Delegate dominance, but can he deliver a decisive sweep and get ever closer to that magic number . Or will nikki haley pull off the seemingly impossible and turn a last stand into real momentum to remain in the race . Good morning. Thanks for being here. It is 10 00 eastern. Im Ana Cabrera Reporting from new york. And welcome to the most consequential day so far in the race for the president ial nomination. It is Super Tuesday. The single biggest day on the primary calendar. The polls are open, are about to be, in 16 states across the country, and our team is in 13 of them. By the end of the day today, donald trump could be much closer to that magic number. Unless nikki haley can defy Delegate Math and political gravity. At some point maybe we should say the reason that america keeps losing is because of donald trump. Haley, shes not a problem. I think shes very negative for the party, but shes not a problem in terms of winning because were winning by a lot. And nbcs Vaughn Hillyard is following the Trump Campaign from florida. Ali vitali is in nikki haleys home state, on the road there, in South Carolina. And our Steve Kornacki is at the big board for us. Vaughn, what is the message coming out of trumps camp today . Reporter first, ana, the fact im standing here in florida and ali is in South Carolina, the home states of these individuals, is telling about the state of this race. There is no last minute effort to turn out the vote in any of these 16 states. And for donald trump and his camp, you played that sound bite from him last night, that was with the trump loyal tv outlet that had that extended conversation with him, in which he called on nikki haley to get out of this race, so that republicans could unify and put their focus on the democrats and joe biden in november. And just this morning, he phoned in to fox and friends, and communicated the same message, repeatedly when asked if he was brokering or trying to broker any sort of a peace deal with nikki haley for her to step aside, but he has not held back any punches, calling her bird brain, questioning why she ran against him in the first place. For donald trump and his team, they insisted they want to focus their Financial Resources towards november, and the other element of this is that the rnc is convening in houston, just 48 hours from now, to most likely vote on the next chair and cochair who would be his handpicked selections, including his own daughterinlaw. So, for this week, you know, regardless of whether nikki haley continues after today or not, donald trump and his team insists that they are looking beyond her and the republican primary, noting his big win in north dakota last night, and the fact that they expect to have wins in every single one of those 16 states here today to send a loud and clear signal that this republican race is locked up for them. Ali, there are 865 republican delegates up for grabs today. The math, though, doesnt look good for nikki haley. What do we know about how shes looking at this . Reporter yeah, the Delegate Math has never quite mapped for nikki haley. Thats something ive asked the candidate and the campaign about over the course of this entire campaign. Nevertheless, they say theyre going to keep going for as long as theyre competitive. Im aware thats a vague metric. When you talk to voters, haley supporters, thats all they want. They want to continue to have an alternative. Haley, of course, willing to give them that, at least until Super Tuesday. But listen to what she said this morning, also over on fox, because after all, it is a republican primary, and she is trying to turn out the base voters as well, listen to what she says her thinking is at least right now. Watch. This is not personal. This is about the fact that we have to win. We can want to change the country all day long, but if we cant win an election, we cant do any of that. And, you know, he i know hes in denial about the fact that we win General Elections, this is just about winning elections. This is about getting our country back. Reporter and, look, we have said it once, i will say it again, for nikki haley, the Electability Argument in a General Election has always been a central selling point for her. It is one i hear echoed back from haley voters as well. It is probably something donald trump is going to have to contend with if and likely when he wins this nomination. The fact that a lot of these haley voters may not come back into the fold for him, but for haley, to make a General Election argument, and actually be able to play in one, you have to get through a primary and to begin where we to end where we started, the Delegate Math doesnt work out for her, even on a day like Super Tuesday, where they do see states that could be Fertile Ground for her, but because of the rules and how delegates are allotted, Winner Take All or having to meet certain percentage thresholds, the polling shows it is a steep climb for haley, who will likely reassess after this point as she watches results here in her home state of South Carolina today. Ali vitali and Vaughn Hillyard, sending you both an extra boost today. It is going to be a long one. Thank you so much. Steve, lets