rick perry was indicted on two felony charges in 2014. abuse of power charges related to his time as texas governor. this mugshot was taken in august 2014. the governor made sure to take a handsome mugshot with a big smile. and he actually turned that arraignment that day into a big happy political event. he had cheering supporters outside the courthouse. he gave kind of a simultaneously triumphant and defiant speech from the courthouse steps. afterwards, he invited reporters to go out to ice cream with them after his arraignment. i'm not kidding. rick perry put the happiest possible spin on his felony criminal indictment. but it still did seem to just kind of linger on like an old cooking smell you can't quite get out of the kitchen even when you open the windows. as 2014 turned to 2015 and he tried to mount his second run for president, this indictment thing just hung around. it had to be mentioned by anybody who talked about him for any length of time. that run for president didn't last all that long. governor perry made basically no i

perry bacon is with me. we heard the president talk about justice scalia as someone who influenced a generation and profoundly shaped the legal landscape. the president reference to justice scalia as referring his life to the rule of law. that is as you know, one of the highest compliments you can pay a judge. the notion even if they had strong views, even if they were embroiled in legal controversies as the supreme court invariably is, that they were a jurist and a person of the law first. not a person of ideology or opinion or god forbid, a partisan outcome. i thought that was to my ear, within the legal community, and the way lawyers and judges think about it. one of the highest compliments that president obama could pay justice scalia. >> right. and there were brief remarks but the president really tried to commend justice scalia for the influence he had on the law. he also commended him for energetic opinions, energetic style was the words the president used. h e tried to praise him for his opinion writ

perry bacon is with me. we heard the president talk about justice scalia as someone who influenced a generation and profoundly shaped the legal land scape. the president reference to justice scalia as referring his life to the rule of law. that is as you know, one of the highest compliments you can pay a judge. the notion even if they had strong views, even if they were embroiled in legal controversies as the supreme court invariably is, they were a juryist and a person of the law first. not a person of ideology or opinion or god forbid, a partisan outcome. i thought that was to my ear, within the legal community, and the way lawyers and judges think about it. one of the highest compliments that president obama could pay justice scalia. >> right. and there were brief remarks but the president really tried to commend justice scalia for the influence he had on the law. he also commended him for energetic opinions, energetic style was the words the president used. for his influence on the law itself. the presid

the actions that i took were not only lawful and legal, they were right. >> perry's 2014 indictment came after he threatened to veto funding for a public corruption unit unless the travis county district attorney resigned because of a drunk driving arrest. >>> well, the powerful storm is being blamed for four deaths in virginia. it hit the town of waverly yesterday, killing a 2-year-old boy and three men. seven others were injured. state police say the funnel cloud left an eight to ten mile path of destruction. more than 200,000 people are still without power in virginia, florida and louisiana. states of emergency have been declared in seven louisiana parishes where four tornadoes have been confirmed so far. we'll get an update from bill karins in a moment. >>> still ahead on "way too early," tiger woods picks up a 9 iron and swings back at reports of his demise. >>> an emotional day in the civil trial brought by erin andrews as her father testified on her behalf. what he said about her state of mind after a stalker recorded her in the nude and posted the videos online. >>> and tim

perry will stay with us, as well as our panel. we have more, including up next some of the footage and interviews from that spin room after what was by all accounts a bloody debate. we are live, 12:40 a.m. on the east coast. stay with us. how can anyone sleep like that? well, just put on a breathe right strip and pow! it instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than cold medicine alone. so you can breathe and sleep. shut your mouth and say goodnight mouthbreathers. breathe right >>> we are back with live coverage after the gop debate in south carolina. i'm ari melber coming here at 12:43 on the east coast team and 9:43 on west coast time. in the spin room we got a lot of extra insights as we spoke with several people as well as covering the death of justice antonin scalia. we're going to show you some of the very best quick highlights from our spin room coverage. when we come back, we'll be live with our panel to talk about what happened in the debate, as well as about final thoughts of justice scalia. first to the spin room. >> i

