still the republican party. in fact, the party stayed so much the same party that governor romney's son was the one who got the party's nomination for president, not that far down the road. not that far down the road from when governor romney sr. had predingted would be the party's death, the party did what he said would kill it. they did it anyway. the party lived. they picked his son. generation down the road. and now it's governor romney the junior who is trying to sound the alarm about how dangerous it would be for the party to choose donald trump as their nominee this year. but the party is on track to choose donald trump as their nominee this year. there have been 23 states that have voted thus far on the republican side. donald trump has won 15 of them. and all of the other candidates can make all sorts of noise about what state they think they might be able to win down the road. we just saw marco rubio make his case that he can win florida to chuck todd. yeah, you know, and these arguments, maybe, maybe e

the party to win the presidency if he wins the presidency. he used the party and to use the parties mechanisms to get nominated but he doesn't need them and that puts the republican party in a tough position because he is not a tenable to them. if he gets elected president and there's a senate nomination or a house nomination he can just endorse whoever he wants to. it doesn't have to go with the party structure and his endorsement could mean more. i think that romney personally feels as though this is a threat to what has worked for in politics and i think he's doing what he can to try to throw obstacles between trump and the nomination. >> host: one sentence from a piece of what trump has done is revealed how little power is left in the republican party. >> guest: exactly because they republican party if you think about how the nomination processes to work back in the day there was even a primary system. he was the party who the nomination would be. what they did is they leveraged the anonymity of candidates as a power source so people didn't know who these folks were. the republican party controlled the process and gave people the space to run for president if

the way another republican wouldn't. people haven't talked about that yet. but if that hasn't sunk in in the republican party rimary i don't think it will in the general. >> it's interesting because there are moments in this debate, the republican debate, when trump seems to be already pivoting a little bit to a general election strategy. he says, no, the abortion aspect is all over the line, but planned parenthood does a lot of good things for women. about immigration. are you interested in that? i have to think that you must see that pivot as his at least leaving the door open to how he would appeal and walk back some of the positions he's taking. >> it shows the confidence level where he is in terms of marching towards the nomination and i think he will be somebody -- his positions during the republican down. right. that's why he poses more of a party than a ted cruz does. >> george, short of the legal problems with her server, with the e-mails, the handling of classified information, is there anything in a practical sense, obviously bernie sanders is running, anything that can stop hillary clinton from g

the ideas, the ideology and coherence and messaging of the party have been scrambled by if you're down ballot in the republican party, if you're running for senate, if you're running for congress, even state idea who's going to be the top of your ticket and what you're -- who your partner it at the top of the ticket is going to be. it's destabilized. i wouldn't say split or broken. that remains to be seen. it has completely destabilized the party in a year they really had going in pretty good prospects, a real chance of taking the presidency. >> who how does a peter -- i know you say a party is a strong structure and has gone through various permutations but how does a party survive, the two cruz who are saying they're corrupt and they're going to change things. >> it survives by planning ahead. republican senatorial candidates, incumbents and otherwise are planning to distance themselves even with ads takinging on the man at the top of the ticket. second -- >> so you're saying republican attack ads against the republican nominee? >> distancing ads. second, the republican party will have to rethink the busines

for the longest time the republican party has told us that they can't win with just republican votes. and that's why they support amnesty. that's why they support the democrats on many of their issues to go out and get hispanics or other minorities. guess who's doing it. donald trump is doing it. donald trump has put together a coalition, whether he knows it or not, whether he intended to or not, he's put together a coalition that's exactly what the republican party says that it needs to win eaand, yet, loo like what they're trying to do, get donald trump out of the race because they're not in control of it. it's the most amazing thing to watch this happen. governor romney comes along and tries to talk people out of trump, and that's not going to work. you can't talk his supporters out of supporting him. the only guy that will be able to do that is trump himself. >> okay. let's talk about that because there is a lot of commentary, and some of it coming from conservatives who say that the republican party is in it danger of tearing it self apart. we've seen splits many times before ove

