. >> ron brownstein, i want you to pick up on this. i literally froze, i froze at my desk watching the monitor hearing him calling him a serial if i la philanderer and his own personal vietnam and made me wonder, is this the kind of last ditch effort that ever works? especially on primary day? >> it's interesting. i'm not sure. on the one hand, it is the last ditch effort and everyone understands that donald trump wins by the magnitude that seems possible, this race will seem over in the morning. in that sense, it is a last ditch effort. it rang to me like someone who was going to get his last say who kind of recognized that he was beyond a last ditch effort. and really going to kind of unload and get this off his chest before the race, before he was basically pushed off to the margins of the race. it was more like, let me tell you what i really think about donald trump. i think that was the key. maybe less strategy here than venting and making sure that his voters and the republican party knows exactly what he thinks they are now ente

cnn political analyst, ron brownstein, and washington correspondent for "time" magazine, jay newton smallay. this is very interesting, isn't it? you've got, ron, trump calling the system rigged. now you've got bernie sanders calling the system rigged. you've got donald trump calling hillary clinton crooked, and even now, he's also, you know, saying she's heartless hillary. is it sanders and trump kind of using the same playbook now against hillary clinton? >> yes. some similarities. let's finish the last point real quick. again, an incredibly revealing exchange between clinton and trump. it really goes to the heart of the choice voters will face. what's the bigger risk? continuity or change? clinton wants to argue that the big risk is trump is too risky a form of change. he's too erratic to be president. trump wants to argue that the big risk is continuity, basically going on the same path that we're on, basically the outsider argument. it's losing a little bit of steam as president obama's approval rating moves up to 50%. so the key fact in bernie sanders speech there was 46%. he's won 4

. >> joining me now is ron brownstein, cnn political analyst and senior editor of the atlantic. o see you, ron. >> good evening. >> just wondering how damaged hillary clinton's leadership style is now as we head into a new week in the wake of her e-mail issues that have continued to worsen. and is it at a point that it's even reversible at this stage? >> i mean the inspector general of the state department reporting on her e-mail use, it was a very tough report in a lot of different ways. and for me, i thought the biggest red flag was what it said about her leadership style. i mean it really spoke to a level of insul airity that i think is a dangerous sign for a president. it did not seem there was anyone around her to really say, this is not a good idea. and, in fact, as you saw in the report when career officials raised questions either from a record keeping point of view or a security point of view, they were told to not raise questions. they were told to be quiet. i mean, i think people can differ on the degree to which the e-mails themselves worry them, but i think what this

joining me ron brownstein and also with me is basil smikel. nd of significant we are talking about this today, the libertarian party when we are covering the conference? this means something, right, ron, that we are actually addressing this in a serious way? can they compete seriously? >> the libertarian party has had an interesting kind of canundrum. there is an audience for what they are saying. the challenge they face is they take each of those to an extreme that many people have trouble going that far on the fiscal side. they would, for example, phase out social security and place it with a voluntary system. as i recall their platform, i recall if i don't recall it correctly. they would legalize prostitution and not to mention most drugs on the other side. they take it to a place where not many will follow. they could have an impact particularly among young people where donald trump faces enormously high unfavorable ratings among millenals. hillary clinton that is struggled to connect with millenals too. >> i want you to weigh in on this. w

ron brownstein is in washington, he's a cnn senior political analyst, senior editor at "the atlantic., give us some context here. when has a vice presidential pick actually helped a presidential candidate get elected? >> many, many times. i think about john f. kennedy in 1960 having to pick lyndon johnson even though he didn't like him at all but wanted to make sure as a massachusetts catholic, he kept the solid democratic south and johnson was a protestant and meant all the difference in the world. that's just one of many. >> when does it hurt? >> it hurts, i think, when you pick somebody like dan quayle hurt george herber walker bush. there was a feeling you got to dump him and gore seemed smarter. i think that was a mistake. obviously, john mccain picking sarah palin was a disaster. she wasn't vetted and john kerry picking john edwards. if he picked john glen, kerry could have been president. that may have tilted in ohio his way and history would have been different. >> let's talk about the vice presidential picks, potentially, for hillary clinton. what are you hearing? what might

