>> coming up welcome to the besf addition of all due respect. it has been a huge week with the primary cycle. we begin, front and center, with the question, what, if anything, the candidates at this point? we will take a quick trip down candidate drive. donald trump looks destined to

become the republican nominee. other guys seem to be relegated to thinking that there is some tricky math that could keep trump just shy of the nomination, forcing th a brokerd convention in columbia the summer. 319 delegates, everyone else combined, 385. it requires an assumption that caucus states have not been his strongest, and he will get .tronger in caucuses even in the states where he has lost, he still gets a lot of delegates, and given that, let's say this pattern continues in

the caucus states and white and rural states. let's say that trump loses ohio to john kasich, and even though he is ahead in polls now, he loses to marco rubio. those are two of the big winner take all states. even if he won every other winner take all states, he would fall short of the magic number of 1237. we have laid out that scenario. there are other scenarios. does that make the case to you that it is possible that trump, continuing along, it stopped short of a majority? john: i think it is possible. the key thing there, in addition to what you said about the demographic places where he may is be strong, the key thing

he will have to lose the winner take all states. .rouble have to get beaten if that happens, i think there is a reasonable chance -- reasonable, again, not the most likely -- that he be stop short of 12 37. i do think, by the way, that is the only way he does not become the nominee. i'm open to that possibility, more than i am to a contested convention. mark: the question of whether they can take it from a contested convention is a whole different topic. could the math workout? it could. is thesenteresting outside groups, which we mentioned earlier in the program, if they start to advertise big in the states, if they say, marco rubio starts to focus big on florida. ohio.asich focuses on

you can see a situation where trump is pinned down, does not win enough states to get to the majority, that is what the party is going for now. again, as you said, it is possible, it is not the most likely outcome. right. look, i'm not saying he has to lose all the winner take all states, but he has to lose the big ones. you start looking down the field far enough, and if you get into a one-on-one race in places like california, new jersey, i know he has chris christie on his side, but he could lose those states. if you loses those states, if you keep them from getting over the goal line. morning, as headlights proclaimed, hillary clinton's super tuesday victories.

basically, a scenario exists that sanders could win big states like new york and california, and do well, also michigan. they were not high on him winning florida. how plausible is the plan to stop clinton from florida? john: i do not think it is that possible. i'd admire those guys. i think they are trying to find the narrow path. there is a narrow path. it is really narrow. i think it is a lot less likely than the previous think we were talking about, holding trump short of 1237. those states that are more demographically diverse are where hillary clinton will be strong. it is a very, very, very hard road going forward. mark: sanders did better than i thought yesterday. i thought he would only went one or two states, he won four.

what he needs is a momentum changing win. if he could win in michigan, hillary would face a little more of a challenge than she is now. that is the kind of state where beat him.d eat him -- what you fall behind in the democratic party bowls, it is hard to catch up. there is no winner take all. sanders would have to start winning states in a very big way up, and going to catch then start flipping superdelegates. the road is tough for bernie sanders p coming up, 20 questions or so for mitt romney. ♪

♪ governor romney, thank you for joining us. it has been about 24 hours since you gave your speech in utah. i'm wondering what you have experienced directly and what you have observed from the

reaction of the? mitt romney: i have received a lot of support from friends and associates. they have set a record number of e-mails and calls my way. mark: anyone you could share? share ifey: they can they would like to. characteristically, he took the low road. mark: there has been some negative reaction. rush limbaugh, sean hannity reacted negatively. does that bother you at all? romney: i did not see their reaction. frankly, i'm speaking honestly about something i care deeply about. i think donald trump has neither the experience or the temperament to be president. mark: there have been moments along the way, which may be you and mrs. romney together have said, that is too far, too much.

