mark preston matters a lot. ron brownstein, let me switch over to the democrats, if i can be so bold. and i want to tell you two things. when it comes to super pacs, apparently the anti trump super pac has now decided that it needs to retool how it tells its message. realizing that nothing has worked before. all the attacks haven't worked. and on the hillary side, hillary's super pac has decided that it's no longer going to bother wasting money, as they would consider it, on this primary race. but they did do this. they released a response to that ad that came out yesterday, that instagram ad that came out yesterday, courtesy of donald trump, that showed her barking and making fun of her. here is what the hillary super pac's response was. take a look. >> who are you consulting with consistently so that you're ready on day one? >> i'm speaking with myself, number one. because i have a very good brain, and i've said a lot of things. >> okay. so -- >> eight months, ashleigh. eight months of this. >> oh, god, please

mark preston is also there. istraction for donald trump or is he seizing this opportunity that it means he continues to get even more attention and it seems like his supporters are getting even more dialed up and excited? >> well, no doubt about it, fred, as these thousands of people are flowing out of this rally, donald trump is feeding off the energy of the crowd and, of course, we've seen what he said here earlier today. he was not backing down from what happened in chicago last night, not taking any responsibility for anything that was said or that he has said, perhaps, to incite some of the violence that has occurred. now, but as you see, what's happening here right now, thousands of people showed up here this morning here in dayton, ohio. they got here as early as 1:00 a.m. to get in line. they had to shut the line down because they were overcapacity and the fire marshal shut it which led to protesters and supporters co-mingling together on the outside right off of the tarmac. we saw some disruptions during

. >> cnn politics kpek editor mark preston and "washington post" chief correspondent dan bolls, so mark, yeah, trump says she's a unifier, he's going to bring the diverse forces together, can he really do that? >> not only is he a yuan feer, he's a get unifier. he needs to bring the party together, i spoke to more than half a dozen party elders last night. and this is their thinking right now. they are absolutely scared that donald trump is going to win this nomination. so there's all these things in motion right now, one is do they try to prevent him from getting the nomination in july in cleveland? do they try to prevent him from doing so? another thing they're talking about is running the third party candidacy, creating a safe haven for other republican candidates that are seeking house seats and seeking senate streets. a lot of them are talking about not even going to the convention if he becomes the nominee. so the establishment here in washington and across the country, petrified by donald trump. >> having said all that, david, and you've looked closely at the numbers, record turn

mark preston joins me, the executive editor of cnn politics. ink, mark, everybody wants to know, is there any presence of protesters in ohio a kin to what there were in chicago last night? >> reporter: well, michael, this is a very secure area we are right now. we're right next to the dayton international airport. as you said, unprecedented amount of police activity around here. this place is pretty locked down. having said that, there are thousands of people going inside this hanger right behind me who knows who is a mr. teprotester o is not. there is a level of support i haven't seen for donald trump in the past few weeks, certainly the past few months of seeing him on the campaign trail and a lot of that is probably based upon what we saw last night in chicago. these trump supporters, michael, are very frustrated by protesters that keep on interrupting these donald trump rallies. >> it's so interesting that you say that because it's a subject i'm about to pursue with other guests. mark preston, a bright bulb politically speaking, you think th

but listen to what mark preston just said. this is the rip van winkle's party whose leadership has finally woken up after donald trump was amassing votes. they're going to try to stop him. the very people donald trump is running against, they're going to say to his voters, change your mind. good luck with that. the leaders of a political party, the party of lincoln and reagan running another candidate in a general election? we may destroy our party. we may decide to break it because we don't want him to have it. if he wins it by the vote, i think they call that democracy, if he wins that, we're going to break it. it's extraordinary. >> or we'll have this convention where we basically make a deal and bring somebody else in or decide for ourselves no matter what people have voted. that's not going to go over well. >> there's no good scenario. even in the unlikely scenario you were able to deny donald trump the convention, the nomination of the convention. the chances of him running as a third party candidate would be very high a

thank you, mark preston. live from columbus, ohio. you see the stage right there.where candidates will take the stage in less than half an hour. jake tapper moderates. many questions from the voters themselves. last chance for these candidates it make their final pitch to ohio voters before they head to polls tuesday. quick break. we're back in a moment. pet moments are beautiful, unless you have allergies. then your eyes may see it differently. only flonase is approved to relieve both your itchy, watery eyes and congestion. no other nasal allergy spray can say that. complete allergy relief or incomplete. let your eyes decide. flonase changes everything. think you know t-mobile's coverage? think again! in the last year we've doubled our lte coverage. our new extended-range lte now reaches twice as far... ...and is 4 times better in buildings. see for yourself at t-mobile.com slash coverage. ♪ ♪ for your retirement, you want to celebrate the little things, because they're big to you. and that is why you invest. the best returns aren't just measured in dollars. td am

