Who Can Take on Trump?
BLITZER: We're closing in on the first votes of the night out of the critical state of Florida. We're going to get our first sense of who's in the lead, who may be struggling on this high-stakes Super Tuesday. I want to go over to Sara Murray. She's over at Marco Rubio campaign headquarters right now in Miami. What's the latest over there?</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, what sources are telling me is that even if Marco Rubio does not pull out a victory tonight, even if he loses here in Florida, he is going to face immense pressure to stay in the race, at least officially. And this is part of a delegate strategy. What people who are opposed to Trump and even some Rubio supporters want is they want a way to ensure that Marco Rubio's delegates are still bound to him. And they say if he ends his presidential bid, these delegates go unbound, they could potentially support Donald Trump at the convention. Now, this could put Marco Rubio in a little bit of an awkward position, but one person who is familiar with the discussion says he's already under an enormous amount of pressure to consider this route. This is as people are beginning to realize that if they want to stop Trump, the only way to do is going to be at the convention -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Sara, thanks very much. Let's go over to John King over at the magic wall. You're looking at the all-important delegates. And I know there's an effort to stop Trump from getting to that 1,237, that magic number he needs to be guaranteed the nomination.</s>KING: And Marco Rubio's Florida, and John Kasich's Ohio are critical to that. To Sara Murray's point, pressure on Marco Rubio to stay even if he can't win. But, Wolf, if the margin is big tonight, there's also a lot of conversation in the Rubio campaign that he would get out. Here's the state of play as we are right now. Donald Trump with 100-delegate lead over Ted Cruz. Rubio and Kasich far behind. What happens tonight? Can Donald Trump in this scenario run the board? If he wins all five of the big states tonight, Wolf, he will inch way out here. Not unstoppable, but much harder to stop. If he's out here at the end of the night if he runs the board, Donald Trump would need in the 42 percent, 43 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch, very doable, especially if you have a wounded Kasich probably out of the race and a wounded Rubio probably out of the race. But that's why this would be so important. Because it's 99 winner- take-all, if Marco Rubio could take this, you see Donald Trump goes back already. Then if John Kasich can take his home state of Ohio, again, 66 delegates, winner-take-all, boom, look, Donald Trump then is back behind the halfway point. The expectation is, though, that Kasich, maybe close race there. Most of the polls heading in suggested that Donald Trump was going to get the state of Florida. It makes such a big difference in the math. So if you're the Cruz campaign, you're looking to pick up delegates in Missouri, pick up delegates in North Carolina, pick up delegates in Illinois. What the Cruz campaign hopes for, let's make it in Missouri, is take one of those states and actually eke out a victory, essentially split the delegates with Trump, but get a little bit more. Let's say the night ends something like this. Number one, would Rubio stay? If Kasich is the new establishment favorite, even only with one win, does he still stay in the race? That's one calculation. Number two, at this point, Donald Trump, let's say he's right around 700 at the end of the night, needs then about 47 percent of the remaining delegates. Is that doable? Yes. The big question will be Cruz certainly would claim momentum if he picks up delegates and maybe gets a win tonight. Kasich wouldn't go anywhere. So, then we do have a three-way race, do we have a four-way race going forward? Donald Trump would need about 47 percent of the delegates in the remaining contests. This is -- the conversation is, maybe they could stop him then, but, Wolf, it's, you know, he ends up out here and not across the finish line, you going to take it away from him?</s>BLITZER: Let's say he gets that 40 percent number you were talking about. How long -- or 47 percent -- how long would it take him to clinch that nomination?</s>KING: It would really depend on is he running the board? Does he win in Arizona and Utah next week, and does he win big? Is he winning in New York, and New Jersey, and Maryland? Does he get there early? Most people think it's going to take a while, especially if you have a close race with Cruz. The misconception is that all of these Republican states become winner-take-all. That's not the case. A lot of them have a hybrid formula where if you win by a decent margin, you might get them all, like Trump did in South Carolina. He won them all, even though it's not a winner-take-all state. It would really depend on how many candidates in the race, what are the margins, and is he splitting delegates or winning states? A while. Not as long as the Democratic race, but it would take a while.</s>BLITZER: Could go on. All right, John, thanks very much -- Anderson, over to you.</s>COOPER: Yes, Wolf, the clarity that so many people had hoped to find tonight, the question is, will there really be that? Because Marco Rubio, everybody is saying, look, he has got to win in Florida. It's obviously his home state. But he has never said, yes, I will drop out. He could very easily, if he doesn't win tonight, say, I still want to stay in, in the hopes of being part of the effort to stop Donald Trump. Same with John Kasich if he doesn't win. He's always said he's got to win in Ohio, but perhaps he would change his mind. Mary Katharine?