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good afternoon. i'm chris matthews in washington. well, president obama has made his choice, judge merrick garland nominated today for the supreme court. and now the pressure is on senate republicans, many of them still saying they won't even consider a nomination or a confirmation, with less than a year left in the obama presidency. >> i have fulfilled my constitutional duty. now it's time for the senate to do theirs. >> it's the senate's constitutional right to act as a check on a president and withhold its consent. action on a supreme court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over. >> well, joining me now is nbc news justice correspondent, pete williams. pete, thank you. let me just ask you this, can

you answer the political question, maybe it's procedural, why are they not going ahead, at least with meeting all the majority members, and especially judiciary members, meeting with the nominee, perhaps holding some hearings and perhaps even holding a vote. the chances of them getting 60 votes for this confirmation is unlikely. >> even 50 votes could be tough. i think the answer to the question is that they decided, what the republican leadership has decided today, said that this decision has already been made. because they believe that it should be the next president's choice and that they want the people to vote and to decide who the next president is, and the next president to make this decision of who should fill antonin scalia's vacancy. there's just no point in doing this now. they simply say, it's not personal, it's not directed at merrick garland. it wouldn't matter who the senate was confronted with as a nominee. they're not just going to consider any of them. and that's why many of them say, chris, they won't even personally meet with him.

some republican senators say they will meet with him starting tomorrow, but many say they won't do that. >> let's listen to josh earnest now, the president's spokesperson. let's listen. >> it certainly is not appropriate for anybody in the united states senate to suggest that they're going to use politics as an excuse to not do their job. >> how far have we gotten into an eighth year of a president where we've had a confirmation that begins with a nomination in the eighth year? what is the precedent here? >> well, it has happened in the past, where the senate doesn't confirm somebody when there's a vacancy in the final year of a president's term, a president who's not running for re-election. it has happened before. but there are examples on both sides here. the contrary argument to what the republicans are saying, of course, is that the people -- the republicans say they want the people to have a voice. the contrary argument is that they do have -- they did have a voice. they elected barack obama. well, i think what's really going on here is, let's face it,

this is a vacancy of antonin scalia. it seems likely that if president obama, a democrat, were filling a vacancy of a liberal justice on the court, we wouldn't be going through this. but because there's the prospect here that president obama can shift the ideological makeup of the court, that raises the stakes, and that's one of the reasons why you're seeing what you're seeing. the republicans say, we go back to a speech that joe biden made when he was senate judiciary chairman in 1992, in which he raised the prospect of not confirming a supreme court nominee in a presidential election year. less noted by the republicans is that a short time later, strom thurmond, the ranking republican on senate judiciary came to the floor and said, no, there shouldn't be an election year exception. >> i just love the way these rules come up. the hastert rule, the biden rule. it becomes cemented into history, because somebody said something. >> well, the hastert rule was actually employed. i don't think the biden rule has actually ever been employed. at least since he enunciated it

in 1992. >> now it's been voiced as if it's part of the bible. thank you for coming on today. >> you bet. >> with the battle lines already drawn, there's no question it will be a struggle for president obama to get this senate to vote on and improve its nomination of merrick garland. joining me now is another veteran covering the supreme court, nbc's kelly o'donnell. kelly, this is fraught with so much effort at finding precedent. first of all, there's the biden rule. the first time the republicans have ever taken joe biden's voice as the rule of the day, but they certainly have here. i think we lost -- i guess we lost kelly. this is going to be tough tonight, or today, actually. and so we have a situation here, politico -- now kelly o'donnell rejoins us with greatness. thank you, kelly. >> reporter: so i just learned -- >> go ahead, i'm sorry. >> reporter: i've just learned that mitch mcconnell spoke by telephone to merrick garland to talk about what you and pete were just discussing, the impasse between republicans and

the white house and senate democrats over his nomination to the supreme court. i'm told that majority leader mcconnell explained to judge garland that he would not be getting a hearing and that they would not move forward with his nomination and confirmation process and that mitch mcconnell would also decline to meet him personally, but they had this telephone call today, so that mcconnell could try to explain his position. as you were just saying, democrats are certainly going to meet with judge garland and a handful of republicans are also willing to meet, but are not saying that they would support the process to try to install him on the supreme court at this time. it is personal politics in so many ways. in addition to the way the court majority would shift with this, that is certainly at the core of it. but it also comes down to the individual re-elections of about a third of the senate is up every cycle, and there are a

