mark: i am mark halperin. john: i am john heilemann. we're looking forward to the art is no talking points and rebuttal. -- art is not talking points and rebuttal. ♪ mark: happy gotham city debate dave, sports fans. john: we'll cover the brawl between hillary clinton and donald -- and bernie sanders. announcers in florida they will drop formal battery

michelle fields was grabbed last month. here is dave ehrenberg explaining his decision this afternoon. in thee the evidence case is legally sufficient for the police to charge mr. lewandowski, it is not strong enough to meet the legal burden of a conviction. it is not uncommon for an inner circle staff member to assist in clearing a safe pass wave. -- pass way. that one be noticed agent was positioned directly behind ms. field and appeared to show no concern over her actions. mr. lewandowski could have called this agent's attentions to her movements before taking action himself if he considered her a threat. after the incident, mr. lewandowski denied ever touching mrs. fields in any way.

although these factors might undermine mr. lewandowski's potential defense to live they do not outweigh the reasonable hypothesis of innocence based on the real-time facts and circumstances recorded on the video. was released video of the incident with a wider shot of the room showing mrs. fields ignoring donald trump's protective bubble while the rest of the press is being directed to another area. they factored that into their decision. does this announcement put firmly lewandowski drama and finally behind him? john: the people in the press have a tendency to believe everyone is innocent until proven guilty. wereinute the charges brought, everyone assumed he would be tried and convicted. people have to remember, innocent until proven guilty. in this case it caused

controversy when trump was going to a rough patch. i do not think that, even though there will be fallout from the way the charges were dropped, it will not have any impact on the chances that trump has of being elected. john: i agree with your first point. what we on the program, made the point of innocent until proven guilty on the day it happened and that it was unprecedented. we never saw anything like this with a charge raised against the tempe manager of a presidential candidate. at that moment when things were going south for donald trump, starting with the way that he uzs treating heidi cr followed by the abortion comments, it caused trauma to falter in wisconsin. of thet was part atmosphere in which the anti-trump movement found traction. john: i think that is trump is not the nominee, wisconsin will have proven to be an important

context and that narrative, and this will be part of that turning point, even though corey lewandowski will not be formally charged. mark: there are questions about lewandowski's rule in the campaign now that paul manafort is part of the team. in howfluence of changes the campaign was structured with lewandowski being charged lead people to say that this would cause him to diminish in influence. trump'sill by donald side, travels, is an influential player in the campaign. the fact that he will no longer face charges names that he could focus. standing by him, and lewandowski's public praise and gratitude brings an already close relationship even closer. thing.t is the opposite from has stood by lewandowski, but formal charges were filed and the prosecution, if it had

gone forward, it would have been difficult for lewandowski to stay in the campaign going forward if he had been prosecuted. the alternative would have been huge for corey lewandowski and the campaign. good, i think there is a message for campaign managers going forward, try to err on the side of not touching reporters that all. lewandowski's attorney and donald trump himself spoke to them and offered their sides of the story. they said that the political pressure had no bearing on their final determination. this case has led to a lot of muscle lettering headlines. -- lead it to a lot of not so flattering headlines. how much damage will do is due to trump? will it have lasting effects? what trumpnk that making the case for his campaign

manager, his friend, corey lewandowski, is inappropriate. that is political pressure in my judgment. an employer giving your side of the story in that way does not cross a line. as least as far as what i know in that moment. think that it is not uncommon for prosecutors to decide not to go lord after someone is charged. i think it can't called and said these are facts that you might want that would be one thing, but it seems like he did more. he talks about what a good guy he was. i don't think he will pay a price for this because by his standards it is minor, but you can imagine the scenario if hillary clinton had called the prosecutor about her campaign manager and said he is a nice person, you can imagine them saying that was improper influence. john: i talked about the wisconsin atmosphere.

