>> last night was the republican caucus in nevada and donald trump scored a big victory, bringing him one step closer to the republican nomination. yup presidentsy is get very real right now. it's getting so real, mexico is starting to think a sexual a great idea. they're like "just put it up, we'll pay for it. we want to be on this side of

it." donald trump won his third state last night, he got more votes than marco rubio and ted cruz combined. it was so bad afterwards rubio and cruz stopped fighting and just started holding each other. ♪ oh, my love >> okay, good morning. it's thursday. somehow it feels like it should be friday ten times over but it's thursday. >> boy, what a week. >> february 25. >> what a week. >> welcome to "morning joe." what a week. with us on set -- >> ladies and gentlemen, on the count of three what do we have? >> veteran columnist in. >> legendary. >> mike barnicle. political analyst at professor at the university of michigan school of public policy and former democratic congressman harold ford, jr. >> good morning. >> houston, managing editor of bloomberg politics mark halperin along with willie, joe, and me. we've got a big debate tonight. >> we've got a big debate tonight. our big week continues. we've got hillary clinton in an

interview with -- >> south carolina. >> south carolina. that will be fascinating we'll do on tomorrow's show. so going to be a busy week. so willie, very interesting. we were doing our job in the factory. >> sure. >> you know, lifting the hammer, boom, bringing it down. >> you can't lift it. you can't lift it. >> i can lift the hammer. >> no, you can't lift the hammer. >> that's a funny commercial. >> why don't you guys in second place try and lift the damn hammer. >> mika yesterday was saying rubio and cruz were -- >> they can't lift the hammer! >> they were the boys that couldn't lift the hammer. >> half the table got the joke, the other half stone-faced silent. >> it was very interesting, you had marco rubio on and you were asking him what -- you know, what's going on. first of all, he's spinning that 22-point loss into a win then you ask why don't you attack donald trump and he gave, again, one of these stupid answers that he loves to give that everybody knows is not the truth where he

goes "i'm not going to attack other republicans" while he's stabbing ted cruz in the throat and blood is getting all over his jacket. >> that was my obvious follow-up question. we had no problem doing it with ted cruz, he said "i only do that when i'm attacked. ted cruz spread lies about me." >> called him a liar. >> called him a liar. but his logic was when i asked him was i'm going to keep carving off delegates as we go here. so you can say donald trump is running away with it, but i'm in this long for the long haul. his idea is if he gets to florida, less than two weeks and can win his home state which is a winner take all he's back in the game. >> he could lose the first 25 contests and win florida. this is the giuliani strategy on steroids. >> same is true with cruz. if he wins texas he would catapult to the -- >> he would catapult to third place. very exciting. so you know willie what's so fascinating is though you tried to get rubio to actually answer why he gives trump a free pass.

>> i think you did a great job. >> but he kept giving trump a free pass and then you -- later on trump would not attack rubio. >> well, i heard you guys float out yesterday this idea that perhaps they're both looking ahead to marco rubio being a vice presidential candidate for donald trump. so when we asked donald trump, he's never had any problem going after anybody. he said -- i said "why have you stayed away from marco rubio and not anyone else? "he said "rubio's a nice guy, he hasn't hit me." >> vice presidential candidate. >> i said what do you think about his report as a senator? he said "well, he's young, inexperienced." so i thought it was interesting that donald trump of all people wouldn't even go soft at marco rubio. >> you want to keep that nice piece of play-doh from getting dirty. >> maybe he's waiting till they get one on one. i don't know. the 10th republican debate is tonight in houston. it's the last debate before super tuesday and the smallest debate stage yet with just five

candidates. staging from left to right will be ben carson, marco rubio, donald trump, ted cruz, and john kasich. despite donald trump more than doubling his opponents' combined delegate count, they have for the most part trained their attacks on each other instead of the front-runner and yesterday it appeared cruz and rubio tried to change that strategy just a bit. >> in the head-to-head poll, donald consistently loses to hillary. i consistently beat hillary. so the question right now is how do we prevent nominating a candidate who loses the general election or, for that matter, if donald wins the general election who the heck knows what he'd do as president? you know, we need a president we can trust. [ applause ] we can't be fooled by pt barnum. [ laughter and applause ] the time for clowns and the acrobats and the dancing bears has passed. [ cheers and applause ]

>> the front-runner in this race, donald trump has alluded to the facts that he thinks part of obamacare are pretty good. [ boos ] i can tell you, everybody running for president tells you i want to get rid of obamacare. i'm the only one that's ever done anything about it meaningful. there is no honeymoon period in foreign policy. you can't just say "when i get there i'll hire the smartest people and they'll tell me what to do." we have a president right now that treats the prime minister of israel with less respect than what he gives the ayatollah in iran. and, again, the front-runner in this race, donald trump, has said he won't take sides on israel versus the palestinians because he wants to be an honest broker. when i'm president, we're going to take sides, we are going to be on israel's side. [ cheers and applause ] >> must have been hot in there, mika. >> shh. >> i'm -- wish i could have gotten him so water. >> well, he'll help himself as you saw during the state of the union republican response. >> mark halperin, i watched as i always do, what about don

rickles smoking a big cigar and -- >> i love watching your show. with all due respect. and you guys tried to talk about the way forward, how rubio wins, how cruz wins, how kasich wins and at the end of that entire exercise i decided that the only thing that they all needed to beat donald trump was magic pixie dust. there's just no way they'll beat him unless something cataclysmic happens out there. >> well, the debate tonight is a possible moment where they could change things. you know, they need to try. you saw in those clip there is rubio and cruz now starting to talk about certain things about trump that they think are vulnerabilities but, you know, first of all, it's not a multipronged attack and i think everybody believes that that's what it's going to require. second of all, i think these attacks are one offs. they still need an overall frame why they think donald trump is not the right person rather than a scatter shot approach.

look, there's almost no way you can conceive of a scenario of any of these guys actually stopping anymore this crowded field. it starts, though, with winning their own homes states and right now none of them necessarily will win their own home state. >> rubio is in the worst position to win his own home state which raises the next question -- why do we still have establishment members of the washington, d.c. clique getting on team rubio when they have to know if they know anything about politics that this is doomed. >> well, look, rubio could have a better tuesday than some people are currently thinking in states like virginia, georgia, tennessee. he could have a decent tuesday. he's not going to necessarily win any states but he could come away with a number of second-place finishes and a number of delegates to live to florida. now, again, the fallacy in living to florida is there's no indication he's going to win his own state so he's living to fight another day and losing at home, probably. but there is psychologically, i

think, the rubio folks can say here's how we do it and he'll try to hang on until then allowing trump to continue to run effectively against three people dividing the anti-trump vote. new polls and a new report show that senator ted cruz has a lot riding on texas. a houston public media/university of houston poll shows cruz with a 15-point lead over donald trump in the lone star state 35% to 20% while a ktvt/cbs 11/dixie strategies poll gives him an eight-point advantage, 33% to trump's 25%. but an emerson college poll shows a much tighter race in texas. 29% for cruz, 28% for trump and 25% for marco rubio. so yesterday cruz accepted the endorsement of governor greg abbot and called texas the crown jewel of super tuesday, though he would not guarantee a victory there: and the "national review" reports a group of conservative activists including the family

research council's tony perkins and the senate conservative fund's ken cuccinelli are preparing to defect to rubio is cruz fails to win on tuesday. >> well, i don't understand. why defect? i'm just saying -- >> it's kind of -- >> you've got two ships going down taking on water. why jump from one to the other? >> have either of these guys -- cruz or rubio -- have they ever run for office before? >> once. >> watching these clips is like two guys whose idea of a political fight is a pillow fight. they think this is the national hockey league that they finish second and third consistently they're winners? >> i don't know. mark halperin, it's one of the things we have not understood about this republican race. >> well, the problem is, you know, as we've all seen, taking on trump is easier thought about than actually done. right now cruz has to survive on tuesday, he must win or he's

out. i they the rubio people are counting on is maybe cruz loses here, trump is competing in texas, although not with paid media. if f cruz loses on tuesday, if he loses in texas, he'll be out and at that point kasich and rubio will then be up to say, all right, maybe we can win our home states, maybe we can slow him down. but i agree mike, the posture that they're taking remains thinking as much about doing well to finish second as it does to stop trump and these one-off comments about he's not good enough on israel or he doesn't have the right temperament, there's no indication in political history that will slow a guy like trump with all of his skills and all of his support dun. >> trump did so well among evangelicals in south carolina, did well again in nevada. david brodie writes for the christian broadcasting network news, he's one of the anchors, wrote a piece titled "donald trump's evangelical standing ovation." "donald trump continues to amaze, wednesday afternoon he strode on to the regent university stage, a big

christian university, and received a prolonged standing ovation from the evangelical audience. he went on to speak eloquently about the importance of family, he even brought out his two sons he spoke highly of him, nominating pro-life judge, defending israel, etc. after hearing what he had to say, he left over an hour later to another standing ovation. ted cruz must be downing huge al a selzer tablets as we speak. it was cruz who was supposed to get the love from evangelicals, instead, trump has invaded his turf, what happened?" asks david brody. >> you know, one of the interesting things about the coverage of this campaign with donald trump is the misnomer that's been going on for some time that part of trump's popularity is because elements of the republican party are so disgusted with what the republican party has not done over the past few years and if you walk around any sidewalk in this country, his popularity extends well beyond republican party.

well beyond the republican party. >> and harold, though, again, evangelicals. there's so many things that you could bring up about donald trump and all he's done over the past 20 years that would stop evangelicals from wanting to support him. but this shows, i'm sure you saw it in your district, too, people don't always vote based on one, two, or three issues. certainly evangelicals in the south don't just vote for the guy that quotes the most bible versus. >> this is true. and evangelicals also -- i mean, people of faith also loveund underdogs. he's been an underdog with how the press has treated him and suggesting he couldn't survive past the summer until now. he says what's on his mind and i think it had broader appeal. to michael's point, i have democratic friends who surprised me. who live outside of new york and live outside of the west coast who are saying positive things

about him because they think there are a lot of unknown bus they like the fact that he's a leader and view him as a turnaround ceo. these are not my view bus the views of people i respect. >> the coverage of trump and the evangelicals has focused almost exclusively for several months on, well, his values are not their values thus he will suffer and cruz will rise. but their values -- i think they set their religious values to one side and they have other values that trump, whether you like it or not, he encompasses them because of -- >> those other values evangelicals have form bid their faith values. although he can't quote the bible correctly -- >> two corinthians. >> well, there's that. >> he does speak to the values, joe, you can attest to that, values evangelicals have and he speaks strong foreign policy, stronger america, stronger economy, not negotiating away america's strength. those are things he preaches about and is aligned with evangelicals. >> i said this several months

ago whenever i campaign and went into the church i'd say "don't vote for me because i a team best christian, i'm not. vote for me because i know who you are, i understand your values, i grew up in this church, i understand what's important to you and i'll fight for you." i think we have the same exact thing where people go, okay, do i want a guy that runs around quoting bible verses all the time or do i want a guy who basically says hey, this is who i am warts and all but i'm going to go up and beat the hell out of anybody that tries to underbhienunde undermine what's important to you. that's an easy vote for evangelicals and you know the media since -- the moral majority has always painted evangelicals and christian coalition people as people that just mindlessly go and vote for who they're told. no, they vote for their own self-surprise, just like everybody else. >> i think the debate at this stage of the game will be absolutely fascinating. let's get to other headlines. in financial news, china

