and good morning. i'm jose diaz-balart. we begin with breaking news from the presidential campaign trail. we're expecting to hear from senator bernie sanders any moment now who is in brooklyn to reveal a new endorsement from a union group. going to bring you his remarks live. earlier today, we learned oregon senator jeff merkley became the first u.s. senator to endorse sanders. >> do you think he can win? >> i think that anything is possible in a campaign. obviously, the math is an uphill climb. but we have been surprised by what happened in campaigns time and time again. >> kasie hunt and kristen welker are following the campaigns. steve kornacki is here with analysis. good morning to all. kasie, let me begin with you in brooklyn.

what are we expecting from the sanders campaign today. >> hey, jose. this, of course, is the local transit workers union here in new york city, endorsing bernie sanders. he, of course, has made trade unions a focus of his campaign. this is something he talks a lot about. and has touted regularly in the cities that he has gone to. he, of course, also has an endorsement from communication workers of america, one of the only national umbrella union groups to back him over secretary clinton. important, of course, because verizon workers just went on strike this morning. the reality here, jose, is it's a difficult moment right now for the sanders campaign. it's becoming clear that their battle here in new york is going to be harder than they thought it was. that possibly, secretary clinton's lead in the polls is more durable than they were hoping that it would be. now we're going to see if that's going to change with some pretty intense potentially optics over the course of the next couple days. tonight, he has a big rally in washington square park near nyu.

expecting a crowd of thousands for that rally. he's got similar events planned in prospect park in brooklyn on sunday and at a park in queens on monday. so they're hoping that's going to carry them through. but of course, in between, jose, you have this trip to vatican city. the senator planning to go to address an ecumenical conference there, invited by that group. not clear whether or not he's going to see pope francis on the visit, and it's of course, going to take him out of this very intense primary for a couple days and critically, right after that debate in brooklyn. so no matter how it goes, if it goes well, he's still going to be overseas, unable to tout that as a victory. if it goes badly, he's going to be in a tough place to clean it up. we have to see how the visit ultimately plays into the narrative and whether or not this primary goes the way he wants it to, jose. >> i'm just wondering what the cost benefit analysis is on going over to the vatican in such a key moment. you say, it's an inhat invitati

an ecuminicle group? >> it's part of the vatican. a group that advises the vatican on theology and policy. one of the leaders invited senator sander. there was a flap whether or not he had invited himself. he was invited by this group. it was not an invitation directly from the pope. the calculation here is if he does have a chance to stand on a stage that puts him or portrays him as a world leader or somebody who could play in that arena, that's important for them. it also could potentially appeal to some catholic voters. but the challenge, of course, is that it takes him out of the mix in this new york primary, which as we know, changes hour to hour, and hillary clinton and bernie sanders have been trading accusations back and forth. day by day here. he's only going to be en route there and on the ground in rome for a grand total of about 40 hours. a lot of that is on an airplane.

so i think that there's definitely some back and forth within the campaign about whether or not that's the right use of those 40 hours ahead of this primary on tuesday. >> kasie hunt, great seeing you. thank you very much for being with me this morning. i want to bring in msnbc host and political correspondent steve kornacki. good seeing you. so, sanders has the endorsement now of the sitting u.s. senator. going to have these transport union workers endorsement in a couple minutes. do endorsements matter, and do they matter in new york more or less than anywhere else? >> yeah, i mean, the merkley one is interesting. i don't know it's going to sway any votes in new york, but it makes a bigger point about where this democratic race is, how surprising it is that we're here in kind of where things are going. a bigger picture on the democratic side. so merkley is from oregon. oregon yet to vote. sanders, though, looks like he's probably going to do very well in oregon. that says something about merckally not wanted to alienate his own voters in oregon, trying

to see what the tide is out there, but the bigger point that makes is here we are in the middle of april, and i do the delegate math sometimes on the board over there, and every time i look at the democratic race, i'm struck by two things. one is that bernie sanders has done so much better than anybody ever expected he could. he's won more states and more delegates, but at the same time, the math still seems suborn in hillary clinton's favor. what the merkley thing is telling you is this weird, parallel track we're on is likely to continue. if you look at the bottom line picture of who is likely to be the democratic party nominee, it's still overwhelmingly likely to be hillary clinton. that's just what the math says. that's just what the reality of the dell dpt math says on the democratic side. at the same time, though, even in the face of that reality, this is not a party that is entirely ready to get behind her, to unite behind her, to put this primary behind them and to focus on republicans. even with the reality of that

