of south carolina politically. the dean of that delegation and a formidable guy whose word, whose endorsement will indeed mean a lot in that state. talking about hillary clinton versus bernie sanders. >>> fair warning, we're going to mix up a jum beble of topics he. i want to show you what's happening live in south carolina where senator graham sat the end of a long wind-up. he's going to introduce jeb bush. we'll bring that to you when we see the whites of jeb bush's eyes. we're also going to talk about democratic politics. the other night you might have heard john kasich at the gop debate name-check our next guest. she has been our guest several times, former ohio state senator nina turner, who is supporting bernie sanders. how did you manage to have john kasich name-check you at a gop debate? that was a neat trick and quite a bank shot. i noted it when it happened. >> well, it was, brian, the second time the governor did that. the governor and i are working on bridging t debridging the ga state of ohio and the c

pleasant, south carolina. that's where john kasich is launching a new door-to-door effort to meet with supporters. we're watching that for you, next. ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ (dog) mmm, beneful healthy weand low-calorie... keeps me looking good. hey, i get some looks, i hear the whistles. (vo) beneful healthy weight, a delicious, low-calorie meal your dog will love. with wholesome rice, real chicken, and accents of vegetables and apples. i've been blind since birth. i go through periods where it's hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. learn about non-24 by calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com. ♪ everything kids touch during cold and flu season sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. because no one kills germs better than clorox. aren't moving in the right direction,bers it can be a burden. but what if you could wake up to lower blood sugar? imagine loving your numbers

south carolinas are punktual if nothing else. this is a final push these candidates are heading out on. really all of them have something to prove, whether it's how dominant they can be or proving they can stay in this race. i tell you what, this morning, if donald trump is dominating the headlines against with new controversial comments. listen. >> this morning as the republicans blanket the state, the state of play looks like this, donald trump on top, raising eyebrows once again at a south carolina rally this time for telling general john pushing to shoot muslim prisoners a century ago. >> he took 50 bullets, he dipped them in pigs blood and they shot 49 of those people and the 50ing person, he said, you go back to your people and you tell them what happened. >> reporter: but according to rumor tracking website snopes.com, there is no evidence it ever happened. trump's comments coming the same day he went on defense. >> i was against going into iraq for a long time. >> reporter: after months of highlighting his position on the

as we look at the numbers here, donald trump wins in south carolina. remember he did well, number two in iowa, he won in new hampshire. this was only did trump last night. >> i just want to congratulate the other candidates, it's not easy running for president, i can tell you. it's tough, nasty, mean, and vicious. it's beautiful. when you win, it's beautiful. we're going to start winning for our country. >> it was are a dead heat for second place, marco rubio and ted cruz battling out for second position. the separation here is so very small, it doesn't appear that either of these men is going to say they didn't win. they didn't win overall, but they say claiming the second spot is indeed what it is about for them right now. this was ted cruz last night. >> you look at marco rubio. he was a popular member of congress, the entire south carolina establishment circled around him. even with $50 million in advertising has yet to finish better than third in any of the primary states. >> now we're hearing about advertising. just to give you a snapshot of how

>> listen, it's south carolina, south carolina, south carolina. south carolina is playing its role. howard dean had a great idea in 2006 of bringing a state with a large african-american population into the early state window. and south carolina was that state. and we played a role in 2008 and really helped to decide where the presidential race was going. and i think this time around, south carolina will play a very similar role. here in this state in 2008, 56% of those folks who voted in a democratic primary were african-american. and 61% of the voters in the democratic primary were women. so, the key demographic, chris, is african-american women. and i think that is where the secretary clinton and senator sanders have to have a laser like focus. they have to focus on african-american women. senator sanders has to convince these women that he is the person, the best person to carry the water on the issues that are important to them. health care, education, you know, criminal justice. >> and how does the black lives matter movement play into all this? >> well, i think the black live

i think coming out of south carolina you may recall barak obama won south carolina. it gave him a tremendous boost, but it did not win it for him. the battle took place right on up until june and it was not until montana and i believe south dakota when he got to the necessary magic number to win the nomination. definition will come in march, but they certainly will not be determined in march. >> is this going to go all the way until june this time? >> oh, i think so. i think it could very well do that, unless something catastrophic outside of the political process were to take place. i think it could go right up until june. >> congressman jim clyburn, thank you as always. when you're ready to make a decision on endorsement, you know where to come. >> thank you very much. i appreciate you. >>> coming up, is governor chris christie about to fold his presidential campaign? what we're hearing from new jersey next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. e know hy your life can be. oh no this mom didn't have time to worry about a cracked windshield. so she scheduled at

i'm from south carolina. i want to help you out here, let's hear you say, please vote for me, y'all. >> please vote for me, y'all. ♪ >>> and good day, y'all, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. no matter how hard they run, they just can't catch up. donald trump far out in front in south carolina and hasn't made him any more cautious about insulting his rivals. >> senator cruz, he'll say anything. they lie and the reason i can say that nicely is that rubio called him a liar also. so once another guy called him a liar, it's easier for me to call him a liar, but really cruz does lie. i'm finding out all i can do is tell the truth. i tell the truth about iraq and, you know, i say we should have never been there and if bush is insulted, i don't care if he's insulted. what difference. it was a horrible mistake. >> and any moment we're expecting what the cruz campaign is calling a do-not-miss news conference with the texas senator. stand by for that as he prepares. this is hillary clinton who is feeling the bern. b

