mark: with all due respect to everything else -- >> texas i am here today to proudly say i endorse donald trump for president of the united states. ♪ from dallas, texas, where everything, including presidential candidate endorsements come is bigger. this has been a genetic day on the campaign trail. how about this huge and surprising endorsement from new jersey governor todd whitman john kasich.

oh and donald trump has his own new jersey endorsement, governor chris christie. here is how christie explains his decision. christie: i am proud to be hereto endorsed a much him for president of the united states. we sat down as a family and we talked about to be one to play a role in this campaign or do we want to not? pat andded with mary the children supported that we want to be with the person who we thought could provide the strongest leadership for america, and the person who could best make sure hillary clinton never gets within 10 miles of the white house. once we made that decision, it was clear the only choice was donald trump, the best choice was donald trump. our family is one that price loyalty. we have been good friends with donald and his family for many years. signals.end smoke i am endorsing the prison i believe is the best person to

andat hillary clinton restore american jobs, restore american prestige, and restore the faith and confidence of the american people again. mark: we are going to break down the extraordinary trompe-christie tech team. chris christie do this endorsement? and how does it change the race? i'm going to start with the first part of that, which is why. has made it clear that he thought the freshman senators, in this case the remaining ones, ted cruz and marco rubio, are not ready to be president and can't beat hillary clinton. that rules them out of the endorsement. choices, him with two his fellow governor john kasich and donald trump. i think christie quite reasonably looked at the race and said i'm going to back the winner, the most likely republican nominee and the prohibitive favorite, donald

trump. in some ways he is similar to john kasich in terms of executive experience and some issues. i think temperamentally, christie looks at trump as that guy, he is a brawler and a political beast. andtands the best chance that is the guy christie wanted to be paired up with. and theyin the room kept it a secret until christie -- there was a silent is -- a silence and a gasp in the room. chris christie is one of the shrewdest lyrical calculators in the party. he thinks the chances of anyone -- so when they are about to be a part of the economy they get on board. trump was re: on a glide path nomination, i don't think anyone else can go into super tuesday with momentum, barring some huge unforeseen event.

christie confers on trumped a huge amount of credibility within the establishment, a huge momentum, and he will bring some other establishment types. if trump does as well as i think he is going to on super tuesday, christie will have been on the ground floor of what will be a flood of endorsements. mark: we heard endorsements by bob costa and others. don'tof conservatives like donald trump, they think he is a e-book -- think he is a liberal or moderate. are right, especially with marco rubio, a guy making the argument out for some number of days that the establishment had to get behind him, and one of the biggest figures has not only gotten behind marco rubio it has led the march into the column for it blows marco

rubio's larger political rationale with what he was trying to set out to do. >> bad for john kasich did the only governor in the race who says i choose trump over case it. i think people are going to speculate and rightly so about these guys being attentive, teaming up. coming together and making a strong team. if i were hillary clinton or bernie sanders i would be running -- i would be worried about running against trump. a lot of speculation about that already. we try not to indulge in that speculation. they would be a matched pair. it would be an unconventional pick, but unconventional in the same kind of way chris christie -- in the same kind of weight donald trump has run his whole campaign. mark: everybody in the political world thought this day would be driven by the new cycle, but

what marco rubio said this morning at an event in dallas, rubio followed up with his aggressive debate performance last night, crowd his phone to ridicule at donald trump over his tweets, his backstage makeover, and a lot more. grab your own personal water bottle. it is time to pull the mask off so people can see what we are dealing with here. what we are dealing with here is a con artist. he is a con artist. what does donald trump do? -- toes to twitter via twitter. let's read some. we will have fun. number one, here is the first one, marco rubio was working hard last night. this is true. chalker,lem is he is a and once a chalker, always a

." ker he called me mr. meltdown. last night during two of the brakes he went backstage, he was having a meltdown. first he had his little makeup thing, applying makeup around his mustache. then he asked for a full-length mirror, i don't know why because the podium goes up to here, but he wanted a full-length mirror, maybe to make sure his pants weren't wet. any other day that would have been well above the fold. hours later i asked trump to respond to being called a con artist. >> he is not presidential material, doesn't have the demeanor, he is a nervous nelly. i watch him backstage, he is a mess. the guy is a total mess.

