more now from cnn special correspondent jamie gangel's interview with jeb bush. >> reporter: chris christie has been going, as i like to say, full new jersey on marco rubio. there was a report that your campaigns have joined forces. to attack rubio. >> no. not true. i've seen what chris is saying about marco, and he's got a slightly different version of the same approach that i'm taking, because he's got a proven record as a governor as well. i think governors understand you've got to make tough decisions. >> reporter: one of the things that he said on policy about marco rubio was he pointed out marco rubio's position on abortion. which is -- no exceptions. >> yes. >> reporter: and he said, he thinks it's too extreme. you believe in exceptions? >> i do. i believe that the life of the mother and rape and incest should be the exceptions. and i think that's the consensus view, you know, look, i'm pro-life. i acted as a pro-life governor. i expanded adoptions. we funded crisis pregnancy centers. i do believe that respecting life is a value that goes way beyond politics, but politically it's a t

today she and her son spoke with cnn correspondent jamie gangel. >> your secret weapon has come to new hampshire because -- >> because she loves me. i'm her favorite son, temporarily. she is incredibly popular. the connection between mom and dad and people here in the granite state is phenomenal. anybody that has lived through all these campaigns can remember having dinner, having a picture, having a handwritten thank you note, going to kennebunkport. it's phenomenal. i learned by coming here and doing 90 separate events, some 25 trips, and she's incredibly popular as you might expect. >> she's your not so secret secret weapon. you are his mother. you are prejudiced, obviously. but tell us why you think jeb would be a great president? >> he has the best record. he's wise, he's decent. he knows american values. he knows the values of people in new hampshire. they care about their country. i love my country. i adore my child. every mother in new hampshire knows why i'm here, period. they know. >> is he your favorite son? >> today. >> it always gets a laugh when i say that so i keep sayin

in this interview with jamie gangel, that promise is not unconditional. watch. >> you said fasten your seat belt, and you have exceeded expectations. but now the pressure is on. >> i don't have any more -- >> come pop you're in south carolina now. >> look, pressure is a mom that's got three kids and a husband walked out the door. pressure is not, you know, what's i'm doing. you know, as long as i do what i think i need to do, whatever the outcome is, i'll be fine with. people were on our bus and interviewing me and looking at us for months and they like to come on the bus, it's like zen. why is everybody so calm? so, look, life is short. how do i seem now? i'm calm and happy and grounded. and centered. see, the thing is when the big lights come on -- >> you keep using that word, centered. why? >> you don't want to lose yourself in this. it's probably fool's gold. all of a sudden you go from, you know, you are the governor of ohio, and that's a big deal. then you have 50 cameras on you. and you can -- you just can't be star struck with that because it's fl

more on jeb bush's conversation with cnn special correspondent jamie gangel. earlier, his mother 90-year-old former first lady barbara bush spoke out about her feelings on competitor donald trump. mrs. bush saying she was sick of the attacks. trump is responding in a tweet saying wow, jeb bush whose campaign is a total disaster had to bring in mommy to take a slap at me. not nice. ouch. well, the former governor spoke about that among other things in his interview. >> chris christie has been going as i like to say full new jersey on marco rubio. there was a report that your campaigns have joined forces to attack rubio. >> no, not true. i have seen what chris is saying about marco and he's got a slightly different version of the same approach that i'm taking because he's got a proven record as a governor as well. i think governors understand you have to make tough decisions. >> one of the things he said on policy about marco rubio was he pointed out marco rubio's position on abortion, which is no exceptions. he says he thinks it is too extreme. you believe in e

