the undisputed republican front-run sgler it's tough. it's nasty. it's mean. it's vicious. it's beautiful. >> but republicans believe it's a three-man race as marco rubio and ted cruz vie to become the chief trump challenger. >> and the st century conservative movement is the son of a bar tender and a maid from cuba. meanwhile, the bush dynasty comes to an official end. >> tonight, i am suspending my campaign. >> trump, rubio and cruz all join me this morning. plus, hillary clinton gets the win she so desperately needed in nevada. >> some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other. >> while bernie sanders loses in the first state with a diverse electorate. >> you're going to see the resusuts of one of the great political upsets in the history of the united states. >> bernie sanders makes his case this morning. joining me for insight and analysis are, radio talk show host hughh hewitt, mnsbc's

amy walter, cook political report and jon ralston, deen of the nevada political press corps and nbc analyst. chuck, rubio, cruz and sanders, welcome to sunday in a post-primary and caucus edition of "meet the press." from nbc news in washington, this is "meett the press with chuck todd." good morning. i'm wishing every saturday had primaries because welcome to an amazing sunday where everything morning. very simply two headlines out of shakakup saturday thanks to south carolina kp nevada. we now have the ree-way republican race so many expected and we now have a democratic front-runner again, anan her name is hillary clinton, again. but let's start with the republicans. donald trump made it clear that he is now the republican front-runner. trump scored a big win in south carolina winning 33% of the vote. and all 50 delegates at stake. the battle for second, a distant second frankly, was a back and forth affair all night with

by just one percentage point, 23-22. bush, kasich, carson they all finished way behind. and before the night was over jeb bush was officially out of the race. here are trump, rubio and cruz as the night unfolded. >> there's nothing easy about running for president. i can tell you. it's tough. it's nasty. it's mean. it's vicious. it's beautiful. when you win, it's beautiful.l. anan we're goingng to starar -- we are going to start winning ingning for our country. >> now the children of the reagan revolution are ready to assume the mantle of leadership. >> tonight, despite millions and llions of dollars of false and nasty attacks, despite the entirety of the political establishment coming together against s, south carolina has given us another remarkable result. >> by the way, no republican has ever won south carolina and iowa

without going onto win the nomination. on the democratic side hillary clinton got the win she needed to blunt the bernie sanders momentum. clinton beat sanders 53-47 finally getting an unambiguous victory after the nail biting win in iowa. here are the results i i nevada became clearar >> tenssof thousands of men and women with kids to raise, bills to pay, and dreams that won't die, this i your campaign. i believe that when democrats assemble in philadelphia in july at that convention, we are going to see the results one of the great political upsets in the history of the united states. >> this morning a packed show. we're going to hear from donald trump, marco rubio, ted cruz and bernie sanders this morning. but we're going to begin with the republican front-runner, donald trump, who joins me live from palm beach, florida. mr. trump, good morning and congratulations, sir.

thank you very much. >> let me start with this idea of whether it is a three-way race. do you believe theherepublican nomination's a three-way race? or do you believe this is you on your way to getting the nomination? >> well, i think i have a big advantage, but it's certainly a three-person race. and you have a couple of other people that are very talented there too. so we have a five-man race. and i think that it's going to not easy. i have a big aaantage, but loo way from being won. >> well, that's very humble of you this morning. look, this has been a dramatic week of, i guess, changes, position changes, even by your standards. on wednesday you praised the health care man date, by friday you said abolish. on saturday you said planned parenthood did wonderful things, defund it. similarly at the debate you called george w. bush a liar, you sort of backtracked on that later in the week. are you -- it comes across, are you taking positions that you believe, or are you sort of as

switching at the last minutut what are we to make of all this this week? >> well, on the mandate, if you look at the mandate, we had a situation where we were anderson cooper, who's terrific by the way and did a terrific job, but we were talking over each other. look, i want -- we're going to repeal and replace obamacare. obamacare is a total and complete disaster. it's going to be gone. we're going to come up with a great health care plan, whether it's h hlth care savings accounts. we have a lot of different things. we can get rid of the lines between states, we'll have great competitive bidding. but i say all the time you can call it anything you want. people are not going to die in the middle of the stree pepele are not going to die on the sidewalk if i'm president, okay. >> let me get something definitive from you on this -- >> chuck, excuse me, i say that to packed houses with thousands and thousands#of people. republicans mostly. and i get standing ovations. i'm not going to let that happen. if i'm president, we're not going to have people dying on the streets. you can call it whatever you want -- >> no, i understand that. let me ask you this -- >> i don't call it mandate, it's common sense. >> do you think it should be a

health insurance has to have it? >> i think, no. i think it's going to be up to them. i want it to be up to them. but i'm really talking about people that can't afford it. we're not going to let people die in squalor because we are republicans. okay. that's part of the problem with the republicans. somehow they got fed into this horrible position. we're going to take care of people. but, no, people don't have to have it. we're going to have great plans. they're going to be a lot less expensive than obamacare. they're going to be prive. there are going to be lots of diffrent options. we're going to have a lot of different options. right now you have no options. you know why? because the insurance company controlled obama because they gave him a lot of money. that's why you have lines around the stalts that you can't get competitive bidding. >> now let's move to planned parenthood. you defended the other work planned parenthood does. >> that's right. i do. >> now you said you'd defund it. >> that's right, i would. >> democrats willl say the money they give to planned parenthood does not go to abortions. that the money they give to

