mark: i'm mark halperin. john: i'm john heilmann. danny glover: i'm danny glover, and with all due respect to sister hillary i am feeling the bern. ♪ mark: hello from las vegas nevada. republican andidates spent the final day in their nomination contest here. it is likely to mark donald trump's third victory in a row.

today marco rubio the man many in the gop establishment consider the only hope of stopping donald trump used his last events to tell voters they are running out of time and that we cannot nominate someone who cannot win if they can't unite us. despite rubio's urgency and the urgency of many in the party, it might be too little too late. listen to this donald trump remark that donald trump made at this rally. donald trump: here's a guy throwing punches, screaming and everything else. the guards are very gentle with them. smiling and laughing. i would like to punch him in the face. mark: i've been to a lot of donald trump rallies and that would not even in the top 10 of newsworthy things i have heard

him say. look at how much that one remark dominated the news cycle today. >> donald trump unloaded on a heckler at a las vegas rally. >> he wanted to hit a protester who interrupted him. >> this is what happens with donald trump dictating our culture. mark: news coverage for the other republican candidates was pretty meager. marco rubio's getting some coverage for his endorsements. he is struggling to convince people he can win and states. the only headline john kasich was for some comments about

women leaving their kitchens to vote for him years ago. he got mostly unfair coverage. are the candidates not trying to fight trump? or is it just impossible to trump donald trump? john: you can't resist the man was about to give another man a punch in the lunch. cable news is so crazily done. when you think about the things that are genuine provocations. wanting to ban muslims. some of the things he has said about immigrants. donald trump saying in a flip way i would like to punch that guy, if that is going to dominate news that there is nothing those other candidates can do it isn't going to break through. the news cycle is just too much

donald trump's plaything. mark: the only way to dominate the news is to get up in his face. if they let donald trump do what he does, it won't get any coverage actually go to the national primaries next tuesday they will be lost. and nowhere because it will all be trump. john: if marco rubio or ted cruz wanted to punch trump in the face, would that get the coverage? mark: particularly if they flew where he is and do that at his event. john: because they are in nevada, the voting might not finish up until around midnight eastern time this evening.

it is entirely possible that results might not be tabulated until the wee hours of the morning. most of america likely won't hear who won and placed until they wake up on wednesday. if all the morning headlines are about trump being the winner in nevada, second and let alone third place, does it even matter? mark: i think second-place matters if it is a strong second. especially for marco rubio. if he can extend that narrative that ted cruz is a dead man walking. second for rubio would be a boost for him. second for ted cruz would be important but not as big. john: how close marco rubio comes in this contest it seems to me matters. i have been getting messages all

day when people said marco rubio might finish second. i've had people suggesting to me that marco rubio could win the nevada caucuses. i have no idea. if rubio somehow did that it would be huge news. even coming close to trump in second would help rubio's cause in making that case that it is a two-man race and he is the only one who can take on donald trump. mark: the consolidation you are seeing in fundraising will make a big difference even though the results will come in late. i suspect, despite what the rubio people are saying, the trump will win by a big margin. john: yet another full week before there is another republican contest. these results can sink in.

mark: if that conventional wisdom holds that there is no one who slows donald trump down, that leaves a very narrow window for ted cruz and marco rubio to make any dent in the teflon don until the next voting. this week the campaigns of both senators put out competing memos with lessons learned from the south carolina primary. they list reasons why only their guy can be trump. they criticize each other more than the republican front-runner. both of them are pretending john kasich doesn't even exist. john: you suggested that the

only thing that can take trump down is a full frontal assault. all of these republican candidates not taking on the front runner. i do think that in rubio's case at least the argument that ted cruz is making that you can't take out donald trump from the left is far weaker than the argument rubio is making which is the donald trump is unelectable and you need to have a mainstream candidate like me. i think marco rubio's making the better messaging argument. right now you have mark: polling suggests that the best decision for ted cruz is ahead in texas. beating trump anywhere at this point is big news. the message of ted cruz to say i can beat him again i am the only one who has beaten them. a new poll in ohio today shows

kasich is now behind trump and that is not good. he is popular in his home state and the fact that he is not ahead of trump there is bad news for him. florida votes later on. rubio seems to be behind there. it is a difficult thing to say where somebody is going to be trump. rubio's message is that this is a mistake for the party but it is not being delivered very urgently or broadly or specifically in ways that will actually do much to slow donald trump down. john: it is the right message for the kind of people that marco rubio needs. it is well tailored to people that are on the fence. some of jeb bush's people. soon-to-be former supporters of john kasich. he is singing a song to them that they can hear. i am not sure the ted cruz's message is falling on the ears favorable to anyone who doesn't already support ted cruz. when we come back bernie sanders new message. president obama's plan for gitmo. after this.

