The deaths of many of her women friends and other friends and, of course, always lonely for her ronny. You know, andrea, as were watching this, one Historical Development is over the last few decades as you well know the passing of a first lady and also the former president has become a little bit more ritualized than it was earlier in american history. But even decades ago there was always the input of a former president and the former president s family into how the former president would be remembered when he passed and the same thing for the first lady. For instance, when harry truman was thinking about how he would be remembered when he passed, it was called operation plan missouri for his home state. And this has continued to be the case that youll hear about o plan or operation plan, for instance, and then with the home state of a former president who has passed. And Nancy Reagans case as you and i very well know, this is someone who was very aware of the impact of ceremony on not only a president s reputation but also at the time a president serves and everything that youre seeing today and will be seeing for the next few days you can be absolutely certain is the result of very careful plans that nancy reagan made with her family and her advisers. And, in fact, michael, i know this sounds a little me cog ra, but the former president s in their retirement years all were given detailed options and plans and they called Close Friends and former aids and said, you know, i want you to be a pallbearer or an honorary pallbearer and i would like you to speak at my service. All of this arranged by the former president s and their wives themselves. Thats exactly right. When harry truman made his plan and looked at the blueprints he said, looks like a great show. Sorry i wont be around to see it. Indeed. Well, the michael beschlass and kelly odonnell, my colleagues, as we watch the sad procession from santa monica to semi valley, that concludes our reporting and we hand it over to craig melvin in miami. Craig . Hello, everyone im craig melvin, live from here in columbus, ohio, the Buckeye State, one of two states that could make all the difference just six days from now. At this hour, momentum has shifted dramatically in both the republican and democratic races for president. Bill clinton not far from where i sit right now, rallying the troops here in columbus. When he finishes talking to Campaign Volunteers there, he will make the drive, roughly an hour west to dayton for a rally. Meanwhile on the republican side, if new polls are any indication, donald trump is poised for a big sweep which would put him on a short path to win the republican nomination, this after trump racked up three more wins in michigan, mississippi and hawaii and increased his delegate lead to ted cruz to 93. Cruz just a short time ago unveiled a new supporter in florida, former candidate, Carly Fiorina who took direct aim at donald trump after a victory, a victory speech last night that sometimes felt like an infomercial for trump wine, trump water, trump steaks. Today the clear and emboldened republican frontrunner called for unity. Its the Republican Party units, if we can gather around instead of these stupid ads their taking and spending 30 million on them f the Republican Party units, we cant lose to anyone. We will beat Hillary Clinton so easily. Meanwhile, marco rubios campaign son life support. Many are openly wondering whether he pulls the plug or sticks it out and faces the possibility of a humiliating defeat in his home state. He sits down with Nbcs Chuck Todd for a town hall that will air on msnbc tonight. New polls show trump with a commanding doubledigit lead in florida. Trump up six points here in the battleground state of ohio. On the democratic side, Bernie Sanders has his mojo back after pulling off nothing short of a major upset with his victory in michigan last night. Sanders hammered clinton on trade deals and apparently it worked. He spoke to Andrea Mitchell a few minutes ago. Paid 225,000 to give a speech behind closed doors to wall street, it must be a fantastic speech that i would urge the secretary to share that great speech with all of the people. Despite sanderss surprise win, he came away with fewer dill gates for the night and still trails clinton by a wide margin. New polls shows sanders trailing in ohio and florida. A team of reporters fanned out all over the country covering every angle in this historic race. We start with donald trump, edging closer to a victory in the republican race after last nights big wins, but still with a number of major questions hanging over his campaign in florida, the question is will any latino act as his surrogate, despite an overwhelming showing in the polls there, an article in buzzfeed suggests that no one will go on major Spanish Speaking outlets to defend the republican frontrunner. Trump, most notably instances where children are reportedly making offensive remarks about minorities sometimes invoking trumps name in the process. Today on morning joe donald trump got in a Fierce Exchange with Cokie Roberts about that. People what about the children, mr. Trump . What about the children are hearing from you and how they are responding to it . Well, i think people are responding very positively. Children, i asked. The message is very positive. You know, make America Great again is a very positive message, its not a negative message. Unless you think america is great already. Trump also defending his business acumin after tuesdays wins, pushing back on mitt romneys claims that many of the items that carry the trump brand name have been failures. Mitt got up and he really shouldnt have done it, it wasnt becoming honestly, he talked about the t waer company. Theres the Water Company. We sell water and we have water