As it becomes more and more inevitable trump will be the republican nominee, people have been wondering who Donald TrumpsForeign Policy advisors are going to be. He finally told where you say hes getting his information from yesterday. Take a look. Who are you consulting with consistently so youre ready on day one . Im speaking with myself, number one, because i have a very good brain and ive said a
lot of things. [ cheers and applause ] this is crazy, but we have the technology to look inside his brain. Its fascinating to see how it works. Look at this. He referred to my hands, if theyre small, Something Else must be small. I guarantee you theres no problem, i guarantee you. Why isnt it working . Let me try [ laughter and applause ] thats well done. Good morning, everyone, its friday, can you believe it . Right. Yeah, it means so much more these days. Its big. Weve had a long week. So joes in austin this morning performing at south by southwest. Playing his guitar . Its going to be awesome. Pretty amazing. The whole band. Watch out for the whole band. All nine of them. More on that later. With us on set, former Communications Director for president george w. Bush, nicolle wallace. Former treasury official and morning joe economic analyst Steve Rattner and donnie is here along with willie and me. And then theres a turn in the punch bowl. Donny is here. Its all so contrived. I like the double estrogen hit on this side of the table here. Ive never seen this before, have you . Have you ever been on the same side together . We have. I view it as two smart people sitting over there going to take you down, my friend. Very well played, willie geist. Im just going to sit here and wait for him to screw up even more. Keep going. Anything else you like . No, im just happy to be here. Good answer. Double estrogen hit . Yeah. Sounds like something you can get [ laughter ] well, were beyond that here. The Republican NationalConvention Opens in exactly four months from today. Thats four months for a band of Party Regulars who remain determined to stop donald trump from gaining its nomination to
enact their plan. In Downtown Washington yesterday, conservative activists met privately to devise that plan. They settled on calling for a unity ticket, though who it would consist of remains unclear, leaving options open to a former candidate or someone who did not run. They encouraged all former and current candidates to hold their delegates on the first ballot at the convention and pledged to keep their options open as to other avenues which could include a write in campaign in the fall. Trump recently suggested there could be riots if he is not nominated, which one of the leaders of the group, Erick Erickson, eluded to in an interview and drew rebuke from House Speaker paul ryan. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln, it took him three ballots to become the republican nominee. If he can do it without riots in the street, the other candidates should be able to do it as well. Nobody should say such thinges in my opinion because to even address or hint to violence is unacceptable. And then meanwhile politico reports Speaker Paul Ryan met with conservative megadonors in florida last night. And while politico sources say the meeting isnt intended to be about trump, among two dozen in attendance were new York Hedge Fund manager paul singer and chicago cubs coown er todd riks who are investing heavily in the stop trump campaign. In his press conference yesterday, pryian said its increasingly likely were headed for a contested convention and maintained he is still neutral in the president ial battle and will never be a candidate. In the event that no person running for the republican nominee right now gets enough on the first ballot that you will unequivocally not put yourself forward . Its not me. Look, i didnt think i made news, i thought i was pretty clear, to be candid with you. I saw boehner last night and i
told him to knock it off. [ laughter ] i used slightly different words. I used his own words that he used to use against us when he told us to knock things off its not going to be me. It should be somebody running for president. Look, i made a decision over a year ago not to run for president. I really believe if you want to be president you should run for president. People are out there campaigning. Theyre canvassing, theres caucuses and primaries. Thats who we should select from among for our next president on whatever ballot were talking about. My goal is to be dispassionate and to be switzerland, to be neutral and dispassionate and to make sure that the rule of lau prevails and to make sure that the delegates make their decision however the rules require them to do that. Nicolle, the press is really, really, really trying to get paul ryan to run for president. I dont know how many ways he can say it differently. This stop Trump Movement, you have a lot of money guys, smart
people getting together, they ul want to stop trumps, they have hashtags but at the end of the day they need a candidate. Cant just have hashtags . You need somebody to run the race and defeat donald trump. Is that person out there . Well, there were 17 of them. The stop Trump Movement has been robust and litigated and the people didnt settle on the people that the Hashtag Movement folks wanted. They settled on i guess you cant call them a majority but a plurality settled on donald trump so i may have the least in common sort of with his platform, whatever it may be, but i have the most sympathy for the case hes making. Hes the person theyre voting for and this all just reeks of the same arrogance and denial that brought them to this place. And if this sort of state of denial is a cycle, no one looks like theyre ready to break it. If they want to break the cycle,
