Summer in cleveland. Trump firing back saying he may not back them either. When i was pressing senator cruz on it sounded like he was saying he would have a hard time supporting honestly, he doesnt have to support me. Im not asking for his support. Do you continue to pledge who the nominee is . No, i dont anymore. You wont . You wont promise to support the republican nominee . Hes essentially said the same thing. He doesnt have to support me. I have tremendous support right now from the people. The loyalty pledge that donald trump and Anderson Cooper were talking about, it played a big part in the early days of trumps campaign. Last september in new york this was the scene. The best way for the republicans to win is if i win the nomination and go directly against whoever they happen to put up and for that reason i have signed the pledge. I see no circumstances under which i would tear up that pledge. But now apparently those circumstances have presented themself. Donald trump this morning also continuing to defend his Campaign Manager, core corey lewendowsky. He was charged with battery after an incident with breitbart report er michelle fields. Trump is addressing all of this on the today show just a short time ago. Were going to play for you what he had to say in just a minute. First, lets head out to the campaign trail. We have Kelly Odonnell with donald trump. Hes going to have an event at 11 00. Thats where corey was charged yesterday. Halli je jackson. Kelly, lets start with you. Donald trump signed it last september. He said, i cant imagine anything that would make me tear it up. Now hes tearing it up. Its not just donald trump either, kelly, it sounds like. Reporter thats right. The other candidates who have watched him become the frontrunner and criticism and attention and difficult things that he has said that pose problems for the Republican Party, people peeling away. We know the premise would ensure that there would ultimately be party unity but also to try to blund a blunt any attempt for donald trump. That tends not to favor republicans and would have likely broken them up by splitting it. Republicans wanted to prevent that. There was a lot of pressure put on trump to sign that pledge. Now we go past months of campaigning. Weve seen the ups and downs and seen donald trump defend his Campaign Manager. Others saying he should be suspended, fired. Also talking about the tactics between campaigns, the battle over the wives that went on. I was with john kasich yesterday. He was saying hes going to look at this very carefully about whether or not he could support a nominee and someone who does not represent values that normally wouldnt. So the pledge has fallen by the way side. That is not good for the Republican Party. Here in depiere we have student p protesters. Were at a Catholic Liberal Arts College where donald trump will have his rally later this morning. Hes been staying in town and apparently dialing the shows this morning to be on offense to protect his Campaign Manager in the face of all of this criticism and charges and in addition to that, just trying to set the scene that he doesnt believe the party has treated him fairly and keeping his doors open about how hell conduct his Campaign Going forward. Steve . All right. Kelly odonnell in wisconsin. Thanks for that. Trump, as we mentioned just a minute ago. He was on the today show on nbc this morning talking about and defending his Campaign Manager. Again, he was charged just yesterday with battery after that incident earlier this month with a reporter. His Attorney Says that his client is, quote, absolutely innocent. This interview on the today show got contentious at times. Watch this. Right after this incident corey lewendowsky he said he was calling bull blank on miss fields. He tweeted that she was delusional and he tweeted that he never touched her. The videotape easily and plainly shows that, in fact, he did grab her and did pull her and whether you want to debate whether she almost fell down or not, he didnt tell the truth. If youre president of the United States and a member of your staff, your chief of staff goes to the American People and publicly doesnt tell the truth in the way that core corey lewendowsky didnt tell the truth, would you put up with it . I dont know if it was that. Ill be honest with you, when you look at what happened, it was so minor that he might not have thought about it because to be honest with you, when you look at this, it was so minor. People are calling saying, what is this all about . We have people in the middle east chopping off heads and drowning people in cages and he brushes her and he brushed her to get probably, probably to get her hand off my arm. So it was so minor he might not have even realized it took place and then he was informed later on that it took place and he might have not known mr. Trump. Frankly what happened. Let me just ask you a general question here. If you look at this videotape and then you look at that videotape from another event where he is seen to briefly, briefly grab a protesters shirt collar and pull him back, the simple question and weve asked others, why is your Campaign Manager putting his hands on people at your events . Why is he allowed to do that . Because this protester was an agitator. Take a look at the horrible, disgusting sign that that protestor had. Take a look at the protesters hands were around a womans neck in front of him and he barely touched him also. He had two fingers on his shirt and then he took them off and security took the guy out. He was an agitator. He was a bad guy. He was an agitator and, frankly, to a certain extent you can say theres a certain amount of courage. He got very incensed when he saw the sign. The sign was a horrible sign that this guy was holding and he