and the candidates have honed their closing arguments. here's a taste of what the major players are saying today. >> you got to vote. if you have a headache, if you're dying. >> what we don't have time for is all that petty punk-ass little thuggery stuff that's been going on. >> i can't wait to stand on that stage in cleveland, ohio, in july, and accept the nomination. >> one difference between this and a donald trump rally is i'm not asking anyone to punch you in the face. >> i will never take a low road to the highest office in the land. >> people need to vote as though their future was at stake because it is at stake. >> we have a good vote tomorrow, people come out, we're going to win here in ohio. >> those were the candidates last night, all hoping that that

last-minute message would resonate with people who are right now voting in these states. bernie sanders is hoping to repeat his upset win that we saw last week in michigan. the latest poll shows he's in a tight race with hillary clinton in missouri, illinois, and here in ohio. while secretary of state clinton has big leads in florida and north carolina. on the republican side, his three rivals hope to blunt donald trump's momentum in today's winner-take-all primaries here in ohio. could again be their best chance to stop trump. the latest polls show that trump is in a neck and neck race here with ohio governor john kasich. and crossover voting in ohio could play a big role in what we're talking about in a few hours. the governor voted in just the past hour in his home town of westerville, ohio, and right now, we're waiting for him to visit his headquarters in columbus to thank his volunteers. this morning, trump was optimistic about winning the buckeye state. >> i have been with the people of ohio. they hate the fact that their

coal industry and steel industry is gone. i think we're going to do very well in ohio. >> now, polls also show trump holds just single digit lead over senator ted cruz in illinois and missouri. the two states where cruz spent all of yesterday campaigning. however, trump holds double-digit leads in north carolina and in florida, where senator marco rubio is now insisting that he could survive losing his own state. >> i have never said that my campaign is built on the outcome of any specific state. >> meantime, an anti-trump super pac is also trying to blunt his momentum with a new ad that started airing yesterday, and highlights some of trump's sharpest remarks about women. >> bimbo. >> dog. >> fat big. >> real quotes from donald trump. >> wipen, you have to treat them

like [ bleep ]. >> trump responded on the "today" show this morning saying exit polls in all of these contests that he has won, the female vote. as for today's voting, the polls close at 7:30 p.m. eastern time in ohio and north carolina, and all the polls close at 8:00 eastern in florida, illinois, and missouri. we have all of this covered for you. a lot to digest, but a lot of big developments. even this early in the morning talk about. let's start with our reporters on the ground. we begin with jacob rascon covering the trump campaign. he joins us live from west palm beach, florida. interesting, jacob, also this morning, a headline from donald trump seeming to back away from his own pledge to look into paying the legal expense for a man who sucker punched a protester in north carolina. >> he has. he's gone back and forth. he's tweeting this morning mostly about ohio. he's talking about jobs. he's betting he can win ohio as

the jobs candidate. he's out with an op-ed this morning as well in usa today, going after the governor on that topic. we know that he's neck and neck with the governor in one recent poll. in others, john kasich is ahead. donald trump is betting he can win the buckeye state and sweep tonight. if he does, he can get over 700 delegates. in that case, he essentially would only need to get just over 50% of the remaining delegates, which would not come without effort, but it is certainly doable, in that case, if donald trump sweeps tonight, he essentially makes it impossible for any other candidate mathematically to get to that magic number. ted cruz would have to go something like 80% of the remaining delegates to do that. if donald trump loses ohio tonight, which is certainly very possible, his battle is much more uphill. he has to win something like 60% of the remaining delegates, which would be almost impossible for him. and then we're going to a

contested convention, so some people are calling tonight either a coronation for donald trump, nearly ten months after he started running or a contested convention. donald trump is out very strong in ohio. he canceled an event last night in florida to go to ohio. he really wants to finish that off. he's having another one of his press conferences tonight instead of a party, which he hopes will be a victory press conference. et either way, he's expected to win big in florida. all the polls have him 2 to 1 to rubio. this is donald trump's night to lose. >> thank you. let's go to miami where the early voting results do not appear to favor senator marco rubio. 48% going for trump as opposed to 26% for rubio. now, according to the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, gabe gutierrez covering the rubio campaign for us, so gabe, as i mentioned, early voting, at least what we're seeing, not

