you have to have one majority in eight states. >> it was rule created for ron paul. >> we'll see if that holds, cruz and trump have interest to keep that and keep other people out. thank you very much. that's "all in" for this evening. the rachel maddow shows start now. good evening. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. the airport in peoria, illinois is not what you call a big airport. it's the big downing peoria airport. it's only served by four passenger airlines. i can't tell what the international flights are. i'm sorry. i know there must be some, but i couldn't find them. still, if you live near peoria, illinois, there's a chance this lovely piece of infrastructure is your airport.

today, it shut down. it wasn't like a temporary weather shut down or something routine like that. they stopped all flights into the airport and out of the airport, and then, they evacuated the entire airport. they made all human beings leave. they pushed everybody all the way out. there was a big long line of cars on the parkway leading into the airport which was stopped for so long. people ending up getting out of their cars. they couldn't get in or out. couldn't leave or arrive. that lasted for hours today. the reason for the shut down was in part, really, super shady national politics. the other part was suspicious dog toys. >> continuing coverage now. the story we first broke this morning.

here's what we know about what transpired this morning at peoria international airport. >> it was evacuated after a suspicious package was found. here a look at the x-ray. this has been released from the peoria county sheriff's office. a tsa officer handled the package and after opening it, discovered two bottles containing liquid. a timing device, wires and sticks that were labeled dynamite. the sticks were dog toys. >> sticks that were labeled dynamite, turns out they were dog toys. the dog toys, which shut down peoria international airport this morning for hours were meant to be fake looking sticks of dynamite. since they were dog toy, i'm guessing they squeaked or something else about them that was going to be fun for your dog to play with, but they really did cause quite a mess. the county sheriff explained. >> looked like three sticks of dynamite in there.

>> with the jar of liquid. that's what it looked like. >> all it's missing is acme dynamite company on there. >> i wish i had some other pictures. a detective had a picture. there's red sticks and on the side of them and it said dynamite. >> we don't know exactly what the dog toys looked like. all we have seen are the pictures from the x-ray. based on the description from the sheriff, we're guessing it was something like one of these, which you can get at all sorts of dog stores along side other dog toys that look like grenades or bombs or severed feet, for the dog with inappropriate sense of humor. the reason this happened is

because of the politics of abortion. >> the airport was evacuated. there's no word on charges. she was heading to washington, d.c. connecting this dallas. she's described as a white woman in her 30s. >> authorities say the woman say the package is a training device for abortion clinics. >> training device. peoria county government released statement explaining what happened. explaining that no charges will be filed against there woman. she's an employee of the national abortion federation. she travels the country. it's part of her job working with abortion providers to train them on how to identify suspicious items, things like bombs that people might try to smuggle into a clinic or target

an abortion clinic doctor or other clinic personnel. the national abortion federation says this training device, this supposed bomb is so obviously fake, including the squeaky dog toy sticks of dynamite that say dynamite. they have routinely traveled with this training device all over the country and never had a problem. in peoria, illinois they spotted this thing and the whole airport had to be evacuated for hours. the reason this sort of thing happens in the united states is because somebody really does have to go around the country training abortion doctors and clinic staff on how to spot bombs, how to protect themselves from assassination attempts. abortion providers and personnel get targeted by anti-abortion activists on a scarily regular basis.

they're not random, unconnected attacks. one of the uglier features of the extreme anti-abortion movement is they have spawned support networks for people that have shot abortion providers. others will visit those folks in prison and create online tributes to them. for example, in 2003, florida executed a double murderer. he assassinated a doctor as well as the security guard he had with him at the time. the head of a group called operation rescue put out statement when the state of florida carried out the execution. they said it was no justice because the man who shot and killed the abortion doctor and security guard wasn't allowed to prevent a legal defense because it was justifiable defensive action.

