obama, hillary clinton is now the presumptive nominee of the democratic party. nbc news making that call overnight after an influx of pledged superdelegates. it took six months, six months of primaries and some 50 million votes to add up to this presidential race, as we are today. everything appears to be finally set, but bernie sanders saying not so fast. there are still six states voting today, including new jersey and california. a live look here at los angeles where the polls are now open in what is today's biggest prize no doubt. sanders says wins tonight will push him into the convention with momentum that delegates won't be able to ignore. >> we are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment. >> let's assess where we are after tomorrow before we make statements based on speculation.

>> we're going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in california. >> if the turnout is very high, i think we will win by big numbers. >> after today, the race is expected to move fast. president obama reportedly finally ready to get off the sidelines to endorse clinton and become campaigner in chief. also this morning, friendly fire continues to engulf presumptive republican nominee donald trump. party leaders and former campaign rivals slamming him for his attacks on the federal judge hearing his fraud case. >> i think he's an honest guy. >> mexican or not mexican, i want him to be. all i want him to do is give me a fair shake. when they have thousands of people saying the courses are great -- >> well, we'll see what happens. >> let's get right to our political team this morning. kristen welker outside clinton campaign headquarters in brooklyn. kristen, let me get to you. i get the sense confetti is not

flying there yet but could be so shortly? >> reporter: not just yet, jose. i just spoke with a clinton campaign official moments ago and he said, look, they are celebrating the historic nature of this moment but they are not ready to declare victory. there are still six primary states that have to vote and of course senator sanders not acknowledging that secretary clinton has been named the presumptive nominee. both of the candidates essentially having the same message to those primary voters, get out and vote. having said that, this campaign official tells me that if secretary clinton by the end of this evening has won a majority of pledged delegates, you will essentially hear her recognize that in her speech tonight. i am also told she is going to lay out the high stakes of this general election matchup with donald trump. that will likely echo some of the key comments that she has made in recent days and of course she's going to talk about the importance of party unity. that is going to be so critical moving forward because a third

of senator sanders supporters saying they are not ready to get on board with her. and finally, secretary clinton is going to tout and highlight the historic nature of this moment. the fact that she is the first woman in u.s. history to clinch her party's nomination. now, she couldn't have a starker contrast with donald trump, who has made all of these controversial comments about women. that's something that the clinton campaign democrats have already seized upon. i expect her to highlight that tonight as well. now, pressure is mounting on senator sanders. we have a statement from minority leader nancy pelosi, who is endorsing secretary clinton this morning. let me read you a part of that statement. she writes throughout her career, secretary clinton has demonstrated her commitment to children, to working families and to a brighter future for america. i congratulate and thank senator bernie sanders for the great invigoration he is bringing to the presidential primary and welcome the political and intellectual prioritization --

if secretary clinton wins, it would take away any remaining argument for sanders to stay away. >> and then there's the question of when president obama is going to get involved. >> reporter: that's right. i've been speaking to white house officials and clinton campaign officials about that very question. it is very likely that the president will endorse secretary clinton this week, particularly if she has a strong showing tonight in california. the timing, the place, the way in which this announcement is rolled out, all of that is being kept very close to the vest by both the clinton campaign and the white house. we know, though, that president obama spoke with senator sanders over the weekend and we are told that sanders' mood was somber in the wake of that phone call. now, the clinton campaign thinks that president obama will be

pivotal to unifying the party, to energizing the obama coalition, particularly those younger voters who right now largely support senator sanders. secretary clinton is going to need them in the fall if she wants to win the white house. jose. >> kristen welker in brooklyn, thank you very much. i want to go to nbc's hallie jackson who's in capitol hill this morning. hallie, good morning. you had a lot of republicans anxious of endorsing trump for a long time. what is the flap over the judge doing to them now? >> reporter: not helping, jose. you haven't heard any republicans backing donald trump. you haven't heard any republicans recanting their endorsements either, but you are hearing concern from people in conservative circles. you've heard it from senator lindsey graham who told "the new york times" that at some point the love of country trumps hatred of hillary clinton. comparing trump's remarks on judge curiel to mccarthyism. you've heard it from people elsewhere in the political spectrum like, for example, senator bob corker who was on "morning joe" this morning.

