my thanks to joel, maria, the rev and jason. we hope you'll join us for special coverage of the nevada caucuses. i'll be here with brian williams since the voting gets under way at 3:00 p.m. eastern. the rev's interview with michael bloomberg sunday on "politics nation." "mpt daily" with chuck todd starts right now. ♪ welcome to friday. it is "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd back in washington where we have breaking news that russia is attempting to interfere in the 2020 election following "the new york times" report yesterday that intelligence officials, career intelligence officials, warned congress during a

classified briefing that russia was interfering in the 2020 election. specifically, to help re-elect president trump, "the washington post" reporting that officials told bernie sanders campaign and the senator himself russia trying to help the campaign to interfere in the democratic primary. we'll speak with a reporter at "the post" who broke this story. in a statement moments ago, sanders said i don't care, frankly, who putin wanting to be president. my message to putin is clear. stay out of american elections and as president i will make sure that you do. it is notable the president has never put out a statement of putin stopping the meddling. the president claimed that democrats were trying to rig the primary against him. part of the russian playbook from 2016. jonning me is michael sheer, a reporter at "the washington post" who broke this story and joined by our own road warrior

shaq brewster and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. michael, is this essentially the same briefing that house intelligence officials -- committee got and that the president got the next day and exploded? >> so this information has been briefed both to that capitol hill house intelligence briefing, briefed to the president and it's separately been briefed to senator sanders so it is the same set of information that all three groups of people have been told about. >> do we have a sense of how they're doing it? and what it is that they're trying to do? impersonation of supporters, the same sort of playbook from before? is there any -- is there something a bit more sophisticated this time? >> we don't have the details of the content of this help is. gotcha. all right. we are -- we obviously have a little bit of a connection issue there.

let's go to shaq brewster here. shaq, it was interesting, do we know when the sanders campaign was briefed? sanders himself during our debate implied that it's possible some of the most egregious things that people said to the culinary union in the name of bernie sanders may have been -- he said may have been russian propagandists. >> reporter: you're right. i asked that to his campaign manager a couple of minutes ago and pointed back to the statement that the campaign released, same with the senior adviser jeff weaver. i do want to read part of the statement in the beginning of the statement and senator sandsers says unlike donald trump i do not consider vladimir putin a friend. he is an autocratic thug who attempted -- aterpting, excuse me, to destroy democracy and crush dissent in russia. the russians want to undermine american democracy by dividing us up and unlike the current president i stand firmly against

their efforts and goes on longer and this is a multi-paragraph statement and references what you were, the idea that some of these so-called bernie bros you hear online, that criticism he received on the debate stage and received before that, that some of his supporters more aggressive, harassing people and saw that with the culinary union and went on to suggest some of the ugly stuff on the internet attributed to the campaign may well not be coming from real supporters. he mentioned it on the debate stage and heard that before. when pbs i believe it was in an interview where he initially brought up that idea so we don't have an idea specifically on when he was briefed but looking at when that argument started being raised we can get an idea of when he got an idea of this. >> in fact, i think michael is back. michael, we know the dates of the briefings. maguire -- excuse me. i think it was maguire's deputy

briefs the house on the 13th. maguire has the meeting you guys broke with the president on the 14th. one would assume then it is in the same time period that sanders' campaign is briefed and it is right at that point that he starts talking about how these could be russian bad actors impersonating his supporters. >> yeah. i agree that it is notable in the statement sanders released he references this social media activity. and he's not saying it directly but suggesting yet again that some of the stuff online he is criticized for because apparently coming from supporters may not be from his supporters and also notable this is different than president trump's reaction. senator sanders has pretty consistently this cycle saying he doesn't want russia involved in this election and he's been condemning it and calling it out. >> i want to put up, ken, what the president tweeted earlier today. another misinformation campaign

he is claiming is launched by democrats in congress saying that russia prefers me to any of the do nothing democrat candidates. the misinformation coming from the president here. there's no democrat in congress where this information is coming from. this is coming from intelligence professionals. maguire was passing it on by law to the house intelligence committee. >> the career intelligence official in charge of election security briefed that committee saying twice that russia had expressed a preference for trump. but this is fascinating, this sanders revelation. >> i want to pause this. bernie sanders is talking about it right now. let's take a listen. >> seeing russia and other countries interfering in our elections. the intelligence community has been very clear about it. whether trump recognizes it or not or acknowledges it they did interfere in 2016.