mark preston, if you could step in here for a moment. hearing that list of all of the complaints that mitt romney has about donald trump, and there are many people who agree with them. there are just as many who do not. i want to speak to the just as many who do not. is mitt romney completely tone deaf to the trump supporters who say, we don't care about your list. we don't care about all those things that you perfectly just had numbered in your spreadsheet. we care about the straight shooter who doesn't do things the way they have always been done, which is failing us. >> right. and ashleigh, a couple things here. one is mitt romney wasn't speaking to those voters when he took that lectern today. what he was speaking to were the voters on the edge, the ones who look at trump and say he's a fighter for the republican party, but they're not quite sure if they can vote for him. voters who are from the industrial midwest, such as ohio, illinois, missouri, even. indiana. states that have yet to vote, weigh in on this election. a couple thing

ryan young cnn. >> mark preston back with us now. rse what we've been talking about will loom large at the town hall tonight. but can bernie sanders do in ohio what he did in michigan? he is certainly hoping to. they are looking for delegates. why this is critical now is because he has talked to his whole entire campaign about this time in the campaign right now. they needed to get out of south because they did not have the support of african americans in the south but they thought when they got to the industrial mid west they would do well. ohio, illinois, missouri on tuesday. and of all of those states they some think missouri might be their best bet. >> in michigan there was the issue of the auto bail out. in which hillary clinton said he voted against it. his defense was he voted for the bail out on its own but against the larger bank bail out as he could called it. and i wondered about this reference yesterday about hillary clinton and healthcare. and where were you? and his response i was right behind you. >> and they were able

mark preston as well. mark, who is there in ohio, we'll continue to go to him as we wait for mr. trump to get closer and we get our first glimpse of him since the rally that was canceled last night. >> yeah, this one scheduled to start 13 minutes ago, but donald trump has tweeted that he is on his way to this hangar in vandalia, right outside of dayton. let's try phil mattingly one more time. i think we fixed his audio problem. he's there inside the hangar with the thousands of people. phil, we know that many of these people have been waiting for hours now inside the hangar, hours more outside in line. what's the mood there as they wait for mr. trump's arrival? >> reporter: it's actually pretty jovial here, victor. and i think one thing that you're recognizing is trump supporters are just extraordinarily excited to see donald trump in person. that's why some of them have been in line or have been waiting for this event, victor, for ten hours. i do think, though, in the group that i've talked to, the number that i've talked to throughout the morning, there's a little bit of trepid

sure for this event everything goes smoothly. >> so just moments ago, maybe about an hour ago, mark preston, phil mattingly both at that event there in van dale yardali where there was disruption where donald trump was speaking. phil, anything more about what happened? what was that security scare? >> definitely a scare. one out of character for the rest of the event which was largely calm in comparison to other trump events. what we know now is the man who rushed the stage has been arrested. a law enforcement source says he will be charged with disorderly conduct at some point later today. what you saw was the secret service do what the secret service bust best. if you watch the video, trump very startled and bounced back, gave a thumb's up, thanked the audience for what he said gave him a warnin about the man rushing from behind him and said he would have taken it himself but it was easier to let the cops do it for him. the man who did attempt to rush the stage was arrested he will be charged later today but for right now just a momentary scare, the secret service doing their job and dona

and according to mark preston here with us at cnn he is reporting that mitt romney is not entering the race. let's be clear. but more than likely, this republican party elder will be trying to set in on what he sees as the right course moving forward looking ahead obviously to november. romney's speech is expected to be another glaring example of how donald trump's shocking durability and dominance has led to the republican party being at crossroads. do republicans support a nominee they feel certain will do not just the -- their white house bid, but the very party itself? or do they keep fighting? what trump's voters keep showing them is a losing battle. i want you to hear from former presidential candidate senator lindy graham talking with manu raju. >> if trump gets the nomination, would you support him. >> well, ask me that after the convention. >> so meaning you are not making a statement one way or another on sit in. >> just ask me that after the convention. if he wins the republican nomination i'll have to reconsider that. but i don't think he is going to be a republican. >> let

she's talking about the enthusiasm factor, mark preston.thusiastic than the hillary clinton supporters are about her. >> if you look at the most recent cnn/orc poll, the problem with that is that we are in the month of march right now. we are not in the month of november. we've also seen donald trump being able to rally an incredible amount of support to his candidacy, even though his detractors say 65% of his republicans are not backing him. however, 65% of democrats will probably back him. they have to be careful not to take trump support for granted. there is something within his message as some people find it vulgar. there is something that is connecting with voters and there is a strain of anger right now in the american electorate that wants to see some change here in washington, carol. >> mark lamont hill, when hillary is giving her victory speech last night, she talked about love and kindness. >> right now she wants to look presidential and look above the fray. the democrats are talking about who has the biggest hands in such and as

mark preston, to you. who do you think does better in this format, the town hall format? i prefer them to debates because you get to know much more personal things about the candidates and get to see hem directly answer the voter questions. >> in these town halls came at a moment in time in the campaign where they really did fit into the dialogue of what was happening. we'd seen them debate several times and knew where they were in their positions. we saw where the flash points were. the town halls allows us to see how they'd play to an audience about these attacks that they have, bernie sanders on trade, hillary clinton on the auto bailout, but they don't have the opponent next to them so they feel a little bit more free wheeling. my favorite part of the town halls when you get into the personal questions and ask them things that they normally don't get asked at during an interview or certainly during a debate. you ask about their family, you ask about religion and really kind of get a peek inside their soul in some ways, which i really find fascinating to look. voters v

