my thanks to you for watching. that does it for our hour. mtp daily with chuck todd starts right now. ♪ if it is thursday, it is meet the press daily. i'm chuck todd here in los angeles. out west, democrats are navigating the fallout from last night's debate between what we now know is the most watched democratic debate. and it was certainly a nasty one arguably exposing the divisions. and a newcomer, michael bloomberg, who was hoping to build himself as the alternative

to bernie sanders was trampled by his rivals. >> i'd like to talk about who wire running against. a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians. and i'm not talk going donald trump, i'm talking about michael bloomberg. >> i think that we need something different than donald trump. i don't think that you look at donald trump and say we need someone richer in the white house. >> maybe we should also ask how mayor bloomberg in 2004 studented georstudent supported george w. bush for president, and some of us were fighting for the democrats. >> he has not managed his city very well. and he didn't get a whole lot done. he had stop and frisk throwing close to 5 million young black men up against a wall. >> turning to someone like mike bloomberg who thinks that he can buy this election is no better

way to suck is seed than turning to bernie sanders who wants to burn the house down. >> the biggest beneficiary may have been bernie sanders because in echos of the republican primary four years ago, there were some of the biggest firerk pete buttigieg and amy klobuchar leave being talks on the frontrunner to change the 2r5tr. >> i don't think there is a chance of the senator beating donald trump. you do nts start out by saying i have 160 million people that i'm going to take away the insurance plan that they love. >> i've said many times that we are august responsibility for our supporters. and we need to step up. that is what leadership is all about. >> i'm actually less concerned about the lack of transparency on sanders' personal health than i am on the lack of transparency to pay for his health care plan when he said that it is

impossible to know how much it will cost. >> we can't go after gun manufacturers. >> so where do they go from here? sanders status remains. as does the establishment's concerns about his candidacy. buttigieg and klobuchar. and warren is doubling down on her attacks on bloomberg and bloomberg is now looking at the possibility that the only way to derail sand ders is if a fire a fury side financial onslaught of attack ads. >> look, the real winner in the debate last night was donald trump. because i worry that we may very well be on the way to nominating somebody who cannot win in november. and if we choose a candidate who

appeals to a small base like senator sanders, it would be a fatal error. >> for the latest inside this race, i'm joined by three of our road war yours. josh letter man, ali vitali, and shaq brewster. i'm going to start first with you, al ichlts. i think that the warren campaign clearly feels good about what happened. they are raising a ton of money. but they got to do something with this. a great debate performance coupled with fund raising, they have to go win somewhere. of a term nevada, they have to be able to start winning. what is the strategy now? asked see as your state to win and they won't lay it out. that is not entirely surprising.

but it does sort of beg the question of when the outright written will come because i have a hard time believing that someone will walk this saying they want to be the nominee because they have the delegates but wrougithout the states. so this is the next chapter for the elizabeth warren campaign. is this a xwrun of people, a campaign that was really running this race by the rules that they wrote for themselves on the way that they were going to fund the campaign with grass roots, on the way that they weren't going go after their poechb opponents. they need to go after their opponents on the debate stage. it also means her not disavowing the new super pac for came up with her which is on the way with seven figure buys here in nevada and also in south carolina. so she is playing to win and when i asked her about bernie sanders, these are ubl questions

that get nonanswers but today a little different. listen. >> do you think bernie sanders needs to release mower more of his health record? >> people made it clear that he made a promise to release all his medical records and i thought that is what he was going to do. >> he hasn't done it so far? >> it is not a question of opinion. he has not. >> and that is rare to hear her go after bernie sanders, but i have a feeling that this is the first of many times that we will hear it on the campaign trail. >> she's been trying to figure out how to do that without alienating some in the progressive movement at the same time. so let me go to the bloomberg campaign. josh, it was interesting to watch the campaign, on one hand they wanted to accept their beatings. okay, we were terrible, but we

got less terrible as night went on, which tellings me they want to plant a flag in the next sohe and are they starting to ponder -- if their negative campaign will continue to be rhetorical, are they going to put money was so interesting about last night was how they started to try to lower those expectations lmg as soon as the debate was over. talking about how he got better 45 minutes in, talking about how he hasn't been on the debate stage in something like a decade. but look, there was never going to be a bloomberg campaign where debating was the way that he was going to get elected. they knew from the beginning that if he was going to thrust himself into the front of the race after skipping the first four states, that was going to come through the money that he was spending to put himself in front of people in a positive way through these ads.

