trump's endorsement the at time. you can see how sheepish he looked. >> never comfortable. he never was comfortable. thank you all. we'll be back tomorrow with more "mtp daily." all. we'll be back tomorrow with more "mtp daily," but "with all due respect" will start right now. i'm mark halperin. >> i'm john helemann. with all due respect to mitt romney, you can criticize donald trump for a lot of things, but the hat, it's really not that bad. happy motor city, rock city, motown madness day, sports fans, we are here at the fabulous fillmore, downtown detroit, just a block away from the fox theater, where they'll take the debate stage later tonight. preview that impending broul in just a moment. first the other brouhaha of the day.

a comprehensively scathing rebuke of donald trump this morning in salt lake city. the unprecedented attempt of the republican's party last nominee to kill the candidacy of the most likely nominee, seen at times like a political equivalent of a celebrity roast. willard romney tore not donald's, his policy proposals, to the extent trump has them. his temperament, in short, he stated that he was unworthy of being the president of the united states. take a look. >> here is what i know. donald trump is a phony. a fraud. his promises are as worthless as a degree from trump university. he is playing the means for suckers. he gets a free ride to the white house and all we get is a lousy hat. >> almost immediately, trump supporter, sarah palin went on social media and urged the donald not to take the bait. but later, at a rally in

portland, maine, trump dismissed romney as quote, irrelevant. and then he fired back, in true trump fashion. >> mitt is a failed candidate. he failed. he failed horribly. the third debate -- he failed badly. that was a race i have to say, folks, that should have been won. that was a race that absolutely should have been won. and i don't know what happened to him. he disappeared. i am not a fan of barack obama, and that was a race that i backed mitt romney. i backed him. you can see how loyal he is. he was begging for my endorsement. i could have said, mitt, drop to yo your knees, he would have dropped to his knees. >> it wasn't just trump, loudest voices also took after mitt for being a profoundly flawed messenger. >> i always liked mitt romney. why he is doing this, i cannot

for the life of me give you any explanation. i'm more shocked and disappointed than anything else. this is so hurtful. at the end of the day, if trump becomes the nominee. it appears to me that the establishment in washington, both parties, still believe that whatever is happening out here that is causing people to support donald trump in large numbers, that it's something temporary. that it is a fever. that it is a tantrum. that it's a child that has gone astray and a lecture will straighten them out. the way it will be heard is why are you trying to destroy your own base over and over again. >> he is a smart man, but this showed bad character. it was embarrassing, humiliating, he has no credibility to speak on this. i mean, it's almost like a coach who lost the super bowl 42-0.

now coming out and telling the winning coach what plays to call. >> eeish. also with an interview, ben carson criticized the speech. romney did get some support. john mccain said he could not agree with mitt more and urged voters to think long and hard about who they want to be our next commander in chief. so john, did mitt romney executes what he was trying to do and is it going to have an impact. >> if he wanted it layout a thorough, comprehensive, well reasoned, again, thorough, wide ranging, rigorous, get it all in one place, laundry list in the best sense of the word attack on trump, he certainly executed that. no one i believe has done in this entire race previously. laid it all on the table. every possible argument against trump. will it have an affect on the race. i doubt it. i doubt it mainly because of the fact that the republican establishment, which romney and mccain is in such dispute with

the electorate, maybe it will have a rallying side but not much. >> seeing shawn hannity and rush limbaugh, that's not what trump had in mind. if there is a way to stop him from getting the majority of delegates, that's what we're talking about, that romney's intellectual case, using his prestige, can get the pieces in place to stop him. trump got a lot of questions about the tax returns at his last round of interviews and did not answer. what is your effective tax rate. did you give money to charity. i think romney goaded him by saying, you know, basically doing what harry reid did to romney. throwing out all these things.

