Kinzinger asked if he's impressed by Trump's performance. Hear what he said

Donald Trump's

campaign is looking for a boost in funds

as he sails towards clinching

the Republican nomination.

He's now having conversations

with the world's second richest man

Elon Musk.

They met over the weekend as Trump's

campaign tries to keep costs low

while dealing

with soaring legal expenses

and fundraising concerns.

Also new this morning, after major Super

Tuesday wins for both Trump

and President Biden,

the Biden campaign is making a case

why the former president is, quote,

wounded, dangerous and unpopular.

In a new memo,

the campaign says Biden has a clear

path to victory in November.

CNN's Arlette

Signs is at the White House with more.

What else is Biden saying

in his campaign strategy?

Well, Sarah Biden campaign officials

have long felt

that Super Tuesday

would be the moment

that this race crystallizes for voters

between President Biden

and former President Donald Trump.

And perhaps

the latest proof point in that argument

is the expectation that this morning

Nikki Haley will drop

out of the Republican

presidential primary contest.

One thing that the Biden campaign

will be working towards in

the coming

months is trying to potentially peel off

some of those Haley voters

who have been turned off by Trump,

not just voters,

but I've told also donors

that they could also target

as well,

senior campaign officials, officials

I spoke to that

in a memo

last evening

as they painted the former president

as damaged and unpopular

in their Super Tuesday

assessments that

two women

leading the campaign, Jen

O'Malley, Dillon and Julie

Chavez Rodriguez

wrote that, quote,

A significant share of moderate

and Haley voters

across the country

are saying

that Trump cannot count on their votes

in a general election,

and that will be key for President Biden

going forward.

The campaign will try

to tap into those Haley voters,

try to tap into moderate suburban voters

as well.

The campaign

really believes

that the issue of reproductive rights

is a huge vulnerability

for the former president

and one that could work

to their advantage come November.

And they acknowledge

that they anticipate

this contest will be incredibly close.

It comes as polling has shown CNN's

average of

the poll of polls has found that

there is no clear leader in this contest.

I think that average is about 48%

for Trump and 46% for President Biden.

Now, President Biden

certainly faces a host of challenges

in his own

reelection bid,

trying to keep the coalition

that elected him

in 20, 20 together this time around.

Also trying to address

some of the growing discontent

within the Democratic Party

over his approach to the war,

the conflict in Gaza.

And then there are the questions

that he has faced

about his age and ability

to serve in a second term.

But the White House

and the Biden campaign

clearly believe

that Super Tuesday

and tomorrow's State of the Union address

will be key for voters

as they're trying to make their arguments

for his second term in office.

Are signs.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Joining us right now to talk

much more about

this is CNN

senior political commentator, former

Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger

and the senior campaign

adviser to Donald Trump's 2020 campaign.

Marc Lotter, it's good to see you guys.

We're just handed some

new reporting from Jeff Zeleny.

Let's let's go through this together.

Nikki Haley reached the decision

to suspend her presidential campaign

late Tuesday.

An adviser said

and adviser

said that

going into the big day of voting,

the Haley team had set a loose threshold

of winning about 40% of the vote

in several states

to credibly stay in the race.

And the decision to get out of the race

is that a benchmark

for staying in that one

benchmark wasn't set.

What do you think of that?

I'm it makes sense.

I mean.

40%, I think I think there was very few

kind of paths for Nikki to stay in

after Super Tuesday,

not necessarily

because she didn't want to,

but because a donor

money's going to dry up.

I mean, obviously, nobody wants to chase.

Sure. Hadn't to this point that.

No, it hasn't.

And I think she actually thinks

she overperformed yesterday

compared to what

a lot of people thought, particularly

winning Vermont.

Not bad right there.

But yeah, I mean, for her,

I think to go on pass,

this didn't make much sense.

40% made sense as a threshold.

I don't think there was anybody

that realistically thought she'd

get there.

And so,

yeah, it's

just a two person race now going forward.

What do you think Donald Trump is

is happier about this morning,

how he performed across the board

or the simple fact

that Nikki Haley

will be exiting the race?

I think the simple fact

that she's out now

and no one has to talk about the primary

any longer,

they can shift

all of the focus to the general election

which he was trying to do anyway.

He was definitely trying.

But you can't. Right.

So now you can officially do it.

It's over with

and you can move

all of your focus to November.

What counter intuitive would do you?

Do you?

Were you impressed with Donald Trump's

performance last night?

No. No.

You mean like in his speech?

Sure. Either one.

I like how he performs. Yeah.

On the on the actual election results.

Sure. It's impressive.

I hate to normalize

because, you know,

after an insurrection, it's tough for me

to just talk about this

horse race as normal.

But regardless,

it was an impressive victory

when he won all these states.

He won big.

I live in Texas now.

He like 80% in Texas.

His speech was okay.

I guess if you have a low bar for him,

which we do.

