we have two reports tonight beginning with jacob rascon in ft. wayne, indiana. hi, jacob. >> reporter: kate, good evening. donald trump is calling himself the presumptive nominee and he is well on his way but not without at least one more fight with ted cruz. a cruz aide tonight says he believes cruz is doing better in indiana than polling significant suggests. that would be crucial ted cruz' survival in this race may depend on it. when donald trump says the race is over if he wins indiana, he may be right. >> the two last ones are like hanging by their fingertips. they are choking. don't let me fall. don't let me fall. >> reporter: trump could get shutout at the hoosiers state and still secure the nomination. >> ted cruz! >> reporter: by his own admission, this is ted cruz' last stand, the texas senator's alamo. >> our country is at the edge of a cliff. >> reporter: already mathematically eliminated from securing the nomination out right, cruz and john kasich teamed up, a dirty deal critics say. >> insider politics and that's what the trump people don't like. >>

that's where we find jacob rascon. jacob, set the sacene for us. what's life like today? >> here we are about an hour beforehand, before this rally starts. it's a very small venue, 1,600 or people can fit inside. all the talk is cruz. they've already opened with an opening prayer, the pledge of allegiance, and the person who introduced and opened the event said these are the last days of ted cruz, let's close the door on ted cruz. that is the feeling, that is the talk of everybody, really our poll, the nbc poll has changed conversation. it's what everybody's talking about. they're excited, they think, for the end of cruz. that's how everybody we've talked to has seen it. and we'll talk to, we had a nice gentleman, fred. fred is going to talk to us. fred is actually from ohio. it's interesting, we've talked to a lot of folks who are not from here, who are driving here, because they weren't able to make it earlier to a rally. why? why go through that and why be politically active when you never have been before? >> well, we've done our fair share of voting in the past. we'v

nbc's jacob rascon has more on the protesters at the trump rally. jacob, why are the people there, what are they saying? >> so we're outside and the officers are now moving the line back away from the event. now, earlier, just moments ago, the protesters were up against the glass banging and trying to break it. then the officers came in and they started to move the line forward. then we got smoke canisters and you have rocks being thrown at the protesters. there are hundreds and hundreds of them. what you're seeing are some protesters who don't want to move back. we've seen a couple instances of officers who push the protesters that didn't want to move. and then you had rocks being thrown, as i said, and you had some of the smoke canisters that were going. it wasn't tear gas, but you had the smoke canisters going, and the entire time, there's a group of protesters, mostly made up of those who are angry. those are all of the chants and signs that thyou see. they vowed they wouldn't leave until they shut it down. and so far, they're still here. they're

joining me jacob rascon. we look at this report, and trump, will he, i guess the question is, will he pay himself back? >> reporter: and the answer is that he has until august to decide. so the deadline is not yet. what they are now, $36 million in donations, donations is the key word. donald trump has the option still, the bottom line he has the option to pay himself back and essentially not self-fund his campaign. the reason that's such a big deal if the option is open, is because it's been central to his message for so many months, that he is not controlled by any outside sources of money. no lobbyists, nothing, that he is totally in charge and in control of financing his campaign. so $36 million outstanding right now, he has until august to decide. donald trump himself told ari the last time he did reporting on this that he would in fact pay himself back that he would not take donations. so this new report about the "l.a. times" next week's fund-raiser saying the first $2700 would go toward the primary ca

saving humanity from high insurance rates. >>> let's go back to carmel, indiana and jacob rascon who art of our awaiting team for donald trump. jacob, give us a sense of who is at the mike right now, who is at the podium, and who's been warming them up for donald trump. >> reporter: it's the strangest thing, he just took the stage and didn't introduce himself. the person before him, one of trump's advisers said, i'm going to bring somebody very special on the stage and then he left and this person came up, he didn't introduce himself. i'm not sure who he is and i don't know that the crowd does. they didn't jump up and down and clap or do anything special when he came out. so i'm just waiting to hear his name, but he hasn't said it so far, chris. this is a crowd of -- this is an interesting venue, because usually the trump crowd is standi standi standing up. right now they're sitting. seats about 1,600 people, not an overwhelming crowd and not a lot of people waiting outside. >> let's go to jane now. when it "time" magazine, i know you're still a magazine, it's called "time," but not m

first to jacob rascon who's in carmel, indiana, with the trump campaign. trump says indiana can wrap this thing up for him. is he right? >> reporter: i think he's right really for the first time because he said that many times before. this is why an nbc news analysis shows that he could be shut out in indiana and he would still have a path to 1,237, that majority of delegates. the issue was that last week he won so big, bigger than anybody predicted, that he now has plenty of delegates. if he wins by double digits here, as our poll suggests that he might, he really -- it's a cake walk going forward for him to get to up wit1,237. here we are in front of our performing arts center. we have our ten or so folks in line. again, the rally doesn't start for seven hours now. we're going to come over here and talk to jason. jason, you're not from indiana, you're from missouri. in fact you're a delegate there. >> from jefferson county. >> but you've tried to go to a number of rallies and tried to get in and this is your shot. >> yes, it is. >> why is it so important

