it also went out monday, ben carson taking time off from the campaign trail, please inform any carson caucus-goers of this news, urge them to caucus for ted cruz. we learned from ben carson, himself, at least according to him, when his wife showed up monday night to make a pitch for her husband. a ted cruz supporter had spoken first. that ted cruz speaker told that precinct ben carson was dropping out of the race. so ben carson supporters should feel free to support other people. ben carson's on wife had to tell that precinct that night, no, no, no my husband is not running, he is dropping out. after all that, he heard ted cruz apologize saying this was not a planned dirty organized trip. it was a regrettable mistake, he said it's a staff error, his political team forwarded the leading news story to his supporters, subsequently the campaign said he was not suspending his campaign and the cruz team did not forward that statement to supporters as well, according to ted cruz, quote, that was a mistake. now we know it was not just a mistake, it was not just some forgetful staffers forgett

ben carson's wife. we heard she made up to the caucus site to make the case people should caucus for her husband and instead of being able to make her pitch she had to spend her allotted time to convince everybody that ben carson was still in the race, that he doesn't dropping out because they'd been told he was dropping out. ben carson convened reporters at the national press club to go off on ted cruz about this but he did so in his own quiet ben carson way. >> it's obvious there were people in his organization not only knew about it but who carried it out, who executed it. so, you know, we have to look at the obvious things that are going on. >> dr. carson, do you think it obviously affected the result, your result in iowa? what you're describing? >> i think it did, yes. i was getting a lot of intelligence from a lot of different places saying that i was going to do extraordinarily well, and i do think it affected that. there was one instance where my wife went to a caucus and my representative had a

ben carson seemed gene winly offended by this. the carson campaign was no and is not good. it doesn't look like he has much of a chance in this thing. when the initial report suggested he is going to florida, it seemed plausible he would be getting out of the race. from what we can tell this has fired up ben carson. he is so angry at ted cruz he wants to stay in now and the whole reason the cruz campaign was doing was ben carson getting 5 or 10% of the vote he needs every evangelical vote. every vote for carson is a vote being taken from cruz. if carson stays in this thing to south carolina, south carolina is the next key state for ted cruz. ben carson gets 6% in south carolina. >> it's not enough to make him a contender. >> exactly. it's what mike huckabee couldn't do and rick santorum couldn't do. you win iowa. the story with huckabee is he was so close to beating john mccain in south carolina. he was undercut by fred thomp n thompson. >> no the a condition ternd. >> exactly. this keeps ben carson in the game a few weeks longer than he was going to be -- >> because of she

ben carson's wife. we heard she made up to the caucus site to make the case people should caucus for her husband and instead of being able to bake hmake her pitch sh to spend her allotted time to convince everybody that ben carson was still in the race, that he doesn't dropping out because they'd been told he was dropping out. ben carson convened reporters at the national press club to go off on ted cruz about this but he did so in his own quiet ben carson way. >> it's obvious there were people in his organization not only knew about it but who carried it out, who executed it. so, you know, we have to look at the obvious things that are going on. >> dr. carson, do you think it obviously affected the result, your result in iowa? what you're describing? >> i think it did, yes. i was getting a lot of intelligence from a lot of different places saying that i was going to do ex-extraordinariextraordinarily well, and i do think it affected that. there was one instance where my wife went to a caucus and my rep

, 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 is say

according to a carson campaign official, ben carson's wife candy was in a precinct and dispelled the rumor that he was dropping out. congressman steve king, a cruz backer, tweeted in the evening, quote, carson looks like he's out. iowans need to know before they vote. most will go to cruz i hope. so here's carson speaking last night. >> we have seen the tweets that have come out that said that i was suspending my campaign efforts and that people should be thinking about maybe their second choice. and this was before the caucuses were over and that is really quite a dirty trick. >> now, a spokesman for the cruz campaign denied the allegations to msnbc, but said his people did alert some supports that carson planned to go to florida after the iowa caucuses instead of campaigning. now, carson confirms he's headed to florida but he said it's not a sign out of getting out of the race, but a quick break before going on to new hampshire and south carolina and i spoke to some who were at the caucus where candy was and they said it was wild. >>> let's turn to business now where alphabet is no

