Bloomberg politics. Com, for the 2016 tracker, always has the president ial race. Until tomorrow, thanks for watching. Sayonara. Coming up, hardball with Chris Matthews. Trump is the boss. Lets play hardball. Good evening, im Chris Matthews in washington. You know who the boss is when you cant start without. Any way, donald trump made that clear. No more debates, and there will be no more debates. He cleaned up with four of the five contests, narrowly edging out ted cruz in missouri and North Carolina. John kasich with the first win in his home state of ohio. Trumps overwhelming victory in florida knockout below to marco rubio. He announced last night he was suspending his campaign. Today, one of his top backers, nikki haley is supporting cruz for the nomination. Despite the loss, the frontrunner has opened up a wider lead over ted cruz. He him talking about trump. This morning, donald trump said he would not participate in the Republican Debate that had been scheduled for this coming monday in salt lake city. Kasichs Campaign Said he wouldnt participate without trump, which forced fox news to cancel the debate altogether today. Any way, trump also warned there would be riots, thats the headline tomorrow morning, at the convention if it did not give the nomination to the delegate leader himself, automatically. Lets watch trump in action here. I think well win before getting to the convention, but i can tell if we didnt, were 20 votes short or 100 short and
were at 1,100, and somebody else is 400 or 500, were way ahead, i dont think you can say that we dont get it automatically. I think would you have riots. Riots. Well, thats going to be the had he had line tomorrow. Michael, im joined by msnbc political analyst, robert costa. Michael, thats a hell of a threat. Its a threat. You dont give it to me, im the frontrunner, forget the majority, you give it to me or im going to, well, he would encourage riots. I dont know if there will be riots on the streets, but certainly pandemonium on the floor. Theyre been inching on this possibility for some time now. Unrest among a lot of delegates about how they perceive the National Party and those within it sort of trying to structure the deal away from trump. So theyre going to come to this
convention loaded for bear, which ive been trying to raise the yellow flag, careful how you approach it. If donald trump is 100 delegates away, it would be very hard to take it away who is sitting at 600 or 700. Thats his central argument. Its one the delegates are going to hold the convention to. Let me ask you, robert, was he being hyper bolic . Was he saying pandemonium, people arent going to like it or it will get physical . He is reflecking what he sees at his rallies. The crowds are for trump. They think that the establishment wants to steal the nomination. You got Trumps Campaign right now working with veteran republican consultants, guys like ed brookover skam ovcame om the campaign. You got lewandowski, maybe trying to get on the rules committee, once cleveland comes
in july. They are watching the others. Kasich is hiring his own people. Guys like stu spencer who worked on the Ford Campaign in 76. This looks like a collision, then, if they wont accept him, and he wont accept denial. Its a collision. This is going to be a fight for the future of the Republican Party. A lot of campaigns. The rivals are saying, look, if trump is nowhere near 1,237, thats not enough. Its about getting the coalition together. You see people like nikki haley going to cruz today. If its cruz kasich, someone else, there is some kind of coalition that could be brokered. A lot of chat about a second ballot. You have the former speaker of the house talking about paul ryan. Paul ryan threw some cold water on the idea of being that candidate, fwlu is chatter out there each and every minute. Any way, politico reports theyre gathering tomorrow to
plot a third party against trump. Exit polls show that if trump and clinton are the choices in november, 29 of Republican Voters in florida for example, would consider voting for a Third Party Candidate. Michael, whats worst for the Republican Party . Trump gets the nomination, everybody stews about it, or he doesnt get the nomination, walks out, starts a bull moose party, and the residual is worth what . I just wonder. Or, or the third scenario, chris, is that these people having the meeting tomorrow, actually find someone, a mitt romney, paul ryan or someone else to run as a Third Party Candidate in the fall. None of those situations are good for the party. I think, though, in the end, cooler heads have to prevail. Donald trump can be worked with. He can be negotiated with. Deals can be struck with him by the leadership of this party. Should he become the nominee to work out a strategy coming forward. He is making the overtures now
with the hill. He is making the overtures with state party officials, the rank and file, because he recognizes his success will be dependant on them as their success is going to be dependant on him. They have to get past this crazy talk about a third party and all of this nonsense of trying to defeat him and just let the process unfold, if he is the nominee, work with him to defeat hillary. Thats the bottom line. Well, robert, the problem with that, it sounds logical, trump doesnt work if he is not trump. If trump becomes a mouthpiece for the establishment Republican Party for the ben ginsberg and charlie blacks, et cetera, if he starts talking with debra proof, hell sound like any other hack out there. He doesnt want to do that. He is not really doing it. He is expanding his circle. Trump is a phone call guy. Loves getting on the phone, doesnt use email. I hear he was calling around the senate today. He is starting to build relationships, even if he is not hiring people on board. I got some fresh report in the last few minutes about this meeting tomorrow. 8 30 a. M. , washington, d. C. , a group of a few dozen
