It hasnt been enough to close the deal for him. He has to show he wants it. He has speaking skills. Not necessarily debates skills. He has to take somebody on. The New Hampshire moment is still haunting him. Thats right. Thank you all, beth, mike and mike. Ive heard of a show called mike and mike. Well be back tomorrow with more mtp daily, but with all due respect will start right now. Im al hunt. And im mark halperin, with all due respect to donald trump, are you boared of winnin now. Were winning, winning, winning, the country. And soon, the country is going to start winning, winning, winning. Okay, just to be clear, though, we are never bored of donald j trump. Howdy from houston, where
theyll debate tomorrow night. Donald trump is the man to beat. Last night in nevada, trump won 45 of the caucus voteds, marco rubio was second, with 24 , cruz had 21 . Trump won in every demographic, except young voters. Today in virginia beach, his victory lap took the form of a q and a with pat robert son where he mused openly about his running mate possibilities, ted cruz and the democrats. Bernie is heading down. It looks like hes over. Hillary will be protected from the email scandal. As i promise you, it will be discussed, often, often, often. If you look at justice roberts, he could have killed obama care twice. Senator cruz pushed him. He most wanted him. What are the most important qualities youre going to look for in a vicepresident den political, because i want to get lots of great legislation we all want passed, sitting there for years and years and years. Things sitting there that would be so good. That session, trump also la meant mented. Al hunt, sitting in formal mal who for mark halperin. Huge. As he might say, mark, i cant think of any president ial candidate who has won three big ones like this. And not gone on to win the nomination. I dont think its over yet, but mitt romney one three and a half, i think they say out of five. Gerry ford won a lot. A strong frontrunner. Three different regions of the country, different types of electorates, and he won not
narrowly and he won with people knowing full well, he was a dominating force. For whatever reason, they didnt go after him. He was the leader, and held up the leads in all three places. He sure did. You have to say that his negative res ma negatives remain as high as ever. I want to tell you something, that floor is impressive right now. Yeah, and as people keep saying, if jeb bush or marco rubio or one of the other candidates had a record of achieving these three straight wins after second in iowa, people would be saying the race is over and they would be talking about a cabinet and running mate and all of that. I agree. So as al said, it is not over. Spring eternal, marco rubio runner up took it to the today program on nbc this morning to argue that he is the only one who could now stop trump and it would be nice if some of the other guys got out of the race. The vast majority of republicans do not want donald trump to be our nominee. Thats evidenced by the fact that your own poll showed that if it came down to me and donald trump, i would beat him by almost 16 points. What we have now is a dynamic, four people running, dividing up the nontrump vote, youre going to get results like what you saw last night. The sooner we can get the race narrowed down, it will be easier to stop donald trump. So al, you wrote about this today for your column for bloomberg view. What is it . First of all, not a very wide one, mark. Lets that i can that clear to start with. Next tuesday, on march 1, it would be nice if he could win one of those 12 contests. He himself has suggested he may not. He certainly has got to finish a strong second, and a number, he has to come out ahead of ted cruz and a delegate count that day, and not that far behind donald trump, and then, its win or take all, two weeks later, florida, on march 15th, if marco
wins that, he could be in for a while. If he loses, its gone. Go home. Rev up the buses. If that happens, a lot of pressure on ted cruz to get out of the race, which rubio obviously wants. If two weeks later, when texas and florida or rather ohio and florida vote, if cruz if rubio can somehow win his state and john kasich loses ohio, that could win in the field then. He would are to hold on to that point. If he is the only one, he could survive. If you look at the public polling, he is in the worst shape in his home state. Thats why people in the establishment say he is the most likely, are wrong, because it starts with winning your home state and he is the least likely too do it at this point. Mark, i actually think it would be bad for him if ted cruz dropped out right now, because most of those cruz votes, more would go to trump than rubio. He wants to keep him alive for a while. Yeah, well talk more about
that as we go forward. Third place was ted cruz, who got the nod at a press conference, governor of texas, greg abbott. He compared the race and the donald with something we know a little bit here. A circus, sundays, 8 00 p. M. On show time. We cant be fooled by pt barnam. The time for the clowns and the acrobats and the dancing bears has passed. Now, is a time for texans to stand together. Cruz talked this afternoon about how happy he is to be home here in texas, but texas may not be the saving grace that cruz needs, here in a new poll out
