we're going to see better growth. [closing bell rings] liz: jack mcintyre, brandywine. appreciate you coming in front of the cameras on a very volatile day. we end off the lows. that is it for "the claman countdown." i will see you 5:00 p.m. on "bulls & bears." melissa: wall street under pressure. all three major averages sinking on coronavirus fears after the fed slashes interest rates amid the escalating outbreak. the dow down 793 points, still settling out there, just one day after the biggest one day point gain in history. s&p 500 and nasdaq closing in negative territory. all three major averages ending down more than 2%. i'm melissa francis in new york. this is "after the bell." connell? connell: i'm connell mcshane. we're broadcasting from charlotte, north carolina. what a week it has been for the markets already. happy super tuesday today.

we're live from sonic automotive, one the nation's biggest auto retailers. we'll look through political lens of local business as we look through the hour. any minute we have new comments to play back for you from president trump. he haas been speaking to reporters outside the white house, joined by the hhs second alex azar. also anthony fauci after they tour ad medical facility -- toured a facility from maryland as the coronavirus outbreak spreads throughout the country. we have the first confirmed case here in the state of north carolina. we'll bring all the president's comments as soon as we have them. that could be any minute. coverage of big stories, blake burman at the white house, kristina partsinevelos on markets on the floor of the new york stock exchange, robert gray in california. kristina, first to you. kristina: what a day. we talk about volatility. start with the futures market.

then when the fed rate cut came we saw a huge increase and a selloff. we ended the dow about 788 points lower. everybody is in the red. all three major u.s. benchmarks closed almost 3% lower across all sectors. major hit to financials as well as energy. i want to focus on some of the dow losers for today. bring that up on the screen, ones i was seeing before we went live. american express, broad-based within the financial sector. financial services got hot, got cut because of the interest rate cut. that brought down a lot of the banks. then we have microsoft, one of the losers too for the dow. then 3m. 3m did sign a contract with the government, vice president pence said they will make 35 million extra face masks. that caused a rally yesterday. so we could just be seeing kind of a selloff from that rally yesterday. but i got to touch on the 10-year treasury yield, often when people are little bit worried they move to a safer

bet. look where the yield closed. it touched below 1% for the first time ever. it sheets how investors are moving money into the opposite direction. i will end up on act neck dote tall comment, the stock market is like a kid in the candy aisle, one piece will not shut them up. melissa: i like that analogy. blake burman with more. blake? reporter: president trump just got back to the white house moments ago, he spent the afternoon down the road not too far away in bet bethesda, maryland. earlier today the president got what he wanted at least in part as the federal reserve reacted with a emergency rate cut to the coronavirus by dropping rates some 50 basis points. the president has been asking for the fed to jump in.

however, the president responded today, essentially saying he didn't necessarily like what the fed did. thinks that they need to do more. says that the fed needs to do more easing and more cutting. so on his way to the national institutes of health just a little while ago, i asked the president what should the fed funds rate be? the president wouldn't necessarily commit to a number. listen here. >> the rate as you would call it is too high. it should be eased down so we're competitive. look, we have the greatest country in the world, we have the strongest country in the world. it's our dollar that the world relies on. we should have the low rate but we have a fed that doesn't agree with that. >> reporter: the president was also asked if he watched jay powell's press conference earlier today 11:00 on the east coast and the president said, he did not. melissa. melissa: not fun to be the fed. they can't win for losing these days.

blake, thank you. connell? connell: all right. melissa, more on that move made by the federal reserve. we have the ceo of lending tree. lending tree is the largest online lending place in the country but lucky for us it is based here in charlotte which is where we are. thanks for being here today. good to have you on anyway, like perfect day what the fed did. you have a good sense how consumers react to this type of thing. some people were saying, boy, will they even react at all? will cutting rates then in this environment? tell us about the environment. >> from the consumer standpoint consumers are absolutely reacting. we're seeing record numbers of people refinancing their loans particularly on the mortgage side but more importantly students can refinance student loans and credit cards. connell: do they keep doing that? you say they're doing it already. we know that rates have been low. president said they may be a little too high for his liking. will they keep doing that? >> yes. consumers are increasingly able to shop.

