the democratic party. to the republican race, almost as neat and tidy for donald trump. projected winner by a big amount in florida, but then along came the governor of ohio, john kasich who sparked all kinds of conversation tonight by being the outlier. otherwise, it was all trump all the time. five states, he got four of them. illinois, north carolina and not too long ago, the apparent winner of missouri. what a night in american politics. >> and, you know, we wait to see what this means in terms of the math, in terms of the march to the nomination on both sides but it's inescapable. this is an unexpectedly huge night for hillary clinton. we didn't think tonight would be determinative. i think the way i put it on my show yesterday -- was that yesterday, it feels like so long ago. i guess two days ago, no reason to think of tonight as determinative. unless something crazy happens and one of these candidates sweeps all five races. the caveat, it was close enough in illinois and missouri so the delegate count will be close between clinton and sanders there. but that's a big deal on the democratic side of the race. a look at your screen in terms of the overall race for the nomination. we have great reporting tonight from chris hayes and from kasie hunt. both with the sanders campaign and their field headquarters in chicago. kasie was talking about the rep action tonight, but they want to come down somewhere between staying the course and thinking they have a way and admitting this is now getting to be such a distant -- such a faint path that it's almost invisible. on the republican side, we have donald trump winning four out of five, plus the marianna islands. >> oh, rubio got out. >> we're down to a three-man race now. let's talk with our friends about it, steve schmidt, republican veteran of the mccain/palin campaign and lots of other campaigns. jean robinson, from "the washington post." and the general counsel of the rnc and a veteran campaign move legal fights. steve,let me get your top line perspective on the state of who our -- the state of us deciding who our next president is going to be. >> look, i think it's pretty clear on the democratic party that hillary clinton will not -- while not the presumptive nominee, she'll whether the nominee of the democratic party. on the republican side, you see the dominance by trump electorally. he's winning state after state, but not accruing the delegates at the rate that he needs to accrue them to be nominated on the first ballot. so we may well be heading into an open convention. where anything can happen. so a lot of tumult ahead in the republican race. very, very far from over. and the fundamental question will be in this year where there's so much anger, where the outsiders have stormed the castle and breached the walls and gotten inside to the king's throne, is it conceivable that the republican establishment will be able to snatch back the nomination from the person who got the most votes and won the most states? what are the implications of that for any chance to be competitive in november and also for the long term health and viability of the party. so we have gotten used to these conventions being essentially infomercials with very little news value. >> totally different -- unless something goes wrong. >> the debate has always played out, how will the networks cover them? and our primetime coverage, because they haven't been news events for a long time. this will be an enormous news event as we head into the republican convention in all likelihood this summer. >> jean what do you think happens on the democratic side in terms of bernie sanders versus hillary clinton? sanders isn't under pressure to get out of the race by clinton or by the campaign. >> he will certainly stay in the race. i think it's conceivable or likely he will win more states. i think it's unlikely he will win the nomination. i think it's probably dawning on the sanders campaign. you can't absolutely rule anything out. we don't know, you know, we're talking about hillary clinton here. there's a slight matter of the federal investigation, her e-mails and everything. i personally don't think that's going to turn into a huge problem for her. but i obviously don't know. i'm not one of the -- you know -- >> in a two person race, there's a variable we don't foresee. >> but you have to say she has a commanding position right now. she's almost the presumptive nominee. on the republican side, you know, i mean, if you step back and look -- we were talking about anybody other than donald trump. we would say, what a great night he had. four out of five contests. john kasich, sure, he won his home state. >> yeah. >> he's a popular governor in ohio but we'd they, trump, you know, he ran the board yet again. we look at his delegate lead and we would almost put him in the same category as we put clinton in. we wouldn't say he's the presumptive nominee, but a strong favorite to become the nominee. >> ben ginsberg? >> three thoughts. first, republican turnout continues to set all sorts of records. democratic turnout not so much. sets up interestingly for the fall. number two is the perspective on where things were in 2012. mitt romney had won the same especially that donald trump has as of know. and mitt romney was winning about 51% of the delegates and trump is at 45, 46% of the delegates won. somehow mitt romney was perceived as a weak front-runner with a lot of problems and a long slog to go. we have a different narrative with donald trump, although the numbers don't necessarily bear that out. and third, the rules of the republican party say you have to have a majority of delegates to be the nominee for a reason. because if it's not a majority, you then have a historically