no path forward. john kasich will announce -- they've said now the meeting that was supposed to be in d.c. and he was going to a news conference in d.c. will be an announcement at 5:00 in ohio on his home turf that he is ending this run and going forward donald trump has big challenges as we all talking about that in the next hour. >> which will be interesting what role john kasich -- he did not make a huge imprint on the campaign trail only winning his home state but his philosophy, his background are things that could be appealing and in part of what donald trump would need to unify his party. >> he's a governor, a former budget chair, an experienced political leader who would be invaluable to the republicans as they try to pull this party together. >> okay. i know you're still on that call. i'm being told to turn over the show so you're going to have to hang up on whoever you're on hold with. just hang up on them and they should be watching us live anyway. returning over the coverage to

andrea mitchell as we continue to follow this breaking news story. john kasich, reports are, suspending his campaign at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. we'll see what this means for coalescing the party around its likely nominee donald trump. andrea? >> tamron, thank you very much. and seamlessly we are right now on "draef mitchell reports" breaking news. i've learned from a campaign adviser, john kasich is indeed suspending his presidential campaign. this, of course, makes donald trump the likely nominee after ted cruz announced that he is dropping out after losing in indiana last night following his crowning victory can trump unite the party? >> are you fully confident, mr. trump, that you can unite the republican party behind you? >> i am confident that i can unite much of it. some of it i don't want. i don't think it's necessary. people will be voting for me, not voting for the party. i think we'll do really well against hillary. >> and joining me now nbc's luke russert live at dulles airport

and hallie jackson in jab yap and kristen welker in brooklyn, new york, and here in studio taty. katy tur and mark murray. first to you, katy tur, let's talk about donald trump and this improbable campaign which has ended with such success as he becomes the likely party. >> i think it's incredible to say now that donald trump is vetting vice presidential picks and he's trying to find somebody in a will be able,his words, to help him with legislation and to help him with making friends essentially in congress. and that he hasn't been very good, that he's campaigned as an outsider. you called this improbable. i've been on this since june, since i think about june 26th was the first day i started

covering donald trump. he announced on june 14th. it was right when he was feeling all of the fallout from business ties after he announced for presidency, announced his candidacy, and talked about mexicans and called some rapists and criminals and drug dealers. since then it has been remarkable to watch him gain momentum over time, get unbelievable support and this unwielding support from supporters in all parts of this country. we were west, east, north, south, conservative, moderate, religious, not so religious, and they all just started rallying around donald trump even as the washington establishment or even folks in new york were looking on and saying this bubble's got to burst. this is a fever that will break. it never happened. what people just did not understand from the get-go was

this frustration with washington, this desire to have someone come in and really change things. really poke the system and make things go in another direction. they feel they've been voting for politicians year after year who promised big change and nobody has so far delivered. there's been gridlock. and they think maybe someone like donald trump who is so outside of the establishment, who is so anti-politician and not politically correct oftentimes is somebody that can go in and do just that, change things where other people have not been able to. that's why he's been so successful. whether that works in a general election when he has to appeal to a broad er electorate, that s the question at hand. to luke russert where john kasich was supposed to have a news conference at 11:00. that was pushed back. then they said at 5:00 in ohio which, luke, you correctly a

half hour ago said that was a pretty big indicator of what was going to happen. and then i confirmed that he is, in fact, dropping out, suspending that fated campaign despite all his credentials. the magic just never happened with the voters. >> reporter: a good bit of teamwork. i set it up for you and you nailed the three from downtown. we assembled at 10:45 a.m. john kasich was slated to come to the region, meet with national security advisers. we got word that his plane had not taken off from columbus, which is a little bit suspicious considering the weather was not all that bad. then word came he was going to make an announcement at 5:00 p.m. columbus local time which you confirmed he will drop out. that means donald trump will hit that 1,237 number. campaign advisers tweeted out, look, you're not the nominee until you get 1,237. making light that may 4 is may

the force be with youmontage, k only one who can beat hillary clinton for the presidency. that's all changed in the last few hours. i think now it's going to be a very, very fast moving get in line effort. and what i'm curious to see, andrea, is how fast does capitol hill move? we saw some breaks last week. i suspect you'll see more of that. the big question is, if donald trump tries to professionalize his campaign, what role does speaker paul ryan play? what role does senate majority leader mitch mcconnell play? what role does the nrcc play, the nrfc, the rnc, all those campaign apparatuses within the republican party, how they're going to move forward on this. i can tell you when we brought up donald trump last summer as katy tur was mentioning, i got laughs from john boehner, never going to happen. the entire leadership, that's a joke. come on, let's be serious.