looking good for marco rubio. now we're hearic from his supporters that even if he loses florida, it's not over, despite what we have been saying and what essentially he implied for weeks now. that it was all about florida. >> hey, there, tamron. yeah, marco rubio's campaign saying no matter what happens tonight, they're still heading to utah. as you mentioned, state elections officials say more than 2 million people have either early voted or voted absentee. as you mention, that poll from a few days ago suggest that that heavily favored donald trump by 48%. the rubio campaign, what they're betting on is what would need to be historic turnout here in miami-dade county, the stronghold for marco rubio to have him make up this deficit. as you mentioned, that nbc news/"wall street journal"/marist poll has him down 20 points. monmouth has him down 17 points in florida. his is not where the rubio campaign wanted to be at this point. as you said, tamron, for weeks

they have been saying it all comes down to florida. rubio himself saying he believes the winner of florida will go on to win the republican nomination. last night, when i asked him, he said they are still heading to utah. fox news last night, he mentioned that he did not believe that this was all about one state, that the campaign is focusing on a 50-state strategy. clearly, if he does not win tonight, and if he loses big, there will be lots of questions about whether he can stay in the race. his campaign insists they do believe he can come from behind, that he's done it in florida before. he was an underdog when he went against charlie crist for the u.s. senate, and they believe he knows how to run an underdog campaign here and they hope he can pull another one out yet again. we'll see what happens tonight. tamron. >> all right, gabe, thank you. now to the kasich campaign. the ohio governor voting as i mentioned just a short time ago, speaking with reporters as well. peter alexander is in columbus. he joins us now. before we get to what kasich said, we're hearing from the cuyahoga county board of

directors here. the people, elections directors who monitor the turnout. they're expecting a record. they're also seeing what they say, 15% increase in democratic voters who are potentially crossing over. and that's a number that we're following, not only here in ohio, but also in illinois. that could be critical here. >> well, this is important because it's an open primary, and recognize john kasich has been viewed, at least his campaign, this is something they like to talk about, someone who has united both parties. they say there's a good chance today they're able to sway democrats to vote in an open primary for their home state republican governor, as an effort in effect to try to blunt donald trump's momentum going forward. donald trump obviously has expanded the electorate field as well. so it remains to be seen exactly where those votes will go today, but this is a huge day in what has been a nearly four-decade political career for john kasich. almost all of it right here in the state of ohio.

he has never lost an election here, winning locally and state-wide, in each of his past 12 tries. ohio republicans have a nearly 80% approval rating of him right now. he appeared to be quite reflective and even emotional only a short time after he voted a matter of minutes ago. take a listen. >> really is pretty amazing. where i came from, we all hear these stories. you know, but the stories could be about you, too. this one just happens to be about me. to have started here as an aide, all the way back to nixon and all the way back to church and all the way back to my family. and then to come in here today and cast a vote for yourself for president of the united states. it's pretty remarkable. >> john kasich and the kasich campaign very confident today that he will win his home state.

already talking about events scheduled for later this week in both pennsylvania and utah. tamron. >> all right, peter. and let me clarify this number here. the board of elections saying 15% of democratic voters are looking -- are expressing interest in crossing over. that's a sizable number, double digits. we'll monitor how that is higher perhaps than what we have seen in past elections. thank you very much. >> ted cruz is in his home town of houston right now. while the other leading candidates have been focusing on ohio and florida, senator cruz has been making a play for illinois and missouri, to try to grab as many delegates as possible to stay in this. mark murray joins me now. and mark, let's talk about, as we mentioned, the cross over vote that seems to be the hot topic this morning in ohio, the same case in illinois. a lot of focus on crossover because it's an open primary. >> that's right, tamron. of course, illinois and you end

up having illinois is an open primary as well as missouri. ohio is a little bit different than in michigan where people can show up and you can request a democratic or republican ballot. you end up becoming a democratic or republican registered voter. if you want to keep your unaffiliated independent status, you can't vote in the republican or democratic primary. so it's a little bf different than what we're seeing in illinois and missouri, and last week in michigan, but certainly it's not closed the same way that florida is. >> so the difference potentially would be, mark, in ohio, for example, those people asking for crossover ballot could be some of these reagan democrats as we have heard, who in the past supported the democratic party but are now part of this broad group that we describe as the angry white vote. in illinois, the theory is that these are some people who say hillary clinton is in a safe spot. it's a wide enough field for her that they want to stop trump. and are going and voting on the