they rush to perry to meet with their number one suspect. but despite his claiming that he wanted to be caught, mcveigh isn't talking. >> this guy says, you better talk to us, because you are facing the death penalty here, dah, dah, dah, pulls out pictures of dead babies and slides it toward me. and he said, you are familiar with the oklahoma bombing, right? or something to that affect. some way to introduce the pictures. and make me feel bad and start talking. it didn't work, i just kept a straight face and i said, i want an attorney. >> that same afternoon, at had his home in harrington, kansas, after learning he had become a person of interest, terry nichols turns himself in. unlike mcveigh, nichols cooperates with authorities he is not the unidentified accomplice they are looking for but provides enough information to point to mcveigh as being the architect of the bombing. they are prepared to take him out of the noble county courthouse, it's the first time that the world gets a look at the oklahoma city bomber. >> there were steps leadi

it did stick to rick perry because there was a preexisting worry about rick perry maybe being a little dim. these things stick to you not necessarily because of how bad they are in absolute terms. they stick to you when they confirm what is already feared about you. people covering marco rubio and people who are close to marco rubio have been wondering for years now. they sometimes been putting in print their fears that maybe he's a computer program. maybe he's a robot. that he's fake. he memorizes things. beyond that he malfunctions. saturday night's debate what marco did under that question, at least that's likely to stick. at least for a while. this was the front page of the boston herald the morning after the debate. it's a boston paper but they have big readership in new hampshire in southern new hampshire which is where marco rubio needs to perform best. choke. that front page has got to hurt. what's got to hurt even more is photo copy offense that being slipped under wind shield wipers at marco rubio events in new hampshire ever since the boston herald came out. jeb bush super p

so we're going to make sure it doesn't happen again. >> rick perry was unable to put his debate moment in 2011 behind him. >> yeah, i mean -- >> yeah, it was worse. how does your campaign put that behind you? >> well, um, i mean, there's a bing difference. he couldn't remember what he wanted to say. apparently i remembered it too well. >> rubio wasn't just playing defense yesterday, setting his sights on jeb bush. >> the fact of the matter is jeb has no foreign policy experience. none. he was governor a long time ago. the world has changed a lot in the last ten years. and foreign policy has changed a lot in the last five years. and no one on that stage has more experience or has shown better judgment or a better understanding of the national security threats before this country than i have. >> senator ted cruz was also in south carolina yesterday, where he took shots at the media for ignoring his surprising third-place finish in new hampshire and he framed the race as down to just two. >> well, i am looking forward to a week of wall-to-wall coverage on fox news at the impressive third

msnbc's cal perry got to meet some of those ranchers. he spent the day in groesbeck, texas where he got to take in a live stock auction. cal, what are the voters telling you? >> reporter: they are telling us they want less government regulation. that's the biggest issue. and major water issue here as well. he can we talked to coal hoff n hoffman, and honestly, he couldn't look more like a cowboy if he tried. >> it would allow the the epa to allow control of anybody over water in the united states. the water u.s. rules are muddy at the supreme court level. where it's navigatable waters. but the u.s. rule would allow the epa to come in and control everything from a stream to a ditch to anything that had water in it. and it's a pretty bad deal for ranches all around if someone can exercise control over the water sources that they have. >> reporter: so if you're wondering where colt sounds like a lawyer, he was a lir. he went to texas a&m and as so many ranchers have told us, that water issue is huge. there was a major drought last year. it

kyle perry. he looks like he's in the mix. thumbs up. >>> why the government's fight with apple is not juabout one p. >>> the people of iphone are locking it from the san bernardino terrorists. newly unsealed court documents show that at least 13 more apple devices are still subject to an fbi court order. now, apple is sticking to its guns on these cases, too, but now we know that if apple loses the san bernardino case, a lot more battles are going to follow. that's 30. you can check out more on theverge.com. a financial relationship with someone that understands and cares about your business. pnc corporate and institutional banking offers strategies tailored to your company's needs. know that our dedicated teams of local experts offer insight to help you achieve your business objectives. see how working with pnc can help your company grow at pnc.com/ideas ♪ ugh! heartburn! no one burns on my watch! try alka-seltzer heartburn reliefchews. they work fast and don't taste chalky. mmm...amazing. i have heartburn. alka-seltzer he

