president will keep firing people who don't blindly follow his orders and lie under oath under the u.s. congress and this is going to continue nonstop. >> we're going to continue to follow these breaking developments. more on "erin burnett out front" which starts right now. >> out front next, breaking news, fired. trump firing his hand picked european ambassador gordon sondland, this after he fired another key impeachment witness and his brother from the white house, all today. plus sanders sharpening his attacks against buttigieg as the race tightening in new hampshire. and the biden campaign down playing its chances in new hampshire, so what's it's strategy tonight? good evening, i'm erin burnett. welcome to a special edition of "out front." we're live in manchester, new hampshire where the democratic candidates are about to square

off in their next debate. we have breaking news and i want to get straight to it. happening moments ago, president trump exacting revenge on gordon sondland who was a key impeachment witness. he's been fired. he released a statement reading i was advised the president intends to recall me effective immediately as the united states ambassador to the european union. another impeachment witness, alexander vindman has been fired from his white house job. a source telling vindman, a decorated veteran, was escorted out of the white house today. his twin brother was also fired from the white house supposedly because he's his twin brother. what drew the president's ire? why are we now getting all these firings? here's what gordon sondland said under oath. >> i know that members of this committee frequently frame these complicated issues in the form

of a simple question. was there a quid pro quo? as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. >> and alexander vindman, he was on that july phone call that president trump had with ukrainian president zelensky. what did he say under oath? listen for yourself? >> it was inappropriate. it was improper for the president to request, to demand, an investigation into a political opponent, especially a foreign power where there's at best dubious belief that this would be a completely impartial investigation. >> fired. they're both fired. now, it was purely presidential pay back according to a statement from vind man's

attorney. he writes, quote, there is no question in the mind of any american why this man's job is over, why this country has one less soldier serving at the white house. his honor and commitment to right frightened the powerful. he did what any member of our military is charged with doing every day, followed orders. he obeyed his oath. he served his country even when doing so was fraught with danger and personal peril. for that, the most powerful man in the world has decided to exact revenge. when you think about the people who have testified, you had two of them fired today, the brother of one fired today, two others that immediately retired. it's incredible. let's go to the white house now. kaitlan, what else can you tell us about these firings that are happening today and we're just moments ago finding out about ambassador sondland? >> reporter: what we are seeing here at the white house is the president wasted little time in getting retaliation against two

of the most prominent witnesses in the democratic impeachment inquiry. of course gordon sondland and alexander vindman, the ukrainian expert at the national security counsel. we are just finding out moments ago about sondland's departure after he returned back to bru s brussels working as the ambassador despite he had the damning testimony against the president. it also comes directly on the heals of that firing this afternoon, not only just of one impeachment witness but also his twin brother who is also an attorney for the national security counsel. that is the two vindman brothers who are expected to go back to the defense department. what you are seeing is a president who feels em bold pbo by the fact he was acquitted this week. and now he is going after two witnesses he complained about the most since they testified last fall about his relationship

with the ukrainian president essentially saying they believed he was undermining national security. that's when vindman testified about the phone call that the president had where he asked that ukrainian leader to bring up those investigations into the bidens and of course sondland who we should remind viewers donated $1 million to the president's inauguration, not certainly a stranger of the president. and he has been recall frd his post in brussels tonight because of what he said in that testimony. he draws a pretty clear line to it in his statement to the president but also goes on to thank the president and the secretary of state for his time here. so, essentially, erin, the question the are any other witnesses going to be fired. we are checking on that right now because there are several others who went forward and testified against the president. we should also note when the president got back here at the white house today from north carolina, he did not answer our clearly audible questions about if this is retribution for these witnesses testifying against the president. i do want to know one thing in wake of that. we did have a defense department official, laura cooper, who was