i think that there is a broader -- lewandowski, the prosecutors have not preceded. for republicans worried about donald trump at the top of the ticket, incidents of this kind that raise unusual and unprecedented drama and melodrama, it has reinforced -- they were predisposed not to want donald trump as their nominee, but it has created a miasma as part of the broader picture that makes people in the republican party that are queasy more queasy. these are the kinds of things that are likely to arise if he is the nominee. people want to stay away from this mess. mark: one thing that attracted people to donald trump in the town hall was his family. no drama. no drama obama. you will never hear anyone say no drama trump. that less drama. if you has less drama, republicans will be reassured.

john: next, we turned into the navy yard in my home borough of brooklyn where hillary clinton and bernie sanders will team up. we will preview that after these words from our sponsors. ♪

mark: there are excitable types that are expecting explosives clinton and bernie sanders collide on the cnn debate stage this evening. if the past is any indication, clinton will swing at sanders on gun control and question his readiness to be president. sanders could keep up his attacks on her judgment on

things like super pacs and the iraq war when he is not pointing at wall street. sanders is expected to land some for being paid to make a big speech. $20,000 for a 2013 speech at companiesne of the that sanders said was "destroying the moral fabric of the country." what are you looking for from hillary clinton and the challenger, the kid from brooklyn, bernie sanders? john: the most obvious thing is the only thing to say. escalation in tengion and negativity, to some extent, in personal rhetoric since the new york primary has gotten underway, i expect this to be the most contentious immigrant debate so far. it might be the last debate of consequence. if hillary clinton wins here and

in the northeastern and mid-atlantic, this race could be over by the time we get to the next democratic debate. a lot on the line for bernie sanders especially. mark: she has won a lot of the debates that she has been in. somethingo have happened tonight that she doesn't expect. her team will be prepared for so many things. unless he can come up with something that throws her and causes her to be seen in a different light, she will be fine. what do i expect? i don't expect him to come up with that. every indication is that he is not prepared for this delay any other candidate would. he has been great in many ways. these are big moments, he has to rise to the occasion and create a paradigm shifting event. john: the one debate she lasted 2008 was the question of drivers illegal immigrants. it was a question she didn't

expect. she will expect everything sanders can bring. just enough annoyance and irritation between these two that there is a chance things could get heated. judging by how the clinton people reacted on television to the verizon paid speech thing, they didn't have a good answer, she better have a better answer. it could get charged if she doesn't have a good reply. mark: they're both in a room where gasoline has been built on the floor and they are fighting with torches. i'm not as sure as you that tonight will be a pop, it could be a physical. -- to be a fizzle. 27,000sanders packed supporters. .early as many celebrities it was a big night of music and speeches. a few people were witnessed not only feeling me bern, but smoking burning stuff.

one speech in particular was causing sanders campaign a little bit of headache and heartache. it was made by a health care activist. he went too far in his the relationship between politicians and corporations. here dr. song's remarks and how sanders reacted in an interview . >> i agree that medicare for all will never happen. if we have a president that ever as to anything greater than the status quo. medicare fraud will never happen if we continue to elect corporate democratic whores who are beholden to -- >> we heard it immediately. we responded. that is not something that we expected. he was a speaker at one event. he was one of many speakers. unfortunately, we were not there to hear it. he would have spoken up immediately. bernie sanders tweeted

that the comment was inappropriate and insensitive. there is no room for language like that in our political discourse. sanders, like a lot of candidates, and more than other candidate, has had a lot of surrogate foot in mouth moments. there is the one time at a rally when killer mike said a uterus does not qualify you to be president. said that hillary clinton's south carolina win was e-cig figured as winning wall -- when was as significant as winning wall -- winning guam. sanders campaign has had more problems with surrogate. why? why is the sanders campaign having this trouble? mark: from a campaign that started from a standing start, they are well-funded, but this is a fly-by-night slapdash

organization. as are all campaigns, but it is not button-down and button up. reacteders people quickly. the problem is not that they have -- that they happen a lot, but he does not have a day to have half a new cycle of this. he has had trouble staying on message in a way that breaks through. he is consistent, but you have to mix it up. it is easy to have the same stump speech. he made no news. he said his normal stuff. that is disciplined, but this overshadows it and that is a problem. john: we touched on it a little, there is a lot of frustration among sanders supporters top to bottom. some of that has taken on a tone of hostility. this.d i have experienced we have given bernie sanders fair coverage on this show.

