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Governor Christie Endorses Trump; Donald Trump And Chris Christie Answer Questions From Press; Chris Christie States That Donald Trump Will Change Washington D.C.; Trump Will Get The Job Done; Trump Says He Will Bring Jobs As President; Trump Says Rubio Is A Liar. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 26, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY (live): -- on that stage, other than Governor Kasich, who has made executive decisions. Who's had to make executive decisions throughout his life, who understands how to put together budgets, how to make sure that money is spent efficiently and effectively in order to create profit and to make sure that the country, as moving forward as president, would get back on that kind of track. This guy knows how to do that better than anybody on that stage.

And so, this campaign has a long way to go, has a long way to go. And there's going to be lots of conversation still to have. But the confidence I have is that he is strong enough to take on the D.C. establishment which is what's represented by, you know, Senator Rubio. It's the D.C. establishment against the guy who's going to come in there and fight the D.C. establishment to turn around when's been happening in this country, the failure of both parties, to be able to do anything that's worthwhile.

So, I continue -- Donald and I continue to have great conversations about the campaign going forward. I intend to be a resource in any way that I possibly can be for him. And I have absolute confidence in his ability to get in there and fix the problems that plague America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think I told you about 12 times yesterday, my taxes, for many years, have been under audit. And, for some reason, I have a lot of rich friends, they've never been audited. I'm audited every year, I think, for like 12 years. Many of those audits have been finished but we have some left. And until such time as the audit is finished by the IRS, which is a routine audit I think, but until such time as it's finished, I be going and releasing because, obviously, that wouldn't be a very good thing to do.

Yes, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Trump, how do you feel about the recent endorsement from David Duke?

TRUMP: I didn't even know he endorsed me. David Duke endorsed me? OK. All right. I disavow, OK? `

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump?

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, (INAUDIBLE) effectively said they (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: My response is, the world just got 10 feet higher. I gave it to you yesterday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: I'll tell you what, and he used foul language. And if I used that language -- Chris can tell you. Can you imagine if I used that language?

CHRISTIE: Terrible.

TRUMP: If I used that language, it would be a major scandal. And as many people as we have today, you'd have five times more. It was disgraceful the way he went about saying it and it's going to be very easy -- Mexico will pay for the wall. Number one, the wall will be built which the other people will never get done. And Mexico will pay for the wall and the reason is very simple, 58 -- we have right now, $58 million in trade deficits. The wall is a fraction of that. So we will get the wall done and Mexico will pay for it.

Yes, go ahead. OK, don't get nervous. Don't get nervous. Don't worry about it. Not a big deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: I think a lot. Good question. I like it. Thank you. I think a lot. People are angry. People are upset. They're upset by the -- by what's going on with the economy. They're upset by trade. They're upset by virtually everything. Nothing good happens with us. We don't win anymore. Nothing good happens. So, there is a very angry group of people out there and they're not angry people but angry at when's happening to our country.

Yes, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: Stay with me. We're going to get you jobs. Because the biggest problem I have, I go and meet college students. They get out. They work hard. They put debt up to their neck and then they can't get a job when they graduate. Because the jobs we have are all bad jobs. We're not -- we're not created good jobs. The good jobs are going away. They're going off the country. They're going out of our country. Pfizer is leaving and moving to Ireland. It's disgraceful. We're going to get them jobs.

Yes, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) for Governor Christie, if I may. Governor Christie, I (INAUDIBLE.)

CHRISTIE: How did you know I was talking about Mr. Trump? What -- by the way -- I mean, listen, I think you watched the act Senator Rubio's been putting on over the last few weeks. He's obviously gone now and part of his talking points are to try to be entertaining and smile a lot.

You know, listen, it's one act after another. We don't need any more of these Washington D.C. acts. The acts to get rid of are Washington, D.C. acts. That's why, as a governor from a state capital, I said, we don't need somebody from Washington, D.C. What I most consistently said during that campaign was the problem is Washington, D.C., and we don't need Washington politicians to come in and fix it.

And so, when you look at who's remaining on the stage, there is no question that this is the person who will go to Washington, D.C. and be able to absolutely turn the place around. We don't need any more Washington politicians, especially some who've only been there for one term and have never really shown up for work to tell us how to run the United States government.

And so, I absolutely believe that Donald Trump is the best person on that stage to be president of the United States.

And one last thing, by the way, there was a period time I was running against him. And he knew, when I was running against him, I wanted to beat him. And he wanted to beat me. We had open conversations about that. But that part of this is over.

