[Brianna Keilar, Cnn Guest:] the time for clowns is past. Supreme fight. President Obama jabs back at senators for refusing to consider anyone that he nominates to the Supreme Court. Tonight an intriguing new twist. Could he nominate a Republican? Plus, nuclear nightmare. Pentagon planners consider the deadly possibility of Kim Jong-un lashing out with nuclear weapons if he feels threatened. Could he hit the U.S.? Wolf Blitzer is on assignment, preparing for Thursday night's Republican presidential debate. I'm Brianna Keilar, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM. And as we count down to CNN's Republican debate here in Houston, Texas, Donald Trump is looking ahead to Super Tuesday. His chance to deliver a series of knockout blows to his remaining rivals. Now, Trump is also starting to answer questions about who he might pick as a running mate. The biggest hint so far: Trump says he's looking for a political insider. Pretty interesting. And as for Trump's opponents, well, they're scattered across the country. They're attacking one another, and they're trying to convince Republican voters they have the best chance of taking Trump down. Our correspondents, analysts and guests, including Senator Tim Scott, who is backing Marco Rubio, have full coverage of the day's top stories. And we begin with CNN's Jim Acosta. Jim, can Donald Trump make the case that three straight wins makes him the inevitable nominee?
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, that is the question everybody is asking, Brianna, and the answer is quickly becoming possibly yes. Donald Trump is savoring his big victory here in Nevada, and he's predicting more wins next week on Super Tuesday. Even though he only has a fraction of the delegates needed to capture the GOP nomination, Trump is sounding like he's already measuring the drapes in the Oval Office.
[Acosta:] Donald Trump's first campaign event after his win in Nevada says it all.
[Donald Trump , Presidential Candidate:] Thank you, everybody.
[Acosta:] Eyeing the Bible Belt states up for grabs on Super Tuesday next week, Trump appealed to Christian conservatives by sitting down with televangelist Pat Robertson.
[Pat Robertson, Televangelist:] You inspire us all.
[Acosta:] Trump talked about forgiveness, perhaps even for his arch- rival Ted Cruz. Maybe.
[Trump:] I can forgive. Every once in a while there will be somebody that went too far over the last few weeks, and you know, things were said that were lies. But I've got to be a good person today, at least for the next hour. I'm sorry.
[Acosta:] But Trump isn't spending much time talking about his opponents, he's busy envisioning his days in the White House. The ultimate political outsider saying he would likely want a political insider as his vice president.
[Trump:] I do want somebody that's political because I want to get lots of great legislation that we all want passed.
[Acosta:] And strong conservatives for the Supreme Court.
[Trump:] Pro-life. Starts with that. Starts with that. Very conservative. Very, very smart. I mean like Judge Scalia. He was a perfect representative. On day one of the Trump administration, the GOP front-runner vows he'll scrap Obamacare, improve veterans' health care and end the president's executive actions to slow deportations of the undocumented. Especially the one on the border where people are allowed to come in and just pour into our country like Swiss cheese.
[Acosta:] Trump is heading into Super Tuesday with a lead that is ballooning quickly, five times the number of delegates as his nearest rivals.
[Trump:] The establishment, the media, the special interests, the lobbyists, the donors, they're all against me.
[Acosta:] Trump is also running a new ad warning the D.C. establishment is out to get him, and he's making the case Republicans should consider how he's expanding the party and get on board.
[Trump:] We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated. We're the smartest people, we're the most loyal people. And you know what I really am happy about, because I've been saying it for a long time. Forty-six percent with the Hispanics, 46 percent. No. 1 with Hispanics.
[Acosta:] The contenders vying to be the anti-Trump insist the race is far from over.
[Cruz:] We can't get this wrong. We can't be fooled by P.T. Barnum. The time for the clowns and the acrobats and the dancing bears has passed.
[Acosta:] Cruz went back to delegate-rich Texas to secure the endorsement of that state's popular governor.
[Gov. Greg Abbott , Texas:] Ted is a constitutionalist whose judgment I trust to appoint the right judges to the United States Supreme Court.
[Acosta:] Marco Rubio is urging supporters to pick a candidate who can actually win in November.
[Sen. Marco Rubio , Presidential Candidate:] We can't just elect someone that's angry.
[Acosta:] And John Kasich said maybe a fight at the GOP convention won't be so bad.
[Gov. John Kasich , Presidential Candidate:] If we end up at a brokered convention, I can't think of a better way better city to have one in than Cleveland, Ohio, so we'll see.
[Acosta:] Now, he may he may be way ahead, but Donald Trump is not slowing down. He's got a bunch of events lined up through the South and Southwest to set the table for Super Tuesday next week. And all of the early polls indicate, Brianna, that Trump has the potential to clean up on Super Tuesday and force some of these other rivals to drop out of the race Brianna.
[Keilar:] All right, Jim Acosta for us in las Vegas. Thank you. And as Jim mentioned, Senator Ted Cruz is campaigning in his home state of Texas. It is the biggest single prize among next week's Super Tuesday states. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is covering the Cruz campaign for us. So Sunlen, the senator is predicting that he's going to have a very good night next Tuesday. What do you think?
