cnn.com/fullcircle and watch live weekdays at 5:00 p.m. eastern. let's hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." welcome to "prime time." former new york city mayor and billionaire michael bloomberg taking steps to enter the race. is this playing like a distress call? it certainly has to be a gut check. is this the suggestion that the democratic field is too weak? is bloomberg saying out loud what many wonder about? we're going to show you why bloomberg thinks he can get in, what it could mean for the race as we hear from another democrat who's definitely on the rise, pete buttigieg. he says i'm the man for the job and the fight. what do you say? let's get after it. look, impeachment matters. it's somewhat of an x factor. what just happened tonight is

not. it matters more. why? bloomberg being expected to file for the alabama presidential primary. why alabama? alabama has an unusually early filing deadline, so this is a sign bloomberg's for real. he wants to get on as many ballots as he can. he's just a couple months out from the first voting. so cnn has learned that bloomberg has been making calls to a handful of connected democrats in the last 36 hours including some in iowa and in south carolina, at least one mayor, where iowa, remember, first casts -- first votes are cast in february. now is he really getting in? here is this for more proof. follow me to the wall because we'll spell this out for you. from cnn more color from just tonight. mr. bloomberg went to a restaurant in new york city tonight. he was met by big applause. no real surprise. one of the people there reached out, shook his hand. said you've got my vote. you know what he said reportedly? i'm going to need it. not we'll see.

not maybe. i'm going to need it. all right. what's it about? what does it reveal? what does it really mean now and going forward? let's bring in former new orleans mayor mitch landrieu and the wizard of oz harry. everyone is giving the headline. let's get to why this is happening. bloomberg, what did we know about him early on when he was thinking of getting in? >> if he was thinking of getting in, this was a poll just before he said initially he wasn't getting in. remember that? this is a national poll, top choices. mike bloomberg was only at 2%. joe biden was leading the field at 28%. what we saw bloomberg was polling weakly nationally and not just weakly nationally, in the state of iowa. so basically they asked do you have a favorable or unfavorable rating of michael bloomberg, only 27% had a favorable view of

him. 38% had an unfavorable view and this is among the electorate. >> mitch, you're shaking your head. bloomberg hates trump. he's a real billionaire. he's not going to run against him if he can't beat him. what changed? what does this mean to you? >> if he ran and was elected, he would be a good president. this is a big foot move. a lot of people think this is a horse race. it's really a roller derby. one of the questions is not is he going to do well -- although that's important, but who is he going to hurt if he means what he says and he's willing to lay down the kind of money that he has and campaign based on a record that was fairly good from new york, and he has to hurt the centrist candidates. >> it's hard what he means in the race because he has not been measured in a very long time and he's getting in very late. i asked harry earlier what can we compare him to. you said nobody except one republican. >> fred thompson entered the

race very late in 2008 and entered with much higher poll numbers and then fell apart. getting in the race late is very, very difficult. you have to build on an organization which mike bloomberg hasn't yet. he has a ton of money but he has to build out the organization. it's not clear he has supporters on the ground. i am, to put it mildly, suspect. we'll see. >> what's different from him he already has a national network of people he's worked with for a long period of time and has the resources to do it. having said that you're still working late. it's a high climb. the question is who else are you hurting by getting in? he doesn't hurt elizabeth war n warren, sanders. he hurts klobuchar and everybody else. >> he hurts all of them because he winds up being a shout of what landrieu, enten i and so many reporters have been hearing. not crazy about this field.

nice people, smart people. dissertation fight about health care. we don't know that we have a dragon slayer. he's saying it out loud. it's what he thinks about the rest of the field. let's put some meat on the bones of weakness. what is he saying that yield the idea, ooh this field, i don't know. >> this is the likely iowa kau cau caucus goers. everybody is between the top tier between 15% and 20%. this is a complete mess. he's thinking, wait a minute, joe biden the guy who perhaps has the best chance of beating donald trump is running at the top and elizabeth warren and bernie sanders combine 37%. i can get up to 21%, win the iowa caucus given i have a ton of money and no one is particularly high at this point. >> i was yapping about all these different metrics and you said

can you beat donald trump. why are you getting into thesish sues? we know that from the polls. >> first off i think this is rather important talking about the swing states and what do we tea? in the swing states we see that basically all of these candidates against donald trump in the key swing states trump won in 2016 they're running very, very close. biden running the strongest but elizabeth warren is either losing or basically even with him. >> wait until the states by state. >> joe biden has shown again and again that he is the best person best positioned to be donald trump if you take national polls. if you start showing iowa and new hampshire and he's starting to feed, he gets nervous. when we roll into the south we'll do great and super tuesday we'll be fine.

