like, where am i, the super bowl? they love you, they're so happy to have you there. >> it's a wonderful time. greetings from iowa. >> safe travels home and while you stay there as well. a good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters in new york, high noon in the east, 9:00 a.m. in the west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." just over 24 hours before the first 2020 votes are cast. we're getting our last look at the neck and neck race in the hawkeye state. meanwhile, back to business on capitol hill where the impeachment trial still isn't finished. how it will affect the president's state of the union address on tuesday night. growing epidemic. countries around the world scrambling to contain the coronavirus. the federal travel ban that goes into effect tonight and whether it's likely to help stop the spread of that disease. but everyone, right here at the top of the hour we have some breaking news, this is from south london, where at least two people have been injured in what officials are calling a terrorist-related incident.

metropolitan police say officers have shot and killed the male suspect. a local shopkeeper described a frightening chase and takedown to sky news. >> i see this guy, behind there is an officer, undercover, with a gun. i keep telling him, stop, stop, which he did not. and then i see they shot him three times. and it was just a horrible scene, that i was seeing it. a man was on the floor and it looked like he was carrying something, which is probably to say some device or something. >> molly hunter is on the scene for us. another terrifying day. i know we don't have a lot of details on who this person was or if it can be officially called terrorism but certainly it terrorized those there in

that part of south london. >> reporter: hey, alex, that's right, and police are calling it a terrorist-related incident, quote, terrorist-related. it's noisy because there's a chopper above me. we're behind a police cordon, this is as close as we can get. police presence was really heavy, that response really fast. we're in a neighborhood near stretham in south london, 40, 45 minutes from the nbc london bureau. there's a bus blocking high street, which is the main street in this neighborhood. the whole high street, that whole main street is blocked. we don't know that much. it happened around 2:00 p.m. this afternoon, a sunday afternoon in a very residential-heavy neighborhood. families would have been out walking, kids. that chopper is coming back around, i'm sorry, it's pretty hard to hear. we've heard witness statements like the one you just played

from sky news. we spoke moments ago with a couple of people who live across from the pharmacy where the attacked happened in front. they heard the gunshots around 2:00 p.m., they said it was terrifying. they did not want to go on camera but they were so scarred. as you said, another terrifying day in london. >> just to be clear, is this something, was he a knife-wielding attacker, so gunshots came from the metropolitan police? i want to be clear how those two who were injured were injured. >> reporter: that's correct. all we know is from the met police, they've tweeted a couple of very short statements. they say a man was shot dead by the met police and it was a stabbing incident. they believe at least two people are injured, alex, again, early hours. that number may go up. the attack happened just around the corner. again, sunday afternoon, 2:00 p.m., lots of families out, everyone off work, lots of shop-keepers, cafes around. whether that number changes, we'll be sure to update you.

>> and i know police are asking everyone to stay away from the scene there, about seven miles or so south of london proper. molly hunter, thanks for being there, let us know if anything happens and changes. it's going to be an historic week in politics. tomorrow's iowa caucuses will be the first contest in this year's election, on tuesday. president trump gives his third state of the union address on tuesday. on wednesday, congress holds its final vote in the impeachment trial. a new poll shows americans are split on whether they believe the president should be removed from office. 46% say he should be, 49% say he should keep his job. and joe biden, senators elizabeth warren and bernie sanders, and mayor buttigieg, all beat the president in a nationwide poll. meanwhile, the democratic candidates are focusing on iowa with 30 hours or so left to

campaign. several have been out on the sunday morning talk shows to make their final arguments. >> the point of my campaign is, you don't have to choose between the status quo over here and revolution over there, that we actually have a pretty well-shared sensitive values in this party. >> that's the first requirement of a democratic candidate, to go toe-to-toe with mr. trump on the economy and beat him. honestly, career politicians don't have the background to do it. conventional politicians, mr. trump has eaten up, whether they're republicans or democrats. >> we're living in a country, 78% of us are living paycheck to paycheck. almost half can't afford an unexpected $500 bill. americans are being left behind in the 21st century economy. we need to put the gains of this economy into our hands, families' hands throughout the country through a dividend of $1,000 a month. >> i'm one of two candidates from the middle of the country where we need to win with democrats.

i'm someone who has won with moderate republicans and independents in the reddest of red congressional districts over and over again, because i bring people with me. >> the "des moines register" poll was pulled today after pete buttigieg may have been left off a list of candidates for one respondent. nbc's shaquille brewster, mike memoli, and ali vitali are here. let's start off our coverage this hour with nbc news political reporter shaquille brewster, who is in cedar rapids, iowa. shaq, i understand you had a meet and greet with senator sanders' surrogate nina turner. >> reporter: senator sanders is actually speaking right now. part of senator sanders' closing message right now is his electability, not only in that head to head matchup that shows him beating donald trump but also because he can inspire the

excitement necessary to beat donald trump. this is an actually canvass kickoff they're having, they had to move this from inside to outside. you'll see these people who are listening to senator sanders right now, they're going to go outside into the communities, go knocking on doors. it's a turnout operation now. senator sanders' focus right now is on turnout, turning out his voters and his base of support. the pressure is on him, and he's putting the pressure on iowa. listen to him last night. >> look behind you. you see a whole lot of tv cameras. and they are not only from here in the united states, they're from all over the world. the whole world is looking at iowa. the whole world is asking whether or not the people in iowa are prepared to stand up

and fight for justice. >> reporter: and his campaign state director announced yesterday that they had 500 doors, they knocked on 500,000 doors in iowa in the past month alone, those are voters they're hoping will come out and support tell them. they believe an historic turnout will mean an advantage for them. they don't think he can win without an historic turnout. >> the "wall street journal"/nbc poll says bernie sanders would win over donald trump in a general election. >> reporter: that plays into it. i've been keeping an ear on senator sanders as he's speaking to this crowd. he started his message going straight after donald trump, not talking about the poll directly but talking about being the

strongest against president trump. back in the spring he went on a "bernie beats trump" bus tour. that's what they're trying to say. they're bringing out new voters, they're bringing out excitement that's needed to take on donald trump. they point to the polls, not only the nbc poll but the polls since 2016 that shows in a hypothetical matchup you have senator sanders beating trump. it's more than that bumper sticker you see, it's more than the slogan you here to the crowd, but it's central to the campaign, of senator sanders saying he's more electable. >> mike memoli is with the biden campaign. this new poll, mike, shows 50% of voters would pick joe biden in a hypothetical general election against the president. today joe biden's on day nine of his final bus tour of iowa. how confident is the campaign going into tomorrow?

>> reporter: alex, this is exactly where the biden campaign wants the conversation to be on the day before the caucuses. we're here in des moines. we skipped ahead. joe biden is about to take the stage in dubuque in three hours. he'll be back for a caucus eve pre-super-bowl rally. his focus since he announced his candidacy has been on donald trump, he announced this is a battle for the soul of the nation. shaq will tell you this, ali will tell you this, who have been covering this campaign for over a year now. voters' number one criteria they've cited that they choose is who will be the candidate best able to beat donald trump. did joe biden spend too much time focused on donald trump and not enough time establishing contrasts with his rivals? last night in waterloo we began to hear joe biden doing both at the same time. let's take a listen.