let's focus on the serious. the joke is now reality and how they deal with that on the hill is anyone's guess because i don't think they compared for this. mitch mcconnell said he was optimistic there would be a second ballot. this is a real reality check come early may, andrea. >> it is indeed. the man you cover full time, paul ryan and mitch mcconnell will have to deal and deal with something they never expected would happen. peter alexander, you spent a lot of time with donald trump and covering the republicans. he's got some challenges. it seems he has a clear field now that we're reporting john kasich is following out following ted cruz's example. in talking to party leaders and money people, surprisingly donald trump has to figure out how to get the victory fund and start doing the traditional thing, raising money, the $2,700 limit, or go with his brand which is the self-financing, go for the federal money, go for

the federal dollars assuming he doesn't need as much money because he gets so much publicity he has figured out how to generate. these are the choices he has to make the next couple weeks as he gears up to make this a general election republican campaign, peter. >> reporter: andrea, that's exactly right. just consider this fact, donald trump in the course of what i guess now is 11 months spent $47 million. sounds like a lot but that's actually not very much to win a general election certainly in this era where $100 million is spent by someone like michael bloomberg to win the mayoral race in new york city. compare that to more than $150 million by bernie sanders and hillary clinton to this point so far. trump himself saying that one of the decisions he needs to make right now is whether or not he is going to allow his campaign to take donations like that, to no longer be self-funded. it's the brand that has stuck to him and resonated. what was most strikinging perhaps this week when we saw ted cruz going up to the trump supporters, effectively

protesting cruz, is they looked at ted cruz and said we like the guy who is self-funded. trump says that's a decision he will make in the course of the next several days, what he does as he tries to sort of unify the party but also to reconnect with the rnc itself which is, in many ways, been his foil for much of this campaign, certainly for the last couple of months. as for john kasich, as you were speak i speaking to some of my colleagues who just hung up with some of his top advisers, meeting privately over the course of the last hour or so, they're going to leave it to john kasich to deliver the message in his own words tonight, of course acknowledging that he will be suspending his campaign. throughout the course of the campaign and i was browsing through my notes as we heard this breaking news right now, he's always said i'm the guy standing up for the republican party. even last night one of his top advisers john weaver had referred to donald trump as a man who should be blamed for disrespectful ramblings.

they remained defiant in a belief they could be a competitive alternative, not as much even to donald trump but really to hillary clinton. andrea, what's so strikinging is kasich throughout hasn't just been close to clinton, he has dominated her in the polls in many states, ohio, pennsylvania, the state that he was born in. donald trump would suggest that's because there was so little negative advertising against him. nonetheless, kasich kind of glided through with little attention but also very low negatives comparatively. >> and how do you say running mate? i know speculation will be ripe but today on "morning joe" donald trump saying he was tending towards a politician because he's going to need someone who knows how to make deals. who could make deals than the former house chairman? >> reporter: he said that decision will be made in july, that he's going to put a committee in charge of that and telling "the new york times," did donald trump, ben carson will be one of those on that

committee. andrea? >> and let me play that sound from "morning joe." donald trump today talking about katy tur's reporting, that he was already looking to vet running makes. >> i think that i will say that i probably will go the political route. i have it to go the political route. >> so not a general, a lot of people proposed a military leader. >> well, it's something i thought of and one person i think is very good. >> so there you heard it. he's talking about political leaders. obviously there are a number of people he could turn to but john kasich is one of the people who has at least run a high tone campaign, you could say and someone who could be brought into the fold but certainly is now as we've been reporting and reported first today he is suspending when he has the news conference in ohio later today.

of course no republican can win without ohio so that, of course, is the battleground and the battleground brings me to mark murray who is here along with casey hunt. let's talk first about the states where donald trump has shown strength and he could show strength in the rust belt, in ohio, in pennsylvania, potentially, in michigan. certainly what i saw in west virginia yesterday and kentucky to come among the coal industry, the people in appalachia who are so angry at hillary clinton, that is no longer lyclinton country. it is now trump territory, at least so far. >> yeah, andrea. it really reflects the changinging demographics in the kcountry. we used to be democratic areas, now potential ly fertile ground. this is donald trump's rust belt strategy. white working class voters in ohio and pennsylvania, maybe do well in michigan and wisconsin, all four states in 2008 and 2012 and so the path to those

electoral votes for next six months. give hillary clinton the emerging, more diverse new south states. that gives 273 electoral votes. donald trump even if you give him iowa and new hampshire, he's at 263. electoral map ends up benefiting the democrats more than the republicans. we'll see how the next six months play out. >> the next six months will be rock 'n' roll. casey hunt, we thought we hadn't seen anything like this yet this is going to be an amazingly brutal campaign. you have two of the most unpopular likely nominees ever to face off against each other in a campaign that will be brutal in the era of social media dominated by donald. >> can you imagine if you're hillary clinton after getting in this, after losing in '08 to

