politician but connects with the voters in the rallies. >> bloomberg with two main goals, to defeat donald trump and to block the nomination of bernie sanders which i think he rightfully sees as a disaster and see how it plays out over several weeks. >> could be pete. mayor pete. >> could be pete. >> my nanthanks. thank you so much for watching today and all week long. "mpt daily" with chuck todd with brand new poll numbers starts right now. ♪ nicole don't lie! yes, we do. welcome to friday. it is "meet the press daily." good evening. i'm chuck todd. we got brand new numbers. hot off the presses. polling through last night from the nbc news poll of the new hampshire primary which is, of

course, days ahead. pete buttigieg is rising. bernie sanders could be vulnerable. joe biden is facing a potentially fatal blow for the campaign. here they are. among likely new hampshire primary voters, sanders leads barely. a far cry from the 22-point blowout in 2016. the lead over buttigieg within the margin of error. warren in third and biden in fourth. continuing to leak support. and this isn't the only poll that shows them heading in opposite directions after the iowa caucuses. buttigieg up 12 points since monday's caucus night. biden down 7 in the same period of time. hard to see how biden explains away back to back fourth place finishes if that happens in new hampshire. of course, what is the percentage in fourth? double digits, single digits, that might matter some. all of it would likely dove state the electability argument. remember, new hampshire is a

battleground state in the general election and while the campaign can say voters of color are the base in a primary don't you got to win a primary in a state to win the general election in? new hampshire is one of those states. the campaign sent a clear signal they know the predicament they're in as biden advisory anita dunn apparently has now an expanded role in the campaign. not clear whether it's announced by the campaign but it did leak out and certainly sends a public signal that this campaign is trying to find new footing. the other big headline from the poll, enthusiasm. up for buttigieg. big. sanders' supporters are still the most enthusiastic but the number of likely primary voters to strongly support buttigieg spiked nearly 20 points. these numbers come as democrats reeling from a nightmarish week marred from in-fighting over the iowa caucus meltdown, concern of the state and the prospects of

an imploding biden candidate. as sort of a most durable in this field. needless to say, it could be ugly on the debate stage in new hampshire tonight. two of the candidates, warren and biden in particular, need to change their trajectories and that usually means they are going to be more aggressive tonight. joining me now are some of the nbc news road warriors, all over new hampshire. mike memoli, shaquille brewster, ali vitale and mike memoli, the anita dunn news, my understanding it was not intentional but leaked out and not necessarily something to advertise. is it a shake-up are a re-org? >> reporter: chuck, it is hard to really read what this means. i don't know that you can send a

staff memo and not expect it to get out and really hard just the way biden world operates to see this as much of a change at all. there's less of a flowchart in biden world as much as a kitchen cabinet, multiple people who have his ear and a say in decision making and hearing an elevated role for dunn, i said i don't know what that translates to. but clearly, they wanted to send a signal i think of sorts to the outside world, especially the donor world as there are certainly questions of him and i'm saying this from the beginning of the campaign about joe biden, his biggest strength is perceived strength and right now it doesn't feel like a strong campaign, a strong candidate heading into the debate and creates a vicious cycle to see in the poll numbers. what they hope for and try to do tonight with the vice president is show that sort of fighting spirit that he showed in the one event we have seen from him in last 48 hours, the question is

how much do the other rivals sense sort of blood in the water and how much do they go on the offense against him? he is never a natural aggressive offensive player on the debate stages. >> no, he is not. >> reporter: pulling that off tonight then it could be a good moment for him but an interesting night, chuck. >> look. when he had his back against the wall one on one he's come through. it is the group settings that he had struggles with. >> reporter: that's right. >> in the past. shaquille brewster, let me go to you about sanders. there's a lot of focus on biden and talked about the disappointing turnout for team sanders in iowa. how concerned is the sanders campaign the electorate in new hampshire is so different than four years ago? independents and moderates wanted to play in the republican primary and none really participated in the democratic side in new hampshire. this time, you're john kasich,

chris christie voters probably vote in the democratic primary making the bernie challenge harder, does it not? >> reporter: it does. i did ask senator sanders about that in an interview with him earlier this afternoon and he admitted he was kind of disappointed in the turnout that he saw out of iowa. he said he wants historic turnout and did not see that. what you are seeing from him today is trying to pivot and escalate the tension, escalate the attention on mayor pete buttigieg. he was at a panel today this morning and started to list different headlines of different outlets of how mayor pete buttigieg received support of billionaires. i asked him why is he doing that now. listen to what he told me, chuck. >> i think it's important for people to understand where candidates are getting their support. he has received donations from over 40 billionaires including

