State card for personal expenses. Eb bush putting out the idea et . Are a risky that b it wasnt a credit card. It was an American Express charge card. It would be mailed to me. If there was a personal expense, i paid it. If there was a party expense, the party paid it. I realize in hindsight that i shouldve done it differently. In that interview, rubio lashed out at Donald Trumps attacks. He is a disaster with his credit cards. He lives above his means, there is no question about that. He is raising an important issue. I won and make sure we had cash on hand. All kinds of things,. It is not day to day living expenses. Trump is trying to portray himself as a good businessman, and yet he has not been pushed on this issue of the bankruptcies. He explains how he used the Bankruptcy Code i think that is important for voters to focus in on. It is legitimate. Provideturn to you to an analysis of the various tactics he is deploying. Mark he is good. He never got rattled the, always smiling. Pushing back on trump, very unusual for rubio to say another candidate should be scrutinized on a personal issue. He is deflecting. He is saying they are democratic attacks, nothing new here. He wasnt completely straightforward. The party did pay for personal stuff, he reimbursed. He said that the refrigerator wasnt a personal expense, it is. Impressed with his ability to smile while donald trump calls him a complete loser. Card versus the charge card thing, a lot of people will not buy that difference. I did it for convenience. Hillary clinton gets hammered by republicans for that. He will get hammered for this. Some people are wondering why they waited to put these additional records out. Say, to be honest to our viewers, what rubios opponents think is that there is more here than sloppy bookkeeping. Onlyhope this does not rattle him, but leads to new areas. I have seen a lot of candidates under pressure. He is flawless and tone. He is doing it and short interviews. John these are tried and true tactics. He is executing them well. Whole have gone to jail have done what he did miss using party funds. I am not saying he will, but there is smoke. A lot of people are trying to figure out the extent of the five. Mark its not just his finances. He has been forced to defend his policies. None more so than his previous positions on immigration. Donald trump for the second straight day brought up newly minted rubio fundraiser also near paul singer. Ande represents amnesty illegal immigration into the country, and now he is with rubio. Rubio is in favor of very lacks rules. He was a member of the gang of eight. Mark in that interview this morning, rubio said the country will not pass comprehensive immigration reform. In New Hampshire, he said he would and the executive program that shields dreamers. Is policy going to be a problem as rubio gets more scrutiny. John he will have to be very good because of his youth and inexperience. This immigration thing is a nightmare for him. He is in the position of having been foursquare on one side, and now a restrictionist. Say that i hard to was part of the gang of eight and now to say that i give up. John i couldnt get it done, now it cant be done. Mark his past positions in florida, congress, and new stuff he has beenp, through tons of scrutiny, but he is about to get more scrutiny. This dreamer thing, did he plan that . Watching what is happening and saying that it is all starting, the scrutiny is starting, but he is opening up a lot of problems down the road. John paul singer made an argument that rubio is the only one who can navigate the primary and win an election. You start running a race from the immigration position, you get in a position where you cant win the general election. Trump,he great thing for he doesnt have any fatcat donors. His Opposition Research can cherry pick anyone. Yesterday, he wouldnt say why he thought that paul singer was going to explode in rubios face. John there are lot of liberal positions. Bush is in New Hampshire today. Is thing he is trying to fix his debating skills ahead of the debate next week in milwaukee. Here is what he said about the advice that he has been getting. You hired this Media Consultant to help you with the debates. I had one meeting with the guy. He is telling me to be me, own what i believe. You need a consultant to tell you that . Yeah, its amazing. Probably not. Toave to on train myself answer questions that are asked. You should ignore the questions . You have to pivot towards what you want to say. Learn to interrupt and waited doesnt sound like you are oppressively rude. Space,e to garner the talk about what is important, and i will do that. Bush has brought in a Media Consultant, a debate prep guy, mysterious, known throughout the party, to give him advice that he needs to be himself. How does bush finally hit rock bottom. Drudgegeorge report saying that bush was declining into oblivion. I believe he can come back. His performance is uneven. He did a call with donors this morning, stop reading the clips. On his great moments, hes great. But the problem is that he doesnt have that much of a margin of area error. Soundbites,ke good and that was cringe worthy. John hes walking across hot coals, eating nails before that is an abomination. Stop saying i need someone else to tell me to be myself and laughing about it. Desperation, indiscriminate flailing, not a good look