mark: i'm mark halperin. john: and i'm john hellmann. and "with all due respect" to the rnc, summer is coming. ♪ song]of thrones theme john: happy earth day, earthlings. we remember prince, but first, the republican party's spring meeting in hollywood, florida which wraps up today. the rnc chairman urged leaders to unite again with whoever nomination.e

it was a private presentation. full read-out of the presentation was first reported by our colleagues. in it, manafort laid out a case for why the republicans should not be worried about donald trump's very low favorability ratings. >> they don't like her. they think she's a liar. they think that she only does things in her interest. trump's negative with personality. some of the ways in which he has presented the issues. some of the style that he has. some of the ways that he has presented issues. it could be his personality that people are troubled with. fixing personality negatives is a lot easier than facing caret

fixing negatives. you can change the way a person positions himself. when he's not on the stage, he's protecting an image for that purpose. you will start to see it come together in the course of the next several months. john: manafort has put together a pretty provocative argument there. is anything what he is saying true? mark: the heart of what he said is it is easier to convince people that you've got a different personality than it is that you've got a different character. i'm not sure. i've been thinking about whether this is bullspin. one thing is the private trump is somebody who people would feel more comfortable with as president than the way he often performs an public. the second thing that's true,

trump has the capacity to surprise. trump can start behaving differently. and people will be like, "wow, that is different." i don't think hillary clinton has that capacity. john: i think it's almost total bull puckey for these two reasons. there's a distinction between character and personality seems to be thin and tenuous straight -- tenuous. character and personality are both about public image and you can change both of those things. hillary clinton's perceptions in the public are more hardened than the ones towards donald trump. i agree with that. i don't think it's a difference between character versus personality. the second thing i will say is that the problem for trump is the positions on issues he has taken give him big problems with large segments of the electorate, including hispanics and women. those are issues. that is not about personality. those are things he has said he stands for those are going to be problematic for him because the clinton campaign will not just let him shift positions willy-nilly going forward. mark: again, i agree with you.

it's more complex than he has made it out. it is not a black and white thing. as much as people know him, they don't know him as a political actor the way they know her. i think he has got the capacity. i think manafort is right that he has the capacity to change impressions more than she does. thei agree with you that distinction he is making is a little bit fuzzy. john: he is also trying to sell republicans on the notion that that donald trump was a phony, a fake, and he's going to be a different guy. he might be able to make that sale. that might be true. mark: but wait, there's more. in that same private meeting with manafort, he made the case for a new and improved trump 2.0 that he concluded, raising money -- the republican front-runner will take care of the whole party if he's the nominee by tapping his gold encrusted fundraising rolodex to help raise huge amounts. so john, how big a bargaining

chip did manafort put on the table here? john: let's start with the prior thing. the question of money is a huge question for the republican party. their coffers are depleted. the state of their race put them in a position where they're at a huge disadvantage. a lot of candidates down ballot are totally worried about this if the trump campaign can credibly claim to help some, it is a huge chip. mark: the person who looked like he could raise the most. if trump can convince people that he would be a better fundraiser for down ballot races than cruz and kasich, and if he does it, if he becomes the nominee, it's a huge open question. manafort can make the argument. but can trump raise $1.5 billion? i don't know. john: we agree on the premise.

it matters a lot. if you can beat that fundraiser, it will help him enormous sleep with at least the establishment arians. nothing said at that meeting made it seem like a goldplated guaranty. mark: assume a trump raise money , the richest-pacs people, we would have the ricketts family. people who have given a lot -- sheldon adelson -- there's a lot of questions. trump could be the best front the and i would three, worry a lot of people. john: or he could be the worst of the yesterday we talked the three. power how when trump was asked about the north carolina bathroom law, he suggested the transgender people should be allowed to use whatever latrine they feel most comfortable with. facing criticism from ted cruz and others in the party, he