stocks plunged more than 6% overnight, that came amid worries over tighter liquidity. u.s. dow futures are down ten points right. now. turning overseas, iranian authorities have reportedly arrested a u.s. citizen whose son has been jailed in iran for the past four months. according to a statement from the family, 80-year-old bagr nimazi has been taken since monday. he is believed to have taken to the same prison where his son has been held since october. both father and son are said to be dual u.s.-iranian citizens. secretary of state john kerry said he was aware of the situation but couldn't comment because of privacy reasons. >> i'm sorry. we continue to deal with a country that continues to kidnap and take hostage american citizens. >> well, we have a deal in place and this strengthens mr. trump's

argument and i think it strengthens the larger broader republican narrative that the president is -- as much as i respect john kerry, the president's team is not in control after doing these deals. in fact, they threw in the our face, it seems. >> it seems to get worse. they're taking american hostages still after this deal. and if we're doing a deal with a country that will actually kidnap and take united states citizens hostage and actually take the father of a season who is already held hostage take the father held hostage, too, how do we trust them on anything? it's disgraceful. you can't deal with iran. they are going to cheat. we'll give them $100 billion and they'll be off to the races. i will say on this part i agree with donald trump. this is the stupidest deal i've seen in my life. stupidest, stupidest deal i've

ever seen in my life. give them the money, let them cheat and then they have the money. to invest in more terrorism across the globe and destabilize the middle east. and, oh, i don't know, kidnap americans. okay, next story now. this morning apple appears to be getting ready for its next big fight. the "new york times" reports apple engineers are developing new security measures that would make it impossible for the government to break into a locked iphone. the development comes as apple ceo tim cook reiterated the repercussions of complying with the fbi's request to build a back door to the iphone, framing the request in dramatic terms. >> it is in our view the software equivalent of cancer. is in this something that should be created? technology can do so many things, but there are many things technology should never be allowed to do. and the way you not allow it is

to not create it. >> that's just ridiculous. here you have -- this guy is, oh, they want to break into 20, 30 -- no, we have a terror attack in california. in san bernardino. people connected with isis have gunned down americans at holiday parties. and we're just asking for the dead isis terrorists' phone. >> well, no, we're asking for a way to get into the phone. >> to get into the phone. >> and they're going look over there, look over there. they want 15 more. no, give us this phone and tell us how to get into its because the cancer is not what you're talking about. the cancer is actually terrorism and this happening again and terrorists now knowing, because i have to say tim cook and apple are being very effective in marketing to terrorists across the globe that you can be guaranteed the next time

americans are gunned down by an isis-inspired terror group they will all be carrying the iphone and that's something that's got to make apple really proud: i hope their marketing campaign for isis -- >> that's terrible. that's terrible. >> no, it's not terrible, it's true. they're marketing to terrorists and if you're a member of isis, you see you have one of the most powerful corporations in the world doing your bidding. >> what's mystifying to a lot of people is why this could not have been resolved at an earlier age. basically as i understand it what they were seeking, what the jarnlt a justice department and the fbi were seeking is the password to get into the phone. >> and at one point they asked if you would remove the limit -- i think it's 10 or 15 it destroys anything. i don't know enough about the technology but it seems like this could have been resolved? >> so willie apparently it's set

up so the phone would not shut off when they kept trying to get into the phone. >> it shuts off and erases. >> i understand the broader concerns. by i think people are wondering is why can't you just deal with this one phone and not make things destructive. things changes when bill gates came out. you figure maybe we don't know but bill gates understands things. >> finally, former texas governor rick perry -- >> get your tir-shirts out. >> i have one. he's cleared of all charges. the texas court of criminal appeals adropped a felony abuse of power charge against him. it was the second of two charges he faced after being indicted in 2014. after the court's decision yesterday, perry celebrated with an ice cream cone. >> i love that guy. >> at a burger shack in austin. it was the same place where he gotten a ice cream shortly after being booked on the 2014 charge. >> harold, this guy is booked by a partisan prosecutor right as he's getting ready to run in a

presidential campaign. and it hangs over him. >> look, it's -- >> it's terrible. >> it didn't seem to add up all together to your point when it first happened, when the charges were brought and, you know, bless him, glad it's over with him for it and it's unfortunate he had to have that dog him during a campaign. >> still ahead on "morning joe," texas governor greg abbot who is blacking ted cruz for president. plus, former rnc chairman haley barbour joins us. senator bob corker and former british prime minister tony blair who says he's baffled by bernie sanders. just baffled. and tomorrow we'll bring you our sit down interview with hillary clinton. we'll speak with her today in south carolina and this will air tomorrow on "morning joe." first let's go to bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? . did you hear the winds whipping around. that was the strongest winds that new england felt since hurricane arena 2010. we had a couple hundred thousand

people without power. 84 mile per hour wind gusts in massachusetts. that's incredible. here's the deadly storm. eight fatalities, some related to tornados. we had another big tornado yesterday in waverley, virginia, that kill lead the people, including a two-year-old boy. here's some of the pictures from that storm system. there were 19 tornados reported yesterday and along with that was all the wind damage reports we had. in total, 383 wind damage reports from the carolinas right up through southern new england last night. thankfully we're just about done with this storm system. we have thunderstorms in the end of february in central maine. they've never issued severe thunderstorm warnings in maine in february. that's how strange of a storm it was. it was more like an april storm. on the backside, we have snow, careful on the roads ohio, michigan and indiana and in west virginia we will pick up a couple additional inches. this is the tail end of this storm system and there's no other big storms in the pipeline. looks like a quiet weekend for many people. west coast looks great, middle of the country looks great.

chilly and wind glee the great extent. new york city saw a severe thunderstorm around 10:30 last night. winds picked up to 60 miles per hour. hoping the airports will get back on track during a nice calm day today. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. theand to help you accelerate,.

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26 past the hour. hillary clinton was interrupted by two black lives matter activists at a private fund-raising event in south carolina last night. the huffington post got this video of the incident. in it, you can see a youth activist named ashleigh williams walking in front of clinton as she addresses the audience. she's holding a sign quoting comments that clinton made as first lady back in 1996 about her husband's crime bill and the at-risk youth it was targeting. here are some of those comments from 1996 followed by the incident last night in south carolina. >> but we also have to have an organized effort against gangs, just as in a previous generation we had an organized effort against the mob. we need to take these people on, they are often connected to big drug cartels, they are not just

gangs of kids anymore. they are often the kinds of kids that are called superpredators, no conscience, no empathy, we can talk about why they ended up that way but first we have to bring them to heel and the president has asked the fbi to launch a very concerted effort against gangs everywhere. >> so i think we've got a very -- i think we've got something saying here -- >> we want you to apologize for mass incarcerations. i'm not a superpredator hillary clinton. >> okay, fine we'll talk about it. >> can you apologize to black people for mass incarceration? >> yes, you talk and maybe you can listen to what i say. >> yes. >> there's a lot of issues in this campaign. the very first speech that i gave back in april was about criminal justice reform. >> you called black people superpredators. you owe black people an apology. >> excuse us. that's inappropriate, sweetie. >> if you will give me a chance to talk i'll -- nobody's ever

asked me before. you're the first person to ask me and i'm happy to address it but you are the first person to ask me. okay, back to the issues. >> so williams tells the huffington post she and a colleague contributed $55-00 to attend the event. there were reportedly about 100 people in attendance and we should point out in that april speech on criminal justice clinton mentioned as she was being confronted she distanced herself from many of her husband's policies on crime and called for an end to the era of mass incarceration. >> so she was being protested last night for saying 20 years ago -- and i'm shocked and i'm horrified that she would say this. we have to bring drug cartels to heel. that's bad? wait, hold on, we have bring drug gangs and cartels to heel?

who in america thinks that is a bad thing? i am telling you for every incident of where people say the right have lost their mind, i can give you five of how the left over the last year have lost their mind, out of their gourds. if hillary clinton is being attacked for saying, willie, 19 years ago "we need to bring drug cartels and drug gangs to heel." you can support criminal justice reform as i do. you can say there are two americas when it comes to incarceration and how young black men especially are treated horrifically compared to young white men. but come on. they're digging deep for this. this is outrageous. >> as i was watching that long soundbite from '96 i was waiting for the part where it became offensive in some way.

i mean, i this i what the protesters' concern was that hillary clinton wasn't talking about pablo escobar but was talking about young african-american men and women who are foot soldiers for him way down the line and are being wrapped up. but that's not -- we want gangs off the street. >> ask about those gangs in chicago, mike, the shootings, the death, the murders, little girls getting shot in their bed, their grandmothers getting gunned down. >> primarily african-american kids, teenagers. looks i disagree with the young lady, i think she doesn't have the historical context. i wish mrs. clinton had handled that differently. but we forget there was a moment in the '80s and the '90s when a certain drug was spreading across urban and even some rural communities -- >> we had a massive crack epidemic. >> and the people being hurt the most by this were african-americans. now there are a number of reasons, education opportunity,

mrs. clinton said it well, we can deal with the reasons but we have to stop them first. i didn't see anything offensive in that comment. >> that clip was from 1996 as you just pointed out, keene state college in keene, new hampshire. within the past few months i believe the young boy's name is laquan martin, nine years of age, i believe, shot to death in chicago in an alley in a gang-related killing. it's 2016. >> which he was not a part of, he got caught up in it. >> black lives do matter. black lives matter. start protecting them and start putting these drug gangs at heel. crush them in chicago. do whatever it takes to protect nine-year-old girls, to protect their mothers and grandmothers, to protect the people who are the real victims of gang violence. and that is disproportionately black citizens who keep getting gunned down in the cross fire of these black gangs. bring them to heel?

yes, bring them to heel. crush them. do whatever you can to protect those neighborhoods. because black lives matter. >> and, again, we're going to sit down with hillary clinton today in south carolina for an interview that we will have for you tomorrow morning on "morning joe". also, i think tonight, willie -- is there something tonight or tomorrow night? when is it? >> there's a huge music event tonight. >> huge music festival. >> is sting playing? oh, willie and i are playing tonight. >> joe on the upper west side, prohibition. you're like the house band now. >> we kind of ar on thursday night. willie and i get up and do a song that we wrote in -- >> '73. >> what time do we get there, 8:30? >> yeah, man. but willie comes up, we talk about the good old days. >> i don't remember midwest of

them. >> still remember the trouble we got in with keith in canada. toronto. i didn't think they were going to let him back in the states. that's tonight at 8:30. prohibition. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪

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"could you double check "scothe envelope?"wins." "best actress, 1984." "and i can't deny the fact that you like me." "life is like a box of chocolates." "you never know what you're gonna get." "we're gonna need a bigger boat." "xfinity x1 lets you access the greatest library of oscar moments, simply by using your voice. live oscar sunday, february 28th on abc." >> the president is a smart man. >> yes, he is. we'll get to that in a moment. >> the name of the young boy,

nine years old in chicago was tyshawn lee. executed in an alley. >> the speculation about who president obama might want to nominate to fill the open seat on the supreme court has turned to nevada governor brian sandoval. >> a republican. >> nbc news has confirmed the white house is vetting the republican former federal judge. the prospect of selecting a moderate republican is guaranteed to turn up the political heat on senate republicans who vowed a day earlier not to hold hearings on any nominee until the next president is in office. the president says he is sympathetic to the politics of it but he insists he's going to simply do his job. >> so i understand the posture that they're taking right now. i get the politics of it. i'm sure they're under enormous pressure from their base and constituencies around this issue. i've talked to many of them and i've told them i'm sympathetic.

