all possible human transmissions. that may mean stopping human interactions where the risk is high. truly wishing we had better news for you on this holiday monday night. that is our broadcast as we start a new week. with the nevada caucuses just days away, michael bloomberg and bernie sanders are turning up the heat. bloomberg who has largely focused his attacks on president trump is turning his attention to sanders and the senator is now hitting back. plus, president trump and former president obama go back and forth but bwho should get te credit for the robust u.s. economy. the boy scouts of america files for bankruptcy protection. the nonprofit is facing mounting legal costs after defending itself against multiple lawsuits alleging sexual abuse. good morning, everyone, it

is tuesday, february 18th. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside alicia menendez, filling in for yasmin, much of the week. the battle between michael bloomberg and bernie sanders, now kicking into high gear a day after sanders accused bloomberg of trying to buy the president. bloomberg has this dramatic ad, ripping the online bullying of bernie bros, releasing a statement called bernie's new bro, donald trump, accusing the sanders campaign of using trump's tactics against the former mayor. one instance involves bloomberg talking about farmers that the campaign says was out of context. the video which we'll get to in a moment was circulated by the president's supporters, but bloomberg's camp claims the sanders campaign had a hand in it. bloomberg's campaign manager said at this point the primary is bernies to lose and ours to win. bernie knows this. trump knows this. that's why they are united in the campaign against mike.

senator sanders hit back by tweeting this photo of bloomberg and trump together on a golf course looking friendly. that was followed up by these remarks at a campaign event in california a few hours later. >> now, mr. bloomberg, like anybody else, has a right to run for president. he does not have a right to buy the presidency. especially after being mayor of new york and having a racist stop and frisk policy. especially after opposing. imagine a multibillionaire opposing a race in the minimum wage. imagine a multibillionaire asking for cuts to social

security, medicare, and medicaid. >> now, to that video ayman mentioned that appears to show bloomberg making disparaging remarks about farmers. the president's supporters started circulating the video on social media. now bloomberg's campaign is hitting back, saying the clip of him speaking at oxford was cut short and doesn't give the full context of what was said. here's part of what trump's supporters were pushing out online. >> i could teach anybody, even people in this room, to be a farmer. you dig a hole, you put a seed in, up comes the corn. now comes the information economy. you have to have a different skill set, you have to have a lot more gray matter. >> bloomberg's campaign says his first sentence was cut off and he wasn't talking about today's farmers at all. here's the full video of bloomberg's remarks. >> more and more, if you think about it, the egregarian

society, i could teach anybody to be a farmer. it's a process. you dig a hole, you put a seed in, dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. you could learn that, then you had 300 years of the industrial society, you put the piece of metal in the lathe, turn the crank and the direction of the arrow, and you could have a job, and we created a lot of jobs. 1.98% of the world worked in agriculture. today it's 2% of the united states. now comes the information economy, and the information economy is fundamentally different because it's built around replacing people with technology and the skill sets that you have to learn are how to think and analyze, and that is the whole degree level different. you have to have a different skill set, gray matter. >> now ahead of this saturday's

nevada caucuses, candidates are shelling out money and advertising to win big in the state, and no one is spending more than billionaire tom steyer. he overwhelmingly has spent the most in the state on television and radio ads, $14 million. bernie sanders, pete buttigieg, elizabeth warren and joe biden have spent between 1 and $2 million. president trump has spent a little over $850,000. senator amy klobuchar who had a strong showing in the last primary in new hampshire has only spent $800,000, and three organizations have poured money into running ads in nevada for the 2020 race as well. vote vets, a pro buttigieg pack has spent nearly $600,000. the democratic majority for israel, an anti-sanders lobbying group has spent just over $460,000. and vote nurses values a pro sanders union, has spent $170,000. and while michael bloomberg has spent the most money on advertising overall, he will not appear on the ballot in nevada, but does have until the end of the day to qualify for the

debate stage in las vegas. back in 2016, then presidential candidate trump announced during a debate he might not concede the presidential election if he were to lose to hillary clinton. yesterday presidential candidate pete buttigieg was asked what he would do if president trump refused to leave the white house after losing his reelection bid in november? >> so it's november, pete buttigieg just won the election, and the current occupant says, no, this is all a hoax, the senate agrees with him, fox news starts going on about it, what does president-elect buttigieg do about this? >> it is going to be awkward when chasten and i are moving in our furniture. if he won't leave, i guess if he's willing to do chores we could work something out, but. look, at the end of the day, there's only one president, but i do believe this is one of the reasons why it's important that we not just eke out a win.

