all right, i'm joined by republican senator ben sasse of nebraska, who wrote that open letter. i believe, senator sasse, welcome back to the program, i believe you are the only republican senator right now who has said, will not vote for donald trump under any circumstances. how many of your senators came up to you today and quietly said, good for you, keep it going? >> well, i live in nebraska, we have three little kids and we commute, so we're going to vote here shortly tonight, but i haven't seen any senators yet today. >> let me ask you, when you said you're looking for a third candidate, is there an active movement? we all hear plenty of speculation. i've talked to operative x and operative y and hear about certain things. do you know of one that is real, that could happen? is it with the constitution party? is it an independent bid? what do you know? >> well, let's start with the fact that it's february 29th. i think 4% of the delegates have been selected and we're nine months away from an election and the american people deserve so much better than two fundamentally disho

what may be called a disendorsement from senator ben sasse. writes if trump wins the nomination, sasse will not support or even vote for him. this is significant. this is a republican senator who is the darling of a lot of elected officials in washington. saying he flat out will not vote for trump if he gets the nomination. all the republican candidates signed a pledge earlier in the election season to support whoever gets the nomination. now that pledge will be tested. >> sasse says he will not. >> cruz says he will. marco rubio doesn't answer the question so far. >>> let's talk about the democrats. hillary clinton is campaigning across super tuesday states fresh off the 48-point victory in south carolina. she had large numbers of african-americans who backed her, 7 to 1. we have jeff zeleny with the latest on her swing through tennessee. >> reporter: john and christine, a new moment in the democratic race. with one day of campaigning before super tuesday, hillary clinton and bernie sanders are in a different race. that was clear on sunday as

ben sass is a rubio supporter. nonetheless, you're right. that is astonishing. a sitting united states senator already rejecting who is hikely to be the party's nominee. there are a couple things to look at that i think are important. one, this moment of last throes and thrarbg. rubio or cruz could stand in this if they could put some wins on the board. i would imagine the dynamic still may continue. i don't see it as anything other than this last ditch effort and thrashing about. but what is important to note is how enthusiastic and committed trump voters are compared to the others. so that whole kitchen cinque strategy we're seeing right now, i don't know where, if you look inside our numbers, they think that is going to work. 78% of trump voters are completely committed to him. that is much higher than rubio or cruz voters. nearly 8 in 10 are more enthusiastic than they were in the presidential election. that is a committed base of support. as you noted, john, it is a base of support registering 49%. >> panel, stick around. we want to look at individual state

meanwhile, ben sasse of nebraska says he will not be supporting trump if he becomes the republican nominee. this republican senator becomes the first sitting gop senator to say explicitly that even if trump is the gop nominee will not vote for him. he also says that he will not vote for the democratic nominee. stacey: a navy seal who risked his life to rescue an american hostage in afghanistan received the medal of honor today at the white house. 36-year-old edward byers junior seal team 6. he's the first living, active duty member of the navy to receive the award in four decades. he says he was just doing his job. he also has 5 bronze stars and two purple hearts. also in washington a kcci , exclusive. steve karlin is on his way to dc -- two d.c. right now to have the first interview with senator charles grassley after grassley meets with president obama tomorrow to talk about the supreme court vacancy. steve's reports start tonight, only on kcci 8 news at 10:00. todd: also at 10:00 breaking the , law to ease the pain. kcci's mark tauscheck tells the story of a man going public with his ve

nebraska's ben sass. in a facebook post he wrote conservatives will need to find a third option other than trump. >> this is a guy who says things again and again that sound a lot more like vladimir putin than abraham lincoln. >> reporter: there are two key worries among many republican officials if trump gets the nomination. first, if he wins in november, would he govern as a conservative? and, second, would he if democrats are able to successfully attack his past statements and his business record. lester? >> andrea mitchell, thanks so much to talk about. let's bring in our political director, the moderator of "meet the press," chuck todd. chuck, if trump does well tomorrow, what are the points in which they can -- other republicans can stop him? >> the only way they can stop him within the party is to deny him the delegates he needs to get the nomination. to do that, he does well tomorrow night, then it becomes imperative that they defeat trump in march 15 in ohio meaning every other candidate other th

