20160404_Hillary_meet_the_press.tsv

1	CHUCK TODD	This Sunday, it may have been Donald Trump's worst week on the campaign trail yet.	0
2	CHUCK TODD	He defended his campaign manager, who was charged with assaulting a woman reporter.	0
3	CHUCK TODD	He called for women who have abortions to be punished.	0
4	CHUCK TODD	There has to be some form of punishment.	0
5	CHRIS MATTHEWS	For the woman?	0
6	DONALD TRUMP	Yeah, there has to be some form.	0
7	CHUCK TODD	He says he's open to Japan and South Korea having nuclear weapons.	0
8	CHUCK TODD	And now he's slipping in the polls.	0
9	CHUCK TODD	Is the Donald Trump campaign finally crumbling?	0
10	CHUCK TODD	Or will he survive, as he's done so many times before?	0
11	CHUCK TODD	Plus, Hillary Clinton still can't put away Bernie Sanders.	0
12	CHUCK TODD	And the frustration is beginning to show.	0
13	HILLARY CLINTON	I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me.	0
14	CHUCK TODD	My exclusive interview this morning with Secretary Clinton.	0
15	CHUCK TODD	Also, with all the talk of a contested convention, what did John Kasich mean by this?	0
16	JOHN KASICH	Is Mitt running for president?	0
17	JOHN KASICH	We've been wondering that ourselves.	0
18	CHUCK TODD	Is it possible that someone not in the race today could be the Republican nominee in July?	0
19	CHUCK TODD	And joining me for insight and analysis this morning are David Brooks of The New York Times, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report, Helene Cooper of The New York Times, and political reporter Charles Benson, from our NBC affiliate in Milwaukee.	0
20	CHUCK TODD	Happy opening day, and welcome to Sunday, it's Meet the Press.	0
21	ANNOUNCER	From NBC News in Washington, this is Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.	0
22	CHUCK TODD	Good Sunday morning.	0
23	CHUCK TODD	And yes, happy opening day again.	0
24	CHUCK TODD	How many times have people said, "Okay, now, Donald Trump is done.	0
25	CHUCK TODD	He's through."	0
26	CHUCK TODD	And how many times has it turned out to be true?	0
27	CHUCK TODD	Well, not once.	0
28	CHUCK TODD	So it's with that big flashing yellow light in mind that we point out that never has Donald Trump had a worse run, or the idea of a Trump collapse look more possible.	0
29	CHUCK TODD	Just this week, Trump's campaign manager was arrested and charged with battery.	0
30	CHUCK TODD	Trump withdrew his pledge to back whoever wins the Republican nomination.	0
31	CHUCK TODD	He argued it might be time to let Japan and South Korea arm themselves with nuclear weapons to reduce America's military burden.	0
32	CHUCK TODD	He told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that women should be punished for having abortions.	0
33	CHUCK TODD	By Friday night, Trump had articulated five positions on abortion in just over 48 hours.	0
34	CHUCK TODD	And wrapping up this terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week for Trump, he now trails Ted Cruz in a number of polls in Wisconsin, which holds its primary on Tuesday.	0
35	CHUCK TODD	Trump's serial explanations on abortion this week have been condemned by both Republicans and Democrats, including Hillary Clinton.	0
36	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
37	HILLARY CLINTON	Donald Trump said, "Women should be punished for having an abortion."	0
38	HILLARY CLINTON	(BOOS) He then tried to distance himself, once that kind of reaction came out from his outrageous comments.	0
39	HILLARY CLINTON	But we all heard them.	0
40	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
41	CHUCK TODD	Secretary Clinton is having her own problems putting away Senator Bernie Sanders in her primary.	0
42	CHUCK TODD	I talked to her last night as she was campaigning in Wisconsin in advance of Tuesday's primary.	0
43	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
44	CHUCK TODD	I have a question about a new question that you're running in New York State.	0
45	CHUCK TODD	Let me play it for the viewers and get you to respond on the other side.	0
46	CHUCK TODD	Here it is.	0
47	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
48	HILLARY CLINTON	When we pull together, we do the biggest things in the world.	0
49	HILLARY CLINTON	So when some say we can solve America's problems by building walls, banning people based on their religion, and turning against each other, well, this is New York.	0
50	HILLARY CLINTON	And we know better.	0
51	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
52	CHUCK TODD	Secretary Clinton, is that an ad, have you moved on?	0
53	CHUCK TODD	Are we going to view this ad as the first one of the general election?	0
54	CHUCK TODD	It's pretty clear you're targeting Donald Trump.	0
55	HILLARY CLINTON	Well, certainly I haven't moved on.	0
56	HILLARY CLINTON	I know that I still have work to do to win the nomination, and I'm going to keep reaching out to every voter, everywhere in these remaining contests.	0
57	HILLARY CLINTON	But I also think it's important to draw some pretty clear lines between what I think most Americans, and certainly what I know most New Yorkers believe about who we are as a people, what the values of our country are, against some of what we're hearing from the other side.	0
58	HILLARY CLINTON	And, you know, it's both Donald Trump, as we are well aware, but also Ted Cruz.	0
59	HILLARY CLINTON	I know he made a critical comment about New York values some months back.	0
60	HILLARY CLINTON	So I want to really hold up the importance of New York and what we stand for.	0
61	HILLARY CLINTON	And, you know, we are a state that represents the diversity of America, the role that immigrants have played over the centuries in building-- our nation.	0
62	HILLARY CLINTON	And the Statue of Liberty stands in the harbor.	0
63	HILLARY CLINTON	So I wanted to start out with a very clear message about our values and--	0
64	CHUCK TODD	Well, in and--	0
65	HILLARY CLINTON	--why I think it's important we stand up for them.	0
66	CHUCK TODD	In that ad, though, you do include footage, that awful footage, of a Trump supporter coldcocking, essentially, a protester at his rally.	0
67	CHUCK TODD	Why amplify that image?	0
68	HILLARY CLINTON	Because I was horrified by it, Chuck, and I think most Americans were horrified by it.	0
69	HILLARY CLINTON	When you, as I've said before about Donald Trump's appearances, his rhetoric, his demagoguery, when you incite violence, you are acting like a political arsonist.	0
70	HILLARY CLINTON	And I want people to understand there's a very different way of working towards our common ground that we have to seek and find in order to move our country forward.	0
71	HILLARY CLINTON	We may have differences, of course we do.	0
72	HILLARY CLINTON	But we don't condone violence.	0
73	HILLARY CLINTON	We don't say we'll pay the legal fees of people who punch other Americans, who are protesting, attending an event.	0
74	HILLARY CLINTON	That is just not appropriate behavior when you're running for president.	0
75	CHUCK TODD	You know, also this week you were pretty tough on Donald Trump on one of his positions on abortion.	0
76	CHUCK TODD	He had five different positions that we've counted up this week on abortion.	0
77	CHUCK TODD	I want to ask you, what is yours?	0
78	CHUCK TODD	Give me your straightforward position on the issue of abortion.	0
79	HILLARY CLINTON	My position is in line with Roe v. Wade, that women have a constitutional right to make these most intimate and personal and difficult decisions based on their conscience, their faith, their family, their doctor and that it is something that really goes to the core of privacy.	0
80	HILLARY CLINTON	And I want to maintain that constitutional protection under Roe v. Wade.	0
81	HILLARY CLINTON	As you know, there is room for reasonable kinds of restrictions.	0
82	HILLARY CLINTON	After a certain point in time, I think the life, the health of the mother are clear.	0
83	HILLARY CLINTON	And those should be included even as one moves on in that pregnancy.	0