weak candidate and why would you want a historically weak candidate, majority is there for a reason, it's a test of strength for the nominee to make. so the talk about depriving somebody who doesn't reach that threshold of a majority is ill found and if you're a republican who wants a strong ticket in november, you want somebody who can win a majority of delegates at the convention. >> if there isn't a republican who can win a majority of the delegates other than lawyers and operatives -- >> went over where that i come from. they are the people who are going to have power in their hands. i wish it were the lawyers. not going to be that. >> take the transcript of what ben ginsberg says and pore over it. that's the important part. counselor, thank you. over to mr. kornacki. the delegate math on the wall. >> we've got results now. we can see what he what is the bottom line what is the score in each one of the races. i want to stress before this, these are stuff rough guesses. we don't have full 100% official returns everywhere. a lot is based on district, so we're still looking for the exact number, but roughly, we can tell you where we think each race will end up with. on the democratic side this is the pledged delegate count. remember there's pledged delegates and super delegates. our rough guess based on hillary clinton sweeping the states when all is said and done, her pledged delegate count coming out of this is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,155. bernie sanders is in the neighborhood of 855. so you can see she expands that pledged delegate lead to about 300. now, here's the part that's going to drive the sanders people nuts. they say, do not talk about the super delegates. well, the super delegates are overwhelmingly committed to hillary clinton. those are not binding commitments but if she's winning the pledged delegate by a wide margin, very likely the super delegates will stay with her. if we factor those in in on top of the 1,155, she's to 1,587. remember, sanders very few super delegate commitments. 878. there it is, the magic number in this thing is 2,383. so when you factor that in, hillary clinton is starting to move in that direction. >> all right. steve, thank you. we're going to take the conversation down to florida. we have put in one room our four correspondents who covered the story for us tonight. there they are. katy tur, jacob silveroff, gabe, out of the campaign temporarily and kristen welker. >> i'm taking a nap, brian. >> i understand. i know it's some the taxing, grueling work there is. when you listened to conversations like the one we just had here in new york, about work arounds, how do you solve a problem like donald trump? the viability of other candidates, what do you say to yourself? >> i say to myself i'm not getting sleep until the convention, at the very least. but i think that if you're looking at the trump campaign they have to know that no matter what right now there are people trying to figure out ways to take this nomination from them. what they're doing is they're trying to whip up their supporters into such a frenzy if it does happen they'll have a full-scale revolt on their hands. what they're trying to do, they're laying the foundation to make sure that their supporters stay can them, no matter what. it gives a sense of unease, a sense of what could happen. could this be catastrophic in an entertaining way because it's fascinating on a political level. or is it going to be catastrophic in some sort of violent riot way? i think this campaign has less than two options open which is part of the reason why it's so hard to take your eyes off of. right? >> yeah, you know, katy -- go ahead, brian. >> well, i would say talk about the trajectory could not be more different. everybody watching the trump campaign. the rubio campaign, it's been such a contrast. just a couple of days ago, you know, the energy here -- he was here in his home state. this is do or die for him. just to see the enthusiasm, the crowd size just not be there. last week we went to that rally in hialeah, the place that he needed -- >> that was sad. >> he had a couple of hundred people. it had space for several thousand. >> donald trump was just rubbing it in in a brutal way. >> i know. >> his campaign sort of encapsulates donald trump's strength. he can pinpoint someone's weakness, the little marco stuff. and look, that's exactly what he could don't with john kasich in ohio. he never went personal against him which was a glaring difference for donald trump's campaign. and he tried to hit him on policy and this just didn't work in ohio. when you saw -- with everybody else who had gotten personal, it didn't work. >> what was it like to be in the room, gabe? he was talking about that it was a -- what did you say, it was a lobby. had an event in the lobby. >> it was in an atrium. >> was he emotional? he seemed to be on the verge. >> he seemed frustrated, tired. this was a place, again, he needed to win. to go in front of that crowd, then there was a heckler there. yelling out donald trump. he was trying to explain what happened to his campaign. you know, his campaign, they insist, look it wasn't the attacks against donald trump. everyone was saying making the schoolyard insults, that's what did him in. everyone said it wasn't his time. there was an anger, tsunami. >> the unexpected is expected. for something like that to happen. i walked around marco rubio's neighborhood in west miami you think this is a place he grew up, he was born and raised. he lived there. these are his neighbors. i was talking to people and they weren't all supporting him. you hear people supporting donald trump in marco rubio's up neighborhood. >> i'm covering the democrats, you