testified about when the aid was witheld had, t withheld, the questions she had about it. we do not have an answer yesterday. but the defense secretary said will will not be retribution in his eyes. laura cooper seems to be the only one. the question is tonight and right now are there going to be more witnesses who will be fired? >> all right. thank you very much kaitlan. as i know we're all trying to get more information on that. i want to go straight now to democrat from illinois on the house intelligence committee which of course heard from all these witnesses when it was broadcast to the country, when you heard vindman, sondland, yovanovitch, everyone else, taylor, morrison, holmes, williams. they appeared before you. let me get your reaction. we just found out moments ago, ambassador sondland fired. the president obviously waited for his vindication in the senate. do you think things would have

gone any differently had he gone ahead and fired these people for the vote, done anything for the senators who seem to willing to support him? >> it's a rough day after a bad week for our country. i feel like someone should apologize to colonel vindman. he testified twice before committee. what was striking to me is what he said when he said i knew i could come forward because i knew in the united states the truth matters. well, i guess the president is showing him. and as far as ambassador sondland goes, it took him a while, but it's never too late to do the right thing. he did to the right thing. he told the truth. lincoln had his team of rivals a. parentally this president wants a team of sycophants. >> let's talk about sondland. he testified that zelensky was willing to do whatever trump wanted including investigations. he said there was a quid pro quo. we all remember the president, of course, you know this was a guy who donated a million

dollars. right after the testimony, trump was buing. now he's gone. vindman also said the same thing. there was a quid pro quo. the president wanted investigations and that his actions were inappropriate. his twin brother was also fired, his twin brother. is there anything that can be done about this or is this just some people might be outraged, some people might not care and we move on? >> you know, i hope that the senators who said that this was a minor matter or that the president has learned his lesson, no he hasn't. what i would tell the republican senators b senators who covered up this case is you have emboldened a president who borders on autocratic presidency. you have given him this opportunity to feel like he can do absolutely anything. and that ought to be very scary because the president has very tough decisions to make in the best of times, now more critical

than ever. but it's clear there's nobody out there who can say no to him. what's clear is what the senate has said is if you're a president in the future and you have the senate in the majority, if your party is majority in the senate, then above the law. all this does is enforce he's going after the witnesses in the house and would have had it been a fair trial in the senate. >> now, of course, you know, his defenders perhaps said earlier about colonel vindman and i'm sure some will say about sondland that this is his right. people work for him. they work at the discretion of the president. and if they don't say things he likes, then this is within his rights. what do you say to them? >> sure. do you really want a president of the united states that just wants people who tell him whatever he wants? that forces ambassadors like

yovanovitch who are doing a good job out of the way so he can do his dirty work, move forward with the scheme to go after his political rivals, cheat on the next election just because he has a legal right to do something doesn't make it morally right. and i hope this is education for the entire american people. just what took place this week, this is the aftermath. this is shakespeare at its worse. >> thank you very much congressman quigley. a appreciate your time, sir. >> thank you. and next our coverage of the breaking news continues, trump's friday night purge. is this just the beginning? three people who testified under oath about the quid pro quo fired tonight. and here in new hampshire tonight, no clear leader when it coms to the top candidates. so, coming into the debate where we are in new hampshire and biden shaping up the staff, will it be enough? his deputy campaign manager is

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at bayer, we're more than we help farmers like john. by developing digital tools, so he can use less water to grow crops. at bayer, this is why we science. breaking news, ambassador gordon sondland, key witness in trump's impeachment investigation, fired. this comes hours after lieutenant colonel alexander vindman was pushed out of his

role today. fighting against the president will not be tolerated. if you take a step back is a pretty terrifying thing since these people told the truth. the witnesses who remain at their posts are george kent of the state department, laura cooper, jennifer williams who worked for vice president pence, david holmes, and chief political. thanks to all of you. so, it was already, you know, vindman being fired and his twin brother being fired who is a lawyer for the national security counsel for the white house and now all of a sudden gordon sondland, a guy trump loved. a million dollar donor. >> listen, this is one of those situations where he technically -- he officially has the right to do all of this, the president, right? of course he does. and that was actually one of the