. >> joining us now our cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein, also cnn senior reporter dylan byers. good to have you both with us. we just heard donald trump talking about unity. also heard the gop chairman reince priebus also invoking the same theme. he tweeted this a little bit earlier on. he said, donald trump will be the presumptive gop nominee. we all need to unite and focus on defeating hillary clinton. #neverclinton. that's easier said than done, isn't it, ron, uniting this party? >> there have been a lot of divisions. you do get the sense that the new york primary was the point where the battering ram knocked down the door. i mean up until then, donald trump was facing really organized resistance. but since then, it's been a very different story. up until new york, he had not won 50% of the vote in any state. he's now won 50% of the vote in seven straight states. you do get the sense that among republican voters if not republican elites, there has been a change, a sense that the contest has been run. this is our guy. time to start focusing on the general election. >> i thin

. >> joining me now to talk about this, mark lamont hill and john brownstein. hello, ron, let's start with you. it's wednesday morning, will we have a nominee? >> i think it donald trump wins indiana with the kind of breadth of support we're seeing in the polling today the race is functionally over. indiana is a legitimate place for ted cruz to make a stand. it has been his best constituentdy throughout the campaign and it's the reverse of new york, new york, if you can't make it there, you can't make it anywhere. if donald trump wins indiana and with the kind of breadth we see in the primary in new york where the -- along with earlier but those resisting him, i think the race is functionally over. >> mark, i've got to ask you about obama said about the correspondents' dinner, no republican -- no one really was safe from the president's final roast. listen to some of what he had to say about republicans. >> just look at the confusion over the invitations to tonight's dinner. guests were asked to check whether she wanted steak or fish, instead a whole bunch of you wrote in

so let's discuss all of this with our panel matt lewis, ron brownstein and sara murray.undits think that hillary clinton has sort of, is struggling with her footing and to find a voice in this strange election against donald trump, and that she's using an old playbook, may have worked with bill clinton but donald trump is playing with warfare never before seen. is that how it feels in washington? >> it feels like that on the campaign trail and in washington. the clintons have run a pretty traditional playbook so far. you can tell that. when donald trump throws out a remark like crooked hillary and economic suggestions that don't make sense the clinton team responds with a five-page e-mail detailing why it doesn't make any sense and why donald trump is not qualified to be president and we're living in a different media cycle, a sound bite driven cycle and donald trump can change the story not only every day but every couple of hours and i think the clinton campaign is trying to figure out how to navigate it. >> we take the bait and voters take the bait and laying out plan

and ron brownstein senior editor at the lat continue particular.outh, we'll start with e-mails, very tough inspector general report for hillary clinton she went around the rules when her staffers were asked about already private server they were told do not ask. what did you make of her and her campaign's response to that report? >> less than helpful. let's move along it is less than devastating. but it is also less than helpful. it's both reminder to people of the doubts that already have about hillary clinton she's not trustworthy. she doesn't think that the rules apply to her and new information about the degree to which she never checked with anybody about what this was, if she had bothered to check she would have been told no. >> that's the most troubling in this report. the arrogance, not just specifics of the e-mails but leadership still style and what it says. jim bakker and george mitchell were winning the lifestyle achievement. the toughest thing was to find somebody who could tell a president they were wrong. and what was i thought most

and donald trump needs to reach those voters to have a chance to beat hillary clinton. >> but ron brownsteind trump responds with this powerful statement going after speaker ryan. he says i am not ready to support speaker ryan's agenda. perhaps in the future we can work together, come to an agreement about what is best for the american people. they have been treated so badly for so long, it is about time for politicians to put them first. vintage donald trump, but it is amazing. >> it is extraordinary, unprecedented, almost unimaginable, pick your description. in some ways it is not shocking to me in two respects. first, it continues a series of unprecedented, unimaginable ruptures we have been seeing as donald trump marched toward the nomination with bush 41 and 43 saying they're not endorsing. mitt romney saying i am not coming to the convention. i wrote a column in january that the two were on a collision course, part of it are specific issues, whether immigration, trade, entitlement reform, paul ryan is an advocate, donald trump resists. the tipoff was paul ryan's mention of jack kemp, p

