hahaha, what? well we're always looking for developers who are up for big world changing challenges like making planes, trains and hospitals run better. why don't you check your new watch and tell me what time i should be there. oh, i don't hire people. i'm a developer. i'm gonna need monday off. again,ot my call. pledge? what pledge? good wednesday morning. i'm steve kornacki. the republican presidential candidates are no longer guaranteeing that they will support their own party's eventual nominee. all but throwing out that much-wanted loyalty pledge they had signed with such fanfare last year. ted cruz and john kasich both hinting last night that donald trump's comments and his behavior over the last few months could result in them pulling their support from him if he wins the nomination this

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 doesn't have to support me. i'm not asking for his support. do you continue to pledge who the nominee is? >> no, i don't anymore. >> you won't? >> you won't promise to support the republican nominee? >> he's essentially said the same thing. he doesn't 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 trump's 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. we're going to play for you what he had to say in just a minute. first, let's head out to the campaign trail. we have kelly o'donnell with donald trump. he's going to have an event at 11:00. that's where corey was charged

yesterday. halli je jackson. kelly, let's start with you. donald trump signed it last september. he said, i can't imagine anything that would make me tear it up. now he's tearing it up. it's not just donald trump either, kelly, it sounds like. >>. >> reporter: that's right. the other candidates who have watched him become the front-runner 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. we've 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 he's 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 wouldn't. 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. we're at a catholic liberal arts college where donald trump will have his rally later this morning. he's 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 doesn't believe the party has treated him fairly and keeping his doors open about how he'll conduct his campaign going forward. steve? >> all right. kelly o'donnell 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 didn't tell the truth. if you're president of the united states and a member of your staff, your chief of staff goes to the american people and publicly doesn't tell the truth in the way that core corey lewendowsky didn't tell the truth, would you put up with it? >> i don't know if it was that. i'll 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 protester's shirt collar and pull him back, the simple question and we've 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 woman's 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 there's 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 didn't 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

man's life? >> no, but we shouldn't destroy a reporter's life. will you or mr. -- >> she lied, matt. she wasn't thrown to the groujd. >> she didn't say she was thrown to the ground. >> she said she almost fell down and -- >> but she didn't almost fall down, matt. she didn't 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, you're going to be -- wow, your mouth is going to open. you're going to be screaming a little bit. she didn't 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? >> i'm not parsing her words. >> he says i didn't touch her, the video says he didn't 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. he's an honorable guy. he's a decent man. he has four beautiful kids and a wife in new hampshire.

these other candidates, they're weak. you should immediately get rid of him. for what? they want me to fire him. why? because of this incident. >> wouldn't an immediate apology on his part have taken care of this? wouldn't it have taken care of this if he had simply said, i'm sorry? >> i actually don't think so. i think she would have pressed charges anyway because i think she likes it. i think that's my opinion. maybe i'm wrong. if he called up if he said he's sorry, i think she would have used that against him. i'm not a believer in -- in that because, you know, i've heard that. call up. certainly if that could have happened he would have done that, but -- and i wasn't involved in that because i really heard about this -- i will tell you, i don't think -- i don't think anything would have happened. she just had a little bit better evidence. she has no evidence. this is going to be a disgrace. >> we'll agree to disagree on this. >> i don't 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. that's where lewandowsky was charged yesterday. he's saying he was innocent. he's fighting, trump is standing by him. tell us about the legal aspect of this, what exactly he's 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 here's 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. that's when prosecutors here can

decide whether they want to pursue this case, but legal experts that we've 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 that's why he felt it was necessary to try to come to his defense. so that's 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 attorney's office here in florida, steve, tells us that for a first-time 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. what's 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 we'll see that video a thousand times. jamie weinstein is my guest host and a good friend. he's the boyfriend of michelle fields. i don't 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. i'll do it for you. ted cruz said last night that john kasich can't 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 kasich's name from being put in the nomination to try and force a second ballot, two-person race. that's 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. romney's people invented it to keep ron paul off the ballot in a mythical romney re-election 2016. last night ted cruz said basically john kasich can't come to the floor. this morning we see john weaver, john kasich's very able, very talented campaign strategist tweeting out nasty things about ted cruz. so we're all focused on jupiter and donald trump. the other two people are fighting with each other. it's a massive head fake. >> that gets to an interesting strategic issue here. it's 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 you're 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 wouldn't