handful of those. republicans who are in really difficult re-election fights. and for them, it will certainly be a big issue. so the new development is mitch mcconnell has reached out personally, but the news he had for judge garland was certainly not one of welcoming, but one of explaining why they think he'll stay on the circuit that he is right now. >> you're the expert. do the republicans control the procedure completely in the senate? >> reporter: they do. they control the committee that would have to do the vetting process. there's normally a very long sort of interview process, that is done on paper and in person. a very long sort of questionnaire that goes deep into the background of a supreme court justice nominee. although merrick garland has already been approved to the federal bench, this goes further. and because republicans have control over that, they can stop it there, and they also control the senate floor, and that is

where any nomination is voted on. and mitch mcconnell has the ultimate power on this. chris? >> i guess elections matter, don't they? thank you, kelly o'donnell, for joining us. joining me right now is caroline frederickson, she was at the nomination in the rose garden today. thank you, caroline. >> thanks so much for having me. >> give us a sense. it looks like the president is challenging the senate now. he says, okay, you say you don't want to meet with the person, i'm going to present him anyway. so does judge garland have to sit in the senate barbershop and wait for the senators to come in and say, guess what, i'm here. boo. he can't force a meeting. >> you can't, but you've already seen a number of republicans who have started to break with their leadership and say, it's their job to meet with judge garland. it's their job to actually begin the process. and i think we'll see more and more of that happening. because i think the position that they've staked out, that senator mcconnell has staked out

is simply untenable, and it's inconsistent with the constitutional dictates and the precedence of the senate. >> let me just question this, since i know politics. suppose mcconnell just releases the five or so, maybe more, the handful of senators that are worried about re-election, because they're from moderate states, for example. pat toomey, rob portman from ohio. people from reasonable states who may think this is unreasonable, right? so he lets them go meet with the nominee. but he holds fast. that would seem like the usual trick. >> it would be a usual trick, but i think here, where we have the vast majority of the american public, we had, just saw -- >> do you think mitch mcconnell cares? >> he may not care, but others of his colleagues may start to care more and more. and as they look at the presidential election and they see the direction, they may worry that leaving it open -- >> let's talk about precedent. here's senator orrin hatch, who is an interesting guy to watch. he's a real institutionalist. let's watch orrin hatch of utah.

>> the senate has never, never confirmed a nominee to the supreme court, to a supreme court vacancy that opened up this late in a term-limited president's time in office. this is only the third vacancy in nearly a century to occur after the american people had already started voting in a presidential election. >> is he talking about ford and kennedy? i'm trying to think about confirmations and nominations in the last year of a presidency. >> well, there have been, just recently, or fairly recently, anyway, in the life of a supreme court justice, anthony kennedy was confirmed in the last year of president reagan's presidency. six justices have been confirmed in the past hundred years, in the last year of a presidency. it's a preposterous notion that somehow the president only has seven years in his term. and people wonder, why do the senators get to have a role, once they're in the last year of a term? that's just not how our politics

works. >> that's an interesting point. you're giving a good touche here, aren't you? thank you so much. you know this stuff. i'm sure we'll have you back several times. this is not going away. thank you, carolyn frederickson. turning now to the breaking news from paris, where four people, three men and one woman were arrested, suspected of carrying out terror attacks, new terrorist attacks in paris. the daily beast foreign editor and msnbc contributor christopher dickey is in paris following this story. chris, thanks. what's this got to do with what happened in paris this fall, this past fall. >> reporter: well, it has to do with a crackdown this has been taking place since the events in november, when 130 people were mixtu massacred in this city. and it comes on the heels of an incident yesterday where investigators who were still following up on the november 13th attacks were knocking on doors in brussels and knocked on the doors of a couple of bad actor who is opened fire on

them. one of the guys with a kalashnikov were killed. the four people were slightly wounded in the incident. that raised the level of tension. and now we wake up basically to the news that at dawn this morning, four people were arrested, right on the outskirts of the city, one of whom may well have been in communication with the so-called islamic state and may have been planning another attack here in the city. >> are they french nationals? >> reporter: yes, they are. although, from immigrant backgrounds. >> i see. well, bad news, again. thank you so much, chris dickey in paris. well, still ahead, after sweeping the democratic primaries last night, hillary clinton is one step closer, i would say a big step closer to the nomination. sweeping all of them yesterday, all five. five for five in one day. so what's bernie sanders' next move? that's a great question. but first, will the fight for the republican nomination be settled before the delegates head to cleveland? and we'll be right back. ♪

