Sanders win in michigan gives him new hope. And the Clinton Campaign new reasons to worry about the midwest. And brand new polls out of florida, ohio and illinois. Theres a lot more uncertainty about tuesday than you might think. Joining me for insight and analysis this sunday morning are republican strategist alex castillanos. Influential radio talk show host hugh hewitt. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Students in history know how familiar chicago is with violence at political events. In 1968 antivietnam war protesters clashed with police at the Democratic National convention in chicago. Ultimately what played out ultimately became known as a police riot, the chaos tarnished the party and led to Hubert Humphreys defeat and loss in that fall. And pushing and fighting led to donald trump cant scheduled appearance. Ted cruz and marco rubio and john kasich agreed the ugly scene was the result of a toxic environment nurtured and encouraged by trump. And heres Hillary Clinton adding her perspective yesterday. If you play with matches, you can start a fire you cant control. That is not leadership. That is political arson. But to his supporters it was another example of opponents trying to deny the leading candidate for the republican nomination his right to free speech. And all of this comes just days ahead of what were calling separation tuesday. Five primaries that may finally separate frontrunners donald trump and Hillary Clinton from their opponents. And three new nbc the wall street journal marist polls out this morning. In florida an absolute mustwin for rubio. He trails donald trump by a nearly two to one margin 4322. Ted cruz at 21 right behind rubio. In illinois trumps lead is smaller, but its significant over cruz and kasich. Hes got a ninepoint lead over cruz but kasich a close third there to cruz. But in ohio it is Governor John Kasich holding a slim sixpoint lead over donald trump 3933. Obviously a kasich win there would keep him in the race and complicate trumps effort to win a majority of the delegates before the convention. Hillary clinton is leading sanders in all three states up 6134 in florida. Clinton with a 20point lead in ohio, but both campaigns dispute that one. And its much closer in illinois where clinton leads by just six points, 5145. A lot of democrats believe rahm emanuel backlash is helping Bernie Sanders there. Were going to get to the democratic race later, but were going to start with the republicans and the republican frontrunner donald trump. Mr. Trump, welcome back to meet the press, sir. Good morning. I got to start with whats been happening over the last 48 to 72 hours. Do you accept any responsibility whatsoever for the escalated tension that takes place at your rallies . Well, i think if anything a lot of people have praised me for canceling the one rally. We had 25,000 people coming, we got a lot of them not to come through notice. And the rest of them we canceled because we had disrupters out there. They werent really protesters, they were disrupters, like professionals. They had Bernie Sanders signs all over the place and made by Bernie Sanders people. These were professionally made signs. And rather than going, which i could have done pretty easily, i would have gone, made a speech, you would have had an awfully big riot and a lot of people would have been hurt. And ive been given a lot of credit for not going. And everybody disbursed and nobody was injured or hurt or beyond that. Okay. But earlier in the week there was an incident between a supporter of yours and a protester. And i want to play a piece of sound from a couple weeks ago from you and ask you about it on the other side. Theres a guy totally disruptive throwing punches. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this . Theyd be carried out on a stretcher, folks. Like to punch him in the face, ill tell ya. Mr. Trump, 17 days later that actually happened. One of your supporters decided to sucker punch a protester. Do you accept any responsibility for creating this atmosphere . I dont accept responsibility. I do not condone violence in any shape. And i will tell you from what i saw the young man stuck his finger up in the air and the other man sort of just had it. But i still i dont condone violence. As far as my previous statement, we had somebody that was punching and vicious and gone crazy, a disrupter. Theyre not protesters. Im telling you, theyre disrupters. Theyre professionals. He went absolutely wild punching. And frankly, when they punch, its okay. When my people punch back because they have to out of selfdefense, everybody says, oh, isnt that terrible. The fact is that we have very peaceful rallies. Ive had many, many rallies i have 25 30,000 people coming to rallies. And out of that we have very little problem. We havent had a real injury or anything. And then chicago i canceled and i did a great thing by canceling it because who needs the problems, who needs people getting hurt . I didnt want that. But when you say so instead of getting but mr. Trump, when you say you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knocked crap out of them. I promise ill pay for your legal fees. How is that not condoning what this older general m eer gentles protester . Let me explain what happened. I was told by the secret service, sir, theres a person or two people in the audience that have tomatoes. They are going to throw them at you, we think. If they do throw them, you have to be prepared. Now, you get hit in the face with a tomato, let me tell you somebody with a strong arm at least, let me tell you it can be very damaging. Not good. So i was told people were in the audience two people with tomatoes that theyre going to throw them at me. What i did is say, by the way, if you see anybody with tomat s tomatoes, right at the beginning. Yeah. You got to stop them. Do whatever you have to do. I have no objection to what i said. I would say it again. People are there doing harm, you have to go and you have to use equal force. Do you plant its not fair. Its a one way street. Im curious, do you plan on paying for the legal fees of this older gentleman who punched the protester . I want