mark: welcome to the best of edition of "with all due respect." it has been a huge week for the 20 16th election cycle. we saw the super tuesday delegate bonanza. we begin with the question front and center this week. what, if anything, can stop the front runner in this race? dr. abacus -- get out your abacuses and calculators. we will take a drive down delegate drive.

donald trump looks destined to become the republican nominee. the other guys in the race seem to be relegated to hoping there is some tricky delegate map that could leave trump just shy of the number needed for the nomination. forcing a contestant convention in cleveland this summer. -- p's goal is trump now has just 319 delegates. his opponents have a combined 385. here is one scenario we came up with for how trump could be stopped short of a majority. it requires two basic assumptions -- besides nevada, one, caucasus states have not been his strongest part he lost iowa and alaska and minnesota. perhaps won't get stronger in the caucus contest. number trump may see close races two, in states with big suburban populations like virginia, where he won, but not by very much. trump still gets a lot of delegates, one third of the delegates about in the states that he lost. let's assume this continues and suburban states and white and

rural states in the great plains. let's also say that trump loses ohio to john kasich and somehow also loses florida to marco rubio. those are two of the big winner take all states. so, if that happened and even if trump won every other state, he , would fall short of the magic number of 1237. all right. john, we have laid out that scenario. does that make a case to you that it's possible that trump is stopped short of a majority? john: i think it is plausible. i don't think it is unlikely's outcome, but certainly plausible. the key thing there, the caucasus states where only republicans are led to vote. he will have to lose those

winner take all states per to someone will have to beat him in ohio and florida. if that happens, there is a reasonable chance that he could be stopped short of 1237 and we could end up in that place where we have a contested convention. i do think that is the only way donald trump does not become the nominee, but i am open to the possibility. mark: the question of whether they can take it from a contested convention -- could the math workout? it could. what is interesting, these outside groups that we mentioned earlier if they start to , advertise big in these states and marco rubio really focuses on florida, john kasich focuses in ohio, trump does not win enough winner take all states -- it is plausible, not the most

likely outcome, but far from impossible. take all states, but he has to -- john: i'm not saying he has to lose all the winner take all states, but he has to lose some big ones. if you get into a one-on-one race in places like california and new jersey my no yes chris christie on his side, but he could lose those states. mark: this morning, hillary clinton's super tuesday victories. the mastermind behind bernie sanders's first. for live out their plans

centers to go forward in the nomination fights. this scenario involves the prospect that sanders could win dick schaap like new york and california and also do well. plausible is the sanders planet this point does not hillary clinton from getting a majority? john: it is not that plausible. i admire those guys, they know delegate math as well as anybody in the party. there is a narrow path, but really narrow. a lot less likely than the previous thing we were talking about, holding trump short of 1237. those states are more demographically diverse where hillary clinton is strong. there is not that many of them with the monochromatic demographic composition that sanders plays well in. very a very, very, very, hard road for them going forward. mark: he did better than i talked he would do. i thought he would win two

states, he won four. he needs a momentum-changing win. if he can win in michigan, hillary will face more of a challenge than she is now. it will be difficult for him. once you fall behind in the democratic party, it is hard to catch up because of the proportional representation. there is no winner take all and sanders would have to start winning states in a very big way. and then he would have to start flipping superdelegates. the road is tougher bernie sanders. coming up, 20 questions or so for mitt romney about delegate math and whether he will consider getting into the presidential race. ♪

♪ it is been since you 24 hours gave your speech. i am wondering what you have experience to wrigley and what you have observed is a direct reaction to it? gov. romney: i have received a

lot of support from friends and associates. they have sent a record number of e-mails and messages. mark: anyone you can tell us who viewers would know? gov. romney: those people can express themselves if they would like to. but, i said in my speech that we can measure the radius of donald trump to be president my part in how he responded to my speech whether it be policy or , a personal attack. characteristically he took the low road. mark: there has been some negative reaction, rush limbaugh reacted negatively. does that bother you at all? gov. romney: i haven't think that donald trump has neither the expense nor temperament to be president. mark: ok. there have been moments along you and mrs.

