tv Morning Joe MSNBC May 2, 2016 3:00am-6:01am PDT
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rtnered with over a million new business owners to do just that. check us out today to see how you can become one of them. legalzoom. legal help is here. i believe in the american people. i believe in the people of the hoozier state. i believe in the men and women gathered here and the goodness of the american people that we will not give in to evil. but we will remember who we are and we will stand for our values. >> oh, my god!
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>> and here's good news, mika. >> good morning. >> birthday girl, mika. >> oh, come on. >> you're not going to have to hear that much longer. >> thank you. that's a great gift. >> that's your birthday present from my republican party. actually, from the good people of indiana. >> i can't say i will miss william shakespeare in the political costume. good morning, everyone. it's monday, may 2nd. welcome to "morning joe". >> shall we sing happy birthday right now? >> yeah, yeah. ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ >> stop, stop. no one wants -- ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ happy birthday dear mika, happy birthday to you ♪ >> yay. >> nice. >> thunderous applause. >> thank you so much. >> 29. 29. with us on set. to share in this very special occasion, we have legendary, let's hear it, everybody -- >> legendary! >> legendary.
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>> msnbc contributor, mike barnicle. former communication director for president george w. bush, nicole wallace. and msnbc political analyst and professor at the university of michigan school of public policy, former democratic congressman, harold ford jr. we have a ton to talk about this weekend. >> so much to get to. >> "meet the press"! how many times was -- >> i think nine. >> was shakespeare asked on "meet the press"? >> i think nine times. >> will he endorse donald trump. >> yeah. >> at the same time, rubio and huntsman and a lot of others are starting to move that direction. >> and at the same time, donald trump crossed the border and he made it to the other side. >> what?! >> ted cruz and the stop-trump forces in reality have one day left to stop trump from being the republican nominee for president. and a new poll of indiana's republican primary is potentially crushing those hopes. the nbc news/"wall street journal"/marist poll finds trump near a majority, 49%, 15 points
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ahead of cruz, who is at 34%, john kasich at 13%. only 34% of indiana republicans approve of that shaky cruz/kasich alliance forged last week. 58% disapprove. but 63% said it was no factory at all in their decision on who to back while 22% called it a major factor. did we have to tell them that wouldn't work? sorry, i don't mean to -- that sounds so smug, but -- >> no, we told them! we told them the day of, it wasn't going to work. >> it seems so unbelievably, contrived, forced, and not even truthful to them. >> there are so many things that everybody's done, that we've been saying, the day they do it, don't do it. it's going to blow up in your face. and this, this has been a horrible week for ted cruz. everybody has said, for weeks, oh, donald trump can win new york, there's indiana, we can win pennsylvania, but there's indiana. he can win maryland, but there's indiana. he can win the entire east coast, but there's indiana. and we're in indiana now.
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and he's getting crushed. ted cruz has had a horrific week and the news isn't getting any better. >> i remember when he was doing relatively well at these state party conventions saying, i think in the end he legal causes by winning. and i think he's had that kind of week, where he got the pence endorsement, but it was so half-hearted, it actually headquarter him more than -- >> talk about that. >> pence is an ideological soul mate. he took meetings with all three of the remaining candidates and there was a moment when people thought he wouldn't endorse. when he finally came out, he said he would vote for cruz, i think it did more damage -- >> totally. that's what i said when i watched it. >> i think cruz is losing by winning. >> so cruz is barnstorming the hoosier state with two appearances alongside republican governor mike pence, who was sort of with him, but not really with him, on friday, when he announced that he would be
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backing cruz, sort of. he likes him. he's going to vote for him. but he also loves trump. >> i like and respect all three of the republican candidates in the field. i particularly want to commend donald trump who i think has given voice to the frustration of millions of working americans, with a lack of progress in washington, d.c. and i'm also particularly grateful that donald trump has taken a strong stand for hoosier jobs, when we saw jobs in the carrier company abruptly announce leaving indiana, not for another state, but for mexico. i'm grateful. i've come to my decision about who i'm supporting, and i'm not against anybody. but i will be voting for ted cruz. >> look, i have bobby knight's endorsement. we go around -- in fact, i'm going right now after this show, i'm going to indiana. we're going to have bobby knight. we're going to have other people that are unbelievable. and by the way, if you really
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take a look at mike pence, i think he gave me more of an endorsement than he gave cruz. he started off with donald trump and what a great job he's done and -- look, his donors and special interests obviously made him give an endorsement, but you know, chris, because you've covered it, most people think it was more of an endorsement for me than it was for cruz. it was the weakest endorsement anyone has seen. >> it was -- i'll tell you what. seriously, if somebody endorsed me that way, i would go on the radio the next hour and say, he can take his blanking endorsement back. that was no endorsement. >> well, not only was there no endorsement -- >> because it was more of an endorsement of donald trump. >> donald trump. but at this stage of this election season, you have to wonder, what went through the mind of ted cruz, to try to concoct this, you know, cruz/kasich deal. because it's non-transferable. you can't transfer people's votes. >> great way to say it. >> newspaper endorsements no longer mean much. certainly what they try to do are totally meaningless. >> and you know harold ford, what you're starting to see here
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is the real fear factor seep in. a couple months ago, even a month ago, everybody felt like they could be is nsnotty to don trump without any retribution, because they were sure he wasn't going to win. now you have governors who are frozen, whose supporters and financial backers tell me he has to endorse ted cruz. and yet, he's so scared of donald trump, he's doing backflips. you're seeing rubio, trashing him a month ago, now saying he's going to get onboard. and it is, it's fear. they're afraid they're going to be left behind. >> there's a resignation that he's going to win the nomination. pence's comments, i agree with nicole, he said more about trump and more kind things about trump than he did about ted cruz, which signals in every which way, just reinforces your point. i guess the interesting thing here in the next few weeks will be how many more. i mean, trump is going to win indiana unless his public polling is completely off. how does cruz, or how do cruz
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and kasich both respond? is there a move at that point from priebus and others who say, let's consolidate now, let's try to help fortify, let's help down-ballot races across the country. you have to think they're reaching that point. and that trump will arrive at this convention with far more than the 1,237 needed. >> so mean, despite his unity pledge last summer, remember that, when they were all sort of forced to say it. >> yes, i will endorse. >> ted cruz refused to say whether he will support donald trump if he isn't the nominee. >> isn't this what trump got booed for. >> if he's the nominee, i take it you can't support him anymore, can you? >> i believe if the republican party nominates donald trump, we will lose to hillary. >> but are you going to support him. >> we will lose. >> i understand what you believe about the republican party, but will you support him? >> chuck, what i'm -- >> can you tell your delegates, lay down your arms -- >> chuck, what i -- >> but why can't you answer the question of whether you'll support donald trump or not? why can't you answer that
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question straight forward, black or white. >> chuck, let me finish this point i'm making. donald won't debate and the media won't hold him accountable. >> are you going to answer the question about whether you're going to support donald trump if he's the nominee? >> i'm going to beat donald trump. >> don't you think it's important to take a stand. you just said, it's a time for choosing. if it's a time for choosing, say it. for him or against him as the nominee? it's a time for choosing, is it not? >> chuck, you're welcome to lobby for support for trump as much as possible. we are going to beat trump, because trump's winning the nomination loses the country. >> don't you think republican voters -- >> and i am not willing to give up on america. i'm not willing to give up on america. >> but if you care this much about it, don't you think you saying, "i can't support him if he's the nominee," doesn't light a fire and send a sense of urgency to the republican party? >> chuck, what i'm saying is very, very simple -- >> so let the record show, you have not taken a position on whether trump -- whether you can support trump if he's the nominee? fair enough? >> and let the record show, you tried very, very hard to get me
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to commit to supporting trump. >> and, again, exhibit 5,439 of this election campaign season why donald trump's winning. >> yes. >> you know what donald trump says? i don't need his support. that's what politicians want to hear. and as i said about marco rubio, when he speaks, you always heard the echoes of a thousand focus groups, when the guy's talking, it looks like he's practiced every word in front of a teleprompter or in front of his mirror in his bathroom at home. and that just drives people crazy. do you support him or not? yes or no?! >> for months, we have had in this business, in the media business, and elsewhere, people walking around, bumping into hallways saying, how is it possible that donald trump has gotten as far as he's gotten, has made such tremendous progress electorally, as he has. ted cruz, how has he gotten this far? how is that possible? >> but to that point, nobody cozied up to him more than ted
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cruz. do you remember the first three quarters of this primary? jeb bush and others were critical when they disagreed with trump. nobody sort of sucked up more than cruz for the first three quarters of this primary. and now he's sort of the last one who won't say that he'll support -- >> yeah, exactly. you know, harold, the thing is, there was no wrong answer to chuck today's question. >> just a yes or a no. >> if you would have said, no, he's a jerk, i'm not going to support that guy. voters would have respected you. yeah, you know what, i think he's a jerk, but you know what, i think hillary clinton would be worse. like, that's what these idiots -- not speaking about him in particular -- but these idiot politicians who think that they're being clever, in 2016, are just taking a baseball bat and hitting themselves over the head. people want answers. yes, i will. no, he's a jerk, i won't. you win both ways! >> i watched -- i have to think that people cringe, republicans, and even independents and
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conservatives might find his message appealing. at the end of the day, we had a message last weak on the show, when someone wins the primary, the presidential primary, it's tradition. you say, i may disagree with him or her, but we'll work together. if you can't answer yes or no if you're going to support the nominee, it begs the question whether or not you should have even advanced this far in the race and it speaks to your race, there's no doubt, trump's appeal is, i don't want these clown's support after the race. i'll do it without them, because i can't be sincere to say i want it. it underscores mike's point, this is one of the main reasons trump has advanced so much. >> what's best for america. >> we're waiting for him to tell us what's best for america. >> and going back to the first fox debate, donald trump was booed for saying -- >> remember that? >> what cruz just decade. >> for saying that he was not -- he could not say that he was going to endorse the nominee. >> or that he would not mount an independent bid. when asked -- which is the same thing.
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>> no, no, no, there was a direct question. >> it was two of them. and they asked him would he mount an independent bid and he couldn't answer that question. >> we're now seeing many other republicans warming to the idea of trump as their nominee. former utah governor and president obama's ambassador to china, jon huntsman, told politico, quote, we've had enough intraparty fighting now's the time to stitch together a winning coalition and it's been clear almost from the beginning that trump has the ability -- listen to this, because this is it -- to assemble a nontraditional bloc of supporters. the ability to cut across traditional party boundaries like 1980, '92, and 2008 will be key. and trump is much better positioned to achieve that. >> that's good for trump. >> it's also true. it's also true. and it's time that people kind of see that. i mean, has ted cruz been able to do that? has anyone been able to really do that? no. and on friday, senator marco
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rubio said that trump's performance has, quote, improved significantly in recent weeks -- thank you, marco rubio. okay, after earlier comments that he would unite behind him if nominated. >> senator, if, indeed, it is donald trump, will you support him? >> yeah, i've always said i'm going to support the republican nominee and that's especially true now that it's apparent that hillary clinton is going to be the democratic candidate. >> that's what ted cruz should have said. >> that's a big turn. >> it is what ted cruz should have said on sunday. >> by the way, that's a big turn for marco rubio. >> well, it's the only intellectually honest answer, too. it's fine to say, no, i can't get there, i'm going to vote for hillary. that's curtain number two. but there is no more curtain number three. those are the two choices. yes, i'm going to get there on trump, or no, i can't. and mike cayden said on this show, there is another choice, but sort of man up and woman up and say it.