other womens health issues including mammograms and things like that. if you knew the government money were only going to that, would you support funding planned parenthood? >> yeah. if it didn't have to do with abortions. look, i understand and many, many friends who are women who understata planned parenthood better than you or i will ever understand it and they do some very good work. cervical cancer, lolts of womens health issues are taken care of. i know onon of the candidates i won't mention their name said we're not going to spend that kind of money on womens health issues. i am. planned parentho does a good job in a lot of different areas but not on abortion. so i'm not goioi to fund it if it's doing the abortion. i am not going to fund it. now, they say it's 3% and it's 4%. some say 60%. i don't believe it's 60% by the way, but i think it's probably a much lower nnber. but planned p prenthood does some very good work. but i would defund as long as they're doing abortions. >> all right. let me move to the issue of iraq. obviously a couple clips came out.

clip in 2002. >> okay. sure. >> we have an idea who the enemy is and a lot of times the politicians don't want to tell you that. >> are you for invading iraq? um, i wish it was -- i wish the first time it was done correctly. >> now, clearly you didn't sound like an enthusiastic supporter of the war. but i am curious in the second part of that quote, i wish the first time it was done correctly. what do you mean by that? >> well, what i mean by that is it almost shouldn't have been done. you know, i really don't even know what i mean because that was a long time ago. who knows what was in my head. i think that it wasn't done correctly in retrospect it shouldn't have been done at all. it was sort of, you know, it was done. we dropped bombs. now, if you look back, actually that was probably the correct way of doing it, not going in d not upsettng ging them a lesson or not. i think senior actctlly did a pretet good job of what he was

he went in, he taught them a lesson. what happened is he was taunted because saddam husuein was saying we drove back the americans, the ugly americans were driven back, the power of iraq, the power. well, we weren't driven back, he just decided not -- generalnd others sasa let's not go in. although i think maybe he wanted to go in. if you look at my conversation with howard, we're very good friends, different than what you hear on the radio, but we're very good friends. don't forget i was a real estate man and businessman. that was the f fst time i think that questioio was evv even asked of me. that was long before the war took place. that was many, many months before the war took place. and you could see by my answer i wasn't exactly thrilled.

point yesterday a tweet saying trump is right, look what he just said. you have to take a look atat that. but regardless the war in iraq was a disaster. it was probably the worst thing, if you look at the middle east now, all started because of that horrible decision to go into iraq. with? nothing. we spent $2 trillion. we have thousands and thousands of lives killed. just thousands carnage. and we haze wounded warriors, who i love all over theplace, right, and we have nothing and iran is now taking over iraq. they've been trying to for many, many decades and now they're finally taking over iraq. as we sit here they're taking over iraq. we get nothing. >> let me give you one more issue where you sort of went counter to what is perceived as republican orthodox and that is the issue of israeli and the palestinians. you said wednesday you wanted to be neutral in that dispute. explain what neutral means becauau some heard that in the pro-israeli community and thinks, oh, he's going to be anti-israel.

>> no. i'm very pro-israel. in fact, i was the head of the israeli day parade a number of years ago, i did a commercial for netanyahu when he was getted elected asked me to do a commercial for him, i did a commerciaia for him. i i . but i don't want to be -- look, the hardest thing to do is that in terms of deal, if you're a deal person, right, the ultimate deal is that deal. israel, palestine, if you're gogog to make it, that probably is the hardest deal there is to make. people are born with hatred, they'reaught haed. d i have to say it's mostly on the one side, not onon the other side, but they're taught hatred. i say this, if i'm going to be president, i'd rather be in a position because i will try the best i can. and i'm a very good dealmaker. believe meme totory and solve thatat puzzle. you're not going to solve it if you're going to be on one side or another. everyone understands that. if i'm going to solve the problem, i want to go in with a clean slate otherwise you're never going to get the cooperation of the other side. so that's all i'm saying. >> donald trump, i'm going to

again, congratulations on your big win. stay safe on the trail. we'll be watching on tuesday. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> you got it. all right. i'm joined now by the man who came in second last night, senator marco rubio of florida. senator rubio, welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> thank you. thanks for having me on. >> you got it. okay. sorry about that. let me start with how you feel about this win -- this second place finish last night. you had every major endorsement that you could have had and yet you still finished a distant second in south carolina. how do you look at this as a positive and not a negative? >> because 65% of the people voted yesterday and about 70% of republicans around the country have said we want someone other than donald trump to be our nominee. the problem is that vote was still divided even last night among five other people or four other people. i think now the race is narrowing even more. and as it narrows and continues to narrow, we're going to continue to gain. so it was a very unusual year.