the republican front runner went on "hannity" last night and elaborated his position. mr. trump: we have to take care of everybody, frankly. north carolina is a great place. they have a law that unfortunately is causing them some problems. and i fully understand if they want to go through, but they are losing business and having a lot of people coming out against. with me, i look at it differently. we have so many big issues to be thinking about, john. we have isis to worry about, we have rebuilding our military. but i think the local communities and states should make the decision and i feel very strongly about that. the federal government should not be involved. john: some people view that as a walk back. that did not stop ted cruz from piling on today. his campaign tweeted out a web video that warns "should a man pretending to be a woman be allowed to use a woman's restroom? the same restroom used by your

daughter?" end quote. if donald trump becomes the nominee, he is also likely facing a showdown with this position. idea that he will soften his language on rape and other things, but mark, there is no doubt -- trump take some political risk within his party on the social issues. can you understand that risk? is it worth it potentially? mark: trump take so many risks. on the eve of the convention, he is taking provocative positions, unnecessarily so. these are questions he could -- theseed through the are questions he could have dodged. most republican delegates disagree with him. ted cruz, looking for a way to oust trump, can go in big. if he can survive this, it would help him in a general election. john: i find it all the more perverse because at the same moment when he's going all out

or his team is going all out to reassure the party, he's just a traditional republican nominee but traditional republican nominee at this stage is not taking these kinds of chances and talking about social issues. in fact, normally, someone like mitt romney or george w. bush is running away from these issues. the platform says whatever it says and you campaign in the general election without raising the hackles of the assembled delegates. mark: one of donald trump's calling cards is fearlessness. another is electability. this may be a way to convince the delegates, this guy understands the prospect of winning the general election includes winning some centrist voters. maybe he is taking positions to improve that. also, one of his calling cards, saying what he believes. i think on these issues, he is saying what he believes. all right, taking a break now. coming up, virginia just got a whole bunch of new potential voters. we will explain who they are and why it matters after this. ♪

mark: virginia democratic governor, mr. terry mcauliffe, a ally of hillary clinton, chopped a dramatic executive order on the commonwealth of virginia today. more than 200,000 convicted felons, including violent offenders who have completed their probation and parole can now register to vote in the commonwealth. what are the political implications of what terry mcauliffe has done? john: first of all, i think he's done the right thing. if you are someone who goes through prison, serves your time, and you have done your debt to society, you should be able to come back into society. that is the first thing to say. the political thing is, a huge percentage of the virginia prison population is african-american.

many people will look at this and say that this is a naked move to move potential voters into the column and get hillary clinton into a swing state. mark: terry mcauliffe picked a fight with the virginia legislature, dominated by republicans. and gillespie who is likely to saidor governor next time, he thought that nonviolent offenders maybe this is something that should be discussed. it's the thing with the violent offenders. it is not just restoring voting rights that has gotten some people upset you will raise more speculation and terry mcauliffe could end up hillary clinton's running mate. john: it could be seen as a political favor for hillary clinton. mark: well, not to curry favor, i don't think he needs to. but this notion of energizing the base, this will reverberate not just around the country. the reality is that virginia had one of the most restrictive laws in the country, residue of not just civil war but updating of the laws early last century, and there is no doubt this is something that should have been looked at.

republicans would say, look at it but negotiate with the legislature and it will go back to this debate we see in washington about whether executives have the authority to do something like this. this is not the last word. this will be challenged on the court. john: can you imagine him on the ticket? mark: nothing would be better. it is not going to happen. john: still basking in the glory of fairly clear that chiller the glory of that fairly clear hillary clinton new york victory, her staff and supporters have brought out there american made abacus is. or is that abaci. interviews and public events, sanders has responded by not really doing that. consider this new interview with msnbc's andrea mitchell where sanders doubled down on why it is so important that he remain in this race. sen. sanders: why would we tell

