Reporting thats president obama told a group of donors that bernie is nearing the end of his white house bid. He said the party should soon unite behind Hillary Clinton. At the white house today, josh earnest disputed the report, claiming the president was not taking sides and was only making a case for party unity before novembers general election. Byh these reporter remarks the president , even though they are being denied by the white house, accelerate efforts to get sanders out of the race . John well, lets first start the disputing of the report is not categorical. President obama could say, what hes reported to have said without taking sides. He could say Bernie Sanders time is coming to an end. That party needs to be unified. Barack obama can read the delegate totals as well as anybody . Recognizes what most people recognize which is that Bernie Sanders is unlikely to be the nominee . E party needs to unify an order to keep a republican from succeeding him and donald trump . I do, too. I believe obama said something close to this and i think it is the case that a lot more democrats because of obama are going to start saying the same thing soon. Mark the clinton people intended to wait a little bit more to start this drumbeat the that they have started it in huge successof her on tuesday and impart because of donald trump looks like he may be cruising to the nomination. They do not want a democratic fight that goes through june if trump has got this thing sewn up. I think president obama is reflecting that reality and that will now drive it. John president obama and the clintons have one thing in common they both understand the value of money in politics and how important it is to have a lot of it in order to win tough races. But Hillary Clinton does not want to spend money beating someone she has a ready beaten, when she could be saving that money to take on someone who is going to give a hard fight, whether that is donald trump or somebody else. Mark iron rule. Say something at a texas fundraiser even if itll get out. The president knows that rule. Some important updates in the republican race. Ted cruz is are going for the last couple of days that john kasich is so far behind he is waging an absurd and quixotic campaign for the republican nomination. Two of john kasich former rival seem to agree. Remember that fellow marco rubio . He was in his Capitol Office today to something he probably had gotten had wished he had gotten on tuesday, stranding ovation. Last night according to a minnesota newspaper, marco rubio told supporters that cruz was the only conservative left in this race. Now lets talk about it even bigger uturn. Lindsey graham said this about ted cruz a month ago. Senator graham if you killed t ed cruz on the floor of the senate and the trial was in the senate, nobody could convict you. You that might leave thinking of that the days that senator graham would support senator cruz would be the day that takes started fly. Apparently that day is upon us. Alert. News pigs are flying because Lindsey Graham is supporting ted cruz for president. Yep. John that is correct. The Lindsey Graham is hosting a fundraiser for ted cruz on monday. Graham says in order to stop donald trump he will help cruz in every way i can. Why are rubio and graham siding with cruz over kasich . Mark Lindsey Graham has thought for a while the john kasich would not enough not have enough strength to slow down donald trump who looked at the map and the money and the message. He believes a more conservative person which cruz is the only way to stop him at the convention. It is not some new love or appreciation for ted cruz. It is the cold hard reality from grahams point of view that cruz to stopnly vehicle donald trump. In the case of marco rubio, i think john kasich does have some positions that are more moderate. I think some people the party, conservative activists and others, are saying we want a conservative nominee. That leaves us one choice which is ted cruz. Even though john kasich is conservative in a lot of ways. John i agree with everything you said that i have one additional layer, which is that both of these guys are United States senators. And ted cruz is also a United States senator. Much though he pretends sometimes he is not. Senators are sticking together not surprising. The fact that more governors have not rallied to john kasich is surprising. Im not surprised to see a couple of guys who are membered along with 10 crates of the worlds socalled greatest deliberative body are backing their friends against the governor of ohio. Mark the group of conservative activist who met in washington by phone today thinking about getting a third kennedy in the race, ted cruz has pickup some conservatives. Through the interest in to see if he can build momentum. Now that you do not have election contest every week, it will be hard for cruz or kasich to build up the kind momentum to become the decisive alternative. John even the bell went off, wishes say the john kasich did get the endorsement of the former governor of utah. Mark cruz had a better day on that front. As previewed on tuesday, john kasich started going after donald trump a little bit more aggressively today. In response to the comment, trump