the hillary clinton put out a statement today that however conflicted the gop race is, the clinton campaign put out they think the republican choice is clear. according to the clinton campaign there is no reason to hem and haw anymore, they are proceeding with their general election campaign starting today as if hillary clinton will be the democratic nominee and donald trump will be the republican nominee against whom she is running in the fall. one of the major bones that bernie sanders has had to pick with hillary clinton, one of the key distinctions between these two democratic candidates is that bernie sanders would not accept major support from super pacs while hillary clinton has. priorities, auz action is the maven hillary clinton super pac. when they were formed for this presidential effort, and they started raising money, its anticipate been reported that they didn't anticipate spending any money on the democratic primary at all. now bernie sanders ended up putting up a tougher than expected fight in priorities usa did end up spending millions of dollars on beof ha of hillary clint

let's go to the hillary clinton campaign headquarters. what's the latest there? >> reporter: the clinton campaign is expecting a big night tonight. they're also worried about the sanders' campaign recently raising questions about whether the clinton campaign how it raises funds jointly with the dnc if that is something that breaks rules. the clinton campaign says it's above board but they're worried that these attacks are something that could hurt hillary clinton and the party in a general election. they're not just worried, they're angry. one source told me many in the campaign were quote pissed about this. look for backers of hillary clinton to be calling for bernie sanders after tonight to look at the long game. as one said to me quote he has to find a way to land this plane so it doesn't crash and burn the party. so could tonight bring a miracle on the hudson? that's not what the clinton campaign is expecting, but they're hoping what's been a testy primary of late will get toned down. >> she's getting ready for her speech tonight. let's stay in new york. >> r

the primary race, the clinton campaign is going to do the opposite of that. they think that the gop candidates made a major miscalculation by not taking him seriously, but essentially laughing him off by thinking that he was going to somehow implode. what they're saying tonight is that they don't think that's going to happen, that they need to build up a robust ground game in all of these general election states that are battleground states and that they need to take this very seriously. you've seen this strategy start to play out in recent days. you know she's been counterpunching. he made these statements about the woman card. she has counterpunched about the woman's card quite aggressively. i think it is in large part a statement they are taking donald trump seriously. >> there might haven been more but i saw the names, actual individual names, of three state directors that the clinton campaign announced for colorado, new hampshire and florida. don't know if they announced more than that. those are the three that i saw. but are the folks in charge of these

that is what is driving a lot of concern along the clinton -- among the clinton campaign. mark: kasie mentioned -- secretary clinton has done some tv interviews but has he done in -- adhered to the new york tradition of the traveling press since this started. abby: this morning she took the subway and before that she took some questions. she did focus a little bit more on her new york media. some folks that she is pretty familiar with after two senate runs. i think he is making a concerted effort. she talked a little bit about paying more attention to her traveling press. i think us in the traveling press would love to see more of that. she does talk to the media in general, her traveling national media less than bernie does. but i think that her campaign is focused on lake -- local and state media. which is smart. john: abby phillip, kasie hunt thank you for coming on. we have the real treatment in -- royal treatment in kansas city today. our conversation with the emperor of the planes, meier slide james. -- mayor sly james. you can listen to us on bloomberg 99.1 fm. ♪

is the clinton campaign worried about losing the state? abby: i think the unworried the state might flip under the radar. i think what kasie just mentioned about the vermont media market is important. that is one of the reasons why hillary clinton is spending a lot of time upstate in western new york in those kind of places. places where there is not a huge amount of population but where bernie might have a chance to make some inroads among white working-class workers and people geographically closer to the vermont border. there is a lot in new york working in bernie's favor. they want to make sure no voters are flipping under the radar. if this is the way things are going to start, we have almost two full weeks, do you think it will be -- will they take their feet upbeat celebrator on the sanders campaign or will they go deeper and deeper and harsher and harsher in the next two weeks? kasie: that was my question of the press conference this morning, whether or not we would see him reacting to the weight media reacted to this small change

is the clinton campaign ready for bernie sanders to be coming after hilly. >> i think the clinton campaign is surprised by the fact it's april and they're lock in the tough battle with senator sanders. she does have a significant delegate lead. at the same time, he has six straight victories under his belt. a lot of momentum heading into new york. i think both sides are kind of seeing it get a little bit ugly. i think there are risks in this strategy, though, for both of the candidates. i think senator sanders runs the risk of jumping the shark on this. i think secretary clinton runs the risk of alienating some of senator sanders' supporters, supporters she needs if she does win the general election. if she walks up too close to the line, what we're seeing senator sanders respond to, though she didn't say he was unqualified. >> that's the question, unifying the party in the end. kasie, you're seeing sanders every day. this feels like something that's a long time coming, a lot of frustrations on his part about how the campaign's gone, how the clinton campaign has handled him, spilling over