john kasich was just interviewed by jamie gangel and here's what he said finding a target on his back after his big night. >> south carolina, some of these other states, the attack ads are already on the air. are you going to hit back? >> well, i'm not going to sit there and be a, you know, a marshmallow or some kind of a pin cushion, people just pound me. where i come from, the blue collar town that i come from, you know, if you came in and beat our football team, we just broke all the windows on your bus. that's just a joke, by the way. but the fact is i'm not going to just sit there and let somebody pound on me. but, you know, and i can't predict exactly what the future is, but i believe that this message of we can, we're americans before we're republicans and democrats, these problems that we have can be solved, that we can get the shine back in america, you know, leave no one behind, i just think these are very important messages, more than me spending my time being negative about somebody else. >> kevin, south carolina politics is a rough, rough thing. they don't play pretty dow

whether you guys like it or not, i'm going to try to enjoy it. >> and jamie gangel is joining us now from south carolina. jamie, good interview. kasich strikes a more optimistic tone than many of his rivals. is that what you also see behind the scenes? >> absolutely, wolf. i think any candidate who can say with a smile on his face and a shrug, yeah, i'm going to lose south carolina, john kasich really is zen. that said, he grew up in pittsburgh, the story about the windows on the bus getting knocked out, next to the word scrappy in the dictionary is a picture of john kasich. so if it gets tough, just let's wait and see what happens. >> coming off of his impressive second place finish in new hampshire last night, are you seeing bigger crowds out there in south carolina right now for him? >> absolutely. they had an event this morning where they had 70, 7-0 rsvps originally. there were more than 500 people there out the door, standing and waiting for him. the campaign is not used to this. they were clearly stunned when they got off the bus. so even though this is south carolina, even th

gangel. >> your secret weapon has come to new hampshire because? >> because she loves me. i'm her favorite son. temporarily. she is incredibly popular, the connection between mom and dad and people here in the granite state is phenomenal. anybody that has lived through all of these campaigns can remember having dinner, having a picture, having a handwritten thank you note, going to kennebunkport, there is just a connection that is phenomenal. and i learned it by coming here and doing 90 separate events on 25 trips. it's just, she is incredibly popular. >> your not so secret, secret weapon. >> exactly. >> you are his mother, you are prejudiced obviously, but tell us why you think jeb would be a great president. >> he has the best record. he's wise, he's decent. he knows american values, he knows the values of people in new hampshire. i mean, they care about their country. i love my country, i adore my child. every mother in new hampshire knows why i'm here, period. they know. >> is he your favorite son? >> today. >> it always gets a laugh when i say

that's why this new generation is getting behind marco so we can win in november. >> our jamie gangel is reporting the attacks from bush and christie and trump for that matter, they aren't having an impact that some of these supporters are beginning to have doubts about them. i take it you have no doubts? >> i have no doubts he's our best foot forward if we want to win in november. those people you talk about, talk about the past. they're done in the '80s. and marco rubio is about the future. that's the contrast with hillary clinton or bernie sanders for that matter. that will be the winning formula come november. so, no, he's right on policy. he's got the strongest backer out in terms of understanding foreign policy and being on the intel committees. part of that new generation. rock sol id. he's a conservative. he's got a spine. he knows what he believes in. he doesn't need a teleprompter to talk through these. he believes them to his core. >> the criticism that you heard from chris christie, doesn't need a teleprompter because he memorizes these 25-second sound bites. some are sugg

today she and her son jeb spoke at length with cnn special correspondent jamie gangel. >> your secret weapon has come to new hampshire because? >> because she loves me, i'm her favorite son temporarily. she's incredibly popular, the connection between mom and dad and people in the granite state is phenomenal. i mean, anybody that has lived through all of these campaigns can remember having dinner, having a picture, a handwritten thank you note, going to kenny bunk port. there's a connection that's phenomenal. i learned it coming here doing 90 events on 25 trips. she's incredible popular as you might expect. >> she's your not so secret secret weapon. you're his mother, you're prejudiced obviously, but tell us why you think jeb would be a great president? >> he has the best record. he's wise, he's decent. he knows american values. he knows the values of people in new hampshire. i mean, they care about their country. i love my country. i adore my child. every mother in new hampshire knows why i'm here, period, they know. >> is he your favorite son? >> today. >> always gets a laugh when i

