Welcome back to this special edition of hardball, im Chris Matthews up in new york. The results are beginning to come in from puerto rico. 67 delegates at stake including 7 superdelegates. The democratic contest is heading toward the finish line of course and Hillary Clinton is within striking distance of the nomination itself. According to nbcs count clinton has fewer han 60 delegates away from winning the democratic nomination for president. Today she called the senate or called on senator Bernie Sanders to help her unite the party after several big primaries on tuesday. Theyre coming up. Sanders is threatening to fight it all the way to the convention in philadelphia. Kristen welker can covering the Clinton Campaign in vallejo, california, tonight. Kristen tell us the hopes of Hillary Clinton. Lets start with the rosy scenario. Is there a rosy scenario for party unity at this point . I think that the Clinton Campaign is concerned about that quite frankly, chris. Thats why you hear secretary clinton and her surrogates increasingly calling on senator sanders to work with her after tuesday to try to achieve that. In terms of rosy scenarios this would be as rosy as it would get for secretary clinton. A win in puerto rico, a win in new jersey which is expected by the way and then a win here in california. This is the state that has the most delegates. Important to point out, its possible that she could clinch the nomination before all of the votes here in california are counted. But california is significant, chris, because if she wins here, she essentially takes away all of senator sanders arguments for staying in the race and contesting the convention. However, if senator sanders loses here, if he starts to get close to her with pledged delegates he will likely make the argument that he should stay in the race and fight all the way to the convention. That is what he was saying today. Hes been very insistent about that all weekend long and when you ask him about party unity he says, look, thats up to secretary clinton. The Clinton Campaigns argument has been lets look back to 2080 when secretary clinton conceded the race to thensenator barack obama and then worked with him toward party unity. But theres no indication that senator sanders is heading in that same track. But this is still a hotly contested race and the fight unfolding right here in california we expect secretary clinton to arrive here in vallejo shortly shes going to hold a conversation with Community Leaders chris. And of course this past week she went after donald trump very aggressively. It is likely we will hear her continue that tonight. Looks nice out there. Kristen welker, thanks for that great report. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell is in san diego with the sanders campaign. Thank you so much. You just heard the rosy scenario from the clinton side. Her reporting on it. That somehow Hillary Clinton runs the table, wins puerto rico tonight handily, wins new jersey tuesday night, wins california, and has a triumphant end to the primary fight. And then bernie concedes. Well i think what were seeing right now, chris, do not expect a concession coming any time soon from Bernie Sanders. And that really is different than other kinds of contested years when theres a bitter struggle through the primaries but ultimately for the good of the party one person steps aside. It does not appear that were at that point yet for Bernie Sanders. In part because he has argued against the system being used within the party and says he will work very hard regardless of the outcome to try to change the nominating process. He is, of course, a longtime independent and running within the Democratic Party. So hes got a lot of tension with some of the Democratic Party elites. What he is looking for is to make the argument that he has brought an energized type of voter in to the process, many of whom have not been at all interested or involved in politics along the way. Bringing in new voters. Bringing in Younger Voters and thats not just the college age firsttime voters, but those under age 45. Now of course winning in california is essential to the argument hes trying to make. That he has a case to make at the convention. He says that this process really includes the piece of those superdelegates who typically hold off as somewhere around the country, theyre part of the Democratic Party apparatus. Their role is to give sort of the establishment a voice and who ultimately becomes the nominee. Sanders argues that their role, even if theyve committed to Hillary Clinton at this point, is to make a decision at the convention. And so hes saying in the five or six weeks left, momentum should be a factor. He being knowledges its a steep climb, its difficult, the math is not in his favor but hes not giving up. Now if things do not go his way in california, or in puerto rico or the other contests that remain, perhaps well see a different Bernie Sanders because he certainly does not want to dampen interest in voting in california at this point. Hes doing sort of a big wrapup of bigscale rallies. Thats why were in front of a stadium where he will have celebrities and musicians for a concert and rally later today. So from sanders, at this point, he is still in the fight, not willing to give it up, and of course the clinton people see the numbers differently, sanders is saying, dont rush this, wait until philadelphia, and the convention. Well see how that holds up. Thank you so much Kelly Odonnell. Bread and circuses continue to be the appeal of all candidacies. Lets get an update from puerto rico. How are the irregularities going at this point. The irregularities are ongoing, chris. Officer rodriguez is still quarting the gate because the president ial ballots are still inside counting them by hand. They contracted the number of polling