needed. our amex helped us fill the orders. just like that. another step on the journey. will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com you. >> just when you think you know what's going to happen next, just when you think you have a hand him on a story and where it's going, just when you think it's under control, things go a little bit nuts. there are still some known knowns in the world. we do still know a few things about what's going to happen next. i can tell you with all certainty that tonight is south carolina eve. tomorrow polls will open and then polls will close in the south carolina democratic primary. >> that will happen. in terms of what is going to happen in that primary, nobody can tell you that for sure in advance. the voters, of course, will decide. but we decided to take a little snapshot today of the last three days of polling, heading into

this weekend and beyond. so looking first at the democratic side headed into this very important south carolina race tomorrow night the polling situation if that democratic contest is pretty stark. over the last three days, there have been two polls on the south carolina democratic race and they both show hillary clinton leading bernie sanders in that state by a mile. that clemson poll that shows hillary clinton leading by 50 points i should point out that is a much larger margin than we are seeing from other polls. that is a bit of an outlier. that is what comes in published note. if you are planning on watching the south carolina rules coming in, watching the reaction of hillary clinton and bernie sanders to see how tomorrow's results will affect the overultrajectory of the race, i will give you all the details coming up in just a moment in terms of what our coverage is going to be, how and when you can watch the south carolina race. but after tomorrow night, after south carolina, just three days later, it's, okay, going to be

the mother of all primary days in both parties. super tuesday, right, on the democratic side, locking at polling that's come out in the lastly the days, this is the polk snapspot that we've got for super tuesday. and first of all, you can pull out colorado and minnesota. there's no polling in colorado and minnesota, even right before the vote. that's basically because colorado and minnesota are not primaries. they are caucuses. caucuses are much harder to poll. we have information that colorado and minnesota are hotly contested. bernie sanders' campaign say they have a good chance to win. even tow we don't have polling in colorado and minnesota, don't read anything into the lack of polling there, that is basically to be expected because they're caucuses. >> that said, we don't have polling numbers for the last three day, for oklahoma, tennessee or vermont. you can cut to the chase in two

of those states, vermillion is the home state of bernie sanders, for sanders is expected to win there almost by acclamation. his numbers there are completely off the charts. similarly, hillary clinton is thought to have a large home state advantage in the state of arkansas. so she is expected to be basically a shoe-in in the state of arkansas. but the other states, for which we don't have current data, those will be really interesting to watch. it will also be particularly worth watching over the weekend, right, to see if polling does come out saturday, sunday into monday ahead of those states holding their contests on super tuesday. particularly keep an eye on oklahoma, where the existing polling showed the race is very close both candidates have been working really hard and holding big events. the states where we do have current, you know, new data for super tuesday on the democratic side, those states are virginia or monmouth put out a poll yesterday that shows hillary clinton leading there by 27 points. if georgia, there have been two

polls out of georgia in the last three days. one has hillary clinton up by 28 points t. other has hillary clinton up 39 points. if texas, there has been a whole bunch of polling. six polls in texas over the last three day, show hillary clinton with a texas lead, ranging anywhere from ten points to 40 points, depending on who is doing the poll. there is also that massachusetts poll. we got an exclusive early look last fight right when it com out, this massachusetts poll from wbur, doesn't show a giant double digit lead for secretary clinton like we are seeing in the other super tuesday states. but there is a notable result for the democratic contest because it's massachusetts. massachusetts, obviously, borders vermont. it's expected to be almost a home state race for bernie sanders in the same way new hampshire was almost a home state race for him, when he got that huge victory there on february 9th. the sanders campaign, the candidate said repeatedly, they expect to win in massachusetts. so this wbur poll came out last night showing bernie sanders