. >>> john kasich told jamie gangel he'd neertither be a pin cushion nor marshmallow if he came under attack from donald trump. he's made a name for himself without too much of this kind of thing. >> it is no surprise that donald is throwing yet another temper tantrum or if you like yet another trumpertantrum. >> he's a nasty guy. >> donald trump say jerk. >> it's time to give up, jeb. >> he can't negotiate his way out of a paper bag. >> the senate, what is it like a french work week? >> this clown, marco rubio. >> he's like a kid. shouldn't be running. >> jeb, low energy jeb bush. you fall asleep looking at him. >> you started off all the years. you're moving over further and further. pretty soon you'll be off the end. >> my girls are 5 and 7. and caroline and kathryn are better behaved. >> just a small sampling of tough talk over the last couple of months. so far it's yielding success for donald trump which raises the question, can governor kasich be just as successful by doing the opposite? gary tuchman reports. >> reporter: at john kasich's first campaign stop after his second pla

jamie gangel, douglas brinkley joining me. how are you? >> great. >> great. president george w. bush joined his brother on the campaign trail for the first time today. he took some veiled swipes at donald trump. let's watch. >> jeb is a man of humbled deep and genuine faith. faith that reveals itself through good works, not loud words. you can trust jeb bush to be measured and thoughtful on the world stage. our enemies and allies will know that when president jeb bush speaks, he will follow through on his words. there seems to be a lot of name calling going on. but i want to remind you what our good dad told me one time. labels are for soup cans. the presidency is a serious job that requires sound judgment and good ideas. >> jamie, what did you make of the former president taking aim at donald trump, and why now? >> maybe not so veiled, huh? he went over and over and over about, look, this is -- we're down to the wire here. they are going to vote on saturday. and i don't think what donald trump said during the debate on saturday night was lost on former president bush. so he kep

they also sat down with cnn's jamie gangell. she talked about why he isn't doing better in the polls and taking a moment to weigh in on donald trump. >>> first, though, donald trump, the final push to the nation's first primary. jim costa joins us from south carolina from florence. you're at the trump event. what were his main points? was he on the attack against specific candidates, or what? >> really more on president obama tonight. a lot of foreign policy in this speech. donald trump slamming theu ran nuclear deal. he also vowed to go after isis. and at one point he talked about a subject that's pretty popular on the campaign trail, and that is radical islam. and it was during that portion of his speech that donald trump went after president obama and mentioned the president's trip to a mosque in baltimore earlier this week. take a listen. >> there's an anger out there. when you look at paris and you have these thugs walk in and kill 130 people with many, many people in hospitals that are so gravely injured, many more will di

sources are telling cnn's jamie gangel that some major republican donors deeply concerned about a potential donald trump early win. they are looking to try to clear the field for marco rubio because they think he has the best chance to prevent trump from being the nominee and are privately urging you to drop out. are they doing that? are they privately urging you to drop out? >> no, i haven't heard from any of the special interests to get me to drop out. in fact, we're signing people up. we're signing up some significant republican fund-raisers and our political organization is expanding as well. and i guess i don't understand this. i've spent about $5 million. they've spent about $50 million and we're about the same in delegates. when we're picking a president of the united states, we better pick somebody who knows how to do the job. somebody that's had the experience, somebody that's can bring people together. and, you know, if you ask people who are republicans, who is the most experienced, who has the best results, the most accomplishments, most of the time, i win that. last week there

joining us, jamie gangel, our senior political reporter manu raju and jeffrey toobin. jamie, the gop has a risk if they get too tough and simply avoid any hearings and simply avoid doing anything, just delay, delay, delay. >> first of all, there's just the point of seeming to be completely lying in the sand, not willing to compromise. but here's something. what if the next president is hillary clinton or bernie sanders? will they be any happier with that appointment than now? they had an opportunity here, maybe i am being a cock-eyed optimist to pressure the white house into perhaps coming up with a candidate that would be more palatable to them. they're not even giving that the chance with this kind of rhetoric. >> most people are working, manu, and you know the hill well, on the assumption that the rips would use the filibuster to prevent even a final vote, if you will, an up or down simple majority. that means you need 60 votes. the democrats have 46. so they would need 14 more which right now seems highly, highly unlikely. >> it's a pretty heavy lift if you look at

