and with this many new flavors trust me, you'll be glad you can try three. like creamy baked lobster alfredo and grilled chimichurri shrimp and panko-crusted crab cakes bursting with crabmeat. because some choices are hard, but this one, this one's easy. so hurry in before it ends! i think we're going to do really great. >> nobody is going to get to 1,237. >> lyin' ted does not have the temperament to do this. >> i think he's crazy. honestly i think he is crazy. >> it is time now to take our country back. >> and good tuesday morning to you. a primary tuesday. welcome to coverage of the indiana primary here on msnbc. i'm steve kornacki.

it's the moment of truth for donald trump, the moment of truth for ted cruz, the moment of truth for the forces desperately trying to stop donald trump. as the voting plays out today, controversy, more controversy from donald trump. new comments, surprising comments about ted cruz's father. we will have the details on that in just a second for you. polls, as we said, they are open right now all across the hoosier state. this in a primary that could effectively end this republican campaign. donald trump is looking good in the polls to put a win on the board tonight in indiana. he needs less than half of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination before the convention. with a win tonight, that could be the nail in the coffin for the so-called stop trump movement. a movement that never really seemed to get fully started. new polling this morning shows a majority of republican voters now think that ted cruz and john kasich should drop out of this race. and our latest nbc news survey monkey online national poll shows donald trump climbing to

new heights. now 56% of republican voters across the country want to see him as the nominee. that is 20 points more than the combined total for his two rivals. that same poll still shows him losing by 6 points to hillary clinton in a hypothetical november matchup, a matchup that may not be so hypothetical for much longer. let's start now our coverage with our team all across indiana. we've got nbc's jacob rascon in carmel, indiana, covering the trump campaign. jacob, let's start with you. we mentioned new comments this morning. donald trump, here he is, looking like he's coasting his way to a big win in indiana, and he goes after ted cruz. ted cruz's father. and the question of the jfk assassination. what's going on here? >> reporter: right. so this is another case of donald trump calling something that's controversial ridiculous, something, a conspiracy theory that's been floating around for a couple of weeks, but he's bringing attention to it. this is obviously not on

accident. this is a strategy. he's bringing it up. this is somebody, donald trump who we'll remind our viewers began his political career as a birther talking about president obama and then he went on to talk about ted cruz in this way. but this morning what happened is this conspiracy theory floating around, a "national enquirer" story about ted cruz's father, rafael, being pictured allegedly with lee harvey oswald before the jfk assassination. here's what he said this morning on fox news. >> you know, his father was with lee harvey oswald prior to oswald being, you know, shot. the whole thing is ridiculous. what is this, right prior to his being shot. and nobody even brings it up, they don't even talk about that. that was reported and nobody talks about it. but i think it's horrible. i think it's absolutely horrible that a man can go and do that, what he's saying there. >> right. there was a picture out there that reportedly shows rafael cruz standing with lee harvey

oswald. >> what was he doing -- what was he doing with lee harvey oswald shortly before the death? before the shooting? it's horrible. >> reporter: now, it may be a legitimate question, what was he doing, if it's a legitimate picture. we're not even sure of that. but the fact that donald trump is going to bring it up and have people talk about it and it works, because the media now, politico and others have written stories about it. now of course we're going to talk about it and others. it's just a cycle that happens over and over. but it comes at a time when many thought and talked about how mr. trump was going to be and appear more presidential, and it doesn't appear to be happening. steve. >> certainly not this morning. jacob rascon on the trump beat out there in indiana. thank you for that. nbc's hallie jackson joins me, she is on the road on the way to evansville, indiana, home of the evansville purple aces, one of my favorite nicknames in college

sports. going to be a cruz rally there later today. >> reporter: how do you know that? >> ei know a lot of things abou three things in this world and college sports happens to be one of them. what are we hearing from ted cruz and what are we hearing from the cruz campaign about what donald trump is saying now about cruz's father? >> reporter: oh, they're saying it's false, it's cheap and it's meaningless, steve. the cruz campaign just arguing -- and i'm going to read this quote. it's further evidence of how detached from reality donald trump is. he'll say anything to make news, regardless of whether or not it's factual. the cruz campaign arguing that this is a desperate move now from donald trump to try to get attention. all of this of course against the backdrop of this very critical primary day, not just for donald trump. there may be less pressure on him than there is for ted cruz, who wants to show that he can still be a factor in this race, but cruz is trailing in recent polling by in some cases double