and its a very successful, you know, its a private little Water Company and i supply the water for all my places. And trump university, were going to start it up as soon as i win the lautd. Does that make sense . Peter alexander on the Trump Campaign for us this morning. Excuse me, i should say this afternoon down in florida. Whats the frontrunner doing today . Reporter well, he does have an event later today. I think it takes place in North Carolina, one of several states that will be voting, 367 delegates in all that will be up for grabs on super tuesday. None bigger, of course, than here in florida and in ohio, both states where donald trump has good reason to feel good this morning. Or this afternoon we should say. They all run together at this point. He is up 16 points in new polls here over marco rubio in florida up 6 points over john kasich and here is how hes been doing it. What were getting from the exit polls after last nights doubledigit win for donald trump, he is winning among voters who are looking for a candidate that they believe tells it like it is. They want someone who is outside the political establishment, also doing very well with chunks of whiteworking class voters and voters who are looking for a candidate they think they believe would bring about change. Whats been striking and i was there at the News Conference last night some Trump Supporters i spoke to before and after the event said to me, we think this guy is brilliant. The reason republicans cant stand him is because he is not a conservative. Ive known him for years. Hes totally a moderate. Another person said to me, hes so brilliant because he hasnt given anybody his plan yet because he doesnt want anybody to steal it. Just an idea of what some of trumps closest friends and supporters were saying about him last night. I asked him about a new ad thats running against him in the state, a ad that highlights his use of vulgarity over the campaign. When he didnt answer the initial question directly. When i followed up, here is how he responded when parents and children should deal with this language during the course of the president ial race. Youre so politically correct. Youre so beautiful. Look at you. Ah. Hes so i know. Youve never heard a little bad off language. I know youre so perfect. Arent you perfect . Arent you just a perfect young man . Give me give me a break. You know what, its stuff like that that people in this country are tired of. Okay . Its stuff like that. Reporter trump also said when he saw the ad initially, he thought its a good ad. He would be running against himself. He acknowledged in the past when things move further along he will clean up his act a little bit. As he said last night, i can be very president ial, perhaps as president ial as any former president except perhaps in his word, the great abe lincoln. Craig . Nbcs Peter Alexander in west palm beach, florida. Ive known you for years, i always thought you were beautiful and perfect as well. Good to see you. Appreciate it. Ted cruz meanwhile unveiled a bit of a surprise, an endorsement by former republican rival Carly Fiorina, she voted for cruz in last weeks virginia primary and made the argument that he is the best candidate not to just take down donald trump but Hillary Clinton as well. Should she become the democratic nominee. We need a real conservative who will provide real conservative solutions in peoples lives. That is the only way we beat donald trump and that is the only way we are going to beat donald trump and ted is the man to do it. All of this comes as cruz had that strong showing last night, winning in idaho, picking up delegates in other states as well. Lets get right to Hallie Jackson who has been covering the Cruz Campaign. Is this fee yor reena endorsement more evidence of the people rallying behind ted cruz to take on donald trump . Carly fiorina was running on this brand of an outsider. She was never really part of the party establishment, the party insiders, the folks inside the beltway. That said her endorsement could be significant in a couple of ways, not because she has so much support, she was polling very low before she got out of the race, but potentially for her role as an attack dog surrogate against donald trump and against Hillary Clinton if cruz makes it far enough and if she is the democratic nominee to take her on. Cruz talking about the delegate situation when it comes to how he will play here in florida. Listen to what he had to say. It is a simple question of math whether or not one can get to 1237 votes. If a candidate does not have a path to the nomination, then it is time for that candidate to prayerfully reflect with their family whether there is a path forward for them. If there is not, then it is up to each of the candidates to make that decision. Thats a line weve been hearing from cruz, this idea that candidates should prayerfully reflect or in other words maybe less polite words get out of the race and clear a path for krcruz. Thats what his campaign wants and his rivals do not want that to happen, a donald trump versus ted cruz headtohead race. Ill follow cruz today as he gets ready for the debate tomorrow night. I havent gotten called the beautiful Peter Alexander, its quite the compliment. I wish we could hear more about that. Youre killing me out here. I could talk about that all day. Thats the conversation we should be having. Nbcs Hallie Jackson, also beautiful, also perfect in miami, florida. Thanks as always. One person who did not have a good night by any measure, marco rubio, he finished fourth in michigan, fourth in mississippi, third in ohio and idaho, did not pick up a single delegate tuesday night. Not only is he behind in his ohm state of florida, the Tampa Bay Times makes the case that rubio is not ready to be president. Gabe