south carolina, 1980, bush won iowa, reagan came into south carolina and put to it bed. dole had won iowa in 1988. george bush put it to bed. sap thing in 2000. same thing in 2008 when mike huckabee won iowa and john mccain won new hampshire. that split. they always split in the republican field and then whoever wents in south carolina puts to it bed. that happen every single time since the start south carolina primary. until the last one. the wild card. newt gingrich. and then south carolina became something that men who knows what in the process. the question remains whether or not south carolina is still a who knows what this means state or whether this will be once again the place that settles it. on the surface, this looks like a return to form. the split in the first two states for the republican field baltimore ted cruz won iowa and donald trump won new hampshire. donald trump has now come to south carolina and he has beaten ted cruz soundly. ted cruz is in a tight fight with marco rubio. before 2012 you would have said that means that trump will be the flom 93. o

people in south carolina will say, you're leaving south carolina just as george w. bush and others are arriving here. is that a tacit admission that it's bush country, somehow? >> why would it be his country? he hasn't won anything anywhere. no, no. i don't think about that. look, we're bringing a lot of recruits in now. we're finding that the enthusiasm is hard to absorb because of the infrastructure. now, this is exactly how we planned it. we knew that coming out of new hampshire, we would have a bump, which we've had. more money and people are coming here to help. and we take it seriously here. >> reporter: they also take seriously the state of michigan. aides tell me they're trying to replicate the success from new hampshire in that key battleground of michigan, where the vote doesn't take place until march the 8th. that's the last state where delegates are rewarded proportionately. after that, there's some critical states in the midwest, where kasich thinks he can make a stand as well, including his home state of ohio. he insists he's a unifier and says the onl

i have to stay true to south carolina. no, i'm not ruling out an endorsement before the election, i'm just ruling one out for this week. >> big backing from the south carolina congressman, if he decides to do so. could help either clinton or sanders in this race. the reverend al sharpton also checked in with hillary clinton today, by the way, and here's what she had to say about her strategy moving into the nevada caucuses. >> we're going to work really hard, just as we did in iowa. we've got a great team on the ground. we have a really broad, diverse group of supporters. i was pleased to be endorsed recently by a number of dreamers. so we're going to just reach out and spend as much time as possible answering questions and making the case as to why i would be the best president for not only nevada, but america. >> well, joining me now is the host of msnbc's "politics nation," and of course the president of the national action network, the reverend al sharpton. we would like to add, he has not endorsed either candidate, bu

the reason south carolina had such a reputation for dirty tricks is south carolina has a lot of dirty tricks. the dirty tricks really seem to work there in republican politics. in 2008, south carolina republicans received a fake christmas card that claims to be from mitt romney that included lots of, the most controversial out of context quotes from the book of mormon that were designed to make him seem crazed. in that same campaign fred thompson was called a pro-choice skirt chaser. when nikki haley ran there was a campaign she had extramarital affairs. newt forced one of his wives to have an abortion against her will. south carolina republican politics is nasty. consistently nasty. buzz feed had an interesting piece of reporting saying that one republican presidential campaign appeared to be locking up the highest profile, best known practitioners. the guy who ran the toxic campaign in 2000 and the the guy credited with the nikki haley had an affair and the anti-fred thompson skirt chaser, those guys are working for the same candidate. they are working either for the marco rubio cam

trump with a 16-point lead in the state of south carolina. 26 of the last 27 polls taken in south carolina show mr. trump leading in that state. the vast majority of those 26 polls that show him leading show him leading by double digits including all the polls taken in south carolina this calendar year. mr. trump came in second in iowa. he won new hampshire by a mile. unless things change over the next four days drastically he looks set to win south carolina. the race on the republican side will rejigger a little bit because after south carolina we should expect the republican field might shrink further. somebody will quit after losing badly in south carolina. in terms of the president's remarks about our allies around the world being horrified by the tone of the republican primary, but not necessarily more horrified by mr. trump than other republican candidates, there is some polling evidence out of south carolina thanks to the democratic leaning firm, ppp, which suggests that donald trump supporters in south carolina are significantly more likely than the rest of the south carolina repub

south carolina. he held that rally last night in louisiana. tonight, there's a rally in tampa, florida. on the democratic side, fresh from their contentious debate last night, hillary clinton will make a campaign stop in south carolina this afternoon before both she and bernie sanders attend a political dinner in minnesota tonight. highlights of that debate now from nbc's andrea mitchell. >> hey, good morning, tamron. hillary clinton is trying to regain her footing after that big loss in new hampshire. so she accused bernie sanders in the debate last night of being a one-issue candidate. and of disloyalty to barack obama, who is hugely popular with minority voters in nevada and south carolina, the next states to vote. tangling wepetedly over president obama, clinton tried to put sanders on the offensive. >> the kind of criticism we have heard from senator sanders over the president, i expect from the republicans. i do not expect someone from someone running for the democratic nomination. >> that is,