increasingly because lenders are more and more automated it is easier and easier over the years, i've been doing this 24 plus years to actually refinance and lower your borrowing rate. connell: everybody little bit helps. they will do it because? >> there are transaction costs but that makes sense. connell: technology plays a part. 15 or 20 years you wouldn't see that that is interesting. >> absolutely. connell: wow. >> so, you also see that the move in interest rates happens faster as well for the consumers. connell: let me ask you about the coronavirus because that is, that was the reason the federal reserve decided to move. they think it is somewhering impact on the economy. what's your view on that and whether that will impact how consumers act? i say this, you know this already, i say this, people say, well, if you cut rates, not like if i'm afraid of this virus i will take the family to downtown charlotte, whatever the case may be, so. >> i think the fed rate cut is helpful for businesses. when i talk to friends and colleagues in the business community who have supply chains

in asia, et cetera, that is having a major, major impact on them. connell: right. >> it is good to have a fed rate cut for that. however i think the consumer is the beneficiary. unless you're losing your job or the u.s. economy is going to take, the consumer really the beneficiary at consumer rates when really what the fed is trying to do is help businesses. connell: really. you said, idea, don't think the economy is going to tank. not many people are predicting that. many people think it will slow because of this virus. that seems fair. what are you seeing? >> i absolutely agree with that from the standpoint of supply chains and interconnectedness of international business and i think the consumer will be the beneficiary of it. in general i think the u.s. economy will be okay. it will slow a little bit. connell: here is the funny thing. even if you're not worried about it yourself sometimes -- >> i weren't say it is certainly not not overblown from the business standpoint. i think a little bit, we're too

cautious on individual side. i think it will have serious hello consequence for united states. i think it affects the business cycle. i think the fed move is right. i think the consumer can actually benefit from it. connell: good insight from doug who knows a lot about this. thank you for being here in charlotte. we're having a good time. we'll have much more later in the hour. melissa, back to you. melissa: health fears on super tuesday. millions of voters hitting the polls in california with as many as 43 possible coronavirus cases in the state. will the virus hurt the voting process. robert ray in l.a. with the details. robert? reporter: melissa, thanks so much. it is unclear how much it will or will it affect voter turnout. voters seemed unconcerned about it. we have stream of folks this is only one voting station but a lot of people coming throughout the day. a lot of changes in california how you vote.

they have had early voting two weeks. mail in ballot started a month ago and allow people to vote on election day this evening. a lot of new changes could take a little while. another change, they're using new voting systems with touch-screens and headphones. tactile. it doesn't seem to be deterring people. folks working in there, election officials say they are taking extra precautions. >> hand sanitizer at our vote centers. we can wipe down the voting booths and any common spaces that people will be using. then obviously you have your personal ballot that you can mark with your own marking device. and then drop it in the box. >> reporter: all right, melissa, send it back to you. melissa: we have a "fox business alert." president trump talking to reporters on the south lawn on the way back from the nih. >> dr. fauci leads and the president got to hear from

actual bench scientists who within three days, within three days, developed a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus and they reported some really important news to the president. that yesterday the food and drug administration authorized the entry of that vaccine into phase one safety clinical trials. dr. fauci? >> so what we did, we just had the opportunity to take the president and show him the actual individual researchers who were doing the things we've been talking about. what they were referring to is that the actual scientists, middle level, senior, junior were there and explained to the president what i have actually been explaining to the press but showed it on graphic, the virus

identified and put into a platform called msra. what happened literally within a period of couple days, now as i said we were going into a phase one trial. in about three months from that day, we're probably you know, a month or so, i don't want to overpromise, i said a month 1/2 the other day. it may be a about a month or so then very soon, we'll be sticking the first person with the vaccine. but i want to caution everybody, that is only the first phase of the development of the vaccine because we emphasized to the president that this will be giving the vaccine to normal healthy people that safety is very important. you really need to know that it actually works. that next phase is the phase two trial. we're not going to be able to start that for at least another three or four months after we go in. so the whole process is going to take a year, year-and-a-half at least. >> want to talk about therapeutics? >> the other thing that is

