ben carson -- during the caucus. ben carson has quit the race. and ben didn't quit the race. in other words, ben carson quit and let me have your votes. what kind of crap is this? what kind of people do we have running for office? no, it's honestly really, really dishonest and i think i know why. you know why? because he was born in canada. >> like canada explains lying. i have some relatives in canada who would like to talk with you about that. they're very, very nice people. after that, donald trump took to twitter this morning and just let it all out. he said on twitter today, "ted cruz did not win iowa. he stole it. that's why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. bad." he also said, "during primetime of the iowa caucus, cruz put out a release that ben carson was quitting the race and to caucus for cruz." "based on the fraud committed by senator ted cruz during the iowa caucus, either a new election should take place or the cruz results should be nullified. after that, all that today he went on "boston herald" radio and flat-out ac

the ben carson campaign laid off 50 people t. carley fiorina campaign, what i can tell you is they have a really cute carley red rv, which i saw today in the flesh. i saw nit manchester, new hampshire. that's the picture i took with my phone. that's a sign she is still running. she at least has an rv. she is now definitively will be excluded from the next republican debate. she will not be at the kids' table for the debate because there is no kids' table this time. it will be seven republican candidates on stage and those seven will not include her. so that does not bode well for her in this race. the race has shrunk already on the republican side this week. they seem poised to shrink again very soon. now on the democratic side, these are getting super unpredictable. you know what tracking polls are? they are a different kind of poll altogether. tracking polls, what they do is they fool a group of people with a similar makeup of every single day. they keep polk them to see how their views change over time, day-by-day. so 7 news i

carson, an angry ben carson. >> this is ben carson angry, this is ben carson happy. >> i feel like i should requested the words "on the inside." but from cruz's standpoint, look, he got the big win. he got his dream in iowa. he won it out there. has this affected him, do you think, on the republican side? do you think republicans are looking at this and saying this is a dirty trick or do you think they're looking and saying hey, fair's fair, it's overblown, it's not a big deal. >> i think if ben carson could really hammer that argument home, it would be really effective. as you just said, we're watching this interview and ben carson is still pretty even keeled even if he's very angry maybe on the inside about it. what i would be looking for tonight in the debate is whether he makes a big issue out of it when most americans are watching. i'm not sure how many americans are following this tit for tat over something that happened in iowa and so many of us are focused on what's about to happen here in new hampshire in this primary. >> so rubio, look, the targets on rubio's back everybody

on ben carson and vote for ted cruz. he's taking a leave of absence from this campaign. thank you. bye. >> this is going to be an entry in the textbook where they teach bad kids with good grades the dark art of political dirty tricks. this is nasty. this is a nasty dirty trick from ted cruz. he got caught. because he's ted cruz, he doesn't have a friend in the world in republican political circles so nobody is giving him a hand up or excuse. he's got caught. the question is, is this going to go down in history as sort of just dirty tricks as usual? there does seem to be a legitimate enmouse toward ted cruz on some other issues as well from the people he's running against. particularly on this, on this thing he did with telling his supporters that ben carson was out of race, wow do republicans seem mad at him about this. what is the best context for understanding whether this something like this really coul like this could hurt ted cruz or whether it will be seen as politics as usual? >> i know who to ask that question an

ben carson. the carson campaign suggested it was too little too late and that the rumor cruz's campaign spread likely affected the results. jeb bush needs a strong finish in new hampshire after winning a meager 3% of the vote in iowa. he's already hinted at bringing out his brother and now his mother, first lady barbara bush is set to join him tomorrow. >> no, my mom is not going to hit -- i know the donald got all excited by saying that my mom, you know, was going to come and he said well, your mom can't negotiate with isis. to show you how idiotic donald trump is as it relates to foreign policy, we're not going to negotiate with isis. if my mom did negotiate with isis it would be a tough negotiation. far better than he could do. >> governor chris christie left early for new hampshire before caucusing even began. he got fewer than 4,000 votes. eager to get on the trail yesterday, he trained his sights on marco rubio pummeling him in front of the case in a way that chris christie can. >> i'm goin