the man never should have faced execution because he wasn't allowed to present his defense that claimed the killing of the abortionist was necessary. necessary to save the lives of pre-born babies. lots of people are murdered in this country for all sorts of difference reasons. as far as i know there's only one group of people in this country that gets targeted for murdered by an organized american movement that says it's not only justified but it should be legal to kill those people because of what they do for a living and anybody who does murder one of those people should be supported and indeed legally excused for their action because it's necessary to kill these people. only abortion providers face that in this country in an organized and ongoing way. and, so, employees of the national abortion federation have to travel around the country teaching people who work at clinics the best practices for how to avoid getting

murdered by anti-abortion extremists. that's why nobody could fly into or out of peoria, illinois today. the guy who wrote that statement in 2003, saying it was justifiable homicide to murder an abortion doctor and the guy who murdered the abortion doctor therefore shouldn't be executed, that's him there. his name is troy newman. he's from operation rescue. he's praised the lord and thanked god when other abortion doctors have died from natural causes. this doctor he praised for dying of leukemia. he claimed in a book the only just punishment should be execution. any doctor who does an abortion in the u.s. should be treated like a convicted murderer and executed. he made the case in a book called "their blood cries out." which i learned about from ted cruz. the head of operation rescue who has argued it's justifiable to

kill abortion doctors. the man who has praised the cancer deaths of abortion providers. he is the co-chair of pro-life for cruz. ted cruz put out a press release bragging about the operation rescue guy coming aboard his campaign. bragging about this guy who is on team cruz, he has authored this interesting book, "their blood cries out." it says women who have abortions are murdeers and contract killers and should be treated that way. any woman who has an abortion is a murderer and a contract killer says the co-chair for pro-life for cruz. he has a lot of these coalition groups supporting his campaign.

it's a big part of how he organizes around the country. he's touted a group of faith leaders for cruz that includes a famous radical anti-abortion activist who has been found guilty of stalking an abortion provider. distributing pictures and names and addresses of abortion doctors is one of the ways the abortion movement, anti-abortion movement has continuely contributed to the violence of abortion doctors and clinic personnel in this country. ted cruz's pro-life chair maintains a website that includes addresses and photos of individual abortion providers. radical anti-abortionists like this tend to get convicted now when they put wanted dead or alive. they have toned that down but

they do distribute doctors photos and addresses. go get them. we're in this moment of really profound hypocrisy in the republican race. i don't know if the beltway media doesn't get this yet or if they don't feel like reporting on it or if it's uncomfortable or earns you too many enemies from people you want to be sources and friends in the future. what we're having right now in terms of the focus of the republican presidential race and the national media coverage is a farce. what's going on is not that hard to understand. it's really different from the way this is being described this most national media. here's what i mean. just look at a snapshot in time of yesterday. midday, simultaneously, yesterday, there was ted cruz doing an event this wisconsin. it's one of these coalition events. in this case it wasn't pro-lifers for cruz or faith

leaders for cruz. yesterday he did a women for cruz event. he had his wife there. he had his mother there. also carli fiorina was there. he was touting all the support he gets from women. it's one of these support groups for ted cruz. that was happening in wisconsin. at the same time donald trump was also in wisconsin taping his now infamous town hall with chris matthews. chris was fairly masterfully pinning down donald trump on how it's going to work when as president, self-proclaimed pro-life donald trump will make abortion illegal. chris pinned him down. who will be punished? how will women be punished if they seek an abortion once you're president and you figured out how to make abortion illegal? >> you say you want to ban it. >> i'm against -- i'm pro-life. >> how do you ban abortion? how do you do it? >> you go back to a position

like they had where people will perhaps go to illegal places. >> yeah. >> you have to ban it. >> you ban it. do you believe in punishment for abortion? yes or no as a principle? >> the answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. >> for the woman? >> yes. >> ten cents, ten years. >> i don't know. >> you take positions on everything else. >> i do. it's a complicated position. >> tell me what the law should be. you say you're pro-life. what's that mean? >> i'm pro-life. i have not determined what the punishment should be. >> why not? >> i haven't. >> you say you want to ban abortion. how do you ban abortion without some kind of sanction? then you get into that tricky question of a sanction. a fine on human life, which you call murder. a fine? imprisonment for a young woman who finds herself pregnant? >> it will have to be determined. >> donald trump, several hours later, tried to take that back.