romney together have said that is too far or too much. can you think of those in the last few weeks or months where you were mrs. romney have said that is too much? gov. romney: it is a long list. his comments about mexicans, that was very early on. the comments about muslims. most recently what he said with regards to the equivocation on david duke and the ku klux klan. and been saying that george w. , at the samear time, saying putin is someone he respects as a strong and effective leader. it'd been one outrage after the other. his mocking of a reporter based on their physical disability. and than the sexual and vulgar elements have been part of his campaign. all of that has been troublesome. i did not want to make comments on a particular candidate until

that was absolutely necessary. my thought was that i could remain somewhat neutral in this and call the balls and strikes and a foul here and there. with the ku klux klan equivocation and with how late this i said to myself, when my grandkids come and say, pop-up , what did you do to stop donald trump, i don't want to say i did nothing. mark: a big date is tuesday when florida and other states vote. you did some other interviews. is that it? what will you be doing between now and ohio and florida? you said you would do everything you could to stop donald trump. gov. romney: i'm doing this, that probably reaches more voters than actually showing up in a state. i am not sure my showing up in any state would make much of a difference, anyway. most people want you to come in and endorsing candidates. i am not doing that. i am laying out the case why we need to have a real republican lead our party.

and why donald trump is not that person. so, that is something i can continue to do best in the media. mark: after today, are you done? gov. romney: i have a show or two tomorrow. indoor beyond that, i will continue to work behind the scenes and do whatever i can do. mark: what about your fundraising network? there are super pacs and groups trying to raise money to stop donald when you help with that effort? have.or romney: i i think they have noticed my remarks yesterday. i'm hoping those people who are saying donald trump is ineffective, we might look at on board, maybe we should wait a minute here and give it a second look. mark: you are a wealthy guy. are you going to give money to any of those groups? gov. romney: i may. but that is something my wife and i will have to decide. mark: ok. some people talk about his taxes. some people speculated about your taxes. do you know something about what might be in his taxes?

do you have some informed guess or are you doing some trolling? gov. romney: i indicated what i believed to be a bombshell in his taxes. that is because every time someone raised a question about his taxes, he evades. you don't do that if you are planning on releasing them. he began by saying the are beautiful, bold, and was going to release them. as time has gone on, he has come up with new excuses why he won't release them. 4-5 years are being audited. well, the he said two or three , years. we say give us the taxes that aren't being audited. somehow he won't do that either. evidence is the same do which is he does not want to release his tax returns under any circumstance. i don't believe he ever will because there is something in there that he is a raid if the people saw it, they would not vote for him as a nominee. mark: would it be enough for him

to release terrible contributions? what would be the right level? governor romney: candidates for office usually given their tax returns. whether it is one year or five years or two years, in the year i had them completed in january 2012, we are now in march of this election year. it is late to be releasing returns. he ought to be doing it. mark: let's take this away from donald trump and talk about who is entitled to the nomination. is the person with the most delegates going into the cleveland convention, has a plurality, is entitled to the nomination? gov. romney: no one is entitled to the nomination. the voters of the country decide with the delegates are elected to make a determination of who would be in the best interest of the party and the country to be our nominee. this is a process that is a normal political process. it may go to a contested open convention.

i think that would be interesting. exciting for the public at large. that is about -- that is a part of our local process. either you have to get the delegates and show you had the support of the nation, you have 1237 delegates. you did not, you have to go to the convention into a defensive delegates. mark: you would be comfortable being part of the delegates saying 48, not 50. he is going to have to fight to get 50% of the convention. he's not the one who should be the presidential nominee with 41%. governor romney: a person like donald trump who has said what he has said about muslims, mexican, women, john mccain -- a person should not be the nominee of our party, or president. i will campaign for an alternative for donald trump until that avenue is no longer open. mark: what would you say to the people who voted for him? gov. romney: i will do my best to get people to vote in another direction. that is how politics work. we have a political process that

