gwen: vulgarity, victimhood and vitriol, on the campaign trail and on the debate stage. tuesday only added fuel to the fire. tonight, on "washington week." how low can they go? mr. trump: this little guy has my record.h about >> there we go. >> breathe, breathe, breathe. it.can do you can breathe. i know it's hard. gwen: even as donald trump scored seven super tuesday ever closerrawing to the nomination, the republican party begins to come the seam. >> if a person wants to be the nominee of the republican party, no evasion and no games. they must reject any group or is built on bigotry. >> donald trump is a phony, a

fraud. his promises are as worthless as the degree from trump university. gwen: by week's end, every candidate left standing said they would support the nominee.n >> i hate people that think stuff and they're nothing. gwen: even if it is donald trump. >> there is no doubt, if we remain divided, donald trump wins. remaining divided is a path to catastrophe for this country. week, mollyng the ball, national political correspondent for the "atlantic," dan balz, chief correspondent for "the post," and jonathan martin, national political correspondent for the "new york times". >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it nation'slive from our capitol, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill. corporate funding for "washington week" is provided

by -- strong. committed to we're committed to sure. to smart anded light, secure and bold. of enduring needs, the men and women of boeing are deliver build and critical capabilities for those who serve to protect our nation that's anlies, and enduring commitment. >> thousands of people came out to run the race for retirement. so we asked them, are you completely prepared for retirement? prepared? could you save 1% more of your income? it doesn't sound like much but saving an additional 1% now big difference over time. >> i'm going to be better about saving. >> can you do it. long run.n the

>> prudential. >> additional funding is provided by newman's own foundation, donating all profits own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. ford foundation, the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs viewers like you. thank you. again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. ok. deep breath, everybody. we're going to try to keep it but it's hard, especially when the leading candidate for the republican us.nation keeps testing mr. trump: so when little marco spews his -- about the size of my hands which are big. said, marcohim, i

marco -- no, i just wanted to -- look at that. ball hands can hit a golf 285 yards. i backed mitt romney. i backed him. you can see how loyal he is. begging for my endorsement. toould have said, mitt, drop your knees. he would have dropped to his knees. he was begging. was a, how shall we week, aery anatomical week in which last week's big surprise, the chris christie endorsement, became its own meme, forcing the new jersey governor to actually say this. governor christie: no, i wasn't being held hostage. i wasn't thinking, oh, my god, done?ave i gwen: it turned into the kind of week where super tuesday where actual statesrom cast actual votes faded into the background and despite all of accusation and back-biting, endedight's g.o.p. debate this way when the fox news

anchor asked if they would support the republican nominee. because i gave my word that i would and what i have endeavored every day is do what i said i would do. he ends up as the nominee, sometimes it makes it a little bit hard, but i will support the republican nominee for president. yes, i will. gwen: am i the only one who undercut theind of case the underdogs have been making, dan? dan: you're probably not alone on that. extraordinary moment at the end of that debate and at the end of a remarkable day. we keep saying this is a campaign, the likes of which we've never seen. we never saw what happened on thursday before with the nominee gets up past election and denounces the front-runner as someone who should never be the united states. gwen: who had endorsed him four years ago. had endorsed him, and then, hours later, every one of

donald trump's opponents who two hours trying to say why he shouldn't be president, say they would endorse him. gwen: molly, let's take a long view here. what does this tell us about the state of the republican party? did a big interm look -- internal look at themselves and nowe last election it looks like they're getting ready for another one. molly: assuming this somehow some point, yes, there autopsy. to be a new up until about a week ago, we were watching the republican in slowlf-destruct motion. this week it is no longer slow motion but happening rapidly and feels like itd it is fragmenting, shattering into a million pieces. mentioned the autopsy from 2012, the recommendations for how to avoid loss like mitt romney suffered and what has happened to this party is they've gone in direction. opposite the recommendations of that autopsy were to do more outreach to minority voters and younger voters and to women and to take and to enacte