today, cruz and trump are basically tied. Its a poll from Emerson College and shows cruz at 29 and trump at 28 . So al, you said before, something that is not everyone would agree with, but i want you to talk more about it in terms of cruz and rubio. What is cruz path to victory and is it good for him if he stays in the race, or does he not have the same situation, from your point of view, it would be if cruz stays in the race for rubio. I think its a little different, although, i think again, they want to boast if you want to be trump. Here is the cruz path to victory. It is even harder than rubios perhaps. He has to win texas, but he cant win it by 2928. He has to take home 100 del greats. Delegates. He take all of the delegates. He has to win over 50 , over one dozen of the delegates. He has to do well on the others. Just the corollacorollary of on other. Come out of super tuesday, delegate wise, about even with trump. Tall order. Yep, i agree. The way he does that is to use the vaunted targeted operation that this campaign has, more sophisticated that i think some of the others figure out where can he win delegates district by district throughout the south. He has invested a lot in the south. He needs to come out of super tuesday where people are no longer saying is he a dead man walking, rather the strongest, to stop trump. Third person often left out of the narrative but should not be, Ohio Governor john kasich. He did not compete much in nevada and got fewer votes than dr. Ben carson. He was in gulfport, mississippi, dispelg the fiction that he is
getting out of the contest. No, im staying in, because at the end of the day, im going to accumulate enough delegates to win. Thats whats going to happen. Were going to go through tuesday, were going to come down here, and you know, were going to perform well enough to continue, and i think were going to have some strong performances next tuesday. And then, you know, at some point, we head north to places like michigan, illinois, a little state, ohio. In the wake of last night, team kasich sent out a stream of memos and tweets today about marco rubio, claiming he did not meet the expectations in nevada, and arguing that putting money behind the senator now would be a bad investment. Al, what is kasichs narrow path to the nomination at this point . You have to tiptoe on this one, mark. He has to do well in a few southern places, not very many. He has to look to new england, and score an up set over trump
in either massachusetts, which will be hard or vermont. You may laugh about vermont, but that could be very important for john kasich. I think hell be back there before tuesday. And the reason is, he wants to have a sense that he is still alive, going into michigan a week later, where he goes head to head with trump, and if he is really competitive and gets in a position to win and his win or take all a week later, john kasich will be around for a while. I think kasich needs more establishment and media endorsement credibility. He is left out. All of the other candidates basically saying its a three person race. He needs to change the narrative and change it to a four person race. I agree. Doing better in the south than people think. Picking up vermont or he keeping it close in march chssachusetts. If you were going to bet on one of these guys, you would bet on cruz or kasich. The other thing is, quinnipiac poll showed he has got to start making the electability
argument. Al, finally, anybody else in the race, which would mean ben carson or anyone else not in the race who could end up as the nominee. Ben carson is an easy no. Its a real reach for anyone else, only if you have deadlock convention, which means three candidates have to be going into may. Thats unlikely. If that happens, trump down to 40 , con conceivably, theyll have to turn to someone else. I cant wait to cover it. I agree. Given trumps success and the number of delegates, he is likely to wrack up in march, hell get the trajectory. Thats the magic number. Any chance that the delegates have to say you know what, its not going to be trump, its to hold him under 40 . That would require more people staying in the race. I dont think you can stop trump if its a oneonone race. So the establishment does have
that little hiccup in the strategy. If you clear the field, maybe it works. But maybe by the time you clear the field, trump has run away with the thing. I totally agree. I think the establishment has been wrong throughout. Theyre wrong on this one. You have to keep a bunch of people in this race. And even then, its uphill. Particularly if trump comes out on next tuesday with say 300 more delegates. Al, just talking a couple of sentences about this provocative point youre making, why its so good for rubio if cruz stays in. Because i think the cruz vote will more likely go to trump than rubio right now. Particularly in the southern states. In the whole purpose to somehow stop donald trump from getting it close to 50 or exceeding 40, you cant let him pick up more delegates in alabama, georgia and louisiana, and kansas and some of those states after. And only cruz can do that . I think so. Okay. Up next, we dig deep into the
great establishment quandary of 2016 of donald j trump. Well be right back. Does a freshly printed presentation fill you with optimism . Then you might be gearcentric. Right now, get 25 back in rewards on hp ink, toner, and paper office depot officemax. Gear up for great ®. If you have high Blood Pressure many Cold Medicines may raise your Blood Pressure. Thats why theres coricidin® hbp. It relieves cold symptoms without raising Blood Pressure. So look for powerful Cold Medicine with a heart. Coricidin® hbp. Were always looking for ways to speed up your Car Insurance search. Heres the latest. Problem is, we havent figured out how to reverse it. For now, just log on to compare. Com. Plug in some simple info and get up to 50 free quotes. Choose the lowest and hit purchase. Now. If youll excuse me, im late for an important function. Compare. Com. Saving humanity from high insurance rates. Three consecutive trump victories have sent some members of the establishment into a tissy. A few feeling dizziness, others to cope with the shock and realization that donald trump could become their nominee very soon, many members of the republican establishment did what they do best. They went on television. It appears after tonight that mr. Trump has win beneath his wings, and i think that hell probably be our nominee. The American Public is upset with the establishment, and they have spoken, and its been pretty loud and clear that they want something different, and they have chosen mr. Trump. And we need to support the guy that the