and, by the way, there's not a a lot to defend the position that they're taking that they won't even meet with a supreme court nominee. they're sheepish about it when they make those comments so we'll see how this plays itself out but i'll do my job. i'll nominate somebody and let the american people decide who is qualified. >> i think it's a smart move. grassley is scheduling an obama meeting over this pick. first of all, you look at it and say why would republicans be concerned, mike? come on, a moderate republican governor from the west. what could go wrong for conservatives. >> they didn't even want to know who the name was. >> this is such smart politics. >> other than earl warren. >> even if they deny -- >> but talk about how smart the politics are here. >> on a couple fronts. one for obama, even if they deny it, he's able to take the high ground and say i was thimp thsyc to the politics. it becomes an issue in the campaign. harry reid, probably the shrewdest political mind in the

senate is supporting brian sandoval. it creates an opening in the governor's seat for someone he'd like to see elected governor, his son and i believe there's a young hispanic candidate running for the u.s. senate for senator reid's spot who will be helped by senator reid and democrats and others promoting sandoval who happens of hispanic descent and widely popular in nevada. i hope they nominate him not for the political theater but -- every democrat won't be pleased with this. liberal democrats won't embrace this with enthusiasm as they would if it were someone further to the left. maybe this is the kind of nominee, whomever gets elected, these are the kind of people we pick for the court. >> he's one of the most popular republican governors in the nation so it's hard to say that the president went out and cherry picked somebody that's not -- >> he's been on the short list for vice president. i heard him mentioned in donald trump circles. >> he's been highly effective. when i heard lindsey graham say that they weren't going to

consider anybody unless it was a consensus pick, well, the president has provided in a way i don't see either side in the past eight years. >> i agree. >> this is something we're not used. >> to i don't remember a time in my lifetime where a president did this. >> he's 53 which means it could be a huge impact for a long time. >> but this is an attempt to forge consensus. one of my criticisms of the president over the past eight years is he hasn't worked any harder than republicans have. this is a president reaching out to the middle, forging consensus. i don't think the republicans can say "we're not going to do it." >> i think he's making the republicans look bad if they continue to persist with this concept of "we're not going to look at anybody" because they'll leave it for hillary clinton and she'll pick her person and good luck with that. what do you want? >> i couldn't agree more. >> what do you want? >> i think this may be the best deal the republicans are going to get. >> wonder if they'll get it -- like get it. >> well, and also, let's say jeb bush were running away with the

pack right now. they'd say wait a second, we'll fight because jeb will get a rock-solid conservative. right now it looks like donald trump will be the nominee. do so do you take brian sandoval now or do you let donald trump or hillary clinton select the nominee? i think that changes the calculus for republicans on the hill as well. >> absolutely. still ahead, if hillary clinton wins the nomination she may only have one option for the general election, scorch the earth. buzzfeed's editor-in-chief ben smith explains why she can't win unless she destroys her opponent. >> lots of luck there. >> but first jon meacham joins us for must-read opinion pages and reenactments of shays' rebellion. we'll be back with much more "morning joe." to help pay for her kids' ice time. before earning 1% cash back everywhere, every time. and 2% back at the grocery store. even before she got 3% back on gas, all with no hoops to jump through.

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mr. trump, supporting on democrat and liberal views, how can voters be sure you will truly hold and would actually

continue to hold republican ideas and values? >> well, you know, it's interesting. as one of the magazines said, donald trump is a world-class businessman and it was interesting. i'm all over the world and i'll do with all politicians and i never thought i'd be doing this. i just got exasperated. i would have done it four years ago. i was leading in the polls and i had a lot of jobs going, my children were younger and now they have a lot of great jobs. this is not something i was going to do or really wanted to do. i loved what i was doing. the fact is that as a businessman you get along with all politicians or you have a problem. so i get along with democrats, i get along with liberals and conservatives and republican, i get along with everybody because that was my thing. it was very important. i got along with bob. where's bob? i saw bob in the audience. where is he? [ applause ]

fantastic person you know that, stand up. [ cheers and applause ] he is a fantastic person and -- but i get along with everybody. i get along with everybody and that was important and i tell people and people would forgive me for that. they'd say, well, it's true. but as a businessman, you want to get along with democrats, republicans. that was donald trump giving a shoutout to former republican governor bob mcdonald of virgin virginia. >> i'm glad he did it. bob mcdonnel it's still beyond me why he was chased after the federal government when he violated no laws in his state. no ethics codele from what i recall. and you look at people who have

cashed in on their political power and positions in a way that does go up and over the line. you wonder why the federal government -- you know -- >> well, he did violate ethics rules. >> he let people in supplements have a event at the governor's mansion. >> it was -- >> i could list so many other things that go well beyond that in american politics that it's outrageous they focused on this guy. >> so we have meacham with us, pew lit pulitzer prize winner jon meacham. i think this is interesting -- >> some warmth to the introduction. try to tone it down a little bit. it was vaguely trampiaumpian. >> i'll try not to fall asleep. this is the "washington post" newspaper. and i think this is the interesting equation the media has made overall on donald trump that perhaps might be mistaken but you decide. gop leaders, you must do

everything in your power to stop trump. the unthinkable is starting to look like the inevitable. think about that. absent an extraordinary effort from people who understand the menace he represents, donald trump is likely to be the presidential nominee of the republican party. at this stage, even an extraordinary effort might fall short. but history will not look kindly on gop leaders who fail to do everything in their power to prevent a bullyi ining demagogu from becoming their standard bearer. we understand that mr. trump would seek to use this to his benefit and that he might succeed. but what is the choice? is the republican party not going to resist its own debasement? >> jon meacham, the "boston globe" said about the same thing earlier this week saying anything but trump and i wonder if if marco rubio or one or two other candidates, whether this just doesn't help donald trump

to say, look, the washington establishment is freaking out. >> i remember it was pretty bad. >> if you start early on. there's this hyperbolic rhetoric that occurs in american life that the end is always about to come. the apocalypse is always near. people argue if you ratified the constitution you would be ending the american revolution. that was the 1780s. >> well, of course. >> i just think the country is more adaptable than -- >> this is more about the people who have voices in this business or in washington. first they laughed hysterically and they thought it was a joke and they went like that.

now they're scared to death. there's been this incredible swing from those two emotions. instead of maybe stepping back and listening to what people are saying and letting the story happen. >> well, it's -- there's a question here. to what extent do you trust democracy? to what extent do you trust vote voters. all the elites are against trump. at a certain point do you think the people who are making those decisions have something to contribute through his candidacy. >> aren't the people making the decision? isn't the "washington post" asking the republican party to somehow undermine trump and -- it's just -- >> do you believe the people's voice matters and they might know something? >> i have to say, willie, if the republican establishment could have knocked him down they would have done that six months ago. >> there's full-on panic.

mika just read "wall street journal." front page of the "washington post," "gop trio must act fast to stall trump." "new york times" has an article "here are the five ways trumps could lose." 538 has "republicans' last ditch." >> and here's another one. "gop plans what's next if trump can't be stopped." i have to say, the most electric "morning joe," the lights went off, the fighting continued. everybody felt like they had to get it off their chest. it was as if they realized yesterday, the clouds parted and everybody said oh, my god, this guy is going to win. >> i've seen the frustration from prominent conservatives on tv, on twitter, just talking to them about why is marco rubio, why is ted cruz not going after this guy? they're our last hope to stop this man. and tonight maybe is an opportunity at the debate in houston. >> we'll see if they can lift the hammer. >> but, again, rubio says i'm going to keep carving off de

delegates -- >> oh, god. >> mika, that's okay. he's going to change the world. >> you had a great piece about people saying it's about reagan, 30 or so more years. citizens united said it was going to collapse the campaign system and make it more difficult. all these doomsday kind of things. to jon's point, everybody's point, people are smarter and more resilient than we give them credit for. >> on both of those points it's a great point. people forget the horrible things said about ronald reagan. we need to get craig shirley on and list them. >> we'll make a scroll. >> they were awful. there's so much more. every bit as bad as donald trump. in fact we heard -- he was called the fascist gun in the west. even gerald ford said governor reagan can't start world war iii, president reagan can. the fear among elites that this man was going to get us into a nuclear war instead of in the

end bring down the soviet union, they were horrified. reagan was asked what's your strategy with the soviet union and he goes "we win, they lose." next question. they were horrified. guess what happened? we win, they lose. same thing with citizens united. one final point, it's important. everybody tearing their hair, hair out. they were like sack cloth and ashes. citizens united, the worst ever. it's less relevant in this presidential race than ever before. donald trump has made citizens united basically for this campaign obsolete. >> so has bernie sanders. >> it's the danger of hyperbole? politics. >> we'll be right back. i

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coming up, mitt romney, that's right, mitt romney, attacks donald trump for a reason romney's familiar with from his 2012 campaign -- for not releasing tax returns. we'll talk about that big dust-up in the gop when we get back. you're an at&t small business expert? sure am. my staff could use your help staying in touch with customers. at&t can help you stay connected. 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.

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every someday needs a plan. let's talk about your old 401(k) today. technology entire countries w if they could ever catch you. we won the evangelicals. we won with young. we won with old. we won with highly educated.

we won with poorly educated. i love the poorly educated. [ laughter ] >> well, they feel the same way about you. in fact, the poorly educated love him so much they made him this advertisement. >> in dangerous times, america needs a leader. [ laughter ] someone who is tough enough to stand up to the terrorists and secure the mexican border. [ laughter ] we need a president who will stand up to dictators like lil' kim of north korea, voldemort putin of russia and chinese president xi. donald trump believes into in constipation and he will protect your rights under the second commencement. this october, let's make great again. donald trump. paid for by this guy. >> welcome back the "morning joe." it's thursday, february 25. still with us we have pulitzer prize winning historian jon

meacham. managing editor of bloomberg politics mark halperin, former democratic congressman harold ford, jr., and joining the conversation, former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner. >> we'll get to an interesting story very soon, mark halperin, about donald trump and mitt romney attacking each other, this time romney talking about his taxes but first let's set the race for today. instead of having an hour on your show "with all due respect," give us in 30 seconds the state of the race and explain the fear and loathing coming from the headlines, not even the "new york times" but also the "washington post," the "wall street journal "wall street journal" -- >> as it just extended out of nowhere. >> that thing is about to end and everybody is running to the fallout shelters. >> the debate is an opportunity to maybe reset things but you see in the "washington post" editorial and what mitt romney is doing, the understanding coming too late for many that if

donald trump is not stopped on tuesday when he could sweep super tuesday, he could, it will be too late to stop him. and so you're seeing lots of people kind of screaming out and saying "hold on world, pay attention." but you're hearing mostly silence because people in the establishment, they don't think they can stop trump and most of them -- some of them are trying to make piece with the reality of donald trump as the most likely far and away republican nominee. >> yesterday you saw two congressmen come out, the first two come out to endorse donald trump, expect that to quicken and expect some big names to come into the mix before super tuesday. >> that's what we hearing. it's what we're hearing. after super tuesday, you need to get in line to support him. before super tuesday obviously there's a chance that you can be one of the first and that's certainly what chris collins and also duncan hunter did yesterday. >> so trump has been feuding with mitt romney since the beginning of his campaign and

yesterday romney took his strongest swipe yet at the republican front-runner calling on the candidates to release their back taxes, a question that dogged his 2012 campaign, suggesting trump has something to hide. >> frankly, i think we have good reason to believe that there's a bombshell in donald trump's taxes. >> what do you mean? >> well, i think there's something there. either he's not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is or hasn't been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay or perhaps he hasn't been giving money to the vets or to the disabled like he's been telling us he's been doing and i think that's -- the reason i that i think there's a bombshell in there is because every time he's asked about his taxes he dodges and delays and says, well, we're working on it. we're not talking about the taxes coming down this year. of course they're working on those. they won't be ready for month. we're talking about taxes already filed, back taxes and my back taxes, when i ran in 2012,