math. she's still going to lose states. >> yeah, and then the whole issue of the superdelegates and the role they play, and the importance that they play vis-a-vie just regular voters who go out and do their civic duty by voting for their candidate, the choice of candidate. sometimes that just isn't as important as are the superdelegates. >> obviously, that's something that rankles the sanders campaign. when you put the superdelegates up, there's a huge imbalance. they're overwhelmingly with hillary clinton right now. what the sanders hcampaign has been saying, look, if they can win the most delegates in the primary season, forget the superdelegates, just the ones you get in primaries and caucuses, they say the superdelegates would be forced to re-examine, to change their allegiances. the problem for sanders is even that standard, winning the pledged delegate count in the primaries and caucuses is very hard to see him doing. if he loses new york next week, even if it's close, gets even harder. >> and steve, as i wrap up and

we're seeing just moments away, the senator sanders being endorsed by the transport workers union there in new york city, steve, i was thinking of asking you to go to the map to show us the superdelegates, but today, just today, no maps for steve. >> keep me -- a little bit of an incident. i thought it looked like a goldfish. america, some people out there have a dirty mind. that's what i found out. >> i haven't seen a goldfish like that in decades. thank you. good to see you. >> now to the clinton campaign. kristen welker is in midtown manhattan where hillary clinton will make remarks before the national action network in a few hours. good morning to you. >> hey there, jose. having a little trouble hearing you, but secretary clinton picks up some key endorsements today. first from the daily news. this is significant because it comes on the heels of that interview that senator sanders did with the new york daily news in which he seemed to struggle with one of his key policy

positions, how to break up the big banks. that, of course, gave the clinton campaign an opening to criticize him and ultimately they won over that endorsement. that could play big here in new york, and another endorsement, the new york state immigration action fund. this is one of the biggest immigrant rights groups in new york. of course, a critical issue in this democratic primary, as both of these candidates have debated over who has the stronger plan for immigration reform. so that's something that could resonate with latinos here in new york. a critical voting block, and obviously, critical to winning this democratic nomination. the focus later on today will be on the african-american community, when secretary clinton addresses the national action network here in new york. reverend al sharpton speaking behind me now. i'm told hillary clinton is going to speak about a range of issues including environmental justice and housing for communities of color. his challenge today, to show the african-american community her plans extend beyond criminal

justice reform. that has been one of the big issues she has been talking about. the first major policy address she laid out. but today, she's going to take her agenda beyond that. obviously, african-americans kri critical here in new york. secretary clinton looking for a big win in order to clinch the nomination. if she's going to get it, she needs a large amount of african-americans to come out and vote for her. steve. i'm sorry, jose. >> thank you so very much. good seeing you at a packed national action network house. >> on the republican side, drama over delegates is reaching a boiling point. donald trump, who always talks about winning, now can't stop talking about losing. he's taking 21 of 33 states, amassed more than his rival and collected close to 800 delegates, but no hw he says th system is designed to take him down. he's referring to recent contests like in colorado. rienls priebus is not having it,

tweeting, quote, give us a break. it begs the question, why is trump alienating the party he wants to lead? in an interview with the hill, he calls the 2016 primary pros, quote, a scam and disgrace. he even called out the party head by name, saying he should be ashamed of himself. trump is taking his war of words to the front lines of the campaign. >> this was a dirty trick. these are dirty tricksters. this is a dirty trick. i'll tell you what. the rnc, the republican national committee, they should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this kind of crap to happen. the party is playing dirty. and we gotta show our republican party you have been disenfranchises, everybody has. you have to show the republican party that they can't get away with this stuff any longer. >> jacob rascon is in upstate new york for us following the trump campaign. good morning. let me start with what trump