to see what that young man was doing. He was very taunting. He was very loud. Very disruptive. And from what i understand he was sticking a certain finger up in the air. And that is a terrible thing to do in front of somebody that, frankly, wants to see america made great again. And so well see. Im going to take a look at it. And that condones and that condones a sucker punch though . No, as i told you before, nothing condones. But i want to see. The man got carried away. He was 78 years old. He obviously loves this country. And maybe he doesnt like seeing whats happening to the country. I want to see the full tape. So you might pay for his legal fees . I well, im going to look at it. Im going to see what was behind this because it was a strange event. But from what i heard there was a you know, there was a lot of taunting and a certain finger was placed in the air. Not nice. Again, i dont condone the violence. I dont condone what he did, but you know what so its possible its possible you could help him with legal fees if this man needs it . Ive actually instructed my people to look into it, yes. Okay. I want to ask you about the moment yesterday in dayton. Looked like a scary moment being rushed to the stage. I want to ask you, you said it was you praised the secret service, but then you said the man had ties to isis. Turned out to be a hoax. Did you go over the top there on that . Where did you no, no. He was if you look on the internet, if you look into clips turned out to be a hoax. Somebody made that up, sir. He had talk well, i dont know what they made up. All i can do is play whats there. He was walking dragging the American Flag on the ground. Is that a correct statement . Was that a hoax too . Well, that was he just dragging it along . Im talking about the isis tweet. You didnt see the clip. Were playing the clip right now. You didnt see the clip. He was playing arabic music. He was dragging the flag along the ground and he had internet chatter with isis and about isis. So i dont know if he was or not, but all we did was put out what he had on his internet. Hes dragging the flag, the American Flag, which i respect obviously more than you. He was dragging the American Flag on the ground like it was a piece of garbage. Okay. I dont like that. And a lot of people dont like that. And he also had chatter about isis or with isis. And you take a look at it. I mean, people are looking at it very seriously now, but you have to check it before you ask the question. We have checked it, thats my point, sir. Theres no ties to isis for this man. No Law Enforcement official. And this video that you link to appears to be a hoax. Okay. Well, was it a hoax that hes dragging the flag . Was that him . It looked like the same man to me. He was dragging a flag along the ground. And he was playing a certain type of music. And supposedly there was chatter about isis. Now, i dont know. What do i know about it . All i know is whats on the internet. And i dont like to see a man dragging the American Flag along the ground in a mocking fashion. All right. I want to marco rubio said some pretty tough things about you yesterday. I want to play it and get you to react to it on the other side. He doesnt want to say anything to his supporters because he doesnt want to turn them off. Because he understands the reason why they are voting for him is because hes tapped into this anger. When the person youre supporting for president is going around saying things like go ahead and slap him around, ill pay your legal fees, what do you thinks going to happen next . Someones going to actually literally believe it and take it upon themselves. Marco rubio right . Are you afraid to tell your supporters to back off . Look, first of all, marco rubio has the worst voting record in the United States senate in many, many years. He doesnt even show up to vote. Hes defrauded the people of florida. He wont even show up to vote. And i want to tell you, for him to be talking like that is absolutely a shame. I have great support. I have great supporters far greater than you understand. The fact is if you look at the if you look at the polls going in for the primaries. Yeah. If you look and the caucuses. Were up 65 and 70 . Some are up 102 . Millions and millions of people are energized. Theyre going and voting. By the way, thats not for marco rubio and not for lying ted cruz, thats for trump. Theyre there voting for trump. Okay. Because they want to see america be made great again. I understand that. But i want to button this up a little bit. This violence on the campaign trail, its got a lot of people concerned. And i guess, why wont you go up on stage and ratchet it back . Youve used rhetoric about islam hates us, surveillance of certain mosques, calling mexican immigrants rapists. What did you expect . A lot of people say youre reaping what you sow here, that the reason you have so much violence at rallies is you use the rhetoric. The reason theres tension at my rallies is that these people are sick and tired of this country being run by incompetent people that dont know what theyre doing on trade deals where our jobs are being ripped out of our country, chuck. Theyre being ripped out. On isis where we cant even beat isis with our military. Our militarys not being taken care of. We cant even beat isis. On our vets who are being treated horribly, frankly theyre being treated worse than illegal immigrants. The people are angry at that. Theyre not angry about something im saying. Im just a messenger. The people are angry about the fact that for 12 years the workers in this country havent had a pay increase, chuck, in 12 years they havent had an effective pay increase. So you will not call for ratcheting back the rhetoric . You will not call for it . Well, i havent said anything that im just expressing my opinion. What have i said thats wrong . I mean, i talk about illegal immigration, i talk about building a wall, i say mexicos going to pay for the wall, which they will. And all of these things. I mean, what have i said thats wrong . You tell me. The fact is theyre really upset with the way our country is being run. Its a disgrace. I will leave it