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no, wii can't get there for tru. i'm going to vote for hillary. >> those are your choices and that's fine and make those choices. but that's what a lot of people have been in denial up to this point. i have said and i've been saying it for a couple of months now. things will change, mike, when republican voters, maybe not the 12 people in the stop-trump, never-trump group on twitter, but when the rest of the republican party looks at their ballot, at least conservatives, and they're going to say, okay, i can take another clinton for eight years and have three of her appointees on the supreme court change the tide of the supreme court for a generation, or i can take a chance on this guy. kind of like people did with ronald reagan in 1980. i don't think it's going to be that tough for most republicans by the end. >> well, it's also, you know, a choice between old, new. no matter what you -- hillary clinton's a vastly qualified candidate for the presidency, there's no doubt about that. but it's the past. and so, donald trump is donald
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trump. the interesting thing about what we just showed, those clips, were you surprised that the huntsman endorsement wasn't an endorsement, but explanation? >> yeah. >> i was surprised. >> well, yeah -- >> is he casting a -- would he take the number two spot on the ticket? >> i don't know, but it was positive and i think a lot of republicans -- i tell you, even if republicans aren't saying that, that's sort of what obama's people are saying. that's what david plouffe is saying, what's david axelrod is saying. they're all saying the same thing. democrats, you don't want donald trump. you think you want donald trump, you don't want donald trump. while us republicans are gnashing their teeth saying, he's going to destroy the party. >> meanwhile object democrat side, bernie sanders is saying there's going to be a contested convention, as well. but donald trump almost didn't make his appearance at the california republican state convention on friday. because of a whole bunch of
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protesters who blocked his motorcade's interest. they later tried the storm the building, but were blocked by police. trump's security found a way around the obstacle, pulling off the highway and leading the candidate and his aides over a immediati median to the back entrance. trump later responded saying the protesters were thugs and criminals. and also called them professionals who should be dealt with strongly by law enforcement. then he had this to say inside the event. >> that was not the easiest entrance i've ever med. my wife called, and she said, there are helicopters following you and we did -- and then we went under a fence and through a fence. oh, boy, it felt like i was crossing the border, actually. well, it's true. i was crossing the border but i got here. >> just -- >> wow. >> ridiculous.
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>> i think at some point, calling people thugs and criminals who are exercising their first amendment rights -- >> well, no, didn't they get a little violent? >> i don't know. i didn't see it. >> the night before. >> i'm sorry. >> oaks, the night before they were wrecking police cars and got out of control. >> he had some incredible choice of words over the weekend, including about china which we'll get to. >> that didn't hurt him at all. those comments helped him. >> hurt him? i used to work on campaigns, and if i were sitting around thinking about how to get the other side to do something to help me, i would infiltrate the protests and make them do this. >> sure, every day. >> every day, they're helping trump. every single day -- >> not helpful. >> i had democratic friends over the weekend who said, oh, this is great -- and i agree with you. this does nothing but help him. >> all right. a lot more to talk about. still ahead on "morning joe," msnbc's road warriors on the campaign trail. kristen welker, kasie hunt, and hallie jackson all join us
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ahead. plus, hillary clinton makes another move in her pivot to the general election. but bernie sanders, as i said, is not making it easy. now talking about a, quote, contested contest. but first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill, freezing. >> it was ugly, right? we had such a beautiful spring up to this point and all of a sudden the northeast gets cold, it was damp and rainy all weekend long. and this is not going to be a fun week, either. first let's start you in louisiana. this is where we had the dangerous weather over the weekend. we had a lot of flash flooding, numerous events that were canceled at some point, the jast jazzfest in new orleans had horrendous weather, a muddy mess. there was a lot of water in places that is not expected to be. so, unfortunately, this morning, more rain in louisiana and east texas. severe thunderstorm watch up until 9:00 a.m. this morning. large hail possible. thunderstorms just rolled through ft. worth. now they're heading through the dallas area. travel through louisiana, be careful. we expect another 1 to 2 inches of rain and eventually it moves to mississippi and also into
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areas of alabama. now the other story, the mid-atlantic region, today is going to be a severe weather threat day. 19 million people at risk. this area of yellow includes washington, d.c., richmond, roanoke, raleigh, charlotte, down to asheville. tornados are not really a threat today, but wind damage and maybe some small hail with the strongest of those storms. the morning commute is strong, minor travel problems, especially philadelphia, new york city with low visibility. but as we go through the afternoon, 4:00 to 5:00, the thunderstorms begin to form and then they'll be widespread by 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., right through virginia, even down through south carolina and areas of north georgia. again, wind damage the biggest threats with those storms. the rest of the country's actually looking pretty decent. of course, the east coast, we had a great spring, it was a miserable weekend, and unfortunately the cool weather continues with us as we go throughout the week. new york city, same for you as we duothroughout this monday. more "morning joe" when we come back.
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predicting this summer's democratic convention will be contested. despite hillary clinton's dramatic lead in delegates, sanders insisted clinton still needs super delegates to take her over the top. >> it is virtually impossible for secretary clinton to reach the majority of convention delegates by june 14th with pledged delegates alone. she will need super delegates to take her over the top at the convention in philadelphia. in other words, the convention will be a contested contest. for us to win the majority of pledged delegates, we need to win 710 out of the remaining the 1,083. that is 65% of the remaining pledged delegates. that is admittedly, and i do not deny it for a second, a tough road to climb, but it is not an
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impossible road to climb. >> sanders' comments came the same day his campaign reported a 40% decline in fund-raising for april. to just under $26 million from $46 million the month before. last week, sanders revealed he would be laying off some 255 campaign workers. >> so, so we were talking around the table, what's he doing here? i mean, i guess he -- there's an indiana poll that shows that race is pretty close, right, harold? >> i think it shows hillary clinton with about a four-point lead. >> so that's tight. and he is right about the super delegates. and it would take something, nicole, like an fbi ruling. and who knows, maybe that's what's he's waiting for, because that would obviously switch all the super delegates the in his favor and he could get the nomination if that didn't go the way the clintons wanted it to go. >> but he doesn't have to stay in and keep kicking her to do that. he has the delegates. he could step aside. i mean, what is happening is
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what the clinton folks say is happening. trump is telegraphing the sanders attacks on her in an obviously and public way. and trump is publicly courting his voters, because he has kept them frothy and angry and convinced she is both unqualified and unethical. so he can no longer make the case that he isn't doing her harm. and certainly it's his prerogative to stay in and hope against hope something were to happen to her. but if something were to happen to her, his options are still open. >> mike, why is the fbi investigation taking so long? it's a clear mishandling of classified information -- >> or it's not. >> no, it is. whether you bring an indictment against hillary clinton or those around her, but it's a clear mishandling of classified information. it doesn't take this long. why is the fbi dragging their feet? what political reason? what is their political motivation for dragging their feet? >> well, it depends on who you talk to in washington about why
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it's taking so long. some say it's the unnerving democracy in the state department. it took such an extended period of time for the state department to get sort of everything they needed to get to justice. and then there is the theory that they're waiting for something horrific to happen on a friday afternoon, that has nothing to do this and they release for the weekend. i have not spoken to anyone who believes there is an indictable offense that has occurred, and that is going to be the result of the investigation. but today extent, the time-consuming tex ee ining ext- >> all i'm saying is you're talking to a very tightly focused crowd there. >> not really. there's a couple of people i've spoken to who, you know, thing that there should be sort of a petraeus ruling on it, at a minimum. >> yeah. i mean, you talk to people at intel community, and they say
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anybody else would be in prison right now. if they'd mishandled classified -- talk to anybody in the intelligence community that's been doing this for 20 years, they would all say, if anybody mishandled classified information that way, that he would be in jail right now. >> and it's not only the -- >> -- lost his job. >> and it's the operationalizing of it, right? it's the setting up the server to send and receive. not just -- >> and putting yourself -- not to replay this all the time, but again, come on, fbi, wake up. i mean, the fact of the matter is that she set it up so everybody, her subordinates, everybody else, had to send classified information through an unsecured server. that would be like if i were the director of the cia and i set my office up in a burger shack down the street and said, hey, you've got to bring the documents here, just leave them all here in this file. it is the same thing. it is the same thing. >> and why would you do that? what would be the reason -- >> he likes burgers. >> i love burgers! i don't like them. i would do it because i'm paranoid and i don't want anybody inside the agency to
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have the access to anything because i'm going to run for president some day, which is what she did. she put her own political, her own political needs in front of classified information. so, again, is it, is it an indictable offense? a lot of people in the intel community think it is. but i don't think she's going to be indicted. i think they're going to let her skate. they might indict somebody below that. but just get it done! like, seriously. let the democrats know, for sure, that they have hillary clinton as their nominee or not. make your decision already. there's a -- >> like, what could be the thing making them sit there going, i really have to think about this. it either is or it isn't, right? >> you get the statutes, the statutes are straightforward. >> am i oversimplifying? >> not at this point. they've had it long enough. >> something's either -- okay. >> they've had it long enough. and if i'm in the clinton camp -- >> they know what they're going to do.
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>> right. if i'm in the clinton camp, i'm like, make a decision already, yay or nay. >> yeah, turn the page. coming up, trading places on defense. "the new york times'" maureen dowd makes the case of donald, the dove, and hillary, the hawk. the must-read opinion pages are next. you both have a perfect driving record. perfect. no tickets. no accidents. that is until one of you clips a food truck, ruining your perfect record. yeah. now you would think your insurance company would cut you some slack, right? no. your insurance rates go through the roof...
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♪ no, you're not ♪ yogonna watch it! ♪tch it! ♪ ♪ we can't let you download on the goooooo! ♪ ♪ you'll just have to miss it! ♪ yeah, you'll just have to miss it! ♪ ♪ we can't let you download... uh, no thanks. i have x1 from xfinity so... don't fall for directv. xfinity lets you download your shows from anywhere. i used to like that song. don't forget. we're like the piggy bank that's being robbed. we're like the cards. we have a lot of power with china. when china doesn't want to fix
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the problem in north korea, we say, sorry, folks, you've got to fix the problem. because we can't continue to allow china to rape our country. that's what they're doing. it's the greatest theft in the history of the world. >> that was donald trump on the stump yesterday in ft. wayne, indiana. he had a lot of choice words. i thought those were, it was really bad use of words. but, whatever. it's what he does, and i guess that's what's gets him those primary voters. >> maybe. >> maureen dowd, "new york times," donald the dove, hillary the hawk. once you get beyond the surface of the 2016 battle of the sexes, with its chest-thumping versus maternal hugging, there's a more intriguing gender dynamic. on some foreign policy issues, the roles are reversed for the candidates and their parties. it's hillary the hawk against donald the quasi-dove. hillary never expected to meet the mix of dove, hawk, and isolationist. she thought she would face marco
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rubio, a more traditional-conservative who would out-hawk her. instead, she's meeting trump who is a sheep in wolf's clothing, as david axelrod put it. like a free-swinging, asymmetric boxer, trump can keep hillary off-balance by punching from both the left and the right. >> let's bring in now "the washington post's" david ignatius. it's been one of the most interesting developments adds donald trump outlined his foreign policy in a speech, and also in several speeches throughout the course of the year, that it does seem that right now you have a democratic potential nominee, possibly being more assertive and more internationalist than a republican nominee. that hasn't happened in quite some time. >> it's something that we haven't seen in decades. the default republican position has been hard-line national security support of the defense establishment, internationalist positions. in this election, it looks like you're going to have those traditional positions expressed more by hillary clinton than by donald trump, and the interesting question for me is, just how sick of war is this
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country? trump's appeal will be powerful if americans really are so fed up that the appeal to internationalism, the appeal to leadership, america must lead, america's special, just falls on deaf ears that time around. that might be one of trump's strongest weapons. >> and you know, nicole, the republicans, like me, ran on a restrained foreign policy, entering the 1990s, we fought like hell against bosnia and kosovo and fought like hell against all of these foreign interventions. george w. bush obviously changed the dynamic for most of the party, after i left washington. and they became far more interventionist. but, this party still is the party of taft. i mean, there's this underlying populist train where america first, you know, worry about america and then let the rest of the world worry about itself. >> i think that's true, but i think that's not on the menu. we look at developments out of baghdad this weekend, and this is an extremely liberal
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president running what he would have wished were an incredibly restrained foreign policy, trying to keep that caldron from blowing up. i don't think that's on the menu. i think that this is going to be about competence. i think trump's keyhole to women is this very question of who can keep them safer. and i think how he talks about what he does with the wars we're already in -- there's still american soldiers dying in iraq and afghanistan. so i don't think it's this binary, simplistic, he's for less, she's for more. i think it's also about, how do you clean up and finish and bring to resolution and bring to safety -- >> do it right. >> the things that we are doing. i don't think this is a slam-dunk for him or her. i think this is about how do we do this with competence. how do we make it so these lives were not lost in vain? how do we do it -- and i think they'll re-litigate a lot of what you just described. i think the decision to create a vacuum in iraq is the biggest blunder on the obama foreign policy record. how does hillary respond to that? i think it's the single biggest
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question mark with the single most up to grab group of voters. >> and a lot of things could be happening simultaneously. live events could be happening around the globe. >> until election day. we'll be talking to david next block about the events in iraq and around the world. here's from "the washington post," and now that eugene robinson says this, you all will now pretend it's the first time we've ever heard it. something between men and women all the time. here we go. the case for a clinton/warren ticket. >> who's ever said. >> don't kid yourself, everybody knows you've been saying it in the most grating way, every day of the year. >> grating. every day. >> it's not even may and already, we're talking about running mates. and let me toss elizabeth warren's name into the mix. she has spent her senate career becoming known as the scourge of wall street. no political figure is more closely identified with efforts to curb the excesses of the
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financial system. warren would also help address another vulnerability, if the general election matchup is trump versus clinton, and that seems increasingly likely. it is becoming clear on the question of u.s. military involvement around the world, trump will position himself to the left of clinton. warren wasn't in congress when the iraq war began, and national security isn't the issue with which she is identified. but her views fit squarely with those of the party's progressive wing. tim kaine would be a great choice, and in some ways, i think he will be the choice. i have the tell you, you can't rule out elizabeth warren, especially given the matchup and the issues that plague hillary clinton as a problem. she counts them out. bar none, no one else does. >> and you've talked about her because of her style. >> and for some reason, elizabeth warren, by the way, in a very, what i would call, just from my studies on gender and equal pay, she's holding out.
