>> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation." we continue our conversation now with south carolina republican senator lindsey graham. senator, we were talking about the president's tweet this morning, the requests that have been made of you in terms of continuing investigations. this morning on fox rudy giuliani is continuing to say, "you are telling him not my job, not my job, man," when it comes to information he says he's handing over. you were just saying that any information coming out of ukraine needs to be dealt with carefully and sceptically because it's likely the product of some kind of russian intelligence operation. >> have we learned anything from christopher steele's dossier? it was all a bunch of garbage fed to christopher steele to go

after trurch. >> brennan: that's what you think rudy giuliani is delivering, garbage? >> i don't know. i'm telling schumer, don't vouch for parnas. don't put him in the gallery. i'm telling rudy, you think you got the goods? don't give it to me, because what do we know? we know the russian disinformation campaign was used against president trump. they hacked into the dnc system, not the ukrainians. and they're on the ground all over the world trying to affect democracy all over the world. >> brennan: who is paying rudy giuliani? >> i don't know. here's my message to rudy: if you have something coming from the ukraine, turn it over to the intelligence people, the department of justice, to any democrat. you think parnas has something on me, well then go to the department of justice and the intelligence committee, do not pass this stuff on. >> brennan: okay. i want to ask you, as well, because you have served in the u.s. air force, you are a military lawyer, a jag, do you support president trump's

decision to dismiss alexander vindman, the lieutenant colonel who was serving on the national security council who was compelled by a subpoena to go under oath and testify against the president? >> i think his reassignment was justified. i don't think he could be effective as the nsc. as much as i supported our military people telling the truth when asked, it's important they do, what have i learned in the last two years? c.i.a. agents, department of justice lawyers, f.b.i. agents have a political agenda, and they acted on it. we found that out through the fisa investigation, as did colonel vindman, who was not allowed to be asked connections connections -- asked questions about his connection to the alleged whistleblower. they did not allow the republicans to go down that road. >> brennan: his brother was also marched out of the white house. his brother also served in the military and had no connection to this. >> nobody knows. this i can promise you this:

he's never been asked questions: did you leak to the whistleblower? people in his chain of command have been suspicious of him regarding his political point of view. >> brennan: the national secured adviser to the president sat in the chair you're sitting in last week and said he was confident that there were no leaks from the national security council. >> well, i am not. i want the man to be asked about what he did with the information. i appreciate his ser voice, but there are f.b.i. agents who took the law in their own hands. there are c.i.a. agents who took the law in their own hands. there are department of justice lawyers who have lied to the court. there has been a movement since president trump was elected to take him down. >> brennan: is this retaliation? the president tweeted saying that vindman was forced at not because of any kind of policy issue, not because of anything elseept e said was listening in on his phone calls and giving -- >> we're not going to be intimidated against asking questions to the whistleblower. who is the whistleblower? >> he is an officer and he is

not allowed to speak out on his own behalf, neither are his fellow military officers. >> he was shut down. i don't know what role he played if the whistleblower winy, but we're going the look. i like joe biden, he's a fine man, but we're not going to give you a pass the. >> brennan: should gordon sondland have been fired, as well. >> he's political appointee. he serves at the pleasure of the president. >> brennan: of course, but it was retaliation. >> we're not going to live in a world where the department of justice, the c.i.a., and f.b.i. can cut corners, go after trump, and nobody gives a damn. as to colonel vindman, thank you fo your service, but i'm going to -- hopefully somebody will ask questions of you about the role you played with the whistleblower if any. i there is nothing there, fine. >> brennan: all right, senator graham, thank you for joining us this morning. when we come back, a rare interview with the chinese ambassador to the u.s. we will ask him coronavirus. obama: he's been a leader

throughout the country for the past twelve years, mr. michael bloomberg is here. vo: leadership in action. mayor bloomberg and president obama worked together in the fight for gun safety laws, to improve education, and to develop innovative ways to help teens gain the skills needed to find good jobs. obama: at a time when washington is divided in old ideological battles he shows us what can be achieved when we bring people together to seek pragmatic solutions. bloomberg: i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. (w)yoar digitaanorma ver ops. vewe weave security into their busin.. onn) digivirtualize operations...

