Recess. I would settle for lunch. If we could have lunch and recess, i would take it. Me too. Thank you. As predicted right here republicans are finally using Abraham Lincoln against donald trump. A new group of conservatives scrambled to stop donald trump at all costs. Paul ryan acknowledging that the convention could be open in cleveland. To even address or hint to violence is unacceptable. If he can do it without riots in the streets the other candidates can do it as well. Any effort to help anybody but the republican nominee helps Hillary Clinton. We are going all the way to cleveland. It was an explosive hearing at times. I agree that the epa should have done more. It was also an emotional one on capitol hill. They should have rushed in sooner to rescue the people of michigan. As both michigan Governor Rick Snyder. You had the authority and backing of the federal government. Investigating the lead painted water in michigan. The president s nominee for the Supreme Court made his first visit to capitol hill today. I cannot imagine in he senator standing up and saying im not going do my duty. Im not going to change my position. I used to make a living identifying absurdity. Im hearing a lot of it today. The most powerful republican in government who is second in line in the line of succession for the presidency the speaker of the house paul ryan insisted today he will not become a candidate for president if the republicans have a contested convention, but he will be the most powerful person at that convention. Paul ryan will be the chairman of the Republican Convention. He will be the master of the Convention Rules and the interpreter of the Convention Rules. The convention parmt tear will work for him. Paul ryan is clearly not buying Donald Trumps idea that whoever shows up at that convention with the most delegates, even if its not a majority, should just get the nomination automatically. Nothings changed other than the perception that theres more likely to become an open convention than we thought before. So were getting our minds around the idea that this could very well become a reality and therefore those of us involved in the convention need to respect that. Need to respect that. That is a message aimed directly at the republican frontrunner who respects nothing. That is the chairman of the convention saying that the rules of the convention enforced by him will determine what happens at the convention, not the Wishful Thinking of donald trump. My goal is to be dispassionate and to be switzerland, to be neutral and dispassionate and to make sure the rule of law prevails and make sure that the delegates make their decision however the rules require them to do that. Republicans trying to stop trump today finally started ecoing what ive been saying for days about how Abraham Lincoln got the republican president ial nomination. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln it took him three ballots. Eric was part of a stop trump meeting in washington today. We find donald trump and Hillary Clinton both unacceptable and want to call for a unity ticket in the Republican Party now. To have the parties that have dropped out to hold their delegates so donald trump cant get to the 1237 delegates and after the first ballot try to shape the Party Without trump. The Group Released a statement saying we believe the issue of donald trump is greater than an issue of party, its an issue of character that all americans most confront. We call for a unity ticket that unites the Republican Party. Marco rubio, the former golden boy, announced today that he will not be on that ticket or any ticket because after failing to unite republicans in his home state to support his candidacy for president he plans to quit politics. Im not going to be anybodys vice president. Im not interested in being vice president. No mean that in a disrespectful way. Im not running for governor of florida. Im going to finish out my term in the senate over the next ten months. Were going to work hard here and we have some things we want to achieve and ill be a private citizen in january. The last time the republicans went into a convention without a nominee locked in place was 1976 when Ronald Reagan tried to snatch the convention away. The master mind of the reagan strategy was charlie black who this week signed on to john kasichs campaign. Charlie black told chuck todd that the Kasich Campaign hopes to follow the Abraham Lincoln model and grab the nomination on the third ballot. John kasich would have a very good chance to win in an open competitive convention that went more than a couple of ballots and thats the strategy hes going to win some more primaries too. If you add this up it could be that trump goes in with about 40 and you have 35 for either kasich or were for rubio or uncommitted, which gives you a chance for a mainstream ke conservative against two outliers to win. Joining us now is Stewart Stevens. Columnist for the daily beast and former strategist and joy Read National correspondent who has been out on that campaign trail everywhere and Charlie Pierce writer at large. These scenarios sound crazy to anyone who doesnt know the history of contested conventions. Anything can happen there. That is correct and i think that were getting another civics