for a candidate, never. Negligent e negative reinforcement. Mark if bush has a great debate and marco rubio makes a mistake, it turns around. John its not that he cant save his campaign in theory. These months of watching his performance skills go from bad to worse suggest there is no reason to think he will emerge as a new person, as a new jeb. Why would one believe that . Mark he has flashes of intensity. Hes having a lot of good moments. That is not the sound bite you want to leave behind. We unravel the mystery of ben carsons general election strength. A republican lawyer at the center of the fight over debates, the honorable ben ginsburg joins us. The new wbur survey today. Donald trump and ben carson are at the top. K6, Christie John thath, christie, what does tell us about where things are headed in the race in the Granite State . Mark if trump is really at that six is not that far from one. It doesnt lead us to the rubio scenario we talked about. If you dont think trump or carson will be the nominee, the biggest fight is who is the top establishment finisher and iowa. From that jumble of four, that top establishment finisher in iowa should get the boost. Hes not broken away from the rest of the establishment figures. Is still right there with rubio, all within the margin of error. He got two guys tied for first, and four guys tied for second. Mark there was an volatility for years ago. Rubio, cruise, getting pumps at nationally. They are not vaulting over ted cruz, carson, and trump. The establishment candidates are splitting it, but part of it is ,hat rubio has one debates Chris Christie strong performance, none of them are really busting out. Poll the New Hampshire mirrors the poll we will talk. Bout in a second with the exception of john kasich in ted cruz, everybody else is in the same place. Variance. See more right now there is a lot of weird consistency between the national numbers, iowa numbers, and New Hampshire numbers. Has no natural constituency or time in the ground, but thats what hes doing. Slicesike slights of pizza, you cant have too many. Shows carson and trump tied for first with rubio and third. The most interesting it are the general head to head election matchups. To 40 is ahead 50 against hillary clinton. The largest lead that any republican candidate has had. Carsonurveys have shown strong against clinton. What is up with that . John the extent that ben carson has support that is durable, a lot is based on his character, great a couple schmidt, soft spoken, not your average politician. Hillary clinton seems like none of those things. The character contrast is what is going on there. I think that is what is skewing his appeal. He is not a policy candidate. He is a character candidate. People am amazed how the not working for ben carson thinks he can be the nominee. I cant fully explain it. Can say that People Better stop thinking that he cannot be the nominee. A lot do know him. That kind of general election strength undermines the argument that his detractors are making that he could not be a plausible general election candidate or president. John he has not been vetted so mosty because people dont associate carson with the things that his supporters do, america is nazi germany under obama, a lot of thatho support him nice africanamerican man with a great biography, the top of his field that is all they know. The press is failing to tell the story of ben carson. Take you press will that all republican nominees are equally conservative. The fact is they are not. Some of them have more moderate positions than you think. They would never say some of the things that ben carson has said about barack obama. Mark its more moderate moreions, and potential he electable, and political skill. Carson will be tested just as rubio is being tested now, but he seems to float above it even more than rubio. John the level of inflammatory ness of the rhetoric. When you become public and wellknown, problematic in a general election. Quick recap of the highlights. The measure to legalize marijuana, failed. An ordinance that prohibited this clinician, failed. The most consequential for 2016, the governors race in milwaukee was one by matt bevin. Some say that race could foreshadow antigovernment, antiestablishment, antiobama sentiment in the president ial race. Other people say, there was an election yesterday, really . Should i just write it off and move on . Reports of the demise of the Republican Party are overstated. They control the house, senate, and governorships. Whereky has been a place democrats have held the governors mansion, and they lost this one, not taste on outside factors based on outside factors. The soothing thing for democrats will be that the electorate that turns out in 2015 in kentucky and other places looks more like the electorate in 2014 and the one that will turn out in 2016. Nonetheless, it tells you something, that there is some salience to this antiobama idea. Mark republicans in the age of obamas have been creamed on the mechanics of elections. Some outside groups showed the power of organization, technology, of figuring out how to spend money the right way to win an upset based on the polls. That is something the republicans must have if they will compete in 2016. When we come back, the future of the republican debates with the man who found himself now in the middle of things, ben ginsburg would