he just spoke with cnn's special correspondent, jamie gangel. >> the attack ads are already on the air. >> yeah. >> are you going to hit back? >> well, i'm not going to sit there and be a, you know, a marshmallow or some kind of a pin cushion and people just pound me. where i come from, the blue collar town i come from, if you come in and beat our football team, we just broke all the windows on your bus. that's just a joke, by the way. the fact is i'm not going to just sit there and let somebody pound on me. and i can't predict exactly what the future is, but i believe that this message of we can, we're americans before we're republicans and democrats, these problems that we have can be solved, that we can get the shine back in america, you know, leave no one behind. i just think these are very important messages, more than me spending my time being negative about somebody else. >> and that is just a piece. you can watch jamie's full interview with ohio governor john kasich coming up on "the situation room" with wolf blitzer at 5:00 eastern. just a quick reminder to all of you, the dem

cupp, jamie gangel, david chalion and david bash. how important will new hampshire been for donald trump? >> with the brand of winning if he doesn't get "w" on the board soon, that's going to crumble. having not won iowa new hampshire for donald trump becomes must win. he's doing well in new hampshire and new hampshire is a friendly environment for him. but marco rubio has a lot going for him in new hampshire that donald trump will have to reckon with. marco rubio won most of the votes among republican iowa caucusgoers who had not decided until that week. that week leading up to the primary was dominated by cruz and trump headlines yet marco rubio is the guy that got the votes. he also got independent voters. that's big in new hampshire too. i'm not sure donald trump should be going after cruz. i think it's rubio he needs to worry about. >> it getting testy in new hampshire right now. i want you to listen, the new jersey governor, chris christie, what he had to say about marco rubio. >> we know who the boy in the bubble is up here wh

bush told cnn's jamie gangel she isn't wasting any energy thinking about her son's nemesis. >> i don't even think about him. i'm sick of him. that's very strong. >> reporter: now, it may seem strange for trump to be down here in south carolina, but this has been his strategy all along. he likes to jump ahead and speak in front of big crowds in states where contests loom down the campaign calendar. trump will be back in new hampshire tomorrow. he's got events scheduled all day tomorrow through primary day, wolf. just a few moments ago, an indication of how they were concerned about that ground game, they were doing a tutorial on how to conduct the ground game down here in south carolina a few moments ago outside this arena. >> thanks very much. jim acosta reporting for us. the breaking news this hour, our brand new cnn/wmur poll shows donald trump sitting on a comfortable lead in new hampshire with marco rubio solidly in second place, ted cruz and john kasich now tied for third. let's bring in our cnn chief political correspondent dana bash. she's taking a closer look at the numbers. no

our cnn special correspondent jamie gangel spoke with the governor about his campaign and she joins us now. jamie, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. you know, what a difference coming in second in new hampshire can make. we talked about whether he can stay so zen, which he claims he is. we talked about how he's going to respond to those negative attack ads that are already coming his way. but we started by asking him just how he's going to compete here in south carolina. you said, fasten your seatbelt. and you have exceeded expectations. but now the pressure is on. >> no, i don't have any more pressure. >> come on, you're in south carolina now. >> look. pressure is a mom that's got three kids and the husband walked out the door. pressure is not what i'm doing. as long as i do what i think i need to do, whatever the outcome is, i'll be fine with. people were on our bus and interviewing me and looking at us for months. they come on the bus, they say it is like zen. why is everybody so calm? so, you know, look. life is short. how do i seem now? i'm calm and happy and grounded and c