we've got more on all that with hallie jackson. hi, hallie. >> reporter: hi, lester. good evening. we've learned in the last 24 to 48 hours, the cruz campaign held three meetings across the country about how to get the most delegate support. john kasich brought on a top operative to focus on a contested convention. all of them looking ahead at what could happen next in the wild race. three candidates left. donald trump's lead almost three times bigger than it was, now three scenarios for the gop establishment. finally surrendered to the front-runner, fights furiously against him or find somebody else to take him on. surrendering to a trump ticket could happen -- >> this was an amazing evening. >> reporter: -- before new york's primary next month. >> you have people on the show all the time talking about stopping donald trump. who are calling me to work out a deal where they want to become involved. >> reporter: more influence for trump. the party canceling monday's debate after he said he wouldn't show. he still needs 55% of the remaining delegates, but that's better math than ted

nbc's hallie jackson takes us inside the effort to derail trump. >> reporter: today two blocks from the white house, a secret huddle trump from moving in. a frustrated group led by eric erickson, emerging with a call for a unity ticket for the gop and looking ahead to a contested convention. the stop-trump movement regrouping to reassess how to slow him down. two road blocks slowing them down. first, trump could still lock up the nomination before the convention. ads against him not doing much, as he more than doubled his delegate lead this week, even after outside groups spent $13 million. >> now we're having conversations with donors, gauging the interest in moving ahead. >> reporter: anti-trump activists trying to convince delegates to be the convention. >> real people with lives and schedules and vacations and cell phones and twitter accounts all have to be found, cataloged, and wooed. >> reporter: the message to them, in the words of one activist, people who bultd this party have been here longer than the newcomers who are the whole thing down. >> those of us who are delegates in c

we've got more on all that beginning with s hallie jackson. hi, hallie. >> reporter: hi, lester, good evening. we've learned that in the last 24 to 48 campaign held three meetings across the country about how to get the most delegate support. john kasich brought on a top operative to focus on a contestednvention and trump staffers met to game out how to pick up marco rubio's supporters. all of them looking ahead at what could happen next in this wild race. three candidates left. donald trump's lead almost three times bigger than it was, now three scenarios for the gop establishment. finally surrender to fight furiously against him or find somebody else to take him on. surrendering to a trump ticket could happen. >> this was an amazing evening. >> reporter: before new york's primary next month. the billionaire or "morning joe." >> you have people on the show all the time talking about stopping donald trump who with calling me to work out a deal where they want to become involved. >> reporter: more influence for trump, the party cancelling monday

. >> reporter: i'm hallie jackson, the images from brussels, like paris and san bernardino before, now bringing into focus the dramatic differences between the party's front-runners. >> i would close up our borders to people until we figure out what is going on. >> i think there are a lot of things we have to do to intensify our efforts. i think closing our borders is not one of them. >> reporter: for hillary clinton, a chance to prove her national security credentials. opportunity to seem more presidential one day after calling for controversial cuts to nato based in brussels. >> puts a huge amount of uncertainty into the system and at exactly the moment where we need intensified cooperation. >> reporter: trump, hoping to project strength, even where his opponents see weakness like ted cruz, taking his own hardline stance, a striking one, demanding police patrol and, quote, secure neighborhoods of american muslims. >> anywhere where there's a locust of radicalization, where there's an expanding presence of radical islamic terrorism, we need law enforcement resources directed there. >>

high drama on both sides of the let's start with nbc's hallie jackson on the gop campaign in miami. hello, hallie. >> reporter: lester, good evening. donald trump is racking up more delegates. the establishment attacks aren't working y yet. we build toward showdowns in ohio and here in florida. where 99 delegates are up for grabs. tonight it's trump looking most likely to take them home. donald trump now ready for the final round to put this fight away. >> the ultimate way of doing it. you knock them out. if you knock them out, nothing can happen. >> you want to go for a knockout? >> i would rather go for a knockout. >> reporter: trump in one corner, in the other, the movement to try to stop him. the hits now coming harder and faster. our nbc news analysis shows $8.5 million spent on ads against trump in florida alone. that's where the front-runner, after winning in michigan, mississippi and hawaii celebrated his well-done election night with raw trump stakes. a moment more qvc than gop. >> you have the water, the steaks, the airline i sold. once in a while you can sell something. >>

