watching. we appreciate you watching as well. now we get over to my colleagues chris cuomo and erin burnett for election coverage. >> d. lemon, thank you. hello, everyone. i am chris cuomo special coverage of tonight's democratic presidential debate in nevada. michael bloomberg, welcome to the arena. it was his first night and he felt it. let's bring in the power players to get a take. gloria borger, what's the big headline? >> bloomberg was awful. i'm sorry. this was the moment that the dnc got criticized for, for letting bloomberg in this debate. and now i'm wondering why the other candidates were criticizing him because he wasn wasn't practiced at debating. he hasn't done this in more than a decade. the notion, even foremike bloomberg, that you can step in and go toe to toe on this stage with people who have been doing it, what, andrew yang, for a

couple years. it seems to me that that was difficult for him. and sometimes he looked like somebody who was saying, you know, i paid $400 million for this podium, and i can't get a chance to speak? and he got better as the night went on, i thought, but it wasn't a great first showing for him. >> what will it mean, dana, in terms of it not being a good night for bloomberg, and that's putting it lightly? >> that's a key question. as i'm watching this, i'm remembering saying the same thing about donald trump over and over again in 2016, that he didn't have a good night, that he was up against the wall on, you know, name your issue or name your scandal or name your misstep. and it didn't matter. this is not 2016. this is 2020. this is not the republican party. it's the democratic party. there are so many things that are different. but i agree with gloria. the former mayor was completely out of his realm. he did not expect the, frankly,

the additional moderator in this debate, elizabeth warren, who asked all of the key follow-ups in the debate because she was ready for bear. that's another thing we can talk about elizabeth warren, how she, she had a very good debate. but i don't know that this means that we should count him out -- leave him for dead. >> andrew yang, you know the field the best. you know what it's like on that stage. what was the read? >> i think three things happened to mike tonight. number one, he just found out heed make the debate yesterday. there were two times i wasn't shuri was going to make the debate and my team got me together to prepare. and you're really not sure if you're preparing because you're not sure if you're going to be in the debate. mike, even though i'm sure he was getting coached and prepared, he's like, i don't know if i'm going to be in this debate. so i don't think he was coached hard enough. number two, he was clearly instructed to keep his cool no matter what. that ended up presenting as lethargic and uninterested for a big chunk of the debate.

and the third most telling thing is that if i'm his team, you know he's going to get a stop and frisk question, like a gender discrimination or mistreatment question. so you coach him and you have him give you 60, 75-second answers over and over again until he can do it in his sleep. and the fact that he did not have those answers at his fingertips lets me know categorically he was not properly prepared for this debate. >> they say they coached him on all of those issues, so -- >> and that he had extensive debate prep with real mock debates with his aides playing all the roles of all the people. >> listen, this was a disaster for bloomberg. bloomberg went in as the titanic, billion dollar machine titanic. titanic meet iceberg elizabeth warren. she took him to task in a way that i had never seen in a debate. she took it over. she prosecuted him. but the worst part about it is

for me, a lot of african americans are placing great hope in bloomberg. despite the stop and frisk and all that sort of stuff, you're seeing people trying to move over there and he just wasn't ready. he was tone deaf on issue after issue. and the reason why, he's not been in the living rooms, he hasn't done the town halls. attacking people -- oh, i have too much money for -- turbo tax, this is a great answer? a lot of people watching use turbotax. his questianswer on women was terrible. his answer on stop and frisk was as bad as it could be. he lied on the answer when it came to red lining. on every major thing that people who are looking for a champion, just when they see some contrition and some professionalism, he let people down tonight. and he's got to go back to the wood shed and get it from his team and come back better next time. >> that's an interesting point, they all are. andrew, let me come back to you. there's a difference -- and you guys know this very well --

between being prepped preparati. do you believe that bloomberg doesn't know how to answer these questions? or doesn't accept what his team wants the answers to be? there is a meaningful distinction. >> there really is a distinction, chris. it's very apt because you can only be coached if you're willing to be coached. everyone who works for bloomberg works for bloomberg. so there's no one that can be like, hey, mike -- >> you suck. >> yeah, that was terrible. you have to do it again. we're going to videotape you and show it to you. he a did that happen with you? >> yes, that happened with me. and you don't let the person leave the room. and the people who were working with me worked for me, too, but they knew that i was coachable. like, if they were like, hey, yang, that was not great. here, we'll show it to you. let's, like, do it again. then i'd be like, all right, let's do it again. there were times i did not want to be there at all. but like in mike's case, if he didn't want to be there, he's not going to be there.

