♪ mark: welcome to this edition of the best of "with all due respect". this week has been another seminal one. we had it yet another super duper tuesday. after which, four republican candidates points down to president obama nominated judge three. merrick garland. and the donald continues to take the spotlight even when relating low. -- laying low. john: we begin with the nation dealing with the fallout. protests broke out for the show we produce in conjunction with bloomberg politics.

>> donald trump was interrupted at a rally in missouri. police say there were 32 people arrested there in st. louis. and another trump event is coming up shortly. folks are already in the room for that. [indiscernible] >> there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of protesters on hand. the security does not have a handle on the situation here. >> tonight's rally will be postponed until another day. [applause] thank you very much. and please go in peace.

[applause] >> this is becoming violent. there is pushing and shoving going on inside this arena. this is total chaos. >> donald trump joins me live on the phone. mr. trump, do you believe you have done anything to create a tone in which this kind of violence is encouraged? >> nobody has been hurt at our rallies. >> do you regret saying any of those things about punching protesters? sending them out on stretchers? >> i do not regret it at all. we have had tremendous success with people, the popularity we have had inside the rallies as well, it is a love fast. --fest. >> you have no regrets about anything you have said?

>> we have had great success and frankly i think we did a good job tonight. i think a lot of people are giving us a lot of credit. [applause] hillary clinton: i want to say a few words about what happened in chicago last night. [applause] >> donald trump has created a toxic environment. >> the encouragement of violence and aggression is not only wrong, but dangerous. bernie sanders: donald trump has to be loud and clear and tell his supporters that violence at rallies is not what america is about and to end it. the intended to support republican nominee, but it is getting harder every day. >> unlike donald trump, i do not ask people in the audience to punch them in the face.

>> i have to do it myself. [indiscernible] and to think i had such an easy life, what do i need this for? [applause] today in hickory, north carolina, trump appeared with chris christie and insisted that the coverage of the rallies was getting blown out of proportion. >> you know how many people have been hurt at our rallies? i think bascially none, maybe somebody got hit once. there is no violence. i tell you what, we go and these things are so incredible, it is a movement and it is a love f

est, and we love each other and we will do so well. i am a peaceloving person. we love peace. mark: at another event later in tampa, sarah palin blamed the protesters and the mainstream media. sarah palin: what we do not have time for is all of the petty, stuff that is been going on with the "protesters." mark: amazing how much this is dominating every piece of coverage for the year. is donald trump helped or hurt? john: i do not know whether any of this will hurt him in terms of his supporters. that i do not know. i do know that to the extent that there is an anti-trump movement, this is a galvanizing moment for that movement.

there are many republicans who have thought donald trump would split the party in various ways. that he would ruin the republican party, ruin the republican brand. i think a lot of establishment republicans watching on friday, apologizing, trying to calm things down but inciting things to a further degree, they are galvanizing him. they may not be able to stop him that if there is a way, there are a lot of republicans saying we do not want a nominee who will lose the general election and insight this kind of violence on the streets of america in 2016. i think it makes it more likely that john kasich will win ohio. i think it will likely that the establishment will try to take the nomination away from him. john: i feel like for a lot of casual viewers, they already did not want trump but there is a

sense of urgency now that was not there before, having seen just the utter chaos and the way donald trump was not backing away but in many ways -- mark: i think people will still take ted cruz because donald trump behaved over the weekend , friday night and on phone or's with cable news and on the , sunday shows, he behaved with no finesse. he basically said i bear no responsibility. i think that worries some people. john: i know i just heard the bell but he has suggested his supporters should go to bernie sanders rallies and potentially cause trouble. he talked about how he might pay the legal bills for the guy who who sucker punched an african-american protester. that is just the wrong thing to do. john kasich said donald trump is creating a toxic atmosphere. he lamented that has kids are

