coming up, the nbc news you tube democratic debate, moderated by our own andrea mitchell and lester holt. here they are. [ applause ] >> trumped. the gop front runner no longer an apprentice. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. after a summer and autumn and now a winter of dominating the polls, donald trump is gaining grudging acceptance as a very real prospect to be the republican nominee for president. it's all true and getting truer each day. on "morning joe" today the republican front-runner said he's getting treated a little differently by the party these days. >> are you starting to notice the republican establishment and

some of the guys that have been hammering you in the past starting to change how they treat you and how they look at your candidacy? >> totally. and establishment people. i don't know if this is good, this could be the curse, okay. but establishment people are now calling us and saying how do we get involved with the campaign? people who were saying terrible things like three months ago. >> "the washington post wrote what was unthinkable a few months ago no longer is. trump's durability in national polls an his standing in the early states have forced gop leaders to confront the possibility that the new york billionaire and reality tv star could end up leading the party into the fall campaign against the democrats. and rich lowry, editor of "the national review" tweeted from my conversations gop establishment mood on trump is moving from fear and loathing to resignation and rationization. i.e. he would run better than cruz and slam hillary. meanwhile an nbc news/wall street journal poll found a

major shift among republican voters. 65% now say they could see themselves supporting donald trump. that's up from 32% in june when he first announced his run. susan paige is washington bureau chief for "usa today" and jonathan capehart is an opinion writer for "the washington post" as well as an msnbc political analyst. susan, your view. your paper is quite broad in its readership and "usa today" is everywhere. my question is, is it your sense as a bureau chief that this is all true, that somehow trump is now plausible? >> yes. he's not just plausible, he's undeniable. he's undeniably a credible prospect upon the republican nomination, although it's not in hand yet. i think what republicans are trying to figure out is how can they negotiate a world in which that's the case. it's a special concern, i think, to republicans running for swing senate seats in purple states. and also in that handful of competitive house races where

having donald trump at the top of your ticket could really affect your prospects down the ballot. >> is there anything they can do about it? they can wring their hands and say oh, gee whiz, this guy is going to be our nominee, but at this point they have tried to stop him already. they have thrown jeb bush at him. they have thrown rubio at him. they have thrown kasich at him and perhaps christie are all fighting for the old establishment and they're not doing too well. >> it's not that they can stop him but they can run independent campaigns. they can figure out ways to try to present themselves as the republican nominee and minimize their ties to the ticket. >> jonathan. >> the problem that they have, i think rich is right that the establishment has gone to resignation and rationalization. what we saw last night on the stage at the debate was a front-runner who faced his most hostile audience we have seen. he was booed. >> six out of seven people in the audience were working for other candidates. >> but every time they booed, he worked very hard to turn them into cheers or laughter.

he succeeded every time. that is what the republican establishment has to worry about. not only a candidate who has the ability to grab the hearts of people who don't even like him, but someone who could then turn that into votes that then gets him the nomination. >> is that character or what is that? is it show business? what gives you the ability to withstand that assault from the audience and from your opponents? >> well, as susan just said, it's skill. this is someone who has been in our living rooms on television, reality television for about a decade now. >> he's the boss of those shows. >> but also, you can't underestimate the -- what it means to be a public figure in the media capital of the world. new york city, where you have tabloid newspapers gunning for you every day. "the new york post," "the new york daily news," "new york news day." in that environment unlike any other environment in the country, you learn how to work the media, play the media, be

friends with the media, be enemies with the media. on a presidential scale, that's incredible training. >> on thursday's republican debate in south carolina, last night, donald trump and ted cruz clashed over cruz's use of the phrase, boy what a mistake this was, "new york values" to attack trump, and trump called that insulting. >> he insulted a lot of people. i've had more calls on that statement that ted made. new york is a great place, it's got great people, it's got loving people, wonderful people. when the world trade center came down, i saw something that no place on earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than new york. we rebuilt downtown manhattan and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved new york and loved new yorkers. i have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that ted made. >> wow. well, in this morning's

