John kasich and ted cruz have hashed out a rare bargain to help each other try to stop donald trump from the republican nomination. Like some high profile hookups. John kasich says he will stay out of ted cruzs way in indiana while ted cruz will steer clear of new mexico and oregon. Its being called an agreement, an alliance, a pact, a treaty. Today in rhode island a certain someone used a different word for it. It is collusion. If you collude in politics you are allowed to collude, and i was happy because it shows how weak they are. It shows how pathetic they are. Mark this morning as Kasich Campaigned in philadelphia, ted cruz was in indiana. They defended their unorthodox cooperation. I dont see this as any big deal other than the fact that im not going to spend resources in indiana and hes not going to spend them in other places. So what . What is the big deal . Ive never told them not to vote for me. I am not over there campaigning and spending resources. We have limited resources. Hes focusing his energies elsewhere. That is a decision allocation of resources that makes a lot of and is devoted to the principle of meeting Hillary Clinton and turning the country around. Donald trump is going to scream and yell that has been his pattern. Mark what is behind this extraordinary deal and is it a good idea . John as a wise man has been saying all day long, its obviously true. And is devoted to the principle they would not be doing this if they didnt have to. Ive been saying for weeks that they should start doing stuff like this. In california, where the districts are in play, both these guys, ted cruz has plenty of money, john kasich does not. Donald trump has an achievable but difficult goals. For those guys to not be strategic would be stupid. Mark it will do well in the northeast tomorrow. Indiana is very important. It was identified by all the campaigns as a state that could make or break Donald Trumps chances of getting to a majority. Anything that increases his chances of not getting indiana is a good deal for the nontrumpers. The question now is, can the groups come in and create an environment where ted cruz can stop donald trump . He has to do it. He has to take the opportunity to try to make the case of why Indiana Republicans and those voting in the open primary should vote for ted cruz and not trump. John it really is the people who were going to vote for kasich are still going to. They are not going to go and vote for ted cruz. Within a primary system, the undecided voters right now, where are they going to go . Certainly, media dollars are being spent. That could make the difference in a very close race. Mark cruz people believe they can get some kasich people. John saying you would be a crazy candidate to tell your voters to vote for someone else. If you believed ted cruz and john kasich are colluding, that fits neatly into the story that donald trump has been pushing more broadly about the republican contest, that it is a crooked deal that is rotten to the core. This weekend, ted cruz outhustled donald trump for delegates again at the state convention in maine. The Trump Campaign announced the front runner will campaign in indiana tomorrow with a legendary basketball coach, bobby knight. How do you think the cruisekasich deal will affect the way donald Trump Campaigns for the next six weeks . Mark he needs to win indiana and he needs to think about taking on ted cruz there. He will need to figure out how to engage in a oneonone contest without getting drawn in. The other thing he needs to think about is after tomorrow night, does he need to shake things up . Donald trump does not change very much. Is he on a path to do that . John its pretty clear that ted cruz is going to camp out in indiana. It seems to me that for all these reasons, if trump can win in indiana even after this deal has been cut, it will amplify the effect that indiana was going to have any way if you want it. He can save these guys colluded against me and i still beat them in indiana. He must spend money there, he must be on the air and on the ground there. It is crucial for him to pull that off. He could drive a stake in the heart of this whole thing. Mark he has to appeal to the moderate republicans where kasich has been strong. Those are the kind of republicans he needs to unify the party. A big win with the right demographic support would help donald trump. He continues to not do well in winning these after the primary caucuses. The trump people are pretty much first ballot or bust. One of the things donald trump needs to consider if he doesnt do well in indiana is if they need to broaden that strategy. It makes winning indiana all that much more important. John this is a state that is not that different from illinois. Its not that different from other midwestern states were donald trump has done well, michigan for example. The bathroom issue in north carolina, thats the issue where relatively moderate republicans might be more attracted to donald trump and they would be to ted cruz. Hes trying to win by taking all those rural voters. Mark look for donald trump to pick up some sports related indiana endorsements. Look to see if he gets any political endorsements in that state and creates that bandwagon effect. So far he has not. Winner take all by congressional district, all you need is a paralysis there to win all the delegates, not a majority. It is also an open primary. Even if his rivals can see hes going to do well in the five northeastern states, likely picking up more than 100 delegates, indiana all he has 57, but it has a lot of momentum as dated with it. According to the latest online tracking poll donald trump leads with 40 . Ted cruz has 35 . Kasich has 20 in that poll. How big are the state if donald trump wins indiana . Does it end contest . John it doesnt end it, but would donald trump having it big in new york, if he has a huge night and goes to indiana and when stair and takes the popular vote and the most delegates, the question we been asking ever since new york, does the momentum in the