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BARTIROMO: All right; it's going to be an exciting day, Blake; thanks so much. Blake Burman in Miami.
I want to bring in former Senator Scott Brown, a FOX Business contributor and Donald Trump supporter. Also joining the conversation is former Cincinnati Mayor Ken Blackwell, senior spokesperson for the "Our Principles Pac" fighting against Trump. Gentlemen, good to see you; thanks for joining us.
FORMER SEN. SCOTT BROWN, FBN CONTRIBUTOR: Good to be on, Maria.
KEN BLACKWELL, FORMER MAYOR, CINCINNATI OH & SENIOR SPOKESPERSON "OUR PRINCIPLES PAC": Good to be with you.
BARTIROMO: Senator, how important it is today for Donald Trump? Is this really make or break?
BROWN: Well, obviously - well, no; of course not. He's leading in the delegate count. There is a long way to go, but certainly if he carries Florida and, obviously, carries Ohio then that, I think, basically sews it up. If he carries Florida, then Marco obviously has to drop out; and if he carries Ohio, the Governor said he will, in fact, drop out.
You know, it's funny; they changed the rules for Florida for Jeb Bush as a winner take all situation. So in retrospect Marco is probably saying why the heck did that happen.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
BROWN: So a lot at stake today, a lot of energy. I just was in Collier County over the weekend, speaking to a lot of activists, and a lot of energy down there.
BARTIROMO: Ken Blackwell, I guess the bigger question is, how important is this for Ted Cruz and the others, given Donald Trump's dominance?
BLACKWELL: Well, I think stopping Trump in Ohio is of paramount importance. Look, Donald Trump has never been a conservative standard- bearer and as a republican he has been here today, gone tomorrow. So the objective here is to slow this train down, move it to, I think, a contested nomination in Cleveland, Ohio in July and let it all sort out.
The reality is Donald Trump has a substantial gender gap and while he has gotten about 42-percent of the votes cast, he, in fact, has put together some of the highest negatives of folks who say they will never vote for him -
BARTIROMO: Right.
BLACKWELL: -- who are, you know, died in the wool republicans. So that's -- this is a real challenge and letting this process play out in a very transparent way I think is important, and we intend to shine the light on Donald Trump's record -
BARTIROMO: Yes; Gary?
BLACKWELL: -- all the way through the convention.
BARTIROMO: Gary?
BROWN: Hey, Maria -
GARY KAMINSKY, FBN CO-HOST, "WALL STREET WEEK": Senator Brown -
BROWN: Hey, Maria -
KAMINSKY: Senator Brown, good morning. I just want to go back to Rubio for a second -
BROWN: Hey; good morning.
KAMINSKY: -- because, as you know, he's raised a lot of money right after Jeb left the race and then he went negative and it sort of blew in his face. I'm just curious what you think happens to Rubio next, because, I think, when people reflect on what has happened with him in the last four weeks, going negative, the complete blowup with that, what does that mean for politics? What does that mean for money-raising because I think it has longer term implications here?
BROWN: Sure; first of all, I think the money dries up if he loses Florida. He admitted himself, and I thought he was very gracious in saying he made a mistake. His wife and his kids were embarrassed as to him getting down in the gutter, so to speak. That is not Marco's style. I thought he made a big calculated mistake. Unfortunately, it is easy to kind of be a Monday morning quarterbacks in that respect.
With regard to what the former mayor just said, with all due respect, Mayor, not everybody is a conservative and that is the beauty of what is happening right here. You have Democrats, Reagan Democrats, who are coming out of the woodwork; and don't forget, Ohio is truly an open. You can have Democrats go vote in Ohio and I think, quite frankly, that helps Donald Trump.
If you see the sitting mayor, who is very populated in the polls have it tie, usually the tie, that means that the mayor -- sorry, the Governor potentially will lose on a tie almost every single time. So I would advise the Mayor here, and everyone else, to save their money and start to try to unite this party.
[Laughter]
BARTIROMO: Yes; it's unbelievable, -- Morgan, Dagen, I know you have feelings about this. It is unbelievable to me that Trump is giving Kasich the competition that he is in Ohio. I mean, they are neck and neck right now.
MCDOWELL: It goes to what we were talking about, about Marco Rubio. The very day that Marco Rubio started making the "sweatstache" jokes about Donald Trump, I said, on the air, not authentic. That is not the Marco Rubio that we know. Even watching the campaign trail yesterday, all of the other candidates are running in reaction to Donald Trump. It started to smack of desperation, that they are addressing him and not the voter as much.
BARTIROMO: Definitely; that's right.