back with us from san diego, jacob rascon. what are you seeing now, jacob?> reporter: so now what we're seeing is officers on their bikes ready to move this way toward the last couple dozen protesters. we have moved around the corner from where we were before. there they are. and i'll switch around now and show you that on the other side we have swat teams ready to move forward as well. they gave their final warning more than 30 minutes ago, maybe even 45 minutes ago. they've been detaining people, they've been shooting their pepper spray balls, and this is the last group of people, though they just keep running every time the police come. one of my colleagues commented to me just moments ago, when is the last time you heard anything about donald trump? and it's true that in the last more than an hour, at least, there have been no chants about trump, it's all "f the police, f the police." that's not uncommon, we've seen that, that after the rally is done when the supporters leave, it becomes about the protesters versus police. it's not uncommon. we're seeing

jacob rascon outside trump tower in new york. jacob, this meeting continues to dominate the headlines, but we've also learned that donald trump insists he is not going to be releasing these tax returns until before the election. telling that to the associated press yesterday. what more can you tell us about that? >> reporter: so he's been back and forth on this tax issue saying all along that he wants to wait until the audit is finished. to chuck todd he said on sunday that he was hoping he'd like to do that before the election, but in this new interview, he says he doesn't believe it will happen before november and adding there's nothing to learn from them and he doesn't think voters are interested. so he's changing his tune, saying he doesn't believe there's anything there but all along saying he's not going to release his taxes until the audit is done. simply saying he doesn't believe the audit will be finished before november. we'll wait and see if that truly is the case. meanwhile talk about this meeting. we've now confirmed

let's start with our abc's jacob rascon who's camped outside. let's start with this idea of reconciliation, how is trump ruling the party now even though he said he's not going to back down from the muslims ban and from building the wall as well. >> reporter: from one hand you have a little bit change of tone from trump. he said he has done an amazing job. he has been finalizing it as well this morning. he would not do. you have him softer going after ted cruz instead of going after ted cruz, congratulating him and saying he's a heck of a competitor and not going after president george bush and hw mush aft bush after they said they would not be participating in the convention. this well showing a willingness to change on fundamental issues that he brought up on his tax plans and raising the minimum wage. asked about this morning how he would unify the party, here is what he said to cnbc. >> i mean if they don't want to, i don't think it matters. i learned yesterday a couple of people don't want to address me, it does not matter, it makes no diff

let's begin with jacob rascon in and indiana where donald trump will be. what have they been telling you, jacob? >> reporter: they have been telling me, we have talked to a lot of people from the head of state. you know a lot of the rallies, we have seen hundreds or thousands of people who don't get in. a lot of people who come here and we have been to as far as new york and missouri. this is a state where right now supporters are feeling confident. they know about the nbc's poll and everybody has been talking about it and up by 15 points. that would mean that ted cruz would not get out but to them it would be over. that's partly trump's line. if i win indiana, well, it trickles down to his supporters. if he wins in indiana, it is over. what do you guys think? the cruz-kasich alliance, has it backfired? >> absolutely. america is not tolerating i. we want to vote on who we want to vote for. >> reporter: in the state of indiana, his support has changed a little bit. have you felt it, what has it been like? >> it is as mixture. >> reporter: meaning that you ha

also, tangling with the new york time os on this tuesday, nbc's jacob rascon is outside trump's towerg with the idea of suing on the recent report on trump's treatments of women over the years. at this point, any idea how serious the campaign is about that? >> one of the attorneys was asked about that and specifically it is a lawsuit. she was misquoted and mischaracterized. that was followed by trump saying the article was a fraud and malicious. when press on the issue of the lawsuit, a different trump's attorney says the bar was too high and that'll not happen and calling for an apology for trump and the woman who said she was misquoted and need to do a retraction. said they are stanning fiding b their story. he one of the reporters who wrote this story and talking them on nbc. >> we spent an hur our with don trump and we gave him a lot of ink in the story to say his own side. he even on the phone said, listen, i want you guys to talk to some people who are working my organization. i got on the phone and talked to every single women that he suggested that we speak to so we included i

i hate to say that -- >> msnbc's jacob rascon is on the road talking to voters, what are they tellingter: out here in nebraska, they were not expecting he would be the nominee by now. we were talking a lot about the speaker running. we have one, very nice and excited supporter here for trump. what do you make of the speaker rival trump feud? >> i think he needs to get back on board. we all have to get on board. >> reporter: wait a minute, trump did not follow that during the primary season. >> i understand, nobody does in the primary season, it is all a different world. like you said, he has not even started to on federal yet. >> reporter: you want him to be able to do that. >> that debate should be the most watched television event in history. >> reporter: now before we were sfeeki speaking with some of the reporters here, i got a lot of things that you are not able to put on tv. this is just a general sense of how supporters feel and as we move forward, it will be very important of how they feel that the republican party is coming together. back to you. >> msnbc's jacob rascon, inte