they should go out to the country, get out of washington and understand why people are voting for them. The reality is, the more the stop Trump Movement is out there, the more it feeds into his brand. The more the establishment, the elite point out there and say no, thats not your candidate people say no, it is our candidate. So maybe the argument, Steve Rattner, is let trump be trump. I talked to one of them yesterday. I dont know that theyre clearly thinking about what the options are. Things like writing in a candidate, they dont understand what would be on involved to try to get on ballots if they were to run a third party candidate. Theres a lot of confusion and disorganization. At the end of the day we know theres nobody except trump who could possibly get to the convention with a majority of delegates. Number two trump will be the one who gets with the most delegates, it may or may not be over 1237 and i dont know if there will be riots and i dont want to encourage riots, im not even sure that trump does, be the idea that the convention is going to reach down to somebody
who came in a distant third yet alone reach out into nowhere when you have a guy with 45 , 47 , 48 of the delegates, its surreal. Let me stay on the riot for a long time, ive known donald a long time but i disagree with his politics. He has to stop with the punch and the riots. From knowing him is that what you know of him . Im going to his left brain. Its the right strategic move also. Its time to pivot. At this point even if you cant do it from your soul, do it from a Strategic Point of view. Somebody will get killed at some point. This is my im still stuck a week ago, i know you guys have talked it ad nauseam on the kid getting punched by the hillbilly. My stomach hurt. I totally agree with you. It was the first time i got back and forth thank you for saying that. It made me sad, it made me frightened, it viscerally affected me and i said donald as
my friend, dude, this is where it stops. This is where you have to say, hey, im this, im this, im this but at the end of the day im a father, a grandfather, i love my country. I want people to be safe at my events. If you are the leader, that president ial, if youre that strong, a strong man says no and i have the power to stop that from happening. And if i could add some demographic politics, hes almost maxed out sort of the anger vote and if he wants to grow now strategically, yeah. Its time to get the moms. No mom wants to see their kid at a trump rally. I have a friend in seattle and denver that like him but they would never let their kids go to one of his rallies for fear of what might happen to them. On paul ryan, didnt he say those exact words maybe alex could pull it later about being speaker. Just saying. He would be the only in ne
theory. Its different now. He is the speaker. Im just saying. Im wondering if a guy like that wants to race his bullet on running for president on a spoiler race. He doesnt. Hes too young. Maybe hes not saying in the a way thats convincing it in the media. Because he said the same thing about being speaker. He doesnt want to be written in on the second and third ballot. And you cant win. This is an interesting twist. Senator Lindsey Graham has made no secret hes a fan of neither donald trump nor ted cruz. Hes definitely said that. He once quipped choosing between trump or cruz is like choosing between being shot and poisoned. Ooh, okay. Well, now hes faced with that choice. Yesterday senator graham announced he will back ted cruz. Heres a look at how senator graham picked his poison. Would ted cruz be a more acceptable nominee than donald trump . No. No . Youre in trouble, my man. Hes going to get killed. When i think of problem solver, the first thing in my mind is not ted cruz. If you kill ted cruz on the floor of the senate and the trial was in the Senate Nobody could convict you. [ laughter ] im not really happy about where the country is right now. Our party and our country is going to have to up its game. If you nominate trump and cruz, i think you get the same outcome. You know, whether its death by being shot or poisoning, does it really matter . We may be in a position where we have to rally around ted cruz as the only way to stop donald trump and im not sure that would work. Youd recommend that in order to stop donald trump . Rally behind ted cruz. I cant believe i would say yes, but yes. So i think the best alternative to donald trump to stop him from getting to 1237 is ted cruz and im going to help ted in every way i can and if i were in one of the states coming up in terms of voting and i didnt like
trump, id vote for cruz. That was the whole journey right there. And a ringing endorsement. Hes been through so much. Clearly this is not about him liking ted cruz, this is about him trying to stop donald trump anyhow anyway and he thinks ted cruz has the best chance. Thats the confused tortured reality. But can i say at least hes picking of someone before. The weakness of the stop Trump Movement and what romney did is theres not a political example that you can point to where anyone achieves success by coming out against somebody. So at least lindsey and lindsey is a skilled truth teller in times of despair for the Republican Party but at least he came out and was for somebody. I think its surprising and i think in part its because cruz went 0 for 5 tuesday night there werent more establishment endorsements for cruz or kasich for that matter. The only way i think for the party through this is to back cruz, as distasteful as that would be for everyone. Kasich cant get near there. Unless they think that would be a worse outcome in november. Cruz . And there are some who think that. Well, there are some who think that but i think there are a lot who think that at least cruz is a true conservative and you have that part of them. And marco rubio came out and said ted cruz is the only true conservative left hinting maybe hell come around behind ted cruz as well. Elizabeth warren has made some news this morning, well get to that in a moment. First, the New York Times is reporting on what the paper calls unusually candid remarks by president obama regarding the democratic primary race. The times writes president obama privately told a group of democratic donors last friday that senator Bernie Sanders was nearing the point at which his campaign against Hillary Clinton would end and that the party must soon come together to back her. Thats a quote the president s comments were summarized for the times by three people present at the event and were later confirmed by a white house official. But then heres what White House Press secretary josh earnest had to say about the report at his
