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good evening, everyone. i'm tamron hall in new york, in for chuck todd. and brace yourself for a wild hour. the republican party is reeling after last night's debate in detroit. donald trump has abruptly pulled out of the conservative movement's largest gathering called cpac, which is underway as we speak, just outside of washington, d.c. just moments ago, senator ted cruz ripped into trump at that gathering. >> so donald trump is skipping cpac. i think somebody told him megyn kelly was going to be here. or even worse, he was told there were conservatives that were going to be here! >> well, we've got hundreds of delegates up for grabs this weekend in the 2016 race. mitt romney and paul ryan both making headlines about their possible roles in a contested convention. and ben carson is expected to

officially announce his exit from the race. he speaks at cpac in just a few moments. but we begin with last night's spectacle in detroit. >> this little guy has lied so much -- >> here we go! >> -- about my record. >> here we go. the personal attacks. >> he has lied -- >> i have a policy question for you, sir. >> let's see if he answers it. >> i don't worry about it, little marco, i will. >> let's see, big donald. >> don't worry about it, little marco. >> gentleman, gentleman, you've got to do better than this. >> breathe, breathe, breathe -- >> lying ted. >> breathe -- you can do it -- >> lying ted. >> you can breathe. i know it's hard. i know it's hard. >> when they're done with the yoga, can i answer a question? >> you cannot. >> he referred to my hands, if they're small, something else must be small. i guarantee you there's no problem, i guarantee you. >> okay. moving on. >> the reaction inside the republican party says it all. quote, the spectacle made me

ill, said matthew contineti, a writer for the free bacon, my party is committing suicide on national tv said nick johnson. and gop implosion accelerates in motor city wreck was the headline in the national review today. and "gop breaks down in motor city" blared the headline on fox news. "all that was missing was jerry springer" said the christian broadcasting snerk. trump rivals also seemed to undermine their own cause last night, and this may be a big headline. after two hours of bashing trump as a disaster and a fraud, then came this. >> can you definitively say you will support the republican nominee, even if that nominee is donald j. trump? senator rubio, yes or no? >> i'll support the republican nominee. >> mr. trump? >> i'll support donald if he's the republican nominee. >> yes or no, you'll support donald trump if he's the

nominee? >> yes, because i gave my word that i would. >> yeah, but i -- and i kind of think that before it's all said and done, i'll be the nominee. >> yet today, the candidates trotted out their doomsday scenarios regarding trump and once again here's what marco rubio had to say. >> if he's our nominee, it will split the republican party. and it will be the end of the modern conservative movement. the conservative movement is not built on anger, it is built on ideas and on principles. >> and john kasich spoke to crowds at cpac right after the chairman of the republican party, reince priebus, dismissed the idea of a convention fight with trump over the nominations. that's not how kasich saw it when he spoke to sean hannity and nbc's hallie jackson. >> could you think of anything cooler than a convention? the key is, who's got the record and the vision? and not just political gibberish, like, oh, i'm going to do this, i'm going to do that. i doubt that donald's going to get enough votes, enough delegates. so it's likely we're going to head to a convention.

and why would we not think so, as wacky as this year has been, that somebody will probably not have enough votes to clinch the nomination. >> and throw this into the pot. trump is also under fire for what appears to be an abrupt change on his stance on immigration and torture over the past 24 hours. we'll speak to one of trump's state campaign chairs in just a moment. and mitt romney is facing his own revolt after trashing trump as a phony and a fraud during a major address yesterday in salt lake city. now, some republicans say romney may have inadvertently helped trump by giving him an establishment punching bag. then there's the speculation that romney is eyeing a potential entry into the race. romney addressed those questions earlier today in an interview with nbc's matt lauer. >> under any circumstances would you be a part of this presidential race as a candidate? >> there are no circumstances i can foresee where that would possibly happen. but let me say something else -- >> "i can foresee"?

