and has a specific reversal treatment. talk to your doctor about pradaxa today. last night you told cnn "islam hates us." did you meet all 1.6 billion muslims? >> i mean a lot of them. i mean a lot of them. >> he says what people wish they could say. the problem, is presidents can't just say anything they want. it has consequences here and around the world. >> the answer is not simply to yell "china bad. muslims bad." you've got to understand the nature of the threats we're

facing and how you deal with them. >> he's always saying "i'm the only one that beat donald in six contests and i beat him." but i beat him in 13 contests. he never mentions that. >> we don't know what's going to happen because we still have about half the delegates to be selected and that's what's going to be a very interesting thing to see how it all turns out as we move forward over the next couple weeks. with. >> good morning, it's friday, march 11. welcome to "morning joe." joe and mika are off today, attending the funeral for nancy reagan. willie is also away, he's traveling to ohio where he's going to be hosting a town hall meeting with ohio governor john kasich will that will air on msnbc tonight. and so with all due respect i'm mark halperin. >> and i'm john heilemann and we are live in miami, florida, following last night's final republican debate before tuesday's key florida primary along with four other states. with us in new york we have our friends, msnbc contributor and

legendary, amazing incredible columnist in mike barnicle. former governor of vermont and chairman of the democratic national committee howard dean. in washington we have msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee, michael steele. in cleveland, ohio, chris jansing, nbc news white house correspondent. it's going to be incredible: mike, last night, what did you think last night? >> incredible last gasp for two guys facing single elimination and ted cruz feeling like he needs to do more. yet it was unlike any other debate we've seen in a long way. it was civil and donald trump was barely attacked and when he was, rather than doing his normal thing of attacking back, counterpunching with full force he did just enough to send a message to them "i hear you and i won't let you push me around." but he did not escalate thing. it was a night of some subsans

and no change. >> to me it was like a throwback debate to the fall when we would comment on how strange it was the other republicans on stage were not attacking the front-runner donald trump. although at least they were attacking someone. last night they did none of that. it seemed like there was a little bit of a overreaction to the debate in detroit with where all of them thought they looked bad so they decided to back off. they haven't found the medium. they either attack him at the level of 11 like children or don't attack him at all. there's got to be something in between but they haven't found that yet. >> mike, some people thought marco rubio had a strong night. i thought all three of the other candidates besides trump were decent but nobody had a television moment. if they did we'd be talking about it. how do you think rubio did in his must-win home state? >> i think he did better than anybody expected. he did better than i thought he was going to do. it struck me, though, mark and john, all four candidates looked

as if they were tired of the debates, they were exhausted. i thought kasich had a good night. he had to have a good night stay there. but governor howard dean, you've been through these things. what did you think? >> i agree. i think they looked tired of having debates. the thing that struck me the most about the debate was the discussion about social security where you had donald trump taking an orthodox democratic position on social security which is we won't change the retirement age, we won't change the benefit package and cruz and rubio more aggressively saying yeah, we're going to have to cut things. we have to do this and that. it always struck me that that's a peculiar platform to take the in florida, especially marco rubio whose career is on the line on tuesday. >> michael steele, i love saying this, this is your party. >> cry if you want to. >> i own it. with pride. >> one of the things i think struck a lot of people -- at least it did me, i'm wondering

what you thought -- donald trump was so restrained and he was right when he said he was surprised at the civility on the stage last night but your thoughts, sir, about your party. >> well, i thought last night was the most mature debate that they've add in a long time. everyone went in there to do what they needed to do and this is for rubio to get back to where he was four weeks ago. and he did that i think very well. in fact, i tweeted out that that's the marco rubio that scared his opponents and inspired his supporters. we saw that guy last night maybe a little too late for that going into next week. john kasich is elevating his game at every turn. i think he's getting more traction. now whether or not it's enough in time to propel him to a competition to make it a three way as opposed to two way race between trump and cruz, we'll see. cruz was i think in many respects methodical in hiss

takedown of trump at various times. trump, as mark pointed out, pushed back accordingly. so last night it was most civil and the most republican debate i think we've seen in a long time. >> michael steele calling this ma a mature debate, a civil debate, a republican debate. others described it as the death with dignity debate. [ laughter ] chris jansing in ohio, take us through some of the highlight. >> the drudge report maybe described lait best last night "finally they're boring." the candidates ratcheted back the personal attacks and focused mostly on policy. >> i will do everything within my power not to touch social security to leave it the way it is to make this country rich again, to bring back our jobs, to get rid of deficit, to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse which is rampant in this country.

rampant, totally rampant. and it's my absolute intention to leave social security the way it is. >> the bottom line is we can't tiptoe around this and throw out things like "i'm going to get rid of fraud and abuse." let's get rid of fraud, let's get rid of abuse, let's be more careful about how you spend foreign aid but you still have hundreds of billions of dollars of deficit you have to make up. here's the thing, if we don't do it, we will have a debt crisis. >> one of the things that is critically important -- listen, we've got lots of challenges in the world. but the answer can't just be wave a magic and with and say "problem go away." you have to understand the problems. you have to have real solutions. it's like government spending. it's very easy. hillary clinton says she'll cut waste, fraud, and abuse. if only we had smarter people in washington, that would fix the problem. you know what? that that's the statement of a liberal who doesn't understand government is the problem. >> you have said positive things about putin as a leader and

china's massacre of pro-democracy protesters at tiananmen square you said "when the students poured into tiananmen square the chinese government almost blew it then they were vicious, they were horrible but they put it down with strength. that shows you the power of strength." >> that doesn't mean i was endorsing that. i was not endorsing it. i said that is a strong, powerful government that put it down with strength and they kept down the riot. it was a horrible thing, it doesn't mean at all i was endorsing it. as far as putin is concerned, i think putin's been a very strong leader for russia, a lot stronger than our leader, that i can tell you. for russia. that doesn't mean i'm endorsing putin. and strong doesn't mean good. putin is a strong leader, absolutely. i can name many strong leaders. i can name very weak leaders but he is a strong leader. now, i don't say that in a good way or bad way, i say it as a fact. >> well, donald trump also stood by his recent new controversial comments about the muslim faith. >> last night you told cnn

"islam hates us." did you mean all 1.6 billion muslims? >> i mean a lot of them. i mean a lot of them. [ laughter and applause ] >> do you want to clarify the comment at all? >> well, you know, i've been watching the debate today and they're talking about radical islamic terrorism or radical islam. but i will tell you there's something going on that maybe you don't know about and maybe a lot of other people don't know about but there's tremendous hatred and i will stick with exactly what i said. >> i know a lot of people find anneal the things donald says because he says what people wish they could say. the problem is presidents can't say anything they want. it has consequences here and around the world. there is no doubt that radical islam is a danger in the world. i can also tell you that if you go to any national cemetery, especially arlington, you'll see crescent moons there. if you go anywhere in the world you'll see american men and women serving us in uniform that are muslims and they love

america and as far as i know, no one on this stage has served in uniform in the united states military. anyone throughout that has the uniform of the united states on and is willing to die for this country is someone that loves america no matter what their religious background may. be i'm not interested in being politically correct, i'm interesting in being correct. >> i thought, john and mark, one of the stronger moments of the night from marco rubio, but i'm not sure it changes anybody's mind as you guys said. these are the kinds of things that they've been hitting him on for a whilened even though it was more sub dued i don't think the net affect is different than it's been before. >> chris, thank you. so last night everybody pretty much agrees not a lot of news. donald trump getting the endorsement of ben carson. there are three controversies swirling around, most of which came up last night. the statement he made to anderson cooper about islam, his fight with breitbart, an organization he's had good

relationships with and the question of whether people being physically assaulted at his events is something he bears some responsibility for. you think any of that is going to continue as controversies going forward or did the debate deal with them? >> i think they'll continue. he's got a press conference at 9:00 this morning in west palm beach, a lot of national reporters in miami are probably on the way up there already. i think those issues are serious issues jake tapper raised one of them, did not raise the one about the female breitbart reporter is which is as significant and serious as the one involving the protester because there's an accusation trump's campaign manager was involved. he's denied it but there are contrary claims, at least one eyewitness from the "washington post" who says that corey lewandowski did man hand this will woman. that is a problem for trump if true because it deals with a woman and breitbart which is an important conservative news outlet that's been favorable to trump. so i think that will come up but they did not impede donald

trump. mike, what do you think about these issues? the rallies has beve been a buig controversy. there is a kind of aggression at times and a raucousness that is a little unusual and not like anything we've seen covering presidential campaigns for 25 years. what do you think? >> i'm with you, john and mark on that score. there's something about his rallies and donald trump's rhetoric emboldens the crowd in front of him. it's not what he says, it's how he says it. it's his demeanor. and i think it emboldens crowds to act as they have sometimes acted in the past. what do we do? do we have a bit of news on that from chris? chris, what have you got? >> you can put this in the perspective of -- and you guys all remember this -- at the end of february and there was a -- somebody who was escorted out, a

protester and he said he would like to punch him. now you've got -- donald trump said that. now you've got this fallout from the moment of violence at that trump campaign event and it took center stage at that presidential debate last night but let's go back to where it began. this is wednesday's trump rally, north carolina. authorities were escorting 26-year-old rakeem jones and four others from the event and then 78-year-old john mcgraw walked toward the aisle, you can see it there, and allegedly threw an elbow in jones eye and went back to his seat. many k graw spoke to "inside edition" at the end of the rally. >> did you like the event? >> you bet i liked it. >> what did you like out of it? >> knocking the hell out of the big mouth. we don't know who he is but he's not acting like an american. >> so he deserved it? >> every bit of it. >> what was that? >> yes he deserved it. the next time we see him we might have to kill him. >> mcgraw went on to say "we

don't know who he is, he might be with a terrorist organization." well, yesterday mcgraw was arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct. there is his mug shot. the trump campaign issued a seven-word statement "we are not involved in that incident." on msnbc yesterday, jones and ronnie rouse who also was being escorted out by police and he took the video reacted to what happened. >> it didn't seem real. i got -- it was like i got hit and now i'm on the ground getting detained by the police and then i look at the video and i really got hit and they watched it. as you can see being escorted by officers, they're still leading me up the stairs after i'm hit. >> the guy hits the guy in front of the police, behind the police, on the side of the police and they throw rakeem down and they tell the guy to go sit back down, and he finishes eating his popcorn. we're -- it's crazy that you get

pretty much almost arrested because you got assaulted. >> and so trump was asked about this incident during and following last night's debate. take a listen. >> do you believe that you've done anything to create a tone where this kind of violence would be encouraged? >> i hope not. i truly hope not. i will say this, we have 25,000, 30,000 people, you've seen it yourself. people come with tremendous passion and love for the country and when they see protests in some cases, you're mentioning one case which i haven't seen, i heard about it which i don't like but when they see what's going on in this country they have anger that's unbelievable. they have anger. they love this country. we have some protesters who are bad dudes. they have done bad things. they are swinging, they are really dangerous and they get in there and they start hitting people and we had a couple big, strong, powerful guys doing damage to people not only the

loudness, the loudness i don't mind but doing serious damage and if they're going to be taken out, i -- to be honest, we have to run something. and it's not me, it's usually the municipal government, the police because i don't have guards all over these stadiums. i mean, we fill up stadiums. it's usually the police and, by the way, speaking of the police, we should pay our respects to the police because they are taking tremendous abuse in this country and they do a phenomenal job. >> i've never seen a protester throw a punch. i have seen your supporters get rough with protesters. >> that man was 78 years old and i just got to see a little clip. he threw a punch, i don't know if he hit but he was -- he's an impassioned person and i guess he didn't like what he was seeing and you know it's one of those things but certainly we don't condone it, we don't like it, we don't like seeing it. >> mike barnicle, one of the things that he says repeatedly is that we don't condone this. you talk to reporters who are in

those pens and you talk to anybody who has been to a rally and i've seen it and there are a lot of shoutouts to people. there's negative shoutouts to people in the crowd, negative shoutouts to -- by name sometimes to reporters who are there covering the campaigns, mike. >> chris, you know, you along with john and mark, myself, we've been to several of trump's rallies and mr. trump is -- it's a show, it's a terrific show he puts on for the people assembled there. but there is an element of the show where he does, i think, embolden people to behave the way we've seen. he says he hopes he doesn't do that but the reality is that it happens around him. have you been to rallies? >> most people think -- and i agree with this -- that trump's following is based on people who are angry, angry about their own circumstances post-recession, angry about the enormous changes that have taken place in this country. so it's hardly surprise with his rhetoric somebody is going to take out that anger on protesters and others.