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you know? usually -- in fact, most women in the senate and in congress have fallen in line, i have not seen that from elizabeth warren. there's something going on. >> that's why it's not happening. >> you also said trump wouldn't be the nominee and i'm getting a pickup truck, so -- >> whoa! >> i'll get you two if elizabeth warren is on the ticket. >> happy, happy birthday. >> i love trucks. >> happy, happy birthday, mika. what's the likelihood, though, of two women -- >> i think that would actually be the -- >> i think the idea of two women is great. i think the problem is more -- >> the relationship. >> the relationship and i think she underscores all of clinton's weaknesses and vul nernnerabili in a way that isn't too complimentary, but too stark. i don't think that serves clinton well. >> i agree with nicole. i think as the father of a 2-year-old daughter, i would love to see two women on the ticket. it's unclear to me whether they
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could get to a comfort level, the two of them on the same ticket. >> i think the clintons are actually the best at learning how to get along with anybody. they've done it time and time again. >> they should call maureen dowd. >> coming up next, an unprecedented show of defiance in the capital of iraq over the weekend, as any government protesters breach baghdad's heavily fortified green zone, before ransacking and occupying the iraqi parliament. david ignatius is just back from that troubled country and he'll tell us what it means for iraq and the fight against isis.
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we see it not just in syria and iraq, we see it in libya, nigeria, and other countries. we'll have to remain very focused on destroying all the elements of that organization. >> that was cia director, john brennan, talking about the ongoing fight against isis on "meet the press" yet. we're back with columnist and associate editor for "the washington post," david ignatius. you were just over there. let's talk about the news, what happened this weekend, and what you saw. >> joe, i went over to iraq for several days, really wanting to focus on the offensive to take mosul. which is isis' capital in iraq. it's probably going to be the biggest operation of this war. and there's been talk that president obama badly wants to get it done before the end of the year, as a kind of legacy issue. what i saw at the front lines was a real slowness in organizing the force that would attack. a mile and a half away from where i was was a village not all that big, but well fortified, which the iraqi army
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was supposed to have taken a month ago. and they've made no progress to date. if they can't take that little village -- >> why not? what are you hearing, david? >> because they attacked in march and they were repulsed. they suffered heavy casualties. the u.s. idea was, let's let the iraqis show us what we can do. so they sent in the iraqi army, itself. not kurdish forces, which are tougher fighters. along with sunni tribal fighters and they were pushed back and they couldn't recover. it's not an encouraging sign that u.s. advisers are in the forward outposts that i visited, i didn't see or talk to them, but i know they were there. u.s. jets are flying overhead, you can hear them, they're bombing these positions regularly, what progress is made is largely due to u.s. air power. but if people think that mosul will be taken by the end of the year, then an awful lot of work has to be done to get a force that is not now ready, more ready. >> so right now, it's just a
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stalemate. >> yes. >> any reporting you can give us that suggests that leaders in washington and the pentagon understand this and are going to move to change the dynamic on the ground there? >> joe, i think as so often is the case with iraq, a kind of wishful thinking has set in. i'm told by reporters who were on the plane with vice president biden who came to iraq on thursday, that there was a very upbeat mood, that things were going our way in iraq, that this mosul offensive was taking shape well, we're making good progress. and i hate to say it, but the situation on the ground is a lot more confusing and negative than people, you know, oversee it from 30,000 feet seem to think. in baghdad itself, you have this government basically coming apart. i mean, imagine people storming the parliament, throwing water bottles and shoes and, you know, inside the parliament building itself, i said to a friend that the iraq that the united states
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cobbled together in 2003 is really, finally, coming apart. we're going to have to think, and i think, probably, in the next few months, what is a stable alternative to this government, which just isn't working. >> david, people conflate the military and isis and security crisis with what the protests were about. these were about the fact they still don't have running water and electricity, right? >> the protests were about what a corrupt country iraq has become, under the shiite governments. what's interesting about these protests is that these are really shiite on shiite protests. it's a split in the shiite ranks that were once united, and now you have muqtada al sadr, which is a populist, storming the corruption, saying the shiite leaders who have been taking all our money and corrupting our state need to be replaced. muqtada al sadr is alive with the person the u.s. is backing. the prime minister ebadi,
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interestingly, fighting against former prime minister maliki. the interesting question in all of this is where is iran? iran has now inherited the role we once had in trying to decide these big questions in iran. iran is making almost as much a mess of it as the united states did. >> mike? >> david, in the last segment, we were talking about the appeal or the potential appeal of donald trump's message and you raised the question that will be answered this fall, how sick is this country of war, of endless wars. let's talk for a minute about the reality of the world around us. you have iraq fractured, for years, fracturing more now. you have syria fractured and incredibly violent. and it's effect on europe. you have afghanistan, which we pay very little attention to, politically, where people -- our people, are still dying and is sucking up billions of our dollars. so the reality of the world around us, for both of these candidates, or all the
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candidates for president, what are they going to be confronted with? >> well, i think the challenge for secretary clinton, assuming she gets the democratic nomination, is to make the case for american power. make the case for internationalism, that we can make a difference in a fracturing iraq and syria, that we can use power in a way that's smart, that doesn't get us into the mess of 10 to 15 years ago. the appeal of the other side, you know, let's just let this go, what trump in effect will say will be powerful. but i'm waiting to hear secretary clinton articulate something that is clear, that the american people can understand, so they don't think these are endless sacrifices for nothing. the way in which this mosul offensive goes and there's a similar offensive that will be ahead in syria. if americans see progress on the ground against this terrifying adversary of isis, that will bolster the case, i think, that we can do things. that the internationalist line still has some meaning. >> david, harold ford, very
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quickly, the severe shortcomings, it seems, that iraqis are facing, you talk about the shia-on-shia divide here. how much of this is just internal politics and how much should we interpret here in the states as this being against the united states, the uprising? >> harold, i don't think it's about us. >> but it's positive in some ways. >> it is positive. i would underline that. when you have people on the streets saying, we want clean government. we're sick of these corrupt politicians, chuck them out. that's something that's a righteous sentiment. it's chaotic, it looks like the opposite of democracy, but for once it's not about us. and i think it's important to stick with people who are saying who say, we want clean, technocratic people in these administrations. we want it clean and no more bribery. the negative side is it's complete chaos. talk to commanders in the iraqi military, in the staging point
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for the attack on mosul, they say this craziness in baghdad has our troops demoralized. they wonder what they're fighting for if their country really exists. it's a very delicate balance. >> david, stay with us. coming up, the polls say donald trump will easily pass the 1,000-delegate mark tomorrow as he's up big in indiana. so is ted cruz and the stop-trump movement now just tilting at windmills? steve kornacki breaks down the numbers for us ahead on "morning joe." cancer... we don't want to think about it. but i had to. because, you see i was traveling, i was enjoying life, i was working... it was too long since my last pap. when i was finally tested, we thought i might have cervical cancer. after worrying - no cancer. i was lucky. women... please get a pap test to check for cervical cancer. and get the inside knowledge about gynecologic cancers. for you and the people who care about you.
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all right. coming up at the top of the hour, ted cruz says he's still doing everything to win indiana. but everything, i don't think it's going to work. trump is 15 points up. >> get bigger by the day. >> maybe. steve kornacki, hallie jackson, and kasie hunt all join the conversation. plus, the clashes between donald trump and hillary clinton are heating up every day as clinton warns democratic voters that president obama's entire legacy could be in danger. we're back in just a moment. owen! hey kevin. hey, fancy seeing you here. uh, i live right over there actually. you've been to my place. no, i wasn't...oh look, you dropped something. it's your resume with a 20 dollar bill taped to it. that's weird. you want to work for ge too. hahaha, what? well we're always looking for developers who are up for big world changing challenges like making planes, trains
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and hospitals run better. why don't you check your new watch and tell me what time i ould be there. oh, i don't hire people. i'm a developer. i'm gonna need monday off. again, not my call. i drive to the hoop. i drive a racecar. i have a driver. his name is carl. but that's not what we all have in common. we talked to our doctors about treatment with xarelto®. xarelto® is proven to treat and help reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots. xarelto® is also proven to reduce the risk of stroke in people with afib, not caused by
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there has to be unity in our party. there has to be unity in our party. but there should be and there has to be unity. now, with that being said, would i win? can i win without it? i think so, to be honest. i think so. because they're going to vote for me. they're not voting for, you know, jeb bush didn't support you. big deal. like i care, okay? i saw him on one of the shows yesterday. i did not consider him a conservative. who -- folks, i'm a conservative. but at this point, who cares. we've got to straighten out the country. with ted cruz, he's a wonderful guy. if he wants to endorse me, that's fine. but who cares? a guy like bush, i washed him yesterday on television. you know, knocking me. the does he want to endorse me? who knows. i don't care. it's not going to have any impact on whether or not we beat hillary clinton. it's not going to have any
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impact. >> and mika, that is exactly what we were all saying around this table, when ted cruz couldn't answer a question that was asked of him nine times. that's the politics of old. the politics of new, they can endorse me if they want to. i don't care! >> who cares about endorsements. and the concession speech is somehow the victory speech for everyone in the republican party. they don't understand that they're losing when they're actually losing. >> it's just phony. >> yeah. >> the whole thing is phony. >> and i still don't understand why we are here with ted cruz. why he was propped up? and cruz/kasich. what? this is why trump is going to win the nomination. all bad. >> i have to say, still, at this point, it is still remarkable that the republican establishment could not bring forward a candidate that survived ted cruz. i still can't believe that jeb
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bush couldn't survive ted cruz. i couldn't believe the one-on-one is not between trump and jeb bush. trump, scott walker. trump, you know, fill in the blank. but we've got trump and ted cruz. so the republican establishment has nowhere to go. >> with us, we have harold ford jr., mike barnicle, former adviser to senator rand paul, contributor to "time" magazine, and msnbc political analyst, elise jordan. in washington, columnist and associate editor for "the washington post," david ignatius, and political reporter for "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst, robert costa. so hillary clinton has made another move in her pivot to the general election. the campaign says starting this week, the first wave of clinton staffers will begin shifting to general election states. the move includes state directors and other members of senior leadership teams. clinton will continue to campaign in primary states and we're told staff will not be taken away from states that have yet to vote in the nominating
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contest. this comes as the clashes between donald trump and hillary clinton are heating up. trump tweeted friday, crooked hillary clinton. perhaps the most dishonest person to have ever run for the presidency, is also one of the all-time great enablers. >> ohhh. >> the candidates traded responses over the weekend. >> there he goes. >> you know, remember, i -- >> i had a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak. i'm not going to deal with their temper tantrums or their bullying or their efforts to try to provoke me. he can say whatever he wants to say about me. i could really care less. i'm going to stand up for what i think the american people need and want in the next president. >> she said, i'm used to dealing, and what was the word? go ahead, she used a certain word. >> off the reservation.
