was on the basketball court and they can't miss. right now, it doesn't seem like bernie sanders can miss. >> once you get in your groove, you start running you can't stop. >> mark preston, thank you very much. obviously we'll be watching. i'll be back live from the debate live from the spin room. ac 360 begins right now. good evening. big night tonight in presidential politics with the gloves coming off in south carolina and the primary there just a couple of days away. we begin with a public health lines. we're talking about the coronavirus and keeping them honest. there are signs that the federal government might not be here. the president doesn't seem to be playing straight with the public about it. >> the coronavirus, which is, you know, very well under control in our country. we have very few people with it.

the people are getting better. we'll start working out. a lot of talent, a lot of brain power being put behind it. $2.5 billion we're putting in. a good chance you won't die. now they have studied very much. we're very close to it. >> very good chance you're not going to die. perhaps not the greatest slogan for a campaign. as for being close to a vaccine, not true. nor will it die out in the warmer months which happened with sars. this is a novel coronavirus. no one can say if it will die out as the weather gets warmer. certainly, let's hope it does. there's a very different message from the president it's not if it will spread in the u.s., it's when it will and how bad it will get. the president flew back from india, one top white house

advisor is sounding optimistic. his job title might explain why. >> we have contained this. we have contained this. i won't say air tight, but pretty close to air tight. we've done a good job in the united states. hats off to our public health people. >> that's white house chief economic advisor larry cud low. as he was speaking the dow was tapping for a second straight day. down 1009.10 points. critics accuse him of downplaying a public health crisis for that attack. this is audio from the director of national center of immunization and respiratory diseases. >> ultimately we expect we will see community spread in this country. it's not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore but rather a question of when

exactly this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness. >> not if but when she said which raises obvious questions such as are we prepared. today the president's acting secretary of homeland security was not even able to answer basic questions like this one from republican senator john kennedy. >> head of homeland security, do we have enough respirators or not. >> for patients? i don't understand the question. >> for everybody. every american who needs one who gets the disease. >> again, i would prefer you to hhs on that. >> mr. secretary -- >> my budget supports -- >> my budget supports -- >> you're the secretary of homeland security. >> yes, sir. >> and you can't tell me p if we have enough respirators. >> for the entire american public? >> yes. >> no. i would say prob bring not. >> how short are we? >> i don't have that number onhand. i will get that number for you. >> i want to be sure i understand. somebody --

>> yes, sir. >> -- is doing modeling. >> -- yes, sir. >> on how many cases we're anticipating. >> you're asking me a number of medical questions that the cdc and hhs are focusing on. >> i'm asking you as the head of the department of homeland security and you're supposed to keep us safe. >> yes, sir zpl and you need to know the answers to these questions. >> acting secretary chad wolf there also did not know how many cases his department was anticipating, nor how many cases the cdc or the agency knew. >> the secretary of the department of homeland security is charged with keeping us safe testified ten minutes ago a month and a half. >> one could not develop a vaccine in a month and a half. that's never happened in history.

>> maybe you ought to talk with the secretary of homeland security before he spreads that too far. >> there's that. that is not encouraging. no doubt about it. there's also a question whether the money the president was touting is near enough. budget cuts, how will that affect the federal response to what is clearly now a global threat. let's hear from boris sanchez. we know what he's saying publicly. any word on what he's saying privately? >> reporter: yeah, anderson. the president has been watching news of the coronavirus generate more and more negative headlines. we're seeing officials be sort of caught flat footed trying to respond to it. the president is angry and frustrated about this, specifically he's angry about a decision that was made several weeks ago to allow several americans who had tested positive for coronavirus to return to the united states after being quarantined in asia.

the president furious that he didn't have input into that even calling for the officials who did to be fired. from what we can tell no one was fired. we're told he was broadly venting. it's clear he's taking this serious and as he does he's become angrier and angrier with this disconnect with his style, his way of approaching this and the way his administration officials have carried out policy, anderson. >> is there any information on the mixed messaging? the testimony by the acting homeland security director was terrible. there's two aspects of it. the idea is the president and members of his administration didn't fully appreciate this virus and what it can do. the president tauts the strength based on how the stock market is

doing. for two straight days we've watched the dow jones industrial market tank. the president taking note of that. we know that this white house simply doesn't want to rock the boat. anything they say to sound the alarm about coronavirus could further hurt the economy and as things have headed in the president's direction early on in this 2020 campaign, they certainly don't want to do anything to alarm people. >> thanks. just before air time i spoke with macy harona. senator harona, the president is saying it's very well under control. larry kudlow is saying it's very well contained. a u.s. outbreak is inevitable. >> well, they're engaging in

