Will face a huge constitutional challenge if cruz continues his bid for president said trump. Trump says cruz has been issued a passport from his native canada. He is playing the birther card where it can do the most damage accusing the most right wing candidate of being a card carrying canadian. Does it get any better than this . The Washington Post trump said this about cruz, republicans will have to ask themselves the question, do we want a candidate who can be tied up in court for two years. Trump had this question again and again. How do you have a candidate where there is something over the head of the party and that individual . So ted will be able to answer the question hopefully satisfactory. It is certainly a concern i guess for the party. I hope that naut the case. Im not involved in that. A lot of people are bringing it up. I would like to see ted do something where he goes into court and try to get some kind of order. I would not like to see that happen. Do you believe senator ted cruz is a natural born citizen . I dont know. I would seek a declaratory judgment if i were ted. If ted should eke it out and she has this cloud over his head i dont think it will be possible for him to do very well y. Dont think it is possible for the republicans to let it happen because there is doubt. People have doubt. Today out on the campaign trail cruz tried to shut down trumps new line of attack. As a legal matter the question is quite straightforward in settle law that the child of a u. S. Citizen born abroad is a natural born citizen. People will continue to make political noise about it, but as a legal matter it is quite straightforward. I think there are serious issues facing the American People, serious issues to be decided in this election and that is where our focus is going to stay is on the real issues that matter. Hallie jackson is on the ground with campaign. And katy tur. Lets go to vermont first because that is where the attack is coming from. I love this. I dont think it gets better than this. This is birtherism run wild. I have been talking to people. There is a little bit of a question about what natural born means and cant be tested until the guy gets elected president and then the question who has standing in the legal fight. What cruz is facing is trumps decision to do trash talk here and to raise the issue, make murkiness and get mud flying in the air. Your thoughts about is he going to stick with this fight . Will trump keep it up . You called this a few weeks ago. You said you were wondering why he hasnt brought up the attacks yet and now he is. I think he is going to stick with it. I think this is classic trump just questioning things saying everybody says so. People are worried. I am really worried about ted cruz. I think he should get a decklatory judgment and try to figure this out for the good of him and the good of the party. He is saying that i am not the one that is attacking. Im just responding to what i have heard from everybody else and he is able to keep this unofficial detent. What he is doing and has done in the past is testing out a line in the press to see how conservatives react. What we heard today on Rush Limbaugh is him giving him the green light to do it saying go at it, boys. Donald trump, i do think he will continue with this. Whether or not he does it at rallies will be another story. He and ted cruz are fight frg many of the same voters. There is concern or could be concern that he would alien ate some of his supporters by going after ted cruz. Remember a few months ago when he got booed for attacking marco rubio and they love him there . He did not like those boos. He doesnt want that same thing to happen at one of his rallies with his supporters in vermont or anywhere else. Hold on there. Lets go to hallie jackson. The beauty in this if you are trump this raises stuff in the air, throws crap in the air you didnt think would be in the air. We know the guy who has cuban background somehow was born in canada. What were his parents doing up there . Why didnt we know about this before . What is this . The canadian passport story. I have been reading in the paper about this y. Thought he did have a passport. Now saying he never had one. What is it . Reporter so the deal with this, you are right. Today ted cruz is talking about cuba and canada. He wants to be talking about north korea and iran. This is not the message he wants. You talk about questions. This is not a secret that ted cruz is canadian. His parents moved up there for some oil and gas work. They were working up there. The canada story is central to the narrative of his father who was a heavy drinker, leaving the family, abandoning he and his mother, coming back to canada and asking for forgiveness after he found the church. This is tied together in one. As for the whole issue of renounced citizenship two years ago or last may, may of 2014. So he has technically renounced citizenship. He didnt have to to it to run for president. Do we know about the passport . Did it exist in. We have to dig that up for you. That is such a great question because it is a tangible thing. Did he have one or didnt he have one . I think he is being chased around the block by donald trump. Hallie jackson, thank you and katy tur. Jim moore, the coauthor of bushs brain. Eliana johnson. Who are ted Cruz Birthers . These are people going after cruz the way a lot of republicans followed trump in going after the president on the same question of birth. I dont think he