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

a carson campaign is accusing cruz's team of telling voters that carson was dropping out of the race something that carson calls a dirty trick and half a dozen iowans tell msnbc they were misled, saying speakers supporting cruz announced that carson was suspending his campaign. in a statement made after the caucus, cruz apologized to carson, something that carson appreciated but it's the late. >>> jim gilmore made the first undercard debate last week. what impact did it have at the polls? not much. 12 people voted for gilmore. although one of the supporters tells the huffington post that he exceeded expectations. >>> well, rick santorum, remember he won in 2008? one didn't even vote for him, but his reason is epic. >> there you go. this is the actual sheet, the tally sheet. and santorum -- there's an "x" next to him. >> yeah. >> well, you didn't vote for him? >> as i was writing down my pen ran out of ink. i can't just ask somebody for a new pen while doing this. >> buddy, you're the santorum dude. >> i know. i know. >> well -- >> failure to launch. >> failure to launch is exactly wh

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

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

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

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

>> they're not trying to get carson to drop out, but they want carson out of the race, or if not out of the race, bleed his support so he doesn't consolidate conservatives on the right. >> rubio seems to declare victory no matter what place he finances. he's gone 3, 5, 2, and now it's become 3, 2, 1. what is cruz's future right now? >> the path to victory for him, his campaign has come out with the top strategist with a memo outlining all this. they believe they can hammer the argument that ted cruz is the only person who has actually beaten donald trump, who's gotten a number up on trump on the scoreboard. i think it's hard to oversell how important super tuesday is to ted cruz's campaign. he's got to do well in the primary states. alabama, or tennessee. he told chuck todd on "meet the press," i need to do very well. >> he can't lose to trump. >> if he loses to trump in texas -- >> i'm sorry. let's say trump wins here tomorrow night. >> go ahead, john. >> you hurt me with the caucus >> sorry. it certainly adds to the -- >> that's democracy. spend some money and have a primary. >> 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

>> they're not trying to get carson to drop out, but they want carson out of the race, or if not out of the race, bleed his support so he doesn't consolida consolidate conservatives on the right. >> rubio seems to declare victory no matter what place he finances. he's gone 3, 5, 2, and now it's become 3, 2, 1. what is cruz's future right now? >> the path to victory for him, his campaign has come out with the top strategist with a memo outlining all this. they believe they can hammer the argument that ted cruz is the only person who has actually beaten donald trump, who's gotten a number up on trump on the scoreboard. i think it's hard to oversell how important super tuesday is to ted cruz's campaign. he's got to do well in the primary states. alabama, or tennessee. he told chuck todd on "meet the press," i need to do very well. >> he can't lose to trump. >> if he loses to trump in texas -- >> i'm sorry. let's say trump wins here tomorrow night. >> go ahead, john. >> you hurt me with the caucus -- >> sorry. it certainly adds to the -- >> that's democracy. spend some money and have a p

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

. >> 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

i remember watching carson all those years. i know i'm being interrupted, i'm getting good here. the audience, sharing with the audience. a good crowd. carson used to do that, letterman did that. always the jokes you share. the connection with the audience over time. this goes way back in show business. he shares, he connects, he's interactive. it's all about that shtick and the bond he's forming. he is forming a bond out there. and it's something to watch. you can't teach it. >> so, chris, quickly, just -- i want to nail you down. this is interesting. as someone who used to support himself as a speechwriter, you are conceding that there's structure here, there's on oratorical skill and there's knowledge of his audience and then he gets to the nub of his entire effort, his entire campaign for president, and it's all been buildup. you are -- you're conceding or assigning a structure to what we've seen at live events all throughout? >> yeah. it's entertainment. it's almost like he serves the dessert first and then the beef and th

ben carson. hello, sir. >> thank you, hi. >> first i want to talk about the state of what's going on, what happened in iowa. we had those telephone recordings that showed up on breitbart, that the cruz campaign was using to describe an incorrect report about the state of your candidacy. are you -- how did you respond -- when you saw those -- when you saw those recordings, how did you want to respond? >> well, the recordings really deny change my opinion. i had already knew what happened. we had been told this was coming. just after the caucuses had started and we had put out all kinds of information that it was not true. the tweet that came out that started all of this was falled within one minute by another tweet that said carson is not dropping out. people chose to ignore that, because they were too anxious to run with the story. to me that smacks of deceit. and so i really feel, we are asking ourselves, have we sunk to the level where that's acceptable? are we saying, if it's legal, it's okay,