didnt do any damage to the guy because security took it. Just in the few seconds i have left. Mr. Trump, will you are we going to destroy a mans life . No, but we shouldnt destroy a reporters life. Will you or mr. She lied, matt. She wasnt thrown to the groujd. She didnt say she was thrown to the ground. She said she almost fell down and but she didnt almost fall down, matt. She didnt change the expression on her face. Look at her face. During this whole incident if somebody whacks you or somebody gives either of you a shot, youre going to be wow, your mouth is going to open. Youre going to be screaming a little bit. She didnt even change expression on her face. But, mr. Trump, why are you parsing her words and then giving the benefit of the doubt to your Campaign Manager . Im not parsing her words. He says i didnt touch her, the video says he didnt touch her. Because the incident was so minor. I almost fell down and i was shaken. Savannah, the incident was so minor that i honestly believe look, i know this guy. Hes an honorable guy. Hes a decent man. He has four beautiful kids and a wife in new hampshire. These other candidates, theyre weak. You should immediately get rid of him. For what . They want me to fire him. Why . Because of this incident. Wouldnt an immediate apology on his part have taken care of this . Wouldnt it have taken care of this if he had simply said, im sorry . I actually dont think so. I think she would have pressed charges anyway because i think she likes it. I think thats my opinion. Maybe im wrong. If he called up if he said hes sorry, i think she would have used that against him. Im not a believer in in that because, you know, ive heard that. Call up. Certainly if that could have happened he would have done that, but and i wasnt involved in that because i really heard about this i will tell you, i dont think i dont think anything would have happened. She just had a little bit better evidence. She has no evidence. This is going to be a disgrace. Well agree to disagree on this. I dont think you can disagree, matt, because the evidence is the evidence. Most people would disagree with you. All right. Again, that was donald trump on the today show just about an hour ago. Peter alexander is in jupiter, florida. Thats where lewandowsky was charged yesterday. Hes saying he was innocent. Hes fighting, trump is standing by him. Tell us about the legal aspect of this, what exactly hes being charged with him, what kind of defense he could mount, how serious these charges are for him. Reporter there are sort of two ways to look at this. Strategically donald trump is turning what a lot of people are turning what is an unquestionable liability into an asset. Giving this the kind of leader he is that he would stand by Corey Lewandowsky the same way he says he would stand by the country. Legally speaking heres what the case is at this time. Police say there is sufficient evidence, probable cause to charge lewandowsky with simple battery, unwanted tachg by Florida State law. That is a misdemeanor here. His next court date is his first court date will be on may 4th. Thats when prosecutors here can decide whether they want to pursue this case, but legal experts that weve been speaking to say on its merits there appears to be a lot of corroborating evidence. You have the videotape, audio recording of michelle fields, the breitbart reporter and a Washington Post reporter who says he saw lewandowsky grab fields. His best defense according to Defense Attorneys may be the defense of others, that he thought she, fields, was going after his boss, donald trump, that she, he could say, tried to grab him multiple times and thats why he felt it was necessary to try to come to his defense. So thats where things stabbed at this moment. If convicted by Florida State law lewandowsky could pay a maximum of 1,000 fine. Could he spend up to a year in jail here. The state Attorneys Office here in florida, steve, tells us that for a firsttime offender, that lewandowsky, that would be very rare, highly unlikely if he were to lose. If this were to go through the entire course and charges pursued. More likely it would be Something Like an anger Management Course perhaps. Steve . Peter alexander with the legal picture down there in jupiter, florida. I want to talk more about this with conservative radio talk show host hugh hewitt. I think you were able to hear what trump said on the today show. This line jumped out at me he says of the incident it was so minor that he, core Corey Lewandowsky, might not have thought about it. Whats your take on what you saw in that video and what trump is saying . My take is that trump is going to send flowers to the Jupiter Police department. They obliterated the scott walker endorsement. Wall to wall yesterday and today well see that video a thousand times. Jamie weinstein is my guest host and a good friend. Hes the boyfriend of michelle fields. I dont talk about it. I see the media narrative and i see that donald trump controlled it yesterday. The biggest news of the day was almost obliterated. It happened last night in the town hall. You may need a republican Rosetta Stone to read this. Ill do it for you. Ted cruz said last night that john kasich cant get nominated under rule 40. What that means is that the cruz delegates on the rules committee are going to cooperate, i think, with the Trump Delegates to keep john kasichs name from being put in the nomination to try and force a second ballot, twoperson race. Thats not what everyone expected. Everyone expected rule 40 to be put silently to death in its cradle. That requires eight state wins in caucuses or primaries to be put in nomination. Romneys people invented it to keep ron paul off the ballot in a mythical romney reelection 2016. Last night ted cruz said basically john kasich