watching this campaign and are horrified. marco rubio says he is stoking anger for political gain. while ted cruz is still saying he would vote for the eventual nominee, he even told meet the press on sunday that his party's front-runner has created an empire -- environment that only encourages the nastiness of this thing. paul ryan said today that candidates must take responsibility for unrest. mark, my question for you of the three republican candidates now challenging donald trump, who is dealing with this in the right way, not just in terms of the nthical right thing but i terms that would give them the political edge? mark: i do not think marco will find a way to win florida. he also has just been agonizing over how to react. kasich has reacted consistently and i think it fits with his brand. john: i agree with you. i think they have all handled it

pretty well. comparatively speaking, cruz benefits more, i think he is more likely to be the nominee because he has more delegates. he has more concerns on the side of republicans and he has spoken out over the weekend about this. think,a lot to make them we do not like ted cruz, but he has risen to the occasion. mark: it all depends on how much this stuff goes on. does donald trump change his behavior, change the rules? i do not know why he would not call the young man who was punched in the face, and say i hope your ok. john: he does not seem to have a fingertip feel for the situation. mark: he does for his supporters but not for other audiences. john: yes and for the people freaking out about this. mark: there was a chance before that if he swept every state a lot of establishment people would get in line.

then he could start coasting to the domination. that will not happen now. now someone will benefit and i am not sure who. how one of the candidates could possibly steal the nomination away from donald trump. ♪

♪ gentlemen, the 3000 block of las vegas boulevard. together, they are three of the most profitable casinos in las vegas. this is the vault at the bellagio, beneath solid earth. it safeguards every dime that passes through each of the three casinos above it and we are going to rob it. mark: hold the phone warner bros. lawyers. consider this, the american people may be witnessing the political heist of the century. if donald trump falls short of delegates he needs to

claim the nomination in cleveland, he will still probably walk into the convention this summer than any other candidate, probably by a lot. that means there is the opportunity for a long+++ here to lay out the plan that would be a danny ocean style one, to walk us there how this could happen. you have a great piece that lays it out, month by month. let's start with the month we are in now, even as the primaries are taking place in delegates are being selected. >> we would talk about who won

how many delegates. the people who go to cleveland to fill the roles for their state have yet to be decided. there is a shadow campaign going on and a hunt to put your loyalists in slots. last saturday, iowa was having their county conventions, they were selecting people who had been elected the night of the iowa caucus. those people will go to the convention. it is entirely possible, the goal for these other campaigns is, they want to find states where donald trump may be won the majority of delegates but did not get those. mark: typically, delegates the vast majority bound on the first ballot, but it donald trump does not get a majority on the first ballot, then many of the delegates become free agents, and their loyalties to donald trump may change. >> there are other things you vote on besides the nomination that will have a real impact. john: they never may have been

that loyal to donald trump in the first place. now we move onto the next phase, we move to the sell. who is getting sold? >> there is a saying going around that you cannot have a brokered convention because there are no brokers. i think that is right at the national level. the people that pick delegates in the states are local party brokers, the state party chairman, the governor in the state, often that person a sickly runs the state party. you look at a state like south carolina. trump one all 50 delegates and yet, the people who are getting selected to be the trump delegates at the convention, the people who will beep there are more likely to be loyal to nikki haley or someone else. they are very anti-trump. you could end up, as long as candidates like the anti-trump candidates win over -- over the

party trump offices, you could see them moving over. you are going to have these free agents, double agents and he wants them to come over to you. what is remarkable is how acceptable practices that we would normally think of as improper are, it is not clear to me that you could actually be prevented from offering someone cash for their vote. john: then we get to june which is about the switch. this is about rules. talk about that. >> questions about who can be entered into nomination. had a conversation the night of the nevada caucuses, of a some of these irregularities that took place. that could be grounds to challenge the results in nevada, trumps state. the contest committee, if you want to knock nevada out, you will need a vote to win the contest committee and that will go to the floor of the convention. mark: would you need a majority of the total delegates?