♪

♪ john: this week we're seeing a more aggressive bernie sanders. bernie sanders pledged to draw more strongly the contrast with hillary clinton. issues like campaign finance, trade and her speeches to wall street firms. he was a heart of these issues a few months ago that sort of stopped. a new ad featuring filmmaker

spike lee seeking african-american votes. taking a swipe hillary clinton. spike lee: when bernie gets in the white house he will do the right thing. he marched on washington with dr. king. he was arrested at a protest against segregation. he fought for education equality throughout his whole career. no flipping, no flopping. enough talk. time for action. john: why is sanders starting to go a little more negative on hillary? mark: the campaign are not stupid. they executed their first part strongly to come out of new hampshire with the momentum and the money in the message. then they came out here and they lost almost all of their momentum. they still have a message and they still have money. what they need to do now is to change the narrative. they need to convince the press

and the democratic party that there is still a chance for bernie sanders. that requires getting attention. he has dropped off a lot of news coverage. he has dropped off the ability to shape a national message. this contest is going to go wide after south carolina. i don't like to usurp the voter's prerogative, i think it will be hard because this message is somewhat similar to what he's been saying. not different enough to break through. john: after not ever going after hillary, he got a little sharper. it worked for him pretty well. then he does well in iowa and wins in new hampshire. as the clintons are starting to hit him, he got annoyed by them attacking him and went back to his kind of pie-in-the-sky messaging. to come back now and do contrasts is the right move but he would have to go further than

where he was in november and october. i'm not sure he's going to do that. if he doesn't go further he will get the coverage. mark: the clinton campaign is extraordinarily sophisticated. they studied how barack obama used various methods of pr to drive hillary effectively out of the race in 2008. they're going to use all the same techniques and they have learned well. after some fundraising in california hillary is back in the palmetto state. she has a commanding lead in the polls. except for scheduled campaign events in george on friday, she is spending almost the entire week campaigning in south carolina. her rival bernie sanders is in south carolina tonight but then he is headed off to other states. kansas, oklahoma, ohio, michigan. is hillary trying to run up the score in south carolina or is she worried that sanders could close the gap?

john: well the same tactics work for both. the sanders people say they think it is the latter that she is worried that he might close the gap. i think she is trying to run up the score. she would love to just clobber him here. capitalize on her momentum coming out of nevada and demonstrate her dominance particularly with the african-american vote. she has a daunting advantage going into these march 1 states. a big punch to land on saturday. i think she is going for a tko on saturday. mark: only focus on the next election, never look past that. all the national media on the democratic side is down in south carolina so she can get a national message out.

dominating the african-american vote. running up the score not just in a primary but with african-americans. that will be gigantic for her these upcoming contest. she's is not taking any votes for granted. john: i think that is correct. the sanders people say they have a much more sophisticated field operation. more volunteers on the ground. everything that i can feel is that hillary can land a big punch and she is going to swing hard. today president obama unveiled a

plan to close down guantanamo bay in cuba sending congress a proposal to transfer detainees to prisons here on domestic soil. republicans were quick to criticize this move. marco rubio announced he is cosponsoring a bill to prevent gitmo from being transferred to cuban control without the approval of congress. josh earnest declined to rule out the possibility of executive action. why is president obama doing this? mark: this is one of the important legacy issues. he thinks is always on this issue if he does the right thing in terms of public policy, if he runs the numbers and looks at the law everything will come out just fine. i think he is very proud of the plan. the political reality is it is not just opposed by republicans but also many democrats. including michael bennet of colorado. this is a metaphor for those aspects of president obama's original legacy that is not going to pass. not enough consultation, not enough building of a bipartisan coalition, putting something out

that just becomes a political football. he is not going to have time even if he tries to do it by executive order. he's going to hand it off to the next president. john: i commend the guy for trying to make good on his campaign promise. he has failed utterly to deliver on that. part of the reason is because of congress. it is not so much a failure of consultation as it is a failure to make a big public effort for this. we have to convince americans especially in states where those detainees are going to be going to convince them. not just play the inside game but play outside game. there is not enough time or that he really wants to do that. he'd have to have a commitment to really go big on this. mark: good luck after paris and san bernardino to convince people in colorado that they should have terrorist detainees.