the intelligence community says they are interfering in this campaign right now in 2020. and what i say to mr. putin if elected president trust me. you are not going to be interfering in american elections. >> when were you briefed on this? >> i'm guessing about a month ago. >> what are you going to do now that you know this? >> we have -- it was not clear what role they will play. we were told that russia, maybe other countries involved this campaign. look. here's the message. to russia, stay out of american elections. and what they are doing, by the way, the ugly thing that they are doing, and i have seen some of their, you know, their tweets and stuff, is they try to divide us up. that's what they did in 2016. that is the ugliest thing they're doing is trying to cause chaos, trying to cause hatred in america. it is an ugly business and all of us have got to say, sorry, you are not going to do this in this election. as president of the united states, mr. putin, you will not interfere in our elections. >> how do you think it came out?

if you had the believing a month ago. >> i'll let you go one day before the nevada caucus. why do you think it came out? "the washington post"? good friends. >> are you troubled by the fact that president trump knew about this, senator? >> well, there we go. bernie sanders questioning the timing of the story and said he was briefed a month ago, ken. i think it is important to -- i want to juxtapose something. president trump addressed this in the rally in vegas and you just heard how bernie sanders is addressing the story. here's how donald trump is addressing this story. take a listen. >> i see these phonies, the do nothing democrats. they said today that putin wants to be sure that trump gets elected. here we go again. i was told that was happening. i was told a week ago. they said they're trying to start a rumor. it is disinformation. that's the only thing they're

good at. they're not good at anything else. do nothing democrats. that putin wants to make sure i get elected. listen to this. so doesn't he want do see who the democrat's going to be? wouldn't he rather have, let's say, bernie? rather have bernie? >> so, ken, in some ways trump proving exactly the point that others are making here that the president himself is not -- he did not once say putin needs to cut this out or accept the premise that russia is doing this. this is probably the most alarming thing about this. we can talk about the politics of this with bernie sanders and his shot i guess at the timing of this reporting. but again, the president is not condemning it and is not accepting this as reality. >> by contrast, bernie sanders did exactly what anyone, any american should -- >> normal presidential candidate. >> would do. and you're absolutely right. there's politics and precedent.

in 2016, this is little noticed but in the indictment of the 12 russians that the mueller team brought, there's a mention of the internet research agency trying to help bernie sanders impersonating cent on the supporters and why would they do this? well, you know, they appreciate some of sanders' foreign policy, withdraw from the world in a way that other mainstream democrats don't. >> this is where they do -- this is why, you know, for the russians' foreign policy trump or sanders, win-win as far as they're concerned. >> absolutely. in terms of -- >> foreign policy. >> not going to have a qassem soleimani strike under president sanders. might have troops withdrawn and vladimir putin likes that. >> michael, look. i was just asking you about when did we think sanders got briefed. he filled in the gaps there so i guess you get to update the story in a second. he is questioning the timing of the release of this thinking

it's intended to be about the nevada caucuses. that seems to be a bit of a stretch in my book. what more can you add to this? >> i have nothing more to say about the sources other than what's in the story. it is worth noting that in 2016 when the russians were doing this to benefit sanders one of the clear reasons was they wanted to stop hillary clinton. we saw also the hacking of the dnc emails and the release of those emails which is also atriblted atriblta atribt triblted to russians. they're reporting that the russians are still supportive of sanders candidacy and suggests it wasn't just an anti-hillary clinton effort. >> excellent point. shaq, i want to play for our audience now, now that we know bernie sanders said he was briefed aability this a mornlt ago, let me play the clip from the debate on wednesday night

one more time for people. >> let me say something else about this. not being too paranoid. all of us remember 2016. and what we remember is efforts by russians and others to try to interfere and divide us up i'm not saying that is happening but it would not shock me. >> shaq, we know that the senator already had been briefed of russian interference at this point and more i guess an informed answer perhaps. we don't know for sure there. but the sanders campaign, it was interesting to hear the senator questioning the timing of the story. >> reporter: really interesting comment right there at the end of that gaggle as he landed. he was in bakersfield. he started the day in santa ana here and one thing he did note on stage that i may be connecting it too closely but