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endorsement from florida governor rick scott. after last night's big wins in florida, north carolina, illinois, and missouri, trump has 666 delegates now, which is more than halfway to the number needed to win the gop nomination. joining me right now is nbc's katy tur, who has been following the trump campaign. katy, it's always great to see you. and i was wondering, is there a new mood, a new mood, perhaps, in the trump campaign? something in the fickle nature of that man's emotions that suggests he's happy now? or is he still somewhat -- i

think he's been looking angry lately. your thoughts? >> he has been looking angry lately, i think you're totally right. it's a bit of a defiant mood in the trump campaign. yesterday they had what was billed as a press conference, where we normally ask the candidate questions after he gives a shortish speech. and instead of taking any questions, he just abruptly left. we asked the campaign why we weren't allowed to ask any questions, and they said that they were never -- that no one ever said there would be questions, number one. and number two, if mr. trump feels like taking questions, he will take questions. i asked why he didn't feel like taking questions last night. perhaps was it an indication that he was upset about ohio and i got no answer for that question. but i think that -- >> what is a press conference without a press question? do you just walk into the room and say the emperor will now speak to the people, listen closely and take note. >> reporter: let me tell you something. i interviewed his butler yesterday, i spoke to his

butler, and his butler told me that in order to get him into a good mood, he was in a bad mood one day, and he got out of the car in mar-a-lago, this gorgeous estate, and the butler ended up playing "hail to the chief" to get him in a good mood, and it worked. and i think that's who trump is. he needs to have that sort of attention paid to him, that sort of attention paid to his ego. and last night was a really good example of it, chris. there were 16 rows in front of the press for quote/unquote supporters. they were mar-a-lago members. this is the glitterati at its finest, women in ball gowns, diamonds dripping from their ears. i said last night that i haven't been in a room with that many diamonds in my life. i was wrong, the only time when i was in a room with that many diamonds when i was looking at the crowned jewel in england. this was a room of people

dedicated to trump because they've been longtime trump fans and longtime trump friends. and what i found really interesting about last night, and this is kind of offtopic, but i want to tell this story. this is a roomful of people who are multimillionaires, perhaps some more than that. donald trump is a billionaire. he's appealing to people in this country who are not that at all. and i asked his friend, his longtime friend, why he thinks that is. and he said, deep down, they know that donald trump just like them. chris? >> he always complains about the media, the networks not scanning the audience with cameras. you notice that? but he doesn't mind it down there. he doesn't want these people to be seen, apparently. >> reporter: it's -- >> i was thinking about you haven't seen that many diamonds since you were a south african show. you have got to write a book, katy tur. you have got to write a book. this is a show for the seasons. katy tur, who's been following donald trump since this thing began. shifting now to ted cruz, he's trailing front-runner donald trump now by more than 250 delegates, after not having won

a state last night out of five. is the nomination at all within reach for the texas senator? joining me no to answer that question is nbc's hallie jackson, who's in houston for us covering the cruz campaign. hallie, thank you so much. your sense of what the shutout did to cruz last night? >> to be honest, chris, the campaign expected potentially to not pick up a state. they would have liked to have won missouri, especially when it got close down to the wire last night. but looking forward, they said, even before, i think we talked about this last night. even before we started seeing results, if they had been within 250 delegates, they would consider that a good night. and that's about where they are. why do they consider that a good night? because of how they see the calendar moving forward. they're looking at closed primaries. a bit of a cautionary note. some of their modeling relies on cruz doing extraordinarily well in places you wouldn't think he might, in places like new jersey, like some of these congressional districts in new

york. the cruz campaign feels like they can pick off district by district these delegates and keep the race close, potentially locking it up june 7th, when you go into south dakota, when you go into california, where they think they're going to do well. if not, they're preparing for a contested convention. i can tell you in the 24 hours alone, there have been three state meetings, looking at delegate strategy, making sure that they have their slates locked and loaded. cruz today may be getting an endorsement. we're hearing reports now that nikki haley is telling a charleston paper that she's backing senator cruz. and she's telling them, when asked if she would support the eventual republican nominee, she says, ask me when the time comes, but as of now, i strongly believe i will support the republican nominee. the only thing i can say now is my hope and my prayer that senator cruz can come through this. that's who privately i'm fighting for. we've reached out to the cruz campaign and we will keep you posted. >> hallie jackson down in houston. still ahead, will republicans rally around donald trump now? or a third-party candidate. this is a big question that's

