About democrats cry foul. The senate will continue to observe the biden rule so that the American People have a voice in this momentous decision. Why cant they do what theyre supposed to, do their jobs . Mitch mcconnell and harry reid exclusively join me. Do you like buzzer beaters like this one from friday night . Well, weve got the trumpatology buzzer beater possibilities for what could be a wild Republican National convention. Joining me are jose diazbalart of telemundo and nbc news, molly ball, joy ann reid, and robert costa of the washington post. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. Announcer from nbc news in washington, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Lets agree on this much about the 2016 campaign. The rise of donald trump is basically paralleled the fall of the republican establishment. The more the establishment cries never trump, the more the voters snub them. On tuesday night, in spite of millions of dollars of negative ads and high profile criticism by mitt romney and others, trump won four of five primaries and he nearly tripled his delegate lead over ted cruz. Republicans are desperate to use any means necessary, candidate collusion, delegate jujitsu, rules changes, anything, to deny trump in part because of scenes like this. Last night in tucson, arizona, an antitrump protestor was set upon and beaten up as he was being escorted out of the rally. Police arrested and charged the man who assaulted the protester who we see in that video. This was the scene earlier in the day yesterday in arizona where protestors blocked a road to a trump rally. So the rise of trumpism and the undoing of the republican establishment has been years in the making. It began in 2007 when conservatives killed president bushs push for immigration reform. In 2008, and john mccain was clobbered by barack obama. In 2010, the tea party revolt. They chose to ride the tiger instead of fight it. More recently came the falls of kantor, boehner, and the prevention of Kevin Mccarthy getting a promotion, all at the hands of a resurgent populist conservative movement. Now many in the party are trying to stop donald trump. But how . You have the establishment. They dont know what theyre doing. They dont have a clue. Reporter the stop Trump Movement is limping forward. Although republican opponents have the will to defeat the frontrunner, its not clear they have a game plan. There have been meetings. A confab in washington two blocks from the white house, calling for a unity ticket. Another meeting of big donors in florida. And new ads from outside group. Ask donald trump why he sides with Hillary Clinton. Reporter the stop trump group spent 13 million and trump increased his lead. Many voters are not comfortable with trump. 29 of primary voters in florida said they would seriously consider a third party candidate. So did 35 in battleground North Carolina and 40 in battleground ohio. Whats the alternative . For me to win 1237 delegates, ive got to win 78 of the remaining delegates. That sounds like a high bar. Reporter mitt romney encourages republicans to vote for cruz. Are we sure hes a mormon . He choked. It was so sad. Reporter but only to force an open convention. But john kasich is stepping up efforts to challenge cruz in utah, which holds its caucus on tuesday. Now many trump opponents are turning to the convention, hoping to deprive trump of a clear 1237 majority. Nothings changed other than the perception that this is more likely to become an open convention than we thought before. Reporter trump warns of violence if a floor fight produces another nominee. I think you would have riots. Reporter for many republicans, denial and depression are turning into acceptance. If mr. Trump does become president of the United States, hes going to need a majority to govern. I think he would welcome working with republicans in the house and senate. Reporter thats an admission that the republican establishment, long on lifesupport, may officially be dead. John cornyn is a ted cruz supporter, we think. Joining me now, im joined by the men who ran the last two republican president ial campaigns. Stuart stevens and steve schmidt. Gentlemen, welcome to you both. Stu, prior to last tuesday, you wrote there was still time to stop trump. Do you still believe that a week later . Sure. 40 of the people havent voted. We got upset in 2000 when they closed the polls in florida, they announced it when the panhandle was still open, 40 was still out there. I think its going to be difficult for anybody else than donald trump to get to 1237. But theres credible scenarios out there, 40 of the vote out there that you could easily have donald trump with 1,000 votes, and ted cruz with 950. Weve done this before. This is the Ronald Reagan strategy in 1976, against a sitting republican president. Steve, the most expedient way to do this would be to rally around ted cruz. And that seems to be something that Washington Republicans cant bring themselves to do. Well, look. Ted cruz is exactly right, a vote at this point for john kasich is in fact a vote for donald trump. Why isnt the cavalry rallying behind cruz . Trump is on his way to 1237 delegates. If he gets there, hell be nominated on the first ballot. If he does not and it goes to an open convention, anything of course can happen. But if you look at the amount of new voters coming into the process this year, for them to be denied what they view as a small d democratic process, in fact these parties are the vessels that we use to advance democracy in america, are not themselves democratic, small d, institutions. As the rules play out, dire consequences for the senate majority. There is a way to do this. Stuart, you were on the receiving end of some delegate manipulation that can take place. Ron paul never won any states but he came to the convention with majorities of delegates. Let