hearing from barnes as he's been rising in the polls and is the idea that the establishment is nervous and he said again that president trump is nervous, the republican party is getting nervous. he said the democratic establishment is getting nervous and heard cheers with that. we just don't know. there was a tone there when he said, walked away saying it is about the timing. you have to ask about why it was released at that point but a sense you get especially among supporters that people feel as he rises in the polls an continues to do better there's people and pressure from the outside to stop him and that momentum. i wonder, an open question, i wonder if that's the connection he is making, if he sees this as an opportunity to take him down at a moment when he's feeling really good and momentum with this campaign. >> look. what we have known the russia goal is confusion, is the minute there is trying to sow discord here so there is something to that that is less about domestic

political shenanigans and more about the international interference shenanigans. thank you all. want to bring in democratic congressman eric swalwell. he was in last week's briefing. we have reported on this. intelligence officials warn russian efforts to help president trump and make a note, congressman, you agreed to come on. we asked every republican member of the house intelligence committee to appear. they would not do that and we are waiting to see what the answer will be for this weekend. but, congressman, tell me now what we have seen in the public record, how much can you confirm? >> good afternoon, chuck. what i can tell you is that our committee has had an ongoing interest in having elections free from interference. this was not a one-off hearing last weekend. we continue to have oversight so

russians and no one else is interfering. two, the big concern is it looks like we have a president who continues to not condemn russia, who is moving people off the way of the intelligence community, who do go to congress and raise any issues with regard to russia and, three, he is essentially benefiting if he is trying to not condemn russia and put people in place that won't condemn russia and benefits the president. is it too much to ask a president to stand up to them once and for all? >> how much evidence were you presented or was this an intelligence official giving you a summary of their conclusions? >> yeah. i can't go into anything about that briefing other than to say that we have had an ongoing interest in understanding what russia's doing. i asked director wray just two weeks ago if russia's interfering in the elections. he said they are, still continuing to do that. and so it's just pretty damn

concerning that the president is punishing people because he perceives them as being truthful to congress. >> how much of this interference campaign is social media driven and is there more to it than just that? >> i wish i could say more about that, chuck. but what i will say, what's interesting of what you played with senator sanders, racking up delegates, think of what's happening. if donald trump perceives that senator sanders is his best general election opponent and the russians according to what sanders just said are attempting to help senator sanders, this means that the president and the russians aligned of who they want the opponent to be in the fall an there's questions for the president as to what does he know about the russians' attempt, whether from the intelligence officials or the russians of what they are trying to do to get him a general election opponent he believes

would be best served for a victory for him? >> do you know if the social media companies that the russians regularly abuse have been briefed that their systems abused by the russians again? >> well, can't go into that but what i can tell you is that we have passed on the house side a duty to report requirement that would require people who see evidence of interference on social media platforms to come forward to the fbi. that needs to get a vote in the senate and that's a big problem here because we ran in 2018 part of our agenda was to make sure that the elections would be free from interference. we have done our work on the house side. we passed the for the people act. we passed election security reforms and not seeing interest to pick that up in the senate. >> would you say that all of your colleagues on both sides of the aisle accepted the conclusions of the intelligence committee? >> i don't want to speak to what they said in the briefing but what i would like to see and we have not seen that, our

colleagues coming forward condemning any effort by russia to interfere in our elections and, again, it is a shame we can't be united because unity's the best annette doecdote to wh want to do again. >> there's skepticism that the intelligence committee is on the up and up on this. is there any evidence that they would be making this up? >> we have no evidence that they've been anything but truthful in any briefing to us in the last few months. there were questions certainly about the soleimani efforts and never believed they intentionally tried to mislead us. i heard accusations by the republicans but there's no evidence to support this. >> if -- is there much that can be done if you -- if the president is sort of putting a -- i don't know -- a heavy