conservatives. Theyre going to start looking about a third party bid. One name i keep hearing, chris, senator ben saas, nebraska. Even if it lets hillary get the white race by a split race, he could be a standard bearer for are the hard right. Who are these people, they got cigars, what kind of a meet something this . So far into mod den politics. Online, what are they in social media people . Are they actual Government People who have been elected as governors or senators . No elected officials. Freedom caucus members of the house. The their aides are coming, conservative movement, part of the meeting as well. Government by blogger. Thats an improvement over what you had . It seems like trump beat theRepublican Party. He didnt join it. He beat it. Like sander cos have done it, didnt do it. He beat the party. He owns it potentially, and once he owns it theyve got to accept theyve been taken over and or dont accept. If not, they have to walk out. This is basically what this is leading to. My question is, you know, ben saas is a great guy. Im sure brings a lot to the payable. But what does that say to ted cruz . You know, where does all this conservative support for ted cruz go . Exactly. Youre going to create friction within the conservative movement itself by pitting saas against cruz. This is so silly. Let the thing play out. Let trump run his race, let them run their race against him, getting to the convention, let the nominee emerge. This is not the way to do it. I wouldnt know ben saas from a quart of wood. Any way, trump today attacked Hillary Clinton, whatever a cord of wood looks like. He hit Hillary Clinton with an instagram, a former secretary barking like a dog. This may be new low grade trump. But lets watch. Well,s that clip of secretary clinton was pulled from a story she told in nevada last month about a radio ad in arkansas. Here is what clinton said in the actual context. One of my favorite political ads of all time was a radio ad, rural arkansas, where the announcer said wouldnt it be great if somebody running for office said something, we could have an Immediate Reaction as to whether it was true or not. Well, weve trained this dog, and the dog, if its not true,
he is going to bark. Then the dog was barking on the radio. We need to get that dog and follow him around and every time they say these things, like or ex, oh, the Great Recession was caused by okay, robert, that was pretty low, treating her like a dog, lets face it, what theyre up to there, in the world of sexism, that would be pretty high up, i would say. Just because they took the ad and cruelly made her look like that. You see how it blew up on twitter. You see how it blew up on social media on the right. I mean, trump, he has he is viewed by a lot of conservatives wi by suspicion, this edge he has and these kind of instagram ads and videos, they like it. When you talk to party officials, there is a sense because of this edge, he may be able to bring the Party Together because of the way he hammers
clinton on these issues. Well, to quote carly fee r, o Everybody Knows what he meant. There is a reason youre laughing. Hillary clinton goes five for five at the big state primary last night. Tightening her lock on the nomination. Thanks in large part for women voters. For that, she may want to thank donald trump. Thats ahead. Plus, president obama dares the republican to stay no. He has chosen today a safe Court Nominee he could pick. But Senate Republicans are digging in, saying they wont consider any nominee until the next president is sworn in. Well, can president obama win this squeeze play of his . As the republican establishment braces for a convention fight, where does the antitrump vote go now that is he pulling away. Finally, the round table tells me something i dont know. This is hardball itself, the place for politics. The right one for her . Is this really any better than the one you got last year . If we consolidate suppliers, whats the savings there . So should we go with the 467 horsepower . Or is a 423 enough . Good question. You ask a lot of good questions. I think we should move you into our new fund. Sure. Ok. But are you asking enough about how your wealth is managed . Wealth management at charles schwab. Well, just hours after his state primary last night, rick scott has endorsed donald trump for president. Governor scott writes, quote, if we spend another four months tearing each other apart, it will damage our ability in november. An end for the republican on republican violence. Its time for us to begin coming together. Weve had a vvigorous primary. Donald trump won with 46 of the republican vote, beating home state senator, marco rubio, who was away down at 27 . A thumping in other words in trumps, well, visiting role there. Well be right back. Eeing doubl . No maam. Our at t buy one get one free makes it easier for your staff to send appointment reminders to your customers. And share promotions on social media . You know it now im seeing dollar signs. You should probably get your eyes checked. Good one babe. Optometry humor. Right now get up to 650 in credits to help you switch to at t. This is another super tuesday for our campaign. Thank you, florida. Thank you, North Carolina. Thank you, ohio. We are moving closer to securing the Democratic Party nomination, and winning this election in november. Welcome back to hardball, that was Hillary Clinton, of course, last night claiming victory in florida, North Carolina and ohio. It got even better. She also swept the entire evening, one expected victories in illinois and missouri, where she is also the apparent winner. Her string of wins padded her and becoming the democratic nominee for 2016. In her victory speech, she