and as far as the sanders opposition, they think that they started to that with the attack that mike bloomberg lobbed at sanders eefr the multiple houses that he had and whether that is hypocriticaical for socialist. but that was already out there. >> and i'm you curious, how concerned where they that we have this new california poll out today, sanders 24, biden at 17 and bloomberg at 13. i assume what they wanted to have happen last night is biden start to z lolose traffic. but i don't think biden lost enough traction in these super tuesday states. >> that's right. and it will take us a few days to have new polls in the field to be able to see what the result of what happened last night was. but the bloomberg campaign

officials i've been speaking with say they are not expecting him to move into first or second place until after he has been in a con te. and voters have gone out there and started to make their views known. so they feel like they have more time before they have to worry about that. >> josh letterman in salt lake. and now let me go back to vegas. shaq brewster, hot off the presses, in fact i was going to go to you first but i'll go to you last because the new south carolina poll, it has bernie sanders on the heels of biden 24/19. we'll have a nice graphic for folks soon. but 24 biden, 19 sanders. desire behi steyer behind that at 15. and this was all done pre-de

pre-debate. sanders campaign has to feel pretty good. >> that's right. all today their surrogates are out on cable news and they are exceeding confidence not only based on what they saw on the debate stage. yes, sanders took some incoming fire. they expected that because he is coming in and coming into that debate stage as the frontrunner in the race. but he also was able to land punches on bloomberg and got assists from the other candidates. so they were feeling good about the position that they are in now. and you see, yes, they think that they will do well here in nevada neff, but if you look at where sanders is traveling, he is making a clear play to be super tuesday states. and he is also saying south carolina may be an area of positivity forrism will. th he will just released a their first ad in south carolina.

sanders has a movement. and so if they beat expectations, they are heading into super tuesday start in the a real position of strength and that is where he is spending his time and money. california tomorrow and then on saturday, he will be in texas. and it is ver tt they are in ri now. >> did you get any comment about the fact that all of their opponents said the convention work its will? >> and remember, there is like the opposite, everything is switching from 2016. the sanders campaign is clear, they want the candidate with the po delegates to be the nominee.

but again, not only is that sign of potential trouble once we get to the convention and if the other candidates in the race end up accumulating enough delegates so there is no candidate that hits the majority, but another sign of confidence that the sanders campaign is showing. they see that poll out of california, and they are focusing on texas. they think that they are going to do really well in delegates. they think that they are confident about their positioning especially come super tuesday. >> already. ro road warriors, that is life on the bloomberg campaign. thank you. with me now is dan pfeiffer,

cohost of a podcast and also author. and sorry that you are in d.c. and i'm l.a. >> yeah, we were flipped. that's right. >> it seems as if you are a part of this democratic primary campaign, if you are covering this campaign, it is a tough campaign, everything is -- you know, like any campaign, you have your ups and downs. and if you are a democrat watching it, it seems like you are panicking. where are you, mr.? >> my matt toe otto is worry ab everything but panic about nothing. last night kind of failed to the debates between hillary clinton

and barack obama. it is like the sixth hour of a seventh hour car ride and people are getting tired and stressed. so it doesn't worry me too much whether the party can get united. >> can the democratic party -- is the tent big enough for both a democratic socialist and basically the avatar for capitalism? >> that would be michael bloomberg? yes, of course it is. i think that the number one priority of every democratic voter is beat trump and we are in a very somewhat con foofused long process. and if that better thperson is sanders, they will unite behind him or any of the people on stage last night. >> do you buy the idea that we're seeing basically the republican primary in reverse of

