favorables and unfavorables. i've also seen candidates with relatively high unfavorables, george w. bush in 2004, managing to win. >> it's a choice, right? and right now you have both candidates who need to be reintroduced to the general election public. but i think hillary clinton is reintroducing herself as someone with strong economic policies, strong foreign policy. donald trump is being reintroduced as a crazy person. >> thank you both. that does it for us. msnbc's primary night coverage continues with rachel maddow. the polls close in nebraska. good evening, rachel. >> thank you, my friend. polls are closing in nebraska. thank you at home for joining us. happy tuesday. one of the things that happens if you run for president but you don't win is that when you come back to your old job, sometimes people clap for you. that's what happened after marco rubio dropped out of the race for president. and returned to his seat in the senate. that is also what happened today to ted cruz who was spotted by a

reporter from roll call getting out of a car on capitol hill to go back to his day job. the car incidentally was very, very, very badly parked. do we have that picture? we don't have that picture. but you know what -- there you go, thank you. can we drop that? so you can see how the car is parked? awesome. he's ted cruz, that's how he rolls, that's how he parks. he may not have won his race for the republican presidential nomination but today he came back to his old job in the senate. his staff did clap for him when he finally went back into his office. before that nice moment, senator cruz made time this morning to do an interview on right wing talk radio in which he kind of sort of did but not really suggested that maybe he still is running for president. maybe he'll get back in. >> ted, are you leaving the door open if nebraska were to somehow -- >> that's not going to happen.

>> -- miraculously choose you tonight, pat's going for the hail mary. if that happened, would you consider getting back in the race? >> well, i am not holding my breath. my assumption is that 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. >> right. >> if that changes, we will certainly respond accordingly. >> i don't know about you, nebraska, but i take that as a yes. >> i'd take that as a big yes. >> get to the polls now and vote for ted cruz. >> you guys, ted cruz might unsuspend! he might get back into the race! actually, no. he's definitely not. polls are now closed all across the great state of nebraska. msnbc news has projected the winner of the winner take all nebraska republican primary, no

surprise, is donald trump. the last remaining republican candidate in the republican primary. nebraska that is 36 delegates on the republican side. this is a winner take all contest. donald trump will get all of those delegates. earlier this evening donald trump was projected to be the winner of the west virginia republican primary. again, no surprise. he is the last remaining republican in the republican primary. interestingly, tonight, at the same time that nbc news was able to project that win for donald trump in west virginia, nbc was also able to project this win for bernie sanders in the great state of west virginia. on the democratic side of the race, there are more than -- there are still two candidates. there is more than one person still running. there is still a race there. we're going to be talking about the implications of that west virginia win for sanders and the rest of the race going forward in some detail tonight, including with some very elaborate math. we've got that coming up in the next few minutes here on this show. but west virginia, it's

interesting. west virginia today, they voted on both sides, democratic and republican side. and west virginia today had kind of a monster ballot. that's in part because you weren't just voting for your presidential candidate in west virginia, you had to vote by name for individual delegates. you have to pick a whole roster of presidential delegates in west virginia. more than 200 people were running to be republican convention delegates alone today. but 22 of them will be picked. most if not all of them will be pledged to support donald trump. and we'll be watching these races tonight to get the final exact tally in terms of the margin of victory. but even from this point it's fairly easy to tell that mr. trump has just won these two states tonight by margins that you would expect in a race that is over. because the republican presidential primary is over. that little joking discussion by ted cruz that he might get back in the race, it was a joke. it's over. the only open question in the

republican primary, which absolutely may be settled tonight, is whether or not donald trump is going to break the record for the most votes ever received by anyone in a republican presidential primary season. donald trump has already easily surpassed every other recent republican presidential nominee in terms of the number of votes he has received this year. he's surpassed everybody including the last two republican nominees, mitt romney and john mccain. the only question tonight is whether tonight's going to be the night that donald trump beats the all-time record for votes in a republican primary. the all-time record is held by george w. bush from the republican primary held in the year 2000. heading into tonight, mr. trump was a little under 200,000 votes shy of george w. bush's all-time vote record. so we'll be watching the total vote tallies in both nebraska and west virginia tonight. we'll be watching the overall voter turnout to see what it's like. you expect voter turnout to drop

