♪ what is welcome to this edition of best of "with all due respect." beyond the latest electoral results, each candidate had to respond to the deadly attacks in brussels, and explain how they would protect the u.s. against the islamic state. >> several of them made their case on this program. on tuesday we set our donald trump. the next day we caught up with his chief rival, senator ted cruz of texas as he campaigned in new york city. >> we begin they look back with donald trump, telling mark and i

how he first got word of the bombings in belgium. donald trump: i was called by a friend he said the -- a terrible thing happened in brussels. i'm not surprised. i turn on the television and i saw what was going on. i think it is deplorable. mark: and one of your interviews this morning, you talked about giving the country except talk. -- a peptalk. you say be terrorists are winning, some people are in the country. donald trump: they are. they are shutting down the world, and we do not do anything about it. and are chopping off heads putting people in cages. mark: that is part of your view but a pep talk involves optimism. donald trump: i would be tough on terror. i would be tougher than we are now. i would increase the loss we could do certain things.

we're not playing on the same field. they have no laws. they have absolutely no loss. they kill people and do not talk about it. they do not worry about the law. we do something that is a little bit harsh. that particular soldier or general or whoever may be, loses his pension and life. we're not playing by the same rules. they are playing dirty, we're not playing that way. we cannot waterboard. we cannot do anything. nothing is nice about it. you know what -- we have to go tougher. it is eating up the world now. a lot of the world is weak. they are weak and ineffective people. what is happening in germany is unbelievable. what is happening in a small part of sweden is unbelievable. a lot of people are saying, donald trump was right. you know that, and i know that. i don't want to be right about it. i would rather be wrong about it. but i am right. >> senator cruz came out today saying we should have police

patrols in muslim neighborhoods in the u.s.. you said you thought that was a good idea. in an earlier interview you said you are 100% behind it. we had ryan crocker on the show he says it is the worst idea you can imagine. it would be exactly what isis would want us to do. the united states or be per trade as indiscriminately prejudice against muslims. howdy respond? -- how do you respond? donald trump: i am ok. in new york city we have a strongest police department. we have the strongest, if you talk about vigilance, we were watching closer than anybody else. it was an amazing group. they actually caught people in terms of stopping attacks. it was ended by a mayor that is grossly incompetent. we have an incompetent mayor of new york city. they ended it. for no reason. we should bring it back. we have to be vigilant. we have to look, even at mosques.

i am ok with it. john: i don't think you are responding to the substance of the argument. are you saying that is wrong? isis would take it as a victory? donald trump: i think he is wrong. we have to be more vigilant. john: your career, which has been successful, what is the kind of decision you would have to make in your career previously that was the closest thing to the kind of decision a president has to make when he decides to send american forces into ifo conflict -- into a conflict. donald trump: you're talking about lives, potentially thousands of lives. when you do not make decisions, sometimes you talk about more lives. if we are going to be weak and effective like we are now, i watched president obama, land in cuba with nobody to treat him. in particular, castro, but nobody, i thought that was

.errible i watched him in a press conference yesterday, he would like a baby, castro was the boss. i watched him today at a baseball game in cuba while people are -- body parts are laying all over the place with threats to us and anybody else. i'm watching him watch a baseball game. you look so bad. he could have said, this is an emergency, he should be back in washington, in the white house, where a president should be at a time like this. it looks so bad. >> what is the toughest decision you have made in your career? donald trump: i do multimillion dollar deals. guaranteeing vast amounts of debt for big transactions. it takes courage. if it doesn't work out, i make them work out. i take deals that should have worked out and i make deals.

i could build a massive building and the market turns bad. i am tough on banks. i do that often. very often things do not work out the way you think they will work out. that is the sign of a great business person. it is the sign of a great deal maker. things change, it is, how do you do any bad times? >> you talked in length about talking with the border, isis. these are relatively short-term issues. if you were president for years, eight years, going back to the optimism notion -- he talked about war with the west, what is the donald trump land, long-term to try to make the relationship between a muslim world and western world better? donald trump: they do not respect us. they do not respect a lot of things happening to not only our country, but they do not respect others. i think what merkel has done to germany is an outrage.

