Tuesday, competing with everybody else, most important night on the primary calendar, theyd be getting tons of attention from the candidates, theyd be the biggest state voting that day, theyd get all that ad spending, theyd get all that attention the state needs. They thought theyd be the beginning of march they ended up may 29th when it was all completely over on the republican side, at least, i mean, it was before the end of april when the rnc had already declared mitt romney the de facto nominee of their party and started putting National Resources behind him. It was cooked. It was done. By the time Texas Republicans got to vote at the end of may. And that was terrible news for anybody who really wanted texas to be a republican battleground in the president ial race in 2012. It was bad news for people who were sort of rooting for texas in that way but it was also particularly individually terrible news for this one guy in texas, this one statewide officeholder in texas who if nothing else has brought us, i believe, the greatest Campaign Song of our generation. Now this it starts off a little slow. Theres, like, eight seconds of buildup here, but stick with me. You have to hear the eight seconds of buildup. You have to hear those first eight seconds or so in order to appreciate it when the groove kicks in. So just work with me here. Savin babies, protecting ladies its like a basement synthesizer funk antiabortion republican song. But that guy with the greatest you think im bad at dancing in a chair, you should see when i stand up. This guy with the greatest Campaign Song of alltime. David dewhurst. He in 2012, he was the republican establishment candidate for a u. S. Senate seat that opened up in texas. Kay Bailey Hutchison was will you get rid of it, please . Away. Stop it. Thank you. He was the establishment candidate for the u. S. Senate seat that opened up in 2012. David dewhurst. The Lieutenant Gov you got to love. Kay Bailey Hutchison was leaving her senate seat and, of course, any senate seat from the state of texas is a safe republican seat, right . Texas hasnt sent a democrat to the United States senate since i think the 80s, since 1988. Seeing the senate seat come open, they knew the general election wouldnt matter for that seat. Yeah, the democrats would run somebody nr it but it wouldnt be a competition. Basically all you have to do is win that seat in the senate in texas is win the republican primary in texas and that was 2012 and David Dewhurst, he was considered to be basically a shooin for that seat, basically thought of David Dewhurst stop it. He was thought to inherit it from kay Bailey Hutchison. Rick perry endorsed David Dewhurst and campaigned for him. Dewhurst has a ton of money. Hed already been elected four times statewide. He was maybe not a household name but he was very well known in texas. He was absolutely the establishment choice for that senate seat in 2012. He was going to win it. So if you wanted to stop that from happening, if you wanted to prevent that establishment choice from taking that u. S. Senate seat, how would you do it . Well, twostep process. The first step would be to keep him below 50 in the primary. Because this was an open seat and because it was a safe republican seat, every republican and their mother was running for this seat in that primary. There were nine people in the republican primary for that senate seat in 2012. So the first step was actually kind of an easy one mathematically speaking with nine people in the race, that means everybodys splitting the vote at least a little bit. If you want to keep him from getting to a runoff, step one for stopping David Dewhurst from getting that seat is just to keep him below 50 in that primary. You dont have to beat him. You can still come in first, but he has to be below 50 so that hell be forced into a runoff. All right . David dewhurst is the most establishment candidate running. The conservative sort of insurgent candidates who were running against him wanted what conservatives always want in a situation like this. They wanted as low a turnout as possible. The smaller the turnout, the more conservative the election results. Its true in texas. Its true everywhere. Had that primary been on a huge day like super tuesday, had it stayed on super tuesday as texas initially intended in 2012, that probably would have meant a giant voter turnout. Super tuesday in texas, that would have been great for David Dewhurst, bad for all the conservatives trying to topple him. Even if they picked the first date they delayed it to, april 3rd, that still would have been pretty good turnout. At least at that point when people are turning out to vote for mitt romney or not mitt romney, there were still technically some not mitt romneys in the president ial race, texas may still have had some conceivable impact who the Republican Party was going to nominate for president. April 3rd that would have drawn some people to the polls. If youre one of these unsir jept republicans running against David Dewhurst you really needed a day on which nobody was going to vote. You needed the smallest possible voter turnout. You needed a terrible day for an election. And thats what they got. When they got their primary on may 29th. I mean, at that point, the Republican Party already overtly had their president ial nominee. There was no reason to turn out to vote for the president ial primary. There was literally nothing else going on in National Politics that day. The may 29th primary, if you look at it in context, it was, i think, four days before the democratic caucuses in the virgin islands, right, so maybe there would be some momentum for that. Yeah, right. If you were looking for a nothing day, if you were looking for a low, low, low, low turnout, nointerest election, so you could have the smallest electorate possible, so you could have the most conservative result possible, so you could knock off a guy like David Dewhurst, may 29ths that was going to be perfect and it worked. There were nine people in the running. This is a state with more than 13 million registered voters at the time. Less than 1. 