obama thinking this is going to be the person that you're running against. it's clear from what we saw in the primary that donald trump is willing to go where other people have historically not been willing to go. places that some of the things he said are things we never thought we would see in our public discourse, forget about the quote/unquote gaffes, the language he's used. when talking about the clintons, so much there out in the public domain that they're going to have to grapple with in a way that is so unique to donald trump, and i just have to think that there are a lot of democrats i'm talking to this morning who sound exactly like republicans sounded when i was covering jeb bush and they kept saying when the voters show up, no way they're going to go with this guy. i have democrats saying the same thing right now about trump versus clinton and i just think that's a cautionary tale. >> kasie, even when he, acco according to all the polls, was going to win indiana, perhaps

not assuredly as large a victory as he ended up getting, but even at that point suggesting that rafael cruz was somehow incorrectly, based on tabloids, convicted with the assassination of jfk, that is such a bridge too far, you would assume. but as he said today to savannah guthrie, it was out there, it was in the tabloids, and somebody asked me a question and i answered it. >> he's skilled at in this new media environment in which we are living, you talk about essenti essentially what he decides he wants to talk about that day of suggesting things and then saying, i never said that definitively. i was just raising the question and there are very many questions to be raised about the lyclintons. i think that he will be able to approach in exactly the same way. i think the question is can they figure out a way to redefine donald trump. if you think back to -- and priorities usa the democratic super pac is looking at doing this and they, in many ways, defined mitt romney before mitt romney had a chance to define

himself. they defined him as this hedge fund millionaire. they're going to try it to do it again. donald trump is so well defined in the american consciousness, the challenge is entirely different. while we're getting a sense of what they're going to try to cast him as, this billionaire who has essentially is a con artist, has scammed people out of money, builds these condos and pulls out of deals, i don't think they'll do it the same way. >> they go after temperament as the one issue they might be able to score points, how they went after mitt romney and will go after daelonald trump on temperament. >> kristen welker, headquarters is buzzing today with the probability now that they are going to be facing donald trump even after a night where they lost badly to bernie sanders. >> reporter: andrea, i just spoke with one of secretary clinton's top officials here at her headquarters who said, look, the fact ted cruz dropped out,

that john kasich is dropping out, trump is the likely nominee doesn't change their equation. they have been assuming he is going to be the nominee ever since he had that huge win here in new york. and we've seen this massive pivot to the general election. secretary clinton really taking him on on the trail. we've seen this reallocation of resources. they are starting to build up their ground game in critical general election battleground states. five so far and they just added two yesterday -- virginia and nevada. and you can ex ekt that to continue. i am also told that they have some general election staffers who are here at headquarters working on the general election strategy as we speak. now the challenge for the clinton campaign, they're now fighting this battle on two fronts because, as you point out senator senators insist enter that he is staying in the race until the very end. clinton campaign officials say they're not going to push him to get out. they're going to continue to run their race, but, of course, they didn't spend any money in indiana.

the question becomes will they start to spend some money in these upcoming states, particularly california, just so that heading into the convention she's on strong footing. they're saying they're not ruling that out but i was told definitively, andrea, just moments ago, the primary focus right now is on the general. >> thank you so much, kristen welker. now today one of these couples, one of these two couples, is most likely to be the next first family. if you take a look at that split screen it is quite a contrast from anything we ever experienced before in the united states. hillary clinton has already, of course, pivoted to the fall campaign as kristen welker was reporting and now donald trump, the likely republican nominee, turning his focus to the general election. nbc news has learned the trump campaign will be making announcements soon about the next phase of his campaign. a new poll out this morning shows hillary clinton beating donald trump by 13 points in a general election matchup but there are big warnings signs for clinton in other polling data.

in april an nbc news poll showed her favorability among independents has dropped 15 points since january as bernie sanders has been hammering at her. and joining me now is clinton senior strategist. joel, welcome. >> welcome to msnbc. >> and now that kasich is dropping out today, it's clearly barring some unforeseen circumstance going to be hillary clinton versus donald trump but, at the same time, she has this pesky problem, a very strong challenger, bernie sanders, behind 3 million votes as she told me yesterday but a big win in indiana, then he goes into west virginia, heading there today, then kentucky. he has oregon, he has other states. there's going to be momentum. he will be announcing victory after victory even if numerically it's he's not going to likely beat her to the magic number. >> let's take a step back. you called it a big win last night. he picked up five delegates. we he are still ahead by more