i think we want to set a goal of winning big enough that this election is way beyond cheating distance, and that trumpism goes into the history books too. it's got to be a win so big that senate republicans are reunited with their consciences and only a political shock wave can do that, and that's part of our focus. >> joining us from washington, d.c., managing editor at the "washington examiner" jay caruso. good to have you with us. so in the few minutes before i came to you, we have been updated that michael bloomberg has in fact qualified according to the latest poll that he will appear on tomorrow's debate stage that we are here hosting at msnbc in nevada. i'm curious now to get your thoughts about the significance of this. michael bloomberg is confirmed to appear for tomorrow's debate stage. >> well, it's significant in that bloomberg is finally going to have to answer to his rivals. so far he's basically poured hundreds of millions of dollars into ads. it's worked in some respect, national polls now, he's third.

he's bypassed, you know, pete buttigieg, he's bypassed amy klobuchar. he's sitting there this third place now. now is going to be the time he's finally going to have to face scrutiny about stop and frisk, other policies, things that he has said, what he's planning on doing. there hasn't been a lot of details, most of his ads have been attack ads on donald trump, saying we can do better. floury kind of stuff that candidates want to say that make them look good but finally he'll have to answer questions. it will be interesting to see where he goes from here. >> if you look at the polling, it follows similar trends, sanders at the top, michael bloomberg behind him, joe biden behind him. how does bloomberg's entrance shake up the dynamic in a state he's not even in. >> it's interesting. nobody is going to be voting for him, but it's going to -- what it will do more than anything probably is set the stage for what may happen in south carolina, biden doesn't have a very good night, he's looking

for a second place finish in nevada, but going into south carolina, that could be big. the interesting thing will be to see where the candidates go. are they all going to converge and attack michael bloomberg or are they going to kind of spread it out, maybe bloomberg and bernie sanders. that's going to be interesting it see how the campaigns decide what they're going to do when the debate starts. >> speaking quickly about what we can expect tomorrow on the actual debate stage. do you think what we have seen over the past couple of days with the amy klobuchar, joe biden, pete buttigieg and bernie sanders going all up against michael bloomberg and really coming at him pretty hard, what are we likely to see actually play out from the defense, from michael bloomberg's perspective in terms of how he's going to try to explain away some of the recent comments about stop and frisk, some of the other controversial issues, women working at his company and what have you. >> of course bloomberg is a perfect foil for bernie sanders,

you know, the oligarch and billionaire, he gets to talk about everything he's trying to buy the election. that's going to be a big theme that michael bloomberg is trying to buy the election with his money and that he's got to explain himself on these issues. he's saying he's sorry about stop and frisk now, but expanded it after rudy giuliani. there are the issues with women who worked at his company, and things he's said about poor people and ageing people. so i think there's a treasure-trove of information that the people who are doing research have dug up on michael bloomberg that are going to give these candidates a good opportunity to throw some good shots at him. >> jay caruso, thank you very much, we're going to talk to you in a little bit. the federal judges association is calling an emergency meeting to address the attorney general's intervention in politically sensitive cases. we are going to talk about the significance of that. later, former national security adviser john bolton breaks his silence after impeachment. what he's saying about the issue

of ukraine. those stories and a check on weather when we come right back. ♪ if you have moderate to severe psoriasis... or psoriatic arthritis, little things, can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream... ...it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable... ...with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, ...otezla is proven.... to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain.

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welcome back, a national association of federal judges will hold an emergency meeting today to address growing concerns about the intervention of justice department officials and president trump in politically sensitive cases. philadelphia u.s. district judge cynthia roof who heads the independent federal judge's association told usa today that the group quote could not wait until the spring conference to weigh in on the issues under attorney general barr's watch. added quote, there are plenty of issues that we are concerned about. we'll talk all of this through. according to usa today, the group of 1,000 federal jurists called for the meeting after trump criticized, and the department of justice overruled them. >> former vice president joe

biden weighed in on bill barr's future at the helm of the justice department. here's what he had to say when asked if he supports the growing calls for barr to resign. >> absolutely. this is the greatest abuse of power i have seen at the hands of this president who has no sense of decency or understanding of the constitution. and barr is facilitating beyond my comprehension. i have been around a long time, chaired the judiciary committee for years. no president, no president, no president has intimidated an attorney general into abusing power as much as this man has. it's distgusting. >> joining us onset, our good friend danny cevallos. great to have you with us. do you think there's any scenario by which the attorney general could potentially be forced to resign by virtue of all of this public pressure without president trump getting involved and if so, how would that look like?

