oppose the nomination of merrick garland. >> justice correspondent, pete williams, in washington. thank you. thanks to you, as well. that does it for this hour, i'm craig melvin. "mtp daily" starts right now. if it's thursday, the democratic fight for president now qualifies as getting nastier. can tough talk bolster bernie sanders's bid? is hillary clinton more than happy to swipe back at him multiple times? it's "mtp daily" and starts now. >> good evening, from new york, welcome to "mtp daily." i'm steve kornacki, in for chuck todd. tonight's take, the gloves are officially off. bernie sanders and hillary clinton, once delighted in keeping the race for the nomination relatively and comparatively drama-free.

but last 24 hours have changed that. starting with hillary clinton shedding doubt on bernie sanders' commitment to the democratic party. >> do you believe this morning that bernie sanders is qualified and ready to be president of the united states? >> well i think the interview raised a lot of serious questions. i think that what he has been saying about the core issue in his whole campaign doesn't seem to be rooted in an understanding of either the law or the practical ways you get something done. and i will leave it to voters to decide who of us can do the job that the country needs. >> now, that interview resulted in an "the washington post" article with this headline -- "clinton questions whether sanders is qualified to be president." that was the headline of that article. late last night, sanders reacted in a big way.

>> she has been saying lately that she thinks that i am quote/unquote not qualified to be president. i don't think that you are qualified if you get $15 million from wall street through your super pac. i don't think that you are qualified if you have voted for the disastrous war in iraq. i don't think you are qualified if you've supported virtually every disastrous trade agreement. let me just say, in response to secretary clinton, i don't believe that she is qualified. >> again, headline in "the washington post" said that hillary clinton questioned whether sanders was qualified. hillary clinton in that interview, had never actually said that bernie sanders is unqualified. the clinton campaign says that sanders is misrepresenting what she said and call on sanders to, quote, take back what he said. today, clinton responded

exclusively to matt lauer, in an interview that will air tomorrow on "today." he said he doesn't think you're qualified to be president. >> well, that will be up to the voters of new york and the other states that will be passing judgment in the weeks ahead. i think it's kind of a silly statement, but he's free to say whatever he chooses. >> is he qualified to be president? >> here what happens i believe. i believe that voters will be looking at both of us, but i will take bernie sanders over donald trump or ted cruz anytime. >> but today, speaking outside yankee stadium in the bronx, clinton tried to redirect the topic to the republicans running for president. >> we are going to have to unify democrats, and right thinking americans to stand up against the republicans. donald trump or ted cruz are just absolutely going to rip away the progress we've made. >> former president bill clinton on the trail in philadelphia.

he was not shy in responding to black lives matter protesters at his event. but when it came to responding to sanders, he was much less eager to engage. our own al sykes spoke to the president. >> sanders, for his part, isn't backing down. >> if you want to question my qualifications, let me suggest this -- maybe the american people might wonder about your qualifications, madam secretary. i'm not going to get boeaten up lied about, we will fight back. >> brian fallon, press secretary for the clinton campaign, joins me here in the studio. thanks for taking a few minutes. look, you have a point, she did not ever say in that interview bernie sanders isn't qualified

to be president. do you think he saw the interview or just read the headline. >> either way, he had a responsibility to understand what she truly said. today joe scarborough said, he was i was trying to my darndest to get her to say he was unqualified and she didn't go for it. look, new york politics ain't beanbag. hillary clinton is thick-skinned, she's tough. but i think that the language that bernie sanders deployed yesterday represents a real shift in the tone of the democratic primary, and i think that he needs to take back those words this is something that is potentially dangerous in terms of our able to unify the party going forward. with so much on the line, with the stakes so high, potential of donald trump as republican nominee, this is not the way we should be wrapping up the nomination process. >> sanders supporters acknowledge she did not say he

is not qualified but asked a blunt question, is bernie sanders qualified to be president. she didn't say, yeah, sure he is, didn't exactly come to his defense. >> she was making a point with respect to the new york "daily news" interview, which united states a fair point. which is that if you're going to put something like breaking up the banks at center of your agenda, you have a responsibility to voters to be able to say how you're going to execute on that. when he was unable in that interview to answer fundamental questions about his own proposal, that's a fair basis for criticism. that does not mean that she was saying that he's unqualified, and indeed today to matt lauer she said if he overtook her in delegates and ended up as the nominee, of course she would vote for him over anybody that the republicans -- >> in his campaign saying, look, he would still support her if she wins. >> what was the point of the comment yesterday? >> to be clear, from the clinton campaign standpoint is bernie sanders qualified to be president? >> she's never said that he's not. >> will she say he is? >> how can she support him

