>> i'm al hunt and this is john heilemann. have you considered marco rubio? lix: john: the reaction to trump. republican candidates have been

weighing in including perry and rubio who both said today they are not in favor of repealing that particular portion of our founding document. al, how big a problem is donald trump's position on immigration for the party? al: it could be how moaningous. he sets an agenda and sticks with it. i have seen some loony ideas and saw democratic candidate hold up a rat one time. this may be the most fraudulent proposal. the birthright, he wants to repeal the 14th amendment which is the dred scott decision. and it would cost $600 billion plus. bankrupt the government. this is the problem problem. john: one thing you have to say for donald trump, he is going to play by the establishment's rules. this is a detailed plan. you might think it's unworkable and i think it's not good

policy, but it's forcing republicans to react. and i think that's an interesting thing because none of the other ones have this level of detail on this rather important issue. al: you are right about that, it's so crazy and unworkable, not just the policy. you might disagree with the health care proposal. is is $600 billion to deport 11 million people. that's how many people live in ohio. hn: i want to go through the scorecard, jindal agrees with trump. graham, he agrees there should be no birthright citizenship. santorum previously thought that was the case. and walker had fuzzyness on this. rubio, perry as we said, fiorina and bush said he's not for it. huckabee and kasich said they are not for it.

i have to say, at least i think from the republican standpoint it's encouraging that so many of these characters are coming against trump on this issue and recognize the political suicide that it would be to go into a neral election with this albatross. l: bush has to be forceful and keep going the way it started. it could be a gift. john: i agree. it's a useful function that trump is serving in that sense, intentionally or not intentionally and forcing people to take sides. it's going to be interesting if trump goes -- does the same thing on areas of policy that he did on this, that will be fascinating to see how they all then react to trump or how many are going to get ahead of trump so they don't have to do that. al: and how it adds up.

john: let's move on. here are four timeless words. no. sleep, brooklyn. brooklyn center, minnesota, walker announced to change the plans how americans get their health care. and he revealed this plan. four big highlights. i said place there. repealing obamacare, no big surprise there. he says he is going to give age-based tax credits. tax credits if you are uninsured on the older side. no individual mandate. going to let people buy insurance across state lines and going to reduce regulations in various unspecified ways. we can talk about the medicaid parts of this, too. but on the basic level, good policy or good politics? al: the politics are good for him, john, primary politics. for a couple of reasons. he is the most comprehensive plan on health care from the

g.o.p. side. scott walker has been portrayed as a union barber. that broadens that. the policy is probably more problematic. medicare, he doesn't touch on medicare. no cost. we don't know what the costs would be. talking about pre-existing conditions are much more complicated. 15.8 million people are insured today that weren't two years ago. see how walker's plan stacks up. short-term politics, it's pretty good. john: he is going to get credit from some people for being this specific. and there are holes in this and there are blank spots and things we don't know, but he has done something as you point out that is a first among republican presidental candidates. marco rubio, who wrote about his health care plan today in politico, he issued a health care proposal that was very bare bones and not well sketched out.

this is much more detailed. i do think you are right about the fact that the fact there is no price tag attached and doesn't talk about medicare, those are two issues that are big policy problems and creates political problems. al: you are right. this is the basic architecture that other republicans will have to follow. some of the details might be different. my guess is he has set the predicate for this debate. john: i do not understand this thing and a lot of republicans put this forward, i do not understand nationalizing the insurance market and letting people buy across lines and talking about federalism. he has all kinds of state-level, breaking into a lot of little programs and states having discretion in how it is administered and yet arguing for a big insurance market. al: on the states' stuff, so

many of the insurers are regional insurers. i think there are holes in this and holes in obamacare. health care, everybody is against whatever people propose, but they want changes. i give walker credit. i think he has stepped up. >> i think who will have a field day with this is ted cruz. when he gets around to coming around with his obamacare alternative. he will take a much more radical posture and get further to scott walker's right. al: a man wrote today, ted cruz is the most underrated republican candidate in the field. john: you spend a lot of time reading emails in the bathroom. that is a strange thing to say but there is a story about how this company that did the backups for clinton's private email server is a little mom and

pop shop out in denver and had its backup server in their bathroom that they ran the server out of. how this email thing relates to hillary clinton's political prospects and where it matters in iowa and new hampshire. i wrote a story after spending a few days with hillary saying she is doing things better than 2008 but this email is an overhang for her. she says real voters aren't paying attention. real voters are starting to worry about it. formuch is the email matter hillary clinton. how much is it really something in the early stages that is starting to take a toll on her? al: i heard a slight exaggeration but a lot of worry about professional democratic politicians.