how would that actually play out? >> it's possible but not because of the recent letter signed by all those prosecutors. while i agree with the points in that letter, and it really raised some very good issues, the most important to me is that the real culpability doesn't lie with the president, it lied with the head of the justice department, and that's attorney general barr, and the reason for that is like it or not, the president has the power to pardon roger stone completely. he has the power to delete his conviction. he can commute his sentence to nothing, make it probation only. it follows that he has the power, if not the right, to intervene and meddle and even ask for leniency for roger stone. the real problem and the prosecutor's letter gets this right, is that the attorney general is there to set policy. it's the line prosecutors who carry out that policy. so by intervening, he's really violating the understanding of how the justice department traditionally works so as to separate politics from seeking justice. >> this meeting of federal

jurists that we were just talking about comes on the heels of course of that letter. how much of this is about living in a post-impeachment environment. >> that's an interesting question. i think meeting of the jurists is an important meeting. i think that carries more weight than the letter, which again i agree with, the prosecutors' letter but this meeting of judges is important because when you get all of the federal judges behind a particular position and that may be going against ag barr's actions, that could be more political pressure, but ultimately, i don't think any amount of pressure even internally from among lawyers and jurists is going to be enough or make attorney general barr reconsider what he's doing or step down because he knows he has the power to do what he does. >> what's the process for impeaching an attorney general or removing him, not just resignation but is there a process in place for removing a cabinet secretary, do you know? >> it's virtually never happened. the vast majority of all of our impeachments, and it's under 20 total in our nation's history

have been of federal judges. there was one attempt to impeach a senator, which may have been constitutionally no good from the outset, and there was one other attempt to impeach a non-judge. the answer to the question is for all of those different positions that are not judges, impeachment is theoretically possible. it's just never happened. >> all right. danny cevallos, always a pleasure. thanks for that. still ahead, an update on the global coronavirus outbreak as a new report finds the virus is 20 times deadlier than the seasonal flu. we are back in a moment. mes lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! (announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. i lost almost 12 pounds! oh! (announcer) ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. there's no increased risk. oh!

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[wood rolling] alexios, add toilet paper to the shopping list.

[chiseling on stone] oh, and camel milk. and a chicken. and moisturizer. alexa: thanks, guys. i'll take it from here. the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps. welcome back, everyone, officials from china suggest that the coronavirus now is 20 times deadlier than the seasonal flu, according to the chinese center for disease control and prevention. the fatality rate of the coronavirus is at least 2.3%, far higher than the mortality rate for the seasonal flu, which in the u.s. is around 0.1%. meanwhile, more than 300 americans evacuated from a contaminated cruise ship in

japan including 14 who tested positive for the coronavirus at the last minute were flown home to military bases in california and texas for a two-week quarantine. after two weeks of already being in a quarantine off the coast of japan. the u.s. government decided to let the affected evacuees who were not showing symptoms board the flights after consulting with health experts. the number of confirmed cases in china has surged past 73,000 with the death toll standing at nearly 1,900 cases. amazon's ceo jeff bezos says he's admitting $10 billion to fight climate change, the world's wealthiest person announced on instagram monday that he has created a new initiative called the bezos earth fund, funding scientists and activists working to combat climate change. the grant will become available this summer, and several years after bezos made commitments to redu amazon's carbon footprint, running on 100% renewable

electricity by 2030. let's get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist janessa webb. >> yesterday was tough to go inside. >> it was a beautiful day. >> beautiful day. you know things change very quickly and we're already starting to see that this morning. we have a small disturbance across the midwest to the northeast. it's coming in quickly. new york city, boston, philadelphia, this afternoon you're going to be on the southern side of the system and it will be predominantly rain. the higher terrain could see about 4 to 6 inches, and some isolated spots up to 8 to 12 inches. this snow will be confined to northern new england, and central new york. well to the south, it will be steady rain through the noon hour. then we'll kind of see a lull in the weather pattern. it will rev up once again for your evening commute. so make sure you have the umbrella handy. now, on the southern side of the system, the rivers continue to be a massive problem across

