An apparent winner missouri. And Governor John Kasich easily won ohio with an 11point win over donald trump taking 47 of the vote. Trump added 194 delegates to his total yesterday, bringing them to 656. Ted cruz had a disappointing night, only took home 32 delegates to finish the night at 408 and kasich added 75. And trump is now more than halfway to the delegates he needs for the nomination on the first ballot at the convention with 581 to go. What a big night for Hillary Clinton. Clean sweep. It was a clean sweep. You cant overstate how big this was for the clinton campaign. Secretary clinton won by double digits in florida, North Carolina and ohio and notched razorthin victories in missouri and illinois. For much of the evening, those
two races were too close to call but nbc news has now declared clinton the apparent winner of each. In missouri, she edged out senator sanders by less than 2,000 votes but she picks up 363 delegates. Bernie adds 282 and now clinton is twothirds of the way to the total she needs to clinch that nomination. All right, so with us on set this morning, the managing editors of Bloomberg Politics and hosts of with all due respect Mark Halperin and john heilemann. In washington, senior Political Editor and White House Correspondent for the huffington post, sam stein. In cleveland, ohio, nbc news senior White House CorrespondentChris Jansing who literally works around the clock. She works around the clock. Shes everywhere. Mika, last night so many headlines you could go with. I know. You can go with marco rubio, you can go with the donald trump, you can go with Hillary Clinton. Having massive nights, the frontrunners. But this was what a significant night it was, john heilemann. Whats your big takeaway from last night . Hillary clinton is going to be the democratic nominee and donald trump is not quite as certain to be the republican nominee but pretty like ly. Obviously marco rubio out of the race but something were not used to saying, a very bad night for ted cruz. Weve always talked about ted cruz overperforming. Last night, wow, a bad night from beginning to end. They wanted to come away with victories and more delegates than they got by targeted congressional districts. He doesnt have the clean 101 fight he wanted and he doesnt have much of an argument to say heres a clean path. His campaign put out a memo saying heres our path to the nomination, were the ones that are going to beat donald trump but its a tough road for him and john kasich not just to make the argument that can beat donald trump but to stop the number of delegates to stop donald trump. Last night the rich got richer, the poor got poorer. Trump and clinton had massive nights. And both showing strength in different states. We thought there were a couple States Bernie sanders might be able to pick off, he didnt get any of them. We thought ted cruz would win missouri, looks like he didnt win that, either. Its an amazing place were in where ted cruz has become the establishment candidate. The guy whos loathed in washington, who was supposed to be the outsider in the this race got outoutsidered by donald trump. I think john kasich had a big night and i guess theres a path for him depending on how things turn out and he elualluded to i about going to cleveland. Well, going to cleveland but he has to stop donald trump from getting 1278 delegates. Theres no math but a possible path thats out of the ordinary. Out of the ordinary, no doubt, but that depends on an open convention and we dont know what the look like high hood of that is. But if you look at john kasich last night, a lot of democratic
crossover votes. Thats fascinating. I feel like hes one of the ultimate crossover candidates that fit in the mainstream of thinking and it could be so interesting to see him up against Hillary Clinton. That could be a fascinating, facinating and possibly really constructive for our country race, Chris Jansing. Well, its so fascinating what i saw last night. I was in suburban cleveland and the number of crossover votes at this set of four districts, four precincts, usually they would have 21 in favor of Republican Voters. It was 31, most of them crossover voters, democrats crossing over to republicans and these are life long democrats. One woman told me her entire family had a meeting and made a decision, a gutwrenching decision to register as republicans and vote for john kasich. Another person told me he and his wife said that they made that decision even though they really dont like john kasich as governor but they felt very strongly that donald trump was
dangerous. You know the dynamic here in cleveland and the cleaveland area. These are folks who often come from families that are very ethnic and bound to the Democratic Party, Union Families bound to the Democratic Party. The idea that their name will be associated with the Republican Party for four years is painful for them and yet they did it and so we saw how much that made a difference last night. Across the state i think the crossover was 8 . Before we get to hearing from the frontrunners, you and mark alone really alone predicted rubio wouldnt make it and last night he called it quits. What was it about the campaign that you saw so early on . Well, you know, what i saw early on was the fact that he just wasnt ready. He wasnt at the level yet. He was being called the republican savior by Time Magazine right after he got there and then i think what is just the blocking and tackling. There are a lot of people making a lot of different excuses this