don't have go very far to know donald trump has a lot of support here, a lot of people want to talk about it. >> right. >> so i got the sense last week when i was here that donald trump was going to do very well. >> the enthusiasm. bernie sanders event, just the enthusiasm it wasn't there for rubio. he would draw a couple of thousand a people i think in a rally in tennessee a couple of weeks ago. that was the rubio campaign was so excited. for donald trump -- >> getting 20,000 people since august. he was in mobile, alabama. like, look, you're in the lobby. tonight i was in a gilded ballroom and out on the -- one of the oldest in the estates of palm beach. >> also a press conference that was not exactly a press conference. >> what is it like to go to the donald trump press conference where there are no questions? >> well, you talk about the enthusiasm. i think what's interesting is we see this divide where senator sanders gets the huge rallies. but he's not getting the votes. donald trump is getting huge rallies and votes. for secretary clinton i think this is a game changer. her strength went from being a question mark to being an exclamation mark. >> you said out loud, you weren't expecting that. your story for the "today" show might be different. >> that's right. i have to rewrite my script for the "today" show. we didn't think she'd win missouri. it was a clean sweep. the campaign wasn't expecting it by the way, either. they thought they'd lose illinois or lose missouri and lose illinois and the fact that they won all three really solidifies her status. really starts to put this race out of reach. >> i'm fascinated to see how hillary clinton is going to go up against donald trump. i know we're running out of time, so we'll have to leave the it there. >> guys, brian, rachel, back to you. but next time come out for msnbc after dark, aka way too late. >> way, way too late. >> we're all over that. "today" show is on in about 15 minutes. thank you, katy, jacob, gabe, kristen. to ohio we go, because chris matthews gets the last word tonight on what he has witnessed. chris? >> well f you take a very high altitude look at the whole thing that happened tonight, i think it reflects a lot of what happened all last week. you know, the scenes of racial conflict and americans don't like to see them because they're redolent of our bad history on the racial front. the pictures of guys punching each other in the face and giving each other the finger it's so brutal and bad for the psyche. and some like it, and they voted for trump tonight, a lot of them. they don't mind this -- the fact that he stirred up this horrible chaos with racial intonations to it. they went with him with perhaps more fervor tonight. i think women really didn't like what they saw last week. i think that may have been in an odd way helped hillary clinton to overcome what had been her disadvantage in the trading states or anti-trading states of missouri especially which they never thought they'd get. i think she overcame that with the strong turnout of women today. these numbers are very impressive. two to one. about two to one. little more than two to one among women voters going for hillary clinton. i think women are repulsed -- women as a gender are especially -- not uniquely, but especially repulsed by the sights of the men fighting with each other over racial differences. i think that's the big story tonight. some people like these pictures and a lot of other people especially women don't like what they saw last week, guys. they don't like it at all. >> chris matthews in ohio tonight. chris, thank you for tonight and first time since college he's been in a bar after closing time. kind of fun. >> yeah. >> we're going to continue our coverage with ari melber who is going to look back at the moments that we witnessed tonight and the speeches from the candidates and what a night. >> including the last speech we'll get from marco rubio. a big night tonight. good evening to you. 1:21 a.m. in the east coast and 10:21 on the west, on an exciting election night. i'm ari melber, we're bringing you the latest in the live extended special coverage. let's show you the recent information we have on these close races we have seen throughout the night. in missouri, nbc news calling trump the apparent winner. 32 delegates is what he would receive. we say apparent winner because that race is so close right now. he's not a projected winner according to our election standards. and in missouri, the recount is automatically entitled when you're within 1% which we currently. let's show you hillary clinton, a tight race here in missouri in both parties. but right now, we can declare the apparent winner, hillary clinton in missouri for democrats. and an important state with 84 delegates. over in illinois, hillary gets 83 of the delegates that's a big democratic tradition and the home state of the president. it goes for hillary clinton here in a big night as she pushes bernie sanders further and further away. let's look more widely at the map. this is 1:22 a.m. the states won by hillary clinton all over the map, the total here and this is a big headline going into wednesday, 353 delegates. that doesn't mean this race is over. we are careful to discuss the fact that between the super delegates and the pledged and unpledged delegates, hillary clinton has not won anything. but on her best night thus far she's on her way to being the presumptive nominee of the democratic party. these are some selected highlights of what she said tonight about what was such a big victory. >> but every candidate owes it to you to be clear and direct about what our plans will cost and how we're going to make them work that's the difference between running