trailing hillary clinton in massachusetts. even if it is by a small margin, that could potentially be very big news on super tuesday, if you are a sanders supporter, tomorrow in south carolina and tuesday in all these other states, you look at the polling, it's not a good outlook. the sanders campaign and sanders supporters are at a moment now however hard they have been working they have to crapping it up and start working three times as hard no order to overcome these very stiff head winds they got against the krnt campaign against these crucial next contests. but that renewed front runner status thatting is hillary clinton is enjoying on the democratic side right now, that is almost nothing compared to what front runner donald trump is enjoying on the republican side t. republicans for their part, they don't have a contheft this weekend. their next caucuses and primaries are on super tuesday. you look at the next three days of polling for the super tuesday states for republicans, that

will give you two polls, excuse me, out of virginia. donald trump leading by 14 points, one of them by 23 points in the other. in oklahoma, a new poll by the oklahoma newspaper has donald trump leading there by 8 points. that wbur poll in massachusetts has mr. trump leading in massachusetts by 21 points. there are two recent polls out of georgia right now on the republican side. both of them show mr. trump leading, one by 12%. one by 26%. the only place on the forthcoming calendar donald trump is not leading. the only state where that's true is the great state of texas. in texas, it does look like ted cruz could win there. there have been five polls released on the texas race over the last three days. one shows a tie between senator cruz and mr. trump. the other four show senator cruz leading in his home state by a range of anywhere from 1 point to 15 points. so, what do you do if you are

donald trump presidential front runner and you are leading in every single state in the country except for one, which is the home state of one of your competitors. if you are leading everywhere in the country, are you donald trump, obviously what you do, you go to that one state where you are fought leading. you hold a raucous sweating yelling and hollering red faced scream your lungs out rally in front of 8,000 punked up texans if ft. worth. and if you are donald trump, before you hold that more than pit of a giant rally in ted cruz' back yard, the other thing you do is unveil a big surprise. we all got word at the news networks today donald trump was going to be holding a press available before his big rally in ft. worth today. that's kind of par for the course. we all tend to get nudist when these things happen. that's how the press knows to show up. usually, if there is a big endorsement at a press availability, we get a little heads up about that.

they may not tell us who the endorsement is. they will tell us, there will be a big endorsement or news made, there was no notice at all about today's donald trump press availability. no notice it would be anything special. we were told the time and reporters and camera crews turned up at the allotted time. it's going to be a donald trump press conference. okay him we'll see what he's going to say. now what i'm going to show you, is the part before it kind of started. i'm going to show you the raw footage from the network camera here. so you can see how this happens. so you can see how they orchestrated it for maximum shock value. right. again, the reporters were all there, they were expecting a press conference by donald trump. they have not been told to expect anything special. so then it starts and listen to how the press reacts. listen to the reporter fearest to the camera, when in walks donald trump with somebody else who nobody expected to be there.

>> wow. >> something is very positive. >> wow. >> yeah. wow, indeed. mr. trump starts his thing. he actually says wow. as if he's professing shock that all these cameras are there. but the people next to the camera the reporters are saying wow because oh holy mackerel. we didn't know that was going to happen. that's chris christie. if he's here in texas with donald trump, he must be here to endorse donald trump. before today, none of the 64,000 republicans who have dropped out of the presidential race thus far have decided to endorse donald trump after they, themselves got out. the closest we got to that was mike huckabees campaign manager. his daughter sarah huckabee signed on with the trump campaign this week. there was one failed presidential candidate from 2008, rudy guiliani admitting sometimes he talks to mr. trump. but that's it. nobody certainly from the whole giant field of failed republican

presidential candidates this year had endorsed the front runner yet before today and nobody would have expected the first one would be chris christie, right? especially after the way chris christie talked about donald trump during his own presidential campaign, which again only ended two weeks ago. >> i just don't think he's suited to be president of the united states. donald, you don't want this job. this is not in your skillset. the speaker of the house, you can't fire him. this is not the way it works, man. i want this, no, you're fired. and he goes to his ceo office on capitol hill. yeah, who is going to mess with me now. the other guy woes only experience is sitting in a fake board room in new york city look nook a camera and saying "you're fired. request itself. >> show time is over, everybody. we are not electing an entertainment in chief. showmanship is fun.