2016? blast night t last night was the focus on the new si nude shiny object. they didn't seem to be going after trump but jockeying to see who can be the trump sleigher. >> that's right. you have one candidate in i think a very commanding position to develop an insurmountable lead. and every other candidate is fighting to find out who will come in second to that person. and i understand why many of them went after michael bloomberg, it provided a great opportunity for elizabeth warren to have a moment. but ultimately bernie sanders is the person who they need to beat. and he came out of the debate even stronger position than when he went into it. >> and i remember the '08 race and there was a concern if

edwards were a part paint icipa super tuesday, it could be a big problem and if memory serves, you got your two person race around this time. how much pressure is going to be on your buttigieg, klobuchars, your biden, whoever it is that emerges out of south carolina as sort of the only likely moderate alternative? >> i think that you've hit on what is the fundamental flaw in the bloomberg strategy, there is not going to be not enough pressure for any of these people to drop out. because it is only three more days. if your strategy in a one-on-one

contest to sanders on super tuesday -- because we had more time then, here there were three days. >> and speaking of trying to fix the democracy, how absurd is is it that democratic party wants to emphasize small states for a month, and then he says you know what, we'll have a national primary three days after we're done and that is it. >> right. i think, look, we'll have to go back after this and look hard at the primary process for what a better process is. i was sitting in iowa watching these incredibly talented organizers build these powerful political organizations and then get on a plane and will never return. so we do need a process that both combines a more diverse electorate, gives small states a voice and benefits us in the general election. >> spread out this calendar.

yeah, it certainly seems like not the progression that perhaps some thought that they were going to have. i think i'll see you again in a few days. we'll do more on your book. thanks for coming out. >> thanks. up ahead, mike bloomberg's bad night. can he get back on track after the debate? the campaign responds next. plus later, roger stone sentenced to prison for lying to investigators at the president calls for fairness for his ally taking aim at the american justice system. (howling wind) (howling wind) a clear plan for retirement to help cover the essentials, as well as all the things you want to do. because when you have a retirement partner

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michael bloomberg made his debut last night on the debate stage and he got attacked from all sides on stop and frisk and the accusations of harassment.

and for any other candidate, it could end their candidacy but bloomberg has his own money so he can move on. and joining me is mayor bowser from d.c. good to see you. >> hi, chuck. good to see you. >> and let me start with an observation i had. it felt as if you had five democrats and it alien who was a former republican on stage and i'm being a bit facetious, but it was sort of which one is not like the other. did michael bloomberg strike you as a democrat on that stage? >> i think what stwrruck me is u had five politicians who had been at it for a year on the debate stage trading barbs. and so mike walked in that day i

think expecting to talk about policy. and he took some blows from his fellow candidates. but i think that he had a slow start, but was definitely warming up and is looking forward to talking to nt debate. >> do you feel comfortable going around the streets of washington defending the stop and frisk policy? >> i have to tell you, when i i go around washington, d.c., people are concerned about our democracy. we are in the bell lift beast here. we get a front row seat at what is happening. i just passed the courthouse where one of trump's crow notices have been sentenced today. so what are we going to do to

save our democracy? he has the message to compete. >> is that why you are supporting him, is he not as close to you on some issues as other candidates are but you look at him and go the end of the day, he can win? >> well, that is certainly a major concern. but i'm also impressed by mike he's experience running a big city. i think a mayor would be great in the oval office. committed t legislation. he has taken on the nra. and blolook at virginia.

virginia can finally pass common sense gun regulation which will keep washington, d.c. safer. what i was really surprised by and disappointed really is last night in nevada, there was no discussion on how we get to common sense gun regulation n. our country. and mike has invested in making sure that happens. >> and there were eight other debates and this is obvious the first debate he has participated in. but let me ask you this question about whether he has been -- it feels as if whether his answer on stop and frisk or ndas, not the greatest explan 2345i7gsati because he has this money and supporters, it allows him to sort of buy forgiveness. that is what it looks like to other democrats. how does he avoid that look, that essentially he is asking for forgiveness because he has this big bank roll? >> i think what mike is doing is

owning up and taking responsibility and accountability for the mistakes that he has made. i think that he has been very clear about and not putting an end to does that astop and fris. how do we take the pain and hurt that those young men suffered and turn it into real action for homeown ownership, for job crean and for real success in our school systems? >> let me ask this.

