our political reporter sara murray has details for us. sarah, donald trump touches on the most controversial stances in his new ad, tell us about it. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. these are the kind of comments that would sink any other normal politician, but donald trump is not a normal politician, instead, he's wrapping up some of his most outlandish controversial statements and putting millions of dollars behind it on the airwaves. >> i'm donald trump and i approve this message. >> reporter: just four weeks out from iowa, gop candidates hitting the trail as donald trump lights up the air waves. >> he's calling for a temporary shut down of muslims entering the united states. >> reporter: trump releasing the first ad aimed at iowa and new hampshire and doubling down with dollars on his most controversial statements and this scene from the ad not actually footage of the u.s. boarder but rather an ocean away at the moroccan border. the trump campaign said the use was intentional to show the impact of an open border. >> keep signing exec

. >>> first, let's go to iowa and cnn political reporter sarah murray. the battle for iowa is getting intense. >> that's right, wolf. all the action is happening here in iowa, but donald trump is in new hampshire. that's where he and ted cruz are battling it out in the hawkeye state. it's the final stretch in iowa. and republicans are scrambling to get ahead. >> 177 hours. that's how long we've got until the iowa caucus. >> if you lose your wife, if you lose your husband, i don't care. go caucus. >> with a week of campaigning until the caucuses, trump leads the field. the billionaire businessman is feeling confident. >> i could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters. it's incredible. >> reporter: so confident, he's campaigning in new hampshire today. and slamming the gop establishment. >> the establishment, the media, the special interests, the lobbyists, the donors. they're all against me. >> reporter: while other candidates hunker down in the hawkeye state. this weekend, trump took a shot at traditional ca

our political reporter sarah murray is in ames, iowa, for us tonight at that rally. sarah, the palin endorsement potentially could help trump a lot in iowa. >> reporter: that's right. well, donald trump has said he's not one for big endorsements, but this is a little bit different. sarah palin is a lot like donald trump, part politician and part entertainer, and this will be one of the rare times where donald trump is actually willing to share the stage. tonight donald trump is sharing the spotlight, picking up an endorsement from sarah palin. >> i am a big fan of sarah palin, but i'm not saying who it is. >> reporter: trump spent the day teasing a big endorsement in iowa and taking questions about whether that mystery guest will be palin. >> i think you'll be very impressed. >> reporter: cruz promising his unwavering affection for palin. >> sarah palin is fantastic. without her friendship and support, i wouldn't be in the senate today. so, regardless of what sarah decides to do in 2016, i will always remain a big, big fan of sarah palin's. >> reporter: meanwhile, io

sarah murray tells us why. >> donald trump managed to trump himself on the campaign trail here in iowa. heic ipicked up a couple big indorsement from the evangelical leader but the big news was trump announcing he will skip the fox news debate on thursday. >> fox is playing games, yeah. they're going to make a fortune. i told them they should give money to the wounded warriors. i am not a fan of megyn kelly. i think she is frankly not good at what she does and so i'm going to be making a decision with fox but i probably won't bother doing the debate. i see they picked me as number one and number one by far but probably i won't be doing the debate. we'll do something where we raise money for the veterans and the wounded warriors. we're going to do something s e simultaneo simultaneously with the debate. >> reporter: and campaign manager took those comments a step further and saying the campaign might hold a compeetin event in iowa. republican national committee says each candidate has to do what's in their best interest and ted cruz challenged donald trump in a one on one debate, no mod

glenn is a failing, crying lost soul." >> sara murray reporting for us there. >>> still to come on cnn newsroom this hour, the fallout over poisoned water this the michigan city of flint. >> why important information was kept from the public for months before the dangerous details finally emerged. the microsoft cloud allows us to access information from anywhere. the microsoft cloud allows us to scale up. microsoft cloud changes our world dramatically. it wasn't too long ago it would take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome. now, we can do a hundred per day. with the microsoft cloud we don't have to build server rooms. we have instant scale. the microsoft cloud is helping us to re-build and re-interpret our business. this cloud helps transform business. this is the microsoft cloud. i thione second it's there.day. then, woosh, it's gone. i swear i saw it swallow seven people. seven. i just wish one of those people could have been mrs. johnson. [dog bark] trust me, we're dealing with a higher intelligence here. ♪ the all-new audi q7 is here. ♪ ...are taking charge of their acr