the people of california, for example, the largest state in our country, that you cannot have the right to cast your vote? i know that we are going to allow people to decide what agenda they believe in, who they want to lead that agenda. i think that at the end of the day, it is good for the democratic party. but i think a healthy campaign is about a clash of ideas. my ideas are very different than secretary clinton's, and obviously we will continue to contrast that. there are a lot of democrats out there are scared to death about the possibility of a trump residency. the democrats by and large want to see the strongest candidacy possible to take on and defeat trump or some other republican, at this point, according to all of the polls, that candidate is me. john: today in gettysburg, pennsylvania, sanders seemed to give clinton mostly a pass except when he criticized the iraq war. neither the media nor the democratic party at large seem

to be pressing sanders to get out of this race before june 8. do you think there's anything that could happen between now and then that would? mark: you know, right now we don't know how he's going to do in these remaining contests. if she went on a winning streak, you would probably hear more voices saying it. but by the time -- leave out the northeast next weekend. if we were halfway through may and she had won everything, when he then be pressured to get out? i think at that point the june contests are close enough insight that no. i don't think you're going to hear those voices. i think people think he has a distinctive enough voice, they want to let him go, and he will be allowed to go. john: well, look, there will be more people calling for him to shut this down if she sweeps these five contests we have next tuesday and sweeps them by the decisive mark. there will be more than there are now. part of the question goes to tone. and we played that bite from the sanders interview with andrea. it is actually very calm and not that harsh. there were some things he said last night that were tougher than that. thingsd off some of the

that joe biden had said in "the new york times" and so on. if he doesn't attack her judgment, her character, is not slashing, he can live in the race in the long run. but if he's too harsh or negative, he will get more pressure. mark: look, it has been a mixed bag. in a interview with andrea he was more restrained than he had to be. but it is also the case that the early indications to me are that ffe says for him to get out, that -- john: he is not going to be pressured. mark: the more the clintons try to force them out, the less likely he is to get out. when we come back, the latest from the republican national committee meeting in hollywood, florida. we will be back after these words from our sponsors. ♪

john: welcome back. the rnc meeting hollywood, florida finishing up today. mark, this is a pretty big meeting and a lot of ways. last time the party had the ex officios get together before the convention in cleveland. what are your takeaways from what we have heard from our reporters all week? mark: it was a bit ironic, but people wanted to change rules, make a change that would make it less likely there would be a white knight. keeping the rules they are makes it more likely that there will be a white knight. i think you saw kasich and cruz

try to make the case that they should be the trump alternative. i think they both came away -- in terms of the coverage, largely empty-handed. there was more of a movement toward manafort's argument that the party needs to be the trump party. if history will report any news, i think it was that the trump folks did a pretty good job of moving the dialogue towards the notion that trump should win. the last thing i would say is that rents previous -- reince ibus said in a speech, he said people should rally around the nominee. there should not be a stop somebody movement. of course you have to have a majority. john: pssst! you can't get the nomination without the majority. mark: you say it's too late. but if mitt romney and john mccain and jeb bush boycott the convention, that is survivable. if preibus urges people to get in line and the delegates to get in line, that will make a big difference as far as whether trump can unify the party.

john: they made progress this week, the trump people. it still strikes me that they have not radically altered the tone. people look at the quote, new trump. they like the professionalization. they like having someone who to deal with -- someone to deal with who looks like that. there's a lot of nervousness around the fact that trump is a loose cannon. people are waiting to see not just how many delegates he accumulates, but how does he comport himself over the next six weeks, not the six days since the new york primary or four days since the new york primary? what happens here over the next six weeks? is donald trump really more disciplined, more traditional, over the course of six weeks? mark: joining us by telephone from florida, our reporter who is our bloomberg colleague jennifer who has been following the rnc meeting. if you are ted cruz, what's the best news you can say you have brought out of hollywood, florida at this rnc meeting?

