coming up at 10:00 p.m., brian williams hosts "prince: purple reign." first "the rachel maddow show." >> that was a super, super, super smart discussion, awesome. and you used the word "orthognal," didn't even pause for emphasis, you dropped it and rolled, amazing. i can't keep up. >> a little tribute. all right. thanks for joining us this hour. there's a lot of the news. we've got a big show ahead this hour. we've got john stanton here, my buddy from "buzz feed." congresswoman donna edwards is here. she is maybe on the cusp of pulling off what would be a huge upset in a big senate race in maryland next week. she's going to be joining us. a lot to get to over the course of this hour. we start with this. if you are ever going to testify before congress, or testify before the united states senate, one thing, not the most

important thing, but one sort of pofrt thing if you're going to do that is that you need to look the part. right? you need to dress like you're going to address the united states senate. on that score, dee snyder from the band twisted sister has always been at the top of my list for how to make the best visual impression possible when testifying before the united states senate. that same day, 1985, that senate committee had heard already from frank zappa, who was hilarious in his testimony, but who also wore a very nice, conservative suit and a positively trump-esque red republican tie to give his hilarious testimony. that same committee had also heard from john denver that day, the great john denver, who was there to testify against censorship and against the sort of soft-form censorship that you start to ease into when you start putting official warning labels on different kinds of artistic expression.

john denver was there to testify against that kind censorship. he was also there to make clear his song "rocky mountain high" was not about that kind of high. but then in comes dee snyder. god bless him. from twisted sister. pride of long island. and no, dee insider not wear a suit and tie when he testified that day. far from it. but boy was he prepared for that testimony. and fired up. and when he walk the in wearing that muscle shirt and slipped off his jean jacket vest with the arms ripped off and pulled out that piece of paper out of his pocket, i am quite sure this is not what the united states senate was expecting from his testimony. >> thank you for having me here. i don't know if it's morning or amp. i'll say both. good morning and good afternoon my name is dee snyder. snider. i'm 30 years old. i'm married. i have a 3-year-old son. i was born and raised a christian and i still adhere to those principles.

believe it or not, i do not drink, i do not smoke, and i do not do drugs. i do play in and write the songs for a rock 'n' roll band named twisted sister. i would like to use this occasion to speak on a more personal note and show just how unfair the whole concept of lyrical interpretation and judgment can be and how many times this can amount to little more than character assassination. accusation number one. this attack was contained in an article written by tipper gore which was given the form of a full page in my hometown newspaper on long island. in this article, ms. gore claimed that one of my songs "under the blade" had lyrics encouraging side dough masochism, bondage and rape. the lyrics she quoted have absolutely nothing to do with these topics. on the contrary. the words in question are about surgery and the fear that it instills in people. as the creator of "under the blade" i can say categorically

that the only satisfied dough masochism, bondage and rape in this song is in the mind of ms. gore. >> that was 1985. dee snider and his band twisted sister had been put on a sort of hit list by a group called the parents music resource center which was founded in 1985 by, among others, then-senator al gore's wife tipper gore, who you see on the left. also susan baker, who was married to the treasury secretary at the time, james baker. they co-founded it along with a bunch of other well-connected washington worthies who were very concerned about the filth-i fying of america's pop culture of the too time. this was one of the great cultural freak-outs of my lifetime, it is burned into my childhood memories. in the short run that fight led to those black and white warning labels you used to find on american music back when american music was a physical object that you bought at a store. the washington freak-out that

led to those labels started with this really specific hit list, a hit list of 15 songs, some of which were hits, some of which were not, 15 songs the parents music resource council singled out as being particularly troubling pieces of music. pieces of muse that i can presumably they found particularly helpful in trying to convince the country that there was something deeply wrong in our culture that we needed to be protected from or at least warned about and these songs were it. twisted sister had a huge hit song "we're not gonna take it," number seven on that list of 15 for its supposedly violent content. but number one on that hit list was, of course, a song by prince. it was the song "darling nikki." which is, in fact, a really dirty song. "darling nikki" was the last song on side one of prince's album "purple rain" which came