me show some results in iowa, just to show people the iowa results in 2012. Romney and santorum, second and first. Ron paul had a majority of the delegates by the time the convention rolled around. Louisiana, a similar finding. Ron paul ended up with 6 of the vote in the primary. Look at this, he ended up with 40 of the delegates once he got to the convention. And this happened last night in louisiana. There is a way to elect delegates that are more supportive of cruz, if youre the cruz campaign, to deny trump this. Then it does undermine what steve was talking about. I think what well have here is a period where the candidates will really be looked at more closely, more closely than before, because theres fewer of them. Youll have a different threshold for it. I think there will be a lot of pressure for donald trump to believe as a frontrunner, someone who could lead a party. People would have had second thoughts about getting into a convention with john edwards. Well have to see how these candidates perform under these tests. Steve, it seems as if, Mitch Mcconnell is sticking by the nominee, paul ryan, who some people believe right now is the titular head of the Republican Party given his position, hes getting criticized this morning by a conservative columnist in the times saying, hey, where are you, you could make a difference. A lot of the Republican Leaders may come to a moment where its country over party, given their sensibilities about a prospective trump nomination. You have people out there saying, anybody but trump, but also saying im going to support the republican nominee for president. They have not yet crossed that rubicon. As we go through the next couple of weeks of contests, as donald trump i suspect continues to win at the proportion that he has been winning at, he moves closer to 1237, it will be interesting to see what the leaders of the Republican Party say. Now, what the consequence of it would be for them to peel off the republican nomination is to forfeit the election to Hillary Clinton. There will be multiple Supreme Court nominations made by her if shes the next president of the United States. And of course also, the Republican Senate majority hangs in the balance here. And its tough to see how Senate Republicans maintain that majority if the 35 to 40 of these trump voters are feeling disenfranchised from the process and they take a walk. Okay. But then you have 10 to 15 of the party, maybe more of that. Look at those numbers i showed in the exit polls, battlegrounds, ohio, florida, North Carolina, these were republican primary voters who say they prefer a third party option than to pick between trump and clinton. Yeah, trump is a disaster. Politics is ultimately about addition, not subtraction. The whole idea of trump is not that hes going to take these romney voters and add to them. Hes losing romney voters. Just look at republican hispanics. Theres not tons of hispanics in the Republican Party. He already has 60 negatives with republican hispanics. Its going to be very tough for any nominee to do better than romney, against Hillary Clinton. Hes going to do worse. We ran the numbers using the exit polls from 2012 in ohio and wisconsin, just on the white vote. And assuming all things were equal, and heres wisconsin first, trump would have to increase the romney share by 5 percentage points, go from 51 of the white vote, which by the way, romney got and still lost the state. 56 of the white vote is what trump would need to flip it. In ohio, to flip ohio, he would have to move the romney white vote number from 57 to 61 . This assumes that the nonwhite vote doesnt move at all. This seems like an impossibility. Im not sure it is an impossibility. I think its a very difficult task. But he is an asymmetrical candidate. He is so unconventional, weve never seen anything like it. When you began the program today, you said looking back from 2007 the rise of the movement that led us to this. But its more expansive than that. We live in an era when trust has collapsed in every institution in the country except for the military. In business, in politics, in the culture, sports and religion. All of it accumulating to this moment in time where someone has come forward with profound communication skills, offering easy answers to people who through these wave elections have seen no changes. Last point. 37 of the people dont trust Hillary Clinton. Huge opportunity for republicans. So now were turning to a guy who has 27 of the people dont trust him. Hes one of the few people in america that is trusted less than Hillary Clinton. You mean 27 trust. Only 27 trust donald trump compared to 37 for Hillary Clinton. Hes trusted less than Hillary Clinton. Which is hard to do. I do try to figure out im trying to figure out what turnout is going to look like if the two candidates are the two most unpopular against swing voters. Ill leave it there. We appreciate you both. One man who is still in the race against trump is Ohio Governor john kasich, whose win in his home state on tuesday did keep his hopes alive and the hopes of the antiTrump Movement alive in trying to get a contested convention. John kasich joined me yesterday from salt lake city. Why are you in utah . If you didnt campaign in utah and ted cruz won 50 of the vote, you deny donald trump any delegates which actually helps your path to getting to cleveland in a contested convention. Hey, chuck. Chuck. Look. Im in utah. You know why . Because im running for president and because i want people to understand what is a good, positive message, with a record of accomplishment. But do you want to win . But chuck, im going to compete across the country and tell people who i am and let the chips fall where they may. And let me also tell you, no one, no one is going to that convention with enough delegates. I will have more delegates moving in there that