Its the moment of truth for donald trump, the moment of truth for ted cruz, the moment of truth for the forces desperately trying to stop donald trump. As the voting plays out today, controversy, more controversy from donald trump. New comments, surprising comments about ted cruzs father. We will have the details on that in just a second for you. Polls, as we said, they are open right now all across the hoosier state. This in a primary that could effectively end this republican campaign. Donald trump is looking good in the polls to put a win on the board tonight in indiana. He needs less than half of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination before the convention. With a win tonight, that could be the nail in the coffin for the socalled stop trump movement. A movement that never really seemed to get fully started. New polling this morning shows a majority of Republican Voters now think that ted cruz and john kasich should drop out of this race. And our latest nbc News Survey MonkeyOnline National poll shows donald trump climbing to new heights. Now 56 of Republican Voters across the country want to see him as the nominee. That is 20 points more than the combined total for his two rivals. That same poll still shows him losing by 6 points to Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical november matchup, a matchup that may not be so hypothetical for much longer. Lets start now our coverage with our team all across indiana. Weve got nbcs jacob rascon in carmel, indiana, covering the trump campaign. Jacob, lets start with you. We mentioned new comments this morning. Donald trump, here he is, looking like hes coasting his way to a big win in indiana, and he goes after ted cruz. Ted cruzs father. And the question of the jfk assassination. Whats going on here . Reporter right. So this is another case of donald trump calling something thats controversial ridiculous, something, a Conspiracy Theory thats been floating around for a couple of weeks, but hes bringing attention to it. This is obviously not on accident. This is a strategy. Hes bringing it up. This is somebody, donald trump who well remind our viewers began his political career as a birther talking about president obama and then he went on to talk about ted cruz in this way. But this morning what happened is this Conspiracy Theory floating around, a National Enquirer story about ted cruzs father, rafael, being pictured allegedly with Lee Harvey Oswald before the jfk assassination. Heres what he said this morning on fox news. You know, his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to oswald being, you know, shot. The whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right prior to his being shot. And nobody even brings it up, they dont even talk about that. That was reported and nobody talks about it. But i think its horrible. I think its absolutely horrible that a man can go and do that, what hes saying there. Right. There was a picture out there that reportedly shows rafael cruz standing with Lee Harvey Oswald. What was he doing what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death . Before the shooting . Its horrible. Reporter now, it may be a legitimate question, what was he doing, if its a legitimate picture. Were not even sure of that. But the fact that donald trump is going to bring it up and have people talk about it and it works, because the media now, politico and others have written stories about it. Now of course were going to talk about it and others. Its just a cycle that happens over and over. But it comes at a time when many thought and talked about how mr. Trump was going to be and appear more president ial, and it doesnt appear to be happening. Steve. Certainly not this morning. Jacob rascon on the trump beat out there in indiana. Thank you for that. Nbcs Hallie Jackson joins me, she is on the road on the way to evansville, indiana, home of the evansville purple aces, one of my favorite nicknames in College Sports. Going to be a cruz rally there later today. Reporter how do you know that . Ei know a lot of things abou three things in this world and College Sports happens to be one of them. What are we hearing from ted cruz and what are we hearing from the Cruz Campaign about what donald trump is saying now about cruzs father . Reporter oh, theyre saying its false, its cheap and its meaningless, steve. The Cruz Campaign just arguing and im going to read this quote. Its further evidence of how detached from reality donald trump is. Hell say anything to make news, regardless of whether or not its factual. The Cruz Campaign arguing that this is a desperate move now from donald trump to try to get attention. All of this of course against the backdrop of this very critical primary day, not just for donald trump. There may be less pressure on him than there is for ted cruz, who wants to show that he can still be a factor in this race, but cruz is trailing in recent polling by in some cases double digits. The campaign bracing for a tough night ahead, but cruz insisting he will stay in this race. He plans to stay in it until theres no longer a viable path to the nomination. When you look at some of these numbers, theres a good 50 or so of people who think he should either drop out now or drop out in june if hes still losing. Why june . Well, as you know, june 7th is that california primary day when donald trump could lock up the nomination. Other states vote then as well, including new jersey, montana, south dakota, but california is the biggest prize with its 172 delegates at stake. 