♪ al: i am al hunt. k: and i am mark heilemann. trump may be outfoxed. ♪ mark: what a show we have for you. a mosh pit, but first, hillary clinton's opening act. there are primaries today, in kentucky and oregon, the latter voting by mail, and this is by a super pacds

supporting hillary clinton's campaign. here is one of the ads, and they have been running it all day, wordsuses donald trump's against women against them. mr. trump: you could see blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her whatever. she have a fat --. were the father of my daughter, perhaps i would be dating her. to be flat-chested, very hard to be a 10. does donald trump really speak for you? ad,: and there is another talking about trump cutting off planned parenthood and that women should be punished for getting abortions. apparently spent $6 million on these spots between now and june 8 in the states of ohio, nevada, virginia.

unleased a twitter storm defending himself and issuing what seemed like some warnings. pathetic new hit me misinterprets the final lie. you can tell them what to do themselves." " amazing that crooked hillary can do a hit on me concerning women when her husband was the worst abuser of women in u.s. political history." warned that if her team did that, he would counterpunch article, including on clinton's past. is it smart? not have aally did choice. if they play nice with donald, he is not going to play nice with him. we had an online poll about a month or so ago. you know, these ads are very similar to the ads that

republican katie packer did when they were trying to stop trump a couple months ago. they were not very effective. i think the super pac people will argue they are reaching a different audience in these four states, and they believe at how women reaffirm feel about trump. this is a first of a series. national security, trump's business failures, very, very negative. ring the children and dogs in. leading onare something personal, and that is gender, knowing that trump will -- tohis to jeff, -- two whatever. ads will clearly have an audience and energize people, but i cannot imagine why they did not lead with either

national security or the timing when they had plenty of time to get these spots ready. well, i think they want to make sure that he does not have and theyof a comeback, are rallying around. it is the super pac. i think they clearly are representing her. i think it would just be negative from now until november, mark. not start on the economy? why not start where you want the race to me? be right on that. and bill clinton was in puerto rico today. he had some things to say about the debt crisis there but also addressed for the first time publicly the advisory role he might play its hillary clinton reaches the white house. asked,nton: i have been actually, to be given the job of trying to help every part of the united states that has been left out and left behind economically. during a campaign stop in

kentucky yesterday, hillary clinton took a chance to not just remote her own economic message but to knock donald trump's, as well. mrs. clinton: here's the question. so what is your plan to create jobs? , "im going to create them. they are going to be great. i know how to do it, but i am not telling you what it is i'm going to do." l: today, trump returned to his favorite social media microphone and tweeted -- how can cricket hillary put her husband in charge of the economy when he was responsible for nafta, the worst economic deal in u.s. history? her advisers say she will make the case and in the end she is better for working-class families predict which of her proposals better make that case? she has to talk

about college affordability and anything she has got in her arsenals about middle-class families. i do not know what those arsenals are. i have looked at her website and don't see anything that looks like it is new or something that can unify the country around her proposals the way previous presidents are, so i am not sure what is there, but her campaign says the first topic they want to make it about their economy -- the economy. saying hillary is for this, donald trump is for this. and i just do not hear that. mark, i basically agree with you. what this is his the 2016 version of putting families first, from 1992 bill clinton. she has the middle-class tax act, paid leave, and you mentioned free publication -- education, like bernie, and childcare, but you are right. it does not excite, and so far the candidate has not done a

very good job of telling people what we are going to do with you to help struggling families. mark: she is not talking about it with the kind of message discipline bill clinton did or george bush did. barack obama was big also, but then the economic crisis happened, and he had his chance to step up. i am really amazed they are not fromed like a laser beam 1992. and today in the washington post . donald trump says he was public campaign to address some of the bad headlines he has garnered head on. said in the same interview, the billionaire builder product the controversy months ago and he appeared to be mocking a reporter. he told the post, i would never say anything bad about a person who has a disability. i swear to you it is true.