he put out a statement saying he didn't mean that women should be punished for getting an abortion even though that's what he said. he now said he wants doctors to be punished, not women themselves who seek abortions. ted cruz, the guy whose got the convicted abortion doctor stalker on his faith leaders for cruz list, and he's got the guy who says that women who have abortion are murderers and contract killers and should be treated as such, he's got him as a co-chair. ted cruz, that candidate, wasted no time in criticizing donald trump for there trump's remarks. ted cruz of course we shouldn't be talking about punishing women. we should affirm their dignity and the incredible gift that i have have to bring life into the world. of course, we shouldn't be talking about punishing women. we shouldn't be talking about that. ted cruz is right the anti-abortion movement has learned to stop talking about that.

they don't like the talk about that. they like to say they'll never talk about that. it is an inavoidable consequence if they get their way. what it means if they make abortion illegal. that's what the movement wants to do. the anti-abortion movement has mostly learned to stop talking about punishing women, mostly. not all of them have. >> it was interesting what trump says. it shocks people, but the same time the old adage was abortion was illegal and it was murder. consequently, if it's illegal, it's murder then there had to be some penalty attached to it. if somebody says abortion is murder, what do you do to somebody that commits murder? i'm sure they're not going to get into it. >> too late.

you just got into it. the political narrative and media narrative, what it means to want to ban abortion, it's so out of touch and so facile right now it's mind bending. reporting on what the anti-abortion movement is. reporting on that movement's aims, reporting on what it means to be a pro-life politician. doesn't mean writing down what you want to say about them. you don't have to use the antiseptic language and chosen phrases they choose to describe themselves. you don't have to talk about them only the way they like to be talked about. when you talk about them in terms of their actual policy goals in an objective way you quickly realize what donald trump did, yesterday, may be viewed as a gaffe, but it wasn't a gaffe. he just used blunter language than the anti-abortion likes the use in public. let's get real.

if you're pro-life, that means you don't think a woman has a right to have an abortion if she wants one. if you're pro-life, that means you think there isn't a right to get an abortion. it means you're anti-abortion. it doesn't mean you don't get an abortion in your own life. it means you believe nobody else should be able to get an abortion either. when a politician says he or she is pro-life and will govern as such means they would like abortion do be out lawed. they want the united states of america to be a country if getting an abortion is a crime. that means anybody who gets an abortion is a criminal. follow me. that's what chris matthews was getting at with donald trump. this is what he admitted to that has so upset everything that he said it out loud. it's true. if we become a pro-life country that abortion is illegal that every time any woman becomes pregnant in the united states, she will face a government mandate that says she must bring

that pregnancy to term and must give birth by order of the government. the government will use the criminal law to monitor every pregnancy in the country and to force every woman in america who gets pregnant to take that pregnancy to term and give birth if it's against her will. that's what it means in brass tacks. that means your pregnancy tests is potentially criminal evidence. if you have a miscarriage, god forbid, every physical aspect is potentially criminal evidence. the sight of your miscarriage is going to be treated and investigated as a crime scene. in a pro-life country, if the government knows you to be pregnant, and you do not give birth nine months later, that will be a matter for the police to investigate.

donald trump says he's pro-life. the republican party has generally viewed him as a squish on the subject, not hard line enough. as an example of how he's not hard line enough, ted cruz is not only anti-abortion, he's anti-abortion in every instance. under president ted cruz he would go further than donald trump and impose the same criminal regime not just on women broadly, but on specifically women who became pregnant because they were raped or because they were the victim of incest. so, god forbid, some 13-year-old girl somewhere in america gets raped by her evil uncle and gets impregnanted. under a ted cruz presidency, that 13-year-old girl's pregnancy would become a matter for the state, the government to monitor and the criminal law would be used to force the 13-year-old girl to bring the pregnancy to term and force her to give birth to her rapist child against her will under