join us after this word from our sponsors. Ill tonight joins us from our washington bureau. Ben ginsberg is an advisor on everything. He has been involved with every president ial campaign for a long time. He is working closely with all the republican president ial campaigns that have been unhappy with the way that the date has been structured. He drafted some new language they will be sending to Television Networks sponsoring those debates in the weeks and months ahead. Talk us through how we went from the u drafted over the weekend to the letter that is about to be sent out why the republican campaigns. Go. Whole meeting was because the campaigns were not happy with the way the debates were being held. They wanted more transparency, accountability. Of all thet meeting campaigns. It was incredibly collegial and productive. There were some common gripes. The letter that went out originally was sort of my summation, not signed off on by any campaign. It dealt with every issue you have ever seen in this debate in about the last four cycles. Not unsurprisingly, different campaigns have different parts they wanted in. The central premise of the thatr, the meeting, was the campaigns needed to be involved themselves in negotiating the debates. They are the ones who needed to be able to talk to the media sponsors, and that is what has been accomplished. Mark theres lots of logistics about the size of the green rooms, and the length of the debates, but the editorial control, who the questioners are and what kinds of questions they asked, do any of the campaigns too in pen john mack impinge on that . They recognize the final decision belongs to the news of sponsors, but the debates are a time for candidates to be able to talk about the substantive issues and give their vision. If the moderates that the networks choose engage in a lot theotcha questions, then candidates dont have their time to talk about substance and vision. Iswhat this arrangement does that it makes clear that the candidates are not committed to all the subsequently scheduled debates. They want to hear from the networks about exactly what is going to go into those debates, and they will make a decision after some negotiation with the people who put on the debates. John this new letter of yours takes out the requests that asks the networks to not ask a certain things, not do this or do that, right . That is some stuff that has changed from the earlier version of the letter. Yeah, and i will think that part of thethe negotiations, like raising hands per there has been a provision that sort of requests or mandates that then do the news organizations dont do hand raising questions. Why . Look likewant them to marionettes and have to answer superficial questions with yes or no. The questions that might come up questions,itimate but you have to give a candidate or here to give his position on it and not just ask for a reflective raising of hands. Hand if youyour think the current schedule will go forward as it is. More or less, sure. Mark you didnt raise your hand. Trump said he will negotiate directly. Do expect all the campaigns to negotiate directly. If so, is it possible to get agreement on anything with 10 or so competing views . It is. That is the way it has been done in the last two cycles, where each of the campaigns would have conversations with the sponsors. There has been a common call, which there wasnt this year, so the campaigns got all the same information. The campaigns felt there was a need to have that earlier in the process. John dont go anywhere. We will continue the debate about debates when we come back. Mark were back with ben ginsberg, who has been working with republican campaigns. Im sorry we had to cut you off to go to break. You have donald trump saying he is going to negotiate directly. With the rnc having a diminished role, how do you think things will proceed forward . Ben as they have in past cycles. Themselvesns interactive with the media sponsors in the past. Saw in the meeting on sunday night, the campaigns agreed on a very large number of items that ought to be included in the debate and the negotiations for the part they disagree with, i suspect they will be resolved. I know you have been you worked with a group on the medications that put forward on communications that put forward recommendations on how president of debates in the fall should be different. Talk about what those recommendations are briefly and whether there is a chance those things could actually happen. Ben the recommendations all go to making the debates better experience for the voters. There are recommendations that would include a much greater use feedcial media, and open for everyone to use. Suggestions about format, to make it a Better Exchange between the candidates. There are suggestions on ways to broaden the base of who can be a moderator, so there is more diversity in who the moderators are. What it is designed to do is to provide a better viewing experience for more people to get involved in the process. As to whether there is a chance of them being adopted, you know, whoever the two candidates are will be the ones to determine the format they wish to engage in. Commission on president ial debates has had a stranglehold on this process. Most of the ideas you listed are things i have heard them talk about. However they received this set of recommendations . Ben i think they