♪ john: good evening from the mar-a-lago club in palm beach. mark and i will sit down with talk foreign policy, and the terror attacks in belgium. we will show you that program tomorrow night. here are the facts about what happened in brussels this morning. three explosions in the capital killed 31 and injured more than 200. isis has claimed responsibility for the attacks. two bombings were at a busy airport terminal. another went off at a subway station. the attacks come days after the

final suspect tied to the terrorist attacks in paris last fall was arrested last week. it is unclear if there is connection between the attacks. president obama topped his speech with a brief comment about the attacks. >> we will do whatever is necessary to support belgium in bringing to justice those who are responsible. this is yet another reminder that the world must unite. we must be together, regardless faithionality or race or in fighting against the scourge of terrorism. whoill defeat those threaten the safety and security of people around the world. john: mark, this is a big deal. how do you think it is going to

affect the debate on global terrorism? is,: as important as paris this is a huge impact on the psychology of europe. it is another attack after all of europe is on heightened alert. brussels is the capital of europe, so many defense institutions. i suspect all governments in europe will go back once again and make decisions about how to clamp down. the balance between security and civil liberties is going to swing like it did in the u.s. after 9/11. john: this is a huge european problem. it is easy for us to overstate the effect this will have. paris, as you note, is the spiritual heart of europe. brussels is the capital of europe. if you are going to bring total

terror to europe, this is the way he would do it. timell spend a lot of talking about this in america, but not in the right way. mark: this brings up something we have talked about. ,oft targets near hard targets soft targets near a transportation hub, these are targets that exist all over the world. it is a question of, do we devote resources to targets like that to make free countries safe? john: there is the additional question, not just about terrorism and civil liberties, but immigration. we do not know anything about who the attackers were except that isil claimed responsibility. there is no doubt that the free movement of human beings around europe is one of the things that makes these attacks more likely to happen there.

and the debate about tightening borders is quite apart from the question of the middle east. mark: the presidential candidates addressed the bombings. they made statements and held press conferences throughout the day. we will show you some of those reactions in a moment. first, broccoli, what will this -- broadly, what will these attacks due to change the contour of politics in this country? john: the element of people who are scared in this country will continue to look for strength. people who are less scared will look for more experience. for someone like hillary clinton, she has credentials. for someone on the republican side, it is about asserting strength. that is just going to get amped up. ways toe different capitalize on that, but no doubt it will be central. mark: this forces president obama to spend more of the rest

of his time in office on national security. there will be more meetings to talk about it, if there is an understanding of who did this. it will be incumbent not just on candidates but on leading members of congress to talk about possible solutions. we saw some ideas today, but there will be a question to the extent this is an american problem, the extent to which this is going to elevate national security and terrorism higher on the list of concerns of american voters. the debate last fall after paris, san bernardino, we had discussions prompted by the man who owns this building to a large extent about banning muslims, cracking down, those debates people thought we would get passed quickly, it will revive those debates. how draconian are the measures people are willing to tolerate? will back the question

in politics of what america can do to defeat isis. if they must be defeated, it is because they carry out attacks like this and represent a threat to iraq or syria. what can america do as part of a coalition to defeat isis? that's the big -- that debate will go through november. it is a problem for the whole world, but more extreme in europe. that raises questions about america's role in the world, not just specifically about how to take on isil, but america's obligations to its allies. mark: next, more about what the candidates said about the brussels terrorist attacks and each other after this. ♪

♪ mark: welcome back. we are here in palm beach to interview donald trump this evening about foreign policy and the brussels terrorist attack. we will have that interview tomorrow night. today, the gop front-runner and his rivals gave initial reaction to the bombings. they were particularly tough on in cubat obama, who is on the final day of his trip. ted cruz and john kasich criticized the president for attending an exhibition baseball game on a day that demanded his

attention. donald trump vowed to outperform the current president in defeating isis. >> while our friends are attacked by terrorists, president obama is spending his time going to baseball games with the castros. he should be back in america keeping the country safe, planning to travel to brussels. >> the president is going to a , asball game when i believe president, i would have cut short my visit. i would have flown home, conducted calls jointly with and assembled teams of people, intelligence experts, and take a look at the serious breaches we have in intelligence. >> i would be hitting isis so hard. , aas not in favor of iraq

lot of things with isis, the chopping off of heads, what is going on, the brutality, you have to hit isis so hard and take them out, not play tiddlywinks like we are playing now. you need to get the surrounding states to put up the manpower. that is what it is going to take. suggestedp repeatedly u.s. authorities needed to do an theto be vigilant" th belgian government has been in letting people in the country. on othersas calling to patrol and secure muslim neighborhoods. how will this affect the republican nomination for president? john: it is a strength primary. donald trump has gone a long way in the primary by being stronger. he was the strong man after