i know german people that are here all the time. people that love, love, germany. people tell me, two years ago they were saying, it is the great -- greatest country on her. now they are going to leave. >> how would you make the muslim world like the west better? donald trump: he first thing you have to do is get them to respect the west. respect us. if you're not going to respect us, it will never work. this has been going on for a long time. i tell the story about general pershing in 1918 -- where there were problems. they had radical islamic terrorism. in the philippines, a well-known story i will not go to the process. they had a huge problem with the terrorism having to do with islam, or having to do with radical islam. he was unbelievably harsh grid i think you have a story -- harsh. i think you know the story.

they didn't have a problem for 28 years. people in theent, islamic world should respect the people in the west. donald trump: i don't think we will be successful until they have respect. they have no respect for the president or the country. the washington post suggested maybe the u.s. should have a different role. nato might need a different type of mission. there are people that say that america needs to be the leader of nato, that is important. do you agree? donald trump: we have had a disproportionate year. we are paying for a lot of nato. it is helping them more than us. i look at the ukraine, we are always the leader. what about the countries surrounding it. they do not say anything. we are always the ones that want to go to war with russia over the ukraine. we are the ones putting up a lot of money for nato, is proportionately. -- this proportionately. we defend south korea, saudi

arabia. we defend japan. we defend germany. we put up a lot of money and people wonder, why do we know 19 -- 19 julian dollars -- owe 19 trillion dollars. it is because we are defending everyone else. mark: should america be the leader? donald trump: nato should be obsolete. it was set up when things were different. we were rich then, we had nothing but money. we had nothing but power. far more than we have today. i think nato, you have to really examine nato. us, it is helping other countries. i don't think those other countries appreciate what we are doing. john: just to be clear -- you made two slightly different arguments, one was that you want to see the u.s. pay less into nato. donald trump: definitely.

but -- donald trump: i would want help from others. one thing definitely, we are paying too much. as to whether or not it is obsolete, i will determine that chris mark: up next, more with our interview with donald trump including thoughts about using nuclear weapons against the islamic state. ♪

♪ donald trump: i think i would be very late compared to my opponents that are running. people do not realize, i know a lot of people like to say, he actually was for the iraq war. i was against it. many months before it started, i was like, i don't know. in all fairness, i have been a great businessman over the years. by the time that started, plenty of proof on it, let the of articles from that time or early

on, hillary clinton wanted to do it. hillary clinton would be such a bad president, she does not have the strength, or the stamina to be president or to be a good president. people wanted to go to iraq -- i didn't. i probably would be the last to use it. i have to say this -- would probably be the last to use nuclear weapons against isis? donald trump: i am never going to rule anything out. even if i felt it, i would not want to tell you that. at a minimum i want to -- i want them to think maybe we would use it. when we do these interviews, with everyone, not me, u.s. -- you ask a question like that -- everybody comes clean, we need unpredictably. isis is an enemy. they are not in uniform, we do not know who they are. japan,old days we had

germany, they would be dressed, we knew who we were fighting. it was called a war -- now we don't know who they are. we need unpredicted ability. when you ask a question like that, it is a sad thing to have to answer. the enemy is watching. i have a very good chance of winning. frankly i do not want the in a me to know how i think. with that being said, i do not rule out anything. john: have there been circumstances, provocations in -- ifst 15 years when you you had been president, you would have considered nuclear weapons. for instance, after 9/11? donald trump: no. first of all, we went after iraq. iraq did not knock down the world trade center. i am saying, iraq didn't -- we could have taken out the taliban if we wanted to. we did not need nuclear weapons. i would say definitely, nuclear weapons are a last resort.

