this is a test for donald trump. it looks hike he is on the path to be the nominee for the republican party. whether he gets nomination or not, he is a leading spokeman for the republican party. and the leading spokesman for his many followers who are new people are coming to vote in america. that's a good thing. this is a test of his leadership to say, okay. they ever every right to be in the streets. to try to talk to them. when he looks at these pictures, there should be a message that there's a bigger unity. a bigger, at least, step back and break the ice here somehow. break the tension challenge. >> what you do see is successful protests. they went to this event to make their voice heard. perhaps and disrupt it and it worked. you think donald trump needs to do something. he needs on get out in front of this. i guess not out in front. it already happen. >> this is one of the most important moments of the entire campaign. this could cost him the nomination. could it also catapult him. we don't clng way it will cut.

and trump mortgage. a business genius he is not. >> he even went where the current gop field had not gone before. >> there's a dark irony in his boasts of his sexual exploits during the vietnam war. while at the same time john mccain, whom he has mocked, was imprisoned and tortured. >> john mccain blasted out a statement shortly after romney's speech saying i share the concerns about donald trump. add the last two gop nominees to the mounting outcry over his candidacy and trump now faces the implosion of his party, just as he's seeking to become its own leader. >> mitt did a big, big joke. mitt is a failed candidate. he failed. he failed horribly. >> trump, who argues he's expanding the party brushed off romney's attacks as sour grapes coming from a presidential loser. >> he let us down. he let us down. mitt ran, probably it was the worst run most people have seen. he doesn't have what it takes to be president, that i can tell you. >> the real estate tycoon defended his business record. >> they don't want

. >> donald trump is a phony, a fraud. >> and donald trump erupts. >> i'll tell you the real reason he chickened out, it wasn't jeb, it was me. >> a leading presidential candidate said this. >> he was begging for my endorsement. i could have said, mitt, drop to your knees. >> the absolute chaos in the republican primary. what to expect at tonight's debate. >>> "all in" starts right now. tonight with the window to stop trump closing fast, the candidates are poised to completely tear each other apart. that's also what the republican party is threatening to do to itself. except donald trump as the nominee or take the fight to the convention in cleveland. a move that could result in the total collapse of the republican party. mitt romney took a step in that direction putting on a display i don't think i've seen before. party's previous nominee condemning in the absolute strongerest, the candidate to succeed him. painting trump to the threat of the very survival of the republic. >> if we choose donald trump, the prospect for a safe and prosperous future are diminished. he's a phony, a fraud

he said i recorded a lot of real donald trump. better hope he didn't record him tell us to use birther arguments because right wing crazies will believe it. what do you respond to that? >> i had a hard time hearing you. in fact, i couldn't hear you. >> you have mitt romney's former personal aid saying he was in the room when donald trump said to mitt romney they should use the birther argument because right wing crazies will believe it. >> there's so much he said, she said, they said, we say. everybody's weighing in on this. everybody is an expert. there's so much going on and so very, very difficult for anybody out in the public, the real people. it should be making this decision to base their information on. bottom line is donald trump is leading in the polls. i think he's going to carry it over the top. i don't think it will be a brokered convention. i hope that people will vote and vote their conscience and do what's right. the people of america are fed up with the federal government not doing their job and not protecting the p

he does a very good job. trump rather. voters, social conservatives that he's leading to trump. cruz has a problem, a math problem, as he moves into april and may. but still he says that he is the conservative alternative. >> people are beginning to come into this debate hall here on the campus of the university of miami. it's going to be very full very soon, but you can see people arriving right now. a hot ticket here in miami. ryan, the latest donald trump comments on islam, how do you think they'll play in these republican contests? >> to be totally honest, he's been pretty consistent and anti-islam since the beginning of this campaign. he's called for a ban on anyone of the muslim faith coming into this country and when he did that, his poll numbers went up. why do religious conservative support trump? the issue of islam among a lot of evangelicals is more important these days than the traditional social issues like abortion or same-sex marriage. to a lot of people what sounds like bigotry is something that is apparentl