let's see if the press picks up on it. the only way he'll be slowed is if the press picks up on some of the things romney laid out. >> you can say these are all failures of romney's. it came too late. it really came too late. he could have endorsed somebody, gotten in the race himself, gotten in the ring more. there is a lot of things how this is too short, too little too late. but i say that, i think that probably it's going to turn not to be impossible to stop trump. now, saying that, if it turns out that donors give, that kasich beats him in ohio, rubio beats him in florida and somehow able to keep him from getting to 1237, if that happens, not likely, but if it happens, this speech will have been an important thing. if you're writing the history, this would be something you're going to put in there. >> romney has a big following, not because he was the last nominee, but he has a big following. >> especially after he left. >> he left himself vulnerable by

not explaining in the speech why he accepted trump's endorsement. he said today trump was a failed business leader. in fact, he took trump's endorsement, he said he was a great business leader. i don't think he is a failed business leader. he may exaggerate, but he is not a failure. he is a billionaire. >> he has a mixed record. i think what romney is right about, trump's boastful claims, those have not gone effectively challenged, only starting to hear about trump university and crazy that it's taken this long for anybody to raise them. >> the other thing i'll say is the anti-trump movement needs to think about voters. what mitt romney talk about from the point of view from voters as opposed to elites. >> when we come back, we'll talk more about trump. we'll also have our detroit debatepre puerto rico debate preview. we'll tell you about all of the

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looking back, the place we like to call hitsville usa. the debate tonight, the theater next door to this one. the most intimate debate yet. four candidates facing off this evening after ben carson said his last minute regrets. if this one is anything like the cross talk we had in the houston debate, it's going to be a rough night for the official transcriber. why they might want to ratchet down on a schoolyard brawl, megyn kelly and fox did exactly the opposite with "the new york times." wallace described himself as a quote fight fan. his role tonight is a boxing referee who won't get in the way of any flying fists. so john, everyone seems inclined, both the other

candidates and moderators to gang up on trump tonight. do you think he'll be the same as the mar-a-lago press conference or the rex. >> the latter and not the former. donald trump has on occasion, tried to exhibit more presidential or at least demeanor. i think in the face of at least two guys, cruz and rubio, and maybe a third guy, john kasich, who are going to be basically, now that they realize, the only game in town is not try to produce a message of their own. their message is to take trump down. i don't know that he will be able to take it for two hours without going into punch mode. >> he'll try but maybe not succeed. prediction and you know i never make predictions, but i'm going to. i predict one of the three

candidates or one of the moderators will ask trump a question he is totally unprepared for. either a substantive or personal, never come up before and that will be the moment of the night. that's my prediction. >> this is what is different about this debate. so clear and focused, what everyone is trying to do, it means everyone's preparations have been different. every other debate and we've said this sometimes to their detriment, the candidates have been trying to take each other out rather than focusing on trump. all three of these guys have spent -- done nothing this week but how do i get under his skin, how do i contrast, and that kind of preparation might lead to the question you're talking about, because they're single mindly focused on that. >> i'm curious how john kasich performs, this is what america is sick of. the question is are you relevant if you're not part of what will be an assault on donald trump. >> he said that although he

didn't attack romney, he did say i don't -- he didn't attack romney. he said he didn't attack romney at a press conference, but he said i don't think the way to take down donald trump is by attack him. i don't think he'll go to that place. those were the candidates that we just talked about who are trying to take down trump. a bunch of other people, outsiders who have the same goal. signed an open letter, calling donald trump unfit for the oval office. calls trump's trade position, quote, a recipe for economic disaster, and it calls trump's, quote, hateful anti-muslim rhetoric under cuts the seriousness combats -- he is trying to reframe his candidacy, national community. listen to the people that trump says i said he respects on foreign policy when he was asked about it. >> who do you respect on foreign

policy? >> i think richard hoss, i like him a lot. he, i mean, i have a few people that i really like and respect. i think mccain is a fantastic guy. i respect a lot of the people. not only on your shows, but many people that i'm dealing with that don't go on television and won't do television. and that are great thinkers. but ultimately, it's my thought more than anybody else's. when i see the policy of some of these people in our government, the policy, we'll be in the middle east for another 15 years, and if we don't end up losing by that time. because our country is disintegrating. we are spending trillions of dollars in the middle east and infrastructure of our country is disintegrating. we should have never gotten into iraq. it is just continuing and continuing. we have to beat isis, take them