once a race is effectively over, once a person's vote at the presidential level no longer helps decide some competitive presidential contest. but it's interesting. heading into west virginia in particular and less so in nebraska, local officials said today that they were still expecting a lot of people, if not a record number of people, to turn out. if turnout is sufficiently high, donald trump will become the new all-time record holder in american history in terms of most votes ever cast for anyone running for president in a republican primary. but remember, the beltway press still insists the republican party is not psyched at all about donald trump as their nominee, right? the beltway narrative is that republicans don't have enthusiasm for him, they are deeply conflicted. >> the possibility of him being their nominee. meanwhile, in the real world, he really is racking up more votes than any other republican candidate has ever had in a republican primary ever. the beltway narrative insists

that the trump nomination is causing a huge division in that party. beltway keeps insisting there is an important and influential cadre of noble if not here royic resistance to mr. trump becoming the leader of that esteemed party. well, here's today's latest data on the supposedly principled resistance to donald trump among influential republicans. take it away, senator. >> well, i've signed a pledge that said i'd support the republican nominee and i intend to continue to do that. i intend to live up to the pledge that we made. it's not just concerns that you've had about it. you once said that you didn't think -- that you had concerns about the fact -- >> the nuclear codes being in the hands of an erratic con man. that was what you said. >> so i'm not going to -- here's what i'm not going to do the next six months is take shots at him. i stand by the things that i said, but i'm not going to sit here now and become his chief

critic over the next six months. >> i stand by my assessment that he is an erratic con man who should never be given access to the nuclear codes. and, i will also support him for president. that is how the republican party is taking their principled stand against donald trump. i guess to be clear the principle at work here is, it's better to give the nuclear launch codes to an erratic con man than it is to not vote republican. think about what they're saying. you're in a voting booth and some sort of terrorist came in and said, vote for a democrat or i will give the nuclear launch codes to an erratic con man! you would say, okay, give the nuclear launch codes to an erratic con man, that's better than voting for a democrat. that's the principled stance that we're getting from republican leaders. including today marco rubio. the last race on the republican side will be june 7th when five states vote in the republican

primary, including the biggest one, california. last night the california secretary of state released list of delegates that have been formally assigned to each campaign. the donald trump list of delegates made headlines this afternoon when "mother jones" was first to report the trump named delegate slate, which was officially approved by the trump campaign, published by the california secretary of state -- the trump delegate list includes this guy. >> the american national super pac makes this call to support donald trump. i am william johnson, a farmer and white nationalist. the white race is dying out in america and europe because we are afraid to be called racist. few schools anymore have beautiful white children as the majority. gradual genocide against the white race. donald trump is not a racist but donald trump is not afraid. don't vote for a cuban, vote for donald trump. >> the white race is being replaced by other peoples in america and in all white countries. donald trump stands strong as a nationalist. the american national super pac makes this call in support of

donald trump. my name is william johnson. i am a farmer and a white nationalist. now william johnson, farmer and white nationalist, who has run those white supremacist robocalls supporting donald trump in at least seven states during the republican primary, that guy who voices those ads, who paid for those ads, gave out his cell phone number in those ads, the self-proclaimed white nationalist who runs the american freedom party who's been working his white sprim supremacist guts out for donald trump, he's been named an official delegate for the donald trump campaign in the great state of california. "mother jones" reports mr. johnson submitted his name to the trump campaign several months ago for did, to become a delegate. more jones reports this guy submitted at least one of those overtly racist robocalls as part of his application to be a delegate to the trump campaign. the trump campaign presumably reviewed all these applications, and they picked him.

we know that because when they decided to name him to their official slate of delegates for the state, they sent him a congratulatory e-mail. directly from the trump campaign. jo jork harkin son interviewed william johnson about his enthusiasm for trump, how the trump campaign fits into his life's work, which he sees as the goal of his life is deporting all nonwhite people from this country, making america an all-white pure aryan nation. that's the work of his life. william johnson is now exalting publicly over how donald trump and donald trump's success in the republican party has made things so much better and so much easier for professional racists and white supremacists like him. for many, many years when i would say these things, other white people would call me names. oh, you're a hate monger. you're a nazi. you're like hitler. now they come and say, oh, you're like donald trump.

