Transcripts For KTIV Meet The Press 20160228

News and erick erickson. Trump, cruz, sanders. Welcome to sunday. And a specialal super tueueay edition of meet the press. From nbc news in washington, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Just 48 hours until super tuesday. We have so much to get to so lets get started right away. Hillary clinton had nothing less than a blowout win last night in South Carolina. Clinton beat Bernie Sanders 74 to 26, 3to1 margin. She swept virtually e ery africamericans whom she won by a margin of 6to1 and also state. Despite what you hear, we dont need to make America Great again. Great. But we do need to make america whole again. Look whos pivoting to the general. Super tuesday votots in 1212 single biggest day of the primary season for both parties. And our brand new polls in three key super tuesday states have even more good news for Hillary Clinton. Big leads for clinton in georgia, tennessee and texas. Look at that sitting around the 60 mark in all three. Pretty good indication that clinton is set to have a super, super tuesday. But lets turn to the wild republican race. And well go state by state in that one. In georgia donald trump has a sevenpoint lead over cruz and rubio rubio, 30 trump, cruz and rubio tied. In tennessee trumps lead more durable at 40 followed by cruz in second and rubio a close third and then the rest of the field. But in texas its a different story. Ted cruz is hanging onto his mustwin home state. And he has a comfortable 13point lead over trump. Rubio is a distant third there. Now, these polol were taken before marco rubios Strong Performance in that thursday night republican debate. Recontact as many people as possible. We talked to 30 of the responden in all three states to see whether rubios debate performance changed anything, in short it did not. Trump, rubio and cruz all held onto roughly 90 of their supportrts. In fact in the raw ballot test rubio moved up all of one point. We havethree president ial candidates with us this morning as we look forward to what could be a defining super tuesday. Ted cru donald trump and Bernie Sanders. And joining me now is senator ted cruz of texas who comes to us this morning from one of his must do well states in, springdale, arkansas. Senator cruz, welcome back to meet the press. Chuck, good d rning. Good to be with you. U. Lets set the expectations straight up, if you dont win texas, can you stay in this race . Well, i thinkwere going to do very well in texas, and i think super tuesday could well be the most important day of the entire primary season. We are campaigning all across super tuesday. Clear that there is only one candidate who has beaten and who can beat donald trump. And in super tuesday we are neck and neck with donald across super tuesday. Were going to do very well in texas and were fightingngard to beat him across the country. And i will say to the 65 of republicans who recognize donald trump as not the best candidate to go headtohead with Hillary Clinton, the only way to beat him is for us to come together an unite. And our campaign is the only one that can beat donald, so i ask for your support on super tuesday. Let me ask yo this, is the fairest way to decide who the chief challenger is to trump is the person whos in second place in delegates come wednesday morning between yourself and marco rubio . Listen, theres no doubt were likely to come out of super tuesday with a big difference in delegates. I think it is likely that youll see donald trump has a whole bunch of delegates. I think its likely that well have a whole bunch of delegates. Do you think youll be second . I think theres going to be a big, big dropoff between donald and me and the rest of the field. And two in delegates and right now donald d i are one and two in the popular votes. As you know historically no one has ever won the nomination in modern times without winning one of the first three states, iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, donald and i are the only two who have done that. You released summary pages of your tax returns and so did marco rubio. You said the only reason you did is because marco rubio released some pages. How are you forcing d dald trump to releaseis tax return if youu only releasing the first tt pages . Well, sten, ive released nine years of tax returns. And by the way the first five years have everything. The last four have summary pages. Ive got nine years of tax returns. Donald trump has not released so much as a paper clip. Donald needs to release his taxes. Mitt romney this week so will you be happy if he just does summary pages . Lookokit would be a very positive step in the right directioo i wouldldbe thrilled if he happy to release everything ive released for five years. We just matched what the o poens did for the last four years. But the critical point, chuck, as mitt romney observed, the fact that donald seems terrified to release his taxes suggests theres a bombshell there. And its natural to wonder, well, what is it that hes hiding in his taxes . Maybe its that donald trump doesnt earn nearly as much as he has so loudly told everyone. Maybe hes not as rich as he says he is. Who knows. Maybe its the case that mitt romney is richer than donald trump. He can answer that by releasing his taxes. On the other hand maybe its the case that he has given large sums of money to left wing groups like planned parenthood. You know, he praises planned parenthood in the debates over and over again. Maybe hes been a big financial supporter of that. All of those questions donald can put to rest, or you know, chuck, maybe it is the case that donald there have been multimillion media reports about donalds business dealings with the mob, with the mafia. Maybe his taxes sh those extensive than has been reported regardless of what the bombshell is. Senator cruz, let me stop you there. Thats openly speculative. Do you have any facts to support that donald trump has mob ties . Oh, sure, abc, cnn, multiple news