Transcripts For KNTV Meet The Press 20160417

Called bathroom law. Does it discriminate against the Lgbt Community . Ill ask the governor, pat mccrory if reaggregates signing that law. Joining me is Chris Matthews. Kathleen parker. Radio talk show host hugh hewitt and perry bacon. Welcome to sunday, it is meet the press. From nbc news in washington, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Donald trump got wiped out in the delegate race in yet another state yesterday. In wyoming, ted cruz won all the delegates that were up for grabs at yesterdays wyoming state convention. Now, trump says it would have been a waste of time and money for him to campaign there, claiming the system is rigged and as the republican establishment is trying to take the nomination away from him. Well get to that story later in the show. But well begin with the democrats. And the intersection of money, politics and hollywood and my surprisingly frank conversation with George Clooney. Last night in los angeles, and the night before in san francisco, george and amal clooney hosted fundraisers for Hillary Clinton where the top ticket set you back 353,000. For that price you got to sit at the same table with Hillary Clinton and the clooneys. It was very much an event foreign the 1 of the 1 . This did not escape the attention of the Bernie Sanders campaign or supporters who threw real dollar bills at clintons motorcade. Were in the money sanders of course has made opposing wall street and money in politics the centerpiece of his campaign. I got a chance yesterday to talk to George Clooney from his home outside of l. A. And he was open and candid about all the money. Welcome to meet the press, mr. Clooney. Thank you, chuck. Let me start with dinner you cohosted on friday night. Big fundraiser i know that you have planned for later tonight. Do you look at at how much is being raised and i think the cost of the friday night dinner, 353,000 a couple, to be a cochair. Do you think thats an obscene amount of money . Yes. I think its an obscene amount of money. I think that you know we had some protesters last night when we pulled up in san francisco. And theyre right to protest. Theyre absolutely right. It is an obscene amount of money. The Sanders Campaign when they talk about it is absolutely right. Its ridiculous that we should have this money in politics i agree. Our camera caught you having a conversation with the protesters. What did you say to them . Well, it was a funny thing. I tried to talk to them and one said i was some corporate shill which, you know me, thats one of the funnier things you would say about me. And then he just said you sucked at batman, and i said, you kind of got me on that one. Then i walked away. That was that was basically it. But, you know i think whats important what i think the Clinton Campaign has not been good at explaining is this. This is the truth. The overwhelming amount of money that were raising and it is a lot, but the overwhelming amount of the money that were raising is not going to hillary to run for president. Its going to the down ticket. Going to the congressmen and senators to try to take back congress. The reason thats important and the reason its important to me is because we need im a democrat, so if youre a wrgoin disagree, but we need to take the senate back because we need to confirm a Supreme Court justice because that fifth vote on the Supreme Court can overturn Citizens United and get this obscene, ridiculous amount of money out so i never have to do a fundraiser again. Thats while doing it. So you dont enjoy doing these fundraisers . No, i dont anybody does. I dont think politicians do. Im sure you have covered them before. Its not the most fun thing to do you know, i spend probably a quarter of my time now raising millions and millions of dollars to fund my foundation which is basically chasing and looking for money that these corrupt politicians all around the world are hiding. The Panama Papers have been actually incredibly helpful. We have forensic accountants. But this is all a very big part of things that are important to me. I really want Citizens United. I think its the worst one of the worst laws passed since i have been around. You know, Bernie Sanders obviously you have noted that his campaign was criticizing this. He was asked about your fundraiser specifically and he tried he backed off. Sure. He said this its not a criticism of clooney. It is a criticism of a corrupt Campaign Finance system where big money interest its not clooney, but the people who are coming to this event have undue influence over the political process. Do you think people that are coming to your event, tonight and went last night, that they that they think they will get extra access to a president clinton . No. I actually dont think thats true. I think there is a difference between the Koch Brothers and us. You know . The difference is, if i succeed if we succeed in electing an entire congress, but a senate and a president , young, the tax policies that they would enact would probably cost us a lot more money quite honestly. The Koch Brothers would profit if they get their way and thats what you know, we have theres no profit for us in this. You know, understanding this. The Koch Brothers have said theyre going to spend 900 million not on the presidency. But on the down ticket. On the senators and the Gubernatorial Race and the local races, and so our job is to try and counter that in some way. You actually had plenty of nice things to say about Bernie Sanders. I think you did an interview with the guardian where you said you liked the issues he was bringing up. You thought he was pushing Hillary Clinton in a certain way. Im curious, why did you pick clinton over sanders . Well, i worked with secretary clinton as a secretary particularly when when sudan and south sudan were looking to vote for their own independence. It was an incredibly dangerous time for that country and there were you know, hundreds of thousands