mark: i mark halperin. john: i'm john heilemann. with all respect to ben carson who is having trouble remembering the west point conversation. come on, dude. it is not brain surgery. happy military academy appreciation day. in our big camp regimen tonight, keystone exercises. rubio reflexes and debate state gymnastics. forget the pyramid, forget the belt buckle stabbing thing. is in troubleson in an area you should not mess with any republican primary. the military.

ben carson has said he was offered a full right to west point after meeting general westmoreland. today, politico reported west point has no record carson applied or was extended a formal offer. the carson campaign says he was told at the time he would be accepted to the school if he applied, but he chose to go elsewhere. that would be yale. ben carson has previously said he only applied to yale. he said this today on sean hannity's radio program when asked to explain this version of events. >> at one of these dinners, at some point, you met general westmoreland. >> right. >> did you say he offered to me. ship to the military academy? >> no, i don't remember the people. there were multiple military people i talked to. we are talking almost 50 years ago. there is no way i will remember who they are. >> the big point of the story was west point never has a record of your applying. did you say your applied? >> i did not.

i said i was very honored but i'm going to be a doctor. john: in the realm of political misleadingness, how egregious do you consider this and what you think are the political ramifications? mark: we still don't have the facts. will talk to we close advisor to ben carson. i'm sure we will get more tax. -- i'm sure we will get more facts. the way the story broke was a little bit misleading. i think based on what we know, that while dr. carson left the impression he was offered a scholarship, a free ride to west point, that in fact if you look at what he said, he was not that misleading. conservative media is circling the wagons. i think there is a good chance this story is dead by sunday morning. we are going to enter the disagreements am now. i think the quote ago headline was ridiculous, the idea they admitted to fabricating. they did not admit to

fabricating. he did not leave the impression he was offered a scholarship. in his book, he said he was offered a full scholarship. in interviews later, he said he was offered a full scholarship. now he's saying i never -- i did not mean i was offered a formal scholarship. i think this is not the worst example of this kind of thing i have seen. but offered a full scholarship means something. mark: what he said to the "new york times" today was with a record like his we could get you a scholarship. if i were a great high school basketball player and dean smith said i want you to come to north carolina, you will get a full scholarship and i apply to yale. i still could say i turned down -- john: you could say that, but i would never say if i did not get a letter from a college saying you are admitted to the school and have an offer of a scholarship. i would never say the word "offer."

that is a hard word. mark: i think they are technology that language in the book -- i think they are acknowledging that language in the book. it has opened the door to a lot andlites and media people people in their campaigns who want carson to fall to say he has trouble with the truth. he is going to have to deal with that. john: for sure. we moved to the second part of our question, the political ramifications. yesterday we were talking about egypt versus the book, background thing. i said when the betting starts, if there are holes in his story, this could be problems. today, there are problems. i anticipate now there are going to be a lot of people scouring for every detail. if there are other stories, he will be in big trouble. mark: there are other stories. i will say he will have to prove to elites he does not have troubled the truth. the media, politico, made a mistake because conservatives are circling the wagons and it

will give them a pass on a lot of stuff. john: no excuse for the headline. mark: we will have more on this next segment with a close advisor to dr. carson. moving on to the big story, keystone is dead. formally buried today by president obama who rejected the keystone xl pipeline, the project that would have extended from canada to texas and which has been a political firebomb for the last seven years. at the white house today, mr. obama made his case for why the pipeline is and was a bad idea. president obama: the pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy. serious about is wanting to create jobs, this was not the way to do it. almost all the republican candidates were ready to react since this decision was expected. mike huckabee said president obama has lost his mind. bobby jindal claimed science denying radicals.