would they be subtracted? >> in the past, there have been role changes that make it impossible for the delegates from this state's who are being questioned to even vote. you just need a majority from people of non-trump states. mark: we get to july, cleveland, it to the pinch whereafter they laid all this groundwork, do what? donald trump would not get the votes he would need on the first ballot, and then you would see some of these delegation circles move like trojan horses. all of a sudden, the 50 delegates that donald trump was counting on end up going to ted cruz, or paul ryan or whoever it is. that is where it is important. paul ryan is going to be the speaker, the chairman of this convention, basically the speaker and the parliamentarian could do whatever they want. we saw the call to voice vote.

he rolled them out of order. they said the ayes have it. if they want to use the rules to assure he does not get the nomination, they can do it. mark: will it be up to him? >> you have a presumptive nominee and they get control of the nomination. if there is not a presumptive nominee, the rnc chairman gets to decide. if you need to maintain order in the hall, those were not be so honorary. john: you just reported this piece, it is incredibly complicated. how many people actually understand the whole thing? who has all of this in their heads or will this just be piecemeal chaos? >> i think it will be piecemeal chaos. people in individual states clarely thequite good ve

process. there have been a dozen lawyers who have been through this process. the romney folks went through a dry run of this. there are folks, ben ginsberg, kenny barber who are incredibly useful now. we have not had anything at this scale, and you do need some form of coordination, and the campaigns are just getting around to this. mark: this is a "ocean's 11" heist without danny ocean. if you want to understand where this republican races had a, you have no choice but to go on to bloomberg politics and read the article. john: up next, we take a look at the nomination by president obama to the supreme court. president obama: not only one of america's sharpest legal minds but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, evenhandedness, and excellence. these qualities and his long

commitment to public service have earned him the respect and admiration of leaders on both sides of the aisle. he will ultimately bring that same character to bear on the supreme court, an institution in which he is uniquely prepared to serve immediately. today, i am nominating chief judge, merrick brian garland to join the supreme court. [applause] ♪

♪ john: joining me now to discuss the nomination to the supreme court is ron clane. he is the veteran of confirmation fights and the former chief of staff to joe biden. ron, i will start with you. you have known a merrick garland

for a long time, and you are making the claim i believe, that is something that one does not hear often in washington, this is a pick free of politics. seriously? ron: he has no big political following. he is not a historic first of this or that, he was the best nominee that president obama put forward. i think that makes the case for him particularly compelling, because republicans cannot argue that the president did this for any political advantage. they cannot argue anything then this is a person who is a great jurist, a great lawyer, and a great person. john: it seems to me a pick free of politics is still a pic of politics.

it seems like he was trying to make it difficult for republicans not to give him a hearing. do you see that? >> i do. i entirely see that. you can see that those who wanted him to make the more liberal choice, somebody younger, someone who might be there longer. you can say, see, he did not do that, so it is not political. however, he did not do that in part because he got a message from republicans, via back channels that they would probably move this nomination after the presidential election. in the lame-duck session. once you get that concession, you can start to work on other concessions. they are going to work very hard to break down this idea that there should not be a hearing or a vote prior to the election when the president made a nomination in march. mark: you are a student of these tussles.

the big thing will be if he gets a hearing. i think a lot of strategists say he has a very good chance of being confirmed. what he think flipped senator grassley. >> i think it is an instrumental process. some republicans are already saying they will meet with judge garland, and once they do others will. i think once they meet with him, it will be hard to say no to a hearing. i understand we are a polarized country in their is a lot of politics out there, but it is a fair country, and that someone is as distinguished and qualified as merrick garland and does not even get a hearing, rub people asto unfair and wrong. i think that will play out. the last thing i was on your, i made the point that this whole thing is different once there is an actual nominee and once you see merrick and you see the tape the white house released today,

telling his life story, i think it will be hard to say he does not even get a hearing. mark: what do you think changed him? >> it is not going to flip him it has to flip mcconnell. that is a much harder proposition. i do not think they flip on this unless there is a major revolution, a major electoral issue, and i still have a hard time believing the supreme court is ever in major electoral issue except for the firm believers that are already decided anyway. this is a process, and the white house did not just release tape of merrick garland talking about being a judge, they also released tape of him at essentially ground zero at the oklahoma city bombing, and the president talked about that in his remarks. actually when the president was talking, you could see that that was the moment when it judge garland actually