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>> men that are off the reservation. and i said to myself, that's a horrible expression. fiddle have used that expression, maybe in the opposite forum, it would have been a front-page story. she uses it and gets away with it. that's a very demeaning remark to men. >> last night, clinton swung back at trump while speaking to the naacp convention in detroit, saying trump puts president obama's legacy in danger. >> it was a tremendous honor to serve in president obama's administration. now america is deciding who will secede him. the leading republican contender is the man who led the insidious birther movement to discredit the president's citizenship. and when he was asked in a national television interview to disavow david duke and other
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white supremacists, who are supporting his campaign, he played coy. we cannot let barack obama's legacy fall into donald trump's hands. >> so it begins! >> mike barnicle! >> clearly. she's handcuffed herself to president obama. smart move. she is, you know, going to rely on that democratic base and donald trump, perhaps, being donald trump this fall, but what we've seen over the past ten months, how you can underestimate or guess what's going to happen with trump is beyond me. you said it earlier, joe. the democrats have been going around for months saying, you know, oh, yeah, yeah. she's going to want to run against donald trump, that's what we want. know, that's not what you should want. you should want to run against ted cruz. trump is so unpredictable.
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asymmetric warfare. it's going to be a role problem. ted cruz and the stop-trump forces in reality have one day left to stop trump from being the republican nominee for president. and a new poll of indiana's republican primaries potentially is crushing those hopes. the nbc news "wall street journal"/marist poll shows trump 15 points ahead of cruz, who is at 34%. john kasich at 13%. only 34% of indiana republicans, by the way, approve of that shaky cruz/kasich alliance that didn't work. 58% disapprove. but 63% said it was no factor at all in their decision on who to back, while 22% called it a major factor. i think it was a pretty big factor. >> bob costa, does this fight continue, even after a big indiana loss for ted cruz? >> it's hard to say, joe. ever since the end of george w. bush's presidency, we've seen the rise of this ideological
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movement on the right. it was at one time the tea party movement and then became a movement that was really behind ted cruz. but it's flickering right now, that entire conservative movement that's really pushing for a conservative outsider and it seems like the republican base really ants an outsider, not someone who's defined in all these ideological terms. that's the struggle for the cruz campaign, talking to them last night and their associates and allies, they wonder whether they picked the right moment for their kind of candidate. >> ted cruz is supposed to be the outsider. but he's the ultimate insider. >> i think voters really know that. and i think ted cruz wears really thin. and that's the problem, that's why for hillary clinton, ted cruz is a much better contender to go up against her from the democratic perspective, because he wears so thin, so quickly and donald trump, you don't know what you're going to get out of him. and he's got a likability factor. yes, he has huge unfavorables and yes, he offends basically every woman, but there's something kind of likable about
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the guy, even as he's being kind of terrible. >> the clip we just played, where he said about endorsements, i don't care. i don't care. >> you can see, this thing is going to shape up. joe, you were saying at the beginning of the show, how republicans will be able to rally around trump when you say, look, you want four years of hillary clinton, four years of the supreme court justices. mrs. clinton will turn this on him. this could be one of the -- we saw a little bit in 2012, with the way obama and romney went at each other and how they framed and defined each other. you're going to see mrs. clinton trying very early to do nothing but to define him. and it's in trump's advantage to pull as many supporters his way to define her. so hopefully we'll hear what each candidate stands for. we'll hear what each candidate believes the other stands for. we're headed down a path where this is going to be as ugly as i think some people -- >> i think it's going to be an extraordinarily ugly race. you look at the word "enabler in trump's tweet. >> that's about as nasty as it can get. >> no, it's going to get a lot
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nastier. >> you and i -- >> they call it in literature foreshadowing. you might as well put a giant alarm on one of the great enablers of all time. >> but there's also the unknown. and there's always the unknown factor that crops up in life, as well as certainly in politics and one of the things that i would bet you, some money, not a lot of money, is going to play a fairly dominant role this fall is going to be national and global security. it's going to be a big issue this -- >> but let's be careful on this point, because after paris, everybody said, this is jeb bush's moment. americans are going to want a more serious president. and jeb's going to drop and donald trump's going to fall. that was actually donald trum s trump's, donald trump's surge began post-paris. david ignatius, after barack obama, which is seen as being weak on paris, yeah, weaker than, in his response and even
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the president of paris, you had donald trump going out and taking a very strong, harsh line. and republican voters rewarded in the polls. >> i think you just stated what the challenge is for secretary clinton, if she's the nominee. she has to find a way to speak to the trump blue-collar democratic voters, who are fed up. who feel that they've fallen behind economically, who feel that leadership on national security is leaving the country unsafe. she's got to speak to those people and articulate to them why she's going to be different from barack obama. that's one of the challenges where she needs mike or someone said a moment ago, she's handcuffed herself to barack obama. she needs the base that barack obama can mobilize, but also needs to separate herself from obama and show that she can address the issues that trump has pointed up so forcefully, that are going to give him to everybody's astonishment the
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nomination. if she doesn't do that, i don't see how she can win. >> david, judging over her past 20 to 30 years, she has a dramatically different view of foreign policy and the use of force and intervention than does not only donald trump, but barack obama. she and barack obama aren't the -- they aren't even on the same planet when it comes to the use of force and intervention, are they? >> joe, if you read secretary clinton's memoirs, it's fascinating to see where she disagreed with obama. sometimes she was more hawkish but sometimes she was offering wise restraint. she was very close to bob gates, the secretary of defense. one of the wisest old -- >> you better not call bob old. he's not old. >> not so old, but in any event, he's a wise fellow and clinton often aligned with him. and if she can find that kind of line and language, i think
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she'll separate herself from -- >> now, that's a running mate. >> don't think it hasn't occurred to people around bob gates, that the two of them would be -- i put my money, for what it's worth, on sherrod brown, just looking at the electoral map, but bob gates would be a compelling running mate. >> we talk about also the issues involving force would be implicated. there's another big foreign policy matter that would resolve itself in mid-june, about 50 days whether the brits decide to exfrom the eu. there are a number of issues like that, but the brexit will have something that will have impacts on our markets either way and will certainly call upon the candidates to speak forcefully and forthrightly, about some vision on how they would govern. >> let's look at the battle for indiana. ted cruz is barnstorming the state with two appearances alongside governor mike pence, who on friday announced he would backing cruz, but not before heaping praise on trump.
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>> i like and respect all three of the republican candidates in the field. i particularly want to commend donald trump, who i think has given voice to the frustration of millions of working americans with a lack of progress in washington, d.c. and i'm also particularly grateful that donald trump has taken a strong stand for hoosier jobs, when we saw jobs in the carrier company abruptly announce leaving indiana, not for another state, but for mex. i'm grateful and i've come to my decision about who aisle be voting for and i'm voting for ted cruz. >> i have bobby knight's endorsement. after the show, i'm going to indiana and i'll have bobby knight and other people who are unbelievable. and i think mike pence gave me more of an endorsement than he gave cruz. he started out with donald trump and what a great job east done
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and -- look, his donors and special interests obviously made him give an endorsement, but you know, chris, you've covered it, most people think it was more of an endorsement for me than it was for cruz. it was the weakest endorsement anybody has seen. >> it was a weak endorsement, but i don't know, elise, who would want that endorsement. >> it's so -- >> if you're cruz. >> well, cruz wanted the walker example. ed up scott ---ed up scott walker, all in, to get the grassroots excited in the state. and before you know it, indiana's going to way of illinois. >> harold, it's like what you said, he saw a poll right before he went on the air, trump's going to win this thing, how do i equivocate. >> go right in there and say it. >> that was horrible. >> i'm taking a fellow that's
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somewhat controversial, and charge full steam ahead, contrast it with cruz, you see the points that have made on table today and many other mornings, why trump? >> well, nobody actually wants cruz. not even the people endorsing him. >> endorsing him in indiana for the group of voters that vote for donald trump, bobby knight is just the best. >> and followed by ted cruz calling the hoop a ring. a basketball ring. >> did you see what he tried to do when he measured the -- >> let's not forget another major sports figure that also endorsed trump on friday, mike tyson. >> did he really? >> yeah. >> i missed that. >> that wouldn't get as much attention. >> joining us now from indianapolis, nbc news correspondent, hallie jackson is covering the cruz campaign. hallie, what are you hearing today from the cruz camp? and how excited were they about that non-endorsement? >> reporter: right, if you could even call it an endorsement, whatever it was. governor pence is going to be out on the campaign trail today
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in indiana with ted cruz, which is a little bit surprising, just given the tone of his backing, if you would call it that on the radio show on friday. he was out with an op-ed in the indianapolis paper wednesday, which he again reiterated he likes and respects all three of the candidates in this race, but he would be voting for ted cruz. look at the polling numbers that are out, our numbers showing cruz trails trump by 15%. the campaign privately says they believe that their data shows that it's actually a tighter race than that. but already, what i'm hearing privately is, hey, let's look to california. california is where this race will be decided. that is where donald trump, if he were to lock up the nomination, would do it there. even if ted cruz loses indiana tomorrow night, which, again, indications are that he is really badly being beaten by trump, at least right now, i don't think you'll see cruz get out of this race. the campaign has the money. they feel like they have the message and they're going to continue forward. now, interestingly, cruz was
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pressed on the top of whether or not he would support donald trump. he was pressed again and again on "meet the press." listen to some of that exchange. >> don't you think it's important to take a stand. you just said, it's a time for choosing. if it's a time for choosing, say it. for him or against him for the nominee. it's a time for choosing, is it not? >> chuck, chuck, you're welcome to lobby for support for trump as much as possible. we are going to beat trump, because trump's winning the nomination loses the country. >> don't you think republican voters -- >> and i am not willing to give up on america. i'm not willing to give up on america. >> but if you care this much about it, don't you think him saying, i can't support him if he's the nominee light a fire and send a sense of urgency to the republican party. >> chuck, what i'm saying is very, very simple. >> so let the record show, you have not taken a position on whether you can support trump if he's the nominee. fair enough? >> and let the record show, you tried very, veriard to get me to commit to supporting trump. >> reporter: this is a question that cruz has had that answer to or non-answer to for weeks now. i pressed him about this even
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before some of these primaries weekses ago and he has not been able to say, definitively, whether or not he would support donald trump as the nominee. this started after that war over wives incident, when donald trump went after heidi cruz in that re-tweet. let's talk about indiana. at this point, ted cruz is going flat-out, he is going all-out. he and his surrogates, carly fiorina, heidi cruz, are blanketing the state with ten events today. including one with the governor. you talk about the language he's using, guys. the rhetoric that this is good versus evil. that people of indiana have to save this country. you're hearing it from glenn beck, too, over the weekend, talking about how this is sort of god's work happening in indiana. the rhetoric, the language, the stakes getting higher and higher. let's talk about those comments on tuesday night after we see how cruz does here in the hoosier state. >> if i were glenn beck, i would be more concerned about my collapsing tv empire than campaigning for. >> yeah. hallie jackson, thank you very much.