district in south carolina. he's a governor. people like governors here. he could find some success. >> representative valentine, your guy, marco rubio, what does he need do in this debate tonight? >> he needs to do what he did in every debate except the first part of the last one, he needs to stay above the fray. all these guys are attacking each other, he's trying to stay low and stay focused on what he's doing. >> you are a legislator. >> i am. >> i'm sure a very good one. >> thank you. >> how do you respond to this question of accomplishment? do you have marco rubio who was the speaker of the florida house, but it's a job that rotates in. as a united states senator, even his supporters have struggled to name what he's accomplished that qualifying him to get basically a promotion into the white house. >> sure. i think it's ironic that you mention that here in south carolina. that's the same stuff we heard when governor haley was running for office. she's too young, too inexperienced, it wasn't her turn. she h

a flap for ted cruz in south carolina. point being, though, he's got these ads against marco rubio, against hillary clinton, and new ad spoofing her in that office space scene, that famous scene where they beat up the copy machine. in the cruz version, it's hillary clinton beating up her e-mail server. so cruz really going on the offensive here. going on offense, i should say, in south carolina. hoping to sort of make some moves and mobilize the evangelical voters around him. >> speaking of the evangelicals, he has been open about his faith on the trail and ran this very personal ad on his religious beliefs in the iowa campaign. but so far, he hasn't been able to close the deal with evangelical voters. what is the campaign's strategy? why do thaw think it hasn't worked so far, at least as well as they hoped it would? >> the campaign is trying to go after evangelical voters and faith-based communities because it does want to take away some of those votes from ted cruz. marco rubio has a unique personal story when it comes t

he did the same thing here in south carolina. they're not a monolith, to your point, but it is the base of his support. at least what he was banking on. looking ahead to super tuesday, if donald trump beats ted cruz with evangelical voters and most of those big states where you have a huge number of delegates, is it over for him, if you can't win your base, if your team leaves you for a guy who does not align with their values, is it over for you? >> well, look, we're going to work hard to continue to win the evangelical base, not only on the life issue against planned parenthood, for pro-marriage, we have done all those things. we'll continue to communicate that to the evangelical community, and we'll also continue to talk about pro-jobs. they are an important base. we're going to work hard to win them over and show that ted cruz has the fruits. he has the deeds. donald trump doesn't. so we're going to make that comparison. >> all right, rick, thank you so much for joining me. greatly appreciate it, and we wish your campaign the

what happened in south carolina, there was less of the typical south carolina dirty trick, which is i don't know who did this, and i can't capture it in any way. it becomes a whisper campaign, something that you can't document. it becomes something that is into the wind and nobody has to pay a price for it. we did see things turn in sort of a nasty way, including my favorite not dirty trick but sort of nasty campaign trick, which was a robocall, which has been running the last 24 hours run by a ted cruz supporting super pac. it's an anti-donald trump robocall and it is a hall of fame anti-gay campaign tactic. listen to this. >> a little taste of the south carolina republican primary. that robocall going out to more than 100,000 households in south carolina right before the vote. obviously didn't hurt donald trump too much. >> donald trump ran up huge numbers on ted cruz in new hampshire and now in south carolina. and i would venture to say that none of his supporters have any problem with his positions and his comments. so i think this was a tactic, i would be surprised if he keeps it

south carolina is a more conservative state than new hampshire is. do you think the race goes back to that point? >> it could, but i think we're watching many races unfold at once. the establishment group of the race is as bloody as ever. you have kasich and bush and rubio fighting for some piece of the pie in south carolina so they can carry on. cruz wants this to be an ideological race. when you talk to cruz allies, his ally superpac, when you talk to his campaign and the candidate, himself, he speaks of the conservative movement as something that must be protected and that the nominee should be someone coming out of the movement right. what trump's challenge is to the system, he's not running an ideological campaign. he's running, as josh said, it's a nonideological enterprise that's based on nationalist instincts and that's what's really the battle in the republican party right now. it's not about people. it's about ideas and whether ideology should be at the core of the gop. >> yeah, i would say he's running an ideological campaign, it's just no

she will be in south carolina for us. and watching as that next primary -- primary there takes place. >>> up next, lots of action this morning in washington, d.c. where eight supreme court justices are now in session for the first time since the death of justice antonin scalia. members of congress are back, too, just across the street. they're ready for a fight over choosing scalia's successor. hi, this is jennifer. i will be out of the office until monday, and won't be checking voicemail during this time. i'll reply just as soon as i get back to work. sail with princess cruises, the number one cruise line in alaska. limited alaska fares from $699. call your travel consultant or visit princess.com. princess cruises. come back new. ♪ beth, i hear you calling.♪.s ♪ but i can't come home right now... ♪ ♪ me and the boys are playing.♪. ♪ ... all nig♪t text beth, what can i do... [siri:] message. pick up milk. oh, right. milk. introducing the newly redesigned passat. from volkswagen. it takes a lot of work... b