and in addition the ceos of major drug companies, whole lot of money from wall street. a whole lot of money from fossil fuel financiers and if people out there, not everybody is, but if people are interested in real change in this country you got to take on these people not take money from them. >> reporter: and that's clearly a preview of a message likely on the debate stage tonight. one quick thing to note from the interview, chuck, we know that on monday there's a deadline for candidates to request formally from the iowa democratic party for a recanvass of results. senator sanders said he is not going to ask for a recanvass and will request that the iowa democratic party look into the irregularities that we have reported on, that his campaign highlighted to look into that and he will be making that formal request, chuck. >> very interesting there. i think team bernie knows they

have to have a light touch here because a reason iowa imploded is they did get the demand to get the multiple reporting numbers out there so i think the light touch is probably the smart play there. thank you, shaq. let me go to vaughn hilliard. pete buttigieg, they have the momentum and means he is going to have the target on his back tonight. you know? team biden is afraid of seeing buttigieg win new hampshire. obviously team bernie doesn't want to see buttigieg win new hampshire. they're coming left and right at him. is he ready? >> reporter: look, exactly, chuck. pete buttigieg couldn't have asked to be in a better position than right now coming off an iowa caucus victory and see that polling, a significant lead over joe biden, the fact that he is able to make this a one on one race at this point with bernie sanders is significant. you were mentioning that independent flare here in new hampshire. when you look at voter registration in the state, more than 40% of the voters here in

new hampshire undeclared, essentially independents and they can choose which primary they take part of. what should you expect? as you were mentioning, more independents to take part in this process. what that iowa caucus victory did for pete buttigieg is validate the message three weeks in iowa, the best positioned to bring over independents in those disaffected republicans from that one state he was able to do it. now, the question here, bernie sanders' backyard, elizabeth warren's backyard, is he able to do this? this is a south bend mayor. senator coons talking with andrea mitchell and suggesting that perhaps new hampshire isn't the best metric for joe biden because it is not his backyard. this isn't the backyard of south bend, indiana, either. the fact is that pete buttigieg is able tonight on the debate stage to stay focused, stay above the fray and validate and make the case to folks beyond that he can win and he could pull off a general election case

against donald trump. >> vaughn hilliard with team pete, thanks very much. all right. now to ali vitale an ento me the candidate to intrigue and watch tonight on the debate stage. no, i'm very curious, i think elizabeth warren could have an opportunity. if everybody is shooting arrows at each other and bernie and biden and buttigieg is maybe the target, warren has an opportunity to be the adult in the room if given the chance and she kind of needs a moment in this debate i think, as well. what is their strategy tonight? >> reporter: it could go one of two ways. you could see her invoked and mired into a debate where the polite part of the primary seems to be fading away at this point or see her continue to pull that unity message she is putting out on the campaign trail on to the debate stage and trying to do that for a few reasons. her campaign regularly talks about building a coalition. looking at the strategy after iowa, it is all about if i talk to my sources in warren world

pulling together as many delegates as they can, especially if the results continue to be kind of convoluted like they were coming out of iowa, no clear front-runner, no one running away with it and banking on that and i think specifically about the memo that the campaign manager put out a few weeks ago saying the early states are important but we have over 1,000 staffers in 31 states, ready to go the distance on this thing. the only thing is once the field winnows, we want to build a coalition. i can't tell you the sources i have had over the last few months tell me that's the plan on campaigns that long since left the field. everyone wants to build a coalition as the field winnows. at some point that strategy will work. whether or not it works for elizabeth warren is if she has the resources and money to stay in the race and maybe even more than the polling data or the delegate numbers out of iowa and new hampshire to me i think the

numbers that are the most telling for elizabeth warren's future are what comes out of the fec reports. does she have the money to sustain the campaign? >> it is still -- she has a -- it will be hard to explain how somebody from a neighboring state finished behind somebody not from a neighboring state. i think third place finish is going to be very difficult for her campaign to explain away. but then again, i think anything is possible with her campaign. i'm not ready to write anything off with her. >> reporter: that's true. i think that's absolutely true, chuck. they continue to say about iowa the fact that they feel she overperformed the former vice president, her surrogates pushing this point that, yeah, she came in third in iowa but the thinking tells you there's three tickets coming out of there. >> yeah. michael bloomberg may have stolen the third ticket. thank you all. we have more coming up from new hampshire as we get ready for a possible friday night fight on the debate stage.