will give me momentum. And then the delegates are going to decide who can win in the fall. Because the other guys cant win in the fall. Hillary will be president. And secondly, ive got the record, the experience, and the vision and the ability to bring people together to be a good president. Thats why im doing this. We saw the evidence of what happens when theres three people in and two antitrump candidates split the vote. Missouri and illinois. Donald trump cleaned up on delegates. If you go about this in new york and pennsylvania and some of these other states, you and cruz could end up handing more delegates to trump inadvertently. Maybe ted ought to get out, because he cant win in the fall. Maybe these people that are hot on that ought to tell him to do it. They try to tell me to get out of the race. How many times, chuck and now they should be thanking me for staying in, because if trump had won ohio, it would be over. I have a record of accomplishment, a record of bringing people together, a vision for the future of this country. And guess what . In the grassroots, people are getting it. Now, they didnt get it because, frankly, you put me on the tube a lot, but trump got 1. 8 billion worth of free media. I got like none. Not all of it was positive. People are starting to hear me and were starting to rise. Look at what our numbers are. If you thought your candidacy were helping trump, not hurting him, would you get out . Chuck, im running for president. This isnt a parlor game of who gets this or who gets that. But youre stuck with a parlor game. I understand that, but youre stuck having to play a parlor game because your only path is the convention. Thats the ultimate parlor game. I am not playing a parlor game. The convention is an extension of the process of nominating somebody. I was there in 76 when reagan challenged the sitting president. They didnt like him doing it either. But you know what . His vision, his message mattered. Listen. Nobodys going to that convention with enough delegates. At the end, do you know why ill get picked . Because i can win in the fall, and secondly, because i have the experience and the record to lead this country. And chuck, if i didnt think that, i wouldnt be running. Yesterday earlier in the week, you totally ruled out ever being Donald Trumps running mate. Under no circumstances. What are you people, kidding me . What about ted cruz . No. Im not going to be anybodys im running for president. Thats just as shermanesque with ted cruz as it is with donald trump . I like you very much, but you pun gets have to get out of washington. You dont understand me. A lot of people just cant figure, how could this guy mean what he says, how is it that hes no different than what he appears . You cant figure that out. People are like, whats his calculation, whats this or that. Folks, i dont have time for that. As you know, ted cruz is going to use two issues to try to wedge, if its even a delegate fight, and thats common core and immigration. Well, let me just say this. Ill tell you what common core is in my state. Our state board of education has approved high standards. And our local School Boards are the ones that devise the curriculum. We need high standards for our children in the 21st century. I am for shipping all the federal Education Programs out of washington to the states. So look, im telling you what we do in ohio, and at the end of the day, president s should not run k12. Secondly, on immigration, i do not believe it is practical or doable to search in the neighborhoods and yank the people who came here illegally, and have not committed a crime since theyve been here, and ship them out of the country. That is not going to happen. The plan that i support, finishing the border, making sure you have a guest worker program, and having the 11. 5 million who came here illegally who have not committed a crime, pay back taxes, pay a fine. Let me tell you, they then can have a path to legalization and not citizenship. And any other position than that just isnt going to work, chuck. I hate to tell you that. It isnt going to work. You talk about yourself as a consensus builder. Im curious, what do you make of the Republican Senate strategy on the Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland . Should the senate at least hold hearings . You know, chuck, look, this is one im not going to actually answer directly, because i dont think the senate is waiting there with bated breath for my opinion. I never think the president should have sent it up. They can go ahead and meet with him, the senators can meet with that gentleman. Ultimately, when im president , which i think weve got a good shot at being, maybe he would be under consideration for the Supreme Court. I dont know. But they ought to meet with him, show him that amount of respect. What about hearings . I dont think look, the hearings arent going to mean anything, chuck. Thats up to them to decide. Ask them. All right. Governor john kasich, ill leave it there. Good luck in the next contest. Always a pleasure. Stay safe on the trip. And if its sunday, it must be meet the press. There you go. You can always get extra time by saying that. Following that interview with john kasich, he walked back his comments on Merrick Garland, saying he would not consider Merrick Garland as a potential replacement to Justice Scalia if hes elected president. Coming up, a lot more on the 2016 race. First, the fight over the Supreme Court. Mitch mcconnell and harry reid, exclusively right here on meet the press. Later, the debate over Hillary Clintons speaking style. Ive never had more faith in our future. And if we Work Together we have heard the criticism before, that she sounds shrill, she shouts, she doesnt smile enough. Is this sexism masquerading as honest criticism . Everything kids touch during cold and flu season sticks with them. Make