south carolina became a must win for barack obama. it will be like that for hillary clinton, and she'll come in here with strength in any case. >>> same question, for bernie sanders, it should just be a mirror imagine thing. what constitutes meeting and exceeding. >> it's a tie. maybe what happens, again, in 2008 where one of them wins the popular vote or if he is in two points within the popular vote, that will be good enough. a virtual tie was good enough. beating is winning. i will say. >> by one vote. >> i will say that i believe he is more likely to win than not. that's my sense right now. >> my sense too. >> and therefore, because that has been a creeping perception all week, a win will be beating expectations but not meeting them by so much. he is not going to get as big a buff if it doesn't come out of the blue. >> 24 hours, clark county democrats dinner, bernie sanders, bill clinton. chanting in the room for bernie sanders. chanting, screaming, howling. bill clinton, nice reception, but not like that. the black caucus endorse

south carolina, it may be the end for jeb bush. if it's not, i'm sure it will not be the end of terrible politico.com jeb bush headlines proclaiming that the end of jeb bush is near. it's a beat for them now. it must drive jeb bush crazy. who will they talk to when the stories stop? reporters aren't calling him, presumably all them tell all books blaming each other for what went wrong. as we head into tomorrow's south clone primary, the republican polls are tightening. there is no south carolina poll that doesn't show donald trump still in the lead, but in the few polls where we can do apples to apples comparison, the same poll being taken over time. so you can see sort of the trend within that same pom. it does look like there is some tightening in the race. we saw that, for example, in the augusta chronicle poll where mr. trump's lead has gone from 16 points to just three poempbints. we saw it where mr. trump's lead went from 20 points to 13 points. we saw it dramatically in the marrist poll. now it has him leading by 5. again, h

the south carolina primary, hillary clinton scoring an impressive victory tonight in the south carolina democratic primary. 74-26 percentage points at this moment. the projected winner trouncing her rival bernie sanders. she will pick up the lion's share of the state's 53 delegates. bernie sanders was not even in the state when the results came out this evening. focusing his attention on super tuesday states, with an event tonight in rochester, minnesota. but before that event, sanders addressed his defeat in south carolina after he arrived by plane from texas. take a listen. >> in politics, on a given night, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. tonight we lost. i congratulate secretary clinton on a very strong victory. tuesday, over 800 delegates are at stake, and we intend to win many, many of them. thank you all very much. >> rochester, minnesota, bernie sanders speaking right now at a rally with a crowd. let's stop and take a listen. >> whose fraudulent behavior destroyed the lives of millions of people. you know what happens to you? you get a salary increase. [ crowd booing ] and

check out bloomberg politics.com and the race in south carolina. >> we'll be back in south carolina tomorrow. until then, sayonara. coming up, "hardball with chris matthews." >>> inside john kasich. let's play "hardball." >>> last thing on trump, can you imagine him as president? can you think of him up there on the stand in the west front of the capitol becoming president. >> kind of hard for me to believe. >> is it? >> yeah. >> are you on president obama that he'll never be president. >> i just don't think -- look, chris. >> you degreagree, he can't be president. >> i think little by little, as the debate shrinks, okay, we have a debate, tell me the history of the world, go, you have 30 seconds. it's re-di

what are you seeing in south carolina? >> well, you're seeing the state here that is up and the arch establishment state in the republican party, joe, as you know, this state except for 2012 has been the most reliable indicator of who the republican nominee will be. whoever wins south carolina becomes the republican nominee in 2012. that wasn't true because newt gingrich won here by a lot as you will recall. but in this state, the most arch establishment candidate, jeb bush, is right now in fourth or fifth place and still in single digits despite drinking his brother george w. bush in here for a much heralded event on monday. i was at that event. there was a decent crowd there. they were respectful, they were happy to see george w. bush and if you walked out among them and asked them whether they were for jeb bush, a lot of them said, "no, i'm for donald trump." or "i'm not sure what i'm doing, i might be with marco rubio or ted cruz." >> and donald trump in another poll, american research group, 33%, rubio 16%, cruz 14%,

we flew out of south carolina this morning. no one on the sanders is campaign is trying to argue they're going to come out on top in south carolina. instead the focus is all down the line. big delegate totals up for grabs on super tuesday, the biggest here in texas. sanders is well behind clinton in the polls in texas. if there is a place where he he can rally support in the state of texas, you may expect austin will be that place. the margin will matter, if he can try to close the gap at least with clinton, that will make a difference. you can hear in his tone, he's going more directly at lrn hrn than he has in some of these earlier states. clearly recognizing the stakes are higher, talking about issues of trade, but doma, calling that homophobic legislation. you can say he's getting a little hoarse. we've flown across the country with him. if he completes this tour as it's currently plan it will be 11 states over the course of 7 days. that's a pretty intense travel schedule for someone who's 74 years old. as an added bit of c