you captured those rank and file , including people who say i want to vote for her. she's treating this as a legal problem by and large. she better start treating this as a political problem. john: she said, i was at the fair with her and she was asked about it and she says no one brings this up in my town halls or meetings. mark and i talked about it on the show, there is a big difference what they will say to their face vorse what they are worried about. with the lead democrat, it's not that they think she is corrupt, but worried what it might do to her general election viability. they think f.b.i., hear classified and think this might be a problem. how big a problem is it. and creates space for joe biden, al gore and bernie sanders. al: absolutely right. you pointed out she is running a very good campaign than eight

years ago, but this is more like, this is deja vu, this is the way they did it before. john: denial. nobody cares, no big deal. it's crazy if she continues to think that these things are isolated. people are worried about her baggage. they want to win in 2016 and worried about this could be another piece of baggage that weighs her down. al: you better take over. john: in the world of sports, lance armstrong is still a dirty liar. and tom brady is a foul cheat and the national labor relations board has declined to rule whether the northwestern football players can qualify as football players that can unionize. this ruling says that they are not voting against it and not voting for it. they said it would be too destabilizing if we granted

union status trying to challenge the nature of college sports and anything.ot doing is that the death nin? is that a good or bad thing? al: bad cases make bad laws and talking about the professionalization of sports and northwestern football team, they would have better off taking on the sisters of the poor. john: oh! al: on the larger question, the idea that this is not a professionalization of college sports any way, it's all about money. it's all about professionalization. there are schools, northwestern being one of them, duke, that have student athletes. jaunch john did you -- john: did you mention your college was wake forest? al: i did. john: the case was strong and this is a profit-making venture

and the fact that the college football and college sports in general sm the fact that these students do not have the protections that professional players have. it's a crime, i think. and there is intellectual validity. you saw the heads of all the major athletic conferences cheering the nlrb for this ruling. that is the equivalent of the mafia cheering the cancellation of the organized crime task force. that tells you everything you need to be told about the effectiveness thing. the logic of this is going to be as college sports gets more and more money, we will end up, it's a question of when. al: it's a financial racket. and they reschedule things and done away with old rivalries and has to deal with money and they are going to have to pay the

price for that. john: i think on the part of the nlrb, we are going to say boy, this would cause chaos and it would be disruptive and therefore going to take a pass and pocket veto the thing. it seems cowardly. and rule on the merit and not rule on disruption of the system. i think they were craven in not addressing this thing on its merits on whether it made sense or not. al: but it's not going to go away. john: coming up, the pride of iowa, former senator tom harkin. chops s, fries or pork on sticks. ♪

john: we were out at the iowa

state fair. i talked to former senator harkin who is a kardashian. i asked him, what made hoinlt hillary clinton's campaign different than 2008. >> in 2008, the clinton campaign was like a 40,000 bombing run over iowa. and obama was down in the weeds. this year, hillary is down in the weeds. she is personally involved. the first two or three times she came to iowa, she wept to small towns and rural areas and not des moines or cedar rapids. and that is powerful. she is personally involved. and the organization as they have set up in iowa, i got to tell you, one of the best i have ever seen. joe: as good as the obama operation in 2008? >> a lot of the obama are in

this organization. john: i want to compliment you on your hat. >> it's cloudy today. john: i have to ask where you got that hat because i want to get one of those. she spent an hour and a half here yesterday. no how hard she tries to get down low and meet people, between the security she has, the media that follows her, the celebrity that attends her, it is just hard for her to be a normal candidate. how does she get over that? >> she has. i was with her saturday and as the crowds came around, she found people to talk to. a woman with a disability, a man involved in business endeavors. she does talk to people. let me tell you something, hillary has come to iowa several

times in little towns and have meetings. the press doesn't even know about it. john: i saw her at the wing dining dinner and gave a very strong speech. partisan speech, but a better speech than any of the times in 2007 and made a couple of jokes there about her emails. about how things appear and was very combative. do you think that's the right tone for her to strike on this subject? >> i do get around the state quite a bit. i have not heard one time anyone ever ask me about the emails. they talk to me about the economy. they talk to me about education and cost of college for their kids, opportunity. and agriculture.