it's a superstorm of controversy surrounding donald trump. but will any of it make a difference come tuesday? this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. >>> good evening, welcome to "mtp daily." i'm steve kornacki, in for chuck todd. we are coming to you live tonight from stoff's coffee roasters outside columbus, ohio, home of ohio state university. and this, a state that is one of the biggest prizes on the board in tuesday's do or die presidential primary contest. arguably, this will be the most important primary day we have seen yet. five states on the line, five big states, full of delegates, ohio, florida, illinois, missouri, and north carolina. right now we are just hours away from the final showdown on the republican side before those do or daikon tests next tuesday. both races, they appear set to go the distance, through the springing maybe into the summer. it looks like we'll need votes from all 50 states. that takes you well into june before a winner is crowned in each side. or i should say if a winner is crowned. we'll explain all

trump called it a planned attack. ointed his finger at bernie sanders supporters who he says are to blame for causing the disturbance ahead of that trump event. and also he says they caused the disturbance in cleveland at a trump rally. sanders released a statement calling trump a pathlogical liar and saying quote our campaign did not organize the protest. david gergen and also jeffrey lord, a trump supporter. thank you both for being here. before the violence last night, president obama spoke in austin, texas, and he sort of mocked, pointed to the gop establishment and said i can't believe you're shocked about this. let's play it. >> how can you be shocked? this is the guy, remember, who was sure that i was born in kenya. who wouldn't let it go. and all this same republican establishment, they weren't saying nothing. as long as it was directed at me they were fine with it. >> jeffrey lord, to you first. when you listen to what the president said here, saying where were you, why didn't you speak up sooner, what do you

less than a year later trump fell in love. me with a 28-year-old supermodel. >> i met her at a party. as soon as i saw her, i said that's a very special person. i knew what i wanted as soon as i saw her. >> he was very charming and it was really the energy between us when we start to talk. that's important, that we both felt the same way. >> 1999 was a presidential campaign year and trump discussed running. >> give me a scenario as we say in the movies of a perfect donald trump run for president. all the way to november next year. >> well, i think a perfect run would be i do no campaigning, i run, only on election day, i get at least 51% in a three-way race. >> trump ultimately decided not to run, but that did not mean he faded from view. >> he essential lly became somee who licensees his name on a variety of products, vodka, mattresses, an online university and basically anything anywhere that you could glue his name on, he did and he took the fee. >> in 2004 trump got the brass ring of publicity. a primetime network televisio

in fact, now they're shutting down major arteries to a trump event, stopping trump supporters from going to see their candidate. so i think this will continue to be a huge story. particularly because it's not just in arizona where trump is. now at trump properties in new york, and that dynamic, i think, continues to play out in the republican party. while you also have at the same time democrats who are competing in the same states, arizona, utah, idaho, for instance, reaching out to hispanics. bernie sanders on the border a few minutes ago saying donald trump is wrong when he talks about building a wall, it's uniphobic and that immigration is down from mexico, that is not the problem that donald trump makes it out to be. so you have both bernie sanders and hillary clinton trying to essentially make a play for the big hispanic populations and the big hispanic voters that are inside these 125istates, arizon for instance, 30% of the population is hispanic. hillary clinton also getting into that state saying that, you know, telling a radio host she believes that they have done a good job se

donald trump was coming to chicago which is a fairly liberal city. there have been other isolated incidents of violence and confrontations at donald trump rallies, but nothing to this extent. so right now i'm going do toss it to my colleague john seigenthaler to continue to watch the crowd. hopefully soon n >> john. >> a disturbing scene here inside and you outside, the university of chicago. let's start with the scene outside because there are thousands of people. and what's interesting is, that many of them are protesters against donald trump. but what police i assume are trying to keep apart are the trump supporters who were inside who have now come identity to see this enormous crowd. tensions were high, organizers were forced to cancel the event because of security reasons but we can look inside as well. if you take a look inside, you see it's pretty quiet now. but just moments ago fights broke out, people were screaming at each other. andy rosegen is on the scene. andy, how many were anti-trump and how many were pro-trump? >> reporter: inside ar

had a 25% lead over trump. a reminder of the stakes that we have, you know, on the sought come. i think florida voters are going to look at that and regardless about angry they might be they're going to probably say to themselves that's not what i signed up for. that's not what i want to see the leader of my party, the leader of my country being responsible for. that kind of division. we've got to bring the party today together. we've got to bring conservatives together. we've got to bring americans together. if we're going to move the country forward. >> to be fair, most of the polling here does still show rubio behind donald trump. let's talk about best case scenario. if rubio wins here in florida and kasich wins ohio or loses ohio, let's put it that way, then what happens? what is your path? what is marco rubio's path to the nomination because if you look we have it on screen here, the best case delegate math for rubio is that you end up with 285 versus trump at 556. how do you make up that math? how does he