said last night about the rules. listen to this. >> the colorado thing was very, very unfair. i thought louisiana was very unfair. i won louisiana. i won it easily. >> you won the popular vote. >> i won the popular vote. becauseshenanigans. >> those are the rules. didn't you know the rules? >> i know the rules very well, but i know it's stacked against me by the establishment. >> so jacob, if trump knew the rules, where is the complaint? >> the complaint, jose, is that the delegate system to him, sometimes doesn't favor outsiders and it's not a new argument, for example, rand paul yesterday on msnbc was saying that maybe it's not illegal, but it definitely favors the establishment. so mr. trump likes to use words like corrupted or disgusting even, talking about the process, and the crowds love it. but really what he's twrieing to say, i think, is that they're biased. and this argument, trump adviser tells me, they know that this resonates with the voters who many of them have never been involved in the political

process, never come out to a rally. feel motivated by trump as the ultimate outsider. and this argument does very well with him. it also protects trump in a way if he loses and he can say, look, they took it from me. a lot of people say that. that we talk to all over new york. they'll say, look, they're trying to steal the election away from -- steal the nomination away from mr. trump. that's what they say, even if they don't understand the way it really works. >> we also saw the entire trump family together last night. at a town hall. what do they have to say about the campaign? >> yeah, they were asked, for example, about whether trump is presidential or whether they want him to be more presidential. and there was a little -- laughing back and forth. but they talked about how some members of the family have told trump, their father, look, take it easy a little bit. here was the exchange last night. >> one of the interesting things about this process is it's very easy to have an opinion on things, but when you're not in

the arena, it's -- you know, it's a different ball game. i have definitely said things of that kind to him, but i also then watched these debates and it's a hard thing to observe because i see them. it's like a cage match. they're jumping on him and hitting him from the left, hitting him from the right. everyone is attacking him because he's been the front-runner for so long. so while i do sometimes tell him to withhold some of that sort of fire, i also understand it, and i think it's instinct. i think it's also speaks to his passion. and i think that's ultimately what we need. >> so first time we have seen the whole trump family like that in that setting. a trump adviser also tells me just to end back on where we started with colorado, that they expected always to lose colorado because of the process. they said that even if we sent, for example, dozens of people for trump to colorado back month ago, they didn't think it was going to make a difference. they really do think that

something about that whole prosin places like colorado should be changed. >> jacob rascon, in upstate new york, thank you very much. someone who has been utilizing that process to his benefit, ted cruz. who is campaigning in western pennsylvania today. hallie jackson is covering the cruz campaign. good morning. >> hey there, jose. good morning. this morning, we may be just six days out from new york's primary, but ted cruz is already looking ahead to other states in the northeast. today, he's holding a rally in erie, pennsylvania. you may wonder why pennsylvania? well, remember, it has more than 50 unbound delegates. people who cruz can try to work and can try to connect with in order to be successful moving forward into a contested convention if it goes past a first ballot. his wife, meanwhile, is now speaking out. she's talking about the now notorious retweet from donald trump of her and melania trump side by side. heidi cruz says it didn't bother her in had least.

she said she hardly even tweets so she was able to ignore it. cruz with his family on the trail. we expect to hear more from them tonight and our town hall with them tomorrow in buffalo. jose. >> hallie jackson, thanks so much. i want to take you back to brooklyn. bernie sanders is speaking on this key endorsement he's getting. >> the needs of the complaint ra. together we're going to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour so that nobody works 40 hours, lives in poverty. yes, we are going to fight to do exactly what your union has done and bring pay equity for women workers all over this country, who now get paid 79 cents on the dollar. yes, together, we are going to end these disastrous trade agreements that have cost us millions of good paying jobs. and by the way, have led toward

a race to the bottom. where corporations say, you don't want to take a cut in the health care and wages, we're going to china. we're going to create trade policies that work for american workers, not just the ceos of large corporations. and yes, as john pointed out, we all know in this room that you don't have a great and growing middle class unless you have a great and growing trade union movement. and it is no secret that there have been fierce attacks against the trade union movement for the last number of decades. and in fact, you can argue that it is the trade unions of today that are the last lines of defense against a vicious corporate agenda that is working hard to destroy the middle class. and that is why i believe that