against any republicans if she questioned his fitness for office? this is beneath the debate beer having on the democratic side. woo can have good exchanges, who will get results in terms of raising wages without questioning people's motives or questioning people's fitness for office. that is something that senator senator vowed he wouldn't engage in at the start of the campaign. now i think they're getting frustrated with the daunting delegate math that they face. >> i don't mean to press the point too much but i want an answer. sanders campaign is saying, he said, unqualified in the speech, when i pressed his campaign manager this morning, he said yes, bernie sanders would still support her if she's the nominee. hillary clinton said she would support him. is he still qualified? >> i don't know how else to interpret the answer, she would support him up against the republicans. what we need to hear bernie

sanders say, he's the only candidate in the race that called his opponent unqualified to be president of the united states. bernie sanders needs to come out and take that back. hillary clinton is probably most qualified candidate for president that we've seen in decades, if not in the history of american politics. first lady, two-term senator, secretary of state. president obama with politico said she's the most experienced candidate that hasn't been an incumbent vice president that we've ever seen. i don't think it's an effective line of attack. the reason it's problematic is it's sending the exact wrong signal to his supporters whom, at the end of the process, we need to unite together if we're ever going to defeat donald trump and the republicans. >> thanks for the time. turn to the other side, nina turner, former state senator from ohio, supporter of bernie sanders. joining from connecticut, one of the northeast states voting at the end of the month. thank you for joining us. let me just pick up on the conversation we just had with brian fallon from the clinton

campaign here. should bernie sanders take back what he said? hillary clinton did not say in this interew on "morning joe" bernie sanders is unqualified to be president. does he owe her an apology. >> she implied. the clinton campaign has been jumping on bernie sanders from the beginning. you remember, when they tried to bait him in the debate about e-mails he said, enough with the damn e-mails, we want to talk about the issues. he has been trying to talk about the issues ever since he got into the campaign. what does the clinton campaign do from trying to say he wants to do away with the affordable care act, trying to drivage edge between him and president obama with the black community, talk about he didn't support the chp program, a man fighting for universal health care throughout his political career. these things have been building and building and the senator has been nothing but a gentleman when it comes to just talking

about the issues. and so, she may not have exactly said those words, but every answer that she gave to joe scarborough the other day intimated those very words, and the senator was tired of it. >> she didn't use the words but he did. unqualified to be president of the united states, that goes beyond saying we disagree on this issuing i see things differently on that issue. that says she's unfit to be president. do agree with that assessment about hillary clinton? >> the senator said unqualified if, unqualified if you take money from wall street -- >> which she does. every condition that he set out, she meets. by those standards she's unqualified. >> he made it plain. the senator made it plain. he said what he said. that's how he's feeling now. here it is. >> you're a supporter of his. do you agreer is she unqualified to be president. >> i'm supporting senator sanders. he said it. there it is. the point, the fact of the matter is, now the clun campaign wants to cry foul.

the same line of attack they used in 2008 running against then-senator obama, and senator sanders is fed up. she implied he was not qualified. he does not mince words help is a man of integrity and honesty. he didn't play around with it. he addressed it in that rally. in the same -- we are talking about that, how about president bill clinton saying to one of the black live matters young ladies, called her a girl, a girl. let's talk about these issues. so, there is a problem. nobody's going to pretend there's not a problem. there is a problem. but senator sanders did not start this. they know now, he is from new york. he is from brooklyn. >> it is getting tough out there. i want to stay on this for a second. you're saying he laid out certain conditions here, if this, if that. here are some, if you have a super pac unqualified, hillary clinton has a super pac, so does barack obama. if the super pac takes money from wall street, unqualified. barack obama's super pac took

money from wall street. if you're for trade deal, ba rack obama trying to push through a major trade deal, has backed trade deals in the past. he's saying hillary clinton is unqualified but he's attacking hillary clinton on things barack obama is just as vulnerable on, isn't he? >> this has nothing to do with president obama. >> all the things he's laying out applies to barack obama. >> but president barack obama's not running for re-election. senator bernie sanders is running against secretary hillary clinton. not president barack obama. and it's just -- it's just -- it's just weak right now to continue to bring the president into this argument. he is not running. senator sanders is running against secretary of state hillary clinton. he said what he said and that's the end of it. let's keep running the race and debating differences between the two candidates, which the differences are vast, and that is the point here. nina turner, former ohio state senator, supporter of bernie sanders, appreciate it. back to the studio. two of our correspondents who are following every minute of the fight closer than anyone.