MORGAN ORTAGUS, CO-CHAIR, MAVERICK PAC: I don't think Florida will be a surprise at all tonight. I think that will be called really early. Ohio is where we are going to be --
BARTIROMO: Exactly.
ORTAGUS: -- but, you know, it's interesting, and I've heard people discussing what happens to Kasich in Ohio going forward. Let's just say, assuming he wins. A lot of people saying the money would get behind him. I don't see it happening. The donors that I'm talking to, and quite frankly, I'm one of them, people are exhausted. Perhaps they'll go to a PAC, but I see people focusing on Senate races and House races, especially if Donald Trump were to win both states tonight. But I don't predict a massive amount of money going to Kasich tonight, even if he wins Ohio.
BARTIROMO: No.
MCDOWELL: Can I just throw in one stat to Ken -
BLACKWELL: No, let me - can I respond?
BARTIROMO: Yes, go ahead Ken.
BLACKWELL: Let me respond to the Governor.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
BLACKWELL: Look, I am a conservative and I am a republican and I am in this to protect the integrity of America's Conservative Party. Now, at the end of the day, Donald Trump has basically been an existential threat to conservatives. So, this is what this nomination process is all about, shining some light.
I think that this guy is for universal health care. He is, in fact, not an embracer of private property rights. And, as such, and I think he is in an existential threat to what has made America great and that is, a small government; it is a free market system that actually works without cronyism.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
BLACKWELL: He's a developer. He's a dealmaker. He's a crony inside baseball player, political player and as a consequence, I think that the question is are we ready to redefine the conservative movement, redefine the Republican Party and lose what I consider to be the essence of what has made this country great.
BARTIROMO: Scott Brown?
BROWN: Maria, first of all, news alert: The Republican Party is changing and it's changing because people are upset at this President, right now, and what he's done to this country. Are the conservatives going to once again going to show everyone a lesson apparently? The last time they showed a lesson to Mitt Romney and others we lost the presidency, in four more years of President Obama.
By the way, Donald is the only one who has actually signed the front of the check. So in terms of being a crony capitalist, --
[Laughter]
BROWN: I guess the sky is falling; the sky is falling. Listen, the only way Donald Trump or the ultimate nominee loses -
BLACKWELL: Senator, I have signed the front of a check.
BROWN: -- is if we don't unite -
BLACKWELL: I have signed the front of a check.
BROWN: You're not running for president.
BLACKWELL: I've signed the front of a check.
BROWN: You're not running for president. Nice -
BLACKWELL: So you speak for the left-side of the republican party.
BROWN: Okay.
BLACKWELL: You speak for the moderate movement in the Republican Party -
BROWN: No; I speak for -
BARTIROMO: Let me get to Hillary for a second.
BLACKWELL: -- for the conservative movement.
BROWN: I speak for people who are Americans.
BARTIROMO: Let me get to Hillary for a second -
BROWN: I speak for the American people.
BARTIROM: You brought this up, and the truth is, Hillary Clinton made some interesting comments yesterday at a town hall about Libya; listen to this, Gentlemen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Libya was a different kind of calculation and we didn't lose a single person.
The fact is we have four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they would go kill some Americans. What difference, at this point, does it make?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARTIRMO: Those, obviously, two soundbites back to back. Could it be, Kevin, that she forgot that the September 11th attack happened at the Benghazi compound? What do you think -- that was bizarre. What do you think she meant when she said we didn't lose anybody in Libya? Ken?
BLACKWELL: I think she is going to be the great unifier, in the final analysis, as we go through the spin cycle and get all of our differences, you know, cleaned up -
BARTIROMO: The great unifier?
BLACKWELL: Hillary Clinton will be the great unifier of the Republican Party, the conservative movement and the opposition, to a third term of Barack Obama.
BARTIROMO: Scott Brown, your thoughts on -- your thoughts on what she just said about Libya?
BROWN: Listen, I hope he's right, and if everybody unites - I love when they say Donald Trump is going to lose to Hillary Clinton. The only way that happens is if we don't unite his party. Period. She's out of touch when it comes to, obviously, comments like that. People don't like her. They don't trust her. She's got a big cloud hanging over her head and she is going to come out at the nominee, and a very damaged nominee; and if we don't win then shame on us.
BARTIROMO: Dagen, you wanted to jump in?
MCDOWELL: No, I just wanted to say to Ken and a lot of republicans and conservatives who keep talking about a contested convention, the last time the nominee that was named at a contested convention, actually won the presidency, was 32 and it was FDR. So be careful what you wish for.
ORTAGUS: Well, this morning I have to say, beware the Ides of March.
BARTIROMO: Okay.