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house speaker paul ryan throwing cold water on the prospect of becoming the savior candidate in the gop. in an interview with cnbc's john harwood, ryan said he would not accept the nomination at a contested convention. let's listen to him. >> i actually think you should run for president, if you want to be president. i'm not running for president. i made that decision consciously not to. i don't see that happening, i'm not thinking about it. i'm happy where i am. so, no. >> don't intend to do it. you're not making a sherman statement about that, though? >> you know, i haven't given any thought to this. people say, what about the contested convention? i say, well, there are a lot of people running for president, we'll see. >> that was a meeting called in between the two shamrocks. sitting with john harwood there, the speaker of the house. let me bring in jane newton

small. author of "broad influence: how women are changing the way america works," and jay with politico. this is a fascinating question. this shopping around for somebody who hasn't run in the primaries is so unusual. it's hard to even talk about it. >> and it would just light the party on fire. it's not even a possibility, i think. i was speaking with lindsey graham on monday and i asked him about the possibility of paul ryan potentially coming in and lindsey graham said, absolutely not. >> and he can't stand trump. >> right, he said, i love paul ryan, i can't stand donald trump. >> so what's lindsay solution to the republican conundrum, which is you have a guy, in this case trump, who will have certainly the most delegates. he may have the majority. if he's just a little short, 100 or so, can you give it to someone who has no delegates? >> he said, absolutely, you cannot do it. he said, either, if there is a contested convention, and he said there's a good possibility of having one, you have to pick

amongst the people, like lindsey graham himself, who threw their hats in the ring, who have some delegates, who have potentially some votes for them, and pick amongst those people. there's no way you can bring a total insider in. that would burn down the party. it would split the party. you would have donald trump splitting off, having potentially a third party. and how do you run that nominee against hillary clinton in less than three months' time. it's almost impossible. >> shane, if nothing happens between now and cleveland, when the republicans meet, something that explains why we don't follow the regular order, as most people have understood this for more than 60 years, how do you explain it if nothing happens, trump doesn't say something so incredibly bad that it just takes him out of -- >> and what is that? >> i have no idea. i thought i have heard it many times. but if he does go through the trip wire and say something, my god, "i hate america," what would it take? how would they say he didn't win it fair and square? >> there is a huge part of the republican party that is not willing to accept donald trump as their standard-bearer. so they are working to deny him that number, 1,237, and they

think if they get him short of that, this is something that's a party apparatus. this is a party event and they can prevent -- >> well, potentially they could do it if they could find a candidate who beat him in the primaries. and they can't. >> that's the problem. no one they wanted was able to beat him and they're stuck with ted cruz. ted cruz may be one of the few candidates in america that the republican party is not fully willing to coalesce around as an alternative to donald trump. >> and the republican party created the problem to themselves because they won't unite one person against him. >> so what's going to happen? you guys describe the situation, but no conclusion. >> lindsey graham basically say, we lose the white house. that's what's going to happen. >> let me ask you the conundrum question really at the heart of this. would they rather not win with trump? >> this is a question i've asked a lot of republicans. would you rather have donald trump win or lose in a general election? and it depends on where people come from in the party. a lot of folks say, if he's the nominee, he's going to define the republican party for years

to come, whether they want him to or not. >> let me run through the three categories. you guys can play this game. neocons, the real hawks. they can't stand trump, because he says, i'm going to take an evenhanded position on the middle east. they say, that is an anathema. >> and he speaks muscularly about foreign policy, but when you drill down, he's not a neoconservative -- >> he's an isolationist. >> and that's his appeal to a lot of people. and what about the evangelicals, are they going to buckle down and pick a guy who is clearly secular in his life. >> this is what people are getting together in d.c. saying, can we unite with ted cruz in the next two month to stop donald trump from getting the anonymo nomination, and if not, can we put forward a social conservative candidate? we're talking about different ways the republican party could fracture this year. >> this is fascinating. and not in a happy sense, unless you're hillary clinton. it's fun to watch if you're hillary clinton. >> sitting pretty and watching it. she can pick up women, she can