corker is one of trump's closest political allies. he is rumored to be high on that vice presidential pick list but here's what he had to say when questioned three times about trump's fitness for the presidency. listen. >> to say that somebody because of their background or their ethnicity doesn't have the ability to carry something out is wrong. that's not where we are in our country. look, in campaigns like this, you have people coming at you, you've been involved in a primary, you've been with primary people throughout it. this is a time for him to pivot. >> reporter: so the question is what is the timeline for him to pivot. you've heard, for example, from corker he'd like to see a change from trump within the next few weeks. you heard from other senators that are looking between now and convention. that's what senator collins has told us as well. the question is will that happen. and if it doesn't, what are the consequences for donald trump moving forward. we know that he's spoken now with rnc chairman reince

priebus. the two had a phone conversation about these comments regarding judge curiel. that the two of them talked is not unusual. they talk frequently. they have to. one is the head of the republican national committee, the other is the presumptive nominee for the party. in this instance what i'm hearing from sources over the last 48 to 72 hours is that this is different because donald trump is hearing it from everybody. not just those never trump guys. people like nebraska senator ben sasse, who have been critical of trump from early on, from early in the primary season. but he's hearing it now from allies like corker, like newt gingrich, like even ben carson too, jose. >> hallie jackson, thank you very much. i don't know how you can pivot from saying that someone is not qualified to have a job because he's a mexican, when he's not even a mexican. i don't know how you pivot away from that but i guess that's something we'll be analyzing. i want to bring in steve kornacki as well as democratic strategist, jamal simmons. friends, good to see you both. so donald trump getting pressured on all sides. hallie just talked to us about

this judge comment. we even talked about the rnc is obviously talking to trump about that. steve, how do you pivot from something like that when so far pivot is not in donald trump's vocabulary? >> yeah, i mean a couple things. i did -- i watched that interview last night, the fox interview with bill o'reilly. you know, trump was in his way, which is a different way than most politicians we've ever seen, trying to take a step away from it, trying to say, all right, i don't care about ethnicity here. i just want a fair shake from this judge. it seemed to me reading the cues in that interview this is something he's interested in trying to move away from. i know there were indications that his campaign was moving a different direction yesterday afternoon. i guess to be honest when it comes to trump, though, when you say pivot away from it, move away from it, i think here's the reality. what this has shown is that donald trump -- the idea that donald trump was going to emerge from the republican primaries as some kind of a different

candidate, a more disciplined, more organized, almost a more mature candidate, you can kind of throw that notion out right now. when you ask how does he pivot away from it? i think the most realistic answer is a week or two from now, he says something else completely different but equally inflammatory and suddenly we're talking about that and we've forgotten about this. >> yeah, again, i just -- the thought that he is softening his tone when he says i don't care about his ethnicity, i don't care that he's a mexican or not a mexican, i don't care about ethnicity. you know, it's like you're not in any way pivoting. you're still going after the same issue. but let's turn now to the democrats. a historic fwowin for clinton l night but sanders isn't giving up. jamal, is he going to take this to the convention or is he going to say i see pelosi coming on board for clinton, i see president obama is ready to support her, i'm done? >> there aren't many people who know exactly what's going on

inside senator sanders' head right now, but it's clear that the movement is away from his positioning here, right? so you've got nancy pelosi who's come out, harry reid endorsed secretary clinton a long time ago. now i'm sure elizabeth warren could come up pretty soon and then president obama. there is a flood of endorsements i think that are probably waiting to happen once she clinches this thing for sure tonight after new jersey. so once that happens, i think you'll start to see that movement swell even more, at which point bernie sanders has some real reckoning to do as well as some of his people on his campaign that may want to play a role in future democratic races and other kdemocratic racs around the country. i've been on losing campaigns before so i know how tough it is to land that airplane, but they have to figure out how to do it. >> jamal, is there going to be, and it seems as though in politics even though the races can be very tough at the end, you kind of go with the side that you're with versus the other side.