i understand the power of nuclear weapons. m.i.t. -- hee at used to tell me, 30 years ago about the power of weaponry. the power of nuclear, and other things. it is so devastating. i would say, absolutely, as a last resort. that does not mean we should not be prepared. that does not mean our acquisition of the prepared. i'm not even sure it is prepared. i watched 60 minutes a year ago, they should never have put this on. the administration should have never allowed it. they showed these nuclear weapons that are not in a state of a -- of preparedness. i would never want to use them. we have to be prepared. they have to be perfect. mark: you are and talking more about national security than you ever have. where youother areas think you need to know more to be president about national's

gritty -- national security. donald trump: i have a good instinct for national security. mark: i'm not asking about your instinct. donald trump: i want to know more about anything in every area. i do think i have a good instinct. ago,u go back four years we should not have been in iraq. they totally destabilize the middle east. iran will take the oil. iraq has the second-largest oil reserves in the world. really good oil. i said, take the oil. now who has the oil? isis and iran will have it. been taken for granted for a long time the u.s. and the president of the u.s. are the leaders of the free world. if you are president of the u.s. would you think of you -- yourself as the leader of the free world? donald trump: i would. that does not mean i will spend

trillions of dollars on nation building. i think that is over. mark: do you think america is the most powerful country on her? -- on earth? donald trump: the power of the weaponry is so incredible. if we were not talking about the power of weapons, i would have said -- if you are in, you made a mistake, get out immediately. you cannot allow anybody to arm with the kind of weapons and power that can be produced. earlier abouted the notion that we are losing to isil. donald trump: isis. the president always says isil. it is almost like he does it to bother people. john: i'm not doing it to bother you. donald trump: the president always says that, i think he does it to bother people. john: they're talking about economics, military, everything. is america the most powerful country?

donald trump: i would say that people are catching up. china is catching up. russia is catching up. you look at our budgets, we cut back on the military. we have a military that needs help. we have a military with old equivalent. i have a friend whose son has been sick bit of time in iraq and afghanistan -- has spent a bit of time in iraq and afghanistan and he said we get our weapons to people that we think are fighting for us. they run in the enemy takes over the weapons. he is so disheartened when he sees that they have better weapons. they are american weapons. mark: you and hillary clinton are way ahead in delegates. let's say it is the general election between you. she was the secretary of state. donald trump: look at the job she did. you are a businessman and hosted a tv show, how do you win that argument? donald trump: i think people will see how competent i am.

i think she has been very weak. i said it before. i don't think she has the strength or the stamina to be a good president. 3:00 in the morning, i think she is sleeping, i don't think she wakes up. that has been proven. when you look at hillary with that phony ad. the 3:00 in the morning and come she never woke up. the phone call was made. the ambassador, benghazi -- the call was made hundreds of times. another call, but did not take the call from the people -- she was sleeping. john: you think there was anything she did as secretary of state you think is good? donald trump: she did one thing, a lot of traveling. i think she worked hard. she was always on planes. back and forth. she also lied. she said she was attacked. she was landing someplace come and she was under a vicious attack.

it turned out to be a total fraud. john: that was donald trump. coming up next, we hear from his most formidable opponent, ted cruz on wife he thinks he could stop donald, next. ♪

♪ >> senator, thank you for joining us. >> we are seeing republicans coming together. we are seeing republicans unite. in the last 10 days we have been endorsed by jeb bush, mitt romney, but also by mike lee and livevin.th an -- mark --hink the reason is simple for some time, 65% to 70% of republicans have recognized the donald trump is not the best nominee to go head-to-head with hillary clinton. donald loses to hillary, and i beat hillary. what we are seeing every day as

her publicans, coming together and uniting behind the campaign. that is what it will take to be dominant -- beats donald. >> some of you are less interested in supporting your -- you. ted cruz: i welcome support from anyone. the object is to win and turn the country around. if we keep going -- we have had seven years under obama. seven years of economic stagnation. seven years of the federal government assaulting the constitution and the bill of rights. as brussels yesterday illustrated, seven years of weakness and appeasement from the obama, clinton foreign-policy that has enabled the rise of radical islamic terrorist. not stagnant, is if you look at a snapshot of where we are now, it is not clear based on polling that you are a stronger candidate than donald trump. ted cruz: it is clear. the polling consistently shows