wi wishful thought and talking about the virus and what could happen. those are the people doing the work. today's briefing, although it was in a classified setting, anything we learned can be discussed. certainly that is not what we were told. >> minority leader schumer said four words describe the administration's response to the coronavirus. towering and dangerous incompetence. would you go that far? i mean, you know, the president says, look, we're putting more than $2 billion towards this. he's also said maybe by april it will go down which is what happened with sars. this is a novel coronavirus. we've never seen this before. >> it's also very easily transmitted. there are a lot of things about the coronavirus that we don't know about so we need to be prepared. what we were told today in our briefing is that while the

united states is engaged right now in containment of the virus soon we need to get into mitigation mode. we need to push forward with the creation of a valid test which we're still waiting for to test whether or not somebody has this virus. in my opinion and that of other democrats, we should have a czar to coordinate the administration's response to this potential onset of a pandemic virus. >> i was talking to dr. sanjay gupta earlier today for another show we do online, "full circle" and what he said, while there ace focus for getting the coronavirus, there's an accident already that only half of the

americans gets every year which is really kind of amazing when you think about it. you know, while obviously the coronavirus is a serious concern and easily spread, some 70,000 americans die every year from the flu so people don't even get vaccinated with vaccines that already exist. >> i think there is a tremendous concern about it. i'll give it to the people who need to have that vaccination. there's a lot of fear going on regarding the spread of this virus so i know we're told, i think the president is basically focused on the impact of this virus. that is not where the health professionals are coming from.

the health professionals does not spread in a way that we lose control. as i mentioned, as we did for the ebola crisis, there was a czar appointed so that all of these agencies involved in the coronavirus, we have many of them. you have homeland security, you have health and human services, you have omb, you have cdc, you have dod, there should be someone in charge. there isn't any single person. we spent 6 billion to find o 1.2 billion of new money to contend with what could be a rapidly spreading disease, illness. >> do you think the president

should focus on the effect the virus might have on the stock market as opposed to the lives of other americans? >> he said, the stock market is doing fine. i think is in his bed. what he can do to protect himself. so i think that i'm certainly not going to take the lead from the president. i'm going to listen to the professionals in the cdc and others who have experience with these kinds of diseases. >> senator, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> sure. much more ahead including democratic primary race in south carolina which has turned into an all out brawl. the judge in the case fires back hard against president trump. that and more as we continue.

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carolina primary politics have a history of being hard-hitting. this time the punches are being thrown by democrats. the focus is on bernie sanders' past writings. they could leave scars during the general election campaign. tomorrow night, voting on saturday, we spoke before air time with tom perez. chairman perez, what do you make of the turn that this place was coming. it's going to hurt democrats in

the long run? this is inevitable? nchs well, i look at 2008 when we had barack obama, hillary clinton, john elwards. i remember it was that debate to right now. i think that was a prize fight. there was a lot of experienced discussion there and as the end of the day we came together as a period and what's even more compelling is yev stands donald trump is an existential. so while you will see differences on the debate stage. we saw differences last week. what unites us far outweighs what our differences are. at some point if there is a

serious challenge from one of the other -- or somebody that you get involved with is that just up to the campaigns to come to terms with that am? do you make awkward calls. >> i think the voters are going to be the biggest people that help bring that about. after this saturday and after next and they have will to take a cold, hard look in the mirror and say, am i viable for the long haul. >> something bloomberg's campaign said. >> bernie has all of this stuff.

toddlers should run around naked and insulate themselves from porn. that's the looney side of bernie. >> he's referring to essays the senator published in the '60s and '70s. what do you make of the bloomberg campaign bringing them up? >> well, again, every candidate is going to do what they think will help then to win and how do we take it to donald trump? this election is -- it's impossible to overstate what i was in their best interests.

i recall vividly we had some very spirit in the moments in the cycle. i know that everybody understands. everybody has taken a pledge to support the winner. and that happened without hesitation and i just spoke to rahm emmanuel. tom perez needs it. do you have all of those things? >> we have a great team. i'm very confident in our team. i would remind everybody, there's 4,000 delegates. you need 1991.

we're in file two ray to make their voices forward. we will be paepg for any and ee develop actual notoriety. >> gentlemen, thank you. more on the south carolina primary just ahead including discussion there with whom they z as a partner. hooks me up. getting more for getting away. traveling lighter. getting settled. rewarded. learn more at the explorer card dot com. extra life. extra power. extra life. extra power. extra life. - power. - life. power. extra life. no need to argue. vs. coppertop,... duracell optimum delivers extra life

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with the south carolina primary and super tuesday contests just days away. here's something you have missed. three have served as mayor. bloomberg and buttigieg used their experience as mayors to show how that has prepared them from the white house. ram emmanuel, former author of the new book, the nation's city, at least panic amongst the democrats? >> panic, nervousness. it's what i call the metro poly tai work.