hallie jackson, nbc news, new york. >>> we're back in a moment with some. day's other news, including the death of >>> we'll have more on the brussels terror attack in just a moment but first some of the day's other news. rob ford, the former toronto mayor whose internationally famous has died. he was battling a rare aggressive form of cancer. ford scandal plagued time in office made headlines, including in 2013 when he admitted smoking crack cocaine while in office. his re-election bid was cut short when he was diagnosed with cancer. instead, he ran for his old city council seat and won in a landslide. ford was 46. >>> back to the campaign trail and the race for president. both donald trump and hillary clinton helped to expand their leads tonight as three states in the west hold contests. democrats and republicans are voting in both the arizona primary and the utah caucuses, and the democrats have another battle tonight in the idaho caucus es, when we come back, the >>> here at home and around the world in french, in fremish and england and dozens of langu

nbc's hallie jackson starts us off with the trump is looking presidential down to the gold chairs and chandeliers press conference just like the ones in the white house east room and trump more measured is sounding presidential too. >> we have a very, very dynamic and i think we're going to be able to unify the party. i hope to be able to get along with >> reporter: still, four years after he endorsed mitt romney. >> governor romney, go out and get him. you can do it. >> thank >> reporter: the former nominee is far from returning the favor. at a speech tomorrow hit trump hard, even though he's the one record republican turnout in almost every state. the mirror image to what democrats saw in now for the gop, the will of the people will of the party. >> i'm not going to him in november. more republicans publicly speaking out against trump, congressmen. >> i reject trump and i'm encouraging other republicans to do the same today. >> reporter: rnc where you stand on the ku klux klan every time you're asked, i've got a real supporting you. >> i would never vote for donald trump. >> reporte

nbc's hallie jackson is at ted cruz's headquarters in stafford, texas. hello, hallie. >> hear behind me this crowd is ready for a celebration, and the cruz campaign feels they will get one, at least here in texas. a campaign aidesentially predicting a win, telling me within the last hour that they will win texas and, quote, come out of the night as h the sufficient foundation to destroy -- feeling good in texas, thinking that could be enough to move on,viously picking up a win in a place like arkansas or oklahoma is beneficial. nbc calling the oklahoma primary as you know, on the call, but ted cruz leading. >> hallie jackson, thanks very much. we're joined by nbcws political analyst nicole wallace. nicole, talk about the depth of the split right now in the republican party, especially watching those trump stack up tonight. >> it couldn't be more profound. i've been on these campaigns and when you utter the words too close to call, it breathes life into those campaigns for either a strong second place or an upset. that is the position that the kasich campa

nbc's hallie jackson starts us off with the latest. >> reporter: looking to november, donald trump is looking presidential down to the gold chairs and chandeliers at his press conference just like the ones in the white house east room and trump more measured is sounding presidential too. >> we have a very, very dynamic party, and i think we're going to be able to unify the party. i hope to be able to get along with everybody. >> reporter: still, four years after he endorsed mitt romney. >> governor romney, go out and get him. you can do it. >> thank you. >> reporter: the former nominee is far from returning the favor. at a speech tomorrow romney is expected to hit trump hard, even though he's the one republican turnout in almost every state. the mirror image to what democrats saw in 2008. now for the gop, the will of the people pitted against the will of the party. >> i'm not going to vote for him in november. >> reporter: more and more republicans publicly speaking out against trump, governors, congressmen. >> i reject trump and i'm encouraging other republicans to do the same today.

joining me now, katy tur, who has been following the trump campaign, and hallie jackson with cruz in sconsin. hallie, let me start withes you because this is a decidedly different tone from ted cruz than we have seen in the past. was pretty angry yesterday. what are we expecting there today? >> incredibly tough, the tone we heard from ted cruz, defending his wife, who by the way f i move out of the way, she just took the stage behind me here in oshkosh. she's been on the campaign trail with him. yesterday, today, the family is headed to a mass here in wisconsin, then up to green bay for a rally. here's what i think we can expect to see from cruz. he will continue, i believe, to attack donald trump or to at least defend heidi cruz. he has said he believes children and spouses should be off limits in this race. talking ability, for example, that melania trump, trump's wife, is a laovely person. he believes heidi is his best friend. here's what i think politically you're going to see. ted cruz in wisconsin is shifting to a different message than we have heard before. in iowa, utah, we he

hallie jackson is covering the cruz campaign. tell us more about this, h ha llie. >> reporter: sure, lester. this move by mitt romney is like a bat signal to the rest of the establishment to get on board behind ted cruz who is campaigning on the border in arizona today, but utah were romney's influence could make the most difference. they have modelled their path to the nomination on not just winning utah but winning big to scoop up every delegate and cut into donald trump's lead but don't call this an endorse president. mitt romney isn't. instead he says conservatives should unite behind cruz to force an open convention and that tells us two things, first, that the establishment hasn't fully settled necessarily on who it's for, although it knows who it's against and, second, how serious party leaders are that a contested convention is the most trump. >> listen, in my book when someone says i'm voting for you and i encourage everyone else to vote for you, that's pretty darn good, and i'll take that and take that happily. >> repor

