is there any chance that could happen? more on the surprising comments from ted cruz there in just a minute. don't forget today is a primary day. we're now an hour away from the first round of exit polling numbers from the state of west virginia. little bit of suspense there on the democratic side. recent polling shows bernie sanders running ahead of hillary clinton in that state. plus, tonight, the republicans gonna get their turn out in nebraska. on the republican side, the west virginia race looks pretty straightforward today. even before ted cruz and john kasich dropped out last week, donald trump was expected to win west virginia in a landslide. but that nebraska contest could be very interesting tonight. before cruz got out, he was generally considered the favorite to beat trump in nebraska and even though he suspended his campaign, his name is still on the ballot today. so republicans there are free to vote for cruz if they want to. and that's something to keep an eye on tonight. how many republicans in nebraska

still don't vote for trump even with no official opponents left in the race. and what if cruz actually were to win nebraska with his name still on the ballot there? he hinted today that if that were to happen, he might look at getting back in the race. >> ted, are you leaving the door open to, if nebraska were to somehow -- >> it's not going to happen. >> -- miraculously choose you tonight -- >> pat's going for the hail mary. >> i mean, if that happened, would you consider getting back in the race? >> well, i am not holding my breath. my assumption is that will not happen. but listen, let's be very clear, if there is a path to victory, we launched this campaign intending to win. the reason we suspended the race last week, it was indiana's loss, i didn't see a viable path to victory. if that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly.

>> so we'll see what happens in nebraska tonight, but barring that scenario, it is trump who is now tasked with trying to unite the republican party. that's going to start with a series of meetings in new york and washington, d.c. with top republicans, taking place over the next few days. that includes that much anticipated face-to-face meeting with paul ryan, the house speaker, who says he's not ready to come on board the trump train. nbc's luke russert is staked out on capitol hill today for the latest on the gop divide. we're covering the hillary clinton campaign as well. but first, house speaker paul ryan talking about being surprised the republican race ended quicker than anyone anticipated. >> i was getting ready for an open convention, as the chair of the convention. so we were preparing for the eventuality of an open convention. at the very least, we thought it would go to june 7 in california. so candidly, we hadn't talked and we hundradn't -- i didn't t

this would happen so fast. i thought cruz and kasich were going to stay in the race until california. i think donald himself was surprised he wrapped it up this quickly. >> luke russert, these are new comments this afternoon from ryan in an interview with the "wall street journal." what else is he saying here in anticipation with the meeting with trump this week? >> the meeting is going to be on thursday at 9:00 a.m. there's a series of two meetings. number one, it's going to be reince priebus, his fellow wisconsinite in there on the meeting with donald trump, followed by paul ryan and the rest of the house gop leadership having their meeting with trump. what you hear from ryan is this idea that conservatives have to unify, but it's not going to be a quick and easy process to unify behind donald trump, because ryan has said conservatives have felt alienated throughout this the republican presidential primary process. take a listen to what he said

about this. >> donald trump deserves a lot of credit for winning the primary, for bringing millions of people into the party. that's a big achievement. the question now is, can we unify all the various wings of the republican party, to stitch them together, so that we're on the same page, rowing in the boat in the same direction. and that's the kind of conversations we need to begin having. >> and ryan believes that it's going to take more than a week for this unification to happen. but, steve, i think the real issue at hand here, you see headlines in "the washington post" like yesterday, ryan is running to the left of clinton on several issues. conservatives fear ryan on trade policy -- i'm sorry -- trump on tax policy. so there's belief that we don't know who donald trump is, he seems to be flexible on every issue, reversing himself over and over and over again. we don't want to give him a blank check and go all in at this time. the other thing, though, with

ryan, he is someone who is very well versed in policy and somebody who is very ambitious. he was elected at age 28, has a bright future ahead of him. he may make the declaration or he may assume that, you know what, maybe i don't go all in with this guy who has such negatives with latinos, such negatives with women, maybe i hold back and i say, i go all in on the house gop conference, all in on trying to preserve the senate and keep donald trump at arm's distance. that way, preserving my political future. so paul ryan has to make some decisions. i do think that this idea after thursday, they're going to walk down the aisle arm in arm, american flag going and saying, we're all together unified as a republican party, it won't happen that quickly. this will be a long drawn-out process, and ryan will want to have serious concessions that he can point to, and say, i got donald trump to agree to this, starting in may. we had another meeting in june, he will 100% do this.