digits. the campaign bracing for a tough night ahead, but cruz insisting he will stay in this race. he plans to stay in it until there's no longer a viable path to the nomination. when you look at some of these numbers, there's a good 50% or so of people who think he should either drop out now or drop out in june if he's still losing. why june? well, as you know, june 7th is that california primary day when donald trump could lock up the nomination. other states vote then as well, including new jersey, montana, south dakota, but california is the biggest prize with its 172 delegates at stake. 39% think he should stay in through the convention, so cruz may look at those numbers. you can kind of see what you want when you look at how the po polling shakes out. another interesting thing i want to pick out is why he picked carly fiorina. people talking about why he think he did it. her gender, 45% think that's the reason, 15% think her business experience, 13% believe it's her views on the issues and 9% believe because she's a

political outsider. so fiorina has been out already this morning in skpindiana. she was with heidi cruz and cruz is headed to a barbecue joint out in evansville, home of the purple aces. we will see if we can find any fleeces to bring back for you, my friend. we'll do our best. >> look at that, i've got everybody conditioned now. hallie jackson on her way to evansville covering a cruz event there shortly. let me bring in brian howey from howeypolitics.com. big day here. let's try to set the stage from both parties. let's start on the republican side. we've seen the polls. donald trump looks like he's ahead going into today. what would you say the probability is that, hey, we missed something here and there actually is a late cruz/stop trump vote out there? >> everything that i'm seeing on the ground portends to a trump movement. i'm also sensing that a little bit with bernie sanders. i was at a sanders rally last night that had about 10,000

people so that's kind of movement type politics. we've got a drizzly day here, although the radar is showing the rain will fall away later in the day. we've had 200,000 early voters. and our pollster from public opinion strategies had told us that a higher turnout is good news for both donald trump and bernie sanders. as far as the national news going on, you know, the lee harvey oswald story, if that had broken a couple of days ago, that might have had some kind of impact. i think it's breaking too late. but hillary clinton's comments on coal and the confrontation in west virginia yesterday, that could have been impact on a race that, you know, nbc polling shows is within the margin of error, so that's going to be interesting. >> our poll had the democratic race at 50-46, clinton a four-point advantage for her. let me ask you what you think has happened, though, on the republican side out there. ted cruz, he didn't even campaign much in the northeast. he wasn't in the northeast when we had all those primaries last week. he staked his operation on

indiana. we looked at indiana and said this looks like a dead even fight, maybe even slight advantage for cruz in that state. that's what it looked like a couple of weeks ago. and the polls match this, it looks like a lot of energy for donald trump. is this just republicans looking at this race and saying it looks over, we want to get on board or did trump do something specific there in indiana? >> we have a large block of evangelical voters, 30%, but they're voting their pocketbooks this time, they're not voting on abortion or social issues. there's a lot of angst in the middle class. we've seen per capita income fall in this state. they're voting pocketbook issues. the other thing is ted cruz just has not made a case with what we call the mitch daniels wing of the party, more moderate business conservatives. i just don't sense that he's getting a lot of traction with the economic conservatives. and that's hurt cruz, as it did down south too. >> and what about the deal, the

talk of the last week. john kasich and ted cruz, their campaigns cut this deal. then they sort of denied it in public but basically there was news about it. kasich hasn't been in the state. our polling said this didn't necessarily look good to republican voters. do you think that's had an impact on this race? >> well, i actually think that it pushed some kasich voters into trump's camp, so i think it kid of backfired. the deal held, you didn't see kasich in the state here, but i'm not sure that all the kasich moderate voters, you know, the mitch daniels type voters, gravitated towards ted cruz. they just find him unacceptable. >> on the democratic side, you were saying a lot of energy there for bernie sanders. we've seen this in other states where he's got the big rallies and then we see it doesn't necessarily translate into poll numbers. but you say it looks like tonight there's a chance bernie sanders could pull this off in indiana? >> hillary clinton has the establishment support. former senator evan bye, joe