i'll talk to a top adviser of the sanders campaign and anchoring special coverage of the new hampshire primary tuesday night and streaming live on nbc news now at 7:00 eastern and updates on nbc news with lester, as well. watch the full nbc news coverage on apple tv, roku or wherever you get nbc news.com on your computer. later, president trump unleashed. one day after saying he would be looking for revenge, a key witness was escorted off white house grounds. at fidelity, we can help you build

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socialist. well, we are already seeing what donald trump is going to do with that. >> donald trump says that he would love to run against bernie sanders. well, maybe not. donald trump lies a whole lot of the time. >> you know one of the advantages i have is that i decided not to fund my campaign spending 70% of the time with billionaires and business executives i have gone all over the country. >> pete buttigieg has exclusive billionaire donors of any democrat. >> joining me is jeff weaver for the sanders campaign. good to see you, sir. >> good did see you, chuck. how are you? >> pretty good. i want to start with our poll. it indicates we are starting to see some distance. there's the two of you, sanders and buttigieg. a lit billitle bit of space and warren and biden. if this is where we are headed tuesday night, what does that tell you where this race is

headed? two and a half person race with the wild card of bloomberg? where does this go if we see the same order or the same sort of outcome where the two of you in one place and the two of them are in another? >> well, chuck, i think it's hard to predict one state to next. nevada is different than new hampshire and we saw in iowa the tremendous support that senator sanders has with latino voters and play a bigger role in nevada and california and going to come down to the senator's benefits in those races. >> on nevada, how much is a problem for the medicare for all with the culinary union? they like their health care plan. >> well, you know what? we are offering them a better health care plan and a law to give $12,000 or more a year and we think that's a good deal for folks.

>> you think they believe it, though? that's a tough thing to do when you have an idea that is not popular. your candidate is more popular than the idea. and if the idea is not popular you know -- >> we won't do well without the other. >> i get that. you can't -- getting this passed where it is underwater with the public is a pretty tough hill to climb. >> well, look. i think there's been studies on medicare for all in polling. democrats support it. independents and many of the polls are supporting it, majority support it. even some polls showing significant support of republicans, particularly people in small business world crushed with high premiums right now. so we just need to have more discussion about medicare for all and get to the truth of what it does for people which is to comprehensive health care at lower prices. >> the makeup of the new hampshire electorate, four years ago there were two active, very competitive primaries taking

place on both sides of the aisle and in some ways because hillary clinton sort of ceded new hampshire, whether she did or not, kind of, you had moderate republicans like kasich an christie, a lot of moderate independents voted in the republican primary. this time they're likely to vote in the democratic primary. how concerned are you about that? >> well, i have to tell you that four years ago we were very concerned about independents crossing over into the republican primary, frankly. because senator sanders does overwhelmingly super well with independents in new hampshire and other places and a reason why he's a formidable general election candidate. from last time, overwhelmingly with independents, current polling shows overwhelmingly with independent that is plan to participate in the democratic primary here in new hampshire so we welcome independents. they know that senator sanders stands up against corruption, big money interests. i'm from up here, northern new england. and we are a flinty group and

don't like billionaires trying to buy the election anywhere. >> what is -- let me ask you this because somebody could look at your report and say look at all these employees from silicon valley and, you know, why is some money bad and some money good coming from a donor in your mind? >> this is the problem with the current campaign finance system. when you sit in a basement with people in a wine cave taking the hundreds of dollars from them and the friends and the subtle hints not just in wine caves but how unlimited amounts of money in third party organizations, we saw a direction from the pete buttigieg campaign on twitter to its third party independent thing of how to spend money in nevada, that is a corrupt system that we have got to end. working people, middle income people in the country should control the process and not wealthy campaign donors. >> the house majority that the

democrats have, they have a super pac of the house majority pac. michael bloomberg gave million and a half dollars to that super pac. should nancy pelosi tell the house majority pac don't take the big donations? >> well, look. you know? i'm not going to tell house majority pac what it should or should not do. bernie sanders is running a grassroots funded campaign and the opponents are not. the truth of the matter is if they want to make a case about the general election, maybe you could listen to it. but when we're in a democratic primary system, and you have got to rely on big money interests to try to stop bernie sanders and what is going on here, chuck. buttigieg to try to stop him now. if he can't do it, then the billionaire wall called mike bloomberg on the 3rd of march. this is a concerted attempt to keep bernie sanders from getting the nomination because he threatens the economic power and political power. >> let me ask you this, jeff.