i want to bring in perry bacon. perry, part of the argument is, both sides have changed rules when it comes to judicial nominations. graham arguing the democrats will reap what they've sewn. >> it's hard to take that argument -- when he voted for sotomayor and justice kagan, the democrats had a very large majority in the senate. there were 59 or 60 democratic senators. so whether graham or republicans backed those nominees or not didn't make the margin that different. versus now, you have a senate controlled by the republicans. that's the key factor here and that's what has changed here. i think his comments though, you saw that rubio and ted cruz, the people in the senate said, obama should not bother to even send anyone. don't give a name at all. but jeb bush and donald trump, when asked that question, they both essentially said, if i were president, i would certainly nominate someone. but i would not weaken the office by not nominating someone. so you'll see maybe the case changes from are the president should no

so we'll make sure that doesn't happen again. >> rick perry was unable to put his debate moment in 2011 behind him. how do you -- >> yeah, but i mean that was -- >> i know, it was worse but how does your campaign put that behind you? >> well, i mean, there's a big difference, he couldn't remember what he wanted to say, apparently i remembered it too well. >> nicolle, would you say rick perry's oops moment was worse than what happened the other night? >> no. and i think that rubio's damage was caused by his refusal to say what he said yesterday immediately following the debate, voters punish you more harshly for a gaffe if you refuse to acknowledge what the world over saw. if you are standing there saying "i would have --" he said it on the sunday show, "i would have paid money to have the networks repeat that clip over and over because that's what i believe passionately." that sentence did him as much damage as repeating that line four times because it made it look like he couldn't do what he finally did yesterday which was admit a mistake. >> he's handled this great the last two days.

cal perry and i tag teaming the whole way. that's going to do it for me. chris jansing live here in oklahoma city. our thanks to all the folks here who have been so kind and generous with their time. and frankly, with their food. i'll see you back here, 1:00 eastern time, tomorrow from dallas, texas. >> yep, it's wednesday. someone just said he thinks there's a, quote, bombshell in donald trump's taxes. it wasn't marco rubio who said it, and it wasn't ted cruz. it was the nominee from 2012. none other than mitt romney, who is ready to take off the gloves to stop trump. but is it too little? this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. >> good evening from new york. and welcome to another edition of "mtp daily." donald trump is essentially the prohibitive front-runner and arguably the presumptive nominee, perhaps right now. and he could be, for sure, after next tuesday. let that sink in for a moment. after blowout victories in new hampshire and south carolina, trump cruised to victory number three last night in nevada, crushing the field by 22 points. more

cal perry, thank you for joining us. cal will be back in the next hour with chris jansing where she is hosting day six of her road trip, this morning live from the university of georgia in athens. go, bulldogs. >> we're going to go to one county here in the lone star state where voters have been able to vote since february 16th, early voting and the turn out has already broken records. msnbc's jacob soboroff talked with poll workers about how they're preparing for tomorrow's big night. he joins me next. our cosmetics line was a hit. the orders were rushing in. i could feel our deadlines racing towards us. we didn't need a loan. we needed short-term funding fast. building 18 homes in 4 ½ months? that was a leap. but i knew i could rely on american express to help me buy those building materia. amex helped me buy the inventory i needed. our amex helped us fill the orders. just like that. another step on the journey. will you be ready when growth prents itself? realize your buying power at open.com hey kevin. hey, fancy se

