they are not your enemy. they are working for you because they are you. and they, just like thousands of my colleagues at cnn, they deserve your praise and your protection. we dedicate tonight to them. i'm wolf blitzer. thanks for watching. erin burnett "outfront" starts now. outfront next. trump fails to confront the russian leader when it comes to election meddling siding with a dictator over his own top aides. new calls for impeachment proceedings from one of ken star's prosecutors. he is outfront. and former fbi official and republican telling me why it is wrong to say trump's campaign was spied on. let's go "outfront." good evening, i am erin burnett. up front, trump calls him out.

did trump take putin on? >> we didn't discuss that, really, we didn't discuss it. >> so what did they talk about? >> over an hour and we talked about many things, we discussed five or six things. we also went into great detail on various things. >> great detail, various things. five or six things, but nothing about putin's attack on trump's country. let's play the full exchange. >> mr. president, did you tell them not to meddle in the next election? >> excuse me, i'm talking, answering this question. you are very rude. so we had a good conversation about many different things, okay? >> did you ask them not to meddle in the next election? >> we didn't discuss that, really we didn't discuss it. >> didn't discuss it. the president called up putin and they talked for an hour, hour and a half, yet couldn't bring up the one issue that his

top aides warn him about. take what trump's own fbi director said days ago. >> we're very much viewing 2018 as just kind of a dress rehearsal for the big show. 2020. >> a dress rehearsal for an attack on the 2020 election. an attack on america. but the president muof the unit states didn't bring it up. what did he discuss? the fact that he thinks the russia report's a joke. >> we discussed that he actually sort of smiled when he said something to the effect that it started off as a mountain and ended up being a mouse, but he knew that because he knew there was no collusion whatsoever. so pretty much that's what it was. >> that was it. what about mueller's findings that, quote, the russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systemic fashion,

nothing about that. just talk about how the whole thing was a mouse. trump even going on twitter to discuss his call with putin, and there he wrote we discussed trade, venezuela, ukraine, north korea, nuclear arms control, and even the russian hoax. that's what he thinks. but of course it is not a hoax. mueller's investigation so far resulted in 199 criminal counts, 37 people and entities charged, the majority of them of course russian. five people sentenced to prison. and that's on russia. today trump didn't just cow tow on russian interference, he took putin's side on another crucial front. >> venezuela was one of the topics and he is not looking at all to get involved in venezuela other than he would like to see something positive happen for venezuela and i feel the same way. >> well, not looking to get involved is blatantly false. according to trump's own top

team. >> this is our hemisphere, it is not where the russians ought to be interfering, it is a mistake on their part. >> mad euro is supported by cubans and supported by russians, we told the russians and the cubans that's unacceptable. >> well, you're telling him that, but the president says that putin is not looking at all to get involved. too bad trump feels the same as putin, not pompeo. abby philip, outfront outside the white house. why is the president afraid in this lengthy call to go against putin? >> this is the question, erin, people outside the white house are really stewing over, and have been over two years now. inside the white house a lot of people believe this is just part of president trump's belief that building a personal relationship with putin is part of unlocking in the president's view the key to stability in foreign relations around the world. a lot of people think that's naive, but you see some patterns here in the way the president is

dealing with the russian interference issue and the venezuela issue. the president repeatedly has taken vladimir putin's side, almost repeating word for word things that putin tells him that are contrary to what he is told by his own aides. we're learning tonight in the case of venezuela this is what has been happening behind the scenes. the president has been expressing some doubt about the intelligence that has gone into the assessment about what's going on on the ground in venezuela, and then in this call with putin this morning, the president then took exactly what vladimir putin said, repeated it to the press as fact, and seemed to throw the entire u.s. foreign policy when it comes to venezuela up into arms. it is still an open question, why the president continues to do this, why he continues after two years after he has a full team in place in awful levels of national security apparatus, why he continues to doubt them, but it is something that's now caused his secretary of state