jeb bush called it a self-inflicted attack on the economy. given this has been long expected, given the partisan divide, is this going to have any impact on the american political system and progress and future? john: if you understand why obama did this, and the republicans are right when they say this is largely a political decision, the president's view is the jobs impact was modest. this was not going to change the economy or ruin the environment. what was clear is he did not want to upset environmentalists and get no credit from republicans on the other side. that was his calculus. he wants to energize the democratic base. i think this will have some effect in that regard. from thebe bad democratic point of view if you have gone the other direction. mark: there have been a lot of things republicans have not been a strong on as they have been in past elections. guns, gay rights, the environment.

hillary clinton is going to emerge or bernie sanders will emerge as the democratic nominee will in all likelihood having moved far to the left on those issues. on this issue, republicans have a chance to make their case to be good stewards of the environment and create jobs. john: if they can make the case about good stewards of the environment, i would love to hear that. it has not been compellingly made in the past. the dimmick party is united on this. they are going to use this to try to drive turnout in the fall of 2016. 2%,: if growth is still people who lean on economic growth over the environment will have a stronger hand. the reason cap and trade failed, the reason the president will not pay a huge political price is because people are worried about the economy. they are looking for more growth, decisions that will create jobs not cost jobs. john: on the merits, this was not something despite republican

claims to the contrary that was going to be a giant job creating thing. it would not materially improve the economy. it would have been we are going to add some jobs. they are important. but there was some environmental risk. it is kind of a wash on the merits as far as i'm concerned. marco rubio is still the hot candidate of the week. in the poll released today, he is in third place in iowa. that is pretty good, 13% behind just ben carson and donald trump. he is now such a big target because he is rising that he is facing fire from three very different entities. number one is the democratic national committee which is hitting rubio on the republican party issue, the corporate credit card. no, the american express charge card. number two, jeb bush is going after rubio again for missing a lot of senate votes. number three, there's ted cruz's super pac which is running radio ads in iowa targeting rubio's

record on immigration. >> our country is in deep trouble because, let's face it, politicians are all talk. >> not the only one willing to pick up the baton of freedom. >> if the people of iowa vote for me, you will never be disappointed. >> ♪ ben carson mark: that was entertaining, but the wrong thing. john: i was trying to make it go away to get to our question. my question for you is marco rubio facing these assaults from the left to the far right. in the middle, how dangerous is that? mark: it is a trade-off. the downside is you see a lot of information getting to voters. a lot will not focus on where it is coming from. the upside is people are using these issues now and it may burn out. every time a republican does one of these attacks, rubio can say why is a republican making a democratic attack? these are part of the same

desperate attacks because everybody thinks i'm doing well. to 2012 when that newt gingrich and rick perry went after mitt romney on bane. he was able to say they were making democratic arguments. that shut it down in terms of the nomination fight. it raised an issue that did damage to romney in the long run in the general election. that is the same dynamic. mark: exact parallel. merits will matter in the end. a lot of people in the mainstream media look to the rubio financial issues and said this is not something that goes anywhere. immigration is going to come back. it is something you will have to deal with, and abortion. channelbusiness announced yesterday just eight candidates will be on the main stage for the republican debate on tuesday. both chris christie and mike huckabee have been demoted to the undercard contest where they will join bobby jindal and rick santorum. christie and huckabee could not muster the 2.5% average of the foremost recent national polls

used by fox to determine eligibility for the big debate. the big eight on the main stage should get about three more minutes each on average. how else will the absence of christie and huckabee impact that debate on tuesday? john: with the absence of huckabee, it does not matter much. christie matters a lot because he is very good and can be good. it creates an opening for the other competitors. this will give jeb bush a chance to shine in a different way. this will give marco rubio a chance to shine in a different way without having to compete in that same lane with chris christie who can take up a lot of space, and i mean that in the right way. mark: the three establishment candidates will be side-by-side. depending on how the moderators work this, you make it the most distinct audition for the establishment slot we have seen the whole time and with more time to talk it will be fascinating to see. this means christie would have been kind of an attacker to some extent on the other

establishment folks. bush has another chance to figure out how he wants to talk about rubio. basic has another chance to contrast himself within that lane. john: the stakes for bush as high as they were in the last debate. as devastating as it was the way he performed, are even higher now because the opportunity and pressure is more. who mightcandidate have been a west point graduate. we will ask the ben carson candidate advisor armstrong williams about the biggest story of the date when we come back and exactly 60 seconds. ♪