let's look at it a couple more screens. donald trumphe middle and will go to the lower right. michelle fields will be with him to ask him a question. it looks like she gets pulled some direction and you see cory is in the mix. >> that's a version we haven't seen before. there are other tapes there were unclear but did suggest in various cases that she was pulled. now, one of the arguments cory's side made is this is a busy situation after a press conference. a lot of people here. donald trump trying to exit the room. at the time michelle fields was trying to ask trump a question. in the audiotape released after from the washington post and from this moment, it was pretty clear that she was disturbed by what happened. she felt she was accosted. however, the trump campaign said that was not the case and denied that. >> the trump campaign said things like there's no footage. there's no evidence that this is an incident that happened. i don't know if this video which is shown from a totally different angle all together changes that narrativ

with a trump supporter. what he thinks the impact of mitt romney's direct attack will have, and is donald trump flirting with an independent run? this is cnn's special live coverage. they think that it's sad. i think it's important for everyone to know that there is so much more to memory support than the stigmas you hearabout. that these residents still have lives and their lives still matter and that they are still living their lives. that they're not locked away and that they still have a lot to live for, you know, that they have people that care about them and they have people that love them and i love them, so their lives still matter. that is what i do this for. theand to help you accelerate,. we've created a new company... one totally focused on what's next for your business. the true partnership where people,technology and ideas push everyone forward. accelerating innovation. accelerating transformation. accelerating next. hewlett packard enterprise. does your makeup remover every kiss-proof,ff? cry-p

to sell well with voters is a mistake. i know trump can say i am malleable, which i also think is a bad move, but saying i can make deals and be nice. this is the new donald trump. that's a really hard sell. ben carson didn't do him any favors with that speech today. >> let's talk about the optics of this for a second. i noticed that dr. ben carson did not stand behind donald trump at all while donald trump was behind the podium, and donald trump didn't even go onto the stage when dr. carson was announcing his endorsement. that's in contrast to when sarah palin offered her endorsement and chris christie offered his endorsement. i think we have pictures of that. there you see chris christie stood behind donald trump as he spoke. dr. carson, it appeared to me anyway, that he completely left the stage so that he would not be in camera range so he would not stand beside donald trump. scottie, that had to be on purpose. >> i don't know. i think we might be reading too much into it right now. if you're going to sit there and think that they'

trump behaves like a racist. speaks like a racist. of course, donald trump is a racist. are they right? >> well, look this is a man, you'll recall, a few years ago, who led the anti- -- the birther movement. that was a movement that tried to delegitimize the presidency of barack pam obama. trying the claim that the president was not born in this country. my father was born in poland. i'm a son of an immigrant. nobody has asked me for my birth certificate. where there strong racial the presidency of president obama? of course there was. what we're seeing in the trump campaign is not only racist atakes. you're seeing attacks on muslims, womens, veterans, to attack senator john mccain because he was a p.o.w. is crazy. to insult mexicans and our neighbors to the south. calling mexicans rapists or criminals. this guy, there was a big debate in the united kingdom parliament of whether he should be allowed to enter the united kingdom. he's dividing up the country in frightening, serious ways. my campaign zbegt him nervous. i understand that. the last national poll had us 18 poi

my father was not a trump supporter. ey see a guy who champions champions the white working men against isis, against the mexican worker, against african-americans, etc. they see heroes. also eyewitness on the street that the protesters were younger, more vibrant, more full of life, and i saw a group of trump supporters who looked like they were in a viagra commercial. donald trump has said he is going to pay the legal fees of supporters, like the supporter in north carolina who sucker punched a young african-american man when security was taking the man out. and he hauls off and socked him, , fromterwards a reporter inside edition, and he said he would kill him. he was arrested the next day. umar: trump is inciting this violence. marco rubio saying he was grateful he does not get killed that one of these rallies. when he is saying he will pay the legal fees, trump is saying, who is my champion? who will represent me? who will take out one of these protesters for me? i think we will see more of this violence incited by do

late tonight, a sheriff announced it would not charge trump. at a campaign rally today, ted cruz responded to a pro-trump protester, who yelled, "go back to canada," this way. >> we will be respectful. see, sir, one difference between this and a donald trump rally. i'm not asking anyone to punch you in the face. >> john kasich, meanwhile, taking to passing out literature telling people to, quote, fight the darkness. tomorrow could mark armageddon and they're making their last stand for what could be the first stand in a long slog through the spring and summer months. in part, through a pair of new anti trump ads from the our principles pac, spotlighting campaign rally violence and trump's comments on women. >> bimbo. >> dog. >> fat pig. >> real quotes from donald trump. about women. >> a person who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a 10. >> joining me now, msnbc political analyst, michael steele and katie packer, from mitt romney's presidential campaign and founders of the our principles pac which you just saw. katie, i think both ads are