interesting we explained to the president and to secretary already knew is that the difference between testing a vaccine and testing are almost qualitatively different. because with therapy you give it to someone already ill. you compare it to standard of care. so within a reasonable period of time, you're going to know if it works or not. so right now, as of today, there are two large trials going on in china are comparing one of the drugs, there are several, one called remdesivir with standard of care alone. one of those will be several months. you have to accumulate hundreds of patients to decide. we have our own trial right now in the united states. some of the people at the university of nebraska, who were infected and put there. so once you get the results with the therapy, unlike a vaccine

which takes quite a while, once you get a result you can start distributing the medication. >> reporter: [inaudible]. >> no, i didn't say that i said if the drug works and you prove it works, you will treat them. i am not saying that three months from now we're going to have a drug to treat people, okay? >> if it works. >> no. no. i didn't say, i said you have to accumulate enough patients when they get the to 400 patients in each trial, that may take three months. that may take five months. i don't know. when the trial is over, and they evaluate the data, if the drug works, then you will be able to apply it. [reporters asking questions] >> reporter: [inaudible]

>> i haven't seen it. i'm focused on this. the country is in great shape. the market is in great shape. i'm focused on this. this is very important. >> reporter: -- in addition to the fed action. you suggested you also -- >> i like middle income tax cuts. i think it would be a many good time. middle income tax cuts if the democrats approve it. >> reporter: payroll tax? >> payroll tax. >> reporter: you want it this year? >> i would approve it if they can do it. >> reporter: in terms of travel, spring break is coming around the corner are you concerned, for example, would you let your son go to disney? >> i think we have a lot of great places we can travel to right in the united states. we have a lot of great places we can travel to, okay? >> reporter: [inaudible]. >> go ahead. >> how many cases we actually

have right now? >> reporter: [inaudible]. >> estimates, estimates. we can only have confirmed cases. we don't estimate other than the 60 days we have here in the united states that are confirmed as well as the 48 cases that we have that came from our repatriation activities. we're very careful not to try to extrapolate or predict with an unknown virus here in the united states. >> reporter: [inaudible]. some people are canceling conferences travels doing the right thing, is that overreaction. >> that is up to them. let them stay in the united states. if they don't travel if they stay here that is not a bad thing for us. i've been saying for a long time people should do that. >> reporter: [inaudible]. >> no. i think they could have done, i think they should do more. i think they hinted they're not

going to do much more. that is unfortunate. he gave a very bad signal, in my opinion. >> reporter: [inaudible]. melissa: all right. so that is president trump. he is returning from the national institute of health in bethesda, maryland. what is interesting about the exchange is, he brought his own health officials out to tell the public what they had told him about the timeline for both therapeutic drugs that would help those who are already sick and a vaccination which his own people said, we could start the trial in a month. as reporters tried to repeat back to those official what is they had just heard, they misquoted many times the same way they accuse the president of doing in the past days. in other words, it is not easy to interpret the science that has told you, everyone is trying to do the best they can. interesting. a moment years in the making. senator bernie sanders looking to cement his lead as the biggest round of voting is currently underway. edward lawrence is in sanders'

hometown of burlington, vermont with the latest. >> reporter: in suburb of burlington, bernie sanders will speak. there is already a line here. people want to get a good spot to see senator bernie sanders. he was at his own voting place. cast his ballot for super tuesday. he sent a message saying they need to rally support. >> we have the grassroots movement all over this country. up to now we knocked on i believe some two million doors, all across this country from maine to california. we are putting together a multigenerational, multiracial movement of people who are standing up for justice and to beat donald trump, we are going to need to have the largest voter turnout in the history of this country. >> reporter: there was one common theme among his voters. sanders is seen as candidate of change. they know exactly where he stands because he had the same