sure the germs they bring home dont stick around. Use clorox disinfecting products. Because no one kills germs better than clorox. Feel like this. Look like this. Feel like this. With dreamwalk insoles, turn shoes that can be a pain into comfortable ones. Their soft cushioning support means you can look like this. And feel like this. Dreamwalk. Jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive billions are spent to confuse and, dare i say it, flummox the american public. Save 16 on Car Insurance. Switch now. Well at compare. Com, we say enoughs enough. So weve created this mind boggling facility. Where were constantly scrutinizing millions of rates. Answering the question who has the lowest. Go to compare. Com, plug in some simple info and get up to 50 free quotes. Choose the lowest, and hit purchase. Its fast and easy. Compare. Com saving humanity from high insurance rates. It is time for the data download. We wanted to share some brackets of our own. No, im not hear to brag about middle Tennessee State and that pick. Instead here are three scenarios to winnings republican nomination. Welcome to the meet of press big dance and what were calling trumpatology. Donald trump is receiving a buy while john kasich and ted cruz fight it out for the rest of the season and end up splitting the antitrump vote. Trump is able to come away with the majority he needs and he wins the nomination, game over. In bracket number 2, we start with the same standings. But in this scenario, cruz catches fire and wins enough delegates to deny trump the 1237 that he needs. So we move to an overtime. And an open convention. Trump delegates eventually abandon trump and cruz emerges as the conservative compromise choice in a buzzer beater. In bracket number 3, this is our cinderella story. It looks familiar at the beginning. Cruz, kasich, trump, they all compete. And again, trump ends up short of his magic number of 1237. And again, we head to an open convention. But in this scenario, we go to overtime and we go to multiple ballots. We go to double overtime, actually. In neither case does cruz win the majority and the nomination ends up going to, how about that, somebody not running. Probably House Speaker paul ryan. More possible than you might think. Who is going to have their one shining moment in cleveland this july . Its something that we have a whole rest of a primary season to figure out. Well be back in a moment with the battle over the Supreme Court and the two leaders of the senate, Mitch Mcconnell and harry reid. Announcer if you miss meet the press, catch highlights in under two minutes. Brought to you by hewlettpackard enterprise. Accelerating next. Thank you for calling. Well be with you shortly. Yeah right. Xerox Predictive Analytics help companies provide a better and faster customer experience. Hello mr. Kent. Can i rebook your flight . Im here Customer Care can work better. With xerox. Wait im here mr. Kent . gasp shark diving xerox personalized employee portals help Companies Make benefits simple and accessible. From anywhere. Hula dancing . Cliff jumping Human Resources can work better. With xerox. [engines revving] you cant have a hero, if you dont have a villain. The world needs villains [tires screeching] and villains need cars. Twell what if i told you that peanuts can work for you . Thats right. Im talking full time delivery of 7 grams of protein and 6 essential nutrients. Ever see a peanut take a day off . I dont think so. Harness the hardworking power of the peanut. Thanks man. Imagine if the things you bought every day. Earned you miles to get to the places you really want to go. With the united mileageplus explorer card, youll get a free checked bag, two united club passes, priority boarding, and 30,000 bonus miles. Everything you need for an unforgettable vacation. The united mileageplus explorer card. Imagine where it will take you. Welcome back. Welcome back. The expression elections have consequences usually refers to the fact that president s get to choose who sits on the Supreme Court. Well, when president obama named Merrick Garland this week to be his nomination to replace antonin scalia, Republican Senate leader Mitch Mcconnell immediately announced that republicans would not even give garland a hearing. Mcconnell said the choice should be made by the next president. Democratic Senate Leader harry reid immediately criticized mcconnells move, saying the senate was abdicating its responsibilities. I spoke to both Mitch Mcconnell and harry reid. I began with a conversation with senator reid that took place yesterday. Let me start with a piece of sound on judges that you said over ten years ago. Let me play it and get you to react on the other side. The duties of the United States senate are set forth in the constitution of the United States. Nowhere in that document does it say it has a duty to approve nominees. 11 years later you wrote this. The senates constitutional duty to give a fair and timely hearing and a floor vote to the president s Supreme Court nominees is invileable. Which is it . What has changed since 2005 when you said there is nothing in the constitution that said a vote, to 2016 . This is the same thing as you talk about, the biden rule. There is no biden rule. What happened then was worked out. It was an effort to try to get something done. What i have tried to do during my entire career in congress and in the senate is to get rid of obstruction. And what we found the last eight years especially with republicans, boehner first, mcconnell, is everything was obstructed. That was what they set out to do and theyve done a good job of it. We have always tried, ive been part of that for many years, to get rid of obstruction. I dont believe in it. What happened in 2005 . I can quote you, you said, theres no reason to mince words, were not going to allow an up or down vote on