immigration reform, certainly not to build a wall. so the party, if trump becomes the nominee -- and dan that it seems utterly abnormal that these candidates are saying they would back the nominee but it's actually the most normal thing that's happening. if you had asting, candidate with this delegate lead, normally there would be a bigger bandwagon effect. it wouldn't just be chris christie jumping on board with him and a couple of members of congress. you would see everybody start to testamentut it is a to the disruptive force that donald trump represents that that is not happening. gwen: jonathan, donald trump's answer to this is that he's bringing people in and there has turnout in early elections. but a lot of the remaining standing democrats -- republicans are saying he's driving people away. which is it? jonathan: both. he's bringing lots of people into the process. some of them aren't republicans. you look at the states where

done well, they're so-called open primary states, vote, democrat, republican or independent. expanding the's electorate and bringing in orple that are apolitical were democrats and that's expanding the electorate. time, he's drawn him into vote against what many fear would be 20-fold if he's nominated, that people would vote against him. the way i've heard it described, he would be the lever for the obama coalition in the reverse. instead of having obama on the ballot for the third time, you'd same impact but instead of folks coming out to vote for obama, they would vote against donald trump. gwen: it is fair to say that there is a freak-out going on. it go in the republican party, the fear that they are, as marco rubio likes

say, handing this election to hillary clinton? dan: rubio said today that if donald trump is the nominee, the conservative movement will come to an end. and i think that -- gwen: that's pretty apocalyptic. dan: that's a very apocalyptic statement but one that a lot of people feel. when this republican campaign started out, it looked like it be a very tough, bitter fight, between the mainstream and a tedent cruz-like figure, the populist insurgency. that still exists but donald trump has come in and kind of theked everything else off table. gwen: gleefully. transcended those divides. dan: he's created another dynamic within that race and the thepect of him becoming nominee now as we saw this week is so alarming to people that they're trying to figure out which direction to go and how to -- how, if it's going to be stop him.to

molly: and no matter what ends up happening by the time we get to the republican convention in july, it is hard to imagine these fractures healing. if trump gets enough delegates take the nomination outright, we already have a very large andion of conservatives republicans saying they would never support him and talking alternatives or attempts to take over a third party. to goodness, doesn't that all sound desperate? molly: they are desperate. gwen: but they didn't see this coming. molly: nobody saw this coming. i didn't see it coming, you didn't see it coming. that's why donald trump has been tremendously educational. there is a whole sentiment in notelectorate that was being expressed, this large mostlyf disaffected, white working class voters who did not feel they had a voice in trumpocess until donald came along and that's why people are voting for him who have never voted in a republican

primary. possible to beat him at his own game? that's usually, they see theyhing's appealing and say we'll try to grab those folks, too, by sounding like him. that's what people say hillary clinton is doing with bernie sanders. jonathan: that's the tradition in politics. somebody's message is co-opted by somebody else. mainstream candidates co-opted moreessage of the ideological candidate. it hasn't happened this time oncese it was too late folks realized this was real. i recall talking to folks in the party in november of last year were pulling their hair out because they couldn't get the donor types to come to terms fact that it was real. people were in denial for so long. still can't. jonathan: they are now that he's won a few states but it took so long to get people to realize he was a threat and now it's happening. real fast, though, what's twoking to me is there are sort of layers of concern.

ideological. i was at cpac, the conference of conservatives in d.c., and the mind of folks there is, he would unmoor the party from conservatism, it would not be the reagan coalition anymore. gwen: what rubio is saying. jonathan: that's a profound darker,but what's even what struck me about romney's was talking about trump taking the country down a democracy.rom that's the speech you don't hear in america, somebody would move from --away dan: let me pick up the point about the effort to co-opt his message. it is, people -- his message is mostly stylistic. try tosaw marco rubio adopt that last weekend and in the debate prior to this week, and it turned out to be a failure. it took marco rubio down to the

level of donald trump without having the strength that donald trump projects so it's very difficult for them to do that. gwen: and it doesn't seem like the debate stage is the place works anyhow. these debates have devolved to the point where nothing changes who's a winner or losers at these debates and no one can actually catch up. molly: well -- jonathan: so true. know, one constant in all the debates is that attacking donald trump has been recipe for disaster, right? all of the candidates who are their run race took at donald trump and bounced off of him like an electric fence and they're gone now so the ones remaining on the stage are the ones who hadn't attacked him until recently. lot about this race that marco rubio and ted cruz really began attacking donald in earnest a week ago, after iowa and new hampshire. how: here's an example of that doesn't work. you mentioned mitt romney getting out there and using