what i worry about is when he goes south, what is actually going to happen in such a short period of time. i will take away and he may ascend. >> let's leave bloomberg out for a moment as proof of a problem. we don't know his viability. he has a lot of money but he's made a decision not to put his money where his mouth is. when you say biden's theory is, do you believe it in light of these states and these razor thin margins? it's a dead heat. >> but it's blue. it's not red. >> within the margin of error. i think this is concerning and is more than that. it's concerning when you look at the iowa polls. we see the first contest among democrats. joe biden was at 32%, then 27%, 20%, then 17%.

his support dropped in half within a year and voters are paying much more attention to the iowa caucuses. you feel they can't beat back bernie sanders or elizabeth warren. >> his guess is those numbers are going to keep getting worse. >> he's doing something. this back story the one thing bloomberg didn't want to do is lose to trump. he has a sense of desperation about the field. the national picture, and, again, because so many of you are saying i'll vote for any of these people because they all beat this president, why do they believe that? >> if you were to look at the national polls, what do you see? you see that biden, sanders and warren in the averages are all beating donald trump but, again, we learned last time around, we learned in 2000 it's the swing states that matter and the six closest that trump won in 2016, arizona, michigan, north

carolina, pennsylvania, wisconsin, much closer races and the average, even biden is just ahead by a point. this is very worrisome for the democrats and someone like michael bloomberg saying, hey, biden can't -- >> i'm not saying panic. bloomberg is not going to waste his time nor his ego. do you bloev this isbelieve thi gut check? >> this is a skunk in the punch bowl. that's what we have if you want to mess up a party. mike bloomberg said my best guess is that senator biden, vice president biden, is in trouble and if he falls, he doesn't think sanders or warren can win and given his credentials he can step into it and actually beat donald trump. that's the only thing that can explain why he would put his money and experience on the line

to do this. i think it will scramble the field in the next couple of weeks. how is anybody's guess. i don't think we know that. >> i think what it means is secondary to what it means he's even thinking about it. this is a great table setter because it takes us beyond the headline. bloomberg is thinking of getting in. we showed you why he would be thinking about it. the question now, what does this tell us about the expectation for what this race will be like against this president and what arguably democrats have been ignoring all this time. mitch landrieu will stick around. we'll talk one of the mayors contacted by bloomberg to feel out where he might be in his state. stay with us.

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let's go deeper now. we put some meat on the bones of why former new york city mayor michael bloomberg, billionaire, famous, but decided not to run would change his mind suddenly. we showed you the numbers of where there is cause for concern about the strength of the democratic field. now we have more proof about this. in the last month we had been getting reports of bloomberg making phone calls. now let's set the stage. remember what michael bloomberg was saying not too long ago about his political future. >> but the truth of the matter is when you look at the layout of who is going to vote and where the country is, i would be very unlikely to get re-elected -- to get elected, but in the private sector i can make a difference. >> september 25th. i'm no mathematician, but i'm figuring that's only about a month and a little bit ago.

what changed. mayor mitch landrieu is here. we want to talk to steve benjamin of columbia, south carolina. mr. mayor, can you hear us. >> i can hear you, chris. how are you? >> i have your friend, mayor landrieu, to keep you on the straight and narrow. is it true that mayor bloomberg called you to get a feeler for south carolina? >> we actually had dinner in the past, about a week and a half ago, had an opportunity to have a face-to-face and it wasn't necessarily -- he was not fishing but just speaking frankly about the state of the race, asked for some perspective on south carolina and what was happening here and what we were seeing across the country. i shared my opinions. >> let's hear them. what were you two talking about?