and his national security adviser to try to pick up the pieces on the issue of venezuela that's been so sensitive, and frankly, erin, lives are at stake but the president seems to be in this moment taking vladimir putin's side on such a sensitive superdelega sensitive issue. >> and former chief of u.s. russia operations, april lyon, and david gergen. let me start with you. the president initiates this call, hour, hour and a half, no mention of russian interference. how is that possible? >> well, just another day at the office, isn't it really? you know, it is not surprising but still breathtaking that the president of the united states could contradict his own top intelligence people, contradicting head of the fbi, who just a week ago was saying this was a dress rehearsal for 2020, interference in our

elections, has basically dismissed the idea of russian interference. called into question are we entering an election period where the russians have free play in the election system, tilting the board, at the same time evidence of suppression of voting in a variety of places around the country. is that going to give confidence? i think what they're doing is undermining our democracy. >> it seems, it was stupefying to refer to the entire thing as a mouse or refer to it as a joke, that putin is smiling. >> i mean, erin, i'm stupefied. sensible minded people are saying why is it we're having another helsinki moment where the president of the united states, if he has that long of a phone call, he has to raise what

everybody, his political opponents, his own secretary of state, his own intelligence services, everybody has said that the russians did this, they attacked our democracy, and he doesn't do anything. when you answer the question why, i only have two options. the first is, the russians do indeed have something on donald trump, whether it is business related that hasn't been made public that makes him cautious or he simply doesn't get it, doesn't understand what putin and russia are all about. either one or neither is a good option. >> when steve refers to a helsinki moment, that's what we were thinking of when it happened. it is reminisce environmennt of. >> i have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> he was excoriated by democrats and republicans for that. that was helsinki, nearly a year ago. why are we back here?

>> yeah. you know why we're back here, and it's not a learning curve issue. this president has been president long enough and he understands what's going on. you know, going back to the mueller report, erin, where the report talked about this president being present and the russians hopeful he would be president because it would be favorable to them, this goes back to prove what the mueller report said. i talked to an official, former intelligence official who doesn't want to be identified, but that official said look, this is showing trump is under the control of russia. this is very bad. going back to president obama, then president barack obama when he told vladimir putin to knock it off, not only did he tell him to knock it off, i am told he leveled a warning or threat if you will there will be something to follow if you don't. so for this president not to at least say you've got to stop it,

or even question, something is wrong. you have to wonder why he didn't do it. >> steve, we have a picture of putin on the phone with trump. don't yet have one of trump on the phone with putin. we have this picture. aside from bizarreness from the phone and phone cord, the point is that he is not smiling, the way trump described the conversation, there was a moment that putin was described as smiling, obviously very friendly. what does putin take away from the call, and steve, most important, from trump's performance after the call with the american people and the press. >> what vladimir putin takes away from this is he sits back and says okay, we did this massive influence operation, active measures against the united states that led to the 2016 elections. the guy we wanted to win over the person we didn't want to win, that worked out okay for us. took some lumps along the way, but return on investment on this has been amazingly good and we can do it again in 2020, and we

will. i think that's what vladimir putin takes from this. >> and again to emphasize chris wray, the fbi director saying it was all a dry run, they're in the midst of a bigger attack and bigger plan now, which the president of the united states didn't even acknowledge existed in that call. david, this is taking on intelligence agencies. perhaps in the past trump could say well, maybe it was intelligence agencies run by people that aren't my people. mike pompeo said are trump's handpicked people in handpicked jobs, here they are. >> venezuela is one of the topics and he is not looking at all to get involved in venezuela, other than he would like to see something positive happen for venezuela. >> said not looking at all to get involved in venezuela. david, what i referred to there, pompeo saying we told the

russians and cubans their interference is unacceptable. bolton, this is not where the russians ought to be interfering. those are the top two national security advisers the president has. >> yeah. the secretary of state just yesterday said the russians along with cubans are quote, invading, venezuela. there are two things putin is seeking, one is to weaken our democracy here at home, to undermine faith and trust in the system we've had for so long and always believed in in voting, and the second is to give himself room to create mischief in countries we may be vulnerable or they can advance their own interests. that's what he has done in venezuela. the president has given him a pass for the russians going in and defending the maduro regime. we have been trying to help the opposition in venezuela, this weakens the opposition, and it is a president tearing up his own foreign policy to serve some