BLACKWELL: I'm a Republican and conservative activist. I think that we will get our act together and, in fact, put a candidate in place that will beat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. We cannot take three more -- a third term of the socialist -- socialism.
BARTIROMO: Obviously today marks an important point in that process, so we will be watching and covering this. Scott Brown, Ken Blackwell, good to see you both, gentlemen. Thank you very much.
BROWN: Good to see you guys.
BARTIROMO: You too.
BLACKWELL: Thank you.
BARTIROMO: Don't miss our all-star coverage tonight. The action begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern tonight, with myself, Neil Cavuto, Lou Dobbs right here on the FOX Business Network. Join us, as we navigate the night of Super Tuesday 2.0. Stay with us, a lot to cover this morning. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back; breaking news overnight out of Chicago, another cop shooting. Three officers injured in that shootout. Cheryl Casone with the details and the other headlines this morning; Cheryl?
CHERYL CASONE, FBN CORRESPONDENT: Another officer involved shooting this time, again, Maria, in Chicago. (HEADLINES) Finally, this big headline with regard to jobs in this country: Avon, the beauty company started 130 years ago, moving their headquarters from New York to the U.K., and they're going to be cutting 2500 jobs. This move not considered a tax aversion. The company said the primary motivation was to "centralize core company functions."
I want to show you guys the stock though. The stock closed up more than 4- percent yesterday in the New York Stock Exchange, though, down about 40- percent, guys, over the last year. They said we wanted to cut taxes, wanted to cut our bills, Maria, but they could not do the aversion. Still, they are looking at at least 30 million from this change. Again, these jobs are out of this country, going overseas.
BARTIROMO: Part of the issue though, I think with Avon, and correct me if I'm wrong, Gary, this is an announcement that's part of a three-year plan to turn this company around. One of the issues though is they have big operations in Latin America.
KAMINSKY: Yes.
BARTIROMO: And obviously the emerging markets have been under a rock, including Latin America for a long time. Is that the big problem here?
KAMINSKY: Well, if you take that chart and you go back, maybe, ten years and you're going to see Avon is a company that has been under tremendous pressure for a long time.
BARTIROMO: Largely because of the emerging markets I think.
KAMINSKY: Yes; and also because they had the online competition hurt their business model, their direct model sales. But, moving overseas for a nontax aversion, is about every company has to focus on given what is happening in business, in every business right now, every company has to try to make the bottom line is looking at ways to reduce expenses.
CASONE: Well, but on a bigger scale, though, a lot of American companies are doing this because, look, this is the tax environment that we're in in this country, and I realize Avon is saying that wasn't the deal here -
BARTIROMO: Highest corporate tax rate of any industrialized country.
KAMINSKY: Right.
CASONE: --but look at all these companies that are like, yep, see you later U.S. Burger King?
BARTIROMO: Cheryl? Cheryl, we had the CEO of Allergan on, remember, a couple of months ago.
KAMINSKY: I was about to say we saw that here.
BARTIROMO: Yes; and I said to the CEO of Allergan, what was your tax rate last year? He said, well, the corporate tax rate is 14-percent. 14- percent versus 35-percent in the U.S. I said okay, 14-percent. That alone tells you why, but the effect of the corporate tax rate that Allergan paid, when you strip out all the other stuff, 4-percent. Who can compete with that? You cannot compete with that as an American company; 35-percent in America, 4-percent in Ireland.
KAMINSKY: And he also said --
MCDOWELL: And Ireland is increasingly offering sweeteners and new incentives for research and development to move there.
BARTIROMO: Bingo!
KAMINSKY: And, also, he made the point, right here on this desk that is running a public company -
BARTIROMO: Right.
KAMINSKY: -- for the benefit of all the public shareholders that live around -- all around the world; institutions that are democrat. There are institutions that are republican. It doesn't really matter.
CASONE: This is why Donald Trump is resonating -
KAMINSKY: He has to run a public company for the public shareholders.
BARTIROMO: Right.
CASONE: This is why.
[Cross Talk]
ORTAGUS: No, but this is not Trumped policy.
CASONE: Well -
ORTAGUS: Trump has been as liberal as Hillary Clinton in what he's going to do to corporations.
[Cross Talk]
CASONE: This is the story.
ORTAGUS: I know, but his policies are just as liberal as Hillary's, when it comes to corporate inversion.
MCDOWELL: But it's not the policy; it's the overarching message of I understand you were pain and I understand where your job --
ORTAGUS: It's just not what he's threatening to do with --
BARTIROMO: We've got to jump; more on this. This is a big story, Cheryl; thanks for bringing it to us.