Northeast Carry . It will start to look like it does. The psychology is very important, even more than delegates. Mark part of why was so vital to get kasich out is the indianapolis media market. Seven of the congressional districts of the 10 are touched by the indianapolis media market. Its a place where you have people who support people like Mitch Daniels when he was governor. More moderate republicans, the kind that ted cruz has not been a will to win in significant numbers in the northeast. If ted cruz can make inroads there, great for him. Its up to ted cruz, not just for the symbolism and the delegates. They are running out of real estate. John it has been a long time. Ted cruz one in wisconsin, not that long ago, but it feels like a long time. You look at the polling, a lot of people believe it is right around 40 . Only about 5 undecided. If ted cruz picks up a little bit of kasich if he collapses because hes given up on indiana. Mark there are two groups that will give up on stopping donald trump if he wins indiana. A lot of voters and a lot of donors. John up next, the art of the steal and the art of the squeal. More after these words from our generous sponsors. Mark think big, know your market, and the real excitement excitement is playing the game. Thats advice from donald trump in his book the art of the deal. Our Political Correspondent has tracked the stop Trump Movement. Thank you for joining us. We been talking about the prospect that these outside groups would be able to devote their resources simply to a virtual oneonone. What do you know about what the groups plan in the last week before the indiana primary . I think its more of a pulling back from defense, if you will. These groups are going to stay on offense in the places where they kind of agree they will have a detente. In oregon you will see the kasich forces likely still go up with negative ads against ted cruz because they think that is the most effective way for them to get john kasich to win in oregon. The same in indiana, the procruz forces will have those spots up against casey. They will not go into places like oregon and new mexico, you will not see that Ted Cruz Super pac go in there to try to shore up numbers, and likewise you will not see the candidates themselves out on the trail to it the big picture, that is really what this is all about. Its as much about these outside groups as the candidate and its really about these donors. A lot of the big donors got burned backing jeb bush and others. It was clear there was kind of a breaking point approaching where they would need to do something to reassure these people that if they kept funding the stop Trump Movement they might actually get somewhere. We been told ted cruz plans to spend much of the next week in indiana. Any indication how donald trump plans to approach the state . The big headline on that point today is that donald trump hinted he hopes he could attract bobby knight, the famous basketball coach. He already has that locked in. Minutes later the release comes out, an event with donald trump and bobby knight. That is one way to do it. For donald trump it really is about the branding and marketing. To have himself aligned with someone who is popular there, to have the big splash, that is something we will see in indiana. It was notable that ted cruz had the opportunity to talk about this deal and the words he chose were very telling. He said john kasich has withdrawn from indiana, allowing us to have a head to head. That is not really what the deal was about. Ted cruz did acknowledge he was going to pull back from the west coast states, more natural places for john kasich. Even though they had that strategy with the funding and donor class movement, the two candidates are still the same guys who dont want to cede any ground to each other. We saw that in the way they were dismissive of the plant and saying they do not want to tell their voters not to support them. Sometimes the tactics dont meet with the real world of the campaign trail. Donald trump was in full character today, with facial expressions, hand gestures, voice intonation, taking on both kasich and cruz in mocking tones, dissecting what he thinks they have not done well in this campaign. It was the relentless performance meant to tell voters here and those watching around the country that he thinks he can take out the last two opponents. Certainly those other forces in the party are worried about that, but donald trump did what he has done all along, try to label his opponents and relentlessly pound that in. More president ial if he were trying to be president of the flight of the friars club . He made a promise today, saying he will stop tweeting if he becomes president. He made a social media promised to back away from his most common form of talking to his supporters and the general public. We will have to watch carefully if his tweet rate changes in the days to come. John in the discussion of president ial behavior, donald trump going after john kasich, mocked his eating habits, the sometimes enthusiastic way that governor kasich eats. You talked to john kasich in maryland not that long ago and asked what he thought about how donald trump talked about him. Governor kasich was not amused, shall we say. He didnt really have any interest in engaging with or discussing at all his eating habits. He remained stonefaced and would not really engage on the nickname front either. I guess his moment in the sun from that perspective, but he was not interested in that either. He did not want to talk too much about how long the pact between the two camps was going to last. It really is an open question. The piece of the map that is so important is california. Figuring out how to split up a state like california will take more than agreement of hands off in one area or the other. They may have to sit down and carve it up by congressional district. I have some questions about whether the super pacs might start to get together. They could talk to each other if they decided to take that step. The early