have reports about his dealings owned by a mobster in jail. It is owned by two of the major new york crime families. That has been reported in multiple media outlets. You know, youre going to have donald on the show later today. You ought to ask him, donald, have you written a check to planned parenthood . If so, how much and when . Thats a quqution donald ought totoanswer. We dont know what i i is that hes hiding in those tax returns, but i can promise you this, if hes the nominee come september, october, every day on the news will be about those tax bombshell is. And republican primary voters nomination, not after. Because you Better Believe Hillary Clinton and the media are going to go to town on it. And the primary voters should be able to vet all of us. Let me ask you Rush Limbaugh said something earlier this week about your candidacy. He said ted cruz has fought these guys every day that hes been in washington. And for a lot of reasons that doesnt register. Basically sounds like he was almost lamenting it. But the fact is donald trump stole your outsider brand. Super tuesday was supposed to be the day you were going to be solidifying your status as the frontrunner, and its not turning out that way. How did trump steal your outsider brand . Well, listen, i think super tuesday will continue to narrow the field. The first four states narrowed the field down from 17 candidates to a much smaller field. I think super tuesday we will effectively have two candidates coming out of that have a viable path that have enough delegates to have a shot at winning. And headtohead with donald trump i beat donald by 16 points, 56 to 40. Last week, we saw aontrast between washington dealmakers and this is how weve gotten in the mess were in now is republicans who cut deals with democrats, grow the debt, grow government and give away our constitutional rights. A contrast between dealmakers and a principled constitutional conservative conservative. You know, chuck, it was striking when donald trump said, ted, you got to be willing to compromise on the supreme court. You got to be willing to compromise on religious liberty. Let me tell you, i will not comprorose away youou religious liberty ririts. I will not comprose away your secd amendment. And donald trump is telling us if hes president hell cut a deal with harry reid and Chuck Schumer and give away your constitutional rights. Thats how we got in this mess. Let me end where we began, if you are third in delegates wednesday morning, do you reassess your candidacy . Well, listen, i dont intend to be third in delegates. I d dt believe i am. I think that may be a question youll haveeto pose t t other we saw last week was in the seminal battle on amnesty when i was leading the fight against the Rubio Schumer gang of eight amnesty bill and we defeated the gang of eight amnesty bill, donald trump was funding the gang of eight. He had given over 55,000 to the members of the gang of eight. You cannot lead on illegal immigration if you spent four decades supporting open border democrats. And if youve been hiring Illegal Immigrants, as donald trump has been doing. All right. Senator ted cruz, i got to leave it there. Republican from texas, have a safe time on the trail. Well be watching on super tuesday, sir. Excellent. And im joined now by donald trump, the republican frontrunner. Mr. Trump, welcome back to meet the press, sir. Good morning. Let me just ask you, howd you make the deal to get Chris Christie to endorse you . Well, it was just somebody that i really wanted. I must tell you i was going to i called him. I did not call him. He called me. He saw what was happening. He said, donald, you have a movement going. Like, chuck, this afternoon i think we have 25,000 people in alabama, we ended up moving to a football stadium because you couldldt hold. Mean, what we have going is incredible. Yesterday in arkansas we had 15,0,0 people in a hangar in tennessee. Its amazing whats going on. And he said theres a movement going on and id like to be part of it. And i was very happy. I was getting ready to call him. And he called me. And having chris is a great honor. Well, i tell you, he seems like a changed man when it comes to you. There was a time he wasnt such a believer. Let me play a few s. Hes been very successful bbinessman, has lots of talents, absolutely noo ability inthis area. Stand up to say and ban all muslims fr coming to t country. Ridiculous. It would be a beautiful, wonderful wall, it will be an incredible wall, the wall will be unbelievable. In chief, were not casting a tv show. I dont think it would be in the best interest of our party to have someone who i dont think would be an effective president be the nominee. Mr. Ump, as i can attest to, if anybody had said that, you would have unloaded on them on twitter. And sort of pulverized them. What made you accept christies change of heart . Well, you know, i heard those comments. They were made in a rather low key manner. And they were made in smaller locations. And they never got out very much. So i never really had to go wild. But i did hear a little about them. But thats called welcome to the Wonderful World of politics, i think. You know, hes been a friend of mine. Hes been a really good guy and a good friend of mine for a long time. Just having his endorsement is amazing. We did four stops between the last two days. And hes introduced me and the place loves him, the people love him. Hes tough, hes smart. We just get along very well. So, you know, thats called i think youve heard about it before, right . Fair enough. He certainly has been quitetehe pening act for you the last two days. Lookoktheres been a couple other thihgs came up at the debate. Couple of our attack tv ads are there. I want to play a clip of one on immigration thats going after you and get you to respond on the other side. A federal court ruled that trumps company hired Illegal Immigrants to help construction process for trump tower. He even paid a 1 million fine. And his new