places. The local party here. Its not a Democratic Party or Republican Party they have local parties with different names roughly aligning with democratic and republicans. They were in charge of the vote here in san juan, they cut the number of polling stations and we had these long lines, because people werent going to their usual polling station they had to be checked in by hand and then they voted by hand. Those ballots are being counted in the most painstaking fashion. Two observers. Ballot comes out, someone looks at it. That one is for hillary, do you agree . They put it in a pile. They do that for the next one. Then that has to go to a second location to be recounted then. We were hearing results by 4 30, 4 45. Some are trickling in. Here in the capital we dont expect to hear actual results until 7 00 p. M. , perhaps even later. As we were saying why is this happening . Its happening because puerto rico overall is racked by debt, more than 70 billion. Schools are closing. Hospitals are shutting down. Funds across the board are potentially being pulled back. They cant even fund mosquito workers here at the height of the zika crisis here in puerto rico. So of course its not surprising that at the same time the party would say, elections cost money and weve got to roll back and as i was saying earlier that could be trouble from Hillary Clinton from a perception point of view. Shes got to unify this party, convince sanders that this has been a fair election, that she won it fair and square and we all need to get together. Theyre not going to be convinced when they see people turned away. What if more people got in . Would they have voted for bernie . Would it be a different outcome. Tony decoppola in puerto rico. Lets back with msnbcs steve. Nomenclature. Why do you keep calling pledged delegates when theyre won delegates. They have been won by one candidate either in caucuses, conventions or actual primaries. Call them won, and then we maked the pledged superdelegates make some kind of sense. Pledged doesnt sound like won. Like in a fraternity. You try to draw the distingsz between the superdelegates whose commitments are not etched in stone. The pledged delegates mean under the rules of the party they vote for this candidate at the convention. That cannot be changed. The superdelegates can make a commitment but its not etched in stone. Bernie sanders has been saying look, she will have right now this is where she stands with pledged delegates. Shes not going to hit this number the magic number you need just with pledged delegates so theres a chance, hes saying, to make these superdelegates become budge from their nonbinding commitments. Now whats interesting is weve been in this situation twice before. The modern era of president ial primary politics. Where we got to the end of the primary season and nobody had the majority just with pledged delegates. How did it play out in both of those cases . Lets take a look. Go back to 1984. Around this time, basically same month, gary hart was running against Walter Mondale the former Vice President. Mondale had the most pledged delegates from the primary process, but he did not have an absolute majority of all the delegates, just from that. So gary hart said the day after the 1984 primaries he said, welcome to overtime. He said im going to spend the weeks leading up to the convention trying to get those superdelegates to change their mind. Do you know how many he flipped in those weeks . Zero. He had polls that showed him performing better against ronald reagan, the incumbent president , than mondale. Didnt matter to the superdelegates. Gary hart, he tried to go to the conveengs, tried to peel them off. He couldnt do it. We saw it 2008. This sam point in 2008 heading into the final primaries of that process, Hillary Clinton could not catch barack obama when it came to pledged bell gatts. But, barack obama was going to need superdelegates to hit the magic number. And Hillary Clinton was saying those superdelegates should vote for me instead for two reasons, one she said because im winning the popular vote. If you add up all the primaries and caucuses, i have more votes than prk brk. That was a disputed claim because it was very close. Florida, michigan if you remember any of this, Barack Obamas name wasnt on the ballot in michigan that year. She also said electability. But her campaign realized as soon as those primaries ended in 2008 they were going to have as much luck flipping superdelegates as gary hart did in 1984 so she backed out of the race as soon as it ended. Do you think this fast or do you rehearse a little, steve . Because i never heard anybody think this fast. You know what i do . I think about this stuff in my spare time. Like people bowl when they sleep. Thank you, steve, you are so fast. Steve kornacki. Nbc news is now characterizing the puerto rico primary as too early to call. We have a characterization there. Too early to call. But we can say that Hillary Clinton leads. Today Hillary Clinton said after tuesdays contest senator sanders has to work to unify the party. Lets watch the secretary. Le. After tuesday, im going to do everything i can to reach out, to try to unify the Democratic Party. And i expect senator sanders to do the same. And that we will come together and be prepared to go to the convention in a unified way to make our case, to leave the convention, to go into the general election to defeat donald trump. Senator sanders was asked about his message to the bernie or bust crowd to get them to support clinton. Lets watch his reaction. If i am not the nominee, and were going to fight to become the nominee, it is secretary clintons job to explain to those people why she should be why she should get their support. And that means shes going to have to address their needs. Secretary clinton is going to have to