penalty of criminal law. so, it sort of feels like a parallel universe in which the comments by donald trump is seen as outrageous while ted cruz is the reasonable one. >> there has to be punishment. >> for the woman? >> yeah. >> ten cents, ten years? >> i don't know. >> the anti-abortion portion does not like to talk about what that means for the country. they do not like any public reminders of the lengths between their movement and the part of their movement that shoots doctors and says it's justified to do so. presidential candidate ted cruz has not been diligent about keeping a bright line between his own anti-abortion campaign and the radical violent anti-abortion politics that have brought us the operation save america and operation rescues of this world.

his opponent, donald trump, he's not been particularly good at keeping a bright line between what he wants to be seen as mainstream anti-abortion republican politics and the politically awkward but true fact of what it would mean for women if they succeed this making abortion a crime and every american woman who seeks one into a criminal. just a note to the national media and to the beltway media on the subject. i know everybody is all over donald trump on this, what will it mean for his campaign? covering a story like this does not mean just writing down what people want you to say about them in the terms they want you to use. the idea there's any distance at all between what donald trump said yesterday and the aims of the antiabortion movement that's a fallacy and one no responsible person should repeat. you may be muddling through allergies.

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we got world early today that republican presidential front-runner donald trump was having a surprise meeting at headquarters in washington. now that mainstream republicans are openly talking about how they might use republican party rules to try to stop mr. trump from getting the party's nomination at the convention that summer, this means it's news if donald trump turns up at republican party headquarters. the d.c. press corps went down to to watch donald trump go in and wait for him to leave. eagle eye reporters got another glimpse of another person leaving republican headquarters at that time. that's the singular elections rules genius. he's the guy who wrote the convention rules that might make it possible, and he was there today simultaneously at rnc headquarters while donald trump was there having his surprise secret meeting.

maybe they even said hello in halls. i don't know. we'll all know in a minute. that intriguing person joins us here next.

if you're a bernie sanders supporter or anywhere near a critical mess of bernie sanders supporters you may have felt an unusual cold breeze, a ripple of concern and worry. that's because for a time today, it looked like bernie sanders was not going to have his name on the primary ballot in washington, d.c. even though the sanders campaign paid the fee and did everything they were supposed to do, turns out the d.c. democratic party screwed up. they submitted the paper a day late but that put his appearance on the ballot in jeopardy, hence the ripple of concern, hence the cold breeze. here is how the hillary clinton campaign reacted. an administrative error should not keep a candidate off the ballot. let's get bernie sanders on the ballot in d.c.

that's from hillary clinton campaign. low and behold the democratic race has nice endings. it's like an episode of three's company. bernie sanders will be on the ballot. no problem. everybody played nice. issue resoevered. on the republican side it's not like that. the republican side, take the ballot in montana. ted cruz really is trying to get john kasich kicked off the ballot in that state. ted cruz supporters are questioning the validity of signatures submitted by john cay kick's campaign. they're trying to make it where he can't compete. montana is really so important? actually, yes. the reason is a potential magic key that could unlock the

nomination at the republican convention this summer if you use it right. it's called rule 40b. it was authored by mitt romney super lawyer in 2012. it was designed to stop ron paul. each candidate for nomination for president of the united states and vice president of the united states shall demonstrate the support for the majority of delegates from each of eight or more states. in plain english, you need to have gotten a majority of eight states. majority in eight states or your name can't be put forward. that rule was designed to stop ron paul fans from nominaing him and embarrassing mitt romney in 2012. before the rules the rules required a simple plurality of delegates in five states. they upped the number to eight and said you have to have a majority in eight. that was the romney's team way

of denying ron paul the opportunity to have his name placed in nomination. you can see it play out from a clip. this is minnesota, they're delegation announcing delegate preferences. what they wanted to be recorded by the rnc. watch them and watch the official tally. this is rule 40b in action. watch this. >> minnesota where we are very proud of our state republican party which runs a fair convention with integrity. cast 33 votes for ron paul. one vote for senator rick santorum and six votes for governor romney.

