Up in arms over a mysterious tweet sent out over the Holiday Weekend by one of the leaders of the Never Trump Movement, bill kristol. He says a new challenger is about to get in this race. Now three names that have been suggested as possibilities for this role, republican senator ben sass of nebraska, former president ial candidate mitt romney, former republican senator tom coburn of oklahoma. All of them have publicly said no so far. Could one of them be on the verge of changing his mind . Also on the agenda this morning, the Libertarian Party. Theyre going to have a ticket on the ballot this fall. They are putting forward from their convention this weekend the former governor of new mexico, gary johnson and his running mate, former Massachusetts Governor william weld. Johnson not wasting any time going after donald trump. Incendiary to 50 of the population of new mexico that hes talking about hispanics and mexicans in this way when the absolute opposite is true. Its just racist. It is being said that this is the most credible ticket the Libertarian Party has ever fielded. 40plus years of existence. The question, can gary johnson get on that debate stage with donald trump and Hillary Clinton this september . Hell need to be getting 15 in the polls to do it. Can he even get included in the polls to have a chance to cross that number . Thats the challenge for the libertarian candidates. And rounding out our agenda, the last big contest on the primary calendar. And it is a giant one. The california primary, were one week away. The secret service jumping in yesterday in oakland as some members of the crowd there seemed to move toward the stage where Bernie Sanders was speaking. Hillary clinton said to head back to california earlier than shed been planning trying to fend off what would be a very embarrassing loss at the end of the democratic primary process for her. All that, still more to come this morning. Were going to begin with our top story. Bill kristol runs the Weekly Standard magazine. He is one of the faces of the Never Trump Movement. And he put this out over the weekend. He wrote on twitter, quote, there will be an independent candidate, an impressive one with a strong team and a real chance. A strong Third Party Bid so late in this game seems unlikely. With unfavorable numbers sky high among the two major party candidates, it seems anything is at least possible right now. Trump immediately firing back in a series of tweets, mainly encouraging republicans to stay united. Trump tweeting, quote, bill kristol has been wrong for two yea years, an embarrassed loser. If the gop cannot control their own, be tough. The deadline for getting on the general election ballot as an independent in texas, that has already come and gone. If there is a new ticket, its probably not going to make the ballot in that state, unless it could get on through some kind of a legal challenge. Deadlines coming up very quickly in North Carolina, in illinois, in indiana. If this ticket is going to try to get off the ground and be a national ticket, its got to get moving fast. The rumored names to play this role have been bill sasse, mitt romney, tom coburn of oklahoma. But people close to those candidates and those potential candidates themselves have all been shooting down this talk for months now. Our new nbc news surveymonkey weekly tracking poll shows donald trump within two points of Hillary Clinton nationally. 47 to 45 lead for Hillary Clinton. Thats a slight gain for donald trump from last week. Trump tweeting out this morning, so many great things happening. New poll numbers looking good. News conference at 11 00 a. M. Today. Trump tower. And trump tower is where we find nbcs Hallie Jackson ahead of that press Conference Today. In brooklyn, new york, Kristen Welker is outside Clinton Campaign headquarters. Hallie jackson, lets start with you outside trump tower. Trump promoting this 11 00 press conference. Hes talking about something very specific here. This is the money he says hes raised for veterans organizations. This takes us back to the days before the iowa caucuses. Trump skipping a debate saying he was doing it to raise the money. Hes been asked, okay, where is that money . Where did it go . Are we going to get answers today . Well, he says we will, steve. This all stems from that debate he skipped back at the end of january. He instead held that competing rally just down the road where people donated money for Veterans Charities. Trump has been dogged by questions about how much money he really raised, where that money really went. He says today well give a full accounting of that. Hell detail the donations. He said hes given about 1 million of his own money to veterans groups. Today should be a more full picture of what exactly that means. For many, this is a critical test of trumps ability to keep the promises he has made. Since its a trump press conference, we expect questions from the media. I expect those questions will be fairly wide ranging touching on a number of topics in the news, including this discussion of maybe an independent challenger. You talked about bill kristols tweets over the weekend hinting its somebody who could come out on the conservative side and challenge trump. Trump perhaps unsurprisingly not thrilled about that given that most analysts agree if there were some sort of conservative challenger, he or she would peel enough votes away from donald trump to assure democrats the white house