>> the old saying is that talk is cheap. in politics, talk is sometimes very expensive. especially when you don't tell people how you're going to pay for what you tell them you're going to do. i wonder why they don't know how much it's going to cost to have medicare for all? how much it's going to cost to forgive all student debt, how much it's going to cost, go on down the list. we have to beat donald trump. and the one thing they can't do is end up not being straight with the american people. he'll eat you alive. he'll eat us alive. tell us straight. tell the people what it's going to cost. why it's important. >> reporter: one of the other things weighing on joe biden's mind here in the final days before the caucuses is this question of whether these attacks between democrats will

make it harder for the party to unify at the end of the day. i asked him last night if he had concerns about that and he said, "no, because i will be able to unify the party." >> thank you for that. nbc correspondent ali vitali is traveling with elizabeth warren in indianola. i think i've finally gotten the pronunciation of that name. >> reporter: while mike is asking joe biden about uniting the party, that's the closing pitch elizabeth warren has been making on the campaign trail. over several stops yesterday, we saw signs that used to say i am a warren democrat swapped out for signs that say, she can unite the party. optically it's the right pitch because a lot of democratic voters, 70% in our last poll, say their top priority is beating donald trump.

they know they'll need party unity and high turnout. warren making that pitch for that reason. but there's also a reason strategically. one of her campaign aides told me when they look at people they've identified in iowa who will caucus for her, of those people who caucused in 2016, it's a 50/50 split if they caucused for bernie sanders or hillary clinton in 2016. so it's really no use for contrasting hard against bernie sanders. that's why she's making a unity pitch. listen to how she made it yesterday. >> i also want to say thank you to everybody who got in this presidential race, whether they're still in it or not. people got in this out of an act of service to our country. and some different ideas about how to do it. but all wanting us to build a better america.

and we're down to the final strokes here, but understand, we will, we must come together as a party and beat donald trump. >> reporter: so you heard elizabeth warren, down to the final strokes here. alex, she's been on several college campuses. bernie sanders was someone who last election cycle here in iowa did really well with young voters. it's one of the things that propels him to a close defeat, but making it harder for hillary clinton to have a decisive victory here in 2016. elizabeth warren is right here, she'll be onstage behind me soon, pitching to another college campus. we were at one the day before and she'll be at one later today in ames. clearly trying to make the pitch to young voters while also just trying to keep energy high out here. if you even just compare the arc of this week alone, she was spending the first part of it in washington, d.c., clearly not where she wants to be on the ground in iowa. but i have to say over the

course of the last few events, in the last two days, it's started to feel a little bit less like the twilight zone, where are all the senate candidates, and a little more like it's supposed to feel in the immediate days before the caucus. >> i'm betting she's got some running shoes on, that's for sure. shaq, mike, ali, thank you so much, we'll see you guys again. laura bassett, a chand charlie bassett, guys, welcome to you both. i want to get your reaction to the new poll numbers in which the president is trailing the top four democratic candidates nationally in a hypothetical general election matchup. charlie, you first, what's your take on these numbers? >> the thing that people are paying more attention to than the national numbers is the breakdown of the battleground states, piling up lots of votes of course against president trump in california or for him in alabama is irrelevant, as we saw in the 2016 election when he

lost the popular vote but won anyway because of the battleground states. i think that the -- i mean, people are focusing on how only biden and sanders are beating trump. buttigieg and warren are not. but i think it's important to take a closer look at that and see that the warren, buttigieg, and sanders numbers are all within the margin of error which means those being ahead or behind may not be real. the only thing that's clear there is that biden is clearly outside of the margin of error ahead of trump in the battleground states. >> just to be clear, we do have warren and buttigieg beating him by one point, but to your point, that that is definitely, in those 11 hypothetical matchup states that are in the toss-up category. laura, what are your thoughts on this, and for anyone who is wondering if they may be living in a hypothetical toss-up state, the ones being included here are arizona, colorado, florida, maine, michigan, minnesota, nevada, new hampshire, north carolina, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. i think i got them all there. so those are the notable states.

your thoughts on specifically these states, laura. >> right. it does look like biden and bernie are performing really strongly against trump in those states, more so than warren and buttigieg, which points to sort of the polarization of the democratic party right now, because biden and bernie are obviously such opposite candidates. one really represents the establishment, the status quo, very moderate. the other is quite literally calling for a revolution, wants to blow up the entire system. and these are the two candidates performing the most strongly against trump in the polls. i would just warn against leaning too heavily on polls. at this point in 2016, polls showed hillary clinton smashing trump in a head to head matchup and that's not of course what ended up happening. voters still have to vote for the candidate that really inspires them. >> what about looking ahead tomorrow, laura? how much do the iowa caucuses set the tone for the rest of the primary? >> they always have.

i think it would be a massive boost for bernie or for biden, any of the candidates, really, to have a strong showing. i think democrats are really concerned right now with electability. and the party is really desperate to kind of coalesce behind a single candidate and it's hard to do that with a sort of 50/50 split right now between bernie and biden. it will give us a clear sense of who voters should try to like hold their nose and get behind if they need to. >> charlie, look, the iowa caucuses are entirely unique. they don't even actually declare winners, we know, as i was talking to the democratic party chair in iowa there yesterday. they put out the numbers. somebody could come in and have maybe 10, 15% of a room, then they have to figure out for whom they want to all caucus together. given all that, crystal ball time, my friend, is there any sense from your vantage point as to who is the likeliest winner tomorrow? >> i wouldn't want to predict

that, but i think you're right to warn people that this second tier voting or third tier voting for people who in their own little neighborhood are supporting someone who does not get the threshold to come out of that particular caucus, and so they get to choose again, really makes iowa a wild card. it's an unusually interesting process they have there. and it can result in a lot of uncertain outcomes that you never see. maybe andrew yang will surprise everyone with a lot of second and third votes. we'll find out. >> it could very well be. laura, charlie, thanks, always good to see you both. the coronavirus now hitting the east coast of the united states. the lockdown happening in airports across the nation in response. e nation in response if you've been dreaming about tender wild-caught lobster, dig in to butter-poached, fire-roasted and shrimp & lobster linguini. see? dreams do come true. or if you like a taste of new england without leaving home, try lobster, sautéed with crab, jumbo shrimp and more,

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we invite all of you to watch "politics nation" tonight. reverend sharpton will talk to spike lee about kobe bryant, 5:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc, something we're still not over yet. the start of a head-spinning week on capitol hill, the senate resumes the impeachment debate tomorrow morning. tomorrow night are the iowa caucus. tuesday morning, more impeachment debate is expected in the senate. tuesday night the president delivers the state of the union address to a joint session of congress. and then on wednesday, the senate will take a final impeachment vote that is expected to acquit the president.

nbc white house and capitol hill teams are working overtime, hans nichols in florida, geoff bennett on capitol hill. with a welcome to both of you guys, let's go to hans in palm beach, following the president at mar-a-lago. how is the president preparing for the state of the union address and against the backdrop of impeachment? you've got to wonder if it's going to be more muted than it might otherwise have been. >> reporter: muted and donald trump are not predictions that i would want to make, alex. what we saw from the president overnight was a direct appeal to his base, to his campaign team to go ahead and poll and survey them on what they want to hear and what president donald trump called an impeachment war. so whether or not he takes advice from leading republicans like karl rove to not mention impeachment, it's clear that impeachment is going to play in some shape or form in the state of the union address, if only because the very senators that he will be addressing will be voting on his fate in just a couple of hours after he delivers those remarks.

