in america. tonight i'm asking the good people of pennsylvania and new york, rhode island, delaware, and connecticut to join me. join me in the next step toward that destination of november 6th when across america we can give a sigh of relief. >> mitt romney sweeps the republican primary tonight. you're listening to his victory speech in wisconsin. >> the help wanted signs can be dusted off and we'll get it right. we'll stop the days of apologizing for success at home and never again apologize for america abroad. together we'll build the greatest america we've ever

known where prosperity is grown and shared, not limited and divided. an america that guarantees that ours is the door that innovation and greatness always knocks on first. there was a time not so long ago when each of us could walk a little taller and straighter because we had a gift that nonetheless in the world had. we're americans. that meant something different to each of us but it meant something special to all of us. those days are coming back. that's our destiny. so join me. walk together, take another step every day until november 6th. we believe in america. we believe in ourselves. our greatest days are still ahead. we are, after all, americans. god bless this great country. god bless you. god bless the united states.

thanks, you guys. thanks for the victory in wisconsin and maryland and district of columbia. thanks, you guys. thank you. >> that was mitt romney's victory speech in milwaukee after sweeping ought three primary contests tonight. after two quick and easy wins in maryland and washington, d.c., nbc news has declared mitt romney to be the winner in nm wisconsin. he leads rick santorum by double digits with newt gingrich and ron paul trailing far behind. they project that mitt romney will win. romney leading santorum in maryland with double digits again with gingrich and ron paul far behind. in washington, d.c. where rick

santorum is not even on the ball ballot, nbc news easily projects mitt romney will win that primary beating newt gingrich and ron paul. joining me now is chuck todd, nbc news political director, chief white house correspond he not of host of the daily rundown. what did we learn about mitt romney's strengths tonight and the future of rick santorum? >> i think not only do we know that demographics are destiny one again, and wisconsin we told you is a little closer to being more like somewhere between an illinois primary electorate or michigan republican primary electorate. worse for santorum is we start to see some of his core support groups that we've been identifying tluts this primary season, most notably non-college graduates, white evangelicals and folks that make less than

$100,000. they start to move towards romney. dead even among basically middle income folks that make less than $100,000. look at this one here. our next graphic here among college graduates. there it is. move too fast. a little touch screen tonight lawrence. romney won that catcategory. this is where santorum won among non-college educated republicans. not the case in wisconsin. the evangelical vote which was not large in wisconsin in comparison to ohio. look at this. santorum is going to win them, but only by two points. so what we're seeing in our exit polls, what we're seeing in the actual raw returns is that that co-lessing is starting. in wisconsin when you think about it, lawrence, there were two big popular republicans in the conservative movement who got behind romney over the

weekend. one is ron johnson, the big tea party favorite and the other one is paul ryan. watching ryan introduce romney tonight and seeing how base republicans reacted to president obama targeting paul ryan today in that speech, i think there's going to be a lot of pressure on mitt romney to pick paul ryan. while that might leave some democrats giddy about it, that makes the base just as giddy for the republican party. could be a fascinating ticket preview that we got tonight. >> the romney/ryan ticket taking shape. joining us now is rachel maddow and steve schmidt, nbc political analy analyst. rachel, these republicans just talk right through your show and rick santorum seizes part of your show and romney seizes part of your show. do you have any unexpressed thoughts on tonight's proceedings? >> i have very many. >> that your audience would have heard if mitt romney didn't grab

your microphone. >> thank you. you are very kind. the romney/ryan prospect is interesting. the democratic and particularly the liberal perspective on that is oh, please, go there. we had yourself even more to the kill medicare guy. that's the democrats are most enthusiastic about being able it to win on, this idea of turning medicare into a coupon system. we saw how well george w. bush did on that in 2005. i think that is from the liberal sdpemtic perspective a very exciting prospect. seeing him speak tonight, there is no worry that paul ryan would overshadow mitt romney as a speaker and as a campaigner. i sort of -- because paul ryan is so beloved on the right i thought when he was introducing him tonight this might be a real chance for paul ryan to show off. he gave a very bad introduction. it was bad enough i cut him off