has been used before and i anticipate you are going to see a process where people decide the best way forward. by the way, if there was no such thing as an open convention, my guess is the three people running as opponents to donald trump right now would combine to one. they say you have to get up before you get there. those that are running separately, they think it is not the best chance of getting the delegates at the convention they need. mark: you said some pretty rough things about john mccain, that is politics. four years ago rick santorum and , newt gingrich said some interesting things about you. is this different, are the things people will, you and others, saying about donald trump beyond normal politics? gov. romney: i think what he has been doing in the campaign is taking politics to a wholly lower level than we have ever seen, at least in modern times. the attacks based on people's physical characteristics, so

saying about carly fiorina, look at her face, saying about marco rubio in the debate, "little marco, little marco," this hasn't been done before. even calling someone a liar. usually, you said this is a person who's had difficulty with the truth. saying, "he's a liar, liar ted," these kinds of things -- and frankly, the vulgarity, that hasn't been a part of political campaigns. it goes on in locker rooms and sometimes in small groups. but on a public stage, running for president of the united states, to engage in personal attacks is something we haven't seen before. mark: you said to matt lauer that you would not vote for donald trump or hillary clinton. even your political allies and advisers say that is the most still is donald trump and hillary clinton. what would you do in the general election if those are your only

two choices? gov. romney: i would vote for a conservative on the ballot. if there were not one i was comfortable with, i would write in a name. are you available? [laughter] mark: i may be available, we will see. let's say donald trump wins florida and ohio and it looks like by the middle of march he's going to be the republican nominee, would you like to see an effort made by some conservative to get ballot access? gov. romney: i haven't thought about that. i just know i don't what is he donald trump lead our country and i don't want to see hillary clinton leading our country. i will probably be writing in a name. mark: ok. in all likelihood, the winner at that point would be hillary clinton or donald trump. whose presidency would be better for the country and whose would be worse? gov. romney: i'm going to channel lindsey graham and say do you want to either drink the poison or take the bullet? ♪ next, our conversation

with tim miller.

♪ mark: it is miller time. that is a joke he has heard so much in his likely. you can do somewhat better than that, mark. mark: i know, that is why i did not read it. to miller has a new job. he is working for the super pac formed not that long ago with the sole purpose of trying to stop donald trump from becoming the republican party's presidential nominee. tim joins us from miami. tim why did you take this job? ,tim: because sometimes in life, , you have to be on the side of what is right and good. stopping donald trump from becoming the republican nominee is certainly that.

he has no chance to become the president because hillary clinton would wipe the floor with him in the general election. his favorite thing to talk about in his speeches, the polls. he loves talking about the polls. half of his speeches are the polls. i'm not sure what he would talk about in the general elections since hillary is cleaning his clock in every public poll that is out there. and so it is our job to stop , that horrible reality from happening. mark: tim, the packet not raise as much money as they would have liked. there has been discussions this week, an infusion of cash, how much cash do you all hope to raise in the next three weeks? tim: our principles has spent $3 million in iowa, with some success. it is one of the states trump has not won to date. focusing his record on a whole host of issues. because of the fragmented field,

there was not the financial support for a stopgap effort in the ensuing weeks that there needed to be. so more and more money is coming , in the door, we've raised more money in the last week that it has through its existence to date. we have a $1 million television buy on air right now about how trump scammed people at trump u. i am going to use an opportunity to segue that a new piece of information just surfaced with donald trump writing on a blog in 2005 that he thinks outsourcing is a great thing, fantastic. outsourcing is awesome. that is something you will have to contend with tomorrow night in detroit. mark: how much are you guys going to raise between now and march 15? tim: as much as we can. we are going to spend as much as we can. mark: you're not going to give

an exact number is? tim: no, i am not going to give an exact number but it's , important that there are a lot of groups out there. you are seeing more and more money come in the door. hopefully, we will spend as much as it takes. mark: mitt romney is a moderate fan of this program. what would you like to see him say in his speech right now? tim: a, governor romney. [laughter] what i would like to see you say in your speech, no matter who you are a number publican party, no matter whether you fancy , arself a conservative movement conservative, or a populist, donald trump is not looking out for you. he is a fraud. what you have seen from it -- mitt is donald trump is not released his tax returns. he claimed to give money to the wounded warriors.