out in 1984. "darling nikki" thanks to the parents resource council became the poster child of what was so terribly wrong with american culture and american music specifically. and that came out in 1984 that record. by 1985 we had those black explicit content warning stickers on records. even before the advent of those warning stickers in 1985, though, prince's lyrics pushed the envelope so far, prince's lyrics were so unapologetic and graphic about sex in particular, that even before we got those rectangular black and white national warning stickers in 1985, before that, warner brothers had started putting warning stickers on all of prince's records. prince's records starting i think with his first record if 1978. they were all slapped with little custom stick there's said, contained language which may be unsuitable for some listeners. and boy were those warning stickers effective.

as a child growing up in the 1980s, there was no more powerful attractant to me in a record store than those little stickers. come on. don't look at this! it's bad for you! definitely don't pick this one up and take it home! you know? so parents and even lawmakers were in this bind, right? because prince was definitely their poster child for their own concerns about music that seemed way too sexy to be safe. but by making him their poster child for that concern, they ended up making a really fascinating and sexy poster. which made him not just something you might discover at your local record store if it was an excellent record store. it made him something you might discover on the news. it made him something you might hear about even if you knew nothing about music. yet we do this periodically as a country. it's almost like it's on a timer, at least for music. the previous panic over elvis

presley's hip gyrations had passed. just enough time had passed and america was ready for our next national freak-out/crush/panic /fascination with an obscenely talented, genre-bending musician and perform history scrambled our fairly rigid ideas about not only race but specifically what male sexuality is supposed to look like. and so apparently we got over elvis enough that we needed a new one. by the 1980s it was prince's turn. and the freak-out and all the rest of it was unsubtle in every way. when his record "dirty mind" came out in 1980, robert criscow review it for "the village" and said, mick jagger should fold up his penis and go home. i'm telling you, it wasn't subtle. even if you weren't bothered by it, even if you came to praise

and not condemn, it was not subtle. mick jagger and the rolling stones in fact asked prince to open up for them at a bunch of their shows right after "dirty mind" came out. but it turns out rolling stones fans can handle a lot from mick jagger, they could not handle it from prince. they could not deal with prince on stage. according to news reports at the time, rolling stones fans pelted prince with food and bottles and booed him off the stage at rolling stones concerts. so that arrangement did not last. such is the mind of america. "sticky fingers," sure. "dirty mind"? no. in 1981, the "new york times" sent steven holden to review prince at a live show he did in new york city while he was touring in support of "dirty mind." holden called him a wunderkind, said he was electrifying, called him a renegade in the manner of such black rock artists as sly stone and jimi hendrix. but then the culmination of his

review was this. and i said that the freak-out over prince and prince's frankness and glorification of six was an unsubtle thing. it was very, very unsubtle. even in the pages of the old gray lady, the "new york times." just check this out. i'll quote directly from steven holden's review of that prince show in 1981. ready? "prince sings exclusively in a falsetto which he pushes at times to an eerie cater wahling intensity. this style is ideally suited to the theatrical lasciviousness that is tral to prince's act. on stage prince displays an unbridled street ear rot simple wearing black bikini briefs, fringed high heel boots, thick thigh high stockings. hi is sexual license incarnate." i don't even know how steven holden got home from that show that night. if that was the experience that he had in that club. you're sure you can still walk,

sir? but actually the way he ends that review is just as important. this is the end of the review. "prince is such a charismatic performer, though, that his stylized salaciousness does not offend. with his sassy grace and precocious musicality, he is heir to the defiant rock 'n' roll traditions of elvis presley, mick jagger, and jimi hendrix." so that was the spring of 1981. after "dirty mind" came out. but by that fall, prince would have another incredible record out called fittingly "controversy." key lyrics in the title track, am i black or white, am i straight or gay, do i believe in god, do i believe in me? that's the song that features him reciting the whole lord's prayer beginning to end. our father who art in heaven. he says the whole prayer. followed shortly thereafter by saying, people call me rude, i wish we all were nude. the pace at which prince came out with these unbelievably