84	CHUCK TODD	When or if--	0
85	HILLARY CLINTON	So I've had the same position for many years.	0
86	CHUCK TODD	When, or if, does an unborn child have constitutional rights?	0
87	HILLARY CLINTON	Well, under our laws currently, that is not something that exists.	0
88	HILLARY CLINTON	The unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights.	0
89	HILLARY CLINTON	Now, that doesn't mean that we don't do everything we possibly can, in the vast majority of instances to, you know, help a mother who is carrying a child and wants to make sure that child will be healthy, to have appropriate medical support.	0
90	HILLARY CLINTON	It doesn't mean that you don't do everything possible to try to fulfill your obligations.	0
91	HILLARY CLINTON	But it does not include sacrificing the woman's right to make decisions.	0
92	HILLARY CLINTON	And I think that's an important distinction, that under Roe v. Wade we've had enshrined under our Constitution.	0
93	CHUCK TODD	You had said you think there is room for some restrictions.	0
94	CHUCK TODD	So is it fair to say that women don't always have a full right to choose?	0
95	HILLARY CLINTON	Well, under Roe v. Wade that is the law.	0
96	HILLARY CLINTON	And as I said, I support the reasoning and the outcome in Roe v. Wade.	0
97	HILLARY CLINTON	So in the third trimester of pregnancy, there is room for looking at the life and the health of the mother.	0
98	HILLARY CLINTON	Now, most people, not all Republicans, not all conservatives even agree with the life of the mother.	0
99	HILLARY CLINTON	But most do.	0
100	HILLARY CLINTON	Where the distinction comes in is the health of the mother.	0
101	HILLARY CLINTON	And when you have candidates running for president who say that there should be no exceptions, not for rape, not for incest, not for health, then I think you've gotten pretty extreme.	0
102	HILLARY CLINTON	And my view has always been this is a choice.	0
103	HILLARY CLINTON	It is not a mandate.	0
104	HILLARY CLINTON	You know, I have traveled all over the world.	0
105	HILLARY CLINTON	I have seen what happens when governments make these decisions, whether it was forced sterilization, forced abortion in China, or force childbearing in communist Romania.	0
106	HILLARY CLINTON	So I don't think that we should be allowing the government to make decisions that really properly belong to the individual.	0
107	CHUCK TODD	Let me move to the primary campaign.	0
108	CHUCK TODD	Let me play this clip that got a lot of air time over the last few days, here it is.	0
109	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
110	GREENPEACE ACTIVIST	Will you act on your word to reject fossil fuel money in the future in your campaign?	0
111	HILLARY CLINTON	I do not have--I have money from people who work for fossil fuel companies.	0
112	HILLARY CLINTON	I am so sick--I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me.	0
113	HILLARY CLINTON	I’m sick of it.	0
114	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
115	CHUCK TODD	Madame Secretary, I know you couldn't see the clip, but you probably heard it.	0
116	CHUCK TODD	You were caught saying, "I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about my record."	0
117	CHUCK TODD	What are they lying about?	0
118	HILLARY CLINTON	Well, let me first say that, you know, I'm used to criticism.	0
119	HILLARY CLINTON	I've been taking it for a very long time.	0
120	HILLARY CLINTON	But I care passionately about climate change.	0
121	HILLARY CLINTON	And I have been working to try to move us away from fossil fuels for many years.	0
122	HILLARY CLINTON	When I was in the Senate, I introduced legislation to take away the subsidies.	0
123	HILLARY CLINTON	I voted against Dick Cheney's energy bill in 2005.	0
124	HILLARY CLINTON	And I could go on and on.	0
125	HILLARY CLINTON	When I got to be secretary of state, I was at the original meeting in 2009 with President Obama, where we were trying to convince China and India and others to come on board with accepting some restrictions that would lead to what finally occurred with the Paris agreement.	0
126	HILLARY CLINTON	So when people make these kinds of claims, which now I think I have been debunked; actually The Washington Post said three Pinocchios, The New York Times also analyzed it, and other independent analysts have said that they are misrepresenting my record.	0
127	HILLARY CLINTON	I'm just not going to, I feel sorry sometimes for the young people who, you know, believe this.	0
128	HILLARY CLINTON	They don't do their own research.	0
129	HILLARY CLINTON	And I'm glad that we now can point to reliable, independent analysis to say, "No, it's just not true."	0
130	CHUCK TODD	Do you believe that he's been lying about other parts of your record, or just this instance when you said that?	0
131	HILLARY CLINTON	Well, I'm not, you know, I'm not going to go into that.	0
132	HILLARY CLINTON	I think that we've tried to run a campaign on the issues.	0
133	HILLARY CLINTON	I'm going to keep talking about the issues.	0
134	HILLARY CLINTON	I was up in Syracuse yesterday talking about my new manufacturing plan, bring manufacturing back to America, let's make it in America.	0
135	HILLARY CLINTON	That's what I think the American people are interested in hearing.	0
136	HILLARY CLINTON	And I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing in this campaign, which is to, you know, draw the contrast, but stay on the issues.	0
137	CHUCK TODD	Well, Senator Sanders had something to say about you today actually, campaigning in Wisconsin, and your paid speeches.	0
138	CHUCK TODD	I'm going to play you the sound and get you to react.	0
139	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
140	BERNIE SANDERS	Why else would they pay you $250,000?	0
141	BERNIE SANDERS	It must be a speech written in Shakespearean prose.	0
142	BERNIE SANDERS	And if it is such an unbelievably great speech, I think the Secretary should share that speech with rest of us.	0
143	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
144	CHUCK TODD	I guess it's a backhanded compliment, comparing you to William Shakespeare.	0
145	CHUCK TODD	But let me ask you this, you have said you would release the transcripts of these speeches when all of the other candidates have done.	0
146	CHUCK TODD	Bernie Sanders is the only candidate in the Democratic race, and he says he's released all of his transcripts because he didn't give any of these paid speeches.	0
147	CHUCK TODD	What say you?	0
148	HILLARY CLINTON	Well, what I have said before, I will say again.	0
149	HILLARY CLINTON	I've heard him say that.	0
150	HILLARY CLINTON	And you know, look, I think what he's trying to imply, and I know his campaign tries to imply this, is undermining or, again, misrepresenting my record when it comes to being tough on Wall Street.	0
151	HILLARY CLINTON	I have a record, Chuck.	0
152	HILLARY CLINTON	It is out there in the public.	0
153	HILLARY CLINTON	And I'm the only candidate in the Democratic primary, or actually on either side, who Wall Street financiers and hedge fund managers are actually running ads against.	1
154	HILLARY CLINTON	So I find this, again, a kind of, you know, circuitous way to raise questions about my record.	0
155	HILLARY CLINTON	But I'm very proud of the fact that I have the most comprehensive approach towards taking on the problems that exist in the economy.	0
156	HILLARY CLINTON	I don't just talk about breaking up the banks, because we now have the authority, thanks to President Obama, under Dodd-Frank.	0
157	HILLARY CLINTON	I talk about taking the other risks on, like the hedge funds and everybody else.	0
158	CHUCK TODD	But this gets to something else I think he's getting at, secrecy.	0
159	CHUCK TODD	And the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a tough editorial against you this week.	0
160	CHUCK TODD	It said this of your candidacy: "Her horrible track record on transparency raises serious questions for open government under a Clinton administration--so serious, we believe they may disqualify her from public office.	0
