i was thinking you're probably having a much better work food source in your life right now. >> i had a brisket sandwich for lunch. i'm considering another one for dinner. i don't think that's a good idea. i'm going to sit on that after the show. >> if you bring me home some brisket, i'll make it worst your while. happy super tuesday eve. in the last race, the presidential debates that year started so early. the republican started debating in 2012, a year and a half before the election. they started in the spring of 2011. ultimately there were 20 different republican debates in the 2012 race. the debates were amazing. michelle bachmann and herman cain with the 999 thing. what might have been the nuttiest presidential debate of all that year, got scheduled for late december 2011 and never happened.

it got cancelled. a conservative website called news max planned to do a republican debate that year between christmas and new years. they had a venue all picked out in des moines, iowa. it was ahead of the iowa caucuses. they had a tv network that was set to broadcast the debate. they invited the republican candidates to be there. the candidates started saying no. they started rsvp'ing no. the reason they were offended by the whole process of this debate is they were offended by the person who news max chose to moderate the debate. the first campaigns to object were the campaigns of ron paul and john huntsman. ultimately mitt romney said the same thing. he said he wouldn't be there. rick perry and michelle bachmann opted out. they had to cancel because the moderator choice was to controversial to the republican

candidates that it became impossible for them to host the debate. none of the candidates would agree to it. that's because the person news max chose to host that debate in iowa before the iowa caucuses was donald trump. it was in the 2012 campaign. they picked trump's campaign. ron paul said mr. trump's participation would contribute to an unwanted circus-like atmosphere. mr. trump said few people take ron paul seriously and many of his views and presentation make up a clown-like candidate. mr. trump with drew as the moderator. the debate ended up getting cancelled. the republican primary in 2012 lumbered on. a lot of people considered it quite clown like or circus like. ultimately in 2012, mitt romney emerged as the party's nominee at the end of that long, very funny primary process.

when mitt romney got trounced, the republican party decided their own primary process is part of what set mitt romney up to lose in november. they made some changes to their primary process. the first thing they changed was the republican party debate schedule for 2016. they decided next time around there's not going to be another primary with 20 freaking debates. they decided they would only candidates to participate in events that were sanctioned by the party. the other thing they changed was the nominating process itself. the party believed that mitt romney was basically the inevitable nominee. he had to slog on for too many months with these hopeless candidates dragging him down and throwing punches even though they had no real chance to win. because that's the way republicans viewed what happened in 2012, they decided what they would do for 2016 was shorten

the primary campaign. they shortened it on both ends. at the end of the process they moved republican convention up. instead of happening labor day, it happens in summer. it will happen earlier in the process. they also changed the front end of the ro sesz. they changed the allocation of the degaits in the early state so the front-runner can lock up the republican nomination without giving any of those second tier straggling candidates a chance to ever camp up. i'm sure the republican party feels like that would be an excellent change to apply retro actively to the 2012 process that got romney. the process they put in place after romney lost is a process that would have helped mitt romney in 2012. you can't go back to 2012.

you can't go back this time. you can't fight the last war. you can only fight the next wear. this process they created to lock down the front-runner and not give anybody a chance, that's now what they are stuck with. in a year when the front-runner is not like mitt romney, it's freaking donald trump. the guy who was too ridiculous and circus-like to be allowed moderate a conserative website debate and is now running the table. having won three of the first forsta four states with him leading in ten of the states tomorrow. that republican party decision to change the process so the nominee gets picked early. so the front-runner gets to lock in an early lead, that's the whirlwind that republicans are reaping right now as they freak out about the prospect of donald trump becoming their nominee.

here's the other thing that's going on that explains a little more about now just who is winning the republican nomination, donald trump, but the tenor of the race as he steams toward getting that big prize. at the same time the republican party made this change to get the nominating process over and done with more quickly, as they made this change to increase this influence of early states, they also simultaneously made a decision that the early states should be way more southern than they used to be. look at super tuesday. these were the states last time around when mitt romney was having his hard time wrapping up the republican nomination. this is who was voting on super tuesday in 2012. this is not the same group of states that's going to be voting on super tuesday this year. the party this year decided on a substantially different mix of states. they dropped idaho and north dakota and ohio and they added in alabama, arkansas and texas.