estrada. Thats a form of obstruction back when president bush was in office. But remember, remember, this man had a full hearing, came to the senate floor. And all we ask is you worked in the white house, you wrote a lot of legal opinions, were entitled to see them. And the white house instructed this good man not to do it. It was unfair to him. But thats what happened. We and the American People were entitled to what he had written in those legal opinions. But i guess im going back to, what part of what has changed other than the Political Party affiliation of the white house . What has changed is you have to look at what has happened. We have never held up a Supreme Court nomination. Since 1900 in a lame duck session, there have been six, they have all been approved. Wait a minute. Alito, you did a filibuster for alito and roberts. Where is alito today . Hes on the Supreme Court. But you failed. Thats the point. You can draw these extra Extracurricular Activities that took place. Lets look at two famous cases that came before the senate. Bork didnt get enough votes in committee. Neither did thomas. We brought them to the floor anyway. We met with them, we had hearings, and they were brought before the floor. They could have been killed in the committee. We believed there should be a full vote. And thats what we should do now. I dont know why mcconnells done this to his senators. Hes marching these men and women over a cliff. I dont think theyre going to go. Hes said were not going to meet with him, were not going to hold hearings, were not going to have a vote. That facade is breaking as we speak. We now have about eight or nine senators who say, oh, yeah, i guess well meet with him. We had a senator the day before yesterday who said, lets man up here, were elected, we should be voting. Theres going to be a breakthrough here. Why do you think youre going to get a hearing . Mitch mcconnell has said no hearing at all. Why do you think youre going to get a hearing . Mitch mcconnell has said a lot of things. His republican senators are not going to go over that cliff with him. Theyre not going to do it. As i told Merrick Garland, youre going to become a Supreme Court justice. In addition to people agreeing to meet, we have republican senators, senators who are veteran senators, saying maybe what we should do is do it in the lame duck. Orrin hatch, lindsey graham. If youre going to do it in a lame duck, do it now. Four years from now, if youre in the fourth year of a republican presidency, you dont think the democrats should do whatever it takes to prevent that republican president from appointing a Supreme Court justice in a president ial year before the election . Not only do i think they shouldnt do it, they wouldnt do it. Whoever is elected president is elected for four years. Obama was elected for four years. He filled that duty he had to the American People. He was reelected. He has an obligation to do his job for four years, not three years. Senators have an obligation to do their constitutional duty for the time that the person is in. Do you blame republicans for wanting to do whatever it takes . This is going to change the makeup of the court. They believe this is worth fighting for. Do you blame them for doing this . Absolutely. When you have oren hatch, chairman of the judiciary committee, now chairman of the finance committee, said you could not pick a finer nominee than garland. Why didnt you do that . Hes complaining to obama. Of course i blame them. Of course i do. Here is you dont think they should fight to protect the change in the makeup as hard as they possibly can . No. Its not been done in the past. Their excuses are lame. Theyre going to wind up as a result of this foolishness, theyre going to wind up losing senate seats they shouldnt have lost. Im kind of glad theyre doing it. Mcconnell is leading his senators over the cliff. The senators are not going to allow that. And earlier this morning i was joined by the Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell. Senator mcconnell, welcome back to meet the press, sir. Good morning. Glad to be with you. I want to start with something you said in 2008 about judicial vacancies. Here it is. Our democratic colleagues continually talk about the socalled thurmond rule under which the senate supposedly stops confirming judges in a president ial Election Year. Its a seeming obsession with this rule that doesnt exist. Its just an excuse for our colleagues to run out the clock on qualified nominees who are waiting to fill badlyneeded vacancies. Senator mcconnell, i started my interview with harry reid with a similar quote from him back during the bush years too. Essentially you guys have changed places in your position on Supreme Court vacancies. And it seems to me the only difference is the Political Party affiliation of the white house. Well, there was no Supreme Court vacancy in 2008. Thats what were talking about here, chuck. You have to go back 80 years to find the last time a vacancy on the Supreme Court created during a president ial Election Year was filled. You have to go back to Grover Cleveland in 1888 to find the last time a president ial appointment was confirmed in an Election Year. The election is under way. What we are using is the biden rule. 1992, when joe biden was chairman of the judiciary committee, he made the point that a vacancy, had it occurred in 1992, would not be filled. Harry reid, when he was leader in 2005, pointed out the senate had no obligation under the constitution to give a nominee a vote. And Chuck Schumer in 2007, 18 months before bushs term was up, said if a vacancy occurred, they wouldnt fill it. Were talking about Supreme Court vacancies. In each of those occasions, senator, republicans at the time criticized those Senate Democrats for having that position. And frankly, thats what were seeing here. It feels like theres