coming up henry barbour coming , up next. and stuart stevens. we'll talk about donald trump and more after these messages. ♪

♪ there are mark: plenty of questions remaining about the republican race but the big one is is donald trump stoppable? both worked on the romney campaign. stuart stevens joins us from quebec. and henry barbour who has

endorsed rubio, he is in jackson. did you work on the romney campaign? henry barbour: i was a volunteer helper. mark: stuart, let me start with you. appraise the state of the race right now. talk to me about the other three guys. what are their chances? stewart: this is a straight up cage fight and whoever is the most aggressive contender taking on trump is the most likely to win. it is not very complicated. one guy is ahead and he has a bunch of votes. you have to go out there and tell people why you should have those votes and he shouldn't have them. i think this race has been the

most peculiar where people of been competing to see the order that they could lose in. instead of trying to win. guess what, the guy who has been trying to win has won the primaries. ted cruz was able to stop them in iowa and when the guy was stumbling out of iowa nobody took him on. donald trump had a terrible week in south carolina and yet nobody took advantage of it. do -- mark: you see this as a two-person race of using think i can senator cruz are also in the mix? henry: senator cruz has bet really big on march 1. he needs to dominate on march 1 to prove his campaign strategy.

if he doesn't do that it doesn't see mike senator cruz has a path. if he does dominate than he is in the game. governor kasich has got a tougher task. he needs to do better in nevada today and he needs to find somewhere on march 1 to get at least in second place. otherwise for him to think that he can wait until michigan or ohio just doesn't seem viable to me. can we stop trump? the key part of that is getting behind a conservative candidate who can win both the primary and the general. that is marco rubio. mark: if marco rubio doesn't win tonight and doesn't win any state on march 1 is that a problem? henry: this is about getting to 1,237 delegates. it is not just about did you win

that state of this state? he has to stay just where he has been. he was in second place in south carolina. these next few states don't necessarily play to his strengths. he needs to stay in that range. staying within range of donald trump. stewart is right. marco needs to go after donald trump. make this contrast very plain. where rubio's big opportunities is going to come is as the field thins he has a lot of upside. he has high favorable numbers he is the second choice for a lot of people. whereas donald trump is not. when we get into florida and ohio and north carolina and the 15th of march. most of those states become winner take all. that is when marco has an

opportunity to pull away from donald trump. mark: we will talk more when we come back. what could stop donald trump, one of the actual tactics that would be required? also danny glover will talk to us about his support for bernie sanders. in washington you can listen to us on the radio. 99.1 fm. right after this. ♪

♪ mark: we're back with henry

barbour and stuart stevens. you engaged in a multi-pronged tactical assault. there was paid media. you sent surrogates to his events. are you suggesting that taking trump on requires that kind of effort? stuart: it is the only way to be trump. it is the only way to run a modern campaign. it is how you win races today. when romney got trounced by newt in south carolina, he didn't pretend that he won. then he adjusted and the campaign adjusted and they put together a really good comprehensive plan. donald trump is a much easier candidate to beat than newt gingrich. he responds to everything.

i have never seen a candidate where it was so easy to get inside his head. i don't understand why these campaigns aren't having fun with teams going at donald trump. i can promise you, it is how you will take control of the race and get him responding to you. mark: what stuart says makes a lot of sense to me. henry: i think it is a given that he is going to win tonight. he's probably going to have a very good day on super tuesday as well. stuart and i have worked on some campaigns together. we usually agree. i don't disagree with him here. but i don't think that you have to decapitate donald trump today or tomorrow or next week. he needs to hang in there close enough.

where trump is wrong he needs to make that very plain. it would be smart for us to foreshadow what the democrats might do at their national convention. you can imagine that if donald trump is our nominee, the first night they will talk about people with disabilities. then they will talk about donald trump hating women. and the 4th night, it is casino night. mark: i spent the day after south carolina with your candidate. he did not mention donald trump. i don't think even referred to him. why is senator rubio sitting back and saying i will stay close? why not go directly at trump? henry: marco rubio has strong favorable numbers and a lot of room to grow.