so it's going to be interesting. this is a dynamic you don't usually see in presidential politics. usually the speaker and the nominee of the same party are like this, much like ryan was with mitt romney. >> very different this time around. two days away, we'll see how that meeting turns out. luke, thanks for that. as we wait, that meeting between donald trump and paul ryan a couple days from now, starting to get a look at our first batch of swing state polls, battleground state polls for the general election. the first to be coming out since trump basically clinched the nomination last week. take a look at this. from quinnipiac, florida, ohio, pennsylvania, what do you see? at least according to quinnipiac, their finding basically a dead heat in florida. clinton by a point there. trump by four in ohio. pennsylvania, again, they basically have as a dead heat. we always talk about these, every four years as battlegrounds. these were three obama states in 2012. if trump is going to have any

chance of winning the white house, going to have any chance of beating hillary clinton this fall, he's going to have to make inroads into these states. democrats are looking at these numbers today, saying they don't like the methodology in the poll, they don't like the samples, they don't think it's representative of who is going to vote in these states. the beautiful thing about polls these days, there's an awful lot of them. a lot more will be coming out in the days and weeks and months ahead. we'll see if other polls find what quinnipiac is finding. this is just a week in to the clinton versus trump presumptive nominee battle. if you look further inside, though, worth pointing out, quinnipiac is seeing a gender gap. look at the size of it, particularly in pennsylvania. hillary clinton winning among women by nearly 20 points there. trump among men by more than 20. that's a 40-point gender gap there when you add it up, it's significant in the other states as well. also seeing in florida, white, non-white, a divide there. trump wins whites by 20 points.

getting clobbered by non-white voters by more than 40 points. these are the divides we'll see between now and november. is one of them shrinking, is up with of them expanding more than we thought? it's going to be an ongoing story. we take this nbc news/survey monkey national poll every week. we have hillary clinton, 49, trump, 44. this is a little closer than some of the polls we've seen recently. there will be plenty of national polls in the days and weeks and months ahead. is this the start of a little bit of tightening here? we'll see. this is just the start of a long general election season. for more, we turn to alex in washington. the clinton campaign, from their standpoint, obviously there's a primary in west virginia. they still have to have an eye on the democratic race. at the same time, this clinton/trump race coming into

focus. republicans looking at the numbers and they're excited. they see at least the possibility that maybe some of the skepticism about trump misplaced. maybe he has a chance. what are you hearing from the clinton campaign? >> they're definitely not taking anything for the electoral college map, the question is, how does trump do better than mitt romney did in 2012? he's got to win the states you're talking about there. but today this week, hillary clinton is starting to lay the ground work for that general election. she's in kentucky, because she has to be for the primary, but she's talking about issues that are going to be important much farther beyond that state, which is obviously not going to be a swing state in the general election. so today and yesterday, she's talking about bread and butter family issues, paid family leave, lowering health care costs for children, to keep those under 10%, clearly an attempt to make appeals to

female voters who they're hoping to peel away from donald trump. as you said, they're still in the primary, looking ahead to kentucky, which is a closed primary, which is good for hillary clinton. bernie sanders tends to do better with independents. and with that in mind, they reversed themselves, put some money in some ads. this is very much a general election-looking kind of ad. >> the world a president has to grapple with, sometimes you can't even imagine. that's the job and she's the one who's proven she can get it done. securing a massive reduction in nuclear weapons, standing up against the abuse of women, protecting social security, expanding benefits for the national guard and winning health care for eight million children. the presidency is the toughest job in the world. >> bernie sanders will also be going on air in kentucky, but this is basically how clinton will play out the next few weeks. she'll continue running through

primary election states, but with a very much general election focused message. >> thank you for that. i'm joined by rick tyler, senior adviser for ted cruz in his presidential campaign and ileana johnson is the washington editor for the national review. rick, we're waiting for ted cruz. everybody's camped out outside its senate office. he had a big reunion on capitol hill today. listening, though to that interview he gave to glenn beck earlier today, hey, if you were to win nebraska tonight, could you get back in the race? just the fact that he was still toying with that possibility of if there's a path, if there's some way to win this, tells me this is a guy who is not about to come out and say, i want to unite behind donald trump. >> well, look, if he won in nebraska and west virginia and maybe oregon, washington and california, i think he would definitely get back in, but i don't think he would get back in, even if he did win nebraska, which seems to be fairly unlikely, but not out of the realm of possibility. >> what do you expect to hear