>> no reasonable scenario i can imagine. >> just slam the door on it, close the door, unambiguous, you will not run for president? >> i'm not running for president and i won't run for president. >> msnbc has a special interview with mitt romney and a possible contested convention coming up at 6:00 p.m. eastern. you will not want to miss that. and today republican house speaker paul ryan, who was romney's running mate, you know that, four years ago, and who is also the chairman of this summer's convention, is trying to tamp down on a draft ryan movement being spearheaded by a new super pac. ryan's lawyers issued a quote saying former disavow of the organization today. and all of this as we gear up for another wild weekend at the polls. tomorrow, democrats have contests in three states, toting more than 120 delegates. republicans have contests in four states. that total, 150 delegates. then on sunday, democrats held a primary in maine, republicans hold their primary in puerto rico in a tight race, every delegate matters.

and i'm joined now by arizona state treasurer, jeff dueette. the chairman of trump's campaign in arizona. mr. duette, thanks for joining us. let's start with this cpac cancellation. why is trump out? >> basically, there's the opportunity to have a very big event in witchta, kansas. as you pointed out tomorrow, more than 125 total delegates are up for grabs and kansas is one of those four states and the opportunity was too good to pass up. marco rubio is on the ropes, he's been losing the gop establishment base, he's been losing his donors, and he's dropped below 20% in a lot of the polls, which keeps him out in some states, of getting delegates. so the opportunity to deliver a to becomeout punch and really knock him down a peg here over this weekend was too good to pass up. so, really, we love cpac, it's a great event, donald trump has spoken there many, many times and he plans on being back in the future, but right now to get 15,000 or 20,000 people in

witchta, kansas, tomorrow right before the caucus was a great opportunity we had to take. and right after that, going to orlando, florida, for another 20,000 people lining up for that one a few days later. >> but you know that optics matter here and there was a choice that the campaign made here and you have now ted cruz on stage saying that you avoided it because there are real conservatives there. he said and we'll show some of these moments from the debate where your candidate has flip-flopped on a number of core conservative principles. we saw it in the debate prior, as it relates to planned parenthood. so was he avoiding potential boos in that crowd known for certainly expressing their thoughts? >> donald trump has the highest support of any republican candidate. in fact, he's just under 50% total support in the latest poll. he's at 49%, well over, you know, cruz and rubio are below 20%. so he would get the biggest cheers at cpac of anybody.

>> but he still doesn't have the majority of votes in the republican party. you can point to where he's leading, but you can also point to a potential problem later down the line, where he does not have that magic number needed to go into that convention, and where every vote counts, including the conservative voters, i'm asking you flat-out, was trump dodging the voters there today? >> no, that's the problem. there aren't voters there. there are a lot of people at cpac in states that have already voted. and so we're in the middle of a hotly contested presidential primary. we have the leading candidate, by far, who leads with a great lead in the delegate count, and is going to pick up a lot more delegates tomorrow, and it's purely, where do we maximize our resources? and doing two big events tomorrow, one of them in witchta, kansas, right before the caucus, that's called great campaigning. and i'm surprised that marco rubio isn't taking -- you know, yesterday, he canceled two

events, because his turnout is down. he's canceling events because people aren't showing up anymore. i'm surprised he's not -- >> you've said marco rubio's name a couple of times, you've not said ted cruz. are you focused on marco rubio because he potentially is that threat in florida, which could be the firewall to keep trump from taking this? >> no, we're up about 16 points in the polls against marco rubio -- >> but that's less than you were. that is closing in and marco rubio points to what he says are flawed polls. and we saw in iowa, you can't always bank on what you see in the polling. >> what he's basically staking his entire candidacy on florida. because if you cannot win your own state, you cannot expect to be the president of the united states. if the people who have already elected you to go and serve them won't come out and show up to vote for you, they don't have the confidence in you, as rubio looks like will happen in florida, so he's staking everything on there. and so we're concentrating a little bit on rubio, just because this is an opportunity to deliver a knockout punch and get another candidate out of the race. 23 ben carson truly does pull