jacob rascon is following it outside trump tower. it is getting more bizarre as it develops. what are you now hearing? >> reporter: so we asked the campaign specifically about this because the reporter talked to nbc news yesterday, we knew she had said this, that she had her own recording and didn't know of any other, except possibly donald trump, she knew she hadn't shared her recording. she suggested, speculated, it must have been trump. we asked the campaign about this. they didn't get back to us about this. the only thing the campaign said so far is that it was a bad impression of trump. trump on the "today" show yesterday denied all of it. here is what sue carswell, reporter for "people" magazine back then, told nbc news. >> there's no doubt in my mind he apologized to me, he made it clear he was the man on the tape. there's just no doubt in my mind. if i didn't give the tape to "the washington post," who did? >> you're saying -- >> i think trump is behind letting this out. >> why? >> why does donald trump do anything he does. >> reporter: very simply what happened in th

craig. >> jacob rascon in indiana, thank you.here is msnbc's political analyst and a former cruz's experience. let me start with you. what did he said there, he did seem someone on hinged at times. he called him arrogant and he said he was mean spirited and he went on -- you had a presidential front runner talking about his fill landering. it was bizarre to watch it unfold. had ted cruz not pull this stuff out six or seven months ago, do you think the trajectory of this race might be different? >> well, perhaps. it is an example of many voters see or concerned about when trump has absolutely no filter in terms of what he's saying out there. i mean this is a welcome back to reality tv and that has become our presidential race. and this just as more of the same. i think in terms of ted cruz' response. if he accused your father of being somehow connected to the assassination of john kennedy, if it was not a serious accusati accusation, you would laugh at it. ted cruz did exactly what anyone would do which is get angry on the attack

you saw she not for the hour, jacob rascon standing in front of a handful of people.california? no, lunchtime nobody shows up? >> i'm thinking lunchtime has something to do with it. costa mesa not too far from anaheim there was a big protest. i don't think trump is out of the woods with protesters yet. the one in albuquerque was in the evening where more people are off work and can show up. trump didn't get it in anaheim and probably a big relief to local law enforcement and others who don't want to see violence and clashes between people and the police, not a good scene or good for anybody. in the west coast where it is so diverse and the population is so so diverse, it's unlikely he will make it all the way through without encountering a few other prote protesters. >> there were some people obviously ejected from the event we've been watching. we couldn't see them because we only have one camera location we're allowed to be in for the record, we're not able to get to other parts of the arena to show you the crowd. that will do it for me this hour since we're approac

let's go outside the convention center to jacob rascon who is covering the protesters out there. jacob, what's the scene there? >> reporter: yeah, chris, probably more than a thousand protesters. right here, a group just showed up, a union, and as we walk over here, you'll see the crowd, we knew ahead of time, we would have four big organized groups here. we're just starting to see a lot of them show up as planned. they wanted to be peaceful. they wanted to come out, be organiz organized, have their signs, their usual chants and songs. so far, it has been peaceful, meaning there hasn't been any physical back and forth. we've seen a lot of yelling, a lot of chanting. we've seen some pushing between the protesters and others. and then we have that, sorry about that, chris. they bring a lot of props, a donald trump pinata, which they sell right now around san diego and elsewhere. we're still waiting on one organized group which we're going to -- were going to march. so far they're doing what they planned to do, to march, to chant, and no violence, physical, at least so far. >> that's

let's bring in nbc's jacob rascon for the latest on that store richlt jacob, trump denied it was him, saying it was not him, in fact. is this something the campaign is worried about because of the attention it's getting? >> reporter: amon, the campaign didn't respond to specific questions about the tape except to say the man on it gave a, quote, bad impersonation of mr. trump. the reporter who did the initial interview tells nbc news that a p person pretended to be the pub lift, acknowledged it and apologized for it. this is as trump is trying to unite the party and his surrogates are saying it's time to move on. the year was 1991, donald trump facing a barrage of negative press about his divorce when supposed spokesman john miller steps in. >> i'm sort of new here. >> reporter: a candid phone interview with "people" magazine boasting about trump's personality life. >> frankly he gets called by everybody, gets called by everybody in the book. >> reporter: the reporter is sue carswell who says trump later admitted it was a joke. >> there's no doubt in my mind that he apologized to me a

jacob rascon is outside trump tower here in new york. jacob, am i to understand that dr. carson is essentially going to be gauging the room and also gauging paul ryan's mood before trump goes in? >> reporter: that's the plan, craig. you'll remember that dr. ben carson was one of the first to come out and endorse trump. he dropped out in early march and several days later threw his full weight behind the candidate saying that he had buried the hatchet and it was time for unity. dr. ben carson made it his mission to be a unifier and peacemaker on donald trump's behalf. so it's not too surprising that he would want to help out in this meeting between ryan and trump. but in fact a source close to the trump campaign confirmed that dr. ben carson did this on his own. he wasn't requested to do this by the trump campaign. and now he wants to get in there and he wants to help, as he has. on our channels, on our shows and elsewhere on other cable channels to try to be a unifier and peacemaker. mr. trump himself said he has no idea what the meeting will be about and paul ryan says t

