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Poll: Trump Now Six Percent Points Ahead Of Cruz In Iowa; Sanders Battles Nancy Pelosi Over Taxes; New Polls: Clinton, Sanders In Virtual Tie; Coverage of Iowa primary caucus; 2-3p ET

Aired January 31, 2016 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:16] JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. We are live in Iowa. It is all happening here on the verge of the first actual vote to the 2016 presidential race.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm John Berman here in Des Moines.

And if you like politics, if you like drama, if you are focused on the nation's future, you are in for a treat. Speaking live this hour, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio. We have some live pictures right now of Marco Rubio holding a rally in Cedar Falls. Right now, the polls have him in third place. His team wants you to believe he's on the rise.

Donald Trump, he holds his first rally of the day in just a few minutes kicking off in council bluff. The live picture right there. He has been laser focused on evangelicals recent days conceding nothing to Ted Cruz. There he was at church this morning his wife Melania. And he appeared this weekend with one of his prominent new supporters, Jerry Farwell, Jr.

Not in Iowa today, John Kasich. You are looking at picture of him right there. He is in New Hampshire. He received the endorsement of "New York Times." He has switched his focus completely to the grand state, that primary in nine days.

A new poll this morning has sent politicos into a frenzy. The "Des Moines Register"/Bloomberg politics poll, Donald Trump is up five points over Ted Cruz. This is the first time that Trump has held a lead this big in this poll.

As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton is up three points on Bernie Sanders. Our CNN/ORC poll of polls within an average of five most recent Iowa polls shows was I the same thing on the democratic side. And Donald Trump now up six points in the poll of polls.

We have team coverage across the state. Joining us is CNN politics correspondent M.J. Lee is following Donald Trump. CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns is Waterloo, Iowa at a Bernie Sanders rally. Senior political reporter Manu Raju covering all things in Ted Cruz and executive editor for CNN politics Mark Preston, here with me in Des Moines.

And Mark, we have breaking news. We are all at Iowa. We are focus on tomorrow night. But you have a big announcement about New Hampshire? MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: I do, John. The focus

right now has been on Iowa and it will be for the next 24 hours. But the campaigns are already looking ahead to New Hampshire, a very crucial state for candidates in both parties.

On Wednesday evening, CNN will hold a town hall for the Democratic candidate. It is going to be very similar to what we saw this past Monday where Chris Cuomo get a masterful job of listening questions in getting folks here in Iowa to ask questions directly of the candidates. This is going to take place at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening. We will have Martin O'Malley, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders all fielding questions from New Hampshire. You and I are from New England. We understand the whole town hall aspect of New Hampshire. This is going to be one of the amazing, amazing nights.

BERMAN: You do not get off easy in town hall events in New Hampshire. Those voters will come on with big questions and the timing could not be more important. Because whatever happens here, these candidates will have to react to the results here and try to pivot to New Hampshire, which will be less than a week away at this point.

PRESTON: It will. And it will take place in Dairy, New Hampshire, on Wednesday evening. Again, Hillary Clinton taking questions now from New Hampshire voters. Right now, Bernie Sanders is leading in the polls, but who know what is going to happen after Iowa. We don't know what the results are going to be tomorrow night, but this race could totally change or we could still be neck-and-neck heading into New Hampshire talking come down on Wednesday night.

BERMAN: All right. Big event, CNN town meeting in New Hampshire, Wednesday night. That's New Hampshire.

Let's bring things back to Iowa right now and go to council bluff. CNN's M.J. Lee is awaiting a rally for Donald Trump.

And M.J., you know, Donald Trump was on CNS this morning and he views about his appeal to Iowans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Why do you think -- you have a lot of working people at your rallies. You are -- more than any other candidate, you live a life that is most distant to them. Why do they support you?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because I'm a job producer. I have produced tens and thousands of jobs over my lifetime. Right now, I'm producing thousands of jobs. That includes healthcare, education for families, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And I grew up - you know, my father was a builder in Brooklyn and Queens and I grew up working with people that worked on building houses and building whatever. I mean, I relate to them. I love those people. Those are my people. I love those people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Donald Trump talking to CBS this morning.

M.J., the focus of the Trump campaign and it seen in the last day, very focused on evangelicals. That supposed to be the Ted Cruz day, Ted Cruz's strong point. But the Trump folks conceding nothing along those lines.