the sanders campaign is saying the clinton campaign is benefiting from this in kind contribution. this is available to the sanders campaign as well. you can do joint fund-raising committees. this is one of the things that happened with the campaign finance laws with the supreme court ruling. campaign finance experts said it's not illegal, it may be not the spirit of the law here in terms of the high dollar amounts here, but i think the sanders campaign is trying to raise this in the final day to show that the clinton campaign is beholden to big donors here. there's nothing illegal that we can see in this at this point. but the sanders campaign certainly wants to raise this as an issue in the final day. we will see if this works. >> check in with the best political panel in the business. jonathan, let me start with you. as a sanders supporter, the accusation from the sanders campaign, something untoward that the clinton campaign is doing with the democratic national committee in the fundraise, the dnc says, we offered to set something like this up with the sanders campaign as well.

this is no tt the clinton campaign. this is the new york daily news having a conversation with the senator. this is not an ambush by the clinton campaign. this is in response to him i think anybody would say fumbling that answer to the daily news in terms of whether or not the sandy hook families should be allowed to proceed with the lawsuits that they are in fact bringing against the people who they hold responsible for the deaths of their first graders. was the senator wrong in what he said to the daily news or was that his position that those lawsuits should not go forward? >> the position he has articulated is when a big store supplies ammunition or guns in a way that someone reasonably should know is not correct should be held accountable. he's sponsoring legislation to do that. obviously if they're bad actors they need to be cut off. >> jeff weaver, bernie sanders' campaign manager. this contest and the other contests are going to be fun to cover. we look forward to talking to you in the days ahead. thanks. >> tha

the clinton campaign raises money the old fashion way. it is one of the things made clear the look on secretary clinton's face is clear this is frustrating to her. she knows she must reach out to the sanders supporters. in that same rally, she said it's time at some point for democrats to come together. >> we have to unite when the primary contest is over. we have to unite and make sure we have a democrat in the white house in january. >> reporter: that unity is not perhaps coming anytime soon. there is a long way to go in the democratic race. wisconsin votes on tuesday. sanders campaign clearly hoping for a win. the clinton campaign is ahead by 12 points in the latest polling out there. the sanders campaign really believes they can make inroads here. the fight for new york in the next two weeks is the most interesting moment of the democratic race. christine. >>> thanks, jeff. today is day two of the nuclea security summit in washington. president obama hosting leaders from more than 50 nations. on thursday, he met joint by with the pres

i think the clinton campaign, you've heard from her allies today, are prepared to make the case, this is a little sexist, bernie sanders saying she is not qualified enough, has some sexist undertones that they think could hurt him. >> kasie, everybody agrees conventional wisdom, right in this case, new york is must win for sanders. why he is off in pennsylvania? why isn't he in new york for the next two weeks. >> well, he is hunkering down in new york. we're back in new york city now. if you look at the schedule of events that they're planning over the next 48 hours, it looks like he may hit most of the boroughs, queens, manhattan, a couple of different places in manhattan and you can expect to see him in upstate new york, a place people forget, they know him pretty well, because some of those media markets in vermont do bleed into upstate new york. i think you're going to see him functionally camping out in new york over the course of the next ten days. >> abbey, is the clinton campaign, do you think worried about losing the state or trying to finish him off? >> i think they're worri

by the sanders campaign against the clinton campaign? what's your assessment of what it is they're alleging here? >> i've talked to as many experts as we could since this first evolved. plitti fact says it is mostly wrong. larry noble who had been general counsel at fec and is an expert on this says it's not correct. >> the allegation by senator sanders? >> the allegation is not correct. that they may be pushing the envelope, but that there really is no underlying corrupt nature to this relationship. i talked to the dnc and they say that this is a joint campaign victory fund that was also offered to bernie sanders, that the sanders campaign, they claim, signed an agreement but never exercised it. so they never engaged. >> so the sanders campaign and the clinton campaign both set up the same type of organization with the dnc. >> exactly. >> clinton has used her, sanders has not used his. >> and it is basically to raise money up to a certain limit, then the excess, above $2,700, which is the legal limit for their campaign, goes to the down