there. Mr. Trump, stay safe on the trail. Well watch you tuesday. Thank you, sir. Thank you. It would be fair to say that tuesday is make or break for my next guest, Ohio Governor john kasich. He needs to win his home state of ohio to deal a blow to donald trump, and the signs are good for him this morning with the latest poll giving the governor a fivepoint lead. Governor kasich, welcome back to meet the press. Thanks, chuck. Always great to be with you. Well, let me just start with whats been the dominant theme over the last 72 hours. You yesterday went out of your way to criticize donald trump for creating the toxic environment that it appears to have engulfed this campaign over the last 72 hours in his own rallies. How can you still sit there and say youll support him if hes the nominee if he is creating a toxic environment like this . I got to think you seem to be struggling with this. Well, its tough. I mean, but hes not going to be the nominee, chuck. I mean, as you know im ahead in ohio. Im going to win ohio with the great support, i hope, of the ohio folks here who i think are going to help me to take the message and the formula thats helped to fix ohio, improve ohio, to washington. And, you know, its tough. I mean, i just listened to the last minute of this interview. Its everything is negative. Everything is americas losing and were terrible and i mean, come on. Were not were doing look, we got our challenges. People are worried about the security of their job, worried about the wages, worried about not getting any interest in the bank, worried about their kids future. But we can fix these things. Weve been through far tougher situations before. The depression, world war ii, 9 11. We can fix this. And, you know, i walk into a room and i tell people we can get this done by remembering were americans before were republicans and democrats. And conservative principles can fix this thing. Of course its a struggle. You know, i have to say, yesterday you said hes close to disqualifying himself. What more does he have to do to disqualify himself . Lets see what happens. The last debate everything settled down. Remember, ive been calling for i dont know how many debates for people to put our their vision and be positive. And it was moving in the right direction. Lets see. Hes not going to be the nominee, chuck. I have to tell you, its not going to happen. By the way, how does it happen for you . Weve done the math. You will go onto win ohio. You need 112 of the remaining delegates to get to the magic number. Yeah. Now, i wasnt a math major, but thats mathematically impossible. So how do you get there . Obviously it has to be a contested convention, right . Well, look, theres 1,000 delegates yet to pick, is my understanding. And dont be surprised if i go to the convention with the largest number of delegates. Is it likely that well have to have some sort of a multiballot convention . Its probably likely, but you never know in politics, chuck. You know that. Whats true today is not necessarily true tomorrow. All im doing is telling people ive helped to create over 400,000 jobs in ohio, were running surpluses, wages are going up faster than the National Average. I did it in washington. And i want to go back and do it one more time. Thats what i want to do. And thats what im focused on. Now, obviously this whole thing contested convention not only hinges on you doing well in ohio, it may hinge on rubio doing well in florida. Heres what marco rubio said about you yesterday. Clearly john kasich is has a better chance of winning ohio than i do. And if a voter in ohio concludes that voting for john kasich gives us the best chance to stop donald trump there, i anticipate thats what they will do. And as you know his campaign went onto say theyre encouraging their supporters to do that in ohio. Why arent you reciprocating and asking your supporters in florida to do the same thing for marco rubio . Well, chuck, first of all, my voters are not like robots where i can say go do something, okay. How do you run for office and tell people to vote for somebody else . But lets be clear. Im not in florida. In fact, i tried to call marco last night to wish him good luck. I couldnt get him, but look you want him to win florida . You want marco rubio to win florida . Id like to win florida. I dont see its in the cards like it is im going to win ohio. Fair enough. But look, the bottom line is i dont go telling people what they should do and particularly when theyre for me, go support somebody else. If that was the case, that doesnt make sense to me, okay . Fair enough. Is your campaign now working actively with other campaigns, ted cruz and marco rubio, for strategies to deny Trump Delegates . Are you at that faze of this campaign yet . No, if its going on, im unaware of it. Because heres why, chuck, this is not class president. This is commander in chief and leader of the free world. I mean, ive got the Foreign Policy experience and the success and the domestic policy experience and the success to be able to help lift this country, bring people together. So all this to me thats just, you know, stuff thats way out here. Im more focused on giving people some hope that america can get its spirit back. All right. Governor john kasich, im going to leave it there. Stay safe on the trail. Thank you. Tuesdays going to be fascinating. All right. Chuck, thank you. You got it. When we come back, how much is donald trump to blame for the violence at his rallies . And later, ted cruz says donald trump, quote, affirmatively encourages violence. Ill ask him about that and more in just a few minutes. Brought to you by welcome back. The panel is here. Alex, veteran republican strategist who of course has worked for the doles of the world, the bushes, mitt romney. He is the republican establishment right now. Anne garrett, Political Correspondent at the washington post, Doris Goodwin and conservative radio talk show host hugh hewitt. Im going to start with you, doris. How did we get to where chicago friday night for a brief period looked like chicago 68 . It not only looked like chicago 68 but chicago 1912, clubs and baseball bats in front of the room to n