But my issue was when he called America

a third world country,

like what kind of in

what world

is the inspirational leadership

of a former president

going to remember

is in his inaugural speech in 26.

Oh, I do.

I was there

when he called everything he said like

you know carnage American carnage.

This is what we're going to be at again

so yes,

I also

am glad the primaries are over

because now we can kind of go forward

and talk about this.

But it was

it was an impressive political victory.

I wasn't impressed.

What do you think Joe

Biden should be most happy

about this morning after Super Tuesday?

Well, I guess the race is on.

I mean, he

he now has one singular target.

I think he probably knew that

for a long time as well.

But now,

I mean, it's going to be a clear choice.

And the difference is

and having worked

on that 20, 20 campaign,

the big difference is Joe Biden

didn't have a record in 2020

he was hypothetical

so he could talk about ending

the ending the pandemic

not mean tweeting and basically

getting elected.

Do you think the quote unquote distance

between his record

Donald Trump's record in terms of time

do you think that helps him meet

people hoping that

people have short memories?

Yeah.

I mean, they remember that

we didn't have the illegal immigration

crisis.

They remember

that gas was $2.39

a gallon, that you did have a pandemic.

And we did it before the pandemic.

I think we had all of these things.

And that's that's

that's the point

he's going to that

Donald Trump's going to make

and Joe

Biden is going to have to try

to explain away.

On that point, Congressman,

the Biden campaign

put out this memo this morning.

I was talking about it, saying

after last night,

they have a clear path to victory

is what the memo says,

pointing to Nikki Haley's moderate voters

and then saying in exit polls

that Donald Trump

might not be able to count on their vote.

Republican voters

saying Donald Trump

might not be able to count on their vote

come November.

One big Haley donor

and fundraiser was on with us last night.

When we were sitting there.

I want to play for everyone

his take on this. Listen,

here's the struggle.

Joe Biden is a cognitively impaired

octogenarian whose policies

I disagree with in the extreme.

I think is distance.

He's putting between United States

and Israel now is disgraceful.

I think the way he's handled

Ukraine is just simply not doing enough.

He's always a day late

and the dollar short

and he hasn't been forceful enough

in dealing with China.

The border, of course, is a crisis.

He even he now admits that.

So I can't vote Democratic.

So can I vote Republican?

Can I vote for Donald Trump?

It's tough.

Well, he says he doesn't want

he doesn't want your support.

And how does he win

and how does he win?

What do you think of that

in terms of this now

is part of the Biden strategy.

They want to pull over those. Yeah.

So this is how a lot of us feel.

I mean, I feel

I feel politically homeless

and there's no way

I'll vote for Donald Trump, period.

So he can't win me over.

But there are a lot of people

that he could.

And I think that's

that's the challenge of the Biden team

right now.

Look,

we have been so preprogramed

in this country to default to.

I have to support a party.

So I either have to, you know,

and so that's

where people are at right now.

Joe Biden is fighting with his leftist.

Got the every Gaza

interruption that happens,

every scream

That kind of pushes the middle away.

But he has a real opportunity.

He's the guy that can do it

if he can make his staff

allow him to be Joe Biden,

if they're going to drag him to the left,

he's going to have a harder time.

But he has to win people like me over.

He'll win me over.

But people like me

over to win the presidency.

Lindsey Graham was on

CNN last night, Mark,

and he said the path forward

for Donald Trump in the general

is to talk policy and contrast policy

between him and Joe Biden.

And I think it

contrasts and policy

is the key to getting these people.

Nikki Haley, voters back on board.

Do you think that's it?

I mean, asked another way,

do you think Donald Trump sticks

with the policy discussions?

We know what

what the what his base reacts to.

It's not necessarily on policy.

It's on feeling well.

But I think you can do

both at the same time.

I mean, you can talk about low

gas prices.

You can't talk about

the immigration crisis

as both an emotional reaction

and a policy prescription

And I think the challenge is that,

like if you go to the exit

polling last night

that I've seen from CNN and others,

85 to 90% of the

Nikki Haley's voters support

we're satisfied with Joe

Biden's leadership.

That means they were probably not

Donald Trump voters to begin with,

even if they did vote for Nikki Haley.

Meanwhile, if you go

by the New York Times Siena poll,

10% of

Joe Biden's 2020

support is now have buyer's remorse

and flipping back to Trump.

That's why I think when we look ahead

to these battleground states

and the national polls I mean remember

I think it was what, four points

three points that Joe Biden

beat Donald Trump in 2020

nationally to eke out 45,000 vote win

in three states.

It's now

a five point swing

where Donald Trump

is leading by two points

according to the RCP average.

We've got a long way ahead of us.

We have now just realized this morning.

This next chapter

kicking off in full

swing with Nikki Haley

and in her remarks starting at 10 a.m..

It's great to see you guys. Thank you.