made about how he thinks the grassroots would respond if the party had to wrestle the nomination away from him in cleveland, kasich tweeted. Donald trump said there could be riots and also from kasich. This implicit acceptance of violence is pulling people apart. Tedthe case of a contes convention, a possible white night is the House Speaker paul ryan who is the guy behind the podium chairing the convention. Here is what ryan said today when he was asked for the obtained time about whether he would accept his partys nomination if the Convention Ends up deadlocked after multiple ballots. Paul ryn it is not going to be me. Runningd be somebody for president. I made a decision over a year ago not to run for president. I believe if you want to be president , you should run for president. People are out there campaigning, they are campus say, there are primaries. That is who we should select from among for our next president. On whatever ballot we are talking about. Lets put this thing to rest and move on. I had six days notice taking this guy. I learned after becoming the speaker that im the chair of the convention. I will have to bone up on the rules. Switzerland, be neutral and dispassionate and to make sure the rule of law prevails and to make sure that the delegates make their decision however the rules require them to do that. Mark john, ryans demuring obviously, although he dr emured about being speaker, too. What a fact about the fact that he is in charge of the convection half on the fact that he could be the white knigh t . Creates certain publications which im going to bet you are going to outline. I will say it creates really bandages. Advantages. Te real if the white knight is going to come in, he is going to have to be drafted. As you point out, hes running the show. And becoming the eventual nominee and a contested convention requires knowledge of the inside game. Ryan will understand the side game this inside game better than anyone when we get to cleveland. Balance it makes it less only because he will be so in mesh and running the thing that the symbolism, the hardest thing about a white knight coming in from the point of you who do not want trump is the symbolism. Added symbolism of the guy who is in charge. I wont say exactly, it is like when dick cheney pick himself to be bushs running mate. The fix would look like it was an even more if the guy in charge of the convention would say, by the way, i am taking this thing. It makes it harder. John its going to be ugly if it happens one way or the other. Anyway, when we come back, why Hillary Clinton is laughing at donald trump and a new web video after this. Mark yesterday we showed you are new web video that donald trump tweeted out showering Hillary Clinton barking like a dog. And Vladimir Putin chortling at her. Today a super pac turn the tables on the donald. Who are consulting with consistently so that you are ready on day one . Mr. Trump im speaking with myself, number one because i have a very good brain and ive said a lot of things. John all right. Of that and think its an merits, what does it tell you about how team clinton is thinking about what it has to do when donald trump goes on offense . Mark my sense is they looked at that web video that trump put o ut and did not treat it like some trifle. They saw and its cutting nature and in the implication of its viral qualities. It did get played a lot on cable. They decided they had to be now. I predict they will be in this mode the rest of the way. He brings a knife, you bring a gun. Because they cannot let trump do to her what he has done to most of his republican opponents. Updatedis is just an modern day version of something you are familiar with that was known in 1992. Become room, to wear has commonplace. Respond to everything always. Do not let anything negative go unchallenged or unreported or unreplied to. I think they learn not just from that web video but from previous ntgles with trump they ca afford to let those go unanswered. They want to throw a big elbow we are notd say, going to be passive. There is going to be a price to pay if you come after us. Mark they also have to get to the point where they can succeed where these other antitrust efforts anti trump have failed on our public side, they have to effectively mo ck him. Trump is so good at mocking others. One of the biggest areas of incongruity drill it if from those who try to take down trump trump is the most easily mocked person and politics. The possibility of a general election matchups and Hillary Clinton and donald trump is one of many factors that is now hovering over the capitol hill fight about whether president obamas pick for the Supreme Court will get a hearing. While Republican Leaders have not changed their position, there are a few gop senators such as jeff lake of arizona that have agreed to meet with the nominee merrick garland. The party is taking a gamble. If republicans are not successful in the november election, i hope we are, but if we are not, then we ought to look at this nomination in a lame duck session in november. I would rather have a leftliberal nominee like nomineegarland, than a that Hillary Clinton, if she were president , would put forward. Mark so, that is one point