we need legislation that makes it easier for workers to join unions, not harder. and we have introduced legislation that's pretty simple. it says that if you are in a bargaining unit and 50% of the workers in that unit plus one sign a card saying they want to belong to a union, they get a union. and if an employer -- if the employer refuses to negotiate a first contract in a timely manner, that employer will be heavily penalized. and then we come to the issue of the work that the people in this room do. it is no secret to anybody in america whether you're in the state of vermont or whether you're in new york city, that our infrastructure is crumbling. and that means not just our roads, which are crumbling, not

just our bridges, i was in flint, michigan, several months ago, and what i saw there was unspeakable in terms of a water system poisoning its children. but it's not just water systems. it's waste water plants. but it is levees, it is dams. but it is also mass transportation and our rail system. and that is why i have introduced legislation and will implement as president a $1 trillion investment to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. we need the best mass transportation system in the world. it is essential to our economy. millions of people in this city depend on a high-quality mass transportation system to get them to work. that's what the economy depends

upon. but let me also say this is not just a major economic issue, which it certainly is. i'll tell you what it is also. i'm a member of the u.s. senate committee on the environment. and anyone who tells you that climate change is not real is not caused by human activity, is not already causing devastating harm to this planet, is lying to you. >> senator bernie sanders in brooklyn, picking up an endorsement of the transportation union workers. much more ahead on this hour. we're going to take a short break. coming up, house speaker paul ryan shooting down rumors he would accept the republican presidential nomination. >> let me be clear, i do not want, nor will i accept, the nomination for our party. >> up next, peter alexander's exclusive interview with speaker ryan about why he's not interested in becoming commander in chief.

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house speaker paul ryan is trying to put an end to speculation or whether or not he will run for president. in an exclusive interview with nbc's peter alexander, he talks about why he will absolutely not run, and who he thinks will be the one walking down the capitol stairs come january. peter alexander joins me this morning. do you think there's any chance that the speaker would change his mind and run? >> well, you'll hear it from him. i think at this point he feels pretty confidently he has made it clear he will not be the white knight. he doesn't think there should be a white knight at all. strong positions on what convention delegates should do this summer in cleveland, after that unusual formal news conference of sorts, we had the opportunity to speak one on one with paul ryan. part of our conversation. >> you talked about how the rules committee, you would encourage them to make it so nobody who didn't run could be on the ballot. does that mean we could see

somebody like scott walker, marco rubio, or jeb bush back then? >> i'm not going to foreclose anybody's option. i believe the members of the rules committee, i think they should have a rule that you have to run for president to get the nomination. you have to be one of the candidates running for president or ran for president. i didn't run for president. i chose not to run for president. this is why i say i will not be the nominee for our party. we should select among the people who actually ran for the job. >> americans, republicans may face a bush v. gore situation where the guy who got the popular vote among republicans doesn't actually win the nomination. a majority of americans say if donald trump gets the most votes, the most delegates -- >> well, the process is the process. we're going to follow the rules as the rules are. we'll follow the rules by the book. it's just that clear. >> 2017, january 20th, walking up the stairs. who will it be? >> clean capitol, newly refurbished, under budget, and

it's going to be a new person. >> it's not going to be you? >> not going to be me. >> to be clear, you're not running for president? >> yes, very clear. thanks for the opportunity to clarify. >> so certainly, the speaker hopes that will clarify. of course, he and his team actually fueled a lot of this buzz, a campaign style video they put out in recent days, this recent overseas trip to the middle east that made him look a lot like a statesman, and in the eyes of some, as a potential presidential candidate as well. to be very clear, though, as the highest ranking official in the house, speaker ryan will chair the summer's republican convention. that means, jose, one way or another, this summer, he will take the stage in cleveland. >> right. what role he's going to play, peter alexander, thanks. good to see you. >> so with paul ryan out, it looks like the gop nomination will go to one of three remaining candidates, and in a preview of what could be an ugly floor fight in an opening

convention, donald trump is crying foul over the delegate system, calling it rigged against him. let me bring in rick tyler, former national spokesman for the cruz campaign. i was asking this question earlier and i pose it to you, why is trump so determined to alienate the party that he wants to lead? or is it that that party really is doing everything to try and have him not be the leader? >> look, this is tantamount to running a major -- putting a football team in the pros on the field and then saying, gee wiz, they only gave me four times to go ten yards, and i should get another try. or every time i throw the ball, the other team tries to catch the ball. one time they did and they got a touchdown, and the refs said it was okay. another time, i dropped the ball and i didn't mean to drop the ball, but the other team got it and wouldn't give it back to me. this is just pathetic. whining, whining, whining over

