table against all the odds and we made a decision over the weekend. that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we'll suspend our campaign effective today. we're not done fight zblg santorum's loss is obviously romney's gain. >> this has been a good day for me. senator santorum has decided not to proceed with his campaign. he'll continue to have a major role in the republican party and i look forward to his work in helping ensure victories for republicans across the country in november. >> let's talk this over with our msnbc power panel. it's great to see all of you. joe, i want to start with you, this seemed like the inevitable result to the republican

primary, how much damage has this republican primary done, can he overcome it quickly? >> well, as you said in your opening he has clear sailing to the nomination except for the fact that he's trailing with women, except for the fact that he's trailing obama in a couple of swing states. it exposed his weaknesses among core conservatives. his weaknesses among core congreservatives in the south. that won't be a big deal because the south tends to go republican and conservative anyway. but the damage that he had to endure against president obama giving the fact that women are going to be a very key demographic here and a fact a lot of what was said, was a big turnoff to moderates.

he'll have to bring santorum's conservatives along with him for the ride. >> karen, the social issues basically, that have been vetted and beaten into the ground through the primary, i think romney, most likely wants to get those off the front-burner and make this more about the economy and the last jobs report not the a huge boost for the white house, is the president ready to win a debate on this economy with the unemployment level still stuck above 8%. >> absolutely. there are a couple of things, number one, remember, for women, these quote, unquote social issues, when you talking about attacking my basic access to health care, that's part of my economy. women tend to run the households and the budget. if i have to pay more for that, that's less money that i need to pay for other things. on the other hand, you know, the bold choice essentially that we're going to have, mitt romney

saying here are all of the reasons why, even though i have four houses, i need to continue to pay a lower tax rate than most of you and here's my rat n rationale. there's going to be a big, sort of discussion about one vision over the other. i think the president is more than ready to have that conversation. >> jp, as we talked about conservatives falling in line the south where romney has some sticking points, there are still pockets of voters on the right who are going to carry some problems for mitt romney going forward, specifically the evangelicals, how can he get them on his side? >> what held back romney from getting the nomination, this is the first super pac presidential nomination. he went from the presumptive

nominee. you have the outside groups doing a lot of these messaging. as a matter of course, you have these conservative groups, they'll still be able to weigh in the campaign, campaign against obama. they don't necessarily endorse romney, think have to make it clear to conservatives that there's a reason to stand against obama in this campaign. >> it makes it really tough? >> sure, but the important thing is when looking at this primary, you have now a candidate who's more vetted, more prepared to answer these questions from the right that he's in a much better position. >> karen, you want to jump in there. you're shaking your head. >> i think in general the primary was an extended primary was a good thing for mitt romney and their campaign, it showed

them where their weaknesses are. the question is, can mitt romney make those changes? but i would make the argument, given how much money romney spent he should have wrapped this thing up a lot sooner. not a factor that essentially help him stay in longer. it with us a factor that should given the way he carpet bombed his competitor, he should have wrapped this up a lot sooner. >> joe, i want to get you quickly on the supreme court if they uphold the president's health care law, does that become a nonissue for romney in the campaign if. >> it becomes a bit of an issue. he's closely tied whether he likes it or not to health care reform, because he passed it in massachusetts. it's the template. he'll have to answer for that particularly among conservatives. one thing that i want to point

out, over the course of the campaign, it became evident that romney had some weaknesses. beyond the primary, why should we vote for him? we don't have an affirmative mess sang. during the primary, we have to vote for him among republicans. we don't have a core reason. he doesn't inspire and doesn't have a clear message. >> i wished president obama had one. >> j.p. >> i think obama's got one. >> thank you to my power panel this morning. my next guest is ali stewart, who can give us some answers to questions that we had bouncing back and forth there. alice, now that your candidate has decided to suspend his campaign, was thing to look back is the fact that santorum campaign truly exceeded all of its expectations. talk about the decision and how hard it was for senator santorum to decide to suspend this in.