go to donald trump. it seems there's no real coordinated strategy. >> you're right, steve. it's a high-risk strategy. i've 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, that's the big story. it's not being covered because of the donald trump exchange with matt lauer and the other exchanges he's had this morning as he's dialed around, but the real news is what's going to happen between june 7th, the california primary, and july 18th when the republican convention convenes. there's a rules committee that will meet. the intrigue that's going on right now, no one's going to get to 1237. it's just not happening. and wisconsin, 18 delegates will be awarded to the statewide winner. that's probably going to be ted cruz. three delegates by eight districts each. that's probably all going to go to ted cruz. i think he's going to sweep the badger state. he's got the governor. he's got the conservative network. he's 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 what's going to happen in the best city in america, cleveland. right now it looks like they're going to run the political equivalent much the cleveland browns draft and have a disaster. we're going to have to wait and see what unfolds. right now it isn't looking good for the republicans. i'm one of them, but this is -- the jupiter thing and corey, that's not the major story today. the major story is that we're headed towards a contested convention. we're going to have to cover three concurrent vice presidential selection processes. it's 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 presidential candidate. we've never done anything like this before. it's 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, we're covering what ted cruz had to say about some strategic thinking that's 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. it's 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 they're also looking to contest that is have already happened. as we've 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. they've got organization on the ground. they've 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, it's a better position, they believe, if it's a two-man race between cruz and trump. there's 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. that's 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. we'll talk with two reporters here in new york about the clinton strategy, the race and about wisconsin. also, beer for breakfast. how about this? we're going to go back on the ground to wisconsin. it's a state that's known for cheese, it's known for the great lakes, it's also known for beer. we're going to go inside a brewery in wisconsin for an exclusive with the highest ranking government official in that state to back donald trump.

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we are kind of on a roll. our campaign has momentum. we have won six out of the last seven contests and with your help next week we'll make it seven out of eight! >> help me in the primary here

in wisconsin next week. help me when i become the democratic nominee, and help me -- help me keep the republicans out of the white house! >> that was hillary clinton not if but when she becomes the democratic presidential nominee. bernie sanders saying he has the momentum though heading into tuesday's big showdown in the badger state. for the latest on the battle in wisconsin, we're going to go live to msnbc's casey hunt. she is in the state capitol. she is in madison. sanders will be there to hold a rally. casey, good morning to you. we actually it sounds like have some news of hillary clinton maybe trying to lower expectations a bit in wisconsin. she was there last night for this speech. she's not there today. is the clinton campaign sensing trouble in getting out of town? >> hi, steve.

i it's pretty clear being on the ground here in wisconsin that bernie sanders does have momentum on his side. granted, this is the kind of place that is particularly suited to bernie sanders. you've covered some wisconsin politics. it has that long-standing progressive streak and you can sort of sense from the two differing campaign events that they've held here over the last couple of days that the excitement really is with sanders. hillary clinton held a big -- what was supposed to be a big get out the vote event in milwaukee a day or so ago. they had a couple hundred people turn out. bernie sanders held a rally in apple ton the other day. they had thousands of two overflow crowd areas set up. he was in milwaukee, a crowd of 4,000. even more people in the overflow. you can sense on the ground that the tide in many ways is at -- the wind is at his back, if you will. now that said, he also is leaving the badger state this week. he's going to be in pennsylvania

and then in new york so he, of course, is looking further down the line down the calendar, but the reality is if he does win wisconsin, he's going to come out of it with a narrative not that dissimilar from what happened after he won michigan, right? it's going to give him new life. it's not a caucus state. it's not a place that's out west. it's in the industrial midwest. it's closer to being the kind of state that he's going to have to start to win if he has a chance to actually close this delegate gap. now everything has to fall his way for that to happen. he has to win here. he has to do well, potentially win in new york and then show strength in places like pennsylvania. there's obviously a lot of questions about whether he's capable of doing that. that's certainly where they're hoping they can go. clinton, as you know, trying to switch to the general election. bernie sanders is aggressively arguing that he's the about tbe

candidate to take on donald trump. >> more on the democratic race, abby phillip is covering the clinton campaign. hillary clinton in new york. abbey, follow up on what we heard from casey. they're looking at wisconsin, sensing bad news could be coming and they're sort of preemptively trying to get out? >> absolutely. wisconsin is a state that reminds them of michigan. there are a lot of the same dynamics there. bernie sanders -- she went to madison a couple of days ago. i'm in bernie sanders territory. people have been asking me why i'm here. they want to be fighting for every vote. the state is very likely to be very close, pretty clean bernie sanders win at the end of the day. and a lot of that has to do with the college-aged population in wisconsin. the fact that democrats there are very progressive. it's the economic work belt in the midwest, a lot of union