kasie hunt, covering the sanders campaign, kristen welker on the trail with hillary clinton. you're on the sanders beat, let me start with you. i am wondering, this is an honest question, i asked in to brian fallon, did bernie sanders see this interview that hillary clinton gave on "morning joe" ahead of time? did he read the full "the washington post" article or is there a chance he's responding to that headline? the headline is very different than what hillary clinton actually said. >> you saw him talk about this today and he read from the headline of this and that's what the sanders campaign pointed to as the genesis for this. i will say, bernie sanders himself does not watch that much tv. so, no matter what, it's more likely that he read it. jane sanders his wife tends to watch more of the tv and fill him in when there's enough to fill him in on. it's pretty clear that he's responding to the underlying sentiment of this either way, because he -- it was a calculated -- he went out on

stage yesterday night in philadelphia, rallied tens of thousands of people at temple university, made this calculated change to the stump speech. he melded this together with his list of talking points. and this morning, many of us were surprised to hear him come out more forcefully after he would have had plenty of time to go through the whole transcript and give us more context why he feels this way. you heard him say i will not be dismissed, i'm not a senator from a small state. if this is how you want to play, i'm going to come to play, too, don't think you can push me around. i think that the reality with senator sanders is, it's a personality, candidate-driven campaign. he's making these decisions and you can see a lot from what he's willing to put out there. >> all of the individual items underneath the attack that sanders is reeling off, these are things he's been saying a long time about hillary clinton but now putting the veneer on it

that's more harsh than anything we've heard before. we're in the boil, the cauldron of media for new york for the next two weeks. is the clinton campaign ready for bernie sanders to be coming after hilly. >> i think the clinton campaign is surprised by the fact it's april and they're lock in the tough battle with senator sanders. she does have a significant delegate lead. at the same time, he has six straight victories under his belt. a lot of momentum heading into new york. i think both sides are kind of seeing it get a little bit ugly. i think there are risks in this strategy, though, for both of the candidates. i think senator sanders runs the risk of jumping the shark on this. i think secretary clinton runs the risk of alienating some of senator sanders' supporters, supporters she needs if she does win the general election. if she walks up too close to the line, what we're seeing senator sanders respond to, though she didn't say he was unqualified. >> that's the question, unifying

the party in the end. kasie, you're seeing sanders every day. this feels like something that's a long time coming, a lot of frustrations on his part about how the campaign's gone, how the clinton campaign has handled him, spilling over into this. >> i think that the central frustration for bernie sanders is not being taken seriously, is the idea that whether it was the beginning when people wrote him off ace fringe candidate or something like this, where the route of this, right, is not taking him seriously, and that more than anything is what has typically set him off. and i think it's what prompted us to take this kind of next step into this argument, if you will. the question is going to be whether or not people who are supportive of bernie sanders are willing to tip over into support hillary clinton in the end. >> one more point on that, you know, you talk about the fact that senator sanders is getting frustrated not being taken seriously. you heard it in her speeches, it was as if she moved on to the

general election, and i think that fuel the type of frustration that kasie's laying out. >> i don't think the new york media will let her get that pivot in the in extwo weeks. thanks to both of you for that. coming up -- president obama makes a push for his supreme court nominee as republican senate leaders still stall on holding hearings. democratic senator sheldon whitehouse will join me next. ted cruz tries to clip away at donald trump's delegate lead. jacob soboroff will join me to break down cruz's strategy to win over delegates in colorado.