and i would have let it run if he said anything useful. he said i think this guy wanted to be the uniter and not the divider, didn't he say that? that was george w. bush that said that. it was an incredibly bad introduction and speech. maybe he will pick him. >> steve schmidt, you've been through this vice presidential selecting on the republican side. you gave us sarah palin. did you see -- what did you think of paul ryan's audition for the vp slot tonight? >> well, lawrence, i'm not sure that qualifies as an audition for it, but i think that he could certainly wind up as one of the people who goes through the vetting process on the list. i think that the mistakes of 2008 will have a big impact in 2012. i think for sure that governor romney will run a tight process that results in someone who is qualified to be president of the united states, should they have to take the oath of office from day one. >> chuck todd, is there any

mathematical formula left for rick santorum to cling to tonight in the delegate count? >> no, there's not. in fact, tonight he may not even crack ten delegates. tonight our modified winner-take-all system began in april 1 the way the republicans did their rule. if you carry a congressional district in maryland or in wisconsin the way it did, you would win, and even p if you carry it by a vote you win three delegates out of the district. it's possible looking at the results coming in the way they are in wisconsin tonight that santorum might carry three congressional districts of the eight. that would give him nine. can he get one congressional district out of maryland? that seems unclear. there were 92 delegates at stake tonight. so i have to say, you know, this is going to be interesting to watch. i thought romney in his speech was basically giving santorum permission to stay in the race i thought at the very end when he was asking for support from folks in pennsylvania, new york,

rhode island, connecticut. he was rattling off the april 24th states. you have to wonder ft pressure will grow on santorum, and whether santorum is prepared to potentially lose his home state. does he want to be embarrassed that way going out? when you look at what we saw in the demographics tonight, his core group starting to erode. he may -- i'll say in the next three days, lawrence, we have watched this a long time. wouldn't surprise me if you see rethinking going on. >> rachel, does romney want him to stay in because he won over by 50%. he can get a couple of real big-looking wins against santorum, and maybe that's more useful than having no opponent out there. >> if santorum stays in how important it is for romney if he does lose five, six, seven more primaries? if santorum staying in for arkansas and for west virginia and for texas and for all these places and mitt romney still is the inevitable nominee, but he has to get basted by rick

santorum who has no chance in those states, does that hurt mitt romney in a way more than just hurting his feelings? does that have a material effect on his ability to mobilize people once he has the nomination locked up. i'm not sure that we've seen that. >> steve schmidt, what's your answer to rachel's question? >> of course it hurts him. you saw today with president obama in the speech that he gave started the general election campaign. he's trying to seize the ground in the middle of the electorate. trying to make mitt romney own the ryan budget, trying to paint that ryan budget as extreme. i think both sides start out, lawrence, with 47% of the vote. that middle part of the electricity rate is critical. mitt romney needs to get into the general election against president obama and get out of the fight with rick santorum that pulled his favorable ratings down to 34%. plus, the came pain needs to begin the process of merging with want republican national

committee off-loading some overhead and expenses to the national committee. so at this point when rick santorum has no chance of being the nominee and mitt romney for sure is going to be the nominee, it's good for this to start winding down. i think that rick santorum is going to be under a lot of pressure not to do more injury, not to do more damage in a race that he has no plausible chance of winning. >> chuck todd, steve schmidt, rachel maddow, thank you for joining me tonight. come ing up the president was unleashed today in a sfeech in washington, specifically unleashed on paul ryan and mitt romney by name. that's next. in the rewrite tonight, another episode in the politics of religion. mitt romney knows the polls show he has a religion problem, so he's trying to create a religion problem for president obama. some of mitt's supporters might think the president is a secret muslim, but mitt is now saying that the president is a secret

athei atheist. new information in the killing of trayvon martin. george zimmerman is lawyering up. that lawyer is going to explain how he can defend a client he has still not met. [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles,