that hillary beats donald. the polling shows that i beat hillary. last week there was a general election poll in utah. it showed hillary beating donald trump in utah, bright red, conservative, conservative utah. if the republican nominee cannot carry utah, you're looking at a walter mondale style landslide defeat. is one of the reasons why so many republicans across the ideological spectrum are uniting behind the campaign. mark: politics is rough, it has been a tough nomination. your wives are involved. i was really surprised at how quickly that escalated. it started with an outside group. you are not connected to it, he is not. he reacted, and then you reacted. is this personal or politics? ted cruz: last night we saw how low old is willing to stoop -- low donald is willing to stoop.

it is a pattern. whenever donald feels scared, whenever he is afraid of what is happening. whenever bad news breaks for him, his reaction is to yell and and tryand often curse to bully people and threaten people. last night was a very bad night for donald trump. he went and campaigned hard and utah. -- in utah. we were hoping to break 50% in utah. not only did we break 50%, we had a landslide victory. we had nearly 70% of the vote in utah. donald is scared. his reaction was to attack my wife directly. -- she is the daughter of christian missionaries. she is my best friend. if donald once a character fight, he ought to stick with me. heidi is out of his league. mark: do you expect him to keep it up?

ted cruz: he is used to being a bully. two attacking and scaring people. heidi is not remotely scared of donald trump. she has dealt with bullies in the business world her whole life. someone yelling and screaming and insulting her is not remotely frightening. mark: how about nato? he is taken on an unusual position. he says the u.s. contributes too much. maybe as president he would look at the purpose of nato. maybe there is not one. what was the role of nato be? ted cruz: you are right. donald trump's foreign policy is bizarre. he got very little understanding of foreign-policy. what he does know is wrong. what he has been advocating as weakness is withdrawal from the world, isolationism. with respect to israel, for example, he says he will be neutral to -- between israel and

the palestinians. with respect to nato, two days ago he advocated withdrawing from nato. that is a terrible idea. it was striking that the day after he called for that we saw it tragic terrorist attack in brussels, where nato is headquartered. we should not be withdrawing from europe. we should not abandon our allies. we should strengthen our alliance with europe. we should strengthen our alliance with israel. donald trump had his way -- if america did withdraw from nato, it would hand a massive victory to put in -- vladimir putin. a massive victory to isis. the idea that donald trump would want the presidency to begin with a preemptive surrender, that is a sign of weakness. it is striking that donald's foreign policy is to the left of barack obama and hillary clinton. they are not arguing to withdraw from nato. yet donald seems to be unable to distinguish our friends from enemies.

mark: he said his speech may have repositioned him on neutrality. sen. cruz: he said many times that he would be "neutral" between israel and the palestinians. the fact that he read a speech that somebody wrote for him off of it teleprompter is inconsistent with where he has been over and over again. anyone who can't distinguish between the idf forces and islamic terrorists who seek to raisesus, that real questions. need a president who understands the nature of radical islamic terrorism and is prepared to defeat them. donald's lack of knowledge and understanding of radical islamic terrorism is every bit as evident with regard to iran, where he says he will keep in

place this catastrophic iranian nuclear deal and renegotiated. that, this isnks not a real estate deal, and the ayatollah is not selling beachfront property. the ayatollah has pledged death to america, and he means it. understand one of the simplest differences between donald trump in me, on day one as president i will rip to shreds this iranian nuclear deal because it is the biggest threat facing america, the threat of nuclear iran. donald trump does not understand that. donald trump and hillary clinton would keep his deal in place because neither one understands just how dangerous the ayatollah is. saying, we spend a lot of money on nato. they don't seem to be fighting isis. where is the threat from russia today that nato is preventing?