of view on the republican side. Not necessarily a majority. Today, patrick laid, the democrat from lamont, former chair of the committee called for his college to vote on garland by memorial day. An army of republican and Democratic Senators have been all over cable news the past 24 hours toeing the party line. With all the backandforth there has been since we last spoke about this, which side is winning this tugofwar over girl is . Over garland . John democrats and the white house. Right now the media is with the white house. I think rightly soar. Your hearing some corners of conservative media saying, youre killing yourselves here. Thing that kind of has done damage to the republican brand in the past by seemed to be mindlessly in trenton and. Intaransigent. If you want to shoot them down, shoot them down. But make it look like you are at least willing to do your jobs. Democrats, and politics, the side that is winning is where they are saying the same thing publicly and privately. Democrats are saying we are going to win this. It is easy to find a strategist who say the mistake was to come out early. We are not winning this fight. They think possibly they can hold the line. No hearing, keep the base happy. Some of them are worried about paying a price when Public Opinion is still fluid, but look, democrats often have the media on their side because of liberal bias. This is the case where the media believes the democrats are doing the right thing. If the whitetime, house continues to perform this way, Public Opinion is going to shift in a way that is going to spook republicans. John jeff lakes giving voice to something a lot of people are thinking. It is not a position of strength they are going to be in trying to negotiate a crazy, a ringed accession. Senator amy clover sure joins us to talk about the Supreme Court nomination battle after these words from our sponsors. John can you feel it . Is sweeping the nation. We are joined by senator amy klobuchar, the democrat from minnesota who sits on the Judiciary Committee. Senator, thanks for joining us. Senator klobuchar very nice. Phoenix, wherever you are, but i am here. Mark i know youve got an open mind about this nomination and republicans may be made a mistake i saying they dont. Im wondering what decisions the judge has signed that concern you, you want to ask him about. Senator klobuchar im actually just starting to look at his record. Picke knew he was the until yesterday. What i do know as a former prosecutor myself is that is not an easy job he oversaw two of the most high profile, difficult criminal cases of our time. And that is the unabomber and the Oklahoma City bombing. He has a strong reputation as a judge. In the criminal area, he has tended to be more conservative than some of his liberal colleagues on some of the cases. I think there are 10 Different Cases like that. So, obviously, that as someone that is a prosecutor, i can understand that and i want to look at what those cases are as well as the rest of his record. I think the main point here today is that as you noted earlier, there are some republican senators, senator col lins said she is going to do her job and meet with him. And five or six of them have agreed to meet withh im. Angus king said it best. Are you just afraid you will like him too much . He is a ogoogd guy. Mark i know you like a blot about him. I take your point the youre probably just now reading into some of his decisions. General areasy where you have got concerns where you want to hear more about . Not where you like what he has done but where you have got concerns . Senator klobuchar again, i literally found out about this yesterday when we were in the rose garden. Were gathering his record and i will see what concerns i have. I tended to in the past with Sonia Sotomayors hearing and el kagan, asked about First Amendment cases in criminal cases because of my background. I want to look at some of the stands he taken. Si think we should have cameras in the Supreme Court. I know you guys would like to see things immediately. I will ask him about that. I have a lot of good questions to ask him. John senator, i know yesterday that planned parenthood, richards came out with a statement that is tepd in support tepid in support of merrick garland. She they knowledge there are a lot of is about his support for reproductive rights. Does that issue give you any pause from what you know about garlands records . Senator klobuchar again, i want to look at his positions. If he has respected roe v. Wade. What is important is if he is someone that is known as being fair, he had the respective democrats and republicans. You look at the comments, the fact that he received a vote senator hatch and senator mccain. Senator collins, center at cochran. Senator with senator hatch one saying, i challenge anyone to come to say why he would not be a good nominee. I will look at the record and i have not made a decision yet. Like everyone else i plan on meeting with him next week but i think what is important here is that we need to have a hearing to ask those questions,yes, i will assess questions at a private meeting that my constituents have the right to know this answer. Mark let me ask you a question on the politics of