hotel in washington. The washihiton post interviewededbout 15 laborers at the d. C. Hotel site repting that many revealed they had entered the u. S. Illegally. Basically the charge is this, mr. Trump, you dont practice what you preach on immigration. Yeah. Well, its wrong. First of all, the one charge is from 35 years ago. I think thats a pretty good record when people have to go 35 years back to find out about workers. Now, as i remember it, those workers were hired by another company. I just hired a company and they had some workers that were and this was the demolition of a building that made way for trump tower. So the workers, chuck, this is 35 years ago youre talking about. By the way the laws were totally different. The laws were not what they are now and totally different. As far as one of the great hotels in the world thats currently being built on pennsylvania avenue between the Capitol Building and the white house, there were no illegals. We do checks like you wouldnt believe. And they didnt name any names, they didnt give any information. We are very, very careful, we hav an ecellent contractor is the best in the country, works with me, thats why that job by the way is two years ahead of schedule and under bungt e budget and going to be one of the great hotels of the world. Im doing a good job. They know what they did when they got me. Thats what happened. They dont have any proof of any illegals. They have no proof. They said they f fnd a w do you use everify i i eerything you do wn it comes to finding out the immigration status . And i use everify in that building. And the Washington Post mentioned they spoke to people, theres no names i read the story. It was from a few months ago. There were no names whatsoever. They have no proof, no evidence, no nothing. They saw people and there were people coming out of the building and they were absolutely. We go with everify. I am extremely strong on it. Every time i have a contrtrtor meeting in that building, and were doing fantastically well. Were going t open that uilding in september, which will be ver exciting. Just before the election. Perfect. I mean, you know. The timing. But i will tell you this, i am very the timing is good. But i am very, very tough on that. And they have absolutely no evidence whatsoever. Its a typical the Washington Post story. All right. You were obviously Trump University came. Lele me ask you this right. If Trump University was such a successful business and the trump i know you had to change the name because it wasnt a university. Only in new york. Business . Well, because we would open it again what happened is first of all you have to understand. We had about 98 of the people took the courses, approved the courses, they had report cards and said they were great, those people now are suing because a law firm said if i couldet your money back, what would you say, get my money back, thats great. But they signed these documents they rated the course 98 Approval Rating and high marks. Number two, we have an a from the Better Business bureau. And heres the only thing, chuck, i could settle the case, case. The reason is i dont want to be held up. And once you settle cases, everybody sues you. I dont want to be h hld up. So i take the cas the one with the attney general, that was taken from these people. They made a campgn general of new york. He met with president obama in syracuse, new york, and the following day or a day later he filed a case against me. And that case has been largely won, although theyre appealing, won by me. So its very easy for me to settle these things, chuck. I just d dnt choose to do it. s not a good deal. Its a a civil case. s not a big deal. Just so you understand, we have a 98 Approval Rating and we have an a from the Better Business bureau. I guess the question is, did anybody succeed . Did anybody make millions of dollars in real estate using your way . Can you produce folks that have made millions using your way . Peopop did succeed. And we have those people will be witnesses at the trial. And thehean thats doing that i believe he signed a document saying he thought Trump University was terrific in some form. And that it was terrific. So well have to find out i havent seen this commercial, but the man that did that commercial, i think if you tell me his name or well find it, but most of the people signed documents saying it was great. So it will be interesting. He made the statement. Lets see what he said about the school. Because i think he signed a document saying that the school is very good. But well find out. The judge yesterday. You said one of the judges, you said, quote, i believe he happens to be spanish, which is fine. Hes hispanic. Which is fine. We havent asked for a recusal, which we may do. Why would you need to ask for a recusal . And what does his ethnicity have to do with it . Because i think hes been very, very unfair with us. I think the judge has been extremely unfair. This is a case that many, many, many people said should have been thrown out on summary judgment. We have 98 approval and you think its because hes hispanic . This is a case that should have been well, because of the wall and because of everything thats going on with mexico andll of that, i think its frankly look, this is a judge who i believe has treated me very, very unfairly. This is a case that should have been thrown out a long time ago in the opinion of many great lawyers. And as you know right now on twitter there is a trending you retweett somebodyfrom elduce it was a musolini quote, it is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep. Do you like the quote . Did you know its musolini. Its okay. Its a very good quote. Its a very interesting quote. And i saw it i know who said it. But what differencecedoes it make whether its musolini or somebody else . A very interesting quote. Well, a known fascist do you want to be a social its a very interesting quote. Do you want to be associated with a fascist . No, i want to be associated with interesting quotes. And people you know, i have almost 14 Million People between instagram and facebook and twitter and all of that, and we do interesting things. And i sent it out. And certainly, hey, it got your attention, didnt it . Well, it is trending on twitter right now. Mr. Trump, i have to leave it there. Stay safe e safe on the trail. Well see you super tuesday. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. All right. When we come back, the republican establishment is now in a fullon panic over the possibility of donald trump securing this nomination. Could we be looking at the beginning of a crackup inside the gop as we know it . We were born 100 years a into a new american century. Born with a hunger to fly and a passion to build something better. And what an amazing time its been, decade after decade of innovation, inspiration and wonder. So, we say thank you america for a century of trust, for the privilege of flying higher and higher, together. And can you explain why you recommend synthetic over cedar . Super food . Is that a real thing . Its a great school, but is it the right one for her . Is this really any better than the one you got last year . If we consolidate suppliers, whats the savings there . Good question. You ask a lot of good questions. I think we should move you into our new fund. Sure. Ok. But are you asking enougugabout how your w wlth is managed . Wealth management at charles schwab. Every day you read headlines about businesses being hacked and intellectual property being stolen. That is cybercrime and it affects each and every one of us. Microsoft created the digital crimes unit to fight cybercrime. We use the microsoft cloud to visualize information so we can track down the criminals. When it comes to the cloud, trust and security are paramount. Were building what we learn back into the cloud to make people and organizations safer. Welcome back. Panel is here. President of the liberal think tank. Andrea mitchell of course is our chief Foreign Affairs correspondent but all over the Clinton Campaign for us. And erick erickson, author of the new book you will be made to care the war on faith, family and your freedom to believe. Welcome all. All right. Republicans in a fullon panic. I caught up with john kasich yesterday. There was this big New York Times story, mitt romney apparently trying to convince kasich to get out. Heres how governor kasich responded to that news. Nobodys asked me to drop out. It wouldnt matter to me anyway. I dont really want to get into private conversations with people, but that never happened in terms of mitt trying to tell me what i need to do with my career. Thats not what it was about. And ive had a number of conversations with him and a lot of email exchanges. You just have to leave it there. But at the end of the day eachh of these candidates should be im going to win ohio, but if i dont win ohio, you know, ball game over. Charlie, this is the issue. There isnt anybody to rally around kasichs not ready to drop out, cruz wont drop out for rubio, rubio won drop out for cruz and Donald Trumps going to walk away with this thing. Chuck, at this point its a momentum i mean, none of that matters. Expectations dont matter. Its delegates. Is after t tsday is donald trump on a trajectory to get 1237 delegates, yes or no . And for all these other guys, you know, its can they keep him under that trajectory is whats important. And ive been very skeptical about trump winning the nomination from the very beginning. Still skeptical . Yeah, my knees are weakening a little. All right. When two out of three Republican Voters in National Polls and averaging in the four events so far are against him, are they going to coalesce behind him . They all know him, theyre all onethird with him. His percentages in the first states are identical to mitt romneys, either way. Party united around mitt romney. I also think part of the problem is republicans havent really been able to say in a unified way why exactly he cant be their standard bear. They cant say its because h h says bigoted things becausesee says exexicitly racist, they cant say not conservative around taxes, his tax cuts are three times as big as bushes. Theres not a unified story about why hes not a republican. Erick, you believe its on conservative values . Yes. Thats the way to unify the party on this. And youve been critical of both cruz and rubio for not being able to coalesce, you feel like they are being childish. They are. It was very interesting thursday they finally together tag teamed donald trump, ininact name checking each other at the end of their time saying hey, hey, i get 30 seconds to respond in going after trump. At some point when wednesday comes when the sun rises on delegates in second place has a plausible case for a reaganbush coalition. He needs to get out and be the v. P. Thats what you would tell them to do . Yes. The likelihood of those two working together. You noe theyre goinin to have to. Agan and bush had to work together. That said,d,what marco rubio has to prove is he is a credible alternative for the establishment republicans. And what we saw in that debate thursday night, the playground rhetoric was so deeply offensive to so many people on all sides that youve got people, you know, trump and rubio going after each other for their hair, their ears, how have we reached this point . Instead of you quoting them, i want to play them going back and forth. Better. It was bizarre and stunning. Let me play it. Well, were going to all right. Were going to deal with that later in the show. But the other part of what we saw in the playground rhetoric though was Chris Christies endorsement. I think its it was obviously a big deal for trump to have somebody, any kind of okay. Anybody. I did not expect it. Let me tell you other people flabbergasted. Amazingly its Chris Christie taking heat. Conservative writer writes this, well, now we know the stuff of what Chris Christie is made, opportunism opportunism. What