he probably pays very little in taxes. has rightly called him out on that. he's right to call him out on the fact that he would not clearly denounced the kkk. my hope is that he continues to do that tomorrow with moral clarity. i look forward to hearing what he has to say. --k: tim, you have come out you've come out to join this effort. charlie baker of massachusetts came out, a few other people have. i don't know if any of these things have gotten as much attention as governor christie's endorsement of donald trump. i am wondering what you think? you have written about it on twitter. i do think that is helping donald trump stabilize his commanding position he isn't? tim: it exposed the fact that that chris christie's entire campaign was a farce.

extensively, he was running for office as the "tell it like it is" candidate wanting to talk hard truths about the policies our country has to address. and then he endorsed the candidate who offers no policy specifics and wants to tell people the opposite of hard truths. donald trump tells people what they want to hear. he has a reputation for being a guy that says what people wish they would say. he is not telling hard truths. he's a complete phony and a fraud. and, frankie, the fact that chris christie is going to support him just so he can continue to get on tv standing behind donald trump around a lot of fake gold chandeliers and whatnot reflects poorly on him. and to the extent that he has gotten a lot of media coverage, a huge portion of it has been accrued it negatively toward chris christie and i think that is extremely well deserved. mark: is the republican party

and your associates are you all in a panic over the prospect of donald trump being your nominee? tim: i am not in a panic. i cannot speak for everyone. i think he can absolutely still be stopped. there is a conventional wisdom about this. it is very much consider it of the fact that this nomination process will work out like past nominations. it is completely different. donald trump, right now, has received less than half of the delegates. cruz and rubio combined have more delegates. if you look at the exit polls, the key number was about half of the voters who showed up to vote would be unhappy with donald trump as the nominee. this is not like george w. bush in 1999. donald trump is consolidating more and more people who don't want him to be the nominee.

we are in for a long process. timmark: in donald trump calledu and let you a message saying i would like to reach out to you and what i'm about, would you call him back? tim: sure, of course i would call him back. i have a lot of things i would like to talk to him about. and share that with your viewers. mark: is there anything he could say to win you over? tim: i would never vote for him or support him. there's nothing he can say to win me over because he is a complete fraud. he's demonstrated that throughout his life. and, frankly the fact that just , what came out today about the fact that he was pro-outsourcing, these are the essential elements of his campaign, he cannot be trusted as president. he has no respect for the constitution. but we don't have to worry about , that. the republican party has to make sure he does not get the nomination. mark: tim miller, thank you.

we will be talking to you regularly. up next, my conversation with the planned parenthood president, cecile richards. her thoughts on donald trump, hillary clinton and much more. ♪

mark: here with me now is the president of planned parenthood, cecile richards. thank you for joining me. donald trump has been talking a lot about planned parenthood and praising planned parenthood. i know you do not support him for president, but do you like that he is defending the role that planned parenthood plays? cecile: what he says reflects where the american people are. what mr. trump is saying is very disingenuous. on the one hand, he praises our work and on the other handsets

says if he were president, he would end the ability of folks to come to us for health care. you cannot have it both ways. mark: you could exist as an organization without any government funding. cecile: we've been around for 100 years. we are looking forward to doing this work for another 100 years. it is dangerous when politicians start putting their own political agenda ahead of the well-being of folks in this country and access to health care and that is what we are seeing in this republican presidential primary. every single candidate saying we would end access to planned parenthood, don't want to pay for legal abortion anymore. that does not reflect where most people are. mark: i'm not trying to force you to say nice things about

him. there seems to be no political upside for him to praise the role that you will play in health issues outside of abortion. i'm wondering whether you think the fact that he is doing that is a good thing because he seems to be saying planned parenthood does a lot of good. cecile: that reflects that his polling is showing what we see constantly, that people support our health care. i don't want anybody to be misled about the danger of somebody running for president to say you cannot go back for health care. we will cut them out of the health care program. mark: within the context of the republican nomination, hillary clinton seems to be doing well, would you say she is the favorite to be the next president of united states? cecile: i think she has an incredible record, particularly in women's health.