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td ameritrad and to connect us with thes twonderment of nature. 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. president obama returned to his old stomping ground to make a push for merrick garland. speaking at university of chicago law school, obama once taught constitutional law for over a decade, the president met with students and staff and hosted a town hall on his supreme court pick. >> what has been unique in this

process has been the growing attitude inside of the senate that every nomination, no matter how well qualified a judge is, is a subject of contention. >> president's chicago trip comes as merrick garland spent another day meeting with senators on capitol hill to push his nomination forward. garland has met with 21 senators, 3 of them republicans. in total, 15 republican senators have said they are open to meeting with garland. senator graham of south carolina adding his name to that list just moments ago. 5 of those meetings are scheduled for next week, including one with senator chuck grassley. garland slated to have breakfast with the chairman on tuesday. senators mark kirk and susan collins are still the only republicans who support having hearings on garland's nomination.

this is where collins told chuck yesterday on this show. >> i don't think there will be hearings right off. i'm hoping that, as more of my colleagues sit down with judge garland, that they will conclude, as i've concluded, that he deserves a hearing. >> but majority leader mitch mcconnell holds steadily fastly against hearings or a vote. >> president obama will fly to chicago where he will try to convince americans, despite his own actions while in the senate, to deny a supreme court nominee a vote, the constitution somali how now, now, requires the senate to have a vote on his nom nominee no matter what, thereby deny the american people a voice in the future of the supreme court. in the words of "the washington post" fact checker he'll be tell be supporters convenient fairy tale. >> i want to bring in democratic

senator from rhode island, sheldon white house, a member of the committee, met with garland yesterday. thanks for taking a few minutes. you have susan collins saying, as a republican she wants to meet with him, have hearings, wants this to move forward like most nominations do but not on mftic the rest of the party will go along with that. are most republicans those will be to meet with garland going through motions and not committed to getting a vote on this thing? >> i think you know we have to go through this step by step, the first process to try to lift some of the disorder that the republicans have created around this nomination and begin to go through the regular process of meetings and ultimately hearing. down the road, there are very powerful forces behind the republican party that will settle for nothing less than a passionate conservative activist on the supreme court and they're going to be disappointed by somebody as neutral and fair and

as experience the and as moderate as merrick garland. so there's going to be a crisis fought out within the republican party. my guess that is when the dust settles he probably gets a vote and he might even get confirmed. >> we just played that clip from mitch mcconnell today and he's saying basically, president obama lacks moral authority to compel senators to hold hearings and hold a vote on merrick garland. pointing to 2006, when barack obama was a member of the senate and participated in a filibuster that would have denied samuel alito a vote, a vote on his nomination to the supreme court. does he have a point there? does the president lack moral authority now to say that senate needs to hold a vote when he wasn't willing to hold a vote on sam alito? >> it's not the president at issue, it's what the constitution says which is that the senate shawl shall give its advice and consent.

it's up to, i think, each senator to make up their mind whether they want to do their job, which is very clearly given to us by the constitution, or duck and wait in the hopes that they'll have a republican president who can appoint another passionate conservative activist, that's what the game is that's in play right here. and everything else is window dressing. >> but -- >> once you get to a democratic president-elect or a democratic presidential candidate way ahead, as you come into november, i think a lot of this begins to shift around as a special interests who are trying to stop this now begin to say, let's take the moderate bird in the hand and not whoever president clinton might appoint. >> was barack obama as a senator, was he wrong and were the democrat whose joined him wrong when they tried to filibuster sam alito's nomination. >> every senator has a right to use existing procedures on the floor. what has never been done before

is to, as a body, say we're going to do none of it. none of us are going to meet. none of us are going to attend hearings, none of russ going to vote. we're simply going to shut down that part of the constitution that requires the senate to give its advice and consent. and that's what's new and different here. for individual senators to vote for or against a nominee or take to the floor to use their own traditional procedural powers, that's nothing new. what's new is this blanket shutdown of the process. >> i take your point. but aren't those two things related when you take a step back and take the bigger picture of you. 2006 when the filibuster attempted on alito we talked about how unprecedented that was, how this was new. that was established as something that the democrats tried to do against sam alito. now ten years later the republicans are trying a new way of going after a democratic nominee. isn't there a relationship in

term of the erosion of how the senate works? >> there clearly has been erosion in how the senate works in terms of filibusters. once the republicans were in the minority and president obama was elected, they went into filibuster territory that no senator ever went into before, they filibustered things they ended up voting for by 90 plus to two or three. they went into a filibuster frenzy, and that has affected the senate. so we have a potential filibuster issue down the road even with this nominee but them saying we're not even going to get to the point where we make decisions about filibusters, we're not even going to meet with the guy, we're not going give him the courtesy of a hearing, allow for any of the ordinary process that has been the hallmark of senate confirmations since the civil war to take place, and that kind of, you know, government shutdown of this particular constitutional responsibility is