a cynical hack, mr. Chris christie turned out to be, i hope he sleeps well tonight selling out whatat left of him. Heres the unbelelvable quote of the morning. Meg whitman, National Finance cochair puts out this statement she sent to nbc news this morning. Quote, Chris Christies endorsement of donald trump is an astonishing display of political opportunism. Donald trump is unfit to be president. He is a dishonest demagogue who plays to our worst fears. The governor is mistaken if he support and i call on christieie dodors and suppppters to call him out right. Wow, i agree with no, thats meg whitman. She is the National Finance good for her. Yes. I agree with her statement. And ive gotten that from a lot of people. And i dont know that it actually helps donald trump headed into the south to have a governor who supported gun control whats remarkable about it, it isnt as though they were adversasaes in the past. Two weeks ago Chris Christies on video as you played for donald trump. So the hypocrisy and the opportunism of this is so transparent that it helped in one big way. It cut marco rubios momentum on a day he otherwise would have been the national story. All right. Were going to take a quick pause here. We have a lot more to talk about on this i promise. But in a moment im going to catch up with senator Bernie Sanders. Does he have a path left to the there are those who say we cannot defeat a corrupt political system and fix a rigged economy. But i believe we need to lift our vision above the obstacles in place and look to the american horizon. To a nation where every child can dream of going to college, but attend one. Where quality healthcare will be a a rthright of every citizen. Where a good job is not a wish, but a reality. Where women receive equal pay and a living wage is paid to all. An america where after a lifetime of labor, there is time for rest and grandchildren. A nation that defends our people and our values, but no longer carries so much of that burden alone. I know we can create that america if we listen to our consence and our hearar and not to the pundits and the naysayers. Im Bernie Sanders. I approve this message, welcome back. It was a toughgh Night Saturday for m m next guest, Bernie Sanders. With Hillary Clinton enjoying a big victory in the South Carolina primary, that makes super tuesday even more crucial if hes going to keep his hopes alive for securing the democratic nomination. Senator sandede, welcome back to meet the press, sir. My pleasure. A month ago, senator, a month ago you said i think were picking up more and more frankly i think we can win there, referring to South Carolina. You lost a aricanamerican voters 84 to 16, worse than any poll had shown. Senator, what happened . Well, we got decimated, thats what happened. Among older africanamericans it was pathetic from our perspective. But by the way, what was the glimmer of positive news for us is that we won the 29 years of age or younger vote. And we did well with africanamerican young people as well as white young people. But no question secretary clinton won that state and she won it big, but im in minnesota now. I think we got a real shot at minnesota. I think we got a shot at colorado, oklahoma, massachusetts and vermont. So were looking to the future, not looking back. We had two rallies yesterday in texas. 10,000 people out in austin, 8,000 people out in dallas. I think the future for us its i think we can pull it off, chuck. Look, the game is delegates now. Its not where you win states, its about accumulating delegates. Right, thats right. Your cpaign is targeting states worth 288 delegates on supertize super tuesday. Secretary clinton is targeting six states worth 531. If you both do well, shes going to have at least a 200delegate lead on you if youre not carefululthat point. This is why arent yourying to win more delegates than her on super tuesday . Well, we are trying to win every delegate that we can. And not only are we fighting for super tuesday, were looking ahead to california, the largest state of all. New york state we think were going to do well in michigan look, chuck. Lets be clear. We began this campaign nine and a half months ago at 3 in the polls, 70 points behind Hillary Clinton. In the last two weeks some polls nationally have actually had us in the lead. Fighting for the message that were goingto end income and wealth inequality and a broken criminal Justice System and a corrupt Campaign Finance system. We have developed enormous momentum all over this country. It is a tough fight. We knew that from the beginning. But i think were going to do well suur tuesday. Were going to do well in many states after that. And we look forward to those state by state struggles. You know, theres a long story in the New York Times today detailing secretary clintons role in pushing the president on libya at the time, helping to step in to overthrow gadhafi. Let me ask you this, would libya be in better shape today if gadhafi were still in power . Let me say this, secretary clinton and i have very strong differences of opinion on Foreign Policy. I help lead the opposition to this disastrous war in iraq, she supported it. To answer your question, no one can speculate. Nobody knows. Change, whether it is gadhafi, whether it is assad in syria these are terrible dictators, but youve got to be thinking about what happens the day after the kind of political vacuum that occurs in libyaya of course as a result of thehe overthrow of gadhafi, isis now has a strong foothold. I would have done it differently if i were president of the united states. Secretaryclinton also believes no, i would have worked more patiently. I know its a difficult situation, but you cant just go forward with regime change. You got to be thinking about the day after. And i think the same thing is true in syria. Secretary clinton disagrees with president obama and myself regarding a nofly zone. I fear tat can get us entangled more into that war. I certainly hope that the