it's worked for president obama had his beelections. the 28 and '06. it's a trat treat. this has never -- never been part of the united states. you have the presidency, congress. governorships. i would say it captures more of a political ground that be the motion you're putting so much at risk given -- think of it this way. roosevelt, clinton and obama. why are you turning something out? thu of them, they had insight on how to rae invent the whale or to go to the most extreme --

>> yeah. look, forget the philosophical. at the end of the day, getting people health care cover it doesn't financially burden you. >> you are beating donald trump as a singular control. winning more governorships. this is -- donald trump is telling you what he wants and we are leading into this with our chin. >> i understand that and yet bernie sanders is winning. >> the fact is ten years ago three or four of these people would have dropped out. they get a debate, they'll stay around the hoop. maybe lightning will strike. in 2004, 2004, you're done. >> i totally get the argument -- >> if you get the argument, why are we having such confusion. >> no, but who fits that

argument? who among the candidates? rchltsz nobody. nobody for a lot of reasons are going to drop. >> do any of them -- >> they don't have the motivation to drop so the opposition of going one on one -- look, he's the front-runner. my supervisor, at some point a lot of people have to have that and that's a big thing for a jewish person to say, have a come to jesus meeting. >> don't be throwing that around, brother. they would have to do that. they would have to have a discussion is this what we want to do. >> if this gets discussed in a conference room -- >> no, we'll do it out here. i'll join you on the podium. they're not going to go at it? >> no.

no. yogi bear had a great quote. when you get to a fork in the road, take it. there's a challenge here. in 2018 the democrats made the most gains in the mid-term election since watergate. that's a big number. not one member who took a red district and made it blue has endorsed bernie sanders. >> you say being a mayor is the most important. the poison has made our politics sick. mayors are working every day to bring it back to health. what is it you think -- why mayers are running the world? why is it you think? >> the economic driving forces, the things that you need haven't gone away. >> if anything, only increased.

local government ascending and national, descending, but what's different in this is all the things that you feel confident about. where do you live? schools where you send your children. parks, libraries, that's local government services. who's leading in income inequality. who's leading on climate change and dealing with greenhouse gases the most? cities. who's integrating the new citizens. in chicago you have 147 different languages. a lot of different races. so to me cities and mayors deal with the public government but also taking on new

responsibilities. >> thank you. >> thank you. saturday's contest in south carolina rests heavily on the candidates' ability to attract voters. they make up 60% of the electorate. the latest comes from nbc news and marist at solid could did it in. spoke with a group of african-american women and which candidates they believe best represent their interests. >> i really feel like they're -- >> you've got a hard job ahead of you. he can move the country really. >> reporter: at this north

charleston, roxanne and he knows what's going on in washington, d.c. >> she was a supporter and now she's disappointed. biden had a canned response to an emotional story. >> to me it was just a political remove, political response to here and what she said about biden's health and stm my na. worries about america's ready for a pred that's married to a man. >> especially here in the bible belt she says may like buttigieg's policy but because of their religious believes is on track. really awesome plan for moving the black agenda.

the douglas plan. he has a lot of great plans. instead of we watching bernie sanders with the free, frae, free. all of the women are concerned about how sanders would pay for medicare for all, free colleges and his other colleges, show me the numbers. >> back in the 2016 south carolina primary won just 14% of the african-american boat. most in our groups are still turned off. more of a way to deal with people without being so grufr i think he's kind of rough around the edges there. >> blorn dell kid. i certainly strused that

administration. >> as for mike bloomberg. i think think happened. >> what do you think of the stop and frisk policy? >> meanwhile as the primary, you look to the heavens. >> how do you make up your mind? >> i'm praying. >> randi kaye, cnn, new york charlest charleston, cnbc. roger stone's tech and he's attacking her.

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breaking news now in the roger stone case. testimony where the judge said the president used his platform to discuss a juror. any attempt to harass the jurors is antithey the call from the justice. that's according to politico. there's rarely been a woman so biased. lodge ger wasn't even working on my campaign. mischaracter of judgment. sad to watch. >> she was on the campaign in 2015. and joining me is jeffrey toop

bin? >> have you ever a case sitting like this. i've never seen one deserve it as much as donald trump did. it's a palg for a president to assault a jury. jurors are not people who invite scrutiny and judges try to protect them, which is what coach jackson is doing. it's entirely difficult for them to call. i don't have a problem with the president criticizing president ginsburg as he did. i think the criticisms them selves are wrong but the idea

the judges should be off lijts i think is wrong. >> john, i couldn't know what. part of a campaign of intimidation, harassment by logs. >> it certainly appears that way. this wasn't just a one off and it's been consistent and persistent. he's been doing it ever since he's jeff is right. there's no real reason to think it can't change it. judges are seldom inclined to after trump. and friction in this instance, going after a juror is totally

out of bounds. >> jeff, this comes on the heels of attorney general bar to stop tweeting that the cases the jus could he damping. do you think is taking steps towards not doing his job? >> i think total trump. he's pretending he's outraged by the president's vibe ber. i don't think there's any chance that the bar will leave. his supposed lagsship and go to f adding another one.