>> i would say to the people of

america, do you think i am a pathological liar or an honest person? i will leave up to the american people to make that decision. today, dr. ben carson and his campaign are dealing with that political report about the candidate's history with west point military academy. here to talk about the story and the campaign's response is one of dr. carson's closest advisors and friends, armstrong williams, who is with us from our washington bureau. mr. williams, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. >> mark and john, my pleasure to join you. mark: as we discussed earlier, part of the story has been unfair to dr. carson as it has come out. i want to focus on a few areas where there are facts in dispute. do you can see the language dr. carson has used saying he was offered a full scholarship is at a minimum inaccurate and misleading? >> no, we don't. mark: ok. explain to us who offered him a

full scholarship. story when he was in high school was during the late 1960's. the details of the story was he was an outstanding -- outstanding in rotc. where he a function recalled the details of generalist moreland and others in attendance. they were aware of his high academic scores as a person in rotc. they had a discussion about the him,scores would qualify if he were interested in it wasg to west point, sort of like if you apply, we are confident you will get in. understand what getting in for any west point applicant, if they are accepted, that is an automatic scholarship because all of your tuition is paid. how heson talked about

was flattered by it but realized he only had $10. in addition to this, he had all these other applications coming in and only had $10. he made his gamble because he really wanted to attend yale. he pages $10 and was accepted -- he paid his $10 and was accepted. the later notified this people in that conversation he would not apply because he was planning to attend you because his aspirations were to always become a physician. john: to go back to? asked, -- to go back to the question that mark asked, how does that constitute an offer of any kind? that is what got dr. carson -- that is what dr. carson has claimed in the past. he wrote in his book he was offered a full scholarship. you talked to charlie was a month ago and said he was offered a full scholarship to west point. now he says it was informal and

we could easily get you a scholarship to west point. the seem to be different things. the account you gave and the account he is giving. fair point. but it is all about interpretation. if you are a 16-year-old kid, high school, and from the inner city, you have to consider the time. you are in conversations with people and it is awe-inspiring. they say we can get you in. and it means a scholarship to in his mind, he was offered a scholarship. fast-forward to today, somebody may interpret that differently. but sincerely he felt if he applied, that he sort of got the week that given this mesh is scoring that he would have gotten a scholarship to west point. overreacted to the politico headline. the account you are giving is very reasonable. we should make it clear, dr. carson has said in the past

consistently he only apply to one school, yale. that suggests he could not have gotten a formal offer. i still go back to this because it dovetails with the story about questions of his accounts about violence in his past. be as specific as you can. who said things to him that led him to believe he had the equivalent of what a 16-year-old with look at as an offer? was it westmoreland were others -- or others? >> dr. carson, if you read the passages in his book, he mentions -- look, i am not going to because of journalism and integrity people expect from all of us try to interpret almost 50 years ago who was in that room and what caused dr. carson to interpret a full scholarship. he does recall it. he has told the story consistently. he said it to me. mark: does he know the names of the people he would site and you do not know them or he does not

remember which would be reasonable? >> we are not saying that. whatever is in the passage of his book, it is my recollection he did mention names. he did mention general westmoreland. today he was on was sean hannity, he seemed to be backing away from any specifics. beenems on one had to have making relatively specific claims the book and now saying i am not sure who i mentioned. everyone is entitled to a foggy memory about things that happened 50 years ago. but he was very precise in some accounts he had earlier given. how do you explain that discrepancy? >> john, it is one thing to give accounts when you are not in the fire and not forced to recount that memory almost a half a century ago. i think what you heard today in his interview with sean hannity is this issue has forced him to second-guess himself. not the fact that it did not happen.