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

we have those top three candidates, trump, cruz, and carson. sorry, not carson. marco rubio. we also have dr. ben carson. i think this is sort of his last shot. downsizing his staff. we're going the see if he's really on the stage as number four as someone who can stay in this race or if one of the governors take that area. the governors, this is do or die for them here in new hampshire. this is the right area for them to emerge as a viable candidate. and they need to have a really good night so that they can get their voters out, get their base to to go out on what could be a very snowy primary day here. i think you're going to see those top three candidates sort of duke it out as if there's no one else on the stage and see everyone else trying to get in that top tier. >> speaking of the snow, donald trump missed a campaign day in new hampshire yesterday due to the weather. is that going to have any impact with the voter there's? >> you know, a lot of voters want to see the people on the ground. we see donald trump adding a lot of events, not taking anything for granted or r

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

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

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 that carson essentially announcing he would take time off the trail would be a news story, pointing out it's unusual for candidates to do that between the early voting states. you can see the rest of the statement there. interestingly, the cruz camp, and the senator himself has said, listen, these are people trying to make hay. my political opponents, sort of sour grapes after the iowa caucus win. that is interesting because governor brand stadt have history. he said it would be a mistake to pick ted cruz because of his stance on the renewable fuel standard, because of ethanol. the cruz campaign is not surprised he would be coming out calling these questionable tactics. >> we have with us alley vutal. it was trump who sounded the alarm sayin

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

carson, you're not somebody i feel like blows his top. you don't -- you're not an angry guy. >> used to be. >> right, you talked about that. what donald trump did to you in that two-week period when you were the front-runner was pretty vicious. >> it was. >> pretty tough. how did you coop your cool? some of your supporters said to me, you know, i wish he would talk back a little bit. i wish he would have fought back harder on trump. what do you say to them? >> i say it all comes out in the wash. and people at some point have to start using this amazing thing god gave us called a brain. to analyze, not to be attracted to the shiny object or to the thing that makes the most noise, but start thinking about your children and your grandchildren. think about the fact that our country is being torn apart by divisiveness, a house divided against itself cannot stand. think about the fact our financial foundation is compromised. this is the first generation in the history of america expected to do worse than their parents, and that's going to be a

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 sanders face to face before new hampshire votes on tuesday.

ben carson is not even on the list. are we nearing potentially -- and i don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but are we getting close to a point where he might not be with us? >> i think we've seen this coming for a while. iowa was going to be a state if you were a social conservative, or evangelical, as kasie said, we've seen lots of deep problems with not just the carson campaign. >> we've seen staffers resign right before christmas or after christmas and then the finance director who i spoke with a couple weeks on the air, he left. >> and resigning publicly because they are not happy about the direction of the campaign. >> not the finance manager, to be clear, though. >> let's talk about the democrats. kasie, i'll go back to you. the stage is behind you. set the stage for the faceoff. you've been talking with bernie sanders and had a chance to talk with him. >> reporter: that's right, kate. i spoke with senator sanders two days ago and we're still sort of having this conversation about progressive versus moderate. i

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, thank you very much for being on the show. >> thank you, dr. carson. we'll see you in south carolina, best of luck to you. >>> joining us now on set, the president and ceo of the national urban league, marc morial. yesterday, the congressional black caucus endorsed hillary clinton and we want to get your reaction to what congressman john lewis said, specifically about bernie sanders and his work or lack thereof on civil rights. take a listen. >> i never saw him. i never met him. i was chair of the student non-violent coordinating committee for three years from 1963 to 1966. i was involved in the sit-ins, the freedom ride, the march on washington, the march from selma to montgomery and directed the voter education project for six years. but i met hillary clinton. i met president clinton. >> all right. >> john lewis is an american icon and here is the point. i think it's risky when someone reaches back 50 years. in my life, i've heard literally hundreds of people say "i marched with dr. king." and maybe they were there. i think what john lewis is doing i