donnelly, the senator, andre carson, the congressman here, there's establishment support and yet we see 10,000 democrats turn up on monument circle last night and he's really resonating and we've seen it in the polls. so throw in hillary clinton's comments on coal, that's not going to play well down in southwestern indiana where we have a fairly significant coal industry. high turnout and watch out. we may have an upset brewing here. >> all right, brian howey, howeypolitics.com. thanks for the time. >> take care. >> and a reminder to catch our special live coverage of indiana's primary. it's going to kick off later tonight. brian williams, rachel maddow, chris matthews will have the latest results as they come in. the first round of exit polling data out at 5:00 p.m. eastern. remember, indiana has some of the earliest poll closing times in the country. we could be getting results on the early end tonight.

up next on our show, a look at the democrats, bernie sanders continuing his push through indiana. we just heard he has a chance to win that state, trying to take down hillary clinton at the polls, trying to shrink a very, very substantial hillary clinton lead in the delegate race. and also this, quite a scene in west virginia yesterday. hillary clinton's apology to a coal worker who went after her for her comments that clean energy would put coal workers out of jobs. as we go to break, a live look at a polling place in indiana. people there casting their ballots in the race for president. i have a blog called "daddy doing work", it's funny that i've been in the news for being a dad. windows 10 is great because i need to keep organized. school, grocery shopping. my face can unlock this computer. that's crazy. macbooks are not able to do that. "hey cortana, remind me we have a play date tomorrow at noon" i need that in my world. anything that makes my life easier, i'm using.

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government and politics. i know people think, okay, you come, you talk to us, you ask for our votes and what do you do? you never produce. so i'm trying to say, look, i'm going to tell you what i'm going to do so you can hold me accountable. >> voters in indiana casting their ballots as we speak, but hillary clinton already looking ahead to the next wave of contests. you saw her there in kentucky. that state will hold its vote on may 17th. this morning she will also be in west virginia, the primary there next tuesday. kristen welker is in athens, ohio, site of a clinton event later this afternoon. kristen, the battleground shifting to some of these more rural states. these are states hillary clinton did really well in in the 2008 primaries against barack obama, and yet this time it looks like she could lose some or even all of these states. >> reporter: that's absolutely right, steve. good morning to you. the clinton campaign concerned quite frankly about their chances in some of those states,

west virginia, kentucky where she was stumping yesterday. and she had what amounted to a really intense exchange during a roundtable in williamson, west virginia, last night. there were protesters outside. once that roundtable started, one of the participants, bo copeley, confronted her over some of the comments she made earlier this year in which she said her policies would lead to coal mines closing and to a loss of coal jobs. copeley making the point that he was a former coal worker who was put out of work. take a listen to part of that very tense exchange. >> the reason you hear those people out there saying some of the things that they say is because when you make comments like we're going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs, these are the kind of people that you're affecting. this is my family. that's my future. >> what i said was that is going

to happen unless we take action to try to help and prevent it. so i don't -- i don't mind anybody being upset or angry. that's a perfect right for people to feel that way. i do feel a little bit sad and sorry that i gave folks the reason or the excuse to be be so upset with me because that is not what i intended at all. >> reporter: it's an issue that clearly resonates throughout coal country. clinton campaign officials saying that they are bracing for a potential loss in west virginia and in other states. and of course this comes at a time when secretary clinton has a huge lead in the delegate count. but if senator sanders does win a number of states during the month of may, it would only add to his argument that he could potentially contest the convention during the summer. secretary clinton, though, increasingly pivoting to the general election. she is here stumping in athens, ohio, today. of course this state has already voted.