erica. >> nbc's jacob rascon on the trail for us. acob, thank you. >>> i want to bring in now msnbc political correspondent kasie hunt. kasie, as we're looking at all of this, of course if we go back to march 1st, paul ryan spoke out about supporting the nominee. let's play a little bit of that sound. >> i plan to support the nominee. i think i've said enough this morning about what's happening right now, but my plan is to support the nominee. >> so at this point could this be chalked up to simple semantics, the fact that donald trump is not officially yet the nominee? >> it could be, erica, but what a difference two months makes. march 1st the republican party was still kind of clinging to the possibility that there was going to be somebody other than donald trump who ended up the nominee. make no bones about it there are plenty of people in the republican party who were hoping that was going to be the case. speaker ryan's move here very significant, gives cover to any republicans who are uncomfortable with donald trump becoming the

our own jacob rascone is with us from the trump towers here in new york. jacob? >> reporter: how you doing? the latest on this controversy is simply this that he has talked about over and over and over a twitter 70,000 tweets about this john miller, this apparent fake publicist. he's a trending topic on facebook. in his book "the art of the deal" donald trump talks about how no press is really bad press because it gets people talking about you. although at the same time we've seen his unfavorability numbers simply skyrocket. on twitter people are making fun of the john millerics dent. it's hard to tell if it could possibly help the trump campaign. but if we look back over the last ten months you see repeated negative media coverage about a variety of topics, even this week from we have the white nationalist delegate in california, you had the butler, longtime butler talking about how he wanted to kill the president. you had the attacks flip-flop or the supposed flip-flop, the minimum wage back and forth and now this. it's always difficult to tell will this hurt o

>> jacob rascon, thank you. we appreciate it. nbc's steve patterson is about 400 miles north of san diego in fresno where the presumptive gop nominee will make his first appearance today. we've been talking about these protesters with jacob. we've seen them over the past few days. we've seen beefed up security. what is the scene there right now? what are you anticipating? >> the rule seems to be if you operate a city in the western half of the united states and donald trump is coming to your town, you better have a plan. that's what police are meeting about as we speak. so far broadly, about 80 patrol officers both in and out of the arena. responding to what we've already seen on social media. hundreds of people in at least two groups planning to come to the arena to protest here. now what we've seen on social media, obviously, fresno, not exactly the bluish part of california. not exactly one that's close to the border. but police do anticipate something. what we've seen on social media is a lot of people saying they're not cond

jacob rascon is here to give us the latest the vp talk. and kasie hunt to help us with the fine line republicans are treading as they deal with trump as their nominee. this question of the veep stakes. let's start with you on that. interesting, mary fallon, the governor of oklahoma seems open to it. john kasich who got out of the race yesterday, we're hearing a lot about that. who is on the list? who is not on the list? what do we know? >> governor fallon is one of the only ones who have said they're open to that. trump's staff is putting together a committee. ben carson is on that committee helping to choose. trump himself says most important is government experience, political experience, and he says chemistry and gives joe biden as a model when obama picked him. very interesting that he talks about chemistry, considering what he said today to cnbc about his 17 former rivals and aye chance that one of them would be his pick. take a listen. >> will it be from that group of people that also ran for president? >> well, i would say probably

but we begin with nbc's jacob rascon, who's outside trump tower in new york. jacob, good morning to you. give us some insight into how the trump campaign is planning their general election strategy. >> good morning, jose. trump is meeting with his staff this morning to finalize a fund-raising deal. this is after months of him calling fund-raising corrupt. he tells lester holt, he wants to raise $1 billion, a very steep challenge. his staff is also meeting to form a committee on picking a vice president. ben carson, a former rival, is on that committee. trump says he wants to pick a vice president before the convention in july. he says he wants chemistry with this person and someone who has government experience. and tells cnbc there's a 40% chance that the person he picks will be a former rival. this amid a backdrop of incredibly high unfavorability numbers. he told lester holt, he was asked about this, he told him that he's not too worried. take a listen. >> your negatives are staggering. disapproval, 69%. women, african-americans, 88%. latino, 79. people unde

jacob rascon traveling with the trump campaign in omaha, nebraska. jacob, good morning to you.t do we know about when and if ryan and trump might be getting together to mend fences? >> reporter: so trump himself says he thinks the meeting is next wednesday. reince priebus, the rnc chairman, says this was a meeting that was preplanned before the back and forth. but trump has branded himself for many months as a counter-puncher. as you just read there, he's going after the speaker. he's also had another tweet this morning in which he said paul ryan said i inherited something very special, the republican party. wrong. i didn't inherit it, i won it with millions of voters. then you have this morning trump surrogates saying things like, one of them this morning on cnn said that speaker ryan shouldn't bow the speaker if he's not going to get behind trump. then you had dr. ben carson on msnbc this morning. here's what he said. >> i was personally very disappointed to hear speaker ryan say that because we need to be thinking about unity. if we divide the party, we ensure the victory of