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

switch from carson to ted cruz." if carson support goes from 10% where we have it to 5% cruz will win tonight if they can bring people away from carson. >> relatively small turnout, relatively high evangelical turnout and flips from carson to cruz we can see cruz pull this out. >> on favorability carson and rubio are strongest at 72 and 70% each. cruz's favorables have dropped to 65% after a rough few weeks and trump's numbers have taken a hit as well down four points since the last poll and seven points since december. what do you make of trump's numbers going down? is it attacking too much? that was ugly between him and cruz. >> it has been and it's hurt them both i think. trump has been lucky, he's taken far fewer hits than has cruz from not just each other but other groups. polls show skipping the debate didn't hurt trump very much. i think trump's favorable is good enough to win. >> before we go to the democrats, alex, let's get out the republicans, the new hampshire poll that just came out that also was taken d

carson, i know you're going through the spin room motions. did you do enough tonight to make an impact on voters in >> i certainly hope so. i'm not going to get into the mud slinging. i thought that was pretty immature. but did get an opportunity to make some very salient points. we'll see. i think people are mature enough to realize we're going to have to make decisions based on real information. that's why i referred people to my website, because i have detailed policy on just about everything. and not just bullet points. and those are the kinds of things that you really need to make a decision on. >> when we talked before the debate, you said your supporters love you and the policies that you're talking about, but they wanted to see you interrupt more and shout and be a little more fiery. i'm not sure we saw that from you tonight. >> i didn't have to do it tonight. they asked me questions tonight. >> you didn't want to mix it up with donald trump, who was really in a feisty moment with some of these other candidates here? >> as far as i'm

was dropping out of the race and that carson supporters should caucus for cruz. that is something cruz has apologized for. >> it's clear that there were people who tried to take advantage of a situation, who tried to distort information. there's no question about that. >> campaigning in new hampshire today, cruz dismissed trump's complaints as sour grapes. >> it is no surprise that donald is throwing yet another temper tantrum or if you like, yet another trumper tantrum. it seems his reaction to everything is to throw a fit, to engage in insults and 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. >> joining me now, nbc news correspondent katy tur who has been covering the trump campaign this season, sam stein, senior politics editor at "the huffington post." so trump came out, everyone was like, oh, that was gracious. that was sort of surprisingly muted. and then we saw, he went on a twitter drag last night. >> this is what he does, though. he's gracious one night, h

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 mustard with me. i think he's a slime ball. i don't think he's authentic. >> that's harsh. how much doe

kasich and carson continue. >> in terms of the news what has been made tonight, the winners are the big news. jeb bush suspending his campaign is the other big news. we have very interesting news in terms of turnout. on the democratic side, a third straight race in which the turnout is way down. preliminary numbers show turnout was down almost 50%. on the republican side, a third straight race in which the exact opposite happened, in which they appear to have record turnout. the previous record turnout in south carolina was 606,000 in 2012. right now 725,000 were 99% reporting thus far out of south carolina. so it's been a very big night for the republicans again. and again, turnout isn't

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

cruz, rubio, jeb bush, john kasich, ben carson. let's see all of their names on the same page, for example. come on. we can do it. there we go. >> thank you, control room. there's the gop field. and remember, 8% of the vote in. all we have done thus far is call this for donald trump at the top. the remaining part of the race that is so interesting and we'll hold that the rest of the night. to chris matthews we go. we have not asked you to react to the story in chief here. donald trump has won the south carolina primary. >> you know, despite making every mistake by every book we all keep. we all keep our books on what you can say and he broke all the rules. i looked at the numbers. there was a large male component. 57-83. the men went for him much more than the other candidates in that field. so men seem like the john wayne, i'm the boss, who is the top of the hill. still a macho thing he's into. i think there's a buried treasure in trump that you may not like. i'm not sure he fully understands. there's a line he uses. even. either