umbrella over the intelligence community and what they can share with you? >> yes a. hell of lot more than we could have done in 2018 when we didn't have the majority. now we have subpoenas. of course, they have to honor those. we have oversight ability. the power of the purse to authorize and fund their budgets and we are going to use all of that leverage that we have because people want to go to the ballot box and know that they not vladimir putin are deciding the outcome. >> are you going to -- w will we have a hearing on this now? >> i spoke with our intelligence staff yesterday and today and they have assured me that we'll do all we can to protect the integrity of the elections and this is not a one-off, chuck. this is something we have been doing since taking the majority and will continue to investigate this, especially now looking at the president bringing in someone completely unqualified to be the acting director of national intelligence. again, it looks like people in to protect him, no tot protect us. >> again, you say you're gong to do everything, what does that mean? will we have a public hearing on

this sooner rather than later? >> i'll let the chairman address that but our staff is working through the weekend to make sure that our elections are free from russian interference. >> through the weekend? so this is a very imminent thing? >> yes. the president doesn't stop cheating. >> okay. there's a saying there. congressman swalwell of california, thank you for coming on an sharing your views. >> my pleasure. >> the panelists, blowing through the break. heidi, michael steel and former dnc senior adviser doug thornel. heidi, let's go to what we sort of know here and, you know, i do want to remind people that the president is sacking an acting dna who got put in there in the first place because he essentially was nervous -- dni, about who was going to be acting dni if it wasn't this guy because we had the last time of a controversy about the director

of national intelligence when the whistle-blower complaint working the way through. so i feel like history's repeating ooitsz here. >> it is. if you look at the people who have been canned or forced out or just made to feel uncomfortable since the end of the impeachment proceedings, it is all people who essentially told the truth about russia. alexander vindman or mr. hood at the pentagon and now all of this. i think actually the irony here is that had the temperament been different and not gone ballistics and push mr. maguire out we may not have found about this. now the intel committee is working through the weekend on something they have known about for over a month. >> this is michael, i won't get into the idea. why couldn't the president say what bernie sanders said? what he said is what any normal

american presidential candidate would say about foreign interference. >> right. >> it is like a -- i mean, the comments in vegas, it is, again, it is a president might adds well be, russia, if you're listening. >> the defenders will point to substantive actions not -- >> looking silly doing it now. chris stewart, the guys, trying to say, why would putin want this? >> lethal aid to the ukrainians. >> crowd strike. who passed on that conspiracy first? president trump. >> but this does at the very least muddy the waters, reportedly looking to help bernie sanders. you can say that that's because he is the weakest general election opponent against president trump which i think is clearly true or the presidential candidate less likely to pursue -- >> if you're russia trump and sanders is win-win. makes perfect sense, doug. now looking back at '16, it was more pro-sanders perhaps than

anti-hillary. >> what they were doing during the particularly nomination process to disrupt and create a lot of dissension within the democratic party. that's what the entire dnc -- >> which senator sanders acknowledging, too. that's the grael here. >> i think it's important how bernie sanders responded here. forceful, disowned this. did something that president trump refuses to do. and this all falls, you know, a day or two after -- bernie said i wonder why this came out and might be the democratic opponents and could have been trump. >> i think -- >> that's where it started. >> seems to be. only reason we know this is actions against maguire. >> absolutely. i think it was trump and you had the day before, you have trump sacking maguire, replacing him with grenell totally unqualified and grenell replacing that whole staff, putting in devin nunes' former aide who's a conspiracy

theorist. this is just crazy stuff. >> i saw your squint your eyes. >> political competence view of point. as the president mouth the two sentences. i don't want help from russia the heat goes away from this. >> can't do this. >> i don't think we can draw any conclusions about whether the russians view sanders as equally good as president trump because he did make that unequivocal statement and president trump has over years and years refused to say those same words even though he's known and been briefed several times by his intelligence community that that was the sbenlt of russia and russia could have viewed senator sanders as the weakest opponent in 2016 and same motivation so i don't think we know what the motivation is yet. >> they did not like hillary clinton in 2016. >> yeah. >> i want to go back to -- i think they also didn't like marco rubio. he was one of the folks