so we see the campaign gearing up for this. we'll see to what extent they have surrogates out there pressing the message. they do still have to worry about what's happening with senate republicans. and you're starting to hear senate republicans, now that the outcome appears certain, that is, acquittal, you're starting to hear a little more criticism from them of their own president. >> i think he shouldn't have done it. i think it was wrong. inappropriate was the way i would say, improper, crossing the line. and then the only question left is, who decides what to do about that? >> well, who decides what to do about that? >> the people. the people, is my conclusion. >> if it's not something you would have done, why wouldn't you have done it? because it was wrong, because it was inappropriate? >> i think generally speaking, going after corruption would be the right thing to do. >> going after the bidens. >> he did it maybe in the wrong manner. i think he could have done it through different channels. this is the argument, he should have probably gone to the doj,

he should have worked through those entities, but he chose to go a different route. >> reporter: so under most presidencies, at least modern presidencies, the state of the union, the basic concept of it, are generally framed up around the holiday and then they refine it and add special messages. what we have right now is the prospect of white house counsel's office weighing in, because this is going to be in the middle of the trial and they wouldn't want anything to happen that could potentially jeopardize the outcome of president trump, alex. >> that makes great sense. what did not make great sense was, you're right, putting "muted" and "donald trump" in the same sentence. geoff, what are the expectations this week as the senate is getting ready to cast the final vote on impeachment? given that it takes a two-thirds vote to impeach the president and remove him from office, which is not likely, let's say

it's not going to happen, so do the senators running for president have to return from the campaign trail to cast their votes? >> reporter: alex, the short answer -- great to see you -- is yes. all of those senators running for president, bennet, warren, sanders, klobuchar, will have to return here on wednesday at 4:00 p.m. eastern for that big vote. here is a technical thing about the rules, it allows them to go back to iowa ahead of the iowa caucuses tomorrow evening. tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. eastern, the trial gafvels back in, we'll have four hours evenly it split between the defense and the prosecution. then it returns to regular order and the senators who choose to can participate in the open deliberations. but because that's technically not part of the trial, the 100

senators don't have to be in their seats. that would allow those four democrats running for president to go back to iowa. meantime, though, you have adam schiff, the lead house impeachment manager, echoing lamar alexander who we saw hans mention, really echoing him, making the case that democrats proved their case. schiff on one of the sunday shows today said there was nothing democrats would have or could have done differently. take a look. >> i still think it's enormously important that the president was impeached, because the country is moving away from its democratic ideals. but i'm not letting the senators off the hook. we're still going to go into the senate this week and make the case why this president needs to be removed. it will be up to the senators to make that final judgment. and the senators will be held accountable for it. >> reporter: so when this trial ends on wednesday, after this 4:00 vote, the thing that we'll be paying close attention to is

when or if house democrats, these respective investigative committees, if they still decide to subpoena john bolton, mick mulvaney, all these other folks who still clearly have a story to tell about president trump's dealings with his ukrainian counterpart, if they subpoena them to bring them forward, not for any sort of impeachment trial because that would have been over by then, but to get them on the record so the american people can know the fullness of this entire picture, the fullness of this ukrainian pressure campaign, alex. >> thank you so much, geoff bennett on capitol hill. the coronavirus shows no sign of slowing. but one doctor doesn't expect what happened to china to happen here. he'll explain why. is mealtime a struggle? introducing ore-ida potato pay. where ore-ida golden crinkles are your crispy currency

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breaking news, everyone, the federal travel ban created in response to the coronavirus outbreak in china, that will go into effect tonight. four nationals traveling from china will not be allowed into the u.s. as the number of confirmed cases in china surges to 14,000. today the philippines confirmed the first coronavirus death outside china, raising the death toll to 304. american eevacuees will be able to return to the states but that's undergo a mandatory

14-day evaluation upon landing. the department of health has chosen air force basis as possible quarantine sites if needed. joining me is dr. peter hotez. welcome to you, sir. do you think china has been downplaying the severity? >> i think we're looking at a tale of two countries. things are pretty dire in china, some estimates say 75 or even 100,000 cases. and we're looking at a big expansion that have and a huge hit to the economy. so china is in a very tight spot right now. i think in the u.s., we have the benefit of a lot of science that was put up on servers by china scientists so we knew the

receptor it was binding to, we had a good heads up, giving us time to prepare, and time to prepare rationally. that's a long way of saying cases will go up in the u.s. but we don't think we'll see anything like we see in china. >> you were critical on twitter, sir, you described this practice as being ancient and crude. do you think the government is mishandling the situation in any way? >> the reason they publicly announced this, they're still trying to get their arms around and learn more information about the virus. it may be fair enough. historically travel bans tend not to work very well. they tend to be counterproductive. what happens is, it discourages countries from releasing information. this virus is not going to stay in china, it's clearly going to go to the philippines and elsewhere. so we need the free flow of

information. also, it takes energy to put in travel bans by the u.s. government and maybe those are resources that could be used where also. we've developed a vaccine, for instance, that we would like to move into china. that should be the emphasis now, on trying to get vaccines into china and get those things moving. >> that is some good news there, potentially. peter, one silver lining here, you tweeted that coronaviruses often exhibit winter seasonality. does that mean we could be out of the woods, you know, before springtime or at least by spring? >> well, this is a new virus, so we don't know until we know. but what we know historically is some coronaviruses peak sharply in the winter, then go down. when we had sars, the coronavirus in 2002 and 2003, that peaked in march and went down abruptly. there's a little bit of hope that as we move into april and may, this thing will tamp down.

it's a new viral agent so we won't know for sure until we see that start to happen. >> thank you so much, dr. hotez. changing the rules for the democratic debates. is it too much, too late? we'll hear from the dnc communications director, next. trump: "all of this with the global warming. a lot of it's a hoax." vo: mike bloomberg knows the science and understands the challenge. as president, a plan for 80% clean energy by 2028. mike will get it done. i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. if you have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture, now might not be the best time to ask yourself, 'are my bones strong?' life is full of make or break moments. that's why it's so important to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®. only prolia® is proven to help strengthen and protect bones

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mike bloomberg could have gotten himself on the debate stage any time he wanted. it's pretty straightforward to meet the donor requirement. i think the dnc looked at this

and said we need to get mike bloomberg onto the debate stage. this change is clearly tail tailor-made to get him on the debate stage. >> that was andrew yang in reaction to the democratic committee's new rules to eliminate the donor requirement which has been in place for the first eight debates including this week's in new hampshire. joining me now, dnc communications director sochi inahoso. sochi, i know you're awfully busy, let's get right into this. you just heard andrew yang say this change is tailor-made to get bloomberg on the debate stage, echoing tom steyer on the broadcast yesterday. does the dnc recognize the optics here and how do you counter the criticism? >> this is false. we don't make our decisions based on any one candidate, to help any one candidate or

otherwise. when people start voting, our threshold will change to reflect that. by the nevada debate, hosted by msnbc and nbc in las vegas, will ontests at that point. we must reflect the will of the people, we must reflect those votes. we have said when we reflect the will of the people and the votes, we will drop the donor threshold. that's what we've done here. we're not helping any one candidate. and michael bloomberg has not made the debate stage because he's not meeting the donor requirements. we're making the best decisions for our party so we deliver a nominee. >> there is another aspect being discussed about the criticism concerning diversity in the democratic race. let's take a listen to what filmmaker and i'm just going to call him a firebrand, because he is, here is what michael moore said on msnbc earlier.