can be president. He is what the birther said obama was. He was not born in the country. We knew obama had one american parent. You know, i, too, would like to have an asterisk for canada. Im saying ted cruz cant be president unless he is not american. Im waiting for the moment that he gets the nomination and then i will file that beautiful lawsuit saying he is unqualified for the job. He is ineligible. This is too wild. You have Allen Grayson and geraldo. In november upheld the spot after hearing. But the chairman of the commission in New Hampshire said this issue is not settled at all. The courts have never said anything when it comes to the presidency and natural borne citizen despite stuff thrown at us. Let me go down to this question. What is this . This is the most conservative candidate and he has to defend his americanism. It is absurd. I think trump has hit a candidates weak spot and cruz who has maintained this uneasy detente is put in a difficult place because trump will elbow him. Cruz will have great difficulty responding. Its not a totally unprecedented situation. John mccain born in the panama canal. This is about if your parents its true as cruz argued and i argued if your parent is a republican i mean an american, you are. If that is the case what is this whole thing about obama . Nobody doubted his mother was his mother. If there is anything to cruzs argument then why was obama having to defend his americanism . Why did he have to defend he was american born . If cruz is natural born citizen. Why didnt cruz say that . It seems cruz has a problem here. He defended obama in this regard and of course obama is an american born of an American Mother even if he was born in kenya which he wasnt. It seems there is a problem of consistency and hypocrisy. Everybody is missing the irony that he wants to shut down the constitutional birth right for people canadian anchor baby. His parents wen up there to have him so he can have a canadian birth right. We dont know much about cruz down here because he hasnt been here since he got elected to the senate. He has been in iowa and New Hampshire and not done much for the state. We dont know a heck of a lot about him. I think this is a problem for him. He hasnt been able to effectively make it go away. He has not been convincing. It is also something that cruz wants to do. He wants to keep this murky because i think it helps him down the road to have donald trump be the crazy truther and cruz to be the more sane guy as this campaign gets down the road. You find cruz repulsive . Yes. Beyond repulsive. Actually. In 40 years of covering politics in texas i dont think i have ever met anyone who is trying to do this whole deal of send one message to texas and another to the rest of the country. Down here the unspoken agreement is you can talk tough about immigration all you want but the economy of this state is sitting squarely on the broad shoulders of immigrant workers. You can see who is slinging the hammers. But he takes it north of the mason dixon and its a completely different message. You are getting very deep. Let me get back on this joy i have on this one. For years the Republican Party has sat fat and happy as donald trump accused the president of the United States as being an illegal alien and assumed an identity that wasnt his, basically an identity thief and chuckled over it. John boehner says i dont tell me people what to think. Now it has become a disease of the wrong party. Enjoying it most is josh earnest. He was asked today if president obama was enjoying watching this birther fight play out on the right. Here is what earnest said. I dont know if he does, but i sure do. Look, it would be quite ironic if after seven or eight years of drama around the president s birth certificate if republican primary voters were to choose senator cruz as their nominee, somebody who actually wasnt born in the United States and only 18 months ago renounced his canadian citizenship. It sounds so medieval. For the moment this is the best part. Far from rushing the defense. That was about that. Take a listen to this. The way trump went after cruz very, very dangerous because he was using left wing liberal language. Going after cruz the way a liberal democrat. You dont want to do it that way. As far as trump hitting cruz or vice versa have at it, boys. Not going to say shouldnt happen. Explain why has Rush Limbaugh decided he likes this situation where the two top contenders, the number two challengers in the republican establishment winning all polls together and challenging each other in iowa and New Hampshire, the two top guys are one is accusing the other not being american based enough to be president. Why does i think there is some desire to have a fight on the antiestablishment part of the party where we had establishment candidates duking it out. You think he wants the two guys to fight with each other . I dont think it would bother him. Maybe he likes the noise. I like your attitude. Repulsive. I dont think i have said that about a politician. You havent met him. I met him and i see where you are going. Bernie sanders ratcheting up his attacks. Bernie said she cant be a progressive and a moderate. Bernie says he is a socialist and a democrat. Bernie needs to win New Hampshire to stay alive so he is accusing clinton of flipflopping. We will talk about that. The American People support stronger background checks for gun sales but House Speaker paul ryan who some people hoped for calls president