out of the race today, then we could be down within ten days to three candidates or less. >> all right. thank you, jeff dewit. and we're seeing a last-ditch effort from hewlett-packard ceo meg whitman, who are raising money for a super pac called our principles, which is going to flood the air waves with anti-trump ads. whitman spoke earlier today on cnbc. >> i do think donald trump is a dishonest demagogue. look at the comments he's made about women, muslims, disabled people, reporters. it is just repugnant. his economic policies, i think they're incredibly dangerous. >> i'm joined now by katie packer, the our principles pac. we've talked before about this effort to flood the airwaves. when you look at mitt romney's speech yesterday, he laid out a case that we've heard from ted cruz, i've heard from you and heard from plamarco rubio.

yet we see donald trump the next day with thousands of people at yet another rally. what is he saying to your base, those same people who supported mitt romney, that for some reason is not sticking -- >> i don't know about that. >> well, listen, some of them did and we know they did. they're angry and they may not be the ideal of what the republican party wants to present, but right now your front-runner is donald trump. >> well, absolutely he's the front-runner. i don't think that there can be an assumption that the base is who is showing up at these rallies. we don't know that. we know that he tends to do well in states that have open primaries, that allow democrats and nonrepublicans to vote in their process. and time and time again, you know, you hear from people like jeff and others, donald trump himself, they never talk about issues. their entire campaign is based on where they are in the polls and how big their crowds are. you never hear from them in terms of, you know, all of the conservative issues that donald trump is at odds with republicans on, you never hear them talking about, you know,

explaining what went on at all of the failed business ventures that mr. trump has presented, trump university, where thousands of people are suing him for fraud and where he's going to be standing trial this summer. on trying to defend himself from this fraud situation. and i think yesterday mitt romney laid out a pretty serious indictment against this guy. and you can agree with him or not disagree with him in terms of policy, but there's nothing he said in that speech yesterday, that you can't agree, this is a person who's very dangerous for our party. he's very dangerous for our country, should he prevail, i don't think that's going to happen. i think it's going to be a disaster for republicans in the fall should he be the nominee. and i think that's why so many people are coming together and trying to prevent that train wreck from happening. >> so many people are coming together, but on that stage, katie, you saw the moment at the end of the debate, and i actually said something to the effect of, this may be why people say they quote/unquote hate politics. at the end of this brawl, you have all of donald trump's

rivals, who then say they would support him if he's the nominee. how bold of a moment would that have been to perhaps put the country before the party and take a stand? why didn't we see that moment, if he is, in fact, the danger you and other republicans say that he is? >> well, i -- i have to be honest, i was disappointed to hear from the other candidates that they would articulate that. the only thing i can imagine, is that that would allow them to extend some sort of olive branch to the trump supporters should these candidates or somebody else prevail at the convention. but i think we've heard very strong words from all of these candidates with concern that, you know, this guy is very, very dangerous. and in some ways, i think it's an unfair question to ask candidates, when they're working very, very hard to try to secure the nomination themselves, none of them can imagine endorsing anybody else at this point in time, because they're fighting for the nomination themselves. so i was disappointed to hear that. i don't disagree with that.

but, you know, i'm just, you know, in terms of, you know, understand wrg theing where the are, i don't think anybody really believes that donald trump represents what's best for our country, and certainly doesn't represent the brand that the republican party upholds. >> katie packer, thank you so much for your time. i great appreciate you joining us again. and you can see mark halperin and john heilemann's full interview with mitt romney with "all due respect" tonight at can have 6:00 p.m. eastern. and mitt romney will join chuck todd this sunday on "meet the press." up next, hillary clinton sits down with cnbc's john harwood to talk about her economic plan. he joins me with the latest. and we'll have new reaction from the clinton and sanders' camps. stay tuned.