>> once about a month ago he said -- >> punch the guy in the face. if you're saying "i'd like to punch the guy in the face" from the podium and his followers are doing this, there is a connection there that's obvious. one thing i had to say since you and i are the same vintage, it was ironic that the music in the background was the rolling stones who played at altamont where the guy was murdered. did you pick that up? >> i did. the music at his show is spectacular. john heilemann, you've been to his show, the crowds get into it, there's a vibe in the air and the vibe extends itself given donald's rhetoric to what happens. >> i don't think it's enough for him to say "i hope not." i think michael steele, howard dean, you have been on the ballot, you've had event, it's incumbent upon him and his staff to speak with local law enforcement, to speak to secret service, to speak to the organizers, his staff, and say

are we doing everything possible to not just say wash our hands of it but to say we're not going to have violence at our events. >> it's not just that there have been events where he's said "i'd like to punch that guy in the mouth. in the old days that guy would be carried out on a stretcher." there are a few things where trump has said things or incited people or created the climate for this. if he's going to be the republican nominee he has to stop doing that. there are still questions about corey lewandowski and the woman from breitbart that need to be answered. the "washington post" reporter, someone has to get him on television and ask him what he saw. they are attacking that woman. i have no idea what happened there but they have been -- they're calling her delusional, they're bringing up incidents from her past. she has bruises on her arms. we have to get to the bottom of what happened at that event over the course of the next 24 hours because this guy is poised to be the republican nominee and the stuff that's happening at these

events cannot continue. >> and hillary clinton spoke out about it on rachel maddow so if there's a trump/clinton matchup we'll hear about this. still ahead on "morning joe," president obama responds to those who say he's responsible for the rise of donald trump. let's just say the president doesn't agree. here's bill karins tracking more severe weather across the country. bill? good morning, guys, unfortunately the pictures continue to get worse instead of better. mississippi and louisiana, yesterday the national guard was still out there rescuing people, some by helicopters because of high water. they had no way to get out. water surrounding many neighborhoods in many homes. as we go through the last 24 hours, a lot of river levels have come up and nature is getting confused because the water is everywhere and the fish are crossing the streams in some cases. big fish, too, getting stuck there. that's monroe, louisiana, who by the way picked up about a foo to the a foot and a half of rain. this morning the worst has shifted into mississippi and the new orleans area.

we have the fladsh floods aroun shreveport. we have numerous new flood warnings and the storm itself is lingering over texas. look at the heavy rain in louisiana and mississippi. severe thunderstorm warning for the new orleans area and heavy rain in southern mississippi is sending rivers quickly up and we'll have people evacuating as we get three to six more inches of rain. the forecast, showers in the northeast, still beautiful in the southeast. as we go through the weekend, one more day of rain on saturday around new orleans and mississippi then finally after five days of historic rains we'll be done with this event down in the south. for all our friends on the west coast, i know you have a lot of rain heading your way and you have flash flood watches up for the weekend. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. braindrone? can't blame you. it's a drone you control with your brain, which controls your thumbs, which control this joystick.

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welcome back to "morning joe," i'm john heilemann alongside my colleague mark

halperin. john and mika are off to attend mrs. reagan's funeral. chris jansing is in ohio, chris, tell us about the president obama weighing in on the 2016 race. >> during his press conference with canadian prime minister justin trudeau, he was asked about plit i ccritics who claim polarized climate under his administration have contributed to someone like donald trump. here's how he's responded. >> i have been been blamed by republicans for a lot of things but being blamed for their primaries and who they're selecting for their part yy is novel. [ laughter ] i don't think that i was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate, for example, i don't remember saying, hey,

why don't you ask me about that. why don't you question whether i'm american or whether i'm loyal or whether i have america's best interests at heart. those aren't things that were prompted by any actions of mine. and so what you're seeing within the republican party is to some degree all those efforts over a course of time creating an environment where somebody like a donald trump can thrive. i am more than happy to own the responsibility as president, as the only office holder who was elected by all the american people to continue to make efforts to bridge divides and

help us find common ground. but what i'm not going to do is validate some notion that the republican crackup that's been taking place is a consequence of actions that i've taken. there are thoughtful conservatives who are troubled by this who are troubled by the direction of their party. i think it's very important for them to reflect on what it is about the politics they've engaged in that allows the circus we've been seeing to transpire. and to do some intro special election. >> and when asked if he'd be

endorsing a candidate in the democratic primary the president said he thinks democratic voters are doing just fine working it out themselves and that his most important role will be trying to help his party's nominee win the general election. mark and john, i think you know this very well, when you talk to folks at the white house, one of the things that gets under their skin, the president was very measured in his comments but the idea to them he is somehow contributing to donald trump or as ted cruz suggested some of the violence at the trump rallies really rankles them and they really -- and you heard the president do this. they liken it to the birther controversy, they think it's outrageous. >> yeah, chris, some familiar themes the president has been talking about and thinking about and grappling about and i thought he showed his point of view more openly than he might have and engaged in almost some punditry because these are issues that interest him and gal him in a lot of ways. >> it's a personal thing with donald trump, let's be clear. we remember the white house correspondents dinner where he

attacked -- comically took down donald trump because trump was waging the birther campaign against president obama. a lot of what obama feels has been the derangement syndrome on the right is embodied by trump. he'll never be able to let that go. the president is cool and calm and detached but if that kind of campaign had been waged against you and identified by somebody who is now the republican front-runner in the opposite party, it would be something you would have something to say about. >> he did set up a little bit of a straw man, i thinkme methink. >> he didn't describe exactly what people accuse him of. >> but you can understand why he's engaged here. there's a backdrop that's not just about the party it's about a very personal thing that's happened with him and trump. >> mike, do you think the president is in a league now of those who say donald trump is likely to be the republican nominee and could be a formidable general election candidate? what's your read of his read? >> well, first of all, my read on the sea gulls cackling at

you, they're commenting on what you're saying. >> it's a non-paying audience. >> it always strikes me -- and i don't think i'm alone -- that the president of the united states, despite everything he has on his desk, everything that is aimed at him remains as thoughtful and poised as he is at all times. the other thing that strikes me and it's something we might be remiss in the news business in not covering enough and michael steele, i'd like your opinion on this because i do respect your opinion. do you think we are paying enough attention to the dismantling right in front of us of a major american political party, the republican party? >> i think people are beginning to. i think the events certainly coming off of the last two weeks have really focused folks' attention on the fissures that have existed in the party for some time. i think regardless of the outcome this this election, the donald trump is the nominee and go e-z to the general election and wins there's still going to

be within the party the turmoil of dealing with that. if ted cruz is the nominee, again, the turmoil from that will be dealt with. so there's still these under lying issues, mike, that are animating and driving the base right now that we've talked about and dissected at a superficial level but it can't get started until rank-and-file republicans have it out. they've got to decide once and for all do we want to nominate as some would argue a constitutional conservative who's going to honor the principles that we believe in or do we want to take this new route that's being offered by donald trump and that battle has yet to be meted out. >> all right. we'll be back to that conversation all throughout the show. up next, with the ohio republican primary right around the corner, john kasich wins the endorsement that might just matter most in the buckeye state. "morning joe" is back with that -- >> wrong!

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when you're on hold, your business is on hold. that's why comcast business doesn't leave you there. when you call, a small business expert will answer you in about 30 seconds. no annoying hold music. just a real person, real fast. whenever you need them. great, that's what i said. so your business can get back to business. sounds like my ride's ready. don't get stuck on hold. reach an expert fast. comcast business. built for business. welcome back to "morning joe," i'm chris jansing just outside of cleveland ohio. here john kasich may be the governor but buckeye football is king and yesterday the two teams up as ohio state university head coach urban meyer endorsed governor kasich for in the a video released by the campaign. >> shelley and i would like to tell you and karen that the

leadership you've shown in the state of ohio since we've been back and even before, your friendship as a friend and as a true supporter of what you stand for now that i really know what you stand for, we'd like to tell you we wish you the best. go win. >> meyer has become without question one of the most recognizable faces in the state. he's won 50 games and lost just four since taking over at ohio state in 2012. of course the buckeyes won the national championship under his watch in 2014. by the way, his personal approval rating is 85% so john kasich happy about that. and tonight our own willie geist will hold an exclusive town hall with john kasich at 8:00 p.m. eastern. coming up next on "morning joe," much more on the winners and losers from the debate last night in miami. we'll ask republican strategist ben ginsburg if he expects donald trump to reach the magic number of delegates or will we see a contested convention come july. "morning joe" back in a moment.

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>> i think i'm going to have the delegates, okay? i think. let's see what happens. i think whoever gets to that top position as opposed to solving that artificial number that was set by somebody which is a very random number, i think that whoever gets the most delegates should win. that's what i think. >> senator cruz, if you overtake donald trump at the convention, what will you do to take his very passionate supporters and keep them from bolting the convention and sabotaging the fall election? >> well, look, there are some folks in washington -- >> make me president. [ cheers and applause ] >> donald you are welcome to be president of the smithsonian. there are some in who are having fevered dreams of a brokered convention. they're unhappy with how the people are voting and they want to parachute in their favored washington candidate to be the nominee.

