john: good evening from palm beach the well-known florida home of donald j trump. after the show, mark and i will sit down with mr. trump to talk about policy. we will show you that interview tomorrow. but first, here is what happened in brussels. bomb attacks have killed 30 and injured more than 200. isis has claimed responsibility.

authorities have noted that today's attacks come just days after the final suspect tied to the paris attacks last fall was arrested -- last week. it is still unclear if there is any connection between these attacks. president obama made a speech in cuba and had a brief comment on the attacks and how the international community should respond. president obama: we will do whatever it takes to help our friends in belgium bring to justice those responsible. we must unite. together regardless of nationality, race, or faith, in fighting this gorge of terrorism. scorchand we will -- the of terrorism. we can and we will defeat those who threaten our security all around the world. john: so, this is a big deal. not the first big deal, but a

big deal. how do you think it will affect the debate on global terrorism going forward? a huge impact on the psychology of europe. it's another big city. all of europe was on high alert after paris. brussels is the capital of so many european defense institutions. i suspect that all governments in europe now are going to go back once again and make decisions even more about how to balance national security and civil liberties. swing moreke it will like the united states post-9/11 than it did after paris. this is a huge european problem. it's easy for us in america to overstate the potential implications, or to understate them. harris is like these the ritual -- paris is like the spiritual heart of europe.

brussels this is is the capital. if you were going to bring terror to europe, this is the sequence in which she would do it. i think you are right. we will spend a lot of time in america talking about these attacks, but not necessarily in the right way. this brings up something we have always talked about, near hard targets. soft targets near security at an airport. soft targets near a transportation hub, rail station. targets allft tal over the world and is it possible to devote sufficient resources to make free countries safe? john: and there is the question of immigration. we don't know anything, really, at this point, about who the attackers were in this case other than that isil is claiming responsibility for it. we don't know who the individuals were. i think in europe, the debate over how to tighten borders

going to bee is heightened to an extreme degree after this. mark: the presidential candidates also addressed the bombings. they did tv interviews and held press conferences throughout the day. we will show you some of those reactions in a moment, but first, broadly, what will this attack due to change the contours of politics in this country? there are two different things, right? the people who are scared are going to look for strength and people who are less scared are going to look for experience. hillary linton has a credential. on the republican side, this -- hillary clinton has a credential. on the republican side, this is about strength. there are different ways about trying to capitalize on different strengths and weaknesses, but there is no question this will be central to the presidential debate. i think this forces

president obama to spend more of his remaining time in office focused on national security. i think it is now going to be more incumbent, not just on presidential candidates, but on leading members of congress, to talk about possible solutions. there is clearly going to be a question about the extent to which this is an american problem. isre is going to be -- this going to elevate national security and terrorism even higher on the list of concerns among voters. bernardino, we started having discussions prompted to a large extent by the man who owns the building we are setting in, questions about banning muslims and figuring out various ways to crack down. paste hoped we would get those debates quickly. this is going to revive those debates. how draconian are the measures people are willing to tolerate, and how effective could those

measures be? what effect might they have? it also raises the questions of what americans must do to defeat isis. if isis continues to carry out attacks like this, what can america do to try to beat eyes is? again, that debate has flared. i think it is going -- beat isis ? again, that debate has flared. john: this is a problem for the whole world, but it is more extreme in europe. not just the specifics of how to take on isil, but the general question, what are america's obligations to its primary allies? mark ♪

john: welcome back. we are here in palm beach, florida, to interview donald trump this evening about foreign policy and the brussels terror attack. we will have that interview on this program tomorrow night. today, the gop front runner and his republican rivals all gave initial reactions to the bombings. they were particularly tough on president obama, who is on his cuba.day of a trip to they criticized him for attending a baseball game in

cuba on a days a day they said demands more of the president's attention. donald trump vowed to perform president. mr. cruz: president obama is spending his time going to baseball games with castro. and president obama should be in america keeping this country safer. president obama should be planning to travel to brussels. i would haver kasich: cut short my visit. i would have flown home. i would've conducted calls jointly with heads of state. cruz: president obama is spending his time going to baseball games with castro. and president obama should be in america keeping this country safer. i would have begun to assemble teams of people, intelligence experts, who can take a look at the serious breaches we have in intelligence. would be hitting on them so hard.