>> it was a difficult decision. he got into this race, sitting around the breakfast table with his family, after a lot of thought and prayers, he got out of the race the same way, sitting around the table with his family. obviously with his young, precious daughter bella recently being sick, that became an issue, he focused on taking care of her. faith and family has always been important to him. but also political implications were a factor. looking at the delegate math, the past few weeks, there was a path. but as things have unfolded, things that needed to fall in place, weren't falling in place. so, he realized that now is the time to step aside and suspend the campaign. but, while the campaign is over, as he said the fight has just begun. he'll rally behind mitt romney

and do everything we can to not only defeat barack obama, up and down the ballot, we need to elect conservatives in the house and senate to make a powerful conservative voice in the house not just in the white house. >> hwell, obviously the primary process about showing contrast that's certainly what he did over the past several months, showing the contrasts between he and the other candidates. the time has come to rally behind the person -- >> to say he's the worst republican to put up against barack obama? there's not a lot of backing down from that statement. >> he was referring to the aspect of obama care. how that will affect him in the general election. but the point is right now, the people have spoken. rick has decided it's time to

coalesce conservatives. and this is how politics works. if it's not your time, it's obviously mitt romney's time. we'll do everything we do to show that he's the better candidate to lead this country than president obama. polls have shown that he's more qualified to deal with the debt and deficit than president obama. as we traveled across the country on the campaign trail, people want to repeal obama care, they want to see someone create jobs and work to rein in spending. recent polls have shown that they have faith mitt romney is capable of doing that. >> they had a nice conversation yesterday. they have a tremendous mutual respect for each other. there was a quick conversation yesterday about suspending the campaign. but details of how rick will work to help mitt romney to

secure this nomination will be ironed in the weeks to come. he'll coalesce conservatives and join the romney team and take on and defeat barack obama. certainly the re-election campaign will have a tremendous amount of money and the power of the incumbency, the only way we can defeat barack obama is a united front. up and down the ballot, he wants to see republicans in the house and senate. >> alice stewart, thanks so much. i appreciate it. with rick santorum no longer a factor in this race, those statements that he made could haunt and present longterm problems for mitt romney. >> why would we put someone up who's uniquely, pick any republican in this country, he's the worst republican in the country. to put up against barack obama. >> the chairman of the republican national committee

joins me now. it's great to have you now. as i was talking to alice and that sound bite of rick santorum calling romney the worst republican, how does the rnc along with governor romney alleviate any concerns from senator santorum and his supp t supporters to coalesce and get behind the inevitable candidacy that is mitt romney? >> by the way, good morning, thomas. i think what you do in a party situation, you come together and unify like your previous guest just did, you have the candidates that come together, you have to have a great spring and summer together, a great convention, showing an unified front. this will be a referendum on barack obama. just like hillary clinton and barack obama came together and the democrats were splitting each other in half four years ago, that's not been the case

here in our party but you do come together and you do the things that you saw yesterday and what you just had on your show, i think you'll see that in the republican party. you'll see a totally unified front. republican, conservative, tea party, everyone in between, come together to help save this country and defeat barack obama. >> when you talk about the coalescing and people uniting, everybody behind mitt romney, let's talk about the candidate potentially for vice president, is that going to send a big signal to the voters? mike hu mike hucabee or sarah palin? >> i don't hear that, thomas, i think more and more you're going to see some of that go away. i think mostly when you do these contrasts between the candidates

during the primary you get more of that. as people come together, you get less than that. as far as the vp sweep stakes go, that's a lot of fun debating. quite frankly, i don't know who will be the vice presidential candidate. i don't know for sure. i'm not involved in those talks. i see the same things that you do, thomas. i see the same stars on the list and it's interesting for me as well. i think ultimately, though, it can play a pretty key role. >> sure. >> i think sarah palin played a key role four years ago and created a lot of excitement. >> she still plays a key role today? >> she does and people debate that role all the time. the fact of the matter is, i think she was -- she provided a real spark plug that we needed in our process last time. i think vice presidents can matter a whole lot.

>> chairman, on the record about something, leadership is all about casting vision, you created a visual with a war on caterpillar, the war on women, you called the war on women a fiction, obviously the war on caterpillar comment created a lot of headlines, is that something you want to walk back or clarify? >> i won't walk back i'll double down. this war of women is a fiction that the democrats have created. the real war on women is the war that this president has put forward on the american people by not following through on his promises. by having women dispor porti portionately affected by the economy. >> chairman, how can you say it's a fiction if you stand on the record on what the republican party has done? all three remaining republican

candidates are planning to eliminate federal funding for family planning? 90% antiabortion laws have been signed into law. after state governor ships swung back to the republican side. how do you say it's fiction when these laws exist on the book now? >> because it's a fiction, thomas. it's a fiction because, because number one, there is no war on women, it's a fiction. if you believe that all women are pro-abortion, maybe in your own world -- >> i think the term is pro-choice. >> the fact of the matter is, our party, our party believes in life for everybody. and the fact of the matter is, the real war on women, the actual things that i think most women in this country are most concerned about which is a good job, a good family, being able