good, seminal records, and i mean that in both senses, the pace at which he worked was incredible. remember that song 80 want to be your lover"? that was on his self-titled record that came out in 1979. so "for you," his first record 1978, "prince" 1979, "dirty mind" 1980, "controversy" 1981, "1999" came out in 1982. "1999" had that hulgts title hit, party like it's 1999, little corvette, and delirious. then only two years after that in 1984 he came out with "purple rain" which is one of the all-time greatest records ever made by an american musician. the title track "purple rain," let's go crazy, take me with i don't, when doves cry, i will die for you, all those hits on that one regard. not to mention "darling nikki" which curled tip per gore's hair

and brought us dee snider in the united states senate, looking amazing, sticking up for christian values of long island, and sparking interesting conversation about the fear of surgery in his lyrics. and all of these years later, all of these albums later, all of these remarkably eclectic hits later, after changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol after the one album he released that you see here which was called "love sexy" with the adorable naked picture of himself on the cover, that was the record he insisted all nine songs of the album be released as a single track on the cd. so you could not skip between them. you had to listen to them all at once even though they were nine different songs no matter what. after all his eccentric brilliance, epic fights with his record company, after one of the greatest super bowl halftime performs of all-time, after all of this, there may be an american somewhere who still

sees prince as a news story, who still sees him as a scandal or as a risk to the nation somehow. my guess is if you still believe that, you probably also believe that twisted sister is violent and threatening as well. but for all the ways that he was used politically for all the resistance and fear he engendered, 4 all the radio stations that wouldn't touch time for years, he still stands apart from almost every other musician and artist who found themselves vilified by politicians or objectified as some sign of cutural dejen racy. he stands apart, at least in the modern music world, for one reason. which is that basically, in his generation of musicians, no one was as good. no one was in his league. prince was not like anyone among the other musicians of his time. part of that you could tell from

the small print on his records. flip over one of his records, open up the insert that comes with the record, and there it is on all of them. produced, arranged, composed and performed by prince. look up a the credits for "purple rain" alone, just for that one astonishing record. in "the washington post" obituary for him today they quote the all music credits for purple rain, basically an index listing in this case who did what on that record. all the credits are done in alphabetical order. for "purple rain," with all of those hit singles on it, for "purple rain alphabet tree the arranger was prince. the bass was prince. the composer was prince. the guitar was prince. the keyboards were prince. the primary artist was prince. the producer was prince. the vocals were prince. the background vocals were prince. he was his own studio band. he produced all of his own records starting when he was a teenager. he wrote everything he ever did. in addition to writing everything he ever did,

including some of the best pop songs of all-time, he wrote some of the other best pop songs of the 1980s that were recorded by other people. 80 feel for you" by chaka khan, that was prince. "manic monday" by the bengals, that was prince. "nothing compares to you" by sinead o'connor, that was prince. in terms of his live performeds alone, there are fans of bruce springsteen who will wax as rhapsodic about the experiences of seeing a live springsteen show, but other than that i'm not sure there is any comparison in his era. from the previous generation, the best comparison ever made for him as a performer was james brown which of course then leads to the famous tape of james brown in 1983 inviting prince up on stage with him at a concert in los angeles whereupon prince, standing next to james brown, promptly steals the show. gets on stage with james brown, grabs somebody else's random guitar from some member of the band who was previous playing on

stage, prince grabs the other guy's guitar, wanders around looking for a pick, gets the guy to give him a pick, settles the guitar on his hip having never touched that instrument before, takes over and absolutely shreds. james brown looks on in disbelief. so that was his marching order. james brown, the giants of previous generations. and we all only get to live in one period of time called a lifetime. and over the course of all of our lifetimes there will not be that many cultural geniuses and cultural giants who we live among. there are only a few in every generation. and as you can tell, i am no good about talking about culture. but it is almost impossible to believe that prince rogers nelson was found dead today in his home just house minneapolis at the age of 57. we don't yet know the cause of death. the local sheriff's office and medical examiner say they are investigating. they say he was unresponsive when they were called to his home, they were not able to