100% true, to the handicapped? i have spent a lot of money making buildings accessible. this is the original set of remarks from november. the poor guy come you have got to see him. i do not know what i said. i do not remember. maybe that is what i said. : so the reporter in question does have a disability, and trump laid that was not with that imitation was about at all. he also claimed he did not know reporter even though they had a history together. so, al, how convincing do you find trump's attempt today to be convincing? not at all. he is lying. i have talked to the reporter. i have a son with disabilities, so we are sensitive to these issues. there is no doubt that trump knew he was ridiculing a reporter.

that is clear from the tape. he was upset with the story. he went on to deny that he even knew the reporter, who let interviewed him multiple times, one-times with two hours with another reporter in trump's office, and the reporter and others say there is no doubt knows who he is. he has disabilities. you do not forget that. this is one of the cruelest things trump has done in this campaign, and the focus group says this resonates more than any other issue, and i think it shows it. al, i talked to people about all of the things that trump has said that has offended people. that comment and performance really has resonated with people, not just someone who know someone or has a family member with a disability, but people think the cruelty of what they solve it was beyond the pale, beyond the notion of

politically correct, beyond the notion of an offhanded remark. : yes, he could've called the reporter back and said something. people would have forgotten about it, that too -- august amongst will lie is something that is not going to go away. i suspect you will see a super pac at on this one, too, mark. mark: ok, next, bernie sanders and a response to all of the hullabaloo after these words from our sponsors. ♪

♪ the aftermath from a chaotic democratic party convention in nevada reached dramatic heights today. following the story, here is a

quick w clip notes version. hillary clintonon the nevada caucuses, but that has not stopped the sanders supporters of trying to pick up the more delegates on saturday. those potential delegates the rules,er prompting it to close down early. reportedly, there were some the teamrown, and supporting sanders claimed they were being steamrolled by pro-clinton sources associated with the party bosses. thee then, some of superdelegates and party officials said they have been receiving death threats from angry bernie fans. addressing reporters a few hours ago on capitol hill, nevada senator harry read said the confrontation was a test of leadership for sanders. the two of them spoke today, and harry reid said he was confident the nevada senator would soon be releasing a statement addressing the matter camera and boy, did he ever. this is an incredible statement

read sanders was incredibly unapologetic. he took the opportunity to deride leaders for not welcoming voters, and he did as an aside to announce violence, but it was not, i suspect, what harry reid and the hillary clinton and state party folks thought. officials have put out a statement, pushing back on sanders, accusing him of misrepresenting the situation. al, what does this dustup in this area mean for hillary clinton and bernie sanders? i think this changes it. this is really ugly. she is going to be the nominee, people.s to send the they cannot sit on their hands pre-they cannot feel like they have been disrespected, and i tell you the other thing. the longer this goes on, the tensor it becomes.

what may for sir to do is to pick a list with worn as her running mate, which i think she does not relish. goes back to talks via pad had with bernie supporters in iowa and new hampshire, and i would say, clinton supporters, a bernie sanders ends up winning, they were great, but when i asked the clinton supporters, even young people who looked perfectly friendly, when i asked the bernie supporters, what do you think of hillary clinton, they wouldspew vile. they do not like her. i agree with you. this presents both the symbolism of where we are and a reflection of where we are, and i think it will make thingsraw. t, it isers' statemen not about bringing the party together. yes, i think you are right. harry reid could not get to bernie sanders. we will see if some other

democratic senator can step up. as we mentioned, today is a voting day. it is primary election day in oregon, where they vote imail, and it is also voting in a coal country's state where it seems to be a problem for the hillary clinton, who lost both west virginia and indiana. sanders has outspent clinton on kentucky airways. he has got money still. a loss to clinton will be the first and he is lost a full primary state. all of the states where she is -- 21 contests overall. that compares to clinton of austria's 26. with more coming that sanders could win next month. so the clinton campaign seems more hopeful they can pull this one out tonight, but if clinton loses kentucky, does it matter? it does, going back

to what we were talking about. she can ill afford another lost because i think it heightens the tension. she wins the general election by 10 points, she is going to lose kentucky. it has nothing to do with the general election. it has something to do with getting out of this struggle in the best possible shape, and the last couple of days have not been helpful in that regard. al: if she loses another coal state, if she loses a state where working class is big, all thehat is bad news, and closer bernie sanders gets to match her, not the popular vote, which she will win, but the closer he gets, the more bolder he will get you may be asked for things that she just cannot deliver. right., that is i think this is a contest they thought would be over. very few people thought this would be settled.

