do you have experience in the intel community or expertise in the demand you're being put in charge of it potentially can be has hit us this week, people haven't stepped back to look at the totality of these actions to understand. very very critical week. >> jim vandehei, thank you for putting that into perspective. sign up for the news letter at axios.com. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside alicia menendez who will be part of the nbc's all day coverage of the nevada caucus this weekend. you do not want to nimiss that. "morning joe" starts now. mr. bloomberg had policies in new york of stop and frisk which went after africa american and latino people in an outrageous way. that is not a way you're going to grow voter turnout. >> i would like to talk about who we're running against, a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse faced lesbians, i'm not talking about donald

trump. i'm talking about mayor bloomberg. democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of harassing women, and of supporting racist policies like red lining and stop and frisk. democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another. >> i actually welcomed mayor bloomberg to the stage. i thought that he shouldn't be hiding behind his tv ads. >> the mayor says that he has a great record, that he has done these wonderful things. the fact of the matter is he has not managed his city very very well when he was there. he didn't get a whole lot done. he had stop and frisk throwing close to 5 million young black men up against the wall. >> we could wake up two weeks from today, day after super tuesday, and the only candidates left standing will be bernie sanders and michael bloomberg. the two most polarizing figures

on this stage. let's put forward somebody who's actually a democrat. we shouldn't have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down, and another candidate who wants to buy this party out. >> and that was just the first ten minutes. >> wow. >> what a debate, mika. >> good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." yeah, we had a debate last night. it's thursday, february 20th, along with joe, willie and me, we have donny deutsch, and former white house press secretary for president obama, robert gibbs. the gloves came off, oh, my lord. >> they really did. willie, we're going to show all the greatest hits from ollie frasier 4, but before we do, what were your initial thoughts. >> thank you very much, i take that as a compliment, d

dr. pachecko. you know, the gloves were on for the first several debates. that was one of the criticisms of this field is it had been too polite. that all changed in the first 30 seconds of the debate last night as we just showed. we talked yesterday at this time about mayor bloomberg that he was the first time up on the stage, on the debate stage with this group. how would he respond? they tore the skin off him yesterday, last night in las vegas. elizabeth warren leading the way, bernie sanders, they all one by one, amy klobuchar, one by one went after mayor bloomberg. i'm not sure he responded terribly well to a couple key questions he had to answer, and elizabeth warren who had been -- her campaign has been charging that she has been ignored, that she's been overlooked unfairly and she took control of that debate throughout. especially in the first hour, but throughout the debate she took control, in fact, directing some of the questions at one point to mayor bloomberg,

demanding he let women out of their ndas. elizabeth warren had a great night. i'm not sure they got anywhere. bernie sanders went in as the front runner, he didn't take much fire and the man they're all running against, donald j. trump hardly took any fire at all. >> get off scot-free, i thought the two big winners last night were bernie. he's on his way to locking up this nomination if things keep going the way they are, and donald trump who nobody laid a glove on him. they were too busy tearing each other to shreds and an intermural ping-pong game. so donny, i'm always surprised when people show up on the national stage when they know what questions are coming at them, and they're just woefully ill-prepared. i'm doubly surprised that michael bloomberg, who had to know the questions about the ndas, the questions about the women. the questions about stop and frisk, the questions about his

money, he had to know they were all coming. he did horribly the first hour, almost hour and a half. i think he had his first good answer, passable answer 70 minutes in, when he talked about climate change. how do you show up after investing that much money and not have a 60-second answer ready on these attacks you know are coming. >> i think part of the problem is the life he's led. you know, even donald trump who is not used to, you know, people talking back to him in his company has spent his 20, 30, 40 years in public life jousting and fighting. michael bloomberg has been isolated. michael bloomberg sits atop this empire. he's never had to kind of answer to anybody, and i think that it was an arrogance of him coming in and he looked put upon, my concern about him going in was that his feeling of what am i doing on stage with these people, i wouldn't even hire any of these people showed, and to pick up on your point, the big

winner in spades was donald j. trump. he was most concerned about bloomberg. he is salivating at thought of bernie sanders. that for him is, and my big concern for the party is it was a big night for sanders and i just do not think this country is going to elect a socialist, and i don't understand why they don't go after sanders and really make him do the math. buttigieg did it at one point, but really take it apart and saber kne say bernie, it's all nice and good, let's talk grown up stuff, let's go item by item, and they just don't do that. but the big headline was -- >> go ahead. give us the big headline real quick. >> the big headline is bernie stood tall, and the good news for bloomberg is he has a week to come back and not a lot of time. it was a devastating introduction for michael bloomberg to a lot of america. >> you know while you were talking, it's like there was this shiny penny on one side of the stage and bank robbers on

the other side of the stage, and everybody was running over and trying to pick up the shiny little penny. everybody was so focused on michael bloomberg. >> it was more like hyenas, picking on acarcass. they weren't paying attention to the guy who could be on the way to locking this down in two, three weeks, and that's bernie sanders, and we don't know how that will play out in the general election, but we know that they were going after, i mean, i guess they felt like they had to go after bloomberg. >> a legit threat. >> who could be a legit threat. the threat in front of them is bernz a bernie sanders and he had a great night. robert gibbs, what a great point by donny when he talked about michael bloomberg not having people really stand up to him throughout his career, being surrounded by people who are going to defer to somebody who has $55 billion.

i remember asking somebody on the campaign, i said, when you guys do debate prep, is there going to be someone to stop him and say that was a terrible answer, and what came back was, well, they're going to be tough enough, but mike is mike, and the mayor, if you go after him too hard, he looks at you like, well if you're so smart, why do i have $55 billion more than you, and i just shook my head, and i said oh, boy, that is a recipe for disaster and that showed itself last night. >> well, you can imagine, i mean, who had to ask him if he wanted to go in the spin room last night. can you imagine, that staffer probably flew commercial back to i don't know where. but i think it gives you a sense to the candidates that start this process late, they walk into, you know, a baseball game that's happening in the middle, everybody's in mid season form, and they haven't even been through spring training. you could see it in the beginning last night, first the

other candidates made him uncomfortable. they attacked him and didn't let him get into him talking about himself, and you could see at points he wasn't very comfortable with even how to get in to answer questions, as you mentioned, until about 70 minutes in with climate change. what will be interesting is this, as we know, is not a normal candidacy, and so a normal candidate would wake up this morning and say how do we fix this, do we have enough money to keep going, how did the fundraising go, who do we talk to to make certain that doesn't dry up. tens of millions of dollars are going to run today. it will be interesting to see the practical impact going into super tuesday. >> i turned to christina when elizabeth warren went right at mike bloomberg. i bet no one has spoken to him that way in 40 years. i don't know what the number is, but he's been as donny said the

head of this empire. no one has spoken to him that way. physically, he was taken aback, he rolled his eyes at one point, and i was shocked he didn't have better answers but as robert says he has another hundred million dollars to spend in the next two weeks on super tuesday he's not on the ballot in nevada. this could change again and again and again before super tuesday. >> in a night of tough moments for moom bloike bloomberg. here was the worst. >> several employees have claimed your company was a hostile workplace. you admitted making sexually suggestive remarks saying quote that's the way i grew up. in a lawsuit in the 1990s, one former female employee alleged you said quote i would do you in a second. should democrats expect better from their nominee. >> i have no tolerance for the kind of behavior that the me too movement has exposed. and anybody that does anything wrong in our company, we investigate it and if it's

appropriate, they're gone that day. in my foundation, a person that run's it's a woman. 70% of the people there are women. in my company, lots and lots of women have big responsibilities. they get paid exactly the same as men. >> i hope you heard what his defense was, i have been nice to some women. that just doesn't cut it. the mayor has to stand on his record, and what we need to know is exactly what's lurking out there. he has gotten some number of women, dozens, who knows, to sign nondisclosure agreements both for sexual harassment and for gender discrimination in the workplace. so mr. mayor, are you willing to release all of those women from those nondisclosure agreements so we can hear their side of the story? >>. [ cheering and applause ] >> we have a very few

nondisclosure agreements. >> how many is that? >> let me finish. >> how many is that? >> none of them accused me of doing anything other than maybe they didn't like a joke i told. and let me just -- agreements between two parties that wanted to keep it quiet, and that's up to them. they signed those agreements and we'll live with it. >> come on. >> so wait, when you say it is up -- i just want to be clear, some is how many? and when you -- and when you say they signed them and they wanted them, if they wish now to speak out and tell their side of the story about what it is they alleged, that's now okay with you? you're releasing them on television tonight? >> senator, no. >> is that right? is that right tonight? s >> senator, the company and somebody else in this case, the man or woman or could be more than that, they decided when they made an agreement they wanted to keep it quiet for everybody's interests. >> come on.

>> they signed the agreements and that's what we're going to live with. >> i'm sorry, the question is -- >> i heard your question. >> are there women being muzzled by you, and you could release them from that immediately because understand this is not just a question of the mayor's character. this is also a question about electability. we are not going to beat donald trump with a man who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements and the drip drip drip of stories of women saying they have been harrisassed and discriminates against. that's not what we do as democrats. >> look, let's get something straight here. it's easy. all the mayor has to do is say you are released from the nondisclosure agreement. period. >> i said we're not going to get -- to end these agreements because they were made consensually, and they have every right to expect that they will stay private. >> all right.

elizabeth warren in my estimate did an incredible job, not just going after bloomberg about the ndas, which is debatable in the legal realm but showing something about his leadership qualities, showing something about him, how he deals with things, it's his way or the highway. and that's, you know, when you're looking at bloomberg's candidacy, that's the problem he poses for the democratic party, and who they want to be. and does he exactly represent who the democrats want to put out. donny deutsch, i mean, amy klobuchar also brought outd the. he has been. this was his first foray into the national stage. he should have dealt with these questions. he should have done interviews beyond with personal friends. he should have come on "morning joe," gone on other shows and gotten through this stuff, and figured out whether or not he can deal with it, but instead it was hard to watch. it was hard to watch because it showed who he was. he runs the company, that's the way it goes.

