good evening and welcome to "politicsnation." tonight's lead, they did the right thing, but the impeachment trial of donald trump ended friday nearly a week before its public verdict. the senate vote yesterday against allowing trial witnesses

saw republicans remained unmoved by house democrats. a party-line vote rendering the impeachment proceedings effectively over. yes, senators will make their symbolic closing statements going into wednesday's final vote, but when all is said and done, president trump will remain firmly in office, drawing comparisons by some to a king. but i'll stick to what i've always called him, a mob boss. now looking to settle scores in november. because that's when we'll see if american voters punish democrats for overreaching with impeachment as the president's supporters continued to warn, will the trump presidency tarnished by the trial be taken down by the ballot box as democratic leadership originally

preferred? the first nominating contest to determine which democrat will deliver that end is roughly 48 hours away in iowa. where most of the candidates are stumping hard this weekend. i'll talk to one big-name candidate who isn't in iowa, but still is climbing in the polls, former new york city mayor michael bloomberg. but first, joining me now a juror on the president's trial, democratic senator from colorado michael bennet. he is also a 2020 presidential candidate. back on the campaign trail in new hampshire. senator, let me ask you, what does the fact that they did not allow, they voted to stop any witnesses, any further documents coming in. what does this say to the country about where we are in terms of the ability to impeach

a president and where the standard of impeachment is? >> i think, rev, it's a very dangerous moment for our democracy. i think that mitch mcconnell, because of the way he wrote the rules, has engaged in a cover-up flash flood donald trump. whether people are leaning toward conviction or acquittal, the question that he resolved with help from his companferencr caucus was to deny the american people to get to the bottom of what donald trump did. so i think it was the most significant anti-democratic, small "d" democratic exercise that i've seen in the time i've been in washington. what it now means is that a president can act like a tyrant and congress can't even ask for documents. donald trump, even before what happened in the senate that happened in the senate, donald trump stonewalled the house of representatives, didn't allow a single witness or shred of

evidence to come in. even richard nixon would not have done that. if we can't get documents, we can't do oversight. if we can't do oversight, you know, our democracy is in real trouble and our democracy is in real trouble. >> does this essentially also threaten the equal -- coequal powers of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches and the executive branch can in effect thumb its nose at the legislative branch and basically do what it wants to do or not do what it doesn't want to do? >> exactly. exactly. and the problem is that it will last even beyond this president. it's dangerous enough with this president in charge. but if we have the equilibrium of the separation of powers collapse, it will affect everybody going forward. so it's why we got to elect a president who actually believes in democracy and thinks that's something -- an important charge we have to leave our kids and

our grandkids. donald trump doesn't care about our democracy, our kids, or grandkids. that's why he needs to be one-term president. >> now, were there any debates off the floor, off the record? can you share with us whether or not there was any kind of debate among the republicans to your knowledge of what precedent they were setting here? or were they all in lock step with whatever the president wants, that's what we're going to do and we don't care about what the constitution says or the founding fathers say? we are in line with this president? >> my sense is that mitt romney tried to make the case, but he fell on deaf ears because most of these guys are just terrified of donald trump. they were willing to sacrifice the constitution. they were willing to sacrifice the american people's right to know what their president did.

by the way, in the face of evidence that was coming out every day with people like john bolton saying i'm willing to testify, let me testify and what i'm going to tell you is the president told me to do illegal acts, now we have documents coming up from the justice department that can't be part of the record for the same reason. >> things are still coming out. you, you you can speak on the senators when they go back on monday. what are you going to say? >> what i'm going to say is that when the founding fathers created this republic of ours, they didn't create it believing we would agree with each other. they thought we would disagree with each other, but all those disagreements we would create more imaginative and durable solutions than any king or tyrant would come up with on their own. now we have sacrifice ed the rule of law for a tyrant, for somebody the founding fathers designed the senate and the house to be a bull work against,

to stand for the rule of law, to stand for the american people, and that we are in very dangerous times as a democracy. the fact that we've lasted for 230 years is not an assurance we'll last another 230 years. we need this president to be a one-term president so we can pass this democracy along to the next generation, the generation after that. our whole history, we've made huge mistakes n in general we fought to make our country more democratic, more fair and more free. donald trump is trying to take us in exactly the opposite direction. >> senator mai michael bennet, thank you for being with us. let's bring in maya wily, former u.s. assistant attorney and msnbc legal analyst. amy holmes is a political columnist and former speech writer for republican bill frisk. and david brock, chairman of the