he needs the field to win no to pass them or you've got to decapitate them. take your pick. mark: it seems to make sense to me. why is it that smart people working for these other campaigns aren't saying what you're saying? stewart: i suspect that they are in denial. i'm a guy that thought the donald trump would lose. he lost in iowa. i thought people could jump on that. you have a candidate, look at what he did in south carolina. he called george bush a war criminal. and he attacks the pope. in one of the most religious states in the country. you have a guy running in a republican primary who is a combination of michael moore and christopher hitchens.

that is an opportunity. you should be organizing faith leaders to go out and attack him for not respecting the role of faith in the public square. you should be sending iraq war vets to his rallies to confront him for calling george bush a war criminal and a liar. he's not going to self-destruct. you have to go in and frame the arguments. people will listen. this idea that donald trump has 35% or whatever and most people are not going to move. i don't buy that. he had 10% a few months ago. there is nothing magical about this. people will listen to arguments and whoever makes the most aggressive, logical, compelling, passionate argument is going to win this thing. mark: name three states where you think marco rubio can win. henry: in midwestern states he could do well.

mark: but name states where he could actually win. florida, virginia, colorado is a state where he can win. there are three for you. mark: who is the second most likely nominee now? stewart: i don't know. the race is in a real state of flux. i am not a ted cruz guy. he has been well-positioned to do well in these primaries. he has been stumbling. i can't tell you the answer to that. most presidential primaries come down to battles of wills. who will endure pain long enough and be willing to do it to win? that is the state that this race is in now.

henry: ted cruz is unraveling. he has been caught doing so many underhanded tricks. mark: two great mississippians. thank you very much. we come back to john's conversation with danny glover. ♪

♪ john: in the race for celebrity endorsements bernie sanders has fought hillary clinton to a draw.

matching katy perry with susan sarandon. spike lee is now feeling the bern. now he has a lethal weapon. last night i spoke with one of the stars of that franchise, danny glover. outside the american theatre on king street in downtown charleston. danny glover: i support bernie sanders because i think he is an andaordinary statesman citizen. i believe in his message. it is not as about his personality. he has a message that he brings here. i knew something about them before he ran for president. i remember him as mayor of burlington. i remember him in congress.

he always stood up in the face of enormous odds. john: which issues matter to you? danny glover: the inequities in our society. the prison system. the mass incarceration. the breakdown within the justice system. he is willing to tackle that. we know the numbers. the numbers don't lie. the number of african-american and latino men and women who are in jail incarcerated. what that means in terms of the being full-fledged citizens. we know that. he stands up for all the issues. he is not just the one issue politician. climate change and global warming. what is happening on wall street. we saw the great recession and the impact that that had on families.

particularly young and single black women who lost their homes. all these issues are on the table right here. issues that we can't run away from. the issue of race as well. dr. king identified this we talked about the privilege and the militarism and the racism and the materialism. his voice was prophetic. it is time we listen to it. the bernie sanders campaign for the white house is the appropriate time for us as citizens to take on our responsibilities. that is why i support him. john: this is the first state where we will have a majority minority vote in the democratic caucus. part of the reason people think hillary is going to win is because she has so much support

from african-americans. all the polling shows it. why do you think that bernie sanders would be better for african-americans? danny glover: the issues that bernie sanders deals with are not just issues around african-americans. but all working men and women. participatory democracy. engagement. african-americans always been at the forefront of expanding the notion of democracy. take the civil rights movement. young people in mississippi and alabama in 1964. the voting rights act of 1965. all those things were put into action by african-americans.

they're is certainly a sociology around our relationship with the clintons. this is not about personalities. this is about how do we change and reform the system that we live in. the system of politics, the way that we vote. disengaged as citizens. how do we engage citizenship? john: do you find her wanting in some way? because of welfare reform of the crime bill? bill and hillary clinton had policies that did not -- were not advantageous to minorities. or do you just think bernie sanders is better? danny glover: let's see what the clinton administration did. nafta.

it was her husband. hillary clinton has done a great deal of talk about lgbt rights and women's rights. i am not here to discuss what her foreign policy is. i know that i have a history of a man from the moment he was the mayor of the city in vermont to the time he was a congressman to the time he was a senator. he has been consistent. he has taken his money from small donations. not those people who have hijacked american democracy. john: the clinton campaign says there was a time when bernie sanders said obama deserves a primary challenge.