it's not the leadership that will truly change america. >> whatever you want to say and have said about me over the years in terms of things that have come out of my mouth, they're a fraction. i never said that i can shoot somebody in the middle of fifth avenue and i wouldn't lose a voter. i never called mexicans rapists and murders. i never said ban all muslims from the united states. mr. trump himself said he is walking living special interest group and lobbyist. okay. he's gotten special deals for himself. he's admitted this on the stage. he said he gave money to hillary clinton because he wanted to make deals with her. he gave money to the democrats, nancy pelosi, because he wanted to make deals with her. it's one of the great iron mys in the trump campaign. he says, i won't be affected by special interests. he is a special interest. he's a walking special interest. >> you don't like the big moderators, stand up and fight. you don't like the network, stand up and fight. show up an fight. what's that tell you about what we can expect if things go

sideways when you go into the oval office? what are you going to do? goup r upstairs to the residents and say, i'm not playing? vladmir putin isn't being nice to me? i will fought return his phone call? the president being nice to me? i'm not going to hold any more press conferences? i mean, basically, this is like a 13-year-old argument. >> we're not picking an entertainer in chief. we're not casting a tv show. this is real. >> donald has a lot of talents. he does, he has been a successful businessman, he has lots of talents. he has absolutely no ability in this area. he has no experience in it. no ability in it. it doesn't make him a bad guy. i think he's generally a good person, but, you know what, he had no business being president of the united states and if i thought he did, i wasn't be running. i'd be helping him. >> up until two weeks ago, the

reason chris christie says he was running for president is donald trump has no ability to be the president. he has no business even trying to be the president of the united states. so chris christie was running against him instead of helping him. well, now, as of today, chris christie is helping him. and so, yeah, in a presidential race where we thought we'd seen it all, where nothing could surprise anyone anymore, chris christie endorsing donald trump today was a moment that made hardened reporters and camera crews go, wow! the associated press called it a shock endorsement today. you know, can you explain it anyway you want. i think the immediate explanation that strange to mind is your basic cockroach theory, when everything around you is dying, it's the apom lips, adapt. can you live through almost anything. chris christie doesn't have the next political job lined up in his life. he is termed out as new jersey governor. getting 6th place in new

hampshire dimmed illusions there is a national appetite for what chris christie has to offer, for what kind of job, what, republican party chairman maybe? national spokesman for something republican? i don't know. this might have been the only move left for chris christie that would give him any sort of political role in the republican party going forwardch strategically for mr. trump, his endorsement meets a couple of his immediate needs. marco rubio was seen as having a good debate if texas, mostly on his criticism of mr. trump in that debate. this shocker. this unexpected chris christie endorse him early today quashed that debate story line pretty fast. donald trump, once again, take over the news cycle from anybody else he is running against. mr. trump is enjoying a diminished republican field in which only marco rubio seems to have the endorsements to stay in the race against him in the long

haul, even though he is expected to win in state after state. >> that takedown that chris christie administered to marco rubio in new hampshire, that may not have helped governor christie's own chances, but it did establish christie as the one proven marco rubio slayer in the whole republican field. jeb bush won against marco rubio, he was ineffective against him. ted cruz has been ineffective against marco rubio. chris christie has been great against marco rubio. marco rubio probably has his fifth place finish in new hampshire. he probably has chris christie to thank for that. so now, even though chris christie is out of the race himself, now, donald trump has that patented ain't rubio elixir on stop in his campaign in the form of his highest profile endorser chris christie. so this endorser today, it was a shock to the race. it does meet immediate political needs for chris christie. it pleased immediate political

