jacob rascon -- all right. we're having some trouble. ybe the control booth can try to get through to jacob who clearly has called in. we're hearing something there. but again, sheriff arpaio saying that he will take care of this and that they're going to try to open up the road. it was nice of him to give about five minutes of his time on his way to introducing donald trump at a rally scheduled in about 20 plus minutes in now. we'll get back to jacob as soon as we can because he's right local on the ground. let's go to hallie jackson in the meantime. she's joining us from tucson where a donald trump rally is expected to get under way after the one that is taking place shortly in fountain hills. so as you know, we've been seeing these protesters blocking the traffic. how about there, what are you seeing, what are you expecting? >> reporter: really different scene. i'm listening to what we're playing, the sound ever the protesters banging the drums, listening to sheriff joe talking about the cars block the road. if you've been plooking the

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 protestors, mostly bernie sanders supporters. >> you want donald trump to know that his message is not welcome here? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> reporter: rallying, they say, again

>> jacob rascon, thank you very much. >>> for the democrats, a late result just in. bernie sanders has been declared the winner of the democratic caucuses in kansas tonight. the next a couple of weeks are critical for the democrats, as clinton tries to solidify her lead over sanders. beyond today's contests, they'll be competing tomorrow in maine's democratic caucuses and will hold their next debate tomorrow night in flint, michigan. kristen welker is there tonight and has our report. >> reporter: jose, good evening. senator sanders was looking for some new momentum tonight. he's got it with this win in kansas. the question is can he keep it going. bernie sanders fighting for a come back, today striking a note of determination. >> bernie, you think too big. your ideas are too grandiose. i don't think so. >> reporter: sanders could pull it off, already winning the kansas caucus, and hoping for a win in nebraska later tonight and maine tomorrow, states with large populations of white working class voters who favor his progressive message. >> well, if congress could bai

>> jacob rascon for us this morning. jacob, thanks. >> to the democrats now, where hillary clinton is looking to hold her considerable lead over bernie sanders in today's races. nbc's kristen welker is in detroit, michigan. kristen, good morning to you. >> reporter: craig, good morning to you. senator sanders is hoping to gain some momentum today. his aides tell me the states that vote today and in the coming weeks are actually more favorable to him. meanwhile, the clinton campaign downplaying expectations. team sanders says they think they have a good shot at winning kansas. they think that nebraska could be a close race. both states have more of the white, working-class voters that tend to favor sanders. louisiana and that could be part of her southern firewall with a large african-american population. meanwhile, clinton pressed again on her e-mails after her former staffer, bryan pagliano, struck an immunity deal with the fbi and told investigators her server was never hacked. here's clinton in an exclusive interview w

jacob rascon mentioned the polls. more than 30 points right now. as you look at the landscape, what do you expect? >> it's interesting. folks forget sometimes that arizona is the home of barry go goldwater and barry goldwater became such a prominent figure both in arizona and across the country because he stood for certain things that were very clear. you didn't need a lot of interpreting. you didn't need a lot of massaging to understand what it is that barry goldwater was saying. when you take a look at the republican race this year. you've got two candidates, ted cruz and donald trump, who have, in doing my math correctly, have won three quarters or more of all the delegates that have been picked so far. they've been racking up on average three quarters of the votes in the primaries and the caucuses, all across the country. and they're doing it because they're candidates that are actually saying things that, number one, people understand from day one, i don't have to like everything this candidate is saying but i'm very clear and understanding wh

we saw jacob rascon's shot earlier with certain protesters that gathered outside of aipac. coming up in the 5:00 hour, governor john kasich will be delivering an address to the crowd there and donald trump later in that hour. and we'll have that for you on "mtp daily." >>> coming up next, what does the cuban american community think about president obama's historic trip to cuba? we take you live to havana and outside the famous versailles restaurant in miami for much more on that. stay with us. >> this is a new day. es un nueva dia. between our two countries. levens come standard with an intelligent crash response system... hmm. ...seven stability-enhancing systems... hmmm... ...and equipment for two child seats. hmmm... for those who take safety seriously. like we do. the volkswagen safety in numbers event... is happening now! get a $1,250 volkswagen reward card and 0% apr on new 2016 passat models. i'm bushed! i've been on my feel alyea me too. excuse me...coming through! ride the gel wave of comfort with dr. scholls massaging gel insoles. they're proven to give you comfo