democratic organization american bridge 21st century. maya, let me go to you first. the legal precedent that has been set now, what is impeachable? i mean, whether one likes donald trump or not, when we look at what the decision has all but been voted on now, and when we see a trial, if you go to the dictionary, a trial usually is defined as part of it being witnesses, documents, evidence, all available evidence. have we really changed the whole bar of what is the impeachment laws as it pertains to the president? >> that depends on what the people do. it is our elected officials, our senators, who decide how a trial works. this wasn't a trial. this was a travesty for the

reasons you say. we never have had an impeachment in this country that did not have witnesses and that did not -- >> never. >> never, never. bill clinton's impeachment had videotaped depositions, but there were still witnesses. >> there were no depositions by the president or any of his people in this trial? >> correct. in fact, what he did, which goes back to your question about the separation of powers is, he said you don't even get to ask me if i did wrong. that's essentially what he said by saying you can't talk to any of my people, you can't see any of my documents. i mean, imagine if you're the kid on the corner in your community and you're thinking about should i shake down that other kid for money or should i not? the president does it, so i can do it. except in your trial, that little kid's trial, he's going to have witnesses and he can't say there's people who know bad stuff about me so i'm not going

to let them talk at the trial. >> what does this do, amy, to national security when we're in effect saying now it is not impeachable for a president to hold foreign aid, military aid voted by the congress to a country that was under siege and we made a deal with on nuclear weapons in 1994? we're not going to give you any money unless you help me with my political career. what does that do to our national security? >> well, the money as we know was released. so i'm not sure that it was a threat to national security. >> but it was released after the whistle-blower said it shall. >> that's supposition and conjecture and it wasn't proven. in terms of impeachment, you can impeach a president on purely partisan grounds. if you have a majority in the house that decides we're going to go after articles of impeachment, point of fact, they didn't subpoena those witnesses from the white house on the house side. they didn't want to get into

that legal battle. they said, well, this doesn't work for our calendar because we'll be caught up in the courts. executive privilege is a real thing. every president has exercised it. the previous president, president obama, his attorney general didn't cooperate with congress. >> eric holder testified before congress. >> in fact, he was -- >> wait. we can have different opinions, we can't have different facts. eric holder testified before congress. so how do you say he didn't cooperate? he came and testified. >> he was found not -- >> did he testify? >> he testified. >> so that is cooperating. herpg he did not refuse to testify. >> so moving forward, i think a lot of people are looking at this and saying that impeachment now can be used as a political cudgel against a president you don't like. many of the house members that

had voted to impeach him we saw in 2018, tlaib, the congresswoman, he said now is the time to impeach the bleep. as steve kornacki was reporting, this is a game in washington. it's game in the washington media. >> but national security, which was my question to you, has nothing to do with a game. and i think to clearly deal with facts, the fact is that every president that dealt with impeachment, bill clinton -- i'm not finished. of the three, two of them cooperated and didn't do what this president did. that's a matter of fact. as i mentioned at the top of our show, the president's supporters are convinced impeachment will hurt democrats come november. let's take a listen to his biggest supporter, and please forgive the language. >> it was a bunch of partisan [ bleep ] in the house and continued in the senate. it's going to end wednesday. the president's going to get

requested and it's going to blow up in their face. that's what i think this is all about. >> david brock, is this going to blow up in their face? >> i don't think so at all. this is like the ford pardon of nixon. there's no acquittal without a real trial, and i think democrats can't say that enough and they will. and i think the real issue for the republicans is that this is a moving target. it's over in a sense, but in a sense it's not over because we haven't heard from john bolton, and we will. i think some of the investigations will continue in the house. they certainly could subpoena bolton. we still don't have donald trump's tax returns. and so there's going to be investigations. there were eight investigations of hillary clinton until they came up with the sham issue of the emails. so there's going to be continued investigation. and trump, let's talk about trump and this. you know, the last poll i leukemia looked