positions for decades. sanders supporters in vermont think he will take california. there are hopeful for a first place riding a wave of the nomination. they are hoping that the democratic party will play fair. >> i hope whoever gets the most actual delegates and most actual votes is the nominee. that is the way i believe it should be. i believe that will be bernie. even if it is not bernie i think you have to go with what the people chose. >> reporter: jack says he would vote for any of the democratic candidate who is the nominee but not just michael bloomberg. they don't want to trade one billionaire for another billionaire. they're trying to out of president donald trump off the polls in november. they don't want to replace him with someone just like him. back to you. melissa: edward lawrence, thank you. i dope think there is anyone just like the president. fox news alert president trump speaking to the reporters on the south lawn. we gave you a little bit of that video.

meantime consolidating the party. establishment democrats rallying behind joe biden, hoping to block front-runner bernie sanders from clinching the nomination as recent dropouts and former rivals pete buttigieg and amy klobuchar are falling in step. take a look at the front page of "the new york post." i like that. so can they get it done? can they stop bernie sanders? who better to ask than our own charlie hurt, "the washington times" opinion editor and a fox news contributor? judging from the cover of the post there, charlie, this is as wild and crazy as we kind of thought it was going to be. what are your thoughts? >> really is. melissa, what we've seen over the past week the entire shift of the democratic party has gone from people getting behind the different nominees and candidates to anything to stop bernie sanders and, look, tonight, i think it is going to be, it will be interesting to see what comes out of tonight. but, anyway you slice it, bernie

sanders looks to probably win in pretty much the majority of the states that are up, for super tuesday tonight. but the other thing that is kind of interesting, in all but two recent polling suggests that he will at least take delegates from every single one of those states. that is important. because going forward, from here on out. it is all about the race to 1991 and what we're seeing. one of the reasons i think you're seeing elizabeth warren for example, stay in the race because democrats in washington, establishment democrats who are desperate to stop bernie sanders, are encouraging her to just go the distance, stay as long as you can because they feel like she is the only person out there who is capable of siphoning off highest concentration of bernie sanders supporters from the rest of the field, so-called moderate lane although i don't think it is all that moderate. melissa: it is such an interesting calculation because if you cashed out all your chips

yesterday and the day before. maybe that was the last time you had chips really valuable, you could get something out of the party or joe biden before it was too late. on the other hand like you said if there is only one other third person in there towards the end, that person, you know, if it is elizabeth warren and biden and bernie, then she has that much more power because xi is the only one left with something to give away. what would you have done? >> the other thing about her is, that she is also playing very nice with bernie sanders. i think that is because she does sort of see herself as being in unique position. melissa: they seem like they hate each other though. there has been a lot of ugliness. >> when reporters try to pin her down to get her to say nasty things about bernie sanders she doesn't do it. i think the reason for that she feels like she has an opportunity to sort of preen herself as a vice president. but here is the other thing. this to me the most interesting thing. you have mike bloomberg has spent over a half billion

dollars on his campaign. nobody has ever done that in history of american politics. so we have, this is first time he is on the ballot. we have not seen -- melissa: playing the music. like the academy awards. we love it. >> i haven't thanked everybody yet. melissa: thank you. silicon valley. go ahead scroll up, divided. tech elites and workers differing who they want as democratic nominee. plus, connell? connell: capitol hill, melissa taking on the coronavirus or trying to at some point. details as we know how close congress is coming to agreement on emergency funding. we'll have that when we come back. ♪. leads the industry in value while our competition continues to talk. ♪ talk, talk