interview with joe scarborough, trump continued to slam cruz on that front. >> i thought cruz hurt himself last night very badly because he looked very strident. to me. i see you gave him a b plus, but i think you're wrong about that because i think people are not going to like him based on that performance last night. i can tell you if you live in new york, you're not going to like him. he gave up about 20 million votes last night. >> trump got support from surprising sources. the liberal "new york daily news" ran this front page. of course maybe a bit offensive to some viewers. don't look too carefully. drop dead, ted. hey, cruz, you don't like new york values, get back to canada. i love voicing the new york daily news front page. hillary clinton tweeted just this once trump's right. new yorkers value hard work, diversity, tolerance, resilience and building better lives for our families. meanwhile one of ted cruz's main supporters, steve king out in iowa, this is a guy who talks about cantaloupe legs on immigrants, said cruz lost the

fight on new york values. here's congressman king. >> i didn't think he went too far until i saw donald trump's reaction. and then i thought it would have been better on the part of ted cruz not to have had that exchange. he really flipped that. ted cruz didn't go there, but donald trump elected to go into the september 11th and the damage and the suffering and the thousands of people that were killed and he turned that into an emotional component of the debate. that, i believe, was good for trump. >> you know, i was thinking waiting for trump to do what i would have done and have done up there for speeches is talk about the firefighters, 225 of them dead. they were walking up those stairs when everybody else was coming down and that was beyond heroic. to make fun of a city for lack of values, you better be specific about it. you can't just do the ole gene kirk patrick trick of saying san francisco democrats, gay, gay, gay, or soddom and gamorah in new york city.

new york city is made up of 99% of people that grew up there. they're just people who grew up in a neighborhood in the big city. and to judge them on their values is insane. >> as a new yorker by adoption living there 16 years before moving to washington, what donald trump said to me -- said in that answer resonated with me as someone who was in new york city on 9/11 and the beauty of what he did there, donald trump for the first time looked like a statesman. he didn't target anybody. he stood up for an entire city of people that's up there, new york, and he -- i agree with congressman king. i can't believe it. that donald trump won -- won decisively the debate on that answer. >> well, let's go to another debate which is going to be a lot more conflicting here. the other big clash between the front-runners at the debate was over the issue of cruz's constitutional eligibility to be president, an issue trump has been hammering away for about a week.

>> i recognize that donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling in iowa. but the facts and the law here are really quite clear. under long standing u.s. law, the child of a u.s. citizen born abroad is a natural born citizen. >> and for some reason, he beats the rest of the field, i already know the democrats are going to be bringing a suit. you have a big lawsuit over your head while you're running and if you become the nominee, who the hell knows if you can even serve in office. >> mary is a constitutional law professor at widener university, delaware, law school. professor, the question is to you, you're on tonight. who's right, is natural born, does it mean -- what it seems to mean -- you have to be born here? >> yes, it is. it's a very clear cut question. so when cruz says it's clear cut, he's right. but he's wrong as to how it cuts. you have to be born in the united states.

>> one of the issues that have come up before, for example, with john mccain being born in the canal zone, what would you make of that case? >> he's a totally different issue. the common law says that if you're born in the territory of the sovereign so that territorial united states would include it. for example -- yeah, for example, barry goldwater wouldn't have had a problem even though he was born in the territory of arizona as it then was. mccain does a problem in front of him but i don't think it's insurmountable. in the early 20th century when we acquired our territories after the spanish-american war, guam, the canal zone, the philippines, the supreme court was asked are the children born there now natural born citizens. and in a series of horribly embarrassingly racist opinions, the supreme court said no because, and i quote, the people there are alien races. now, it seems to me that all mccain would have been able to do is to say that should be