he said some critical things. too incrementally has a gone far enough. hillary says i am with barack obama. have you feel about that? danny glover: i have doubts about obama. the candidacy of a black president is not a movement. it is just the candidacy of a black president. i think that bernie sanders is the one who exemplifies the king legacy. emma goldman. eugene debs. he was against world war i. he ran for president and wound up in prison. this is a historic moment. we have two candidates for president.

they represent in some ways the desire, a yearning for a greater potential for participatory democracy. that is what i am about. john: our thanks to danny glover. coming up william leach and alex wagner. after this. ♪

♪ john: i'm joined now by two fine journalists. will leitch and alex wagner.

we have a piece on bloomberg.com that we need to promote. tell us what happened there. will: it was the day after nevada. they basically, it was the day after that loss. the average bernie sanders volunteers are all firing each other up. they are so young and eager. they don't see. get out there and talk to some voters.

this is very much a we can personally go out and do that. you almost felt bad for them. eggs are going against them right now. we are here in columbia. john: hillary's going to do a town hall event not far from here. and amazing collection of female relatives of slain black teenagers. i'm curious as to whether you, what you think african-americans see in hillary clinton. i keep asking people who are supporters of hers what is the policy difference between her and sanders that matters to you? none of them can really put their finger on it. they still are really loyal to her. alex: two parts. the clinton legacy in the south.

african-americans of a certain generation. hillary served in obama's administration. she was the secretary of state. she has composed yourself as the emissary of his policies. not only is it hard to get someone to pinpoint the thing is that excites them. there is such a world weariness with all the clinton support. i am 40 and i have given up. on voting for hillary. bottle that enthusiasm and sell it. john: he said to me at one point at this clinton field office it feels weird not to be with the kids. i was with the kids in 2008. to be with people my age and older. alex: it is like that for obama supporters. the president has turned out to

be a realist and a pragmatist. everybody has grown up through that administration. now it is hillary versus bernie. will: obama's supporters were saying yes we can. and now they are saying that we probably can. john: you met an actual socialist. up in greenville. will: his name is steve compton. he's been a socialist in greenville, south carolina since 1970. all of a sudden 5000 people show up to vote. what he found fascinating was while we talking about these kids they are going to realize

is it going to get harder. he feels like these things come in cycles. to see what already he has done to hillary. he is probably not going to win. the math is against them. that is not a reason to be upset about this. it is a reason to be happy and excited about this. it is about taking the next step. john: the generational story is interesting. the mother or the grandmother is for hillary. and the daughter of the son is for bernie sanders. eric gardner's family is maybe the most vivid example of this. younger african-americans are more attracted to sanders. if he has any traction with that constituency it is on the younger end of the scale. if he loses big-time, but he wins a huge percentage of young african-americans, is that something you can claim as a moral victory? alex: what it tells us about that generation is that they are more allegiant to youthful

enthusiasm than racial politics. what does that mean for the future? we don't understand how this generation self identifies and this could be a window into that. john: you were great to be here. we will be right back with who won the day. ♪

♪ john: i am here on eastern time. i still have the privilege of asking you who won the day. mark: so far the day has been won by the two front runners. every day that passes and no one lays a glove on hillary clinton and donald trump they are the winners.

john: donald trump won this day so big-time. if you can get away with this colloquial humor about punching someone in the face, i don't get to be on cable news all day long. keeping your rivals off the news. donald trump is the media master. mark: coming up on bloomberg west, bill gates explains the difference between apple and the government. thanks for watching. ♪

♪ it is wednesday, the 24th of february. this is "trending business". i am rishaad salamat. ♪ going to be heading to live in sydney and singapore. risk aversion, the appetite for equities continue to sour in the asia-pacific. oil resuming losses. honda,ement cleanout at the president assembling a new

team as nine senior executive's retire. the brand is struggling with quality issues. follow me on twitter. session just got underway. where having a look at what is going on. we have gains and losses when it comes to the chinese market. >> had looks like things are looking better. we start off in the red, but the shanghai composite up, the hang seng still under pressure. the australian stocks continuing to see pressure of 1.2%, consumer staples and