have read them, discussions are ongoing. We are happy to explain, and have explained, what we mean by them. It would be terrific if they adopted a whole bunch of them. John are you guys working doing work on this . To try to nudge this forward and make it a more viable option that these debates are substantially different . We have occasional conversations with people who would be involved in the process, social Media Companies who might be able to provide some impact. Great here are a they are a great set of ideas we hope people will take up in the spring. Are debates . Ortant are they as important as all of the hubbub suggests . Ben the substance of the debates can be very important. What is unfortunate about what we have been engaging in has been sort of the process of the debates. The reason the conversation about the process came up is that the process that was in place was taking away from the substance of the debates. Hopefully, this conversation about the details of the green rooms and things like that will fade away, we will have good debates, we will know what the rules are well in advance of the debates so the candidates can concentrate on what they say, responding to questions, putting forward their vision, and not worrying about the debate going three hours without airconditioning. Mark we look forward to staying in touch with you. Thank you for joining us. What do you think will happen . John i think the whole thing is going to generate into a freeforall. We will have debates that are scheduled. The format and some of these campaigns think the liberal bias is the problem. John my conversation about the republican field with our next guest. You tell me. [laughter] inn the oldest rule political journalism. When you run into James Carville, you grab him for an interview. I had my iphone with me yesterday. James and i had a chat on camera. I used to say it was kind of like a vet trying to get a pill down a dogs throat. Focus groups do not even want to hear from him right now. He is frustrated, like anybody would be. He says he is frustrated and he is not trying to hide it. He has thought about this and he cannot believe, you know, trump and all these people it does not make sense. An orderlyin political process. Mark i think james has that went down. His wife has been Long Associated with the bush family. I think he has insights into just how the world has turned upside down. John he is one of the rare democrats who has a minor in not a major. Interesting to hear a little sympathy. He sounded a little sympathetic to jeb. Mark he spent time on the road with jeb and that sympathy thing is key. He is a flesh and blood human being with a lot of strength. Too many people do not know him and to me people only think him think of him as another bush. And then there is marco rubio. Is he really worth all the buzz . Only republican candidate who could get more than 45 of the vote. Mark the only rational thing for the Republican Party to do at this point is to nominate marco rubio . James yes. He does not have the same negatives. Win, butthink he will he could get over 45. Out anyu will republican winning a general election except for marco rubio . Romney got in her something. Mark in elite political circles, a lot of talk about romney. On rubio, james taps into what elite republicans are saying right now. He may have flaws, but he seems to be the one who could win a general election. L. A. I saw james and couple of weeks ago. These elections are serious, republicans have a lot more at stake. If the party loses, it could break up into little pieces because it is in a state of crisis. Mark the conversation inevitably turned to sir donald trump. I asked James Carville what surprises him most . James the way they pick their president ial candidates, it has been the single most predictable event in a democracy around the world. And this is anything but predictable. Anybody who has studied republican president ial politics, this is almost a jawdropping event in history. Mark [inaudible] james just wait on gravity. That is about all you can do. I would just go to the conservative base and relentlessly go after him. Anything i fox, to could. I would relentlessly stay on him. He is not susceptible to being knocked out with a single bullet. Mark you can pound on trump, but you have to wait for it to happen eventually. John James Carville, as aggressive as he is, as unafraid of trashing someone as he is, when he says, all you can do is wait for gravity, that is a very passive response and one that reflects a widespread befuddlement, the conundrum that is donald j trump. Man, our thanks to that James Carville. A conversation with david we will beof back in 60 seconds with that. John this week, the new documentary the diplomat debuted on hbo. It shows the legacy of Ambassador Richard holbrook. It was directed by his son, david. He talks about why he made the film and what his father taught him. Your dad was your dad. A guy who had a huge public profile. What did you learn about your dad that you did not know before . David i learned something about myself. You cannot do it all. Try to be a great diplomat, father, husband, and something had to give. Understand how hard diplomacy is. I read the articles, i read his book. 360 degree complications coming at you when you try to broker a deal. John were there things that you learned about him that you did