core arguments that the -- a lot of people who were supporting him made about firing marie yovanovitch. he has a right to decide who's ambassador and who isn't. this is obviously a much different scale. the timing of it is -- he's trying to send a signal. it's not like he's being subtle here. the president is sending a signal, you mess with me, you testify against me, you can't work for me. and in some ways you can understand if he's donald trump or anybody else why would you want to have people working for you. but at the same time, you also have republicans on capitol hill promising that the president learned a lesson and that now this is just another example from the, you know, rally in the east room to several other things that he's done since he has been acquitted. this shows he doesn't necessarily -- it's not a signal

that he learned his lesson. >> in a sense it's terrifying because everything dana says is true. the reality is these people all said the same thing. if you were a republican senator, you could decide it didn't rise to the level of impeachmentbility or it wasn't a big deal. but you can't say they all lied. >> he's not making a factual argument. he's saying impeachment was not a question of the country or a question of the members of the state department saying the facts as they saw them, he was saying it's a referendum on him. he's saying a culmination of those rhetorical efforts. he is saying now that i'm acquitted i am able to -- which again within his power, to fire those folks immediately. th that is not just trying to send a signal. that is a clear message to anyone but also to his base. they have tried to say this was a deep state attack, that these were members of the state

department orchestrating against the president. the president has taken that view and acted on it even over the concerns and historical norms and facts as mentioned. >> i hope people listen and realize these people, especially the one who is had spent their careers working for the government, they did so because they love their country. i've talked to several of them as have all of you with all of your testimonies. they are general winuinely doin they think is right every day. when they talk about their testimony, telling the truth, here's what a few of them have said. >> as a young man, i decided i wanted to spend my life serving this nation that gave my family refuge from authoritarian oppression. >> it was with great pride and conviction that i swore an oath to uphold and defend the constitution. >> i come before you as an american citizen who has devoted the majority of my life, 33

years to, service to the country all of us love. >> it has been a privilege to serve our country and the american people for more than 50 years. >> this is the truth. >> yeah. >> they're doing not only what they thought was right but what they were taught as civil servants to do, to speak up if they think something's wrong, to go to congress which has oversight authority over the executive branch and to tell the truth in front of congress. that's what you're trained to do as a government employee. i think it's useful to think about if this were a foreign country and we were watching this play out, how would we view this? it's easy to sit here and think about everything is democrats and republicans. if this were happening in europe somewhere, we would be pretty shocked by it. this is the president sending a message to everyone in the executive branch that loyalty is the utmost quality that you need

to have if you work in the executive branch and that you can forget about congress as an institution that you can go to to tell the truth because that won't protect you in the end. and this is probably not the end of this, right? there are plenty of people who were involved in this that still have jobs in the executive branch. what are they thinking tonight, right? should they be going to work on monday monday? so, look, if republicans, especially leading republicans like chuck grassley who spent his entire career as someone who cares about the rights of whistleblowers, if they won't speak up on this behavior without consequences, then this will continue. >> you know what i was thinking as you were laying out what has happened in the last day with these people being removed is that there is a difference between gordon sondland and colonel vindman and his brother or jennifer williams or marie yovanovitch who are career civil

servants as you said. you know, maybe the president and his supporters call them the deep state. but they're people who have devoted their lives to the service of this country. obviously in the case of the colonel vindman he has shrapnel in his body because he, you know, paid a really hard price serving in war. gordon sondland was a sycophant. he was a political appointee. he -- so, in that case, you could almost understand more that, you know, he turned on the president. he was supposed to be the president's guy. >> yep. >> the other cases are different and more troubling. you know, i spoke to one of the people -- not one of the people fired today but someone else who testified after. the person told me the struggle they felt about the oath they took to the person they serve and the oath they took to the country. and do you make a decision?