[13:05:07] And then, you have to say to yourself, as a good, loyal, American, who is the best person to stop Hillary Clinton from ever getting inside the White House again? This is the best person to do that. Turn away from the amateur acts, from Washington, D.C. and turn to a professional, strong leader and that's who this man is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

CHRISTIE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

CHRISTIE: No, this -- what my intent for being here today is to say to anyone who's willing to listen, not just members of the RGA or donors but to the American people, that you need a strong, tough leader to restore America's greatness. And this is the best person to do that. And so, whatever message anybody else wants to take from that, they can take whatever message they like. But most of the time, you know that people do best with me if they

don't try to figure out what the message is, they just listen. They listen to what I say because I don't send smoke signals. What I'm doing today is I'm endorsing the person I believe is the best person to defeat Hillary Clinton and restore American jobs, restore American prestige around the world, and restore the faith and confidence of the American people again in the fact that we are an exceptional and great nation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

CHRISTIE: Mitt Romney to Donald Trump? They're very different fellows.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: Well, I think we have a great shot. I think that people are liking me a lot. I know a lot about Texas. I have many friends in Texas. Many, many friends. I'm here a lot. I think we have a really good chance. If you look at South Carolina, that was supposed to be Cruz's stronghold. That was a stronghold. He was going to win that easily. And I won by, is it 22 points? You know, I won in a landslide. I won Evangelicals. I won military. I won the vets. I won everything. I won men. I won women. I won Hispanics. I won every single category. And the same thing in Nevada. We came in. We won every category, including, by the way, Hispanics.

So, you know, it was supposed to be a stronghold. He was supposed to do great there. He lost by a lot. I think that I should have a really good chance of Texas. I see the Bloomberg poll came out and it's, you know, massive leads in every state. We're doing very well in Texas. The Emerson poll came out. We're, I guess, tied or effectively tied.

So, I think we'll do well here. I'm going to be here. I'm here now. And I would love to get Texas, because of my relationship to Texas, so many friends. OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: Mark?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: Well, he's desperate. Look, look, I watched a part of his little act and he's a desperate guy. I've been watching him over the last number of -- he is not presidential material, that I can tell you. He doesn't have the demeanor. He is a nervous Nellie. I watch him, you know, backstage. He's a mess. The guy's a total mess.

And, you know, I joked recently about can you imagine Putin sitting there waiting for a meeting and Rubio walks in and he's totally drenched? I don't know what it is but I have never seen a human being sweat like this man sweats. So, I don't think he's a presidential -- I don't think he's of presidential caliber. I don't think he has the demeanor. I don't think he's going to do very well.

And he's a -- he's a mess because in Florida -- which he abandoned, by the way. I love Florida. I've invested hundreds of millions of dollars. I own Doral. I own many clubs, including Mar-a-Lago, including Trump International which is one of the best clubs in the country. But I own many. And a lot of real estate along the shore of Miami. (INAUDIBLE) with the Dezzerts (ph) and a lot of other people. So, I have a -- I'm a major investor in Miami, one of the biggest. And, frankly, the people in Florida like me.

But for me to go in to Florida and have like a 20-point lead over the sitting senator -- but remember, the sitting senator abandoned Florida. He left Florida. He was supposed to be the -- he really defrauded -- if you think of it, he really defrauded Florida. The people defrauded because they elected him as a young senator. He goes there and before he sits down, he starts running for president.

He's not the right guy, in my opinion. (INAUDIBLE) a very bad temperament. I think he's got the absolute wrong temperament to be president.

Katy (ph), go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: No, no. They did speculate that he was going to be my vice presidential candidate. Honestly -- I'll be honest with you. Now, it's obvious he's not going to be. I never even had it in mind. I don't think he has the right temperament.

[13:10:03] I've watched -- I watched Chris do a number on him. I've almost never seen a meltdown like that in my life. And, you know, it's interesting about people who choke, I believe I'm not a good athlete. I have watched people choke over the years. And once a choker, always a choker. It never, ever changes. The guy that misses the kick, misses the kick. When he misses the first one, you got to get rid of him because it doesn't work. Once a choker, always a choker. And that was one of the epic meltdowns. He didn't know where he was. I thought he was going to -- I thought he was going to die. Good going, Chris.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Trump? Mr. Trump? Mr. Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) running mate?

TRUMP: Well, I don't want to discuss that but he's certainly got the talent. You know, we didn't talk about it. We actually did not even talk about it. But he certainly has a lot of talent. Yes, Katy?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Trump, the IRS has said that there's nothing precluding you in its rules from releasing your taxes --

TRUMP: I don't want to do it until they have it done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't want to do it?

