Medications you are taking, and if you have kidney or liver problems. Using invokana® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase risk of low blood sugar. Imagine life with a lower a1c. Are you loving your numbers . Theres only one invokana®. Ask your doctor about it by name. Fill you with optimism . Presentation then you might be gearcentric. Right now, get 25 back in rewards on hp ink, toner, and paper office depot officemax. Gear up for great ®. God bless, there is nothing elected officials like worse than being held accountable for their own words and their own actions. This entire crazy year, this circus of attacks, lies, smears, tv and radio and all the nonsense, all that time has passed. This is now our time. It looks to pretty good morning. Its tuesday, february 23rd. Beautiful shot of the skyline of new york city. Still dark out, but its time to wake up with us we have msnbc contributor and legendary columnist. This is out of control Mike Barnicle. Legendary. On the count of three. Legendary. Hes a veteran columnist compared to some of the whipper snappers. Former Communications Director for president george w. Bush, nicolle wallace. Everybody say sarah palin. Senior political contributor and reporter for Washington Post and Mark Halperin. Willie. Yes, sir. You understand that in tuscaloosa, alabama, play a little game called football. Yeah, they do. You remember what bear bryant used to say . I dont need to be number one. I just dont need to. Im good with number two. No. Im good with number three. So what im going to do is im going to focus on beating the guy who is number two and number three. Were not worried about number one, right . We were just talking about this before right . I mean, thats how we grow up, right . Before we sat down we were talking about how amazing it is that, instead of ted cruz and marco rubio fixing their sights on donald trump number one. Now you have donald trump and
marco rubio fixing their sights on ted cruz. Rubio clearly trying to get cruz out of the race so he can get one on one with trump. Mike barnicle, i can tell you, when i campaigned i was so obsessed with going after the top doing that i didnt even look at the people in the primary or the democrat in the general election. I laser targeted as a nobody on and i savaged him every day on the campaign trail when nobody knew my name. I went after the top dog. It was never about me and my republican primary opponents. You go after who is number one. I sat watching this thing unfold yesterday. Ted cruz and marco rubio still killing each other and ignoring the guy thats about to lock this down. And just asked myself, what the hell is going on out there . They know they cant get to the guy who is about to lock it down. Well, then quit. Im not saying quit. Nobody has really tried other than jeb bush. It didnt work, but if you play,
you play to win. You dont play to come in second place. Do you want to go through the States Willie and i were just looking at . I do in a second. Nicolle, whats going on . Would george w. Bush worry about Lamar Alexander . Or would he savage john mccain . Well, first off, i dont think you beat donald trump by savaging him. I think you make him unacceptable in other ways but it is interesting that nobody seems to have aligned the resources and tools of their candidacy behind doing that. Even jeb bush, whose message became one of disqualifying trump, never aligned his paid media and his mail against donald trump . Why . But heres the thing. Im saying, even the one that we think tried it didnt do it holistically. The republican establishment has been denying Donald Trumps existence for nine months, suggesting he was never going to win. Now they are all saying, if he is not stopped by march 15th
its all over. Okay . So theyre not in fantasyland anymore. Even with trump locking this down, and even with the nevada caucus today, you got number two and number three savaging each other and not going after the guy on top. What is going on in their minds . Well, all i can think of is that they recognize that, if they go after him, he would turn on them and try to eliminate them. Im not defending it. I agree with you. Im saying, it seems to me, largely rubio also wants to keep his brand clean. He hopes a trumpcruz fight allows him to sneak up the middle. Hes not defending himself. His tax returns, for instance, have become an issue with the wall street journal and other news organizations. George will. Yet not one is pressing him to release his tax returns. He seems to be even more reckless than ever before, saying last night that he was going to punch somebody in the face. Hes gone from joe, i have to disagree. Hes gotten more careful. Previously he was talking about shooting someone. Now hes just talking about punching someone in the face. In 2016 what is that, a moderate position . The same thing is happening in the media, honestly. They keep shooting at each other instead of trying to look at this frontrunner and understand him. And even ask their own tough questions. They are literally at a loss, just like the other candidates. At a loss. Mike barnicle, the list. What you got . This is from real clear politics. A list of states. Several will be up for contention next tuesday. Georgia. Trump up nine. Massachusetts, trump up 34. Vermont, trump up 15. North carolina, he is up 18. Michigan he is up 18. Illinois up 13. Alabama, hes up 21. Georgia hes up 10. Minnesota up 8. Oklahoma 7. Tennessee, he is up 20. And virginia he is up 6. Wow what do you think . Sam stein. Trouble for trump, huh . Geez. Do you have any insight as to why ted cruz and marco rubio are not attacking the guy the guy that you guys put on the entertainment page. The simplest explanation is that they look at polling, they see that, in a twoperson race, them versus trump, that they do better than trump, and so they decide that they need to make it a twoperson race and not go after trump. The problem is, of course, that time is not their friend here. They have all these states coming up. Trump could very well build a near insurmountable delegate lead after march 15 and it makes it a moot point to have a twoperson race. I want to list a crazy stat. The Washington Post looked at