161	CHUCK TODD	Regardless of Clinton's excuses, the only believable reason for the private server in her basement was to keep her emails out of the public eye by willfully avoiding Freedom of Information laws ... We encourage voters to think long and hard about the record when choosing the next president.	0
162	CHUCK TODD	This issue of secrecy, or the accusation that you're secretive, has followed you for quite some time.	0
163	CHUCK TODD	Is there any way you think you can at least convince Wisconsin voters that that's not the case?	0
164	HILLARY CLINTON	Well, it's just a wrong set of assertions and conclusions.	0
165	HILLARY CLINTON	And as you may know, I've received the vast majority of newspaper endorsements.	0
166	HILLARY CLINTON	They all have the same information.	0
167	HILLARY CLINTON	They have all analyzed it.	0
168	HILLARY CLINTON	A lot of them have conducted interviews.	0
169	HILLARY CLINTON	So let me just say again, I sent emails to government employees on their government accounts.	0
170	HILLARY CLINTON	I had every reason to believe they were in the government system.	0
171	HILLARY CLINTON	It was a matter of convenience.	0
172	HILLARY CLINTON	I've said repeatedly, it was not the best choice.	0
173	HILLARY CLINTON	It was a mistake.	0
174	HILLARY CLINTON	But I think that anybody who's actually looked at this has concluded that I have now put out all of my emails.	1
175	HILLARY CLINTON	Go and ask others for their emails.	0
176	HILLARY CLINTON	Ask everybody else who's in public office.	0
177	HILLARY CLINTON	I'm the one who's done it, and I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do.	0
178	CHUCK TODD	Has the FBI reached out to you yet for an interview?	0
179	HILLARY CLINTON	No, no, they haven't.	0
180	HILLARY CLINTON	But, you know, back in August, we made clear that I'm happy to answer any questions that anybody might have.	0
181	HILLARY CLINTON	And I stand by that.	0
182	CHUCK TODD	Are you concerned that this isn't going to wrap up before the convention?	0
183	HILLARY CLINTON	No, I'm not.	0
184	HILLARY CLINTON	Because I don't think anything inappropriate was done.	0
185	HILLARY CLINTON	And so I have to let them decide how to resolve their security inquiry, but I'm not at all worried about it.	0
186	CHUCK TODD	All right, before I let you go, last week on this show Senator Sanders said he wanted to debate in New York.	0
187	CHUCK TODD	I know you guys have been having a debate over debates over debates over debates.	0
188	CHUCK TODD	Are you going to debate in New York, and when are you going to debate?	0
189	HILLARY CLINTON	Well, I'm confident we will.	0
190	HILLARY CLINTON	Our campaigns are trying to reach an agreement about that.	0
191	HILLARY CLINTON	We've offered dates, and we've done it over the last several weeks.	0
192	HILLARY CLINTON	So, you know, we've been trying to figure out when we could do this.	0
193	HILLARY CLINTON	But there's a lot to talk about.	0
194	HILLARY CLINTON	And since the last debate, we've had terrorist attacks in Brussels, Pakistan, and elsewhere--	0
195	CHUCK TODD	You think there's got to be another debate.	0
196	CHUCK TODD	You think there almost has to be.	0
197	HILLARY CLINTON	I want--Look, I'm confident that there will be.	0
198	HILLARY CLINTON	But I'm not the one negotiating it, that's going on between our campaigns.	0
199	HILLARY CLINTON	And I do know my campaign has been really trying to get a time that Senators Sanders' campaign would agree with.	0
200	CHUCK TODD	All right, he's proposed Sunday evening, April 17th.	0
201	CHUCK TODD	Are you in?	0
202	HILLARY CLINTON	I'm not negotiating, Chuck.	0
203	HILLARY CLINTON	That's not, you know, we've proposed Thursday, the 14th, which gives people more time to digest what happens in the debate.	0
204	HILLARY CLINTON	Is he in?	0
205	CHUCK TODD	All right, well, we will ask him when we get the chance.	0
206	CHUCK TODD	Secretary Clinton, I will leave it there.	0
207	CHUCK TODD	From Milwaukee, stay safe on the campaign trail, we'll see you soon.	0
208	HILLARY CLINTON	Thanks a lot, good to talk to you.	0
209	HILLARY CLINTON	Take care.	0
210	CHUCK TODD	You got it, bye now.	0
211	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
212	CHUCK TODD	And when we come back, the Republican race and more on the worst week yet for the candidacy and candidate of Donald Trump.	0
213	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
214	DONALD TRUMP	I'm not taking--	0
215	CHRIS MATTHEWS	Just say it.	0
216	CHRIS MATTHEWS	“I’m never using nuclear weapon in Europe."	0
217	DONALD TRUMP	I am not taking cards off the table.	0
218	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
219	CHUCK TODD	From loose talk about nukes to multiple positions on abortion, why Donald Trump looks a little less like a sure thing today.	0
220	CHUCK TODD	* * *COMMERCIAL BREAK* * *	0
221	CHUCK TODD	Welcome back.	0
222	CHUCK TODD	Let's now turn to the Republican race and Tuesday's Wisconsin primary.	0
223	CHUCK TODD	Wisconsin has become sort of a New Hampshire part two.	0
224	CHUCK TODD	The rare primary that stands alone on the calendar, and that may be as much about momentum as it is about actual delegates.	0
225	CHUCK TODD	And it comes after a week that saw Trump's poll numbers fall and Republican criticism rise.	0
226	CHUCK TODD	Not the least because Trump wound up explaining himself on abortion again and again and again and again.	0
227	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
228	DONALD TRUMP	Very, very tough.	0
229	DONALD TRUMP	I'm not sure which is worse, dealing with the party people or dealing with the press.	0
230	CHUCK TODD	Donald Trump is scrambling to regain momentum ahead of Tuesday's primary.	0
231	DONALD TRUMP	I just wanted to talk to the people of Wisconsin because there's so much misinformation that's being put out there about me.	0
232	CHUCK TODD	Yet again, backpedalling on abortion.	0
233	DONALD TRUMP	As of this moment, the laws are set.	0
234	DONALD TRUMP	And I think we have to leave it that way.	0
235	CHUCK TODD	In a statement, Trump's campaign tried to walk back the walk-back.	0
236	CHUCK TODD	Quote, "Mr. Trump gave an accurate account of the law as it is today and made clear it must stay that way now--until he is president.	0
237	CHUCK TODD	Then he will change the law through his judicial appointments and allow the states to protect the unborn."	0
238	CHUCK TODD	It's Trump's fifth position on abortion this week, beginning with these comments to Chris Matthews on Wednesday.	0
239	DONALD TRUMP	The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.	0
240	CHRIS MATTHEWS	For the woman?	0
241	DONALD TRUMP	Yeah.	0
242	DONALD TRUMP	There has to be some form.	0
243	CHUCK TODD	From the day in June when Trump launched his campaign and disparaged Mexican immigrants--	0
244	DONALD TRUMP	They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.	0
245	CHUCK TODD	Trump's slash-and-burn version of straight talk has been the hallmark of his campaign.	0
246	CHUCK TODD	In July, on John McCain.	0
247	DONALD TRUMP	He's a war hero because he was captured.	0
248	DONALD TRUMP	I like people that weren't captured, okay?	0
249	CHUCK TODD	In August, on Fox host Megyn Kelly.	0
250	DONALD TRUMP	There was blood coming out of her eyes.	0
251	DONALD TRUMP	Blood coming out of her wherever.	0
252	CHUCK TODD	And in September on Carly Fiorina, "Look at that face."	0
253	CHUCK TODD	Trump said he was referring to Fiorina's persona.	0
254	CHUCK TODD	Trump has survived each episode, and all those that followed.	0
255	DONALD TRUMP	Thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down.	0
256	DONALD TRUMP	A total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.	0
257	DONALD TRUMP	Just so you understand, I don't know anything about David Duke, okay?	0
258	DONALD TRUMP	Don't tell me it doesn't work.	0
259	DONALD TRUMP	Torture works, okay, folks?	0
260	DONALD TRUMP	I think Islam hates us.	0
261	CHRIS MATTHEWS	But I want you to say it, "I'll never use a nuclear weapon in Europe."	0
