lou: joining us now, political reporter for real clear politics, rebecca berg, great to have you withhow host on wor, mark simone, great to have you here. rebecca, fbn, the most recent poll, cruz with another ten-point lead, what do you make of it? >> well, it's shaping up to be fertile territory for ted cruz in wisconsin, and i think we're seeing a few things happening here, lou, first of all anti-trump forces starting to have an opportunity to coalesce around ted cruz and john kasich. what we've seen for example in this "marquette university poll" in wisconsin they had a poll that showed donald trump at 30%. the poll this week showing him still at 30%, and the 31% in february who supported candidates who are no longer in the race, divided now between ted cruz and john kasich. anti-trump forces are coalescing and seen the results of a series of missteps for donald trump this week. looks like that is starting to chip away at his support there. lou: one of the missteps that rebecca is referring to as the abortion comment he made yesterday. the campaign immediately corrected it, and i w

you are on with rebecca berg.ler: i have a question for you. .onald trump is so far winning basically all the primaries, so what happens now? is the republican party going to oust him if he does not get so many votes as they do not like him and how that [indiscernible] the only question here really is whether donald trump can get to it 1237 delegates before the convention in cleveland. it is a pretty simple argument really. if donald trump can get to the delicate number before the convention, surrounded by june 7 he has thene 7, nomination. the republican party cannot do anything to take it away from him. the chairman of the republican national committee has amplified that message, trying to reassure the party that the system is not raped and that if donald trump wins the nomination outright, there's nothing the party can do. there is also the question of what happens if donald trump falls short of that number? no matter how close he is to the coincidenceit is no that donald trump has emphasized that he wants to w

let's bring in rebecca berg. rnc says there's no story here with this numbers thing. >> well, it's not a story in the sense of a concrete threshold that donald trump would need to met. 1237 is the number for any candidate before cleveland. what this number represents is sort of the idea of what happens if you come close. and there are enough unbound delegates in the process, 112 of them and there are enough delegates to get on the second ballot just for momentum. if you get close to the number, the magic number of 1237, there is thinking among many republicans that donald trump would be able to ultimately lock up the nomination. but with those unbound delegates, i would just caution that locking them up prior to cleveland is going to take some level of organization that really donald trump's campaign hasn't really exhibiting to this point. >> it's interesting, because we -- my rebels, i love the rebels, you know, they played alabama and they came close to beating them and came very, very close. and after they cam

joining me now is rebecca berg. welcome to you. when we see donald trump mocking what it means to be presidential mere days after his top official said this is all an act. where is the truth? >> well, they're playing to different audiences, aren't they, alex? so donald trump was speaking to a rally of his supporters who have rallied behind him in part because he is so unlike the politicians they're used to seeing. meanwhile, paul manafort, one of his top campaign aides if not the top campaign aide at this point was speaking to the republican party national committee. so the party brokers in part could end up deciding who the nominee is if this goes to an open convention. they're making different sales here to different audiences. so it kind of goes back to the remarks donald trump and ben carson made weeks ago in florida when ben carson first endorsed donald trump. they said there are really two donald trumps out there. and donald trump acknowledged that. he said, yeah, there kind of are. there's my public persona and my private pe

we brought in tammy bruce, van hipp, christopher and rebecca berg. pennsylvania, the big prize.onald trump is make serious promises. i just want to let the people know. they lost over 3,000 manufacturing jobs since 1994, 35% of them, of workforce. of course coal was big there. steel was big there. donald trump saying he'll bring it back. >> yes, when you look at polling in pennsylvania, donald trump has a clear advantage in this state. in no small part because of the problems in the state that you mentioned in his policies that he has laid out on those. but what we have to remember about pennsylvania, of course, is most of the delegates from the state, that's what matters most at this stage are unbound, so they're not tied to the results of the vote, that's why we see ted cruz spending a lot of time in pennsylvania in spite of the fact he likely won't win the popular vote. he's good at rang ling delegates to his cause, making sure delegates are friendly to him on a first or second ballot. in this case, first ballot vote crucial to stopping trump and forcing open convention, that

