Of Curt Schilling over a Facebook Post about transgender bathroom laws. Trump himself was asked to that issue on today. He called a push for such laws discriminatory and said he believes the transgender individual should be able to use whichever bathroom they choose. Mr. Trump there have been very few complaints the way it is cap people go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. There has been so little trouble. And the problem with what happened in North Carolina is the strife and the economic, the economic punishment they are taking. Do you have any transgender people working in your organization . Mr. Trump i dont know. If Caitlyn Jenner were to walk into trump tower and wanted to use the bathroom, you would be fine with her using any bath and she chooses . Mr. Trump that is correct. Mark those comments made it today town hall. Drew an Immediate Reaction from a rightwinger of talk radio. Senator cruz donald agreed and attacking the state of North Carolina for passing her bathroom ordinates. Let me ask you, have we gone stark raving nuts . Are there any parent of daughters here . Im the father of two little girls. Here is basic common sense. Grown adult men, strangers, should not be all alone in the bathroom with little girls. No problem with lg bt bathrooms. If you think you are woman at 2 00 this afternoon, want to use the ladies in, have at it. If you are a woman, go in, no problem. We will see if there is any blowback on that. Mark trump has taken a position that could hurt him in his nomination fight and helpful in the general election. Is trump taking this position out of principle or the sense of the politics of it . john well, i think the answer is as principal. Of course, is suggest something not flattering about trump, which, in my judgment, trump is probably a social liberal. His position on abortion is the real position, what he really things about abortion. Today he talks about he is for the three exceptions. I think on this issue he is like most new yorkers. He is basically a social liberal. Within his heart, he knows it helps them politically in the general election. These two other gentlemen, they are incredibly crude and how they talk about this issue and have no respect for people who are transgender but trump is begin from his heart. Mark it clearly has potential political benefit. If trump can take the sting out of social issues in a general election, issues of tolerance that a lot of young voters care about, if he is the nominee about economics and about competence, his chances of winning are a lot greater. I think it is leading with his heart, but helps them politically and he knows it. John im sure he knows it. One of the bigger overarching questions is when trump makes the pivot to the general election as all nominees do, how much, how many positions, whether on the Mexican Border wall or any other issues that he has stated in very base pleasing ways, throwing red meat to the base, how is he going to walk back . If he walks them back to where he probably may actually be, if you look at his history on these issues, will he get called on that for hypocrisy or will this simply benefit him in the way youre suggesting . Mark even the best political minds disagree over the biggest question can donald trump collect the 1237 delegates he needs before the july convention to earn the majority . Listen to two of the political guys we respect most. Haley barbour and republican strategist Steve Schmitt. If you generously apportion a couple of Western State wins to ted cruz. You look at northeastern states coming. Look ahead to california, 170 plus delegates, winnertakeall by congressional district. 20 point lead. Very difficult for me to see any scenario where he does not clear 1237. I think the worst he does is he clears it by 60, 70 delegates. He will be right up around 1300 when we wake up on june 8. Mark you are a pretty good vote counter. Is donald trump on track to get the majority of delegates . He has to get 58 of the remainder. He has been getting in the 40s. His percentage of the vote in new york is the first time he has gotten over 50 . If that repeats itself, it makes it easier, but it is not a given that he is going to be able to get 1237 through, by the time of the june 7 primaries. Mark do you think it is possible and likely but not definite, is that accurate . I think it is more like, it is the most likely outcome. I think it is less than 50 . John Haley Barbour pegs it as less than 50 . Mark the question, will he or wont he . One what easy way is to break the contest down this way. There are 15 primaries break them up into groups of 5, 3 of them. First they are the five northeast states that both this coming tuesday. Then there is the five, including california. And wind down the race on june 7. A lot of focus on those two days with five contest each. But lets not talk about a different state contest in may. On that month, you have got five additional contests, totaling 199 delegates spread across the month. Contest in indiana, nebraska, west virginia, and then to on the west coast, oregon and washington. After those states vote with 199 delegates, that is more than the northeast states voting this coming tuesday. We are going to have a much clearer picture of whether trump actually can get the delegates it is going to take to gain a majority before the party heads to cleveland. Part of the problem, handicapping these five states, is there is almost no polling in any of the five. Given how the three candidates stack up in those may contests, indiana, nebraska, west virginia, oregon, washington, what do you think the controversy just about who is more right, Haley Barbour who says trump has got less than a 50 chance or Steve Schmitt who says sure thing . John we did this math exercise in a different way a few