of people of lives at risk. Between the secretary and the Security Council and some of the people on the ground, kofi annan, jimmy carter, thousands of people on the ground, we worked very hard to make sure that didnt happen. She understood it, she understood the issues even though we dont have much reason to Pay Attention to the sudan. We dont trade with them or get money from them. We found her to be knowledgeable and to care about the issues and we have worked together since then and i have been a very big fan of hers. But i want to say this. I really like bernie. I think his what hes saying in this election is very important if youre a democrat again to have these conversations. I hope he stays in for the entire election. And if he were to win the nomination, i will do whatever i can including if asked a fundraiser like this, again, to try to keep bringing to try to give him or her, hillary i hope she wins, a senate. Because honestly we see what happens when a president tries to get their Supreme Court justice confirmed without the senate. You have you have minced no words about your feelings about donald trump. I think you called him a xenophobic fascist. I hope im quoting you correctly. I think youre pretty close. Fair enough. What have your interactions been with him . Ever had any personal i met him once. I was sitting down at a table. He was nice. Then we talked a couple of times, i think. And then he went on larry king and told everybody i was very short. I met you sitting down. But no, its not about that. You know, heres the point about whats going on right now on the other side. Trump and cruz are making this a campaign of fear. We have to be afraid of everything. We have to be afraid of refugees. We have to be afraid of muslims, we have to be afraid of minorities. And the question is, this is an important one, are we really going to be scared of the very things that have made our country great . And if the answer is, yes, then we have history to answer to. Because were not afraid. We are not a country. We are not a country that is afraid. I refuse to accept that. Why do you think fear has been working at least in the Republican Party . Because fear has always worked one way or another. In elections, fear has always been a great you know, one of the great tools of any election. But the reality is, we are not the descendants of fearful people. Were not. So no, were not going to ban muslims from this country. Thats never going to happen. Were not going to go back to torture. And we are we are not going to kill the families of terrorists or suspected terrorists. Because that is not who we are. And if we did, we would make our grandparents and their parents would be ashamed of us. Im curious, hollywood and a lot of movie studios were aggressive in putting pressure on the governor of georgia to veto a bill that would have made it easier to discriminate against gays and lesbians and other folks and some of that same pressure is being applied to North Carolina. First of all, do you approve of pressure like that and what do you make of the North Carolina law . Well, i am im a protester i got arrested in d. C. A couple of years ago with my father protesting. Im a big believer in protesting. I think it matters from the 56 montgomery bus protest to the apartheid protest that i was part of when i was a young man. But i find these to be really effective because these are big corporations that are protesting. When you have ibm and walmart of all people and General Electric and people like that coming at you, it affects people. We saw it with mike pence in indiana, we saw it with jan brewer in arizona. I think that theyre going to have some great effect and i think the law is ridiculous of course. All right, George Clooney, i have kept you long enough. Thank you for coming on, i appreciate it. Thank you, chuck, i appreciate it. As you saw there, that was George Clooney, striking an unusual conciliatory tone towards Bernie Sanders but thursday nights debate got pretty heat and it wasnt so conciliatory. Wait a minute, wait, come on. I have stood on the debate can i with senator sanders eight prior times. I have said the exact same thing. There you go. The New York Primary is on tuesday. Joining me is Debbie Wasserman schultz of florida, as well as the panel. Madam chairman, nice to see you. Let me start with what George Clooney said, a big chunk of this is obscene. Do you agree . Absolutely. Theres an obscene amount of money in politics im a cosponsor along with many of my colleagues that would overturn the Citizens United. We need to make sure that we can keep elections that like we did with changing congressional the Congressional District and redistricting across the country that voters to choose their representatives and that we dont have outside undue influence come in and swoop in and make decisions on behalf of the majority of voters. As i said, people see the panel is here. Chris matthews, kathleen parker, hugh hewitt and perry bacon. Chris, fire away. I think one thing that Bernie Sanders is saying is not true. Hes talking about members of congress, people in washington, taking money for speeches. You voted that out years ago. Right, there are no honorariums. The bottom line here, we have two candidates who are at the more narrow end of the funnel as we end the primary election contest. It will get more heated. But look, compared to the republicans who are in utter chaos, our two candidates have been substantive and robust. They have kept largely to the issues that are important to the American People. Talked about how they want to build on the congressional delegates Congressional Democrats legacy. We want to move the country for and help people reach the middle class. They have slightly different approaches to how to get there. But its a substantialtive discussion. Bernie sanders has really attacked the 1990 the crime bill of 94 and welfare bill of 96 were bad legislation. Do you agree with that . I think the impact of