i knocked out graham and perry and i knocked out a lot of people. walker. >> you're still hammering people. >> i have to. >> but if you knock everybody else out and you're president of the united states, then you have to deal with 535 people that will be hammering you. >> do you have the temperament? >> do you have the temperament to be the president of the united states? >> i think my biggest strength -- >> jeb bush would disagree. lindsey graham would disagree. >> look, jeb is a sad case. okay, it's sad there there you go again! >> donald -- >> our country doesn't win anymore. you're so worried about being nice and politically correct. would you rather have me be nice to everybody and they're still hammering me? you get out -- >> it's not what i want or what she wants, but the question is do you have the temperament to deal day in and day out with -- >> finger on the button -- >> finger on the button. >> during the debate, i was thinking, should this guy have his finger on the button? >> during the debate i was being hit by announcer, john dickers

hillary clinton has racked up support from katy perry to lena dunham has backed here, and britney spears met her yesterday in las vegas and posted photos with the #i'm with her. seeming to when her support for the candidate. then she took it pack. spears posted the same photos on instagram and facebook and the second time she removed the hash tag. that is often used on social media platforms by those endorsing hillary clinton for president. >>> all right, to last night's republican town hall. plenty of policy talk, but when john kasich and donald trump were asked about music they did not -- they could not say enough. >> fall out boy is one of them. i like lin kin park. and 21 pilots, we're stressed out. the give rate concert is the wall. i said i'd get pink floyd back together again. with roger watters and roger gilmore. i said it's gilmore and watters, come on. if you have seen the wall -- >> the best concert ever. >> ever. the wall. >> because i love michael jackson was actually a good friend of mine. i knew him very well. lived in trump tower for a long time. got married, lisa marie p

i'm melissa harris-perry. last night's presidential debate was the eighth time we have

he has produced some of the biggest pop hits from the last decade including california girls by katy perry and party in the usa by miley cyrus. let's go to another story from the music industry and curtis jackson knowns to the hip-hop world as 50 cent filed for bankruptcy last year his stage name had never seemed more ironic. now after flaunting a massive amount of cash and various instagram photos a judge has ordered him to court. one photo displays a refrigerator full of money with a caption, got to keep a cool stash, happy holidays. and another image jackson sits on a bed full of money eating a popsicle, and apparently watching tv. a judge has ordered the rapper to court to explain the instagram photos citing concerns about a lack of transparency in the case. all right. this is my favorite story of the morning. we go to the white house, they posted an endearing video of 106-year-old washington, d.c. resident virginia mclauren visiting the president and first lady for a celebration of black history month. now, mclauren's energy was so infectious that even the president had a hard time ke

perry. last night's presidential debate was the eighth time we have seen the top contenders for the republican nomination square off on a national stage. the last before tuesday's new hampshire primary. but the first since the iowa caucuses, shifted and reshuffled the field of contenders. in some ways, it was like watching them debate for the very first time. gone was the undercard of low polling also rans. we bid farewell to drop-outs rand paul, mike huckabee, and rick santorum, and other low pollers still in it to win it, carly fiorina and jim gilmore didn't make the cut for the stamg. but making saturday night's debate a prime time to reorder the politics of the 2016 race. and that seems to be precisely what happened at the gop governors came out swinging from the opening bell and unrelentingly pursued the senators, the doctors, and reality tv hosts throughout the night. >> for anybody who is here tonight, if i get elect eed president, head out tomorrow and buy a seat belt because there's

rick perry's gone. jindal's gone. kasich's still there. you know, carson's not really a factor anymore. i hate to say that of anybody, but he isn't a factor anymore. is there an establishment that it will go to rubio? is that happening or not? >> historically, i think your narrative works well if you talk about the establishment versus an ideological reserve. but with trump, you're not really having a traditional idea a log. they see trump as more moderate on social issues that they can work with privately and publicly on politics, on legislation. and so they don't necessarily see him as a total outsider who wants to change the way the party thinks, and move it far to the right. >> if you had to call it right now, robert, would you say the establishment has begun to crumble? >> i think the establishment donor class has begun to crumble. they're searching for rubio, trying to get some momentum there. but the establishment in terms of the official elected leadership of the republican party, when you look at mccarthy, they're starting to wrap