gutierrez is following the Rubio Campaign. Whats the campaign saying about the path forward now . Reporter hi, there, craig. Good afternoon. The Rubio Campaign must be feeling far from perfect this afternoon. This is a really difficult time after these difficult losses yesterday, coming in fourth place in michigan, failing to crack even double digits and filling to pick up a single delegate in the contests yesterday. This has been the central argument of the Rubio Campaign that they were scraping along, trying to get delegate. They only had two victories so far, that one in minnesota and then picking up the 23 delegates in puerto rico. What theyre saying is, look, they were not expecting to do well in the contests yesterday. What theyre really looking forward to is florida. They are all in here. Theyve been camping out here for the last two days or so. Have another rally in the miami area later on this afternoon and he will be talking to chuck todd at this town hall this afternoon. They feel they can turn things around here in florida. They run underdog campaigns here before they say and they hope that they can get some momentum from that debate tomorrow. A small bit of good news today as well for rubio, the Chicago Tribune just endorsing him, but a lot of people are wondering how much longer he can stay in this race. The Rubio Campaign denying any reports that theyre considering leaving this race. They say they continue to say that they will win florida. Craig . Gabe gutierrez for us following the Rubio Campaign. Gabe, thank you. A lot will be on the line tonight when marco rubio attends that town hall hosted by chuck todd. Thats 8 00 p. M. Eastern, 5 00 p. M. Pacific only on msnbc. Former congressman pete oak stra of michigan joins me live now from washington, supports john kasich for president. First of all, just let me get your reaction, to trumps decisive victory last night in your state, a state that john kasich very much wanted to win, a state that he spent a lot of time and money trying to win as well. Well, obviously we congratulate donald on the victory in michigan. John did pretty much what we expected him to do, two weeks ago he was down in Single Digits in michigan, by the time the polls closed late deciders they were breaking for john 41 to roughly 29 for donald. So the message was getting out. Give us one more week and we would have won michigan. But the election was yesterday. Donald ran a nice race. He was successful. We did what we wanted to do and weve got the momentum moving into ohio. Congressman, lets i want to talk to you about the path forward here. It came in a distant second to trump last night. He hasnt won a primary just yet. Why would a popular twoterm governor risk humiliating defeat in his home state next week . There hasnt been a single poll thats shown him ahead in ohio . Well, this is a governor that was elected with 64 of the vote last time he was up for election. He continues to have high favorabilities. John is very confident of his record and how people in ohio have seen him as a change agent, somebody that does come in with a shock and awe program and the people of the state benefit from it. Hes cut taxes and creates an environment where 400,000 new jobs have been created, balanced budgets, surpluses. He is very confident going into tuesday that the he is going to do just fine and the people of ohio are going to rally behind their native son because they know he can bring the kind of change that he brought to columbus. He can bring it to washington. But even after ohio, i mean, mathematically, theres literally no chance that he picks up the nomination before cleveland. Whats his strategy . Well, the strategy is to keep going through this. This is a guy that worked and went through the slog of balancing the budget and had setbacks and it was just grind it out. Thats exactly what john is going to do here. Hes going to keep moving forward and the path for all four of the remaining candidates is somewhat unclear, but one of these four people is going to be the nominee. John has a good of a shot as any of the other three as eventually being the nominee when the convention concludes in july. Mitt romney recently hit trump saying that the various products with his name on them dont last very long. This is trump responding last night. Trump steaks, where are the steaks . Do we have the steaks . We have trump steaks. He said the Steak Company and we have trump steaks. And its the magazine is great. Anybody want here, take one. My club champion. By the way, the winery, you see the wine because he mentioned trump vodka. Its the largest winery in the east coast. Still believe facts are important so we fact checked these things. We refact checked them as well. According to nbc news. Com, the steak venture is dead. The magazine is no longer quarterly sold in news stands. Why havent republicans been able to undercut trumps one of his key points as a candidate, he is a great businessman . Congressman . I wasnt sure if the question was coming. I think the problem has been is there hasnt been enough Fact Checking on donald and were hoping that as we get this field narrowed down that there will be the Fact Checking as to donalds Business Success and also do the Fact Checking on governor kasichs record both in washington and ohio. I think people are going to see a very favorable comparison for the governor when that is actually done. You know what, though, congressman, here is the thing, and you know governor kasich has been on that stage with donald trump a number of times. He doesnt fact check him either. Its not like he calls him hout when he has an opportunity to call him out on some of the things that arent entirely true. Thats exactly right. John in a lot of debates has had limited time. John is clear, he believes its imp