is this something that hillary clinton will be able to do if she does become the nominee and get a substantial part of sanders' supporters. >> on this point bernie sanders, he seems a little petulent when he says that but he's really not wrong. this is going to be up to secretary clinton to go out and woo the bernie sanders' voters. he can do his part by bringing them toward her, opening the door, trying to reintroduce her to his supporters but she'll have to do some of that work herself. i think the campaign has to accept that point and get it done. >> jamal simmons and steve kornacki, thank you both for being with me this morning. speaker paul ryan has just started taking questions. let's listen in. >> our ability to give the people of this country a better way forward. a better way is what we're up to here. we believe we have a better likelihood of passing that than we would have with a president clinton. >> when you were in columbia, south carolina, back in january, that's the last time you were talking -- >> in public. >> donald trump was not one of

the republican candidates that showed up. you said at the time that you hoped that he would if he was the nominee, that he would go to some urban centers and talk about poverty -- well, two-part question. i'm wondering if he is on board with these specific policies that you brought out today and, second, have you talked to him specifically about going to some of these cities while he campaigns for president. >> i haven't talked to him about where he should campaign. i have discussed with him the tone of his campaign, the ideas. and we have had an exhaustive discussion about these policies. not just our teams, but ourselves personally. we've talked about welfare to work. we've talked about this agenda and the policies contained in this agenda. that is why i believe that we are far better off advancing these policies, getting them in law with his candidacy than we enclosure low are with a hillary clinton candidacy? >> what do you believe of donald trump doubling down on his remarks essentially saying go out there -- >> i fundamentally disagree with that. i think it's wrong. the way i look at this is if you

say something that's wrong, i think the mature and responsible thing is to acknowledge it was wrong. >> does his campaign need help? does he need better people around him? >> i'm not going to comment on that. we have enough work to do here in the house than to comment on people running their campaigns. >> you just said that mr. trump's comments were the textbook definition of racism -- >> i don't know what's in his heart but i think the comment itself is defined that way. i'm not going to defend these kind of comments. i'm going to defend our ideas, i'm going to defend our majority. and i think our getting these into law are farley li more lik we are the majority. if we go into the fall as a divided party, we are doomed to lose. that's why i'm going to focus on these ideas, these solutions and not attempt and try to defend the indefensible. >> speaker, i actually have a policy question for you. >> thank you so much. i told shirley, 10 to 1 they're going to be asking political

questions. >> you're in the district of columbia today. the council is expected to vote on a $15 minimum wage. they see people that aren't able to make ends meet and are still in poverty. what do you think of that move in other jurisdictions. is that a better way possibly -- >> i think that will do more harm than good in so many instances. what it does is prices entry level jobs away from people. i started working mcdonald's at minimum wage and it was a great way to learn skills -- >> house speaker paul ryan speaking about poverty and also taking some questions about politics. of course donald trump headlining those questions. he says it's wrong what he said. it's fundamentally wrong and he disagrees with it. we are going to take a short wre break. when we come back, more on hillary clinton's historic moment when he becomes the first woman to become the presumptive

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according to the news, we are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment. but we still have work to do, don't we? we have six elections tomorrow, and we're going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in california. >> hillary clinton last night not rushing to declare victory as the democratic party's presumptive nominee, at least until all of today's votes are counted. but bernie sanders isn't ready to give up, either.

>> and if we can win here in california, south dakota, north dakota, montana, new mexico, do well in new jersey, we're going to go into that convention with enormous momentum. >> joining me now, brian fallon, press secretary for the clinton campaign. brian, great seeing you. >> good morning, jose. >> good morning. so knowing that clinton is now the presumptive nominee, does it bother the campaign that sanders is still saying all jets are on full? >> well, look, we were very joyful last night when we saw nbc and a.p. and other outlets make that projection, but we're still focused on the six states voting today. we want everybody supporting secretary clinton to turn out today, especially in big delegate-rich states like new jersey and california, because if we have good showings in those six states today, what it will mean is we will not just have met the threshold of 2383, the magic number, but it will also mean that we'll have a majority of the pledged delegates.