but to be honest with you, i have never heard one person come up to me and talk to me about these emails. it's not a factor. john: is it a distraction or partisan issue? >> i don't think there is a serious issue with these emails. the republicans have nothing else right now -- remember whitewater how they tried to begin that up? they -- gin that up. they feel they have to pin something on her. and they are afraid that hillary will be our nominee. i served with hillary in the senate and i served on a committee with her and i saw her up close working. and her ability to fight for families and kids, but the ability she has and that is to reach across the aisle and work with republicans to get things done. she's very good at that. and we need that in washington. we need more of that.

john: yesterday there was some complaint here among some democrats that she doesn't get up and do the soap box but did it last time. >> barack obama never did it. a lot of that is overblown. john: you, mr. iowa, saying the soap box is overblown. >> i used to do it all the time. it's fun. but if i were running like that, i would be more interested in going out listening and talking to people instead of getting on the soap box. john: the guy that did the soap box on saturday was bernie sanders. marched right up here down grand avenue with a lot of people behind him. what do you think of sanders' potential in iowa? do you think he has a chance to catch fire here? >> obviously, he has caught

fire, here and other places too. i love bernie sanders and he was on my committee in the senate. he and jane are personal friends of mine. i called him and said i was going to endorse hillary. he is providing not only a valuable service to on our party but the country and talking about the growing inequality in our country and that is the issue. the question is who would be best in the white house to get the job done and move the ball down the field in closing that gap and that's why i think hillary has more of an ability to do that. john: is he a significant political threat to her? >> i don't see that as a political threat. i think it's more of building the kind of constituency that we are going to need in the general election. john: you ran in 1992. >> some guy by the name of bill

clinton beat me. john: can you imagine what it would have been like, then candidate clinton and you guys would have had to fight it out here in iowa? >> he wouldn't have had a chance. laura:. john: thanks very much. -- e to ask you, have you why did tom harkin besides bill clinton, why didn't he do better in 1992? al: i'm a fan. great champion of disabilities, a truth teller and everything else, but he looked like a local candidate when he got outside of iowa. really interesting interview and tom's a straight shooter, but i think he is wrong that no one cares about this issue. john: totally agree. after the break, a simple question, do you believe in magic?

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john: "washington post" asked bush about trump's comments on birthright citizenship. bush replied, there are 10 things i would change in the constitution with a magic wand, unquote. of course. everyone knows about bush's history with sorcery. you are not familiar? let us take you through the classic children children's tale of jeb bush and the magic wand. >> the boy who dreamed nightly of the presidential race, his name was jeb bush and wanted people to believe and he set off with tricks up his sleeve by moving one way or the other, he made people forget about his ties to his brother. the iraq war? no problem. he said adios to the quagmire

and turned him into machiavelli. if would he have done then he knew? he would change megyn's point of view. the hard line conservatives that dismiss common core. he was proud to be a bush, but the association brought blame. so jeb indulged in and disappeared his surname. but one daunting presence he couldn't handle that grew stronger and stronger with every scandal. in iowa and new hampshire, his hole poll ratings did bump. he waved and waved his wand, but he didn't get rid of trump. just before the caucus at the 11th hour, he cried out eureka and snuck into trump tower. jeb reared back and shot a spell

into donald's hair. it flew away and trump gave a hoot and he melted and leaving behind an empty suit. jeb cradeled his wand and started dreaming up voo do for his next target, hillary.

john: we are live on bloomberg and on the tube twice. until tomorrow, sign on. ♪

alix: moments away from the closing bell. i'm alix steel. joe: and i'm joe weisenthal. alix: u.s. stocks closing lower after the selloff. shares in change high dropped the most. joe: the question is, "what'd you miss." oil rebounds from the six-year low, so much uncertainty and turmoil. alix: reading the tea leaves inside the dark art of