it's a clear indication that she is going to fight for this big battleground state where donald trump could pick up some votes. i anticipate we will continue to see this pivot only increase in the coming days and weeks. steve? >> kristen welker on the hillary clinton beat in ohio. thanks for that. and a quick programming note for you. this afternoon hillary clinton is going to sit down with my colleague, andrea mitchell, an exclusive one-on-one interview. it's going to be ahead of tonight's indiana primary. you can catch that conversation right here on msnbc at noon eastern. also stay tuned throughout the afternoon because around 3:00 p.m. that coal miner who had that confrontation with hillary clinton last night over her comments about the future or lack of future, as she seemed to suggest, of the coal industry, he is going to be on msnbc talking about what he heard from hillary clinton and what he made of that. that will be around 3:00 this afternoon. a very interesting exchange hillary clinton had there in the heart of coal country yesterday. turning to bernie sanders now, where the math may be

against him in his fight for the democratic nomination, but he still has plenty to fight for in tonight's critical primary in indiana. he drew huge crowds at multiple events on monday and had a rally of nearly 8,000 people in indianapolis. if you're looking for reasons that sanders is staying in the race, that's as good a reason as any. of course the clinton campaign would like nothing better than for sanders to bow out rather than take this all the way to the convention. the public does seem to see it differently, according to a national poll. less than two in ten democrats say that sanders should drop out now. nearly 60% say he should stay in all the way to july. chris jansing is following the sanders campaign in indianapolis. chris, this is an interesting thing. look, you've got the poll there. democrats saying it's okay, sanders can stay in if he wants. we just heard from kristen the likelihood really that bernie sanders is going to keep winning states through may into june, so the numbers still really don't

add up unless something totally unforeseen happens here, the numbers don't add up to win the nomination but there's still going to be a lot happening with the sanders campaign over the next few weeks. >> reporter: there is no bowing out going on. you can see right now, i'm in peppy's grill here and behind me the senator has just moved in there and he is -- has been meeting with chuck jones, who is the head of the local steel workers union, which endorsed him. as you probably know the carrier plant here losing 1400 jobs to mexico. i'm going to keep an eye on him to see if we can get a couple of questions in to him. this is a time in the campaign where they know the uphill climb is beyond high. the numbers as you said, steve, are against him. but they get these huge crowds. they are still getting enough money coming in and he is also believing that he has a chance to win here. you know, the polls have shown him within the margin of error, even as we've heard debbie wasserman schultz, the head of the dnc, going against frankly

what he has been pushing for, which is having more independents being able to vote. she said that the primary here ought to be decided by the people who are in the party. so you can see that he's making some photographs with people. let's quickly look at those delegate numbers if we can, steve. 790 delegates is the advantage that hillary clinton has. 19% is all she needs to win of the remaining delegates. he needs to get 81%, so that almost goes far beyond what seems like it's a doable thing. he has been, however, not letting up. as you said, three events here in indiana. he's going to go on to kentucky and to west virginia later in the week and then he may have a down day a little bit later on in vermont to see exactly what their plan is, but expect him to have a heavy presence in california. that's a state obviously that is

rich with delegates. the more delegates he gets, and we've been talking about this for a week now, the more votes, the more delegates, the more influence he feels he is going to have over the party as he heads into -- as he heads into july and that convention. finally, i hope we get a chance to talk about this sort of contested contest that he has been talking about and exactly what that means and what his plans are in terms of -- senator sanders, if you'd give us a minute. debbie wasserman schultz has said that she doesn't think independents should be able to vote. she says you're wrong, that the nominee of the party should be decided by members of the party. your response? >> well, i think debbie has got it backwards. more and more people are going outside of the democratic and republican parties. we have millions and millions of independents out there. to say that when a primary takes place, such as the case in new york state, that 3 million people should be disenfranchised

and not being able to vote for either the democratic candidate for president or the republican, i think it makes no sense at all. the world has changed. more and more people are independents, and i think it makes no sense for the democrats to say to those people, you can't help us. for democrats to do well in a national election, they're going to need a lot of independents. i would not think it's a good idea to push those people away. >> reporter: and you talked very forcefully on sunday about your plan that this is going to be a contested contest. there's been a lot of speculation about exactly what you mean in terms of what you're going to do at the convention. can you clarify that? >> this is what i mean. two points have got to be made to the superdelegates. number one, in those states where we have won with 65, 70, 75% of the votes, i would hope that the superdelegates listen to the people in their own state and say, hey, maybe i was for hillary, but bernie won 75% of the vote. i've got to vote with him. number two, for other superdelegates who may have come on board literally before i was

