mark: i am mark halperin. john: i am john heilemann. "with all due respect" to donald trump, with bone spurs in your feet, you wouldn't think it would be so easy to plant both of them firmly in your mouth. happy national lollipop day, sports fans. on the show, some candidates chat, and the new economy spat. donald trump -- over the weekend, mark asked trump about his suggestion that john mccain is no war hero and whether trump might be his own worst enemy. mark: do you think your campaign could be hurt as past candidates have been by the things you say?

>> all i can do is be me. i have to be me. if i'm not me, i'm not being true. i'm a very honest person. i have to be who i am. people like what i say. mark: you are picking fights with people like john mccain. mr. trump: i'm not picking fights with people. john mccain picked a fight with me. john: we have had a rare moment of bipartisan unity on this issue. from the left to the far right everyone is rallying around john mccain and trashing donald trump. my question is, in the end, will trump survive? will he may be thrive, or will he take a dive? mark: we are waiting for some polling to find out. i don't know the answer to this one, except i will say, someone who liked trump before this, i can't imagine this is what is going to turn them off. with all the outrageous things including the birther movement it doesn't seem to me this will break him. john: there were a lot of republicans afraid to take on

trump. a lot of the establishment criticism doesn't matter much to him. veterans are a big part of the republican base. some republicans who like donald trump are veterans and also like john mccain. mark: rush limbaugh defended him today. there weren't that many staunch defenders of donald trump. i do believe that elites can accurately judge this because while there are some veterans who will be turned off, we have to wait. trump is not at 40%. he is at 16, 17%. the percentage may stick with him. also in iowa, scott walker did three days of barnstorming, and he did some interviews. a few of his answers got noticed, such as when he was pressed by danna bash on whether being gay is a choice. walker's reply, i don't know. in plainfield, iowa, walker was confronted by an undocumented immigrant from wisconsin and told the candidate that he and

his wife live in fear of deportation. that exchange on the part of the family got somewhat emotional. walker remains in first place. are these moments reflective of a problem with the candidate skills, or are they media-driven flaps? john: i don't think they are just media-driven flaps. he has put his foot in his mouth just as donald trump has for a variety of issues. these are partly putting foot in mouth in terms of how he's handling them, but they are also part of his relentless focus on iowa and wanting to make sure no one gets to his right in that state that is crucial to his nomination. mark: the bush and walker campaigns are in a tip on iran and whether walker is being to rash and saying he might take military action the first day. i do believe one of walker's vulnerabilities is donors and other elites wanting to know, is he major league? these flaps.

-- i think he handled the immigration thing not horribly at all -- john: you never want to leave kids in tears on camera. mark: this question of surefooted replies is a tough question. john: is he smart enough to be president? he is clearly a winner. he has had great electoral success. but is he bringing enough? this is something the republicans are asking. you know this is a question out there. mark: they are asking, is he sophisticated enough to handle the tough questions that come from the press and public? john: sophisticated and smart are sometimes codewords for each other. mark: maybe, but i spent time with him in iowa. he is a great retail politician. he is so confident, but i do think on this iran thing, he's going to have to prove to people he is sophisticated enough to not be president but to beat hillary clinton. john: you can be against the iran deal without being the bomb-bomb iran got. bill de blasio wants to put the

brakes on uber. the company is fired back i'm mocking him in its app and a campaign-style negative ad assault. in case you think this is a new york issue, let us remind you that jeb bush and marco rubio sung uber's praises, while hillary clinton took a swipe at the on-demand economy. is uber destined to become a 2016 wedge issue? mark: jeb bush knows where he is on this. other republicans, rand paul and others -- it's up to hillary clinton to say what she wants to do. this is a classic case where a lot of people in the country don't want the government involved. john: unions and incumbent industries are afraid of uber and airbnb and these new companies. it's easy for republicans to be for it, because they are for the free market. it's a wedge issue, because it puts hillary clinton in a bind. she wants to be seen as the future, not the past. if she's on the side of the unions, she's not that. mark: a conservative is a liberal who couldn't find a cab and used uber.