for president and being president. [ cheers and applause ] i'll tell you, -- >> hillary, hillary! >> let me tell you that the second big task for our next president is keeping us safe. we live in a complex and dangerous world. protecting america's national security can never be an afterthought. our commander in chief has to be able to defend our country, not embarrass it. engage our allies, not alienate them. defeat our adversaries, not embolden them. when we pick a candidate for president calls for banning all muslims from entering the united states, when he embraces torture, that doesn't make him strong. it makes him wrong. [ cheers and applause ] and yes, our next president has to bring our country together. so we can all share in the promise of america. we should be breaking down barriers, not building walls. we're not going to succeed by dividing this country between us and them. you know, to be great we can't be small. we can't lose what made america great in the first place. and this isn't just about donald trump. all of us have to do our part. we can't just talk about economic inequality. we have to take on all forms of inequality and discrimination. together we have to defend all of our rights, civil rights and workers rights and women's rights and lgbt rights and those with disabilities. that starts by standing with president obama when he nominates a justice to the supreme court. our next president will face all of these challenges and more. you know running for president is hard, but being president is harder. it is the hardest, most important job in the world. and no one person can succeed at the job without seeking and finding common ground to solve the problems we face. if we work together, we can make a real difference in people's lives. if we reach out to treat each other with respect, kindness and even love, instead of bluster and bigotry, if we lift each other up, instead of tearing each other down, there's nothing we can't accomplish together. so please, join me in this campaign. every vote counts. every volunteer hour counts. every contribution counts. eight years ago, eight years ago, on the night of the ohio primary, i said i was running for everyone who's ever been counted out, but refused to be knocked out. for everyone who has stumbled, but stood right back up. for everyone who works hard, and never gives up. well, that is still true. our campaign is for the steelworker i met in ohio on sunday night who is laid off, but is hoping to get back to work. it's for the mother i met in miami whose five children haven't seen their father since he was deported. she dreams of a day when deportations end and families are reunited on a path to citizenship in america. and it is for the mothers i stood with in chicago yesterday. who have lost children to gun violence. they're turning their sorrow into a strategy and their mourning into a movement. let's stand with people who have courage, who have resilience. let's stand with everyone who believes america's best days are ahead of us. for all of our challenges, i have never had more faith in our future and if we work together, if we go forward in this campaign, if we win in november, i know our future will be brighter tomorrow and yesterday. thank you all so very much. >> a brighter future tomorrow. you have been listening there to hillary clinton tonight in what was one of her biggest nights. take a look at the boards here as she faces off against bernie sanders. the delegate lead now is huge. there's no other way to describe it. when you count them all up, bernie sanders at 856. she spoke about the bluster and bigotry of her unnamed contender, donald trump. we have the other huge news on the republican side, marco rubio losing his home state of florida and giving a raw at times emotional speech to mark the end of his campaign. we'll show you that, straight ahead. welcome back. 1:33 a.m. here on the east coast and we are live with special extended coverage on what has been a big night for both parties in this race for the white house. take a look at where the republicans have been here. donald trump and ted cruz, you can see there on the left part, 462 to 376 is where they started tonight. separated by over a hundred delegates. now what we could tell you, 655 to 407 and what ted cruz is arguing a two-person race. well, it's a lot closer. this is why. donald trump won all these states tonight. florida, illinois, north carolina, missouri where he's the apparent winner within 1% of the margin and look at florida, a key state. one that has been talked about, winner take all. so trump gets all 99 delegates that's a big part of why he surges ahead. then look at the raw numbers. now donald trump gets the delegates if he wins by one point or 19. but that was a huge blowout for marco rubio, the home state senator. the 45-year-old that so many people feel he has a bright future in the republican party, but it was altered tonight as he gave an emotional concession speech and announced his withdrawal from this presidential campaign. here's marco rubio in his own words. >> i still remain hopeful and optimistic about americans. and how can i not? how can i not? my mother was one of seven girls born to a poor family. her father was disabled as a child. he struggled to provide for them his entire life. my mother told us a few years ago she never went to bed hungry growing up. but she knows her parents did so they didn't have to. she came here in 1956 with little education, no money, no connections. my parents struggled their first years here. they were discouraged. they even thought about going back to cuba at one point, but they persevered. they never became rich, i didn't inherit any money from my parents. they never became