to live the american dream, provide for your kids and your family, that war on women is being perspetuated by barack obama. who has put our economy on the wrong track. >> the fiction that you talk about, the phrase war on women is now being uttered by republicans. take a listen to this. >> a talk about war on women. the real war on women has been waged by the obama administration's failure on the economy. >> all right, it sounds like you got the messaging going there from romney. it's the exact same phrasing. >> we're just borrowing your messaging. this war on women fiction that democrats have tried to perpetuated on us, a war, when you look at what matters most to americans, which is the jobs and

economy, it's a war that the president is losing. women in the country know that the most important thing in any family is a good job. >> you can't discount the fact that we almost took the government to the brink of closing over planned parenthood. did we didn't we? >> the world will continue. >> you say it's a fiction and you don't want to walk back the fact that the war on caterpillar, that is fine. how can you still say it's a fiction? 90 different anti-abortion calls coming across the state legislatures. >> you and i are never -- going to be on the same page as long as you believe that if you're pro-life you're anti-women. we're never going to be on same

page. i happen to believe that life begins at conception and you don't. so, since you don't believe that -- >> this isn't about what i believe or don't believe. i'm asking you about the republican national committee and your leadership. >> i don't buy your argument. i believe that you can be pro-women and pro-life. and you don't. the that's the problem, thomas. the most important issue in this country, the most important issue in this country is the economy. the issue that you and president obama don't want to talk about because it's an issue in regard to the economy that this president has been an absolute failure on. as long as he has been a failure in the economy he's going to lose the women vote in november. he hasn't full field the promises to the americans. >> we shall see.

the gender gap is women under 502 to 1. nice to see you. >> have a great day. we're withdrawing his counsel with mr. zimmerman. >> so, where is george zimmerman. we know where he is not. what his former lawyers are saying this morning. plus, two massive earthquakes rock indonesia. wake up!

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i can assure you in this investigation and in all cases we'll examine the facts and the law. if we find evidence of a potential federal criminal civil rights crime, we'll take

appropriate action. and at every step the facts and the law will guide us forward. >> that was attorney general eric holder making remarks a about the justice department's trayvon martin investigation before the national call for action network about an hour ago. the special prosecutor investigating the death of the florida teen trayvon martin will announce new developments by the end of this week. trayvon martin's parents are scheduled to hold an afternoon news conference to talk about yesterday's big bombshell in this case. that bombshell being george zimmerman's attorneys have dropped him as a client. saying that he may no longer be in the state of florida. and he's not responding to their attempts to make contact. >> he doesn't call back. he's not returning e-mails to me nor text messages. only conclusion that i can draw,

he doesn't wouldn't us to represent him anymore. >> joining me this morning is nbc correspondent kerry sanders. lot has happened in less than 24 hours. the fact that george zimmerman doesn't have a legal team anymore. >> in addition to the fact that he has these former lawyers who were previously his legal team, in a communication between the special prosecutor and those lawyers, apparently, george zimmerman tried to make direct contact with the prosecutor. to talk to her. now, ethically she's not allowed to talk to him because he had lawyers. and so, she can't sit him down in a room on top of the fact that legally that can create a problem if it gets to a courtroom later because he wasn't represented by counsel. now as you can imagine all of this is going on, don't know where george zimmerman even is. the attorneys said they don't

know where he is, the florida department of law enforcement don't know where exactly george zimmerman is. his ex-attorneys, former attorneys said that they can confirm that he's no longer in florida. he's somewhere in the united states, he's not left the country. but for trayvon martin's family, his parents, they're confused. because they wonder whether george zimmerman might be running. when they heard this news they said they were stunned. >> to me that means he's a potential flight risk. >> do you think that anybody will be able to find him? >> federal government, they claim to know where he is. >> of course, george zimmerman hasn't been charged with anything. he was under no rule, no obligation, no order to remain in the state of florida. it's just these twists and turns

coming right as we're waiting to hear from the special prosecutor on whether there will be charges or no charges are warranted. certainly has turned up the heat as everybody is waiting for that announcement that could come tomorrow, at the latest it will come on friday. >> nbc's kerry sanders in sanford for us. many people no doubt enjoyed this past winter, they enjoyed it because the lack of snow we have been seeing, now stateses are paying the price in raging wildfires. suing coke with a smile? a family claims to have stock worth $130 million. coca-cola says that's absurd. details on this three-year-long legal battle next. c'mon dad!