revive him, he never came back. he was pronounced dead before they got him to the hospital before noon eastern time today. he had recently canceled some appearances because of illness. he'd had to have an emergency landing on a flight home from a concert on friday. he was briefly hospitalized after he landed for what they said at the time was flu or dehydration. that was friday night. then on saturday night, he was well enough to invite fans to come to his house for a dance party where he made an appearance and local press in minneapolis reported that he basically wanted to assure everybody that his health was fine and that's why he threw the party. so he died this morning. we don't yet know the cause of death. we don't yet know what was going on with him health-wise. he was only 57 years old when he died today. there will certainly be other american musicians who will scandalize us, who will freak us out and upset our parents and make our politicians embarrass themselves in public.

but there will never be anybody else like him. joining us now is gail mitchell, senior editor at "billboard" magazine, she's written extensively about prince and his place in the culture. it's really nice to have you here tonight, thank you so much for making time. >> thank you for having me. >> i experienced prince just as a fan. and i'm not great at putting words on cultural phenomena, cultural experiences. how do you put anymore in the pantheon of the artists of our time, how big a deal is he to the american world of music? >> i think there's the word "diva," then you have the word that people say is overused, the word "icon." which people kind of throw around a lot. but i think there's a very small universe of icons who stand out and are going to stand out over time. so we're talking like a michael jackson, we're talking a stevie wonder, we're talking the

beatles and jagger and the stones. but certainly prince. just listening to your commentary opening up this segment, it just took me down memory lane to really -- it's just amazing, everything that he accomplished. pushing the envelope. multi-instructionalist. he was doing diy before all the indie artists today were doing diy. he just opened the door to a lot of different things and a lot of the different influences on his generation and certainly the generation that's emerging now. >> the upset that he caused, particularly thinking back to the beginning of his career in the early and mid '80s, what i was trying to highlight around the warning labels and the freak-out about the sexual content of his lyrics and everything, obviously that's something that started his legacy. it did not become the end of his legacy. he grew so much larger than that in terms his influence. i wonder if you feel like what he did there, the shock that he

accomplished there, if that made other things more boss nibble his wake that wouldn't have been possible without him. >> i think you have a point there. i think he was just -- it's cliche to say that somebody lives, breathes, eats, sleeps and drinks music, but i think prince was one of those and i think he had something he wanted to show and he wanted to make this big breakout impression. you mentioned the first album for you, "soft and wet" was on that along bum, and he just made everybody stand up and go, who in the heck is this guy? what does he think he's doing? and it was interesting to see you go back to the whole tipper gore thing, when prior to that you had somebody like marvin gaye who had the "let's get it on" album which was certainly very salacious for that time in the late '70s. and here's prince to just take that to the next level and push it. and just say, you know, this is how i feel, this is what i want to put out in my music and i'm

not going to be censored. if you like it, fine. if you don't, fine. and in his instance, because he was so talented, a lot of people the world over liked it. >> gail mitchell from "billboard" magazine. i should say prince was one of the people who a lot of music journalists said was basically impossible to interview. your interview with him for the big feature you did in "billboard" in 2013 i thought was one of the best interviews i ever read with him. >> thank you so much very. >> congratulations on having gotten close enough to him to do that. thanks for being with us tonight. >> thank you for having me, thanks. >> so today's the kind of day where no matter what else you plan to talk about, you are going to end up talking about prince. case in point is coming up later on in the show. we stop arthritis pain, so you don't have to stop. tylenol® 8hr arthritis pain has two layers of pain relief. the first is fast.