my back taxes, i put out in january of 2012. he likes to tell people how well he's done. why isn't he willing to let us look at the tax returns? that's something -- this was an issue in my campaign, that's why i'm so sensitive to it. >> that's interesting, mark halperin. because he just threw out a lot of suggestions about why donald trump wouldn't release his taxes. it almost sounded like he was channeling harry reid back when harry reid was extraordinarily unfair to mitt romney. >> yeah, there is that irony and, look, romney is in many ways because of his own experience and because he's not a candidate he's a flawed messenger on this. but there are people in the republican party who look at what romney did yesterday and say, well, at least he's trying because the only way to stop donald trump at this point, whether you stop him now or at the convention would be to get

him off his message, force him to be on the defensive. this is an issue on the merits of presidential candidates. donald trump on the merits should be putting out his tax returns if you look at past history. he should be at least considering it and romney's right, you know, how hard would it be put-to-put out returns that are already filed? i don't think in the end romney alone will be the one it will have to be all the candidates because romney doesn't have the cleanest hands in this issue >> if you look at the comparison between romney in 2012, that was a weakness for him, the car elevator and the $10,000 bet on stage with rick perry. his wealth was a weakness. for trump it's not. it's been part of his strength. he flaunts what he's got. he's got the plane and does the interviews in his gold apartment. maybe he's not paying as many taxes as he should be, maybe he's not sporting charities as romney has said but he seems to

me to have less to hide by putting his taxes out there than romney did who romney was worried about running into that image of him as a plutocrat. >> certainly the whole thing has flipped around. we've gone from a situation where being a billionaire was a disadvantage to suddenly being a good thing but you have to infer. bauds, look as mark and romney both said, putting out your back taxes is -- you don't have a lot of people doing stuff the way trump has alluded, push a button, send a pdf and they're released so he ear nervous about something and i think romney hit on the three issues. one, what is his income really? nobody thinks he's banknorth $10 billion. there's nobody i know who thinks he's worth $10 billion. 2ed be, maybe $3 billion on a good day. that's it. >> that's it. >> oh, that's horrible. >> number two, romney didn't say what harry reid said. harry reid said romney had not paid any taxes. romney is asking the question of what did trump pay and i think

you'll find he didn't pay a lot. real estate guys have the best tax shelters in the business and my guess is he didn't pay a l lotten and thirdly has he been charitiable? the deductions will be there, we'll find out how much of his money he gave away and we'll see. there has to be a reason trump is holding back. >> trump took to twitter to respond writing "when mitt romney asked me for my endorsement last time around he was so awkward and goofy we all should have known he could not win." and "romney, who totally blew an election that should have been one and whose tax rushes made him look like a fool is not playing tough guy." he said this about whether he'll release his returns in an interview. >> my returns are extremely complex and i'll make a determination at the right time. i'm in no rush. nobody's been bringing it up except for mitt romney and the reason he brings it up is that he lost in the last lex and last very badly. frankly i get audited every

single year. unlike everybody else who never gets audited, i get audited every single year which i think is unfair. >> and with that -- >> i mean, listen, his -- i don't think his supporters, i don't think the republican electorate is going to care. what is the responsibility? >> why doesn't he release them? >> why don't you release yours? >> i'm not running for president. >> yeah, but you're on this show and this is the most influential news show in america -- >> i'll release mine if you'll release yours. >> hillary! >> trust me, trust me, i get a check every two weeks. >> if you're running for president -- >> i'm not suggesting -- >> how far back should people go in releasing their taxes? we always have this. >> some people have released them back ten years or more. i'm not saying you have to do that. i'm also not suggesting -- trump

created this false straw man in saying he's been audited. i'm not suggesting and i don't think romney's suggesting he's evading or avoiding taxes in some illegal way, we simply want to know what the guy paid. every candidate releases them, tell me why he shouldn't. >> i think he ought to put them out there because i agree. people who love donald trump won't be surprised or concerned about what they find in there. he says the only bombshell in those taxes is that i paid a lot of taxes and government waste it had money. that's a line his fans will applaud. >> one of the things we've seen since june of last year is an uncanny, perhaps unprecedented sense of political timing on trump's part. he knows exactly when to change the subject, he knows exactly when to drop a tweet, to shift a news cycle. i think this would be something that would put the story outside his control. if he dumps a bunch of papers, suddenly people will fix on what they want to fix on. he has gotten this far by managing the message and i

suspect part of it is an element of not wanting to lose control of this story. >> and i guess the politician in me, my attitude toward this is the same attitude i had towards hillary clinton. yesterday, everybody disagreed with me, if the republicans want to release their speeches then i'll release my speeches, hillary said and that seems very fair. with donald trump i'd say the same thing. you know, if everybody wants to release their taxes then i'll release them. but why should i? >> is that fair? i've been wondering about that. senator clinton's running in a democratic primary where she's arguing she's going to -- no bank too big to fail, no executive -- >> i agree with you on this. >> i think there is a more overt question of hypocrisy on her part about the speeches and i think from going to "i'll look into it" to she looked into it and decided no. >> yes. >> and on the same vein, trump has a lot of assets, a lot of income, a lot of complicated taxes. his taxes are more relevant to

this than marco rubio who's been in the government. >> but let me ask you, though. mitt romney's taxes were relevant because people wanted to say if he paid 14%, 15%, 16%. why are trump's taxes relevant other than so people in new york city can dig through them who have been saying that he's not worth $10 billion for a year and tsarnaev look at it for their own excitable interest? >> for exactly the reason you just said, people want to find out if he's paying any taxes. not just 14%, 15%, 16%, is he paying any taxes. >> that hasn't been an issue with donald trump. >> it's an issue because nobody knows. >> i just haven't heard anybody bringing it up. >> i'm bringing it up. >> i've heard rich people in new york city sniff he's not worth $10 billion. >> i will tell you i think there's a high possibility that he pays very it will until any taxes because real estate guys have the best tax shelters there are. >> he would brag about that, wouldn't he. >> well, he already has, in fact. he said when he was talking about well maybe i'll release them, he said you'll see i use every legal means in the tax

code to reduce my taxes. >> what's the story there? >> let people find out what the facts are. what are you trying to hide? >> who are you talking about? >> i'm talking about trump. >> right. so, no, i think that's a question on both side here. >> i'm trying to figure out what the issue is. as far as i can understand with mirnl there's an issue why it needed to be released. now i'm hearing -- >> with mitt romney nobody knew -- >> all i'm hearing are elites saying donald trump should release his -- >> am i elite? >> definitely. >> but it is somewhat counterbrand for a man who's speaking truth in all things not to be more transparent about this. >> about taxes. okay, bernie sanders held two massive rallies in two different midwestern states yesterday. his day began in south carolina. >> look at that crowd. >> wow. >> that's every democrat in the state. >> but then sanders traveled to kansas city, missouri, where he addressed a crowd of over 7,000 people. after that event he spoke in

tulsa, oklahoma, in front of just under 7,000 people, telling the audience that he still has a path to victory. >> on march 1 here in oklahoma you are going to have the opportunity to make history. you're going to have the opportunity to help lead this country in a political revolution. [ cheers and applause ] we can win here in oklahoma and a victory here is the path to victory nationally. [ cheers and applause ] >> wow. and today with just two days remaining before the south carolina primary senator beshz will hold event in ohio, michigan and illinois. each of those states has a primary after super tuesday. so we have harold with us. harold, is there a path for him? >> it seems to have gotten narrower. as i listen to him and i

listened to him the last few weeks, he doesn't seem to have the same momentum and the voice and the same energy level. the words are the same and there's no doubt it's resonating as you see the size of the audience but something is missing. a lot of it has to do with mrs. clinton's performances but to his point about there's still a path, even he's acknowledging in that statement that that path has narrowed. >> it's amazing how quickly things turn. when we were coming into nevada just a few days average it was if byrneny comes out of there, he's rolling towards the nomination. in one state, a small relatively number of voters and then only a six-point loss somehow have turned the ship all the way around? i don't think so. she's got big states ahead, no question she's the favorite but bernie sanders will be in this for a while. >> i will say it's been interesting to note there's a change in her town. she's been stilted through the campai campaign, not good on the stump at all post-nevada.

you saw that speech, you saw several interviews where she's the best she's been since 2008. it's almost like -- i don't know what happened but it's almost like for her and for the team that nevada win, steve rattner, was a real turning point. >> i think it was. and i take your point, willie, it's one small state but the fact is that if he couldn't $'s not a huge african-american population there and if he couldn't win there -- it's a little like the republican party. if he couldn't win there, where will he win? so he'll go along for a while winning 30% of the delegates but the feeling in the clinton camp among her supporters are saying it was a turning point and it's made her more relaxed feeling like she has a wide path to victory. >> for 40 years, the clinton drama has been near-death experience to resurrection and it's just this pendulum again and again and again. >> and i saw in an interview, mika, where she was very blunt.

it wasn't pre-packaged. i think -- i forget who she was speaking to but it surprised me. she said there are a lot of people trying to figure out whether i'm in this for them or whether i'm in this for myself and the burden is on me to explain to them that this isn't about me, that this is about them. that's being honest. that's being straightforward. that's not being pre-packaged. and that's appealing. >> still ahead on "morning joe," we have the moderator of "meet the press" chuck todd and buzzfeed's ben smith joins us. plus, the view from the governor's mansion ahead of two big super tuesday states. we'll ask former governor haley barbour whether john kasich might have a chance to shock mississippi and texas governor greg abbot joins us after his endorsement of ted cruz. and tomorrow we bring you our sit-down interview with hillary clinton. we'll speak with her today in south carolina and that wide-ranging interview will air tomorrow right here on "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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>> of course i'm staying in the race. why would i drop out when i've got the best chance to be the nominee outside of trump? i tell you something, if i get out -- which i'm not going to do -- trump is absolutely going to be the nominee. end of story. with us now, we have moderator of "meet the press" and host of "mtp daily" chuck todd. also, editor-in-chief of buzzfeed ben smith. >> ben, you write a piece about hillary clinton's potential general election strategy and you say this "if hillary clinton manages to beat bernie sanders, the early primaries have revealed there's only one strategy for the general election against a republican, scorch the earth. there was a scenario which looks more like a fantasy in which clinton was a movement, she would run on her own mantle of change. in reality, snoeb thnobody is t excited about hillary clinton and that means when she faces a republican, she will have to destroy him. something people who will be doing the destroying acknowledged when i asked them earlier this month. the slogan is be afraid, be very

afraid said paul begala, an advisor to the pro-clinton super pac priorities usa." >> which has been something that would work wonderfully on any candidate in the universe other than donald trump. donald trump has s called sexist in a "des moines register" interview on december 23. three days later he puts out a tweet for free and a week later he puts out an instagram linking bill clinton to bill cosby and both of their ratings go down and bill clinton's has gone down -- the "new york times" reports from 51% to 39%. that strategy sounds great against marco rubio, ted cruz. how does it work against donald trump. >> i think in their view, they don't have to work quite so hard with donald trump. donald trump is running in a republican primary where beating up bill clinton is obviously great politics and he is immensely unpopular with the majority of americans right now. so i think their hope and dream is that he just stays that unpopular and keeps getting less popular as people see him more

outside the republican primary. >> do you think i ask with a smile curling up on my -- sides of my mouth that the clintons think it's a dream to run against donald trump? >> i think they go back and forth. i think there's real split opinion in that camp. the polling right now says he's incredibly unpopular but we've all been wrong about him repeatedly and i think they're getting nervous. >> it's not opinion anymore. >> chuck todd, i will will tell you who is horrified right now. bill clinton is horrified at the prospect of every time hillary clinton bringing up women's issues donald trump puts out an instagram and by the end of the campaign bill cosby and bill clinton are synonymous. >> there are two things that the clinton people believe are true. number one, that they can beat donald trump and they think that they can potentially beat him by a fairly large margin. and that it's the last person they want to run against. >> right. >> they simultaneously believe both things. >> by the way, very rational on