southern states from texas to the southeast, where a state of emergency has been declared for alabama to mississippi where we're going to continue to see the rivers rising. now, today we are going to see the pockets of rain. torrential rain from central mississippi up to 2 to 3 inches are possible in some isolated spots and that's not going to really help the pearl river that's expected to continue to rise, hopefully will resecede b wednesday afternoon. so the totals look like this. they will be widespread through thursday. i do think this starts to push into more atlanta to the mid atlantic by late tomorrow afternoon, so going to get a slight break, but also what's really enhancing the moisture is the warmer temperatures. i mean, they're well above normal once again. we're still in the mid-70s. and that pocket of warm air really will start to be broken down. if you're loving all of this, here comes reality. 46, oklahoma city, by tomorrow afternoon, 55 for jackson.

this will push into the northeast. we were talking about yesterday the extended models. we'll see another big storm, and you know, i'm looking at it, and possibility right now, we're looking at a potential storm ten days out. it is a little bit early. but we're going to see a cold snap returning, so as i said yesterday, no leaving the coat in the closet. >> thanks for that janessa. still ahead, who should get credit for the strong u.s. economy. president trump, and former president obama appear to be sparring over the issue. plus, some of the democratic presidential candidates are sharpening their attacks on bernie sanders over the actions of some of his supporters. those stories and more next. hi guys. this is the chevy silverado with the world's first invisible trailer. invisible trailer?

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welcome back, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin, alongside alicia menendez in for yasmin. we begin this hour with breaking news, the new poll that qualifies michael bloomberg for the first debate of the democratic primary. the npr maris poll showed second place, now at 19% among democrats and left leaning independents. bernie sanders took the top spot at 31%, up 9 points. joe biden is in third place but dropped 9 points since december. now at 15% followed by elizabeth warren at 12, and amy klobuchar at 9. pete buttigieg at 8%. we reported earlier how tensions between michael bloomberg and bernie sanders began boiling over yesterday, well, with sanders accusing bloomberg of trying to buy the election, and bloomberg accusing sanders of

using trump's tactics to smear him. last night, sanders addressed a fired up crowd in california and issued this warning amid the flurry of reports that the democratic establishment is worried sanders might win the nomination. >> now, the corporate elites, all you got to do is turn on the tv, corporate elite, wall street and the drug companies, getting very nervous. and they should get nervous. trump and the republican party are getting nervous. and they should get nervous. and the democratic establishment is getting nervous, and they should get nervous. and i hear the establishment saying oh, bernie can't win the

election. take a look at this crowd today and tell me we can't win the election. >> some of the democratic presidential candidates are also hitting senator bernie sanders over how his supporters have attacked members of the culinary union online. the union which represents 60,000 workers in nevada's gaming and hospitality industries said last week that sanders supporters have viciously attacked their members after circulating a flier criticizing sanders' medicare for all proposal. >> i know you have seen what's been online, vicious, vicious threats and things they have said, my oj nisogynistic things have said to women who are leaders of the culinary union, and the things they have said about them, and actually they have received death threats. i mean, this is way, way, this is trump-like, way over the line, and i think bernie has to disavow this. >> i have said before that we

are all responsible for what our supporters do. and i think bernie has a lot of questions to answer here, and i am particularly worried about what happened to the attacks on members of the culinary union. that is not how we build an inclusive democratic party, and it is not how we build donald trump. we do not build on a foundation of hate. . >> and former vice president joe biden's campaign has their sights set on nevada following two bruising losses in iowa and new hampshire. "the new york times" reports biden's campaign manager held a conference call with supporters to outline a path forward and explain the team is hoping to finish in a top spot in this weekend's caucuses. schultz reportedly said on the call quote i think the democratic party will sigh a collective sigh of relief when we finish second or better in nevada. here's how biden painted his recent losses to potential voters in the state yesterday. >> one of the foremost difficult