>> the republican party -- if the republican party is a gum b bo, the rue of that is the republican partycore of that is the ku klux klan. >> the leaders of the republican party are disavowing anything to do with the ku klux klan. are they saying that because they have to? shouldn't you give them some credit for what? >> because they're will you lindsey graham thinki -- they're also thinking about starting new party. i fell like they're saying there's nothing we can do other than reconvene somewhere else. >> is this a surprise to them? was this an epiphany that they realize somehow their party is out of control when it comes to these issues, addressing issues in the ku klux klan? >> it came from the first four years of barack obama's presidency. president barack obama where they allowed donald trump to demand the president show his birth certificate and they just stood by and went maybe he's not born here. how would we know? hawaii, we don't know that's a state. this is like the pimple coming home to roost. >> you have a new show on cnn called "the united shades of america." you went to v

i think the people are speaking in the republican party and a lot of nice republicans don't like whathe people are saying. this is the party that in 2008, had a -- 2004, had a line of candidates in new hampshire and a third of them said they don't believe in evolution. this has been a slow burning process. >> right. go ahead. >> well, i mean, we have to remember, eight years ago, john mccain, the so called moderate, chose sarah palin to be his running mate. that's also, when you think about it, a fairly terrifying idea as well. >> right. that's the perfect example. i remember having a very similar conversation after he chose sarah palin with a democrat. someone who is fairly high ranking in the democrat party. they said on the one hand i think she'll be ultimately a liability on the ticket. if he wins she'll be a heartbeat away from the presidency. the stakes are larger. we're a 50/50 nation. it's a little more than a way of the coin flip. >> what is making these candidates so terrifying? to a large extent it's their constituency. mitch mcconnell, there's no calculation to reject a su

he wants to bring the republican party together. and those who were concerned about his effect on the party ought to look at the turnout and how he says he's not only change the republican party but expanding it. >> reporter: all right, major garrett, thank you, major. we have much more ahead on this super tuesday, including the latest from those exit polls and our political panel. we'll be right back. united states for the first time in eight years we will have a president that follows the constitution, not violates it every day. >> we're gog make our military bigger and better and stronger than ever before and nobody, nobody, nobody's going to mess with us, folks, nobody. of us, not just those at the top. (baseball on tv in background) with heart failure, danger is always on the rise. symptoms worsen because your heart isn't pumping well. (water filling room) about 50 percent of people die (dog whimpering) within 5 years of getting diagnosed. but there's something you can do. because the more you know, the more likely you are... (d

are not flimsy things. party in the word, the republican and democratic parties have been framing this debate in this country for 160 years. what the republican party needs to avoid blowing up is to get a binary choice between mr. trump and someone else. i think the evidence that we're approaching that is the fact that ted cruz announced late last week he's going to open ten offices in the state of florida. he's probably not doing that to win florida. he's probably doing that to prevent marco rubio from winning it. if that happens, indeed, you've got your binary choice, you have the best chance of not settling this in cleveland where, what you outlined with rush limbaugh, trump has the majority of the largest share of delegates but not a majority, then he would have a blow-out. >> mike, let me turn to you. we saw last night's results, picking up on what george said, trump wins two states, cruz wins two states, kasich and rubio win to drop out, is this, in effect, not officially but in effect now a two-man race? >> i think we've got tone that point. i don't think we'll know

establishment, the republican party are the people voting for trump. i am not the republican party. paul ryan is not the republican party. people voting for trump in record numbers, they are the republican party. that's why i don't understand the talk about the g.o.p. poll a. the people voting are the party. they're going to pick who they want as the republican nominee and it's evident they're doing so and trump is their guy. >> and he is your guy. congressman, thanks for joining us on the real story. now to immigration. nation's top boarder chief testifying on capitol hill delivering a strong message to ajtss who disagree with president obama's deportation policy granting deferred action to as many as 5 million immigrants with deep ties to the united states. >> when i had police officers in seattle, they would follow the law and there's room within the law to actually do things and if they weren't happy with doing that, it's like if you really don't want to follow the directions of your superiors including the president of the united states and the commission of customs and boarder