needs for donald trump. maybe we shouldn't have been so surprised despite what appears to be mr. christy's previous opposition to mr. trump. ah, well. here's the critical question. not just for these two people as men and as political figures. here's the critical question, not just for the immediate strategy in this campaign and for what's going to happen next, but for us as a country. in this peculiar political moment we find ourselves in. now that somebody like chris christie has stopped opposing donald trump, he used to really oppose donald trump. he said he was patently unsuited for the job of being the president of the united states. he didn't have the skillset. he had no business running for the job. he's given that up. now that somebody like chris christie stopped opposing donald trump, he's given up and given if and decided to get on board the donald trump train, which appears to be steaming towards the nomination. now he has given up his

opposition and gotten on board, should we see that as a harbinger of things to come? this is turning out to be a quick u critical imper cal question for our country. the whole world is looking for an answer. there is a contingent that find donald trump horrifying, opposed to prospect of him oning the nomination for president t. anti-trump feeling and the republican party is real. you can see it in the anti-trump ads like the club for growth and the anti-trump ads run by super pacs here and there. you can see it in things like the national review t. conservative magazine trying to catalyze some sort of unified conservative movement against mr. trump. you see it in some of his ploil opponents, finally getting around to criticizing him directly as they compete for republican primary votes. we will have more on that tonight, including the moments in amber and will go down as the first instance in american major politics when one presidential candidate accused the other of

weting his pants. the person that made that accusation was not donald trump. but as the republican contest further descends and as mr. trump standing in the polls gets higher and higher and more consistent in states all over the countries, including the home state of marco rubio, there is a critical question to ask about the republican party and it's important for our whole country. since it looks like donald trump is going to win, unless things change radically, are things going to change radically? are republicans going to do what chris christie did today and give up and get on board? or will the anti-trump contingent get stronger? does the anti-trump contingent within the republican party house any chance of getting strong enough to keep him from getting the nomination? it's an empirical question. it's getting to be kind of critical, not just to this race, to the future of who we are as a country. we do have one small specific

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>> the word choker, as in a person who chokes, that word is spelled c-h-o-k-e-r. thoughts the context here. >> so you want to have a little fun? all right. what discuss donald trump do when things go wrong? he takes to twitter. i have them right here. let's read some. you'll have fun. all right, number one, here's the first one, light weight marco rubio was working hard last night. this is true. the problem is he is a chalker, and once a chalker, always a choker, i guess that's what he meant to say. he spelled choker. choker. he called me mr. meltdown.

let me sell you something. during two of the breaks, he went back stage, he was having a meltdown. first he had this makeup thing applying makeup around his mustache. he had a sweat mustaches. then he asked for a full length mirror. i don't know why, the podium goes up to here. he wanted a full length mirror, maybe to make sure his pants weren't wet. i don't know. then -- >> this is the marco rubio campaign for president now. he says the front runner, peed his pants, and the word choker. is spelled that way. while we are at it t. word potato has no e on the end of it. but this is the presidential campaign of the republican party right now. once it gets to the point one candidate says his opponent wears macup and maik maybe he pees his pants, there has to be a response that arrive with

equal with not opposite dichlth there is their campaign now. >> i walk back there, he's with a people of makeup. marco, easy with the makeup. you don't feed that much. you know the story with marco. i watched him against this man, where marco, he was right over here, i looked at him. i said, are you okay? he looked like he just came out of a swimming pool. he was amess. we'll see what happens, but i heard he has some nasty personal comments. but i saw him back stavenlg he was putting it on with a trowel. he is desperate. i watched a part of his little act. he's a desperate guy. i have been watching him over the last number -- he is not presidential material that i can tell you. doesn't have the demeanor him he is a nervous nellie. i watch him back stage, he's amess t. guy is a total mess. and you know i joked recently that can you imagine putin sitting there waiting for a meeting and rubio walks in he is

totally drenched. i don't know what it is, i have never seen a human being sweat like this man sweater. i don't think he's a presidential, of presidential caliber. i don't think he has the demeanor. i don't think he's going to do very well. he's a mess. >> bernie sanders and hillary clinton are also running against each other for president right now, running very hard. between them, though, peeing your pants and sweating too much? hasn't come umm at all. not even once t. parties are different every year. the parties are really, really different this year. incredible bladder protection from always discreet that lets you move like you mean it now comes with an incredible promise.