from him now? they're remembering the things he said, especially on the last day in indiana, when he just basically said, i've been waiting six months to tell you what i really think of donald trump and now i'm going to. everybody's been waiting, what does he say now that trump is the presumptive nominee? what are you expecting? >> my guess is that he'll be cordial and gracious and looking forward to getting back to the senate and representing the 23 million texans that sent him to do a job, and then he'll get back to doing that. i think he'll focus in particular on foreign policy. he'll still represent the conservative ideas and values, and i would say, because the republican party has become so untethered from an ideology that he really in many ways represents, or speaks for the conservative movement now. he's sort of inherited it. >> you know, eliana, some people say there's a dilemma for ted cruz, maybe he wants to run in 2020. one possibility is, you throw

yourself behind donald trump, you be the loyal soldier. if trump loses this fall, you can say, i fought the good fight, now i'm going to run again. or the other option is, you say, look, this is a betrayal of conservativism, i can't support this in good conscience. if trump loses, you say, told you so. any sense where cruz might go? >> you know, steve, my prediction is the conservative movement and the republican party have always been two different things. and the republican party has been useful to conservatives only as the political vehicle for the ideology. and i think you're going to see from cruz, taking a stance that he will hold the line as a conservative and say that the republican party under trump is not a vehicle for the conservative movement and rather than thinking about cruz 2016 now, he'll be looking to cruz 2020, and i think he'll be making a bet that the people who stood firmly against trump will be rewarded, assuming that trump loses a general election and

that perhaps people will return to the folks like himself and others who stood against trump and returned to the conservative movement, and perhaps saved the republican party as a vehicle for conservativism as it has been really since 1964. there's a chance he's wrong and the republican party becomes the party of trump. but i think he's going to bet that it doesn't. >> and again, we are waiting to hear any minute now, we're told it's just a couple minutes away, ted cruz will step out, talk to all the reporters you see gathered there. that's right outside his senate office on capitol hill. ted cruz returning to the senate today for the first time since ending his presidential campaign last week. eliana, let's pick up the point you were talking about, one thing ted cruz might do now, focus on the platform at the republican national convention this summer. he's going to have an awful lot of delegates, not just the ones who are pledged to him, but you have cruz delegates into trump slots, so maybe he uses the

leverage to influence the platform. how bound do you think donald trump would be as the republican nominee to follow whatever is in that platform, or would he just say, forget it, i'm going to say whatever i want anyway? >> i'm suspicious of this narrative that cruz is going to wage an enormous fight over the particular planks in the republican party platform. donald trump already is not aligned with many parts of the gop platform. and i don't think it's going to matter to him one bit what the party platform says. donald trump is going to say whatever he wants to say one day and if he thinks something different the next day he's going to say that. so i just don't think from cruz's perspective that's a fight worth waging. what matters to him is his own campaign and presumably in "20/22020 and i think that's where his effort is going to be focused. >> do you think his relationships in the senate will be any different? it was as acrim ownious as it could be.

the altercation with mitch mcconnell, accusing him of lying. in the final days of this presidential campaign, there were senators who had been very critical of cruz rallying around him. lindsey graham comes to mind. he had joked about ted cruz being murdered, ended up supporting him. do you think ted cruz will change a little bit because of this experience? >> well, no. i think washington should change. look, the reason we have donald trump has the nominee and the reason he has hijacked the party is because they're so untethered ideologically and that conservatives put the house in the majority status, did the same thing with the senate. nothing got done. they got no traction against this president. and ted cruz voted and came to washington and did what he said he was going to do. and all the other people, senators who campaigned on the same things he did, didn't. so washington should change, not ted cruz. >> i guess i'm asking almost at a more human level, though. because when i saw the accusations he made against mitch mcconnell, when i heard lindsey graham make that joke, i think it was back in march or

so -- actually, we're going to take a break from this conversation, if you guys would stand by. you see ted cruz walking down the hall outside his senate office, coming face to face with the cameras and microphones. let's listen in, see what he has to say. >> it's great to be back in the welcoming embrace of washington. [ inaudible question ] >> listen, i'm very glad to be back in the senate, i'm very glad to be rolling up my sleeves and tackling the issues that were the heart of our presidential campaign. we went 13 months criss-crossing the country and saw incredible energy and passion all across the country, ended up earning over seven million votes nationwide, winning 12 states and nearly 600 delegates. but alas, it wasn't enough. we came up short and didn't prevail. that was not the outcome i had hoped for.