lesson is as much as we do not elect the president of the United States with our popular votes, we just decide which go to the elect ral college, in these primaries your vote does not determine who the nominee is, it decides which delegates go to a certain candidate and they will vote at the convention according to whatever rules the chairman of the convention decides are the rules that year and that is how the nominee is chosen. Hump re was imposed on the democratic electorate. He didnt run in a primary. Its the system, folks. Its the same way and its been for a very long time. Stewart, you were there four years ago at the Republican Convention where your candidate had it locked up, none of this was ever an issue. I assume the rules werent that important because there wasnt anything contention in that florida convention, but this time with the charlie blacks moving in weve got a real game going on here if donald trump doesnt show up with the majority. Yeah, listen ive been fascinated by this. I wrote a novel coming out in june about a brokered convention because its a fascinating study and a human hot box of emotions. I think its going to be tough for donald trump to get to 1,237 and what youre seeing is a resistance to donald trump because hell be a disaster ele elect rally and theres these issues that bother people across the board. What i think is going to be fascinating here is the stress test that this puts these candidates under. This is a period where theyre going to be watched very carefully and in many ways its going to be like the recount period back in 2000 where these candidates are going to be under tremendous unnatural pressures and you have to see how they handle it. Now so far id say Donald Trumps not doing a very good job, but in some ways i suppose its an opportunity for the guy to step up and be bigger, but he usually doesnt do very well in those moments. Lets listen to what eric said today about what this means for the party. I think that if donald trump becomes the republican nominee, the Republican Party ceases to be the party that i was a representative of so there is going to have to be the ground work for a new Political Party in the country that represents people who typically have been Republican Voters in the past. Charlie pierce, the United States did perfectly okay up until about the 1850s without a Republican Party existing. Might we be on the verge of a return to that condition . First of all, in honor of Saint Patricks day i would like to Say Something which is who is eric when hes at home. What kind of power broker are we dealing with here. If Stewart Stevens has a novel coming out this summer, i want him picking the rest of my bracket. Third, i dont know. Honestly i dont know whether it would be good or bad for paul ryan to preside over a convention where they push donald trump out of the nomination. I have no idea what the Republican Party is going to look like in a month yet alone when the convention rolls around. But this is one of those situations where the republicans have no good choice. If donald trump shows up there without enough delegates to secure the nomination, then hes showing up as the weakest nominee theyve seen against gerald ford and possibly weaker because he may well show up with fewer delegates. So what do you do, do you go forward with this inexperienced candidate who is the weakest nominee you maybe have ever had or do you come up with some other result . The party is already split. Ever since the emerge answer of the tea party there have been two republican parties operating under the same umbrella, but having come from cleveland i can tell you there will be no overtime for any Police Officers in that city. There is already a sense of real nervousness about what will happen. Youve had donald trump essentially threatens riots if he doesnt get his way. Parties have a self interest. Of course they want to prevent this person who is just little more of a vulgarian. Its ironic that eric is standing up for sort of the integrity of the Republican Party, but they have a self interest of preventing themselves from being destroyed by somebody who is going to march into the convention without the support of anyone there. People who come to the convention are partisans. Theyre the republican establishment. Theyre going to sit there and watch donald trump become the nominee. Theyre going to fight it. The Republican Party has to live with the convention of allowing and helping to create donald trump. Stewart, with paul ryan as the most important noncandidate going to that convention, hes already taken a number of stances against donald trump, against things donald trump has said. He came out as soon as donald trump said ban muslims from the country. Paul ryan was against that. He was against Donald Trumps hes tans about rejecting white extremist. With paul ryan in that position, with this party where it is, do you see it the way i do that there is no good choice, there is no choice that everybody can just cheer about when they leave cleveland . Listen, ive been using the guns of august analogy, the book about the sort of world war i. Ill be happy if we can avoid killing each other. My goal here is straightforward. I dont want donald trump to be the nominee of the Republican Party. I think hes