?an you think of any of those things he has done that you or mrs. romney have said, that is too much? it is a long list. his comments about mexicans, early on, his comments about muslims. most recently, his equivocation about david duke and the ku klux klan. and, saying that george w. bush was a liar, at the same time, saying that putin is someone he respects. it has been one outrage over another. reporterng of a because of their physical disability. then, if you will, the sexual and volker elements -- sexual and vulgar elements. mark: anything that was the last straw, or it has been pulitzer? mitt romney: i did not want to

make specific comments about one candidate. i thought i could be neutral in this and call balls, strikes, and the foul here and there. with the ku klux klan equivocation, and how late this is in the process, i didn't want to say i did nothing. mark: the big day, as you pointed out, a week from tuesday . florida, ohio, and others will. but will you be doing between now and march 14 to do what you said, everything you could to stop donald trump? romney: i'm doing this. this probably reaches more voters than actually showing up in the state. i'm not sure my showing up in the state would much difference anyway. most people want you to come in and endorse the candidate. i'm not doing that. i'm laying of the case why we need a conservative, a real

republican lead the party, and by donald trump is not that person. mark: after today, are you done? romney: i will do a sunday show, or two, and whatever i can behind the scenes. mark: what about advocating for super pac? are you helping with that effort? mitt romney: i am, and i'm sure they noticed my remarks yesterday. the people who say donald trump is effectively the nominee, maybe they are saying, we should wait a bit. wealthyu are a pretty guy, not as wealthy as donald trump, he keeps saying. will you give money to any of the groups? mitt romney: i may. that is something my wife and i will have to decide. and others reid

speculated about your taxes. you know something of what might be in his taxes? : i indicated by a said there is a bombshell in his taxes. every time anyone raises the question about his taxes, he abates. you don't do that, if you plan on releasing them. beautiful, andre he would release them. as time goes on, he comes up with reasons why he will not release them. he says they are being audited. the responses, give us the taxes that are not being audited. somehow, he will not do that either. everyone has the same evidence we do. he does not want to release his tax returns under any circumstances. i believe he never will because there is something in it that if people saw it, they would not vote for him as the nominee. mark: what would be the right

level? romney: candidates for office have traditionally given their tax returns. whether one year, two years, five years. i provided my tax returns+++ and generally to of the 12. we're now in march of this election year. it is late. mark: let's talk about this question of who is entitled to the nomination. if the person with the most delicate, going into the

cleveland delegation, entitled? mitt romney: no one is entitled. delegates can make the determination who should be the nominee. this is a normal political process. it may go to a contested, open convention. i think that would be interesting. you have to win. either you get the delegates ensure you have the support of , or if you didn't, you have to go to the convention and commence the delegates. the delegates. mark: you would be comfortable saying that 40% is not 50% -- 48% is not 50%. mitt romney: a person like donald trump should not be the nominee of her party or the president. i will campaign for an alternate to donald trump. mark: what would you say to the people who voted for him. mitt romney: i will do my very best to get people to vote

in another direction. that is how politics work. you will see a process here where people decide what is the best way forward. if there was no such thing as an open convention, my guess is the three people competing as opponents would combine as one. they are running separately. they think that gives them the best chance to get the delegates that they need. mark: eight years ago, you said about johnthings mccain. four years ago, rick santorum and others said some rough things about you. that is how things work. what donald trump is saying, you think goes beyond normal politics? mitt romney: he has taken politics to a holy lower-level than what we have seen, at least in modern times. attacks on people's physical

characteristics -- carly fiorina, look at her face, marco rubio, little marco. even calling someone a liar. ted. things.nds of frankly, the vulgarity. that has not been part of political campaigns. it goes on in locker rooms. i understand that. president of the united states, to engage in the kind of personal physical attribute aspects is something we have not seen before. mark: you said to matt lauer that you would not vote for donald trump, but you would not vote for hillary clinton.

i think you would say that is the most likely outcome, hillary clinton and donald trump as the nominees. what would you do? mitt romney: i would flow for conservative on the ballot, and if there were not one, i would write in a name. mark: are you available? mitt romney: we will see. mark: would you like to see an effort by some conservatives to get ballot access? mitt romney: i have not thought about that at this stage. i just know that i don't want donald trump to lead a country, and i don't want hillary clinton to lead our country. i would probably right in a name. at that point, in all likelihood, the winner would be one of them. who would be best for the country? i will channel

lindsey graham, do you want to drink the poison or take a bullet?

