Welcome back to this special edition of Outfront Countdown to Iowa. Justin, our Dana Basch, spoke one-on-one tonight with Nikki Haley. Haley, of course, has been feeling some momentum going into the Iowa caucuses tomorrow night. But will it be enough? Will they turn up? Will it turn out? Sorry. Will it put a dent in Trump's massive lead? I want to get straight to Dana. She's in Des Moines tonight. Dana, you had a chance to talk to Governor Haley, and you talked to her about a big endorsement. Tonight, Marco Rubio, who she had actually endorsed in 2016, but is now endorsing Trump. So talk to me about what she said to you about that.

Well, it was really interesting, Erin. I was in Ames, Iowa, where she had one of many events that she's doing today. She had just come off talking about the need to move on, the need for a new generation, a lot of what she told you in that town hall a couple of weeks ago. Then we got the news about Marco Rubio. I asked her about that also about what Donald Trump had said about her at a rally where I was just before, where he said that she is not tough enough to be President. Listen to both. I was with you in 2016 in South Carolina when you endorsed Marco Rubio. I don't know if you heard he just endorsed former President Trump. Is that disappointing?

I mean, look, this is where they do that. I don't care as much about elected officials endorsing as much as I care about the voters endorsements. I've never really cared for... I don't line up a bunch of endorsements to do that. I want to win the people's vote because at the end of the day, they're the ones that I'm going to be serving. They're the ones I'm going to be working for. They're the ones I'm going to be fighting for. So as long as I get theirs, I don't care about the rest.

Larry Hogan endorsed you. Is that something you welcome?

I mean, look, if anybody wants to, we'll take it. But it's not something I seek. It's not something I fight for. I want to make sure that people know I'm going to go into this. I'm going to overcommunicate. I'm going to tell them everything I know as president, and I'm going to fight every day to make them proud. That's what That's what I did as governor. That's what I did as ambassador. That's what I'll do as president.

Donald Trump, among other things, says that you're not tough enough to be president. How do you interpret that?

I find it comical because when I was at the UN, he always used to tell people, Don't mess with her. She's tough. Look, I was tough as a governor. I took on, whether it was passing the toughest illegal immigration law in the country, whether it was taking on my own legislature when I made them start to record their votes on the record, whether it was at the UN with Russia, China, and Iran. Everybody that's ever worked for me or worked with me, no one ever questions my toughness. He's saying this because now he knows he's in trouble. Now he knows this is becoming a two-person race. I know that he knows the truth. It doesn't bother me at all.

Erin, you saw him just trying to brush off that criticism, which was more robust in the former president's rally today than we've seen maybe in recent days. That really has been her MO. We've seen time and time again to harness the notion that when people are attacking her, it means that she's winning, and that's why they're going after her, but also to sidestep a little bit of the criticism beyond what she's already done when it comes to the former President, her former boss, when she was UN ambassador, Erin.

All right, Dana, thank you very much. Really illuminating Dana having this conversation with Nikki Haley. Jeff, you having on a campaign trail. I can't even imagine what fumes any of these individuals are running on, but specifically Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, who really have been doing the groundwork out there. Trump's obviously been in a courtroom. What do you make of that response? I don't think she was aware of the Marco Rubio thing before Dana told her it appeared.

Well, Nikki's crushing it. 2024 is another chapter of opposite day. Donald Trump gets indicted. He goes up in the polls. Nikki Haley is crushing it. She's gaining momentum. She's doing everything That's the thing that the history books tell us you have to do to win Iowa or to be strong or to be your party's nominee. She's fitting a great time. Foreign policy is an absolute must to be on your resume, and Nikki Haley's got it. She's got a strong governorship behind her in a Southern state. She's killing it. But in opposite day, you have somebody like Marco Rubio, who I actually supported earlier in the last cycle. To see him come out, I mean, look, I think we're seeing what people are made out of right now. Do you want to be a professional politician or do you want to be an American? If you want to be a professional politician and you're a Republican, then you get in line, you say, Donald Trump, you hold your nose and you say, Donald Trump is the best, and then you go home and you tell everybody you know that you can't stand him. Because that's what's happening all across the country.

Totally. Alicia, what do you say to that? Margot Rubia. I mean, this is Lil Marco? I mean, right? I mean, I'm just saying, right? That's where we are.

So many are falling in.

Obviously, everyone knows that's what Trump called him. Exactly.