ulterior motive we can't even figure out what it is. >> what's fascinating is this is close to home, this is venezuela. in the same hemisphere. there is no difference in time or space. april, is the president aware of what his staff is saying? he is watching tv all day, i don't know how he misses it. why does he publicly contradict pompeo and bolton? >> because he doesn't care. it is about him and what he feels. he goes by his knee jerk reactions, versus listening to those who are supposed to advise him, who understands what's going on. i mean, the president still gets bullet points on intelligence if he does that any more. so i mean, why would he listen to people. you know, he believes that he is the end all be all when the decision is made, it is about him and his decision alone. >> all right. thank you all very much.

next, a new call for impeachment proceedings from a former member of ken starr's team. and president trump touting today's big job numbers. >> the economy is unbelievable. we are 3.6 unemployment, lowest since 1969. >> with numbers like those, are democrats doomed in 2020? and trump seizing on a report the fbi sent an investigator to meet with a former campaign aide, calling it worse than watergate. hear why a former fbi official under trump, a republican, says the president is wrong. [music playing] (vo) this is jerry. jerry has a membership to this gym, but he's not using it. and he has subscriptions to a music service he doesn't listen to and five streaming video services he doesn't watch. this is jerry learning that he's still paying for this stuff

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tonight, call for impeachment proceedings coming from an unlikely source, one of ken starr's prosecutors that says there's enough evidence for congress to launch impeachment proceedings against president trump. steven, i appreciate your time. just get to the core of this. you say there's no question at this point, you read the full report, all 448 pages, that there's enough evidence for congress to open impeachment proceedings now. why? >> well, it is pretty simple. impeachment is a question of whether the president has committed a high crime or

misdemeanor. we learned from nixon that the saturday night massacre with the firing of archibald cox was enough to spur impeachment inquiry on the house side, and i think the same evidence exists here. in fact, in the report you see that mr. mcgahn, the president's own white house counsel did not want to carry out the president's order to fire or encourage firing of the special counsel because he thought it might be a saturday night massacre, the same words. when the president acts in that way, there's a political solution, it is written into the constitution, and the constitution absolutely contemplates that congress will have vigorous oversight of the executive branch, that congress should have vigorous oversite of executive branch, in this case, opening hearings and seeing what happened, seeing if impeachment, articles of impeachment should be returned. >> just to be clear, you give the example of don mcgahn, and the firing request which he said came directly from the president, that he refused to

carry out. >> yes. >> was there anything else that stands out? is it just one thing, i am sure there are plenty of specifics. what else would you highlight as grounds. >> firing of comey another example where the president was acting in a way to further his own -- in his own legal benefit. i think efforts to influence sessions to agree to unrecuse himself or fire the special counsel, to me that falls well into the boundaries of saturday night massacre idea, and that's the firing of your own prosecutor. i don't think that's a crime, a federal criminal crime under the code. i think it is impeachable conduct, that's where congress should step in. that's why we have separation of powers. that's why the president under the constitution cannot pardon himself from impeachment proceedings. >> all right. so you read it, you see impeachable conduct. let me get to part of the issue. the issue is that wrong many

issues, people like nancy pelosi don't think they can get this done and worry that if they don't get it done, they repeat clinton and are delta loalt a l the election. a recent poll finds 37% of americans believe president trump should be impeached, 60% oppose that move. would launching impeachment proceedings change those numbers? >> it might. so the fact of the matter is -- >> why? >> a lot of people haven't read the report, most haven't read all 400 pages, most haven't read 50 pages, so they don't know what happened. the majority of people that are not in favor of impeachment right now, some are trump supporters, never want to have impeachment proceeding under any circumstance. some are democrats that believe if it goes forward, it will backfire and cause president trump to be elected. president clinton's popularity went up after he was impeached, and others don't know enough about it.