♪ the prompter says i should say it is miller time in order to introduce the guests, but i won't. tim miller joins us now from miami. he has a new job. he is working for our principles sole purpose of trying to stop donald trump from being the republican party's nominee. he joins us from miami. why did you take this job? >> sometimes in life, you need to be on the side of what is right and good. stopping donald trump from being republican nominee and the

president is certainly that. he has no chance to become the president because hillary clinton would take the floor from him in a general election. he loves talking about the polls . i'm not sure where he would talk about in the general election -- hillary cleaning his clock in every poll out there. it is our job to stop that horrible reality from happening. mark: the pac has not raise as much money as it liked. how much cash do you hope to raise in the next three weeks? pac spentnciples about $3 million in iowa, with some success, being that that is one of the states that donald today.as not won

because of the fragmented field, for a variety of reasons, there was not the financial support effort thatrump there needed to be. now, more and more money is coming in the door. has raisedles pac more money in the last week through its -- then it has through its existence to date. we haven't over $1 million -- have an over $1 million campaign ad. a new piece of information surfaced with donald trump writing in 2005 that he thinks outsourcing is a great thing, awesome. that is something he will have to contend with tomorrow in detroit. mark: you are going to raise $10 million, $50 million? how much will you raise? >> as much as we can, and we will spend.

no, i will not give exact numbers. i think it is important that there are a lot of groups out there -- america's future fund is also spending money on this. we will spend as much as it takes. mark: mitt romney is a moderate fan of this program, not impossible that he is not watching now. what would you like to say to him? .> hey, governor romney what i would like you to say is no matter who you are in the republican party, whether you fancy yourself a establishment republican, conservative, populist, donald trump is not looking out for you, he is a fraud, he is looking out for himself. what you have seen over the past few weeks is highlighting the fact that donald has not .eleased his tax returns my guess is because he does not give any money to charity or the wooded worriarriors.

likely call to him out. he has rightly called him out on the fact that he will not denounce the kkk. i look forward to hearing what he has to say. it will get a lot of coverage. you have come out to join this effort. anything's have gotten as much attention as governor christie's endorsement of trump. i wonder what you think of what governor christie did. >> i think basically what it did was that chris christie's campaign was a farce. essentially, he was running as

the teller like it is candidate who wanted to talk hard truths about specific policy proposals address.ry needs to donald trump like to tell people what they want to hear. he has a reputation telling people what they want to hear him safe. he is not telling hard truths. he is a complete phony and a fraud. the fact that chris christie will support him, just so he can , standing around a lot chandeliers, reflects very poorly on him. party,s the republican

and your associates, your friends, people you have talked to in the party, are you in a panic over donald trump being your nominee? >> i'm not in a panic. i cannot speak for everybody. i think he can absolutely still be stopped. i think the conventional wisdom is very much consider of the fact that this nomination process will work out like past nomination processes have. dollar trump right now has received less than half of the delegates. the other candidates combined have more delegates. about half of the voters who showed up to vote said they would be unhappy with donald trump as the nominee. this is not like george bush in 1999 when he was consolidating support as the process went on.

he is consolidating more people who don't want him to be the nominee. mark: less than 30 seconds, if donald trump called you, and said, i would like to reach out to you, and tell you what i'm about, would you call him back? >> sure, i would call him back. i have plenty of things i want to talk to him about. mark: is there anything he w could win you over? >> there is nothing he could say to win me over. he is a complete fraud. he has demonstrated he is a complete fraud over a body of work throughout his life. frankly, the fact that he was pro-outsourcing -- these are hisessential elements of campaign. he cannot be trusted. what the republican party has to worry about is making sure he the nomination.