than 3 million votes. he barely put a nick in those margins last night. >> the warnings signs. he won 58% of the white vote. he has already cost her independents. she's going into a general election campaign against a very improbable republican likely nominee and someone who is going to be very tough opponent but then also draw -- he can draw some traditional democratic votes with that same economic populist message that bernie sanders has used to such effect. your turn. >> actually, first of all, the first poll showed hillary clinton leading 13 points against donald trump. >> i put it out there. >> it shows her even among white voters, 49/49 which for a democrat is unusual in presidential years but, more importantly, when it comes to who has a message about really making a difference in working people's lives and who is going

to be a very risky, dangerous choice for working people, someone who opposes the minimum wage, thinks wages are too high in america, women who are working in the work place and trying to get ahead, there's a stark contrast about who will do something to help people get ahead and who will be doing what he's always done which is really always in his interests, not in the interests of helping small business people and working people. >> let me just point out that among the voters who support him, and admittedly he has to expand that field, they view him as a doer, as strong, as someone associated with job creation, even if he isn't asosociated wih job creation. so you have all these data points. as we've discovered in the last months is facts no longer matter. tweets matter. >> i think that's a bit of an overstatement. i think you can drive news with tweets. social media is definitely playing a bigger role and twitter in particular over the dialogue day in and day out. but, look, voters in america making a big decision and they

know that. they're electing a president of the united states and a leader of the free world. they don't want someone who is divisive, someone who is dangerous when it comes to the world stage, whose foreign policy positions have been roundly criticized by experts and military leaders because he wants more nuclear armament, not less. these are issues that the american people will evaluate. this is not going to be a campaign that will be won on twitter. you can drive news of the day and all campaigns are doing it now but the voters, i never underestimate the american voters particularly -- and i've been through a few presidential elections -- when they're electing the next president of the united states and leader of the free world. >> when i asked hillary clinton if donald trump was unqualified, she said he's shown no sign he understands what is necessary to be the commander in chief. mika and joe asked trump to rea react to that. >> just another politician talking and, look, bernie sanders said about hillary

clinton, she has poor judgment. he also said, by the way, she's unqualified but i won't even go there. but bernie sanders said she has poor judgment. and she does. you look it at the e-mail scandal, she shouldn't even be allowed to run. you know that, joe knows that, and everybody knows that. she's only being protected by the democrats. she should not be allowed to run in the election. >> has bernie sanders given donald trump the playbook for campaigning against hillary? >> i don't think so. we're 3 million votes ahead of bernie sanders. we had a vigorous campaign but i think he would agree and we certainly said and hillary clinton said there's a lot less that separates us than what separates us from donald trump. i think if donald trump wants a debate about who can really keep america safe, who has what it takes to be commander in chief, hillary clinton, who has negotiated with dictators around the world or donald trump who has had no experience, no track record and is talking about more nuclear weapons and is alienating our own allies,

that's a debate we'll have and the american people will evaluate and come down very squarely in hillary clinton's camp. >> do you think it is time for bernie sanders to, if not drop out, at least change his tone given the challenges that she, the democratic nominee, most likely, is going to face against donald trump? >> i think senator sanders said recently he wants to do everything he can to make sure that donald trump doesn't get into the oval office ever. we take him at his word for that. the path here for him has di disappeared. it's clear that hillary clinton's lead cannot be overcome particular ly even aftr last night. only five delegates and 93 came off the table again. he doesn't have enough real estate there. he has his own decisions to make. we can't tell him how he should run his campaign or what decisions he has to make but what we know is that we want to see all democrats united to make sure that someone as divisive and dangerous as donald trump never gets into the white house.

>> thank you very much. great to see you. and joining me now is hallie jackson who has inside reporting on ted cruz's decision to drop out last night. >> reporter: an extraordinary day, andrea, as it looks like donald trump, of course, will be the last person standing in this republican race, as you know. we've been on the republicans ever since the first of them started coming out announcing their candidacies 13, 14 months ago and today that road has come to an end and it's the shift to the general elected. so how did ted cruz make the decision to end his campaign? in conversations with the senior campaign source i'm told he huddled monday night on phone with about a half dozen of his closest advisers and there was not a unanimous decision about what he should do. the team looked at some of the numbers coming into indiana, looking at where they believed he'd end up in the polls. some of them thought cruz should stay and fight. others worried that staying and fighting would end up hurting cruz in the long run, hurting the persona, hurting what he has built up around himself as somebody who is a conservative