this. There are a lot of groups on the left who look at this choice and not overly enthused. It is a sense of opportunity missed. This is an overwhelmingly male white institution. They were happy when elena kagan got on the court and think there is room for another woman or woman of color. Do think that president obama played a too timid by choosing a 63yearold white man to fill antonin scalias seat . Senator klobuchar i do not think president obama played it timid at all. My colleagues on the other side of the iowa described his actions in his last year were he focusing and moving ahead on cuba as being far from timid. What i think he has done is pick the person he thought was best for the job. Twice judge garland was close up there for the previous nomination. In one nomination, i nominated elena kagan. One hispanic. Within the first africanamerican president with a number of cabinet members of color, including the entering your journal, i do not think anyone can doubt the president streak read on diversity. Mark im wondering, you know iowa pretty well. What do you think would have to happen within iowa politics, Public Opinion, to cause a senator grassley to change his mind about whether there should be a hearing or not . Senator klobuchar i think that is going to be up to senator grassley. I have worked with him on a number of issues. We have some major bills, delay fwith pharmaceutical companies. I have had a Good Relationship with him. I would hope that i dont know what the numbers show in iowa, but iowa tends to have an open court system. They have had cameras in their Supreme Court in iowa. The Des Moines Register has been really outspoken on this. You look at nationally, as the president noted in the rose garden, 2 3 of the American People favor Going Forward with a hearing. Senator grassley or any other senators do not have to vote for this nominee. But i think they need to hear him out and let their constituents hear him out. This is a Public Servant that deserves it and our country deserves this hearing. John senator amy klobuchar, member of the judiciary from minnesota. How was that . Senator klobuchar that was a nice accent. Maybe closer to fargo accent. But very good. Of the Judiciary Committee, the Committee ChairmanCharles Grassley is getting challenged in his state over this issue. And he is being challenged for reelection by several democrats including patty judge. Well talk to her about her race in about this issue, senator grassley right after this. Joining us from des moines is former Lieutenant Governor of iowa, democratic candidate challenging Chuck Grassley for his senate seat. Patty judge, thanks for joining us. Patty, im curious about, that you have jumped on this Supreme Court issue pretty hard just in the last 24 hours. Explain to me what you were doing right now both as a matter of process and a matter of politics to try to bring pressure on Charles Grassley to bring garland up for real consideration in the u. S. Senate. Well, sure. I first started talking about this issue very soon after Justice Scalias death when almost immediately chuck informed us he is not going to hold any hearing and has not backed off of that position. I think it is a wrong approach and an obstructionist way of handling government and we deserve better. Now with the name garland put forth by the president yesterday, i think we should need to have a hearing and learn about this gentleman. I think thats senator grassleys job as chairman of the Judiciary Committee and i hope hell do that. Beyond the merits of the argument that youre making just talk to me about the politics and explain to me the theory of the case by which you think this is an issue on which senator grassley could be politically vulnerable. I believe he is vulnerable on this issue. This election cycle we have really seen so much dissatisfaction with politics as usual and playing political games. I think the voting public and definitely here in iowa is fed up with that. We saw it in our caucuses and are seeing it now across the country. It is an issue people feel strongly about. Whether it is obstructing a hearing, whether it is refusing to pass a budget, whatever the issue i think people expect that elected officials do the job. Find a path to finding solutions and not just to fold their arms and say were not going to do it. With all due respect youve won some races in iowa. Youve lost some. Chuck grassley has won a lot. How can you make the claim hes out of touch with what iowans think about this issue given his track record . Well, weve been watching him over the last few months and definitely believe that Public Opinion is not with him. I think he is very vulnerable on this issue. And we intend to keep it in front of the public. I think it is having a real effect on him. His answers are just not dont hold much water. And iowans see through that. You know, we pride ourselves in our politics and people can see a lot of double speak when they hear it. Do you predict hell lose the general election regardless of whether youre the nominee or not if he doesnt hold a hearing . You know, i think im the best candidate or i wouldnt have gotten into the race. We know that it takes someone with some name identification and someone that can