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i have a story about a political contest in this country that's being fought

really hard and passionately and at close range and with totally unpredictable results. playing out not at the presidential level but in the shadows of the presidential race. it's coming to a head in just a couple of daze. we've got one of the combatants here tonight, she joins us next. we stop arthritis pain, so you don't have to stop. tylenol® 8hr arthritis pain has two layers of pain relief. the first is fast. the second lasts all day. we give you your day back. what you do with it is up to you. tylenol®.

so you don't have to stop., tylenol® 8hr arthritis pain has two layers of pain relief. the first is fast. the second lasts all day. we give you your day back. what you do with it is up to you. tylenol®. i feel badly about prince. not really, though. i never really -- i never saw him in concert. that was a mistake for me not to have been able to follow him, to see him in concert. because he was an extraordinary musician. they say they have enough

unrecorded music now to last, they could put an album out every year for 100 years. remarkable. >> republican governor of ohio, john kasich, weighing in today after he was asked his thoughts about the passing of music icon prince. governor causic was campaigning in pennsylvania today. the latest polling has him in third place in pennsylvania, only 2 points behind ted cruz. so could be worse. pennsylvania is one of five states that's going to be voting in next tuesday's elections. along with connecticut, rhode island, delaware, and maryland. now donald trump has huge leads in the most recent polls in pennsylvania and in connecticut and in maryland. delaware and rhode island don't really have polling at this point but we're expecting a poll in rhode island tomorrow so we'll see if that's also true in the nation's smallest state. on the democratic side, bernie sanders also spent the day in pennsylvania today after he took a day off at home in burlington, vermont, yesterday.

today he held three events across pennsylvania. on the democratic side, the polling is late bit of a mirror of what's going on in the republican race where the front-runner, in this case hillary clinton, is leading in all the states where there is polling. although at least in connecticut, for example, her lead is not as big as donald trump's is. but the prospect of an exciting, potentially closer race on the democratic side, one that elicits lots of attention from the candidates, one that drives lots of voter turnout because of that, that is an exciting prospect. not just for the sanders versus clinton race at the presidential level, that's also an exciting prospect because both in maryland and in pennsylvania, those states have another big primary race on the ballot that day. each of those states have a big primary race on the ballot that day on the democratic side other than the sanders versus clinton matchup at the top. in pennsylvania, it's a senate seat that's currently held by this guy, republican incumbent senator pat toomey. he is seen as one of the most vulnerable republican incumbent in the whole senate this year.

democrats think they have a really good chance to pick off his seat in november. depending on who they pick as their democratic candidate. and that is going to be decided on tuesday where the two leading democratic contenders in pennsylvania are joe sustack, almost beat pat toomey once before. katie mcginty, chief of staff to the current democratic governor tom wolf, has lots of institutional democratic support in the state. joe sustack has been up in the polls in recent weeks but today there's a monmouth poll in pennsylvania that shows joe sustack and katie mcginty tied, 39 points each. then there's john fedderman who's running for the same seat. the tattooed, telegenic, harvard-educated 6'8" size of a silo mayor of the rust belt town of braddock, pennsylvania. even though fedderman doesn't have the same name recognition ar the establishment support his opponents do, john fedderman did

just get a major endorsement from the pennsylvania media group today, which is an important media outlet in the state. so there's that. pennsylvania. then there's maryland. which is going to have its hugely important primary on the same day. not just for the presidential race but for the chance to take over the seat of legendary democratic senator barbara mikulski. the leading contenders are grist vol hollan, member of congress since 2003, and donna edwards who's been in congress since 2008. polling relatively close the last few weeks but the latest poll out today from money moth has congressman van hollen up by double digits. right now in the united states senate there are only two african-american senators in the whole senate. democrat corey booker from new jersey, republican tim scott from south carolina. if donna edwards were elected to the senate she would be the first african-american senator ever from the state of maryland and only the second african-american woman to serve in the senate from anywhere

ever. but in congresswoman edwards' quest to make this run, she has not necessarily gotten support from people you might expect her to get support from. one typical -- excuse me, not typical. one interesting example featured today by politico.com concerns the support that she's gotten or not gotten from her colleagues in the congressional black caucus. only four of the 46 members of the congressional black caucus are backing donna edwards in this senate race. none of them are backing chris van hollen but all the rest of the congressional black caucus has chosen to stay out of it, which itself is a very intriguing thing. joining us is congresswoman donna edwards of maryland, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you, rachel. >> i have to ask a favor, i desperately want to talk about this race and it's very exciting. but my producers told me, casually mentioned you have a prince story that i need to hear.