both fronts. >> because yes, they see their path to victory. she will be a shell of -- you talk about scorch eed earth. i thought trump is going to scorch earth. you brought up two ways, he immediately said "i'll drop napalm before you even try and do the big/bill cosby --" the point is she's going to long for the days of ken starr when running against trump. this is going to be a race to the bottom. this is going to be something -- i don't -- as tough as she has been through, she's never been through something like this. he doesn't play by whatever agreed-upon set of rules that politics -- politicians play. and when you do that, you have to be prepared for everything. every conspiracy theory that has ever been uttered, he'll bring it up. >> i'll say, it's the bill buckley rule again, never debate against the amateur, the amateur will win every time because -- >> they don't do princeton

debate rules. >> we got a little preview of it and we saw the clintons tied in knots when donald trump did that and they were asked about it for a week or so, bill clinton and hillary clinton and they decided it wasn't worth engaging on that. what do you do when it's one on one if it is these two people and every single day. they have to figure out how to handle that. >> mark halperin, he does it with instagrams. look at what he's done, not only what we talked about the clintons, look what he did with jeb bush, defined him as a low-energy candidate, i had john huey and several other people in south carolina stunned, they asked intelligent people who are you voted for and they didn't bring up jeb and they'd say why? "well, he's low energy, he's weak." and ted cruz, liar, liar, liar, everyday he's calling him a liar. it's non-stop. what's he done? driven down ted cruz's numbers among evangelicals. this is -- i've got to believe -- i mean, if i were the clintons i would much rather run against marco or ted cruz.

i can figure that out, mark halperin. >> let me tell you something remarkable about trump and his dominance of earned media. as best we can tell, he has zero paid television ads up in super tuesday states right now. zero. he's rich enough that he could bury -- he could spend $10 million in texas and bury ted cruz. he doesn't need to do it. i think the two weeks where trump without paid media using social media tangled with the clintons was extraordinarily cautionary for a lot of hillary clinton's supporters. trump put them on the defensive everyday. they backed off and while they can see a why to beat trump, there's also ways he could make her life miserable and poach on votes that democrats count on. so i think donald trump is a very dangerous general election -- >> it's a different map. >> people close to her know that. >> you're going to have a guy talking about supported planned parenthood, supporting universal health care, supporting all of these things that used to be the easier shots. >> i think it's right he would be no fun to run against and the

play book against marco rubio writes itself. but you also come in with a guy who's less popular than any national candidate i've ever seen among hispanics, black people, college educated women. you can really win a republican primary with non-college white guys but he has to find somebody else to like him. and right now -- and i think the clintons, you're right, will get tangled up, this is a scenario that will be no fun for them. i think if you look at the polling, it's hard to see how he beats her. >> i was going to say, chuck todd, i think the "washington post" said -- just had a new poll, 80% of hispanics are opposed to donald trump. >> it's going to be the greatest hispanic turnout in the history -- it will be huge. it will be fantastic. it will be tremendous. >> with him and marco, probably will be. >> 80% unfavorable. those numbers have to turn around and the favorables have to double. he has to get into the 30s or there's no way he can win. >> can't win colorado, can't win

florida, arizona gets put in play, georgia put in play. the hispanic vote, the reason north carolina is a swing state is because of the growth of the hispanic vote, not the growth of the african-american vote. the point is, those numbers -- and that's what makes -- when we talk about trump versus hillary, that is what makes the hillary folks think okay, we know we can win, we'll do that. but by the way, let's say she wins. what kind of president -- she will be the most battered winner in the history of presidential politics. >> a few more senate seats might make her feel a little better. >> it might, but it's going to be -- >> it's not only that. it's also -- >> it's the worth possible way to win. >> if you run against trump, you know the legacy of bill clinton. he's spent his entire life fighting for and working for will come under constant attack. the "new york times" had a story out a week two ago saying his approval rating dropped from 51% to 39%. you're bill clinton going wait a

second, 30 years of work, 40 years of my life and my approval ratings drop like that because of an instagram post? >> and they're wondering why did we rsvp to that wedding? >> i think you put it best. maybe they think the map looks best with donald trump but -- >> the map gets complicated. >> why run against him. >> the rust belt. it's very interesting to me. the first member of congress to come out for him is a guy from buffalo. outside of buffalo. rust belt district. basically the last remaining vestiges of those reagan democrats. it will be -- she might have to spend more time in wisconsin, pennsylvania, ohio, michigan with -- like, that is the one way trump could mess around with the map. but in the reverse, arizona, georgia, north carolina. >> i feel like it's a huge kind of -- i don't know if it's a lesson or but -- when he started everybody was laughing around i remember hillary clinton was asked about going to his wedding and she said something like

"he's fun." he's not fun. >> this ain't going to be fun. >> this ain't gonna be fun. this is real. chuck todd, thank you very much, ben smith, thank you as well. coming up, there's no place like home. >> after a whole lot of months on the road, it is good to be home. [ cheers and applause ] >> marco rubio and ted cruz try to create firewalls in florida and texas. will that be enough to overpower donald trump's momentum? we'll right back. ♪ homeward bound, i wish i was ♪ homeward bound

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the greatest library of oscar moments, simply by using your voice. live oscar sunday, february 28th on abc." the lawsuit brought by sports reporter erin andrews in court. she looked on in tiers after her father testified about her trauma after a man secretly filmed her in her hotel room in 2008. andrews is suing the man, the hotel's owner and former management company claiming they let it happen. nbc's morgan ratford has the story. >> reporter: an emotional day for erin andrews, wiping away tears while her father describes her as a shell of the person she once was. >> she's terrified. she's depressed. she's not the girl that we used to know. >> reporter: steve andrews, a veteran reporter, testifying on behalf of his daughter in her $75 million suit against the man convicted of stalking and

secretly filming her naked in her nashville hoe it will room in 2008. >> she kept screaming "i'm on the internet, i'm on the internet, i'm naked. everything i worked for is done." >> reporter: andrew's lawyer says michael barrett removed and altered the peephole of her hotel room. then he held up his cell phone and photograph had had her. andrews' attorney called a hospitality expert on hand. >> that's the cardinal sin in the hospitality industry is to give somebody's room number away or let them know they're even staying there. >> reporter: the hotel's lawyer blames only the stalker. >> he deceived, he connived, he stalked. that's what mr. barrett did. >> mr. andrews believes someone needs to pay for what happened to his daughter. >> first time in my life as her -- sorry. as her father, i didn't know if she was safe or not. i feared for her life. >> that's a tough thing for a

dad to have have to talk about in public. so the question is, how did this guy, the creep, end up next door to erin andrews. >> he asked to be. >> they said he put in in his reservation that he wanted to be next door to erin andrews. hotel says they never got that reservation, so how did he end up next to her. >> even if he did, why would they agree to a request like that? >> there's speculation, he must have said he was a producer or whatever he said. but it as a policy you don't give out people's names or hotel numbers, especially someone prominent, especially a female. >> maybe some money changed hands somewhere somewhere in there. up next, john kasich says he will perform better in mississippi than some people expect. we'll ask former governor haley barbour if he is as bullish on the ohio governor. that's when we come back. we broabout this new car. to get your honest opinion to keep things unbiased, we removed all the logos. feels like a bmw. reminds me a little bit of like an audi. so, this car supports apple carplay. siri, open maps.

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yesterday we had the hillary clinton thing. >> yeah. >> and i was saying, well, i wouldn't release my transcripts if republicans didn't -- the republicans that i was going to be going up against. and everybody jumped on me, said i was wrong. >> yeah. >> today i'm saying if i'm trump why release tax records and everybody's like, jumping on me. i must be way off on that. it's one of the few times that everybody has been -- >> you're way off. i don't know about both of them. probably. >> what do you thirks willie? what's your gut? you think both just release. >> i think the more you hold on to something when you're asked to do it the more people believe you're hiding something. if you don't have something to hide, put them out there. >> maybe you're way off on both because in both cases they're critical to the message, his is "i'm successful." and hers is "i can take on anybody by what i've said." >> look, i think every candidate for president has released their taxes so there is a lot of precedent there.

>> absolutely. >> i'm not trying to create a difference. in hillary's case it's what willie said, people are going to ask about it. until you put it out there, there will be an issue. >> i'm sure they'll be leaked so get in front of it. >> so, guys, like we do the legendary thing on the count of three say joe's wrong. one, two, three -- >> joe's wrong. >> i don't need to be told to say that. senators ted cruz and marco rubio are maybe playing the long game when it comes to winning delegates but the clock is sticking. louis bergdorf reports. >> for me, the state of south carolina will always be the place of new beginnings and fresh starts. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: senator marco rubio declared a new beginning after placing second in south carolina. this on the heels of a fifth-place finish in new hampshire following his widely panned debate performance. >> he knows exactly wh he's doing -- >> there it is, the memorized 25-second speech. >> and a second-place finish in nevada has people wondering. >> where else do you win on super tuesday?

now it's about winning. >> when we get into the winner take all states in the middle of march, ohio, florida, big chunks of delegates that's where you need to win states. >> that's where what his donors are asking, folks who are leaving other campaigns to come to him are saying "show us where the win is. it can't just be florida." >> reporter: that's because florida doesn't vote until march 15, long after the critical spusz. >> one week from today, the most delegates awarded on a single day will be awarded. >> a total of 595 delegates that count to the magic number of 1237 needed for the nomination. >> reporter: among those key ga battlegrounds, texas, where home state senator ted cruz is looking to regain momentum after his early win in iowa. >> the only campaign that has beaten donald trump and the only campaign that can beat donald trump is this campaign. >> ted cruz is in a very difficult place because he's been so defined by trump.

>> you are the single biggest liar. >> texas will help him rebound. but the question remains for him as it does for marco, is it too little too late given the strategy that donald trump has implemented? >> we've had great numbers coming out of texas. [ cheers and applause ] and then in a couple weeks later florida, we love florida. >> all right. >> four syllables to the word florida, willie. >> flo-rid-a. >> with us right now, former chairman of the republican national committee haley barbour, he also served as chairman of the republican governors' association. also with us, news and finance at yahoo! bianna go. >> well, donald trump has a better chance of anybody else winning the nomination for sure but --

