, this many total delegates are at stake, this many are needed to win the nomination nationally. so if you get a proportion of this, you're just getting a tiny start on what you need to win the nomination. nonetheless, it is considered an important measure of where you stand. although we should note that when you look in the past, look at the winners of recent iowa