the crime bill has had some important effects and some detrimental effects. Both of our candidates voted for the crime bill. I think most democrats would agree that there needs to be reforms so that we can make sure that sentencing and the way we manage our criminal Justice System is a lot more equitable and fair than it is today. Kathleen . Going back to the financing of political campaigns Everybody Loves to talk about how much we dislike Citizens United. Youll find republicans dislike it too. Certainly thats not reflected in how they vote. Well, mitt romney spoke out about how much he disliked it because it gives so much power to people who are sort of marginal well, benefiting it handsomely. Thats not my question, im laying that out as a prefatory note. Is there any consideration given to the possibility of limiting campaigns as other countries do, to make them two months and make them publicly funded. Would it be possible . Only by democrats. Certainly democrats have supported Public Financing of campaigns. I know i do. And many of my colleagues do. We do need to have, you know, an effort that both sides come together and try to make that reform. But republicans have no interest in changing the Campaign Finance system. They support the hundreds of millions of dollars of outside undue influence swooping in and weighing heavily on the outcome of any election contest thats obscene. We need to elect majorities in congress that the democrats can make a difference and change. Hugh, last question. Let me get to something that didnt come up in the cow bell debate on thursday night. After lewandowski was charged, Many Democrats and many republicans said of Donald Trumps Campaign Manager he should be fired an he wasnt. If any of secretary clintons aides are indicted in the fbi server investigation, should the same standard apply . Im not going to go near that. I dont think thats going to happen and attend of the day well have a campaign that will play out. Our nominee will be elect president of the United States because we are on the side of the American People and ultimately its not about whether or not its going to happen. Its about the standard. If a senior aide is ever indicted in the campaign as mr. Lewandowski was, should they be fired immediately . Again, i dont think that thats going to happen. So its not a question that is one that i think make sense to answer. Im focused on making sure that when we get to the end of our primary, were preparing for the general election we can and we will elect our nominee, the 45th president of the United States. Well leave it there. Debbie wasserman shult, thank you for coming in. Coming up, donald trump loses a delegate contest in yet another state at a convention. If he cant stop the bleeding, can he beat ted cruz at this summers convention if he cant win on the first ballot. Town ins or across the globe in under an hour. Whole communities are living on mars and solar satellites provide earth with unlimited clean power. In less than a century, boeing took the world from seaplanes to space planes, across the universe and beyond. And if you thought that was amazing, you just wait. U do all this research then smash it into a tree. On a perfect car, your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. If you want to know why donald trump is so frustrated with the delegate selection process, heres yet another example. Yesterday, in wyoming, ted cruz without a primary or a caucus won all 14 delegates available at the state convention. It means cruz wound up with 23 pledge delegates from wyoming with trump and marco rubio each receiving just one. So what happened in wyoming has been typical of this campaign, though trump is winning the overall battle for votes in delegate state and primaries, hes losing the handtohand combat over delegates awarded at state convention. And as a result trump has ricochetted between trashing the Republican National committee and trying to make peace with it. And its clear now though that donald Trump Realizes the game is about winning on the first ballot at the convention or hes doomed. The Republican National committee, they should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this kind of crap. The fight between the republican frontrunner and the Republican Party smoldering for days is turning to an allout war. The system, folks, is rigged. Its a rigged system. Its a rigged system, folks. The republican system is rigged. An onagain offagain feud with Party Leaders is ratcheting up as trump tries a campaign reboot. After a crushing 13point defeat in wisconsin, trump turned a page sidelining cory lewandowski. Hiring a new delegate wrangler Paul Manafort and political director with close ties to the rnc, reaching out to members of congress and limiting exposure to the media to just friendly interviews. I will be so president ial you wont believe it. But even as trumps new team attempts to keep him scripted. Get him out. Dont hurt him. See how nice i am . Putting out a the wall street journal oped promising to work closely with the chairman of the Republican National committee and top gop officials to reform our election policies. Trump himself shows no sign of letting up. The Republican National committee they better get going because ill tell you what youre going to have a rough july at that convention. But can trump afford to alienate the Party Insiders he needs to unite the party and win a general election . Hes already struggling with swing voters. Whos going to pay for the wall . 