how does he overcome this idea -- and i think this is what you felt on that stage last night. that for instance he came out for the minimum wage i think basically as he announced for president, all of a sudden he is for the a $15 minimum wage. stop and frisk, he apologizes days before he announces his candidacy. it feels like filing deadline conversions. it does seem as if he has to figure out how to make these seem genuine. how does he do it? >> i think that he just has to keep going it talk to to virgi michigan and texas and talking to voters when they understand what mike's plans are and how those plans impact their lives. they are behind his campaign. especially when they understand the level of investment that will go into beating donald trump. that is what is on the do we b. so as democrats, what i hope

that we do is focus on what the real choices are. if it is going to be senator sanders and mike battling it out, who is going to be better able to go all the way to november november and beat donald trump? and it is clear to me that that is mike. >> and who will win the d.c. primary, bloom wurg or saberg o? >> unfortunately our primary isn't until june. but what mike has committed to is opening two officers in washington, d.c. we'll get out and let voters know to part pit. and probably everything will be decided by then -- >> i don't know.pit. and probably everything will be decided by then -- >> i don't know. every delegate will count. >> and we'll fight for every delegate. i can't remember the last time a democrat put two offices i d.c.

>> mayor, thank you for coming on. the "new york times" is citing five people familiar with the matter, not a flash back, intelligence officials have warned house lawmakers last week that russia was already interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get president trump relaeskted. but that is not the half of it because it appears that sharing this very information with lawmakers angered president trump to such an extent that he ousted his intelligence chief and now that may be why we're about to have rick grenell current ambassador to germany as acting director of national intelligence. let me bring in ken dilanian. and it is amazing, sort of piecing all of this together, joseph mcguire is suddenly out, we see the rick ggrenell news. something about an intel briefing? now we hear what it was. and it was a briefing that

russia is interfering again on behalf of president trump. pretty alarms headline. >> it is the worst nightmare of many of my source in the intelligence world. bad enough to learn that there is classified intelligence that russia is interfering again and trying to elect donald trump. we should be careful about that because it is not clear what it means. does it mean disinformation on social media, does it mean sxwer septembers that suggest people in the kremlin are discussing the campaign? that is bad enough, but then the notion that because a briefing of that information was delivered to a bipartisan group of lawmakers, that cost joe mcguire the job? that is a bombshell. i mean, we want our intelligence officials to speak truth to power. and donald trump wants to cover up -- we know he is not

interested in the subject of foreign election interference. but the u.s. government has been doing a lot over the last two years to try to protect the 2020 election and one of the things they have done is a pointed shelby pearson who is the top intelligence official in charges of election threats and she briefed the house committee my sources tell me and gave them evidence that russia wastonterf behalf. when trump heard about that, you hit the roof, screamed at joe mcguire according to my house and that spelled the end of joe mcguire. and mcguire is a former navy s.e.a.l., well regarded military veteran. and the person who trump has appointed rick grenell has no experience whatsoever in the intelligence world and is a highly partisan figure. >> and so it was interesting, the "new york times" noted that the briefing was a bit blunt by

shelby pearson and this is what sort of weirdly alarmed me reading this story that there were other officials who thought maybe they should have rounded the edges more. and that it never would have made its way to president trump. so how much intelligence is getting conditioned as to not to rise the ire of donald trump? >> that was my reaction. the idea that the intelligence community has to solve the pedal significant intelligence that they are briefing to senior members of congress in a classified space because donald trump might be offended by it is just incredible. it goes against everything that the i think tentelligence commu about and suggests that as understand that the throughout the is not being presented to policymakers or at least it is being shaded. and it is a good thing if shelby pearson was blunt.

the idea that she shouldn't be blunt in talking about major lets, i think most americans would have a hard time with that. >> and dni, director of national intelligence, supposed to be basically they take all the intel that they get from all the different agencies and they essentially filtering it out. so this is intel from multiple agencies obviously that is getting analyzed here by dni. i mean, putting a partisan figure like rick grenell in there who has political -- perhaps more concern about a political result thank necessarily an intelligence result, he suddenly is shaping the intel that the entire government is getting. correct? >> that is the danger. he is not running t the cia. that is being run by intelligence officials.