but the fact he may have mulled the details. he is not sure. is showing as a human characteristic he is moving forward with caution because he wants to make sure what he says is accurate according to a memory of 50 years ago. mark: standby. we are going to take a quick break and talk about the more general issue of dr. carson and scrutiny and the truth, right after this. ♪

mark: we are back with ben carson advisor armstrong williams. ending with a lot of people in elite circles having the notion there is the problem with dr. carlson. that he has trouble telling the truth, that he is not straightforward.

i know you do not share that view. i am wondering what you would say to people who end this week looking at the story saying there is some problem with this guy in terms of his biography and fidelity to the truth. >> listen. you are a presidential candidate, john and mark. you are the top-tier candidate. it should be expected that everything you have ever written, everything you have ever said whether on camera or amongst those who want to reported, will be that it. dr. -- it will be vetted. dr. carson has to expect it. the difficulty when you tell a story over 50 years, the story has a tendency to change. it has different variations. candor, you don't even remember the details of the story because you have been telling it for so long. you have never been in a position where people feel you need to be vetted on your details. just testify to his

character for the american people and people having doubts about his fidelity to the truth. testify to that. >> john and mark, i have known dr. carson it seems like for ages. i've never known dr. carson to say anything not to be true and honorable and something he really believes. sometimes, you have to understand, we are human beings. this was a 17-year-old kid, a 19-year-old kid. they are kids. if you ask any of us to go back and try to what we said 10 years ago, it would be difficult. given the information age and the way things have changed today, it becomes more graphic the people. dr. carson is a man of character. the last thing dr. carson if he felt he were not transparent on the story and maybe he had muddled some facts, he would be the first to say so. what we have to say to dr. carson is sometimes when you're telling the stories, sometimes you may not remember the story as it was told.

when so many looks at the record, stories can change. it is human. it is not intentional. it is not militias. it is what happens when you keep telling the same story. it has the potential to become something different. today, howuch before much had you and your colleagues who are working on this campaign, how much had you gone back and how much do you plan to go back and look in a tough way at everything in the book so you're ready for potential criticisms and questions that might come? >> for full disclosure, i am not part of the campaign and never will be. i am his business manager, and i am a close advisor. john, that is a fair question. when you have written so much in volumes, whether best-selling books or papers you have written, when you read these books and read some he thinks,

-- so many things, you realize this may be a problem. john: quickly, how much work had been done previously? have people done this reparation or not --preparation or not? >> yes. but until it becomes a story and it is questioned, you never know. this takes on a life of itself. the campaign has to adjust to this and realize there's probably more to come. >> thank you very much. a very thoughtful explanation on behalf of your friend. we will be back with ken goldstein after this word from our sponsors. ♪

>> joining us to talk about the ad wars and new polling, ken goldstein in the washington bureau.

toot of attention this week the radio ads donald trump and ben carson put on the air. how did those differ from others you have heard this cycle and from other campaigns? >> the first way they differ is i actually heard them because they generated a ton of coverage, including what we played before and what folks were playing yesterday. it was interesting. has beens super pac $700,000 on radio advertising the last couple of weeks. i follow this stuff. i could not tell you what his carsond is, where as the and trump campaign makes modest investments and get millions of dollars in free media coverage. mark: we talked yesterday about the notion of radio being a more targeted medium. if you are a republican candidate, why is radio a better way to reach voters than tv sometimes? >> radio in general is a more targeted medium. what is interesting is we hear

about the wage gap or gender gap, but there is also a grp gap or impressions gap when it comes to television. democrats watch more television than republicans. it is harder to reach republicans on television. on radio, what are the biggest drivers of radio ratings? conservative talk radio and male, radio, both skew white male, which are republican targets. message,ms of radio are the ads nastier than tv or very much the same? >> in the past, it is not always pleasant on television. the past set of radio as have been positive, but the old trick was to air your negative stuff, you're really nasty stuff, on the radio. again, that would be on both sides. it would be democrats trying to air things on urban stations towards african americans with strong language against republicans.