5 Million People turned out to vote that day. David dewhurst did not get 50 in the runoff. That meant he had to go to a runoff against his top finishing challenger so it was just oneonone. And, again, in that oneonone runoff, the same principle would apply. David dewhurst is the establishment candidate. Hes the more wellknown guy. You get lowinformed, lowengaged voters turning out in big numbers, hell probably win. On the other hand, if you get a tiny electorate, smaller electorate, the fewer the people turn out, its going to be for t establishment, household name guy, already holding statewide office, all right, its going to be harder for him. The bigger the turnout, the more likely David Dewhurst is going to win. The smaller the turnout, the better it is for his conservative challenger. So if youre his conservative challenger, youre waiting to find out what the runoff date is going to be, youre hoping for something super obscure. Could we possibly have this on the 45th of june . Basically, i mean, youre hoping nr a day when, like, nobodys ever voted in the history of voting. Youre hoping for a day when you have to study to even know if theres something going on that you could conceivably vote in. In your wildest dreams, you might hope for a day like july 31st. Okay. Its the dead of summer in texas, 93 degrees that day. Absolutely nothing going on. The only thing in the news at that time was the summer olympics in london and it had already started and we were already sort of into the boring part. And in that little Runoff Election which nobody noticed, great news for the guy trying to knock off David Dewhurst, nobody turned out to vote. Political interest tonight, the gop nomination for u. S. Senate. Our political reporter josh hinkel joins us live. This is a close one to watch for everybody, but especially republicans. Reporter thats right. Its pretty dead here right now, but rest assured republicans will be packing this space later on to watch those runoff results roll in. Not really a question about if a republican will win this november, but it is a question of what kind of republican will win. On one side of this, u. S. Senate gop race, you got Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, he faces a major threat from former texas solicitor general ted cruz. The biggest challenge has been getting people to the polls in the dead of summer. The turnout in that dead of summer Runoff Election dropped another 23 from what had been the terrible turnout in the invisible primary that led to that runoff. Nobody turned out. And the results of that, the reason that ends up being of national, if not International Importance today in 2016, is because in the end, that process that i just explained, that was the process by which we effectively got a new u. S. Senator from one of the largest states in the union. Thanks to incredibly fur tutous timing that gave him an almost unbelievably tiny electorate, thats how he got a u. S. Senate seat from this giant state with fewer voters than you have in your average Congressional District. The people who show up and vote in a runoff, particularly a runoff in the middle of the summer on july 31st are the most passionate, the most motivated primary voters. And he knew it. Thank god there really werent that many super passionate, super motivated voters who knew to turn out that july 31st, 2012. With that tiny electorate basically a Million People turning out in total, ted cruz effectively got elected to his u. S. Senate seat. He got 630,000 votes. Your average Congressional District has over 700,000 population. But that little tiny election, 600,000 votes, thats how he became u. S. Senator ted cruz. After that weird primary in may, bizarre runoff in july. He did in november have to run in a general election, but honestly in texas, that doesnt really count. No democrat has won statewide office of any kind in texas in 22 yeayears. No democrat has been elected to the congress in texas in 28 years. Even though there would be a democrat technically running for the senate seat, these are the kinds of headlines you saw in texas. U. S. Senate race a goponly battle. That one race, 600,000 people voting for him in total, i got to tell you, thats the entire electoral history of ted cruz. Thats the only election hes ever won. Which raises an interesting question as to how well hes ever really been tested in an electoral way. I mean, he did beat David Dewhurst that one time in the heat of the summer in 93degree day on july 31st. But thats it. Thats how he got to be who he is. And now as he gets this close to the republican nomination for president of the United States, this is the part of the game when republicans are starting to wonder whether they like him or not. Starting to wonder, has this guy really been vetted . Has this guy really been thoroughly tested as he tries to ascend to the biggest electoral contest of all as the standard bearer of the Republican Party in a National President ial election . Before you tell me barack obama was also a firstterm senator when he ran for president and he did fine, theres come on, more to it than that. Barack obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 96, reelected to the senate in 98. 