nbc's hallie jackson cpac with more. h ha llie. >> reporter: good evening, lester. there's a lot of talk about that never trump movement, but a better name for it for some may be never until november as all the anti-trump candidates pledged their loyalty is the nominee. still, all three will fight ferociously over the next 11 days to try and prevent that from happening. short term ted cruz is looking at louisiana, libertarian-leaning maine and is hoping for a strong showing in kansas, too, but so is marco rubio with three stops in that state today alone. both of them, plus john kasich, hopes michigan could be a state where they can try and topple trump, but the more important date, that's march 15th, the home state showdown, rubio has to win florida, kasich has to win ohio. if they do and pick up valuable delegates, then everybody stays in the race since all three see narrow although unlikely paths to victory between now and the summer, that's why you shouldn't expect to see them team up to try and take down trump tactically. but if trump wins both florida and ohio,

hallie jackson, nbc news, wisconsin. >>> shocking news from los angeles this evening. garry shandling, the beloved actor and comedian has died suddenly. rushed to the hospital this morning, passing away of an apparent heart attack. he was just 66 years old, and he's being remembered by celebrities and fans far and wide as a legendary comic gene yusz. here's nbc's harry smith. >> garry shandling. >> reporter: garry shandling first came to our attention doing his stand-up routine on "the tonight show." >> i went to the bank earlier today, and have you gotten your free pen yet? these are free. you just yank these things and they pop right out. >> reporter: he was such a big hit, he was soon filling in for johnny carson. there was even talk that shandling would eventually take over the show. but shandling found his way to showtime. ♪ >> reporter: he did a sitcom about a stand-up comedian. it was a thinly veiled send-up of sitcoms. it was a funny and a cult hit. shandling's real claim to fame came on hbo. the larry sanders show mocked late night tv, ego, ambition, and show

nbc's hallie jackson >> reporter: good evening, lester. there's a lot of talk about that never trump movement, but a better name for it for somey be never until november as all the anti-trump candidates pledged their loyalty to donald trump if he is the nominee. still, all three willght ferociously over the next 11 days to try and prevent that from happening. short term ted cruz is looking at louisiana, libertarian-leaning maine and is hoping for a strong showing in kansas, too, but so is marco rubio with three stops in that state today alone. both of them, plus john kasich, hopes michigan could be a state where they can try and topple trump, but the more important 15th, the home state showdown, rubio has to win florida, kasich has to win ohio. if they do and pick up valuable delegates, then everybody stays in the race since all three see narrow although unlikely paths to victory between now and the summer, that's why you shouldn't expect to see them team up to try and take down trump tactically. but if trump wins both florida and ohio, it

trump pointed to where it happened, jose, and called it disgraceful. >> hallie jackson, thank you very much. >>> as this protest movement against trump and his campaign heats up, we want to get a better sense of what it's all about. we sent our jacob rascon to the event in phoenix. here is his report. >> reporter: it happened just as they planned it. the arrests. the clashes with police. and bystanders. are you worried that you'll be arrested? >> that's a risk we're willing to take, if donald trump continues, and becomes president, and his rhetoric continues, families will be hurt. >> reporter: they prepared in secret for days, making signs, preparing maps. then their moment of truth. >> we're here to end it and shut that down. >> reporter: we tagged along as this human rights organization which fights for the rights of local undocumented immigrants shut down the main road to the trump event for hours, trapping hundreds of cars. they were ready for the deputies. they chained themselves to their cars. they were arrested. all part of the plan. in salt lake city last night, hundreds of pr

hooer's nbc's hallie jackson. >> reporter: this racy anti-trump ad meant to turn off utah mormons now turning attention to the tone of the gop race. meet melania trump, it says, your next first lady. or you could support ted cruz on tuesday. >> that ad was completely inappropriate. we had nothing to do with it. >> reporter: the image was created by an outside stop trump group, but that didn't stop trump himself from threatening cruz he would, quote, spill the beans about wife heidi. >> there are a lot of things that donald trump and his campaign say that aren't based on reality. >> reporter: cruz tweeting back with the #classless. >> he's better off sticking with me, because heidi is way out of his league. >> reporter: trump accusing cruz of lifting lines. >> you better stick with me. because it's way out of your league. >> reporter: the entire episode raising the question, is anything off-limits anymore? >> i think it's always nasty, but this year it's extraordinarily nasty. >> reporter: creating the digital ad featuring the former model in british "gq." >> i think donald trump has o