jennifer: they say they have brought a new supporters. they say they got a comfortable handful, more than a comfortable of rnc supporters to come their way. they think they are making progress that way. they did when a lot of points with the full group of national committee members down here by doing these one-on-one meetings with them. it was tailored right to the party members and they like that. john: jennifer, you were among those who broke the story of the manafort meeting last night. give us as much detail as you can on the promise he is making and the pitch he is laying down. jennifer: he dangled a lot of promises and lots of goodies. he said don't worry about what donald trump is saying on that stage. he is ranting and raving and really irritating you, he doesn't really want to change the rules or nominating process. he doesn't want to. he is just play acting. you see all that audacious stuff he's doing onstage, don't worry. in the coming months, trump will

be coming out as the more reasoned, measured donald trump. they also said, magic trump. he is going to expand the map. ins going to carry the brand two more than just traditional gop states. they really like to hear that. manafort was promising to help candidates on the down ballot to win. manafort said, you know all those high negatives trump got? we know it. no problem, we know how to fix that, it's just a personality thing, but we can fix that. he made a lot of promises. i was talking to a lot of members afterward. everything they said was really sounding good.

but they are waiting for a lot of stuff to happen. there are a lot of skeptics and people saying, yeah right, we will believe it when we see it. mark: reince preibus is saying, you should come behind the person who has the majority. is he resigned in his notion that they will have to plan for a trump coronation at the convention? jennifer: i think people are still neutral. now is not the time to rally around someone you find objectionable. you don't have to love ted cruz are john kasich. just know we will have an open convention and who knows what will happen on that third ballot. just stay calm. reince was saying, no one is going to walk in with less than 1237 and walk away with this thing. the message was, whoever it is,

we are all going to unify. some said, sure, i will be unified with whoever it is, as long as it's not trump. john: jennifer, you have two different projections, diametrically at odds. you mentioned tim miller, who will be on this show. he put out documents saying it is impossible are very unlikely for trump to get to 1237 delegates by june 8. on the other hand, the trump people have said, they are going to get to 1300, so among rnc members, which of those calculations do they find more credible? jennifer: they don't believe for sure that trump knows he's going to make it. they really don't. they say it's a gigantic question mark. they have no idea of this will be an open convention or not. you don't see many people buying that argument that they are going to make it by june 8. mark: jennifer, last question

what's the difference between , des moines, iowa and hollywood, florida? quickly. trees.r: palm [laughter] mark: jenner jacobs at the rnc. john: coming up, two political operatives with one goal -- stopping donald j. trump. ♪ mark: our guest tonight is two

guests tonight, both are trying to stop the billionaire donald

trump from becoming the republican nominee. jeb bush's former communications director, now advisor to the anti-trump group. they are both in washington. we are going to start, guys, with a little bit of an icebreaker. starting with tim and then kelly ann, agree or disagree. here we go, tim, your two organizations are effectively allies. tim: allies against trump, agree. mark: kelly ann? kelly: somewhat agree. mark: tim, governor kasich should drop out of the race. agree or disagree. tim: disagree. mark: kelly ann?

kelly ann: strongly agree. mark: tim, lord of the rings is better than harry potter. tim: i'm not really into the magical forests regardless, so i guess agree. kelly ann: agree. mark: john? john: tim, only candidates who ran for president this cycle should be considered for the nomination at the convention assuming there is a contested convention. tim: most likely agree, but if you get to a third or fourth ballot, anything can happen at a convention. john: i noticed that tim was just doing speculation. kelly ann? kelly ann: i'm a woman of brevity, apparently. i strongly agree, paul ryan is right. he should have gone through the process of voters. we had lots of choices, lots of time. john: all right, tim, if trump is less than or fewer than 100 delegates shy of 1237, he will then claim the republican nomination.