have you thought about if you have the delegate lead after super tuesday, you are likely going to be the nominee. very hard to stop you from being the delegate leader if you have it after super tuesday. how will you reach out to the establishment you're so angry at right now? >> i'm not angry at all, actually. we are doing quite well after a win in iowa, this campaign is doing quite well. as you saw in the poll, leading here in new hampshire. we are putting together -- in fact senator sanders is building the coalition of working people, young people, people of color to win in the primaries and win in the general election and we will. when senator sanders if he is the person who gets the nomination we reach across to all elements of the party and bring the party together because what unites us all is a desire to beat the most disastrous president in the history of modern america and that's president trump. >> i'll leave it there. i guess the senior adviser on team sanders, the chief strategist and may offend

somebody. >> for sure. please, please. >> yeah, i know. i know how that gets. thank you very much. >> thank you. up next in this divided democratic party, which candidate does have the best chance of getting the most support? we'll show you what our new poll shows about that issue, next. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i thought i had my moderate to severe ulcerative colitis under control. turns out, it was controlling me. seemed like my symptoms were taking over our time together. i knew i needed to talk to my doctor. think he'll make it? that's when i learned humira can help get and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts.

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there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. welcome back. heading into new hampshire, one of the big questions of democrats is who had the

broadest appeal of a party fractured. so take a look at how the top two candidates stack up in our nbc poll of new hampshire voters coming to ideology. buttigieg is the top choice among moderate conservative democrats. sanders ranks fifth. and while sanders the top choice of progressives, buttigieg ranks third. sanders is the first or second choice by age. their view of electability or desire of a democratic nominee share their views but however so is buttigieg. joining me now is anne geurin and maria te rhee yeah kumar. is this a -- >> talk to me, chuck. >> if basically we are at some form of buttigieg/sanders, sanders/buttigieg, either way,

is this a two and a half person fight all of a sudden? >> i love this question only because we have nine months to go in the election. >> we don't. that's late early. >> no. i think that a lot of folks want it to be down to two people but i have to say that until we actually get to nevada that's when we are going to see who pops. i say that because in nevada you will have the most demonstratible demographic that's -- >> little nervous that nevada isn't a real test because of its procedure is still new. >> everyone's still dry mouth with what happened in iowa. >> you throw that in there. >> i understand. >> this is a caucus that's decided in the back rooms of casinos and -- >> that's true. >> feels like outside forces can skew the results where they're not the test we think they are. >> i think what's interesting is that in nevada last time around the biggest challenge was that the union leaders were very much with team hillary. >> right. >> and the people that the -- every day workers very much team bernie and i think we see less

of an upset between that friction but you are going to see a potential pop with elizabeth warren if she is able to hold on. >> that's fascinating. >> an incredible appeal of women, regardless of race and talk about bread and butter and accessible to them in the way you don't see in the other two. >> i feel as if there's, ann, too much glossing over her candidacy. she was stuck in that no person land, okay, in third, right? biden story, it is like dean scream. right? biden story finishing fourth. the iowa caucus debacle itself. buttigieg and sanders. nobody was saying she had a bad or good night. she had a night. >> right. >> and she needs something here. >> she definitely needs something here. i mean, new hampshire is her backyard, too. people talk endlessly about how it's -- >> bernie's. >> she's from massachusetts next door. she needs to do better than she

did in iowa or have an excellent reason for not doing so. i do agree with you, marie teresa. nevada could be an important state for her and can't be way down in not only in finishing but in -- in feeling and -- but -- >> i don't think she can finish behind somebody that's a neighboring state. hard to explain finishing behind pete. >> we are only talking about biden, sanders, buttigieg and warren as the other free radical. no one's talking about amy klobuchar with the same appeal. >> she had a bigger bump. >> did pretty well in iowa. if we're playing the expectations game. did better there but there's a huge question mark hanging over her. >> fifth place is best place. you know? >> she was the -- >> double digit. could have been a story. >> this is where the opening is