republican primary in an attempt to vote against him. >> yeah. tamron, that latter strategy is something we have heard from an anecdotal where there were democrats, say, in michigan, who might have been hillary clinton or bernie sanders supporters but voted in the republican race to either boost donald trump or to be able to stop him. we have heard some anecdotal tales about that in this week's round of primaries. but it's nothing more than anecdotes. you did mention some hard numbers, and the question is, are these democrats who want to play in the republican race to be able to keep it going or help or hurt donald trump or are these some of these disaffected democrats who really are now moving over to the republican column? we don't know right now. >> we do not know, but we'll know much more in the exit polling. thank you very much. let me bring in msnbc political analyst and daily beast columnist jonathan alter, a man who knows chicago very well as well as the great state of illinois. let's talk about illinois for two reasons on both sides here.

a potential for bernie sanders to pull out a victory there, and this could be also where ted cruz rakes up a win over donald trump. what's happening in illinois, jonathan? >> well, you know, there's some sanders momentum in illinois. and to a lot of people who would not be surprised if he really gave hillary clinton a bloody nose in her true home state. she represented new york in the senate, but she's from the chicago area. so we'll look for that tonight. and on the republican side, you know, there's, i think a pretty good sense that trump will hang on to win illinois. but the polling, as we all know, michigan is not the only example, has been very, very unreliable. it's part of what makes tonight so interesting. is that we can't go in with a lot of assurance that things are going to go the way the polls suggest. and the stakes are bigger than any tuesday night of the whole season. this is the big night, the big

day in american politics for a couple reasons. iowa and new hampshire, they got all this attention. those were spring training, really. this is going to tell us on the republican side whether we have the first contested convention in more than half a century. if john kasich wins ohio, all bets are off. because donald trump is unlikely at that point to go into the cleveland convention with enough delegates for a first-ballot victory. just to talk about marco rubio for a second, everybody assumes when he gets beat, which he probably will tonight, he'll drop out. but he might want to stay in to have some chips at the table in cleveland. because this is going to be the world's greatest poker game on that second ballot. if it goes to that. that's all dependent on ohio tonight. >> and to your point, that seems to be now the rubio strategy, or perhaps it was always the strategy and they didn't want to

get to that if then scenario of conceding that florida perhaps would not be a victory for him, but it looks as if he wants to stay in. continue to battle this out, perhaps go out west, and be able to broker some kind of support for the convention and keep his delegates, whether to transfer them or hold on, whatever the strategy. what's interesting, jonathan, i wanted to talk to you about a piece you wrote, the column, donald trump is too poor to be president. trump tweeted out this morning, please remember i'm the only candidate who is self-funding his campaign. kasich, rubio, cruz, are all bought and paid for by lobbyists. at the last debate, trump was asked whether he would self-fund his campaign if he was the nominee. he said he had not thought about that. i find that incredible to believe he has not thought that far ahead considering how he's been quite confident he will be the nominee. if donald trump decides he cannot put up that kind of money to fund his general election campaign, what does it mean for

this big bragging point that has resonated with his supporters that he owns his destiny. >> first, let me just explain, because a lot of people might go, donald trump too poor to be president? how could that possibly be? so barack obama when he was running in 2012, spent $1.2 billion getting re-elected. mitt romney spent about $850 million. the general election is a hell of a lot more expensive than the primaries because 125 million people are voting instead of 20 million or 30 million people. you have to huge get out the vote operations. it's extremely expensive. you might say, all right, trump has a billion dollars. does he? forbes estimated his net worth at $4 billion. by trump's own calculation, at least $3.3 billion of that is tied up in those licensing deals, he has his names on buildings and that kind of thing. it's not liquid.

he does not have a billion dollars that is liquid for him to devote to this campaign. he's probably too cheap to do it anyway. that means he's going to have to go out and raise money from the lobbyists and donors he spent the last several months attacking. that's not going to be easy. he's getting a very, very late start in doing that. and even romney found it hard to raise large amounts of money from those millionaires. there's no super billionaire who's going to step up and give, you know, trump $100 million or something like that. they have indicated that they will not. the koch brothers and the others. he's going to be short, he's going to get outspent by hillary clinton by two to one, three to one, even four to one in the general election campaign. this is a fact that i don't think people have looked alt until now. >> quickly, if we're to see a part of the trend from the primary, millions have been spent to beat donald trump, including ads that are up right now on some of the rhetoric he's