campaigns operating full-time in a state this late into the process. three states in. but i feel great that now that the choices have become less and less, more and more that new voter alternative to donald trump vote is going to coalesce around us and we have to make the work to make that happen, but we feel good about that. >> the issue i think all republicans have had going up against donald trump whether it's en jeb bush, ted cruz, you've done it a little bit as well, you say he's not a real republican on this issue. i'm sure you heard my interview wh him. he doesn't have a lot of traditional repupuican stances on issues, and yet he's still winning. how do you ever winover his >> yeah. number one he'll say something over the top and you guys in the press will decide let's not cover anything and focus on the outrage of statement. dominating that. and in an 11 person or 15 person field it crowded a lot of people out. that's going to become harder to do.

people are really angry at washington and they have a right to be. that's why i ran in 2010 by the way. and it's because i didt want my next u.s. senator to be someone who was going to go up and do the same stuff people have been doing. our argument is it's okay to angry and upset at washington, but anger alone is not enough. you deser a nominee who tells you exactly here's what we're going to do and outlines that. so you know what you're getting. so there's some level of accountability here. so my campaign is about this. we are very realistic about our challenges right now in this country. but we're also optimistic about the ffure, but onlyf we do a few things. and i'm going to tell you exactly what those things are. and that's a big difference in this campaign between mr. trump's campaign and mine. i think that's going to begin to matter a lot more now because there are less people in the race and more time to pay attention to some of that. >> look, throughout the week it was clear a lot of campaigns thought you had momentum, a lot of campaigns were going after you. here's one attack ad that cruz put up on immigration. i want to play a snip-it of it and get a reaction from you on the other side.

the 11 million people that are here illegally. >> we have to deal with the 11 illegally. >> the bill that senator rubio put forward i think is a great place to start. >> they still have to qualify for it. >> passing a background check. >> passed a background check. >> pay a penalty. >> pay a fine. >> paying taxes. >> start paying taxes. >> it won't be a quick process. >> that is a long path. >> but it will be a fair process. >> but i do think it's fair. >> so, senator, i know you couldn't see the ad as we played it, i'm sure you've heard it and seen reference, what part of that ad is not ttue? >> it doesn't matter. the point -- first of alleople dn't care about it. this is now an attack going on in state after state and people have processed and understand it's a serious issue that needs to be solved. number two, i could put the exact same ad on about ted cruz. ted cruz said h h wanted find a compromise, ted cruz said he wanted to bring 11 million people out of the shadows. ted cruz said that he wanted immigration reform to pass. here's the bottom line, i tried

and we tried to produce the best and most conservative bill possible in a senate controlled by harry reid at the time. and then send it over to the house and have them, conservatives, make it even better. it didn't work outecause the houseeever took it up. and so now it's very clear that the only way forward is going to be to do it in pieces beginning by securing our border. that's what we'll do. when i'm president, the sete bill's nott going to be what we're operating off of. it's going to begin by focusing on securing our border first and foremost. and until you do that, you're not ging to be able to do anything else. >> all right. i got to talk process. youuoke up in teeessee this morning. that tells me that's a little bit of a tell, that's a state obviously you think you can win on super tuesday. where else do you win on super tuesday? now it's about winning. you h hen't won yet. you got to win somewhere. >> it is. well, i think first of all as we understand all these states award delegates differently. so we have a different strategy for each of these states depending how they award delegates.

all states, in march, big chunks of delegates, that's where you need to win states and i feel very good about where we're going to be by then. i'm not going to reveal to you our campaign play book but we're going to be in a lot of different places, i'm in tennessee, be in arkansas, nevada, we're going to contest and work very hard for those caucuses on tuesday and keep moving forward in a bunch other plalas. e have a national campaign. and i feel great about it especially after last night. >> all right. senator marco rubio, i'm going to leave it there. stay safe on the trail. it's going to be a big, quick race overq,d next 23 days. thank you. now to the democratic race and a close but crucial victory yesterday. and a big blow for my next guest, senator bernrn sanders. welcome back to "meet the press," senator. >> good to be with you. you said on friday. you said on friday it could be 10, 20, 30 years from now people will look back at what happened in nevada and say this was the beginning of the political revolution. obviously the results didn't

what happened, sir? >> well, what happened is overer the last five weeks, chuck, we came from 25 points down to five points down. as i understand it we actually won the latino vote yesterday, which is a big breakthrough for us. but the voter turnout was not as high as i had wanted. and what i've said over and over again, we will do well when young people, when working class peoe come out. we do not do well when the voter turnout is not large. we diddnot do as good a job as i turnout. >> you know at the last minute there were reports that harry reid and the culinary union were working to try toeef upturnout in places where hillary clinton was going to do well including right there on the strip in las vegas. do you think that made a difference? >> it's hard to say. hat i do know is, chuck, our message of a rigged economy in which people in nevada and around the country are working longer hours for low wages, why