you know what i mean? there's no one on his team who can be like, that was terrible. this is going to potentially damage your campaign to a very, very high degree. i know this is the case because i saw him on stage. like, if you get the obvious question and you don't pivot to this memorized script that your team has hammered into you, you just did not get prepared or you were not willing to prepare yourself. >> he did. he wasn't ready for the follow-up. >> you have to think about it in terms of willingness versus readiness. and you guys have dealt with this. you've been both. you've been a prepper and you've been getting prepped. we all know that mike bloomberg knows how he feels about everything he was asked. he's incredibly intelligent. if he's not given answers, i don't know it's because he didn't know what was going to follow, but he doesn't like to have to say the things he has to say. the answer to that is a big difference for his future, is it not? >> he knew exactly what question was going to come at him. i know a lot of debates -- >> you could see it on his face.

even when warren was hitting him, he was watching the fist hit his face. >> the intensity of the attacks. michael bloomberg is not used to being attacked. i agree with you. these people all work for him, he pays them a lot of money. yelling at him is something that's not normally how they do the construct in the bloomberg empire. listen, it was a tough night for him. first debate he had, these debates have been going on since june. he's going to have other opportunities, i thought it was a great night for warren. i thought biden had effective attacks on bloomberg on health care, on stop and frisk, on obamacare. i thought the big winner tonight was bernie sanders. >> i agree. >> bernie sanders was the front runner going into this and nobody touched him tonight. if you're a front runner going into a debate and it's all over here and no one is touching you, he is going to roll through nevada and it was a big night, i think, for bernie sanders. >> i feel like it was a finite for bernie sanders, but elizabeth warren crushed that debate. the network that sponsored the debate tonight actually left her out of their major national

poll, their head to heads against trump. she came out tonight and said, ignore this. that was the senator that we watched make bank executives cry when she was a senator. that's the person that -- there's no question that she could go toe to toe with trump. she left bloomberg in a puddle on that debate stage. so i think that question is clearly put to bed. and i think at this point we're probably going to start treating her like the third place candidate she currently is, if she's still in third place the next time we get a delegate counting after a fabulous night like tonight. >> that's the first time, gloria, elizabeth warren has been identified as the best political athlete on the stage. i love you, brother. what she can do skill for skill toe for stow, totoe, it has not resonated at the polls. >> last night she said her problem wasn't she didn't interject herself enough. >> that's what i said. >> that's where i heard it. tonight she was clearly making up for it because she did

interject her self. legality me say one thing about bloomberg. the one argument he needed to make over and over again which he didn't was about electability. because that's his whole schtick like it's biden's schtick. the quote is, i don't think there's a chance the senator beating trump if he goes and is the candidate. we'll have donald trump another four years and we can't stand that. >> andrew, is that true? >> well, that's his argument. and there are a lot of -- >> do you agree with the argument? >> there are a lot of democrats concerned if you're bernie at the top of the ticket it's going to mean a very tough night in a lot of swing states. >> do you think it's a fair concern or do you think it's more about what they're used to version us watching a movement in their midst? >> i think it's a fair concern based upon the polling data that shows that bernie will under perform in various swing states the democrats highly, highly value. i want to tell a mike bloomberg story. we talk about how he hasn't had all these days in the town halls and the living rooms and whatnot. back when he was considering running, you know, more than 12

months ago, he actually took trial trips to new hampshire and iowa to see if he could relate to the people and he concluded that it was not his thing. [ laughter ] he said, hey, i'm not running. it was only more recently that he changed his mind on that. so he's, you know, a very smart data-driven guy. he went and got the data. the data was not very promising. >> that's right. >> at that point. and i think unfortunately that manifested itself tonight on the debate stage. >> the data show that joe biden was in his lane and joe biden was doing well. >> let me say a couple things. part of the reason why this is so fascinating is because he walked into his dream scenario. bloomberg had a dream scenario, which is that bernie would be rising, creating a demand for a moderate and biden would be fading and failing and falling and there would be a need for a hero to walk onto the stage and give people something to believe in. and his dream scenario turned into a nightmare tonight.