i was not in favor of iraq. i was not in favor of a lot of things. with isis, the chopping off of the heads, the brutality, you have to hit isis so hard. you have to take them out and not play tiddlywinks like we are playing right now. we have to get people in the surrounding states to put up demand power -- the man power, because that is what it's going to take. trump also repeatedly suggested the u.s. should use authority and be vigilant about who is led into the country. cruz upset american muslims and others by calling on police muslimol and secure neighborhoods. how will this affect the contours of the republican fight for the nomination? john: donald trump has gotten a long way in this primary by being strong. he was the strong man after

paris, after san bernardino, and he has a market for that kind of strength in the republican electric. and johnee ted cruz kasich both trying to compete with donald trump. as large on stage as he is, but they have taken pretty extreme positions, particularly ted cruz. mark: this story will carry us through easter and into next week. there are no big republican after tonight. we will talk about arizona and utah in a moment. the longer this goes on, the less likely it is for ted cruz or john kasich to break through. the press will become more interested in what donald trump has to say. this plays to his strength as a strong person and it blocks out there chance to make other arguments. they are not going to be talking about trump university anytime soon. you: these are days that

can't attack donald trump on things that seem unrelated to national security and foreign policy. you can probably just go out there and try to out strongman him. i will say, the arguments are ridiculous. president obama can make phone calls from anywhere in the world. he doesn't need to come home to make phone calls. the ted cruz argument has raised the hackles of many libertarians. that is probably what he wants. on the other side, bernie sanders spoke to reporters in flagstaff, arizona today and said that islamic state must be destroyed and that he would form a coalition to destroy it. also called ted cruz's called to monitor muslims unconstitutional.

clinton also made a statement. has made arump statement that he is not sure how relevant nato is. he has talked about closing borders. talked about temporarily banning muslims from the country. do you understand why those arguments and those positions are attracting such support in certain segments of the american population, and what would be your counter response? ms. clinton: i understand he has gotten votes in the republican primary. he has not got in the majority. he has gotten a plurality. i have gotten more votes and he has. our people scared? absolutely. and it is the responsibility of leaders to help people understand what can be done to

allay their fears. i don't think we need to be inciting more fears. i think we need a slow, steady, smart, strong response. we don't need to be panicking. we need to be putting our heads together within our own country and within our allies -- and with our allies, europe in particular, to determine what to do to defeat this threat. that is what i am equipped to do and that is what i think will make a safer and stronger in the future. john: hillary clinton and donald trump are the likeliest nominees of their respective parties. how do you think this attack and everything it represents will play out in the general election? mark: this attack and the preliminary responses keys out the kind of ideological mess that both parties have become. trump is in some ways more hawkish than hillary clinton and in some ways more isolationist

than hillary clinton. if there is a general debate and these to stand on a debate stage, it will be fascinating to watch both of them try to figure out what they believe and what is the politically right place to be. mark: i think you will have -- john: i think you will have donald trump saying that hillary clinton is weak and a failure and hillary clinton saying donald trump is a lunatic. mark: we will have that as well. john: i think it will get there quickly. we will have hillary saying you cannot be trusted because you are too volatile. you're going to blow the world up. mark: trump talks about perhaps getting out of nato at the same time. and when asked by the washington post yesterday about sending 20,000 troops to confront isil, he said i don't know. that doesn't sound like a good idea to me. where his morals are is a little

confusing. are: you can see they delighted to have a foreign-policy debate with donald trump. they believe that is a debate they can win and trump is every bit as confident as she is that he will win the debate. john: she wants to seem as though she has judgment and a more limited sense of what might happen. even before the attack, national security was sure to be front and center today for donald trump. yesterday, he announced the names of some foreign-policy advisers. and he gave a highly watched speech last night to american jewish leaders at aipac's annual conference in the district of columbia. said, he things he the post aboutto america's role in nato. mr. trump: nato was set up at a

different time when we were a richer country. we weren't borrowing all of this money. we are borrowing money from china, which is sort of an amazing situation. that it was a much different thing. nato is costing us a fortune. and yes, we're protecting europe with nato, but we're spending a lot of money. number one, i think the totribution of costs has change. i think nato as a concept is good, but it's not as good as it was when it first evolved. -- not onlywe bear financially -- but we bear the biggest brunt of it. today, ted cruz and john kasich paused in their response to the brussels bombing to criticize trump for his position. also saidh: mr. trump

we should be downplaying our involvement in nato and i don't think that makes any sense at all. i think we need to be even stronger as an alliance. mr. cruz donald trump's proposal to withdraw from nato, to is sadlyfrom europe consistent with his statement that he intends to be neutral with israel and the palestinians. week so, is trump on political footing with his -- weak policy or political footing with his stance on nato? john: there is no doubt that he will get ripped for these comments and he started to get a e bit of it immediately after. that theotion establishment will take trump on over this i think matters to him not at all. on badot necessarily