i believe you'll see folks coming out who are voting for donald trump. >> cnn's mark preston outside t this hangar where the trump plane will pull up close to 10:00 eastern. that will be the first event of three for donald trump today. mark, thank you so much. >>> let's take you back a few days to when dozens of students were kicked out of a trump rally in georgia. it was the valdosta area a few weeks ago. >> reporter: the front runner did not remove them, didn't order them to be removed. those involved don't agree with that. we're going to talk with two of those students who were there in just a bit. >> plus, we're one day away from the cnn dej caratic town hall in columbus, ohio. hillary clinton is today apologizing for praising nancy reagan for one specific reason. the why the comment she made about the former first lady is causing backlash. hey how's it going, hotcakes? hotcakes. this place has hotcakes. so why aren't they selling like hotcakes? with comcast business internet and wifi pro, they could be. just add a customized message to your wifi pro splash page and you'll reach y

mark preston is live for us at the site of tonight's town hall. also with us, washington correspondent for the new yorker, ryan lizza and jeff zeleny on the trail with bernie sanders. jeff, let me begin with you. when you look at this, sanders is in the middle of this face-off, who would have thought frankly a face-off with donald trump right now both of them going at each other on the state of the union, republican front-runner placing the blame squarely on sanders supporters for the violence and the uprisings we have seen at the present protests tweeted this morning. sanders is lying when he says, they aren't told to good to my events, careful bernie or my supporters will good to yours. jeff zeleny, what now? >> poppy, this campaign hasn't followed any of the conventional lines. this is another example here. we have sort after cross party cross talk here going on. but we are at a rally on the campus of the ohio state university. you can see behind me here hundreds of students and other supporters of bernie sanders are on hand. he will take the s

this party does not prey on people's prejudices. >> joining us now, mark preston, cnn politics executive editor, also joining us, commentator, ryan lizza. speaker getting involved in this latest uproar involving trump. >> you know, not that surprised. i would be surprised if paul ryan didn't speak out about this. he is watching the likely nominee of his party fail to defend the klu klux klan. i mean, i think he is as shocked -- excuse me, failed to respond to jake tapper. he was as shocked as everyone else that trump whiffed that obviously opportunity to condemn one of the worst domestic terrorist organizations in american history, and so look, paul ryan, for a long time, has been on the side of the republican party that wants to reach out to the core demographic of whites in the party that wants to do better with hispanic voters, political advice for republican candidates han been the opposite of where trump has taken this campaign. it does show if donald trump is the nominee of the party and president, you're going to see quite a -- and paul ryan remains the speaker of the house, you'r

. >> why, then, mark preston, if they are putting out this memo, why don't they just say, bernie sandersop out? >> because if you do that, you will alienate the base that bernie sanders has been able to energize. he has all of these young voters. he has women voters. he has white voters who have flocked to his candidacy. if hillary clinton looks like she's going to be a bully and try to get bernie sanders out of the race, that could hurt her. what they will say, they would like bernie sanders not to make this personal, not to talk about some of the controversial scandals that we've seen hillary clinton immersed in or certainly republicans are trying to push upon them. if bernie sanders is going to stay in, then talk about the issues. but worst-case scenario, bernie sanders is able to push hillary clinton farther to the left as he's successfully done. best case for bernie sanders he is that he win the democratic nomination. >> mark preston, great to have you with us. thank you so much. >>> hillary clinton and bernie sanders will duke it out once again on the debate stage in the cnn democr

we've got with cnn politics executive editor mark preston joining us now from national harbor, maryland, the site of cpac, the final day. so, front-runners hillary clinton, donald trump. we heard from silas lee that they're expected to do well in louisiana, but are there any potential surprises here? what will you be looking for today? >> well, i'll tell you what, let's just talk about the democratic side right now. this could potentially be a good weekend for bernie sanders, and the reason being is that we're talking about caucuses, we're talking about grassroots voters. we're not talking about primaries. and for our viewers, what that means is, can bernie sanders get the grassroots to come out and caucus on his behalf? it's a different way of voting. it's not something that is traditional here -- well, it is traditional in some ways, but it is not the traditional way of voting that most of us know. so, we could potentially see him do very well in kansas and in nebraska today, and we could see bernie sanders do well in maine tomorrow, all caucus states. and as we said, we don't expect