and that's the question for the party. do they want someone who runs things like trump? >> you know, you would have thought his biggest vulnerability going in was, you know, the billionaire stuff, and i thought he actually handled that stuff relatively well, yeah, i've made a lot of money, i'm going to put things back into it. >> i shared it, yeah. >> i don't think he was prepared for the stuff as far as the nda stuff, and you know, the answer would have been a pivot, you know, it was kind of his it's a bad bad question to have to answer. and the answer would have been, instead of just, oh, i have done good things by women is look, i stand by my record and pivot, and because it's a very -- it's frankly, and for him to get into the speech of, oh, look, 40% of my foundation is run by women and blah blah blah blah blah, that is a no win answer, and you know, once again, we've seen on these debates they're very very fluid and somebody who's a big winner one week, the next week the world forgets, so i don't

think this is it. >> the ads work for him. >> the ads do work, and once again, you see the exposure of how many people, 15, 20 million people watch. the target rating points of what people are going to see in the next few weeks is going to overwhelm that. >> it will overwhelm. again, though, i think for democratic professionals who saw this guy as their political savior to save them from bernie sanders, they had to be disappointed last night because he was bad in politics 101. they'll forgive a candidate that can beat donald trump for just about anything, but you're right, it's called a pivot. listen, i'm not going to get into that. let me tell you what actually matters, this is how i'm going to help women when i beat donald trump because, and then list the things that donald trump has done, the retrograde policies, how he's going to move america forward, that's what americans care about, but he wasn't good

at any of it. he wasn't good, robert gibbs, he wasn't good at responding when he gave an answer and elizabeth warren interrupted, i mean, barack obama, bill clinton, ronald reagan would turn and donald trump would turn and say, hey, let me finish answering the question unless you want to just sit up here and pose all day. i'll let you pose all day, but if i'm not in this debate, i'm going to walk out. take control and for a guy worth $55 billion and says he can run the world, he couldn't even run his own microphone last night, so i'm wondering if for the democratic political class, his biggest sin last night was being so woefully ill prepared and ill equipped, so let's face it. take on some politicians who aren't -- who aren't obama. who aren't reagan, who aren't bill clinton. >> absolutely. i think michael bloomberg wakes up this morning knowing exactly what a wells fargo ceo feels like at a banking committee

hearing with elizabeth warren. and donny's point i think is really important, and that is there wasn't just a technical pivot that just idea of answer the question but get to something bigger, go to somewhere different, talk about something that helps broaden your record and explain part of your history and your value system and things like that. he just seemed to -- and i think it was partly elizabeth warren and others kind of putting him on the defensive in the sense that he just really couldn't get off of it, and i think they've got a lot of work to do before the next debate in a week. they meant want to qualify for the next debate, but you know, there are very few of these moments left before super tuesday. this is one of the two debates left. there are not that many big moments to leave that first impression. less than two weeks, a third of the delegates will have been chosen. this process happens so quickly. we get lulled into thinking

we're going to the state fair, this in iowa, new hampshire, and bam, march happens, and 70% of the delegates will be picked. so you've got to get this on track really quickly, and you've got to get those answers much much sharper. >> and california happens where bernie sanders has a huge lead, and there's a big pot of delegates waiting for him. >> and i thought the answer last night, the question that chuck asked at the end about the plurality, would you support or should the nominee be just the one who gets a plurality of delegates. bernie sanders says yes, five others say no, and it seems to me like six candidates know where this race is headed. and that is unless or until they do something about bernie sanders, he's going to amass that, and you could see last night pete trying to kind of say bloomberg and bernie, bloomberg and bernie, while many of them were very much focused on bloomberg who's in the middle of that kind of moderate muddle lane, and boy, if they don't watch out, they'll look up as you said, after california,

texas and super tuesday and realize it's impossible to catch him. >> interesting to note, four years ago, bernie sanders made the exact opposite argument about delegates going into the convention. let's talk about the debate within the democratic party between capitalism and socialism. it's a live question insicludin inside a presidential debate whether capitalism is good for america. here is michael bloomberg and bernie sanders. >> we have a grotesque and immoral distribution of wealth and income. mike bloomberg owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million americans. that's wrong. that's immoral. that should not be the case when we've got a half a million people sleeping out on the streets, when we have kids who can not afford to go to college. when we have 45 million people dealing with student debt. >> mayor bloomberg, should you exist? >> i can't speak for all billionaires. all i know is i have been very

lucky, made a lot of money, and i'm giving it all away to make this country better and a good chunk of it goes to the democratic party as well. >> is it too much? have you earned too much money? has iteeha much money? >> yes, i worked very hard for it, and i'm giving it away. >> mayor buttigieg, senator sanders has a proposal that would require all large companies to turn over up to 20% of their ownership to employees over time. is that a good idea? >> i think that employee ownership of companies is a great idea. i'm not sure it makes sense to command those companies to do it. if we really want to deliver less inequality in this country, then we've got to start with the tax code. we've got to start with investments in how people are able to live the american dream which is in serious, serious decline. >> you know, i'm very proud of that policy. all right. what we need to do to deal with this grotesque level of income and wealth inequality is make sure that those people who are

working, you know what mr. bloomberg, it wasn't you that made all of that money, maybe your workers played some role in that as well. >> mr. bloomberg, you own a large company, would you support what senator sanders is proposing. >> absolutely not, i can't think of ways that would make it easier for donald trump to get reelected than listening to this conversation. this is ridiculous. we're not going to throw out capitalism. we tried that. other countries tried that. it was called communism and it just didn't work. >> let's talk about democratic socialism. not communism, mr. bloomberg, that's a cheap shot. let's talk about what goes on in countries like denmark where correctly pointed out, they have a much higher quality of life in many respects than we do. what are we talking about. we are living in many ways in a socialist society right now. the problem is as dr. martin luther king reminds us we have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the

poor. >> what a wonderful country, the best san antonknown socialist i country is a millionaire with three houses. what did i miss here. >> i work in washington, house one, live in burlington, house two and like thousands of other vermonters, i have a summer camp, forgive me for that. where is your home, which tax haven. >> new york city, thank you very much. and i pay all my taxes and i'm happy to do it because i get something for it. >> so joe, that was the second hour of the debate where mayor bloomberg settled in a little bit and did better. >> wow, i'm uncomfortable. >> chuck todd enters the debate question hall of fame asking mayor bloomberg r, should you exist, a literal existential question. >> that was something, and you know, robert, it is interesting that -- and maybe he just had to sort of shake off the cobwebs, he hasn't done this in a decade, it is interesting, about 70

minutes in, even tough critics of bloomberg were commenting, his climate change answer was actually very good. he does know data. he does know facts as well as anybody on that stage on a lot of the policy issues of our time, and that was an exchange, again, that should have been one of his weaker points being a guy who's worth over $50 billion, and yet, he handled the money question well and the waters sort of calmed for him in the second and 3rd hour. >> well, and really from a technical standpoint, you could see the beginning of that answer isn't so great because you're afforded i think a minute and 15 seconds for these answers last night. he probably used 10 seconds of it when he started talking, i made a lot of money and i'm giving a lot of it away. you mentioned the climate change answer, a lot of things are going through the philanthropy of climate change, and expanding on that answer. he got into the obvious back and forth a little bit better, he

got comfortable and i think he probably just got tired of just absorbing everything that was coming at him and really being the only one that was absorbing really major hits last night, and he finally pivoted, finally punched back a little bit. i thought the line against bernie was a pretty good one. >> let's bring in nbc news political reporter, shaquille brewster, covering the sanders campaign, how do they feel about last night? >> reporter: they feel pretty good about last night, especially the money they brought in the day of the debate, the best debate day fundraising they have seen, $2.7 million that was raised on debate day, just under what we saw from senator elizabeth warren. they got 150,000 contributions on debate day alone, so they feel good about what they saw and let's not forget, this wasn't an easy debate necessarily for senator sanders. he received a little bit more scrutiny than we have seen him receive in the past. you saw that extended conversation about democratic socialism.

we haven't had him defend that policy, that ideology in the past before. he was confronted about not releasing his full medical records, for example, he has only released letters from doctors, and he was confronted by vice president biden and mayor pete buttigieg for saying he's not transparent in doing that. he promised before after his heart attack that he would release those medical records. he also was confronted about the online supporters that he has the so-called bernie bros, he had to defend that and disavow some of the support and rhetoric that we have seen online from some of his supporters and connected it to the online, the toxic online culture that you already have out there. he had to defend a lot and this campaign feels like he held his own on that. i'll tell you they're also happy that mayor bloomberg was on that stage. he has a natural foil for senator sanders and you got a hint of that last night when senator sanders goes after the millionaire class, he was able to point at mayor bloomberg, you

own more wealth than i believe the number was 125 million americans. that personalized that line, and he was able to point and make that direct reference and have that direct confrontation. his team was happy he was able to do that. they were preparing and expecting the attacks he was going to get. he has been rising in the polls. they knew the target would be on his back. they are happy he was able to take the fight to mayor bloomberg as well. mika. >> shaquille brewster, thank you so much for that. interesting night, wow. >> we talked about the slug fest between elizabeth warren and bloomberg and amy, and pete which we'll show you. >> we've got lots to show. >> tell you what, such uncomfortable moments there. but as far as, while we keep this whole boxing metaphor going forward, you know what, bernie was just the best fighter on the stage last night. >> he was. >> if you believe what he believes or you can be influenced by what he believes, his ideology, he had a lot of facts that supported his cause.

he knew how to deliver them. i mean, he was the most natural political athlete on the stage last night, and it showed, and again, while everybody was piling up on bloomberg, bernie was just sitting there thinking, let's see, in two weeks i might be locking this thing down. >> yeah. worst thing to happen to the bloomberg campaign, qualifying for the debate. still ahead on "morning joe," senator amy klobuchar joins us on the heels of last night's huge debate. she and pete buttigieg tangled a number of times, including a really tough exchange over her stance on immigration and her time in congress. plus, while the democrats were having their food fight last night, president trump was nominating perhaps his most controversial cabinet pick yet, president trump's choice for intel chief has no real intel experience. what richard grenell's selection means for national security. you're watching "morning joe."

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try to win by attacking, now, we know the trump strategy- distorting, dividing. mr. president: it. won't. work. newspapers report bloomberg is the democrat trump fears most. as president, universal healthcare that lets people keep their coverage if they like it. a record on job creation. a doable plan to combat climate change. i led a complex, diverse city through 9-11 and i have common sense plans to move america away from chaos to progress! i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. [ fast-paced drumming ]

a live look at the white house, 32 past the hour. we're going to get more of those explosive moments from the debate last night. but president trump announced yesterday that he is naming u.s. ambassador to germany richard grenell to be the next acting director of national intelligence. let's bring in nbc news white house correspondent kelly o'donnell live for us at the white house with how this happened. kelly. >> reporter: well, good morning, mika. this is about putting friends in high places for sure with president trump use ago wrinkle in the ability to appoint someone in an acting capacity meaning no senate confirmation, that's not going over well on the senate. that's for sure. so richard grenell who has been

a trump loyalist who has been kind of a flamethrower on twitter for a long time has been serving as u.s. ambassador to germany and he is coming back to the u.s. in this post and what is notable is he has no experience with intelligence and being the director of national intelligence requires overseeing the 17 agencies that are a part of the u.s. intelligence apparatus, being in charge of all of that from a management perspective and the president at least from what we know at this point intends to do so in an acting role so he won't need that senate confirmation bypassing that where he would of course be put to the test on issues about intelligence and his preparedness for this. now, notably, dan coats who was the original director of national intelligence in this administration had also been ambassador to germany but he had many years in the united states senate, and then of course most recently it's been joe maguire

who has military background and will now be leaving that position times out march 11th. so the president was running up against that deadline to have one acting for another acting. remember joe maguire was a part of what led to the impeachment in that he had a role to play when it comes to the initial whistleblower complaint, that going to his office and then maguire coming to the white house and alerting the white house before congress was aware, so is this a part of a larger plan that the president is trying to root out those that he believes were a part of in some way, shape or form, touching impeachment, perhaps, but there was also the pressure of time clock and a way for the president to put someone that he knows has the same kind of trump megaphone on twitter that the president likes and enjoys in a position that's highly sensitive when the president has so often been tangling with the intelligence community. mika? >> nbc's kelly o'donnell, thank you very much for that report. let's bring in white house

reporter for the associated press jonathan lemire, and the president for the counsel on foreign relations, richard haas. we know you have concerns over this pick, we want to hear them, and also wondering, does the role of acting have a time limit on it, or can an acting intelligence director be permanent? >> it can't be permanent but it can be there for quite a while, get the president through the election. let's just take a step back here. it's not something that mr. grenell lacks any intelligence background. he's basically been a pit bull on social media going after europeans over iran, and most recently china policy but this job was created after created was to split what had been one job, the former head of the cia was the director of central intelligence. the people said we can't have one person in charge of an agency, and in charge of the entire intelligence community so this separate job, this director of national intelligence was created to give the president