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>> did you hear about that? he fired, like, i heard 60 people and got rid of his tv, all of his tv operations and a lot of the people said he was so obsessed, campaigning for ted cruz that he kept missing shows and took his eye off the ball. >> well, he's backed the wrong guy. >> he has. i mean, at least when i miss shows, i've got an excuse. i'm sleeping. >> i know, it's like, i'm not going out campaigning -- >> all right. >> so robert costa, california, come on, man. that's california dreaming now for ted cruz. you look at the polls and cruz is up close to 50% everywhere. is there any indication that the stop-trump movement will now march to california in a last desperate effort to stop donald trump? >> i'm not sure if march is the word i would use, but what you see from the cruz orbit of people who are supporting him, it says that california could be the last stand and they are better organized in many respects, compared to the trump campaign, but trump and his
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people have the momentum, when you talk to state officials in california and activists, they say that the trump organization doesn't have much of one, but they have the buzz on the ground. and i was in south bend, indiana, over the weekend, and you get a sense in these blue-collar neighborhoods and these old factory towns like south bend, there's an electricity in the air for trump, not just among the republicans, a lot of those har hard-core conservatives are with cruz, but among the independents and the democrats who may be leaning to cross the other side. >> ted cruz has been saying for some time that indiana was going to be the battleground, indiana was going to be the waterloo. now even before indiana goes to vote, now he's talking about, there's gold in them there hills in california. doesn't look good, does it? >> it doesn't look great at all for cruz. you get the sense that that's part of the reason why he picked fiorina. someone who's run for federal office in california, has some relationships in the state. but when you talk to people in california, they say, fiorina, she's not a kingmaker in
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california. she's someone who only ran once and ran unsuccessfully. >> let me ask you really quickly, going back to hillary and donald trump, on foreign policy, when you look at the choose that's been going on in iraq right now, the chaos that's going on in syria, the chaos that's destabilized the entire middle east. you look at hillary's position and donald trump's positions, it actually seems like donald trump's positions on these two areas are closer to barack obama's hands-off approach than hillary clinton's. is that correct? >> i think so. i think what trump is basically saying is, this is a mess. we're not going to fix it, we should waste more money and lives trying to do so. and hillary clinton has got to make the sell to the country that this is worth our effort and show that she can be president in a world that is more stable, more secure, less crazy. people are going to look at the world through november and think, this is spinning out of
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control. who can protect us best? and that's the case they'll have to make. >> their cards have just really shuffled in this general election. >> our thanks to robert costa for being on "morning joe," much more from indiana with the stop-trump movement that. kasie hunt joins the conversation. and isis strikes again in iraq. this week's deadly car bombing comes as the obama administration revamps its strategy to counter the terror group's propaganda machine. the state department's rick stangl joins us. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪
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so you can keep watching. call or go online today. if you contrast the people who are standing with me, carly fiorina, indiana's governor, mike pence, on the other side, donald trump was proudly trumpeting the support of mike tyson, a convicted rapist who served three years in prison here in indiana for rape. and donald trump says, well, tyson is a tough guy. you know what, john, i don't think rapists are tough guys. i think rapists are weak, they're bullies and they're
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cowards. >> ted cruz with some tough words against donald trump, receiving the endorsement of mike tyson. joining us now on set, msnbc's steve kornacki, and in indianapolis, msnbc political correspondent, kasie hunt. good to have you all on board. kasie, i like the fleece, looking good. >> reporter: i wore it just for your birthday. >> very good. thank you very much. just, is there a path after indianapolis for ted cruz? >> if the numbers in our poll are right, i don't see it. if the numbers are right, donald trump will get most if not all of the delegates out of indiana. that would be 57 more. at that point, you're talking not just about trump being able to pass 37, the question is, does he blow past 1,237? the bigger thing is, what it suggests if trump's winning by this kind of margin in indiana is that something has changed in this race in the last couple of weeks. and basically what that would mean is that republican voters, for all the noise you hear from the stop-trump movement about, hey, if they weren't for donald trump at the beginning, they're never going to be for him,
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they're voting against him. a lot of republican voters, it looks like, have taken a look at this race in the last couple of weeks, everything that's happening, maybe talk of deals with cruz and kasich has something to do wit. they're looking at trump and y saying, we're ready. we're ready for this guy to be the nominee. we're ready to put this process behind us. we are not onboard for the stop-trump effort to fight this all the way to the last ballot, of the last day of the convention, because he's not supposed to be running indiana by 15 points. that suggests people are moving to trump. >> kasie, is there a realization that the effort to stop-trump might not -- just might not be working? >> i think the one data point that stuck out to me from the last couple of days is that even jon huntsman, at this point, is saying, oh, hey, maybe we better get onboard with donald trump. he seems in many ways to be the last prn who might come out and say something like that. there are these cracks showing. obviously, these groups, it's still this loose coalition. they are still pushing forward here in indiana. it's looking increasingly difficult for them here. there are still people that i
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talked to, who are talking about california, who will argue adamantly, hey, there is a path at the convention. all we need is kind of the guts to pursue it. but i don't think that the level of passion that we've seen from these kind of people from the past is really sustaining. i was talking to quite a few sources over the course of the last couple of days, who really are starting to say, hey, you know, maybe i should shop my resume around to team trump. >> well, that's good, because i think that's what it's looking like, at this point. what would be the way trump gets thrown off? can anyone think of anything? i can't, and i haven't for a long time. >> i think it would take a really terrible six week between indiana and california, and a total change of dynamic, something major happening. and i don't think that's probably going to happen. >> in fact, steve's point is the one that should be highlighted. you've had weeks now of this stop-trump thing thinking it
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could reach a crescendo and stop him. the language had gotten more vitriolic and trying to scare republicans and in fact, he's grown in his support, and it seems if indiana, the numbers are right, i don't know how you stop him. and at some point, you start to think, how do you backtrack those comments or lean in even more and say, i'm going to support hillary clinton if he's the nominee, that's how strongly i feel against him being the nominee. you get between indiana and california, can that movement revive itself? i doubt it. i think republicans are increasingly resigned and huntsman's comments were probably the best this morning to illustrate that. increasingly resigned that he will be the nominee and you begin to look at, how do we fortify? >> there's one number that keeps sticking out at me. the basic thing that's been wrong with the stop-trump movement all along is that their assumption was, if you weren't with trump by the time of the new hampshire primary and iowa caucuses, that meant you were
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voting against drump dronald tr. but our own polls asked this in january, could you see yourself potentially voting for, and we listed all of the candidates. so 63% said they could see themselves voting for donald trump. so in all these states, that he was getting 25% of the vote, so 65% of republicans were voting against him, i never bought that, because 65% said, we could potentially vote for him. >> and the media talked about that, too. well, 35% are for him, that means 65 -- >> are against him. >> seriously, it's like these people have never covered a political campaign before in their lives. >> or lost a sense of what the pulse of the people are. just got so inside the bubble. joining us now from detroit, kristen welker, who's covering the clinton campaign as hillary clinton pivots to the general.
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how's it going? >> reporter: last night secretary clinton spoke here in detroit at a dinner for the naacp. and for the first time, she said that president obama's legacy would really be threatened if donald trump became president. and it really fits into exactly what you all have been talking about. the fact that secretary clinton has been ramping up her gentle election, essentially, pivoting to the general election. and we know that she's deployed staffers to a number of general election swing states. states including new hampshire, florida, i know that ohio, nevada, are also going to be on deck. and of course, we're seeing this play out more and more on the campaign trail, as she's been talking less about senator sanders and more about, of course, donald trump. now, senator sanders yesterday, surprised a lot of people, when he doubled down on what he's been saying in recent weeks, which is that the convention will be contested. he's taking his fight all the way to the convention. the question is, is that really
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realistic? indiana is going to tell us a lot. it's a very close race. secretary clinton leading there by a few points. but, look, if senator sanders wins that state, which he could, he would regain momentum. and that would only add some fuel to that argument that he can contest the convention. i've been talking to a number of top democrats who say, it is critical that secretary clinton fight in every single state, so if and when she wins the nomination, she goes into that with a number of victories under her belt at the very last minute. >> kristen welker, thank you very much. it's going to be an interesting week, steve kornacki. >> yeah, you could still. this is the thing, bernie sanders caould still keep winnig states until the end. this reminds me a little bit of hillary clinton in '08. the numbers were on barack obama's side, but to the last day in '08, she was still winning states. >> thank you both. coming up, the first american death related to the zika virus. plus, an historic new york church goes up in flames, just
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as orthodox christians were marking the easter oiholiday. those stories and much more ahead on "morning joe." could be a blast. can't find a single thing to wear. will they be looking at my hair? won't be the same without you bro. ♪ when it's go, go to choicehotels.com. the site with the right room, rewards and savings up to 20% when you book direct. book now at choicehotels.com the call just came in. she's about to arrive. and with her, a flood of potential patients. a deluge of digital records. x-rays, mris. all on account...of penelope. but with the help of at&t, and a network that scales up and down on-demand, this hospital can be ready. giving them the agility to be flexible & reliable. because no one knows & like at&t.
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♪ no, you're not ♪ yogonna watch it! ♪tch it! ♪ ♪ we can't let you download on the goooooo! ♪ ♪ you'll just have to miss it! ♪ yeah, you'll just have to miss it! ♪ ♪ we can't let you download... uh, no thanks. i have x1 from xfinity so... don't fall for directv. xfinity lets you download your shows from anywhere. i used to like that song. 36 past the hour. a look now at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. a day of peaceful protests in support of workers and immigration rights turned violent yesterday, as may day erupted into mayhem in seattle. five police officers were
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injured and at least nine people were arrested after a group of anti-capitalist demonstrators hurled rocks, bottles, and even molotov cocktails, shattering windows. the city's mayor, ed murray, blamed the trouble, which he called senseless, on a different crowd from those attending a peaceful may day march earlier in the day. in puerto rico, the first american death from the zika virus. the cdc says a 70-year-old man from the island had a severe immune reaction to the virus. experts say this is a rare complication and does not indicate the virus is getting stronger. the obama administration says it will provide $5 million to p.r.n. p.r.n. health clinics to help combat the virus. detroit public schools says most of its schools are closed this morning, amid a sick-out by teachers following an announcement the district is running out of money. a district spokesman says that 87 of the roughly 100 schools are closed today. yesterday, the detroit -- >> that's what you do, really.
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>> in america. >> when there's a financial crisis, i think it's extraordinarily important that teachers' unions work overtime to hurt the students. because that's what it's all about, right? because, this isn't about educating children. this is about well, what's the old saying? they asked one of the most powerful union teachers ever. when you going to start worrying about students instead of teachers? and he said, when students starting paying union dues. so there you go. ladies and gentlemen, your teacher's union. >> yesterday, the detroit federation of teachers urged teachers to call in sick, after a weekend announcement that the district will have no money to continue paying teachers this summer without additional state funding. today's shutdown could affect more than 46,000 students. >> you know, you can negotiate in ways that don't actually put the children in the middle of this. and it's not as if they're just making this financial -- >> especially in the city like
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detroit, which is always on the edge. i mean, the sadness of that detroit story is just continuing and it gets even larger and more sad with each passing example. you consider what detroit did, we're talking about national security earlier. i mean, detroit won world war ii for the united states of america. i mean, detroit is the spine of this country. detroit came back from the automobile manufacturing mess, quite well. now you get teachers in a classically poor, urban city, taking it out on the students. i mean, the students are going to pay the price. >> well, everyone is. and i love teachers and like the teacher's union. >> nobody expects teachers to work for free. >> tell me if you would go to work if you weren't getting paid. >> nobodin't ands teachers to go to work for free, but at the same time, there's a better way to do it than punishing students. >> yes. >> also, a massive fire destroyed an historic church in new york city. it happened just hours after more than 700 members of the
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serbian orthodox cathedral celebrated easter. the cathedral, which was built in the early 1850s, was empty when the fire started. the building's caretaker suffered minor injuries. one parishioner said the church meant the world to the serbian community, and that, quote, my heart is completely broken. up next on "morning joe." [ applause ] >> thank you very much. thank you. this is a big, intimidating room, but i can say that it beats solitary confinement. >> "washington post" reporter
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jason rezaian was in prison during the last white house correspondents' dinner. this time, he was celebrated there on saturday night. ahead, what the state department is doing to help the journalist still behind bars. what a moment. some cash back cards are, shall we say, unnecessarily complex. limiting where you can earn bonus cash back... then those places change every few months... please. it's time you got the quicksilver card from capital one. quicksilver earns you unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere. doesn't get much simpler than that. what's in your wallet? when a moment turns romantic why pause to take a pill? or stop to find a bathroom?
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with us now, we've got the undersecretary of of public diplomacy and public affairs, our friend -- > >> he wands to be a -- >> we're just making it up now. >> i'm your original friend. i came on moj before moj was cool. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. >> now we'll ask you a lot of really mean questions. >> i'm ready. >> go for it.
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>> you've heard all the complaints about how our anti-isis message is not up to the standards, not up to snuff. some people have even said they're light years ahead of us. what are you doing? i know you're revamping the message. how are you revamping the message and how do we sort of get into the 21st century? >> i think people don't understand the story. the real story is we're actually working in a very positive way against this. the amount of anti-isil messaging online and in the social media sphere is five times what they are doing. the content that they're doing has decreased and part of that has to do with what we're doing. part of it has to do with what they're doing. facebook is working to take all kinds of noxious content down. i see every week, because i review the stuff that they're doing, youtube taking down videos is within minutes. so the actual volume of what they're doing has decreased, and the volume of the counter-isil
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messaging has increased. we've created this fantastic thing called the global center, which uses the real voices of people around the world to combat isil. after all, the undersecretary of state telling a young guy not to go to iraq and syria is not only not useful, it's helpful to isil. so they're using third-party voices in the muslim world, who can actually have credibility against isil's message. >> well, then, moving forward in terms of looking at how the candidates are looking at isis, hillary clinton being more hawkish, people looking at trump as not knowing where he stands, can you make any comments on what the candidates have said so far about how to contain this problem? >> what i'll tell you is the problem is being successfully grappled with. i isil is the first failed state in human history that was never a state already. they're failing on the military battlefield, on the ideological battle field. they haven't taken any ground in nine months. ra madi was taken back.