M. J. LEE, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John. In these final days, Donald Trump is making a huge push for the evangelical support here in Iowa. He started off the day attending church services with his wife, Melania. Nearby, even spending the tight in Iowa. Of course, you know that he is not someone who actually likes to spend the night away from his home in New York City. And after this morning, he will speak behind me in Council Bluffs. You see that the crowds are starting to pour in.

Something else that Trump is trying to do to boost his credentials with the evangelical crowd is to use the support of Jerry Fallwell Jr., prominent evangelical leaders and head of Liberty University. He will be campaigning with Donald Trump once again today.

Now, his role off-court is to speak about Donald Trump's character, his faith and his commitment to his faith. And hopefully, you know, try to convince some skeptics out there who may not think that Donald Trump is religious enough or may not be convinced that he is the person that he they want to vote for as an evangelical voter.

[14:05:58] BERMAN: And the key for the Trump campaign, M.J., you know, Donald Trump doesn't need to win the evangelical vote, but every vote he takes away from Ted Cruz hurts Ted Cruz because Donald Trump has a much broader base of support. We've seen that in the "Des Moines Register" poll.

LEE: Well, look. I can tell you, if you go to a Trump rally these days in Iowa and you ask a Trump supporter, who is your second choice? There's a very good chance that their answer will be Ted Cruz. It's becoming very clear to me as I have gone to a number of these Trump rallies over the last couple of weeks. But the political attack have really inundated the airwaves here in Iowa are really resonating with voters.

A number of voters I spoken to who said that they are choosing Trump over Cruz. They will name a number of reasons for making this decision, you know, starting with his decision on ethanol and his decision on immigration even his vote recently in the Senate on the audit of the fed bill. So who knew that the voters even cared about that issue, right?

And of course, this "Des Moines Register" that came out yesterday, it shows that Trump does have a slight lead over Ted Cruz. However, it's clear that there's nothing that Trump can take for granted in this state. If we can pull up the numbers quickly here, Trump is leading at 28 percent among likely GOP caucus goers in Iowa. Cruz is five points behind at 23 percent, Rubio trailing at 15 percent.

One other really important number to keep in mind, of course, is that 45 percent of GOP caucus goers here say that at the very last minute they could change their mind. As you know very well, John, Iowa voters are very fickle so anything could change in the next 30 hours or so.

BERMAN: Yes, which is why all of the candidates are working so hard today, including Donald Trump just a short time from now behind you.

M.J. Lee, great to hear from you. Great work talking to voters as well. Appreciate it.

Back here in Des Moines, you could argue no one is, working it harder than team Marco Rubio, launching a whisper campaign. There is Marco- mentum right now. It's a un-fortune hashtag. Each and every poll, though, in the state has some running third behind Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

On "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning, Senator Rubio told Jake Tapper, he doesn't think anyone is unbeatable and he launched his new attack on Senator Cruz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So Ted's lie in the whole campaign is built on the fact that he's the only conservative and everyone else is a sellout and a rhino and it's absurd even on immigration. I mean, he helped design George Bush's ill immigration policy. He talked openly in an interview, a national interview, about needing to reach a compromise on people that are here illegally. I mean, there's a tweet that was going around yesterday that he put out during the immigration debate talking about legalization. He said he wanted to bring people out of the shadows. He said he wanted to obviously pass immigration reform. So I think it is just not an accurate statement. I have tried to fix the problem. It is a very serious issue in Texas and in Florida. And it's a hard issue. And clearly we are not going to be able to do it comprehensively and we are not going to be do it until we enforce our immigration laws. But - and I don't support amnesty. We are not going to have amnesty (INAUDIBLE).

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. And his responses is false. The amendment I offered was 38 words. It was one sentence. And it said nobody here illegally will ever be eligible for citizenship, period. I didn't say a word about legalization. I didn't. And the differences are very clear now. Marco supports amnesty. He supports legalization and he supports citizenship.

Today as a presidential candidate, I oppose amnesty. I oppose citizenship. I oppose legalization.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: This is the battle we have seen between Cruz and Rubio on the stamp in the debate for days. Right now joining me, you can see CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju.