so again, i just come back to two points. one, impeachment is a political remedy in the constitution. if politics are right, the people will follow on and remove the president or agree with history. >> you see impeachable conduct in the report and think the american people will too, a proceeding of impeachment forces that information regularly constantly in their face. the more they know, the more they'll see. is that it? >> i agree the more they know, the more they'll see, i don't necessarily agree even if you have full hearings you'll get to articles of impeachment in the house or removal in the senate. the point again is that the constitution contemplates that congress will exercise vigorous oversight of the president. right now what we've had is the executive branch, that is mr. mueller that worked for

president trump, congress hasn't done anything. congress needs to act. can't say the executive branch investigated, now we'll step aside. >> the president has a lot of defenders in the senate. senate judiciary committee chairman won't call robert mueller to testify, his report was the end of things and the report is in the rearview mirror. here is lindsey graham. >> i am confident this investigation of the trump campaign was thorough, complete, exhaustive. i am not going to do any more. enough already. it's over. >> is the mueller report the end of things or just the beginning as you see it? >> well, it is a political decision. for senator graham, he is making the political decision he can stop investigation and that's okay but i still think from a constitutional perspective, from separation of powers perspective, the congress really has the oversight power over the executive branch, and it should exercise that power.

now if ultimately the politics aren't there to return articles of impeachment, that's okay, but i believe the congress abdicates its duty if it doesn't investigate. >> thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. next, the unemployment rate now at a near 50 year low. are voters feeling the benefits? and president trump seizing on a new report, claiming it is proof his campaign was spied on. the word is a really specific an important word. former top fbi official, republican lawmaker under trump says that's not the case and he's my guest. has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪

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tonight, jobs, jobs, jobs, those are words from president trump after the jobs showed the unemployment rate at the lowest level in 50 years. president trump tweeting we are the envy of the world and the best is yet to come. economic analyst, former obama communications director and rick santorum. thanks to all. jim, you live and breathe this. is it all good news or do you see signs for concern. more than not, good news. unemployment is near 50 year low. job creation is up. start with overall this is a good report. within it, there are a couple of concerning parts. one is retail. retail, brick and mortar stores, lost jobs for the third month in a row. call it the amazon effect.

there's a shedding of jobs going on. people staying in the work force. that fell as well, too, in the report. people exited the work force. these were some of the warnings or black clouds in the report. overall, it is more of a sunny day than a rainy day, this report. >> so jen, i want to get straight to the new cnn poll. president trump hits a new high on his economic approval ratings, 56% of americans say a good job with the economy. that's a really good number when you look at the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. are we looking at another four years of president trump? >> there are areas they prefer democrats and areas they have concern about trump. you showed his disapproval rating. i think that reflects areas

underneath that umbrella, including handling of health care and handling of things like cost of college education that reflect what people are feeling in their home. does it mean another four years for donald trump, 18 months from an election, it is always better at any point in time for in couple bent to have good numbers, but there's a lot of other issues at play. >> rick, sort of the point jen is making, i am curious, don't want to read too much into comparing one poll to another, but numbers are important to mention. 56% of americans say he is doing a good job in the economy in the latest poll. monmouth shows 12% of americans said their families benefitted from recent growth in the economy. seems like people think he is doing a good job but it is not helping me. isn't it that perception that matters most to voters? >> i guess it is. all i can say is that the numbers are pretty compelling.

one number i saw was high school, folks with high school education, their wages went up 6%. this is exactly what donald trump said he was going to do, he was going to take those, the forgotten workers, folks that joe biden thinks are the key to his election, and he's actually delivering. wages for lower income people are going up so he is delivering on his promises, and it is a matter, look, i think a lot of things you're seeing on polls are distraction from the mueller report and all the other things that are going on. now that that is hopefully somewhat behind us and the president, if he's smart continues to focus on this economic news and start bringing it home to the american public, particularly in the campaign, i think it is a strong position to be in. >> it seems that way. the question is at what risk. jim, you mentioned a couple of concerns in an overall as you see it very strong report. but that's the question here. there have been months and months of headlines, recession