what a clear, if you look at the rules, if you understand english, you can read, you can follow the rules. and you can get your delegates. by the way, the rnc, if the rnc is the establishment, they certainly aren't rigging the game for ted cruz. so it's just amazing to me. >> but let me continue on the sports metaphor world. what happens if you're playing with a team and playing soccer or football, and the team, your team, is hell bent on making -- they put a goal in their own goalie. is it that the system is stacked against trump and that the people that are playing with him don't want him to be the victor? >> well, that may or may not be trul, but it doesn't matter. the rules are the rules. the idea is it's sort of like going to a football game and complaining all the rules are rigged gnls you because you don't know the rules. if you fumble the ball and the other team picks up the ball, they get to keep the ball. that's the rules. you try to kick the ball through

the uprights and they block the ball. those are the rules. that's really, to those who follow this process for a long time, and understand the conventions and the delegate process, you know, having trump complain about the rules is a little like watching -- having someone watch football for the first time and sayi, well, thats not fair, the other guy won't let him run. he keeps tackling him. it's really ridiculous. >> so the fact that trump didn't have the onground organization needed to run multiple multi-state coast to coast campaigns is clearly a problem. what do you do about that if you're trump going forward? >> it's hard to do anything about it now. he hired paul manafort who has experience with delegates. the problem is he doesn't have anyone to call on the other end. the delegates get organized when the campaign headquarters can call people in the states who have real knowledge of people on the ground who can be delegates, who can be relied on to be delegates, who can gather the forces. look what is happing in nebraska right now.

all these district conventions are going on. 800 people have been elected to go to the state convention, and they're virtually all cruz people. those people are going to elect 33 delegates and my guess is all 33 will be cruz delegates. why did that happen? because cruz was on the ground organizing in nebraska and donald trump wasn't. plain, fair, and simple. >> rick tyler, good to see you. and two programming notes. don't miss a pair of exclusives right here on msnbc. tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. eastern, chris matthews moderates a town hall with john kasich, and then after that, immediately following that, you can see chuck todd moderating a town hall with ted cruz. when we say msnbc is the place for politics, here's another key example of what we mean by that. take a look at that lineup. hillary clinton and bernie sanders making big pushes in new york today. as they gear up for next week's primary. 291 delegates up for grabs for the democratic candidates. could be a game changer if sanders manages to pull off a win on clinton's home turf.

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try your favorite ranch with a fresh taste so crisp, you'll be surprised it doesn't crunch. hidden valley cucumber ranch. just one of our delicious ranch flavors. two of donald trump's children recently found out that they missed the october 2015 deadline to switch their party affiliation, but they're not alone. more than a quarter of new york's 10.7 million active voters aren't registered democrat or republican. and because new york is a closed primary, that means they can't vote next tuesday. does the system have to change to give people a chance to cast their ballots in that state? i'm joins by former new york city council speaker christine quinn. what a pleasure to see you. >> thank you very much. >> so not only is new york a closed primary, but the cut-off date to change your registration, october of last

year. that's the earlier in the country. i mean, doesn't this disenfranchise people? >> i think there's no question that we need to change the voting rules in new york. and that is way too early, really, before the race even starts, to know which party you might want to enroll in if you aren't in one already. i think, you know, you should know the rules if you're part of a campaign, but that said, october makes no sense, and that's absolutely something in a good government kind of voter empowerment way we should change. we don't have great voter participation in new york state, and part of the reason is these crazy strict voting rules. >> and why are they in place? and who are they supposed to benefit? >> well, look, they have been this way in new york, well basically, forever. and they have gotten better a little bit over time, but they're just a long legacy of a system that was not really focused on bringing people in to vote. i know it's a priority for some folks in the state legislature

and governor cuomo to make changes to those. we have seen some changes but i think hopefully after this election we'll see even more, because what we want to do is make as easy as possible for people to vote. not hard. look, we're not at some 98% voting participation rate here in new york where we can say, well, if you're in that 2%, really, you didn't just do it. that's not the case at all. >>, i mean, everybody should have the opportunity to vote. everybody should have the opportunity to be moved by what they're seeing and their political environment. if they wish to change parties, they should be able to do so to make an impact on the election that the state has, you know, whenever that time is. now, what's interesting is on the republican side, cruz has said if trump doesn't get 50% in his home state, it would be a bad showing. does that hold true for, for example, hillary clinton in new york? >> look, i have to tell you, i have no doubt that come tuesday, secretary clinton is going to overwhelmingly win new york. she's leading right now.