Team Marco Rubio, you know, I said they are working the reps. They are playing every angle right here to set expectations so that if Marco Rubio comes in third, they still skits on that.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: It's really a remarkable thing here, John. I mean, by the contrary, you look at Ted Cruz, did not play the expectations game well at all. They said they are going to win this state and looks like they may not win this state. So now their narrative is going to be that the Ted Cruz campaign is stumbling. And by keeping the expectations in check, all of a sudden they can come out of Iowa saying, we did well. Look, we did reasonably well. We did better than all of the other establishment candidates, those governors in the race, and I'll add that's what they really want to do.

They want to make it a race between Marco Rubio and the governors coming out of this race. They want to be very far apart from Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie. If they do, which it looks like they will, and they can make the case that they are the alternative to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

[14:10:34] BERMAN: There is some really interesting thing. Because what you are saying right now is that there's a big Ted Cruz versus Marco Rubio or Marco Rubio versus Ted Cruz dynamic in Iowa today. By Tuesday and Wednesday in New Hampshire, Marco Rubio is looking at a different direction.

RAJU: Absolutely. That's 100 percent right. We were looking into New Hampshire. Donald Trump is running away with the race right now. I mean, perhaps that could change if there is an upset and Ted Cruz does end up winning here but we expect him to run away. So the fight is really going to be for second place.

You talked about a Rubio advisers. They are worried if they don't come in second praise, if they lose to Jeb Bush or Chris Christie in New Hampshire, less so, John Kasich, then it will be very, very difficult for them to say Marco-mentum is actually happening. So this is a very key moment for them going forward. All of this could change, though, John, if Ted Cruz suddenly wins in Iowa. That throws up the entire calculation and all of a sudden he is back in the game and maybe he has a chance of being number two in New Hampshire and taking it on to South Carolina.

BERMAN: Why tomorrow night is so big. Manu Raju, thank you for being with us. Appreciate it.

CNN is the place to be for complete coverage of the Iowa caucuses. We are going to be live all day tomorrow for the very first vote to the 2016 presidential race. Do not miss a single moment.

And don't forget the news we just broke here. A brand-new Democratic town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday night. Oh, the timing, just two days after the caucuses. Anderson Cooper will moderate. That's 8:00 p.m. Wednesday night only here on CNN.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [14:15:19] BERMAN: All right. We are just a day now before the Iowa caucuses. Hillary Clinton calling for the public to see the emails from her private server that the state department has deemed top secret. The state department withheld 22 emails, would not release on Friday. These 22 emails, Hillary Clinton continues to insist that the emails were not marked as classified at the time that they were sent and there is a dispute now just about how sensitive they are. She says she just wants the matter resolved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is very much like Benghazi. You know, the Republicans are going to continue to use it, beat up on me. I understand that. That's the way they are. But after 11 hours of testimony, answering every single question in public, which I had requested for many months, I think it's very clear they are grasping at straws.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think this is a very serious issue. I think there is a legal process right now taking place and what I have said, and you know, and I get criticized, you know, Bernie, why don't you attack Hillary Clinton? There's a legal process taking placement I do not want to politicize that issue. It's not my style.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Well, he doesn't want to politicize it but you heard it right there. He said it's a very serious issue, which is the strongest language yet on that issue, a far cry from what he said at the Democratic debate that CNN when he said America is sick and tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton's damn emails. That's what he said then, now a different story.

We are awaiting Bernie Sanders. He is due to speak shortly in Waterloo, Iowa. This is the first of four events being planned by Bernie Sanders. Big news from the Bernie Sanders campaign. $20 million raised in the last quarter.

Our Joe Johns tracking Bernie Sanders. Good morning, Jog. Good afternoon, I should say.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, John. Yes, $20 million raised in January. A very big deal for Bernie Sanders. And they are really using that, making the case, of course, that easy electable because he can get all of the money from small donations. But I think right now the big thing for the Bernie Sanders camp is all about turnout. He has said and he said at the White House just a few days ago that he believes that if he is able to get a big turnout here in Iowa, that means he will win the caucuses and that's very big for him because he is doing very well in New Hampshire.

The question, of course, for Bernie Sanders is whether he is going to be able to get those small, those young voters out to the caucuses. This is where Hillary Clinton conceivably could have an advantage because her voters have been to this rodeo before. A lot of the people who are supporting Bernie Sanders are new at this, if you will, John.