ceasefire that they have now kerry. But i think her approach to Foreign Policy and mine are just quite different. Earlier this week as the back you had said you supported the house version because it had an assault weapons ban in it, but thaturned out not to be the case. So why did you put out a statement that was misleading whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No. Thats not my undetanding. It was not in the house bill that you voted. It was in a senate bill, but it was not in that house bill. To the best of my knowledge hold it. To the best of my knowledge there were two important provisions. And that is violence against women act which was very important. Ive worked very hard to prevent domestic violence. And on my understanding there is a ban on assault weapons in that bill. Look, i spoke on the floor of the house about the harmful impacts of that bill. But weighing the pros and the cons i voted for it. And by the way i also voted against the socalled welfare reform act that secretary clinton then supported which has had a horrible impact on the poorest of the poor people in this country. All right. Senator sanders, i have to leave ititthere. I know you have another interview coming up. I appreciate it. Well be watching on tuesday. Thank you. You got it. Well be back after the break with a look at where the republican race might be headed after super tuesday. And then later donald, donald, i understand rules are very hard for you if the republican president ial raa is becoming a race to the bottom, how will thatlay with general election vo frank abagle. Convicted felon and con man. That was a long time ago. You know, they made a movie about it. You were shown to be quite skilled at fraud. Times change. Now i help catch the bad guys. Me too. I help banks detect fraud by applying cognitive analytics to public financial records and social media. So if somebody said, catch me if you can. . We can. Letts do a sequel. It could be e buddy movie. Before fibromyalgia, i was on the go. I was organized. I was a doer. Then the chronic, widespread pain drained my energy. My doctor and i agreed moving more helps ease fibromyalgia pain. She also prescribed lyrica. Lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. For some patients, lyrica significantly relieves fibromyalgia pain and improves physical function. With less pain, i feel better and can be more active. Lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. Te your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression or unusual changes in mood or behavior. Or swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling or blurry vision. Common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swellingngf hands, legs andndeet. Dont drink alcohol whililtaking lyrica. Dont drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. Those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. Fibromyalgia may have changed things but with less pain, im still a doer. Ask your doctor about lyrica today. Data download is brought to you by lyrica. Lets dive right into our meet the press data download. Our own version of march madness, well start with donald trump because his path is the most straightforward. On super tuesday 11 republican contests across the country, if polls are right, t tmp is going to have a sizable delegate ad. In fact, if you lolo here this 289 number, its possible were being conservative in our estimates there. He could have an even bigger delegate lead come march 2nd. Then for him its about march 15. If trump does take the critical winner take all delegate states particularly in ohio and florida, there are a few other states that day as well, but if he wins both of those and the others, he will have more than half the delegatt he needs to win the nomination and then ilt becomes almost impossible for anyone to catch trump. So lets look at marco rubios path. On super tuesday hes got three or four states hes covering the this is what he needs. He needs to ideally win somewhere, but at least be consensus second everywhere. Virginia, oklahoma and arkansas are the three states hes spending the most time in. And by the way he would be helped if trump beat ted cruz in texas, which would effectively knock cruz out of the race. Thats a strategy there. Then, in a oneonone on march 15th rubio hopes to beat trump in ohio and florida, and then after that look at what the delegate total would be under that scenario. Rubio would actually have a slight lead at this point and wed be looking at sort of a long march to cleveland, because by the way it would be impossible for anybody to get a majority of the delegates by july to pull that out. So ts now move to cruz. Cruz, hes got a pretty straightforward path to relevance here. Number one hes got to win texas, and hes hoping to win the two states that border texas on super tuesday, oklahoma and arkansas. Cruz really wants to be able to say that he won iowa, texas and Something Else . And of course he needs to be then he also would like to eliminate rubio before florida and then cruz become the alternative a a cruz be the guy that everybodyrallies around and he somehow beats trump in one of these two major super tuesday states. But again, just like rubio, there is only a path to a contested convention for ted cruz. So thats the bottom line were looking at here. Two paths forward, trump comes away march 15th substantial lead and game, set, match presumptive nominee or the Republican Party is looking at an open conventntn comeejuly. Talk aboutt cleveland rocking then. When we come back well look at where the democratic race is from a top official at 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 fofoyour staff to send appointment reminders to your custsters. And share promotions on social media . 