it was not the outcome that many others had hoped for. but at the end of the day, in our democratic process, the people decide. for me, what is important is that the movement continues. this movement from the people, this battle is about a lot more than one election cycle or one candidate. it's about principles. it's about the free market principles that turned america into a beacon of hope and opportunity for people from all across the world. it's about the constitutional liberties that protect the fundamental rights of every american. all across this country, people are hungry for change. they recognize the path we're on, it isn't working and people are suffering. this election cycle should be a wake-up call to washington, d.c. the frustration, the volcanic anger with washington was echoed throughout this election. my priorities, had i been

elected president, were to fight for jobs and freedom and security. i think those are the priorities of the american people. instead, i will continue fighting for those priorities, jobs, freedom, and security, from the united states senate, fighting to reduce the burdens of washington on small businesses to protect the liberties of every american. >> will you endorse donald trump eventually, or do you rule that out entirely? >> you know, we suspended our campaign one week ago today. there are 2 1/2 months until the republican convention, six months until the general election, there will be plenty of time for voters to make the determination who they're going to support. what i am interested in supporting are free market principles and the constitutional liberties of americans. what every voter is going to be doing is listening to the candidates, listening to what they support, and assessing them on their merits.

that is the role of the voter. >> senator cruz, you branded yourself as an outsider, and now you're back here. how do you work with the senate after branding yourself that way? >> listen, from the first day i was elected to the senate, my priority has been fighting for the 27 million texans who i represent. i'm going to continue fighting for the american people and if fighting for the american people makes you an outsider in the senate, then i will happily remain an outsider. because at least today congress, both parties, both houses, very too often hasn't been listening to the american people. that is the frustration. this town, too many elected officials listen to big money and special interests and lobbyists. the rich get richer under barack obama. today the top 1% earn a higher share of our income than any year since 1928. big government does great for the rich. but those who are struggling, the working men and women, their lives have gotten harder. the people who i am fighting for

are single moms and young people and hispanics and african americans. it's the truck drivers and the welders and the coal miners. it's the farmers and ranchers, the people who have been left behind. and so what i have done every day in the senate and every day on the campaign trail as a candidate for president, has been to fight for the working men and women of this country, to fight so we can bring back to america millions and millions of new high-paying jobs, raise wages. so that the working men and women can make ends meet. [ all speak at once ] >> people are looking for your guidance. is there anything donald trump can say or do to earn your support and would you be okay with your supporters choosing to vote for him in the fall? >> you know, i trust the people. the great thing about our democratic republic is that authority, sovereignty, rests in we the people. we had a long, drawn-out battle, primary, going forward from now until the convention and now until november, it will be

incumbent on the candidates in this race to make the case for the people that they will fight for them and i've got a great deal of faith -- i've got a great deal of faith in the american people, that at the end of the day, they're going to assess these candidates and come to the right -- [ all speak at once ] >> i'm sorry? >> are you ruling out the possibility of a third-party run? >> i have no interest in a -- [ all speak at once ] >> -- after running for president successfully, use words like humbled. several democrats said we haven't heard humility from ted cruz. >> i would say it's hardly new to have senate democrats attacking me and i suspect that's not going away anytime soon. [ inaudible question ] >> listen, i am certainly disappointed with the outcome. that i disappointed so many millions of grassroots activists across this country. >> were you joking when you

said -- >> -- and this has been an amazing journey. i have to tell you, i am so privileged and so humbled to have had the opportunity to do this, to have had the opportunity to run for president, to travel to virtually every state in the union, to visit with thousands and tens of thousands of men and women across this country, to shake their hands, to hug their necks. every day on the campaign trail, some of you spent a lot of days on the campaign trail. every day on the campaign trail i was inspired. i was inspired by the americans who are forgotten by washington, forgotten by much of the news media, but the americans who are struggling and believe in this nation. and if you want to know my greatest disappointment, my greatest disappointment is that i wasn't able to win for them. that i came up short and disappointed their efforts, their time, their passion.

that was incredible to see. it's incredible to be a part of. but importantly, that movement, that energy, that passion, is going to continue the conservative movement, i believe, will only continue to get stronger. i recognize a lot of folks in the media, a lot of folks in washington are eager to write the epitaph for the conservative movement, and i will say, i believe that the american people are fed up with the disasters of the obama-clinton economy, and this movement will continue. and i look forward to pressing in the united states senate for the very same things that i was pressing for on the campaign trail -- jobs and freedom and security. lifting the burdens of washington on small businesses and those who are struggling. [ all speak at once ] >> do you think it was a mistake, in retrospect to have called donald trump terrific early in the campaign, or was