fighter, this reputation he has put forward on the campaign trail. ultimately the decision was cruz's. he was supported by his wife, heidi, who was involved in the conference call, we're told, and believed that it was time in supporting her husband to step out of the race. now things could have changed on tuesday. the campaign was watching the numbers come in. if the exit polls had shown a better showing than what their numbers had then perhaps we would have seen something different from cruz last night but ultimately the numbers ended up exactly where the campaign thought it would and that is why you saw cruz come out and step out of the race. so what happens next? what happens now for cruz? he's in houston. he's in texas wrapping his head around basically what just happened, the end of 13 months of fighting for something that didn't work out. donald trump defeating cruz at least in this moment. cruz will likely take the next couple of days to just get used to being back off the campaign trail before turning to the question of how and whether and

what it looks like if he is to bring together some factions of the republican party or at least be a force within this call for unity that we're hearing from people like rnc chair reince priebus and others. when you talk about john kasich suspending his campaign, andrea, as we've been reporting over the last several weeks, a real bitterness between the two campaigns. for all the talk of this alliance, this pact that came out, if donald trump were to end up the republican nominee, that kasich's team would have to look themselves in the mirror. i'm paraphrasing here, and take some responsibility for that because the cruz campaign had firmly believed they could beat donald trump head-to-head. obviously what happened yesterday the polls in indiana disproved that given that it was effectively a one-on-one matchup, andrea, but now this race turns towards the general. everyone looking to november. >> hallie jackson with all of your reporting, thank you so much. and chuck todd, our political director, "meet the press host" joins me now from washington.

this is clarified rather quickly after what happened last night and kasich now reporting is going to be announcing that he is suspending today. donald trump has to make it his own. >> reporter: he has made it his own. i was doing some quick, literally, back of the napkin math here. he has bested five current or former u.s. senators. collectively those folks had 130 years of elected experience in statewide office, not even counting john kasich's years in congress when you're putting all this up, and a guy who had never held office, who never really was an active member of the republican party. has bested all of those people and now essentially has remade the coalition of the republican party, the reagan coalition is no longer in existence. donald trump is trying to create a new coalition for the

republican party. we're going to find out in november if that adds up to 50% plus one. i think a lot of people are skeptical of that. today when you see john kasich getting out the day after ted cruz gets out and this is donald trump's to have, we do need to step back and sit here and give him his due. what donald trump did was not easy. >> and, in fact, chuck, i was talk iing to two people who rai a lot of money for republicans today and one said that he is going to focus on senate races because holding the senate is what's most important to business and to wall street in particular. and to stop hillary clinton from sweeping into office if she does become the nominee and is elected and at least have the senate there and the house, of course, to stop her. that said, the decisions that he has to make, he has to decide whether he wants to go for the federal matching funds rather

than going the route that barack obama and others have gone in raising, i'm told, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars. he doesn't need the free publicity. he knows how to get it. >> reporter: it's funny you bring that up. he doesn't want to spend his own money. can he go dollar for dollar with hi hillary clinton? the democrats on a presidential level are probably going to spend anywhere from $1.5 billion to $2 billion. where do i get that figure? that is the figure obabarack ob on his own without super pacs raised and spent in 2012. you would assume just on regular growth and the fact that there are now higher limits in some cases to raise money particularly for the national party, you're probably looking at $2 billion for the democrats. is donald trump going to put in $2 billion of his own money, $100 million of his own money let alone a billion? that's unlikely. can he raise a billion dollars between now and then?

well, if you have all of this angst in the republican party from the donor community about trump, well then, that's unlikely. so i actually think the matching funds uniquely for him, the idea of allowing, doing the federal match and takinging it, that isn't a bad idea for him because -- and if you're reince priebus you might want this. actually if you're running the n the house and senate republican campaign, you might want this because that leaves more money out there for you to raise for those races. i can tell you this, andrea, the senate math went from six target seats to 12 target seats. >> and that is the new reality and also helps him with his brand. he's not out there raising money from fat quacats, quote/unquote the way democrats have. he is self-funded and now is doing the public -- >> well, sort of self-funded. he did. think about this. i believe rick scott spent more money in his campaigns in the

state of florida in one campaign than donald trump spent marching through 40 plus states for the republican presidential nomination. it's quite remarkable how little money trump actually spent. >> wow. this is all pretty amazing today. we'll be look iing forward to i today. the stop trump movement stopped dead in its tracks as donald trump is now the likely republican presidential nominee, but some party faithful could still be struggling with this new reality. mitt romney tweeting last night a thank you to ted cruz and never mentioninging the front-runner. joining me now is the top adviser to mitt romney in 2012. he's the former governor of utah, former cabinet secretary and a supporter of john kasich. john, thank you very much. >> andrea, thank you. >> i was reporting that john kasich is staying in ohio and is going to announce later today, what can you tell us about the decision making that went into that? >> nothing, i know nothing about it. i read it this morning on your teleprompter. i'm sure he looked at reality,

one of the things many of us admired from john is a very practical man. i think he saw the handwriting on the wall. >> what does the rest of the party do? what do you do? how comfortable are you with donald trump? >> a fascinating thing is unfolding here. this has transcended politics. it's now sociology. we're seeing a campaign that's play iing out as much on attitu antone as it is on ideology and dogma. i think we're all in uncharted waters. we'll take this as it comes. the map is being reconstructed. at the same time i think people's views are still very much in flux. >> is he qualified to be president? do you see the qualities of character and experience in him that would want to -- for you to put him in the oval office? >> there's no question that temperament is a big part of leadership.