we go to jacob rascon who is at the arizona event. as some information for us as this protest blocking a main road has been developing over the last hour. and to you, jacob, on this. and from the pictures and video, the chopper com that we have, it looks fairly peaceful, although those who are on the road are probably saying this is not peaceful at all. >> reporter: right. you have several dozen protesters who have blocked this main road that leads to the trump event and they have been there for two hours now. and you have miles now of cars that have been stuck there, many of them trying to get to the trump protests, but others trying to get home or somewhere else. the protests have been very planned out. they planned to have three layers of cars. they planned to wait for deputies to tow their cars. and a few drivers even chained themselves to their doors to make it harder for the deputies to tow their cars. they had to bring out cable cutters to cut those cables and they have arrested the first driver so far and they're going to arres

>> jacob rascon for us this morning. jacob, thank you. >>> meanwhile, bernie sanders will try to gain momentum today nbc's kristen welker's in detroit, michigan, this morning kristen, good morning to you. to you. that's right, senator sanders looking for a comeback today. his aides tell me the states that vote today and in the coming weeks are actually more favorable to him. meanwhile, the clinton campaign downplaying expectations a bit. team sanders says he is looking strong in kansas. they also think nebraska could be a close race. that is an area, both states with a number of white, working-class voters who tend to favor senator sanders. clinton looks strong in louisiana, though. again, that could be part of her southern firewall with a large african-american population. meanwhile, clinton getting pressed again on her e-mails after her former staffer, bryan pagliano, struck an immunity deal with the fbi and told investigators her server was never hacked. here's what clinton told our cnbc's john harwood in an exclusive

jacob rascon is in tucson this morning. good morning. >> reporter: the front lines of the immigration debate, where donald trump and ted cruz spent a lot of time recently. that protester sucker punched and beaten while on the ground. he tells me his only thought was to protect his head and he says it was worth it. the anger is palpable. violence is seen now inevitable. scores of protesters at every donald trump rally. >> there is a disgusting guy, put the ku klux klan hat on. >> reporter: in tucson, one protester in a white hood led out behind another, brian sanders attacked by a man in the crowd, repeatedly punched and kicked. what is going through your mind? what was going through my mind was, put your arms over your head because this political movement has gotten to the point where you may get beat to death inside of a rally. i almost got my [ bleep ] kicked. i just got beat in the middle of a political rally in america, right. >> reporter: this is trump's campaign manager, looking more like a bouncer at the rally, grabb

that protesters spoke with jacob rascon. >> this political movement has gotten to the point where you may get beaten to death at a rally. i just got my [ bleep ] kicked. >> reporter: trump's campaign manager corey lewandowski grabbed another by the collar. trump defended him. >> police were a little bit lax and they had signs in that area. they were horrendous. >> reporter: last week a conservative reporter filed a police complaint accusing not been charged. he once took a break from politics to work as a new hampshire state police officer. >> it's very unusual, unprecedent for a campaign manager to be out in the crowd being involved in security. >> reporter: ted cruz campaigning in arizona. >> there is now only one campaign in a position to beat donald trump and win the republican nomination. >> reporter: polls show he trails trump there and leads in utah, getting some unlikely support getting so-called establishment. john kasich betting on a contested convention. >> lab. nobody's going to the convention with enough gel dell gats. in the end, you know why i can get picked? because i'

first of all, let's go to jacob rascon. trump, offering a lot of blame for the protesters that were marring a number of rallies and t t the protests. >> reporter: it didn't and it won't. donald trump is ahead in every state except ohio and even there, he's neck and neck with the governor who is hugely popular in the state. any reasonable mathematical chance at that magic number. if he can sweep tonight, ohio and florida and at least most of the other states. he can put himself above 700 delegates and then he will need in that case about 50% of the remaining delegates which is doable for him. he has suggested last night even if he loses, he will continue on and then how long does john kasich last? if he doesn't win ohio, will he drop out immediately? will this be then donald trump's race? will it become the two man race with him and cruz with him far ahe ahead. >> speaking of the republican party and what kind of support donald trump would have, were he the nominee, paul ryan, importantly, the speaker of house rejecting any