terms. where iis is a position think trump is on very strong political ground and i think he is shrewder on policy than people give him credit for. the role nato was originally formed for does not really exist anymore, to fight the soviet union, and the populist center -- haley barbour saw this when he was running for president, rahm emanuel talked about it -- bringing resources home, letting other countries, not just in nato, but other allies of the of thestates bear more burden. i think he is more shrewd than people realize on foreign-policy. john: he has to get to a point where he carefully modulates enough where he does not allow all this misinterpretation. ashe's interpreted abandoning nato, he has the losing argument. if he is saying recalibrate with detail, that could get

somewhere. mark: and saying the saudi arabia and south korea should pay more for their defense than they currently do, that is a position he could win big on in both the nomination fight and the general. i think that could be a potentially popular position, but he needs to enunciated in a way that seems serious and not pennypinching. next, what happening in the presidential contest in utah and arizona? we will be right back. ♪

john: there are three states

holding primaries or caucuses tonight out west. 130 delegates are at stake for democrats in arizona, utah, and idaho. overall, hillary clinton is leading the pledged delegate count. if you factor in superdelegates, clinton's lead jumps. on the republican side, there are 90 delegates up for grabs between arizona and utah. they are not doing idaho today. american samoa is also holding caucuses this evening. ronald trump leads the overall -- donald trump leads the overall delegate race. , among the serious races, what are you most connected to? mark: i will see how well donald in arizona. i suspect he will do well. if ted cruz does well, it will

show that he can take trump on on immigration. the big state is utah. ted cruz is facing the john kasich problem there. a lot of people believe if you vote for john kasich you are helping trump. if cruz gets over 50%, he can effectively make the argument, please marginalize john kasich and help me defeat donald trump. he could also say if john kasich wasn't in this race, i would have gotten over 50%. what about on the democratic side? is now taken for granted, i think, that bernie sanders is going to win idaho and utah. the question is arizona. bernie sanders has spent a lot of time and money on that state. if he were to pull off a victory in arizona, a three state sweep

going into a bunch of western caucuses this weekend, he could win six in a row. that would be an nice run of momentum for bernie sanders, trying to get off the mat since last tuesday. , but he has a momentum also has a delegate problem. he needs to solve it, if he can, with a momentum burst, so yes, if he wins two out of three tonight, as expected, it doesn't help his momentum problem or his delegate problem. three, thenn all wisconsin, two weeks from tonight, becomes a huge deal. and if he beats her there, then he has something going on. john: you still have a delegate problem, but you have so much momentum at that point that people will start watching the race. mark: we also need to be talking about turnout. bernie sanders is drying huge

crowds in all three of these states. huge crowds in all three of the states. that doesn't necessarily correlate to turn out. they can no longer that it is the huge republican field turning people away. bernie sanders says if he drops out the modicum of enthusiasm on the democratic side goes away. not what you want. when we come back, the attacks today and what they mean for u.s. foreign-policy. ♪

john: welcome back to palm

beach. here to talk with us about the implications of today's terror attacks in brussels is ambassador ryan crocker who previously served in afghanistan, iraq, syria, kuwait, and lebanon. he is currently the dean of the george bush school of government . thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. mark: what could europe do as a whole or as individual countries do, in thed not wake of the terror attack? >> one is the quality and court nation european intelligence services. ofy are -- coordination european intelligence services. they are far behind where we were on 9/11, and we have in both ourht years capability and coronation system. the europeans have got to

both the quality and coronation of their intelligence and security services. is finding thee gaps. they are finding the weak spots, and we see the results. ae second thing that is such major difference between the u.s. and europe is that we integrate people in this country . an area in the united states that is essentially an arab and muslim ghetto. are broughtgrants into american society and truly find their place here sets us apart from belgium, from france, even from britain. so, as we respond to what has just happened, tragically, in wessels, the worst thing could do would be to give away

our greatest strength, and that is our open society that makes everyone in america feel part of this great society. believe youador, i just said that in terms of dealing with domestic terror, the european union is farther behind where the united states was before 9/11. there have been a lot of things, including 9/11, that i think would have alerted the world they need to get with the program. what accounts for europe's laxity in this area? think it may be that with of the train bombings in spain, the europeans haven't had anything on the scale of 9/11. and i don't want to generalize here. countries do remarkably well on intelligence and security. i would cite sweden as an