i think donald trump will have to demonstrate not just to all the american people but part of his republican base that he is -- that he has the temperament to be president, that he can bring this new group and consolidate the feelings of those who have been more what he refers to as the establishment republican. >> he has alienated some republicans. he's trying to expand the voter base which some would say is a great thing. some are learning their republican registration cards today. >> this is social yolg not politics. there's a significant difference. we're seeing it reshape the way american attitudes are felt. it isn't the best two qualified

people may end up in the final analysis. people will make harsh statements who will come back around as time goes on, begin to rethink about whether they really do feel good about a democrat being in the white house. so this is a point in time i think for some adjustment. we'll see how it all plays out. >> mark, a longtime adviser, biographer of john mccain says that he's going to vote for hillary clinton. do you think others will as well? >> there may be some. he's looking to redefine the coalition of republicans. we all have a lot of thinking to do. donald trump is undoubtedly, his team, how can we consolidate the republican party under any calculus you have to be able to get the base of your party and erode the center enough and even a slice of your opponents to

win. that is now the new objective of a donald trump. do you think donald trump would reach out to someone who has run before like mitt romney? >> i haven't spoken with mitt in the last week or so, and i don't have any sense how he's -- what his thoughts are. some things said by mitt and responses, but this is a time for healing. who knows? this is sociology, not just politics. we'll see how it unfolds. >> governor, a pleasure. thank you very much. thanks for being with us today. and a lot more coming up on this break i breaking news from the republican race for president. john kasich is dropping out today. all that coming up as we talk about this coming general election campaign. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. in 2009 the kcountry was in

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politics, peter alexander, luke russert and kristen welker as we learn john kasich is dropping out later today after ted cruz dropped out, that donald trump is the likely republican nominee. what does this mean for the party, the people you're talking to? >> reporter: just consider this fact on this day, it is the republican party wrapping up its race before the democratic one. i've been speaking to aides of john kasich throughout the course of the day. one thing that struck me is a conversation i had with diner where he said he would not respond to attacks about collusion between him and ted cruz. on this day ultimately he is forced to respond to this shift within, frankly, not just the republican party but within the country of blue collar voters,

donald trump best positioned to effect real change. john kasich for all of his best efforts to sell that he was the candidate who had worked in washington and succeeded within that system, the real outsider, a man who has never been a politician before the standard-bearer for this party. >> it is extraordinary, peter. luke russert, you talked to everyone on the hill. a lot of speculation about the supreme court vacancy and whether the likelihood of a trump nomination putting him in the position of 50/50 chance, of course, to be the next president of the united states, whether that it will have any impact at all on the republicans' decision to not give him a cop firmation hearing. >> reporter: well, it's interesting you bring that up, andrea. red state, the popular conservative blog, which is very much antiestablishment, they were the people who spearheaded these vote no hearing movement regarding garland. they came around today and put out an op-ed saying if donald

trump is going to be our nominee we should confirm garland because who knows who hillary will put forward, someone younger and more liberal. no, they're still going to allow the president to make that decision versus garland. i think that is the most interesting thing going forward, andrea, how does paul ryan play with donald trump? how does mitch mcconnell play with donald trump? i spoke to democratic operatives over the past weekend who said they have only just scratched the surface for the amount of research they have on donald trump, stuff pertaining to women, to latinos, to african-american. when you think of all that and how it will come out over the next six months, this is going to be very brutal trench warfare. one other thing i will put out there, we haven't talked a lot about him, president obama, andrea. i spoke to aides close to him. do you know how hard he is going to work because he does not want to leave his legacy up to donald trump? barack obama, michelle obama,

more likely than not bernie sanders, hillary clinton, bill clinton, the firepower from the democratic side will do everything in their power because they truly believe now from all the conversations i've had on capitol hill this is the single biggest election they've ever faced. the thought of donald trump taking over president obama's legacy say they is worse than romney, mccain, george w. bush, anything. they realize the stakes here. don't think they're going to take him lightly in any capacity. >> indeed, luke. and kristen welker joins me now. kristen, there is no way to overemphasize how angry and offended president obama was by the birther movement that was basically led by donald trump, the insult, the attempt to discredit the new president of the united states. that is certainly going to heal a lot of fissures within the democratic ranks and get the president out there campaigning really hard. >> reporter: andrea, you're absolutely right. it undoubtedly will.