is it true that you have a prince story? >> i do. and i was so saddened by his transition today. i actually did a lot of domestic violence work many years ago and happened to be in albuquerque, new mexico, for a conference. and in my hotel prince was staying there and i ran into him. in an elevator. i told him why i was in albuquerque. and he gave me stage passes for his concert. and i never had so much fun. >> oh my god, wow. wow. that's a very good story, i'm glad i asked you. now i'm going to ask about this race on tuesday. congressman van hollen was pretty heavily favored for the seat as soon as anybody figured he might run for this seat. knowing that, why did you decide to run for it? you knew it was going to be uphill, you knew he would have a lot of institutional support. what was it in you, what was it in the things that are facing maryland, the prospects for this year, that made you decide this was the year for you to go for it? >> i also knew that maryland is

a great state and we have a lot going for us. but the fact is that the voices of so many marylanders who are middle-class families, people who are struggling to get into the middle class, families like mine, and our voices are really missing from the united states senate. and i thought that in my candidacy i could offer a really unique perspective for the young men and women who may have committed an offense and want to get a second chance, or for those families who are struggling to pay the rent and the electric the way i did and juggle day care expenses, and the voices of ordinary americans, ordinary marylanders, are really missing from the united states senate. i believe that i provide a unique perspective as a woman, as an african-american woman, as a mom of a young man this i've had to raise mostly on my own. and i think that that is something that's missing when it comes to our public policy. and those are voices when all of

our voices are at the table, i think we make better decisions. >> with so much focus on the presidential race this year, at the beginning of the calendar you'd never know this deep into the presidential primary calendar that maryland would be crucial and that it would be still so important in this fight on the democratic side. i have to ask, if that has meant that your race has gone differently that you might have expected it to. what is the clinton versus sanders fight, how has that affected how you've been running and how this contest has gone for you in maryland? >> you know, i've been very focused on my race. but the fact is that now we have a pretty hot presidential contest that's coming to maryland. and i think, frankly, many of the supporters of bernie sanders who are really sort of pushing against the establishment are people who have a natural alliance with me. but i also believe that there are many supporters of hillary clinton's, secretary clinton's, who have an alliance as well. and i believe that the higher the voter turnout is in

maryland, the stronger chance that i have of winning this election. and you know what, it's really not about me. it's about all those families there who want somebody and deserve somebody to take senator mikulski's seat who is a fighter like she is, who wants to fight for our middle-class families, our small businesses, grow jobs in our economy. they need a voice around the table. it's kind of an irony. here we are a day after harriet tubman's face was announced to appear on the $20 bill. harriet tubman spent a bit of her lifetime, was born in maryland. and i think in the great state of maryland we have an opportunity to make history by electing me as the first african-american woman elected to the senate, only the second in our nation's history. but also to make a real difference in the lives of the middle class and those who are struggling to get in it. >> donna edwards, democratic congresswoman from maryland, now

running her party's primary for senate which will happen on tuesday in the midst of that big presidential fight there too, it's going to be a real exciting day on tuesday. good luck, congresswoman, thanks for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> we've got much more ahead on what has turned out to be an unexpectedly busy news night, stay with us. don't have to sto. tylenol® 8hr arthritis pain has two layers of pain relief. the first is fast. the second lasts all day. we give you your day back. what you do with it is up to you. tylenol®.

you almost pity these guys. almost. almost. just when you thought it could not get any worse for these two red state governors, when you thought there could not be more

backlash to the new discrimination laws they just signed, today it got much, much worse for them. and way more high profile at the same time. political pressure turned up to 11. that's next. we needed 30 new hires for our call center. i'm spending too much time hiring 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. (announcer) over 400,000 businesses have already used ziprecruiter. and now you can use ziprecruiter for free. go to ziprecruiter.com/offer6