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[ man on tv, indistinct ] ♪ [ lullaby continues ] [ baby coos ] [ man announcing ] millions are still exposed to the dangers... of secondhand smoke... and some of them can't do anything about it. ♪ [ continues ] [ gasping ] mitt romney still has to deal with rick santorum in the republican primaries, which is fine with president obama who today finally let everyone know exactly what he thinks of mitt romney and his partner in budget crime, paul ryan. that's next.

it is a trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans is really an attempt to impose a radical provision on our country. it is thinly veiled social darwinism. it's against our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who is willing to work for it. a place where prosperity doesn't trickle down from the top but grows outward from the heart of the middle class. >> it was president obama unleashed today in a speech in washington in which he finally went after mitt romney by name. >> one of my potential opponent, governor romney, has said he hoped a similar version of this plan from last year would be introduced as a bill on day one of his presidency.

he said that he's very supportive of this new budget. he even called it marvelous, which is a word you don't often hear when it comes to describing a budget. it's a word you don't often hear generally. >> joining any now is former dnc communications director and current nbc political analyst, karen finney and john holland, an msnbc political analyst. thank you for joining me. i want to explain to the audience the reason you didn't get hooting and howling and cheering and all of that, tell us who this audience was? >> this was the american association of newspaper editors, so that's not an audience that's going to cheer. >> they're not allowed to. they're like the supreme court. they can't clap. >> that's right, in theory, right? a little bit of laughter. >> a audience that is guaranteed, a historic audience

presidents go to get big speeches and will get a lot of media attention and has gotten it today. >> jonathan pointed this out earlier. it was a very red meat speech to a crowd like the newspaper association where it was a crowd that couldn't give the hooting and hollering in the same way you kind of heard in romney's speech where he was clearly throwing out the red meat because the crowd loves it. >> it was a long speech, knowing that these people are capable of listening to a long speech, in fact, taking notes during it. there were things he wanted to drill in don't forget, don't forget in your coverage don't forget this. listen to what he said about the bush tax cuts. >> the results of their experiment is there for all to see. at the beginning of the last decade the wealthier americans received a huge tax cut in 2001 and another huge tax cut in 2003. we were promised that these tax cuts would lead to faster job

growth. they did not. the wealthy got wealthier. we would expect that. but prosperity sure didn't trickle down. >> he was giving them ways of framing things, i think, even in their own coverage, karen. >> absolutely. whether it's trickle-down economics, you're on your own, to pick your favorite phrase, it was absolutely. for democrats one of the things i was happy to hear, he was essentially rejecting the reps' premise you screwed everything up. there's not this magical universe if we did their way, here's how much better it would be. here's what's happening. >> what do you make of him picking today as mitt romney day? here's the day i come out here with the name i'm going to be running against. >> appropriate in the sense that mitt romney basically sewed up the republican nomination tonight. there's a poetic element tonight. mitt romney on stage tonight first with paul ryan.

paul ryan is almost as important a foil in this campaign as mitt romney. the president framing those two up today throughout the speech saying this is the paul ryan budget, republicans are wed to this and mitt romney is wedded to this. it's not just extreme and radical, but a proven failure and making the pragmatic argument that under bush we had huge tax cuts and did not see great growth. under clinton we had higher tax rates and huge growth. let's look at the historical record here in addition to this is too extreme. >> under republican presidents like nixon that started the epa, i thought it was interesting mitt romney to me tonight felt like game on because romney tried to come right back at him and obama wanted this government-centered society. he was clearly going right back at obama in what elsd today. >> he went as far back for

republican presidents talking about lincoln and the trans continental railroad as a worthy government project. he seemed to be going after the ryan thing on that piece that we say in the press all the time. at least paul ryan is serious and he's proposing something. president obama tried to undermine that framing. >> he is. he's kind of -- joe biden over the weekend was on one of the sunday shows and said republicans aren't hiding the ball. they tell you what they're going to do. there is a virtue to what paul ryan is doing. if you keep tax rates where they are we need to make cuts to large programs. the president said this is a religion for these people in some ways. it's one that's going to bite really hard if we follow this path. >> in this version of the ryan plan now, it's a very big tax cut. it's taking these rates way, way down. go ahead. >> remember what the president