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every day, we're making advances against them on the battle field. i think the military front is actually a much more positive story than people realize. >> david ignatius, do you think there's an overall misunderstanding of the story? as rick is saying? >> rick presents some powerful evidence of his messaging campaign. rick, i want to ask you, the question i think many people ask, which is, why don't our arab coalition partners, who have the most at stake here, say and do more to call out and stop isis, which threatens them. where are they? >> david, we've talked about this a couple of times. i was in kuwait and abu dhabi last week. and in abu dhabi, i visited the swab center, the joint uae isil messaging center, which is doing fantastic work. you can follow them online. and they are also incorporating other partners from the coalition. so i think there's a much better story there than people realize and again -- >> are they doing enough?
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>> the thing people don't realize. is saudi arabia doing enough? >> saudi arabia is doing a lot. what all of you folks don't realize, 85% of what isil does is in arabic. hay do more in russian and in french than they do in english. it is not to us that their messaging is pointied. yet we're all alarmed with they're doing. >> in disclosure, my husband works in this state. >> i know, he's doing great work. >> partners with the state department. it's not about quantity, there's still explicit bomb-making videos available on youtube. so to give the social media companies a pass saying they're doing enough -- >> i'm not saying -- >> -- seems like a bit premature. you can still go to youtube, and al awlaki, he's still on youtube with explicit instructions. look at what happened in brussels. there is still plenty of access to information that incites and information affirms. look at san bernardino. i think that the internet is still the wild, wild west. and you sound satisfied with social media.
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>> i'm not satisfied with it. but here's the irony and the paradox of this. we're all in the media business. you can get 99.999% of the audience on your side. and by the way, we have it in the 90s. but then a few thousand people, a few thousand people go into iraq and syria, terrorists who are moving around the globe can make it seem like they're winning that battle. that is the conundrum. >> it only takes one person, brussels, what's the goal? >> are you saying messaging has to be 100% -- >> i'm asking you, what's the goal? >> the goal is to change the hearts of minds of the people in the middle east. there was a poll saying they're 15% less popular than they were last year. 80% of arab men and women are against them. so in that big macro messaging war, we're doing really well. >> but to david's point, rick. to further define the demographic you're trying to reach, and the geography of the demographic. it's not just in the immediately, it's throughout the world.
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>> throughout the world. >> but to david's larger point, this demographic poses a larger threat to places like riyadh. >> yes. the truth is, there's a lot of grievance in the arab world. taking nice young muslim boys and girls who would otherwise staying home with their parents is wrong. they're tapping into an already existing amount of grievances that is already out there. one of the things we at the state department is doing is trying to improve governance, anti corruption, help employment opportunities. that is the field in which resentment grows. and the resentment is what they're trying to cultivate. >> right. david. i want to ask rick one more question, relates to what we have been talking about for a couple hours here. that's donald trump. what effect did donald trump's comments, criticizing muslims, saying muslims are the problem. what effect does that have in terms of global messaging? does that reinforce the isis narrative out there? >> david, here's what i would
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say. i am basically the chief public diplomacy officer in the government. i'm out there all of the time. i'm not political. what i do see, there are tremendous challenges that come on the public front from what has been said in this campaign. we go out there all of the time and tell people, look, accept your refugees. we're a nation founded on really just freedom with no religious test. and we're it telling people to accept muslims, syrian refugee immigrants. the germans have accepted 1.5 million. it goes against our message of who we are as a people. what we have tried to project all -- for years and years, as you know and cited, we're a city on a hill. and a shining city on a hill for people around the world. and this anti muslim rhetoric, the building of walls, this kind of thing hurts our public diplomacy all around the world. it's just a fair and honest appraisal of it. >> before you go, we showed beautiful moment at the white house correspondents' dinner. talk about world press freedom day and how much more needs to be done to help other
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journalists. >> see, that's the other thing. there we were at the white house correspondents' dinner, american journalists celebrating what they do. they don't understand or always know the incredible threats and dangers journalists face. journalism is basically a crime. so we have a free the press campaign. we've gotten the release of 20 journalists over the last five years. we're trying to promote independent media all around the world. i do that in the russian periphery and ukraine. it's a really big, big challenge. there has been a big rise in counter information, disinformation. at the same time, living in this free information space. it's a real challenge. >> rick stengel, thank you. >> thank you. >> is it your birthday too? >> i'm stalling. >> oh, my god. that's right. that's right. that's why i remember. >> happy birthday! >> does he get our bad singing? >> no. gifts. >> we'll be dip mattic. >> exactly. we celebrate together. that's why.
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>> nice. >> happy birthday. >> i'll try and remember yours now too. >> you just did! good for you. >> okay. thanks, alex. >> thank you so much. we hope we did not overlook your birthday today. >> oh-oh. >> no, not my birthday. but happy birthday, mika. >> thank you. all right. coming up next, we've got the "new york times" -- what are you, a pot plant here? coming up next, jeremy peterson joining us with new reporting on the ted cruz campaign. are convention delegates ready to go to him, or actually leave him? we shall see. all right. we'll talk about that and much more when "morning joe" continues.
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we got another one. i have an orc-o-gram for an "owen." that's me. ♪ you should hire stacy drew. ♪ ♪ she wants to change the world with you. ♪ ♪ she can program jet engines to talk and such. ♪ ♪ her biggest weakness is she cares too much. ♪ thank you. my friend really wants a job at ge. mine too. ♪ i'm a wise elf from a far off shire. ♪
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♪ up next, ted cruz implores indiana voters to, quote, not give into evil? come on, man. >> what's he saying? what are you talking about? >> too much. >> do not give into evil? >> yes. it's a new nbc poll that is accurate. voters seem eager to embrace the dark side. >> luke! >> and the word endorsement that is taken on a whole new meaning. the latest from the senator from texas. if you want to call it that. >> did he really say do not give into evil? >> yes. yes, he did. ♪
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real is an animal rescue. amazing is over twenty-seven thousand of them. there is only one place where real and amazing live. seaworld. real. amazing i believe in the american people. i believe in the people of the hoosier state. i believe in the men and women gathered here and the goodness of the american people that we will not give into evil. but we will remember who we are, and we will stand for our values. >> oh, my god. >> here's the good news, mika. >> good morning. >> birthday girl, mika. >> oh, come on. >> ire not going to have hear that much longer. >> thank you. that's a great gift. >> from my republican party. actually, from the good people of indiana. >> i can't say i will miss
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william shakespeare in the political costume. good morning, it's monday, may 2nd. welcome to "morning joe." >> can we sing happy birthday now? >> yeah. ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ happy birthday to you >> okay. ♪ happy birthday dear mika ♪ happy birthday to you >> thanks. >> thunderous applause. >> 29. >> all right. with us on-set. to share in this very special occasion, we have legendary, let's hear it, everybody -- >> lengthen dear! >> contributor, mike barnca. nicolle wallace and political analyst and professor at the university of michigan, school of public policy. former democratic congressman,
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harold ford. we have a ton to talk about this weekend! >> so much to get to. >> how many times was -- >> i think nine? >> was shakespeare asked? >> a lot. >> will he endorse donald trump? >> yeah. >> at the same time, rubio and huntsman and a lot of others are starting to move that direction. >> and at the same time, donald trump crossed the border and made it to the other side. ted cruz and the stop trump forces in reality have one day left to stop trump from being the republican nominee for president. and a new poll of indiana's republican primary is potentially crushing those hopes. the nbc news "wall street journal" marris poll finds him 15 points ahead of cruz. john kasich at 13%. only 34% of indiana republicans approve of that shaky cr cruz/kasich alliance. 58% disapprove. 63% said it was no factor at all
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on who to back. 22% called it a major factor. did we have to tell them that wouldn't work? sorry, i don't mean to -- that sounds so smug. >> we told them the day of it wasn't going to work. >> is t seems so unbelievably contrived, forces and not truthful to them. >> there are so many things everybody has done that we have been saying the day they do it, don't do it. it's going to blow up in your face. this has been a tore bell week for ted cruz. everybody said for weeks, oh, donald trump can win new york. but there is indiana. pennsylvania, but there is indiana. rhode island, but there is indiana. maryland, but there is indiana. the entire east coast, but there is indiana. we're at indiana now. and he's getting crushed. ted cruz has had a horrific week. and the news isn't getting better. >> i remember when he was doing relatively well at the state party convention, saying, you know, i think in the end he loses by winning. and i think he's had that kind of week. where he got the pence
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endorsement but it was so half-hearted. it actually hurt him more. so pence is an ideological soul mate to ted cruz. very respected but very conservative governor of indiana. there was a lot of speculation and assumption almost he would endorse cruz. when he didn't, he went ahead and took meetings with all three of the remaining candidates and there was a moment where people thought he wouldn't endorse. he was truly undecided. when he finally came out and didn't endorse cruz, i think it did more damage. >> totally. that's what i saw when i watched it. >> losing by winning now. >> let's show people. cruz is barn storming the hoosier state today with two appearances alongside republican governor mike pence who was sort of with him but not really with him on friday when he announced he would be backing cruz sort. he likes him, going to vote for him but also loves trump. >> i like and respect all three of the republican candidates in the field. i particularly want to commend donald trump.
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who i think has given voice to the frustration of millions of working americans with the lack of progress in washington, d.c. and i'm also particularly grateful that donald trump has taken a strong stand for hoosier jobs, when we saw jobs in the carrier company abruptly announced leaving indiana, not for another state but mexico. i'm grateful. i have come to my decision about who i'm supporting. and i'm not against anybody. but i will be voting for ted cruz. >> look, i have bobby knight's endorsement. in fact, i'm going right now after the show, going to indiana. we're going to have bobby knight, we're going to have other people that unbelievable. and by the way, if you really take a look at mike pence, i think he gave me more of an endorsement than he gave cruz. he started off with donald trump and what a great job he's done. look, his donors and special interests obviously made him give an endorsement. you know, chris. most people think was more of an
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endorsement for me than cruz. it was the weakest endorsement anyone has seen. >> i'll tell you what, seriously, if somebody endorsed me that way, i would go on the radio the next hour and say he can take his blanking endorsement back. that was no endorsement. because it was more of an endorsement of donald trump. >> donald trump. but at this stage of this election season, you have to wonder, what went through the mind of ted cruz to try and concoct this, you know, cruz/kasich deal? because it's nontransferable. you can't transfer. you can't convince someone -- >> great way to say it. >> newspaper endorsements don't mean much. totally meaningless. >> what you're starting to see is the real fear factor seep in. a couple months ago, month ago, everybody felt they could be snotty to donald trump without any retribution, because they were sure he wasn't going to win. now governors who are frozen, whose supporters and financial
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backers say he has to endorse ted cruz. and yet he's so scared of donald trump, he's doing back flips. you're seeing rubio, who trashed him a month ago saying he's going to get on board. and it is fear. they're afraid they're going to be left behind. >> as a resignation he's going to win the nomination. pence's comments, i agree with nicole. he said more about trump and more kind things about trump than he did about ted cruz, which signals every which way just reinforces your point. i guess the interesting thing here will be how many more? trump is going to win indiana unless the public polling is completely off. how does cruz or how do cruz and kasich both respond? is there a move at that point from priebus and others who say let's consolidate now, let's down ballot races across the country. you have to think they're reaching that point. and trump will arrive at these convention with far more than
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the 1,237. >> meanwhile despite his unity last summer, remember that? >> yes. >> ted cruz refused to say whether he will support donald trump. >> isn't this what trump got o booed gorbo booed for? >> if he's the nominee, i take it you can't support him any longer. >> i believe if the republican party has donald trump, we will love to hillary. >> i understand what you believe in the republican party. can you support him? can you tell your delegates -- >> chuck -- >> why can't you answer the question of whether you can support donald trump or not? you can't answer that question. >> chuck -- >> why won't you answer that question, straight forward? black and white? >> chuck, let me finish this point i'm making. donald won't debate. i think the people of indiana -- >> can you answer the question about when you're going to support -- are you going to support donald trump if he's the nominee? >> i am going to beat donald trump. >> don't you think it's important to take a stand? you just said, it's a time for
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choosing. if it's a time for choosing, say it. for him or against him as the nominee? it's a time for choosing, is it is it not? >> chuck, you're welcome to lobby for support for trump as much as possible. we are going to beat trump, because trump is winning the nomination loses the country. >> don't you think republican voters -- >> i am not willing to give up on america. >> but if you care this much, much about it, don't you think you saying i can't support him if he's the nominee, doesn't light a fire and send a sense of urgency to the republican party? >> chuck, what i'm saying is very, very simple. >> so let the record show, you have not taken a position on whether trump -- whether you can support trump if he's the nominee. fair enough? >> and let the record show you tried very, very hard to get me to commit to supporting trump. >> and, again, exhibit 5,439 of this election campaign season, why donald trump is winning. >> yes. >> you know what donald trump says? i don't need to support. that's what politicians want to
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hear. and as i said about marco rubio, when he speaks, you always heard the echos of 1,000 focus groups, when this guy is talking, it looks like he's practiced every word in front of a teleprompter or in front of his mirror in his bathroom at home. and that just drives people crazy. do you support him or not, yes or no! >> for months, we have had in this business, in the media business, and elsewhere, people walking around, bumping into hallways, saying how is it possible that donald trump has gotten as far as he's gotten, has made such tremendous progress, electorally as he has? ted cruz? how has he gotten as far -- >> and nobody -- to that point. nobody has moved up to him more than ted cruz. you remember the first three quarters of this primary. jeb bush and others were critical when they disagreed with trump. nobody sort of sucked up more than cruz for the first three quarters of this primary. and now he's sort of the last one. >> exactly.