overruled and there would be no problem because he was born in the territory of the united states. >> do you think if this went before the supreme court including members like scalia and judge alito and judge thomas, would they go with original intent or go with this practice -- like we let george romney get away with it for at least a while while he was running. he didn't run for long. will they be tough or rigid about this and say, no, this is not what the founders intended? >> i can't tell you that. scalia and thomas are especially what they call originalists. they tend to cherry pick their history. so i'm not sure if they actually went with real history, cruz is not eligible. but i can't predict how they would go. >> okay, thank you so much, mary, of widener law school. aside from the legal question, there's new evidence that the attack has hurt cruz politically. according to a reuters/ipsos poll, one quarter of voters believe he should be disqualified based on his canadian birth.

i checked all the front pages today, all the leads. every lead in the first paragraph it has either the canadian-born cruz or a reference to this debate. this is not good for cruz, the fact that he has to defend his qualifications to run, let alone get people to vote for him. >> and he was very smooth in defending himself. he uses a little humor. the problem is he's spending a lot of his time explaining that he's in fact eligible to be president of the united states. and the brilliance of trump is that trump doesn't attack him on this and declare that he's ineligible. he says who knows, there will be a lawsuit. i just want to be helpful. why don't you go to court and get a preemptive judgment which is a very mischievous suggestion. >> if this guy cruz is elected president, he'll be the first president born outside the united states. >> and would there be a big lawsuit if he got nominated? >> and he's also a natural born canadian. can you be a natural born canadian and natural born american?

we'll find out >> maybe we'll find out. >> thank you, great to have you on tonight. ever wonder why iowa and new hampshire have such a dominant role in picking our president? good question. may be too late to ask it. why do these two states that don't look like the rest of the country get to go first? we'll get to that next. plus the other big contest going on, the race to win the academy awards. the nominations come out this week and we've got a look at the oscar favorites and some of the snubs. and the big announcement from president obama's state of the union this week, a moon shot-like effort to conquer cancer. what will that be like and will it achieve something. let me finish with a story of a great actor dying way too young. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

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welcome back to "hardball." every four years we're reminded of the awesome power the voters of two small states hold over our presidential elections. those states, iowa and new hampshire, look at them there, play perhaps the most consequential role in winnowing the role of presidential contenders because they don't come first. while they don't award many delegates, a victor or strong finish can propel a candidate onto the national spotlight or on to the we've seen this every four years. according to an estimate by "the los angeles times" iowa and new hampshire account for about half of the news media coverage for the entire primary season. so it's the media too. the influence of new hampshire cannot be overestimated.

since 1972 no candidate has ever been the nominee of either party without a top two finish in new hampshire primary. critics have long argued that neither state should be the gate keeper of the process because neither state is particularly diverse ethnically, for example. iowa's population is considerably whiter than the rest of the country and it's the same story in new hampshire, which is 91% white. so why do iowa and new hampshire deserve so much influence over who gets to be president. professor larry sabato is the director of the center for politics at uva. university of virginia. i'm going to larry. presume perhaps naively he has no dog in this fight, although i think he might be gunning for virginia to get a shot as the first one, you're shaking your head, tell me, sir, why is it wrong for us to invest so much power in the hands of the voters of iowa and new hampshire? >> because, chris, put them together.

they're 1.5% of the national population. they have a tiny minority population, as you just mentioned. they're disproportionately rural. they don't represent the urban, suburban, exurban nature of america as it exists today. and most important i think, and i'm sorry, governor, i think they have gotten spoiled. they are the spoiled children of american politics. they throw a temper tantrum if you ever suggest they shouldn't go first. i had a voter in iowa tell me not too long ago that it was in the constitution that they were supposed to go first. no, it's not in the constitution. this was invented by iowa and new hampshire and they stay there, chris, because they want it more than anybody else. new hampshire will go into the year prior to the election year. they'd have this primary on july 4th if they had to last year in order to remain first.