out. the chopping off heads, we can't allow it to happen. but i have great people, and i'll let you know at the appropriate time very soon. >> so there is trump, trying to talk about the foreign policy people he likes and the ones attacking him. there is also a bunch of people in the super pac world in the donor class, tim miller on our show last night was vague about how much money his super pac has raised, which is kind of odd, given some of the people doing the fundraising door donating the dollars could write multi, multi, multi-million dollar checks pretty easily. my question is how are the attempts of the elites going. >> my cab in from the detroit airport, he was obsessed with the scholars denouncing trump. i think the elites, foreign policy, financial elites who want to stop trump, they can be part of it, but the lack of focus on voters is i think kind of insane, you're going to stop

him with a candidate, and most of these people are not engaged with any of the other candidates, they're engaged with stopping trump. you're going to stop him with voters. this is all, again, as you said, if trump is stopped, short of a majority, people can look back in the foreign policy scholars can be part of a victory lap. i don't think it will have an impact. the fundraising, i don't understand it. the clock is ticking. florida is less than two weeks away, and you've got billionair billionair billionaires. >> weeks ago, however long ago it was. >> my cab driver mentioned that as well. >> i'm sure he did. the intellectuals have no impact on this. if they had any effect they would have months ago, they don't. to your point, a guy like paul singer. >> tin cup, write a $40 million

check, put some ads on the air. >> it's crazy. they could make a difference if they do open their checkbooks, but they haven't done it yet that we know of. >> shifting to the democratic race, hillary clinton took a day off the the campaign trail, her rival, bernie sanders was in neb bless -- nebraska canned kansas. he said it does not match her record. >> secretary clinton's views and mine are very different. she has supported nafta. i oppose nafta. she supported permanent normal trade relations with china. i vigorously oppose it. i opposed vietnam. she supported the columbia free-trade agreement, i oppose that. and she supported the korean free-trade agreement. i oppose that.

>> meanwhile, the "washington post" dropped a become shell, immunity to the staffer who set up her own e-mail server. the story says the fbi will likely question clinton and her close close closest aids in the coming weeks. do voe voters any recourse, do they have to tough it out and hillary clinton is their nominee. >> they have recourse. they'll always have recourse. there is still a lot of, as bernie sanders a lot of caucuses to come. it is true that the delegate math is daunting, if not completely impasse able for bernie sanders. if something serious happened in hillary clinton's life, in the probe, scandal, no doubt if the party got cold feet, they could turn to bernie sanders. both in terms of the national narrative and in terms of these contests that sanders has to win by a big margin, but if voters get scared you have, he could do that.

>> one thing helping her is donald trump. a lot of democratic elites and voters think if trump is a nominee, even a weak clinton, even under indictment could beat donald trump. the other thing is, weird psychology. a long while, democrats hammering over this, then they were obsessed with bernie sanders, and now they're sorts of relieved. so i think the bar now is at a much different place. she would have to be basically indicted. i think she can survive being interviewed by the fbi. >> she could survive. >> whereas before, it would have been catastrophe. >> our life is that democrats like republican are hand ringers and they will until she wins or loses on election day in november. coming up, the state of the republican race, here in the less than totally pure state of michigan. talk to the state gop chair, rona ronald mcdaniel when we come back. tart to finish.

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and excited and concerned and passionate about this election, i've seen it for the past year as kennedys have come through our state. we've had over 30 visits from republican visits in the past year and the crowds have been enormous. they want to see a change in the white house. they're concerned about the direction of this country. they're paying attention and ready to vote on march 8th. >> do you think the candidate, your presidential candidate in cleveland with the most delegates should be the nominee or not necessarily. >> i think the rules are clear. 1237 delegates, i think that's the way it should work. everyone has known the rules. if that candidate meets the threshold, they should absolutely be the nominee. >> not mark's question though, the person who has the most delegates, if you had 1235, would it be fine in your conception, for there then to be that person to not get the ultimately be the nominee. >> i think the threshold is 1237, that's been the threshold for four years.

