And then overall, just overall, and I look at the
exit polls and particularly it was in California,
Virginia and North Carolina, around
3536% of Republicans people voted in the Republican primary saying
they're not willing to
to guarantee that they will support the Republican nominee.
You know, that tells me
Trump still has a problem consolidating his support.
And it's interesting because, you know,
the if, let's, let's assume the New York Times poll
from the other day was correct that said that Trump
was getting
93% of the vote that he had in 2020,
yet still people voting, you know,
somewhere between 20 and 40%
of people voting in the Republican primary are not voting
for him.
So who are those people?
You know, maybe they're independents,
but they're people that are open to voting for Joe
Biden.
So I feel I'm coming out of this sort of
primary season feeling more optimistic about about
Biden's room to grow and Trump hitting some kind of
ceiling.
Jen, I have to, I have to give you the
opportunity to say California Senator Alex Padilla because Kevin de
Leon ran for it but didn't get it.
Thank you. Thank you so much,
Senator Alex Padilla, I knew you would want to say
that and I wanted to give you a chance before
we got too far down the road.
That's so nice of you,
Claire. Let me ask you about,
I mean the the points that John was just making
there in terms of the overall strength of the general
election candidates in the presidential tonight and what we're learning
about that from these primaries.
Hey, listen, I think the thing I take away from
today is looking at the margins and deciding which party
is really more united
and all the states that voted today.
If you look at the results that we know right
now,
there was only two states where Biden won by less
than
7070 points. OK, everything else
80%. Eighty, 2%. You know how many states Donald Trump
won
by more than 70 points?
1 Alabama. So there are more people voting against Donald
Trump that are even thinking about voting against Joe Biden.
And I get the uncommitted is sending a message and
I think it's one that needs to be heard.
I think it's important for our party.
But really there is a Republican war going on behind
the scenes.
It's playing out in primaries all over the country tonight
where big money is going in against MAGA candidates.
They have a problem in the Republican Party in terms
of how unified they are.
I don't think we have near as far to go.
Well, Claire, let me let me just ask you to
engage with something that's been happening here on set tonight.
We've had some hot, hot criticism of Nikki Haley staying
in the race for my beloved friend Alex Wagner who's
sitting here with me
saying, highlighting the the the fact that
Halley's end game is if she thinks she's going to
win,
that's not going to happen.
If she thinks she's doing any damage to Donald Trump,
there's no evidence of that.
And that she continues to talk smack about Joe Biden
in a way that potentially suppresses
enthusiasm for for Biden or or
possibly sort of serves as a sort of heat sink
for Democrats who might otherwise put themselves in Biden's camp
but can put themselves sort of uselessly in Haley's camp
as long as she's still in the race.
What do you think about that?
So listen, she's my beloved Alex Wagner too.
But let me just say I don't think it really
matters.
I think it matters for Nikki Haley's future.
What does she want to do?
Does she want to make a bunch of money like
Stephanie was talking about giving speeches and being on corporate
boards?
Does she see some way forward in this Republican Party?
No way she's done in this Republican Party.
It's over. She makes Mike Pence look popular in this
Republican pop
party. So I don't think Haley has a future in
this Republican Party,
and I don't think her talking trash about Biden necessarily
hurts Biden.
But I think she's going to look silly if she
comes out and endorses Trump.
She's going to look pretty phony,
Not good for her political
legacy. If she comes out after saying the things she
said and endorses in
Jen, what do you think?
Along those same lines, I think it doesn't.
I mean, I think she's helpful.
You know, it's just I think it's very helpful for
voters,
independents, Republicans, Democrats, to hear a Republican make criticisms of
Donald Trump.
And even though she also says bad things about Biden,
I think it's worth it.
I think that that is a bit,
that's a valuable thing. And if she endorses Trump,
in the end, she's just going to look as
it's going to be. She's going to look like she
has no integrity.
I don't really think that's going to hurt Biden,
that what we need are effective arguments against Trump.
And she's making those, making those from
somebody from the perspective, from a perspective that people think
is a credible Republican perspective
in lots of ways. And you can't manufacture that.
That has to come from all an authentic Republican place.
Jen Palmieri and Claire McCaskill,
our dear friends, great to have you with us tonight.
Thank you.