TRUMP: And let me tell you something.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about --

TRUMP: Let me tell you something. We talk about establishment and all. I think it's very unfair that for many, many years, I've been audited. I have many, many friends that are very rich people and they never -- they have never been audited. I was with somebody the other day, a very rich guy. I said, how often are you audited? He said, audited? He didn't even -- he didn't know what I was talking about. I have many, many rich friends, almost all of them, and they're never audited. Why am I audited every single year?

So, I'm just going to put you people to rest. Until my audit is finished, very simple, you're not going see anything. When it's finished, you're going to see it. But I'm not going to complicate things by doing it. But put yourself in my position. Why is it that every single year -- and I'm talking about beyond Barack Obama, but every year during his term also, every single year I'm audited. It's not fair. I will tell you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would you not -- why would you not appease them and release --

TRUMP: I can't tell you why --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- a past return (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: I can't tell you why. All I can say is that many, many people I know that are very, very wealthy are not audited.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about releasing a past return?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: Yes, which is --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: Yes, which is totally wrong, totally wrong. He also said I got $200 million from my father. I wish. I wish. I got a very, very small loan from my father many years ago. I built that into a massive empire and I paid my father back that loan.

And, by the way, and I was telling Chris, actually Chris was telling me because he understands it. My father left me some money. Not nothing like the numbers you heard. But by that time, it was many, many years later when my father passed away. My father -- more than anything else, I learned a lot from my father. But for this guy, this lightweight -- I call him a lightweight because he is a lightweight. To get up and say 200 million. In fact, the first call I got last night was from my sister, and then I got a call from my brother. And they said, wow, how does he say that? That's not true. They understand. You know, we have five in the family.

And they said -- so, in other words, anything also would be split up. But she called, she said, boy, was that untrue. And it's really a shame. And I'll tell you where they got it. They got it -- "The New York Times" wrote -- you know, I call it the failing "New York Times" because it's a totally failing paper with some really inaccurate reporting and purposely inaccurate. They go out of their way and if you try and make a correction prior to the story, they don't want to do it. They made a statement about it. I don't -- I don't know where they got it.

But I would just tell you the number is wrong by a factor of hundreds of -- I mean, by a fortune. I got a small loan. I started a business. And it's now worth billions and billions and billions of dollars. And if I ever wanted to sell, the assets I have, Trump Tower, the Bank of America building in San Francisco, a big chunk. 1290 Avenue of the Americas, some of the best land in the country. Doral (ph) Country Club, Turnberry in Scotland, home of the open championship, referred to sometimes as the British Open. My property would sell for numbers like nobody would even believe. I have the -- I have, I think, among the best properties anywhere in the world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: You know, I think it's really unfair when a guy says my father gave me $200 million. If you knew Brooklyn, OK, in the 19 -- early 1980s, and you understand this, Chris. If you knew Brooklyn in the early 1980s and the 1970s, there wasn't $200 million, that I can tell you. And I do have brothers and sisters.

But the first call I got was from my sister. And then, I got a call from my brother late at night. And all he wanted to do is say, why are they allowed to say that? Because he's a liar. This guy's a liar. Now, I used to call Ted Cruz a liar but now I'll also call Marco Rubio. And he actually mentioned some companies, and some of those companies are very successful companies, he said they closed. I sold some. I sold -- like for instance, I sold Miss Universe for a lot of money. I got a lot of money for it. I sold others.

[13:15:11] And the water company he mentions. He mentions, I think, the wine company. I had the biggest vineyard on the East Coast. He (INAUDIBLE). That's having to do with - I make vodka all for my clubs, because I have many clubs. And we make vodka for the clubs. He said it was closed. It's not closed.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) on your pledge, though? Because you pledged you (INAUDIBLE) nominee.

TRUMP Go ahead. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Does this make you rethink your pledge? Because you pledged to support whoever the nominee is. If you were to become the nominee -

TRUMP: Well, no, I'd think about it. I would certainly think about it. But, look, if for some reason it didn't work out for me, Chris would understand this, I'm going back into what I do. I don't need to do this. This is something I'm doing because we are going to make America great again and politicians are not going to do that. These politicians - and I know the people on the stage, they're not going to do it. Marco Rubio is a lightweight. He doesn't have the talent. He doesn't have the temperament. He can never make us great.

QUESTION: I have a question for Governor Christie. I have a question for Governor Christie.

QUESTION: Can you tell - can you tell us you can write off the money that you were using for your campaign, do you know if you can write that off?

TRUMP: No, I - what kind of -

QUESTION: Governor Christie, can I ask you a question? You, as you've said, are a former federal prosecutor. Is there a position in the cabinet that you would be interested in? Attorney general? Something like that? Would you like to be his running mate?