back to the hillary clinton campaign. they obviously, you know, i think it's more rough and tumble in new york and maybe someone from vermont can't sort of engage in that level of campaigning but believe me, we're fully prepared to go there if that's where they want to go. >> asked of the gop candidates, a laundry reasons why donald trump should not be the president. senator sanders laid out several reasons he believes hillary clinton is not qualified including money that's come in from wall street, super pacs, talking about trade as well and a number of things he named. would he be able to support her if she's the nominee based on what he now said she's not qualified to be the president? >> let's be cleared. he stands by and will support the democratic nominee, period. we respected the secretary. we do the same. bernie sanders were nominated by the democratic party. they had differences, obviously. the campaign, you know, sort of sharpened their elbows. that's fine. we can play in that environment. but at the end of the

lobbyists contributions to the clinton campaign. the report shows all -- that clinton's campaign and the super pac supporting her have received more than $138,000 from fossil fuel lobbyists and more than more than one point really and dollars -- $1.3 million. you say that all told, the campaign has received more than $4.5 million from lobbyists, bundlers, and large donors connected the fossil fuel industry. where is the rest of that money coming from? who are these lobbyists and bundlers, and who do they represent? >> there are 58 lobbyists to 11 of them worked directly for the industry for exxonmobil, american petroleum institute and other trade associations, and the rest are hired lobbyists who work on behalf of a whole range of gas and oil and coal companies. overall, 58ese lobbyists have bundled money for the campaign. the total combined between direct contributions and bundled money comes close to one point finally in dollars, actually. amy: talk about bernie sanders and where he is getting his money from, what your if yourndin

the clinton campaign is running out of patience. they want to stop bernie sanders and move on to the fall campaign. jake? >> let me go back to jeff weaver. campaign manager for bernie sanders. it sounds like the clinton campaign is saying they're going to get a lot tougher. there have been some bitter moments between sanders and clinton but generally it's been fairly above board. >> absolutely. >> are you prepared -- especially compared to the republicans. are you prepared for a brass knuckles, tough campaign, more difficult charges and accusations from the clinton campaign is. >> absolutely. the senator has tried to run an issue-oriented campaign. the contrasts have become sharper of late. we're fully prepared to engage in that environment if they want to. this is what i would say to them. don't destroy the democratic party to satisfy the secretary's ambitions to become president of the united states. we want to have a party at the end of this we can unify. let's have a tough debate, let's talk about the issues. there are sharp con

. >> is the clinton campaign, i will throw this out to you, rick, is the clinton campaign parsing the women's vote that way? are they looking at it in a broad sense or are they understanding there are racial dynamics underneath that broad woman's vote? >> race does matter and it's real. but i think her message certainly is a message that will resonate with all women. we have to be sensitive to the fact there are disparities that exist in our society based on race and based on socioeconomic status. we need to deal with that. >> we should acknowledge that her strongest support comes from black women. she is winning 80% plus. >> the party does. the turnout of african-american women for barack obama -- >> at the end of the day, when whoever is elected, what do especially african-american women get for this loyalty? that's what i want to know. >> you have set us up perfectly for our next segment. thank you so much to you and heidi and alex. joan and rick are sticking around. up next we talk about hillary clinton's low key search for a running mate. we look at how can help her the most on t

i think the frustration here is the gap has tightened and the clinton campaign feels like there have been enough debates but i think the reality of it is for bernie sanders, who's currently the underdog, although he's closing in on the gap, he wants to demonstrate why he can be the democratic nominee and he's got to have some more air time if he's going to do that after this wisconsin primary coming up. of course he's pushed for the debate to be after that because he thinks he'll come out strong and on top. >> buck, what do you think? who do you think a debate in new york benefits most? and if you think of new york, you sort of think of -- a lot of things, sort of new york, land of opportunity, sort of a melting pot, you also think of the occupy wall street movement. on the other side, you think of wall street, huge wealth and income gaps. who does it help more? >> i'm a born and raised new yorker. i have to say i think bernie sanders is likely to be the one helped here and that's why the clinton campaign is acting the way it is on this issue so far. i've seen some of the back and fo

smears from the clinton campaign. he took one more shot at hillary clinton for all her fund raising. she flew to ohio and colorado for fund raising on thursday. >> i will not leave here this morning and go to a wall street fund-raiser. i will not be hustling money from the wealthy and the powerful. >> reporter: now with both candidates on the campaign trail here in new york, hillary clinton in rochester and buffalo, bernie sanders in the city, they doing an all-out push for the new york primary 11 days away. how this race goes will shape how the rest of the democratic party goes and if the party will ever unify once this long primary race is over. christine and miguel. >> it is a long primary race. thanks, jeff. helping us break down the fight across the political landscape, we have tol kopan joining us from washington. >> good morning. >> i want to get right to the comments overnight and the fight for new york is shaping up. sanders on seth myers. let me say sort of saying of all the candidates out there, maybe hilla