but he is the policy director. this job was created after 9/11 to break down the walls between these agencies. between the people who steal communications and the people who pay spies in the field. but he is between them and the president and then he also decides what information gets released from the public, what gets briefed to congress, whether there is an open worldwide threats hearing. so the whied that somebody would politicize it is very dangerous. >> so the last time that the president tried to basically put his own crony in at dni, it also imploded, john ratcliff, the congressman from texas. given what we saw and sort of the -- i got to think that even some republican senator won't be

happy about this. >> and there is reporting that richard burr chairman of the senate intelligence committee who is not running for re-election is not happy with this pick, but don't forget, grenell will be placed in an acting role. and so the senate has no say in that. but that does mean that he can't stay there permanently. but you know, trump has shown nothing about rotating opponents. so after the 140 day period, he could appoint somebody else. >> that is what he has been doing at dhs for what feels like over a year now. anyway, ken dilanian, alarming breaks news that too many will meet with a shrug. much more on this when we come right back.

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welcome back. more now on the news breaking at this hour as the "new york times" is adding to a "washington post" news story

about just what happened with the acting dni. what we think we know now, that russia was interfering in the 2020 election to try to get president trump reelected and trump wasn't happy to find out that adam schiff was in that briefing. this after roger stone was sentenced to more than three years in prison. and all of it just the latest in the wake of an impeachment acquittal because in the 15 days since the republican senate found him not guilty, he has pressured the justice department to intervene, purged the white hou house, installed and unqualified political loyalist, signaled that he is okay with political

corruption essentially by pardon going rod blagojevich, he pardoned rudy giuliani allege lie, remember that guy, gave rush limbaugh the presidential medal of freedom. he has been promoting conspiracy theorys. and he hasn't ruled out a pardon for roger stone. just to name a few. again, all of this in the last 15 days. and now we're getting this news at dni. also if you were a deputy attorney general working right now, would you be resigning resign? >> well, i would sure like not to be there. you know, hard to put yourself in that position of what do. but the recent events really i think put before us a whole

pattern of things that you don't want to lose sight of what went before and what i'm concerned about is what is happen position now particularly in the justice department is part of a much larger pattern. i think you have a lot of problems where the attorney general has been working to help the president become essentially somebody who is unchecked by the checks and balances of our system and what we're seeing is go examples of more of the same. >> and how much do you believe the threats to resign and do you think -- do you think that perhaps barr is contemplating it? >> i really don't know. i mean, i don't know what he is thinking. i think that he should be thinking about it and i think one reason is as he has said,

his life is untenable because the president is insisting on sort of claiming credit and urging on the things he is doing which kind of blow the cover on his theory that he is actually doing it because he is trying to be even handed. i think he should resign because he has been working to secure something he's aspired to his whole adult life, which is because he really does believe that the president should be above the law and should not be sibt to che subject to checks and balances whether from congress allege inquiries or the appropriations clause or the limitations that the courts put on him. >> and if he resigned, at least he could make people believe

that he was doing it on his principle, so perhaps that is how he could spin it. ben, i want to ask you, what does congress do right now? you look at what he is doing with the justice department and you look at this -- we're in the middle of this unfolding story here about joseph mcguire at the dni, the motivation of removing him very suddenly. and the idea that russia is interfering again. and yet congress had its wings clipped. this is the president unchecked and he is testing these boundaries left and right. >> so to some degree congress has had its wings clipped, but to some degree congress has clipped its own wings. it has decline todd clined to d things which would be to its advantage do and some of that is because there is division within the democratic caucus about how

aggressive to be and on the senate side, that is because congress actively choice to give the president a pass not merely from conviction for what he was impeached for, but for even having to have the evidence aired. look, right now the -- we seem too ha to have a situation in which the president ousted one acting dni for having a reasonable briefing on going electoral interference given to the bipartisan intelligence community leadership. and installed in his place a political loyalist with no intelligence background. now, if congress sits still for that and doesn't push back, it kind ofs what it deserves. this is where the congress

should be aggressive in finding out what happened. and you would think would assert and institutional interest in being able to get candid intelligence briefings to the intelligence committees from the senior intelligence leadership. you would think that would be a bipartisan proposition. i suspect it won't be however. so you will to decide how aggressive to be about it. >> and i want to remind people, the current acting dni is there because of the immediate resignation and then refusal to appoint sue gordon as acting at the time the next day joseph mcguire was the guy stuck with the whistleblower complaint. it is possible here that the reason now we have two different acting dnis is due to presidential interference. >> correct. and there is a, you know, in a normal functioning government,