2000, he ran in a democratic primary for congressional seat and he lost which is good experience in itself. He got clobbered 21 by the incumbent congressman. He was then reelected to his state senate seat in 2002. In 2004, he decided to run in the democratic primary for a u. S. Senate seat. There were seven candidates in that race and he won. And then, yes, ultimately he walked in an easy general election contest against alan keyes of all people that november, but by the time he got to that easy peezy race against alan keyes to get into the united senate, its not like barack obama had never run for anything before. Ted cruz has never run for anything before. Ted cruz to become a u. S. Senator, hes only ever run in that one election. And to win it, honestly, he counted on the fact that almost nobody showed up. I mean, had texas kept their primary on super tuesday that year, it would not have changed who got the Republican Partys president ial nomination in 2012, right, but it would almost certainly have changed who would be in the running for the republican president ial nomination this year in 2016. Because that accident of timing, that very political calendar that brought us the lucky story of ted cruzs political career so far, the microturnout in the weird dead of summer primary and runoff, thats how we got ted cruz. And now as we pass halftime in this years republican president ial primary process, honestly, do you believe were only at halftime . Its been count of the days, 6 5 days since the first contest in the iowa caucuses. Its 6 2 days until the last contests on june 7th in california and new jersey and all those places. Were at halftime. At this halftime mark thus far, there has not been a lot of sustained National Media attention on who ted cruz is or how we got him in the u. S. Senate or what else he has ever done in his life before he became a very controversial somewhat highprofile firstterm senator and now a possible republican president ial nominee. But ted cruzs political ascent is very unorthodox. Before this president ial campaign, he only ever competed in one competitive electoral contest and it was one where it was absolutely critical that there was an incredibly and abnormally small turnout. I mean, significantly more people voted in some bigcity elections for mayor last year than voted for ted cruz in the election that got him his senate seat. And so now after wisconsin last night, that crunching, that creeking, that shrieking of metal sound that you hear, thats the giant battleship of the american National Media turning its attention to whos this guy, ted cruz . I mean, its not that his past is unknowable or somehow hidden. The honest truth is as far as i can tell nobody in the National Media has much focused on telling the backstory of how we got ted cruz because before now it was absolutely inconceivable somebody like ted cruz could be viable as a possible nominee for the Republican Party. Now that he has won his first largestate primary outside of h home state of texas in the president ial race, he got his first win in wisconsin last night, you can hear the googling and lexusnexus searching starting up on him. With the Republican Party looks like it might seriously consider giving ted cruz the nomination, you should expect to learn quickly a lot more about ted cruzs past because now everybody is going to be trying to figure out who he is. I think theres a lot of substantive reporting to be done there because he has had sort of a strange rise to power. Honestly, theres also a lot of junk out there about him. Like todays National Enquirer running their second big ted cruz story today which has no sourcing, it makes no specific allegations, it has no quotes but it sure sounds salacious and its on the front page of the National Enquirer. More on that later. But as we start this second half of the president ial nominaing process, wisconsins results last night does sort of make us feel like were in a different place. Ted cruz seems like a potentially viable contender for the first time. John kasich on the other hand does not. Not only did john kasich come in a distant third place last night in wisconsin, he came in third place by a lot in every Congressional District in the state last night. He came in third place in every county in the state last night. The next states on the electoral map are supposed to be favorable for a john kasichlike candidate. New york, connecticut, delaware, maryland, pennsylvania, these kind of places. But if he was going to perform in those kinds of states, he probably would have performed at least a little last night in wisconsin and frankly john kasich tanked last night in wisconsin. As for the overall frontrunner, i think one of the underappreciated facts about donald trump in his secondplace finish last night in wisconsin is it was foretold a little bit by him losing his mojo in terms of his campaign rallies. The night before the wi we primary, donald trump held what was expected to be a large event at a theater in milwaukee that seats about 7,000 people. He ended up turning out more like 2,500 people. There was no line to get in. This was not a security problem. There were lots of empty seats inside. Some parts of the theater, there were more reporters than supporters. Thousands of empty seats. Was that just a bad sign for donald trump in wisconsin . Was that a sign that things are pooping out for him more broadly . Heres your latest evidence from tonight. Donald trump rallying tonight in bethpage, long island. This is at a venue that holds 10,000 people. These were the crowds that were