pick up neocons. >> i'm ancient. you know what it feels like, 1964. when johnson walked into the white house as an elected president because the other side was just so in trouble. jane newton small and shane goldmacher. up next, merrick garland is the president's pick to be the next supreme court justice, but will republicans play ball? plus, senator chuck schumer weighs in here. and we're going to talk about that, plus the state of this year's presidential election, which is pretty darned murky right now.

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aleve pm is the only one to combine a sleep aid plus the 12-hour strength of aleve... for pain relief that can last into the morning. and now... i'm back. aleve pm for a better am. we're following breaking news, of course. president obama named his pick to become the next supreme court justice, replacing the late antonin scalia. and the white house is already working to turn this nomination into a confirmation, but with strong opposition from the republican senate leadership. it will not be easy. msnbc chief legal correspondent, ari melber, has gone through

many of judge garland's opinions. ari, what can you tell us about how this guy's ruled? >> well, not much is the honest answer, chris, and i'll tell you why. if you're looking at a portrait of merrick garland, it's mostly made up of negative space. all that space around the guy in the portrait. after 19 years on the federal bench, you know how important the d.c. circuit is, chris, it oversees all this federal stuff and fights between the branches, this is a very careful jurist. let me walk through a couple of highlights. if you look on domestic policy, i can tell you that he sides with the federal agencies in some of those battles they mentioned. he often sides against criminal defendants who appeal their convictions. he is a former prosecutor, of course. he did vote for additional review of a ruling against handgun control in washington, d.c., and he's also typically ruled for first amendment protections, but within the precedent. i'll point out two other things, chris. on national security, which is also an issue on these matters and especially for the d.c. circuit, he ruled against the cia when they were claiming what he called excessive secrecy for

that drone program. they were basically saying they couldn't even confirm or deny the existence of the program. and chris, he said, hey, guys, that's ridiculous. we all know drones exist. you've got to show a little more leg. and finally, when you look at these issues around guantanamo, he sided with the bush administration, initially, saying there wasn't going to be habeas review. essentially, petitions within the united states for those detainees. that was seen then as a big win for the bush administration, but that was reversed by the supreme court. what i just walked you through, chris, some of it sounding dry, is the biggest highlights on a lot of other cases. he has just huge precedent and what some would call a judicial minimalist. keeping things narrow and careful and not doing sweeping rulings. >> what was the remedy in the drone case? what did it end up being? what was the implication of his ruling. >> the implication was, you have to at least explain why you're being so secretive, even if you don't give up the goods. he said, you're playing too fast

and loose. and that is a middle ground he often strikes. in other words, he's not giving freebies to the federal government, but he's not going out like an aclu liberal saying, hey, open kimono. this is a guy who time and time again has been careful. and you know, chris, from following the courts, most people who have been on for 19 years aren't considered big nominees, because they have too much of a paper trail. his paper trail has been careful. >> and the question that's always on my mind, if you bring those prisoners from guantanamo back, and you can't try them, because you don't have the evidence for whatever reason, but you know they're dangerous, what about habeas there? wouldn't an aclu lawyer be able to spring a person like that, because they haven't been indicted? >> that's exactly right. if you afford full rights that we give to persons in the americas, within the country, what you're saying is, if you don't have a good reason to hold them, you've got to let them go. and that's some of the practical or national security reasons why people say, hey, gitmo's a little different. but if i could make a final point, what he was doing at the time was following what he thought was the precedent. and that's why the president has

said, this is a careful nominee. he wasn't doing what justice scalia and others have done saying, we've got to do this new and different. he always goes back to, what do we think the law says, let's keep it as minimalist as possible. >> top-drawer reporting from ari melber. for more on the congressional reaction from president obama's supreme court pick, let's bring in capitol hill correspondent, luke russert. i'm fascinated by this. let's skip the legal mumbo jumbo here. obama seems to be gunning for five senate seats. it seems like he's forcing these people of ayotte and toomey in pennsylvania and kirk, tough guys. you can't come out and meet with this nominee and pretending you're not just doing cya here. your leadership has to go along you or your guys are in the hot seat. that's my view, what's yours? >> what president obama's doing with this pick, chris, is really challenging them, saying, i'm offering you somebody who is really a conciliatory selection. somebody who, in any different