seriously challenge him. As you said, ive won a lot. Ive lost a few. I am a known person here in the state as Chuck Grassley is and i think this is going to be a good headtohead contest. Tell me, governor, what your sense is beyond this issue or the other areas in which you think that senator grassley is vulnerable. He obviously has been in that office for a pretty long time now and has not just won a number of elections but won some quite commandingly. What are the other issues on which you would take the fight if youre the nominee . We never know in an election how things will turn from now until next fall, but i definitely believe that hes vulnerable on issues like protecting social security, Affordable Health care, affordable college, raising the minimum wage. These are all issues that. Hould be happening he and the Republican Leadership are stonewalling on them and they are things we need to make happen and soon after this next election. Just a little political analysis of your state which has become a battleground state at the president ial level, has gone blew the last couple cycles, but has at this moment at least a republican governor and two republican senators. Whats the current kind of state of iowas purpleness as it were . You know, iowa is always kind of purple. Again, i think thats because we are so political with our first in the nation caucuses. People listen and study and talk. But as you said, we have gone blue for the last two cycles and i believe that that will happen again this cycle in the president ial race and i believe that we have a chance at taking one of those senate seats. Thank you, patty judge. We appreciate you coming on the show. Up next mark halpern will give us a little glimpse into ted cruzs Campaign Across the country there in houston. If youre watching in washington, d. C. You can also listen on bloomberg 9 the. 1 fm. You can also listen to us on bloomberg 99. 1 fm. Now here in houston is ted cruzs chief spin meister. I mean spokes person. The pride of little rock is here in houston to talk about the man she works for now, ted cruz. You guys are picking up some endorsements. That rubio quasiendorsement and Lindsey Graham. Did Lindsey Graham and ted cruz talk before he bestowed that endorsement . There have been a lot of conversations with a lot of different folks throughout the last couple weeks or so and re thrilled to have senator graham back us and host a fundraiser and show his support. We expect more to come. Of course this morning senator rubio saying that ted cruz is the only conservative in this race. That goes a long way and were seeing and sensing more and more of that. We had Carly Fiorina endorse us last week. She had been campaigning across the country. What were seeing more and more, people recognize that ted cruz is the true, consistent conservative. Even those who campaign hard against him. They see him as someone who is going to fight against washington as usual and, clearly, based on the results of these elections people are fed up with washington. They want to see someone change. Whether theyre currently in washington or washington outsider they want someone who will stand up and fight washington. Theyre acknowledging that ted cruz is a person i mean, you have to defeat someone to defeat donald trump. I want to ask two things about strategy your candidate is involved in some people are confused by including me. One is you competed in florida and ohio. It is great to compete everywhere. But donald trump won one state handily. John kasich won the other. Why compete in arizona, a state by all indications donald trump is way ahead . Do you think theyre going to win arizona . There is strategy going on here. Part of it is to play in places where we can do you predict ted cruz will win arizona . We look to do well in all these states. Doing well doesnt help you. Got to win or you get nothing. Look. The strategy up until now is to acquire as many delegates as we possibly can. Are you planning playing to win in arizona . Is that why youre going to arizona . Our strategy to win in florida was successful. Are you planning to win in arizona . Is that why youre going on television and why the senator is going there . Were going on television in arizona and also in utah and several states. Ill move on. Ill ask you one more time. Are you trying to win arizona . Our goal is to do as well as we possibly can in every state and acquire as many delegates. The good thing moving forward with the map, the next 22 primaries on the map look good for us. 14 of them are close primaries, which are more beneficial for ted given that its republicans going to the ballot box. Four of them are republicans and independents, which are beneficial. There are four that are socalled trump primaries that are open for democrats, independents, and republicans. Were looking a the next 22 primaries are, many of them are favorable to ted. Close primaries when we have republicans, hard core conservatives coming out to the ballot box. And caucuses where youve done better. Another thing people are questioning is you put out a memo on Election Night before all the results were announced and youre making claims about the ability to get a majority of the delegates or even to win more