we have interviewed him dozens of times. yet, we are attacked more harshly by sanders supporters than trump supporters on twitter and elsewhere. there is a frustration with how the race is going. it has taken on a hostile tone in recent weeks that i think is a little different than other things i have seen in the past. mark: i think the press has the right to ask the question, as they do about donald trump. i they doing anything to create an environment where this harsh rhetoric is used? john: there is a lot of it around. mark: a preview of the democratic debate. anne gearan after these words from our sponsors. ♪

♪ you to continue our preview of the democratic debate in brooklyn, anne gearan, a correspondent for "the new york post." we were having back-and-forth that what we expected from the debate. conflict galore. mark thinks a fizzle. what do you think? anne: this has become a grudge match. it has not worked. they have tried to take a step back. within the same news cycle, either they or someone siding with them starts at over. they are destined to butthead's tonight. heads tongiht.

there will be a lot of friction. john: struggling to give an answer about her big payday from verizon. does the campaign seemed to be worried about the verizon speech , or in general about the paid speeches? anne: they think it is water under the bridge. it is not for bernie sanders' supporters. it is something that i expect sanders to bring up. she took a lot of money from this company that is now the subject of a strike in the middle of manhattan. they both went to the picket line yesterday. much for his corporate message for that not to be the subject tonight. we asked question starting in october when sanders started to turn, when would he start to make the contrast more personal?

he has done that more in the last week or so than ever before . he has not gone way over the line or as far as some think he would profit from doing, but he has never won a debate. do think he will continue in that vein that he has exhibited on the debate stage, or that he will be trying to back away from it on the big stage? anne: we've seen him back away from it on the big stage a little. withe very first debate, he appeared to take the e-mail controversy off the table, which was surprising -- he will try to do something like that again. on tuesday,primary days away, is make or break for him. he knows it. he has to make a splash. and say something that puts her on the defensive. that is what he will be trying to do. mark: do think hillary clinton will go on the offense on the

qualifications thing? anne: yes. she has to make a mark, too and cannot we seen being on defense the whole time. john: i cannot remember candidates debating this many times without his or her spouse coming. president clinton is not coming tonight. anne: the clinton campaign is using bill clinton as a counterprogramming message. he goes where she is not almost all of the time. , except when he goes off message from time to time. seen his presence in the same room when she is doing something political as a double-edged sword. he can get the crowd riled up, but he becomes the focus of attention, not her. i think he feels the same way. you said a few times that he likes to step back and give her the limelight. this is one of those occasions.

after the debate, we will eat pretzels. what are you going to be doing? anne: i will be getting on a plane with bernie sanders going to rome. he said that he still might see the pope? anne: the vatican has not ruled it out. the senior vatican spokesman says there are no plans for the pontiff, pope francis, to see bernie sanders. that is not the same thing as saying it won't happen. john: some suggested that it will definitely happen. anne: there is a good chance. john: would there be a picture? anne: probably. the vatican is pretty press friendly. there certainly are often photographs of the pope when he meets with people. that would be such of money moment for bernie sanders.

i take him at his word that it will be meaningful on a personal level, meeting with someone with whom he feels a kinship on policy issues and would like to meet. that goes without saying. it seems obvious. it would be such a huge moment for him. it would validate and justify his taking 40 hours of of the campaign trail in new york to fly to rome to give, what on paper, is a 15 minute speech. mark: d love all at her throughout the campaign. -- you have followed her throughout the campaign. she has come to her adopted home . is she campaigning like a hometown candidate? have you noticed a different tenor? anne: yes. she has gone hyper local. she has managed to get, in true new york fashion, everyone from the bureau president to the deputy assistant councilman to