he's got two state senators and three, four, maybe up to five assemblymen of the republican party callingtion. how does he govern there for the next 23 months? so, it's a problem. i've heard a lot of backlash at republican headquarters in chester county about it. and he looked -- he looked like a supplicant, standing next to trump when trump was giving that speech the other day. it really made him look -- goes from this strong leader to this lap dog for donald trump. it's almost embarrassing. so... >> chime in. who's next here? >> if he can be a.g., he'll be quite happy. that's what he's looking at. he's positioning himself. he definitely cut a deal. that's the bottom line. look, most of the folks running, you guys, know that they can't be president, but they're positioning themselves for something for them. christie won't have a job in a couple years, so he wants to make sure he has one. >> matt, the sitcom that is america jumped the shark on super tuesday, and the republican establishment keeps serving on the same script without listening to the feedback from the audience. the fact is t

the leading senate republicans. charlie. >> reporter: marco rubio said donald trump got the nomination, it would destroy the republican party. joining us now is south carolina senator and former republican presidential candidate lindsey graham. welcome, senator graham. >> thank you very much for having me. >> reporter: is the republican party about ready to destroy itself? >> well, i think we're about ready to lose to the most dishonest politician in america, hillary clinton, and how could you do that? nominate somebody who is crazy. i think dishonest beats crazy. that's our problem and donald trump, i think, is just crazy the things he says. but congratulations-- look what he's done. he invited hillary and bill clinton to his wedding. he gave money to harry reid and chuck schumer. he said george w. bush lied about the iraq war, and he's about to become the republican party nominee. that's very hard to do. so you've got to give him some credit. >> reporter: so what will it do to the republican party if he is the nominee? >> well, we'll be divided, but we're going to lose. to tell us that they want to be republicans. we just

when we asked republican voters, "do you feel betrayed by the republican party?" more than 50% of republican voters in these four states said yes, and that, of course, would signal outsiders are very much what the electorate on the republican side are looking for. >> reporter: nine out of 10 voters, in fact, today, on the republican side told us they were disappointed, even angry with the federal government. elaine, you're going to be leaving us now to join us with coverage on cbsn. what do you have ahead there. >> reporter: we will have more political analysis with our rock star panel, but the story of commandir scott kelly, who has been in space for 340 days is expect live pictures. >> reporter: later on cbsn. scott. >> pelley: anthony, thank you, elaine, thank you. now we will go back to bob schieffer with our two political contributors, peggy noonan of the "wall street journal" and jamelle bouie of "slate" magazine. bob. >> reporter: i'll tell you, scott, i'm just trying to process what i just heard in the last few minutes. let's think about this. marco rubio s

democratic party is the oldest party in the world. the republicannd democratic party has been framing this debate for 160 years. what they need to keep from blowing up is a choice between mr. trump and someone else. the evidence is ted cruz announced he was going to open 10 offices in the state of florida. he is probably not doing that to win florida but to prevent marco rubio from winning that. if that happens you have your choices you have the best chance of not settling this where if in the outcome what you outlined with rush limbaugh trump has a majority of the largest share then you would have a play off. >> we saw last night's results trump wins two states, cruz wins two states, kasich and rubio win nothing. trump calling on rubio to dop out. is this in effect now a two-man race? >> i think we have gotten to that point. i don't think we will know for sure. they have each put a premium on winning their own state. the problem is both of their strategies at this point was to hope that would be the moment where it would be a two-person race. senat

. >> what he has done is revealed what little power is left in the republican party. >> exactly it you think how the nomination process used to work there is not even the primary system but then it is the primary system they would leverage the candidates as a power source. people didn't know with a work but the republican party controlled the media and the primary process engaged people the space to run if they thought they were real candidate. donald trump had weighed more media before he decided he would run through the republican party than anyone could have imagined. he is not beholden to them and that regard. so what it has is a nomination and process and some primaries that donald trump's can win he doesn't need their money or media attention or their approval. it is tough to hold him accountable so based on how would you think the republican party bush look-alike with president trump? >> that's a great question. rinaldi republican party is trying to figure that out. to see what happens if it is a nominee they think that he will rail against the establishment but is posturing don