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Tell us. Well, first of all, i am resigning from the dnc so that i can support Bernie Sanders for president. I would like to tell you why. As a veteran and as a soldier ive seen firsthand the true cost of war. I served in a medical unit during my first deployment where every single day i saw firsthand the very high human cost of that war. I see it in my friends who now a decade after weve come home are still struggling to get out of a black hole. I think its most important for us as we look at our choices as to who our next commander in the necessity to have a commander in chief who has foresight, exercises good judgment, who looks beyond the consequences, looks at the consequences of the actions theyre looking to take before they take those actions so we dont continue to find ourselves in these failures that have resulted in chaos in the middle east and so much loss of life. But you know, it was just a month ago and this was sort of got us curious, a month ago you said you think the next commander in chief needs to have a, quote, military mindset. You said this during an iierview on fox news. Does senator sanders have a military mindset . From what ive seen, from talking with him and from his record he does. And what that military mindset means is you go through an analysis process as youre looking at potential courses of action that youre going to take and how and when we use our military power. And just as importantly when we dont use that military power that military mindset says you haveve foresight. You lookokt what arere the results, what are the how will other actors in the area react to those actions, what will we then do. And you look continue down the line so you know exactly what youre potentially getting yourself into before you make that decision that ends up costing us lives and treasure. I want to bring in the rest of the panel here. Heather, illtart with u. Lets mixit up here, but just when it looks like the Democratic Party Hillary Clintons got to go on the ability to unite the party as shes potentially building a commanding lead, this is a fracture. I think that the Democratic Party has always needed a primary. This is a time when our core issues around the social contract, around the future of our country, around climate change, around debt frere collegege in t t next generation aret the center of the debate. So we have to have a full debate about them. And i frankly think its time for us to really have a message that actually integrates the party that talks about economic driven economic inequality. So you think this primary, do you think its moved Hillary Clinton . Absolutely. I think its sharpened Bernie Sanders andndost importantly its educated millions of americans about the plu tockinequality and racism in this country. I think having been out there it is a very healthy debate and more civilized debate, i should say. But being in South Carolina as much as i was, its striking and the results in the election last night prove and it could foreshadow what happens on tuesday, that bernie sasaers has yet to understand the language and the way to describe issues that really appeal to the africanamerican voters, at least in the south. And certainly the older africanamerican voters. He frames income inequality in terms of Citizens United and Campaign Finance reform and super pacs and wall street and what the older africanamerican women are eager to hear is more Kitchen Table issues. And it really strikes me going when we had our debate in South Carolina, thats when her Closing Argument was flint, michigan. Her entire closing statement was flint, michigan. And that was her first foray into appealing to these voters. And she seems to be connecting in a way and he is not. Congressman, respond to this that Bernie Sanders hasnt connected. I think when you see the ground swell of support that hes gotten not only in one or two states but in states across the country, i think this is where there is a hunger for a leader, a commander in chief who is honest, who has integrity, who exercises good judgment. The communication of the contrast between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is something that has begun and i think needs to continue to grow to make sure that as we continue through the next super tuesday states that are voting and beyond that voters are equipped with the right information especially as it pertains to war and peace and how these decisions impact these communities of color, how they Impact Communities that are i think whenever you see problems in one party, if you look, youll see them over in the other side. In the democratic side, the divisions that you see with the republicans are there as well. If you tnk about it Hillary Clinton was at the far left of her Husbands Administration and now she finds herself scrambling like mad to the party moved to her left. There are divisions in both sides. So if you think about sort of the future of the Democratic Party, you get past Hillary Clinton or maybe joe biden and you got to go way, way, way left before you find anybody thats on the national stage. I also wouldnt characterize it as left and right the way weve been talking about for a long time. Exactly. Particularly when were talking about economic progressivism, this is something thats really more about insider and outsider, about top and bottom on the economic spectrum. Thats been the split there. And her vulnerability is she has yet to prove march to the nomination, does that help your efforts to unify behind cruz and rubio . I think it would. In a normal year it would. I dont know that it will this year because there is so much anger. Talking about outsiders and insiders, there is so much anger now people are making decisions emotionally, theyre not looking. I for one am very happy to be talking about the democratic primary. But a pause there. E. Congresswoman, nice to see you. Thanks for coming by making that news here. Well be back with the end game segment and question whether the Republican Party can survive my party even parents need a time out sometimes, especially from communications technology. So why not spend one hour totally unplugged . Read, talk, make