in november. For trump, a third Party Challenger not ideal, even though he himself flirted with that independent run back during the primaries. A lot happening in the world of politics. Well be here at trump tower keeping an eye on it in a couple of hours. Hallie jackson, well be watching that one closely. And Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, she is shaking up her schedule this week. Shes canceling events in new jersey, instead heading back to california where shes trying to avoid a loss in the biggest state in the country. California voting a week from today. Kristen welker, weve seen some polling numbers out of california. The other day one had Hillary Clinton only ahead by two points. Were just seeing in the last couple of minutes a new yougov online poll out of california has her up a little bit more. But, obviously, there is a desire here, a strong desire on the Clinton Campaigns part not to lose this state. That is for sure, steve. That latest poll you just talked about shows that shes up by about 13 points. But its clear that the Clinton Campaign feeling nervous about their chances in california. Thats why you see that they are adding extra events at the end of this week. Concerns shell lose a state that has 475 delegates up for grabs now. Yesterday a bit of a split screen. Secretary clinton in chappaqua marching in a memorial day parade there as senator sanders barnstormed california. He hasnt left the state. Hes put almost all of his resources into winning that state. Hes outspending secretary clinton on the air waves, 2 to 1. Now she has canceled some events in new jersey. Shes going to do a fiveday Campaign Swing to make sure she doesnt lose. The reality check here, steve, if she loses california, she is still poised to win the nomination. It could be a blow, though, because it could essentially give senator sanders leverage heading into the convention. Leverage over the partys platform and could leave her looking wounded as she heads into what will undoubtedly be a brutal general election battle with donald trump. Kristen welker in brooklyn, new york. Hillary clinton, as you say, heading 3,000 miles due west of there very shortly. Thank you for that report. And Hillary Clinton is going to be a guest on msnbc this afternoon. 4 00 p. M. Shell be talking with chris hayes. Set your calendars for that one. Let me bring in now robert costa, an msnbc contributor n National Political report are for the Washington Post. A lot of talk about donald trump n his Campaign Organization or lack therefore over the weekend. You had an interesting story in the Washington Post. Let me put this headline up on the screen. In campaign , donald trump show his management woes. This person is in charge now. This person has been moved out. All sorts of shuffling. You write in this article, this is more than the chaos youd see in a typical campaign. This is more than typical campaign chaos. What is it then . What were watching is that donald trump, in spite of winning the nomination is not really expanding his inner circle. There remains a Core Campaign team around him of about a dozen people and an organization that has about 70 people broadly speaking working for trump. This is not going to become a Large Organization in the way secretary clinton has her campaign in brooklyn. And you have an interesting quote here, ed rollins running one of the superpacs. Hes always the man in charge from his people, he gets what he needs and makes them compete. Sometimes it gets the juices flowing. Sometimes it spurs conflict if he needs to. He step in to settle it. He likes having the people around him, for lack of a better term, fighting with each other. This is something we heard as a refrain. My colleague and i as we did our reporting. Trump likes to play some of his employees off each other for different reasons. Well have too to see if thats a positive or negative. But when you look at the top of his campaign, corey lewandowski, the campaign manager, in his 40s. And Paul Manafort in his 60s. Theyve been rivals of sorts. Now they seem to be getting more along, but trump seems to have used them as kind of his yin and his yang. Unusually important in trumps world to be close to him, to have close proximity to him. That is a crucial part of understanding trump that people who are physically close to him, in his orbit, on his plane, in his office at trump tower, those are usually the people who have influence around trump. This is not a Political Campaign that has a topdown mentality, all of these layers of bureaucracy. Its trump, his inner circle and they navigate whatever is happening together. One of the most vocal things we heard from trump over the last few days was a response to bill kristol putting the suggestion out there more than a suggestion. He put a statement out there that theres going to be a credible independent candidate who is going to step forward in the near future. A lot of skepticism about whether theres anything to this. Do you have any sense if kristol has the goods here . Depends on what we mean by the goods. Kristol has likely recruited a candidate to run, a conservative who would run as an independent trying to get some right wing intellectuals and more traditional conservatives on board. But some of the bigger names weve been reporting out here, like senator sasse or former senator coburn that just dont seem to be interested and my reporting doesnt back up that theres some huge name out