is goingng to the top 1%, i'll tell you something else, this issue of a corrupt campaign finance system where big money interest in wall street trying to buy elections, those are the issues that are resonating. again, i wish we had had a larger voter turnout. by the way, we did phenomenally well with young people. i think we diwell with working class people. remember, we were taking on a candidate who ran in 2008. she knew nevada a lot better than we did. she had the names of a lot of her supporters. so i'm proud of the campaign that we ran. obviously i wish we could have done a little bit better. but at the end of the day i think she gets 19 delegates, we get 15 delegates. we move on to the next state. >> it was interesting listening to her victory speech last night. i want to play a clip of it because i may sound familiar to you. here it is. >> wall street can never be allowed to threaten main street again. no bank can be too big to fail, no executive too powerful to jail. >> it's pretty clear she has

wall street because of your candidacy. do you see that as a victory of sorts? that you've got her trying- >> chuck, chuck -- >> -- compare your message. >> we're looking into copyright issues here. those are our words. well, obviously i think what the secretary has recognize edd is the american people are extremely angry about the power of wall street, the greed, the illegal behavior of wall street. by t wayay the fact that when a kid gets picked up with marijuana, that kid gets a police record, wall street executives destroy the economy, there's no prosecution against them. the american people understand that we need real change in this country. in my view a political revolution which says to the people on top, you know what, you guys can't have it all. >> it's interesting t t guy who had the biggest super pac of all time had to drop out of the race. jeb bush outspent everybody.

interest supporting his cacadidacy. isn't sort of the people already overturning citizens united? isn't your message and donald trump who've done this without super pacs, isn't this already resonatiti? >> no -- well, in some ways it is. but i think, you know, if you look at jeb bush's campaign it's more than just money. it's the nature of the candidate and the message and all that stuff. but let me give you an example. right now we have raised, as i understand it, chuck, more contributions from people than hillary clinton has. but she's now going into the super pac that she hashich comes f fom wall streeeand very wealthy individuals. she will be outspending us in the next number of weeks precisely because of that super pac. do these things matter? yes, they do. >> where a you goingg to win next? you've got -- you can't just come close. you're right, you came close in nevada. but to win you got to win. and super tuesday, can you win a

you don't have to win a majority of the states, but you need to win a majority of the delegates if you're going to win this thing. >> rit. well, we're studying that issue very closely as to where we allocate r resourcrc and allocate my time. i think we have a good shot in colorado. a good shot in minnesa. aood shot i massachusetts. i think we are looking pretty good in oklahoma. last poll i saw my own state of vermont had us at 80%. so i think we got a shot to win there. and i think we will surprise people in some other states as well. >> don't you have to beat her in a place like texas or virginia or tennessee? a big state to say, you know what, i can win this nomination. i can't just come close. don't you have to do that? >> no, you're right. look, at the end of the day what you're saying is true, you need delegates. as you know these are state by state proportional delegation -- delegates go ouou we're looking hard at michigan.

shot at parts of texas. so trust me, we are focusing very hard on trying to get as many delegates as we can. but let me also say this. we are in this race to the convention. i think we got some states coming down the pike that we're going to do very, very well in. i think, yououknow, if you look at national polling, our support is growing. so we think, chuck, we have come a very, very long way. i think the first time i was on your show we were probably at 5% in the polls. we're moving, we're making progress. >> all right, bernie sanders, i know you're in south carolina this morning, but this race goes national in a hurry. thanksor coming on. stay safe on the trail, sir. >> thank you. and when we come back, how will ted cruz respond to another third place finish? he joins me next. welcome to the world 2116, you can fly across town in minutes

whole communities are living on mars and solar satellites provide earth with unlimited clean power. in less than a century, boeing took the world from seaplanes to space planes, across the universe and beyond. and if y y thought that wasasmazing, you just wait. you're an at&t small business expert? sure am. my staff could use your help staying in touch with customers.

am i seeing double? no ma'am. our at&t 'buy one get one free' makes it easier for your staff to send appointment reminders to your customers... ...and share promotions on social media? you know it! now i'm seeing dollar signs. you should probably get your eyes checked. good one babe. optometry humor. right now get up to $650 in credits to helyou switch to at. welcome back. i'm joined now by the very narrow third place finisher in cruz. senator, welcome back to "meet the press." >> chuck, good morning. >> let me stt with a clip from your press conference that you held on wednesday. because i have a question on the other side, but i want to show it because it seemed unlike oter events that you had held throughout the campaign. here it is. >> a culture exists within the

people to take advantage of a situation like this in a very dishonest way. >> well, i've said he's been lying because if youou say something that isn't true and you say it over and over again and you know it's not true, there's no other word for it. >> you talk about people that lies, this is ted cruz. this is the biggest liar i've ever seen. >> that was going to be my second question, but i'm going to go there, you heard it there, three different candidates have accused you of being a liar. a third one out of three south carolina voters thought you were campaign. has all this hurur you? has it stuck? >> oh, listen, chuck, we saw with both donald trump and marco rubio that their response whenever you point to anything in their record is just to yell liar, liar, liar, and get very personal and to make direct character attacks. and my approach from the very beginning of this campaign starting a year ago is that i will not respond in kind. i do not intend to insult any of the candidates. i will sing their praises. i'll sing donald's praises and marco's praises and everybody else's praises. but i'm going to keep the focus on substance and records.