it's important that you tell any ben carson voters that they for tonight not vote for ben carson and vote for ted cruz. he is taking a leave. thank you. >> hello, this cruz campaign with breaking news, dr. ben carson will be planning to suspend his campaign. thank you and good night. that was the ted cruz campaign in iowa the night of the iowa caucuses where they won the iowa caucus. we now know that part of the way they tried to win was by tricking ben carson supporters into thinking their candidate had quit so they could stay home or the they still wanted to come out, they could flip to ted cruz instead. that was just brutal. they tried to down play it. it was a big time dirty trick. on friday before the south carolina primary, south carolina senator lindsey graham was campaigning with jeb bush. he was asked his opinion of ben carson. he said ben carson is the world's nicest man and if ted cruz made ben carson mad, you ought to think long and hard about ted cruz. that's the reputation he earned and he kept running the same way once he moved onto south carolina. very few things had

he was withering against ben carson and ben carson started to drop. he's been really tough on ted cruz but ted cruz does seem to be weathering that storm. he's attacked marco rubio specifically in the past but not for quite a few months. before he was calling him a baby, saying he was sweaty and calling him a lightweight, also saying he doesn't show up for votes. that was an -- early fall he was doing that when marco rubio was said to be the major contender as people thought he was going to start surging. he hasn't started surging really until right now, but we haven't heard donald trump barely even mention marco rubio's name. the past few days we've heard about ted cruz a little bit in passing, barely mentioning his name as well. but if we do see donald trump go after marco rubio on stage, i think what we'll get is somebody who's not ready for office. he has not had the proven record. he doesn't show up for votes. somebody who is too young. and he could potentially get into the personal attacks making fun of him for being sweaty, for drinking water d

ben carson. he currently is polling around 4% in both our nbc/"wall street journal"/marist poll and "the boston globe" poll of likely voters in new hampshire. you'll notice in the poll he is in a tie with carly fiorina. she was excluded from tonight's debate for not meeting some of the criteria and tonight significant for the carson campaign as it will be his first face-to-face meeting with senator ted cruz since that campaign apologized spreading the false reports on the night of the iowa caucus that carson was dropping out allegedly of the presidential race. >>> and i am joined now by republican presidential candidate dr. ben carson. thanks for being here. >> my pleasure. >> i want to get to some of that news i just mentioned, but let me start here in new hampshire. why should new hampshire voters go towards you for president right now? >> well, there's a number of reasons. first of all, i've had a lot of life experiences. not as a career politician, but as somebody who has experienced life fro

because people love ben carson. people who like ben carson really love him. even people who wouldn't vote for him tend to have a lot of respect for him. after all, he is a rightly acclaimed neurosurgeon with this incredible life story. so even if you don't want the guy to be president, you don't want him to be treated the way he was treated by the cruz campaign. i think it is potentially damaging for ted cruz. i tend to agree with mickey, though, that the play for trump in the debate might be to go after rubio. because he could really do some damage to rubio on immigration. >> let's talk a little bit about trump here. this jumped out at me. this new poll. it asks the question, who would you not vote for on the republican side? look at this number for donald trump. in december, it was 26%. which is a little high. it is now 37%. and this is the thing i hear over and over. the idea that donald trump has carved out his audience, his constituency. but when you get out of that, he doesn't have many potential converts left. >> yeah, you saw it in iowa, too. the seco

on ben carson and vote for ted cruz. he is taking a leave of absence, okay, thank you, bye. >> hello, this is the cruz campaign with breaking news. dr. ben carson lob suspending his campaign following tonight's caucuses. please inform any carson caucusgoers of this news and urge them to vote for ted cruz. >> cruz spokes woman katherine fraser said that the senator has apologized for not clarifying more quickly that carson would not be suspending his campaign. frazier said there's no evidence that any of it impacted his campaign. carson by the way has yet to return to the campaign trail. an nbc news has learned that carson is cutting a significant chunk of staff amid the money problems. around 50 staffers will be let go. >>> all right, now let's go to capitol hill and the so called pharma bro. ceo martin shkreli who defended 5,000% price hike on life-saving hiv drugs remained defiant as congress tried to gets ans from him. nbc's anne thompson reports. >> reporter: appearing to smirk -- >> are you listening? >> reporter: a