when you add alabama, arkansas and texas to the other sprinkling of the other states and combine it with the delegate allocation process that makes it impossible to stop a republican front-runner any time after super tuesday then yeah, what you end up with a presidential nomination in the republican party that gets decided according to who can appeal to the hard right, all white deep conseratives on the republican party. in their new process where it's almost impossible to catch the front-runner after super tuesday, these are this year's super tuesday states for the republican party. no, it's not all in the south, but it is primarily in the south. alabama, arkansas, georgia, oklahoma, tennessee, texas, virginia.

we don't have exit poll data for recent republican primaries in a few of those states. where we do have that exit poll data about who turns out for republican primary, look at the racial break down of the vote in those states on the republican side. alabama is republican primary, 94% white. georgia's 94% white. tennessee, 97%. virginia is state that's only 71% white in terms of population. at the republican primary, it's 94% white. you know, what you start ends up finishing. process matters. choosing to have your nominee picked by all white, deeply conservative voters has consequences for who gets picked. that has consequences for what a winning campaign sounds like this year in the pursuit for the

republican presidential nomination. this was donald trump in madison, alabama this weekend in front of a crowd that local law enforcement described as 15,000 people. the trump campaign described it as more than 30,000 people, naturally. at this huge alabama event, donald trump was endorsed by the first u.s. senator who has signed onto his campaign, jeff sessions. he's known as an immigration opponent in the senate. that's why the endorsement was seen as competitively important in the republican race because ted cruz has been dropping jeff sessions name throughout his campaign in order to make himself seem as hard line anti-immigrant as possible. ted cruz campaign is already in trouble. they already have to be worried they may not be able to compete anywhere outside of ted cruz's home state of texas tomorrow on super tuesday. jeff sessions endorsing donald trump is a particularly blow for

senator ted cruz. that's what the jeff sessions endorsement of donald trump in alabama means. the jeff sessions endorsement of donald trump in alabama is also a good reminder of who jeff sessions is. before jefferson sessions iii was elected to the united states senate, he was rejected by the united states senate as a nominee for federal judgeship in the 1980s. >> a federal judgeship is a lifetime appointment and president reagan has been nominating young men for these jobs 32 to 38 years old. people who could keep the reagan influence around. one of his nominees in trouble. in troubling for saying naacp is a pinko organization. nbc news national political correspondent ken bode is in our washington studio this morning. morning.

>> morning. the man who said those things and would be a federal judge is jeff sessions. >> mr. session s a throw back to a shameful era that i know black and white americans thought was in our past. it's inconceivable to me that a person of this attitude is qualified to be a u.s. attorney let alone a united states and federal judge. >> jefferson session was brought face-to-face with things he said. for example, that the naacp and the civil liberties union are un-american organizations. >> these comments that you could say about, i may have said something like that in a general way and probably was wrong. >> comi organizations. jeff sessions first rose to national prominence as a man with a record that was too racist for him to be confirmed as a federal judge in the reagan era. at his confirmation hearing a black attorney said jeff sessions called him boy and

warned him about the way he spoke to white people. that did not ultimately stop alabama republicans from electing him to the united states senate. he's the first endorsement for donald trump for president. donald trump picked up an endorsement to the man who authored the papers please. he's the secretary of state in kansas. he and the man with whom he co-wrote that papers please law explained to the washington post why they wrote that bill in arizona and why they hoped other states would adopt the arizona language as a model. they described the motivation as such, immigration is on track to change the demographic make up of the entire country. how many countries have gone through a transition like that. it's possible but we don't have any examples. therefore, we need anti-immigrant legislation so