i think that would be an absolute disaster and we need to respect the will of the voters. >> welcome back to "morning joe" miami style. i'm john heilemann, joining us, long time republican strategist ben ginsburg, he served as the bush-cheney presidential counsel and played a key role in the historic 2000 recount in the state. he's now a nbc news and msnbc political analyst and a citizen of north america. >> how many titles do you have? >> i don't know, it was very flattering. >> counselor, i wanted to get your view on the conventional wisdom which is that even if donald trump wins either florida or ohio, just one of the two, no matter how else he does on tuesday it will be difficult for him to get a majority of the delegates. >> challenging. he'll have to get 59%, 60% depending on how the other states that vote on tuesday go. but it is -- if he wins them both, he's got it. if he doesn't he's in a

challenge and a long slog. >> how advanced are the discussions amongst people who would not like donald trump to be the nominee about if you keep him short of majority how it would play out in cleveland. how advanced are those discussions? >> i think people are looking at the hypotheticals now and doing a lot of mapping. that's true of any political junkie who's living in the country and following the race. but there are a lot of ifs in counting the numbers and deciding what can happen at a convention. what is clear is that if he is short of a majority, that's where things get really interesting on the floor because the pool of unbound delegatesen the first ballot which he could tap into to get to a majority is not terribly big at this point unless one of the existing candidates drops out in which case that increases the pool by the number of delegates. >> let me ask you one more question. the delegate, who they are and what their motives and allegiances are could be the

issue of the campaign. >> absolutely. >> are those people typically if they're elected to be, say, a john kasich delegate, are those people typically looking to be looking to john kasich for a signal and if he says "i want my delegates to vote for ted cruz or paul ryan" are they likely to follow his lead? >> here is the interesting thing about the republican delegate selection process. it goes state by state. we practice a fierce federalism so the delegates elected in any state may or may not be loyal to the person they're pledged to on the first ballot so it's not -- you cannot generalize with that question about whether they'll take signals. i think there are no brokers left in the republican party so my guess is the whip operations you will have to come up with on the floor of the convention will be of a level of sophistication not known before by the political world. >> it's super, super compelling and super confusing in some levels but before i throw this to mike barnicle i want to ask you quickly, in a contested convention scenario, is it more

likely if the nominee is not the person who has the plurality, let's say that donald trump, is it more likely that that person is one of the existing contestants do you think or is it more likely that some white knight gets put forward, mitt romney and paul ryan. >> we are talking completely hypothetical. >> i know. that's what's so much fun. >> it is fun. you can never be wrong, you can never be right. i think for the first number of ballot, five, 10, 15, it's the existing pool then there's a prolonged stalemate, just to get out of cleveland before the hotel reservations expire you start looking for solutions like that. >> mike barnicle, my question for you as i throw it up to you, you were actually in your 50s r oor 60s in the '76 election. you were a mature man at that point. what do you remember about that process and how excited are you that we might get back to that prospect in 2016? >> i go back further than that. my flashback in terms of

conventions with that what's going on this year is 1968 in chicago with the whole thing coming apart on the floor of the convention in the chicago. i'm thrilled to hear ben iter the phrase "fierce federalism." i've waited a lotng time to hea that from ben ginsburg. howard dean, i think i heard him say the delegates are not bound on the first ballot? >> i've heard this from other republican folks, too and i have a question for ben. i think he'll probably have a plurality by the time he gets the the convention but your point is those folks are not necessarily particularly enthusiastic about trump or cruz or anybody else. these from delegates that get themselves elected year after year, four year cycle after four-year cycle. isn't it true anything could snap the other thing i've heard

is the rules committee has the power, unlike the democratic side, to change the rules a week before the convention if they want to. is that true? >> well, there are some rules that they can change. there's a set of procedural rules that govern this convention starting on rule 26 if you want to look it up at home and those are the ones that govern the activities at that convention. the rules the that the nomination has been run under can't be changed to affect this convention. >> so ben what's the bottom line here. what are the odds of a bag job occurring in cleveland. that's what i want to know. >> i don't think it will be a bag job, i think it will be democracy flourishing if no candidate -- [ laughter ] >> well done! well done! bravo. >> john and mark, how about that. democracy flourishing and fierce federalism from ben this morning. >> three we go. >> going back to bed now. >> look, donald trump made -- michael steele, let me ask you

this. there's a debate in the party and i ask every republican i talk to now this question. is the person with the plurality, whether it's 49% or 49.2%, is that person in any sense entitled to the nomination or a majority is a majority and you don't get the majority in the electoral process you have to fight it out in the inside game. >> i think that the conventional wisdom is that oh, yeah, majority is the majority and that's what you go with, ben is right. but that's not how this will play out in this convention hall. i think we're deluding ourselves if we think that donald trump walks into that convention with 48% of the delegates in his pocket that somehow donald trump is going to let those delegates walk away from him and that donald trump's people are going to play anything but nice on that floor. this is not going to be a good situation from the party. they have to navigate this cautiously. i've been trying to flow up this yellow flag which will become a red flag as we get closer to

this convention if they don't play this smartly. appreciate what ben is saying and he's right on paper and what the rules say but when people walk into that hall with the emotion we've seen in this campaign and you're going to try to strip donald trump however you decide this process plays itself out, that will be a tough out in crack. so it will take a lot of negotiation by a lot of folks to handle this thing the right way otherwise convention looks ugly fast. >> chris jansing in cleveland? >> yeah, as i sit here and ben starts talking about five or 10 or 15 ballots and extending hotel reservations, the sounds they hear in cleveland are cha-ching. having said that, assuming donald trump goads in there with the mid to high 40s, don't the rules favor him? i mean, what are the chances at that point it does go to five or ten or 15 different ballots? >> well, chris, it will be a matter of math at some point.

in other words, how short is he of a majority and how many unbound delegates are there on the first ballot? i mean, the truth is, this is going to be decided not in cleveland but much more in each of the individual states as the delegates are selected and the savvy campaigns which i do think includes the trump campaign know that they are about to spend a lot of perfectly good spring weekends going to various parts of the country to be able to engage in the delegate selection battle, to be sure the delegates who arrive on the convention floor are people of the mind-set that michael is talking about. >> mike glassner, trump's political director, is a very underrated part of that team. >> i was in a convention that i had to steel, i would want ben on my side. thank you for elaborating us and enlightening us. coming up, beer, hockey and jokes about gray hair, some of

the topics that were touched on during canadian prime minister justin trudeau's visit yesterday. all the highlights are ahead on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ for your retirement, you want to celebrate the little things, because they're big to you. and that is why you invest. the best returns aren't just measured in dollars. td ameritrade®. hey kevin. hey, fancy seeing you here. uh, i live right over there actually. you've been to my place. no, i wasn't...oh look, you dropped something. it's your resume with a 20 dollar bill taped to it. that's weird. you want to work for ge too. hahaha, what? well we're always looking for developers who are up for big world changing challenges like making planes, trains and hospitals run better. why don't you check your new watch and tell me what time

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introducing wifi pro, wifi that helps grow your business. comcast business. built for business. mr. prime minister, after today, i think it's fair to say that here in america you may well be the most popular canadian named justin. [ laughter ] it's possible. >> one of our most popular

exports to the united states -- and i need you to stop teasing him -- has been another justin. now -- no, no. that kid has had a great year. and, of course, leave it to a canadian to reach international fame with a song called sorry. >> the beliebers loving this. it was a sunny welcome in the morning and a warm state dinner last night. the two leaders couldn't resist throwing a few playful jabs. >> i don't want to goss over the very real differences between americans and canadians. there's some things we will probably never agree on. whose beer is better. [ laughter ] who's better at hockey. [ audience reacts ] [ laughter ] >> don't get me started. don't get me started.

>> where's the stanley cup right now? [ laughter and applause ] i'm sorry, is in the my hometown with the chicago black hawks. in case you were wondering. in case you canadians were wondering. where is it. >> barack, thank you for all that you have done these past seven years to preserve this most important relationship. may the special connection between our two countries continue to flour fiish in the years to come and may my bray gr -- gray hair come in at a much slower rate than yours. >> and here's president obama poking fun at the canadian-born senator from texas, ted cruz. >> this visit has been a celebration of the values that we share we as a people are committed to the principles of equality and opportunity. the idea that if you work hard and play by the rules you can

make it if you try no matter what the circumstances of your birth -- in both of our countries and we see this in our current presidential campaign. after all, where else could a boy born in calgary grow up to run for president of the united states? >> the obamas don't hold that many state dinner the, that was the hottest ticket in washington last night. coming up at the top of the hour, more from last night's republican debate. cruz, rubio, and kasich each taking a pass on hitting donald trump but was it a collective mistake? plus trump says he's getting an endorsement from ben carson this morning. he already knows what kind of advice he wants from the retired neurosurgeon. and we'll be joined by nbc's chuck todd and hallie jackson. "morning joe" will be right back. my school reunion's coming fast.

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last night you told cnn "islam hates us." did you mean all 1.6 billion muslims? >> i mean a lot of them. i mean a lot of them. >> he says what people wish they can say. the problem is, presidents can't say anything they want. it has consequences here and around the world. >> the answer is not similar mr. i to yell "china bad. muslims bad." you've got to understand the nature of the threats we're facing and how you deal with them. >> he's always saying "i'm the only one that beat donald in six contests and i beat him." but i beat him in 13 contests. he never mentions that. >> we don't know what's going to happen because we still have about half the delegates to be selected and that's what's going to be a very interesting thing

to see how it all turns out as we move forward over the next couple weeks. welcome to "morning joe." it's friday, march 11 on this day after here in miami. joe and kmee amika are in calif attending the funeral of former first lady nancy reagan in simi valley and willie is headed to ohio where he'll be hosting a town hall tonight with the governor of the buckeye state john kasich that is going to air here on msnbc at 8:00 p.m. i'm mark halperin. >> and i'm john heilemann and we are live in miami, florida, following last night's republican debate and four days before tuesday's key florida primary and primary in four other big states. with us in new york we have msnbc contributor, legendary columnist in and noted geriatric mike barnicle. bianna golodryga. in washington, former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele. also pulitzer prize winning columnist in and associate editor at the "washington post" eugene robinson.

in cleveland, ohio, nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing. mark, we have seen a lot of debates in this cycle. this one was particularly important given the fact we have huge states coming up on tuesday, last big opportunity for republicans to make their case and really break through in the media in the conversation. what did you absorb last night and who did well? >> i gave -- my report cards i gave donald trump an "a" and everybody else "bs." trump was i thought really good because he modulated. he didn't fight back, he didn't counterpunch with full force, he counterpunched just enough. all three guys i thought had good nights but they needed better than good nights. they needed paradigm-shifting nights and none of them did. >> i thought they allowed donald trump to do what donald trump wanted to do. donald trump -- the overhang was that debate in detroit last week. no one looks good, everyone understood that it didn't help them and, most importantly, for all the non-trump candidates, it didn't do anything to slow trump

down so here we are, everybody changed their strategy. trump wanted to elevate. because no one attacked him trump was able to elevate. the other three walked off stage thinking they did well and established what they said out to accomplish. but they still have to stop this guy. he's the front-runner, they did nothing to slow shim down. >> trump will dominate the day with his press conference with the ben carson endorsement. then we have saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday, and you have two guys, john kasich in ohio where he'll be with willie at the town hall and marco rubio in this state holding a press conference of his own today are who are facing single elimination. if you're the governor or popular senator of your state you'd like to say "i win my state." kasich basically in ohio rubio basically in florida trying to figure out if they can salvage this. >> the polling shows trump with a substantial lead in florida and in some polling shows him with a lead over john kasich in ohio. that will be a close race.

mike barnicle, my question for you, someone commented this was the death with dignity debate. that was not donald trump, that was referring to everybody else saying if we're going to go down let's salvage some semblance of their pride. what did you think? >> i thought it was the tape your eyelids debate. before we get to bianna, i want to ask mark halperin. as dean of students, i want to ask about your marks give on the donald trump. why did he get an "a" and the others get a "b"? >> part of my grade is based on what does do it to being your chances of the nominee. i think donald trump yesterday, again, he didn't strike back so hard the thing devolved, he didn't have to defend himself that much but he counterpunched to say to the other guys on the stage if i'm attacked i will hit back. i thought he started and ended the night talking about unifying the republican party, reminding republicans he's bringing new people into the process and while there are elites who will

look at what he said and say he wasn't specific, he didn't show a depth of knowledge, that's not what his support is about so he enters the debate on a glide path to the nomination and i think he left in a strong position with the a performance that was sophisticated and not all this debate performance earned thattagive the. >> bianna? >> i don't know if i'd give donald trump an "a" but for the first time we saw a much more rational, reasonable, i dare to say even presidential side of donald trump really focusing, you can tell, on the general election. for the first time we heard specifics from him. 30,000 troops he said he would send to the middle east. i thought it was also a great night for marco rubio, though. i thought his stance on cuba, on the middle east, on not confronting donald on some of the issues that they butted heads on before. i thought it was a great night for rubio. not sure what it will do for him in the polls but at least it was a good night compared to last week. >> gene robinson, as we continue to contest mark halperin's grading system here, one of the

things that donald trump said last night that would cause me to give him less than an "a" was his response to jake tapper's question about the tone and tenor of the campaign, of the rallies that he has, do they engender the violence that sometimes take place and donald trump said "i hope not." and that's why i would give him a "b" at a minimum because he ought to have said more than just "i hope not." what do you think? >> well, i think foolish you, you're grading on a reasonable scale as opposed to the sort of curved scale we have for donald trump. [ laughter ] and that's -- you know what struck me last night was if that were the first presidential debate and you heard donald trump you'd say, well, this guy is all over the map, he has nothing specific to say, he doesn't know about policy, he doesn't -- where did this guy come from? but we're used to it now. we're used to the way he performs in these debates and so, you know, that was what

passes for presidential in a donald trump debate performance and so in that sense, yeah, i think halperin is right to give him an "a" because we're enured to the way these things work aoude. i thought rubio -- it seemed to me a battle for reclaiming self-respect after his previous debate performance when he acted like a bratty little kid on a playground who was repeatedly smacked down by trump it was so awful i think just for the sake of any political future he had to be better last night. so i would maybe give him a "b+"and the other two "bs." >> you gene, as you may be aware donald trump went to the wharton school, that's the university of pennsylvania which is an ivy league school so he's used to being graded on the curve. [ laughter ] chris jansing, you're in ohio, take us through some of the debate highlights.

