mark: i am mark halperin. john: i am john heilemann. you can criticize donald trump for a lot of things, but the hat? it is really not that bad. rock city, sports fans, we are here at the fabulous fillmore in downtown detroit. a block away from the fox theater where candidates will take the debate stage. rawl in preview that baw just a moment, but the other

brouhaha of the day. mitt romney and a comprehensively scathing rebuke of donald trump this morning in salt lake city. the attempt of the republican party's last nominee to kill the candidacy of this cycle's most likely nominee seemed like the equivalent of a celebrity roast. he tore into policy proposals, character, and temperament. in short, he stated the new york billionaire was unworthy of president of the united states. take a look. miit romney: here is what i know. donald trump is a phony, a fraud. his promises are as worthless as a degree from trump university. he is playing the american public for suckers. he gets a free ride to the white house, and all we get is a lousy hat. >> trump supporter sarah palin went on social media and urged donald trump to not take the bait. later at a rally in portland, maine, donald trump dismissed

romney as "irrelevant." he fired back. doanld trump: mitt is a failed candidate. he failed horribly. that was a race i have to say that should have been won. i don't know what happened to him. he disappeared. i am not a fan of barack obama, and that was a race when i backed mitt romney. you can see how loyal he is. he was begging for my endorsement. i could have said, 'drop to your knees,' and he would have dropped to his knees. >> many of the conservative media's loudest voices also took after mitt romney for being a profoundly flawed messenger. >> i always liked mitt romney. why? he's always doing this.

i cannot for the life of me give you any explanation. i am more shocked and disappointed than anything else. this is so hurtful. at the end of the day, if trump becomes the nominee -- >> it appears to me that the establishment in washington, that whatever is happening out there, is temporary. that it is a fever. that it is a tantrum. that it is a child. a child that has gone astray, and a lecture will straighten him out. the way this is going to be heard is, why are you trying to destroy your own base over and over again. >> he is a smart man. this showed bad character. it was embarrassing, humiliating, and he had no credibility to speak on this. it is like a coach who lost the super bowl 42-0 telling the winning coach what plays to call.

>> also, an interview with ben carson criticized mitt romney's speech saying, "i don't see how that is helpful." john mccain said he could not agree with mitt romney more and said he wants voters to think long and hard about who they want our next commander in chief to be. will this have an impact on the race? john: if mitt romney wanted to lay out a thorough, wide-ranging, rigorous, get it all in one place, laundry list in the best sense of the word, then he has done that. he laid it all on the table, every possible argument against trump. will that affect the race? i doubt it because the republican establishment will not change much.

mark: seeing sean hannity and rush limbaugh and fox analysts rally to donald trump's side is not what mitt romney had in mind. on the other hand if there is a , way to stop donald trump from getting the majority of delegates, and that's what were talking about, that mitt romney's intellectual case using his prestige, perhaps inspiring donors to give money, can be an important part of trying to get the pieces in place to stop him. i still believe tax returns, right? donald trump got a lot of questions and did not answer. what is your effective tax rate? did you give money to charity? i think romney goaded him, throwing out all these things. let's see if the press picks up on it. it is the only way to stop donald trump.

the only way he will be slowed is if the press picks up on some of the things that mitt romney laid out. john: all these things are failures, it became too late. he could have endorsed somebody, got into the race himself. there's a lot that you can say about how this is too little too late. if it turns out that john kasich beats him in ohio and marco rubio beats him in florida and they keep him from getting to the majority of delegates, this speech will be an important thing. this speech will be a moment that you put in the history if you are writing it. i just think it will not work. mark: mitt romney has a big following in the republican party. >> especially in the years after he lost, more so. >> he left himself vulnerable.

the fact is i don't think trump is a failed business leader. he may exaggerate, but he is not a failed business leader. he inherited a family business worth millions and now he is a billionaire. john: he has a mixed record. what romney is right about is that donald trump's boastful claims of being a business success have not been challenged. we're only now hearing about donald trump university and the failures. it's crazy that it has taken so long to raise it. mark: the anti-trump movement needs to think about voters. what mitt romney did was talk about this from the point of view of the voters and citizenry. john: when we come back we will talk more about trump and have our detroit preview, and hillary clinton, who woke up this morning to some headlines about those e-mails. we will talk to you about that after this.

