Donald Trump Holds Political Rally
WHITFIELD: All right, Donald Trump is talking about getting prepared for the next presidential debate, speaking in New Hampshire today to the National Federation actually in Nashville, Tennessee, actually, the National Federation of Republican Assemblies. Here's what he told CNN.</s>DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you know, it's very hard to prepare for a debate when you're talking about 30, 40, 50 years worth of material. You have to know what you're talking about. But it's going to be largely based on national security and things, and I think I know -- I think the biggest surprise about me will be national security. If I win, I think I'll be a great jobs producer. I think I'll be a great deal maker in terms of trade. We're going to make our country rich again. But I think I'm going to be great on matters of the military.</s>WHITFIELD: CNN politics reporter M. J. Lee is live in Nashville, where Donald Trump was speaking today. So tell us more about the event and your conversation with him.</s>M. J. LEE, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Hey, Fred. Before I go to that, I do want to let you know that we've just gotten word that at the straw poll at the NFRA event, Trump was the winner. He apparently received some 52 percent of the votes. Probably not a surprise because he was the only candidate that spoke at this event and came to the event, but nevertheless another data point that the Trump campaign you know will be touting in the weeks to come. The conversation that I had with Trump about how he's preparing for the CNN presidential debate that is coming up, he basically said -- and you didn't hear this in the sound when I asked him at the follow up -- will you be doing anything differently in the second debate? And he answered no. He feels like he won the first debate, that it went very well. Obviously his performance was quite explosive. So it's interesting that he is, one, focusing on national security issues, and, two, that he thinks that it went very well and that he plans to sort of give the same performance that he did in the first debate, which was hosted by FOX News and clearly made a lot of headlines.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes. And you also talked to him about the whole notion of a third party, whether he would leave the Republican Party, do something else. Did he offer any new clarity?</s>LEE: Look, the third party run question has been really bothering the Republican Party, I guess is one word for it, because they want to know the answer. They want to know will Donald Trump run as an independent, because that would be bad news for some of the establishment candidates. He hasn't really, you know, said that he will not make that run or make that decision because he wants to have the room and the space to make that decision if he wants to, or at least wants the party to think that that is a possibility.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, M. J. Lee, thank you so much, there in Nashville. And we will be right back.