there thats about to step in. Especially mitt romney. Im not hearing much noise from him either. The texas ballot deadline has passed. A couple others are going to pass very quickly. You cant really have a 50state strategy. What is kristol trying to do here ultimately . One of the strategies discussed privately by kristol n others is working only in specific swing states to try to give conservatives, especially in states that have Competitive Senate races another option to try to motivate those conservatives to come out if they werent going to come out to vote for Hillary Clinton or donald trump. And you also see that because they dont have the money or time for 50 states, maybe they just play in a dozen states or less. Robert costa from the Washington Post, appreciate your time. Lets bring in barry bennett, a Senior Adviser to the Trump Campaign. Lets pick it up on this point. Bill kristol says a new candidate is emerging. Robert costa says he thinks theres probably somebody there. May not be one of these names most frequently speculated about. Strong reaction from your candidate. Is there a risk if bill kristol puts anybody forward that this person is going to disproportionately hurt trump by taking more republican votes . Theres little risk this person actually wins anything. So one has to wonder why in the world would you do it . You know, they havent been able to recruit any of their tier a candidates. Theres no doubt if theyll find a tier b or tier c down the road, but its fantasy land. Its an answer to a question that doesnt exist. Have you heard anything behind the scenes who it might be . Everything i hear, everyone i talk to tells them no. What about the other ticket nominated over the weekend. Whatever bill kristol put forward, the Libertarian Party has put forward a ticket. Its two former Republican Office holders. The former republican governor of massachusetts. Is there any risk there again just bringing republicans away from the trump fold . I dont think so. Theyll have a very hard time getting on the polls, let alone getting to 15 to be considered part of the fall race. And its interesting. I never thought of bill weld as a libertarian. Yeah, well, he ran i know him from massachusetts. He ran as a social liberal economic conservative there. But that was also a long time ago. Let me ask you, too, about, we were talking to robert costa about the management style of donald trump. What we see sort of within the campaign. I think you heard what robert costa was saying. How would you describe Donald Trumps management style . Id have to call it very successful. He spent 37 million n won the nomination. Others spent over 150 million. Just in the last week, according to the nbc polls, hes cut the lead in half from 4 to 2 points. Its already a very competitive race, and hes not doing it the traditional way. I understand which people have a hard time understanding anything, how weve done it in the past, but so far pretty successful. You saw especially this weekend a lot of commentary about donald trump doesnt have the kind of staffing you normally would see in a general election president ial campaign, whether that means on the ground, sort of turning out the vote type people. People at a national headquarters. Is there just a belief around donald trump and around your campaign that you dont need to do that and it doesnt get you anything . The staff has greatly increased in the last few weeks. The state organizations are being put together. Coalitions are putting together, policies being put together. A convention to run. A fall campaign. Money to raise. All that is coming together. Its not the core group at the top is going to stay in place. Theres a lot of people feeding up to them. Barry bennett, adviser to the Trump Campaign. Thanks for the time. A little news we can tell you about from california. A new poll a couple of minutes ago. Now this. The governor of california, jerry brown, democratic governor jerry brown has just put out a letter endorsing Hillary Clinton for president in the democratic primary in california next week. There is a ton of history here between jerry brown and the clintons. Jerry brown ran against bill clinton for president in the democratic primaries in 1992. He went after Hillary Clinton, particularly aggressively in that campaign. There was a famous debate moment where bill clinton turned to jerry brown in 1992 and said you are not worth standing on the same stage as my wife. That campaign ended with jerry brown refusing to endorse bill clinton. He went to the democratic convention. He delivered a 20minute speech that did not even mention bill clinton. Never endorsed him. Had not endorsed yet in this campaign. Now a week before the california primary, jerry brown, the governor of california, very popular governor out there, endorsing Hillary Clinton. That just in the last few minutes. Coming up on our hour, before donald trump was a candidate for president , he ran a board room. George, youre fired. The george hes talking about there, george takai will be here to talk about his former reality show bosses as well as the North Carolina bathroom law. Coming up next, the most important number of the day. What it will take for clinton to clinch the nomination. With braindrone . Cant blame you. Its a drone you control with your brain, which controls your thumbs, which control this joystick. No, im actually over at the ge booth. 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