the united kingdom has issued a travel advisory warning british travellers about a dangerous tourist destination called the united states of america. specifically the couple of the. is warning citizens about traveling to the states of north carolina and mississippi. because both of those states recently passed new laws allowing or mandating discrimination against lgbt people. the british government is warning its own citizens, "lgbt travelers may be affected by legislation passed recently in the states of north carolina and mississippi." the british government offers some advice for how british citizens might stay safe when traveling in hostile environs like some american states. the advice includes tips like, avoiding physical shows of affection, ignoring unwelcome attention or remarks. so grat lations, north carolina and mississippi. your republican governors and

republican legislatures have now given your states a new global reputation that you didn't necessarily have before. today the commissioner of the nba said that if north carolina's new discrimination law stays put, charlotte, north carolina, can likely say good-bye to next year's nba all-star game that comes after a string of other business and cultural decisions that have essentially orphaned those states because of these new laws. and all of these myriad forms of pressure do seem to be making at least north carolina conservatives a little antsy on this subject. the night before last conservative groups in support of north carolina's discrimination law, they sent out a pledge to state lawmakers asking the state legislators to sign a paper swearing that they would never repeal discrimination law and they promise never to pass any laws that would protect lgbt people from discrimination in the state of north carolina. lawmakers were supposed to sign and send it back by monday, april 25th, at 3:00 p.m.

then yesterday, just the day after they sent it out, the groups behind the pledge rescinded it. they sent an e-mail to the same lawmakers saying, ignore that pledge thing, "we decided not to move forward with this pledge and respectfully ask that you disregard yesterday's e-mail. we apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused." so the pro-discrimination side in north carolina is either doing some really, really boring drunk e-mailing or they're getting just a little wobbly. that was before this happened today. >> mr. trump, please be specific, tell us your views on lgbt, how you plan to be inclusive as president. speak about north carolina bathroom law in particular. >> i had a feeling that question was going to come up. north carolina did something that was very strong, and they're paying a big price and there's a lot of problems. i heard one of the best answers

i heard was from a commentator yesterday saying, leave it the way it is right now. there have been very few problems. leave it the way it is. north carolina, what they're going through with all of the business that's leaving and all of the strife, and that's on both sides, leave it the way it is. there have been very few complaints the way it is. people go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate, there has been so little trouble. and the problem with what happened in north carolina is the strife and the economic -- i mean, the economic punishment that they're taking. so i would say that's probably the best -- >> do you have transgender people working in your organization? >> i don't know, i really don't know. i probably do, i don't know. >> if caitlyn jenner were to walk into trump tower and want to us another bathroom you would be fine with her using any bathroom she chooses? >> that is correct. >> different issue also a social issue -- >> there's a big move to create new bathrooms. the problem with that is for transgender. that would be -- first of all, i think that would be discriminatory in a certain way.

it would be unbelievably expensive for businesses and for the country. leave it the way it is. >> leave it the way it is says the republican front-runner for president, donald trump, which was a very exciting moment for ted cruz, of course. who then immediately fired back with his rehearsed riff about grown men in girls' bathrooms. he makes sure to call it the girs' bathroom, not the women's bathroom. he made sure to never talk about what he expects in terms of appropriate toileting from grown men like this guy. right? so interesting moment. elected republican officials and high-level candidates have recently been uniformly and aggressively anti-lgbt. now they're having a full-on fight about this particular issue, which is still absolutely rattling the state of north carolina itself. this is truly a most unexpected development in the most unexpected presidential candidacy of donald j. trump.

north carolina, what they're going through with all the business that's leaving and all of the strife, and that's on both sides, you leave it the way it is. there have been very few complaints the way it is. people go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. >> donald trump today at an nbc town hall coming out against the anti-transgender bathroom bills in north carolina and other places. the culture wars just got very weird. at least in terms of personnel. joining us now is john stanton. our weirdness correspondent. oh, no, d.c. bureau chief for "buzz feed." donald trump, lgbt ally? >> yeah. wasn't ever expecting that. >> i mean, not really, but -- what does this signal in terms of the republican race and how people outside the republican party should look at these guys? >> well -- i think it's actually interesting, because i think that you've got ted cruz who's clearly playing the sort of to type, like 2004 type. like the anti-marriage equality