lobbyists contributions to the clinton campaign. the report shows all -- that clinton's campaign and the super pac supporting her have received more than $138,000 from fossil fuel lobbyists and more than more than one point really and dollars -- $1.3 million. you say that all told, the campaign has received more than $4.5 million from lobbyists, bundlers, and large donors connected the fossil fuel industry. where is the rest of that money coming from? who are these lobbyists and bundlers, and who do they represent? >> there are 58 lobbyists to 11 of them worked directly for the industry for exxonmobil, american petroleum institute and other trade associations, and the rest are hired lobbyists who work on behalf of a whole range of gas and oil and coal companies. overall, 58ese lobbyists have bundled money for the campaign. the total combined between direct contributions and bundled money comes close to one point finally in dollars, actually. amy: talk about bernie sanders and where he is getting his money from, whwhat your if yournd

now the sanders campaign is accusing the clinton campaign of breaking campaign finance rules arguing in a letter to dnc chairman wasserman schultz saying that serious apparent skrilss of campaign finance laws have taken place between the dnc and clinton campaign. the clnl campaign responded saying sanders campaign false attacks have gone out of hand, he's resorting to baseless accusations of illegal actions. joining me to talk about, senior adviser to the bernie sanders campaign, let me ask you this question. is the democratic party corrupt? >> no. the democratic party is not corrupt. okay? i mean, listen, chris. we have a corrupt system of campaign finance in america. citizens united opened the flood gates to a waterfall of bad, dirty money into our system -- >> even before that, right? >> bernie sanders has rejected it and is running outside it. >> are there other members of the democratic party you can point to from the sanders perspective who you think are free of that, who are not absorbed in the vortex of the muck of that system? >> we're running against hillary clinton, that's

tonight the clinton campaign is firing back, blasting the sanders attack as baseless and misleading. this democratic slugfest reignited just hours before the new yorkers vote. lester? >> peter alexander in brooklyn tonight, thank you. >>> still ahead, scary moments in the sky. a passenger plane struck while coming in for a landing. the mid-air danger pilots encounter at least three times a day in the u.s. ews. you're down with crestor.

remember, from the perspective of the clinton campaign one of the reasons why we're seeing her ramp up her rhetoric, she had expected to have this race locked up by the end of march. that didn't happen. and now she's in this increasingly competitive race, she's eager to pivot to the general election as we've seen with some of her comments directed towards donald trump and she can't do that yet. as of right now her focus is on new york but also turning the page on those six consecutive losses that she has had. >> kasie, out in philadelphia, you are around sanders so much. you have a good read -- i guess we don't have kasie hunt anymore. sorry about that. kristen welker thank you for joining us. >> indeed. thank you. >> kasie hunt is following sanders in pennsylvania. we are going to be keeping a close eye on that sanders event in philadelphia if he addresses the qualified remarks he made last night. we will see what he has to say. >>> still ahead this hour on this show, sanders' campaign manager is going to join me live. we are going to ask him about what bernie sanders said last night,

the clinton campaign accusing the sanders campaign of rejecting three new york debates that the clinton campaign proposed. clinton's press secretary brian fallon saying this -- "the sanders campaign needs to stop with the games over the course of the last week we have offered three specific dates for a debate in new york, all of which the sanders campaign rejected." let's talk more about this with our panel. cnn's chris frates is with us, and he's with the sanders campaign eau claire, wisconsin. and host of reliable sources, chris, begin with you. did bernie sanders talk about this at the rally? he did make a big mention of telling the truth. was that an inference to something in particular? >> well, he does make that reference quite a bit, fredricka, and we've not heard bernie sanders talk about the debate so far, but as you can see behind me, he is still speaking, but we did get a statement from the spokesman, michael briggs. i want to read that to you from spokesman michael briggs. unfortunately the dates and venues she's proposed don't make a lot of sense. the idea that they want to

i'm told tonight the clinton campaign will start advertising based on the "daily news" editorial we've been talking about that made the clinton campaign argument that she's more prepared, that his ideas don't stack up. the confines of that editorial will be played out tonight if our viewers haven't read it, that will give you a backdrop of what's going to happen here, but tonight the sanders campaign realizes it's a moment for him to try to grow, to reach out to some people who may like what he has to say, but are not confident he can win. chris, it's so important we are here in brooklyn, not that far from from the 84-year-old now vermont senator grew up. chris? >> that's exactly rite. jeff zeleny, with the debate on the docks. the easy part is for the candidates to be ready for tonight. getting this all organized, getting this all done in just a matter of days when the campaigns finally decided to do this, that's been the challenge. the final preparations are going on as we count down to the pivotal moment. in both parties unlike any others. next, the history, at times the battle hist