states for me to win was going to be in iowa because -- and they're good people. it's all white. it's all mid westerners, and it was going to be -- but we did okay, if you take a look at what happened there. i mean, it was kind of a unusual thing that i hope doesn't happen here. >> joining us now from washington, d.c., once again, managing editor at "the washington examiner" magazine, jay caruso, good to have you back with us. >> thank you. >> what do you make of sanders' attacks on the democratic establishment, i wonder if it's a smart strategy to start this early on the process to say the democratic establishment is getting nervous. he doesn't have the nomination secured and if he alienates them they may rally against the moderate candidate and unify the party against him. >> that's a good point. it's also interesting, and we could have a longer discussion about this if we wanted to is

the weakness of the national parties. basically if you look at bernie sanders, similar to donald trump, two people that are not active members of that particular party using the party as a vehicle to get to the heights they want to get, which is the presidency. you have bernie sanders who has never been a democrat, never been a member of the democratic party. it's interesting to watch him going out seeking the democratic nomination, yet attacking the so-called establishment that he needs to be able to get the nomination. i think you're right, it's premature to go after voters, most of whom are that establishment that he's going after. so i think it's a bad move at this point. >> jay, the bloomberg campaign put out a statement in response to their qualifying for the debate, talking about their ground swell of support. how much of the support that bloomberg is seeing is a response to democrats who are hoping to stem bernie sanders' rise? >> i think it's a big part.

i think people see, especially democrats, and people that i have spoken to, people that i know who are democrats are fearful of bernie sanders getting the nomination. they're worried. he gets the nomination, it gives the united states four more years of trump. and so i think what's interesting is you have seen all of these revelations about michael bloomberg, and some of the things he has said and done, and people have been a little bit quiet about it. i think because democratic voters are willing to say, well, we'll accept that baggage, if it's somebody who actually can go out and beat donald trump in november. >> boy was bernie sanders fired up yesterday in california going after both the establishment and everybody else, but let's talk about somebody else who is desperate to at least make a stand in nevada, joe biden. what is he banking on in this caucus? >> he's banking on finishing second, which would give him his best finish so far, and a little bit of momentum going into south carolina, where he still has a sizable lead, and so if he can

go and say, hey, i've finished fourth in iowa, i've finished fifth in new hampshire. look at me, i'm the new comeback kid, if you want to go back to an old phrase, biden can use that, build momentum going into super tuesday. if he finishes worse than second, that's another bad sign for his campaign, and could change things going into south carolina. if he finishes a strong second, it gives him momentum next week when they go into the south carolina primary. >> it's so interesting how much of this will come down to resources, right, jay, i mean, so much of whether or not biden is able to continue is really about whether or not he's able to raise the money he needs in order to continue? >> yeah, and that's a big thing for the super tuesday race. it's going to require a lot of money, and that's where bloomberg has the resources that a lot of these other candidates don't. >> and of course all eyes will be on tomorrow's debate stage to see how that plays out as well. that could be a defining moment for all of these candidates.

amy klobuchar had a nice bump after the debate in new hampshire just before that primary. jay caruso live in d.c. for us, always a pleasure. former president obama took to twitter to celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the recovery act which paved the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in american history. president trump seemed to respond on twitter writing quote did you hear the latest con job, president obama is now trying to take credit for the economic boom takes place under the trump administration, he had the weakness recovery, despite quantitative easing, now best job numbers ever. if dems won, the trump campaign continued to hit back against obama's claim in a statement to fox news writing in part quote president trump reversed every single failed obama era economic policy and reversed the floundering obama biden economy, obama and biden orchestrated the worst economic recovery in

modern history. president trump has created the hottest economy on record. however, when looking at the numbers under obama, the unemployment rate peaked in 2010, at 10%, and has fallen steadily while the gdp has grown since 2009, both which trickled into trump's time in office. as joe skrcarborough pointed ou on twitter, obama's last three years in office were stronger than donald trump's first three. investigations into corruption during the trump administration if elected, we'll have thatte answer for you. john bolton speaks out for the first time since trump's impeachment, what he says he can and cannot talk about right now. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. i don't add up the years.