>> a little bit of everything. the field, although a few folks dropped out it's still fairly crowded. for someone to 15, 16, 18, 20% of the vote and still be win, place or show. my opinion i shared with the mayor were the same as i shared with every single candidate in the race so far. ear face-to-face or by phone with one of them. and i encouraged them to push back on some of the macro trends we're seeing, difficulty for folks to really achieve the american dream, do better than their parents did. we talked about some challenges in the race, candidates who talk about climate but i don't think there's anyone in the country

who has done more than mike bloomberg. his leadership and the mayor against legal guns. new york city is one of the largest cities in the country and at the center of the tenth largest gdp in the world. his business experience is close to unparalleled. those are all strengths. you bring your strengths and you speak to them and in south carolina i can only profess to be a semiexpert. i can't speak to nevada, new hampshire or iowa. you have to meet the people, speak about their hopes and dreams and challenges. i worked for mitch landrieu. we went all around the country,

all around the world just talking about how mayors have to lead pragmatically and solve problems. we don't have the ability to run. our constituents see us on the ground, the church, synagogue, mosque, at the traffic lights. we have to be responsive. i think the mayor has a legit shot. that being said we also as a party are suffering from an embarrassment of riches. we have an incredibly strong field. this will push everyone to really step up their game. >> steven, we have the greatest respect and think if he were elected he would be a great president. how do you think he will do in sk stk getting in as a late entry with the crowded field that we have?

>> all these candidates have really strong teams. some peoples are being disbanded but so many are still undecided. there's a lot of folks undecided. i think the mayor has a real appeal to people who are left of center, at center and right who might still be looking for a home. he has a pretty serious story of building wealth and then as you and i both know having benefitted from bloomberg philanthropies over the years he's never hesitated to give back. he committed he's going to die broke just by helping improve the world. i think there's room there. nothing in politics anymore is handed to you. you have to get out and grind

for it. talking turkey. >> he's been spectacular in that way. when you looked into his eyes did you think that he was really serious and was going to lean forward on this and make the jump today? >> i wasn't surprised. i could tell the sense of gravity that the trump presidency represents was weighing on him. it was real. i wonder and this is pure speculation. please don't assign this to mayor bloomberg. i wonder if the former withdrawal represented a tipping point for him. seeing climate as a truly existential threat to human life -- all life for that matter, i wonder if that played a role in the timing. >> this kind of decision, you

know it because you've lived it, i've lived around it my whole life, it has to be part of a calculus of how you'll do in the field. i don't believe the mayor feels you have an embarrassment of riches but you don't have a dragon slayer. thank you very much. appreciate it. >> take care. >> i think that -- i know mike bloomberg well. i've worked with him and for him from time to time. i understand he's a real patriot. he loves this country. he committed himself to being the mayor and operates on a world stage. i think he believes donald trump is an existential threat. he made a calculated guess it was getting worse for the center rather than better. given the direction with impeachment and climate he had to do it.

>> he could come out and shock us. >> i doubt it. mike bloomberg is in it to win it. >> he has one already trump doesn't have, loyalty. mr. mayor, thank you for helping us understand it. michael bloomberg, sounds like he's going to run. next you'll hear from someone in the case and says don't need him. i am the drug on slayer, mayor pete buttigieg making huge gains in iowa. that's why we're offering 50% off family lines for military, veterans and first responders. so they can stay connected, on our newest, most powerful signal ever. and now, we are also offering half off our top samsung phones for military, veterans and first responders. our service is just one way we say thank you... for theirs.

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earlier i had a chance to sit down with pete buttigieg. we talked about his giant leap in the polls in iowa and why he is the best in the party. mr. mayor, thank you very much for taking the opportunity. >> good to be with you. >> let's talk about the good news. the good news you in iowa polls are moving up. you are in the thick of what could be a four-person race in the latest polls ahead of the former vp. why do you think you are resonating more in a poll like this and from whom do you think you are drawing support? >> i think it's resonating because we have the winning message. what i'm offering is a way to unify the american people and still get the job done. the day the sun comes up on this country for the first time donald trump it no longer president, one, we're going to be dangerously divided, even more than we are right now if you just think about everything we've been through and everything we're about to go

through. the other thing that's also true is all of these big issues, climate, an economy that's not working for everybody, the need to do something about health care, they will not take a vacation for impeachment. they're going to need urgent action. the question is how do we get urgent action done and do it in a way that unifies not polarizes the american people? the more i talk about that, the more i see heads nodding. the people of iowa and the people of america across the democratic party are ready for that vision and why we're catching on and gaining ground. a long way to go and a lot of people who haven't heard our message yet. what i do believe is this is a message that can connect with progressives, moderates and some republicans are showing up at my events, saying they're going to support us. part of me wants to say did you see the speech? they're not looking for somebody