obamas executive action a distraction. From what . What is ryans priority . Another vote to repeal the president S Health Care law today. What a waste of paper. Chris christie is getting a lot of buzz but coming under heavy fire from his establishment rivals who are fighting for the narrow piece of the pie. Finally, just 26 days out to iowa and 34 to New Hampshire the round table will tell me something i dont know. This is hardball, the place for politics. Martin omalley in third. Clinton leads among women and democrats. Sanders leads among men. Well be right back. Would you like somebody to call you a socialist . Im not one. What is the difference in a socialist and a democrat . I am a progressive democrat who likes to get things done. Welcome back to hardball. Nomenclature. While Hillary Clinton did not explain the difference yesterday she defined herself as a progressive democrat. Her chief rival Bernie Sanders is saying her record on the issues suggest otherwise. In an interview sanders questioned clintons credibility as a progressive branding her a flipflopper on several key issues. What are your thoughts when she is putting herself out as a long standing progressive champion . Except when she defines herself as she did a few months ago as a moderate. You cant be a moderate. You cant be a progressive. You cant be for the tpp and against the tpp and for the Keystone Pipeline and against the Keystone Pipeline. I have been fairly consistent my entire political life. I think what we have seen over the years as indicated in many ways secretary clinton has been flipflopping. One of the starkest contrasts he made now actually drawing distinctions. I am joined byKristin Welker. Kristin and then to joy and then the governor. This fight, flipflopper, hillary is a flipflopper. What is Bernie Sanders who has been running as a socialist against the Democratic Party is running for the Democratic Party nomination and hasnt become a democrat . I wouldnt use that word flipflopper if i were the senator. Reporter its interesting she is not picking a fight with him over that issue. She doesnt want to alien ate the progressive branch of the Democratic Party particularly in places like New Hampshire where she is trailing. She wants voters to get on board with her. I think the concern is picking that type of fight would alienate those key voters. The one fight she is picking in terms of flipflopping is on the issue of guns. She points it out that she is seen as more to the left of him. Bernie sanders voted against the brady bill a number of times. I think she is cautious and strategic. Her sharpest language still for republicans. Joy, the word socialist, socialist used to carry a bad tinge. Socialists were the greatest economies of the communists where they went head to head. But hillary doesnt want to be a socialist. That title would kill her in the general i assume she is thinking and probably not at all true. What do you think this fight is about . Fight over wording and voting history. Sanders is going after her on positions on pipeline and things like that, keystone and trade. I think Democratic Party has a long history of electing centrist democrats. Hillary clinton is not threatened in terms of nomination because she is moderate centrist democrat. Jimmy carter was evangelical candidate. What this is about is the Younger Generation of voters, young energized obama faction of a party for whom there isnt a stigma to the word socialist. I was down at wake forest not long ago and talking to students and interesting they said they dont have a negative connotation to the idea of a socialist but all of them almost to a person said their parents do and grandparents definitely do. So their doubts about Bernie Sanders were rooted into fact that that label would make him unelectable. For Hillary Clinton it is signaling that she is just as progressive as Bernie Sanders on the issues that matter most to them and more progressive on things like guns. She is electable so she is never going to embrace that tite frl herself. This nomenclature fight. I know what i was doing yesterday when i asked her. We taught about it here. The average person watching this from the center right or center left what is wrong with the discussion . She says im progressive democrat, not a socialist. Let me stand up for bernie for a second. He has never been a democrat. He is running as a democrat and always run against. He is doing it to defend him i appreciate it he said he will not do anything to help a right wing republican get elected. That means he cannot run as a third party because he will take enough votes from us in swing states. I think calling hillary is not a flipflopping is not going to get him anywhere. I think he knows he is now behind in iowa and New Hampshire. We have one poll. That is most accurate. It is very close. Hillary you think is ahead. Tpp is of all polls in New Hampshire is the more accurate of the four polls. Lets say it is a dead heat. Bernie has to win one of the first two states. If he doesnt win one of the first it is probably over. He is in trouble if he cant win both because the map is pretty tough. Most people say moderate or centrist democrat will do better in the south than selfdescribed socialist in the south sdplmpt with i am in the camp that labels are labels. I know what a socialist is and it is not what people in the right wing of the country think it is. What is it . Somebody who believes the government has a large role in making sure everybody