. >> what about ben carson, jeremy? >> oh, ben carson, here's the thing, could he go onto the march 1st states? he probably has some money left to do that. money's never been a problem for him like it apparently is for jeb bush. i think that you have to start to wonder, though, what the future is for the carson campaign if he comes in 5th or 6th place. >> folks are waking up, getting ready to head to the polls. they are officially open with the first gop primary. halle jackson is outside a polling station in colombia, joins us right now. we see a live shot of a man cleaning the sleep out of his eyes. they're on site and ready to go. what do you see? >> reporter: i missed the guy selene e cleaning the sleep out of his eyes, it is early, people are showing up. south carolinas are punktual if nothing else. this is a final push these candidates are heading out on. really all of them have something to prove, whether it's how dominant they can be or proving they can stay in this race. i tell you what, this morning, if donald

let me just tell you, this guy lied about ben carson when he took votes away from ben carson in iowa. and he just continues. and today, we had robo calls saying donald trump is not going to run in south carolina where i'm leading by a lot. i'm not going to run. vote for ted cruz. this is the same thing he did to ben carson. this guy will say anything. nasty guy. >> it is fairly remarkable to see donald defending ben after he called him pathological and compared him to a child molester. both of which were offensive and wrong. but let me say -- >> i just -- >> -- donald didn't disagree with the substance that he supports taxpayer funding for planned parenthood. >> where did i support it? >> you supported it when we were battling over defunding planned parenthood. you -- >> that's a lot of nonsense. >> -- planned parenthood does wonderful things. >> it does do wonderful things but not as it relates to abortion. they do -- >> what are the wonderful things it does? >> there are wonderful things having to do with women's health. >> you see you and i disagree with that. >> well, they don't -

i thought it was unfair to ben. i think it goes back to what i said before, that is a willingness to say or do anything or in this case spread a false rumor about ben carson. >> senator cruz has apologized. said he didn't know what his campaign was doing, but he didn't condone such activity, but there needs to be action. >> cruz defended the actions saying he would not be quote, scapegoating anyone. and since the iowa caucuses four candidates have suspended their campaigns. yesterday, both rand paul and rick santorum announced they wouldn't make it to the first in the nation primary. with the senate re-election race looming in kentucky, paul issued a video statement bowing out but did not endorse anyone else. now, despite trying to expand the party tent, paul's poll numbers never took off, at one point sliding off to main debate stage. he was outperformed by his own father in iowa back in 2012. that same year, ron paul came in second in the new hampshire primary while this year his son is polling and 2%. ron paul mo

the problem is, this seems to have rhode island up ben carson, ben carson may be, we're not sure how long he was going to stay in the race before this. it looks like now he wants to stick around. he is angry about this. if he sticks around, he doesn't have to win. if he gets 5, 6, 7% of the vote, that could cost him. >> hillary clinton was asked by our colleague chuck todd, whether she would release transcripts of her paid speeches before goodman sax and ups being one of them. >> in full disclosure would you release all of them? >> i don't know the status him i can look into it. i can only repeat what is the fact that i spoke to a lot of different groups with a lot of different constituents. a lot of different kind of members about issues that had to do with world affairs. >> and as you know nbc's andrea mitchell pressed her again on the campaign trail yesterday about this. do you think we would see these transcripts, would they be an issue for mrs. clinton down the line? >> reporter: yes, look, this is her biggest vel nurability, her ties to wall street. the idea she took those spea

is ben carson going to cost you iowa? >> listen, at the end of the day this race was always going to come down to do conservatives unite. ten months ago you and i visited right at the outset. if you'd told me ten months ago that the day before the iowa caucuses we would be in a statistical tie for first place, i would have been thrilled and astonished. and we are thrilled and astonished. the question is going to come 36 hours from now, do conservatives come together? in past cycles what washington has always wanted is to splinter and divide conservatives. if that happens -- >> you're worried about that a little bit. >> i'm always worried about it. the only way i know how to run -- there's the only joke, two ways to run, scared and unopposed. the only way i know how to run is scared. and we're going to run hard every minute. you know, tomorrow we're going to complete the full grass. we will have been to all 99 counties in iowa. we are campaigning one after the other asking for the votes of the men and women of iowa and foc

ben ginsburg, our delegate guru, appreciate it. still ahead, we're going to hear from the trump campaign. donald trump's son, eric, will be here and we'll talk about all of this hand wringing going on inside the republican party and how his father is reacting to it. we'll be right back. ♪ he has a sharp wit. a winning smile. and no chance of getting an athletic scholarship. and that is why you invest. the best returns aren't just measured in dollars. td ameritrade. hi i'm kristie. and i'm jess. and we are the bug chicks. we're a nano-business. windows 10 really helps us get the word out about how awesome bugs are. kids learn to be brave and curious and all kids speak the language of bug. "hey cortana, find my katydid video." oh! this is so good. if you're trying to teach a kid about a proboscis. just sketch it on the screen. i don't have a touch screen on my mac, i'm jealous of that. you put a big bug in a kids hands and change their world view. [ laugh ] everhas a number.olicy but not every insurance company understands the life