and what that will mean, jose, is even if the superdelegates never existed, hillary clinton would still be the winner. i think at that point bernie sanders will really have no other option but to accept the reality that hillary clinton is our nominee and to join in this history-making moment because hillary clinton's own mother was born before women had the right to vote. she was abandoned at age 14, never had the opportunity to attend college. and a simple one generation later, her daughter is poised to become the first female nominee of a major party in our nation's history. that's a remarkable moment that the entire country can be proud of. >> sure is. brian, what happens on the other side of the coin if she doesn't win in california. what would it say about her strength as a candidate? >> well, look, jose, if we have a good showing in california, and the race is very tight, granted. but we feel like we have been closing strong in these final days. she's spent the last five days crisscrossing the state, along with her husband, president clinton, so we feel like we've

been closing strong. regardless, if we have a good showing, we know that we can hit that mark of clinching the pledged delegate count. so i think at that point senator sanders would really be arguing that super delegates should sway the election against the will of the people. that would be very undemocratic and not in keeping with the standard that he cited in 2008. in 2008 president obama clinched the nomination by the same standard that many of the networks used last night and prior to hillary clinton dropping out in 2008, senator sanders declared president obama the winner by that standard. so it's a little strange that he would use a different standard today. i think after tonight it will be hard to argue with the results, and i think that contrary to the idea that these superdelegates could be swayed to switch their support from secretary clinton to senator sanders in the next two months, you're seeing more of the party leaders start to coalesce around hillary clinton. just this morning we were very pleased to pick up the

endorsement of leader pelosi. i think that's a signal that the party is beginning to come together. >> what about president obama, do you have any indication of when he could get involved? have you or your campaign been speaking to the white house at all about this issue? >> well, we are in regular touch with former colleagues at the white house. of course we have many people on the campaign that used to work for president obama so there's very good relationships there, but i will defer to the white house about the timing of any potential endorsement. obviously if we were able to hit that milestone tonight of clinching a majority of pledged del delegates, we would hope to receive the endorsement of president obama. it's something we would look forward to and i think we would be happy to have president obama campaign over the next five months, as much as he was able. >> let me ask that once again, i know it's tough. but do you have any indication that maybe this week if things in california and new jersey go your way that the president would indeed be this week endorsing secretary clinton? >> well, we would be hopeful to pick up his endorsement but i

will defer to the white house on the timing. that will obviously be something that they decide and that they control themselves. >> you know, sanders has been pushing the argument of the superdelegates, and we just talked about that. but i want to just listen to his words about that, if we could. >> according to the democratic national committee what they should not be doing is lumping pledged delegates, i.e. real delegates, with superdelegates who may or may not change their mind but who do not vote until july 25th. so everybody knows exactly how all the superdelegates are going to vote on july 25th. that's great for them, but i don't know that. >> so should we be waiting until july 25th for those superdelegates? and then also, brian, would you think that it would be a good idea in the future to just strike that whole superdelegate thing? >> well, a few points, jose. like i said, in 2008, this same standard that nbc and a.p. used last night was good enough for

senator sanders when it came to him endorsing president obama and declaring him the winner ahead of hillary clinton dropping out a few days later. but the point is at various points you've heard different suggestions be made by the sanders campaign about flaws that they think exist in the system. but the reality is, if you -- if you removed any of those different variables, hillary clinton would still be the winner. let's say that you delegate all the superdelegates according to the states that hillary clinton or bernie sanders won. hillary clinton would still win in that circumstance. let's say you removed superdelegates altogether, hillary clinton would still after tonight have a majority of the pledged delegates so she would still win by that measure. there's been independent analysis showing if you made all the primary contests open so independents could have voted in all of these primaries, there's been independent analyses showing hillary clinton still would have won in that case. if you look at the most recent contests, she's won nine out of the last 13 so she's clearly got the wind at her back as opposed to senator sanders. if you look at the highest turnout contests, she has won

the vast majority of them. in fact in a state like washington, more recently held a nonbinding primary where the turnout was much larger than the caucus and hillary won the higher turnout version of that contest. by almost every measure, when the most people turn out, hillary clinton is very clearly the nominee. it is the will of the democratic convention that she be our nominee going forward. i think at some point senator sanders will submit to that reality and i think that the party is already showing signs of coming together and that will only continue after a momentous occasion like tonight. >> hey, brian, it's always a pleasure to speak with you. i appreciate your time. >> thank you for having me on a very momentous day. >> i want to note that we repeatedly asked representatives for the sanders campaign to come on this program and share their take on this but as of 25 after, they declined. six states holding primaries on this super tuesday. we'll check in at polling stations in new jersey and

california for a look at how smoothly voting is go so far, so stay with me. we'll be right back. wrely on the us postal service? because when theyhip with us, their business becomes our business. that's why we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyoneelse . here, there, everywhere. united states postal service priority: you