>> yes, he learned a lot of his words at wharton, i understand. meantime, the drudge report maybe described last night's debate best with this headline "finally they're boring." debate number 12 for the republicans saw the candidates ratchet back the personal attacks and focus mostly on policy. >> i will do everything within my power not to touch social security, to leave it the way it is, to make this country rich again, to bring back our jobs, to get rid of deficits, to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, which is rampant in this country. rampant. totally rampant. and it's my absolute intention to leave social security the way it is. not increase the age and to leave it as is. >> the bottom line is, we can't just continue to tiptoe around this and throw out things like i'm going to get rid of fraud and i abuse. let's get rid of fraud and abuse, let's be more careful about how we spend foreign aid but you still have hundreds of billions of dollars of deficit you're going to have to make up. and if we do not do it, we will have a debt crisis.

>> one of the things that is critically important -- listen, we've got lots of challenges in the world but the answer can't just be -- wave a magic and with and say "problem, go away." you have to understand the problems. you have to have real solutions. it's like government spending. it's very easy. hillary clinton says she'll cut waste, fraud, and abuse. if only we had smarter people in washington, that would fix the problem. you know what? that's the statement of a liberal who doesn't understood government is the problem. >> so michael steele, the consensus that this debate was in no way a game changer but if you're an undecided voter throughout, did you learn something last night that you didn't know from the 11 previous debates? >> probably not, to be honest. i don't think there was any new information that was delivered by any of the candidates maybe except for donald trump fleshing out a little bit more as was noted on troop movements and what he would do in the middle east. but i think overall i think mark's assessment of this is right on.

i don't think anyone did enough to really change the dynamics going into next week. a lot of early voting is already well under way in florida. and ohio. so i think sum of this is set and baked in. for the average viewer, yeah, it was boring and welcome relief from the dog-and-pony show we've seen in the past but i don't think it moved the needle too much for any one candidate. >> we'll see what the ratings are, which may give us an indication of what people thought about the debate. meantime, marco rubio and trump clashed on cuba. in this exchange, trump defended his willingness to keep the door to diplomacy open. >> i deon't agree with presiden obama. i do agree something should take place. after 50 years it's enough time, folks. but we have to make a good deal and we have to get rid of all the litigation that's going to happen. i would probably have the embassy closed until such time as a really good deal was made and struck by the united states.

[ laughter ] >> first of all, the embassy is the former consulate, it could just go back to being a consulate. i don't know where cuba will sue us. i tell you what the good deal now. cuba has free elections. cuba stops putting people in jail for speaking out. cuba has freedom of the press. cuba kicks taut chinese listen nation. cuba stops helping north korea evade u.n. sanctions. cuba takes those fugitives of american justice including the cop killer from new jersey and send her back to united states and to jail where she belongs, then we can have a relationship with cuba. >> john and mark, you can easily make the argument that these exchanges for rubio were the most important of the night. he has to win his home state. it's an uphill slog for him.

how much did he change the equation? if you're just looking at the people in florida who were watching lasting night. >> i think there's constituency on those issues and he's an articulate person on them but i don't get the sense in sampling local news coverage that those are break through moment those will get attention and do something significant to increase his support in the state. i think the more important thing on the cuba exchange is that like he does speaking of in favor of planned parenthood, like he says he's going to not take sides in the israelis and minute i can't say. he's basically taking a position on cuba that is not traditional. >> marco rubio had a quite strong set of answers about entitlement reform. people like joe scab roe werbore applauding him on twitter.

he has a far left democratic view on entitlement reform and i think that it says something about trump's strength that it doesn't hurt him with any con sich wh -- constituency. i think that's why donald trump is a dangerous candidate. i'm sure the ways in which donald trump violating republican dogma could have a dangerous in certain parts of the country republicans have not played well if he's the nominee. what do you think? >> you hear people in massachusetts, new hampshire, michigan, iowa saying they're torn between what to do. should i vote for bernie sanders or donald trump and it's kind of surprising when you first hear about it. but when you see like last night

when you see the juxtaposition with donald trump, it's jarring and more than interesting. i would imagine might be a bit troubling to any potential democratic candidate for president whether it's bernie sanders or hillary clinton but mark you mentioned that you did not know whether marco rubio's very strong response on cuba would move the needle at all based upon what you've been hearing. could you spell that out a little more? >> i think the people who feel strongly about those issues probably are already for marco rubio. it's not like he's go no strength. but the places where he needs to do better is where the people already for trump in skacarboroh company. now there are cuban-americans in the i-4 corridor but people who

heard marco rubio understand where he's coming from, see that contrast with donald trump. i can't believe that will make the difference between trump and rubio. michael steele, part of the problem for rubio is a lot of people in florida have voted. they voted well before the debate last night and based on the number of votes that are in and what we know about the people who voted, marco rubio may well be so far behind that even a strong debate performance will not allow him to catch up to donald trump. >> that's the key point, mark. and it's what i was saying before because a lot of the early voting has been well under way in florida, particularly at a time when marco rubio had fallen flat on his face relative to other candidates, yeah, it could be a problem in terms of getting that big bounceback. he would need a big turnout on the ground on election day to offset any damage done from that, which is a problem. it goes back to what i was

saying about the fissures in the party. saw that splayed out on cuba and a number of other issues where donald trump is taking the road not even less travels, never traveled for the gop and that's going to be a real test for them at the ballot box come this fall and beyond should he prevail. >> and i think there's nowhere you see the power of trump more than here. you have an extremely popular governor. you have one who his net positives in the "wall street journal"/nbc poll are higher than anybody else while trump's are lower. he's gotten a incredible ground game. he's got people in every single county in this state but talking over the last couple of days to insiders, they just -- they're sort of confounded by the fact that they here in this incredible horse race to donald trump and think that very well that they may lose it. these are strong kasich supporters who have been working to put this ground game together for him. meantime, last night trump also responded to that video that shows one of his supporters allegedly elbow ago man at a

rally in north korea. but that's not the only incident of violence involving trump's campaign. that alleged incident occurred when trump was making his way through reporters after election night press conference and that's when michelle fields, a reporter for the conservative outfit breitbart news says she was attempting to ask a question when she was grabbed and nearly pushed to the ground by trump's campaign manager, corey lewandowski, a claim the campaign denies. yesterday fields tweeted this picture of her arm that shows what remains of the bruise she says she got. lewandowski denied the incident took place tweeting a link to a blog post titled "we're calling bull expletive on michelle field." but "washington post" reporter ben terrace says he saw the event and they published a portion of audio that, while not definitive, says it supports her version of events.

early this morning, lewandowski tweeted to fields writing this "you are totally delusional, i never touched you. as a matter of fact, i have never even met you." and donald trump commented on

the allegation to nbc's katy tur. >> i don't know anything about it. i heard about it a little while ago for the first time. corey's an incredible guy. i don't think he would ever do anything about that. we were surrounded. i believe i was in the middle of a lot of secret service agents and they said they never saw anything and these are very honorable guys, they're fantastic people and there were a lot of them and nobody saw anything and to the best of my knowledge there's no pictures and you had your cameras there. every -- there were hundreds and hundreds of cameras there because it was a major press announcement over my victories that night. so they had a lot of camera there. if somebody went down, there would be pictures. everybody has pictures. >> breitbart is asking for an apology. you have had a very good relationship with that media company. have you spoken to them? has corey spoken to them? >> i like breitbart but you can never apologize unless you're wrong. now if i found out to the other degree i would certainly apologize. but people tell me -- i've spoken to secret service agents and they said nothing happened.

>> she posted a photo of bruises on her arm. >> well, i don't know, how did they get there? huh? >> gene robinson, the white house correspondents' association, of which i am a member, felt compelled to put out a statement yesterday that said that they condemned any act of violence or intimidation against any reporter covering the 2016 campaign and we've been increasingly concerned with some of the rhetoric aimed at reporters covering the presidential race. what's your stake on this? >> first of all about this incident. you saw ben's story. you heard the audio the second after it happened so it happened. it's riddiiculous for the trump campaign to claim at this point -- lewandowski saying "i never touched her, that never happened." that's clearly false and they need to acknowledge that indeed indid happen and then there is a broader issue. at his rallies -- and he doesn't

do it quite to this extent anymore but there was a period where trump at every rally was not just pointing at the press and saying "they're bad people." he was saying "look at them, they're scum. they're terrible. they're awful. essentially inciting ire if not something worse against the media just for political gain. i think that's appalling and he needs to be called on that and all the violence and rough housing. somebody is going to get seriously hurt. >> but john and mark, the fact of the matter is wherever he does that and wherever he calls out a reporter by name, the people in the crowds cheer. >> yeah, yeah. they do. because guess what? the media is not the most popular institution in america and especially among conservatives who see the entire mainstream media as part of some sort of left wing plot.

but that's not the fact and we have to deal with reality and the facts rather than a sort of perceptions but that people like donald trump encourage and play on. >> what dough do you make of the white house correspondents association speaking out. this is a campaign event. there. >> there's no campaign correspondents' association so they are stepping into the void. a lot of the reporters are part of that association and, look, donald trump does these things. it's not appropriate for him to say the kind of things -- he can criticize the press all he wants but saying they're vile, saying they're scum saying he hates them coupled with the language he's heard where he's in the process of rousing his crowds created both in terms of the press and the protesters an ugly atmosphere at these events. i will say if he wants to be the republican nominee let alone the president of the united states it's not appropriate. we don't see this at any other events in this cycle or any past cycle that you and i have ever

covered. he needs to get to be a bigger figure if he wants to wear the crown he wants to wear. >> they shouldn't be convicted without proof but they can't have a cavalier attitude towards these issues which are serious. gene, thank you very much. still ahead here on "morning joe," nbc's chuck todd and hallie jackson will join us, one from florida and the other from battleground ohio both here to break down the big presidential contests in those two states and three others on tuesday. you're watching "morning joe" and we'll be right back. ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪

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. >> do you believe you've done anything to create a tone where this kind of violence could be encouraged? >> i hope not. i truly hope not. >> senator cruz, are you concerned that these kind of scenes potentially hurt the republican party for the general election? >> listen, i think for everyone of us we need to show respect to the people. we need to remember who it is we're working for. you know we've seen for seven years a president who believes he's above the law.