. >> finally, former texas governor rick perry -- >> get your tir-shirts out. >> i have one. he's cleared of all charges. the texas court of criminal appeals adropped a felony abuse of power charge against him. it was the second of two charges he faced after being indicted in 2014. after the court's decision yesterday, perry celebrated with an ice cream cone. >> i love that guy. >> at a burger shack in austin. it was the same place where he gotten a ice cream shortly after being booked on the 2014 charge. >> harold, this guy is booked by a partisan prosecutor right as he's getting ready to run in a presidential campaign. and it hangs over him. >> look, it's -- >> it's terrible. >> it didn't seem to add up all together to your point when it first happened, when the charges were brought and, you know, bless him, glad it's over with him for it and it's unfortunate he had to have that dog him during a campaign. >> still ahead on "morning joe," texas governor greg abbot who is blacking ted cruz for president. plus, former rnc chairman haley barbour joins us. senator bob corker and

line it was 17 candidates. 17 people actually running and from the initial 17, we first lost, rick perry, 100 days after he jumped in, he jumped out. ten days after that we lost scott walker. poof. then it was almost two months before we got to poof anybody else. the next one we got to poof was bobby jindal in november. in december we poofed lindsey graham and at christmastime we got to poof george pitaki. everybody stuck it out until iowa. then new hampshire came along on february 10th and new hampshire poofed chris christie and carly fiorina and jim gilmore. now, i can't believe it's time to do this. i can't believe the republican will try to win a race without the benefit of richard nixon or a member of the bush family on the ticket. hasn't worked since 1928, you guys. they are doing it. here it comes. say it with me now. three, two, one, poof. poof, jeb bush. best of luck to you sir. it was a terrible campaign for jeb bush. now it's over. now who's going to make all the funny noises on the campaign trail? >> err. blah, blah. [ dog barking sound ] >> please clap. >>> i think the lawye

i'm melissa harris-perry. and that music makes it sound like we're running for president! thursday night in their first one-on-one debate of the 2016, bernie sanders -- campaign, bernie sanders and hillary clinton exchanged jabs over foreign policy. health care and campaign tactics. but the biggest fireworks were sparked by one word. an ideology that has become the focal point of the race for the democratic nomination. progressivism. >> i have a progressive who gets things done. and the root of that word, progressive, is progress. >> all i've said, there is nothing wrong with being a moderate. but you can't be a moderate, you can't be a progressive. >> in your definition, as you being the self-proclaimed gate-keeper for progressivism, i don't know anyone else who fits that definition. >> establish a list of what it means to be a progressive that is unrealistic. >> not at all. >> but the candidates' fight over the meaning of progressivism did not end or begin on thursday night. clinton and sanders have been in a full-fledged war over the term since sanders made this claim w

think about who's left the race, scott walker, bobby jindal, rick perry, mike huckabee, rick santorum, rand paul. those guys all out of the race. a lot of that vote will go to ted cruz so he has moved up nationally but he's not ahead or even with donald trump nationally, i don't think there's any question about that. >> mike barnicle, it looks as if either the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll or quinnipiac/"usa today" and these other -- and reuters who have him up by 20, 25 points, it looks like they're all competing to be the gallup of the 2016 cycle. that had mitt romney up by 11 points to the very end. somebody is drastically wrong. there's no explaining this away a month from now. >> we all know polls are a snapshot of a moment in time. the rest of the polls other than the nbc/"wall street journal" polls are landscape portraits of what's going on on the republican side, keeping trump up there. the most interesting aspect of these polls, at least to me, is that all of them when they rank the candidates portend in the future -- i don't know whether it's the immediate future or fo

rick perry is a goof now. i mean, look at scott walker, unbeatable, gone. jindal, gone. >> possibly this is why rubio, maybe that's why rubio and cruz aren't eager to -- does mitt romney actually know somebody, know something. >> i think it's groundless. trash talk. >> he see how it affected his campaign. >> yeah, but he doesn't know anything. >> i don't know if harry reid knew anything. >> no. two guys didn't know anything, doesn't make one right and the other wrong. they're plain trash talk. i bet his tax returns are really bad. >> the broader point is important. sheer desperation at this point. they look at what is happening. they think it's getting out of control. >> does anybody think that donald trump isn't going to be the nominee because he doesn't pay a lot of taxes. >> he managed not to pay taxes. >> he said it many times. my goal is to reduce my taxation. >> isn't that the goal of most of us when we pay our taxes, to pay the least legal amount of taxes. >> he has made the point he went about trying to reduce as much taxes as possible because he li