almost lost his composure. he feels very passionately about being somebody to protect victims and convict the guilty, a judge is not, he is but he was a prosecutor all of his life, and they will ride the horse to town. you can eat a sure of that. -- you can be a sure of that. john: there are a couple of republicans we have heard today that have broken with senator mcconnell, susan collins, and others. are those meaningful at all, that they do not fall behind mcconnell's posture right now? nina: kelly is in a very tough election race. susan collins from the very beginning was one of two republicans who thought you ought to meet with someone that was nominated. she did not make any pledges about a hearing or no hearing. so far, mcconnell has been able to keep his troops in line must

unanimously. on the question of having a hearing, and the reason is, the reason that ron speaks about. if you have a hearing and the nominee does well, then why not have a vote? that is what they really do not see to have, so, you can mcconnell's point of view, but the optics of it are really not great. you can tell all of that on the republican opinion polls. i don't think there are any republican opinion polls or people think this is a great position. even a substantial number of republicans think this isn't a great position to be opposing a hearing. john: one comment quick. ron: i cannot think the three -- i do not think the who said three they are the last three, i think this is like water in a basin of wall. it will keep growing and growing. more republicans will meet with judge garland. it will be a surprising bunch of good news. john: you made predictions last time, and we will see whether they come true or not.

thank you guys for being here. mark: coming up, our interview with charlie black, a brave republican insider. ♪

♪ >> i am sure you know the press now labels you, even fox news labels you as the last establishment candidate. that infuriates me, because i know your record. how do you feel about that label?

john kasich: if they are saying it because it is complimentary, then i like it. if it is not, then i do not. i don't care about shaking things up as long as i am on the right track. if i am on the wrong track, i got to have friends and smart people around me that say you are wrong. i'm willing to listen, too. but, there is no orthodox -- i am an unorthodox political figure. john: that was john kasich outside of philadelphia. joining us now to talk about the governor in this presidential race is a veteran, gop strategist, charlie black. it is good to see you. i want you to tell me, what is the plan for how you're going to get john kasich to be the republican nominee? charlie: we are getting into an historic convention. nobody has seen anything like this since democrats in the 1920's. john kasich now has momentum out of ohio. he is going to win some of the

primaries in the midwest and maybe even california. we are going to go into the convention and i think donald trump will have about 40% of the delegates, ted cruz will have about 25%, and the rest will be john kasich delegates or marco rubio delegates or even some undecided delegates, so it'll the a wide, competitive convention. as you know after the first and second ballot, all of the delegates are free agents. john kasich has as good a chance as anybody. john: you are saying that john kasich will not be the nominee in a straightforward way? he is not going to get to 1273? charlie: nobody is. john: do you think it is impossible for donald trump to get a majority of delegates? >> he has 60% of delegates remaining to get to 1237, and he hasn't gotten anywhere near that so far, so i think you'll end up with about 40% of the delegates, and ted cruz will have about 25%, disciplined in terms of sticking with him. would notple

necessarily be on the second, third, fourth ballot, and now he has as good of a chance as anyone. when you get to the convention, most people care about electability. kasich is the most electable. mark: i follow a lot of what you are saying, but the thing i'm having trouble following is the notion that it is a slam dunk that john kasich will win the , states or even be competitive in states. given his current post any, the lack of an easy as him, and your move in the last 24 hours, how do you think he is going to win the states? charlie: i think what is going to happen, he is now in the spotlight for the first time. the more people they see of john, the more they like him. look at states in the midwest, and the northeast and the north, pennsylvania, maryland, delaware, indiana. those types of states, the mainstream conservative has the chance. john will equip himself well as he gets more of a chance in the campaign. i am confident he is going to win a few more states. if he does not, maybe my theory