america doesn't go through this dangerous process of becoming a minority majority. we need good anti-immigrant legislation to make sure america stays white enough. donald trump got his endorsement and also got a gubernatorial endorsement from this guy. >> these are guys named d money, smoothie, shifty, these types of guys that come from connecticut and new york. they come up here and sell their heroin and go back home. incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave. i was going impromptu and my brain didn't catch up to my mouth. instead of saying maine women, i

said white women. i'm not going to apologize to the maine women for that. if you go to maine, you'll see that we're essentially 95% white. if you want to make it racist, go right ahead. do whatever you want. >> maine governor paul llepage insisting when he didn't mean to say anything about race at all. a few days later he said this. >> i had to go screaming at the top of my lungs about black dealers coming in and doing the things that they're doing to our state. >> donald trump just got paul lepage's endorsement as well. this is race where in iowa and new hampshire there were white supremacist robo calls. telling them to vote for donald trump as a matter of white

prides. that was already happening in iowa and new hampshire before the republican presidential contest took their turn to the deep south. now the republican presidential contests have taken their turn to the deep south. >> here's what's going to happen 100%. they're going to call me back, and they're going to say mr. president. get them out. get them out. are you from mexico? are you from mexico? are you from mexico? the hostility toward me by the judge. tremendous hostility beyond belief. i believe he happens to be spanish, which is fine. he's hispanic, which is fine. we haven't asked for recusal.

we have a very hostile judge. he is hispanic, i believe. he is a very hostile judge to me. i've said it loud and clear. >> i want to ask you about the anti-defamation league that called you to condemn the racism of david duke who recently said that voting against you at this point would be treason to your heritage. do you condemn david duke and say you don't want his vote or that of other white supremacists in this election? >> i don't know anything about david duke. i don't know what you're talking about. did he endorse me or what's going on? i know nothing about david duke. i know nothing about white supremacists. i'm supposed to be talking about people that i know nothing about. >> the question from the anti-defamation league even if you don't know about the

endorsement there are these groups and individuals endorsing you. who you would you say you condemn them and you don't want their support? >> well, i have to look at the group. i don't know what group you're talking about. you wouldn't want me to condemn a group that i know nothing about. if you would send me list of the groups, i'll do research on them and disavow if i thought something was wrong. you may have groups that are fine and it's totally unfair. give me a list of the groups and i'll let you know. >> i'm talking about david duke. >> i don't know david duke. i don't believe i've met him. i don't know anything about him. >> republican front-runner donald trump on cnn yesterday refusing to condemn david duke and the ku klux klan. he said he would disavow his support and he said that exchange happened because his ear piece worked properly and he couldn't hear the question and he didn't understand what he

commented on even though he said the name david duke during that interview. if you believe that it was all an ear piece problem, there's some very nice swamp front property you might want to invest in scouting locations for your march 15th hootnanny. one of the things we have been able the find in the old news footage is people holding up signs and things that say things like hitler ii. those were not neo-nazis. those were protesters showing up trying to sound the alarm to the country about what kind of racist demagogue george wallace was and what he represented with his campaign. that kind of denonuation worked in 1968. it worked in most places but it did not work everywhere.

george wallace on his platform in 1968 won five states in the general election. three of those five states, georgia, alabama and arkansas will be voting tomorrow and all of them are strongly favored to go to donald trump tomorrow. because of the front loaded importance and influence of states like that in the republican process this year, the big wins he's expected to get in those george wallace states will go a long way toward propelling him to the republican presidential nomination and putting that nomination out of reach of anyone else in the field. if you design a system like this, it will produce an outcome like this. we needed 30 new hires for our call center.