days before steve and haley had their views. I continue to think Haley Barbour is more right than Steve Schmitt. I think the numbers are daunting. You look at these primaries in the middle of the month, in may. Indiana is an open primary. West virginia is an open primary. The open primaries are good for donald trump. Those are states he would probably do well in. But the basket, solar to a lot of states in the plains that ted cruz has done well in. , but in nebraska, those are a lot of the states in the planes that ted cruz has done well in. Oregon and washington, both states were john kasich should be competitive. It seems to me that if you think about what trump needs to do, the percentage he news to get of delegates, this could not be, may not be a great month for him. The only clear winner of that group is west virginia. All four of the other five could be ones were he finishes second. Mark could be but i will say this. Steve schmitt will be right if the other new folks and the additional spending are brought to bear. Five contests over the course of the month. They are spread out. You have two of them on may 10 and the others are on their own day. It gives them a chance to go in the states and try to leverage trumps advantages big spending, big rallies. I think it is an open question how good these five contest will be for trump, but i think if Steve Schmitt is right and these new guys are able to up trumps game, i think trump could win all five of them. Nebraska is the toughest. I think it is possible trump could win four of the five. John well, the Money Matters a lot. That is for sure. He could, conceivably, given the outcome so soon after the contest on tuesday, he could be on a little bit of a roll and that could have get favorable Media Coverage if he wins all five next week or four out of five, that is possible. He could continue to build through. The overall, it just, again, the absence of polling they said hard to figure out. I will say the real question to me is, how hard is june . There is no place where he can come off the gas. He has to do well in may. How will this he have to do in june . You have got winner take all states in june and montana and south dakota and those states are good for cruz. Mark in indiana, oregon and washington, case it could be a kasich could be a player. Again, five states spread out over the monster year of to ask yourself what if we seen that. We saw in wisconsin, state by itself. Trump did not do well there. But there were a lot of factors working against him. Given time, given his ability to campaign and spending money and his new teams ability to work the thing, i just think trumps advantages in a threeway race with these two guys, i think schmid is overstating the case. I think Haley Barbour is understating it. John you are being mr. Goldilocks. Mark i think if trump performs, i think everybody agrees he is going to perform very well next tuesday. These five in may are key. If he lives up to 80 of his potential in these five states, i think he will be on the doorstep of winning. And will not need to absolutely kill on those five contest in june. John i think one of the questions you have to ask you think about those states in oregon and washington. John kasich has no money. Donald trump has a lot of money. What happens in the pacific northwest, what is your view about that . Mark they are close contest, that makes it tougher for trump. Those states have got conservative parts and more moderate parts. I still believe that there is no reason to think they are not decent trump states they are states that are going to be open to different aspects of his message. They are states that tend to care more about free trade, because they are so connected to the pacific. Maybe that, less good for trump because the trade issue may not play as well. John up next, our conversations with Steve Schmitt and more after this. Mark joining us now is republican strategist, former Senior Adviser of john mccain, and msnbc analyst Steve Schmitt. Happy 4 20. John important day for both of us. Let me ask this question. This morning on morning joe you were insistent, emphatic, no question in your mind donald trump is going to get to 1237 by the end of them nominating contest. June 8, we wake up, donald trump will be the nominee. What gives you that level of confidence that you are for sure it is going to happen . Steve i think if you generously apportion a couple of Western State wins to ted cruz. Look at the northeastern states, you look ahead to california, 170 plus delegates, winner take all by congressional district. 20 point lead. Very difficult for me to see any scenario where he does not clear 1237. I think the worst he does is he clears it by 60, 70 delegates, right up around 1300 when we wake up on june 8. Mark if you took over the Cruz Campaign tomorrow, what would you do . Steve they have been trying to narrow this to a twoperson race and i think there was one point where the great nature for for donaldt danger trump was that he would be in a position having to fight in a twoway race, to his ideological right. But i think that moment is passed. I think the conservative litmus test is not an ideological one. It is a strength test. And donald trump has trumped ted cruz on that test. Ted cruz when he has tried for so long make this a twoperson race comes in third place in new york behind john kasich, someone he called for to get out of the race because he simply a hindrance. Mark i will give your twoperson race, buddy. I finished second. Steve i think ted cruz, it was a really bad night for him last night. And so, when you look at cruz coming into these northeastern states, he is going to lose more momentum next week. Have a really tough time in this part of the country. John is mitt romney right, the fact that this is