that is what happened. now, he's got enough ad cover -- it may not even matter because every other ad for the rest of your life is going to be bloomberg. but something about that should be troubling to even people who like bloomberg. this should have been an opportunity for him to put to bed a whole series of questions that have been troubling people for the past two weeks. his stop and frisk answer was just terrible. he pretended that he somehow didn't know that african-american men in this town and latino and latinas and others in this town were suffering. there were lawsuits, there were protests. he didn't acknowledge that. when he got -- when elizabeth warren asked the question about the nda, he just didn't know how to deal with it. these are the kinds of things that somebody who wants to be president of the united states, who wants to be commander in chief, you have to be able to handle those things so we can hear you on the other things. he failed tonight. he did. >> one of the things we're learning is if you're going to make 9 electability argument the center piece of your case, you can't just say it. you have to show it.

you have to prove it. there are a lot of people who think bernie sanders isn't electable, but there is a movement of people who disagree with them. joe biden made his whole candidacy about his ability to beat trump, but he hasn't been able to put up the voters. mike bloomberg decided to come in with the same thing. he showed up on the stage -- if we didn't know -- absolutely. i don't think any democrat is looking at that and going, that's the guy who is going to save us against trump in november. maybe next time these guys will do a little bit showing -- more showing and less telling. >> when you watch the thunder dome that was the 2016 republican primary, a lot of the same things were said about trump. people were hitting him left and right, what worked, what didn't. he can't handle the questions. >> i said some of them. >> the idea of sleeping on a movement i think matters. republican is a different party than democrat. how do you think it type of fight plays for your people? >> i want to caution everybody who is watching this tonight. we are coming up on a very brutal primary calendar coming up. nevada, south carolina, three

days later we have 14 states, including california, texas, north carolina, virginia. big states with lots of delegates. the one thing, maybe 6 to 8 million people watched the debate tonight, i don't know. but i can tell you this. hundreds of millions of people have been seeing these bloomberg ads. they've been seeing barack obama, they've been hugging each other. they've seen that. i don't know what it is, but i can tell you his ground game, he has 2200 staff. in virginia he has 1 00 staff. north carolina 200, 14 offices. i just caution everybody here with this calendar the way it is coming up, a lot of people may not be watching tonight or turned out early. you don't know what the ground game -- >> the calendar coming up is good for bernie sanders. if you look at california, for example -- >> bernie and someone else. >> bernie and someone else. >> someone with a lot of money. >> if you have millions and millions of dollars and you could cut clips from this debate and you say, show the clip, you show that -- >> show the good clip. >> show the good clip. that's the way it works.

show the good clip where he challenges sanders on his electability. you can use that in an ad. >> one clip. you've got one clip? >> that's all you need. >> okay. so, yes. here's what we know. you've got another billionaire who is running who may wind up being tough -- he may run over everybody and these things may not matter that much. from a party point of view, main line democrats are being squeezed out by bernie and bloomberg. bernie is leading an odd month insurgency from the left, but he's not actually a democrat. now you have this top-down incursion from the right from bloomberg. millions of people, billions of dollars, he's not democrat either. >> what does that tell you? >> it tells me there is a judgment that's going on with the american people, that the main line democrats, there's something wrong. something defective, something not cutting the cheese. so these outside forces are coming in squeezing them out. so bernie versus bloomberg, i

think whatever happens tonight, what you're seeing is there is a judgment on this party. frankly the one i had the most hope in is you because you had the best set of ideas. >> thank you. >> they have to figure out what's going on because we have other choices than just the two outsiders. >> there are other people than the two outsiders. elizabeth warren won the debate. she should be treated like the top tier candidate she is. amy got too much and -- usually both of them come out doing really well in these debates. amy's zinger is -- they zung back on her. it didn't work tonight. the mom humor is great for her. >> she got annoyed. >> she did. she has not made her concerns with pete a secret and i think tonight she finally got enough under his skin that he started going back at her and that wasn't a great look for either of those candidates. i thought biden had a good night. >> i did. >> i agree with you, that's kind

of the point i was making about -- we said these things about donald trump in 2016. and one of the reasons why donald trump was so successful is because he had a movement behind him. he is charismatic and he, you know, he picked at things that he saw out there, fear, stoked it, all those things, but it worked. the question is michael bloomberg, he doesn't have a movement behind him. he doesn't have anybody going rah, rah, michael bloomberg. what he does have is a foil in the white house. he did have the argument he did make, the one clip he can put up in his ad. you don't have to love me. i'm not perfect. but i can beat this guy. i've got the dollars. i've got the experience. i can do this. that might be enough. >> what about democrats wanting to fall in love? >> that is a great tease. that is a great tease. is the proposition of basically i can win the bidding war that

bloomberg is going to make, is that a message that works for democrats? was tonight, what you saw on that stage, was that a step closer to winning for democrats? we'll take that on right after this. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements- neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference.