paris, san bernardino. he found a market for that in the republican electorate. ted cruz is trying to compete with donald trump. neither one of them is as naturally large on the stage as they have taken extreme positions, especially ted cruz. mark: there is a limited number of days that the stop rump -- trump movement has. there are no big republican contests after tonight. it means the longer this goes on, the less likely it is for either of them to break through. the president is interested in what they have to say, but the president is interested, as usual, in what donald trump has to say. out their chance to make other arguments. john: it gobbles up news cycles.

these are days you cannot attack donald trump on things that seem unrelated to foreign policy. you cannot really attack trump at all. the kasich argument is ridiculous on its face. president obama can make those phone calls from wherever he is in the world. argument on police patrols has raised the hackles of many democrats and muslims, which is probably what he wants. bernie sanders spoke to reporters in flagstaff today, saying islamic state must be destroyed and muslim allies overseas should form a coalition to destroy it. hillary clinton made similar points at her tv appearances today. msnbc, sheview on was given a chance to analyze proposalsf trump's

are attracting republican voters. donald trump has recently said he is not sure the continuing relevance of nato, in terms of how much the u.s. gives to nato, talking about closing borders, you have heard about his talk of temporarily banning muslims from entering the country -- two understand why those arguments and those are attracting such support in certain segments of the american population? what would be your counter response? >> i understand he has gotten votes in the republican primary. i understand he has not gotten a majority. he has gotten a plurality. there are people that are worried and scared. absolutely. it the responsibility of leaders to help people understand what can be done to allay their fears? yes.

i think we have to have a slow, steady, smart, strong response. we do not need to be panicking. we need to be putting our heads together in our own country and with friends and allies elsewhere to figure out what we are going to do to defeat this threat. that is what i have been advocating. that is what i think will make us safer and stronger in the future. clinton and the donald trump are the likely nominees of their respective parties. this attack and everything it represents -- how do you think that will play out in a general election? mark: this attack and the outiminary responses keys the ideological mess both parties have become. donald trump in some ways is more hawkish and isolationist than hillary clinton.

if they literally stand on a debate stage, it will be fascinating to watch them figure out what they believe and what is the right place to be politically. john: it will go a much more personal place. you will have donald trump saying hillary clinton is weak, and hillary clinton will say he is a lunatic. mark: you have that too. john: i think it is going to be you are weak, a failure as secretary of state, and hillary clinton saying you cannot be trusted because you are too volatile. i the same time, donald trump talks about getting out of nato. the washington post about previous statements about sending 20,000 troops to confront isil, he said yesterday, it does not seem like a good idea. his words are a little confused. mark: you can see in her

demeanor and talking to her political advisers, they are delighted to have a foreign-policy debate. they believe that is a debate they will win, and trump is every bit as confident you will win. onn: he wants to play america's world weariness being isolationist. that she has a more limited sense of what might happen. mark: before the brussels attack, national security was sure to be front and center for donald trump. he discussed his views with the washington post editorial board and gave a speech last night to jewish leaders at the aipac conference. among the things his opponents are seizing on most is a comment he made it to the post about america's role in nato. >> nato was set up at a different time.

nato was set up when we were a richer country. we are borrowing money from china, which is sort of an amazing situation. it was a much different thing. nato is costing us a fortune. protecting europe, but we are spending a lot of money. i think the distribution of costs has to be changed. i think nato as a concept is good, but not as good as it was when it first evolved. the -- not only financially, but we bear the biggest brunt of it. mark: today, ted cruz and john kasich paused in their responses to the brussels bombing to criticize trump for his nato position. >> mr. trump said we should be downplaying our involvement in

nato. i do not think that makes any sense. proposal toump's withdraw from the world, withdraw from nato, withdraw from europe, is sadly consistent with his statement that he intends to be neutral between israel and the palestinians. on weak political footing with his remarks regarding nato? footingrtainly on weak when it comes to the establishment. no doubt he will get ripped for the comments. we have been talking about this -- they are a little exaggerated on the reporting what he said. notion that establishmentarians will take on ,his matters not at all to him

at least in terms of the nomination and maybe even broader. mark: this is a position where r on policy than people give him credit for. he realizes that nato needs a different role, and of the populist center, haley barbour talked about this, rahm emanuel talked about this, bringing these resources home, not just for nato, allowing allies to have more of the burdens, i think he is on strong ground in terms of politics. john: he must get himself to a point where he is carefully moderate enough where he does not allow for misinterpretation. the impression would come that he is abandoning europe, abandoning nato. position toa

recalibrate with more detail, he be ok on that. mark: saying saudi arabia and south korea should pay for more of their defense, that is a position he could win big on both in the nomination and in the general. he needs to enunciate it in a way that seems serious and muscular. john: up next, what is at stake in tonight's presidential contest in arizona, utah, and idaho. ♪