unprecedented by any measure. all right, sheldon whitehouse, democratic senator from rhode island, thanks for the time. appreciate it. >> my pleasure. ted cruz takes shots at trump's liberal leanings while campaigning on donald trump's home turf. john kasich slams cruz for his new york values comments while stumping across the boroughs. all of the latest on the republican battle here in new york ahead. playing for the usual phil? always stacy. at kpmg we've always believed leadership is about vision and integrity. confidence. inspiration. and passion. pitching wedge. thanks, phil. and always havinthe courage to take your best shot. kpmg. coinuing our commitment to the next generation of women leaders. people are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes

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well, the hunt for the republican presidential nomination moves to new york, ted cruz is looking west. in colorado, cruz's team hard at work gathering delegates in an aggressive, but very quiet strategy ta he's hope can chip away at donald trump's delegate

lead and deny trump the 1,237 majority he's looking for. cruz won six pledged delegates in colorado following two congressional level assemblies this past weekend. he's also poised to make greater gains there. cruz is taking advantage of an obscure nominating process in colorado where instead of a statewide primary, state's republican party is holding a series of caucuses in each of the state's seven congressional districts. now, those caucuses will couple mip nate in a statewide convention this weekend which cruz himself is scheduled to attend. trump was also originally slated to speak at that convention but now he's choosing to focus on the new york primary instead. operatives in colorado say that cruz's strategy could leave him with majority of the delegates in that state. one of them telling associated press, quote, cruz has the big upper hand here, they're the only ones organized. joining me from colorado where the state's seventh

congressional district set to pick the three rnc delegates, msnbc's official delegate hunter, jacob soboroff. i love this. this is the one time in our lifetime, probably, where seventh congressional district colorado republican caucuses are going to matter nationally. these happen every four years and nobody outside the seventh district in colorado cares, probably nobody in the seventh district cares but this is hugen tell us what's going on out there. >> reporter: it's part of the reason, steve, that 500 people are going to show up in this church gymnasium tonight. normally it would not make one lick of a difference, more or less, in the presidential nominating contest, not just out of this state but the nomination at large. what you're going to see happen is so crucial to either donald trump getting to 1,237 to get the first ballot nomination in cleveland in june, or ted cruz being able to stone him because

coming out of here tone, 3 out of the 37 in the state, republican national committee delegates are going to the convention in cleveland this july, nominate the here. let me show you what is going to happen. come with me. they are going to come up, all 54, to microphones and address the crowd with one-minute pitch each. this is why you need to support me, ted cruz has gone to other conventions, put slates forward in order to get his delegates. they are unbound, many of them, some of them at least, they do not have to declare who they are going to go for until convention in cleveland this july. some of them have declared allegiances in advance, there are a handful of cruz, a handful of trump but we will not know what happens until tonight. there are several more throughout tomorrow and saturday when the entire state convention all gets together in a big hockey arena. >> jacob, thank you. come bang to new york where ted cruz and john kasich both campaigning today with less than two weeks before the new york

primary, they are doing their best to take on republican front-runner donald trump in trump's backyard. cruz started his day up state where he hit trump for his past support of democrats. >> our friends in the media tell us that donald trump is unstoppable in new york state. oddly enough, our friends in the media are very comfortable with the new york liberal who has supported andrew cuomo and hillary clinton and chuck schumer for decades. and they really want to see a general election between two new york liberal whose agree on washington being the center of the universe. >> now, both john kasich's campaign and his super pac launched ads today, mocking cruz for his new york values comments. nbc's kelly o'donnell asked kasich himself about those cruz comments today in the bronx. >> we love new york values.

it's a great place. i love new york. >> what does it mean? >> what does it mean? neighborhoods, great food, great people. it means everything. >> kelly o'donnell joins me from the bronx, where she's been following kasich. hallie jackson is in brooklyn where ted cruz wrapped up a tour the a matzah bakery. ted cruz reeling off new york politicians, a bit of news, speaking of new york politicians, rudy guiliani saying in new york primary april 19th, he said, quote, i support trump. i'm going to vote for trump. in the new york primary, endorsement of donald trump by rudy guiliani, that could be big. but talk more about that. ted cruz, rumors this morning, not meeting with him. what do you hear? >> reporter: no meeting today for the campaign between rudy guiliani and ted cruz. you talk about that guiliani vote for trump, he was careful to say it was not an endorsement, at least we didn't hear that full-throated support.