(third man) and could even build ai into their customer experiences. we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. like 5g. (woman) where machines could talk to each other and expertise could go anywhere. (woman) when it comes to digital transformation, verizon keeps business ready. ♪ >> brennan: we want the take a closer look at efforts to contain the now over 37,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus

in china where the death toll stands at at least 811. joining us to talk more about the 2 -- the virus is chinese's ambassador to the u.s. welcome to "face the nation," ambassador cui. our condolences for these hundreds of fatalities. why hasn't the virus been contained? >> well, you see, this is a new virus, so virtually very few people knew anything about it at the beginning. people are still learning to discover more about the virus and how it affects people and the channels of infections and trying their best to stop it. >> brennan: the u.s. has offered repeatedly to send c.d.c. experts, american experts to help out. why does beijing continue to ignore those offers? >> i don't think it's been ignored. first of all -- >> brennan: but you haven't said yes.

>> well, we welcome the american experts to participate in our efforts, and we are cooing organization, because a lot of things are done under the auspices of the world health organization. we certainly welcome american experts to join the group that the w.h.o. is assembling. and i'm sure they will be going to china very soon. >> brennan: do you expect americans to be there as part of the who but you don't want the c.d.c. there? >> first of all, american experts are on the list recommended by the w.h.o. we certainly respect... i think all of us respect the w.h.o. as the most professional intergovernmental body in the world. and for the u.s. c.d.c., they have very frequent regular contact with their chinese counterparts, the chinese c.d.c. even beyond that, some american experts have come to china already on their own individual

basis. so there is ongoing contact, not only between the two governments but also between the two.c.s and between the academic institutions and even some american companies are also offering help, technical help. >> brennan: well, i ask the question, because it also gets at there's a lot of unknown and a lot of suspicion because of that. and, in fact, this week senator tom cotton, who sits on the senate intelligence and armed services committee suggested the virus may have come from china's biological warfare program. that's an extraordinary charge. how do you respond to that? >> i think it's true that a lot is still unknown, and our scientists, chinese scientist, american scientists, scientists of other countries are doing their best to learn more about the virus. but it's very harmful, very dangerous to stir up suspicion, rumors, and spread them among

the people. for one thing, this will create panic. another thing is that it will fan up racial discrimination, xenophobeback all these things that will really harm our joint efforts to combat the virus. of course, there are all kinds of speculation and rumors. there are people suggesting these virus are coming from some military lab, not in china, maybe in the united states. how can we believe all these crazy things? >> brennan: you think it's crazy? where did the virus come from? >> absolutely crazy. >> brennan: where did the virus come from? >> we still don't know yet. it's probably, according to initial research, it's probably come from some animal, but we have to discover more about it. >> brennan: there has been some outcry on social media, particularly after the death of the doctor who had made public warnings for weeks before the

government acknowledged this was hanging. in fact, authorities had forced him to disavow what he had said previously, which turned out to be true. the communist party of china is now investigating this. why? >> well, we are all very saddened about the death of dr. li. he is a good doctor. he was a devoted doctor. and he did his best to protect people's health. we are so grateful to him. but, you see, he was a doctor, and a doctor could be alarmed by some individual cases, but as for the government, you have to do more, you have to base your decisions, your announcements on more solid evidence and science. >> brennan: do you think silencing him in the beginning was a mistake? >> i don't know who tried to silence him, but there was certainly disagreement or people were not able to reach agreement

on what exactly the virus, is how it is affecting people. so there was a process of trying to discover more, to learn more about the virus. maybe some people reacted not quickly enough. maybe dr. li, he perceived some incoming dangers earlier than others, but this could happen anywhere. but whenever we found there are some shortcomings, we will do our best to correct it. >> brennan: have chinese authorities detained the citizen journalist chen? he has disappeared, and his videos revealed a lot of what was happening with this virus? >> i'm sorry, i have never heard of this guy, so i don't have any information to share with you. >> brennan: his videos are how the rest of the world has seen some of the images of what's happeningism want to also ask you quickly, secretary of state mike pompeo gave an extraordinary speech yesterday to a number of governors from all around the united states, an

he harshly criticized the chinese communist party, and he said that your country is targeting state, cities, schools, academic institutions to try to figure out how to exploit them. what exactly is the intention of the chinese government, because th secretary of state says it's not good? >> i always believe the real foundation of china-u.s. relations is the friendship and mutual understanding between our people. so this is the root of relations. and there is such enthusiasm among american states, cities, and towns and ordinary americans to learn more about china, to develop friendships with chinese people, to facilitate cooperation between the two countries. i don't think anybody has any reason to go against the will of ecifically oealkn ajiboncentration campsng