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tomorrow is super tuesday. i'm supposed to sleep to get ready for it but i'm too excited. there's too much going on, including a lot to get to on tonight's show. one of the things we'll get to tonight is some legitimately good news out of place that's only been giving us bad news for

months. we have a happy story out of flint, michigan of all places. still ahead, we get some keen insight into why the south is expected to go so big for donald trump tomorrow night. we have lots more ahead. stay with us.

are you planning on voting on tuesday in. >> oh, yeah. >> is there anything that donald trump can say today that might make you not to support him in. >> no. i agree with everything he says. >> i was asking that gentleman over there any reaction that you had there were certain white supremacy groups former grand master kkk has come out and

endorsed him. does that bother you at all? >> no comment. >> recently he's come under some scrutiny because some white supremacist groups have endorsed him. does that bother you? >> everybody's a person. i don't choose -- if they want to support him that's their choice. like my choice. >> does it bother you that he's attracting those kind of people? >> no. why should it? >> are you planning on voting on tuesday? >> i am. >> and you're going to vote for? >> donald trump. >> are you planning on voting on tuesday? >> yes. >> are you planning to vote for mr. trump? >> yes. >> anything he could say to change your mind? >> not at all. >> some white supremacist groups have come out to support him. does that bother you? >> no.

we're the same age. i'm for him totally. >> joining us now is elyse jordan. great to see you. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> i think that the republican party, by stacking the primary, so that stuff got decided earlier and simultaneously putting a whole bunch of southern states at the start might have created this situation inadvertently but they may have created this situation a little bit by their own

making. >> it's ironic this was done for mitt romney and to help mitt romney on some level back in 2012 and there was, back then, i remember in mississippi hearing some people say like mitt romney is the mormon question was huge in that election. now you look at this year how it's just come back to really bite the party. then is the rule going to hold? in 2012 it meant a candidate had to have won eight states to have any possibility to go through this brokered convention scenario. who knows if rubio and cruz will ever even come close to that. it's bizarre how this year has really broken literally ever rule in the book. >> that issue about the convention, it doesn't have to be a brokered convention.

it could be contested. they say donald trump can lock up the no, ma'am medication. he's going to run the table tomorrow with the exception of texas. by march 15th, he could be well on his way. anybody else will have to win by going into the convention with nobody having clenched the deal and it gets decided at the convention. what kind of incentives does that create for the rest of the primaries? >> i think the republican party establishment has this fine line to navigate of not alienating trump supporters who will be a huge part of the overall turn out. what does that do to the other races? is it better trump will get the nomination and not be as supportive and hope he doesn't do as well because of what it will mean for the party long time. i think it will destroy the party. i don't know if you saw the story about the rga call this morning but the republican governor association did a conference call this morning

with all the governors and governor martinez was on the call and she was encouraging non-endorsement of trump why chris christie outlined the reason he was supporting trump. this is going at all levels of the party. there's a furious debate over what trump means to the longevity of the message. >> it's a jaw dropping plan hatched by mitch mcconnell. there's a bunch of vulnerable senators up for re-election. vulnerable senators or all senators will not only divorce themselves from donald trump in terms of endorsement but in their own senate re-election campaign run negative ads against donald trump. try to defeat donald trump, consider it as a given he will lose and talk voters into electing a republican senator as terms of endorsement but in their own senate re-election campaign run negative ads against donald trump. try to defeat donald trump, consider it as a given he will lose and talk voters into electing a republican senator as

a counter balance to hillary clinton. that sounds too clever. >> it seems too difficult considering so far today donald trump was supposed to be the one month summer fling and look at where he is now. i can't believe we're into february at this time last year, senator rand paul who i worked for was leading the polls. his message of bringing in people to the republican party not alienating them. bringing in people concerned about criminal justice reform and appealing to privacy advocates. that was absolutely not the message that resonated this primary season. >> to say the least. >> it's very dark and depressing to me. >> maybe it's always darkest before the dawn. that means nothing to make you feel better. good to have you here. thank you. >> thank you. >> it turns out someone else in this race, besides donald trump, is giving folks a run for their money in an unexpected way.