the market is so powerful in all of these areas. it's the kind of thing that will tie some democrats like a hillary clinton in knots because of the pressure. john: the argument uber is making, you've got a lot of african-americans, hispanics who can't get cabs, they can get uber. mark: conversations with ted cruz, scott walker, and martin o'malley. first, this word from our sponsors. ♪

mark: i know you are a tireless guy, but are you ever in a bad mood? >> you get out in crowds like this, and that is where the energy is. you can't be done when people come out. mark: do you miss your own bed? >> after a while, you forget what it even is anymore. mark: that was part of my conversation with scott walker in ohio. walker is one of several 2016 hopefuls i spoke to in the hawkeye state, including texas senator ted cruz. earlier saturday after the trump-mccain controversy, we

caught up with the texas senator in ames. it was truly a lights, camera, action moment. the setting was a dressing room. he and i started out talking about the presidents he has met. you know both president bushes. have you ever met any others besides present, president clinton, president reagan? >> i haven't met president clinton. i saw ronald reagan speak at the 1992 convention, but i never met him. that is one of my great regrets. mark: obviously, being a senator is a qualification for president. talk about anything before you ran for elected office you feel helps prepare you in terms of experience or temperament to be president. >> before i was in the senate, i was the solicitor general of texas, which is the chief lawyer for the state in front of the u.s. supreme court. that's an executive position i held five-and-a-half years. during that time, over and over again, we led the nation

fighting to defend conservative principles, winning on a national level. we defended the 10 commandments monument on the state capitol grounds. we went to the u.s. supreme court and won 5-4. we defended the pledge of allegiance, the words "under god," and won unanimously. we defended the second amendment. mark: all that has prepared you to be president how? mr. cruz: because it was walking the walk and defending conservative principles. i think the central issue in the republican primary is trust. who can you trust? the problem we see all the time, what i call "campaign conservatives," which is candidates on the campaign trail who say they are terribly conservative, and yet they get elected and don't follow their campaign promises. everyone of us should ask any candidate showing up, you say you believe in these principles? show me. what have you accomplished?

as the scripture says, you shall know them by their fruits. mark: tell me other presidents and traits they had that if you were president you would like to emulate or try to match. mr. cruz: you obviously started with where i would go first, which is reagan. he was my hero. there are many other presidents who are admirable. certainly, abraham lincoln -- mark: what about lincoln? mr. cruz: lincoln endured enormous pressure as the country was ripped apart, and he had a peace and clarity and consistency and moral vision. i will give you another example of a president. george w. bush. george w. bush, when he stood on that pile of rubble after 9/11 and told the grieving people across this country that i hear you, and the terrorists who knocked down these buildings are going to hear you soon. mark: what was the trait that he

showed there that you would like to have as president? mr. cruz: strength, clarity. that touched our souls. he stood strong when america was under attack. that's the first responsibility. mark: in the wake of iraq and afghanistan, i wonder where the country is on the use of american military force overseas. mr. cruz: often in foreign policy, it gets framed as a binary choice. you are either a hawk and want to invade everybody, or a dove and are terrified to use military force. i think americans are in a place in between. i have described my foreign-policy views as a third point on the triangle, very much along the lines of ronald reagan. number one, the president should be a clarion voice for freedom that the bully pulpit of the presidency is powerful. if and when military force is required, it should follow three principles. number one, it should always be

directly connected to vital u.s. national security interests. that is the touchstone. mark: what is an example of that in the last 20 years? mr. cruz: let me finish the principles, and i will come back to that. number two, we should use overwhelming force. number three, we should get the heck out. it's not the job of our military to transform foreign countries into democratic utopias. it is the jump to hunt down and kill our enemies before they murder americans. mark: what is a military action in the last 20 years that fit those principles? mr. cruz: let me give you two examples of where i wouldn't and would consider military force. where i wouldn't is syria. bashar assad is a monster who has murdered hundreds of thousands of his own citizens, women and children, and yet the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. the question i kept asking the administration was, if the military attack is successful and you topple assad, and the