So big questions as we go into the last day. I can also tell you that on social media and in other places, we're seeing a lot of little strategy papers floating around among the supporters of Bernie Sanders to try to give people an idea of how to talk to others at the caucuses to try to get the Hillary Clinton people and the Martin O'Malley people over to their side, which is a very big deal.

Back to you, John.

BERMAN: It is a very big deal this race. Very close. "Des Moines Register" poll has Bernie Sanders trailing by three points right now. And Joe, that's why it was interesting to hear Bernie Sanders today on TV saying that the Hillary Clinton email issue is now a very serious issue.

JOHNS: That's absolutely right. And it is big change from what he said, as you mentioned, not too long ago when he was trying to steer clear of the controversy. Now, he is saying it's a serious issue. He is also saying there is a legal process and he doesn't feel comfortable politicizing it. Nonetheless, he is has now taken the step over to the side of criticizing Hillary Clinton on the emails, which is a clear change.

BERMAN: All right. Joe Johns in Waterloo, Iowa. Bernie Sanders set to speak there in a little bit. We will get back to that event when it happens.

Thanks so much, Joe.

Now, Joe Johns was talking about the complicated caucus process. Next for us, a look inside. How does it work? How does it differ for a primary? Why is organization so important? And how is it different for both parties?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:23:15] BERMAN: All right. John Berman in Des Moines, just one day away now from the Iowa caucuses. There is a huge education effort under way right now in this state, telling people where to caucus but, more importantly, what to do once they get there. Because you know what, it is complicated and it is different than a primary.

Tom Foreman explains.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Iowa caucuses, this is what we have been leading up to all this time. And for the Republicans, it's a fairly simple matter. They show up on caucus night and cast their ballots and count them.

For the Democrats, though, this is a process. What that means is that hundreds of precincts all across the state, they will physically gather and divide up, based on which candidates they support. So for example, if we had 100 Democrats in one place and they divided among four different candidates, it might break out like this. Now, if any candidate does not have at least 15 percent of the support in that room, that candidate is basically declared out of it.

The voters, however, can either go home or they can start going to some of the other candidates out there and that's when you get a lot of talk and horse trading and a lot of wheeling and dealing. Because everyone wants to walk away with the most support for his or her candidate. Once it is settled for the night, though, that precinct will report, as do hundreds of others, to the state level where a lot of math will be done. And when that math is complete, we will have from both parties the first real indication of how the delegates will be divided and who is actually leading the pack on both sides of the race for the White House.

BERMAN: All right. Tom Foreman for us, that explanation, the reason why Martin O'Malley could be so important here. If he can't win the Iowa caucuses, and it doesn't look good right now for Martin O'Malley, where might he throw his support? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:26] BERMAN: Hey, everyone. John Berman here in Des Moines, Iowa.

This is special coverage of the Iowa caucuses as now just one day away. All of the candidates out now making their final case. That's here in Iowa. There's some big news, though, just in to CNN.

We are holding a Democratic town hall this week in New Hampshire. Wednesday night, just two nights after the results here. Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley, Bernie Sanders, they will take the stage in Dairy, New Hampshire, at 8:00 p.m. That's Wednesday night. Anderson Cooper will moderate.

The timing here couldn't be more crucial because someone is going to have to make up the ground after the results Iowa. Who will that be? That will be determined over the next 24 hours.

All right. In Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the other end of the state, Donald Trump. You can see him right there holding an event. Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So that was a great thing. But the bottom line, I see all the hats make America great again. Jerry, when you ask why, we want to make America great again. That's what we want to do. It's very simple.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, how often do you see a presidential candidate giving money away instead of taking it? I think that's wonderful. And we've got a group here today who is going to receive the second disbursement of that $6 million that was raised the other night. If that group would come on the stage now, it's called Partners for Patriots.

(APPLAUSE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're listening to Donald Trump in Council Bluffs, Iowa. We just saw a lot go on right there. Number one, Donald Trump presented a $100,000 check to a veterans group for pets with people with animals to help care for veterans, people who come home from foreign wars.

On stage with Donald Trump, Jerry Falwell, Jr., Evangelical leader, the president of Liberty University in Virginia, the son of the preacher, Jerry Falwell.