she is poised to be the democratic nominee. the race last night is demonstrating a breadth of support. this november's election, i don't think anybody is taking anything for granted. this has been one of the most interesting political years. i'm glad to see so many young people interested in the electoral politics. they will be a critical voting block in november. they would swing for her. mark: voters tend not to care much about it. is there any indication that this will be part of the dialogue on the presidential campaign trail? cecile: i think it will. we are hearing the case about the texas laws that have been so restrictive on women's access to safe and legal abortion in that state.

this week, a poll showed that for millennial voters, their top two issues were health care access and reproductive rights. because of the assault at the state level and because so many cases are in court, this is a special year. usually the supreme court case seems rather far away. because of the limited access to health care and the efforts to turn back the clock decades on women's health, there is a -- this is much more in the mind of voters than i've ever seen. mark: as president obama think about who he might nominate, is it an absolute for you that he nominate someone who affirms they will uphold the fight? cecile: it's important that anyone who is a nominee respect judicial precedents.

right now, i'm in a camp of believing president obama was elected for a four-year term, not a three-year term. it's unconscionable to me that the leadership of the senate would say we will not even entertain anyone. we have a case today before eight judges. the american people deserve to have nine judges on the supreme court regardless of who is president. mark: some believe there should be no litmus test for either party. others say roe is such an important precedent. there have been precedents overturned that i bet you think were a good idea. do you insist president obama

nominate a potential justice on the record saying i will uphold the precedent set in roe? cecile: for planned parenthood and for the millions of people who depend on us for health care, that is really important to us to have a federal judiciary that supports women's rights, including access to safe and legal abortion. i don't think it is a hypothetical case. today, we saw a case argued before the supreme court that even as the solicitor general said if these kinds of restrictions are in fact upheld, there may be a constitutional right or legal right to safe and legal abortion but it is no right at all because they cannot access it. mark: would you be disappointed if he nominates someone who's record -- cecile: did not support women's rights? i would be. i would be disappointed in any judge that doesn't support roe versus wade. mark: would you be disappointed if the president picks someone

who, knowing in advance -- cecile: i will be disappointed in any nominee that does not support women's rights. mark: you will not know until they are on the court. he could nominate someone who has been asked. would you be disappointed if he picked someone without knowing for sure if they supported roe? cecile: you're going into such a hypothetical. i would be disappointed, not just myself, but millions of women would be disappointed if the next nominee to the court does not clearly support women's rights and that includes roe. mark: give me a name of someone who would be good. who would you pick? cecile: i've heard lots of names. i'm not into picking -- that may not be the best judgment to have my endorsement if they want to be confirmed. it's important that we look for judges who have a judicial

temperament that understand that women are equal parts of society. it was interesting sitting there in the courtroom getting to hear a case argued where we have three women on the supreme court. as a woman and a mom, it makes a huge difference to have different voices in the room who have walked in the shoes of women in this country. i've been extremely grateful for the additions of elena kagan and sonia sotomayor. mark: coming up -- ♪

john: joining us now, former congressman gerald ford, jr., also an nbc political analyst and dan senor, the founder of the foreign-policy initiative. neither of you are here as surrogates today. you are here as friends. you are here as friends. we will start with republicans. >> why would you start with republicans? it's so less interesting. john: i will start with you. christie said she would rather vote for hillary clinton than donald trump. would you vote for donald trump? >> i'm not voting for donald trump. i'm confident marco rubio will be the nominee. i think there will be a another republican in the general election. john: who would that be? >> i'm not going to throw out names. john: i asked this question -- is this right now an existential

crisis for the republican party? >> you have a guy who is leading the polls right now against a fragmented field who just said last night that the chinese government's treatment of the citizenry in china is a model for how we should deal with the american people. he basically said vladmir putin is a model leader for the united states. assad is keeping the region in check. over half the tweets he read tweets from his fans are from white supremacists. john: what does it say about your party that he is the front runner? >> he is the front runner against a fragmented field. the majority of republicans are still voting against him.