it will be interesting to see what evangelicals do if ben ben carson does not do well in south carolina, where do his supporters go? >> how does trump with that group? >> a lot of evangelicals go to donald trump. donald trump is his own lane. we're calling it the outsider lane, but it's really the trump lane, right? >> like a trump superhighway. >> it's a new thing. >> it's gold and beautiful and huge. >> it's huge. >> but it's real. so this sets up the kind of contest that we haven't ever seen really. >> no. >> and it could go on for a while. >> let's put some meat on those bones, though. in terms of talking about who's winning what, how this race is shaping up, steve kornacki has the second wave, new wave of exit poll data out of south carolina, who's doing well with who? >> that's an interesting discussion. this has been a surprise all along. this is the percentage of the electorate in all the early states and how many identified themselves as white evangelical or born again christian. it was big in iowa, small in new hampshire. biggest we've seen. 70% in south carolina. how are the

ben carson was out of the race. and then there was this official looking document that came out from the cruz world, that basically scared people into voting whatever, and those were the intimations. now we get the robo calls. >> now you get the calls and begins in south carolina, which is like a landscape with gasoline all over it, ready to be lighted by any match. it's the history of the state, politics is conducted there. presidential politics is conducted by a knife in the back. often racial. often that kiechbd tone. and also, very personal about people's religion, people's family, that's the way they play it down there. i think it's historical, because in south carolina, politics has been a matter of life and death in very personal going back to the very beginning. >> it could be directed from any source. makes a phone call, super pac, do this, you are power the guy. dirt can be thrown from any direction. >> any direction whatsoever. if you look for example, the woman who received this phone call, people will t

this guy lied about ben carson. he took votes away from ben carson in iowa. and he just continues. today we had robo calls saying donald trump is not going to run in south carolina where i'm leading by a lot. vote for for ted cruz. this is the same thing he did to ben carson. he will say anything. nasty guy. >> that will do it for me this morning, i'm dara brown in new york at the msnbc headquarters "your business" is next.sa moneyg his motorcycle insurance to geico. there's no shame in saving money. ride on, ride proud. geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. do something! get on the floor! oh i'm not a security guard, i'm a security monitor. i only notify people if there is a robbery. there's a robbery. why monitor a problem if you don't fix it? that's why lifelock does more than free credit monitoring to protect you from identity theft. we not only alert you to identity threats, if you have a problem, we'll spend up to a million dollars on lawyers and experts to fix it. lifelock. join starting at $9.99 a month. make you feel like an svp desk instead of a vp? then you migh

ben carson, during a caucuses, ben carson has quit the race. and ben didn't quit the race. in other words, ben carson quit, and let me have your votes. what kind of crap is this? no, it's, honestly, really, really dishonest. and i think i know why. you know why? because he was born in canada. >> any way, trump tweeted today, quote, ted cruz didn't win iowa. he stole it. and he also tweeted, the state of iowa should disqualify ted cruz from the most recent election on the basis that he cheated. a total fraud. that's trump. any way, ted cruz hit back again today. here he is. >> it is no surprise that donald is throwing yet another temper tantrum or another trump-tantru, he throws fits his insults get more and more hysterical the more and more upset he gets. he can do that. i am not going to respond in kind. >> do you think they're funny. >> i do think they're funny. i wake up and laugh at the latest thing donald has tweeted. because he's losing it. look, we need a commander in chief. not a twitterer in chief. i don't know anyone who would be comfortable with someone whoby be

i thought it was unfair to ben. ultimately it goes back to what i said before, a willingness to say or do anything, in this case spread a false rumor about ben carson. >> as for john kasich, well, he's taking the politically pacifist approach. >> i don't -- not going to get into trump and this and that. i got about five more days to go and you know what, i'm not attacking anybody. i wish everybody would stop attacking everybody else and have a positive message. >> joining me now, editorial page editor for "the new hampshire union leader" which has endorsed chris christie and jennifer horn, chair of the republican party of hn hn. jennifer, let me start with you. the guiding framework that has been used i think by almost everyone covering this race is those four candidates, marco rubio, jeb bush, chris christie, and john kasich are all of whom are polling around 10 points, 9 to 11 somewhere in there, are more or less fighting for the same pool of votes of republican pray mare voters in new hampshire. someone know who