warm up for her. she knows them by name. she does the new york thing where she thinks 42 people. she talks about hyper local issues. she took a swipe at bernie sanders while he was having his gigantic rally. she was talking to a couple thousand people. in: smaller crowd than he city of the bronx. she said, wouldn't it be nice to have a president that knows where co-op city is. that could have been a swipe against the republicans, but, in context, it seemed to be a swipe against him. are the clinton folks suspicious about the tax returns and if there's something there, or do they like to ride the issue? anne: people have drawn attention to the fact that they have not been released. they have been careful. i do not know what the spin

machine is, but i do not detect that they are pushing the issue a great deal. people who are friendly with clinton have made the point that one reason that she has not released the whole thing is to not make an issue about the fact that he has not given much, or anything at all, to charity. which she has and most people of means do. if he isn't, why not? gearan, thank you. have fun tonight. joins us, alex wagner to talk about the presidential race. we will be back with her after these messages. ♪

>> our showtime colleague, alex

wagner. mark: i thought you were going to bring us pretzels. alex: there were none in the green room. it was some chips -- sunchips or bust. did you watch the troubled family? i was wondering what your impressions were. alex: my favorite moment was the new york observer this week. from donald trump's son-in-law. is the season where newspaper endorsements have t than theye hef have in previous elections. i mean more of the bernie hillary clinton fight of the new york daily news, and their eventual endorsement of clinton. do you think some voters discounted it because it was the

son-in-law of the paper? alex: as with all things trump, you cannot discount. conventional wisdom has been upended. mark: it goes out the doors fast as an empty pretzel box. alex: the term family is a fascinating family. i don't know that the more that america gets to know them the more they are endeared, but it is interesting to see the dynamics on display. mark: donald trump is talking about how the system is r igged. do you think smart political move or whiny? alex: i think for his supporters, it is a confirmation of what they have been hearing thus far. that is the season in american politics. it is in a go of the message that bernie sanders has been saying. every time donald trump says the system is broken, it is his insurance policy at the convention. if trappedfear that

is denied the nomination in the second round of voting, that there will be a unpredictable schism that the republican party should be very careful about bringing about. that is his warning. it is a silent call to the supporters, and a warning to the establishment, about the tactics they pursue in july. john: let's talk twitter accounts. alex: i live my life on them. mark: i would come back to this question about whether the sender's campaign deserves scrutiny the way the trump does for creating a climate that perhaps yields course language. we saw last night at an event where sanders had not arrived, but the official event, a campaign surrogate speaker at the event called hillary clinton a name. john: it wasn't clear that he called her that. a guide the same event

said, said ask verizon. that suggests that kind of language is fine. do think that the sanders campaign, like the trump campaign, has created a climate where on social media, television, and events their surrogates feel more liberated to be rough? alex: i don't think we are seeing the same amount of physical malays that we have seen at trump events. specificallyrs, jane sanders, has been clear that they will ultimately support hillary clinton. she has tried to channel some of what might be a ventral outrage and disappointment intro reform. this morning she was giving suggestions that the center's campaign may try to exert its muscle by pushing for transparency.

otherwise, push for ways to make the democratic party a better party. john: to channel the energy into a productive thing. alex: which is not what we're hearing from trump. it is more of a threat. it is not an apples to apples comparison. is, to what degree is there a laying down of arms? a circling of the wagons? an agreement from the centers and a clinton campaign that we must come together, name-calling aside, july is july. november is november. energy and howhe much traction his campaign had and had huge victory. the clinton people were saying this will be a competitive race. trying to talk down expectations. sanders was then we might be able to win new york. this past week has been nothing like this. we have the public and private polling showing a 12 point lead.

why has sanders not been able to capitalize on the momentum coming out of wisconsin and to terrain that both sides that would be fertile? alex: initially, the clinton campaign thought it would be a 20 point spread in new york. it had shrunk a little. sanders has chosen to campaign in new york city, which is a more diverse electorate. that is part and parcel because he cannot do well among minority voters, he needs to change that. he could do better if he wanted to compete. he has chosen to be in urban locations. you saw the rally in greenwich village, 27,000 people were there. it is clear that that is their momentum. that is what they will try to carry forward. in new york, the question is on a practical level, it is a closed riemer he. it is only registered democrats

that had to register by march 25. they are not bernie sanders' wheelhouse. if there was an open primary, he would have done better. there will be seven more marries. -- closed primaries. it will be an uphill battle. is there any moment between now and california where hillary clinton would perform well, or believe be polio? -- the equally over? -- i think sanders will be in the race for tsonga sanders will be in the race. that endpoint is the convention. he only thing that changes between now and then is the recalibration of the ask. if it looks like it is not in his favor, that it looks to be the case. alexander wagner. alex: alexandra wagner.