and the congress and the american people a comprehensive take to speak truth, not just to power, but to everyone in government. and what this does is basically dl dilutes that or undermines it because the president has clearly chosen someone who will be serving up what he wants rather than speaking in ways that would be inconvenient. >> you know, richard let me correct you, people that know grenell do say that he lacks intelligence, he lacks discretion, he lacks knowledge of the subject. he especially lacks judgment. his role as ambassador in germany was disastrous by all accounts. and the largest german newspaper said this of him, grenell is vain, narcissistic, he dishes out aggressively but can barely handle criticism. his brash demeanor hides a deep

insecurity. grenell knows little about germany and europe and that his knowledge of the subject matter is superficial. we have heard from one german official after another since he got there. we have heard from european officials, we have heard from a lot of people who want only the best for the united states of america saying that he was a disaster, that they could not remember an ambassador who was more ill equipped to hold down an important post than this guy, who plays a clown on social media. i mean, all the sirens were going off last night, even trump supporters on tv were saying this was a bad choice that he was not prepared for this job. what would the impact of having somebody who lacks the intelligence, lacks the discretion, lacks the worth

ethic to handle this job, what could the impact be on america's national security? >> joe, no argument here. this is a gentleman, shall we say who is unqualified for in task both by experience and temperament, we're on the same page 100%. the danger is he will not be in a position to weigh the various point of view from the several agencies. if he has findings that are politically inconvenient, that north korea is not moving towards denuclearization, that iran is on the cusp of getting nuclear weapons, that china is doing this or that, vis-a-vis, hong kong on trade, in ways to contradict the trade agreement, the danger is that this president will not hear from him or this essentially will be buried, and rather than speaking truth to power, he will make intelligence totally serving the policy preferences of the president.

>> jonathan, the context of all this of course is president trump has spent years railing against what he calls the deep state. he doesn't trust the intelligence agencies, he thinkings they're out to get him, leads witch hunts against him. he installs with an acting title, no senate confirmation someone who has been loyal to him from the beginning of his campaign. he was described as a pit bull and flamethrower. all those things are threw, he has been that and now he'll be that at the top of the intelligence services, donald trump has his man. >> this is a loyalist here. this is the president post impeachment trying to surround himself with people that he trusts and grenell is someone who first of all is going to be still remaining in the position of ambassador of germany at least temporarily. he's going to wear both hats for the time being. that's what the white house was saying yesterday. an outside twitter persona, engages in the fake news debates, closely aligned with donald trump jr., and the right wing corner of the maga world, he is openly gay. that is something that the trump

team is celebrating, rightly so, but he's someone who has no experience running an intelligence agency, also no experience running any sort of large bureaucracy. this is a definite jump and comes as the president is bringing back hope hicks as a senior adviser, john mcatee, he's bringing back people in close that he really trusts in the wake of both the russia scandal and the impeachment inquiry where he feels like people have been out to get him, and he's win knowing nowing it . doesn't matter about qualifications. >> go ahead, willie. >> jonathan is right, donald trump jr. is close with rick grenell and has been pushing him and throughout. obviously not just president trump but the trump family believes this is someone who will be loyal to them. >> just like manafort. they were all big fans of paul manafort as well. you know, nothing wrong with getting a loyalists in positions, you should have

loyalists in positions if you're president of the united states. you don't want people stabbing you in the back throughout the bureaucracy, but the incompetence level of this pick is as bad as anybody in washington can remember for a position that's important. he's extraordinarily incompetent and he had that reputation going back to days when he worked on capitol hill. you read the comments from foreign policy leaders in this country and other countries about this election and it is a disaster, and it's a disaster because while he was in germany, he couldn't -- grenell really couldn't impact america's national security. he certainly hurt america's relations with germany, our closest ally in many respects who was our closest ally throughout the entire cold war of west germany but this this position as acting dni, you can't overstate the danger he poses to america's national

security, especially when you have a president who time and time again did not want to hear the truth coming from his intel chiefs, didn't want to hear the truth about russia actively trying to interfere in american elections. didn't want to hear the truth about north korea cheating and lying behind donald trump's back. didn't want to hear the truth about a lot of the tough issues, some of the toughest issues over the past three years, and now he has a guy who is woefully ill equipped for that position who will just sit back and tell him whatever he wants to hear. it's a dangerous day for america. i don't know if republicans in the senate care anymore about america's national security. i haven't really seen it that much for many of them. they mainly keep their head down and just want to survive donald trump. if they do care about america's national security, here's a really good test for them, not for me. but from america.

i mean, from national -- >> what can they do, he's acting, no process for him. >> they can speak out about the grave danger. >> that's true. >> that this hack, that this political hack who is ill equipped for this poses to america's national security, america's intel structure, and to the entire country. >> it would seem like the right thing to do. back to last night's debate. "hard "hardball's contrac "hardball's" chris matthews. >> reporter: you've already gone to bed. here it is, we saw a continued effort to find a great moderate hope if you will to take on bernie sanders for the nomination. it was clear tonight that bloomberg is not ready for that role. he didn't inspeire people. he had the problem with the nda which is going to continue until he resolves it.

i think elizabeth warren, i think she's moving to the center left now. if you notice, she was targeting bloomberg and buttigieg and amy klobuchar, and biden, all the moderates she was taking on. i think she wants to be the alternative to bernie sanders by going now a bit to thhis right,o the center. that's what i think i saw tonight. she might get away with it. anybody else is really making sense now. back to you guys. >> joining us now, cofounder and ceo of axios, jim vandehei. jim, your take aways from the debate last night? it was kind of a slaughter on stage. >> it was a hell of a bar brawl, one of the more captivating debates we have seen in a while. what was most striking is what joe said earlier. bloomberg has had months had at foreshadowed, fore known, and he clumsily handled almost every

single one of those, and exposed the fear that all of us know his friends have if he ran, if you know the guy, he can come off as prickly, he's not the warmest person in the room. he's not going to light up a debate stage. that's what they feared and you saw that last night. you might be able to buy your way out of that. there might be enough ads where you can overcome that, but it isn't at all what the bloomberg people were hoping and the big winner is sanders. remember that memo that bloomberg's people are circulating which is within two weeks sanders could basically have this wrapped up because he's going to have such a delegate lead, especially if you look at how he's doing in california and some of the other big states and if they keep splintering the vote, bloomberg is saying everyone get out and rally around me. there's no way that people are going to watch that debate, and say yes, that's the guy, we're getting out of the way, we're going to hand it to you. they want to hand a club to him

which they did on that debate stage. >> jim, it is interesting, is it not, they all went after bloomberg, and i understand because he's running advertisements and certainly getting votes, i wonder if now that they blighted him up badly, if they turn to bernie sanders, the guy who as you said two weeks in could have this thing all but locked down? >> yeah, i don't know how they turn to him because sanders is the most consistent candidate up there. he believes what he says and he says it over and over and over again, and he's not getting weaker. look at the polls, he's getting stronger. not a huge surge but his numbers have gone up. bloomberg got in this race because he essentially said i want to take out sanders and i want to stop socialism. within two weeks he might have sealed the deal for both of those two things because he's helping splinter that vote. if you're pete buttigieg and you're joe biden and you want to have a come back, it's really hard when you're running against somebody who's spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the air waves in super tuesday

states and you can't even crack double digits and so the idea that you're not going to have a splintered vote against sanders now seems almost unfathomable regardless of what the outcome is in nevada and south carolina. and so bloomberg might be right that sanders could have a lead among the delegates that's so big that no one else can catch up. that's why that question chuck asked last night, should the person with the most delegates get the nomination even if they don't have enough to clinch it by the time of the convention was important because everyone is hoping you go to a split convention and roll sanders. you're really going to roll the person with the most pledged delegates that has such a loyal base they're going to stick with him through thick and thin. that seems hard to see. >> joe, is anybody panicked besides me in that it does look like sanders is rolling and 2/3 of the country thinks we're going in the right direction, and a guy who wants to burn it down.

i don't see him having any shot in a general election, and i'm panicked. i am absolutely panicked. >> donny, get a paper bag, and breathe into it deeply. becaus oy. >> spring training games haven't officially started. go back and read what everybody was saying about there was no way he could be elected president of the united states or almost everybody was saying that. we've got a long, long way to go. we have a long way to go to this convention, and, you know what, reports, maybe our reports that michael bloomberg's death politically are greatly exaggerated to paraphrase mark twain, the guy, again, he's going to put enough money over the next week to completely cover up a lot of what happened last night, and who knows, maybe he'll actually listen to an adviser next week and be prepared for a debate, but

that's a big if. it is -- it's hard, robert, gibbs, as you certainly know to change a politician's stripes when they're in their 70s. >> absolutely. and i think that's maybe the that's the interesting part of that nda answer. i can't imagine that didn't come up in prep. i can't imagine the group in that room didn't hear that answer. and if it was the public answer, and also the private answer, i don't know that there's a lot more that can change on that. i think jim makes a really good point, too, about bernie sanders. he's the most consistent performer in these debates. you know what you're going to get. he knows what he believes and he says it clearly. it's harder to get him off his game. he took some incoming last night. some of the questions he thinks he dealt with, particularly around health, are going to come back. they should. that's something that we're going to have to investigate. and he's going to have to

provide some more information on. but, boy, he was a steady performer. if you look at the polls in california, there was a poll out a couple of days ago. but bernie sanders was the only candidate in the statewide numbers to reach more than 15%. now, what that means is, if somebody doesn't hit 15% in a congressional crickdistrict, th can't qualify fordelegates. if that poll was the result of california in less than two weeks, he would net 350 delegates. >> you know, last night's debate, no talk about iran opini. no talk about north korea. no talk about nuclear weapons that could reach the middle of america. no talk about the ongoing battle with china. you can go down the laundry list. the only foreign policy mentions

had to do with amy klobuchar not knowing the name of mexico's president. it was as if foreign policy didn't exist for these candidates. >> the afghan negotiations didn't come up, russia, ukraine, you can go down the list. the debt didn't come up. and he or thee is going to inherit, because of donald trump, barack obama and because of the world, he and she will inherit the most daunting foreign policy any have faced since truman. we don't know who is in a position to be an effective commander in chief. we learned something about who

is ready for the job. we're going to be choosing and electing someone that is going to mace the extraordinary challenges that will affect us and we're going about >> thank you all. coming up, the feud between senator amy klobuchar and pete buttigieg. we'll play the tense moments for you. health care is a top issue for voters. and senator elizabeth warren spent time tearing apart her rivals' plans one by one. as we go to break, we want to welcome a new addition to the "morning joe" family, meet quentin. that's a nine-pound baby. his dad is our editor and photographer. he says baby quentin is doing great, as is new mom miriam. >> and former "morning joe"

family member and, of course, on "first look" for a long time, our friend, lewis he and claire had a baby. >> it's a baby boom. it's a beauty. >> we got to get that picture, too. we'll be right back. the ninja foodi pressure cooker with tender crisp technology. the best of pressure cooking and air frying are now in one pot. and only the ninja foodi has tender crisp technology, so you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. you may never need another appliance ever again. the ninja foodi pressure cooker. the pressure cooker that crisps.