he ben ben fits from the fact that they have events that thousands of people have come to. they said coming in here that they had already seen face-to-face 35,000 new hampshire voters and hope to build on that over the course of the next day or so. sanders is also going to be taking a break from the campaign trail for a little while. he has an event this morning that we're on our way to but then head down to new york to make a guest appearance on ""saturday night live"" he's played along with larry david's impersonation of him. larry david joking that sanders only has one pair of underwear. sanders said after that he purchased a second pair. all in good humor. we'll have to see -- waitnd see exactly what that looks like. but to kristen's point about national polling that's an opportunity for them to try to close the gap, get bernie sanders in front of more -- as many viewers as possible across the country. sanders challenge, of course, maintaining the lead. they know that it's likely -- the race is likely to tighten between now and tuesday. of course the clinton campaign ar

look further down the field, ben carson 9%, senator rand paul with 5%. two points ahead of jeb bush whose campaigns and super pacs spent more than $14 million in iowa. that is a lot of money per vote, folks. carly fiorina, and john kasich, mike huckabee and chris christie got 1%. cruz finished with eight delegates. rubio and trump with seven apiece. and ted cruz put his campaign into overdrive in the final hours before the caucuses. completing a tour of iowa's 99 counties. what is known in this state as the full grassley. along with the voter outreach operation that paid off. cruz won among voters who said they were contacted on behalf of a candidate. and those who had caucused before. it also found cruz captured influential voting blocks including 44% of self-described very conservative voters. 34% of evangelicals. 38% of those who say they wanted a candidate who shares their values. here's cruz thanking his supporters last night with some subtle digs at donald trump. >> tonight is a victory for the grass roots. to put in perspective, your incredible vi

ben carson finished with 9%. rand paul 4%, two points ahead of jeb bush whose campaigns and super pacs spent over $14 million in iowa. carly fiorina, governors john kasich, mahuckabee and chris christie at 2% each. rick santorum, 1%. >> mike barnicle, this is how this year is so different. when you add up the support of all current and former governors' support, it equals almost the support of ben carson. the era -- and ben carson had a horrible night. the era of governors being presumptive favorites in presidential contests, over. >> it's surprising too. a couple of them, chris christie, does speak that language that voters are looking for this year in terms of anxiety, fear and apprehension, but it's not -- it didn't register in iowa. new hampshire is going to be -- >> we'll see. >> the governors are doing very well in new hampshire right now. >> they are. i mean, caucuses are so different than an election. >> they are. >> this was fascinating. >> the coverage last night of the caucuses was kind of extraordinar

a lot of those votes were missing because of what happened to ben, ben carson, who is a great guy. that shouldn't have happened. in new hampshire, i feel very good. we'll see what happens. it's politics. you know politics better than i do. it's politics. i have never done this before. we had a great turn in iowa, and i think we're going to have an even better turn tonight. we have to count up the votes. >> i have to talk about what happened last night at your rally, just across the street from where we're sitting. let's place this moment where you were rallying your crowd and now you have twitter and social media abuzz. let's play it. >> she just said a terrible thing. you know what she said? she said i never expect to hear that from you again. she said he's a [ bleep ]. terrible. >> first sometime in my 30 years on television, you're talking about a p-word and it's not policy. >> it's true. we were having a lot of fun. i was repeating something somebody said from the audience. it was cute. the whole place gave a standing ovation. we didn't want to be too politically correct. not t

this is a guy who will lie about ben carson. this is a guy who will do anything to win. >> yeah, that seems to be cruz's reputation at this point and it worked effectively in iowa, for what it's worth. but he is creating a sort of wake of bad will in the aftermath. i talked to people in new hampshire, for instance, who said they could never consider voting for ted cruz because of what he had done to ben carson. of course, these were ben carson supporters, but they took it very seriously. the bigger picture here is what sticks out to me which is, you know, cruz is -- there's a personal cost to what cruz is doing. there are gay people in this country who have seen progress in the past couple years, who do enjoy the right to marry now because of the supreme court and you have a leading republican presidential candidate talking out of the side of his mouth in a manhattan fund-raiser and another way at a rally. and i think that, you know, at some point we should step back and wonder, you know, what is the personal cost to this type o