we had to wait until september for the first one out, rick perry. he got out september 11th. then scott walker. since then it's been slow. he had to wait another 58 days for another one to drop out and then finally george got out at the end of december. it seems like nobody wants to leave until some votes started coming in. now since iowa we're finally saying good bye to some people. since iowa we've lost rick huckabee and rick santorum and rand paul and then carly fiorina and then chris christie. governor christie was not on track to make it into the republican debate. carly fiorina not on the slate so to them we say good bye. we've been waiting a long time. let's puff carly fiorina and chris christie off the list. this remains the republican slate of candidates for this party's presidential nomination this year. the guy on the bottom, that's my boyfriend, jim gill more. he got ten times as many votes in new hampshire as he did in iowa. that does it for us tonight. that does it for us tonight. thanks very much for being with us. "first look" is up next. >>> it's thursday, fe

i'm blessed to have the support of former governor rick perry, lieutenant governor dan patrick. what we've really seen in texas, texas is home. it's our base, and i believe we're going to do very well there on tuesday. i also believe we're going to do very well throughout super tuesday and we're working hard to earn those votes all across the country. >> senator you denounced the comments from donald trump on the kkk. you said he's better than this. given that in your comments today about trump's potential role as the nominee, would you still support him given all this if he ends up as the nominee. >> listen, i will support the republican nominee, period. >> we've been listen there to ted cruz. the last question sounded i believe like it was from our own hallie jackson saying, look, basically if donald trump is the nominee and he is not fully condemning the kkk as you would like citing ted cruz's statement today, can you still support him? but, joy, that's a question he's answered in many different ways and basically said he's a loyal republican. we also heard again the question

>> there it is. >>> now, our own calip perry isn the road to super tuesday. you are approaching, i believe, a town in mississippi. what have you got? >> yeah, we're on our way through tupelo, mississippi. when you flip on the local media, they're telling people to show up two hours early. they expect huge crowds. when you look at the early voting numbers in tennessee, that really bears out. about 50,000 more people voting early in the state of tennessee in this primary as opposed to four years ago. when we sort of worked the room and spent the day at the mid-south farm and when you work that room and this is a yearly gathering of farmers from around the south to sort of show the -- excuse me, the newest in agricultural equipment, when you walk around talking to farmers there, they're talking about trump. the buzz is about trump. it's because he's a businessman. now, the way they broke it down for me is they said take a look at like a bushel of corn. a few years ago you could sell a bushel of corn for $6, $7. now it's $3 or $4 but the cost is the same to bring

how does it compare to rick per perry's oops moment a few years ago? and he said, rick perry couldn't remember what he had to say. apparently i remembered it too well. brian? >> so, gabe, chris christie, the good news is chris christie won't be on the stage to bring about that same response. the bad news is people will now pore over the videotape of him standing in the aisle of the aircraft looking to see if comments that he embedded in that impromptu conversation, if he has the ability to go the other way. when it's another republican debate, he will really be under the microscope. >> reporter: he certainly went back over the talking points, the talking points in the gaggle or some of the ones he's been saying in his stump speech. he repeeats that over and over and over again. his argument is, look, this is my message. voters don't pay as close attention as the media does, and he wants to make sure his message is heard. he does say he doesn't hold any hard feelings over chris christie. i suppose we'll take him at his word. >> gabe gutierrez, spartansb