votinges under way right now across the country in six states holding primaries today including new jersey and california, two big states with big delegate totals up for grabs. let's go to tony dokoupil in new jersey. tony, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, jose. so big question this morning was whether or not voters would even turn out after the declaration yesterday that hillary clinton is now the presumptive nominee, but they are indeed turning out. polling stations like this one, tiny polling stations are going to go a long way to determining whether hillary clinton can be decisive here in this state, if she can win big and start to unify and solidify this nomination. we've been talking to voters all morning long as they come out and the hillary clinton voters in particular think it is over at this point, it's time for bernie sanders to drop out and for the unification process to begin. but not surprisingly, the bernie backers say no way jose, this is

not even close to finished. in fact we've got a couple right here. please join me. what's your name? >> hi, i'm jennifer. >> jennifer. >> yeah. >> who did you vote for? >> i voted for bernie sanders. >> and why? >> i felt like he was consistent with his views throughout his terms in office and i thought he appealed to a lot of the young voters and a lot of our concerns today. >> so hillary clinton has been named the presumptive nominee. do you think bernie sanders should drop out at this point or stick all the way to july? >> i think he should stick with it. i think he still has a lot of support and has a chance of getting there and a bunch of people still want to go to the polls and at least have that shot. >> some democrats would say you've got to unify behind clinton because if you don't you've got to help donald trump in november. >> i think we should at least see who gets the nomination and then come the final vote, i think everyone should definitely be voting for the democratic nominee if trump is the winner there. >> and then one last question and then i'll let you go. do you think this primary season

has been fair to bernie sanders? >> i think bernie sanders has been an underdog in a lot of ways where he's been getting a lot of support at rallies and not as much attention for that and he's been getting some slander but he's been handling it well. >> and you've been handling this interview very well. thank you very much. i'll let you continue on with your day. jose, bernie supporters despite the declaration from the associated press and nbc news that hillary clinton is the presumptive nominee, they're not quite ready to accept that and the rhetoric from the candidate himself suggests that he's not as well. he may take this all the way to july, and this conversation will continue with the clinton people saying, hey, this is fair and square. she won the nomination. it is now over. and the bernie people saying not quite yet, we're going to take this all the way to july. back to you. >> we'll see what happens after today and how new jersey and california votes and the other states. tony, great seeing you, thank you. up next we'll go to california and a polling station in l.a. stay with me for that and a whole lot more right here on "msnbc live." amazing is moving like one.

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let's go to los angeles. msnbc's jacob soboroff is in the silver lake neighborhood. jacob, good morning to you. so voting is just getting underway there? >> reporter: yeah, that's exactly right, jose. polls open here at 7:00 local time, 10:00 on the east coast. just so happens this happens to be my polling place so we came over here to check out what's going on. if i could bring you in and show you what's going on there was worry turnout would be low after the associated press and nbc news declared that hillary clinton is the presumptive democratic nominee based on the totals with the superdelegates and the pledged delegates. but you can see in the basement of st. theresa school, people have turned out to vote. the big question today is how many people will end up turning out to vote. the hillary clinton campaign is worried that people will not show up here in california because of this result, handing bernie sanders a fresh opportunity to score a big win

here in california. there's over 6 million eligible voters in los angeles county, over 10 million statewide. if bernie sanders can pull off a victory here today, his campaign is still hoping that gives him enough ammunition and keeps hillary clinton below a victory using pledged delegates only that he can go to that convention in cleveland this july with some momentum to have a contested convention in philadelphia this summer. the issue is, it's liking like that is not going to happen. again, based on those superdelegate totals, but people are showing up today. whether or not they are bernie sanders supporters or hillary clinton supporters, we'll find out at 8:00 tonight when the polls close. we talked to people online earlier that were coming in and they said regardless of what happens here today, they want to see a contested conntion in philly this july and that is what bernie sanders supporters have to look forward to at this point, jose. >> so that's what the sanders supporters have been going with

all week, but let's see what happens after today. i think it's going to be really a defining day in so many ways. jacob, good to see you, thanks. now to some political drama playing out in peru this morning. ballots still being counted there following sunday's presidential election. according to the peruvian electoral office, only 50,000 votes stand between the two candidates. form investment banker pedro pablo leads the daughter of the controversial former president. nearly 97% of the ballots have been processed. there's a lead of 50.15 to 49.5%. bernie sanders says he'll stay in the race until the convention despite hillary clinton reaching the magic number of delegates to become the presumptive nominee. so what will sanders supporters do if this becomes a clinton-trump general election? chris jansing talks to some of

