Followed by ted cruz with 17 . And marco rubio, who today got a huge endorsement from South Carolina governor nikki haley, he comes in third with 15 . Jeb bush at 13 . John kasich and ben carson both in the single digits. No breaking news, but this is the context for the next three days before South Carolina republicans vote. In the center ring in this battle royal is donald trump and ted cruz. For days, trump has been calling cruz a liar and threatening to file a lawsuit over his eligibility to run for president. Remember that whole o, canada thing . Today, ted cruz spoke to reporters in seneca, South Carolina and offered his strongest counter blow yet. Sen. Cruz i understand if a candidate has a record like donald trump, how he can point to anyones record. That anyone can point to his record. If he files the lawsuit that he threatens in this letter, that will be frivolous and it will result in both donald trump and any lawyer that signs his name for filing frivolous litigation. Donald happily sat on national tv repeating things that are simply made up. That have no basis in truth. That are complete fabrications. That is a new level for president ial politics. John mark, ted cruz has long said that he wanted to take the high road in this campaign. And on this issue. So, why is he suddenly fighting back . Mark things have gotten very personal between them, very bitter. They both look at the other one not with a sense of detente, but detest. I think you will see ted cruz fighting back. Because if trump gallops to a win, trump goes into the next few contests with a head of steam, and nobody can stop him. Including ted cruz. John yes, it has definitely gotten personal. There is no doubt about that. You can only take being called a baldfaced liar for so long. But i have to say, you look at these polls. You look at the monmouth poll, the arg poll. Ted cruz is not only not in real contention to win, hes in contention to drop into maybe third place. Some of these polls have him dropping maybe into fourth place. He has to finish a strong second. I think the reason he is fighting back is because he knows what donald trump has been saying has taken a toll. On his standing here. Mark the other thing about cruz he has been hit by a lot of people in a lot of ways. And i think, in general, people recognize that this primary is about strength. Trumps calling card throughout the country has been strength. And i think ted cruz wanted to show he has a strong candidate , too. He is a guy of strength. And this state respects strength. John this is also a state where taking the high road has never been historically rewarded in South Carolina. So the stance of im going to take the high road, not so much here in South Carolina. Let us move on. In the marco rubio versus ted cruz ring, rubio trying to recover the momentum after his New Hampshire stumble. Like trump, that means using the l word over his rival senator. This morning, in a Campaign Event in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, mark got a chance to ask rubio why he has been working so hard to cast ted cruz as a dishonest candidate, and human. Mark are you saying something about his character when you talk about the tactics he is using . Sen. Rubio you cant let these things stay out there, these are not true. He went around saying i dont want to fight against planned parenthood and that i have the same position on marriage as barack obama. You are going to get challenged when you Say Something outlandish and untrue. When you say that every day, it does reflect the campaign that you are running and what youre willing to do to win. I have been saying that ted has unfortunately proven he will say anything to get elected. I dont think that is a positive thing in the president. Mark did you think that before him during the race . Sen. Rubio what we have seen in last few weeks has been a disturbing. I cannot say that up until that point, i have not made much attention to it. In this race, it has been apparent, especially over the last month. John we told you before about ted cruzs Seneca Press Conference where he hit back against donald trump. He also took the opportunity at that same press conference to hit back against what marco rubio, as you just heard. Sen. Cruz marco rubio is behaving like donald trump. Marco went on univision in spanish and said that on his first day in office he would not rescind president obamas illegal executive action. On univision, you can go watch the video. He said this on National Television. This bizarre notion that the words said on National Television somehow does not exist. Marcos response was the same as donalds. It was to yell liar, liar. John mark, in this next installment of the spats of South Carolina, that would be rubio, who has the upper hand politically . Mark this cycle has been weird. We have all talked about that. Rubio is having the best week of any candidate, with the possible exception of trump. Some people wrote him off. He got the the nikki haley endorsement. That will dominate News Coverage for at least a day. Maybe longer. She has an organization. She is a popular governor. Rubio, i saw him after that event, his stump speeches are more energizing. Then most of the other candidates in this race right now. I think as you said, rubio could potentially pass cruz. Rubio could consolidate the kind of support he needs past march. If he is going to be a finalist. To sayeah, look, i have i was one of those people thinking Marco Rubio Might be dead after his New Hampshire collapse. He has certainly come on strong. I think that maybe