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>> i am thrilled to be here this morning to lend my support. ly lends my support between now and november in every way that i can for donald, to help to make this campaign an even better campaign that it's been and help him to do whatever he needs to do to help make the countries everything we want it for our children and grandchildren. he is a good friend, a strong and resolute leader. he is someone that will lead the republican party to victory in november over hillary clinton, which is the single most important thing we can do. >> new jersey governor chris christie becoming the first failed presidential candidate from this year to throw his endorsement behind the republican presidential front runner donald trump. at this point what happens here seems clear, either donald trump will become the republican party's nominee or the anti--donald trump forces within the republican party will prove to be strong enough to stop that from happening. from outside the conservative movement and from outside the republican party, frankly, it is very hard to gauge the strength

of the anti-donald trump effort. it is a real effort. can you see evidence, right, of individual republican politician and strategists and advisers and passionately loyal republican individuals and individual conservative organizations and even sometimes now other candidates in the presidential race. you can see them all trying to criticize donald trump or at least express their opposition to him getting the nomination as hess front runner status just gets stronger and stronger. but is the anti-trump effort within the republican party basically tilting at wind mills at this point? or, is it really a powerful enough counterforce to what he's put together in his presidential campaign that it could derail it? i can't tell from the outside, so in order to effectively report out this story, we must consult with somebody on the inside. joining us now is the former communication director for the rnc, our friend doug high, last month he wrote this op ed,

here's why i won't support trump if he is the nominee. doug, it's great to see you. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> so how strong, explain to somebody outside your world, how strong is the organized effort against mr. trump inside the conservative movement? >> if you have trouble defining it from the outside, i have trouble defining it from the inside, what i can tell you is i talked to countless people in plate primary states for that matter, who think donald trump would be the worst thing to happen to the republican pare, even though these e he's not our nominee, has been destructive to the efforts of the party, think it will be a total disaster not just winning the white house, for the house the senate, for state house, control of state houses, governorship, everything about this is bad. i would love to tell you it's a great organized effort. it's not. i think you have seen a lot of individuals who have stood up and said i'm concerned about the direction of our party, which means they're worried about the

direction of our country. so we're all standing up one at a time. i welcome all aboard to say that donald trump is somebody that we can't support but also i think everybody that i've talked to is really happy to finally thavg god marco rubio last night and ted cruz giving scrutiny to donald trump. we've had kind of three phases of trump right now. first was you can't attack donald trump because he's not serious. that was in the summer. then in the fall, you can't attack donald trump, it won't work. that was in the fall. and then come right now in the winter, it's you can attack donald trump. it's too late. there is one common theme there. not going after donald trump. not treating the front runner of the republican party as a front runner. i have been arguing since july we need to treat him like a front runner, hold his feet to the fire on issues and go after him. no one's done that until last night. >> with that evolution of all the reasons fought to do it.

now that he's getting closer to the nomination. obviously, we're still early, anything can happen, super tuesday looks daunting for people who hope he's not the nominee. as it starts to look leak he's closing in on that nomination, does the effort to try to stop him get weaker or stronger? i had expected it would get stronger, seeing chris christie jump in with donald trump today made me feel like maybe what we should expect the effort will get weaker because people feel they'd rather be with him than against him if he's going to win? smr i think that's certainly an attitude, we saw with chris christie the chris christie of february of 25, is not the fis i chris christy of february 5th, i give the trump campaign credit. they held it as a close secret. it surprised everybody. rachel, i know what a great fan for professional wrestling. for me this was when andre the giant walked out and shocked hulk hogan and shocked the world. nobody saw this coming.