targeted. graham. the russia hawks on the right. >> sanction speaker boehner. >> they have an agenda here on a specific foreign policy. the question i have for the two of you, both hill veterans, this acting business, we are going to go -- i mean, this is a very troubling, you know, that you can essentially put a lead blanket on the career intelligence officials, moorkal. what power was congress have right now? >> they have a fair bit of power they're choosing not to assert and it would take a bipartisan bicameral effort to assert it. there are things that they can do but it would require a degree of bipartisan bicameral coordination we are not seeing and not close to seeing. >> this is a great time for maybe susan collins who said trump learned a lesson after impeachment. he clearly hasn't learned lessons from impeachment to say

we need a senate confirmed dni because we're having an acting dni, we have had an acting dni firefighte for months. this is a very important position. he writes an present it is daily presidential brief on intelligence. and the fact that this guy is not going to be senate confirmed, we don't know how long he'll be there but if you're collins, gardner, the other senate republicans, we always say this -- said it all the time -- >> in fairness, they don't get an opportunity to quiz this guy. >> right. >> not going to get an opportunity -- >> should insist upon it. >> they could subpoena him like maguire immediately. >> as someone covering the senate i appreciate you looking for the silver lining but i have to say despite whatever happens with trump who's now saying he intends to put up a permanent nominee we don't know how long like you said how long grenell will be in there. >> pretend to put up a nominee allowing him to keep grenell in there. this is playing games.

>> he could be in there for several mormts an one thing is that his main qualification is his willingness to defend trump above all else. it is his loyalty to the president. and this comes amid reporting of trump wanting to essentially purge anybody not loyal to him so this is what we talk about here is that the swamp is the career civil servants and experts. >> i want to note the biden campaign put out a provoktdive statement here showing sort of whatever you view of this story, the success the rshians are getting out of the interference campaign. a statement from andrew bates. we know vladimir putin doesn't want to be president and we know who donald trump doesn't want to be the nominee. the republican opponents of trump trying to play politics with this. it is tricky. it is tricky. >> incredibly because they're matters of national security and

peripheral of most people's daily wants and needs. good economy and health care, the situation of russia and ukraine is -- >> too distracted. what about my health care? >> adroit thing the biden campaign has done in quite sometime. >> i think they've done some good things an making some -- i think he is making electability argument here. that is all that is about and a right argument. >> you have to be careful how you play politics with this. >> the biden point is that, look, if you look at trump's twitter handle, if you look at what trump is saying about bernie sanders, he basically is protecting bernie sanders and promoting bernie sanders throughout this entire contest. he did that exact same trick in -- to create dissension in 2016. >> the russians doesn't need trump or trump doesn't need the russians to help with sanders. he is doing that. >> but the point is i think the biden people saying, look, what does it say that the trump folks are so behind bernie sanders as a nominee? i think bernie sanders can beat

trump but i'm -- >> careful what you wish for. hillary clinton people happy about trump. >> and see what claire mccaskill did. >> trump campaign, similar language. the campaign as bernie sanders. this is not donald trump. this is tim on behalf of the trump campaign. we condemn and reject foreign interference in american elections in any form. >> chuck, we have seen this with a lot of trump officials willing to say what the leader himself has been unwilling to say. i mean, at least we have unloaded the 400-pound person and won't say putin, stay out of the elections and to see him face to face and do that, as well. so it does not erase the fact that the president is openly been, you know, advocating for bernie sanders. setting up this notion that even if bernie sanders doesn't get it, the whole thing was rigged. >> right. >> so he wants to have bernie

sanders. bloomberg campaign said the other day that they believe that there's a treasure trove of oppo research that the republicans sitting on, who knows if that's true or not? >> bloomberg campaign, you are going to do that? play it f. you say it, put your money where your mouth is. you have a lot of it. >> he wants a divided democratic party and he gets it. >> putin and trump is getting it. you guys are sticking around. turn now to the question of how this interference from russia is happening this time. russia's expected to supposedly build or has built on its 2016 meddling methods. what does that look like? how do we guard against it? go to "the washington post" reporter, also a msnbc contributor, tony rahm, you are the guru of this which i don't know if that's a good thing. you go in dark recesses of the internet. but we're getting some hints at what they're doing this time. what more can you share? >> right. well, we should caution right at