everybody has known it, agreed to it. i think you should follow the rules and i foresee we'll have a candidate who will meet the threshold. >> if someone fell short, the rules allow for then a contested convention and be no -- you don't think there is anything illegitimate with a contested convention. >> we've had contested conventions before. everybody knows, 1237, you don't reach it, we're all bound on the first vote. the second vote, we're all unbound and you can vote for whomever you choose. >> a lot of fryour friends supporting donald trump. >> i have friends in all camps. one of my relatives, pinckney, michigan. my aunt john is on the rubio train, my son nash like cruz. i'm swir i'm switzerland, i'm neutral. >> what does she like about

trump. >> she calls me, wants to go to every event. she feels likes he is he speaking for her and that's wonderful. she is engaged in the process. it's been great to have many people passionate. >> how old is your son. >> 10. >> what does he like about ted cruz. >> he likes him. he thinks he's cool. maybe the name. >> two big republican constituen constituents, the tea party. >> yeah. >> and evangelical conservatives, give me a sense relative to the bulk of the party how they play here? >> i would say many of the evangelicals are with cruz and our saith. >> are there a lot? a big part? >> it is a big part of our party, absolutely. and i would say then there is a tea party slip and a libertarians group that's leaning more towards trump. and then i think the traditional republicans are more in the kasich/rubio camp. i think everybody that i've

talked to is committed to getting behind our nominee. we have to get behind our nominee. if we're split, that's going to leave hillary clinton. >> outsiders aside, in terms of actual issues, foreign policy, what are your voters talking about that's important? >> economy always important. we're talking about jobs and people here are concerned about wages. we've seen the middle class struggling to their incomes have not risen. a huge issue for voters in michigan. i think national security is the second issue. i hear how isis, the terrorist attacks we've seen on our own soil in san bernardino, that's an issue i hear at every town hall i do. >> a couple of seconds, are any of the candidates talking specifically about how michigan could create more jobs? >> i hope we see more of that tonight. i think we're going to have mrer

substantive debate. we're going to hear about their specific plans to stimulate the economy. >> okay, great. thank you. >> reasonna romney mcdaniel. more from the speech, we'll be right back after a word from our sponsors. hey buddy, you're squashing me! liquid wart remover? could take weeks to treat. embarrassing wart? dr. scholl's freeze away wipes 'em out fast with as few as one treatment. freeze away!

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frankly, the only serious policy proposals that deal with a broad range of national challenges we confront today come from ted cruz, marco rubio and john kasich. one of these men should be our nominee. >> that was mitt romney today at the university of utah, where we talked about earlier, he took on the man who backed him in 2012, donald trump. we're going to breakdown parts of the speech now. starting with one argument that romney made, that trump would

lose the general election. for the last three decades, the clintons have lived at the intersection of politics, creating their personal finances. they embody the tecronie capitalism and makes people lose trust. dishonest as hillary clinton must not become president. of course, a trump nomination, enables her victory. >> so he was scathing about hillary clinton, somebody he actually personally had pretty good relationship with, but said we can't let trump be our nominee because he would lose to clinton. >> tactical here, no way romney could make the argument he was making, unprecedented thing, being the past nominee, attacking the current nominee, without demonstrating he has partisan, part of what he is thinking about here is that

hillary clinton is the ultimate faux. -- foe. maybe on the right like rush limbaugh we talked about earlier. he had to do that. you know, it's fine. a fine argument. i think at the core of what he is saying is he is more concerned i think about the nature and character of the republican party than he is about purely about electoral calculations of who is going to win or lose the general. >> romney has a stronger hand in the anti-trump, as long as national polls show that trump loses to clinton. i think that, you know, for those who are suspicious because he wants to run himself, part of what some people said today is just how negative he was about hillary clinton and that framing, which some people found, again, as a tell that maybe he wants to audition to say i'm the one to take on hillary clinton. i don't think that's what he is doing. he wants to be part of stopping donald trump. he was quite scathing. >> i agree with you, but some

part of mitt romney who if a contested convention happens, people assume in a contested convention, that's what we're aiming for, he is trying to get to a contested convention. he didn't come out and say it, but if you get to a contested convention, people assume it will be kasich, mitt romney is the most likely person to step in. there is some part i'm sure thinking about that. >> romney-ryan. >> tax returns, again, that trump, the billionaire, has something to hide. >> we will only really know if he is a real deal or a phony if he releases his tax returns. and the tape of his interview with the new york times. i predict that there are more bomb shells in his tax returns. i predict that he doesn't give much if anything to the disabled and to our veterans and i predict despite his promise to do so, first made over a year ago, that he will never ever release his tax returns.