oug after the trump campaign congratulated william johnson, farmer and white nationalist, on being selected as an official trump delegate, after the california secretary of state published his name as an official trump delegate. after "mother jones" published this remarkable piece today pointing out that donald trump just named as one of his delegates the white nationalist robocall guy from the primaries. after all of that, late today, the trump campaign decided to rescind their offer to william johnson, farmer and white nationalist. they're attributing the whole thing to what they're calling a database error. but we do have the list from california of all of the official delegates from all of the campaigns. apparently, because of this database error, william johnson, the farmer and white nationalist, he will be taken off the trump slate of delegates. had he remained a trump delegate, he would have been able to serve in that capacity alongside this man who's also on the list.

his name you probably recognize. because he is the number two republican in congress. under paul ryan. kevin mccarthy was briefly considered to be the next speaker after john boehner stepped down. the job ended up going to paul ryan instead. congressman kevin mccarthy is second in command in the house of representatives for the republican party and heading into the california primary he is now listed officially as a would-be convention delegate, specifically for donald trump. so the republican party is not exactly being torn asunder by donald trump being their nominee. there is no heroic resistance, despite what you've been reading. again, these are the results of tonight's two republican contests. in the presidential race. in west virginia and in nebraska, we've got donald trump as the projected winner in both states. we're going to have the democratic results in more detail coming up in just a moment. but you know what, these results on the republican side, these

are also likely to be the results in all the remaining republican primary contests this the year. all the way through june 7th. and the narrative will eventually wither and die that the republican party is somehow standing up to mr. trump or trying to stop him from becoming the leade of their party in any meaningful way. he is the leader of the republican party. full stop. this is the face of the republican party from here on out. and the rest of the country may be very troubled by that. but honestly, despite what you have been hearing from the beltway, republicans are not troubled by that. they do not seem to be.

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compare.com. saving humanity from high insurance rates. on the democratic side, let the process play itself out. you mention the delegate math. i think everybody knows what that math is. i think senator sanders has done an extraordinary job raising a whole range of issues that are

important to democratic voters as well as the american people generally. and i know that at some point there's going to be a of company i guess conversation between secretary clinton and bernie sanders as to how we move towards the convention. the good news is that despite the fact that during the course of primaries everybody started getting a little chippy, i've been through this it's natural. sometimes even more with staffs and supporters than with the candidates themselves. the good news is that there's a pretty strong consent within the democratic party on the vast majority of issues. >> president obama speaking last week about the democratic presidential primary expressing some optimism basically about what he called the chippy time, chippy time in the democratic primary, everybody gets a little chippy. he was asked directly in that press conference if senator

bernie sanders should get out of the democratic primary. if he should get out of the race. the president said, let the process play out. then he also said, "i think everybody knows what that math is." meaning the delegate math in the democratic race. that was p.m. obama speaking last week. today the vice president joe biden was much more direct on the same subject. >> i feel confident that hillary will be the nominee and i feel confident she'll be the next president. >> vice president biden no longer beating around the bush about the state of the democratic race. but that comment from the vice president today, i feel confident that hillary will be the nominee, that did come from vice president biden today on the same day that senator sanders has notched another win over secretary clinton. at poll closing in west virginia, nbc news projected that bernie sanders will win the west virginia democratic primary. nbc projected that donald trump will win the west virginia republican primary and mr. trump

will win the nebraska republican primary as well which is not a surprise given that the republican presidential primary race is over and it only has one guy left in it. the democratic race is not over. senator sanders' win is real news in west virginia. steve kornacki at the big board in just a moment to talk about the size of senator sanders' win in west virginia, the significance of that win, and whether or not there is any suspension left in the democratic race as it does steam quickly toward its end.

an update for you on senator sanders' victory in the west virginia democratic primary. nbc projected his victory right as the polls closed at 7:30 eastern. right now with 34% of the vote in, senator sanders has 50% of the vote to hillary clinton's 40% of the vote. for hillary clinton, tonight's contest in west virginia marks a 180-degree reversal from the last time she ran in this state. eight years ago this week, west virginia handed hillary clinton one of her most lopsided victories of the entire primary campaign that she ran that year against barack obama. at this time, eight years ago, she trailed in the delegate count overall. she was facing calls to drop out of the race and make room for barack obama to be the party's nominee. but then she went to west virginia in may 2008 and beat senator barack obama there by 41 freaking points. after that she ended up staying in the race for nearly another