there anything you could have done to prevent him from getting -- >> i'm not interested in monday morning quarterbacking. what i can tell you is, it's a long andero vigorous campaign. we put our all into it. we left it all on the field. heidi and i and the girls, we campaigned as hard as we physically could, and the support and energy and passion we saw from the people, i've never seen anything like it. and it gives me great faith in this country. it is why i am fighting. it is why i'm working. it's why i intend to continue working. [ all speak at once [ all speak at once ] -- glenn beck, in regards to re-entering the race if circumstances change? is there a second act? >> is it over for good? >> let him answer! >> listen, we have suspended the campaign. we've suspended the campaign because i can see no viable path

to victory. of course if that changed we would reconsider things. but let's be clear, we're not going to win nebraska today. there should be no mystery, no excitement in that. we've withdrawn from the campaign and it's in the hands of the voters. if circumstances change, we'll always assess changed circumstances, but i appreciate the eagerness and excitement of all the folks in the media to see me back in the ring. but you may have to wait a little bit longer. [ all speak at once ] >> have you talked to mr. trump? senator, have you talked to mr. trump? >> all right, that was senator ted cruz, his first remarks on capitol hill, on his first day back at the senate since suspending his presidential campaign last week. cruz stressing there at the end, asked by that reporter, i don't know if you could hear, the reporter asked about any circumstances in which he would unsuspend his campaign and get back in the race. ted cruz saying that -- teasing a little bit there just a little bit, saying that if

circumstances change, we will always assess changed circumstances, stressing that he does not believe he'll win the nebraska primary today. of course his name still on the ballot in nebraska today before he dropped out of the race, he was considered the favorite in that state. so there's some anticipation tonight, looking ahead, how will trump do in nebraska with cruz's name still on the ballot? how many votes will he still get. but cruz was in no mood to talk about donald trump. there was no affirmative mention on cruz's part of donald trump. there was no talk of uniting the republican party. there was no talk of endorsing trump. there was no talk of defeating hillary clinton. he was asked at one point there, if he'd be okay with his supporters turning around now and supporting donald trump. all he would say is that i trust the people, that he has tremendous trust in the american people. he also was asked about supporting donald trump himself.

he stressed there are still 2 1/2 months to go until the republican convention. there are still six months to go until the general election and said that the candidates, in the plural there, the candidates are going to have to make their case to the people. so reading between the lines, ted cruz basically delivering a message there to donald trump, that donald trump has got some work there to do, to get his support. also, one other key point there, trump was asked about -- excuse me. cruz was asked about a potential third-party bid, there's been a lot of talk about disgruntled conservatives recruiting a third-party candidate. ted cruz said he had no interest in that. kelly o'donnell was there. kelly, your impressions? >> reporter: well, steve, i was right in front of senator cruz. i think in many ways, you hit the high points. this was a bit more emotional ted cruz than we typically see. he had a couple of messages. certainly speaking to his supporters and expressing his

disappointment. i was most struck that he seemed unexpecting of the question about humility, and he did acknowledge that given this experience and losing, that he does feel humbled. at the same time, he is giving no additional ground to donald trump. i was one of the voices asking about any possibility for him to get back in. you might have heard me shouting, is there a second act? and he was very clear and very sort of putting his operational hat on, that nebraska is not within reach, that circumstances do not appear in any way to be lining up for a surprise that would bring him back into the race. but not closing the door as much as we once heard marco rubio do when he said in his exit that it's not god's plan that he would be president in 2016 and being elected president in 2016. it was more declarative. cruz left a little bit of a door open. he also didn't want to entertain any discussion of donald trump or go back with the analysis of

what he's just been through, strategic moves, was it wrong to say one thing at one time or do something differently. i was also struck by the humor of him saying, to be welcomed back in the warm embrace of washington. i can tell you that ted cruz has not made a lot of friends among his colleagues, many instances when he would work against them to bring about primary challengers to some of the incumbents in congress and the senate. at the same time, that will be a challenge for him now. if he wants a national future in the party, can he do anything differently to try to get some things done on capitol hill in a role he'll have for years to come because he's early in his first term. he'll be in office until january 2019 on this term. can he change anything? so i think this was very much the ted cruz we saw on the campaign trail, bringing that sort of style, his wording, his attitude back here to the capital. quieter, of course. expressing disappointment, that's a human emotion anyone