people who have stepped away from politics as we have known it with the republican party within the republican party and as taechd approached the democrats over the last number of years. as we wrote in the first edition of the book and the no one coming out as well, a party that is comp terpus of science and facts that relies on these outside triebl media that promote a vision with all the adds for gold is getting in some ways what it deserves. >> finally you've watched this party operate. can they pull it off? can they unite? >> i don't see how they can make that happen. i don't see any way that donald trump ends up with fewer than 1,000 to 1100 delegates and probably more than that to take the nomination away from somebody in that circumstance never happened before is going do lead to i think as trump said riots, but also a division in the party that is going to take a long time to heal. i have to say we're all going to surface a consequence. >> all right. thanks for your time tonight. >> i think the fall out around cruz is a stage in this grief process of the republican party that not only

the democratic party we see, the together. the party is kind of gathering bernie sanders is still going to continue to fight, but it field like the democratic party is moving towards the center. in the republican party, the center is not holding. the party is molting before our eyes. and now the question for a lot of republicans is going to be which side are you on? that has a short- and a long-term element to it. the short term is are you going to go after donald trump as hard as possible, the way a lot of these establishment republicans are talking about, lots of negative ads, lots of personal attacks, really go after him between now and the 15th of march. or are you going to sign up in some fashion? and what does that mean for the future of the republican party? and sometimes on these nights you have to hype the big question. not tonight. night. we will take you to our decision desk for an update on the delegates in just a moment. >> reporter: you seem to be saying that hillary clinton will beat donald trump. >> no, i am not seem to be saying that. i am saying that. ( laughter ) like a drum. >> reporter: donald trump declared himself the big winner tonight. obviously, he was. he also declar

the republican party should grab this and we will have a victory like the republican party has never had before. one of the things ben and i were talking about, i will win michigan, that's not in the playbook for the republican party. i think i have a chance to win new york. that's not in the playbook. can you imagine if you win new york? they always talk about the six states you have to win, the florida, virginia, you know, just go down the line, pennsylvania, ohio, you have to win certain states. if you lose one of them it's over for the republican party. the fact is the structure, structurally it's much more difficult for somebody to get elected from the republican party. everybody knows that. with me i add a lot of states that aren't in play for anybody else. i mean, i add all of the rust belt states, i own states that i will get states that are unbelievable. that are unthinkable for the republican party and we should embrace it. okay. a couple more. >> mr. trump, you said dr. carson would be handling education for you. here in florida a lot of people are angry about common core,

you can't deny that donald trump looks like the republican nominee for the white house. like it or not. get real, republican party, one day after his super tuesday victories there is no denying that donald trump is now real deal and yet the republican party establishment and a confused news media are still in denial over trump's dominance at the polls. with the momentum he now has trump is poised to win the gop nomination for be president. >> we've gone from x number to a much larger number. that hasn't happened to the republican party in many, many decades. >> trump has won ten out of the 15 primary contests the republican party has had so far. he's won in the suburban snort. he has won in the rural south. he's won over wealthy voters and those in the working class. he's got evangelicals voting for him and he has agnostics. trump is riding on such broad support that he now talks of a quote new coalition to underpin the republican party. yet. ted cruz has four states under his belt. including the delegate rich home state of texas. while marco rubio fast becoming the establishment favorite can finally claim at lea

the short term republicans can still win. the win the vote was growing with the voting rights act. the party of abraham lincoln went another way. hoping to get those votes in their work to short-term. there is more than one way to get the 50%. and compared to those republicans it is possible if you cannot just say one segment has grown there are different ways to get to a majority. and though said to want to target latinos despite best efforts are constrained by the base that has been built over many years. >> so what is to be done by the republican party? >> if you look at the data what is to be done to bring more voters into the republican party especially a candidate like trump that seems to be alienating that population? >> is specially between five and seven in competitive situations with the states of that latino vote what'd vice you give them? >> . . that is the worst by far of any major candidate leading a primary in an open seat or even as challenger. in modern polling history. second highest negative, hillary clinton at 48 percent. highest to date before that was michael dukakis. s