outline seems to be the bay area for kasich, Southern California for ted cruz. Kasich refused to commit to having this go beyond anything that was not strictly outlined as of today. John at one point, you set how long will it go, and he said whatever our teams agreed to. He seemed sort of passive aggressive in the interview. It seemed a little odd to me, the tenor that he took with you. I was a little surprised. His Communications Director followed up with me afterwards and said its all about beating Hillary Clinton and john kasich is the person to beat Hillary Clinton. He didnt want to make that argument with me and you know he is usually a goodnatured guy. The way at this played out seemed to be under his skin today. Thank you. We will talk with johnson new un fromm john sonun New Hampshire about why this deal was struck. Mark joining us the national cochairman of john kasichs president ial campaign, senator john sununu. Welcome back to the show. Donald trump says ted cruz and john kasich are colluding and they are desperate and pathetic. What say you . Donald trump is scared. Hes not going to have enough delegates at the convention, we are going to an open convention and he will lose 300400 delegates on the second ballot, and once he does, he will not be the nominee. Its about using resources effectively. John kasich is not going to spend money in indiana and ted cruz will not spend money in new mexico or oregon. That gives them both a chance to play to their strengths. Equally important, tomorrow john kasich will win delegates in connecticut, rhode island, maryland and pennsylvania. Every delegate he takes away from donald trump makes it harder for him to get 50 . Mark can you argue this was done out of strength as opposed to weakness . It was done because it is a good tactical move. He doesnt get the billion dollars in free media that donald trump gets. You guys cover donald trump all the time. Youve given him more free media than anyone else in the history of politics. Thats what this is about. John does the Kasich Campaign agree its important that donald trump lose in indiana . If he loses in indiana, and as you pointed out, he is an net he is neck and neck with ted cruz at the moment, it makes it just about impossible for him to get to 1237. A loss in indiana puts it out of reach. In a convention, you will have 2400 republican delegates. It is an open, fair, transparent system. Everyone knows the rules and the delegates will decide who has the strength to lead the party in november. If ted cruz is the likeliest person to beat trump, why is governor kasich saying that people should still vote for him in indiana . The point he was making is that it is an agreement about resources. It is simple. Its about where the campaigns will spend money. You are trying to make it more complicated. It is a cross endorsement or telling people who divorced who to vote for or not to vote for . Its not about that. Its about where they are going to target their financial resources, plain and temple. Plain and simple. Explain how the next month will play out between these three candidates. Forget about the next month. Two weeks from now, you will let you will look at the delegate totals and it will not be clear that donald trump is going to have to win 80 of the delegates or some such number to get to 1237. Everyone will know and understand were going to an open convention. Two or three weeks, ago everyone thought donald trump was inevitable. Now they know that an open convention is likely and in two weeks it will be a certainty. Beefxt, Hillary Clinton, steak and hula blue and much more. We will be right back with all of it. Show me movies with romance. Show me more like this. Show me previously watched. Whats recommended for me. X1 makes it easy to find what you love. Call or go online and switch to x1. Only with xfinity. Show show me more like this. S. Show me previously watched. Whats recommended for me. X1 makes it easy to find what blows you away. Call or go online and switch to x1. Only with xfinity. This past weekend, an interview with a conservative billionaire aired on the television and it shocked the nation. For once, that was not donald j trump. He spoke to Jonathan Karl and expressed some concern about the existing republican president ial candidate is the one he would be more comfortable with the nose and his party . Take a listen. Ofas far as the growth government, increasing spending, it was two and a half times under bush than clinton. Is it possible clinton could be better than another republican . It is possible. You cannot see yourself supporting Hillary Clinton could you . Well, we would have to believe her actions would be quite different than her rhetoric. John that interview was followed by a frontpage story about the ceo in both parties in the cycle that says mrs. Clinton may believe may appear to be the most business probusiness option. Also this weekend in the New York Times, mark lander wrote about how when compared to public and rivals Hillary Clinton may draw greater support for military hawks. We will have a lot more with him later in the show. The gop still dealing with the possibility that republican women may decide to vote the first woman in the president ial history. Do if anything to do with the possibility that Hillary Clinton could poach hawks, Business People, fema leaders, female leaders . Mark they will have to win the battle of ideas for the elites, because you could easily see a Hillary Clinton press conference, retired military officials for clinton, corporate ceos for clinton, Small Business owners for clinton, republican women for clinton. Donald trump and ted cruz will have to come forward with policies that put her on the defense but put them on the offense of those groups doesnt will break the back of the Republican Party if they have widespread defections amongst the elites in those categories. John lets be clear. With women she will have a leg up, policy and her history. She will have a leg up in that area. One of the dirty Little Secrets of her time on the