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mayor buttigieg has a slogan that was thought up by his consultants to paper over a thin version of a plan that would leave millions of people unable to afford their health care. it's not a plan. it's a power point. and amy's plan is even less. it's like a post-it note, insert plan here. bernie has started very much. has a good start. but instead of expanding and bringing in more people to help, instead, his campaign attacks everyone, who asks a question or tries to fill in details about how to make this work. then, his own as visors say it won't work anyway. >> i'm more of a word guy.

you can see it is a plan that solves the problem makes sure there's no such thing as an uninsured american. that's the exact policies that make people skeptical going forward. >> i want to take offense since post-it notes were invented in my state. my plan is a public option. and according to all of the studies out there, it would reduce premiums for 12 million people. it would expand coverage from that number. the way i look at it, since we're in vegas, when it comes to your plan and bernie's, on

medicare for all, you don't put your mbeey o that's not on the wheel. why is it not on wheel? two-thirds of the democratic senators are not on that bill. a bunch of the new house members see a problem with blueing up the affordable care act. you see troubled waters, you don't blow up a bridge, you build one. >> wow. senator warren went scorched earth on all of her democratic rivals. >> except for bernie. >> it's thursday, february 20th. we have donny deutsch, white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan ma mere, joining the conversation. and david plouffe, he served as an adviser to president obama and managed his 2008 campaign. and in las vegas, former chief of staff to the deep triple sea,

and for hillary clinton's presidential campaign, adrian elrod joins us. >> what a night. it was quite a debate. give us your takeaways. >> those guys are not to prosecute against donald trump last night. their job is to win a nomination. i've been through these debates before. the people that will assign the general election are not tuned in right now. it's wrong to say, trump got let off the hook. we should feel bad for the party. what matters now is not how people like us judge it, frankly, because we're going to see evidence, very soon in actual votes. the question is, who advantaged themselves in nevada, south carolina and super tuesday?

and who didn't. i think the front-runner leaves unscathed. it's a good night for bernie sanders. elizabeth warren has money in her campaign, financially. i think joe biden had one of his best nights. michael bloomberg was the man behind the $500 million. i was not surprised he struggled last night. it was gruesome to watch, particularly the first hour. does that mean his candidacy is on life support? of course not. if he has a bad debate in south carolina, i don't think he can afford two of them. we have to see a different michael bloomberg next week. early votes are starting in texas. half of the votes in nevada. that benefits people doing well in the race. there was a poll in california this week, this i'm sure the results won't mirror that totally. he was the only one viable statewide, at 32. everybody else was under 15.

he would get all of the statewide delegates. at the end of the day, on march 4th, if somebody has not emerged that can be a contender, bernie sanders is the nominee unless it's taken from him at the conventi convention. i think you have a bunch of people that are carving up the vote. in the next few weeks, is that going to change? >> we're looking at carving eac up. bernie was unscathed. he's the guy right now in poll position, and has the momentum, has the wind at his back, d pol california and other states. is it not -- it's more likely than not, that a couple of weeks from now, bernie sanders just may well have this thing locked down.

>> unless something fundamentally changes, and the shares would have to drop precipitously, and i don't see evidence of that. or some body emerges not from where they are, 14 or 15, but to 25 and 26. he is going to enter super tuesday. that's why the question that chuck todd asked, was so important. bernie sanders said, whoever is the pledge delegate leader should be the nominee. every other candidate refused to say that. if we go into the convention and bernie sanders has 1,400 delegates and someone else has 1,350, i think it will be fair that we'll have a debate in milwaukee. but if bernie sanders walks in with a delegate lead in the hundreds, and he has the support from the young people, we're going to have the party bosses saying, we're going to give it to somebody else. i think the rest of the field

thinks that bernie sanders will lead in the delegates, in all likelihood. >> adrian, you're there in las vegas, the site of the debate. all eyes are on mike mrobloombe. people describe him as the wizard of oz and got to watch and take heat from people because he's controlled the narrative through his ads, $300 million, $400 million worth of them. he had a terrible first hour. there's no getting around that. elizabeth warren tore him to bits. what were your takeaways in those first hours? >> i was surprised by mike bloomberg's performance. his campaign made it clear that he had been doing debate prep over the last few weeks. this is his big moment that we have been waiting for. some democrats expected mike bloomberg to come out like our knight in shining armor, as joe

biden's numbers have gone down. he has the money behind his back, to save the party. he didn't quite accomplish that last night. he had a bunch of moments on that stage. really showed that he is pretty rusty, in terms of his debate skills. but he has strong moments on policy. he has a number of things, including a big focus on climate change. you can tell, he has a strong command on the work he's done in the philanthropic space. i thought joe biden had a strong night, compared to previous performances. when we're talking about all of this, going back to what david plouffe just said, right now, you have four moderates

splitting the moderate vote. and some of the moderates are polling under 15%. that means on super tuesday, they may not pick up delegates. bernie sanders, therefore, because of that, is the strong winner of last night's debate because he is the front-runner by a wide margin. the four moderates, nobody emerged from that pack to stand down. a moderate voice of this process. like david said, they focus on are we going to have to a fight in july. and if bernie sanders comes out of supercause with a strong lead in delegates, it will be hard to catch him. >> right now, if things are moving the way things are moving, it doesn't look like a protracted floor fight. bernie sanders nomination.

what's so interesting is that elizabeth warren was attacking everybody on the stage, except for bernie sanders. you have the moderates attacking the moderates. and the one person that could be -- from bernie sanders' wing of the party, also attacking all of the moderates last night. bernie couldn't have played that out. couldn't have hoped for a better debate night than he had last night. >> our colleague, before she signed off last night, take a look. >> hi, guys, aside from the flashes of anger that these candidates d s displayed more forcefully, will sift through this phase, through super tuesday, there's a question of whether or not this democratic field is starting to mirror, and in not good ways, the 2016

republican field. where you have a very strong cover, solidified his position as a front-runner, very early in the republican primary. and all of the heat, all of the action, some of the most heated attacks took place in that moderate lane, if you will. it's interesting to me that elizabeth warren wants to play in that lane, too. it's getting crowded there. and i think the next phase, the phase that will cover the coming weeks is whether or not they should coalesce, whether there should be a lesson learned on 2016, of what happened with the campaigns. whether or not that moderate vote, which is the majority of democratic votes. it's for someone other than the democratic social vote.

>> all right. we appreciate that input. and jonathan, we've talked a lot about elizabeth warren going after bloomberg, elizabeth warren going after everybody else. she was on fire. >> yes. >> she borrowed -- i keep saying blowtorch but i think it was a flamethrower. but there was another skirmish. it got really personal. amy and mayor pete, man, they don't like each other. that was evident in last night's debate. >> a credit to you there. >> you were thinking of alf or "saved by the bell"?

>> much better. there's a few takeaways. about senator warren, she was pure fire last night. this is someone who has been the unity candidate at this point. the democrat that was able to criticize her peers. she didn't deliver as many blows as bernie sanders. she tore apart and eviscerated mike bloomberg. the tension between buttigieg and klobuchar has been obvious for weeks. and it bubbled up last night, a and klobuchar said to buttigieg, i wish we could be as perfect as you, which caused gasps in the room i was watching. they are both competing for that moderate lane of voters, along with joe biden. seems like elizabeth warren might want to be -- not being as left as bernie sanders.

for months, bloomberg has existed as the idea, over the hill for democrats. he was about ads. democrats weren't getting to know him up close and personal. he took on the mayoral debate, but not the list of heavyweights like last night. and he was rusty. he does not respond well to advisers. perhaps he will learn in the days ahead that he didn't like the answer. he stuck with it. no longer just the images on our ads. when was the last time he had to rise his hand to get attention anywhere? we saw that last night. he really stumbled in the first

hour and one has to wonder if his myth is punctured a little bit. >> we were talking about the exchange between amy -- >> more than awkward. i had to turn away from the tv a couple times. >> here's amy and pete going at it. take a look. >> senator klobuchar, you have your washington experience. but last week, you could not name the president of mexico or discuss any of his policies. last night, you said yourself, quote, this is? jeopardy. shouldn't our next president know more about one of our largest trading partners? >> of course. i don't think that that the momentary forgetfulness actually reflects what i know about mexico and how much i care about it. >> you were staking your

candidacy on your washington experience. you're on the committee that oversees border security. you're on the committee that does trade. you're literally part of the commit thtee oversees these thi. >> are you trying to say that i'm dumb? are you mocking me here, pete? >> i'm saying you shouldn't trivialize your knowledge. >> people forget names. i have the experience, based on passing over 100 bills. if i could respond. this was a pretty big allegation. he is saying i don't have the experience to be president of the united states. i have passed over 100 bills as the lead democrat since being in the u.s. senate. i'm the one, not you, that has won statewide in congressional districts after congressional districts. the best way to protect the dreamers is to have a new

president. there's the votes to protect the dreamers. and i have been working on this since i got to the united states senate. in my first campaign, i had ads run against me because i was standing up for immigrants. >> if you're going to run on your record voting in washington, you have to own the votes, especially when it comes to immigration. you voted to confirm the head of customs and border protection, under trump, that was one of the architects of the family separation policy. you voted to make english the national language. you know the message that sends in a multilingual state like nevada, with immigrants. >> i wish everyone was as perfect as you, pete. i have not supported two-third of the trump judges. get your numbers right. i'm in the top 10 to 15 of posing them. number two, when it comes to immigration reform, the things you are referring to, that official you are referring to,

was supported by about half the democrats, including someone in this room. and i will say this, he was highly recommended by the obama officials. you know why? because trump had so few career people. i did not, one bit, agree with these draconian policies to separate kids from these parents. if my first 100 days, i would immediately change that. and i would add one more thing. i've been in the arena. you have not been in the arena doing the work. you've memorized a bunch of talking points and a bunch of things. but i can tell you one thing, what the people of this country want, they want a leader that has the heart for the immigrants of this country and that is me. >> wow. willie, that escalated quickly. >> yes, it did, ron beurgundy. that's been pent up for a long time. senator klobuchar has no goodwill, i think it's fair to say, for pete buttigieg.