in the campaign. you know, they came on very early with hillary clinton. they have got to take a hard look at which candidate is more likely to defeat donald trump or the other republican or whoever the republican nominee might be. if you look at virtually all of the polls, i do better against trump than does hillary clinton. i'm the stronger candidate. and i think you're going to see a lot of superdelegates, well, i like hillary, but bernie is the stronger candidate. it's imperative that we retain control of the white house. >> let me ask you quickly about those two points. doesn't that, your second point, doesn't that disenfranchise voters if suddenly because you look at the polls and you talk about electability and if hillary clinton has the delegates and she's ahead, why should they turn to you when voters in their state have gone with her? >> because, look, what we have right now is the absurd situation where as of today, before indiana, we have 45% of the pledged delegates. we have 7% of the superdelegates. now, you tell me how that makes

sense. >> even if the delegates, the superdelegates in the states where it's already been contested go to you, you're still far behind. >> that's right. but i think it is a valid point. i have a whole lot of problems with the nature of superdelegates right now and the power that they have. i mean the truth is, you've got over 700 superdelegates and that is too many, i think. so i think that's something we have to rethink. but the basic point here is i think given where we are right now, with superdelegates playing a very, very powerful role, although they were not elected by their constituents, i think it is appropriate that those superdelegates sit and think which candidate will be the strongest candidate in defeating donald trump, and i think the objective evidence is that i will be. >> reporter: so no matter what the delegate -- >> i don't want to get -- i've said what i have said. right now, by the way, we got, including today, ten more states. we're at 45% of the popular delegates right now, pledged

delegates. we hope to get over 50. it's a -- you know, it's a major effort, and i know that. we have california out there where we think we're going to do pretty well. we think we'll do well today. our goal is to win the pledged delegates and our goal is to convince superdelegates who may have come on to hillary clinton way before i was in the race that i am the strongest candidate to defeat trump. >> reporter: thank you very much. senator bernie sanders, who is going to now be down and he's going to be heading to an evening event that he's going to have tonight in kentucky. steve, i'll send it back to you. >> all right, chris jansing, that's the scene there in indianapolis. very interesting interview with bernie sanders talking about the road ahead, talking about his strategy, saying he wants to get that pledged delegate majority by the end of the primary season. also encouraging superdelegates who had lined up behind hillary clinton early on in this process to change their allegiance and line up with him now. it will be hard for bernie sanders to do that if he doesn't

get the pledged delegate majority. as he said, that is an uphill climb for him to reach that number by the end of this process. uphill climb is putting it mildly when you run through those numbers but that's bernie sanders in indianapolis right now. that's the democratic side. meanwhile, also a lot going on on the republican side. big vote there in indiana today. donald trump, ted cruz, john kasich still on the ballot. ron maott is live at crown poin, indiana, northwest indiana, the voting is under way there. ron, what are you hearing around there? >> reporter: steady stream of voters coming in this morning. you can see a lot of the canvassing going on. we're only able to talk to voters outside because of electi electioneering rules. barack obama carried lake county almost 2-1 over mitt romney in the last cycle. i've met now three folks who have come through to vote and they all have very interesting ideas about why they voted for each of their candidates. we'll start with you. tell me who you are? >> richard kennedy. >> reporter: richard, you had an interesting idea we were talking

about off camera. >> i think what would be very great if donald trump were to secure the nomination, i would love to see him reach across party lines and nominate bernie sanders as our vice president. if we look at the election process in the primary, two overwhelming competitive candidates have raised in the polls, donald trump and bernie sanders. ronald reagan, one of our best presidents, said to mikhail gorbachev tear down the wall. mr. trump, please tear down the political wall, reach across party lines and listen to america. >> reporter: interesting idea. next up. >> joe moholic. >> reporter: who did you vote for? >> i voted for donald trump. >> reporter: tell me why. >> donald trump is going to have -- make changes instead of promises. in the past couple months look how companies have moved out of indiana or illinois, carrier refrigeration, nabisco, ford is going to build plants all in mexico. >> reporter: and you think he's best positioned to actually