do you go to congress? do you speak? and how hard and gut wrenching that was. u ultimately they decided to go and testify and speak the truth. and now you look at the price that they might pay for that. >> a personal price, a political price. we are seeing a president who has not cared about kind of norms and deference on this front. saying even if you disagree with me or speak against me, i understand there's a larger thing at work here. there's systems of government that must be protected here so i'm going to put that aside. that's not the view of this administration. that's not the view of this president. it is their belief that impeachment, that speaking in that proceeding was an act against the president and in that view he wants to -- he feels he can do whatever he wants in retaliation. >> look, it's trump and republicans today. but in the long term we are defining what is permissible for the executive branch. and there's no reason that a democrat who one day is in office might not just think, you

know what? i'm going to take all the things that donald trump and republicans decided were now permissible and do the same thing. so, these things tend to be like an arms race, right? >> right. >> one side breaks a norm. eventually even though democrats may try it now, it becomes bipartisan. >> and also dana, people want to tell the truth. and i believe a lot of them would tell the truth. but when you're looking at losing your job and your family and your health care and everything you would have that goes with that as a regular rank and file person -- and it's not just now do you go forward, the next thing, or say i'm going to keep my head down. this will pass. >> and those are all concrete things, but it's so much harder than that. we know what has happened to these people who come forward in this day and age of social media, of this intense partisanship. i mean, the kind of scrutiny and danger sometimes they are in,

it's really remarkable and very unfortunate. >> all right. thank you all very much. our breaking news coverage continues and also tonight we are here in new hampshire getting ready for the democratic debate right now. you've got bernie sanders launching one of his biggest attacks against pete buttigieg. >> do you think that when people receive money from powerful special interests that they're really going to stand up to those special interests? >> sanders senior adviser jeff weaver is out front. you. plus a new poll shows joe biden in fourth place in new hampshire just a few days before the crucial vote. can he move those numbers? ♪ limu emu & doug

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tonight sanders versus buttigieg, the senator previewing attacks on former mayor earlier today. listen in. >> do you think that when people receive money from powerful special interests that they're really going to stand up to those special interests and do what has to be done for the working class of this country? i don't think so. it doesn't work that way. >> after a neck and neck finish in iowa, new poll tonight shows

a tight race between those two in new hampshire as well. the nbc news shows sanders leading at 25%, buttigieg at 2%. the rest of the field significantly behind him. you get the point, that's neck and neck. senior adviser to bernie sanders presidential campaign is out front. is this a two-way race. when you look at that margin of error, it is neck and neck. >> you saw pete buttigieg in many of the public polls in iowa was way down and had a bit of a surge. that could happen in new hampshire with one of the other candidates as well. so, we're taking all the candidates seriously. >> so, when he, bernie sanders, says do you think when people receive money from powerful special interests, obviously people like mayor pete have received a lot of money from big donors, so that is directly about pete buttigieg. >> well, look, he started his campaign with big dollar donors, third party group making money.

this comes from executive company, oil companies, and a lot of other special interests, from wall street and other places. >> you think he will not be able to stand up to them? >> it's t no about his integrity. let's take an example. he was a public supporter of medicare for all. he started his presidential run, took money from insurance executives, now he's against medicare for all. >> for all who want it is what he's for. >> you know what that means. if you don't have medicare for all -- if you don't have medicare, you have private insurance, at the end of the year, pete buttigieg is going to bill you on your taxes. >> is that what we're going to hear from bernie sanders tonight? what's going to be the tone? we heard him calling out special interests earlier today. >> i think you're going to sigh a contrast between senator sanders and other candidates on policies for the country. >> hillary clinton has been highly critical of sanders. that's no surprise. >> i heard that. >> been a bit amped up recently.