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the trump versus clinton race appears more imminent this morning. bernie sanders will have to decide who to support. some bernie or bust followers say it's like deciding between the lesser of two evils. my colleague chris jansing spoke with some of those supporters. chris. >> good morning, jose. i sat down with six very passionate bernie sanders' supporters in denver, colorado. that's one of the handful of battleground states. trying to get a sense of how difficult it will be for hillary clinton to win them over. and the conclusion very clearly is it's going to be a very tough sell. they are extremely skeptical of hillary clinton. take a listen. >> she says she is one of us. she's not.

you know, you can't sit there and tell me that you live in a huge mansion and i can barely afford my rent. she doesn't have a humble bone in her body and she doesn't understand why she's not getting support from women in the country. it's because she's not relatable. i feel like as a woman i'm not going to choose the candidate just because of their gender. that's ridiculous to me. i'm part of the bernie or bust movement. i believe i will write his name in. >> that's your -- that's your answer to if -- i know you don't want to go there, but if bernie is not the nominee, what's your alternative, not hillary? >> no, no. >> i'm doing the same thing. >> it's not fair that i should have to choose the lesser of two evils. it's not fair to me. >> most likely i will vote for hillary because in that scenario that bernie does not win our nomination, you have to be willing to wear your ideological stance with a pragmatic stance. there's too much at stake. i have multiple friends who are gay and they say that as much as

they love bernie, they have so much more to lose if donald trump gets to nominate somebody to the supreme court. i know that a lot of people who are bernie or bust don't like the idea of holding this, oh, look at donald trump as president is a source of leverage to get you to fall in line. >> yeah, it's like point a gun to your head. >> but i don't see it as falling in line. it's making a pragmatic choice. it's saying i would rather have my voice heard for four years, at least somewhat, rather than have my voice heard one day in november. >> yes, this -- we're looking at this too narrowly. there is huge issues at stake. we get too focused on the presidential election. young people, new people to the process don't understand. we have got to keep -- get the supreme court back. if we get another right winger on the court, we're screwed. >> if hillary cannot win a general election without our

support, she doesn't deserve the nomination. wait, wait until the republicans start campaigning against hillary in a real active way. she will stand no chance against that buffoon trump. >> so six bernie supporters, only two would definitely commit to supporting hillary clinton if he is not the nominee. but what could change the others' minds? well, who the vp nominee is, a lot of them talk about elizabeth warren. they care about these issues, like universal health care, the $15 dollar minimum wage, free college for everyone. but i can also tell you that they were very much of the mind what i saw last night in san francisco. 10,000 supporters who screamed "fight on, fight on," their message to bernie sanders to do what he says he's going to do, which is to take his fight all the way to the convention. jose. >> chris jansing, thank you so much. good seeing you. well, david french is not

running for president as an independent candidate, but he joined "morning joe" today to talk about some of the tactics he claims the trump campaign employed to stop him from running. constitutional lawyer and writer for the national review says there is a path out there somewhere for someone else to take on a third party run. >> did trump operatives reach out to your family or you? >> my wife's family, yes, yes. you know, it was -- it was probably one of the more ham handed attempts at intimidation out of the trump operation you can expect things to be done the most incompetent way possible. >> what happened? >> an individual called and said i'm sorry, but i've been asked by the trump campaign to make sure that david knows that this will be really bad for him. which, you know, i actually learned about this after i made the decision. i assumed if i did this, look, i have been against trump for some time. and the assaults on my family

have been overwhelming just as a writer. i mean as everyone knows, trump has an online racist mob that he often stokes by retweeting some of these horrible white supremacists and that online racist mob is very fond of point out i have a multi-racial family. so they have gone after my oldest daughter in the worst way imaginable, the worst way. >> i'm sorry? >> they have attacked you for having a multi-racial family? >> oh, you have no idea. threats. i've had neighbors who -- this is months ago before i even considered this. neighbors who were nervous that they were going to be attacks in our neighborhood. it's been -- he unlocked something terrible in this country and it's one of the reasons why i was so motivated to look at this if nobody is stepping up. but sometimes the reasoning that somebody is better than nobody, that's not always the case. if i did more harm than good as somebody without a lot of name