mark: tim miller, thank you. we will be talking to you regularly. up next, my conversation with planned parenthood president cecile richards. and much more. ♪

here with me now onset is the president of planned parenthood, cecile richards. donald trump has been talking a lot about planned parenthood. i know you don't support him, but you like the fact that a prominent voice out there is supporting the role that planned parenthood plays? cecile: i think what he is saying reflects where the american people are. i think what he is saying is very disingenuous. on the one hand, he praises our work, but on the other hand,

says if he were president, he would end the ability for folks to come to us for health care. you can't have it both ways. mark: you could exist without government funding? cecile: we will. we have been around for 100 years. we look forward to doing this work for another hundred years. i think it is very dangerous when politicians put their own political agenda ahead of the well-being of folks in this country, and the access to health care. that is what we are seeing in this presidential primary. every candidate is saying they would and access to planned parenthood. i do not think that reflects where most people are. mark: i'm not forcing you to say nice things about him if you don't want to, but it seems like there seems to be no political upside for him to praise the role that you will play and health issues -- in health issues. i wonder if you think the fact

he is doing that is a good thing. he seems to be, as the republican front runner, saying that planned parenthood does good. : i think what he is saying reflects the polling that we do. misled want anyone to be about the danger of someone who will run for president, and then you can't go back there for health care. the: within the context of republican nomination fight, your candidate, hillary clinton, seems to be doing well. you think she is the favorite to be the next president? cecile: i think she has an incredible record, particularly in women's health.

i do think she is poised to be the democratic nomination. she had a very good last night. i think this november's election is going to be -- i don't think anyone is taking anything for granted. this is been the most interesting political years. we have been doing this for a long time. i'm glad to see so many young people interested in electoral politics. i think they are going to be a critical voting block in november, and will certainly swing for her. mark: i have covered enough of these that when the supreme court is put on the table, they say that voters will care. voters seem to not care. just left the supreme court where they are hearing the case about the texas laws that have been so restrictive on

facing legal abortion in that state. a poll showed that for millennial voters, their top two issues are health care access and reproductive rights. i think this is a special year. i tend to agree with you that usually is something or seems -- usually the supreme court feels far away, but because of all the sl on women's health care and the effort to turn back the , there is a seed that is very much important to a lot of cases that we care about. mark: as president obama thinks about who he may nominate, is it an absolute for you that he nominate someone who based on the record, affirms that they will uphold roe versus wade? i think it is an absolute that anyone who is nominated to the court respect

judicial precedent. be will be looking closely at any nominee. i believe that president obama was elected for a four-year term, and not a three-year term. it is and constable -- and unbelievable to me that the head of the senate say they would not consider a nomination. i think the american people deserve to have nine judges on the supreme court. mark: i want to take you back to a litmus test. some believe there should be no litmus test for either party. has beenk that roe such an important president. there have been pr ecedents overturned. do you think he should nominate someone who says they will uphold roe. for planned parenthood

and the millions of people who depend on us for health care, it is really important for us to have a federal judiciary that supports women's rights, including access to safe abortions. i don't think it is a hypothetical case. we saw a case argued before the 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 facing legal abortions. mark: i did not ask the litmus the right way. yes or no, would you be disappointed if he nominated someone who's record -- cecile: did not support women's rights? i would be. i would be disappointed if any judge did not support roe versus wade, given the law of the land. obviously, i will be

disappointed in any nominee that does not support women's rights. mark: you won't know until they are on the court. he could nominate someone who has written, i support roe, or he asked, would you support roe versus wade? would you be disappointed if he nominated someone that did not support roe? suche: you are going into a hypothetical. i would -- millions of women held be disappointed if nominate someone who did not support women's rights, including roe. mark: who would you nominate? that may not be the best judgment to have my and/or, if they want to be confirmed for