nbc's hallie jackson is at ted cruz's headquarters in stafford, texas. hello, hallie. >> reporter: you can hear behind me this crowd is ready for a celebration, and the cruz campaign feels they will get one, at least here in texas. a campaign aide essentially predicting a win, telling me within the last hour that they will win texas and, quote, come out of the night as the only campaign with foundation to destroy -- feeling good in texas, thinking that could be enough to move on, obviously picking up a win in a place like arkansas or oklahoma is beneficial. nbc calling the oklahoma primary as you know, on the republican side, lester, too early to call, but ted cruz leading. >> hallie jackson, thanks very much. we're joined by nbc news political analyst nicole wallace. nicole, talk about the depth of the split right now in the republican party, especially watching those trump victories stack up tonight. >> it couldn't be more profound. i've been on these campaigns and when you utter the words too close to call, it breathes life into those campaigns hoping

hallie jackson in oshkosh. >>> i want to turn to robert costa. robert, let me ask you what you make of that. we just played the exchange, druds has been out there saying, look, in the end i made a commitment i would support the republican nominee if the nominee is trump i'm still going to support him. that's been his line. you saw that exchange with hallie jackson yesterday, he wouldn't say that yesterday, wouldn't say he wouldn't support him. what do you make of that? >> cruz knows that he needs those trump voters should he win the nomination and he does not want to alienate the billionaire's base. so he's trying to walk a fine line, he's taking on trump, very frustrated with trump's attacks but at the same time as he has been doing for months he has been trying to reach out to those same working class conservative voters. >> we also have some news this morning out of wisconsin, scott walker the governor obviously he has not been necessarily too friendly toward donald trump in this campaign, a lot of speculation he will eventually endorse ted cr

let's get more from nbc's hallie jackson. >> reporter: new week, same rivalry.ow playing out on the radio. >> joining me on the line -- >> reporter: donald trump versus ted cruz. >> he started it. if he didn't start it, would have never happened. nothing like this would have ever happened. >> reporter: trump, upset about that racy ad featuring a photo of his wife. >> he knew about it. somebody even said he's the one that bought the copyrights from "gq." >> the cruz team denies that and filings show no payments from his campaign to british "gq." the super pac calls trump comments a weird conspiracy theory. ignoring the back and forth, cruz now refusing to engage. >> who cares? who cares what donald is tweeting late at night? we need real solutions for the real problems in this country. >> reporter: he's taking on trump not personally but on policy. >> he has no idea how to keep america safe from radical islamic terrorists. so instead he yells and screams and curses and attacks people and threatens lawsuits and attacks their wives and attacks their families. >> re

>> our hallie jackson in washington, hallie, thank you. >>> she is six years old and for the past four years, had lived with a foster family in california. that is until early this week, when she was taken away from her family, all because of her native american heritage. now, as our steve patterson reports, her foster parents are fighting to get her back. >> reporter: the moment is tough to watch. a young girl sobbing. her foster parents pleading. >> it's gut wrenching. >> reporter: summer and rusty page knew the day might come, when they brought lexi into their lives four years ago. >> food isn't worth eating. sleep is overrated. it's all about what we can do to get lexi home. >> reporter: their adopted daughter is 1/64th choctaw indian. she falls under a federal law that keeps native american children with their ancestry. members of the choctaw nation have been advocating for lexi to live with her extended family in utah since 2011 and say these relatives have visited and called her during that time. the choctaw nation of oklahoma said, "we appreciate the concern for lexi and want t

hallie jackson, nbc news, new york. >> and then there's this. move over kim kardashian. president obama just broke the internet by dancing the tang goe last night during a state visit to argentina. you can see him twisting and twirling his dance parter. and michelle obama was also dancing with a partner. they were guests of the argentine president. >>> across the country we're seeing pretty wild weather across colorado. a thousand nights were canceled at denver international airport. you can see why. a blizzard there caused numerous accident along the i-70 and e-470 with many drivered stranded. some areas could see 18 inches of snow. come on. in missouri, severe weather hinting overnight. and texas getting hail plummeting there. look at all of that. what an intro for you, bill cairns. can you explain this? >> a powerful spring storm. now it's on to the midwest. going to get another 3 to 6 inches. the heavy stuff we already showed you. denver saw a foot of snow. we may get close to a foot in northern michigan. severe weather didn't have any tornadoes yesterday. houston ha