and republicans airing there really nasty stuff on religious radio or conservative talk radio. the thought was none of us would be paying attention because we were not listening to those medium, so there would not be a backlash with that sort of message on the radio. often, campaigns will not even announce they are putting on a radio ad as they do with tv. with polling, you have seen a pattern. live call polls where human beings call potential voters versus automated calls. what is the pattern you are seeing their? >> very interesting pattern. when you look at live caller phone calls, ben carson tends to be doing better and often in the lead. when you look at robocalls where you are punching in a number on the phone or an internet poll, donald trump is doing better. if you look this past week, nbc did its normal pull with the "wall street journal." upthat poll, ben carson was

6.5 percentage points. in the online poll, released the same day, the race was tied. mark: what is your theory in one sentence about why that is? >> my one sentence, i was afraid you were going to ask that. is there something where people are shocked to say they are voting for donald trump? the question is, they get to do that in secret in the ballot box as well. john: that is two sentences but good. thank you very much, over einstein of pulling. when we come back, race, jazz, and new orleans, according to wendell pierce, after this. ♪

>> recently were joined by the excellent writer and actor wendell pierce. on "thehe detective wire," the greatest television on "treme."d he came to talk was about race and his latest book on new orleans. the book is called "wind in the reeds; the city that would not be broken." in the book, you talk about the city of new orleans and the two main characters in "waiting for godot." they are costly waiting for a savior to come. the question is, is new orleans still waiting for that? >> no. one of the things i point out in tiffany is it was in a for me, and awakening for me when i did the play because it resonated with so many people.

that is the thing that makes the play so classic. while we wait for some entity from outside ourselves to define where we are going, it is a lesson of learning that you have it within your own power. new orleans have exercised the ion,t of self determinat realized it is honest to rebuild our lives and community. we owe it to those people who lost their lives that we do that. so many people have given up on us. so many people did not have our best interests at heart, those inside and outside the city. people learned they had to exercise their right of self-determination or they would lose the very thing they love about their life, their city, and their community. john: one thing so striking about you is you are as politically active and quickly sophisticated as you are. when president obama was elected, you took your parents to the inauguration. what was that like? >> you have to understand, my

father fought in saipan. he missed his life for this country. love this country when this country was not loving him. he came back and his low to write was --his right to vote was not protected. my mother grew up in the bayou country of louisiana. the reason i am a new laura linney and -- new orleanean is is the only place they had a black high school where my mother graduated valedictorian in 1947. it was a place where it was violent to live. to see in this country, the greatest triumph of president obama's election was not what it did for african americans but what it said about the evolution of this country, to get rid of that sickness. and have my parents be like to see that, my father talked about how he cried when he sailed under the golden gate ridge going to the pacific theater of

war thinking he would never see the country again, never see home again. as we drove into d.c. that night, the night before the inauguration, we drove around the mall. we were in tears because it was such a defining and beautiful moment for the country. my father was in laughter. i said daddy, what is going on, what are you laughing about? this is such a moving moment. he said, a black man is over all of this. he was having a ball. it was joyous. john: in your book, your honest to a fault about the subject of race. i wonder if you think in the course of his now seven years, almost fully seven years in office, do you think president obama has been honest about the topic of race? >> i think the president has been politicking. he knew there was going to be an unfair expectation on him being the first president of color to

be the one to have the conversation about race. james baldwin always said the issue of race is not about black folks. it is a white folks problem. john: chris rock said that recently. [laughter] i think the president has been politics about it. john: does that disappoint you? i talk to people all the time about this. cap of the african americans i talked to totally understand that. they are keyed in on the politics, i get why the president has had to take it slow. others are impatient. why didn't he start earlier? if he had started this conversation in his first year, we might be in a different place. >> i don't have time for the conversation, right? let me as an artist try to change the heart and souls of people. i want you, as a president, to put policy in place that has an effect. i was aware of the policy he was putting in place, that there was