i am told by my white house sources the president is really itching to get out on the campaign trail, to get into this debate. and you've been talking so much about unifying the republican party, andrea, throughout your hour. unifying the democratic party is going to be critical for secretary clinton and president obama is, fangl lfrankly, going key to that. he will not jump in or endorse until the race is over. once he gets in you can anticipate he is going to be a robust presence on the campaign trail. another person who will be key to that, elizabeth warren, the clinton campaign just re-tweeting a tweet from elizabeth warren. she says, i'm going to fight my heart out to make sure donald trump's toxic stew of hatred and insecurity never reaches the white house. she will be key to rallying all of those progressive voters and some of those younger voters who support senator sanders so vigorously right now and of course senator sanders himself, if secretary clinton does become the nominee, will be vital to

rallying those supporters around secretary clinton. i was talking to one of clinton's aides who used the word complacency. they are going to be focused on making sure that democratic voters, independents, don't get complacent, that they get out to vote, that the obama coalition is rallied. that is their strategy for taking on donald trump. andrea? >> thanks to kristen and peter alexander and luke russert. donald trump as well as her persist nt challenger bernie sanders. even though his pathway to the nomination is narrow, despite his big win in indiana last night, sanders is continuing to hit clinton hard on his populist economic themes creating a road map for donald trump. >> she doesn't understand trade. her husband signed perhaps in the history of the world, the single worst trade deal ever done. it's called nafta. >> the american people are tired of working longer hours for low

wages and seeing all income and wealth going to the top 1%. i think we can pull off one of the great political upsets in the history of the united states. and, in fact, become the nominee for the democratic party. >> joining me now is former democratic senator, one-time presidential candidate, past governor of nebraska, bob kerrey. senator, it's great to see you. >> nice to see you. >> what a moment in politics. bernie sanders has articulated a lot of themes that are attractive to democratic voters yet at the same time she does have 3 million more votes than he and his path to the nomination is difficult at best. what should he do now? >> well, i wouldn't advise him one way or the other. i think it's clear that he's going to end this thing in second place and will give a great concession speech. look, the earlier assessment, i fundamentally disagree.

obama will not have to do much campaigning at all. the democrats will be united. there will be no complacency about going out. ohio and florida have just gone from tossup to likely democratic. there are going to be states in play that were never in place before for democrats, georgia will be in play. at the moment even utah is close. so we're not going to have to do much to unify our party. we're going to be unified with both democrats and independents and republicans who do not want donald trump to be delivering a state of the union address. >> you told "the new york times" to speak to some of other vulnerabilities, making the transcripts of the goldman speeches public would have been devastating to mrs. clinton. when the gop gets done telling the clinton fund-raising and expense story, bernie supporters will wonder why they didn't do the same. >> as a consequence of donald trump having far more damaging things that he's done, leading

the birther movement, business practices, lots of things he's done. you think that most hispanics when they turn out to vote are going to consider voting for donald trump or women will consider or african-americans will consider, people who are disabled, let alone middle-class people who want to examine what he wants to do. they may be rallying to him because he's bashing washington, d.c. but his politics will make life much worse for the middle class than it is today. >> the fact is, though, that she has lost a large number of independents in the last four months because of bernie sanders' campaign. >> again, andrea, the question right now what does ohio and florida look like? bernie trump has to win both states and they've gone from tossup to likely democratic and it's probably going to get worse. he has the political version of tourette's syndrome. he's got a very, very difficult time assembling the votes. >> do you think she can attract

republicans to her campaign, build a coalition? >> i'm not sure it's going to be so much that, it's just republicans saying i don't want donald trump to be president, who have enough experience to know competency matters, that temperament matters. you heard governor levitt say it earlier. he does not have the temperament to be commander in chief, to be the chief foreign policy officer of the united states of america. by the way, the quote that he had all facts say nafta was a good agreement. it wasn't a bad agreement. he likes to use things that have no factual foundation. it will make a big difference. >> as someone who fought in vietnam, suffered and understands veterans far better than any of us could, what about his appeal to veterans and saying that he is the best for veterans and he understands war and peace? >> what's the evidence? the disciplinary measure, they sent him to a military academy. i don't think there's any evidence donald trump has contributed to veterans organizations and veterans