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and her friend, ron goldman. this afternoon, multiple law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation tell nbc news this knife is not consistent with the murder weapon. in fact, they say, it is a small utility blade commonly used for yard work or construction. however, lab tests must be conducted before the knife can be ruled out a personal murder weapon. simpson was acquitted of the murders in 1995. he is currently serving time on a 2008 robbery and kidnapping conviction. this weekend, you can catch a "dateline" special with a candid interview with marcia clarke. "the people versus o.j. simpson: what the jury never heard" airs this sunday on your local nbc station. we'll be back with more "mtp daily" next. ♪

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speaking a manufacturing plant ahead of sunday's democratic debate in flint, clinton laid out her proposals to keep the country's economic gains going. and it comes on the same day as a strong jobs report showed a better than expected labor market. clinton sat down with cnbc's john harwood in the last hour following her speech and here's part of what she said. >> when the republicans came back in, we got the same old snake oil of trickle-down economics. and even now when you listen to the republicans who are vying for their nomination, it's the same thing. it's cut taxes on the wealthy. in fact, trump says, wages are tie high in america. the others are all playing the same game, appealing to special interests, appealing to their donors. they don't have an agenda for the middle class, working people, poor people trying to get ahead. so i think it's imperative that i do everything i can in this election to make the case that we can get back to a growing, vital middle class.

>> and joining me now, cnbc chief washington correspondent, john harwood. john, it's good to see you this afternoon, early evening. let's talk about this interview. it seemed to be wide-ranging, and many have made the assumption that hillary clinton has shifted her strategy to a general election. what did she say? >> well, i think in significant part, she is doing that. she was still mindful of bernie sanders and she wanted to criticize him, saying he would raise taxes on the middle class. there was the new tax policy center report out today that said $4,700 per family in the middle of the income scale. but she was trying to draw contrast with republicans and say if republicans make a change case, donald trump says, go against the establishment, go for me over hillary clinton, she says, no, you've got to make a distinction between democratic and republican policies within the establishment, trying to deflect the idea that she has been at the top level of national politics for 25 years.

that's going to put her on the defensive and she was honing her arguments to try to respond to that. >> let's talk about sunday's democratic debate. certainly, any moment can change momentum. and it can leave a candidate in a bad situation. what seems to be their strategy as far as avoiding offending those strong supporters of bernie sanders that if she has shifted her mind to a general election, that she knows she needs? >> reporter: well, the clinton campaign believes that they have competitive races, but stable leads in places like michigan, here, that votes on march the 8th, in ohio, that votes on march 15th, a larger lead in florida, also leading in illinois. so i believe that they think that they're on track to the nomination, but they can't let up. and bernie sanders has shown a tremendous ability to galvanize audiences, to raise money. and if he could punch through and win a state like michigan, you know, all of a sudden, you begin to get the political

system and democratic voters pausing a bit and taking a more serious look at him. and i think that's what she's trying to avoid happening. >> john, thank you very much. and joining me now from the sanders' campaign is senior adviser, tad devine. tad, it's great to see you. is it frustrating at all to hear that hillary clinton may be in some part shifting toward a general election? that she may be ready to put bernie sanders behind her? >> no, it's not frustrating at all. bernie sanders is committed to delivering a message to democratic primary voters, all the bay to the end of this process. he's talked about the fact that america's economy is rigged, that it sends almost all the new wealth to the top, and that rigged economy is held in place by a corrupt system of campaign finance. we look forward to the opportunity to continue to that message. if he do, we think he has a real good shot to be the nominee of our party. >> let's talk about that shot. hillary clinton right now, 1,033 delegates, senator sanders, 429.