famous. you never would have heard of them if i had never run for office. yet, i consider my parents to be very successful people. because in this country, working hard as a bartender and a maid, they owned a home and they retired with dignity. in this country, they lived to see all four of their children live better off than themselves. and in this country, on this day, my mother who's now 85 years old was able to cast a ballot for her son to be the president of the united states of america. [ cheers and applause ] and so -- >> rubio, rubio, rubio! marco, marco, marco! >> and so while it is not god's plan that i be president in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended, the fact that i've even come this far is evidence of how special america truly is. and all the reason more why we must do all we can to ensure that this nation remains a special place. i ask the american people do not give in to the fear. do not give in to the frustration. we can disagree about public policy. we can disagree about it vibrantly and we're a hopeful people. we have a right to be hopeful for we the descendants of go getters. in our veins runs the blood of those who gave it up. we are all desen dents of pilgrims and of men and women who headed westward in the great plains not knowing what awaited them. we are the decent dents of slaves who overcame that horrible institution to stake their claim in the american dream. we are the descendants of immigrants and exiles who knew and dreamed they were destined for more and there was only one place on earth that was possible. this is who we are and let us fight to make sure this is who we remains. if we lose that about our country we'll still be rich and we'll still be powerful but no longer special. i'm grateful to all of you who worked so hard for me. i'm grateful to my family. to my wife who has been phenomenal in this campaign. [ cheers and applause ] to my four kids who have been extraordinary in this campaign. [ cheers and applause ] and i want you to know that i will continue every single day to search for ways for me to repay some of this extraordinary debt that i owe in great country. i want to leave with an expression of gratitude to god. in whose hands all things lie. he has a plan for every one of our lives. everything that comes from god is good. god is perfect. god makes no mistakes. and he has things planned for all of us. and we await eagerly to see what lies ahead. and so i leave tonight with one final prayer and i use the words of king david because i remain grateful to god. yours o lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty and indeed everything that is in the heavens and in the earth. yours is the dominion and you exult yourself over all. in your hand is power and might and it lies in your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. may god strengthen our people, may god strengthen our nation. may god strengthen the conservative movement. may god strengthen the republican party, may god strengthen our eventual nominee and may god always bless and strengthen this great nation, the united states of america. thank you and god bless you all. thank you very much. >> marco rubio there speaking tonight in what was his final speech of this campaign. he lost his home state of florida by 19 points. and bowed out. but take a look at this. marco rubio leaves with 171 delegates that he had earned. if there's a contested convention those are up for grabs and meanwhile, john kasich on the bottom of our chart, tonight, having won ohio has fewer delegates 137, but with that key home state victory, he is seen as a contender or at least not yet ready to leave the stage. when we come back we'll show you what was the biggest night by far for ohio's governor, straight ahead. welcome back. i'm ari melber in the new york newsroom with live extended coverage of this election night. we have fresh into the newsroom a brand-new statement from bernie sanders about what has been a tough night to him. he congratulates secretary clinton and he thanked z those who support his campaign and he says i want to thank the elected delegates who will take us all the way to the democratic national convention in philadelphia. bernie sanders saying with more than half the delegates yet to be chosen in the calendar that favor us in the weeks and months to come, we remain confident our campaign is on a path to the nomination. the other thing i can tell you our nbc reporter is told by sanders' aides late tonight they're sticking in until the convention regardless of tonight's results. look at ohio where john kasich eked out his first victory of this entire race. 66 delegates. winner take all. he gave a rousing speech for what was a big night for him. 47% you see it there. that's a good, strong edge over donald trump. and here's what governor kasich had to say. >> when you went to college in the 1970s, you appreciated good, peaceful protests every once in a while. yeah. you do. first of all, you know when you're in the arena, and you are struggling and you leave your family to go out on the campaign trail and deliver a message to america because you believe that you -- you believe that you are the best qualified person to be president of the united states. you put it all on the line. and your family puts it all on the line. and i want this crowd here tonight to give a great -- a great response to a very, very great, talented and fine united states senator, marco rubio, for the effort that he has done. [ cheers and applause ] tonight, tonight, we arrived in cleveland and we went to a restaurant. we thought we could kind of sneak in and grab a quick meal. and when we walked through the restaurant, people started to cheer. my reaction? please