[Sunlen Serfaty, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, he absolutely could, Brianna. The stakes are incredibly high for him. He has done absolutely nothing to tamp down expectations, and it is going to be a tough slog for him. And I think that's part of the reason why we've really seen Senator Cruz ratchet up the rhetoric of how pivotal a week this is for him, saying things like this will be the most important day of the election, referencing Super Tuesday, of course. Today the Cruz campaign, they rolled out a big endorsement, that of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. His support will have an incredible boost of momentum going forward here on the ground for Cruz in Texas as they inch towards voting on Tuesday. And of course, a lot of delegates here in Texas on the table, something that Senator Cruz referenced here earlier today.
[Cruz:] Texas has 155 delegates. It is the crown jewel of Super Tuesday. Texas has alone almost 15 percent of the delegates you need to be the Republican nominee. And as the men and women know here, Texas has a history of standing and leading the fight.
[Serfaty:] And Senator Cruz had something of a combative press conference with reporters afterwards, where he was peppered with questions over what his path would be forward if he doesn't perform on Super Tuesday. Here's how he responded.
[Cruz:] I believe we are going to do well.
[Unidentified Male:] Better than 50 percent?
[Cruz:] I believe we are going to do well. That is going to be up to the voters. You know, I would note, I'm curious how many reporters ask Marco Rubio, after losing four states in a row, so when do you drop out when you haven't won a state? To win, you've got to you've got to win states. You've got to win delegates.
[Serfaty:] And it can't be overstated how much the Cruz campaign strategy hinges on doing well on Super Tuesday. Senator Cruz today says that he will campaign hard. He will campaign aggressively this week going forward Brianna.
[Keilar:] All right, Sunlen Serfaty for us here in Houston. Thank you so much. And joining us now, we have Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. He has endorsed Marco Rubio for president. Senator, thanks so much for being with us. These endorsements for Rubio, who you have endorsed, they're piling up now. He's seemingly gotten the establishment's blessing here. Is he able to convince voters, though?
[Sen. Tim Scott , South Carolina:] I think he will be very effective and convincing voters in this cross-country run. The key for us is to keep gaining and accumulating more delegates. We're in a good position right now, especially when you look at where we've come from to where we are and where we're going. We're excited about the future. We're excited about this race. The longer it goes, the better it is for Marco Rubio, and I think it's going to be a cross- country run. We'll have to continue to do well, and we will.
[Keilar:] He comes into this, obviously, with a record as a freshman senator. Let's talk about that. I know you two have worked together. He says that he understands the national security challenges that our country faces more than any of the other GOP candidates in this race. But can you name something that really stands out to you that he has done in his time as senator that you think will make him the best prepared, as he says that he is?
[Scott:] Well, I think if you look at his service on the foreign affairs committee or the intel committee, his knowledge on our challenges in the Middle East, his understanding and appreciation of the challenge with North Korea, his understanding and appreciation for China. I also look at some of the accomplishments. He's led the way for reform at the V.A. He's been very successful in getting sanctions done on Hezbollah. You look at the impact of eliminating the slush fund or the bailout fund for insurance companies and Obamacare. Here are three clear examples of where Marco has taken the lead and done very well for the country. And that's that's good to have those legislative victories. What's more important is he inspires a new generation of voters to take a look at the conservative principles that have undergirded the success of this nation. As long as we continue to campaign on the conservative principles that have made us successful for more than two centuries, I look forward to another American century.
[Keilar:] It seems like some of the things that you name are sort of his experience that he has serving on committees, which, you know, not to say that that isn't important. That certainly is, but you named the V.A., for instance, which a lot of people look at Congress; and they say that, you know, on the V.A. issue, you know, a lot of senators this is even a criticism leveled at Senator Sanders that they sort of missed this crisis. You know, I guess specifically, is there something to you that just that really sort of stands out as sort of the primary legislative accomplishment for him or even just really leading the way on a certain issue?
[Scott:] One of the things that he did, without question, is he was one of the first folks who said that the president's characterization of ISIS as the J.V. team was inconsistent with the reality that was coming our way. He was one of the first to start voicing the concerns that ISIS was more than a J.V. team, that it was actually perhaps the greatest threat that we have from a militant jihadist perspective in the last five to ten years. He proved to be right there. But let's think about the V.A. reform that was passed. We were talking about the fact that we gave the new secretary of the V.A. the power to fire employees. Now, what you need is a chief executive, a president who will make sure that his secretary actually uses the power of the legislation that was given to him. When that happens, when Marco Rubio is our president, we'll see more accountability in the V.A., because he helped lead that legislation past the finish line, and then we'll have a commander in chief that will actually use that legislation, and that's good news for our veterans. We owe so much to our veterans, and yet the V.A. has been a broken, fragmented system that has not successfully taken care of our vets. We can change that and the legislation that we passed that he led on actually gets that accomplished.
[Keilar:] Looking at his strategy, for instance, when it comes to foreign policy, as he is touting his creds here, when you look at his proposal combatting is, Senator, do you see something that is different from what the Obama administration is pushing as the solution to combatting ISIS?
[Scott:] Well, the Obama administration really has not had a plan to combat ISIS. It really has not had a plan for us to not just reduce or destroy, but to eliminate ISIS as we know it. The fact of the matter is that having a specific plan that encourages the military leaders to be a part of that plan and part of the process, to understand and to delineate delineate those necessary steps for success, we haven't seen that out of President Obama. We would see that clearly under President Rubio.
[Keilar:] All right, Senator Tim Scott, stay with me. We have many more questions for you as you back Senator Marco Rubio in this race for the GOP presidential nomination. We'll be right back.