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instinct to try and turn the page? >> try to turn the page in the sense that you do not direct the attorney general's office to engage in certain investigations or prosecutions. let the attorney general make that judgment based on evidence that comes before him. but the idea that we would have to go back and i would insist that whomever my attorney general was, they go back and scrub all of the mistakes and all of the excesses of this administration. get rid of executive order that he's instituted related to the justice department, as well as use as an object lesson, whatnot to do. this is not the president's personal lawyer. period. vindictiveness is not his to possess. >> so that was joe biden with msnbc's nicolle wallace. we should note bidens position against directing investigations into trump stands in contrast to senator elizabeth warren who last month said she wants to create a justice task force to

investigate the trump administration for possible corruption though she does say the task force would be independent and not directed by the president. at duke university last night, former national security adviser john bolton spoke publicly for the first time since trump's impeachment saying that it was unfair that the president can tweet about him while bolton cannot discuss his time in the white house. bolton said it was legitimate to worry about the president's attacks on former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch, and lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, and when asked if he agreed that the july 25th call was quote perfect, bolton responded by referencing his forthcoming book saying quote you'll love chapter 14 and the ukrainian part of his book are quote the sprinkles on an ice cream sundae, and asked about his willingness to testify during the senate impeachment trial saying it comes down to mr. impeachment power and mr. executive privilege meet mr. first amendment, but bolton said

that he could not speak publicly about his upcoming book now that a white house review is underway because of possible league action by the executive branch. the trump administration maintains that bolton's book contains classified information, an assertion that bolton disputes. >> john bolton touting his book, you're going to have to wait to see what's in chapter 14 when the entire country and a judicial process was desperate, hanging in the balance, desperate to find out what it is that he had to say to tip it one way or another. seems like we're going to have to live through this for a couple more weeks. with that, let's switch gears, bring in janessa webb with water. good morning. we are watching this historic flooding that is taking place across the south and southeast. we haven't seen flooding like this for central mississippi in over a hundred years. so the moisture continues to flow in. today you're going to see a good moderate chance of heavy downpours around that noon to about 2:00 hour.

torrential rain could produce up to locally some spots, up to 4 to 6 inches, so we're monitoring this very closely, as this storm will make its way through, it shifts more into georgia and the mid atlantic going into tomorrow. so this is far from over. i do think rivers in central mississippi and alabama start to recede by wednesday to thursday afternoon. so that's some good news. we're still about 30 days to official start of spring, and so we're off to a very early start for these rivers starting to rise. on the northern edge of this storm system is that wintry mix, and it's already making its way into the northeast. new york, boston, hartford, central new york to northern new england, you are going to be dealing with a good amount of snow, early this morning before it starts to transition on the southern side to predominantly rain. all day rain before it starts to make its way offshore, but we're forecasting a potential of 6 to

8 inches. traveling on roadways, airways, you're going to see some minor delays this afternoon from charlotte all the way to the boston area, and things are still going to be rough on roadways across interstate 20 from atlanta to the dallas area, making it very rough as lots of moisture cometntinues to flow i. now, everybody's loving the warmer temperatures. winter is going to make a big time comeback. look at how the yellows and the 70s really start to fade away from tampa to new orleans. the blue is going to start to surge in here. by the end of the week, it's a dp game changer. we're back at winter again. >> thanks janessa. breaking news from the boy scouts of america, going the way of other organizations that have been rocked by lawsuits over sexual abuse. we'll get a live report next. do you realize how many different taxes we pay? sales tax, different p-o-s systems in all seven countries. and online sales? that's a whole other system... and different regulations.

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now time for business and the controversy surrounding the boy scouts of america as the organization files for bankruptcy amid a host of

childhood sexual abuse accusations spanning decades. cnbc's joumanna joins us live from london. >> the boy scouts filed for 11 proceedings halts all of the ongoing investigations and the lawsuits that organization is facing surrounding the alleged misconduct claims from volunteers and its employees. in court papers the boy scouts said the cost of defending those lawsuit has totaled up to $150 million in settlements since the 2017 and has become nonsustainable for them. there is still 275 pending lawsuits facing the boy scouts seeking to compensate claimants through bankruptcy proceedings going forward. i want to turn your attention to financial markets. a big story overnight from apple. the tech company has warned that they will not be meeting their revenue guidance in the fourth quarter on impact of the