members who lean towards bernie. those factors are not particularly favorable to her. >> without getting into another debate over a debate. after wisconsin, the campaign shifts to new york. bernie wants a debate. the clinton campaign said if you have to change your tone a little bit. bernie sanders was asked about that last night. let's play what he had to say. >> reporter: do you think she's serious about debating you? >> i certainly hope so. look, there are huge issues facing this country. our middle class is disappearing and in new york state there are additional problems so i would hope that we would have a good debate. my understanding is she would like to do it in brooklyn. i was born in brooklyn. let's do it. >> reporter: game on for brooklyn. >> game on. >> they are open to that. certainly not a commitment. from sanders point of view, let's say he could get this win in wisconsin next week. let's say a solid win there for him. where does he go then? what could he do to win the

nomination? >> this is the big question. math is still on clinton's side in a big, big way. even with these kinds of wins we're talking about, this momentum. this is sanders' magic elixir, momentum, momentum, momentum. it's not always delegate math, delegate math, delegate math. the campaign had a meeting and part of their strategy here is win states like wisconsin, win more places and then try to flip these super delegates to their side that are now supporting clinton or not supporting anybody yet. there are still a lot of kind of etherial floating around. it's a direct strategy to pick up more delegates. >> we mentioned the super delegates. i know this drives the sanders supporters nuts. it is a rule. these people get automatic votes at the convention. right now they are overwhelmingly saying, these super delegates, party leaders, overwhelmingly saying they want hillary clinton for this thing. they could change their mind,

but there is nothing more specific from the sanders people how they're going to make them change the mind. >> the specific way is what they say, look. your last segment was about the republican convention being contested. the sanders idea is if neither candidate goes in with enough delegates to win it outright with pledge delegates, the idea is turning on all of these voters from the big states and saying they're going to support hillary would be a tough sell. they're going to try to make that pressure case with all of the grassroots army trying to push those guys and women, delegates over to bernie sanders' side. it's a big, open question, right? the democratic establishment is not sold on bernie sanders still. so the idea they're going to flip to bernie is a tough one. >> abbey, are they frustrated? they're in a good position to win the nomination in the end. i've been talking to people, too, this morning. if you had said a year ago bernie sanders was going to wind up winning 20 states, winning 1800 delegates, a year ago that

would have been shocking. is it frustrating to the clinton campaign that they're not focusing on the general election, they're not able to focus fully on donald trump and the republicans? >> i think there are differing opinions about that. i think by and large in clinton camp they are more concerned about enthusiasm. they're worried that their supporters are going to sit back and say, hey, we've got this thing. so bernie sanders serves an important purpose for that reason. but at the same time the reason you hear someone like her top strategist joel benninson saying we don't like your tone, bernie sanders, they don't want him to go too far. they don't want him to damage her and bruise her going into a general election. they're going to apply pressure that way. they're looking towards the general election, both to kind of get a jump on it, but also to make the case to democrats that they have bigger fish to fry and asking them essentially to put an end to the primary sooner. they know that that's not likely to be the case but they're making the case the democrats

should come into their camp. they're doing that by hitting donald trump. >> yeah. that was her speech this week, the big one there. a lot on trump, trumpism. abby and evan, on the democratic beat, thanks to both of you joining us. going back to the republican side now, ted cruz not backing away from saying that a candidate trump, a nominee trump would hand the general election to hillary clinton. >> donald is not going to be the gop nominee, we're going to beat him. i think nominating donald trump would be an absolute train wreck. >> as the stop trump effort goes into overdrive, is cruz really the candidate who can beat trump? or what about the third candidate on the republican side, john kasich, could he be the republican's secret weapon for winning the general election? stay with us. . but not every insurance company understands the life behind it. ♪ those who have served our nation

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general election to hillary clinton. i think nominating donald trump is a disaster and so the answer to that is not to scream and yell and cry and attack him, the answer to that is to beat him at the ballot box. >> ted cruz there last night saying he's not going to have to worry about supporting donald trump as the republican nominee because donald trump won't be the republican nominee. for weeks now the cruz campaign has been urging john kasich, the other candidate in this race, to get out. they say a one-on-one battle between cruz and trump is cruz's ticket to the republican nomination. but what if it's the other way around? what if it's cruz who's getting in the way of kasich? a new column in "bloomberg view" argues just that. it says that kasich is the one who should be staying in this race. with me now is the author of that column, margaret carlson. margaret, john kasich has won one state so far, his home state. ted cruz has won a bunch. donald trump has won the most.