take a step back for a moment. Look at the map. Walk us through the National Landscape today. Lets look here. You see on the left, this is the current delegate count on the republican side. 276 for trump, the magic number 1215. Now, yellow here, these are the states voting today. And ill just pick up on what ali was saying there, even the places why you look at the demographics of the places and the demographics of the places where haley has done well so far, even on those places on the map today, a lot of them the rules, the procedures, are aligned against haley. There is no better illustration of that than california. California the biggest state in the country, the biggest delegate hall of any states will be in california, 169 delegates up for grabs. Two things about california, number one, it is a closed primary. And those are very, very bad words if youre nikki haleys campaign. Shes gotten so much support from independents and even from democrats where they have been allowed to participate. They are not allowed to participate in california. Secondly, the rules in california, a simple majority, if you get 50 , plus 1, you get all 169 delegates. With no independents, no democrats for haley to draw on that puts trump in a tremendous advantage with a pretty minimal threshold there. 50 plus 1 to take all 169. You go to the second biggest prize today, it is texas, the rules are a little bit different there, but in texas, of course, relative to california, youre talking about a much more conservative electorate. Youre talking about demographics in texas and most of the states that are very favorable to donald trump. Unfavorable to nikki haley. So, again, trump, they give out delegates, Winner Take All, an at large pool for the state wide vote and they do them by congressional district. Win the district, get three delegates in the district. And, again, just based on the demographic patterns and the results so far and what texas looks like, no reason to think trump is not going to get a very, very large share of the 161. Meaning that just between california and texas, trump could get somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 delegates, maybe more, just from those two states. You add that to his total, look at the magic number, he takes a big jump in that direction. Look at oklahoma, you can look at arkansas, you can look at alabama, maybe even tennessee, opportunities for trump to win all of the delegates there as well. And really climb up a few places on this map and haley could make a stand tonight. I look at vermont, i look at virginia, northern virginia, outside washington, d. C. , and maybe take a look at minnesota and colorado. But even if shes performing in those places, the Delegate Math i walked through will still leave her far, far behind donald trump unless she pulls a major rabbit out of the hat today. Okay. Steve kornacki, thank you. Lets bring in mark mckin mckinnon, and alessia johnson. Great to have you both with us. Mark, tell me what youre watching for today and what states could be interesting. Well, there is not going to be much drama this week. Effectively what is happening is the General Election starts this week. Trump will wrap up close to enough delegates to be the nominee. And then biden will have the State Of The Union address. So welcome to the rerun that nobody asked for and nobody really wants to watch, but the reality is thats going to be the only channel were going to get for the next seven months. Haley just won in d. C. On sunday. Some of the states have open primaries, meaning you dont have to be a registered republican to vote in that primary. Could that lead to some surprises . I think it could lead to some surprises whether or not nikki haley gets 30 and 40 of the vote, and particularly some of the states that have an open primary, like my state of virginia. But i do think it is going she can continue to be a thorn the side of donald trump. If nikki haley, you know, provides a surprise for us, we could see her continuing on until next week, which, i think the Republican Party would have to kind of grapple with, where nikki haley, primary voters what are they going to do in a General Election . Not all of them are going to be sold on donald trump and well have to see if the Republican Party pays attention to the ways they need to in order to bring them in. Mark said, haley said she would be in this race until at least Super Tuesday. The question is what is next for her . She still has money. She Just Announced a Campaign Leadership team in louisiana, that isnt until march 23rd. Do you do that if youre considering dropping out after Super Tuesday . I think win, lose or draw, it is really good not only for the country, but good for her to keep running. She is really represented herself well, i think, and that wing of the Republican Party that doesnt feel represented, gives a voice to a lot of people who feel like theyre homeless right now in the Republican Party. And shes communicating a message a lot of people want to hear. 43 of america are independents now. Only 27 identify with either party. Shes a voice for a lot of people out there and the interesting thing is about her future, you think