the outset that we haven't heard anything from u.s. intelligence officials as to what exactly has caused them to tell the sanders campaign that russians trolls are supporting his candidacy and the same on behalf of president trump but looking to the past of what russia has done for a potential playbook here. so remember, four years ago we were talking about russian agents taking to facebook, twitter, google and other social media sites to weapon size the platforms and to spread misinformation that had the goal of igniting social and political discord in the u.s. and putting out information that would damage clinton and would hurt -- help president trump. this is the sort of thing to watch the tech companies keep an eye out for. they fear this sort of barrage of misinformation affecting how people are consuming information about the election. >> i want to read you from one of the reports, indicating that russian operatives from "the new york times" reporting are working to get americans to repeat the disinformation. and some ways, trying to do this

on american servers, trying to do this using american profiles. look. the fact is that it's the president himself that keeps using the crowd strike conspiracy, the only place you hear that is from the russians. so we have seen some success over time to get american politicians to repeat a russian narrative. >> right. this is the big question. the big issue here from researchers which is you don't need russian trolls but they're sharing viral social media sites and seen russians take advantage of some of this stuff. i think something that's gotten lost in the better part of the past few months is announcement of facebook at 2019. they took down a network of fake accounts that seem to have some ties to the same actors working in 2016 and in that instance what we saw was that these accounts repurposing memes

shared by average americans, might have been divisive of democrats and a boost to bernie sanders and a boost to president trump. so we actually have a template out there, evidence of this having happened in the past but again i can't stress enough we haven't heard anything from u.s. intelligence officials this time around. >> the timing of that now -- so let's think about what bernie sanders just told us earlier this hour. he said he was briefed about a month ago, that putts it in january. facebook does a -- a question i had for the intelligence, swalwell, has the briefing been taken to the social media companies. look. we can two plus two equals four as everybody's aware, we can connect those dots, that certainly -- certainly leads you to believe that they didn't do this on their own. >> right. we have asked the social media companies, been in contact with facebook, google and twitter and not heard back whether or not

tharve briefed but the companies in close contact with the government because there's a recognition they couldn't do the fight alone and an information the government passed along to them so that they could monitor their platforms in realtime so this is the sort of thing that ultimately ends up becoming a bigger picture test of whether that cooperation is really effective enough to ensure that throughout the 2020 election these companies are taking action against the bad stuff in realtime. >> do we know that the russians didn't want to get caught? there's a lot of upside for them for us to be suspicious of them constantly. >> the researchers, the last time around, actually said they didn't think that russians were trying do get caught because the accounts in an audience building phase, according to this research firm of graphica with access to the facebook data. basically still getting fans, still getting followers.

they weren't yet at the level we saw some of the same accounts with respect to the 2016 election. but around the world we know that russia engaged in similar activities, particularly when it comes to the political foes or with its geopolitical interests in ukraine and that's a sort of thing that disinformation experts watching in the united states this time around. >> the more complicated, there's copycaters out there just going to try to do it on their own. maybe for their own political motivation and only reinforces and sows the discord they were hoping for. tony romm of "the washington post" technology reporter, also contributor, thank you, sir. much appreciate your expertise on this. up next, an election tomorrow. a nevada caucus. new numbers showing sanders gaining ground with african-american voters. he has the money and momentum. can the rivals stop him? plus, after attacks, michael

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welcome back. in the wake of this week's widely panned debate performance where michael bloomberg was pressed to release former employees from non-disclosure agreements this afternoon he said he's willing to bound people in three nda of the comments he made. if any of them want to be released from the nda to talk about the allegations, they should contact the company and they'll be given a release. this comes the day ahead of the next caucus of contest if you will. the nevada caucuses where michael bloomberg is actually not competing. but it could still be an interesting one. joining me from las vegas is katy tur. katy, here we are.

a day before a contest that, number one, will we get results in a timely fashion so if they're meaningful they help or hurt the campaign going forward? i think that's number one. number two, is this a battle for second place to see how close someone can get to bernie? >> i think you're right. nevada democrats want this to be a clear cut caucus tomorrow. they don't want anything like iowa happening over again. they don't want to have that mess with the confidence of the election here. in this state. a race for second, that's a good question. warren is here in vegas. klobuchar is here in vegas. buttigieg is here in vegas. biden is here in vegas. donald trump is here in vegas. you know who's not here in vegas other than michael bloomberg in the competing in nevada? bernie sanders. he went to california and that should tell you everything about how the sanders campaign feels about this state right now f.

