[Cooper:] Donald Trump is in Fort Smith, New Hampshire tonight, his first big campaign event since advocating a ban on Muslims entering the United States. He just finished speaking to members of regional New England police union who just endorsed him saying the San Bernardino killings validate the need to keep Muslims out.
[Donald Trump , Presidential Candidate:] When I talked about what I said the other day, all of a sudden I'm watching the shows this morning and I'm watching the shows tonight, well, you know, Trump has a point. The visa system is not working. This woman came in on a marriage visa and she was totally radicalized. And she came in and all of a sudden they are saying it's not working. The visa system. We have got to get down to the problems. We can't worry about being politically correct. We just can't afford any more to be so politically correct.
[Cooper:] Donald Trump tonight in New Hampshire. The larger backdrop, new polling that shows strong support for Trump and ideas within the Republican party whether the party leadership likes it or not. Our chief national correspondent John King looks at that and more tonight by the numbers. John, these new numbers, what do they show?
[John King, Cnn Chief National Correspondent:] First numbers, Anderson, asking Americans what they think of Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering to the United States. CNBC"Wall Street Journal" poll out tonight, 25 percent of voters support that. But look, nearly six in ten Americans say they oppose Mr. Trump's proposal that Muslim should be ban from entering the United States. However, 57 percent is among all voters. In the Republican primary, Anderson, look at this. A 38, 39 percent divide. So in a crowded field among Republicans in the short term"Wall Street Journal" also ask this. They said did Donald Trump's comments frequently insulting and he has the wrong approach on many issues? Forty-one percent agreed with that. But 24 percent agreed with this statement. Trump's manner and language bother me but he is raising important issues. And Anderson, another 22 percent said Trump tells it like it is and has the right approach on many issues. So they may oppose six in ten American may oppose the plan, but you can see from those other numbers, Trump still has considerable support.
[Cooper:] Yes. Also some new changes in the Republican race.
[King:] Some dramatic changes. And again, Trump is on top. This is from a CBS"New York Times" poll out today. Trump stays on top with 35 percent. But Cruz and Carson, especially if I bring in October numbers, you see the difference. Donald Trump up from October. Ted Cruz quadrupled up from 16 percent now from October. You see Ben Carson support is cut in half and Marco Rubio and Rand Paul finishing the top five here in the Republican race. But that's a pretty big shift there. But again in the national poll, yet another one, Anderson, showing Donald Trump remains with a commanding lead.
[Cooper:] And I know one of the polls asked potential voters to describe their feelings of if Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton were elected president. What did they say?
[King:] This one is interesting. Take a look at these numbers. Essentially, they were asked if there is a president Trump, if Donald Trump wins, would you be excited, optimistic, concerned or scared. Four in ten Americans they would be scared, 24 percent say they would be concerned and only 11 percent say they would be excited, 24 percent say optimistic. Let's have a little bit of comparison here to a president Clinton. Only nine percent say they would be excited. A smaller percentage say they would be scared, 34 to 40 percent, about the same were concerned, a little more people would be optimistic. But Anderson, when you dig deeper into these numbers, very much along partisan lines. Look at Republican voters. Would you want Donald Trump as president? Twenty-five percent of Republicans would be excited, 41 percent would be optimistic, only 10 percent of Democrats combined would be excited or optimistic. Republicans are less concerned and obviously Democrats are much more scared of Donald Trump, 63 percent of Democrat said they would be scared by Trump presidency. And here is the flipside, 65 percent of Republicans say they would be scared for the Clinton presidency and only six percent of Democrats. So, you look at those numbers, would you be scared and concerned? And guess what? Democrats don't like Donald Trump. Republicans don't like Hillary Clinton. Shocking.
[Cooper:] Shocking. John King, thanks.
[King:] Thank you.
[Cooper:] More now on the problem that some of those numbers speak to the GOP may nominate someone that resonates with the current Republican base but who is out of the general election main stream. We just learned that the possibility of a contested convention was on the agenda at a party strategy meeting in Washington earlier this week. Let's get some perspective now from three conservative voices all whom could be called main stream. Former U.S. congressman Rick Lazio, who named his campaign bus the main stream express during his New York senate run in 2000, CNN political commentator and "New York Times" columnist Ross Douthat and "Washington Post" syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker. Good to have all of you here. Congressman, you see Donald Trump, you see those latest poll numbers. Is the Republican establishment out of touch with the Republican base?
[Rick Lazio, Former U.s. Congressman:] There is a lot of fear out there, Anderson. There is a new poll also that came out today that says that the fear of domestic terrorism is an all-time high since 911.