month. >> i am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign -- [ cheers and applause ] -- until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard. i can win this nomination if you decide i should. and i can lead this party to victory in the general election if you lead me to victory now. >> that was west virginia then. this is the exact opposite. this time around hillary clinton is losing right now by double digits in west virginia, even though she is winning the overall democratic primary race also by a lot. as much as the clinton campaign palpably wants this primary race to be over, it continues. senator sanders continues to draw massive crowds, over 16,000 people turned out to see him

last night in sacramento, california. another 6,000 people showed up today for an afternoon rally in stockton, california. senator sanders won in indiana last week. he is heavily favored to win in oregon next week. today, senator sanders repeated a claim he thinks he can still win a majority of pledged delegates. despite all the things that are going his way right now, the prospect of him winning a majority of pledged delegates continues to be a downright her cl her clue lien thing to imagine. he'd need to win 65% or more of every state remaining. if you factor in the superdelegates, regardless of tonight's results, secretary clinton woke up this morning already with 93% of the total delegates she needed to clinch the nomination. 93%. and when you're that close, presumably you want to end the

race. you want to put down any chance of a comeback. you want to put an end to your primary opponent taking shots at you and running ads against you. you probably just want to win more state to stick a fork in this primary, call it done, move on to the general election. well, today hillary clinton campaigned in kentucky which holds its primary a week from today, next tuesday. senator sanders is slightly favored to win in kentucky. but hillary clinton is not just campaigning in kentucky with three events there today and tonight. she's also now spending money in kentucky. we were first to report last night that the clinton campaign might be reconsidering its earlier decision to stop spending money on ads in the democratic primary at all. well, now that has come to pass. clinton campaign has undecided to stop spending money on ads in the primary. they have now booked $168,000 worth of ads in kentucky for that race next week against bernie sanders. that presumably means that kentucky is the next state on the calendar where the clinton

campaign believes they might have a chance to put the democratic primary to bed. could they actually put the democratic primary to bed if hillary clinton beat bernie sanders in kentucky? what are the feasible endings to the democratic primary right now, fantastical or not? steve core that canky joins us next. man 1: i came as fast as i could. what's up?

man 2: this isn't public yet. man 1: what isn't? man 2: we've been attacked. man 1: the network? man 2: shhhh. man 1: when did this happen? man 2: over the last six months. man 1: how did we miss it? man 2: we caught it, just not in time.

man 1: who? how? man 2: not sure, probably off-shore, foreign, pros. man 1: what did they get? man 2: what didn't they get. man 1: i need to call mike... man 2: don't use your phone. it's not just security, it's defense. bae systems. so there's a couple of big questions coming off senator

bernie sanders' big win in virginia tonight. could hillary clinton effectively kill senator sanders off by winning a state like kentucky next week? a state where she has now decided to spend ad dollars. clinton campaign previously said they weren't going to spend any more on advertising in the democratic race, they are now doing that in kentucky. if what they're trying to do is win there, could a win for the clinton campaign in kentucky be fatal to the sanders campaign? overall what are the skeeflk ends to the democratic race from this point forward this in terms of what happened in west virginia, does anything about who turned out to vote tonight in west virginia or what we know about the democratic electorate tonight in this latest state to go for sanders, does it tell us anything that might help us answer any of those big important questions about the democratic race? you may have noticed i'm standing and have awkward body language. that's because the big board is here along with its best friend, steve kornacki.

steve, thank you very much for doing this. >> sure. >> can we start first of all with the overall state of the democratic race, how important tonight is and whether it changes anything? >> right, so these are the states left. they're shaded in here. you see the pledged delegates up for grabs in each one of these states. west virginia shaded in, going on tonight. bottom line for bernie sanders, he came in with a gap of 295 pledged delegates behind hillary clinton. the sanders theory when you boil it down is if they can erase that gap, they can go to those super tell gates, they're not being counted here, superdelegates, and say the will of the people is bernie sanders. he should be the nominee. therefore, you should support him and not hillary clinton. that's the theory. so they need to make up an awful lot of ground in these few states that are left. he's won west virginia tonight, good news for him. bad news is we don't have an official count on the delegates but it looks like -- it's always proportional how they give out these delegates -- looks like the breakdown is going to be something like 16 to 13. it could change in either direction a little bit but looks