causes. i haven't examined his budget, but my guess is his budget won't be very good for veterans at all. at some point you can't just talk, you have to tell me what you're for. and i think american veterans will look at what donald trump is for, what he'll do for them, and will say hillary clinton is going to be better. >> bob kerrey, nice to see you. and donald trump and hillary clinton a likely general election matchup between the two most unpopular candidates of their parties could have chosen for a campaign. joining me now for our daily fix, founder of "the washington post" fix blog and "wall street journal" political editor jean cummings. welcome both. what do you make of everything that's happened today? >> wow. that's what i make of it. i mean, obviously i think we saw this donald trump victory coming. i don't think we saw the end coming as quickly. 323 days after he announced, i am certain no one, including donald trump, would have predicted 323 days ago today

would wind up as it has. i think i heard chuck saying this, he deserves a large amount of credit. senator kerry is right that there are significant challenges for him in a general election but this is someone who beat a crowded -- the most crowded field in history and a talented and deep field. as a first-time candidate who effectively was both the candidate and lead strategist for 99% of this campaign. that's a remarkable achievement no matter what you think of donald trump, the person or the candidate. it is something we have not dealt with or seen in decades. >> and joe biden was asked about donald trump today. let's go to that, see what he had to say. >> trump is now the presumptive nominee. any regrets about not entering the race? >> i'm anticipating being vice president. i have nothing serious to say.

>> he has nothing serious to say about a decision that he made, of course, a difficult decision not to run this year. jean cummings, joe biden, we know, has some regrets although it was the right decision for his family at the time but now knowing that the general election likely nominee will be donald trump, you can only imagine what's going through his mind. >> absolutely. and hillary clinton is going to need joe biden out on the campaign trail for supporting her because joe biden's voice and his history and his personality are probably the best democratic antidote to donald trump. and so i'm sure those two camps have had some conversations. i agree with you, andrea, there is still some tension there. but as prior people have noted, the democratic party will unite if only to stop donald trump from getting into the white house.

and so i would ebb inspect to see joe biden back out on the trail where he is happiest and most natural. >> and in terms of the unfavorable ratings, our nbc news/"wall street journal" poll in april, trump's unfavorable rating, the numbers just are pretty extraordinary. look at the young people, 75% against donald trump. white women, 63% negative. hillary clinton has high negatives but donald trump outpaces her. chris? >> yeah, look, hillary clinton is a flawed general election candidate from her favorable/unfavorable numbers to the fact you have the majority of country saying honest and trustworthy don't describe her. that said, right now both head-to-head polling, some of the subgroups, he cannot beat her as donald trump the brand is

currently comprised. there's a whole lot of it that has to do with the electoral college advantage democrats start out with at this time and the challenges that trump's candidacy is exacerbating. the party is getting more white rather than less white. today he can't win the race. look, i wrote june 17, 2015, you don't need to take him seriously. by august 4th, 2015, i was writing, boy, was i wrong. i will tell you if you look at the numbers today, donald trump cannot beat hillary clinton. >> we don't know what will happen with the economy, overseas. there could be foreign threats that play into his hands. >> there's a lifetime between now and november. just to echo chris' thought, the brand he created that was so

successful aimed at an angry republican base is not a brand he can walk away from very easily. he does have some room where he can tap back to the mid. and start folding in some messages that could be more appealing to a general election electorate. he made a bond he created in the primary and he can't risk losing that in an effort to go after another coalition. he has a tricky path ahead of him. he's talented. he might be able to pull it off. bottom line, it's going to be hard for him to make that kind of move. >> just yesterday in west virginia, from hearing what people were saying to hillary clinton, the tough reception, the protesters, donald trump has captured a large portion of those white workers, the coal

industry workers, people laid off who feel that those climate change advocates who advocate for clean energy in this white house have hurt them. look at the 2012 map. mitt romney got 206 electoral votes. he won west virginia. find a state that donald trump wins that mitt romney doesn't. that's where you start to see how difficult it will be for him to get elected. >> thank you for wrapping it up. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us online. up next craig melvin has more on the breaking news that ohio governor john kasich is also suspending his campaign for the presidency. you're watching msnbc, the place for politics. cil and paper. the surface pro is very intuitive. with the pressure of my hand

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donald trump is the last man standing. hours after the decisive win, nbc news has confirmed john kasich will suspend his campaign for president. the ohio governor set to hold a news conference in columbus four hours from now with kasich and cruz out trump is the likely nominee. he has trounced 16 candidates so far. now the ultimate test, energized and unite a fractured party to take on hillary clinton come november. >> i am confident i can unite much of it. some of it i don't want. people will be voting for me not the party. we'll do well against hillary. she will be a disaster as president. >> reaction to trump becoming the new leader of the republican party set some social media accounts on fire.