>> they've changed the rules to let bloomberg on the stage, to let him buy his way on the stage. he doesn't have to show any support. they've changed the rules that they forced julian castro and cory booker to play by, they got eliminated. >> do you want to respond to that? he's essentially saying if the changes were enacted earlier, he thinks we would be seeing more diverse debate stages. >> absolutely not. no one was kept off the stage because of the donor threshold. what candidates were asking us to do was lower the threshold for them. and we were never going to do that. we can have a conversation about why cory booker, kamala harris, and julian castro is not in this race. but it's not because of the dnc rules. i think we do need to have a conversation about why candidates of color weren't seeing the support. the reality is, is that the dnc does not control the support for any one candidate. we do not control the polling. those are independent media organizations. that is not the dnc.

and so what we have done here is made sure that if you are getting delegates -- reminder, you need 1,991 delegates in order to win the nomination. if you are getting one delegate in two states or if you were at 10% which, again, let me remind you, in order to get delegates, you need to be at 15% in states, that is a fair threshold. and that reflects where we are in the race. in order to have a strong nominee, we need to make sure that we have fair rules and that our rules reflect the process. >> and listen, you want to get everybody ultimately, after this process, on the same page. so you know where i'm going with this, because what happened this weekend was congresswoman rasheeida tlaib booing hillary clinton, after clinton criticized sanders for not

sufficiently supporting her in the general election. >> today is groundhog day. tomorrow is the day after. it's our first chance to start to make sure as a party, that we have 2020 look as little like 2016 as possible. >> what is or what can the dnc do to make sure the party stays unified as these crucial contests are getting under way? >> absolutely. in november, one year out from the election, we called all of our candidates and asked them, will you support the democratic nominee. and whoever the democratic nominee is, that month after the convention, will you go out on the campaign trail and campaign for them. they all agreed. and they all did so enthusiastically. and we're proud that have. i have no doubt, and especially compared to 2016, i have no doubt that our party is going to get behind our nominee, because donald trump is such a big threat. and i see that, when you talk to voters, the number one thing that they say is they want someone who has their back and they want someone who is going

to beat donald trump. so all of our candidates are on the same page which it comes to this. yes, we have a primary process, we're going to debate, we might disagree. but at the end of the day everyone will come together in order to beat trump. >> we'll put an exclamation behind that. thank you so much, good to see, good luck with everything tomorrow. >> thanks so much for having me. the revelation in the new nbc poll about candidates bombarding voters with tv ads. does that work as well as you might think? breathe happy with febreze plug. so chantix can help you quit slow turkey.

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new insight into how super bowl sunday is about to be like none other. president trump and mayor mike bloomberg will both air campaign ads during tonight's game as the san francisco 49ers take on the kansas city chiefs. the president focusing on the economy and bloomberg addressing gun violence. joining me now, susan del percio, msnbc political republican strategist and chris li liu, i'm going to say deputy secretary. i think i vaulted you once before. >> you did, yes. >> i know you could do the job anyway. chris, you first, do you think there's an appetite for politics on super bowl sunday?

do people want to see these adds during the game? >> let's talk about the ads. if we're going to do an ad about the president's record on the economy i think it would take more than 30 seconds to talk about all the ways that it has failed americans, whether it is the job growth and economic growth that are lower than what it was during the obama years, the fact that income inequality at at historic highs, the insured health care rate is higher. what's the president's solution? a trillion and a half dollars of tax cuts that's going to the super wealthy, and hasn't gone to average americans. mike bloomberg should be running on the trump economy because it isn't working for anybody. >> there's an interview on sean hannity that's just been released. let's take a look at it. >> michael bloomberg. >> very little. i think of little. now he wants a box for the

debates to stand on. okay, there's nothing wrong. you can be short. why should he get a box to stand on, okay? he wants a box for the debates? why should he be entitled to that, really? does that mean everyone else gets a box? >> i guess they could negotiate boxes. >> interesting, cory booker and all these people couldn't get any of the things that bloomberg is getting now. i think it's very unfair for the democrats, but i would love to run against bloomberg. >> physical attributes, certainly the most important thing to be focusing on, mr. president, but there was a bloomberg spokesperson who responded in a statement saying the president is lying. he's a pathological liar who lies about everything, his fake hair, his obesity and his spray-on tan. looks like they went kind of fighting fire with fire there, susan. >> just a little. >> so, how about the last part of it, is it true that trump would love to run against bloomberg? >> no. we've heard many reports coming out that that's the last person he wants to run against. let's highlight something, when it comes to height, if both men

were to stand on their bank accounts, bloomberg would tower over president trump by, i don't know, something like 50-fold if not more, maybe 100-fold. so there's that. and that's the reason why the president doesn't want to run against michael bloomberg, is that bank account. he knows that michael bloomberg will spend up to $2 billion to win. he will be out there. this is just donald trump being donald trump going the way he does. i'd just like to go back to the ad issue though, one thing, alex. it's not that the ads run during the super bowl. it's not that one ad. it's all the attention the ads get before like we're talking about today on the super bowl. so it's helping -- whoever runs an ad they just get more branding done on their messaging that way. >> you make a good point there. what about the new nbc/"wall street journal" poll, chris, which asks voters not thinking about what they've seen in the news, which candidates they recall seeing an ad for. 44% of registered voters, 59% of

registered primary voters say bloomberg. do you think that could make a big difference for mayor bloomberg? >> i think it's going to make a difference. what i look at is the fact that just in the last quarter of 2019 bloomberg spent twice as much money as donald trump has on hand right now and it's not just those ads that's important. it's the fact that he has 1,000 campaign staffers that he says he's going to leave on the ground until election day regardless of whether he's the nominee or not. it's $10 million that he's provided to vulnerable house democrats on impeachment, and it's the fact that he is out there putting people in battleground states, just pounding donald trump right now in a way that the other democratic candidates can't do. so it's going to make some difference. it's not going to make a complete difference. ultimately it comes down to the quality of the candidate himself. >> can i focus on the details of one of the ads from the president which is the economy. this week a new report shows the economy grew 2.3% in 2019.

it is the weakest pace it has grown in the three years that trump has been in office. how is that going to play with voters in an election year? >> i think chris did a great job on that first question explaining how this economy is not helpful for every american. it's helpful for a very small slice of americans. but the thing is at the end of the day people believe that the economy is going in the right direction. you can tell them all you want that it's not but if they feel that things are better, that their pocketbook or bank account is doing better or they're getting paid a little more, that matters because there is still growth. >> this hour is better for having spoken to both of you. thank you guys. we invite all of you to watch our coverage of the iowa caucuses. brian williams and rachel maddow host a team of experts to break down the results, monday night 6:00 eastern right here on msnbc. hear from the doctor in iowa

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good day, everyone, from msnbc world headquarters here in new york, welcome to "weekends with alex wit." with one day to go before the iowa caucuses, it's been a very busy morning on the sunday talk shows, take a look. >> we think we're going to surprise a lot of people. >> i've never lost.

i'm the outsider in this race. who i'm running against is people who are part of the inside elite of this country. >> mike bloomberg could have gotten himself on the debate stage any time he wanted. it's straight forward to meet the donor requirement. >> in the last half century every single time that my party has won the white house it's been with a candidate who was new to national politics, opening the door to a new generation. >> it is an open game here. every place we went, huge crowds, a lot of interest, people literally signing up yesterday, committing to caucus. >> we're not taking anything for granted. we're going to outwork, outorganize, outlast. >> we absolutely have to do well in iowa because this is our chance to prove what everybody has been talking about all year which is that we can mount a campaign. >> all of that highlights the historic week ahead. tomorrow night will be the official start of this year's election with the iowa caucuses. on tuesday the president will give his state of the union address. on wednesday the senate will hold the final vote in the

impeachment trial. meanwhile, a new nbc/"wall street journal" poll shows four of the top democratic presidential candidates would beat president trump in a hypothetical general election. joe biden, senators bernie sanders and elizabeth warren as well as pete buttigieg coming out on top. today the candidates are spread ut out across the country. several have been on the sunday morning talk shows to make their final arguments but all of this as the highly anticipated "des moines register" poll was pulled today after pete buttigieg may have been left off of a list of candidates. to break this down from iowa, we have beth fewy and political reporter shaq bruster. we're first go to go to our road warrior, shaq, in cedar rapids where senator bernie sanders has just wrapped up that event. he's making marathon rounds across the state. where is he now, iowa city? is that where he is?