joining me now is nbc's jacob rascon from outside of trump tower midtown manhattan. jac jacob, good afternoon to you. both mr. trump and hillary clinton friday addressing a voting block they really need, didn't they? >> reporter: right. this is a group of hispanic voters. in fact, hispanic evangelical leaders who tend to vote republican, donald trump this year during the annual conference they have in california submitted three minutes of himself a pretaped video reaching out. this is the first time that we know of of donald trump reaching out to the latino community besides maybe that tweet he did about the taco bowls when he said he loved hispanics. but he's been criticized of course a lot over the last ten months about his comments, about illegal immigrants and building a wall and deporting them. so this was him reaching out in a pre-taped video message. hillary clinton then also pre-taped some comments. they're very different of course in style and in substance. here's a clip of what they said. >> national hispanic christian, three great words. we're going to take

jacob rascon, chris jansing and kristen welker all with me this morning. jacob, let me start with you. you're in san diego where trump has a rally set for later this afternoon. >> reporter: right. he'll be here later this afternoon and he has this election strategy he laid out yesterday which was new, which is very interesting because he talks about 15 states that he believes will be in play that aren't usually in play, including california, which of course hasn't voted republican in a presidential election for nearly 30 years. he talks about new york, he talks about pennsylvania, ohio, michigan. this is where he's going to be spending a lot of time. he said he may come here to california as many as 25 times. of course we'll see how that goes. our reporting suggests that his ground game in those and other states is not very strong right now. we've talked about his senior political director, rick wiley, earlier this week suddenly being let go so it's unclear how he will go about doing that. in other news you mentioned that debate that's been talked about in

jacquon jacque -- jacob rascon. what is going on there to make that paul ryan announcement happen yesterday. what it means going forward. jacob, in nebraska, so donald trump with a lot more to say this morning than just that response we talked about last night. >> right. and he repeatedly promised and vowed he was a unifier. he now has the chance of a lifetime to prove that. his latest tweet takes on something else speaker ryan said. he says speaker ryan said i inherited something very special, the republican party. wrong. i didn't inherit it. i won it with millions of voters. one of his main campaign messages or styles has always been that he's a counterpuncher and he's showing that even with speaker ryan. and this morning he admitted that even though he and speaker ryan have spoken on the phone several times that he was surprised by what happened yesterday. take a listen. >> i was really surprised by it, and it's fine. he can do whatever he wants to do. it's fine. i was surprised by it. many other people were surpr

jacob rascon is in new york city outside the former secretary of state henry kissinger's office where we're expecting a meeting with donald trump today, jacob. >> reporter: it's become almost a rite of passage to meet with the former secretary of state, an elder statesman in the republican party. the 92-year-old former diplomat having his offices behind me. we're told that the meeting will take place any time in the next few hours. nbc news has learned that kissinger and trump have spoken on the phone several times during the past few weeks but this will be the first face-to-face, something trump reached out and tried to coordinate this as he is trying to show that he can unify with the establishment wing of the party and show that he can step up to the challenge of a presidency. and this comes, of course, as some of the most controversial things trump has said are his foreign policy proposals or as he calls them now suggestions, starting points. of course the wall, the muslim ban and those things. he's also met last week with former secretary of state james baker as well again trying

jacob rascon in caramel, indiana. casey hunt, let's go to you in indianapolis. the numbers can be wrong sometimes. but it would take, really -- really a pretty much miracle right now for ted cruz with these kind of numbers to pull it out tomorrow. what is the -- where are the stop trump forces telling you about what tomorrow is going to bring and where they go after that, casey? >> reporter: steve, good morning. i will say, there are some people who believe that that poll number is a little bit wider than what we might see as the final margin. but there doesn't seem to be much of dispute that trump is definitely ahead here in indiana. that that pact between cruz and kasich may have back fired, and this could be the last full day of campaigning for the stop trump movement. now, of course, they are out in force here in indiana, club for growth, our principles pact, never trump, the last couple days. they're certainly trying their best, you talk to them on the phone, they say we're focused on california, a long-term strategy. this definitely is the overblown, the l

jacob rascon live at trump tower. let's go to luke russert who's on capitol hill. luke, it's interesting to hear paul ryan say he doesn't want to play this out in the media. however, he was the one who went on national television saying he wasn't ready to endorse donald trump without giving the trump campaign a heads up, thus playing it out in the media and choosing not to play it out privately. >> reporter: it's interesting you bring that up, tamron, because our own alex moe, producer extraordinaire, got some information on what went on inside the house gop conference meeting this morning. a sizeable number of paul ryan's fellow house republicans stood up and said, mr. speaker, we've got to be honest with you. we felt blindsided by what you did on tv last week, not going forward and endorsing donald trump or being comfortable with donald trump, and it's put us in a very difficult spot in our districts. another group of members stood up in that meeting and said, hey, you know what, paul ryan, we are so thankful for what you did. thank you for taking a stand. there