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by consolidating your credit card debt into one monthly payment. and get your interest rate right so you can save big. get a no-fee personal loan up to $100k. connell: now to the race to secure funding. bipartisan negotiators on capitol hill have been closing in we're told on what will likely be a seven 1/2 billion dollar emergency spending bill to fight the coronavirus. it could be ready for president trump's signature by friday. that's the latest we have from

senator patrick leahy, top democrat on the senate appropriations committee. here to talk about it now is a congressman from a state we're broadcasting from, north carolina, patrick mchenry, house financial services committee ranking member here on capitol hill. i want to talk about the state of politics if we can in a few minutes, first on the funding bill, what is going on here? why is it taking so long? what is the latest? >> it is not taking so long. we have fully funded government programs that can respond to the current needs for our health care system and that's good. we want to be prepared for what may hit us in the coming weeks or months. that active preparation means it will take a couple weeks for us on capitol hill, maybe a week or two for us to finalize additional funding so we are fully prepared for the coronavirus. connell: what's the push/pull on it? there is old joke there is no

kind ever fiscal responsibility in washington anymore but if there was, would be probably somebody talking about that. are you concerned as serious as the virus is, the money, 7 1/2 or $8 billion is too much? what kind of negotiating goes on, on something like this? >> i think what you see from a few members, especially here in the house. they want to add additional items on that have nothing to do with responding to the crisis. that have something to do with their politics. we should be about ensuring these agencies are fully funded. that capacity is there. that we're not ridiculous about shoveling money out the door. we want to be measured in it. we want to signal that we're prepared. not we're writing huge checks with the, with the expectation that the worse is going to happen. we can respond quickly. we can insure the agencies are funded. we can do it multiple times in a month. so this is not funding for the next year. this should be funding for the next month, two months, three

months. and so there is a little bit of push and pull how you properly appropriate and properly respond in a measured way. connell: fair enough. i want to talk, as i said about your state, sometime here in the home state of north carolina, covering super tuesday. you know, i'm sure as outside observer looking in, the democratic race will be interesting, to watch on the presidential side. but what about the state more broadly? is north carolina, democrats got excited about, after president obama won in '08. is north carolina truly a swing state? democrats tell you a lot of young new voters registering to vote, they will lean democrat, what kind of a state is this? >> this is a state that leans to the right but just ever so slightly. our urban centers of the triad in charlotte predominate the

liberal votes in north carolina. the rest of the state is largely republican with very have view exceptions. you see liberal votes aligned where you are in charlotte, urban areas, the rest of the state is right of center. that is the push and pull of pole ticks in north carolina in state elections. whether thom tillis up for re-election or the fight for the governorship. but we have a majority of our delegation in congress is republican. majority of the statehouse and senate is republican. slightly right ever center state but pragmatic in nature. connell: you saw, relates to something you're pushing in congress, i want to ask you about it quickly. >> sure. connell: the democratic candidates have been coming after i guess the investor class for lack of a better word, coming after wall street and assess a financial transaction tax. that is one of things many candidates propose to pay for

many programs they propose. you were in particular trying to fight back against that. tell us about that briefly. >> the financial transaction tax is small tax, that bernie sanders and elizabeth warren only fall on wall street. the reality if you invest like 43% of the american people have mutual funds or have a retirement account you will have to work longer, and pay more in taxes as a result of this tax. it is a horrible idea. this is a great example where pragmatic, reasonable people look at this as destructive tax. it means people have to work for the financial transaction tax in particular, you have to work 2 1/2 years longer to have the same retirement benefits. that is not appropriate. likewise bernie sanders wants to further tax start-up employees. those taking risky decisions for their career to start something new and innovative idea. wants to tax them on top of his higher taxes. these things would take a state like north carolina and move them into the republican column when democrats and socialists

like bernie sanders are proposing these very, very bad and destructive high taxes on assortment of people. that is why i'm spending time -- connell: you want to have hearings, yes. >> right. connell: it will be a big issue i would think going into the fall. thank you, congressman. we'll continue to cover it. like you say make sure people understand it. we'll have more -- thanks to congressman mchenry joining us from washington. we'll have more from charlotte. back to you, melissa in new york. melissa: connell, thank you. tune in tonight fox business's special super tuesday coverage hosted by neil cavuto. starts at 8:00 p.m. eastern. i for one cannot wait. devastation in tennessee. deadly tornadoes leaving a path of destruction across the state. we're live on the ground as the governor declares a state of emergency. we'll have more from north carolina as well. connell? connell: former vice president joe biden, melissa, taking up a series of crucial endorsement as

we in the span of 24 hours. will it be enough to him catch up to bernie sanders? we have a guy who knows the former vice president pretty well and raised a lot of money for democrats over the years. we'll be back live from charlotte. ♪ ♪ ♪ colon cancer screening for people 45 plus at average risk. some things are harder than you thought. and others are easier. like screening for colon cancer with me, cologuard. i'm noninvasive and you use me at home. i'm also effective. i find 92% of colon cancers