. >> one gop endorsement we know he won't be getting, nebraska senator ben sass.arly about trump saying he was asked who he would support between clinton and trump saying neither and that he would look for a third party option if trump received the republican nomination. on marco rubio's endorsement front, an awkward moment when crescent party said he can't name any of rubio's accomplishments. rubio responded to the conundrum on fox news sunday. >> well, in fairness to these folks, right, they're signing up at the last second. they're inspired by our message. they want to be a part of our team. we haven't provided them all this information. i'm more than happy to tell you about my record. >> and last week tonight host john oliver has a slogan we doubt the trump campaign will want to adopt. >> he's spent decades turning his own name into a brand. >> even as a very young kid the word trump sort of meant rich. >> it meant success. >> she's not even wrong. trump does sound rich. it turns out the name trump was not always his family's name. one biography found that an

continues to collect support, most recently at tuesday's nevada republican nebraska gop senator ben sasse announced he won't support trump. on twitter sasse said... "if trump becomes the republican nominee my expectation is that i'll look for some 3rd candidate - a conservative option, a constitutionalist. " sasse is believed to be the first u-s senator to say he won't support donald trump should he be the republican nominee. the next big event for presidential hopefuls from both parties is tuesday when 11 states hold caucus and primary's. tim: some big changes are in store for the diocese of sioux city. because of low attendance and a declining number of priests, the diocese will reduce the number of parishes from 108, to fewer than 70 beginning in 2017. but the same can not be said for christ the king catholic church in sioux center. as abc9's christina gri hall va reports the church is rapidly growing. christina: tim and jennnn- what used to be a flower shop-- is now home to a catholic church and despite the closing of some parishes in siouxland-- christ the king is blossoming with new

he doesn't talk about rolling back president obama's executive unilateralism. >> all right, ben sasseing up, a story that's terrifying. new york has a slashing problem and another person is randomly attacked with a knife. the nation's top cop is not making anyone feel any better. (cell phone rings) where are you? well the squirrels are back in the attic. mom? your dad won't call an exterminator... can i call you back, mom? he says it's personal this time... if you're a mom, you call at the worst time. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. where are you? it's very loud there. are you taking a zumba class? [tires spinning] ♪ [glass shattering] [screaming] [electricity arching] [pole crashing] ♪ ♪ [impact thud] ♪ the bold nissan rogue, with intuitive all-wheel drive. because winter needs a hero. nissan. innovation that excites. if time is infinite, why is there never enough of it? a john deere 1 family tractor with quik-park lets you attach and go. imatch quick-hitch gives you more time for what you love. so

. >> this is what ben sasse tweeted, republican. if trump becomes the republican nominee, my expectation is i'll look for some third candidate, a conservative option, a constitutionalist. if trump is the nominatiee, cou you vote for him? >> i would have to see. sasse is not just republican, he is conservative. to come out as strong as he did, it was a statement of conscience. give him tremendous credit for doing that. shows revulsion of people following what donald trump is saying. >> what about hillary clinton. could you vote for her if she were running against trump? would you be torn? >> i am a republican, want to vote for the republican nominee. i expect it to be marco rubio. i would be happy and proud to vote for him. >> what if it is hillary clinton and mierkal bloomberg. >> he was an outstanding mayor. see what happens. >> you could see yourself not going with the republican, going with a third party candidate? >> right now, i am supporting marco rubio. i am saying i am supporting marco rubio. he is going to win, be the nomin

nebraska senator ben sasse becoming first high-profile elected republican saying he will not support even if he wins the nomination. according to "the new york times," senate majority leader mitch mcconnell told gop colleagues they can drop trump like a hot rock and run negative ads against him if his nomination threatens their re-election. brit, what do you make of this? this is very different from what we heard the rnc insure donald trump, which you will have party support. think about endorsements that happened for trump. >> most interesting one to me was one over the weekend with jeff session. said distrusted and disliked by virtually all his colleagues. sessions was closest thing to a friend he had, they worked together on couple of issues. what this shows is, while being dislikeed by senate colleagues, may play great on campaign trail people may think it visiter few. it has a price. the sessions endorsement of trump is evidence of that. if you're disliked by your colleagues, in the end it doesn't help. andrea: came at such critical time, sessions. shifted entire news cycle from