time, you would not only grab on to, but you would help usher through, because at least on paper, he's a lot less liberal than sotomayor or kagan was, when they came up here on capitol hill and were eventually confirmed. it's interesting, are the republicans were last month, we're not going to have any meetings, any hearings, we're not going to have anything, no way about it. this is not personal, but it's about the policy, we're just going to hold on to it. now you're starting to see some cracks there. ayotte saying she would be open to a meeting. kirk saying he would be open to a meeting. mcconnell, though, however, chris. he had a conversation on the phone with garland, and he said that all i'm going to do is talk to you on the phone. good luck with your nomination, but i will not have a meeting with you. saying it was nothing more than a political exercise. so mcconnell slamming the door, figuratively, in garland's face. so interesting to see how it moves forward. but you remember well, bjork for

all the animosity democrats had towards him, he got a hearing and a vote on the floor. it went down, but he did get both of those. >> can you tell how much of a dog and pony show the white house will put on with judge garland. are they going to take him to all the sunday shows? all the legal departments -- law schools around the country. how long an effort and big and national an effort are they going to take to put the pressure on the republican senate? >> well, they said he would like to have a confirmation vote by may 25th. so ostensibly, i think between now and then, you'll see them parade this guy around. because as ari showed you with his record, there's not a lot public there, and you can say this is a conciliatory, compromise, consensus pick. >> great reporting. luke russert, thank you, sir. let's bring in the democratic senator of new york, the majority, actually, the rank, member of the new york delegation, thank you. also a member of the senate judiciary committee. senator, it looks like the president is shoving it back in their court, saying, he's no

philosophical danger to you people. give him a hearing. >> yeah, well, i think that's right. i think what he's saying is, if you can't accept this guy, you can't accept anybody. i've bent over backwards to choose a mainstream person who has good things said about him by republicans, like orrin hatch, good things said about him by conservative chief justice, justice roberts. you must be against everybody if you're against him. there's almost nothing you can hang your hat on as to why you would oppose him. >> but isn't this like putting an ice cream cone in the face of pat toomey and portman and all those guys that are up for re-election and endangered. now they have to ensure their leadership. >> well, we've seen the ice beginning to crack, chris. today, six republican senators said they would meet with judge garland, including kelly ayotte. before today, no one was going to meet with him. that's the first step. and i think the pressure is going to be so large.

these people go home, and there are people outside all their meetings, holding up signs saying "do your job," and they don't have any good answer as to why not. if they want to hear the person and give a very convincing reason to vote no, that's one thing. saying, i won't even talk to the person, every single week the poll numbers have gone up and up and up. so the way this is going to happen is not mcconnell giving in first. he always gives into the hard right who want nothing better than to have a hard right supreme court, that's their number one goal. but either chuck grassley, chairman of judiciary, who are getting a lot of heat back home, not just from their editorial pages, from a lot of republican leaders have said this, and they will crack. and i think the likelihood is we will have hearings and a vote. i can't predict how this will come out. but you know these hearings are sort of magical.

if the nominee comes off very well, they get appointed and confirmed and we've had that. two democrats and two republicans, the last four justices on the court, two by democrat, two by republican, both approved by bipartisan majorities. the hard right's approved that once there are hearings, a guy like garland will get on, but i believe there are going to be hearings. and there's one other point, chris. that is this. now that trump looks like the front-runner, a lot of people are going to say, i don't want donald trump choosing my nominee. let's go with this guy. i think republicans might say that. >> what would you the -- you're the smartest guy on the hill, as far as i'm concerned. >> thank you. >> what were you do you were stuck in a position as one of these republicans from moderate states, purple states, lake toomey. by the time it comes to november, he's going to be hit constantly by the smart suburbanites, especially the people who read the paper, "the times" and the philly enquirer, they're going to know all about this topic and pounding this guy they didn't dislike until now. how do you get mitch mcconnell to save --