you see only a couple thousand, 3,000 votes are in. trumpead, though, with less than 1% of the vote in. on the democratic side, 1%, also very, very early. hillary clinton has a significant lead, 71.4%. tiny amount of numbers coming in from ohio right now. a huge prize tonight, ohio. >> no doubt about that. florida as well. and david axelrod, shaping up for donald trump to be a very good night, particularly in the state of florida. not so much marco rubio. what does rubio do now? >> well, i want to quote my friend across the way here, dan jones, who said last week this could shape up to be good-bye rubio tuesday. and i think that's about right. i don't know how he continues in this race. he is not -- not only is he losing his home state, but he's getting nothing anywhere else. the only rationale for him to remain would be to be part of this kind of plot to deprive donald trump of the delegates he needs to get elected. but i would think that he would get out. and he might even get out tonight. >> if you're going to be part of a plot to stop tr

this is literally trump pretended he was a developer on this. partnered with these d-list guys that build strip malls, they built an apartment complex, people put down $100,000, trump filed for bankruptcy, got away scott free, and these folks lost $100,000 of their own money. trump actually made money on the licensing rights of the apartment complex that never went up. >> [inaudible] >> no, not flying blind. that is part of the reason that we have talked about these markets. we have seen data that shows trump behind in illinois and missouri. >> who is ahead? >> sometimes he is up of you, sometimes down a few. our polls show marco. only five, which is different from the public data. we are going into markets where our data shows trump support falls off. mark: so if you only wins two of five. from a delegate story, that would be colossal. you say you are on tv in places where you are in striking distance, in position. >> yes, that's what i'm saying. mark: that is contrary to the narrative. >> tuesday is an important day, no doubt. no matter how it

trump have wound up losing. i think the number that donald -- 1237 is a number that donald trump probably has a hard time getting to. donald trump gets 1100 delegates. >> that's reasonable. i agree. >> and he's 300 or 400 ahead of the second place person. very reasonable in the course of this. and he's won 29 states. what do you do at a convention then? the natural thing is to go to now say to his millions of voters, these people are angry and upset, oh, by the way -- >> let's say everything you said is true. but the violence we have seen this weekend continues through july in cleveland. >> i think it will continue. i think you're going to see violence now at democratic events. i think what will come out of this, not because of democrats, but because people trump supporters and other things. you showed up at ours, we're going to show up at yours. i think this only gets worse. >> i'm not sure about that. inciting the violence. he said, um, alabama, november, maybe he should have been roughed up. las vegas in february, i would like to punch him in the face. michigan, march, not hurt him, but if you do, i'll defend

a back drop to this intense race. democrats ramping up. >> donald trump is a pathological liar. >> what trump has done is like a case of political arson. he has lit the fire and then he throws his hands up and claims that he shouldn't be held responsible. >> he is saying if you beat somebody up that is okay. i'll pay the legal fees. that is an outrage. >> let's call today manic monday. candidates are racking up miles ahead of super tuesday part three. both parties aware. more than 1,000 delegates up for grabs. ohio governor john kasich needs to win his home state tomorrow as marco rubio needs to capture florida to keep his campaign alive. we have a lot to cover this morning. >> good morning. just one more day here of campaigning on the democratic side before the key primaries tomorrow. last night bernie sanders and hillary clinton trying to show their strength for democrats. that is getting a little bit ahead of things because first they must take on each other. >> whoevers goes up against donald trump better be ready. >> stopping the republican front runner a critical topic for democrats ahead of another super tuesday