joined now from the site of the protest, msnbc's jacob rascone. katy was talking about attempts to keep trump supporters and protesters separated with mixed success. >> reporter: that effort has failed. where we are now you can see this police line. as katy said they gave a number of warnings about unlawful assembly. we've seep the police in full riot gear move in here on this side, on my left. then we're going to swing over and i'm going to show you how the other group of police officers not in full riot gear are right here moving in on this other side. the only real exit is this way. so a lot of the protesters are leaving. but you have mixed in, look, "make america great again" hats. at first the efforts seemed to be to separate the protesters from the trump supporters. but then it just failed. because some of the supporters went over to the protesters and vice verse. they started as katy talked about fighting and throwing things one to another. this started as a peaceful protest as they usually do. a lot of organizations took part, preparing fo

i want to bring in jacob rascon for the latest on the donald trump campaign, he is outside trump towerthe trail today. what can we expect as far as the campaign to responding to the controversy around that publicist story that he posed for now saying it wasn't him. >> reporter: the campaign has said responding that this is a bad impression they say of mr. trump. his surrogates are out telling everyone it's time to move on. the year was 1991, donald trump facing a barrage of negative press about his divorce when supposed spokesman john miller steps in. a candid phone interview with "people" magazine boasting about trump's personal life. >> get called by everybody. by everybody, women, and -- >> like who? >> reporter: the reporter says trump later admitted it was a joke. >> there is no doubt that he apologized to me and he made it clear that he was the man on the tape. there is just no doubt in my mind. >> reporter: the voice is instantly familiar. >> i can tell you this. >> i can tell you this. >> you understand that. >> reporter: john miller quickly became the top trending topic on twi

we'll start with jacob rascone. we talk about will donald trump try to project a different tone in the general election. last night, at least, we really did see that that was a subdued donald trump and just hours after tying ted cruz to all things, the kennedy assassination. he goes before the cameras and says positive things about ted cruz is that a sign of things to come from donald trump? >> yeah, you can call it if you want, the art of the deal campaign where if he believed he is in competition with somebody, he goes after them and he goes after them as hard as he can but as soon as it looks like he has won, he turns it around, he congratulated ted cruz twice last night. i can tell you that i was inside trump tower last night. team trump is so excited. i talked to donald trump junior, he seemed almost shocked and overwhelmed that looking back ten months to think that after walking down and announcing his presidency to such horrible ratings that he would be here, essentially, the nominee of the party according to

joining me from outside trump tower is jacob rascon. good to have you with me.ou can tell us about trump using campaign donations to pay himself back? >> reporter: so the deadline has not passed yet for him to convert these loans into donations. in essence to be paying for his own campaign like he's been saying all along that he's self-funding his campaign. the option is still there for him to actually fundraise like for example next week he has a big fund-raiser in california for him to fund raise and pay for the campaign with that money. and that is something that we've been reporting on, ari has come out with a report on that. and the "l.a. times" now has an invitation to that fund-raiser next week in l.a. that says that the first $2700 of the donations that the people who come will make will go toward the primary campaign. reached for comment, the campaign acknowledged or didn't dispute the veracity of this invitation and declined to comment further. only saying that mr. trump's position has not changed. so the campaign is saying that mr. trump will pay his

we've got nbc's jacob rascon in carmel, indiana, covering the trump campaign. jacob, let's start with you. we mentioned new comments this morning. donald trump, here he is, looking like he's coasting his way to a big win in indiana, and he goes after ted cruz. ted cruz's father. and the question of the jfk assassination. what's going on here? >> reporter: right. so this is another case of donald trump calling something that's controversial ridiculous, something, a conspiracy theory that's been floating around for a couple of weeks, but he's bringing attention to it. this is obviously not on accident. this is a strategy. he's bringing it up. this is somebody, donald trump who we'll remind our viewers began his political career as a birther talking about president obama and then he went on to talk about ted cruz in this way. but this morning what happened is this conspiracy theory floating around, a "national enquirer" story about ted cruz's father, rafael, being pictured allegedly with lee harvey oswald before the jfk assassination. here's what he said this morni

i'm joined by jacob rascon in the room. he was on and off his prepared remarks, it looked like. >> reporter: he was. he said the only way to save the second amendment was to elect him. now, before this started, when we had the nra leadership on the stage, a lot of those in the crowd weren't aware he was going to be endorsed and it was a surprise to a lot of people here. but it got a warm response. when donald trump took the stage, initially, not everybody stood up to clap but he got a warm reception. as he went and kept on going and kept praising the police offic r officers, promising to beat isis, talking about how he was going to make the military better and protect the second amendment, he got standing ovation after standing ovation and it started to feel a little bit like a trump rally. you saw him go off his prepared remarks, and talk about other things like trade. a lot of the speech was focused on hillary clinton. before trump took the stage, that was a lot of the focus as well. talking about how if hillary clinton w