make the convincing argument to them that how could it be that shes getting huge amounts of money from wall street and other powerful special interests and she is going to stand up and fight for them. But no matter what are you going to work hard to make sure that donald trump loses, and the democratic candidate, whether its you or her yes. Wins . Yes. Wow. Lets bring in my panel now. April, White House Correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and msnbc contributor joe walsh of the nation and jonathan altar of the daily beast. Wheres this thing stand without taking any stand hillary versus senator sanders does it look like senator sanders is going to make it easy on hillary or make it very tough on her as we approach philadelphia . I think the most important word starting here. Okay. Heres whats going on. Ive talked to people in the Bernie Sanders camp and they have said that Hillary Clinton has to do what barack obama did to Hillary Clinton back in 2008. Reach the hand out to Bernie Sanders and say lets unify. Its not just about paying off debt. How about buying the agenda of Bernie Sanders . And they said then he won. Wait a minute. They want her to go to 15 an hour for jobs. He won. They want her to be more clear on trade. Because shes is to the left of trump on trade. She said they want her to be clearer on medicare. Also when it comes to criminal justice medicare for everyone . They want they say that donald trump is less these are concessions, total concessions. This is what im hearing. And also shes still proDeath Penalty and they say that shes still hawkish when it comes to war. How did the Death Penalty come up as an issue . They are pulling everything up. Theyre saying theyre moving the goalposts. Yeah, thats what im told. Theres going to be a platform fight. They have a progressive majority. Clinton put some progressives on her platform representatives. So theyre going to have some theyre going to have some power on the platform. Theyre not going to get those concessions from secretary clinton herself. And i dont think that they should. She has you think cornell west will win on the middle east . No, i dont think he will. But i did think it will be a battle. Im sorry didnt mean to jump in before. The most important words in that Bernie Sanders interview was the words at the end, yes, yes i will work hard he was pushed to that. But that is the bottom line. Lets talk history here. I think theres been cases where its worked to go right to the end. Ronald reagan and the other party forced gerry ford to beat him in a roll call and ford let him speak. Isnt it better to lose the roll call, fight to the bitter end, then go up there and give the speech of your life which is what bernie could do rather than buckle and get the monday night speech with Elizabeth Warren sharing the pulpit with her and having thrown in the towel . I think youre right. First of all the difference between 2008 and now is when obama extended his hand to hillary yes. They agreed on almost every single issue. But because she understood for the betterment of the party there were no concessions to make. Now theyre skg hillary to make these concessions. Right. To your point, my sense is that sanders feels like he owes it to his supporters to go all the way to the convention, have his name placed in nomination and give that big speech. The question is what happens after he has that moment. When does that day come monday or wednesday . Do they throw in the vote monday morning and get it over with or let him fight the whole week until wednesday night . I think they would do it monday or tuesday. The question is what happens afterwards. If hes like ted kennedy in 1980 who goes up on the stage with jimmy carter after his loss wont even put his hand up and essentially sends a message that he wasnt all in for jimmy carter, that could be very harmful to the democratic and by the way jimmy carters people, i was a speech writer, right up until kennedy gave that barn burner of a speech, stu was trying to talk to kennedy and make a concession on the jobs plank. Carter was trying to concede. Kennedy didnt want him to concede. Kennedy wanted to give that damn speech. They were bitter. And the question is will the sanders people be better . The question in the shortterm for california voters is is this election different . Were not talking about running against gerald ford or bob dole. Whats the stakes in tuesday night the democrats have to decide do we want to beat donald trump . Do we want to prevent a guy who is going to wreck the constitution from becoming president. John, you first, what mistakes tuesday night . If bernie pulls an upset tuesday, does he go all the way to philly . I think hes likely to do that anyway to give that now hes when she wins new jersey, which shes very likely to, at 8 05 i know all this basically hes going at that point the ee dbz theyll say thats cheating. I think he fights on if he wins california. I dont think hes going to win california. Whos going to win . Shes going to pull it out. She went back, she doesnt go back to places. Remember kentucky. She didnt go back and put all this time in to come away with a loss. And bills got some juice. And they also have the ground game. He doesnt have the money anymore for a ground game. Actually matters in the cities. Who benefits if the networks make the call at 8 00 eastern time with three hours left to vote. We all know from teddy white years ago democrats vote after 5 00 at night. They come home from work, they get to the polling place. What happens, does bernie get that advantage or hillary get that advantage in early call on the radio . Its very tight but i think hillary would get it. Does she get the advantage . I believe she does. Just before tuesday shes got this mega fundraiser going on in the hollywood area with all the celebritie