never. not the returns under audit, not even the returns that are to longer being audited. he has too much to hide. >> romney has unique standing to make this argument, given what happened to him in 2012 over his own taxes and musting gauling to get away with this what do you think about this? >> cruz and rubio raising it aggressively and then moved on to other things. trump as i said before in a series of interviews avoided answering. i were he dipredict he'll be as that, maybe the moderators, even under audit, he could say what his effective rate was, charitable donations. >> romney pointed out, an issue that cuts, because it is the tradition in our politics that presidential nominees eventually at some point have to do this. i think trump will be pummeled on this going forward if he doesn't do it. >> yep, finally one more clip.

romney's speech was studded with personal attacks against the donald. wasn't quite a marco rubio standup routine, but came pretty close. >> but you say, wait, waits, wait. isn't he a huge business success. doesn't he know what he is talking about. no, he isn't. and no, he doesn't. he inherited his business. he didn't create it. a business genius, he is not. now, donald trump tells us that he is very, very smart. i'm afraid that when it comes to foreign policy, he is is very, very not smart. there is a dark irony in his boasts of his sexual exploits during the vietnam war. dishonesty is donald trump's hallmark. there is plenty of evidence that mr. trump is a con man, a fake think of donald trump's personal qualities, the bullying. the greed. the showing off.

the massogny, the third grade theater theaterics. >> he was smart to do in utah. if he had done it at cpac, it may not have worked. >> i'm very uncomfortable to hear sexual exploits coming out of the mouth of mitt romney. i know some of the jokes were landed better and some landed worst. but there was a frisk eeness, probably wouldn't have beaten barack obama but much more effective candidate, if we had seen that side of romney back in that race. >> i have been one who said i don't see a lot of anxiety or worry in trump based on some of the attacks happened recently. based on what i saw today, it's possible romney is getting under his skin than some of the other

critics have. >> i do think that will start to have an effect on the discourse and have some effect on trump's head. >> all right, up next, the pandemonium in the republican race and the reporters covering the madness. don't forget, if you're watching us in washington, d.c., you can listen to us on bloomberg 99.1. we'll be right back. your aller. claritin provides powerful, non-drowsy 24 hour relief... for fewer interruptions from the amazing things you do every day. live claritin clear. with toothpaste or plain water.an their dentures and even though their dentures look clean, in reality they're not. if a denture were to be put under a microscope, we can see all the bacteria that still exists on the denture, and that bacteria multiplies very rapidly. that's why dentists recommend cleaning with polident everyday. polident's unique micro clean formula works in just 3 minutes, killing 99.99% of odor causing bacteria. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture every day.

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pretty soon, republican candidate also step onto the debate stage just a block away from we're sitting now. here to talk about the race and the debate, our panel tonight, phil rucker from the bloomberg politics, sasha, marco rubio free media strategy and nbc hallie jackson, who has been covering, amongst other things, ted cruz and his campaign. thanks for being here. phil, let me start with you. is donald trump coming in tonight on offense because of what happened on super tuesday or defense, because it's going to be gang up time. >> i would say defense. a full day of ganging up. he has a lot to answer to. we can expect marco rubio ted cruz and maybe even john kasich to take some shots tonight and it's going to be about trump. how he comports himself and the business record for example. >> i think to see ted cruz jump on inn on that too. they want to frame this as a two man race, and not so much marco

rubio, some of the debates we saw earlier in the cycle. they can say hey, rubio is not a factor, it's going to be the two people at the top of the delegate count going after it and that's why they're going to mix it up. health care, trump university. >> sasha, you did a deep dive on rubio that mark talked about a second ago. i'm surious whether you looking at the exit polls, looking at the results on super tuesday, whether rubio can in any plausible way claim his strategy of taking on trump that helped him, is that just smoke and mirrors. >> i don't think there is enough there to make a case that it has been successful, no. i mean, they were not internally seeing a lot of movement beforehand and in the public polling, we don't see a lot of evidence of movement. part of the sort of preinsults comedy phase of the rubio campaign, one of the assumptions was that they wanted to position themselves in a place where they were broadly acceptable to