, a do you accept mr. trump's standard that whoever has the lead in delegates going into the convention should be the nominee? >> there's a difference between a brokered convention and a contested convention. a brokered convention, there's a dead locke lock deadlock. the washington deal makers come in. that would be a disaster. there's a difference two w a contested convention. two candidates come in, neck and neck. we saw this in 1976 with rag and ford, and the delegates decide. vote. >> so even if you're number two, you could be the nominee? >> if we both go into the convention and have a big chunk and are both shy of 1237, the delegates decide. that's how it works. the best approach is get to 1237 before the convention. and if you look at the delegates right now, we have 362. domd has 99 more than we to. everyone else is way, way, way below. so what i would say to folks at home, everyone if you started this campaign supporting somebody else. even if you're thinking of supporting marco rubio or john kasich. they

let's take a look at the numbers tonight. donald trump also projected to win in virginia as well as massachusetts. 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 and trum 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 and projected victories in georgia, alabama, and tennessee. and in her former home state of arkansas. at the clinton victory rally tonight, abc's matt gutman is in miami tonight with 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, hugely energized crowd that cheered every time they heard that hillary clinton was winning a state. they booed when they heard donald trump was winning. and the guts of her speech was really about landing body blows against donald trump. she didn't mention him by name that he has done. the crowd booing when they h

donald trump is a businessman. he understands business in the youth and the world better than those writers. just like donald trump has created a lot of able and -- a lot of angst, i don't want what you want to call that group of folk over there afraid of trump, on the international stage it's the same thing. when he talk about jobs. look at our situation. with every one of the countries on that clip, we have a trade deficit. what trump has done is the same thing he has done to stir interest here at home. he stated a strategic objective. he didn't get into the details. what the economist is worried about, worry about the details how he's going to do that, and he doesn't need to put that on the table right now. he's just simply saying he want to level the playing field. that make him nervous because we have had these trade deficits for so long. charles: there is. >> the piece in this article that i find interesting. that would be the effectiveness of a president trump. combined with the virulent democratic open signi

you're a trump supporter. disagree with bakari. >> a notion that donald trump is using this as a strategy, i find to be an insulting concept. what you're saying is that embracing the kkk, somehow plays well in the south. that's dismissing an entire region of the country. the kkk is a small, small minority, a terrorist organization that most people in the south, overwhelming majority dismiss out of hand. >> what do you make of his answer on sunday? >> i think it was a mistake. i think he stumbles. he mentions the earpiece. i don't think he's a liar. i know he has dismissed the kkk five times in 2,000 he called duke a racist, a bigot, a problem. what this boils down to do you in your heart of heart believes donald trumps a racist? the answer is know. he's lived on the earth 69 years if he was a racist we'd have far more interviews. >> we have to take a quick break. marco rubio racking up big endorsements but can he win a single state tonight? that's the big question for mr. rubio. if trump wins the nomination, wh

trump. they get a say too. the idea that trump wins 7 of 11 and i'm supposed to go, oh, the race is over -- trump is ahead. trump has run an excellent campaign. voters in the next bunch of states, take another look at this. >> 332 delegates for donald trump. 100-plus more than cruz and 200 more than marco rubio. >> add those two up and what disea does that get you? the same as trump. >> some of those jeb voters didn't go to marco rubio. you can't assume he'll lose that the point. >> i don't like the way these guys call on other people to get out. they should make their cases. >> there's been this myth that trump has a ceiling. the cnn poll shows him at 49%. the ceiling keeps being raised. the jeb bush supporters split evenly among the other candidates. you look at the kasich voters and they're second choice is split between rubio and trump. there's this myth that each of these voting blocks are monolithic and switch over to the first candidate exiting the race. >> i think issue with this whole trump has dominate

a person. john: donald trump seems to have a problem with it. rk: some people seem to be making peace, other republicans continue to say, no way, know-how, no-trump. they have all now said they would not vote for trump even if republican nominee. john, are these republicans saying that out of pure principle or do they have another motive. is anyone out there if they took this posture, would have an impact on the race? john: i think in most cases, it is a matter of principle. he is with marco rubio. he would never vote for donald trump. john, are these republicans saying that out of pure principle or do they have another motive. i feel fine talking about this. things hetoo many espouses that i fundamentally do not believe in. that is driving most of these people. they have a political motivation to stop trump. the reason they will not vote for him is because it is someone they could not in good conscience support. him onhey are against pure principle. there is nothing in for them personally or politically. either the most likely republican nominee

sense of what trump hopes to gain with a meetinge republican leaders there? >> well, meeting with republican leaders, this is the lincoln day dinner and mr. trump has been saying he is trying to build this party and try to grow the party, bringing in all these voters. as his campaign moves forward, he wants to reach out and he has been careful to distance himself from the so-called establishment, clearly this and being reported tomorrow, he is trying as best he can to unify the republican party. it will be a steep hill to climb. as other senators are coming out and endorsing ted cruz and falling behind the anything but trump movement. will that stop trump movement be able to gain traction before he walks away from this. he has to get 80% to do that. >> thank you so much. bernie sanders will be campaigning across washington state following saturday's press conference. msnbc's casey hunt is in seattle following the campaign with the latest. casey, another welcome to you and sanders has a steep hill to climb during the democratic nomin