people support. He has been out there telling everybody he is mad as hell. He is mad at washington. For those that got here a year ago, we ran on the same platform. Obviously donald trump is doing well. There is 65 of all the delegates coming right now in march, and were going to have to wait and see. Were in great shape to win in november, but yeah, we have drama. Some intrigue going on in the party, but intrigue going on the other side too. Thats what primaries are. This afternoon, mitt romney went on fox news and said that there is, quote, no question that donald trump has the cl clearest path to become the nominee. He received his first endorsement today, Duncan Hunter and another from chris collins. All right, al, if trump sweeps or comes close to sweeping on super tuesday, what does the republican establishment do next in. Drink heavily. I want the bourbon for the republican club, you know, for next tuesday and wednesday. Look, what theyre doing now is theyre sort of a
rationalezation going on. Maybe he wont be that bad, maybe hell do well, bring from some democrats, and we can deal with him because he doesnt believe in a whole lot. There are other members of the establishment that say wait a minute, issues that are really important to us like trade, and he is totally changed the whole agenda on trade. So i think its kind of half hopeful and half petrified. Some republicans worried about, if he does become the de facto, some are worried you could have one or both of the following types of people run. Conservative who say trump is too liberal and then a more chamber of commerce type, retired senator or governor, basically three candidates in the race, and then ensure Hillary Clinton would become the president. Probably could ensure Bernie Sanders would become the next nominee. Still in denial for the most part and again, tomorrowing to
terms how to deal with him. Some are saying maybe it wont be too bad. For the pure establishment types, that wont be the dominant view if he seals it up in the next few weeks. I agree with you. Theyre really worried. They dont trust donald trump. They dont think he is a real republican. And they do worry about some of these issues that he has raised here in the campaign, deportation, as i mentioned earlier, trade. But you know something, theyre helpless to do a thing about it. Theyve been totally, totally inept throughout and theyre going to remain so. They could wring their hands and drink. How much do you will he reach out to the establishment if he locks it up . Hell do some, because he will feel its on his terms, that they have to come to him as opposed to trump going to them. Well see how smart a politician he is in doing that. I predict hell do a lot of it behind the scenes. Up next, talk about a former
flotis, and scotus, after a word from our sponsors. If you need advice for your business, legalzoom has your back. Our trusted network of attorneys has provided guidance to over 100,000 people just like you. Visit legalzoom today. The legal help you can count on. Legalzoom. Legal help is here. To cook healthy meals. Yet up to 90 fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. Lets do more. Add one a day mens 50 . Complete with key nutrients we may need. Plus it helps support healthy Blood Pressure with vitamin d and magnesium. Rheumatoid arthritis like me,e and youre talking to a rheumatologist about a biologic. This is humira. This is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. This is humira helping me reach for more. Doctors have been prescribing humira for more than ten years. Humira works for many adults. It targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Talk to your doctor and visit humira. Com. This is humira at work. For fans of Hillary Clinton, i have some good news and bad news. The good news is that harry reid endorsed Hillary Clinton today. The bad news, federal judge has now ruled the top aids have to testify on the use of the private email server. Judge set a procedural deadline for this spring that could complicate clintons life big time. So al, with trump appearing to be cruising to his nomination, email developments such as this rattle democratic elites who they would like her to sew it up early. With all due respect to the Senate Minority leader, the bad news is more important. This a festering sore that wont go away. I talk to people who seem to have a lot of expertise, like david ignatius. They say its highly unlikely they can brirng action against her, but it just keeps going. It really hurts her, because she has a trust problem to begin with. So i think democrats who are feeling pretty good a couple of days ago, they think trump is a weaker candidate, they look at polls, but this is something
that really, really does rattle them. Yeah, i mean, again, it operates on two levels. If not for an indictment, maybe an interview, secretary submits to the fbi. Symbolic, and inability that she has right now it seems with some voters to get over the question of whether she tells the truth, whether she is trustworthy. I do believe that the democratic elites have basically made their peace with it. Its baked in for them. Its like some of bill clintons scandals and willing to support him. They know full well there could be a worst case on the email stuff and theyll have to deal with it. Yeah, they have mark. Because you know what, they have no choice. There really is no other option. So they have taken the choice, but they are worried. Yeah. The other thing i would say about the email thing is youve got all these federal judges, these cases have not been consolidated, and as you know
well, al, the judges in District Court in d. C. , if it ever gets to the court of appeals, a lot of independent people there. The judge ruled is someone nominated i believe by Hillary Clintons husband to the bench. A lot of the judges are wildcards in this. Nothing brooklyn can do to control what they do. All right, today in scotus watch, senate republicans, kelly out of New Hampshire and rob portman out of ohio, up for reelect