hypocrisy on both sides. Democrats essentially dont want to confirm a Supreme Court justice if republicans are doing it, and republicans dont want to confirm a democrats. Isnt that what were staring at here . Nobody has been entirely consistent. Lets look at the history of it. It hasnt happened in 80 years and it wont happen in this year. The principle involved here, chuck, when an election is under way, when joe biden was talking in 1992, the American People are about to weigh in on who is going to be the president. And thats the person, whoever that may be, who ought to be making this appointment. You know, you said something, about, three months ago, you said, my view is just because there is an election coming up doesnt mean youre not supposed to do everything. Weve had an election every two years right on schedule since 1788. So i guess, when does a president ial term run out . When does a president lose his authority to make appointments, in your view . The senate has been quite active. This year we have another year which we have a great chance of passing every single appropriation bill for the First Time Since 1994. The senate is not doing nothing during this election season. But were not giving Lifetime Appointments to this president on the way out the door, to change the Supreme Court for the next 25 or 30 years. Let me get you to respond to a criticism that george will has thats all over the papers today. And youve probably seen it. But he doesnt much care for your strategy here. He writes this. Conservative george will. The Republican Partys incoherent response to the Supreme Court vacancy is republican rationalizations for their refusal to even consider merrick b. Garland radiates insincerity. What do you say to george will . I just disagree with him. When youve got a nominee that moveon. Org is extremely enthusiastic about, and multiple articles pointing out that if judge merrick were in fact confirmed he would move the Court Dramatically to the left, i disagree with george will. I dont think its a good idea to move the court to the left. But thats not really the issue here. Its not the person, its the principle. Who ought to make this lifetime appointment . Are you completely ruling out a lame duck scenario if Hillary Clinton wins . Yes. We wont be confirming this person to the Supreme Court. Even if Hillary Clinton nominates somebody more liberal than Merrick Garland . It would be hard to be more liberal than Merrick Garland. Its my hope she would not be making the appointment. Are you comfortable with donald trump as your partys standard bearer . Im going to support the nominee. I have a responsibility to support my partys nominee. What did you mean when you said privately you could drop him like a hot rock . Do you think its appropriate for your senators to run against him if necessary . I think weve got a bunch of senate races in purple states that are very competitive. Each of those rates will be crafted very differently. Every one of those races are going to be individual standalone contests with people who we think have a great chance of winning in november. And if that means running away from donald trump, that should be their strategy . I think every campaign will have a different strategy to appeal to different kinds of voters that we have in different parts of the country. One other final thing. Donald trump is having a meeting with various Republican Leaders tomorrow in washington before he speaks to aipac. Are you going to be participate in that meeting, sir . No, im in kentucky. He did call me last week. We had a good conversation. All right, senator Mitch Mcconnell, i will leave it there. Thanks for coming on, sir, appreciate it. Thank you, chuck. When male pundits say Hillary Clinton is shrill or yells too much, is that legitimate criticism or is it sexist . Or youre an at t Small Business expert . Sure am. My staff could use your help staying in touch with customers. At t can help you stay connected. Am i seeing double . No maam. Our at t buy one get one free makes it easier for your staff to send appointment reminders to your customers. And share promotions on social media . You know it now im seeing dollar signs. You should probably get your eyes checked. Good one babe. Optometry humor. Right now get up to 650 in credits to help you switch to at t. You stay up. You listen. You laugh. You worry. You do whatever it takes to take care of your family. And when its time to plan for your familys future, were here for you. Were legalzoom, and for over 10 years weve helped families just like yours with wills and living trusts. So when youre ready, start with us. Doing the right thing has never been easier. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. For a limited time, great deal on this passat. Wow, it looks really good. Volkswagen believes safety is very important. So all eleven models come standard with an intelligent crash response system. Hmm. Seven stabilityenhancing systems. Hmmm. And equipment for two child seats. Hmmm. For those who take safety seriously. Like we do. The Volkswagen Safety in numbers event. Is happening now get a 1,250 volkswagen reward card and 0 apr on new 2016 passat models. Whewhat does it look like . Ss, is it becoming a better professor by being a more adventurous student . Is it one day giving your daughter the opportunity she deserves . Is it finally witnessing all the artistic wonders of the Natural World . Whatever your definition of success is, helping you pursue it, is ours. Tiaa. Welcome back. Take a listen to Hillary Clintons victory speech on tuesday night when she swept five primaries. Ive never had more faith in our future. If we Work Together, if we go forward in this campaign, if we win in november, i know our future will be brighter than tomorrow and yesterday. Thank you all so very much. So some people saw and heard. They heard a