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mark: welcome back to the place we like to call hitsville, usa. downtown detroit. this will be the most intimate debate yet, only four candidates. ben carson sent his last minutes regrets. if this one is anything like the two hours of crosstalk in the houston debate, it will be another rough night for the rnc transcriber. don't you think the moderates might want to ratchet down expectations of a schoolyard

brawl? moderators did exactly the opposite in an interview with the new york times. he sees his role tonight as a boxing referee who will not get in the way of flying fists. everybody seems inclined to gang up on donald trump tonight. do you think he will be the presidential conciliator he was on tuesday night or the counterpunching trump-osaurus rex? john: he tried to exhibit a more presidential the meaner. -- demeanor. in the face of ted cruz and marco rubio, and maybe john kasich, now that they realize the only game in town is not about trying to produce a message of their own, but to take donald trump down. i can't imagine that donald

trump will withstand three guys attacking him for two hours without going into trump counterpunch mode. mark: i will make a prediction. i never make predictions. john: you make a prediction at least once a day. mark: one of the three candidates or moderators will ask donald trump a question that he is totally unprepared for, and it will be a real test. it will be a substantive question or a personal thing that has never come up before and it will be the moment of the night. john: because it is so clear and focused what everyone was trying to do, it means everyone's preparations have been different. every other debate, and sometimes to their detriment, the candidates have been trying to take each other out rather than donald trump. all three guys have done nothing this week to get under his skin, contrast with trump, and the preparation might lead to the kind of question you are trying to talk about.

mark: he will try to stay above the fray as much as possible and then step in, but the question is, are you relevant? john: he interestingly today said, he didn't attack romney, then he said i don't think the way to take donald trump out is by attacking him. those were the candidates. there are a bunch of other people, outsiders, who have the same goal to take donald trump down. 50 conservative policy experts have called donald trump unfit for the office, calling his trade position a recipe for economic disaster, and calls his "hateful anti-muslim rhetoric -- undercuts the seriousness

combating islamic radicalism. meanwhile, donald trump is trying to reframe his candidacy. which includes making overtures to the national community. listen when he was asked about it on "morning joe" this morning. >> who do you respect on foreign policy? >> i respect richard haas. he's on your show a lot. i like him a lot. i have a few people i really like and respect. kane is a fantastic guy. i respect many of the people, not only on your shows, but many people i have dealings with that don't go on television and won't do television, and that are great thinkers, but ultimately it is my thought more than anybody else's, where i see the policy of some of these people in our government, we will be in the middle east for another 15 years if we don't end up losing, because our country is disintegrating.

we are spending trillions of dollars in the middle east, and the infrastructure of our country is disintegrating. we should never have gotten into iraq. it was a disaster. it never ends. we have to beat isis, take them out. they are chopping off heads. we can't allow that to happen. i have great people and will let you know at the appropriate time very soon. john: there is donald trump trying to talk about foreign policy. it's not just foreign policy people are attacking him on. there are a lot of people in the donor class. tim miller was vague about how much money his super pac has raised. some of the people doing the fundraising could write multi-million dollar checks themselves pretty easily. my question for you, mark, is how are the attempts of the elites to try to stop trump, how are they going?