did you call me alexander wagner? we will be back with donald trump's mathematical path to the nomination. ♪

mark: donald j trump is expected to have a victory on tuesday. he is leading other northeastern vote this month according to public polling. our by the number segment looks at what big victories could mean for trump's chances of securing

a nomination and avoiding a convention. to become the republican party's nomination, the candidate needs the majority of delegates, 1237. donald trump is more than halfway there with 743. ted cruz follows with 545. john kasich is an distant third with 143. neither ted cruz or john kasich have a realistic chance of winning before the summer. donald trump is the only one with a shot. even his path is narrowing. with 16 contests left, trump would need 62% of the 18 delegates left to avoid a contested convention in cleveland. how does trump get there? the northeastern state contests are critical. if he wins to new york and connecticut with a strong showing in rhode island, he can

get plurality of from delaware and new jersey. he could lose half of the remaining delegates and still make it to the 1237 by early june. if he pulls it off at the northeast it would marginalize john kasich and could make it easier in a race with ted cruz. even in a best case scenario, it is down to the wire. i keep saying the biggest moment for trump is after callow anya when he -- after california when he can wrangle. if he does well in the northeast over the next few weeks, he will get a majority. he could. what thing is if he can recapture the performances that he had when he was on a roll. , that seems obvious, but new york will be funny because he has home field advantage.

was time for him to come after wisconsin. how well does he perform in the and ntheast? as we know, we wait for the voters to vote. if you blows those states out and rides the momentum out of new york to the next mega-primary, you could easily see him back on the trump train and sweeping. mark: i will agree with you 100%. if he does not get it done by the last day, that period in june will be very important. every day after june 7 that he is not already at 1237 is a day where his nomination likelihood goes down a little. i think it is daunting fran. -- daunting for him. if someone wearing transposition, you would see massive endorsements, pressure on the other candidates to get out. none of that is half running.

he has not gotten a major endorsement in a long time, but neither has ted cruz or john kasich. this thing is frozen. can paul manafort and his colleagues for trump try to create a greater correlation with how trump does at the ballot box and the delegates he wins? agree, and many people we know would agree that paul manafort is a guy who knows what he is doing. another guy really knows what he is doing. is it too late? of next, we are joined to talk about donald trump at a big republican gala. ♪

clinton and bernie sanders debate in brooklyn and the grand hyatt in times square for the republican gala. , lookings is katy fabulous on the streets of manhattan. tell us about the gala and what you will be looking for. interesting. it is the first time that donald trump, ted cruz, and john kasich will be in the same room since the miami debate. it will be interesting to see how they interact, if there is any interaction. it is also interesting, because woo of them is trying to

the republican establishment in new york city. you had ted cruz today on an saying that he believed he was right when he called mitch mcconnell a liar. thisd trump is running outsider campaign. john kasich, not so much. they are trying to woo the establishment in new york. donald trump is leading by a lot . he is expected to win big, and he needs to to get as many delegates as he can to close the gap and potentially get to the number of 1237 at the convention. ted cruz at john kasich are trying to eat away at any support they can. ted cruz is trying to lure voters in upstate new york, with the downstate democrats and liberal politicians that have not been

representing their values. we will see if that works. so far, it looks like this state is in the can for donald trump. i'm trying to exercise restraint by asking you not to interview people behind you. katy: i can do it. john: stay where you are. trumpconsin, donald started doing two to three events per day. the pace here has been more normal trump-like. do we expect that he will add more events or that he is doing one a day, trump-style? katy: we will see him do more events. his schedules and locks from the information -- his schedule is in flux from the information we have here there could be a rally in poughkeepsie, but not the hard-core schedule they had a few weeks ago where there were campaign stops in multiple cities on the same day.