morning. At the end of the day donald trump is an exception. Hes a oneoff. Hes been a celebrity for 40 years. My brother started following donald trump in like 1989, stock . Youre not going to run into those many candidates. Just put donald trump over here. Well. At the top. At the end of the day, though im just saying why is trump winning. At the end of the day, politics comes down to blocking and tackling. Mark, i know what you and i have been talking about for six to nine months is the fact that they didnt have any early state that they said they could win, they didnt have any political basis. They said these are our people were going to target. There wasnt a ground game. Politico has a story this morning about the fact that activists couldnt even find their field offices in iowa or New Hampshire. I mean, at the end of the day, blocking and tackling Still Matters. Unless youve been a celebrity for 40 years. Those basics matter a lot. Id add two other things. One is, there were no signature issues. What was he running on . What were the policies important to him that broke through . The other thing, that was canary in a coal mine. He didnt raise money the way Bernie Sanders does on the internet. The young guy who talked a lot about the new economy with a brand that should have been good for the internet, he never caught on with that grassroots investment in the tens of millions of people around the country. You know what one of the great ironies, willie, is, and he pointed this out last night. He talked about himself and the life that he led. Living paycheck to paycheck. Only repaying Student Loans late in life. For some reason donald trump, a manhattan billionaire connected with the working class voters and the populists who run this party now. Lets just lets just say it. Run this party. I saw a stat yesterday that with working class voters he had 2 of working class voters. 2 . They was College Educated and
ka candidate. He did well in the suburbs. Thats not the Republican Party of 2016. It hasnt been the Republican Party for about 30 years now. But the guy that had the best story to tell did not connect on a gut level with the people who now run this party. And he told the story again last night. He came out and made his stump speech again, a guy who maybe was talking about coming back in 2020. Heres what i believe, heres my story once again as he leaves the stage. The question will be can he recover if this . Smart people you and i both know the Republican Party, Steve Schmidt was saying hes got his future ahead of him, hell learn lessons and come back stronger. I suspect we havent seen the last of marco rubio. And lets not rule out him teaming up with somebody. I predicted that last night. They both denied it, but let me tell you something, when republicans stare down the barrel of a decision where its like is Hillary Clinton going to pick the Supreme Court justices for the next four to eight years
or do we hope we can influence somebody to pick for the next four to eight years, if its donald trump or ted cruz, well see what happens. People like Haley Barbour are going to marco rubio saying you have to do it for the party whats marco rubio going to do . Ill give you another problem with the rubio and can da sichlt his fundamental argument wasnt an ideological mardi gras meeii. It was generational. Your party is not the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has always been attracted to the kennedy or obama figure, the Republican Party doesnt do that. In rubios case he not only that ingrained problem with the party but he looked like the republican barack obama and in a party this spent eight years saying barack obama was not qualified, didnt have enough experience, didnt have a serious enough resume, how could you then look at marco rubio who had basically the same qualifications and scanned
resume and say were going to embrace that guy. Nobody in washington saw that. Nobody in the media saw that. Nobody that even the donor class saw that. The Republican Voters saw that. Yeah. And they said wait a second, were not going to pick a republican that reminds us of barack obama. Nobody said it because rubio checked off every single box you would want your dream candidate, your republican savior to be. But it goes back is it brit hume that said you can make the dog food, you can market it but if the dog dont eat the dog food, tough luck. The rankandfile Republican Voters that own this party now, working class, middleclass republicans, just didnt buy it into. I think youve tapped into how they feel, which is ultimately where it goes. Last night, donald trump appeared before a select group of supporters and reporters in what was billed as a press conference though he took no
question in the ballroom of his club in palm beach, florida, flanked by his family and Small Campaign staff, his quote unquote squad. He began by talking about his poll numbers saying those who say he has a ceiling of support, they simply dont get it. One of the commentators, who im not particularly fond of but these are minor details, said but donald trump doesnt get over 50 . And i have to explain to these people, they dont understand basic physics, basic mathematics, basic whatever you want to call it. When i dont get over 50, we have four people, right . We have four people. Do you understand that . We will someday in the not too distant future if i win, otherwise its not going to happen, i have to be honest with you, but apple and all of these Great Companies will be making their product in the United States, not in china, vietnam, and all of that. One of the broadcasters was