certainly smart politics to tamp down on a bad campaign? is it too late in i don't know the answers to these questions. i'm glad somebody is speaking out on a candidate level, we're starting to see people go after trump an treat him as the front runner. it's amazing in american politics. we've never seen this before, obviously, we never seen anybody like trump before. we never seen a front runner be immune to scrutiny of the world. >> the scrutiny that he has received has slid right off of him. because it has not seemed material for whatever reason for the people trying to take him down. it will be really fascinating. particularly after super tuesday to see what happens to your side of the party, people who want to take him on. >> let me say quickly, one thing, rachel. whether or not our efforts are successful or not, republicans know one thing, democrats will not make the mistake that republicans have. whether it's brad woodhouse, americans united for change, the democratic national committee.

hillary clinton campaign. they will attack trump, attack him hard. it will be bloody. republicans should have been doing this for eight months. >> communicator for the rnc, a nice guy. come back soon, great to see you. >> all ayes. thank you. >> such a good night. it doesn't feel like a friday. it feels like the middle of a workweek, doesn't it? it is technically the middle of the workweek, a governor that has become a household name in american politics this year may be on the way out of his job. that dramatic story is ahead. that dramatic story is ahead. stay with us.

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comcast business. built for business. >> two roads diverged in yellowwood, one led to exactly who you expect, winning a republican primary. the other led to no one winning the republican primary. and the party thereby being thrown into a level of chaos close to historic. the official numbers that create this map, those numbers have been crunched by our smartest colleagues. >> that reporting is next. it is a stark truth about what's to happen that a lot of people have not come to terms with yet. if you want to sound smart about the presidential race this year, i have just the thing for you next.

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that's all there is. there's just one direction. forward. one time... now. and there's just one sound. you and us... together... with a mighty roar... that tells the world... we're coming for you. >> so far in the three states that donald trump has won, florida senator marco rubio has lost to mr. trump in those states by 24 points, by ten points and by 22 points. in all of the states where trump has won, marco rubio has never gotten close enough to have lost to him by single digits. after the last one, after nevada

where mr. trump got 46% of the vote, marco rubio was 22 points behind, senator rubio went on the fox news channel the next morning and said that mr. trump is the one who underperformed in that race. >> the last time mitt romney got over 50%. donald trump under performed than mitt romney did. >> mitt romney won 50% in nevada. donald trump did get 46% this time. and the one person who can't accuse that of being an under performance is the guy that lost to the supposed under performer by 22 points. marco rubio has been anointed by the press and most of the republican party as the one guy who can beat trump. when marco rubio has had the chance, he has never even come close. >> that said, these smart kids at first read, the nbc news politics blog, they have taken

this blunt reality one step further into the future. them putting it as bluntly as they did today is maybe finally going to set everybody's hair on fire the way it should. look. only two possible delegate outcomes. number one, trump as nominee or number two, a contested convention. according to what chuck todd and mark murray have backed the envelope about this election, with where the delegates are now and where they are likely to be after tuesday if we extrapolate conservatively from the super tuesday states polling right now, if this is the delegate situation after super tuesday, which is what we are expecting it to be, well, then forget it. we forget it if you are momentarily excited by marco rubio describing donald trump as an under performer after the latest state in which donald trump crushed him by double digits. because if this is the delegate count after tuesday the only question whether donald trump locks up the nomination two weeks later when ohio and

florida vote or he doesn't lock it up in ohio and florida and they have to go to cleveland in july with no clear nominee. those are the two "options action" available at this point. donald trump locks it up or nobody locks it up. nobody else has a chance to clearly win him nothing dramatic has happened in this race.

>> before this week, donald trump did not have a sitting endorsement from a sitting governor. today within a matter of hours, he had two. >> first is the one everybody heard about today, new jersey governor chris christie who flew down to texas to make the big shock announcement on camera. just a few hours later came this guy. governor paul le page. governor paul le page previously endorsed his friends chris christie.

when mr. christie dropped out, his coveted endorsements was back up for grabs. he made his announcement on the conservative talk radio show of howie carr. >> i'll be very honest, originally i said i'd like to see a governor, but unfortunately the american people are not going for a governor this year, so i am going to endorse donald trump and i think...and the reasons why are very similar. i was donald trump before donald trump became popular. >> i was donald trump before donald trump -- so now donald trump's got two governors, chris christie and his doppelganger paul le page, paul le page last seen making national news for complaining about white girls in maine impregnated by black drug dealing men. any other republican governors wanting to hop on the trump endorsement band wagon the line starts behind chris christie and paul le page. no jumping the line, no cutting. let me know if you are having

trouble telling them apart. we'll be right back.