>> what's overwhelming, you think? >> right now in the polls, she's leading in double digits. i think we will see that absolutely on tuesday. i say that not just as a supporter of the secretary, but as a new yorker. who knows what she has done for us, when she was our united states senator. and what she's done for the communities of new york as our secretary of state. you know, she was the first person to ever really go out there as secretary of state and say, for example, that lgbt rights are human rights. no other secretary of state i believe ever uttered those words in that way on the international stage. that was a game changer for lgbt people all across the world. and that follows on her landmark speech as first lady where she said women's rights are human rights. and we also saw her here in new york as our senator fight for us every day. nothing more powerful than how she stood with all of us after

september 11th, and in particular, didn't stop fighting until our first responders got the health care that they deserved, that congress was not going to follow through on. and it's that kind of fight and that kind of success that people are going to recognize and go to the ballot on tuesday and make sure she gets exactly the type of home town victory our home town gal deserves. >> and ms. quinn, as a veteran of new york politics, i want to ask about this skit that both mrs. clinton and mayor de blasio were in, and that got some coverage. here's what she said about the skit this morning. i want you to listen in. >> the mayor was the first one who said that, you know, it was his skit. and he, you know, he had worked through what he wanted to say. and i was thrilled to, you know, be there. and show up with him. and you know, i think that the mayor is perfectly capable of speaking for himself.

>> no regrets about the bit? >> you have to ask the mayor. >> so if you're kind of told to say something dorky in life, shouldn't you have the responsibility to say, that's kind of dorky. i don't think i want to say that? >> i i have to say, one of the benefits of me having lost the mayor's race a few years ago is i don't have to go to the inner circle anymore. so i didn't see the skit. and i can't really comment on it because as i said, it's one of the few benefits i didn't have to be in the room that night. >> if you want, i can play it for you. but i think -- >> that's okay. >> up to you. we can play it. >> that's okay. and look, i think the concerns people have about the skit, obviously, are their concerns, but the real issues here are the secretary's lifetime of work on behalf of americans and her record, which is really unparall unparalleled, of not just delivering but having a clear and specific vision for moving forward. i think that's why we saw the new york daily news endorse her

and really make a point of how she is fully prepared to be president. >> very focused on your answered, ms. quinn. i thank you for being with me. >> thank you. >> appreciate your time. coming up, both clinton and sanders claiming roots in the big apple, but will it make a difference to new york primary voters? those that can vote on tuesday. (vo) on the trane test range, you learn what makes our

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is . it is the battle of the new yorkers between the democratic candidates. senator sanders, a native new yorker, while hillary clinton has called it home for over 15 years, served, as you know, as a u.s. senator, and on the gop side, donald trump is mr. new york, but will this make a difference to voters? msnbc's thomas roberts is in brooklyn to answer that question. thomas, good seeing you.

>> jose, great to see you, too. good morning. we know that both hillary clinton and bernie sanders have their campaign headquarters right here in brooklyn. it is a beautiful day, and we had an opportunity to be out and speaking to some of the young voters about who they're interested in. the majority of the young folks i had a chance to speak with are interested in the democratic side. voting on tuesday in the closed primary here in new york, but they're at a dilemma over who they support the best, but most are leaning toward hillary clinton. take a listen. >> from brooklyn, but he's been in vermont for more years than he's been a brooklynite, and hillary clinton has been in new york for almost the last two decades. they both have claims. >> maybe it will enhance his chances amongst older brooklyn residents because they'll feel the connection. but he did make the mistake with the subway of putting tokens. >> he's from brooklyn, but hillary worked in new york, represented new york longer, and that matters more than just where you're born. we're a diverse city. people are born all over the world. it matters what you do here.