joining us to discuss is mark preston. et to on this issue of bernie sanders meeting with jesse jackson, and this meeting coming up. he is gaining, if you look at michigan, especially, he is gaining more support among african american voters. that's something that jeff weaver was happy to highlight, but hillary clinton is winning by 30 points and above. do you think he can make up the gap and make a difference ahead of tuesday's votes? >> reporter: well, he's trying to. his message is trying to resonate with younger black voters. they always knew they were going to do poorly in the south. they knew hillary clinton who is well known within the african american community, her husband, back in 1992 was called the first black american president. hillary clinton clearly has the edge, but for bernie sanders, they see an opening to chip away at that. as they look to their path to the democratic nomination, they see different parts of it getting together. they're trying to chip away at her lead, and as we head into the midwest, a l

mark preston, is donald trump right if he wins next week in ohio and florida, it's over?vin said it correctly. he needs 54%, 55% of the delegates moving forward. it would be hard to stop him. that's why right now the republican establishment and even social conservatives are coming together to try to figure out how do you stop donald trump. but again, he won last night in michigan and mississippi and shows he can win in the west and northeast. listen, if he goes in and wins ohio and florida next week, that's going to be very tough to stop him. >> going to be very tough indeed. five contests including north carolina, missouri, illinois. it's not out of the realm of possibility, trump could do a complete sweep. >> the thing you have to remember is the effect this has on the electorate in the states after, for example if he wins florida or ohio. there is potentially a certain level of resignation by even those opposed to donald trump that my guy can't win ohio or florida. at a certain point we have to socialize ourselves with the fact donald trump could be the nominee. then

let's talk about the latest and what's happening on the republican side and bring in mark preston. rt, first, good morning to you, mark, with the consequences for donald trump skipping cpac. are there any quantifiable consequences like we saw out of iowa when he skipped that last debate? >> you know, victor, given the state of the race and that donald trump is on such a roll, i'm not sure this is going to have any effect at all. the fact of the matter is he's gone to kansas as manu was saying. he is trying to mine votes. had this been a year ago perhaps the narrative would have been drawn that donald trump wasn't a conservative or trying to get the conservative vote, but at this point we've clearly seen with the numbers he's been able to draw out in states down in the south as well out in the west and, of course, up in the northeast, that, in fact, he is the prohippive front-runner at this point and it's going to take a lot from ted cruz or for marco rubio to try to knock him off from that position. >> all right. so let's talk about ted cruz in this aggressive plan, the strategy to

cnn politics executive editor mark preston and cnn's chief political correspondent dana bash.ampaign manager made it clear, you hit trump, he'll slug you right back. >> i think the most interesting thing mitt romney said today in that very long critique is he questioned donald trump's temperament and stability, specifically when you're talking about being the commander in chief, code word, i say, wolf, for the ability to control the nuclear arsenal here in the united states. he said a lot of nasty things, but -- or hard things about donald trump but i think that was the hardest. >> he said, mitt romney, watch how he responds to my speech today. we're about to watch to see how he responds. you know donald trump, first of all, mitt romney, that was an amazing speech, you got to admit. >> extraordinary. look, this is a moment in political history. whether or not it will have any effect at all, whether it's the effect that mitt romney wants or maybe have the opposite effect and actually rally more people out there who are disgusted with the republican establishment, we don't know.

i want to go to cnn's mark preston, he's our cnn politics executive editor. mark, why can't we make a projection in michigan so far based on these actual numbers? >> well, wolf, even though we see a big lead right now on the board for donald trump, there's three key reasons why we're not calling this race at this point. the first one is we do not know the level of absentee ballots that were cast in this election. what does this mean? if you go back to 2012, 27% of all ballots in that presidential election were cast by absentee. we don't know what that number is, and of course, there's been a lot of talk that donald trump might have hit a wall over the past week or so. so we need to see what that percentage is. in addition to that, we're still looking for more data, more vote out of two key counties. one of them being up in kent county. that is the grand rapids area, as well as ft. -- excuse me, wayne county which is the detroit area. so right now, we're looking for data from two key areas of the state. we also need to find out who the absentee ballot scenario

. >> you don't think they should -- right now cnn politics executive editor mark preston and our chief political corporate dana bash. mark, it's not often we hear the trump campaign say something along the lines of what we heard be katrina pierson, he misspoke, he didn't mean to say what he said about punishing women who have illegal abortions here in the united states. that's pretty unusual. >> it is pretty unusual. he had a tough time telling anderson cooper the last time he remembers apologizing to anyone. it's an even bigger issue. right now let's talk about right track wrong track, if you were to look at a cnn poll back in december, he had a 59% approval rating overall. if you go even deeper into that, he has lost 20 points among republican women, so that's a problem even before he made these comments. >> even this latest poll that was taken before this. >> and the general electorate, if he does become the republican nominee, right now three-quarters of women have an unfavorable view of him. obviously that is changeable and anything can happen. but there are lots of sort of aspect