cant come to the floor. This morning we see john weaver, john kasichs very able, very talented Campaign Strategist tweeting out nasty things about ted cruz. So were all focused on jupiter and donald trump. The other two people are fighting with each other. Its a massive head fake. That gets to an interesting strategic issue here. Its sort of been hovering over this race. If you are part of the stop trump movement, whether you want cruise, whether you want kasich, whether you want someone else, there still, it seems, is not a strategy that everybody has settled on here for how you go about doing it. What youre describing is basically a situation where if cruz gets his way at the convention then he needs to trust that those kasich delegates who would be freed up would go with him and wouldnt go to donald trump. It seems theres no real coordinated strategy. Youre right, steve. Its a highrisk strategy. Ive been thinking about this all night long. The one thing you do is not let the Ohio Governor not be nominated in his home state. When i heard ted cruz say that, wow, thats the big story. Its not being covered because of the Donald Trump Exchange with matt lauer and the other exchanges hes had this morning as hes dialed around, but the real news is whats going to happen between june 7th, the california primary, and july 18th when the Republican Convention convenes. Theres a rules committee that will meet. The intrigue thats going on right now, no ones going to get to 1237. Its just not happening. And wisconsin, 18 delegates will be awarded to the statewide winner. Thats probably going to be ted cruz. Three delegates by eight districts each. Thats probably all going to go to ted cruz. I think hes going to sweep the badger state. Hes got the governor. Hes got the conservative network. Hes got the talk show hosts. Cruz is very, very strong in wisconsin. After that it will become obvious that we need to start focusing on whats going to happen in the best city in america, cleveland. Right now it looks like theyre going to run the political equivalent much the Cleveland Browns draft and have a disaster. Were going to have to wait and see what unfolds. Right now it isnt looking good for the republicans. Im one of them, but this is the jupiter thing and corey, thats not the major story today. The major story is that were headed towards a contested convention. Were going to have to cover three concurrent Vice President ial selection processes. Its like the nfl combine for republican candidates. All three, kasich, cruz, and trump are going to have to, you know, vet and select a Vice President ial candidate. Weve never done anything like this before. Its going to be grand for network television. People say this is the pipe dream of the media, the idea of the contested convention. Obviously this is something we have covered infomercials for the last two generations at these conventions. This will be drama and suspense. Everybody should want that. The candidates, they like to skriptd all of that themselves. Hui hu hugh hewitt, thanks for the time. Hallie jackson, were covering what ted cruz had to say about some Strategic Thinking thats getting out there about Cruz Campaign maybe not wanting to team up with kasich at the convention. Obviously cruz also getting that momentum yesterday in wisconsin with the endorsement of scott walker. How are they looking at this race right now . Well, so i think the campaign wants to obviously do well in wisconsin. Its a state where they want a strong showing not just because of the delegates at play, steve, but because of the momentum factor to turn around and say, as the race moves east, we can succeed in a state like wisconsin, but theyre also looking to contest that is have already happened. As weve been talking about in places like louisiana, places where there are state conventions and places like, for example, this weekend, north dakota. You talk about teaming up with kasich, the Cruz Campaign, remember, is fundraising. Theyve got organization on the ground. Theyve got some steam far ahead of where john kasich is, at least when it comes to delegate counts. You would wonder what the incentive is for them at least to try to pair up with john kasich and to try to take trump down because the Cruz Campaign feels there is a way to defeat donald trump without doing that essentially. For them, its a better position, they believe, if its a twoman race between cruz and trump. Theres not a lot of discussion about trying to pair up with somebody like john kasich, steve. All right. Hallie jackson in wisconsin. Thanks for that. She has a new york state of mind. Hillary clinton unveiling her first ad in new york. Thats the next primary up after wisconsin. Aside from the iconic images, the messages of diversity and hard working locals, the spot focuses on another new yorker, donald j. Trump. Well talk with two reporters here in new york about the clinton strategy, the race and about wisconsin. Also, beer for breakfast. How about this . Were going to go back on the ground to wisconsin. Its a state thats known for cheese, its known for the great lakes, its also known for beer. Were going to go inside a brewery in wisconsin for an exclusive with the highest ranking Government Official in that state to back donald trump. I think we shouldve taken a tarzan know where tarzan go tarzan does not know where tarzan go. Hey, excuse me, do you know where the waterfall is . Waterfall . No, me tarzan, king of jungle. Why dont you want to just ask somebody . If youre a couple, you fight over directions. Its what you do. If you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. Oh ohhhhh its what you do. Ohhhhhh do you have to do that right in my ear . Uh oh. Oh. Henry oh my. Good, youre good. 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