>> minnesota, six, romney. >> that's it. 33 votes for ron paul, what. one vote, what. it's like just take the romney ones. ron paul, let along rick santorum hadn't crossed this eight-state majority threshold in rule 40b. it's like they didn't exist. that's why ted cruz is challenging john kasich's appearance on the ballot. ted cruz has won a majority of delegates in six states. under rule 40b he needs two more by the end of the primary process to be eligible to be nominated for president by the republican party. that should be doable. he only needs two more states. montana is one of the states that ted cruz really plans on getting. it would be a little easier if john kasich wasn't there. now that ted cruz seems likely to cross that eight-state threshold, they think rule 40b

is the best thing since sliced bread. ted cruz said on talk radio, it will be a terrible idea for the washington power brokers to change the rules and get rid of rule 40b. it would likely end john kasich's effort to get the nomination. it will end his campaign. he was asked about rule 40b in pennsylvania, he said as it applies to the rules of convention there are no rules. in way john kasich is right. it's a temporary rule. the rules can be changed. there's the suspicion that ted cruz is being used like a mule to get the republican party into an open convention at which donald trump can be denied the nomination. many members of the establishment are coalescing around ted cruz or pretending because they think that's the best way to keep trump from getting the nomination. once they can pick anything they want, they're not going to pick ted cruz.

there's the suspicion that's what's going on. that's not possible if ted cruz can manipulate the rules making process so he holds onto rule 40b in which case only he and donald trump can be possible nominees even with an open convention. right, isn't that the way it works? joining us is the best person to fact check me on this. it's great to have you here. thank you so much. >> nice to be here. you give me far too much credit. we probably do have some things to unpack here. >> tell me what i got wrong. >> the rules of the convention have to be passed by each convention. unless the 2016 delegates voter rule, it doesn't exist. that's true of all the procedure rules. there's not a rule in place for the 2016 convention until the

delegates, who are not yet chosen, for the most part, decide in cleveland what the rules should be and number of states. >> let me ask you to clarify. this is rule 40, which means there are 39 others. does that mean they all get wiped off the map? they're starting with a clean slate, none of the rules get carried over? >> no. there's the proceedings of the convention rules that start with rule 26, the little noticed and misunderstood and carries to rule 42. they're the proceedings of the convention. those are the ones that must be passed by each convention. >> oerk. there are some rules that carry over. there are some rules that have to be passed by each convention? >> correct. >> is there a sense among republican party convention big wigs. >> who are those?

>> i know. i know as a lawyer you can unpack that pretty quickly. is there a sense that rule 40 only applied to 2012, and won't be expected to be part of the rule making process in 2016. it's now matter of political debate between ted cruz and john kasich. >> every convention has to pass a rule on what it takes to nominate a candidate for the presidency and vice presidency. it was in 2008 where they changed plurality to majority. if you're trying to get a number of signatures on a petition, how do you know what a plurality is until it may be too late. majority in 2008 became the standard. those rules are supposed to be passed the deal with the conditions that apply to each convention. it was five in 2008 with a plurality.

the rule is changed over time. really for the conditions of each convention. that's going to happen this time too. that's what the rules provide for. >> does the rnc institutionally have any preference or is it purely down to the delegates? >> the rnc and the rules committee submits a working draft that becomes the foundation for what the convention rules committee and the convention do. in that sense, they do. once you get to the convention rules committee those delegates are chosen by each delegation after that delegation is chosen in the individual states. >> can i ask you one last request which i'm completely convinced you will not answer? >> sure. >> what were you doing at rnc headquarters today and did it have anything to do with donald trump being there? >> i'm glad you asked. it has nothing to do with donald trump's meeting there. i had a meeting with my friends and clients two floors down.

the only thing i knew about the trump meeting was i couldn't get in the door because it was locked as he was arriving. >> i'm sure you stopped counting them. thank you. appreciate it. we got much more to come on this very busy news night. stay with us. it's not an anti aging face cream it's realizing beauty, doesn't stop at my chin. roc's formula adapts to delicate skin areas. my fine lines here, visibly reduced in 4 weeks. chest, neck and face cream from roc. methods, not miracles.