i.d., he could just go, oh, look, there's not that many americans who oppose me, when there's millions, millions who are ready to. >> was that someone from the trump campaign called someone from your wife's family? >> they identified themselves as someone affiliated with the trump campaign who had been told to call, you know, a member of my -- they tracked down a member of my wife's family in tennessee while all of this is going on. you know, i only learned about it later. >> ahead, making history. hillary clinton becomes the presumptive democratic nominee. the historical significance of her win ahead. plus donald trump's latest tactic to deflect attention from his attacks on a judge. stay with us.

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gonzalo curiel. he spoke about it at an event in washington just a short time ago. here's part of what he said. >> i disavow those comments. i regret those comments that he made. i don't think -- claiming a person can't do their job because of their race is like the textbook definition of a racist comment. i think that should be completely disavowed. it's absolutely unaccept al. but do i believe that hillary clinton is the answer? no, i do not. >> let's bring in nbc senior political editor mark murray. mark, good morning. definition of a racist comment. that's pretty clear from paul ryan. >> yeah, jose, there were two big headlines from just those few sentences there. on the one hand, yes, you had the house speaker, the republican, the highest republican in the u.s. congress denouncing donald trump, his party's presidential nominee, for a textbook racist comment, as he put it. jose, i just can't emphasize enough how extraordinary that is. we talked about how long it took for ryan to endorse donald

trump. but to have the house speaker of your own party end up denouncing in this fashion your party's presumptive nominee is just an extraordinary event and something that we don't see in normal presidential contests. the other headline is paul ryan saying despite all of those things donald trump is preferable to hillary clinton and he would be supporting donald trump because that's a better way to get the republican policies and agenda through. and so on the one hand, donald trump, textbook racist comment. on the other hand, i'm putting my party first. >> mark, you would be kind of unusl and probably impossible to consider a speaker of the house of one political party saying i'm going to vote for the other political party's candidate. >> jose, that's a great point, but it also shows you the bind these republicans are in, even ones like paul ryan. on the one hand, do they have to find themselves over the next five months trying to have any type of criticism and having to

respond to controversial comments that donald trump makes and on the other hand saying, yes, that was really bad but i'm still supporting him. you're exactly right. it would be a bigger headline is paul ryan said, yes, i'm backing hillary clinton or staying out of this entire presidential contest. but this is the bind republicans find themselves in. >> mark, we see people like senator graham, who's been no friend or supporter of trump in the past but now he's even implying that maybe he won't be supporting the republican. >> he ended up telling "the new york times" that now is the time for the off-ramp. if you wanted to rescind your endorsement of donald trump, you can now do so. so some very interesting comments coming from republicans, jose. >> mark, thanks. new jersey governor chris christie is just voting and he's speaking to the media. let's listen in for a second. >> are not going to make their decision based upon this kerfuff kerfuffle, i guarantee you. >> do you think it's racist? >> but in all fairness, isn't this inconsistent with what you said about your judicial

nominations years ago, when ethnicity or religion is the focus. >> listen, matt, it's not inconsistent. when these are my nominations and when i'm defending people who i've nominated, who i know personally, i'm sure you're referring to sohail mohammed and i knew him personally and had worked for him for years. i knew that any allegations in that instance was going to impose sharia law or knew something about jihad, those were very specific things about someone that i knew personally. and when i have something to say about that, i'm say it. i don't know this judge. i don't know him personally. i don't know the history of the trump university case. so i'm not going to get into speaking about all that. i've said this before, that i know donald trump. i've known him for 14 years. and donald trump is not a racist. and so, you know, the allegations that he is are absolutely contrary to every experience that i've had with him over the last 14 years. and so we're going to end it there.