who agrees with them on every issue, they're just furious with what's being done and looking for another way, somebody who will welcome everybody into a bigger coalition. >> you have to play the game of better me than dot, dot, dot. why better you than sanders or warren who are much more pleasing to the progressive progressives in your party? you're too safe, mr. mayor. >> what i'm offering is the most progressive presidency of our lifetime. i'm not going to go to the extremes some of the others will but offering something that can get done. if we achieve this, medicare, it would be huge. if we're right that this is -- >> warren says it's a half measure in a campaign run by consultants for safe ideas. she didn't say you. sounds like you. >> it's a great idea and the

boldest thing we will have done in more than 50 years. this is what it takes to get something done. >> she goes farther, more a. ambitio ambitious, more left than you. >> it's not better to abandon private plans. mo most americans want to figure this out themselves. >> if people have private insurance, that's what bernie sanders, elizabeth warren and others will say. >> we know how to have risk management protocols. other countries have done it. for a tiny fraction of the cost we can get every single american health care and do it in a way that respects your ability. >> you have the former vp, joe biden, who says i like the way this guy sounds. sounds like me. i've been through this war many

times. i know what it takes to beat trump. so next time, mr. mayor. >> i say it can't wait. i have enormous respect for all of my competitors but i just don't agree that we can go back to normal. i don't believe donald trump is a blip. it is a symptom of some serious, deep problems and this is about building a new normal, assigning what the next chapter in american history will be like not going back to the last one. >> so you believe you, not biden, is a function of looking forward not looking back? >> in a way. bring americans together and that doesn't have the weaknesses of the last 30, 40-year period we've been living in. if things were going along just fine before donald trump, then a guy like donald trump would never have been able to get within cheating distance to begin with. >> now that you are establishing

yourself in the top four your negatives will be drawn into sharper focus. what are they? ostensibly two. the first one is you respect all your competitors. that's your problem. you're about to get into a fight where respect may be a weakness against maybe the best campaigner in the bunch. you can argue with his tactics and what is guiding this president but, boy, can he push a message and he's looking at you on the left and as you said in one of the debates you're all a bunch of socialists. you're all trying to take things from people, make everything okay. and you represent an other. you're too nice. >> so i believe in kindness. no one should mistake my kindness for weakness. when it comes to dealing with this president, of course he will try the same playbook. it's not going to work on me. he will talk about socialism but he will be saying about a mayor who worked to deliver opportunities in our city. talk a big game about caring for

working americans. i drive a chevy. i don't helicopter around to golf courses with my name on them. >> too young. not a gray hair on his head. >> every time i open twitter i get a new hair. >> we're living in a moment where we're seeing a new generation of leaders. some of the most interesting and promising are the same age i would be taking office. guiding a city up against a whole lot in south bend. not to mention my military experience. i'll put that up against any experience. i'm young. i recommend a new generation. every winning democratic candidate in the last 50 years has been somebody who came from outside of washington, talked about values and represented leadership. >> accepting president obama, vision can resonate.

but you're young and that becomes a co-efficient of experience. small town mayor, two term. doesn't have the experience. if this were a written test you would get an a. it's a practical. you haven't dealt with these pressures that can kill the average man and even in that little town you have a problem with african-americans. without this nothing. four democrats and they don't like you. >> that's not true. the black voters who know me best in the city of south bend are largely responsible for how i got re-elected with 80% of the vote because of the good work we were doing at home. >> and polls suggest they have issues with you. >> there's a lot of work we have to do to make sure we earn every vote but i reject the idea that i'm not going to be able to win black voters. we have to stop talking about the black vote like it's one person. it's a diverse constituency and a lot of americans who have felt not only abused by the