♪ john: there are three states

holding primaries or caucuses tonight out west. 130 delegates at stake for democrats tonight in arizona, utah, and idaho. hillary clinton is leading the pledge delegate count 1163. factoring in, the lead jumps to 1630 two bernie sanders' 870. for republicans, there are 98 delegates up for grabs. american samoa is holding caucuses this evening. donald trump leads with 681. these various races, what are you most paying attention to? watching to see how well donald trump does in arizona. but if ted cruz does well, it will show ted cruz can take him on on immigration.

the big one is utah. winner take all state. cruz faces the kasich problem. gets over 50, not only delegates, all the but he can make the case to go one on one with donald trump. john: he could make that argument if he fall short of 50%. he could say if john kasich was not in the race, i would have gotten over 50. winning delegates is key. on the democratic side, it is , thatfor granted, i think bernie sanders is going to win idaho and utah. the question is arizona. sanders put a lot of money in that state. if sanders were to pull off a victory in arizona, a three states we going into western

caucuses this weekend, he could win six in a row. he is likely to win three on saturday. that would be a nice run of momentum for bernie sanders. mark: he has a momentum problem, but the biggest problem is delegates. whatever happens tonight, he will have a big delicate problem. delegateto solve the problem with momentum. winning two of three tonight does not help his delegate problem or momentum. if he can win all three, wisconsin becomes a huge deal. there, and you have something going on. john: you have so much momentum that people start to talk about you in an important way. mark: we need to watch turnout. democrats, not as much in some places. bernie sanders has drawn huge

crowds in all three of these states. that does not necessarily correlate to turn out, but democrats need to have more people turn out. they can no longer argue it is a huge republican field. john: from bernie sanders' point of view, asking him why he wants to stay in the race, he points to the people in the crowd. little enthusiasm that exists on the democratic side goes away. coming up, leading figures on the middle east. we will be right back to talk about the attacks today and what they mean for foreign policy right after this. ♪ . .

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implication of today's terrorist attack is ambassador ryan crocker who previously served in iraq and in lebanon and is the dean of the george bush school of government at texas a&m university. he joins us from college station. think you for joining us, mr. ambassador. guest: thank you for having me. mark: what could europe do now as a whole or individual countries to deal with situations like this that it did not do in the wake of the paris attack? guest: there are two fundamental issues out there. one of them is simply the quality and coordination of european intelligence and security services. large,e, by and certainly in belgium, far behind and wee were on 9/11 have traveled light years in our capabilities and coordination since then. the europeans have got to

improve quality and coordination of their security services. islamic state is finding the gaps in the week spots we see the results. that is a major difference between the u.s. and europe is that we integrate people in this country. back not have a ball and in the united states. that's essentially an arab and muslim ghetto. , the way successive waves of immigrants are brought into american society and truly find their place here sets us france, andelgium, even britain. to what happened tragically in brussels, the worst thing we could do would be to give away our greatest strengths, and that is our open

society that makes everyone in america feel part of this great country. in terms of dealing with mustek terror, the european union is further behind where the united states was on 9/11. there have been a lot of things that have happened in the world that i would have thought alerted people to the notion that they needed to get more with the program. what accounts for europe's laxity in this area? i get maybe that with the exception of the train bombings in spain, the europeans have not had anything on the scale of 9/11. some european countries do on intelligent security. i would cite sweden as an example. feltt may be that they

this was something that could only happen over here and not over there. are frankly kind of complacent. after what we have seen now, paris in november and now this, it is way past time for the europeans to shake themselves awake and i hope we are making a nowr effort to engage them that we have had this new tragedy that we are going to be stepping forward, to be proactive and offering to the europeans something we have learned in the 15 years since 9/11. mark: what are the metrics you can use to say whether that has happened and the united states is trying to step up to help europe with this problem? will be clear by announcements both from washington and european

capitals. we have had this on offer before. the urgency has never been greater and i hope we will not wait for an invitation but the offering to share with our european allies -- again, we are part of a nato alliance. nato was not constructed to deal with terror but it is a security alliance in this falls within its mandate. aboutyou talked integration versus segregation in terms of how different the united states is with its local population and how it is dealt with in europe. senator ted cruz suggested we need to start police control -- police patrols in muslim communities in the united states. is that a useful or constructive suggestion? is her cicely what