turned her sights to the frontrunner republican, donald trump. Our commander in chief has to be able to defend our country. Not embarrass it. Engage our allies. Not alienate them. Defeat our adversaries, not em bolden them. When we hear a candidate for president call for rounding up 12 million immigrants, banning all muslims from entering the United States, when he embraces torture, that doesnt make him strong. It makes him wrong. Well, Political Correspondent for the washington post, david, Washington Bureau chief for mother jones. Let me ask you about last night. It seems like last night to me. Im sitting out there in cleveland for seven, eight, nine hours. I was thinking rarely do politicians surpass what theyre going to do. I was hearing from one of her people, you all know very well, were going to have a hard time, missouri. They pulled that out, even. Yeah, i mean, the lowering of
expectations game is a scam on us . In part, i mean, they all do it to a degree. I think they thought they were going to lose missouri. Sanders really thought he was going to win it. And illinois seemed to be on the bubble. She did much better than expected in ohio. They thought they were going to win ohio, but she did better than they thought. She was Walking Around with a ball and chain on. She had rahm emanuel, bernie was on fire, and she still won five for five. Amazing. After winning michigan the week earlier, we thought there was a template being set. And the polls didnt count. On trade issues, and working class economic issues. She and Bernie Sanders had been tussling over for weeks, seemed to be paying off for Bernie Sanders. And it didnt work for him last night. I think this is the audience, women and even girls, some of them, young people, and i just think there is something happening. This is my hunch. Late last night, it came to me. What was the big visual story last week. It wasnt her, it wasnt bernie. The horror around trump. The racial fistfighting, the tearing the scab off americas racial history, right in front of us. People hate to think about it. Women especially said none of that, and went to her. You may well be right. Certainly, Hillary Clinton has been waiting for sort of Donald Trumps true colors to reveal themselves or for people to decide theyve had enough or something. Weve all been waiting for something to happen with the trump phenomenon, and it hadnt happened yet. Look at these numbers, according to the exit polls, women made up 60 , three out of five who voted in florida. Of course, women tend to live longer, unfortunate fact for men. Clinton won 68 . You do the math of 68 times 60. In ohio, 56 , hillary won 63 . Huge percentages. Trump was never going to approach the kind of numbers on the republican side with women that she was going to be able to do in florida, and certainly, not with hispanics. Tell me, i want it out of your mouth and brain why are women, or would they be turned off potentially what we have been watching in this country. I cant speak for all women, but certainly what we see in polling, and some of the exit polling last night suggests that women particularly and older people generally certainly older women, hear some echoes here. They hear things that theyve heard in other parts of American History that they dont care to relive. That is certainly the case with older africanamerican voters, and many people, echoes of another time and another continent. Thats what i think. They looked like thirld world. Theyre saying that now. People are saying theyre
hearing arresting Hillary Clinton if he wins. Thats so third world. Im going to arrest president bhoto. It sounds like that. Democrats have been holding focus groups, and about donald trump, and they find that women have a visceral reaction to him. They recoil at him. Use phrases like he reminds me of my abusive exboyfriend. They really dislike him. In the last week, what you talked about, i was talking about this earlier, it is causing some democratic voters to say i may like bernie, i may like Hillary Clinton, she may be a better choice in the general election. This is what we fear, racial, horror. Attacking donald trump. Here he is. The reason that donald trump will never be elected president
is the American People will not accept insults to mexicans, muslims or women. The American People will not accept a president who insults our veterans or who several years ago, led the socalled birther effort, which was an ugly, ugly attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the presidency of barack obama. Well, go bernie. Because thats the kind of campai campaign that would help hillary. She is certainly hoping that assuming she is he is a barn burner. He can do many things, frankly, that she cannot, in
terms of drawing an ee norm mouse crowd, keeping them fired up. He knows how to build the rhetorical crest and all of that. The birther thing, you know, thats great stuff. The conductor, he looks like he, i think we should score music. Im just saying, the question raised in the papers this morning, your paper too i guess, can he continue without hurting her. If he goes that way, he can. This is his decision to make. You talk to his advisors today, as people around here have done, and they keep saying here is the path, we can win the next few states and bring it to california and win california and squeak by her. Can you do that with a relatively antitrump . I dont think you can do that by sticking to the high road without really mixing it up with hillary and bringing her down. This is the big decision that he and his team have to make relatively soon. That do you think his
motivation is . He has had a hard time. He was hoping to have a political revolution. Beat her in these industrial states. He had a bad night last night. He was hoping to have a moment last night that would build on michigan