79 of hispanic voters now view trump unfavorably. Ill use the word anchor baby. Excuse me. Ill use the word anchor baby. So do 67 of suburban women and 72 of moderates. Youve called women you dont like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. Your twitter account only rosie odonnell. Three years ago after mitt romneys defeat the party charted a path back to the white house that imagined a big tent Republican Party and recommended new appeals to women and minority voters. A welcoming attitude that we need to have in our party. I think that we had some biologically stupid things that were said in the last election. Im joined now by the chairman of the Republican National committee Reince Priebus. Chairman priebus, welcome back to meet the press. Good morning. Let me start with thank you. Your republican frontrunner continually calling the process youre overseeing rigged. How do you tell Republican Voters you are running a fair process when the frontrunner is calling what youre doing rigged . Well, im not you know, look, i dont know what the motivation is. Theres really nothing thats rigged or being changed or altered. These are the same rules that were in place basically for over a century. But at the very least theres no way around the fact that all of these states submitted their delegate allocation plans by october 1st of 2015. And not a single thing has changed about it. These conventions that people talk about, number one, its not common, but a few states out west use a Convention System where delegates start competing at the county level a month ago and they go through the county, the precinct, the Congressional District and a state convention. And the candidates participate the whole way through. And no one was complaining except for when it was all over. And look, every state is different. And you can reform the system. I mean, look, this has been an ongoing debate. Right. But you have to go state by state by state. Its a pretty extraordinary task. How concerned are you when donald trump says the rnc better be prepared for a rough july . And are you concerned about reports of threats being made to delegate segate delegates . What do you say to any campaign doing that . Well, sure, look, theres no room for threatening the delegates or the convention or anybody that would be going to our national convention. But i also think some of this is rhetoric and hyperbole. And the truth is is that the delegates themselves are the ones that write the rules for the convention. The rnc doesnt write any rules. The rnc has basically an administrative role at the convention. Its by majority rule the delegates can run the convention. So its on them to decide what they want to do about a lot of these issues. Not us. Whos backing this nominee, the voters or the delegates . You know, i think its a combination. But its empowered by the voters, so the voters empower the delegates. But ultimately the delegates who in most cases are bound by the outcome of caucuses and primaries and conventions make the decisions at the convention. Think about this, i think we lose sight of what the word convention means. Its not a fourday party. A convention in its legal sense is the members of the party coming together every four years to write the rules of the party, to elect officers of our party and a nominee. It has a legal value. Its no different than when like, you know, if the boy scouts have a national convention, they do similar things. And thats whats happening. But the media never covers the fact that we actually do a lot of business at the convention. But now everyones interested. Yes, they are. In the business of a national convention. Thats for sure. Look, we just have a brand new nbc the wall street journal poll out. Among Republican Voters we asked the simple question, who should be the winner . Should it be the candidate with the most primary votes regardless of whether its a majority, or the candidate who has the choice of the delegates, by two to one, chairman priebus, Republican Voters say its got to be the one who has the most primary votes. And thats going to be donald trump by a lot. What do you tell those voters if its not trump . Well, look, theres if donald trump if he was winning the majority of votes, hed likely have the majority of delegates. But thats not actually whats happening. Hes winning in plurality of votes. And he has a plurality of delegates. And under the rules and under the concept of this country a majority of rules on everything. Majority rules on the electoral college. Majority rules at the dnc, the rnc, and i dont know too many places where majority doesnt rule. And i would suppose that if people were asked a question like that, it makes sense but it doesnt it only tells you half the story. Very quick, chairman, ive got a couple of campaigns that are worried youre going to allow trump to bully you. What do you say to that . Bully you and cave to his demands. No. Listen, the rules are set. Ive been pretty clear. I think ive done more tv in the last two weeks than i have in two years and its because im not going to allow anyone to rewrite the rules of our party. All right. Chairman priebus, thanks for coming on meet the press this morning. Good to see you. You bet. When we come back, check out this sign. Welcome to North Carolina, due to our stance on lgbt rights, please set your clock back 100 years. Obviously a protest sign. That of course refers to the bill that North Carolinas governor pat mccrory signed into law that many say discriminates law that many say discriminates against the Lgbt Community. Safety doesnt come in a box. Its not a banner that goes on a wall. Its not something you do now and then. Or when its convenient. At bp, its training and retraining in stateoftheart simulators so were better prepared for any situation. Its giving offshore teams support from onshore experts, so were better prepared for any situation. So we have extra sets of eyes on our wells. And its empowering anyone to stop a job if something doesnt seem right. So everyone comes home safely. Were working every day at bp, to improve our training, our technology, our culture. Because safety is never being satisfied. And always working to be better. Because safety is never being satisfied. When they thought they should westart saving for retirement. Le then we asked some older people when they actually did start saving. This gap between when we should start saving and when we actually do is one of