39 think he should stay in through the convention, so cruz may look at those numbers. You can kind of see what you want when you look at how the po polling shakes out. Another interesting thing i want to pick out is why he picked carly fiorina. People talking about why he think he did it. Her gender, 45 think thats the reason, 15 think her business experience, 13 believe its her views on the issues and 9 believe because shes a political outsider. So fiorina has been out already this morning in skpindiana. She was with heidi cruz and cruz is headed to a barbecue joint out in evansville, home of the purple aces. We will see if we can find any fleeces to bring back for you, my friend. Well do our best. Look at that, ive got everybody conditioned now. Hallie jackson on her way to evansville covering a cruz event there shortly. Let me bring in brian howey from howeypolitics. Com. Big day here. Lets try to set the stage from both parties. Lets start on the republican side. Weve seen the polls. Donald trump looks like hes ahead going into today. What would you say the probability is that, hey, we missed something here and there actually is a late cruz stop trump vote out there . Everything that im seeing on the ground portends to a trump movement. Im also sensing that a little bit with Bernie Sanders. I was at a sanders rally last night that had about 10,000 people so thats kind of Movement Type politics. Weve got a drizzly day here, although the radar is showing the rain will fall away later in the day. Weve had 200,000 early voters. And our pollster from Public Opinion strategies had told us that a higher turnout is good news for both donald trump and Bernie Sanders. As far as the National News going on, you know, the Lee Harvey Oswald story, if that had broken a couple of days ago, that might have had some kind of impact. I think its breaking too late. But Hillary Clintons comments on coal and the confrontation in West Virginia yesterday, that could have been impact on a race that, you know, nbc polling shows is within the margin of error, so thats going to be interesting. Our poll had the democratic race at 5046, clinton a fourpoint advantage for her. Let me ask you what you think has happened, though, on the republican side out there. Ted cruz, he didnt Even Campaign much in the northeast. He wasnt in the northeast when we had all those primaries last week. He staked his operation on indiana. We looked at indiana and said this looks like a dead even fight, maybe even slight advantage for cruz in that state. Thats what it looked like a couple of weeks ago. And the polls match this, it looks like a lot of energy for donald trump. Is this just republicans looking at this race and saying it looks over, we want to get on board or did trump do something specific there in indiana . We have a large block of evangelical voters, 30 , but theyre voting their pocketbooks this time, theyre not voting on abortion or social issues. Theres a lot of angst in the middle class. Weve seen per capita income fall in this state. Theyre voting pocketbook issues. The other thing is ted cruz just has not made a case with what we call the Mitch Daniels wing of the party, more moderate business conservatives. I just dont sense that hes getting a lot of traction with the economic conservatives. And thats hurt cruz, as it did down south too. And what about the deal, the talk of the last week. John kasich and ted cruz, their campaigns cut this deal. Then they sort of denied it in public but basically there was news about it. Kasich hasnt been in the state. Our polling said this didnt necessarily look good to Republican Voters. Do you think thats had an impact on this race . Well, i actually think that it pushed some kasich voters into trumps camp, so i think it kid of backfired. The deal held, you didnt see kasich in the state here, but im not sure that all the kasich moderate voters, you know, the Mitch Daniels type voters, gravitated towards ted cruz. They just find him unacceptable. On the democratic side, you were saying a lot of energy there for Bernie Sanders. Weve seen this in other states where hes got the big rallies and then we see it doesnt necessarily translate into poll numbers. But you say it looks like tonight theres a chance Bernie Sanders could pull this off in indiana . Hillary clinton has the establishment support. Former senator evan bye, joe donnelly, the senator, andre carson, the congressman here, theres establishment support and yet we see 10,000 democrats turn up on Monument Circle last night and hes really resonating and weve seen it in the polls. So throw in Hillary Clintons comments on coal, thats not going to play well down in southwestern indiana where we have a fairly significant coal industry. High turnout and watch out. We may have an upset brewing here. All right, brian howey, howeypolitics. Com. Thanks for the time. Take care. And a reminder to catch our special live coverage of indianas primary. Its going to kick off later tonight. Brian williams, rachel maddow, Chris Matthews will have