that story is coming up tonight. stay with us. because shoulders were made for greatness. not dandruff

you know what, i look around this crowd tonight, i think we're going to win here in massachusetts. >> senator bernie sanders of vermont in milton, massachusetts tonight holding his final campaign rally ahead of tomorrow's super tuesday contest. you see the turn out he got

tonight. there are 11 democratic races tomorrow on super tuesday. ad spending data shows the hillary clinton campaign or super pac supporting her are spending money in all 11 states. the sanders campaign is spending money in colorado, massachusetts, minnesota, oklahoma and spending a bit of money in texas. that means the rest of the field, they're essentially conceding to secretary clinton. it's interesting, sanders campaign does not say they are trying to win in texas. the money they spent there, the rallies they held over the weekend that got big turn outs, the efforts are aimed at not winning texas but trying to hold down secretary clinton's margin in texas and claim some delegates out of that very rich delegate state. what the sanders cam pap says they are trying to win are these five states on your screen now.

minnesota, colorado which are both caucus states, oklahoma, vermont and the state of massachusetts. of these states, senator sanders has a huge lead in his home state. it's prizing that secretary clinton is spending anything in vermont. he has spent a little there. he's expected to do well in minnesota and colorado. there's not great polling but on the ground reporting suggests he is doing well this minnesota and colorado. senator sanders with a five-point lead in oklahoma. 48-43 over secretary clinton in that state. that leaves massachusetts. massachusetts it could be tougher for senator sanders. a poll last week had secretary clinton up by five points in massachusetts. leading in massachusetts by a larger amount. shows her leading by eight points, 50-42. the poll numbers is why the clinton dam pain added late

events in massachusetts including secretary clinton addressing very large overflow crowds today this boston. massachusetts is an important battleground for the democratic nomination if only because senator sanders had said he will win massachusetts. that means if he doesn't win there, he will be underperforming his own expectations. the clinton campaign will take that as a momentum boost and a big psychological victory. they say they are focussed on missouri, illinois and ohio. those are all states that vote in two weeks on march 15th. senator sanders is saying and it rallies now, that he's looking further down the calendar for big wins as well. >> we are trying to win every delegate that we can and not only are we fighting for super tuesday, we're looking ahead to california. the largest state of all. we think we'll do well in michigan.

>> michigan, california, new york. michigan votes next week. the new york primary is not until april 19th. the california primary is not until june 7th. that's more than three months away. in a usual campaign when a candidate just lost by almost 50 points in south carolina, it's not even trying to win in more than half the super tuesday states, it would be weird to be talking now about your hopes to win a primary more than three months down the road from now. that said this is not a usual campaign in either party. even though senator bernie sanders' path to the democratic thom nation looks narrow. it looks hard to follow at this point. bernie sanders does have one huge thing on his side. it's senator bernie sanders is drowning in sea of money. the $21 million he took in january blew everyone else away. this month in february, he just

doubled it. this is nuts. nobody else in the field could keep up with the $20 million he raised last month. this month he's raised oaf $40 million. of the $41.6 million his campaign said today they raised in the months of february more than $5 million raised today alone. that is a mind bending amount of money to raise at this point in the race. i know big numbers sound alike. bernie sanders raising over $40 million in one month. that's a qualitative difference. that turns out to be his wild card. can he deploy that money to make his start winning in unexpected places. we will know part of that tomorrow with the super tuesday results.

a lot of eyes on massachusetts. we're about to learn a little more about that prospect right here next with a very special guest who is here live for the interview. that's next. stay with us. we needed 30 new hires for our call center. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. (announcer) need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards with a single click. then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. (announcer) over 400,000 businesses have already used ziprecruiter. and now you can use ziprecruiter for free. go to ziprecruiter.com/offer99

as these elections continue across the country, the american people are faced with a very clear choice. we can elect a president who will lead us into more interventionist wars of regime change or we can elect a president who will usher in a new era of piece and prosperity. it's with this clear choice in mind that i'm resigning as chair of the dnc so i can strongly support bernie sanders as the democratic nominee as president of the united states. you see the see the vice chair because your party thinks you're going places. once you get a gig like that, it comes with a price.