262	DONALD TRUMP	I am not taking cards off the table.	0
263	CHUCK TODD	But can Trump go too far?	0
264	CHUCK TODD	Even supporters believe some of his statements are embarrassing.	0
265	ANN COULTER	Do you realize our candidate is mental?	0
266	ANN COULTER	It's like constantly having to bail out your 16-year-old son from prison.	0
267	CHUCK TODD	Though Trump's blunt talk has attracted many supporters to his campaign--	0
268	MALE TRUMP SUPPORTER	He's who he is.	0
269	MALE TRUMP SUPPORTER	He isn't a fake.	0
270	CHUCK TODD	Sixty-eight percent of suburban voters, 70 percent of women and 77 percent of Hispanics now view Trump unfavorably.	0
271	CHUCK TODD	Still, many Republican leaders fear it's too late to stop Trump and are preparing to enter the general election with a wounded nominee.	0
272	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
273	CHUCK TODD	I'm joined now by Reince Priebus.	0
274	CHUCK TODD	He's chairman of the Republican National Committee.	0
275	CHUCK TODD	Mr. Chairman, welcome back to Meet the Press, sir.	0
276	REINCE PRIEBUS	Good morning, Chuck.	0
277	CHUCK TODD	You know, a month ago, you said when asked about the idea of an open convention, you said this: "It's ... very early to have this conversation.	0
278	CHUCK TODD	I think that in a month, if we're sitting in a situation where candidates are tied, then I think in a month you start looking at those possibilities.	0
279	CHUCK TODD	But right now, we've got a long way to go."	0
280	CHUCK TODD	Well, that was a month ago.	0
281	CHUCK TODD	Here we are.	0
282	CHUCK TODD	Is it fair to start looking at these possibilities of an open and contested convention?	0
283	REINCE PRIEBUS	Well, it looks like I'm a pretty good prognosticator, Chuck.	0
284	REINCE PRIEBUS	Yeah, I think that it's quite possible.	0
285	REINCE PRIEBUS	Certainly Wisconsin's going to be important in that conversation.	0
286	REINCE PRIEBUS	And still, after Wisconsin, either way, we're going to have two candidates that could get to the 1,237, the majority of delegates before we get to Cleveland.	0
287	REINCE PRIEBUS	And our role at the RNC is going to be to be a fair arbitrator and be a party that respects the voice and the vote of the voters and the delegates.	0
288	CHUCK TODD	Well, it's interesting you say the voters and the delegates.	0
289	CHUCK TODD	Who does choose the nominee here?	0
290	CHUCK TODD	Is it Republican primary voters?	0
291	CHUCK TODD	Is it the Republicans, or is it the delegates?	0
292	REINCE PRIEBUS	If there's one interviewer that probably knows the rules better than anyone, it's you, Chuck.	0
293	REINCE PRIEBUS	But I'll answer the question anyway.	0
294	CHUCK TODD	Well, you know what I mean.	0
295	CHUCK TODD	But the principle of it.	0
296	CHUCK TODD	The principle.	0
297	REINCE PRIEBUS	Yeah, no, I understand.	0
298	CHUCK TODD	Is it the party's voters that are picking this nominee or the party's delegates, which is a different set of people?	0
299	REINCE PRIEBUS	The nomination is won on the floor in Cleveland by the majority of delegates that get empowered and by the vote of the people.	0
300	REINCE PRIEBUS	So the voters in these states, their votes end up causing delegates to be bound to candidates, and those delegates will have to vote for those candidates on the floor.	0
301	REINCE PRIEBUS	There's no way around it.	0
302	REINCE PRIEBUS	If a delegate is bound to a candidate, even if that delegate decides later, "I don't care, I'm not voting for that person," the secretary at the convention will read the roll as if that delegate voted for the person that they're bound to, period.	0
303	CHUCK TODD	You know, one of the things that I think has been a misconception is that somehow, the rules of 2012 will apply to the 2016 election.	0
304	CHUCK TODD	And the reason this comes up is because there was a rule in 2012 that said if you didn't win a majority of delegates in eight states, you couldn't get your name put into nomination.	0
305	CHUCK TODD	What is the likelihood that that rule stays for 2016?	0
306	CHUCK TODD	Or are all the rules for how this election conducted going to get rewritten come July?	0
307	REINCE PRIEBUS	Well, I'm of course guessing here.	0
308	REINCE PRIEBUS	I don't have any power to change any rules, Chuck.	0
309	REINCE PRIEBUS	But I think it's probably unlikely that you see major changes.	0
310	REINCE PRIEBUS	But again, as you say, the 2012 rules were written by the 2012 delegates who were bound to Mitt Romney.	0
311	REINCE PRIEBUS	And so Mitt Romney's rules of 2012 will not be the rules that apply to the 2016 convention, which will be made largely of Trump and Cruz delegates.	0
312	REINCE PRIEBUS	And why would people want the Romney delegates' rules to apply to Cruz and Trump and Kasich?	0
313	REINCE PRIEBUS	It doesn't make any sense.	0
314	REINCE PRIEBUS	So the rules committee will come together.	0
315	REINCE PRIEBUS	Those delegates will get on these committees, they'll review the rules, and the 2016 rules will apply to the 2016 conventions.	0
316	CHUCK TODD	Is it fair, you know, the Trump campaign is not happy with what happened in Tennessee this weekend.	0
317	CHUCK TODD	It's a state primary he won, he still has the same amount of delegates that he won, 33, but he didn't get to choose the individuals, the state party did.	0
318	CHUCK TODD	And in fact, his senior advisor in his campaign told this to us, he said, "I've been told two of the delegates are truly Trump delegates.	0
319	CHUCK TODD	Five are pretend delegates."	0
320	CHUCK TODD	Meaning these are people that will be bound for two ballots, but don't plan on support him.	0
321	CHUCK TODD	Is that fair?	0
322	CHUCK TODD	Is that fair?	0
323	REINCE PRIEBUS	Well, first of all, the delegates, there's two parts of the process.	0
324	REINCE PRIEBUS	One is you've got to get the delegate allocation, meaning when you win the state, you're allocated a certain amount of delegates.	0
325	REINCE PRIEBUS	Donald Trump has 33 delegates in Tennessee.	0
326	REINCE PRIEBUS	And they're bound to Donald Trump, not just for one vote, but in Tennessee, they're actually bound for two votes.	0
327	REINCE PRIEBUS	And nothing can change that.	0
328	REINCE PRIEBUS	Now, the selection of delegates, who's in those seats is something that happens at the state party level and these campaigns have to have serious operations in the states, and they have to make sure that those people do their best job in getting their own, the people they want, to be in those seats.	0
329	REINCE PRIEBUS	So it doesn't just happen automatically.	0
330	REINCE PRIEBUS	It has to be done through work and preparation.	0
331	CHUCK TODD	Are you confident Donald Trump can win a general election?	0
332	REINCE PRIEBUS	Sure, I think all of our candidates can win a general election, especially when you look at Hillary Clinton--	0
333	CHUCK TODD	Is he your best candidate?	0
334	REINCE PRIEBUS	--who quite possibly could be indicted, and who knows.	0
335	REINCE PRIEBUS	They're the ones that could have an open convention, and Joe Biden could be the nominee of the Democratic party.	0
336	CHUCK TODD	But is Donald Trump your strongest candidate?	0
337	REINCE PRIEBUS	I don't know.	0
338	REINCE PRIEBUS	Listen, I don't worry about who is the strongest candidate.	0
339	REINCE PRIEBUS	Obviously, we have our own conversations here.	0
340	REINCE PRIEBUS	But the fact is that we're here, prepared to support whoever the eventual nominee is, with the biggest, best Republican National Committee that we've ever put together, Chuck.	0
341	CHUCK TODD	And one last question.	0
342	CHUCK TODD	Considering we're going to have an open convention, you have three candidates fighting for delegates and worried about who those people are.	0
343	CHUCK TODD	Should the RNC be in charge of the V.P.	0
344	CHUCK TODD	running mate vetting process, considering that everything is going to get scrambling.	0
345	CHUCK TODD	Have you offered to provide those services to the candidate?	0