stuff they did then worked well for them. he's playing to that. and he's found a moment here to really sort of go -- i wouldn't call it conservative because he's essentially saying transgendered people are -- >> predators. >> are predators, child molesters, which is just a crazy thing to say. and so he's doing that and then trump is sort of like, no, no, no. this is a dumb issue. probably because he's got a lot of money that -- has lots of resorts and transgender people go to resorts, he doesn't want to mess with that. >> he's not taking a civil rights take on it, he's like, hm, looks expensive. >> this is definitely a money thing. so i think, you know, cruz a couple of years ago might have been right to play it this way in term ftds the politics of it. it seems right now trump may end up doing better on this because people kind of don't care. >> this, they care more about the economy. that's what his people are voting on. >> that gets me -- some people care about it very much. the question of how it plays in a broader pollity is unanswered

at this point. we are seeing in north carolina to a lesser extent in mississippi, i mean, trump's got a point about the economic backlash. which is not going away. which is still on the -- is still widening in terms of the effect it's going to have on the states. i wonder if cruz is at all sort of in trouble here with taking such a retro grade stance on this. we're at the point where beyond the primary, the general election looms quickly. >> yeah, i mean, you've got to assume the many people that are going to have -- are making these decisions about not putting their businesses there, that are donors to the republican party probably don't like this. more fundamentally, why are you doing this right now? you're already very conservative compared to a lot of americans, we're going into the general election, you've got to find some way to come back to the middle and you're going further away from that place. i think it is a sort of an odd hill to try to die on right? at this point in the election. >> at this point i feel like ted cruz is running a gary bauer

campaign when hee supposed to start running a john mccain-style campaign and he's tacking further and further to the right. i think the estimations of ted cruz's viability as a nominee are overstated. >> a little bit, yeah. i think this is definitely like, he saw this as a good way to get out from underneath the new york loss which was really bad for him. it took all the wind out of his sails. i think he's hoping probably that this will take that off the table, he can maybe get a little bit of support. the states that are coming up, there's not a lot of evangelicals to vote. >> yeah, good luck in connecticut with that, guy. john stanton, "buzz feed," great to see you.

this is minneapolis tonight, people gathering to sell brace prince outside a home club nightclub, first avenue hosting an all-night dance party in prince's honor. if you can't make it to the twin cities to pay your respects stay on msnbc. we've got a live special about prince that's going to start here at 10:00 p.m. eastern right after this show. just about five minutes from now. ♪ we stop arthritis pain, so you don't have to stop. because you believe in go. onward. today's the day. carpe diem.

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best new thing in the world. the geniuses at bad lip reading have done their magic on the last democratic debate. >> we like coffee that's 3%

boiled shrimp and 70 parts bacardi. that would be so good. but unlike my opponent, i have a glass child, i call the kid little bong bong. we have one in a cave and i peek at them because it's not a real one. >> ha ha! coke heads. what are you going to do, right? got to love bernie boy. he's crazy. heh! >> now we're going to give you random phrases and situations and you're going to act these out, all right? it's time to act, senator sanders. are you ready? >> go. >> you've had it with that guy. >> oh! >> you asked the waiter for the check. he's on the other side. you call out to your friend curt who's far away. >> curt! >> you see a bee. >> oh, there's a bee! >> you poke hillary on the forehead. then you lick her face.

>> no! nah. >> bad lip reading, you are always the best new thing in the world. i need ed you today. i thank you. no. >> bad lip reading you're the best thing in the world. "first look" is up next. it's friday, april 22. right now on "first look" the outpouring over the death of prince from around the globe has been emotional and overwhelming at times. the latest on what killed the music legend at the young age of 57. the donald may be getting more in line with the republican establishment while sanders is fighting for political oxygen. and president obama prepares to meet queen elizabeth while nudging the u.k. not to jump ship from the e.u. "first look" starts right now. good morning, everybody. thanks for joining us today. i'm betty nguyen. shock and utter disbelief. that's how fans and stars alike are reacting to the stunning