bring jobs back online in this country. >> well, we need changes, okay. i think he's going to make the changes to help the companies to say, hey, okay, we're going to help you out so you can stay in the united states. >> herb divine. >> reporter: so, herb, you voted for ted cruz, i understand. why did mr. cruz get your vote? >> i think he's a man of impeccable character, he has integrity. i think he tells the truth and what he says, i believe he's going to do it. so i'm a constitutional conservative. i want to see planned parenthood defunded and those issues meant a lot to me. >> reporter: thank you guys for talking to us. there you have it. three very diverse viewpoints here this morning in crown point. steve, back to you. >> election day in indiana. ron mott out there, thank you for that. we're going to go now to the city of fishers in the central part of the state, one of the busiest republican areas in the state of indiana. tony today codokoupil is there. tony, set the scene for us. what are you seeing, what are

you hearing? >> reporter: there are more republican voters coming through here today than likely any location in the state and double the republican votes in nearby districts. this is the fifth district. this is hamilton county, a well educated county and this line is five folds deep. it's not supposed to be like this. this is mid-morning. look at this line, it's unbelievable. the election workers expect thousands to come through here. they expected it to be a dead time but instead you're seeing a massive, massive turnout. the key story, will trump have momentum and should the cruz and kasich alliance work out. we've got a very interesting voter with us here today. this is lou russell. >> hi. >> reporter: she is not going to be voting what your heart is but strategically. tell us about that. >> right. i am voting republican today for the first time in maybe ever. i am hoping that trump loses actually. that's my whole platform right there. >> reporter: so you're a never trump voter. you're crossing over, which is something you can do here in

indiana and you're going to cast a vote for which of the candidates? >> i think cruz just for the sake of delegates, although i prefer kasich, but neither of them are going to win anyway. but the trump thing is just ridiculous. >> reporter: since we're being strategic here, why not vote for trump, since hillary seems to do well against him in a general election. >> i think she's okay. i think this is more of a moral victory for me because i can't believe he made it this far. >> reporter: i'll let you get back in line because this loin is really crazy right now. it's not clear who it's going to help. anecdotally it seems like donald trump is doing better. there was a korean war veteran and who do you think he voted for? we caught up with him. donald trump. back to you, steve. >> there it is, tony dokoupil in fishers, indiana. thanks for that. continue to keep an eye there in the lower right-hand side of your screen. that's bernie sanders in indianapolis outside of that diner where he talked to chris jansing just a few minutes ago.

bernie sanders holding court there on this indiana primary day. up next, we're going to take a look at the unique constituency that donald trump seems to have cornered the market on in indiana, coaching luminaries. he lined up a whole bunch of them. they're now working to recruit for team trump. we'll be right back. to folks out there whose diabetic nerve pain... shoots and burns its way into your day, i hear you. to everyone with this pain that makes ordinary tasks extraordinarily painful, i hear you. make sure your doctor hears you too! i hear you because i was there when my dad suffered with diabetic nerve pain. if you have diabetes and burning, shooting pain in your feet or hands, don't suffer in silence! step on up and ask your doctor about diabetic nerve pain. tell 'em cedric sent you. ...to cook healthy meals... yet up to 90% fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. let's do more... ...add one a day men's 50+.

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countless hoosiers more than 15 years after indiana university unceremoniously and outrageously dumped him as their basketball coach. now knight has some company on the trump bandwagon. first up, yesterday carmel, indiana, a surprise guest. yes, that is gene keady, the legendary coach of the boilermakers basketball team, arch rival of the hoosiers. long-time sideline nemesis of bob knight and poe sersz of one of the most notorious comb-over jobs. then a video goes viral. >> there are nothing but winners in indiana. the main reason i'm endorsing him, i've played his golf course, i've stayed in his hotel. he does nothing but go first class in everything. he wants this country to be first class as well. >> oh, my god, why yes, it is, it's lou holtz, the legendary coach of the notre dame fighting