about this, you have a future in the trump Republican Party, i mean, if she ran as an independent, in this environment against biden and trump, she would get a lot of votes. Thats interesting to think about. And there have been a lot of questions of whether she would run with no labels or some other third party ticket. She dismissed those suggestions or those questions. Obviously for President Biden, he really isnt facing a significant challenge on his path to secure the democratic nomination. But there is this vote uncommitted Movement Among voters who are unhappy with his handling of the israelhamas war specifically. We saw it in michigan, over 100,000 voting uncommitted. Usually it is about a fifth of that in that state. Listen to what the president of cal berkeley democrats said about how this issue may affect their support for President Biden. Yeah, i mean, i would say to President Biden, if he wants students and young people to be part of his winning coalition, in november, he needs to change. We arent single issue voters. We care about our healthcare. We care about making sure that we have affordable housing. But really it is hard for us to understand the administrations position when it comes to just supporting the Ethnic Cleansing in gaza. Do you expect to see more of that protest vote today . I do, actually, expect to see more of that protest vote. But what these young people and the people who are galvanizing around the uncommitted votes are saying is that they understand the primary process, right . Understanding that they are able to send a message to the white house, and President Bidens campaign, but the issues they care about, yes, what is happening to the palestinian people, but as this Young College student said, there are other issues like housing and student debt and this also gives the president information for the State Of The Union to talk about some of these issues, to talk about the things that his administration, would love to achieve, but congress or the conservative judiciary wont allow for him to do. I think it is actually helpful to give democrats the case to be made between now and the convention and the convention and the General Election. The other thing were talking about is a lot of these uncommitted voters are clearly saying theyre not willing to vote for donald trump. They dont see him as the answer. Theyre using this as an opportunity to directly tell the white house and the Reelection Campaign what it is they need to see more of. You see the president and Vice President harris embracing it a bit and talking a bit more about some of these issues, particularly around what is happening with palestine in the last week. We, the voters, and these two campaigns, three campaigns, technically, still all going for it. Well have a lot more information by this time tomorrow, i have a feeling. Alencia, mark, i look forward to continuing the conversation with you. Thank you for being here today. Much more ahead this morning, including the electoral fallout from the Supreme Court ruling over trumps place on the ballot. Also, the gop frontrunners latest Eyebrow Raising Rhetoric surrounding migrants and the fictional Serial Killer hes comparing them to. The stakes of Super Tuesday, are we watching the final hours of nikki haleys campaign . It is going to be a political brawl at the ballot box no matter what. What made you switch from trump to nikki haley . The man is a lunatic. The stronger voice, which might be a little quieter, is nikki haley. It is the voice of reason. Not the voice of treason. You never even considered her . No. Mainly because shes a woman . Because shes female. Mainly because shes a woman because shes female. I know what its like to perform through pain. If youre like me, one of the millions suffering from pain caused by migraine, Nurtec Odt May help. Its the only medication that can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine attacks. Treat and prevent, all in one. Dont take if allergic to nurtec. Allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. Most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. Relief is possible. Talk to a doctor about nurtec odt. Yall wayfair is the talk of the neighborhood, cmon relief is possible. We wanted a recliner. But it had to be chic. 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And from Trump Supporters were hearing the issues that matter to them are the border, the economy, the Kitchen Table issues that we hear time and time again after elections. I want to have you listen to one conversation i had with a supporter of donald trump, just a minute ago. What issues matter most to you as youre filling out your ballot there . Honesty. Mr. Trump is straightforward, honest and he speaks his mind and thats what we like. And he can put the country first. Reporter now, donald trump and nikki haley, virginia is an important place to be in the weekend before Super Tuesday. They held rallies in different parts of the state. When you talk about the Get Out The Vote effort, Neither Campaign is doing all that much as it relates to Big Surrogates Coming in. Glenn youngkin, a massive Get Out The Vote effort in 2023, it was nonexistent here. Secu