who behaves like an emperor. washington isn't listening to the people and that's the frustration boiling over. >> welcome back to "morning joe," i'm john heilemann alongside with my "with all due respect" colleague mark halperin. joe and mika are off today attending the funeral of nancy reagan in simi valley. joining us in florida, hallie jackson and in ohio, moderator of "meet the press" and host of "mtp daily" chuck todd. hallie, let's start with you. you caught up with senator ted cruz in the spin room and talked about the answer we just showed. >> because it was an interesting answer, right. it was sort of indirect and ted cruz pivoting away from an opportunity to talk about the tone of trump's events so we followed up with that. let's play that and we'll talk about it after. >> my answer was what i am troubled with is politics should be about the people. it's not about us, it's not about any of the candidates. with obama it e's -- donald tru

is very much like president obama in that it's all about him, you know, the example i pointed to is his having thousands of people at rallies raise their hands and pledge their support of donald trump. listen, in america, we don't pledge our support to men. we pledge allegiance to the flag. we pledge our support of the constitution. but we don't pledge our allegiance to men and it's backwards. this is a job interview. i am pledging my support to you and to the american people and donald's approach it is very much like barack obama's, it's the approach, frankly, of a king or queen to his subjects, pledge your support to me. that's not how the american republic works and that's the answer i gave and i think that's one of the reasons we're getting so much support behind our campaign. >> so there's the response you have from senator cruz in the spin room. you know, it's interesting, he took the opportunity to go after

trump on that moment where trump was asking for the pledge, where he raised his hands, the image was everywhere you heard trump talking about last night but on the violence incident that happened last week. not on the tobe trump takes with these protesters and that's a deliberate choice by ted cruz. the campaign said prior to the debate he wanted to paint a contrast, basically, between not just him and donald trump but between him and the democrats, too, hillary clinton and president obama. you saw ted cruz do that again and again and again talking about the last seven years and that's the choice he's making. >> chuck, give me your sense at the 30,000 foot level of what you thought in this debate. how all the nontrump candidates did and how the trump himself did. >> look, i was individually i understood the decisions by the three non-trump candidates not to get into the mood of trump. it took a real toll.

only kasich was the guy who didn't get dirty last week. but it seemed like an overcorrection to me and i couldn't believe why. if he wins one of two he probably is on path to getting the nomination let alone if he wins them both. they should have gone as low and as personal insult as it got before and obviously last week's debate was a debacle for the party. but, boy, what a great night for donald trump. they didn't lay a finger on him. ted cruz that answer, ted cruz went harder at trump with hallie than he did in that answer. it shook your head. >> the amazing thing is this probably may be the last time we see these four candidates on stage together. and nobody -- >> chuck, i was really struck by

the fact they're incapable of modulati modulation. in the detroit debate they turned it up to 11 and acted like 11-year-old, 11 volume and 11-year-old maturity. last night they're at one where it's all -- they're on quaaludes. where's the five? where's the six where they're attacking trump in a focused mature way rather than like a bunch of little kids or not attacking him at all. i don't get they don't have anything but those two extremes. >> i think that's clear. they don't know how to do it. on the one hand, i think marco rubio is back being comfortable being who he is again. you know, it just -- they have no sense of how to go after trump and they've never had the

right feel. i think they'll find out tuesday night there's never been a right feel for it and they'll look back and regret this moment i think. >> all right. chuck todd, thank you, as always your wisdom and wit are appreciated. hallie jackson, thanks to you as well. coming up next, it's crunch time for john kasich we'll back back live to ohio for the governor's ground game. "morning joe" back in a moment. , you can get a great deal on this passat. wow, it looks really good... volkswagen believes safety is very important... so all eleven models come standard with an intelligent crash response system... hmm. ...seven stability-enhancing systems... hmmm... ...and equipment for two child seats. hmmm... for those who take safety seriously. like we do. the volkswagen safety in numbers event... is happening now! get a $1,250 volkswagen reward card and 0% apr on new 2016 passat models.

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>> do you think you're going to do better in ohio? >> i'm going to win ohio. >> there are polls showing you're stalled out. >> most of these polls are either not accurate or are too old. when did they take it. you think i'm stalled out. come to ohio and we'll see. you'll see what's going to happen. >> we won't worry about it. that was ohio governor john kasich speaking in neighboring illinois where voters head to the polls next tuesday and it's crunch time on tuesday for team kasich ahead of his must-win primary because he's vowed a victory. he's going to win it. joining us now from lima, ohio, msnbc correspondent jacob soberoff. jacob, what's going on out

there. >> mr. barnicle, this is john kasich's last stand. not just his last stand nationally but here in his own home state. where i am right now that's a true argument. this is the lima pallet company. they've been here 39 years and despite a major hit in the manufacturing sector in this state during the great recession this place is still doing str g strong. the rest of this area in lima has lost the population because of the manufacturing hit. right here tonight at 8:00, right here on msnbc our very own willie geist and governor kasich are going to be sitting up here having a town hall and kasich is going to basically be making his hail mary last pitch to stay in this thing. i went and talked to his volunteers to see the work they're doing on his behalf. this is what was going on over there. it feels like glengarry glen

ross in here. they're making political presidential magic happen in here. what kind of responses do you get when you call people? >> i think they're thinking trump might be leading but i think they're looking for another candidate and we have one for him. he has character and he'll get the job done. >> is that a misconception. is trump leading or are these people wrong? >> in ohio i this i the governor is leading. >> what's the hardest part about doing this? >> getting hung up on. >> i'll be you and you be the person hanging up. "hey, this is dan, john kasich is running for president, hope we can get support for you on tuesday." >> so i'm leaving the door, maybe you can call me back later. click. >> sorry to interrupt you. >> that's okay. >> what's your name? >> averil. >> nice to meet you. so you sounded very convincing in your call. >> well, i believe in the governor. i believe in the things he's dope. our state is better off. >> speaking frankly, it seems

like a long shot, how do you feel? >> i don't think it's a long shot. i think we need to at least try. >> here you are volunteering for john kasich, how come? >> he did a great job as governor. he was able to actually lead practically but while applying conservative principles. >> tell me the truth. do they always watch msnbc in here? >> well, i can tell you it's -- i've been here since -- as soon as i got off work, since about 5:00 and it's been on since i've been here. >> don't lie to me. what time do they change the channel? right before we walked in? >> maybe 4:49. >> see? the truth comes out. let's be honest, the delegate math was acknowledged last night in the debate. it doesn't add up for john kasich. his only hope is to win the winner take all 66 delegates in this state with the help of people like that back at his

super pac and back at his campaign. a lot of things have to come together in order for that to happen. >> quick question. >> quick question, are they going to move the pallets tonight? it looks like they're doing a show from attica state prison. >> they were telling me willie has to move these pallets himself and they have the forklift but i don't know if willie has the keys and whether or not these guys will give it to him. >> we'll find out tonight. jacob soboroff. our own willie geist will hold an exclusive town hall with the aforementioned john kasich at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. coming up next, critics of president obama say backing down from his red line with syria was a major blunder but in a new interview with "the atlantic's" jeffrey goldberg in an amazing piece of reporting the president

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we have been very clear to the assad regime but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is -- we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. that would change my calculus. that would change my equation. >> in 2012, president obama drew a red line with syria, but ultimately chose not to enforce it. that decision was widely criticized in foreign policy circles. but the president sees it as one of his finer moments and in an exclusive report for the "atlantic," an amazing piece of journalism, the president sat down with national correspondent

jeffrey goldberg for a series of candid conversations. when discussing his red line decision, the president said "i'm very proud of this moment. the overwhelming weight of conventional wisdom and the machinery of our national security apparatus has gone fairly far. the perceptions but was that my credibility was at stake, that america's credibility was at stake and so for me to push the pause button at that moment i knew would cost me politically. and the fact that i was about to pull back from the immediate pressures and think through my own mind what was in america's interest not only with respect to syria but also with respect to our democracy was as tough a decision as i've made and i believe ultimately it was the right decision to make. jeffrey goldberg joins us now. reading the piece, jeffrey, i alternated between frustration with the president and a deep sense of comfort in that he does really think about these things. do you think in the course of

these conversations an incredible lengthy atlantic piece did he think too much about it? >> that's the interesting question. does he get paralyzed by thinking about what are the second and third order consequences of actions? that is a legitimate critique. but his perceptions but is following the bush administration, following these wars that didn't work out, the country needs a president who will say to everybody let's slow down for a minute and think about what happens once we do send troops back into the middle east. so i understand the frustration you're talking about but i think that this is in a lot of ways what the country wanted. this type of president at this moment. especially when it comes to the middle east. >> it's also interesting that in this country at least with regards to the fall of libya, hillary clinton seems to be taking the rap but the president has his ire directed towards europe, england and france in particular. >> i mean he's displacing a little bit there but he has a legitimate case to be made. the europeans promised they did heavy lifting and didn't do the

lifting so that was one of his frustrations with libya. the larger frustration he had with libya is they both think -- they all think that they did -- they checked all the boxes in doing that and it still didn't work which taught the president that no matter what i do in the middle east if i intervene fully or at all, if i intervene halfway, sort of direction that it's not going to work. that libya thing informed his syria decision making, i think. >> what about the accusations he's abandoned long time allies such as saudi arabia, what have you, all to gain this deal that he's wanted with iraq? >> the saudis certainly feel this way but i think what he thinks -- by the way, what he thinks is what a lot of americans actually think. americans do remember that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were saudi and people do understand that saudi arabia exports a kind of radical islamic doctrine that has not been helpful to us to say the least. and so i think his thinking on saudi arabia is more in line with maybe not the foreign policy establishment or the

national security establishment but more in line with where american people are thinking about the middle east. >> michael steele is in washington with a question. >> jeffrey, feeding off of what you're just talking about in terms of syria and libya and all the consequences, do you get a sense the president has at least some appreciation of the consequences of not taking the step on the red line without taking the necessary or building the necessary relationships with israel and all the tensions that that has caused in addition to the other problems in the middle east? is there an appreciation, at least, at that level that, yeah, there have been some consequences from some of these decisions. >> well, he appreciates consequences. he definitely does. but let me -- and let me not flak for the white house here but let me say this, in his mind, in his mind the bush administration went into iraq militarily to remove chemical weapons that were no longer there. so we had a whole war about

chemical weapons that didn't exist. after the red line crisis he negotiated the removal of most of syria's chemical weapons without having a war somplt f. m so from his perspective he thinks to himself i achieved without war what george w. bush achieved with war. and on the israel point, the last nice thing benjamin netanyahu ever said about barack obama, the last nice thing he ever said about the president was to me when he said he was glad that obama removed the chemical weapons from syria because those chemical weapons were meant for use ultimately against israel so in obama's mind this was a great moment not only because he resisted the urge to militarize the problem but because he actually wound up getting the chemical weapons out. it was messy. it was a messy political process and it was not handsome the way it was done, not elegant to borrow from donald trump but it actually worked. >> chris jansing is in ohio. she has a question. >> jeffrey, just a few days ago, benjamin netanyahu canceled a trip to washington just when the

white house had been trying to arrange a meeting between the president and netanyahu. they were surprised and not very happy about it and i'm fascinated by your take on what he had to say to you about his thoughts on netanyahu and contrasting that with his vladi. >> right. right. well, you know, with putin, you know, he has an interesting relationship and one of the things the president told me was he doesn't feel that putin dis respects him because he makes everybody wait for him but he doesn't make obama wait. this is the way it works on this issue when they're looking for slights. on the netanyahu relationship they have had toxic -- in this last episode it's like yet another session in the endless marriage counseling session where they're miscommunicating. this one thinks that that one isn't inviting him but he actually s they don't actually want to see each other but they still need things from each other and that's where we are at right now. it's another nine months of this dysfunction then they don't have

to talk to each other ever again. >> we can talk about this piece and the different dynamics of the personalities, the secretary of state, the president, the called dron that is the middle east, we could talk about this for six hours but this is television. >> it is television. >> so we urge everybody to go out and read the new issue of "the atlantic" jeff ri goldberg's piece is amaze, the access and insight is well worth it. take the time to read it. still ahead, ben carson is expected to endorse donald trump this morning and it seems the doctor has already offered the front runner some advice. "morning joe" will be right back. trolling for a gig with braindrone? can't blame you. it's a drone you control with your brain, which controls your thumbs, which control this joystick. no, i'm actually over at the ge booth. we're creating the operating system for industry. it's called predix. it's gonna change the way the world works. ok, i'm telling my brain to tell the drone to get you a copy of my resume. umm, maybe keep your hands on the controller. look out!! ohhhhhhhhhh...