i was with ron brownstein who, you know, has a jewish name but i don't think -- he's not like, you know, observant jew, sorry, ron. and i just decided to respond to it. because i thought the times really demanded it. i was afraid it was a little self-indulge self-indulgent. a, it made me feel better. b, it got a really good response. just to sort of stand up to it as julia did and to say, you know what, in this day and age when people are -- when candidates are saying there should be religious tests for who can be president. when candidates say there should be religious tests for who can enter this country. this was the moment i thought for her and me to stand up and say, you know, this is not acceptable piece of our discourse. [ applause ] >> and julia, this journalist, has enlisted the help of adl's regional office where she lives so she can file a complaint so she's in good hands, we think. i can't remember a campaign in my 23 years when adl has had to develop curricula for kids and parents and teacher to help children just get through this election. and i'm talking about children wh

joining me now, ron brownstein and tim waters. great to have both of you on, gentlemen.ncluding yours, have held off on endorsing any candidate in the 2016 campaign so far. so why speak out now? >> well, you're right, very wvie president -- haven't endorsed and we've been talking to our members and visiting with them about the issues. they're under attack right now. we're an industrial union, the largest industrial union in north america, and our members, every day they go to work worrying about whether their plant, their mill is going to be there tomorrow. we've been out there focusing on that right now. >> and how big of a deal is this for donald trump, ron? >> well, look, donald trump needs -- if there is pathway to the white house for him, it runs through the industrial midwest and donald trump is showing to be a very formidable competitor for white working class voters. and the three big media polls in the last week or so, he's up over hillary clinton between 20 and 40 appointments among white voters without a college education, many of whom are the kind of voters t

ron brownstein, you tweeted saying that if donald trump had justified his supporters violence, this isu tweeted. >> the statement that the sanders campaign released yesterday was astonishingly irresponsible. they went for two paragraphs explaining why their supporters should feel outraged and say, of course it goes without saying that we oppose violence or intimidation and another two paragraphs about why they should feel outraged. there may be rules that bernie sanders doesn't like but the rules have kbeen what the rules are. the fact is that he has advanced farther than anyone expected and yet hillary clinton has won 55% of the total vote. she leads him by almost 3 million in actual votes cast. if you look at the exit polls, they split white voters evenly and she has three-quarters of nonwhite voters critical in the party. he's trailing on the brink of defeat and to not condemn the intimidation and unruly behavior without justifying it without a lot of justification, i think the people on the left would condemn if it emerged from the mouth of donald trump. >> dana, how might they tak

. >> i want to bring in senior political analyst ron brownstein. a lot of pundits calling this party unity pledge a sham, it's not real at all. the task isn't to achieve party unity with trump, but to save a decent party from this year's misbe gotten nominee. is this effort towards unity a genuine? will it work or is there a big problem here? >> well, i think in the end most republicans will end up with donald trump in the highly polarized era we're living in. most republican voters given the choice of pliksz will end up there. the fact we're having this conversation at all and speaker of the house is struggling to find a way to move towards endorsing his party's nominees and previous nominees all expressing various degrees of unease with the current nominee. this is unprecedented. these are truly unchartered waters we are in and goes to show how much donald trump's success was a revolution from within and how much of a challenge it represents to the view of the party of so many of its current leadership. >> another third party name that's been tos

i was with ron brownstein, who has a jewish name who -- i an observant jew. sorry, ron. i decided to respond to it. because i thought the times really demanded it. i was afraid afraid it was a little self-referential and self-indulgent. a, it made me feel better. and b, it got a really good response. just to stand up to it, as julia did and say, you know, in this day and age when people are, when candidates are saying there should be religious candidates, who says there should be religious tests of who should enter the country, this is the moment that i thought for her and me to stand up and say, you know, this is not -- pieces of our discourse. [applause] stacy: and julia has enlisted the help of adl's regional office, where she lives, to help her file a complaint. so she is in good hands, we think. i cannot remember a campaign in my 23 years when adl has had to develop curricula for kids, and parents, and teachers to help children just get through this election. and i'm talking about children who are hearing some very uncivilized behavior, that they have been taught is