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welcome back, everybody. let's take a peek at the

markets. stocks are up this morning. they're bouncing back. green arrows across the boards. the biggest slide so far we have seen this year yesterday. we got the dow jones up by 100 points. when we talk about money with mitt romney the presumptive republican nominee, president obama is launching a full-throttle attack against wealth and privilege. the president this morning echoed the populous call for fairness pushing for implementation for the buffett law. on the stage with the president, four millionaires and their assistant and prosperity has never just trickled down from a wealthy few. prosperity has been built from the bottom up. and from the heart of the middle class out. mike, during this speech, the president repeatedly put the pressure on congress, is

congress likely to respond. >> this is interesting. the second day in a row that the president has hit on the buffett law. he talked about it over the last several months. since summer vacation, when he came back in august, he started talking about that in a speech in front of congress. the president is picking it up. he had a handful of millionaires and their assistants with him today. tax rates in this country have fallen. it doesn't result in a lot of money here. the president wants to simply make sure that those individuals are making more than a $1 million a year pay minimum 30%. in terms of the federal debt and deficit, it's a drop in the bucket. there's a vote coming up in the senate and you're right, the president sought to keep the pressure on. here's what he had to say.

>> it's time for congress to stand up for the middle class and make our tax system fair. call your member of congress. write them an e-mail. tweet them. i want to appeal to the american people to keep the pressure on the congress to do the right thing. >> on the 16th, the day before the tax deadline the 17th this year because the holidays and the weekend, there will be a vote in the senate, it's not expected to go anywhere, but the president is going to keep the pressure on from now until then. >> mike, thank you. want to switch gears to some breaking news, we're watching this hour, it has to deal with indonesia, huge relief today after two may zwror earthquakes among the biggest the world has ever felt erupt prd the ocean floor and raised tsunami warnings. the first measured at 8.6. a depth of 14.2 miles and the second, 8.2 at a depth of 10.2

miles. the jolts sent people fleeing into the streets. very good reason, back in 2004, monstrous quake hit that region, and roughly killing 213,000. back here at home, rain in the northeast bringing some relief to crews fighting wild fires. red flag warnings across 24 states and washington, d.c. look at that map. fortunately wildfires are considered under control. other states like virginia lost over 700 acres to the fires. heat with the high-performance hydrazinc formula, helps lock in scalp moisture for hair that's up to 100% flake-free. head & shoulders active sport for men. wash confidence in. three words dad, e-trade financial consultants. they'll hook you up with a solid plan. wa-- wa-- wait a minute;

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palmer union oil campaign. he wrote his name on the note. the man later discovered that coca-cola was the oil company's successor. according to man, those palmer shares are worth $130 million in stock. the man sued for ownership of that stock, died in 2010, his family carries on that legal battle on his behalf. i'm joined by a reporter from reuters. coca-cola released a statement. they said that the claim is meritless and unfair to the company's millions of legitimate share holders. >> they hired very good lawyers from wilmington, delaware. they wouldn't have take on the case if there wasn't something

to it. they have to prove about seven or eight different corporate transactions didn't extinguish the shares. coke obviously is pretty skeptical. the judge at a hearing was quite skeptical as well. >> the financial payout, roughly $130 million in these stock shares and the current stay does of the lawsuit so tenuous who needs to prove what, how invested is the family who want to see the money come their way, it has to cost them a fortune with coke. >> right. he suggested that -- he doesn't want to see this be, a drive-by shooting of a public company, they come to them and say, we all know that this cost you a quarter of millions dollars to

litigate it, let's settle for $20,000. the judge said we're not going to do this. you're going to do the research and you're going to bare the cost to prove to everyone that you have a legal claim. the judge asked them to report back to court ten days ago. they have some documentation that shows that gets them on the road to coca-cola. >> lot of money on the line here. tom, thanks for your time. a live look at times square right now. we take you out there to show you this. a water fountain replica of the stanley cup. for two days only, you can get a drink from the cup, a cup replica, the nhl playoffs and the fight for the actual stanley cup start tonight. you can watch the games tonight on nbc and the nbc sports

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welcome back everything. the fight for marriage equality going to the fight in nevada. suing the state to allow same-sex couples to marry. they are not allowed to marry the lawsuit seeks to avoid 2002 state ban. they punched me. they strangle me. take things from me. sit on me. >> all right, so that's a heartbreaking movie fru moment e movie "bully." on tuesday in sacramento, dozens who lined up to see it were turned away because the theater was overbooked. educators say that the film alone is not enough to remedy the real problem.