going to be a real concentration on changing the paradigm, of really trying to move the country and the needle. first of all, you have to save the country from a second depression. i think it would have started earlier had that turning of the ship happened sooner and faster. and then the freedom a second time gives a president. everybody is going to look at this and wonder, why am i so politic, besides being on a political show? as an artist, this has always been part of the nexus of culture in new orleans. jazziteral creation of coming from captured africans, papa of theirom captors, finding the creative freedom before they found their physical freedom -- jazz. it is an american aesthetic.

within this confinement, i will find my individual freedom of expression, of who i am. until this culture will be the insurrection, so i can find that freedom. that is what makes jazz the quintessential american art form because with a finite amount of notes, it has an infinite amount of combination's. within the confines and construct of law and order, the form of a song, you can find the individual creativity of a solo. that is a completely american aesthetic. order and lie with individual expression. that has always been at the nexus of culture in new orleans. john: that was just part of my talk with wendell pierce about his book. when we come back, you hear what

he said about "the wire,", the baltimore riots, and the story he immediately regretted telling. we will be back in 60 seconds. ♪

john: we spent a lot of times talking with wendell pierce on his book. part of that time we spent talking about his experience filming "the wire" in baltimore and what he thought and felt after the baltimore writes. >> the first reaction was i realized how important another piece of art was, which was our examination of the variables coming into play as we examined the dysfunction in baltimore, as we examined all of the elements

that led up to what people saw in the uprising in baltimore. we had been examining it. , whats what art should do thoughts are to the individual and we lie awake at night and reflect on who we are and where we are going. art should be the form on where we collectively reflect on where we are, declare what our values are and then act on them. that is the purpose of art. it is the most important thing we do. entertainment is a high project, -- byproduct, a residual of it. withics can behind art society reflecting on all of that together. in science, all the different disciplines. what you saw in baltimore, we had been considering in that form for five years on "the wire." that is why when it happened, everyone turned to people who participated in it, david simon,

and said you have been discussing this dysfunction, this moral ambiguity in our institutions. and now it has come to the forefront. , this the same forum discussion we are having, let's declare what is important to us and act on it. the thing that upsets me about the whole journey of the past year and a half, of communities of color and underserved communities and the police, is the fact that those doing the misconduct, who just happened to be wearing the badge dishonor the badge. right,e 99.9% are doing we need to hear from them to say -- first of all, don't call him or her a cop. if we are going to have a discussion, let's be honest. every cop in baltimore knows what a riot is. every cop in america. not one copy of i heard in the media get.

biz call giving a kiddie ride -- it is called giving a kid a ride. put them in costs, speed up, and they bust their head on the window. every cop knows that trip. not one has said we need to change it. that is probably what happened to this kid. it is called giving somebody a ride. we all know it but we don't discuss it like that. john: you are obviously a democrat, a big supporter of obama. let me ask you about the three candidates. give me a sense of what you think of hillary clinton. >> hillary clinton is poised to be the nominee of the party and has a good chance of being the first woman president. john: and you are happy about that? >> i'm happy about that because it is based on policy. it is also an evolution. the only thing we consider when it comes to her gender is the fact we can have a discussion about her being qualified or not qualified for being president,

and gender does not have anything to do with it. john: bernie sanders? effort toan effective have his points of view on the platform. he has to be considered. guy, martin o'malley, a there was a character on "the wire" modeled after him. he is not like that character very much -- he does not like that character very much. what do you think about martin o'malley? >> doing the things necessary to build his political career. john: that sounds skeptical. >> i think he is sincere. if he caught fire, he would be happy as president. this cycle is going to be for him to get his name out, hopefully be considered for vice president as part of the ticket. and also, we now know who he is. john: you went to the white