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super tuesday according to the fec after being the industry harshest critics. will this impact tonight's results? here is james freeman from "the wall street journal." he is also a fox news contributor. i thought this was amazing because, so this was the majority of tech workers who made contributions to presidential candidates were managerial or midlevel employees like engineers, managers and analysts. they gave the most to bernie sanders f you're looking at apple and bernie sanders is saying your company isn't paying enough tax, why do you want him in the white house? >> it's, you know these various tech platforms, social media platforms they created in silicon valley, they're wonderful for virtue signaling but i think now this is actually going to count. i would just encourage the workers there just as a lot of the venture capitalists out there are encouraging them to look at what you're talking about here. this is, this is not scandinavia as bernie sanders likes to say.

he is proposing taxes on wealth and on business that they are far in excess what you see in those relatively free economies and it is really an attack on kind of the silicon valley model of building great companies and, yes, wealth comes into it. he doesn't think billionaires ought to exist. if you say billionaires shouldn't exist, you can almost guarranty the next generation of apples and facebooks will be built in some other country. melissa: it is so interesting. originally when you see lots of people say work at walmart, who support bernie sanders or amazon. you think of them as being the lowest worker on the rung who doesn't think they're getting a fair shake, okay, maybe they wouldn't realize it by virtue of hurting the company. they're going to fire people at the low end because they have to make up costs somewhere. if you're a midlevel manager, you're saying you want bernie sanders to punish your company, maybe it virtue signaling, what

you're really doing, yanking up the ladder behind you. you made it to the upper middle class or made it to the point where you provide foreyour family to send people to college. you will then hurt the company so all the people behind it you won't make it to your level? >> that is a good point. to me i find it kind of amazing it is at this moment that bernie sanders is achieving such support within the democratic party given in california, every other state that is voting today, you have extremely low unemployment rates, below 4% in a lot of places. below 3% in many of the states voting today. so it's odd when you talk about where his message would appeal but i think, yes, especially in silicon valley which used to have tradition, it was known as left-wing libertarianism. very liberal socially but they liked open markets. they liked small government. they didn't want the government telling them what to do.

now with the rank-and-file as you point out has really changed for the worst. i would urge those that haven't voted in the california primary think again whether you want toe go to full on leap off the marxist clip or go for a liberal, still, a biden or bloomberg who still thinks you ought to be able to build a technology company in america. melissa: i don't know. we'll see. james, thank you. >> thanks, melissa. connell: all right. you know riding the surge against bernie sanders and i guess elizabeth warren has been joe biden of course and he came into super tuesday on a high note from that overwhelming win he had in south carolina so the question people have been asking whether he can carry that momentum into states like this one or will it prove to be too little too late? robert wolf, former economic advisor to president obama, robert, you know the former vice president as well. tell me, the allusion to early

voting, so many people in north carolina voted before the south carolina result came in, same deal in california. so did this biden surge in turn come a little late or will the timing be just right? >> the surge definitely came late in the sense he is probably not going to do as well as he would have in california and north carolina, colorado, that had huge, maybe, 30% of their voters went early but the surge came well in perspective that you know, he is probably going to cut the bernie momentum maybe winning by 3 to 400 delegates. he will probably cut that in half to around 200 or less. i think you will see him do a southern sweep. he will probably win north carolina. he will win oklahoma, tennessee, arkansas. i think he is going to win virginia. i think he will close the gap in others but he will not be in the delegate lead after today. i think, connell, what a lot of