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reach an expert fast. comcast business. built for business. donald j. trump, billiona e billionaire, says that former republican presidential candidate, ben carson, is going to endorse him today. the news conference is expected in palm beach in about an hour. at the debate last night trump talked about one issue where he believes carson could play a role. >> it was very interesting, i was with dr. ben carson today, who is endorsing me, by the way -- we were talking, we spoke for over an hour on education and he has such a great handle on it. he wants competitive schools, he wants a lot of different things that are terrific, including charter schools, by the way, that the unions are fighting like crazy, but charter schools work and they work very well. so there are a lot of things, but i'm going to have ben very much involved with education, something that really is an expertise of his. >> mark, i'm curious about this. obviously donald trump said some

pretty brutal things about ben carson when he was a candidate. why is ben carson, do you think, now coming out in support of trump? >> from carson's point of view i think we will hear from morning why he's doing it. from trump's point of view they have political sophistication. if you do well in the debate you get more momentum and if you do poorly in the debate it knocks out the story. smart politics. >> the jeff sessions endorsement came at a key time, too. i will not get out of my head the fact that donald trump suggested that ben carson was akin to a child molester. >> it's like voodoo economics, it's all water under the bridge. >> up next much more from last night's debate. it was surprisingly civil. we will talk about that. whether the candidates will be to courteous next week with ohio and florida on the line. plus a donald trump supporter is charged with assault after being caught on camera punching a protester in the face. that's not the only allegation

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last night you told cnn, quote, islam hates us. did you mean all 1.6 billion muslims? >> i mean a lot of them. i mean a lot of them. >> he says what people wish they could say, the problem is presidents just can't say anything they want, it has consequences here and around the world. >> the answer is not simply to yell china bad, muslims bad. you've got to understand the

nature of the threats we're facing and how you deal with them. >> he's always saying i'm the only one that beat donald in six contests and i beat him -- but i beat him in 13 contests. he never mentions that. >> we don't know what's going to happen because we still have about half the delegates to be selected and that's what's going to be a very interesting thing to see how it all turns out as we move forward over the next couple weeks. >> good morning, it's friday, march 11th, welcome to "morning joe." joe and mika are off today, they are attending the funeral for nancy reagan in semi valley, california. willie is also away, he is travel to ohio where he is going to be hosting a town hall meeting with ohio governor john kasich that will air on msnbc tonight. and so with all due respect i'm mark halperin. >> and i'm john heilemann and we are live here in miami, florida following last night's final republican debate before tuesday's key florida primary along with four other states. with us in new york we have our friends, msnbc contributor and

legendary amazing incredible columnist mike barnicle, former governor of vermont and former chairman of the democratic national committee howard dean, in washington we have msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele and in cleveland, ohio, nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing. it's going to be an incredible morning. mark, last night we watched that debate on stage here in miami. what did you think? >> incredible sort of last gas for two guys facing single elimination, kasich and rubio and ted cruz feeling like he needs to do more, should feel like he needs to do more and yet it was unlike any other debate we have seen in a long while. it was civil and donald trump was barely attacked and when he was, rather than doing his normal thing of attacking back, counter punching with full force he did just enough to send a message to them i hear you and i'm not going to let you push me around but he did not escalate things. it was a night of some substance and no change as best i can tell in the dynamics of the race.

>> look, to me it was like a throw back debate to the fall when we often would comment on how strange it was that the other republicans on stage were not attacking the front runner, donald trump, although at least then they were attacking someone, they were attacking each other. tlast night they did none of that. it seemed to me like there was a little bit of a reaction, maybe overreaction to that debate in detroit where all of them looked bad and thought they looked bad and none of it worked in terms of stopping trump so they all decided to back off. they haven't found the medium, they either attack him at the level of 11 like children or they don't attack him at all. there's got to be something in between but they haven't found it set y. et. >> some people thought marco rubio had a strong night, i thought the other three candidates had a moment but not a television moment. how do you think rubio did? >> i think he did better than anybody expected, he did better than i thought he was going to do. it struck me, though, that all four of the candidates on that stage looked as if they were

tired of these debates, that they were exhausted. they didn't want to be there. i thought kasich had a good night, he had to have a good night to stay in there, but governor dean, howard dean, i mean, you've been through these things, what did you think? >> i agree, i think they looked tired of having debates. first of all. first of second the thing that struck me the most about the debate was the discussion about social security where you had donald trump taking an orthodox democratic position on social security which is we are not going to change the retirement age or the benefit package and cruz and rubio more aggressively saying, yeah, we are going to change it, we are going to have to cut this, we are going to have to do this, we are going to have to do that. it struck me that is a peculiar platform to take in florida, especially for marco rubio. >> michael steele, i love saying this, this is your party. >> cry if you want to. >> and i own it with pride. >> one of the things that i think struck a lot of people, at least it did me, i'm wondering

what you thought, was donald trump was so restrained and he was right -- he was surprised at the civility on the stage last night, but your thoughts, sir, about your party. >> well, i thought last night was the most mature debate that they have had in a long time. i thought everyone went in there to do exactly what they needed to do and that is for rubio to get back to where he was four weeks ago and he did that i think very well. in fact, i tweeted out that that's the marco rubio that scared his opponents and inspired his supporters. we saw that guy last night, maybe a little too late for that going into next week. john kasich, again, is elevating his game at every turn. he is -- i think he is getting a little bit more traction. now, whether or not it's enough in time to really propel him to a competition to make it a three-way as opposed to a two-way race between cruz and trump, we'll see. cruz was -- you know, i think in many respects methodical in his

take doun of trump at various times. trump as mark pointed out pushed back accordingly. so last night was the most civil and the most republican debate i think we have seen in a long time. >> michael steele calling this a mature debate, a civil debate and a republican debate, others last night described it as the death with dignity debate, not named donald trump. chris jansing in ohio, why don't you take us through some of the highlights of the debate. >> hey, guys. well, the drudge report maybe described the debate best with this head line, finally they're boring. debate number 12 for the republicans saw the candidates ratchet back the personal attacks and focus mostly on policy. >> i will do everything within my power not to touch social security, to leave it the way it is, to make this country rich again, to bring back our jobs, to get rid of deficits, to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse, which is rampant in this country.

rampant. totally ramprampant. and it's my absolutely intention to leave social security the way it is, not increase the age and to leave it as. >> the bottom line is we can't continue to tip toe around this and throw out things like i will get rid of fraud and abuse. let's get rid of fraud and abuse and be more careful about spending foreign aid but you still have hundreds of doctors of dollars of deficit to make it up. if we do not do it we will have a debt crisis. >> listen, we have lots of challenges in the world but the answer can't just be wave a magic wand and say, problem go away. you have to understand the problems, you have to have real solutions. it's like government spending, it is very easy -- hillary clinton says she'll cut waste, fraud and abuse, if only we had smarter people in washington that would fix the problem. do you know what, that is the statement of a liberal who doesn't understand government is the problem. >> you have said positive things about putin as a leader and

about china's massacre of pro democracy protesters at dean man square you said when the students poured into teen man dwar the chinese government almost blew it, they were vicious and horrible but they put it down with strength. >> that doesn't mean i was endorsing that. i was not endorsing it. i said that is a strong, powerful government that put it down with strength and then they kept down the riot, it was a horrible thing, it doesn't mean at all i was endorsing it. as far as putin is concerned, i think putin has been a very strong leader for russia, he has been a lot stronger than our leader i can tell you. that doesn't mean i'm endorsing putin. strong doesn't mean good. putin is a strong leader, absolutely, i could name many strong leaders, i could name weak leaders. but he is a strong leader. now, i don't see that in a good way or a bad way, i say that as a fact. >> well, donald trump also stood by his recent new controversial comments about the muslim faith. >> last night you told cnn,

quote, islam hates us. did you mean all 1.6 billion muslims? >> i mean a lot of them. i mean a lot of them. >> do you want to clarify the comment at all? >> well, you know, i've been watching the debate today and they are talking about radical islamic terrorism or radical islam. i will tell you there's something going on that maybe you don't know about and maybe a lot of people don't know about, but there's tremendous hatred and i will stick with exactly what i said. >> i know that a lot of people find appeal in the things donald says because he says what people wish they could say. the problem is presidents can't just say anything they want it has consequences here and around the world. there is no doubt that radical islam is a danger around the world. if you go to arlington you will see crescent moons there, if you go anywhere in the world you will see american men and women serving us in uniform that are

muslims and they love america and as far as i know no one on this stage has served in uniform in the united states military. anyone out there that has the uniform of the united states on and is willing to die for this country is someone that loves america no matter what his religious background is. i'm not interested in being politically correct i'm interested in being correct. >> i thought, john and mark, one of the stronger moments of the night from marco rubio, but i'm not sure it changes anybody's mind as you guys said. these are the kinds of things that they have been hitting him on for a while and even though it was more subdued i don't think the net effect is any different than it's been before. >> chris, thank you. you know, so last night everybody pretty much agrees not a lot of news. >> no. >> donald trump getting the endorsement of ben carson this morning, a press conference here in florida around 9:00. there are three controversies swirling around, most of which came up last night. this statement he made to anderson cooper about islam, his fight with bright barton a news

organization that he has had good relationships with and the question of whether people being physically assaulted at his events is something he bears some responsibility for. do you think any of that is going to continue as controversies going forward or the debate pretty much dealt with them? >> i think they will continue. he has a press conference at 9:00 this morning in west palm beach, a lot of national reporters in miami are probably on the way up there already this morning. i think those issues are serious issues and jake tapper raised one of them, did not raise the one about the female bright bart reporter which is i think as significant and serious as the one involving the protester because there is an accusation that trump's campaign manager was involved. he has denied it, but there are contrary claims, at least one iowans from "the washington post" who says cory did man handle this woman. that is a problem with trump if true because it deals with a woman and bright bart which is a news outlet that's generally been favorable about trump. last night they did not impede

donald trump. >> mike, what do you think about those issues? it seems to me especially this issue of trump's rallies, it's been a building controversy now for some number of weeks and months, mark and i have both been to those events and they have -- a lot of things we said about donald trump rallies, but there is a kind of aggression at times and a rauk usness that is a little unusual and not like anything we've seen covering presidential campaigns for 25 years. what did you think? >> i'm with you, john and mark, on that score. there is something about his rallies and donald trump's rhetoric emboldens the crowd in front of him. it's not what he says, it's how he says it. it's his demeanor and i think it emboldens crowds to act as they have sometimes acted in the past. what do we do, do we have a bit of news on that from chris? yeah, chris, what have you gone? >> i think you can put this in the perspective of -- and i guys all remember this -- when i think it was at the end of february and there was a --

somebody who was escorted out, a protester and he said he would like to punch him and now you've got -- donald trump said that. now you've got this fallout from the moment of violence at that trump campaign event and it took center stage at that presidential debate last night, but let's go back to where it all began. this is wednesday's trump rally, north carolina, authorities were escorting 26-year-old rakeem jones and four others from the event and then 78-year-old john mcgraw walked toward the aisle, you can see it there and allegedly threw an elbow into jones' eye and then went back to his seat. mcgraw spoke to inside edition at the end of that rally. >> did you like the event? >> you bet i liked it. >> what did you like about it? >> knocking the hell out of that big mouth. we don't know who he is, but we know he is not acting like an american. >> so he deserved it? >> every bit of it. >> what was that? >> yes, he deserved it. the next time we see him we might have to kill him. >> mcgraw went on to say we