how much money has been spent by super pacs on attack ads. 215 million spent to date. Of that 9 million has been spent going after trump. 4 . And he is the frontrunner. That underscores the point were saying, which is that hes gone scotfree here. I understand trying to get one on one. But as sam points out, were one week from super tuesday. Neither of them is getting out by then. By march 15, a couple weeks after that, trump will have almost as many delegates as he needs. So the only alternative, willie, is to create some sort of bargain where a kasich and rubio decide, well team up. Well be the ticket. Who figures out who is president and Vice President. Lets go after trump. But that steal leaves cruz. Cruz is still in the race at that point. So what do you do . Look at the map too. Willie, there are two gigantic stop signs for rubio and cruz. Ted cruz and rubio both in their 40s. This will not be their final Political Campaign if they dont win. Look at texas. Ted cruz cannot afford to lose texas to donald trump. He just cant. Marco rubio, at his age, a guy who is seen by most reaspublica insiders as the future of the party. Marco rubio cant lose the state of florida by 20 points to donald trump. He just cant and so, i mean, if youre going to do something, you better do something before those races come up, right . Youve got seven days to do it in the case of texas and a little more in florida. Why have they been so fearful of trump for seven months. Never mind seven days. Nobody believed he was going to win. Clearly it became quite apparent shortly before christmas that he was not going to go away. Mark halperin, the republican establishment kept telling themselves that this guy wasnt going to win. Look, there is a debate on thursday, and i think that youre going to see a smaller
stage, the fewest candidates weve seen on there, and with the exception of ben carson, four guys who all believe theyve got a legitimate path to nomination. Yesterday you saw a flood of endorsements go to rubio. A lot of the same people who were endorsing him do believe that it requires taking on donald trump. So the question is at what point except perhaps in that debate does he do anything to pull the trigger. He doesnt have enough money to do broadbased advertised against trump. I am just not its not clear what will happen if we wake up next wednesday morning and trump has won almost all or perhaps all of the contests on super tuesday. The problem with endorsements in 2016 obviously is they mean absolutely nothing. Theyre like ads. They strengthen the outsider. Going back to my campaign, nobody endorsed me. Nobody. Everybody was against me. And i wore it as a badge of honor at every speech. Joe, another endorsement, for my opponent. I wonder why. Thats where we are in 2016. Its a lot like 94 and 2010. As far as debate performances go, donald trump delivered what i thought was one of the worst debate performances. He thought he did great. I thought his South Carolina debate would finish him, defending planned parenthood, going after george w. Bush on 9 11. You name it. It just strengthened him. His numbers actually went up. So i dont see a debate stopping him. And i dont see ads stopping him. Its got to be one of these three remaining candidates, mark, that will step into the fray and go one on one with him and, listen, at the end of the day you either win or you lose. Do you lose cowering in the corner or take him on and try to debone him like he would debone you. I basically agree with you about the endorsements with one exception. We have caucuses here today. Trump will finish i believe way
ahead. Does a strong debate performance matter, do endorsements matter. At some point the question is begged, who looks good, who comes out finishing well behind trump in these contests as someone who is strong . Rubio yesterday, was having a good news day and cruz a bad news day. He wants to keep some momentum. The better chance he has sometime in march to become the trump alternative. Does anybody at this table remember who finished second to secretariat at the belmont in 1993 . I am serious. Thats what were looking at right now. You look at super tuesday. Were looking at secretariat going down the home stretch of the belmont. Who the hell cares who is in second place anymore. Lets ask nicolle. Nicolle, you said yesterday a couple of times that joe was smiling with his eyes. Whats the truth here . Does anyone remember who comes in second . You can mock it all you want. Were not mocking. I am asking you a question. Rubio is executing the strategy that he detailed. Nobody is mocking you. Im just saying i was talking about yesterday. Im not mocking you. Rubios strategy was never to win every race. You may think its a laughable approach but i think rubio is the most aware of trumps dominance and rubios strategy was never to dethrone him in the beginning. His strategy was to be standing there, the majority of republicans found him totally unacceptable. So i think rubio obviously the coming in fifth in New Hampshire wasnt part of anybodys strategy. That was because of a terrible performance in the debate. But i think rubio feels that cruz stumbling now is not totally off of the plan that he had envisioned, and i think that rubio thinks that so far he is in the best position he could be in. I dont know that rubio thought that taking out trump now was