on the merits of the argument, ted cruz may have that argument. A lot of things that marco rubio says ted cruz is lying about dont fall into the category of lies. But politically speaking, rubio has the upper hand. He has the memorandum, as you said. Hes coming across as a much more appealing candidate than cruz has. He is being hit from two directions. It seems defensive to me. As both mark and i have mentioned, South Carolina governor nikki haley is going to be endorsing marco rubio tonight. It is an important, symbolic step of approval for an important symbolic and actual palmetto state establishment leader. Especially since there are 3 candidates duking it out for the establishment position. Which, given the strength of donald trump and ted cruz, means they needed to get thirdplace or better in the primary on saturday. Ye olde general consensus is that john kasich comes in fourth. If he does, he has a survival plan for the future states. That leaves jeb bush and the aforementioned marco rubio, who incredibly unusually aggressive shots at each other on the campaign trail. Here is rubio in Mount Pleasant talking about how much longer jeb should stay in the race if he performs poorly on saturday. Sen. Rubio im never going to tell anyone not to continue. He has worked hard and has a right to be in the race as long as he wants. Ive never really attacked governor bush. He spent 50 million attacking me. If we have a difference in policy, we will talk about it. What i said about governor bush is that he doesnt have any Foreign Policy experience, which is true. But i dont see that as an attack, i see that as a fact. John you might be wondering what John Ellis Bush has to say about that. Morning, he took a shot at his former protege on the same topic experience. Jeb bush i know what it is to be commanderinchief. I know what it is to lead. And for someone that has no experience to suggest i dont, having lived overseas, having worked overseas, developing relationships with leaders overseas, being governor of the fourth largest state and being a commanderinchief of the Florida National guard with all due respect senator rubio, your 45 years or whatever it is as senator does not match up to my capabilities understanding how the world works. [applause] john mark, we talked about cruz and trump. We have talked about cruz and rubio. Neither are exactly death matches. But here, with rubio and bush, is South Carolina turning into an actual death match, where one emerges alive and the other has to go . Mark i have been reluctant to say there is any mustwin state for anybody. This is such a weird year. In this case, it might be. Bush is in political peril if he finishes behind rubio. Rubio is in financial peril if he follows behind bush. I dont think, if he finishes behind bush, he can raise enough money. Its possible that the loser between bush and rubio will be out of the race after saturday. John i want to go back to the polls. The Bloomberg Politics poll has bush in fourth, below rubio. The monmouth has bush below rubio and kasich. G has jeb bush finishing fifth, in supposedly bush country, i do not see how jeb bush continues his campaign. If he finishes fifth here, there is nowhere you can imagine him winning. I think it is a death match for him. Bush finishing ahead, but i cannot imagine the other way around. Mark i dont think rubio can raise any money if he finishes behind bush. Where is he going to win . I think its possible bush could surprise people. But if you look at the public polling and the momentum rubio has, its going to be hard for bush to survive. He will have to finish at least closer or probably ahead of him. John i will throw in one more thing. We have this nbcwall street Journal National poll that has bush in sixth place with just 4 . That is below cruz, trump, rubio, kasich, and ben carson nationally. That shows you how tough it is for John Ellis Bush. If theres anything the candidates agree on, it is their opposition to president obama nominating a Supreme Court justice before nine months from now. But that is where the agreement ends. , iscruz, in particular using a tv ad in South Carolina to make the case that of all the republicans running, he alone would elect a true conservative to the bench. We tested that question in our new Bloomberg Politics poll with South Carolina republicans. We asked which of the candidates voters would appoint the best justice. And here is what we found. 24 said donald trump. 20 said ted cruz. 16 said jeb bush. 12 said ben carson. 10 said marco rubio. John kasich came in last with just 7 . My question for you, mark, given this context of Antonin Scalia passing away, which of these candidates stands to benefit most for the fight to replace him . Mark i think cruzs credibility. People think of him as a lawyer and someone faithful to conservative principles. I also think rubio has in a pretty good job of saying we needed somebody electable. I think those two guys have the biggest legup, for different reasons. John you know, in terms of the resumes, the way they talk about the issue, i think ted cruz is right. It is interesting to me, in this area, its interesting that donald trump beats both of them handily. He does that because there is now this fascination with him being strong and somehow decisive. Trump amazingly has no expertise in this area whatsoever. And cruz has been hammering him for talking about his sister and all these other things. Yet, South Carolina republicans , according to our poll, still think that trump is the one that has the upper hand. It points to the overall