yesterday she did an interview with ellen degeneres saying bernie sanders is making promises he cannot deliver. here she is. >> you've got to be responsible for what you say and what you say you're going to do. we need to rebuild trust in our fellow americans and in our institutions. and if you promise the moon and you can't deliver the moon, then that's going to be one more indicator of how, you know, we just can't trust each other. >> you know, i remember the attack back in 2008 about barack obama and unicorns and all this stuff that came out of the clinton campaign about barack obama, sounds a lot like what we heard back then frankly, to me. you can go back and run that tape. >> when you hear things like medicare for all -- obviously bernie sanders isn't alone in that but he was a leader in that. you don't think that's promising the moon. it's going to cost a heck of a lot of money. >> light, but less than what we

pay now. why is that pie in the sky? do you know why? because in today today's washington the drug companies and insurance companies run the show. and when bernie sanders is president, they won't run the show. >> i hear you they've got a lot of power. >> they do. >> but what i still don't know the answer to is how do you know that it's going to cost a whole lot more out of pocket now but less overall. that's the argument you're making. how do you really know that? >> because of the amount of money we spend on administrative waste, on bloated insurance company salaries. they're going to be gone. they won't have profits paid out of peoples' pockets. outrageous prices we pay for prescription drugs in some cases ten times more than the canadians pay. all those savings will come into this system and allow us to run a it can system that covers everybody for less overall than what we're saying. >> when you look at the field right now, look at all the people who are going to be on stage tonight, mike bloomberg is not going to be on the stage

tonight. who do you see as the biggest -- who do you spend the most time talking about? >> bernie sanders is going to do on the stage what he always does which is talk about the plight of the american people and how to fix it. there's no secret, you've seen it, the stop bernie movement is political establishment, billionaire class, pete buttigieg funding him, a lot of money in vice president biden's campaign, into the superpack and the billionaire backstop which is mike bloomberg. we're going to defeat these people and defeat mike bloomberg. >> and mike bloomberg said if he's not the nominee, he would help whoever is. >> okay. >> is this the moment where you say you won't take that money if it is tainted billionaire money? >> bernie sanders said he will run a grass roots funded general election campaign. we think we can raise a billion dollars in small donations. >> thank you very much jeff. good to see you. >> my pleasure. >> hopefully we'll see you afterwards, see how it goes.

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tonight the biden campaign down playing expectations out of the new hampshire primary. when this nomination gets to a point where diverse voices and people from all over the country have their say, we're confident joe biden is the candidate they're going to choose. anita done is given final decision making over the campaign. outfront the communications director. kate, good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> this is a big night for the former vice president. iowa was a gut punch. he was direct and honest about it. so, what's he doing tonight? what have you done to prepare for tonight? >> sure, joe biden is a fighter. he acknowledged. he took his lumps in iowa. he's resilient.

he's about the come back story. so, tonight what you're going to see from him is he's going to raise really tough questions that voters have before them as they decide who they want to send to take on donald trump. you have candidates in this race who are self-described socialists who are putting forward $30 trillion health care plans that take away freedom of choice from people to decide what kind of health care is best for them. you have candidates who are the mayor of small town who doesn't have the -- >> i love this is sort of like a vold morph thing. people who shall go unnamed. that's who he's going to be looking at, buttigieg and sanders. >> i think you're going to see that on the stage. you're going to see him make a case for his candidacy, he's the person who can unite the country, the party, and defeat donald trump. >> the campaign change i referenced, anita dun. what is the purpose of this happening now?