. >> jacob rascon is in cleveland this afternoon. poli what are the big concerns for cleaver land right now? >> reporter: this press conference wrapped up of more than an hour of the city detailing this plan they had in place. they had been preparing for about a year and saying they have thousands of officers that they have $50 million grant from the federal government. we are prepared and we'll be prepa prepared. police department around the country have decided to send off and through the convention saying we are not true if cleveland prepares. look, we had ahundreds o f department around the country. now, the nba finals and other events to say they are used to hosting big event and of course, this convention will be massive. we are talking thousands of officers and i said about these protesters are supposed to come and expected to come. police chief says they are not going to have military style equipment or police rioting. they'll only see that if it is necessary. they also took questions about videos of what's actually going on

nbc's jacob rascon is outside of trump tower here in new york. jacob, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. as the polls show the race tightening, both look to define each other as an unacceptable alternative. and this morning they're reaching out to a demographic they both desperately need. >> i just want to thank everybody. we're going to be working very hard. >> reporter: it's a tough sell for donald trump, promising hispanic voters in a pretaped, ad-libbed video, i'm on your side. >> national hispanic christian, three great words. >> reporter: the mostly republican crowd not impressed. >> you're going to like president trump. [ laughter ] >> let's pray. [ laughter ] >> i've been a person of faith all my life, and -- >> reporter: hillary clinton's pitch more polished and direct. >> you know, we're hearing some divisive and dangerous rhetoric in this election. we have a candidate who wants to tear families apart. >> reporter: the front-runners are at war, trump tweeting about "crooked hillary" at all hours of the day, "zero imagination and le

we have jacob rascone for another report on the othath si of the protests. jacob, give us your summation of the evening. >> reporter: as hal lirkslie sa proteste erer erers dwindling. the officer or horseback have been trying to get ahead of protesters those who continue to walk and try to continue to protest. as we turn to the left, i don't know if you're able to see this or hear that, but the rest of the protesters are here behind this dumpster. they're knocking over dumpsters. some of the protesters told me they're going to go until the cops get tired. but notably, there are only about, i would say, 50, 60 of them compared to several hundred we had at the start of this. and again, it started with several groups of protesters who wanted to be peaceful, they said. they even had a big plan about how they were going to calm things down, but then it got out of control. they lost control and those who had come in and were more aggressive took over, started throwing things at police. now for a number of hours now, we've had this back and forth. it seems to be dwi

you talked with jacob rascon. he said on good morni"good morn america" this morning he doesn't think the voters really care about his taxes. every president, even nixon under audit released his taxes. why won't they release them to stop this conversation? >> i can tell you, not based on donald trump but other candidates i represented who have been asked for their taxes. they feel it is a tremendously invasive process. there is sort of a number natural reluctance to disclose that information. if any can get away with not disclosing his taxes, it's donald trump. there will be a media drumbeat and drumbeat from the democrats to release the taxes and that with other politicians has proven to be a tremendous distraction so eventually the taxes come out. >> lastly, you heard ari mellberg reporting at the top of the show, donald trump has given him a statement signed by donald trump saying the money he loaned the campaign will not need to be paid back to him, will be a contribution. how significant is that? >> only signi

jacob rascon is live in cleveland for us this morning. jacob, what should we expect today?ive overview they say of security preparations. not only the police chief, the head of fire, the head of ems and others. and they want really to get out in front of a lot of concerns that people have, of course having to do about the protests that we've seen at trump rallies across the country recently and the last couple of weeks we've seen them really heat up. now here in cleveland, several groups have applied for a permit to parade, is what they call it, but really to come here and protest one way or the other. a couple of those groups are pro trump groups and there has been concern around the country whether cleveland is prepared to receive the so many thousands of people expected to come, including those protesters and pro trump folks to make sure there are not violent clashes. there have been reports about police departments that have been asked to come and participate in the security preps here but have decided not to come after all because they are concerned about the city's pr

with that, our correspondents are working the latest on these campaigns, and we begin with nbc's jacob rascon, who's covering the trump campaign. jacob, as we heard there, trump talked about his possible vp picks, but in the interview with lester holt, he doubled down on what he would like to see happen in his first 100 days in office, and it includes that wall he claims he can build. >> he did. a lot of changes happening this morning. he's meeting with his staff to talk about and finalize a fund-raising deal. that is a big change. for months, trump talked about how corrupt the fund-raising system was. but he tells lester holt, he has a goal of $1 billion. and then he's talking about vp picks, his committee, his staff is now putting together a committee, which includes ben carson. he's talking about somebody, a 40% chance it's a former rival. he's looking for experience and chemistry. and of course, there hasn't been a lot of that wiz former rivals. and then he doubled down on his controversial campaign promises. here's what he told lester holt. >> as you try to appeal to the entire country,