weapons fall into the hands of al qaeda or isis, how does that make us any safer? radical islamic terrorists who would use them against americans, europeans, israelis -- the administration had no coherent answer to that. i opposed direct military force. let me give you another example. iran. i think the single greatest threat that this country faces is the threat of a nuclear iran. i think the obama nuclear deal is a catastrophic mistake. it is my hope that congress in the next 60 days stands up and stops it. that's going to depend on democrats deciding that they are willing to push national security and the lives of millions of americans above partisan loyalty to the white house. mark: there is no military action you would say, that met the three-part test? mr. cruz: there is no doubt going into afghanistan after 9/11, after the taliban, was justified.

the initial military action -- mark: were there any military actions from start to finish that needs of the three-part cruz test? mr. cruz: there haven't been that many military actions in the last 20 years, but i will say this. winning the cold war -- this is where reagan understood peace through strength. mark: one other topic, and we will be done -- what mr. trump said about senator mccain's service, do you have any problem with that? mr. cruz: i will tell you what i think of john mccain. john mccain is a friend of mine. he is an extraordinary american hero. i am proud to serve with john mccain. mark: you feel so strongly about that -- senator rubio called what donald trump said offensive ramblings. your former governor rick perry said, get out of the race. not asking for you to repudiate donald trump as a person. i'm trying to understand what

separates you from the others who feel this is beyond the pale. mr. cruz: i will happily tell you what i think about john mccain. i will happily tell you my views on any issue if you want to talk immigration or obamacare. i'm not going to engage in the media's game of bashing another republican candidate. mark: some people say the reason you're not doing it and haven't been critical of his comments is because you want to make sure that if he gets out of the race, you are able to win the supporters he has now. is this a political calculation? mr. cruz: i'm not going to go into the gutter of personal attacks and impudent character. i do think policy distinctions are fair game. i will talk about differences, whether it is on amnesty or common core or religious liberty or marriage or life or any other issue. that is what is supposed to be the bread and butter of politics, but i'm not going to engage in personal attacks or impugning character. mark: it's a matter for you for

policy and friendship and loyalty? mr. cruz: my view on john mccain is unambiguous and explicit. he's an american hero and a friend. i'm not going to take a stick to fellow republicans, or for that matter, to democrats. in my time in the senate, i haven't impugned the character of republicans or democrats. i don't intend to start the day. mark: thanks very much for joining us. our thanks to senator cruz. a new abc news poll puts donald trump on top nationally at 24% scott walker with 13%, jeb bush with 12%. we will be back with martin o'malley. ♪

mark: now my conversation in cedar rapids on friday night with maryland former governor martin o'malley. we started off talking about his parents and grandparents. governor o'malley: my mom's dad was a poor leader on the north

side in pittsburgh in a neighborhood called manchester during the years of davey lawrence as governor. they met in washington, splicing together a young democrats newsletter. mark: were they very liberal democrats, more moderate, or what were their politics? governor o'malley: my dad and mom were both catholic, both very progressive in terms of social justice, what we would today call social justice. in their day, they called it common sense economics. my dad went to college only because of the g.i. bill. those were my parents. i guess it was in college, with ronald reagan -- i worked for gary hart from colorado. i traveled across the state, all

through southeast iowa, and i saw voters really do care about issues. they really do want to meet the candidates, and they are capable of processing a lot more thought and information than we sometimes give them credit for. in iowa, they are never intimidated by big money or polls. that really opened the door to me and made me think, this can be done. a person can serve without being born a millionaire. mark: was gary hart the first presidential candidate you ever met? governor o'malley: my mom says i was at a hubert humphrey rally. mark: you don't have a distinct memory? governor o'malley: no. mark: talk about how you met him and what made you think he would be the best president. governor o'malley: i went into his campaign headquarters in december of 1983. i take that back, december of 1982. i read a lot of the thoughtful stuff he was writing. he was talking about the fact