example. that they felt this was something that could only happen over here and not over there. and, we are frankly kind of complacent. after what we have seen with paris in november and now this, it is way past time for europeans to shake themselves awake. beope that we are going to stepping forward to be proactive in offering to the europeans some of the things we have learned in the 15 years since 9/11. the metrics you would use to say if that is happening, if the united states is stepping up to help europe with that? clear bothit will be

by announcements from washington and from european capitals. i am quite sure we have had this on offer before. the urgency has never been greater. i hope we will not wait for an invitation, but offer to share with our european allies, and part of the nato alliance. nato was not constructed to deal with terror, but it is a security alliance, and this clearly falls within its mandate. ambassador, you talked about integration versus segregation and how the united states is different in how it deals with it muslim population. senator cruz suggested we needed to start police patrols in muslim communities in the united states. do you think that is a useful or constructive suggestion? ambassador: i absolutely do not. this is precisely what the

islamic state would like us to do, to present an image of a country that is suspicious of people simply because they are muslims or arabs. that plays right into their hand , and allows them to hold out to arab and muslim populations the line that the united states is fundamentally anti-arab and anti-islamic. obviously, we 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.stand the that is why terrorists practice terror, so they can frighten thate into doing things are ultimately counterproductive for society. we just need to be sure we do not fall into that trap. crocker down in

texas, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. watching us inin washington, d.c., you can now listen to us on 99.1 fm radio. we'll be right back. ♪

john: welcome back. we are now joined by the man who succeeded our previous guest as ambassador to iraq. he also served on the national security council and now serves as the dean of a school in denver and is the author of, "outpost: a diplomat at work her."

thank you for joining us. i think many people have the impression that isil is gaining strength in its ability to project terror outside the middle east and into the heart of europe. is it your sense that isil is gaining strength, or is this a common misperception on the part of people? isil has been pushed back on its heels. they are not what they were a year ago. that said, they have european cells and they are able to play havoc there. but i think if you go back to nyria, iraq, they have been i some trouble. clearly they are being franchised. we are seeing isis in africa, afghanistan, libya. it is maybe a broader threat, but in terms of its overall don'te in the world, i

think it is as strong as it used to be. is whatthe real issue our sunni arab states going to do about this because at the end of the day, they have to reject this extremism. what our policy prescriptions that to from that analysis? weakend isil that is still able to strike european capitals? >> first of all, this is a time to be very close to the .uropeans those security services in brussels, in belgium, have been night and day going after this threat. these people do not sleep. these guysone after for weeks and weeks, and now

this terrible thing happens. i don't think it's because they are incompetent and not up to the job. i think it is a tough target to deal with, and now is the time to be doing all we can to help them. i think the first point is to make sure that the europeans see us as an ally and not a critic. tohink secondly, we need look at where we are with isis in the region. what is particularly worrisome is the fact that while people call for more u.s. involvement in isis, syria, and iraq, you have to ask the question, where are the saudi's in this? much of the money isis has has come from saudi arabia. do we feel they are part of this effort? they were, but now they seem to have directed themselves to and other places.

i think we need to align in the middle east and figure out a way forward for syria to calm that situation down. one of the reasons europeans are so exhausted right now is this refugee crisis. americans have no idea the dimensions of this thing. i think the way to deal with that is to move forward in rather than waiting for the syrians to come up with something on their own. to be much more proactive in putting forward a political future for syria. what are one or two good debates you would like to see the country have about how to deal with isis and terrorism in the presidential campaign? >> i am an old-fashioned guy. i like to see my candidates

confident and measured in their tone, confident but not cocky. i would like them to repeat what our fundamental values are and onto those values even as we ramp up security requirements. kick them out of iraq and syria, whatever, this kind of extremism is going to be with us for a while. athink we need to dig in for longer absurd and be resolute in the face of these issues. longer while and be resolute in the face of these issues. we need to manage expectations about the time frame in which this can be salt. at the end of the day, i am looking for maturity -- can be solved. at the end of the day, i am looking for security. in yourat would it mean

mind to accomplish what every politician says we must accomplish, which is to destroy isil? >> i am skeptical of efforts to push them out of a place because i think they will reconquer gay in another place. destroying isolating doesn't -- gregate inreconque another place. does require a military solution. our allies have the same goal we do, to destroy this organization. morenk that involves players. ultimately, i think it needs to be decimated. i don't see just scattering it being enough. i think there needs to be that military approach. we need a lot of partners in