And, of course, you see Donald Trump talking about ISIS on this stage as well as he takes questions from Jerry Falwell, Jr., very interesting to see.

Let's talk more about this, joined by CNN political commentator, Margaret Hoover, a Republican, CNN political commentator and former Hillary campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, a Democrat, if you didn't know that from the Hillary Clinton part, and CNN political analyst, editor-in-chief of "Daily Beast," John Avlon.

Margaret, I'm going to start with you here because you are the declared Republican in the group. Donald Trump on that stage, fascinating to see. We're 24 hours away from the Iowa caucuses, a little more. He's giving a check, $100,000, presumably for the money that he raised instead of going to the debate.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's extraordinary. I've mentioned there's a new paradigm in Iowa politics and caucuses on the Republican side. The Democrats are talking about going and shaking hands and being in backyards and barbecues for the last several months.

And Donald Trump has literally flown in, swooped in, and stolen the show entirely. And, look, he's handing out money to people the day before they are going to go vote for him. It's hard to imagine how that lady and her organization doesn't vote for Donald Trump.

They just got $100,000 from him. But to be fair to Donald Trump, what we saw from the Iowa poll and consistently with the polling is that we don't necessarily need a big surge in new voters to turn out tomorrow night for Donald Trump to win.

There are people who -- 38 percent of self-identified establishment Republicans who are going to caucus here in Iowa support Donald Trump.

BERMAN: John, Jerry Falwell on that stage, co-hosting that event. The Evangelical vote in this state is so important. Donald Trump conceding nothing.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Nope. And, of course, that's his style. I love that he's at Council Bluffs because his campaign is based on bluffing and dealing and playing poker in high-level politics.

But he is going after the Evangelical vote and it's got the Huckabee and the Santorum folks who won Iowa in previous cycles with core Evangelical support just fuming because they don't feel it's authentic. But, you know, a lot of folks who are close to Trump get the joke. The question is, do these reporters? They are gravitating towards the strength that he's projecting and the broad promises and a core group of Evangelicals, that's resonating. He's got Jerry Falwell Jr. that helps seal the deal.

[14:35:04]BERMAN: You know, Trump looks like he's having fun on stage. That matters. You can tell a lot by which candidates are enjoying the most along those lines.

I went to a Bernie Sanders rally last night in Iowa City, you know, 3,800 people vampire weekend singing, a guy from "The Hunger Games" was there.

Everyone clearly younger than I am because they understood what it meant and I didn't. But Bernie Sanders is pulling in thousands of people.

You know, Hillary Clinton events, 200 or 300. Bill Clinton events, 200 or 300. Does this concern the Clinton campaign or do they know something that we don't in terms of grab size?

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There's no way you can go through what we went through in 2007 and 2008 and not be nervous today and tomorrow, right, before the votes comes in.

But she's done everything that she should do. She's got a great ground operation. She's got supporters throughout the state in every precinct and she has covered as many counties as she possibly can in her closing argument.

And she's got Bill Clinton out there who is a high level surrogate for her. They can cover twice as much ground. So are they nervous? Probably. But we'll see tomorrow night.

BERMAN: And here, Patti, is where it gets complicated for the Democrats. You guys have it easy. The Democrats, it's a whole different game. You stand in this part of the room, stand in that part of the room. You have to meet a threshold.

If you don't meet it, you have to join someone else. Do the Clintons feel that they have the smart folks on the inside to seal the deal at those final moments?

HOOVER: Absolutely. So here's the deal. She's been through this before. Granted in 2008 neither Clinton had campaigned in the state of Iowa. They didn't know what it meant to campaign in a caucus, right? They didn't know Iowa voters.

She knows that now. She knows how it works, how the caucus works and the people here. So she has people in each of these precincts ready to not only speak on her behalf because then also take -- assess the room.

Are we going to put our supporters to O'Malley to split the vote between Sanders and O'Malley or are we going to try and approach those O'Malley supporters if they don't make questions?

BERMAN: You got to play the game. You have to know the rules of the game. So Margaret, over the last 24 hours, we've been introduced to a new term in Iowa, Marco-mentum, right. Woke up yesterday and the Rubio campaign wanted everyone in the world to believe that Marco Rubio was surging. That was the morning. The afternoon, the politics poll comes out and there's a sentence that says, we see no evidence.