screamam liar. because when you point to their own records, their own voting records, their own words, they don't like their records because their records are inconsistent with what they're running on. you know, donald trump hreatened to file a a defamation suit against me for running a tv ad that consistented edconsisted almost entirely of his own words on television. that is really a remarkable theory that's defamation to show people what he said on national tv. i think voters are smarter than that. >> senator, i'm going to play that press conference clip to you because to me contrasts from what you just said. here it is. >> donald has had a long career of using gret wealth and power trying to bully others. whenever anyone points to their actual record, the response of bbh donald trump and marco rubio is to yell the word liar. whenever anyone does as this ad oes plays the actual words of donald trump on national television, his response is to

their strategy is simply to yell liar, liar, liar. >> you did an entire press conference. it was some 30 minutes on wednesday. you weren't talking about the issues that you normally do talk about on the trail. you weren't the happy warrior that you just described yourlf as being. it seemed as if you allowed yourself to essentially let trump and rubio so get under your skin that you focused on them and you've lost focus on your own message. >> oh, listen, chuck, i was then and am now v vy much a happy warrior. very much joyful. that press conference was simply to discuss the facts, was laying out the actual facts. not engaging in character attacks myself, just putting out here are the facts, here are the evidence, and i noted, for example, that both of them were relying on fabrications. for example, donald trump twted out to the world a quote allegedly from senator tom coburn impugning my honesty. within hours he came out

an utter fabrication. i said it's really remarkable to see two candidates, trump and rubio, making things up and putting things out for which there is no evidence and no basis. but listen, chuck, the important thing is we had an ncredible evening last night. last night what we saw happen in south carolina, particularly when you put iowa, new hampshire, south carolina together, two things have happened. number one, there is now only one strong conservative in this race who can win. and we see cooervatives continuing to unite behind our campaign. but number two, for anyone who doesn't believe that donald trump is the best candidate to go head-to-head with hillary clinton in november, and that's's about 70% of republicans nationwide who don't think donald trump is the right guy, our campaign is the only campaign that has beaten donald trump and that can be donald trump. so what we're seeing is we're seeing republicans coming to us in incredible numbers to go -- >> senator, wait a minute, you

thth highest evangelical turnout that we've seen yet. and you finished third. that sort of doesn't support what you just said, that conservatives are coming together and rallyi toour cause. >> so, chuck, our p pth to victory from the beginning was always do well in the first four states and then have a strong, strong night on super tuesday coming up on march 1st. in iowa everyone in the press said we couldn't win, we won overwhelming victory in iowa. in new hampshire everyone in the press said a conservative couldn't do well in a moderate new engld state. we won a strong third there. and then in south carolina we were effectively tied for second. a week ago donald was 20 points ahead, we closed that gap. and what we saw there there were a number of very encouraging things, for one thing, we won young people in south carolina. our campaign was in first place with young people. by the way, we won young people in iowa as well. and we were in second place with young peoplein new hampshire. one of the things we're seeing is young people w w are optimistic who want a future,

rights, are coming to our campaign. and if you want to beat donald trump, you know, one of the clearest indications of who can beat trump is donald spends every waking moment attacking me. he doesn't attack other candidates because he e his campaign views us as the only real threat to him. and that's why we're seeing so many people come around and say, listen, we want a reaea conserertive. we don't want a washington dealmaker who will support democrats and cut deals to grow government. and give into the cronyism of corporate welfare. >> quickly, are you going to beat donald trump in texas on march 1st? >> certainly hope so. texas, i can't wait in a couple days to be home. >> must win, i i take it? >> it will be wonderful to sleep in my own bed. look, we hope we do well. i believe we will do well. we've got an amazing team in texas. i love texans and texas is clearly the crown jewel of super tuesday. we believe we're going to do very, very well in texas. and we're going to do very well across super tuesday.

just an hour we're headed to nevada to go andnd worko earn votes there. well, speaking of the road to super tuesday, that's what i'm dealing with next. anyway, senator ted cruz, thanks for coming on. stay safe on the trail, sir. >> thanks, chuck. you too. when we come back, that proverbial road to super tuesday and the states each candidate will be focusing on.

jaja reese, "day to feel alive" jake reese, "day to feel alive" if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me, and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira giving me new perspective. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific sourcrcof inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems,

and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungng infections are c cmon, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. talk to your doctor and visit humira.com. this is humira at work. every day you read headlines about businesses being hacked and intellectual property being stolen. that is cyber-crime and it affecec each and every one of us. microsoft created the digital crimes unit to fight cyber-crime. we use the microsoft cloud to visualize information so we can track down the criminals. when it comes to the cloud, trust and security are paramount. we're building what we learn back into the cloud