tim: disagree. john: kelly ann? tim: he needs all 1237. kelly anne: will he be able to claim the nomination? john: will be the nominee. if he enters the convention with fewer than 100 short, will he eventually end up being the nominee? kelly anne: he could be, but you need 1237. john: tim, prince was greater than michael jackson. tim: agree. absolutely. he was greater and less influence. depends on how you look at it. john: kelly anne, prince greater than the beatles? kelly anne: they are talented in different ways, and it's a huge loss. mark: kelly ann, there are 15 contests left. donald trump lost the contest

badly. what are states coming up in those 15 where you think there could be conditions that are wisconsin-like, where trump faces real problems from your efforts? kelly anne: certainly indiana on may 3. but even next senator cruz is tuesday, vying for delegates. these are in states that are more hospitable, but indiana on may 3 is a hugely important state. nebraska, south dakota, ,ashington, oregon, california where people say california is a moderate state. this is a republican primary situation and every time we run moderate republicans in general elections in california, they lose by double digits. perhaps the conservatives in california would like the real conservative. i call california the liberation of the long-suffering voters. there are so excited that their votes are going to count. you have 53 congressional districts there. you have to slice and dice those districts and figure out which ones are most amenable to your particular candidate's message. and that's what we plan to do.

john: tim, you put out a memo about how trump would never be able to get to 1237 by june 8. is he going to do really well on tuesday, and where we will be able to stop him is in the next set of 10 contests? tim: i always felt that trump would do well in new york and was generally going to do well on tuesday. we went up in maryland with some advertising earlier this week and are doing some targeted advertising in pennsylvania, where we think senator cruz and potentially governor kasich could win some votes. in the statewide races, trump will do well on tuesday. the race turns then when you get indiana, nebraska, and all of the list of states that kelly ann just mentioned i think the , map is really tough for him after tuesday. absolutely. i think he will have some

trouble, as long as we can continue to push back against the inevitability narrative they are trying to put forward that is detached from reality. mark: kelly ann, you see a lot of research, what is the single most effective current argument that pro-cruz forces are making versus the anti-trump forces? kelly ann: the downside of being an outsider is that you really have not thought about these policies. if you're always going to answer, let alone governed by your gut, we get in the course of 40 seconds donald trump saying transgender bathrooms good, and then that he's going to tax the rich. we all know that when you hear tax the rich, some bureaucrat in washington decides who the rich are when they decide who should be taxed. it is the downside of being the outsider, when you get to this point where you are going to get rapidfire questions about policy and not just the podium to

yourself at rallies. mark: tim, do you agree that is the most potent argument and how do you encapsulate that in an a d? tim: it's one of the most potent arguments. vladimir putin ally, paul manafort, played into that when he said trump is playing this persona going forward. what we have seen in the ads that are most effective are that trump hurt regular people to help himself. you see that in things like trump u. and his business practices. kellyanne laid out, that he's a phony, not really a conservative. number three, it is an electability and a women's message. >> looking ahead to the biggest kellyanne, looking ahead to the biggest delegate prize of all remaining, california -- of the 53 congressional districts in california that are basically holding separate elections, how many of those are districts that

ted cruz can win? kellyanne: we have identified about half of them that we think can compete in viably. it always comes down to resources. certainly time and treasure. we certainly have looked at the state, looked at the 12 different media markets, the 12 different congressional districts. we are also doing that in indiana. california just is this huge -- you have to think about the 53 separate races you would be running, and winnowing it down -- we don't want to do scattershot. we believe in focusing. i want to echo what tim said about the women's message. donald trump losing to hillary clinton is fairly new. he was at better parity with her early in these contests, and i think the last months have shown a temperament or judgment

and specific comments judging women who get illegal abortions, retweeting heidi cruz's pictures have cost him. those who look past the potty mouth politics don't think that he can get it done. john: we have very little time left for you. if that's right, it ted cruz can compete in half of the california congressional districts, how many can kasich compete in, do you think? tim: an additional handful, which would get trump under a majority of delegates potentially in california. mark: i have to say that donald trump is formidable and so are you kellyanne conway and tim two. miller, thank you both for coming in. up next, al hunt. if you are watching us in washington, d.c. you can listen to us on bloomberg 99.1 fm. ♪ john: according to tom hanks in