>> why is he doing so well? this is your party, it's been my party. why is he winning? >> trump is winning because people are mad. people are angry at the government, they think washington doesn't work. they think they've been let down. and trump has struck that nerve better than anybody else. they want to tell washington they're mad and donald trump is the voice they see as the one who's best able to do that. >> if donald trump wins the republican nomination, does that start a civil for what the republican party? >> well, i don't think it necessarily does. there are a lot of people who worry that he can't win. he's got very, very high negatives and i'll note that yesterday or the day before the columbus dispatch published the ohio poll and trump, cruz, as well as kasich and rubio were all ahead of hillary clinton in ohio in a general election matchup. >> wow. >> of course kasich by a huge margin, he's the governor there, but trump by two points, cruz by three points and marco rubio by five points in ohio, the

quintessential swing state. but, look, people are afraid he can't win and secondly there are a lot of people that worry that he hasn't talked much about what he really would do if he got elected president. those are the two concerns about trump but i don't think you're talking about civil war. >> could you ever personally support him if he won the nomination? >> i intend to support the nominee of the party. not my party to say this is who it's got to be. you have to trust the voters if you're going to be in the politics business. >> all right. mika? >> there you go, well, that was my question. so you feel comfortable, then, with whoever is nominated? >> he didn't say he felt comfortable. [ laughter ] >> i said i'd support the nominee and whoever we nominate i know this, we can't stand four more years of the failed policies of the obama administration and both clinton and sanders are running to the left of obama. now our country has got to have

a change back toward what made america great. >> is trump on the right? >> he's certainly all over the map if you look at different issues that he's taken. >> that's why i was wondering why you're comfortable. >> but what he is running on would move us back away from this huge government, huge taxation, huge regulation that is stifling the economy. look, americans are mad because this recovery has been the weakest since world war ii. median household income is about $1650 less than when obama became president and that's the obama administration's number. the national association of counties said 93% of counties if you take four simple economic indicators, 93% of counties aren't out of the recession yet. no wonder that 65% of americans think the country is going in the wrong direction. i don't think americans want a third term of that. >> chairman barbour, it's willie

geist, good to see you this morning. you pick up almost any newspaper, look at any web site that talks politics they have some version of the same story and that is the republicans must act now if they want to stop donald trump: let's take marco rubio as an example. how does marco rubio act now to stop donald trump given the way super tuesday looks, trump leading in to so many polls there, delegates out there the way march 15 looks. how would one candidate stop donald trump right now? >> well, of course, the best thing for donald trump so far has been the large field of opponents. >> right. >> that field has gotten small we are jeb bush out, but you've still got kasich, cruz, and rubio. so you're splitting up the opposition. nevada with 46% for trump is probably the best thing that's happened to trump but in the other races he's generally run in the low 30s. if he runs in the low 30s, somebody gets a shot at him then that's how you beat him. but if the field continues to be

larger than normal then you split up the opposition to trump. cruz has got to win texas, obviously. florida doesn't come to the 15th so rubio you mentioned, he's got to win somewhere else or he's got to run consistently strong all through the south next tuesday. >> do you think he can do it? >> by the time we get to florida, so much will have happened that rubio may be on top of the world or he may not, depending on how he does. yeah, i think he can do it but part of it depends on how does -- if kasich decides to stay in the midwest and the northeast, how many votes does he drain off? in my state, senator trent lott highly, highly regarded in mississippi even though he's been retired for several years, he's endorsed john kasich because kasich has been a great governor and trent served with him in congress and kasich deserves as much credit as anybody for the first balanced

budget in the '90s when he was chairman of the budget committee and, you know, he's going to get a lot of votes in mississippi. is going to keep somebody else from beating trump in mississippi? it's that kind of stuff that all these are little factors that may make a difference. >> governor, many people like yourself attribute donald trump's rise as an indictment against president obama. couldn't you also say that it's an indictment against your party establishment as well? >> well, i think that there are a lot of people who when they voted to elect a republican senate thought, okay, now we're going to be able to overcome obama. i remember when i was chairman of the party and joe was in congress, we won the republican house and senate in 1994 and 1995 speaker newt gingrich said president clinton is irrelevant. well, the president is not ever irrelevant and a lot of people had the idea if you have a republican house and senate congress could keep the

president from doing all these things, didn't think about all the executive actions obama would take because it is literally unprecedented in american political history for a president to try to claim that much executive power but also they forgot it takes 60 votes to get anything to the floor of the senate. harry reid said last spring the democrats would not let in the appropriations bill go to the floor of the senate because the republicans weren't spending enough money. you look, they didn't. now, the republicans can't do anything about that, john boehner and the house sent the appropriations bills over. after all, what is the number one role of government? taxing and spending. and the senate democrats will not -- would not allow any spending bills to even be voted on. but a lot of people blame the republicans. they don't know all the intricate details. >> all right. haley barbour, thank you so much. we always love talking to you. >> thank you all. >> stay with us. coming up this tuesday it's

tennessee and texas's turn. we will be talking to senator bob corker of tennessee as the race for president takes a southern swing, the chairman of the foreign relations committee joins us. we will also talk to texas governor greg abbott who yesterday got out on the trail with ted cruz. more "morning joe" in just a minute. to thrive in an ever-changing environment, companies must adapt. but one thing should remain constant - a financial relationship with someone that understands and cares about your business. pnc corporate and institutional banking offers strategies tailored to your company's needs. know that our dedicated teams of local experts offer insight to help you achieve your business objectives.

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up next, the tenth

republican presidential debate is tonight and donald trump once again center stage with so much on the line for ted cruz and marco rubio, be will it be the first time both of them go after trump. plus hillary clinton interrupted during a fundraiser because of something she said 20 years ago during her husband's administration. we will talk about whether or not it's fair game. that's ahead on "morning joe."

last night was the republican caucus in nevada and donald trump scored a big victory bringing him one step closer to the republican nomination. yep, trump presidency is getting

very real right now, it's getting to real mexico is starting to think a wall is a great idea. they're like we want to be on this side of it. donald trump won his third state last night, he got more votes than marco rubio and ted cruz combined. it was so bad afterwards rubio and cruz stopped fighting and just started holding each other. good morning. it's thursday. somehow it feels like it should be friday ten times over, but it's thursday, february 25th. >> what a week. >> welcome to "morning joe." what a week. >> what do we have here? >> i see this. what do we have? >> veteran columnist. >> ledge a dear. one, two, three. >> mike barnicle. >> msnbc political analyst and professor at the university of michigan school of public policy and former democratic congressman harold ford jr. >> good morning. >> in houston managing editor of

bloomberg politics mark halperin, along with willie joe and me. >> we have a big debate tonight. also our big week continues. we have hillary clinton. >> yes. >> in an interview. >> south carolina. >> in south carolina. it's going to be fascinating that we will be doing on tomorrow's show. so going to be a busy week. so, willie, it's interesting, we were doing our job in the factory. >> sure. >> you know, lifting the hammer. >> uh-huh. >> boom, bringing it down. >> parts everywhere. >> i can lift the hammer. >> no, you can't lift the hammer. >> i can lift the hammer. >> why don't you lift it? why don't you guys in second place try to lift the damn hammer? >> mika was saying that rubio and cruz -- >> at the can't lift the hammer. >> he can't lift it. >> half the table got the joke, the other half stonefaced silent. >> you had marco rubio on and you were asking him, hey, what's going on. first of all he's spinning a 22

point loss into a win. then you ask why don't you attack donald trump and he gave, again, one of these stupid answers that he loves to give that everybody knows is not the truth where he goes i'm not going to i attack other republicans while he's stabbing ted cruz in the throat and blood is getting all over his jacket. >> that was my obvious follow-up question. you have no problem doing it with ted cruz. he said i only do that when i'm attacked, ted cruz spread all these lies about me. >> called him a liar. >> his logic when i asked him was i'm going to keep carving off delegates as we go here. you can say donald trump is running away with it but i'm in this for the long haul. his idea if he gets to florida so he has less than two weeks on the 15th and can win his home state which is a winner take all he's back in the game. >> he can lose the first 25 contests and win florida. this is the guiliani strategy on steroids. >> same is true with cruz, if he wins texas he would cat pulled to -- >> he would cat pulled to third

place. i know. it's very exciting. you know, willie, what's so fascinating is, though, you tried to get rubio to actually answer why he gives trump a free pass. >> i think you did a great job. >> and he gave -- he kept giving trump a free pass. >> yeah. >> and then later on trump would not attack rubio. >> i heard you guys float out yesterday this idea that perhaps they're both looking ahead to marco rubio being a vice presidential candidate for donald trump. he asked donald trump he has never had any problem going after anybody, i said why have you stayed away from rubio and not anyone else? >> he said rubio is a nice guy, he hasn't hit me. i said what do you think about his record as a senator? he said he's young and inexperienced. i thought it was telling that donald trump of all people wouldn't even go soft on marco rubio. >> you don't want to knock your future vice presidential candidate. >> maybe he is just waiting until they get one-on-one.

i don't know. >> all right. the tenth republican debate is tonight in houston. it is the last debate before super tuesday and the smallest debate stage yet with just five candidates. staging from left to right will be ben carson, marco rubio, donald trump, ted cruz and john kasich. >> they can hold hands, actually. >> as we've discussed on the show despite donald trump more than doubling his opponents' combined delegate account they have for the most part trained their attacks on each other instead of the front runner and yesterday it appeared cruz and rubio tried to change that strategy just a bit? in the head to head polls donald consistently loses to hillary, i consistently beat hillary. so the question right now is how do we prevent nominating a candidate who loses the general election or for that matter if donald wins the general election who the heck knows what he would do as president? we need a president we can trust. >> we can't be fooled by pt b

barnum. the time for the clowns and the ak row bats and the dancing bears has passed. >> the front runner in this race, donald trump, has actually alluded to the fact that he thinks parts of obamacare are pretty good. i can tell you everybody running for president tells you i want to get rid of obamacare. i'm the only one that has ever done anything about it meaningful. there is no honeymoon period in foreign policy. you can't say when i get there i will hire the smartest people and they will tell me what to do. we have a president right now that treats the prime minister of israel with less respect than what he gives the ayatollah in iran, with less respect than what he gives the ayatollah. the front runner in this race says he is not going to take sides on israel versus a palestinians. when i am president we are going to take sides. we are going to be on israel's side. >> must have been hot in there, mika. i wish i could have got.him some

water. >> he will help himself as you've seen during the state of the union republican response. >> mark halperin, i watched as i always do what about don rickels last night smoking a big cigar -- >> i love watching your show. >> with all due respect. >> you guys tried to talk about the way forward, how rubio wins, how cruz wins, how kasich wins and, you know, at the end of that entire exercise i decided that the only thing that they all needed to beat donald trump was magic pixie dust. there is just no way they are going to beat him unless something cataclysmic happens out there. >> well, the debate tonight is a possible moment where they could change things. they need to try. you saw in those clips mr. rubio and cruz starting to talk about certain things about donald trump that they think are vulnerabilities. first of all, it's not a multi-pronged attack and i think

everybody believes that's what it's going to require and second of all i think these attacks are one offs, they still need an overall frame why they think donald trump is not the right person rather than a scattered shot approach. look, there is almost no way you can conceive of a scenario any of these guys actually stopping him in this crowded field. it starts winning their home states and right now none of them necessarily will win their home states. >> rubio is the worst position to win their home state which raises the question why do we still have establishment members of the washington, d.c. clique getting on team rubio when they have to know, if they know anything about politics, that this is doomed. >> well, look, rubio could have a better tuesday than some people are currently thinking. in states like virginia, georgia, tennessee, he could have a decent tuesday. he is not going to necessarily win any states, but he could come away with a number of second place finishes and a number of delegates to live to

florida. now, again, the fall hassy to living to florida is winning another day and losing at home, probably, but psychologically rubio folks can say here is how we do it and he will try to i think had a on until then allowing trump to run against three people dividing the anti-trump vote. new polls and a new report show that senator ted cruz has a lot riding on texas. a houston public media university of houston poll shows cruz with a 15-point lead over donald trump in the lone star state. 35 to 20%. while a ktvt cbs 11 dixie strategies poll gives him an 8 point advantage, 33 to trump's 25. but annumer son poll shows 29% for cruz, 28% trump and 25% for marco rubio. so yesterday cruz accepted the endorsement of governor greg

abbott and called texas the crown jewel of super tuesday though he would not guarantee a victory there. and the national review reports the family research council's tony perkins and senate conservative funds are preparing to defect to rubio if cruz fails to win on tuesday. >> i don't understand. why defect -- i'm just saying you've got two ships that are going down that are taking on water, why jump from one to the other? >> have either of these guys trump or cruz -- >> cruz or rubio. >> have they ever run or office before? watching these clips it's like two guys whose idea of a political fight is a pillow fight. they think this is the national hockey league that they finish second and third consistently they're winners? >> i don't know. mark halperin insists one of the things we just have not understood about this republican race. >> well, the problem is, you