there is a very civsimple solut to this, which is that the president does not demand, you know, political loyalty and fafshs from h favors from his sdchlt n icdni. and when he resign, you nominate somebody and submit their name to the senate and have that person go through the consent process. and when he has floated names for the permanent position, they are people who are radically inappropriate for it. and would have a lot of trouble getting senate confirmation. and so what he is doing is as you put it before installing one person who he thinks that he can control and then yanking them out and sticking someone else in there. >> and what kind of legal

trouble is the government in with all of these roles, could askss that they take -- go ahead. >> i think what this is, it is yet another instance where the conduct of the administration is essentially flauntsing ting ched balances. the idea that you really can't come up with someone who could be confirmed and so just put in a rolling collection of people to seek advice and consent. one of the problems is that, you know, there are some limits on how long an acting can be and there are limits on who can be in acting. but you can find someone if you are not discriminating and roll them over fairly constantly. so if you don't have the character and discipline to realize that you are supposed to play by the rules, and you decide that you want to flaunt the rules the same way bill barr has been flaunting the rules, you can do that. so people of bad character are

capable of getting us into difficult situations. and that is where we are now. >> that is about as good of a summary a s i've heard these days. do don, ben, thank you both. let's go to adam goldberg. i feel like we've done this before. we're piecing all of this together. and as we've been just talking about the story, it donned me, the whole reason why we have an acting dchlni, questionable circumstances and his removal feels suspicion. do we have any idea how russia is interfering? >> we don't have that xwran ugr

detail yet. but russia was most certainly interfering in the 2016 election trying to sow chaos and putin still favors trump. >> why did this breaching happen when it happened? was this something that the folks at dni thought was necessary to inform committee on house intelligence? >> yeah, i believe that this is these briefings were instituted under coats. the former dni -- >> last confirmed dni, yeah. >> and this is part of the regularly scheduled election interference briefings. and this was the first, i assumed that there would be several. and they went in there and they -- the ceo was the assessm

was going on. >> and only reason we're finding out is due to the change of mcguire. obviously the president seemed to be the concerned about somehow the democrats finding out this information? >> yeah. we heard something about trump being angry at mcguire and berating him during a presidential daily briefing on friday on, valentine's day. and we learned that he was upset about information that this dni election czar had conveyed to congress. we started peeling that back and figuring out what he said. and clearly trump was not happy with that.

what part was he unhappy with? >> it seems that he was unhappy that information was provided to schiff and perhaps the democrats. he believed that schiff would try to weapon willize this for political reasons. and trump sees these things through, you know, a political lens. of course, the irony of this is, we might not have found out about this briefing if trump hadn't berated maguire on friday. much of what trump does is his own doing. >> that certainly seems to be the case. i want to go back to something, you seem the add something not in the report. the interference seems to be within the primaries. same they know as four years ago. russian bots on social media, do we know for sure what it is?

>> i was told, it will be the same play book from 2/16. and adequate concerns about russia going into possible voting infrastructure. separate concerns about the chinese getting in with a disinformation campaign. but i think what russia will do is going to be, i'm told what he intends to do is pull from the 2016 play book. and let me make an interesting point here. publics had been grilling, sorry, republicans had been faulting the obama administration for not being tough enough, right? that's one of the main talking points. not being tough enough. not sounding the alarm fast enough. not doing enough to prevent russian interference which disrupted the 2016 election. and here we are. now the republicans are getting this information. what happened in this hearing was quite concerning to people.

the republicans went ballistic, they went crazy. they were furious that somebody would have suggested that there was a suggestion that putin would favor trump. >> so this is house republicans when they were getting this briefing. they didn't believe that donald trump intel officials? >> no. some of the toughest questioning of this was done by mr. heard, the former cia official, the republican representative from texas who is now running for re-election. but we're told, he was one of the fiercest questioners. >> all right. adam goldman, i'm guessing you have more reporting to do. i appreciate you take a few minutes and getting in front of a camera for us. i bring in my guests. so here we are again.