choked, can you imagine putin waiting for a meeting and marco rubio walks in and he is totally drenched? i've never seen a human being sweats like this man sweats. mark: moments later after christie and trunk -- and trump took after each other, a joint rally -- and they took even more shots at rubio. >> honestly, i thought he was going to die, rubio. he was so scared, like a frightened puppy. kept saying the obama phrase over and over. so then i heard it once, that i said fine, big deal. he is right here, chris is over here. chris is kind of cool because he was like this. i couldn't to do this.

this looked like perry mason, that's what it was. once,d the obama phrase he just said that. that was strange, but that's ok. then a third time. it was like a robot. then a fourth time and a fifth time, and i thought this guy is cracking up on us. he was sweating so badly. i have never seen anything like it. it looked like he jumped into a swimming pool with his clothing on. >> we don't need another washington politician in the white house. do we need a first-term united states senator in the white house? do we need a united states senator from florida who does not show up from work? me tell you something marco rubio, the president of the united states has done a no-show

job like you have treated the united states senate. mark: rubio versus trump is already pretty incredible, at this point who is winning? just want to deposit for a moment, it's not incredible. it's like oh my gosh, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, my god. it is a completely crazy race so far. thought to rubio was great last night on the debate stage. , themorning, rubio performance he gave, i thought rubio was funnier and more loose. then you see the master there. when he is in full wrecking ball mode, it was an unprecedented takedown. call him a thug, might

call him a bully. into full attack dog mode, stand back. goodness there is another republican debate. going to be fascinating to see them on the stage. think the problem is he is not really driving a frame on trump, -- we have the guy said one million things about him. saying he is a con artist. i get where he is coming from on that but he is not restricting himself to that. i think it is fair to say rubio chances, andt his decided he needed to radically shake up the race with a very serviceable standup routine.

>> here is the thing about trump. part of the reason why he is powerful when he is going negative is he finds something that resonates on a third grade level. he is playing there on concerns about cruises character. he is a small lightweight guy. true, the things that is trump takes that one nugget of real critique but also makes it effective. bell of resonance that is damaging politically -- that is not what rubio is doing to trump. >> trump has had a lot of strengths in this campaign. he has had a few spokespeople. he doesn't command the stage

like johnson and it did. i suspect while trump does not need back up on any given day, there will be times when it will be great for trump and christie to go at it. i suspect if rubio is in this race, you will see that happen. when we come back, the lines of attack against donald trump. which ones may work after this.

mark: marco rubio and ted cruz hurled attack after attack at

donald trump during the debate last night in houston. there were some new attacks and some classic oldies. the list included charges that trump allegedly defrauded students at his university business seminars, that he's hired foreign business workers and he would be successful without getting money from his father. trump said he wouldn't release his tax returns after undergoing an audit. earlier returns are no longer under audit. in another tweet, -- trying to figure out which sticks. tax return line, which was raised by romney, can actually do damage if picked up by the press against donald trump. they -- taxess

thing is the one that is most promising. it has mitt romney as a higher profile advocate and romney can speak from a certain kind of experience. are questions of what is in those tax returns. why is strong, why is he being so elusive about this? the irs believes there is no reason he can't release tax returns under audit. romney's question is the right question. the idea is you don't learn something about their tax returns as ridiculous. this is a story the press understands. understand it from traditional and presidential campaigns going way back. i think that is something the press understands well enough and they put real pressure on trump in this area.

trump was asked a couple of times today about releasing past years and he ignored the question. i suspect it will be a hard one to answer. the other thing was this question about israel. trump says he wants to be neutral, not a very popular position within the republican party. has is one where trump taken a position on the merits, there is no political offside for him to say it. can putxtent where they some thing him the offensive, it is that. >> i think that is right. if you just go to the taxes, trump has made this argument that you cannot find -- it is not looking at net worth. he said something i thought was ridiculous. even in complicated tax or terms, you cannot perfectly -- onb somebody on some

that basis. if you look at enough of his tax returns you can come to a good idea of what kind of financial state he is in. if it turns out donald trump is not worth anything like he is claimed, it could be a real problem for his credibility. i think this foreign worker thing, because of immigration, if there is real meet their and substance to that charge and the press gets on top of that, that can also make him look like the one thing he can afford to look like, a hypocrite. i disagree with tax returns, you would just have to go back a lot years to flesh that out. i don't think trump supporters will care. they can say trump has been unsuccessful in some areas. trump is saying he is make in the vodka for his clubs. the reality is he is a billionaire. whether he has 2 billion or 10 billion, he is a billionaire.