346	REINCE PRIEBUS	You know, not particularly.	0
347	REINCE PRIEBUS	I mean, we certainly are equipped with our research team to do it.	0
348	REINCE PRIEBUS	But that's another interesting question.	0
349	REINCE PRIEBUS	Because the delegates choose the vice president as well.	0
350	REINCE PRIEBUS	And that's a subject no one's really talking about, is that that's another vote on the floor that the delegates choose.	0
351	REINCE PRIEBUS	And so while I'm sure, obviously, the choice of whoever the nominee is going to be important, it's still up for a vote of the delegates.	0
352	CHUCK TODD	Well, all that means is more reasons to watch what happens in Cleveland.	0
353	CHUCK TODD	Reince Priebus, chairman of the RNC, thanks for coming on the show, sir.	0
354	RICHARD "REINCE" PRIEBUS	Thanks.	0
355	CHUCK TODD	Appreciate it.	0
356	CHUCK TODD	Later in the broadcast, why many Republicans fear Donald Trump might not only lose the race for the White House, but could cost them their Senate majority as well.	0
357	CHUCK TODD	And our friends at S.N.L.	0
358	CHUCK TODD	had some funlast night with Trump saying a woman should be punished for having an abortion.	0
359	CHUCK TODD	Take a listen.	0
360	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
361	MICHAEL CHE	You don't say that on TV.	0
362	MICHAEL CHE	Even if you're on Wheel of Fortune and the board says, "Women should be ‘unished,’ " don't say it.	0
363	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
364	MICHAEL CHE	*** COMMERCIAL BREAK ***	0
365	CHUCK TODD	Welcome back.	0
366	CHUCK TODD	This Tuesday's Wisconsin primary could be one of the most influential of the campaign season.	0
367	CHUCK TODD	And it's not the first time the Badger State has been so important in presidential politics.	0
368	CHUCK TODD	In fact, ever wonder how we got into this whole presidential primary process in the first place?	0
369	CHUCK TODD	It's all thanks to Wisconsin, the very first state to come up with the idea of a presidential primary, which votes this Tuesday.	0
370	CHUCK TODD	But it wasn't until April, 1960, that the importance of the Wisconsin primary first came into play.	0
371	CHUCK TODD	In fact, here was Meet the Press that week.	0
372	CHUCK TODD	In fact, 56 years ago today, with moderator Ned Brooks.	0
373	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
374	NED BROOKS	This week, the eyes of the nation will be fastened on Wisconsin's presidential primary.	0
375	NED BROOKS	Two Democratic senators, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, and John Kennedy of Massachusetts are competing in the first, and perhaps the most important, contested primary of 1960.	0
376	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
377	CHUCK TODD	Interestingly Kennedy and Humphrey watched the election returns together in the Milwaukee Journal newsroom.	0
378	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
379	MALE REPORTER	How have the votes in thus far shaped up according to your expectations?	0
380	PRES. JOHN F. KENNEDY	Well, I was hopeful we could take six districts and I think we had a good chance to do that.	0
381	PRES. JOHN F. KENNEDY	Which will give us--I hope--win the majority of the popular vote, which would give us the result.	0
382	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
383	CHUCK TODD	And look at that, talking about district delegates.	0
384	CHUCK TODD	Anyway, Kennedy would win that night on his path to the nomination, and eventually the presidency.	0
385	CHUCK TODD	Let's then jump ahead to 1976, with contested primaries in both parties.	0
386	CHUCK TODD	President Gerald Ford beat Ronald Reagan handily in Wisconsin, no doubt thanks to this photo op two days prior, with Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr, Go Pack Go.	0
387	CHUCK TODD	But the real race was on the Democratic side.	0
388	CHUCK TODD	Jimmy Carter versus Mo Udall.	0
389	CHUCK TODD	That evening, it looked like Udall had squeaked by Carter.	0
390	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
391	MO UDALL	And let me tell you, I've finished second, and tonight I finished first.	0
392	MO UDALL	And I like first a lot better.	0
393	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
394	CHUCK TODD	But as more votes came in overnight, Carter took the lead, and the networks reversed their calls, giving Carter his very own "Dewey defeats Truman" moment.	0
395	CHUCK TODD	The next day, Mo Udall told reporters, "You know all those times I said 'win' last night?	0
396	CHUCK TODD	Well, strike that and insert the word lose."	0
397	CHUCK TODD	As always with Mo Udall, he always had a sense of humor no matter what the result.	0
398	CHUCK TODD	So what will the Badger State hold in store for us this week?	0
399	CHUCK TODD	It's going to be a fun one.	0
400	CHUCK TODD	But here's what we do know.	0
401	CHUCK TODD	It's going to be influential.	0
402	CHUCK TODD	When we come back, Republicans are increasingly worried that Donald Trump could take the party down with him.	0
403	CHUCK TODD	What are the chances that they could take the nomination away from him first?	0
404	CHUCK TODD	***COMMERCIAL BREAK***	0
405	CHUCK TODD	Panel is here.	0
406	CHUCK TODD	It is Wisconsin primary week.	0
407	CHUCK TODD	So we flew in one of the smartest reporters from the state, Charles Benson from our local affiliate there, WTMJ in Milwaukee.	0
408	CHUCK TODD	Helene Cooper, Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times is also here, Amy Walter, editor of The Cook Political Report, and David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times, welcome all.	0
409	CHUCK TODD	Charles, I'll start with you.	0
410	CHUCK TODD	On the ground, is this looking as bad for Trump as the polls say it is?	0
411	CHARLES BENSON	Well, clearly he had a bad week.	0
412	CHARLES BENSON	But the anti-Trump forces were already going at him.	0
413	CHARLES BENSON	You know, they knew that they were going to come into Wisconsin and make Wisconsin their Waterloo.	0
414	CHARLES BENSON	But what they found out when they got there, the ground troops were already there, especially with conservative talk radio.	0
415	CHARLES BENSON	I mean, they have been hammering him locally, local conservative talk radio been hammering him for weeks.	0
416	CHARLES BENSON	But also, you have to keep in mind, Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, alright?	0
417	CHARLES BENSON	Scott Walker's endorsed Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan hasn't endorsed anybody.	0
418	CHARLES BENSON	But clearly, those two guys, their brand of politics has been really big time conservative issues.	0
419	CHUCK TODD	And they've won.	0
420	CHARLES BENSON	And they've won.	0
421	CHUCK TODD	So they have something to be happy about in Wisconsin.	0
422	CHARLES BENSON	They do.	0
423	CHARLES BENSON	And so they, when they look at that brand of politics, that works better than what the Trump brand of politics is right now.	0
424	CHUCK TODD	All right, David.	0
425	CHUCK TODD	We've been here, I want to say four weeks ago you were convinced Trump wasn't going to get the nomination.	0
426	CHUCK TODD	Two weeks ago, you wanted to say you were convinced, but you weren't comfortable saying anything.	0
427	CHUCK TODD	Where are you today?	0
428	DAVID BROOKS	Morally defeated.	0
429	CHUCK TODD	Something's changed though.	0
430	CHUCK TODD	Something has changed, we think?	0
431	DAVID BROOKS	Yeah something has changed.	0
432	DAVID BROOKS	All these people keep waiting for him, "When is he going to turn into a philosopher king?	0
433	DAVID BROOKS	It’s time he should become Abraham Lincoln."	0
434	DAVID BROOKS	He's Donald Trump.	0
435	DAVID BROOKS	You know, he’s - you know, it's all aggression, it's all ignorance, it's all the time.	0
436	DAVID BROOKS	But I think he's going to have a bad week this week.	0
437	DAVID BROOKS	I think he'll probably rally in New York, and it'll all come down to California.	0
438	DAVID BROOKS	The people in the Republican party are not going to stop him.	0