different factions of the party, that they had, you know, broad geographic support with the assumption that as candidates fell away and undecided fell into one column or the other, rubio can pick them up. we saw movement in iowa, in that direction, obviously new hampshire was complicated by the debate, south carolina as well. so i think that that is not necessarily because he started name-calling at trump last thursday. >> what do you all know about what the campaigns think about mitt ro romney's suggestion that everybody support in an individual state. >> i think they're coming to recognize that assumptions under that are necessary at this point. none of them can win on a first ballot at this point. they recognize that. what we're going to start to see this evening i think is whether they've internalized the logic of that is no candidate, john kasich was asked directly, would you tell your fsupporters in florida to vote for rubio, which is in everyone's strategic --

>> everyone except for donald trump. >> to the extent which ted cruz and marco rubio go after one another, they're not serving their long-term interests. >> to execute that would be for john kasich to say you know what, i'm not going to do many campaign appearances in florida, i'm not going to spend much time in michigan if i can't beat him in michigan. >> and we're seeing some of that already. kasich is going all in michigan and ohio, but really focusing on those. cruz is focusing on some other states as well. rubio is all in on florida. we can expect to see him there all of next week. >> i want to talk about saturday. a bunch of contests on saturday, to me, the caulks and some of the places they are, they seem like good spots to have a good saturday for cruz. >> races between now and march 15th, you see the campaign looking like they're going to play in maine, which i find interesting. it doesn't seem like a natural fit for ted cruz. in louisiana, they're making some inn roads, and in michigan

too. kasich, they were talking michigan was going to be it, the start of them crushing it. >> and then the polls. >> and they're backing off and saying trump is going to win and going into ohio. when you look at the mitt romney, what planet are we on for cruz to be applauding romney for this. >> a history question, maine, who won the maine caucuses in 2012. >> ron paul. >> ron paul. >> libtaribertarian votes. >> so is cpac, where the candidates are going, and that's politically important, mitt romney four years ago talked about being severely conservative. what are you hearing about the candidates are approaching, big deal or not? >> well, cruz is heading there, you know. and i think the most interesting thing for cpac for me is ben carson. this idea that he is now effectively dropped out of the

campaign, even though he is sort of being a little cagey about it, and is he going to endorse anybody, and how does it slip over to ted cruz, it could potentially help cruz, where there is that more evangelical population. >> sasha, what do you think about that? if ben carson leaves the race, where do the voters go? >> i think you would assume that the natural place to go, although those two since iowa, it's unclear how it has been personalized, carson and his ci. >> do carson voters care about the inside allegations in iowa, i don't know. >> phil, you're a long timing romney watcher, do you think what he did today will impact the race. >> i don't know if it will move voters. that's to be determined. certainly, it gave the republican establishment sort of a clarifying moment. something to rally behind.

it might stimulate more big plun to move into the super pacs to hurt trump. but i just don't know if he is going to have the influence to peel voters away. >> did you sense as i did, though, this is something that has been building in him for months and he got a chance to uncork the whole thing. >> it has been. he has been up set by the trajectory of the campaign and disappointed by the other candidates who have not been able to take on donald trump and take him down. so he stepped forward to do that. >> the important moment is you had a major party actor encouraging voters to vote tactically which is not something people talk about, mitt romney say think about where you are and who you can use to stop trump. that's important. >> phil, sasha, hallie, thank you. coming back with some folks who represent the cruz and rubio. here not motor center, all four will enter, only one will leave.

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welcome back to detroit. practice some of the lines they'll be using the debate sfin room. ron nary, the campaign spokesperson and alex conan, for marco rubio. thank you for coming in. in a lot of debates, and of course in the cycle, ted cruz app and marco rubio have spent more time attacking each other than the front runner, possibly to their ultimate disadvantage. it seems like it might be different tonight. do you agree with the assessment, a night really all about everybody trying to take down donald trump? >> agree only that we'll have to wait until the debate is over in order to make the assessment. >> well, i think if you look in the debate last week, certainly