"a league of their own," there is no crying in baseball. according to our next guest, there is no whining in politics. we joined by al hunt, the great al hunt, whose latest column urges presidential candidates to quit complaining about the rules. al, welcome to the show. let me ask you this question. we have a new donald trump, or so we are told, by the donald trump forces. how plausible is the new trump? al: about as plausible as the new nixon was 40 years ago. it's an oxymoron the donald trump will be presidential. it's like saying that if only those nascar drivers who drive more carefully and more cautiously. people go to car races to see crashes. people flock to donald trump because of his insults.

lyin shocks, the venom. -- his shots, lyin' ted, crooked hillary, the venom. if donald trump wanted to act presidential, he would have to talk about substantive issues of which he knows almost nothing and seems to care very little. every expert i talked to ridicules. let me ask you how well you know paul manafort. al: i have known paul for over 40 years. i have liked him. he does a good job at conventions. hasn't done it in a while. i think probably in the land of the blond, the one-eyed man is king. his political savvy, his currency at least, is exaggerated. i think paul will have huge problems ahead because some of the clients that he represented, we only hit the tip of the iceberg. they are some really dreadful people. paul made a lot of money great -- money, but when you rise to

the level he has today, that's going to be much more public in the weeks ahead. mark: just put on your cultural, anthropological hat and talk about in the culture of the republican party as we head towards cleveland, there's a small split. people like chris christie, paul manafort saying, i want to get donald trump elected. and then you have people like mitt romney and others who are part of the never trump movement. what separates a paul manafort from a mitt romney? al: paul is never been a policy person. as i said, he hasn't been in the game for a while. i think romney is probably truly horrified by trump. this is ultimately about somebody being president of the united states. you can take a bernie sanders or a ted cruz, they at least seriously deal with some issues. certainly met romney did. i don't think anyone accuses

donald trump -- he says he will renegotiate trade with china. the problem is that there isn't a trade pact with china. that goes across the board. mark: rnc members are typically into winning elections. i was surprised, to some extent, to the warm reception that manafort and the other trump folks got down there. the rnc and reince priebus seem open and seem closer to the notion of, if this guy wins the nomination, let's get on board then the romney view of trump. al: well, i think two points. jennifer jacobs earlier said there was a lot of skepticism also down there. reince priebus wants this convention to end was some kind of harmony. i think he has been a pretty good chairman. if this ends up in chaos, he writes his obit 50 years from now. so he wants harmony. a number of those rnc people want that. they don't want to trump and they don't want harmony, they may be in total conflict.

john: you've got paul ryan down there in washington, d.c. who said it will not be a white knight. he at least wants to lay out some agenda before the republican convention. is that plausible or at least something you think could happen? al: not something that is really serious for a couple reasons. paul ryan has been either chairman of the ways and means committee for five years. they have yet to move an alternative to obamacare. if you will plan a serious policy proposal, which i think he would genuinely like to do frankly as a couo trnter tp, that their candidates can run on, you have to have something about what is the alternative to obamacare. and how is he going to deal with immigration and trade? two issues on which he is 180 degrees apart from donald trump. i think it's going to be fairly superficial. mark: al, are you feeling good about the nationals right now? just thumbs-up or thumbs down. al: i'm feeling good. i'm going to watch bryce harper hit his ninth and 10th.

john: up next, remembering prince and his political and social impact. ♪ mark: the tragic death of

prince will remain a mystery for at least a little bit longer. investigators trying to piece together his death say that there is no reason to believe his death was a suicide. autopsy results are expected to be released in the coming weeks. yesterday we talked about prince as an artist and political force. reaction continues to come in from all sides. hillary clinton told a philadelphia radio station she was stunned and called price quote, "a bigger than life

personality." john kasich called him an extraordinary musician and we want to continue our conversation about prince today. the author of the 2013 book "i would die for you, why prince became an icon." thanks for coming in. >> thanks, guys, thanks for having me. mark: lots has already been said about the extraordinary guy. any extent to the commentary overstating how important he was? guest: no, i don't think we are there yet. we are putting him in the proper context of one of the greatest musicians of the common area, a guy who had every talent that a modern musician could want to have, to be able to play, right, dance, produce, have the visual sense, you know, have the hard work, ability, everything you can possibly want, the competitive drive. so, i mean, when somebody truly epic passes away and you try to put them into context, we can't go too high because this is the ceiling.