at showed republicans and republican leaners are 59% for definitely re-elect. he's under water in some of these swing states. the bombshell will be when we look at the five vulnerable senators who are up. i'd love to write those ads. cory cover-up gardner. you're going to see a real affect on the senate races. in these states that are swing states, there are red and blue voters. they're going to regret it as it comes out. >> maya, if mr. bolton is subpoenaed by the house, which clearly are past the impeachment acquittal, and we see even today after the vote against testimonies and documents, the fact that the evidence, the polish evidence that could have been in the trial keeps coming, we have emails today coming out

reported in the "times." how does this in your opinion weigh on the public that is going to have the ultimate vote in november? >> i think as we saw, 75% of americans wanted witnesses in the trial. and the fact that they didn't get them has some impact, it must, because basically americans understand a trial means witnesses. bolton will be a witness one way or the other, either his book will be the witness because the book will be published eventually. there is a thing called the first amendment. no one knows better what national security secrets can't be in a book than john bolton. so the idea that that book isn't coming out, it will come out. there will be news reports about it when it does. also to your point, a question about what happens legally in the house. hopefully bolton stakes to his position that he would testify if he got a subpoena. remember, he would not take that position in the house, but he did take that in the senate. >> what do the republicans say

that in tight races, you were a speech writer, how do they argue they decided to vote and say no witnesses, no documents when 75% of americans and even according to polls, the majority of republicans said they wanted to see witnesses and documents? >> i would say they're not going to prem it the way you just did in terms of loading up the question that way. but what we're already -- i don't think it was loaded, but go ahead. >> what we're already seeing is that president trump's approval has actually gone up since the impeachment process. >> that's not my question. my question is what are the senators going to say? >> they're going to look at reporters and constituents and the issues that matter to them. >> what are they going to say about their vote about evidence and documents when the public said they wanted to see them? >> we saw with senator lamar alexander who said the house came to us -- >> he won't be running. >> you asked what arguments. >> the candidates that are running that voted against what the public said they wanted.

>> i understand what you're saying, reverend. if you look at what senator lamar alexander said, and he is retiring, i understand that, but he framed it as saying if the house came to the senate with their case, they tried to make their case, i did not see it rising to the level of the president being removed from office. >> he said that it was wrong, so did marco rubio. >> for some of those senators in tight races, they're going to be looking at constituents. is this even an issue for those voters? number two, in terms of framing it, did this rise to the level of removing the president from office? what we've seen them say is the answer is no. >> they decided it without evidence. >> thank you all for being with us. amy and i like -- coming up, almost all the presidential candidates making their last-minute pitches to voters, except michael bloomberg, who is focusing on

super tuesday. i visited the bloomberg 2020 campaign headquarters and heard from the former new york city mayor. why he thinks only a new yorker can beat donald trump. but first, my colleague richard lui with today's top news stories. richard? >> thanks, rev. yet another case of coronavirus has been confirmed in the united states. this time in boston. the patient recently returned from wuhan china, the exposed origin of this disease. confirmed the number of american cases to eight. yesterday a public health emergency was declared. more than 250 people have died worldwide and more than 11,000 have been infected of. after 47 years of membership, today the united kingdom is officially out of the european union. the process dubbed brexit took nearly three years to complete. the occasion was marked by celebrations and a litany of anti-brexit protests. despite great big's departure, little is expected to change right away as the transition

period will keep the country a member until the end of the year. kobe bryant was honored the lakers' first home game since his passing. multiple singers performed. there was a video tribute and it was all capped off with a poignant speech by lebron james. not to mention every fan in the arena received a kobe t-shirt. bryant and his 13-year-old daughter gigi were killed in a helicopter crash last sunday in southern california. more "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton right after the break. -- one contender is notably absent, and that's former new york city mayor michael bloomberg, who has staked his entire primary strategy on a different approach in early voting states, skipping all four of them to focus on super

tuesday and using his deep pockets to saturate the air waves in a way most of his competitors simply cannot. this includes his new campaign ad targeting gun violence set to air during tomorrow's super bowl game. i sat down with bloomberg as the first media guest to tour his campaign headquarters here in new york where he elaborated on his strategy and why in his mind it takes a new yorker to beat the one currently in the white house. >> you opted not to enter the early contest. any second thoughts? any regrets? >> no. i said i was going to run, decided not to because there were a lot of candidates and i thought some of them were good. and i was, you know, i give a lot of money away, i work on my company a lot, so i decided not to run. and then i saw watching them,