people are not looking at, what comes after super tuesday. he will do well in georgia, florida, mississippi. will do well in industrial america with pennsylvania and wisconsin. so i think looking forward, the light at the end of the tunnel is really there for him. connell: you know, some comparisons have been made on the republican side. there are a number of differences. number one, no winner-take-all on the democratic side. they award delegates proportionally. that is different. comparison i saw was interesting, the republicans never, quote, unquote cleared the field against then candidate donald trump. there was never a one-on-one matchup. are the democrats maybe doing that in time? i know mike bloomberg will still be there with all his money. for people who raise money like you, will it be one-on-one, biden and bernie after tonight? >> connell, i've been pretty disappointed in the primary season with the lack of winnowing the field. as we know in 2018 it winnowed

down to 2018 to hillary, obama and edwards. in 2016 it was bernie and hillary. a week ago we still had seven people plus on the debate stage. i'm glad the field is winnowed. i think mayor pete and amy klobuchar did the right thing. i think it will winnow more. i'm not sure it is going to. if you do the math after tomorrow we'll know whether it will be a contested convention or someone can hit the 1990 plus one. feeling more like it to me it will be difficult for someone to hit that number. connell: a lot more bets on that. speaking of bets, prediction markets made biden the favorite to be the nominee. we'll see whether they're right. >> great work. connell: first time to what we talked about on the 2020 ballot tonight will be mike bloomberg. what can we expect from mr. bloomberg on this super tuesday? we'll talk about it as polls begin to close just a few hours from now. we'll have that. plus, we'll also talk to business owners here in the

state of north carolina. we have had a good time here the last few days. look at that beautiful chapel hill where we were yesterday. we'll talk about the 2020 race in this all-important state if you stay with us. we'll be right back. ♪. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ let's be honest. quitting smoking is hard. like, quitting every monday hard. quitting feels so big. so try making it smaller, and you'll be surprised at how easily starting small can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette.

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melissa: 500 million-dollar bet. mike bloomberg appearing on the ballots for the very first time today as voters across 14 states are heading to the polls. hillary vaughn is on the ground in palm beach where bloomberg is holding a rally tonight. hillary? >> reporter: melissa, mike bloomberg placed all his bets on the super tuesday ballot here. even if he does not pull off a sweep he will have made history already for the most expensive self-funded campaign in history. bloomberg told reporters here in florida today he is not worried about winning any of the 14 states. he thinks his best shot at the nomination is a contested convention. >> i don't think that i can win any other ways. i find that it offensive that bernie sanders, who the last time he ran was in favor of that kind of a convention and now is opposed to it. >> reporter: last night, 2020 dropouts like mayor pete

buttigieg, amy klobuchar backed out of the race. bloomberg says joe biden is the spoiler, not him. >> joe's taking votes away from me and i think that is true. hopefully -- >> you're also taking votes away from joe biden. >> it goes in both directions. have you asked joe is dropping out. >> i cover you. >> when you ask me that, you can call me. >> reporter: even if he didn't wouldn't one state tonight, bloomberg made it clear he is in the race until july. he has no intention dropping out. melissa: feisty there. too bad he didn't make that in the debate. connell. connell: business person in the race to talking to business people about the race as we continue here in charlotte. this state of north carolina has been growing. if you look at the numbers, we talk a little bit about yesterday, more than a million new voters have registered since the last presidential election

was held here which is a in 2016 that means local businesses have been adding workers. we do have a pretty good cross-section of workers to talk about the local economy with us, doug joins us, duke energy executive vice president, and david smith, essentially our host, echo park automotive ceo. we're enjoying our time at echo park here in charlotte. thanks for that. david, i thought i would start there, david work back, we'll talk with doug as well. new vote remembers workers right? many people tell moo area is expanding before we all talked about something called coronavirus which we can talk about. tell me about the area where you have been expanding? >> absolutely. we're expanding here at our echo park location. we opened this store about a year-and-a-half ago. we have several dealerships here in the charlotte area. also we recently opened our guest experience center in lowell just down the road from here. we have 100 people working