. >> let's talk more with ron brownstein, this exemplifies, both are focusing in a very big way on generallection? >> you can learn a lot from this dispute. you look from 2000 to 2012 after al gore, democrats simply would not touch the gun control issue, the feeling was gore's advocacy was part of the reason he lost big part of the rn he lost to george w. bush. now the they are focusing on gun control is a winning issue with them, with nonwhite voters and college educated white women. on the other hand it remains a problem with the noncollege and nonurban white voters and those voters are passionately against gun control for the most part. what you see is an issue like many of the cultural disputes in modern politics, this issue widens the divide between the two sides along racial and geographic lines. >> how does that perhaps that nra endorsement now change things for donald trump who feels that with that endorsement, he said i was surprised, does this mean that he is trying to i guess trying to shape his dialogue to appeal to the nra audience and getting tripped up potentially as we see

joining me now, senior political analyst ron brownstein, also senior eder for "the atlanta." always good to see you here. >> hi. >> tell us what we anticipate in the weeks to come? we have very big contests ahead, we expect big crowds as well. >> yeah. >> do we think that this really is setting the stage for more of the same kind of passion and perhaps violence unfolding as you have supporters and detractors regarding trump? >> unfortunately, i think the answer is yes. you see in these protests two central device in american politics playing out. one is geographic. big cities are overwhelmingly blue and diverse. virtually every big city is democratic leaning. i don't think there's a big city donald trump can go into at this point and not have a reaction like this from at least a portion of the people who live there. republicans are strong outside of the cities, but inside of the cities they are now very democratic leaning and the other big divide you see is cultural and racial. donald trump is running a campaign that is laser focused on the economic and demographic anxieties

. >>> joining me now, cnn's senior political analyst ron brownstein.k at the map, look past west virginia, though, trump, he does if you look at the map, he needs to turn blue states red. he told wolf this week he's sure he can win pennsylvania, michigan, florida and even put new york in play. can he? >> well, good luck. look, there are 18 states that voted democratic in the past six consecutive elections, the blue wall. nevada and new mexico are not part of it but might as well be part of it. that's 253. a republican really can't win without trying to dislodge some of those blue pieces from the wall. his best chances are blue collar states, some of which are in the blue wall. ohio, iowa, wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. ohio and iowa are his best shots. the other three are tough because it's hard to win them just by improving among blue collar voters alone. and donald trump is facing daunting numbers among college educates. some of the weakest among republican candidates in decades. >> looking just at that point, the demographics in west virginia he

here to discuss, cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein. with us in l.a. n only look. you can't touch. i want to start with an issue very important to paul ryan, first of all. it's entitlement. it's social security. look what donald trump says about social security. >> they want to save their social security, which is under siege by everybody. we're going to save it, folks, and we're going to not do cuts at all. cruz and all of these, they want to cut the hell out of it. we're going to save the social security. >> all right. that is in stark contrast, ron, to everything paul ryan stands for. a big part of paul ryan's career is entitlement reform. >> a very revealing contrast here, because it gets to the larger issue. it's not that conservatives think that donald trump is some kind of secret moderate. anybody running on a platform that include deporting 12 million people and temporarily banning muslims, reorganize the republican party around a fundamental different set of priorities than the party has been organized around for years. the famous reaganite thr

. >> ron brownstein, thank you for your insights. man, it san interesting election cycle. >> six more months to go. >> yes, we'll have to watch. you're watching "cnn newsroom" -- still ahead, leaders around the world are meeting in nigeria to develop a strategy to defeat the terror group such as isis and boca haram. a live report on that meeting as "cnn newsroom" continues. >>> plus, osama bin laden's son all grown up and calling for new attacks where the al qaeda heir wants jihad. what if one piece of kale could protect you from diabetes? what if one sit-up could prevent heart disease? one. wishful thinking, right? but there is one step you can take to help prevent another serious disease. pneumococcal pneumonia. if you are 50 or older, one dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from pneumococcal pneumonia, an illness that can cause coughing, chest pain, difficulty breathing, and may even put you in the hospital. even if you have already been vaccinated with another pneumonia vaccine, prevnar 13® may help provide addit