a threeperson race . There has been a split in a antitrump world . Is that part of why trump is going to get to 1237 . Steve we talk about the never trump movement. For a practical effect, it does not seem to be very potent to say the least. I understand there is hashtags and never trump, but there is not an organized effort with any effectiveness aimed at stopping him. The argument makes no sense. People say, never trump. Well, will you support trump as the republican nominee . Im going to support the nominee. Both cannot be true. And it undermines the argument that no one is saying in public what people say privately. About donald trump and the Republican Leadership i think that speaks to why that movement is so weak. They say in private he is unfit to be president. He is unfit psychologically, temperamentally, he is unfit ideologically but no one is making that argument publicly. Mark you were reluctant to say what would you do to take over the Cruz Campaign. If i gave you 100 million and say, stop trump, what would you spend it on . What message and how would you spend it . Steve you would try to stop him on temperament issues. You would go back and revisit the most powerful political ad in America History was the daisy ad in 1954 against lbj running against goldwater, using images of the north korean leader, mushroom clouds, the instability of the world and trumps late night tweeting. You would make a temperament and character attack. Youd remind people that the president of the United States is the most powerful person in the world, sits atop the National Command authority as commander in chief of the most potent military in the world and that possesses the weapons to extinguish life on the planet as we know it. John im going to ask your question about just today. We welcome up this morning, donald trump got a lot of praise from a lot of people for his speech last night. Different donald trump. And one of the things everyone seized on is a stupid thing but a small thing he did not say lying ted cruz. Now calling him lying ted cruz by the middle of the afternoon. Is that a sign that the new discipline is not effective as we thought it was . What do we make of that . Steve i think there is a distinction between the speech you make where a lot of the country is watching in prime time. Youve just won an election. It is not a rally setting. You are talking about the next stage of the campaign. You are articulating a vision why you should be the nominee. Why you want to be president of the United States, where you are going to. He started transition into the general election messaging. Indiana is a contest he is going to have to compete in. Hes going at ted cruz hard. In the light of the day, the day after in the state as we get ready for the next contest, the difference in tone on an Election Night when we are weeks away from their states and Everything Else around the podium is significant. John wouldnt it worry if youre one of the forces trying to impose a president ial demeanor on trump . Would you not be, my god, hes at it again. Steve i think the issue is not the use of lying ted. The issue is comportment. Can he comport himself the right way at the right times . Can he show the appropriate dignity required of the american head of state . Mark less than 30 seconds, one of your older bosses dick cheney said that donald trump should not be our nominee. Will that hurt trumps chances . Steve at one moment in time it would have hurt trumps chances. I think dick cheney is a deeply respected figure inside the Republican Party. It is late in the day for anyone to make that argument. Mitt romney is a person inside the Republican Party that has a lot of affection, has a lot of respect. He went out, he gave a speech. The effect of that speech was not particularly injurious to Donald Trumps chances. John Steve Schmitt, thanks again for stopping by. Come back again real soon. Mark we will be right back with Howard Wolfson after this. A lot of speculation in the press the staff changes being made in the campaign. What is your take on those . I think it is a natural evolution. You have to transition to the general. That transition is going to be great. Mark are the new people being brought in to take over . They are brought in to do specific tasks. It is a very tactical change. I think it is going to be very important to the campaign and the evolution of the campaign. Mark whos running the campaign . My father. My father is always running it. Mark that was donald trump jr. , talking over some beeping car horns talking earlier about reports of a Campaign Shakeup and tension in trump land. Here to talk more, kim alfano and Howard Wolfson. And former Communications Director for Hillary Clintons 2008 campaign lady, gentleman, thank you for being here. Kim, we have not had you on in a while. What is your view . Last time i had terrible predictions. John what is your view of donald j trump, billionaire politician . I will get roundly abused on twitter and on the internet but i have to say he is masterful. He has done, i think, the last cycle we got into this it was politics of the news cycle. Now i think it is politics of the tweet. And no one does it better than him. He can Say Something outrageous one day and look you in the eyes and say, i never said that. Or Say Something more salacious and get you moved off it. John are you impressed by donald trump as a new york politician . Very much so. I think both of the candidates who will win today are going to win because they are real new yorkers. Whatever you think of them. And because they have real familiarity with the news cycle and the press corps here. They both look like they are very much in their element these past couple weeks. Mark youve seen campaigns in disarray up close. How does the Trump Campaign seem t