language with donald trump and even forecasting what would happen next. listen. governor romney: watch, by the way, how he responds to my speech today. will he talk about our policy differences or will he attack me low roady imaginable insult? this may tell you what you need temperament, his his stability and suitability to be president. mr. trump: so you help somebody then he turns. now, i will say this. i will say this. this. say he probably had a right to turn, because nobody could have been than me in getting him not to run by saying he's a choke artist. gwen: his new favorite term, choke artist, and that's the version of what he's had to say about people. does this kind of inability guess to stop donald trump in his tracks -- does it for close off the avenues people like ted cruz? people like marco rubio?

john kasich? what is the path left for them realistically? it seems theally, only path left is for the remaining candidates first of all to win their home states. cruz did that on tuesday in texas. marco rubio has to win florida kasich has, and john to win ohio. but then -- so that's the first step. were toink if that happen, we would be having a somewhat different conversation in a couple of weeks. then, they have to accumulate enough delegates prevent him from having 1,237, the amount you the nominee, before the convention, and then figure out a convention strategy that deny him the nomination. it is a series of difficult steps. a look at theke delegate count because -- you 1237 needed. as we speak, the latest a.p. 329 delegates for 110 for31 for ted cruz,

marco rubio, and 25 for john kasich. now, what is really interesting about those numbers is that from here on in, we have what is winner-take-all kind of election which people can't compete in the same way they could. it favors the person who's already ahead. molly: it does and that helps trump but at the same time look at the delegate count. trump is less than 100 delegates ahead of ted cruz and what i think gave a lot of people who hoperying to stop trump this week was that on super tuesday he was leading in the polls in 10 of the 11 states. ended up only winning seven of them and it was ted cruz who victoriesnexpected and came closer than expected in other states. won texas by a larger margin than polls predicted. and alaska and there wasn't a lot of good polling in some of these states thate see some evidence trump's momentum may be stalling and cruz may be getting a surge

in southern states and that's a lot of who will be voting on saturday and we see kansas to tryt to to score a win in the caucuses there. there are still a lot of delegates in play and as dan said, the main strategy of the people trying to stop trump now everyone to stay in the race. at one point it was for everyone to get out of the race. everyone to stay in the race. still wants aruz one-on-one shot at trump because he's convinced. gwen: doesn't everyone want a one-on-one shot? dan: no i think rubio and kasich are open about the fact that it's better for everyone else to stay in. he canill believes if get kasich and rubio out of the race, they would lose their home states, ohio and florida, he would have a chance to beat thep in delegates before convention. now, that's a long shot but the cruz folks have totally rejected this idea of kasich takes ohio,

we'll splitflorida, delegates and hold off until the convention. cruz doesn't want to do that. in florida. gwen: here's the thing. step back for a moment from the gamesmanship to get to dimension, which we love. thatoes it matter at all donald trump can't answer policy questions? for instance, last night he what -- talking about war crimes saying he would military to kill the wives and families of terrorists, something the geneva convention would frown upon. in front of our eyes he immigration on an issue on the debate stage last night. none of that seems to hurt him exit polls show that people who vote for him don't immigration. dan: i think they do care about immigration. it may not be the top issue. but, of course it matters. i think that in the end people some sort of judgment about the capabilities of the two nominees and their ability

the country and to handle crises and whether they have confidence in them to do it now in the republican debate, in the republican fight, a secondarybeen aspect to the projection of kindnality, strength and of a formidability as a candidate. molly: what you see trump doing all of the answers to every policy question. it's not that he doesn't answer. simultaneously contradictory answers so he says he'll commit war crimes and the next daye and he says we'll follow the law and people hear whatever they want that.r in it's post modern in a lot of structuralist campaign. so i've met people who say i'm a moderate republican and i because i think he's a moderate who would make deals and get things done and say he's aople who right winger like me and he'll make sure we don't let in

mexicans.d so people hear what they want to hear. dan: is he the obama -- personality that blinds people to whatever they don't want to see. gwen: rubio's point was flexibility is not conservatism. molly: that's the point for some people. speech on super tuesday was,orida, his main point i'm going to make deals with congress, and get things done. wrong when he says, there are issues that republicans and democrats actually agree on and still it done because there's this gridlock and this partisan opposition. actually is selling something that is not the lineogical conservative of, you know, resist at all costs and stand on principle. and saying i'd go in there do deals. jonathan: that's the most eye opening part of this affair for conservatives.