you follow the clinton campaign. is the clinton campaign becoming irritated by the sort of reticence not only of sanders supporters like danny glover but the sanders campaign itself to say it would sign on with her if he doesn't win? >> yeah. there has been a lot of eye-rolling in brooklyn and a little bit of hair pulling as well with the way the sanders campaign has been talking about hillary clinton recently. it's been going on for awhile but as the delegate lead stacks up, especially after new york, they keep waiting for as they view it, the sanders people to come to their senses and kind of get behind the nominee or the likely nominee, hillary clinton, and that so far just hasn't happened. you are starting to hear her surrogates say he's aiding and abetting donald trump or ted cruz in helping win the republican nomination. they are saying that he's damaging hillary clinton. i haven't seen a lot of evidence to support that quite yet. but the further we go on, the more he keeps doing this, it definitely becomes a p

>> the victory fund. the first $2700 goes to the hillary clinton campaign. and then the rest goes to the dnc. so if someone sends in a 200 contribution, it goes to the hillary victory fund. right? and let me tell you. bernie sanders campaign is funded by online donations and directly. you don't get $2700 online donations. you get $27. >> if this is such an apparent and serious violation of campaign finance law, why send this to the dnc? why not go directly to the fec? >> because of the deadlock, it's a dysfunctional organization. they would not render a decision on this until way after the campaign is long over and even then, it might be deadlocked. >> to respond to the suggestion that this is just campaign tactics and some folks describe it as a late hit that shouldn't be happening at this point in the game. >> the latest fec report came out from the fund raising committee and had more information. "the washington post" wrote some part of the story three months ago but didn't have the latest fec filings that just came out and that's why we had this addition

that may be frustrating to the clinton campaign. it was frustrating to the obama campaign that hillary clinton was hanging in there. >> i'm curious. you probably have a glimpse into what maybe is going on in the sanders campaign. the situation for him in a lot of ways similar to what you lived through in '08. >> how are you thinking about it at this point? look, we've got no chance but we're going to stay into this at the end? >> so hope always springs eternal. when you win a state, even if you don't actually win that many delegates, it's a great feeling. you feel like, whoa we're winning states, maybe we have a chance at this thing. there is a reality of delegate math which appeals to your head but the winning states and going to big rallies, having people shower you with love and affection and tell you you ought to be president, that appeals to your heart. sometimes you listen to your heart, not your head. in fairness, bernie sanders has run a great campaign. he has won states. he has won a lot of votes. he has pushed his message

the clinton campaign refused to debate and the bernie sanders campaign has repeatedly asked for the debate. finally the clinton campaign, partly i think pressure from the republic and reporters asking the question has now decided okay we have to have a debate. but if they had they are druthers they wouldn't want to debate because they are concerned as bernie sanders has always prooud that he closed fast when there is one state to focus on. by the way looks like he now may have won the nevada caucuses based on the results yesterday that happened at the next level. i agree we should have a debate. let's have multiple debates between now and new york. >> we have some common ground. you both want debates, you say. hillary clinton yesterday in eu claire wisconsin. let's listen. >> i'm also a democrat and have been a proud democrat all my adult life. and i think that is kind of important if we're selecting somebody to be the democratic nominee of the dmok party. >> we know what she's getting at here.emocratic party. >> we know what she's getting at here. they have some things in kmocom policiwis

the sanders campaign saying the clinton campaign is crossing the line. we asked new york voters if hillary clinton is your party's candidate, what are you going to do? two-thirds said they will vote for her. another 20% say they will probably vote for her. f th13% o democrats saying if clinton is the new mexiominee, not voting for her. about the same here. 60% saying they definitely vote for sanders as the nominee. 21% probably a little higher there on the democratic side. pretty much consistent numbers for both candidates. keep that in mind as we move to the republican side. i said we're seeing that ideological shift on the republican side. they call themselves very or somewhat conservative. this year, is a over 70%. 71% call themselves conservative in some way. the republican party in this state, we have seen this nationally, but the republican party nationally more conservative today than it was eight years ago. these are two parties moving in opposite directions on the political spectrum. remember, also this, new york, this is a fascinating one. the