the reasons why too many of us arent prepared for retirement. Just start as early as you can. Its going to pay off in the future. If we all start saving a little more today, well all be better prepared tomorrow. Prudential. Bring your challenges. And casuper food . Is that recommend sya real thing . Cedar . Its a great school, but is it the right one for her . Is this really any better than the one you got last year . If we consolidate suppliers, whats the savings there . So should we go with the 467 horsepower . Or is a 423 enough . Good question. You ask a lot of good questions. I think we should move you into our new fund. Sure. Ok. But are you asking enough about how your wealth is managed . Wealth management at charles schwab. North Carolina Governor Pat Mccrory has found himself on the front lines of the latest battle for lgbt rights. Heres what happened. The states largest city charlotte passed an ordinance that prevented businesses from discriminating against lesbians, gays and transgender people. In response governor mccrory quickly signed into law a bill thats being called by some antigay, the socalled bathroom law. The law does a few things. First, it invalidates the charlotte ordinance and prevents other municipalities from passing. Matching their birth certificate gender rather than the gender they identify with. Governor mccrory has been forced to defend and clarify the laws intent, which goes much further than repealing the charlotte ordinance. And the governor of North Carolina joins me now. Governor mccrory, welcome to meet the press. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Since you signed the executive order that was intended to try, i think you were trying to ratchet back some of the controversy here. You still had more Companies Joining the boycott here, bloomberg, capital one, united airlines, william sonoma. Thats just on friday. 160 companies have called for its repeal. You still have an nba commissioner not yet committing to keeping the allstar game in charlotte. Any estimate of lost revenue so far we have come up with conservative collati conservative calculations, some suggested billions, all of this do you have regrets signing this law . As governor, as i did with mayor, i will always call out government overreach. This example, the city of charlotte where i was mayor for 14 years, did government overreach. And what your preclip didnt mention was it was the left that brought about the bathroom bill, not the right, in the city of charlotte like the city of houston tried to do and was rejected by 61 of the vote. The city of charlotte passed a bathroom ordinance mandate on every private sector employer in charlotte, North Carolina, one of the largest 15th, 16th largest cities in the United States of america. And i think thats government overreach. Its not governments business to tell the private sector what their bathroom, locker room or shower practices should be. Not only the private business but also the ymca and other nonprofit organizations. And by the way, this is what 29 other states also do not have these types of but you know restroom, lockerroom and bathroom policy. You talk about overreach, you say charlotte overreach. Right. How did the state of North Carolina, the State Government not overreach in just the same way. You mentioned houston, voters made that decision. Right. You can make a case voters made the decision in charlotte. Charlotte rejected it then elected two new members of the city council. This has been a long debate in the city of charlotte. This is where they came down. You guys debated for like ten seconds. I mean, dont you regret the time of debate . Actually, charlottes vote was a very little debate. They had a lot of public speakers speaking for and against no, that night. But this has been months of a debate. Real quick, charlotte had originally turned it down just like houston has. And there hasnt been outrage. There wasnt outrage towards charlotte when they turned it down initially. There was an outrage in houston, texas, where they turned it down recently. What ive learned is we have to have more dialogue and not threats. In hamlet, North Carolina, a small town that could be any town in the United States of america, i walked into a buffet restaura restaurant, africanamerican buffet restaurant and the people welcomed me with open arms and said thanks for protecting us. I got back in my car and i got a call from someone in Corporate America going, man, you got to change this, were getting killed. And it showed me the disconnect we had between the corporate suites and main street on a very complex subject. And a very personal subject regarding government policy of all things which didnt exist before this Group Brought this up. Its a very thoughtful thing to say about dialogue. Where was the dialogue first of all, your legislature i didnt want a special session. But the legislature to their defense but dialogue. We had an april 1st deadline in which the charlotte law was coming into effect. And they had to pass the law riert you said you werent worried about that deadline. I wasnt. The lawyers feared once it became into effect it would be harder to overturn. We can have that debate a longer time, but again, i dont think government should be telling the private sector what their restroom and shower law should be to allow a man into a womans restroom or shower facility at a ymca, for example. However, in government and im not going to tell the private sector any manufacturing plant, any bank can have their own policies. Nbc can have their own policy in charlotte, North Carolina, or anywhere in North Carolina. But i do plooef believe in our schools, our middle schools, our universities, we should continue to have the tradition that weve been having in this country for years. And we have a womens facility and a mens facility. You know, its worked out pretty well. And i dont think we need any further government interference. But this as we talked about this law went further