>> let me go with -- let me go with the governor. why don't we begin the primary season in a giant state that's representative of everything like california. have it around the time of the rose bowl. the weather is fabulous, it's got all the big cities, san diego, san francisco, l.a., all the inland empire, it's got sacramento. we could all go out to california for a month or so, a huge sample of the american electorate, lots of hispanics and african-americans. why not go big with our first big sample of the american opinion? >> first of all, let me just make one quick comment to larry. you know, a plea for diversity coming from a guy in which the state has 90% of its population of federal bureaucrats. >> you have to look at the whole package. >> not true, governor. >> iowa, new hampshire, nevada and south carolina. that's how the package is put together. when you take the four states as a total there's a pretty representative example of diversity. now, new hampshire -- the reason

new hampshire gets such support to be first is that its citizens really do the hard work. you've been up here, chris. they go not only to the rallies or the coffees or the town halls of the candidate they support, but they go to virtually all of them. they work hard in this process of winnowing down and selecting. and the second reason is that new hampshire is an unusual state. we have most of our governance at the local level. our school boards, our budget committees, our boards of selectmen really do determine the spending of about 85% of your money. and you go and vote your budget at the town meeting or the school district meeting. and in this state every two years, those positions are up with our 400 members in the house and 5,000 people a year are elected. >> governor, i just want to go to jason for equal time with iowa. you know, your state, i think i

figured out why so many people are home schoolers out there. last week driving across that state, you spend hours over flatland with a farm every couple miles or couple hundred acres or so. people really are living out in a rural environment. it's like that scene from north by northwest when the crop duster comes down and tries to kill cary grant. it's wide-open spaces. but is that typical of america? >> well, i don't know if that's a fair representation of iowa of the we've got some metropolitan areas here that have an urban feel, a suburban feel. but you get to a good point about iowa, which is that it's a relatively small state. it's a state with small media markets, which makes it an inexpensive place to campaign and that's really valuable. that gives candidates a lot more opportunity from the start, and a candidate can go out and prove his appeal, prove her viability and really make a name for themselves in a way that they couldn't in a larger state where

you're talking about larger media markets, a tv or campaign that's run through tv ads and airport tarmacs. >> do you think you're a reliable indicator of who's going to get the nomination of either party, iowa? statistics don't hold up that you are. what makes you think iowa will tell us who will be the strongest candidate to win the nomination of either party? >> well, four of the last six presidents -- four of the last six presidents have won the iowa caucuses. every candidate except one since 1972 placed in the top three in the iowa caucuses. that's a pretty good track record. >> four of the last -- i've got two of the last six. two of the last six. >> barack obama, george w. bush, jimmy carter and george h.w. bush won the caucuses in 1980. >> i'm talking about which party are you talking about, democrat or republican? >> across the board. >> larry sabato, do you think

hillary clinton could possibly win the democratic nomination if she suffers two defeats in iowa and new hampshire? >> yes, she can still win because her strength is with nonwhite democrats, particularly in the south and some of the states that have large hispanic populations. so not only is it possible, i think it's still probable. but let's be honest here. we're talking about whether hillary clinton comes into philadelphia at the convention sweeping or limping. and if she loses both iowa and new hampshire and if she loses new hampshire by a big margin, i think she'll be limping. >> okay. i think that's the way i look at it too. thank you very much. coming up every four years my favorite seasons collide, presidential elections and academy awards. this is "hardball," the place for politics. strap yourselves n for action flo! small business edition. oh, no! i'm up to my neck in operating costs!