mark: my taxicab driver was obsessed with the scholars denouncing trump. i think the foreign-policy elites, financial elites, who want to stop donald trump can be a part of it. the lack of focus on voters is kind of insane. you will stop him with a candidate, and most of these people are not engaged with any other candidate. you're going to stop them with votes. as you said, if donald trump is stopped, people can look back and the foreign-policy scholars as part of the victory, but i don't think it will have much impact. regarding fundraising, i don't understand this. the clock is ticking. florida is less than two weeks away. you have billionaires and multimillionaires soliciting money from others. john: the national review went after donald trump weeks ago. however long ago it was. mark: my taxicab driver

mentioned that as well. john: i'm sure he did. the intellectual panjandrums had no effect. they would have had it months ago. the money could have an effect. a guy like paul singer -- mark: write a $40 million check and put some advertising on the air. he is a rich guy. i don't get it. john: they could make a difference if they open their checkbook. they have not done it yet, that we know of. mark: hillary clinton took a day off the campaign trail. her rival bernie sanders had events in kansas and nebraska. before he left he held a press conference on clinton's campaign rhetoric. bernie sanders: secretary clinton's views and mine are different. she has supported nafta. i opposed nafta. she supported permanent normal

trade relations with china. i vigorously opposed it. she supported normal trade relations with vietnam. i oppose that. she suported the columbia trade agreement. i opposed that. she supported the korean free-trade agreement. i opposed that. mark: the washington post dropped a bombshell, reporting that the justice department has granted immunity to a former clinton staffer, and that the fbi will question clinton and her closest aides in the coming weeks. something we have long said would happen. do the democratic elites and voters have recourse now? or do they have to tough it out? john: they will always have recourse. as bernie sanders would tell you, they still have a lot of primaries and caucuses to come. it is true the delegate math is daunting, if not completely impassable, for bernie sanders. if a serious thing happens in hillary clinton's life in the realm of the e-mail probe and

scandal, they could still turn to bernie sanders in terms of the national narrative and these contests that sanders has to win by a big margin. if voters get scared enough, he could do that. mark: a lot of democratic elites and voters think that even a weak hillary clinton under investigation could be donald trump. there is this weird mass psychology. they were hammering over this, then they were obsessed with bernie sanders. now they are relieved. the bar is at a different place. she would have to be indicted. i think she can now survive the interview by the fbi without much damage to her. before that would have been cataclysmic. john: democrats are hand wringers and will hand wring about hillary clinton until she wins or loses on election day in november.

coming up, the state of the republican race in the state of michigan, and we will talk to the state's gop chair when we come back. ♪

john: joining us now is the state gop chair of the republican party. thank you for joining us. give us an overview of the michigan republican party. what is this a electorate and party that these candidates are vying for the favor of heading

into next tuesday's primary? >> our electorate is engaged and excited and concerned and passionate about this election. i have seen it for the past year as candidates have come through our state. we have had over 30 visits in the past year, and the crowds have been enormous. they really want to see a change in the white house. they are concerned about the direction of this country. they are paying attention. they are ready to vote on march 8. mark: you think your candidate should be the nominee, or not necessarily? >> i think the rules are clear that 1237 delegates, that is the way it should work. everybody knows the rules. if that candidate meets the threshhold, they should be the the nominee of our party. john: if you had 1235, would it be fine in your conception for that person to not get in nominee? >> i think that threshold is 1237.

everybody knows it. everybody agrees to it. i think we should follow the rules and think we will have a candidate who meets at threshold. john: if someone fell short, your view is the rules allow for a contested convention? >> we have had contested conventions before. that is the process. everybody knows 1237, you don't reach it, we are bound on the first vote. the second vote is unbound and you can vote for whoever you choose. that is fair. mark: a lot of your friends supporting donald trump? >> i have family members in all the camps. one of my relatives is the biggest donald trump fan in the world. she lives in michigan. my son likes ted cruz. my daughter likes john kasich. i am switzerland.