when you were asked about the path forward with bloomberg politics yesterday, you said, we see a path forward. and i understand the math that's involved and also the working of proportional representation in the democratic party. i think we can do it. we're going to have to beat her in a number of upcoming states and we're going to have to beat her in some decisive battleground states. lay out the map. what states do you have in mind? >> well, tamron, there are states that run all the way from this weekend, where we'll have four contests in kansas, louisiana, nebraska, and maine to new york in the middle of april and california at the beginning of june. i think we have to march through this country, we have to demonstrate to primary voters that bernie sanders is the strongest candidate. that he has the best chance of securing the white house for the democrats. so, this process is going to go tow a number of states, places like pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, i think, is an important battleground coming up next tuesday. so i think if we can win the lion's share of those states coming up, i think super

delegates and others will take a step back and will be available to bernie sanders, and i think ultimatelily with him at the convention. >> but even though it may not be described fairly as a do-or-die, we know the clock is ticking. you pointed that out with the map and calendar. bernie sanders still does young with people, but it seems that with super tuesday that hillary clinton came out with female vote voters. you called it perhaps the best day on the calendar for hillary clinton was super tuesday. with all of that said here, how -- bernie sanders has taken great proud in not using attacks. he says he points out distinctions. how prepared is he to maybe push harder, especially as it relates to her line, that he's a single-issue candidate. >> i think anyone who's been to one of bernie's hour and 15-minute speeches where he talks about a broad range of issues, how are we going to deal with climate change, how will we

deal with our economy, that america should have health care for all, and free public tuition, snows he's hardly a one-issue candidate. so i think with these attacks from hillary and her surrogates, bernie has made a decision most are just going to ignore. and he'll talk about his program, his agenda, and the fact that he wants to change the direction of america and really change our economy. our economy is doing great and president obama, vice president biden have done a fantastic job rebuilding an economy that was falling apart in terms of job creation. what we have to do is increase the wages of working people. that's why bernie supports a working wage of $15 an hour. so those issues, we believe, will resonate powerfully with voters in upcoming states. >> thank you very much, tad. it's a great pleasure having you on with us this afternoon. joining me now, brian fallon. thanks for joining us. you heard what the sanders' campaign has said. but i want to ask you, really, the number that people have been focusing on, the record turnout with republican voters. and we're seeing inverted from what we saw in 2008.

many people associate that, perhaps with a lot of the drama, if we can describe it as that, with the gop. but also there's a worry that there is not excitement in the message from hillary clinton. >> actually, i think if you look historically at election cycles, the party that's in power, that is the party that controls the white house, traditionally, has lower turnout during the nominating contests. but then that's not at all determinative when it comes to the outcome in the general election. so if you look at the last three election cycles, where democrats controlled the white house, republicans had consistently higher turnout in their nominating contests, but democrats went on to win the popular vote. and what we're looking at is if you look at the popular vote through the elections that have been held so far in that primary calendar, hillary clinton has won the most votes of anybody on either side of the aisle, including donald trump. so we're very pleased with how things are going so far. >> let's talk about the strategy going into this debate, as i just mentioned to tad devine, there is always a question of alienating or offending. and you have very passionate bernie sanders supporters who if

hillary clinton gets the nomination, we know she will need these people, whether they're young, whether they're women. how does she toe the line and say, i will not give up and i will continue to point out the distinctions between us whether they hurt her or not. >> first of all, we're not looking past this primary at all. and as john just explained a few moments ago, the contest in michigan will be very tight. we feel strong and we're fighting like heck in michigan. but that is a place where bernie sanders is pretty much all in. he's got all his chips in michigan in terms of spending millions of dollars there in television and spending a lot of time in the state. we know that will be a very competitive contest. we know some of the april 15th contests will be tight. and we know that coming this weekend, there's some caucus contests where senator sanders think he's the favorite. we have a long road to go. but i think throughout the course of this process, it's going to be an overall good thing for our party to bring more people into the party, get independents registered in the democratic party, expand our