make the case for why it's cruz who's getting in the way of kasich. >> so let's assume, as i think we should, that nobody's going in with 1237 delegates into cleveland. so it's going to be a brokered or open convention, whatever you want to say. and so i -- i wondered why would the party, the anti-trump forces be pushing out the candidate who can win in november in favor of the candidate that every poll says cannot win in november, and that is cakasich who beats hilly clinton in every poll who senator ted cruz who they're uniting behind who is shown not to be able to beat hillary clinton in november? kasich has a net positive rating of 19 points in an nbc/wall street journal poll whereas ted cruz has a minus 18. in every way, you know, in terms of the people who respect ted cruz, his time in the senate, he became famous. he did not become effective in

the senate. kasich is in ohio. no republican wins without ohio. he brought 400,000 jobs in. i don't have to review, you know, his record. i think he won with something like 64% in ohio. but the base has quibbles with him because he looks a little squishy. he looks like what used to be admired in the republican party, which is a compassionate conservative because he took the medicaid money. you know, ted cruz's super pac just put up -- is about to put up an ad today in wisconsin which attacks kasich, and they should not be going after each other. they should only be going after trump. >> well, that's interesting. you make the electability case for ted cruz and obviously the polling is on your side on that, but i guess what you're saying there about the mood of the republican base, the mood of the republican electorate today, i guess i'm thinking ahead to the open convention scenario. could a republican party get away with what you're describing? i mean, you have those cruz

delegates, you'd have the trump delegates. they'd be screaming they were robbed, wouldn't they? >> well, they're going to be screaming about being robbed by the trump people no matter what you do. but when you go in there, and let's say -- look at rubio keeping his delegates. if he were to give his delegates, if you can give them away, to kasich, he's not that far behind ted cruz and nobody's going to have a majority. once you don't have that, then it seems to me all bets are off. you have talk of bringing in, you know, paul ryan or mitt romney or scott walker who haven't even been through the scrum coming in as a white knight. that's completely undemocratic. it seems to me you would want somebody who's been in the campaign and when you're there, the delegates are more establishment than not even though there's -- you know, you can't steal the votes except -- you know, i was reading this, a piece that msnbc did about how you can actually just go in and

switch delegates even now according to the rules. so the delegates become -- they're in free fall at a certain point in cleveland and it doesn't matter whether cruz has more than kasich. they can go either way. and if you were going to look at the republican party didn't have a death wish, they were going to look at who could actually win, i think that would be john kasich. >> all right. >> so i just wonder why the drum beat is for him to get out and ted cruz to stay in because, by the way, there's a poll, i think it's the quinnipiac poll that shows that when somebody gets out, the trend is for the votes, you know, at least half of them, to go to donald trump and certainly that's the case in this poll. it shows -- it shows more than half of kasich's vote going to trump. >> all right. margaret carlson, it's an interesting column. there's sort of a head versus heart argument maybe going on there within the republican

party. margaret carlson from "bloomberg view," thanks for your time. >> thanks, steve. it is home to some of the world's biggest breweries and a major league baseball team that honors that beer tradition. up next, we're going to go live to one of wisconsin's iconic beer factories, a brewery. who are the badgers saying they're planning to vote for in next tuesday's primary. stay with us. so if i wanna go to jersey and check out shotsy tuccerelli's portfolio, what's it to u? or i'm a scottish mason whose assets are made of stone like me heart. papa! you're no son of mine! or perhaps it's time to seize the day. don't just see opportunity, seize it! (applause) mountains, and racetracks.ve conquered highways, seize it! and now much of that same advanced technology

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wisconsin's pivotal primary, it is where else, in a brewery that we find tony. that's in new glares. that's home of the famous spotted cow farmhouse ale. you're in wisconsin, a brewery. couldn't be more perfect than that. what are you hearing over there? >> reporter: yeah, no, i get the best assignment. this is a new craft brewery outside of madison. there's an ipa being brewed in these kettles. in a couple of hours when the tours start, we're going to check in with the vast beer drinking population within the state of wisconsin. let's talk about endorsements. yesterday a big day on the endorse. front. we had scott walker endorsing ted cruz and the "milwaukee sentinel" endorsed john kasich. who is the highest ranking official who's endorsing donald trump? it turns out that official is the part-time mayor of beansville village, a town of 3300 people outside of milwaukee. not the endorsement we were