thank you, south carolina! thank you, god bless you! [ cheers and applause ] >> you would think we had called second place. we have not yet but marco rubio has a lot of reason to be happy for tonight's result. especially coming off the week he had after a bad debate appearance. chris matthews has been so patiently waiting in las vegas. chris, as we look at the scene on stage, this is the candidate you have been talking about the most. vis-a-vis the candidate the democrats fear the most, marco rubio. >> i think he is the biggest remaining threat to donald trump. i think they may be equally balanced in terms of their strengths but i think he is the future. i think he would be the best bet if you're a money guy to put your money against donald trump. i think he is the best argument for hillary clinton. age matters. if you imagine him going against bernie sanders, you have to give to it rubio. he looks like the president, looking ahead. bernie turns 75 in september. this guy is the average age, a bit below the average age of the presidents

the campaign doesn't anticipate they'll win south carolina. frankly, they think the pressure is on marco rubio and jeb bush right now and other states like the state of michigan. in fact, that's where governor kasich is going to be spending much of monday and tuesday next week. he'll be in michigan campaign advisor saying they hope to put as much in michigan as new hampshire, trying to stake their claim to that state and midwestern states, they'll focus on going forward and fund raising has been a big effort for them. after the strong second place showing a million dollars online and they have new ads out this morning, two of them in south carolina. both focusing on that positive vision that they believe will resonate across the state and in terms of fund raising, a big defecti defection. when chris christie led the race, a guy, a former cofounder, brash outspoken billionaire $2.4 billion according to forbes and trying to help get john kasich on the map, not just in this area but really across the country. >> that's good news. because ken lang

well, we'll move to south carolina now. >> no one gambles. >> saturday is a big deal in south carolina and hillary, you know, this might be a big chance to secure the lead here. especially with the minority voters. because of the win in nevada. now she's coming on to south carolina. what should we expect there? >> yeah, you know, it's getting harder and harder for bernie sanders to make a plausible argument that he really can win this. i mean, hillary keeps inches ahead one step at a time. all the polls in south carolina are going her way. i do feel like the momentum is heading her direction. bernie making tremendous arguments. still has a lot of passion out there. but when it comes to winning an election, i don't know. it's going to get tougher for him after south carolina. >> and you think south carolina going to be the turning point for hillary? >> i think the point is already kind of been turning gradually. >> interesting predictions. >> roll of the dice. >> exactly. we'll see. well, i think the dice are pretty much laid out. i think we'll see what happens anyway. ellis henican, th

not here in south carolina. so, going forward, she can only hope that she can gain traction with this big victory among -- the projected victory among the african-american vote and then keep, you know, moving through super tuesday. she's going to the super tuesday states. bernie sanders' travel is instructive, because you can see he's heading from texas, where he had a very big town in a university town, austin, a progressive town, now heading to minnesota, where he is, i'm told by democrats, in the party, very, very highly favored in the minnesota caucuses. but in the really large delegate collection process, southeast got much more traction going forward. and the e-mail story just doesn't seem to resonate with a lot of these voters. . one other thing i would point out, in appealing to african-american voters, the disparity between his surrogates, his african-american surrogates and hers, she had jim clyburn going forward to georgia, she's got the icon of the civil rights era, john lewis. he's had killer mike a

is that important to the south carolina south carolina vovoter? you made a point before newt gingrich and sheldon adelson dumped a whole bucket of money to see him survive. it wouldn't work out but that money is important. >> what did i say, money is the mother's milk of politics? back to your point, without the money you can't buy the ads. you can't organize. but while i think it's important, i think people are going i want somebody who is with me on gun control or religious freedoms or tax policy. maybe it's because it's so rare but that's never -- i've never seen a poll that says that is in the top five things that -- >> who know, it might be the greatest thing as we move forward. i had the interesting opportunity to go not too far away from here, stone's throw, to the university of south carolina and sat down with some of the college kids to find out about the temperature of the youth vote. boy, oh, boy, did i get an earful about how they feel. their favorites in all of this. they have different feelings, different passion, like free public co

you can see south carolina lost 31% of its manufacturing jobs. if you are in a situation where you don't have a high school diploma and where you're earning less than $50,000 a year and 30% of your manufacturing jobs disappear you are in a state with lower median income, in a state with higher unemployment it's not totally shocking that someone who is talking about trade, closing the borders, dealing with these jobs would resonate. >> and by the way, somebody brought this up last week, that blue collar evangelicals were more likely to go for trump than they were for cruz and this is a great example of where -- and then the person said and who will be voting among the evangelicals in south carolina? blue collar evangelicals, big advantage for trump. this is a good example of actually where you are economically even trumps where you go to church on sunday and the blue collar evangelicals flooded toward donald trump. >> if you want to see why trump's trade position has so much resonance, just take a look at what's happened nationally to manufacturin

