With flying colors tonight. laura: why did you do? you did a little twitter video that i caught where you said i m going to talk about the elephant in the room. and it was your faith. why did you feel like you needed to do that? i have been asked about that immensely over the course of this time in iowa. i have answered honestly. laura: do you think iowans don t like you because i think iowans like me because i m honest. laura: i m curious. what i have found is we do big events. hundreds of people in the room. people raise their hand and ask questions. then at the end in the photo lines i get a lot of questions about faith. i have spoken openly how i m hindu. i believe in one true god who puts us here for a purpose. but i was raise in the 1578 value set each the judeo-christian values that this nation was founded on. and i think a lot of evangelical christians across this state understand the difference between a president and a pastor and it s going to take a president who protects religious liberty for those pastors to be able do their job. laura: i thought it was cool you did that late in the game. i haven t seen you talk about that before i really enjoyed it.
Evangelical pastors joining us later in the show from iowa to talk about that. another thing, maybe because i m a sports addict but we have to distract the voter today, it s 30 below and there are a couple good football games on, too. i have been thinking about that this weekend. don t remind wolf blitzer, his bills are playing in the middle of his episode time. the type of campaign that nikki haley has run, peaking at the time that you would want to peak, was not majorly involved in iowa until over e. over the course of the last couple of months. trump has started to take lots of shots at her which she was asked about by our dana bash yesterday. take a listen. i don t care as much about elected officials endorsing as much as i care about the voters endorsements. i want to win the people s vote. they were talking specifically about the number of endorsements, both desantis and trump rolled out. trump rolling out doug burgum and marco rubio as well. what does she need to do?
Across the country regardless of whose name is at the top of the pack. of the infrastructure that those in the pac put forward stayed there. and that got me a trump ad that trump shared. for some folks in the faith-based community that will seem adoll trous. we re to ask evangelical pastors from iowa about that. why do you think trump holds on to 51% evangelical voters, compared to ron desantis s 20% in iowa. a great book about this dynamic, what swe have seen is, and he saw this with his father. idolatry around trump and supplanting america has the top of the ticket in your heart should always be jesus christ and that messaging. that s a real problem for a lot of evangelicals who are actually trying to be based in the bible.
Race with a major advantage in the polling, writ large and with sub groups like evangelicals. we ll see if he can beat those numbers tonight. phil, thank you very much. and evangelicals in iowa shunned trump eight years ago, but the latest polling shows they are embracing him this time around. 51% of evangelical caucus goers plan to vote for the for the former president. ron desantis has about 22% of them. and 2016, for context, evangelicals made up 2/3 of republican caucus goers. that s when ted cruz beat trump to win on the state. the new york times asked several pastors which way they were leaning and why. we are joined by two pastors, pastor travis decker a pastor in ottumwa, iowa, and dr. tim vubenis, he supports ron desantis. gentlemen, i so appreciate you joining us this morning for this important conversation, and dr. lubenis, let me begin with you. how does your faith inform your
Who is driving it sounds like. well, glad you are not drive egg but in the passenger seat in between trump campaign events. you re going from fort dodge to des moines. so tell us, claire was talking about the evangelical vote, definitely been a big change since 2016 certainly for trump. tell us what feels different to you this time around. reporter: it is telling. if we re talking about the evangelical vote, if you listen to some of the prayers that the pastors deliver during the invocation at trump s rallies, they sound so trumpian in the way that it would have been unfathomable coming out of the mouth of a preacher eight years ago. orwellian tyranny that is taking over the united states. this idea that, you know, that evil has come on to the united states and it is donald trump. one pastor referring to him as
Morning. by the time we get towards tuesday morning, this cold air settles in across the south. there s another storm coming, this i want to tell you, it s going to become a really big snowmaker across parts of mississippi, tennessee, arkansas. weaver going to see some spots, 5-8 inches by the time we get to monday. rachel in. rachel: thank you, rick. with the iowa caucuses just one day away, candidates are racking up last minute if endorsements. last week governor desantis picked up 50 new endorsements from pastors, but other faith leaders say endorsements aren t all that helpful in iowa. he predicts a massive victory for trump tomorrow. here to explain, founder and chairman of the faith and freedom coalition ralph reid. welcome, ralph. we re so excited to have you. we know you have such a wealth of knowledge particularly in iowa. thanks, rachel. rachel: so explain this. so you ve got desantis getting all these endorsements from pastors, but you say that
Raped in ohio they don t want politicians telling that ten-year-old girl what to do, they want the parents and the priests, the pastors, health care people to help them out. if you look at schools, parents are afraid to send their kids to school because of guns. donald trump wants more guns on the street of america. you go down about he s, talking about executing generals. he s talking about wanting economy to be destroyed this year wrecking seniors retirement. how is this race even close? you wonder it makes you wonder about people once you read obamacare sucks, he wants to be a dictator for at least
Me, and do that for a few hours, i ll fight for you for the next eight years. donald trump is running to pursue his issues. nikki haley is running for the donors issues. i m running for your issues, and your families issues, and solely to turn this country around. all of the republican presidential nominees are battling it up for one of the most crucial voting blocks in iowa, evangelicals. according to a report from the new york post, this week, desantis gained 50 new endorsements from pastors and faith leaders across the state. but axios reports donald trump seems to be more popular overall among i s evangelicals. nbc s steve kornacki is with a closer look at what could be a close right in the hawkeye state. you know northwest iowa really, this is an area we re even could play a big role in back in 2016, 64% of the iowa republican electorate was evangelical christian.