than that. It wiped away the city of charlottes ability to govern, to do some things on their own. For instance, they cant even have their own minimum wage now. Why did you do that . Youre a former mayor of charlotte. Could you accept all these limitations that big State Government has put on city and local control . I made a point when i was mayor of charlotte for 14 years we dealt with fire and police and airports and roads and light rail lines, we didnt impose new regulations on businesses. And i dont think the government ought to be the hr director for every business whether it be in charlotte or greensboro or boone, North Carolina. And this is that fine line between how much does government tell the private sector in a regulatory way what to do. And in this case a city, which i still proudly call home, i think overstepped. And ive called out my own Republican Legislature in the past with magistrates and i said, no, the magistrates need to marry after the Supreme Court case what the Supreme Court said. I understand that. But you didnt in your executive order you didnt and youre not calling for a passage of protecting gay North Carolinans from discrimination if theyre fired in the private sector, why . Because im not the private sectors hr director. I am the hr director and governor of all state employees. And i signed an executive order which protects all state employees. In the ninth largest state in the United States of america, the same executive order that the louisiana governor just signed and got praised for it. I just happen to be a republican governor and i got criticized for doing the same thing. I have to say there are a little bit of politics involved here. With all due respect. Sure. Barry goldwater had said this when they were debating whether to have the civil rights act, debating whether government should be involved in dealing with Racial Discrimination and he said im unalterably opposed to any diskrim n krim ncrimina but not these that would fly in the face of constitution and require for their effective execution of a police state. Same was tried to use to defeat laws now considered untouchable. Laws that protect minorities. Absolutely. From discrimination in the private sector. Why dont gays and lesbians qualify . First of all, i dont know of any business right now in North Carolina and very similar to what nikki haley said is doing this. We have to deal with this extremely new social norm thats come to our realization in a very quick period of time and have these discussions about the complexity of equality while also balancing the concept of privacy including even privacy in the most private of areas of our life, which is a restroom, locker room or shower facility in our high schools. But gender identity is the same privacy. Its the same issue. Well, if thats the case theyre looking for that same privacy. I mean, do you want somebody who identifies as a woman, born on their birth certificate as a man, may look like a woman going into a mens bathroom . All i can say is we have 27 states is that fair to them . We have 27 states, not just this is not just a North Carolina debate. This is a National Debate thats just come on literally in the last three months. No one had heard of this debate until the houston ordinance was defeated by the people of the houston. We have 27 of 29 states that also dont have this type of mandate on private business including the state of new york. Im curious about due diligence. Sure. Did you meet with any transgender people before you signed that law . I have but ive met with transgender people in the past and ive met with them since and have had very positive conversations. Now, the conversation with a very powerful group called the human relations human rights council, my gosh, theyre more powerful than the nra. And they have millions of dollars, which makes me want to overturn united because i dont know who their donors are either. But they are putting on a lot of pressure. Instead of having good dialogue and i had wonderful dialogue with a transgender woman who is and we talked about each others issues. Theres passion on each side of the issue. Does it bother you at all, georgia defeated it does it bother you North Carolina, mississippi is basically the only other state let me correct you. Religious freedom bill. This was not a religious freedom bill. In fact, we have not had any religious freedom bill introduced in the state of North Carolina, one reason is because im governor. So the confusion by the National Media and the New York Times of indiana religious freedom bill, mississippi and georgia religious freedom bill, thats not the case. This is basically a restroom privacy issue versus equality. And these things needed to be discussed. Not threatened by hollywood or anyone. You know, hollywood, with all due respects to the hollywood the new batman and robin movie is playing in china. Okay. Which has anti terrible, terrible human rights violations. This is not like an issue of bathroom privacy or resroom privacy in North Carolina. And lets have this dialogue. And i welcome that dialogue. Governor mccrory, is there any way this gets repealed . I dont think the restroom i do believe the other parts of this bill. There is one part of the bill i disagreed with when i signed it and that is not able to sue within state courts. And that needs to be repealed. It was very poorly thought out. Well be watching for more. Governor mccrory, thank you very much. Appreciate it. When we come back, much more on the 2016 race. And then there was this last night on snl. Once im elected president , ill have a nice in the white house gym, go to the big banks, sit them down, if you have moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis like me, and youre talking to a rheumatologist about a biologic. This is humira. This is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. This is humira helping me reach for more. Doctors have been prescribing humira for more than ten years. Humira works for many adults. It targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. 