executive editor mark preston. cnn senior reporter nia-malika henderson. also, republican consultant margaret hoover. and cnn political commentator, former reagan white house political director, jeffrey lured. mark, explain the wins by ted cruz, mark. especially in maine. not necessarily supposed to win m maine, right? >> he certainly wasn't supposed to win in maine. what makes it interesting is that when donald trump had a string of wins through iowa and down south, he did well. and people said out west he had a geographical grip on the country. now, at a time when there is talk about consolidating behind one candidate and establishment wanted marco rubio and marco rubio really faultered yesterday. he did terrible. and you can lift him a little bit and you have to wonder if that's enough. >> he did win puerto rico massively winning puerto rico today. margaret trump calls for rubio to get out of the race. so what is rubio's argument after a rather poor showing on super saturday? >> look, wolfing with the one thing we always have to keep in mind is that roug

cnn's executive editor mark preston. >> the man who hates to smile. >> oh look at that he's smiling thisves. >> mark, are we overselling it? is today make or break or does everyone hang in until next tuesday. >> it is make are ow break in the sense that it is going to be the lead in to march 15th for republicans. right now you have ted cruz who seems to be surging. marco rubio who is ebbing a little. donald trump is flat lining a little. and john kasich is trying to hold on for dear life. as we're going into tonight john kasich needs to do very well in michigan. in many ways his campaign is going to be staked on the mid west. that if he does well could kick him into his home state of ohio. 66 delegates next week in ohio. he needs to do well. winner take all. marco rubio is getting a bit of a boost from romney. mitt romney is encouraging votes for marco rubio. but the twist on this is he's also saying you should vote for others as well. mitt romney is not endorsing marco rubio but he's saying anyone but trump. and looking at donald trump right now. donald trump still has the wind at his b

joining me now to talk more about this and more mark preston, good morning. >> good morning.certainly have got into the gutter of american politics with donald trump and ted cruz. but let's talk about the numbers right now. the delegate tolds at this point. as you said there was a split. donald trump picked up 58 delegates by winning the state of arizona. ted cruz picked up 40 by winning the state of utah. overall now you need 1,237 dlgts to win the republican nomination. right now donald trump has 741, he is in the lead. ted cruz has 461 delegates. now carol, another big bit of news for ted cruz this morning. he received the endorsement of jeb bush, the former florida governor, bush as you recall left the race about thirty days ago because hoyis campaign was unable to pick up traction. he described ted cruz as the principled conservative. but listen this biting remark about trump. we must move to overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity has brought into the political arena or we'll certainly lose our chance. so yet another establishment republican lining up behind ted cruz as

we have ron brownstein with us and mark preston. good to have you guys. ome insight, intel on what we will hear in terms of endorsements. >> big news coming out shortly. jeb bush will be endorsing ted ted cruz this morning. jeb bush who just got out of the race about a month ago will be getting behind ted cruz. another sign now, chris, that the establishment is trying to line up behind ted cruz to try to derail donald trump's runs for the nomination. the question is will it be a little bit too late at this point? >> romney, cr/cruz that was fir. now bush/cruz, i thought he didn't want the establishment types on his side. i thought he was against that. how does this play? >> for him this plays in a way that he needs. he needs as much support that he can get. every delegate counts. every little support counts. ted cruz who is fighting an uphill battle against trump who had a big night in arizona, you have to do what you have to do. having jeb bush on your side may not be a bad thing. >> i want to put up the primaries calendar for the gop. you tell me what yo

our chief political analyst gloria borger is here, mark preston is with me. as well is our cnn senior political commentator, former obama senior adviser david axelrod. mark, he always boasts, doesn't need anyone else's money. won't be beholded to k street, special interest, big money. if he gets the nomination, he could change that. >> quite a story by sara today to actually get this out there at a time when the wind seems to be at his back and a big fight between donald trump and the republican establishment. but let's not be surprised by this. david will remember this. go back to 2012. $1.4 billion was spent between mitt romney and barack obama. obama had spent $737 million. mitt romney $483 million. if donald trump is such a great businessman as he tells us over and over again, a great businessman would rather have somebody else pay for his campaign than pay for it himself. but he'd be very smart to take that money from the rnc or raise money and put it into the united states senate and pay for the campaign himself. >> what do you think of all of this, glor

we've got our team of correspondents covering the story but we're going to begin with mark preston.out ted cruz. his surge seems to be the story this morning and it is not just that he won two of the contests but his wins were thumpings. the trump wins were much narrower than expected. >> it was. trump's performance at the debate last week, did that hurt him? and i don't think we can really make the conclusion yet at this point. these with contests ted cruz won that donald trump wasn't necessarily expected to do super well in. but donald trump is still very far ahead in the delegates. we're heading into that curable three weeks right now now. >> marco rubio has been hitting trump hard and consistently but it doesn't seem to manifest in wins. in fact he didn't take delegates home in two of the four states. >> so if you go back, chris christie went hard after donald trump and marco rubio in particular. and he ended up falling on the sword and losing. and i think marco rubio took a gamble by going out and really becoming the attack dog on donald trump and ted cruz sat back in many ways

if i tell you that person it will be a disservice to that person. [ laughter ] >> oh, mark preston.he's probably right about that, actually. >> yeah no doubt, carol. i spent many years covering bernie sanders on capitol hill and i never knew he had some humor but over the past couple of months we've learned he does have some very dry humor. when it comes to the election and nomination for the democratic party right now obviously there is a lot on the line as you said. 147 delegates at stake up in michigan on the democratic side tonight and at that town hall bernie sanders, hillary clinton both had tough questions. one of them came out of a question that was asked at the scene and town hall regarding race. bernie sanders was criticized for his answer. this is what he had to say about it. . >> i talk about poverty all of the time. what i meant by that is that in african american communities off people living in desperation, often being abused by white police officers. that is a bad thing. and that has got to change and that's why i'm fighting to reform a broken criminal justice system