rubio against trump will truly test whether he is the front runner. up until the last couple of weeks, two things have not been tested in this race. how donald trump deals with someone who doesn't just stay above in the primary and challenge on substance, but gets in his grill. that has not been tested. secondly, we are testing whether or not he deals positively come responsibly, constructively with tens of millions of dollars of tv ads raising all sorts of issues about him. no republican has ever won the nomination without going through that. >> i will not vote for donald trump, either. john: a newsmaking, headline making admission on your point. >> senator rubio -- look at his

record, look at him and his family, i don't think he has served himself well in the last few days. it's hard to roll around in the mud like a pig and not look like a pig -- i understand his strategy. the overall winner has been mrs. clinton. people were worried about how well she would do a nevada. in south carolina, appealing to a broad section of democrats. john: what can she do now to take advantage of the chaos in the republican party? >> stay on her message. her speech in south carolina was one of the better speeches she has given. you get thrown off stride at times -- they adhere to a message and adhere to an approach.

the question now has to focus on what is it you are going to do to as president for all americans. she talked about make america whole again. that is the message. or is chaos and dysfunction on the republican side will help us. it will unite us. bernie sanders's path has narrowed tremendously. they chaos on the republican side helps unite democrats even more. john: for republicans to win this race, you have to run a perfect race to beat hillary clinton. then republicans were saying she's easy to beat -- >> she's tough. what trump said is horrifying. he will not disavow david duke. he did not yesterday. >> you hear the words "ku klux

klan," your immediate reaction should be bad. >> fine, i will repudiate. >> in terms of the politics, the electoral politics of it, what donald trump will do is guarantee clinton can reassemble the obama coalition in better numbers. mitt romney got 27% of the latino vote. what do you think donald trump will get? 20% if you are being conservative about it. in his favor. that wipes out a whole slew of states that romney won. john: let me make the contrary point. there are people saying i would rather run against marco rubio. he's a predicable candidate. donald trump is totally unpredictable. he could drive a huge amount of working-class turnout in the midwest -- what do you think about that? donald trump might be more

dangerous. >> i will leave it to the strategists to figure that out. i don't know which one i'd run against. the fundamental challenge for mrs. clinton is to build on what you did the other night in south carolina in terms of her speech, putting her campaign on a path -- the nominee will be tough. electoral college could show you have a bigger win -- i understand the argument about trump. could he bring voters into the fold who were not in the polls before? probably. is that number big enough to offset the advantage democrats will have with african american and latino voters? >> mitt romney was 4 million votes behind obama. at a time when we need to expand

our share of the electorate. tell me which states will actually flip enough that we fill a 4 million vote hole and add above that? john: what does she need to do to excite young voters away from -- in a way that bernie sanders has? >> an economic message that empowers people, owning a bigger home and being able to support your family, that is what the american dream is. john: we will be right back after this. ♪

john: a "yuge" week indeed for the 2016 elections. kansas, kentucky and maine holding caucuses this weekend.

along with the primary in louisiana. check out our analysis on bloombergpolitics.com. mark: you can catch a new episode of our show "the circus" on showtime at 8:00 p.m. eastern. in washington, d.c., you can catch us on 99.1 fm. we will have a new episode on monday. until then, sayonara. ♪

>> the contemporary artworld is vibrant and booming as never before. it is the 21st century phenomenon trade a global industry in its own right. we look at the artists at the heart of this. artists with the unique power to astonish, challenge, and surprise. in this program, we take a close look at ns harsha. ♪