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Jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive when we come back, the Republican Party has 31 governorships, the most senators since 2005 and the most members of the house since the hoover presidency. So why does it seem as though the party has a death wish when it comes to trying to win the the future belongs to the fast. And to help you accelerate, weve created a new company. One totally focused on whats next for your business. A True Partnership where people, technology and ideas push everyone forward. Accelerating innovation. Accelerating transformation. Accelerating next. Hewlett packard enterprise. You both have a perfect until one of you clips da food truck. Then your rates go through the roof. Perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Once i left the hospital after a dvt blood clot. What about my wife. What were building together. 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Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Eliquis treats dvt pe blood clots. Plus had less major bleeding. Both made switching to eliquis right for me. Ask your doctor if its right for you. Panel is back. Were going to discuss the republican president ial race with a lot going on in this show. Hugh hewitt, Reince Priebus is trying very hard to claim that the process is not rigged. Donald trumps trying very hard to paint it as rigged. Whos got the better pr case . Rnc has the better facts as Reince Priebus pointed out in your interview. They have instructed the committee this week not to make any rules changes. Any rule changes will be done by the delegates themselves. Donald trump does well building skyscrapers, not building state delegation majorities. He got beat in georgia last night, cue vik ki lawrence the night the lights went out in georgia. Won 12 consecutive victories including ill put up a graphic we have put together. He has beaten on delegates 2 to 1 since march 2nd. But that advantage has erased on tuesday with i tend trump is coming back because ivanka has returned to the trail. Shes a tremendous theres a piece in New York Times this morning on how she is poised and disciplined and bringing that to her fathers campaign. So the solution here is a fusion ticket cruztrump, but ivanka is the vice president. Let me tell you, trump has the same trump card that bernie has, democracy. Ever since at least the Kennedy Humphrey fight over the nomination in wisconsin and west virginia, certainly through reagan against bush, certainly obama versus hillary, we watched the primaries to see who the nominee is and now were told dont watch the primaries anymore, theres this thing at the convention with the rules and have to have a majority vote. The numbers you showed overwh m overwhelmingly show the Republican People believe in democracy, and trump bernie makes it against the billionaires and Citizens United same argument, people should vote. The problem, perry is that the political partys modeled their nominating process after the electoral college. Which by the way isnt exactly one person, one vote either. But i think trump has had a really good week in making this argument. If you look at we had these primaries for a reason and theyre not for fun, the idea is they matter to some extent. I disagree with chris in a little bit that Hillary Clinton and donald trump are winning the most delegates in the most states. I think for most people thats who the winner should be is and i think reince is going to make a better argument than the rules are the rules are the rules. How can you disagree with me . Hillary clinton is winning not the rhetorical argument is saying rhetorical argument. For the record i sort of agree with chris on that because it is a good argument. Look, we care about peoples votes, right . Oh, no, not really. But i think trump is actually going to have a very good week and actually a couple of really good weeks because hes obviously going to take new york. Hes predicted to get 85 to 90 of the 95 delegates and leftovers on Staten Island and who knows. But after that he goes onto pennsylvania, maryland and on and on. And then indiana going in. So hes going to build some fresh momentum and i think thats going to make a difference. By the way we have more of our nbc the wall street journal poll, a little taste of it, maybe it doesnt surprise people the two most popular republican president ial candidates overall are john kasich and Bernie Sanders. Right. Because theyre good people. Lowest negative rating among all the republican candidates, trump at 65 negative rating, ted cruz at 49 , hugh hewitt, those are tough numbers. Put uphill lair clinton, 56 negative rating. Parties are continuing bodies, they are not the public. They stand for an id logical set of principleprinciples. In nevada ted cruz got four nominations, i believe hes going to be the nominee because he is more consistently with the ideological pespectrum that is e continuing party. Hes going to have a good couple weeks, he aint getting close to 1237. Trump will be the nominee probably for the opposite reason you say. Why is every conservative radio guy basically for cruz . Explain that culture to me. Actually, theyre not. The only guy thats come out actually formally is mark levine who has an enormous im very neutral. Im switzerland. I dont endorse anyone. No, you said if trumps the nominee all i hear is radio talk for cruz. Only on mark levine is he strong that way. Those in the local markets who are longterm ideological conservatives like ted cruz because of his policies. I thought after wisconsin maybe ted cruz was going to be more popular among moderate republicans and polls are showing pennsylvania, maryland, new york, ted cruz is not brought in his coalition. Kathleen, quickly, i think new york values kneecaped him. Totally. And he couldnt figure out a way out of it. No, you cant get out of it. I