>> reporter: what you're seeing is he and nina turner, one of his top surrogates, going through the state of iowa for this caucus kickoff -- sorry, canvassing kickoffs, so people knocking on doors, making rounds, making phone calls, he's going to those locations and then sending them on their way. henry behind me is a volunteer, putting stickers on handouts that are going to volunteers and they're going knocking on doors and handing them to people and it reminds them of where their caucus location is. senator sanders just told me that he will be going back to d.c. he'll be in d.c. tomorrow for the impeachment trial and impeachment proceedings. we've heard him talk about how he sees this as a constitutional duty. it's an important priority despite the fact that he wants to be in iowa. he wants to be talking to voters and having vetter interactions. so he will be back in d.c.

we'll see how long he sticks around. that throws in a wrinkle with the caucus just tomorrow. >> absolutely. so with regard to the impeachment trial tomorrow though, senator sanders, he is going to be in washington, right? he has to be there. i've wondered about this simply because it takes a two-thirds vote of senators to pass impeachment against the president removing him of office which is not going to happen, so he's definitely got to be back there though to cast his vote? >> reporter: yeah, that's exactly right. he needs to go back and sit in those proceedings. this is a historic process. even though people know the conclusion of it, feel they understand the conclusion of it, especially after that vote on witnesses last week, he has said it's a constitutional obligation for him and that's why he's spending so much time here in iowa and going to so many places here in iowa. one thing the campaign is highlighting is right now it's all about turnout. they have shifted their messages and purpose from trying to

convince people to just getting their people out to the polls. in january alone they knocked on 500,000 doors. record turnout in iowa in the democratic caucuses. about 240,000 people. so you get about half those people to go out to support senator sanders, that's a win. you're not going to get that but that's a sense of the organization that they're trying to do here on the ground. of course having to go back to d.c., not having those events, not having the 3,000 people he had last night here in cedar rapids and not being able to do that and mobilize his supporters, that can hurt his campaign like senator sanders and will continue to watch what the other senators do, see if they also are going back to washington d.c. everyone has talked about it being their constitutional obligation despite them wanting to be here. >> with regard to the nbc/"wall street journal" poll, bernie sanders is in first place nationally. so are supporters reacting to that? are they feeling pretty pumped up? >> reporter: they feel really

good. you hear it from his supporters, from senator sanders himself but you see the campaign trying to calm down expectations a little bit. we talked about that "des moines register" poll not coming out yesterday as planned and that's something that all campaigns are watching closely. senator sanders' campaign manager sent out and tweet and said i'm going to break the suspense but it's still a tight race. go out and send volunteers out, knock on doors, make those phone calls. the campaign feels they're in a good position, they like where they are, they like the surge in the national polls in these early states like iowa and new hampshire but they want to keep the priority on keeping the energy up. they want to ride that momentum straight to caucus day which is just one day away. again, the wrinkle is you're not going to have the senator here. he's going to have to go back to d.c. but for them it's about the groundwork and about getting their voters out to the polls. they're focused on young voters, latino voters and progressive voters. >> it's all about the ground

game whether you're talking about politics or the super bowl tonight. thank you very much there in cedar rapids iowa. i like the passing sggame but i is what it is. let's go to beth in des moines. the fact that this "des moines register" poll did not end up dropping today after that one respondent raised concerns, look, it's the gold standard iowa poll. it usually gives us a pretty good idea of what's going to happen tomorrow. talk about what happened there. this was one person, as i understand it, but have more come out to say they were also not asked about the complete set of candidates? >> reporter: well, if you're calling yourself the gold standard poll, it means that you have to not publish the poll if there's any sense of discrepancy. if one person is saying that they didn't hear the candidate they wanted to support in that list and in this case it was pete buttigieg apparently, a pete buttigieg supporter got called for the poll, was told that he did not hear pete buttigieg's name in the list of

candidates to support, so they did their due dell jidiligence. there was something about the font size on the page that this polster -- telephone polster was reading from that might have left off pete buttigieg and perhaps others. you can't be the gold standard of polling and then have those kind of polling problems. so they took the route of integrity and decided not to publish it. it definitely did sort of shake up this iowa caucus eve but this iowa caucus has been different from past caucuses anyway that was one added element. the fact that the senators weren't able to campaign here because of impeachment and in many cases maybe going back to washington tomorrow. there's the super bowl tonight which means that a lot of their final campaign events are going to be a little bit muted because everybody is going to be out watching the super bowl. some of the candidates are having super bowl parties but it's not the same thing as the

big rallies that candidates typically have the night before the caucus. >> definitely. what about ground game, who do you think has the best one in iowa? >> reporter: you know, everybody's working really hard at the ground game. as you and shaq were just discussing, that's the only thing that matters at this point. unlike going into a primary or general election and casting your vote and just flipping a switch, there's a whole dedicated evening of sitting there waiting to go into your corner and express support for your candidate. that is a daunting process for a lot of voters who want to support a candidate but don't necessarily know how to caucus or are worried about where to go or how long it's going to take. volunteers who work for these campaigns are going door to door, making calls, asking if they can give a supporter a ride to the poll, just making sure they get there. it's so time consuming. typically that means the candidate with the best ground game and the candidate with the most intense support is the one who does the best at these caucuses. like li said before, this caucu has been so different than past

years and with the result of not having that poll to help guide anybody, we really don't know what's going to happen tomorrow and that's providing a lot of anxiety for these campaigns but also opportunity. >> absolutely. you hit it both ways. thank you so much for that. let's shift now to the fallout from the impeachment trial as the senate resumes their impeachment debate tomorrow morning. then tomorrow night are the iowa caucuses. tuesday morning more impeachment debate is expected in the senate and then tuesday night the president delivers the state of the union address to a joint session of congress. then on wednesday the senate will take a final impeachment vote that is expected to acquit the president. nbc's kelly o'donnell following the president in florida. a critical week for the president really on two fronts, state of the union and impeachment. how is the white house preparing for this? sglsh there's so mu . >> reporter: there's so much going on and it under score the historic nature of impeachment in an election term which is

flourishing around us and it puts pressure on the white house to try to fight back against impeachment, prepare for something as significant as state of the union and then we've got to live through these next several days where there will be many speeches offered by senators of both parties arguing why they are voting to convict or acquit the president. certainly the president has his major address to prepare for. we have not gotten a read from the white house about how he might be rehearsing over the weekend here while in florida. we do know that he'll be attending a super bowl party at his mar-a-lago private club this evening and then heading back to washington which is the pattern we've seen in years past. his theme for the state of the union is the great american comeback with a big focus on the economy. but over the next couple of days he will have to still go through the process of waiting for a final verdict from the senate, including delivering that speech in a chamber when the final votes have yet to be cast. adam schiff who has been the top house manager says he's not backing off and on the republican side we've heard from

a few senators including lamar alexander who say they don't want to see the president removed under these circumstances, but they don't like what he did either. here's a sample of what was playing on the sunday shows today. >> i'm not letting the senators off the hook. we're still going to go into the senate this week and make the case why this president needs to be removed. it will be up to the senators to make that final judgment and the senators will be held accountable for it. >> i think he shouldn't have done it. i think it was wrong. inappropriate is the way i'd say, improper, crossing the line, and then the only question left is who decides what to do about that. >> well, who decides. >> the people. the people is my conclusion. >> reporter: and so lamar alexander and some other republicans are saying it should be left to voters because removal would of course not only take the president out of office but bar him from running for election in november or any time

