[ cheers and applause ] this is a special edition of "nightline." super tuesday. >> tonight, the super tuesday showdown.nd donald trump leading the pack. now on a likely collision course in the november election. >> get them out of here, please. >> but party unite behind their controversial front-runner? or is it a fight all the way to a contested convention? senator bernie sanders on his home turf. >> it is good to be home! >> but is this delegate tsunami keep sanders down? >> if you don'tdonald trump -- >> and can cruz launch an effort to keep trump from the

er: this is a special edition of "nightline," "super tuesday." good evening. it's the aptly named super tuesday tumble night of politics. voters weighing in loud and clear on the biggest night of the primary season. 12 states casting votes in all tonight. we begin in texas, where

ted cruz edging out a victory in his home state, considered a must win to remain viable in this campaign. but the night still belongs to donald trump, with lead in states across the country tonight. a projected victory in vermont. also winning big in the south, in georgia, alabama, and paula faris is at trump paula? >> reporter: hi, juju. extremely happy. they say what really stood out to them, the number of crossover voters that voted for donald trump on super tuesday. what can't be lost in the significance of all of this is that this event, his are in florida at the mara lago club which he owns. this is a state that votes exactly two weeks from today, a state where he has aad over marco rubio. remember, this is marco rubio's home state. so thenight for donald trump but he clearly has his eyes set on the next couple of weeks. >> paula, thanks. let's take a look at the numbers

donald trump also projected to win in virginia as well assetts. a round of crushing losses, though, for marco rubio tonight. he managed to garner a projected victory in minnesota but ted cruz beating out rubio top take oklahoma as well. and on the democratic side hillary clinton steamrolling through the south picking up a projected win in delegate-rich texas andn georgia, alabama, and tennessee. and in her former home state of arkansas. at the clinton victory rally tonight, abc's matt gutman is inith the latest. matt? >> reporter: well, this isn't so much a victory speech by hillary clinton but it did seem like a speech by a victor, hugelywd that cheered every time they heard that hillary clinton was winning a state. they booed when they heard donald trump wass of her speech was really about landing body blows against donald trump. she didn't mention him by name but she mentioned everything that he has done.

a uniting candidate. that was what we saw in the crowd here, a very diverse crowd. of course florida very important for hillary clinton. march 15th. hugely rich delegate pool here of 246 possible delegates. she hopes to win as many of and maybe clinch this race. juju. >> matt gutman in florida tonight. thanks. mrs. clinton winning decisively overall with a narrow projected win in massachusetts. butng big in his home state of vermont. also getting projected wins in oklahoma, colorado-k , and minnesh those wins a closer look at the delegate count tells a different story. clinton pulling ahead in what her camp is hoping could now be as for the republicans, trump consolidating his front-runner status tonight with a strong showing. but let's go back to texas. senator ted cruz holding on toome state. the question now, is this make

donald trump's momentum coming off a big night? my "nightline" co-anchor byronre tonight. byron. >> reporter: good evening, juju. ted cruz made the caseight that after two wins that he is the best republican alternative to donald trump. but the mood here in the room was less celebratory and more relief. that yes, he won. see the math to winning the nomination. the big winner by all accounts on the republican side was donald trump. >> already we've won five major thank you all so very much! >> reporter: they're the presumptive nominees. >> now this campaign moves forward to the crescent city, the motor city, and>> reporter: super tuesday. the single biggest day of voting in the presidential race thus far. >> vote ford marco rubio. >> donald trump because i believe as a make a big difference to us in this country. >> reporter: but the other candidates were trying to make a difference today too. in the race for votes, that is.

front-runner donald trump. >> donald trump thinks vladimir putin's a great guy. trump talks admiringly of the way the chinese government cracked down on the chinese nmen square. >> if you don't want to see donald trump as the nominee, if you don't want us to give this election to hillary ou to stand with us today. >> reporter: even bernie sanders getting a jab in on trump. >> the political revolution is about bringing our people not allow the donald trumps of the world to divide us up. >> reporter: i spoke to cruz today amidst the hustle andng location in houston. >> this is a big day for you, right? >> i'm encouraged. >> reporter: he stopped to address the latest trump controversy. formeravid duke's endorsement of donald trump. >> bigotry and the klan has no place in public discourse, in politics, and i think anyone should have beenely denounce the klan. and it was unfortunate that he didn't do so. he's better than that. and he should have done that. >> donald trump, he joins us now. >> reporter: but today ona" trump