when we -- if you start looking at the other candidate not been on the ballots yet, not been tested, bloomberg. because the fact that none -- we didn't see a historic turnout in the iowa caucuses that this idea that folks are saying, wait a second, not enthusiasm. this allows him to i think fill that space. >> i think this is a to me question sanders has to answer here more. but michael steele, i'm stcurio what you think of your man jeb bush, chris christie -- >> enough of them. >> none of you did. you were all -- what happened was three fighting for the same group of voters. splitd them and got about ten or 12 if i'm not mistaken. a lot of them will vote in the democratic primary and it is going to i think this is a problem for sanders, i think it make it is thing a bit more moderate. who do you think they end up with? >> i think they probably split a little more than you would

expect because -- let's say it this way. new hampshire democrats, 62% prefer an extinction level meteor strike to the re-election of donald trump. >> that is a headline. >> and yet, going into this race the two front-runners are a 38-year-old mayor of the fourth largest city in indiana, fifth in indiana is carmel. and a 78-year-old -- >> i sense a talking point coming. >> a 78-year-old socialist, not even a democrat, who had a heart attack a few months ago. if your job is winning against donald trump, these guys -- not saying they can't do it. they're not good chances and looking at the right leaning voters, a lot of them probably fairly trump skeptical but split among klobuchar, pete, ideology and this -- >> competency feel. >> the military thing matters i think to the independents. >> religion in a way that makes people comfortable. some people will probably go to

biden, the choice, the old shoe. >> what does buttigieg have to do with latino voters he hasn't done so far? >> same thing with african-american voters,en gauge them in a way that is -- that you actually understand and what i say -- mean by that, angela rye doing a college tour with him and a question was, who -- name two prominent african-american women to bring into your cabinet and took him about literally three minutes to weave around and tell that it was not top of mind. the name. i think that's just a challenge for him, that he hasn't -- that's a softball. right? >> should have been. >> having issues. >> spinning an wasn't authentic. >> what do you sense tonight is going to be like? i assume pete comes under fire. everybody that tangled with pete wished they hadn't. >> good point. his version of tangling is just

to kind of come out with, you know, some dead ringer facts and go back to -- >> just ends up throwing them off and you are like -- >> oh wow. but we have seen it today. sanders started to go after him at breakfast this morning on -- >> long day. >> yes. >> i'm always a skeptic on campaign finance. voter -- you know, i don't know how much voters care about it. >> this one feels easy, though. he left the new hampshire campaign trail to go to new york to raise money at three fund-raisers when everybody else is slogging around in the snow. there's a way to very easily pull that -- biden probably is better if biden doesn't do that. >> no. they do care about the issues, you have picked sanders or warren. >> that's right. >> i keep to your question thinking that this is the debate stage four years ago the candidate ran into a flailing failing candidate and the glitch moment and the rest was history. marco rubio and chris christie.

>> this -- every debate always matters. >> this is the big one. >> going back to this idea of don't take money from billionaires, i think the challenge with the democrats is plenty of billionaires aligned with this proposal of what america should look like. >> bernie feels like he's alienating them. >> i don't think it's effective because it creates -- there's not an american that wakes up morning saying i'm gong to get up so that i some day can be rich or my kid can be rich and this misalignment -- >> aspiration. >> doesn't feel productive. >> can i just tell you? >> he did, right. >> this is what people forget about democrats blow this sometimes with particularly voters of color is not coming across for aspirational. cory booker and tom steyer who sort of going, wait a minute. people want to make money. don't say they don't.

>> when you think of billionaires in america, when i think of them in america, i think of bill gates, jeff bezos, people who have -- >> don't forget donald trump has given billionaires a bad name. >> made a fortune making our lives better. >> right. but the problem is -- >> no. i wouldn't go that far -- >> i don't know -- >> i would actually say that came off with mitt romney. right? people trying to say that mitt romney was a problem because he was rich. that wasn't the problem. he didn't connect with people. what we have to be care sfl creating unnecessary class war with plenty of people who do contribute. >> class warfare inside a primary is usually a problem. ann, michael and marie teresa, stick around. impeachment is over. the iowa democratic caucus is a mess. is president trump having his best week ever or did mitt romney ruin it for him?