irish football team. the famed powerhouse from south bend, indiana. holtz who led the golden domers to their last national title in 1988, who should have won a second title in '93, who in 11 seasons won more games than any notre dame coach not named knute rockne throwing his support behind donald trump. and if that wasn't enough, the nightcap in south bend last night. yes, ladies and gentlemen, here to add his name to the list is the one, the only, richard digger phelps, the mortician's kid who prouwled the notre dame sidelines for two decades, who led the irish to their last final four and engineered one of the most shocking upsets of all time, a come-from-behind win over mighty ucla. a historic triumph that ended the bruins unheard-of 88-game winning streak. phelps, holtz, keady, knight. over 2,000 wins, 83 ncaa

tournament and bowl appearances, dozens of conference titles, accolades too numerous to tally. surely, surely their endorsements will mean new votes for trump, votes from the people who cheered for them, who respect them, who admire them, who prayed for them. people like this man, a reserve lineman on the 1964 university of connecticut football team, the huskies. a man named steve kornacki sr. why, yes, that's him there, number 51. and one of the coaches on that team, wait for it. none other than mr. louis leo holtz. my father, he played for lou holtz and still talks about how much he learned, how much he grew, how much he became the person he is today because of that incredible experience in his life. and so surely, surely he is exactly the kind of person who will be swayed by all of these endorsements. and so i asked him last night and he told me, quoting directly here.

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she's a visiting lecturer at harvard. jill, thanks for being here. donald trump, we saw him do this with jeb bush, low energy. he comes up with that label. it was little marco, low energy jeb. he wants to say crooked hillary. you have a new column here. you write hillary clinton is fundamentally honest. tell me what makes you say that and whether you think donald trump repeating this over and over again will still get through to people. >> well, i'll take the second part first. i think if you repeat something long enough and strongly enough, as he does, it definitely gets through to the public, especially when the media covers every speech he gives and everything he says. how i come to that judgment that he's fundamentally honest and truth worthy -- and trustworthy is, you know, i've supervised and myself as an investigative

reporter, done every manner of investigation of both clintons. and i've supervised so many investigations of her at "the new york times," going back to her run in 2008 to now. and i -- you know, i don't think one can come up with an example of her being influenced by a campaign donation or money given to the clinton foundation or by speech fees from wall street firms. if you look at the record of what she's been saying in her campaign now, she ranks way up there on the truth-o-meter that politico facts. >> when we have these polls they show that question of honesty

and trustworthiness with hillary clinton off the charts negative. where do you think that comes from? >> i think it comes from, and i wrote this in my column too, she has a fundamental lack of transparency with voters and with the media. she has always felt that she can preserve what she calls a zone of privacy around her. and in the world we live in now, those zones of privacy are really gone for public figures, especially ones running for president. so i have urged her to release the transcripts of those speeches, because i suspect they don't have her making bad promises to wall street bankers. i bet they're fairly anadon. so she believes in this zone of privacy and she's going to keep things to herself. i think that hurts her. >> i don't think we're quite ready for or anybody quite knows what we're getting into when we look into a general election

debate between donald trump and hillary clinton. when you look at how he's behaved on that stage in these republican primaries, we've never seen anything like that in a national political debate. if you put him up there on the stage saying the things we've played, if it's crooked hillary, crooked hillary on the stage with her, how do you think that's going to look? >> well, i think that's what her campaign is wrestling with right now is how and when she should respond if she's the general election candidate and he is. it's tough because, you know, if you respond and let him get under your skin, you're just feeding whatever he's calling you, crooked hillary. i mean it's absurd to call her not qualified to be president. lately he's been criticizing her judgment. so, you know, it's tricky. she can dismiss some of what he says, ignore it, or come up with some good lines, as she did with

the woman card thing. if that's playing the woman card, deal me in. and talking about her very strong record on women and children. >> let me just ask you, you mentioned the media coverage of donald trump. you're somebody, you've made some very important decisions in your career about what media coverage really is. about the level of media coverage out there for different candidates. when you look at trump, i've gone back and forth on this too because yes, he gets a huge share of attention and coverage. when i look at some of these polls with all voters, democrat, republican, independent and i see he would take into the general election some of the worst numbers, maybe the worst numbers we've ever seen, there's been a lot of media coverage but that tells me it has been critical media coverage. after all, you look at the majority of the country right now, they're looking at him and saying they have deep concerns about him. >> there has been definitely some very good and in-depth reporting about trump and his investments and how he made his money and who he is.