like it will be about that. so if sanders gets that, he ends tonight, he gets the win, he gets the headline. he ends tonight with another state off the board. and that -- only a very, very small dent in that lead. >> and not to be too pedantic on this but that would mean that essentially with hillary clinton having won guam this weekend and picked up something in the vicinity of three delegates, him winning west virginia tonight, picking up netting something in the vicinity of three delegates, basically no change even though this is a big high-profill win? >> it effectively cancels that. with brought portional system you don't have to just win states, you have to win them big if you're going to make a movement in the delegate count. >> so that's tonight. so the clinton campaign made this interesting decision about kentucky. they had previously -- hadn't said it overtly but indicated there was not going to be any more ad spending throughout the races left in the democratic primary. they have now started spending ads in kentucky. presumably they think kentucky unless reach for them.

how important would it be if they win kentucky? >> you have to separate. psychologically we've look the at kentucky, we've look the at rural, large white population. there is a sizable african-american population in louisville, for instance. but we've look the at it and said, this should be a sanders state. psychologically if she can put a win on the board there, when bernie sanders is in a position where he needs to win everything and needs to win it big, psychologicalry you'd say, that's it, he has no chance now. but basically the same math the sanders people are pointing to now, that probably wouldn't change that much. it's really to put it mildly daunting for him. i can take you through what that means. look at it this way. less be optimistic for bernie sanders, let's say he wins kentucky. say he gets a crushing win in kentucky and he nets 20 delegates out of that state. so that 292 would come down to 272. >> tell me what kind of percentage of the vote roughly that would be in order to get 20. >> 65%, 75% of the vote. >> so he's winning 2-1 in kentucky, it's a massive

landslide. >> two-thirds of the delegates to be pulling something like off, 37 to 18 would be the split in delegates. same day oregon. same thing, he's getting a massive number, say he nets 20. >> possible, uld be. >> down to 252. indiana, let's look down here, puerto rico, virgin islands. this looks like hillary clinton territory. let be fair to sanders, say he fights her to a tie here. they get the same number here. take it off the board. he fights here to a draw. >> that would be a surprise. >> but being optimistic, we take it into june now. the last state -- it's not a state, district of columbia, heavy african-american population. looks like a recipe for disaster for sanders. again, let's be real optimistic from his standpoint, say he fights her to a draw in d.c., take it off the board. these states, this is june 7th. south dakota looks like a good sanders state. north dakota, montana, new mexico. landslides for bernie sanders in all these states, say he nets 40 delegates out of these states.

huge landslides. >> he's crushing it. 252 now comes down to 212. notice there are two states left on the board. start here in new jersey. 126 delegates. here's the problem for sanders. there's a poll out this week in new jersey. hillary clinton's leading him by 28 points there. 60 to 32. when we say be optimistic? miracle of all miracles he erases a 28-point deficit in new jersey and it's a tie. and they get the same number of delegates. now you're down 212. this is so optimistic for sanders. you're down 212. you have one state left. it's the mother lode. is this the one. you saw to sanders people, they point to california, 475, if we win big we can catch her. based on these incredibly optimistic projections for bernie sanders, to get that kind of margin out of california, he would need roughly 72% of the vote in california. and that's if everything went incredibly right for him. if she got out of new jersey the kind of number this poll's showing, he would need 77% out

of california. >> wow, okay. so the individual state by state fight continues to be of psychological interest mostly, but the delegate math is as daunting as it's ever been, not getting any better. if he loses anything by any significant margin it's going to get considerably worse. >> the 77 could be over 80 if he's not hitting all these numbers. >> stove kornacki, you and this big board is a beautiful thing. we have steve kornacki and nobody else does. that's why in the battle to the death between us and news properties we'll win in the end because steve will know the answer when it gets down to the final question we are asked by whoever's being the life and death arbiter between us. at least that's how i dream it every night.