. >> and i want to thank you perry. coming up, on to south carolina, 24 hours away from poll closing time down there. hillary clinton has an edge in polling down there, but is bernie sanders proved last night, "hardball" college dorm, he was not giving up without a fight. can the bern work down south. and tipping point perhaps as i said, chris christie becomes one of the biggest names in america. he is one of the biggest guys to endorse donald trump. his momentum carry the trump campaign through next tuesday on to domination. actually, the "hardball" round table dozen state contest, a lot happening next tuesday. plus privacy versus security. one of america's iconic companies goes head to head with the fbi. tim cook arguing the federal government has overreached. and stoked a debate among the millions of kcustomers. extraordinary party. this is "hardball," the place for politics. we can help guide your retirement savings. for over 75 years, investors have relied on our disciplined approach to find long term value. so whe

. >> make's cousin colton perry is in the stands with their grandfather taking video of the race. >> i go every saturday. he's pretty fun to watch. >> another camera records from inside the car. about the one minute into the race, mike in car number 83 is falling behind. >> we were actually running second last. i was trying to work my way up through. all i remember seeing was a car coming down the track and thinking, man, i'm going for a ride here. and as soon as we touched wheels, i was up in the air. >> flipping over is fairly common in stock car racing. at first, mike isn't worried. >> the impact really didn't hurt. just an everyday accident. even though it was my first time going on my side, it was all right, go through the driver checklist and start getting out of the car. >> although mike turns the engine off, fuel drips into the car. >> i saw the fuel dripping out of the carburetor and i thought if i can get my belts off, i will climb out of the car and then we'll upright it because it will probably start on fire. >> because he's on his side mike has trouble removing his seat

jim webb, rick perry. we reached out to joy. here's what she told us. "let's dispense with this notion once and for all i knew what i was doing when i made my draft picks." her draft pick has come to an end with 5,300 points. give it up for joy reid, folks. that puts her ahead of josh barro dealt a devastating blow with carly fiorina dropping out. he's in back of the pack. still in this with ted cruz at 33 points. michael steele fresh off a bernie sanders new hampshire victory has 7,800 points but our lead with the donald trump whammy pick is jess mcintosh with 7900 points. 272 days to go until election day, that's right, 272, it's still anyone's game including joy reid's because tomorrow former democratic senator jim webb and one of joy reid's draft picks will announce whether he will launch an independent bid for the white house. now the question becomes can jim webb save joy reid? >>> last night, donald trump won new hampshire and along with that win came a raft of commentary about its significance. but as crazy as last night was, we have seen someth

but this looked like perry mason. that's what it was. and chris started going into him so he said the obama phrase once. thatç was fine. twice. i said he just said that. that was strange but that's okay. right, twice? then a third time and i said it was like a robot. then a fourth time and fifth time and i said this guy's cracking up on us. and he was sweating so badly, i have never seen anything like it. it looked like he just jumped into a swimming pool with his clothing on. and i said to myself, we have tough people to negotiate with. we have putin. we have the chinese. we have wars that we're in that we are by the way, we are going to build up our military, we are going to knock out isis. we are going to knock out isis fast. remember the great days, general george patton, general douglas macarthur. do you think that they would even be thinking about isis by the time they pick up the telephone, it's over. what is wrong -- you know, we don't win anymore and we areç getting to that but i have to finish with this clown over here. int

cal perry on the road in canton, texas. see you tomorrow in arkansas. don't for get to weigh in on where cal should visit on your super tuesday state. go to facebook, twitter, instagram using the #division2016. that is going to do it for this hour from atlanta. i'll steve kornacki coming to you live from centennial olympic park. "mtp daily" starts right now. >>> it's thursday. it's the beginning of the end for the party that wants to stop trump. it's an alamo last stand in texas tonight. can marco rubio or ted cruz make their case to be the one-on-one with trump? this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. good evening from washington. welcome to "mrksz tp daily". we caught up with hillary clinton on the campaign trail a few minutes ago in south carolina. i'll bring you that in a few moments. first, we're going to start with the big story tonight. houston, we may have a problem. tonight's debate in houston, texas, could very well be the republican party's last shot at stopping trump before he steamrolls his way into super tuesday and towards the nomina