. >>> as the presidential campaign moves on to new york state, let's bring in rebecca berg, national political reporter for real clear politics, cnn political commentator and democratic strategist, hilary rosen. cnn political commentator s.e. cupp and our senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin. guys, thanks very much. s.e. take a look at this new monmouth university poll. new york state republicans, it's a closed republican contest in new york, 13 days from today. trump is at 52%, kasich second place 25%, cruz third place 17%. that 52% number is significant because in new york state, if you get more than 50%, it's winner-take-all, that's all 95 delegates. >> right. >> if trump can hold on to that lead. are you surprised he's doing that well in his home state? >> yes and no. donald trump has a very uncomfortable relationship with new yorkers in new york city. that sounds insignificant but it's really half the population of the state is in new york city. you know, he's not beloved there. but he is, i think, doing very well in those rural, manufacturing counties upstate, out west, up nort

rebecca berg on what she makes of that. you fight fire with fire. he is paying good money to make sure he has the best of that fire. >> he is. we are watching donald trump's campaign turn into something closer to a traditional presidential campaign that it has been prior to that. that's actually the goal of paul manafort who has stepped in sort of as donald trump's campaign manager. technically, his role is his convention manager, delegate hunter. he has some experience in these fields specifically. reports say that he is now running the campaign. manafort is bringing on people that are more traditional republican campaign operatives, rick wylie, who led scott walker's campaign and a number of others who are coming in recent days. it is a serious effort by donald trump not only to mature as a presidential candidate and his campaign but to prepare for what's going to be a tough convention fight if it comes to that. >> i find the most interesting of the hires had to be william mcginley, a former council on the republican rules committee in stopping th

let's bring in rebecca berg, from realquickpolitics.com. thanks, rebecca. >> thanks, shep. how are you? big day. >> yeah. we spoke yesterday, saying wouldn't it be interesting if they had a how did that whole new york values comment by ted cruz affect people's votes? we didn't get that exact question but look at what we did get. who will you not vote for no matter what, republicans sf who will you simply not vote, new york republicans? not for cruz, 41%. that's new york values right there, isn't it? kind of wrapped up with a bow on top. new york values, right? >> it is. i mean, ted cruz was never going to do well in a state like new york, shep, but his advisers hoped a few weeks ago that at least he would pick up a couple of delegates, and he couldn't even do that. it was really a rout for ted cruz. not a good night. and really that poll shows me also how divided the republican party is right now and potentially is going to be going into the general election. this is a huge problem that republicans are going to have to grapple with. how do you unite this divided party? divi

rebecca berg joins us, real clear politics of i want to bring your attention to something bernie sanders "about this being inevitably hillary clinton's --

with very rebecca berg, "real clear politics" and dan hen henninger is back as well. rebecca, my favorite response was scott walker's, to hear his name uttered by trump as possible vp was sort of breathtaking. even in the realm of politics, you had to wonder as he was lobbing those molotov cocktails at his opponents, how would he later say they could possibly be potential veeps. is it all politics or what do you think, rebecca? >> just the way donald trump operates. certainly when attacking these rivals of his or former rivals he wasn't thinking about them as potential running mates. it is possible he is only just started thinking about them as potential running mates. i think the common denominator with all three of these men they would be legitimatizing running mates for donald trump. he will look someone who makes him look more like a serious politician. someone who has more credibility among what we would consider establishment republicans or republicans who have been around the party, who have served in office. so he will probably be looking for a lawmaker but the

julie pace covers the white house and campaign for the associated press, laura ingraham, he hand rebecca berg real clear politics. donald trump has been complaining for weeks about the delegate rules in some states. i felt this week he started to make an interesting pitch saying the fact that cruz is beating him on the rules, somehow shows that cruz isn't the outsider he says he is, in fact, he's an insider. is that going to work to sort of say the failure of planning by the trump campaign really is a mark against ted cruz? >> i think both sides are playing the cards that are probably the smartest cards for them to play. i mean, you can make the case against what trump is saying. if you want to beat the establishment, if you want to win the presidency, you have to know the rules. yet, you have o get in there. you have to have your delegates in california. 53 districts there. you have to present your own slate of delegates in each district. it looks like there cruz is really doing the groundwork. same time, i think it's smart for trum top say, why are these people rallying around tud cruz if i

rebecca berg is a reporter for real clear politics.com. just got harder, didn't it? >> it got a lot harder for trump. he has been focused on winning this campaign before the convention's shut. they realize when they get there, those delegates are not necessarily going to be trump supporters. they don't have the organization of someone like ted cruz to be going around to all these states, picking up delegates who on the second ballot will necessarily support them. and they don't have the institutional advantage of having been part of the republican framework for many years. and so they're trying to win this flat out. but after last night, it does get much more difficult for them. >> and here's something else that just happened. i read today in politico that donald trump's big campaign apparatus within the big general election states to come, the ones that would swoop up delegates for him, sounds like they're disappearing, if you believe politico. >> right. so there's turmoil within the trump campaign. i guess you could call it growing pains for them. because they buil