hiutin a smerican institutions inadvertently investing in surveillance of muslim minorities. >> do you want to respond to that point? >> that's totally wrong. we're thinking about how the combat terrorism. some years ago, until most recently, people in shin jiang were victims to rising terrorist attacks. that there were thousands of such attacks hurting and even killing hundreds of thousands of people. so we have to do something to stop this threat to the very well-being and the lives of the people there. >> brennan: okay. >> so without tremendous effort, now for the last three years there has been no such terrorist attack. so people have a much better safety there, security there, and people are happy there. >> brennan: all right.ht back ww

numbers from our cbs news battleground tracker.

>> brennan: we turn now to some political analysis from our panel, jeffrey goldberg is the editor of the chief in the atlantic. leslie sanchez is a cbs news political contributor. jamal simmons is the host on hill tv and a cbs news political contributor, and jerry sy is the executive "wall street journal" editor. way on the get to the numbers, but i think we need to digest some of what we just heard. jeffrey, the chinese ambassador at the tail end of our interview said people in shin jiang china are very happy. to be clear, the u.s. government says there are between one and three million muslim minorities in camps. the pentagon called them concentration camps. >> right. >> brennan: how do we knowing that kind of denial of what is established fact, how do we understand everything he told us? >> well, what you have to understand is that the chinese government is lying about the

nature of what's happening in these camps. when you take between one and three million people of a particular ethnic group against their will and concentrate them in prison camps for reeducation, it seems like fair thing to say that that's a concentration camp. the chinese ambassador is arguing the people are happy. i would simply suggest that you should let the international media in to these camps and we'll go ask them ourselves. >> brennan: i will take them up on that offer. >> a panel road trip. >> brennan: there we go. it is -- i wanted to make sure we didn't leave that there. jerry, i want to pick up with you with some of what we heard from senator graham, as well. the president sent that tweet right as the show went on the air. it was directedly aimed at one of our guest, who he knew was going to be appearing. what did you make of what lindsey graham said he was willing to do and what the president seemed to be asking him to do. >> i think first of all we're at an awkward transition point.

we're moving beyond impeachment and beyond the mueller report potentially, but the president doesn't really want to. he wants some retribution. you saw that over the weekend with the firing of witnesses. he wants to know who is the whistleblower, and he wants the bidens investigated. i think lindsey graham was saying, hold on, let's not go down that path. don't turn me into the republican party's christopher steele, as he said here. so i think you have the emergence of some tension within the trump coalition about whether we want to continue going down this path or maybe it's time to declare victory and move on. >> brennan: leslie, doesn't that get back at the heart of what the impeachment inquiry was about, which was this question of things being aimed with taxpayer dollars at actually being part of a political opposition research arm rather than what they are officially called? >> well, that's particularly the case with findsback right? and the president has strong grounds to stand on when he was saying that there was an extension beyond what it should have been. i think you have to look at it from a political lens. the president knows there is a

lot of -- he called it witch hunt, he called it corruption, that he wants illuminated. he wants more transparent similar he's really relying on the senate to do that. i know we talk about this. politically it works. politically it's part of an effort that galvanizes and really builds a cohesive base behind the president wanting to eliminate these issues. >> it's amazing to me that they want to ill lula da illuminate n they refused to call witnesses in an impeachment trial when we were having real-time information coming for people to tef as to what the president was up to. now the president is firing people from their jobs. i this i we're now seeing donald trump unleashed, and it's as frightening as people thought it would be. >> brennan: you believe these investigations will continue as long as joe biden stays in this presidential race. >> i'm sure. and then he'll move on the

someone else. they'll find some way else to go after pete buttigieg or whoever is the front-runner. >> the pattern in washington is to move on, but donald trump doesn't move on. that's what we'll see. >> brennan: joe biden, we'll see how he fares on tuesday, but he didn't have a very good week, at least a rocky start, certainly out in iowa. you know, he was thought to be at least in the top three. iowa was a distant fourths inch our most recent battleground tracker numbers, the current rankings, bernie sanders as we mentioned, top spot, 29%, pete buttigieg at 25%. third, elizabeth warren at 17%. then b then amy klobuchar, 10%. and this survey in the field before the debates. we'll see if these numbers are fluid. up in new hampshire, where the poll was conducted. whatdo we make of this? i mean, joe biden still in the fourth spot here, jamal?