>> so just a cross section of folks we had an opportunity to speak with. and there are some people i ran into this morning here at a local coffee shop. one woman who was reading the "new york times" was talking about how she's a hillary supporter and the fact she feels he is a terrible campaigner but will be a great president, and is a pragmatic pick for her. spoke to another gentleman who works for a production company here in brooklyn, but he's an oregon resident. he's voting absentee in that primary coming up on the 17th of may. he's for bernie sanders. there were a couple young folks here right before our opportunity to speak, these two guys who said they haven't made up their mind. they're leaning to the left, but they want to find out more about bernie sanders' foreign policy. current polling puts donald trump on the right ahead in new york dominantly, and hillary clinton is leading bernie sanders currently by double digits. we'll know for sure how new york votes on tuesday. >> thank you very much. coming up, donald trump, spending a good part of the week calling the primary system

rigged, but is it actually helping his bid for the nomination? we'll fact check trump's claims with our own ari melber ahead. first, donald trump's family shares how they felt about his decision to run for the presidency. >> i said to him, you know, you need to go and run and people will take you serious, and if you run, you will win. >> when he finally decided to run for president, i think all of us knew, here we go. like, he really just works so hard. and we knew it would be a success. i had no doubt in my mind he would get as far as he has. we're good. okay... what if a million people download the new app? we're good. five million? good. we scale on demand. hybrid infrastructure, boom. ok. what if 30 million people download the app? we're not good. we're total heroes.

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the war of words between the gop and its presidential front-runner donald trump is getting even more tense. through interviews, tweets, and town halls, trump and rnc chair reince priebus are in the middle of a back and forth about rules and fairness and joining me now is msnbc chief legal correspondent ari melber.

i can say his name easier. who has done extensive reporting on the rules, and ari, what's at the heart of this fight? >> i think what the heart of the fight is about is the growing awareness of the trump campaign that they may actually face an open convention. that, unlike social media and tv media, is an area where the candidate and his advisers have not excelled. we do expect candidates to foyt a lot. we don't expect them to fight with the rnc. here's what donald trump said last night about the rules. >> i know the rules well, but i know it's stacked against me by the establishment. i fully understand it. we can figure it out, but it's stacked against us. the republican party in colorado wanted cruz. or maybe they wanted somebody over that trump. i don't think anybody really wants cruz. why would they want him? >> a bit of a bemameandering message. you get the point, the state rules are unfair in places where he hasn't done well and the national party ought to caught it out. he has called out reince priebus

saying he ought to intervene in some way. reince clapped back pretty strongly. an unusually strong assessment. reince is neutral in the waiss, but he says look, nomination process known for a year and beyond. responsibility of the campaigns to understand it. complaints now? give us all a break. i will show you since you mentioned the rules, the rules in colorado basically let these delegates through what is a local convention meeting process of republicans, fair game. we have known about this since october when all the rules were finalized, they get to do what they choose to do. i'll show you the rule exactly. no preference poll of any kind shall be conducted if it dockates or querequired the binding of delegates chosen to any higher assembly or convention. that's lawyer speak. translation, you can vote for who you want at the convention. now, is that pure democracy in the sense of a primary where the votes would be bound? no. what it means is those

individual delegates in colorado have more power. but again, as we played donald trump saying, oh, he knows the rules, he seemed surprise by this when it's been known for a while. there are states that do this. it's fair game in the process, but it's part of the game that trump doesn't like, and the rnc is explaining, hey, everyone has been playing by the same rules and knew the rules for a while, jose. >> ari melber, thank you very much. it is confusing. the language utilized is kind of broad based, but very specific at the same time. i guess it's legalease, right? >> what it is is a decision by certain states to use their organization and allow their delegates to do what they want. other states make it binding. again, that was known. so it's certainly fair to criticize it as undemocratic. i don't it's fair to say it came out late or to help cruz. >> great seeing. thanks. >> back to the democratic side of the race now. bernie sanders just announced a key endorsement from the local tranlst union in new york. that follows his first