i am neutral. i have to bring them all together. mark: what's does she like about trump? >> she has been engaged from the beginning. she calls me. she wants to go to every event. she feels like he is speaking for her, and that's wonderful. she is engaged in the process. it has been wonderful to have so many people in our state engaged. mark: how old is your son? >> he is 10 years old. he thinks ted cruz is cool. maybe the name. john: the tea party and evangelical conservatives, give me a sense relative to the bulk of the party how this plays here. >> many evangelical conservatives are with ted cruz in our state. john: is that a big part of the michigan republican party, evangelicals? >> it is. absolutely. there is a tea party split and that libertarian group leaning more towards donald trump, and then i think the traditional republicans are more in the john kasich-marco rubio camp.

everybody i have talked to is committed to getting behind our nominee. we have to get behind our nominee. if we are splintered or fractured, then we lose the white house. that is unacceptable to put hillary clinton in the white house for basically a third term for barack obama. mark: leave electability aside and issues like outsider aside, like foreign policy and economy, what are people talking about? >> economy is always important. we are talking about jobs. people are concerned about wages. we have seen the middle class struggling. their incomes have not risen. national security is the second issue. isis, terrorist attacks we have seen on our own soil in san bernardino, that is an issue i hear at every town hall i do. mark: are any of the candidates talking specifically enough about how michigan could create more jobs? >> i hope we see more of that tonight.

i am glad we will have only four candidates. we will get to hear a lot more about their specific plans to stimulate our economy. mark: thank you. john: thank you very much. it is great to see you. up next, more on mitt romney's speech. that is after these words from our sponsors. ♪

♪ frankly, the only series policy proposals that deal with

a broad range of challenges come from ted cruz, marco rubio, and john kasich. one of these men should be our nominee. mark: that was mitt romney today at the university of utah. we talked about earlier, he took on the man who backed him in 2012, donald trump. we'll break down parts of the speech now starting with one argument that romney made that trump would lose the general election. last three decades, the clintons have lived at the intersection of money and politics trading their political , influence to enrich their personal finances. they embody the term crony capitalism. disgustss -- the american people and causes them to lose faith in our political process. a person so untrustworthy and dishonest as hillary clinton

must not become president. a trump nomination enables her victory. mark: he was scathing about hillary clinton. he said that we can't let trump be our nominee because he'd lose to clinton. john: there is an element that is tactical here. there's no way romney could make the argument doing this thing of being the past nominee attacking the nominee without demonstrating that he is partisan. that hillary clinton is the ultimate foe. if he didn't say that, he would have attacking more than he was by many on the right like rush limbaugh. he had to do that. it's a fine argument. the core of what he is saying is , it he is more concerned think about the nature and , character of the republican party than he is about purely about electoral calculation. mark: it shows that trump loses to clinton. i think that for those who are suspicious that romney doing this because he wants to run,

part of what some people reacted to today was just how negative he was about hillary clinton. framing that some people found a tale that maybe he wants to audition to say i want to take on hillary clinton. i don't think that's what he's doing. i think he does need to be part of trying to stop donald trump. he was quite scathing and did catch my ear. john: i agree with you. there's some part of mitt romney if a contested convention happens, people assume -- that's what're aiming if. what he is trying to do is trying to get to a contested convention. he didn't say that. that is what he's trying to do. if you get to a contested convention, many people assume that it will be kasich or rubio. likely the is most person to step into that void. there's some part of him thinking about that, i'm sure. romney also kept hammering trump for not releasing his taxes. his tax returns. warning again that the trump, the billionaire has something to , hide. >> we will only really know if he's a real deal for a phony if

he releases his tax returns and the tape of his interview with the "new york times." i predict there are more bombshells in his tax returns. i predict that he doesn't give much if anything to the disabled to veterans. despite his promise to do so, first made over a year, he will never, ever release his tax returns never. , not the returns under audit, not even are the returns no longer being audited. he has too much to hide. john: romney has unique standing to make this argument given to what happened in 2012 over his own taxes. it must be galling to him that trump thinks he can get away with that. what do you think the strength of this argument in terms of stopping trump? mark: cruz and rubio were raising a, then moved on to other things.