islamic state would like us to do, to present an image of a country that is sis with -- that is suspicious of people simple because they are muslims or arabs. that plays right into their to holdd allows them out to arab and muslim populations the united states is fundamentally and tyra been anti-islamic. need to be doing everything we can to ensure our security, but we don't need to be taking steps that will harm our security. fears and thate is why terrorists practice terror, so they can frighten things thatdoing are ultimately counterproductive for their own society. we just need to be sure we do not fall into that trap. mark: ambassador crocker thank you for joining us.

if you are watching us in washington, d.c., you can now listen to us in washington, d.c. we will be right back. ♪

john: welcome back. we are joined by the man who succeeded our previous guest as ambassador to iraq. he also serves as a senior director of staff for the national secure counsel and now serves at the school of international studies at the university of denver and is the author of the memoir, "outpost -- the network." after paris and now brussels, i think any people are under the

impression, perhaps accurately or inaccurately, that isil is gaining strength that it's -- in out oflity to project the middle east and into the heart of europe. is that a common misperception on the part of a lot of people? guest: i am of the view that isis has been pushed back on their heels. they are not what they were a year ago, but that said, they have more cells in europe, probably better lines of communication. to syria andk iraq, they have been in some trouble. we are seeing isis and the horn of africa and in afghanistan and in libya. bute it is a broader threat in terms of its overall stature in the world, i don't think it

is as strong as it used to be. likes to talk about is what are the sunni arab states going to do about it? at the end of the day, they have got to -- they have got to reject this extremism. from the point of view of u.s. foreign policymakers, what are the policy descriptions that derive from that analysis? a weekend i sold that is able to strike major european capitals? guest: first of all, this is the time to be very close to the police andnd those security services in brussels and belgium have in night and day going after this threat. these people do not sleep. i have gone after these guys for weeks and weeks and now, ts terrible thing happens. i don't think it's because they

are incompetent or not up to the job, that it's a really tough target to deal with and now is the time to be doing all we can to help them. is that they css and ally and not a critic. secondly, we need to look at where we are with isis in the region. particularly worrisome is that while people call for more u.s. involvement against isis in syria and iraq, you have to ask yourself the question of aware are the saudi's and all of this? has of this money isis has come from places like saudi arabia. do we feel they are part of this effort? they were but they seem to have redirected themselves to yemen and other places. i think we need to work on that alliance and finally, we need to

figure out a way forward on syria to calm that situation down. reasons the europeans are exhausted is this refugee crisis. americans have no idea of this thing and the way to deal with that is to move forward in syria rather than wait around looking for syrians to come up on their own in the form of an election or something. it is not going to work. we need to move forward by putting in a political future for syria. are one or two good debates you would like to see happen in the presidential campaign about isis and how to deal with terrorism? i'm an old-fashioned guy and i like to see my candidates calm and measured in their tone. i like to see them confident but not hockey.

a repeat of what our fundamental values are even as we wrap -- ramp up security requirements. we kicked them out of iraq and syria or whatever, this kind of extremism is going to be with us for a while and we need to dig in for a longer-term effort. that means being calm and resolute in the face of these issues. if you go back to things our country has faced, you see political leadership in both sides of the aisle managing this and managing people's expectation in the timeframe with which it can be solved. at the end of the day, i'm looking for a little maturity. john: what would it mean in your mind to accomplish something everybody says we must accomplish which is to destroy

isil? i am skeptical of efforts to go in and just push them out can --a because you because they will congregate. i thing it does involve a military solution. i don't think there's any approach to dealing with isil. our regional powers and allies and partners in the region, we have to make sure they have the same goal we do. involves much more players to be involved. decimated.eeds to be i don't think scattering it is enough. that kind ofo be tough military approach. we need a lot of partners and that and we need to see some

effort within the region to have some political solution. this whole sunni-shia issue has been around for 1300 years. it flares up from time to time and it sure has flared up now. we need to see regional leaders speaking up and speaking out against this kind of sectarianism which is part of the fuel that has ignited this whole isis thing. thank you for coming on today. when we come back, hillary clinton's super pac has turned its eyes to the general election. plan to spend and where they plan to spend it after a word from our sponsors. ♪