. >> let's get more with executive editor mark preston.we also have the host of smerconish, michael smerconish, jeffrey toobin and national political reporter, rebecca berg. this is sort of a new thing where we're seeing where donald trump is embracing these incidents. some of these are even violent incidents but he's saying this is part of the fun of campaigning. >> he is. last night he was asked about this in the debate and he said he doesn't condone any sort of violence, of course, but he also didn't really take responsibility for what's happening at his own rallies. we should note that this is really the only place where there is violence breaking out, where we're having these protests. ted cruz's rallies, marco rubio, all these other candidates not having these problems. donald trump will say he has bigger crowds, but his rhetoric has a very defined us versus them quality to it, bad protesters who don't like america versus good american who say support donald trump, and so there is certainly an argument to be made for him fueling this

joining us our cnn anchor don lemon, cnn politics executive editor mark preston and ron brownstein. lantic. mark, listen to trump last night advocating waterboarding. >> what do you think of waterboarding? i said it's fine and if we want to go stronger, i'd go stronger, too. because frankly, that's the way i feel. can you imagine -- can you imagine these people, these animals over in the middle east that chop off heads sitting around talking and seeing that we're having a hard problem with waterboarding? we should go for waterboarding, and we should go tougher than waterboarding. >> mark, and then since then, only a few hours later, he reverses himself. issues a statement. i understand the united states is bound by laws and treaties and i will not order our military or other officials to violate those laws and will seek their advice on such matters. i'll not order a military officer to disobey the law. i will be bound by laws just like all americans, and i will meet those responsibilities. pretty major reversal for donald trump right now, isn't it? >> is it the growing up of konld tr

. >> let's go to mark preston our political editor to talk about the delegate count. mark, walk us through where we are right now, who is going to get what? >> you know we've heard all the candidates come out tonight and they've expressed success, but it really does come down to a game of math. let's look on the republican side, 595 delegates at stake tonight. let's look at where donald trump has landed right now. he has 148 delegates followed by 65 for ted cruz and 37 for marco rubio. when you add those all together and you look at donald trump, you're looking at about 230 delegates for donald trump, 82 for ted cruz, 53 for marco rubio. you need 1,237 to secure the republican presidential nomination. we still have about 232 delegates to award tonight. let's talk about the democrats right now. hillary clinton right now has amassed 296 delegates tonight in her victories across the country followed by 183 for bernie sanders. now, when you add all those numbers together, at this point hillary clinton has 855 delegates to bernie sanders 269. let me explain that very quickl

phil mattingly and mark preston were there at that hanger earlier as well and describing there were other disruption, there were some protesters, some who simply got noisy and were escorted out but as far as we no, no other incidents but you just saw that moment right there, something apparently thrown. we don't know what. and you see his security very quickly getting to his side to protect him for the unknown. let's bring in reporters phil mattingly following the trump campaign and jeff zeleny talking with trump protesters last night in chicago. phil, there were a few disruptions, if there's a good way of putting it. there were people who were escorted out. what do we know about the moment of what appeared to be something thrown at donald trump. >> reporter: there was a jarring moment. it wasn't just something that might have been thrown at him. there was actually a person that headed towards the stage, rushed towards donald trump that's when you saw secret service collapsed around donald trump as they're trained to do. kind of a jarring moment for somebody who covered the white house or

joining me is mark preston. during last night's republican debate here on cnn, you'll remember, donald trump was asked about the recent violence at his campaign events. he said he doesn't condone it but seemed to justify it to some degree claiming the protesters themselves are looking for trouble. let's have a listen. >> we have had some violent people as protesters. they are not just people saying -- these are people that punch. these are people that violent people and the particular one, where i said, that i'd like to bang him. that was a very vicious -- a guy swinging, very loud and started to swing at the audience. and the audience swung back. i thought it was very, very appropriate. >>. >> a man attending the trump rally has been charged with assault for punching a protester we learning of an arrest outside of a trump rally. we will stay on that. details unclear. did trump give a straight answer on whether he in effect sees this violence at his statements. >> he gave an answer you would expect from donald t