can expect, and at the same time, not giving the presumptive nominee of his party any indication that as the man who came in second in terms of delegates and stayed in the race a very long time, no ground given to donald trump. i asked him if there was anything trump could do or say to attract his support or to attract ted cruz's supporters to vote for him in the fall, and again he said he wants to buy some time for the candidates, presumably that means, trump, clinton, and sanders to somehow prove themselves to voters. it would seem that people who voted for ted cruz, believed in ted cruz, would line up for a republican candidate in the fall, or will they stay home? that will be an important question in the weeks and months to come. steve? >> all right, kelly o'donnell at capitol hill where that ted cruz press conference just played out. still have eliana johnson and rick tyler with us. rick, let me start with you. no mention from ted cruz of the

name donald trump, no mention of the ideas of uniting the republican party, no mention of defeating hillary clinton. what's your take on what you just heard? >> well, i think he looked good, rested, happy. i think his tone was really terrific. he talked a lot about the conservative movement, and i think that's where cruz is going to start focusing on. he said the conservative movement is only going to be strengthened and i think he intends to lead that movement. he'd be a good leader for that movement. as eliana rightly said, the republican party is not -- is a vehicle for the conservative movement, the republican party is not necessarily conservative, but there are a lot of conservatives who would like to have a voice and like to be represented and like the republican party to be their vehicle. it's going to be tougher with donald trump. i think ted cruz is gonna want to lead that movement and he's also, as you say, held the door open a little bit to explore his options. and he's also keeping his assets together. that's what the delegates are about in cleveland now, the delegates who want to get on the

rules committee, platform committee, they're the ones who care about those things and ted cruz wants to keep those people together moving forward. >> eliana, what's your reaction to what you just heard? >> i think you really heard cruz positioning himself to attempt to be the standard bearer of the conservative movement, not the republican party. and i don't see him getting back in this race. essentially he said if donald trump gets struck by lightning, then he'll reconsider his options, but what he did say was, for those who are looking for me to get back in the race, they may have to wait a little bit longer. basically openly talking about a run in 2020, and i think that's really where his head is now and what he's going to be doing between now and then is thinking about how best to position himself as a run and working to reshape the republican party from one that has moved in a populist direction with donald

trump as the presumptive nominee, back into a more conservative direction hopefully under cruz. >> eliana and rick, thanks for the perspective on that. again, ted cruz's first remarks on his first day back at the senate after the end of his presidential campaign. the end, at least for now, as he said at the end there. coming up, strategy shift. the sanders camp, is expanding its ad reach, he could block clinton from scoring a single major primary win this month. tadd divine is going to join us in just a moment. you know when i rst started out,

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>> we think that if we do well in the remaining states, and if we do very, very well in the largest state in this country, california, we have a chance. it's an uphill struggle. we have a chance to end up with a majority of the pledged

delegates. and if we do that, i think you are looking at the democratic nominee for president. [ cheers and applause ] that was bernie sanders earlier today in california, outlining his uphill climb to the democratic nomination. that's the way he puts it. even if hillary clinton's big lead in the delegate count, sanders still promising to take his campaign to the convention this summer and not easing up with his attacks on clinton. let's get right to nbc's chris jansing, who is traveling with the sanders campaign, en route from stockton, california, to salem, oregon. and oregon one of the states voting next week. you have quite a few that look good on paper for bernie sanders. >> reporter: and he's decided to hit all of them. that's kind of a strategic shift. just a week ago a senior

campaign official told me he didn't think they'd be able to go to all the different states, but that's the plan right now. they are in it, as they say, to win it, even with the numbers being against them the way they are. so a couple of events already today, he had a big rally. you saw a little bit of it that happened. they had almost 5,743, i think, to be exact. yesterday, 15,000-plus, maybe another 1,000 outside in sacramento, california. these are things that energize him. couple of things that have him worked up. one the polls that show he does better in head-to-head match-ups against donald trump. both our poll and the quinnipiac poll. and news that he had pulled ahead in kentucky. he was gleeful about that when i pulled him aside just a couple minutes ago, saying, hey, i thought she was saying this race was over. here's a little more of my conversation with bernie sanders. do you feel that you really do

still have a chance? >> i will not deny it for a moment that it is an uphill fight. but we've been in an uphill fight from day one. first day we were in the campaign, nobody thought that we'd be fighting here and standing a good chance to win in california on june 7th. so an uphill fight is not something that gets me nervous. that's what i've been doing from day one. to answer your question, yes, i do believe that if we do well in west virginia tonight and kentucky and oregon and california and new jersey and the states that remain, if we do very, very well, yes, we can end up with a majority of the pledged delegates. and second of all, what every poll shows, including a bunch coming out today, is that against donald trump, bernie sanders is a significantly stronger candidate than is hillary clinton. and i think the delegates in philadelphia will understand that. that all starts tonight, this push to the end in west virginia, he hopes to be making something of a victory speech in