that our times are new, our challenges are new, and our thinking and ideas have to be new in order to deal with challenges and make the country stronger. the more i learned about him the more impressed i became at the thought and ideas that were the substance of his candidacy. he was written off three times before his first amazing distant second-place victory, but he always kept to the north star of putting forward ideas that would serve our country. that is what impressed me. after working for senator hart i worked for senator mikulski and ran for city council myself. mark: for the last generation or two, we have had this question of what america's role should be in the world. iraq and afghanistan have left it in a place where people are wondering, are americans going to be willing to send troops overseas. where do you think we are? what is worth sending men and women overseas to fight for? governor o'malley: i believe we

are in search of a new story that make sense of our fundamental principles in a world that is very different from the 1990's or the cold war. i believe america's role in the world is to lead by example with the rise of a global middle class. the way we do that in these times is to create a foreign policy that is more about engagement and collaboration and national security strategy that seeks new alliances to identify threats and to work with other nations to reduce them before we are backed into a corner where it seems the only response is a military response, american boots on the ground or not. for example, one of the things that preceded the failure of the nationstate of syria and the rise of isis was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected the nation, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a crisis that created the symptoms -- rather, the conditions -- of extreme poverty that has led to the rise of isil and extreme violence. the pandemic in west africa --

there are many instances where behind the turning radius -- and left with only military responses. mark: are you as good of a presidential candidate as you thought you would be? governor o'malley: i'm learning every day. mark: what are you learning? governor o'malley: you hope every day you learn something. i recall somebody once saying to me, in the course of not this campaign but another campaign -- he said, i look for the ability of my candidates to grow. what he meant by that is he wants to see candidates constantly questioning intellectually curious, and recognizing that they are also human beings and have to constantly learn and bring together smart people that can help make the best decisions. that's what i've done 15 years as an executive. mark: there are hard moments running for president, physically and emotionally. what do you rely on? family, faith. what else?

governor o'malley: what else is there? mark: are those the two bedrocks? governor o'malley: family and faith. my wife katie and my four kids -- i've been very blessed. it's come to us as a gift. i certainly have a great family, and i do take time to make sure i stay centered and come home safe and make sure i take some time for fathering. it's one of the first things you lose in any campaign. you lose solitude. without that solitude, there's no time for reflection or prayer or creative thought. mark: let's say you don't win, possible. what would make this experience a success even if you don't become president? governor o'malley: i would hope that all of us that choose to run for office do so because we believe we have something unique that is needed at this time in our country's history. once we make that decision, the

choice is up to the people. mark: our thanks to martin o'malley. coming up, john kasich meet shia labeouf. i can't believe we got talked into doing this. you will see it right after this. ♪

john: at this moment, there are two things you need to know. one, john kasich has been thinking about running for president. two, shia labeouf made a green screen motivational speech that can be applied to any scenario. our producers put two and two together. >> let me ask you about where you are in this timetable? >> are you interested in running? >> when might you make an announcement? >> if i think i can win, i'm likely to do it. >> do it! just do it! >> there is plenty of time for me to decide. within a period of time, i will make a decision. >> just do it! >> if i get in, and i win, it will be great.

>> make your dreams come true! >> if i run, it will be zany. mark: tomorrow live in columbus, ohio at 11:00 a.sçkw?c?coó

emily: ibm shares falling in after-hours trading. we look at missed revenue estimates and what do investors want to hear from ceo ginni rometty? ♪ emily: i'm emily chang. this is a special "bloomberg west," live from new york. paypal sales soar. i talked to the ceo in an exclusive interview. a number of wall street analysts turned optimistic ahead of apple earnings tomorrow. we will have everything you need to know. taylor swift