thereafter. so they're saying even though they don't like that conduct and they think that his ukraine activities were improper, they think voters should have the final say. that's part of what makes this impeachment different occurring in a first term where voters still have a chance to render their own verdict on the president compared to more recent examples like the bill clinton impeachment and of course the other one going way back in time to andrew johnson. we've got history, we've got the urgency of the political process under way and we've got the tradition of the state of the union all coming into play abdomover the same few days. >> spot on with that impeachment timing distinction. absolutely agree with that. joining me now, jeff mason from reuters and francesca chambers from mcclatchy. welcome. can you give us a sense of the mood at the white house ahead of this final phase of the impeachment trial? >> i think the mood of the white house has been confidence for some time. the president continuing to support of express his,

honestly, surprise and certainly dissddain over the fact that he gone through this process at all. i was with him at his rally last weekend in des moines, iowa and he started going through what he views as his accomplishments and certainly the strength of the economy being one of them and he said they impeached me, they impeached me, as if it's something he's still trying to process. i think the white house is confident. they're certainly pleased with the outcome overall of the decision not to hold -- not to call witnesses, and they're looking to finish this off on wednesday. i think there's probably a preference that the acquittal vote would come before he gives his remarks or his state of the union speech on tuesday night, but they're going to deal with that as well. >> jeff, before i get to my next specific question, everything you said about the president's demeanor, the fact that he cannot believe still that he was impeached, does that say to you that he still does not believe that he did anything wrong?

>> 100%. >> no matter what's come out, even though the american public believes he's done something wrong, even though there are those in the republican caucus who believe that it was completely inappropriate, what he did, maybe doesn't rise to the level of being impeachable is what the defense is but he's not listening to any of the voices but the one inside his head. >> no, listen, we haven't seen anything from president trump to indicate contrition, anything to say, oh, maybe this call wasn't perfect, why doesn't the senate consider censure, why doesn't the congress consider something else besides impeachment. it's been all this was a witch hunt. this is a hoax. this is a continuation of the attacks that i've been facing. this is coming from him since the beginning of his presidency. absolutely no sign that he thinks that maybe he did something wrong that came to the level of this or any other kind of penalty. >> so with regard to all of this, as we look at at the new

nbc//"wall street journal" poll, 46% of voters say he should be removed from office and 49% say he should remain. what's the takeaway from this in your mind? >> well, i think in general the takeaway -- and this sort of ties in with what i said at the beginning, he's been confident and he's been confident for a reason. from the very beginning the senate was not going to convict this president of these charges. he sees it as having been very political and you've seen just in the last few days the couple senators who not only were not probably going to ever vote for anything other than acquittal but could have led to some witnesses also sticking with the arguments that they are making and sticking with the arguments that the white house is making. there's a reason that this president has confidence and that's showing in the polls as well. >> francesca, you heard senator lamar alexander, the republican senator is retiring. he's got nothing to lose.

what did you make of his justification? >> he's not the only one, tacking onto jeff's point, he said he believes the president may have done something wrong here but it's not an impeachable offense and that is how republicans are justifying the vote that we expect to have this upcoming week to acquit the president. but again, following up on what jeff was saying, it's not just the president who feels very confident about this. his personal attorney, alan dershowitz, who's working with the white house on this matter was on a number of shows today saying that they expect an acquittal and an acquittal is an acquittal even if you think the president did something wrong, that responding to other democrats who have said in the last you few days that not technically an acquit ctal. >> the point that i was making earlier with jeff, they're admitting the president did something wrong. how can he or future presidents be held accountable?

>> the white house has even said that they think the president could be impeached again because some democrats have indicated that they're so unhappy with conduct that he had that wasn't part of this, that wasn't looked at as part of the senate or the house, that they could take up those matters again in the future. so there's a great awareness that that is something that could continue to happen even after this week's senate trial is expected to conclude. >> okay, jeff mason, francesca chamber chambers, thank you. can the president say that our state of the union is strong? our state of the union i strong i'll take that. wait honey, no. when you want it. you get a delivery experience you can always count on. you get your perfect find at a price to match, on your own schedule. you get fast and free shipping on the things that make your home feel like you. that's what you get when you've got wayfair. so shop now!

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did he make a foin call and did he at least in part hold up aid in order to influence an investigation of joe biden. i concluded yes. so i don't need to assess his level of regret. what i hope he would do is, when he makes his state of the union address, that he puts this completely behind him, never mentions it and talks about what he thinks he's done for the country and where we're headed. he's got a pretty good story to tell. >> senator lamar alexander reiterating to chuck todd that the president did exactly what democrats accused him of and also expressing hope that the president would pivot in tuesday's state of the union address. joining me now marcia chat lynn, professor at georgetown university, also author of the new book, franchise, the golden arches and black america and also my good friend, the reverend al sharpton, host of

politics nation on msnbc. welcome to you both. we'll start with you, reverend. what are the odds that the president puts the impeachment behind him by tuesday night and the state of the union? you think he's going to go there? if so, how does he reflect this? >> i think that it would be hard for him to resist given his personality. as one who has known him for years, he will go for a cheap shot because he's walking down the aisle looking at some of the people that incompetempeached h. i think it would be very hard for him, very difficult, no matter how much the lawyers and the strategists tell him, don't play into that, he will find some kind of way to take a shot at speaker pelosi and the democrats some kind of way. i don't think he could easily pass that by no matter how he's advised.

>> i know you've been listening to him, this clip of him talking about mayor mike bloomberg and really assailing his height. goes after physical attributes and the like. >> the president of the united states, under impeachment and you would think he would want at least until the vote goes through on wednesday, which everybody pretty much knows what the vote will be. but you'd think he'd want to be presidential on his super bowl interview so people would say, why are they messing with him? he goes right into calling names, he goes into belittling mayor bloomberg's height. i'm not talking about his policies. >> not the stuff -- >> he goes to his height. it shows that donald trump is too small to be in a big position. he can't grow beyond his own personality. >> marcia, to you now. when you look back on this week that was and all the votes cast, do you think the significance, as well as the historic nature

of all of it has sunk in for the average american. >> i don't think so. i think it will take a while. unfortunately, because we've been under the strain of president trump for several years, nothing surprises people and the republicans' deep desire to protect him at all costs has become commonplace. i think it is unfortunate that it will take several years for people to be reflective and thoughtful about what enabling this president has actually done. not only to the strength of the democracy, but to the expectations of voters on how our leaders are supposed to act. >> well said there. what about you rev as you reflect on this. from the very beginning, the presumption was that he would not be impeached by the senate. was it worth it? >> i think it was worth it, because i think that the american public needed to know exactly where we are and we are in a very perilous time. because we're really now seeing

that the whole question of balance of powers in terms of legislative and judicial and executive branch in this country is now being really challenged. when you have the president of the united states tell the legislative branch, i'm not going to respect your subpoenas, i'm not going to let anybody around me do it, i can do what i want, i think we needed to see this to start dealing with it. i agree with her, it may take a minute, but we're going to say wait a minute, what are we talking about? are we now saying a president can't be impeached? when you have lamar alexander, who is respected. he's a republican. but he's very much respected on both sides saying yeah, he did it. i think he robbed the bank. but i don't know if it rises to grand larceny. what are we saying robbing the bank rises to? i think it's going to force us to really define where this country is at. >> absolutely. i agree with marcia, when you're