jacob rascon covering the trump campaign. what kind of night is donald trump expecting to have there, jacob? >> reporter: he's really confident about florida. we know that in part because last night instead of going to florida as planned, he went to ohio in which the polls have him a lot closer there. in florida, you can't watch tv without being bombarded by trump and anti-trump ads. in fact, the rubio and anti-trump movement spent $15 million on advertisements in the state compared to trump who spent about $2 million in the state. but the polls still have him within 20 points of the next runner-up. marco rubio not doing well in the polls at all. one features women saying actual quotes from donald trump about women that, of course, not very flattering and here's how he responded on "the today show." >> would you like to take back any of these comments you've made? >> let me just say about that. that was an ad put up by mitt romney's people. mitt romney is a sour guy. >> but to matt's question, would you take back these quotes?

>> jacob rascon, thanks. and jacob's right.hile we're not making too much of this protest movement, there's kind of some built-in hubbub that we expect at the top of donald trump's remarks. so knowing it's coming, perhaps, we will know what's going on if we see movement in the crowd. kasie hunt covers bernie sanders. bernie sanders spoke to a rally of about 7,000 in boise, idaho, where kasie is right now. and kasie, let's talk about the politics and the optics of today. a lot of folks who were active in politics a few decades ago, would be forgiven for associating the american israeli cause with perhaps democrats. to chris matthews' point earlier in the broadcast, the politics of it have shifted around the map. and now, with a rightward tilt in the movement, a lot of republicans are most closely associated with the cause being strong, pro-israel. we have a president who's had a rocky relationship with the israeli rimes. where does all of this leave bernie sanders? >> it's really interesting, brian, because as you know, bernie s

jacob rascon is with the trump campaign in hickory, north carolina, hallie jackson is in rockford, illinois, gabe gutierrez is in jacksonville. jacob, this weekend started it seems like such a long time ago now but on friday with ben carson endorsing donald trump and ben carson saying that donald trump maybe would show a new tone, a softer more gentler voice, if you will, on the campaign trail but that is not at all where we are now a couple days later. >> reporter: no, not at all. and the big question of course after each of the supposed donald trump controversies is what does the voter think and what will the voter do? since donald trump announced he was running for the presidency more than nine months ago the dozen or so times that his critics and others have said he is just done or said something that will be his undoing they have all proven to be wrong. so the safest prediction about what's going to happen now tomorrow is that it won't hurt him politically, but if you talk to the voters, those who have come, in fact, even today to his rally, many of them do say he could do without the

that protester, brian sanders, spoke with nbc's jacob rascone. >> because this political movement has gotten to the point where you may get beat to death inside of a rally. i just got my [ bleep ] kicked. >> reporter: it is this video raising even more questions. trump's campaign manager, appears to grab the collar of another protester yanked away by a member of trump's private security. today trump strongly defending him. >> security at the arena, the police were alittle bit lax. area that were horrendous. i will give him credit. >> reporter: last week, a reporter from breitbart, filed a complaint accusing him off salt. he has not been charged. the long time gop rop atiff took a break to work as a new hampshire state police officer. >> it is very unusual. unprecedented for a campaign manager to be out in the crowd being involved in security. >> ted cruz campaigning in arizona. >> there is now only one campaign in a position to beat donald trump and win the republican nomination. polls show he trails trump there but leads in utah getting unlikely support from the so-called establishme

we're joined by jacob rascon, he's following donald trump on the trail in north carolina, gabe gutierrezis with the rubio campaign in florida. jacob, we'll start with you. so donald trump he gets the two wins, it could have been a little bit worse for him in fact on saturday, he does get the two wins and he is now calling for marco rubio to get out of the race. what's the mood around the trump campaign this morning? >> three times during his victory speak he called for marco rubio to get out of the race. he's still ahead in every state out with a poll in most cases by double digits, for example, in am i where we have a new poll out they're voting tomorrow he's way ahead in the polls and he has yet to lose a primary where he was ahead in the polls, but as you mentioned the trump campaign may have reason to worry because as you pointed out in louisiana it was so close in the end and yet he was ahead by double digits in the polls previously. he talked a lot about florida had his victory speech, he is spending a lot of time there, he's putting money into that area. of course, ted cruz is as

