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And I wanna turn just for a moment to brand new polling out of Iowa on the Republican field for president. Joining us now from the big board, NBC News national political correspondent, Steve Kornacki. Steve, what are the numbers show? - Yeah, we're basically exactly, almost exactly 35 days, almost having a month until the Iowa caucuses. This what we're gonna show you, our brand new NBC News Des Moines Register poll. The Des Moines Register poll is taken by Ann Selzer. She is known as one of the best in the business and certainly the authority when it comes to polling on Iowa. So let me show you these numbers. Republican side for the Iowa caucuses, we now have Donald Trump leading with an outright majority in Iowa, 51% Ron DeSantis, a very distant second at 19, Nikki Haley, 16, Ramaswami and Christie at four. We last polled Iowa in October, also with the Des Moines Register. Since then, look at this, Donald Trump's lead. He has added eight points to his total. DeSantis up a couple, Haley, who had been moving flat. I think it's significant because in the month leading up to this poll, you had Ron DeSantis pick up the endorsement of the governor of Iowa, the endorsement of a key evangelical leader in Iowa, got a lot of press attention for completing a 99-county tour of Iowa, had a Fox News debate against Gavin Newsom in front of millions of Republican-leaning voters, and was part of that fourth Republican debate last week that Donald Trump wasn't in. So for all those things that we thought might be given to Santa Saboost over the last month, it is Trump, despite not participating in the debates again, it's Trump who's made the big gains, Trump who's moved to 51% in this Iowa poll. Just a couple other numbers we can show you behind this. These are evangelical voters in Iowa. Remember, Donald Trump finished third with this group in 2016 when he ran in Iowa and lost. Now he leads it overwhelmingly, exact same number as what he gets overall. Evangelicals could make up two out of every three caucus-goers in Iowa. That was the case the last time around. Where Trump really turns it on though, it is first-time caucus-goers. This tends to be a younger group overall. Look at that, 63% of folks who say for the first time, they're going to go to a caucus or rallying behind Donald Trump. This is independents. Independents are a small share of the Iowa electorate, but I think it gets to the basic problem Nikki Haley has. Look how much better Nikki Haley does among independents. It's true in Iowa, it's true in New Hampshire. It is true in every poll we have seen. But in Iowa and in most of these Republican primary and caucus states, big exception being New Hampshire, independents are going to be outnumbered significantly by core Republicans. Haley has yet to show that she can make the inroads she needs with core Republicans. That is to say, Republicans who like Donald Trump, she's yet to show she can make those inroads to be competitive. Also, in terms of enthusiasm, we asked folks, are you very extremely enthusiastic about your choice? Trump, look at that, two to one, three to one advantage over his rivals. We asked folks, is your mind made up? 77 out of 10% of Trump voters in Iowa say their minds are made up, again, more than double that of any of his nearest rivals. And then we asked this question here, a lot of words. This is about electability and Republicans' perception of it here. We've talked so much in 2023 about Donald Trump's trials. We will continue to talk about it in 2024, but we asked folks, can Donald Trump win the election regardless of his legal challenges? Now, nearly three out of four Republicans in Iowa say yes. Last month, that number wasn't even two out of three. Big jump there for Trump. We also said, hey, are Trump's legal challenges too much? They make it nearly impossible for him to win. 24% saying that, again, that number was over 30 last month. So all sorts of signs in this poll, Mika, showing that Donald Trump over the last month, last six weeks in Iowa has actually improved his position. And the last time we were this close to the caucuses, again, just about a month away, that a Republican candidate had a lead anywhere near this size. You got to go all the way back to George W. Bush. The year was 2000. Bush won the caucuses. Bush won the nomination. - NBC's Steve Kornacki, thank you very much for bringing those numbers. Just as they break this morning, we appreciate it a week. - Look at what's happening.

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All right. What's your name? Mary. Mary, can you give me an idea of what will be the things that matter most to you when you decide on a candidate that you want to support? The economy and go Trump. So you're a Trump guy? Woman. Yes. Excuse me. Yeah. So what did you vote for last time? Yes. How do you explain with 80 indictments and four indictments and all these charges, his numbers go up? Because we know that those indictments are phony and he's an authentic president. He is for the people and he's not a politician. All right.

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Really this is a legendary first what we're doing in so many different ways and our polls are a legendary first also You know, we're leading by I think in Iowa. We're leading by 41 points And it's 41 and going up rather rapidly - but we're leading by a lot and Nationally, we're leading by numbers that nobody's actually quite ever seen before. We're beating to sanctimonious. I think by 67 points No, I don't mean we're at 67 and we're beating them all and we're beating Biden very importantly and most importantly because we have to Get him out of there. He is bad news. We're beating him by 11 points That was Washington Post ABC News where they said wait, wait a minute. This is not good They spent like a million bucks on a poll. This is not good. Trump is leading by 11 We are going to disavow this poll. They're going crazy. Don't you love it? They're going crazy

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