used in the past regarding women. it's not been successful. when you can pull up to a hangar with your name on the side of an airplane and get what many people have observed would be millions of dollars in free pre press, is the formula we have used in the past relevant? >> that's a great question. and right now, you know, keeping score with money is very out of fashion in politics. for the reasons that you described. i have covered many candidates in the past who had the most money in the primaries and lost. okay, we could go down a list. jeb bush is the most recent example. in a general election, there is no history of the candidate with less money winning that general election. it's a totally different universe. yes, the free media, the free publicity, is still very important, but a lot of it is a get out the vote operation. microtargeting, getting ads on in all the battleground states. if you're not up in ads,

historically, you have plummeted in the polls. it's a very complicated, very, very expensive general election campaign. the history of the primaries this year might not be a good indication. however, donald trump has broken a lot of the rules, so it's possible he could get badly outspent by hillary clinton and still be elected, but it's important to understand that he will be badly outspent. big factor. >> we're out of time, but since illinois is your home, who wins on the democratic side, who wins on the republican side? >> i think that bernie sanders is going to surprise people by winning in illinois. and i think trump will win on the republican side. >> jonathan alter, thank you so much. up next, hillary clinton's campaign is defending their plans to host a fund-raiser with a former nra lobbyist, after bernie sanders called this out on twitter saying, quote, clinton should stop taking nra lobbyist money. coming up, we'll have more

reaction on that as well as more live numbers out of cleveland, ohio, and the latest from florida, illinois, all across the board. you're watching msnbc on a very big day for our country. we'll be right back. from the moment they wake up, doers don't stop. every day is a chance to do something great. and for the ones they love, they'd do anything. sears optical has glasses made for doing. right now, buy one pair and get another free. quality eyewear for doers. sears optical.

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large voter turnout, we're going to do just great here in illinois, in missouri, in ohio, and hopefully in north carolina and florida. i think that in the states that are coming down the pike, we have great opportunity to win many of them. we're feeling really good. >> that was of course senator bernie sanders only moments ago talking to reporters at a diner in chicago. we're back live from the urban

farmer restaurant in cleveland, ohio. the state that may be the big headline tonight and tomorrow. senator sanders, though, trails clinton by a big margin in florida and north carolina. the question is can he win here in ohio? he's hoping for a big win as well as in missouri and illinois. that can give him new momentum. hillary clinton, meanwhile, could lose those three midwest states and still win the night in terms of delegates. a pair of msnbc town halls last night, both candidates saved some sharp attacks for donald trump. >> when you are inciting mob violence, which is what trump is doing in those clips, there's a lot of memories that people have. you know, they're in the dna. people remember mob violence that led to lynching. people remember mob violence that led to people being shot, being grabbed, being mistreated. >> we have a major candidate for president of the united states,

donald trump, who is literally inciting violence among his supporters. when he says that he is prepared to pay the legal fees for somebody who sucker punches somebody, what he is really essentially saying is, go do it, supporters. go beat up people. >> a permission slip? >> absolutely. >> nbc's kristen welker is in miami for us. so kristen, i want to talk about this tweet that senator sanders sent out on sunday that's getting some traction a few days later. it said hillary clinton should stop taking nra lobbyists' money. this dates back from a story posted on the "huffington post." what's going on here? >> well, still waiting to get reaction from the clinton campaign on that, tamron, but look, this is something that we have heard from senator sanders, a line of attack essentially accusing her of accepting corporate dollars, trying to paint her as a hypocrite. the pushback would be that her record speaks for itself, the

fact she has been tough on nra, calling for stiff new gun laws. she's tried to use that issue to really criticize and hammer senator sanders for having a mixed record when it comes to stiffer gun laws. this is coming as you have been talking about at a critical point for these two candidates. if senator sanders has a strong night tonight, if he were to win missouri, illinois, which is of course, secretary clinton's home state, that could potentially give him a leg up if he wins by a large margin, though. that's what we're looking at tonight. then let's talk about the state where you are right now, ohio. all eyes are on ohio. a lot of polls show secretary clinton has a comfortable lead there, but if you talk to the campaigns, they think it's much closer. the reason why, of course, that surprise win in michigan. that has really rattled the clinton campaign. it's clear that senator sanders' message about trade and the economy resonating throughout the midwest. secretary clinton, though, feeling very confident here in florida and north carolina, and of course, she's going to have