gwen: including sarah palin who endorsed him. you wouldn't think that was her world view. jonathan: it's not about ideology. to see how little their own the ideologybout and principles. it part of the party? it's part ofhink the party. try tothere's still a strong stf conservatives in the party but i think the block of voters trump are much lesso ideological than the traditional republican as we have thought them, particularly primary voters. molly: it will have been a great irony for the republican party their establishment ends up being victim of a rebellion intransigence. gwen: does that mean the stop window has closed? molly: i don't think we know. butthan: it's not closed coming down fast. dan: i agree. it's coming down fast but given

everything else that's happened in the campaign, i don't rule out the ability of trump to be stopped. stopped've all predicting. molly: if this cycle stops know anythingn't from predicting things it, will have been a blessing. gwen: it won't. that's my prediction. we have to duck out a few minutes early this week to give you the chance to support your local pbs station which, in turn, supports us. couldn't possibly get to everything that happened this super tuesday week, we're extendedaround for an webcast where we'll get to all that stuff we missed including the democrats. you can find that at pbs.org/washingtonweek. who knows where we'll be this will seemweek, it like a long time has passed again. keep up with daily developments the pbsght on newshour." we'll see you next week on "washington week." good night. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org.]

>> corporate funding for byshington week" is provided -- >> today people are coming out to the nation's capital to thatrt an important cause could change the way you live for years to come. how can you help? by giving a little more to yourself. >> for my future. topeople sometimes forget help themselves. >> the cause is retirement. today thousands of people came to the race for retirement and pledged to save an additional 1% of their income. if we all do that, we can all win. >> prudential. additional corporate funding for "washington week" is boeing. by additional funding is provided by newman's own foundation, all profits from newman's own food products to nourishing the common good. the ford foundation, the ethics

in journalism foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by your pbsions to station from viewers like you. thank you.

steves: while neighboring croatia is famous for its coastline, slovenia enjoys its own 29-mile stretch of adriatic seafront. that's about one inch per resident. its best stop -- the town of piran.

many adriatic towns are overwhelmed by tourists and concrete, but piran has kept itself charming and in remarkably good repair while holding the tourist sprawl at bay. crowded onto the tip of its peninsula, piran can't grow. the main square was once a protected harbor until it began to stink so badly they had to fill it in. a colorful mix of work and pleasure boats fill today's harbor. these days, piran's walls are inviting, rather than defensive, and the town is simply an enjoyable place in which to relax. explore the evocative back lanes. hike up to the cathedral. scale the venetian-style bell tower. on top, catch your breath by enjoying views of piran and nearly the entire slovenian coastline.

the traffic-free harbor front, lined with slovenes enjoying fresh seafood, is made to order for a stroll. swimmers frolic while sunbathers claim more than their share of the national coastline. piran clusters around its showpiece square, piazza tartini. as with most towns on the adriatic, it was long ruled by nearby venice and retains its venetian flavor. in fact, the town is officially bilingual -- slovene and italian. today the square is enjoyed by visitors and locals of all generations, savoring the good life where the slavic world, the alps, and the mediterranean all come together.

hello and welcome to kqed "newsroom." i'm thuy vu. later, what the new speaker hopes to accomplish and a courtrder has parents worried about the prircvacy of their children's school records and carolyn paul talks about her new book on the importance of girls taking risks. first, this week health officials confirmed additional cases of zika virus in the bay area including a pregnant woman in napa and a san francisco resident. we learned staid state-wide, eight cases of zika, all traveled represented. transmitted through the bite