Amongst many of the names he called other people. Look, many Any of the establishment Republicans are falling in line behind Donald Trump. We're seeing that across the board, and that is unfortunate. But to Jeff's point, in terms of Nikki having momentum, we're seeing that she's gaining in the polls. In this Des Moines Register poll, she's the one that has actually gone up, and others have not. She also has money, the Americans for Prosperity, putting a lot of money for her to put these ads on the air. The thing that bodes well for her is we have all been talking about Iowa. It's so important. Iowa is the first in the nation test, but it is not reflective of the nation. She understands moving into New Hampshire, she is appealing to the people of New Hampshire. She is one that's more moderate and looking at the live, free, or die state. She also appeals to the people of South Carolina, and hopefully can carry that on into these other states as we lead into Super Tuesday. She has a ground game or a message that resonates past Iowa, so I think that will be beneficial.

To that point, though, Bazzal, I am curious when you look in this poll, because yes, she's the only one who went up. Desantis, Trump, they went down. She went up, but only four and 10 of her supporters say they're enthusiastic about voting for her. That is a stark contrast to DeSantis and Trump, right? To have much, much higher enthusiasm numbers. In the poll, they said there's weakness there. Does that set the possible stage for, however one would define it, an underperformance that could influence this whole momentum narrative?

I think the underperformance is possible. But one thing that she does have that in some ways pose in her favor is that she might be a better general election candidate, if she could ever actually make that argument. In that same poll, she's doing very well among independents. That says a lot about... When you're a Democrat and you're looking at this race and saying that a lot of these contests around the country are going to be one on the margins and independents are very critical to this. If she were a different candidate, if she could say the word slavery, if she could actually find a way to talk differently about what happened when she was presiding over the confedered flag coming down, and she didn't kowtow too much early on to the MAGA Republicans, that I think she would have set herself up to be a better general election candidate. Right now, she's doing better among independents, but I don't know if she'll ever get to a point to make that argument.

Well, remember, as the poll shows, a big portion of her support is Democrats who plan to caucus tomorrow and independents. I think that goes to this, Erin, your question about intensity and enthusiasm, because if you're a Democrat, 40 below, not so sure I'm going to go risk. And I think John's point, too, about older voters. But here's what I think is really important to keep an eye on tomorrow, and that is the evangelical vote, because what we've seen, two things, evangelical vote, critical to Republican victory in November. Remember, those voters, as we know, have said they see Donald Trump as the person who is fighting for them. Every time he gets attacked, that's who Jeff and I have talked about this. Unfortunately, his support hardens. But we're starting We're going to see a little bit of a split in Iowa with evangelical voters who are supporting DeSantis, and he has the support of a very significant evangelical leader. So do we see a split in the evangelical vote? That's obviously something Nikki Haley hasn't been following, but it will matter again in South Carolina, and it will matter again in the Super Tuesday states.

Margaret is amazing when you look at the polls, though, right? There was one where Haley was up 17 points over Biden. Hypothetically, the most reason when we have is eight points. But within that same one, Trump and Biden were, just checking here, 2%, which was well within the margin of error. It is that independence and we'll be very curious to see how many people register as Democrats to come in to register as Republicans tomorrow.

I'm looking for early texting data for my friends to tell me how many people showed up at the West Branch City Hall to register as Republicans. West Branch, Iowa. West Branch, Iowa. But listen, look, I'm with Jeff in the sense that I desperately want somebody who is not Trump, and particularly somebody like Nikki Haley, who really could be a change agent at a national level Bringing a new generation of people into the Republican Party, which is something I've been working for for 15 years. But the reality is what I'm seeing is the electability argument at the primary level, especially in Iowa, isn't actually getting traction because people are looking at Donald Trump versus Joe Biden, and they actually see Trump as stronger, and they see Biden because they're listening to all this conservative media, which is showing him that Biden is old, and Biden is slow, and Biden is geriatric. And so they think actually Trump is the stronger general election candidate. That's what's happening at the grassroots level in Iowa right now. So the electability argument actually isn't playing as well as it should.

But the polls are what the polls are. Donald Trump lied in his speech just a second ago where he asked people to die to vote for him. But Nikki Haley, a poll after poll shows, is the more competitive general election candidate. If that's what you're looking for, that is a strong argument. We'll see how many independents show up. We'll see what the evangelicals do. But I think it's a mistake to consider us a done deal. Marco Rubio endorsing Trump after all those insults and what he knows, that's a profile in cowardice. But it's what we've come to expect from establishment Republicans who back Trump now. Evangelicals will regret voting for Donald Trump at some point in time.

All, thank you very much.