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andrew, this is you watching it in a totally different way now that you joined the cnn team. what is it like for you watching it up there on stage and the feeling of, what if i had been there versus being here? >> well, certainly miss being on the debate stage on many levels. but we're talking about mike bloomberg's experience and how i actually anticipated he was going to have a tough night, in part, because of the timing of his qualification and then looking at his campaign schedule. where if you're campaigning, you're campaigning and someone says, hey, we set aside this time to he prepare for the debate. it's hard to get into debate mode. it's almost like another, another mind-set. and to me the big mistake they made -- this is going to sound, you know, possibly controversial, but i thought they should have advised him to skip this debate. i thought they should have just said, look, i'm on the nevada ballot. this is going to confuse voters. we'll see you in the next one. and then some people would have given him a hard time about it, but he would have had a genuine runway to actually try and get, you know, frankly prepared to

have a better night. and to me that was the missed opportunity. they should have just said, i'm going to skip -- >> you know who agrees with you? the campaign. >> they put out a statement saying about bloomberg, he was just warming up tonight. we fully expect mike will continue to build on tonight's performance when he appears on the stage in south carolina next tuesday. >> oh, that's devastating. usually your inbox is full of every candidate saying they won the debate. >> drawing attacks from all the candidates. that's the most important part. >> that's a modest spin. >> that is d-spin, i think. you know, they did say that it took them three months to build a campaign, et cetera, et cetera, but it's clear that they know that this really wasn't his -- >> the whole point is you coming in as a juggernaut then explaining why you're not. >> i'll tell you, one thing that struck me about this debate was it was so much about bernie sanders and it was so much about mike bloomberg that it was not at all about donald trump. there wasn't, to me just

listening to this -- we've talked about this before, terri, about why democrats, when they talk about health care, aren't they talking about republicans and preexisting conditions and what would happen. and impeachment, okay, that was never mentioned, whatever. but where are the attacks on the president of the united states that they have to make to the american people? i don't know. you tell me. maybe this isn't the time to do it, but it always rings hollow to me -- >> gloria, literally for these people this could be their last stand. you have nevada, south carolina, they had to go with each other. no other option. >> fair enough. for the first eight debates, it was kid gloves. they didn't -- there were a couple of shots, but not really much. >> it goes to van's idea, doesn't it? >> i agree with terri that a lot of them were coached, look, let it all hang out tonight. this is the last debate. this is existential. it actually showed in some of their performance. you could tell elizabeth was

very, very fired up. >> tonight i settle all family business. >> isn't it because of what you said? you've got two people who arguably aren't democrats. bloomberg was a democrat, then he switched to be a republican to run against mark green, now he's a democrat again, whatever. there is a feeling that the party doesn't have what it takes, and maybe part of it is you haven't seen the urgency on the stage. >> listen, i think elizabeth warren in the last debate, she was muted. she was subdued. she came tonight. what happened to her was because she was so muted and subdued, people did get a chance to hear from klobuchar and klobuchar, you know, was really beautiful in terms of the storytelling, whatever. and i think that you saw elizabeth warren say that's never going to happen to me again. i'm never, ever -- i don't care if this is my last moment, i will never cede control. >> she didn't. >> and she did not. now, part of, i think, what you're going to see going forward is we don't know the impact of these debates.

we don't know what's going to happen in nevada. but bernie sanders, because nobody really laid a glove on him -- i mean, bloomberg tried to. he cut it up in an ad. bernie sanders is probably going to do very well in nevada. he's probably going to do very well in south carolina. so while we're all talking about the fireworks and stuff like that, there is a dynamic now that's set in very much as you were saying, just like trump. there is a potential trump dynamic around bloomberg, potential trump dynamic around bernie. even more so, where you just -- you just got a guy, university to go and get 30%, 30%, 30%, 30%, and win. and everybody else is going to be fighting and doing the pyrotechnics. >> inside game, terri mcauliffe, is tonight a step closer to beating the democrats? >> no, no. i think we're moving along with the process. going the 30%, 30%, 30%, nobody, chris, is going to go into our convention in milwaukee with 1991 delegates. it's not going to happen. hillary clinton did not get it in 2016.