is coming, stocks tumble, are you ready for the financial crisis of 2019. those are a few. it was everywhere. there were experts saying it was a big risk. were those fears overblown or still there? >> i don't think fears were overblown last year. there was fear there would be a mistake and cause recession. i think they're rapidly dissipating. first quarter gdp rebounded nice, stock market is back at all-time highs, dollar is stable. most indicators you would look at have gotten materially better than three, four months ago, so is consumer confidence and outlook on the economy. >> so what about here are some details. let me ask you, 14% of americans say taxes have gone down because of trump's tax plan. that's not true. they're inaccurate saying that, right? the vast majority of people's taxes went down. only 14% of people feel that

way. that's a big messaging issue. >> no, i agree with that. but let's look at this. number one, you have a big chunk of the american public, over 40%, doesn't pay federal income taxes. to say my taxes didn't go up, that's probably accurate, and look at folks in the northeast and west coast that had a lot of state and local taxes, they probably didn't see taxes go down much either. >> that's true. as a percentage of overall taxpayers, it is a small number. >> no, i'm saying folks that felt the tax reductions are the people who frankly are the ones most politicians and economists are concerned about, those are the working folks who are paying taxes, making enough to pay taxes, middle income, middle, higher income, they're the ones that didn't have big state and local tax deductions who are benefitteding from the tax cut. that's a chunk of america helping the economy. >> joe biden said the other day

people didn't get the tax cut. he did. what he said wasn't factually true either. is he going to get called out on it or is it going to work for him to campaign on the economy? >> i think joe biden and a lot of the democrats will keep campaigning on issues they think people are talking about at the kitchen table, which is aullway the case. right now, cnn polls and other polls, the issue is democrats are focused on health care, climate change, guns. i expect they'll talk about that. they'll also talk about the economy as relates to helping people make their lives better. things like cost of education. i think joe biden can be a little rough with words, but what he is trying to get at, people have to choose between who makes people's lives better and he thinks he is presenting the best option. >> when you look at the runway, 18 months, a lot can change in 18 months, right, but i guess

there's sort of a sweet spot where things need to be really good or turn around significantly to change the outcome of an election. what's your biggest fear in the next 18 months, biggest risk for the economy? >> i think it is probably federal reserve now. interest rates, they have been raising rates, they're on hold now. inflation is low. but they seem to want to find a reason to keep raising rates. that's what was behind what happened in december and january. i fear they might try to find another reason to raise rates again the next 18 months, and it might not go well this time like it did last time. >> thank you all very much. next, did the fbi spy on trump? as you know, the president says yes. today called it worse than watergate. former top fbi official, republican lawmaker, says it is just not true. plus, the fight for 2020.

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team trump, seizing on a "new york times" report that the fbi september an investigator posing as research staeassistan meet with george papadopoulos. he tweeted this is bigger than all caps watergate. trump campaign statement says there's no other way to describe it, the fbi spied on the trump campaign in 2016. outfront, the fbi director under president trump and former republican state senator of nevada, greg broward. president trump says bigger than watergate, his campaign says no question about it, this was spying. why is this wrong? >> well, i would submit, erin, it is not wrong, without confirming or denying the reporting, this reporting would nevertheless seem to suggest that the fbi was engaged in the typical sort of counter

intelligence work -- >> so what the fbi did was not wrong, how the president is characterizing it is wrong. just to be sure i'm clear. you say normal counterintelligence. >> the reporting would seem to reveal normal counterintelligence work that happens every day, likely happening as we speak somewhere in the world, and for anyone to suggest the opposite just reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of how the intelligence community works. >> so attorney general bill barr is using this word, this is a man that spent a long time in government and should know the definition of terms and why they're so significant. he said many times he believes the trump campaign was spied on and doubled down on that this week in his testimony. i'll play that for you. >> i think spying is a good english word that in fact doesn't have synonyms because it is the broadest word incorporating all forms of covert intelligence collection. so i'm not backing off the word

spying. >> what's your reaction to that. he is not going to back off. >> erin, hard to make sense of that nonexplanation explanation. spying is a term that would in my experience as a federal prosecutor and as an fbi official never be used in this context by professionals in the intelligence community. it's just not -- this is just not spying, this is counterintelligence work, and moreover, what's puzzling to me and many others about the attorney general's comments and his description is the fact that as attorney general he is uniquely positioned to be able to get a classified briefing on all of the details that wept into this investigation, to the beginning of the investigation. that is all at his disposal. so to continue to express confusion or wonder about what happened and promise to get to the bottom of it simply doesn't