Rally violence following Donald Trump from Chicago to Ohio. We'll bring you that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back; a series of clashes at recent Donald Trump events sparking widespread criticism of campaign rhetoric. FOX News' Matt Finn in Chicago this morning with more on that blame game. Matt, good morning to you.
MATT FINN, FOX CORRESPONDENT, via satellite: Good morning, Maria. Yes, somewhat of a chaotic weekend for Donald Trump here in Chicago over the weekend he canceled that rally over safety concerns. Estimates of 30,000 people showed up. We saw some video of people pushing and shoving, maybe some punches thrown on the inside. But, you know what? In typical Donald Trump fashion, he seems relatively unscathed. In fact, analysts we talked to say it may have even hardened Trump's support and gave him even more publicity.
Now, I was at Trump's rally in Bloomington, Illinois over the weekend, after they canceled rally in Chicago and Trump told the crowds there, hey, listen, the liberal protesters of Chicago and voters don't represent the crowds and they certainly don't represent the entire state of Illinois. One supporter we spoke to says what happens in Chicago was, maybe, unfair for Donald.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN ZEIDMAN, TRUMP SUPPORTER: It just shows there is polarity going on right now in the United States; and I think that it, you know, is good because people are expressing their view. I think it's freedom of speech and I think the protesters have the right to say what they want to say but I believe Donald Trump should've been given the same right to speak.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FINN: The average of polls still indicate Donald Trump is the frontrunner in Illinois. Ted Cruz has been closing in on Trump's lead. The Cruz campaign reorganized its schedule yesterday, setting up five last-minute events statewide. Of course, the polls will be opening here in about a half-hour, Maria. Voters will have final say as to whether the Trump drama will affect their vote. Maria?
BARTIROMO: All right, Matt; thanks very much. We will be following that of course; Matt Finn in Chicago this morning.
Coming up next come the stakes are huge as voters go to the polls in five states today, especially for Ohio Governor, John Kasich. The final push in the Buckeye State, next. Then, Futures this morning indicating a lower opening for the broader market. Take a look at where we stand ahead of a Fed meeting today and tomorrow, two-day meeting. Will the antiestablishment candidates continued to score wins and how will the markets react? We will check in next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: Welcome back; good Tuesday morning every7body. I'm Maria Bartiromo; it is Tuesday, March 15th, Super Tuesday 2.0. Your top stories now, at 6:29 on the East Coast: (HEADLINES).
Back to the campaign trail, the polling stations around the country opening moments ago, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio all fighting to slowdown frontrunner, Donald Trump, especially in the winner-take-all states of Ohio and Florida.
Take a look at where we stand in terms of delegates and here is the number, Trump with 460 right now, 66 delegates are up for grabs in Ohio and 99 are up for grabs in Florida, Cruz right behind Trump with 370.
On Wall Street, volatility is the underlying theme for investors especially during this election cycle, how would markets react to big wins from anti- establishment candidates like Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump?
Joining us right now is Citi Global chief political analyst, Tina Fordham. Tina, it's good to have you on the program. Welcome.
What are markets looking at in terms of the focus on these elections? How would markets trade if the anti-establishments win?
TINA FORDHAM, CITI GLOBAL CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: We haven't been in a place like this before so let's back up a little bit. Markets have been driven by the fed and China for all the last year. Now they just look at the spectacle of this race, and remember I'm based in London talking mainly to growth investors and their big question is have Americans lost their minds?
BARTIROMO: What's going on? I mean, that's what everybody -- we all get those comments from foreigners who can't understand what is happening. In terms of investors do they want to buy stocks, for example, if a GOP person is in the lead because it might mean tax reform and rolling back regulations, do markets trade down with a Hillary Clinton win?
FORDHAM: Hillary becomes the establishment candidate the way things are going and probably is the most market friendly in that sense just in the broadest macro sense. Typically, U.S. presidential races don't move markets hugely.
If we had a Republican president and a Republican controlled Congress or the flip of that, that is the only way that you're going to get much legislative action. Now we have this fragmentation, which we see elsewhere in the world.
GARY KAMINSKY, "WALL STREET WEEK" CO-HOST: European institutions say to you have Americans lost their minds, what are they doing as a result? Have they done anything different with the last allocation?
FORDHAM: Not yet. Because as I said markets are still driven predominantly by what is happening with the fed and China policy and slow down. Will there be a U.S. recession? I think if you had an anti- establishment outcome, a Trump presidency, the initial reaction would be a sell-off.
KAMINSKY: So Trump wins the nomination, you expect these institutions to say we want to de-risk U.S. equities?