first it was rick perry and then it was bobby jindal. you had a moment when ben carson was the subject of trump's fury. you had jeb bush there for a long time. all of these folks have sort of walked into the buzz saw that is donald trump, and none have lived to tell about it. and ted cruz is sort of the next on the chopping block. so while for those who say, look, senator rubio, second place is not going to get you the nomination, the counterargument is everyone who has tried to take on donald trump thus far has failed and in spectacular fashion. you kind of can't blame him too much for thinking maybe i just wait. i keep trying to duck. i keep trying to sort of hide from this conflict. i let ted cruz take most of the brunt of the fire. and i let donald trump and ted cruz sort of destroy each other, and i take on whoever emerges from the ashes. i think it's a very dangerous strategy because i think you see donald trump doing so well in so many states headed into march 1st and beyond, that at this point, if someone doesn't take him out now

i knocked out lindsey graham, i knocked out perry, a lot of people, walker. >> you're still hammering people. >> i have to because i have six left. >> but if you knock everybody else out and you're president of the united states, then you have to deal with 535 people that are going to be hammering you every day. >> i have a great temperament. i think my biggest strength -- >> jeb bush would disagree. >> jeb bush -- >> lindsey graham would disagree. >> jeb is a sad case, okay. it's sad. >> see, there you go again. >> donald! >> there you go again! >> i'm just saying it's a very sad thing. i said he's a low energy person. look -- >> he walked right into that. >> in a year from now people will respect what i did. i had lindsey graham, he was at 7%. after i hit him he was at nothing and he left the race. now he's an angry person. i see him on television and he's like an insane person. >> again, are you -- you're proving the point. >> you're so worried about being nice and politically correct. would you rather have me be nice to everybody and now all those people are still hammering me. >>

texas, we talked earlier about how the governor, governor abbott came out for senator cruz, he has rick perry as well. does he seem to have the state well wired, or does he need to worry about losing the state to trump? >> we don't see it now, but certainly consultants are watching the polling. statewide matter, but also it is broken down by congressional district. they've told me state legislature in the congressional districts, ted cruz was doing great weeks ago. donald trump came in second. marco rubio was a distant third. they are closely watching this. no one is seeing any movement where donald trump has moved ahead, but certainly looking for it. so he has got it wired. i would also add that the donor class is probably drifting from jeb to marco rubio. but we will start to see that incoming sec reports. >> abbey, staying with you, the question of ted cruz and how he is doing over all, do you have a sense of what the campaign believes what wrong in south carolina, why he didn't finish as strongly there as they hoped and planned? >> i can just tell you what i have been watching. the county

republican presidential candidates field already made history this year is with this guy, because when rick perry

it's harder to reunite this band than it has been steve perry and journey. >> exactly. >> and we reside in the same building. >> you did try to replace me with like a youtube star. >> you're not done. >> you have to get back to home base for the morning. i'll be back with special coverage of the iowa caucus at 5:00 p.m. eastern. tamron hall and chris jansing are up next. tomorrow morning, the winners and losers will be on the today show. >> have a good day. hands down, it was, that's who i was. after one week of chantix, i knew i could quit. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix definitely helped reduce my urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some had seizures while taking chantix. if you have any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse or of seizures. don't take chantix if you've had a serious all

you mentioned, you half joked rick perry for president. do you think there will be a third party -- a constitution party candidate, say, that is a legitimate republican, a conservative? >> there are too many conservatives who would sit it out if it was donald trump -- >> -- elect hillary clinton? >> it could. but ultimately donald trump supporters need to understand hillary clinton will be elected if they continue to go down this path. >> and not just among the hard core conservatives, but from the establishment, they're deathly afraid that establishment republican voters would just stay home. >> good-bye senate. maybe even good-bye house. >> so you gave someone just for normal republicans, conventional republicans to just show up and vote for, even if they have no chance of winning a general election, they'll be showing up to vote for the senate for governor for house for all these down ballot offices. >> i think donald trump has a lot of crassover appeal in a general election with a lot of democrats. >> it's going to be interesting. trum