two things occurred to me. number one, most of their proposals didn't make sense, maybe it would never get through congress and they weren't really going to do anything. they were just going to talk about it. and two, that as i watched them, i thought these people are not going to beat donald trump. my number one priority is to get donald trump out of there, and so i decided, okay, i'd run, but it was too late to build an organization in new hampshire, south carolina, or nevada. so i just couldn't enter those four races. you would have come in eighth out of five. i just couldn't get it together so i decided i'd focus on the super tuesday states, those states seven days later off super tuesday. and so far i've gone to 24 states, 54 cities. we get big crowds in all of them. we've got 1,000 people spread around the country working in

our offices not only in every state but multiple offices, a lot of offices in the bigger states, but even in the smaller states. so couldn't get in. it was too late. but i'm not sure it makes that much different. it would have been nice to be in them and i campaigned in all four of those states before i decided not to run and got warm reception. >> what is your argument that why michael bloomberg could beat trump more effectively than some of the others that are in the race? >> number one, i know him. we cut ribbons together and did things, business things together in new york city. i certainly have watched him over the years. two, i'm a street fighter, so is he, so i can compete with him head to head, toe to toe. number three, i would be acceptable as a democrat to an awful lot of moderate republicans. they would not cross over for warren or sanders or any of the

other candidates, i don't think. but with me, they watch me in city hall, even though i raised taxes on the rich, they saw me spend the money wisely, improve schools, reduce homelessness, and it isn't that they don't like taxes, they don't like taxes that don't do anything that are wasted money and they won't feel that with me. so you have to have some crossover, as you saw the country when it was hillary versus donald. it was split right down the middle. this way i think enough people will cross over to support me. >> now, do you think as some have expressed that donald trump is a danger to national security in the middle of all this impeachment talk? >> i can't do something complex by yourself, and trump doesn't have the instincts to build a team and to solicit other

opinions and listen to them. there's no "i" in the word team. in his case, it's only "i." there's no team. that makes you make rash decisions that you'll regret, for example, taking out the iranian generally. he was a bad guy, nobody questions that. but you have to before you go and do it, check to see whether americans' lives would be in danger, whether we have retreats we would have signed that would prevent you from doing that. those of any kind things. and his mind doesn't do that. he doesn't have a team. anybody that's in any office is turned over again and again and again and he doesn't ask, he just does things that a are,mpetuous.

>> there was the black wall street that was destroyed. you had your controversy with the black community. you've come out lately and said that you regretted the stop and frisk. what is your appeal to black voters in this plan? >> number one, i was in tulsa three or four months ago and i found out about it. in all my years of reading history and studying american history in particular, i had never heard about it. and i was just shocked when i realized what happened. this was in 1921, there was no wealthy town called black wall street, although it had nothing to do with wall street. one night a bunch of white guys came approximate in and killed 200 people and burned the town to the ground. and that was -- i said, you know, if we're going to give a speech on economic discrimination and inequality, i can't think of a better place to to give that speech than in

greenwood, which is just outside of tulsa. what i talked about was, for example, the difference between the wealth of a black family versus a white family. if you would have said to me black families had wealth less than white families, i probably would have believed that from what i know, but i never would have expected it to be 90% less. it's 10% of a net wealth versus 90% of the net wealth in white families. we have to do something about it. it's education. you can't compete in this world if you don't have a good education and our public education nationwide has been going down. it used to be in the top ten worldwide, now it's barely in the top 50. somebody has to do something about that. >> we worked together in education with president obama. >> and also in new york city the

wealthy people score better on tests than poor people and that gap has stayed constant for decades. we cut it in half, so you can do manage about providing better schools. one of the things i did was i gave the teachers a 43% raise in compensation over my 12 years. and the graduation rates went up by the same percentage. either you know how to do these things and there are a whole bunch of things where you can make the communities better. you could, for example, help small regional banks and branches of bigger banks open in minority neighborhoods. if the branches aren't there, you don't have banking, if you don't have banking, you can't participate in the system. some communities, particularly african-americans, but there are others talk show if