jacob rascon has more on the protesters on the trump rally. >> officers are moving the line away from the event. now earlier, just moments tag protesters were up against the glass banging and trying to break it. then the officers came in and they started to move the line forward and then we got smoke canisters and then you had rocks being thrown at protesters. here are the protesters now, there are hundreds and hundreds of them. you're seeing protesters who don't want to move back and we've seen instants of the officers who pushed the protesters that didn't want to move. and then you had rocks being thrown as i said and you had some of the smoke canisters that were going. it wasn't tear gas but you had smoke canisters going. moist are angry about trump and immigration, those are the chants an signs we see. that is their core issue and they vowed before it started that they wouldn't leave until they shut it down and so far they're still here. >> what are the hands throughout with two fingers from both sides. what is that message from the demonstrators? >> so what you're looking at are

jacob rascon is amid some of the protesters outside the san diego convention center. this is very organized. and usually with organization comes peace, usually. what are you seeing? >> reporter: so that's how it usually starts. what we tend to see is if the protesters stay through the rally until the supporters are coming out, then we see a lot of clashes. let me take you around first, this is sort of the walk of shame. supporters walk by and you have people saying, bigotry this way, move along. then we have the ples presence, they're about everywhere we go. then i'll swing around and show you, chuck, we've talked about more people showing up, parades, people marching in and we just had a new one show up, off in the distance here, just about a few hundred feet away. waving the mexican flags over there. a lot of them. we're expecting there were hundreds of them. if you add it all up, you have probably around 2,000 protesters. there's been a lot of shouting back and forth, yelling, but so far, nothing physical. again, what we see, it tends to escalate and build. and as

jacob rascon is outside trump tower in new york today. jacob, this has been an issue that is sticking with the presidential candidate, potentially becoming the first major party nominee in almost four decades not to share his taxes. >> reporter: yeah, and this morning he talked about how, oh, many other presidents have also not released their taxes, but then, of course, it was pointed out not since 1976. since then every presidential candidate has released. now, he pointed out when pressed that he says he has no swiss bank accounts and no overseas bank accounts at all for that matter. he did say that he didn't think voters had a right to see his tax returns, but also added that he thought he'd be happy if they ended up coming out before the election, which would only happen, he said, if the audit was finished by that time. but it also got a little testy when he was asked for very specific answers. >> do you believe voters have a right to see your tax returns before they make a final decision? >> i don't think they do, but i do say this. i

we begin with nbc's jacob rascon who joins us live from trump tower. so jacob, the trump campaign now having a big meeting discussing financing for his campaign and also we have the new development that's being reported that corey lewandowski will lead the search for a vice president. >> reporter: right. this is a big week for the trump campaign and a very different week, even after last week he became the presumptive nominee. he kept up his schedule of rallies, but so far this week there's nothing public on the schedule except for that thursday meeting and behind the scenes, his team is using the time to transition and make preparations for the general election. they have made a number of hires, a number of additions to the team, including the financial chair. you have anthony scarlucio who's joining the team, another big name in finance. today behind the scenes in trump tower, "the washington post" is reporting that the rnc finance chairman is meeting with trump to finalize some of those preparations when it comes to money and fund-raising in the gene

i want to bring in nbc's jacob rascon. this controversy with donald trump pretending to be his own publicist during the taped interview with "people" magazine. he denies that voice is his on tape. any new reaction from the camp? >> reporter: no, they don't seem to be very worried about it and trump has denied all of it. on the trail, he likes to bring up decades-old controversies about hillary clinton. he seems to want this to go away. his surrogates are saying it's a distraction. this comes at a time when trump is busy trying to unite the party. here are the details about the controversy. the reporter who did the actual interview with "people" magazine says a man named john miller pretended to be trump's publicist, boasting about his personal life, especially about women. but trump later admitted he and miller were the same person, saying it was a bad joke and even apologizing about it. this might not be as much of a big deal it is if trump hadn't denied it all on the "today" show. the campaign says it's just a bad impres

and nbc's jacob rascon is outside of trump tower here in manhattan. what else did donald trump say? >> reporter: it was a big night for donald trump, big endorsement he got. now as the polls are showing the race tightening between him and clinton, they are both rushing to paint each other unacceptable alternative. last night they were reaching out in pretaped videos to a demographic they both desperately need. >> i just want to thank everybody. we're going to work hard. >> it's a tough sell for donald trump. promising hispanic voters in a pretaped video, i'm on your side. >> national hispanic christian, three great words. >> the mostly republican crowd not impressed. >> you're going to like president trump. >> let's pray. >> i've been a person of faith all my life. >> hillary clinton's pitch more polished and direct. >> you know, we're hearing some divisive and dangerous rhetoric in this election. we have a candidate who wants to tear families apart. >> the front-runners are at war, trump tweeting about crooked hillary at all hours of the day, zero imagination and less stamina, he s