expecting. van mobley was a good sport and got on camera with us on why he was backing the donald and what he hopes his political future will be for doing that. take a listen. >> i had an idea i would be. i'm a little bit of a political entrepreneur as well and i'm an old campaigner. this is the way things are done. you pick a pony and you ride it. i think trump is a pretty good pony, pretty good for the state. >> do you think it's a stepping stone for higher office yourself? >> i'm already the potus, the president of this town. i'm not sure there are higher spots. it's about as good as it gets. >> if trump offers the vp position -- >> well, if he offers the vp, i'll certainly consider it. >> there you go, steve. he's already the potus. he's not looking for higher office. donald trump would say they don't care about endorsements. they do not matter. he didn't call scott walker. he wasn't looking for that

endorsement. we thank him for being such a good sport coming forward to share his endorsement of donald trump. >> tony in new glarus. we'll go to one brewery town. head over to milwaukee. little more than two hours to the east there. joined by charles benson, a political reporter at the nbc affiliate at wtmj 4 in milwau e milwaukee. charles, thanks. the trump campaign said endorsements not going to matter in wisconsin. scott walker lining up with ted cruz. doesn't matter. does that walker endorsement matter? >> reporter: we're going to find out. steve, in the next few hours we're really going to see our first real look at where this race stands in wisconsin. the marquette law school poll comes out just afternoon our time. it really has been the gold standard here on politics. the last poll showed that donald trump was up in wisconsin. the poll also showed that it was a tight race between bernie sanders and hillary clinton.

so have things changed in those past few weeks? we're going to find out in a few hours. >> what is walker's -- we see his overall popularity with voters, lukewarm these days in wisconsin. among republicans though what would you say his standing is right now in that state? >> reporter: well, clearly underwater statewide with less than 40%, but among republicans still looking pretty good, with i is surprising given what donald trump has been saying. you know, trump believes that he was the guy that knocked out walker in the presidential race. but walker is still pretty popular with republicans for what he has done, at least with the budget in the state of wisconsin. how that will play out with others not really sure. keep in mind, governor tommy thompson who was elected four times here in wisconsin, he is backing john kasich. so kasich hoping to get a lift by having the former governor help him out there. but at the end of the day, not really sure if any of these endorsements will help these candidates get where they want to be. >> quickly, we also heard from our reporter on the democratic

side, maybe signs on the ground that things are shifting in bernie sanders' direction. are you picking up on that? >> reporter: yeah. looking very closely at this. keep in mind in 2008 when hillary clinton was here against then candidate barack obama, things did not go well for her. she lost by nearly 200,000 votes. two to one in madison, which bernie sanders should be able to run up the score a little. keep in mind though, it was a different time, different game. but it's looking good for bernie sanders in wisconsin. >> charles benson with wtmj in milwaukee. thanks for the time. appreciate that. much more to come right after this. ♪ ♪ ♪ we're going to do it is it becoming a better professor by being a more adventurous student? is it one day giving your daughter the opportunity she deserves? is it finally witnessing all the artistic wonders

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and marerrick garland, president obama's selection, his nominee to replace antonin scalia on the supreme court is going to be back on chill in minutes. he'll meet with democrat al franken as he continues to visit with senators from both parties for a third straight day. let's go live to chill and luke

russert. i understand news coming from susan collins, moderate republican from maine. what are you hearing from her on this? >> yeah, so interesting, steve. yesterday was the first republican meeting that merrick garland had. that was with mark kirk of illinois, who said that garland was qualified. he lauded him for his academic credentials and said he is someone who certainly should be moved along in the process. well, yesterday, susan collins of maine, she said that the leader of the republicans in the senate, mitch mcconnell, is upset with her because she's been telling some of her colleagues to, well, move along in the direction of having a meeting with garland. can we play what she said real quick? sorry, we don't have that sound bite cued up. long story short, she said to a local station that she would like to see her colleagues talk to garland, let the process move forward, and she was willi ing

take on any heat from mitch mcconnell. we have talked about this over the last few days. mcconnell feels any outrage from moderates like collins and kirk, that's worth it because he doesn't want to upset the conservative base. if the conservative base allowed the supreme court to go forward, they would harbor so much animosity toward him, they could knock him out of the leadership. he's willing to be stubborn on this issue. it's beneficial for kirk, ayotte, tumi, if they want to run against mcconnell, he's offering them a perfect opportunity to do it. garland meets with sympathetic senators al franken and kristen gillibrand. >> a lot of different layers to this one. luke russert on capitol hill, thanks for that. that's going to wrap up this hour on msnbc. i'm steve kornacki. jose diaz-balart is up next. it added this other level of clean to it.

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