that, but i think we also need to see an effort in the region to have a political solution. this whole sunni-shia issue has been around for 1300 years. flares up from time to time, and it is flared up now. we need to see regional leaders speaking up and speaking against this kind of sectarianism that is part of the fuel that has ignited this whole isis thing. ambassador chris hill, thank you for coming on. when we come back, hillary clinton's super pac has turned its eyes to the general election. what they plan to spend and where they plan to spend it after these words from our sponsors. ♪

john: the super pac supporting hillary clinton is beginning aboutwith a war chest of $45 million. don't expect a lot of that to be spent before the democratic national convention. the group, priorities, usa, is the generalspend on election in battleground states like ohio and florida. here to tell us what is coming up for priorities, usa, the chief strategist and cochairman. thank you, and welcome back. going to spend tens of millions of dollars on tv ads. what kinds of tv ads do you met -- imagine you will run? >> we are still in the process of sorting that out, but there is no question that in the middle of a serious time, we

plan on drawing a stark contrast between the direction that hillary wants to take the country or that either ted cruz or donald trump want to take the country, and we plan on the cute enough fight not only after the convention, but likely before -- on executing that fight not only , but likelynvention before the convention even begins. john: how much of an effort have you made to date in doing research on donald trump? as you might imagine, we are doing all of the things a campaign does to prepare to take on their likely opponent, ranging from research to polling, focus groups, all of the normal pieces. that process really began several months ago, as you mighe because wef the

learned pretty quickly a lesson that the republicans were desperately trying to teach all democrats, which is that we should take the candidacy of donald trump is seriously and do everything we could to combat what is likely going to be a billion dollar attempt to deceive and distort hillary's record. learned sohave you far from your copious research into donald trump? craig's well, look, i think above all else -- >> well, look, i think above all else, the american public is looking for three basic things, someone who has the character and temperament to be president, something the ambassador spoke about before the break, someone who has built their career by lifting other people up and not by tearing them down, and third, somebody who, in light of today's events, has the temperament, experience, and to secure our country at home and engage with our allies across the globe. otheryou and

organizations are trying to raise money on behalf of hillary clinton. whenave had trouble supporters did not feel there would be much chance she could lose. what is the mood now? do people think she is in a tough fight to win the election or does she have it in the bag? >> i think anybody thinks she has it in the bag. the change we saw is normal. as the 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 now our eyes are squarely on the general election and that is where i think most of our supporters are focused. having said that, the campaign has been clear that they are not taking anything for granted, and that includes the primary against bernie. mark: could donald trump

campaign against your side if he did not have the support of a super pac? republicans have a difficult decision to make, and that will determine if he has the resources to compete. they are clearly struggling with whether they are going to embrace donald trump. it is clear that many in the party half. he had another congressional endorsement today. but this is someone who has monopolized the free press and has 100% name id. i am not sure having money will be the decider. having said that, there is no question that super pac's and wing groups have made it clear that their number one priority is to defeat hillary in the general election, and that is why we are there to fight

back early and often. for the purposes of this question, i am going to give you a promotion to god. as god, you get to choose who hillary is running against. would you choose trump or cruise? >> honestly, i think it is six of one, half dozen of the other. managed to cruz has make himself likable only in the context of donald trump, but the fact of the matter is, they have similar policies. look at what was said today by ted cruz in light of the terrible, tragic events in brussels. his solution is that we should out into the muslim neighborhoods of the united states. donald trump once waterboarding. these are not the solutions. i think the fact of the matter is that hillary and we will be able to take on either one of them. john: is there any doubt in your

the john kasich would be the toughest opponent among those three? >> i think it's going to be very difficult for john kasich to be the nominee, so frankly, we haven't spent much time giving him consideration. we have focused on donald trump and ted cruz. let me ask you the question again. john kasich is still in the race. do you agree or disagree that he would be the toughest general election candidate among the three existing candidates? i think when you are in a parade of the blind, the one eyed man often leads. the fact of the matter is, john kasich has a pretty extreme record on issues dating back to his time as a congressman as well as his time as governor. we would be prepared to take him on as well. john: guy cecil.

thank you very much. we will be looking to see what you do with all that money and those priorities. we will be right back. ♪

mark: check out bloomberg politics.com for updates on brussels and more. coming up, emily chang on bloomberg west. john: tonight, we will be interviewing donald trump. you can see theull interview tomorrow night on "all due respect." until then, thanks for watching. sayonara. ♪

♪ rishaad: it is wednesday the 23rd of march. this is "trending business". i am rishaad salamat. ♪ 9:00 a.m. and hong kong. we are live. here is a look at what we are watching. markets shrugging off the terrorist attacks, japan the biggest loser. security questions at the heart of europe, that