>> i disavowed him on friday. i disavowed him right after that because i thought if thereon, and you take a look at twitter, almost immediately after on twitter and facebook they were disavowed again. >> reporter: in fact, in his eyes trump diversity. >> there is nobody that's done so much for equality as i have. you take a look at palm beach, florida. i built the mara lago to everybody. >> reporter: but that doesn't exactly come through at his rallies. >> get him out of here, please. get him out. asking -- >> are you from mexico? are you from mexico? punchline! >> reporter: trump's latest antics and rhetoric seemin working for him tonight. last night trump's wife melania rebuffed ideas that her husband is a racist. >> when you hear, you he's racist, hearing him saying he's anti-immigrant, what do you -- >> no, he's not. he's not racist. he's not anti-immigrant.

>> reporter: despite not calling trump by name, today more signs of panic in the gop. the speaker of the house, paul ryan,ge to his party. >> if a person wants to be the nominee of the republican party, there can be no evasion and no games.t any group or cause that is built on bigotry. >> reporter: and yet trump seems a master at playing the race like a game, prompting others to try to play on his level.ver seen a human being sweat like he sweats. >> reporter: a new marco rubio in recent days, taking on trump's proportions, literally. >> and you know what they say about men withnds. you can't trust them. >> reporter: his pores. >> he doesn't sweat because his pores are cloggedhat he uses. >> reporter: and his policy, almost. >> donald is not going to make america great. he's going to make america orange. >> b to. i was proud and happy to do it.

campaign and what we're about. >> reporter: vice president joe biden weighing in tonight on the divide in the gop. >> i want to thank donald laughter ] that's a joke. the stuff he's doing and others including cruz and others, he's making the american mirror. and the american people are honest. when they look in the mirror, they see what's looking back at reporter: while the attacks on trump may have not worked out for rubio, perhaps they did for tonight. >> donald trump's path to the more likely. and that would be a disaster for republicans. >> reporter: and chris christie's tonight. the hashtag free chris christie trending after christie's awkward looks at the trump press conference drew mockery. tonight trump turn of focus. >> once we get all of this

>> reporter: a new cnn/orcicates that trump would lose against democratic front-runner hillary clinton in the general election. after icing the media for 88 days, clinton questions from reporters today. >> i'm going to keep going. i've got a lot of work to do between now and next tuesday and the tuesday after that.eems hillary has one eye on sanders and one eye on trump, as we head into the november election. in clinton's advisers and strategists highlighted a plan to test ads that would portray trump as a misogynist and an enemy to the workingemper would put the nation and the world in grave danger. tonight hillary clinton taking a subtle jab at trump. >> i believe what wea today is more love and kindness. instead of building walls, we're going to break down trump in typical form was much more direct. >> i watched hillary's speech. and she's talking about wages

poor and everything's doingng to make it -- she's been there for so long. i mean, if she hasn't straightened it out by now, she's not going to straighten it out in the next four years.ecome worse and worse. >> our thanks to byron pitts from texas. up next, as trump continues to consolidateto fight another day. but can rubio survive? and how much is the republican establishment trying to stop the front-runner? d agree... snuggling up after is kinda nice too. but here's the thing: about half of men over 40 of erectile dysfunction. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex.e viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain or adempas for pulmonary hypertension. your blood pressure could drop to an unsafe level.g-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you

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super tuesday now setting the pace in the race for the white house. hillary clinton emerging with a commanding delegate lead for nd donald trump seemingly unstoppable.

correspondent jonathan karl and our entire political team tonight in our times on trump's victory, sparking an anyone but trump movement. jon? >> reporter: what a night, juju. we're joined by our panel now. and matthew dowd, this really it was also trump tuesday. >> a big, big day for donald trump in the course of this. i mean, he had won new hampshire.lina. but this was the big day. this was the delegate haul in the course of this. and he basically met expectations for himself. >> this has been an amazing evening.ve won five major states, and it looks like we could win six or seven or eight or nine. >> the great thing for donald is he accumulating delegates but because the other candidates in the course of this won a certain share, marco rubio and ted cruz, it makes them live another f four candidates live another day, it's helpful for donald trump. >> who's to say that marco rubio is going to win his home state of florida? >> absolutely. so far he's behind in the polls.