john: the super pac supporting hillary clinton is he getting what they were just around $45 million. don't expect a lot of that to be spent before the democratic national convention this summer. drop aup is planning to reported $70 million on television ads for the general election season, including battleground states like ohio and florida. here to tell us about what is coming up is the chief strategist and cochairman, guy cecil. you're going to spend tens of millions of dollars on tv ads. what kind of ads will you run? guest: we are in the process of sorting that out. there's no question that in the middle of a serious time, we plan on trying a start contrast

between the direction hillary wants to take the country and the direction either ted cruz or donald trump want to take the country. we plan on executing that fight not only after the convention but likely before it begins. john: my question is how much of an effort have you made to date in doing your opposition research on donald trump? guest: as you can imagine, we to takeg all the things on an opponent ranging from research, pulling to focus groups. that process began several months ago because we learned pretty quickly a lesson the republicans are trying to teach all democrats, which is we should take the candidacy of donald trump very seriously. can to you everything we

combat by what every public account will be a billion-dollar effort to deceive and distort on hillary's own record. john: so what have you learned from your copious research into donald trump? guest: above all else, the american public is looking for three basic things -- someone who has the character and temperament to be president. second, somebody who has built their career by lifting other people up and not by tearing them down and third, summary that in light of today's events has the temperament and experience and approach to not only secure our country at home but to engage with our allies across the globe. you and other organizations are trying to

raise money on behalf of hillary clinton are having trouble when you're would these supporters don't feel like much would change. what is the mood of the people you are asking money for now? do they feel it is a tough fight to beat bernie sanders or are they resistant to give because they think she's got it in the bag? guest: i don't feel like they think they have the general election in the bag. election date gets closer, people get more engaged and more involved. we did involve ourselves in the primary in terms of turning out african-american, latino and women voters, but our eyes are on the general election and that's where most of our supporters are focused. , the campaignat is making it clear they haven't taken anything or anyone for granted. could donald trump if you were the nominee come -- compete

against your side and your super pac if he did not start raising money or accept support from a super pac? i think the republicans are going to have a difficult decision to make and that is to determine whether he has the resources to compete. withare clearly struggling whether or not they are fully going to embrace donald trump and it is clear many in the party already have. i know he had another congressional endorsement today. we are dealing with someone who has monopolized the free press, that has 100% name id. i'm not sure money on their site is going to be the decider. having said that, there's no question republican super pac's and white right -- right wing groups have made it clear that their mission is to defeat hillary clinton in the general election. that is why we are there, to fight back often and fight back early. the purposes of this

question, i'm going to give you a promotion. you are promoted from head of priorities to god and you get to choose who hillary clinton is running against. if you get to choose, would you run against trump or choose to run against ted cruz? i think is six of one and half dozen of the other. the fact of the matter is ted cruz has managed to make himself likable only in the context of donald trump. is they have similar policies. if you look at what was said today by ted cruz in light of a terrible and tragic event in brussels, his solution is we should send patrols out into muslim neighborhoods in the united states. donald trump once more water building and -- more waterboarding and make sure the wall is higher. the fact of the matter is hillary and we will be ready to take on either one of them. is there any doubt in your

mind john kasich would be the toughest opponent among the three? guest: the fact of the matter is it's very difficult for john kasich to be the republican nominee, so we have not spent much time giving him consideration. we are focusing on those we think will be the nominee. john kasich is still in the race. beyou agree or disagree you the toughest candidate among the three existing candidates? i think when you are in a parade of the blind, the one eyed man is king. john kasich would be marginally better but he has a pretty extreme record on a number of issues dating back to his time as a congressman. thank you very much.

we will be watching to see what you do. ♪

john: check out bloomberg pollock six. calm for more updates on brussels. coming up on bloomberg west, emily chang speaks to the ceo of adobe. mark: tonight, we will be interviewing donald trump. you can watch the whole conversation tomorrow night on "with all due respect." until tomorrow, thanks for watching and sayonara. ♪

mark: i'm mark crumpton then you are watching "bloomberg west." belgium is under its highest terror threat ever following warmings at the brussels airport and a subway station that left

over 30 people dead and more than 200 30 others wounded. released a photo from closed-circuit tv footage of three men pushing luggage carts through the airport. two of the men believed to be suicide bombers were killed. the third man, the one in the hat remains at large. 19 people have been arrested following the attack on the european union military mission in the capital of molly. authorities are conducting a ballistic's investigation. it's the latest in a series of assaults on hotels in west africa. debris that might be part of a plane engine has been found in the coast of south africa. it will be checked to see if it belongs to a malaysia airlines flight 370. the jet disappeared two years ago. for the first time since the death of justice antonin scalia, the supreme court has rendered a decision that ended in a tie. he