base, expand our brand. i think what senator sanders is doing is going to be an overall good thing to have this competitive primary. and then once we turn to a general election, i think that the stakes will be so clear, how high they'll be, if we're looking at the prospect of a donald trump as a nominee on the republican side, with so many issues hanging in the balance, i think democrats will have all kinds of incentive to turn out on behalf of hillary clinton as the nominee for the democrats. >> i have to quickly ask you about the statement from you regarding the e-mail server, and you said, there's no evidence whatsoever that the server was hacked. however, driandrea mitchell reps that the private server was hit several times by the kind of blasts that are routine phishing attempts that are nontraceable to any foreign sources and nonpenetrated. congressman adam schiff, the ranking democrat in the house is now saying, on the intel committee, that he's worried this investigation could become a political game for republicans. it's already been a political football, but now with more details, what is the concern now? >> well, the reports that you mentioned about the phishing teams that were made against the server were unsuccessful and

were reported on several months ago. what we've returned in the last 24 hours, that according to several media outlets, some logs that were provided to the fbi showed that there were no successful intrusions or hacking attempts that were successfully made against the server. so i think that puts to bed one of the main accusations that was floating out there, that somehow the fact that the personal server was compromised. and as time goes by and more facts come out, more and more of these allegations are being debunked. >> brian fallon, thanks so much for your time. ben carson is speaking at cpac right now and so far he's spoken about his campaign in the past tense, but he's not announced that he's officially suspending his presidential campaign. he's just said, i'm told in my ear, he's just confirmed what i think we all pretty much knew was happening at this point. he has suspended his campaign. the big question now, carson's supporters, where will they go? and will ben carson offer an endorsement? we'll monitor his speech and bring you the latest

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did somebody say "insurance"? children: flo! ♪ action flo cut! can i get a smoothie, please? ooh! they got smoothies? for me. . still ahead on "mtp daily," the latest from cpac, plus a preview of some of the critical primary contests. but first, josh lipton has the cnbc market wrap. >> thanks, tamron. stocks rise this unemployment friday. the dow gained 62 points, the s&p is up 6, the nasdaq climbs 9. the economy added 242,000 jobs last month, more than expected. the unemployment rate holds steady at 4.9%. the trade gap widened more than expected in january, as exports fell to the lowest level since 2010. and safety regulators are investigating reports of brake failures on some 2013 and 2014

ford-150s. no injuries have been reported. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide.

it is a daunting calendar over the next 11 days, it all comes down to this. in the nomination contest, here are the big showdowns ahead. tomorrow, democrats have contests in three states worth a total of 126 delegates. on the republican side, it's four states worth 155. then a few days later, the big contests in mississippi and michigan for both sides. democrats will fight for 188 delegates and republicans will duke it out for 150, which brings us to judgment day. that is march 15th. florida, illinois, missouri, north carolina, and ohio, a

whopping 793 delegates are in play for democrats. 367 up for grabs for republicans. and we've got our team of correspondents fanned out across the country, following all the twists and turns of the contests to come. we bin with nbc's hallie jackson in national harbor, maryland, just outside washington, d.c., at the conservative galering, cpac, where all the conservative candidates except for donald trump are speaking. hallie, what have you heard from people there who may have been expecting trump? >> reporter: the bigger news is ben carson who's on stage behind me, officially suspending his campaign for the presidency. this is something we expected ever since he announced earlier this week that he would not be attending the presidential debate last night and saying that he saw no path forward to the nomination, when carson talked about leaving the campaign trail, you heard some scattered shouts from the audience and then he got a standing ovation. people here at cpac, the conservative base, appearing grateful for carson's candidacy. and carson said something interesting. he said, hey, there's a lot of

people who love me, they just won't vote for me. carson was hot back in the fall, september, october, but when international and domestic incidents of terror started happening like san bernardino, he seemed to struggle. he had that campaign shake up in january and never seemed to recover. the big question now, will he endorse? he'll be holding a little bit of a media availability in a couple of minutes, so we may find out more. >> thank you very much, hallie. let's turn to indicate where i tu tur. i'm sure that campaign has heard a lot of the chatter all day long and some of the planning to take him on and make sure he does not hit that magic number, katy. >> reporter: yeah, the campaign knows all about this, but they aren't worried about it. they're hoping and expecting to get the magic number of delegates that will get them to the convention without a contested convention. they believe that if donald trump gets the popular vote, essentially in this nomination process, that it would be not democratic to take it away from