FORDHAM: I think you'd have people looking a lot more closely at Trump policies. I get questions every day from investors, what would a Trump foreign policy look like? (Inaudible) the Iran deal, meaning we'd go back talking about bombing Iran.
Trade deals, this is about globalization fundamentally and the U.S. rates is really testing whether it is Sanders or Trump, our commitment to globalization --
BARTIROMO: Especially with 45 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, which is what Trump said. But I have to take issue with one thing you said, and that is that, Hillary would be a positive for the markets.
Dagen, we already saw what markets think of Hillary when she said she came out and did a tweet, and said I am going to hold the pharmaceutical companies accountable and I'm going to make sure drug prices don't rise --
FORDHAM: (Inaudible) impact for sure. Talking about the S&P, the time we have been alive you haven't had huge rallies one way or another, unless it's a short-term rally following a Republican presidency.
Markets, the Republican establishment and Wall Street is having kittens looking at the state of this debate and the rest of America appears to be energized.
DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS: Hillary Clinton wants to raise capital gains tax right. She wants to change the holding period to receive the long term capital gains tax --
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: Well, that's the Federal Reserve --
FORDHAM: It's very difficult to kind of isolate the variables.
MCDOWELL: That is attacks that goes directly to stock ownership in this country and you are going to essentially change the holding period and raise the rates in the short run for people. I don't know how that will be beneficial to the markets.
FORDHAM: It's a question of Trump versus Clinton as I said in that line up, Clinton becomes the establishment candidate.
MORGAN ORTAGUS, MAVERICK PAC CO-CHAIR: Democrat convention in addition to the Republican convention, that nomination may be decided, we are all talking about Hillary like it is given and we may see Bernie Sanders in two states tonight but -- win two states tonight.
But what I am looking at is what you said earlier is the Senate, which is really up for grabs this election. We have John McCain, Kelly Ayotte, Senator Toomy, people that are in really tight races.
And so you could see a Hillary presidency, you can see the Republican keep the Senate or vice versa, don't you think there is a bit of nuance that will help the markets to see not only who wins the presidency but --
FORDHAM: But let's think about the fact that the other big sign post is the U.K. referendum and unthinkable that the British would vote to leave the E.U. and yet it's now a growing concern. We look in these races, markets don't tend to start getting really nervous and positioning until much closer to the time.
KAMINSKY: If we believe that markets started the year before because of fears of recession in the United States and what happened in politics, why have we rebound in the last four weeks if Trump has picked up steam?
FORDHAM: Yes, I think that the (inaudible) are disconnected.
KAMINSKY: So the politics --
FORDHAM: Until we have candidates this summer, I think that you are looking at one day moves like that in a sector after direct statement as you mentioned about pharma, until the summer I don't think you would see a lot of that.
MCDOWELL: But to all the overseas investors who seemed are --
FORDHAM: Why are Americans so angry? That's the question.
MCDOWELL: Look at Germany and the regional elections over the weekend. It was a slap in the face to Angela Merkel and her open border policy. Similar to what is going on here to investors who point to us and go they are crazy.
BARTIROMO: With all due respect to everybody else around world, when we are having the domestic fight about health care I remember being in Italy, many Italian people, Americans are so stupid you don't even want free health care. They don't understand.
KAMINSKY: Summer of 2007 I got the same thing from a taxi driver in Greece.
BARTIROMO: Exactly. So they don't understand what's happening domestically. People don't want health care, that wasn't the issue. They didn't want -- they looked at as health insurance and not health care. So I'm just saying.
FORDHAM: It's how things look to outsiders, but at the moment what it looks as though people are not necessarily voting with their pocketbooks in the way that they might have markets rational, the pitch for a moment that's going on. Rallies and things, it looks like 1968. It doesn't look good.
BARTIROMO: Tina, stay with us for a second because I want to bring up another issue with you and that is former Republican presidential candidate, Ben Carson announcing plans to work in the Trump White House, should the GOP frontrunner win the November election.
Carson said in an interview that he would serve the Trump administration in an advisory capacity, but failed to provide details on the position or whether he will serve in Donald Trump's hypothetical cabinet.
This is an interesting comment, Morgan, because Ben Carson reportedly sees himself in some sort of education advisory to Donald Trump. Donald Trump has not confirmed it, but they must have had a conversation about this.
ORTAGUS: Well, I think it's completely normal whenever you see, you know, candidates, former candidates endorse. We normally expect in Washington that they will serve in some sort of post.
It's sort of the language that Carson used where he said I have been promised a position, made hair stand on my arms because that is illegal. You can't promise people a position for an endorsement.