has a decent break. It is not a huge in europe socialists call themselves social democrats. They dont believe in government controlling the economy. They dont believe government running everything. I think this is a dead end for bernie. Both sides can point to each other about flipflopping that is not how he will win in iowa and New Hampshire. Thank you for being here. Love having you guys in the field in the cold. I love seeing people in the cold telling us what is going on. Joy, you are out there. Thank you very much Kristin Welker who used to be in philadelphia with me. House republicans spend time trying to repeal what a waste of paper. The president is not going to sign your repeal bill while Speaker Paul Ryan calls the president s gun safety measure a distraction. You have to ask from what . What are you doing that is so important . I will speak about the moves next. This is hardball, place for politics. Watching my republican friends on television was like watching i love lucy episodes, same plot, same characters, same script and nothing new. Welcome back. That was new york congressman on the floor of the house late last year lamenting the repetitiveness of bickering. Today speaker ryan once again promised to defund obama care. We will finally put a bill on the president s desk that defunds obama care. Ultimately this is going to require a republican president. Like listening to your car talk to you. Ryan denigrated the attempt to curb gun violence in america. This is a distraction. The president clearly does not respect Second Amendment rights for law abiding americans. I think it would be nice if he would focus on defeating isis and calling radical islamic terrorism what it is instead of talking about how to intimidate and frustrate Second Amendment rights. Here is the raw emotion that speaker ryan calls a distraction. From every family who never imagined that their loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun, every time i think about those kids it gets me mad. And, by the way, it happens on the streets of chicago every day. [ applause ] joining me right now is u. S. Congressman, policy chairman of the House Democratic leadership who announced he is not running for reelection after his current term is up. I still call you congressman. Why would you walk away from being a political big shot . Well, look, i grew up in new york, chris, having two dreams, one to be in congress. I have done that dream, the other to write parodies about washington, d. C. Published a novel last year. I want to explore that dream. Also, i leave with a sense of frustration. You just saw that frustration in the clip of paul ryan where he talked about priorities that the American People just dont have. We have a middle class that is worried about their paychecks, worried about their job security and future. Paul ryan has said the entire balance of 2016 will be spent on three things, Affordable Care act repeal, benghazi hearings and contraception trying to defund planned parenthood. They are out of touch, out of tune. I am frustrated with that and do not want to be a part of that. If you look at polling of what bothers people, illegal immigration, he wont bring that up. He says im not going to bring it up because he doesnt trust obama to enforce it. Bringing up obama care repeal, a complete waste of paper. I think some third world country that cant perform. Having a congress get paid, just showing up doesnt solve the problem if you dont deal with reality. Seems like our government more and more the reason we have a single digit job approval is congress doesnt deal with things on the list of things people say they care about. Paul ryan and House Republicans are concerned about protecting one thing and that is their base, their republican base. They are not concerned with compromise. They are not concerned with the American People and their needs. They are concerned with a right wing base, pandering to the base in a president ial election year. Name one great republican you respect. Name one great republican in washington working today man or woman that you respect. I respect any moderate republican. I respect Richard Hannah who most people dont know, moderate republican from upstate new york who is leaving the congress. Name a democrat. I respect nancy pelosi having just passed a budget that reflects democratic priorities despite that we are in a minority. By the way, the one guy in congress that never needed a ghost writer. This guy is a great writer. Thank you so much. Up next, trump isnt backing down from his criticism of bill clinton. Is he going is that a Winning Strategy . A lot of republican women may have a problem with this thinking you are going after bill as another way to get after hillary who is not really the problem. You are watching hardball, place for politics. When youre on hold, your business is on hold. Thats why comcast business doesnt leave you there. When you call, a Small Business expert will answer you in about 30 seconds. No annoying hold music. Just a real person, real fast. Whenever you need them. So your business can get back to business. Sounds like my rides ready. Dont get stuck on hold. Reach an expert fast. Comcast business. Built for business. We should not reward people who use inflammatory rhetoric and derogative comments whether about muslims or mexicans or women. That is not a sign of leadership. That is a sign of showmanship, of desperation that should be rejected by the American People. Welcome back to