you look at the polling in this state, sanders is winning but when you go down ballot and down ballot but the second and the third tier in this race, you got to look at the unions and what they have done. they did not endorse a single candidate and the person that might hurt most is joe biden. joe biden could have really used the support of the culinary union here but they decided not to get involved. warren is somebody who wants to have a strong showing in order to use the momentum of the debate obviously to raise more money and then try to break through in south carolina. but here's a thing. there is real concern right now that bernie sanders is so far ahead in the lead here in nevada and then might go to south carolina, crack through further fracture that joe biden support of african-americans, sweep up a ton of delegates in california currently where he is leading by a large margin in the polls and then become essentially unstoppable. so nevada while it doesn't have

a ton of delegates it could prove to be really important for momentum and showing voters who is the most electable in this primary field. so all eyes will be here. bernie sanders might win but what you're saying about the second and third place, depends on the margin. if warren is close, biden is close that could do enough to slow down sanders' momentum. chuck, 77,000 people caucused in the early caucus. nevada democrats say a majority of those are first-time caucus goers. turnout tomorrow, does it so far exceed what happened in 2016? do they double the turnout? just a trickle more? so it matches what happened in 2016? if there is a big turnout, who does that benefit because that turnout, those new voters are going to be key to winning in november. >> i tell you, katy. 33 million people tuning in for that debate. it was an unbelievable number. it is the largest for any

primary ever. when you factor in the streaming. that tells you there's higher interest here. look. we'll see if it translates. i think there's going to be a surprising turnout tomorrow. all the evidence points to that. the early vote. that was before the debate. a raucous debate that keeps everybody talking. you know? i think we all should not make predictions and just watch the results come in. higher the turnout, the more unusual the result's going to be. anyway -- >> 100%. congratulations for those ratings, chuck. >> all of us. not on us. that's the candidates. >> it is on the candidates. what michael bloomberg did more than anything else in that debate on wednesday and when what he did for the race is woke up the democrats. you saw -- >> a sense of urgency, that's right. >> a different elizabeth warren and that could change the way trajectory of this race. >> everybody realizes it is late

early. a national primary is taking place in nine days. katy tur, thank you. don't miss the special coverage of the nevada caucuses tomorrow, brian williams and joy reid will report live from las vegas. nicole wallace and the experts at msnbc to break down the results live and then kornacki at the big board. live coverage starts tomorrow 3:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. up ahead, another sign of the strength of bernie sanders or the growing strength? new polling shows he is gaining support with a critical group of democratic voters. my age-related macular degeneration could lead to vision loss.

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ku can't be the democratic nominee and can't win a general election as a democrat unless you have overwhelming support of black and brown voters. it is really simple. no. it's a natural fact. it is true. it's absolutely true. >> welcome back. joe biden is banking on support from african-american voters to carry him in the upcoming south carolina primary and he was dom natding the polls when it came to african-american voters but that is change. joe biden and bernie sanders now have essentially the same level of support among african-american democratic primary voters, roughly the same percentage. comfortable with biden or sanders. that's a big boost for sanders who lost every single county in south carolina's 2016 primary where black voters made a majority of the electorate. still with us, heidi, michael,

doug. doug, it is not just on those enthusiasm numbers, i want to show there's a big gap. biden and sanders at 69% and 65% combined. you have to go down 20 points before anybody else. warren, bloomberg and then another 20 points to buttigieg. this is the -- bernie sanders can win the south carolina primary. >> it looks like, yeah. look. i think that i'm glad nbc did this oversample because it is important to figure out where the democratic party is. but bernie and joe have for months received favorable support from african-american voters. they have chosen black voters have general chosen as the choice biden over bernie. >> they disliked bernie. >> where bernie began to make the inroads, started in 2016 with younger african-americans, he's built on that, he's got a

good, strong crew of african-american influencers out there and surrogates that did a great job of appealing to african-american voters, sort of grown that and where joe is doing really well is older african-american, i go back to john mccain 2008 in south carolina. he may end up with a lesser percentage but it was a winning number in '08.