>> i think you go to mitch mcconnell on hand and knee and say, this could cause my defeat. let's at least have a hearing, and if we vote no, we vote no. the problem with that is, it's going to be -- with this nominee, the president was very, very smart. with this nominee, it's going to be hard for them to figure out a reason to vote no. and what's interesting is, he's gotten broad support among democrats, even sort of the very, very progressive-type blogs have been quite positive about him today. so you have the democratic base behind this guy. you have the republican electorate saying, have a hearing. you have toomey stuck. he's going to have to go to mcconnell and say, we've got to have a hearing. >> you know -- >> and not just toomey. toomey as an example. today ayotte was one of those six senators who said, at least i'll sit down and talk with him. >> that's smarter. >> first step. >> by the way, when you talk about the net roots on the left, you've pointed out the fact that sometimes the hardest people to please are those on your side

philosophically. they're the ones that always hold you to a higher standard. thank you, chuck schumer. take care. a big night for hillary clinton last night. it seems a long time ago. she continues to rack up delegates, five for five last night in the fights. but where does that leave bernie sanders' campaign right now? more coverage of the 2016 election coming up next.

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well, it was a breakaway evening for hillary clinton last night as she silenced the doubters, i think. anyway, clinton beat bernie sanders in every state, five for five, with strong showings in florida, north carolina, and ohio. she even won by thin margins in states, i'm not sure they thought they were going to win. illinois and especially missouri. last night's key wins gives clinton about a 700-delegate lead in the race against senator sanders. let me bring in kristen welker who's been following the clinton campaign today. so how do they look at it? >> they are relieved and they're thrilled. last night, there were celebrations breaking out in brooklyn, in west palm, where i was, with secretary clinton late last night and early this morning. and here's why, chris, exactly what you said. they were not prepared to have the significant win they had. they thought maybe they would eke out a win in ohio. but she had a convincing win in ohio and she had those late-night, overnight wins in missouri and illinois.

they were stunned. they couldn't believe it. and look, what it does is -- there were big question marks surrounding her strength as the front-runner. i think those convincinining wi sort of put that to rest. if she does take on a donald trump in the general election. and she sort of puffed out her chest last night in a way we haven't heard before, talked about her delegate lead. because she has more delegates and a larger delegate lead than barack obama ever had in 2008 over her. take a listen to a little bit of what she had to say. >> our campaign has earned more votes than any other candidate, democrat or republican. and i want to congratulate senator sanders for the vigorous campaign he's waging. >> so, chris, the odds very tough for senator sanders, but he's pressing on, by the way. >> well, when he takes shots at

her, knowing she's the probable nominee of the democratic party, he's not officially loyal to the democratic party. >> that's right. >> he's a social democrat. >> and that's the central question. he has been so aggressively attacking her in recent days. on trade, on her stances, flip flops on a number of issues. i think he dials it back gradually. look, he's going into arizona. he's all fired up for that. so is secretary clinton. i think he still has a pretty aggressive stance going into arizona, but i just think we're going to see him dial it back a little bit, particularly as we move into some of the later states. >> it's a hard state to read. a lot of retirees out there in the dry weather. >> the clinton campaign not feeling great about their chances there, by the way. >> something hillary had going for her last night, overcame the rahm emanuel problem, that association with the mayor of chicago. overcame the anger of people about losing jobs through trade. the whole thing, especially missouri, which is an anti-trade environment, and has been for decades. >> yes. >> she overcame all of that, and my theory, which i told you during the break, was donald trump. i think it brought the women out in droves.

they said, we are not going to stand for a country run by donald trump and they voted in the democratic primary. >> the clinton campaign thinks if donald trump is the nominee, it will rally the obama coalition in a way we're not even seeing right now. >> 1964 all over again, lyndon johnson. i hope she's a good lyndon johnson. a hawkish lyndon johnson. >> first we go to arizona. >> let me bring in msnbc's beth fooey, who's following the democratic race today, as well. >> yeah, chris. right now, at this hour, bernie sanders' top advisers are doing a conference call with reporters, mapping out the map ahead. it's really not great, as kristen said. there's a good chance he could win a number of contests coming up, arizona, the idaho contests. next tuesday we've got several as well. but frankly, the delegate map is probably out of his reach at this point, chris. the nbc political unit calculated he would neat to win 65% of all the vote left to come in order to match or surmount where secretary clinton is at this point. so, same thing that kristen said.