the latest results as they come in. The first round of exit polling data out at 5 00 p. M. Eastern. Remember, indiana has some of the earliest poll closing times in the country. We could be getting results on the early end tonight. Up next on our show, a look at the democrats, Bernie Sanders continuing his push through indiana. We just heard he has a chance to win that state, trying to take down Hillary Clinton at the polls, trying to shrink a very, very substantial Hillary Clinton lead in the delegate race. And also this, quite a scene in West Virginia yesterday. Hillary clintons apology to a coal worker who went after her for her comments that clean energy would put coal workers out of jobs. As we go to break, a live look at a polling place in indiana. People there casting their ballots in the race for president. I have a blog called daddy doing work, its funny that ive been in the news for being a dad. Windows 10 is great because i need to keep organized. School, grocery shopping. My face can unlock this computer. Thats crazy. Macbooks are not able to do that. Hey cortana, remind me we have a play date tomorrow at noon i need that in my world. Anything that makes my life easier, im using. And windows is doing that. Dad, yoh no, ill take you up to me off rthe front of the school. Thats where your friends are. Seriously, its, its really fine. You dont want to be seen with your dad . No, its. No. This about a boy . Dad stop, please. Oh, theres tracy. What [ horn honking ] [ forward collision warning ] [ car braking ] bye dad it brakes when you dont. Forward collision warning and autonomous emergency braking. Available on the newly redesigned passat. From volkswagen. 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That state will hold its vote on may 17th. This morning she will also be in West Virginia, the primary there next tuesday. Kristen welker is in athens, ohio, site of a clinton event later this afternoon. Kristen, the battleground shifting to some of these more rural states. These are states Hillary Clinton did really well in in the 2008 primaries against barack obama, and yet this time it looks like she could lose some or even all of these states. Reporter thats absolutely right, steve. Good morning to you. The Clinton Campaign concerned quite frankly about their chances in some of those states, West Virginia, kentucky where she was stumping yesterday. And she had what amounted to a really Intense Exchange during a roundtable in williamson, West Virginia, last night. There were protesters outside. Once that roundtable started, one of the participants, bo copeley, confronted her over some of the comments she made earlier this year in which she said her policies would lead to coal mines closing and to a loss of coal jobs. Copeley making the point that he was a former coal worker who was put out of work. Take a listen to part of that very tense exchange. The reason you hear those people out there saying some of the things that they say is because when you make comments like were going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs, these are the kind of people that youre affecting. This is my family. Thats my future. What i said was that is going to happen unless we take action to try to help and prevent it. So i dont i dont mind anybody being upset or angry. Thats a perfect right for people to feel that way. I do feel a little bit sad and sorry that i gave folks the reason or the excuse to be be so upset with me because that is not what i intended at all. Reporter its an issue that clearly resonates throughout coal country. Clinton Campaign Officials saying that they are bracing for a potential loss in West Virginia and in other states. And of course this comes at a time when secretary clinton has a huge lead in the delegate count. But if senator sanders does win a number of states during the month of may, it would only add to his argument that he could potentially contest the convention during the summer. Secretary clinton, though, increasingly pivoting to the general election. She is here stumping in athens, ohio, today. Of course this state has already voted. Its a clear indication that she is going to fight for this big battleground state where donald trump could pick up some votes. I anticipate we will continue to see this pivot only increase in the coming days and weeks. Steve . Kristen welker on the Hillary Clinton beat in ohio. Thanks for that. And a quick programming note for you. This afternoon Hillary Clinton is going to sit down with my colleague, andrea mitchell, an exclusive oneonone interview. Its going to be ahead of tonights indiana primary. You can catch that conversation right here on msnbc at noon eastern. Also stay tuned throughout the afternoon because around 3 00 p. M. That coal miner who had that confrontation with Hillary Clinton last night over her comments about the future or lack of future, as she seemed to suggest, of the coal industry, he is going to be on msnbc talking about what he heard from Hillary Clinton and what he made of that. That will be around 3 00 this afternoon. A very Interesting ExchangeHillary Clinton had there in the heart of coal country yesterday. Turning to Bernie Sanders now, where the math may be against him in his fight for the democratic nomination, but he still has plen