her big rally here in florida later on tonight. tamron. >> kristen, let's also talk about one of the things that many anticipated would happen with senator sanders challenging secretary clinton, that she would move to the left further to the left, and now you have this over trade and even the death penalty, a part of the story line today. >> absolutely is. and look, i spoke with one top democrat who put it this way. the challenge for secretary clinton right now, if she can continue to rack up her delegates lead, is going to be not to move too far to the left. if she does get the nomination, of course, she's going to have to take on the republican nominee, whoever that may be. we have seen her shift to the left a little bit on issues like tpp, the death penalty,tamron, sanders has been hammering her on the issue of trade. again, that's the fine line that she has to walk, and again, tamron, all eyes on the state where you are right now, ohio. >> i have to tell you, every

single person that we have run into, kristen, from the nail salon across the street to the people who are working at our hotels and restaurants, they have an opinion about this, and they certainly want to see like the rest of us how ohio will play out tonight. thank you so much, kristen. >> indeed, thank you. >> back to ohio where one county is seeing an increase in republican ballots today. msnbc's tony dokoupil joins us from a polling place in the small town of struthers. tony, you're seeing a lot of people, and again, this conversation of crossing over in this state. what's the latest? >> that's right, tamron. a very big deal. struthers is part of the youngstown area. it's staunchly democrat. there are no elected officials who are republican in this town, yet, when voters come to the polling station and get to that table, more than half of them or about half of them are selecting not democratic ballots but republican ballots. we have one of those voters with us right now. this is anita. you are an old-school classic

italian democrat. never voted republican in your life. >> never. >> how did you vote today? >> republican. why? >> because of the corruption in the democratic party, and the republican party, too. and donald trump didn't take any money from anybody. he's using his own. so he doesn't owe anybody anything. >> how do you think your father would respond? >> my father would roll over in his grave if he knew i voted republican. >> all right, anita, thank you. tamron, one more very cool thing to show you. at 11:00, under law, election officials are erequired to post a list of everyone who has voted including the party primary they voted in. we see republican after republican after republican. a lot of votes cast not on the democratic side but on the red side. at the end of the day, they will post the results publicly here. they'll slap it up against the wall, old fashioned, predigdita habit, and we might see something historic.

this county may flip to the republican side courtesy of donald trump, tamron. >> all right, tony. thank you very much. greatly appreciate it. >> coming up, he's the african-american pastor from cleveland leading a small group of black ministers who are supporting donald trump. up next, pastor scott will join me live from cleveland. he actually introduced trump at a rally right here in ohio. we'll talk to him right after a quick break. night, at&t helps keep everyone connected. right now at at&t, buy the new samsung galaxy s7 and get one free. no matter how you hang out, share every minute of it. buy one water resistant samsung galaxy s7 and get one free. and right now, get up to $650 in credits per line to help you switch to at&t.

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>> that was pastor darell scott of the new spearal revival center church here in cleveland heights, introducing donald trump at a rally in cleveland on saturday. that introduction got a lot of attention from a lot of donald trump's supporters. he appeared with him in many events. thank you for your time. >> thank you for the invitation. >> you're in an interesting position. african-american man. we know right now donald trump in a head to head matchup with bernie sanders or hillary clinton loses significantly with the black vote. you're also a minister. at the heart of some of the most violent rallies that we have seen in modern american politics, you were there. you saw the crowds. do you believe that donald trump plays a role in inciting this? >> in inciting, no. because you don't see the donald trump supporters fighting each other. now, if he was creating an atmosphere and a climate of hate, you would see the people that were there to attend

fighting each other. >> that doesn't make any sense. who fights each other when you're on the same side? >> that tells me those who are antagonistic towards him are coming in with the intention of causing conflict and disruption. >> when you say antagonistic, when yousy the video out of north carolina where the protester is leaving the building and is sucker punched by a donald trump supporter, who is the antagonist there? >> i don't know if that was a donald trump supporter who sucker punched him, number one. >> no, no, let's be clear. he said he was a supporter. >> a 78-year-old man that hit the guy. now, that's one incident, one person got punched. if he had punched a white man, we wouldn't have had the controversy. if a black man had punched a black man. we have talked about this. he went on stage at a rap concert and got stopped by three guys. stomped flat, and didn't make a blip on the radar screen. why isn't anyone protesting about the social climate that produces that?

