Bernie Sanders - Hillary Clinton tied in polls, Trump stumbles on abortion questions

Trump: Ban abortions, punish women who get them.

Trump, who once supported abortion rights, now favors outlawing the procedure, which he called "a very serious problem," according to excerpts of an MSNBC town hall that is scheduled to air Wednesday evening.

"There has to be some form of punishment," Trump said in the town hall.

Trump declined to specify how women should be punished if they underwent an illegal abortion.

GOP candidates back off pledge to support nominee.

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich all stepped back from their earlier pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee during Tuesday night's CNN town hall.
"All of us shouldn't even have answered that question," Kasich said of the pledge party officials asked all the candidates to sign in September.

"No, I don't anymore," Trump said, when asked by CNN's Anderson Cooper if he continued "to pledge to support whoever the Republican nominee is?"

Trump said he has "been treated very unfairly" by the Republican National Committee and party establishment figures. The billionaire front-runner accused rival Cruz of "essentially saying the same thing" in response to a question about the pledge.

Earlier, Cruz had told Cooper when asked the same question: "I'm not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and my family ... I think nominating Donald Trump would be an absolute trainwreck, I think it would hand the general election to Hillary Clinton."