>> we have one big story, big news ahead on tonight's show about a republican governor who it looks like may be out of a job soon. >> that story is next. but first, here is a programing note. because i love you so much, i have decided that you and i should spend another saturday night together. so here's what's on tap for our weekend together. tomorrow night, live wall-to-wall coverage of the south carolina democratic primary starting at 6:00 p.m. eastern, i will be here joined by brian williams, chris mathew the whole goong and you, the south carolina polls are opened from 7:00 in the morning to 7:00 in the evening. we will be here at 6:00 p.m. eastern. don't be late, it's okay to wear jeans. to folks out there whose diabetic nerve pain...

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and, we own where our dry food is made - 100%. can other brands say all that? for grain-free nutrition you can trust, does your food go beyond? learn more at beyondpetfood.com parking is hard to find. seems like everyone drives. and those who do should switch to geico because you could save hundreds on car insurance. ah, perfect. valet parking. evening, sir. hello! here's the keys. and, uh, go easy on my ride, mate. hm, wouldn't mind some of that beef wellington... to see how much you could save on car insurance, go to geico.com. ah! (car alarm sounds) it's ok! >> so this is a big story, super tuesday, obviously, tuesday this tuesday, march 1st. then there are a few caucuses and primaries on the 5th and 6th

in march over the weekend. the next big boldness of delegates, after super tuesday is one week exactly after super tuesday, march 8th. there are four primaries on march 8th. the big one the big kahuna with 50 delegates that day. the first after super tuesday is michigan. and there is something going on in michigan right now. let's say you were the governor of a state. and nine people died in your state. possibly because of you. because of negligence and horrifically bad management by your administration. if you were the governor who had that news to deliver to your constituents. how would you do it? now, i don't know you. i can only occasionally see you through the television. still i doubt you would do it like this. >> the issue i'm going to discuss is really doing with john c. county. all that was presented to me was information that over the course of 2014 and 2015, we saw a spike if legionaires disease.

in terms of the spike, in terms of the specific numbers, i was told about this a couple days ago and basically i thought it should be shared as a part of this whole process. >> that was how give rick snider announced a big legionaires outbreak in his state. 90 people got sick. 9 people died. that outbreak was connected to the same malpractice of government by which the rick snyder lead poisoned the city of flint. an emergency manager switched the town's water source to save money. legion air's disease is horrendous. literally, people died. and when governor snider announced it in january, he made a point of saying, right off the bat. right at his initial announcement of this deadly outbreak, he wanted you to be sure he didn't know, he wanted you to be sure to know that he didn't know about it until just a couple days ago. he just find out about it. just then. we now know, turns out, his

office did know a long time before that one of governor snyder's top staffers knew about the outbreak last march, which is ten months before the governor announced that he hadn't known anything about it. ten months before governor snyder said that. the governor's office got this e-mail from a state agency. it says, quote, more than 40 cases reported since last april. that's a significant uptick. more than all the cases reported in the last five years or more combined. the governor's office was told that the county health department had quote made the leap formally the uptick in cases is directly attributable to the river as a drinking water source. well, today governor snyder released more e-mails from his office related to the flint water crisis. now we know his office knew about this deadly outbreak even earlier, quote, 42 cases of legionaires disease in genesee county since last may all explain more on the phone t. date on that e-mail is january of last year. so with michigan residents