steve kornacki. >> governor huckabee, i wanted to ask you about a comment from ben sasse, the senatoresident he doesn't expect to vote for either one, he would find a third party constitutionist conservative he would support. i'm curious, is that something as a republican you're afraid of? if donald trump is the nominee, do you anticipate you'll hear more republicans like ben sasse say "i'm not going to support donald trump"? >> well, here's what i would be more afraid of. i'd be afraid of it's the end of the republican party not because of donald trump but because of people being fed up with the republican party that's so elitist, so snobbish that they demand not just of donald trump but of me and every other republican candidate a loyalty to the party and if we have an election, that's how we select presidents, we elect them, we don't select them by the party bosses. and if the party bosses don't get the guy they want, what will they do? disavow the person the people wanted? if we have to be loyal to the party, joe, should at no time party be loyal to us? doesn't it work both ways?

i should mention for fairness ben sasse said that but jeff sessions came out and endorsed donald trump yesterday. so on the one hand you have sasse of nebraska saying i will never support donald trump, you have sessions of alabama saying i'm endorsing him. you had the christie endorsement. >> right. >> donald trump has a lot of bad things going against him but a lot of good stuff going for him. too hard to say at this point. >> we are starting to see those trump endorsements that were allusive for him for all those months. thanks for taking a few minutes. >> my pleasure. >>> we have much more ahead this hour on this special split edition of "msnbc live" from new york and houston, texas. we have watching dueling clinton live events this hour, her and his rally about to get under way in massachusetts and texas. texas is where we find kate snow. >> hi, again, steve. hillary clinton is in springfield, massachusetts. former president bill clinton is right here in houston just about a half hour from where i'm sitting here at harris county smoke house. we will talk about the fight for super d

let me quote for you from senator ben sass of nebraska. he says, i am frustrated and saddened as you are about what's happening in our country but i cannot support donald trump. please understand i'm not an establishment republican and i will never support hillary clinton. i'm a movement conservative who is elected over the objections of the gop establishment. my current answer for who i would 1support in a hypothetica match-up between mr. trump and mrs. clinton is nooet teither o. you must be concerned about people like senator sasse who says things like that about your candidate. >> i'm not concerned at all and i don't think so anybody with the campaign is concerned. as you pointed out, i'm an elected official. i am not an establishment person either. i ran against two establishment candidates in my own state. and i saw with my own eyes in my race the passion, the passion amongst the conservative grass roots for me and other candidates like myself who are here to take our country back. and to make the right decisions. everybody is so fru

by the way, among the republicans that are not going to support donald trump, senator ben sasse saidtie over the weekend. jan brewer over the weekend. and now the benghazi heroes. three guys who that movie is based on, they have come out squarely in donald trump's camp. >> we had a chance to sit down with eric and donald trump jr. the sons of donald trump the candidate. here's what they had to say about these insults. >> i think it's a desperate move. it's one thing if you have an aggressive personality and you've been known to have that for your entire life like my father. oh, we pretend to do this and my puppet masters will tell me what to say so i can win some points. i don't think it comes across as genuine. >> both these candidates, both opponents they're drowning, they're not doing very well, so they're kind of bringing down with them. and sad to see. we love our father. he's an amazing guy. he would do such an unbelievable job for this country. >> a lot of people say that it is funny. i know a lot of people say they want to hear more about policy but i talked to some people wh

and i've said, and i would encourage ben and others to put their personal interests sassed and put ourand country's interest first and unite behind whoever that candidate is. and i've said it publically, i'll say it again. if it's not donald trump, i'm going to work my tail off for anybody who is the nominee so we can put that jeannie back in the bottle and push back against the eight years of miss direction and mishaps and real problems in this country . charles: rich, the death of ronald reagan in the party, are you vowing to not support the nominee? >> well, i've never made that vow myself but the establishment is completely ridiculous, this is a conservative constitutionalist who looks at what donald trump represents. not a conservative. no has appreciation for the constitution and just says sorry, i can't go there. and, look, we still have two. charles: what did she would a president bernie sanders or hillary clinton be a better opposite? >> well, look, guys who really believe in this stuff, believe in these ideas are going to have a very hard time going along with donald trump. j