trump said before avoided answering. i predict that he'll be asked about that tonight by somebody, maybe the moderators. as we've all said, even under audit, he could say what his effective rate was and what his income was. john: i think this is an issue that cuts because it is the tradition in our politics that presidential nominees eventually at some have to do this. pointi think donald trump will be pummeled on this going forward if he does not do it. mark: one more thing romney , speech was studded with permanent attacks against the donald. it wasn't quite like marco rubio standup routine, but it was closed. >> is he a huge business success? does he know what he's talking about? no, he isn't. no he doesn't. , he inherited his business. he didn't create it. a business genius he is not. donald trump tells us that he is very, very smart. [applause] [laughter]

i'm afraid when it comes to foreign policy, he is very not smart. there's a dark irony in his boast of his sexual exploits during the vietnam war. dishonesty is donald trump's hallmark. there's plenty of evidence that mr. trump is a con man, a fake. think of donald trump's personal qualities. the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd, third-grade theatrics. conservativessome say if this was such a great speech, he should have given it at sea pack -- c-pac. well, he was smart to do it in utah. because the crowd love this stuff. john: i'd say that i'm very uncomfortable to hear sexual exploits coming out his mouth. some of the jokes landed ber and

worse. there is a -- he would have been a much better and effective candidate. mark: i don't see a lot of anxiety or worry this trump. based on what i saw today, romney is getting under some skin. john: in mccain steps up, i do think that will start to have an effect on the discourse and have some effect on trump's head. mark: up next, the pandemonium in the republican race. and the reporters covering the madness. don't forget, if you're watching us in washington d c you can , listen to us in washington d.c. on bloomberg 99.1. we'll be right back.

mark: welcome back. we're in detroit. pretty soon republican candidates will step on to the debate stage just a block away from where we are now. here to talk about the race and the debate our reporter panel for tonight the great contributor sasha eisenberg. he has a new piece about marco rubio's free media strategy. allie jackson, who has been jackson, whoalley has been covering ted cruz. thank you all for being here. phil, let me start with you. is donald trump come in tonight on offense because what happened on super tuesday or defense? it's going to be gang up time. >> i'd say on defense. he's got a lot to answer for. he started to do that some of that at the rally. we can expect marco rubio and takeruz and john kasich some shots tonight. it's going to be all about trump

and how he deals with some of the questions about his business record. >> i think you will get to see ted cruz jump in on that. they want cruz to go after donald trump. unlike marco rubio. they can say, rubio is not a factor. it's going to be the two people top of the delegate count going after it. that's why you see them mix it up on policy and other issues you seen cruz talk about like healthcare and trump university. john: you did a deep dive on rubio, i was just curious whether you looking at the exit polls looking at the results on super tuesday. whether marco rubio in way claim a strategy taking on trump actually helped him. there's been some talk about or is that all smoke and mirrors? >> i don't think there's enough there to make a case. they were internally not seeing a whole lot of movement.

you see a lot of evidence of movement. late decider have gone for him in previous states. part of sort of prephase of the rubio campaign. one of the assumptions was that they wanted to position themselves in a place where they're acceptable to different factions of the party. that they had broad geographic support with assumption that if candidates fall away, rubio will be best position to pick them up. he has been. we saw movement in iowa in that direction. obviously new hampshire was complicated by the debate south , carolina as well. that is not necessarily because he started name-calling trump last thursday. mark: what do you think the campaign think about mitt romney suggestion that everybody support the person got the best chance to stop trump in an individual state? >> they're all coming to recognize that assumptions under that are necessary. none of them can within on a first ballot. they all recognize that. what we're going to see is what -- whether they internalize a logic of that. john kasich was asked directly tell hishe would