but i think what we have to remember is we've been covering him in the context of the republican primaries. his base in those primaries are white male, noncollege educated voters. and he can't possibly win the election unless he expands that base in a huge way for the general. and that's going to be really hard for him. >> to go so all in on the strategy he's had to try to change to a new one to expand that, that will bow an interesting thing to see him try to pull off. jill abramson, thanks for the time. >> thanks. as we head to break, other news this morning. how about this, the broadway show "hamilton," the mega-hit musical that may have saved alexander hamilton's face on the currency, just grabbed a record 16 tony nominations. that is the biggest haul in broadway history. we'll be right back. ♪

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police involved in the death of a man who was shocked with a taser multiple times will not face charges. we expect that public announcement today. officers in southern virginia picked up linwood lambert almost three years ago exactly to take him to the hospital. a little more than an hour later, lambert died in police custody. msnbc chief legal correspondent ari melber was the first to report this news of no charges late last night. ari, what are we learning today? >> that's right, steve. i confirmed with two sources with direct knowledge of the investigation last night that after three years there will be no charges. folks may remember we brought this story first here on msnbc. he was picked up, taken to the hospital. you see on the video that we originally obtained he was tased by police who said they wanted to get him medical care to the hospital. that's the door to the e.r. they then brought him back into a police car rather than into the hospital where he was tased

repeatly while his legs and arms were shackled. it was a graphic incident. over 20 tasing discharges total leading to a lot of questions about whether there will be charges. i've obtained this report today. this will be released later today by prosecutors. i want to read from it some of the key explanations there. prosecutors explaining that they saw police as reasonably fearing that lambert posed a danger to others outside the hospital. but the report finds the police unreasonably tased him while on the ground in front of the e.r. door. and then it says police tasing while lamb peert was shackled i the police car was also unreasonable. despite those issues there in this new report to be released later today, finding that that conduct was unreasonable, there will be no charges of any kind. we conclude that although the officers were intentionally inflicting pain to gain compliance, they were not trying to punish, torture or

gratuitously hurt mr. lambert. so, steve, what we see there, and we do not recommend indictments for involuntary manslaughter, the other key conclusion. what we see is another case where there is graphic conduct captured on film. in this instance i want to emphasize as folks may or may not remember, the person here, linwood lambert, who died was not a criminal suspect. he was not someone who was picked up on suspicion of having conducted some sort of illegal activity. rather, he was picked up and offered medical care and taken to that hospital and then when he broke the squad car window and had this tussel, it led to that series of repeat tasings. i also was able to speak with his sister who's brought a separate civil lawsuit. here's what she told me about this new information that they're not charging. she said we waited three years to get back to the same place where these officers are not going to be held accountable for their actions. steve, the only other thing i

would flag that's interesting in this report as we make our way through it, the prosecutors looked also at misdemeanor charges, those would be a lesser offense, but they had the statute of limitations, the expiration date had already run on that. the reason that it ran is because those same prosecutors took three years to finish this investigation. >> all right, ari melber, thank you for that report. coming up here on msnbc this afternoon, hillary clinton is going to join andrea mitchell, an exclusive one-on-one interview ahead of tonight's indiana primary. you can catch that conversation right here on msnbc at noon eastern. make sure to check that out. then stay tuned for those primary results when they start rolling in. our primetime coverage is going to kick off at 5:00 p.m. eastern with chuck todd. we should be getting exit polls right around there. then at 6:00, brian williams, rachel maddow, chris matthews pick up special live coverage. i'll be there with the big board. big night in indiana, big night in american politics. that's going to do it for this hour of "msnbc live."

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ask your doctor about viagra. good morning, everyone. i'm tamron hall coming to you live from our msnbc election headquarters. voting is now under way in indiana where donald trump and hillary clinton are looking for wins that would make their path to the nominations unstoppable. polls are open until 6:00 p.m. local time in that state that straddles the eastern and central time zones. as indiana votes, a new attack this morning from donald trump. his focus, ted cruz. trump cited a recent "national enquirer" story that claims the senator's father was with john f. kennedy's assassin, han