they may say he gamed the system and paid a low tax rate. these are all things that can do some damage, but i don't think anything raised last night can stop him, particularly when they are all over the map. they don't got one unifying the more frame on him. john: we will see. back, the we come democratic race in south carolina and more after this word from our sponsors.

mark: on the eve of the democratic primary on saturday, trying to run up the score and

anticipate a huge win while the polls close tomorrow. meanwhile bernie sanders, who spoke at the university of chicago, is hitting clinton harder than ever. >> i just wanted to take a moment to talk about some of the differences that she and i have on some important issues. i do notd to tell you have a super pac. i do not receive many millions of dollars from wall street and i have not given speeches for hundreds of thousands of dollars. we raise our campaign funds very differently. my opponent, secretary clinton, voted for the war. popular.s not all that

homophobicinst this legislation. secretary clinton then supported it. sanders will be in south carolina campaigning this evening. he will spend a lot of the week op scratching around america, doing with super tuesday states. what possible results tomorrow would upset expectations for either campaign, what would constitute a bigger clinton white up and expected? and what would constitute a more symbolic victory for senator sanders? possible those three questions can be compressed into two. if hillary clinton wins this race by more than 30 points, polls have her up in the 20's, if she were to win by more than 30 that would a bigger -- that would be a bigger blowout than anyone expects, and bigger than

bernie sanders landslide victory in new hampshire. on the sander side, if somehow he managed to actually come within single did some her, everyone would be shocked -- single digits of her, everyone would be shocked. you have hillary clinton, bill clinton, and chelsea clinton reveling in what they hope will be a crushing symbolic victory. bernie sanders had come into south carolina strong enough to change the paradigm. they mishandled expectations in nevada, that is not happening. stategoing to lose this badly, including the african-american vote. i don't think the results will be close enough to make a difference. he is going to have to pull in miracle out of his hat on super tuesday to get back in the momentum game. i don't see him doing well enough in south carolina. if somehow he managed he

could be within six or seven points, that maybe would help him. i was on the trail with him this week out of the state for a brief time. i was up with him in missouri and kansas and oklahoma and ohio. at 2:00 in kansas city or 1:00 in the afternoon on wednesday, 7000 people out to cease -- to see bernie sanders. he still believes that by campaigning in the states and beyond that there is still a movement behind him. if you looked at 9000 people, you would think that to. she has such a big lead here and some of the super tuesday states. bernie sanders is facing a grim prospect, i think not just tomorrow but all the way through next tuesday or wednesday. >> we have to figure out what it was that worked for him in new hampshire. it wasn't just a non-diverse electorate.

i think attacking her the way he did last night more than he ever of, may be in was out frustration paid by the chances it is going to work at this point is diminutive. the clinton people are taking a lot of pages out of the obama playbook, including: the other side negative -- including calling the other side negative. tales from the campaign trail. you are watching us in d.c.. you can listen to us in d.c. on bloomberg.

john: while the republican battle rages in texas today, we turn our sites to south carolina

on the eve of the democratic primary. joining me are a power trio of correspondence. -- correspondents. ladies, thank you for being here. i want to talk to those who cover clinton first. first, what is it like right now on the clinton campaign as they spend much of the week in south carolina, in my view, trying to run up the score on bernie sanders? been aas definitely positive atmosphere. even though the crowds are not the thousands of people bernie sanders gets, they are really into it, passionate, heavily african-american, very into the call and response environment. hour out fromn secretary clinton speaking. this is the kind of thing that gets her antenna up. last night, she went to a andert and went up on stage

was dancing. it was one of the most joyful moments of the campaign. she was really into it. it was a unique experience. saw chelsea clinton here in charleston this morning. all three clintons are in the state. it say to you that all three clintons are in a state where hillary clinton is ahead by every metric? what does that say about where their heads are at? >> they are not taking anything for granite. -- granted. tell you, just to follow-up on what jen was saying, they are feeling very confident. they are trying to run up the score. wants to win by double digits, by 30 points if possible. on the sanders team, they are

hoping to keep that score down. they need african-american voters to turn up in force. they make up 50% of the electorate here. that is one reason you have all the clintons coming out. she does finish strong here, that will give her extra momentum heading into super tuesday. she was in atlanta earlier today and she has out spent senator sanders when it comes to ads in super tuesday states. they are not taking anything for granted. john: i want to go to kc. ey.cas bernie sanders is now back in south carolina. what is the mood like in sanders-land? >> we are only just back in