did is he reminded this audience in the framing last time it was gingrich who said this is right wing social engineering to remind them. he ended up having to attract that because he got jumped on by his own people. that was another interesting little tidbit he threw in there. >> karen finney and john, thank you both very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks. >> coming up, paul ryan and mitt romney may have just committed an election crime in wisconsin, seriously. you have to stay with us. we'll tell you all about it. they may have violated the law there. in the rewrite, mitt romney has a new theory about president obama's religion. he's not pushing the secret muslim idea. now mitt romney is insists that the president may be a secret a atheist. we'll have the latest on trayvon martin's killing. george zimmermann's lawyer is on tv explaining how he can defend a client he still has not met.

that's coming up.

now, mitt romney is trying to invent a religion problem for president obama by accusing the president of trying to start a new religion. no more of this secret muslim stuff. now the republican strategy is to call the president a secret atheist. that's later in the rewrite. we'll have the latest developments in the killing of trayvon martin. george zimmerman has a new

lawyer tonight. he joins us.

while president obama was vis rating the ryan budget in a

sfeech in washington, congressman paul ryan was in wisconsin participate inning a possible illegal election day event. >> the person we go to the polls today if we have not already done today is who i think is going to be the winner today here and the next president of united states, join me in welcoming governor mitt romney. >> i appreciate you coming by and getting a free sandwich today. that's a tough job but someone has to do it. >> wisconsin state law in the section easily found under the title "election bribery," prohibits, quote, offers, gives, lends or promises to give or lend anything of value to induce a person to go to the polls or vote. anything of value includes any amount, quote, now any amount of money or any object. the value of which exceeds guess how much?

$1. the sandwiches cost $5 each. the wisconsin government accountability board told nbc news affiliate wtmj milwaukee it appears the romney campaign broke the law. congressman ryan attacked president obama for talking about the ryan plan. >> i don't think history is going to be really kind to a president that when confronted with one of our country's most pressing challenges in debt crisis chooses to do nothing about it and waits for us that offer solutions attack us in baseless ways. >> paul ryan and his supporters are cool with anyone talking about the ryan plan as long as they use only praiseful adjectives and don't do any math. >> these proposed tax breaks come on top of more than a trillion dollars in tax give-aways for people making more than $250,000 a year.

that's an average of at least $150,000 for every millionaire in this country. $150,000. let's just step back for a second and look at what $150,000 pays for. a year's worth of prescription drug coverage for a senior citizen, plus a new school computer lab, plus a year of medical care for a returning veteran, plus a medical research grant for a chronic disease, plus a year's salary for a firefighter or police officer, plus a tax credit to make a year of college more affordable, plus a year's worth of financial aid. $150,000 could pay for all these things combined.

investments in education and research that are essential to economic growth that benefits all of us. >> joining any now are john nicholls, washington correspondent for "the nation" and steve and political correspondent for salon and an nbc political analyst. john, we've seen worst election crimes in this country, but giving out $5 sandwiches to get someone's vote, it reads as a technical violation of wisconsin law. >> well, you have to understand that wisconsin is pretty tough on these things. historically it's been a rigidly ethical state. this law is well-known in wisconsin, especially to people like paul ryan. paul ryan has run in a dozen primary and general elections since 1998, and he managed campaigns, ran campaigns before he became a candidate himself. so it's a little bit shaky for him to suggest he was unaware of the law, and it might have been a good idea for him to remind

his friend mitt romney of it. >> there are a lot of states with these laws in the professional campaigners know about it. it's no surprise. i want to get to the president's speech today and how he took on the ryan plan directly and especially let's go to what he had to say about the ryan plan and medicare. >> here's the solution proposed by the republicans in washington, and embraced by most of their candidates for president. instead of being enrolled in medicare when they turn 65, seniors who retire a decade from now would get a voucher. if health care costs rise faster than the amount of the voucher, as, by the way, they've done for decades, that's too bad. seniors bear the risk. if the voucher isn't enough to buy a private plan with the specific doctors and care that you need, that's too bad. it's a bad idea. it will ultimately end medicare as we know it.