waiting to get into that venue today. The crowd estimate in terms of the number of people who turned up tonight is this venue is at capacity, its full. Did i mention it seats 10,000 . I mean, tonight if long island is any indication, it sort of looks like whatever donald trump did not have in wisconsin, hes got it back in new york. Enough people at that donald trump event in long island to elect ted cruz to the United States senate again. More ahead. Stay with us. Hey, there used to be more candidates than this running on the democratic side. The last one standing after reduced down to Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton was Martin Omalley. Tomorrow night on this show, were going to have the first tv interview with Martin Omalley since he dropped out of the democratic president ial race. Hes done no other tv interviews. Hes going to talk to us first tomorrow. Next, though, we have some big news on the Bernie Sanders campaign with the great Steve Kornacki whos going to be here. Bernie sanders just said moments ago at a Campaign Rally in pennsylvania tonight that he says he believes former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, quote, is not qualified to be president. That and more from the Sanders Campaign next. Stay with us. Im standing up so you know this is going to be weird. All right. Great state of wisconsin has 72 counties. Last night in the threeway con test for the republican president ial nomination, john kasich won zero of wisconsins 72 counties. He didnt even place second in a single county. He came in third in every single one of them. Most of them werent even close. However, that hardly matters for john kasichs strategy to win the republican president ial nomination because his strategy for winning the nomination, which his campaign has repeatedly described to reporters, its very simple. And its not about winning. Its not about how many delegates he gets or how many states he gets. His whole strategy instead is based on neither of his rivals winning. Neither of his rivals getting enough delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot at the republican convention. So john kasich doesnt even appear to be planning to win anything before the republican convention. He just plans to go to the convention and then when neither donald trump nor ted cruz wins that first ballot, the kasich plan is that the delegates at the convention will then just turn to him because hes there and technically hell still be running for president at that time and they will choose him at that time because hes awesome. When we get to the convention, theyre going to wonder who can beat hillary, which i consistently do and they do not, and then they also are going to look about who could be president. Now, we have one guy with no experience and the other guy whose experience amounts to shutting down the government and calling the majority leader a liar. That is not the way in which you get things done in this country. In the fall, i will be able to run a very Aggressive Campaign in the state of wisconsin and nobody else can. I mean, i beat hillary in the fall in wisconsin by 14 and everybody else gets slaughtered. It will all be fine over time. It will all be fine, nobody worry, ive got this. Theyll just pick me at the convention because im a better choice. And, you know, the rules by which the Republican Party chooses their president ial nominee, those rules could absolutely allow that to happen but you can hear why this is a hard argument to make. You know, sure Republican Voters gave virtually all their votes to other people but the Republican Party will pick me because i am better than the other candidates who beat me with the voters. I mean, it should be noted in fairness to governor kasich, this is the only argument he can make. Theres literally no other way he can become the Republican Partys nominee. If he is staying in this race, that is the one argument that is available to him. Thats all hes got. No such problems on the democratic side, though, right . On the democratic site, after all, there are only two candidates. When theres only two people running, obviously one of them will get a majority. Almost by definition, right . Or maybe not . This is interesting and its an interesting turn in the race. Fresh off their victory last night in wisconsin, the Bernie Sanders campaign is now making a new case for senator sanders and how he will get the nomination and honestly it sounds a little kasichesque at least on the surface. Senator Sanders Campaign manager has now told cnn that the campaigns working assumption is that neither democratic candidate will get a majority of delegates. Neither one will get to 2,083, and therefore neither of them will win the nomination in the primary process. The Campaign Says that they believe the Sanders Campaign, sanders, himself, will win at the convention because at the convention the superdelegates will decide that Bernie Sanders should win and not Hillary Clinton. This is what superdelegates have to grapple with. They want to win. Many of these people are elected officials, party insiders. At the end of the day, they want the candidate whos going to be able to beat the republicans and polling consistently shows thats Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders Campaign manager saying nobodys going to win the democratic nomination before the convention and then at the convention, the superdelegates ought to pick Bernie Sanders because hes better. Hes just a better bet for the democratic party. Which is why it sounds kasichesque. Heres my question, though. Why could the Sanders Campaign feel like they needed to make