439	DAVID BROOKS	Look at that Reince Priebus' interview today.	0
440	DAVID BROOKS	Like, the week that we had with Donald Trump, he's a catastrophe of the party.	0
441	DAVID BROOKS	Priebus is off in la la land, talking about technical stuff, and not really seizing the mantle.	0
442	DAVID BROOKS	That's where the Republican establishment.	0
443	DAVID BROOKS	So they're not going to beat him.	0
444	DAVID BROOKS	The only way he gets beat is if he internally collapses and if his supporters morally collapse because of bad defeats in places like California and New York.	0
445	DAVID BROOKS	They're like Oklahoma at the end of the Villanova game, there's nothing there.	0
446	DAVID BROOKS	But nobody's going to take it away from him.	0
447	CHUCK TODD	Do you think David's right?	0
448	CHUCK TODD	Or I feel as if though something changed.	0
449	CHUCK TODD	I mean, you look at what's happening on the ground, in the technical parts of this, right, where you have Tennessee party chair making sure he's putting party operatives into the delegate spots, even in the Trump seats, that they're at least seeding this so that they can stop Trump if they have the opportunity.	0
450	AMY WALTER	Here's where Republicans are right now.	0
451	AMY WALTER	They get to decide if they wanna have a civil war if Trump wins, or a civil war if Trump loses.	0
452	AMY WALTER	There is no winner out of this whole fight.	0
453	AMY WALTER	So he can either come into Cleveland with the amount of delegates.	0
454	AMY WALTER	I think Wisconsin will tell us whether or not he will be able to get 1,237.	0
455	AMY WALTER	He loses Wisconsin by a big amount, I don't think he's going to be able to make that up.	0
456	AMY WALTER	Or he’ll be very close.	0
457	AMY WALTER	Or we go to Cleveland and we have another civil war where yeah, technically, they could take it away from him.	0
458	AMY WALTER	This is how it works.	0
459	AMY WALTER	Reince isn’t incorrect.	0
460	AMY WALTER	The delegates select who the president is.	0
461	AMY WALTER	But there are going to be a whole bunch of Republicans very upset about it, even people who didn't vote for Donald Trump, because they see, as you pointed out, is this fair?	0
462	AMY WALTER	Is this fair?	0
463	AMY WALTER	And that is going to just split this party apart.	0
464	AMY WALTER	And anybody who thinks that Donald Trump is just going to go away if he loses this like, "Oh, well, he's not going to be able to get on a ballot," he's got Twitter and he's got cable TV.	0
465	AMY WALTER	And he's going to spend all of his time there.	0
466	CHUCK TODD	Helene, I'm curious.	0
467	CHUCK TODD	You know, he's talked a lot about NATO this week in weird ways, he's talked a lot about nukes and nuclear policy.	0
468	CHUCK TODD	I'm just curious, what do the folks at the Pentagon think?	0
469	CHUCK TODD	And I'm not talking about the political operatives, I'm talking about the career folks who are going to be there if Trump's elected president or if Clinton's elected president.	0
470	HELENE COOPER	No, they were appalled.	0
471	HELENE COOPER	You know, last week, I was on a Navy cruiser in the South China Sea that was doing this diplomatic dance with China.	0
472	HELENE COOPER	We had a Chinese ship that was trailing us.	0
473	HELENE COOPER	And several times, I got into conversations with sailors about, you know, "This is all about how we, you know, how we strategize in a really important area, could Donald Trump even handle something like this?"	0
474	HELENE COOPER	And then you had this week, with Donald Trump's message is about, and what he said about South Korea and Japan, which the Japanese prime minister immediately recanted, or dismissed.	0
475	HELENE COOPER	But, and you have that juxtaposed against President Obama's Washington Nuclear Summit, in which you had heads of states from all over the world sitting here, carefully talking about nuclear disarmament and how do we go about doing it.	0
476	HELENE COOPER	I just think when you look at all of the things that happened to Donald Trump this week, and the abortion issue was horrible for him, but I think the nuclear issue, I think, ends up scaring people particularly at the Pentagon and the national security apparatus a whole lot more.	0
477	CHUCK TODD	All right.	0
478	CHUCK TODD	If Trump falls though, the beneficiary is Ted Cruz.	0
479	CHUCK TODD	Ted Cruz, if Ted Cruz wins Wisconsin, Charles, is it because there are a whole bunch of Cruz Republicans, or is he really benefiting from Stop Trump right now?	0
480	CHARLES BENSON	Well, I think he's benefiting from the Stop Trump right now.	0
481	CHARLES BENSON	Clearly, it's getting late to get to the dance, and they were looking for a dance partner, and Ted Cruz was the guy.	0
482	CHUCK TODD	Yeah, why Cruz and not Kasich though?	0
483	CHUCK TODD	Some of us would have thought Kasich might fit this state better.	0
484	CHARLES BENSON	Right when you look at the match-up from Kasich, you would think he would match what the conservative brand would be in Wisconsin.	0
485	CHARLES BENSON	I mean, Wisconsin's pretty conservative right now.	0
486	CHARLES BENSON	They’ve got the conservative governor, got a conservative legislature, they control both houses.	0
487	CHARLES BENSON	And they have a conservative high court.	0
488	CHARLES BENSON	He got the backing Kasich of the former governor, Tommy Thompson, who has won there four times.	0
489	CHARLES BENSON	But I think they felt that Cruz, when they were looking at the difference between Cruz and Kasich, they were saying, "Who can beat Trump?	0
490	CHARLES BENSON	How can we get to the convention with a guy?"	0
491	CHARLES BENSON	And they felt Ted Cruz was the guy.	0
492	CHUCK TODD	David Brooks, what do you most likely think is going to happen now?	0
493	CHUCK TODD	Is it Trump, Cruz, or Paul Ryan?	0
494	DAVID BROOKS	I think it's likely to be Trump.	0
495	DAVID BROOKS	I think he's the walking dead.	0
496	DAVID BROOKS	I think he'll get the nomination and he will just go down to a crushing defeat.	0
497	DAVID BROOKS	And will be known for a hundred years from now, people will say, "Who's the biggest loser in American politics?"	0
498	DAVID BROOKS	And it won't be McGovern, it won't be Dukakis, the word Trump.	0
499	DAVID BROOKS	And I hope when he's down there in Hades he's aware of all that.	0
500	CHUCK TODD	Wow.	0
501	HELENE COOPER	Very subtle.	0
502	CHUCK TODD	Very subtle.	0
503	CHUCK TODD	Why do I have a feeling Mr. Brooks is going to hear from Mr. Trump sometime on social media today?	0
504	CHUCK TODD	Anyway, with that, we'll take a pause.	0
505	CHUCK TODD	When we come back, down ballot blues.	0
506	CHUCK TODD	We're going to stick with Wisconsin as a theme.	0
507	CHUCK TODD	What does Donald Trump at the top of the ticket mean for Republicans further down?	0
508	CHUCK TODD	We'll be right back.	0
509	CHUCK TODD	***COMMERCIAL BREAK***	0
510	CHUCK TODD	Welcome back.	0
511	CHUCK TODD	One of the reasons the Republican establishment has the jitters over Donald Trump is the worry that having Trump at the top of the ticket will hurt the party's chances of keeping control of the house and the Senate.	0
512	CHUCK TODD	My next guest, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson is up for reelection in November and does face a tough fight to hold onto his seat in a swing state that has gone blue more often than not.	0
513	CHUCK TODD	Senator Johnson, welcome back to Meet the Press.	0
514	SEN. RON JOHNSON	Morning, Chuck.	0
515	SEN. RON JOHNSON	How are you doing?	0
516	CHUCK TODD	I'm pretty good.	0
517	CHUCK TODD	Let me ask you straight up.	0
518	CHUCK TODD	Are you going to say who you're voting for on Tuesday?	0
519	CHUCK TODD	Are you going to endorse before Tuesday?	0
520	SEN. RON JOHNSON	I have not endorsed.	0
521	SEN. RON JOHNSON	You know, I've certainly stated my intention to support whoever the Republican nominee is.	0
522	SEN. RON JOHNSON	I've got to have faith in Wisconsin primary voters as well as American - or the Republican primary voters on a national level.	0