endorsement from a fellow u.s. senator, jeff merkalley of oreg. hillary clinton has picked up the endorsement of the new york daily news. let me bring in beth fewa and david bird sl. >> are thebottom line, are thes endorsements going to help to get more votes? >> it's hard to say. endorsements tend to matter on down ballot races. ong something this big where the candidates are as well bone as they are, probably not. bernie sanders is fighting an uphill battle. they have a debate tomorrow night, he and secretary clinton. that would be something that would have more likelihood of changing opinions or votes, and then he hopped on a plane and goes to the vatican that night. very strange decision in the middle of the new york primary lead-up in a state where he says he wants to do really well. he's made the decision to be out of the state for a couple days and hillary clinton will be free to have the state to herself. >> i'm thinking, beth, what does

he think he can gain politically from the trip? it is that 48-hour period, so key, yet he's not going to be there. when you do a cost benefit analysis, what do you think he thinks he can gain? >> hard to say. a candidate's time is their most important currency. where they spend their time in the lead-up to the primary is very telling. there are a lot of catholic voters in new york who might like the idea of bernie sanders going to the vatican to a conference, but it does take him off the campaign trail. that's kind of a strange decision. >> looking at some of the breakdown of primary voters in new york. and david, the latest polls show clinton with at least a ten-point lead over sanders in that state, with just six days until the primary, how does sanders close that gap? can he? >> he can. but he's got to bring a lot more people over into his column. he's got to energize the youth vote, have a lot more people voting for him from that age bracket which he has been strong with throughout the primary season. right now, hillary clinton has the organization.

she's going to be in the country over the course of the weekend and continue to organize her supporters over that period of time. it's a daunting challenge for the senator. >> let's talk about the youth vote that has been so overwhelmingly favorable to the senator from vermont since the first primary and caucus states. what does he do to, i guess, get them to go out to vote? and are there enough of those voters, many of whom maybe haven't been so involved in the past, to make a difference in new york? >> well, probably not. i mean, to a certain extent, you're looking at essentially the same constituency that voted for zephyr in the last gubernatorial election. he could take college towns. he might do well in brooklyn, but trying to win the city overall, the state overall, is sgen, a very daunting challenge with the margins hillary clinton appears to enjoy right now. sanders has in some states outperformed his polls. if he's able to do that in new york, he can get closer. winning convincingly is

important for the clinton campaign right now. in trying to drive a stake through the notion of sanders' momentum going into the last big primary states. and obviously this state. >> yeah, let's talk a little bit about that momentum. sanders won the last seven of eight state contests. is momentum clinton's biggest challenge here? >> i think definitely sanders was enjoying a lot ofwisconsin. he's kind of hit a wall here in new york. she just is so dominant. she served as a senator here, she's very well known. she knows how to campaign around new york, even though she's not a native new yorker, she has done it twice in 2000 and 2006. she knows the state well, she knows upstate, the city. sanders, even though he was born here, hasn't been here in quite some time and he's still sort of reintroducing himself. he's got an automatic in with college students, folks in brooklyn, sort of the super left side of the progressive spectrum in new york, but hillary clinton is really dominant here, and i think he's run into more of a wall that he expected.

>> beth fouhy and dave, thank you for being with me this morning. appreciate your time. >> and that wraps up this hour of msnbc live. thank you for the privilege of your time. tamron hall picks up our coverage next from brooklyn, new york. i'll see you tomorrow. our cosmetics line was a hit. the orders were rushing in. i could feel our deadlines racing towards us. we didn't need a loan. we needed short-term funding fast. building 18 homes in 4 ½ months? that was a leap. but i knew i could rely on american express

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♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ good morning, everyone. i'm tamron hall. we're coming to you live this morning from the brooklyn roasting company in brooklyn, new york. site, of course, of the next primaries, and right now, donald trump is escalating what is now an all-out war against the republican party. assailing the entire nomination process, and also the party's chair, reince priebus. >> our republican system, our

republican system is absolutely rigged. it's a phony deal. this was a dirty trick. these are dirty tricksters. this is a dirty trick. and i'll tell you why. the rnc, the republican national committee, they should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this kind of crap to happen. because it has nothing to do with democracy. they took the votes away from the people in colorado. people are burning up their republican cards. >> and it did not stop there. in a town hall last night, donald trump was pressed on his criticism of the process. despite leading in delegates and the popular vote. >> you called them shenanigans. those are the rules. >> i know the rules very well, but i know it's stacked against me by the establishment. i fully understand it. >> you're saying you don't think the rnc wants you to get the