a kasichesque argument . Why would the Sanders Campaign be making an argument that generally reserved for candidates who have mathematically cant make any other argument, who mathematically cant win the nomination any other way . Whats the Sanders Campaign seeing when they look at the electoral map thats driven them to a strategy that makes it seem like all this primary and caucus stuff is pretty hopeless . Theres only one man i trust to guide me through an electoral map this year, that is the great Steve Kornacki, Political Correspondent and host of meet the press daily on mondays on msnbc. Thank you for doing this. Sure. The Bernie Sanders campaign to winning the nomination before the convention . So when theyre saying theres no mathematical way, what you have to understand is what theyre referring to in particular here. So we divided the delegates into two categories. The superdelegates, people know about these. The elected officials, the party leaders. They automatically vote at the convention. However, they are not technically committed right now, even if they say theyre for clinton or sanders. The key for what the Sanders Campaign is saying is this category, allocated, given out in primaries and caucuses. What theyre saying is nobody when you go through all the primaries and caucuses in this column will hit this number, 2,383. The magic number. Theyre basically saying if nobody gets to that, then youre going to have what theyre calling a contested convention. The contested convention would mean a fight for the superslegts. Theyre basically saying the fight for the superdelegates will start when the primary is over. That part of their argument, you think that is feasible that neither one of them under reasonable assumptions whats going to happen in the primary neither one of them is going to get 2,338 . Couple pieces of bad news, hes done so much better in caucuses than primaries. Only two states left have caucuses, small states, wyoming, north dakota. The rest are primaries. Thats helped her generally. Closed primaries, thats a further hurdle for him. Cant have independents, republicans voting. When thats been the case, sanders has done this. 210 is the number. He needs to raise 210. California, midatlantic, new york which is next, pennsylvania and new jersey and maryland. You add these states together, this is 2 3 of whats left on the democratic side. Just in the midatlantic and out here. So if you follow me for a second here, if you take every other state, forget those big ones, take every other state and give sanders big wins in these states, doesnt lose any of them. Wins them all by double digits. Worst case gets a draw in the district of columbia. Otherwise were talking big wins. Hes going to raise 125 of the 210. Hed need to make up 85 at that point. Again, being really optimistic. Heres the problem, take new york, for instance. Thats the next one up. Hes trailing in the polls. Hes made up ground. Hes still down double digits. Demographically not the best fit for him. Say he has a great two weeks. Say he wins new york, wins it by a couple points. Huge upset if he does that, by the way. How would that break down . Something like 130 for sanders and 117 for Hillary Clinton in the absolute bestcase scenario. Huge state, huge upset, huge win for sanders. All he does is take 13 off of that. You go down, look at these other states, it would be the same for pennsylvania. Hes trailing huge in the polls right now. He gets a monumental comeback, wins a closed primary in a big divers state, what does he get for that . He might make up 11 delegates on a great night for him. Maryland, very Large Population there, closed primary. This looks like a disaster in the making potentially for Bernie Sanders. Thats the other risk. If he loses any of these states, say he loses maryland, keeps it close. 125, that target goes up to 140 just by losing maryland. Basically, look, the sanders mathematically it can happen. You have to believe in momentum. The idea that the demographic hurdles he faces, theyre going to disappear in the face of this abstract thing called momentum. This is all toward him still not having the number of delegates you need in order to clinch the nomination but simply having a lead to make a case to the superdelegates they ought to support him as the pledged leader even if he doesnt clinch. If he erases 210, he can start the conversation. He can start the conversation even though a lot of the superdelegates are very heavy toward clinton. Wow, thats a steep path. Steve kornacki, thank you for helping me understand this. I literally couldnt understand it without you. Its fun stuff. Well be right back. Stay with us. So theres all this jabber in the press today about things entering a rough new phase between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the democratic race. And honestly, i did not believe a word of it. But then lo and behold, turns out its true. At least weve got some evidence. Senator sanders has just within the last few moments unveiled what is apparently going to be a new part of his stump speech. Hes done this tonight in pennsylvania. And it is hes now, well, hes now making the argument that Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president of the United States. That is legitimately new. That means this is a whole different kind of race than it used to be. We just got the tape in. Well turn it around for you in just a second. Hold on. Its not a quick fix. Its my decision to make beauty last. Roc retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. And the longer i use it the better it works. Retinol correxion from roc. Methods, not miracles. Its