and probably speaking for a number of the other candidates, buttigieg has been treated like the golden boy in the class. she came at him. i think that the dressing down again an again on the fact that she forgot a name in a moment was probably unfair. and that's something t a plan to go after senator klobuchar. she was ready to go back at him. they are running in the same lane. we're not this socialist thing. we want everybody to be covered. but we're not going to force people to be covered. we're more progreagmatic and ha chance of passing through the senate, for example. what did you make of their back and forth and what did you make of their chances through this race? pete buttigieg, won in iowa and

new hampshire. but when you're coming back as an underdog, everything has to go right. and they have a wall that's 1 million feet high called super tuesday. they can tell the time is running out. he thinks that some of them go to him and maybe vice versa. people are saying, was it a murder/suicide? i don't see that at all. if they end up of the top three in nevada, they will have a great deal of difficulty, being viable in super tuesday. they're fighting for their lives right now. i think on the health care question, most democratic primary voters have private insurance. and i'm not superpumped about giving it up. it's interesting, people like oc and others who support bernie, says don't worry, it's not going to happen. i think at the end of the day,

and elizabeth warren didn't go after bernie sanders as much. i think it would be, can i come out of super tuesday that has a chance to go one-on-one with him in arizona, florida, ohio, missouri, michigan, and washington. big states out there after super tuesday. i have to get through the car wreck here. so, that maybe i have the ability to be the person standing. long odds. if you were to define a strategy out of last night, that would be it. >> this was my concern about last night. this is going against a backdrop of a president, who says i'm the chief law enforcement officer in this country. the rule of law is under attack. not once did any of the kand da candidates make an impassioned plea that says, i have the answers for this. we're under siege. it was not that guttural moment for any of them. any them to me, felt

presidential. now, adrigredrianneadrianne, wh bill clinton or barack obama, any of the candidates, did they feel presidential? did they feel like they had the stuff to take on donald trump? i was depressed at the end of that night. >> yeah. i do believe there are candidates on that stage last night, that felt presidential, looked presidential. >> not in a "hunger games" situation. who do you think can take on donald trump and have the gravitas, we had the hope of bloomberg. point that out to me that you say, that's the answer for donald trump? >> i think -- it's no separate that i lean more on the moderate lane than the more progressive lane. but i think senators klobuchar and warren, i think joe biden had strong moments last night. we have a crowded field of candidates. i think it was a problem they didn't take on trump to the extent that they have in previous debates. i think when you have two hours

of debate time, that's more than enough time on the debate stage. every candidate, 30, 40 seconds of air time, going back and forth, in their respective contenders as opposed to taking on trump. and there wasn't somebody that had a standout moment where they pivoted out of the field and rose above the fray and said, hey, guys, we have more in common on this stage than we don't. and we've got to take on trump. we're united as a party. amy klobuchar touched on that in her closing arguments. when you have so much at stake in this debate, i believe that last night's debate was the most consequential debate in the primary process. you have so much at stake, they wanted to focus the precious airtime going at each other and getting an edge there. i hope next week in south carolina, we see something a little different. >> i will say, mika, it was a little surreal last night, as you got through the debate,

following up from what donnie said. step back from the fighting for a second. understand that right now, you have a president who is provoking a constitutional crisis, with unrelenting attack on the federal judiciary, unrelenting attacks on jurors, even jurors. doing so to help a crony of his to try to beat the rap on sentencing, which happens today. donald trump is talking about love letters, with kim jong-un and the generals are developing their nuclear weapons, full steam ahead and creating a nuclear program that's going to be able to reach middle america and kill tens of millions of

americans. nothing said about that last night. nothing said about the coronavirus. nothing side, for the most part, about foreign policy. i agree with donnie. i understand that everybody is fighting for the democrat iic nomination. but a lot of times you win that nomination, by lifting yourself up, going above all of the fighting on the stage. and looking at donald trump and telling democratic voters how you're going to beat him and how you're going to change his policies and how you're going to turn america back in the right direction. >> it would be a good idea for biden or bloomberg to pivot to that. and bloomberg, i don't think he was well practiced enough. he had to put himself out there and experience what it was like to be questioned. thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," claire mccaskill had a plea for the democratic contenders last night.

please use the last 30 minutes of this debate to gang up on trump. please. claire joins the conversation next. ♪ ♪wild thing, you make my heart sing.♪ ♪you make everything... groovy...♪ done yet? yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry. you sure? hmm.mmm. ♪come on, come on, wild thing. if you ride, you get it. geico motorcycle. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

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most americans don't see where they fit, if they have to choose between a socialist that believes capitalism is the root of all evil and a capitalist that thinks that money is the root of all power. let's put forward someone that's actually a democrat. >> what we're saying, pete, maybe it's time for the working class to have some power in washington. >> you're not the only one that cares about the working class. most americans believe we need to empower workers. you're the one that's at war with the culinary union here in las vegas. >> we have more union support than you have dreamed of. >> the division i'm putting

forward, has the support of the american people. >> bernie sanders and pete buttigieg going at it last night. going at u.former u.s. senator, claire mccaskill. there's been some criticism here. the group didn't go after donald trump enough. there's also criticism that the group didn't go after bernie sanders enough. >> i get it that all of us want them to pivot to the greater threat to our country. i was a little surprised that we didn't spend more time on the rule of law last night. and the fact it's under attack, as joe just referenced. i was a little surprised since it was in las vegas, the scene of one of the most horrific mass shootings in our country's history, that there wasn't more talk about guns. it's a vulnerable for bernie and

joe biden pointed it out. by the way, you have every opportunity, you pivot and talk about what you want to talk about. he didn't do that. i was surprised by those. here's the thing i wasn't surprised by, it's time for the debates to be tougher. it's time for each one on the stage to defend their record and have to contrast their record with someone else on the stage. all of the hand wringing that there was a lot of negativity. i saw at least five people, and i think the verdict is still out whether bloomberg can debate well. but there were five people on the stage, that did a good job debating. and i think all of us can see anyone one of those five candidates going toe-to-toe with the mess in the oval office. >> let's take your former colleague, senator elizabeth warren. she got the most speaking time but was strongest, as well. right off the top and going after mayor bloomberg. implicit in her criticism, mayor bloomberg, as you watched her

with the billionaire from new york, she could stand on stage across from donald trump and launch the same attacks and hold her own and go at her the way she went at mayor bloomberg. >> let me channel a little elizabeth warren here, which isn't easy for me. she tried the unity in the new hampshire debate. she tried the i'm not going to go after everyone else. and she got left in the dust. this was a moment where she decided, i'm going to affirmatively demonstrate that i'm going to fight everybody, including and most importantly, donald trump. she used bloomberg as a stand-in for what donald trump would represent, maybe not fair to bloomberg. but that's what she was trying to do. and she was effective doing it. we're talking about her this morning. and we weren't talking about her after the debate in new hampshire. i guess sometimes, being the nice person who wants to unify and go after donald trump, and

be the one that can bring everyone together, that's not as effective in terms of showing the rest of the country that you can separate yourself out from the pack. we'll see what happens with the caucus and the primary vote in a week. and we'll see what happens on super tuesday. >> claire, how surprised were you with mike bloomberg's unpreparedness? particularly, the issues with women where he could have said, look, i have hundreds of thousands of employees come through this company. a couple of discrepancies. this is not what the american people care about. and he was so ill equipped and with the amount of support he has, and the staff he has, it's almost unfathomable. >> what was obvious to me last night, is there weren't many people in mike bloomberg's face. there haven't been people that looked him in the eye and said, you had misogynistic conversations in your past, in your business. you are buying everything.

he just wasn't ready to take it to the level that he needed to take it to, which was, hey, guys, yeah. i'm successful. i'm giving most of it to causes we all share. and i can take out this guy in the white house better than any of you. he didn't make it the theme of his debate night. he never had to raise his hand before in his life. >> that's right. >> you had a few, as a mad rater, a couple of debates ago, what did you think your field was bigger? it was down to six last night. what did you think of the way they reacted to each over and who impressed you the most?

the race was a broadening. just to echo what senator mccaskill was saying. i was surprised by a few topics that didn't come up. the rule of law. but more foreign policy. i thought there was room for divisions within and showing daylights between the candidates on that. major kudos to show where the divisions were among themselves. but i think the candidates are ready for it. this is a crucial point in the race, right? now, they have to speak in nevada and south carolina, moving into super tuesday, to a much broader electorate, a much more diverse electorate. last night, they would have to show the divisions. i know frustrations in the past. we heard from voters in the past that were watching debates and watching interviews, like, i understand where the candidates stand. i'm not seeing where all of the divisions are. i want to know who is tough enough to stand up to donald trump. that is still the foremost thing on voters' minds, democratic

voters' minds, who can beat donald trump above all other values aligning what they think is important. last night, you saw several candidates stepping up into that space, saying here's what it would look like if i was on the stage with donald trump. and i have to say, to the points that have been made earlier, we're talking about senator warren in a way we weren't before. we're talking about senator klobuchar, that builds on the momentum she had out of new hampshire. but the women had a very, very good night. mayor bloomberg, not so much. we'll see how he fares in the future. >> so much of it has to do with people needing to get in mike bloomberg's face. and saying, here's the deal, bud. when you have 60 seconds to respond and they ask you about your money and you spend ten seconds talking about giving it away, use the other 50 seconds, use the other minute at your disposal, talking about your fight against guns, against proliferation of guns, that led

to the worst slaughter in american history in las vegas. and i guess, david plouffe, that's the question for one of the key questions in this race. can bloomberg, with all of his money, recover from last night? and if so, what would you recommend that a candidate in his position do today, tomorrow and throughout the next week? >> first of all, most of the people are going to vote on super tuesday and later in states like missouri and florida and arizona. all of the spinning that he's doing, is still reaching people. he has to have a really good debate next week. almost every incumbent president bombs their first debate. in part, because they've been ascribed the world. they haven't been challenged like that, from an opponent. >> you know bloomberg has not debated in ten years. he's ascribed his world. and i don't think he's used to being challenged. he has six days to turn this

around, in terms of his debate performance. i would do a tremendous amount of interviews. one of the ways it got off the mat is, keep fighting. he had to do a lot of debate prep and has to do a lot of interviews. >> i was rusty. i will be better next week. i think the money helps cover up a bad debate performance. if he has another bad debate performance, he's gone from 0 to 15, spent about $400 million to do that. that makes him a footnote in presidential history if he doesn't find a way to go from 15 to 30. you're not going to go from 15 to 30, based on advertising. the man on people's phones and screens they've seen -- by the way, he doesn't speak in many of his ads, either. very safe ads, well done. not the guy that showed up on the debate last night. we have to see a different mike bloomberg next week. and anybody that goes in for the

debate, you have to have a strategy, even if you answer the questions well, that's not a strategy. you know, what am i driving? who am i pivoting off of? which voters am i trying to reach? bloomberg didn't look like he was enjoying himself last night. that was pretty clear. got better in the second half of the debate. he's never known as a happy w warrior in politics. but he has to bring more joy to that. not, i'm clearly the best president to beat trump. can't you see that? elect me. it doesn't work that way. >> right. and to add to that point, i think that bloomberg has done a ton of work on issues that are important to democrats. he put a lot of money behind gun perform. and he wasn't able to get there. also, you know, you wonder if these democrats had to go after him because his ads are so

powerful. and they make a big difference in the polls. we've seen that. what we have, we have a couple of candidates with great material to work with, showing him on the national stage and not able to andle questions he knew were coming. they have that to work with. you're focusing on the nevada caucus. what is the importance of it? and who stands to have a make-or-break moment? >> it's a turning point in the race here. we're moving from the retail politicking, room-by-room, handshake, iowa and new hampshire, into a wholesale race. we have candidates that immediate to prove they can win. nevada looks more like the rest of america and what america is becoming than the previous early states. if you look at the 2016 numbers, you have over 40% of the early participants nonwhite voters.

those numbers have grown since then. we spent a lot of time with the latino community, members of the arablen-american community, members of the black community. you hear how they're assessing the candidates. for all of the talk we have about the debate last night, a lot of people in nevada, already voted. for the first time, they had four days after early voting. and enthusiasm has been off the charts. 74,000 people cast early votes. for context, in 2016, 84,000 people voted in total. we don't know what participation is going to be like in saturday's caucuses. coming off of the chaos in iowa, i asked tom perez how the lessons are being applied here. he says they have every confidence things will go smoothly. people believe the system will work. this is where the rubber starts to meet the road, being able to prove they can win across america. >> all right.

national correspondent for pbs news hour, amna nawaz. still ahead, president trump's failure to turn over tax returns has prompted lawsuits, congressional investigations and allegations of corruption. now, michael mroom berg is fablg his own backlash. as we go to break, this is what happens when the show editor has downtime waiting for the debate to wrap up. >> we have an internet that's essentially the wild west. ♪ somebody could say, i'm anderson cooper.