hardball. That was Hillary Clinton during our interview yesterday as she outlined her destain from her fellow 2016 front runner, donald trump. This week she sent perhaps the biggest most enthusiastic campaigner bill clinton to campaign. Bill is out on the campaign trail this week. Hillary called me sexist, that i had an inclination. What does she know about me . I had an inclination. I said your husband is campaigning. Its open season. He lost his law license. He wasnt allowed to practice law. Im saying this. It is fair game when they attack me im going to attack them. If they dont i would leave that off the table. Is going after hillary and husband bill a wise strategy for trump . That is our question. Ruth marcus, Howard Fineman and fran ses cuchambers. Putting him out on the campaign trail puts him on the campaign trail. If you are a surrogate what you have said in the past and done in the past is fair game. I dont think there is question about it. What kind of reaction to you get to that . Some people were happier with me than others. Because there is this weird kind of defense that people feel about bill clinton maybe because we felt he took enough heat. He was impeached. As Trump Reminds he was disbarred and all of that stuff. He can claim that is all justification for him bringing him back. There are people and then democrats. The democrats are likely to be pretty defensive of and understanding of bill clinton at this point. That is not the reason why donald trump did what he did. It is great in republican primaries to bad mouth the clintons. You cannot do it enough. It saves donald trump the trouble of discussing specific policy issues or anything else. He is best on the attack. Who better to attack in a republican primary than the clintons . Its endless. In good will hunting when it begins and he has the guy on the cement and he is pounding the guys head into the cement over and over again. That is what they do to bill clinton. It is for the gop base and who trump needs to you buy the fact that they cant be tough enough on bill clinton . The thing is he is on the campaign trail. If you are going to go on the campaign trail you have to be prepared for the attacks and the clintons have to be prepared. Recently as the last campaign bill clinton was secretary of explaining everything. He came out there and explained all this. Everybody loved him at the last convention. Remember . I dont know that everybody loved bill in 2008 in the last election or 2012. Going back to 2008 on the campaign trail he said a couple of things that i think that the clintons trump didnt always think the impeachment was warranted. Here he was are we looking for consistency anymore. Today consistency is almost irrelevant. 2008 trump on bill clinton. Look at the trouble bill clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant and they tried to impeach him which was nonsense. This is not a million years ago. Donald trump is a totally situational candidate. I loved it when he said hillary what does she know about me . A couple of years ago she is at your wedding. She is close enough to you to be at your wedding. What he said a few years ago has no relevance to today or tomorrow. I would say that i totally agree with what everybody said about the utility of this for donald trump right now. Maybe there is a few independent voters in New Hampshire who might be alienated or very few. It is really an attack on hillary . But in a general election i think if it were generally election with trump and Hillary Clinton you would hear a lot less. Could this be a win win . Hillary wins by this . I think it is good. Basically it is good for both of them on paper. But donald trump is trying to win the Iowa Caucuses or at least not lose by a big margin to ted cruz. If he finishes neck and neck with ted cruz he doesnt get hurt going into New Hampshire. He needs every emotional thing that he can do to peel evangelical voters away. He makes bill clinton into a cad and makes cruz into a canadian. Exactly. Exactly what is going on. He has done a good job of explaining why he went after this. Part of the interview with msnbc that didnt air if bill was talking about economic record and touting that then i would hit him on economics. The reason im talking about his sexual infidelities is because they brought up sexism. Im saying that trump does have a good response to these things when he is asked about why he donate today the clintons or said nice things well, i was a business man and wanted to get their vote. Doesnt trump basically say about women its all about looks . If you are not up to my latest standards of Miss Universe standard you are no worth to me. He lacks terribly among women voters. As Carly Fiorina said Everybody Knows what he meant. Chris christie finds himself the new target of his moderate rivals. Only one for one moderate and hard for him to squeeze into the group. This is hardball, place for politics. New numbers out from california from the primary set for june 7. Lets go to the scoreboard. According to a new field poll on the republican side ted cruz is on top with 25 . Trump is right behind at 23 . And marco rubio rounds out the top three with 13. Thats nautmuch rounding it out. On the democratic side Hillary Clinton on the lead. Bernie sanders at 35 which is pretty good. Well be right back. Candidates continue to engage in a circuit of firing squad. Chris christie has suddenly become a target of his rival super pacs with groups putting attack ads against the