barack obama did not get it in 2008. john kerry was the last one to do it in 2004. this time with so many candidates, that's why chuck todd asked that question at the end. if you win with a plurality, does everybodyup this dynamic y convention similar to any of the prior ones? >> no. chris, iowa and new hampshire is winnowing. it has been an expanding bro s process. we had amy klobuchar. does that give biden another lift? >> maybe. >> pete buttiegieg or amy? it hasn't made the senate -- one thing is clear, bernie is going to get at 30% in every one of these contests going forward, he is marching toward the nomination. he will not have a plurality going in. his goal is he's got to have a big enough lead going in -- >> you don't think he'll have a plurality? >> he will have one. he needs a big one. if it's a close one, i'm telling him to walk, you can burn the

house down. donald trump will be eating popcorn, having a great time. >> and you want to talk about south carolina coming up. tom steyer was not on the debate stage tonight, but he's spending a fortunate -- now, not a bloomberg fortunate, but he's spending a fortunate on ads in south carolina. >> he's not on the ballot there. >> bloomberg is not on the ballot there. he looks like he's running for the president of south carolina. so he's going to be a factor. steyer is going to be a factor. so if you're joe biden, you're kind of going, okay, what happened to me? >> he has to win second in nevada, he has to win south carolina. >> i think everyone else did better tonight. >> he was the perfect foil for everyone. >> absolutely. >> he needed him earlier. >> the collapse of biden and especially his black support, there is a jump ball now for the black vote. that's a new dynamic. i'm talking to cousins and other people. people are looking around. people understand -- the thing

that never made sense to me about biden's argument, about his firewall, firewall of paper if you're not careful. i have this firewall. the thing is black people watch the news. black people liked obama because obama got white votes. biden says, i'm not getting white votes, i'm going to get black votes. black people aren't stupid. you have to get some white votes, too, buddy. now you're seeing this jump ball for the black vote. tom steyer is quietly stealthily trying to drive into that black vote in south carolina, but bloomberg, listen, for younger voters, for more urban voters, that stop and frisk thing is a deal breaker. but for older black voters, more conservative black voters, it's -- it can be contextualized. yes. but they want to hear him say something meaningful. they want to understand that he understands. and i think he blew that tonight. >> what's the play, then, for -- because we're seeing what you said in action with big member of the cbc, congressional back

caucus, meeks from new york. he was very anti-bloomberg when he was mayor. he fought him race after race after race. now he says, i look at the whole man. stop and frisk, i was against it then, with good reason. what does that signal, if anything? >> i think, and you may see it differently, but i see it as a post-hope vote. i think you have a black community that's in a post-hope position, with obama we have a lot of hope. we were voting our dreams. i think you've got a black man now saying who can stop trump? bloomberg has billions of dollars. he's got the ability to put together a machine. i don't see anybody else. i'll forgive him a lot of the sins. he's got to do a better job of apologizing. but i think -- listen, when meeks steps forward -- you're seeing others, too. steps forward and says, i'm with bloomberg, that lets you know there is a lot more openness in the black community to him. he has to do a better job of closing the deal. >> i think those invalidators

become incredibly important. because we don't have any candidates of color on the stage, having people who can vouch, who are part of that community saying this is my guy and here's why, and maybe do a better job of answering some of those questions, i think what van said is absolutely right. bloomberg needs to show that he understands. and right now none of his apology answers were understanding when he got to that gender question where it was literally things he had said himself. not suits brought against companies that he ran, but his own words. his answer was, maybe she just didn't like -- maybe they didn't like the joke i told. women aren't going to buy that, and i can't really overstate how angry women are. it's a little post hope over here for us, too, with donald trump in the white house. and we really need a nominee that understands that this is a moment to be for us. >> let's grab a quick break. when we come back, we're going to start seeing the candidates come in to give us their own post axa analysis. we're waiting on senator amy klobuchar to start that round. let's take a quick break then

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course, in nevada with our first debater to give the sense much her performance. senator klobuchar, i have to tell you, erin, andrew yang said thanks for the name recognition from amy klobuchar. he wants to thank her. >> you hear her chuckling. thank you very much, chris. andrew yang is part of our -- >> excellent, that's wonderful. >> so, how do you feel? >> i feel a few things. number one, i'm not surprised i took a bunch of incoming. we are surging, we're taking support from some of the other candidates. so big surprise that they were going after me. but i do think something was missed here, and that was there wasn't enough of going after donald trump. i tried when i had opportunities to do that. >> yes. >> but i think a bunch of people are starting to tune in as we head into super tuesday who aren't just our fired up democratic base. they're independents, moderate republicans, democrats that stayed home.