art, or whatever. No batteries required. End game time. And to say the republican race is getting ugly would be quite the understatement, andrea, as we talked about i promised a compilation of this earlier in the show. Yes. Here it is. Heres a guy totally disruptive, throwing punches, id like to punch him in the face. Ill tell ya. Donald, donald, i understand rules are very hard for you. I dont know why because the podium goes up to here, but he wanted a full length mirror. Maybe to make sure his pants thank god he has really large ears, the biggest ears ive ever seen. Hes flying around on Hair Force One and tweeting. I go back and i see him with makeup and its like hes putting it on with a trowel. And a guy with the worst spray tan in america is attacking me for putting on makeup. Donald trump likes to sue people. He should sue whoever did that to his face. Its rubio. All right. It has become there are nights i felt like the debate, erick, was wwe raw. Im like am i on usa . Am i on the right channel . This is not good for the party. No, its not. Donald trump has brought the party down to a new low. Hes feeding off peoples anger on both parties. There are legitimate grievances but its become unhealthy. I think rubio and cruz had to do could dish it back out to donald trump. Voters supporting donald trump theyre looking for the alpha dog. You have to show you can be the alpha as well. Unfortunately it turns american politics into more of a farce than it already is. And i think it really is a warning to Hillary Clinton if she were to become the nominee because im not sure she knows that any democrat and especially democratic woman would know how to counteract the donald trump phenomenon. How do you debate that . Hell go after benghazi, on emails where she has vulnerabilities, you could have another email dump on monday night, tomorrow night, before the super tuesday. 3,000 pages. You know, all of us going to be poring through it. Are democrats going to make the same mistake republicans did, which is ignore him for three months and then hope by the fall when the debates happen they beat him . No, i think youve already seen that in both of their speeches actually. Theyve been going after donald trump. And its really important because right now, you know, half of americans couldnt pay a 400 bill without going into debt or selling something. And when you see billionaires going after each other and being sort of obsessed with each other when youre struggling, thats really, really bad for our democracy and alienates people. So, charlie, you still believe trump can be stopped, but to stop him its got to be an insiders game. Dont you play to trump outsider strength . I think these other candidates are frustrated that trumps played a different set of rules. And that hes been held to a lower standard. If they have a plan, they have to explain it. He could skate away by saying it will be the biggest or well have many state plans. I mean, i think its just been building and building and building and finally theyre just exploding. Plus they have to keep do you think though, you know its funny with rubio doing what he did. Again, sort of the rick flare mindset. If you want to beat the man you got to be the man. But hes already got the, is he president ial. I think that does impact but to charlies point its not just that tru plays by different rules, its that republicans havent used the existing rules against a very few ad dollars spent against donald trump. Thank you, i dont get it. Attack ads work and theyre only just now starting. Its not that trump gets by with everything, its that theyve let him get by. One of the things about rubio which you just alluded to is he already had a deficit of stature of being president ial, commander in chief. So to get into the playground or the sand box with donald trump, yes, he needed to go after him, but the substance hasnt worked. I think you have to go after personality. Do you think it lowers him well, i agree. But substance hadnt worked. Let me ask you this, you alluded to it during the break. The ultimate like Suicide Mission to stop donald trump is to run a third party republican. You mentioned you half joked rick perry for president. Do you think there will be a third party absolutely. A Constitution Party candidate say. Absolutely. Who would sit it out if it was donald trump. I think ultimately donald Trump Supporters need to understand Hillary Clinton will be elected if they choose to go down this path. And republicans have an obligation to make it clear in the primary that it will be Hillary Clinton if they dont change. And not just among the hard core conservatives, but for the establishment theyre deathly afraid that establishment Republican Voters would just stay home if donald trump goodbye senate, maybe even goodbye house. So you gave someone just for normal republicans, conventional republicans to just show up and vote for even if they have no chance of winning a general election theyll be showing up to vote for the senate for governor for house for all these down ballot offices. Wow. I think donald trump has a lot of crossover appeal in a general election with a lot of democrats, rust belt state. Its going to be interesting. Trump could overperform in the sun vote. That would be an electoral vote nightmare. Were out of time. Alert the affiliates, isnt that what ted koppel used to say. Join us for complete primetime coverage of the super tuesday affiliate. As for us, well be back next its meet the press. Announcer the following is a paid presentation for the fatburning fusion of pilates and yoga called piyo, brought to you by beachbody. Hey, everybody, iimaria menounos, and im about to reveal the latest breakthrough in fitness that wont kill your joints. Its an allnew way you can get that long, lean yoga and pilates body youve always wanted without having to stand still and meditate for hours or do microscopic mini moves. Dont believe it . Will. 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