campaignly exhausts reporters and the candidate as well. a window you give us into the trump campaign operations? we have seen a lot of change after many months of this rather unusual campaign structure. we now have paul manafort, corey lewandowski being exonerated, charges not being pressed, give us a picture of what it is like any other nursing him of donald trump's -- they sure what it is like in the inner sanctum of donald trump's political world. katy: it is a house divided. it is the core lewandowski camp, let trump to drop and insulate him from negative press and bad news. insulate him from anyone else that is not corey lewandowski and his communications director. now is the more established

strategists who have done campaigns before that are building what is being dubbed as a parallel campaign to diminish corey lewandowski's influence and power. they basically said that they are happy to let lewandowski travel with donald trump and make sure his events ago well. to act as a glorified advance man while they deal with strategy. they pointed to a donald trump interview where he called out rinse pre-this. -- reince pre-bus. he is painted himself as an outsider that is speaking to voters that does not fill represented by washington. those in the paul manafort can't say this is not a good idea. that you need delegates, and they are often party loyalties.

ted cruz is doing better on the second tablet. there are two campaigns being run at the same time. we'll see which one wins. donald trump does not listen to anyone unless he wants to. he will continue acting the way that he has acted throughout his entire campaign. mark: do you know what they say about house divided against itself? katy: it cannot stand. for coming onu the show and letting me do a seinfeld joke. ♪

♪ the head of the debate in brooklyn, the democratic line, you might think that hillary clinton and bernie sanders agree on many issues. what about the environment? for lightning fast fat fact checking, we turn to correct me if i'm wrong. >> i think batman versus superman will go down as one of the greatest movies of all time. >> what are you doing? think about the environment. >> no one else's. not the candidates, and not the voters. >> 63% of americans think it is a -- think that global warming is a threat. >> only 2% of americans think the environment should get top priority. buthe democrats care,

hillary and bernie agree on a lot of environmental policy. president obama's green power plan? offshore drilling? >> both. >> keystone. >> bernie against. >> what about ordinary people fighting global warming? doesn't bernie sanders want to spend money on solar panels? it is not like anyone owns a solar home. >> i do. anyway, if this is so important, how come the candidates never talk about it? >> they do, we just don't pay attention unless they are confronted like this greenpeace protester. bernie yells all the time. that is not why i showed you the video.

they seem like they are proenvironment and like the outdoors. >> i read the bernie sanders likes horseback riding. >> that is correct. he likes to do that on vacation. who did you like better in that? >> both are pretty good. great cameos. some great 2016 reporting, including the always updated and intriguing, never boring, delegate tracker. you can make your own delegate. debate.p, the big coming up on bloomberg tv, our colleague emily chang will speak toggv managing partner, glenn solomon. tomorrow -- >> we are going north. >> syracuse, new york where we princetong down with

graduate, father of two, presidential candidate, ted cruz . we do have a surprise. ted cruz like you have never seen him before. >> pinball? >> don't say another word. we will be in syracuse tomorrow. tonight,e the debate bernie sanders' trip to rome, and more. >> the debate will be fun to watch. let's get to brooklyn. >> we'll see you tomorrow for more "with all due respect." until then we say, sayonara. ♪

the check's victim at on your first word news. in japan, the search for survivors following a 6.4

magnitude earthquake. the earthquake, which collapsed houses and started fires, was centered 74 miles northeast of japan's only operating nuclear plant. the u.s. will station warplanes in the philippines after ships began conducting joint patrols in the south china sea last month. over and claim sovereignty all of the south china sea islands and adjacent waters. republican party officials are warned not to change the rules to allow someone other than donald trump or senator cruz to win the nomination. told c-span that primary results show republican voters want and antiestablishment candidate. a debate between hillary clinton and bernie sanders days before the new york primary. mrs. clinton trying to snap a seven