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you know, harold, the thing is, there was no wrong answer to chuck todd's question. >> right. yes or no. >> good you said no, he's a jerk, i'm not going to support that guy. guess what, voters would have respected you. yeah, you know what, i think he's a jerk. but you know what, i think hillary clinton would be worse. like, that's what these idiots, not speaking about him in particular, but these idiot politicians who think that they're being clever. in 2016, are just taking a baseball bat and hitting themselves over the head. people want answers. yes, i will. no, he's a jerk, i won't. you win both ways. >> i watched -- i have to think that people cringe, republicans and even independents or conservatives might find his message appealing. at the end of the day, we had a conversation last week on the show. when someone wins the primary, presidential primary, it's tradition. you say, look, i may disagree with him or her, but we're going to get together and work for these differences. if you can't answer yes or no if you're going to support the nominee, it begs the question
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whether or not you should have advanced this far in the race and speaks to your point, there is no doubt trump's appeal is, he's going to say i don't want these clowns to support -- i'm going to do it without political support because i can't be sincere. to watch him, makes mike's point. one of the main reasons trump has advanced so much. >> and like we're waiting for him as america. to tell us what is best for america. >> and, again, going back to the first fox debate. donald trump is booed. for saying -- >> remember that? >> for saying he was -- he could not say he was going to endorse the nominee. >> no, it's an independent bid, i think -- which is the same thing. >> no, no, no. there was a direct question. the hand-raising thing. >> two of them. and they asked if he would have an independent bid. >> we're now seeing many other republicans warming to the idea as trump as their nominee. former utah governor and president obama's ambassador to
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china, jon huntsman told politico we've had enough intraparty fighting. now is the time to stitch together a winning coalition. and it's been clear almost from the beginning that trump has the ability -- listen to this, because this is it -- to assemble a nontraditional block of supporters. the ability to cut across boundaries like 1980, '92 and 2008 will be key. and trump is much better positioned to achieve that. >> that's good for trump. >> it's also true. it's also true. >> yeah. >> and it's time that people kind of see that. i mean, has ted cruz been able to do that? has anyone been able to really do that. no. and on friday, senator marco rubio said that trump's performance has, quote, improved significantly in recent weeks. thank you, marco rubio. okay. after earlier comments that he would unite behind him if nominated. >> senator, if indeed it is
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donald trump, will you support him? >> yeah, i've always said i'm going to support the republican nominee and that's especially true now that it is apparent that hillary clinton is going to be the democratic candidate. >> that's what ted cruz should have said. >> no, it is what ted cruz should have said on sunday. >> by the way, that's a big turn for marco rubio. >> well, it's the only intellectually honest answer, too. because it's fine to say, no, i can't get there. i'm going to vote for hillary. that's curtain number two. but there is no more curtain number three. >> no. >> i mean, those are the two choices. we're going to get there on trump or no, i can't. mike haden said on this show, and charles koch. there is another choice, but then sort of man up or welcome up and say it. no, i can't get there on trump. >> then you're going to vote for hillary. >> that's it. thoenks are your choices and that's fine. make those choices. and that is -- that's what a lot of people have been up to this point. i will say, and i've been saying for a couple months now. things are going to change, mike.
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when republican voters, maybe not the 12 people in the stop trump, never trump group on twitter -- but when the rest of the republican party looks at their ballot, at least conservatives, and they're going to say, okay, i can take another clinton for eight years and have three of her appointees on the supreme court. change the tide of the supreme court for a generation. or i can take a chance on this guy. kind of like people did with ronald reagan in 1980. i don't think it's going to be that tough for most republicans in the end. >>is also a choice between old/new. hillary clinton is a vastly qualified candidate for the presidency. no doubt about that. but it's the past. and so donald trump is donald trump. the interesting thing about what we just showed, those clips, were you surprised that the huntsman endorsement -- or wasn't an endorsement, but explanation? >> yeah. >> i was surprised by it. is he casting a bunch -- would he take the number two spot on
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the ticket? >> i don't know. but it was -- it was positive, and i think a lot of -- i'll tell you, even if republicans aren't saying that, that's what obama's people are saying. that's what david plouffe is saying, david axelrod is saying. every obama person that masterminded that extraordinary campaign in 2008, they're all saying the same thing. democrats, you don't want donald trump. you think you want donald trump, you don't want donald trump. well, we republicans are gnashing our teeth saying he's going to tear down lincoln's brick by brick. >> what does bernie sanders mean what he says the democratic contest will be contested. plus, puerto rico hemorrhaging. live to the new york stock exchange for reaction as the island defaults on its nearly half a billion dollar debt today and what it will mean for the world economy. first, here's bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> thank you, mika. large hail and big hail storms, you think of kansas, oklahoma,
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colorado, texas. how about indianapolis last night? we got these pictures in. in some places, 10 inches deep. this is all about pea to quarter-size hail. thankfully, didn't do a ton of damage out there. look at that. that's indianapolis this morning when people woke up. let's take you into the severe weather this morning. over the weekend, louisiana got drenched. jazz fest was a nightmare. never made it out of the third round and heavy rain in eastern texas with thunderstorms rolling through the region. another inch or two. and 5 million people under a flood watch here in southern loouz. the other story, thunderstorms will erupt. 19 million people in the slight risk from north carolina to charlotte, raleigh, washington, d.c., up to the maryland/pennsylvania border. tornadoes should not be occurring today. large hail and damaging wind will be the biggest problem with these storms. as we time it out for you this morning, not many issues out there. very foggy, gray and gloomy. then clouds will break and we'll
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see sunshine and warm conditions. this is 4:00 p.m. notice the dots on the map here. these are the thunderstorms starting to erupt. and 10:00 p.m. this evening, storms could roll through the evening. damaging winds the biggest threat. the rest of the country is all right. seattle, one of the warm nest spots in the nation today, 85 degrees. enjoy that, northwest. you've had an incredibly warm stretch. we leave you with a shot of the foggy washington, d.c. what a weather day today. warm and sunny and then storms later this afternoon. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪
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democratic convention will be contested. despite hillary clinton's dramatic lead in delegates, sanders insisted clinton needs superdelegates to take her over the top. >> it is virtually impossible for secretary clinton to reach the majority of convention delegates by june 14th with pledged delegates alone. she will need superdelegates to take her over the top at the convention in philadelphia. in other words, the convention will be a contested contest. for us to win the majority of pledged delegates, we need to win 710 out of the remaining 1,083. that is 65% of the remaining pledge delegates. that is admittedly -- and i do not deny it for a second -- a tough road to climb. but it is not an impossible road to climb.
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>> sanders' comments came the same at a his campaign reported a 40% decline in fund-raising for april to just under $26 million from $46 million the month before. last week, sanders revealed he would be laying off some 255 campaign workers. >> so we're talking under the table, what's he doing here? i guess -- there's an indiana poll that shows that race is close, right, harold? >> i think it shows hillary clinton with a four-point lead. >> so that's tight. and he is right about the superdelegates. and it would take something, though, nicole, like an fbi ruling. and who knows, maybe that's what he's waiting for, because that obviously would switch all the superdelegates in his favor in the nomination. if that didn't go the way that clintons wanted it to go. >> but he doesn't have to stay in and keep kicking her to do that. he has the delegates. he could step aside -- i mean, what is happening is with the clinton folks say is happening.
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trump is tell graphing the sanders attacks on her in a obvious and public way. and trump is publicly courting his voters, because he has kept them frothy and angry and convinced she is both unqualified and unethical. so he can no longer make the case he isn't doing her harm. and certainly it's his purgative to stay in, and hope against hope that something like that happens. but if something were to happen to her, his options are still open. >> wow. >> why is an fbi investigation taking so long? it's a clear mishandling of classified information -- >> or it's not. >> i mean, whether you bring an indictment against hillary clinton or those around her, it is a clear mishandling of classified information. it doesn't take this long. why is the fbi dragging their feet? what political reason? what is their political motivation for dragging their feet? we >> well, it depends on who you talk to in washington.
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some say it's just the unnerving bureaucracy within the justice department and the fbi. >> state department for a while, too. >> it took such an extended period of time for the state department to get sort of everything they needed to get to justice. and then there is the theory that, you know, they're waiting for something horrific to happen on a friday afternoon. that has nothing to do with this. and then they release what they release for the weekend. i have not spoken to anyone who believes there is an indictable offense that has occurred and that is going to be the result of the investigation. but to the extent the time consuming extent -- >> all i can say, you're talking to a very tightly focused crowd there. >> not really. not really. there's a couple people i've spoken to who, you know, think that this should be -- sort of a petraeus ruling on it, at a minimum. >> you talk to people in the intel community and they say anybody else would be in prison right now. if they mishandled classified --
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talk to anybody in the intention community doing this for 20 years, they all say if anybody mishandled classified information that way, they would be in jail right now. >> it's the operationalizing of it, setting up the server to send and receive. >> and putting yourself -- not to replay this all of the time. but again, come on fbi, wake up. the fact of the matter is, she set it up so everybody, her subordinates, everybody else, had to send classified information through an unsecured server. that would be like if i were the director of the cia and i set my office up in a burger shack down the street and said you've got to bring the documents here, leave them in this file. it is the same thing. it is the same thing. >> and why would you do that? >> she likes burgers. >> love burgers. i don't like them. i would do it because i'm paranoid and i don't want anybody inside the agency to have the access, because i'm
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going to run for president someday. >> that's it. >> which is what she did. she put her own political -- her own political needs in front of classified information. so, again, is it -- is it an indictable offense? a lot of people in the intel community think it is. but i don't think she's going to be indicted. i think they're going to let her skate. they might indict somebody below that. but just get it done! seriously. let the democrats know for sure that they have hillary clinton as their nominee or not. make your decision, already. there's a -- >> like, what could be the thing making them sit there, going, i really have to think about this? it either or it isn't. am i oversimplifying? >> no, not at this point. they've had it long enough. >> some things either -- >> they've had it long enough. if i'm in the clinton camp -- >> they know what they're going to do. >> right. if i'm the clinton camp, i'm like -- make a decision,
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already. >> yeah. coming up on "morning joe" -- >> you know who i feel the worst for? i feel the worst for donald's supporters who believe his role, but every day if he gets closer to the nomination, he starts taking his mask off, and behind the donald trump mask is hillary clinton. >> yeah. what's behind that mask? >> oh! >> i wasn't going to say it. that's not nice! >> or delegates are determined in the "new york times." jeremy peters has new reporting on the move toward trump at the convention. some cruz people moving away from cruz. we'll talk about that. when we return. just like the confusion over the invitations to tonight's dinner. guests were asked to check whether they wanted steak or fish. but instead a whole bunch of you wrote in paul ryan. [ laughter ] that's not an option, people.