rebecca berg joins us, real clear politics of i want to bring your attention to something bernie sanders said on the be view "about this being inevitably hillary clinton's -- he posited a little differently and what he can do as a result. listen to this. >> she regrets a lot of things, and i think -- i don't mean -- i don't mean to be sarcastic, we all make mistakes, but i regret less than she does because i have the courage to vote the right way even when it was not necessarily popular. >> what he is talking about is he took back a little back the idea she wasn't qualified to be president, but that he still made questions that her prior decisions and views on everything from the war and -- is part of a pattern of bad ideas, bad times, and that it's a collective sort of series of these that makes you question whether she should be in the white house. did that threat the needle enough or what? >> well, certainly. this has been one of his fundamental arguments in the election, that hillary clinton is calculate, that she doesn't have any strongly held beliefs of her own, and one of the thin

. >> rebecca berg, josh barro, thanks so much. >>> my conversation with author and talk show host tavisp and his connection to black voters. that's ahead. at ally bank, no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like bill splitting equals nitpicking. but i only had a salad. it was a buffalo chicken salad. salad. whyto learn, right?e? so you can get a good job and you're not working for peanuts. well what if i told you that peanuts can work for you? while you guys are busy napping, peanuts are delivering 7 grams of protein and 6 essential nutrients right to your mouth. you ever see a peanut take a day off? no. peanuts don't even get casual khaki fridays. because peanuts take their job seriously. so unless you want a life of skimming wifi off the neighbors, you'll harness the hardworking power of the peanut. (cheering) i accept i do a shorter i set these days.22. i even accept i have a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem. but i won't play anything less than my best. so if there's something better than warfarin, i'

. >> rebecca berg from realclearpolitics.com. thanks so much. who'd have thought the hoosier state would be the center of the political world? but it is. and who would have thought that it would have been necessary for one of the front-runners, not the front-runner but the guy who's second, to pick his nominee for vice president in april? who would have thought it would have been necessary at this point? well, we're about 42 minutes away, we're told, from that big announcement from ted cruz. fox news of course will have live coverage. neil cavuto will have analysis afterward. what does it mean in the big picture in if you're all in for donald trump, what does this pick do against your man? and if you've been all about ted cruz the whole time, what good might carly fiorina do to try to stop trump and get him to a contested convention, where ted cruz might have a shot at the nomination? it's certainly a hail mary from indianapolis all the way to sacramento, but sometimes the hail mary pass is caught. also, the former virginia governor bob mcdonnel

the white house and the campaign for the associated press, laura ingrham, editor of life zat and rebecca bergura, trump has been complaining for weeks, and we heard some more today from his campaign manager about the delegate rules in some states. but i felt this week he started to make an interesting pivot saying the fact that cruz is beating him on the rules somehow shows that cruz isn't the outsider he says he is. in fact, he is an insider. is that going to work to sort of say that a failure of planning by the trump campaign really is a mark against ted cruz? >> well, i think both sides are playing the cards that are probably the smartest cards for them to play. you can make the case against what trump is saying. if you want to beat the establishment, if you want to win the presidency, you have to know the rules. you have to get in there. you have to have a slate for delegates, like california, 53 district there's. you to present your own slate of delegates in each district. there cruz is really doing the work, the groundwork. at the same time i think it's smart for trump to say well, why

"real clear politics" reporter rebecca berg. do you think he, donald trump, secure this thing by the time they get to the convention? >> you know, neil, as you pointed out, the unbound delegates are going to be critical in answering that question. so it could be that he is within 100 or so delegates going into cleveland, short of locking up the nomination as many projections are showing now but those delegates will be in play. my thinking looking how the delegate selection has gone thus far, including for some of the unbound delegates, trump will be short going into a contested convention, an open convention and as a result of those unbound delegates, not being able to sway them ultimately. really it is hard to predict at this point because we've never seen what would happen in that scenario which would be essentially an extension of the primary process for the six weeks in between the end of the primariry, leading up to the convention. it would be an amazing lobbying effort for those few delegates to really sway the way the nom

rebecca berg, that sounds like a contested convention there. >> this is why the clinton camp and hillarylinton herself want to resolve the primary prior to the convention. it is so vital for them that bernie sanders get out of the race. that he doesn't have any sort of viable path to the nomination, why carry out the fight into the convention? she needs the convention to bring the party together, unify the democrats for the general election and ideally would want to start that pivot right now but bernie sanders is holding on. neil: i do not see any scenario in which bernie sanders is they are right, i should pull out. he has won 7 of the last 8 contests, some by big margins of is a little closer. he would argue i am mister momentum. by the way i stand a very good chance of preventing her from locking this up when we get to philadelphia. you say what? >> i agree with you. what we hear all the time now the refrain is momentum, bernie sanders's team has momentum, hillary clinton's campaign arguing the math is on her side. bernie sanders's campaign is holding on to the hope that the superdel