>> end medicare as we know it. steve, this was a carefully written speech in the teleprompter carefully delivered. he doesn't need those words in a tell prompter when he's in florida campaigning. that's the memorized boiler plate florida campaign. >> this was the dress rehearsal for next seven months everywhere. what obama is doing is the updated version of the bill clinton re-election campaign. he was down and out after the 1994 midterms and he got the gift of a far right republican congress that was devoted to deep cuts in the social safety net. it was medicare back in 1996 and medicare in 2012 and other issues raised by the paul ryan budget but bill clinton was successful in 1996 to defend himself as the defender and chief of the social safety net. newt gingrich was more the chief foil and it's more paul ryan right now. this is exactly the kind of plan that obama wants to run against. i hate to say this. i think there might be a little mischief on the part of the white house.

it's not their main goal here. if mitt romney is the republican nominee and he's going to be, he needs a vice presidential nominee who passes muster with the republican bids. by singling out paul ryan the way he did today, barack obama made paul ryan the most popular conservative republican in the country dp and in a way a natural running mate prospect for mitt romney. i think the obama campaign would love it if it happens. john, you wisconsin experts know paul ryan berpt than us. when you hear paul ryan for vice president, what's the reaction in wisconsin? >> it depends on the person you talk to. republicans in wisconsin adore the guy, and that's why mitt romney attached himself to him. i have never seen anyone run in wisconsin to closely aligned with a particular congressman as mitt romney was with paul ryan. there's a challenge with paul ryan, and that is that he is not merely a rigid economic conservative and a reading

extremist as regards cuts down government. he's one of the more richer social conservatives around. he's right there with rick santorum. it is in fact true that among conservatives, hard core conservatives, he's a popular figure but folks should understand if you look at polling not just in wisconsin but nationally americans know who paul ryan is. they associate him with assaults on medicare, medicaid and associasocial security. if he was chosen as a vice presidential candidate, mitt romney would attached to the agenda. that would be a dream ticket for the obama white house to run again. >> steve, the right wing social engineering is what newt gingrich referred to it as. we have all that video. the obama campaign has all the video to play. this is also an untested possibility for the vice president. as much as we feel like we know

this member of the house of representatives because we're covering them on budget issues, that's such a narrow frame to look at someone. do you think that the romney campaign has reason to fear what the full vetting the paul ryan might show and might show in terms of political weakness around the country? >> sure. the fundamental lesson of the sarah palin experience in 2008, you have to vet these people closely. who knows with paul ryan what you turn up. the fact that ryan is getting more mention now than he was before really speaks to the problem mitt romney has. so do the primary results tonight for that matter. there is strong resistance to mitt romney. we see it in the wisconsin returns tonight not just among republicans but a specific type of republican. socially conservative, social conservative evangelical christian. the most conservative elements of the party. these people are still refusing to vote for him. these are the people that are going to be disproportionately

represented this summer. if it's not paul ryan, it has to be something like paul ryan. >> rachel maddow made the point that ryan can be a really boring speaker. does he have the capacity with rhetoric to light up a room? >> no. he's not a particularly exciting speaker. you saw that when he did the response to the president's state of the union last year. one thing about paul ryan that people should understand, he is a very charming man. he is very, very good in tv interviews, and he can handle himself. he can take the hits, and so in many ways they will look at him as an appealing candidate. he's not the guy that wows the convention with a great stump speech. >> john nicholls and steve, thank you for joining me tonight. >> sure. >> coming up, mitt romney has decided to attack president obama on religion. now mitt romney is saying the president is a secret atheist. that's next in the rewrite.