congratulatiyou can't get a mortgage, you can't get a house. for most americans, all of their net worth is in their house. when the value of their house goes up, that's how they increase their wealth. and so there's a whole bunch of these things that address specific problems that african-americans are suffering from. and i think the president of the united states in almost all these cases can get it done. you're not going to go into congress and overnight expect everybody to be on your side, but you can help groups falling behind because someday they're not going to be behind and putting up with this. and i think that unfortunately the other candidates are all legislators. legislators may know how to pass legislation, but it has little to do with actually delivering

services as we've seen over the years. you need a manager to run the country. you need a manager to run new york city. and so why vote for me? 12 years, you lived in new york city, you don't have to answer the question, but i would bet my life that you would not say that the city wasn't a lot better when i left than it was when i got there. it did improve. and you can take those skills and do the same thing for the country. america's not the same thing as new york, but every city i have been in, and so far i've been in 55 odd cities and 24, 25 states. every one of those cities has a crime problem a homeless problem, a public health problem, a lack of housing problem. all these problems, all these cities have the same problems, and i can show you that we in new york can solve everything, but we improve everything dramatically in every one of those cases. >> you said if you don't win the nomination you're still going to

support even financially the nominee. >> yes. >> would that include bernie sanders who is probably antithetical to what michael bloomberg -- >> generally i never liked this commitment you have to make to support the candidate no matter who that candidate is, because i think that's how we got donald trump, that the republicans said, gag, didn't want him, but they went along with it because it was party loyalty. so i'm not sure that 100% party loyalty is the right thing every time. but given how bad donald trump is, i would support bernie sanders over donald trump. yes is the answer to your question. >> thank you, mr. bloomberg. >> thank you for having me, and it was good to work with you in all those years. i hope you're able to survive without me being there. >> that was your closing punch. >> my thanks to former mayor

michael bloomberg and, of course, he succeeded rudy giuliani. quick note with msnbc this monday night for a special coverage of the iowa caucuses with live results. it's the first real test of the 2020 election cycle, and we'll break down how it will shape the democratic race going forward. it all gets started this monday at 6:00 p.m. eastern. coming up next, trump's signature border wall collapsed, quite the metaphor for his failed presidency. details ahead. sometimes, the pressures of today's world can make it tough to take care of yourself. but nature's bounty has innovative ways to help you maintain balance

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for this week's memo i want to talk about your most infamous campaign promise, mr. president. [ crowd chanting ] >> that's right, i'm talking about your big, beautiful wall. you know, the centerpiece of your ridiculous immigration policy, the one you continued to

boast about to your base just tuesday in new jersey. >> and we are now building that beautiful wall. [ cheers ] this powerful board wall is going up at record speed. >> i have some bad news for you, mr. president. unlike yourself, the big, beautiful border wall couldn't dodge a draft. this week your powerful new barrier fell over after a mere gust of wind. and even in the parts that are structurally sound, the geographic realities of the border require massive floodgates to be opened for months each year. that faulty wall is a fitting metaphor because, like so many of the policies you've pursued since taking office, the wall has turned out to be ineffective, ill-advised, and for the most vulnerable among

us, downright dangerous. i have some examples for you. like one of the laws you've gotten passed, the infamous tax cuts of 2017, contrary to your promises, economic growth has slowed since then, and we're barreling toward a $1 trillion deficit while middle class families struggle to make ends meet. not to mention that the national debt has increased by $3 trillion during your tenure, just like your collapsed border wall, your tax cuts are ineffective. what about your senselessly cruel changes to food stamp policies that will increase the number of americans who go hungry, an estimated 36 million people are currently unable to afford food in the wealthiest country in the world. it's ill considered, just like your fallen wall. as for dangerous, well, it's hard to pick just one of your

failed policies to illustrate that point, so here's a recent sample. your reckless escalation of tensions with iran which led to traumatic brain injuries for dozens of american troops a decision by your epa to let cities dump raw sewage into rivers, literally poisoning the people who live nearby. the reversal of an obama-era rule that restricted the use of land mines, one of the most barbaric weapons of war ever conceived. and through it all, you can't stop putting american national security at risk by alienating our allies while you cozy up to your adversaries. just like the big beautiful wall you keep promising, your presidency is a spectacular failure. if left to your own devices, your self-destruction may cost this country as we know it.