in it, it's harder to see exactly where you're going. you have to get out of it to then reflect on it. that certainly will be happening as you can imagine. tuesday, the rooms can be filled with friends and foes. we have speaker pelosi, as you know for the drama is going to sit directly behind him as he delivers the state of the union. do you think the president will be able to resist throwing bombs or do you agree with what the rev was saying about his personality? >> absolutely not. the president has demonstrated a lack of impulse control. even worse, his party does not really hold him accountable for any of his behavior. so i don't think the president will be restrained or remorseful. hopefully he will be so incendiary it gives the democratic candidates an opportunity to get good clips and sound bites to make a case to the american people. that is the best case scenario. i don't think that he has any desire to be chastened by this. it's clear that his entire life

has been about a lack of responsibility. >> to both of you, marcia, you can answer this first. do you think the president will be able to say that the state of our union is strong? >> he traffics in whatever falsehoods he desires. whether it's american carnage or everything is great, it kind of doesn't matter the content of what he says. it's his ability to galvanize some of the worst elements of the american people in order to protect his power. so he is going to use whatever lies that he can to suggest that america is doing great. it is for a small segment of people. for a number of people who want to believe that his leadership actually can care for all people. >> the state of our union is strong, what do you think? >> i think that marcia is right. i think that he is absolutely going to say the state of the union is strong because he sees himself as the union. he's fine. he's not going to be convicted. his friends have made a lot of money off the tax cut.

the fact that the -- we're moving toward a trillion dollar deficit, all of that means nothing to him. the thing, the narrow world view donald trump has, he feels we're doing fine. i think he's not only going to say it, he's going to overstate it on tuesday night to the point where a lot of people watching is going to think that he's delusional. because he doesn't know how to just say things reasonably. he's going to overplay it to where some people that lean his way are going to say wait a minute, we're not doing that great. he's going to really play that card. that's who donald trump is. >> okay. georgetown's marcia chat lynn and to the rev. thank you, my friend. >> for all of you, in case you didn't know, living under a rock, watch politics nation tonight. he had reverend al sharpton is going to take to spike lee about the life and death of kobe bryant. we still can't believe all of

that happened. what a tragedy. you'll get with spike on that at 5:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. watch tuesday's state of the union that begins at 8:00 eastern on msnbc. a busy week for the country. the iowa caucuses, the president's state of the union as well as a final vote in the senate impeachment trial. we'll get some perspective on all of this from former senator from california, barbara boxer and howard dean. stay with us. that's next. ay with us that's next. ♪ limu emu & doug [ siren ] give me your hand! i can save you... lots of money with liberty mutual! we customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need!

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a live look from des moines iowa, in just over 24 hours, they will convene for the quadrennial -- a special edition of kc d.c. from -- kasey d.c. live from iowa. it promises to be a momentous monday. developing right now, a historic week set to take shape and it all starts tomorrow as the iowans head out to the caucus in the first in the nation nominating contest. closing arguments could still be under way on the senate floor in the president's impeachment trial. it's a big week. we bring in former vermont governor and former dnc chair

howard dean and barbara boxer. we'll go with you ladies first. we have four senators on the ballot in iowa. they could be sitting in the senate chamber as it all goes down. what do you expect those hours to be like for the senators? you've been in the hot seats there in the chamber. especially the arguments stretching through the night. because they don't have their technology with them. >> i know. i was there for the clinton impeachment, a very different set of issues, as you know. it had to do with lying about sex and this is about abusing power by inviting in foreign interference and endangering our national security. very, very different. but i have to say, if you're asking me what it will be like for those who are running, and i think howard dean is going to be able to speak to it, because he did run for president. i never did that. it's tough. but i have to say, at this point, it's about the boots on the ground. it really is.

i mean, i'll tell you, every time i ran for united states senate, i had tough races. but election day, i didn't do that much. i kind of breathed deeply and all my folks with were getting the vote out. i think they're going to be okay. what's much worse is the travesty of justice that took place in the united states senate when they refused to invite witnesses. >> yeah. >> the first time in history. >> to your point that they may be okay because of their ground game being in place, barbara, for monday, but overall the trial, how much do you think that has affected those four senate candidates for president? >> you know, i thought from the beginning, they have to do their job and i think people respect that. >> yeah. >> i personally don't think it mattered. i'd be interested, again to hear from the governor. in my view, i think that people respect the fact that they were there, they were able to fly in and out. they could do phone calls.

it is a little easier because of social media. doing conference calls and things that frankly are newer now. i don't think that made a big difference. that's my own opinion. >> so, look, howard i'm going to synopsize barbara's question because you have had this firsthand experience back in your 2004 presidential bid. in a race that's as open as competitive as this one, how should candidates be trying to build the momentum in the final hours of campaigning? >> it's more what is in the paper and on the media. the amazing thing about iowa and i don't think this is going to be the exception, is the incredible -- that happens in the last three days. the poll was withheld because of problems with the interviews really is -- makes it difficult. because the momentum shift, although not much you can do about the shift, it's hard to predict. there was a huge momentum shift, i was leading by a nice margin

about three weeks to go. and the des moines register endorsed john edwards. both john edwards and john kerry beat me in the last few weeks. so the field game is very important but the momentum shift is unpredictable. >> but howard, you're outlining how that poll, when it was played out and put out there publicly, how that affected you. but a lack of having that poll tomorrow, could it still be change things, the fact that it's not there? >> you know, it's hard to say. i mean, there have been other polls. other polls do indicate this is a momentum shift. there isn't any other poll that's as reliable and traditional that didn't end up in print. so there probably is momentum shift going on. we can't guess what it is until the results come in. the people on the ground will know about this. they'll see this first. >> yeah. very good point there. barbara, as you know, the president expected to be

acquitted. how do you think this factors into the presidential race going forward? >> you know, let's look at what lamar alexander said today. he cast a vote against calling witnesses. and he said the reason he did it is he was 100% convinced the president did something wrong, but he wants the voters to decide. so i think that he's saying is outrageous. he's already decided, he saw enough. what about the voters? they didn't sit in that chamber day after day listening to the house managers. so i think that this whole issue will definitely play into the presidential race. i believe it will. it's not going to be the major issue because if the economy starts to slow and people start to lose their health care, we know what happens. but i think there's going to be a drip, drim, drip from the bolton book. the justice department says there's 23 emails that show the

president estate of mind. there are documents out there, there are gk going to be leaker out there. this thing, because the senate committed a travesty by not allowing witnesses, all this is going to come out. >> yeah. >> it's going to be behind everybody's mind and will be one issue in this campaign. >> yeah. >> we don't want foreign interference, period, end of quote. >> absolutely. to your point, we've got nine months to go. a lifetime in politics for sure. howard, given your position as former chair of the dnc, let's take a listen to the decision to change the donor threshold qualifications for future debates, how this is all playing out. take a listen, howard. >> i think the dnc lifted this and said we need to get bloomberg on the debate stage. this change is clearly tailor made to deliver him. >> i asked the dnc to change the rulings for a more diverse set

of candidate. this seems to be pandering to somebody with big money. >> where do you come down on this, howard? >> definitely not pandering to somebody with big money. because there are a fair number of democrats who want to get bloomberg on the stage because they think the other candidates can rip him to shreds. there are others who want him on the stage because they like him. look, i think -- i support in general the notion of limiting the stage. so you don't have people who are really not serious candidates on the stage. obviously, the next time this happens four years from now, we're going to have to pay more attention to making sure the field is diverse. but i do think it's a good idea to have sire yus candidates on the stage and bloomberg is a serious candidate. there's two sides to this. one, you want to be on and the other you want to have at him if you're one of the other candidates. >> absolutely. well said. all well said from the both of you. barbara boxer, former senator, thank you. former governor, howard dean.

thank you, guys. >> thank you. the boo heard around the country. the message it says about party unity, next. out party unity, next. d. i'm allergic to all things green. [audible sigh] ♪ kraft. for the win win. to take care of yourself. but nature's bounty has innovative ways to help you maintain balance and help keep you active and well-rested.