as the fbi continues to investigate the killing of trayvon martin, george zimmerman has added a second lawyer to what is now his defense team. we have video of that lawyer appearing on a florida television station tonight. he will join me.

if you don't buy the idea of bvm obama as a secret muslim, how about mitt romney new idea that the president is the secret ate gist. we have new kwomts tonight. george zimmerman hired a new lawyer who went on local television tonight in florida to explain how he can defend his client without having met him.

in tonight's rewrite another episode of the politics of religion. mitt romney has a religion problem and knows it. that's why he's saying things like this. >> well, i think there is in this country a war on religion. i think there is a desire to establish a religion in america known as secularism. i know that based upon reports the obama administration gave this a lot of thought. a lot of discussion. >> there is mitt romney who has as bad a religion problem as anyone who's ever run for president trying to create a

religion problem for president obama. a political religion problem. that's what we're talking about here. romney has a political religion problem. this is romney's attempt to swiftboat the president on religion. this is a much used page of the republican playbook. we saw it used against john kerry, who is a decorated war hero and combat veteran of the vietnam war. george w. bush took the more practiced route for the sons of privilege at the time by avoiding service in vietnam while being kolgcoddled in a national guard unit in texas. compared to john kerry, george w. bush had a war problem, as in experience at war, as in showing courage under fire literally under fire. george w. bush had carefully avoided combat while john kerry risked his life on the battlefield and so, of course, the republicans attacked john kerry's combat record. they took george w. bush's problem and made it john kerry's

problem. let's take a look at just how bad mitt romney's religion problem is. here's a poll showing voter reluctance based on a candidate's religion. you see, catholicism puts a 7% drag on a candidacy. with 7% of voters saying they would not vote for a catholic. it's the same with a baptist. 7%. a little more reluctance for a jewish candidate, 9%. and then a huge jump, more than double with with 22% of voters unwilling to vote for a mormon candidate. that's in an election that's going to be decided by one or two percentage points. so what does mitt romney do with his religion problem? he doesn't just attack president obama's religion, he invents a whole new religion, a religion

that doesn't even exist and attributes it to president obama. >> well, i think there is in this country a war on religion. i think there is a desire to establish a religion in america known as secularism. i know that based upon reports the obama administration gave this a lot of thought. a lot of discussion. >> and so there's mitt romney, accusing president obama of trying it to create a new religion. now, part of romney's religion problem is he's a member of a new religion. established religions like judaism, which is about 4,000 years old christianity which is 2,000 years ago. mormonism was created by a guy in upstate new york when he got

caught having sex with the maid and plained to his wife that god told him to do it. 48 wives later joseph smiths lifestyle was completely sank fied in the religious he invented to go with it, which mitt romney says he believes. mitt romney is not content with attacking the religious beliefs. romney must accuse the president of trying to create inew religion. a religion newer than mitt romney's. religiously mitt romney lives in the glass house of american politics. that's what these polls tell us. 22% unwilling to vote for a mormon for president. mitt romney knows that the press wouldn't let him get away now with accusing barack obama with being a secret muslim, which is an even bigger glass house in american politics. polls show that 46% of voters would be reluctant to vote for a

muslim candidate. so instead of calling barack obama a muslim mitt romney is now calling him an atheist. >> i think there is a desire to establish a religion in america known as secularism. and i know that based upon reports the obama administration gave this a lot of thought, a lot of discussion. >> so having failed to make barack obama a muslim, republicans led now by mitt romney are hell-bent on making him an atheist, and here's why. in the politics of religion in this country, the only thing that's worse than being a mormon or a muslim in the eyes of our extremely religiously intolerant electorate is being an atheist.