you pay a price for that. next, we get all of the answers from the bernie sanders campaign manager grid he will explain the nevada situation, what happens after tonight, and more after this quick break. ♪

♪ ready to be flooded with returns for the races in oregon and kentucky tonight, and we want to bring in someone also sin.ng patiently, we as they bernie sanders campaign manager who joins us again. jeff, thank you for coming on. jeff: my pleasure. mark: we were pretty surprised tement inr sanders' sta

nevada and calling out bad practices. what is the worst thing that happened on saturday that voters should know about and care about? jeff: way it started, i think if you watch the video online, you can see it, and it is confirmed by a senator who was there in the room, a former ohio, where they try to pass temporary rules to shut out debate. the voice vote, people said in the room that the worst nott, at decisive, and they overruled it. the modified, temporary rules were designed to sort of foreclose debate. : so what is the difference between the outcome now and the outcome that according to you would have happened if it had

been done fairly? jeff: i do not know. that is not the issue. of a huge segment of the democratic party is treated with fairness. bernie sanders has run in states all across this country, and by and large, the state democratic party has been very fair and evenhanded. that was just not the experience in nevada at the state level or at the clark county convention recently where they try to depose against some rules of their own. almost getting arrested, because the was a perception that she was being too fair to the sanders people. not just saturday. there were a lot of events leading up to it. i think there is a lot of frustration. august the, our campaign does not support threats or violence. it was something we saw in not other states. jeff, this is our hike here. tell us about the harry reid/bernie sanders

conversation. jeff: i think there are positive conversations. think there is a lot of mutual respect. i am not really going to get into -- but senator reid's clearly did not anticipate what senator sanders said this afternoon. i mean, it was all gifts from what senator reid said beforehand. jeff: right, well, what senator sanders said is he obviously condemns violence. he wants the people who support him to be treated fairly. there are 9 million people in this country who have supported him. there is certainly resistance among some establishment players in the dramatic -- democratic party, whether in nevada where at the dnc who are not as welcoming of all of these people who have come into the process. cases,dent, in many whoever web come out to support senator sanders' message to

support the campaign finance and the rig economy. : do you include the clinton campaign in that criticism? jeff: no. they have not weighed in on this, per se, but always the, people perceive themselves as operating in the clinton campaign. you haveen the success had and will likely have the remaining contents, are you going to go with the posture of winning over super delegates in philadelphia, and so philadelphia will be more about or partially about fighting for the nomination rather than coming together behind secretary clinton and fighting donald trump? is that fair to say? jeff: i think it is fair to say whoever comes out of the convention as the nominee will come out with a united party that is prepared to take on trump and the republicans. is certainly fair to say. this process has a long way to go. to see if the margin can be

mayor wrote is substantially, there certainly would be an appeal to superdelegates, and the senator has said that himself, that there are other issues that have to be dealt with, including the platform and ways to open up the nominating process and to with many of the things we have seen over the course of the year in the various states that are not the result of malice but sort of institutional impediments to people of being able to fully participate. i am not trying to instigate a fight, but it seems to me you all of had enough and what happens in june, your posture seems to be that the convention is about having disputes about who the nominee is going to be, who this for,delegates should vote how they nominate their candidates in the future, that that is up for you all, that that is what philadelphia is about rather than uniting at the beginning of the convention around hillary clinton. is that fair to say? jeff: i

think at this point, that is exactly right. the convention is about nominating be democratic candidate for president of the united states. looking for're not to showing up in philadelphia, if hillary clinton seems anointed by the media, you are not for showing up on day one and say, let's figure out when mr. sanders is going to get his big speech endorsing her? jeff: this has always been an uphill fight. going all the way to the convention. so you do not need to hear it from me. he has said it repeatedly. jeff, give us one or two of the most important platform planks for the sanders campaign. there are, i think many issues he has been talking about. universal health care for a single-payer system, minimum wage, free tuition for public colleges and universities, dealing with the broken trade policy.