up until this upon, that's been some of what we've seen for people coming out in favor of ted cruz. think about what mitt romney did, he said i'll vote for him but he did not say i endorse him wholeheartedly. it's to stop trump from getting the flom nation. cruz talked about what would happen if donald trump were the nominee, and this just happened within the last ten minutes. working to turn around that sound for you. but asked by a group of rabbis here in brooklyn, he stopped at this bakery behind me, walked down the street for the private meeting, and when asked what he would do if trump were the nol, first thing we would do is we, a different line than what we've heard before. scene, a friendlier, far friendlier than from what we saw from cruz yesterday in the bronx. people chanting and clearing for him. similar in upstate new york, campaign setting up stops to show that cruz is building coalitions in the state. he has a real uphill battle,

behind donald trump in polling here. >> kelly o'donnell following john kasich. i think the real story here is not just trump but it's cruz versus kasich baecause there's chance for kasich to get back in the game. if he can come in second in new york instead of cruz. >> reporter: well, steve, definitely, john kasich is looking for sort of a prime cut of the delegates. he wants to be able to take some of the support away from ted cruz especially because of those new york values comments. we talked about that. here today at this counter, john kasich paid tribute to new york values by eating everything put in front of him. a sandwich named for john kasich, pasta, home made wine. all of it to say he wants to savor new york while he's here. now, of course, he has not done well in the last contest, in wisconsin, and he said that really was not his territory. he believes the northeast and republicans in this part of the

country might be more open to his message, especially with that vulnerability for ted cruz. and, trying to counter himself against donald trump, the hometown son here, and offer voters a choice. i asked cruz about his sense of that. he is going after -- i asked kasich about this cruz issue, he talked about he's got a new ad out, his super pac, which is separate from the campaign, has an ad hitting cruz as well on this issue of new york values. and you heard in that clip you played the way that john kasich defines the values and it's a lot of things that make new yorkers very proud. here in the bronx they've been very excited all day to welcome john kasich and have him sample some of new york's flavors. >> i think i heard you say they have a sandwich they named after john kasich. any idea what's on that? >> reporter: i believe there was some provolone, some tomato, some salami, and they put pickle on the sandwich, they said

that's the ohio way though you wouldn't do that in new york. i also saw on the menu a hillary clinton sandwich here, too. this is a must-stop place for politicians, not only sights and sounds and tastes but a great place to speak to people who are small businesses, who are working, and all of the customers who come through. >> john kasich sandwich, there you go. kelly o'donnell following john kasich. hallie jackson with the ted cruz campaign. hillary clinton's turnstile trouble and more. when you think about success, what does it look like? is it becoming a better professor by being a more adventurous student? is it one day giving your daughter the opportunity she deserves? is it finally witnessing all the artistic wonders of the natural world? whatever your definition of success is, helping you pursue it, is ours. t-i-a-a.

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bernie sanders may have taken some heat a few days ago for not knowing that the new york city subway no longer takes tokens. they got metro cards now. hillary clinton had her own turnstile trouble this morning. the photo at yankee stadium awkward pause, she had a hard time swiping that metro card. the five-second fumble has been lighting um social media all day. back with more "mtp daily" right after this. there are two billion people who don't have access to basic banking, but that is changing. at temenos, with the microsoft cloud, we can enable a banker to travel to the most remote locations

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california. among likely republican voters there, donald trump is leading ted cruz by seven points. 39-32%. john kasich, a distant third with 18%. but here's189%. here's the catch. this poll also broke out the support by region. that's probably the most important thing, when it comes to the california primary in june. now, take a look at this. this is the map from that poll. trump is leading cruz in two regions of the state. the san francisco bay area and the area surrounding los angeles. but it is cruz who leads in densely populated los angeles county, and that single county holds more than 1/3 of the congressional districts. since most of the delegates are winner take all according to congressional district, you get three for winning any district in the state, a win in l.a. county for cruz could potentially net him a very big chunk of delegates, even if trump ends up winning the state overall.

we'll be right back with more "mtp daily."