salem, oregon. steve? >> chris jansing on the road with the sanders campaign. thank you for that. let's bring in senior adviser to bernie sanders presidential campaign. tad devine. thank you for joining us. he thinks if everything goes his way, he can still win a majority in the pledge delegates at the end of this primary process. i have been through the numbers on this. in giving bernie sanders landslides in every state still to come, even giving him that, he needs 75% out of california. he needs to get 75% in california. is that even remotely realistic? >> sure, it is, steve. okay, listen, we got a long way to go before this process is over. i understand how difficult it is and proportional representative makes it hard to win a landslide of delegates. he had 72% in washington state. he got over 70% in a number of states. we'll see how it goes. what's important is that every voter have their voice heard, that every democrat be able to

make a statement about who they want to be their candidate for president and where they want our party to go. that's what bernie has given them and that's what he'll do in the district of columbia on june 14th. >> i've heard democrats say, sanders has a lot of support, he's motivating a lot of people and if you look at the calendar, there's still a number of states that he's going to win. so nothing wrong there with going through the process, getting the wins, getting the people out to the polls, hillary clinton did the same thing against barack obama in the final days of 2008. but here's what they say, at the end of that process in 2008, hillary clinton finished it up. she was losing by about 150. she said that, that's it, there's no point in fighting this at convention. let's unify the party. are you going to do the same thing if that's where this ends up in june? >> i think we'll see where we are when the voters are done. look what we found out today in your polling, where bernie has a much larger lead over trump than

hillary does, in a national poll. some is of these numbers in ohio and florida and pennsylvania are stunning. not just the fact that she loses ohio to trump, but if you look inside that poll, hillary clinton's unfavorable is over 20 points higher than your favorability in these battleground states. these are numbers that democrats are going to want to look at and evaluate once the voting is done. we'll see where we are and who the strongest candidate -- as of today, i think it's clear, bernie sanders would be the strongest candidate against trump. se we'll see. >> haven't republicans treated hillary clinton as the presume nominee and attacking her head on for months now and largely, not completely, but largely leaving bernie sanders alone? >> no, it's not. bernie sanders has been a candidate for president now, he's been out in the public. hillary clinton, it's true, she's taken a lot of incoming over the course of not just this campaign, but over the course of

decades and almost all of it has come from republicans. we've hardly had a lot from our side. we never mentioned her name in an ad. we've walked away from attacks that donald trump and republicans are going to level at her in the general election. so i don't think it's fair to say she's the only one who's been attacked. the truth is, bernie sanders is able to generate enthusiaiasm wh young people and independents. she's not been able to do it. he's a stronger candidate, not because of attacks on her, but because of his ability to reach those people. >> tad devine, thank you for the time. we'll be back in a minute, but first, marco rubio giving his first interview since returning to the senate, where he reluctantly, very reluctantly, said he would support donald trump. take a listen. >> would those reservations keep you, do they right now, preclude

you from endorsing him? >> well, i've said -- i've signed a pledge that said i'd support the republican nominee and i intend to continue to do that, but look, here's the situation that we're in. on the one hand, i don't want hillary clinton to be the president of the united states. i don't want her to win this election. on the other hand, as i said, i have well defined differences with the presumptive nominee of the republican party. and like millions of republicans who try to reconcile those two things, i intend to live up to the pledge that we made. but that said, these concerns that i have about policy, they remain and they're there. but that doesn't mean that dond needs to change his positions in order to get my support. as i said earlier today, i think he should be true to what he believes in. could be bad. could be a blast. can't find a single thing to wear. will ty be looking at my hair? won't be the same without you bro.

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we are keeping an eye on the fall-out from north carolina's controversial transgender bathroom law. north carolina defending its ban on transgender individuals using bathrooms that don't match their gender on their birth certificate. the doj insisting the law violates civil rights. there's a new cnn/orc national poll out this morning, it says the public may be siding with the department of justice on this. 57mericans say they oppose z.5jgo) tony dokoupil is on the ground in raleigh. i should say it's political

season in north carolina. big governor's race playing out there. the governor playing a leading role in this. and i saw a poll a couple days ago, showing slight majority for support for that law. >> i'm in one of the older restaurants in town. a lot of conversation taking place here all day long and also a lot of news. just a few moments ago, state legislators filed a counterpoint to the hb 2 bill. i have one of the sponsors of that bill. the attorney general yesterday in her remarks, opposing the governor, compared the fight here for the transgender people to the fight of the 1960s. do you think that's a fair comparison? >> i think all civil rights