they're actually looking for a reason to support our nominee, to support our candidate, and that is my, my message to them is if you're tired of the noise and the nonsense, boy, did you hear it tonight and you are tired of the extremes, you have a home with me. >> so there was, there was a lot of sniping, there was a lot coming at you. one of them coming in at you was from senator warren. there was one moment she was talking about health care. she came ath mayor buttigieg and at you. i want to play that moment. >> yes. >> here it is. >> we need to get everybody's health care plan out here. mayor buttigieg really has a slogan that was thought up by his consultants to paper over a thin version of a plan that would leave millions of people unable to afford their health care. it's not a plan, it's a power point. and amy's plan is even less.

it's like a post-it note, insert plan here. >> okay. >> two things. one is as i noted, post-it notes were invented in my state so i took personal offense. two, it wasn't true. actually factcheck.org has looked at what she said about a few paragraphs of my health plan. i have an extensive plan on taking on pharmaceuticals. i have extensive plan on long-term care, on addiction, on mental health. but i'm sure it sounded good in a debate. it's just one example of what people are doing when they're jockeying -- >> were you surprised when she did that? >> a bit, because, you know, she's a law professor from the past and i thought she'd do her research better. but such is life. what matters to me is that people out there understand that we can do so much more for them when it comes to health care, and that i have a plan, but it's not a pipe dream because i can actually get it done.

>> so, you have been saying, you wanted mayor bloomberg on stage. >> yes. >> okay. there's your reaction. so, what was your impression versus what you expected from him? >> well, i actually was glad that he was on there because i think he's just been buying all these ads and that's not the way you do it. i think that there was some serious questions raised about his candidacy. and you heard them all. i'm not going to enumerate all of them. but including that he didn't support barack obama. including that he called the affordable care act a disgrace. you heard all of that. and my point right at the beginning was he literally entered the race, the debate stage today with a memo from his campaign saying that three of us should just get out of the way so i guess he can go down the yellow brick road to oz paved in his billions of dollars. i think he found out today that's not going to quite work. >> he did get some applause when he talked about capitalism, founding his own business. there were areas where he talked about fracking where you agree.

>> a much more pragmatic approach. and i am the one in the last debate that stood up and i was the only one to say that i had concerns about a socialist leading the ticket. and the private sector i think is very important to our country. that is -- i would say that's not even a big enough statement. but what we need is i said today a check and balance. someone who is going to do something about anti-trust law, raise the minimum wage, get universal child care in place. >> were you surprised by how he did? did you expect him to do better? >> yeah. >> you did? >> yeah. >> i want to ask you about mayor pete. you also tussled toward the end -- >> that's such a nice euphemism. >> it was hard to describe the whole thing. there was a playground atmosphere about the whole debate. but there was a moment that was quite personal between the two of you and i wanted to play that because it sort of seemed to take you aback. here it is. >> okay. >> i don't think that that

momentary forgetfulness actually reflects what i know about mexico and how much i care about it. >> you're on the committee that oversees border security. you're on the committee that does trade. you're literally part of the committee that's overseeing these things. >> are you trying to say that i'm dumb or are you mocking me here, pete? >> i'm saying you shouldn't trivialize that knowledge. >> people sometimes forget names. >> you went on to say, not everyone can be as perfect as you are, to mayor pete. what were you thinking during that moment? >> i just thought, i couldn't believe that he was making this really the center piece of his criticism. >> this is were a recent interview -- >> an interview which i have since many times said the president's name in numerous other interviews and made it very clear that i know his name.

and so that's what bothered me about this, is that instead of maybe making a passing reference to it, he doubled down. and i just don't think that's leadership. leadership with mexican policy is standing out front as i did, the first one on that stage, to say with the changes i supported the usmca. i was the first one to say that. leadership is actually being willing not to sound like the tough guy in the room like he did, where he said the mexican cartels, which are very dangerous criminal organizations, he said oh, they should be considered terrorist organizations. that he would consider that designation. that created a lot of problems with mexico when mayor pete said that. to me those are fundamental things that matter. and what he was trying to do, of course, is make me look like i wasn't able to take the job of president. and my argument back is, hey, i'm the one that has worked and passed over 100 bills as the lead democrat. i'm the one that has won repeatedly in red congressional

districts, suburban congressional districts. he talks about it, but he's never done it. >> all right. i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> amy klobuchar. and we are hiere live in las vegas. we're going to take a break. we'll continue with coverage with myself and chris cuomo. we'll be back. and i did it anyway. for more than five hundred thousand miles, my outback always got me there. so when it was time, of course i got a new one. because my kids still need me. and i need them. (vo) welcome to the all-new subaru outback. the most reliable outback ever. go where love takes you. build a clear plan for retirement. one that covers health care costs, taxes, and any other uncertainties. because when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. a partner who makes sure every step is clear, try to win by attacking, now, we know the trump strategy-

distorting, dividing. mr. president: it. won't. work. newspapers report bloomberg is the democrat trump fears most. as president, universal healthcare that lets people keep their coverage if they like it. a record on job creation. a doable plan to combat climate change. i led a complex, diverse city through 9-11 and i have common sense plans to move america away from chaos to progress! i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message.