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all right, back now with the lid. tonight's panel, msnbc senior editor beth fouhy, susan, and research and demos action, transform america. so let's start on the democratic race, beth, let's start on this big dustup over who is qualified, and who isn't to be

president. i sense this was a bit of a stumble on bernie sanders' part. there was a headline that said clinton said this, and she didn't. he is having a tough time squaring that right now. >> right. there was a lot of it came out of morning joe interview, where hillary clinton was pressed on bernie sanders and things that he had said to that daily news, and she raised questions about his understanding of certain issues. so perhaps by implication, she was saying he is not quite ready for this. she never said it. so yes, the sanders team grabbed it on purpose and are picking a fight with her. they realize that pretty much new york is his last assistant. he has to do well here. she is so heavily favored. they hoped they could do that by picking with that particular issue. she didn't bite. she didn't say anything more, she said she would rather have bernie sanders than any republican. >> in new york of all places. but tomorrow, is that something for democrats?

do they view that as potentially going over the line. you can disagree with hillary clinton, you can criticize wall street, criticize the iraq vote, but to say within the democratic party that one of the candidates isn't qualified to be president, is that going to cost him votes. >> i think it crosses the line. especially, we have to look at gender politics too. this is a woman viable candidate, second time in a row, viable to win the nomination for the president of the united states. she is very qualified. and i think he did get in a bit of trouble with his comment, especially since, as she said, she didn't actually ever call him unqualified for president. and you know, his argument is that she is unqualified because of her positions on policy issues. which is something i think that is rather unheard of. >> well, that's the point i was asking. one sanders supporters on it. asking these things that sanders is singling out hillary clinton also apply to president obama. >> what is interesting too, he

is a little like trump, this is not going to hurt his base at all. he is fortunate, because hillary clinton's unfavorable numbers are so high. her untrustworthy numbers are so high. so he figures in his last stand, he can afford to be a little squooshy, because she is already baked in all of those things. he can attack her and probably get away with it a little bit more, because people still don't -- we haven't seen a hard hit on bernie sanders. >> let's turn to the republican race for the couple of minutes we have left here. beth, i'm trying to figure out where it goes from here. after wisconsin, a lot of people are saying, this really was the turning point. cruz is sort of the -- he is getting consolidation here, trump won't hit 1,237. i'm wondering if donald trump comes in here in new york, he could sweep. if he has a big night, he could take all 95 delegates. co g he could get close to that. walk out of here back ahead 400 delegates over ted cruz. we might be saying something

different in a few weeks. >> i've seen you talking at the big board, a plausible path to get to 1,237. it is quite challenging,uite difficult. ted cruz can't get there at all at this point. he is playing a smart insider game, minimizing the gap, if there a contested nvention, he is in a good position. so yes, it's still possible for donald trump. unlikely or difficult that he could get there. it could happen. but since ted cruz can't at all, he is playing this secondary game, which is really smart. >> if he sweeps new york, which i think is unlikely, but if he does, the numbers really start looking in his favor. i think that's why donald trump today put a line in the sand. he said i'm canceling all my other campaign trips. i'm staying in new york because i need to clean the state. this is where i will virtually guarantee the 1,237. if he doesn't, he will have a lot of fallout.

>> that's -- >> that's the danger. >> if he does get that, if he gets close to 1,237, if he wins, if he wins new york, california, new jersey, he wins these big states at the end and sitting at 1,215, i am having a hard time how they would deny him that. >> it would be very marred to defly him that. and what happens when they need all of the trump supporters to support whatever candidate they actually would rather have be the nominee. so i think they are in a rock and a hard place. >> if it's 1,236, they are going to fight to deny. let's not forget. this is not an arbitrary number. the point is, the party wants you to get half of the support at the convention. because if you don't have half of the republican support, how are you going go forward to winning a general election? >> oh do we know, ted cruz 500 delegates behind him. i know the rules say you can do

it. >> look who are on the rules committee. this is their a last stand too. >> susan, beth, thank you for joining us. we'll be back tomorrow with more "mtp daily." "with all due respect" starts right now. i'm john helemann. >> i'm mark halperin. with all due respect to bernie sanders and hillary clinton, the voice of the new york subway system has a public service announcement, especially for you. >> coffee in your left hand, metro card in your right hand. one quick easy swipe. no tokens. here is how it goes. i'm in. there is more from bloomberg's charlie and his favorite voice of god, later in this episode. we commuted today to kansas city, where we sat down with the city's mayor, who is also a hillary clinton super delegate. weha