saying is there anger . I said i guess im supposed to say no, theres not, we love the way things are working, we love the deal you made with iran, its wonderful, you give them 150 billion, we get nothing, we love all the deals, trade deals are wonderful, you lose 500 billion a year with china, we lose 58 billion a year in terms of imbalance, its a total imbalance. We dont make good deals anymore. We dont win anymore. As a country we dont win anymore. And they asked there anger from your people . I said there is anger. Theyre not angry people but they want to see the country properly run. Willie, a huge night for donald trump but, you know, weve been laughing at candidates all year that have lost and talked like they won. Last night at the beginning of the speech you had donald trump who had a massive night who talked like he lost, going after the press, going after will somebody tell the man stop looking at the polls hes winning at the polls . The. Its amazing, no slight is
too small. No slight is too small. He opened the speech going after somebody he had just been watching on tv. Hes talking an about economist poll and he just had one of the biggest nights hes had all year. These are small details, as mr. Trump was saying. These are not small details, he had a massive night last night and hes complaining about what the press is saying and hes pointing to an economist poll. If you win at the ballot but you dont to point an economist poll. I think its time to put your head down, declare yourself the winner and maybe declare yourself the nominee. Its interesting, there are reports about the stop Trump Movement. Theres going to be a meeting later this week and the Hedge Fund Guys are getting together. No rush. Seriously. What a joke. Its becoming a parody. Youre not stopping trump, if you want to stop trump, do something differently. Otherwise they have to line up behind him or find a way to stop him. What theyre doing isnt working. If you want to stop trump, launch an independent conservative bid. Thats the only way to stop donald trump this year. Mark, you look at the numbers, hes outspent 101, up to close to 20 million in the state of florida and the longer the ads were on the air, 35 million attacking donald trump ahead of tuesdays primaries, think about it, the longer those ads were on the air, the higher his poll numbers went in florida. They were ticking straight up in florida all over the two weeks he was getting attacked on the air. If hes to be stopped and i think were skeptical he can be at this point it will be by ted cruz or john kasich. No stop trump effort, no meetings in washington, no ad campaigns will stop him. It will be one of those two guys finding their voice. Look, the point willie makes, you have to stop trump. You got time on friday . I got time in my schedule next monday. Theres been no urgency for nine months when theyve been talking
about stopping trump. I think that thats right. It has to be a candidate the stop Trump Movement could unite behind one of those candidates and they might help financially but theres still got to be a candidate who wins and you look forward on the calendar, you have contests on tuesday in utah and arizona, arizona donald trump very strong, very good trump state. Ted cruz might win in utah where there are mormon voters and cruz has done well with mormon voters. The next contest is april 5 in wisconsin where you could have a threeway race there. I dont know how that will turn out but its not like right now, at least, theres not like a moment where you could put a brake on donald trump that will be an obvious moment to slow him down. He will probably win one of those two contests next tuesday and get another 50 delegates from arizona in a winner take all state. Very tough to stop with math and momentum on his side. And he goes to his strength. Sam stein, on the democratic side, how big of a night was last night for Hillary Clinton . It was pretty shocking just i
mean, it was a sweep across the board, right . Yeah. I mean, heading into the night, it actually you know, the calculus isnt all that much different because heading into the night her delegate lead was insurmountable. Bernie sanders was making a play because he had come off this michigan win where it looked like maybe she had vulnerabilities in the rust belt, that trade was a particular vulnerability for her but that last night those wins it just put that argument to rest a little bit and theyre symbolic but they netted her more delegates. At this juncture, you have to basically conclude that shes going to be the democratic nominee barring some incredibly unforeseen thing that happens and, remember, these contests are the democratic side are proportional so bernie would have to not just win these states, hed have to win them big time. Now the choice left for Bernie Sanders is how long do you draw this out . How much do you attack Hillary Clinton in the upcoming states versus how much do you let her kind of make that shift towards
the general election . Which she did start do in her speech last night, really making a contrast from w trump. She talked almost exclusively about donald trump last night. She also mentioned income inequality. I like that a lot. Shes adopted a lot of what hes going to say. But sam is right, Bernie Sanders will have to decide at what point. You have a lot of people who support you, who love you, love your message but at what point is it time to realize you probably wont be the nominee and if you want to help Hillary Clinton stop donald trump, step to the side. He may not do it now, hes got enough money and support to stay in but when is that moment . Hes got a lot of contests in the near term he can win so its a little bit different. Hes less likely to be the democratic nominee. Her math advantage is greater than trumps is in the Republican Party but sanders can be competitive in arizona. Theres an idaho Dem