hallie jackson, nbc news, wisconsin. >>> meanwhile, hillary clinton out of the line of political fire appeared on "jimmy kimmel live" last night. poking fun at criticism clinton received with kimmel man-'splaining. >> thank you. it's wonderful to be here. >> one second. hold on. >> already? >> you're shouting. you don't have to shout like that. hurts my ears. comes off as a little shrill for men. >> shrill for men? >> yes. >> we don't need to be made great. we need to be -- >> oh, my god. with the sour puss. [ laughter ] try to have some fun. this is like your dream. pretend you're enjoying yourself. >> it's like -- nothing i do is right. >> exactly. you're not doing it right. i [ laughter ] i didn't quite put my finger on it. you're not -- you're not -- >> a man? >> that's it! you're not a man. but that was really cute the way you did it, though. the way -- >> well, thanks. that was what i was going for. >> hillary clinton, everybody! >> oh, my goodness. genius. well, the democrats now look toward tomorrows caucuses. 173 total delegates up for grabs. >>> 1.2 billion of the world's ca

sorry, that's not right, he is not on spring break. >> reporter: no. >> nbc news correspondent hallie jacksonpreparing for that primary? >> reporter: thanks. big deal for him here. he talks about utah wanting to do well had there, the campaign is talking about wisconsin as the next big battle ground for them, why you're seeing cruz send a lot of time here. time and money are being deployed in wisconsin. cruz is going to be up in green bay taking a tour of the packers hall of fame, but cruz's strategy is to strip as many delegates as possible from donald trump for a couple of reasons, one it's obviously the math, two it's the momentum factor as well. he's hoping that trump essentially will not do as well in their suburban milwaukee counties, that's trump's weakness when you look at wisconsin, it's more of a chamber of commerce republican, very red some of these counties but it's not necessarily places that are favorable to trump naturally the way that maybe spots in the northern part of the state are. trump is coming here, he's competing. when you look at the polling he and cruz are neck and n

we've got more on all that beginning with nbnbc's hallie jackson. hi, hallie. >> reporter: hi, lester, good evening. we've learned that in the last 24 to 48 hours the cruz cacampaign held three meetings across the country about how to support. john kasich brought on a top operative to focus on a contested convention and trump staffers met to game out how to pick up supporters. all of them looking happen next in this wild race. three candidates left. donald trump's lead almost three times now three scenarios for the gop establishment. finally surrender too the fronont-runner. fight furiously agagainst him or find somebody else to take him on. surrendering to a trump ticket could happen. >> this was an amazing evening. >> reporter: before new york's primary next month. the billionaire or "morning joe." >> you have people onn the show all the time talking about stoppingg donald trump who with calling me to work out a deal where they want to become involved. >> reporter: more influence for trump, the party cancelling monday's debatee after he said he wou

hallie jackson, thank you. >>> the u.s. has now officially declared isis guilty of genocide. secretary of state john kerry today formally accused isis of the crime of trying to exterminate entire peoples, including christians and shiite muslims. congress has been pushing for this designation, but it is now not expected, we should say, to change the current u.s. strategy against isis. >>> for the first time we're hearing from the man that kurdish television says is that alleged american isis fighter who suddenly surrendered last week. he's revealing details about the dark path that led him from virginia all the way to the heart of jihadist-controlled territory in iraq. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel has more. >> reporter: he's the first known alleged american isis fighter to surrender on the battlefield. >> my name is mohammed jamal khweis. >> reporter: the 26-year-old virginia native was captured this week in iraq. today his kurdish captors released video of his confession. >> i was with a lot of foreigners, a lot of asians, russians, and people from the s

hallie jackson, nbc news, new york. >>> and then there's this. move over kim kardashian. president obama just broke the internet by dancing the tango during a state visit to argentina. you can see him twisting and twirling his dance partner who was shimmering in a golden dress and michelle obama was also dancing. the president and first lady were guests of the argentine president and wife in buenos aires. >>> a dramatic scene to show you out of florida where a car and septic tanker truck crashed into each other. >> can you hear me? >> deputies frantically tried to rescue a woman trapped in the burning car, pinned by the steering wheel and air bag. it took the deputies nearly three minutes to pull her from the inferno. yelling several times from the extreme heat and suffering minor burn, those deputies worked heroically pulling her to safety. her current status is unknown. >>> let's get down to business with cnbc's landon dowdy. good morning. >> hi, there. good morning to you. well, a new stur vai finds that 70% of americans binge watch tv. the report by deloitte says on a