all right. time to set the road ahead. we're using "meet the press" data download to do it because if you think things have been turbulent through now, wait until you see the next 23 days. first, the republicans head west to nevada on tuesday. democrats will go to south carolina next saturday. but it's march 1st where things get fascinating. the first of a couple of super tuesday. 14 contests that day. on the gop side the establishment favored marco rubio. he's going to be focusing in places like massachusetts, minnesota, virginia. ted cruz, he's going to be campaigning in the deep south s.e.c. states of alabama, arkansas, georgia. and of course he has got to win in his home state of texas. large evangelical populations he hopes make t t difference inin all those deep south states. but i'm watching tennessee very closely. i think this is going to be the swing state of super tuesday along with virginia where establishment candidates have

that's where rubio needs to beat trump. trump of course is going to be a factor everywhere as he's proven so far. for the democrats, we're looking already at hillary clinton shifting her focus t t big stateses like texas where she had an event last night. bernie sanders, he's cherry picking states so far. he's outspending clinton in places like oklahoma, minnesota, colorado. and he's the only one on the air in massachusetts. but can he beat her in a bigger state? haven't seen it so far. moving down the road on march 5th could actually be a good day for both cruz and sanders. why? two of the states are c ccus states, kansas and nebraska, which you see on the left. heavy for the bases there. while clinton will be focusing that day on louisiana. it's a primary with a large african-american electorate. shifting gears to the 8th, all eyes on michigan for the perception that with winning will be just as important as the delegateson the line, probably john kasich's landnd standby the way. it is an open primary which means in michigan you don't have

vote in either democrat or the republican side. good news potentially by the way for sanders and trump as wwl. nd then just around the corner the oh big super tuesday of march, march 15 9. the closest thing we'll get to a preview of the november battlegrounds. we've got florida, illiis, missouri, nortrt carolina and ohio all heading to the polls that day. could be the establishment's last stand on the republican side to stop trump. we'll be back in a moment on this remarkable sundd morning with a lookt the republican race. can rubio or cruz turn this into a two-man battle with donald trump? i sure had a lot on my md when i got out othe hospital after a dvt blood clot. wh about my family? my li'l budddd and what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital but i wondered if this was the right treatment for me. then my doctor told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots,

major bleeding than the standard treatment. knowing eliquis had both... turned around my thinking. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnororl bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily... and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. eliquis treats dvt & pe blood clots. plus had less major bleeding. both made switching to eliquis right for me.

look, the wolf was huffing and puffing. like you do sometimes, grandpa? well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. it can be hard to get air out, which can make it hard to get air in. so i talked to my doctor. she said... symbicort could help you starting within 5 minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. symbicort helps provide significant improvement of your lung function. symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort contains formoterol. medicines like formoterol increase the rk of death from asthma problems. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteopororis, and some eye problems. you should tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. symbicort could mean a day with better breathing. watch out, piggies! (children giggle) symbicort. breathe better starting within 5 minutes. call or go online to learn more about a free trial offer.

your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. wow. welcome back. panel is finally here to react to the four big candidate interviews on this sunday momoing. hugh hewitt, key destination this year for republican presidential contenders. joy-ann reid of msnbc she's been all over the country for us the last few weeks. amy and jon ralston host of ralston live on pbzs in nevada now an nbc anaast. huhu hewitt, nobody has won, why isn't this over? >> donald trump has been practicing in the chords of reality politics for 11 years doing reality television. he is clearly the front-runner and clearly dominating, but i believe in some old rules. i believe marco rubio's going to win florida, i think ted cruz

i think a momoth from now we may be b bk here talking about an open convention because i think old rules apply. john kasich will win ohio as well. >> if this is a three-way race, you could see it in the exit poll in south carolina. let me put up some numbers. the candidate shares my values, ted cruz, the leading candidate. the candidate there to bring nefded change, the leading caidate was donald trump. and the won that won in november, marco rubio. there's your split. trump's change, electability. >> the difference is that the trump number on change is so much larger than the lead that the other two have in their lanes. and that's going to be the challenge for those other two going forward. the other challenge for marco rubio this assumption that you're just going to get all those bush and kasich voters. you may,, it's true if you add u u ll the new hampshire bush and kasich voters, all the south carolina bush and caykasich voters, give those to rubio, he wins. but he has to show he can go

>> who gets to the one-on-one? marco rubio is the one guy that hasn't felt the wrath of trump yet. everybody else who hass either out of the race or s sverely damaged. ted cruz has been damaged. >> right. but marco rubio has felt the wrath of chris christie and prove he has a glass jaw. the question isoing to be could he with stand a similar barrage from donald trump who is relentless in going after the him. in addition to that hugh says marco rubio will win florida, that isn't clear at this point that donald trump can't win there. >> i don't know it's clear that ted cruz is going to win texas by the way. >> it's not enough to keep winning second and third. at some point ted cruz has to win one, rubio has to win. >> speaking of firsts, his first win was supposed to come in your home state of nevada, mr. ralston. that's tuesday. nevada easily. iis a weird process in nevada. isn't everything a weird process in nevada where they have it on a tuesday night, different start times.