i can go on. dealing with climate change. al: a good list. mark, lastight, question. use to describe the attitude in your office right now? jeff: i think determined would be the adjective i would use. mark: all right, very determined leader, jeff weaver, thank you. coming up, we are bringing in the gold standard to talk about donald trump's fundraising. a guest joins us after a few words from our sponsors. ♪

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simply by using your voice. the billboard music awards, live sunday may 22nd, 8/5 pacific, only on abc. , our guestng us wrote a story about setting up

pro trunk super pacs to try to defeat hillary clinton. dynamic to run a sophisticated independent campaign, to rival super pacs and are viewed with skepticism by major donors and their advisors. the free-for-all environment alarms veteran party strategist who recently signed on to try to help donald trump when the white house. thanks for joining us. one thing stuck out in your story. you got a response from the campaign manager saying mr. trump still does not really like super pacs. orthat a bit of a fiction, are they actually happy these things are happening? >> i think we are seeing conflicting messages coming out of the trunk campaign, both from the candidate and his advisers. they maintain that he disavowed all super pacs although some

advisers have been frantically seeking strategist to set up an entity they feel would be a professional operation that could harness huge songs that are likely to come in from wealthy trump supporters. that is contributing to the confusion in the environment. hard line against super pacs and beat up his opponents like ted cruz for being supported by them. some sort ofhave outside entity that can take in these weak donations, but they don't know what that will be at this point. and these two super pacs, are they dreaming of $2 million checks, $10 million checks? >> i'm sure they will take eight figures and happily put those to work. those of those groups have said they want to raise as much as $100 million. it is actually doable, we've seen some of the super pacs

bring in incredible sums just from a couple of donors. ted cruz's super pac was able to bring in 10 or 15 minute dollars just from a single family. i think the real question now is the organization and what strategists are going to be trusted with this money. john: you say has to do with organization. one donor said he will donate up to 100 million dollars. our most of the big-money people coming around now? >> i would not say most of the big-money people, but one of the things that is fascinating, we've seen a real involvement in political activity by wealthy people who never had engaged in campaigns up until two cycles

ago. there is plenty of money to be had out there and donald trump clearly has relationships with wealthy people that he can tap. pacs isg outside super easier than financing hard money for the campaign. it won't take much to have a becauseded super pac there are no limits on what they can get. fundraising for the campaign and the party is harder because of those limits. that's going to be the real test of donald trump's organization. i'm wrong, butif one reason he needs those super pacs is because most people who know donald trump his finances don't think he has the money to throw a billion dollars, or he to throwquid enough that much into the campaign. is that what you heard? this when he to said i could sell a couple of buildings, suggesting he does not have the cash readily

available to immediately inject in the campaign. he said he wants to raise a billion dollars in conjunction , which is an incredibly steep bowl. that would be $250 million a month for the next five months. i think he's going to be incredibly dependent on a well-funded outside super pac from multiple groups that can pick up some of the slack that his campaign will fail to do. sometimes they don't want to give to super pacs because they don't think they will spend the money wisely. are all those reasons in play here that donors are hesitating? >> all of those questions are still unanswered. most donors now have read donald trump's language on super pacs and the softer posture he has taken in the last week as a sign that he really does want these.

think there is less ambivalence about whether they would be in trouble with him if they pursued it. if you notice, donald trump tweeted a link to the story referring to sheldon adelson's pledge to spend up to $100 million. taciteemed to be a acknowledgment that the money would be out there supporting him. but the real unanswered question is who they can trust with their money, and donors are incredibly tactical now about a lot of pop up out ofthat nowhere and say they will take their money and put them into tv ads. mark: thank you. when we come back, a guy who is fighting the political system long before donald trump and bernie sanders, in his effort to recruit more independent candidates. if you're watching us in washington dc, you can now listen to us on the radio right here at bloomberg, 99.1 fm every day.