HOOVER: No evidence.

BERMAN: Of a surge. In fact, Marco Rubio's support dipped over the last few days.

HOOVER: To be fair, I think the Marco people and some of the people I talked to on the ground that sensed the surge sensed it after the debate and the Iowa poll did the four days ending on the one day after the debate.

So if there was a surge post-debate, it wouldn't have been captured or reflected in the Iowa poll. Certain people want you to believe that there is a surge. I've heard from grass tops around the state that there's a Marco surge. There is going to have to be a challenge to Ted Cruz or Donald Trump.

BERMAN: But Ted Cruz clearly thinks that there's some kind of Marco- mentum or at least the threat thereof or else he won't be doing all of his ads now against Marco Rubio and talking pretty much exclusively about (inaudible).

AVLON: That's right. If you want to find the truth in politics, follow the money. If they are directing their ad dollars elsewhere, that is where the real threat is.

Marco Rubio seems to be -- whatever the grass tops are saying, you've got to make a spin discount. Politics is perception, but it's not going to translate to votes at the end of the day.

But the fact that Cruz seems nervous and directing his fire at Rubio, not Donald Trump, says that internally they may have conceded first place and they are terrified of having that second place window down by rising support for Marco.

BERMAN: It all happens tomorrow.

AVLON: It does.

BERMAN: John Avlon, Patti Solis Doyle, Margaret Hoover, thanks so much for being here. Really appreciate it.

Coming up next, Bernie Sanders defending his tax pledge today after Nancy Pelosi claimed that Democrats are not running on any platform of raising taxes. We'll talk about his health care plans next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:43:05] BERMAN: All right, welcome back. John Berman here in Des Moines, Iowa. One day to go until the Iowa caucuses. That is tomorrow night. This morning, Bernie Sanders shooting back at House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Last week, Pelosi said the Democrats will not raise taxes to pay for Sanders' health care plan. Let's listen to what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: What Bernie said was, I'm going to reduce the cost of health care and it may involve some people paying -- we're not running on any platform of raising taxes. Anytime you have a single payer -- and that's not going to happen. Does anybody think we're going to be discussing single payer?

SANDERS: My proposal will save middle-class families thousands of dollar as year on their health care costs. Most people told me, yes, they would be happy to pay $1,000 more in taxes if they are paying $5,000 less in health care premiums.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Let's talk more about this. Joining me is Chuy Garcia, supporter of Bernie Sanders, Cook County commissioner in Chicago. Bernie Sanders campaigned for Mr. Garcia when he ran for mayor a couple years ago.

The question here for Bernie Sanders is this, campaigning on raising taxes is a difficult thing even in a Democratic primary. Do you think it will cost him votes?

CHUY GARCIA, SANDERS SUPPORTER: I think that when people understand the benefit of changing our health care, of creating a system that leaves no one out, a universal system, a system that says you no longer will have to pay premiums, deductibles, co-payments, or the high costs of purchasing medical equipment when you get home to recuperate or if you're living with a disability, that they will see that the savings offset whatever initial costs there might be.

BERMAN: We heard a different Bernie Sanders this morning during the Sunday shows. Of course, the Democratic debate that the CNN did a couple months ago, Bernie Sanders famously said, America is sick and tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton's damn e-mails.

[14:45:11]Today, one day before the Iowa caucuses, Bernie Sanders is calling Hillary Clinton's e-mails a serious problem. Why the shift?

GARCIA: Well, I think that in the court of public opinion, I think the media has reported that this is a growing concern and it raises questions about what it will mean for the general election.

Of course, we've seen polls that demonstrate that Bernie Sanders is a much stronger contender in the fall. Let me say this. As we move towards Monday's caucuses, I think that momentum is clearly on Bernie Sanders' side in Iowa.

BERMAN: Do you think Hillary Clinton's e-mails are a serious problem?

GARCIA: I think that they can become a complicating factor.

BERMAN: Does it concern you -- a complicating factor because it can hurt her in the general election or because it draws questions about her honesty?

GARCIA: I think it draws questions. But I think that our focus in the Sanders campaign is to talk about his proposals and his visions for America, and to make this political revolution by involving average Americans in politics a real reality throughout the country.