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with just over 48 hours away from the first major contest in the 2020 presidential race, the iowa caucus kicks off monday evening, and the candidates are campaigning accordingly.

joining me now is julian castro, a surrogate for the elizabeth warren campaign. he himself is a former 2020 presidential candidate and he has served as mayor of san antonio, texas, and housing and urban development secretary under president barack obama. what is the message, julian, for the elizabeth warren campaign. she seems down in the polls after she had gone up in iowa. what does she say in these closing days that can turn this around if the polls are correct? >> what i've seen -- it's great to be with you, reverend sharpton -- is that elizabeth warren has been the hardest working candidate out there. she's also worked the healthiest to try to bring people together to build a strong, diverse coalition of folks so that we can defeat donald trump in november. it has been amazing over these last few weeks, speaking to

folks throughout iowa, nevada, and other places, folks from different walks of life, different backgrounds who are coming together to support senator warren behind a vision for the future of the country where everybody has a shot at opportunity, where we make sure that we have a tax code that works for people who have to work for a living, where we root out corruption. elizabeth warren, i believe, is the best candidate to unite our party and defeat donald trump in november. >> the fact that she had to be in washington as a senator during the impeachment trial and could not be in iowa, do you think that still negatively affected her campaign and her ability to be on the scene herself and campaign among the caucus participants? >> look, i think people understand that she takes her role as a senator and her constitutional duty very, very seriously. having said that, what i know is that even when she had to sit in

that impeachment -- those impeachment hearings, what she was doing in late evenings and early mornings was connecting with people in iowa. they did a town hall. now sthat she has time, she's o the ground going town to town. going to be in davenport later today. she's working very hard and she has been for the last year. the other thing i found out very quickly was that so many people that i met, oh, i met her once or twice. and so she has put in so much work over the last year and people are familiar with her vision, that i believe it's going to serve her well on monday night. >> you repeatedly criticized iowa, new hampshire, for having the first contest because those states severely lack racial diversity. has that played into elizabeth warren's campaign strategy at all? >> look, senator warren has been

clear that she believes that the fact that you have these four states that go all in a row, iowa, new hampshire, nevada, south carolina, that that does provide some diversity for the party. you know what? when i decided to endorse senator warren, i don't have 100% litmus test for everything. but what i saw up close and personal was that she has the most inclusive campaign, that she's committed to making sure that everyone has a shot at success in this country and she hasn't just been talking about that on the campaign trail. when i worked with her as hud secretary, i saw her commitment to fair housing, breaking down barriers so people could get housing opportunity to achieve their dreams. so i know she's going to be the kind of president that will bring everybody -- make sure everybody has a place at the table of the american family.

>> all right. julian castro, thank you. before we turn to our next campaign surrogate, i want to give an update on some news from last night. the democratic national committee announced its changed the rules for future primary debates. candidates will no longer be required to have donations from hundreds of thousands of individuals in order to make it to the stage. the move should be helpful to candidate michael bloomberg who says he's not accepting donations and will self-fund his entire campaign, which means he may be able to appear in future debates. however, he won't appear in the next democratic debate on friday in new hampshire. as of now, only seven candidates will take the stage, joe biden, bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, pete buttigieg, amy klobuchar, andrew yang, and billionaire tom steyer. meanwhile, today the former vice president is hitting the ground hard in iowa.

here's what he had to say when asked about his chances of winning the state at monday's caucuses. listen. >> i've been saying from the beginning, i think we're going to do well here. i think it's going to be really tight no matter how it looks. it's going to be bunched up. but i said from the beginning, i expect to do well. i probably shouldn't tell you that, but i expect to do well. >> joining me now is a surrogate for the biden campaign, democratic representative lisa blunt, rochester of delaware. welcome, congresswoman. how do you think your candidate is going to do? the polls has it tight, but many predict that bernie sanders will win the state. what do you think? how will you back up what you think with the reasoning behind your decision? >> well, first of all, reverend

al, it's good to be back on your show. like i said, every time i see you, i feel enthused and charged up. i'm here on the ground in iowa with my family. my father, who was former city council president in wilmington, delaware, came out. my sister, a professor of social work at rutgers came out. it is a real family affair. on the ground there's an enthusiasm and an excitement. we just left the vice president at a rally. there were so many people there that they had to bring in extra chairs. they were up in the rafters and it was just an excitement of all backgrounds, all ages. i've even been making phone calls for him. we've been out knocking doors. and i think that's the electricity we're feeling. that will be translated into the caucus. and so we're excited. you know, i think even in his -- what he shares, he's cautious

