Earlier tonight, Scott Jennings
went out of his way
to underscore the degree
to which the campaign from here on out
is all about Iowa.
Iowa, he said, is everything with that
in mind.
CNN's Gary Tuchman in Nevada.
Iowa with voters who watched the debate.
Gary,
Anderson, were 110 days away
from the first nominating caucuses
here in the state of Iowa.
And we have come back to the Hawkeye
State to talk to Iowa voters
who we watched the debate with.
And we're actually in this same county
we were in last month
watching that debate story county,
home of Iowa State University.
We have some Iowa State people here
because you want to see
how their thoughts compare today
to how they compared last month.
It's nice to be here with you again.
Thank you for inviting us.
Firstly,
first thing I want to ask you,
if you had to write a headline
about this debate,
what would your headline be
Republicans are
angry that they agree with each other.
Okay.
And you're talking about the commotion
there. Yes.
A really good night
for the free marketplace of ideas
and the GOP Yes.
So rude Republicans.
Rude Republicans.
How did the commotion, the chaos
bother you during the debate
raise your hand if it bothered you?
Raise your hand if it was okay.
Okay.
You're along opinion right there.
But I want to ask you,
is this when we were here last month,
I asked the question,
who do you think did best?
Ramaswamy came in first.
Haley came in second.
DeSantis came in third last month.
This month.
Who did you pick last month?
I picked Haley last
big Haley last month here.
Who'd you pick today? DeSantis. What?
I feel like he represented himself
well, and he did a lot to show
that he is a true winner and
that he could win a general election.
How about you?
Would you pick last month,
epic daily last month and this month?
Haley as well.
How come
I honestly think
both Haley and Sanders
had excellent debates.
And I think
when a lot of
Iowans are up for grabs right now
and I think the has long been
looked at
as the main alternative in the race.
And I think the fact that she has strong
favorability polls,
the best against Biden
had two strong debate performances.
And when people meet her, they like her.
And so I think that will give
a lot of folks a reason to look at her.
So I just think she'll see a large boost.
But I also think DeSantis did himself
well tonight, too.
Last month, footage
you picked Haley and today Haley how come
every single time
she went to the debates,
she was realistic.
She had the facts and she was strong.
She showed what a true leader does
and she takes control
and I like that about someone
who's running for president.
They are someone who can exhibit
can exhibit a lot in themselves.
And that's what she did.
And last month, footage of the fake
And today, DeSantis.
I thought that DeSantis,
because of a fake one, the last debate,
I think that was the overall consensus
he was the target tonight.
And so
I think that took a lot of
personal attacks
against away from the sadness.
And he was able to speak to the issues
more than everybody else.
So I thought that was important.
I think what's interesting about this
group is of these
18 people, 16 of them are undecided.
They don't know definitely
who will they all caucus for.
Come January, two,
people have made decisions.
This gentleman right here,
who have you decided on? Doug Bergman.
You so you like Bergen
and you
run DeSantis, military veterans, Iraq.
Okay.
What's interesting is
none of you are ready yet to vote
to caucus
for Donald Trump, the former
president of the United States.
Something that was brought up
quite a bit tonight,
Christi, by DeSantis.
Is Donald Trump
disrespectful to Republican voters
like you
for not being part of these debates?
What do you think?
No. Yes.
No, no. How come?
No.
I just think that, you know,
is his decision as a person of decision.
And I think he feels like
he he has a lot of people
that just know what he's about.
He's been here several times.
He's done some rallies.
He's done lots of interviews.
And so I think he probably feels
like that kind of takes the place of him
having to be on the debate stage.
And I don't think he feels like
he has a really good shot
at what's happened in the past.
Would you like to hear him
talk about the abortion
issue, for example?
That bothered me, the abortion issue
that's come out that he wasn't here.
Okay. What about you?
I think it's disrespectful
that he didn't come to
try to earn Iowans votes
because so many people's
votes are still up
for grabs here in Iowa.
And so not coming to try to earn that
with the other candidates,
I think is a sign of disrespect.
And I don't think he earned anyone's vote
by not coming.
All right.
Here's a massive show of hands now
can do in alphabetical order
who you think did best during
this debate. All of you heard
what Christie
Okay.
So his toughness
didn't appeal to anybody tonight.
DeSantis
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine.
Haley One, two, three, four, five, six.
Pence
Ramaswamy
one.
Scott.
All right,
so it looks like DeSantis
the winner in this room.
Who do you think this was
a bad night for? Pence.
That's why I'll say Pence.
I think
he completely destroyed his credibility.
He was directly questioned on his record
during the Trump administration on
I forgot what issues
specifically was brought up,
but he had no defense that
they had campaigned on.