there. we'll expand that to 500 people. connell: strong economy. the outlook would have been, put the virus aside for a moment, it would come to that. what about your business in energy. how have things been looking? >> we've had a lot of strong opportunities to invest in infrastructure. connell: yeah. >> we've taken advantage of that. smartening up the grid. putting on intelligence that can help us communicate with customers better, to, you know, cleaner energy and cleaner energy options. so we have a 10 billion plus a year investment that we make and 56 million for the next five years that creates a ton of jobs, opportunities for construction and as well as operating assets we have. connell: are you worried about the future? we had a segment about mike bloomberg, but any of candidates more to the left, bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, you hear them go after your industry. are you worried about it on the policy front? >> not really. what i believe in, connell, there is a need for infrastructure.

there is a need to decarbonize the economy. i think our different points of view how to get there. we believe the path through gas is really important, natural gas because we think that is the way to keep the grid reliable. also keep transition more affordable for customers. we can still get to that zero carbon by 20 my which is our pledge at duke energy but through a gas option. many want to go straight to renewables, we believe that creates challenges for the grid reliability and reliability of the product we come to appreciate. connell: dave, ask but the virus. everybody seems to say there is some economic concern bit. you're selling cars. i don't know that people will say i won't buy a new car but you never know. the mindset of people seems to be the story rather than concerned they are for their own physical health. what do you say about the out look economically? >> we had a great start to the start of the year. so far hasn't affected us but

consumer confidence is everything. connell: that is helping you so much. >> that's key. hopefully they will solve this issue shortly here and have a vaccine and it won't affect all of under the circumstances. that is very important. we have to keep optimistic view in the market in order for people to come out and buy cars. connell: thank you to both of you for coming. thanks for hosting us, david, number one. >> thanks for being here. connell: doug you made a big effort coming down from washington to be here as well. good perspective on the charlotte area. melissa, back to you in new york. melissa: from north carolina we go to tennessee. devastating tornadoes hitting nashville and the surrounding areas. have you seen these pictures? we're on the ground surveying the damage next. ahh no, come on. i saw you eating poop earlier. my focus is on the road, and that's saving me cash with drivewise.

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melissa: big emergency in tennessee, diseadl deadly tornas slamming the state, killing at least 21 people and thousands

without power. reporter: there are scenes like this up and town main street this building almost unrecognizable. you can see how powerful the winds were this no parking sign is bent, twisted. in the background. the concert venue, the basement east is destroyed. we're close to where two of people of the 22 who passed away. you see scenes like this up and down the street, up road east nashville neighborhood we talked to someone in their house at the time that storm was moving through. >> moment i heard that we grabbed my 8-year-old son out of his bed, we didn't make it to our safe space, we huddled with blankets over us over the door frame, we heard windows blow and

cracks, you could hear the devastation, we peeled out of our house, and looked and saw all of this devastation. reporter: search and rescue crews have spent much of the day going through debris like this, seeing if there is anyone else under the rubble injured or killed. right now death toll is 22. we know today was a primary day, part of super tuesday here in tennessee, there are polling places that had to close because of storm damage. i talked with a voter who said he ended up not voting it was too much of a hassle to get to the next polling place. certainly a challenging super tuesday hire as voters go to polls, but, top of our mind is those who were lost. melissa. melissa: absolutely, grady. no doubt it will be another factor that will come back and we'll talk about.

thank you so much. connell terrific job, a lot to watch today, and those tornadoes adds to it. yeah,. connell: i'll see you tomorrow in new york. melissa: "bulls and bears" starts right now. >> a wild day for the market, stocks rocked by a rare emergency move by federal reserve, meant to calm investors fears over economic impact of the coronavirus. it did not. the dow down 800, all 3 major averages ending nearly 3% lower on the day, we'll have more on that, but first. this is "bulls and bears," i am liz claman in for david asman, democratic candidate brace themselves for biggest election day on party primary calendar, a virtual delegate gold rush with