supporters to vote for marco rubio, which is in everybody's strategic interest except for donald trump. no candidate can accept that. we'll see to the extent which ted cruz and marco rubio go after one another. mark: the way to execute that will be for john kasich say i will do campaign appearances in florida and focus on ohio. for marco rubio to say i will not spend enough time in michigan if i can focus on michigan. >> we're seeing some of that already. kasich is going in michigan and ohio. really focusing on those wins. cruz is focusing on some other states. rubio is all in on florida. we can expect to see him there most of next week. john: i always think about saturday. there's a bunch of contest on saturday, the caucuses and the places where they are, they seem to be good spots for ted cruz to have a pretty good >> when you saturday. look at the races happening now between march 15th. you see that campaign looking

like they're going to play in maine, which does not seem like a natural place for ted cruz. it seems like a natural fit for ted cruz in places like louisiana. they want to mix it in up in michigan too. three weeks ago, they were talking michigan will be it. this will be the start of them arehing it, and now they backing off of it and saying that donald trump will win. i think broadly when you look at the mitt romney speech today, it's fascinating. what planet are we on that ted cruz is applauding mitt romney to coming out saying what he's been saying about donald trump. that's where we are. john: i want to ask you a history question. who won the maine caucus on the republican side in 2012? >> ron paul. >> libertarians. john: that is what ted cruz is doing there. mark: debate tonight is a big deal so are the saturday event and so are c pac. it's where mitt romney talked about being severely conservative. what are you all hearing about the candidates? big deal for them or not?

>> cruz is headed there. the most interesting part of c carson, and now that he has effectively dropped out the campaign. even though he's being cagey about it. it could potentially help cruz in some of the states where there is more of the evangelical population that carson has spoken to. john: if ben carson leaves the race, where do the voters go? >> i think you would assume ted cruz would be the natural place to go. it's unclear how much that's personalized by carson and his circle and there's been tons , of media attention about that. carson voters care about the inside allegations in iowa, i don't know. mark: you're a long time romney watcher. do you think what he did today will impact the race? >> i don't know if it will move voters.

i think that's to be determined. certainly it gave the republican establishment sort of clarifying moment something to rally , behind. it might stimulate more big money to move into super pacs to hurt trump. john: did you sense this is something that's been building for months and he finally got a chance to uncork the whole thing? >> i think it has been. he's been frustrated by the trajectory of the campaign. he has frankly been disappointed by some of the other candidates who have not been able to take on donald trump and take him down. >> i think the important moment, you had a major party after encouraging voters to vote tactically, which is not something you hear people talking about. romney say, think about where you are until you can stop trump. mark: thank you all appreciate. we'll be back. coming up folks who represent , the cruz and rubio

perspective. big preview of tonight's show down here in the motor city. four canada's -- candidates will enter only one will leave. , actually all four will leave. we'll be right back. ♪

john: welcome back to detroit. here to practice some of the lines there will be using later in the spin room. ron nearing the cruz campaign new national spokesperson and alex conen. thank you for coming in. in a lot of debates of course in the cycle ted cruz, marco rubio,

other candidates spent more time goinging each other than after the front runner, possibly to their ultimate disadvantage. that tonight is going to be all about taking down donald trump? >> we'll have to wait until the debate over in order to make that assessment. >> if you look at the debate last week, it certainly was not a good night for donald trump. the candidates did focus on him and engaged him in a way that they haven't until that point. hadn't until that donald trump is the front point. runner. if republican voters across the country don't want donald trump to be the nominee, they need to coalesce around somebody else. marco rubio campaign in the long run will be able to unite the party and defeat donald trump. that's part of the debate tonight. >> this less another drawing contrast. campaigns are waged on differences, and there are some

stark differences here. what surprises me in the run up to this debate, donald trump has not put these issues to rest. he can put a lot of financial questions to rest if he would release his tax returns, which he has adamantly refused to do. he can put the questions about his immigration position to rest if he authorize the "new york times" to release that tape. he doesn't done that. a good political operator will get rid of those issues. mark: mitt romney talked about taxes today. you have both candidates put out some tax information. what do you think is the reason donald trump won't put out his taxes? >> only donald trump can answer that. mark: your candidate recently speculated that it might have something to do with the mob. >> who knows. this is the type of questions i get asked when you didn't act in the interest of transparency. what's really important here, this process, is not only about delivering a nominee but delivering a nominee who is well vented where all the information , is available. what you don't want to happen is having the candidate being vetted after they won the nomination. then you can't go back. that is the potential problem for the republican party if