know, as we've all seen taking on trump is easier thought about than actually done and right now cruz has to survive in this state on tuesday. he must -- he must win or he's out and i think what the rubio people are counting on is maybe cruz loses here, trump is competing in texas, although not with paid media. if cruz loses on tuesday no matter what else he does around the country, if he loses in texas he will be out and at that point kasich and rubio will then be up to say maybe we can win our home states and slow him down. i agree with mike, the posture that they're taking remains thinking as much as about doing well to finish second as it does to stop trump in these one off comments about he is not good enough on israel or he doesn't have the right temperament there is no indication in political history that that's going to slow a guy like trump with all of his skills and all of his support down. >> you know, trump did so well among evangelicals in south carolina, did well again in nevada. david brody writes for the

christian broadcasting network news, wrote a piece titled donald trump's evangelical standing ovation. donald trump continues to amaze. wednesday afternoon he strode on to the regent university stage and received a prolonged standing ovation from the evangelical audience. he went on to speak eloquently about the importance of family, he even brought out his two sons who spoke highly of him. nominating pro life judges, defending israel, et cetera. after hearing what he had to say he left over a year later to another standing ovation. ted cruz must be downing huge alka-seltzer tablets as we speak. it was cruz who was supposed to get all the love from evangelicals, instead trump has invaded his turf. what happened asked david brody. >> all right. >> one of the interesting things about the coverage of this campaign with regard to donald trump is the misnomer and it's been going on for quite some time that part of trump's popularity is because elements of republican party are so disgusted with what the republican party has not done

over the past few years and if you walk around any sidewalk in this country his popularity extends well beyond republican party. well beyond the republican party. >> harold, though, again, evangelicals there's so many things that you could bring up about donald trump and what he has done over the past 20 years that would stop evangelicals from wanting to support him, but, i mean, this shows, i'm sure you saw it in your district, too, people don't always vote based on one, two, or three issues. certainly evangelicals in thh south don't just vote for the guy that quotes the most bible verses. >> this is true. evangelicals also -- i mean, people of faith also love underdogs and trump started off in the front in in race but he has been an underdog as it relates to how the press has treated him and how people have continued to beat up on him and battle and suggest that he couldn't survive past the summer until now and he continues to.

he says what's on his mind. i think it had broader appeal -- i have democratic friends who surprise me who i would not think would think positive who live outside of new york and live outside of the west coast who are saying positive things about him because they think there are a lot of unknowns there, but they like the fact that he is a leader and view him as someone who is a turn around ceo. not necessarily my views but the views of people i respect. >> the coverage of trump and the evangelicals has focused almost exclusively for several months on, well, his values are not their values, thus he will suffer and cruz will rise. but their values -- i think they set their religious values to one side, they have other values that trump whether you like it or not he encompasses them because of his presentation. >> evangelicals are formed by their faith values. although he can't quote the bible necessarily correctly. >> 2 corinthians. >> he does speak to the values -- joe, you could attest to this -- the values that evangelicals have and he speaks

to strong foreign policy, stronger america, stronger economy, not negotiating away america's strength, those are things that he preaches about and talks about. >> i said this several months ago whenever i campaigned and would go into the church i said don't vote for me because i'm the best chris yan. i'm not. vote for me because i know who you are, i understand your values, i grew up in this church, you know, i understand what's important to you and i will go up there and i will fight for you. i think we have the same exact thing here where people go, okay, do we want a guy who runs around quoting bible verses all the time or do i want a guy who basically says, hey, this is who i am, warts and all, but i'm going to go up and i'm going to beat the hell out of anybody who tries to undermine what's important to you. that's an easy vote for evangelicals and there's always been this, you know, the media since the moral majority has always painted evangelicals and christian coalition people as people that just mindlessly go and vote for who they're told.

no, they vote for their own self-interests just like everybody else. >> the debate at this stage of the game will be fascinating. still ahead on "morning joe," former british prime minister tony blair is here as his country considers an exit from the european union. plus we will talk with the chairen of the senate foreign relations committee, senator bob corker. but first governor greg abbott joins us live from texas where he is giving ted cruz big backing ahead of the super tuesday show down. tomorrow our sit down interview with democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton. but first bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> what a storm system, mika. two days, deadly tornadoes, the wind gusts were incredible, that's the buzz this morning from areas of new england all the way down through the mid-atlantic. 400 reports of wind damage and high winds, 19 tornadoes and eight fatalities in total over the last couple days. so this storm system is finally now exiting, there is a little bit left of it, still producing some snow. let me show you these pictures

from virginia. this is the waverly tornado, three fatalities, one was a young toddler, three-year-old boy. you can see the size of these trees. this is without leaves on the trees in many areas, too. that saved us from power outages in a lot of cases but still over 100,000 early today. you can imagine the nightmare at all the airports trying to catch up from yesterday. the thunderstorms went all the way up into maine last night into february, they have never issued a severe thunderstorm warnings in the bangor area in feb. that's how strange of a storm system it was and how warm it was. here is the snow side of this storm, still dealing with snow areas outside of chicago through fort wayne, southern michigan, the print flint area, saginaw back to sleeve cland. the heavy snow will be the central appalachians during the day today. a maybe the possibility of 4 to 8 hoomd envelopes. the rest of the country looks quiet. still unusually warm in the west and some of that warmth will spread across the country as we head towards the upcoming

weekend. looks like we will have another severe weather event possibly middle of next week. leaving you with a shot of new york city where the winds gusted to 50 miles per hour last night and the airports were a mess. looking a little better today. more "morning joe" when we come back. (patrick 1) what's it like to be the boss of you? (patrick 2) pretty great. (patrick 1) how about a 10% raise? (patrick 2) how about 20? (patrick 1) how about done? (patrick 2) that's the kind of control i like... ...and that's what they give me at national car rental. i can choose any car in the aisle i want- without having to ask anyone. who better to be the boss of you... (patrick 1)than me. i mean, you...us. (vo) go naonal. go like a pro. is caring.ng because covering heals faster. to seal out water, dirt and germs, cover with a water block clear bandage from band-aid brand.

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as we enter this week, the week of super tuesday i believe next tuesday will be the most important day in the presidential election. the crown jewel of super tuesday is the great state of texas and it is an incredible honor to be standing side-by-side with my close friend, with my mentor, with an extraordinary governor and extraordinary leader greg abbott. >> joining us from houston republican governor of texas greg abbott. yesterday he officially endorsed

home state senator ted cruz for president. mike barnicle and yahoo's bianna golodryga still with us as well. >> what other than geography led you to endorse senator ted cruz? >> well, as you were kind of pointing out there ted is someone that i've known for 13 years, ted and i worked side-by-side for more than five years when i was the attorney general of texas and he was my solicitor general. unlike so many people who cast a vote for president who are trying to glean whatever they can from whatever they say on tv or in their speeches or whatever, i have seen ted cruz behind the scenes. i know his thought process, i know the way he goes about thinking his way through challenges, i know his heart, i know his commitment. i know that what he does in his official political actions is what he feels in his heart. and that's why i know that ted cruz is the right person to vote for if what you believe in are solid conservative principles. >> governor, we also had a lot

of people that have worked with senator cruz not only in the united states senate but also on campaigns for george w. bush and in the bush administration that were actually highly critical of him personally working with him. did you ever see ted cruz having problems with other people that he worked with? >> you know, the time that he worked with me was after the time that he worked on the bush campaign. i have to tell you speaking for myself as well as the other members of my office, and understand this, the attorney general's office in texas has about 4,000 employees so it's a very large organization, he headed up one of the key tomp nents of that organization and people absolutely loved him. he was jovial, fun to work with, he is an extremely hard worker. he would work 18 to 20 hours a day regularly and he would crank out the very best products about a range of issues where he was able to cobble together national coalitions in favor of certain

causes that that we were able to have great success on on a national stage. ted cruz is somebody who both is easy to work with, he's very principled. that's why i can trust him to be our next commander in chief. >> mike barnicle. >> governor, next tuesday in texas is it a must win for ted cruz? is it a win or stay home? >> well, that's an issue i'm going to have to leave to you political pundits who are a lot smarter than me. what i do believe -- based upon what i hear on the ground in the state of texas and what i've seen -- i'm in houston right now. what i've seen in houston in the last 24 hours and what i have' seen as i've traveled across the state of texas over the past few weeks is ted has strong support here. what we have seen in these primaries so far anyone who thinks they can predict the outcome in advance may be proven to be wrong. ted cruz has a massive machine here and likely should do well.

>> governor, as a proud hughes yan i will be watching the debate tonight, my father will be attending the debate. how important is a debate for ted cruz seeing how what we saw happen to marco rubio from his debate performance in new hampshire? >> as you've seen in these debates there have been ups and downs that take place in the debates and sometimes they can have an affect on the polls or the support and so as we continue to winnow the field down, as we get closer and closer to these huge election days i think debate performance will be very important. i think all of the candidates have to have a good debate or risk the possibility of losing support. >> all right. governor greg abbott thank you so much for being on our show. he will be watching the debate tonight. >> we greatly appreciate it. >> thank you. stay with us, everybody. our next guess says he understands voters' anger and that they should be even age greer. senator bob corker joins us live from washington.

afghanistan officials received a delivery from russia yesterday, 10,000 ak-47s. along with the assault rifles came millions of rounds of ammunition. it comes as afghan security forces struggle with a rising insurgency. according to reuters afghan leaders reached out to moscow for the weapons as the nato coalition military presence began to gindel last year.

a security council spokesman tells nbc news the delivery was part of a large package of russian military aid which includes helicopters and heavy weapons. >> with us now from capitol hill the chairman of the senator foreign relations committee republican senator bob corker of tennessee. first ukraine, then syria, now afghanistan. it appears this threat from russia continues to grow. >> yeah, if you talk to leaders in the region, joe, what they tell you when they meet with putin is putin says, hey, look, i'm getting no push back, i have no price to pay for what i'm doing, it's playing welcomeest clee as we have other issues that this sort of clouds so, you know, i think it's going to continue. i was in munich the weekend before last at the secret council there. i don't think i've ever seen europe in such a state of depression relative to security issues, just economic issues,

refugee issues where putin is using refugees as a weapon of war. then of course is the eu even going to stay in place. he is reshaping in many ways russia's role in the world with almost no push back from nato or the united states. >> the criticism, richard haas was saying from the munich conference as well obviously from republicans on capitol hill is that the president is not doing enough to check the expansion of russia's influence. what could the president of the united states do to stop a megillah maniac like vladimir putin. >> we've missed so many opportunities, especially in syria, joe. i think you remember in august/september of 2013 we jumped in his lap, didn't we? when we got them involved in dealing with the chemical weapons and in many ways what we did was assure that assad would stay in power for some time which is exactly what putin

wished. i think he understands right now as you we talk about plan b in syria if he doesn't do x, i think he understands there really is no plan b or no plan b really and there's not much left there. let's face it. i mean, they are now dominating and so look, i think where we can push back, though, is certainly in ukraine, we can continue -- i know general love is building up our efforts to defend the baltics, try to do things there, but, look, i think under this administration not much. i'm concerned that europe with all the duress they're having and the breaking apart of their agreements internally, i'm concerned that even with the ukraine issue there is a sense that sanctions will not continue and over time putin may get the upper hand there. >> mike barnicle. >> so, senator, let's talk about a fuse that appears to be burning more quickly than the ukraine and that would be syria. russia's involvement in syria, our involvement in syria. give us from your point of view