you know what i mean? it's like him, madonna, michael jackson. right? madonna is not as talented as these two on each level. singing, writing, so let's leave her out. michael is an amazing writer. michael is a great dancer, amazing singer. but prince made more great albums than michael jackson. john: he also did play 17 instruments. mark: and had a broader vision of communication. michael jackson was an entertainer and visionary about visuals, but not as broad a visual about communication, right, the message? toure: absolutely. writing for "the times" about prince's spirituality and the importance to his music and his

cannon. nothing against michael jackson. michael jackson is the leader of that group, but there is a support group that is helping him get to the scene. prince is alone. when michael is in l.a. with berry gordy, prince is a functionally homeless teenager in minneapolis. if you would have said, that little short guy is going to become all this, you would be like, "no way." john: yesterday as we were scrambling to deal with this, we thought, is prince a political artist or not? i can find some song lyrics. i know the gender stuff, social politics. the gender stuff, some spirituality stuff. if i said, prince, political artist, what were prince's politics? toure: in terms of some of the progressive stuff, it's absolutely there in terms of the embracing of racial difference and racial nuance, the embracing of gender difference in gender nuance. i mean, he was intersectional before that was a term in academia. so all the sorts of things that

progressives love, he was cutting edge with that sort of stuff. but susan rogers, his engineer on "purple rain" told me that he was a conservative. he was a conservative, susan said, in the mold of i making money, i'm successful, i want this money and success protected. i don't want civil war or nuclear annihilation or any upheaval. when you are rich, you want status quo. it's when you don't have money that you need a revolution. mark: so the prince canon is done. toure: i would think there will be more music. mark: but in terms of what we know, what was unfulfilled? what did he never do in any medium? toure: i think just do it again.

he's like a million selling artists, generally, and "purple rain" goes up to 20 million. right? he made one great movie. the others were like -- i think he would have liked to have done another great movie. i think he would have liked to have done another great album. i don't think he always looked at sales as the measure of whether or not the project succeeded. i think he would have liked to continue to make more. that is what is sad to me he wasn't done. he was still performing and writing. a friend of mine was about to go into the studio and make music with him. he was not done. john: it seems that one of the things -- one of his great victories was the way in which he was -- commercially, the fight with warner bros., getting his catalog, getting his masters, having full economic control of his destiny, he finally had that now and was free to stop playing around with that argument and get back to doing what he really wanted to do, which was make great music and not have to worry about all this business stuff.

yeah? toure: it's really difficult to make a great original music after age 40. john mayer talked about -- before 40, you are more likely to be able to write a hit song. after 40 you want to spend your time touring because the likelihood of writing a hit song drops. you are not in the world in the same way as a younger person. i don't know how much more great , new songs he was going to make, but i wanted to see more touring. know?i wanted to see more -- you know? i wanted to see more videos. i wanted to see him try another movie. there's more he could have done. i would love to see what else he had in store. mark: thanks for coming in. coming up, who won the week. ♪ john: the week is over.

who won it? mark: clinton and trump. john: in any week where prince rogers nelson died, i feel like we were all losers. this week i am not feeling it. check out my new culture caucus podcast. we talk about the hbo film "confirmation." we talk about docudrama's more -- docudramas more generally. coming up on bloomberg tv, emily chang's speech to the ceo of secure works. -- secureworks, until monday, for mark and me, sayonara. ♪

♪ announcer: "brilliant ideas," powered by hyundai motors. ♪ >> ideas. [screaming] >> she is a legend in performance art. >> she is kind of a beast, in a good sense of course. >> her work is incredibly intense and full of suffering. >> she is star status.