get out the timpanni. it's west virginia and nebraska. nbc news projects bernie sanders has won the state democratic primary in west virginia, nbc projects donald trump will win

the republican primary there. no surprise since he's the only person left in the republican race. and there's nebraska, donald trump also projected by nbc news to be the winner of the republican primary in nebraska tonight by a margin of several miles. donald trump has been the presumptive republican nominee for one week now. and already he's created one job. for chris christie. yesterday donald trump tapped the new jersey governor and former republican presidential candidate to lead transition efforts for president-elect trump if he wins the general election in november. christie will be in charge of staffing up the trump white house. so we got that news about chris christie hiring the trump administration staff yesterday. and that turned out to be incredible timing because today we got news that the bridgegate scandal which tore apart christie's own administration in new jersey, the bridgegate scandal is roaring back to life

with a very interesting vengeance. the bridgegate scandal, it's been going on three years since a few chris christie political allies and staffers allegedly closed access lanes onto the busiest bridge in the world as some sort of act of political retribution. this fall a federal trial is scheduled to start in newark, new jersey, involving two of those three former christie allies. a third one has already pled guilty and is cooperating with the u.s. attorney's office in this case. and while governor christie did lose his presidential bid this year, he was sort of able to sidestep this case in a way. i think in part because he was never officially legally named in the case. he's certainly not a defendant in the case, right? it was only ever those three people, who all lost their jobs before chris christie wiped his hands clean of the whole affair. now, though, the looks of that may be about to change. when those three former allies were in indicted last spring one of the weird things about the

indictment from the u.s. attorney's office in no one was that it named a fourth party. basically a group of other people who the u.s. attorney later described as unindicted co-conspirators. people who were in on it but didn't get indicted. the u.s. attorney said the names of those people might be disclosed at some point but not now. he said he would only seek to indict people who he felt confident would be convicted at trial. turns out the u.s. attorney, the pollutor, kept a list of those unindicted coconspear soars. the list was sent to the defendants and the judge presiding over this case. the list of unindicted coconspirators was never made public. in january a group of media organizations including nbc universal who filed this legal brief on behalf of nbc, about a dozen other media organizations, discovered the existence of this list of bridgegate unindicted

coconspirators and they told the judge, hey, we want that list too. that list probably involves some public figures. so the public deserves to know who is on there. who the government bleeelieves in on this scandal even if they didn't get indicted. the u.s. attorney fought to keep the list under seal saying the privacy of the people on that list outweighs the public's right to know. but today the judge told the u.s. attorney action told the prosecutor, no. the judge in that case now says the list of unindicted coconspirators should be released to the public. and because we know the judge has that list of unindicted coconspirators, it makes her ruling all that much more jaw-dropping to read. "individuals thus far identified as being involved in the lane closings have been public employees and/or elected or appointed officials and anyone named in the conspirator letter is likely to have held a similar

position. although privacy for third parties is indeed important, this court is satisfied the privacy interests of uncharged third parties are insufficiently compelling to outweigh the public's right of access. disclosure is appropriate and the media's motion for access to the list of unindicted coconspirators is granted." the ruling is kind of unusual for a couple of reasons. first the judge uses as precedent for her ruling a particular case in which a u.s. attorney named chris christie put away donald trump's son-in-law's dad. so donald trump's son-in-law and chris christie are the two people who are supposed to be working together to put the donald trump transition team into place in case donald trump gets elected president. that's already a little awkward because chris christie put that kid's dad in prison. for tax evasion. but now that precedent is being

cited as the reason to list -- to release the list of people who are unindicted coconspirators in the bridgegate case. so there's that. also in this ruling today the judge never gives a deadline by which this list of unindicted coconspirators has to be released. it's also unclear who is supposed to release it. and there is still a chance the u.s. attorney could appeal today's ruling and ultimately no one will have to release it at all. but right now the prosecutor, the judge, and the defense all have this list of unindicted coconspirators. the judge says it should be released to the media. the lawyer for the media companies is demanding its immediate turnover. in other words, it sort of feels like it's only a matter of time before this particular political cannonball hits the ball. joining us is andrea bernstein, senior editor for politics and policy at wnyc, part of new york public radio which is one of the other media organizations involved in this lawsuit to release the list. andrea, great to have you here.

>> good evening. >>dy get any of that wrong? >> no, i don't think so. >> it's a little complicated except for -- the procedure of it is complicated but the basics of it are that the dpochl thinks there are people who are in on bridgegate who they didn't feel they could convict. >> as a matter of fact, legal ruling said this isn't just people who the u.s. attorney might have been involved in the conspiracy, it's people the u.s. attorney believes there is sufficient evidence to believe they were a part of the conspiracy. it's not as speculative as all that. they're just people who were not charged but from the prosecutor's point of view are equally -- have equally committed the crime of closing down the george washington bridge, the world's busiest, for political retrition against a mayor who did not endorse chris christie in his re-election. >> do we know how big the list is? >> we don't. the judge seemed to imply it wasn't a huge list. what's interesting about the