my decision to make beauty last. Fix. Roc retinol started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. And the longer i use it the better it works. Retinol correxion from roc. Methods, not miracles. Okay. So here it is. We got it. This is Bernie Sanders speaking tonight in philadelphia. The speech is still going on. Going after his democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in a way that we have not heard before in this democratic fight. She has been saying lately that she thinks that i am, quote unquote, not qualified to be president. Well, let me let me just say in response to secretary clinton, i dont believe that she is qualified. She is she is through her superpac taking tens of millions of dollars in special interest funds. I dont think that you are qualified if you get 15 million from wall street through your superpac. I dont think you are qualified if you have voted for the disastrous war in iraq. Now, what we think this is about, you heard him say at the top of his remarks there, she has been saying that she thinks i am, quote unquote, not qualified to be president. What we think this is about, what we think hes referencing there, secretary clinton saying today in an interview that Bernie Sanders had not done his homework on some issues that have come up in the campaign, specifically in a sort of rough interview that he had with the Editorial Board of the New York Daily News in the last few days. But Bernie Sanders is responding to that characterization tonight by saying that Hillary Clinton is not qualified to serve as president of the United States. So there you have it. This is what you call a tipping point. This is when the democratic president ial contest becomes a very different contest with a very different aim from the way it started out. Tonight when the republicans adopt their Convention Rules, there will be an interesting argument. It will be this. Rule 16 now has 2 paragraphs, a and b. A says nobody can be put in nomination without the support of five states. B says all votes must be by roll call and all speeches for all candidates finished in 15 minutes. The reagan squad now wants to add another paragraph, 16c. It says each nominee must say by tomorrow morning before tomorrow nights vote who he will recommend for Vice President. As reagan was making his last round of delegate hunting this morning, he ran into Channing Ford supporters. We won last night well win again we won last night, well win again, reference to rule 16c which would have required president ford to name his running mate today. The reagan forces lost that fight by more than 100 votes. The pennsylvania delegation gave reagan only 14 votes on the issue. About ten less than reagans running mate, senator richard swiker had promised. Senator swiker frankly told me this morning, the number of people have had given him that word and on that bill last night. He said up of them was in tears when he called and said he couldnt keep his word. That the pressure was too great. Ronald reagans defeat over rule 16c, that was the turning point of the last time we had a truly contested convention in this country in 1976 which is a date you could identify from the width of all the ties. Ronald reagan had hoped he could force with this new rule, he hoped he could force president gerald ford to choose a running mate at the convention and we think he wanted that because he hoped that whoever ford chose it would alienate at least some ford delegates. So reagan hoped that he could then persuade some of those alienated ford delegates to cross over and support him and he could get the nomination. And the reagan camp got very close on this. This new rule that they came up with where they were really trying to box ford in on this Vice President thing, that rule had been passed by the rules committee the week before the convention but then it got to the Convention Floor and the whole thing fell apart. Reagan adviser ed meese said it was basically curtains after that. That was pretty much the end of our campaign until the end of president fords acceptance. Another reagan staffer said, when we lost on that, we knew we were dead. So it was Convention Rule 16c that basically ended Ronald Reagans bid for president in 1976. If the republican race this year does end up being decided at the convention, the rules will once again be cue. Thats why candidates are hiring convention gurus who are going to understand how the rules get made and rules work. Even though the rules themselves are malleable and will not get decided until the convention, itself. Weve come to understand there are no set in stone rules for conventions, the one thing we thought was a rule is you need a majority of delegates to win the nomination, right . Turns out thats not a hard and fast rule, either. For example, the rule says you have to have a majority of delegates to win. That rule is subject to amendment just like the other rules that weve been talking about. Hold on. Really . Yes. It is in the rules of the convention that can be changed. They could make it a plurality they could make it a plurality. If donald trump controls the rules committee, could be a plurality. By the way, it could also be a supermajority. Could be a plurality, could be a supermajority, could just decide you need to get this one name delegate, a nice lady named deborah from north dakota and that makes you president. There really are no rules. And that must have made this a very interesting coffee today. This was supposed to be a secret meeting at rnc headquarters that ended up getting reported on politico. Com. Top officials at the rnc committee explained the intricacies