in politics, the visuals matter. they are usually carefully constructed by political operatives when dealing with a high profile politician. sometimes even very high profile photo ops go wrong like when sarah palin of alaska pardoned a thanksgiving turkey and then conducted a lengthy media interview while a mass turkey slaughter took place in the meat grinder right over her shoulder. then there was jon huntsman who kicked off his announcement in front of statue of liberty. there was no pretty photo op, just a circle line tour boat that set there dissecting his head. then there was the time that connecticut senator held a press conference about commuter rail sift only to narrowly avoid getting hit while standing next to a commuter train that was close to him.

none of those were nearly as wrong as to what happened to one high profile politician who today accidentally went to prison. that's next. retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it the better it works. retinol correxion from roc. methods, not miracles. >> i'm alex trebek. if you're age 50 to 85, i have an important message about security write down the number on your screen, so you can call when i finish. the lock i want to talk to you about isn't the one on your door. this is a lock for your life insurance, a rate lock, that guarantees your rate can never go up at any time, for any reason. but be careful. many policies you see do not have one, but you can get a lifetime rate lock through

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♪ it's not a quick fix. it's my decision to make beauty last. roc retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it the better it works. retinol correxion from roc. methods, not miracles. this is stunning. all right. let's say you are a politician in trouble. say you've had to deliver a contrite apology to your state and the people of your state do not seem to be accepting. they're not only impeachment

proceedings but 90% of people responding to surveys say you should quit. there are reports the state the attorney general and department of justice are investigaing you for criminal misbehavior. if you're that guy, you probably have to think carefully about whether you want to make any public appearances at until things cool down or you have a better explanation especially when the last explanation doesn't seem to be working on people. if you're going to appear in public and decide you will, you then need to think really specifically about the message you're spending explicitly and implicitly about why you're out in public, about where you're going, why you're there and what message it's sending. if you are a politician who is reportedly under criminal investigation, facing not only the possible of getting thrown out of office but the possibility of getting thrown into prison, if you're that guy, don't go do prison. don't let photographers stage

paragraphs of you between you and the photographers there's a set of bars because you're at a prison. don't let them show you on what appears to be your first visit to the prison commissay. a, don't go. b, don't go and make it your photo op when people think you ought to go to prison. if alabama was having any trouble imagining their pious conservative republican governor going to jail, the governor made it easy to go to jail because he's literally shown us what it would like going to jail during an official visit to an alabama state prison. what are you thinking? did you just lose your top political advisor who might have told you not to do this? things are not getting better for alabama's governor. they are getting worse.

the big news is that his top political advisor no longer works for him. he was also his alleged mistress. she's out. she's resigned her position saying she planned to spend more time with her family. it's a little bit weird. she has to resign but as far as we know she hasn't committed any official misconduct. she's not an alabama state official. nobody who knows who has been paying her salary. that is stunning. she's out. he's staying. there's continuing reports there's a criminal investigation at the state level and federal level. as to the potential of impeaching the governor, that's getting a lot of attention. articles of impeachment have been filed by a member of the legislature in alabama. quick note to our friends in the national media who are just picking up this story, there's good reason to be skeptical that governor bentley will be impeached. that's because the speaker of the house in alabama is the guy who would have to organize an impeachment vote and the speaker

of the house is facing more than 20 felony corruption charges and the governor is likely to be a witness in that felony corruption trial for the speaker of house. the speaker of the house needs robert bentley to be a friendly witness and he's likely to lead impeachment procedures. just read the second and third paragraphs of the headlines you've been looking. the local press has been amazing with this story. the birmingham news breaking details in the story. governor bentley bought multiple disposable burner cells at best buy. the governor, at that miraculously ill staged prison photo op did say he's still not even considering resigning but with each passing day the story

gets bigger and not smaller and the fact the national media has caught up to it is probably not going to help his case.