10%. but hugh talks about old rules. you guys are talking about this math. there are no rules anymore. the old math doesn't work. nobody knows what's going to happen. i don't know why we're all afraid to say that, but right now who goes one-on-one with trump is the key question. it doesn't look like from your interviews or anything else -- they're not going to get out, as long as that exists and kasich and carson hanging around for a little while, as long as there are that many candidates trump will win every single race. >> hugh, you heard donald trump with me today, he does not stick to republican orthodox. this is always supposed to have been his downfall, maybe it's his strength. >> we have a debate on thursday night. it will be interesting to see how he handles the bush lie. that was his waterloo moment and the pope rescued him from that. >> i agree that's exactly what happened. >> so we will see on thursday night how he nuances that as he did with you. i believe he's the front-runner for a reason.

he represents a total leveling of everything that people are angry about. and he has ivanka. i must say she was there last night and she is the generational bridge that he needs because marco rubio, the children of reagan line, is a good line. >> yeah. you know, when you're looking at this -- go ahead. >> no. i mean the only problem with the children of reagan line is it reminds you that he is the young candidate, right? so you have to be careful about using that. but look, i think you still have a problem here when you're going and you're looking not just that trump is winning, but he's winning in a broad swath of voters. it's not just like he's got this one lane he only wins when there's low turnout, only wins conservatives, only wins in these kinds of states. he wins enough across a broad array array. >> i saw last night late deciders he got crushed among 40% of voters who were late deciders. early voters 60%. >> not only that but donald trump is actually doing what bernie sanders was billee as doing. he's bringing new voters into the process. >> look at the turnout in south carolina.

he was actually doing that. he is accomplishing getting particular mr.ly white working class voters people angry at their own party, at republican party, and feel in the only other -- >> who does hillary want to run against? >> donald trump. >> you think? >> i don't'think so anymorere >> he would be stronger than the democrats think. >> of the three i think cruz is the one -- and oddly it's the easier race for her in her mind. >> it's amazing watching your interviewewith trump is he's's like the guy who thinks that every question is, okay, i asked you a question, now free associate. say whatever comes into your head. now he's sort of evolved on the health care question where he read the cliff notes like we did in school when we weren't quite prepared and he knows the issue of portability, someone taught him what health care savings accounts are. but clearly he can't get past the rock skipping across but it doesn't matter to his base. >> it has not mattered. no, it's been the message that matters. i'm going to pause there. we got to go to the democratic

hillary clinton's win yesterday might actually be seen in hindsight as the game changer ofthe future belongs to the fast. and to help you accelerate, we've created a new company... one totally focused d what's next for your business. the true partnership where people,technology and ideas push everyone forward. accelerating innovation. accelerating transformation. accelerating next. hewlett packard enterprise. i have asthma... ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine, i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo opens up airways to help

breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop breo and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroidid do n n take breo more than prescribed. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. ask your doctor if 24-hour breo could be a missing piece for you. see if you're eligible for

welcome back. panel is here. now we're going to talk about the democratic side of things from shakeout saturday after hillary clinton's big nevada win. joy, i want to start with you. there's a new ad hillary has out here, second one now narrated by morgan freeman. i'm going to play it for you and get you to react. >> she says their names. >> trayvon martin shot to death. sandra brand did nothing wrong. >> and makes their mothers fight for justice her own. >> it was only nine months ago when asked about black lives matter hillary clinton said all

and now look where she is today. look at the rhetoric she's now adopting from bernie sanders. you can't say she's not evolving as a candidate. and boy is she trying very hard to move to where the democratic base is. >> you recalled a couple months ago she met with a lot of the mothers in chicago. she has the endorsement of some of the moms. bernie sanders i think has one or two of the family members too. i'm a little uncomfortable with using the families of these dead children i this way. both of them have. both sanders and hillary clinton are now trying to invoke the memories and use the family members of these young people in their campaign. >> do you think it's too crass? >> it makes me uncomfortable. i do have to say hillary clinton understands fundamentally that her candidacy is in the hands of african-americans. full stop. in nevada it was a 72% rout with african-americans that carried her over the top. south carolina, she will be saved by african-americans over age 50. and not even just all african-americans but african-americans of a certain age, right, over 50.

>> look at the next 12 states on the nktdemocratic side. it's something like 7 of the 12 have an african-american electorate percentage of 30% or more. >> right. >> i mean, this is -- joy's right, this is -- >> she is exactly right. >> may come across as crass but that's what she's doing. >> in the generational divide you're exactly right doesn't hurt as much because, yes, she doesn't do as well with younger voters voters. but she doesn't need to. in n nada she lost over 25-year-olds by a tremendous margin, she picked up over 45-year-olds who make up a bigger part of the electorate and they will in south carolina as well. >> harry reid the most valuable player -- is harry reid going to be known as the person who saved hillary clinton's nomination? >> i think he will be. and having come back to the state he saw what was happening in the state. he saw the internal polls. clinton was hemorrhaging. she went from a 25 point lead down to 9 after new hampshire. it was neck and neck. harry reid said i got to do something.