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welcome back to "hardball." the oscar nominations are now out and there were some truly amazing films recognized, many underscoring the theme of this year shall the importance of people working together to achieve common goals, something the country isn't doing right now. the journalist in "spotlight." >> do you think your paper has the resources to take that on? >> i do. >> we haven't committed any long-term investigative resources to the case. >> no, we haven't. >> and that's the kind of thing your team would do. >> spotlight. >> guys, listen, everybody is going to be interested in this. >> great movie. and the cold war drama "bridge of spies" also up for best picture starring tom hanks and directed by himself, steven spielberg. >> the boss was right, but he's always the boss. >> do you never worry? >> would it help? >> all rise. >> that's great, great.

great. >> that was spielberg himself. the quirky "the big short" and its cast are up for five nominations. >> banks have conditioned us to trust them. what have we got from that? 25% interest rates on credit cards. they have screwed us on student loans. we can never get out from under. >> four outsiders risked it all, to take them down. >> got to see that one. and one of my favorites, "the martian" starring matt damon received seven nominations. >> this is mark watney and i'm still alive. obviously. i have no way to contact nasa. i have to figure out how to grow four years worth of food here on a planet where nothing grows. but if i can't figure out a way to make contact with nasa, none of this matters anyway.

>> joining us right now is the chief film critic of the "washington post," ann hornaday and ted johnson of variety. you know, my theme, i want to know what you guys think of my theme about working together. i think one of the most magical scenes, i was a little misty-eyed, is when the chinese come aboard during "the martian" and save the day. we think of them as cold-hearted, business-minded, and they do the right thing. >> well, they do the right thing and they also -- that had an eye toward the chinese market -- >> pandering to the chinese. >> it's the magical space dust of chinese money. >> has it worked? >> yeah. i mean the movie has done beautifully well. i think to your point about some of these films like "the martian" and "bridge of spies" and "mad max" another best picture nominee, these are big popcorn blockbuster movies that have been done incredibly well and very artfully. they're smart and they have done well and i think that's all good news. >> i think all movies are about, i don't care if they're period

pieces or not, movies of the '50s were really about civil rights, we know that. really were. this one, i get the feeling is about a dysfunctional society where nobody can get along with anybody and get anything done, particularly the world we cover here in politics, nothing gets done. nobody can agree on anything, and at least these movies, at least the ones we discussed tonight are about collaboration and about how squares as we used to call them in the space program, guys with slide rules from the old days, know how to work together and not just fight all the time about who's boss. >> yeah, and actually my favorite movie of the year was actually "bridge of spies" which you mentioned. just because, again, that ties right into your theme. here's this unexpected figure who ended up being this great diplomat who negotiated the release of france's gary powers and really went to the mat for the united states government. kind of a story that people didn't even know about. i mean i love spy thrillers to

begin with, but this movie was so unexpected and so well done i thought by steven spielberg. >> and the way he sympathized with the communist spy. none of us did at the time, of course, but he said, you know, he wasn't the rosenbergs, he wasn't an american couple that sold out the atomic secrets for money. he's a russian nationalist who's doing this for his country. get it? he's not a bad guy morally, he's a bad guy politically. i thought that was great. what did you think about the acting awards? i'm a jennifer lawrence fan. what about women in the pictures this year? >> the women all were very strong and it was a strong year for women's roles. it was an interesting year because we were hearing a lot about representation behind the camera and in front of the camera and the tremendous work still to be done inspect terms of women being tasked and taking on directorial part of movies. we had films absolutely

dominated by women. many of them you see here on the list and a few that didn't get nominated like charlize theron in "mad max." >> we had a lesbian relationship and also one transgender. it's all in one year. it's coming out fast and now it's coming out even faster in the film industry. >> yeah, yeah. you kind of wonder whether we are going to see a turning point in women's roles in the movie industry because there's been so much attention this year to diversity. there's a little bit of a lag time before something takes hold in hollywood. you don't see it for two or three more years just because the time it takes to make a movie. so i would expect that we're going to see a lot more layered performances come out in the next two or three years. >> let's talk about african-americans in the film.