don't know who he is, he might be with a terrorist organization. well, yesterday mcgraw was arrested and he was charged with assault and disorderly conduct. there is his mugshot. the trump campaign issued a seven-word statement, quote, we are not involved in that incident. on msnbc yesterday jones and ronnie rouse who also was being escorted out by police and took the video reacted to what happened. >> it didn't seem -- it was like i got hit and now i'm on the ground getting detained by the police and they are not actually looking at the videos and i've -- i really got hit and they watched it really. as you can see i'm being escorted by officers, like they are still -- after i've been hit they're still leading me up the stairs. >> the guy hits a guy in front of the police, behind the police, on the side of the police and they throw rakeem down and tell the guy to go sit down and he finishes eating his

popcorn. it's crazy that you get pretty much almost arrested because you got assaulted. >> and so trump was asked about this incident during and following last night's debate. take a listen. >> do you believe that you have done anything to create a tone where this kind of violence would be encouraged? >> i hope not. i truly hope not. i will say this, we have 25,000, 30,000 people, you've seen it yourself, people come with tremendous passion and love for the country and when they see protest -- in some cases, you're mentioning one case which i haven't seen, i've heard about it, which i don't like, but when they see what's going on in this country they have anger that's unbelievable. they have anger. they love this country. >> we have some protesters who are bad dudes. they have done bad things. they are swinging, they are really dangerous and they get in there and they start hitting people and we had a couple big strong powerful guys doing damage to people not only the

loudness, the loudness i don't mind, but doing serious damage and if they have to be taken out, to be honest, we have to run something -- and it's not me. it's usually the municipal government, the police, because i don't have guards all over these stadiums. we fill up stadiums. it's usually the police. by the way, speaking of the police, we should pay our respects to the police because they are taking tremendous abuse in this country and they do a phenomenal job. >> i've never seen a protester throw a punch. i have seen your supporters get rough with protesters. >> i just got to see a little clip. he threw a punch. i don't know if he hit, but he was -- he was an impassioned person and i guess he didn't like what he was seeing and it was one of those things. certainly we don't condone it, we don't like it, we don't like seeing it. >> you know, mike barnicle, one of the things that he says repeatedly is that we don't condone this. you talk to reporters who are in

those pens and you talk to anybody who has been to a rally and i've seen it and there are a lot of shoutouts to people, there's negative shoutouts to people in the crowd, negative shouftouts to by name sometimes to reporters who are there covering the campaigns, mike. >> chris, you know, you and long with john and mark, myself, we have been to several of trump's rallies and mr. trump is -- you know, it's a show. it's a terrific show that he puts on for the people assembled there, but there is an element to the show where he does, i think, embolden people to behave the way we've seen. he says he hopes he doesn't do that, but the reality is that it happens around him. have you been to any rallies? >> look, most people think and i agree with this that a lot of trump's following are based on people who are really angry, angry about their own circumstances post recession, about the enormous changes that have taken place in this country. so it's hardly a surprise that with his rhetoric somebody is going to take out that anger on protesters and others.

>> still ahead on "morning joe," president obama says don't blame him for the rise of donald trump. we will play his latest remarks on the race to replace him. but first here is bill karins with another check on the forecast. >> the weekend forecast unfortunately, guys, still looks like this horrendous flooding is going to on go throughout areas of louisiana and mississippi. the pictures yesterday of louisiana they are under a state of emergency, also state of new jersey in southern mississippi. rescuing people out of their homes as the water levels continue to rise from flash flooding and now river flooding in many areas. how about this picture from monroe, louisiana, the rivers got so high that even the fish got lost. looks like big old carp trying to make their way across that road. let's show you what we're dealing with this morning. it's just as bad as yesterday and the day before that. now mostly in mississippi from jackson to mccomb over to hattiesburg all those areas under flash flood warnings, they're telling people to stay at home. all responsible for this area of low pressure over texas that has sat here for three days.

heavy rain went through new orleans, you are now just looking at light rain, but these thunderstorms continue over southern mississippi from jackson south wards down to new orleans, many of the roads are unpassable right now throughout that region. now to the west coast, you have a storm of your own and a big one that's going to come in over the upcoming weekend. flash flood watching for the west coast, the mountains will get up to 4 feet of snow, rain this morning in san francisco to san jose, that will shift down to los angeles this afternoon. you will have your evening drive home in rain in l.a. the middle of the country, no problems, still warm, showers are exiting new england, a little cooler today. as we go through the weekend we're focusing on the west coast and deep south on sunday for the first time in five days we will be done with the rain and the hard hit flood the areas of louisiana and mississippi. leave you with a shot of new york city where we have had record highs two days in a row, now back into the 60s, that's still 15 degrees above average. more "morning joe" when we come back. the future belongs to the fast. and to help you accelerate, we've created a new company...

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joe." joe and mika are off today to attend the funeral of nancy reagan out in simi valley, california. chris jansing, however, is in ohio. chris, the president had an interesting news conference yesterday at the white house where he dove in in some ways into the 2016 race. why don't you tell us about that. >> yeah, he weighed in on the 2016 republican race during his press conference with canadian prime minister justin trudeau. he was asked about critics who claim that the polarized political climate under his administration has contributed to the rise of someone like donald trump. here is how he responded. >> i have been blamed by republicans for a lot of things, but being blamed for their

primaries and who they're selecting for their party is novel. i don't think that i was the one to prompt questions about my birth certificate, for example. i don't remember saying, hey, why don't you ask me about that? why don't you, you know, question whether i'm american or whether i'm loyal or whether i have america's best interests at heart. those aren't things that were prompted by any actions of mine so what you're seeing within the republican party is to some degree all those efforts over a course of time creating an

environment where somebody like a donald trump can thrive. >> i am more than happy to own the responsibility as president, as the only office holder who was elected by all the american people to continue to make efforts to bridge divides and help us find common ground, but what i'm not going to do is to validate some notion that the republican crack up that's been taking place is -- is a consequence of actions that i've taken. >> there are thoughtful conservatives who are troubled by this, who is troubled by the direction of their party. i think it is very important for them to reflect on what it is

about the politics they've engaged in that allows the circus we've been seeing to transpire. and to do some intro specs. >> when asked if he would be endorsing a candidate in the democratic primary the president says he thinks democratic voters are doing it just fine working it out themselves and his most important role will be helping his party's nominee win the general election. i think you know this very well when you talk to folks at the white house, the president was very measured in his comments but the idea to them that he somehow is contributing to donald trump or as ted cruz has suggested some of the violence at the trump rallies really rangeless them and they really -- you heard the president do this, they liken it to the birther controversy, they think it's outrageous.

>> chris, some familiar teams that the president has been talking about and grappling about. i thought he showed his point of view a little more openly than he might have engaged in almost some punditry because these are issues that interest him and gal him in a lot of ways. >> it's a personal thing with him and donald trump. we hear all the white house correspondence dinner where he economically took down donald trump because of the fact that trump was waging his birther campaign against president obama. a lot of what obama feels has been the derangement syndrome on the right is embodied by trump and he will never be able to let that go. the president is cool and calm and detached, but if that kind of thing -- that kind of campaign had been waged against you an exemplified by someone who is now the republican front runner in the opposite party, you know, it would be something that you would have something to say about and you would be animated about. >> he didn't describe exactly what i think most people accuse him of. >> i don't disagree with that, but i think you can understand why he is engaged here, right? there is a backdrop here that's

not just about the party it's about a very personal thing that's happened with him and trump. >> mike, do you think the president is in a league now of those who say that donald trump is likely to be the republican nominee and could be a formidable general election candidate? what's your read of his read? >> first of all, my read on the seagulls kakling at you is that they're commenting upon what you guys are saying. >> it's a nonpaying audience. >> it always strikes me -- and i don't think i'm alone -- in that the president of the united states despite everything that he has on his desk, everything that is aimed at him remains as thoughtful and poised as he is at all times. the other thing that strikes me and it's something that we might be remiss in the news business and not covering enough and michael steele i'd like your opinion on this because i do respect your opinion, do you think we are paying enough attention to the dismantling right in front of us of a major american political party, the republican party? >> i think people are beginning

to. i think the events certainly coming off of the last two weeks have focused folks' attention on the fissures that are existed in the party for some time. i think the outcome of this election, if donald trump is the nominee and goes on into the general election and wins there is still going to be within the party the turmoil of dealing with that. if ted cruz is the nominee, again, the turmoil from that will be -- will have to be dealt with. so there's still these underlying issues, mike, that are sort of an may get and driving the base right now. we've talked about and dissected at a very i think somewhat superficial level, but it really can't get started until rank and file republicans have it out. they've got to decide once and for all do we want to nominate, as some would argue a constitutional conservative who is going to honor the principles that we believe in or do we want to take this new route that's being offered by donald trump and that battle has yet to be

meted out. >> coming up on "morning joe," sara eisen joins us with what's driving the day on wall street, plus steve kornacki joins us with what to expect on the campaign trail ahead of the next big contest on tuesday. "morning joe" is back in a moment. at&t helps keep everyone connected. right now at at&t, buy the new samsung galaxy s7 and get one free. no matter how you hang out, share every minute of it. buy one water resistant samsung galaxy s7 and get one free. and right now, get up to $650 in credits per line to help you switch to at&t. in the country have in common? many of them now call cancer treatment centers of america home. expert medicine works here. find out why at cancer center.com. cancer treatment centers of america.

well, shelly and i would like to tell you and karen that the leadership that you've shown in the state of ohio since we've been back and even before, your friendship as a friend and as a

true supporter of what you stand for now that i really know what you stand for, we'd like to tell you we wish you guys the best. go win. >> that was ohio state football coach and buckeye legend urban meyer endorsing john kasich. welcome back to "morning joe," i'm john heilemann at the bayside marketplace in miami. joe and mika off today to attend the funeral of nancy reagan out in simi valley. joining us from cleveland, ohio, is steve kornacki. steve, now that we're past this debate, we have a sprint until next tuesday. five contests. give me a sense of what you're thinking about how the delegates might shake out in various scenarios on that big day. >> yeah, i mean, look, obviously we have so much attention paid on florida and ohio for good and for understandable reasons. i have been in ohio the last couple days, you just put the urban meyer endorsement for kasich, i actually think that could be fairly significant

here. my sense in ohio and maybe this is more of a gut thing, my sense is there's more of a connection between republicans here in ohio and their governor, john kasich, the candidate for president than maybe there is between republicans in florida and marco rubio. obviously if you are anybody in the republican party nationally who wants to stop donald trump, wants to keep him from getting that majority in the primaries it's going to be bad enough if he pulls out florida, it's going to be devastating to your cause if he can add ohio next week. so you really, really need -- if that's the kind of republican you are you really need john kasich to pull it out here. i'm getting a ens is, though, that there might be a rallying around kasich going on here, rally around the hometown guy and also a little bit of stop trump in ohio. we kind of gloss over illinois, missouri, north carolina. just talking to a few people who are on the ground in those states yesterday, i think missouri could be a sleeper for ted cruz, that's a state that todd aiken he won the primary there, that republican primary a couple years ago, socially conservative candidate, ted cruz

has done well in that part of the country. illinois is not an interesting one, not officially winner take all but if you win that one you will get the lion's share of delegates there and north carolina is a little tricky to read. >> steve, you have a situation down here in florida where a lot of people think donald trump now has a pretty commanding lead over marco rubio, north carolina, illinois, missouri, these are all states where a lot of people think trump will win. it does look like ohio might be the best place to get a big victory tomorrow -- or on tuesday for the anti-trump forces but is that enough if the only state that trump doesn't win on tuesday is ohio, kasich holds him off, is that enough to keep the anti-trump hope alive? >> it would be the slimmest read. i mean, obviously that would give kasich the chance to go forward, the logic for a kasich going forward after that finally getting a win on the board, i know it's only his home state, you can say, look, we're 25 contestes in and a guy only wins his home state doesn't exactly mean he's rolling toward the

nomination. the logic would be if john kasich pulls out ohio next week is the terrain shifts a little bit, it shifts to bigger blue we are states going forward, a lot in the northeast. i know trump has done well there, but you will have pennsylvania, maryland, connecticut, new york, new jersey, you will have wisconsin in the midwest, you have the west coast states. so at least demographically culturally might be an opportunity for somebody like kasich, a republican like kasich to make some inroads, but, yeah, bigger picture if you're looking at five states next tuesday and donald trump wins four of them and you're talking florida, illinois, north carolina, missouri, that's sort of a diverse array of states and that would tell you i think something about donald trump's strength nationally going forward. >> steve, michael steele here. given the conversations you have had with a number of party officials and, you know, folks who chomp down on the numbers, what is your sense at this stage of a contested convention with donald trump going in with a solid plurality of the vote, let's say he's, you know, at