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welcome back. while democrats may be reeling after a wild week, president trump is having what should be the best week of his presidency politically speaking. another very positive jobs report, appeals court ruled democrats can't sue him over the emollients clause and an end of a campaign. that caps a week of acquitted in the senate impeachment trial, delivered a rallying cry to republicans in the politically charged state of the union. highest approval rating of his presidency according to gallup and mitt romney voted against him. that's the part of this that just -- michael, it's all of this was going for him and he said no, no, no. i'm going to put my best -- my worst version of myself in front of people to get the poll numbers down. >> in the worst possible -- i mean, the winning move was to do

the state of the union and go to florida. the state of the union was very effective. his poll numbers went up. acquitted the next day. sometimes you got to take the winnings and walk away from the table. right? doubling down on -- you know? >> thank goodness he didn't. >> i was going to say i don't know who helped the democrats more this week, mitt romney sort of giving, you know, there was this depression among democrats, you could feel it a little bit but what he really did, romney got under the president's skin. so clear that's what happened and he just lost it. >> lost it. i think two things. he saw the piece, the day after the state of the union no one was talking about the state of the union. they were talking about pelosi ripping up the speech. >> he could have been the bigger man there. >> so i think that with mitt romney is enough. i'm all of a sudden losing. people are beating me up. i'm bullied again. when he gets in that corner he reveal himself. >> there's another reason,

though, that trump wanted to have that east room event and which was, you know, indulgent is a polite term. he wanted to have a roomful of people of his choosing, his backers, his cabinet members, essentially, you know, it was the king and his court and he wanted to have that room applauding for him, you know? every part of that and he called it a celebratory air, this is a celebration. that is a -- that's -- it's in the same family as, you know, as being needing to, you know, go after mitt romney. but it's slightly different thing. it is a need for add lags. >> i thought he was conditioning republicans. it was stunning to me to say i didn't know i was interviewing u.s. senate candidates. you are not. >> you are not. he went one by one name and

essentially -- >> i put you there. >> i did? >> what a great decision that was. if you didn't get your name check there you probably feel like -- >> with what happened today you were at the white house, colonel vindman we knew would be transferred and the twin brother working as a lawyer. >> in the nsc. >> fired. >> the white house is not giving a cause for either of them specifically other than -- >> isn't this illegal? >> i don't know. i think -- i'm sure there will be a challenge to it. but they are members of the military both. they are army officers. not only do they serve at the pleasure of the president, because they are in the military, he's commander in chief, but at the pleasure of the president because they work for the nsc. i don't think that -- i'm sure the white house -- >> can't be fired from the federal government. >> right. >> right? >> but they can be fired from that job.

that i get. but he can't be fired from the federal workforce, right? >> that's my understanding. the military but not in that building anymore -- >> going after the pentagon. both army. they're now back in the armed -- >> this is, you know, piecing together both joyce who used to be part of the federal doj and george conway, both are saying that technically what happened is that as a witness you cannot be retaliated against with firing. >> will this be considered that? >> retaliation. >> i feel as though like so many things in the trump era litigated to era and end long after -- >> trump doesn't care. he won't -- the answer to that is -- >> doesn't bother him with a court case. he wants it. >> of course. i genuinely don't understand why it is necessary to go after this guy. >> this is -- >> yes, i understand it on a --

>> this is the thing -- >> really? is that the thing? >> but, ann, but, ann, this president demonstrated he gets the crib sheet from mob bosses. and i say this because every -- >> feels like a condition. >> of if you don't deal with me, you hurt the most and if not you it is your family. >> here, too, of whistle-blowers being willing to come forward. >> isn't that the point? let's be realistic. >> yes. >> the point is -- >> it's a brushfire. >> i'm sending a message. romney did what he did. don't you others try this. >> this is the flip side of two coins. one, the unswerving loyalty of the republicans in the east room and joe walsh failing to catch on. every incumbent president that lost faced a serious primary challenger. president trump does not. >> that is true. >> john bolton seeing the call go down, he said it was as if

it's a drug deal going down. this is people in the room with him and this is how he reacts and start calling it out or normalize things and start giving -- we start providing people with the courage to do the right thing serving the oath of the constitution, we are not celebrating and telling them to stand up and tell the truth because we look away. >> trump's intent to scare people. >> that's right. >> no doubt. all right. ann, michael, marie teresa, thank you all. happy friday. i'll be right back. but sometimes life gets in the way, and that stubborn fat just won't go away. coolsculpting takes you further. a non-surgical treatment that targets, freezes, and eliminates treated fat cells for good. discuss coolsculpting with your doctor. some common side-effects include temporary numbness, discomfort, and swelling. don't imagine results, see them. coolsculpting, take yourself further. go to coolsculpting.com for a chance to win $25,000.

