The Factor aired Thursday's special live program as the New York State Republican Committee gala was getting underway at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Dana Perino kicked things off by opining on a new national poll showing that Donald Trump is favored by 45% of Republicans, far ahead of Ted Cruz, favored by 27%, and John Kasich, who is at 25%. "I don't know why Ted Cruz has gone down so much," Perino observed. "Trump had a couple of bad weeks, Cruz won in Wisconsin, and Cruz is also winning in the delegate hunt across the country, soo I don't know if this poll is just an outlier. It could be that Cruz has dropped as John Kasich has come up." Perino turned to the Democratic race, where Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are in a virtual tie. "In the past month," she observed, "Clinton's support has declined by 11 points with women. They must all be 'feeling the Bern.'" Geraldo Rivera then chimed in, arguing that Donald Trump should emphasize his business acumen and managerial talents. "This is a brilliant businessman who has actually employed people and paid taxes. Those people have also paid taxes. He should be emphasizing his competence as a chief executive rather than the other crazy stuff."

The Factor turned to Jesse Watters, who was hanging around outside the Grand Hyatt with some anti-Trump protesters. "Things got a little out of control," he reported, "and there were some punches thrown. You had anti-war people, you had angry Latinos, and a real motley crew of radicals." A few of the protesters told Watters, loudly and abrasively and profanely, that Donald Trump is hateful, bigoted, and generally an awful man.

Bernie Goldberg joined the fray to analyze the latest polls indicating that Donald Trump is viewed unfavorably by most women and an overwhelming majority of black Americans. "This will not end well for the Republicans," he predicted, "because these numbers are off the charts. You can make the case that he made comments about Mexicans, but he hasn't done anything that would offend so many black people. I think it's his persona. Hillary Clinton is very popular among black voters, she panders to them, so you can see that black voters will favor her over Donald Trump. But there is not a lot in this political season that has been rational, and these latest poll numbers may reflect that."

The Factor marveled at new polls indicating that Bernie Sanders, in hypothetical one-on-one matchups, would defeat all three of the surviving Republicans. Geraldo Rivera rejoined the conversation with his analysis. "I really believe that Hillary Clinton will be the nominee," Rivera said, "but the Sanders resilience is fascinating. To me it is the longing among the millennial generation for the activism that we had when we were their age. There is the quest for something larger than themselves, a quest for meaning. And they see a cause in this schlumpy 74-year-old socialist from Vermont." The Factor lamented, "These younger voters don't know anything about what Bernie Sanders wants and how America would be transformed into this colossal, big-government dole-out."

The Factor welcomed Fox News correspondent Rick Leventhal, who reported live from outside the Grand Hyatt, scene of protests earlier in the day. "The organizers of this protest promised that tens of thousands of people would march on the Grand Hyatt to disrupt this event. There were hundreds of people here earlier, but right now there are maybe 20 or 30 stragglers left. The NYPD was out in force all day long. As Jesse mentioned, there were some fisticuffs and some shoving going on." Dana Perino theorized that the protesters may actually be hurting their cause. "In some ways everything helps Trump," she said, "because it drives more media attention to him. But there is also a hardening of a certain demographic to vote against him and to actively vote for Bernie Sanders." Geraldo Rivera wrapped things up by predicted that New Yorkers will cast their votes for the two front-runners. "This will be, more than ever, a race about demographics. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders has very little black support, very little Latino support. Trump will rout his opponents in New York and Hillary Clinton will win over Bernie Sanders. But Donald Trump is very charming, so don't discount the possibility that he could eventually make inroads in the minority vote."