list as you mentioned, this is a man who has been named to select the staff of potentially the next white house. the bridgegate defendants, the ones we know so far, are three big failings in christie's staff appointments. he has said he is not all that close to these people, that they were three rogue employees. but if the list gets wider of people close to governor christie and the judge has hinted they are public officials or public employees, then that becomes further problematic in the storyline of he is the best person to choose the next white house. >> the last time he put a staff together, look what happened, yeah. >> some things did not work out so well. >> obviously one of the things everybody's wondering is whether or not chris christie himself is going to be on the list. do you have any informed supposition about that? >> we obviously don't know if he is going to be on the list. it's also very clear that from the judge's point of view, these individuals participated in a conspiracy.

so it's not somebody who may have known. so you may recall that sometime in the new hampshire primary, donald trump said he totally knew about it, referring to governor christie. that was a moment when they were sparring with even other. and that seems to be a popular sentiment. but there's been no proof, there's been no evidence, there have been no documents certainly that have been in any way in the public sphere that suggests chris christie was a participant in this scheme and this list may or may not shed light on that. but it will certainly widen the list of people around chris christie who the government believes committed a federal crime. >> wow. you know, i never thought this thing was going to end at any convenient time for this particular part of it to be breaking at this time, the day after he's named the transition staff. >> yes. and that the -- his son-in-law is partners with chris christie is further stunning news, given their opposite relationship at a time when chris christie was a

crusading federal prosecutor himself trying to bring public corruption to light. >> andrea bernstein, senior editor for "politics and policy" at wnyc, thank you very much. >> always a pleasure. >> more to come, stay with us.

industrial port of that city. the activists, in the brightly colored kayaks, they were there to give royal dutch shell, turns out to be good advice. the reason they have all the little boats out, was to try to block a giant drilling rig, that

shell wanted to send to alaska, to drill the arctic. they screwed up doing it over and over again, even the richest, most aggressive oil company on the planet has know idea how to drill the arctic. this time last year, maneuvering around all the protesters, they got the rig into seattle for work at that port. a month later, they managed to get that rig out of that port, against protesters, telling the protesters, don't try it. it is not worth it you don't know how to do it. a month after that, it was the ice breaker for that shell drilling trip that got out of portland by the skin of its teeth. more protesters tried to stop it. the activists again, saying don't go. don't try it. it is not worth it. you know, shell put on a brave face. still went. this was the ceo of shell at the

time, vowing to press on with their plans to drill. the protesters department know what they were talking about. that was this time last year. today, today, shell gave up. all the companies d exactly. the group oceaniana show that the giant oil companies that paid more than $2.5 billion for drilling rights in the u.s. arktic have quietly relinquished those claim, after shell braved all the protesters to go ahead with their nearly $8 million question for arctic crude. they decided to eat that eat that expense. not try again, give up the arctic drilling rights that they paid billions for. billions of dollars wasted, for

shell. the artic is not going to get drilled. it is now off. should have listened to the hippies, you guys. they were right. would have saved you a bundle.

>> at this hour, bernie sanders is projected to win the west virginia primary.

west virginia donald trump won the republican primary. and in the state of nebraska. we have tracked one particular wild card, we have the latest on that, stay with us.

msnbc's coverage continues all night tonight. as part of our reporting on this race, we have been following some, let's call them murky legal proceedings. in particular, keeping tabs on the supreme court docket.

which we are told could have implications on the race. as donald trump locked up the nomination, this popped up. saying that supreme court could not lift a gag order, the lower court put into effect years ago, that blocked phone records from the old d.c. madam case. elected officials named years ago, from the d.c. madam escort service. the lawyer has been saying since the start of the year that some of the unreleased records are relevant to this year's presidential race. because of that because of that impending public interest, once we see what is in them. he asked to be released from the gag order, preventing him to release the records. he told us, if the supreme court turned him down, he thinks those records are so important, he would consider violating the gag order, in difiance of of the

law. well, now, the court said no. and incidentally, in the meantime, the republican primary as ended. are these unreleased phone records relevant now, if they issue was. will the d.c. madam lawyer release them himself? we don't know. the supreme court said no way. gag order still applies, what happens next, we have no idea. our coverage, this primary night continues with