we will be right back. ♪

there has been a lot of talk about allegedly rigged political systems and potential third-party challengers to try to shake things up. these things are nothing new for next guest, kansas businessman who mounted an unsuccessful independent bid against pat roberts in 2014. he has now written a book called "the declaration of independence, how we can break the two-party stranglehold and restore the american dream." i ask him what he learned from his third-party run about how the current system works for our democracy. about whatd a lot

voters want and what voters care about. it was clear to me in running that in fact, voters feel like they have been presented a series of false choices. voters feel like the two parties really ultimately don't care about them, and i think we are seeing a lot of that reflected in the unconventional choices they are making in this presidential season. that doesn't the fact bernie sanders and donald trump, doesn't it suggest that the can accommodate outsiders who are not part of the party system? greg: what we saw with the ryan and donald trump meeting is an example of how eventually this system co-opts them all. ran as republican, he got republican votes, but now is trying to co-opt the republican finance system and raise a billion dollars for his campaign

through the party. when he goes to washington dc, he's going to go as a republican who has obligations to the republican party, and perceived by democrats as someone they cannot trust. because that is what the two-party system has evolved to. we've gotten to the point where both parties don't trust each other. so they spend their time focused more on seeing the other party fail than on seeing our country succeed. if you read my book, you see that we've got to a point where a lot of the most partisan folks in both parties consider the other party evil. by definition, any compromise becomes the deal with the devil. think that's what would see with a president trump or a president clinton. even if they extended an olive branch, the other side would look incredibly skeptically at that. if you look at the last 25 years in american politics, we've had three presidents, two-term

presidents elected, all talking about some desire to be post-partisan. george bush went to the democratic house meeting, there off-site meeting, and talked about the fact that he wanted to work with them. we saw barack obama talk about becoming a post-partisan president. the reality is both parties are so invested in partisanship that even when the leaders of their own party extend an olive branch, the other party rejects it. that's why the reasons i've fought for more independent. i believe independents are an essential element of our problem-solving process and if we don't have them, fundamentally we will continue to be guided by mistrust in the parties and lack of accomplishment for the american people. mark: so if you and like-minded colleagues get your way, what

would it look like in 10 years, if lots of independents got elected, how would things be different? greg: i believe whoever is the next president would be better off with five independent senators than five senators from their own party. often likened it to a couple going through a bitter divorce. they don't talk to each other anymore, they don't trust each other, they question each to its sending democrats and republicans to solve our problem is little -- is a little bit like asking that divorcing couple in a room and saying figure it out. not going to happen without a catalyst come and beyond to help both sides reach their differences. if you had gotten elected, you would have caucused with the democrats. eg: i said this consistently,

ultimately if one party or the other is clearly in the majority, then it's in the best interest in my state of kansas for me to caucus with the majority. but if i were in a position held we got to decide who the majority, i would go to both sides and engage in a pro problem-solving agenda. mark: so you need some luck, that the balance of power would say that both parties need to appeal to us. is it possible for someone who is an independent in the senate to not join a caucus, or do you just give up too much power that way? no committee assignments, no ability to be part of the benefit that comes with being one party or the other. hundred 13 congress passed as many bills at the do nothing congress of 1948. without doing something

different, washington will continue to be besieged by gridlock and not a lot will get done. i don't know how valuable it is to sit on the committee that gets nothing done. back, we arecome joined by our guest to talk about his latest project and what it means for daily news, traffic, and whether. that's right after this. ♪

>> if goldwater gets elected, you can forget about poverty. you can forget about civil rights. is that what you want? trying to turn this country around and prevent a major war.

the first sign of trouble, you cut and run. that was a scene from the ," about lyndonay johnson. joining us is the director of the film. this clip depicts johnson discussing the civil rights bill with his vice president, hubert humphrey. dr. king you wanted this bill passed without one word changed. don't sell a horse by talking about it being blind in one eye. >> this is about votes. that's the problem with you liberals, you don't know how to fight. mark: another great film about america.