523	SEN. RON JOHNSON	So that's my intention.	0
524	CHUCK TODD	It's interesting you put it that way.	0
525	CHUCK TODD	Do you plan on supporting the candidate who wins the primary on Tuesday in Wisconsin?	0
526	CHUCK TODD	Do you think that's the most appropriate action?	0
527	SEN. RON JOHNSON	Well, again, what I will do is I will support whoever the delegates in the national convention actually chooses for a nominee.	0
528	SEN. RON JOHNSON	And we've got three and a half months to go here before that's actually determined.	0
529	SEN. RON JOHNSON	You know, three and a half months is a lifetime in politics.	0
530	SEN. RON JOHNSON	So nobody can predict exactly how this is going to turn out.	0
531	CHUCK TODD	You know, you’ve been - it's been surprising to hear from you as compared to some of your other fellow Republican senators who are running for reelection in swing states.	0
532	CHUCK TODD	You're one of the few that says publicly that you think Donald Trump helps you in your reelection, that he doesn't hurt you.	0
533	CHUCK TODD	Why?	0
534	SEN. RON JOHNSON	No.	0
535	SEN. RON JOHNSON	I think what I've been talking about is, you know, from my standpoint, I'm a businessperson.	0
536	SEN. RON JOHNSON	I'm a completely outsider.	0
537	SEN. RON JOHNSON	And that certainly is what has resonated about his campaign in many respects.	0
538	SEN. RON JOHNSON	But, you know, from my standpoint, I think what this campaign ought to be about is, you know, growth.	0
539	SEN. RON JOHNSON	How do you grow our economy?	0
540	SEN. RON JOHNSON	It's the number one component for a solution.	0
541	SEN. RON JOHNSON	I think what candidates are finding out here in Wisconsin is we have some very discerning primary voters here on the Republican side.	0
542	SEN. RON JOHNSON	And like Charles mentioned, a lot has to do with our exceptional talk radio hosts across the state.	0
543	SEN. RON JOHNSON	And I think some of the candidates found out exactly exceptional they really are in terms of asking tough questions.	0
544	SEN. RON JOHNSON	And that's really what elections are about, and sort of primaries about, is getting out the truth.	0
545	CHUCK TODD	All right.	0
546	CHUCK TODD	Senator, by saying what you said, you're all but implying you're not for Trump.	0
547	CHUCK TODD	You're all but implying by essentially praising how great these conservative radio can be, how do we not interpret that as an anti-Trump sentiment coming from you?	0
548	SEN. RON JOHNSON	Because I'm saying what I'm saying.	0
549	SEN. RON JOHNSON	I'm not endorsing somebody.	0
550	SEN. RON JOHNSON	That obviously speaks for itself.	0
551	SEN. RON JOHNSON	The last primary, I did endorse Mitt Romney, and I'll tell you why I endorsed Mitt Romney, it's why I met with him beforehand, he said, "Ron, I expect to be a one-term president, because I'm going to fix these problems."	0
552	SEN. RON JOHNSON	And then when he picked Paul Ryan as a running mate, it just confirmed that my choice was correct.	0
553	SEN. RON JOHNSON	So obviously, I don't have a comfort level.	0
554	SEN. RON JOHNSON	You know, let's face it.	0
555	SEN. RON JOHNSON	No two people agree on everything.	0
556	SEN. RON JOHNSON	I'll tell you what, though, is certain, is I will never vote for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or whoever the Democrat nominee may be.	0
557	SEN. RON JOHNSON	So again, I'm looking, and I've got to put my faith and trust in Republican primary voters, and I intend to support the Republican nominee, whoever that person may or may not be.	0
558	CHUCK TODD	Let me ask you this.	0
559	CHUCK TODD	What advice would you give Donald Trump to improve his chances in Wisconsin?	0
560	CHUCK TODD	Right now, we've got polling that shows he trails Hillary Clinton by ten points.	0
561	CHUCK TODD	Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton are tied in Wisconsin.	0
562	CHUCK TODD	And John Kasich actually leads her.	0
563	CHUCK TODD	But if Trump's the nominee, what advice would you give Donald Trump to improve his standing in Wisconsin?	0
564	SEN. RON JOHNSON	It's the same advice I'd give anybody in a primary or a general election.	0
565	SEN. RON JOHNSON	Show your vision for America, for Wisconsin, and certainly in a Republican primary, show the primary voters how you intend to take that vision to defeat the Democratic nominee.	0
566	SEN. RON JOHNSON	Let's face it, we're going to be facing either a socialist, I think we should all remember that socialism isn't hasn't worked.	0
567	SEN. RON JOHNSON	Not in the Soviet Union, not in Venezuela, certainly not in what should be the island paradise of Cuba.	0
568	SEN. RON JOHNSON	And Hillary Clinton has so much baggage, you know, she's going to be a very flawed candidate if she ends up being selected.	0
569	CHUCK TODD	Alright, final question.	0
570	CHUCK TODD	Merrick Garland, the President's choice for the Supreme Court vacancy, you said something interesting.	0
571	CHUCK TODD	You said, you implied that if this were a Republican president filling a conservative seat, this would go through without a problem.	0
572	CHUCK TODD	I guess my question to you is if Merrick Garland were replacing a liberal seat on the court, would you be more inclined to see this nomination and confirmation process go forward?	0
573	SEN. RON JOHNSON	No, I think what Vice President Biden said in 1992 is pretty accurate.	0
574	SEN. RON JOHNSON	In such a politicized atmosphere, with just a couple, literally eight months before an election, let the American people have a voice in choosing the direction of the Supreme Court when they're choosing the direction of the country.	0
575	CHUCK TODD	Under any circumstance?	0
576	CHUCK TODD	You don't think Supreme Court nominations should happen in a final year of a presidency in a presidential election year ever?	0
577	SEN. RON JOHNSON	I think it's pretty problematic.	0
578	SEN. RON JOHNSON	And particularly with the Judge Garland in Wisconsin here, he appears to be pretty hostile to Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms, which would not be popular in Wisconsin.	0
579	SEN. RON JOHNSON	So I'm doing my job in protecting the Second Amendment rights of Wisconsinites by just withholding my consent.	0
580	CHUCK TODD	Alright.	0
581	CHUCK TODD	Senator Ron Johnson, Republican from Wisconsin up for reelection.	0
582	CHUCK TODD	Thanks for coming on the show, sir.	0
583	SEN. RON JOHNSON	Thanks for having me.	0
584	CHUCK TODD	You got it.	0
585	CHUCK TODD	We'll be back in 45 seconds with our endgame segment and the Democrats.	0
586	CHUCK TODD	Why can't Hillary Clinton put away Bernie Sanders?	0
587	CHUCK TODD	***COMMERCIAL BREAK***	0
588	CHUCK TODD	And we're back with endgame.	0
589	CHUCK TODD	I want you to listen to something Bernie Sanders said Thursday.	0
590	SYSTEM	(BEGIN TAPE)	0
591	BERNIE SANDERS	We have won six out of the last seven caucuses.	0
592	BERNIE SANDERS	Most of them by landslide victories.	0
593	BERNIE SANDERS	And I think that, uh, superdelegates should listen to the will of their people.	0
594	BERNIE SANDERS	If you get 60, 70, 80 percent of the vote in a state, you know what, I think superdelegates should vote for us.	0
595	SYSTEM	(END TAPE)	0
596	CHUCK TODD	Okay.	0
597	CHUCK TODD	So we decided to crunch the numbers on that basis to see how much it would benefit Senator Sanders, if all of the superdelegates in states he's won so far chose him.	0
598	CHUCK TODD	So take a look.	0
599	CHUCK TODD	Right now, looking at states where people have voted so far, the current superdelegate count in those states is Clinton, with 253 versus Sanders with just 25 superdelegates, with some superdelegates still undecided.	0
600	CHUCK TODD	If those superdelegates vote the way their states have voted so far, then they would divide this way: Clinton would actually increase her lead a little bit, increase her total to 260, Bernie Sanders would get to 124, because some of those undecideds that were in there would be allocated to help Hillary Clinton.	0