delegates than donald trump. Some people say that is kind of undermining your credibility in sort of convincing people there is a path here. Is there actually still today as we sit here a path where ted cruz wins a majority of the delegates before the convention . I have the memo right here. Yes. There are several paths to victory here. It could be us winning the 1237 outright and having this settled before we get to the convention. Thats what im asking you about. Have you heard from people saying, alice, kind of strange, makes it look like you dont have a im saying there are several people are saying that is not a path. That there are other paths but that one isnt a path right now. There are several paths to a ted cruz victory. That being one of them. The other is acquiring as many delegates as we can taking this to convention and winning this outright on the convention floor. And we feel when we get to convention when there are more conservatives, more committed, life long republicans deciding this, that ted cruz is going to walk away the winner. This makes this election so exciting. Of course we got into this not knowing who would be in this spot at this stage of the game at this time last year. This is going to be an exciting its been an Exciting Campaign but there is a chance this will be decided at convention. The key for our strategy moving forward, weve got tremendous resources to execute our longterm strategy. Well continue to do what weve been doing competing hard in these states where the delegates are awarded proportionally to continue to rack up delegates. With the close primaries on the horizon they are beneficial to ted and we look forward to that. Senator cruz is emphasizing the border and immigration as he competes in winner take all arizona. Tell me what the difference is from your point of view between ted cruz and donald trump on for what mr. Trump has been the signature issue of immigration. Ted is not going to be flexible on anything he says or does or executes when it comes to immigration. He will be in arizona tomorrow. Hell be on the border touring the border with a farm family in southern arizona. Theyre going to be sharing with him. What is the difference between cruz and trump on immigration . One thing is for sure. Ted has been committed to first and foremost securing the border and not coming up donald trump . With some pie in the sky story about well get mexico to pay for the wall. That is not going to happen. Ted is providing Practical Solutions to the immigration problem first and foremost securing the border, enforcing existing laws, and not providing amnesty for people here in this country illegally. How would you characterize, you characterize trumps position here on people illegally as amnesty . Absolutely. Here is the thing. We county know what donald trump is we dont know what donald trump is going to speak tomorrow. He is on both sides of virtually every issue and has acknowledged on many news outlets what he is talking the New York Times when he has the off the record portion of the New York Times reporter, admitting that what he has been saying on the campaign trail with regard to immigration that he has no intention whatsoever of carrying that through if he were to be the nominee. That speaks volumes. And many times he has said whether hes taken both sides of the issue or said he would be flexible on it or in this case acknowledging to a reporter that what he is saying about immigration is simply campaign rhetoric, that should be a concern. As we head to the northeast there are a bunch of contests eft. The kind of republicans who win primaries in the northeast. What are the arguments you would make to say that ted cruz can do well and win delegates in states like new jersey, connecticut, new york, pennsylvania . First of all well continue to have momentum as we move through the next primary and caucus states. Well have the resources to execute a ground game and thats critical. Many of these states weve shown tremendous victories on and acquired delegates, we have a tremendous amount of resources not just in terms of having raised 72 million but we have a strong Field Operation were executing to various states and that is going to play a key in us winning in all areas whether northeast or out west as well. Thank you so much. For ted cruz campaign, we appreciate it. Thank you. March madness after this. Join us once again as our number cruncher Ken Goldstein for a segment we call fondly by the numbers. Tonights segment is called march adness. Thanks for joining us from washington. I want to talk to you first of all about a topic youve referred to in terms of bracket busting. Talk to us about the expectations about the kind of money well spend on ads and what has actually happened. I have a feeling maybe the expectations and the reality are somewhat different. Sure. Some have the number a bit higher but a good consensus of what the political ad spending would be in 2016 was about 14. 