behind him repeatedly punched and kicked by a man in the crowd, and that protester s ske with nbc's jacob rascon. >> this polical movement got to the point where you may get beat to death inside of a rally. i just got my [ bleep ] kicked. >> it's this video raising more questions, trump's campaign manager grabs the collar of another protesters, and trump strongly defending him. >> security at the arena, the police were a little bit lax and he had signs, they had signs up in that area that were horrendous. i will give him credit. >> last week a reporter from the consvative website bright bart filed a police complaint for assault. >> it's very unusual, unprecedented for a campaign manager to be out in the crowd >> ted cruz campaigning in arizona. >> there is now only one campaign in a position to beat donald trump and win the republican nomination. >>>> polls show he trailsrump there and leads in utah getting support from the so-called establishment. >> nobody is going to that convention with enough delegates and at the end, you know why i will get picked? because i can win in the fall. >> that wa

. >> later, nbc's jacob rascon found trump comparing hand sizes with an entertainment reporter. >>> and megyn kelly cordial, on stage, not so much. especially after going after trump's university. >> when they finally realized what a scamp it was they asked for their money back and you refused to give them their money back. >> i did give their money back, let me just -- >> if we nominate donald we're going to spend the spring and the summer with the republican nominee facing a fraud trial. >>> meanwhile, john kasich took the high road focusing on his accomplishments in ohio. >> so when we talk about all this, there's one person on this stage and one person who's been a candidate for president in either party that restored economic growth, a balanced budget, cut taxes, the things that people in this country want. reality. >> thank you, governor. >> online, trump beat everyone. midway through the debate 70% of twitter was about him and going the severance, beat one time by cruz and once each from kasich and rubio. this is not over. an exclusive interview only on "today." >>> and holding c

turning now to west palm beach and jacob rascon who is covering donald trump. let's go over the best case scenario for trump tonight. what happens if he wins ohio and florida? >> he could win ohio and florida. i mean, he's neck and neck with john kasich in one recent poll. john kasich is ahead by a few points in another poll. but he certainly could win. if that happens, it puts him over 700 delegates. in which case, he would need to win the remaining 53% of delegates to hit that magic number, which wouldn't come without effort, but it's doable. but the real big headline may be at that point, it becomes nearly impossible, essentially impossible, for anybody else to get to that magic number. ted cruz would need something like 80% and john kasich can't get there. could never really get there. and then marco rubio either. of course, remains to be seen if he'll go on even if he does not win florida. but essentially, he knocks out the competition. and he is the only person who can get to that magic number, jose. >> jacob rascon in west palm beach, thank you very much

we'll see, jose. >> jacob rascon, thank you very much. and we have breaking news from the supreme court this morning. i want to bring in nbc's justice correspondent, pete williams. >> first big 4-4 tie in an argued case. this is what a tie vote in the supreme court looks like. it says the judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court. that means the court was 4-4. this is a case, one of the bigger cases of the term. a challenge to public employee union dues requirements. challenger said people who did not want to join a public employee union should not have to pay any dues at all. right now, you pay part of the dues that go to the cost of collective bargaining, but the challengers said that would violate their free speech rights because just about anything is an issue of public importance. the court split 4-4. two things about that. number one, what does that mean inthe lower court ruling remains in place. that's the part about the judgment is affirmed. the unions won in the lower courts. so this means that victory for them stays. ther

jacob rascon was there when it went down. he joins us live this morning with the latest reaction. jacob. >> good morning. the protester's name is brian sanders. he tells me his only thought when it was happening was to protect his head. he feared for his life, but he said when it was all said and done, it was worth it. >> the anger is palpable. violence, it seemed, now inevitable. scores of protesters at every donald trump rally. >> there's a disgusting guy, puts a ku klux klan hat on. >> in tucson, one protester in a white hood led out behind another, brian sanders, who was attacked by a man in the crowd, repeatedly punched and kicked. >> what's going through your mind? >> protect your head. what was going through my mind was put your arms over your head. because this political movement has gotten to the point where you may get beat to death inside of a rally. i just got my [ bleep ] kicked, right? i just got beat in the middle of a political rally in america, right? >> this is trump's campaign manager, looked more like a bouncer at the rally, grabbing the collar of one protester.