make sense to most observers who have been in the field. >> so he's being political. there's no other way to put it it would sound like, he is saying what the president wants him to say. >> certainly at least half of washington sees it that way, which is very unfortunate for the attorney general in my opinion, and unfortunate for department of justice, but yes. as we end this week, half of washington apparently believes that. >> so i want to get to the report. the report is about this informant, the latest "new york times" report, she was going by the name of a pseudonym ozra turk. working alongside a cambridge professor that met with george papadopoulos and carter page. we have known about stefan harper since may. we knew about this. we knew that george papadopoulos bragged about information the russians had to the australians who told the americans who then looked into it to see if there

was something untoward happening. we knew about harper. when trump seizes on this and says it is worse than watergate, a huge development that there's a woman working alongside harper, does that change the story or develop it now that there's an additional person working as an informant? >> erin, it really doesn't. it again confirms, reporting suggests and confirms in my mind that if accurate, this is yet another classic example of how the fbi does counter intelligence investigations. you're right, there's not a lot new from previously reported but all seems to be standard operating procedure for the fbi. >> attorney general bill barr confirmed something in his hearing which is the trump campaign received a briefing in august of 2016 about russian threats specifically. we know at cnn president trump himself was personally warned that month by senior u.s. intelligence officials that foreign adversaries specifically

including russia would likely attempt to infiltrate his team or gather intelligence about his campaign. now, we know that some of the meetings with the informant happened prior to that. do you think it is a fair question for the trump team to ask now, whether the warnings went far enough or were detailed enough? >> i don't, and i'll explain why. it was good to see the attorney general corrected his prior testimony because i will tell you that it is publicly known that both campaigns were briefed after their respective conventions. at one point senator grassley wrote a letter to the fbi i answered asking for information about the briefings, we made it clear the briefings did happen. but to the extent that there was an ongoing investigation, counter intelligence or criminal investigation that may have touched on the trump campaign, that's something that would not be briefed to campaign officials.

the same officials might potentially be subjects of that investigate. that's investigations 101. >> to you, it all adds up is the bottom line. >> right. >> i appreciate your time. thank you so much. good to have you as always. next, the fight for 2020. is it all about a fresh face or experience? >> some democrats are like you know, time for some new blood. >> well, new blood that would lose would be horrible, wouldn't it. >> plus, jeanne moos on joe biden getting folksy. >> folks, folks, look, folks. when you get a wireless plan, wouldn't it be great to get a phone too? switch to sprint and get an unlimited plan with the samsung galaxy s10e included for just $35 a month.

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i was there, just not always where i needed to be. is she alright? i hope so. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. -keith used to be great to road-trip with. but since he bought his house... are you going 45? -uh, yes. 55 is a suggestion.

-...it's kind of like driving with his dad. -what a sign, huh? terry, can you take a selfie of me? -take a selfie of you? -yeah. can you make it look like i'm holding it? -he did show us how to bundle home and auto at progressive.com and save a bunch of money. -oh, a plaque. "he later navigated northward, leaving... progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. "outfront" tonight, the fight for 2020. joe biden may be the front-runner nationally but in the crucial state of iowa, it is a wide open field. jeff zeleny is "outfront." >> it is good to be back in country. i'll tell you, man, it has been a while. >> thank you, iowa. >> reporter: joe biden and bernie sanders are the far and away front-runners in the democratic presidential race. or are they? >> hello, west des moines.