. >> mark preston, thank you so much. appreciate it. >>> after the break, a nation divided? >> do we really want to live in a country where everybody hates each other? where everybody is at each other's throat? >> after all of the insults and jabs, is a unified country a reality this cycle? we'll discuss, next. is it becoming a better professor by being a more adventurous student? is it one day giving your daughter the opportunity she deserves? is it finally witnessing all the artistic wonders of the natural world? whatever your definition of success is, helping you pursue it, is ours. t-i-a-a. think you know t-mobile's coverage? think again! in the last year we've doubled our lte coverage. our new extended-range lte now reaches twice as far... ...and is 4 times better in buildings. see for yourself at t-mobile.com slash coverage. try align for a non-stop,ive sweet-treat-goodness hold-onto-your-tiara, kind-of-day. live 24/7 with 24/7 digestive support. try align, the undisputed #1 ge recommended probiotic. >>> two days away from super tuesday on the democratic side. five sta

i want to bring in mark preston.k about the republicans, the all important delegate count, where does it stand? >> you need 1237 delegates to secure the nomination. let's look at where we are tonight. donald trump picked up 58 delegates, ted cruz 43 john kasich 16 and marco rubio has failed to pick up a delegate. let's look at the numbers year to date in this hunt for delegates. trump has 447, ted cruz 346, marco rubio 154, john kasich 53. let's look at the democrats right now. big win for bernie sanders up in michigan, but does it really change the tide of where we stand? not necessarily. right now as we speak hillary clinton has won 84 delegates tonight. bernie sanders has won 67. year to date right now hillary clinton has won 1,234, bernie sanders has won 567. just to put an as risk on those numbers that includes pledged delegates and also the super delegat delegates, the governors and senators who have pledged their support to hillary clinton or bernie sanders. >> good report. thanks for that. what does it say th

our mark preston studies such things for cnn. >> sure. absolutely can happen. >> reporter: how?tep one, a week before the convention begins in cleveland in july, a republican committee will meet and political pundits already expect they will get rid of a rule requiring any candidate to win at least eight states to be nominated. that opens the door wide, not only to current contenders but to others as well. >> anybody can be brought in at that point. anybody. somebody who is not -- >> it would certainly have to be a republican. >> but somebody who has not been campaigning at all. one name that keeps coming sup paul ryan, although he's said he has no interest in it. could be jeb bush. could be newt gingrich. >> reporter: step two, convince someone like that to play peacemaker at a convention in chaos. and step three, take another vote. if the new arrival hits the magic number, that person is the nominee. it's just that simple. or maybe not. franklin roosevelt emerged from a contested convention in 1932. he led the voting going in but had to face off stiff competition. >> the motio

mark preston is joining us now, scottie nel hughes, and a trump supporter, and kevin chariton, and kerry sheffield. thank you for joining me. mark,y ho mark, cruz said a brokered convention is a pipe dream of the washington establishment. if they try to steal the nomination, that would be a disaster. that's coming from senator ted cruz, but then john kasich just said this morning this thing is going all the way to the convention. >> right. and if you look at the mathematics, there's a possibility this could go all the way to the convention into cleveland in july. how that happens, kate, is if donald trump is not able to win florida and ohio on march 15th, those two states in particular, because there are 99 delegates on the table, 66 in ohio. a huge number of delegates. whoever wins the states collects all of them. up until march 15th, these states are divided, depending on how you do with the vote. so if donald trump is unable to do that, then there is a chance that could happen. >> a whole lot can happen before then. the last 24 hours is just an example of that. scottie, one of many th

cnn tonight host don lemon, one of the questioners, mark preston, executive editor of cnn politics and washington, david gregory, former moderator of "meet the press." for a while ted cruz underestimated by some segments of the media, it's been about marco rubio and expectation that rubio will be the establishment choice and he'll come through in the end, no matter what happens with donald trump after the super tuesday wins by cruz and super saturday, is that over? can he no longer be underestimated by political talking heads. >> certainly. but some due to his own fault. the self-inflicted wounds of the dirty tricks that he played in iowa, and then onward into south carolina. his campaign is very disciplined, but they put the train off the trabs a little bit. they have seem to get it back on the tracks. one thing about ted cruz is interesting. as much as he feels he is being attacked by the mainstream media or not taken seriously he does do a lot of news conferences and willing to take questions and you don't see that often from candidates, certainly those running for president. >> let

. >> thanks, mark preston. the politics executive editor for cnn. and, wolf blitzer, so far donald trump five contests we've projected will be in his bank. hillary clinton six. sanders and cruz two apiece. >> including their respective home states of texas and vermont as well. i want to go over to john king, who is taking a closer look at a lot of what we're trying to understand what happened tonight, obviously very successful night so far for donald trump, very successful for hillary clinton. but not completely unsuccessful for ted cruz. he wins his second and third state. >> look, if -- we're waiting on alaska and waiting on minnesota. let's look at minnesota. we're at 79%. marco rubio at 37%. it looks very good for him. alts complicated system, which is why we haven't called it. but it looks like the possibility. marco rubio could get his first win in minnesota. as we count the votes, ted cruz has three, as he noted, winning texas and oklahoma tonight after starting the season in iowa. donald trump says that's great, you guys got a combined 4 but