a horrible person. He represents i think a dark side of the american spirit in so many ways and i think it would be an absolute disaster for the party and for the country for him to represent a major party. So how we get there im less concerned about than getting there. That to me is the essential goal. You see this as a moral matter as well as a political matter . Absolutely. Listen, donald trump is a bigot. This is a party lets see how far weve wandered here. George bush 39 is the person who signed the american for disabilities act. Now we have someone out there mocking people with disabilities. We have someone accusing george bush 41 of being a war criminal. This is just talking about our neighbors to the south as rapist. It is absolutely a moral question. Were going to have to take a break here. When we come back, he has written the must read of the day about the big problem republicans have with white voters. There just arent enough of them. 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Today paul ryan, who will be the chairman of the Republican National convention, krcriticiz the republican frontrunner for the nomination for saying there will be riots if he doesnt get that nomination. Nobody should say such things because to even address or hint to violence is unacceptable. Well be right back. They say when mr. Clean saw all the Different Things his new smart phone does. It reminded him of his magic eraser. Its not just for marks on walls. Its tough on kitchen grease. And bathroom grime too. Hes your. All aroundtoughcleaner, mr. Clean. For crash survival, subaru has developed ours most revolutionary feature yet. A car that can see trouble and stop itself to avoid it. When the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested front crash prevention nobody beat subaru models with eyesight. Not toyota. Not ford or any other brand. Subaru eyesight. An extra set of eyes, every time you drive. Try cool mint zantac. Hey, need fast heartburn relief . It releases a cooling sensation in your mouth and throat. Zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. Nexium can take 24 hours. Try cool mint zantac. No pill relieves heartburn faster. When donald trump looks out at his rally audiences, once theyve forcibly removed the proteste protesters, he sees a sea of white. Trump audiences are the only aud ens that weve seen that are writer than the people attending the Republican Conventions, but donald trump and the Republican Party have a serious problem with white voters. As Stuart Stevens points out there arent enough white voters for the gop to win. In 1980 Ronald Reagan won 56 of white voters and won a land slide victory of 44 states in 2012 mitt romney won 59 of whites and lost with 24 states. Were back with Stuart Stevens for more on this. Also joined by eugene robinson. Stuart, whenever i read your stuff you do your homework and the math. And none of us know how to do math around here. I was quite struck by that. I did not realize that mitt romney got a larger percentage of the white vote than Ronald Reagan got. What else dont republicans know about the math of the white vote and Winning National elections . Well, i think one of the myths out there is just a lot of white voters werent motivated as they were for Ronald Reagan, when in fact a higher percentage for white voters not only voted for mitt romney, but a higher percentage turned out for mitt romney. Look, this is what i call the lost tribes of the amazon theory. If we go up the river far enough, they will come to the edge and vote for us. Theyre not there. The countrys changing and you have to build a party that will be able to get a coalition of white and nonwhite voters. Mitt romney was able to get 17 nonwhite voters. To win consistently youre going to have to get that up to north of 25 . And gene, in stuarts piece he points out where the electal College Begins as soon as you stop voting on election day its pretty well guaranteed that the democrats are going to start the night with 240 elect ral votes because theres these 16 states they always win. The republicans can guarantee they will start the night with only 103 elect ral votes. So theres theres the republicans starting off the night only like 28 electoral votes short of winning the presidency and republicans are out there now thinking that donald trump is somehow going to create this gigantic turnout of voters who have never been there before who are going to change that math. Thats not going to happen. It doesnt happen and smart republicans like stuart have realized this for some time. They can do math at the rnc and you saw in the postromney autopsy a version of this basically. The party has to expand its appeal to africanamericans, to latinos, the countries biggest minority group, to asian americans. All those groups as you saw on the graphic went heavily for barack obama. If the party were to nominate someone like donald trump, assuming the Republican Party didnt just add om miez, it would solidify this sort of new American Coalition relationship with the Democratic Party and it would be a long, long, long, winter for republicans. And stuart, making a move in the right directions here politically hasnt been easy for the republicans in the last four years. They tried initially to do something on