republican party but taken advantage of by the democratic party or taken for granted. we have to make sure we're showing we take nothing for granted, that we're going to earn those votes and the douglas plan to tackle systemic racism is something that gets a terrific response from black voters because i think it's the best policy out there. i think that when black voters know what is on my agenda but also my heart i'm going to earn that support and we're working hard to do that. >> when you say we still have work to do, we can accept that in the micro, in south bend, whatever the particular constituency issues are there, you have to deal with them. when you look at the polls in house and see what you lag with african-americans, specifically the all-important demographic of african-american women middle aged, why? >> i think when you are new on the scene as i am, it takes extra work. i think that's part of why you see the vp has a big advantage there now. that's nothing that i can't earn my way into. the important thing is to keep

up that engagement. when people hear our message, they love it. i have to get out and sell it. that's true of someone who doesn't have familiarity on the scene. i think the message that i have, one that is about ensuring that we deal not only with issues like criminal justice reform which we have to do but also entrepreneurship. a lot of the solutions have to do with economic empowerment and women owned business that is will be a huge part of the solution and we ought to support that with policy, the federal government is doing more business with businesses owned by people who have been historically excluded. even helping businesses get on their feet and create so many opportunities in this country. that and other elements of the douglas plan, the agenda i have to support black americans and tear down this systemic inequality is the right answer. >> all right. there is more to talk about with mayor pete. where does his campaign stand on this bloomberg development?

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all right. we really got a lot out of mayor pete buttigieg. and here are some things you have not heard before. do you believe that impeachment,

forget about principle, from a pragmatic perspective, is it worth the time and energy? does it leave us in a better place? >> i think as a country it's worth it because the constitution calls for it. it's one of those moments you have to set aside the politics. i don't know what the political effects will be. i don't think we should pay attention to that. as a candidate for office, i'm going to deal with the environment that we're in. as an issue that's on voters' minds. the biggest thing i'm being asked about, the question i think every voter asks, how is my life going to be different? >> you saw that a guy that has the pedigree you almost can't make up in duty to service and he got attacked. bill taylor, the diplomat who has so many years in, who was asked to come in and do this job. he gets attacked. in the back of your mind, do you think, i don't even know what i'm getting into yet?

this game is about bleeding and who bleeds out first. i know that sounds completely dramatic, but it's the reality as well. how do you handle that? >> i was a 22-year-old campaign staffer my very first job working on the kerry campaign when an envelope came in to our campaign office with a purple heart -- cut out of a purple heart and a band-aid stuck to it. this is nothing new although they've taken it to new depths. denigrating the service of war heroes, scraping the absolute bottom of the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the way those in power treat anybody who gets in their way even a decorated veteran like colonel vindman and i think it's all the more evidence of why things need to change. there comes a point this is just unsustainable. just like that moment in the mccarthy hearings where someone said have you no sense of decency? and because, i believe, deep

down there are republican senators and congress members just as there are so many millions of republican voters who know that this is dead wrong, that sooner or later as long as we're doing the right thing, this will -- we will get to the other side of this. in the meantime my job is to make sure that this isn't even close. in other words as candidate for president, the best thing that could happen to defeat not just trump but trumpism is to make sure we build such a strong coalition, such a big majoriy that there is such a thumping in november of 2020 against trumpism and everything associated with it that it creates the shock waves required to reunite republicans in ele elected office with their conscience or lead to the disillusion and reinvention of the party. >> when they show national polls, all of you beat the president. when they did the state by state polls he is strong and long in every state that matters. michigan alone, the democrats keep talking about turning that back blue, they have a lot of

work to do. what was the message for you. >> we have to go out and do the work. michigan -- i'm not saying i can see it from my porch but it's ten minutes from my house. this is a part of my country, a lot of these states. we have to make the case. i spent the last few days in iowa in largely kfb communities, rural areas that are ready for a different message. but you have to show up. you have to bring that message to people where they are. >> you talk a lot about respect. respect these competitors even if they come at you and say things. do you respect president trump? >> i mean, i respect the office of the presidency. >> as a person, the man. >> he has done nothing to command my respect, i'll say that. >> why? >> because he doesn't respect his own presidency and, frankly, at a deeper level, i don't think he respects himself. i think he has created a sort of cartoon character, which is fine if you're a reality tv star or playing a part even when the part is yourself. when you're the president of the

united states, lives depend on your integrity, on your wisdom, on your judgment and i just don't see it in this white house. >> and in the man, you don't see it? >> i don't see any integrity there. you look at him and there's just a sense that he would do anything -- a guy who has shown no evidence of any principle other than that of advancing himself. and that is so costly right now especially now that he's actually got this level of power and we're seeing the consequences at home where, by the way, he's not been able to deliver on any of the things he's set out to do or promised. the only thing is the tax cut for the enormously wealthy and some judicial appointments. manufacturing workers are finding themselves worse off. he's not building a wall. he's never going to build a wall. none of the things he said he would do are happening. moreover i don't think any of the things he said he would do are things he cares about. >> mayor pete, thank you very much. i appreciate it.