something he could achieve. What do you think . Listen, i like that theres there are other people in the race. I think there are people that still want are there . Listen, they havent quit yet. I think rubio and cruz are still making noise. Cruz had a terrible day yesterday. Cruz is satisfying the desires of the cruz voters. I dont think that rubio satisfies the desires of the rubio voters. Well see in the next week or so. Maybe there isnt a case. Sam stein. Rubios strategy was to win one of the early races. It was called the three, two, one strategy. If that didnt work his advisers floated the idea that nevada he spent time in las vegas, that nevada would be a fire wall for him. It doesnt look like it will be. But to answer joes question its sham, the horse that finished second to secretary why the. A 3yearold. I believe it was 1973. I didnt google that or anything. Shut up, sam. You so googled that you so googled that all right. Ill just say, im sorry. You play to win. Yes. You play to win. And if a guy is about to beat you i mean, i know people hate hate me telling stories about when i ran. I will tell you, im going to tell the story. It was like the primary was like a month away. I was like 30 points down. I hated asking people for money, and i said, im either going to do this and ask people for money today or im going to lose. And i started walking into peoples office and say, if you want to elect a conservative, i need money now. And im not leaving your office until you give it to me. And i raised like 70,000, had enough money. Like, at some point, you get to a point where youre facing defeat, mike. Money is not making the difference here. That was just a point. If i were in this case what would be the difference . I say i either take donald
trump now, between today and march 1st, or this race is over. Did anybody ever see muhammad ali swing on a corner man. Youre in a ring with someone, you hit the guy youre in the ring with. Jeb bush to a certain extent tried and failed. He did. These two guys, cruz and rubio, appear fearful of donald trump at a time and at a point in our election cycle where trumps greatest strength is his strength. You have to take him down. You have to mock him, go after him nonstop. If you lose trying, then you gain a lot of admiration and you live to fight another day. I think some of it is theyre confounded by how to do so. I was in nevada last week, so i saw the mess all the paid advertising. Cruz has a brutal ad up with all of that old footage that weve
shown, other people have shown. Voters dont care about trumps previous positions on abortion. Voters dont care. Theyve also got a new one up about eminent domain, which i thought would be a big issue in nevada. Cruz has tried in his paid media. Has rubio . I dont recall seeing a rubio ad while i was there. But nobody has lined up no one has made the central purpose of the message they convey at their rallies with the paid media. They all have a lot of money going into paid media. Nobody has made the purpose or the message of their candidacy. George bush, whatever he communicated was coming from the candidates mouth, in mail, in tamerlan tsarnaevi trumps. As a comprehensive messaging attempt anybody h attempt. The last point. Rubio is actually taking up
trumps attacks on cruz. He is calling him effectively a liar. I dont know if he used that term but hes saying he is a shady guy and look at all the stuff hes done to me. Hes trying to torpedo cruz, get him out of the race. There is not enough time to do that. Cruz is not getting out tomorrow or next week. Hell be around for a while and theyll split the vote as long as theyre both in the race. Weve been under a lot of scrutiny. When were wrong, were wrong. We have a correction. I didnt want to embarrass him. You knew he was wrong. Alex . This is the offtrack betting booth here. Sham did finish second in the early derby. Everybody knows he finished second in the derby. He finished fifth, sham did. Come on twice a prince. I think it was twice a prince. Exactly. We know people are really watching us now. We want to be very careful with information. Im sorry. Other headlines, mika. In other financial news. Asian markets lost momentum overnight. Asian shares hit a sevenweek high yesterday but then retreated later in the day. Right now u. S. Dow futures down 24 points this morning as the standoff between the Justice Department and apple continues. A pew poll showing americans siding with the fbi. According to the data 51 of the americans believe apple should unlock the iphone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. Microsoft cofounder bill gates is siding with the fbi. Talk about throwing elbows under the boards when you get a chance. Well talk more about this. I am with him but, i mean, what a shot. Former nsa director Michael Hayden joins the table later. In kalamazoo, michigan, the man accused of killing six people made his first appearance. Jason dalton admitted to the
shootings but told the judge he preferred to remain silent. The mother of 14yearold victim abigail kopf spoke to reporters last night. As we mentioned yesterday, abigail was pronounced dead and doctors had begun prepping her for Organ Donation when she suddenly squeezed her mothers hand. Everybody needs to get that straight. My daughter is not dead. She is alive and she is fighting for her life. I want everybody to understand that. Abigail is strong, and she was a vibrant, beautiful young lady and did not deserve this. There. Well pray for her. Finally, senator Claire Mccaskill of missouri has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She made the announcement in a blog post yesterday writing, its a little scary but my prognosis is good and i expect a full recovery. The 62yearold said shed spend three weeks undergoing treatment in st. Louis. We wish her, of course, friend of morning joe she is, a speedy recovery. I spoke to her on the phone, joe, and she said she was going to kick cancers ass and yours next. Thats our claire. Shell be okay. Bernie sanders says Hillary Clinton is starting to sound a lot like if Bernie Sanders. Were joined by tom ridge who picked candidate in the president ial race. Former cia and nsa director Michael Hayden will be on the set later. A check on the forecast first. We could be watching towards this afternoon, this evening. Nighttime tornadoes are the most deadliest. Areas of concern. Starting with the storms over the top of houston. This is all going to slide into louisiana. We get the energy from the day, heating of the sun. This is the area of greatest risk along the northern gulf coast. The i10 corridor from new orleans towards pensacola, the mobile area, thats in a
moderate risk. 21 Million People at risk of severe storms. Closer view of the dangerous areas. Baton rouge, hattiesburg, mobile and pensacola. Dothan and montgomery. 1 00 p. M. Today the storms are near baton rouge. 3 00 to 4 00 new orleans. Thats when you have your greatest risk of Severe Weather.