</s>MARY KATHARINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think there's a great chance at more clarity tonight. But I like that Gloria has been arguing for a little bit of chaos. It's just fun times.</s>COOPER: You like chaos. It's not very conservative of you, though, is it?</s>HAM: You know, I live on the edge, Anderson.</s>COOPER: OK.</s>HAM: No, but if this is Ides of March, I think yon Cruz has a lean and hungry work here. He can make some inroads here. He can make the argument that I can go forward. Rubio is right that the map was better for him moving forward, but if he can't do Florida, then that doesn't matter. And Cruz will say, I can take this guy on one-on-one. And then the question becomes, can the establishment and the conservatives get together, the only thing than could unite us is Trump, and get behind this guy? Because the never-Trump contingent is real. Even in some of this exit polling, you're seeing 30, 40 percent saying, "I would consider a third-party ticket."</s>COOPER: Kayleigh, can you see some of these folks staying in, even if they clearly can't get the nomination?</s>MCENANY: I could see it. But I just think it's demonstrative of why people are so frustrated at the Republican Party, because if you have Rubio stay in, when it's very evident he's not a viable contender for the presidency, it looks like he's trying to gerrymander the will of the people and stop the people from voting on a certain candidate. And I understand he had every right to stay in, of course he does, this is a personal decision. Nevertheless, it still seems like this is an attempt to keep Donald Trump from getting the nomination, which I don't think will play very well at all. The point is Marco Rubio can't even win his home state, and every time the establishment endorses a candidate, be it Jeb Bush, who was their first choice, falls precipitously. Rubio falling precipitously. Now, if they pivot to John Kasich, I predict the same: he'll fall precipitously.</s>COOPER: And Mayor Nutter, I mean, for a party, for the GOP, where so many of the voters feel betrayed already by their leaders, I mean, if Donald Trump is in the lead and there is this cabal that meets to come up with an alternative, that's just going to inflame them.</s>NUTTER: Well, Anderson, I mean, as I think we've all said, the race may not be determined tonight but there will be more definition. And this idea -- I mean, I've run for office; and this idea that you just keep running to stop someone else just seems very strange to me. I mean, there are rules here. Everyone knows what the rules are. They're all laid out. They didn't just start. At some point in time, you know, the race has to shrink for the candidates. You're running still to win. And this idea that somehow in football, I'm running to be the blocker, to stop someone else, I mean, the voters see right through that. And I mean, look, the rules are the rules; and you just deal with it.</s>BORGER: Rules can be changed.</s>PRESS: I think at some point -- we've said this before. At some point people have to realize the only way to stop Donald Trump is to stop him with one candidate, not with three candidates. And if we do end up, as Gloria said, with three different lanes, you know, then Donald Trump is just going to keep winning these states with 35 or 40 percent.</s>COOPER: But as you said, Gloria, the rules can change.</s>BORGER: The rules can change and, you know, I don't know who's going to get on that rules committee at the convention, but it's going to have to be on television and out in the open, because this would be about the worst thing you could do.</s>COOPER: The idea that Donald Trump wouldn't have people on the rules committee at the convention, that seems hard to imagine.</s>BORGER: But he will, because it's going to be determined by the number of votes you get in each state. And it's complicated and arcane and ridiculous, but he will have people on that. The thing that I'm having a hard time getting my head around is that the establishment is now trying to figure out a way to rally around the man they loathe, right, Ted Cruz, the man who shut down the government, whom they really don't like, and Manu Raju has just done this amazing story for us on CNN.com, where you have people in the Senate urging Ted Cruz to apologize to Leader Mitch McConnell, because Cruz called him a liar. It's like, "You have to apologize to Daddy before we can actually endorse you." Right? And that's what's going on.</s>GERGEN: I think why we're heading to crisis in the Republican Party, Anderson, is we've had brokered conventions in the past. A lot of brokered conventions in the history of the political party. This is the first time we are looking at a brokered convention in the age of primaries. The primaries really took over in the 1960s. Since then, one person has won and just gone on and taken it, except in '76, and Ford went ahead and took it. But this will be a time when the establishment really is trying to stop somebody who's the voters' first choice. Not only has a plurality but the voters' first choice. In the past, we've never had the voters in a brokered convention. And that's what makes this such a wildcard.</s>HENDERSON: And Trump keeps talking about that. In our debate, his opening statement was about the millions of voters, and his closing statement was the same thing.</s>GERGEN: Right. He said, "Be smart and unite."</s>COOPER: We are just minutes away from the first votes of the night out of Florida. It's going to be our first real glimpse at how the Trump/Rubio grudge match is unfolding in the crucial states. Super Tuesday results ahead.