good luck going forward. we'll talk to you again. >> good to be with you. >> it was good to have him on such an important night. mayor pete's campaign says mayor mike getting in the race would change nothing. they say they have a game plan and it is working so far. my argument is that this news about bloomberg matters, but not for the reason that people seem to think. let me know what you think of the argument next. ? [daughter laughs] not such a bargain. there's only one quicker picker upper. bounty, the quicker picker upper.

my argument. bloomberg getting in, if he does, would say more about the field than his chances of winning. this should be a wake-up call. potential confirmation of whispers in democratic circles around the country. you've heard them. do we have a dragon slayer in this group? democrats may be looking at the wrong polls as they did in 2016. look, nationwide, the matchups look good, i get it, i've reported it. but what did we just see?

same thing we saw in 2016 in key states. trump is tough and he can win the same way as last time, potentially. so this news raises questions democrats must address. number one, is the dragon slayer in this field? no one should want a dirty fight, of course. but if you're getting into the ring with this champ, that's what you'll be facing. and the dense and hyperambitious m4a, medicare for all talk, seems to miss the state of play. it's like working on your pretty footwork and style when your opponent is standing there with a shotgun. remember, this is a big part of why trump won in 2016. >> hillary rotten clinton. rotten clinton. lil' marco. lying ted cruz. crazy bernie.

>> insults. not insights. simple, not sophisticated. look, bloomberg getting in suggests not so much that he thinks he can win. i don't know why she's getting that from. but that this field can't. his top adviser said mike is increasingly concerned that the current field of candidates is not well-positioned to defeat trump. the democratic nominee has to be properly armed for the onslaught that's coming. what does that mean? you've got to answer. question number two. are you speaking the language that america wants to hear right now? no offense, but again, this dense talk and sophisticated policy plans of a trillion there and a trillion there and three years versus five and i'm going to take your health care. this is about not being the rabid right. do you do that if you are seen as an equal opposite of radical

left? single payer or not. medicare for all versus medicare for all who want it. this is dense in times of determined simplicity. the democratic governor-elect, okay, promised to protect obamacare and the medicaid expansion. kentucky kept it simple, okay? he spoke the language of the local people, targeted. many of the democratic candidates are talking about blowing up the entire system. to many it sounds equally as crazy as what they're getting from trump. remember, he kept it simple. build the wall. lock her up. i'm not endorsing the ideas, but you're going to be up against them, and you're going to have to convince people that you have something better in a way that they can understand. if you're not going to take a page from the president, and i'm not saying that they should, you have to take one from that next governor of kentucky. simplify. speak their language. speak to their specific needs as

they live them, not the potential of the future. now. question number three. how do you translate voter turnout into reality at the polls? virginia and kentucky benefitted from people coming out. we don't know the exact numbers yet but we know they were up. answer those questions and figure out how to be better. because that's why bloomberg is getting in. and you say see more. all right. that's the argument. when we come back, i have a bolo for you. you've got to be on the lookout of exactly why this president is to be feared, even among those who he gives a beatdown. next.

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bolo means be on the lookout. former aj jeff sessions was fired a year ago.

remember what he was called by potus, idiot, weak, disgraceful. yet he said, when president trump took on washington, only one senator out of a hundred had the courage to stand with him: me. i was the first to support president trump. i was his strongest advocate. thanks for watching. "cnn tonight," d. lemon, right now. >> we have his campaign ad. we're going to play it. he's still -- i won't say it. i was going to say, he's still doing something. but he's still standing behind this president, the one that threw him under air force one a million times. >> why? >> it's unbelievable. why? because he has to. he has to if he wants to be a player, if he wants to stay in office, if he wants to be a politician, if he wants to win, he has to stand by this president because this president has support of the maj