it's going to be a matter at this point of senator sanders moving forward in theory, yet pretty much dialing back his criticism and creedi iceding th to her as the likely democratic nominee. >> as they say in theater, what's his motivation now? >> he's a true believer, chris. he wants to keep those issues out there. he's got a huge, huge base of support and a lot of money. >> thank you so much. great reporting, beth fouhy. anyway, right now, here's susan li with the cnbc market wrap for today. >> yeah, the dow gained 74 points, the s&p adding 11, and the nasdaq up 35. that's because the federal reserve voting to keep its interest rates even now, citing too many economic pressures that might pose a serious risk to the economic industry. that's the latest from cnbc, first in business worldwide. ride the gel wave of comfort with dr. scholls massaging gel insoles. they're proven to give you comfort. which helps you feel more energized ...all day long.

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this is another super tuesday for our campaign. thank you, florida, thank you, north carolina. thank you, ohio! we are moving closer to securing the democratic party nomination and winning this election in november! >> hillary clinton last night, there she is after a triumphant tuesday, the democratic front-runner swept five out of five primary states last night. no one's done anything like that lately, in this year, in fact, including a double-digit upstate in the ultimate swing state, ohio. what a win it was for her in ohio last night.

joining me from, congressman tim ryan, thank you so much for joining. because you're a hell of a good source on what happened out there. the trade issue cuts so deeply into the hearts of the communities that you represent. people blame the government for bad trade policy, not necessarily technological change, but bad leadership, bad decision making. how did hillary clinton overcome that point of view? and beat bernie sanders. >> i think part of it is, trade is like the logo for all the economic distress. i don't think it's just trade, i think it's inequality, i think it's globalization, i do think it's technology. and we've had people coming through ohio for a long time, just talking about trade. what distinguished hillary clinton in this election, is that he talked about trade, but she also talked about the future. the future of manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, how to drive investment back in the coal country with all kinds of incentives, tax credits and what not. that's the future for us, chris. we don't want to have another long discussion about just nafta.

we want to have a conversation about what the future of ohio is and hillary clinton presented a really great plan for us. >> how does the democratic party, which you're a member of, and probably for many years, many family members have been in the past, how do you bring back the white working class into the democratic, as full members, not as afterthoughts? >> i think you speak right to the economic issues. we want a way home, chris. we want a path home. we know where we are. we know what the problems are, and a lot of candidates today just very articulately define the problem. we want a path home. that's what we do in youngstown. that's what they're doing in dayton and akron, and cleveland. we're the business incubators, we're the public/private partnerships. what research you doing at a local university that can spin itself out into job creation? that's the future of ohio, and that's what we want candidates talking about. so even if you you are are an old steel worker, you want to know what's next for you.

is it in additive manufacturing? is it making component parts do a clean energy plan with windmills? and here was the big issue, i think, that really helped hillary clinton. when she talked about clean energy, she didn't talk about it as a grand theory to address global warming, although that's very important. she talked about it in the context of, here's a windmill. a wind turbine. there are 8,000 component parts. there's a mile of rebar. there's a mile of concrete. there's gear shifts, there's hydraulics. that's what we do in ohio. we make that stuff. so, white working class people are going to hear that agenda and she's finally connecting the dots to the grand theory of how we address global warming and how it means manufacturing jobs in places like ohio. and i think that's why she won 55% of the union vote, for example, in ohio. >> bring it home, sir. great cause. i love that phrase, bring it home. anyway, thank you, congressman tim ryan of -- i guess the eastern part of ohio. anyway, that does it for this hour. i'm chris matthews.

mt p, that's "meet the press daily" with chuck todd starts right now. if it's wednesday, on the trail, it's a front-runner whose strength is destroying the very party he hopes to lead. and in washington, it's a supreme court story that finally has a face, as democrats dare republicans to dig in their heels. this is "mtp daily." we've got a wild one for you, and it starts right now. good evening. i'm chuck todd in washington. welcome to "mtp daily." we're going to dig into today's big supreme court news in a moment. but tonight, does the bell toll for the republican establishment? they've been on life-support for five years, and now it's possible, whatever this establishment is, has