from the clinton campaign. this from secretary clinton's communications director who tweeted out very distressing language to say the least. bernie sanders should disavow. then we had this sanders tweet saying dr. song's comment was inappropriate and insensitive, there is no room for language like that in our political discourse. then dr. song's tweet, i am very sorry for using the term whore to refer to some in congress who are beholden to corporations and not us, it was insensitive. then he later went on to tweet that he has never said anything personally against secretary clinton, but, steve, this underscores just how heated things have gotten between these two candidates. we have heard, quite frankly, the rhetoric really ramp up between these two candidates in recent days and i think that this is to some extent an extension of that. i think you can expect these controversial comments to be raised at tonight's debate and sources are also saying that senator sanders is planning to raise the fact that secretar

we spoke with the clinton campaign a few moments ago. now we're joined by the sanders campaign, ted divine. the fact that bernie sanders will not be here in new york on primary night does that mean you're bracing for a defeat tonight? >> no, we were in wyoming when we won wisconsin. this is something we've been doing recently. it's a great opportunity to get to the next state. >> we've had this dust-up over joint fund raising committees set up. the clinton campaign has one with the dnc. you guys are saying there's improprieties there. the overall tone of this campaign. we had robby mook on just a few minutes ago. let me play what he had to say. >> it's a false attack and a pattern over the last two weeks in new york of the sanders campaign lashing out with personal, negative and i would say dangerous and harmful attacks because they are not having the success in new york that they said they needed and certainly hoped for. look, my response to this is hillary clinton was raising money for democrats up and down the ticket. that's what the

pace on policy in this campaign and that the clinton campaign has sort of called the tune on tone. so yesterday when you said on television that hillary clinton had made a bunch of deals with the devil -- jeff weaver: i didn't say she made a deal with the devil. the devil always wants his due. john: so what has the clinton campaign said in the last that 72 hours approaches that in terms of negativity of tone? jeff weaver: well, how about the entire disqualify, defeat, and , reunite the party later? obviously indicating they're going to go so bad in their view they'll have to pick up the , pieces later. john: no one in the clinton campaign went on television and said that. you went on television with your face on tv and said that. i'm not disputing the reporting but it is a different thing for someone in the campaign to say something to a reporter. you went on television yesterday and started talking about deals with the devil. as a tonal thing, it seems pretty harsh. jeff weaver: well, look. there was harshness being thrown at us. the message is if you want to play on that level, w

pace on policy in this campaign and that the clinton campaign has sort of called the tune on tone. so yesterday when you said on television that hillary clinton had made a bunch of deals with the devil -- >> i didn't say she made a deal with the devil. the devil always wants his due. >> so what has the clinton campaign said in the last 72 hours that approaches that in terms of negativity of tone? >> well, the entire, how about the disqualify, defeat, and reunite the party later? obviously indicating they're going to go so bad in their view they'll have to pick up the pieces later. >> no one in the clinton campaign went on television and said that. you went on television with your face on tv and said that. i'm not disputing the reporting but it is a different thing for someone in the campaign to say something to a reporter. you were on television yesterday and started talking about deals with the devil. as a tonal thing it seems pretty harsh. >> well, look. there was harshness being thrown at us. the message is if you want to play on that level, we're not just a bunch of guys from v

to the clinton campaign may start becoming more aggressive towards sanders. both campaign been, especially pulling their proverbial punches, knowing that whomever wins will need the other's supporters. starting today, secretary clinton is raising more pointed questions and launching tougher attacks on whether sanders even understands the basics of one of his fundamental campaign promises, for example. joe johns is traveling with former secretary of state hillary clinton. he joins us now from philadelphia. joe, just in the last few hours clinton seems to be really taking on a tougher tone. >> reporter: definitely a tougher tone, jake. but reprising some of the themes she has touched on in the past, the clinton camp making it clearer than ever that they'd like to close this thing out if they can and start spending their money on the republicans, but it's also evidence of something else. they need a big bounce-back win after the losing performance in wisconsin. hillary clinton is ratcheting up her attacks on bernie sanders. >> you've got to know what you want. y

a heated day on the campaign trail, hillary clinton and bernie sanders campaigning again in new york. bernie sanders questioned the qualifications of hillary clinton to be president. he said because of her vote on the iraq war and wall street, she is not qualified to be president. most people don't believe that, but it fired up supporters. she took the high road. this is how she responded. >> it is a silly thing to say. i'm going to trust the voters of new york who voted for me. twice for senate and once in the presidential primary. look, i don't know why he's saying that. i will take bernie sanders over donald trump or ted cruz anytime. >> reporter: bernie sanders is simply trying to respond to what he called campaign smears from the clinton campaign who plan to question his caqualifcal qualif. she flew to ohio and colorado to fund raise on thursday. >> i will not leave here this morning and go to a wall street fund-raiser. i will not be hustling money from the wealthy and powerful. >> reporter: with the candidates on the campaign trail here in new york, bernie sanders in the city,