2 billion about 75 on broadcast and 25 on cable. Again, some people had the number even higher. Day weve had a little under 370 million spent on political advertising in the president ial race and of that overall number about onethird of that, even a little more than onethird should be on the president ial race. So the question is, is what weve seen so far that 369 million, more or less than it should be if we were on pace to meet those numbers . So on the one hand its a little bit more. If you look back to 2008 or if you look back to 2012, that is way more money than was spent on tv in those races. But theres a couple factors that show the pace slowing. So first of all, the great majority of that spending was just in three states new hampshire, iowa, and south carolina. And the pace has slowed after that. And the other point is, and this is especially the case on the republican side, the majority spenders on the republican side who spent over 75 million with right to rise and over 50 million with conservative solution project were the super pacs of two candidates, jeb bush and marco rubio, who arent in the race anymore. So it seems higher but there are some danger signs and of course there is the trump effect. All right. Ken, lets talk about the trump effect and what we call the unsweet 16. Trump obviously has gotten good ratings for tv. But hes not spent a lot for a big republican frontrunner on ads. If he is the nominee in the general election what is the danger for the tv stations that tend to make a lot of money from political ads if trump continues to go on media and not on pay tv . As you said, tv executives love the high ratings that trump generates but theyre very concerned on what trump could do to the ultimate ad spend. Hes only spent about 17 million himself on advertising. But the big danger for some of these broadcasters who have begun to rely or have become very reliant on political ad spending in even numbered years is the groups who as we talked about a bunch, a three or four times as much as the candidates, and spend i dont know what the technical term is, a ton of money on political advertising, whether they sit out the president ial race. So thats a real possible, two real possible down factors. One that trump, himself, is not going to spend a lot and, two, that theres not going to be lots of republican groups coming to bat for trump. On the other hand, ill hedge a little bit here. If trump changes how the 2016 elections look, that could increase spending in some other races. So maybe trump makes some states competitive that werent competitive before. That could draw ad spending in those states. Or what if trump on the ticket makes some senate races and house races more competitive than we would have thought and so all of those super pacs and groups that would have spent big money for republicans in the president ial race now instead are saving money to defend house and senate seats . You dont have to be a big basketball fan to know the worst thing you can do on court is an air ball. In fact, people say air ball, air ball. During the games. You have come to the conclusion that the antitrump spending so far on the air is basically an air ball. Please explain. Well, you know, again. Its difficult to do this in real time and always much more fun to be the couch coach than the real coach. And to say how the shots should have gone in rather than screaming air ball. But i do think it was a bit of an air ball. About 80 million has been spent against donald trump, which when you measure that against all the free media that hes gotten isnt a ton. But what is even more perplexing to me is over half the antitrump spending has happened after march first, after super tuesday. So theyve done it when lots of the elections had already happened. When lots of the delegates had already been selected. Look at a place like florida where we had a primary and a lot was made of the 8 million in the last week against donald trump. One, 8 million isnt really a lot of money and, two, almost 50 of Florida Republican voters voted early so all of that money was spent when half of Florida Republican primary electorates had already voted. And recently, we have an ad that was out that has women reading quotes, inflammatory quotes from donald trump. Its a 60second ad and it seems pretty powerful. But starting on this past tuesday, march 15, after not only super tuesday was done but after florida, north carolina, ohio, when illinois and missouri were done, which is a bit perplexing. Right. It is not only an air ball dauth but it came after the buzzer. Thanks for that great segment. Up next what Elizabeth Warren will not say. After this. Ted cruz graham endorsements are a big deal. I agree a hundred percent. You know who could have won the day . Cbs this morning just played their interview with senator Elizabeth Warren a little bit differently. Here. See what i mean in this very, very, heavily edited version of their interview. You have not yet made an endorsement. Will you do it before the election . I think he should be in the white house and president of the United States. On tomorrows show well talk to u. S. Labor secretary tom perez. Until then. It is friday the 18th of february. I am rishaad salamat. This is trending business. Rishaad here is a look at what were watching asian equities heading for again. Less optimism in tokyo. The yen jumping once again. Coming under more pressure because of that, reluctant to raise pay. Japan says another blow to the stalling revival plan