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I am the governor of the state of New Jersey until January 19th of 2018 and I have every expectation that I will fulfill the end of my term and then go into private life and make money like Trump. That's what I intend to do.

QUESTION: If you are offered - if you are offered a position, would you take it?

CHRISTIE: I haven't been offered any position. And I don't speculate on those kind of things. I have a term of office until January 19th of 2018 and I intend to fulfill my term. And then, like I said, go off into the private sector and finally beat my wife one year in our marriage - we've been married 30 years in March. I would like one time, before I die, to make more money in a year than she did. So, that's going to be my goal after January 19th of 2018.

TRUMP: But he does have talent. That I will (INAUDIBLE).

Thank you, everybody. We have thousands - I have to go. We have thousands and thousands of people outside. You will be very impressed. Thank you all. Thank you very much, everybody.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so there you have Donald Trump getting a big endorsement from Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey.

We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We want to apologize, the technical difficulties. You could hear Donald Trump and Chris Christie well. We did have some technical problems with the video. But you got the gist. You fully understand. A very surprise announcement today in this Republican race for president of the United States. The New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, now throwing his support behind Donald Trump. Here's what Christie said just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIE: The best person to beat Hillary Clinton in November on that stage last night, he's undoubtedly Donald Trump. And so I am thrilled to be here this morning to lend my support. I will lend my support between now and November in every way that I can for Donald, to help to make this campaign an even better campaign than it's already been and then to help him do whatever he needs to do to help to make the country everything that we want it to be for our children and grandchildren. He's a good friend. He is a strong and resolute leader. And he is someone who is going to lead the Republican Party to victory in November over Hillary Clinton, which is the single most important thing we can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's get some assessment of this dramatic development. Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois is joining us. He's a Marco Rubio supporter. Ken Cuccinelli is a Cruz campaign surrogate. He's president of the Senate Conservatives Fund. CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston is with us as well. And joining us on - from Nashville, Tennessee, Scottie Nell Hughes. She's a Trump campaign surrogate, chief political correspondent for USA Radio Networks.

Mark Preston, first to you. Let's get some analysis. This is a potentially significant development for Donald Trump, gives him some credibility.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: It certainly does. Listen, on a couple levels, one is, it's not surprising that Chris Christie would endorse Donald Trump. If you look who is left in the field, he certainly was not going to back Marco Rubio. He is not a Ted Cruz supporter. I think he looked at John Kasich up in Ohio and realized that John Kasich really did not have a path to victory by any means and it certainly wasn't going to be Ben Carson.

But at the very end of that news conference it was very interesting, asked if he would serve in the cabinet, asked if he would be the VP. Obviously a very hard question to answer and he dodged it. But I will tell you what, if you watched that news conference today, it looked like a ticket to me.

BLITZER: All right, let's get some reaction from the three campaigns.

Adam Kinzinger, you - we all remember the Chris Christie battle with your candidate, Marco Rubio.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R), ILLINOIS: Yes.

BLITZER: And he was pretty tough on Marco Rubio. Right now your reaction to this endorsement?

KINZINGER: Well, look, I mean everything Donald Trump says is childish and that's what it seemed like in this. I was surprised by Chris Christie. I mean I think he's jockeying for position in - in the administration. But now he's going to have to explain, you know, Trump's support for the 9/11 truthers stance that Bush was responsible for 9/11, for his admiration of Vladimir Putin and for his lack of details on how to destroy ISIS. So I'm actually very surprised that he would get behind a guy that absolutely has no detail on foreign policy and runs a campaign just on emotion and not based on actual logic.

[13:20:28] BLITZER: Let's get some reaction from the Cruz campaign, Ken Cuccinelli.

KENNETH CUCCINELLI, PRESIDENT, SENATE CONSERVATIVES FUND: Wolf, this is a Republican in Chris Christie from the left edge of the Republican Party was never embraced by conservatives or ordinary Republicans, endorsing a person who has now joined the left edge of the Republican Party, who's never really been endorsed by - embraced by movement conservatives. We had another half hour Donald Trump press conference without any new substance whatsoever. It was literally, I've already answered that, I've already answered that. I mean we heard the wall, but we heard not one other bit of substance. And it was much like last night's debate where it was - it's all hyperbole. It's all showmanship but no details. And I think Ted Cruz exposed that effectively last night.

BLITZER: You know, if Chris Christie would have endorsed your candidate, Ted Cruz, or if he would have endorsed Marco Rubio -

CUCCINELLI: Sure.

BLITZER: We would have had extensive live coverage of that as well.