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all right. welcome back. we are here in las vegas, and right now i am joined by mayor pete buttigieg. obviously just wrapping up your debate. how did you feel about tonight? >> felt great. it was a really good opportunity to layout a vision of how we can bring as many americans as possible into the coalition that will defeat donald trump. but i think it also demonstrated why we cannot wind up in the situation that some of the pundits are predicting where we wake up the day after super tuesday, two weeks from today, and our only choices have been narrowed down to bernie sanders and mike bloomberg. that's a vision tt leaves most americans out and it's going to be really difficult to defeat donald trump if americans are told that whatever we have to offer comes down only to somebody who says it's got to be

a revolution or somebody who believes he can buy an election as a billionaire. >> so this is one of your key points, right? and you made it, you made it a couple times. but one of the times you made it during the debate i just want to play so everyone can hear it. this is, again, a point you kept repeating. here is mayor pete a few moments ago. >> let's put forward somebody who is actually a democrat. [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] we shouldn't have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down and another candidate who wants to buy this party out. >> you're making the case that you don't believe sanders or bloomberg are the right standard bearers for the party. do you think you succeeded? >> i believe so. again, think about it, the three of us have each been mayors, but i'm the only one of the three of us who has been a democratic mayor. i believe in the values of the democratic party. it's why i chose to run as a

democrat. and when you have someone like senator sanders who often seems to think that democrats are the problem, someone like mike bloomberg who has repeatedly, really stood in the way of democratic policies, i think that's a terrible formula for not just governing the country, but certainly for defeating donald trump. we have so much of a better alternative. the american people are with us as a party right now on issue after issue after issue to a level that i don't think has been true in years or even decades. we have a responsibility to gather up that majority, keep it together, and grow it. >> amy klobuchar was here just before you were. the senator was talking about a moment you had at the end where you were talking about the mexican president, how she didn't know the name in an interview. but you were saying you were head of the border committee, you should have known these things. and she responded, are you calling me dumb? not everyone can be as perfect as you are. there were a lot of moments like that in this debate. did you think there were too many moments like that? not just between you and her, but there were a lot. >> i don't know where that comment came from. i mean, first of all, my -- i am

far from perfect. journalists remind me politically speaking i'm far from perfect every day. this is an opportunity to have a s substantive conversation about our differences. if you are running on your experience in washington, you should be prepared to defend the decisions you made and the votes that you took in washington. that's what i think a healthy debate ought to be about and i welcome the opportunity to do that this evening. >> so, mayor bloomberg was on the stage. you criticized him for his ad buys and buying the party obviously as you just said. what did you think? >> i think it's going to be really tough to go up against donald trump if our nominee is someone like mayor bloomberg. you know, donald trump took power by pretending to care about the forgotten people of america. mike bloomberg doesn't even seem to be pretending. he's just talking about a completely different world view than certainly what makes me a democrat. having opposed the minimum wage, opposed barack obama, and not

seeming to recognize where our party, not just our party, our country is right now in our frustration with the status quo. our frustration with wealth inequality. i think we saw tonight why we would be in such trouble if he's our nominee. >> he did say he supported higher taxes on the wealthy. obviously he said he doesn't think he's made too much money and he isn't ashamed of who he is and talked about giving it away. but he did say he supported a tax. there's a lot of things, though -- i've said the same thing to senator klobuchar -- you and he have in common in terms of your policy much more so than you do, say, with bernie sanders. >> i don't know about that. he's really got a very different world view from any of us and doesn't seem to be really as deeply concerned about economic inequality as the rest of us on that stage. but my point is we don't have to choose between these polls. we don't have to narrow it down to bernie sanders or mike bloomberg. what we've got to do is turn the page. we've got to go forward with a nominee who can build that majority and hold it together,