i mean african-americans have been here longer than any of us have. they're part of america. when are they going to be a full-fledged part of the movie industry? i'm going to talk about the late alan rickman said the part gets the award. >> yeah, that's fascinating. >> when are we going to have parts, halle berry in "monster's ball" she's gorgeous and wonderful as an actor but she won the award for that one. but you give a meaty part like that to somebody, they have a good chance of winning an award. >> and we had some meaty parts. we had michael b. jordan in "creed." >> i can't wait to see that movie. >> it's wonderful. i just love it, it's terrific. and idris elba in "beast of no nation." >> who did he play? >> he was on "the wire." he's a wonderful actor. >> i don't know everything you do. thank you, ann, thank you, ted. for an average guy, i know a lot. up next, nearly every american knows a friend or

family member who has battled cancer. we'll look at the president's new moon shot initiative being head by vice president joe biden. they only got a year, let's see what they can get done. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. we were below the 88th southern parallel. we had traveled for over 850 miles. my men driven nearly mad from starvation and frostbite. today we make history. >>bienvenidos! welcome to the south pole! if you're dora the explorer, you explore. it's what you do. >>what took you so long? if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. >>you did it, yay! choose, choose, choose. but at bedtime? ...why settle for this? enter sleep number, and the lowest prices of the season. sleepiq technology tells you how well you slept and what adjustments you can make. you like the bed soft. he's more hardcore.

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don't settle for u-verse. x1 from xfinity will change the way you experience tv. three of the five americans released by iran have arrived in germany. camera crews captured the convoy that took them to a military base in landstuhl, germany for treatment. 'also through saw the first picture of the "washington post" reporter held in iran for 18 months. now back to "hardball" with chris matthews.

we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard. because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept. one we aren't willing to postpone and one we intend to win. >> and he did win. welcome back to "hardball." those are moments etched in the country's consciousness. that was president kennedy's challenge to the country in 1962, seven years before we actually did make that giant leap to the moon. 54 years later, the spirit of that moon shot has been rekindled as part of vice presidential joe biden's final act on the national stage. here's president obama laying out the challenge. >> last year, vice president biden said that with a new moon shot, america can cure cancer. so tonight i'm announcing a new

national effort to get it done. and because he's gone to the mat for all of us on so many issues over the past 40 years, i'm putting joe in charge of mission control. for the loved ones we've all lost. for the families that we can still save, let's make america the country that cures cancer once and for all. what do you say, joe? let's make it happen. >> that was strong for the families we can still save. for biden this is personal. the vice president lost his son, beau, to brain cancer just last may. when biden announced in october that he would not run for president, he said if i could do anything, i would have wanted to be the president that ended cancer because it's possible. i'm joined by dr. george demetri, the director of harvard's cancer research. doctor, what can you get done through some kind of manhattan-style project like this? >> well, i think our community

of researchers across the country and across the world can really mobilize a lot of the resources that have come from the investments we've made in this war on cancer since 1971. a lot can be done. a lot of what i heard and what president obama said was that we have the opportunity, now we can apply what we know and we can also discover new things to apply. the pace of science and the pace of application is faster than ever before. >> is there such a thing as cancer per se or are all the examples of cancer we've come across different among each other in ways that they are not similar? >> well, i think there are thousands of different kinds of cancers, and they vary greatly. that's like saying is there one kind of infectious disease. of course not. there are viruses, there are bacteria, there are other kinds of infectious diseases. cancer is more like that. but if we can use the available resources, apply what we know, we can make a difference for

many more people with cancers today. look how many more cancers are cured now than even 10 or 15 years ago. the cancer death rates are dropping. we're making advances. and i think inspiring the country to get together in something that's nonpartisan like this is a good thing. >> thank you so much, doctor, for joining us. let's go to michael tomasky, a special correspondent with "the daily beast" and rebecca burke, political reporter with real clear politics and jonathan allen, another familiar face, political columnist with "roll call." let's go from your end to this end about the credibility of this program. you've got one calendar year left of this presidency. you've got the appropriations process, which doesn't kick in until next october, this coming october, right? >> right. >> so it's very tricky to see anything get done with the oomph that's needed. >> president kennedy said what he said about the moon in 1962 when he was succeeded by lyndon johnson. lyndon johnson kept committed to