what is the role of nato right now? what is its actual mission? >> nato has been the most effective military alliance of modern times. nato stood up to the soviet war, russia isld now invading its neighbors, ukraine, threatening the baltics , russia is threatening much of europe, and nato is a strategic alliance. nato should be a vehicle for going after isis. if we had american leadership, and nato does not work without american leadership, if we had american leadership, nato could play a critical role in utterly destroying isis. donald's approach is withdraw and hide, and he somehow thinks the bad guys will leave us alone. obama tried that. that is called leading from behind. it doesn't work. we need a president and commander in chief who will utterly and completely destroy isis. that is what i will do. >> this proposal you loaded the

other day, increased police surveillance of muslim neighborhoods in the united states. can you name a neighborhood where that would be proper? what would you say to a young who see that in the neighborhood? a horrificels we saw terrorist attack grid our prayers are with those murdered , and yesterday was a reminder that this is not a lone wolf. this is part of a global jihad being waged by radical islamic terrorists, waged by isis, and president obama and hillary clinton and the modern democratic party is in a state of denial. politicalo captive to correctness that they won't say radical islamic terrorism. every time we see a terror attack, paris, san bernardino, and no doubt coming out of

brussels, president obama lectures the american people on islamophobia. enough is enough. whoeed a commander-in-chief recognizes his number one responsibility is to keep america safe. that is what i will do. when it comes to stopping radical islamic terrorism, you have to identify the problem and use every law enforcement tool, every intelligence tool, ever national security tool, available to defeat it. new york had in place a very effective program to work cooperatively with the muslim community to monitor and prevent radicalization and to prevent islamic terror attacks occurring before they happen. unfortunately, mayor de blasio came into office and is every bit as captive to political correctness as is barack obama and hillary clinton, and he disbanded the program. what would someone think of they thought a police presence -- >> a 10-year-old. >> the police are here to

protect us. i categorically reject the view that the police are bad guys. people are fed up with this notion that every time there is an incident, barack obama, hillary clinton, bill de blasio, they side with the criminals, looters, and thugs come a rather than the men in blue. i stand with the police. there was a moment not too long ago when the nypd stood up and turned their backs on bill de blasio that spoke for new york in the whole country. when we have police in a community that protects the community and keeps it safe, and we need to stop attending that radical islamic terrorism does not exist, instead to work to defeat it. >> senator, thank you. congratulations with utah. fantastic,utah was and i'm looking forward to the next contest. >> a test of leadership, the political implications of the brussels bombings, next.

♪

mark: here now to talk about the implications of today's .errorist attacks in brussels he is currently the teen of the george bush school of government at texas a&m university. 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 terrorist attacks. >> there are to bring fundamental issues. one is the quality and coordination of european intelligence and security services. large, certainly in belgium, far behind where we were on 9/11, and we have traveled light years in both our

capabilities and coordination since then. the europeans have got to improve both the quality and the coordination of their intelligence and security services. islamic state is finding the gap's, the weak spots, and we see the results. such aond thing that is major difference between the u.s. and europe is that we integrate people in this country. a situatione similar in the united states, essentially an arab and muslim ghetto. way successivehe waves of immigrants are brought into american society and truly find a place here sets us apart from belgium, france, even from britain. as we respond from what has just

happened tragically in brussels, the worst thing week could do would be give away our greatest strengths, and that is our open society that makes everyone in america are part of this great country. said i believe you just that in terms of dealing with domestic terror that the european union is further behind -- is behind where the united states was on 9/11. there have been a lot of things, including 9/11, that i would have thought would have alerted people to the notion that they have to get with the program. what counts for europe's laxity in this area? withthink it may be that the exception say of the train bombings in spain that the europeans have not had anything on the scale of a 9/11. i don't want to generalize here. some european countries do

remarkably well on intelligence and security, i would sites we cite sweden as an example. maybe they thought this is something that could only happen over here and not there. now ofhat we have seen ,aris in november and now this for they past time europeans to shake themselves awake. i hope we are making a major .ffort to engage them we are going to be stepping andard to be proactive offering to the europeans some of the things we have learned in the 15 years since 9/11. what are the metrics you used to say whether that is happening, where the united states is stepping up to help europe with this problem?