>> the iowa way means one thing for certain. front-runners can be fleeting. one voter after another sharing a similar sentiment. the 2020 race is as wide open as a country highway. >> do you think at this point there is a front-runner in the race nine months before the iowa caucus? >> no. i don't think there is. i think right now it is still wide open. >> reporter: jane and ed cranston are following the democratic primary far closer than most. often the race comes into their living room. like when they hosted a visit for julian castro. >> thank you all for coming and for this amazing turnout. >> reporter: they intend to meet and take a measure of all candidates. after trump won in 2016, they formed a group with their democratic friends to get ready. >> we called our group the pot luck insurgency because it is an iowa pot luck but we want it to be edgy. >> they're in no hurry to pick a favorite and want to watch the

candidates grow and be tested. >> i think you hit the nail on the head. it is who can win and that is a hard thing to judge, especially so early. but that's what everybody is looking for. >> it is critical. bernie got a lot of people excited so we still need that same excitement this next round. >> reporter: when biden visited iowa this week, ed was there listening closely. and going in for a brief handshake. >> so it was good to touch the flesh. i'm impressed. i think he didn't disappoint. >> reporter: nine months before the iowa caucus, the field of candidates now stands at 21. with a mix of old faces and new ones. that speaks to a critical question facing voters. >> what do you say to democrats when it is time for some new blood? >> well new blood that would lose would really be horrible, wouldn't it? i think pete buttigieg is

wonderful. but biden has so much more experience and i want a president who will be ready from day one. >> reporter: yet not everyone sees a golden lining in experience. jen kerrigan loves joe biden but doesn't believe she could vote for him. >> this is a terrible thing to say, but it is his age. and i know that's wrong, that is not politically correct to say that. >> reporter: she likes cory booker but keeping an open mind and attended an organizing session this week for elizabeth warren. now senator warren has more paid staffers on the ground here in iowa than any other campaign with about 50 or so. she and other candidates are trying for a strong showing here to move beyond iowa. erin, one thing is clear, votes are looking for someone who could beat president trump and no one knows who that should be. the iowa caucus is nine months from tonight. >> jeff zeleny, thank you very

much. and up next, jeanne on joe biden trying to live up to his folksy image. >> folks. >> folks. >> folks. flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist. you can barely feel. yeah, i've had some prettyeer. prestigious jobs over the years. news producer, executive transport manager, and a beverage distribution supervisor. now i'm a director at a security software firm. wow, you've been at it a long time. thing is, i like working. what if my retirement plan is i don't want to retire? then let's not create a retirement plan. let's create a plan for what's next. i like that. get a plan that's right for you. td ameritrade. ♪ bill's back needed a afvacation from his vacation. an amusement park... so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic

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. tonight a word joe biden can't stop saying. here is jeanne. >> reporter: joe biden is known for his folksy image and, boy, did he leave up to it. from the first words out of his mouth -- >> folks. >> folks. >> look, folks. >> folks -- >> reporter: get used to it, folks. >> look, folks. >> folks, look. >> reporter: trump may be famous for saying -- >> i know words. i have the best words. >> reporter: but even president trump doesn't spew the same word -- >> folks. >> reporter: at this rate in a single speech -- >> folks -- >> reporter: the first speech is a 20 >> reporter: as trevor noah put

earth every day man, people love him because he's an adorable goofball. >> to wage a war on tritter -- twitter. >> and then he created his own words. >> the uaw took incredible cuts in the future. >> reporter: a cross between incredible and extraordinary. while president trump prefers an earthy cuss word -- >> with ridiculous [ bleep ]. >> reporter: biden makes b.s. sound quaint. >> that is so much mullarky. >> reporter: he even gets folksy about foreigners, in this case the chinese. >> they're not bad folks, folks. >> reporter: in a single half hour speak, we didn't look. we counted. >> folks -- >> folks -- >> and folks, we have to stop it. >> reporter: we thought he stopped at 32. but later he stopped for a chocolate and vanilla ice cream cone and folksy joe had one more

to go. >> any of these folks want ice cream, it is on me. >> reporter: jeff left $40. you're welcome, folks. jeanne moos -- >> that's all folks. >> thanks for joining us. have a great weekend. anderson starts now. good evening and take a look. it is a tweet from president trump this morning. jobs, jobs, jobs. and today's new employment numbers certainly justify the all caps treatment. employment a 50-year low and job creation impressive almost across the board. strong enough for the president to stay on message about it for a good four hours or so which gets us to our big story tonight. not for what it says about the message discipline but more substantive matters because today the president of the united states had the opportunity to confront vladimir putin about his interference in