is not good, but trump still won't go to the convention with a majority. mark: we had the debate scheduled monday that was canceled because donald trump said he did not want to go. do you think he is going to basically say no more debate, and if so, is that hurt john kasich's chances of getting into the arena and competing with the other two? charlie: we would rather have debates certainly. that would give john a chance for exposure and show the contrast between his positive approach and the gutter attacks of donald trump. but donald trump have decided -- may have decided not to do debates, but when he figures that he is not winning, not getting the 1237, he may go back to its. we will see. john: you said you were going to advise john kasich. how long have you been a supporter? charlie: he has been a friend my whole life. in this race, there were five or six candidates that i felt were well qualified to be president that i was personal friends with. i sat it out until it narrowed

down to one, and last night, i told john a day or two before the primary is the or marco won or lost, i was in. john: so you won't take it as a criticism that you are a member of the republican establishment. if there is anything, you would be a charter member of it. charlie: i spent the majority of my adult life in the trenches electing congressmen and senators. i think i qualify as a grassroots, too. john: why is it that that guy has seen so little support for members of your club, of until much,until now, not very but even with the people that come over. in the past few months, as trump gained in strength and casey did not, where you been? charlie: kasich started late and did not spend a lot of time in washington. but, a lot of people signed up

early, especially for marco rubio, probably had inside the beltway support than anyone else, but now it is open and you will see a lot more donors and party leaders coming to support kasich. what really matters is people out in the field, in the primaries, voting in the states, and a 24 people who are going to be delegates at some point in the process will be free agents. mark: wisconsin is in a few weeks, and the kind of states where is your theory is correct, we will see progress. is that where you think john kasich could finish first or second or should thinnest first or second? charlie: i think he should. he is going to campaign there. he is in pennsylvania today, another opportunity. it is actually his native state. even in new york, donald trump is not very popular. once you get outside of manhattan or queens. there are a lot of states where john will have a chance to pick up delegates and maybe win some of the other states. mark: do you suspect in the next

round of polling now it is down to three, now that john kasich will get out of the teens and put 20's or 30's in places? charlie: i do, and the more coverage he gets, today's coverage is difficult for the president, with the fake supreme court nominee rolling out, but once he gets more coverage, especially if he wins another primary or two, his numbers are going to improve. the national numbers are , as you know. john: if donald trump were to become the republican nominee, what are the various forms of damage that would inflict on the party? don't just say he will lose to hillary clinton. do you think there is more than that? charlie: there is more than that. unless something happened to improve his numbers. since he has been in the race, he has always been 10 or 15 points behind hillary clinton. if he loses by 10 points, that means in the blue states maria trying to defend senate seats, we would probably lose and maybe even lose some house seats. republican party dominates state legislatures and governorships,

we can lose there. what happens is, a bunch of republicans stay home if they do not believe in the nominee. is that a threat to the party? no, the party will be here regardless of donald trump would win or lose. john: thank you for coming in. really great to see you. we will be right back with more of the best interviews from the week that was. ♪

♪ john: joining us once again is the number cruncher in chief, ken goldstein. tonight's topic is march adness." i would like to talk first of all about a topic that you referred to in terms of bracket busting. talk to us a little bit about the expectations of money spent on ads and what is actually happening with the reality. i have a feeling that these are

somewhat different. ken: some of the number of number a bit higher, but a good consensus of political ad spending in 2016 was about $4.2 billion, about 75% on broadcast, 25% on cable. again some people have that , number even higher. today, we have had a little under $370 million spent on political advertising in the presidential race. of that overall number, about 1/3 of that, maybe even more than one third of that should be on the presidential race. what we have seen so far, that $369 million, more or less where we should be if we were on page to meet the numbers. on the went down, it is a little bit more, if you look back at 2008 or 2012, at that is way

more money than was spent on tv in those races. there is a couple factors that show the pace slowing. first of all, the great majority of that spending was just in three states, new hampshire, iowa, and south carolina. and the pace has slowed after that. and the other point is, especially on the republican side, the majority spenders on the republican side who spent over $75 million with the right to rise and were $50 million , with conservative solution products, or super pac's with jeb bush and marco rubio who are not in the race anymore. so it seems higher, but there is some danger signs, and then there is the trump effect. john: all right, let's talk about the trump effect and what we like to call the unsweet 16. trump has gotten good ratings from tv, but he has not spent a lot for a big republican front runner on tv ads.