about, you know, what he says. but we believe strongly that he is the best candidate to bring this country back together. to be able to hit the ground running on day one. and to restore the soul of this country. so recent iowa polls shows joe biden in second place behind bernie sanders. but a separate poll shows nearly half of the iowans haven't completely settled on a candidate. how do you sway voters in your direction with just two days to go, particularly since the bidens name has been dragged through the mud by republicans continually through the trump impeachment trial? >> well, first of all, i think the fact that his name is being dragged through the mud says something about the fear that president trump has about a biden candidacy. also, what we have noticed is that as you said some people weren't sure who they were going to caucus for but i actually had

a great conversation last night with a state representative in one of the towns here who said up until this weekend he really wasn't sure but there were two reasons why he was focused on joe biden and that was electability, number one, and the fact that he can hit the ground running on day one as i said and i think people are practical here. just like across the country. and we know, we know that the stakes are so high on everything from health care to the courts to education. you name the issue, we need a joe biden right now even on the world stage. we need somebody who can hit the ground running and that's what we are hearing from people going and the state. >> i interviewed michael bloomberg this week and he continued to raise with him the stop and frisk, part of the baggage of joe biden is the crime bill of 1994. how does he structure his

justice department if he's president that would give comfort to many people of communities that were disproportionately impacted by the crime bill? >> he put together a juvenile jus -- package and a criminal justice package and it's comprehensive and the fact that he actually knows how to govern, not just create a plan, but actually govern, really gives confidence to people that when he is president we will be able to have people who are in positions f positions first of all that are diverse and have the expertise and his policies to reflect what we have said on the campaign trail and so i think you will be able to see that in a joe biden presidency. >> congresswoman blunt rochester, thank you. quick note, tomorrow join politics nation for a conversation with my friend spike lee. >> thank you.

>> despite the deep love for new york knicks, the film director with a great appreciation for rival kobe bryant and knew the late basketball player very well personally. you don't want to miss it tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern only on msnbc. up next, my final thoughts on this the first day of black history month 2020.

this past sunday i was in new haven, connecticut, speaking

at a memorial service for a teenager who was shot and killed by connecticut state troopers. though he was pinned in a disabled car, that they say was stolen, he was shot at seven times and killed with six bullets and i joined the community in demanding action and a real investigation. as i got in my car headed back to the city, i received word of the death of kobe bryant, his 13-year-old daughter and other families in the helicopter. i talked with kobe bryant many times. the longest conversation was after i had just finished doing a eulogy at michael jackson's funeral there in the staples center. as i recounted our conversation and have talked a lot this week about what kobe meant, no one summed up my feelings about kobe

for his family and for those that will go on better than his friend and mine usher who sung rendition last night of a song that also is in my opinion symbolic of the struggle of blacks in america. "amazing grace" grace brought us from slavery to the white house. usher said it best. ♪ how sweet the sound note ♪ that saved a wretch like me ♪

good evening. i'm lawrence o'donnell. thank you for joining us on this saturday evening for our ek tended coverage of the impeachment trial of president trump. after the republican majority in the senate succeeded in blocking witnesses yesterday, a vote on the final verdict in the trial is now scheduled for wednesday at 4:00 p.m. that means the president the united states will deliver the state of the union on tuesday night while still on trial on two articles of impeachment. all but two senate republicans, mitt romney and susan collins, voted against hearing from witnesses in the trial. 51% of the senate defied the expressed will of 75% of the american people who have told pollsters they want to hear from

witnesses in the senate trial. the 51 senators who voted against witnesses represent 151 million people. the 49 senators who are on the losing side of that vote represent 170 million people. the senators who lost the vote in the senate yesterday represent 19 million more people than the senators who won that vote. in a "the new york times" editorial entitled "a dishonorable senate" "the times" said it brings the nation face to face to the reality that the senate has become nothing more than an arena for the most base and brutal and stupid politics. it would not muster the intuitional self-respect to even investigate. the senate may acquit mr. trump