trump. they've had it for a year. asked more questions. they know what donald trump said about mexican americans and about immigrants. they know what he said about muslims. all the language he's used. he's on tv saying the things he's saying for months and months and months and months. they're not without information. there are a huge segment of voters in this country that feels frustrated. >> let me ask the question i asked jorge. now that he's unleashed it, can he dial it back? and must he or not? >> i think this -- the china's broken in the course of this, i think the republican party is whatever the result of this is is -- it's not going to be donald trump that i think pulls this back together. somebody else has to come in and pull this back together. if they do. donald trump is likely the republican nominee. he's not going to be able to pull the majority of the country together. and say, i'm now the one who will be the unifier. who did give a speech, the trump? impressive speech. the general reaction of smart people hate the establishm

a lot of money to charity. why do i think these ads whether trump university or trump is a misogynist or trump is a democratic donoren the weight of all of those ads for any other candidate would have sunk them. it is that his voters decided a long time ago that when you attack donald trump you are attacking me, the voter. a did a smart thing almost year ago locking arms with the voters saying i am for you, i am giving you a voice. so when he is attacked they feel like they are being attacked. text that is a wise analysis. never a doll moment. thank you for coming on. if you are watching this program in washington, d.c., even listen to it on the radio on bloomberg 99.1 fm. ♪ >> we want to do a republican classic candidate around starting with our colleague who beach covering the trump campaign. kevin, a big night for donald trump. layout what he plans to do from now over the next couple days. has no scheduled events tomorrow or thursday which is rare. this is all coming after the fallout from the chicago cancellation. he did maintain events in the past couple of days but did move some of those events staging them s

arizona isn't exactly a big evangelical state. but trump does it his way and it's hard to argue with the results so far. mormons, however, are a big utah constituency. the state is the home to the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. mitt romney is one of its elders. trump, of course, could not leave unanswered. >> i have a lot of friends -- by the way, mitt romney is not one of them. did he cheek? did this guy choke? he's a choke artist. i can't believe. are you sure he's a mormon? are we sure? he choked. he choked. it was so sad. he should have beaten obama. >> again, two states, 98 delegates. call it wild west tuesday or what you will, and a key test for a stop trump movement that so far is all talk and little consequential action. let's start there. a lot of meetings, a lot of phone calls, a lot of people putting up money, but you can't stop donald trump in a conference room or conference call. you'll have to stop him on election day. ted cruz thinks utah maybe this week opportunity one? >> look, if ted cruz clears 50% in utah,

donald trump giving him a run for his money and a credit to donald trump to be that close to a popular governor. if we assume that trump wins florida, then it becomes a story of ohio, because if trump wins ohio, he is off to the races and we have a two man race with ted cruz. if kasich wins, all of a sudden, an entirely different race. >> if trump wins florida as big as we think, it is all about ohio, ohio, ohio. a lot of other people looking at ted cruz having a good night in missouri, having a good night possibly in illinois. we don't know. i've got to say, though, i still believe friday night may provide donald trump with momentum for all the right reasons or all the wrong reasons. it just seems right now like he is so dominated the race. >> you're talking about the case os in chicago. >> it seemed to be precalculated. he is, think about it, since then, he has sucked all of the oxygen out of the room. everybody has been talking about trump. today, he had a phone call with mitch mcconnell, majority leader. which shows, again, trump is now realizing he has got to start reaching out to

and trump mortgage. a business genius, he is not. >> reporter: but the 2012 gop nominee is an imperfect messenger, since he courted trump's endorsement just four years ago. >> having his endorsement is a delight. >> reporter: then romney even praised the business acumen he criticized today. >> donald trump has shown an extraordinary ability to understand how our economy works to create jobs for the american people. >> reporter: but the straight-laced romney is clearly disgusted with trump's demeanor as a presidential candidate now. >> think of donald trump's personal qualities. the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third grade theatrics. >> reporter: romney even tried to preempt trump's response. >> will he talk our policy differences? or will he attack me with every imaginable low road insult. this may tell you what you need to know about his temperament, his stability and his suitability to be president. >> mitt was a disaster as a candidate. >> reporter: trump responded, tru