601	CHUCK TODD	But those numbers just show you, Hillary Clinton still would lead with superdelegates too.	0
602	CHUCK TODD	He doesn't have a path, does he?	0
603	AMY WALTER	No.	0
604	AMY WALTER	Look, this race is, it's still going on, and it's important for Hillary Clinton to remain engaged.	0
605	AMY WALTER	And I give Bernie Sanders a lot of credit from starting from zero and getting to where he is right now.	0
606	AMY WALTER	It's an impressive-- and he's made this debate about his issues and he's made her fight on his turf.	0
607	AMY WALTER	That said, the delegate math is not going to add up and it's not working.	0
608	AMY WALTER	But when you compare where Democrats are to where Republicans are, Democrats are having a skirmish right now.	0
609	AMY WALTER	Republicans are in thermonuclear war, okay?	0
610	AMY WALTER	It is not-- so it's a little bit messy, and so it's going to be a little harder for her, and maybe it's not over until June.	0
611	AMY WALTER	But they are going to be united, Democratic partisans right now like Bernie Sanders as much as they like Hillary Clinton.	0
612	AMY WALTER	They are not going to have a problem unifying the party in the way Republicans are.	0
613	CHUCK TODD	Look, David-- go ahead.	0
614	CHARLES BENSON	Alright, let me just say.	0
615	CHARLES BENSON	I think Wisconsin's going to be good for Bernie Sanders.	0
616	CHARLES BENSON	He's expected to win there.	0
617	CHARLES BENSON	This is not going to be 2008 though for Hillary Clinton where she got clobbered by double digits.	0
618	CHARLES BENSON	This could be a single-digit win.	0
619	CHARLES BENSON	But everybody knows that Bernie Sanders needs a big win.	0
620	CHARLES BENSON	And you talked about April 5th, 1960, John F. Kennedy, you know, coming out of Wisconsin, getting some legitimacy.	0
621	CHARLES BENSON	But think about it, April 5th, 1910, Wisconsin, I should say Milwaukee, was the first major American city, key word there major American, to have and elect a socialist mayor.	0
622	CHARLES BENSON	They've done it three times.	0
623	CHARLES BENSON	So that's good news.	0
624	CHUCK TODD	For Bernie Sanders.	0
625	CHARLES BENSON	For Bernie Sanders.	0
626	CHUCK TODD	Former socialist mayor of Burlington .	0
627	CHUCK TODD	But David, why--	0
628	DAVID BROOKS	I think he voted in that election.	0
629	CHUCK TODD	Oh, come on.	0
630	CHUCK TODD	Boy, you are just going to make everybody mad, aren't you?	0
631	CHUCK TODD	But Hillary Clinton is struggling to close out this nomination.	0
632	CHUCK TODD	Let's call it what it is.	0
633	CHUCK TODD	She is struggling to do it.	0
634	CHUCK TODD	Amy's right.	0
635	CHUCK TODD	It is a skirmish.	0
636	CHUCK TODD	It is not this-- but if there wasn't a Republican fight, we'd be going, "What's going on here?	0
637	CHUCK TODD	Why can't she close the deal?"	0
638	DAVID BROOKS	If Donald Trump didn't exist, we would all be talking about how she is the most unpopular nominee in recent American history.	0
639	CHUCK TODD	She would be that, instead Donald Trump is that.	0
640	DAVID BROOKS	There happens to be this other guy.	0
641	DAVID BROOKS	What strikes me is there are two motivations for voters.	0
642	DAVID BROOKS	There's philosophy, and Sanders sort of has that.	0
643	DAVID BROOKS	But there's also party loyalty.	0
644	DAVID BROOKS	I was watching your interview with her earlier.	0
645	DAVID BROOKS	And I was thinking, "If Ed Muskie or Hubert Humphrey came back and they saw her, they'd thought, “That's what a Democratic candidate looks like.'"	0
646	CHUCK TODD	Or-- and sounds like.	0
647	DAVID BROOKS	Yeah.	0
648	DAVID BROOKS	And so she's part of the party, the embodied history of the party.	0
649	DAVID BROOKS	And so there's a machine-like quality, it's hard to get super excited by her, but there's a comfort level for Democratic voters.	0
650	DAVID BROOKS	And that's carrying her, but it doesn't inspire.	0
651	HELENE COOPER	I was also struck though during your interview with Hillary, with Senator Clinton, on your questions about abortion.	0
652	HELENE COOPER	And you guys spent a lot of time during that interview, about four to five minutes.	0
653	CHUCK TODD	It's something you don't do very often with Democratic candidates.	0
654	HELENE COOPER	No, you don't.	0
655	HELENE COOPER	But she answered you and she went back and she had history and she had precedent to cite, and she talked about third world, uh, other countries she went through.	0
656	HELENE COOPER	And then I started imagining you doing that interview with Donald Trump.	0
657	HELENE COOPER	And where he gets that, when he's with Chris Matthews, and he gets that deer-with-his-eyes-caught look in his face, where you see he's grappling for an answer and he's out of his depth and he's not sure how he's going to answer it.	0
658	HELENE COOPER	And I think what this week and what happened with Donald Trump played the beneficiary of this the most I think is Hillary Clinton.	0
659	HELENE COOPER	Because if ever there was, like, you had, like, a sort of, an edging out the differences between candidates, she's the one who I think is the winner.	0
660	CHUCK TODD	But I wonder, the more clarity, it's funny.	0
661	CHUCK TODD	I agree.	0
662	CHUCK TODD	This week, this was the first time you thought, "Boy, she could really--" you could see how she's going to match up pretty well with Donald Trump.	0
663	CHUCK TODD	Republican delegates are going to see that Amy, right?	0
664	AMY WALTER	Well, they haven't seen it yet.	0
665	CHUCK TODD	Right, but they're gonna--	0
666	AMY WALTER	This is really the most fascinating thing.	0
667	AMY WALTER	There have been polls out now for a long time that showed that he has problems with women.	0
668	AMY WALTER	That shows that he has problems with pretty much every single demographic group.	0
669	AMY WALTER	And yet--	0
670	CHUCK TODD	Except white men.	0
671	AMY WALTER	Except for white men.	0
672	AMY WALTER	And yet, it has not impacted him in these primaries.	0
673	AMY WALTER	In fact, I went back and I looked at this point in 2012, almost 40 percent of Republicans said beating Obama was their top priority and they voted for Mitt Romney.	0
674	AMY WALTER	Today, 13 percent of Republicans say that electability is their top issue.	0
675	AMY WALTER	It's not about beating Hillary Clinton.	0
676	AMY WALTER	It is about putting the candidate that they think represents their values better.	0
677	AMY WALTER	And that's where Trump and Cruz fit the bill.	0
678	HELENE COOPER	But this is how they ended up losing in 2012.	0
679	HELENE COOPER	That's how we get back to, now we're moving towards a general election.	0
680	HELENE COOPER	Now we're starting, you know, what we've seen so far are these two, these two, in these two, primaries the people on the left and the people on right.	0
681	CHUCK TODD	Charles, let me ask you this, you get the final comment on this.	0
682	CHUCK TODD	Who's going to have an easier time coming together, this sort of a polarized Democratic electorate in Wisconsin or a polarized Republican electorate in Wisconsin?	0
683	CHARLES BENSON	I think the Democrats have an easier time coming together.	0
684	CHARLES BENSON	You know, they both are looking pretty good, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and I think at the end of the day, we saw it last night.	0
685	CHARLES BENSON	They had the founders party for the Democrats.	0
686	CHARLES BENSON	You could have called it the unity party-- the unity, uh--	0
687	CHUCK TODD	They didn't fight that much?	0
688	CHARLES BENSON	They really didn't fight that much.	0
689	CHARLES BENSON	So I think they'll be able to come together.	0
690	CHUCK TODD	All right, thank you all.	0
691	CHUCK TODD	Charles, thanks for coming down.	0
692	CHARLES BENSON	Thank you for having me.	0
693	CHUCK TODD	You've got to get out of here, because I know, you've got some more work to do.	0
694	CHUCK TODD	That's all we have for today.	0
695	CHUCK TODD	We'll be back next week.	0
696	CHUCK TODD	Because as you know, if it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press.	0