>> the thing is, south carolina at that point when it comes in is then totally moot. you're rolling into super tuesday. >> not moot. it becomes an accelerant. >> well, anybody but bernie will get the majority of the delegates at that point. like we said, after super tuesday, 11 days from now, it will be really hard to stop sanders if he has the majority of the delegates. that will most likely lead to what we were talking about. >> i want to get into one more thing. this will be of interest to you and our sample so we could see the gender splits without the high margin of errors. among all african-american voters, he gets a 14% approval rating. look at the gender split. a wide gender gap. 24% of african-american men approve of their job the president is doing. just 6% of african-american

women. that reinforces the point that they're part of core resistance. look at that support among men, we know that trump himself is targeting. i remember a big part of the drop-off was african-american men. at least in north carolina, the senate race i was working on. african-american women are far more reliable voters in general. >> we saw the same thing in 2016 in michigan, wisconsin. >> the drop-off was more of the african-american men than women. >> which is to say, if the president intends to capitalize, he'll have to spend a lot of time and money. >> he may be getting casual support. you're saying that won't translate into votes. >> i think what is interesting, so many people in the media try to pigeon hole, all black voters must go x. all white voters don't go x?

shockingly, all black voters don't go x. >> one of the things that bothered me about the way that kamala harris and corey booker were treated, there was this idea that they should be doing great with black voters because they're black. there's no respect given to african-american voters searching through candidates. listening to the issues, doing what every other voter does in choosing who they think will be the best nominee. we're just as pragmatic and selective as everyone else. but the expectations on kamala harris and corey booker is, you aren't doing well african-americans in south carolina. >> i think it probably inadvertently killed their candidacies unfairly because they were being jod a metric. >> the only difference i see in the behavior being different from older, for example, white democratic voters in new hampshire and iowa, who may be

lefty, lefty, i think most would consider themselves more main stream pragmatic. most of the african-americans i talked to anecdotally have said over and over again, it is ball electability. >> i want to bring up, speaking of the african-american vote and michael bloomberg as he tries to do the fix the debate tour, he sat down with al sharpton. you will see it on sunday morning on msnbc. here's an excerpt from bloomberg and his interview, talking about the debate. >> you tell me. what did you feel about your performance? >> wasn't my best night. i blame nobody but me. in the end. i get advice from people but it is up to me to decide what to do. what i found, they were all yelling at each other and they weren't focusing on donald trump which is what we should be focusing on in the democratic party. and i didn't have a chance to really say what i wanted to say.

have another debate coming up on tuesday. >> look, i can't wait for the rest interview. i just interviewed him last week and he said on stop and frisk, the biggest thing bloomberg has to do is more face to face with the new yorkers on stop and frisk. >> i think that kevin sheehey said this two days ago. that wasn't his best performance. they said he'll get his sea legs under him. he does have an opportunity to turn it around pretty quickly. the warm-up, which is smart, on the nda thing, the one question i have is, if he was going to rethese ndas today, tomorrow, he probably should have said it two days ago. it is a rule of crisis communication. >> right. i don't think they expected to be in a crisis mode this quickly. they've got a lot going for them. >> they had to know they walked in with a bull's eye on them. >> happy friday. we'll be right back. at fidelity, we'll help you

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this has been quite a friday. and we thought this has been quite a week. that's all we have for tonight. we'll be back monday with more "meet the press daily." sunday we'll have a huge show on "meet the press." we need to take a closer look at this russian interference situation now the sanders campaign has been briefed. has the live issue inside this primary, inside this campaign,

inside this trump administration. w we'll preview south carolina. don't miss sunday, "the beat" is now. the breaking news between the trump administration and the campaign is converging, brother. >> it is all converging. it is 2020 meddling on both sides. it is extraordinary. >> yes, it is. good luck. >> thank you. we'll be watching you tomorrow. this breaking news, intelligence officials for the united states government formally telling senator sanders that russians are meddling and trying to impact the primary and trying to make it seem like they're helping him. sanders with a very difficult response than president trump who has been lashing out over his own officials over the same set of findings. meanwhile, michael bloomberg flooding the brace money. we'll show you more from that news worthy conversation with the judge who literally ended his controversial stop and frisk