house correspondents dinner in 2012. he took my friend, gwen eiffel. you guys went together. the person you were most excited to meet, putting aside president obama? >> the most interesting that happened is as i am going down the receiving line, i see the prime minister looking out of the corner of his eye. i cannot wait until i come to meet him. he is talking the president but looking at me. i step up and he says, "tell dominic west i won." because i guess dominic at one point had dated his wife. [laughter] he was so waiting to tell bunk to tell mcnulty i won. i said i will make sure, mr. prime minister. john: that is funny. >> maybe i should not have said that. john: you should have said that. as long as you are in my living room, let's wrap it up with the

single most discussion we need to have which relates to a voice -- po'boys. there is fierce disputation about the best po' boy in new orleans. i need you to make a ruling. next time i come back, i'm going where? this is going to be a hard decision because you will make somebody unhappy. >> oh, man. first of all, that is like philly cheesesteaks. geno's or pat's. john: it is really too hard, give me three. >> anytime, any night, caught boyage -- hot sausage po' from gene's. parkway grill, wonderful. really in the french

quarter, those are the best places. it shows you the power of culture. even in our culinary art, scraps from the table to make a debris po' boy or put into the pot with burnt oil and flour in you create this still known around the world as gumbo. our culture is not only sustenance for the soul but literal sustenance you can feed yourself with. john: one of the things that makes new orleans so great because you have both. you have got it all. the spiritual sustenance, the gastronomical sustenance, the musical sustenance. the whole thing. >> it is the best description of the multitudes of american culture all on display. john: our incredible thanks to wendell pierce. andrewed that question up made it confused mess of the white house correspondents' dinner. i was talking about the state dinner at the white house for prime minister david cameron,

which was why he was telling the story about david cameron. that clarifies i hope. now we know with this interview, cameron got his message to mcnulty. go read "the wind in the reeds" and we will be back with your political weather forecast after this. ♪

we are expecting a busy weekend in election-land, so let's go live to our weekend forecast center where alexander is standing by. what is going on this weekend? >> there is so much exciting activity this weekend that he will be aching for more. in aiken, south carolina, bernie

will be rolling through a town hall as part of an outreach to black voters. we will be monitoring this activity all weekend. bernie also making an impact on sunday morning. later that day, he will crash into las vegas for a rally with hispanic voters. a strong trial force -- trump force will be dominating new york city for an hour and a half on saturday night. not going to be getting much rest overnight because we expect trump on at least three sunday morning shows as well. get ready for your saturday lightning round. o malley at a fall fundraiser in burlington and carly at a house party in bedford, new hampshire, 60 miles from christy at a veterans appreciation breakfast in plymouth. that is your weekend. we have got you covered. back to you. the air at gets off

1:00 in the morning and then on the sunday shows. john: i like the bernie in vegas story because his people say you have got to score with the minorities somewhere. they think that could mean important breakthrough in the caucuses. mark: we will be back monday to talk all about it. john:. we certainly will we are live 20 47 on bloombergpolitics.com. until then, i have one thing to say, hotdogs are not sandwiches. mark: they are not sandwiches. thanks for watching. we will see you monday. sayonara. ♪

emily: flashing yellow light on wall street as investors may be getting cautious about tech stocks going private to public.

i am emily chang and this is "bloomberg west." alibaba breaks out his checkbook for investments. i will be there for it speaking in beijing to jack ma. plus, media stocks tank on concerns about cord cutting. is a rebound ratings system the answer or the final nail in the coffin? more questions. investors now asking if one of the company's directors is qualified for the job. first, let's check in on our "bloomberg first word" news. the biggest monthly searches boosting optimism on the economy even as the federal reserve prepares to raise interest rates. banks rallied as investors bet rising rates will boost profits. but utilities in the s&p fell the most since august. the