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♪ 46 past the hour. president trump announced that he is naming u.s. ambassador to germany richard grenell, to be the next acting director of national intelligence. joining us now, professor of international politics at the fletcher school of law and diplomacy, daniel dresdner. >> dan, last night, obviously, members of the foreign policy community not only here. unless in europe, deeply concerned by this selection. even republicans who usually go on tv show to blindly defend donald trump were saying that this guy is not up to the task. how dangerous is this selection by donald trump?

>> about as dangerous as asking me to fly a plane, given that i have no pilot experience whatsoever. it's a ridiculously insane choice. the man has no qualifications to run the intelligence community. given his background, he has no management experience, either, and he's being asked to oversee seven intelligence agencies. he has two qualifications. he's good at getting on fox news and twitter. and he's a gold member in the trump row tell club. beyond that, there's no qualifications we can talk about. even in his previous job, which was u.s. ambassador to germany, which, i understand, he's going to keep. he's supposed to be multily, the acting odni and the ambassador to germany, and the special representative tohr jobs. >> yeah. >> claire, let me just read you really quickly what the largest

newspaper and most influential newspaper in germany said of the u.s. ambassador, who believed he was in way over his head from the first day there. grenell is a vain, narcissistic person, who can behr lbarely ha criticism. he knows little about germany and europe. and his knowledge of the subject matter is superficial. that seems to be about the kindest thing you can find about this guy's work, in germany. >> yeah. >> i mean -- sorry. >> go ahead, dan. >> no, no. go ahead, senator. >> i was going to say, following up on what joe said, germany, speak to how important germany is, in terms of our allies. its strength in terms of europe and nato and the history of our country with it. and he's thrown it up in terms of relationships with our

country. now, he's going to walk into a job he knows nothing about. and do you get any sense, dan, that any of the republican senators are willing to stick their head up and go, um, maybe this is not a good idea? >> i mean, my understanding is they're not necessarily going to be able to publicly criticism him. i don't think we've heard from senator burr yet. on the other hand, it's telling that trump is going to be the acting odni, rather than put him up for senate confirmation because i don't think he would get through senate confirmation. there's sufficient republicans that recognize this is a clown show and they're not going to vote for it. to the degree that the gop caucus and the senate is willing to roll over on trump, a lot of his appointments that are ridiculously unqualified, they actually manage to stand up for, think herman kane. they're not going to approve him to be the actual odni.

so as a result, trump is manipulating the vacancies act to put someone in charge for the next six months. it's not going to be good. >> the president is surrounding himself with loyalists. a but it's more than that. it's his intention to reshape the intelligent services. so how concerned should americans be about this? should americans be able to trust this pick as he thinks about threats, domestic and foreign? >> no, they absolutely shouldn't trust this pick. this guy is a complete hack with no qualifications for the job whatsoever. last week, i think, it was

national security adviser robert o'brien when lieutenant colonel vinman had been dismissed, defended the move in the atlantic council claiming we're not a banana republic. we're not a place where lieutenant colonels get together to run policy. and unfortunately, everything since that statement falsifies the claim. since last week, trump has tried to purge the bureaucracy. he's pardoned cronies and people who have reached him through fox news and now we have this pick which is he's appointing people solely based on loyalty as oppose dollars to anything resembling competency. so i have bad news for robert o'brien. we are a banana republic now. >> i want to ask you about the debate. the candidates were going at 50e67 other quite a bit.

but i'm curious as somebody who study tess world, as you look at that stage of six people, is there someone who stands out to you that has the graph vevitas have the ability to be commander in chief? >> obviously, joe biden talked about the fact that he had met the president of mexico as well as his predecessor and the predecessor before him. but i would argue one of the interesting things about the debate last night was the presence of bloomberg and the rise of bernie sanders forced the other four people on the debate stage to up their game. you can argue the other four had their best debate last night. so in that sense, i think the competition is a good thing. >> daniel, thank you so much. appreciate your being on this morning. >> thank you, dan. and go sox. i don't know how the year is going to be, man, but it will be interesting, that's for sure. >> all right.

>> i miss mickey. still ahead, president trumpal candidate amy klobuchar joins us after her clash in las vegas with pete buttigieg. "morning joe" is coming right back. my body is truly powerful. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it like it's supposed to.

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mr. bloomberg had policies in new york city of stop and frisk which went after african-american and latino people in an outrageous way. that is not a way you're going to grow voter turnout. >> eye like to talk about who we're running against. a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians. and no, i'm not talking about donald trump. i'm talking about mayor bloomberg. democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax

returns, of harassing women and of supporting racist policies like red lining and stop and traffic. democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another. >> i actually welcomed mayor bloomberg to the stage. i thought that he shouldn't be hiding behind his tv ads. >> the mayor says that he has a great record, that he's done these wonderful things. well, the fact of the matter is, he has not managed his city very, very well when he was there. he didn't get a whole lot done. he has stop and frisk throwing close to 5 million black men up against a wall. >> we could wake up the day after super tuesday and the only candidates left standing will be bernie sanders and mike bloomberg, the two most polarizing people on this stage. let's put forward somebody who is actually a democrat.

look, we shouldn't have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down and another candidate who wants to buy thi that was just the fi ten minutes. >> wow. >> what a debate, mika. >> good morning and welcome to "morning joe." yeah, we had a debate last night. it's thursday, february 20th. we have downey deutsch and former white house press secretary for president obama, robert gibbs. the gloves came off. oh, my lord. >> they really did. willie, we're going to show all the greatest hits from ali and frazier, but before we do, what were your initial thoughts, fight dr. freddie perchukka? >> well, thank you very much. i take that as a compliment. the gloves were on for the first several debates. that was one of the criticisms of this field was it had been

too point light. this all changes last night. we talked about mayor bloomberg, that he was the first time up on the debate stage with this group. how would he respond? they tore the skin off him yesterday, elizabeth warren leading the way. bernie sanders, amy klobuchar. they all one by one went after mr. bloomberg. and elizabeth warren, who had been -- her campaign has been charging that she's been ignored, that she's been overlooked, unfairly, and she took control of that debate throughout, especially in the first hour, but throughout the debate, she took control, in fact, directing some of the questions at one point to mayor bloomberg. elizabeth warren had a great night. i'm not sure they got anywhere. bernie sanders went in as a front-runner. he didn't take much fire. and the man they're all running

against, donald j. trump, hardly took any fire at all. >> i thought the two big winners last night were bernie because he's on his way to locking up this nomination if things keep going the way they are, and donald trump who nobody laid a glove on him. they were too busy tearing each other to some reds in an intermural ping-pong game. i'm always surprised when people show up on the national stage when they know what questions are coming at them and they're woefully ill prepared. i'm doubly surprised, that mike bloomberg, who had to know the questions about the ndas, the questions about the women, the questions about stop and frisk, the questions about his money, he had to know they were all coming. he did horribly the first hour, almost hour and a half. i think he had his good first

passable answer 70 minutes in when he talked about climate change. how do you show up after investing that much money and not have a 60-second answer ready on these attacks you know are coming? >> i think part of the problem he's led, even donald trump had spent his 20, 30, 40 years in public life fighting, jousting. and mike bloomberg has been isolated. he's never had to answer to anybody. and i think there was an arrogance of him coming in and he looked put upon. my concern about him going in was his feeling of what am i doing on stage of these people, i wouldn't even hire any of these people show. and the big winner in spades was donald j. trump. >> yeah, huge. >> he was most concerned about bloomberg. he is salivating at the thought of bernie sanders. that for him is and my big

concern for the party is it was a big night for sanders. i just do not think this country is going to elect a socialist. and what i don't understand is why they don't go after sanders and mashg him do the math. buttigieg did it at one point, but take it apart and say, bernie, it's all nice and good. let's talk grownup stuff now. can we go item by item and they just don't do that. >> it's like there was a shiny penny on one side of the stage and bank roberts on the other side of the stage and everybody was running over and trying to pick up the shiny little penny. everybody was so focused on mike

bloomberg. >> it was like hyenas picking at a carcass. >> bernie sanders could be on his way to locking this down. we do know that they were going after -- i mean, i guess they felt like they had to go after bloomberg. >> a legit threat. >> yeah. and right now, the threat in front of them is bernie sanders and he had a great night. what a great point by donnie when he talked about -- when he talked about mike bloomberg not having people really stand up to him throughout his career, being surrounded by people who were going to defer to somebody who has $55 billion. i remember asking somebody on the campaign, i said, when you guys do debate prep, is there going to be someone to stop him and say, that was a terrible answer? and what came back was, well,

they're going to be tough enough, but mike is mike and the mayor, if you go after him too hard, he looks at you like, well, if you're so smart, why do i have $55 billion more than you. and i just shook my head and i said, oh, boy, that is a recipe for disaster. and that showed itself last night. you can imagine, who had to ask him if he wanted to go into the spin room last night? the candidates that start this process late, they walk into a baseball season that's halfway through and they're in mid season form. the candidates attacked him. you could see at points he wasn't very comfortable with how to get in and answer questions

as you mentioned until about 70 minutes in with climate change. what will be interesting is this, as we know, is not a normal candidacy. how did the fund-raising go, who do we talk to to make sure that doesn't dry up. it will be interesting to see what the practical impact of this is moving forward. >> to build on what everybody had an saying, when elizabeth warren turned and went right at mike bloomberg, i said, i bet no one has spoken to him that way in 40 years. i don't know what the number is, but he's been the head of this empire. no one has spoken to him that way. and you could see physically he was taken aback. he rolled his eyes at one point and i was shocked that he didn't have better answers for such obvious questions.

as robert says, he has another $100 million to spend before super tuesday. he's not even on the ballot and this could change again and again before we get to super tuesday. the senator's blistering country teen surrounding sexual harassment allegations, that's next. in august 1619, a ship appeared on this horizon, near point comfort, virginia.

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and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. 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. try to win by attacking, now, we know the trump strategy- distorting, dividing. mr. president: it. won't. work.

newspapers report bloomberg is the democrat trump fears most. as president, universal healthcare that lets people keep their coverage if they like it. a record on job creation. a doable plan to combat climate change. i led a complex, diverse city through 9-11 and i have common sense plans to move america away from chaos to progress! i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. can you help keep these iguys protected online?? easy, connect to the xfi gateway. what about internet speeds that keep up with my gaming? let's hook you up with the fastest internet from xfinity. what about wireless data options for the family? of course, you can customize and save. can you save me from this conversation? that we can't do, but come in and see what we can do. we're here to make life simple. easy. awesome. ask. shop. discover. at your local xfinity store today.

a night of tough moments for mike bloomberg, here was the worst. >> several former employees have claimed that your company was a hostile workplace for women. when you were confronted about it, you admitted making sexually suggestive remarks saying, quote, that's the way i grew up. in a lawsuit in the 1990s according to "the washington post," one former female employee alleged that you said,

quote, i would do you in a second. should democrats expect better from their nominee? >> i have no tolerance for the kind of behavior that the metoo movement has exposed. and anybody that does anything wrong in our company, we investigate it if it's appropriate, they're gone that day. in my foundation, the person that runs it is a woman. 730% of the people there are women. >> i hope you've heard what his defense was. i've been nice to some women. that just doesn't cut it. the mayor has to stand on his record and what we need to know is exactly what is lurking out there. he has gotten in number of women, dozens, who knows, to sign nondisclosure agreements, both for sexual harassment and for gender discrimination in the workplace. so, mr. mayor, are you willing

to release all of those women from those nondisclosure agreements so we can hear their side of the story? >> we have a very few nondisclosure agreements -- >> how many is that? >> let me finish. >> how many is that? >> none of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn't like a joke i told. and let me just and there's agreements between two parties that wanted to keep it quiet and that's up to them. they signed those agreements and we'll live with it. >> so wait, i just want to be clear. some is how many? and when you -- and when you say they signed them, and they wanted them, if they wish now to speak out and tell their side of the story about what it is they alleged, that is now okay with you? you're releasing them on television tonight?