home state of ohio. but -- >> he's behind in the polls there. some of them. >> this could go to the convention. >> okay. so bill e been trying to stop donald trump for some time. first i guess you were a little bit in denial. >> right. >> but can he be stopped? >> i kind ofdenial. it's generally a healthy psychological state often compared to facing reality. i think he can be stopped. he had a good night. counting even the first voted before tonight, looks like he's going to have about 35% to 36% of the popular vote cast so far, about 40%, 42% of the delegates so boff 50%. it's very hard to see any of the 50%. i don't think it's true thatdidates out helps the anti-trump cause at this point -- >> because you need to keep him from getting 50. >> yes. >> one of the big questions of this entire campaign is we nowt announced a big renewed effort to stop donald trump.

why now? >> might have beenthere was too much tactical thinking about gee, if i take trump down here, we'll help cruz, and i prefer rubio or i prefer kasich or i prefer jeb bush. think about this. jeb bush, they're now going to 20, 30 million dollars, which is a lot of money for people like you and me. but jeb bush's super pac had $120 million.rump -- >> very little on trump. >> it's a waste of money. donald trump is redefining as matt said today, he's can party. he's energizing the republican electorate. so all of this money is just going to just melt away because i think donald way to not just grab those voters who are disgusted with the politics in the republican party but he's been able to tap into something that might a little bit of heartburn. >> they have not come up with one disciplinedld trump that has been exercised and done in a

it's all been all over the map. even which was some tiny bit of substance but mostly name calling that i don't think was helpful for marco rubio as we've seen in the results tonight. >> we will win f that. especially when we have two weeks to explain to the people of the state just exactly what we're getting with donald trump. a world-class con artist. he ability to exercise one argument that was definitive against donald trump. >> jeb bush spent $77 million in television advertising andouble digits. i think that television stations are getting rich off of false promises because it's not only thing i would say is every other front-runner has survived a huge assault on television, and we don't know what would happen if real money were put behind some of these attacks and true record of donald trump. >> before we wrap up, a big night for hillary clinton, though. how big? >> huge.

drive us apart we can come together to make this country work for everyone.the striving and the successful. if we all do our part, we can restore our common faith in ourture. >> so hillary clinton will accumulate a lot of delegates, and as we learned eight years ago, once you begin to pick up hard for bernie sanders, who is a great candidate. it's very hard for him to play catch-up. >> is it over? >> no, it's not quite over, but we have a lot of states at play, similar to what we saw tonight.issippi, louisiana, north carolina -- >> states that -- >> states that once again will give her a lot of delegates. >> all right. well, we're out of time. juju, back to you. >> our thanks to our political eam for the post-game analysis. up next, david muir breaking down the vote. what the exit polls are saying voters have on their minds. ll be right back.

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re tracking super tuesday results, sorting through the exit polls all night, painting a fascinating picture of what'sthe voting booth. and world news anchor david muir joining me now with the big question of outsider status. hey, david. >> hey, juju. this was extremely telling k at this. a split between republicans and dmtz on this question. when asked should the next president come from outside theblishment? 50% of republican voters say they want an outsider. only 15% of democratic voters want an outsider.

63% who want an outsider went to when asked on the flip side should the next president have experience in politics? 81% of democratic voters said yes this super tuesday. only 39% said yes to experience going in. and those who wanted experience in the democratic side, look at the breakdown. 69% went to hillary clinton. 30% bernie sanders.s outsider on this super tuesday. let's take a look at the coalition that the clinton camp put together to fuel these victories n winning among men 53-45. fairly close, though. when you break down the women you can see the gap much wider. 65% to sanders' 33%.ery close tonight. hillary clinton 50% to bernie sanders' 48%. again, when you break down the black voters, hispanic voters, the gap much wider. hillary clinton 83% to sanders' d then hispanic voters 67% to sanders at 33%. make no mistake, this is going to be the coalition that the clinton team wants to use as to move forward.

when on the republican side the voters made up their mind, if they made up their mind a month or so ago, look at this, 48% of those. 27% for ted cruz. marco rubio 13%. so donald trump holding the republican voters, the majority of them who decided some time we've seen all this mudslinging in the last 24, 48 hours. marco rubio trying to deliver some of what trump typicallyk to him. and take a look. of these late deciders in the last couple of days it seemed to work. a split right down the middle. rubio, cruz. donald deciders. the attacks appear to have worked. the only question, was it too little too late. juju, back to you. >> thanks, david. and thank you forial edition of "nightline" on super tuesday. tune in to "gma" first thing in the morning. and as always, we're online 24/7 on our "nightline" facebook page and at ome of you up next is abc news' continuing coverage of super tuesday, joined in

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