fights are different, but i do believe the arguments that were made in the height for search for racial equality in the '60s, people would say, you can't use the same bathroom as us. a lot of the same arguments were made in the 1960s right here in raleigh. >> why are we going through this again? help me understand the governor's political calculations? what's he banking on here with the local population? >> i'm not sure. i think the governor has dug in his heels. but the only thing we can do to fix this terribly unpopular bill is to repeal it in full. i don't understand the governor's political calculus. >> and with the north carolina values coalition, tammy supports the governor, believes that tra transgender people have to use the bathroom of their birth. she wouldn't sit with me at this counter because she feels like

that is unfair. >> for tammy, she's not willing to have conversation, but when you sit down with average north carolinians. they're not predators, they're not going to cause harm. they just have to pee. it's a common sense issue. it really is. >> reporter: there's a legal argument and cultural question still being sussed out. we'll keep you posted on that. >> tony, thank you for that. meanwhile, donald trump said hillary clinton enabled bill clinton's behavior toward women. hillary clinton has refused to engage with trump on this subject, but what do republican women voters think about it? kasie hunt sat down with five republican women in the crucial swing state of virginia to get their reaction. kasie, this is so interesting, because the hillary clinton campaign sees an opportunity with female republican voters. you just talked to a group of them. what did you hear?

upon. >> if my experience yesterday with this group of women is any indication to you, they have a big opportunity and opening with republican women. these five women that i talked to, in any other year would be united behind the republican nominee, they all supported mitt romney in 2012. but when i talk to them about all of these issues, there were some real divisions. take a look. >> i will vote for secretary clinton over donald trump because i think that, you know, we know where she's coming from. she's been in the senate, she's been secretary of state. >> i will not vote -- most likely not vote for secretary clinton. the reason for that, while i think she's a safe choice, and i would be okay with her as president, as a woman, i don't think she represents my interests. but as somebody leading this country, i do think she is safe. donald trump, to me, is very unpredictable. >> these were new comments over the weekend from donald trump. as we move into this general election, he talked about bill

clinton's legacy with women and he said that hillary clinton was in some ways an enabler of this because of the way she treated the women that bill clinton was involved with. i just want to get your reaction to that. is that something that makes sense to you? >> for me, i think that's kind of ridiculous. it's blaming the woman because the husband made a bad choice. i think that's kind of silly. >> i also don't think we can comment on their relationship. secretary clinton and president clinton have a unique relationship. >> they are a machine, and that's why she would never have left him. as badly as all that came out -- >> but how many women do we know who are still with their husbands after being cheated on? how many women are still in abusive relationships? i don't think we can project on what she's doing or what she did, because it was good for her career. >> he was the president. come on. i mean, he was in charge, he took this, you know, starry-eyed intern and abused her. >> and you think that reflects

negatively on hillary clinton? >> i do, i do. >> you're saying you don't want a woman in office whose husband has cheated on her. i'm saying i don't know the stories of trump and his wives. both sides have scandal. it doesn't necessarily impact their ability to be a leader. >> exactly. >> i really hope that the campaign coming up between hillary and donald trump, this messyness, i hope that it does not come up. because i think it's too ugly. i hope that they can run a campaign on a different level than bringing in the bill clinton. >> one of those women saying that both sides have scandal, so she doesn't feel like this side of it necessarily outweighs what trump may have done in his personal life. but i will tell you, steve, it was an interesting conversation overall in part because these women did say that what donald

trump has had to say about women is not necessarily at the forefront for those who have an issue with trump. it wasn't what they listed as their first problem. they said his talk about minorities, or his policies on immigration, for example, the border wall, banning muslims from coming into the country. they had problems with that. the one undecided voter in our group said those are the two things, immigration and that muslim ban, that trump would have to address before she would be willing to vote for him. steve? >> and of course there's a theory out there that trump isn't even thinking of the voters when he goes down this road. that he may be trying to get into the clinton's head. you never know with donald trump. >> you never know. >> appreciate that. gonna do it for this hour. i'm steve kornacki. special coverage of the west virginia and nebraska primary starts right after this. ♪ i built my business with passion.

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♪ ♪ old habits die hard. there may be fewer candidates and yes, maybe one of the nominee is presumptive already and the other one is saumpative at this point, but it's tuesday, good evening and welcome to a special election night edition of "mtp daily." i'm chuck todd in washington. we're going to dive into what tonight's contest reveals