when people hear that, they say wait, is something wrong? >> i understand the tendency of everybody to overanalyze a decision like this right now. but i would caution everybody to not read too much into it. anita dunn is incredibly valuable. she's been an integral part of the leadership. this is not an overhaul of the leadership. growing campaigns are successful campaigns. this is an opportunity to bring somebody of her talent and experience further into all our decision making. >> how much frustration do you feel about the calendar? the fact that you have another state that you view, certainly we saw from that statement today, as not diverse and representative of the country where currently joe biden is coming in fourth in polls? we'll see what happens. you don't want two fourths in a wrote. >> well look -- i didn't mean to interrupt you. >> go ahead. >> we view this as a package. we believe diverse voices should

have their say in who the democratic nominee is. since 1992, no candidate has been the democratic nominee of the president without the support of african-american voters. we view the first four as a package deal. they're the start of the process. they're not the end of the process. so, we're looking forward to competing here. obviously we believe we're going to be competitive. we're going to be here working hard through the primary on tuesday. but we view this as the start of the process and not the end of it. >> so, nevada and south carolina, which of those do you feel better about right now this. >> well, i'm not going to handicap them. i think we believe that, you know, joe biden's message is resonating with voters across the country. i think certainly you've seen incredible strength from him in south carolina. obviously i think he has a unique connection with african-american voters that i'm not sure any other candidate in the race has. i think we believe we're going to have good nights in nevada and k is sk. but obviously south carolina has a special place in joe biden's

heart. >> biden has been arguing it's a risk to nominate someone who -- as you said, the mayor of a small town. buttigieg responded. he said it's actually biden who is unelectable. and the quote from buttigieg to tmz yesterday, if your focus is on electability, the best way to demonstrate you're a candidate who can win is to go win. >> well -- so, i think there's a really important component here which is that vice president biden is a person who's been on the national stage, stood shoulder to shoulder with president obama getting meaningful change in this country. if voters are looking at who is the candidate who has a record of progressive change, who has been in tough moments, has been in the situation room when there's a crisis happening, who is the steady hand, who can restore a sense of integrity to the office, i think there's no question that that's joe biden.

and i think that there are other candidates like mayor buttigieg who certainly have impressive records but that are not -- that don't stack up to the record that joe biden is bringing. and part of the reason he's running is his experience. he believes this is a moment where he has the experience and not the experience mayor buttigieg has. >> this will be an exciting evening to ch wah. thank you very much, kate. next, they are some of bernie sanders' fiercest supporters, but has tough talk crossed a line. zblrkser. we're moments away from the debate. who has the most at stake tonight? ♪ everything your trip needs, for everyone you love. expedia.

othroughout the country for the past twelve years, mr. michael bloomberg is here. vo: leadership in action. mayor bloomberg and president obama worked together in the fight for gun safety laws, to improve education, and to develop innovative ways to help teens gain the skills needed to find good jobs. obama: at a time when washington is divided in old ideological battles he shows us what can be achieved when we bring people together to seek pragmatic solutions.

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sanders. sanders has disavowed their tactics, but is that enough? >> you are a loud crowd! >> reporter: say one thing bad about bernie sanders online anywhere and strident sanders orders may attack you personally. multiple targets described to cnn what they call a sanders swarm, an online army of supporters on facebook, twitter, reddit, some even digging into their personal lives, trying to bully and frighten them into silence. mit lecturer says over and other again the bullying works. >> the type of harassment that occurs is deeply hurtful. it's cary. it's frightening. personally i've had my job threatened online. many people experienced far, far worse. unless someone is willing to do more, then, yes, can it only

escalate because it is effective. >> reporter: one woman was told, you are stupid like your retard kid. too bad the cancer didn't kill her. they are told to eat this, and shut the hell up. the working families party also endorsed warren, it was swarmed. bloodless, scum bag hacks, corrupt, shameless. the abuse so bad sanders had to respond, tweeting that that als activist was actually a friend and in another tweet, the candidate signalled to his followers that this campaign condemns racist bullying and harassment of any kind. it is not clear if the sanders followers are responding.