congresswoman tulsi gabbard resigned her vice chair position at the dnc in order to endorse bernie sanders for president in this democratic primary. as a very high profile democratic member of congress and a rising star many the democratic party, as an iraq war veteran, this endorsement is a very big deal for senator sanders. i think it's a big deal for congresswoman tulsi gabbard. she jiens us tonight for the interview. >> thank you for having me. it's great to talk to you. as vice chair of the dnc, you had to be impartial. you couldn't say what you felt, when did you come to the decision you wanted to endorse interknee sanders more strongly than you wanted to stay at the dnc and keep to that agreement? >> it's been increasingly frustrating over the last several months as i've seen the presidential primaries continue

on both the democratic and the republican side and how cheaply both they and most of the media have taken the issues of war and peace and not challenging these candidates to really explain their positions in depth and examine what kind of commander in chief they will be for our country which is the most important job that the president has. as i was going through this frustration and trying in my own way to insert these conversations to push the media to be more accountable for these candidates, it came to a point where i had to see where can i be most effective because there's so much at stake in this election. that's why i endorsed senator bernie sanders because i know firsthand i served in a medical unit where every single day i saw the high human cost of war. coming home, serving in congress

now, dealing with budgets and seeing every day the economic impact of how all of these resources that we as a country have spent in these wars of regime change have cost our economy and invest and nation build at home. i'm endorsing bernie sanders because he has the commitment to stopping the interventionist wars of regime change. there's a clear difference between him and secretary clinton in that regard. >> secretary clinton has, i guess, i would say she has tried to persuade democrats that she would not be more hawkish than president obama. i asked her that question directly. she said she would not be more hawkish and that perception was inaccurate. she's tried to persuade democrats she's learned her

lesson why the vote for the iraq war in 2002 was the wrong vote. you're not persuaded by that argument from her, clearly. do you feel like if she won the nomination you would be able to support her or is this endorsement from bernie sanders an absolute rejection of her? >> i'm glad you brought this up. there's a difference between what someone says and what they do. that's where we look at this most important question of who our next commander in chief would be and what qualities we look for them. we can tell what they would do by look at our past. i have not heard secretary clinton apologize to my brothers and sisters in uniform, military families for her vote for the iraq war. she said it's a mistake and she's learned from it. when you go down the line and say how do you explain her being the architect and champion behind the war, the military action to overthrow ghadifi in

libya. when you look at that result in action, we've got a failed state full of chaos and now isis and al qaeda having a strongholds in that country. take another step forward, if she says she's learned from iraq then why is she championing this war to overthrow the syrian government of assad and promising to escalate the war if she's elected as president by implementing a no fly zone. the you've questioned secretary clinton on this issue of the no fly zone and taking this action would put us in conflict with rush cha. this is why the issue of judgment is so critical and how bernie and hillary differ very greatly. >> if you did this endorsement in order to try to get people

talking about national security issues in the primary, you have succeeded in doing that by doing in way that's so focused. thanks for being with us. >> we're just beginning. thank you. >> appreciate you being here. we have much more ahead on this very busy super tuesday eve. we'll be right back.

as promised, i have some good news from an unexpected place. they threw a party in flint, michigan last night, and stevie wonder showed up. the justice for flint concert was big. it was effective. they raised almost $150,000 for flint so far. that was kind of awesome. then today another party of a different kind in flint. look at this. mayor karen weaver just this morning celebrating the successful trial run for finally starting to remove flint's ruined and toxic lead pipes. flint has been investigating a faster, cheaper way to replace its pipes.

a way that was invented by another michigan city, by lansing. in flint today they dug up their first pipe using the new technique, and it was a success. it worked. mayor weaver in flint tells us tonight that her plan to start removing all the city's lead service lines will be full steam ahead starting thursday, as in tomorrow's tuesday and before the end of the week thursday. party in flint, michigan. flint, you are about to get some new pipes, finally, after all this time. feels like a miracle. state government ruined the city's pipes starting in the spring of 2014, and that's how everybody got poisoned. they are finally about to start the work of replacing them, thanks to a fiercely determined mayor who will not take no for an answer. it is a small first step, but finally it is a first step to fixing flint. we'll be right back.