the president of the american federation of teachers and joins me now here in the studio, so randi you have seen this movie. >> we had a screening last night in washington. >> the reaction you have had the attitude boys are going to be boys, that can't stand anymore, what are the tangible policies that schools, educators can put in place? >> number one, the movie opens up on friday. people should see it. parents, teachers, kids. they should it. it's compelling and devastating. so, what -- number one is awareness. because we have to change the culture of that bullying or just having to be tough is a right of passage. we have to change that culture and it's deeply embedded in america culture. awareness and telling the stories like this will be huge. number two, education. in terms of once people see the

stories, what is it that we should be doing instead? how can we create tolerance and respect and save schools? and number three, is intervention, so one of the things that we're doing as our national union, the aft, is for adults to wear wristband said, see a bully, stop a bully. so kids see an adult with this wristband, they are safe. those folks are safe. >> the good navy blue here. >> exactly. >> how much pressure is being put on educators, school administrators to stop the problem itself? a movie like this showcases the situation, it doesn't focus on just one state, it focuses on several different states. so, how can this attention really put pressure on school administrations to change

things? >> we have to actually make this as i said before, we have to make it a cultural norm. it takes communities not simply schools. when schools actually know that this is wrong and that climate counts as much as testing, that will start changing the culture. i think the movie goes a long way but we also have to have good education and good interventions that really protect kids so they know they are safe in schools and we'll keep them safe. teachers are facing in the country right now, we ask a lot of our educators and our school administrators. 76% report their school budget decreased in 2011. when we look at how internationally schools systems are functioning and flourishing, how do we compare and what can we maybe cherry pick from other countries and implement right

here in the u.s.? >> this is perfect example when you bring these two together, school climate counts and we need some resources to have the guidance counsel lors and other folks that kids need desperately, we don't have those resources, the pressure is on the teachers. that's completely different in the countries that outcompete us. what we say, those countries outcompete us, they're good. america is bad. we don't actually look at why. so this is what they do. number one, they really train their teachers. they train their teachers like we train our doctors. huge value. number two, schools are valued and teachers are valued. competitively paid. number three, people work together like they don't in the united states. so, building capacity of teaching force, huge respect and working together. >> randi weingarten, i'm going

to keep these. thank you so much. president obama stops by a fund-raiser today. for lgbt supporters. he was attending another fund-raiser. he didn't speak but posed for pictures. the other fund-raiser looked like a disco after the lights mysteriously started to flicker. >> we can put folks back to work right now rebuilding america. is there a little show going on here? it's nice. sort of a disco -- disco rally. somebody going to pull the roller skates out now?

>> rolling with the punches there. george clooney will host a $6 million fund-raiser for president obama at his los angeles home. entertainment tonight reporting that the tickets will run $10,000 a piece. >> michelle obama on the biggest loser last night. >> balancing on one leg. secretary of state hillary clinton had fun yesterday making her own submission to the viral hit texts from hillary. thanked the website creators lol. she put on her shades to pose with her cell phone just like the pictures on their site. >> you are what you eat. that's true as we get older. you can slow the aiming process through adding certain foods to

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i see the same stars on the list and it's interesting for me, as well. i think ultimately though it can play a pretty key role. >> sure. >> i think, you know, sarah palin played a key role four years ago, and created a lot of excitement. she provided a real spark plug that we needed in our process the last time, and i think that vice presidents can matter a whole lot. >> that was of reince priebus with me earlier this hour talking over the decision who to stick on the ticket with mitt romney. his goal, to unite a party that's been slow to regard him as their leader. nbc senior political editor mark murray joins me now. mark, the vp question takes on more weight with rick santorum out of this race. everyone says romney has to play

it safe with this pick over the next few months. who is supposed to be mr. right or ms. right as we look at this? >> well, thomas, i don't know if we have any person who is exactly right who is the obvious pick right now, but there are a few names on the top of the list that are having a lot of buzz. one is ohio senator rod portman, he served in the bush administration. he comes from a presidential battleground state of ohio. then you also have florida senator marco rubio, again another presidential battleground state in the state of florida, a rising star. there's a house budget committee chairman paul ryan has gotten a lot of buzz with his budget plan that you have, and then there's new jersey governor chris christie. >> when we look at risk santorum, i have to ask you about this though because maybe he would be considered if they can work out where mitt romney and rick santorum are on their political ties, but we know that romney can get now, mark, to that 1144 del number on his own

but what happens to those santorum dels and what might santorum's political future be if romney wins in november? where do you see him fitting into the political conversation moving forward? he's a big star for the party now? >> he is going to play a role. what kind of role we don't know. at first is he has to give a full throated endorsement of mitt romney which he hasn't done yet. whether he be a cabinet position, we don't know but we'll look to the weeks and months lady. >> mark murray, thanks for your time this morning. stuck always get your political news on firstread.msnbc.com. great stuff there. thank you. that's going to wrap things up for me today. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. steve forbes, he former presidential candidate and chairman and ceo of forbes, inc. you can follow me on twitter. don't go the anywhere. "now with alex wagner" comes up next. >> we have the ascot behind the

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