don't do that because you're going to make my cry. but to have people believe in you and to believe that you can bring people together and strengthen our country, i have to thank the people of the great state of ohio. i love you. that's all i can tell you. i love you. [ cheers and applause ] >> kasich, kasich, kasich, kasich! >> governor john kasich speaking in his home state, with the home state victory and getting the ohio delegates and showing the style that has endeared him to many and separated him from many. we're going to show you up next the man he wants to beat, donald trump, who gave a big press conference and won four states tonight. his victory speech, straight ahead. we are back with our live special extended coverage here on a big night for hillary clinton and donald trump and for all the talk of contested conventions it's worth remembering, donald trump won four out of five states tonight, beating marco rubio in his home state and forcing him out of the race and giving a big speech about the victory. take a look. >> when this began, melania and i said, i've got do it. she's been so supportive. we came down the escalator, it was about trade and borders and what happened is pretty quickly after that and we were -- we shot right up. i shot right to the top of the polls. and i have been leading in the polls almost from the beginning. we went up in june. most people said i'll never run, he's having a good time. this isn't -- i mean, i'm having a good time. you know, i'm having a very nice time, but i'm working very hard. but there is great anger. believe me, there's great anger. one of the broadcasters was saying, is there anger? i said to him, i'm supposed to say, no, there's not. we love the way that things are working, we love the deal you made with iran, you gave them $150 billion, we get nothing. we love all the deals. the trade deals are wonderful. lose $500 billion a year with china. we lose $58 billion a year in terms of imbalance. it's a total imbalance. we don't win anymore as a country, we don't win anymore. and they asked, is there anger from your people? i said, there is anger. they're not angry people. but they want to see the country properly run. they want to see borders. they want to see good health care. they want to see things properly taken care of. they want our military rebuilt. our military is in a very bad state. they want it rebuilt. [ applause ] very, very importantly and they want the second amendment by the way protected and protected strongly. and that's going to happen. [ applause ] and you know what they want so badly? they want our veterans taken care of. our veterans are treated so badly. so we started and something happened called paris. paris happened and paris was a disaster. that was -- there have been many disasters but it was paris and then we had a case in los angeles where it was in california where the 14 young people were killed. and it just goes on and on and on and on. and what happened with me is this whole run took on a whole new meaning. not just borders, not just good trade deals we'll make the best trade deals you have ever seen. we have such endorsements from carl icahn and the smartest people in business and these people are negotiating our deals and they tier best in the world. we have the best business people in the world. we'll have such great deals. we're going to do so good with trade and on the border, but it took on a whole new meaning. the meaning was very simple -- we need protection in our country. and that's going to happen. and all of a sudden, the poll numbers shot up. and i'm just very proud to be a part of this. i think we're going to go and we're going to do a lot of trips over the next months, but i think we'll have great victory. i think more importantly than anything else we'll start winning again. this country is going to start winning again. we don't win anymore. [ applause ] we don't win with our military. we can't beat isis. we're going to knock the hell out of them. we don't win -- we don't win at trade. china, everybody, japan, mexico, vietnam, india, name the country, anybody we deal -- anybody we do business with beats us. we don't win at trade. we're going to win at trade. we're doing to make our country rich again. we're going to make our country great again and we need the rich in order to make the great -- i'm sorry to tell you. [ applause ] >> donald trump speaking at his victory press conference is what they called it, but he didn't take questions. he had much to celebrate though. look at his delegate lead it is larger now than it has ever been done. 655 delegates for donald trump. what that means is he only needs 582 more to clinch this outright. ted cruz would need 830 more. the other big headline tonight, moving beyond the talk of the contested convention, hillary clinton is on her way to being the presumptive nominee and first woman to do so. you see it there in blue. the total states she's won. she's up to over 1,500 delegates. for all the noise on the republican side and all the fireworks in what has been an unusual election year, it's striking that a woman is about to become the nominee potentially. brian williams and rachel maddow are up next with highlights. it's wednesday, march 16th. right now on "first look" a clean sweet for hillary clinton and donald trump gets closer to the nomination. john kasich lives to fight another day, but not for marco rubio who launches this parting shot on mr. trump. >> america needs a vibe rant conservative movement, but one that's build on principles and ideas. not on fear. not on anger. not on preying on people's frustrations. severe weather in various parts of the country including historic flooding and incredibly violent looking skies