it's the last day of the month. happy leap day. one of the things that happens is one month turns into the next, is that we get these little giblets of data in terms of fund-raising and ad spending and stuff in politics. and today there's one that i think says more than anything else about who the next president is going to be and how we're going to get there. and that is this number. this number, the circled one there, that's john kasich's ad spending in alaska. that turns out to be funny on its face and also very important for figuring out what's going to happen next in our country. i will tell you why that number is the key that kind of unlocks

the republican race right now. i'm serious. that story's next. stay with us. i'm chris bosh. when i was sidelined with blood clots in my lung, it was serious. fortunately, my doctor had a game plan. treatment with xarelto®. hey guys! hey, finally, somebody i can look up to... ...besides arnie. xarelto® is proven to treat and help reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots. xarelto® is also proven to reduce the risk of stroke in people with afib, not caused by a heart valve problem. for people with afib currently well managed on warfarin, there's limited information on how xarelto® and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. you know, i tried warfarin, but the blood testing and dietary restrictions... don't get me started on that. i didn't have to. we started on xarelto®. nice pass. safety first. like all blood thinners, don't stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of a blood clot or stroke. while taking, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. xarelto® may increase your risk of bleeding

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(announcer) over 400,000 businesses have already used ziprecruiter. and now you can use ziprecruiter for free. go to ziprecruiter.com/offer99 governor, we're not used to getting much attention from national politicians, especially in election years. i'm sure you really do like us here in vermont. but what's the strategy behind spending so much time in a state with so few delegates? >> well, because we think it's a state that can understand me. vermont shouldn't be ignored. this is not a country where we just ignore a small state. i mean, if it was on the other side of the globe, you know, up in alaska or somewhere, it would be hard to get to. but it's all part of this effort. and i think -- i hope that vermont efforts get me and that we can have a respectable showing. >> vermont. you are part of the plan this year for ohio governor john kasich. also, alaska, little shout out there. nobody ever thinks of alaska in

a presidential election. but john kasich does. he's spending more than $4,000 there for the alaska caucuses tomorrow. he's spending the equivalent of this 2008 ford focus on radio ads in alaska. when he could be buying this 2008 ford focus instead. i submit to you humbly that in john kasich's sudden love for vermont and alaska in these otherwise mysterious political doings there lies a key to the republican presidential race right now. and it's this. over the past few days it's become clear that mathematically there's only two possibilities for this field. either donald trump wins enough delegates to lock up the nomination or nobody does, in which case the party's nominee is going to be decided at their convention this summer in cleveland. if it goes to a contested convention, there is a real path to the nomination for john kasich or for anybody. because if we're headed to a contested convention, primaries really don't matter anymore. if this race really is going to be decided at a convention, literally nothing between now and the convention will matter. i mean, if you're john kasich,

all you have to do is get there. stay alive and stay on people's minds until cleveland. so why not stay in the race and pick up delegates in neglected states with cheap ad rates like vermont or alaska? if you're john kasich you don't need to win texas or florida. you don't need to court the conservative base. heck, you can spend the day before super tuesday telling voters in vermont how you expanded obamacare and it was awesome. which is what john kasich did today. but if it really is going to go to the convention, you're not worried about republican primaries. you just want to look electable come november and you want to look alive come cleveland. and despite it bewildering the beltway, that calculus is why conservative republican governor john kasich can afford to be running a really moderate campaign right now. he skipped the part of the process where you win the primary from the right and you have to sprint to the middle for the general. he skipped that part because the only way anyone other than donald trump has a shot at the nomination is an end game in which the primaries really don't matter. and the republican field really only has two ways forward at

this point. donald trump wins the nomination or nobody does and we get that convention. that's it. what he's doing right now makes total sense. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you tomorrow for our super tuesday coverage. "first look" is up next. >> it's super tuesday, march 1. can anyone stop trump or hillary clinton from running away with the 2016 election? the northern virginia sky was lit up in red and blue flashing lights during a procession for fallen police officer. erin andrews breaks down on the stand over her stalker's secret filming of her naked in a hotel room. plus, after a year in space, astronaut scott kelly comes home today. more on this busy super tuesday. "first look" starts right now.