joining us, sara murray, cnn politics executive editor mark preston, peter beinart and rebecca berg,tical reporter for real clear politics. you heard paul manafort say that, yes, corey lewandowski is the campaign manager, but he, manafort, reports directly to donald trump. >> i think that's an important message that he's sending to washington insiders that he's in control of trying to get donald trump to 1,237 delegates that's needed to win the nomination. paul manafort well known within republican circles. very known here in washington, d.c. had he looked subservient to lewandowski, i don't think that would make him effective. >> rebecca, you wrote an article saying these other republican senators are very reluctant to get in there and endorse ted cruz. he's got two, maybe three supporters so far that have publicly said they'll support him. what's the problem here? >> so reluctant is maybe a generous word to use in this case. they all genuinely deeply dislike ted cruz. even with trump surging and on his way to potentially winning the republican nomination or being in a strong positi

. >>> right now joining us, ana navarro, rebecca berg, the national political reporter at real clearolitics. our senior political analyst, ron brownstein. he's a senior editor at "the atlantic." and cnn political director david chalian. ron brownstein, donald trump clearly blasting the rnc right now saying in an interview with the hill newspaper that the process, in his words, is a disgrace for the party and that the rnc chairman, reince priebus, quote, should be ashamed of himself. but he's still the front-runner. how unusual is it for a republican presidential front-runner at this point to be saying that the system is rigged? >> it is as unusual as many other things about the donald trump campaign, which is to say unprecedented. look, i think there's a lot of questions you can raise about whether many of the nonprimary systems that are being used are conducted to a standard of excellence that is required in an election where every delegate and every state counts. i think there are going to be questions like that after this primary is over. but the idea that this is specifically rig

joining us now here in the situation room, cnn political commentator peter beinart, also rebecca bergpolitical commentator ana navarro. guys, thanks very much for joining us. you heard, dana, trump say this alliance between cruz and kasich in his word is pathetic. pathetic. does it validate trump's claim, though, that there's collusion, if you will, that this is sinister, it's awful what's going on? >> it completely in many ways plays into his argument over and over again that the establishment has it rigged. but having said that, you know, the fact of the matter is this has been in the works and in the making for some time, and it's only because ted cruz did so poorly in new york, sees that he has no mathematical path to winning the nomination before the cleveland convention, that the cruz campaign agreed to the overtures, i reported early last month, that team kasich has been making over and over again. they even enlisted mitt romney to try to get the two together to do this split the map strategy. at this point it really is the only option for both cruz and kasich and everybody in

. >> rebecca berg is with us from real clear politics.ot fit to be commander in chief. >> as dana says, this is not a partisan divid on this issue. donald trump expressed an opinion, a policy stance. if we could really call it that. that no one really has expressed in western politics. it's very unusual. especially heading into the key primary in wisconsin this next week, this is going to crystallize for a lot of voters what many people suspected and hinted at but there hasn't really been a statement like this to point to that donald trump doesn't have the experience in foreign policy that is necessary and required of a president. and especially when we're at a nuclear summit. when we're talking about this issue in a very concrete sort of way. that becomes very clear. >> further than experience. he said basically, we don't want somebody in the oval office who doesn't understand the world. and, you know, you can be new to politics and still understand the world. >> the reality check is, do voters care? that's totally different. >> they sai

rebecca bradley is going to serve a ten-year bid on the supreme court. the 5-2 conservative majority being locked in. look at clinton and sanders. cloppen berghe democrat running. 92% voted for cloppenberg. 4% skipped the race all together. and thsanders voters. 79% for: enberg, 12% skipping the ballot. what does that say to you, scott ross? >> one thing is that it -- we have heard a lot about talk radio in wisconsin pushing out the stop trump effort. and talk radio in wisconsin, before stop trump ever started, they were about stopping voting. and so the consistent theme there is voter fraud in the state of wisconsin has been the talking point of talk radio in wisconsin for the last dozen years. the fact is, under oath, the wisconsin department of justice, the republican-controlled wisconsin department of justice could not prove one instance of in-person voter fraud in the entire state of wisconsin, and we're talking about 17 million ballots cast between 2004 and 2014. there is no voter fraud in the state of wisconsin. and i think mean that said it personal. the only thing going on are partisan politicians rigging the laws for political gain