if he is the nominee in the general election, what is the danger for these tv stations that tend to make a lot of money from political ads if trump continues to earn free media and not paid media. ? ? ken: as we said, tv executives love the high ratings that trumpet generates, but they are very concerned about what trump could do the ultimate ad spend. he has only spent about $17 million himself on advertising. but the big danger on some of members, are the groups, who we talk about a bunch three or four times as , much as the candidate. and spend a ton of money on political advertising, whether they sit out the presidential race. that is a real, possible, to wo real possible factors. trump would not spend a lot, and

there will be a lot the republican groups coming to bat for trump. on the other hand, i will hedge a little bit here, if trump changes how the 2016 election looks, that could increase spending in some other races, so maybe trump makes some states competitive that were not competitive before, that could draw at spending in the states. or what if trump on the ticket makes a senate races and house races more competitive than you would have thought, as although -- and all those super pac's and groups that would have spent big money for republican presidential race now instead are spending that big money to defend the house and senate seats. john: i'm a big basketball fan, but you have to be a fan to know the worst thing you can do is the air ball. in fact, people say, "air ball, air ball" in the games. you have come to the conclusion that the anti-trump spending so far on the air is basically an air ball. please explain. ken: you know, again, it is

difficult to do this in real time, and it is always more fun to the couch coach than the real coach and to say have a shot should have gone instead of screaming air ball. i do think it was a bit of an air ball. about $80 million has been spent against donald trump. which, when you measure that against all the free media he has gotten, isn't a ton. what is more perplexing to me is over half the anti-trump spending has happened after march 1, after super tuesday. they have done it when lots of the elections had already happened, when lots of the delegates had already been selected. or even you look at a place like had aa where we recently primary, and a lot was made over the $8 million spent during the last week against donald trump. number 1, 8 million dollars really isn't a lot of money, and two, almost 50% of florida republican voters voted early.

all of that money was spent when half of the florida electorate had already voted. and then recently we have an ad that was out and had women reading, reading quotes, inflammatory quotes from donald trump. it is a 60-second ad, it seems pretty but started airing after powerful, not only super tuesday, but after florida, north carolina, ohio, and missouri were done. that is a bit perplexing. john: it is not only an air ball, it came after the buzzer. not so great. thanks, goldstein, for that great segment. we'll be right back. ♪

♪ mark: had donald trump won the ohio primary last night, there would've been very few things blocking his path. but he did not win ohio. now one thing stands in his way, and that would be john kasich, the man of the moment for many, who was the only presidential candidate out on the trail while everybody else was resting. i covered his town hall outside of philadelphia this morning. he did not talk at all by name in his remarks about trump or ted cruz, but he did talk about a lot of other stuff. john kasich: maybe i should tell you a little story. march madness. this wall street. gangs. pizza. selma cupcake. i don't mean this as a cuban political gibberish. the mailman and the mailman's wife. we went from the smaller tyrannosaurus rex to the bigger one. did you read the story about

this? student debt. the ufo. steelers tickets. 15 college roommates. don't you like the protests? i love it. that is where superman changed is close. thes. ben & jerry's free for one whole year. sir, you have lived your your whole life. i said, not yet. beautiful chandeliers and everything. president nixon. daddy, can you give us more snow days? why are you asking me? you can see where the governor, john, dad. john kasich. mark: what a week. thank you for watching this edition of "the best of with all due respect." you can catch an all-new episode of our show "the circus" on "showtime" sunday night at 8:00 eastern. and remember, if you are in washington dc, catch us on the radio at 99.1 fm. see you back here on monday. until then, sayonara. ♪

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emily: he has backed some of tv's biggest hits -- "24," "er," "arrested development." then, he joined showtime and has led the resurgence in original programming like "homeland" and "billions." >> what we do has consequences. emily: now, the executive has a chair at the top.