bash is back with us along with our david challengen and mark preston and senior politic analyst ron brownstein that donald trump is reviving these old accusations against bill clinton, does he expect that's going to bring him support out there, new supporters are going to come to him because of this? >> i think his hope is that people who are kind of on the edge about whether to support hillary clinton will say i'm not going to do it but truthfully this -- my understanding is that this whole thing started with him just kind of being donald trump, being really upset about the fact that the clinton super pacs were immediately running ads against him using his own words about women and he said wait a minute, you want to talk about women, let's go there on women and as he did so many times in the primaries and as he likes to say he hit back ten times harder than he was hit in the first place. he was hit by a super pac and trump is going directly after hillary clinton and bill clinton in their personal lives but whether or not this is going to help, we'll see. it could help with the people who didn

"the washington post" assistant editor david swerdlick, and senior editor ron brownstein, and dana bashng on and on, a lot of people think it is part of the framework if you will going forward. >> at least today's protests don't seem to have erupted like in albuquerque. protesters should realize two things. one, this us versus them confrontation with trump tombly helps trump. they have the free speech right to go out and protest h his events, it helps trump seem relevant. the second thing, the violence is unacceptable. >> you know california politics. donald trump said he thinks he can carry, win california in a general election. is he dreaming? is that possible? >> there's a line in a steely dan, california tumbles into the sea. that's what it would take. you would need the coast of california and everybody that lives within five miles of the coast to fall into the pacific, be left with the central valley, maybe then. they voted democratic in the last six presidential elections. president obama won by 3 million votes. not a nail biter, it embodies the coalition, 50% of the vote was whi

i'm joined by ben ferguson, scottie knenell hughes, ron brownstein also joins me. be more specific about rowanne brewer lane and what was said about her in "the new york times." she said on fox she was not misquoted but they misrepresented the incident, you know, at its face. so basically years and years ago ms. brewer lane was at a pool party at mar-a-lago. there were 50 models and 20 men. she didn't have a swimsuit and donald trump took her in the house and opened up a drawer and said put on a swimsuit. shet p she put on a swimsuit and he paraded her outside and said doesn't she look like a trump beauty. they dated for a period of time. and "the new york times" said this is an example of how trump viewed women as objects per se. that's kind of what "the new york times" intimates in here. scottie, knowing all of that, what do you make of the article itself because "the new york times" also interviewed 50 women for the article. they quote nine women by name in this article. it's not just ms. brewer lane. >> no, and i think you just gave a good rendition of the arti

. >> kaley, ron brownstein brought that up yesterday. he said a lot of whip object to donald trump because of that tough guy image that he has, that maybe his tactic that violence at his protests are okay if they're deserved, and women really aren't into that. >> well, here is the thing. he dismissed it many times when he saw violence at his protests. he went on don lemon's time, just in the interview 10 or 11 times. >> the perception is there. >> no secret donald trump's achille's heel is women. it is what could end his election. hillary clinton's is honesty. donald trump is women. he needs to remedy this. he needs to distance himself from some of the statements he made in the 1990s should he apologize for them. >> for the howard stern show, yes. he would really benefit from saying this is not me. i am a different man today than i was then. this is why republican women trusted me and voted for me in 18 states. this is why i've raised a daughter, to lead my company. i have many women that i'm empowered in my organization. but yes, he wou

. >> joining me now to discuss this, ron brownstein, senior editor for the atlantic, david gergen, former kayleigh mcenany. thank you for coming on this monday. a lot to discuss, the new polls out, the comments from paul ryan. as you heard him say, david, the party needs to unite for trump to be the next president but he has yet to come out and fully endorse him. what do you make of his comments? >> i think he's on the path to endorsing but he wants to encourage donald trump not only to embrace more of his agenda, but to change the tone of his campaign, to become, quote, more presidential. i think that's going to be one of the great tests for trump in the next few months is how does he become more presidential and bring in more independent voters, for example, and more women while at the same time retaining that kind of charismatic i don't give a damn, i'm going to say anything i please spirit that has attracted a lot of people to him? you know, can he have it both ways? >> well, and you hear what paul ryan kind of listed off. these are the things that need to happen for trump to win. kay