that's over a cruz campaign mailer sent before the caucus which said that ben carson was dropping out and his supporters should urge carson to switch to cruz. unsurprisingly cruz has responded and he came one a new word. >> it is no surprise that donald is throwing yet another temper tantrum or if you like yet another trumper tantrum. i understand that donald finds it very hard to lose, that he finds that very difficult for him. but at the end of the day the iowa people spoke. >> and i'm joined by nbc's tracie potts who is live in washington with more. a lot of bickering. what's going on? >> reporter: well, the fact that new hampshire is a very different race from what we saw in iowa and the candidates are responding to that. donald trump has a double digit lead, much bigger than what he had in iowa. and of course those polls ended up being wrong. but he's got a double digit lead here in new hampshire and on the other side bernie sanders calls himself the underdog, but that's not what the numbers are showing. tonight's msnbc debate is hillary clinton's last chance to take on bernie sa

who was held accountable for lying about ben carson? woo who was held account frbl the robocalls and who was held accountable for the commercials on television they had to pull down? again, i think it's a very disturbing pattern of deceptive campaigns and flat out just lying to voters. >> so kristen, you're looking at marco rubio not taking on the front-runner, taking on ted cruz who was beat handily in the state where am i now with the base of evangelical voters. one could say is senator rubio looking for the vp slot if you're not going to take on the front-runner. >> look at the race and every time a candidate has sort of tried to go toe-to-toe with donald trump. first it was rick perry and then it was bobby jindal. you had a moment when ben carson was the subject of trump's fury. you had jeb bush there for a long time. all of these folks have sort of walked into the buzz saw that is donald trump, and none have lived to tell about it. and ted cruz is sort of the next on the chopping block. so while for those who say, look, senator rub

ben jealous joins us now. ben, thank you very much for being here. >> absolutely. fo good to see you. >> how was breakfast? >> it was great. i'd forgotten about paul. he's such a night mare. >> didn't he once say the naacm in maine, or did he mean nationally should kiss his -- >> i think he meant nationally. i think he meant nationally. he reminds you, historically, 1920s, maine was second to georgia for the concentration of the ku klux klan. in his case, ironic, keep catholics out. >> french canadians. >> there's only two groups we know of that still exist that were flighting the klan on behalf of french catholics and like it's him it's the nights of column business and naacp of maine. i'd like him to say -- before he steps down. >> you are a smart guy, i say that with pride, we went to school together, we've known each other a long time. i know you look at things in a big picture, reflective way. you look at things like that, look at the swath of american history, where we are as a country, do you feel like in the democratic race right now you're kind of spoiled

konop and maxwell austin. >> ben, good to see you. >> nice to finally meet you. i feel like a bond, you know what i mean? >> a little bit. yeah, yeah, yeah. >> here you go. >> we've had something, thank you very much. >> a peace offering. >> we had our beer. we talked about the city, talked about some of the issues facing young people in the city, facing downtown toledo, which he also had some interest in. so we found some common ground. it's a very productive evening for me, at least. i hope it wasn't too bad for you. >> nope, not at all. i got a free beer out of it. >> got a free beer. >> i would be willing to move past our heckling incident and try to get him involved in some way constructively for the community. >> but austin prefers to do his opining from the sidelines and doesn't see politics in his future. >> have i ever thought about running for office? no. you know, during the whole booing incident people said, you should run for mayor. you should run for mayor. i don't want to do that. >> as for ben konop, he loses the mayor's race, but he gains a thick

jeb bush, ted cruz, marco rubio, ben carson, all scheduled to speak. donald trump, ted cruz, not attending. in case you're wondering, evangelicals make up 60% of the state republicans. so a lot of what we heard out of iowa might be repeated in south carolina. meantime, the bernie sanders campaign team hitting the ground, particularly hard in south carolina. in hopes of keeping up his momentum out of new hampshire. msnbc's joy reid joins us live from columbia, south carolina, where she's watching the sanders team. let's talk about their strategy, joy, and what you have been able to learn while there. >> well, you know, one of the things that we have noticed is there's a lot more support for bernie sanders than i think a lot of us expected coming down here. the polls don't show that he has a lot of momentum here, but we were seeing it on the ground. we went by his campaign, we canvassed with some of his staffers. they got a really good reception. a lot of undecided black voters. listen to what two of the staffers said are some of the most important issue