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so hurry in and let's lobsterfest. or get pick up or delivery at redlobster.com i think that's up to us. today's groundhog day. but tomorrow is the day after. it's our first chance to start to make sure that as a party, we have 2020 look as little like 2016 as possible. >> 2020 democratic candidate pete buttigieg with a message of

party unity as rashied talib is accused of boo'ing -- >> last week when someone by the name of hillary clinton said that nobody -- we're not going to boo. we're not going to boo. we're classy here. >> i'll boo. boo! >> you all know i can't be quiet. no. we're going to boo. that's all right. the haters will shut up on monday when we win. >> well, joining me now, adrienne elrod, former adviser to hillary clinton's campaign and richelle bernard. i've got to think you have a pretty good response to that disturbing to some degree. look. we're going to be real straight. the congresswoman talib, adrienne has apologized for boo'ing clinton on twitter. i know she was caught up in the moment. you worked on the clinton campaign. i had to wonder what you were thinking when you first saw that

clip. >> alex, i was disappointed like millions of americans across the country to see her make those divisive comments. i think her apology was sincere and what matters the most we have unity going forward. this is going to be a hard fought primary over the next six to seven weeks. if bernie sanders is the nominee, if joe biden is the nominee, mike bloomberg, mayor pete, whomever it is, we have to have unity across the board. bernie sanders will need hillary clinton's supporters. just like hillary clintonf she were running this time around would need his people. we've got to be unified and i think congresswoman talib made a sincere apology and many of us accept it and ready to move on. >> richelle, is there any reason to bring up the 2016 primary season in this election cycle? does it help any candidate to do that? >> well, it depends on how you bring it up. one of the ways that i think -- one of the reasons i think it is important to bring it up is to remind the american public and

also to remind plitt cat pundits and -- political pundits and the candidates, that the way the people are looking at the democratic party and is there this real fracture or division in the democratic party is to remember what happened to democrats in 2016. there were people that were saying that there were massive ideological differences and quite frankly, if you look into the numbers and you look at studies, for example, a study that was done by a group called nation scape in partnership with ucla and a democracy voter fund, the pundits themselves see these big ideological divides and it could have been what plummeted hillary clinton in 2016 and caused her to lose the election. if you look deeply, pundits see these divides, but the electorate doesn't. for example, if you ask a biden supporter who is your number two choice after biden, it's very obvious that they might pick

elizabeth warren. they're not necessarily going to buttigieg and a more moderate candidate. history is a very important lesson. people have to keep it in mind. >> absolutely. let's listen to michael moore, a surrogate for sanders, responded to all of this. >> she was responding to the fact that people were boo'ing hillary before she said anything. that's the level of anger amongst people who want to win. hillary's comments about bernie, nobody likes him, can't win, that only exists to help donald trump. maybe hillary doesn't know that. it was divisive and cruel and it was a lie. >> do you think hillary should just drop it? >> well, look, she's a private citizen, alex. she's certainly entitled to her own opinion. i think going forward we have to have party unity. you know, when comments are made from any public figure who has a

high-profile, they tend to get distorted or elevated to a different level. i'm in iowa right now, alex. things are very excited. nobody is talking about this conversation on the ground. everybody is talking about how they're going to caucus tomorrow and how turnouts look. that's where we need to keep the focus moving forward. >> because adrienne is telling us how to do this interview, i think she's right, the democratic party should unite around one candidate. can it, is the question? >> i think the democratic party absolutely will unite around one party. quite frankly, they don't have a choice. most important issue to voters is not, for example, medicare for all or what we do on immigration. it is picking the candidate and unifying around the candidate that the american public believes can beat donald trump. if they want to win this election, that's the only way to move forward and i want to add to that, although we're focusing on the negative comments made

about bernie sanders by hillary clinton, she also has come out and said whoever the candidate is, whoever the democratic nominee is, she's going to rally around that person and she's going to do everything she can to get that person be thinking the same way. >> okay. ladies, i look forward to seeing you both soon again. michelle bernard, adrien elrod, thank you. mike pence, medicaid cuts, that video went viral, and the emergency room doctor is going to join me next. and save in more ways than one. for small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair.com

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vice president mike pence wentz viral when a doctor tweeted his response to capping medicaid spending for poor adults. this shows the very moment pence walked up and shook hands with dr. robert davidson at drake diner in des moines. you can see another man holding the phone. here's part of the video that went viral. >> hey, gentlemen. >> how are you doing? >> rob davidson. how you doing? >> good to meet you. >> i'm joel. >> nick. >> nice to meet you, mr. viepd. >> i'm an emergency doctor worried about plans of maybe talking medicare and the rollout

today of cutting medicaid. i work in one of the poorest counties in michigan and my patients depanned on that. how is that going to affect my patients? >> i hadn't heard about cuts in med cared. >> dr. robert davidson is joining me right now. and all of you, we heard him say, he's an e.r. doctor, also on a committee to protect medicare. the administrator tweeted it's a myth that our new guidance will slash medicaid funding. were you surprised by the answers the vice president gave you? >> reflecting back i wasn't. in the moment it was surprising to me. thanks for having me here. we were in town doing an event talking about donald trump cutting medicare. i happened to be in that diner, and vice president pence was probably not prepared to have someone question him on that. so now that i look back, i think

it seems he wasn't ready to tell the fact, that in fact their plan could cut medicaidedcade spending in states like michigan. >> do you think he's not ready to tell the truth or was not aware of what their plan would entail? >> i think the cms administrator was his administrator. i think he's probably fully aware. it's a big rollout. it was part of the aca repeal bill that failed in 2016 largely because of that component. i think he knows it's a pattern of cuts if we're talking about cutting medicare, attempted repaelz of the aca and a with a court case. i think this fits ats pattern of health care cuts. >> which would affect your patients there in michigan how, these kinds of cuts? >> well, i have patients already that have a tough time with co-pays and deductibles. a patient came in five days with

chest pain, was ahaving a heart attack, came in five days later. he would potentially lose his insurance because he got it through the aca. more people die. 10,000 to froert 40,000 people would die. when you have those voices and faces in your mind, it makes you want to do things like this. our committee is a committeetoprotect.org. people can help us. >> michigan is a battleground state. how do you think that cutting medicaid would affect voters there? >> i think cutting medicare, medicare, repaelg the aca would impact a huge number. we expanded like mike pence, and 7,000 michiganers are contributing more, they are healtheereier and are contributing to the tax base. it's been a boon for michigan

and everywhere else where they expanded. >> can i ask what it's been like to be a video like that, what's been the reaction? >> it's really kind of nice to see the comments people put and the direct messages with people telling their health care stories. we're encouraging people to make these so we can distribute those. i think that's what matters. i'm happy to take this on for the mantle of the committee to protect medicare and the patients i treat. if we can give voice to this important issue that's going to make all the difference. >> absolutely. dr. robert davidson, thank you for joining me. >> thank you, alex. that is a wrap for me. do stay tuned for a special edition of kc d.c. for you, for the whole family. new vicks vapopatch.

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welcome to a very special iowa caucus edition of kc d.c. we are live at java joe's in des moines. i am joined by some of the best here on the ground in iowa, and our road warriors are spread out across the states with the candidates they've been covering for months in the rain and snow. and believe it or not, the dw20 election season opens tomorrow.