so, you know, the blue curtain that ron brownstein coined the idea that democrats have an electoral advantagegeneral election is true, and i think that if there is a candidate on the republican side who contests that, it is donald trump. because he appeals to voters in those states that democrats have been successful in. in michigan, in pennsylvania maybe less so in wisconsin, but in the states maybe west virginia, which has been republican lately. but the point is that the states that have -- had been maybe 20 or 30 years ago swing states have been pretty securely democratic because they have felt such job loss and sort of felt the pull of the democratic party for that reason. donald trump is speaking their language saying the politicians for the past several decades haven't worked for you. i'm different and i'm going to work for you. that's a big plus for him. that's can maybe overcome some of the republicans that he's going to lose. as he has been saying, potentially bring some new voters into the party. >> ron, something else that donald trump is doing. he tweeted out this morning that be

let's get more with senior political analyst and senior editor ron brownstein, executive editor markorger, and david swerdlick. david, if trump wins tomorrow in indiana, polls show he is well positioned to win, what could cruz realistically do? >> i think he will continue on, there will be a lot of pressure from inside the party for him and john kasich i should say to kind of give it up. i think cruz continues if the money holds out to go through to what he wants to be a contested convention. i think if trump wins indiana overwhelmingly, wins the lion's share of the delegates, at least 30 delegates out of 57, he's going to start collecting the amount that he needs to get if not over the magic number of 1237 then really close to it. close enough so that republicans, including delegates, believe they can't deny him the nomination. >> you and i covered politics, mark, for awhile. usually candidates drop out when behind but when they also don't have money left. california, that's coming up. you need a lot of money to be effective advertising in a state like california. >> you do. there a

. >> well, cnn's senior political analyst ron brownstein and dylan byers are now here in the studio.onald trump has some press big obstacles to overcome in this general election. he has to win over all these groups that he alienated. he seemed to acknowledge that tonight in his victory speech. >> i won with women. i won with men. we won with hispanics. we won with african-americans. we won with every -- virtually every category. >> perhaps, though, the biggest issue he has is with women voters. >> and minorities both. the most common misconception in this campaign is donald trump is a teflon candidate who is not affected by any of the things he said. he was able to put together a winning coalition in the republican party, and it was not only deeper with his dominance among men and blue collar whites but also broader than any of his competitors. that was in the republican primary. he starts the general election facing historically high negatives among several groups, millenni millennials, non-white voters in the 80s, and women at around 70%. so he has big challenges to overcome, partl

. >> well, we spoke earlier with cnn's senior political analyst ron brownstein. >> and he said that donaldfrom the hip style could be a problem for h. >> the question of his temperament. hillary clinton and donald trump almost identically weak on shares your values, but on temperament, who has the temperament, she's plus 21. and she's up 47-41 in the overall poll. it is going to be one of the biggest hurdles, and it's why she's pushing at that button today. >> hillary clinton also making headlines with comments she made about bernie sanders, effectively saying the race is over, it's time to get on board. take a listen to what she said. >> when i came out and withdrew and endorsed senator obama, about 40%, according to polls, about 40% of my supporters said they would never support him. so i worked really hard to make the case, as i'm sure senator sanders will, that whatever differences we might have, they pale in comparison to the presumptive nominee of the republican party. >> okay. this was the reply from the sanders campaign. in the past three weeks, voters in indiana disagree with hill

impact, trump's impact, because we've been wrong so many times before pshgs but if our friend ron brownsteinre here, he'd say, barack obama won amongst independents and still won the general, too. the daunting thing for trump, wins all white male vote admit romney did in 2012, he would need 58% of white women, a tall standing with white women and women in general. >> married women, mitt romney actually won in 2012. >> we don't know how many independents he could potentially bring in, turn out this fall. where we have to be careful in predicting. >> panel. thank you. great to have you guys here. keep up with all of the latest political news on the new cnn politics app. download it for free at the app store. it features the indiana primary results and sanders' fight to remain in the race, and trump's new status as the gop presumptive nominee. >>> the state of arizona and the nation mourning the death of ak forces in iraq. we have the tragic details, ahead. ♪ every auto insurance policy has a number. but not every insurance company understands the life behind it. those who have served our natio