president ial candidate celebrating a huge night in which she took a giant step towards winning the democratic president ial nomination. Others, many of whom were men, called her shrill, loud, hyperaggressive, and the admonition that clinton should smile more, which many women found insulting. When we come back, well talk about whether male candidates would be subject to this same type of criticism. The intelligent, allnew audi a4 is here. Aint got time to make no apologies. [eerie music] i am the ghost of cookies past. Residue. Oh. So gross. Well, you didnt use pam. So it looks like youre stuwith me bargain brand cooking spray leaves annoying residue. Thats why theres pam. Whfight back fastts tums smoothies starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue and neutralizes stomach acid at the source tum, tum, tum, tum smoothies only from tums jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive jake reese, day to feel alive were always looking for ways to speed up your Car Insurance search. Heres the latest. Problem is, we havent figured out how to reverse it. For now, just log on to compare. Com. Plug in some simple info and get up to 50 free quotes. Choose the lowest and hit purchase. Now. If youll excuse me, im late for an important function. Compare. Com. Saving humanity from high insurance rates. Welcome back. Our panelists are here, jose diazbalart, molly ball, joyann reid, and robert costa. I want to pick up on what i teased before. Molly, here is what dana milbank wrote. The criticism is the same as in 2008. She doesnt connect, she isnt likeable, she doesnt inspire. If she cant plausibly offer pie and the sky and cant raise her voice, how does this inspire people . This hurts with young voters, the same segment that shunned clinton in 2008. This is a male writing this. In some ways shes being graded on a different set of rules in her style, and this holds her back. Fair . I think its very difficult to parse what qualities are specific to Hillary Clinton and what qualities have to do with gender. Theres been this criticism that women are more subject to commentary on their appearance. Political science has constituted it and its not true. Men and women get comments on their appearance at the same rate, and it doesnt hurt for women to get comments on their appearance. A neutral woman, a madeup woman in a Political Science experiment, is viewed as a little more trustworthy than a man, theyre not seen as part of the system, and theres some positive stereotyping about a woman. Weve never had a woman president so theres not a mold there, theres not a stereotype we can fit her into. Older women, joy, see some of the criticism against Hillary Clinton and truly get offended. Barbara mikulski said, many of we women feel that theres a double standard. Whats being said about hillary is whats been said about centuries. Senator feinstein, women go through a magnifying glass that women dont. I think out on the campaign trail, particularly when i was in the midwest where i actually finally heard a lot of people who sound like Hillary Clinton, who have that same midwestern twang, and i can tell you, you can almost pick them out, whether they like Hillary Clinton or not, particularly if theyre women over the age of 60, this really bothers them. This sense that shes being judged differently. Because theyre also taking their experiences at the office, if youre a woman boss youre judged as something that rhymes with witch, whereas a man can be strong. Younger women who have not experienced that in the workplace yet, their experience is more in the collegiate world, they dont respond to that argument. But women who have had some years in the workforce and have dealt with these biases, they feel incensed. Jose, so does this mean any criticism of Hillary Clinton is going to be is the Clinton Campaign emilys list is stoking this, almost to galvanize women. When is the last time that we heard criticism of a man screaming too much . Howard dean. And look what happened. That was one moment in time. I was looking at joy right now, joy, you and i use our hands more, thats a fact of life. I cant tell you how many times ive been told, latinos, you guys are louder in a public setting. Probably we are in a lot of ways. But ive got to tell you something. I dont understand why Hillary Clinton has to be said shes screaming, she has to smile more. I dont see men being talked about the same way. Theres real fear when it comes to how donald trump may approach secretary clintons delivery. His video ad which featured select clinton barking on the campaign trail. If youre kelly ayotte in new hampshire, you have to worry about how shes being portrayed. When you ever see an unnamed statement from fox news, you know its roger ailes. He attacked trump in a way that youve never seen a News Organization attack a candidate. Saying trump has a sick obsession. Its interesting that trump keeps picking these fights with journalism on the right. The gender politics there, to this point Hillary Clinton has tried very hard to turn herself into a sort of feminist identity candidate. Shes leaned into the woman thing and it hasnt worked. That hasnt worked. Maybe it will. If trump is her opponent in the general election, that turns the tables and makes the gender politics really intense. Hillary clinton ran against the feminist ideal in 2008 because she was trying to be commander in chief. Donald trump specifically uses a womans appearance to attack them, with rosie odonnell, or carly fiorina. He is stoking a certain base that wants that male, white male primacy back. And that is a core part of his message. Hillary clinton is in an excellent position to counter that in the general election. It goes back to this trump issue. That one ad that was run that hasnt had any money behind it of women reading the things trump has said about women, can you