trump is a con man, a fake. mr. ump has changed his positions not just over the years, but over the course of the campaign, and on the ku klux klan for three days in a row. we will only really know if he is a real deal or a phony he releases his tax return and the cape of the interview with the "new york times." i predict there are more bomb shells in its tax returns. i predict he doesn't give much of anything to the disabled and veterans. i predict that he told the "new york times" that his immigration talk is just that, talk. and i predict despite his promise to do so, first made over a year ago, that he will never ever release his tax returns. never. not the returns under audit, not even the returns that are no longer being audited. he has too much to hide. nor will he authorize the release of the tapes that we made with the "new york times." if i'm right, you'll have all of the proof you need to know that donald trump is indeed a phony. attacking me as he surely will won't prove him any less of a phony. it's enti

a trump voter looks at that -- what the hell. i believe that's a rubio ad or rubio p.a.c. nd that's the problem they are not using language and messaging that connects to people. strategy should have been trump supporter. if you want to beat donald trump the only way you beat him with a trump supporter to said i still support donald trump but there's another candidate that can do what donald trump wants to get done. that's the strategy. >> up until now i feel like people have not been interested in the specifics, they just apartment tough guy out there who will fight for america and make them feel like they got somebody who has their back. >> and the far right, the most conservative are ideological and they are backing ted cruz. by the way what i don't understand ted cruz has a lot of delegates. he's only 100 delegates behind trump. but no one talks about that. the assumption is that trump is so far ahead. donald trump does best amongst independent voters. they are backing him not for where he stands they are backing him for how he stands it. >> i want to talk about the ind

trump. i am too. and he was aprised that donald trump showed up for this interview, wasn't he? >> indeed he was. i mean, before we beat ourselves up too much for not challenging donald trump in the same way that charlie sykes did, we have to remember that charlie did a one and done. that's a term of art here in the journalism world. he knew he had one shot at donald trump. he didn't even think he was going to get it because he assumed somebody from the trump campaign would google charlie sykes and see for almost a year now charlie's been calling trump a vulgar buffoon, saying he needs to build a firewall here in wisconsin to stop the trump train as it moves through toward november, doing everything he can to block that mans nomination. he didn't think he was going to get the interview. he got it. he pushed it as much as he could. he started off very polite, happy easter, congratulations on the new grandchild. but oh, by the way, here in wisconsin we value civility and decorum and truth telling. conservative princi

according to a new poll, donald trump leads in florida with 45%. rubio is way back with 22, down six points from last month. ted cruz with 18. if rubio, a big if, decides he cannot go on, does not want to get bludgeoned in his home state, what then? mark: if trump gets the 45 in the state, nobody will be him. unless rubio has a spurt, does well in the debate tomorrow night, somehow comes back, i believe if he got out, ted cruz would have a better chance of effectively stopping donald trump one-on-one. i think ted cruz has a better chance of stopping trump in this state than rubio. john: i imagine all of the rubio vote going to kasich. as hobbled as rubio is coming he has a better chance of beating trump than rubio -- ted cruz ever will. mark: he can go on the air anti-to take trumpet out on all of the liberal stuff. this is republicans only, this a conservative older electorate. , trump is the odds on favorite. all i'm saying is i think cruz has a better chance. john: i wonder how many florida republicans are thinking around saying, i wish jeb bush

lot of people supporting trump say wait a minute. we have people who looked and sounded presidential and they became president. but they forgot about the working people and the people on main street usa, that's where trump is connecting with so many people. charles: gina, hearing what her man said, do you think this plays out with the general election? but the bombastic nature of a donald trump, can that play wide enough to garner enough votes to win the white house? >> i have been talking to people at cpac and this is what i'm going to speak about when i speak saturday at cpac. if we can come together after candidate like bob dole and mitt romney and yawn mccain. if we can come together after that, i firmly believe we can come together after we have our family brawl. my background is psychology. this is a form mental breaking away to hyper focus on a primary, and our brains will get bigger again when we look at the enemy and that's hillary clinton. charles: trump says republicans are gaining millions of new voters because of him. at