they are right now working to come up with a process by which the republican party will tell the candidate who republican voters chose to be their nominee that he's not going to be the nominee. despite what the voters said, he's not allowed to be the nominee. and instead, the party leadership is going to pick someone else. that's the plan. that really is the plan right now in the republican party. and regardless of whether you love donald trump or hate donald trump, regardless of whether you think he is politics as usual, or absolutely terrifying, if the republican party tells the voters who picked him as their nominee that they don't get him, the party's going to pick someone else despite what the voters said, think about how that's going to go over. what could possibly go wrong? >> finally as you saw, it came to this, at some point my microphone was yanked. drated sk. hydro boost. from neutrogena get one of our right best deals ever.... ....for just $9.99 you can get any large pizza with up to five toppings pile on your favorites with up to five toppings for just $9.99 better ingredients

, ted cruz has redefined to the republican party, member of the united states senate, the most establishment of the establishment. so the notion then -- of course i respect lindsey graham, he's a great senator. but the voters are redefining the party. the bosses who are in control who sit at the table, they need to just chill out. >> one thing the establishment has underestimated throughout this race is the amount of voter anger. we talk about voter anger all the time. you have two approaches with ted cruz and donald trump. you have ted cruz who has focused the criticism on -- donald trump is firing the anger at anyone that gets in his path. so can the party channel it in a productive way or are we just going to go guns blazing, anybody that stands in our way, remains to be seen. >> amanda, the whole notion and let me ask scottie to weigh in on this. last night in the speeches, donald trump, he gave a speech that was trying to say, yeah, i want to unify the party, let's move on. he didn't really go out there and slash cruz or slash ru

it was something the republican party needed. i think that's what a number of officials felt like after we saw the debate in detroit where they were exchanging childish insults. i think everyone in the republican party wanted a moment to give these candidates a chance to rehabilitate their images and rise to the challenge and talk about some of the issues voters care about. the debate stage is a place to do that. but i think from donald trump's perspective, he feels like he's already shared enough of that air time with other candidates. he feels like he can go out and get his stump speeches and if he wants to talk more about policy on the trail, he can do it there. it was clear today he doesn't have a lot of interest in returning to the debate stage. >> all right. sara murray, thanks to you. with me to talk about more, margaret hoover and also adrianna cohen, and dana bash will join us in a minute. she was seated in the press conference, so she has to get to a microphone. i'll start with you, margaret. there are two donald trumps.

he can't unify the republican party and he can't grow it. i'm the only one in this race that consistently beats hillary clinton in every poll. i'm the only one that has a chance to unite the republican party and the math only gets worse for ted cruz. tonight was supposed to be the night, you've heard his campaign say that. they were going to sweep the southern states, he basically got beat in every single one except his home state and the neighboring state of oklahoma. that's it. on the other hand, look at virginia, that's indicative of the broader country, and we basically have tied donald trump there, andest that despite having to share the ballot with four or five other candidates. >> senator marco rubio, thank you for taking time with us, we appreciate it, sir. >> thank you. >> and as we're having that conversation, some breaking news. we've got the results coming in now from arkansas. donald trump will win in arkansas and rubio in fact will likely come in, at least right now, he is in third place. in arkansas. we to want go right now and

you said embracing to the republican party. as you move forward now annals the contests start are you going to find yourself surrounding yourself with more people. >> the republican party should come together and embrace these millions of people going down and voting. millions. south carolina, new hampshire, no matter where it is, it's millions of people. i was going to bring down a list, i said i didn't want do bore you people. we had states up 102% from four years tea go. there is something happening that's beautiful to see. these are people in many cases as i said last night. these are people who never voted. i'm talking about 40, 50, 60, 70 years old. they have say mr. trump i never voted before. and they have a trump shirt on. they never put a political shirt on in their lives. they said i have had -- literally when i shake hands with people or when i sign autographs people are saying i never voted before, mr. trump. but i'm so proud to be voting. it's been an amazing party. i guys used to be a member of the establishment.