BERMAN: You come from Chicago, of course, Chicago, it looks a lot different than Iowa, racial diversity, all kinds of ethnic diversity. Iowa, not so much. Bernie Sanders, the appeal seems to be greater with white voters than minority voters. How or where is he going to make inroads?

GARCIA: I think it's a question of name recognition. People across the country have grown very, very familiar with the Clinton name and the brand. The challenge for Bernie is to make up that name recognition.

After Monday, what Bernie Sanders pulls off, the surprise to many people, not necessarily to me, that we saw occur here in 2008, when Barack Obama, another Chicagoan pulled it off.

It will I think reset the gauge and pundits will have to run for cover and figure out what will happen next. So we're very excited. Momentum is on our side.

I was at a rally last night at Iowa's university and there were 5,000 people. So getting the young voters out will have lots to do with who wins.

BERMAN: Chuy Garcia, great to have you with us.

GARCIA: Thank you.

BERMAN: Big news for CNN. Don't forget, there's a Democratic town hall in New Hampshire. Bernie Sanders will be there. Hillary Clinton will be there. Martin O'Malley will be there and Anderson Cooper will be there.

He will moderate Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. The timing so crucial. Just two days after whatever happens here at the Iowa caucuses happens here. Someone is going to need to make up some ground. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:38]

BERMAN: We are in Des Moines, Iowa, just one day away from the first actual votes of the 2016 presidential year. It's been a long time since Donald Trump announced his candidacy and when he did, he created a lot of controversy with his comments about Mexican immigrants.

Some people say this caused something called a Trump effect. Despite a new voter registration among Latinos upset by what Donald Trump had to say. A Gallup poll recently found that 20 percent of Latinos have unfavorable views of Trump, 15 percent have favorable views.

And here in Iowa, not a large minority population, but Latinos make up 3 percent of the state's voters here. That's a lot more than it was a few years ago.

We'll talk more about this with Joe Enriquez Henry. He is the national vice president of the League of Latin American Citizens Midwest Region.

Joe, you have been in town here getting voters registered and convincing them to go to the caucuses and getting them to vote for who?

JOE ENRIQUEZ HENRY, NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, LULAC MIDWEST REGION: Encouraging our people to vote and engage in the process. It's specifically encouraging people to participate in the caucuses. We can be a player in the caucuses. We have over 50,000 registered Latina voters in Iowa which is a lot.

Because only 200,000 voters participate in the caucuses so if we can get 10,000 to 20,000 of our people to engage in the process tomorrow night, we can play a part on the issues and who the candidate should be.

So our young people, most of our voters are under the age of 40, 60 percent, that's totally different than the regular caucus goer who has been 45 and older and white.

BERMAN: Do you have a sense is most of them plan to caucus on the Democratic side versus the Republican side?

HENRY: When we look at the participation, it seems like about 59, 60 percent will participating with the Democrats and the other 40 percent will be with Republicans.

BERMAN: We talked about the Trump effect, the so-called notion that Latinos nationwide are registering to vote because they want to react against what Donald Trump have said. Have you seen an effect -- Donald Trump's impact on this race?

HENRY: Yes, we have. Many of our young people are engaged in the process even before the age of 18, we've had demonstrations against the behavior that Trump has generated in small towns like Marshal Town in Sioux City.

Hundreds of our young people have been protesting and again many of our young people are participating in the process now. They want to make their voices heard. We are on red alert. We need to fight back this form of racism that's being created by Trump. It's not right. Things need to change and we're going to move forward as a community.

BERMAN: On the Democratic side, you know, Bernie Sanders, it's been said that his support is primarily among white voters. That he needs to make more inroads among minorities. Is that something you've seen?

HENRY: Well, when we look at our young voters, they are out there, they are supporting different types of candidates. Many of our young people are supporting Bernie Sanders as they are Hillary, O'Malley.

We've had fair amount in support of George Bush. It's about the issues and grassroots campaign that the candidates are putting forth. So we're going to see tomorrow night who has the best field campaign.

BERMAN: One day away. Joe Henry, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

Still ahead for us, our coverage from Iowa continues. Next hour, we're going to hear from Bernie Sanders. He's out on the stump. We're going to hear from Jeb Bush. He's out there campaigning. We will hear from Hillary Clinton. She's campaigning. Donald Trump, he's on stage right now. You better come back.

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