>> senator -- no. >> is that right? tonight? >> senator, the company and somebody else in this case a man or a woman or it could be more than that, they decided when they made an agreement they wanted to keep it quiet for everybody's interests. >> come on. >> they sign today agreements and that's what we're going to live with. >> i'm sorry. the question is are the women bound by being muzzled by you and you could release them from that immediately because understand this is not just a question o character. electality.o a question about we are not going to beat donald trump with a man who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements and the drip, drip, drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against. that's not what we do as democrats. >> mr. vice president -- >> let's get something straight here. it's easy. all the mayor has to do is say, you are released from the

nondisclosure agreement. period. >> i said we're not going to get -- to end these agreements because they were made consensually and they have every right to expect that they will stay private. >> all right. elizabeth warren in my estimate did an incredible job not just going after bloomberg about the ndas, but showing something about his leadership qualities, how he deals with things. it's his way or the highway. and that is -- you know, when you're looking at bloomberg's candidacy, that's the problem he pose easy for the democratic party and who they want to be and does he exactly represent who the democrats wants to put out. donnie deutsch, amy klobuchar brought out that he's been hiding mind the ads. he has been. he should have dealt with these questions and done interviews beyond with personal friends.

he should have come on "morning joe," gone on other shows and gotten through this stuff and figured out whether or not he can deal with it. but instead, it was hard to watch. it was hard to watch because it showed who he was. he runs the company, that's the way it goes. and that's the question for the party. do they want someone who runs things like trump? >> yeah. you know, you would have thought his biggest vulnerability going on in was the billionaire stuff been and i thought he handled that stuff relatively well. i've made a lot of money. >> i shared it. >> i've given a lot of money away. i don't think he was in any way prepared for this stuff. the answer would have been a pivot. you know, it was kind of this -- it's a bad, bad question to have to answer and the answer would have been instead of just, oh, i've done really good things by women is, look, i stand by my record and pivot. it's a question without an answer, frankly. and for him to get into the peach of look, 40% of my

foundation is run by women and blah, blah, blah, that is a no-win answer. coming up, it's a debate moment for the ages. mike bloomberg is asked, should you exist. the context behind that question, next. we all use our cellphones very differently. (vo) why the french family chose verizon. someone's streaming sports. someone's video chatting friends. my parents are getting older so knowing that i can get in touch with them

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[ fast-paced drumming ]

a live question including inside a presidential debate whether captainism is good in america. here is mike bloomberg and senator bernie sanders. >> we have a grotesque and immoral distribution of wealth and income. mike bloomberg owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million americans. that is wrong. that's immoral. that should not be the case when wove got half a million people sleeping out on the streets, when we have kids who cannot

afford to go to college. when we have 45 million people dealing with debt. >> mayor bloomberg, should you exist? >> i can't speak for all millionaires. all i know is i've been very lucky, i made a lot of money and given it all away and a good chunk of it goes to the democratic party, as well. >> have you earned too much? should you have earned that much money? >> yes. i've worked very hard for it. and i'm giving it away. >> senator sanders has a proposal that will require all large companies to turn over up to 20% of their ownership to employees over time. is that a good idea? >> i think employee ownership of companies is a great idea. i'm not sure it makes sense to command those companies to it to do it. if we really want to deliver less inequality in this country, then we have to start with a tax cut and we have to start with investments in how people are able to live the american dream,

which is in sooerus decline. >> and i'm very proud of that policy. what we need to do to deal with this grotesque level of wealth and income inequality, is to make sure those people who are working -- mr. bloomberg, it wasn't you who made all that money. you had a role in it, as well. >> would you support what senator bloomberg is suggesting? >>. >> absolutely not. i can't think of a better way to get donald trump elected than to listen to this conversation. >> let's talk about democratic soci socialism, not communism. that's a cheap shot. let's talk about what goes on in countries like denmark where people -- corrected pointed out, they have a much higher quality of life in many respects than we do. what are we talking about?

we are living in many way necessarys dr. martin luther king reminded us, we have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor. >> what a wonderful country we have, the best known socialist necessary t country has to be a millionaire with three houses. what did i miss here? >> you miss that i work in washington, house one. >> that's the first problem. >> live in burlington, house two. >> that's good. >> and like thousands of other vermontists, i do have a summer camp. forgive me for that. >> where is your home? >> new york city, thank you, very much, and i pay all my taxes and i'm happy to do it because i get something for it. >> so, joe, that was the second hour of the debate where mayor bloomberg settled in a little bit and did better. >> wow. >> but chuck todd enters the debate question hall of fame asking mayor bloomberg, should you exist? a literal ex stillal question. >> yeah. now, that was something.

and robert, it is interesting that -- and maybe he just had to sort of shake off the cobwebs. he hasn't done this in a decade. that was an exchange that should have been one of his weaker points being a guy who is worth over $50 billion and yet he handled the money question water him in the second and third

hour. then he got into the back and forth in a better way. you can tell as we've all talked about, he got comfortable and i think he probably just got tired of absorbing everything that was coming at him and really being thing the only one absorbing major hits last night. coming up, senator klobuchar is standing by. the presidential candidate joins us next on "morning joe."

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economically powerfully influenced my values. bernie sanders he's fighting to raise wages. and guarantee health care for all. now, our country is at a turning point. hard working people, betrayed by trump,

struggling to survive. in this moment, we need a fighter. bernie sanders. we know he'll fight for us as president because he always has. i'm bernie sanders and i approve this message. mayor boomberg, your campaign said that you would eventually release your tax records. >> yes. >> if i decide to run for office, i'll produce my tax

returns. >> fortunately, i make a lot of money -- >> i'm really rich. >> it just takes us a long time. >> they're under audit, they have been for a long time. >> the number of pages will probably be in the thousands of pages. >> they're extremely complex. people want understand them. >> but i put up my tax return every year for 12 years in city hall. it tells everybody everything they need to know about every investment. >> i can't go to turbotax. >> they're done by among the biggest and best law firms in the country. >> little mash up between donald trump and mike bloomberg on the issue of tax returns. joining us now, one of the comoderaters of last night's debate, emmy award winning journalist and senior correspondent for nticis trillionly mundo. also with us, alicia menendez.

donny deutsch and claire mccaskill still with us, as well. we're looking at the nevada caucus. what stood out to you? >> so that is -- this is the ninth debate, yes? sometimes i lose count. it stands out to me that while we have watched all nine, there are people who are tuning in for the very first time to that debate and that is the first set of candidates that they're seeing and they're seeing a stre different debate stage than those of us who started watching this at the very beginning. we knew it would be a night that was all about mike bloomberg. i don't know we knew the extent to which that was going on be true. and that mash up that you just showed was the point senator warren was trying to make. there are comparisons between the mayor and donald trump. the question of the tax returns

and his record on race relations. all of that will be laid bare in the primaries, but it will come up again in the general election. elizabeth warren came out swinging and she definitely put himself back into the conversation. i think she knew she was making a calculated risk with the many points of contrast that she raised and we will see in the next few days how that plays out for her. >> and vanessa, since you were there and you could see everything as it was happening, not just what was happening on camera, i'm just wondering what your take away is from it last night, the winners, the losers, and did bloomberg seem a bit shocked by the aggressive on de onslaught? >> i think waits an aggressive debate. they were doing their best to shine to bring the points across. and one of the highlights of the night was to have mayor bloomberg there who was for the first time taking to the debate stage. he was not only taking questions from us, but also from the other

candidates as they were so eager to have them there and to question him. i really love the fact that we were able to have a robust, a very interesting conversation about climate change. that is one of the most important issues of our times. we see it on the polls all the time. i mean, this is going to be -- even for nevada, it could be the decisive issue here in the state. so it was very interesting to see. >> vanessa, it's willie geist. it's good to see you this morning. congratulation owes a great debate last night. as many have pointed out before, iowa, new hampshire, not diverse states. they get the first crack at this and the first votes. now that we move to nevada, we get to see a better representation of the country, particularly among latino voters. as you report out in the state of nevada, what do you find are the one or two issues that they're talking about most, latino voters, and did the candidates last night make convincing arguments on any of them? >> you are absolutely right. we were covering the iowa caucus

and then we went to new hampshire and definitely these are two states that are not diverse at all. but when you think about nevada, it's the first state that is really -- that has great diversity. 34% of the population of nevada is latinos. so they were definitely listening to the candidates and hoping to hear their takes on immigration, on climate change. i was reading a couple of polls last week and basically, this election in nevada could be the -- where the priority for the voters is climate change. and i think it has to do a lot with the latino community. because if you think about it, climate change is affecting us all, but it is disproportionately affecting the minority communities. african-americans and latinos. so when they go to the polls, they definitely think about what is the proposal of that candidate for me? of course, other issues are immigration and then the economy and education. i think the latino community is really thinking about the same things that everybody is thinking about in this country, you know, to have a good

economy, to be able to have a good job, to send their children to good schools. so basically, they are the same issues, but climate change i think is going the be a key issue not only for negative, but for the whole country. >> in addition to these national issues talked about last night, there were personal issues, as well. senator sanders addressing concerns over his own health and the allegation that he is not being transparent with the release of all of his medical records after he suffered a heart attack last fall. >> i think the one area maybe that mayor bloomberg and i share, you have two stints, as well. >> 25 years ago. >> we both have to stents. it's done. we released the full report of that heart attack. we released the full attending physician, all of my history, medical history, and furthermore, we released reports from two leading vermont cardiologists who discaescribe

situation and who, by the way, say bernie sanders is more than able to deal with the stress and the vigor of being president of the united states. hey, follow me around the campaign trail three, four, five events a day. see how you're doing compared to me. >> so, jonathan, that conversation came on the heels yesterday morning of a sanders spokesperson on a television show effectively falsely claiming that mayor bloomberg have had a heart attack and sort of describing the request for medical records as a smear campaign against bernie sanders which, of course, those are perfectly reasonable and important questions to ask. >> it certainly seems that way. the senator had a heart attack just a few months ago. it seems like he has bounced back well, but these are legitimate questions and voters should want to see his medical records. just the idea of transparency on two fronts here. senator sanders with the idea of his health records and the smear

yesterday was from his campaign spokes woman about mike bloomberg's health. but mike bloomberg, he did release financial records, but they were done in a way where it was his law firm and the reporters were able to go and look at the binders for a couple of hours and not allowed to make any sort of copies. but there was a limit of what people could glean from that information. are voters going to be coming off with president trump who has been anything but transparent with his financial records and frankly his health, as well, is this going to matter to democrats? shouldn't democrats be striving to be different from the president? >> i think if the president has been able to get out from under these questions, then it is unlikely that these questions will haunt mayor bloomberg. i thought of all of the contrast points we heard on that stage last night, that was much less resonant than. >> of the points about whether or not billionaires should exist, right? the sort of fundamental question at the heart of the democratic primary right now over the leadership relationship between