briefing yesterday. President obama made a case that would be familiar all of you which is that as democrats move through this competitive primary process, we need to be mindful of the fact that our success in november in electing a democratic president will depend on the commitment and ability of the Democratic Party to come together behind our nominee. The president did not indicate or specify a preference in the race. Why was that so saturday . Because i dont think he was actually completely coming to terms with what happened. He obviously did. He obviously did. And, by the way, this is what people hate about washington. Just, you know what . No comment, tell the truth but dont do that. Thats like a very light version of why were dealing with donald trump because hes at least out there in a strange way is it almost better for hillary if bernie stays in the race keeping her sharp, like a team that gets possibly. If shes anointed that was the problem everybody had with her initially going in, its a coronation. Whereas youre going to have this republicans in the knife fight for the next three or four months and if hillary is already sitting on the throne the president is going to back hillary, they have a deal, he ought to keep it closed for a while, but he has it. But do you agree its better for hillary because shes going to end up with the nomination. I dont know how far left she gets. Respectfully, i dont know if i agree with that. By the way, only human being ever in seven years that said respectfully. Well, joes not here so i have to channel joe. With all due respect. Jane, you ignorant shut. Its so early, come on. I think hillary wasnt anointed, she did go through a set of primaries, some of them were tougher than others, shes won the last five of them. Thats my point. To continue that. But why . I think in the past many nominees have become the de facto nominees by the middle of march and shes done that and i think her preference should be now to get on with her priority should be to reach out for disaffected republicans. There there have never been more. Whether its cruz or trump there will be people for whom cruz is too conservative, there will be people for whom trump is too crazy and i think it would be to her advantage to focus on picking up center right voters, not fighting with Bernie Sanders. So the president was trying to nudge people in the right direction without saying inini nudged people in the right direction. Well, the president was in a
closed door fundraiser. Theres no such thing as a closed door. So josh earnest was left in a position of dancing around the truth which i can show you another version of that but what i think is really happening here is that Elizabeth Warren might be trying to negotiate herself a very good position in whatever the Clinton Administration might look like. Senator Elizabeth Warren was asked yesterday about Hillary Clintons paid speeches on wall street. Now youd think the answer to that would be crystal clear, right . Elizabeth warren . Should hillary release the wall street speech . Of course she should. Right . Thats what she said, right . Got to be. Take a look. Do you believe that senator clinton should release the transcripts of her speeches to Goldman Sachs . Look, i think that our candidates are out doing what they should do in a primary. They are debating the issues. Youre not answering the question, senator. What im doing is telling you what i think should be going on right now in this election. Well, just a yes or no question, its a yes or no
question. Should she release the transcripts or not . I told you i think the primaries are doing what they should be doing and the candidates are being tested. [ laughter ] oh, mika, you must be so depressed. Thats your girl. I think shes going to be veep. There must be something in play here. That was obviously dancing around the topic so i hope you get something good. Well, you just let josh earnest have it for dancing around the topic so lets have i am, in a back handed way im saying she was completely circumventing the question. Im not sure i would have continued the interview and you guys know that im good on that. But that was no answer. There must be some negotiation under way. I hope it works out really well because we need her. Still ahead on morning joe, from the committee at the center of the fight over the Supreme Court, senator Amy Klobuchar joins us, plus congressman steve israel whos walking away from washington after nearly two decades. If youre in austin, catch joe and his band at Austin City Limits. I hate to say this, i dont like joe at all. I saw him two weeks ago, hes really good. Hes not very good on the show a lot of people say that. Blew me away. I was shocked. I was ready to throw tomatoes. Willie and i saw him in des moines and i thought he was good. So theyre playing at the renown south by southwest Festival Tonight at tomorrow at 8 00 p. M. So everyone should go. Now to bill karins for the check on the forecast. Hows the weekend storm looking . A little better meerksika. Yesterday afte