it was not a good night for donald trump, because the candidates did focus on him and engage him in a way that they hadn't. i would expect that would happen again. look, dths is t look, donald trump is the front-runner, if they don't want him to be the nominee, they need to coalesce around someone else. marco rubio's campaign is in the long run, defeating donald trump, i suppose he would disagree with that. >> this will be a night of drawing contrast. campaigns about similarities, their wage on differences. what surprises me the most is the run-up to the debate, donald trump has not put the issues to rest. he could put a lot of the financial questions to rest if he chose to release his tax returns. he could put the immigration to rest, release the tape. he hasn't done any of those things. that's surprising, because a good political operator would

get rid of the issues with full disclosure. he has something to hide. >> previous candidates in some case, what do you think at this point is the reason donald trump won't put out his taxes. >> only donald trump could really answer that. but -- >> your candidate speculated it might have something to do with the mob. >> well, who knows. that's the type of questions that get asked when you don't act in the interest of transparency. this process, i think alex would agree, is not only about delivering a nominee, but a nominee who is well vetted, all the information on the table. because you don't want to have the candidate vetted after they've won the nomination. you can't go back. that's the potential problem for the republican party if donald trump is the nominee. >> just adding to that just today, there is new questions being raised about donald trump has given to veteran causes. he brags about giving money, but now there are reports that he maybe hasn't. he hasn't done that, putting

questions aside, everyday, new questions raised. we had a judge in new york saying a suit could go on against him regarding trump university. i mean, the republican party cannot have a nominee who is going to be deposed later this year for things that he has not been able to -- >> in a flawed case. >> explicit about something as possible. john kasich said that he realized that there is no way he is ever going to get to 1237 delegates and the only game in town is to stop donald trump and get to cleveland and have a contested convention. there are people in your world who acknowledge the basic truth to that. just right now, are you ready to stand here and say i understand my candidate is not going to get to 1237 and the game now again, as i said before, stop trump from getting to the number and then fight it out in cleveland. is that where you are? >> absolutely not. >> me neither. >> the one way to get to 1237 delegates before the convention. the way you defeat donald trump is before the convention. i would understand somebody like

john kasich would make that type of argument, because he really doesn't have a way. he's having fun and so on and so forth. standing in the way. we believe ted cruz is the only candidate that can defeat him. he did so in texas, oklahoma, alaska, iowa and so on and so forth. a risky strategy and puts the future of the country at risk, that's not on the -- >> obviously i would argue that my boss, marco rubio, has a better chance of securing 1237 delegates, looking at the maps still in play. the states that have yet to vote, look like virginia and minnesota than they do texas and alabama where trump and ted cruz did well. as long as there are three or four candidates in the race, it's more likely.

>> a four candidate race, getting 35% of the vote is a winner. a two candidate, 35% is a loser. >> absolutely. >> more than 30 points. >> any prospect that your two candidates would team up official or unofficial way before the nomination? >> in a word, no. i don't think so i haven't heard any talk about that. we intend to win florida and beyond that, the map gets better. the we're going to come out of florida with a lot of momentum, money and with marco rubio, the best candidate. >> you should have prefaced that with with all due respect, just to be clear. >> a good idea to have a rubio/cruz team? >> i think, i have to, you know, part with alex on this. marco rubio has this burning du dumpster, not looking good. >> statements why this we're always able to exceed expectations. >> souactually, alex is good ats job. they've done a good job of

manipulating. >> keep under estimating us. >> fistfight will continue off camera. thank you. we'll see you in the spin room after the debate and we'll be right back here with who won the day. (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 national. go like a pro. when your allergy symptoms start... i've been claritin clear for 14 days. ...doctors recommend taking one claritin every day of your allergy season... ...for continuous relief.

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mark. >> yeah. >> who won the day? >> well, look, mitt romney's performance was not perfect, but he did a tough thing. he go the in the game with a speech that set the agenda for today and set it for tomorrow. >> no one won the day of politics. baseball fans did, because games have begun. commenced in spring training. >> all right. >> thank god. it's here.

tonight, you should be glued to bloomberg politics.com, signature report cards. >> signature. >> until tomorrow, we say sayonara. "hardball" with chris matthews starts now. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews, back in washington. first it was jeb, then the pope, then vicente fox, now the ghost of christmas past. mitt romney. the republican party faces, having won 10 of the first 15 contests, especially from its donor class. i love that phrase. hawks aligned with the republican party, announced today in an open letter, a standard tool of the neo kinds against him.