no word from the clinton campaign. take a listen to how bernie sanders and hillary clinton talked about these debates. >> i'm confident there will be. i'm not the one negotiating it. this is going on between campaigns. i know my campaign has been really trying to get a time that senator sanders would agree with. >> i think we need to look at the maximum viewing audience. anytime and any venue that works that has that viewing audience will be good. we're looking at a lot of options right now. i think at the end of the day, george, we will have a time and place that will be, i suspect, a very spirited debate. >> reporter: so both bernie sanders and hillary clinton want to debate. sanders campaign manager jeff weaver told me he believes this dispute will be settled fairly soon. it's a very big and important thing for bernie sanders. he is expected to do well tomorrow in wisconsin. he needs delegates and move to new york and upset hillary clinton in her adopted home state. there are about 250 delegates at stake in new york

to your points, david the clinton campaign never focus on her being ahead by the superdelegation. their focus is always she's ahead by pledge delegates, more than 200 and that math becomes harder every time that there's a win for her and even for him because it's proportional. >> the press has been playing this. she gets all these extra superdelegates. i happen to think superdelegates are a good idea. they are like a checks and balances in the constitutional system. you say that to people have a voice? there are checks and balances about that. it makes sense. this is a peer review. no institution, major institution in the country that would choose its next ceo or next leader without peer review. >> her lead, again her lead the clinton campaign focus on two critically important things. the lead in superdelegates and the lead in votes. she's ahead by 2.4 million votes. >> he pulls out a michigan, wisconsin style win in new york, it's clear superdelegates should come in line with the people of the country. >> we'll see what happens. >> you're voting for bernie sanders. >> things beco

alex: i think we are seeing the frustration evident in the clinton campaign. they want to put this away. she wants to pivot and focus on trump and the general. i think the case she is going to have to make that resonates with center supporters is, consider the alternative, look at the clinton presidency for the country, there is a difference between clinton and trump, so yeah. mark: how is she performing? alex: you went to wisconsin, she is still fighting for it. she is a better campaigner this go around then in 2008, and she went into the eyes wide open knowing it would require stamina and tenacity. she has not disappointed. john: if we ask you to come back later, will you? alex: i am following you guys wherever you go, what is for dinner? mark: go to the greenroom and have a cocktail. john: you can have it for free. mark: we will talk politics with tavis smiley after this. ♪ ♪ mark: we have pbs talker and thinker tavis smiley. he has a new book called "50 for you: lessons from down the road." tavis smiley: good to see you both. mark: if you were telling

my guest will be the clinton campaign manager. after the break, i'm headed into the debate hall for the rest of the show. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ only those who dare drive the world forward. introducing the first-ever cadillac ct6. ♪ the sun'll come out for people with heart failure, tomorrow is not a given. but entresto is a medicine that helps make more tomorrows possible. ♪ tomorrow, tomorrow... ♪ i love ya, tomorrow in the largest heart failure study ever. entresto helped more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading heart failure medicine. women who are pregnant must not take entresto. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren. if you've had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, don't take entresto. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure... ...kidney problems, or high potassium in your blood. ♪ tomorrow, tomorrow i love ya, tomorrow.♪ ask your heart doctor about entresto. and help make tomorrow possibl

how is that impacting the clinton campaign today? >> reporter: well, it's creating yet another distraction, erica. that skit over the weekend with secretary clinton, mayor bill de blasio, they made a joke about cp time. they used it to describe politicians, but, of course, cp time can also be used to describe what is called quote, unquote, colored people time, a stereotype suggesting that people of color are late to things. they got some backlash for that. bill de blasio came out, of course, his wife, his kids are african-american. he said, look, it was meant to be a joke about politicians. it wasn't at all meant to poke fun at that and wasn't meant to offend anyone. i've been talking to the clinton campaign about this all day. they say they absolutely agree with bill de blasio, that it wasn't meant to be offensive, but as you point out, erica, it comes in the wake of former president bill clinton sort of erupting when there were people who sddisagreed with his 1999 crime bill, so the timing not that great. that being said, the clint