ben carson will be planning to suspend his campaign following tonight's caucuses. please inform any carson caucus goers of this. >> carson accepted cruz's apology over the incident but in a podcast posted he sure did not sound happy. >> are you satisfied with the way senator cruz has handled he himself as a christian through this episode? >> it's not the way i would have handled it. not to take corrective action as tacitly saying, ho it's okay or after hillary clinton said benghazi, what difference does it make? >> marco rubio offered up a joking warning. >> by the way, if you get a call saying i dropped out, it isn't true. it's a lie. keep voting. >> conservative radio talk show host and i talked to a voter today who is a rand paul guy and i asked about cruz. this is what he said to say. >> i can't get past the fact i think he's sort of slimy. i mean that. he's pretty good on the constitution. i met cruz at a few town halls. the fact is i'm hung up on that everything with ted cruz is pre-programmed. he has that sort of evangelical preaching style. it doesn't pass

john kasich and ben carson are tied at 9%. this despite trump maintaining a strong lead in other public polls, the latest american research group tracking poll gives trump a 12-point edge, 34% to rubio's 23%. with kasich barely ahead of cruz at 13%, bush at 9%, carson at 4%. tox news poll tells a slightly different story with trump at 32%, cruz in second at 19%, rubio third at 15%, bush and carson tied at 9% and kasich at 6%. >> you look at the fox news poll that has trump at 32%, cruz at 19% which is consistent with every other poll we've seen. same thing with the american research group. that poll was in the 15th through the 17th, the same time the nbc news poll was in the field. i've seen other polls in the field from the 15th through the 17th that show donald trump in the 30s and show him comfortably ahead. this is the second nbc poll there two days that is an out liar and mark halperin are there any other polls throughout? and these polls were taken after the republican debate last week. are there any other polls that sup

ben, let me start with you. i honestly, i mean, i feel divided because this is spectacle. it's entertaining. it's not the political coalition to which i feel personal affinity. it doesn't share my values, but it's also just mortifying. what is happening? sdp >> i think you're seeing change from existing and kind of a left right political paradigm to one that is being made into something different. maybe an up down. it's a dramatic change. it's a shift in language. you see the difference in the way that marco rubio was talking last night in that kind of way. that kind of trump imitating way which is designed to connect with certain people who want to see that from their political candidates as opposed to speaking in the measured tones that we're used to from republican politicians who are trying to become president. there's a certain attitude toward being presidential that is now going away and i think the other thing we're seeing chris is really a moment where i think republicans are waking up to the fact that they should have been doing this a lot earlier. they should hav

ben carson will be suspending campaigning following tonight's caucuses. please inform any carson caucusgoers of the news and urge them tool caucus for ted instead. >> we're weighing in on the calls. he called cruz's questionable tactics there. hallie jackson is here with the latest from the cruz campaign. it's hard to believe that we're still talking about iowa here. but this is clearly a sticking point. >> right. here we are, just a couple days away from the new hampshire primary and yet it's ted cruz dealing with fallout from back in iowa. let's break it into two parts. first, cruz kwam pain's response to all of this, the voice mails coming out. a spokesperson said the senator has already apologized for not more quickly making a clarification. the clarification being that carson wasn't suspending his campaign. he was going home to basically change his clothe in florida before moving on. there is no evidence that our sharing of this news story impacted carson's campaign. he well outperformed expectations. the spokesperson adding it should surprise no one

i seen what he did to ben carson and what he did in iowa. i saw the voter violation form he made up. that was a fraudulent form. i've seen robocalls made even in south carolina -- >> his campaign denies it. >> it turned out the head of his campaign is the one in charge of it. so he can deny all he wants. but the head of his campaign was in charge of it. >> you act like that gets under your skin. >> you have to take care of things. the same thing with this country. when somebody does something wrong, you have to take care of it. you walk out of those deals. the deal with iran where we gave $150 billion to iran and we get nothing. you can't allow that. in a debate, it's the same thing. literally every person i've spoken to liked the way i handled it, because you have to have the truth. i'm a person, i'm a very straightforward person. i'm a very honorable person. i don't lie. and when people are lying, you have to straighten them out. >> one of the more memorable moments was your comment on september 11, your comment on former president bush, e