culinary union. they were being wall flowers said you got to get these folks out to vote, heavily latino they knew they would go for clinton. he did that with other unions too by the way, chuck. not just with the culinary union. but what joy is talking about the african-american vote is forgotten because we talk so much about the latino vote. >> it's about half of the non-white vote. not just hispanic. >> the fact she got three-quarters of that vote. she had every african elected official except maybe one or two in her corner campaigning for her. but harry reid is the guy. >hugh, now that it looks likee hillary clinton is back to being the favorite for the nomination and suddenly it is hillary clinton standing there as the boogie person for the republican party, does that change republican voter calculus or no? >> it does. >> changing your calculus, but -- >> the former secretary of state is the nominee. she is also the willie sutton of classified data. and t tre's going to be a

whether it's donald trump, marco rubio or ted cruz to paint her into the corner. they had another release of data on friday. there's one more coming. she is a tremendously flawed candidate. >> she loses all the trust questions to sanders. that has been a fact. her now sitting there as the threat where no longer it's like, oh, my god, maybe sanders will win. does that change the way voters think in the republican primary? >> i think it does. i think voters are very sophisticate and had strategic, they know she can be beaten. they'll look at donald trump, marco rubio, ted cruz, maybe john kasich, who can beat her, what's the best match up. i think that's what's going to work on super tuesday. >> we'll see. it's what the republican establishment hope the voters think. they haven't been right yet. when we come back in less than a minute, our end game segment and the end of the game for the bush dynasty. coming up, "meet the press"

boeing, building the future one - you don't have to wait for a yearbook to share your likes and dislikes. social media gives us instant access to one another, so make sure your kids share the right things online, like silly selfies. keep social media social. "meet the press" end game is brought to you by boeing, building the future one century at a time. it's being treated as an afterthought now, but guys, jeb

last night. south carolina put george h.w. bush into the white house, butt george w. bush in the white house and sent jeb bush back to miami. let me show you these money totals. jeb bush, you hate to say this he's the new john connolly, biggest spender in iowa, one delegate delegate, biggest spender in new hampshire, got three delegates and the biggest spender in south carolina. nothing symbolically represents the establishment's downfall so far than this does it, hugh? >> no, it's because he's such a good man and the roles have changed so dramatically. the rules are completely different. they're not the jeb bush rules of the '90s. they are the reality television rules of this decade and he was not suited for it. >> joy, this is a conservative governor. this is arguably his record as governor is more conservative than any current republican governor. >> more so than kasich. >> how did he get painted the moderate? >> well, i think because jeb bush theory of the case is he would be painted as the

party would go to somebody perhaps sarah palin, perhaps another gaffe like candidate and the party would come to him. number one, that lane is so fragmented between establishment candidates. and by the way having lived fl edd in florida, jeb bush has never been that great of a politician. he benefitted from a lot of good luck.ni torched his own campaign in '94. weak opponent in '98. benefitted from the clinton boom and out before the bush buzz. >> it's funny how history gets rewritten. she's right. that's now how the history of jeb bush is going to be rewritten. it could have been a different version of the same events. >> but it was very clear long before donald trump got in this race when you would talk to republicans the number one concern they had about jeb bush is whether he was too rusty for this and whether he was going to be strong enough to stand up to hillary clinton. the bush folks thought money would help paper that over, remind people of his conservative record, but when he went on the debate stage and totally flubed it and came on the shows and couldn't answer questions about iraq and he

absolutely solidified the concerns they had had all along about his skills. >> you used the right word, strong. this is the election about strength. donald trump looks strong to republican voters. jeb bush anyone who's been around him he's a substantive guy, he was a conservative governor but he doesn't project well. he's a terrible candidate, right? he was the wrong guy at the wrong time for this election. they want donald trump who's going to say what they want to hear. jeb bush, they don't want to hear his policy prescriptions and hear the way he talks. >> that money number i put up, all those money things, hugh, doesn't that support what jon said earlier is there are no rules? guess whose name wasn't on any of the top three? donald trump. >> i will say one thing has changed dramatically which is the supreme court vacancy and it will reshape the vase on my side because i'd rather lose an election than lose the supreme court. so i think going forward this is the narrative changer. and i don't know how the candidates respond to this. >> if you lose the election, you lose the court.

>> it's worth -- i hear you. i got to leave it there. what an amazing all primaries need to be saturday.

susuay, it's "meet the press." >> announcer: this is the steele report. >> ron: this week on the steele report, our topic as we talk

the left-leaning progress iowa nonprofit organization, our questioning begins right now. captioning provided by caption associates, llc www.captionassociates.com >> announcer: now from kwwl, this is the steele report. >> ron: and welcome to this week's edition of the steele report. very interesting topic today. eye like on -- i'd like to introduce my guest right now, matt sinovic, he's the executive director of progress iowa and also the organization known as why courts matter. together. matt is going to explain that. they caused a little bit of controversy this week when they attended some of senator charles grassley's town hall meetings talking about the judicial process and that's what we're going to talk about extensively here on the program today. first of all, before we go any further, matt, i want to get some background on now and kind of understand, get a perspective about why you think the way you do. you told me earlier, you grew up in the kansas city area, so tell me a little bit about your background. >> matt: i grew up in kansas,