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welcome back. had our latest poll has bernie sanders and pete buttigieg. there are still plenty of persuadable voters. 62% of likely democratic pripary voters say they strongly support their candidate. 22% say their support is only somewhat locked in. 15% say they might vote for an entirely different candidate. 15% could decide the whole darn thing. joining me now, raymond buckley. >> to see you, sir. >> good to see you again. >> let me start with what happened in iowa on the turnout front. before i get to the mess. turnout was average. okay? it was what it was in '60. not what democrats did in 2008. are you concerned? how concerned are you that you're not going to top 2008's

democratic turnout? that you won't have a record breaking turnout? >> we definitely won't. we won't break 2008. >> why is that? >> well, i think that there was a difference. that race had the historic races of barack obama and hillary clinton. and folks were very energized and excited after george w. bush. but the fact remains this cycle, the vast majority of folks just want to vote for whoever the nominee is. so that sense of urgency by the voters in new hampshire, and i'm guessing in iowa as well, is that they didn't feel there was that passion to have to cast a vote. they're just going to support whoever the nominee happens to be of especially during the impeachment trial. i think people were so horrified by trump's behavior that people are like, just give us the nominee and just get going. >> do you think that will mean

fewer right leaning independents decide to participate in the primary because they're waiting to see who the nominee is? maybe you're right and that's the reason. but i tell you, usually the party that wins the presidency, you start to see enthusiasm in the primaries. >> i think you certainly saw it in the offyear elections and the mid-term elections. i think they'll be there when it really counts. right now we've got a lot -- usually there are candidates that drop out between iowa and new hampshire. everybody got a ticket in new hampshire. they're all out here. we've got ten candidates crisscrossing the street nonstop. and as you saw, there are some polls that suggest that even upwards to 50% still would change their mind. that means that they like the different choices and they don't feel that sense of urgency to

decide. we'll see what happens on tuesday. tonight's debate will be probably the most consequential that i've ever witnessed, the fact so many people are willing to change their position. somebody could be very impressive or somebody could turn off the voters. we don't know how they'll all act at this debate. >> i want to read you a quote from marsha fudge, democratic congresswoman from ohio. she said she's very upwet the tom perez. she said it is a lack of leadership. if you have iowa situation, you don't throw them under the bus. you stand up and support and try to fix it. he doesn't lead on anything. do you think the national party has been too hard on iowa and that they need to accept some ownership of this? since they do approve all of your rules on how you guys decide to give delegates away in

the state contests. >> well, as you know, i was a candidate for dnc chair. so it is probably a little unfair for me to judge tom. i met with him today for about an hour. we went over a lot of bits and pieces. being chair is a tough job. whether you're a state chair or the national chair. you're really the punching bag so i understand that. i appreciate that. i think that we are moving very quickly to make sure that nothing similar happens for the rest of the nominating process. i'm going out to nevada i know what a number of other people to help them. to south carolina as well. there will be enough people on the ground that are helpful. >> perhaps the all hands on deck should have been used for iowa early on. maybe that is the lesson learned out of the debacle going forward. i'm out of time. i'm glad you could get there. i have a feeling i'll see you a lot this weekend and through tuesday.

thank you, sir. nbc news has the democratic primary debate that comes up next. it is wednesday, february 19th, live from las vegas. we will moderate i know what our friends. you won't want to miss that one. it could be the first that includes a second billionaire in the race. a second billionaire n the race ♪ i thought i had my moderate to severe ulcerative colitis under control. turns out, it was controlling me. seemed like my symptoms were taking over our time together. i knew i needed to talk to my doctor. think he'll make it? that's when i learned humira can help get and keep uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions,

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tonight. we will be back monday with more "meet the press daily." i'll be in new hampshire by then. in fact, i'm going up tomorrow. if it is sunday, it's a special edition of "meet the press" on msnbc. who better to have as your guests than the top two in the polls, bernie sanders and pete buttigieg in manchester with me. "the beat" starts right now. good evening, ari. >> good evening. it is all happening now. new polling, a debate that may be do or die for several candidates, and some new signs about what new hampshire voters want in policy and their stance against donald trump. let me tell you something as we kick off our coverage. if you've watched the show, you may have heard me say it. the early polls don't matter much. national poes hardly ever matter. i saw that myself working a campaign in 2004. you've probably seen it following campaign cycles where obama trailed