>> when you said that to me before, i said to you, that sounds ridiculous because you're talking about kat williams who is a comedian and pop culture. we're talking about a presidential candidate who sat onstage, if someone throws a tomato, punch them and i'll cover your legal expenses. he talked about the days when people were brought out on stretchers. going back to civil rights history which i know and hope you know very well, there were peaceful protesters who were beaten and bloodied from selma to other points where they were murdered, like the young girls we saw. when you have a presidential candidate saying take them out in a stretcher, how is that not inciting violence? you're a minister here. >> and i in no way form, or fashion condole the violence. if i hear that, i don't throw the tomato. >> that's your solution? >> no, that's not my solution. what i'm saying is it's an action and reaction. for every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction.

if there's no action, there's no reaction. the question i ask you is this, if as trump alleges the protesters are from the hillary clinton camp, the democratic camp, why don't in the interest of peace, rather than condemn the violence, why doesn't hillary clinton say to her supporters, bernie sanders say to his supporters, if you're a supporter of mine, do me a favor. do not go to the donald trump rally, do not incite violence. >> what if the advice was given to martin luther king? >> he didn't incite violence. >> tell me where the protesters are inciting violence. >> if hillary clinton says do not go to the rally and incite violence, bernie sanders says don't incite violence, you wouldn't see any. >> what's your proof? >> a sign. >> a sign held up incites violence, in what world is that true? >> in cleveland, ohio, in america, in 2016 that's true. >> they begin to protest, and disrupt. they're attempting to disrupt

the meeting. they're trying to prevent him from talking. they come and ask them to leave. no, i'm not leaving. get your hands off me. >> what about the constitution that protects your right to protest? >> what about the constitution that protects your right to free assembly and free speech. >> and donald trump could have continued with his rally in chicago. >> in chicago, i know you saw it. you had a guy onstage, at donald trump's podium, and trying to get him to leave. i'm not leaving. now, what was his intent? you watch the guy who rushed onstage in dayton. did you see the interview with him afterwards? >> i did. >> he said i think donald trump is a bully. i was going to take his podium. he's a bully so i'm going to bully the bully. that's the same hypocrisy. >> donald trump today said that he will likely not cover the legal expenses of the 78-year-old supporter, despite your lack of admitting it, this man was a supporter. >> i'm not not admitting it. >> he's not going to cover his

legal expenses. what advice as a minister who has known donald trump, climate right now, what advice would you give him. >> >> there's a script in the bible that talks about my words being seasoned with salt. when i think about mr. trump, i can relate to him in this respect. he's in the process of a transition. making a transition from being a public person to a public servant. the transition oftentimes happens externally faster than it happens internally. i had to make the same transition. i have been pastoring my church for 22 years. prior to that, i was a church member. when i began pastoring, i made a lot of mistakes, i fumbled because even though i was in the position of pastor, i had the mind of a member. he's used to be a public person who can shoot from the hip, who doesn't have to be more careful about what he says. in making this transition to public servant, if you notice it, he's trying to tone it down. when he does, what do they say? what do you think about the new

toned-down donald trump? he wasn't verbose at the debate. he was more conciliatory at the debate. what can i do? i'm darned if i do and darned if i don't. >> will he win ohio? >> it's going oo be close. it is going to be close. he might squeak it out. he might squeak it out because kasich doesn't have a dynamic personality. and oftentimes -- >> but a 79% approval in the state, and i talked to a number of even african-american voters who are democrats who like what he has done for the state. >> let me tell you this. there's an undercurrent of african-americans who are going to vote for trump. they're just not telling anybody. out of 1109 pastors we took to new york, 60 of them told me in private, i'm going to vote for him. >> you believe there's a secret black coalition that will support donald trump. >> it's not a coalition because they're not united. when they get in the voting booth, they're going to vote for donald trump. >> that would be incredible. pastor, thank you so much for

your time. coming up, bernie sanders tells chuck todd during an msnbc town hall here in ohio that he ran as a democrat to get more media coverage. we'll have more on the explanation behind that statement that's generated a lot of talk online. up next, i'll talk live with senator sanders backer from ohio state, senator nina turner. i feel like this is the hottest place in cleveland right now. live pictures from chicago before we head to a break. former president bill clinton is at a polling location in that great city. stay with us.