i just want the people of alabama to know there is nothing there, there's nothing illegal, there's nothing that's ever been done that would effect the people of alabama and effect my job. >> joining us now from alabama is john archibald. thanks for being here. it's nice to see you again. >> thank you. >> why did the governor's alleged mistress resign, his senior political adviser while the governor says he won't consider resigning himself? did she do something worse than he did. >> she took the bullet for him. it was the inevitable first step if he's going to try to keep this job and she took the first step. whether she's really out of the picture remains to be seen. >> the birmingham news, your paper, broke some intriguing, even puzzling news today that

had a lurid headline. the news reported today that governor bentley bought a bunch of burner cell phones at a best buy. is there any explanation from the governor about that? >> i've requested the text messages in the past and have been frustrated with it and have been told that he has several -- he changes his cell phone numbers very often, his private ones. so whether that's a burner phone or not, but it's another one of those images. nobody wants the governor wandering into the best buy to pick up burners so yet another one of those image problems. >> this story which you had such a role in breaking here is getting a lot of national attention, national tvs and newspapers. i feel like people have grabbed on to the idea that he may be impeached.

what's your perspective on that? >> i think it's unlikely for the reasons you stated earlier. you never know. if it comes up it requires a majority in the house. the democrats have not really played a role in the last eight years could be the deciding factor there. it's conceivable that it happened. i wouldn't bet it though. >> thanks for helping us keep up to date as this story keeps getting weirder. i appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you. we've thrown out what was my fine lines here, visibly reduced in 4 weeks. chest, neck and face cream from roc. methods, not miracles.

we've thrown out what was supposed to be the back half of the show because there's a thing i didn't expect to have to do tonight. we apparently ended up in a fairly serious dispute with the front-runner for the presidential nomination. he's made an allegation about this network which is a serious one which i will refute next. stay with us. it's not a quick fix. it's my decision to make beauty last. roc retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrkles in. and the longer i use it the better it works. retinol correxion from roc. methods, not miracles. i'm spending too muchs for time hiringnter. and not enough time in my kitchen. (announcer) need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards with a single click. then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier.

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this was a long question. this was a long discussion and they just cut it out and frankly it was extremely -- it was really convoluted and if in fact abortion was outlawed, the person performing the abortion who is doing the act not the woman is responsible. so that's the way i've always felt. i've had the same stance exactly as ronald reagan. i've had it and i've had it from the beginning. so my stance is the exact same as ronald reagan. >> so a lot of people are making a lot of hay out of this. did you misspeak or did you misunderstand the question. >> it could be i misspoke, but this was a long question. we talked about religion and chris went back and forth about that and this was a very long convoluted discussion which frankly they don't run on television because it's too long.

>> this was a long convoluted discussion. this was a long discussion and they just cut it out. i don't know who they are, but that appears to be mr. trump making an allegation about this network and the allegation that he's making there is false. msnbc did not cut his conversation with chris matthews at all. that town hall was taped as a live event. it was not live as it happened, but it was aired in its form. everything that happened, all of it went to air. the network did not clip it, did not cut it, did not shorten mr. trump's answers. the officials statement from msnbc reads the town hall was taped in advance and then aired in its entirety. absolutely no part of the exchange between trump and chris matthews was edited out. we know that and mr. trump knows that too and any allegation otherwise is untrue.

seriously. i mean even trying to sell this to a competing network, that is ridiculous. it's friday, april 1, right now on "first look" took, 26 millions are in the path of severe weather. breaking overnight, north korea does some saber rattling as the u.s. and world leaders negotiate handling their nuclear ambitions. new details surrounding the trooper killed at a virginia greyhound bus station. plus, the donald clarifies his comments yet again. the women fight for fair pay, plus much more on a busy april fool's day. "first look" starts right now. well, good morning on a friday. thanks for joining us today, i'm betty nguyen. 26 million people are in the path of a severe storm system today. there are reports of at least four tornadoes like this one in new ho