that. we all know the famous words, houston, when they're calling back from the moon. big effort in texas, johnson's home state to get that done. i think what you're talking about is a long-term proposition here and it's something that barack obama and joe biden, if joe biden is to leave office, aren't going to be the ones to actually shepherd through. it's aspirational. i don't think anybody would disagree with the goal of trying to end cancer. more funding, boy the way, of the federal government. when they direct funding towards particular types of research, it brings in more private funding. wherever the government decides to fund research, you see all these foundations come in and support that. when you spend more on cancer, particularly if you're not able to get additional money, there are priorities and other things that will lose out as a result of that. >> rebecca, you know the country made a heroic effort on aids/hiv. it's not cured, but it's certainly better than it was. it's not a death sentence. >> exactly.

>> so progress can be made. >> progress can be made. and i think that's exactly why you see the president and the vice president going out on a limb like this trying to at the very least start this conversation, bring the technology into a more organized fashion, bring doctors together to have this discussion, try to make as much of a difference as they can. with an issue like this, it's not like many political issues where if you don't fully succeed, you lose. this is an issue where if they make any steps toward success, i would say that's a win for not only the white house, for americans in general, for science. and it also makes the case ultimately that democrats are trying to make, that the federal government can have a role that influences people's lives in a positive way and makes a difference as opposed to what republicans would say, which is usually that this is something that the private market should be dealing with. >> in the end the manhattan project, they put a man onto the moon in the '60s so we do have that capability in terms of oomph, in terms of national commitment. my question is perhaps they'll keep joe biden on in the next administration to commandeer

this effort, have one nonpartisan person stick around and do it. i here by recommend it. >> even president trump or president clinton. >> either one. i think he'd accept the honor, i think. >> i think he would accept the honor and that would be a nice thing to do. it would be nice to think that a republican president if a republican gets elected this fall will continue this. you know, liberals have had a joke for the last seven and a half years that obama could cure cancer and the republicans would be against it. well, this isn't quite the equivalent of that joke. >> i hate to say it but i will. the new beloved, revered speaker of the house, paul ryan, he doesn't applaud anything. did you notice the other night? what was that about? >> paul ryan over time -- >> paul ryan, peter ryan, whatever. >> you can read paul ryan very easily. i think he was -- i think he was well coached to just not -- >> not to cheer anything the president said.

>> not just cheer but the opposite side was the problem too. you could see when president obama that he killed bin laden, there was just this slight tightening of paul ryan's lips and there were a couple of other moments, tongue goes into the cheek. i think his team told him don't do anything that reveals emotion because you don't have -- you generally do not have a poker face so make sure your face doesn't move. >> oh, my god. anyway, vice president biden spoke about the challenge he's now facing. here he is. >> possibilities. that's the uniqueness of this country, limitless possibilities. this is a place that the united states can make a contribution that exceeds almost anything we could and will have done so far to humanity. >> do you believe in this? >> in this mission? >> do you believe it will work? do you think come the end of this administration we'll be talking about the progress made so far, the commitments that have been fortified to fight cancer or is this just going to

be a will of the wisp? >> i hope so, chris. this is one of those rare political issues where everyone can applaud the effort. if they don't succeed, that's unfortunate but if they do, it's fantastic. it's worth the effort, it's worth trying. as the president said, everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer. >> the celebrities, about two out of three that have died, alan rickman i'm going to talk about later. you know, it just happens. it's part of our life, cancer, the big c. remember john wayne dying of it and nat king cole and anybody, humphrey bogart. every movie star in the '40s and '50s died of cancer. >> it's going to be much harder than going to the moon. >> i think in terms of an issue and in terms of focusing things, this is an area where the united states can be a leader in the world. >> that is what he had. that is what the president said. and actually -- >> but talking about it is a good moment for america and for bipartisanship. but if america was to find a cure for cancer at large or to