this guy lied about ben carson when he took votes away from ben carson in iowa and he just continues. and today we had robo calls saying donald trump is not going to run in south carolina, where i'm leading by a lot. this guy will say anything. nasty guy. >> mean time cruz and marco rubio rekindled their feud over immigration. >> marco went on univision, in spanish, and said he would not rescind president obama's illegal executive amnesty on his first day in office. >> i don't know how he knows what i said on univision, because he doesn't speak spanish. and second of all, the other point that i would make -- >> [ speaking spanish ] >> in espanol. >> joining me now s&l republican south carolina congressman and former governor mark sanford. congressman, thanks for being here. >> my pleasure, reverend. >> before the debate, you said you expected sharp elbows. but did you think things would get this pointed? >>> i didn't. it was a raucous evening. elbows were certainly flying and i think the consequence is going to be interesting. i said all along that i don't think trump will maintain th

ben has endorsed bernie sanders. good to see you, ben. thanks for joining me. >> good to see you. hope you're feeling well. >> i am. thank you for asking. what about congressman lewis's new statement? what do you make of that? >> john lewis is a decent man. i'm glad he came forward and really kind of backed up his statement some. the reality is that he hurt a lot of people when he made those comments. it's hard to see folks when they have your back, and the reality is that bernie sanders had john lewis' back. bernie staanders was the chairm of the commercial of racial equality who led them into merging with john lewis's organization. and the relate ality is there a lot of people who were active with sn i c and ak -- active. i think it was decent of him to back this up so quickly. >> why do you think the cbc pac endorsed hillary clinton? >> i don't know. i know when my good friend congressman meeks gave a speech, it centered on loyalty. i get that. but we have multiple loyalties. i'm supporting bernie sanders because my greatest loyalty is to this rise of young people and to senior

ben carson when we probably otherwise wouldn't be. i think dr. carson is trying to figure out a way to get back into the race. i think the math is against him. but i think certainly it's a conversation worth having. now that we're nearing the term of president obama's final year in office, i think it's appropriate for us to talk about this issue, talk about issues that, i think, frankly republicans are going to have to confront. poverty, hunger, homelessness. these are issues that republicans can't hide away. they'll have to talk about these issues in a substantive way. >> let's talk about cruz. there was talk in the last 24 hours about dirty tricks. we had a rallyer saying she's unsure whether to trust ted cruz now. it sort of feels as though maybe some of those attacks from rubio and from trump are sticking a little bit. >> there's no question about that, and there's evidence about that here in nevada. just about an hour ago, a republican inside esch i know said a robocall had gone out to the attorney general in nevada. he just did a robo call

the other one is this back and forth with ben carson. after carson said he was going to head to florida after the iowa caucuses and not new hampshire or south carolina, the cruz campaign informed their grass roots leaders who then informed the folks on the ground in the caucuses, the cruz campaign is apologized for not later clarifying that carson was not dropping out of the race but carson's team not happy with that, implying that ted cruz is showing his, quote, washington values a little dig as you know as ted cruz and donald trump go back and forth on new york values. >> all right, hallie, thank you very much. speaking more of donald trump, he is now certainly focussed on the iowa caucuses, and in the tweet i referenced, he wrote, ted cruz didn't win iowa. he stole it. that is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. bad. msnbc's gary sanders is in little rock where donald trump is campaigning tonight. you know, some people might say donald trump needs to take a lesson from "frozen" and let it

ben carson. dr. carson, i want to check in with you. i know you just had a press conference in washington where you were criticizing the cruz campaign about what happened in iowa. explain what you were asking for from the cruz campaign. >> accountability. you know, senator cruz has apologized, said that he didn't know what his campaign was doing but that he certainly didn't condone such activity. but, you know, there needs to be action. you know, when i found that things weren't going to my expectations in my campaign, i did a deep dive. i found out what was going on. we made the changes very appropriately. things are incredibly better now. you have to do something because accountability is necessary if you're going to clean up corruption, and right now in washington, d.c., it is a cesspool. and if you are going to allow things to happen and just say, oh, sorry, that's not going to help. >> do you think ted cruz won the caucuses honestly? >> it's very, very difficult to say. i can tell you that at one of the caucuses my wife went to, on