and it's one headline. and yet it does fit a pattern with this president. particularly at intel. i'm curious. your initial reaction to all of this. it all feels like very familiar story. >> it is a familiar story. i mean, honestly, i understand that it is exciting and titillating news but who exactly thought the russians wouldn't try to interfere in this election? having tried on interfere in the last election? who thought they would favor whoever the democrat would be? that's what i don't get. this is a complete dog bites man story. >> yeah. but now president trump runs the government. that's the concern. >> it is always legitimate concern that other countries would seek the interfere in our election process and we need to do everything we can to stop them. but the notion that other governments would want to?

i'll sorry. who do you think the israelis would like the win this election? do you think iran has point of view? what about china? all of these countries have a point of view. they have a candidate who they're going to prefer. they have -- >> that's a transactional, you're get go to the trump transactional mind set. >> i am, actually. in this case. >> so does that 19 democrats get china? >> no. it means the democrats and the republicans together seek to do everything they can to stop the russians. i'm not disturbed -- i'm not surprised. i am disturbed but not surprised in the least. and as for maguire, he was on his way out already. that was well known in washington. >> fair enough. >> what should democrats in congress do? look, when you think about everything, you think about the situation at the justice department and here, dni,

whether they clip their own wings, whether they've had their wings clip, it does seem like they're limited if what they can do other than astound alarm. >> number one, talk about being alarmed and not surprised. they should be talking about the fact this is more broadly a case of voter suppression. put it in that context for the american people. they need to explain why this is an urgent crisis. that the president would block or misinform the american public about this information. why would you not want the house intelligence chairman to have this information? why would you want him to have that? and have the president explain that, fully. then if he can't, or if his explanation seems to violate particular rules or in fact criminal, then pursue him for impeachable conduct. >> last night, the person who

brought up russian hacking was bernie sanders at one point. i say this because i think we're getting conditioned to this. i get her reaction. we're sitting here saying this should be huge and of course they are. i thought it was a little bit almost fast we're all getting conditioned to this. even bernie sanders says, you can't assume that those people attacking you are my people. they could be russian bots. he almost used it as an excuse. >> fortunately, i didn't have that reaction. he cover voter suppression in depth. i never get used to. this you never get used to seeing people having their agency taken away. i never get used to seeing people having their votes countless. that is what is happening here. so americans should never get used to seeing the president behave in this way. they should get angry. >> danny, is the republican already getting conditioned to

this? do you get my drift on this? they're the disturbed but they feel like there is not much they can do about trump right now. >> the republican party is in a lose-lose position. that's where donald trump has put them. when you think about the intelligence committee, you were talking about will herd before when i was listening to the show. you can't find someone with more experience, more integrity. he is stepping down. the former craft officer not running again. he has nothing to lose politically. when you hear him grilling intelligence officials, that's not a bad thing. they have to deal with donald trump putting this unbelievably illicit spoin absolutely everything. he reacted inappropriately to. this we understand why he's afraid that it will be weaponized politically. because it will. on the other hand, he has no judgment and no filter and he puts them in the cross hairs.

>> again i go back to, what do voters do? call it voter suppression. the only reason we're finding out about this, adam schiff didn't leak it. >> i'm encouraged by will herd being inquisitive. >> while i have you in l.a., what did you make of the debate last night? where do you think this is headed? >> well, i think we saw in elizabeth warren's performance a template. whether or not she has injected herself back into the leader spot, a template for what the democrats should be looking for in their nominee. someone who is knowledgeable, quick on their feet, and someone who has both the facts at their hand and also compassion. >> you see someone a little more closer to the progressive side

that can unite versus sanders. >> yes. >> thank you. sorry we didn't get to do more politics. i appreciate you both. another crazy evening in the era of trump. that's all i have tonight. if it's thursday, we have a special post debate edition of the chuck todd thecast. download it now wherever you get your podcast. >> we've got this major breaking news ranging from another trump adviser hit with a new prison sentence to these major developments in the 2020 race. the judge who presided over this case, who president trump has been attacking, stared him down today and handed down this prison time for rominger stone. this news is breaking moments ago when chuck and others were covering donald trump. now lashing out