him and instead try to give it to marco rubio or john kasich in some sort of smoke-filled back room dealing. the campaign, though, is feeling confident. they've got a very busy schedule for the next week. they're in new orleans tonight, the state caucuses on saturday, then they're getting on their plane and they're going to be all over the place this weekend and back in mississippi on monday. they are not slowing down, even a little bit. this is a race to march 15th, when we vote in -- when they vote in florida and ohio. those two big winner-take-all states. and of course, the trump campaign does feel confident that they have a very good chance to take those states. >> all right, katy, thank you very much. let's turn things to msnbc's thomas roberts. he's in florida. we all know a critical state in the march 15th contest, katy was just referring to. so thomas, you had marco rubio cast doubts on polls out of florida. and we know it can go either way, but he seems really confident that what we're seeing in these numbers is not an

accurate picture. >> reporter: no, you make a good point about the polls. the latest polling out of florida, tamron, shows donald trump with a commanding lead at 44% and marco rubio at 28%. ted cruz coming in at 12%. we're in the panhandle, in pensacola beach, florida. and this is considered a territory where they use the phrase, "we live in l.a.." they consider it to be lower alabama. and alabama a state that definitively went for donald trump in its primaries. so it will be interesting to see as a confident marco rubio has said he will carry the state, as the sitting senator from the state of florida, 99 delegates at play in a closed primary coming up on the 15th. and there's really no path forward for marco rubio, if he doesn't carry his own home state. we know that ted cruz, his campaign has said that they have just opened ten new field offices in pl. and while, tamron, ted cruz really doesn't have a shot the win here, he wants to act as a spoiler to marco rubio to be able to secure those 99 delegates, and it's a game of chess, because most likely that

would mean that donald trump would get them. >> thomas roberts live for us in florida. thank you, thomas. more "mtp daily" right after this. am i seeing double? no ma'am. our at&t 'buy one get one free' makes it easier for your staff to send appointment reminders to your customers... ...and share promotions on social media? you know it! now i'm seeing dollar signs. you should probably get your eyes checked. good one babe. optometry humor. right now get up to $650 in credits to help you switch to at&t.

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they just won't vote for me, but it's okay. >> that was former presidential candidate, ben carson, just moments ago at cpac. announced his new position as the national chairman of my faith votes, a group that encourages christians to go to the polls. it's time for the lid, in our political panel is here. daily beast columnist jonathan alter and heather from "wall street journal" as well as john font, who is joining us from cpac, where a lot of the action happening. let's start here in the studio. jonathan, hearing ben carson say yeah, i know you love me, you just don't vote for me. that says so much about what we've witnessed, if you can describe anything including last night's debate. to hear him say that, you love me but you didn't vote for me. >> well, you know, ben carson, i think historically, since this is already an historic campaign, he played an important role in this.

early on, he was beating donald trump in the polls. he faded, he wasn't a very good candidate. what he did was he introduced this idea i don't have to have any experience whatsoever to be the republican nominee, and potential president of the united states. unprecedented american history. there hasn't been a single president of the united states who wasn't either a general, a cabinet member or a politician. and both trump and carson, you know, were making it seem as if it was totally normal that you could be a neurosurgeon or a real estate developer. that was all the qualifications you needed. we now take that for granted. it's a ridiculous idea, but we take it for granted now in part, because of ben carson. >> but heather, people tore ben carson up and had no follow-up, as jonathan pointed out, he doesn't need the experience. look at what he presented, compared what donald trump has presented. there is not a lot of air between.