>> actually it is a question of mobilization at this point. trumpped into lower middle class anger as john said. we need more people to show up. i think gop has had such a weak ground game and i think they haven't looked at trump's be weaknesses and exposed them. how do we include more people who feel disenfranchised? the people who support trump feel like they've been left out of the party for too long a time and they're back with a vengeance. the people who have previously felt they have never been included in the washington politics game can have a voice and support america and not just a popularity contest. >> if that is case, isn't that going to even intensify that feeling? if their wishes as voters are turned back in favor of another candidate? >> i don't think they'll be turned back so much as they'll be redirected. i think it's really a question of look, we're talking about an american fascist here and the end of american conservatism as we know it. if we don't mobilize people to save what we have, the things that are good about this country

missouri still too close to call with cruz and trump locked in a tight battle. >> and donald trump declaring victory in the winner take all state of florida with a wide margin over rubio. >> john kasich beating trump to take his first win of the primary season in his home state of ohio. >> but trump came out on top in both illinois, and north carolina. with ted cruz coming in second in both of those states. >> so the current delegate count is trump 621, cruz 396, and kasich 138. >> and for the democrats, missouri also too close to call. hillary clinton and bernie sanders neck and neck right now. >> but clinton did win the four other states. so that leaves her with 1,561 delegates, and sanders with an even 800. go we have fox news team coverage this morning. >> let's begin with phil keating who is live for us in miami. and a lethal blow that donald trump just delivered to marco rubio's campaign. good morning. >> yeah, good morning. absolutely crushing. record-setting turnout in florida's critical primary yesterday. 46% of registered republicans and democrats turned out and voted yesterday. an

and trump mortgage. a business genius he is not. >> reporter: but the 2012 gop nominee is an imperfect messenger since he courted trump's endorsement just four years ago. >> having his endorsement is a delight. >> reporter: then romney even praised the business acumen he criticized today. >> donald trump has shown an extraordinary ability to understand how our economy works to create jobs for the american people. >> reporter: but the straight-laced romney is clearly disgusted with trump's demeanor as a presidential candidate now. >> think of donald trump's personal qualities. the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny. the absurd third grade theatrics. >> reporter: romney even tried to preempt trump's response. >> will he talk about our policy differences or will he attack me with every imaginable low-road insult? this may tell you what you need to know about his temperament, his stability and his suitable ut to be president. >> mitt was a disaster as a candidate. >> reporter: trump responded t

however, as you said, if it is a clean sweep for donald trump, this becomes a candidate who is going to be very difficult to stop on the way to the nomination. >> thank you very much. donald trump obviously trying to make that happen, switching his entire schedule to be in ohio tonight instead of florida. phil mattingly is traveling in ohio. >> reporter: battleground ohio. >> if we win ohio, we'll have to take some pictures because you might be taking a picture with the next president of the united states. >> he may win ohio. it's right now a tie according to most of the polls. we're literally tied. he may win in ohio. who knows. he's the governor, but he has not done a good job. >> reporter: with polls trending sharply away from marco rubio in florida -- >> tomorrow's the day when we're going to shock the country and we're going to do what's going to be done. >> reporter: the buckeye state has become the latest and perhaps the last that could halt donald trump's march to the nomination. john kasich rising in the polls and challenging the tone of trump's campaign. >> this country is n

and trump mortgage. a business genius, he is not. >> reporter: finally, blasting trump as a flip-flopping empty suit. >> there's plenty of evidence that mr. trump is a con man, a fake. mr. trump has changed his positions not just over the years, but over the course of the campaign. and on that ku klux klan for three days if a row. playing the members of the america public for suckers. he gets a free ride to the white house and all we get is a lousy hat. >> romney began saying he was not going to announce his candidacy, not today anyway, but if you watched him speak the message was clear, basically telling the party, here i am, i am ready when you want me. because the most telling part of the spoech weech was lack of endorsement of the trump alternatives. his message, i like them all. translation, you may want them to stay in. why? he may prefer a contested convention when perhaps, just perhaps, anyone could become the nominee at that point. look, privately there is grumbling from nontrump candidates and su

this was a disastrous week for donald trump. ki massive unprepredictable. >> it has been dissas strous, lowered the approval rating and the imagine of the republican party. >> except, if it leads to a contested convention, if we don't end up with donald trump, we will not, then the republican is in a strong place. >> weirdly enough. >> with ted cruz? >> i would love -- >> only because of the relief of no trump that some republican also have -- >> ted cruz isn't much better. >> thank you all. we'll maybe test that theory, right, in the fall. we'll be back tomorrow with more "mtp daily." "with all due respect" starts right now. >>> i'm mark halperin. >>> i'm john helemann. secrets, is secrets are no fun.