not know . David it was how persistent he was. He just was not going to give up. Road strokes versus details that is when it got exciting. Worked, itw how it was remarkable. Afghanistan, pakistan, he had this monster problem behind him, the people he was working for. That was impossible. John we joked about how your dad was called largerthanlife. I am fascinated by people who are larger than life and what factors contribute to them being termed that by everyone because in his case, everybody. What imitated from him emanated from him . David a certain outrageousness. Do you seeing what holbrook said . He was 33 years old, how could he have done anything like that . That is a good question, but he had size. It was not just physical size. It was this thing, you walked into a room, and he would be paid attention to. He had a certain intuition with people, to understand the dynamic of a room. Mark lets play a clip from the movie. I remember at one point, he was worried whether he had the right fortitude and he came up is, richardtion Charles Albert holbrook, do you have balls to finish this deal . I was standing there and i looked over at dick and he did not answer. John the dayton accords were a huge a compliment for your father. I never heard anyone question whether your father had sufficient balls for anything, but i have heard people . Or he had taxed ive had heard people question whether or not he had tact. Worriedilosevic is whether my father is going to see this through. I give the Clinton Administration a lot of credit. He had to figure that out. We considered calling the film undiplomatic. Ultimately, that is what he wanted to do and that sense of intelligence, vision, and being able to look far down the line and knowing how to get there. It was very unusual. Into thewas brought obama administration, worked with secretary clinton. Yet a better relationship with her than he did the white house. How did he feel about that . Did he give up in trying to win the white house over . David to the very end. The day he collapse, he had a meeting with David Axelrod in the white house. Know that did not go well. He was desperate to try to fix this and he knew he had a problem with the president , but he was not going to give up. It is something i really admire about him. He always believed until the end, he could make it work. Mark you are a great documentary filmmaker. How does this film differ . David i am not objective, not for a second. I am his son. I had access to people that other people would not have had. One of the lessons ive taken away, and you guys are busy guys, it is tricky to balance it all. The idea of understanding the other parts of the public figure is really important. People who talk to me, particularly hillary clinton, you do not see a side of her like that. She liked him, she is talking to his son, my son came to the interview. There is a warmth, a different side to her. Other people who might hold back. In the end, i was wanted to make my story of his life. This has to be loving, but it has to be honest. It is kind of a warts and all picture. He was a complicated man and a complicated father, but i felt i could tell a more 360 degree version of the story than anybody else. Debuted thislomat weekend on hbo. Our thanks to a wood holbrook. We will be right back with your 24 Hour Campaign forecast. Mark tomorrow is another busy day out there in election land. Hour go live to our 24 center. Do we have a pleasant day coming up tomorrow . I am sure of it. We are tracking a lot of activity across New Hampshire, the Granite State. Easy breezy. Sanders, theybe independent transitioning to the democratic ballot. We are bracing for potential ballot headwinds. Touching down at a Senior Center before moving over to a medical business. Def readerhigh death rat coast to coast. Tomorrow, shaping up to be a rob reiner classic. Hillary with an appearance on jimmy kimmel. That is it for me. We have got you covered. Mark some past john that guy is a weirdo. I like him. Mark some have been skittish with hollywood celebrities. Hillary seems to be embracing it. John i think she is so happy to be back in the warm embrace of her old friends. Mark john kerry did some hollywood stuff and the republicans pounded him. Those days seem to be on hold. Second straight day we will have rubio and bush in New Hampshire. Rubio picked up a Third Straight senate endorsement. What do you think jeb bush needs to do . John jeb bush has to stop giving soundbites. To me, it is hard for bush to change the dynamic because there are so many bush supporters who do not want him to go negative on rubio. I think he has to find his stride and let other people do the dirty work. John dont go after mark dont go after other people, just talk about yourself. Tube for an on the hour twice a day at 5 00 and 8 00. K tomorrow, we will have until then, thank you for watching. We will see you. Sayonara. Emily facebook shares surging. Fter hours i am emily chang and this is bloomberg west. Expedia books a multibilliondollar merger. I sit down with nest ceo, the godfather of the ipod. Cutters from cord cable stocks. Are they cannibalizing their own business by doing deals with netflix . U. S. Stocks retreated from a threemonth high today, remarks from janet yellen indicating we may be closer to a hike in interest rates. The s p 500 slipped about half a percent. The dow dropped 51 points