>> no. >> what is seen as both of their lack of experience, their glaring lack of experience in detail, as it relates to domestic or foreign policy. >> particularly on policy, very weak. and you know, it wasn't surprising is skipped yesterday's debate. he has been really weak in the debates. he has had very little follow-up in his main point is why aren't you calling on me, call on me. but i think, you know, unseasoned politician, he had a lot of loyal followers, when i spoke to followers of ben carson, they like him. that kind of car risma. he said i'm going to be focused on the grassroots. that's something ted cruz talks about. i think ben carson will continue to inhabit that space. it will be interesting to see what he does with it and his followers. >> let me bring you in, john, because will he pull a mitt romney. whether he say all of the things he doesn't like of the tone of the debates, the tone of this

race, and not endorse someone? >> well, first, let's give some credit to ben carson, who i think conducted his campaign with quiet dignity, and lack of insult. as for mitt romney, i think mitt romney recognizes that as the former presidential nominee, a lot of people were asking to hear from him. now, i don't know if it made much impact, but mitt romney felt, look, i don't want to go down in the history books as i lost the election and the next nominee was donald trump. >> yeah, but he did not take the stand on -- it's one thing to tell people everything you don't like. i do believe people want to hear what you do like in the form of an endorsement. it does come off to some degree not having conviction. i get it that he said, with matt, he didn't want his grandchildren to see him on the sidelines. the best way to get in from the sideline is to endorse, or get in yourself. >> well, you know, in the past,

we have seen patria cs and end up not endorsing anyone. dwight eisenhower used do that, ronald gra ronald reagan used to do that. mitt romney's credibility given that he had a bad campaign isn't high. it may not help them. >> isn't it more than a feeling that the party is in trouble? pegny noonan said it shattered, the language we're hearing and john is right, moments of contention and divide. but you have presidential candidate on stage that people are saying, not just bad candidate, he is dangerous. he is dangerous for the world. this is what we're hearing from within the party. that's more than a feeling. >> but what's even worst than that and even more of a sign of crisis is you have people like marco rubio who are saying he is a quote, con artist, other whose are saying he is a fraud. but they're so interested in

power, that they say they'll endorse him and support him if he is the nominee. are they saying that they're comfortable having a con artist, and a fraud as president of the united states. are they saying that it's actually more important to them to have party unity than to protect the american people from a fraud and a con artist? that's not very patriotic of them. sometimes party loyalty asks too much. >> well, heather, that's what i pointed out earlier today. is this about the country, do you get in the situation to better the country or to better your party, and i know that could be seen as a set up question, but the answer i've received from a number of republicans today is, well, he is better than hillary clinton. >> is that an answer? yeah, i don't think so, in any long-term sense. this represents a fracturing of the party. we have to see how deep. but one thing that's interesting to me with all the current candidates saying they'll back donald trump, is donald trump is

increasing flip flopping on positions. >> on live television, in real time. >> on immigration, just today, we reported about his torture policy, backing up on saying that we'll go against measures that are not legal. beyond water boarding. he is clearly positioning himself to the general election. that's smart of him. that's why he skipped cpac. >> and particularly when he is moving away from conservative positions that these -- his foes still support. >> it kind of makes cpac irrelevant. they get all this publicity, but their whole thing is purity and until this campaign, if you deafated by one inch from cpac, you were in trouble in the republican party. trump is reputated many of their positions no only paid a price, but prospering, the strang hold that the conservatives had and the party still exists.

>> your reaction? >> first of all, donald trump was supposed to speak at cpac this weekend answered canceled. now, i've interviewed people. he didn't agree to the rules of the other candidates abiding by, but another reason. there were going to be protests, walk jaouts if he was here, especially after last night's debate is losing altitude and i it will continue as long as he engages in shall we say cama kaz zee campaigning. >> we'll be more with "mtp daily" on monday. "with all due respect" starts now. i'm mark halperin. >> i'm john helemann. >> with all due respect to donald trump, your only presence at cpac, maybe not the best idea.