what you think we're doing right and what you think we're doing wrong vis-a-vis russia. >> well, what we did wrong was leaving the vacuum there for so long and leaving the syrian opposition just hanging. let's face it, we've done almost nothing that we said we would do to support them. opportunity after opportunity with turkey went away on closing the border, at one time establishing a no fly zone. what happened was putin stepped in. so now john kerry i can't even give him a hard time anymore. he's dealing -- he has no tools because in essence putin, assad and iran know that this administration is not going to do anything to push back against them so what we have right now is basically a cessation and in essence russia will begin that cessation when they believe they've gotten all the terrain

control that they want to control. it's totally in russia's hands now. when you meet with john kerry and you talk with john kerry what's happening with him is he's more frustrated with the syrian opposition than he is iran and russia. look, syria, i hate to say it, but the map is -- the outcome is basically i think almost determined at this point because now a conflict between us getting involved is really a conflict with russia and i think it's something that this administration and most americans candidly don't want to see happen. >> senator, having said that in dealing with russia specifically in regards to the middle east or foreign policy in general, when you hear the plans from the likes of donald trump or ted cruz, are you satisfied with having them, either one of them, as commander in chief as far as addressing the current issues that we're discussing? >> so, look, you know, i've been meticulous in not responding to any candidates. i think it's fascinating what's

happening on both sides of the aisle when you think about it. you can understand how there would be sort of a revolution on the republican side because we've been in the desert for seven years. what's fascinating is it's happening on the democratic side of the aisle, too, which is not usually the case. i think what the american people are responding to in this election is that neither party, neither party, has addressed the big issues of our country. neither party. and so they understand -- joe understands this -- there's an infrastructure that's built around both parties that basically keeps them in a very narrow lane, neither party has really been willing to use up political capital that we have to solve our fiscal issues, to lay out a plan, a real plan, to deal with the wealth gap that does exist in our nation, nor a long-term plan to deal with the terrorist threats that we have. i was in the balkans last week

after being in munich and i can just tell you the whole world is longing for the united states to assume the role that the united states has played for so long. the world is not the place it should be without our leadership and it's just not there and so the american people see that, obviously we had really talented -- we have had a lot of really talented candidates on the republican side, people that i admire, but what the american people are looking for right now is solutions and i'm not going to respond to anything any of them say because i don't want to be drawn into that, but that's what we're seeing play out. >> what's your reaction to the iranians taking yet another american hostage, a father that was going over to iran to -- obviously he was concerned about his son who has also been taken hostage by the iranians. what options do we have with

this regime that barack obama just struck is deal that david ignatius called a could say mik gamble? >> yeah, this deal, again, where you give up all of your leverage on the front end with no behavior change on their side, they're continuing to do research and development on their nuclear arsenal, russia is now selling them su-30 fighter aircraft, which is in strict violation or agreed to sell them that, i know the transaction hasn't occurred, agreed to sell them something that's in strict violation of the u.n. security council resolution that put the agreement in place. so, look, they just continue. this has empowered them, it's empowered them in the region because they're viewed now as this major force because they've accomplished this deal with the united states and the other large countries and they're going to continue to do what

they're doing. you've seen where the supreme leader has marginalized the martyr group in this election making sure many of them cannot run and we will see what happens when the election occurs here very shortly. no, it's -- it's been all iran to the detriment of our other allies in the region. >> senator, we've been spending so much time talking about partisanship, one issue that i think both sides of the aisle can agree on is an issue that i know is important to you and it's the ending modern slavery initiative. >> thank you. >> can you tell us about that? >> yeah. today is end it day and i appreciate you bringing this up. we have 27 million people in the world today as you sit here on "morning joe" and i'm here in the rotunda that are enslaved. i'm not talking about deprived, i'm talking about enslaved. 26% of them are in sexual servitude, 74% of them in brick,

rug manufacturing, fishing camps where they are totally enslaved. this is a scourge on mankind. every country in the world has laws against slavery and yet even in our own country we had witnesses yesterday, people become enslaved. so we need to mount an effort with the international community, founded by public and private entities to deal with this just like we did hiv. we know that there are best practices to deal with this. this is a crime of opportunity where poor people who have no access to justice are -- have people dominating them just to make money. and much of this is small businesses. i've seen in the philippines where we've worked with the police department there to really -- once you start paying -- having to pay a price for slavery it really drops. we can end this and that's what today is about. the foreign relations committee unanimously has passed a bill to

end modern slavery and put the resources together. at the world economic forum this year i spent my entire time meeting with other governments, meeting with people who are very wealthy to talk about what we can do as a world community to end this incredible thing that's occurring in modern times and i think we can do that and i think we will do that and today is the day to really raise awareness. the young people in our country, by the way, the young people in our country are infuriated about this and rising up and they are one of our greatest forces in making sure that this ends. >> they certainly are. senator bob corker as always thank you so much for being with us. we greatly appreciate him talking about that. mike, you listened to senator corker, chairman corker, and, my gosh, the inbox of the next president of the united states is going to have is going to be just overwhelming. >> and eventually that's going

to be on these debate stages, probably starting tonight hopefully because as senator corker indicated what we don't feel -- think about enough is our role on the global stage and the candidates don't talk about that enough. >> all right. still ahead on "morning joe." >> asked my mother. i think i know what my mother would say, i think she would look across the dispatch box and say put on a proper suit, put on a tie and sing the national anthem. >> david cameron is taking aim at britain's labor leader and he is not alone. former british prime minister tony blair joins us to explain why he says he's baffled by jeremy corbyn and the rise of bernie sanders. "morning joe" back in a moment.

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sing the national anthem. [ cheers and applause ] >> if we're talking -- mr. speaker -- >> mr. speaker, if we're talking of motherly advice my late mother would have said, stand up for the principle of a health service free at a point of use for everybody. >> wow. that was david cameron -- i wished we did that. >> other than the beatles, i think that is what americans would like to import most. >> yeah. >> into america. >> absolutely. >> it's remarkable. >> slamming labor leader jeremy

corbyn at the house of commons. joining us now former u.k. prime minister tony blair, he is the could chair of the newly formed commission on countering violent extremi extremism, but there is a bernie sanders strain to the narrative. >> let me start by asking, mr. prime minister, about jeremy corbyn. i've talked to so many people in the labor party, i have yet to find anybody that was anything but horrified that he's moved to the top of your party. what has happened? why is it happening and are we seeing in america the same thing that britain is seeing there? >> i think we're seeing the same thing everywhere, actually. because, you know, allow there are many people in the labor party obviously i didn't support jeremy corbyn and who don't support him, after all he did get elected by the party membership. it's not as if he's got no support. what there is today these great

insurgent movements around individuals that gather immense momentum, carry people along with them and, you know, on the left they're very much the same type of themes that come out, we want a political revolution, we want this for free and that for free and we want to shake up the elites and so on. all of which is completely understandable and comes from this deep sense of anger. bob corker was just talk being a moment or two ago. the trouble is in the end in real politics, in real life politics, you need answers and not just anger. you need a plan. >> can you draw a straight line from jeremy corbyn to bernie sanders? >> i have enough problems with my own politics as you just indicated, i don't need to get into yours. i've known hillary clinton for over 20 years and i'm a grade admirer of hers, who you elect is up to you. but i think that strain in politics right and left is they are right across the western world right now and it certainly

is unnerving those of us who used to think we understood politics pretty well. one of the fascinating things here and back home is when you put the question to heap how important is electability in your choice of nomination, that question which when i was growing up that was the first question you ask, okay, can they win. >> can they actually win. >> it doesn't seem to be such a big question. >> on the other side can you draw a straight line if you don't want to do it with your own party can you draw a straight line from the national front to ukip to donald trump? >> i think on the right the equivalent of trump movement here is the anti-european movement in the u.k., yes, which again is about -- it's against elites, it crosses -- actually crosses party lines to a degree, it draws new people into politics and again it's about expressing anger at a system people want changing and they feel isn't changing. they also feel that those of us

who have been in power and expressing, you know, expressing concern about the difficulty and complexity of decision making, people also want to take that and throw that away and say, no, we can sum it up in a series of headlines and this is what's going to happen. >> so who we elect is our business. is your way of saying you'd rather not talk about the candidates here? because it does impact quite frankly global politics. >> for sure. it's not that i don't care deeply about who you elect and what they do. >> so what happens if -- >> i've learned enough to keep out of other people's political fights. >> can you envision a trump presidency? >> it depends if he gets the republican nomination and wins the presidency then you think you can't sit here and not envision it. you know, but what people desperately want from the outside, from america, is they want an america that is strong and assertive and engaged that's out there in the world giving the leadership we want to see.

>> are we right now? all we've heard back from the munich conference from people who have come on our show is that people think america's leadership role is in serious decline and there is -- >> avoid. >> avoid right now. >> that's what they think. >> what i would say is i think there are certain areas, for example, trade in which i think america is leading and what it's proposing will do an immense amount of good for the world. personally on the issue of extremism, which is my foundation works on and we track it day by day across the world, i think it is the right moment now to think what is it that can allow you to learn the lessons of all the periods of policy making since 9/11 and get to the point where we've got a policy that is not just mill tear y'ally capable of taking on the terrorists but also capable of defeating the ideology behind the extremism because in my view the issue is not simply the tens of thousands of fanatics that

support people like isis, it's the millions and millions of people within the muslim world who support a form of ideology that's actually a per version of slam, it's not the proper islam as all, but nonetheless that ideology gives rise to the extremism i think we need to attack both things. >> i'm just noticing you will be working with my dad. >> i would hope for your sake, mr. prime minister, i would hope for your sake you are on a separate wing. but go ahead. >> it would be a great honor. >> exactly. >> no, it would. >> exactly. >> go ahead. >> what we're trying to do is to say, okay, look on the basis of what we've learned about this issue because there is a global issue today, it's affecting countries in europe not just the middle east, north africa, far east, central asia, what have we learned both about the military capability we need in order to be able to confront these people

it's got a crisis on refugees,

it's got huge problems with its economy. a country like britain which is 65 million people we're growing up in a world in which you've got china 1.3 billion, india with over a billion people, the united states obviously still the world's biggest power. for us to divorce ourselves from the biggest market in the biggest political union on our doorstep would in my view be a big mistake. sure, the frustration with what's happening in europe is fueling this. >> mr. prime minister, thank you so much for being with us. very excited about your work in csic and the commission on encountering violent extremism. please know every time you go into that building our thoughts and prayers will be with you because dr. brzezinski may be there as well. >> he's waiting for you. >> i look forward to it. we will be right back with more "morning joe."

tune in tomorrow for our interview with hillary clinton. and that does it for us. >> northeast going to be exciting. >> that's going to be nice. while i'm toiling away in south carolina you will be on stage playing guitar at prohibition tonight. >> i will be toiling away as well in south carolina. >> check out "morning joe" music live tonight. >> jack-of-all-trades, joe. >> exactly. >> my gosh. >> afterwards i'm going to pick up the hammer. >> yes. can you lift the ham. >> reporter: >> i can lift the hammer. >> you can't lift the hammer. >> steve kornacki, who can pick up the hammer? >> i'm going to change the world. >> picks up coverage after a quick break. i think it landed last tuesday.

one second it's there. then, woosh, it's gone. i swear i saw it swallow seven people. seven.

i just wish one of those people could have been mrs. johnson. [dog bark] trust me, we're dealing with a higher intelligence here. ♪ the all-new audi q7 is here. ♪ good morning. i'm steve kornacki live in centennial olympic park in atlanta, georgia. a chilly morning in atlanta, georgia. and this state of course one of the biggest prizes up for grabs just five days from now on super tuesday. and tonight, tonight looms as a huge night in the republican race. all five remaining candidates