i want to go now to tucson and nbc's jacob rascon, who's been with the trump campaign in arizona thisgive us a sense of what's the latest in terms of both the reaction to these protests, and what's happening today, jacob? >> ayman, good morning from arizona. the front lines of the immigration debate. it's where donald trump and ted cruz have spent a lot of time recently. that protester who was beat up here at the rally in tucson was sucker punched and beat while on the ground. the most violent incident we've seen yet at a donald trump rally. and he tells me his only thought was to protect his head, and he says, it was worth it. le. >> donald trump has got to go! >> reporter: the anger is palpable. violence it seeps, now inevitable. scores of protesters at every donald trump rally. >> there's a disgusting guy puts a ku klux klan hat on. >> reporter: in tucson one protester in a white hood led out behind another brian sanders who was attacked by a man in the crowd repeatedly punched and kicked. >> what's going through your mind? >> protect your head. what was going through my mind was p

nbc's jacob rascon is outside the site of trump's event today in de pere, wisconsin. about the video that we've been showing here, jacob. what if anything is trump campaign saying about this video and what do we know about the condition of the two girls? >> reporter: the campaign hasn't said anything about that video. here we are where this rally just wrapped up, we'll show you video of a protest unlike anything we never seen. it was very peaceful. it's a very different than this other video which we'll now show you. this was yesterday. trump protesters engaged the trump supporters. two people got into an argument. 15-year-old girl and older man. she accused him of touching her in the chest. she said he didn't. there was a lot of shouting. she threw a sort of slap at him, threw her arm at him. and then a different person, a man in a make america great again hat and glasses reached his hand forward and pepper sprayed this girl, this 15-year-old girl and she was carried away by police. another woman, a 19-year-old woman was also pepper sprayed. both of them were taken to

escorted out by police, and another one behind him repeatedly bunched and kicked by spoke with nbc's jacob rascon. >> you may get beat to death inside of a rally. >> but it's this video that is raising even more questions, trump's campaign manager appears to grab the collar of another protest who is yanked away by security. >> security at the arena, the police were a little lax and he had signs, they had signs up in thth area that were horrendous. i will give him credit. >> last week a reporter from the conservative website filed a police complaint accusing him of assault butt he has not been charged. the long time gop operative went to work as a new hampshire police officer. >> it's unprecedented for a campaign manager to be out in the crowd, being involved in security. >> ted cruz campaigning in arizona. >> there is now only one campaign in a position to beat republican nomination. >> polls show he trails trump there. john kasich betting onn a contested convention. >> nobody is going to that convention with enough delegates, and at the end, you know why i willget picked? because i can win in th

jacob rascon is live in orlando. explain what we're expecting to hear from trump and talk about the crowd because it was a different reception in wichita than what we might see here. >> reporter: right. donald trump will be here any moment, i'm told, and we haven't even seen trump yet and all of the pre-rally speakers have all talked about marco rubio. so a glimpse of what donald trump will talk about. each of the speakers, there were several of them, all railed against marco rubio and the crowd went wild. i've been talking to people in the crowd and the sense from them that i'm getting, some of them supported marco rubio for the senate seat. but they say that he made a lot of promises and went to washington and didn't accomplish what he said he would do. i talked to one family in particular, very interesting family, husband, wife, and their two children. this gives you a glimpse of some of the voters here. they say they supported marco rubio and were let down by him and weren't sure who they would vote for this time

joy. >> all right, thank you very much, jacob rascon in tucson, arizona.ring in my guest here with me in d.c., sabrina siddiqui, political reporter for the guardian, and from new york, john carlo peressutti, and raul ray ez. and sabrina, i'm going to start with you as the journalist on the panel. have you ever in terms of covering political campaigns seen anything like this? >> no, and i think what's really problematic for the republican party is donald trump has now routinely not just condoned violence at his rallies. he's encouraged it. he's call prd protesters to be roughed up. he's said he missed the good old days when protesters and demonstrators were carried out on stretchers. this is something we haven't seen in recent time and it's becoming a bigger problem for the republican party, also because party leaders are not wanting to get involved. you had mitch mcconnell say i spoke to donald trump and advised him it might be a good idea to condemn this violence. it is a good idea, and more problematic for them is donald trump does what he wants. they ca