1,100 delegates, 1,000 delegates, what is your sense that there will be people that move towards him just to get it done or is there a sense that this may not be an opportunity to peel votes off of him and really create some turmoil at the convention? >> yeah, you know, it's funny because you talk to different people and you hear different theories about how that will go down. you have some who will tell you, look, if donald trump comes in in the kind of position you are talking about where he is by far the -- he has won the plurality by far in the primary season but doesn't technically have the majority you're risking a situation where if you don't give him the nomination it's war for the rest of the campaign, you're basically saying if you are a republican we think it's more important to not have donald trump be the standard bearer of our party this general election than it is to actually win and seriously compete for this general election. you're basically saying we are going to keep him from being our standard bearer but it means we will split the party in half

permanently for the rest of this election and lose because of it. there is another school of thought that says, look, it would be awfully hard for the republican party to do that but if ted cruz can get close to that one-on-one or get that one-on-one, if ted cruz wins a lot of the late states in this thing, makes up some of the delegates and comes in close to him if there's one person you could maybe get away doing that to trump for maybe it would be ted cruz because he is so anti-establishment otherwise. >> steve, let's stick with ohio where you are and governor kasich's organization. i keep hearing from people that he has a formidable organization, that it's going to be out in strength for him, the republican party in ohio. what are you hearing on that score? >> yeah, no, i'm hearing that, too. look, his track record here electorally, look, a congressman for years but then two statewide campaigns here, 2010 and 2014. now, he caught some breaks in 2014 in his reelection, it was sort a historic margin that he won by here, the democratic party basically imploded in the state in 2014 so that assisted

him, that boosted his margin, he didn't have the toughest competition for reelection, but still he won this thing overwhelmingly in 2014. again, i just -- i'm picking up a sense here and again maybe it's anecdotal, maybe it's a gut thing but i'm picking up a sense talking to some of the republicans that there is a little bit more i think home state loyalty to candidates varies by state, varies by circumstance, i think there might be more of a loyalty factor to john kasich coming back here and basically saying, hey, guys, i need you here for me on this one, we need to pull this one out together, i think that might resonate here in a way maybe it's not for marco rubio down in florida. >> all right. steve kornacki, john kasich certainly a guy with a lot of popularity in ohio with his recent reelection and a high approval rating, maybe he has a chance there. thanks, steve. we have a reminder tonight our own willie geist will also be in ohio holding an exclusive town hall with john kasich at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. still ahead, the fight over iphone encryption heats up with

apple calling the justice department, quote, desperate. knbc's sara eisen will have the details next. "morning joe" will be right back. i lo to take pictures that engage people. and to connect us with the wonderment of nature. the detail on this surface book is amazing. with the tiger image, the saliva coming off and you got this turning. that's why i need this kind of resolution and computing power. being able to use a pen like this. on the screen directly with the image. it just gives me a different relationship to it. and i can't do that on my mac. this is brilliant for me. ♪ so we know how to cover almost alanything. thing, even "turkey jerks." [turkey] gobble. [butcher] i'm sorry!

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we built our factories here because of a huge natural resource. not the land. the water. or power sources. it's the people. american workers. they build world-class products. and that builds communities. and a better future. for all of us. because making something in america means so much, to so many. weathertech. proudly made in america. hey kevin. hey, fancy seeing you here. uh, i live right over there actually. you've been to my place. no, i wasn't...oh look, you dropped something. it's your resume with a 20 dollar bill taped to it. that's weird. you want to work for ge too. hahaha, what? well we're always looking for developers who are up for big world changing challenges like making planes, trains and hospitals run better.

why don't you check your new watch and tell me what time i should be there. oh, i don't hire people. i'm a developer. i'm gonna need monday off. again, not my call. time now for business before the bell with cnbc's sara eisen who is live at the new york stock exchange. what are you looking at today? >> good afternoon. i'm looking at a celebration and a global market rally and we can point to three key reasons why. number one, still markets in rally mode from that cocktail of stimulus measures announced in europe yesterday. the european central bank going all out to try to boost its economy and boost its bank lending and boost its inflation. also there's more calm in china. remember, china was the source of major anxiety earlier this year. it seems for now at least that the chinese have been able to get a grip on their currency, which was a big problem earlier in the year.

and third oil prices and commodities in general continue to rally. this morning the price of oil in this country it's above $38 a barrel so it's come a long way off the lows more than 40%, those low oil prices were causing a lot of harm on economies and producers, costing jobs. so that higher price has helped the markets rebound here. we will see if it can continue. if we do hold this strong rally we are looking at another positive week for stocks, the fourth in a row. the other major story we're looking at today is the update on apple versus the fbi and the doj and the battle to unlock apple's encrypted iphone of the san bernardino terrorists. what i can tell you is both sides are growing increasingly aggressive and openly hostile with the federal prosecutors filing a motion yesterday really harsh language and apple responding in a conference call and reporters, this is getting pretty ugly ahead of a march 22nd court date, guys. >> wow. that story just keeps on ticking. it's obviously got huge value in terms of precedent.

we will figure out if that's going to september a lot of standards as we go forward. sara eisen thank you so much. up next at the intersection of religion and politics we will talk to a faith leader who is described as an evangelical it boy until he started challenging traditional believes. keep it on "morning joe" right here. by debating our research to find the best investments. by looking at global and local insights to benefit from different points of view. and by consistently breaking apart risk to focus on long-term value. we actively manage with expertise and conviction. so you can invest with more certainty. mfs. that's the power of active management.

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year msnbc is teaming up with the 92nd street y to celebrate seven days of genius, a week long event focused on the transformative power of genius to change the world. the week features conversations with thought and world leaders in the fields of politics, innovation, science and morality. joining us now for such a conversation with best selling author rob belle, his new book is "how to be here: a guide to creating a life worth living." rob, the interesting element to me about this book, not just fir book, obviously, is you get a concussion. >> yes. >> and out of the concussion and out of thinking about various elements of your life, how -- what's going on in your life, we have this book. how does that happen from a concussion? >> right. well, i think -- i was -- i am, i was, like a lot of people you have e-mails, you have voice mails, you have places that you're going, things you've got to do, it's go, go, and i'm a product of the modern world like

a lot of us where you multi-task, yyou learn how to work hard, how to achieve, when i was 30 i hit my head water skiing, doing back flips, whatever the concussion, closed head injury was my brain didn't have the energy to think about the future, which is where worry comes from and my brain didn't have the energy to think about the past which is where regret comes from. it was like i could only be here. >> you never worried about anything in your past? >> well, i think when you talk to so many people we have all this stuff like ping-ponging around in our brains and hearts, we're talking to somebody but we're here, you're having lunch with a friend all of a sudden their phone rings, now they are with you, they're also with someone else, but i hit my head and could only be here and it was traumatic but it was also great. there was this -- the present moment has so much interesting

things going on and it was almost like i tasted a way of being but i had no skills, technique, muscles to actually do that pause all i know is you just keep racing to the next thing. so in some ways the book is 15 years of trying to figure out how to live like that without the hitting the head part. >> so the concussion forced you to be present. and there are so many different books and guides as to how to be present whether it be through meditati meditation, what have you. you talk about spirituality, people wonder what's the difference between spirituality, being spiritual and being religio religious. >> one of the things i noticed about the discussion of being present, being in the moment is it's often o about detachment. it's like sit on a cushion for a half hour, go up on a mountain, but if you have young kids, if you have to be at a desk for three hours every morning you don't really have the luxury of all kinds of hours where you can step out of your life. so one of the things i want to do with the book was simply talk about how can you be present

when you're actually doing laundry, when you're actually going to work, when you a're trying to live a life. i think spirituality is best defined as your understanding or awareness that this whole thing is a gift and that what you do with it matters. >> how do you maintain or achieve some level of spirituality in this day and age when we have google and twitter and texting and facebook and instagram and so many things that clutter up the day leading to less conversations, less eye contact. >> right. >> how hard is it? >> well, one of the things i've noticed when i've been with people who seem to be especially present is they had a certain rhythm to life. they are not always checking their e-mails. they check their e-mails at certain times. one of the things i notice is how many people they might leave their cellphone in their car when they go into lunch. and the people who when i was with them i would think i want

what they have often you start asking them questions about their life and they're like i wake up, i do this, then i do this. they have a certain rhythm of life. i think for many people the day sort of happens to you, it comes flying at you, but if you look back over the great fills officers, i thinkers, artists, activists, politicians the great leaders -- there's even an interesting book i think it's called daily rituals which chronicles the daily routines of people who seem to be extraordinarily present to their lives and they often would have some sort of rhythm or art to their life which i find very compelling. >> we have to get you back when we have more time to talk about this when we put our cell phones away and listen. >> the book is how to be here. rob bell. thanks very much. be hour so head to msnbc.com/genius to make your pick for the ultimate genius. he is in the running. and make sure to catch some of the events from the 92nd street y live streaming at

msnbc.com/genius. up next, what, if anything, did we learn today? ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪

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we've all learned today on this show. michael steele, what have you learned? >> what i learned is being the favorite son really may make a difference next week and we will see that stark contrast between florida and ohio, john kasich to marco rubio. >> bianna. >> i've learned apparently the president measures the relationship with vladimir putin based on how long vladimir putin makes him wait for him. >> and mike barnicle i can't wait to hear what you've learned. >> you don't don't want to know what i've learned. i've learned that i would give almost anything to see new that water behind you swimming to that yacht in the distance and wearing a captain's hat and looking like you are at captain of the love boat right there in that harbor. i'd love to see that. >> the bayside market what i've learned here this this morning there is a place here called let's make a daquiri, it's still not opened, if they had opened it earlier this morning i might have ended up in this water. that does it more "morning

joe" -- >> if i was there with you we would have opened it on our own. >> joe, mika and willie will be back on monday morning. mike, you cut me up. catch us all with all due respect at 6:00 on msnbc. steve kornacki picking up the coverage right now. have a great day and sigh a nar ra. and good morning. i'm steve kornacki coming to you live from lakewood, ohio. we are right outside cleveland. cleveland, the home of cleveland state university, the vikings, and we are four days now from the all important super tuesday, the second super tuesday, five big states voting that day including ohio where we are right now and we begin this hour with breaking news. any minute now donald trump fresh off that debate last night is due to hold a press conference in florida and he is going to be