Anti-Establishment Republicans Dominate 2016 Polls.
BURNETT: And this is a live picture next to me, this is a CNN debate hall, that's where the Republican candidates will be taking the stage tomorrow less than 24 hours from now. This is their final debate of the year, the crucial debate before everyone starts to talk about the real vote. Center stage will be the front-runner, Donald Trump. Next to him is Ted Cruz, the Texas senator surging ahead of Trump in a new Iowa poll. The two have one big thing in common. The so-called establishment detests -- and that's a very fair word here, we thought long in here before using it. It's fair, detests them both. Sara Murray is OUTFRONT.</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump and Ted Cruz leading the field in Iowa. A conundrum for establishment Republicans. Is the bigger threat the enemy you know?</s>SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And we need to take power out of Washington and back to we the people.</s>MURRAY: Or the one you don't?</s>TRUMP: I'm dealing with all of these blood-sucker politicians and they will make their deals and have all of their money guys around. And they'll be in the back room making deals. But if I get the number of delegates, there's not a thing they can do.</s>MURRAY: Both candidates have made waves with controversial policy positions. Cruz suggesting a religious test for Syrian refugees.</s>CRUZ: Christians right now are facing persecution and potential genocide by ISIS. They are being beheaded, they are being crucified. And we ought to be working to provide a safe haven to the Christian refugees but we shouldn't be bringing potential terrorists into America.</s>TRUMP: Wow. Thank you.</s>MURRAY: And Trump, calling for blocking Muslims altogether.</s>TRUMP: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.</s>MURRAY: Like Trump --</s>TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. They are bringing drugs, they are bringing crime, their rapists.</s>MURRAY: Cruz also has a history of making jarring remarks. One saying that accepting ObamaCare was akin to appeasing the Nazis during World War</s>II. CRUZ: We saw in Britain, Neville Chamberlain who told the British people except the Nazis and in America, there were voices that listened to that.</s>MURRAY: And taking a flip approach to a question about contraception.</s>CRUZ: Last I checked, we don't have a rubber shortage in America.</s>MURRAY: Now, neither of these candidates are stranger to starring with the Republican establishment. And when I talked to a number of Republican sources today, they told me begrudgingly that they felt like Ted Cruz might be a slightly better option out of Cruz and Trump but all of the Republicans I talked to, these mainstream establishment Republicans said they still felt confident that the party would rally around someone like Marco Rubio or maybe even someone like Chris Christie, someone closer to the mold of candidates who have been nominated in the past -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: All right. Sara, thank you so much. OUTFRONT now, Ted Cruz supporter Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of the influential family leader. Ben Ferguson back with me as well. Also Donald Trump's supporter and former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie and David Gergen, former adviser to four presidents including Reagan and Clinton. Bob, let me start with you. People have criticized Trump's rhetoric. But you just heard Ted Cruz compared ObamaCare to the Nazis. The Nazis of course exterminated six million Jews alone during the holocaust. Is that acceptable rhetoric from Ted Cruz?</s>BOB VANDER PLAATS, CONSERVATIVE LEADER ENDORSING CRUZ: Well, when you take a look at what's happening on the ground, whether it be the national polling you keep sighting or the Iowa polling you're sighting. And you're seeing Trump and Cruz rise to the top, it's because they are saying what is on the minds of the American people. They want national security. They want border security. They want bold leadership. They don't want someone who is just going to roll over with the establishment and play politics as usual. These two men are real forces in this campaign and I think in Iowa it's going to be down to Trump and Cruz. I happen to believe that Cruz is unifying the conservatives the way he needs to unifying the conservatives, and I believe he has a chance to be successful in the state of Iowa.</s>BURNETT: All right. I noticed you didn't directly address my question on the Nazi issue. But Carl, let me put that to you. You have Ted Cruz talking about Nazis and ObamaCare. You have Donald Trump saying, he wants to ban all Muslims.</s>CARL HIGBIE, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yes.</s>BURNETT: I mean, these things are offensive to a lot of people and divisive to a lot of people.</s>HIGBIE: They are. They are divisive. But that is what's getting the soundbites, the American people have a fire in their gut right now and they are igniting it. You know, the Iowa poll, that's fine. Look at who won Iowa in 2008. It was Huckabee and then Santorum in 2012. I'm not too concern about Iowa --</s>BURNETT: So, you're saying -- even if the poll is right, it doesn't matter?</s>HIGBIE: I don't think it matters. I mean, like in the last eight years, nobody has gone on to be president who has won the republican primary in Iowa.</s>BURNETT: All right. Which is a fair point on that poll.