let's go to cnn's executive editor mark preston to give us the rundown on the numerical count. >> it does come down to the mathematics of it all. need 1,237 to win the nomination. let's look at these tonight. gop delegates won tonight so far donald trump has won 108. as you can see, john kasich with the big win in ohio picked up 66. up to date up to the time we are right now, let's take a look how many delegates we are in this race. donald trump 571. ted cruz 371. marco rubio who has suspended his campaign tonight, 165. and john kasich with that big win in ohio tonight, 129. let's take a look at the democrats tonight. hillary clinton with some big wins. she has gotten 120 delegates tonight to bernie sanders' 56 delegates. let's look at the delegate race to date right now. look at that number right now. hillary clinton, 1,364 delegates. bernie sanders with 630. however, let me break this down a little bit. look at those numbers right there. hillary clinton has 892 pledged delegates. bernie sanders has 607. if you look at the number below, 472 superdelegates have pledged to support hil

david gregory, mark preston and sara murray. mark preston, i start with you. we had heard this was linked to a new strategy. what did you see last night? >> i think if you are a republican and you're watching that stage, you are looking at john kasich and saying, wow, this is the only grownup here. for someone who has not had great debate performance as of late, this is said about ted cruz. i think cruz was fair live effecti effective. >> i have no problem. >> he's relishing. >> i would never -- you could have bet me anything you wanted that nobody would ever talk about this in a presidential race and i would be paying out the rest of my life. >> do you realize you're probably the first person in american history to make a joke about your you know what. >> i only made a joke about my hands. aren't they beautiful? i have powerful hands and relatively large hands. and a politician said i didn't have large hands. it's the first time anyone has ever south side that one. i think it was a good moment. >> mrs. trump, what did you think of that moment? >> it was a gre

gloria borger, senior editor of the atlantic, ron brownstein and our cnn politics executive editor mark preston say republicans are evaluating how they can distance themselves from trump right now. what are you hearing? >> a couple of things. you have a superpac that is willing to spend millions to try to take out donald trump as we head into the summer, assuming he's the nominee. we're also hearing a republican strategists are looking at ways to derail his candidacy. one way they're looking at is how do you deny him the requisite number of delegates to become the nominee? you'd do that by trying to keep the current field intact and to keep this motoring along through the summer. the other thing they're talking about is they're talking about running a third party candidate. mitt romney's name has come up for this, but i've been told by a mitt romney associate that in no way would he do so but you'd do this in order to give a safe haven for house and senate candidates who are running as republicans but are afraid of being too close to trump if he's nuclear. >> the establishment republicans as th

with us now jeffrey toobin, rebecca berg, mark preston. let's talk about politics first, mark.ald trump had a very big night last night. we're waiting for missouri, we still haven't received missouri yet, right? >> right. >> still too close to call. but he won almost everything else except ohio. does he have this virtually locked up right now? >> in many ways if you have money and you're forced to make a bet, then you want to put your money on donald trump. however, john kasich's win last night in ohio was very significant in the fact that donald trump wasn't able to get a big cache of delegates. now, the question is moving forward can john kasich and can ted cruz nibble enough away at the edges to prevent donald trump from steam rolling and getting to the requisite 1,230 some delegates remains to be seen. but donald trump clearly had a great night last night as he's had great nights the past few weeks. >> do you think this is going to go to a contested convention, jeffrey toobin? >> if i could just question a little bit of the premise of your question, you know, we don't even

cupp, mark preston and our political commentator ana navarro. mark, he's got 678 delegates.we say right now he needs 1237. how likely is it that trump reaches that number by the time of the convention? >> listen, he has about a 55% chance of doing it, i guess. that it could possibly happen. look, a lot has to do with his rhetoric over the next few weeks heading into the next few contests. he has got to be a uniter. he needs to get the establishment behind him. if he's capable of doing that, he'll have an easier road. if not, we are heading to a contested convention. as you were talking with sean spicer earlier, there are going to be riots outside and it is going to be ugly. >> is there a credible path for ted cruz to reach 1237. >> i think it's extremely difficult at best for him to do so. for him his best play is to play it out, himself try to get the establishment behind him and try to win it on the second ballot. >> gloria, you've been doing a lot of reporting on this meeting under way in washington, these anti-trump faith conservative leaders as they are being called. th

executive editor mark preston, political analyst ron brownstein, and rebecca berg, a national political ryan lizza, a washington correspondent for the new yorker magazine. who seems to come in tonight, mark, among these four republican candidates with the most confidence? >> no doubt about it it's ted cruz. he picked up some victories over this past week. some of them were surprising. and the fact is he's making the argument that he is the true alternative to donald trump. marco rubio has been the most disappointing candidate up to this point. and john kasich is hanging on by a thread. confidencewise, ted cruz coming in. let's not discount donald trump. he believes if he comes in and is able to win florida and ohio on tuesday, he thinks it's over. >> i'm -- i think cruz is also, and the remarkable thing about this race is, donald trump who is a plurality front-runner. this point in 2008 john mccain was moving up. mitt romney toward 45%. donald trump is staying around 35%. that's a share of the total vote. out of all the votes cast so far, 45%. he's not taking that next leap into near ha