think hes eating alone in a Fried Chicken joint in the bronx. I think now the Cruz Campaign wishes they said, hey, new york is yours, trump. We are going to camp out in indiana and pennsylvania. Remember the guy that did that before gary heart sort of making fun of new jersey aesthetical aesthetically, im glad im here and not guess what happened, new jerseys delegates went to walter mondale. Quick programming note, lester holt will be anchoring nightly news live from the middle east tomorrow and hell have an exclusive interview with the secretary of defense ash carter. Remember, there are serious issues that we are facing besides the way we argue about this election. And when we come back in 45 seconds well have end game. And the debate over the socalled bathroom law in North Carolina. Coming up, meet the press end game brought to you by boeing, building the future one make sure youre keeping up with your kids online accounts and the social media theyre using. Talk with them about appropriate online behavior. Being proactive and involved is the best way to protect your kids from predators and bullies. The more you know. Meet the press end game is brought to you by boeing, building the future one century at a time. End game time. Panel is here. Obviously i had governor mccrory on earlier. Kathleen parker, you and he sparred via column. You had a column, hit him hard. He did a letter to the editor hitting back at your column. We made up in makeup. Good to hear. What did you make of the governors responses this morning . Despite the fact the governor is from ohio, hes certainly mastered the southern arts of sweet talk and finesse. You know, the fact of the matter is as you pointed out theres still in place this prohibition that local municipalities can have their own anti sorry, discrimination laws. Now hes backing off of that now. And i think calling it more or less it was hasty, poor writing, crafting of the bill. And so thats good. I give him credit for that. But still, youre allowing the state is allowing private businesses, for example, to say, im sorry, but we dont serve gays here or we dont let gay people spend the night in our hotels. You know, theres no recourse for those people because unless these municipalities can pass their own antidiscrimination laws, then theyre out of luck. But on the bathroom bill this seems to me to be such a bogus issue altogether. I dont know what theyre afraid of. You know, its not as though youre going to have on the one hand ill hear from readers in North Carolina saying, so in other words you, kathleen parker, think that perverts, men, ought to be able to come into bathrooms and assault 10yearold girls, right . So theyre being fed some kind of crazy false narrative about what this is. The crazy thing is, where do they want the transsexuals to go . If someone identifies, dresses looks like a woman, that person shows up in a mens room, National Reagan airport, what happens then . If you follow the law the governor signed, what goes on then . You know, confusion in everything and probably a lot of disruption. Hugh, one thing we have to point out here is that i dont know if this is true or not, but this is yet another republican governor that i feel as if his legislature did something that maybe he didnt want to do and he felt as if he had no choice but to sign the legislation. Do you think thats at work here . Its possible. He did very well in his interview. He leaned into the problem letting Chris Matthews hang a lantern on your problem, showing up on meet the press on sunday, hell probably be reelected, going back to your clooney interview, i thought he was a better batman than ben affleck at least. The bathroom debates and batman debates here today. Campaign financing absolutely. Michael keaton. Michael koch lives in the same house he has i dont want to argue ability bathroom bills. I want to argue about isis and libya going downhill. This is not our terrain to fight. Perry bacon, its said this is what happens republicans overdid it on redistricting. Folks are listening to their constituents but only their constituents, almost a narrow band of them. Im not sure in this case thats even true. As you pointed out, georgia, south carolina, nikki haley said were not doing that law here. Very explicit about that. The governor of North Carolina legislature miss the boat here. He used the phrase changing social norms. Hes right, people transgender are more accepted today. Last year was a big year for gay rights. I think he might have you asked him have you talked to anyone transgender before this bill passed and he all but said no. I just think he made a political mistake here without thinking through the contours of the issue. Any time you have to have an executive order to a bill you signed three weeks before you probably didnt think about the first time very carefully. All right. Lets lighten things up. Last night snl was a real treat for seinfeld fans with larry david as Bernie Sanders encountering Julia Louis Dreyfus elaine. Once im elected president , ill have a nice in the white house gym. Then ill go to the big banks, ill sit them down and yad yadda yadda yadda, theyll be broken up. What . No, you cant yadda at a debate. You yaddaed over the best part. No, i mentioned the vits. Thats all today. Im going to have lobster bisque. Well be back next week because if its sunday, its meet the press. Press here is sponsored in part by barracuda networks, cloudconnected security and press here sponsored in part by barracuda network. Storage solutions that simplify i. T. Citi national bank, providing loans and lines of credit to help Northern California businesses grow. Do you know who this man is . Dennis fong is like joe namath, if joe namath were in the video game business. Is your team more important than your product . Mark sigel thinks so. This author shows us how Human Evolution is speeding up. Reporters Michelle Quinn of the mercury news and jacob ward of Aljazeera America this week on press here