i'm not going into that. >> can you support it. >> next. >> do you support him? >> listen, you know what, congressman ryan is entitled to his opinion, as is everybody else who has an opinion on this. i've expressed mine and if all we're going to do is talk about this, i'm going to get in the car and go back because i've given you my opinion. if you have other questions, i'll answer them. >> was it a mistake? >> michael, i am not going to get into critiquing a campaign that we're in the middle of. there will be plenty of times for post mortem after the campaign is over and if you want to ask me about it then that's fine. i'm not going to microanalyze every bit of a campaign because the voters don't. what matters here is winning and losing, first and foremost. what matters here is where the country's direction will be after whoever wins this election. that's what i'm focused on. that's my job for donald is to focus on setting up a government once he's elected in november and that's what my focus is for

him. it's not in micromanaging the campaign. if we've got questions other than the judge kerfuffle, i'm happy to answer them. otherwise i'm moving on. my approval rating goes up and down in the state. i've said this before. i've said when i was at 75% i didn't believe it and when i'm at 26% i don't believe it. and if the fact is i don't govern and have never governed based upon my approval rating. you guys are much more concerned with my approval rating than i am. i'm never a candidate for office again in this state and so quite frankly my approval rating doesn't mean a lick to me. it didn't mean all that much to me when it was high and it doesn't mean that much to me when it's low. the fact is i've got a job to do and i've got a tough job to do. when you have to make difficult decisions, that's what happens. i've always said that you gather political capital in order to spend it. i've spent it on things that i thought were important. now it's my opportunity over the next 18 months to build it back

up. i'm not at all concerned about that. nor quite frankly if i was is there anything that you can do about it today or tomorrow. approval ratings go up and down over a long course of time. they have done it here. and quite frankly the fact that i'm a two-term governor and have had the approval ratings i've had in a state that's one of the bluest states in the country is a fairly good testimony to the success of our policies and to the popularity of the way we've gone about them. so it goes up and down, i'm not worried about it. it doesn't matter, by one point which is statistically insignificant. you can have as much fun as you want. you may not believe this, i don't care. if i were up -- excuse me. no, it's not coming from my constituents. the fact of the matter that a pollster polls 400 people out of 8.9 million people. i've been consistent about this. when my poll ratings were up at 75%, i said to you i don't believe them and it doesn't matter to me. if you say that it's 75, you're consistent when you say it at

26, it doesn't really matter to me and it's not, by the way, consistent with the interaction that i have with my constituents around the state. i have to make tough decisions in this job. i'm under unrelenting attack. mostly from democrats, some from members of the media as well. you know, to the extent that people read or care about this stuff, that affects it too. >> does it matter how many donald trump gets in new jersey today? >> no. i thought it was going to but he's clinched the nomination now so it really doesn't matter at all what happens today, as long as our delegate slate gets elected, which i'm confident that it will, none of the rest of it really matters. >> should the co-conspirators be released? >> that's up to the court. >> do you wish that today this would have been you? >> every part of me wishes that. not some part of me. every part of me wishes it was me but it's not and that's the way elections go. so i don't have any doubt quite

frankly, i don't have any doubt about the fact that i ran as good a race as i could run and in a field of 17 people, donald won. and so, you know, every part of me wishes it were me today but it's not, so i'm voting for the person that i think is the best person to beat hillary clinton in november and i just voted for donald trump. >> do you want to be in the cabinet or vice president? >> you don't get to make those determinations. >> have you had any conversations -- >> no, i've said that about. i've had no conversations about it. >> governor, is there anything mr. trump can learn from you about your ability to speak your opinion without offending people? >> it's fascinating that i am now the person who can speak my mind without offending anybody. 12 months ago all of you were asking me was i going to change my manner in order to not offend people. now all of a sudden i'm the person who doesn't offend anyone. listen, donald trump is my friend and to the extent that i -- and i've made this statement many times before. to the extent that i can help him be a better candidate and ultimately be a better

president, i'm happy to help him in that regard because he's my friend and now he's the nominee of my party, so i'm happy to help him. whether he can learn anything or not, only time will tell and i'm certainly not con ceited enough to think the guy who beat me i'm going to teach anything to. anything i can do to help i'm happy to do so. my relationship with senator booker is well chronicled. i like senator booker, i have great respect for senator booker and we've been friends over the last, gosh now, 14 years. so i have great respect for corey, he's a good didn't i and i like him. as to whether or not he should be hillary clinton's vice president, one, that's a decision only she can make. and two, i wouldn't want to express an opinion because if i did, i might actually hurt his chances so i don't want to do that to corey. any other questions? >> governor, at any point do you think mr. trump's rhetoric has gone too far? was there any p