with dollar bills, no more, on the clinton campaign side. talk about contrasting issues, the country is where we are. women's health care, climate change, talk about the issues and raise the level. >> no more ralph nader talk. >> coming into hillary, a huge, impressive victory in new york. now, we move forward. there is still 1675 to be decided. california, here we come. >> the math tonight is really impressive for donald trump. i think he is the only candidate that will get to 1237 for the convention. i think that at some point in the not too distant future, bernie sand anders his team will have to choose how to p proceed, i think the tone has to change in the democrat ic race. does he want to gp forward, pushing an agenda, and not necessarily attacking hillary clinton. the fact is, that he is. and we have seen donald trump saying he wants to change the rules, donald trump, i think that is the kind of -- >> if you are ted cruz, you are not thinking that next tuesday is you are looking for may. if you are bernie sanders, you are looking for

is that issue from the point of view of the clinton campaign now closed? >> it is. but i want to say, joy, i appreciate you attempted to keep tad honest. because there was quite a bit in what he said that was inaccurate. that we have said multiple times is inaccurate. so i was very disappointed to hear him continuing to repeat falseho falsehood. so let me just say very clearly, as you pointed out, hillary clinton never said that he was unqualified. it was inaccurate reporting on the part of the "washington post." she was asked a question about that interview or that meeting with the new york daily news ed board, for example, about the banks. and her answer was to him saying "i don't know" in terms of some of the details about how he would break up the banks. she said, you know, it seemed like he wasn't prepared. i think that is a fair answer. that is not a strategy to disqualify someone. that story was absolutely false. we have said that numerous times this week. so tad, if you're listening, let's get that right and stop repeating that falsehood. and actually, i wou

but at the same time, the clinton campaign is also drawing a big contrast on guns. sort of related issue, at 1:00 today, they're going to be holding a conference call with victims of gun violence, including the daughter of the principal killed at sapdy hook elementary to slam bernie sanders on his record there, jose. >> alex seitz-wald, with the clinton campaign, thank you very much. we saw kasie hunt with bernie sanders in new york city. she was in times square. let's go back to her with more on that interview she did with him this morning. good morning. >> jose, good morning. this was actually a press conference here at the hotel where bernie sanders is staying in times square. he wanted to focus particularly on his upcoming visit to vatican city, which of course, is now set for friday, after the democratic debate. he'll return on saturday. so that's what he wanted to focus on, the social justice message of the vatican. he refused to take any questions related to politics. although he did say that this visit doesn't mean that he is overly confident about winning h

do these numbers worry the clinton campaign? >> the clinton campaign feels really good about this next series of states, i would say. and they feel good about new york tomorrow. i do think it's probably going to be a little narrower than what the public polls suggest. but ultimately this is a case that has to be made state by state. and she has been doing that state by state, and bernie has been doing it in his own way. he just hasn't won the right kind of states, the number of states that would get him the delegates that he needs to get. so that's the challenge. >> to bernie sanders's credit, he has been holding on because she wanted to pivot to the general already by february, and they said march, and now they're saying april. >> of course, and he says he's going to take it all the way. and i totally understand that. i get it. she stayed in very late in 2008. but ultimately, don, this primary cannot damage the democratic candidate for the general election. i totally get them fighting about policy. >> so do you think that's hap

or not. >> patti, you've been with the clinton campaign back in 2008. that can't feel great. he's got the wind at his back, the momentum, six of the last seven states and he's got a whole lot of money. he's outraising you guys three months in a row. that can't feel great. >> you know, i feel bernie's pain on this, i really do, having lived it in '08. here's the deal. the way the process works is if you as a candidate can win early delegate-rich states by wide margins, like hillary clinton did and, frankly, like barack obama did against hillary, catching up to that delegate lead is almost impossible and that's where bernie sanders is right now. i kind of want to say what it felt like millions of people said to me in '08, math is math. >> that's hard. >> you know, what i think is tricky about this is if we spend too much time talking about the mechanics and the process of where the math is going to ultimately take us, we can lose something and that is, if you're hillary clinton, you're walking a fine line here. she would like to disqualify him and we're s

i think the clintons, they are smart people running for campaign. they have to know there is automatically going to be a drop in the african-american turnout just because this brother is not on the ballot. how much that drop is going to be, i do not know. how much harder they have to work to make sure turnout is significant enough to push them over the top is a question i don't have the answer to. john: so the democratic base on a wide variety of issues, that is part of the reason why he has been able to generate enthusiasm and giving her a challenge. if you have been asked in the beginning of the sanders campaign, listen, we know we are on the white state of the issues -- right side of the issues, what would you do? how would you advise him, how would you assess how well he has done to ready what has going to be a challenge for him? tavis smiley: the new york times wrote a good piece on the missteps in the sanders campaign. they hit the thing on the head. it was too late, that would be my advice. if you are not known by the african-american communi