south carolina. the plane literally touched down a few minutes ago and it is going to be taking off again in the morning. it is a quick jot. it will be in the air tomorrow night when the polls close, tells youink everything you need to know. sanders has been throwing sharper punches at clinton. this morning in minnesota, he suggestedanada, hillary clinton says things behind closed doors that she is not willing to say to the american people, hitting her harder on the transcripts ban we normally here. he abruptly cut off an interview with me when we were talking about whether super tuesday would be his last shot. this schedule he is keeping until monday, three or four

flights a day, does suggest that if he cannot keep up with her on super tuesday, the air is going to go out of the balloon rather quickly. that said, he gathers some of the most exciting crowds i have seen so far. i think they are optimistic. ask you tooing to questions. the first is simple. the first is simple. who is the pride and joy of hitting, -- hibbing, minnesota? >> robert a dillon, who shares my birthday. i think you know him as bob dylan. may 24. john: that would have bumped me out if you did not know. my second question for you as a political question. sanders has lashed out at clinton in the last couple of days. strategic, calculated,

well calibrated punch, or is he just lashing out at his situation? think it's a combination of the two. after the nevada laws, they realized they need to stay in the news cycle every day. there was an impromptu press conference where he said he would hit clinton in five different areas. i counted about two and a half, but the effect was the same. people are focusing on the fact that sanders is criticizing clinton. i think what we saw today reflected a little more frustration. i think he was sharper on some other notes as well, saying wall street is a complete fraud. streetse, he hits wall all the time. i think he was sharper in hitting clinton as well. you can feel that there is some stress being placed on this campaign and that they are really trying to go all out on

this push. let me go back really quick to jen and kristin. clinton have hillary taking off. she will be your tomorrow but then she is taking off into the super tuesday states. give me a little look ahead at the clinton plan between now and tuesday, real fast. is going to arkansas, tennessee, virginia. she is trying to get big leads in the southern states where she knows she already has an advantage. she did not win nevada by all that much last week. i think she wants to have as many big margins, rack up as many delegates, she already has a 500 superdelegate lead. doing more along that line is what she is hoping for. confidence level in the clinton campaign, high or

stratospheric? >> i am going to go with very high. john: great. upup next, a look at the democratic ground game here in the palmetto state. ♪

asked our resident filmmaker to take a look behind the scenes at both campaigns as the turnout of african-american voters, who are key in the primary tomorrow. >> to me, she stood out more than bernie did. wehillary fights for us and are fighting for hillary. >> we are phone banking. call 10,000g to

people this week, in eight days. normally, it is 10,000 a month. will be very emotional. i think we will all be teary-eyed. >> what was it about trayvon? >> 11 times he said i can't breathe. need to do aicans better job of listening when african americans talk about the seen and unseen barriers they face every day. we didn't have to go looking for her. she came to us. we have to stand and support her. >> i was worried about nevada, but i am not worried about south carolina. >> we are fighting here in south carolina as hard as we can, but was in secretary clinton

california the other day. maybe she is writing off south carolina. we are not. >> great, thank you. >> we have two days to make this happen. on southgiving up carolina. i hope you are not giving up on south carolina. phone banks are working. let's call, call, call all night. we have one strong for bernie . >> i believe in the candidates. i yell at people to vote for their candidates. >> on saturday, who will you vote for? >> hillary clinton. i see. have you thought about bernie sanders? >> if we don't win south

carolina, we still move forward. >> a little low key, a little .ore discreet >> yes, ma'am, he is a democrat, and what i like about him over hillary clinton are his economic policies. minimum wagering up to $15 for black women of working families. -- wantsce to give us to give us access to schools and health care. when you go out to vote, i hope you will vote for mr. sanders. >> there is a lot at stake in this election. i think it is one of the most consequential we have had in a long time. >> we are going to win some states and we are going to lose some states. >> i think it's really important for her to win big.

>> people are already trying to write off saturday and it is only thursday. we still have a chance. we have miles to go before we sleep, but we still have a chance. thanks to our resident filmmaker, mr. hammond. fantastic. aboutt, a man who knows south carolina politics about as well as anyone we have ever met. we will be right back. ♪

john: welcome back to my favorite city in the south, charleston, south carolina, where i am joined by the mayor and hillary clinton supporter, joe rally. good to see you. >> good to be back. john: you were mayor of the city for about 40 years, if i remember correctly. you just stepped down. you support hillary clinton. why? like she is going to be a wonderful president. that's why. she has the experience, the intellect. she works both sides of the il. -- il. we don't need to yell at each other. we need to make government work. she were to somehow stumble -- and i am not talking about the primary tomorrow -- but if bernie sanders were to nomination, would that be acceptable? countryry is what the needs. bernie sanders has proposals get are not going to