imagine if they put money behind that ad and ran it for two weeks . Its devastating. Northern virginia, well see it a lot. Youll see a lot of it. Thats the real concern for republicans, how does trump play in the suburbs of northern virginia, the suburbs of philadelphia. Republicans still need to win the suburban voters who went for mitt romney. Well take a pause and be back with our end game segment and talking something that hasnt happened in nearly 90 years. Not a contested convention. Its when Calvin Coolidge was in office. Its a visit to cuba by the sitting president of the United States. And its happening today. Everything kids touch during cold and flu season sticks with them. Make sure the germs they bring home dont stick around. Use clorox disinfecting products. Because no one kills germs better than clorox. Advisor and team who understand where you come from. We didnt really have anything, you know. But, we made do. Vo know you can craft an Investment Plan as strong as your values. Al, how you doing. Hey, mr. Hamilton. Vo know that together you can establish a meaningful legacy. With the guidance and support of your dedicated pnc Wealth Management team. End game time. Jose, i have a feeling the cube ban people are go end game time. Jose, i have a feeling the cube ban people are going to be more excited about this trip in cuba than necessarily the entire cuban population in south florida. Everybody is looking at this trip. Lets put a little context in it. The United States, when castro took power in 1959, had 48 states. Hawaii and alaska werent states. Mick jagger hadnt even gotten any satisfaction, he was 15 years old when the castro brothers took power. A lot of people in south florida think of the castro brothers as kim jongil. The president is going in there now and he is going to be seen as someone, by the cuban people, who can speak to them. Lets hope that he uses those words to inspire them. Its interesting, joy, ive been to cuba, and cuban people love america. They love america. They want to come. Many of them are not happy living under the regime they lived in. But the criticism of the president is, too soon for you to be going, let the Vice President go, let secretary kerry go, but until those guys release all those political prisoners, dont do it yet. There will be significant pressure on president obama to meet with dissidents. Theres been an edict from the cuban government not to do so. I think it will hurt if he doesnt do it. Hes going to do the baseball game. Sports has been unifying, along with music, particularly in south florida, a lot of unity there. The president has to walk a line. The openness to the United States is there, there is tremendous openness on the island to us and wanting to have 100 . But we cannot ignore the issue of dissidents and repression. This makes the government in cuba anxious. There hasnt been an election there since before 1959. People want change. Hopefully there will be change and the president will help. Speaking of change, the Republican Party is hoping to change the trajectory of this race. Molly and robert, you two cover this. The New York Times claims its a hundredday strategy to deny him. This has been a keystone cops operation from the start. If this were a republican establishment that had its stuff together, the time to make sure donald trump didnt get the nomination would have been six months ago. Instead theyve been running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Even now its not unified. The chances of stopping him are very small. Donald trump got a lot of flack for saying there would be riots. But i think its true that you cant just say to his voters, this large so far plurality lock of the Republican Party that you dont count. And that were not going to listen to you. Donald trump doesnt go away if theres some kind of weird contested convention and they take it away from him. The thing about all these antitrump strategies, none of them talk about how theyre going to woo the trump voter. I hope they can eventually bring the Party Together on the convention floor. Every person who left the armynavy club seemed depressed when i was there, downbeat, because of the possibility of a third party bid. As much as they have all these different names theyre considering, its very difficult to do. The other meeting that bothers them, monday at jones day, trump will be meeting with republicans at capitol hill, long time party consultants. There is a fear that the party could rally behind him. Today, what you heard was a capitulation to the idea that donald trump can lead their party and lead this country. Other than governor kasich, there is a complete capitulation that youre seeing in terms of the Republican Party. The relationships with cruz have been so severed since the 2013 shutdown that cruz doesnt have the Political Capital he needs with the establishment to get them to coalesce. Let me close quickly with the Supreme Court. Does anybody here think well get hearings . Im very dubious. But those eight very vulnerable swing state senators will be in a world of hurt. Were going to go to the meetings, they need the conservatives to come out in a general election. No way theyre getting hearings. Maybe some meetings but no hearings. Mitch mcconnell is very determined. When he makes up his mind, it stays made up. That is true. But Chuck Grassley, if a poll comes back and hes under 50 in his election, i think thats the one way we could see it. Youre saying we could see them . Theres more chance of hearings than we realize. But its in the hands of what the political standing of Chuck Grassley in the next six weeks. Great panel. Great discussions. Thats all we have for this week. Well be back next week after more primaries, because if its sunday, its meet the press. Hillary clinton will, she leads in deldelegates. Im not a one issue candidate because hi