[Cooper:] Right. Number one issue more than
[Lazio:] Yes. Number one issue. So his strength right now is his strength. It is the fact that tough talk equates for many voters to strength. And they are looking for somebody to help make them safe. The real story in my mind, though, and I think this will play out over the course of what maybe a relatively long nomination season is that his tag line is I'll make America great again. But what makes America great is, really, our values, our traditions, the things that we believe in. The greatest and most iconic to me as landmark in America is not Sing Sing, it is the Statute of Liberty. It is what inspires people to think that this country is great, not just here in the U.S., but overseas. So when he talks about using religious tests to block people from coming in, you can't imagine people like Abraham Lincoln, for example, or Ronald Reagan who apologized to the Japanese Americans.
[Cooper:] Paid reparations.
[Lazio:] Paid reparations. Interesting since Trump himself cites the FDR internment as sort of the benchmark or the baseline to justify using a religious
[Cooper:] But Kathleen, I mean *
[Anderson Cooper, Cnn:] But, Kathleen, I mean, 35 percent of Republicans support Donald Trump. I mean, far ahead of anybody else.
[Kathleen Parker, Syndicated Columnist, Washington Post:] Yes, they do. And I think that, you know, the party leaders are pretty worried about it. There are a lot of meetings going on and lots of high-ranking, not only the party members but the funders of various campaigns are looking to see what are we going to do? Are we going to let this play out and let him just see where he goes or are we going to take some more strategic action?
[Cooper:] What more can they what would they do?
[Parker:] Well, they can just condemn him generally and they will lose that percentage of voters who actually like him. I don't know that the 35 percent is representative of those who are actually going to vote for him. But they do support him at this point. I think there is a difference there. Still have a year to go. But if they did that, you know, there are some people making the argument that let's just go ahead and lose them. You know, if we lose the election, let's at least keep the let's keep the Senate, let's keep the House and let's focus on 2020. That's already on the table.
[Cooper:] Ross, can the G.O.P. afford to do that?
[Ross Douthat, Cnn Political Commentator:] Well, I mean, the secret here is that Trump isn't actually winning what people usually think of as the Republican base. I mean, he's winning some ideological conservatives, but a big chunk of the vote is self-described moderate and liberal Republicans, which doesn't mean that they are liberal necessarily in the way that, you know, maybe people who read "The New York Times" understand the term, but they are often working class and disaffected white men in the Midwest and the northeast, voters some of whom who stayed home in 2012 rather than voting for Mitt Romney. And they are not a constituency that the Republican Party has always done a good job dealing with and catering to and so it's not surprising that the party leadership is struggling to figure what they want. They didn't really know what these voters wanted in 2012 or 2008, either. But the one thing to your question about what they could actually do I mean, the one thing that hasn't really happened is there aren't major Republican organizations, forget the other candidates going after Trump on the air waves, running ads against him. I mean, there were some, you know, John Kasich ran this sort of over the top ad comparing Trump to Hitler in New Hampshire, but you know, the Koch brothers aren't funding massive ad by attacking Donald Trump in Iowa. You have some groups started to do that. But there hasn't been a full spectrum press against Trump because the assumption is that either he'll fade or it's not worth attacking him because you don't want to alienate his supporters.
[Rick Lazio , Former U.s. Congressman:] I would say another thing here is that Donald Trump is really an attitude more than a plan. And, at some point, the party leaders need to press him for an actual credible plan, which I think he's largely lacking.
[Cooper:] But, I mean, he's been pressed, you know, in countless interviews and his supporters don't seem to care so much about that a lot of the lines that, you know, aren't filled in exactly
[Lazio:] Yes. But he needs to get he needs to grow his numbers and he's going to have a real challenge it seems to me if he does not have a credible plan and he hasn't come across as somebody who you can trust. And, by the way, the last cycle in 2012, Romney didn't take the lead permanently until February 28th. So we're a long way from that. I mean, we saw Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. I mean, everybody had their time in the sun and so that
[Douthat:] But in the last campaign at this point, we knew that Romney was going to be the establishment's guy, even though, he was only polling at 20 percent or so. And I think the challenge this time and I think what's panicking people is that it's not clear I mean, people assume now that it's going to be Rubio, but there isn't a candidate who has Romney's kind of position, and a lot of people in the establishment are saying well, you know, Trump is at 35 percent but Ted Cruz is behind him and Cruz is, you know, Cruz is an unacceptable alternative.
[Parker:] You know, he can easily you know, we could see him moving into the number one position pretty easily because he does have
[Cooper:] Numbers have gone up a lot last month.
[Parker:] Absolutely and he's got the infrastructure in place. And he is well-organized and he's been building this sort of on the sidelines for a long time and suddenly moving up so, you know
[Cooper:] I actually want to talk more about this. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to talk more about him and the others. Hold that thought. What Ted Cruz really thinks about Donald Trump? Some new remarks he made. We'll show you that. Also, our Randi Kaye is in New Hampshire. She spent the day talking to Trump supporters there asking them what they think of this so- called G.O.P. panic. "The Washington Post" wrote about and Mr. Trump's remarks about banning Muslims. We'll be right back.