nbc's hallie jackson is in greenville, south carolina. washington bureau chief for usa today and larry sabato is the politics. >> you're covering the cruz campaign, what are they doing to offset this big lead for donald trump? >> a couple of things, chris. first, in response to some of these trump a tacts, the cruz campaign is blowing it off. yet another trumper-tantrum, this word they've made up. cruz himself, i just spoke with him a couple of minutes ago here in greenville. he believes trump is out of options and turning to these political insults. as far as what he's doing in south carolina, what his strategy, he's going after trump on the air waves and b, trying to bring the christian conservative vote to try to topple trump here in south carolina. this something he was able to do in iowa and trying to replicate it here in south carolina. >> as i said, the cruz campaign has been hitting trump with a couple of negative ads, this one released yesterday. >> the home was all she had left. >> it stood in donald trump's way. >> the limousin

he flew here to south carolina. but now he's headed off to new england to lay super groundwork for super tuesday when the new england states vote on march 1st. clinton, on the other hand, rather than rushing to south carolina, felt confident enough to head to southern california to spend time with rich people there to raise money for her campaign. she will get back on the trail tomorrow. john, the same question about clinton that we asked about trump, why did one caucus victory here on saturday night so change dramatically the perception that clinton is now, if not inevitable, in a commanding position. >> a point you and i have made, is that one cnn poll that showed nevada a tossup. the sanders campaign said they could win nevada. they raised expectations rather than lowering them. hillary clinton came in, and not only won the popular vote by basically the same margin she did in 2008 against obama, she also won the delegate count. she shows her strings with african-american voters and hispanic voters are formidable.

south carolina gave another bush the nomination in 2000 and now south carolina ends the bush dynasty in '16. it's quite the i guess literary ending there for team bush. >> and a very bittersweet moment for nicole walls wiace who work with the bush family. >> i worked for him. it wasn't his time. the policy issues he had, the common core being the staples of immigration being an act of love. they were going to be a policy burden no matter who was that outside person but he also became donald trump's foil. >> nbc news projects donald trump as the winner in the south carolina gop primary. and with almost all of the vote counted, it appears florida senator marco rubio will finish in second place with 23% of the vote, beating out ted cruz who finishes in third with 22% of the vote. it's a big turnout for rubio who finished fourth in the new hampshire primary two weeks ago. trump takes his second consecutive primary win. the gop field now heads to nevada for tuesday's gop caucus there. hillary clinton is the projected winner and avenging her loss in the new hampshire primary. from here the

i'm tamron hall in columbia, south carolina. we have a lot to get to this hour as this presidential race on both sides heating up. candidates surge forward on the campaign trail after the critical contest in nevada and the great state of south carolina. on the democratic side bill clinton is expected to hit the trails for his wife, hillary clinton, in colorado springs, colorado about 15 minutes from now. we are keeping cameras stationed there. gop front runner donald trump will be out in atlanta, georgia not far from here. other candidates will be hosting rallies across nevada this afternoon to prepare for tuesday's big nevada republican caucus. and just last hour marco rubio started his first campaign event of the day in franklin, tennessee. since coming in second in south carolina primary last night rubio has been making the argument that the contest is a three-main race between himself, trump and ted cruz. cruz was on meet the press this morning. chuck todd asked if he might have trouble winning at his state on super tuesday.

carolina for the democrats. it was really close in nevada but might not be so close in south carolina. what's he going to have to do to pull this off? >> the head line number out of nevada for the democrats, bernie sanders got 22% of the black vote, and hillary clinton got 76%. there's a lot more black voters in south carolina and he's going to have an uphill battle. i'd say he's facing the clinton machine in a way he hasn't yet before. >> that's a really big difference. and hillary clinton said she knows voters question whether she is doing this for the voters or doing it for herself. how is she going to face that challenge when she goes to south carolina? >> you know, i think look for her to convince voters that she's doing this for the working people. she said that a lot in nevada and i think she did it successfully. you saw that very persuasive ad and we played it i think last week here where she had a young latino woman and said i'll do the worrying for you, your parents are undocumented but i'll do the wor

that, of course, is south carolina. the primary there a week from saturday, preceded by a debate this saturday night. ted cruz and jeb bush will hold rallies in south carolina during this hour, followed by john kasich and marco rubio in the next hour. then, donald trump tonight. and we have already heard from some of them this morning. take a listen. >> there's something going on. it's a movement. the people want to see a smart country. they want to see us take the country back. they want to see great deals, not horrible deals. >> who do you see as your biggest competition now, kasich, cruz in south carolina? >> a great question, but i think all of them. they're all accomplished people. they're governors and senators, and they're all very good people. maybe. >> i'm talking about donald trump here. targeting that person with extreme negativity. can your positive message hold up under that kind of withering attack that has claimed other candidates? >> well, matt, here's the thing. you know, somebody wants to mess with me,