CUCCINELLI: Well, let's - well, let's (INAUDIBLE). Well, the plus is simply that it's a news event. That Donald Trump gets a news event out of it.

BLITZER: It's a news event and that's what they were doing.

Scottie, you support Donald Trump. What was your reaction?

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, USA RADIO NETWORKS: I was shockingly surprised but very happy. Listen, any Marco-mentum (ph) or whatever you want to call it that was coming from last night's debate was definitely stopped right now, as I'm sure Marco was stopped in his tracks with whatever he was trying to do at this point.

You know, you look at it. What we've seen this week is strength. You saw now we've got Governor Christie, who is strong man, which he had been criticized for, you saw Rudy Giuliani earlier on this week saying, I'm also consulting with Mr. Trump. Yesterday we saw Mike Huckabee's daughter joining the Trump team. You're seeing literally this circle of strength of consultants around Mr. Trump because they realize that when it - like Governor Christie said, it's who can beat the Hillary Clinton Democrat machine that's really starting to fire up, as well as, who can continue to build and grow America and make it great again. So I'm actually very happy that this is happening.

BLITZER: Well, are Republicans beginning to coalesce around Donald Trump, congressman?

KINZINGER: No, no, not at all. I mean, look, you know, if - if this is a sign of strength, I mean if - if, you know, Donald Trump yelling and screaming and making fun of people sweating despite his own sweat- stache while he's doing it, if that's a sign of strength, then, I mean, goodness, maybe in a fourth grade, you know, student council election that would be a sign of strength. Strength is when you can talk about how you're going to unite the conservative movement, how you're going to unite a country behind a mission an explaining America's mission. I have yet to see Donald Trump do that and I see Marco Rubio do that every time he speaks. So maybe the emotion of Donald Trump right now is bringing some of these folks in. Some of them are just calculating that they want a job in whatever administration. But this is not a sign of strength.

CUCCINELLI: Wolf, last night, you know, you hear the declarations out of the Trump camp, even by Scottie here. He declaring he can beat Hillary Clinton. Chris Christie said the same thing. Ted Cruz made the case last night for all the evidence of why he can. The tax returns isn't about what Mitt Romney said. It's about openness when our whole side is hammering Hillary Clinton about hiding speeches for Goldman Sachs, about hiding e-mails, and here were have Donald Trump hiding this material, which he is perfectly able to release and he doesn't. And in the Real Clear Politics set of polls that was referenced by Ted Cruz last night, Ted has been beating Hillary all of 2016 and Donald Trump has not.

BLITZER: All right, we're - we have to take a quick break, but, Mark, you wanted to weigh in quickly?

PRESTON: Well, I mean, just very quickly, one, we are seeing - what is interesting, we're seeing Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio actually come together. We saw it on the debate stage last night to some extent. But here's a problem. The clock is very short right now for Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz to make a run at Donald Trump. And if Donald Trump is the nominee, then there's going to be an incredible amount of pressure on the Republican establishment and the conservative wing of the party to come together and try to get behind him or they're either going to write off their nominee. And that's the problem right now for Republicans.

BLITZER: And Texas, that's the biggest prize on Super Tuesday, next Tuesday, there's a lot of - it's very close right now between not necessarily Marco Rubio but Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Donald Trump in Texas. We're watching that closely.

Scottie, stand by. We're going to continue our assessment.

To our viewers, if you're just joining us, Donald Trump just received the endorsement of one of his former rivals, the New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. They just finished up a joint news conference. We're going to assess that, what it means for the race for the White House. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:29:01] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And the breaking news in the presidential race here in the United States, the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, has joined the Trump campaign. Christie dropped out after a disappointing finish in the New Hampshire primary, but has now resurfaced in Ft. Worth, Texas, with the billionaire.

Also, we have the numbers on last night's CNN GOP debate. More than 14.5 million viewers tuned in to the CNN debate last night. Once again, Scottie Nell Hughes is joining us. She's the chief political correspondent for USA Radio Network. She's a Trump campaign surrogate. Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, he's a Marco Rubio supporter. Ken Cuccinelli, the former Virginia attorney general, a Ted Cruz surrogate. And our CNN Politics executive editor, Mark Preston.

Mark, how important are these endorsements in general in this campaign which is pretty extraordinary I must say?

PRESTON: Well, you know, I'm not a - I'm not actually a big believer in endorsements actually help a candidate win a campaign, but there are certain moments in a campaign where they're crucial and they're critical. And I think this was one of those moments. And it's because of two reasons.

[13:30:04] One, you have a very short clock right now for Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz to try to take over the lead for the Republican presidential nomination. We're going into Super Tuesday. There's going to be so many delegates --