i think barr was putting on a show. we're seeing that he wasn't serious about it. >> it's remarkable if you step back and think that the president of the united states is reaching down and putting his finger or pointing his finger at an individual juror who, you know, you can argue she didn't disclose whatever she was supposed to disclose or that, you know, but to make any juror concerned if you're afraid the president of the united states will shine his spotlight on you. >> well, he's certainly doing it with no facts.

it's clearly been decided. it was a hearing where the judge only had an audio feed. so jurors names were not disclosed. she looked at it. we'll get the results. it's very rare you have a judge is not just largely be filed for? he has the president opening the back. find some excuse to pardon this guy. >> the whole jurors is participate in the shop right through. >> john dean, jeff toop bin

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but it seems like in the last couple of days, i don't know in the politics or the president messing with fact, so tonight we have the experts on to look at the medical aspect. okay? we have experts on to look at the macro economic context of this. and lastly it will be what is the politics of this, how is it playing in, how is the president playing his general game of deception making this more frightening? >> it certainly is. chris, appreciate it. >> we'll see you about nine minutes from now. one of president trump's staunchest allies on capitol hill says there is no need for the position of director of national intelligence created after 9/11. break out the butter lobsterfest has something for every lobster fan like wild caught lobster, butter poached, creamy and roasted. or try lobster sautéed with crab, shrimp and more. so hurry in and let's lobsterfest. or get it to go at red lobster dot com

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you know better than anyone that the dni post was created after the 9/11 attacks. what do you think of senator graham saying the job should go away? >> not surprisingly, i completely disagree with senator graham. i never heard him say that during the time i served as dni. apart from the 9/11 commission, there was also a commission that convened to investigate the weapons of mass destruction in iraq fiasco. and both of these commissions recommended strongly that there needed to be central leadership direction over the entirety of the u.s. intelligence community. and i can tell you from my time both as an agency director twice and then serving in the position for almost six and a half years that coordination, integration, and collaboration across the intelligence community between and among the components of the intelligence community is not a

natural act. there needs to be a full-time champion and advocate for integration and collaboration across the community. it's not very sexy, but it is crucial. >> what's interesting too about this idea is that it doesn't really seem that it stems from any, you know, rethinking of intelligence or, you know, any need that's arisen. it seems, if anything, it's about just culling the, you know, i guess the president believes is a deep state. >> i agree, anderson. i think to some extent the position of dni and the staff, the office of dni which supports the dni personally i think has become something of a hood ornament for this deep state fiction. and i think one of the useful purposes that the dni serves, particularly in the dan coats era was to provide top cover for the intelligence component so

they can go about their jobs day in and day out. >> just lastly, cnn is reporting that the president is once again considering john ratcliffe who's obviously a very vocal and staunch ally of the president to be the next dni. it's now being filled by an acting director richard grenell. it didn't work out for ratcliffe the first time the president wanted him last year. there was concern in the senate about his qualifications. i don't know that there would be anything different this time around, but if that's who the president wants, it certainly is a sign of just wanting somebody who is slavishly loyal to him. >> well, i think so. that's certainly the case with ambassador grenell. this is a partisan staunch supporter of the president. and i've always said, and i guess i'm biased, but i believe the incumbent in that position should be an intelligent professional or a national

security professional and preferably somebody that's had some experience running a large organization. i found it to be the toughest job i ever took on in my 50 years in intelligence. and i actually knew something about intelligence and to learn the abcs of intelligence on the job i think is tough. >> how was it the toughest job? because you had a lot of extraordinarily difficult jobs in intelligence in national security. >> it's just the demands that are made on you. for me it was time demands, you know, staying abreast of intelligence developments all over the world. and then at the same time managing this large complex globally dispersed enterprise of over 200,000 people with a $60 billion budget. this is not a trivial undertaking. and it's not something that can be done on a part-time basis

like part-time help at the post office at christmas time. it can't be done that way. >> director clapper, i appreciate it. well, that's it for us. the news continues though. i'll hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." >> thank you very much, anderson. i'm chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." the coronavirus. it's time we deal with the realities and also what the reckoning needs to be here. it's already having an effect. look at the u.s. markets. they're in a two-day freefall. i don't know if you've been outside at all, but if anybody community has people walking, you see all these masks, people are afraid. they don't know what to expect. the president is pretending that he understands some science that nobody else can back up. the least troubling part right now is the number of cases. yes, we're over a dozen. we're bringing in the experts tonight to tell you who's had it here in this country, where it's coming from, what they are worried about. yes, when you listen to the experts from the cdc, they are saying it's not about if, it's about when. but what are the realities?