new developments tonight in the killing of tray john martin. one lawyer is not enough nor george zimmerman. now he has two. engining the zimmerman defense time is hal you hrig. a criminal defense attorney who did the local coverage of of the casey anthony trial. he's a former florida police officer and former florida assistant attorney general. he joined greg sonner who has been representing george

zimmerman without met his client. craig sonner is the lawyer who fled to our studio in florida last week before doing a scheduled interview on this program. the zimmerman defense team appeared tonight on the local fox station in orlando and addressed the oddity of both of them defending a client that neither one of them has actually met. >> there's been a pretty thorough investigation ongoing in this case. there are cases where i want to hear my client's version and look in his eye and see if i believe him or not. i understand the sanford police gave him a voice stress test. he passed that. the evidence supports his version of what happened, so i don't necessarily need to look him in the eye. >> one week from today a grand jury meets to decide whether there is enough evidence to indict george zimmerman and bring him to trial. joins me now is the editorial writer for "the new york times" and natdly jackson co-counsel for the martin family.

natalie, what do you make of this expansion of the zimmerman legal team with hall uhrig? >> it makes us optimistic that it may go to trial now. that's something that wouldn't have happened had it not been for the public outcry. he has a right to counsel and a right to a presumption of innocence. that's all this family wants, is a fair and just trial. >> charles, craig sonner was clearly in way over his head. he had never handled a homicide case before. you could tell in his division appearances he wasn't accustomed to handling anything of this weight. does this mean that we are -- is it your sense that this is any indicator that we are headed towards some kind of real judicial process here? >> it could mean that. you would lawyer up if you felt like it may go to trial, but another very important thing, i think, is fornt for everyone to

remember is that this is also a pr offensive on both sides. so the martin -- trayvon martin's family has a pr offensive to try to make sure that george zimmerman is charged and is brought to trial. the zimmerman family has another pr offensive, which is to make george zimmerman innocent in the public view, because what you have to remember is what if george zimmerman is not charged? what if he is charged but not convicted? he still has to live out the rest of his life. so what the family would want to do is to have that be in the public that believes his side of the story aside from what happens in a courtroom. >> right. i will say also, charles, one other thing that their pr strategy is is to make this -- they're bringing the race issue into this. we have 2.2 million americans that signed a petition that said

george zimmerman should be arrested. 73% of the american population says he should be arrested. they however are claiming hatemongering and racism. americans of all nationalities believe he should be brought to trial. >> this is an interview with one of george zimmerman's neighbors. >> all of the perpetrators of the burglaries, the apparent burglaries were young, black males. >> when he saw trayvon martin in your mind it would make perfect sense to say he's a young, black male. he probably is a robber? is that what you're saying? >> there's an old saying if you plant corn, you get corn. >> natalie, that's one of zimmerman's defenders, public division defenders. this place where trayvon was walking is a 20% black gated community. it's 20% black.

there's not just one black family there. it's 20% hispanic and only 50% white. they suggest that there's something peculiar in a 20% black gated community to see a black person walking. >> that's how racial profiling is, and that's what we have to address in this country. no one on this team and no one in this camp and supporters of this camp support any type of racial division. we have not mentioned that -- we have never talked to george zimmerman. i can't tell you if he's a racist. what we know is he found trayvon martin suspicictin suspicious bs black and wearing a hoodie and walking slow. that's racial profiling. that's what we need to address and what america needs to address to maintain the integrity of americans. >> charles, zimmerman's friend seemed to confirm that you didn't need anything more than black skin to be worthy of the highest level of suspicion. >> listen, mr. taffy is getting me hot under my collar. it was hard for me to listen to that about planting corn.

george zimmerman did not blast a hole through a cobb of corn. he blasted a hole through a young man 17 years old who was buried on march 3rd and won't be a day older than 17 years old. you cannot, no person can be condemned for the sin of another person. i don't care if six, seven, maybe there were burglaries and if they fit that profile, that does not give anyone the right to profile trayvon martin or anyone else who looks like the person that committed the crime, and it definitely does not give you the right to shoot them in the chest. what we need to find out is whether or not there was a reasonable rationale for george zimmerman to shoot trayvon martin. that is the only thing important to this case. everything else has to be put to the