through the congress. we don't need americans to have these battles where we don't get anywhere. we need to find solutions. his proposals may bring big rallies, but from a realistic standpoint, what the government needs to do is work. america is great. we need to make our government great again. john: when i was sitting on the , iosite side in an interview prefer truthful questions and phd dissertation questions, but i am going to ask you a phd dissertation question. tell me about what the

demographic shift in south carolina means to the politics in south carolina. >> the demographics have changed somewhat. the politics changed somewhat. in 1968 as a democrat when there was only one republican in the state legislature. we had conservatives, moderates, liberals, and we worked things out together. the nixon strategy kind of changed the party alignments. i think some of the politics of that are divisive changed the lay of the lamb -- lay of the land. but we have many good people in government here in both parties that were to get things done. as mayor of charleston as

work fort, and i everybody. that's what you have to do, you have to work for everybody. so the battlegrounds are up for grabs, purple states. this state has become deep red. why should anybody care about the democratic primary in south carolina? why does it matter? it matters for the nomination. bigident obama won here eight years ago. i believe if everybody turns out , and i hope they do, that hillary clinton is going to win that will think propel her to super tuesday and her campaign will really take off. statethis is the first where you get a big african-american vote. about 50% of the electorate is

african-american. hillary clinton has a big lead in the state, especially with african-american voters. i just want you to talk about the politics of race in this state. things clinton did re into thousand eight that alienated some people and created some controversy. 2008 thatplain -- in alienated some people and created some controversy. how do you explain them gravitating back to her? >> i think that alienation in 2008 is way overstated. to have a bright, brilliant, talented, accomplished african-american elected president of the united states -- how could they do anything else? there was a little anger and but that was not

widespread. african americans always admired president clinton and hillary clinton. they had a choice to do something special and they did it. but i don't think there was ever clintons.ity with the they have been coming here a long time. lies within the african-american community of south carolina. it is deep-seated -- deep-seated. one of the most tragic stories to come out of south carolina of your entire 10 year >> my life. -- your entire tenure -- >> of my life. john: was the shootings in the church. what did that mean to south

carolina? >> of course, the hateful bigot was not from charleston. he hated black people. wherever he was from, it was very bad. , perhapsened here was reasonably in comparison to other times and places, the community, in the face of that heartbreaking, bigoted act, rather than turning against each andr, turned to each other, that says something about the people in this city and the state, something about what has happened over the years. , wee is -- in charleston always worked to keep pockets of -- we workdeveloping

to reach out to other people and include them. think this community, after , it wasrtbreaking event a helpful moment for our country. it showed how people in the face of something awful can respond not with violence and anger, but with helping each other and loving each other. i know you were one of the people in favor of getting the confederate flag down. how important do you think it is to the future of south carolina ?hat that flag came down >> very important. i had worked to get it down before. i marched 120 miles to do that. it's very important. we want all of our symbols to be for everybody, not just

something for somebody. for everybody. it's very important. mayor riley, thank you. you were great to come here. i'm honored to speak with you. when we come back, we will give you our friday edition of who won the week. ♪

mark, we are here not to just at the end of the day, but at the end of the week. who won? mark: it's so easy. donald trump for too many reasons to list. let's just say the punctuation

mark was the chris christie endorsement. john: i think it's fair to say hillary clinton won week. she campaigned in south carolina strongly all week long. i think she will have a big win tomorrow in the primary. make sure you check out bloomberg.com this weekend for the results of the democratic primary in south carolina. while there, read the great piece on the chris christie endorsement and what it means to the gop establishment. mark: good news. we will be on bloomberg tv for a special weekend addiction -- edition. check that out. for now, sayonara. ♪

mark: i am mark crumpton. you are watching bloomberg west. new jersey governor chris christie today stunned the republican establishment when he

endorsed donald trump for president. meanwhile, south carolina governor nikki haley said she would support trump if he wins the nomination. ray lahood and christie todd whitman have endorsed john kasich. shows a majority of americans back the government in its fight to compel apple to help open a terrorist iphone. 51% of americans said apple should unlock the phone to assist the fbi, 38% said apple should not. the white house said a nominee for the supreme court vacancy will not be announced before tuesday, when obama will meet with senate leadership at the white house. the government is confirming the gut infections -- zika infections in nine women in the u.s.. all were contracted overseas.