trolling senator elizabeth warren and labeling mayor pete buttigieg a rat. >> reporter: they just questioned the politics of bernie sanders and their personal lives were exposed and attacked. ben decker who studies online harassment and threats says it is unclear how the swarms start, but sanders supporters have been organizing in facebook, twitter and reddit communities since 2016 and have only grown stronger. and while social media harassment happens across the political spectrum, the sheer number of sanders online supporters sets them apart from other followers. >> i think any time where you have far greater numbers, you have far greater potential for harm. and in the online community,

there are far greater sanders supporters. >> reporter: decker used facebook's data to analyze all the pages created by the supporters of democratic presidential candidates and found the pro sanders pages have 2.5 million followers with nearly 58,000 posts in a three-month period, far more than all the other democratic candidates combined. if only a fraction of those engage in nasty comments, they're still capable of bullying critics off social media. >> that kind of bullying that happened at scale, it's crazy. >> reporter: sanders has insisted in several interviews those who hate online are not welcome in his campaign and in a statement to cnn, his deputy communications director says the senator has said loudly and clearly there is no room in the political revolution for abuse and harassment online. not enough, say those who study online abuse. >> if you are not condemning it

consistently, if you are proxies within your campaign are not working against it and trying to do something different, then that's a real issue. >> reporter: an issue of abuse, online bull dying and threats tt experts say is only growing. >> aaron is not just some followers criticize, sanders speech writer once lashed out at critics as mentality incapacitated and wrote that joe biden has a big corruption problem. bernie sanders again had to apologize on his campaign's behalf. he did not respond to her request for comment and has deleted almost all of his past tweets. erin? >> thank you very much, drew. and next, what to watch for in tonight's crucial democratic debate. you know, new customers save over $1,000 on average

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all right. welcome back to a special edition of outfront. the candidates are moments away from their debate here in manchester. it is a crucial night. the democrats are looking ahead. they still have a few days until the primaries on tuesday. people can hear the because behind us. obviously this debate is about to start. okay. first of all, we just emphasize it is a primary. we will get results on tuesday. >> it is a primary. >> it is not just the party who is putting it on. it is actually the state government. >> right. >> and there is voting issues involved. >> before we go into voting booths. >> so this is obviously very front. who has the most at stake tonight? when you look at the whole iowa debacle and what you had between sanders and buttigieg, it will be a different night tonight.

>> honestly, i think everybody except bernie sanders and pete buttigieg have everything at stake. you know, joe biden, for example, i know you had one of his advisers on. i'm told that he's been off the campaign trail, erin, for three days. he did the cnn town hall but he's been hunkered down preparing for this moment tonight. he's been preparing to show what they call contrasts with the people who are the most threat to him, talking about electability, talking about experience. so expect him to go hard because he has to really overperform tonight. that's not me talking. that's people who really want him to do well. >> well, it is amazing. i mean, it was very clear. it was sort of, you know, someone who is a first-term mayor or someone that made big promises of $30 trillion health care plans. we sort of make a joke about it, that he who shall not be named.

but it will be aggressive. and the sanders campaign made it clear that pete -- >> i was at an event with bernie sanders and he was doing his bernie sanders thing. he stopped and he looked at a piece of paper prepared for him and that's when he started his line about first of all about mike bloomberg, about buying the race. but then about pete buttigieg about all of the billionaires who are contributing to his campaign, signaling what we are likely to see tonight but also reminding us where we are in the race that you have bernie sanders taking a moment, a prepared moment to go after pete b buttigieg because of what part in iowa. >> it will be interesting couple of hours. we will be back at 11:00 p.m. eastern, interviewing the candidates after their debate. anderson is up next.

he has an interview with the house impeachment managers. see you in a couple hours. ac360 starts now. welcome. a special report. i'm anderson cooper in washington. for two weeks we watched seven democratic house managers lay out a case to convict president donald trump on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of justice. all in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into president trump's political rival joe biden and his son hunter. we were watching history in the making for the third impeachment trial in history. the trial was filled with ups and downs for both sides. new evidence from john bolton into light, as well as recordings the president released by a former associate of rudy giuliani. but a vote to call new witnesses failed. when it came down to vote to convict or