speaking to the concerns that my neighbors in northern indiana are experiencing, which aren't that different from the concerns that the culinary workers right here in nevada are experiencing. we've got to speak to that and have a plan to actually get things done. >> you had you had a lot of moments. did you feel comfortable with the tone of the debate over all? >> i think that every debate is an opportunity to have sometimes lively but i hope always respectful and substantiative conversations about differences in world view and opinion. differences in style and approach. it's a healthy process. >> you felt this was on the right side of that and not on the line where everybody was getting nasty to each other. >> i'll let others debate the debate. what i appreciate is the opportunity to lay out our vision for how to bring change to washington. and how prepared to confront issues from climate change to immigration reform and economic

inequality. and be ready to defeat trump during our one and only chance to do that. >> prisi appreciate yor time tonight. we'll be right back with the continuing coverage. right after this. verizon keeps y for what's next. (man) we weave security into their business... (second man) virtualize their operations... (third man) and could even build ai into their customer experiences. >> snultd (woman) ere machines could to each other and expertise coulnywhere. (woman) when it comes to digital transformation, verizon keeps business ready. ♪

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welcome back to our special coverage. what a night. everybody wanted to see what would happen with bloomberg came in. he has all the money and the mystique behind him. and all this doubt within the party. well, welcome to thunder dome. mayor bloomberg. on that stage he got a taste of what it's like to compete at this level. >> we are giving a voice to people who say we're sick and tired of billionaires like bloomberg seeing huge expansions of their wealth while a half a million people sleep out on the street tonight. >> i actually welcomed mayor bloomberg to the stage. i thought he shouldn't be hiding behind his tv ads. >> i'd like to talk about who

we're running against. a billionaire cocalls women fat broads and horse face. i'm not talking about donald trump. i'm talking about mayor bloomberg. we won't beat donald trump with a man who has who knows how many non-discloture agreements and the drip drip of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against. >> all he has to say is you are released from the non-disclosure agreement. >> let's put forth somebody what is actually a democrat. >> that was just a taste. what mattered most? >> i think bloomberg's best moments were probably when he was quiet. i mean i just feel like he got attacked a lot and really as you were talking about earlier, he didn't really have the responses

prepared that he should have. on the nda and a number of issues on stop and frisk. which he has been asked about before. it's almost as if he wanted to say i answered that already. and i don't want to do that again. >> remember the famous line. everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. he came in thinking he knew what would happen. >> that's right. bloomberg -- they kind of sanders had a great night. elizabeth warren had a great night. biden had the best debate in a while. buttigieg had a great debate. maybe klobuchar got a little too into her arguments with buttigieg. and that didn't make her look great. i think that's a debate we saw. what it will mean, chris you asked the question. what will it mean. i don't know in the long run what it will mean. >> something happened that is sort o a worse case for bloomberg.

that is the nda question. the kind of question that is so specific in its yes or noness. it will follow him for the rest of the campaign trail. the idea that there were 64 suits out there. it had been percolating. but now there's a very specific will you release the women from the nda that he didn't answer and they got on him for. i don't think he goes another major interview or encounter without getting that question again. >> it would be nice if he did a major interview. they have to come up with some answer and do it quickly. it was funny what you said about the fact his best moments when he wasn't speaking. that was a the sound of silence with deafening. >> he didn't have an answer. i have to tell you i'm hearing from the trump campaign. they're thrilled. as you can imagine. >> because?

>> which is, the circular firing squad. which hasn't happened a lot in fairness to the democrats until now. for the most part the debate stages you were on the focus hasn't been on each other. it's been on the president. that's not the case now. they claim they see the numbers going up for the president. it's better for the president when the sights aren't on him and each other. >> this may have been the last chance for some of the people to distinguish themselves in this field. and obvious whether i know the for it in a different way. and a dimpt motivation with bloomberg there. somebody who once again has to be spoken about on the top tier of the performance tonight is senator warren. she joins us in nevada. >> all right. thank you, chris. i'm here with senator warren. a will the of people are saying you had a great night. how did you feel?

>> i felt good. i said what i wanted to say. >> how much money have you raised? your campaign in the first hour sent out a note saying you raised $425,000. single best hour or day in fund raising. >> so this is really this debate tonight is about democracy. i have no doubt that coming off that debate stage that michael bloomberg is reaching in his pocket and dropping another $100 million in advertising across the country just to try to erase the memory of what happened on the debate stage. the only way to keep that memory alive is to be able to get out there and talk about it. and push it in front of people. i ask everybody to go to elizabeth warren.com. pitch in $5. $25. make this about how a billionaire doesn't get to buy out