>> he is. and i got to tell you, when i take a look at this and i see joe biden in fourth place in iowa, i see him perhaps in fourth place in new hampshire, i'm not sure what happens in nevada, but there is this sense that he's going to hold on until south carolina. that just defies all political logic. each one of these things is building on each other. i think voters he's counting on, those older african american voters in south carolina are paying attention. and if he looks like -- they're with him, but if he's not winning, i'm not sure if he holds on. and elizabeth warren seems to overperform her poll numbers, so she's probably in third place, maybe she comes up a little bit better. and bernie sanders, though, is probably going to win another one of these states, which means that democrats in d.c. and around the country are going to be really wrestling with what to do next. >> brennan: leslie, is that the republican best hope to, have bernie sanders be the nominee? >> absolutely, because the contrast will be very stark. and i want to go back to this

impeachment issue, jamal work all due respect. the one thing that it did do from a political standpoint is it accelerated the campaign, not only in organizing the president's message, which has proven to be effective, but it has increased the negatives on the hunter biding issue, the effect real real politic with joe biden. it's been very impactful. but money, they raised $117 million, the trump campaign, just within the time of impeachment some while the party is very organized around this message and around, you know, the contrast to that, the democrats are obviously very fractured and you'll see more about that. >> brennan: jeffrey, the president essentially lauraned his own reelection giving the state of the union this week. prior to that he had the super bowl ad. he seems to be making a push at trying to build support among

minorities in particular. he thinks that that's winnable for him. he's really focused on that in his ads and he focused on it iõo ' language. >> he was not only relaunching his reelection campaign. he was also seemingly relaunching a new real ty tv show at the same time. there was a consorted effort to work on african american votes. that's through various prison reform,, judicial reform issues. he doesn't do terribly poorly with la tee no males in some parts of the country. we've all said this in a million different ways. take away twitter from donald trump, take away some of the extra meanness, and focus the message, he could reach certain minority communities, people of color in ways that he's not. i'm wondering if he has the discipline to keep this pivot going or the next time a person of color annoys him he goes out

of his way to attack him and remind people what his record is on questions of race. but there is definitely an effort. >> i'll send this flag up to the democratic party. people need to understand this. we talked to terrence woodbury, a young african american pollster. he has been saying for months that he thinks trump is going very hard at african american american, particularly younger african american, kim and kanye west, asap rocky getting out of sweden, hbcu money. he has a whole list of things the president has been doing. he's not going to let up. he doesn't have to win it. he just has to tick it up a couple points in some key places to have it count. and democrats need to have a candidate who really has a strategy about how to deal with that. if bernie sanders is not the nominee, i will tell you, a lot of bernie sanders' voters anti-establishment voters more than they're democrats. they might get wooed by donald trump. >> this comes at a time when the hottest democratic presidential candidate happens to be pete buttigieg, who has noticeable problems with the african american community, so maybe there is a kind of harmonic convergence here, but i wanted to add that the other person who had a great week was michael

bloomberg. so the scenario that's unfolding right now is got to be exactly the one that bloomberg had in mind when he got into the race late, a fade by joe biden, growing concern within the democratic party about nominating someone as liberal as bernie sanders and a really redillian president trump emerging as a threat to win reelection. that's the bloomberg formula. it's all kind of fallen into place this week. so he's sitting on the shiend right now listening to everything we're talking about and saying, well, that's my bargain when i got it. >> brennan: all right. thanks to all of you for helping us digest it all. we will be right back. learn. grow with google is here to help you with turning ideas into action. putting your business on the map, connecting with customers, and getting the skills to use new tools. so, in case you're looking, we've put all the ways we can help in one place. free training, tools, and small business resources

are now available at google.com/grow

with with be seen on cbsn and our website. really important numbers, very timely. we thank anthony for all he does for "face the nation." until next week, for "face the nation," i'm margaret brennan. captioning sponsored by cbs

battleground new hampshire. democrats ramp up their attacks on each other before the first in the nation primary. >> we need to bring new voices to washington, d.c. also tonight, president trump strikes back with impeachment behind him, the president attacks his critics and takes aim at winning reelection. coronavirus deaths top sars. how the outbreak is hurting businesses across this country. plus new worry for americans struggling with medical debt. >> you wouldn't think you would go to jail over a medical bill. and no bones about it. in the dog eat dog world of politics, this california town has found the perfect candidate for mayor. >> my favorite politician. ♪