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double-digit leads. joining me now is former ohio state governor nina turner. she has endorsed bernie sanders, has campaigned extensively for him around the country. thank you so much for joining us. let's talk about what's happening in ohio on the ground. there's a gender gap. the quinnipiac poll released yesterday found ohio women back clinton over sanders. men prefer senator sanders 55% to 43%. why the gap? why the gender difference there? >> well, i'm not sure why the gap is there, but it is very important, whether somebody is a man or woman, to understand what senator sanders is fighting for. he's fighting for the working poor and the middle class. >> when we say the working poor, working middle class, for both donald trump and senator sanders. that often pivots to working white middle class or the angry white vote that we keep using this terminology, but i want to read something real quick. from the chairman of the mahoning county board of elections. he said we're seeing something this election cycle i have never

seen before to this degree. every day i take phone calls or get messages from people saying they have been democrats all their life and they had it. they want to vote for donald trump. they're not seeing senator sanders as their alternative. >> i don't believe that's necessarily true. what the chairman is saying is anecdotal. i too, have heard some of those sentiments. for both in a different way, because i know people like to compare mr. trump to senator sanders. this is really about people being fed up with the status quo. whether they're on the left or whether they're on the right, but i have talked to many republicans who said they will support ultimately support senator sanders. >> i'm being told we have new sound in from bill clinton in chicago. i don't know what he's saying here, but apparently, it may be regarding senator sanders. let's play this. >> there should be a race for president. and there's a blame candidate and a responsibility candidate in this race. i'm betting the responsibility candidate will win. >> thank you.

>> he says there's a blame candidate and a responsibility candidate in this. obviously, your brow has raised. a snippet of what he said walking in to a polling location. your reaction to that. >> the responsibility candidate is senator bernie sanders who does not change his message depending on what audience he's talking to. he has been a steady champion from being a college student all the way to filibustering, as you know, for over eight hours against the bush tax cut extensions and for states like mine, the state of ohio, similar to michigan and wisconsin and illinois, other midwestern states where these bad trade policies have taken away good working jobs, i mean, it's just utterly -- it's hypocrisy if you ask me, the height of hypocrisy for president clinton to insinuate that senator sanders is the blame candidate. >> will senator sanders will ohio today? >> i believe he will. i'm looking for a michigan miracle. >> all right, we'll see what happens. always a pleasure to have you

on. coming up, we'll go live to illinois where we heard from former president bill clinton. precincts are reporting an uptick in democrats asking for republican ballots. why the state that does not usually influence the presidential race could make the big difference this year. you're watching msnbc live from cleveland ohio. we'll be right back. 80% of women say a healthy lifestyle is a priority.

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if you think you have ibs with diarrhea talk to your doctor about xifaxan. msnbc the place for politics all day long. don't forget at 5:00 p.m. eastern time. we'll be right back though live from cleveland ohio. more of "msnbc live." ♪ ♪

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99 delegates in the race.

jacob soboroff speaking with some primary voters. what are you hearing on the ground? >> reporter: jose diaz knows hialeah. the number one cuba american in the country. if we want to get a pulse of the american vote, marco rubio absolutely needs to win if he has a chance of survival coming out of here to come to chico's. they own chico's. it's just you told me you already voted early for marco rubio. do you think he's going to win today? >> i think so. he win today. >> reporter: if he doesn't win here, can you see yourself supporting donald trump who will win? >> yes, any against hillary or leo, i don't know. y john kasich. >> reporter: donald trump did not say nice things about the latino community. >> it's nothing.

it's nothing. >> reporter: he said it's nothing. this is a place where people come to this community, politicians from all over including jeb bush to win the support of the community. we'll see what happens in a couple of hours when the polls close. tamron? >> reporter: j >> thank you, jacob. thank you very much. thank you so much for joining us from this great spot in cleveland, ohio. it's been a fantastic weekend. i want to thank everyone who's come out to see the show and i want to thank the ultimate crossover voter who was patient with her fur mom. love in the house. cleveland is the most dog-friendly place in the country. thank you guys at the restaurant. thanks, mayla. up next, "andrea mitchell reports" live. and we're back in new york tomorrow. welcome to the world 2116, you can fly across town in minutes or across the globe in under an hour. whole communities are living on mars and solar satellites

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a special live edition of "andrea mitchell reports" in miami. can the front runners separate themselves from the pack? >> the biggest people in the party are calling. they want to sit down. a lot of people calling because they want to see what's out there. for the democrats, hillary clinton retreating to the safety of friendly florida. is she giving up the midwest to bernie sanders? >> there's a large voter turnout and we're going to do just great here in missouri and ohio and hopefully north carolina and florida. >> for the republicans, two win or take all states. a do or die election here.