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my husband's an immigrant. right? is an i am grant. and that's what i've been saying! except a lot of people -- i think she was trying to say -- trying to put the little bit of a latin turn on it. he's born in canada, folks. >> oh, my gosh. 33, 34 past the hour. >> born in canada. i said, he's a comedian like in the catskills. >> mike barnicle, analyst to jordan. and "new york times" political reporter, alec importance. and "new york times" reporter, jeremy peterson. and jeremy, you write today's front-page piece for the "times" about ted cruz's support apparently softening among the delegates he courted. i can't believe it. they love him! >> are there second thoughts -- i'm serious. got pounded and pennsylvania and a lot of other states? >> what's happened is, his strategy with the delegates was always built around a premise that was pretty difficult. and that is getting to a second ballot at the convention.
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and as ted cruz has tanked in state after state, what's happened with delegates is what's happened with the average voter. they're just -- they like to be behind a winner. and right now ted cruz is not winning. and even though his campaign always talked up the strength of their got operation, what we found when we scratched the surface a little bit is that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. and his support, especially in places that are critical to his strategy, like north dakota, which has the unbound delegates, that support is softening. >> and alex, i think we talked about this on the phone a couple weeks ago. as somebody gets closer to the nomination, you can just forget everything. the entire party apparatus has. they all want jobs. they all want influence. they all want appointments. they all get in line and doesn't matter who it is. >> and the delegates want to go to the cool parties and they want the right floor passes and i think what's so important about jeremy's story, it really does undercut this whole idea of the cruz people have pushed for weeks and months, they would win
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the nomination primarily due to their technical and operational prowess, we're so clever at working the rules. and mean will, trump has had this old fashioned idea that you make your case to the public and win over voters. and you win the nomination accordingly. you know, i think we have seen which of those strategies is more powerful. even among the people who have committed to cruz. it stands to reason, really. and one of these things that once it's been reported, it seems kind of obvious. but nobody was saying a week ago that maybe cruz's delegate operation isn't enough. >> i mean, all things -- if it's all things are equal, then, yes. having delegate operation, having the turnout game that, you know, having the sharp shooters. great. but if you're running against somebody that has a fleet of b-52s, and it's carpet bombing on the ground, just doesn't matter. >> well, and this is what i've heard for the past couple weeks about cruz's delegate operation. that the delegates they have recruited aren't necessarily going to stick around for multiple votes. they aren't that loyal. so i think that's what jeremy
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really kind of nailed the problems of the operation. >> well, so mike. >> you know, jeremy, it seems to me, reading your story last night and again -- page 1, today in the "times" above the fold -- always good, buddy. it's just an outline of human nature. unbound delegates. i mean, oh, yeah, i like ted cruz a month ago, but now they're looking at who was in the winner circle. donald trump. human nature would dictate a certain percentage would say i'm going with the winner. >> you know, mike, this is also part of a larger problem with the never trump movement. it was never trump and then what? this guy who no republicans really have all that much affection for? never trump movement was going to be successful, it needed a candidate to rally around. and that guy is just not ted cruz. >> are we all pretty sure? is it looking more and more party insiders that everybody talks to that trump makes it to 1,237 now? >> i think in 36 hours from now if he has won indiana, you're going to see the back of the
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resistance really break. there is this sense that, you know, it's not even just about the delegate math in indiana. unless cruz wins indiana, it's hard to see him getting the momentum and the extended look from voters it would take to get to california. >> there is so much denial from republicans for so long about the inevitability about trump's nomination. we have been told to suspect plausibility for so long. this could happen and this will deny him. this contested convention idea. >> it's a hard turn. >> and now it's coming down to simple math and the denial. there is not enough room. >> if you've been on twitter over the past couple months, literally -- there were times where every third tweet, on my feed, which i follow like 400, sort of influential people, was why trump wasn't going to do it. and trump's failings and what trump said on the howard stern show. and what trump said. this fact-checker said trump is lying about this. i mean, it was constant,
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nonstop. and it is hard to move that ocean liner, isn't it? to suddenly go, okay, i guess we have to get behind him. >> yeah. >> or else hillary wins. >> and it goes to the underlying dynamic of this entire race. which is that trump gets one or two really big things about the cycle right. and everybody else gets -- a lot of little things about him right. they sort of pick away at him and these death by 1,000 cuts way and he is going at them with the hydrogen bomb. and we have seen now which is the more effective way. >> i'm curious what you think. what are the one or two things that trump gets right about the voters at the republican establishment so badly missed? >> i think they don't really care about credentials and, in fact, the credentials are maybe even a turnoff for voters at this point. they admire strength more than anything else. any deviations on policy, any personal failings or character problems, that all of them, at least for republican primary voters, are offset by the perception of just being a
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strong, tough person. >> all right. jeremy peters, thank you very much. good to have you on the show. congratulations on page 1. still ahead, reaction to the debt crisis in puerto rico. as the island is set to default on its debt today. plus, the presidential candidates can't say enough about how important this election is. but don't expect warren buffett to sound the alarm any time soon. why the billionaire investor says it just doesn't matter. oh, look... ...another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works... ...in one week. with the... fastest retinol formula available. it's clinically proven to work on fine lines and... ...even deep wrinkles. "one week? that definitely works!" rapid wrinkle repair. and for dark spots, rapid tone repair. neutrogena®. "see what's possible."
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i use what's already inside me to reach my goals. so i liked when my doctor told me i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating what's within me. with once-weekly trulicity. trulicity is not insulin. it helps activate my body to do what it's supposed to do release its own insulin. trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises. i take it once a week, and it works 24/7. it comes in an easy-to-use pen and i may even lose a little weight. trulicity is a once-weekly injectable prescription medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. it should be used along with diet and exercise. trulicity is not recommended as the first medicine to treat diabetes and should not be used by people with severe stomach or intestinal problems, or people with type i diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. trulicity is not insulin and has not been studied with long-acting insulin. do not take trulicity if you or anyone in your family has had medullary thyroid cancer
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♪ 43 past the hour. it's time now for "business before the bell" with cnbc's sara eisen. what do you have for us today? >> we're watching puerto rico's debt crisis, which is spiralling even further. the latest in this. the governor came out in a televised address yesterday, saying that he had ordered the government development bank to miss a certain payment that was owed today. so this is just the latest in a
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string of missed payments, otherwise known as default, for puerto rico. this is the biggest one yet and signals more are on the way. one other one to watch will be july 1st which is when puerto ricos $2 billion. that could be a major problem if it misses that. basically, puerto rico has many problems. it's dealing with a population that has been in decline. in fact, record migration out of the island. we just found in 2014. and basically a decade of no growth. defaulting on debt payments for a few months now. a lot of americans do hold puerto rican bonds, and congress is going through negotiations as we speak to figure out what to do about it. puerto rico can't just wipe the slate clean and declare bankruptcy like other u.s. states, because it is technically a territory and that's against federal law. republicans don't want anything that looks like a bailout. democrats want to make sure
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there are unions protected. so we'll continue to watch how this plays out as puerto rico continues to suffer. also wanted to quickly mention, warren buffett holding his berkshire hathaway annual shareholders meeting. the wood stock in omaha, nebraska this week. he did comment about politics. a long-time democrat, has supported hillary clinton. but he interestingly said berkshire will continue to do fine under a trump or clinton presidency. he said the country is heading in the right direction. no presidential candidate or president is going to end it. which came as somewhat of a surprise, because there's increasing concern about the populist rhetoric. all the business bashing. but buffett says we'll do fine either way. >> cnbc's sara eisen, thank you so much. up next, history in the making. the first u.s. cruise ship in nearly half a century is headed to cuba this morning. kersey sanders drew the tough assignment again, on the ship and will give us the story ahead on "morning joe." d paper.
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u.s. cruise ship sailing into cuba for the first time in decades. one of the biggest commercial steps since last summer when the u.s. and communist cuba reestablished diplomatic relations and the only television journalist reporting live from on board -- >> of course, there he is. >> nbc's kerry sanders. kerry. >> reporter: good morning, guys. look, this is really not only historic, but it's kind of like a gimme moment.
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that's havana right there. we're pulling into the port of havana. as you noted, it's been more than 50 years since a u.s. cruise ship has done this. think about it. the two countries that were so far apart that have now recently come together, allowing a u.s. cruise ship to pull into the port here. you see lots of folks over here, americans, who in a little bit will get a chance to step on to cuban soil, a country that for many they say, is frozen in time. this morning, history is being made, as this cruise ship becomes the first in more than a half century to sail from miami to havana. just 262 miles, but until now, it might as well have been light years. ♪ it's the maiden voyage to cubac, "adonia,". >> right at the heart of the city. >> reporter: american passengers
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about to step on to cuban soil. a country that most u.s. citizens have been forbidden to visit since 1963. >> we want to be part of history. it's really exciting. it's an honor. >> reporter: the cuba they will see has many americans anxious to get here. before it all changes. >> i want to get there before burger king shows up. >> reporter: before burger king shows up. >> reporter: an old cuban law banned anyone on the island from coming in by sea. cuban-americans and miami protested, and the law changed. which is why anna garcia, who left havana when she was 6, is today among a dozen cuban-born americans able to take this trip. >> i've been waiting 48 years, 8 days and 8 hours. i left on april 24th, 1968. so i've been waiting for a long time. and it still seems absolutely surreal. excuse me. >> reporter: cruise into cuba comes with restrictions.
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passengers can't go to the beach and drink mow etos. with the embargo still in effect, they're not tourists. they're on an educational or cultural visit. >> it's all very new. all happening so quickly. but it's cool to see. >> reporter: one ship, 700 passengers. but a sign, perhaps, of more to come. ♪ >> i've met very few americans who aren't curious about and want to visit cuba. the experience, culture, and people there. so we see lots of pent-up demand. >> reporter: the cruise ship "adonia" will be making this trip from miami to havana and two other ports in cuba. once every -- [ horn ] that was well-timed. [ horn ] >> we'll see you, kerry.
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will keep his rates from going up. but not his blood pressure. michael james! middle name. not good. get accident forgiveness from allstate and keep your rates from going up just because of an accident. and it starts the day you sign up. so whether it's your car or home, let allstate help protect your rates. talk to a local allstate agent and discover how much more their personal service can do for you. call 888-429-5722 now. welcome back to "morning joe." so glad to have you with us here today. i want to go to the phone, and apparently somebody is calling in. who do we have on the phone right now? >> hello? >> hello? who are we speaking with?
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>> mika's father. >> mika's father. well, i don't know -- >> how did you get his -- >> and mika's mother, as well! go ahead, we will give you the floor. >> mika! happy birthday. >> thank you. >> we love you and proud of you. >> happy birthday! >> i love watching you on msnbc. >> good promo. oh, god. okay. thank you so much. why did you do that? >> do you all have any stories for us? like any embarrassing stories when she was young. >> no. >> all the very best! >> okay, good. >> okay. we'll leave it there. thank you, so much, guys. >> very cute. >> that was very sweet of them, wasn't it? >> no, they don't like to do that kind of thing. >> i know they don't. that's why it was especially sweet. family members kill each other. >> oh, my god. >> oh, look at this! let's sing it, everybody! ♪ happy birthday to >> hey, let's try that again!
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come out and eat this cake, man! what are you doing? and tomorrow -- willie geist, the week of a thousand birthdays. >> that does it for us. thank you, everybody! steve kornacki picks up the coverage right after a break. oh, right now. go for it. >> we eat cake. you go for it. ♪ all right. good morning. happy birthday, mika. i'm steve kornacki. topping our agenda this hour, the last stand for the stop
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trump movement may be at hand. >> the men and women here are going to decide the. the course of this battle. not just for indiana and not just for the republican party. but for the entire country. >> less than 24 hours now until the polls open in the hoosier state. the numbers for ted cruz, they are grim. our new nbc news "wall street journal" marist poll now has cruz 15 points behind trump. now pretty much in need of a miracle if he's going to pull it out tomorrow. cruz sprinting across the state of indiana today. he's got ten events in less than 12 hours, set to make his first appearance very shortly. we're going to bring you that as it happens in what may be his last chance to turn this race around. also on the agenda this morning, the coming battle taking shape. >> we cannot let barack obama's legacy fall into donald trump's hands!
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