donald trump is the nominee. >> just adding to that, today there are new questions how many donald trump is giving to veterans. he brags about giving to veteran causes, and now there are reports that maybe he has not done that. he can answer that if he release his tax returns. it raises questions. i think in addition to not putting questions aside, every day there are new questions raised. a judge in new york saying a suit can go on against him for trump university. the republican party cannot have a nominee is going to be deposed later this year in a fraud case. john: let me ask you, and be as explicit as possible. john kasich a day said he realized there's no way he'll get the delegates. the only game in town is to stop donald trump from getting the 1237. there are people in your world who acknowledge the basic truth of that for your candidates too. just right now, are you guys ready to stand here and say, i understand that my candidate is not going to get 1237.

the game now again, as i said before is stop trump from , getting to that number and fight it out in cleveland. >> absolutely not. the one way to defeat donald trump is to get the 1237 delegates before the convention. i would understand someone like john kasich would make that argument. he really doesn't have any way. this allows him to keep in the game, have fun, and so forth. the stakes are too high to have candidates who have no way of getting the nomination standing in the way and preventing the coalescing around the candidate who can win. we believe firmly that ted cruz is the only candidate who has defeated donald trump five times now. no one has been able to do that. did so in texas and oklahoma and alaska and iowa. otherwise, going to the convention is a very risky strategy for the republican party and it puts the future of the country at risk. i would argue that my boss,

marco rubio has a better chance , of securing 1237 delegates looking at the states that have yet to vote. they look a lot more like virginia and minnesota than they do texas and alabama where trump and ted cruz did well. beyond that, as long as there are three or four candidates in the race, i think the convention is much more likely. >> a candidate getting 35% of the vote is the winner. mark: any prospect that your two candidates will team up in some official or unofficial way? >> no, i don't think so. i haven't heard any talk about that. we intend to win florida and beyond that the map gets much better. we're going to come out of florida with favorable map, lot of momentum and money. with marco rubio, the best candidate on the stage. john: you should have prefaced that with "with all due respect" . mark: any chance it would be a good idea to have a rubio and cruz team? marco rubio has this

burning dumpster fire called his poll numbers in the state of florida not looking good for him now. >> it seems like why we're able to see the expectations. >> alex is very good at his job. i think what the rubio campaign has done is a better job manipulating the expectations game than delivering votes on the ground. there has been a clear difference between the two. >> keep underestimating us. john: this fight will continue off camera. thank you. we will see you in the spin room after this debate. we'll be right back here with who won the day. ♪

john: mark, who won the day? mark: look mitt romney's , performance was not perfect. he did a tough thing. a speech the game with that set the agenda for today. john: baseball fans, games begun , commence spring training. tonight, you should be glued to bloomberg politics.com. coverage as well as mark signature report card. coming up on "bloomberg west." until tomorrow, we say sayonara. ♪

♪ rishaad: it is friday, march the fourth. . am rishaad salamat this is "trending business". ♪ we will be live in beijing and mumbai. sharp on a tear in turkey oh -- and tokyo. -- in tokyo. foxconn said an announcement could come next week. goingggest deal since public in 2012, spending $2 billion on a luxury bag maker as an expansion plan.

chinese leaders consider their next five-year plan, environment high on the agenda, along with growth and reform. let us know what you think about the top stories, follow me on twitter @rishaadtv. hashtab #trendingbusiness. were seeing modest moves ahead of the jobs data. waiting for the news coming out of those big events. we could finish the week on a cautious note as we wait for all that. global stocks have recouped the losses, more than half the losses, we saw this year. we have seen slightly better u.s. economic data and a little more optimism that china will do more to stimulate growth. shanghai down two thirds of 1%.