literally dying from this, governor snyder says he had no idea until this year, but his governor's e-mail traffic shows communications even a year before he ever said anything to the public. a year before governor snyder admits he ever heard anything about it. as the presidential campaign teams towards michigan on march 8th, the first big delegate prize after super tuesday, michigan's republican governor is in a frenzy right now of firing and reassigning and accepting the resignations of and suspending high profile members of his staff and his cabinet t. spokesman for the state environmental agency, the director of the state environmental agency, two people so far from the drinking water division of the state government. yesterday it was the governor's communications director and his press secretary. everyone must go. everything must go. now we've got this enormous new stash of thousands of pages of material from governor snyder's office. that was just released. reporters, including our own

producers of this show have spent the day and will spend the next several days going through all this stuff. honestly, just from what we have gone through thus far, it looks devastating for governor rick snyder. let's take one example. even before these news organizations were reporting high levels of lead in flint water, people in flint knew there was something with the water. it was so bad six months after flint started drink from the river t. local gm took themselves off flint water. it was corroding the automobile parts that they made. when that happened, here's what rick snyder's top environment adviser wrote in an e-mail to the governor's chief of staff and others. she said, quote, i think we should ask the emergency manage tore consider coming back to the detroit water system in full or in part as an interim solution to both the quality and now the financial problems that the current solution is causing. i see this as an urgent matter to fix. the governor's top lawyer then replies to that e-mail, quote,

good gravy. to anyone that grew up in flint as i did, the notion i'd be getting my drinking water from the flynnt river is downright scary. too bad the emergency manager didn't ask me what i thought. i'm sure he heard it from plenty of others. my mom is a city resident. into is to know she is drinking what under the circumstances with elevated fecal colorfor. i agree with valerie, they should get a stop gap asap before this thing gets too far out of control. >> that was the conversation in the governor's office october 2014. six months into the flynnt river water fiasco. these are people who work for governor snyder. these are governor office e-mails. again, rick snyder did nurse, even with this top level discussion among his top level advisers, despite these explicit and disgusted warnings from rick snyder's top environmental adviser and his top lawyer. they did nothing. they left flint to keep drinking that water day after day, week

after week, month after month for another year after that discussion happened in the governor's office. and that's just one example. here's another one. march 2015. on march 2015, flint had been drinking this water for almost a year t. government's chief of staff wrote this. quote. how about buying some water for the people for a time, dlur 250,000 would buy a lot of drinking water. we could distribute it through the churches. we continue to make the water even sayre. if we procrastinate longer and doing something direct, we'll have real trouble. you think this might be real trouble? real trouble? this is real trouble. like testifying before congress trouble. like testifying before state law makers trouble. like if ib fib criminal investigation trouble. like e criminal investigation trouble. like calls for the governor's resignation trouble. in some real way now the cracking of the wall that has so far protected governor rick snyder and kept him in his job.

governor snyder, since this blew opened, he has continually kept as much distance as he could between himself personally and the idea he knew what was going on in flint. but in an interview today in response to this new raft of e-mails becoming public, a name dennis muchmore, rick snyder's former chief of staff. he said he and others in the office discussed it with the governor directly. personally, quote, we shared them. look, there is only so much distance that governor rick snyder can get from his own responsibility here. there is only so much blahible deniably. only so much, hey, i didn't know. never heard of it. there are only so many e-mails like these can can come out and so many staffers in the back woods in state governor. so much protected space he can clear before it becomes evident he is standing in the spotlight alone, who did it. who allowed it to happen.

there is only so much of his own governorship that can still stand before holding that office becomes untenable for him. are we there yet? msnbc's continuing political coverage is up next. >> decision day in south carolina. again, this time it's the democrat's turn. doors opening right now at polling places across the palmetto state. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt here in new york t. place for politics. bernie sanders and hillary clinton face off in the first south prime at this hour. while their story lean appears to hold little suspense today, it is the republican race providing drama and spectacle as super tuesday looms. the battle for gop supremacy reduced to personal attacks. here's a snapshot. >> what we are dealing with