the supreme court. it is a point to have judges that have a government that believe that women are equal members of society. a case argued, as a mom, is a woman, it makes a huge difference having different voices in the room, who have actually walked in the shoes of women in this country. grateful forremely agen.ddition of h mark: coming out, harold ford junior. ♪

mark: joining us now, former fordessman harold

junior and dancy c. noir. neither of you are here as surrogates. we are going to have a chat. why will you start with republicans? >> i will start with you >>. >>would you vote for donald trump in the general election? >> i will not vote for him in the primary or in the general. i'm confident that marco rubio will be the nominee. if he is not the nominee, i think there will be another republican in the general election, even if they are not the nominee. >> running as an independent? >> correct. >> who would that be? >> i'm not throwing up names. i'm not voting for donald trump. and nexts right now

essential crisis for the republican party? is that what this moment represents? >> you have a guy leading the polls right now against a fragmented field. look at what he has said in the last few weeks. he said that the chinese treatment of its people is a model for the united states. he has said that vladimir putin is a model -- you can keep going down the list. tweets that he retwh reads -- that he eets from his fans are white supremacists. he is the front runner in a fragmented field the majority of voters so far are still voting against him. whittles, as we get

to a two-man race, rubio versus trump will truly test if he is the front runner. two things have not been tested. one, how donald trump deals with someone who doesn't just challenge him on substance, but gets at his girl. at his grill. tv ads.w he deals with we are about to go through that. >> how would you evaluate how good rubio is doing in this mode, and how you think trump is handling it? >> i will not vote for donald trump either. a newsmakingbe headline. >> i think marco rubio is an attractive guy.

i don't think he has served himself especially well in the past few weeks. i understand the strategy that you are suggesting. the real winner has been mrs. clinton. , in nevada,enting whether she would be able to pull it off. she did. >> what can she do now to take advantage of the chaos in the republican party? >> stay on her message. i think her speech and south carolina was one of the better ones that she has given. signing the way back to the .ampaign to a message and approach. the question now has to focus on

all of america, how we have to make america whole again. that is the message. it is in a bubble, as some point -- mr. sanders has every right to stay in the race -- i'm for hillary clinton. . think his path has narrowed >> for republicans to win this race, you would have to run a perfect race to beat hillary clinton. then, i heard republican say, she is so easy to beat. the she look -- la t how tough does she look to beat? >> tough. donald trump will not disavow david duke.

he was asked three times. the principle of it is horrifying. in terms of politics, the electoral politics of it, what donald trump as nominee would do would basically guarantee that hillary clinton could reassemble coalition in big numbers. what percent would donald trump get of the hispanic vote? 10%-50%? >> there are people in brooklyn now who say they would rather run against marco rubio the donald trump. marco rubio is a predictable candidate, i know how to do that. donald trump is completely unpredictable. he could draw out the white working class in places like .ichigan

what do you think about that, the fact that donald trump could be more dangerous? >> i don't know which one i would rather run against. hillary clinton, in terms of her speech, her campaign -- the reality is it will be tough. this country is a divided country. obviously, the electoral college can show she had more of a win or not, but when you look at the popular vote, we're divided. >> can i make a point? mitt romney was 4 million votes behind obama. 2016 with 4dy start hole.on votes in the

tell me which states will flip. >> ohio and florida. >> one must question. 30 seconds here. what is she going to do, one thing quick, that she will do to excite young voters the way bernie sanders has? >> talking about better paying jobs, owning a home and having a family. >> thank you. we will be right back after this. ♪

♪ >> a huge week indeed for the presidential election. check out our full coverage, analysis of all the contests at bloombergpolitics.com.

mark: remember, if you are in washington, d.c., you can catch us on the radio. we will have a brand-new episode of all due respect -- with all due respect on monday. until then. ♪

>> coming up on bloomberg us, the stories that shape the week in business around the world. front runners surge in the race for the white house. latestwatchers parse the jobs report. the debate over digital privacy intensifies. >> it is really about how we access evidence anywhere. ground, is not a middle the i know of, the requires apple to go to work for the government. >>