</s>FERGUSON: It's a fair point but I also think this election is a little different. I mean, this is a different election this time because Donald Trump is setting himself up for failure. He said, I'm the greatest, I'm the best, I'm going to win everything.</s>BURNETT: Right.</s>FERGUSON: You come out and you lose the first one. That is a momentum stopper and it also, well, it also makes everyone pay attention to this other person that, in the eyes of the media that has been talking about. This was not supposed to be able to win. Donald Trump said no one is supposed to be able to win this. I'm the guy, I'm the winner, I always win. You don't win coming out, it can have a much bigger effect.</s>BURNETT: So, David, when we just heard in our last panel the conclusion from Steve Deace was, look, if Trump doesn't win Iowa, his campaign implodes.</s>DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think that's true there. It's much stronger in New Hampshire. You've got these national surveys. I think there is that danger and I think we're all going to be watching this. Does the air start going out of the balloon?</s>BURNETT: Right.</s>GERGEN: Is that finally -- everybody has been expecting. But I think it's way too early to call that if you go into New Hampshire, you just don't finalize support for Ted Cruz. You do find a fair amount of support still there for Donald Trump.</s>BURNETT: All right. In terms of this whole Donald Trump-Ted Cruz duel that's going on that all of us are talking about, all right? The latest poll that I mentioned a few moments ago, the 41 percent Monmouth that is so stunning for Donald Trump, 41 percent, 27 percentage points ahead of Ted Cruz at number two. But that's not the way to look at this poll. I would argue try to combine the outsider candidates, Trump, Cruz and Carson, you get to 64 percent. So, 64 percent of the Republican voters are going to pick one of those three. Eighteen percent is the combination for the establishment. Rubio, Bush, Kasich and Chris Christie.</s>FERGUSON: They are furious. Republican voters are furious. And that's what that points out.</s>BURNETT: I mean, I would argue that the worst establishment actually goes to the outsiders because the establishment is a big course. The establishment here is the fringe.</s>FERGUSON: The establishment has been losing. I mean, you can go back to Eric Cantor and he lost. Why? Because he was the establishment. It was that simple. And I think there's a lot of people that look at this and I talk to them every day when they call in. They are furious with the Republican establishments, the easy person to hate right now. They gave you Jeb Bush. You rejected him instantly. Look at where he is in the polls.</s>BURNETT: But isn't that a recipe for loss if their anger is directed at their own party?</s>GERGEN: When the Republican control the Senate, they control the house, they have more than half the governorship, it's hard to say that they are not the establishment.</s>BURNETT: But they are angry at a lot of these Republicans and have been too establishment.</s>HIGBIE: They are angry at the people that are currently in office right now. And like, like I said, I've been saying this since day one. People said, look, five percent, that's a ceiling, ten percent, that's a ceiling, 15 percent, the Trump train is coming. Get on board or get run over.</s>BURNETT: It is now about 40. I think it's fair, people said it couldn't get there.</s>GERGEN: They are praying a very dangerous game, though. You know, the kind of rhetoric, the extreme rhetoric is one thing to go after the establishment and it's another thing to start talking about Nazism the way Ted Cruz is and the other thing to start talking about Muslims the way Donald Trump is. If they are not careful, the nomination is not going to be worth having, they're going to give it to Hillary Clinton if they're not careful.</s>HIGBIE: Cruz is seeing the Trump, you know, the factor saying the most outlandish stuff in the world. I think Cruz is trying to get onboard with that and he just didn't have the same charismas from.</s>BURNETT: Bob, are you worried, though that to this point that if you have this fight within the Republican Party, right, establishment versus outsider, you end up fighting so much within yourselves that you do hand it to Hillary Clinton.</s>PLAATS: Absolutely not. Because Hillary Clinton is a great motivating factor for all Republicans to come together. And to think that Republicans are the only ones having this conversation and discussion and argument and being upset with D.C., take a look at the democrat side. You have this thing called Bernie Sanders. Hillary Clinton has got a huge issue with her base. And I take exception with Iowa. The last general election winners, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all got their start in Iowa. I believe in '08, Iowa got right with Huckabee, the country got it wrong. In '12, we got right with Santorum, the country got wrong. But this time when Cruz wins Iowa, I believe he runs the table and we get it right and you'll see a President Cruz.</s>BURNETT: All right. Thank you all four very much. OUTFRONT next, does Donald Trump have a lock on the nomination? Obviously not what Bob just said but as the question. Or could just one primary lost derail his campaign? We have a special report on that map, coming up. And the San Bernardino shooters ranted about jihad on social media. 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