to 2,000 gop operatives. What are the intricacies to the rules that dont exist . One of the people you see where i won louisiana and then i find i won louisiana and then i find out im not supposed to get as many delegates as the person i beat. Somebody said theres a rule i dont care about rules. I go out and campaign and we win. We win and we get the delegates. I dont care about the rules, folks. That was donald trump on monday night. The rules do matter, though. In the national Republican Party held a meeting yesterday to talk with a few republicans about how exactly contested conventions work just in case we should expect one this year. Joining us now is someone inside that meeting yesterday. Did you get any secrets. It was an off the record meeting, but i forgot to bring my pen so i wasnt able to take a lot of notes but i can walk you through some of the rules and how republicans are trying to move forward. Let me ask you this. I know it was an off the record meeting, but can you tell me why the rnc is holding an off the record meeting like this. Is this one of a series . Whats the aim of bringing somebody like you and other republicans in to talk about this stuff . I think theres obviously a lot of questions about how this is going to proceed. You were playing clips earlier from 1976. It was the last two times republicans have dealt with this and i was 4 years old in 1976 so i wasnt keeping up with the rules back then so a lot of people need to know how this will move forward, but to make sure that folks like myself who have to go out and answer questions about this dont sound like complete idiots. Is this part of what we should see as a Public Education effort on this subject. I dont mean to be controlling by saying this, but i do worry about what the conventions might be in terms of peoples faith in the system and political process if they feel like theres a grand theft nomination. Is part of this to try to increase Public Knowledge and acceptance that this about what it might look like this summer. The Republican National committee, i cant speak for them anymore, but they put out a video this week and put together a website so anybody who has questions, whether they as you played the trump clip care about rules or not, they know what the rules are. Rules will change as the way that the convention is structured. The week before we talked so much about whats going to happen at at convention. We need to remember that the rules Committee Meets in cleveland the week before the convention. Normally thats something that nobody pays a lot of attention to. Id encourage people to go to the website and watch that video. I would encourage you if you are planning on getting there for the rules committee in time to book now. Former Communications Director for the rnc. Thanks my friend. Merle haggard, rest in peace. God bless him, man. We have more ahead. Stay with us. This is 100 useful for a 100 fresh mouth. Whats it like to not feel 100 fresh . We dont know. We swish listerine®. As do listerine® users. The very people we studied in the study of bold. People who are statistically more likely to stand up to a bully. Do a yoga handstand. And be ia magicians act. Listerine® kills 99 of bad breath germs so you can feel 100 in life. Bring out the bold™. Im spending too muchs for time hiringnter. And not enough time in my kitchen. announcer need to hire fast . Go to ziprecruiter. Com and post your job to over 100 of the webs leading job boards with a single click. Then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. You put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. Makes my job a lot easier. announcer over 400,000 businesses have already used ziprecruiter. And now you can use ziprecruiter for free. Go to ziprecruiter. Com offer99 delast week the lawyer in the d. C. Madam case asked he be allowed to release some never before seen phone records from the d. C. Madam Escort Service back in the day. That lawyer says that those phone records from the Escort Service are relevant to this years president ial election. So last week he said time is of the essence. He asked chief Justice Roberts to lift a lower Court Gag Order that prevents him from releasing these records. The Supreme Court had denied him that request. Is is that true or is that false . False, at least in the sense that things are not settled and down for sure, at least not yet. Also, that lawyer is not done asking the Supreme Court to rule on this case. Supreme court rule 22 says after you get initially turned down for a request like this youre allowed to ask one more time. Youre allowed to renew your request with any other justice on the court. He says he is now renewing that application to Justice Clarence thomas. So his case is still alive at least for now. Whether or not the Supreme Court rules in his favor and removes the gag order. Theres speculation about whether one of the president ial candidates will be named in these records. Theres rumor that ted cruzs name will be there. The article amounts to absolutely nothing. Theres nothing substantive in it at all. Its thursday, april 7. Right now on first look, qualified to serve. Bernie sanders says Hillary Clinton is not qualified and the firestorm that followed. Meanwhile, mounted police kept the peace between pro and antidonald Trump Supporters as ted cruz invades new york. And the lapd launches a felony threat case into Charlie Sheen and his ex. And excitement ahead of todays masters teeoff and the outpouring for Country Music legend merle haggard, it continues. First look starts right now. Good morning, thanks for
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.