new jersey governor. The most hard hitting was from rubios super pac. Just take a look at this tag line. Chris christie, one hightax, common core, kristy loving, obama expanding medicaid president is enough. Heres rubio just yesterday. The point is something i would say, too, and that is that this country cannot afford a president that is going to reverse barack obama is taking our country. These are serious policy disputes and theres nothing in those ads that are inaccurate. Governor christie said attacks by them are signs hes doing well. Im just better qualified, im better tested, im more experienced. I think the reason theyre coming after me now is because im doing well and my message is connecting up here in New Hampshire and so, you know, its good to be attacked. It means youre in the game. Well, New Hampshire looms as the best and potentially only establishment candidate to break through so why are they all going after each other . Obviously they all want to win, ruth, and theres four guys going for one prize, the moderate victor in New Hampshire. It doesnt make sense for them to turn their fire and attacks on crumple or cruz. Trump has proven himself to be wearing some bulletproof vest and then attack and you attack him and hell unload on you. And so if youre Chris Christie, youre much more likely to lure marco rubio voters than you are ted cruz voters. Its like four elephants trying to drink out of the same thimble. Theres just not enough moderate voters up there. Well said. Thank you. I worked on that. Heres the problem. Its entirely possible if they continue to divide the moderate field, those four are just about at 10 each, the victor could finish third behind the primary. It shows you the problems that moderates have in todays Republican Party. How did marco rubio, who is a Tea Party Candidate down in florida against governor compared to the immigration and outrageousness of trump and hardline of ted cruise, marco rubio was embraced by a lot of establishment people who used to be for bush. Rubio is in second. This is what i find hard to believe. Christie is roman catholic, hes italian, he has that big city ethnic thing. I can see a lot of the people who moved from massachusetts to New Hampshire because of the tax structure they didnt like him. But theyre not going to like him in mississippi. I think a lot of candidates have that same exact problems when it gets down to the Southern States and they better hope that the places like colorado and vermont how many places are like vermont . The most interesting thing about that Public Policy poll that you just showed there is that they found if kasich and bush and christie were all to drop out that, rubio would then rise and get within two of donald trump. Now, they didnt say whether it would work the other way around if they all dropped out. What are the odds of that happening . Thats not going to happen. And this is how jimmy carter won the election, ran against four, five liberals and they bunched together and he beat tem. The union leader has picked Chris Christie and go, joe were back with the hardball round table. Ruth, tell me something i should know. If you need a reason to start celebrating super bowl 50 early ill give you two. Get a large,1topping pizza for only 50 cents when you order any large pizza at regular menu price. Better ingredients. Better pizza. Better football. Papajohns. Com when youre on hold, your business is on hold. Thats why comcast business doesnt leave you there. When you call, a Small Business expert will answer you in about 30 seconds. No annoying hold music. Just a real person, real fast. Whenever you need them. So your business can get back to business. Sounds like my rides ready. Dont get stuck on hold. Reach an expert fast. Comcast business. Built for business. The amount of time the fathers spent debating the meaning of natural born citizen at the convention, zero. Three years later, they define it to include someone born overseas, case closed. That law lapsed. That law lapsed but that interpretation never changed. Howard . And the Supreme Court hasnt ruled on it directly. It wont rule on it until our president is elected. It wont rule ever. Donald trump bought a lot of tv ad. He doesnt need tv ads. The reason he bought them in iowa and New Hampshire is not to get his message out, its to spread a little cash around to the local tv stations, who are influential. This week we saw bill clinton hit the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton. Its now becoming a full family affair. Chelsea clinton will be going out to collect checks for her mom in l. A. Later this month. I want to know when that are going to bring charlotte out. Everyone wants to see charlotte is she fair game . Thats hardball for now. Thanks for being with us. All in with chris hayes starts right now. Tonight on all in the democrats, if they bring a lawsuit on it, you have to get it solved. Donald trumps birther barrage continues. Everyone is talking about it. 26 days before the voting starts, the republican fight gets simultaneously sillier and uglier. We will build a wall that works. Then Bernie Sanders continues to pick a fight on banks. We need a president who has the courage to stand up to the billionaire class and wall street. Does Hillary Clinton have the im running for president and i think not. And stopping samesex marriage in his state and well have an update on the still onesided bundy standoff. I have no intention of spending any of my days in a concrete box