also the home of the university of south carolina. we are here for msnbc's special coverage of the republican presidential primary here in south carolina and also for the democratic caucuses out in nevada. we are just four days away now from both of those crucial contests and today is another busy day, a frantic day on the campaign trail, as donald trump's war of words escalates with ted cruz and now also with george w. bush on president's day yesterday and for the first time since leaving office the former president drew jeb bush's biggest crowd yet on the campaign trail with w. getting back into the political ring, that has made him a new target for trump. while w. didn't mention trump by name he had some clear jabs aimed directly at him. >> my experience the strongest person usually isn't the loudest one in the room. [ applause ] >> if the ex-president is campaigning for his brother i think he's probably open to great scrutiny, maybe things that haven't been thought of in the past. >> and trump also unleashed attacks on ted cruz ye

sanders campaign here in south carolina. kristen we'll start with you. what are you hearing from inside the clinton campaign this morning? probably a massive sigh of relief. >> that's exactly right. this is a huge sigh of relief. one top aide saying that last night was easily the best day of the campaign. for all of the reasons that you were talking about. it restored the momentum that second clip had lost in new hampshire. and it makes it really difficult to see how senator sanders is competitive in some of these larger, more diverse states. it quieted her critics. and her strategy for winning, i think, was multipronged. she had that very robust, organizing effort here. they were here on the ground six months prior to senator sanders. she had robby mooc her campaign manager who helped her win this state back in 2008. remember back then she lost the delegate count. this time they focused on the more rural delegate rich areas. we also saw secretary clinton tweaking her message after that big loss in new hampshire started focu

we're going on to south carolina. >> so we will go home to new jersey tomorrow morning. we will take a decision on our next step forward. >> i want you to understand something. our disappointment tonight is not on you. it's on me. it's on me. i did not do well on saturday night so, listen to this, that will never happen again. >>> there was a huge turn out last night for republican voters scrambling to beat the clock and cast their vote. traffic backed up for miles and lines of voters stretched into the final hour as late comers rushed to the polls down to the wire. with 94% of the vote in nearly 267,000 cast their ballots in the primary here in new hampshire, more than 248,000 back in 2012. at 35% trump finished well ahead of ohio governor john kasich who broke out of the pack to finish at 16%. senator ted cruz at 12%, a little more than 1200 votes ahead of jeb bush at 11% placing in the top four and keeping his campaign alive. further down marco rubio in a disappointing fifth place at 11%, governor chris christie mi

both of them in south carolina. that's because they're all getting ready for a debate tonight in 14 victim. it is their ninth one and last before next saturday's republican primary. >>> at a rally in tampa, florida, donald trump threw jabs at just about every one of rivals without mentioning him by name, here's what he said about bernie sanders. >> i never thought i'd see the day in our country when communists, is the leading democrat. we will have a communist and i like the entrepreneur. go it is a crucial weekend for both parties. we have reporters following all the candidates. nbc halle jackson is in green victim, south carolina. kelly kobiaya is in london, with report for universal health care. nbc kelly o'donnell is at the white house, my colleague thomas roberts is at the liberty tap room, with a good morning to you all. let's start with you, thomas, what has been the gop debate? >> it is a big gop debate. everybody is an open primary. south carolina loves their politics. this state delivers a win for 2012. je

. >> the 1989 pick-up has north carolina plates knd-1117. it's registered to a man named eric robert rudolph. a little more than 24 hours after the birmingham bomb blast, federal agents arrive in the rural town of murphy, north carolina. the home of eric rudolph. unfortunately, the news travels faster than they do. >> the investigation of a deadly bombing at a clinic in alabama that performs abortions is centering on a gray nissan pick-up and a man who may know something about it. just moments ago investigators announced they have issued a material witness warrant for eric robert rudolph. they say he may have information about that truck. >> investigators rush to eric rudolph's last known address, hoping to catch him before he hears the news. >> by the time law enforcement authorities, both local and the local sheriff's office and the fbi and atf showed up at the trailer, the door was swinging in the wind. when you step inside here, you could tell that the individual who had left this trailer left in a big, big hurry. >> there were guns left

the idea was to win there, come to south carolina and win with these voters in south carolina. right now, again, these numbers could change. this is the second wave of exit poll data. donald trump leading with white evangelicals. we can look at it this way. there's a college/non-college divide. roughly splits the electorate in half. those with college degrees, marco rubio is winning among them. trump and cruz right behind them. those without college degrees, trump is winning big, rubio falls back farther. there is also this ideology, the breakdown, how people are describing themselves tonight. again, 82% saying they're very or -- there we go. 82% saying very or somewhat conservative. look at this. see among very conservative, ted cruz is soing whkoing doing wha do, 40% of the vote. ted cruz -- it's supposed to happen. it's not moving. this is what happens on election night. the ted cruz number drops and drops. you get down to moderates, he's in single digits. ted cruz's support is concentrated there. donald trump meanwhile, he's in the high 20s, low 30s every group. >> on those

he is in south carolina. few states have carried the burden of this war more so than south carolina and the people who populate the large military bases with multiple redeployments. >> all as a result of the destabilization of the middle east which george w. bush started. >>> tom brokaw joins the conversation coming up. >> "morning joe," that's who we are. bye. ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ i drive to the hoop. i drive a racecar. i have a driver. his name is carl. but that's not what we all have in common. we talked to our doctors about treatment with xarelto®. xarelto® is proven to treat and help reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots. xarelto® is also proven to reduce the risk of stroke in people with afib, not caused by a heart valve problem. for people with afib currently well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. you know, taking warfa