those people may turn out to be for carson but get convinced in the room in some of these caucuses to switch over to cruz. not all of them. >> i find it hard to believe that true believers would do that. >> remember, the republicans never had a year like the democrats had in 2008. so their record is nowhere near what the democrats' record is. >> if there's a record turnout, it's great news for trump, right? >> that's the conventional wisdom for sure, and part of the reason this narrative has taken hold is because terry branstad and others are saying -- they have a better feel for what's going on in the state than others will, and there's been so much attention on the republican side. it's so different than it's ever been here. there's a huge turnout. there is no one they favor more than donald trump. >> it's got to be cool to live in iowa and know how much this matters to an extent. this would be an exciting way to participate. >> it means more now than it has in a very long time. mike barnacle, let's just be clear. if bernie sanders wins here tonight, the democratic outlook completel

angered over the tactics in iowa. >> we saw the rumors about ben carson and they weren't accurate and 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 so

was dropping out of the race and that carson supporters should caucus for cruz. that is something cruz has apologized for. >> it's clear that there were people who tried to take advantage of a situation, who tried to distort information. there's no question about that. >> campaigning in new hampshire today, cruz dismissed trump's complaints as sour grapes. >> it is no surprise that donald is throwing yet another temper tantrum or if you like, yet another trumper tantrum. it seems his reaction to everything is to throw a fit, to engraj age in insults and 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. >> joining me now, nbc news correspondent katy tur who has been covering the trump campaign this season, sam stein, senior politics editor at "the huffington post." so trump came out, everyone was like, oh, that was gracious. that was sort of surprisingly muted. and then we saw, he went on a twitter drag last night. >> this is what he does, though. he's gracious one nigh

carson, ben carson was dropping out of the race. all of this. >> it is all behind us. senator cruz has apologized. it was a press report that was disseminated that. mr. carson was going to florida, period, end of story. senator cruz had more votes. 51,000, anyone in the history of the caucuses and he was the big winner there and now he's here. this is new hampshire. >> robert, everyone seem to be speculating that marco rubio will be the big target. but i don't think donald trump gets over that loss in iowa any time soon. do you expect him to be firing harder at ted cruz or marco rubio? >> there's a sense among many of his prifls his support in new hampshire is soft. they have ground organizations that can inch up their number in the final days. and they think, as much as they're going to take on rubio, trump is a target as well. >> david, who do you see as being the center of the action tonight? >> i think you feel the level of desperation rising. it is like a circular firing squad. like a quenin tarantino movie. everybody is pointing a gun at somebody else, not sure w

carson's strategy is to try to win in the field. that is the strategy for basically every republican candidate besides donald trump. so carson is siphoning votes away from somebody like ted cruz. both of them share somewhat of a similar voting pool. they are going after evangelicals. what may be important are super tuesday states a week from today. these are places where cruz has to compete and he has boots on the ground in those states. once we get past tonight the race becomes much more national and difficult to do that retail politicking, that one-on-one interaction that you get so often in places like iowa and new hampshire. a different tone and different strategy. we are seeing campaigns focussing on that today. marco rubio won't watch caucus returns. he will be out in super tuesday states. at this point it feels like a moment in time in the republican race where we are looking ahead to the results tonight but a lot of folks are looking to see what happens seven days from today on super tuesday. >> when we talk about super tues

carson was back out on the campaign trail. but the campaign is essentially saying it should come as no surprise this was a news story. it's usual for a candidate to go back home to take time off the campaign trail. the senator himself saying, hey, these are my political opponents trying to make hay and i'm paraphrasing here, but kind of pointing to sour grapes saying they're try to misconstrue my position because i won iowa, basically. the problem is here's ted cruz to relitigate iowa and prefer to look ahead. one, might imagine, to new hampshire and south carolina. >> keep your eye on marco rubio. >> absolutely. >>> coming up, finding her voice. hillary clinton trying to narrow the gap with young women overwhelmingly supporting bernie sanders in new hampshire and in my moment, president obama is expected to come into the briefing room to talk about the economy as those unemployment numbers showed up today. the rate falling below 5% for the first time since february of 2008 and job growth is up to 151,000 last month. you're wa