socialism and capitalism. i think that is going to resinate much more with a voter than these other questions. >> so bernie sanders and pete buttigieg got into an exchange about the behavior and rhetoric of some of sanders' supporters. it followed reports that some members of nevada's culinary union received threatening emails, phone calls and twitter posts after criticizing the senator's medicare for all proposal. >> we have over 10.6 million people on twitter and 99.9% of them are decent human beings, are working people, are people who believe in justice, compassion and love. and if there are a few people who make ugly remarks who attack trade union leaders, i disown those people. they are not part of our movement. >> senator, when you you say that you disown these attacks

and you didn't personally direct them, i believe you. >> well, thank you. >> but to a certain point, you have to ask yourself, why did this pattern arise? why is it especially the case among your supporters -- >> i don't think especially the case among my -- >> that's just not true. i think you have to accept some responsibility and ask yourself what it is about your campaign in particular that seems to be motivating this behavior more than others because in order to turn the page on the trump era, we're going to need a person, not just a candidate that can win, but a person to move us forward. >> claire and then donnie, did he do enough? >> did bernie do enough or did mayor pete do enough? yes. >> good question. >> i think it would have been better if bernie would have looked right at the camera and said cut it out. anybody out there who thinks i would be a good president, i'm telling you right now, stop it. stop the bullying, stop the threats, stop it. and if he would have been more

adamant, i think it would have been slightly better. i think define trying to fend it off. you can't speak to everyone of your supporters, but what was left unsaid is that some of the people that have done some of this work for bernie. you know, some of them have been 3re9 brutal. and they are actually on his staff. so i was surprised that if you're going to go after him on this, i was surprised that we didn't get all the wie to the point where bernie needed to say, hey, some people have gone too far, even some of the people who work for me. >> yeah. >> if i look at the tweets and they're very angry, he's an angry candidate. is that -- if you've never seen him in any other mode other than attack and anger and i don't know in a general election how

that plays. the other thing, things like i believe tax returns and heart attacks and even nondisclosure agreements, i don't think that is what is going to move elections. health care and sticking to real health care and guns and we look at the kitchen table issues and we get very caught up in these tv moments that i don't think voters can give a crap about. >> all right. vanessa, before you go, let's look ahead to this saturday, the nevada caucus. looks like turnout appears to be good so far. how could this impact the race? >> it will be very interesting to see the results of the nevada caucus. this is going to be a reflection of diversity around the country. i'm thinking about the impact of this community. in this race, 30 million latinos

will be able to vote in this election. we are definitely looking forward to covering it and to see the results. >> vanessa, thank you so much for being on the show this morning. up next, senator klobuchar is standing by and joins our conversation. we made usaa insurance for members like martin.

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welcome back to "morning joe." what you're looking at at the back of roger stone arriving for his sentencing at a federal courthouse on charges of witness tampering and lying to congress of which he was convicted. today there is sentencing day. first joining us is democratic presidential candidate senator amy klobuchar of minnesota joining us and up early in las vegas. thanks for being with us. so much to talk about with you. >> good morning. >> i want to start with health care and i'll pass it around the table. yesterday before the debate, the former majority leader harry reed said of medicare for all, it's impractical and he said there's not a chance in hell it would pass through the senate. you've offered an alternate, an option for medicare for all. do you agree with harry reed? is there not a chance in hell that medicare for all would pass through your senate?

>> i don't know that i would quite say knit a harry reed way. but yes, i don't think it would pass. i made that point at the debate last night when i said to bernie, you know, this isn't even on the wheel because two-thirds of the democratic senators aren't he on the bill. a bunch of the new house members that got elected do not support his idea. and what we really should be doing, when the affordable care act is nearly 10 points more popular than the current guy in the white house, is to be building on that and not tearing it down. and i wish there was more time in the debate to have made that point. but things were set up in different ways during the debate, but i think that is a really -- would have been a valuable discussion to have simply because in nevada, the culinary union is so vehemently opposed, understandably, to medicare for all. just like i am. and one of the only senators up there on that debate stage that had resisted the pressure of getting on it because i did not

want to kick 149 million americans off their current health insurance in four years. >> senator, it's jonathan lamere. on health care, senator warren said she could describe your plan on a post-it note, but that was far from the only sort of vicious attack last night on the stage. of course, there was a time of arrows pointed at mike bloomberg and his debut on the debate. do you think that last night was well served in terms of democrats attacking each other rather than donald trump? do you think last night was a good night for the party? >> no. you know, i think primaries are always about people showing differences and that is what it is. but i thought that there was to much of that and too little of showing solutions for people and there are a bunch of people tuning in that in 2016, independents, moderate republicans, and one point i

wanted to make because i was never given opportunity to respond to elizabeth's allegation about that my health care plan was a few paragraphs long, luckily for me factcheck.org did and they said it was a lie. i have an extensive plan, including mental health, long-term care, going after pharmaceuticals. it is not worth debating now. it was unfortunate i wasn't given that opportunity. there are a lot of things said on stage last night that i hope are fact checked because it felt like there was such a zest to get at the other person that there wasn't enough focus on donald trump. i tried. i thought it was really important to keep on the medicare for all distinction and on immigration, lost on the cutting room floor was the fact that senator sanders had voted against the first immigration bill, both the vice president and i valiantly tried to bring it out. instead of some of the other

points brought up, i think it was a pretty major difference on stage. >> amy, it is claire. i noticed happily that you and elizabeth had the most talking time last night, one and two respectively. that shows that the two of you are making sure that your voices are heard. one thing that was not talked about, especially in light of what happened in las vegas two years ago was a broad discussion about gun safety. do you feel like that's an issue we spent enough time on? it is another point of contrast on some votes along with immigration with bernie sanders and is that going to figure into your strategy for the debate a week from now? >> it certainly will. and of course, in south carolina you have the mass shooting in charleston at the african-american church, but i was sad, many reasons, for some of the things that were missed last night, but not talking about guns in a major way when we had the biggest mass shooting

in american history in mandalay bay, and i have actually been here for a week and have talked to actual survivors of that shooting, including at a town hall i had the night before the debate. people did extraordinary things, acts of courage to save other people. yet as you point out, congress didn't have the courage to do anything about it, and that was part of the issue with mitch mcconnell. he has three of those bills sitting on his desk. it is the reason we need to take back the u.s. senate. there's also some very practical changes in politics now where the majority of hunters want universal background check, majority of trump voters. there's absolutely no reason we shouldn't be moving on it. >> senator klobuchar, donny deutsche. great to talk to you. >> hey, donny. >> you did wonderfully, you kept bringing it back to trump. i congratulate you on that. that was missing on most of the

stage. clearly yours and mayor pete's exchange was important. all the back and forth, arrows slung, it was actually a little uncomfortable to watch. as you look at it this morning, would you have done anything differently and i would love your thoughts on mayor pete. >> you know, i don't know. i have yet to look at it again actually. he and his team have been pushing this out all week that i made one error late into the evening after coming back from washington, omitting the name of the president of mexico, the new president of mexico. i corrected it many times since in many interviews but they keep pushing. i thought it actually shouldn't be the center point. there are many things we can discuss with mexican policy. he and i have a difference. i don't think the cartels should be labeled terrorist organizations which is something he had said at an earlier debate. i tried to flip it to things that were a bit more policy

oriented, but he kept coming back to it. you know, that's his right but i just don't think that's what the american people are going to be focused on. i appreciated that elizabeth noted she thought that was silly discussion, and several of the other candidates back stage told me the same thing. >> senator, alease i can't menendez. i want to talk about jump starti starting immigration reform in the first 100 days of your administration. would you commit to halting deportations for the first 100 days of your administration? >> well, you could have security deportations that you wouldn't halt, but what i would stop is first of all, practice of separating kids from parents. i would immediately review what the policies are for deportation and make changes to what the trump administration has done, but i think the most important

thing for the long term is you get that immigration bill passed, i don't think it is a pie in the sky idea, i think it can happen. we were so close when we got it done in the u.s. senate in 2013, we had a theredreamer negotiati gut punched by the president a few years ago, i know we could get this done. that would resolve so much of this. as you know, a lot of this is asylum processing, making sure we have the judges and work with three northern triangle countries, allowing people to seek asylum from there, then giving a path to citizenship, giving a path to citizenship to people that are here now. of course, i would not continue the mean spirited deportation policy of this administration. >> senator klobuchar, the country got the first in person look not through an ad with mike bloomberg.

i am curious, you went after him because of the memo he put out, you resented like a lot of candidates did that he suggeste way for him so he could become the nominee. what are your impressions as an opponent now that you've seen him up close? >> i think that he is going to have to come back to the next debate with some answers, answers on everything from did he put his taxes up, something i was focused on, i saw it earlier on your program, every candidate up there put their taxes up, it is a clear difference with donald trump. courts are trying to get donald trump to put his taxes up. i just learned on the debate stage that michael bloomberg hasn't done that yet. that's one example of many. the release from confidential agreements as well as many other

issues. my thought was, i was actually one of the ones, maybe the only one, that kept saying he should be on the debate stage, otherwise he's going to be beating us on the air waves, he needs to be on the debate stage, otherwise all people see are glitzy 30 second or 60 second ads. that's not an even playing field and it is no way for democracy to be decided. >> all right. senator amy klobuchar, thank you very much. we'll be watching. >> thanks, guys. >> look forward to saturday. while we are at it, you're part of the all day coverage of the nevada caucus saturday. what are you looking at? >> looking at turnout, looking at specifically latino turnout in the state. it is a state, 30% of the population is latino, 20% of the electorate is latino. we will be looking at how they turn out saturday in part as a bellwether for how they turn out during the general election. >> donny, final thoughts looking

to nevada and last night, a lot of fireworks, shown them all, talked about them all. did it amount to anything? bernie sanders is still standing where he was 24 hours ago. >> the big headline was that bloomberg seemed to be a huge, huge looming presence. his debut was very unfortunate. it doesn't mean it is fatal. his next debate he better come back strong. >> final thoughts, john? >> that's true. maybe a come back for elizabeth warren. she needed a big night last night, she had it. she has good organization in nevada and other places. maybe she can have a well time surge in the next round of contests. >> claire, anything different this morning than yesterday? >> can nevada get the results in saturday. harry reid said nevada should go first. see if they can count the votes saturday or wait until sunday or monday. >> they're not using the iowa app, happy to report. >> yeah, but it is new ipads, new technology, remains to be seen whether they're able to

count it saturday. >> we will see, mika. >> nevada needs to get it right. hopefully they will. in terms of the candidates, boy, elizabeth warren showed up last night and i personally think it worked for her. mike bloomberg needs to show up, show up for real interviews, show up with questions that are being asked of him for people that may not completely agree with him, people that might have real questions, and needs to come up with better answers big time. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks so much, mika. good morning. i am stephanie ruhle. it is thursday, february 20th. there's a lot happening today. if we learned one thing from the big democratic debate in vegas, it is that democrats have absolutely no intention of getting under one tent, not now, maybe not until the convention, maybe not at all. the way the debate turned into a series of sharp, often personal

attacks from the start. the newcomer, former mayor mike bloomberg was one of the targets. everybody was throwing punches last night. >> we shouldn't have to choose between one candidate that wants to burn this party down and another candidate that wants to buy this party out. we can do better. >> mike bloomberg owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million americans. that's wrong. that's immoral. >> what a wonderful country we have. the best known socialists in