strength of donald trump. Mark well, that is right. As long as trump keeps winning states big like he did in New Hampshire, the polls do not help you much. People that support trump are going to think he is very much best at everything. John 100 right. Coming up, the democratic race, and what happens if Hillary Clinton loses nevada, right after this. John if you had a thrill on the night of the iowa caucuses, seeing the race be this close, you are going to love what is going on in the silver state of nevada. A new poll out of that state shows Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are about this close to each other. Bernie fans are showing that he has an edge in caucus states, just like barack obama did in 2008, even though clinton won the caucus straw poll. So mark, all things considered, politically speaking, what happens if Hillary Clinton gets beat in nevada . Mark i think it is bad for her. And i dont want to overstate it, but it will explode a lot of myths about her strength to win. Beyond iowa and New Hampshire. I think this state would tighten up a lot of things. I dont think Bernie Sanders can necessarily win. It would throw march into a lot of difficulty for her. Once again, bernie would raise millions of dollars off that win. John there is a symbolic element to this. Nevada was the only caucus state in 2008 where Hillary Clinton got more votes than barack obama. Even though she lost the delegate count, she got more of the popular vote. The only caucus state where she did that. To lose to Bernie Sanders would be a symbolic blow. And then there is the practical effect that Bernie Sanders good demonstrate there is a coalition of workingclass whites, millenials, and enough of the hispanic vote to be competitive in a lot of places across the country. Mark the other thing, shes not giving up that state. Right . She is going back out there, she has campaigned there. Extensive Television Ads on the air. It begs the question, if she tries to beat him and she fails. She is still the favorite, but it would compound her problems in a big way. John and cast a real mustwin quality to the South Carolina primary next week on the democratic side. The apple, fbi dispute has officially penetrated the campaign trail. Today, a response to the news that a federal judge ordered apple to help the fbi break into an iphone used by one of the San Bernadino killers. Donald trump said on fox friends that he agrees with the courts decisions. Mr. Trump in that case, we should open it up. I think, security overall we have to open it up. And we have to use our heads. We have to use common sense. Somebody called me a common sense conservative. We have to use common sense. Our country has so many problems. We have to be very careful. We have to be very vigilant. But to think that apple wont allow us to get into her cell phone. Who do they think they are . No, we have to open it up. John marco rubio was also asked about the apple news in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. He told our friend, my colleague, bloomberg reporter Mark Halperin that privacy is a tough issue and a socalled backdoor to encryption could be used by criminals. So mark, which candidate is doing the best capitalizing on this apple issue . Mark i think, as always, mr. Trump speaking in black and white and no gray appeals to his supporters. And that dovetails with his general views on how to fight terrorism. I was more fascinated by marco rubio. Rubio was much more on the one hand than the other hand i thought he would be on, giving the current climate. This is an issue that tests the libertarian and antiterrorist streaks of the Republican Party. I think it will come up not just now, but it will come up the general election. It is an issue that divides both parties. John i want to be clear about this. You read what apple ceo tim cook said about this, its not about opening this one phone, folks. He is talking about, in his interpretation, the government is asking for a backdoor key that could used on a lot of other phones. It will raise a lot of Civil Liberties concerns. I like that marco rubio at least acknowledges there are shades of gray. This is not a blackandwhite issue at all, no matter what candidates say about it. When we come back, inside the minds, crazy though they sometimes are, of the republican candidates. We are sort of going there when we come back. John in about 72 hours, South Carolina republicans will make a decision that could dramatically change the trajectory of the contest. Today, at that Campaign Event in marcopleasant, mark asked rubio about his views, and the Campaign Going forward. Mark imagine how unusual it is to have so many candidates. I wonder if you think that will change anytime soon. Sen. Rubio we will have to see after South Carolina. That will eventually change. Obviously, we had a lot more two weeks ago. Mark why do you think the dynamic has changed . Sen. Rubio i dont know. This year, virtually everyone that was rumored to run had ran. So i dont know. Probably a combination of things. I think one, the party has a lot of talent. The Republican Party has a lot of talent. There are people that are not running for president that have tremendous talent. We are blessed in the party. We have a lot of really good people. You have people in this race that would have been the frontrunner any other year. Four years ago people were begging Chris Christie to run, now hes out of the race. It is just a very unusual time. I am sure you are going to write a book about it. Mark are you afraid of losing in the race . Sen. Rubio i am no