make progress on the various forms of cancer, dr. demetri was talking about that, there are different forms of cancer, you can make that progress america is a leader in the world. >> it used to be in everything, didn't we? practically. anyway the roundtable is staying with us. up next, these three will tell me something i don't know, and this is "hardball," the place for politics. the orders were ru. the orders were ru. i could feel our deadlines racing towards us. we didn't need a loan. we needed short-term funding fast. building 18 homes in 4 ½ months? that was a leap. but i knew i could rely on american express to help me buy those building materials. amex helped me buy the inventory i needed. our amex helped us fill the orders. just like that. another step on the journey. will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com

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michael, tell me something i don't know. >> it will be a big trump thing tuesday. he's going for symbolism this tuesday. an event at john wayne's birth place. in winterset, iowa. it's going to be huge. >> it will be great again that day. >> another iowa fun fact for the panel. we've been talking about ted cruz's strong campaign in iowa. he's favored by a lot of people to win right now. but he has a big problem called the renewable fuel standard. one of the only candidates opposing it, and he'd be the first if he won iowa to win the state without supporting the rfs. who is this? >> this is ted cruz. >> he doesn't like ethanol either. >> he doesn't like ethanol. he doesn't want subsidies for any of this. the thing i learned when in iowa last week. i spoke with iowa congressman steve king who urged ted cruz to support ethanol. ted cruz said no.

>> go ahead, jonathan. >> when donald trump first burst on the scene, democrats liked the idea. now suddenly they're very worried that donald trump could be president. not only that he could win the presidency but what he'd do with it. you saw barack obama in the state of the union spend so much time knocking down donald trump. >> he was like the response to donald trump. >> it was unbelievable. >> can you give me some indication if the names of your sources who really fear he can beat hillary clinton or -- >> there's a divide among the democrats. some think he'll still fail and fall and some believe he has the lowest floor among the republican candidates, that hillary clinton will wipe the floor with him. what i'm hearing is some concern that he could attract some democrats. he has the most un-republican -- >> i think there's a lot of

reagan democrats waiting to vote for him. >> the industrial midwest. your home state of pennsylvania. >> i think pennsylvania may well be in play if he's the nominee. he's unpreductable. you get cruz up there, put him to the far right. hillary takes the center back and you win. >> trump likes the social safety net. higher taxes in the past. he's good on lgbt compared to republicans -- >> okay, thank you. thanks to the great roundtable. you are so smart tonight. and when we return, let me finish with a sad story of a great actor dying way too young. you're watching hardball. the place for politics. suppositories for relief in minutes and stool softeners for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax, designed for dependable relief if youthen you'll know howouth, uncomfortable it can be. but did you know that the lack of saliva can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath?

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let me finish tonight with a sad story of a great actor dying way too young. most people know alan rickman as the villain in "die hard" or snape in "harry potter." i think of him as the lead in "private lives" or "seminar" which we saw in trips over the years to broadway. like so many millions of people, i see him every time i rewatch "love actually." there it is. he plays the husband of emma thompson who has his eye on his secretary. it's a poignant role because you dearly hope the guy won't get trapped into something that will hurt what is clearly a fabulous and irretrievable marriage. rickman has been stingy with his emotions. a stiff upper lip brit.

we hope in the end he'll show some heart and let us love him. alan rickman, a character actor whose character got to us. alan died this week at 69 from cancer. who do we want?! >> trump! >> when do we want him? >> now! >> trump is right, and americans know he's right. >> when mexico sends its people, they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. they're rapists. >> trump is acting in a very old and shameful american tradition. every so often, like a fever, anti-immigrant feeling arises. >> excuse me, sit down. you weren't called. sit down. >> what you see is what you get. he's genuine. he's the real deal. >> he has tapped into a part of the electorate that is, i think, deeply angry about the state of the economy. >> how stupid are the peop o