>> it will be clear by announcements, both from washington and from european sure we, so i am quite have had this on offer before. the urgency has never been greater, so i hope we will not but for an invitation, 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, and is clearly falls within its mandate. aboutyou talked integration versus segregation in terms of some of the communities, how different the united states is in terms of how it deals with its muslim population. we neededuz suggested to start police patrols and muslim communities in the united

states. do you think that is a useful or constructive suggestion? >> i absolutely do not. this is precisely what 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 because they are arabs. that plays right into their hand to allows them to hold out 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, and this -- look, i understand the fears. that 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 don't

fall into that trap. mark: thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. john: our journalists responsible for the rise of donald trump? our media critic gives us his take, next. ♪

,ark: in his first column today the media's complicated and of sosa of coverage of donald trump's campaign. obsessive coverage of donald trump's campaign. how much is his doing, and how much is the prez acting on its own? is trumporite quote and "i do these tweets, they can be totally insignificant and break right into the news," so it's not all his doing. it is assumed by is.

-- it is a symbiosis. do think that willomark: be a huge advantage for him in the campaign, the violet coverage? >> i'm sure we would all agree that not all the coverage is positive. 2004, reporters would say to the bush strategists that they are talking about the war. they said, as long as were talking about the war, we are winning. as long as we are talking about trump, he is winning. >> in reading your column, you and chuckt that fox todd of nbc said no more of this special treatment where you get the phone in on some interviews, which is a much easier interview. then i watched george steph stephanopoulos-

who slam dunked the moderator. >> i'm thinking george decided and they did not want to talk about it enough, they want take him on the phone, but i will. i will get a spike in the ratings. >> a phone interview for a subject is a lot easier than an in person interview, and trump must always does well in those situations. >> my impression is he steamrolled the interviewer. they can't break in. isbigger problem with it that these sunday broadcast on herehey were based is the candidate at the advent of television. we see them. it is not radio. i don't know why they would want that responsibility and something they have built probably over decades. seen in past presidential campaigns some candidates get more and better

coverage than others. that always happens. this seems like on a scale that maybe we have never seen. >> i have never seen anything like it. the new york times presented a report in graphic showing -- i know you guys have talked about it and your viewers have seen it -- almost $2 billion in free media coverage for donald trump compared to hillary clinton, about half of that. disadvantagee -- a for hillary clinton. wayie sanders was lower, as was ted cruz. mark: there's going to be attempt asian for the future to keep writing about donald trump. >> i know. i'm trying to think about what to do about that. i am saying that everybody is giving donald trump all this coverage and here i am writing about it, so there is a hall of

mirrors factor here. he is a huge -- i'm not going to use that word -- a giant story. we will have to mall over this and explore it months to calm, if not many years if he wins the presidency. ago after joe mccarthy, there were postmortems devastating for the press, the weight mccarthy was able to use the press. election, i'm talking in a generic sense, not the north times, are we going to look back? >> i don't think anyone can say that this time has been good. so far, so bad, or mostly bad, or very bad. .ere is what i wonder you mentioned that chuck todd said he's not going to take donald trump on the phone anymore. cnn said we are not going to get roped into doing a donald trump qvc-style press conference, so maybe they are a counter

reaction. giantthere will be a change, and it has to happen soon. i'm hoping there is a correction here for all of our sakes. it's better for donald trump to have a different sort of coverage. it is better for democracy to have a different sort of coverage. >> the suits don't want to give up that revenue. >> it is too hard. the other thing i mentioned in as i have made the round's to get back in touch with the media industry i covered many years ago, people are afraid. they need that revenue, those ratings, those clicks, because it isn't up for grabs moment in the new digital age, so donald trump is coming in at a perfect time, because he gives everybody what they needs, ratings. mark: thanks so much. john: more of the best of with all due respect ahead. ♪

john: that was a momentous week.

thank you for watching this edition of "with all due respect" the best. we will be back with you on monday. until then, sayonara. ♪

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