So, again,
I forget the issue specifically,
and Obamacare didn't. Obamacare, yes.
They didn't follow through with that.
And instead of answering the question
that was given to him about
why that wasn't followed through
and what will he do differently
as president himself,
he just went off about something
completely irrelevant
and never answered the question.
A lot of you
raise your hands about Pence.
Who else raise their hand about Pence?
Why do you think that?
Well, I think that he you know,
he comes across a little bit
like not very believable to me.
He's he's he's rather pious sounding
in his manner.
And it makes it come across like
you know, I'm just a politician
trying to get your vote.
And and it doesn't seem as believable
as the final question.
Do you think this was good for the party,
this debate tonight Yes.
Anyone have a problem
with the debate, with the commotion?
You know, with the commotion.
But I think the format
does allow the issues
to be expounded on by each individual.
The moderators had way too many subjects
and they had one or two people
speaking on each subject.
I think there are too many people
in the debate,
and I think that
that needs to be ironed out.
But a lot of these folks
have told me today
is that he'd like to see microphones
turned off at times.
Is that correct?
Yes. Yes.
Thank you all for inviting us.
And as you can see in this room,
at least here in the state of Iowa,
a good night for DeSantis Anderson.
Gary, thanks so much.
And thank everybody in the room for us.
Always fascinating to hear.
It is.
And so
you listening to Iowa voters there?
I'm looking one, two, three, four.
I've been in touch
with some of the voters
who are working with in Iowa
and New Hampshire.
And you get the same impression
there in terms of
the people who are for Haley
going in or for Haley coming out.
You see the reaction there
with Gary's group.
DeSantis doing okay,
which is good for Haley and DeSantis.
And it's better for Donald Trump
because, you know,
because you keep the two people if you're
if the potential breakout candidates
are Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley,
is there a third? No.
You know,
on slide Ramaswamy
maybe after the first debate,
maybe he did come up some.
But if they're all just trading,
you know, Mark goes back and forth
and Trump stays at
high thirties or forties.
And in some polls, he's around 50
in these states.
So the question is, is another debate
and I think it's 42 days
or 41 days from now,
no one can anybody start to pull away
into a
like a solo second place
as opposed to a bunch.
And then number two,
you heard it from those voters there.
How many qualified by the RNC rules?
They're tougher for the third debate
and then be to the donors
and some other big people in the party
start to say, look, sorry,
you know,
you three
got to get out
so that these four
can stay and fight Trump.
I think the Pences of the world,
the Christies,
even the Tim Scott
I mean the reaction in that room
to those brutal it was brutal.
And they're not doing what they said
they set out to do by being in the race.
It really raises the question,
what is the rationale going forward?
And I think the voters in the Republican
primary have been seeing
through the polls for a pretty long time
the folks in the sink, low single digits.
It's not
you're not
seeing a whole lot of movement there.
And yet they stay in the race
for whatever
their personal rationales are.
And it's not really changing.
You're seeing movement higher up
five and above, and it's in the low teens
that's where all the action is.
So that's work
that makes Obama 100 days out in Iowa.
I mean, Trump has a lead way
bigger than Hillary Clinton.
But Trump has the biggest lead
he was in the 20th.
In fact,
there was an ABC poll in late
August that had him in the lead.
He wasn't.
But there was already he was on the way.
He was on the way up.
But I would just say one thing.
Christie is not running in Iowa,
and you wouldn't expect him to do
well with this group.
He's putting his chips in New Hampshire
the latest New Hampshire
polls show a bunch
in second place with decent
with Haley, Christie and the Saints.
But the interesting thing about that
and I honestly think this you know,
I think Donald Trump
is in a very good position
and it's going to take a lot
to dislodge him.
The one thing
that's interesting about Haley
is she's competing in both Iowa
and New Hampshire.
She's actually
well positioned in New Hampshire
to try to do well,
maybe not to beat Trump,
but she's moving up there.
If she were to do well in Iowa,
even if she doesn't win Iowa.
You know, and I remember you
well this may even predate you, John,
but in 1984
Gary Hart
got 16% of the vote in New in Iowa.
Walter Mondale,
who is the runaway frontrunner
the former vice president at 49
and Hart
won New Hampshire
he catapulted out of there
it finished second.
He won New Hampshire.
And then it became a race now.
Mondale ultimately won.
I'm not predicting
that's going to happen. But Haley,
you know, there's a lot
of interest in her.
I think they'll continue
to be a lot of interest in her
after this debate.
That's a well
positioned, obviously, in South Carolina.
She's got the longest longevity.
Yeah, she's
she's she's well positioned
in all those first three states.
And I think that's why you saw her
go after Tim Scott.
She's trying to lay some groundwork here.