this one with one of our greatest actors. tell us about why you were interested in lbj. >> he is a complex guy, and unbelievable politician. someone who actually believed you could do things in the government and got a huge amount done. we forget looking back through vietnam, looking backwards to what he accomplished in the 1960's. one of the most important things accomplished was the civil rights bill in 1964. to take that on when he was seen as the accidental president after the jfk assassination seems incredible. physicality, it's pretty amazing to watch. i saw the movie last night

at national archives. it was absolutely brilliant. there would be times when you would see cranston and in you would go back to an lbj scene in 1964 and you are not sure which was lbj in which was cranston. richardt lady bird and russell and j edgar hoover were phenomenal. by much were you guided those great works on lyndon johnson? >> our playwright became our screenwriter. he had done most of the research before the play. i got to inherit that, but then we get a lot of our own research. we went out and spoke to a number of people who were there directly, a number of the civil rights leaders. congressman john lewis, congressman jim clyburn, ambassador andrew young was a consultant on our film as well as a number of people in the

johnson administration at the time. al: you mentioned vietnam earlier. lyndon johnson does worley when asked about the public view of presidents. i don't think there is an airport in the country named after him. do you think this will begin to educate people in the fact that there was another side of lyndon johnson that probably did more great works than any president since roosevelt? >> that's how i usually describe it. i was about 10 or 11 years old when he decided not to run again due to the unpopularity of the war. on look at the work he did quadruplingdicaid, national financing of education, npr, pbs. he passed more legislation in those few years than almost any

president since fdr. i think what people will notice when you watch the film is just what it's like for someone who actually believed government can improve the quality of life of americans and has spent his whole life learning how to do that, and did it incredibly well during those early years. the film had an incredible cast, but i'm just obsessed with bryan cranston. the most basic question to ask a director, but what makes him so good at this? not become famous right away, early in his career. he was a great character actor for so many years. i like to work with actors who are great at drama but also great at comedy. he has that range. jonathan was a prankster sometimes -- johnson was a prankster sometimes. he might tell an off-color joke

or drive you around in his amphibious car to throw you off balance, and then pressure and even bully you to get things done. range, from the most intimate, suspenseful moment to the big, larger-than-life texan that johnson could be, an actor like bryan cranston, you need a guy like that going into a story like this. are there models for that, because it doesn't always work out. >> you open it up, but what i love about johnson's character in particular is that he would get in your face right next to you a few inches and put so much pressure, people call it the johnson treatment or the texas twist. i thought it might be more

cinematic to go smaller, get in there with the linens and watch this great performance. you forget it is bryan cranston. -- get in there with the lens. bradley whitford is a pretty incredible humphrey. to get great performances and be right in a privileged position that the camera can get you into. as well as the political brilliance of johnson, you capture the dark side, the really extraordinary insecurities. at one point he said he was going to quit before the 1964 election. was that hard for cranston to capture, because he certainly did it avidly. ask those first few days during the democratic convention when he's actually curled up in bed, sure he is going to lose the election, depending on lady bird to just give him enough courage to get out of ed.

i heard all that in the phone calls, there are many recorded phone calls available to us now, and you can feel that on stage, but in the film you really get a ,ense of how vulnerable he was how great the psychological swings were for him. has got it all. he's got the range, so i wasn't nervous about pulling that off. to paraphrase donald trump, we are getting sick of your success. [laughter] another incredible achievement, both in art and commercially. the film debuts on hbo at 8:00 p.m. this saturday night. congratulations. we will be right back. ♪

quick still ahead, another super tuesday. >> another super tuesday on the campaign trail. >> you're watching super tuesday. coverage onout our bloomberg politics.com. the reaction from both kentucky and oregon tonight. also, in lee chang talks to the chairman of microsoft, john thompson, that's on "bloomberg west." big thanks to al hunt for joining us. until tomorrow, sayonara. ♪

the u.s. senate passed

legislation that would allow 9/11 victims and their families to sue the saudi government for any rolet may have played in the attacks. >> we have a good relationship with the saudi's and we want to keep it a good relationship. if the government participates a terrorism, they should pay price. and it will be worse if they are not brought to justice, because it will encourage others to do it. the white house has promised to veto the legislation, saying it could expose americans overseas to legal risk. to mexican president wants legalize gay marriage. today he signed initiatives to amend the constitution and the federal civil code. gay marriage is already legal in some parts of mexico. bernie sanders looks to continue his winning streak in today's kentucky and oregon primaries. kentucky is considered the bigger prize. front runner hillary clinton has a significant delegate lead. donald trump