i'm chris jan sing in columbia, south carolina. what a president's day it's been, for the men and woman who want to be president. let's start with what's happening right now at the north charleston coliseum. the struggling campaign of jeb bush is hoping for a lifeline from his brother, former president george w. bush. an estimated 2,500 people waiting for all of this to get going any minute now. this is the first time 43 has been on the 2016 campaign trail. and it couldn't come at a more critical time. jeb bush is tied for last place in a six-man race in the latest cnn poll. in spite of his low poll numbers, bush has been in donald trump's sights, and so have his brother, who trump says didn't keep america safe. >> if the ex-president is campaigning for his brother, i think he's probably open to great scrutiny. maybe things that haven't been thought of in the past. you know, when jeb used his name in the reagan debate, i left it alone. but when he kept using it, i said, i have to bring it up. when he talked about the great safety w

>> i think i'm doing great in south carolina. i know south carolina well. i've been here a lot. i think they have a very sophisticated voter and they get it. they get it. for instance, when cruz lies about virtually everything i've done, they get it. i really believe they get it. >> if you're so confident, why not file it today? >> the democrats are going to file it, anyway. i get along with everybody, remember? i was a business guy and got along with everybody? if cruz ever got it -- i think i'm going to get it, but if cruz ever got the nomination, the democrats are going to file the lawsuit. so in a sense i'm doing him a favor because i'm filing it early. if i file it, i'm filing it early. but i have a very good lawyer, and a lawyer that truly believes in me. how do you give a man the nomination for your major party, one of the two major parties, and the man has a cloud over his head? i told him, get a declaratory judgment. you've got to do something, because the democrats are going to file. to the best of my knowledge, there already are two lawsuits out there. [ inaudible que

south carolina could hold a lot of answers. joining us now is the chairman of the south carolina democratic party. thanks so much for being on with us tonight. >> of course. it's great seeing you. >> so when i last saw you in south carolina you told me that you were pretty sure that bernie sanders was trying as hard as he could in south carolina but you felt like with how far behind he was starting with the african-american electorate in south carolina he didn't have much of a chance of closing the gap that black voters didn't know enough about him. has that changed over the last couple of months? >> i can say that senator sanders has put together a very good and strong grass roots operation in the state. they are attracting young people. the challenge still remains, south carolina is going to be a very tough nut for him to crack. it's not impossible but it's going to be very tough and you can look at the numbers from 2008 to get a dplips of what his challenge is. >> in terms of what moves voters in south carolina we've receive

we're in charleston, south carolina. and it feels like a game day in the south. >> really. >> the big game is today. >> it's not just the south. >> it does. it feels like a huge football game. and the thing is, the stakes really couldn't be higher. but just think about this. >> actually they can. >> think about this. if trump has a bad day, the establishment leaps. let's say he underperforms. let's say nbc is right and he comes in second place. the bleeding starts, mark halperin. let's say cruz which panic a mild panic set into the cruz campaign. let's say he doesn't finish second. let's say rubio, who has basically been handed everything anybody could be handed to do well on this day. let's say he talks all of those massive advantages that have been bequeathed to him and he doesn't finish a strong second or third. jeb bush, a lot of people say his campaign is on life support. ben carson, got to be something here. it's in the deep south. you can go through the entire list of the candidates. seems like john kasich is the

and it's something we expect in south carolina. markets, you know, you go to iowa, new hampshire, soon on to nevada, but in south carolina, it's, we want to see how you take a bunch, not how you throw one. we've seen some thrown this week. >> do you think donald trump throwing a punch at the pop will hurt him or help him? >> it will help him. he came into the poll number fight on illegal immigration. he tapped into the anger at washington, he tapped into that issue that some of us were hoping would be a discourse. it was kind of civil. so i mean, he is going to win. he is going the day here with that. i talked to two catholic elected officials, pretty serious people today. and you know, they wouldn't go public against the pontiff, but both agree that trump is not going to -- >> they scored it that trump 1, pope 0. >> sure. >> some party regulars, chairs said if trump wins the primary in new hampshire, that's bad for the primary. if trump wins, is that bad for the south carolina primary. >> let me tell you something, we have electio

carolina. we're going to win in south carolina. >> people of south carolina can expect a large aircraft with the trump symbol on the tail. >> that's right. let us -- there's still stuff to learn tonight obviously what happens down that ticket and for some it will be determinative tonight. in 1996 pat buchanan beat bob dole with pitch fork poppialism and zeen ofoebic nativism of a very hard cast and he won in new hampshire and he didn't win another single thing. that could be what donald trump winning new hampshire is or this is the start of it for donald trump. and the american republican party will be in line with the national front in france and the u.k. independence party in great britain and these other types of hard right european-style nativest movements, that before now really have been on the fringe, that have been people like pat buchanan, who were never in the leadership of their party. if donald trump is starting to become the republican nominee, we're a different type of country in