coronovirus. it's having a severe impact on their ability to manufacture smartphones due to factory closures and on the demand side of things they've closed all 42 stores in china and they have warned that the demand will affect their earnings in the first quarter. apple's stock down 6% in german trading and all other chip makers, any other company that's involved in the supply chain is down anything from 3% to 5%. another big mover today in financial markets is hsbc, the uk global bank. that stock is down about 5%. this after announcing their net profit dropped 50% in 2019. they've announced huge restructuring efforts and reducing assets by $100 billion over the next lee years cutting head count by 35,000 and withdrawing from some of the key u.s. and european markets. two very big movers overnight in financial markets. >> another announcement that came in overnight that was significant, jeff bezos the founder of amazon made his

biggest philanthropic move involving climate change. what does he plan to do with the $10 billion he has committed to fighting climate change? >> that's right. big announcement out of the ceo of the amazon jeff bezos. he announced the bezos earth fund to attract up to $10 billion. he hasn't really specified how via grants or donations but the goal he said is to help scientists, activists, ngos and any other effort that, quote, offers a real responsibility to help pro pre serve and protect the natural world. moving towards a climate-friendly focus. amazon has come under fire for their own practices. back in september, amazon did commit to being carbon neutral by 2040, and they've also said they plan to order 100,000 electric delivery vehicles to help get to that target by 2040. >> reduce some of the boxes and shipments we get.

>> right. live from london, thank you. >> thank you. up next, a look at axios one big thing and more on "morning joe," break that mike bloomberg has qualified for the democratic debate. how the new development could shake up the race. tensions rise as bernie sanders tries to beat back a threat from bloomberg's surging presidential campaign. "morning joe" moments away. ♪ ♪

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♪ welcome back, everyone. joining us from washington with a look at axios, mr. jonathan swan. good to have you with us. >> good morning. >> so, what is the one big thing? >> remember anonymous, "the new york times" op-ed author, the public has stopped talking about anonymous largely, but the conversation about anonymous has not stopped inside the white house. in fact, it's only intensified in the last few weeks. we're starting to see potentially the first fallouts of a rumor that's been going

around. top administration officials are currently discussing reassigning victoria coats who is the deputy national security adviser, reassigning her from the national security council to the department of energy. it's not a done deal, that move, it's still in discussions, but it's part of and linked to potentially the fallout from a rumor and whisper campaign that's been going around which politico first reported on. some of her colleagues and people inside and outside the administration have made an effort to tag her as anonymous and she's vehemently denied that charge. in fact, the agents who were responsible for getting that book to market have come out and said she's not anonymous, but this is something that's happened as a potentially part of the fallout and there may be other factors. we're told from people inside that this has played a role. >> let's pivot and talk about 2020. mike bloomberg qualifying for

tomorrow's debate. how does that shake things up on that stage? >> this could easily turn into a mike bloomberg op dump. we've heard from several rival camps who have been frustrated to watch him purchase additional points in national polling and state polling and as they put it, hide behind his very expensive advertising campaign. this is a first time he's -- they've had a chance to rough him up in person on stage live debate. you've seen a lot of the stories that have been out there from stop and frisk to his other cont vers from his time in public life. and also running his company. i expect that they'll take that opportunity. the other side of the coin is, bernie sanders has complained about the fact that the democratic national committee changed the rules that would

allow bloomberg on to the stage getting rid of the fundraising component of qualification. >> jonathan, always a pleasure, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> we will be reading in a little bit. you can sign up for that news letter. that does it for us on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs. the beginning of what we need to do to provide relief for families worried they won't be able to pay next month's bills. the beginning of the first steps to set our economy on a firmer foundation, paving the way to long-term growth and prosperity. back in 2009, president obama outlined plans for a long-term economic growth. 11 years later, the unemployment rate is down, the stock market is up, and president trump is

raging on twitter. he's not happy. >> doesn't like facts. he doesn't like numbers. it's good for america. he should be happy about america doing well. >> exactly. i would think so. >> i'm happy about america doing well. >> good morning. >> are you happy about america doing well over the past 11 years? >> you would think he would be. >> i am. >> but he's upset because it's obama. welcome to "morning joe." tuesday, february 18th. we have msnbc contributor mike barnacle. pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of "the washington post" and political analyst eugene robinson. u.s. national editor at the "financial times" edward luce is with us. and chairman of priorities usa guy cecil joins us as well. >> facts are the facts and stubborn things. john adams may have said it first, ronald reagan loved talking about how facts were stubborn things and here are the facts that recovery act was signed 11 years ago. we've had 11 years of